When the Stars Fade (The Gray Wars) (91 page)

             
Fawks reached over and pulled the bars off of Donova
n’
s uniform. He handed the rank to Cameron with a frown
.“
Congratulations on your promotion, Captain. Yo
u’
ll report to the FAID, then to the hangar for briefing. I want your ships on the rails and prepped for launch in three hours
.
”

             
“Admiral
,”
Cameron said
.“
I do
n’
t even know wha
t’
s going on here
.
”

             
The officer turned full front and glared. His staggering array of medals and ribbons caught the light and made him appear even more imposing
.“
Wha
t’
s happening is we are dangerously close to losing New Eden. If she falls, Eros wo
n’
t last much longer. Kronos has already started evacuating, and the Academy left days ago. I
t’
s just us and what forces remain on the ground. Admiral Walker is aboard
Midway
overseeing the battle, but thus far i
t’
s been one-sided. If we have more days like today, w
e’
ll see another planet fall to these bastards. That means retreating to Colorum or Sol, basically running away from almost one hundred years of colonizing efforts. It would mean going on the defensive against an enemy that seems to thrive on the attack.

             
“W
e’
re going to hit them with everything w
e’
ve got. W
e’
re going to level their bases on the ground, vaporize their armada and send them packing with a nuclear door prize to show to their friends back home. And we need to get you on that mission right away
.
”

             
“Why so soon
?”
Cameron asked.

             
Fawks sighed
.“
Because there is something coming our way, an object so big we did
n’
t believe the scanners. Something the size of a goddamned asteroid
.”
He started to walk away, calling back over his shoulder
.“
We need to win this fight now, Captain
.
”

             
“What is it
?”
Cameron asked
.“
Wha
t’
s coming here
?
”

             
The admiral paused, looking back over his shoulder. His face was stoic, unflinching in this late hour. His eyes, however, betrayed the fear inside
.“
Oblivion, Captain
.
”

              -                           
XIX                            -

              He awoke covered in dirt and debris. His uniform was torn wide open, revealing a ghastly cut across his chest. Cradling a broken arm close to his body, he rose on unsteady legs. Smoke filled the room, blinding his path. Alarms clamored all around. The smell of battle still clung in the air, dank and musty. Black ichor covered the floor in splotches, mixed in with scorch marks from laser fire and small craters from detonator pods. His left eye was blind, but he was happy to find it was just full of his blood.

             
The situation was more than dire. He had known the mission better than anyone, enough to know he should
n’
t still be alive. Once the captives were clear, the Domin had arrived to wipe out the entire area. A single strike from the Lancer should have destroyed the entire ship. That he still had breath meant something had gone entirely wrong, or that he had in fact died and this was a dark beginning to his next journey. Neither possibility was fun to think about.

             
He found a switch on the far side of the room that rea
d“
FILTE
R”
. It was written in Fudi, a dialect in which he was not wholly familiar, but the characters were close enough to his own that it was manageable. He pressed the button and immediately felt a strong gust of air pulling on his clothing. The smoke was sucked into vents in the ceiling, revealing the true extent of the horror. He wiped at his face, blinking furiously until he could see straight.

             
The hangar floated free in the void, absent of the ship that it had once resided inside.
Barreno
n
’
s attack must have excised the room like a tumor. The soldier looked around, his hearts racing. He closed his eyes, repeating the psalms of the Fallen Sisters to calm his nerves. After a minute his breathing slowed down. The atmosphere was contained by the shimmering barrier at each end of the bay, and the bulkhead doors had collapsed during the attack. He had enough breathable air for a short time. But without a way to communicate to the outside there was no hope of rescue.

             
A noise drew his attention to the side. Drawing his service pistol, the soldier stepped over to a downed cross beam. Underneath, struggling to break free, was an engineer. The three circles on his collar marked him as a Shusta, or flight engineer. He tensed when he saw the weapon.

             
“Please
,”
he said in the common tongue
.“
Do
n’
t hurt me
.
”

             
The rebel smiled
.“
What is your name, Imperial
?
”             

             
“I am Vim
.
”

             
“And your family name
?
”

             
Vim tried to shrink further under the beam
.“
I do not have one. My family died in the attack on the Hilon before I had grown
.
”

             
The soldier sighed, holstering his weapon
.“
F
a‘
hnaki lan, Vim. It appears we are both with a bit of a problem. You are trapped under that beam, and I am trapped in this hangar. Do you think we can work out a trade
?
”

             
“Yes! Oh, yes. Please. Let me out and I will try to help you escape
.
”

             
“Very good
.”
He knelt down, pulling on the beam with all his strength. His broken arm screamed in protest. The broken metal barely moved, but it was enough for Vim to squeak out, scurrying along the ground like a bug. His uniform was crumpled and covered in black grease, but otherwise he was uninjured.

             
Vim stayed on his knees, hugging his savio
r’
s legs
.“
Thank you. You saved my life
.
”

             
“Do
n’
t thank me yet, Imperial
.”
He pushed Vim away
.“
The hangar broke free of the ship during the attack. We do
n’
t have much air left, and all we have are derelict shuttles and fighters. If w
e’
re going to survive, we need to think
.
”

             
Vim did
n’
t move
.“
Please promise not to kill me
.
”

             
“What
?
”

             
“You rebels killed almost everyone on board, and most of us were
n’
t soldiers.
I’
m just an engineer. I have a lifemate on one of the merchant vessels, and I would like to see her again. Promise not to kill me and I will help you get off this wreckage
.
”

             
The soldier nodded in agreement
.“
That is acceptable, Vim
.”
He offered a hand and helped the young Nangol to his feet
.“
I am Trik Downakan, and you are my prisoner
.
”

Chapter Nine

Enter Oblivion

“
The Guiding Star will never falter. From the day of the Great Birth to the final ending in the Sea of Night, JohGal will shine as a beacon for the lost and downtrodden. As pilgrims on the path of the light, let no stranger be turned away from your door. The wretched, the weak, the beaten, the hungry, the sinful, the proud. All are the children of JohGal. All deserve to bask in the warmth of her glow. We are all one
.
”

                                                       
Her Eminence Darna Wo

             
                                          Tractate of the Guiding Light

             
                                          11032 TDP

-                           
I                            -

February 26, 2237

              Zev awoke to the sound of battle. Artillery whistled down from the sky, impacting with an earth-shattering roar and the rain of mud and rock. Engines whined as armored vehicles charged into the fray, loosing rounds at the unseen enemy. Every few minutes a wounded soldier would be carried into the infirmary, screaming for his mother or not at all. It had been that way for each brief foray into consciousness. The smell of blood, that gagging aroma that found its way into the back of his throat, was the only constant.

             
Captain Grahams had visited once, but the fight drew him away after only a few minutes. Other than Gabriel, his only companions were the dying or the skeleton crew of doctors and nurses and corpsmen. Ze
v’
s face hurt more than anything he had ever felt. Fire and ice fought for control of the left side of his head. The burning sensation started at his brow and dragged down to the center of his cheek. His eye was ground zero. Some part of his brain knew the orb was gone, not just covered with gauze. It felt different; a part of his body simply not there.

             
Looking down, fighting a wave of intense nausea, the sergeant saw the damage done to his chest. Tubes had been inserted into every part of his body. One pumped in antibiotics and painkillers, while another removed dirty blood and a strange yellow ooze. Yet another set seemed to be cycling an orange foam through his system. He was
n’
t a doctor, so none of it made much sense. He figured it was all very important.

             
He turned to his right side, searching for the Lieutenant. His platoon leader had been shouting before, screaming about something or other. Probably asking when Zev would be able to get back into the fight again.
Give me a rifle and point me at the enemy, sir. Just do
n’
t let anyone stand on my bad side. No blue on blue today.
The drugs made the NCO delirious, and he laughed at the idea of running into battle in his state. He stopped when he finally took stock of his surroundings.

             
The hospital was
n’
t right. It was too empty and dirty to be a field hospital. The beds were covered in slick red goop that seemed to grow from the floor up. Most were empty, but on a few lay silent bodies of desiccated soldiers. Their corpses were covered in thick cocoons. Ze
v’
s chest tightened as he saw the subtle movement inside the coverings; the first stages of metamorphosis.

             
H
e’
d seen it before, on the field, as the spores fell from the clouds over the carriers. His fellow soldiers were being infected, turned into monsters. But how had he been brought here? Gabriel had been there after the fight in the schoolhouse. The
y’
d won. What had happened?

             
Zev fought to sit up. His hands would
n’
t move. It was
n’
t pain keeping him in place; thick sinewy ropes held his limbs down to the cot. He tried to scream, but the tube in his mouth turned it into a weak groan. That was enough to draw the attention of hi
s“
doctor
.”
His eye grew wider and wider as a creature emerged from just outside his vision.

             
Its body was elongated and scrawny, with six arms and no apparent legs. It moved around the room with surprising speed, cruising on all its knuckles until it arrived at the foot of the bed. At the top of the spiny neck, a grotesque head stared into the huma
n’
s gaze. It resembled a fly, with segmented eyes and a frothing proboscis. The creature began to chitter and gurgle, running its fingers over the soldie
r’
s face and chest.

             
Zev howled, tears streaming down his face. His skin burned with the poison they pumped inside.

             
His eye snapped open and Zev awoke. The night air was cold, much more than was usual this time of year. The field hospital was quiet save the beeping of monitors and the whispers of the nurses. The sergeant checked his chest for tubes and growths, but all he found was the usual IV line and plenty of bandages. He brought a hand to his face, hoping that it had all really been a nightmare, but the eye was still gone. The fight was mostly a blur in his mind, but Zev still felt the black knife draw across his face and slice into the white pulp.

             
“Yo
u’
re not supposed to be up
,”
a small voice said.

             
Zev turned until he could see the source of the statement. A small girl with dirty blonde hair sat on the ground by his bed. She held a disfigured doll and calmly brushed its hair. Judging from the melted plastic, Zev guessed she had found it sometime after the attack. He tried to smile, but the pain in his face made the room spin.

             
“Where are we
?
”

             
The girl stood, setting her doll gently on a nearby chair
.“
They called it a fob. The man with the black bar on his vest said so. He went to the radio tower a few hours ago
.”
She rocked back and forth on her heels, shy in front of the injured soldier
.“
Wha
t’
s a fob
?
”

             
Zev pushed himself back against the bed frame until he could sit up straight. The bandage on his chest pulled tight enough that he thought a stitch popped, but nothing snapped or broke. When he was settled he turned back to the girl
.“
It means Forward Operating Base. It means w
e’
re setting up lines so we can take back the city
.”
He grinned
.“
Wha
t’
s your name
?
”

             
“Mary
,”
she said
.“
You wo
n’
t take it back. We were running with you, after they blew up the school. Ther
e’
s too many. The man with the bar said w
e’
d need to leave the planet
.”
For such a small girl, she took the loss of her hometown and world with a brave face.

             
Zev reached toward a nearby table and grabbed a glass of water. He gulped it down eagerly, savoring the way the cold liquid felt on his scorched throat. A thought struck him and he blushed
.“
Was this yours
?
”

             
“Yeah
,”
she said with a toothy grin
.“
But
I’
ll share with you. Dad says we have to work together if w
e’
re gonna get through this
.
”

             
“Your da
d’
s a smart guy
,”
Zev said. He set the glass down as a man approached. The doc wore army fatigues under a white coat. Dark circles hung under each eye, and deep lines criss-crossed his face. He pulled absently at his scraggly beard as he approached, stifling a yawn. The name tag on his coat rea
d“
Missirlian
.”
He checked Ze
v’
s lines and the IV bag, writing notes on the tablet on the table. Finally, after a minute, he spoke.

             
“Yo
u’
re something else, sergeant
.”
The doctor pulled a pen light from his coat and shined it into Ze
v’
s eye
.“
Pupil dilation is normal. Yo
u’
ll still see fine from this one
.”
He put the pen away, cocking his head to the side
.“
How are you feeling
?
”

             
Zev yawned
.“
Like someone stabbed me in my face. What happened, doc
?
”

             
“Punctured lung, severe lacerations to the face and neck. Your eye suffered a nasty bit of trauma. We had to remove it
.
”

             
“Figures
.”
He was surprised it did
n’
t hurt more, the thought of losing an eye. There were surgeries and mechanical solutions, of course, but only if he lived long enough to use them. It just did
n’
t seem all that important, in the grand scheme of things. Wha
t’
s one eye against the thousands dead?

             
Doctor Missirlian sat at the edge of the bed
.“I’
d tell you that yo
u’
re lucky to be alive, but I honestly ca
n’
t say those words anymore. Not while w
e’
re still in the city
.
”

             
Zev asked
,“
How bad is it out there
?
”

             
“I
t’
s war
,”
the doc said
.“
Metts is in their hands. Hell, the planet is theirs, w
e’
re just pests they need to deal with. The
y’
ve missed our little hamlet because it is
n’
t near anything important, but they patrol all the time. Your lieutenant is trying to get a signal to Primus, call in a rescue mission. So far, no luck
.”
He pulled a syringe from his pocket and jammed it into the IV line. After pumping in the medicine, he tossed the needle into a red bin
.“
I have no idea wha
t’
s happening with Fleet, but for now, w
e’
re on our own
.
”

             
Zev struggled to move, to get down from the bed, but the docto
r’
s hands were quick to push him down.

             
“I have to get back in there, doc
.
”

             
“Tha
t’
s not gonna happen
,”
the man said
.“
The figh
t’
s over, sergeant. Tomorrow yo
u’
ll be stable enough to move, but for now you need to rest
.”
He turned to Mary
.“
And so do you. Tim will kill me if he knows I let you stay up talking to my patients
.
”

             
She nodded, but pouted nonetheless. As she grabbed her doll under her arm, Mary reached out and squeezed Ze
v’
s hand
.“
It was nice to meet you, sergeant
.”
As he lay back down, he watched her skip out of the area.

             
“It was nice to meet you too, Mary
.”
He closed his eye and drifted into a fitful sleep.