“We’re still working on the plans for the personnel reduction. The baby lotteries have been put on hold, and we’ve been forced to abort a few of the early-stage pregnancies.”

  “You’re aborting people who are already expecting?”

  “At their request, Alan,” she replied defensively. “People don’t want to have children knowing they’re going to grow up here.” She paused. “And die here.”

  “How far along is the planning process for contraction?”

  “We have a plan to move Beta settlement over and recapture the resources for necessities. It should buy us at least twenty years. Once that’s done, we’re going to look into disassembling Delta.”

  “You should have started with Delta.”

  “I know, but that motion was blocked by the Believers.”

  “Is that what they’re calling themselves?”

  “Yes. They still think Theodore is going to come back and lead them to salvation.”

  “I guess it’s as good a belief as any. People need something to pin their hopes on.”

  “I’d rather they help us be pragmatic and work out the logistics so that we can maybe find a way to ride this thing out.”

  “Ride it out? Like there’s an end in sight?”

  “The science teams are shifting focus to finding other potential ways to get us out of this system. We still have the coordinates to the New Earth; we just need a ship that can take us there. It may be that we have to do a generation style vessel, but it beats the hell out of waiting to die here. That’s why we aren’t dismantling Delta yet. Rachel Dawes in engineering thinks we might be able to fabricate a solar sail and hook it up to the station. It would take us a few hundred years to get to the New Earth, but we would get there.”

  “Pie in the sky,” General Cave said. “The printers can’t do anything that thin and light.”

  “Not now, but if they can improve them-”

  “That’s a big if.”

  “What the hell do you want us to do?” Angela cursed. “Accept that we’re going to die?”

  General Cave froze. “Damn it. I’m sorry, Angela. I woke up in a lousy mood today.”

  “I wake up like that every day recently. But we need to pull together. We aren’t dead yet, and that’s a start.”

  “Right.”

  The pod slowed as it reached the central hub. Councilwoman Rouse and General Cave got out together, heading for the administrative offices. They were halfway to the elevators when the doors to them opened, and Spaceman Owens came limping out.

  “Sir,” he said, seeing the General but forgetting to salute. “I’ve been trying to contact you. You need to get to the CIC immediately.”

  “The CIC? What’s happening?”

  “We just got a comm from Delta. Their long-range sensors are picking up two unidentified objects that just appeared in system and are headed this way.”

  “Two?” General Cave said. “That can’t be Theodore.”

  “No, sir,” Spaceman Owens agreed. “But whoever or whatever they are, sir, Major Looper said they’re huge.”

  39

  “Get me a visual,” General Cave said as the doors to the elevator opened, and he stepped out into the CIC.

  The settlement’s emergency command center was located at the bottom of the central hub, buried four hundred meters deep. It was a claustrophobic space, small and dark and crowded with monitors and communications equipment. Five soldiers worked in rotating shifts within it, manning the stations in case of a red alert. For years, those shifts had changed from one to another without incident or interruption. For years, the entire ready room had been ready but never utilized.

  Until today.

  “And patch me in with Major Looper on Delta while you’re at it,” he added as he took a seat behind the main control unit.

  The monitor in front of him changed, showing him the large blobs outlined by their sensors. They were massive. Easily bigger than any of the settlements, and even dwarfing Delta Station by order of magnitude.

  “General,” Major Looper said, his face appearing on the corner of the monitor.

  “Major. I’m looking at your sensor images. What can you tell me?”

  “Nothing good, sir,” Looper replied. “They’re big. Damn big. They came out of nowhere, just showed up on our sensors about ten minutes ago. And they’re coming this way.”

  “Just showed up, as in traveled in from a slipstream?”

  “We still have astronomy looking at the vector data to confirm, but my gut feeling says yes.”

  General Cave looked at the screen again. There was only one thing he knew of that was that big and could travel through slipspace. Just the thought of it sent a wave a panic rushing through him and prickling his skin.

  “Major, scramble the fighters,” he said, forcing himself to stay calm. “Prepare whatever BIS you have and get as many personnel clear of Delta Station as you can.”

  “Sir?” Major Looper said. “What is it?”

  “I hope I’m wrong about this Major; I really hope I am. I think the Dread have found us.”

  The silence at the other end was all the confirmation General Cave needed that Looper understood the gravity of the situation.

  “Looper, are you still there?”

  “Yes, sir,” the Major replied, his voice weak. “Sir, am I clear that you want me to send the starfighters to attack the Dread?”

  General Cave drew back in surprise of his own. The Major was only thirty-three years old and had never seen the Dread before. He didn’t understand what he was suggesting. “Attack them? Absolutely not. Our ships can’t do anything against those things. No. I want you to evacuate Delta Station. Get as many troops to Alpha as possible, and get them down into the shelters. Do you understand, Major?”

  “Yes, sir,” Looper replied. “Affirmative.”

  “Good. Cave, out.”

  General Cave glanced at the soldiers manning the CIC. They all looked terrified at what he had said.

  “Sound the general alarm,” he said. “Red alert, across all settlements. All civilians are to report to their designated attack shelters.”

  “Yes. Yes, sir,” the soldiers replied.

  A moment later, a red strobe light began to flash above the hatch behind him, signaling the red alert. A similar strobe would be going off everywhere around Alpha, Beta, and Gamma settlements, along with announcements directing people to the underground bombardment shelters.

  Not that it would make a difference if the Dread really had found them and were coming to finish the job they started all of those years ago. The shelters were deep underground, but they had also been bored into stone that would turn to slag under the heat of a massive plasma attack. A single crevice venting their limited atmosphere was all it would take to kill them.

  “Now what, sir?” one of the soldiers asked.

  “Now we pray,” General Cave replied. “That’s all we can do.”

  The soldier nodded, turning back to his monitors. General Cave shifted his attention to the monitors in front of his station. He switched the view, cycling through the cameras positioned around Alpha settlement, both interior and exterior. The contrast was stark and frightening. Inside, the base was a flurry of activity, as everyone within it was on the move, headed for the underground shelters. Outside there was near calm, save for a squadron of starfighters streaking away from Delta Station toward him.

  “ETA to visual?” he asked, watching the monitor for signs of the enemy ships.

  “One minute,” one of the soldiers replied.

  They were coming in so fast.

  He pulled in a deep breath, trying to steady suddenly shaking limbs. He was scared. Hell, they were all scared.

  “Major Looper,” he said, opening the comm to Delta again. “I don’t see any BIS out there.”

  “Sir,” Looper said. “We’re still loading them.”

  “Loading them with what?” he asked.

  “They were half-filled with supplies. We had to discard them to get more people on.”

  “There’s no time left, Major. Get as many people on them as you can and get them away from the station.”

  “Yes, sir.” He paused. “Sir?”

  “Yes, Major.”

  “We only have space for five hundred on the transports.”

  General Cave closed his eyes. That was one-third of the people currently on the station. How were they even deciding who stayed and who went?

  “I’m sorry, Major,” he said.

  “I should have gone with General St. Martin,” Looper replied. “When I had the chance. I should have gone with him. Oh, God. I don’t want to die.”

  “Get those transports launched Major. Don’t think about anything else.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  General Cave felt his heart thumping in his chest. Everything was happening so fast. Fifty years and it was all going to be over within minutes.

  He had been drowning in hopelessness for the last few weeks. Now that the end was near, he found he had held onto more hope than was probably reasonable. Maybe they had been down, but the scientists were working on the problem, and given a chance they might have even solved it.

  He saw the first Dread fortress appear a moment later, coming out from behind Ursa Major, a dark spot against the light of the star. The second appeared seconds after that, trailing slightly behind the first, both headed right toward them.

  A blue dot appeared on the front of the first fortress. General Cave cringed at the sight of it, knowing what it meant. Major Looper’s voice echoed in his ears, his cries of “I don’t want to die” causing him to lean forward for balance as the Dread starship unleashed the bolt from its main plasma cannon.

  The blue streak arced across the distance between the Dread fortress and Delta Station, a flash of lightning that ended with the space station being torn to pieces, dark and silent as it disintegrated beneath the onslaught, literally vanishing in front of his eyes.

  “No,” he said, slamming his fist on the monitor and cracking the screen. “Damn it. No.”

  He stopped himself, wiping at the tears that had come to his eyes as he returned his attention to the Dread ships. They were spreading apart, one of them headed toward Alpha, the other breaking for Delta. He could only hope the other settlements had gotten underground in time.

  The seconds passed like an eternity, the Dread ships slowing as they drew nearer. The tip of the second one began to glow, and General Cave closed his eyes as it unleashed its fury, sending a plasma bolt into Delta Settlement. Would the shelter protect the people there? He had no idea. He could only hope.

  “We’re going to die,” one of the soldiers said, watching the same approach on his own monitor.

  “We might,” he replied. “And if we do, let us die with courage and dignity, not filled with fear.”

  “Yes, sir,” the soldier said.

  “Sir,” one of the others said. “Sir, look.”

  “What is it, Spaceman?” General Cave said, looking at his screen. He didn’t see anything. Then again, his view was obscured by the crack he made.

  “There. Behind the Dread ships.”

  General Cave hurried to the soldier’s position, leaning down beside him to look at his monitor. He squinted his eyes to make out the shape in the distance, positioned behind the Dread fortresses.

  “It looks like-“

  “Another Dread ship,” he said, identifying it. His heart might have sunk further, had there been anywhere else for it to go. “We have no weapons; we can’t touch them, and yet they sent three ships to find and destroy us. Why?”

  40

  Theodore gritted his teeth as the Ishur tracked behind the Dread fortress while vectoring away from the slipspace exodus point. They had arrived only seconds earlier, just in time to see the the lead starship fire its plasma cannon on Delta Station and blow it into little more than debris.

  Just in time to watch their people die.

  “Mr. Mokri, divert power to the main plasma cannon,” Theodore shouted, his eyes glued to the scene ahead of them. “Gabriel, get us on target to intercept the port ship before it can fire again.”

  “Yes, sir,” Gabriel replied, manipulating the makeshift controls Reza had created to allow him to fly the fortress and turning the Ishur toward the enemy ship.

  The domo’shah had already blasted the surface once, burning into the exposed part of Gamma Settlement and leaving little more than a crater behind.

  It was possible the residents had made it into the shelters.

  It was possible the blast hadn’t dug quite deep enough to reach them.

  Then again, it was possible they were all dead.

  “Let’s show them sons of bitches what happens when they screw with the Earth Alliance,” he said, looking down at the status screen of his tablet. The button at the bottom of it turned red as the main plasma cannon finished charging. “Gabriel, give me five degrees starboard.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The ship began to adjust again, shifting slowly as it crossed the space. The Dread fortresses were slowing down, beginning to make their own turns to come about and face them. Given a choice, he would rather hit them both before they finished the maneuver.

  “Firing,” he said. He squinted as the bolt of blue energy launched from the bow ahead of them, a streak of light that crossed thousands of kilometers in seconds, heading for the exposed side of the Dread ship.

  Theodore tracked it intently, leaning forward in his seat, smiling at the very thought of the energy blast piercing the heart of the enemy. He may have promised the keepers he would try to spare the legri’shah, but he hadn’t sworn to put the lives of the creatures over the lives of their people.

  The bolt slammed into the side of the fortress, creating a flash of light as it struck. Then the light faded away, the bolt absorbed by a sudden ripple of pitch black that formed against the hull.

  “What the hell?” he heard Miranda say in front of him.

  “That looks like our shields,” Gabriel said.

  “Mr. Mokri?” Theodore said, asking for confirmation.

  Reza was looking at his tablet and shaking his head. “Confirmed, sir. It has the same modulation signature as our Darkspace Defense System.”

  “In other words, they’re using our tech against us?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What?” Colonel Choi said. “How can that be?”

  “Shielle,” Theodore replied. “It has to be. We never had time to figure out what she sent. Well, now we know, damn that woman.”

  “General, if they have our shields,” Colonel Choi said.

  “We’re on even footing offensively,” Theodore said. “But also outnumbered.”

  He watched as the first Dread ship finished reversing course, getting the bow pointed back at them. They were heading directly toward one another on a terrifying collision course.

  “Mr. Mokri, is the DDS ready for action?” Theodore said.

  “Uh. General, I’m not-“

  “That was a rhetorical, Mr. Mokri. It damn well better be, or we’re all about to die.”

  “Yes, sir,” Reza said. “But we haven’t tried this yet. I’m not sure the modulators will hold up to the stress.”

  “Nothing like beta testing on the job. Turn the damn thing on.”

  “Yes, sir. Activating the DDS.”

  Reza tapped on his control pad. There was no immediate visual or audible change in anything, and for a moment Theodore wondered if there was nothing happening down in engineering but a shower of sparks and a nice big electrical fire.

  “Forward DDS, online,” Lieutenant Bale said from her station.

  “Port side DDS, online,” Miranda said.

  “Starboard side DDS, online,” Colonel Choi said.

  “Rear DDS, online,” Sergeant Hafizi said.

  “Fantastic,” Theodore replied to the news. “I know this is new for you ladies and gents, so do your best to stay calm and focused. Prioritize the mains over the secondaries. We can’t afford to let that bad boy through.”

  “Yes, sir,” the soldiers replied.

  “Gabriel, don’t let us get caught between them,” Theodore said.

  “Yes, sir.”

  The Ishur began to rise, vectoring up and away from the oncoming Dread ships.

  “Picking up an energy spike from the starboard fortress,” Miranda said.

  “Colonel, that’s yours,” Theodore replied.

  Colonel Choi stared intently at the hologram in front of her. It was a generated depiction of the side of the Ishur, matched to a line from the side that was piercing the lower portion of the hull, along with a red dot that was placed to the left of it. She put her finger to the red dot, dragging it toward the line.

  The darkness lessened as the enemy domo’shah fired, sending a return volley back at them. It appeared as a tapering yellow line that was lining up almost perfectly with the line on Colonel Choi’s terminal, and she held her finger steady while the heaviest part of the line slammed into the dot.

  The ship vibrated softly under the impact.

  “Damage report, Sergeant?” Theodore said.

  “No damage reported,” Sergeant Abdullah replied. “It looks like the DDS is working.”

  “Sir, energy spike from the port ship,” Miranda said.

  “Got it,” Bale said, repeating the same motion as Colonel Choi.

  The plasma blast filled their viewport, crossing the chasm of space and hitting the front of the ship. Again there was a soft vibration, but no evidence of harm.

  “Hell, yes, Mr. Mokri,” Theodore said in response to the success of the system. “Let’s try part two. Gabriel, bring us in on that port side bastard. I want to broadside him and see how well they’ve integrated our technology.”

  “Yes, sir,” Gabriel replied.

  The Ishur began to shift and accelerate, heading toward the fortress while the other released another plasma blast. Colonel Choi shifted her hand, moving the dot to the impact point. The ship shook a little more violently this time but came out of it unscathed.

  Theodore flicked the screen on the tablet, changing from the main plasma cannon to the freshly networked secondary batteries. With the push of a button the batteries opened up on the port side, over one hundred lighter plasma cannons creating a ripple of energy along the Ishur. The enemy ship followed suit, giving them the first true test of their makeshift system.