Jack Campbell - Perilous Shield

The danger markers on Gaiene’s display were winking out as defenses around the bridge citadel shut down. He gestured, and several soldiers scuttled forward, around the corner of the passageway and toward the massive armored hatch sealing off the bridge.

No attacks erupted from hidden traps, so Gaiene and the rest of his soldiers followed, additional units closing in on the bridge from other sides and the decks above and below it. Armor and defenses were in place in those locations, too, but the ship’s commander appeared to be abiding by his agreement to surrender.

Vibration could be felt as the heavy bolts holding the hatch locked ponderously retracted, then the hatch itself pulled back.

Soldiers stormed inside, their weapons ready. Gaiene came with them, a last rush of adrenaline fueling the elation of victory.

The bridge crew were standing with raised arms, hands resting on their heads, most of them at their duty stations. But several were gathered around the spot where a man and a woman in the standard suits of the ISS lay on the deck. Gaiene gave the snakes a dismissive glance that took in the unnatural angles of their heads that bespoke broken necks. “Make sure they’re dead,” he ordered one of the officers with him. “Make sure everyone else up here is disarmed, then get them down to one of the holding areas. Lieutenant Bulgori, get on the comm controls and let the battleship know we have the bridge of this unit and will soon have the rest in hand.”

A series of faint shocks registered through the hull of the battle cruiser. Gaiene switched his attention and his display to a close-up on Lieutenant Colonel Safir’s portion of the brigade. The defenses outside the weapons-control citadel had been destroyed, allowing soldiers to get close enough to place breaching charges powerful enough to defeat even the protection around a citadel. The shocks had marked holes being blown in the armor guarding the citadel, and now antipersonnel and electromagnetic-pulse grenades were being fired in through the openings, followed by assault forces with rifles blazing.

A few snakes were still standing, their outlines barely visible through the murk created in the weapons-control citadel by the breaching charges and grenades. Gaiene barely had time to focus on the remote images before the shapes of the snakes were torn ragged by scores of shots and tossed aside.

“We have the propulsion-control and weapons-control citadels,” Safir reported. “Propulsion surrendered as soon as their defenses deactivated.”

“Thank you,” Gaiene replied. “I fear we’re going to hear some complaints from our shipyard people about the damage to the weapons-control area.”

“We did try to minimize the damage,” Safir said with a grin.

“Yes, but the repair people will be unreasonable. You know how they are. You broke it. It’s our job to break things, but they never understand that. Speaking of jobs, you did a good one as second-in-command, fulfilling every expectation of your superiors in the finest tradition of etc., etc., etc. Let’s get the internal sensors back online and make certain there aren’t any crew members hiding in out-of-the-way places.”

“We’re on it, Colonel. It looks like we captured between four and five hundred crew members. This ship was a little short-handed.”

“Not as much as it is now.”

“We have comms with the Midway ,” Lieutenant Bulgori reported. “A minute after our attack began, Gryphon and Basilisk opened fire at close range on the four HuKs escorting this battle cruiser. Three of them were destroyed, and the fourth surrendered after taking propulsion damage.”

Thank you, Kapitan Stein. A pity you don’t seem inclined to celebrate our victory with me in a very inappropriate fashion. Gaiene looked around, weary, sensing the color flowing out of the world once more. They had won. It didn’t really matter, nothing really mattered, but at least the attack had provided a momentary lift to his deadened spirits. And it had provided a victory for Artur Drakon, who had kept him from dying in a labor camp or a gutter. It was all as good as anything could be in a universe that had ceased to hold meaning.

The commander’s seat on the battle cruiser’s bridge lay vacant and somehow forlorn. Gaiene walked over to it and sat down, half of his mind monitoring his soldiers as they went about the business of making secure the battle cruiser they had just captured, and the other half wondering how long it would be before he could get drunk again. Secure the ship, turn it over to the mobile forces people, then find out where the shipyard workers kept their booze.

It was always good to plan things out.

Given how their last private conversation had ended, Drakon was surprised to see Iceni smiling at him when she called on their secure line.

“I wanted to thank you, General, for my lovely new battle cruiser.”

“ Your lovely new battle cruiser?” Drakon asked.

“Now, don’t spoil the present by getting tightfisted.” Iceni smiled wider. “I may be a witch at times, but I’m not an ungrateful witch. In all seriousness, I know I owe this to your soldiers and your decision to participate in the operation. Once we get the battle cruiser back in shape and the battleship operational, we’ll have a defense for this star system that will knock Boyens on his butt if he shows up here again.”

“Colonel Gaiene said there wasn’t much damage to the battle cruiser,” Drakon said.

She laughed, a sound he found unexpectedly pleasant after their strained relationship of recent weeks. “That’s a ground forces assessment. Your soldiers, and I know they had no choice, trashed some important equipment, blew out a lot of hatches, and even blew some holes in bulkheads that aren’t supposed to have holes in them. That all has to be fixed. Most of the survivors among the crew appear willing to join us, but there aren’t that many survivors compared to the size of the crew a battle cruiser needs.”

“If we’re lucky, Colonel Rogero and your Kommodor will solve that problem. They should be bringing back enough veterans to crew both Midway and the new battle cruiser.”

“Yes. What should we name it, Artur?” She gave him a happily inquiring look. “I named the battleship. You should give a name to our new battle cruiser.”

“Really?” Gwen was in a good mood. Of course, he couldn’t expect to produce a battle cruiser for her every time she got inexplicably moody, but, hopefully, that wouldn’t be necessary too often. “Do you want to name battle cruisers after stars, too?”

“I think it would be a good idea. But…” Iceni pursed her lips in thought. “If we name the ship after one of the nearby stars, they might either take that as an indication we feel a sense of ownership toward them or give them the mistaken impression that they have some rights to the battle cruiser.”

“That’s a concern,” Drakon agreed. “How about if we name the battle cruiser after a star nobody occupies? Pele.”

“Pele? A star occupied by the enigmas?”

“The enigmas kicked the Syndicate out of Pele,” Drakon said, “but according to what Black Jack’s fleet found, there’s no enigma presence there.”

“Hmmm.” Iceni looked sideways, considering. “We are the frontline defense of humanity against the enigmas. Declaring some sort of tie to Pele would emphasize that.”

“It might not please the enigmas,” Drakon felt constrained to point out.

“Who the hell cares what pleases the enigmas? Who the hell knows what pleases the enigmas? Even Black Jack couldn’t find out. The enigmas just keep attacking us and tried to depopulate this entire planet.” Iceni nodded. “I’m good with Pele . And I will freely admit that you were right in your assessment of Colonel Gaiene. Kapitan-Leytenant Kontos was very leery of your colonel, but was awestruck by how well he and his unit carried out the capture of the battle cruiser.” Her smile became tentative. “I’m going to have to learn to… trust… your assessments.”