Phoebe watched the grisly wreckage of the Hok as it spun slowly away behind her, a specter of burnt beige lost in the corrupting chrome embrace of twin Cygnan warships. There was still no sign of Tessa or Izzy, no word of what had happened to them– only silence and the terrible waiting, knowing that at any moment the mass of entwined ships might suddenly buckle and burst under the force of a detonating drive and scatter itself across the stars in a violent shockwave, leaving no questions, leaving only the wakes and the letters home, the tears and the cold, cruel feeling of being truly alone.
In the silence, the radio crackled with bits of conversation– scattered, distant voices giving orders, quiet affirmatives. Somewhere in the stellar noise, she had heard a few that she had recognized, but none of them Izzy, none of them Tessa.
“How you holding up, Jenkins?”
Mondego. With Tessa out of the picture, the Lieutenant Commander had pulled rank and put them all on assault squadron protocols. Phoebe closed her eyes, breathed a long, shaky sigh before she thumbed the radio.
“Terrible.” She let silence fill the pause, let her eyes roll across her console, absently searching for something among the neon lights that wasn’t there, would never be there again.
“I know what you mean.” Came Mondego’s quiet response. “This is horseshit. Fuck Cygnus.”
“Fuck Cygnus!” Someone else agreed. “I’m gonna laugh when that fucking boat explodes and takes all their blue asses with it.”
I’m not. Phoebe wiped quickly at her eyes. As long as the Hok hung there, as long as it waited, wrapped in a cocoon of chrome amid the endless stars, there was hope, there was a chance.
“Your Admiral is aboard that thing, ese.” Cordova’s voice cut across the frequency, the bite of iron hiding the same hurt that Phoebe felt, the same hurt she couldn’t express on the radio. “Show some respect, Beaumann.”
“Hey man, ease up.” Came the quick response. “I was just saying.”
“Yeah? And I’m ‘just saying’ you need to realize that the second that ship goes up, we lose something, eh?” He paused, let the pain linger in the silence. “We all lose something.”
“We’ve lived aboard the Hok for the last two years.” Mondego’s voice filled the channel, killing any response Beaumann might have slung back. “We’ve taken our meals there, polished our rigs there, made love there, some of my men have even died there.” She paused, swallowed, forced steel into her voice. “Trust me, j.g., nobody is more aware of what we’ve lost here today than me or Beaumann are.”
“Especially since we wouldn’t even be here if we hadn’t had to come pick up your asses.” Beaumann added, recovering some of his bravado. “So don’t even talk to me about respect.”
“Guys.” Phoebe spoke up suddenly. “Jesus guys, just please drop it already.” The silence that followed hung heavy, tense, lingered longer than it should have. Phoebe swallowed, glanced back at the Hok again, blinked.
“Hey, uh...” Beauman’s voice crackled into the frequency again. “I uh... shouldn’t the ship have blown by now?” Another tense, collective silence. Rigs shifted, creaked in their full burn against the stellar wind like some fragment of a seagoing past. Phoebe stared at the spinning mass of chrome and beige, glanced back at her console, fingers tapping across polyquid display paneling to bring up timers, readings, scan telemetry, IFF data. She blinked again in confusion, tapped through another display. Neg 0:45 seconds to detonation. No buildup. She swallowed, tried to repress the anxiety, the edge of a smile. Hope!
“Y-Yeah!” She thumbed the radio, “The drive was keyed to detonate about fifty seconds ago. Something–” She shook her head. “Something must have happened!”
“Do you think the Cygnans did it?” Mondego’s response came quick, level.
“Maybe.” Phoebe’s face fell a little at the thought. “I mean, they’d have to get to operations and...” She bit her lip. “But that means...”
“This is Captain Hilleboe of the Von der Tann IV.” Stellar noise parted and passed, obliterated by the power of the Von’s transmitters. “The deadline has passed, and scans indicate that levels within the Hok’s degen drive are returning to normal, meaning someone or something intentionally disabled the self destruct.” There was a pause, and the silence was deafening. “Given the fact that we haven’t heard from the Admiral or any other member of the crew presumed still aboard the Hok, I’m inclined to believe that the Coralate has taken the ship. For any of you in rescue pods that can hear me, get clear. blast at an even 225 or 45 degrees relative and hold your burn until you’re at least a couple hundred meters outside the splash radius of ship to ship weapons fire.” He paused again, let his words sink in. “We’re going to hit them with everything we’ve got, then come back to pick up the pieces later. Gunners– try to avoid firing directly on the Hok. All fighters, except those squadrons from the Hok or the Von, maintain a vanguard stance. It’s a sure bet those two ships have their own compliment of rigs, and we might need you here very soon. All ships, get into position.”
Phoebe swallowed, glanced back at the Hok, stared for a moment before her eyes flicked to the console, checked the firing arc, watched as the massive shapes of the Constantine and the Carl Sagan arranged themselves into the descending arcs of a half circle centered around the dual signature of the Von der Tann and the Karkadann riding piggyback atop it. A quick adjustment to the left put her rig and the rest of her reformed squadron out of the line of fire, gave them a clear shot at the waiting hangar bays of the Von.
Home. she thought suddenly, and the feeling that rose up in her chest was inescapable, forced a smile across her lips and a moistness into her eyes. We’re finally home.
“This is Captain Yuuki of the Carl Sagan, in position.”
“Captain Kyme here. The Constantine is in position.”
“Alright.” Hilleboe’s voice came through strong, clear, as definitive as hardened steel. “This one is for Admiral Minear, and for all the pilots and crew who have died here today.” He paused again, and in the silence, Phoebe closed her eyes.
“FIRE!”
