John Ringo: East of the Sun, West of the Moon

“Then we have to get the teleport block down,” Reyes replied, angrily. “Find that bitch Travante. She’s the Key-holder and the Key.”

“Move, move, move,” Herzer said, keeping one hand clamped on the handhold of the Tammen and the other on his safety line. “Carefully.”

“Herzer, this is Evan,” the engineer said. “There’s an orc picket outside Engineering.”

“Cruz,” Herzer replied. “Take them down. Fast.”

“The Tammens might be able to steer us out of a retrograde orbit,” Geo said. He was carrying the other end of the Tammen and trying to keep in step with the larger Blood Lord commander. “If we get the engines shut down and get them in place in time. It will take a few minutes to get the neural net synced to the councilwoman, though.”

“Ask me for anything but time,” Herzer muttered. “Cruz? How’s it coming?”

“Great One!” Sharkack called over the communicator. “The humans are attacking the starboard airlock! Durgast is dead and they are cutting through the airlock doors!”

Reyes opened his mouth and then shut it.

“Great One, if I may,” Tur-uck said, diffidently. “They are probably going to try to turn the engines off. That may be for the best.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Reyes replied. “Sharkack, pull out of Engineering to port. Just let them have it.”

“Yes, Great One,” the Durgar replied in a puzzled tone.

“They won’t know how many orcs we left behind,” Reyes said, getting to his feet, his eyes distant in thought. “Which means they’ll have brought all their fighters. Which means that the councilwoman, whom they also have to protect, will be with them.”

“Yes, Great One,” Tur-uck said, grinning fiercely. “We attack?”

“We attack,” Reyes said. “Now.”

“Herzer.”

“Go, Sesheshet,” Herzer replied. It had taken twenty minutes to cut through the airlock doors, venting the engineering spaces in the process, but when they got into the vast space, the orcs had left.

“What looks like the entire remaining force just exited Control, headed for Engineering,” the private stated. “I can see Reyes and that elf-thing with them.”

“Got it,” Herzer said. “Hold your position and stay out of sight.”

“Will do.”

“Evan?” Herzer asked. “How long?”

The engines had been shut down again and the Tammens were being attached to the primary power feeds from the reactors. The field generators could extract the electrons directly from the power leads, shunting them through two fields to convert the power into zero point particle reactionless drive fields.

Theoretically.

“Just about there,” Evan said. “We’re initializing the neural feed now. Mistress Travante?”

Megan was sitting in a station chair, her eyes closed, but she waved a hand.

“I can see the power,” she whispered. “Boy, that’s a lot of power.”

“Careful with it,” Evan replied.

“It’s… raw,” Megan said, carefully. “It’s just… there. I’m not sure how to even manipulate it. Mother usually does most of the work. This is just… lots and lots of power.”

“Whoa!” Cruz said as he leaned sideways. It was as if the gravity in the room had suddenly shifted and he spread his feet to fight the disorientation. Sergeant Rubenstein lifted up off the ground and drifted forward, then just as abruptly dropped to the deck, swearing.

“Sorry,” Megan said, her eyes still closed. “I’m trying to sort of… grab the ship. And there’s not much feedback. I’m looking for something solid to grab onto, trying to find the structural members. It’s… weird.”

“Figure it out quickly, darling,” Herzer replied, calmly. “We’ve got company coming. Blood Lords, assemble at the blown door. We’ll hold them, there, until Megan gets control of the power. Team Cruz, then Van Krief, then Van Buskirk, then mine.”

“If it gets down to you, Layne and Yetta, it’s going to be ugly,” Van Buskirk said, quietly. “Any ideas what to do about the elf?”

“I do,” Nicole said, nodding. “Evan, Paul, I could use some help.”

“They’re going to be waiting for us at the door,” Reyes said as they approached the cut-out airlock. “Tragack, you go first. Clear out the resistance. Then a wave of scorpions, then Sharkack’s group then Tur-uck’s. I’ll go last.”

“Yes, Master,” the elf said, his stride widening to pass through the struggling orcs. When he got to the door, which was “down” from his perspective, he leaned over and looked through. On the far side of the second door a line of armored figures was waiting. They were standing in gravity, looking sideways from his perspective.

He reached down to grab the cut-away frame, intending to swing through both doors and into the line, and his hand clamped on the exposed copper power cable that had been laid around the inside of the door.

Nicole and Evan had cut away the top of the insulator and glued the lead to the inside of the frame, so the exposed copper was in direct contact with the underside of the Dark One’s metal gauntlet. The lead carried the full force of the internal power fusion generator, some ten megawatts, and the electricity coursed into the Dark One’s body through his armor. The internal suit insulation gave some resistance, but not much, and the Dark One let out an unheard howl of pain as his suit electronics fried and the internal materials began to burn around him. The coursing power had caused his hand to clamp and his muscles to jerk irregularly, yanking his boots loose from their magnetic hold, but there was no way he could let go of the door edge.

From Reyes’ perspective, the elf had simply frozen in place, floating away from the ship with his hand clamped on the door, but some of the nearer orcs began to apparently dance a jig as residual power spread onto the surface of the ship.

“Tragack?” Reyes said, stopping.

“Yi, yi, yi, yi!” Sharkack said, his communicator popping and squealing.

“What is happening ?” Reyes shouted, holding his place.

“Breaker blew,” Evan said as the internal lights went off.

“Dark One’s still there,” Cruz said switching on his suit light, then shook his head as the huge armored figure’s hand released its deathhold on the door frame and drifted away. “Cancel. Elf’s done.”

“The main is well and truly fried,” Linda said, from the breaker panel. “It’ll take us a while to get power back on.”

“Still a bunch of orcs out there,” Cruz said as heads began to appear in the opening. “Die or drop time.”

“Herzer, this is Joie,” the pilot said. “You know the ship is wildly off course, right?”

“Stand by, Joie,” Herzer replied. “Evan, how far can Megan be from the power generators?”

“Oh, anywhere on this end of the ship,” Evan replied.

“Drop what you’re doing,” Herzer said. “Lieutenant Van Krief, pull your team back and head for the far side of Engineering and exit to port. Take the councilwoman and all the techs with you. This has just become a delaying action. Joie, how long to docking?”

“Ten, twelve minutes,” Joie said. “Herzer, the ship is headed for Earth on a degrading orbit. More like right smack dab at Earth at very high velocity. And it’s rotated so the main engines are pointed down. Not that they’ll stop it or anything.”

“We know,” Herzer said, gently prying the entirely introspective Megan out of her chair. “Just get docked. We have company and I’d appreciate some help.”

“Go!” Sharkack called as the first Durgar clambered into the airlock. “Get the humans!”

Reyes could see that they were headed towards Earth, now, since the ship had somehow gotten rotated with the engines down . He guessed that the pilot had done it in a desperate attempt to avoid a crash.