my helmet, looking back, when a dozen more violent flashes turned my visor black. I turned back and stared ahead, urging more speed from my repellers. A wave of missiles must have reached the Nano ship line. They were detonating, and probably taking Nano ships out with each blast.
I activated my com-link and tried to connect to the command channel. Up until now, I’d been on radio- blackout. There was no sense giving any of these ships a target. But now, I needed to know if I was in the right zone to be picked up.
“This is Colonel Kyle Riggs, requesting pick-up. I’ll be listening for your instructions, but will not respond. Repeat, will not respond. Ending transmission and taking evasive action…now.”
I closed the transmitting half of the channel, and immediately dodged at various angles for ten miles or so. In space, a few miles would only be a round-off error, but it might be enough to get me out of the way of a missile with an eager Macro pilot.
Less than a minute later, dispatch came on. The voice was shockingly familiar. It was Sandra. “Kyle we have you. Stay in that general vicinity, but accelerate toward the battle. You need to speed up. Right now, we’re going too fast in relative speed to pick you up. You’d splatter on our windshield like a bug.”
I felt a strong urge to reply, but resisted it. I was surprised it was Sandra running dispatch-but I shouldn’t have been. On a Star Force ship, everyone had a job to do. Sandra had only really had experience with two duties: communications and serving as my bodyguard. I supposed I shouldn’t have been surprised that she’d passed on the job of protecting Jasmine.
I turned directly toward the battle and poured on the power. For several nerve-racking minutes I sped closer to the fighting ships. I knew that at any instant, something could loom up out of the darkness and end my existence. It made me squint and grit my teeth.
When the fleet finally did catch up to me, it came as a shock. I was barely aware of their approach. All I sensed was a darkening of the region of space behind me-then something struck me. My visor starred, and the generator on my back was dented inward. It stopped working, and my repellers died.
The shock was so great, I think I might have died as well if I hadn’t been armored, nanotized and bathed by flesh-hardening Microbes. As it was, it felt as if my spine had been pulled out of my skin. It wasn’t until they began reeling me in and I regained my full faculties that I understood that a big nanite hand had reached down from the ship’s belly and plucked me out of space. I was pulled up into an airlock and dumped on the deck. Air pumped into the chamber, and when a chime signaled the all clear, I ripped off my helmet. I rolled over twice on the deck, groaning and gasping.
“Did you have to hit me that hard?”
“I’m surprised you’re alive, Colonel,” Jasmine said.
I looked up at her, blinking. She had a gun in her hand, and it was pointing at my face. She didn’t look happy.
“Tougher than a cockroach. That’s what Crow says.”
“He’s right.”
“Are you arresting me or executing me, Rear Admiral?” I asked.
She looked troubled at that. “This is my ship.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“You dragged me into this war of yours, and you haven’t finished it. Instead, you expanded it.”
“A fair assessment. We needed allies to win. Did you happen to notice the three hundred extra ships out there? The ones leading the charge?”
Jasmine licked her lips. “On this ship, I’m in command.”
“You said that already.” Groaning, I got up and reached for my helmet. I poked at the visor. Nanites were working at the cracks, but it was going to take a while for them to effect full repairs. My generator might take hours to fix itself. I was surprised I could move at all in the exoskeletal suit without power. I supposed I was considerably stronger than I used to be.
As I climbed to my feet, she backed up warily. I had a sudden thought. “Where’s Sandra?” I asked.
“She’s been neutralized.”
I frowned. “I don’t like euphemisms, Sarin. Sandra knew I was going to be picked up by Goa. She’s your com officer. What have you done with her?”
“She’ll be fine. You will both be released after this battle is over.”
Sarin reached down and picked up my helmet. She kept the gun on me, and eyed me suspiciously. I thought of several ways I could attack her, even with an unpowered suit. They were all risky and one of us was likely to end up dead or seriously injured.
“So you are proceeding with the battle? I thought you were running out on me. Why all this drama, if you are following my plans anyway?”
“I’m not,” she said. “I’m going to hang back and attack after the Nano ships have all been destroyed-or the Macros have. Whichever survives, I’ll step in to finish the other. We’re braking hard even now.”
I couldn’t feel it, but I believed her. This ship had excellent stablizers. I thought about her plan, and I didn’t like it. The Nanos were weak without good command and control. They couldn’t be trusted to win the battle on their own. I shook my head.
“A losing strategy, Jasmine. I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but you need to respect my authority and experience on this one.”
“I’m not going to lose this ship to save a bunch of Nano rogues!”
“That’s why you’re doing this?” I asked. “Because you love your first command so much?”
“I am following my orders. That’s all.”
“This is mutiny.”
“No, sir. You are the one who ignored orders and stayed out here, leaving Earth exposed. Star Force is not all about you, Colonel.”
I thought about that. “Crow really did a number on you. What else did he tell you to say?”
“Think of the Centaurs, Kyle. Think of the millions back home. I had relatives in Miami, did you know that?”
“No,” I admitted. “But I had two children the day these ships came rolling in over Earth. They were gutted and died before my eyes.”
Jasmine shook her head. “I’m sorry. Don’t worry about this, Colonel. I’m just going to leave you here for another hour. No more. My apologies. This is a Fleet ship and a Fleet decision.”
Then she backed out of the hold and left me standing there. I looked around and touched the bulkhead-it didn’t open. The control panel on the floor activated, but that led out into open space. And I was no longer wearing even a damaged helmet. She had taken it with her.
I cursed and kicked the walls until my boots left deep dents. Too bad they weren’t permanent. What was it with my highest ranking officers and disloyalty? Did everyone have to question my authority at every stage? I would have called it mutiny, but she was technically Fleet.
I thought about what she’d said. I supposed I could have made a few mistakes along the way in the Eden system. I might have been able to keep the Centaurs breathing if I’d made different choices.
I did some hard thinking over the next several minutes. I was pissed off, but I tried to look past that. I knew Jasmine had some good points. I was hard to deal with-I’m sure every skilled, opinionated commander was. It was the very qualities of leadership and self-reliance that made me a success she was struggling with. I supposed that meek Colonels were never locked into holds-but they probably didn’t win as many battles, either.
My first thought was to ride it out. If she wanted to win it her way, fine. I’d play along with her. After all, we should be able to take out the cruisers. It was likely the Nanos would all be destroyed, but the Macros would be so damaged they couldn’t defeat us. All in all, it didn’t sound so bad.
But I didn’t like it. The Nanos hadn’t been impressing me with their tactics. When the Macros fired missiles, they retreated, shooting them down one by one. When they advanced again, they stayed too far away and weren’t concentrating their fire. Every time this cycle was repeated, they lost more ships to the few missiles that got through and the relentless hail of railgun fire. The Nanos might well be annihilated, and then we’d have a full- fledged battle on our hands. In the end, we’d lose more ships and marines if we didn’t support the Nanos. Sarin was trying to take the safe route, but I felt she was taking the more dangerous one.
I decided to act. Part of me wondered if I was just fabricating worries in order to give me an excuse to not
