Miranda needed both hands to try to deflect the attack, raising them and placing them on the threat display, dragging the red dot across the visual and through a series of white lines. She kept the shield modulation on the move, sweeping it from the closest attack and across, catching a series of bolts with the DDS.

  Meanwhile, the Ishur’s guns pounded the side of the enemy fortress. Not only did the Dread’s modulated darkspace shields hold up to the attack, but they didn’t seem to have the same coverage limitations as the Ishur did.

  “Damn it,” Theodore said. “Mr. Mokri, how is your work on the weapons modifications coming along?”

  “It isn’t, General,” Reza said. “I’ve hit nothing but dead ends so far.”

  “We need to think of something, son,” Theodore said. “Gabriel, watch your starboard side. Duck and cover.”

  The Ishur shuddered as Gabriel manipulated the thrusters, bringing them downward in a sharp maneuver that wasn’t quite exact. The second Dread starship opened fire on them again, the heavy plasma crossing the decreasing distance in a matter of seconds.

  It didn’t leave Colonel Choi much time to react, and she was a split-second late in dragging the red dot to the line on her display. The Ishur rocked more violently, taking a measure of damage from the plasma before recovering.

  “Hull breaches on Decks thirty-four to forty,” Abdullah said.

  “Casualties?”

  “No, sir. The decks are isolated. Emergency bulkheads are sealing.”

  “Sorry, General,” Choi said.

  “We’re still alive,” Theodore replied.

  He eyed the two Dread fortresses. They were trying to maneuver around the front corners of the Ishur and get their main cannons in line. In fact, as Theodore watched them turn, it appeared to him that they were trying to target the same area of the ship, perhaps in the hope that a combined blast would penetrate their defenses.

  If that was true, it was something they could use.

  “Mr. Mokri, how much more power can we send to the plasma cannon?”

  “I’m not sure, sir. Why?”

  “I want to concentrate a steady stream on a single point. Can we do that?”

  “Uh. I’m not sure, sir.”

  “That isn’t a no. What do we have to do?”

  “I’ll need to make some adjustments to the parameters.”

  Theodore looked at the two Dread ships outside the viewport. They were getting dangerously close.

  “You’d better do it fast, then, Mr. Mokri.”

  “Already on it,” Reza replied, his fingers a blur on his tablet. “Sir,” he added a moment later.

  “Gabriel, head right for the port side ship. Full thrust. At five hundred klicks, bounce up and rotate the ass end to get us pointed down towards that couillon. Got it?”

  “Yes, sir,” Gabriel replied.

  “Starboard ship is firing again, sir,” Miranda said.

  Theodore felt the soft shudder that signaled the attack had been deflected.

  “I think I have it, sir,” Reza said. “Hold down the trigger to keep firing a steady stream. You should know, it might fry the systems and leave us without the main cannon.”

  “A risk we have to take, I think,” Theodore replied. “Gabriel, a little more rotation on the bow.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The Ishur spun and rolled in space in a breaching maneuver that left them tilted over the top side of one of the Dread ships. “Keep us over it,” he said. “Help me steady the shot.”

  “Yes, sir,” Gabriel replied, working his own translated controls. The Ishur responded to them, the bow shifting in sync with the Dread ship’s forward momentum.

  Theodore pressed down on the firing button.

  The blue bolt of plasma burst from the main cannon, hitting the Dread ship almost immediately. The darkspace flared beneath the attack, absorbing the energy. Theodore held the attack, and the flow of plasma continued, forming a near stream that bombarded the enemy ship.

  One second passed. Two. Five. The beam remained solid, digging into the spot on the Dread fortress. The starboard ship fired again, its blow deflected by Colonel Choi.

  “Come on, you bastard,” Theodore said, watching the darkspace continue to absorb the attack. “I know you want to fail. Come on, damn you.”

  Seven seconds. Eight seconds. Nine seconds. Theodore could barely believe the cannon was still functional after all that time.

  “Sir, DDS is offline,” Lieutenant Bale said.

  “We don’t have the power,” Reza replied. “General, half the ship is shutting down.”

  “We’re already committed, son. We may not get another chance.”

  He kept his finger on the trigger.

  Twelve seconds. Thirteen seconds.

  He was about to give up, to try to think of something else, when the miracle he was waiting for finally happened, and in a way that was more fantastic than he could have ever expected.

  One second, the darkspace shield was absorbing the energy of the plasma cannon. The next, it was collapsing inward, the pitch of the alternate continuum appearing to flip and fold backward and into the Dread fortress’ hull, sinking through the lek’shah and eating away at the structure like a plague.

  Theodore lifted his finger, the main cannon disengaging. The ship rocked from solid strikes by the second Dread starship’s secondary batteries. A moment later, the DDS came back online, and his defense crew returned to work blocking the attack.

  Small gouts of flame vented from the growing disintegration within the first vessel, the darkspace modulation almost seeming to implode and destroying everything in its path through the ship. It started to tilt a few seconds after that, and by the time the Ishur had swept past the side of the Dread starship it had fallen dead, drifting away from the human settlements.

  “That’s one,” Theodore said, more than satisfied with the outcome. “Even if I don’t know exactly what all just happened.”

  He refocused his attention on the other Dread ship. It had used their time in a relatively static position to improve its attack vector, sneaking in toward the rear of the Ishur and peppering it with secondary batteries. Both Colonel Choi and Sergeant Hafizi were working feverishly to keep their DDS points centered on the brunt of the force, absorbing the incoming attacks before they could burn into the lek’shah hide of the ship.

  “Come about, Gabriel,” Theodore said. “As hard and fast as you can.”

  “Yes, sir,” Gabriel replied. “Coming about.”

  The Ishur was silent, the power to the thrusters cut. They floated freely for a few seconds, gaining proximity to the Settlements while Gabriel adjusted their vectors. The domo’shah behind them fired its main plasma cannon again, but this time Gabriel managed to steer them out of its path.

  Theodore watched his son work with a measure of pride. Gabriel had blamed himself for the damage the Magellan had taken, but it seemed to him that the boy had used the situation to learn and improve. He was flying the huge fortress almost as well as Tea’va had done it and with much less experience, pushing it to extremes and getting the results.

  The Ishur’s bow swung forward, coming to rest in a nearly direct line with the enemy fortress.

  Theodore pressed down on the trigger again.

  He held it once more, counting the seconds as the beam tore into the leading edge of the opposing ship, somewhere within a few hundred meters of the bridge. He wondered what the pur’dahm in charge of the ship might be thinking after he had just watched his partner succumb to the same attack.

  He found out a moment later. The second domo’shah accelerated toward them before altering course and ducking below, vectoring around in an effort to run.

  “Oh no you don’t,” Theodore said, “Not after what you did to Delta. Stay on that bastard. We aren’t letting this one run away.”

  “Yes, sir,” Gabriel said, aligning the Ishur to give chase.

  “She’s heading for a slipstream,” Reza reported.

  “We’re at max thrust, sir,” Gabriel said. “We can’t catch up to them.”

  “Damn it,” Theodore cursed.

  His finger hovered over the fire button while he considered whether or not to take the shot. It would be more for show than anything. The fortress was gaining range too fast for the weapon to be effective.

  He hesitated for another second before pulling his hand away. “Pack it in, Gabriel,” he said. “There’s no point in risking the cannon, and we’ll get another crack at him when we get to Earth.”

  Theodore could tell Gabriel didn’t want to give up the chase, but he followed the order without hesitation, using the tablet to slow the Ishur once more.

  “Lieutenant Bale, take over for the Major and bring us back toward the Settlements. Gabriel, Mr. Mokri, you’re with me. Colonel Choi, you have the bridge.”

  “Where are we going, sir?” Reza asked.

  Theodore lifted himself on his arms and shifted himself over, coming down in his chair. He began rolling toward the exit.

  “To the hangar,” he replied. “We aren’t about to land this thing down there.”

  “What about General Cave?” Gabriel asked.

  “Alan? What about him?”

  “He’s going to blame us for leading the Dread here.”

  “We’ve got a war to win, son. He can either get on board, or he can get the hell out of the way.”

  41

  Gabriel eased the BIS away from its position on the floor of the Ishur’s hangar. The Magellan loomed beside him, a definitive work in progress as it underwent the transformation from starship to dropship.

  The remaining nacelle had been removed, the damaged side also picked apart and reduced to a stub. The plasma damage along the hull was in the process of being repaired, with random bits of lek’shah affixed over the original armor where the cuts were too deep to heal.

  Also new to the ship were a handful of ion cannons. They were smaller than even the smallest of the secondary batteries on the Ishur, rebuilt from as much human material as they had been able to salvage. They wouldn’t do much against a domo’shah or even the smaller ek’shah, but they would be effective against Dread starfighters and ground based weapons.

  “Guy is installing the Dread zero-point reactors today,” Reza said, a hint of pride in his voice. The two men had become unexpected friends after the whole ordeal with Guy’s wife, Sarah, bonding over their shared desire to figure out and control the enemy tech.

  “That means she’ll be ready to fly soon,” Theodore said.

  “Yes, sir,” Reza replied.

  “The work your people have done is impressive, Dahm St. Martin,” It’kek said from behind Gabriel.

  “We couldn’t have done it without you, Mr. It’kek,” Theodore said.

  Gabriel glanced back at the keeper. He had been hesitant to bring the reptilian bek’hai with them, but Theodore was insistent. According to him, it was important that the rest of the colonists understood what he had come to understand over the last few days.

  That the bek’hai, the real bek’hai, weren’t their enemies.

  Instead, their enemy was the remnant of a once proud race, a descendent that had come about almost by accident, and who had been hugely responsible for destroying their world. It had started with the Hunters, who had learned to kill the legri’shah with abandon for the value of their scales, their muscles, and their meat. It had ended with the loss of genetic diversity and the need to turn to the same creatures to save them. Millions of the animals had died in the civil conflict that had engulfed the bek’hai and transformed them into a more violent race. Hundreds more were still being slaughtered every cycle in order to provide resources to build more war machines, to repair the domo’shah, and to satiate the Hunters desire to prove themselves against the creatures.

  It’kek had told Gabriel about the competitions. The Circle of Honor was one thing. The legri’shah ring was another.

  “This is Major Gabriel St. Martin,” Gabriel said, opening a channel to Alpha Control. “Requesting permission to land.”

  There was a pause on the other side of the link. A woman replied a moment later.

  “Roger, Major St. Martin. You have clearance for Bay C. General Cave has requested that you remain on board until he has arrived with a security detail.”

  “Ha,” Theodore said. “Security detail? Who the hell does he think we are?”

  “Traitors?” Reza said. “Deserters?”

  “Bullshit. We didn’t desert them. We’re saving them.”

  “Affirmative Control,” Gabriel said. “Entering approach to Bay C.”

  He guided the BIS deftly toward the small opening in the structure outside of the central hub, noting how much easier and more responsive the box in space was compared to the Ishur. While Reza had done a fantastic job getting it to interface with a human control system at all, the delays involved in the translation were still less than ideal.

  “How does it feel to be home, son?” Theodore asked.

  “Not like home,” Gabriel replied. “I’ve seen Earth up close, remember?”

  “We all have,” Theodore said. “A little too up close.”

  He was referring to almost crashing the Magellan into the Pacific Ocean. At least they could laugh about it now.

  “By the by, Mr. Mokri,” Theodore said. “Any idea what happened with that Dread fortress up there?”

  He pointed back into the deep black, where the dead domo’shah was still floating. They had already discussed sending a team to search it and look for salvage and survivors, especially among the keepers and legri’shah, but it was a secondary concern to getting the ball rolling with their own people.

  “Not really,” Reza replied. “Sir.”

  “Take a wild guess.”

  “Hmm. If I had to guess? I would say the energy in the plasma cannon destabilized the phase modulation enough that we created a wormhole of sorts, which wound up spinning out of control and through the enemy ship.”

  “A wormhole spinning out of control?” Gabriel said. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “It isn’t if you happen to be in its path,” Reza said. “Fortunately, space is a big place, and it isn’t going in Earth’s direction.”

  Gabriel tried to wrap his mind around the idea of a rogue piece of matter crushing darkspace as he steered the BIS into Alpha Settlement’s main landing bay. He guided the ship to Bay C and brought it down.

  “I have to admit, General,” Reza said. “I’d rather not have to do that again. The plasma cannon was at critical heat levels, and an overload would have had a high likelihood of cooking everyone inside the Ishur .”

  “Duly noted,” Theodore replied. “Figure out the modulator for the plasma, and we won’t have to do that again.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Your architecture is very interesting, Dahm St. Martin,” It’kek said. His head had been turning back and forth during the entire trip, taking in the sights of the human base. “Very simplistic, yet functional.”

  “Well, thank you, I guess,” Theodore replied. “It isn’t much, but it does the job.”

  “Or did,” Gabriel said. “Delta Station was destroyed. How many people do you think were on it?”

  “Judging by the number of ships in here, hopefully not to many,” Theodore said.

  Gabriel nodded. Bay C was one of the only landing bays available, the rest filled with starfighters and BIS that he knew were usually assigned to the station.

  “That’s our cue,” Theodore said, as soon as the light in the cockpit turned green, indicating the bay was pressurized.

  “General Cave ordered us to wait,” Reza replied.

  “Mr. Mokri, do you work for him or for me?”

  “For you, sir.”

  “Then I repeat. That’s our queue.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  They moved to the rear of the BIS and down the opening rear doors to the floor of the hangar. It felt weird to Gabriel to be back where he had started, back to the confines of the place he had once called home. After spending the last two weeks on the Ishur, it felt small and primitive and dirty. After having landed on Earth, it felt downright unacceptable.

  They reached the bay door. Theodore tapped the control to open it.

  General Cave was standing in front of it, flanked by four armed guards. Councilwoman Rouse was waiting a few meters away, her hands folded against her chest.

  “Ah, Alan,” Theodore said. “I guess you knew I wasn’t going to listen to anything you said.”

  General Cave stared at Theodore for a moment, his expression grim. Then he glanced over at Gabriel, and then at Reza, and finally at It’kek. He couldn’t hold back his surprise at the sight of the bek’hai.

  “Ha. That one caught you off-guard, didn’t it?” Theodore said in response.

  General Cave returned his attention to Theodore, who raised his hand.

  “Hold up, Alan. Before you say anything, I think you should know; we’re winning this here war.”

  It was General Cave’s turn to surprise them. His stern expression melted away, and he started to laugh.

  “The Old Gator,” he said through his smile. “You’ve always had a flair for the dramatic, haven’t you?” He stepped forward, leaning down to put his arms around Theodore. “I thought it was over for us.”

  “General Cave,” Rouse said, sounding unhappy with his reaction. “Excuse me, General.”

  Cave ignored her, releasing Theodore and approaching Gabriel. “Gabe. I’m sorry for doubting you. I’m sorry for doubting any of you.”

  “General Cave,” Rouse repeated, joining them. “These people are traitors.”

  Cave ignored her again. “They hit Delta Station, Teddy. They killed eight hundred of our people.”

  “We’ll avenge them,” Theodore replied. “That’s why we came back. To gather the troops and take them home.”

  “You aren’t taking anyone, anywhere,” Rouse said. “General, I thought we came to meet them to arrest them?”