“This isn’t what I wanted,” Caleb said.

  “It’s not what I wanted either, Alpha,” Adam said. “But this is how it has to be. I’m sorry.”

  Caleb nodded, still internally furious. “Fine. I’ll get you to the city safely, Mr. Jones, or Vice-Governor Jones, or whatever the hell you’re called now. Leave the trife to me. I wish we were still going to Earth-6 so I would be assured I would never have to look at your miserable face again.”

  Caleb turned and stormed away from Adam, headed back to the barracks. He didn’t have any more time to worry about what the other man did or didn’t do.

  He had a mission to accomplish.

  Chapter 27

  Caleb led the civilians, including the former Lieutenant Jones, up from the Marine module on Deck Twenty-nine, through empty corridors to the lift to Deck Sixteen, and from Deck Sixteen toward the bow in the direction of Metro’s south entrance. He was in the lead of the small unit, with Sho beside him and Washington and Hafizi in the rear. He had already informed them of the former lieutenant’s decision, and they had taken it in stride, keeping their comments to themselves, at least until they had delivered the group to safety.

  Doctor Valentine stayed in contact with them, monitoring their exodus from the Research module’s sub-network terminal, watching the sensors for signs of trife, both their current location and suspected paths. The goal for the moment was to avoid confrontation, to get the civilians into the city and make it back to Deck Twenty-nine in one piece. Once that was done, Caleb would start worrying about coming up with a plan to get the trife off the Deliverance.

  There was only one group of trife that threatened them on the way, a small segment of five demons who were wandering across their path, likely in search of any wayward survivors. Caleb kept the group well away from them, circling the area and back to the entrance to Metro.

  The second group of trife had taken root there, hanging out near the hatch in case it opened, somehow aware of all the people on the other side. Caleb and Washington moved in on them first, coming hard around the corner of an adjacent corridor and gunning them down before they had much of a chance to react.

  “Valentine, any reaction from the others?” Caleb asked. His ATCS showed the area was clear, but he couldn’t see anything the sensors on his or his unit’s SOS couldn’t see.

  “Negative, Alpha,” Valentine replied. She seemed to have gained a new respect for him after Lieutenant Jones informed her of the change in command. Caleb supposed some respect was better than none. “If they heard you, they aren’t interested.”

  “Roger that,” Caleb replied. “Adam, you have the key.” It still felt strange to call the lieutenant by his first name, but there was no way he wasn’t going to do it.

  Adam approached the security panel, putting his wrist to it and letting it scan his ID chip. The door thunked and began sliding open.

  “Alpha, we have movement,” Valentine said as soon as the hatch started to rise. “Hurry them in; you’ve got three groups rushing your way that we can see, nearly a hundred in total.”

  “Shit,” Caleb muttered. “No time for goodbyes. Get in and close the hatch.”

  The hatch was large and heavy and hadn’t been designed to open and close in a hurry. It rose at a snail’s pace, revealing a few pairs of feet on the other side.

  “Vultures, cover the rear, full line defense fire. Hawks, we need you at the Metro entrance.”

  He had organized the Guardians in three teams of four, sticking with the names of birds of prey as callsigns for the units. The Hawks were headed by Corporal Johansen, a muscular woman with blonde hair and hard eyes.

  “Roger, Alpha,” Johansen said. “We’re on our way.”

  “Alpha, here they come,” Valentine warned.

  “Already?” Hafizi said.

  The trife had covered the distance in seconds. They had to be moving at a full sprint.

  Caleb glanced back. The hatch was almost halfway open, and the civilians were beginning to drop and crawl through the space. Adam waved them on, staying behind to keep them organized.

  Caleb shouldered his carbine and moved to the corner. His ATCS registered the incoming trife as a red blob on his right.

  “Right flank,” he announced to the other Vultures. “Skirmishers.”

  The squad organized quickly, getting in position as the trife suddenly stopped, still out of visual.

  “They stopped,” he said. “Valentine?”

  “I don’t know,” she replied. “All of them just stopped.”

  “Watch the vents,” Adam warned behind him.

  Caleb scanned the corridor. There were vents on either side. How many shafts were there across the ship?

  “Vultures, wedge formation,” he said, switching their focus to all-around defense. There was a still in the air he didn’t like. The calm before the storm. “Valentine, are their ventilation shafts inside the main hold? Inside Metro?”

  “There are, but they have a locking mechanism to seal them off in case of a hull breach. The city is airtight. Alpha, it looks like the size of the groups are shrinking.”

  “Roger.” Caleb wasn’t sure what that meant. Were they finding a path through the ventilation?

  He looked back to the hatch. It had nearly finished opening, and the rest of the civilians had gone through. A small party had waited for them on the other side, including Governor Lyle and not all that surprisingly, Sheriff Aveline.

  They made short eye contact, offering one another a nod and a smile. He could sense her support in her expression, confirming that he was doing the right thing. He started turning back, to watch the corridors.

  Something fell from the ceiling beside him, nearly hitting him in the shoulder. He jerked aside as the large piece of grating clattered onto the floor, and a trife dropped out of it, claws already slashing at him.

  It happened so fast. He heard a pair of gunshots, and the trife was thrown back and into the wall beside him with two large holes in its chest. He jumped back as two more came out, landing right in front of him. He shot one, and the other was hit from somewhere behind him.

  He spared a half-second to look back at the hatch. Aveline had her sidearm, a large silver revolver, in hand. Smoke was leaking from the end of it.

  “Good luck, Caleb Card,” she shouted as the hatch began to close again.

  “Good hunting, Alpha,” Adam said, the last to duck through.

  Then it was back to the fight. The trife at the intersection were moving in with sudden ferocity, charging the Vultures in an effort to get through them, through the hatch, and into the city. The others were already shooting, the corridors suddenly so thick with oily black flesh and teeth it was impossible not to hit them.

  Another demon fell from the overhead shaft, dropping in the middle of the Vultures. It didn’t go after Caleb, instead pivoting and jumping on Sho, tackling her and knocking her to the ground. It raised a claw to strike, and Caleb hit it with the carbine, putting three rounds into its back. It hissed and fell over.

  Sho was only down for a few seconds, but the loss of her firepower gave the trife the extra push they needed. They poured in on the group like an oil spill, threatening to drown them.

  “Fall back!” Caleb shouted.

  There wasn’t much room to move, but at least they could concentrate their firepower. The Vultures pulled back, moving toward the closing hatch.

  “Spread out!” he heard Sheriff Aveline say. They did, and he glanced back and saw her and another sheriff lying prone behind the hatch. The sheriffs helped fire into the demons as the creatures came at them, the short corridor ahead of the blast door forcing them into a bottleneck.

  “This is Hawk One,” Corporal Johansen said. “Swooping in to save your asses Vultures.”

  The trife ahead of them collapsed, taking sudden fire from the left flank. The Hawks appeared a moment later, the passages cleared.

  “Nice work, Hawks,” Caleb said, taking the opportunity to let himself breathe again. “Perfect timing. Valentine, what’s the status?”

  “They’re drawing back, Alpha,” she replied. “I think they realized they couldn’t get through you.”

  “Roger. Smart bastards, setting us up like that.”

  “They almost seem smarter without a queen,” she replied. “It’s interesting. We haven’t had much of a chance to study them in this kind of environment before.”

  “I don’t want to study them. I want to kill them.”

  “You will. But I’ll be taking notes. I’m sure Command will find them useful in the years ahead.”

  “Whatever makes you happy, Doctor.”

  “I see we agree on something for once, Alpha.”

  Caleb shook his head. The woman was impossible. He turned back to the hatch. It was only a foot or so above the floor. He leaned down to look in one last time.

  “See you on the other side, Sergeant,” Sheriff Aveline said, reaching her hand through the gap.

  He took it and squeezed. “Are we keeping that date?”

  “Absolutely.”

  He let go of her hand. She pulled it back. A few seconds later, the hatch sealed.

  Caleb leaned back against it, closing his eyes and resting for a second. Even with the assisted strength of the SOS, he was exhausted.

  He opened his eyes when he sensed Private Washington standing over him. The big man held out his hand, and Caleb let himself be pulled easily to his feet.

  “How are you feeling, Wash?” he asked.

  Washington gave him a thumbs-up.

  “Good. Valentine, how quickly do we need to hit the group headed for the thrusters before the queening?”

  “Six to ten hours at best, Alpha. Why?”

  “My Guardians are exhausted. Hell, I’m exhausted. A few hours to regroup would do us a world of good.”

  “Understood. Keep in mind that every minute we aren’t putting pressure on the trife is a minute they’re preparing to put more pressure on us.”

  Caleb sighed. He had to balance the enemy’s comfort with his team’s. “Roger that. We’re headed back to the mod to plan our next steps.” He checked his ATCS. “I see Pratt and Ning made it to you okay.”

  “They did. I’ve already got them welding vents.”

  “How long before I can have them back?”

  “Four hours or so.”

  “What about the changes to the ship’s computer?”

  “Harry’s nearly done with the updates.”

  “It’s fortunate you have a guy like Harry on your team, Doctor.”

  “Are you trying to imply something, Alpha?”

  Caleb smiled. Of course he was. Like Sho had mentioned, there was something about Valentine and her team that didn’t quite fit, and now that he had a short break from fighting demons, he had something else to occupy his thoughts. “I don’t know, am I?”

  Valentine fell silent. She wasn’t going to answer his unspoken question.

  At least he had shut her up.

  Chapter 28

  The Guardians – everyone except Pratt and Ning – gathered in the Marine module’s CIC. Caleb had taken the few minutes needed to get out of his SOS, while Washington remained suited up, guarding the entrance to the module. Caleb had already set his third unit, the Raptors, to welding the vents in their module similarly to how Valentine and her team were getting it done, creating a mostly safe haven for the Marines to work from.

  He stood in the back of the room, near the main command terminal. Like the Research module, it was sub-networked into the ship’s primary computer and had access to some of the functions, most importantly the sensor readings. Not that it meant all that much since the trife had quickly discovered how to avoid the sensors. Valentine had informed him that Harry would be working on getting a map of the ventilation system delivered as soon as he was done with the programming updates, so they would at least have an idea where the demons might try to hit them.

  He pulled the map of the Deliverance up anyway, showing the locations where the trife had spread. There were still three main groups that had gone in opposite directions, the largest to the aft and two smaller groups toward the bow. He didn’t know why those two groups had split off or what their overall intent was. The link between the reactor and the thrusters was the best place to absorb the energy the demons used as food, so it didn’t make a lot of overall sense.

  He was sure they had a logic to it. The creature’s actions on the ship had already proven they were smarter than he ever imagined. And if it wasn’t intelligence, then their instincts were more evolved than he had thought. Nobody had ever considered locking trife in a maze to see what they would do. Now he wished they had. With all his experience in the field against the aliens, this was completely uncharted territory.

  “We’ll get a more detailed plan together to go after the larger group once Valentine’s team provides the layout of the potential access points the trife might use. I gathered you here in the meantime so we can organize smaller reconnaissance of the groups in the bow, and so we can discuss strategies and capabilities. I know none of us were planning on spending our time on the Deliverance this way. Even as Guardians, I was expecting to be walking the ship and making calls to Metro for engineers every once in a while, and otherwise watching a lot of streams and playing a lot of poker.”

  The Guardians laughed at that.

  “Bastards are keeping us from having any fun,” Sho said.

  “We can have all the fun you want,” one of the Marines replied. “Come on over here.”

  Caleb whirled to face him. A younger man, in good shape, dark hair and a chiseled face. “Stand up, Private,” he snapped.

  The man stood, his face already flushing.

  “What’s your name?” Caleb asked.

  “Shiro, Alpha,” the man replied.

  Caleb pointed at Sho. “Private Shiro, when you look at this Marine, what do you see?”

  “Uh. I. Uh.”

  “What do you see, Private?” Caleb said.

  “Sarge, you don’t need to – ” Sho started to say.

  “I do,” Caleb said. “Here and now, to get this over with.” Caleb walked over to the man, getting in his face. “What do you see?” he repeated sharply.

  “A fellow Marine.”

  “A fellow Marine, what?”

  “A fellow Marine, Alpha!”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, Alpha!”

  “So you would make the same comment to any of your other fellow Marines?” Caleb asked. “What about to him?” He pointed at Washington.

  “I. Uh. No, Alpha.”

  “Why not?” Caleb said.

  “Alpha, I’m not gay.”

  “And therein lies the problem, Private. Drop and give me push-ups. You don’t stop until I tell you that you can stop.”

  Shiro went to the floor and started doing the push-ups. He was already tired from the fighting, and the added reps weren’t doing him any favors. Caleb didn’t care. He couldn’t afford any one of the Guardians any leeway.

  “And by problem, I don’t mean you should all be gay or not gay. I don’t really care either way. That’s none of my damn business. What I do care about is how effective we are as a platoon. We’re all this ship has by way of defense. Forty-thousand people are counting on us to protect them. Give that a second to sink in.” He paused and waited a few seconds. “There are no men here. There are no women here. There are only Space Force Marines. Guardians. Is it going to be lonely for you out here? Maybe. But any distractions from the mission, from our duty, will be met with swift punishment that’s a lot worse than a few push-ups, I promise you that. Is that understood?”

  “Yes, Alpha!” the Marines barked in reply.

  “Good. Master Sergeant Gold.”

  “Yes, Alpha?” Gold replied, stepping forward.

  “We have a lot of ordnance in the armory. I grabbed the carbine because that’s what I’m used to, but I’m open to suggestions. If there’s more effective equipment on board, we should be using it.”

  “Yes, you should,” Gold said, smiling. “We’ve got a dozen P-50 plasma rifles. They were fresh out of R&D when we received them. It’s the most modern gun we’ll ever see. The cells hold enough fuel for a hundred bolt rounds each, but they also have two firing modes. Single round bolts and a secondary stream mode that acts more like a flamethrower, only its tossing out superheated gas instead.”

  “Sounds nasty,” Caleb said. “What’s the downside?”

  “The ship’s surfaces can only take so much of the heat before they start to melt. So you might be able to stream for a few seconds and burn an entire corridor of trife, but too long and you might melt something critical.”

  “Good to know.”

  “We’ve also got MK-12 assault rifles. They’re an upgrade from the carbine you’re carrying because they have a larger magazine and are higher caliber. They also have a secondary trigger that fires twenty-millimeter high-density explosive rounds. Again, you have to be more careful with them on board, but if you’re in a pinch?” He shrugged. “We have a handful of laser pistols too, again the newest tech out of R&D, but I haven’t had a chance to play with them yet. I’d imagine too long a shot would burn a pinhole through the hull and start venting oxygen. We don’t want that to happen.”

  “No, we don’t,” Caleb agreed. “What about drones? Do we have anything that can help us scout ahead?”

  “We have a bunch of Dragonflies,” Gold said. “They were originally designed for diagnostic scanning of the ship’s conduits since they can fit in small spaces. They have cameras with full infrared, so I think they could come in handy for peeking into the vents.”

  “Until the trife eat them at least,” Sho said.

  “There is that.”

  “Do we need to do anything with them to make them viable in the shafts?”

  “No. Set them loose in one and they’ll follow it. Unfortunately, they’re AI driven, no external control, so if they reach an intersection we can’t make them follow the one we want. But otherwise they’re plug and play.”