Reavers (Book 3) (9 page)

“What’s your condition?” Andreas pressed.

“Just out of breath.  We lost most of the oxygen in the compartment, and it got pretty cold in there.  Had to sacrifice the cargo to seal the gap.  I’m sorry captain.”

“Forget the cargo.  How are the new crewmembers?”

“A few of the others are suffering from some mild hypothermia and hypoxia.  A night in the sickbay should be all they need.”

“Get them
all
to the sickbay,” Rosalyn ordered Andreas.

Revel was about to protest, but the firm look in her eyes stopped him.  As Andreas escorted the crew off to get medical attention, Rosalyn walked over to the wall.  Placing her hand gently on the wall, a link to the ship’s computer instantly displayed.  Tapping the various command prompts, she gave her orders.  Wipe the ITU trade ship out of existence.

The walls of the ship were coated in the dim lighting of emergency power.  Whatever had hit them had hit them
hard
.  The other medics scrambled about, preparing for the worst.  Owen had other thoughts.  Running out of Medical, he made his way down the poorly lit corridors.  Stealing glances at his pad, he checked his position on the crude map.  Hiroko was in the armory; he had to get to her - no matter what his orders were. 

Echoing lightly through the empty corridors were the sounds of weapons fire.  The ship had been boarded.  Thoughts of who or why were the farthest on his mind; getting to Hiroko was all that mattered.  The closer Owen got to the armory, the louder the weapons fire grew.  Suddenly, he became aware of a sound louder than his own panting.  A soft grating harassed his ears.  Turning slowly, he felt a bead of sweat gliding down his forehead.  At the far end of the corridor, a hulking form loomed menacingly.

The soft sound of a steady drip grabbed Owen’s attention.  Each falling orb of liquid seemed to grow louder and louder.  The sound grew until each drip sounded like an explosion in his ears.  Draining from the hulk’s two large blades was a dark red liquid.  Owen’s eyes widened with understanding.

A monster he believed only to live in his nightmares was staring him down, a large pool of human blood amassing around its third limb.  The tripod didn’t stir as Owen held perfectly still.  He dared not breathe.  Between the two bladed limbs of the tripod, an orb of glowing light studied Owen.  The orb swirled with a multitude of lights, as it remained firmly locked on him.

Suddenly, the tripod roared.  The sound wasn’t something any animal could ever make.  It was a mechanical howl filled with crackling pops of energy and static.  Its intent made clear, the tripod lunged down the corridor.  Owen quickly ran for his life as the sharp metal blades of his pursuer dug into the metal floor plating.

The horrible wail of grinding and shredding metal was drowned out by the volume of Owen’s beating heart.  As he rounded corners, the beast sliced straight through the walls, creating its own path.  He could hear the monstrosity growing closer and closer as it burst through the wall plating.

“Get down!” a voice bellowed.

Too frightened to think twice, his body instantly obeyed the command.  As his body rolled along the floor plating, countless bursts of energy flashed overhead.  The tripod wailed as the bursts impacted against it.  Despite the weapons fire, the horror continued to advance unfazed.

“Aim for its hind limb!” the voice bellowed again.  “That’s its weak point.”

The bursts of light shifted their trajectories slightly.  As Owen scrambled on his back to get away, the tripod endured volley after volley.  Finally the bursts of light penetrated the armor of the tripod, severing its third limb.  As the horror crashed to the ground, it swung its massive blades in a last ditch attempt to rend human flesh.

After a few moments of flailing, and several more volleys of weapons fire, the glowing orb extinguished - the monster was dead.  Owen quickly scrambled over the crudely assembled barricade as the troopers stared in awe at the dead
thing
.

“What is it?” one asked in awe.

“I don’t know, and I don’t
want
to know,” another muttered.  “I just hope there aren’t any more.

“It’s a Shard,” a kind voice said.

Owen recognized the voice and jumped to his feet.

“Hiroko!”  He embraced the girl tightly.  “You’re okay!”

“In better condition than you,” she said, returning the embrace while trembling slightly.  “Shouldn’t you be in Medical?”

“Like we’d let ourselves get separated,” Cassandra said, shoving the dead metal hulk out of her way.

“Did you say
Shard
?” a nervous trooper interrupted.  “As in . . .”

“The ancient foe from the Great War,” Hiroko said with a nod, “the same ones that tried to wipe us out of existence.”

“How did they get here?” a trooper asked in a high-pitched voice.  “I thought they only existed in 3Ps.”

“Do you have any idea what’s going on?” Owen asked Cassandra.  “Shouldn’t you be in engineering?”

“There is no engineering; not anymore,” she said.  “I barely managed to clear out before they destroyed the entire section.”

“I guess that’s why we didn’t jump,” Hiroko said, passing a rifle to Cassandra.  “Do you know what happened to . . .”

A loud, inhuman howl cut through their conversation.  The troopers readied their rifles nervously.  In the dim lighting of the corridor, no movement could be seen.  The dull grinding of metal slowly grew more pronounced.  Rapidly darting their eyes and rifles along the dark corridor, the gathered troopers waited for the worse.  The sound of shredding metal grew deafening.  The troopers tried to swallow against bone-dry throats as the sound suddenly disappeared.  In the tense silence, the troopers could hear each and every individual beat of their hearts.

Time seemed to stop as the troopers continued to scan the dim corridor.  Bursting out of the wall behind them, another tripod charged the group.  Caught off guard, the troopers failed to react in time.  With a single swing of the tripod’s blade, two troopers were instantly cut in half.  The other troopers scrambled to pull back, but it had them.  A sour pit grew in Owen’s stomach as he watched the tripod turn on Hiroko, blood draining off its massive blades from its fresh kill.  As it swung down its blade, a second flew out of nowhere and severed its limb.

He had to blink at what he’d seen.  Cassandra had dismembered the fallen tripod and had hurled one of its blades at the still living Shard.  The damaged tripod howled as it lunged at the heavy-worlder.  Swinging the remaining blade with ease, Cassandra sliced the charging tripod’s central mass cleanly in two.  The orb of light instantly extinguished and the tripod fell gracelessly to a dead stop.  As Cassandra was about to order the troopers, another glowing orb appeared behind her.

Using all his strength, Owen dove at her legs.  Losing her balance, she fell on top of him right as the tripod swung one of its massive blades.  The blade sliced through the hull plating with ease, mere inches above them.  Realizing it had missed, the tripod raised its other blade.  Owen’s eyes flung shut as the blade rushed down at him.  A loud shriek stung his ears.  Surprisingly, besides the ringing in his ears there was no additional pain. 

Despite his eyes being closed and his mind consumed with panic, he could feel his muscles flexing on their own.  His reflexes must have kicked in, and his body had deflected the strike without any input from his conscious mind.  The hours of seemingly pointless exercises his grandfather had put him through had just saved his life.  Cassandra scrambled away as the tripod paused, obviously unsure what had happened.

With eyes firmly closed, Owen’s body continued to move of its own accord.  Like an elegant dance, his body nimbly avoided swinging blades as he slammed his fist against the tripod and seemingly meaningless joints.  Eventually, the tripod fell.  The hulking metal monster had been beaten by something Owen didn’t fully understand himself: a technique passed down through the Jepsen family line since the Great War - the ability to fight off the Shards by hand. 

As the troopers moved to reinforce their barricade, Owen kept his eyes shut while his body fought off the approaching tripods.  The number of tripods increased until he was pitted against five or more at a time.  Owen focused on keeping his eyes tightly shut despite the odd sensations he felt throughout his body.  Abruptly, a tremendous surge of pain filled him.  Owen’s eyes flashed open.  One of the tripods had impaled its massive blade in his right leg.  Light-headed, his body fought twice as hard.

More and more Shards descended on their position.  Despite the intensity of his struggling, the Shards were winning.  A strong blow knocked Owen off balance.  The severely mangled hull plating tore at his flesh, sending waves of pain though his body.  As his focus started to fade, Owen watched as a tripod moved in for the kill.  The hulking figure raised its massive blade and swung it down with tremendous force.

“That’s enough,” a young voice said.

Instantly, the tripod froze, its blade hanging in the air, waiting just a hair’s length away from Owen’s face.  It took him a moment to realize the tripod wasn’t going to kill him.  Turning to find the voice, he found the silhouette of a small form off in the distance of the dimly lit corridor.  As it neared, he realized it was a young girl.  She was walking toward them as if nothing was wrong.  The tripods naturally cleared a path for a girl.  The odd expression on the girl’s face terrified him.

“Owen?” a soothing voice asked.

Lurching up into a sitting position, he frantically panted for breath.  A hand rested itself on his forehead.  Instinctively, Owen grabbed the hand and pulled the owner close.  There was no malice in his subconscious actions.  Realizing the deeper meaning, he took several deep breaths and tried to calm himself.

“You’re drenched in sweat!” Hiroko said, examining her hand.  “The nightmare again?”

Owen could only nod.  He could make out the concern in her face, even in the darkness of the room.  She reached over and tapped on her pad.  Instantly, the lights illuminated the room in a comfortable light.

“How long has it been since the last one?” Hiroko asked.

“A while,” he said reassuringly.  “They have almost stopped.”

“
Almost
is still too much.  Isn’t there anything more they can do?”

“It’s manageable.  They said it wouldn’t ever go away, not permanently.”

She gently embraced him.  He allowed himself to relax in her arms.  It had been over three years since the Shard had destroyed the Harbinger.  Still their assault on the ship haunted his nightmares.  Everything had been going so well.  Even though the Independent Traders Union had turned on the Commonwealth, Core Industries had been ready to stop them.  Just as the ITU was about to surrender, the Shard came back. 

Destroying several ships and disabling the Harbinger, the Shard completely overwhelmed the combined fleet.  The power of the Shard Citadels had overwhelmed the Navy fleet and destroyed the Harbinger’s jump drive.  As the trade ships of Core Industries and the ITU fled, the Shards boarded what was left of the Harbinger.  Owen and his friends had been caught in the middle.  Even though that odd little girl had spared them, his right leg had been severely wounded.

Thanks to his medical training he managed to save his own leg, but along with the nightmares, phantom pains still lingered in him. Owen knew there was nothing wrong with him physically, but the mental scars ran deep.  In Hiroko’s arms he could forget all that.  It was just a nightmare and things could carry on.  Giving her a gentle kiss on the cheek, Owen finally shifted to the edge of the bed.  Stretching slightly, he glanced at his pad to find out how early he had awakened them.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Hiroko asked lecherously.

Before he could answer, she had pulled him back into bed and was kissing him.  The way her arms embraced him, and the way her legs wrapped around his, told Owen
exactly
what she had on her mind.  As much as he didn’t want to, he knew he had to stop her.  No matter how much pleasure the two would share, she would make him suffer twice as much later if he let her miss the meeting.

“Hiroko . . . wait . . . hold on . . .” Owen stammered as she continued unabated.

“What is it?” she asked in between kisses.

“It’s almost six . . . the meeting . . .” Owen struggled to get her attention.

At the mention of the word meeting, Hiroko halted.  She completely froze for a second as his words sunk in.  Abruptly, she leapt out of bed and started darting around the bedroom.  As she gathered clothes and headed toward the personal stall, Owen propped himself up in their bed and watched.  Well, it wasn’t exactly
their
bed.  Technically speaking, they weren’t even a
they
. 

The two of them were still registered as single troopers.  In fact, Owen continued to pay rent on a single room dwelling neither of them ever used - just to keep up appearances.  Hiroko was as focused on her career as ever.  According to her, single women were forty-seven percent more likely to be promoted over married ones.  He had quickly given up arguing otherwise.  It wasn’t that Hiroko didn’t love him.  She just loved her career
more
.