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Episode 100: One Man's War
"Aim for Imperator's weapons arrays. Do not hit any vital systems. We are here to save as many lives as we can. Shaddai will take care of the rest," Masterson instructed, Arach's words to David earlier echoing in his mind.
Masterson clenched his jaw as he watched the first round of missiles streak towards Desslok's ship.
"They've evaded," radar said. "Imperator's charging the Eratite ship. It's going to –"
Cold fear clasped Masterson's heart. "Adonai, no…" he whispered, staring at the radar image in despair.
"Wildstar, there's an incoming audio message –"
"Two ships on the radar! Both Gamilon," Nova interrupted Homer. "The larger ship is bearing down on our position."
"Play the message, Homer. Venture, evasive maneuvers," Derek instructed.
Homer opened the message. When he heard the tone of the messenger, fear gripped him.
"It says to get out now." Homer looked back at Derek. "Something's going on out there, Wildstar, and I don't think it's good."
"Three ships on radar now," Nova said. "Two are hanging back – but the one is still in pursuit – wait, one of the other two is firing… on the capitol ship."
"What?" Derek asked, confused.
"I don't know." Nova shook her head. "But they missed. The capitol ship's call sign is reading Imperator. It's still gaining on us."
"Punch it, Mark," Derek ordered.
Venture amped the engine speed up as high as it would go. The ship squealed in protest as they swung around to avoid the oncoming Gamilons.
Derek flew half-way across the bridge when the other ship slammed into them. He hit Dash's chair with a thud and groaned as the other man helped him up.
"They're boarding," Sandor said from across the bridge. "We're already getting sensor readings from the impact site. There are a dozen of them clustered around the incursion point."
Derek grabbed his gun, shaking off the ache ringing in his skull. "I'm going down there. Dash, get a message off to everyone in that area. Tell them to converge on my position and be ready for a fight."
Dash nodded.
Derek rushed off the bridge. Nova streaked after him, but ran right into the closed elevator door. "Sandor, get Miki up here," she called to the XO as she dashed for the emergency stairs on the other side of the captain's station.
Celestella felt the Gate's energy coursing through her system as she drank in the power it offered her. She could see where the spirits lurked, giving thoughts of death and doubt to everyone who passed them. In delight she watched the little Eratites scramble about. But then she saw the woman who'd ushered her on board this monstrosity – Nova.
Celestella growled at Nova as she moved around unhindered by the host's effects. Others did the same, but Nova's freedom itched at her in a way that the others' didn't.
"She is a nuisance," the darkness whispered to her. "Avoid her at all costs."
Celestella wondered at the direction. Surely killing her was a much better option. With such a thorn in the master's side gone, perhaps she could hamper these Eratites in getting back to their precious world in time.
Another image flickered across her mind – a hole in the ship's hull. She'd felt the impact, but just barely. There wasn't anything more engrossing than bathing in her Master's darkness. From the ragged tear in the ship streamed half a dozen helmeted women.
"Ah, the royal guard," she hissed. "What are you doing here?" Then another person emerged, this one more familiar. "Desslok…" She shook her head, thrown out of her trance. If she could get to the Leader, she could lend her aid to him in destroying this ship.
Celestella reached for the door, but found it locked. She beat the plates with angry fists. When no one let her out she reached into the darkness again, searching for one nefarious sprite who might nudge an unwitting crewman to release her.
A moment later the door clicked open and in stumbled a confused cadet. Celestella locked him in, ignoring his panicked screams to be let out of the dark.
She flew down the halls, sprinting toward Desslok's familiar presence. The shédim flocked ahead of her, clogging the corridors with their stench. Celestella brushed past men and women scrambling in all directions. Several ran with weapons ready, but they were the exceptions. Most fled blindly, panic on their faces. Alarms blared everywhere. Celestella listened to them ring – singing the song of coming doom to the whole ship.
She rounded a sharp corner and nearly tripped into a barricade. One of the men holding the line saw her and blocked her way with an outstretched arm. She batted it away and darted for a gap in between two men, but strong hands dragged her back.
Celestella screeched in the man's face, but he didn't let her go. She strained to see down the long hall. One of the six guardswomen peeked around the far corner, the butt of her weapon snug against her shoulder and a black visor flipped over her eyes and diamond-studded nose. Celestella recognized her.
"Judel!" she called down the hall.
The Gamilon's lips parted, as though she were about to reply, but she gritted her teeth and remained silent.
Celestella relaxed in the man's grip, and then tore free of him, bursting through the line and sprinting toward Judel. She pushed the woman ten feet back around the corner. "Where is he?" she seethed, grabbing the guardswoman by her shoulders before the Gamilon could take aim at her. "Where is Leader Desslok? I saw him come aboard. I know he's here."
Judel pushed Celestella away and trained her rifle on the former councilor's heart.
"Stand down, Eisen," a familiar voice echoed to Celestella from farther down the dim passageway. A damaged light flickered several feet away, sending erratic pulses of illumination across the corridor.
One instant, the hall was dark and empty. When the light flashed on again, Desslok stood not three feet from Celestella. She swallowed hard, looking up into his bright green eyes. "My lord…" she bowed her head, avoiding his gaze.
"Do not speak to me as though I own you, Jirelian," Desslok growled. "I have no need of you." He brushed by Celestella and stepped past Judel out into the open hall nexus – right into the Eratites' view.
In the dim light of the corridor, Celestella had failed to notice the Leader's change in garb. Now out in the open, she saw, instead of his usual grey-blue uniform, he wore the same clothes as his guardswomen - a fitted, black space suit, sans the helmet, all covered by the same crimson-lined, black cape he always wore. Her thoughts jumbled and her grey cheeks took on a pink tinge, but all thoughts of the Leader's attire were replaced with the burning of dark hate as Desslok aimed his Iscandari-made weapon at the cursed Eratites and opened fire.
Judel leapt to cover Desslok and the other five guards dashed to join her, laying down a wave of fire in front of their Leader. Celestella joined them.
"Derek?" Nova called down the emptying hall. "Derek, where are you?" The last few men and women in the area scurried into rooms or fell to the floor in fits of hysteria. She ran down the hall toward the incursion point, praying she would find Derek before anything happened to him.
She pulled out her comm and tried to track his, but something was interfering with the signal. The best information she could get was that he was close, somewhere ahead. She pocketed the comm and a second later nearly fell over a crewman sprawled in the floor, eyes wide and glazed, but alive. The familiar odor of darkness wafted up from his body. Nova wrinkled her nose and leapt over him, not missing a stride. She vaulted over several other dazed men and women before she reached the end of the hall.
She dashed down the corridor past the hangar. When she ran by the bay door she heard a familiar voice call out to her, but she kept running. Moments later Feria drew up alongside her. "Whatever you're doing, don't think you're doing it without me," she chided, drawing her own gun.
"Wouldn't dream of it," Nova replied between breaths. "Derek's close by. I have to find him."
"Don't think he can take care of himself one more time?" Feria asked.
"I just – This doesn't feel right," Nova replied.
The two women screeched to a halt just as an explosion wracked the passage wall ahead, sending them both sprawling backward.
In a daze, Nova squinted up through the dusty air, straining to see what happened. Through the haze she heard a single set of footsteps clicking slowly across the deck. Nova blinked away some of the dust in her eyes and looked up into the face of Gamilon's Leader.
"You…" she whispered.
The man's eyes widened and he took a step back, but the next instant, his face hardened and he snatched her up off the floor. "Take me to your Captain," he hissed into her ear.
"No," Nova replied firmly, ignoring the pain in her twisted arm. She cast a glance over at Feria. She was breathing, but out cold.
"Do not force me to do something we will both regret, Princess," he said in a cold whisper, the muzzle of his weapon, digging under her ribs.
Nova sucked in a breath. Between the pain in her arm and the ache in her side she managed one thought – the sight of Starsha's pleading eyes, begging her to do whatever she could to help the man who now threatened to end her life. Nova twisted around to look into the Gamilon's face. She spoke not a word, just gazed into his eyes. He stared back at her, his face softening for just one short moment.
The Leader's hold on her vanished and he jerked away with a pained yelp. A charred hole burned into his shoulder.
"Nova, get back!" Feria yelled, the barrel of her gun still smoking as she squeezed off two more rounds, missing the Leader. Seven women, one of them Miezella, swarmed around the Gamilon, shielding him.
"Nova!" Derek barreled down the opposite end of the hall, coming up behind the Gamilons.
The Leader spun to face Derek and took aim at him.
Numbing fear rushed through Nova and she dove toward the Gamilon. He whirled out of her way as she careened through the guardswomen and rolled down the corridor.
Faces flashed by Nova as she tumbled down the hall, rolling to a stop when she hit the curved passage wall. She struggled to pull herself up, but managed a wobbly stance. The world still spun, but she drew her weapon and stood between the Gamilon and Derek.
The Leader's face swam in her vision. She saw the barrel of his gun aimed straight at her, but as her vision stabilized, the man's hand trembled. He moved to squeeze the trigger, but just before he sent a bolt tearing through her, she saw his lips move. Her translator supplied her mind with his words, "I… can't, dear Starsha… she has too much of you in her face…"
Nova's shoulders relaxed and she started to lower her weapon, but just as she let her guard down, a searing pain bit into her chest. She fell backward, the world around her fading into black. The last thing she heard was Derek screaming her name.
Feria saw her friend go down, hit by the Jirelian they'd brought on board yesterday. Derek rushed to Nova's still body and tried to shake her awake.
Feria found the Jirelian, a smirk on her grey face. She fired on the woman without hesitation, sending a single laser bolt straight her unprotected head.
The Jirelian crumpled to the floor, lifeless. The Gamilon man and the six remaining women flew down a connecting passage, headed back in the general direction of the incursion point. Feria didn't follow them.
Tears streamed down her face as she scrambled over to Derek's side.
"Nova?" he brushed her hair out of her face. "Nova? Wake up!"
"Derek…" Feria sucked in a jagged breath. "She's…" In tears she checked her friend's pulse. "She's still alive! We have to get her to Dr. Sane!"
Derek picked up Nova and bolted down the hall. Feria followed, leaving the Jirelian's corpse alone in the deserted hall.
Celestella grinned in triumph as the Eratite woman fell. The tiniest piece of her didn't want to shoot Nova, but she tucked the weakness away.
The young captain fell to his knees, shock on his face.
She realized it when she saw his eyes. "So, you love her…" she muttered.
The next instant confusion clouded over her vision. She tried to move, to see what caused her sudden paralysis. The stench of charred flesh bit into her nostrils and a searing pain tore through her head. She felt the smoking hole at the base of her skull as the ground rushed up to meet her.
Blackness surrounded the world as she crashed into the floor.
"You fail to understand," the accusation rumbled through Celestella. "You fail!" it bellowed. "The Enemy has won because of you!"
"I don't understand…" Celestella whispered into the darkness. "I killed her. And I made sure the Eratites' shielding was compromised."
"Foolish, foolish child," a chorus of voices scoffed. "You know nothing of what you have done. We said to avoid her! Keep away from the interferer!"
"But how can this be contrary to the master's will?" Celestella argued. "Now he can do what he wishes without her causing him grief. If she is such a troublesome wench, that is surely the best –"
"Do not pretend to understand the master's wishes!" the voices roared. "She had the opportunity – she touched souls with the Chosen… Now he is changed!" the voices wailed. "We must ensure he never sees her – or the Iscandari again! We must undo what you have done, fool!"
"Chosen…? For what? By who?" Celestella's soul weighed heavier than solid stone. She didn't understand the host's words, but she felt the truth in them.
As she despaired, an image flashed across Celestella's vision – the day she was rescued from Jirel. Her sister Mirenel cowered behind her as the cell creaked open. Lantern light filtered in through the door crack and a woman knelt, hand outstretched.
The small flame danced, flickering over their rescuer's face. Her green eyes sparkled with life and her auburn hair glinted, but as Celestella watched, the woman's face changed – instead of their mysterious savior, she looked into the face of Desslok. The two were strikingly similar.
"I see now… I know who you were… Talonka…" Celestella whispered. "It is no wonder that the Malha sought out your son." Celestella saw again the woman's face and her outstretched hand. Miezella reached for it, but before she caught hold, her footing gave way and she plunged down into death's never-ending void.
Feria and Derek made it to sickbay with a handful of others clustered around them. Derek pushed everyone out of the way and laid Nova's limp form on the only open bed. "Doc!" He waved down Sane. "She's been shot! Is she going to make it?"
Derek's comm blared an emergency alarm. He ignored it.
"Get it," Feria directed.
Derek reluctantly answered the call. The tears streaming down his face didn't lessen as he listened and choked out an answer. "I'm coming." To Feria he said, "Don't leave her!"
"I won't," Feria promised. "I'll let you know as soon as I find out something."
Still biting back sobs, Derek stumbled onto the bridge. "Where – where are they?" he choked.
"Imperator is pulling away," Sandor supplied. "We're sealing off the breeched hull section now."
"Ready all main guns and fire on my mark," Derek gritted his teeth as he stepped up to the captain's station and swiped at his wet eyes.
"Taking aim now," Dash said. "Target acquired."
"Fire!"
A wave of laser light flashed toward the Gamilon ship, but veered off half-way to the target.
"Sandor?" Derek looked to the science officer for an answer.
The man stared at his console for half a second, pounded in a quick sequence and announced, "It's the Gate. Energy weapons won't work in here – at least nothing short of a full wave motion gun blast – and that could send us careening through the side of the Gate corridor into who-knows-where. Missiles, torpedoes, or –" Sandor stopped.
"Or what?" Derek asked. "We've already seen an unsuccessful missile salvo on that thing, and if it can dodge those, torpedoes will be too slow too." In his mind, he watched Nova collapse again, that awful black char smoking over her heart. He wanted to be sure no one else on his ship died today, and if that meant launching an all-out attack on a Gamilon capitol ship, he would do it.
"Shells," Sandor finished.
"Shells?" Dash raised an eyebrow. "We don't have any of those… do we?"
"There are some left over from the testing rounds they did before takeoff," Sandor said. "But they're old – there's no guarantee they'll work."
"But they'll fly faster than heavy ordinance," Derek replied. "Do it." He checked his comm. No messages.
"They'll have to be loaded in the ammo cycler, but the computer is programmed to skip them" Sandor said. "They're in locker D38."
"Got it," Dash replied. "The team's setting up now. I've removed the block on the shells."
"How long until firing?" Derek asked, glancing at his comm again.
"At least three minutes," Dash replied. "That's the bare minimum to get the shells to the guns and loaded properly."
"Just make sure it doesn't take any longer than that," Derek replied. "The longer we hesitate, the more time they have to kill us."
Krypt shrank away from Desslok as he stepped back onto the bridge. The Leader winced at the searing pain in his shoulder.
"Both Adiel and Hadar are hailing, Sire." Krypt bowed.
"Hadar…?" Desslok brought up the radar image and stared at it as Masterson's ship blinked bright green.
"Shall we accept their hail?" Krypt asked.
Desslok banished the radar image and bowed his head. He knew what Masterson would say – how fervently he would plead for him to spare the Eratites – to let them go. After so long without hearing Talan's voice, the thought of listening to him now was heart-rending. He couldn't bear the thought of talking with his old friend only to do exactly as Masterson wished him not to.
"Do not answer either of them," Desslok said. "Prepare the prime weapon."
Krypt protested, "But using energy weapons inside the Gate –" He choked as Desslok's gloved hand closed around his throat.
"I do not care what is advisable, Regent," Desslok growled, then to the cowering bridge crew he ordered, "Do as I say." He released the shaking Krypt and the violet-skinned man slunk farther away from Desslok. "Our world's devastation will not go un-avenged, nor will those who remain die because we failed to do all we could to save them. Gamilon will die soon, and with it Iscandar. Our sister-world suffered loss once because we failed. Her last inhabitants will not befall that same fate twice."
The controls for the prime weapon rose up out of the floor and Desslok stepped up to take them. The countdown appeared just above the interface. One minute until firing.
The dark ship's operative stepped into the hall. He shook with fear as he stepped through several doors and into the same engine room he'd entered months before. Back then, an apparition of the Iscandari queen bade him flee for his life.
His shield hid him from the crew's eyes, but that didn't protect him from the rampant fear he felt thickening in the vast room.
The engine lay just ahead, its control panels attended only by the same old man he'd seen before.
He grabbed a length of pipe and crept up behind the engineer. Brandishing the metal over his head, he struck the old man, sending him crumpling to the floor, unconscious.
When no one else appeared he sighed in relief and brought up the controls he was looking for – the shield matrix. He studied the configuration, puzzled. Everything was already set correctly except for one thing. He tapped it, switching the feature on. An alert message popped up on the screen. He dismissed it instantly, lest the crew find out someone was tampering with their systems.
With another glance over his shoulder he closed the menu and darted out of the engine room.
"The last turret is being loaded," Dash said. "Fifteen seconds until it's done and the crew is clear."
Derek set his comm on top of the captain's station and counted down silently. The tense seconds crawled by, torturing him with every slow tick of the timer.
"Firing all main guns," Dash announced as the first round of shells flew at the capitol ship.
"Take them down!" Derek growled, hiding his tears from the rest of the bridge crew. "For Nova," he whispered, "and all the others from this ship they've murdered."
Imperator rocked with the impact of the Eratite weapons, sending nearly everyone careening to the floor, but not Desslok. He gripped the weapon controls with stern defiance.
"They're firing… cannon shells?" came the stunned report. "Wave after wave of them. Damage reports from all over the ship!"
The bridge lights flickered from soft blue to bright red as alarms screeched and blared.
"Stay on course," Desslok ordered as the countdown rolled down to ten seconds. "We must finish this."
A shell exploded through the starboard side of the bridge, tearing through half a dozen men and women and littering the floor with carnage.
Before Desslok could react another shell bored into the viewport, smashing the other side of the room and taking the ceiling down all around him. A piece of debris clunked into him from behind as everything loose was sucked toward the breach points.
Blood oozed down from his scalp and ran beside the bridge of his nose. A bitter, metallic taste invaded his mouth and he spat out the blood, wiping it away with his sleeve.
Another shell ripped through the front of the ship, this one passing mere feet from him. The emergency seals engaged, clamping the viewport shut just in time to encourage a fire near the back of the bridge.
Heat washed over him as the flames rose unabated, consuming the fresh oxygen.
"Why is the extinguishing system offline?" Desslok called into the chaos. No one answered him.
The fire licked closer. He looked down at the timer. It was still running. Three seconds remained.
He glanced over to where Krypt stood, but instead of the Regent, he saw only a pile of debris and a violet hand jutting out from underneath it. Everywhere he looked, he saw death.
He raised his face and shut his eyes, searching for the one memory he most wanted to keep – the day he'd first set foot on Iscandar and been greeted by Starsha. He remembered the light in her face, the hope in her eyes.
"I would do anything to save you," he whispered as the last second ticked by on the countdown. "Even trade my soul to Abaddon." He squeezed the trigger as the wall of fire closed in and reached out to engulf him.
"There's an energy surge ripping through the Gamilon ship!" Sandor said. "It's coming apart, but the blast wave is heading right for us."
"Get out of the way!" Derek bellowed at Mark. "Sandor, raise the shield!"
"I can't! It's –" Sandor was cut off.
Bright white light blinded them all and Derek yelped, throwing his hands over his face, never expecting to look up again. When the bridge didn't dissolve he rubbed his eyes and blinked away a few of the spots on his vision. "What… happened?" he asked, stunned.
"The shield –" Sandor sputtered. "It… isn't supposed to do that."
"Do what? What'd it do?" Derek pried.
"It reflected the blast right back at the Gamilon ship. The Imperator – it's… gone," replied Sandor, staring at the sensor log dumbfounded.
Derek's comm buzzed. He snatched it up, eyes devouring the short message on the screen.
"Doctor Sane had to induce a coma to save her. He says he doesn't know if she'll ever wake up."
"Sandor… you have –" he choked. "Take the bridge," he held back his tears until he stepped into the elevator. Once the doors were closed Derek fell to his knees and wept.
Hadar careened back through the Gate corridor, tumbling through blue clouds and back into purple haze. Masterson clung to his chair, trying desperately to raise Imperator.
The knot in his stomach reached up and gripped his heart, squeezing it so hard Masterson thought he would never catch his breath. Merciless knowing blanketed his soul. "Adonai, no!" he pleaded in tears. "Please… no…"
The ship slowly righted itself, ending its aimless tumble. When it stabilized, David clambered to his feet. "What was that?" he asked.
"Imperator…" Masterson whispered. "It's – it's gone." He slid out of the captain's chair, holding his face in his hands, sobbing over and over, "Mercy, Shaddai. Have mercy…"
"This is Haru, captain of the Adiel. Is everyone aboard you ship alright?"
Dara listened intently as the man hailed Hadar. Adiel was blown back through the corridor and discovered Hadar befell the same fate. Thus far, no one was hurt seriously – a host of bumps and bruises, but nothing worse than that. The only difficulty for Haru's ship was a hiccup in the communications system. Only the audio portion of incoming messages was functioning.
"We're… all alive," the reply came slowly, but Dara recognized the voice almost immediately. It was David Lysis.
"That is good to hear. Have you been able to raise Imperator since the blast?" asked Haru.
"No…" David replied, downcast. "They've disappeared off the radar. The only thing we're reading from them is wreckage."
"The Leader…?" Haru asked.
"He's gone…" David said. "They're all gone…"
"We took aboard a number of Imperator's passengers before you arrived," said Haru. "They're safe with us. The only ones aboard that ship were the bridge crew."
"We'll help take everyone back home. Send us half of your passengers," David replied.
"We will," Haru agreed. "They'll be glad to have some more room."
The channel closed.
Hours later, when the Argo was finally out of Gehenna's Bridge, Derek sat beside Nova's bed. Sane had her in one of the three rooms available, affording a bit more privacy than the bed out in the main treatment area.
Derek held her limp hand. Her skin was still warm, but not like it should be. He closed his other hand over hers and squeezed. Staring into her face he remembered all the times she'd gotten him out of trouble, helped him, or laughed with him. When it came down to it, she'd stood between him and the line of fire. She was the most amazing person he'd ever known.
He let his forehead sink onto the sheets, staining them with tears. He wished Feria were back. She'd left an hour ago to get some sleep. Almost everyone had come to see Nova – even Eager came with a tearful apology.
The monitor's rhythmic beeps echoed in the small space.
He wished he'd never tried to go through that awful Gate – never risked it at all. The Captain would have understood. He would have forgiven them for not making it home in time to see Earth again before he died.
Nova's shallow breaths rang in his ears, and her pulse beat against his hand. He didn't know what to do.
"God…" he prayed. "Please… make her wake up."