Page 20 of Narzek
While she paused to gaze out into space from time to time, she spent most of the hours studying the operating manual for the shuttles she wanted to learn to fly. Some of the other maintenance workers watched other things on their tablets to pass the time.
Dreadnaught Ten was in orbit over one of Mecstar Prime’s smaller moons. Something in Cayla’s peripheral vision made her look toward the space outside the landing bay. A Sargan Battle Carrier suddenly blinked into space Within striking distance from the Dread Ten, and space fighters started pouring from its launch bays.
At least three fighters were coming toward the dreadnaught’s landing bay. Cayla’s supervisor Hykara Elbatu saw them at the same time.
“Everybody out the back door, NOW!” she shouted. “Return to your quarters and stay there until further notice. Do not use the lifts!”
All ten of them jumped up from their seats and hurried to the exit in and orderly fashion while Hykara waited beside the open door for everyone to leave. As Cayla glanced back, the heavily shielded landing bay doors slammed shut on the approaching fighters.
An alarm was blaring intermittently as they walked the sublevel corridor toward the ladder tubes past the lifts.
They had trained for this. Starship operation personnel had precedence over maintenance workers in emergency situations. So, Cayla’s team waited patiently for their turn in the ladder tubes. There was a railing along the hallway for them to anchor to so they wouldn’t be slammed to the floor when weapons fire shook the ship in an attack.
Cayla tensed as the ship shuddered with the first volley, but she didn’t panic. That motion meant that the shields were holding fast. That meant no hull breeches. She could just imagine being stuck inside one of the lifts when they rerouted power to the shields and weapons.
She wasn’t crazy about using the ladder tubes; they were a bit claustrophobic and she had to climb from the sublevel to Level Three to get to hers and Narzek’s quarters. Her physical training required her to make that climb every few rotations. She could now make the climb up the metal ladder with its flat narrow steps as fast as the rest of the crew.
Fans at the top and bottom of the tubes recirculated their air which helped to keep them from getting over heated as they made the climb.
Once Cayla emerged onto her level, she walked briskly to her cabin. Inside, she climbed into their bunk and pulled out the harness to strap herself in. She took deep calming breaths, closing her eyes. There was nothing for her to do but wait it out.
The crew quarters were well shielded in the center of the ship. Even if the ship became disabled and sustained hull breeches, the odds were high that the people in their quarters would survive. But Cayla was not sure if she wanted to survive only to be forced back into slavery; or if Narzek didn’t make it back to her. She put a stop to those thoughts right away. What if negative thoughts could attract the exact worst-case scenario, she feared the most.
The Farseek Brigade was the best of the best, they would fight long and hard. They would die fighting before they would let anyone take their ships.
For now, Narzek was safe on the ground. The updates they’d been getting throughout the day said all was going well groundside. She resigned herself to the fact that there was nothing she could do about what was happening. Instead of just lying there alone in their bed, letting her fears take hold, she closed her eyes then quieted her mind to meditate on the vision she and Narzek shared for the future.
It was just as well that she couldn’t see what was happening outside the ship. Ten Sargan battleships blinked into the Mecstar system while they were still shuttling people up to theKurellis. Narzek’s team and the others had discovered almost a thousand more people who needed to be evacuated.
That was about five hundred more than theKurelliswas designed to carry. Most of the people being rescued didn’t care if they had to double up in the cabins or sleep in conference rooms or even the cargo bay. Their freedom was worth it.
Two dreadnaughts fought valiantly against four Sargan battle ships and assorted fighters to hold them back from capturing theKurellis. They were also protecting the shuttles that arrived about every twenty minutes to deposit people on the huge passenger ship.
Before they’d left Farseek for this mission, their shuttles were retrofitted with laser cannons to ward off space fighters from the battle carrier. When they failed to enter any of the dreadnaughts through their landing bays, the fighters turned on the shuttles.
Meanwhile, the dreadnaughts flanking theKurelliskept moving about to block the battle cruisers and fighters from accessing it. The dreadnaughts may have been out numbered, but the Sargan ships were outgunned. Multiple one- and two-man fighters broke off and flew lower in attempts to shoot down the evacuation shuttles.
Apparently, it didn’t matter whether they killed innocents or not. They were bent on disabling or destroying the shuttles that were stealing their slaves. Many of the enemy fighters were disabled or destroyed during those attacks. One shuttle was forced to go back to the planet before they could reach theKurellisto deposit their passengers.
The veteran pilot was able to make a rough landing but there were injuries to the passengers and he hadn’t had time to assess them. Their shuttle was not so lucky as it split open as it skidded to a stop in the dirt.
Chapter Fifteen
The dreadnaughts disabled three of the Sargan battle ships and many fighters. They were on the verge of taking out a fourth battle cruiser when three more blinked into the system. The dreads were taking a beating, and their power reserves were being depleted. Their shields could fail and their weapons were losing power.
A couple of the dreads sustained hull breeches evidenced by the flames shooting out as the compartment’s oxygen burned. As new Sargan ships blinked into the system, they started going after the dreadnaughts three to one.
While those within their quarters of Dread Ten harnessed in their bunks could feel the ship quaking with each volley of the Sargan blasters pounding their shields; they didn’t know how desperate the situation had become.
At one point, four battlecruisers fired on them at once. Powering their shields was starting to drain the power for weapons as the battle raged. They shut down all the power to the empty chambers and kept firing at the enemy ships, but some of their weapons arrays weren’t firing all the laser cannons.
More of them were failing as the battle wore on, Captain Paulak Ventu was about to call for the personnel in their quarters to arm themselves and prepare for boarding. He had just spoken Dex Jeratu’s name to announce the order when four more ships blinked into the battle front. His heart nearly sank.
The shields were failing and some of their cannons had been knocked out. If more ships started using them for target practice, they just might blow the Dreadnaught apart. A lesser ship, like the Sargans’ battlecruisers would have likely broken apart under such an attack.
The Dreads had taken out a third of the ships attacking them, so the Sargans used the tactic of multiple ships attacking the dreads one at a time. As soon as the enemy ships had blinked into the system all five of the Dreadnaughts took strategic positions to defend theKurellis.
The Farseek warriors couldn’t let the Sargans get close enough to land a boarding party on the passenger ship. If the Sargan’s got control, they would take theKurellisand all the people rescued to parts unknown.
