Mercurial: Ace Evans Book 5 (Ace Evans Series), page 14
“We all have to do things we’d rather not do sometimes,” Nyx said. “And it’s not about being controlled, but about the fact that we only have control over a tiny sliver of what happens in the galaxy. And that’s all we’re responsible for.”
“I just want to shoot something,” Sansabar said with a grin.
“I’m with her,” Ash said.
The conversation moved on to other topics, but it lingered in Alex’s mind. Could he fight and kill people he had known and liked? He wasn’t sure. He had come to know death and hated it. He had slept hard in his new cabin until he dreamed of Candice. He saw her face clearly in his dreams, her eyes shining with tears but staring at nothing. And he saw Ernesto Sallizar, her killer. Alex relived plunging the knife into his chest, but in his dreams, he didn’t die. In his dreams, Ernesto got up and began chasing Alex.
He had seen friends die and had taken more lives than he cared to think about. The attack on Carthage Prime had resulted in hundreds of dead Operators and pilots. Who knew how many people had died on the Zen Tech freighter that Alex had disabled and sent spinning off into deep space? But those were battle casualties, people he didn’t look at when they died. Alex had been face to face with Ernesto Sallizar, and while he felt completely justified in killing the traitor, he also felt guilty.
When they decided to turn in, Alex and Nyx lingered in the hallway between their respective berths. The others moved on to their rooms, while Alex leaned against the bulkhead outside his door.
“Something on your mind?” Nyx asked. “You got awfully quiet tonight.”
“Just thinking about things.”
“What kind of things?” Nyx asked.
“The kind that can’t be changed,” Alex said.
“Is that healthy?”
“Probably not,” he admitted. “But I can’t just forget them either. I’ve done things, Nyx. They were the right things in the moment. If I had to, I’d do them again, and yet I’m not proud of them.”
“War is a hellish business,” Nyx said. “I’m sorry you have to live with it.”
“Yeah, me too,” Alex said.
“But I’m not sorry that it brought us together,” Nyx said, moving over beside him. “Do you think we would have found each other if not for the CDF?”
“I like to think so,” Alex said, turning to face her.
He loved just looking at her. Nyx was so different from anyone he’d ever met. It wasn’t just her beauty, even though she was really beautiful to him. It was the way she moved. She had a grace and poise that took his breath away.
“When things settle down,” she said, “do you think that you and I can spend some time together?”
“Absolutely.”
“I’d like to meet your parents.”
“They would love you,” Alex said.
“Does it scare you to think of taking things to a deeper level with us?”
“It scares me to think of not taking things deeper. I really like you, Nyx.”
“I really like you too, Alex.”
They were quiet for several moments, and then Nyx pushed away from the wall.
“We should get some rest,” she said. “Tomorrow will be a busy day.”
“You think we’ll see action?” Alex asked.
“We have to be ready just in case,” Nyx said. “You could be sitting in your Titan battle suit a long time.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Alex said. “But to tell you the truth, I’d rather this night not end.”
“That would be nice.”
“We could just stand out here and talk forever.”
“You know how to make a girl swoon, Sergeant Evans.”
“Not just any girl,” Alex said. “The girl. The only one for me.”
“What about the girl on the Silent Partner?” Nyx asked. “You said you weren’t close, but I can tell you really cared about her.”
“She died helping me,” Alex said, looking at the floor.
“Was she more than a friend?”
“Are you asking me if I’ve been faithful to you?”
“You don’t owe me anything,” Nyx said. “We haven’t really talked about this, about what we are or anything, you know?”
“Yeah, I get that,” Alex said. “You’ve got a pretty enlightened point of view about things.”
“Did you like her, like her?”
“No,” Alex said with a smile. “For me, there’s only you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Alex was in his battle suit. It felt good to be back in the Titan. He felt more like himself suited up with his friends on either side of him.
We’re crossing through the last tunnel, Nyx said. Her voice an extension of his own, like a whisper inside his brain.
“Stand by, Cronus Team,” Alex said over the platoon channel of his com-link.
“I’m ready,” Ash said.
“You think they’re waiting on us?” Sly asked.
“They’re crazy if they are,” Alex said.
“You know it,” Ash said.
“I love it!” Sly said.
Alex wasn’t synced to the Drachma, even though he could hear her EM waves like a symphony playing quietly in the background. He didn’t need to sync to her systems with Nyx feeding him whatever he needed. She had the ship’s external camera feed on her console and was sending it directly into Alex’s mind via his INC. He could see the feed like a smaller picture on the view screen of his mind. The space tunnel was nothing but black, and it reminded him of drifting through the tunnels in a battle suit. It was lonely and more than a little frightening. Alex preferred to make the journey in the safety of a starship.
The launch bay of the Drachma was loaded with battle suits, but only the Titans would be of any use in a space fight. That meant Alex and his companions would have to keep the vessel with the executive vice president of security, Loman Haley, safe from attacks. It was a daunting challenge, but also exciting. Alex was just glad to be getting back to doing something he was good at.
We’re coming out, Nyx warned.
Alex focused on the small video feed and watched as the black void shifted suddenly to an image of carnage that sprawled across space. In the distance, a cluster of stars glowed golden red, like a molten lump of metal still hot from the forge. The light shone across a vast field of asteroids, billions of them. Alex didn’t know if each was filled with valuable minerals, but if they were, he knew it would take ten thousand years to mine them all.
But it wasn’t the beauty of the Askerria Sector that made his heart race. Between the tunnel and the asteroid field were several disabled ships. Some were dark hulks, just spinning in silent death, others were sparking and venting colorful gas. Alex could see gaping holes in many of the ships, each outlined with scorched metal.
Oh no, Nyx said.
“It looks like a graveyard,” Alex replied.
Suddenly the lights in the hangar bay turned red, and the voice of First Lieutenant Rory Jones boomed over the ship’s speakers.
“Red alert, red alert. All hands, man your battle stations.”
“Are there ships?” Alex asked.
Yes, two cruisers moving in from above the space tunnel. You have to launch now!
The bay doors on the Drachma were to Alex’s left. He released his Titan suit from the clamps that held it in place.
“Here we go,” Alex said. “Nyx, give me missiles on my port side.”
Roger, missiles are spinning up and hot.
“Cronus Team is active,” Alex said as he moved to the door of the hangar and jumped through.
He felt his stomach flop as he fell through the Drachma’s artificial gravity bubble, then he was free of her and in open space. Alex used the big ship as cover and fired his thrusters to bring him up and around the Drachma’s hull at midship.
“We’re right behind you, team leader,” Sly said.
“Good,” Alex responded. “Let’s go introduce ourselves to the neighbors. I’ll say hello, the two of you scan for enemy fighters.”
They flew up and around the Ahzco ship and moved toward the approaching ships. They were still forty kilometers away, but Alex could hear their EM waves. He needed to get closer to sync to them.
“Those are Zen Tech vessels,” Sly said. “What do you think they’re waiting for?”
Commander Haley disengaged the transponder. They’re trying to decide who we are.
“Any word from Colonel Chastain?” Alex asked.
Not yet. We’re scanning for them. There are still a lot of battleships in this sector, but they’ve moved into clusters at various places.
The Zen Tech vessels were large battleships, very much like the vessels Alex had attacked in the Carthage system. As soon as he was able, he let his INC snap to their operating systems and immediately took their weapons offline. Fortunately, the two ships were identical, which made controlling the two different systems easier, but it was still a strain.
“Nyx,” Alex said.
I’m here. What do you need?
“Take over,” he said. “I can’t fly and control those ships.”
Alright, I’ve got you. Should I take you in close?
“As close as we can get,” Alex said.
There was a lot of chatter between the two vessels. Alex cut the lights and shut down the artificial gravity on both ships. The three Titans were close to the big ship on their starboard side.
“They’re launching fighters,” Sly said.
“They haven’t figured out what we’re doing,” Alex said. “I’ve cut power to their radar. They’re blind.”
“Those fighters aren’t,” Ash declared.
“Put us on the hull,” Alex said, partly to his team and partly to Nyx, who was piloting his Titan battle suit remotely. “They shouldn’t be able to pick us up if we’re close to their own battleships.”
Alex couldn’t tell what was happening on the Zen Tech vessels. Perhaps the crew was in a panic, or maybe they were moving to reverse what he’d done to their power and gravity systems. Alex ran through their computers like a mad man, doing as much damage as he could without destroying anything. He wanted to overload circuits and shut down systems, but he didn’t want to kill anyone. Everything he did was temporary, and all the Zen Tech people would have to do was figure out what was being turned off and then turn it all back on again. But the crew members on the battleships were trained to find problems. When the gravity suddenly went offline they assumed it was a mechanical problem with the artificial gravity generator. They might spend hours trying to find the problem when it was essentially just shut off. Cutting the lights didn’t help. They would be floating around, using flashlights, searching for problems with the ship’s electrical system and power generators until someone realized that the computers were still working. All it would take was one perceptive crew member and they could quickly reverse all the damage that Alex had done.
“These ships won’t be a threat,” Alex said, disconnecting from the Zen Tech vessels.
“What about those fighters?” Ash said.
“Should we fire on them?” Sly asked.
“Negative, negative. Do not fire, Cronus Team,” Loman Haley’s voice crackled through their battle suit com-link. “Is there any way to disable them long enough for you to catch up with the Drachma?”
“I can disarm a few of them,” Alex said. “But there are too many to take out completely. They might fire at us.”
“Do what you have to,” Commander Haley said. “But I don’t want to engage anyone we don’t have to. I’m sending communications to every CDF in the system. We need to settle this peacefully.”
“Easy for him to say,” Sly complained.
“How do you want to proceed, Ace?”
“Fast,” Alex said. “I’ll disrupt a few ships, but when I give the word, we run for it.”
“Roger that,” Ash said.
What are you planning?
“We just need a distraction,” Alex said. “I’ll try to draw the fighters to the rear of their battleships.”
He let his mind sync to one of the fighters near the rear of the port battleship. He cut the ship’s engines and fired the laser cannon out into empty space. Over the fighter’s communication system, he heard the pilot in a near panic.
“Mayday! Mayday! I’ve lost all control. And my weapons are firing on their own,” the pilot shouted.
“Raptor Eight, calm down,” the wing leader responded. “That’s impossible. Check your computer targeting system.”
Alex released Raptor Eight and repeated his attack on another fighter, this one near the rear of the starboard battleship, and to his relief he heard the wing leader calling for the other ships to investigate. Only two were left at the bow of the battleships. They hovered in space facing away from Alex and the Titan team.
“Alright,” he said, letting his mind sync to the last two fighters and shutting down their radar and missile control systems. “Go now!”
They took off, using their thrusters to speed them out and away from the Zen Tech ships. The fighters saw them but couldn’t find the Titan battle suits on radar. One started to follow but Alex cut his engine, then disabled both fighters’ weapons systems.
The others are coming back around.
“I knew they would,” Alex said, “but we should be far enough away to escape them.”
“What if they follow us back to the Drachma?” Sly asked.
“We’ll deal with that if it happens,” Alex said. “My bet is that they won’t go far from the battleships. Without power, those fighters are their only defense.”
He was right, the fighters disengaged when it would be obvious they were being led away from the ships they were patrolling around.
“Well, that was sort of anti-climactic,” Sly said. “We didn’t even fire a shot.”
“Did you really want to?” Alex asked.
“A little,” Sly replied. “I feel helpless when all I do is fly around and watch you work.”
“The Titans aren’t made for space battles,” Ash said. “Those fighters are faster and more maneuverable than we are. And our armor wouldn’t last against their weapons.”
“Especially the guns on those battleships,” Alex added.
“Like I said, I’m only a little disappointed,” Sly insisted.
The Drachma moved out and held a position several hundred kilometers from the space tunnels, but well shy of the asteroid field. They were in plain sight, with no real cover. Cronus Team was ordered to remain outside the Drachma, so Alex took his team to the rounded bow of the older ship and they used their electromagnets to clamp their backs to the ship’s hull.
“It’s an amazing view,” Sly said.
The debris from the dozens of destroyed ships glittered and winked in the distant light of the sector’s star cluster. It wasn’t a proper star system. There were no planets, just the vast asteroid field. The stars were weak, with just enough gravity to keep the asteroids from drifting away but not strong enough to spin them into planets.
“Too bad it’s mostly matter from dead ships,” Ash said.
“The fighting must have been fierce,” Alex said. “Do we have word from Colonel Chastain?”
Negative, there are reports from our other vessels that her ship came under heavy fire. We’re searching the wreckage, but so far, no there’s no sign of her.
“What are we doing out here all alone?” Alex asked.
Commander Haley has called for a parley. So far, six of the eleven remaining military groups have agreed to join us.
“Only six?” Alex asked.
So far. I think the others are waiting to see if it’s some kind of trap.
“What are we supposed to do?” Ash said. “Just sit here until we run low on power and air?”
“I suppose,” Alex said. “But the alternative is to fight, and like you said, we aren’t really built for that.”
“I said our Titan MBS aren’t built for that,” Ash said. “You, on the other hand…”
Alex didn’t respond. His head was pounding and he was thankful for a break. He didn’t feel like he had done a lot, but syncing to the fighters who were constantly moving was taxing, and the big battleships had felt like a heavy load to his mind. The burning was back, like a piece of hot shrapnel just behind his eyes. He couldn’t help but fear that he might have another attack. The pain might get so bad that it was debilitating and then he wouldn’t be much help to anyone.
“She’s right,” Sly said. “You’re our secret weapon.”
“I don’t want to be a weapon,” Alex said, realizing for the first time just how true it was.
He loved being an Operator, but his abilities had made him too dangerous. He didn’t want to be responsible for killing hundreds of people every time he went into action. When he’d been just another Operator, fighting to make a difference in the CDF, he felt like he could follow orders. And when he had to fight, it was really just self-defense. But their fight on Skandia had made it all too clear that every time he fought, there were people, real people, getting hurt and killed. It was confusing and frustrating. He was a soldier, but he was reluctant to kill. And he couldn’t help but fear that his new feelings made him a liability to the people he cared about the most.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Loman could feel the stress eating away at him. Four ships from other corporate defense militaries were hovering nearby. Two were close to arriving, but it was a third ship, a Montabon Industries vessel, still ten minutes away, that made him nervous. He couldn’t say why. Once the Drachma had gotten clear of the Zen Tech vessels guarding the space tunnels, Loman had sent word to the leadership of every group. He hoped he could end the fighting before things got really out of hand.
The fighting up to that point had been skirmishes, and it appeared that the only real casualty was the Ahzco flagship, the Collateral. Loman had word that the ship had limped from the sector, fighting off the Zen Tech forces near the space tunnel in the process. And while their scans had picked up no sign of the wreckage, Loman found it hard to believe that Colonel Chastain would run, or that she wouldn’t send him word. He had checked and rechecked his various messaging accounts. There was no word from Colonel Chastain, and no sign of the armada of Ahzco ships.
“I just want to shoot something,” Sansabar said with a grin.
“I’m with her,” Ash said.
The conversation moved on to other topics, but it lingered in Alex’s mind. Could he fight and kill people he had known and liked? He wasn’t sure. He had come to know death and hated it. He had slept hard in his new cabin until he dreamed of Candice. He saw her face clearly in his dreams, her eyes shining with tears but staring at nothing. And he saw Ernesto Sallizar, her killer. Alex relived plunging the knife into his chest, but in his dreams, he didn’t die. In his dreams, Ernesto got up and began chasing Alex.
He had seen friends die and had taken more lives than he cared to think about. The attack on Carthage Prime had resulted in hundreds of dead Operators and pilots. Who knew how many people had died on the Zen Tech freighter that Alex had disabled and sent spinning off into deep space? But those were battle casualties, people he didn’t look at when they died. Alex had been face to face with Ernesto Sallizar, and while he felt completely justified in killing the traitor, he also felt guilty.
When they decided to turn in, Alex and Nyx lingered in the hallway between their respective berths. The others moved on to their rooms, while Alex leaned against the bulkhead outside his door.
“Something on your mind?” Nyx asked. “You got awfully quiet tonight.”
“Just thinking about things.”
“What kind of things?” Nyx asked.
“The kind that can’t be changed,” Alex said.
“Is that healthy?”
“Probably not,” he admitted. “But I can’t just forget them either. I’ve done things, Nyx. They were the right things in the moment. If I had to, I’d do them again, and yet I’m not proud of them.”
“War is a hellish business,” Nyx said. “I’m sorry you have to live with it.”
“Yeah, me too,” Alex said.
“But I’m not sorry that it brought us together,” Nyx said, moving over beside him. “Do you think we would have found each other if not for the CDF?”
“I like to think so,” Alex said, turning to face her.
He loved just looking at her. Nyx was so different from anyone he’d ever met. It wasn’t just her beauty, even though she was really beautiful to him. It was the way she moved. She had a grace and poise that took his breath away.
“When things settle down,” she said, “do you think that you and I can spend some time together?”
“Absolutely.”
“I’d like to meet your parents.”
“They would love you,” Alex said.
“Does it scare you to think of taking things to a deeper level with us?”
“It scares me to think of not taking things deeper. I really like you, Nyx.”
“I really like you too, Alex.”
They were quiet for several moments, and then Nyx pushed away from the wall.
“We should get some rest,” she said. “Tomorrow will be a busy day.”
“You think we’ll see action?” Alex asked.
“We have to be ready just in case,” Nyx said. “You could be sitting in your Titan battle suit a long time.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Alex said. “But to tell you the truth, I’d rather this night not end.”
“That would be nice.”
“We could just stand out here and talk forever.”
“You know how to make a girl swoon, Sergeant Evans.”
“Not just any girl,” Alex said. “The girl. The only one for me.”
“What about the girl on the Silent Partner?” Nyx asked. “You said you weren’t close, but I can tell you really cared about her.”
“She died helping me,” Alex said, looking at the floor.
“Was she more than a friend?”
“Are you asking me if I’ve been faithful to you?”
“You don’t owe me anything,” Nyx said. “We haven’t really talked about this, about what we are or anything, you know?”
“Yeah, I get that,” Alex said. “You’ve got a pretty enlightened point of view about things.”
“Did you like her, like her?”
“No,” Alex said with a smile. “For me, there’s only you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Alex was in his battle suit. It felt good to be back in the Titan. He felt more like himself suited up with his friends on either side of him.
We’re crossing through the last tunnel, Nyx said. Her voice an extension of his own, like a whisper inside his brain.
“Stand by, Cronus Team,” Alex said over the platoon channel of his com-link.
“I’m ready,” Ash said.
“You think they’re waiting on us?” Sly asked.
“They’re crazy if they are,” Alex said.
“You know it,” Ash said.
“I love it!” Sly said.
Alex wasn’t synced to the Drachma, even though he could hear her EM waves like a symphony playing quietly in the background. He didn’t need to sync to her systems with Nyx feeding him whatever he needed. She had the ship’s external camera feed on her console and was sending it directly into Alex’s mind via his INC. He could see the feed like a smaller picture on the view screen of his mind. The space tunnel was nothing but black, and it reminded him of drifting through the tunnels in a battle suit. It was lonely and more than a little frightening. Alex preferred to make the journey in the safety of a starship.
The launch bay of the Drachma was loaded with battle suits, but only the Titans would be of any use in a space fight. That meant Alex and his companions would have to keep the vessel with the executive vice president of security, Loman Haley, safe from attacks. It was a daunting challenge, but also exciting. Alex was just glad to be getting back to doing something he was good at.
We’re coming out, Nyx warned.
Alex focused on the small video feed and watched as the black void shifted suddenly to an image of carnage that sprawled across space. In the distance, a cluster of stars glowed golden red, like a molten lump of metal still hot from the forge. The light shone across a vast field of asteroids, billions of them. Alex didn’t know if each was filled with valuable minerals, but if they were, he knew it would take ten thousand years to mine them all.
But it wasn’t the beauty of the Askerria Sector that made his heart race. Between the tunnel and the asteroid field were several disabled ships. Some were dark hulks, just spinning in silent death, others were sparking and venting colorful gas. Alex could see gaping holes in many of the ships, each outlined with scorched metal.
Oh no, Nyx said.
“It looks like a graveyard,” Alex replied.
Suddenly the lights in the hangar bay turned red, and the voice of First Lieutenant Rory Jones boomed over the ship’s speakers.
“Red alert, red alert. All hands, man your battle stations.”
“Are there ships?” Alex asked.
Yes, two cruisers moving in from above the space tunnel. You have to launch now!
The bay doors on the Drachma were to Alex’s left. He released his Titan suit from the clamps that held it in place.
“Here we go,” Alex said. “Nyx, give me missiles on my port side.”
Roger, missiles are spinning up and hot.
“Cronus Team is active,” Alex said as he moved to the door of the hangar and jumped through.
He felt his stomach flop as he fell through the Drachma’s artificial gravity bubble, then he was free of her and in open space. Alex used the big ship as cover and fired his thrusters to bring him up and around the Drachma’s hull at midship.
“We’re right behind you, team leader,” Sly said.
“Good,” Alex responded. “Let’s go introduce ourselves to the neighbors. I’ll say hello, the two of you scan for enemy fighters.”
They flew up and around the Ahzco ship and moved toward the approaching ships. They were still forty kilometers away, but Alex could hear their EM waves. He needed to get closer to sync to them.
“Those are Zen Tech vessels,” Sly said. “What do you think they’re waiting for?”
Commander Haley disengaged the transponder. They’re trying to decide who we are.
“Any word from Colonel Chastain?” Alex asked.
Not yet. We’re scanning for them. There are still a lot of battleships in this sector, but they’ve moved into clusters at various places.
The Zen Tech vessels were large battleships, very much like the vessels Alex had attacked in the Carthage system. As soon as he was able, he let his INC snap to their operating systems and immediately took their weapons offline. Fortunately, the two ships were identical, which made controlling the two different systems easier, but it was still a strain.
“Nyx,” Alex said.
I’m here. What do you need?
“Take over,” he said. “I can’t fly and control those ships.”
Alright, I’ve got you. Should I take you in close?
“As close as we can get,” Alex said.
There was a lot of chatter between the two vessels. Alex cut the lights and shut down the artificial gravity on both ships. The three Titans were close to the big ship on their starboard side.
“They’re launching fighters,” Sly said.
“They haven’t figured out what we’re doing,” Alex said. “I’ve cut power to their radar. They’re blind.”
“Those fighters aren’t,” Ash declared.
“Put us on the hull,” Alex said, partly to his team and partly to Nyx, who was piloting his Titan battle suit remotely. “They shouldn’t be able to pick us up if we’re close to their own battleships.”
Alex couldn’t tell what was happening on the Zen Tech vessels. Perhaps the crew was in a panic, or maybe they were moving to reverse what he’d done to their power and gravity systems. Alex ran through their computers like a mad man, doing as much damage as he could without destroying anything. He wanted to overload circuits and shut down systems, but he didn’t want to kill anyone. Everything he did was temporary, and all the Zen Tech people would have to do was figure out what was being turned off and then turn it all back on again. But the crew members on the battleships were trained to find problems. When the gravity suddenly went offline they assumed it was a mechanical problem with the artificial gravity generator. They might spend hours trying to find the problem when it was essentially just shut off. Cutting the lights didn’t help. They would be floating around, using flashlights, searching for problems with the ship’s electrical system and power generators until someone realized that the computers were still working. All it would take was one perceptive crew member and they could quickly reverse all the damage that Alex had done.
“These ships won’t be a threat,” Alex said, disconnecting from the Zen Tech vessels.
“What about those fighters?” Ash said.
“Should we fire on them?” Sly asked.
“Negative, negative. Do not fire, Cronus Team,” Loman Haley’s voice crackled through their battle suit com-link. “Is there any way to disable them long enough for you to catch up with the Drachma?”
“I can disarm a few of them,” Alex said. “But there are too many to take out completely. They might fire at us.”
“Do what you have to,” Commander Haley said. “But I don’t want to engage anyone we don’t have to. I’m sending communications to every CDF in the system. We need to settle this peacefully.”
“Easy for him to say,” Sly complained.
“How do you want to proceed, Ace?”
“Fast,” Alex said. “I’ll disrupt a few ships, but when I give the word, we run for it.”
“Roger that,” Ash said.
What are you planning?
“We just need a distraction,” Alex said. “I’ll try to draw the fighters to the rear of their battleships.”
He let his mind sync to one of the fighters near the rear of the port battleship. He cut the ship’s engines and fired the laser cannon out into empty space. Over the fighter’s communication system, he heard the pilot in a near panic.
“Mayday! Mayday! I’ve lost all control. And my weapons are firing on their own,” the pilot shouted.
“Raptor Eight, calm down,” the wing leader responded. “That’s impossible. Check your computer targeting system.”
Alex released Raptor Eight and repeated his attack on another fighter, this one near the rear of the starboard battleship, and to his relief he heard the wing leader calling for the other ships to investigate. Only two were left at the bow of the battleships. They hovered in space facing away from Alex and the Titan team.
“Alright,” he said, letting his mind sync to the last two fighters and shutting down their radar and missile control systems. “Go now!”
They took off, using their thrusters to speed them out and away from the Zen Tech ships. The fighters saw them but couldn’t find the Titan battle suits on radar. One started to follow but Alex cut his engine, then disabled both fighters’ weapons systems.
The others are coming back around.
“I knew they would,” Alex said, “but we should be far enough away to escape them.”
“What if they follow us back to the Drachma?” Sly asked.
“We’ll deal with that if it happens,” Alex said. “My bet is that they won’t go far from the battleships. Without power, those fighters are their only defense.”
He was right, the fighters disengaged when it would be obvious they were being led away from the ships they were patrolling around.
“Well, that was sort of anti-climactic,” Sly said. “We didn’t even fire a shot.”
“Did you really want to?” Alex asked.
“A little,” Sly replied. “I feel helpless when all I do is fly around and watch you work.”
“The Titans aren’t made for space battles,” Ash said. “Those fighters are faster and more maneuverable than we are. And our armor wouldn’t last against their weapons.”
“Especially the guns on those battleships,” Alex added.
“Like I said, I’m only a little disappointed,” Sly insisted.
The Drachma moved out and held a position several hundred kilometers from the space tunnels, but well shy of the asteroid field. They were in plain sight, with no real cover. Cronus Team was ordered to remain outside the Drachma, so Alex took his team to the rounded bow of the older ship and they used their electromagnets to clamp their backs to the ship’s hull.
“It’s an amazing view,” Sly said.
The debris from the dozens of destroyed ships glittered and winked in the distant light of the sector’s star cluster. It wasn’t a proper star system. There were no planets, just the vast asteroid field. The stars were weak, with just enough gravity to keep the asteroids from drifting away but not strong enough to spin them into planets.
“Too bad it’s mostly matter from dead ships,” Ash said.
“The fighting must have been fierce,” Alex said. “Do we have word from Colonel Chastain?”
Negative, there are reports from our other vessels that her ship came under heavy fire. We’re searching the wreckage, but so far, no there’s no sign of her.
“What are we doing out here all alone?” Alex asked.
Commander Haley has called for a parley. So far, six of the eleven remaining military groups have agreed to join us.
“Only six?” Alex asked.
So far. I think the others are waiting to see if it’s some kind of trap.
“What are we supposed to do?” Ash said. “Just sit here until we run low on power and air?”
“I suppose,” Alex said. “But the alternative is to fight, and like you said, we aren’t really built for that.”
“I said our Titan MBS aren’t built for that,” Ash said. “You, on the other hand…”
Alex didn’t respond. His head was pounding and he was thankful for a break. He didn’t feel like he had done a lot, but syncing to the fighters who were constantly moving was taxing, and the big battleships had felt like a heavy load to his mind. The burning was back, like a piece of hot shrapnel just behind his eyes. He couldn’t help but fear that he might have another attack. The pain might get so bad that it was debilitating and then he wouldn’t be much help to anyone.
“She’s right,” Sly said. “You’re our secret weapon.”
“I don’t want to be a weapon,” Alex said, realizing for the first time just how true it was.
He loved being an Operator, but his abilities had made him too dangerous. He didn’t want to be responsible for killing hundreds of people every time he went into action. When he’d been just another Operator, fighting to make a difference in the CDF, he felt like he could follow orders. And when he had to fight, it was really just self-defense. But their fight on Skandia had made it all too clear that every time he fought, there were people, real people, getting hurt and killed. It was confusing and frustrating. He was a soldier, but he was reluctant to kill. And he couldn’t help but fear that his new feelings made him a liability to the people he cared about the most.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Loman could feel the stress eating away at him. Four ships from other corporate defense militaries were hovering nearby. Two were close to arriving, but it was a third ship, a Montabon Industries vessel, still ten minutes away, that made him nervous. He couldn’t say why. Once the Drachma had gotten clear of the Zen Tech vessels guarding the space tunnels, Loman had sent word to the leadership of every group. He hoped he could end the fighting before things got really out of hand.
The fighting up to that point had been skirmishes, and it appeared that the only real casualty was the Ahzco flagship, the Collateral. Loman had word that the ship had limped from the sector, fighting off the Zen Tech forces near the space tunnel in the process. And while their scans had picked up no sign of the wreckage, Loman found it hard to believe that Colonel Chastain would run, or that she wouldn’t send him word. He had checked and rechecked his various messaging accounts. There was no word from Colonel Chastain, and no sign of the armada of Ahzco ships.
