Prime Obsession(6)
Jump Station Andromeda 2, Mu Arae solar system
Mel hung onto a computer console in the control center of the jump station, trying to keep from floating away. All around her red and yellow lights flashed and warning sirens blasted her eardrums, mixed in with the moans of the injured and screams of the frightened.
Papers, data pads, and anything not attached to a wall or floor drifted around her.
What was more disconcerting was the number of blood globules that hung in the air.
Some of it was hers, but most of it belonged to the two dead Antareans that now floated near the ceiling, or what now served as the ceiling.
Suddenly, the room rotated once more almost two hundred forty degrees.
Mel held on as everything suspended in the confined space bounced off solid surfaces like billiard balls.
“Nowicki,” she shouted to be heard above the chaotic noise. “Find someone to shut those damn sirens off. And let’s get the gravity fixed.”
“Working on it, Captain,” Nowicki shouted back just as all went silent.
The station slowly reoriented itself. The dead Antareans fell to the floor not two feet from her. Their scaly green skin covered in rust-colored blood. It had taken more than laser blasts to take the bastards down; lasers barely pierced through their tough hides.
She’d finally resorted to her serrated battle blade. Severing their major blood supply had been their death knell. A messy one.
Was it any wonder the Alliance wanted to ally with the Prime? The Prime had fought against the Antareans’ arrival in the Milky Way for eons and survived to tell about it. She wished she’d had some Prime inside information, or at the very least some of their specialized weapons, to stop the tough-skinned bastards. Might have saved her time and some of her own skin and blood. Combat by trial-and-error was no way to fight.
Feet solidly planted on the deck once more, she let out a breath. “Whoever fixed all that at once, please give them my heartfelt thanks.”
“You’re very welcome, Captain.” Her chief engineer, Commander A’tem, sent her a snappy salute. “We have complete control of the facility once more, sir. The jump gate is back online and can accept space traffic once again. The Antareans hadn’t gotten any farther than gravity control when we boarded.”
The damn pseudo-reptiles didn’t need gravity. They just used their little suckers and walked along any surface. She shuddered as she recalled how the one had dropped on her from above. But he was dead, she wasn’t—and in the final analysis that was all that counted.
“Thank you for the report. Continue to render the jump station crew any assistance they might need.” Turning to Ensign J’ar, she asked, “What is the status on the remainder of the Antarean boarding party?”
“Two-thirds are dead. The remaining third are contained in a cargo area and are under guard, awaiting Alliance military police to arrive and remove them to the penal holding cells on Tooh 10.”
“Excellent work, Ensign.”
The tall Volusian smiled. “Just doing our job, sir.”
“Did we track the mother ship that carried the boarding party?” she asked Nowicki.
“Blue Squadron arrived right on our heels and picked them up. The Antarean ship engaged several of Captain Warten’s battle cruisers and was destroyed in the ensuing battle.”
Thank God for that.
“Convey my congratulations to Captain Warten and his men. Advise Alliance Military Command that we are in control of the station and will finish cleaning up while waiting on the cruiser to take away the prisoners.”
“Uh, Captain, ma’am.” The communications officer of the jump station stood next to Mel, a nervous look on the woman’s too-pale face.
“Yes, Ms. Baldwin, isn’t it?” The young woman’s nervousness melted away under Mel’s use of her name and kindly smile. Being forcefully boarded by anyone was stressful, but being boarded by Antareans was especially scary. The new scourge of the galaxy was the stuff of nightmares. It was amazing the young woman wasn’t on the floor in a fetal position. “What can I do for you?”
“There’s an emergency call for any Alliance military ship within this region.” The young woman swallowed. “It’s from the Galanti. It’s a Prime starship that came through the jump about one galactic standard hour before we were attacked. They’ve been attacked also, ma’am.”
“By Antareans?”
“No, ma’am,” stuttered Ms. Baldwin. “Or, at least—”
“Replay the message for me, please.” Mel strode over to the com-panel.
Ms. Baldwin keyed in the code. A deep, gravelly voice boomed from the speakers:
“This is the Prime ship Galanti , carrying the ambassadorial delegation. We’ve been boarded by pirates. We are under a Code Argenta. Repeat, a Code Argenta. Any Alliance ship within ninety-six standard hours of this message, please respond as quickly as possible. Contact Prime Military Command for specifics on Argenta.” The message then repeated on an eternal loop.
Mel shivered. The voice of the unknown Prime male pierced her very soul. She knew she would do anything possible to reach him—them—in time. Especially since she knew very well what a Code Argenta was.
“Code Argenta?” Ensign A’tem muttered. “What does it mean?”
“It means,” muttered Mel, “if we don’t get to them within ninety-six standard hours of this message, they’ll blow the ship.”
“How do you know that, Captain?” Nowicki asked.
“I helped my father translate some ancient Prime military treatises. I thought that the self-destruct tactics were eliminated as wasteful and barbaric several centuries ago,” she replied, frowning.
“I guess they brought them back.” Nowicki grimaced.
Her second-in-command’s distaste over the order of mass suicide by a military captain was obvious in his demeanor. The thought of having to make such a command decision made her sick to her stomach, but she understood the ancient Prime reasoning. It was a “scorched earth” philosophy: if we can’t beat you, we won’t leave you anything to help you kill our people. Maybe the Prime’s ongoing battle against the Antareans had necessitated the re-institution of such a drastic measure.
“I guess,” Mel finally replied.
Capturing Nowicki’s gaze, she issued orders rapidly as she strode to the jump station control room exit. “Get ready to disembark. Leave one of our battlecruisers here to aid the jump station staff until the M.P.s get here. Send a message to Alliance Command that we will respond to the Galanti’s distress call. Then contact the rest of our squadron and Warten’s. Give them the Galanti’s coordinates. Tell them to get there as soon as they can, then hold position well away from the Galanti. Figure safety distance for a total fission reaction and then add half again as much.”
“Should I contact the Galanti and tell them help is on the way?” Ms. Baldwin called out.
Mel stopped and turned. “No. I don’t want any other enemies in the area to know we are on the way. We’ll contact the Prime only if we cannot make it to them in time.” They’d make it—or die trying. She wouldn’t allow the Prime captain to sacrifice the Ambassador and his delegation or the ship’s crew.
She led her men out the door and into the corridor leading to the docking spokes.
“Tell Warten that I want his ships to keep anyone other than Alliance ships from approaching the area. Plus, I don’t want any pirates escaping the Prime ship. Only the Leonidas’s teams will approach and dock. I’m not taking any chances on blowing up anyone else.”
“So, we get to be the only lucky ones, huh?” Nowicki quipped.
“Yes. Isn’t that why you signed on to this dog-and-pony show? For the thrills and chills?”
Nowicki just laughed and saluted as he waved her ahead of him into their shuttle.
Chapter Three
Approaching the Galanti, fifty hours later
Getting past the pirate mother ship was anticlimactic; the enemy ship’s weapons did not function.
The Leonidas’s sensors showed the old Volusian battle cruiser was dead in space.
Mel ordered one of her squadron’s battle cruisers to lock onto the beleaguered ship and to tow it away from the Galanti— and the danger zone. Later, they’d board the pirate ship and place the crew under arrest for crimes against the Alliance. Right now, it was contained and out of the way.
She smiled. However they’d done it, the Prime had effectively trapped the pirate boarding party on the Galanti.
Unfortunately for the pirate boarding party, they were now sandwiched between two sets of predatory creatures—the Prime and the Alliance. This should be easy to finish—or at least it would be if they could contact the Prime and coordinate an attack on the pirates now on the Galanti. So far all attempts to hail the Prime on the ship had been fruitless.
Something was blocking all signals in—and the only signal coming out was the emergency signal she’d already heard.
They’d have to contact the Prime face-to-face and that entailed boarding the ship.
Mel was pretty sure the Prime controlled most of the systems on the ship under the Code Argenta. Something drastic must have happened to keep them from overpowering the pirates.