Oz looked around the room at the exhausted faces of the three dozen enemy soldiers and nodded. “Everyone up!” Several of the corpses on the bridge and in the hall got to their feet, each one of them a gravely injured Triton soldier who recovered in deep stasis. They filed into the bridge and started collecting weapons. Oz was steeled by the sight, realizing how few of his stealth suited comrades remained. There were hundreds, but that had been whittled down to thirty five.
The deck jerked slightly, the sounds of screeching metal announced that the destroyers were trying to separate. His gaze found one of the soldiers who had taken Cumberland’s side and he said; “I wish I was sorry for what I’m about to do.” Oz’s finger moved across his command unit to the first torpedo launch icon and activated it. The impacts of driller torpedoes striking the enemy ships at such a close range sounded as a low thud. The destroyer’s hulls would be weakened and breached in several places, making them a soft target. The soldier Oz was watching closed his eyes and lowered his face into his hands.
“No, please!” shouted another.
“Stay where you are,” Agameg said flatly, pointing his handgun at the soldier’s face.
“What’s their Command band saying?” Oz asked.
Agameg shook his head. “They are instructing the destroyers to increase their thrust to full in an attempt to decouple from the mooring points.”
Oz pressed the second launch icon and the Triton shuddered as heavy torpedoes detonated inside and outside of the destroyers docked on either side of the ship. Hull breach alarms went off for a moment while the Triton’s emergency systems kicked in and sealed off any compartments that were open to space. He knew there would be a great deal of damage, but it would have been worse if the destroyers were allowed to separate.
“They're clear. The carrier's still moored securely,” Jason replied. “Ashley's opening a wormhole now.”
“Ashley’s alive?
“Thank God, yes. She’s in medical babysitting with one hand and plotting a multi-part wormhole jump with the other. I’ll never underestimate that one again.”
Oz looked around. Most of the soldiers didn't know what was happening or how to react, and stood staring at him, waiting for an order. Some found a place to sit down, a few started quietly crying.
The Triton security and combat ready staff were vigilant, guarding the weaponry they collected in a corner, gathering the enemy into small, controllable groups. Oz couldn’t help wonder if things would have been better if he hadn’t spent hours in stasis. He was supposed to stay back, direct his people from the shadows, but after seeing so many of his own killed instead of injured, he couldn't. He had a chance to take out one of the best commanding officers they had, Cumberland, and he took it at his peril.
When he woke in the hall, the dust had settled, and he was relieved to see that Agameg was in position. He overheard Jason sullenly give the order to implement the plan Oz had concocted as a secondary measure. He hoped they wouldn’t have to use the strategy, but it became the only option.
Everyone looked and sounded tired. The siege had drawn on longer than either side expected.
“Sir, what did Major Cumberland mean?” Asked Spence as he handed his rifle and sidearm over.
It took a moment for Oz to realize the younger man was speaking to him. “When he thought he killed me, I asked your Major what he was fighting for. First time he said; ‘duty.’ This time, I think he was honest,” Oz knelt down and closed the front of the man's helmet. His face had been burned away, and Oz hoped his subordinates wouldn't remember him that way.
“Ashley, we have to finish calculating our thrust angle and estimate new shear values,” Larry reminded from his side of the table.
The sight of the incredible damage along the port and starboard sides of the Triton had struck her still. When she was at the controls of that big, beautiful ship, she swore she could feel it. The warm embrace of an incredible metal creature with thick skin, powerful aura like shields and rows of teeth that could keep enemies at bay.
Her rationality reminded her that the ship wasn't invincible, even though it was the best built thing she'd ever seen, with a feel of permanence that made it easy for her to call it home as she would a planet side city. She had to remind herself that the ship wasn't invincible, because it was a difficult thing to believe. Until then.
The thick skin along the port and starboard sides of the ship had ruptured in several places, been crushed into the side of the ship in others. The damage to the pair of destroyers was many times worse, but watching the Triton evacuate air from dozens of outer compartments as bulkhead doors sealed made Ashley feel as though she had been injured. The ship seemed like a delicate thing, even though her rational mind told her that there were safeguards, that most of the hull still remained intact.
“Ashley!” Larry whispered harshly. “We have to get moving!”
She shook her head and looked down into a pair of big, worried nafalli eyes. Her hand was stroking Zoe's face before she knew it, and even though she fidgeted in her lap, the child seemed to draw back from the precipice of tears. “It's okay. We'll get out of here and meet with Captain.” One hand moved over the controls, starting the pilot control recalibration process, checking navigational data, and verifying that their single main thruster was still online.
Zoe made herself at home in her lap, and buried her nose in Ashley's hair. She'd seen Iloona's youngest children do the same several times, and thought it was nothing more than a sign of affection. In that moment she was convinced that it was something more; Zoe was drawing comfort from the act, making Ashley her own warm, safe place.
The controls finished calibrating, her verified navigational data and wormhole trajectory appeared on her panel, and the main thruster reported ready to fire.
“Is everything all right up there Ash?” Asked Oz.
The relief at hearing his low voice and calm tone ran deep. “Course plotted, controls ready, and the computer's telling me that we'll be able to move with the ship still attached to our upper mooring point.”
“Nice work, can we project a wormhole wide enough?”
She looked to Larry, who nodded. “Not a problem.”
“Ashley, you're amazing. Get us out of here.”
That took both hands, but Zoe didn't seem to mind. Ashley activated the remaining emitters and they fired a burst of energy in front of the ship, bending and twisting the space ahead into a funnel. To the naked eye the sight wasn't so spectacular, only some lensing and a slight ripple in front of the Triton would be visible. The exterior sensor screen was a different story. It was like watching a flower opening from the outside in, energies bent and twisted as empty space compressed and several pieces of debris were pulled in.
Zoe must have caught the light in the corner of her eye, she turned and stared at the holographic sensor view and watched as Ashley fired the main thruster and increased the power as much as she dared. “Let's make this place a memory,” Ashley said to herself as the wormhole finished forming and the Triton entered the highly compressed space.
As soon as their course was steady Larry got to his feet.
“Where ya goin?” Ashley asked.
“There's still fighting in a few compartments, I'm going to go do what I have to,” he said stoically as he strode for the door.
Ashley watched it close behind him. When he was sure he was several meters away she locked her controls and made her way to the room's only door, an act made more difficult while carrying Zoe. She locked it biometrically and verified that the life support systems were operating properly in that section of medical. “He can stay out,” she whispered to herself.
Zoe was watching her. What she was doing, the expression on her face, and who knew what else. Ashley looked at her, bouncing the small youngster in the crook of her arm and feigning excitement; “I think it’s snack time! How 'bout you?”
Zoe giggled as she was bounced several more times.
Ashley never thought she was graceful under pressure, and she wasn't normally good at hiding her feelings, but with Zoe in her arms false joviality became real in a surprisingly short time.
Chapter 32
