Alabaster Noon Read online

  “It doesn’t matter,” Nigel said. “Have her transmit the coordinates. That bitch is not getting away.”

  “Got her,” the TacCom said a minute later. An icon on the battlespace monitor began flashing. “Right there.”

  The captain turned to Nigel. “We can be within firing range in five minutes. Will that suffice?”

  “Can you make it four?” The captain nodded. “Please do so.” A feral smile crossed his face. “You’re mine, Peepo.”

  “Attention on the net! This is Commander Elizabeth Stacy of the Winged Hussars. All ships and all crews, stand down. A ceasefire has been implemented by the authority of the High Council of the Peacemaker Guild and Honored Guild Master Rsach. I repeat, a ceasefire is in place. All ships, stand down.”

  The captain turned to Nigel. “We’ve been ordered to stand down,” he said. “What do you want to do?”

  “Isn’t it obvious? I want to kill the bitch. Continue the chase; fire as she bears.”

  “You can’t,” Alexis said.

  “Can’t I?” Nigel said, and winked at her. She looked unhappy, but he turned back to the Tri-V.

  The captain smiled. “It would be my pleasure.” He looked at the battlespace monitor. “One minute until we are in range.” Alexis started to speak when another transmission came in.

  “Revenge, this is Peacemaker Tab’bel on the emergency net,” a whispering voice said, causing a small shiver to run up Nigel’s back. “A ceasefire has been ordered. Be advised, if you fire upon that ship, we will fire on you, and we will continue to do so until your ship is destroyed.”

  The captain turned to Nigel, chewing his upper lip. “Sir, there is a battleship within range of us right now. Perhaps it would be better—”

  “Unacceptable!” Nigel roared. “I swore I would kill her, and I’m going to do it. For my sister. For my family. For my friends, and everyone else who’s lost their lives because of the murdering bitch. She’s going to die, and she’s going to die right now! TacCom, lock up that ship.”

  “Got it, sir.”

  “Nigel!” Alexis snapped.

  Nigel stared at the battlespace Tri-V and did his best to ignore her.

  “Revenge, this is Peacemaker Tab’bel. We show you locking your weapons on General Peepo’s ship. If you fire, you will be destroyed.”

  “Don’t do it,” Alexis said.

  “I don’t want to do it,” Nigel said, his voice miserable. “I have to. For all of the people she has killed or betrayed, I have to kill her. I have sworn it shall be so.”

  “Don’t,” Alexis said. “There will be other times, other chances, other opportunities to settle the score—without a Peacemaker battleship waiting to kill us.”

  Nigel looked toward the TacCom and opened his mouth to give the order anyway, but Alexis took his hand and put it on her stomach. “If you won’t do it for me, do it for him.”

  Nigel stood silently for a moment, then sighed and shut his mouth. His shoulders slumped and he nodded once. “Safe all weapons. Do not fire.” He turned back to Alexis. “Is this how things are to be between us? Are you always going to find ways to make me do what you want?”

  Alexis smiled. “Maybe.” She ran a hand gently along the strong curve of his jaw. “On second thought, absolutely. You can count on it.”

  “Well…okay,” Nigel said with a crooked smile. “I guess I can live with that.”

  “Good,” she said. “Now, please get me back to my Hussars.”

  * * *

  Raknar Corps, Earth Orbit

  The six Raknar linked shields and rocketed toward the battleship, which fired everything it had on the war machines. They sloughed off the fire as if it were nothing. Far too big to dodge, the ship had no choice but accept its fate.

  The ancient mecha spun and fired their fusion torches, and 6,000 tons of Raknar slammed into the battleship like a sledgehammer on a watermelon. Upon impact, they spread themselves out and burned their engines, wielding them like fusion scalpels to carve the great ship into pieces. One of its fusion plants exploded, turning the battleship into a growing globe of debris.

  The six Raknar slowly emerged from the wreck. Drive plasma played across their shields in scintillating waves of iridescent color, bathing them in reds and oranges. The other ship captains watched the image in dawning horror. Death had come to them. Ancient, unforgiving, cold death.

  Jim/Splunk reveled in the timeless chords of the dirge which was the Raknar’s anthem. The galaxy was once again able to see what the Raknar would do to any who stood against them.

  “We are Fear,” Shawn/Shadow said.

  “We are Pain,” Cindy/Ryft said.

  “We are Wrath,” Darrel/Peanut said.

  “We are Despair,” Seamus/Dante said.

  “We are Revenge,” Mia/Sandy said.

  “We are Doom!” Jim/Splunk said.

 

  “Raknar, cease hostilities.”

  Another target was selected.

  “This is Colonel Cromwell. Jim, stop it!”

  A battleship died in flames. Fear, Pain, Wrath, Despair, Revenge, and Doom! Parts were incorporated, powers increased. There were enough of the pathetic ships to build a Loknar. Grow, hunt, kill, destroy.

  “Jim, this is Sansar. If you don’t stop, it will all be for nothing. We’ve won; you can stop.”

  “I DO NOT WANT TO STOP!”

  “You must.” The voice. Nigel? “I know more than anyone the taste of revenge. But you have to stop at some point. You cannot kill forever.”

  The six Raknar accelerated toward another battleship that they identified as a Goltar ship.

  “No, I can’t,” Jim said finally, and he tried to end Zha Akee. Only it didn’t want to let him go. The Human part of his mind felt a tinge of panic. His individuality was draining away. He was going from being Jim, to Jim/Splunk, and now to only Doom. The alien battleship was getting closer.

  They’re not the enemy.

 

  Beyond the Goltar were others. The Winged Hussars, friends. Jim shook his physical head, the liquid embrace of the suspension fluid surrounding him. He couldn’t. This had to stop. He found the icons in his mind. Boost, Slow, and Recover. Only one still glowed. He concentrated on it and jerked as lightning seared his mind.

  Zha Akee broke. Their joining shattered. The six Raknar tumbled out of control, past the Goltar battleship, and into space.

  * * *

  Shuttle One, Approaching EMS Pegasus, Earth Orbit

  Alexis observed silently as they approached the cluster of five Egleesius docked together. She recognized her beloved Pegasus, even among its sisters. A line of ancient welds here, a slight difference of hull shape there. The last time she had seen it was moments before her trusted second in command shot her in the back. Those wounds were largely healed, but others might never heal.

  She tried to understand what she’d seen in Revenge’s CIC a short time before. Six 20,000-year-old mecha devastating battleships. Fucking battleships! After each battleship fell, they seemed to feed upon the corpse, adding weapons, shields, and other capabilities from it. When they’d called on their leader, Jim Cartwright, to stop, he’d answered with the voice of a demon. A shudder ran up her spine, and Nigel reached over to take her hand. He hadn’t understood what she had—the boy had changed.

  It took all three of them, the Horsemen, to bring the Raknar down. When they did, their operators had fallen into an almost-coma. Five of the six came out of it shortly afterward and rendezvoused with their ship. A ship she’d been told was Dusman. That the Fae were actually the Dusman—that would take a lot of getting used to. Entropy, she had a lot of catching up to do. Jim was missing, his Raknar lost in the debris cloud from the fight. It was hard to imagine that a mecha the size of a corvette and armed 1,000 times better could just disappear.

  “We’re coming aboard now,” the pilo
t said.

  “Thank you,” Nigel replied.

  Alexis smiled. Nigel was mellowing. Good; she didn’t want the father of her child to be a testosterone-charged rage-beast. She glanced at Nigel. Well, a certain amount of testosterone charging is a good thing. Nigel smiled back. Yes, for sure.

  The shuttle deck pressurized, and Alexis felt a small amount of acceleration, maybe a sixth of a G. She was sure it was on her account. When the shuttle door opened, Nigel stepped out first, offering her his hand. She hesitated a second, then took it. The hangar deck of Pegasus was lined with her officers and the commanders of all the ships of the Winged Hussars. She also saw Sansar Enkh, who she’d been told had led the defense of New Warsaw against all odds, and an honor guard of her Golden Horde troopers off to the side. With the losses they’d taken, calling them a horde was now a stretch.

  So few, so precious few. Alexis fought back the tears which threatened to flow.

  “Attention!” Everyone came to attention. She saw Elizabeth Stacy march forward. Tricky in such light gravity. She looked different. Older maybe. Alexis had been told that Stacy had taken command when Lech Kowalczy fell at New Warsaw and had led them back to victory.

  Elizabeth stopped and said, “Colonel Cromwell, I have led to the best of my ability.” Unshed tears glittered in Elizabeth’s eyes.

  “You did incredibly well,” Alexis said. “Commander Stacy, I relieve you.”

  “I stand relieved.” Elizabeth turned to the assembled. “Colonel Alexis Cromwell, commander of the Winged Hussars.”

  “Commander of the Winged Hussars!” they all roared.

  Next, Captain Dan Corder came forward. “Commander, I captained your ship to the best of my ability.”

  “And you did it with skill and aplomb,” Alexis said, smiling. “I relieve you.”

  “I stand relieved,” he said and saluted. “Commander Alexis Cromwell, Captain of EMS Pegasus.”

  “Captain of EMS Pegasus!”

  “What happened is in the past,” she said to the assembled crewmen. “We have weathered the storm and lived to tell the tale. You held our home and defeated our enemies. I believe there are new challenges ahead. Dire challenges, that no Humans have ever faced before. We’ll face those challenges together. Our fates are joined.”

  “Our fates are joined.”

  “The Four Horsemen for Earth!”

  * * * * *

  Epilogue

  Raknar Doom, Entering Heliocentric Orbit, Sol

  Jim slowly regained consciousness. He hurt. Every part of his body hurt from his toenails to his hair. He hadn’t realized hair could hurt. He blinked at his surroundings for a moment before he recognized the dim sphere. “Raknar cockpit,” he mumbled.

  “Ouch, “ Splunk said a meter away.

  “Yeah. I hurt, too,” Jim said. He tried to remember how he ended up there.

  What the fuck did I do? No details came to his mind. He took the Raknar’s normal space controls and checked their situation. The mecha was fine. In fact, it was more than fine. He saw there were several starship-class shield generators attached, an extra fusion powerplant, and a 10-terawatt particle accelerator cannon mounted on his back.

  “Holy shit,” he said. They were tumbling through space, past the orbit of the moon and on a heliocentric orbit. “Splunk, can you dump all this stuff so we can fly?”

  “You bet, “ She pushed off and landed on a secondary control. A few seconds later the extra equipment began to detach with a series of loud kachunks.

  Jim took the controls, a little fearful. He could have easily joined with Splunk, but he was reluctant. The blackout had him spooked. I’ll figure it out later.

  Together, they got the Raknar under control. Splunk seemed just as confused and reserved as Jim. Once the mecha was under control, they used a fraction of its fusion power torches to arrest its momentum. Jim had to use his slate to calculate an orbit back. He would have needed to Akee to use the Raknar’s internal navigation. His hands shook as he worked. Is this what coming off a drug feels like?

  The simple navigational sensors used to move the Raknars around in non-combat situations buzzed an alarm. Something was on a nearly identical trajectory and would collide with them. It wasn’t part of the “extra stuff” Splunk had cast loose; that was long gone as it continued out into the solar system on their original track.

  “Splunk, what is that?” he asked.

  “Escape pod,” she said, and used her own slate to show a Tri-V of the craft.

  Jim had never seen an escape pod like it. They were usually extremely utilitarian. After all, if you were jumping into one to survive an exploding ship, who cared what it looked like? This one was more like a work of art, crafted to resemble a seed pod, or maybe a cocoon?

  He used his slate to calculate velocities and orbits. Without thinking, he fired the Raknar’s maneuvering thrusters and changed the collision into an intercept.

  “You going to catch it, “

  “Yeah,” he said. “Don’t ask me why. Maybe after all the death, we can save a life or two.”

  Splunk nodded in agreement. Jim could tell their power situation was fine, and despite fighting the battle, they still had plenty of reaction mass, though he had no idea how. When they’d boarded the Raknar it had been down to less than 25%.

  It took seven minutes to precisely match courses and come alongside the escape pod. The Raknar was hard to fly outside of Akee. He spent part of the time putting the mecha into a more manageable configuration, arms by its side, legs outstretched and together. He really wished he could remember everything after they’d joined, then maybe he’d understand why he was so spooked.

  “Soft dock, “

  “Good deal,” Jim said, and he used his controls to latch the pod to the Raknar. Despite its unusual design, it had a Union standard collar. “Let’s go see who we rescued.” Splunk produced a pair of laser carbines from the small arms locker in the cockpit and tossed one to him. He nodded; it was a good idea. The two headed through the internal compartments to the small of the Raknar’s back where the docking collar was located.

  When they got there, he let Splunk handle the controls. She checked continuity of the connection, then the internal condition of the escape pod. It had a normal atmosphere, so they cycled the airlock.

  Inside, the technology looked standard to Jim. The air smelled musty, like how a small apartment smelled if you had a pet. The inside was just as unconventional as the outside. Instead of a space for people to sit, or the military types which were just big padded open spaces, this one only had enough room for one or two humans. Or, in this case, a human and a very large cat.

  Splunk leaned in and looked at the pair, and her ears went back in a sure sign of suspicion.

  “It’s just a cat,” Jim said.

  “Not cat, Depik “

  Jim looked closer. It was different than a cat. The body was longer, and the limbs were longer as well, graceful and articulated. He guessed the alien could move on all fours if it wanted to. But it was the woman who drew his attention. She was, for lack of a better term, gorgeous. She had long black hair which was held in a ponytail, but in the course of combat, most had come loose and was now floating in zero gravity. He couldn’t tell her ancestry; maybe Middle Eastern, maybe Indian? Her features were well defined and slightly angular. She had a fighter’s build but was curved in the right places. She was also obviously injured, as was the Depik. They’d been through hell.

  “Let’s get them aboard and find the medkit,” Jim said. Splunk scowled and looked at Jim, but she helped anyway. “We’d better get them back to Earth as soon as we can.” As he helped his partner maneuver the woman out of the escape pod, he was thinking how much he was looking forward to hearing the tale of how they got there, and who she was.

  * * *

  Mercenary Guild Headquarters, Capital Planet

  “The meeting of the Mercenary Guild Council will come to order,” the Veetanho at
the end of the conference table said. She nodded down the table on the left to where the guild masters from the Goka, Flatar, Tortantula, and Oogar races sat, then down the right to the Selroth, Besquith, MinSha, and Goltar guild masters. She glanced out to the audience. The seats of the other twenty-seven member races were full, something she couldn’t remember happening in quite some time. “For those of you who don’t know me, I am Seezo, and I have been chosen to fill Leeto’s position as Speaker.” No one knew what caused it, but Leeto had slowly wasted away until she had died the week before, despite the best nano therapy money could buy.

  Seezo had hoped Peepo would arrive to bring order to the madness, but the Goltar representative had called for a meeting of the council, as was his right as a council member, and though she’d waited as long as she could, she’d had to oblige him. That the Goltar had asked for an emergency session was strange enough on its own. They hadn’t participated appreciably in guild business for centuries.

  “We are here today, in emergency session, to discuss an issue the Goltar wished to bring to our attention.” She nodded to the Goltar representative, an alien that looked something like a giant squid or octopus when it was in the water. On land, you could better see its snapping red beak underneath the bony crest that rose over its head. “Guild Master?”

  The guild master nodded, “It is my privilege today to let you know that the Peacemakers deputized us two weeks ago to assist them in ending the war with the Humans. A fleet was dispatched to Earth, which has ended the fighting.”

  “You had no right to do so!” Seezo said. “This is Merc Guild business, and it should have been brought before this council before you accepted that contract! Taking it the way you did violated Merc Guild law!”

  “There are many things currently occurring in the galaxy that violate Merc Guild law,” the Goltar representative replied, snapping his beak. “The Humans have done many of these things, and it will reflect poorly on them when their application for full membership is reviewed shortly. However, the Merc Guild itself has also engaged in activity which violates both guild law and standard practice.”