Resurgence (Redleg In Space Book 2) Page 24

  All he got back from Sam was a grunt. She was focused on flying and couldn’t divert any attention to having a conversation. She rolled the ship towards the starboard side in an attempt to clear the two enemy ships. Max could only watch and hope that she knew what she was doing.

  As the Ananna got closer to the blockers, they shifted toward each other, and he was sure they wouldn’t fit. Turning his attention back to his console, he lined the targeting reticle up with the ship in his field of view and squeezed the trigger. The laser bursts were invisible in flight, but he watched as they exploded against the enemy ships.

  The ship began to orient its cannons toward the Ananna. Just when he thought they were about to collide, Sam jerked back on the stick and sent the ship over the top of the other two. When she was clear, she gave the ship more power than it had been using before. He had thought they were already at full power and was surprised at how much more Ann had to give. The G’s pushed him back in his seat before the compensators kicked in.

  As they passed over the ships, he took a shot at the one he had already engaged. Blasts flashed across the hull, and two of his shots landed where the engine met the rest of the ship. An explosion erupted, shaking the ship and washing out his sensors. When they cleared the blast, he could only see debris in his field of view. The green filaments that spiderwebbed throughout the Ananna flared and pulsed, and then returned to their normal intensity.

  “Nice shooting,” Sam said over her shoulder as she continued to pilot the ship on an arrow-straight path towards the largest Settler ship on the screens.

  “Your actions have led to a significant harvest, but because you do not have a personal reserve, all will be transferred to the ship stores,” Ann said, appearing next to his station. “When you become a full member of the crew and get your helmet, I will transfer your share to you.”

  Before he could ask any of the questions that her statement raised, her hologram disappeared, leaving him to focus on his station. The second ship that had attempted to block their escape never moved to pursue. It moved to support the other ship that Max had severely damaged. With their tail clear, all he could do was watch the steadily growing Settler ship, and hope they would make it in time.

  Within minutes, they were screaming into a docking bay on the large ship. Both the ramp and landing gear were dropped at the same time, and Sam was out of her seat as soon as the ship slid to a stop. She raced past Max without even acknowledging him as she headed for the cargo bay. Zade laid on the ground, motionless and covered in bandages. Mara sat on a crate nearby, frantically trying to scrub the blood from her hands.

  The flight team split. Sam went to Zade while Max went to his sister. As he closed with her, he could see she was wracked with sobs. As he wrapped her in a hug to comfort her, she pulled back, her eyes unfocused and lost.

  “I tried so hard to fix him up, but I don’t know if it was enough. There was so much blood…” she trailed off, still wiping her hands on her uniform, not realizing she was not making any progress in cleaning herself off.

  “It’s ok. We’re getting him to a medical bay,” he said as he pulled her towards himself and embraced her once again. He looked down to see she had scrubbed her hands raw. She had completely removed the thin coat of fur all Baast had.

  “He saved me, and I couldn’t even help him. It took me so many tries to get everything bandaged right. And…And I don’t think it was enough.”

  He had seen shock before while serving in the military, but it cut him more deeply than ever before because it was his sister. Nothing he could say would justify the outcome or make the situation seem right to her, so instead, he just stood there hugging her. As much as he wanted to take the guilt and regret off her shoulders, he knew he wouldn’t be able to until she was ready to let it go. All he could do was comfort her.

  While the siblings embraced, Sam checked Zade for wounds that would prevent her from moving him to the medical bay without equipment. Ann assured her that as long as he was in his armor, he could be moved. She quickly scooped him up and moved him to a cargo cart. She pushed the cart as quickly as she could towards the medical bay she had remembered passing before. She had to stop and ask people where to go twice before she arrived.

  The news of their arrival proceeded her, and when the door slid open to the medical bay, there was already a bed waiting for Zade. Medical officers and specialists were on standby, waiting to begin medical treatment. Only after he was on the treatment bed and scanned for injuries did Ann have Sam take off his helmet.

  “Please make sure you secure the helmet, immediately,” Ann said as Samix gently reached behind his head; as soon as her hands touched his neck seal, the helmet opened, allowing her to remove it.

  After stepping back, she looked to the readout of the medical scanner. As the list of injuries grew, her hopes that he would survive shrank. Although she didn’t fully understand the human physiology, it appeared that it would take a miracle for him to come back to her. When the scanner completed, the medical personnel sprang into action. They began working on the most life-threatening injuries first, and within moments they had surrounded Zade, completely blocking him from her view.

  Realizing she was of no use in the medical unit, she shuffled off towards the bridge feeling completely disheartened. The frantic activity of the Settler’s crew had calmed since she had last been on the bridge, signaling that the engagement was coming to a close. Axis was in his command chair, engaged in a heated discussion. She couldn’t see whose face was on the vidscreen from her vantage point, but he was so engrossed in his conversation that he didn’t notice her standing behind him.

  She wanted to give him space to finish his conversation without interruption. Through the remaining commotion on the bridge, she could only hear snippets of it, and he didn’t sound happy to her. She pulled a chair into a corner and out of the way of the Settlers running around her. She felt her body slumping into the chair, and dozed off, avoiding all of the emotions she felt except exhaustion.

  ∆∆∆

  “Fine!” Axis shouted as he smacked the vidscreen away from himself, jarring Samix from a restless sleep.

  “It’s good to see you safe, Samix,” he said as he turned towards her.

  “Yeah, it’s good to be back,” Samix said, unsure of how long she had been asleep. “Zade’s in medical. It doesn’t look good,” she responded, a tear gathering in the corner of her eye.

  “What?” screamed the diminutive Settler, his color darkening in anger.

  “He took a beating by a group of mercs while he and Max were trying to help. He was wounded by something big. Then, some of the ships broke off from fighting you guys and started bombing the colony. From what Max said, he took a direct orbital strike,” she stated as factually as possible, but she was unable to keep the pain from her voice. “He’s pretty banged up. To be honest, I don’t know how he’s still alive.”

  “Those mother fuckers,” he spat, saying was one of the favorite phrases he had picked up from Zade; she thought it still sounded strange coming from him. “They attack a clan flagship, almost kill a friend of the Settlers, and attack the innocents in a mining colony. Their actions cannot go unpunished.”

  He gave orders to two of his bridge crew before turning back to Sam.

  “We have to figure out who is responsible for this before we act. Without any more mercenary ships to take out our frustration on, we need to focus on rebuilding the colony.”

  Much of the Settler’s hard work in preparing the colony for permanent habitation had been destroyed in the merc attack. The habitation modules had all been bombed, and much of the preexisting colony had been damaged. Both captains knew they needed to dock supplies and medical personnel with the colony to help them recover.

  “I trust your judgment with how this should be addressed, Axis,” Samix said, “but I need to be doing something. Put me in the rotation for supply deliveries.”

  “Fine, and done. I will have you slotted into the rota
tion to deliver equipment that needs to come from this ship.”

  The Settler crew, after a short break from the battle, had spun back up into operations mode. The Settlers immediately began to repair the damaged atmosphere above the colony to begin the rebuilding process. With nothing left for her to do on the bridge, she headed back to the docking bay to await her orders.

  Along the way, she swung back through the medical bay to check on Zade. The medical personnel had finished their work, and he was covered in bandages. She was happy to see his chest gently rising and falling.

  “We have gotten his physical injuries treated, but we won’t know how much cerebral damage he has from the blast and being in the vacuum until he wakes up. We can’t be certain that he will wake at all,” said one of the crew from behind her. “He is a fighter, though. Not many could have survived what he did today.”

  She looked over Zade, her eyes stopping over the bandaged stump where his arm used to be. It was by far the worst injury he had sustained, and once he got back inside the colony and his body warmed, he had lost a significant amount of blood from the wound. Even if he recovered, his life wouldn’t be the same.

  “He is a fighter,” Samix agreed, forcing a small smile onto her lips. “I know the arm was missing, but how bad was the damage?”

  “We had to take it at the middle joint to remove the damage. If his mind recovers from the blood loss, we may be able to fit him with a robotic prosthetic. It is best to focus on getting him to wake up right now.”

  “Thank you for the update,” she said, her mood somber. If the best doctors at Axis’s disposal were worried about him waking up, Zade was in bad shape.

  She walked slowly the rest of the way to the bay. The Settlers seemed to be hesitant to intercept her and kept their distance as she moved. The bay had changed dramatically during the time she was with Axis, which had been longer than she thought it had. Ann was no longer the lone ship present. Damaged fighters and other smaller ships occupied the bay, their crews scurrying around them effecting repairs.

  She knew she needed to sleep, but after riding the lift into the cargo hold, she headed to the bridge. Her mind was running wild and she knew that she would find no rest in her quarters. As she turned toward the galley, she heard giggling. She stopped at the door and looked inside. The girl Zade had saved was happily playing with something in the galley, seemingly unaffected by the traumatic events that had just unfolded.

  The sight of her brought up mixed emotions for Sam. She, like the others in the Unity had been conditioned to view the Baast as nothing more than cheap labor. She tried to view them as something more, but refuting years of conditioning was difficult. Part of her blamed the girl for the situation Zade was in, and part of her was glad his sacrifice kept the girl alive. She thought his recklessness was irresponsible, but she couldn’t help but admire him for sacrificing himself for the young girl.

  Losing her train of thought, she continued on her way to the bridge. She did not want to dwell on her situation. She wanted to start planning for the supply runs coming up to keep herself preoccupied. When she got to the bridge, she was greeted by Max and Mara.

  “How’s he doing?” they asked in unison.

  “They have him stabilized, but they won’t know how much brain damage he took from the blast. They won’t know that until he wakes,” Samix said shakily. “If he wakes at all.”

  She drifted off. It was hard for her to even think about him not waking, let alone saying it out loud.

  “What’s our game plan?” Max said, interrupting her thoughts.

  “We help with rebuilding the colony while we wait for Zade to wake,” Samix replied. “Then he can call the shots. We need to be ready to take cargo down to the surface.”

  Sensing that their new captain wasn’t in the mood to explain herself anymore, the two Baast set to making the ship ready for transport. Mara headed to the engine room to do her checks and maintenance while Max headed to the armory to clean the weapons he and Zade had used to defeat the mercs.

  Left on her own, once again, she simply looked from the captain’s chair to the pilot station. She knew the place she had on the crew. That place felt comfortable. She also knew the place she needed to be on the crew. It wasn’t what she wanted, but it had to be filled for the good of everyone.

  It’ll only be until Zade gets back on his feet, she thought as she made her way to the upper deck of the bridge.

  After a few hours of mundane tasks to keep her mind occupied, there was a summons from outside the ship. A crewman had arrived on a heavy lifter loaded down with boxes. After checking her messages and confirming that she would be delivering food to the colony, she dropped the floor of the cargo bay so the crates could be loaded. Both Mara and Max approached her for information on what they were doing. Both left happy that they would be helping their people.

  Once the cargo was inventoried and secured, Sam was given clearance to undock and head towards a designated docking point at the colony. As soon as she brought up a map of the landing area, she saw that she would be landing the ship exactly where she had picked up the away team. Immediately, worries about Zade resurfaced along with resentment for the young one aboard.

  If she had only hidden like the rest of the miners, Zade would still be here with me.

  There was a quiet knock followed by a squeaky voice that broke her from her trance.

  “Can I watch take-off from up here? I’ve never been in space before.”

  Sam had to get her emotions under control and chose to bury the resentment she felt for the girl before she spoke. Zade would want her to be nice.

  “Sure. You can sit up here to watch. I don’t think I got your name.”

  “I’m Samina but my friends call me Sam.”

  Sam froze immediately, the pieces falling into place. Her anger at Zade for his recklessness fell away. Her distaste for the little Baast girl faded. As she looked at the little one, she realized that she had been about the same age when she was saved by the Unity troopers. She had spent her life wanting to help others the same way she had been helped but had selfishly abandoned her cool as soon as she had been thrust into the situation.

  The idea of being a hero riding in on a white horse to save the day had been a farce. Helping others would require hard work and sacrifice. She had never stopped to wonder if the troopers had lost anyone during the raid on the ship when she was rescued. Her sheltered upbringing had kept her from understanding the dangerous nature of the empire outside of Xi’Ga. Her belief system had been shaken by the actions of her father, but the thought that he was the only one that could be so callous and cruel helped her maintain it. For better or worse, the idealistic girl that stowed away on Zade’s ship had been replaced with a reality-hardened woman.

  “That’s my name too,” she finally replied with a sad smile on her face.

  “Are you going to take me back home now? I want to see my family.”

  “Yes. We are taking them food. When we land, I can help you find them if you want,” Samix said.

  “I would like that,” Samina responded with a smile.

  “How about you sit in my old seat. It has the best view, and you can see the controls for the ship from there,” Samix finished as she pointed to the pilot’s station.

  The girl smiled, ran down, and hopped up into the pilot’s seat. She wrapped her tail around her small body and began tugging on it. Whether out of nervousness or excitement, Samix couldn’t tell. While she sat there watching the girl fidget and swing her legs like any kid whose feet didn’t touch the floor, she received the take-off order from control. Although she wasn’t at her usual station, she had trained enough to have basic control of the ship with her armor alone. She throttled up and eased the ship up and forward so she could retract the landing gear.

  As the ship slid through the field that held the atmosphere in the docking bay. Her new pilot let out an audible gasp. Samix remembered having the same reaction when she first went into the stars. The ship
fizzled and cracked as it pushed through the field. Once free from the confines of the larger ship, Samix spun the nose towards the colony and pushed towards it.

  “Is that home?” the girl asked when the planetoid appeared in the front windows of the ship.

  “Yep. We should be there in a little bit.”

  “It looks so small,” Samina said, nothing but wonder in her voice.

  “We are far away. It will get as big as you remember when we get closer,” Samix said, smiling at the naivety of the small child.

  The girl’s wonder never lessened through the entire flight. Just before breaking into the planetoid’s thin atmosphere, Samix got landing instructions, and one of the docking bays lit up in her helmet. She made slight adjustments in their flight path and within minutes they were touching down inside another large bay. She was worried that atmospheric buffering would frighten the small girl, but the density of the atmosphere provided little resistance. On the ship’s external cameras, she could see heavy lifting equipment along with a crowd waiting for the ship.

  “You ready to go find your parents?” Samix said after completing the power down sequence.

  “I am,” the girl said as she jumped out of the seat and took Sam’s hand, eagerly leading her off the bridge and towards the cargo bay. “Let’s go. I bet they’re worried.”

  Sam secured the bridge and headed into the colony using the cargo lift. The girl weaved back and forth searching through the faces in the crowd. They had looked at almost everyone before the girl released Sam’s hand and tore towards a couple standing in the back of the bay. Little Sam’s mother wrapped her in a huge hug as the girl squealed in delight.

  As much as Sam wanted to stand and watch the reunion, unlike anything she would ever have, she smiled and slipped back into the crowd. The settlers and miners could handle unloading the ship. What she wanted to see wasn’t in the new landing bay. After a few quick commands, she had a map to where Zade had been hurt brought up in her helmet.