Fracture Lines (The Glass Complex Book 2) (25 page)

Steg cut his link to the Alliance starship. He thought the benefits of the update he had gathered from its sensors outweighed the risk he had taken. He was impressed, though, with the destroyer’s bridge team’s ability to detect a presence in their system. As a twist to their tail, he had activated the otherwise useless AV device to flash a green light every five seconds. The only way for them to stop the flashes was to totally remove the device. He knew it was a provocative move; however, he hoped Captain Montrose would understand the gesture as implying he meant no harm to
Defender
.

He assumed
Wasp
had raised its stealth shields so it could move to intercept possible strikes from the Xesset starship. He tucked away for later evaluation the fact that the Alliance sensors could not find
Wasp
; the technological enhancements provided by Monty were far more effective than everyone had realized. It was a pity the alien had proven untrustworthy. There was future leverage there, he thought, if Gillespie needed to bargain with the Alliance skipper. Assuming Montrose was not too upset with Steg’s access of the destroyer’s electronics.

He was reluctant to reach out to the Xesset starship. He had memories—very painful and unpleasant memories—of when he had done that when Special Forces Major Denke had led his team to board a Xesset ship, with Steg an unwilling team member. The battle between the boarding party and the Xesset defenders had been brutal. The only way Steg had been able to prevent the Xesset from blowing up their own starship was by taking over the alien systems, an experience that had caused him to lose consciousness. The distaste was still in his thoughts, coloring everything Xesset. He shuddered. Perhaps he needed to repeat that experience as a cleansing process.

His thoughts were interrupted by a furious pounding on the heavy protective doors that gave access to the bridge. He looked up, wondering.

“The Xesset, sir,” said Ulston, catching his eye. “We’ve been observing them on video. Iwao set up some remote cameras for us when we came in. There’s three aliens in the corridor, and they’re firing a heavy pellet weapon at the bridge doors. We don’t think they’ll do more than make a dent in the metal. The doors are well built. I’ve alerted Sergeant Kirby.”

“Thanks. Keep monitoring.”

“Yes, sir.”

Steg checked his workstation sensor display. The gray and white shapes had resolved to a nearly useful image. He assumed the darker gray shape was the Xesset starship; its proximity measure indicated it had moved closer.

“Dresk,” Steg addressed the freighter’s crew working with Iwao. “What external weapons does
Djamu
have?”

“Only one, sir, a railgun. It runs the length of the ship. It’s powerful—assuming we hit the target. It has problems. The ship itself must be aimed at the target. It’s a one shot weapon. Well, it takes fifteen minutes to re-load, at best, so it might as well be. We fired it once at a pirate and it darn near shook
Djamu
to pieces. Missed the target. Gave’em a helluva scare, though. Us, too.”

“Well, it’s something, I suppose. It’s loaded?”

“The skipper always kept it loaded, sir. There’s a Weapons workstation I can use to check, if you want?”

“If Iwao can spare you?”

“Yes, sir,” replied Iwao. “I’m about finished. You’ll have a dedicated Astro workstation, secure and isolated, in about another five minutes.”

“Good. Dresk, go ahead and set up a weapons workstation for me.”

“Yes, sir.”

The thumping at the bridge’s main access door had increased in volume and frequency. It sounded as though the Xesset had swapped to a heavier weapon.

“Ulston—update please.”

“Yes, sir. The Xesset have mounted what looks like a pellet-based machine gun. They knocked out the cameras, though, so we can’t see what else they’re doing. We’ve alerted the sergeant and he’s on his way. He said the passageways have been booby-trapped, so he has to clear a path. We’re confident the doors will hold.”

“Ask Kirby if he wants Rolston to extract atmosphere from the area outside the bridge?”

“I did, sir—he said not yet. He’s getting closer. The Xesset are devious, he said.”

Steg laughed to himself. “I could have told him that.”

Ulston said, “Kirby’s worse, sir. I’ve worked with him before.”

“Sir, your workstation’s ready,” said Iwao.

Steg tried to ignore the high velocity impacts on the access doors as he accessed the Astro workstation. Iwao had done a good job of prepping the equipment, he thought, and the workstation’s performance was better than the one he had used to access
Djamu’s
sensors. He started researching possible courses for the freighter. The starship was far slower than
Wasp
and it would take more than two hours to get up to speed, without allowing for the freight burden. He calculated again and added another hour to his estimates. It would take them over three hours to reach minimum speed for s-t penetration. Assuming, of course, the Xesset ship did not attack and destroy the freighter in the meantime.

He contacted the engine room. “Riddell, I’m going to maneuver
Djamu
—I want to adjust our heading. We’ve a railgun that has to be aimed using the ship itself, and I’m going to point us at the Xesset. I’d like you to check the weapon—there should be both access and controls available from the Engineering section. If we fire it, at the least it’ll give them one hell of a surprise. With luck, we might cause them to back off. With good luck, we might actually hit the darn target.”

“We can cope with a bit of jiggling around, sir,” Riddell confirmed. “The jump into s-t is the bit that worries me. Apparently the crew prays to all the gods they can think of, every time Banner makes a jump. Pity
Djamu
’s not as good as our
Wasp
.”

“We’ll do it cautiously, when we’re ready. I’ve made all the allowances I can think of to cope with the freighter’s configuration and low power, and I’m planning three hours for the run up. We have to stop the aliens first—they’re knocking on our door at the moment. Kirby’s on his way to sort them out.”

“Good luck with that, sir. In the meantime I’ll check out the railgun, make sure it’s loaded and ready to fire. The engineers here should be able to help.”

“All right. I’ll start adjusting our heading now, to point at the Xesset starship. I’ll let you know when I want to fire it.”

“Very good, sir. We’ve got everything under control here.”

Steg checked the location of the Xesset starship again and took control of
Djamu’s
helm using the Astro workstation. The freighter’s movement was slow and ponderous. He monitored the heading indicator displayed on the workstation screen and made minor adjustments until he was satisfied. He entered instructions for the auto-helm to adjust to any positional change of the alien starship. After what seemed an age, he was able to turn back to planning for the s-t jump. The heavy thumping caused by the Xesset’s weapon firing at the bridge doors stopped. The bridge was silent. No one spoke. The tension grew as they all wondered if Kirby had been successful.

“What do you think, sir, should we—”

An explosion ripped open the doors, and the shock wave threw everyone across the bridge away from the destroyed doors. Exo-armor saved Steg and the other mercenaries from anything more than light bruising. He could not check
Djamu’s
crew because the three Xesset had immediately entered the bridge firing their weapons. Ulston and his team recovered rapidly and returned effective fire and one of the Xesset fell in the first seconds of the conflict, severely wounded. Steg expected the bridge to be nothing more than wreckage within minutes.

He shouted in High Xesset, “
Cease firing. That’s an order.
”

There was a momentary pause. The two remaining Xesset stood clear, raised their weapons, and aimed at Steg. The mercenaries took advantage of the lull and fired at the aliens. Steg had set his weapon ammunition selection to flechettes and sent a hail of the deadly projectiles at the nearest alien. Both were quickly overwhelmed and collapsed, dead or wounded, to the floor of the bridge. The last Xesset to fall pulled the pin from a hand grenade and lobbed it towards Steg. The alien had overestimated his strength and the grenade landed halfway into the bridge. The explosion destroyed workstations, and shrapnel expanded as it blasted across the bridge.

Steg could see Banner’s body. The freighter skipper was dead; either bullets or shrapnel had torn him to pieces. He used his comunit. “Stop firing, the Xesset are down. Ulston, you and your team check each body. Be careful of traps. Jonash, you and Cerpio work with Iwao. We’ll need bridge controls.”

As he finished speaking, Kirby and his men rushed onto the bridge through the wrecked doors.

“Damn,” he said. “We had to disable traps all the way. They’d set pressure triggers, wired hand grenades, anything they could think of.”

“We’ve lost
Djamu’s
skipper. Probably some of his bridge team. Ulston’s checking for survivors. We need to clean up, if you can supervise. I’d like to get these workstations back on-line. I’ll report to
Wasp
.”

While Kirby and his teams checked for life signs and struggled to restore order to the bridge and its equipment, Steg comlinked to
Wasp
.

“Commander, we’ve defeated the Xesset who were on board. They hit the bridge, killed the freighter captain, and either killed or wounded his bridge crew. They made a mess of the bridge workstations. I expect we’ll now be targeted by their ship.”

“How long before you have controls back?”

“Depends on how quickly we can access functioning workstations. If the Xesset starship makes a move against
Djamu
, let me know
.
We’re somewhat exposed.” He wasn’t going to mention the railgun when there was a possibility the aliens could overhear their conversation.

“You’re in a tough spot. We’re in position, fully shielded.
Wasp
out.”

Steg disconnected. He contacted Riddell in Engineering. “The Xesset are dead. They managed to damage our bridge controls. Kirby’s organizing clean up. What secondary workstations can you access?”

“We’ve two clumsy looking bridge units. One is Helm and the other looks like Astro. And there’s a sensor station. They seem to be in working order.”

“Good. I’m coming down there with Iwao. See you in seconds or less.” Steg waved his hand at Iwao to catch his attention. “Engineering has some bridge controls. Leave that and come with me. Kirby, I want an escort, in case there are some
Djamu
crew looking for revenge.”

“Ah, got them, sir,” shouted
Defender’s
Tac lead. “That communication was enough to give us a trace. Adjusting sensor displays, now.”

“Tell your team, well done,” said the Alliance skipper. “Can you replay the comms?”

“Yes, sir. Happening now.”

The destroyer’s bridge team listened intently to the conversation between Steg and Gillespie.

“What do you think, Tac?” Captain Montrose asked.

“If the Xesset make a move,
Wasp
needs to be on top of it. Otherwise an unarmed freighter against a medium-sized military starship—not much hope of survival.”

“The aliens are probably conflicted. Obviously, they could destroy
Djamu
.
Wasp
is the unknown card.”

“Should we provide assistance?” Jessie asked, curious as to the skipper’s position.

“Tempting. We’d have the right to do so if the Xesset attempt to board or attack
Djamu
. If they fire missiles or use other weapons, it’d be all over for the freighter before we could stop them. We would then destroy their ship, of course. Not much consolation to the mercs on the freighter, though.”

“Yes, sir.”

“We should move closer. Helm, take us to a million klicks. Tac, keep defensive shields up.”

“Yes, sir.”

Steg, Iwao, and their escort entered the engineering command deck at a rush. Riddell indicated the workstations, and Steg headed to the Helm station, first instructing Iwao to test the sensor station. He booted up the unit and waited for it to display. The visuals were not as clear as they should be although he thought the results would suffice. He reviewed their heading, relieved it had held constant. Now he needed to check the position of the Xesset starship.

“Iwao, what do you think? Do we have sensors?”

“Yessir. The display is scratchy. However, the details are usable.”

“Good. Link it through to this workstation.”

A minute later Iwao advised the link was in place. Steg checked the position of the Xesset ship to discover it had moved towards
Djamu
and he had lost the prior alignment.

“Riddell, can you fire the rail gun from here?”

“Yes, there’s a station linked directly to the weapon. I checked circuits and it seems to be working. We have steerage;
Djamu
didn’t suffer any degradation from the attack on the bridge. Just remember she’s not a tight ship, so no wild maneuvers, please.”

“I’ll do my best.” He entered the heading adjustment to re-align
Djamu
with the aliens. “I need to talk to the Xesset. Do we have external comms?”

“Yes, sir. Good luck getting them to listen.”

“Oh, they’ll listen. Whether they’ll be sensible is another question. Let Kirby know we may be firing a rail gun and we don’t know how the freighter will handle it. Get ready for action.”

Steg estimated it would take
Djamu
five minutes to re-align with the Xesset ship. He monitored the gradual re-orientation of the freighter, and as its heading came into line he entered a command for the Helm station to continue to track the target. He keyed the freighter’s comunit and mentally braced himself. He needed to communicate in High Xesset. He grimaced—the evil wrapped around the language always challenged him.

“Sir, we have a transmission from the freighter. They’re sending to the Xesset ship. I assume it’s in their language.” Jessie Brent relayed the communication to the bridge audio. Everyone listened to the apparent exchange.