Ion Trail 17: Stand Your Ground

“Where’s the drone?” I shouted as I made my way toward the air lock. Most likely place they’d try to breach would be the air lock, so I’d focus our efforts near there. I ran into Diaz coming around the corner. “Tell me you didn’t already space the drone.”

“No, it’s here,” he gestured for me to follow him to where it was sitting a few meters down the hall from the airlock.

“Good, good,” I said, spinning on my heel toward the engine room. “Diaz, get Omar’s gun and a space suit.” I didn’t look back to see if he was complying; I had to trust that he would, because we didn’t have a lot of time. I ran into Shanna coming out of the engine room and grabbed her arm. “Hey, wherever you’re going, tell people to start killing all the lights, then get someplace safe.” She nodded and rushed off. I stepped into the engine room, which was a mess; a haze of smoke had me coughing and tearing up, but I saw Omar hunched over the drone console, and Clinton trying to carefully move his leg; he yowled between clenched teeth, and I saw that it bent unnaturally in the middle of his calf.

“Shit!” I exclaimed, causing them to glance up. “Omar, are you okay?” Stupid question. I was impressed that he was still conscious.

“I’ll live, Captain,” he said. His pained smile told me that he knew exactly how ironic that was.

“Can you control the drone?” I asked. I hated to dismiss his pain so quickly, but I needed to know.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said. Clinton had managed to help him straighten his knee without jarring the break too badly, so he was finally able to sit in the seat properly.

“Good, turn it on, make sure you can see the air lock,” I told him. “Laser armed and ready.”

“Lasers inside the ship?”

“Medium power,” I replied. “Enough to cut through a person, but not enough to cut through the hull.”

“Um,” he said. I doubted he’d ever had to calculate wattage quite like that before. “Okay, I can do that.”

“Great. I think you can figure out what to do from there.” I spun away to go find Diaz, but Omar called me back.

“Uh, Captain?” I looked at him, and he looked embarrassed, of all things. “In my room, under my bunk.”

“What?”

“Yeah, just… Go look. You’ll need it.” I shook my head and left. If we lived through this I’d figure it out later, but I’d go to his room regardless. As I left, I passed Harper and Shanna coming back, Harper with her medical bag. I nodded to her, but caught Shanna.

“Did you pass on my message?” She nodded vigorously. “Good, get someplace safe.”

“I’m going to stay here,” she said, then reached through the doorway and grabbed a large wrench that was leaning against the wall. She turned back and looked at me with eyes scared but determined. I let it pass with a sigh.

“Fine,” I said. “Don’t do anything stupid.” Then I left, moving through the darkened halls quickly toward the improvised quarters. I caught Diaz on the way, told him where I wanted him, then continued on to Omar’s room. Time was running out; if I was right and they were going to board, it’d be very soon. I flicked on the light and reached under the mattress of Omar’s bed, nervous about what I might find. My questing hand bumped something hard and I grabbed it; the distinctive, rigid shape of a handgun.

I pulled it out and examined it, an older model semi-automatic, solid and weighty. I pulled back the slide and saw the magazine filled with flechettes, the sort of ammunition popular among independent pilots and station police. I chambered the first round, then shoved the gun into one of the pockets of my shipsuit. Omar and I would need to have a talk later, but for now I was grateful to have more than one gun. As I stood up I felt an impact ring through the ship; not the harsh rumble of an explosion, but the metallic clung of a docking spike, followed by my ears popping. We were breached. I keyed my commlink and spoke softly.

“Wait for it,” I said. “I want to get as many of those fuckers as I can in the hall before you open fire.” I left Omar’s room and made my way back toward the airlock.

“The inner door is being pried open,” Omar whispered hoarsely. “I see… one person. Armed. Big, really big.” Then a gasp. “Is that a tail??”

“Wait for it,” I repeated. A tail? “Wait for at least two or three boarders.”

“They’re moving toward the drone,” Omar said. “There seems to be another weapon of some sort on the tail.” A fucking tail, I thought. That’s fantastic. “Captain, I’m about to lose my shot.”

“There’s only one?” I asked. “I was nearly there; Moving quietly in the dark was harder than I’d expected, and I was moving slowly.

“I don’t see anyone else,” he answered. “Shit, too late, they’re past the drone.”

“Watch the airlock, then.” Must be a scout, before the rest of the boarding party. I finally reached Diaz, just inside the galley. His breathing was harsh and rasping, and I could tell he was terrified. I was too, so I reached out and put a hand on his arm; I could barely make out the shape of his body in the dark, but I saw him jump and start to jerk the weapon toward me.

“Whoa, Diaz!” I hissed. “It’s me.”

“Fuck! Susan,” he gasped. “I mean Captain. What’s goin’ on?”

“One boarder, coming this way. Be ready.” I settled against the wall opposite the galley doorway, and aimed the handgun down the hall, toward where the boarder would be coming. I heard muffled thuds as something heavy approached the corner ahead. Then I saw a stir of motion, and raised the weapon. “Now, Diaz!” The hallway was suddenly filled with light as he flicked the switch.

I was blind. Fuck, I didn’t think this through. I squeezed off several shots down the hall, but I heard the boarder coming, and fast. I forced my eyes open just in time to see a massive, black-armored figure charging me, weapon rising. I tried to dodge aside, but the hallway wasn’t wide enough, and I saw the barrel of the strange gun tracking my movements, and a second gun on the fucking tail coming up as well. Then there was a roar of noise and a flash of light, and my attacker slammed into me. I felt and heard a sickening crack and pain tore through my body, then lost my breath explosively as I crashed into the floor. I squeezed off several more rounds directly into the body pressing me to the floor, my vision swimming, and I heard Diaz cussing between bursts from his rifle. Everything was fading to darkness, and the last thing I saw before it all went blank was Shanna sprinting down the hallway toward me, the oversized wrench raised high above her head.

=+=

When I came to, my first impression was surprise that I was still alive. My second impression was pain so severe that I almost wished I wasn’t. Diaz’ face was hovering over mine looking scared until he saw me looking at him, then he cracked a grin that was so beautiful I couldn’t help but smile back. Somehow even that hurt.

“She’s awake!” he shouted and I heard footsteps, then Harper was leaning over me too.

“Good to see you’re still with us, Captain,” she said with a warm smile of her own.

“Did we win?” I asked. Ow. Talking hurt too.

“War’s over!” I heard Shanna quip from nearby, and she leaned into view next, still holding that wrench. Why did she still have the wrench? I tried to look around and was overwhelmed by pain so fierce that everything went white for several agonizing seconds. When my vision cleared I tried again, this time using only my eyes, and realized I was on the floor of the galley.

“Careful,” Harper cautioned. “Your collarbone is broken, and who knows what else besides.”

“Why am I in the galley?” I asked.

“How long do you think you were out?” Harper’s eyes crinkled with amusement. It hit me then that Shanna had been joking; I’d only been out for a few minutes, at most.

“Oh.”

“Hey, uh, Cap’, I hate to ask this right now,” Diaz said, “but what next? Omar said that no one else has boarded yet.”

“I, um, hadn’t actually thought that far in advance,” I admitted. I hadn’t been so optimistic as to believe we’d actually live that long. “We may have to counter-board.” Silence stretched after that; anyone I sent over might never come back again. I watched as Diaz’ expression shifted from fear to acceptance. He knew that he’d be one of the boarders. Then he cocked his head to the side, reaching up to his ear.

“Yeah, she’s awake. One second,” he said, and pulled my commlink, which I hadn’t realized was missing, out of his own ear and leaned down to put it into mine.

“Omar?” I asked.

“Captain? Oh thank God,” he said. “Something else is coming. Wait, I can see them now,” he paused. “Another, like the first. Should I shoot?”

“Yes,” I said immediately.

“Wait!” he said, then started cursing forcefully. “Damn it, it’s got some sort of force shield extended out in front of it and it’s got weapons at the ready. This guy’s not fucking around.” I quickly relayed the information, and saw Harper stand up with my gun clutched in her fist. She and Diaz moved toward the door and Shanna came to stand over me, clutching her wrench nervously. Me? I just fucking laid there like a lump; a painful, terrified lump.

I listened to the pounding of my own heartbeat, feeling the pain pulse with each beat, and tried to will it to silence so I could hear. My imagination painted scenes of carnage, of watching my friends die before seeing the hulking form come for me. The panic was just getting to an overwhelming level when I heard Omar speak again.

“Oh, ho ho,” he said, disbelief plain in his voice. “Hah! Oh, you stupid motherfucker!” The he started to laugh, a painful, barely sane laugh. Then the noise started. Several small whining noises, almost like a dental drill, followed by a bellow, a crash, and then the roar of some sort of automatic weapon. Omar’s unhinged laughter rang louder in my ear. “Eat it, eat it you fucking punk!” Diaz and Harper exchanged a glance then disappeared down the hall, weapons ready. What followed was several seconds of racket loud enough to drown out the maniacal laughter in my ears, abruptly followed by silence.

“What the hell just happened?” I demanded, irritation at being so out of touch warring with my fear as I lay there on the ground, staring at the empty doorway through the window formed by Shanna’s legs.

“Bastard’s shield only covered the front,” Omar said with a savage satisfaction. “As soon as I realized that, I gave him a warm welcome; put a laser right in his ass.”

“Diaz and Harper?” I asked.

“Oh, they’re fine,” he said cheerfully. “When the fucker turned and started blasting at my drone, they caught him from behind. Tore him apart!”

“Hey, so hate to rain on your parade,” I heard Clinton interject. “But something’s going on. Some sort of pulse from the black ship.”

“Communications?”

“I don’t think so, doesn’t seem right. It… looks like subspace radiation?” Subspace radiation, but not a communications pulse? “It’s uh, it’s getting stronger.” The only other reason there’d be subspace radiation would be if it was going to jump, but you wouldn’t normally see that, even on a regular ship; these black ships seemed especially good at hiding any sort of emissions signature.

“Have you noticed any other activity from the ship?” I asked, worried.

“Nothing, Captain. We barely caught the second boarder in time to warn you.”

“Then what could it be?”

“Um, I don’t know,” he said, his voice betraying an increasing concern. “But I think maybe we should try to get out of here.” I suddenly realized what he wasn’t saying.

“No,” I said. “No, that’s damned holovid fantasy crap,” I started to push myself to my feet, only to collapse half a second later, gasping, with hands gently holding me down. “Self-destruct mode is bullshit!” I cried.

“Um.” Clinton didn’t sound like he agreed.

“Shit,” I said. “Shit! Diaz! Get to the cockpit! We have to Jump, now!” I lay there, cursing my inability to do anything. “Diaz!” I saw him poke his head around the corner. “Get to the cockpit! It’s the button labeled Jump! We’re already primed, just push it, now!” At least, I hoped we were. Who knew if the hit to ion drive had somehow managed to damage the hyperdrive. Or, worse, if the interdiction field was still in play. If either were true, we were dead.

“Captain?” Diaz voice rang through the ship, over the intercom. “I, um, hit the button, and nothing happened.”

“Drive!” I yelled, though I knew he wouldn’t hear me. “Throttle forward, and watch the interdiction indicator!” Shanna dropped her wrench and took off running for the cockpit, leaving me alone on the floor of the galley. I could hear Clinton shifting around, cussing under his breath; He hadn’t unkeyed his commlink. Diaz didn’t say anything else, but after what felt like an hour, I felt the ship begin to move. It shuddered and whined, and I heard a pop through the intercom that set Clinton to swearing even more.

“Omar!” he yelled. “The fire extinguisher!” But the ship kept moving. And I kept lying on the floor. Alone.

“Guys?” I said. “Can someone tell me what’s happening?” I hadn’t spent a lot of time reflecting on how I’d want to die; I mean, who did that? But I was pretty sure that getting blown to hell by some bullshit self-destruct mode while lying on the floor of an empty galley with a broken collarbone, presumably next to the motionless hulk of some possibly alien supersoldier, wasn’t anywhere on the list.

“Hang on, Cap’!” I heard Clinton call; his voice was barely audible over the clamor coming through the commlink, and I could hear Omar yelling about a fire. I wondered where Sister Estrada was. If she were here, she’d make me coffee and somehow make me believe it was all going to be okay. I’d even take some sarcastic jabs from Janice right about now.

“Guys?” I called again. In all my life I’d never wished to not be alone so much as I did in that moment. I felt tears start, welling up in my eyes until the ceiling of the galley was a blur, then overflowing to run down the sides of my face and into my ears. I struggled to pull myself together, but the sob came anyway accompanying a wave of pain both physical and not. But before I could take a breath for another, the whole ship heaved and my prone body slid across the floor of the galley and smashed into the table. Another flash of incredible, mind-shattering pain and I knew nothing more.