The Last Stand Read online

“Aye, ma’am. Contact established... message sent.”

  Wheeler waited, hoping that this time they’d receive a reply. Her gaze fell to the battle grid and she tracked the enemy fighters and capital ships still streaming from the wormhole.

  As the minutes passed, the Faros lead ships fanned out to three abreast, all of them firing at once on another destroyer, the Stalwart. It’s shields flickered, then failed, and fiery jets of atmosphere burst from its hull in a dozen different places. Crimson lasers continued to lash the ship even after its engines went dark. Then the destroyer’s weapons stopped firing and the light went out of its viewports.

  Wheeler’s gaze slid to the battle report on one of her auxiliary displays. Stalwart (Derelict) appeared at the top of the list of friendly casualties, followed by Allegiance (Destroyed), and then the names of a hundred more ships, each of them also either derelict or destroyed.

  “Comms, any reply yet?” Wheeler prompted.

  “Not a peep from either The Holy City or Etheria, ma’am, but I am getting scattered reports from our ships’ captains of riots breaking out aboard their ships. The refugees are demanding that we surrender.”

  “How do they even know that we’re under attack?” Wheeler demanded. Without simulated visuals it would be impossible to directly observe the battle going on around them. Lasers were invisible in space, and even a kilometer-long battleship exploding would be hard to spot at the ranges from which this battle was being fought.

  “Someone must have leaked the info,” the comms officer suggested.

  “Again,” Wheeler replied, scowling.

  “We need to find out who’s leaking information to the refugees,” Colonel Drask said from the gunnery station.

  Wheeler nodded slowly. Even if the refugees aboard one ship found out about the battle, the news shouldn’t have been able to spread from ship to ship and cause riots throughout the fleet. How do they even know that surrender is an option?

  Someone had to have told them about the negotiations with the Faros, but those negotiations had been handled aboard her ship, the Gideon. Wheeler’s eyes darted around the bridge, landing on each of her officers in turn. These were the only people who could possibly have leaked all of that information.

  A deafening boom shook the bridge and smoke gushed from the recessed stairway leading down to the bridge doors.

  Six Marine sergeants came clomping up the stairwell, fully armored, their pulse rifles up and tracking. Colonel Drask shot to his feet, his sidearm in hand before anyone else could react.

  “Drop the weapon, sir!” one of the Marines ordered. “Nobody move!” another said.

  Drask flashed a scowl and reluctantly dropped his weapon. “You’ll all be executed for this,” he gritted out.

  Five of the six Marines stood off at a distance, their rifles trained on the other members of the crew, while the sixth went to retrieve Drask’s weapon. He removed the weapon’s power pack and slotted it into his belt; then nodded to the colonel and said, “Better that than that we all die at the hands of the Faros.”

  Drask gave no reply, and the sergeant moved on to remove the power packs from everyone else’s sidearms.

  “Who’s your leader?” Wheeler demanded, her eyes still skipping around the bridge, landing on each of her officers in turn. These Marines had to be working with one of them.

  The Marine sergeant disarming her crew gave no reply, but as soon as he removed the power pack from the last sidearm, he walked back over to Colonel Drask, and saluted smartly. “The bridge is secure, sir.”

  “At ease, Sergeant,” Drask replied.

  Wheeler watched the sergeant hand him one of the power packs, and Drask bent down to retrieve his weapon. He promptly re-loaded it and turned it on her.

  “You!” she said. “You were the leak. You’re behind all of the riots!”

  Drask frowned. “I’m sorry it had to come to this. I hoped you would see reason on your own, but we’re losing ships too quickly now. I can’t allow you to sacrifice any more of our people in this last stand of yours. We’re going to surrender to the Faros before anyone else has to die.”

  Wheeler sneered at her former first officer. “You don’t have any authority to negotiate on our behalf, and the captains of the fleet will want to hear their orders from me. What are you going to tell them to make them stand down?”

  “I don’t have to tell them anything,” Drask replied. “Surely you recall that the entire Etherian Fleet is slaved to the Gideon. We don’t need the other captains to be complicit in this surrender for us to power down their weapons and shields. We can lock them out of their control stations from here, and by the time they find out how to bypass those protocols, the Faros will have enough ships through the wormhole that no one will even consider fighting back.” Drask gave her a grim frown. “Now, please step away from your station, Admiral.”

  Wheeler’s mind raced for a way to thwart this plot. If she triggered the Gideon’s self-destruct and destroyed the ship, they’d have no way to control the rest of the fleet....

  She turned to her station and hurriedly summoned the engineering panel. Her finger grazed the self-destruct button just as Drask physically hauled her out of her chair. A dialog popped up, asking for a confirmation code that she didn’t have, anyway, and then Colonel Drask jabbed his sidearm into her ribs, and she winced.

  “Nice try,” he said.

  He pulled the trigger, and a searing wave of pain shivered through Wheeler’s body, causing her to lose all control of her muscles. She collapsed to the deck with her back arching painfully, all of the muscles spasming at once. A spreading wave of numbness came, and she watched with heavy eyelids and rapidly dimming eyes as Drask sat down at the command control station to accomplish his treachery.

  Darkness swirled. Wheeler railed against it, trying desperately not to blink, but her eyelids sank shut of their own accord and stuck to each other like glue, trapping her in the infinite expanse of her own mind.

  Chapter 23

  Aboard the Etherian Ship, Veritus

  “This is it!” Tyra said. “Gunnery?”

  “Standing by, Captain.”

  “Engineering?”

  “All systems green. Shields up and charged at one hundred percent.”

  “Good. Helm, execute jump.”

  “Aye, jump executing...”

  The holo dome over the bridge flashed white, washing out the stars. Then the stars were back, along with something else—dead ahead was a glowing, translucent golden cube. A floating label above it identified it as The Holy City. Thin red lasers periodically leapt out around it, impacting on the translucent golden walls of the cube, causing them to ripple like water.

  “Sensors, report!” Tyra said.

  “Five vessels dead ahead. They’re firing on the city.”

  “Helm, all ahead full!”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  “Gunnery, open fire as soon as we’re in range.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Sensors, can you get any readings from the city? How are their shields holding up?”

  “Their shields at one hundred percent and holding steady, ma’am.”

  Tyra breathed out a sigh and nodded. “Good. This might turn out to be a fair fight, after all.” They’d lost the last battle because the Faros had loaded their ships with fighters and missiles, and Tyra’s ships had neither. But now with the Faros’ fire focused on The Holy City, they’d have to choose between dropping its shields so they could get inside, or fighting back against Tyra’s ships.

  “We’re in range! Weapons firing,” the gunnery officer announced.

  Tyra watched green lasers snap out from her ships and converge on the nearest Faro vessel. Its shields dropped steadily, but after just a few seconds, the Faros stopped firing on the city and came about to return fire. Their fighters banked away from the city forming in waves and flooding out to greet Tyra’s ships.

  “Helm, maintain our current acceleration. Fly us straight through the ene
my formation and then circle back around the city for another pass.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  “We’re being hailed by the Concordance,” the comms officer announced.

  Tyra nodded. “Patch them through to the holo dome.” She wanted the whole crew listening this time.

  Abaddon’s head and shoulders appeared dead ahead, seeming to float among the stars. “You obviously didn’t get the memo,” he said. “Your fleet surrendered. Why are you still attacking us?”

  Tyra snorted and shook her head, smiling at the obvious lie. “Admiral Wheeler would never surrender to you.”

  “Perhaps not, but she’s not in command anymore. Colonel Drask is, and he’s a far more... enlightened commander.”

  Tyra’s smile faded and her gaze snapped to the comms station. “Contact the Gideon and ask for a tactical update.”

  “Aye, ma’am.”

  Abaddon smiled smugly. “I’ll wait.”

  “If you’re stalling...”

  “I’m not.”

  “We’ll see,” Tyra said and then shut down the connection from her station.

  A moment later, the comms officer replied: “It’s true, ma’am. Admiral Wheeler has been forcibly removed from the bridge, and Colonel Drask is now in command. He has formally surrendered. The battle is over.”

  Tyra slumped in her chair, unable to believe it. There’d obviously been some kind of mutiny, but it was hard to believe that all of the captains would go along with it. Regardless, she was out of options. She couldn’t fight a war on her own with just five ships.

  “Weapons hold!” she said.

  “Aye, weapons hold,” the gunnery officer replied.

  “Comms, hail the Concordance and put them back on the holo dome.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  Abaddon’s smiling face appeared once more. “I see you’ve come to your senses.”

  “Colonel Drask didn’t leave me much of a choice. Let me guess, he’s one of your agents?”

  Abaddon’s eyebrows floated up, and he shook his head. “No, but he should be. Perhaps I’ll recruit him and start a human branch in my fleet. Would you like to join it? We could use your help dropping the city’s shields.”

  “Frek you.”

  “Aren’t you curious what you’ll find there? Don’t you want to know what Etherus is?”

  “I’m sure you’ll be happy to tell us once you find out.”

  “I already know, but you’re right, once I’m in control of the city I will open its gates so that everyone can come and see the truth for themselves.”

  “Good for you,” Tyra replied. “And good luck with those shields.” She glanced down at the battle grid and saw that The Holy City’s shields were still registering at a hundred percent. “It looks like you won’t be getting in anytime soon.”

  Abaddon waved a dismissive hand. “I only have five ships. When there’s a trillion more here, those shields will fall in the blink of an eye.”

  Tyra smiled tightly. “I guess you’ll just have to wait until then. Aren’t Faro ships slower than Etherian vessels? It took us half a day to get here. Your fleet will take... what, three to five days to get here? Pity. The suspense must be killing you.”

  “On the contrary, I’ve waited billions of years for this. I can wait a few more days. Do let me know if you reconsider my offer.”

  With that, Abaddon vanished from the holo dome, leaving Tyra scowling into empty space.

  “What are your orders, Captain?” Lieutenant Argos asked from the helm.

  “Hold steady just outside of weapons and jamming range, and calculate a jump to a nearby system, but don’t execute it yet. We’re going to wait here for now.”

  “Wait for what, ma’am?”

  For a miracle, she thought, but didn’t say. Instead, she said, “You have your orders, Lieutenant.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  “Comms, get my children back here. We’re not at war anymore, so there’s no danger to them.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  * * *

  Meson One

  “If you know we’re not Faros, why didn’t you expose us in front of Korvas?” Lucien asked.

  Abaddon’s gaze flicked to Lucien briefly before nodding to Addy. “Because Lord Korvas will be forced to abide by your decisions here until he realizes that you’re not the negotiator he was waiting for, and by then it will be too late to stop us from getting what we want.”

  “And what do you want, exactly?” Lucien asked.

  Abaddon tapped his chin, seeming to consider the question. “What do I want?” he asked, as if he were only thinking about it now for the first time. “It’s hard to say. I want so many things... revenge would be nice, but unfortunately you can’t help me with that.”

  “Revenge against Etherus?” Addy asked.

  Abaddon’s blue eyes glittered. “Perhaps.”

  “Korvas mentioned your demands. He said you want them to pay for the water they’ve taken and to return Meson One to its original orbit.”

  “Yes,” Abaddon replied, nodding. “I’ll take payment in the form of supplies for my fleet. Food, weapons—whatever they have aboard the Nexus.”

  “That’s what this is about?” Addy asked. “Food?”

  “An army marches on its stomach, as they say,” Abaddon replied.

  “Let’s say we can convince Korvas to give you whatever supplies he has,” Addy said. “But the Nexus and Meson One remain where they are, and the water keeps flowing. Does that sound like a reasonable compromise to you?”

  “No,” Abaddon replied. “I could take the supplies from the Nexus myself, and then return Meson One to its orbit and destroy the Nexus for good measure.”

  “So why haven’t you?” Addy asked.

  “I have my reasons.”

  “Then accept the compromise,” Addy replied.

  “Assuming you can get Korvas to agree...”

  “We’ll emphasize your point about simply taking the supplies and whatever else you want by force,” Addy said. “I’m sure Korvas won’t want to risk that.”

  “No, he won’t,” Abaddon agreed. “Let’s say I agree. What do you get out of it? What are you all doing posing as Faros?”

  “Well, in exchange for our help with these negotiations, we do want something for ourselves,” Addy said.

  Abaddon snorted and flashed a sly smile. “Negotiators negotiating on the side. How very Faro of you. Well, what is it that you want?” Abaddon asked.

  “We need to know the location of the Forge,” Lucien said.

  Abaddon’s smile faded to a bemused frown. “That is common knowledge.”

  “It is?” Addy asked.

  “Of course,” Abaddon replied. “Every Faro knows where the Forge is. How else would they make the pilgrimage?”

  “The pilgrimage?” Garek echoed, joining the conversation. “What’s that?”

  “When Faros come of age, they are required to visit the Forge, to study its secrets and learn the truth behind our exile.”

  “Well, if its location is not a secret, then you shouldn’t mind revealing it,” Addy said.

  “I don’t, but I am curious: what do you want with the Forge?”

  “We want to destroy it,” Lucien said. Addy shot him a sharp look, but he ignored it. “Can you help us?”

  Abaddon barked a laugh. “I could, but why would I want to? If I destroy the Forge, then I’ll die!”

  Lucien nodded. “Etherus mentioned that, but you must have found a way to break free of the Forge, or else the original Abaddon would have used it to eliminate you already.”

  This Abaddon shook his head. “I’ve managed to insulate myself from an active purge, but my mind and body are still tied to the Forge. You can think of me like a computer virus that can’t be deleted by ordinary means, but if the computer carrying it is destroyed... no more virus.”

  Addy frowned. “Then you won’t help us?”

  Abaddon shook his head. “No.”

  Garek st
ood up from the table. “If the location is common knowledge, we can just go ask someone else.”

  “Of course. Finding the Forge is easy, but good luck getting past its defenses. You’ll need a fleet to do that.”

  “We have plenty of fleets, thanks,” Garek replied.

  “Ones that aren’t already engaged with ours?” Abaddon asked.

  Addy blew out a breath and planted her palms on the table. “Either you just like to gloat, or you’re considering helping us. So which is it?”

  Abaddon’s gaze slid out from under hers and found Lucien once more. “There is one way that I’ll agree to help.”

  “And that is?” Addy pressed.

  “Allow me to transfer my mind to him,” Abaddon replied. “If I’m allowed to do that before the Forge is destroyed, then I’ll be safe.”

  Lucien felt the blood drain from his face. “And what happens to me?”

  Addy placed a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll make a copy of your mind.” To Abaddon she said, “You have the means to do that?”

  “No. All of our resurrections are conducted through the Forge, and there’s a long waiting list. That’s just another way that Abaddon maintains control over his people.”

  “You’re a leader of a dissident group,” Addy replied. “You’re telling me you found a way to prevent Abaddon from actively killing you with the Forge, but not a way to copy your mind to a new body?”

  “There are kill switches to prevent unscheduled transfers. They prevent us from moving the data in our minds from one body to another, but they don’t stop us from copying the data to create a new simultaneous copy. The copies aren’t tracked or tied to the Forge because they aren’t dangerous; they have no authority in the Empire, and no rights. I’m afraid there’s no way to save us both—unless you brought some kind of resurrection device with you?”

  Lucien looked to Addy, but she shook her head.

  “We weren’t allowed to bring any human technology that might expose us,” she explained.

  “Can someone else stand-in for Lucien?” Garek asked.

  “No. Etherus deliberately engineered Lucien’s brain structure to make it identical to my own. Transferring my mind to anyone else would be like becoming a slightly different person, and I like myself just the way I am.”