Reavers (Book 3) (34 page)

“If things go badly, they will go in a hurry,” Jack whispered.  “Be ready to get us all out of here.”

Shen nodded; a thick coat of terror gripped him.  Jack thought to lessen the strong emotion in the admiral, when another strong source of emotion took full shape.  On the furthest edge of his senses he had felt a new one.  A single asteroid had crossed into his perception.  Its contents petrified him.

Speech, movement and rational thought fled him as he slowly came to understand what he was sensing.  As his mind was completely consumed by the new source of emotions, a single thought took shape - it knew it was being observed.  Jack glanced up.  The main monitor was locked on the moon.  All as one, in a single fluid motion, the asteroids broke from their orbit.  The ring of rocks broke into countless fragments that all rushed at the fleet.

“Contact!” the tactical officer shouted in a dead panic.

“We can see that!” the MI agent said as he stepped away from the monitor.

“Your orders?”

The MI agent was paralyzed with indecision.  He knew it was hopeless and had already accepted his end.

“All ships, this is Admiral Shen of the Navy.  Break formation and jump away.  I repeat jump away!”

“Belay that order!” the MI agent shouted as he returned to his senses.  “Our orders are clear.  We must . . .”

One of the bridge crew had crossed the room and planted her fist deep in the man’s chest.  The MI agent fell to the floor plating, gasping for breath.

“If you want to die, that’s fine,” she said with a face drenched in sweat.  “But I won’t let you take us all with you!”

“Six minutes to intercept!” the tactical officer shouted.

Shen blinked in disbelief.  If the fleet headed to Lintilä at full speed it would take over an hour.  How fast could these things really go?

“Jump drive is almost ready,” the navigation officer said, clearly in deep concentration.

“Will we make it out in time?” the woman, standing over the MI agent asked.

“It’s going to be close.”

“Then let’s buy us some time,” Shen said as he stood.  “All ships open fire!” he ordered.”

“But at this range . . .” the tactical officer protested.

The Navy ships opened fire while the MI ship hesitated.

“We can’t do much damage,” Shen said, “but at least we can make them slow down.  If we are lucky they will make a serious effort to avoid our fire.”

The tactical officer opened his mouth to protest, but it was pointless.  Bright blazing bursts of light were flickering away from the fleet.  The fleet listened to their admiral, not the MI.  Dense bursts of weapons fire raced toward the approaching horde.  Beam turrets were using every spare scrap of power to keep a screen of light traveling at the aggressors.  Projectile launchers were overheating as the crews feverously worked to increase their reload rates.  Missiles danced about, leaving behind a thick web as they left trails created by their exhaust.

Shen rose and took several steps toward the main monitor as the first volleys were closing in on the front edge of the asteroids.  He noticed Jack had collapsed to the ground, his hands pressing against his temples so strongly the knuckles were white.  A thin trickle of blood was dripping from his nose, ears, and eyes.

A brilliant flash of light pulled Shen’s attention back to the main monitor.  The missiles had impacted against the unknown ships.  The asteroids were so densely packed that the beams and projectiles cleanly shredded into them - not one had attempted to evade the barrage.

Emerging through the explosions, the horde of asteroids pressed on.  The missiles had left holes in the advancing screen of ships, but the projectiles had barely scratched them.  The energy weapons hadn’t fazed them at all.  The fleet continued to offload as much ordinance against the swarming asteroids as humanly possible, but it wasn’t slowing the advance in any noticeable way.

“Where’s that jump window?” Shen asked as he retreated away from the monitor - desperately attempting to create space between himself and the advancing waves.

“Jumping in ten!” the navigation office shouted back.

As the countdown slowly descended, Shen focused entirely on the unknown ships.  They were almost on top of them.  The exploding edge of the missiles seemed so close Shen could imagine reaching his arm out and touching it.  Just as one of the nearest missiles exploded, the view faded.  Brilliant arcs of electricity lanced about as the Wall slowly opened.  The asteroids desperately moved to avoid slamming into the tranquil window created by the jump drive.  The arcs of lightning lashed and slashed against the asteroids that were too close.

They survived the first few lashings, but eventually the Wall was victorious as the arcs of lightning started to slice the asteroids into bits.  Like dropping a stone into a small steam of water, the Walls of the fleet broke the advancing horde of ships.  The asteroids surged and churned around the outer edge of the jump windows as they refused to give up on the intruders.

By the time they had recovered from the surprise and were ready to strike, the fleet had all but completely jumped.  The asteroids moved to crash against the remaining sections of the ships.  Slamming into the hulls of the fleet, the swarms of ships closed in like a bawled fist.

Fires burst from the damaged sections as the fleet continued to pass through the wall.  Two jump windows collapsed, slicing through the remaining sections.  The swarm of asteroids made quick work of the helpless hunks of metal.  Once the final jump window closed naturally, the asteroids turned and left the debris behind.  As the asteroids moved to return to their orbit, they left a large field of charred hull plating, shattered rocks, and smashed wreckage hanging listlessly in the lifeless void of space.

A slight repeating pressure tapped against Frank’s shoulder as he slept.  As his drowsy hands moved to swipe away the source, he had a predictably overwhelming feeling he was being watched.  Slowly opening his eyes, Frank found Zia’s face perched mere inches away.  Her legs and back were straight, meeting at a near ninety-degree angle, same as always.

“How long were you watching me this time?” he asked with a yawn.

“A while.”  She chuckled faintly.

“Is that all he does?” Kindra asked.

“If napping were a skill, he’d be a master,” Diana said with a wink.

“Well excuse me for trying to pass the time,” Frank said indignantly.  “We haven’t been outside this room in . . . I have no idea how long.  Losing track of time is getting
so
old.”

“Don’t be rude,” Zia said quietly.  “You know we have to hide here.”

“I know, I know.  Can’t let MI know we are here.  But still . . .”

“At least Nobue didn’t get his hands on you,” Morio gestured with a grin.

As Morio and Frank chuckled to themselves, the three girls stared at them in confusion.

“Okay, I’ve been good and I’ve held my tongue,” Diana said as she leaned close to Morio.  “But enough is enough.  What happened between you three?  How do you know one another?”

“Diana!” Zia said quickly.

“Don’t try to tell me you aren’t interested.”  She rolled her eyes.  “You are just too polite to press the issue.”

“There’s an understatement,” Kindra said in agreement.  “She has to be the second most patient person I’ve ever met.”

“I know!  She keeps putting up with that idiot Frank when he won’t . . . wait.  Second?” Diana asked in surprise.  “Who’s the first?”

“Well, there was this one guy.”  Kindra smiled to herself.

“You know, I’m right here,” Frank said in clear annoyance.  “It’s not nice to talk about someone behind their back - when they are looking at you!”

“Oh, calm down, we are just having some fun at your expense.”  Diana grinned at him.  “But don’t think you’ve gotten out of it.  What’s the story?”

Frank shot a questioning glance at Morio.

“Guess we can’t hold them off any longer,” he said without words.  “At least it will pass the time.”  Morio shrugged.

“There’s that,” Frank said with a grin.

Zia moved closer to him and leaned her head on his shoulder.  Despite her protests, she
was
interested in the story.

“Where should we begin?” he asked.

“I suppose we should skip the fluff and stick to the ceremony,” Morio said without words.

“Ceremony?” Diana asked.

“Don’t interrupt,” Kindra said politely.  “Story tellers have their own way of doing things.  I’ve known enough windbags to know asking questions only slows them down.”

“Did you just call us windbags?” Frank asked.

“Now who’s interrupting?” Diana asked Kindra with a smirk.

“Do you all want to hear this or not?” Morio asked without words.

Zia nodded emphatically as the other girls went silent.

“Okay, well Morio and I met two months after we joined the military,” Frank said, attempting to recall the details.

“Two months after we were sent to the same academy,” Morio corrected.  “I’d been in the military my entire life.  Frank joined on a whim.”

“Really?” Zia asked.

“Sounds like Frank.”  Diana grinned.

“I wouldn’t say it was a whim,” he said in his defense.  “I
could
have gotten into the Navy.”

“
You
?” she asked in astonishment.

“Don’t sound so surprised!” he said, clearly irritated.  “I was highly praised as resourceful.  I turned down the Navy because I couldn’t stand the idea of living with the Wall.”

“Resourceful was their way of saying he was devious.”  Morio smirked.

“I thought you were on my side!” Frank protested.

“Who said being devious was a bad thing?” he asked without words.  “Zia seems to like you despite it.”

“He’s not that bad,” she said as she started blushing.

“Anyway,” Frank said, obviously attempting to move the story along.  “My
resourcefulness
got me a position as the squad’s gofer.”

“Gofer?” Kindra asked.  “Don’t you mean bookie?”

“A bookie is like the criminal mastermind,” Morio explained without words.  “The gofers are the petty thugs who do the dirty work.”

“You make it sound so glamorous,” Frank said with a deep sigh.  “Basically, I did odd jobs for people - for a fee, naturally.”

“All perfectly legit, I’m sure,” Kindra said sarcastically with a wink.

“I’d bend the rules - not break them.”  He grinned as he returned the wink.

“So what does any of this have to do with Morio?” Diana asked.

“The two of us became fast friends.”  Morio smiled to himself.  “He never gave me any trouble over the fact I never spoke.”

“Fast isn’t the word I’d use,” Frank said.  “Took me weeks to figure out what he was saying.”

“At least you tried.”  Morio chuckled.  “The squad leader chalked me up as useless and promptly ignored me from the first day on.”

“He’d regret that later,” Frank said with a wide grin.

“Don’t skip ahead!” Diana reprimanded.

“Fine, fine.”  He stuck his tongue out at Diana.  “Well, everything was going smoothly until one of the instructors decided to retire.”

“An important one, too,” Morio added without words.  “Turns out the guy was famous.  Him calling it quits was a monumental event to the Administer.”

“So the Administer decided to throw him a formal ceremony,” Frank said.  “The guest list had every major player in the military set to show up.  You’d never figure you could find such an elaborate party at an academy.  The thing looked like some gala event the diplomatic core would throw.”

“Why am I getting a bad feeling,” Diana asked.

“Wait for it.  It gets better,” he said restraining a chuckle.

“The local governor happened to be a former student of the retiring instructor,” Morio continued.  “When he heard about the ceremony, he decided to use his connections to help out.”

“The governor did an incredible job,” Frank said with a nod.  “He managed to get work crews from the sector to change the academy’s observation deck into a grand ballroom.  Word spread, and soon the attendance included everyone from admirals to the heads of corporations.”

“Even Alden Hooten, the head of Core Industries showed up,” Morio said, without words.

“So what happened next?” Kindra asked.

“Well, this is where I came into things,” Frank said, sounding a little chagrined.  “You see, my reputation for being able to acquire things had gotten around.  I had orders for strange items from all over the academy.”

“You?” Diana asked.  “Why not the
criminal masterminds
?”

“Bookies are anything but generous,” Morio gestured.  “They add a markup to everything, sometimes double the cost of the item.  Frank was cheaper.”

“I would have said my prices were reasonable,” he corrected.  “Anyways, the governor had procured the services of a renowned chef for the event.  Problem was, that chef was used to working on private events and found the simple ingredients available on an academy . . . lacking.  So one of his aides came to me with a list of ingredients I needed to fetch.”