Daisy's Gambit Read online

  The assembled group nodded.

  “All right. Good luck. I hope to see you all in one piece when this is over.”

  She knew not all of them would return. Hell, they’d be lucky if any of them did, but today, she was counting on luck being on their side.

  The building was massive, but sparsely staffed from what Craaxit’s insiders had reported. Most of its functions were automated, and the key scientific projects were handled by the Ra’az themselves rather than their Chithiid underlings.

  The emptiness of the corridors made Daisy a bit uneasy, but as they pushed farther forward into the facility, she began to feel more at ease. Like she knew what to do. Given the knowledge crammed in her head, it was very possible she did.

  Daisy and Vince teamed up with a woman named Kate and a cyborg named Steven. They quietly took the left-hand corridor at the next junction, while the other teams continued on, splitting up and fanning out, covering as much ground as possible.

  Footsteps echoed in the empty hallway. Loud, heavy footsteps, and a gurgling, guttural chatter.

  That’s a Ra’az. He’s going to check some scan errors.

  “How do you know he said that?”

  Daisy realized there was no way she could have downloaded the Ra’az language. No one had even heard them speak until that precise moment.

  Don’t know. Doesn’t matter!

  “Ra’az!” Daisy hissed. “Quick! In here!” she whispered urgently, yanking open the nearest door, providing an unexpectedly required escape route.

  The others hurried through, Daisy at the rear, closing the door behind them with a quiet click. There was a door at the far end of the sterile-looking research space.

  “Out there. Go!” The others hurried across the room. The door was unlocked. Vince cautiously cracked it open and peered out while Daisy kept her ear pressed to the one they’d just come through. The footsteps were getting louder.

  “All clear,” Vince whispered.

  He opened the door, and Kate and Steven hurried through behind him. Daisy stepped away from the entry door and had just turned to join them when she heard the footsteps stop outside the door just behind her.

  Shit!

  “No time, Daze. There’s a lab door to the right. Through there!”

  Sarah didn’t have to tell her twice, and Daisy quickly slid through the lab door, just as the Ra’az pushed its way into the room, stopping where she’d just been standing mere moments before.

  “The others are clear. I saw them close the door.”

  Thanks, Sarah. You read my mind.

  “I’ve been known to do that from time to time.”

  Daisy kept her finger ready but off the trigger of her pulse rifle as she surveyed the strange instruments scattered throughout the room she had taken refuge in. There were scanning devices, what appeared to be damping linkages, and even a few pieces she recognized from her old shuttle.

  Sitting in one of a dozen slight divots on the table was a baseball-sized sphere, glowing a faint blue through an otherwise jet-black shell.

  “What is that?”

  Don’t know, Daisy quietly replied. She reached in her pouch and pulled out a portable radiation scanner.

  Safe. Looks like it’s not radioactive, but I’m getting some really strange power readings. High, but also low at the same time.

  “I think it’s an energy source they power the warp ships with,” Sarah posited.

  Maybe, Daisy agreed, pocketing the orb. Mine now, she said with a little chuckle. I’ll figure it out later, when we have the time.

  “If we live that long.”

  Pessimist.

  In the adjacent room, the Ra’az sounded as if it was either destroying a waste-disposal unit, or was building a metal shed with a hammer. Whatever it was, Daisy had no desire to stick around and find out. She only hoped the closed door at the back of the room led to a hallway and not a storage closet.

  Locked.

  Just my luck.

  Daisy quickly pulled her tools out and disconnected the security panel from the wall, working fast, trying to bypass the mechanism. While the configuration was alien, the components, like much around her, had been salvaged from Earth.

  “You’ve got this, Daze.”

  “Check it out,” she whispered pointing to a logo on one of the power-lock switches. “This mechanism came from a bank. I wonder if there’s a giant pile of cash around here somewhere.”

  “Not that it would be worth anything anymore.”

  “I don’t’ know. Kindling, maybe?”

  Mid-banter, the door clicked unlocked.

  Nice, she thought with a smile.

  She poked her head into the quiet hallway and listened.

  Nothing.

  Okay, let’s go find the others and disable those ships.

  The fighting across the continent in New York was intense, and the steady barrage of anti-aircraft fire was thick as it attempted to knock the incoming space junk from the sky. Likewise, the Sydney and Tokyo facilities were deflecting the debris as best they could.

  On the ground, the attack teams had been successful infiltrating the building, with the help of the Chithiid rebels, and the communications arrays were down for the count in New York.

  As Donovan and Bob sped toward her to retrieve her team, Shelly only hoped the other teams had achieved the same success.

  It appeared that Captain Harkaway’s brilliantly unconventional plan had worked wonderfully, startling the complacent defenses with what appeared to be a random shower of debris. It was only when the first explosive-laden ship blasted into the buildings that the Ra’az realized their mistake and tried to launch their ships.

  It was too late.

  Gustavo, Bob, and Mal steered the remote-guided craft in suicide dives directly into the vessels parked outside the three facilities and the hapless Ra’az pilots racing toward them.

  Only a few managed to make it into the air.

  Though the ground defenses were firing at them hot and heavy in the skies above Sydney, the Váli dove through the flak behind the remote drones to retrieve the waiting team.

  Despite shedding most of her pods for the mission, Mal was still fighting hard to maneuver the sizable ship in the Earth’s atmosphere. Captain Harkaway was continually providing manual assistance, helping guide the craft when needed so Mal could divert attention to launching countermeasures or directing a remote ship on its path to destruction.

  Sydney hadn’t fallen as easily as New York, but the remote location of the continent had given the team attacking it an advantage. Once the Ra’az had eliminated the Aussies, they simply couldn’t comprehend any situation where a fighting force would come at them from the ground. It was a giant, empty continent, and they felt totally safe.

  They couldn’t have been more wrong.

  Finn and Reggie’s team tore through the facility as soon as the Chithiid rebels had given them access. A pair of bomb-wielding cyborgs managed to take out most of the ships that were fueled and parked nearby, detonating their payloads before the desperate Ra’az pilots could ever take off.

  Inside, the secondary power source was permanently destroyed, and given the speed in which they had achieved a total routing of the invaders, the team decided to set to work not only destroying the comms systems and power supplies, but the entire building in which they were housed.

  “Better safe than sorry, right?” the silver-fingered man had said with a jolly laugh as he triggered the remote detonation.

  “Okay, people, back to the loop pod!” he called out as the building collapsed behind them. “Let’s make that rendezvous!”

  Tokyo, however, was a far different story. Comms were severed, but the reserve power supplies were well-guarded, and the Chithiid who had facilitated the initial sabotage and opened the doors to the intruders were quickly cut down, shot and rent limb from limb by the angry Ra’az overseers in the base.

  Upon seeing the Chithiid aiding the humans and cyborgs, the Ra’az turned th
eir weapons on all Chithiid, rebels and loyalists alike, as they attempted to purge their facility and bring it back online.

  Omar limped for cover as pulse blasts peppered the walls around him. His left leg was a mangled mess of hydraulics and metal, barely able to support his weight.

  “We’re pinned down in here,” he called over open comms.

  No sense shielding his messages now. The enemy most certainly knew he was there.

  “The network is down for the time being, but the backup power is too heavily protected and will kick in any minute. I’ve lost half my team, and most of the others are injured or trapped.” He grimly looked around him. There was only one thing to do.

  “Requesting a direct run on the facility ASAP. The northernmost area is where the power is routed. If you can breach that wall, a detonation will fry out the facility’s power source once and for all.”

  Commander Mrazich replied a moment later.

  “You get your ass out of there, Soldier. We’ll begin a targeting run when you’re clear.”

  “Negative, sir. There’s no time. Start the run now. I’ll try to get my people out before your ships hit.”

  “You sure about this, Omar?”

  “Yes, I am, sir. We all know what’s riding on this, so please, don’t hesitate.”

  “I didn’t. They’re already on their way. Now run, you sonofabitch. Get out if you can.”

  “Thank you, sir. It’s been an honor.”

  “Don’t give me that heroic death crap. Get on your feet and run. That’s an order!”

  Commander Mrazich cut out abruptly.

  “Okay, you dirtbags, beat a hasty retreat! We are out of here!” he said, lurching unsteadily to his feet, firing over his shoulder as he half-limped, half-ran for the smoldering hole in the wall nearest him. Far above he heard the concussion of the anti-aircraft fire targeting the incoming ships.

  Only a matter of time, he thought as he pushed out through the debris as the flying bombs screamed down toward him.

  Chapter Thirty

  An explosion rocked the air around the Váli as she banked hard, dogfighting with a much smaller, much faster ship.

  “Where did that come from?” Harkaway barked.

  “It appears to have been en route prior to the attack,” Mal replied. “Simple bad luck, Captain.”

  “Shit. What do we have, Gus?”

  “Working on it,” he replied, sweating with the strain of controlling so many remote ships.

  Gustavo had already used almost all of the drone ships at his command, and Mal was almost out of remote vessels as well.

  “I’m taking the stick, Mal!” Harkaway yelled.

  Captain Harkaway quickly banked and veered the Váli in ways she was never intended to move, narrowly dodging explosive flak from below, while weaving around cannon fire from the hectoring little ship flying in pursuit.

  Reggie saw the dogfight above. The Váli was doing amazingly, but he knew she didn’t stand a chance. Eventually, the faster ship would get the advantage.

  “Get the others to the rendezvous site. I’m going to give them some cover,” he said, racing toward the one mostly intact Ra’az ship still on the ground.

  “Be careful!” Finn shouted after him.

  “Never!” he yelled back as he ran toward the ship’s smoking hull.

  It was damaged, and wouldn’t stay in the air long, but he didn’t need much time.

  Reggie jumped over the huge alien corpse with a giant hole in its torso and scrambled into the ship. The seat and controls were designed for a much larger pilot, but he nevertheless managed to fire up the engines and get her airborne.

  “Now, which ones are the cannons?” he muttered, flipping switches as he flew after the Váli and her opponent.

  A burst of plasma shot out of the forward guns.

  “Okay, that appears to be it,” he said, then moved to target the Ra’az ship.

  The pilot of the other Ra’az vessel saw him approaching and smiled. With two Ra’az attack ships, there was no way the intruders would escape.

  The blast of plasma that strafed his hull made him quickly think otherwise as the bulky alien realized his initial impression was horribly mistaken as the flames began to spread.

  From the ground, a few weapons systems were unexpectedly still active, and a massive cannon blast shook the Váli, punching through her protective hull, right into the command pod. The biologic breach alarm sounded immediately, warning of the presence of plague contamination in the air.

  Captain Harkaway, unlike the other crew members, was not immune.

  Before he could even react, the automated protective cryogenic capsule slammed shut around his pilot’s seat, driving him into a rapid emergency deep-freeze and bio-contaminant purge.

  If and when he came out of it, he would have a nasty headache, but at least he would be alive.

  Mal sensed the loss of her pilot and quickly redirected her focus to steering the Váli while engaging the emergency liqui-steel foam hull-breach sealing system, closing off the command pod once more as she brought the ship down to a rough landing a few hundred meters short of the designated rendezvous point.

  Meanwhile, descending from high above, Reggie watched as the flaming Ra’az vessel plunged into the Hudson River. A little smile on his face, he set down the damaged ship just as its engines began to fail and took off running to join the others and head to San Francisco to help in the fight.

  Finn sprinted across the open ground to the Váli, his team right behind him.

  “Come on, get on board!” he shouted as they piled into the open hatchway, Reggie following at a full-run close behind.

  Satisfied they had gathered all the surviving teammates, he sealed the hatch and bolted for command.

  “Mal, we’re in. Drop the rest of the drones on the building and get us out of here!”

  The ship rumbled and lurched skyward, while the remaining remote ships dove as one into the heart of the building.

  The explosion toppled the remaining bits of the structure, leaving no hope of any escaping communications, or survivors.

  Finn ran into the command pod to take his co-pilot’s seat when he saw the captain sealed in an emergency cryo rig.

  “Shit! Captain!” he yelled, rushing to the unit. All vitals were in the green. “Oh, thank God,” he sighed. “Gus, what’s the status of––”

  The words fell from his lips as he saw his friend. A hole had been blown clear through his chest when the blast hit the pod. His head was still wired in, but it hung limply, his one good eye staring but not seeing. It never would again.

  Daisy was running down the corridor when the comms crackled to life and Sid’s voice finally said the words she’d been waiting to hear.

  “All three relays are down. Repeat, all three relays are down. It’s your ball, Daisy.”

  About goddamn time.

  She kept her pace as she sent the signal to the rest of the team, unslinging the pulse rifle riding over her shoulder while she ran. It would only be a matter of time now until the fighting and dying started.

  The next five rooms appeared to be simple electronics labs, though one contained a disassembled ship’s engine. Daisy quickly scanned for any sign of a warp device.

  Nope. Just an engine. My luck, finding a plain old repair shop, she grumbled.

  Daisy realized she must have crossed nearly the entire facility when she reached a somewhat larger set of doors. She pushed them open cautiously.

  “Hangar,” Sarah said. “To your right, Steve and Kate, tucked up against that storage unit.”

  Got ‘em. You catch sight of Vince?

  “No, but Daisy, the ships…”

  She glanced at the vessels.

  Nope, not what we’re looking for. Look at the engines. They’re partially disassembled. This is a service hangar. We’ve got to keep searching.

  She crept over to Steven and Kate’s hiding place.

  “What have you guys found?”

  “No sig
n of the warp ships so far, but we’ve seen a lot of activity in this part of the complex,” Kate said.

  “Where’s Vince?”

  “He has circled around the other direction to attempt to access the adjacent hangar area by a less, well, difficult route,” the cyborg said.

  Daisy peered around the storage unit. No one there.

  “Okay, come on, it’s clear,” she said, stepping out into the open.

  As she did, a wiry Chithiid ran into the hangar through the adjacent doors.

  “Wait!” Daisy called to her team. They held their fire. The alien had red armbands above his elbows.

  “There is difficulty in the hangar. The warp ships are there, and we have disabled the hangar door mechanism, but there is an additional vessel stored in that area as well. A powerful ship with weapons that could easily blast through the sealed doors. I have been observing from a safe distance. One of your mechanical men has been trying, but has been unable to reach the vessel with his bomb."

  “He says the hangar doors are sealed, but there’s a ship with big guns in the next hangar, and we need to take it out before it blasts an exit for the warp ships. You guys up for this?”

  “Do we have much choice?” Kate said with a wry smile.

  “Okay then. Follow the alien.”

  Daisy nodded to the Chithiid to lead the way and followed him through the door into a spacious anteroom. He caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his rear eye and dove for cover. Daisy and her team, however, lacked anything to hide behind as they spun.

  A massive Ra’az burst through the doorway and charged at them, bellowing a warning into its communicator as it ran.

  I hope they took out the localized comms.

  Steven raised his rifle, but the Ra’az quickly whipped it from his hands with his powerful gauntlet, then swung the whip back across his torso, sending the hapless cyborg flying into the wall with a sickening crash.

  He locked eyes on Daisy and smiled, then swung his whip at her head.