Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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"So, let's hear it again. What is your name?"
"I told you, the first time. Fuck off."
As the guard's palm slapped against Jacyn's cheek, I winced in sympathy. The two guards pulling me into the small room shoved me into a chair, where they then began to fasten my arms with grav-fields. Merinin walked into the center of the ring of chairs. I looked around the room, and saw another one of my team members in each of the chairs. They were very bloodied, so much so that I thought they'd been beaten to death. Yet, as the guards began to do it to me, I realized that the blood was merely that of our bio-disguises. Nolan's now-Hiigaran face looked at me, smiling apologetically.
Merinin began, "Now, since your men seem to have been uncooperative, could you tell us who you are? Clearly, you are of the Unclean. A clever ploy; worthy of the Protectors. I'm surprised, however, that you would go to such great lengths to acquire our battle plans."
His words confused me. "Battle plans? What are you talking about?"
Merinin scowled. "Don't act ignorant, Unclean One. First, you allow us to capture a clear spy, so that you can track us to our main base," he pointed to the limp figure of Mara as two more guards dragged her into the room. She looked like hell, probably loaded with sedatives or truth-forcing chemicals. She slumped down into the last chair, and she stirred enough to reveal that she was alive, albeit unconscious.
"โฆand second," Merinin continued, "you try to infiltrate our ranks by those admittedly impressive guises. I must say, your intentions are rather transparent. It is fortunate that we caught you when we did."
I furrowed my brow as Merinin attempted to calculate our intentions. I protested, "This was only a search and rescue mission, designed only to rescue her." I pointed to the slumped mass of my seventh squad member. "Beyond that, our orders are to escape here ASAP."
Merinin raised a pale eyebrow. "Six men for only one? Either you're a worse liar than we'd thought, or our cultures are very different indeed."
"In our society, we value each and every life."
Merinin grinned. "Well, that's good. That makes this all worth it, then."
I returned his stare. "What do you mean?"
He looked back at Mara. "Your friend did not have a satisfactory amount of knowledge about your military for us to draw on, but it was enough to harm your people further before we begin the final assault."
He waved his hand, and the room darkened. A holographic display filled the small room, presenting a small neutron star orbited by a considerably large science fleet. I recognized it immediately as the Dartmouth fleet, a half-dozen R-class science vessels supported by a Naabal Destroyer force. The Dartmouth, the head science vessel, had been commissioned several months ago to study the neutron star S-943762 in search of a more efficient fusion generator. My heart sank as another set of ships, materializing about four thousand clicks away from the fleet, appeared on the display.
Merinin grinned. "Six Multi-Beam Frigates supported by a full wing of Mark III Swarmers. And if my memory serves, this fleet is not shielded. They should be within combat range in ten minutes."
He turned back to me. "Unless you haven't already guessed, I am the Father Superior of this attack fleet. I command this entire battalion, from this massive Arkship down to the most insignificant Swarmer. I began consolidating this fleet shortly after I'd heard of your race's slaughtering of four of our Needleships."
Slaughtering? I thought. Their leaders must be far better at propaganda than the Taiidan Emperors ever were.
"About a year ago, I had acquired all the vessels I would need for a full-scale invasion, so I broke off from the rest of my people and set off to reclaim Hiigara."
I stiffened. "The 'Throneworld?'"
He nodded. "Yes. The womb planet that had borne the Great Mother N'ua. My fellow Brothers and Sisters were skeptical about leaving the Nebula; they thought that we would certainly die if they left, but when I'd heard of your Mothership, of our distant ancestry, I knew that if the Unclean could survive the rigors of the Galaxy, we should have very little problem.
"I waited it out, your Exodus. I sent out probes to study your progress, unbeknownst to my colleagues. And when I heard you had defeated the Great Evilโฆwell, that sealed my plans."
He concluded his speech with a triumphant smile. He gestured to the K'kkuuum doctor. "Physician Remores, fortunately, was able to see through your farce by checking your body temperature. As you can probably guess, our millennia in space has increased our tolerance to vacuum temperatures, and so our body temperature is several degrees below your 'normal.' No plan, and certainly not this one, is perfect."
I looked down. Boy, Jake, you sure can handle authority. First, you alienate all of your new recruits, then one dies, and another one is easily taken captive. And now, you've given up the lives of you and five of your friends. Yeah, "Captain Sjet," my ass.
"What are you going to do now?" I asked, warily.
Remores spoke up, "Well, isn't it obvious? We're not going to wait another six days to reclaim the Throneworld. If you don't report back soon, your people will start to get cautious. We want to launch a pre-emptive strike. In only a few moments, the rest of our fleet will be arriving on a Priority One alert, and all listening posts in this sector will revert to a full attack protocol. After that, we will arrive in the Hiigaran system in thirty sunf-"
He paused, and reconsidered his words. "Sorryโฆin the next thirteen hours, in your terms. Your world will not stand a chance."
Before I could let the entire meaning sink in, a ringing tone filled the ominous silence. Merinin turned his back to me again, and smiled. He looked at me again, and stepped to the side. Now, the display showed a close-up view of the impending battle. A burst of static added sound to the picture of the invading Kadeshi fleet, with a venomous cloud of fighters swarming around the Frigates. Then, the static changed to voices. Hiigaran voices.
"Captain, what the hell is that?"
"-unknown craft, please identify yourself."
A squadron of Swarmers sped in front of the pack, closing in on the triangular vessel of the Dartmouth. One of the Destroyers moved in front, shielding it from the seemingly harmless fighters.
"Don't worry about this, Dartmouth. Destroyer Impregnable will take care of them."
"Uhโฆsir. If I remember my Academy training, those are Kadeshi ships."
"What? Impossible. The Kadeshi were destroyed during the Exodus."
Abruptly, one of the small ships lanced out a green blast at the Impregnable. The full force of the blast surprised even the Kadeshi in the room; it melted through one side of the capital ship and shattered through the far one. Flames gouged out of the small hole.
"What the hell was that?"
"Dartmouth, that little prick shot right through our hull! It's using some kind of laser weapons!"
"Roger, Impregnable. Contacting Fleet Command for guidance."
"Too late! They're all over us!"
Indeed, the Swarmers had created a veritable haze of attack, verdant beams stinging the Destroyer from every angle. The ship turned onto its belly (at least, from my top-bottom perspective of the space) with flames spurting out of a thousand wounds. The fighters scattered when many sets of blue beams shredded the hull of the Destroyer. It separated into three dying hunks of broiling metal from a shock of fire.
"AAAAAHH!"
The Kadeshi then turned their attention to the Dartmouth and the other science vessels,
carving up the vulnerable ships indiscriminately. I looked away, and saw that both Nolan and Myla had tears welling up from their eyes, as they trembled, unbelieving.
The rest of the battle was slow and brutal. When it was over, and the Kadeshi vessels started disappearing into the redness of hyperspace, the display fizzled out of reality, and the lights turned back on.
In the brightness, I felt a strong feeling of my stomach sinking, and would have dismissed it as mere depression, yet I noticed that the standing Kadeshi were staggering on their legs. Merinin, after regaining his balance, said, "Yes, you notice it, don't you? Though we usually prefer low gravity, we have raised it on all of our ships. Gradually, we will get used to the strain of the Throneworld's gravity, and be able to walk on its surface unhindered. Already we have undergone intense skeletal re-calcification to strengthen ourselves for the transition."
I continued to stare in the empty space where the bloodied Dartmouth fleet had been suspended. "What of us?"
Remores said, "Lucky for you, we have decided to postpone your sacrificial ceremony. At least, until we reach the Throneworld. Once we are on the surface, and liberated from the Nebula after millennia of captivity, we will honor our victory with your deaths."
All but a few of the guards began to leave. Merinin called behind him, "Frankly, it is all academic, as far as you're concerned. By tomorrow evening, the Throneworld will be ours, once again."