Rescue by James David Victor

Author:James David Victor [Victor, James David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fairfield Publishing
Published: 2019-04-06T16:00:00+00:00

10

Jack strode onto the command deck, Hawke and Webster close behind. The doors slid shut behind them, closing with a dull thud as he pulled off his helmet.

Captain Morton was standing at the central holostage. He looked up at Jack.

“The Devex have taken one hundred and fifty passengers. Their ships lifted off a moment ago.”

Jack placed his helmet on a console. “I thought you were supervising the work at the drive section.”

“The maintenance team can handle the repair. I’d rather not watch, to be honest. I still think repairs are a bad idea. I still think it’ll kill us all.”

“It’s a robust piece of hardware. It’ll take more abuse than you know, Captain.”

“That’s what the maintenance guys said,” Morton replied. “I hope you are right.”

Morton turned to the holostage. The image showed the section that had just been cleared out by the Devex. “What do they want with these people?” Morton asked, looking at the holoimage, his shoulders slumped.

“Can you track the raiders?” Jacked asked, instead of speculating, as he stepped up to the holostage.

Morton tapped a few controls and showed the three raiders racing away from the planet. They moved at high speed toward the distant Oort cloud that surrounded the system. They moved away at forty-five degrees to the ecliptic.

“Is that the direction they came from?” Jack asked.

Morton nodded. “I’ve traced their movements and searched for residual traces of their drive. Since they first put us all to sleep, they have made six trips, each one to and from the same location. Every time, three Devex raiders come, and they take around one hundred and fifty passengers.”

“I know where they’re taking them,” Jack said. “We spotted a Devex warship outside the Oort cloud. The cloud is too dense for it to move through. They are creating a path through the cloud so they can come and scoop everyone up, but they are sending the raiders to start collecting their prize.”

Morton turned away from the holostage and looked up at his command chair. “They have been on board many times while we we’ve all been asleep, before you arrived.”

“And they will be back,” Jack said as he tapped the holostage and called up an image of the civilian transport. “Now they know we are awake, more will come next time. They aren’t going to leave this ship alone until it is emptied of passengers or destroyed.”

Jack marked the locations on the upper hull where the largest entrances were. “I think we should run as soon as we can, but if we can’t get away before the next raid, I think we should fight. I don’t want them snatching any more civilians.”

Hawke was standing to one side of the command deck, Webster crumpled on the floor at his feet. Hawke shouted, “We can’t fight them. They’re too strong. We just got our kravin’ asses kicked, again. I just lost two more of my squad. How are we going to fight them?”

Jack stepped away from the holostage and walked over to Hawke.

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