The Green Knight (Space Lore Book 1) (27 page)

“I don’t think anyone is going to tell me I broke their curfew,” he said, his arms so big it looked like he could rip the ship’s metal controls in half if he wanted.

“Will we be safe once we get back to the city?” Morgan asked.

The M-model Llyushin fighter flew in a direct line toward CamaLon and the mighty wall protecting the capital. Because they were flying over rolling hills, at times the ship was fifty feet above a valley floor, and other times no more than two or three feet above the apex of a hill. It roared over the fields, traveling hundreds of times faster than Vere and the others could have walked.

Hector scratched at his chin, considering the question, and said, “I would think so. It’s one thing for bounty hunters to try and get you out in the open. But no one in Edsall Dark, even under direct order, would let Vere fall under attack once you all get through the gates.”

“Is Hotspur behind this?”

He turned and looked at Morgan. His massive block-shaped head was larger than most ships’ cannons.

“I would like to think not,” he said. “And anyway, it would make no sense if he were.”

“Why not?”

“He’s assembling the fleet. He’s the one who will be facing the Athens Destroyers when they get here. Honestly, the ships in the CasterLan fleet are no match for what’s going to be coming through that portal. He must realize that.”

As if on cue, a beep sounded and a holographic display in the cockpit showed an image of the portal above Edsall Dark. The very middle of the Tevis-84 portal was black instead of blazing white. The black tip grew bigger and bigger, from something barely noticeable to taking up five percent of the portal, to ten percent, to twenty, to a third of the entire circle of energy.

“Heavens,” Baldwin said, aghast.

“No,” Vere groaned.

Morgan and Hector watched it in silence.

An Athens Destroyer. The first ship in the Vonnegan fleet was coming through the portal above Edsall Dark’s atmosphere. As the Llyushin fighter raced across the planet, they watched in horror as the ship appeared all the way through the portal. As soon as it did, another ship began coming through. Then another.

“Why isn’t Hotspur attacking them?” Morgan asked.

Hector shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe he has a plan.”

“Why isn’t the capital deploying the air defenses?”

Again, Hector could only shake his head.

57

From the captain’s deck of his Solar Carrier, Hotspur stared at the portal and at the Vonnegan ships passing through it. He should have been allowed to go and meet the Athens Destroyers away from Edsall Dark. A battle this close to their own planet was insanity. He should have followed his gut and carried out what he had known was the better plan of action rather than listening to Modred.

If anyone on the deck had said a single word at that moment, he would have killed them. He turned and looked at the officers around him, daring them to say something, but they all knew him well enough to keep silent and not even make eye contact.

Another Athens Destroyer came through the portal. Then another.

“Lieutenant, how many of our ships are ready?”

“Ready, sir?” the lieutenant said, grimacing as he spoke.

Both of Hotspur’s gloved hands curled into fists. “Ready for war!”

His fists were clenched so tightly that the plating of his space armor creaked, causing the lieutenant to involuntarily flinch.

“Sir, we are under orders from Modred not to fire until
he
gives the command.”

Some part of Hotspur suspected this was going to be the officer’s response. He had seen the same message come across the screens an hour earlier. It had made him laugh then. The absurdity of it. But now, seeing his men actually entertain the idea of following Modred’s command rather than his own made him wish he’d killed Modred in the king’s chambers when he had the chance.

“Modred is not in charge of the fleet,” he said. He looked around the deck for anyone to confirm or dispute this, but everyone kept their eyes down. “Is he?” he screamed.

“No, sir,” most of the officers said.

“We should have met them out in open space when we had the chance.” No one argued with this idea. “If we wait for the entire fleet to get through the portal, we will all die.” No one disputed this either. “Then why are we letting them pass through as if they were our guests?”

He slammed his fist down on the nearest control panel, breaking it off the wall and sending it across the room. Another Athens Destroyer came through the portal. And another.

“Lieutenant?”

“Yes, sir?”

Hotspur took two quick steps, reached out and took the man’s neck within his open hand. The energy in his space armor crackled. Hotspur’s back and shoulders flexed. The lieutenant’s neck made a sickly crumbling noise as the bones were pulverized.

Hotspur held the dead lieutenant in place, still on his feet, until a pair of bots came and took the body away.

At least now it made sense why CamaLon’s air defense system wasn’t being used. Modred had told the command room to wait until he gave the order. Maybe he would give the command and maybe he wouldn’t. If he did, though, Hotspur knew one thing: it would be too late by then.

“Commander Dire?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Ready the cannons.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And Commander?” he said, looking at yet another Athens Destroyer appearing from the portal.

“Yes, sir?”

“Tell all of our ships to do the same. If any of them sends back a communication saying they are waiting for Modred to give the orders, tell them I will personally set this ship’s cannons to begin firing at them rather than the Vonnegan fleet. I’ll kill them all before any Athens Destroyer ever gets the chance. Am I making myself clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

58

“Five minutes until we arrive,” Hector said.

As the Llyushin fighter continued to speed across Edsall Dark’s terrain, Pistol said, “There is now a thirty-two percent chance we arrive before war breaks out.”

“What happened to your eight percent?” Fastolf taunted.

“Circumstances change.”

“Maybe you should keep your stupid opinions to yourself.”

The android didn’t acknowledge this comment.

“I don’t want to hurt your android feelings,” Morgan called from the cockpit, “and I hate to agree with the portly thief, but if you haven’t noticed there are already Vonnegan ships coming through the portal.”

Pistol’s eyes glowed as an endless series of computations were processed. “The first shot has not been fired,” he said. “There is still a chance to prevent the war.”

Above them, another Athens Destroyer appeared through the portal.

Baldwin shook his head. “Some chance.”

Traskk’s tail moved back and forth in anticipation of everything that might happen once they got off the ship. The claws on both of his feet tapped the metal floor, clacking over and over.

“I wish Occulus and A’la Dure were here,” Fastolf said.

This made the reptile offer a sad groan.

“Brace yourselves,” a voice said over the intercom. The ship immediately shook and creaked, the sounds of explosions going off all around them.

At the front of the ship, Morgan had taken a seat next to where Hector’s chair would have been if he used one.

“Two more ships,” she told Vere. “Both are small Fire-Brand fighters.”

The two ships were identical. Both curved upward and outward, making it look as if three waves of water had been frozen in place before being attached all around the cockpit.

Hector nodded and shifted the ship’s controls slightly, choosing to slow the vessel down rather than attempt to outmaneuver the laser blasts that would be incoming. Neither woman questioned him, knowing he had been in and won more battles than they would ever wish upon their worst enemies.

The pair of bounty hunters moved into attack position, behind and slightly above Hector’s ship. Seeing them in place, he throttled the ship again, giving them a chance to remain in targeting position a little while longer. A series of laser blasts hit the backside of the Llyushin but were absorbed by its armor. In response, Hector released a pair of gravity mines, waited two seconds, then fired a single proton torpedo. If anyone else were trying to return fire in that fashion, Morgan would have told them there was no way either weapon would have a chance to work. The gravity mine needed an open area to be effective. The proton torpedo’s guidance would be affected by the pull of the gravity mines. But then, on the monitors in front of the cockpit, Hector reaffirmed to both women that he knew exactly what he was doing. The gravity mines engaged. A shockwave of energy rushed away from the mine’s black middle. Instead of pulling themselves toward the nearest bounty hunter’s ship, the two mines pulled the proton torpedo off its original course and into an unnatural ninety-degree turn. A split second later the torpedo hit one of the Fire-Brand fighters. The ship continued on in the same path as the Llyushin fighter, but it trailed a stream of flames and smoke behind it as it did so. At the same time, it kept losing altitude until finally hitting the ground and erupting into a ball of fire.

Without acknowledging the first victory, Hector tapped a series of buttons and a new holographic radar map popped up in front of his face.

“Three minutes to home,” he said.

The second bounty hunter came in from behind and fired a series of cannon blasts as the Llyushin’s engines. Hector’s giant arms flexed as he pulled the controls left then right, maneuvering his ship away from their ultimate destination just long enough to turn and face the bounty hunter. The two ships exchanged fire, but whereas the bounty hunter’s blasts did little damage to the heavily plated Llyushin, Hector’s shots tore the bounty hunter’s ship to pieces.

Without pausing, he resumed course and began once again flying toward the capital.

Above them, at the Tevis-84 portal, another Athens Destroyer appeared. Then another.

At the back of the ship, Pistol said, “Seventy-one percent chance we arrive before the war erupts.”

A moment later, the line of Solar Carriers arranged near the Tevis-84 portal opened fire on the ships in the Vonnegan fleet that had already come through the portal. Streaks of yellow and white light erupted from the sides of every Solar Carrier as their laser cannons sent barrage after barrage of shots toward the Athens Destroyers.

A display popped up near Fastolf and the others in the back of the ship, allowing them to see what was happening. One of the Athens Destroyers had lost power and was drifting aimlessly through space. Another suffered catastrophic damage to its hull, triggering a chain reaction of detonations that made the ship explode from within.

“What did I tell that dumb android about his stupid percentages?” Fastolf cried.

With one of their ships already disabled and one drifting away in pieces, the rest of the Athens Destroyers that had already come through the portal returned fire at the Solar Carriers. The entire sky above Edsall Dark was a network of crisscrossing laser fire. If the sun hadn’t already risen, the continuous streams of lasers above the planet would have illuminated the sky just the same.

If anyone other than Pistol had said the words that followed they would have been slapped and told to shut up, but when Pistol announced it, it was taken for granted.
 

“There is now a zero percent chance of arriving before the war starts.”

59

 
“On my mark… fire!” Hotspur screamed, watching a third Athens Destroyer go from a functioning ship to a ghost vessel carrying hundreds of soldiers who didn’t realize they were already dead.

As he watched, Vonnegan troops began disembarking from one of the annihilated Athens Destroyers. Each Vonnegan fighter was encased in a suit of space armor similar to the one Hotspur wore. Each Vonnegan drifted into the void of space with the hopes of either making it to the next closest Destroyer or else having a smaller Vonnegan ship come by and pick them up. If neither of those things happened, their air supply would eventually run out as they wandered aimlessly away into infinite space. If that happened, they would die all the same.

Hotspur watched them with amusement. The battle was over for them already, and yet the leader of the CasterLan forces was only getting started.

“On my mark… fire!” he screamed again and again.

But even as his ships unloaded their laser cannons upon the Athens Destroyers, more and more Vonnegan ships came through the portal.

“When we get back to the planet,” he announced to everyone on his deck, “I am personally killing the man who left the portal open.”

In the time it took to destroy the first two ships, four more Destroyers had appeared. In the time it took to destroy the third ship, five additional members of the Vonnegan fleet had come through the portal. In a matter of minutes, they would be outnumbered.

Already, the CasterLan fleet was sustaining heavy losses as the cannon blasts were being returned. Hotspur saw the Solar Carrier next to him become pock-marked with black dots of sizzling energy where laser fire had first burned away any existing armor plating. After three or four more hits, the lasers penetrated further into the ship’s core until no amount of containment precautions could keep the crew alive. At that point, only the crew members who had been wearing their space armor would survive when the Solar Carrier lost pressure. Even those who survived the lack of oxygen, kept alive by their armored suits, would die if the ship exploded before they could get out into open space or if they were hit by shrapnel that damaged their suits in any way.

A line of three more Athens Destroyers came through the portal.

Hotspur pointed to a ship on the other side of the battlefront. “Shift all cannon fire to the Destroyer in the very middle of their fleet. Let the devils roar.” Then, yelling again, “On my mark… fire!”

60

Vere’s mouth hung open as she looked up at the sky. Ships from both her father’s fleet and the Vonnegan fleet were unleashing their entire arsenals at each other. As she watched, a Solar Carrier got hit with so many blasts that it broke into two evenly sized pieces, both of which began erupting in a series of explosions that reduced the ship to nothing but twisted metal.