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"Blue Tears" by Lady Rainbow
Rating: PG-13 Please leave a review! Thanks! Six “All right, move out and stick together!” Nate Kemper slammed his visor of his helmet over his eyes and hefted his phaser rifle in his hand. Hayes nodded at the harsh order and did the same. Their EVA suits were all devoid of rank pips or name tags, but Kemper had insisted on extra weapons and ammunition prior to their leaving Columbia. Judging from what he could see on the planetoid, they’d need it. “Be careful, sir,” said Jane Taylor. She, too, wore an EVA suit, without her helmet, and her short blonde hair spilled over her shoulders. She sat at her board and modulated her electronic countermeasures with a steady hand. “Two hours maximum.” Hayes glanced over at Katakanian, who nodded in agreement. He, Taylor and Sergeant Sascha Money would stay with Shuttlepod Seven as a back-up. “Take care of ‘em, Ensign.” “You got it, sir.” Katakanian patted the phase pistol in his lap. Hayes clambered out of the shuttlepod and onto the surface of Weytahn. The planetoid had a gravity rating similar to Andoria and soon Hayes was sweating under his EVA suit. Despite the suit’s air filtration system, he coughed as a fine cloud of dust rose nearby. “This way,” Kemper said and gestured towards their right. The Starfleet contingent headed in that direction, phase rifles at the ready. There was a sharp whine somewhere above them and Kemper’s hand signal spoke more than anything else: Get under cover! Get down! Hayes grabbed Corporal Sideway and jerked him behind a steel column just before an explosion rocked the ground under their feet. “Mines,” came Corporal Andrew Chang’s voice. “They’ve mined the perimeter around the tower, sir!” Hayes tapped his helmet communicator. “Jane, did you hear that?” “Loud and clear,” Taylor said. “I’m detecting a remote signal from the base of the tower...it’s setting off the mines. Give a minute to analyze it—Andrew, re-tune your scanner frequency to one-one-three-point five...” “Switching.” Chang’s comm channel clicked, then a piercing screech came over the speakers. Hayes winced and thought, Is this what Jane has to deal with every time our comm system gets jammed? After a few moments, he saw a flash of green-gold light erupt behind the column. He cautiously peeked out and saw the light sweep across the horizon in a staggered line. It became so bright that Hayes had to retreat back behind the column. Kemper’s voice came back on, but it was distorted by static. “She set off some of the mines, enough for us to go forward, but I think we’re gonna have some stiffer defense the closer we get.” Taylor added, “Andrew, I need you to do a freq sweep. They’ve changed the signal to something else. I might be able to latch on to it again—“ “All right, watch yourselves, people.” Kemper motioned the strike team forward. A group of blue-green EVA suits marked the Andorians; one of them gestured for the others to step back. There was a short flare and a protective forcefield went down. Hayes recognized the leader; Talas gestured for her squad to enter the hole she’d made in the duracrete wall. Swiftly, the Andorians did so, squeezing their lithe bulks into the space. She nodded at Hayes and he dove inside without hesitation, following Kemper and two other MACOs. The area around the main tower was dotted with anti-aircraft cannons, mines, sensors, forcefields...Hayes had never seen so many defense emplacements in one area before. What the hell are they protecting? A laser beam passed close to his left shoulder and he crouched under cover. He signaled for his team to cover the Andorians as they dashed forward to protected positions. Then Shran and Talas covered Columbia’s team as they moved forward in turn. Slowly, they inched towards the main tower overhead. Hayes spotted a shadow perched above them, right behind a laser turret. The turret coughed lasers that stitched a pattern directly in front of the Andorian lines. Hayes took careful aim with his laser rifle and fired several shots, just as Shran did the same with his more powerful Andorian blaster. A shadow jerked under the dual barrage and fell sideways off the turret. A stream of Andorian erupted from Hayes’s speaker. “Lieutenant Silias has opened the way to the bunker,” Shran translated. “Come, we cannot waste any time.” “Shran, wait! Dammit!” Hayes took off after him at a sprint, dodging half-buried mines and tripwires. It was worse than the obstacle course at West Point by a factor of ten. He heard Kemper’s choked swearing, then the Armory Officer ordered the others to cover Hayes and Shran. He swore again as something hot burned through the fabric of his EV suit; a faint wisp of smoke rose from his right arm. The pain hit a second later, but he pushed it out of his mind and switched his laser rifle to his left hand. He saw Shran throw himself into a dark doorway and he followed, switching on the light on his EV suit at he same time. He could hear the sounds of scuffling somewhere in front of him...then he stumbled over a prone body and went down. Hayes snapped his head back and saw the distinctive black-silver and red uniform, but without any adornment. A minute later, smoke poured out of the faceplate, and the body softly glowed until nothing remained but ash. So that’s how they do it, Hayes thought grimly. That’s why no one’s ever really identified them. He saw another blue-green glow ahead of him, but it was rapidly pulling away. Despite the agony in his right arm, he picked himself up and pushed on ahead. The sounds of the joint Columbia/Andorian strike force echoed behind him as Kemper and the others finally reached the entrance. Down, down he went, deeper into a dark, sloping tunnel that sank deep within the planetoid’s surface. Hayes’s legs felt like rubber and his breath came out in gasps, but he tried to keep Shran within sight. It couldn’t be much farther, it couldn’t... Then, a mental scream slammed into him and drove him onto his knees. It echoed on and on, redoubling in intensity. Hayes clapped his hands onto his ears, but even without the EV helmet, the motion wouldn’t have done him any good. Tears poured out of the corners of his eyes as something within his soul was ripped from him, as if every one of his worst nightmares had come true. Every deep-rooted fear, every unconscious boogeyman came roaring to the surface of his mind. “Captain? Captain, what happened?” Kemper’s voice rang dimly through his consciousness. Hayes seized upon the sound of Kemper’s voice like a life preserver, but his heart still pounded in his chest. Hoshi, she’s gone, she’s gone. I’ve lost her...He imagined Enterprise exploding all around her, a lizard-like figure injecting her with parasites, his wife in another man’s arms... No, he told himself fiercely as sanity reasserted itself. That didn’t come from me. That came from— “Shran,” he whispered. “Something’s happened to Shran and I just heard Jhamel scream.” “Commander, we’ve got company!” yelled Lieutenant Hawkins. “What, the Vulcans are here already?” Daniels demanded, his voice incredulous. “No, sir...one-eight-zero point zero—“ Hawkins switched to the aft view of the screen and Daniels’s eyes widened as an eerily familiar distortion appeared in one corner. It was a patch of wrinkled space that moved under its own power...the Science Officer muttered an oath under his breath. “Get me Hanrii!” he shouted a torpedo blew up another orbital platform. “Warn them—“ Then every alarm on the Bridge went berserk. The crewman manning the Engineering console went flying as it exploded, then sparks flew up from the helm station. Daniels felt a short blast of heat on his skin a split second before his feet went out from under him. The main lights went out and left the Bridge bathed in a scarlet haze. Daniels hit the deck hard, enough to lose consciousness for several critical moments. “We’ve got a juncture overload at Forty-Nine-A!” Crewman Feines yelled. The young man’s voice sounded panicked over the din of the alarms. “I can’t stop it!” “Shut down the surrounding junctures!” Opur ordered. The Raquillian’s superhuman reflexes shut down panel after panel, but more circuits short-circuited faster than even he could handle. “Divert the extra load to Fifty-Three through Sixty-Eight—“ Klees’s eyes widened as the energy surge doubled back on itself and grew stronger, much stronger than they could compensate for...the safety measures should have prevented this from happening...the malfunction was enough to take out half of Engineering, perhaps tear apart the whole ship...She slid down the ladder and dove for one of the control boards a split second before Opur reached it. “I’ll take care of this side, sir,” she told him. “I will assist you.” Klees nodded and tried to patch the leaks in the main system, but screen after screen turned red and alarms went off near the warp core. Opur raced up the ladder that led to the top of the core and opened the hatch that housed the containment circuits. Klees could see his faint outline through golden sparks and smoke; the Raquillian was the only one who could shut down the core in time. “Warp core’s gonna blow!” Feines shouted. “Not if I have anything to say about it,” Opur shot back, but his eyes were locked on his repair. Klees could smell the stench of burned skin; even if Opur survived this, he’d be horribly scarred. Nevertheless, Opur’s tone was authoritative and free of pain. “Crewman Feines, Ensign Klees, evacuate Engineering...get everyone out of here NOW!” “I’m in the middle of shutting off the flow,” Klees retorted. She wasn‘t going to leave him alone to die. We still have a chance...if we could stop the cascade before it reaches critical...dammit, you stupid piece of--cooperate with me! ““Nearly there, Chief. Give me one more second—“ Opur swore as electronics sparked, showering both of them. Opur shifted his weight and the warp core readouts went from red to blue. “Mori, get out of here; that’s a direct order!” Klees shook her head stubbornly, as tears streamed down her face. They had betrayed her all along; they were willing to sacrifice Columbia's crew to further their own agendas. She'd been a fool the entire time...the shame overwhelmed her. “I’m sorry, Chief. I didn’t know this would happen...I didn’t think—“ “What?” Opur blinked at the guilt in her voice. “What do you—?” A bank of lights went out, indicating the warp core was secure, but the power overload churned like a sea of molten lava. Klees’s fingers were sure and steady as she fought against it; if she failed, Columbia would go up like a star gone nova. A horrible dread crept through her as she realized it wasn’t enough... she activated the emergency bulkheads that would isolate Engineering from the rest of the ship. Klees felt a sliver of hope as their mutual effort shuttled the energy elsewhere, but enough of it seeped through—Opur realized it too, and had enough time to scream a warning... And the explosion ripped through what was left of Engineering. “Oh my God!” Captain Erika Hernandez of the Devonshire stared at the tactical screen in utter disbelief. Her heart plunged into her gut as Columbia staggered under an explosion in their engineering section. Air and debris rushed out of the ragged gash in its starboard side. The brief fireball flared out in the airlessness of deep space, but Hernandez and her crew could only watch in horror. She felt the pain as if Columbia had been her own ship, instead of Devonshire. The NX-02 was still in one piece—relatively speaking—but there was no way Columbia could continue the offensive. Hernandez’s soul cried out for the people who had just died, but she shoved the agony aside, knowing she would pay for it later. “Captain, Columbia’s severely damaged, ma’am, and the orbital network’s reforming!” “Target the nearest platform and its back-up, and relay the orders to the rest of the fleet,” Hernandez snapped back. “We’ve got to pick up the slack and buy Captain Hayes more time. We’re going to see this through!” |
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