Stephen Berry - Final Assault

"So you plan for us to just sit it out, Admiral, safe in the heart of Line?"

L'Guan smiled wryly, shaking his head. "Not even this charming sanctuary will be safe when the Fleet of the One gets here, D'Trelna." He sat looking at the waterfall for a long moment. "An admiral without a fleet and a commodore without a flotilla." He looked back at D'Trelna. "I've always rejected the desperate over the safe. But there are no safe moves left."

"I didn't know we had any moves left," said D'Trelna, staring glumly into the tropical twilight now falling over the jungle glade.

"Let's be thankful we survived today," said

L'Guan, rising. "I'm going to bed. You might do the same."

"Admiral," called D'Trelna.

L'Guan turned.

"Thank you-for getting me out."

L'Guan shrugged. "How many times have you and Implacable saved our lives, D'Trelna?"

"You'd have gotten me out if I were a first-year cadet," said the commodore.

"No one gets at my people," said the admiral, shaking his head. "Not if I can stop them. Good night, J'Quel."

"So, Line," said D'Trelna as the admiral disappeared into the tropical twilight, "what do you think our chances are?"

Line spoke after a moment. "The situation is more complex than the admiral cares to believe," it said. "If all factors now in play are resolved in our favor, we will win. If even one of them is not resolved in our favor, we will lose."

"Wouldn't care to say what all those factors are, would you?" said the commodore, reaching for the decanter.

Beside him, the guide sphere vanished and twilight stood suspended. "Certainly," said Line, as D'Trelna poured himself another glass. "One. The captured battleglobe must reach AI space and foment revolt. Two. The Margrave of U'Tria must find S'Yal's last citadel and retrieve the recall device. Three. The last fleet of the House of S'Yal must be recalled from the stasis in which it's snared. Four. Combine T'Lan and all its minions must be destroyed, chaos or not. And five…"

"Five?" The commodore frowned, glass almost to his lips.

"Five," said Line. "The Emperor must return."

"You crazy bitch!" shouted N'Trol into the pickup. "You can't keep pushing her this hard-she'll overload, tear herself apart!" Behind him, in engineering, the high-pitched vibration of machinery at the breaking point filled the air.

"You really love this old hulk, don't you, Engineer?" said A'Tir with a vicious little smile. The smile vanished. "Final jump point by watchend or I start spacing your crew." The commscreen went blank.

N'Trol turned to his four engineering techs, standing behind him at the master panel, watching. "You heard her, lads," he said. "Let's do it." Glancing at the armed corsair pacing the catwalk above, he lowered his voice. "Now's our chance to do a little tinkering. Come look at the drive schematics-I'll show you what I mean."

"Line," said D'Trelna, setting down his empty glass. "What do you think of Admiral L'Guan?"

"A classic noble patriot-indeed, almost classical. He might have stepped out of some High Imperial epoch, battleflags snapping in the breeze behind him. His conduct during the Biofab War was beyond reproach."

"And now?" said the commodore, watching the waterfall.

"I fear," said Line after a moment, "that the admiral has been maneuvered into a position of seeming impotence. Wisely, he plays a waiting game."

"Seeming impotence?"

"The position of Line Duty officer is not quite the empty formality it seems, Commodore," said Line.

"What is it, then?" said D'Trelna.

"It's a potential, Commodore," said Line. "A potential awaiting just the right word."

"Standby to jump," said S'Yatan, watching the tacscan data thread across Dawn's main screen. Devastator hadn't moved, remaining off Terra as though nothing had happened.

L'Nar, the first officer, glanced at his complink. "Jump plotted and set. Engineering reports…" He stopped, staring at the small screen. "Captain, the jump coordinates have been changed!"

S'Yatan had turned from the screen. "I know. I changed them," he said.

"But this will take us away from K'Ronar, not toward it," protested L'Nar.

The entire bridge crew was watching, all uneasy at having disobeyed Captain P'Qal, uneasier still at the way the senior officers' conversation was going.

S'Yatan lowered his voice. "I've received special orders regarding this contingency."

"How?" said L'Nar. "Devastator took out the skipcomm buoy."

All eyes followed S'Yatan as he walked to where Dawn's first officer stood, beside the tactics station. "You will jump this ship, Mr. L'Nar," he said softly. "Or you will die."

"As soon as you answer my question, Captain," said L'Nar, folding his arms across his chest and looking resolutely into S'Yatan's cold blue eyes-a resolution that changed to shock as the captain's eyes turned a gaze-searing, fiery red.

"Yes, how did you get the message?" said a different voice. Ignoring the sudden shriek of an alarm and the rasp of blasters being drawn, an attractive blonde in a white jumpsuit stepped up to the two officers.

"S'Cotar," said S'Yatan, facing Guan-Sharick. "No wonder they didn't pursue." He turned to his crew who stood blasters leveled at the blonde. "That's a S'Cotar," he said, pointing. "A biofab. Shoot!"

L'Nar's eyes had only briefly left the captain's face. "AI," he said finally, hoarsely. "You're an AI combat droid." He drew his sidearm. "Where's the captain?"

"A long time dead, probably," said Guan-Sharick. Her gaze went from face to face. "As you'd all be killed the instant you made that jump to his waiting ship." A small pistol appeared in the S'Cotar's hand, pointed at S'Yatan. There was a triangular device set in the weapon's grip, a single blue eye set in each corner of it, two black parallel lines in its center.

S'Yatan stared at the weapon, then at the blonde. "Guan-Sharick," he said slowly. The AI shook his head. "Impossible. You're dust-a million years dead. I saw your ship blown apart in the Revolt, a dozen battleglobes reduce it to nothing."

"Time's been good to me, S'Yatan," said Guan-Sharick. "It won't be as good to you."

The alarm stopped its shrieking and the silence deepened as the crew looked on uncertainly, watching the strange tableau. "You call it, Commander L'Nar," said an engineering tech at last, eyes and blaster shifting between S'Yatan and the blonde.

"Reset jump coordinates for K'Ronar," said the first officer.

"Not necessary now," said Guan-Sharick, glancing left as the bridge doors opened, admitting John and Zahava. Crossing the deck, John placed a black, walnut-sized crystal in the blonde's outstretched palm. "Drive nexus," he said.

The crystal vanished, flicked elsewhere by Guan-Sharick. "You'll have to proceed back to Terra and await a replacement," said the S'Cotar.

"A diversion," said S'Yatan to the blonde.

"You were a diversion while your friends pulled my drive nexus!"

He fired, a stream of red bolts flashing from his eyes only to dissipate inches from that perfect blond hair.

Guan-Sharick squeezed the trigger, immobilizing the AI in an invisible field stasis that left S'Yatan a statue in the middle of Dawn's bridge.

"Where is it?" said the blonde, holstering her weapon and turning to L'Nar.

The first officer looked at S'Yatan for an instant, nodded curtly and went to the captain's station. Quickly keying a combination on the complink's touchpad, he watched as a small panel slid open on the console pedestal, then removed a square black cube. "What about him. .. it?" he said, handing the cube to Guan-Sharick.

"Put him somewhere and dust him occasionally," said the S'Cotar, pocketing the portal device. "He's in an irreversible stasis field, perceiving, thinking, but unable to move. Eventually, he'll go mad-in an endlessly looped, robotic way."