Predator (Old Ironsides Book 3) Read online

‘Admiral!’ Tyrone said, without any preamble. ‘We are under attack! Ayleea is gone. The enemy harvests the life on planets for unknown reasons. They are octopedal, amphibious and predatory, but their ships appear to have been taken from other species. They use a shape shifting species as an advance guard to infiltrate their enemies – you cannot trust anybody!’

  O’Hara replied, his transmission flickering with distance and interference from the pursuing capital ships.

  ‘Can you reach home?’ he asked. ‘Can you make it back to Sol?’

  ‘We have no super luminal engines!’ Tyrone replied. ‘And we’re being pursued by five, repeat, five capital ships! We need assistance, immediately!’

  Admiral O’Hara watched Tyrone for a long moment and he spoke, but Tyrone could not hear the admiral’s words. The signal began to flicker and before he could say anything more it broke up completely.

  ‘The capital ships are opening fire!’ an Ayleean warned him. ‘Brace for impact!’

  Tyrone barely heard the warning, staring out of the main viewing panel as he realized that they had won a battle only to lose the war. In a flash of vivid light he saw the universe outside the viewing panel flare brilliant white and he knew that his time was over.

  ***

  XXXIII

  CSS Defiance

  ‘Destination in thirty seconds, captain.’

  Sula watched as Captain Jordyn Lucas sat down in her seat in the center of the bridge and surveyed the command stations. She could see from the expressions on the faces of the crew that they were as ready as they could be for whatever awaited them on Ayleea. Sula felt something of a burden of responsibility for having brought them back here, especially after it had almost cost them their lives, but the chance to bring Tyrone home and learn something more about their unknown enemy had been enough to sway the crew behind her.

  ‘Twenty seconds.’

  ‘All power to shields and weapons,’ Captain Lucas ordered. ‘Open a communications channel with Polaris Station ready for when we go sub luminal. Whatever happens out there I want somebody to see it and learn from it.’

  Sula took hold of the command rail, ready for the deceleration from super luminal into normal cruise and knowing now that Defiance would initiate evasive manoeuvers as a matter of course the moment she dropped out of super luminal cruise.

  ‘Ten seconds.’

  Strangely Sula found herself wondering what Nathan Ironside would be doing at that moment. She recalled his interest in her, in her family, in what she was doing. His concern for her welfare had been comforting, a meagre flame of warmth to fill the frigid void left after the death of her father. Only now, as the ship was heading back into danger once again as her father had done so many times, could she appreciate what it meant to have somebody to care for her and her mother, somebody who did so for no other reason than kindness.

  ‘Five seconds.’

  Captain Lucas gripped the rests of her seat more tightly.

  ‘Here we go, stay sharp.’

  Sula watched the main display screen as the engineer counted down the time.

  ‘…three, two, one, now!’

  Defiance surged as she dropped out of super luminal cruise, the display screen flaring bright white and then settling down to reveal a blanket of stars twinkling in the darkness of space and the planet Ayleea, entirely in shadow and only the faint blue ring of her atmosphere illuminated by the sun on her far side. Sula squinted and could make out the fiery scars of burning cities glowing in the darkness.

  ‘Hard to port, full pulse power!’ the helmsman called as he turned.

  ‘All plasma batteries charged, shields at maximum!’

  And then the tactical officer cried out.

  ‘Multiple contacts three thousand meters, elevation three fiver niner!’

  The helmsman responded instantly, turning Defiance to bring her main guns to bear on whatever was out there. Sula saw the display screen switch instantly to latch onto the detected targets and heard a gasp as they were identified as five enemy capital ships coming straight at Defiance.

  ‘There are five of them?!’ Walker stammered.

  ‘And they’re–engaged,’ Lucas confirmed as she saw flickering exchanges of plasma fire. ‘Helm, take us in at maximum impulse and fire off a salvo as we pass. Don’t give them time to shoot back!’

  ‘Aye, cap’n!’

  Walker gasped in horror. ‘You’re engaging them?’

  ‘I’m coming to the aid of whomever they’re attacking.’

  ‘Captain, priority IFF distress code, it’s Fortitude!’

  Lucas shot up out of her seat as the main display screen zoomed in on Fortitude, the sleek cruiser trailing debris and escaping gases as she fled directly toward them just ahead of the lumbering capital ships, only two of her engines functioning.

  ‘Damn it she’s crippled,’ Lucas snapped. ‘Covering fire, immediately!’

  The tactical officer complied immediately and Defiance’s starboard batteries opened up as the frigate heeled over hard to port. The plasma shots rocketed toward Fortitude and flashed over her bridge before zipping into the distance and smashing into the bridge of the nearest attacking capital ship.

  *

  Tyrone Hackett saw the bright flare of light and closed his eyes, waiting for the unimaginable pain of plasma fire obliterating his body and that of every Ayleean on the bridge around him.

  The cruiser shook but he felt nothing, and he opened one eye.

  ‘CSS frigate, dead ahead!’ Shylo yelled. ‘They’re opening fire!’

  Tyrone saw flashes of plasma fire rocket toward them as Defiance surged from the brilliant flare of her rapidly fading gravity well and fired. The shots rocketed over the cruiser and smashed into the pursuing capital ships and Tyrone let out a whoop of delight and stood up out of his seat.

  His legs promptly gave way beneath him again and he slumped back into the chair as Defiance turned away before them.

  ‘Open a channel,’ Tyrone gasped. ‘That’s our ticket out of here.’

  *

  Sula watched as the main display screen in Defiance’s bridge flickered and an image of Lieutenant Tyrone Hackett appeared on the screen. He looked ill, sheened with sweat and his eyes drooped with what looked like exhaustion.

  ‘What took you so long folks?’

  ‘Identify yourself!’ Captain Lucas snapped.

  ‘Lieutenant Tyrone Hackett, CSS Endeavour, now aboard the senate cruiser Fortitude. We are unable to jump to super luminal, have civilian casualties and require immediate extraction.’

  Sula leaped to her feet as she saw the lieutenant’s ragged face on the screen. A quick glance at the tactical display revealed that Fortitude was mortally damaged and would not stay ahead of the capital ships chasing her for much longer. Defiance had slid into a formation position alongside the smaller cruiser but she too would become a target before long.

  Walker spoke openly on the bridge. ‘Captain, we’re no match for a single one of those capital ships, let alone five. If we remain here to assist Fortitude, we put ourselves in range of their guns.’

  ‘Would you have me leave them there?’ Lucas challenged.

  Walker lifted his chin slightly. ‘Better to lose one ship than two.’

  Beside Hackett’s face on the screen, the angry, leathery face of an Ayleean warrior appeared and sneered out at Walker.

  ‘I wouldn’t have expected anything else from a human,’ he snarled.

  Walker recoiled. ‘There are Ayleeans aboard the cruiser!’

  ‘They’re with me,’ Tyrone snapped. ‘They’re the only survivors. Fortitude’s crew is gone.’

  Captain Lucas looked at Walker. ‘They could be shape shifters too.’

  Sula felt the first hint of panic hit her as she realized what Lucas was suggesting.

  ‘They could be infected,’ Walker agreed. ‘There could be more of them aboard, even if Hackett is genuinely there. If we let them all aboard us…’

  Captain Lucas glanced a
t the screen and Hackett’s sickly features. The lieutenant gave her a withering glance as he pointed at his own face.

  ‘You ever see one of the shape shifters look as bad as this? I took a direct hit from a sentry drone, twice, to get this far. You wanna quarantine us when we get aboard then go ahead, but if we don’t leave in the next five minutes you’re gonna be sweeping up the few atoms of us that’ll be left so how about you make up your damned minds?’

  Captain Lucas wrestled with indecision as Sula watched her, and on an impulse Sula turned to Tyrone on the screen.

  ‘What did you say to me me the last time you saw me, when you insulted me?’

  Tyrone looked at her and she saw the uncertainty on his face. The bridge crew on Defiance looked accusingly at Tyrone as he stumbled on his response.

  ‘Well, I, er, y’know, I….’

  ‘A clone wouldn’t know what happened because you hadn’t met one yet,’ Sula snapped impatiently. ‘I figure they can only replicate objects and forms, they can’t replicate memories. What did you tell me to do?!’

  Tyrone sighed.

  ‘I told you to take a hike Ensign, because only big boys get to play with big toys.’

  Sula couldn’t prevent the smirk that twisted her face into a smile as she glanced at Captain Lucas.

  ‘Is that so, lieutenant?’ Lucas asked in a stern voice. ‘We will have to discuss that when you and your team get aboard.’

  ‘Yeah, about that, now’s a really good time!’

  ‘The capital ships are almost within range of Fortitude,’ the tactical officer informed Lucas. ‘One shot and her hull will be compromised. She’ll be blown apart.’

  Sula looked at the captain and she sensed the thoughts flashing through her mind one after the other as she sought a way to achieve the impossible, realized the incredible stress the command of a frigate in battle placed upon its captain.

  ‘If we stop to board her we’re all dead,’ Walker reminded his captain.

  ‘If we do nothing they’ll all be dead,’ Lucas replied without looking at him.

  Sula began hopping up and down as she sensed the answer staring them in the face.

  ‘How many are there aboard Fortitude?’ she asked Tyrone.

  ‘Couple hundred,’ Tyrone replied, ‘all Ayleeans plus me.’

  Sula nodded. ‘Fortitude was in orbit, so you must have got aboard her somehow.’

  ‘Shuttle,’ Tyrone replied, ‘but that’s not nearly fast enough to get us the hell out of here and…’

  Sula turned to Captain Lucas. ‘I have an idea.’

  ‘Let’s hear it,’ Lucas replied.

  *

  ‘This is insane!’ Shylo snapped.

  Tyrone didn’t argue as they hurried to the landing bay and opened the hatches once more, the atmosphere inside the bay re stabilized. The two hundred or so Ayleeans flocked to the shuttle as Tyrone headed for his Phantom.

  ‘I don’t like it either but it’s the only chance we have. Get aboard and head straight for Defiance as soon as those doors open, understood?’

  Shylo grunted an unintelligible response as he hurried away toward the shuttle and stormed up the boarding ramp. Tyrone leaped into his cockpit and started the engines as the canopy closed, firing up the plasma cannons for good measure as he checked the systems and hoped against hope that Sula’s idea would work. Fortitude had shut down her engines and turned about, and was now effectively flying backward, her bow pointing at the pursuing capital ships.

  The shuttle’s boarding ramp closed and Tyrone watched and waited as the automated computer evacuated the air once more from the landing bay and disabled the hard light shielding before opening the main doors.

  A rush of vaporized, frozen air was drawn out of the bay in writhing whorls of misty ice crystals and suddenly Tyrone could see deep space beyond and the stern of Defiance directly ahead.

  ‘Go, now!’ he snapped across the communications channel.

  The shuttle blasted out of the landing bay at full power, rocketing past the Phantom as it launched itself toward Defiance. Tyrone saw the frigate’s stern landing bay open as he rocked the fighter’s throttles forward and accelerated out of the landing bay even as he saw Fortitude’s remaining engines re engaging their power as they had been programmed to do the moment the launch bay doors opened.

  The cruiser slowed dramatically in its backward flight as the Phantom soared from the landing bay toward Defiance. Tyrone craned his neck around his head rest and saw the cruiser suddenly accelerating away directly toward the pursuing capital ships.

  ‘Go Fortitude,’ he whispered in delight.

  The unarmed cruiser rocketed away and began turning directly toward the nearest of the pursuing capital ships, following a pre–programmed course. The lumbering vessel began to turn to try to avoid the missile now plowing toward it at maximum pulse power, but the high velocity and immense mass of the warship was no match for the agility of the smaller cruiser and the attack so unexpected that it was unable to bring its massive guns to bear on the smaller vessel.

  ‘It’s working!’ Tyrone yelled.

  He turned the Phantom slightly for a better view, and moments later he saw the five capital ships break away from each other as Fortitude rushed in to the leading ship and smashed into her with all of her twelve thousand tons of hull.

  *

  The deck of Defiance was filled with a chorus of cheers as Fortitude vanished amid a blossoming fireball of brilliant white light and flame. The bridge of the capital ship dissolved into a flaming mess as the collision shattered the huge vessel and broke her hull just aft of the bridge.

  Sula felt the tension go out of her chest and shoulders as the crippled warship slowed, explosions ripping through her hull as she came apart at the seams. Alongside her the other warships were turning back onto course to pursue Defiance, but Sula could see that there was no way they would catch up with the frigate as the shuttle and the Phantom fighter landed in her stern bays.

  Sula had told Fortitude to use her bow thrusters to turn about, and then to launch the shuttle and Phantom fighter out of her rear bay before sending Fortitude flying into the enemy via remote guidance from Defiance in an attempt to force a collision. The cruiser’s momentum gave the slower shuttle an edge over the pursuing warships when she launched, and the collision attempt would scatter the five ships giving the shuttle and fighter time to land and escape.

  ‘Both craft are aboard, landing bays closed!’ the tactical officer said.

  ‘Jump to super luminal, effective immediately!’

  Defiance surged as a rainbow spectrum of light filled the bridge and the display screen flared bright white, and then the frigate blasted its way into super luminal cruise and the display screen went pure black. A few more cheers rippled across the bridge as Sula ran a hand through her hair in relief.

  Captain Lucas leaned back in her seat and glanced at Walker.

  ‘A fire ship, huh?’ she said.

  The XO peered at Sula with interest. ‘You’re quite inventive for a youngster.’

  ‘And quite destructive too,’ Lucas observed with an appraising smile. ‘I like it.’

  Sula managed a faint smile. ‘Now what do we do?’

  Captain Lucas straightened her uniform and turned to the helmsman.

  ‘No sense in hiding now,’ she said. ‘Plot a course for Polaris Station, maximum velocity. We need to tell them everything we can about the enemy, and hope to hell we’re not too late.’

  ***

  XXXIV

  New Washington

  The panic in the air was tangible, as though alive and shrieking like banshees through the streets as the city went into lockdown for the second time in a year. Nathan could hear distant sirens echoing mournfully across the city as he dashed for a squad vehicle on the roof.

  Lieutenant Foxx jumped into the cockpit with Nathan just behind as Allen and Vasquez took the rear seats. Within moments the craft took off, the doors closing even as the EM Drive kicked in and blast
ed whorls of rainwater away from beneath the vehicle.

  Foxx flew the craft up into the flow of traffic rushing through the sky lanes and then flew directly up North Four’s arm toward the spaceport at the station’s heart. Nathan felt the station’s gravity fade rapidly away as they flew into the port and saw the shield doors firmly closed, all traffic blocked from getting in and out.

  ‘How the hell are we going to get past that?’ Allen asked.

  ‘I don’t want to know,’ Foxx replied as she aimed for a landing spot alongside a City Defense Force patrol shuttle parked nearby. ‘Because that’ll be down to Betty.’

  The City Defense Force was a small unit attached to the police and CSS. Equipped with militarized spacecraft, they were mostly charged with anti smuggling duties, tracking down traffickers in body parts, illegal biomechanical enhancement packages and of course the drug of choice, Shiver, still widely available on North Four’s tougher streets.

  ‘Detective Ironside,’ Betty greeted them as they climbed out of their squad vehicle. ‘The city’s on lockdown and there’s chaos everywhere, so I guessed you were on duty.’

  ‘Not me this time,’ Nathan assured her, raising his hands in innocence.

  ‘We need a ride to the surface,’ Foxx said. ‘It’s urgent.’

  ‘Is it ever anything else with you two?’ Betty asked. ‘You’ve noticed that the shield doors are down, right?’

  There was no suggestion in her tone that she couldn’t help them, only a statement of fact. Betty Buzz Luther was one of the most experienced precinct pilots in the force, with over fifty years’ service behind her and a reputation for reckless flying that had traumatized more than one officer over the years.

  ‘We need a way through,’ Vasquez said, slightly nervously. ‘You got any ideas?’

  Betty offered him a withering look. ‘You’re asking me that?’

  ‘We’re kinda worried about it,’ Allen offered.

  Betty produced a pair of flying gloves from her pocket and pulled them onto her hands as she smiled sweetly at him.