The Sentinel: The Complete Trilogy by Michael Wallace

Author:Michael Wallace [Wallace, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

The lance had appeared from nowhere, snared Blackbeard, and sent in a boarding party. From the engineering bay came the frantic chatter of battle. The enemy ship had come in so close that it was literally brushing against Blackbeard’s side.

Tolvern kept Smythe at his console to manipulate the engines and Nyb Pim in the pilot’s chair to try to fight clear, but ordered the rest of the officers on the bridge to join the crew arming themselves to repel the boarders.

Men and women stumbled from sleep all across the ship, rushed out from the mess, or dragged themselves from the sick bay. Tolvern joined them in the hallways, where Capp organized the crew, positioning some at key intersections to delay the buzzards should they break through. The rest charged toward the engineering bay.

Tolvern had almost reached the bay when Carvalho shouted on her com. “It’s over! They’re fleeing.”

She grabbed Lomelí. “Quick, back to the bridge!”

The young woman had been following her, anxiously turning an assault rifle over in her hands. An expert with weapons at a distance, the thought of personally firing a gun had seemed to terrify her.

Tolvern had ordered all manner of crew down to the engineering bay, but now realized she’d made a mistake with Lomelí. She should have kept the young woman at the defense grid computer in case it was possible to shake free long enough to get off a shot. And now the Apex ship was getting away.

By the time Tolvern and Lomelí reached the bridge, the lance had accelerated away, and now jumped clear and vanished entirely. Tolvern cursed herself. The entire battle had only lasted about ten minutes before Apex turned and fled. Had she panicked?

But as she left the bridge yet again and made her way to the engineering bay to see the aftermath of the battle, she had a chance to reconsider. In close-quarters combat there was a fine line between victory and a total rout. She’d been right to throw everything she had at repelling the boarders. The lance had escaped, but so had Blackbeard.

The engineering bay was a disaster. A ten-foot hole tore through the hull, and while they’d managed to close the bombproofs and seal themselves from the vacuum, the bay doors were wrecked. She could see at a glance that they’d have to be cut off from the exterior and replaced.

The floor was a mass of wings and feathers and birds with broken necks. Two techs wearing full hazard suits, including masks, collected the alien bodies, while two other suited-up crew piled up the discarded alien weapons. Someone else sprayed them down with disinfectant. An astringent smell scratched at Tolvern’s throat, mingling with the stench of offal and burned feathers.

Carvalho stood above several human bodies and one Hroom that had been carried away from the dead buzzards. The dead were unidentifiable, faces torn off, bellies opened and guts ripped out. They were damp with blood and chemical disinfectant. Tolvern took a deep breath to steady her churning stomach, and looked away until she had it under control.

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