Empire of Bones (26 page)

She thought the Pale Ones would kill them and leapt to her feet, screaming. “Leave them alone!”

That stopped the fight, but only so the woman could come over and backhand her. It felt as if someone had hit her with a sledgehammer. Kelsey flew off her feet and skidded on the deck. She didn’t try to get up and instead laid there. Moaning was all she could manage.

The woman snarled at her, but didn’t strike Kelsey again. She stalked back over to the men and tossed the marines back beside Kelsey. All of them were conscious, but Talbot looked like he might have a concussion.

“Well, that could’ve gone better,” he mumbled. “Don’t tell anyone that a mostly naked woman kicked my ass.”

Kelsey suspected she wasn’t going to have the opportunity to tell anyone anything, though she was praying for it. “How can they do that?”

The man shrugged. “It can’t be training. It has to be in the implants. It would make sense to have basic combat skills programmed in. I can see the pattern in their fighting. If I had a weapon I might be able to take one.”

“But we don’t. How are we going to escape?”

“I don’t know. Maybe we’re still in Pentagar space and we’ll be rescued.”

She looked at her chrono. “I don’t think so. We were out almost four hours. Whatever that weapon was, it really took us down. At least my headache is getting better.”

They waited a few more minutes and then attacked again. The results were just as one-sided as before. The Pale Ones seemed incredibly tough. Kelsey noted how their reactions seemed so much faster than the marines.

The pattern of their fighting was plain once she knew to look for it. They only had a few basic moves and seemed to use them by rote. In this case, that was all they needed to do. The woman could’ve been absent and the two men would’ve beaten them all senseless.

Kelsey rose to her feet as soon as the marines engaged the next time and sprinted around the fight toward the hatch. She ducked on general principle and the punch that one of them threw at her barely brushed the top of her skull.

She ran through the open hatch and found herself in a control room. Two Pale Ones sat at the controls and their hands moved with robotic smoothness. They didn’t react to her presence at all. She fleetingly wondered why they didn’t use the old Empire headsets.

The screen beyond them showed a large space station at extremely close range. It looked like a five year-old had built it.

A wide hatch opened in front of the ship. Going through it was probably going to be even worse for them. She searched around frantically and saw the marines pistols tossed onto the deck. She grabbed one, spun, and shot the female Pale One as she leapt through the door.

Kelsey shot the woman twice more before she landed on her like a runaway grav car. She tore the weapon from Kelsey’s hand with no effort at all. The she-beast nearly beat her unconscious before one of the men dragged Kelsey back into the room by her hair and tossed her on top of the marines.

She watched through the hatch as the woman she’d shot stood and moved around as though she hadn’t been shot. At least for a minute. She didn’t even try to staunch the flow of blood from her wounds.

Then she staggered a little and fell to her knees. The men watched her eyes glaze over and didn’t seem bothered as she collapsed. One of them even kicked her while she bled to death.

Kelsey knew she should feel something. She’d just killed someone. All she felt was physical pain, despair, and anger. They were going to become monsters like those.

The ship bounced like it had hit something. Then the engine noise faded. They were inside the station. The whoosh of a hatch opening filled her with dread.

Half a dozen male and female Pale Ones swarmed in and grabbed them. Talbot tried to struggle, but they kicked him until he stopped. They were clearly satisfied to drag him out of the ship by his legs.

He looked back at her as they took him down an exit ramp. “Good job, Princess. At least you got one. See you on the other side.”

The hulking mob dragged them into the bay she’d seen opening. It looked big enough to hold dozens of ships. Instead, it held three that she could see. Theirs and two shot up wrecks. They looked like they’d been sitting there for years.

The Pale Ones took them to a lift attached to the landing bay. A large hatch sat next to it. Dust and debris covered the lift floor. Everything stank. The Royal officers whimpered, three of the marines appeared unconscious and Talbot seemed to be praying.

Not a bad idea.

She whispered one for them all. Not for their lives, but that they would die quickly. Whatever came after death would be better than this.

The lift creaked up several decks and the doors wheezed open. The creatures then pulled them quite a distance and made their way down a number of side corridors. She saw a skeleton in the dust. It wore the scraps of some kind of uniform. The color led her to believe it was a Royal Fleet tunic. The filthy marks on the floor showed where they’d dragged others. Many others.

Kelsey wondered how many of them had seen the dead Royal and wished they could die, too. Perhaps she should’ve used that pistol on herself.

The corridor continued into the distance, but the tracks through the muck made it obvious that all the prisoners went into one room. Her captor took them into what looked like a medical center. A bed on rollers sat just short of a machine shaped to fit all around it.

The Pale Ones tossed all of the prisoners into what had probably once been an office. The marines talked about rushing their captors, but it would be suicidal. There were just too many of them. So they watched as another Pale One deposited their equipment into a large bin.

Kelsey expected the foul creatures to do something quickly, but the Pale Ones seemed content to watch them for the next four hours. Only when a new Pale One entered the compartment did most of the rest leave. The new one looked like the pilots on the ship. An automaton. He stood beside one of the machines and waited.

Two of the Pale Ones came into the room. One threw the marines aside while the other grabbed her. He dragged her out and threw her on the bed. Two others held her down while he strapped her in. They cinched the straps brutally tight.

She wanted to scream, but she bit her lip. She didn’t know why. Maybe she wanted to meet her end with all the courage she could muster. That was one thing they could never take from her.

The Pale Ones pushed the bed into the machine. Darkness shrouded her and then a low light came on.

“Do not be alarmed,” a soft male voice said with an accent she couldn’t place. “This scanning process will not hurt.”

She swallowed. “Who are you? What are you doing?”

“This unit is Diagnostic Scanning Workstation Twelve. This unit will scan your brain prior to the implanting process and make the final adjustment to the implant hardware before it is installed.”

“You’re a Terran Empire machine? You know that the Fleet is long dead and that you’re making these devices to implant in people against their will, don’t you? I do not consent to this process. Stop this at once!”

The voice took on a tinge of regret. “This unit is unable to comply. Its programming has been modified to remove the consent protocol. This unit regrets the inconvenience.”

She laughed in spite of the horror. It regretted the inconvenience. “Who updated your programming?”

“That data is not in this unit’s memory. Please remain still for the scanning process.”

Little flashes of heat zipped up and down her nerves. It felt like something was crawling in her brain. The sensation lasted a few seconds and then ceased.

“Scan complete. Data sent to the surgical unit. Thank you for your patience.”

A tone sounded and the Pale Ones roughly pulled the bed from the scanning machine. Two Pale Ones unstrapped her while two more held Talbot. They’d tossed the others into what might have been an office at one time.

The Pale Ones ripped her clothes from her body and pulled her to a second machine. It looked more like a portable water tank with attached machinery. They threw her in and slammed the lid shut. Her heart raced as she lay there. What happened now?

Unseen clamps snapped around her limbs and blinding pain ate at her head. She screamed, but it only got worse as the machine cut her open.

Baxter eventually got tired of Jared looking over his shoulder at about the three-hour mark and tossed him out of engineering. He told Jared that having the Captain breathing down their necks was slowing his people down.

Jared took the hint and left to meet with the Pentagaran marine detachment leader in the conference room instead. He turned out to be a familiar face. Lieutenant John Fredrick.

Lieutenant Reese and he seemed to be getting along well. With his four missing men, that meant
Athena’s
detachment was down to twenty-six effectives, plus their commander. Commander Graves and Doctor Stone joined them a few minutes later. Jared gestured for them to sit at the table.

He brought the screen to life. “The drives will be ready shortly. Is everyone ready to depart at a moment’s notice?”

They all nodded.

The young Royal officer put his hand on the table. “I’ve finished getting our men settled. We have a hundred Royal marines fully outfitted in combat gear. Lieutenant Reese has seen that our communications gear will interface with yours. We also salvaged two tactical fission missiles from one of the wrecked fortresses. I have four technicians who will rig them to explode. One is sufficient to destroy that station from the inside. We need to use the other to deal with the shipyard. We may not get another chance.

“The other shipyard will be inaccessible from our orbit. Particularly once we stir up the hornet’s nest. We’ll have to deal with it another time.”

Jared nodded. “Excellent. Our missiles simply don’t have that kind of power. We’re not a capital ship. We’ll hit the shipyard at the same time we assault the orbital station. Reese, what’s your plan for inserting our forces?”

The Imperial marine tapped his console. The screen changed to a tactical display of the station’s orbital space. “The pinnaces have stealth systems and are coated with material that absorbs some scanner radiation. We’ll go in on a ballistic trajectory. If we set our initial course to miss the planet, they might dismiss us as space junk. I don’t know what kind of scanners they have, but I’m hopeful that they won’t recognize the danger until we begin our attack runs. By then it will be too late to stop us.”

Graves considered the marked courses on the tactical display. “We need a distraction for the initial penetration. Rather than splitting our forces to attack both targets, we should rig one of the weapons to an external weapons rack and launch it on a ballistic course for the busy shipyard. The device should be small enough to get close before they react. A fission reaction at close range might not destroy it, but it should cause significant damage. The commotion should make a fabulous distraction for
Athena
to make its run in to retrieve the Princess.”

Jared liked that plan, but it had its drawbacks. “That will severely restrict how much time we have to find Princess Kelsey and our missing men.”

Graves shrugged. “Once the attack starts, they won’t have much time anyway. The probe we have on the station logged the hatch they used.”

Jared grimaced. “Doctor Stone, what is your plan once we find her?”

The petite doctor grimaced. “It isn’t very elaborate. We grab her and whatever equipment that’s around her. I’ve engineered some restraints that will probably hold her. I only hope to God she isn’t in the middle of some procedure or we might as well shoot her ourselves. I have some volunteer medical techs and a team from engineering to take what we can. The pinnaces have the capability to load equipment, though it might mean everyone is piled like logs on the way out.”

“Doctor Stone is right,” Graves said. “This is a smash and grab. We hit them and grab anyone we can manage. Then we run like hell.”

Jared looked at Reese. “That means you’ll need atmosphere after we breach the station. How will you manage that?”

“The data from the probe indicates they entered a large bay. We have special charges to breach the hatch. The second pinnace will seal it as soon as we’re all in. We’ll use marine boarding locks inside to breach the corridors without venting the atmosphere. When we’re ready to leave, we have compressed air in special tanks on the pinnace that’s not carrying the fission weapon to fill the bay. We can get enough pressure to allow us to get the rescued personnel back through the bay. Then we blow the patch and get the hell out of there.”

“What kind of timetable are you looking at?”

“That depends on the situation inside. If there’s a lot of resistance, we take longer. I’m hopeful they won’t see us coming. These Pale Ones don’t seem too big on tactics, so I’d imagine there’ll be a lot of running and screaming while they try to kill us individually. Massed weapons fire should allow us to make good progress. I want to be out of there in half an hour if we can.”

Graves tapped his console. “That’s where
Athena
comes in. When we get the signal that the teams are withdrawing, we come in like a meteor. We’ll clear a path for the pinnace to withdraw and take them aboard as quickly as possible. Then we run like hell for the flip point. Based on their speed it’ll be close. We’re faster, but they’ll have a chance to close in as we pick our people up.”

“And that is where the Royal Fleet comes in,” Fredrick said. “We are moving all available ships to the interdiction zone. We will destroy any ships that come through behind you. With luck we will blunt the planned invasion forces enough to stop them now.”

Jared shook his head ruefully. “Admiral Yeats would have my behind for breakfast if he saw how fast and loose this operation is coming together. If something goes wrong, we’re totally screwed. Lieutenant Fredrick, I’ve sent word via probe to the scientists on
Best Deal
. They’ll make certain that you have everything needed to construct flip drives if we don’t make it back. I did that because if it looks like we can’t escape, we’re taking out both of those shipyards.