Gunship (47 page)

Tiny slid her fighter sideways and pulled up in shock. “Seth? Is that you? What the hell are you doing here?”

“Looks like saving your lives,” Seth replied in a cheerful tone as he took out a shuttle, preparing to fire missiles on them. “No need to alert the others as to me being here and all, it’d just get them worried.”

“Did Zain send you?” Tiny asked, still in disbelief.

“Uh, something like that. He kinda filled me in that you all might need some help.”

The warning bells Tiny had heard at the base were ringing even louder in her head now. Only the situation prevented her from asking him more.

“We need to get them out of here, Seth. You have those coordinates?”

“Yes. There is an empty patch of space a few clicks from here, but make sure that once they hit it, Duv goes into stealth and jumps again to the additional coordinates I’m passing you. The AOC has this entire area locked down and has ringed it pretty good. They are planning to try to follow you back to the base if they can. If not, Welch has given them orders to capture and hold you or kill you. I think they are leaning towards the kill option right now,” Seth noted as he swung his gunship in a graceful arc and shot down a missile that was homing in on him. Tiny watched as the coordinates came up. She passed them to Duv to input. The cruisers were coming around. A large group of fighters had assembled behind them and had begun to slowly drive them into the range of the station guns again.

“I got the coordinates,” Duv confirmed. “I hope this guy knows what he’s doing!”

Tiny blasted at the nearest shuttle while Reilly picked off another fighter. “I’m pretty sure he does,” she said through gritted teeth. “Now go, and keep going until you hit the last coordinates. The Captain and I will see you there!”

The cruisers had finished their turn and were preparing to fire their main guns. At the same time, the station guns were pointing at them and charging. Duv punched the journey in and initiated. The gunship shimmered for a minute as the stealth system kicked on and then disappeared.

“Captain, they’re away! Go! I’m right behind you!” Tiny yanked hard on the stick as she and Reilly rolled in opposite directions to avoid the cruiser’s fire. A moment later, Reilly’s ship was gone too.

“Seth, we need to go! Now!” Tiny launched into a steep dive as the station added its guns to the mix.

“I’ll follow you and cover our tracks. I’m right behind you!” Seth returned fire and damaged part of one of the station guns, buying them both some time.

“No hero stuff, Seth. Let’s go!” Tiny turned the fighter and jumped away as well.

Seth fired again at the station, taking down the gun completely. He grinned and flung the gunship up steeply, flipping it around to jump. Suddenly a battle cruiser jumped into his path. He grabbed the yoke and dove as the collision alarms rang out. The cruiser’s defense guns trained on the gunship and sent a rain of tantalum rounds down on his position. The gunship heaved to one side, flipping and jerking as the starboard steering control went offline. He fought to keep the ship level and tried to return fire. Two AOC gunships appeared and fired electronic nets over his ship, frying the systems and killing the engine. The gunship sputtered and died. As the emergency power kicked in, Seth picked himself up off the floor.

The blue emergency lights flickered on as he ran towards the bay. Already he could hear them hooking to his hull. Seth pulled open the door to the armory and grabbed two battle rifles and a bandolier of grenades and ammo. He set up on the catwalk, watching as the plasma cutters began to cut into the hull to create a breach for the boarders. The first hatch appeared as an AOC soldier kicked it in, leading with his rifle. Seth began to calmly shoot them as they came through the hatch. He might be dead in the water, but he wasn’t about to go down without a fight.

—————

Duv completed the third journey, jumping into a quiet piece of space near a planet. “Where are they?” he muttered, watching the space around them.

Another flash and Reilly’s fighter appeared. She swung around and formed up next to them.

“Duv any sign of Tiny yet? Or any of the other gunships?” Reilly asked.

Just then another gunship came into view out of the shadow of the planet. Tiny jumped in a moment later as the crew breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“It is really good to see you, Captain! You too, Tiny!” The relief in Duv’s voice echoed the relief they all felt. Chang and Marek stretched and climbed up from the gunner pods to join Duv on the bridge.

“Good to be seen, Duv.” Reilly swung her ship around and brought it in tight under the gunship’s belly. “Gunny, you mind giving me a hookup? I’d like to come aboard and see my sergeant.”

Chang nodded and headed for the bay to let the fighter dock. Marek went with him. The fighter slid up into the small ship bay and settled as Chang closed the doors and then brought the deck up into the main bay. He jogged over as Reilly popped the canopy and climbed down the side gingerly. A moment later, Tiny’s fighter appeared as Marek brought it up into the bay. The Gaiden jumped down and joined them as Chang took them over to the gurney where Ty lay. Tiny pulled up his eyelids and then leaned over and listened to his breathing. The others watched her reactions.

“He’s pretty bad. I need to get him into a medical chamber now.”

Tiny turned to help Reilly up the catwalk, but the Captain waved her off.

“Go help Ty. I’ll be up in a minute and then you can take a look at me.”

Tiny nodded as Chang and Marek hooked the gurney into a lift and sent Ty up to the second level. Tiny jogged up the catwalk, still looking ready to fight, even with the dust and burns covering her and her armor. Marek followed her, while Chang hung back to walk with Reilly.

“So I take it Crazy Ray didn’t like your music?” Chang joked, pointing at Reilly’s bloody head.

She grinned, then grimaced. “No, that was Welch. And it was just me he didn’t like.”

“Marek mentioned that there were a few extra surprises on board. Sounds like getting back off was really exciting.”

“You have no idea,” Reilly said as she let him help her up the stairs.

“I always miss all the fun,” Chang said as he took her weight and led her to the medical center.

—————

“So how are they, Doctor?” Chang asked in mock seriousness.

He handed a plate of food to Tiny as she turned to greet him, still wearing her armor. She smiled her thanks and then gestured to an extra chair. Chang sat as she grabbed a couple mouthfuls of food before answering.

“The Captain will be fine. She had a concussion from being struck in the head and some light shrapnel from the explosions in the bay. I was able to get most of it out, and there was no permanent damage. She needs to rest, though.”

Chang snorted. “Good luck, then. I would be surprised if she isn’t back up in a few hours trying to work.”

Tiny smiled a knowing smile. “She won’t be. When I gave her the painkillers and some nanobiotics, I slipped her a tranquilizer too. She’ll be out until tomorrow.”

Chang shook his head in admiration. The Captain would’ve caught on to him in a minute if he had tried to do that. He sobered as he looked over at his scout sniper friend. “And Ty?”

Tiny didn’t answer right away. The sergeant was pretty resilient; even so, she was unsure of what the outcome would be for him. He had severe head trauma and had lost a lot of blood. Hanging in the shaft hadn’t helped, as his body temperature had dropped several degrees and he had gone into shock. When they got back to the ship, she had done everything she could for him with the technology she had. She just hoped it would be enough.

“He’s tough. Looking at his records, he’s survived some pretty serious run-ins and come through fine.” Tiny raised her eyes to see Chang looking at her. “I don’t know, Gunny. They beat him badly. The skull fractures caused swelling in the brain and along the optic nerve where they fractured the orbital bones around his eye. I was able to mend the break to his nose, but there was some severe damage to the tissues. He must have caught a direct blow to the face with something heavy. It could’ve killed him. He’s lucky to still be alive.”

They both looked at Ty. Tiny had him in the medical chamber under a space blanket to raise his temperature while a computer monitored his vitals and administered a number of medicines to keep him stable. Another computer monitored his brain activity. Meanwhile, magnified microscopic nanobots could be seen moving about on another screen as they worked to repair damaged vascular tissue and fractures in his face, skull, and ribs. His breathing was slow and labored, and even though she had cleaned him up, Ty still looked terrible, covered in dark bruises, cuts, and stitches.

“Thank you for what you’ve done for him.” Chang pointed at her arm and the bandage, then waved at everything else. Even though she had been dead on her feet, the Gaiden had refused to rest and even used her own blood to help stabilize the scout sniper.

Tiny wasn’t used to being thanked. She gave a curt nod and turned back to her food while Chang continued to watch over his teammates.

It’s only a matter of time until they all know what I am. Once they realize I had a part to play in Zain’s recruitment of Seth, they won’t be thanking me anymore.
Tiny shook off the thought like a dog shaking off water. It didn’t matter, she always worked alone, people always came and went. This was no different. A small part of her, though, wished she could be part of this crew. Outside of her original home, it was the only place she had felt welcome in a long time.
Stupid! Why are you even thinking this way? You don’t belong anywhere except in battle. That’s why you were chosen.

Tiny finished her food and turned back to her patients. It was going to be a long night, and they would need her to make it through. She grabbed a pair of tweezers as the display zoomed in on a piece of red glass she had missed earlier, still embedded in Reilly’s gash, and gently began to remove it as the blood welled to the surface again.

—————

“So let me get this straight. You’re telling me that Commander Zain never sent any gunships to help us out?” Duv was staring hard at the man on his display, trying to figure out what was going on.

“That’s right. The Commander sent us out after a rogue operative that stole one of his gunships with orders to bring him and the ship back. We got here when we finally caught up with him, and it turns out to be this kid. So I tell him to turn it around, but instead he tells us if we can beat him to the next planet he’ll go back, otherwise he’s on an emergency mission. And then the kid just takes off, flies the hell out of the ship, then spikes us and disappears.” Nado leaned back in his seat with a shrug. “When we left, Captain Callum was told that they were evacuating for the new base because this one was compromised. So that’s where we’re heading next.”

“A kid? A kid outflew you, Nado?” Duv started to feel nauseous. “What did he look like?”

“Well, to be honest, now that I’m looking at you, he kinda looked a bit like a little Duv.” Nado gave a nervous laugh, his brow wrinkled as he described the kid, then looked up. “Isn’t that right, Captain?”

Captain Callum appeared on the screen next to Nado. “Yeah, Nado’s got it right. I’ve never seen a kid who could fly like that, cocky as shit too—Jackson! Are you all right?”

“I’m good, sir. Just tired from all the action today.” Duv clutched at his console and pulled himself together.

Captain Callum looked at him with concern. “I’m coming over there anyway to check on Captain Campbell, so I’ll cover the bridge for a bit. You all can get some rest. You might want to go get your medical people to check you out too, just to be safe.”

“Thank you, sir. I know Captain Campbell would appreciate the kindness—we all would. We’ll see you in thirty minutes, then. Out.”

Duv bent over, holding his stomach and trying not to vomit. There was no way he’d be getting any sleep tonight. It was clear to him. They had been saved by a single gunship who was frequency jumping to make it look like a squad of ships, something he had done in the past to save another gunship. A story only his current crew and his son knew about. Seth had followed them and then saved them. But where was his son now?

Reilly walked through the mist. She could see the faint outlines of trees from time to time, but everything was shrouded, hidden. She knew Ty was in the woods somewhere, but she didn’t dare call out for him because she knew that they were there too: Welch and Crazy Ray. They were looking for Ty to kill him. She went deeper into the woods until she saw a blood trail. She began to follow it, on and on, until she emerged in a clearing. To one side was Ty’s pack. But he was nowhere to be seen.

Reilly called, for him softly at first but then louder. Suddenly she looked around to see she wasn’t alone. Welch and Crazy Ray stood on the far side of the clearing, watching her. Behind them were two Enforcers, their eyes eerily lit in the mist. Welch called the Enforcers forward. Reilly wasn’t afraid. She would fight them. Crazy Ray patted the second Enforcer and talked to it soothingly, then he turned and looked at her.

“Did you lose something in the woods? Perhaps we can help you find it?” He grinned his craziest grin as the Enforcer turned its head and reached back into the bushes to begin dragging something forward. A body appeared, and the machine tugged it free of the branches into the clearing.

Welch and Crazy Ray walked in and leaned down over the body. It was hooded. Welch waved once and the hood disappeared. There was Ty’s body, his eyes vacant and staring, his face pale and cold. They began to clap and laugh as Reilly began to scream.

“Hey! Hey! Whoa! Wake up, Campbell!” Rough hands held her down as she fought to get free, fought to kill them. They would pay for what they had done, she would see to that. Suddenly the mist parted and a blinding white light blazed down on her. Reilly tried to bring her arm up but felt someone push it back down. A face she didn’t recognize loomed above her. She kicked up hard with her lower body and hit some type of restraining field.

“Damn! Wake up already!” The face and the voice came into focus as she registered where she was. It was the medical room on her ship. Her breathing was ragged as she tried to get her bearings. She looked across the way to see Ty laid out in the medical chamber. His vitals were weak, but they were there. It had been a dream, another nightmare. She slowed her breathing as the man next to her finally let go and sat with a groan on the stool by her bed. She turned to look at him, taking in the fact that she had landed at least one solid punch to his jaw. He sat wiggling it to see if it was broken. Behind him in the doorway Tiny stood, wearing an amused expression.

“Glad to see you are feeling better.” The Gaiden came in and looked at her vitals, nodded, and then turned back to Ty.

Reilly looked again at the man holding his jaw. “Sorry about that. My fists sometimes get away from me.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” The man rolled his eyes and then extended his hand. “Captain Trace Callum, Night Stalker Squadron. We happened to be in the area when you all jumped back.” He inclined his head towards Ty. “I knew Joby, we deployed together a few times. My pilot Nado knows Duv. I have one of my flight mechs working with your folks on repairs, and I’ve been taking the bridge for a bit. I figured we could lend a hand until you all were back up and around again.”

Callum casually paced around the side of Reilly’s bed while he filled her in on the work they had been doing. It reminded her of a panther she had seen at a traveling zoo display on Roen once. Beautiful but dangerous.

“You guys caught some serious scarring on the port side. Jake is working with your man Marek to set some replacement plates and check the stealth system. We also moved one of the fighters you captured to our gunship so your Gunny could get the hydraulic lift kit in place in the bay. Marek’s been cutting the plates true to size instead of halving them, so the hull integrity is maintained. You have a pretty dedicated bunch—”

A loud groan interrupted him and they both turned to see Ty suffer through another mini-seizure. Tiny’s hands flew over the keys on the med system, then turned to prepping another round of medication. She deftly applied the injection and ran a scan. The seizure slowed, then stopped as the medication made its way through Ty’s system.

Callum jammed his hands in his pockets for a moment while he watched. Reilly recognized the gesture: frustration. It was always hardest waiting, watching to see if your troops, your friends, would live or die. And there was nothing to do but wait at this point. She closed her eyes briefly, trying not to think about it. When she opened them again, she found Captain Callum looking at her, the pain obvious on his face. Her face must have mirrored his own, because he quickly moved between her and Ty, blocking her view as Tiny worked.

“So can I turn off the med-field, or are you going to try to punch me again?” he asked, dead-panning for her.

“You can turn it off.” Reilly slowly sat up with a groan, favoring her ribs. “Why is it, Tiny, that out of all the injuries I picked up, the only one that still is hurting me is that kick in the ribs?”

The Gaiden shrugged and smirked as she continued running Ty’s stats. Reilly motioned Trace over and he helped her gently down from the bed and over to a chair. She looked up at him. He had to be about six foot three to her five foot seven, and he was all muscle. She realized that his face looked familiar to her.

“Where do I know you from?” she asked hesitantly.

He shrugged evasively, looking uncomfortable. “I don’t know. We flew a few missions with you Death Adders, so probably from that.”

Reilly thought about that. It seemed that she remembered his face from something else, someplace else. But the memory wouldn’t come, and so finally she gave up.

“How’s he doing?” she asked Tiny as the Gaiden finished up.

“He’s still not out of the woods. The brain swelling is going down, finally. I gave him two pints of blood, and his fractures are healing, but it’s going to take time.” Tiny focused on Reilly. “You are also going to need to take some time, Captain. You caught some shrapnel from the explosions in the bay, which will require follow-up treatment. I’ve already removed all of this”—she shook a container full of metal slivers—“but the bots are still repairing the damage, and there are some stitches I’ll need to take out in a few days, too. So no more gunslinging or risky adventures until I clear them, okay?”

Reilly nodded wearily, looking over at Ty. His face still looked badly beaten, and his brain activity was lower than it should be. Every few hours, he seemed to have a seizure. Tiny was doing the best she could. Reilly wondered if it would be enough. She shivered briefly, remembering the nightmare again. Captain Callum, misunderstanding, quickly grabbed a blanket from the cache, returning to drape it around her shoulders. She looked up at him, surprised by the concern she saw in his eyes, then looked away. For some reason it made her uncomfortable to have him look at her like that, even though she realized he was simply trying to be helpful. She wished she could remember where she knew him from.

“Your pilot, Duv Jackson.” Callum cleared his throat and continued. “Something’s wrong with him. I recommended he come down here and get checked out, but he refused. I’ve been covering the bridge with him in shifts so he could get some sleep. He looks pretty rough, though. I thought you should know.”

Tiny shot him a cold warning glare. Reilly nodded and punched the comms system up. Calmly, Captain Callum reached across and shut the system down again. Reilly gave him an annoyed glance.

“I didn’t mean you needed to look into it right away, especially as that would put me on the wrong side of your medical staff, since you are supposed to be resting,” Callum noted as both of the women stared him down. “Hmmm…I think I’ll be heading back up to the bridge now, got to go check and see how those repairs are coming along.”

He began backing for the door. “Captain Campbell—if you need anything, just buzz me and I’ll head right down. I’ll stop by in the morning to see how you’re feeling.” Captain Callum turned to go.

“Thank you for the help you’ve provided. Don’t think I’m not grateful,” Reilly noted as Callum looked back at her. “I just hate being limited by injuries,” she finished glumly.

Captain Callum grinned at her. “I can certainly understand that. When you’re up and around again, pending the good doctor’s approval,” he said, nodding at Tiny, “we can go over your ship’s status—maybe over a cup of coffee or something?”

Reilly looked up to see Trace Callum wink at her as he went out the hatch without waiting for a reply. She shook her head as Tiny stepped up next to her and handed her Ty’s most recent read out.

“Nice-looking specimen,” Tiny noted as Reilly stared at her in mild shock. “What? I’m a Gaiden, not dead! We do, in rare cases, form relationships; it’s just that with our work it’s normally not practical to get involved.”

Reilly looked over the charts, then looked back up at Tiny. “You’ve given him a solid chance with all you’ve done here. Thank you.”

“It’s what I’m trained to do. And don’t thank me yet.” Tiny looked back at Ty. “He hasn’t regained consciousness. Until then, I won’t know what we’re dealing with.”

“Well, I know if he was aware of all you had done, he would thank you as well.” Reilly handed the charts back with a sigh. “Damn. My head is killing me. I think I will lie back down again.”

Tiny helped her back to bed and re-examined the head injury. It was healing nicely, but in her fight to wake up it had begun to swell again. She reached for an anti-inflammatory and injected it along with a tranquilizer. The Captain was out in another minute. She needed the rest. Tomorrow would have troubles enough for them all. Tiny started as the machine hooked to Ty gave off a series of beeps. She turned to find him blinking and slowly looking around, his eyes somewhat unfocused.

“Sergeant Ty, can you hear me?” she asked him in a firm voice.

“Yes,” he said very softly. “Where am I? Why can’t I see anything?”

Tiny leaned over and looked at his damaged eye. The bruising from the broken facial bones was still a deep purple and black. It was too soon. The swelling hadn’t gone down enough to remove the blockers on his optic nerves.

“You’re back on the ship. We have you in the medical chamber. You suffered damage to one of your optic nerves, so I had to block both of them until the swelling recedes. You also have a number of skull fractures. How do you feel?”

“Like the floor of a passenger ship after it breaks out of a turbulent orbit and half the new flyers have covered it in puke.”

Tiny grinned in spite of herself. The fact that he was able to joke was a good sign. His speech was slow but clear, so if there was brain damage, it was not in this area. She got another injector set up for him.

“I’m going to give you another injection of painkillers and some nano-meds to help with the swelling and any infections you might have. It will make you sleepy, too.”

“Wait!” Ty grabbed blindly for her arm. “I don’t want to sleep anymore—I don’t want to be alone in the dark again!”

His breathing began to speed up as she reached out for his hand, trying to calm him.

“You’re not alone, and the Captain’s sleeping just across the way…” But still he hung onto her arm, his blind eyes pleading, searching.

“I can’t be here like this…please…it’s too much like the ship…it’s too much like being dead…all this darkness…please…”

Tiny looked at him, this warrior and his demons. She knew about demons. From the time she had been taken, she had suffered from them. She had woken in the black of night sweating and frozen with fear as they came to her and haunted her dreams. And she had wished that someone had been there for her those times when she had been crippled by fright. Now here he was, still on the edge of death and locked in darkness. For all her medical expertise and all the technology that existed, there were some things she couldn’t heal, some wounds that only got better with time but left permanent scars on the soul. He was asking her to help him. She knew what this was like, the dark place he was in right now.

Tiny pulled the nearest chair over to Ty’s bed and sat on it, not letting go of his hand. With the other hand she gave him the shot, gently, then set the immunizer back on the tray. She reached down, taking both of his hands into hers. They were trembling slightly. She pushed them together as he laid his head back, still staring blindly in her direction. She focused on his hands, rubbing them lightly in her own to let him know she was there. In a few more minutes, he was asleep again. Tiny sat leaning against his bed, her own hand cradled in his much larger fist, as his chest rose and fell deeply under the sheets. She continued to watch him like that for a long while until finally she lost her own battle with sleep, slumping across to lay her head on the pillow next to him while still balanced on her chair.

Sometime in the night, Ty woke again. He tried to see, but the blackness had swallowed him. He could feel the panic rise again in his chest. In his mind, the butt of a rifle whistled through the air towards his head, and he ducked, raising his arm to block the imagined blow. He began to shiver and sweat in the blackness. But before he could cry out, he felt a small hand grip his own. She was still there. He clung to her like a lifeline. He couldn’t see, but he could feel her warm touch as she sought to calm him and reassure him that he wasn’t alone. She gave him another shot to help with the pain and the stress, trying to calm the tremors that now wracked his body. Slowly the drugs kicked in and his heart rate dropped. Tiny checked his blood pressure as the shaking lessened. She turned briefly to enter some data into the machine, but as soon as the contact was broken, Ty began to shiver again, searching for her, his blind eyes fearful.

Tiny didn’t know what was happening. Maybe it was the stress or the lack of sleep. Maybe it was the pain of having to watch someone else suffer through what she had fought alone so many times before. There was no good reason to help this man. She knew the sergeant probably hated her, or at a minimum he definitely distrusted her. She watched him writhe under the blankets, sweat running down his face and mixing with silent tears as his mind recalled every blow he had taken, trapped, tied down in the dark, with no hope of escape. She felt her mind go numb as she registered his pain and her own memories flooded back. In that moment, she knew she couldn’t leave him to suffer through this alone.