Stars of Blood and Glory (15 page)

“
Launch nuclear warheads and
order all ships to accelerate at full power,” said Katsuichi,
rising to his feet. “Prepare to engage at point blank
range.”

“
But Your Highness—”

“
Do it! It’s the only way to keep
them from decimating us with a nuclear fusillade.”

His officers looked at him with tense,
frightened faces, but they obeyed like the disciplined soldiers
they were. A loud rumble sounded beneath his feet as the engines
engaged.

Now would be a very good time for those
fleets to show up.

On the holographic projection, the dark blue
ships moved forward toward the increasingly chaotic mass of red
Hameji ships. Around the edges of the star, little blue projections
flickered in and out of view, until several small diamond
formations shot around from the far side, hurtling at incredible
speed toward the battle.

“
It’s the fifth and sixth
fleets!” said the pilot, his voice ecstatic. “They’re moving to
attack the Hameji rear!”

“
Keep us far enough up the well
to stay away from their projectile fire,” said Katsuichi, “but
continue to accelerate toward the outermost ships.”

The starfield overhead was full
of flashing lights and glittering battleships now. As the first
wave of Hameji fighter drones approached the fleet, the laser stars
on the wings of the
Divine Wind
lit up like an Orianan worship rave.

“
Our nuclear attack has disabled
five ships and destroyed two more,” said the gunnery officer.
“Engaging at point blank range.”

“
Now we see just how invincible
these Hameji really are,” Kenta muttered.

The floor shuddered, making Katsuichi grab
his armrest for support. “Give me an update,” he said. “How are we
doing?”

“
The
Miyamoto
and
Hirohito
are taking heavy fire. Commander Amano of
the
Hirohito
has given the order to abandon ship—”

“
But we’ve taken out two of their
larger capital ships,” said the gunnery officer, unable to contain
his excitement. “A third is moving to withdraw—we can do
this!”

Katsuichi’s eyes widened in
amazement, and chills shot from the back of his neck to the ends of
his fingers.
We’re winning,
he thought to himself, suppressing the urge to
shout.
By
the ancient holy stars of Earth, we’re actually winning.

Without warning, the light blue marks
representing Colonel Webb’s ships flickered and died, one by one.
Katsuichi frowned. “What’s that? What’s going on?”

“
I’m sorry, sir,” said the
communications officer, “but it appears that the colonel is
withdrawing his fleet. His flagship has left the battle, and I
can’t pick up his signal anywhere else in the system.

“
Leaving? What do you
mean?”

“
It’s true, sir,” said the pilot.
“The other Federation ships have just jumped out. We’re—we’re
alone.”

Blood rushed to Katsuichi’s cheeks, and he
clenched his fists in rage. “How can he leave right now? What can
he be thinking? We’re—”

“
Calm, Katsuichi-sama,” said
Kenta, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Your men need
you.”

Katsuichi collapsed in his command chair, his
head in his hands. Without Colonel Webb’s forces, the Hameji could
focus all their strength on the Rigelan fleet. The fifth and sixth
fleets were coming in fast, but there was no guarantee that they
would arrive in time to save them. If they continued, they might
still win, but the casualties would be very, very high.

“
The
Hirohito
is down, sir. The
Roppongi
is also coming under
heavy—”

“
Sir! Hameji reinforcements are
jumping in across the sector!”

Katsuichi looked up as little clusters of red
started popping up all along the edges of the holographic
projection. His stomach fell—it was a second Hameji fleet, almost
as large as the first one, high enough up the gravity well to
eliminate whatever positional advantage the Rigelan forces still
held.

“
Your orders, sir?”

“
We can’t do this,” Kenta said
under his breath. “Even if we give our lives, we can’t win this
battle.”

Katsuichi groaned, his hands shaking. “Give
the order to fall back,” he said softly.

“
Yes, Sir,” said the pilot, his
voice subdued. “What about the
Musashi
and the
Yamamoto?
”

A deep sinking feeling welled up in
Katsuichi’s gut. He clenched his fists in frustration, but knew he
had no choice.

“
There’s nothing we can do for
them. Tell Commanders Akira and Satoshi that their names will be
held in the highest honor for their sacrifice.”

The pilot nodded, while the communications
officer, tears in her eyes, relayed the transmission. Katsuichi
swallowed hard and covered his face with his hand.

“
You did the right thing,” said
Kenta as the
Divine Wind
jumped out. “Better to win another day than to lose
everything through no fault of our own.”

“
We were betrayed,” Katsuichi
muttered. “The colonel abandoned us.”

Kenta grunted, but said nothing. Katsuichi,
unable to keep his composure, stormed angrily out of the
bridge.

* * * * *

Abaqa pounded his fist against his gunboat’s
instrument panel and swore in his loudest, angriest voice. Three
days out from capturing the planetborn princess, and still he
couldn’t escape the jump beacons set by those pesky … whoever they
were. After so much time in deep space, this cat-and-mouse game was
starting to grate on his nerves. He’d already exhausted his
gunboat’s energy reserves, and both of his jump drives were spent.
It’d be several hours before he’d be able to attempt another
jump—hopefully, without getting interdicted again.

He gripped the flight stick and activated the
gunboat’s main railgun. At least these jump beacons gave him some
opportunity for target practice. He brought his ship around until
the small, barrel-shaped object was right in his cross-hairs.
“Goodbye forever,” he said, squeezing the trigger. The overhead
bulkheads rumbled, giving him a feeling of intense satisfaction as
the shots tore through the target and turned it into a mass of
flying shrapnel.

With that done, he sighed and rose to his
feet, ducking as he stepped into the gunboat’s narrow cabin. The
girl sat in the corner with her hands behind her back and her knees
against her chest; he’d adjusted her bonds after she’d complained
about feeling sore. Her clothes still lay in a pile on the floor
where he’d kicked them, though he hadn’t stripped her down
completely yet.

“
Hungry?” he asked casually as he
opened the compartment for the food synthesizer and began
processing their lunch. He didn’t really expect an answer,
though—not with the gag over her mouth. Still, her glare was so
venomous that he had no trouble guessing her answer.

“
Hey, it’s not my fault we’re
still here,” he said, giving her a shrug. “If it were up to me,
we’d be back with my brother’s fleet already, and you’d be
comfortably settled with the rest of the concubines.”

She shouted something at him, but the gag
muffled her voice enough that he couldn’t hear it. He pulled out
the bowl and walked over with it to the corner, squatting down
beside her.

“
Are we going to behave this
time?” he asked, holding the bowl in front of her. She glared at
him, but nodded.

With his free hand, he undid the knot and
pulled off the gag. She gasped and shook her head, making her hair
dance over her bare shoulders. She had rings around her eyes now,
and the bruises on her arms had puffed up a little, but she was
still as spirited as ever—and just as beautiful.

“
My brother is going to find me,”
she said, her voice deadly low. “He’s going to come for me, and
when he does, he’s going to make you wish you’d never been
born.”

Abaqa laughed. “The fire of hope burns
eternal, but every star in the universe will eventually grow
cold.”

“
Let me go.”

The desperation was definitely under the
surface, but it was there. Perhaps she’d actually break before the
voyage was up. Still, he had to admit, she had a lot of spirit for
a planetborn wench.

“
I can’t,” he said, stirring the
synthmeal with his spoon. “If I untied you, you’d probably try to
kill me—and where would that put us? Can
you
fly this ship?”

“
I don’t have to,” she said. “My
brother will come for me.”

He took a spoonful of the dull gray porridge
and held it out to her. With as much defiance as she could manage,
she opened her mouth and let him feed her.

“
We’re practically in Hameji
space already,” he said. “Even if your brother did show up to
rescue you, he’d never get out with his life.”

“
You’re lying,” she said. Still,
she was unable to hide the fear in her eyes.

Abaqa shrugged. “It makes no difference in
the end.”

“
How do you knmmmfm,” she said,
mumbling as he stuffed another spoonful of synthmeal down her
throat.

“
How do I know? We’re only a few
dozen light-hours from Eyn-Gatta, where my brother’s fleets are
stationed.”

She scowled at him, but her eyes still shone
with fear. He fed her another spoonful.

“
Still, if that is your brother,
he’s got a lot of spirit to follow us out this far. A lot of
spirit, just like you.”

“
Is that supposed to be a
come-on?”

He blushed. “No. When I make you my
concubine, I won’t need to bother with come-ons.”

“
Ha! That’s a laugh. What are you
going to do, bathe me in scented oils and make me hand-feed you
from a baby bottle? No, let me guess—you’ll post pictures of me in
your bedroom and pretend to do naughty things to them.”

“
Shut up!” he said, blushing even
deeper.

As he fed her another spoonful, the lights
overhead turned red, and alarms began to blare across the cabin. In
an instant, he was on his feet, running for the cockpit.

“
Hey!” the girl called out after
him. “You spilled that disgusting stuff all over the
floor!”

He didn’t have time to respond to her,
though—the sensors had picked up a ship coming out of jumpspace
only a few hundred kilometers away from him. He switched off the
alarms and powered down as many systems as he could, cursing
himself for not thinking about that earlier. With his jump drives
still powering up and nothing in local-space except dust and gas,
he had nowhere to run.

“
What was that?” the girl called
out. “Is that my brother? I
told
you he’d come for me!”

“
Shut up!” he shouted, his hands
trembling. He trained the telescopic cameras on the craft and
zoomed in—it was them them, all right. And it looked like they were
launching fighter drones.

“
Or what?” she yelled back,
encouraged now by the alarm. “Or you’ll toss me out the airlock?
It’s not going to save you—you’re only chance is to hand me
over.”

An alert started blinking on the main
display. It was a transmission from the incoming ship. Without
thinking of the girl, he brought it up and hit play.

“
Attention Hameji vessel,” came
an older woman’s voice, speaking in Gaian. “This is Captain Danica
Nova of the Rigelan-aligned
Tajji Flame.
Power down your ship and surrender at
once.”

“
See?” squealed the girl. “See? I
told you he’d come—I
told
you!”

Abaqa clenched and unclenched
his fists. For a moment, he considered putting up a fight, but
the
Tajji
Flame
was
much larger than his gunboat, with almost three times as many
fighters. Without any backup, he was as good as dead the moment he
powered up his weapons.

Instead, he activated a high-level distress
beacon, using the codes his father had taught him. It was an
embarrassing way to end his first mission, but he had no doubt that
his brother Jahan would come for him—especially with Eyn-Gatta so
close by.

After a few seconds, the alert flashed again.
“Hameji vessel, depower your distress beacon and submit to boarding
at once.”

“
If you want me to stop
transmitting,” he answered in Gaian, “then come here and shut it
off yourself.”

He waited again. No response. On
the sensors, the
Tajji Flame
grew closer.

Abaqa groaned and returned to the cabin. The
girl was laughing manically now, hardly able to control
herself.

“
How does it feel, big boy? What
are you going to do when
you’re
the one tied up?”

“
Your friends won’t get very
far,” he told her. “In just a few hours, this place will be teeming
with my Hameji brethren.”

“
It doesn’t matter. In just a
few
minutes,
this ship will be teeming with Federation
marines.”

He scowled at her, but inwardly he knew she
was right.