Chapter 8

MARK

It had been less than an hour since they left for Kharak. When returning to the floor’s lounge, his friends were talking among themselves. But before he could join the conversation, Mothership dropped from hyperspace. He approached the window looking at a sight none of them could believe or understand. Immobile in a stunned quiet, unable to make sense of the scene before them. It was Karan who broke the silence surely spread throughout the ship for those who could see.

“No one’s left. Everything’s gone! Kharak is burning.” The last three words confirmed what none of them wanted to believe. Mark’s knees went weak; he fell to the floor.

The screen flashed on to update the fleet. “Kharak is being consumed by a firestorm. Scaffold station has been destroyed. All orbital facilities destroyed. There’s a significant debris ring in low Kharak orbit.” The reporter had to pause and wipe her eyes. She continued, but her voice wavered. “We are receiving no communications from anywhere in the system. Not even beacons. All crew members are to report to action stations.” Before the screen went black, she began to cry.

As did Mark. Tears welled up in his eyes as he watched the horror. The other three ran for the elevators. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t even blink.

“Mark, let’s go!” he heard Isabella shout. The others went ahead as she ran back. He didn’t register her shaking him. His thoughts jumped from person to person, all the ones he knew and loved, dead. His father, Valerie, his fellow pilots, the friends he had in Tiir. All gone. All dead. “Mark!” She smacked his back hard. He looked at her but couldn’t focus past the tears. He opened his mouth to speak but couldn’t think of a thing to say. “Hey, we’ll have time to feel later. We have a job to do.”

“As a Soban, I am obligated to say my job ended the moment we dropped from hyperspace. We fight until our contract has ended, then we go home. I… I have no home to go back to.” Nausea came over him speaking those words.

“Sobani stubbornness, I know of it. Pilot! New orders. Defend the Mothership.” She held out her hand to help him up. There was no other option. His father would be ashamed of him if he crawled over to a dark corner alone as he wanted to do so badly just then. “We all had families down there. I know you’re feeling this a bit more than most of us, but we have to fight. We’re all that’s left.” He knew she was right. He was numb through his whole body, but he took her hand.

On the elevator ride up, he tried to calm himself. He needed to focus.

Command spoke again. “Wait, on the maintenance frequency. I’m getting a signal from the Cryo Trays in orbit. One of them is suffering a major malfunction. The Trays are under attack.”

The elevator stopped and they ran out the doors to their ships. Less than a minute passed and they launched to join the others. The targets were larger craft with heavier weapons. Frigate-class. “This is Mark Soban reporting in. All fighters set to evasive tactics and swarm the enemy. Draw as much fire from the trays as possible.” Each tray was important, housing a hundred thousand people in stasis—now the last of their race. They passed a group of salvagers. He knew Jay would be piloting one, but had no way of knowing which. The other pilots were following his orders, and it was working. Only the one ship continued to fire on the Tray, the rest tried to defend themselves.

Two Porters moved in for their approach on the first frigate guarded by repair corvettes. The enemy ships turned to fire on them, but the swarm blocked most of the shots. They were too slow to lock on and were firing aimlessly into the storm.

“Ship disabled, bringing it in.” But it was too late. The Tray exploded, having succumbed to the damage. The other salvage corvettes moved in to collect the remaining Trays.

“Requesting salvage teams collect the enemy ships before the intact trays. We’ll be low on fuel if we have to keep this up, and our weapons sure as hell aren’t strong enough to take them out,” he said.

“Sounds like a plan, Mark.” He changed the name of Jasiid’s corvette and watched as it made an approach with another on one of the enemy ships. They took hits, but the Mercy-class repair ships countered what damage the enemy’s cannons could make.

Another shot fired. A repair corvette exploded, taking out an interceptor with it and damaging a few more. He had an idea. He broke formation and fired on a front cannon repeatedly, warping the barrel’s shape.

“Mark, get back in formation!” he heard Isabella yell. The frigate fired, taking out its own weapon. “On second thought, do what he just did.” A few fighters did the same and it gave similar results. The ships were defenceless by the time the last salvager latched on. The fighters could regroup without worrying about enemies damaging the Trays. They had won, and he kept his focus when only minutes before he thought there was no saving his mind from the devastating shock.

“We’re done here. Head on home and let the ‘vettes clean up, strike teams,” Leonard said. He saw one of the enemy ships in the hangar and another moving in to dock. The frigates were guided to the platform bridging the main hangar with the large capital bay on the other side, out of the way from fighter docking pads. Upon his docking approach, he could see a Tray being loaded on the other side into the capital hangar. He also saw the security force moving people off the enemy craft at gunpoint.

He met up with Isabella when landed. “How’re you holding up?” she asked.

He took a moment to think about an answer. “I’ll survive.”

A screen on the hangar wall lit up. The same reporter was back. “All hostile vessels captured successfully. Interrogations are underway this very moment. They appear identical to us physiologically. We are unsure as to the significance of this. We have also saved three stranded pilots in low-orbit, none of which, however, are our hero Markus Soban. They reported him to have been leading the assault, but are not ready emotionally to recount the details of the event at this time.” Mark had to sit down. She joined him. “Intelligence has also released footage of the flight recordings to us. Be advised, the contents are graphic and involve the destruction of Kharak. Standby for playback.”

A small probe craft approached Scaffold station. Two salvagers launched, but were destroyed. A group of nine yellow and red striped fighters flew by. A large carrier ship similar in size to the Turanic one encountered earlier was launching more. It was an entire fleet. The carrier was surrounded by other ships varying in size, some corvettes others larger than frigates. Missiles from the planet destroyed some frigates but left the larger ones only damaged. “Prepare for immediate surface bombardment.” He was unable to turn away. A squad of fighters then launched from Scaffold.

“Markus, watch out! Yeah, got ‘em.” The enemy must have tapped into their communications. A group of enemy fighters flew up the station’s interior firing on the fuel tanks. Scaffold then erupted into a flaming wreckage. An explosion blinded the camera and all that was left was charred debris. The video ended shortly after bombs hit the planet’s surface, causing widespread destruction and igniting the atmosphere.

“Analysis of the flight recordings show that the Kharak missile defence systems heavily damaged the attacking fleet. However, we have concluded that at present, they can still easily defeat us. We have therefore plotted a course to a deep space asteroid belt. There we can hide and prepare our fleet for an assault. Our research division has finished analyzing the captured frigates. We have reverse engineered the drive technology and developed two new ships. Plans for a third are underway, but will require further research. All Cryogenic Trays have been loaded and the jump will begin shortly.” The screen turned off.

He got up and walked to the elevators. Isabella went after him. “He died defending his entire world.” She was talking about his father, of course, trying to console him.

“I know, It’s just… You saw that firepower. Our world’s best couldn’t beat them. We’re outmatched.” Their technology. It’s so…”

“This ship, it and it’s crew are the best our world had. Now we’re all there is, and we’ll have to make due.”

“I’m not confident we can defeat them.”

“Neither am I, but there’s no other option. We beat them or we go extinct.” He couldn’t argue that.

The elevator ride was quiet. “You know, we’ve skipped out on debriefing twice now,” she noted.

“I don’t like it. You don’t need to avoid it with me if you don’t want.”

“I don’t like it either.” The elevator stopped at their floor’s lobby.

“Hyperspace module charged. There’s nothing left for us here. Let’s go.” The voice on the loudspeaker had the same emotion they were all feeling. One of sorrow and defeat, of numbing sadness and disbelief.

He looked out the window one last time. “All of us stardust,” he said.

“Burned into existence anew,” she finished. An old scripture spoken after battle.

“I guess that’s all.”

“I guess so.”

“Hyperspace initiated,” Karan announced.

***

He was given a room close to Isabella’s. There were plenty of rooms to accommodate the few hundred new passengers that had not originally planned to be on the voyage. There were also many empty from the missing Khar-Selim crew. He laid in bed trying to sleep and trying not to think of what had happened. Hours passed and sleep wouldn’t come. He heard a light knock on his door. It was three in the morning. He figured not many would sleep well that night.

The door opened and she closed it behind her. “Can’t sleep?” he asked.

“Sleep? Hah. I can’t stop shaking, forget sleeping.” He sat up and turned on the desk lamp.

“Come in, sit.” She sat beside him. He put his hand on her shoulder, she was indeed shaking like she said. “What’s up?”

“Anxiety, mostly. I forgot my medication back in Tiir and haven’t gone to the pharmacy yet.” She held onto his hand looking down at the floor. “You saved me today. I doubt if I was out there alone I’d have lived.”

“I owe you one too. When you ran back for me, well, I lost everything. I felt numb. I’m not sure what I would’ve done if I ran off alone.” He met her eyes. A lighter hazel than his dark brown. Valerie’s were the same. He looked away out of guilt. He was not ready to let go of her memory.

“I lost my mother. Not that she ever cared for me, but it’s still sad. Another Manaan pilot that I knew was killed too,” she said taking a sip from the bottle she’d been holding.

“I gave Leo a good shout down earlier. I think we’re gonna need to start teaching or something since they plan on hiring all these new pilots.”

“Time to whip these rookies into shape,” she joked offering him the bottle. He took a drink. He felt her head on his shoulder. He brushed his hand through her short brown hair.

“I’m terrified, Mark. I won’t show it, but I am.” He rubbed her back as she continued. “Our enemy has the power to light a planet on fire. We’ve left our star system behind and are now going into hiding to prepare for what? A counterattack? How can we pull that off?”

“Like you said earlier. I don’t know, but we have to. There is no other option.” She kissed him on the cheek and got up to leave. “Thank you,” she said closing the door. Not long after did he feel himself falling asleep. He couldn’t tell if it was her clearing his mind, or simply being close to someone. Either way, he was okay with the comfort this girl provided. He wanted nothing more than for the day to end.