The Enterprise War by John Jackson Miller

Author:John Jackson Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books/Star Trek

36

* * *

Outside U.S.S. Enterprise

Little Hope

Connolly had gone through so many emotions in the last hour he could barely process them. Commanded to board Enterprise as part of Baladon’s squad, he’d been filled with anger and expectation. Outrage at being ordered to take his own ship; happiness at the thought of seeing it again. Before he could object, Enterprise had struck at the Boundless ships. He’d wanted to cheer then, and had not objected to the mission in the expectation that it was safer to be standing outside Enterprise than to spend another day inside a Boundless battlesuit.

Seeing the wretched defense Enterprise was mounting had given him pause, however—and finally, he had been standing on the lip of the saucer section when the Rengru had attacked.

There hadn’t been time to breathe since.

“This is insane! We’ve got to get out of here!”

With a newly traded-for disruptor cannon in his gloved hands, Baladon laughed. “They don’t frighten me,” he said over his battlesuit comm, unleashing hell on every Rengru that flew past. “I could barely get within torpedo range of this ship before. Now, I’m standing on the hull. I am not going anywhere!”

It wasn’t as if there was anywhere to go—not with Enterprise lurching to and fro and fire coming in from the Rengru warships. The blasts seemed to be targeting the stardrive section; that was the only reason Blue Squad hadn’t been vaporized. As it was, only Baladon, Connolly, and one other trooper remained—

—and that number immediately went down by one as Blue-5 was ripped from the surface by a Rengru fighter. “Help!”

“Becko!” Connolly called out. He hadn’t known his newest teammate long at all—but reflexively he prepared to deactivate his magnetic boots and ignite his jetpack.

Before he could, however, Baladon adjusted his weapon and fired at the struggling pair in the sky, annihilating both the soldier and his abductor.

Connolly shoved at Baladon. “You killed Becko! What did you do that for?”

“That’s what we’re supposed to do!” Baladon shouted, turning to fire in a different direction. “Like we always do!”

“We didn’t hear a breach warning. He still had a chance!”

“Rengies don’t breach armor in a vacuum. They wait until they get you home.”

At the word home, Connolly boiled over. “I’m done!”

“They’re hearing your chatter,” Baladon said. “Stick to the program. Get down there and sabotage the impulse engine.”

“No!” Connolly pointed at the airlock behind the bridge. Several Boundless had arrived there earlier—and were waging a defensive war against the swooping Rengru. “Baladon, forget this! Come with me. Enterprise—she’ll save us, take you wherever you want to go. Home, or—”

“The Boundless are taking me where I wanted to go! My home was nothing. I led an army of fools. Now I’m part of something!”

“Forget it.” Connolly released the charge he’d been ordered to set, allowing it to float away. He started a mad dash across the rear of the saucer section, heading for the bridge airlock.

“Little ingrate. They’re watching you! Get back here before—”

Connolly didn’t hear the rest of Baladon’s sentence, because the audio in his armor cut out, along with everything else on his interface.

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