Fall of Icarus

doors. “I know that. How far down, do you suppose?”

“All the way down,” Adam answered, his voice full of irritation and impatience. “We’re wasting time. Let’s go.”

Yen gestured toward Karanath, waving the Oterian over as he continued his conversation with Adam. “I came here for a reason, and that was to blow up the engines of this ship. I’m not leaving until that’s done.”

Adam leaned in so that others couldn’t hear. “So you’re willing to jeopardize all our lives just to fulfill your twisted sense of duty?” he hissed.

Yen turned toward the Pilgrim, a sardonic smile cast upon his lips. “My dear Adam,” Yen said, his voice taking on a dangerous edge that Adam hadn’t heard before. Behind him, Karanath began prying open the elevator doors. “The Terrans shut off the power, which left the elevator stranded. I couldn’t take it even if I wanted to.”

Adam arched an eyebrow. “Then why are you…” Adam stopped in midsentence before cursing himself for his short sightedness. Smiling himself, Adam turned to the rest of the team. “We’re going to need everyone’s explosives.”

Yen was right. The elevator was frozen in place three floors below them. As Adam packed pound after pound of explosive clay into one of the larger packs, Penchant slid agilely down the cable and onto the lift’s roof. Adam tossed the bag into the elevator shaft and Penchant caught it easily, lowering it down and onto the roof. Activating the sensors throughout the bag, Penchant climbed back out of the shaft and joined the others. Yen laughed softly as he handed Adam his pistol.

“Would you care to do the honors?” Yen asked.

Adam gladly took the pistol and aimed it at the cables. They had packed enough explosives into the bag to level a building. Even protected, the engine would suffer irreparable damage from the shockwave alone; more if Yen and his team were lucky enough to set up a secondary fuel explosion. Adam smiled at the possibilities as he squeezed the trigger. The pistol went off like a cannon blast, shearing the metal cable and reverberating loudly up and down the elevator shaft. As the elevator car plummeted away with a screech of grinding metal, Yen and his team began running up the stairs, trying to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the upcoming explosion. They had just made the landing on the floor above when the entire Terran Destroyer lurched violently.

Yen was tossed from his feet, as was the rest of the team. Splayed out across the floor, they gripped the worn carpet for support as secondary explosions bucked the floor beneath them. The ground started growing warm seconds before the elevator doors on this level blew outward and purple and blue plasma flames rolled out, licking the ceiling above and scorching the thick metal. Waves of unbearable heat rolled over the team, stealing the breath from their throats and leaving their skin tender and reddened. Throughout it all, Yen laughed maniacally. As the ship finally settled, the team climbed cautiously to their feet. Though it was impossible to tell motion on a moving ship of this size, Yen knew that the Destroyer was no longer moving; that their assault had completely destroyed the engine.

With Yen lost in his own malicious thoughts, Adam called out to the rest of the team. “Everyone up! Let’s get to the Cair!”

Secrecy was no longer a concern, so the group ran with reckless abandon. They came across the bodies of an infiltration team, not far from the entry point of the Cair ship. At the base of the vestibule leading into the Cair, Yen found the pilot, still wearing her jumpsuit, her pistol hanging limply in her hand. His thoughts were immediately ripped back to Keryn and the sadistic energy fled from his body. Yen felt weak and sickened; a hollow pit was left in his chest, only to be filled immediately after by a sharp stab of guilt. He had truly enjoyed the slaughter of so many Terrans.

Activating his throat microphone, Yen called to Keryn. “Keryn, this is Yen. We’ve reached the other Cair and are getting ready to board. Get out of here and regroup with the Revolution.”

Relief washed over Keryn when she heard Yen’s voice. She had sworn that the ship was shaking itself apart as she saw the plasma explosion tear through the back of the ship.

“I am so glad to hear your voice,” she admitted breathlessly.

Her heart had sunk when she assumed the worst and she was relieved to hear that they were still alive. With them now boarding the Cair closer to the rear of the Destroyer, Yen was right. It was time to detach from the Terran ship and return to the relative safety of the Alliance Cruiser. Throwing the locks on the hatch, Keryn returned to the pilot’s chair and flipped a switch which blew all the bolts holding the boarding tunnel in place. The flexible tunnel drifted away from the Cair Ilmun as Keryn turned her ship around, intent on heading back to the Revolution. Though the Destroyer was disabled, it still had full weapons. Keryn hoped she could make it free of the Terran warship before they started firing on her.

As she turned back to the Alliance Cruisers, though, she realized that the Destroyer was the least of her problems. Between her and the Cruisers, hovering in space and waiting for her, was a squadron of Terran fighters.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The Terran fighters fell upon the Cair Ilmun as soon as it left berth on the Destroyer. Keryn flew like a woman possessed, weaving and diving in seemingly random and hypnotic patterns, but for every fighter she evaded, another took its place in pursuit. A nearby rocket explosion rocked the cockpit of the ship, nearly jarring Keryn from her seat. Growling in frustration, she pulled herself back into place and pulled the controls hard to the right, turning in a tight circle in order to avoid the next missile launch. She had already stopped looking at the radar for help. All she had learned in the Academy had gone out the window when she found herself alone in space, being assaulted by a swarming Squadron of enemy ships. The combination of their ship signatures, missile launches, and suppressing machine gun fire left the radar console screen filled with indistinguishable dots of red; the one blue dot signifying the Cair Ilmun looking lost amidst the swarm.

At first, Keryn thought she stood a chance of escape. The Terran fighters had split into separate groups. Only a small handful of ships had pursued Keryn while the others set about systematically destroying all the Cair ships still attached to the Destroyer, thereby stranding all the infiltration teams still onboard. It was with relief that Keryn had noted that the Cair ship Yen and his team were moving toward had been, so far, spared from the Terran counterattack. Their attention split between the litany of Cair ships, the Terrans were surprised when Keryn shot down two of the Terran fighters, using the substandard weapon systems on board the Cair Ilmun. Realizing that she posed a larger threat than previously assumed, other fighters pulled back and joined the chase. Now, Keryn was badly embroiled in a space battle she didn’t think she could win alone.

You’re not alone, the Voice said. Let me help you.

Keryn scowled. She was hardly in the mood to argue with the Voice, not when her life was hanging in the balance.

“Not now,” she hissed. “Not ever.”

In between her reminiscing and her debate with the Voice, a fighter slipped into place above her. Keryn heard the warning of her radar only moments before the fighter opened fire with its forward machine guns. Bright red tracer rounds split the dark space between the two maneuvering ships. Keryn cut the controls hard into a climb and managed to avoid the majority of deadly gunfire. A few stray rounds, however, punched through the rear hull of the ship. Keryn could hear the screeching of metal as the heavy bullets shredded large holes in ship, tearing through the wiring and pipes hidden between the armored plating and crew compartments. Their momentum waning, the bullets slammed into the floor of the crew compartments, leaving wide holes throughout the back end of the Cair Ilmun.

The Cair Ilmun shook violently as the crew compartment began to decompress. Warning claxons roared throughout the ship, their sound drowned out only by the whooshing of air being sucked out of the punctures. The lights dimmed and were replaced by brilliant red auxiliary lights. The sudden vacuum ripped