Rathal leaned forward and then gasped, ripping at his restraints until they popped free, and stood, gripping the back of my chair with both hands.
“It's a Transition gate,” he breathed, eyes wide. A knot formed when I noticed his eyes had gotten misty. I got chills when he finished his thought. “A Rijiteran Transition gate. Look,” he said, pointing.
I shifted forward again and watched as the dot suddenly flattened, expanding into a straight line and then flashed open like a camera taking a picture. One second there had been space, then a dot, then a line, and now there was a massive white ship gleaming in the blue glow of the gas giant.
The sight of the ship filled me with a kind of existential dread. It was a primal, instinctual fear that urged me to run and not stop. My nervous system screamed. My heartbeat surged, sweat broke out, and a wash of heat followed swiftly by cold stole over me.
While I was grabbing my seat trying not to bolt out of my ship and hide in a closet until the monsters were gone, Rathal was sucking in a sob and laughing.
“I haven't seen a Rijiteran ship in five thousand years! She’s beautiful. Absolutely beautiful!”
Beautiful wasn’t the word I was looking for. More like Sinister. Malevolent. Despair.
A loud, haunting howl resonated inside my skull, and when I cast wild eyes towards Aga and Rema, I knew they could hear it too just by Aga’s sick look and Rathal’s maniacal laughter.
“Nano to nano communications! By the Mother, I’ve missed this!” Rathal yelled gleefully, punching the air.
Greetings, Erral Fleet.
This is the Mother ship Vengeance.
Please, follow us. We will lead you through the Gate and into glory.
The voice that spoke was Hella’s. I’d recognized that deep, menacing timbre anywhere.
“Understood,Vengeance. It is an honor. All hands, prepare for drop,” Som’ae said over the general net.
Rathal chortled and fell back into his seat, strapping back in.
The rumble ofForesight'sengines was all the warning I got before we boosted forward. According to the HUD display that flashed in the lower center of my viewscreen, we were pulling six Gs. I grunted, and breathed through it, preparing for the awful feeling of going through the Transition gate, but theVengeancemaneuvered gracefully around, her streamline bulk beautifully sinister, and that white flash blinded me for just a few seconds and when my vision cleared there was a Unity Dreadnought at our twelve o’clock and about a thousand Insects swarming around a purple hued planet.
“Holy. Shit.” I didn’t know who said it, me or the boys.
Drop! Drop! Drop!
The Cutter’s pilot screamed over my Link and then theLyudmillawas falling out of the belly of theForesightand straight into hell.
thirty-six
Callie
Ipunchedthethrottleas soon as we were free of theForesight, stomping on the rudder petal and jerked the stick, rollingLyudmilaout from under the Cutter.
Once we were floating out in open space, I blew out a breath.
“Shit. Don’t let me get distracted like that again.”
Aga gave a short laugh. “Trust me. I won’t. I think I need to change my pants.”
We laughed and then grew serious as theVengeanceshifted into firing position like a big cat stalking its prey. The Rijiteran ship was easily ten times the size of the Unity ship. The gap in technology was like comparing a sun dial to a smart watch. It was eerie to witness.
The Unity Dreadnaught tried to jump out, but it was far too late for that. The single shot from the ridged laser gun on theVengeance'sspine was invisible to the eye without the help ofLyudmila’scomputer system providing the visual aid,and within one breath and the next the Unity ship was just a scattering debris field of pieces no bigger than my fist.
“Holy fucking shit,” I breathed, stunned.
Rathal cackled, his voice vicious when he managed to speak. “Andthatis why the Unity had to resort to a bioweapon.”
You couldn’t fight against that. There was no winning here.
