Valkyrie Burning (Warrior's Wings Book Three) (33 page)

What galled was that, no matter what she’d managed to make it look like…and Sorilla wasn’t fool enough to think she was good enough an actress to fool another experienced soldier…she was at the end of her rope. He just had to end her and be done with it.

It almost felt like she hadn’t been worth killing.

Sorilla looked out the window of the medical center, eyes on the sky beyond. They were deep orange, the sunlight now filtering through billions of tons of dust and ash from the kinetic strikes.

She’d lay a year’s pay that Hayden was going to be experiencing a miniature ice age over the next few decades.

“Sorilla?”

Sorilla lolled her head to the other side and recognized Tara as the nurse stood over her. She smiled, “Hey. Didn’t know you were walking around.”

“Dean protected me.” Tara looked down. “I wasn’t hurt badly.”

“He was a good man.”

Tara nodded, face tight and concerned.

“Hey…Jerry?”

The redhead sighed, “He’ll live. We’ll have to import some prosthetics from Earth for his arm, but he’ll live.”

Sorilla nodded. “Good. This one was about par for the course for Hayden.”

“Excuse me?” Tara raised an eyebrow.

“Can’t set foot on this crazy planet without free falling practically from orbit,” Sorilla snorted. “Don’t know what kind of planet you people think you’re running here, but that’s no way to treat visitors.”

“I see that your sense of humor has improved from the first time we met,” Tara replied dryly. “I didn’t know you had one back then.”

“Only SF trainer for an entire planet, humor would have just got me in trouble. ‘Sides,” Sorilla shrugged in her bed, “I’m on
such
a high right now.”

“Yes, I know.” Tara’s voice now lacked even the dry humor it held earlier. “We can’t give you painkillers. Your implants are doing things they weren’t designed to do, Sorilla.”

“Yeah. I know.” Sorilla smiled dreamily. “Not the implants, not ‘zactly.”

“What?”

“They wired the implants into my neural system, Tare,” Sorilla mumbled, beginning to lose her coherence.

“Yes, I read the specs they allowed me to see,” Tara said. “What about it?”

“Human brain is pretty cool shit,” Sorilla told her. “Took a few months, but I’m pretty sure my brain decoded the implant’s signals…or recognized patterns, or something like that.”

Tara watched as Sorilla drifted off, mind racing as she considered what her friend had said.

Is that even possible?

Actually, she knew it was. In fact, she wondered why no one had mentioned the possibility in the literature. The human mind was very adept at pattern recognition, so it stood to reason that if the implants were using Sorilla’s nervous system as their communications route, even signals not normally used by the body would be noted and then compared to situations. If the brain saw a pattern, it would start to use it.

She just wished that she knew what it meant, especially for her friend’s future.

A glance at Sorilla’s chart told her that she was due to be transferred to one of the outbound ships as soon as they got the tether reconnected. She just hoped that someone back on Earth had a better idea about the implants than she or the people here did.

Get well, Sorilla. I hope someday you can visit Hayden without fighting.

*****

USS Cheyenne

Admiral Brookes looked out over Hayden, the observation deck open for all off-duty crewmembers now. A steady trickle was coming through, just to stare for the most part, now that the post-combat tensions were wearing off. She was just as interested in the distant silhouette of the USS Terra, where it was working on recovering the tether before it dropped too far, however, and the changes it represented.

Obviously part of a top secret construction job, the Terra and her sister ships were half again the size of the Cheyenne. The basic design was similar, however, except for a bulge at the bow that looked like a bizarre cross between an overinflated balloon and the hammer head of a shark. Unlike the Cheyenne and Longbow class, the Terra had a larger ‘conning tower’ about a third of the way from the stern. The tower was all strange angles too, leaning forward for some reason she didn’t understand.

She supposed that she would soon enough.

Her new orders had come in, requiring that she bring Valkyrie in for decommissioning and reassignment. That tore at her guts a little. The Cheyenne had been her home now for more than two years, and she didn’t much like the idea of seeing it sent for recycling.

From the looks of the Terra class ships, however, it was clear as day that the age of the Cheyenne had ended.

This battle over Hayden had been the most expensive since the loss of Admiral Sweet and his taskforce during the original encounter with the aliens. They’d lost ships that they probably didn’t need anymore, granted, but, along with that, so many good people.

Jane MacKay was gone.

While rescue teams had pulled most of her crew off more or less intact, the command center of the Longbow class ships was similarly designed to the Cheyenne. Roughly in the center of the ship, at the heaviest and most protected area. All that defense was of little use against a ten-thousand-kilogram projectile travelling a fair portion of light speed, unfortunately. The command deck had been obliterated in the assault, along with everything on that deck and several decks above and below.

Those in the extremities of the ship were smashed around, but most survived. A few broken necks from whiplash, more with injuries that would never fully heal, but most would serve on.

Losing Jane, however, felt like losing her left arm. If Roberts was her strong right arm, Jane had been the surprisingly dexterous left. Smart, free thinking, and incredibly intuitive.

Nadine closed her eyes, controlling her breathing. It would do no one any good to see tears in their admiral’s eyes.

Goodbye, Jane.

*****

Parithalian Alliance Ship
Noble Venture

Well, we’ve learned a great deal. I wish I could be certain that it was worth the cost, but it will be valuable.

There was no way a small flotilla would be enough, however, that was eminently clear.

He sighed as he looked out at the black expanse of shift space, lost in considerations.

No, we’ll need to bring in a fleet at least. Perhaps the Twelfth? They should be within range, as I recall, and certainly have the expertise. If not them, then it would have to be the Eighty-Second, I suppose, though I would wish for a few backup flotillas if they are assigned the task.

No matter how he cut it, however, Reethan could see a long and bloody war coming.

And something else was clear now.

The intel concerning the enemy ships’ speed was now obsolete. He didn’t know what had happened, but that advantage was gone.

But how? Their drives aren’t remotely advanced enough, I’ve seen that for myself. Even the new ships used similar drive technology according to our scanners. The heat dissipation readings were almost identical. They cannot be using rebuilt or reverse engineered Ros’El drives, those would flare far hotter.

He didn’t like puzzles, and this species was becoming a most irritating one indeed.

Damn the Ros’El for involving us in this mess.

The Hayden War Saga will conclude in
The Valhalla Call
, coming
2013
.

Evan Currie is the self-published author of several novels including
Steam Legion
, the
Warriors Wings
series (
On Silver Wings, Valkyrie Rising
, and the upcoming
Valhalla Call
),
Thermals
and the
Odyssey One
series (
Odyssey One
and the upcoming novel
Heart of Matter
). A longtime fan of science fiction, his love of epic storylines led him to put several million words onto the net in the pursuit of fanfiction stories, and eventually led to the novel you just finished.

Evan has been writing most of his life in one format or another, and though his postsecondary education is in computer sciences and he has worked in the local lobster industry steadily over the last decade, writing has always been his true passion. In his own words, “It’s what I do for fun and to relax. There’s not much I can imagine better than being a storyteller.”

He is very active online and tries to answer all questions so you can connect with Evan Currie at any of the following:

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