The bridge was almost empty except for them. In anticipation of trouble, Lana had ordered everyone to sleep. They were on the verge of something, she could feel it. The pod they'd picked up shouldn't have been where it was. There was no ship that could have dropped it anywhere near them.
"I feel like a fish that just swallowed the bait," she murmured.
Fraly didn't have time to respond before the space slipped away on the screens in front of them. For one mad second, Lana thought that the Raptor had somehow jumped into hyperspace, because all the stars disappeared. There was no light, only darkness. In a completely absurd way, she felt like the Raptor had run into a wall, in space.
The truth was much worse. A cloaking shield had slipped away from a ship right in front of her, the huge front screen of the command bridge showing it to be so close the captain imagined she could almost reach out her hand and touch the surface.
It was obsidian black, rough and horrible, and scarred from ancient battles.
The nightmare was over. It had made a swift journey from her dreams to reality, but surprisingly it didn't bring fear. Lana found herself peculiarly calm, focused. The worst had happened, and now all she had to do was deal with it. She checked the monitors, now picking up multiple contacts, a whole fleet of them.
As well as a very ominous message that couldn't possibly be misinterpreted. Don't run, the warship warned. Any message you transmit will be your last words. Looking at the guns as long as her entire ship, Lana was forced to agree.
"Wake the crew," she ordered. "Get the Raptor ready, we're about to be boarded. Every human female needs to hide, immediately."
Her second hesitated only for a moment.
"Captain, what about you?" he asked.
Lana grinned. "I'm staying right here."
As Fraly rushed to obey, she slowly walked to the front panel of the bridge, if only to confirm to herself that her eyes really weren't playing tricks on her. But there it was, right on the prow of a ship larger than any she'd ever seen.
One word, in gigantic, red letters taller than her.
Abysmal.
CHAPTER THREE
Lana
Getting the Raptor ready was more like a joke than actual preparation for battle, but it helped. Lana made no illusions to herself. Her ship was the best little vessel there was, but it had been built for subterfuge and stealth missions. Usually her job included lightning-quick strikes, rescue missions, and so on. Not taking on a Brion warship.
It could blow her to pieces in one barrage, Lana had no doubt of that. But it gave her terrified crew something to do rather than go mad with fear. Over the comms, Lana coordinated her main mission, which was to hide the part of her crew that the enemy might be interested in. She'd be damned if she let anyone cart off her friends and subordinates like war trophies, only to see if one of them fit the bill.
Distantly, Lana was aware she was in the same kind of danger, but she pushed that aside. She was the captain of the ship and wouldn't be found hiding when the enemy breached the Raptor.
The fighters from the Abysmal were already moving her way, which was almost comforting. It meant the girl had been right and the Raptor was out of danger, at least for a while. Until they had something the general wanted, the ship would remain intact.#p#分页标题#e#
Before leaving the bridge, Lana took a good look at the fleet surrounding the warship. After the Abysmal's cloaking shield had fallen, they had appeared as well. There had to be some distraction signals at play, but that was a question for another time. The space around her was packed with ships. From the Abysmal's shadow, numerous others appeared. Most of the ships were Terran and none of them looked damaged.
Just, afraid? They trailed after the huge warship, staying in neat formation by its side like fish swimming with a whale. One look at the Abysmal's guns and Lana understood why. So that explained why they hadn't been able to find survivors or even signs of a battle, only missing ships signaling that something was wrong.
The fighters had almost reached the Raptor. Lana took a deep breath. There was no going back now. She could hope the women were able to hide themselves, but once the enemy had seen her there was nowhere she could run.
Taking courage from her earlier thought that the worst had already happened, Lana went to meet the legendary general with burning skin and black eyes.
***
They were waiting for her.
Her crew was held at gunpoint when Lana entered the bay. One quick look told the captain that her orders hadn't been strictly followed. Here and there, several human women stood, all looking at her. Lana caught a quick head-shake from one of them, realizing their intention.
Stupid brave bastards, Lana thought.
Like her, they'd stayed in sight, to allow their friends to remain hidden. It worked out for the better, the captain knew that, to have more than one Terran woman aboard, but she still feared for them.
Looking at the Brions, she thought she had a very good reason.
Lana had met a few members of the warrior species before. Like their brothers, these new ones were towering, vicious-looking hunks of men with battle spears strapped to their backs. It was the differences between them that bothered Lana, although she didn't let it show, taking her place at the front of his crew.
The valor squares on the warriors' necks were as lifeless as their eyes. No fire burned there, like was common with Brions. No over-boiling emotions, no nothing. The valor squares seemed to register only breathing, broadcasting nothing else but simply existing. For a race so temperamental, that was seriously off.
The man with the black eyes and the burning skin didn't seem to be there, however. Only the cold warriors stood around the fighter, a large gunship that could easily house an entire unit.
"I am Lana Cormac, the captain of the Raptor," she said over the deafening silence. "Who speaks for you?"
In the next second, she dearly regretted tempting fate.
Another Brion emerged from the fighter and Lana could see where all the rumors started. Her treacherous legs were making compelling points about backing away, far away. Running away, in fact, but she refused to back down even an inch, even though every impulse in her body told her to do so. The cursed enemies could read her fear anyway, she knew that, but Lana was not willing to give them the satisfaction of seeing her run as well. It wasn’t like there was anywhere to go.
The girl had been wrong, but not as much as the captain would have liked.
With thundering steps, the legendary general walked down from the fighter's interior. His dark, black eyes held Lana's gaze, unblinking. Worgen's short hair was as dark as everything else about him, with one stray strand of white above his right temple. It wasn't the general's skin that was burning, it was his armor. The charcoal surface of it looked like it had been burnt to a crisp, but hadn't completely gone out yet. When he walked, smoke rose from under his boots and the occasional flame licked over the smooth metal plates.
Lana heard gasps around the bay, many backing away from that avatar of death before them, but she stayed frozen in place.
Lenses, she kept repeating to herself as the general approached with slow steps, they're just lenses. And the armor is not burning, it's merely coated in some flammable substance. Scare tactics, that's all this is. All this is.
But even the best pep talk could not entirely quell her fear. Worgen was indeed a nightmare, one that had crawled from the pages of a myth to reality.
When he stopped in front of her, Lana could smell the burning metal and blood. The spear across the general's back was twice her height and Worgen himself was more than a head taller than her, a true giant. It took every ounce of will she had left in her body not to move, not to scream.
"I speak for the Abysmal," the general said, his voice like an avalanche, gravelly and deep. "And it speaks for me."#p#分页标题#e#
Lana searched for words. Every inch of her rebelled against trying to be nice to the enemy, but she was so overpowered it was ridiculous.
Eventually, she said: "What do you want with me and my ship?"
The general didn't respond. Morbidly, Lana wondered if she'd made her last mistake, questioning the man who was clearly never questioned. But he didn't seem mad. At least no more than when he'd stepped from the fighter.
Instead of killing her, the general lifted her chin up to force Lana to look him straight in the eyes. The armor's hot glove burned her flesh, but the captain didn't pull away. She made herself stare right back at the general, holding onto the one thing she knew for certain, which was that Brions only recognized strength. Worgen especially, by the looks of him.
She didn't know what exactly she had done, but a crooked smile appeared on the general's face. It almost seemed to hurt, as if his skin had never moved that way before. Lana felt a cold shiver run down her spine.
She couldn't think of anything to say to convince Worgen otherwise before the general said:
"I think it might be you."
While Lana searched for an answer, he moved on as if there was nothing else to say. Her mind was spinning so fast it made her dizzy.
Okay, he said "I think," so he's not sure. Brion men get that recognizing moment, right? If it happens, if it's real, they know. So there might still be a way out for me.
That was comforting, but not as much as she would have liked. If the moment did happen, Lana knew there would be no escape for her, ever. Brions valued their sacred bonds above all else; they wouldn't let anything take it from them. And if Worgen thought she was his... Lana refused to even consider it.