Far From Home: The Complete Second Series (Far From Home 13-15) (27 page)

35.

Before they reached the engineering section, Jessica and the others found themselves blinded by the lights around them. It took a moment for their eyes to adjust to the sudden illumination.

"The Chief must've got the backups working again," Chang said. "That means lights, life support and intership communications at least."

"All the better for us," Jessica said.

She was the first one in the engineering section. It was a blood bath. Men and women lay sprawled on the floor, over consoles, some of them intact, some not. And farther away, two tall, pale aliens stood by the reactor. One of them turned around.

Cessqa.

"Fall back! Fall back!" Jessica yelled. She ducked behind a console, grimacing at the sticky puddle of blood under her feet. Chang took her position behind a console on the other side.

There were no translators in the engineering section. Cessqa yelled in her direction, but it was senseless bile.
However, there was no mistaking it for friendly chatter.

She's in a rage,
Jessica thought.
As am I. How many has she killed here?

"Captain," Chang said on the other side. "They're doing something to the reactor."

King poked her head up again. They hadn't stopped. Cessqa was evidently not concerned that they would risk firing in the direction of their own reactor. However it didn't stop her taking a few shots at her. The blasts struck the front of the console as Jessica ducked back down behind it.

What was she shooting from?
she asked herself. Then she realised, replaying the last few seconds, that the shots had come from her sword. From the blade itself.
How?

"Outside," Jessica told Chang. She got back up, aimed her weapon to the right of the two Namarians and opened fire. They ducked instinctively, even though Jessica had no intentions of aiming any closer to them, for risk of hitting the reactor.

Chang dived back out of the door. Jessica let loose a few more shots, backing away to the door herself.

Cessqa lifted her sword, the blade glowed a deep red before bursts of energy came her way, sizzling against the wall to her left. She stepped back into the corridor outside, the doors to the engineering section closed shut behind her.

"What do we do? There's no way of taking them," Chang said.

Dollar strode forward. "I'll do it," he said.

Jessica caught his arm. "Not right now. There'll be a way out of this yet. But going in there like that will be suicide. You'll be fried the minute you walk through the door."

Dollar accepted it. "It's your call. You're the boss."

"Contact the Chief if you can," Jessica told Chang. "Tell her the situation here."

36.

"Chief! Chief this is Chang!"

Gunn looked up at the comm. unit as if it had sprouted a face, arms and legs. She shook her head to clear it, got up off the deck and hit the buttons.

"Go ahead."

"The engineering section has been occupied by Namar. We're in the process of getting them out. But you better get up here. We think they have something strapped to the reactor."

Meryl swallowed.
Oh God.

"I'm on my way," she said.

Commander Greene was on his feet, his face grave. "I'm coming with you."

She left with him in tow. Banks looked at the others. "Well I guess that means I'm in charge. Come on people, keep going."

*

They waited in the corridor, a ways from the entrance to the engineering section.

There was cover there, but not much of it.

"So ya thinkin' they'll try and make a quick exit," Dollar said.

"If they're planning on blowing us up, then yes," Jessica said. "At which point we chase them down and the Chief deals with whatever is it they've done."

"You expect an explosive?" Eisenhower asked.

"Could it really be anything else? It's what I'd do," King said. "And if Meryl can't get it deactivated, there's only one other option."

"Evacuation
. . ." the Master At Arms said. "Not an agreeable outcome of all this."

"No," Jessica said. "But if I have to, I will. This ship is just a ship."

But that's not true is it? she asked herself as she watched the doors to the engineering section for any sign they were coming out. It's a home. And it will break your heart to lose it.

"Still, it'll be a shame," Eisenhower said.

"Yes," Jessica agreed. "Yes it will."

*

Commander Greene grabbed hold of the Chief's wrist to stop her racing ahead.

"Hey, wait," he urged her.

"Del, we don't have time for this!"

He yanked her toward him, pulled her in close. Kissed her full on the lips.

"There's always time for a kiss," he said.

"Right, now can we go before the ship blows like a firework?"

As if to punctuate her point, several blasts erupted ahead of them. Energy weapons screeching as they were discharged in the confines of the ship.

"Jesus," he said, staring in that direction.

Meryl was already off. "Come on!"

*

Cessqa raised her blade again. It pulsed with red energy, then she fired it at them. Where it hit the floor and the walls, it erupted in thick, acrid smoke. The two Namarians slowly backed away down the corridor.

They aren't sticking around,
Jessica thought. A knot of dread tied itself in the pit of her stomach.
That means something's going to blow on here. By the looks of things, it'll be the reactor.

Someone threw himself down next to her. She glanced to see who it was.

"Commander, pleased you could join us," she said, handing him a rifle.

"Thanks," Greene said. He checked it had charge, then started moving. "Dollar, you're with me."

"No Del!" Jessica shouted, but it was too late. The moment the words left her mouth, she knew they shouldn't have.

Greene moved, firing at the retreating Namar warriors. Dollar rushed them with him, also firing.

And there was a third person, close behind them. The Chief.

*

She ran into the engineering section, Jessica and all the others behind her. There was only one place Gunn knew she had to look. And sure as anything, there they were.

Explosives.

"Chief," Jessica said, walking toward her. "Do you think you can deactivate them?"

"Not sure. I'll have to look."

The Chief wiped sweat off her brow.
Always a last minute save-the-world job. Cut the blue wire, cut the red wire. Boom! Boom! Boom!
she thought again.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
She knelt down next to one of them, and with trembling hands began to uncover it.

37.

They ran after her, racing along the corridors of the semi-dark
Defiant
, a silent scream in their throats. A battle cry they didn't give airtime to.

At the threshold of another deck, Cessqa spun about, levelling her weapon in their direction. She had it pointed directly at Dollar.

Cessqa fired. Dollar stepped to the side. Her discharged energy bolts struck the wall he'd previously stood by.

She took a step forward, advanced on him, weapon still raised.

Right then, Greene took a shot at her. It narrowly missed. Cessqa roared with rage and contempt. She knocked Dollar to one side. He staggered, hit the bulkhead.

Greene aimed his rifle, got ready to fire. To end her.

But the Namarian female was a shade faster. As Greene diverted his eyes to the rifle, as if it would protect him from everything, Cessqa lunged in with a spear. By the time it was done, Cessqa was already on the move again.

Del had dropped to the floor, on his knees, holding his midsection.

38.

Cessqa once more braved the void. With Risa close behind, she consigned herself to the immensity of open space, to the simplicity of merely existing.

What lay beyond was the
Jandala
, her now broken ship. She hurtled from the open gash along the length of the
Defiant
, crossing from one to the other, as if there were a rope bridge.

*

On the secondary command deck, all systems had booted back up.

Jessica slipped into the pilot's station and started to fire the
Defiant
's engines. To her delight it was all working.

But will we pull apart?

"Well there's only one way to find out," she said aloud.

*

It was unlike anything she'd ever seen. Whirring from some hidden, alien mechanics, the sound was disconcerting. The design made it very hard for to discern which wire did what, but she took an educated guess anyway. After all, none of it was much different to what she'd cut her teeth on back at the Academy.

Cut the blue wire, cut the red wire,
Boom! Boom! Boom!

With an assertive snip, she followed her gut instinct in choosing which set of wires to cut. The device stopped dead.

"Good work, Chief," Jessica said. "I'm going to the secondary command deck. Get us out of here. Keep me posted."

"Aye," the Chief said. Then she tackled the second one, hoping beyond hope that she still had time.

*

The
Defiant
tore free of its entanglement with the enemy. Under Jessica's heavy handed approach to piloting, the Union vessel pulled free from where it had become trapped amongst the broken hull of the
Jandala
. It left a huge open gash there.

*

Dollar hit the nearest comm. unit and called for the Chief. Then he sat near Commander Greene, holding his hand tight.

"Hold in there, pal," he told him. "Hold in there."

39.

The
Jandala
had spawned more drones to cope with the enormous job of repairing the ship's primary systems. They'd cleared Gelvin's body away. It would be recycled, possibly into more of the drones – if that had not happened already.

The Namar were not a wasteful, uneconomical species. The intelligence that performed many of the
Jandala
's functions, allowing only a skeleton crew to command her, had appointed them to the areas needing the most attention.

"We've got power back," Risa told her. "Shall we attack?"

The holodisplay still broken, the two of them peered at a monitor at the back of the command deck. It showed the
Defiant
moving off.

Cessqa shook her head, took to the controls and set about piloting them away. Risa's face reflected the disbelief she felt at Cessqa's actions. "We do not attack?"

"Not yet. We have more important things to do. The refuge is not far from here. We need to know if it's still in one piece," Cessqa said.

Risa crossed her arms. "I do not understand
. . ."

Cessqa raised an eyebrow. "Fortunate since you are not in charge. Assist me by getting the repairs done so we get there as fast as possible
, and in one piece. We still do not have shields. They will easily outgun us. We must regroup."

Risa nodded slowly. "Yes. Yes, of course."

"We will have our moment, Risa. We will have our retribution. You must trust my instincts in this matter," Cessqa told her.

Moments later, they initiated the Jump and were gone.

*

"They've jumped," Chang reported. "Shall I attempt to ascertain
–"

"No. Let them go. There's been enough fighting for one day," King said, exhausted.

"Yes Captain," Chang said, though King found it hard to determine if the Commander sounded relieved or disappointed.

"Banks, get us out of here. Set course for Station
Six and step on it," King ordered.

"Aye."

"Jess . . ."

Captain King looked up.

"Chief?" she called out, loud enough the audio pickup would hear it. Gunn hardly ever called her by her first name, and never over the internal communication system. "Everything all right down there?"

There was a long pause, then,
"Jess . . . get down here."

It turned her stomach to jelly. She stood, glanced
around her. "Commander, you have the bridge."

She left. At a run.

40.

He was almost dead before she got there.

Jessica's first instinct was to rush forward, get down to his level and speak to him. Get him to acknowledge her presence there. Give her some kind of signal that he knew she was nearby. But it didn't feel right.

Commander Greene lay on his back, outstretched sideways across Chief Meryl Gunn's lap. She had his head propped up on one arm, and with the hand of the other she gently stroked his face.

Jessica stopped short. It was all she could do to stand there, helpless.

"Stay with me, Del," Gunn said. "Stay with me."

Dr. Clayton appeared next to Jessica. She looked down at his hands. They were covered in blood.

"Doctor?"

Clayton shook his head. His eyes were rimmed red and sore. "No."

Gunn turned at Jessica's voice. "Jess, come over. Del, Jessica's here."

Her feet carried her there, and she didn't remember getting down on the floor but now she was there, next to the Chief.

Commander Greene
looked up at her, his eyes pleading for something he couldn't vocalise. Something she couldn't give him.

Life.

He reached up, his hand fell to the centre of her chest. As close to her heart as he could manage, she supposed. She held it there, tears spilled out of her eyes, her vision blurred.

"Del
. . ." she said, managing a smile.

His eyes were glassy, barely focused. "It's been an honour," he said.

She squeezed his hand.

"You were like a brother," she said in a broken voice. "And I loved you like a brother."

Del squeezed her. "Your Father would have been proud."

It was almost too much for her to take. He looked once more at the Chief, his face growing pale and waxy. Jessica let go of his hand, let it fall down her uniform where it left a red streaked handprint.

She got up, stepped back to give them some space. Only now did she notice the puddle of blood that surrounded where he lay. The Chief was in that blood, covered in it.

Del Greene's face lost
its colour and vitality. His eyes clouded over, though still locked onto the Chief's. Jessica realised with shocking clarity that Gunn's would be the last face her friend ever saw.

Meryl cradled him, and from where she stood, Jessica watched as his lips moved, formed soundless words.

I love you.

"I will
always
love you," Gunn said. "Always."

And with that, he was gone. The Chief closed his eyes and sat rocking him back and forth, sobbing. "Don't leave me
. . . don't leave me . . ."

Jessica turned away, unable to watch any more. For a handful of seconds, she found herself unable to catch a breath. It was only when she started to move, with the exit in sight that she drew in deep breaths again. She found the nearest head and threw up in it.