The BG warrior screamed “Desecration! Defilers will be destroyed!” And then the Emperor appeared on the screen.
“I will take you all and feed you to my children. You will all die!”
Jolo held up the worm, moved its tail with his thumb so the BG would think it was alive.
“It yet lives!” screamed the Emperor.
And then Jolo threw it on the floor and shot it with the Colt.
“Now I’m going to kill you!” screamed Jolo. The Emperor leaned into the camera, made a fist with his shiny alacyte fingers, and cursed him in his native worm tongue. Katy cut the video.
“Katy, get the BG boats on screen,” said Jolo. Sure enough, the BG cruisers went into attack position with total disregard for the civilian boats, still making their way out.
Katy turned the commander’s mic back on. “Well, you’ve done it now. You fool!” he screamed. He was gesturing wildly off camera, his face red.
“The BG are going to destroy the Corsair. They want me dead.”
“The Federation President is here and will board soon. They will not fire upon the Corsair.”
“Really?” said Jolo. “The President wants me dead just as bad as the Emperor. Do you think they care about an old commander and his crew on a shiny party boat? They’ll spin it and say you and your crew died heroically defeating the synth gone rogue: Jolo Vargas.”
“They wouldn’t dare.”
“Check your screen, Commander. The BG boats are in position, even with civilian boats nearby. They’ll take us all out. Do you want civilian deaths on your head?”
“Captain!” Greeley yelled, “we got company!” The loud BOOM of Greeley’s shotgun echoed off the walls of the engineering section as the commander’s security detail finally made it down to engineering.
“Use the bangers. Don’t kill any Feds,” yelled Jolo. Greeley rolled two of the special explosives down the hall and the noise and shock stunned the marine team. George pushed the crumpled door further into the entrance for cover, then threw another banger down the hall. Several energy blasts made it through the entrance burning holes in the far wall.
Jolo ran over to the screen to check on the BG boats. They were all in position, the Emperor’s ship just outside a semi-circle of Cruisers. Then he ran back to the doorway, shot a marine in the leg who’d made it half-way down the hall, then ran back to the screen.
Just then the whole ship shook and the lights went red.
“Commander,” Jolo yelled into the comm. “They’re firing on your boat.”
“Those cocky bastards,” he said, shaking his head. “Warning shot, nothing more.”
“Captain,” said Katy, “look!” Suddenly the two large Fed Defenders were gone. The two big blue dots on the screen had disappeared. Then the four gunboats vanished off the board one by one.
“Commander, they’re hanging you out to dry,” said Jolo.
There was a long pause. Then the Corsair started shaking again, multiple ion cannon blasts from either side rocked the big ship, the shields starting to fail.
“Captain, shields can’t hold,” yelled McCarty.
A few seconds later there was a horrible grinding, tearing sound as one of the BG ion cannons broke through the shield and bore into the alacyte fuselage of the Corsair. McCarty ran to a screen on the wall and monitored the damage.
“They’re gunning for level III. Hope everyone got out.”
“Captain?”
“The President’s ship is still there. He wants you, not me or my crew.” But just as soon as he said those words, the last blue dots on Katy’s screen, the Presidential carrier and her escorts, vanished. Only the BG and the Corsair remained in Iris.
“Connect the jump drive!” screamed the commander. “This is my ship and they will feel her full potential. I’ll kill all the bastards!”
The giant ship rocked again, shock ripples coursing through her core as five ion cannons blasted the outer shell, slowly eating their way to the most heavily defended sections: the bridge and engineering.
“They’re gonna blow us up if they cut into engineering and hit the engines, Captain!” yelled McCarty. “This is suicide.”
Jolo stared at the commander. He was a man being torn in half with anger and emotion. His face was red and his eyes watery and full of anger. Another blast rocked the ship and he fell to the floor. Finally he stood again and screamed into the comm, “Damn you, Vargas!”
A few seconds later Katy screamed: “Captain, I have the codes!”
Jolo entered the codes and McCarty’s calculations and instantly the drive came online and the ship suddenly turned and started powering up for the jump. The smaller BG ships continued hammering the giant ship as her engines wound up. “How long?” Katy yelled over to McCarty.
“A few seconds,” he said.
Meanwhile the marine team had stopped firing, finally aware of the situation, and everyone waited.
“Fire on level III!” yelled Crowely. And just then one of the logic arrays closest to the outer hull blew, knocking George and Greeley to the floor.
And just as the BG had finally broken through the outer hull on level III, sucking the fire, rich Corinthian leather couches from Sagos, the chandeliers, hand made from core world glass, and everything else not riveted to the walls, out into space; the Emperor’s laughter echoing over the comm; the drives engaged. And the Federation ship Leviathan, ion cannon scars crisscrossing her alacyte fuselage, a hole in her side, jumped out of Iris into the unknown. Only the third-class engineer named McCarty, who’d met the commander face-to-face just once at a Federation formal, knew exactly where they were headed.
Falkowski
Four Jumps Outside Grana Space
Jolo dropped off most of Commander Falkowski’s crew on Natek, a small planet of humanoid air-breathers, four jumps out. The old commander could have made things difficult—he didn’t have control of the ship, but he did have 148 crew members plus a fully-armed 28 man security detail. Most were green
