Stephen Berry - The Battle for Terra Two

G'Ryn frowned, touching a finger to her ear. "Captain

J'Tan," she said, "Your authentication failed. And we read you as a light cruiser and two frigates, not a L'Aal-class cruiser and a destroyer."

"Oh?" K'Tran looked perturbed. "Now I'm confused, Captain. Didn't FleetOps advise you? Implacable andV'Tran'sGlory have been lost-max casualties."

"D'Trelna, dead?" she asked, disbelieving.

K'Tran nodded. "And L'Wrona, too. There was a S'Cotar attack from that parallel reality-wiped both ships just as we came insystem. The S'Cotar fell back through their portal as we approached."

"And your codes?"

"We're a pickup force-been on deep-space patrol for the last three years. Our codes are obsolete. We've no skipcomm buoy. And the attack that wiped D'Trelna's force also took out their skipcomm buoy."

"I can't believe D'Trelna's dead." G'Ryn shook her head. "I served under him for a year-a harrier squadron inside S'Cotar space. He brought us home with only forty-percent casualties."

"Believe me," said K'Tran, "he's gone."

"I'll deploy a skipcomm buoy, Captain."

K'Tran held up a hand. "Don't-not until we've met."

"Why…"

"I don't want to explain over the commnet. I'll brief you when we rendezvous."

"Very well." she said. "I'll shuttle over as soon as we arrive."

K'Tran smiled. "Please, bring your crew over, too. It's been a long time since we've seen new faces."

"Can you accommodate several hundred?" she asked.

"Not only accommodate them, Captain-I think we can promise you a memorable reception."

"Certainly looks like Terra One," said D'Trelna. He sat at the flag officer's station, watching Australia and New Zealand roll by on the main screen.

"The population centers are smaller," said K'Raoda, reading a comparison scan. "Sydney and Melbourne are about a third the size of their alternates."

"We'll be coming up on the Maximus site in a moment," said T'Ral. "No ship traces… wait.

"Scanning a Probe class scout, mark one-three, two-one-four."

"Gunnery," said D'Trelna, "standby. Target coming up."

T'Ral read a new scan. "Negative life support. Negative drive core flow to hull jump nodules." He looked up, surprised. "She's a derelict."

"Abandoned," said K'Raoda, reading his own telltales. "Why?"

"Maybe to augmentV'Tran's' drive," said D'Trelna. "If the machines' universe isn't on the next plane to this one, like Terra Two, they may need more power to punch through."

"How'd they get that scout here?" said K'Raoda. "Piece by piece through the Maximus portal," said T'Ral.

"He's right," said D'Trelna. "That scout's no larger than one of our shuttles.

"If we haven't picked up traces of our destroyer by the time we reach Maximus, deploy scanning satellites."

"Got them," said T'Ral a few moments later, as they passed over California. Computer recorded without comment a coastline radically different than that of Terra One.

"Mark one-seven, five-two-nine-just above…" He frowned. "They're creating a portal. Same general parameters as Maximus and the space portals-some minor energy anomalies."

"Scan to screen," said D'Trelna. His eyes narrowed as the scan graphics came up: two green points of light equidistant from a single circle-a circle that grew larger as they watched. Targeting data began threading across the board.

"No shield," said K'Raoda. "They're diverting all energy to the portal."

"That'sV'Tran 's Glory, all right," said D'Trelna, reading the data.

"Coming within their scan range," said T'Ral.

"Sitting up here bare-assed." The commodore punched into the commnet. "Gunnery. D'Trelna. Imperiad one-seven to Archon five. Take targeting feed and blow that ship away."

"Acknowledged," said B'Tul. "Destroy target."

"Attention. Attention." It was computer-calm but very loud. "The portal has closed. The portal has closed."

They all looked up at the screen. The two green lights and the black were still there, the black continuing to expand.

"Computer-verify," said D'Trelna, annoyed.

"Our portal, Commodore," said T'Ral, checking a permanent rearward scan. "Our portal is gone!"

"Verified," said computer. "Portal to Terra One is gone."

"K'Tran!" D'Trelna lunged for the commlink. "Gunnery. Redoubt one to flanking commander two. Abort that kill order!"

"Order aborted, Commodore," said B'Tul. "Just."

"Machine failure?" suggested K'Raoda. "K'Tran," repeated D'Trelna. "Gunnery. Take outV'Tran 's' shield nexus."

Far amidships, in gunnery control, BTul called up a projection ofV'Tran's Glory. Marking the forward shield nexus in flashing amber, he fed in the targeting data and pushed "Execute."

A stylus-thin red beam flicked from the number seven fusion battery, spanned two and half thousand miles of space and disintegrated a hull relay pod the size of a geode.

"Shield nexus destroyed, Commodore," reported the gunner.

"Very well."

"Something unwholesome is coming through the portal very soon," said D'Trelna as they continued to close on the two ships, "or they'd have run."

He turned toward Engineering. "Lock a tractor beam on that ship, N'Trol. Pull it away from the portal," he said. "Carefully. It's our only way home."

Shalan-Actal flicked from the auxiliary command post, deep in the Vermont granite beneath Maximus, to the bridge ofV'Tran's Glory. Four transmutes worked the instruments, teleporting between twenty-four bridge stations. At the twenty-fifth station a bubble hovered above the command chair. About five feet in diameter, its interior swirled with a sullen red haze.

You and we haven't much time, said the Tactics Master.

We have enough time, replied a chill thought. We are within the prescribed area. When this flashes, a blue beam sprang from the top of the bubble, touching a telltale, our portals are joined. Reinforcements will pour through. Nothing can stop us.

You were stopped twice before-banished from this reality, said Shalan-Actal. By the Empire and by the Trel of prehistory.

The crimson mist swirled darker. The Empire is dust. The Trel less than that.

You are about to be tractor-towed and boarded. The K'Ronarins need that portal device. They are many, we and you are few. They will retake this ship.

Not before the Armada of the One is here. Our ships carry many such portal devices. We will retake the Home Universe. We will find the Betrayer.

The telltale flashed blue.

Victory, said bubble.

K'Ronarin commandos have penetrated the breeding vaults! came the distant alert. They're firing the chambers!

I will not save you at our expense, said the transmute, antennae weaving in agitation. You are on your own, Forward Commander of the One.

Shalan-Actal flicked back to Maximus, taking the handful of S'Cotar from the ship with him.

The last hundred warriors of the once Infinite Hosts of the Magnificent huddled in the old British barracks, sheltering around propane heaters from the blizzard howling under the eaves. Hatched and raised in dry, warm caverns beneath Terra's Moon, serving mostly aboard starships, this was their first exposure to a planet's wilder elements. They stood in small, uncertain groups, feet shuffling uneasily in the flickering light from the emergency generator.

Take arms! ordered the Tactics Master. The K'Ronarins are torching the last hope of the Race!

The blast was still echoing when L'Wrona ducked into the hole. Following, John saw a dark blur of himself, mirrored in the fused black surface of the blasthole; then he was through, standing on a gray granite floor.

"Good God!" He looked up and around. "It's huge."

Ringed by catwalks, the breeding vault soared fifteen levels-thousands of small hexagonal chambers, all a misty jade-green. Gray equipment banks filled the half mile of floor, red-white light pulsing along scan and control feeds up to the chambers. Half a dozen unarmed S'Cotar techs lay dead, cut down by the K'Ronarins.