Vengeance Lost_Ardent Redux Saga_Episode 1 Read online

  “Bloody brilliant,” Jag called out. “Well done!”

  Cruz extended his arms, pressing each screen further apart before he turned and grinned, proud of himself, but the moment was short lived.

  “Hang on!” Dani yelled as she jolted the spacecraft to the side, causing Cruz to lose his balance and fall back into his wheelchair, causing it to topple, leaving the task unfinished.

  Though the screen wasn’t open all the way, it was still open enough for Dani to narrowly dodge a stray asteroid barreling toward them down the wormhole. The brilliant blues and purples swirled around the outer edge of the wormhole while in the center loomed a sort of white fog that was much brighter without the screen’s automatic adjustment settings.

  The power flickered, and dim lights flashed on throughout the bridge.

  “Emergency power source is up and running,” Jag reported, staring at his console. “Looks like there’s a fire in the rear quadrant.”

  “Of course there is,” Dani growled. Her arms and shoulders burned, but she remained focused on the narrow field of vision before her. “Seal it off if you can.”

  A groan from the floor of Cassia’s station pulled her attention. The woman pulled herself to her feet, blood running down her head from a gash above her eye.

  “Get strapped in. We’ll check you out if we make it through this alive.”

  Cassia crawled to her seat and hoisted herself up and into it.

  “Cruz, you okay over there? Did you make it back to your station?”

  The bell dinged in return.

  “Captain!” Jag pointed frantically at a mass of twisted metal obscuring most of the tunnel.

  Dani pulled the yoke back, putting both feet on her console for extra leverage. Alaska’s Vengeance violently tilted back, but metal found metal. The ship shuddered and shook as the hull let out an ear-shattering screech.

  Both Jag’s and Dani’s consoles lit up and sounded various alarms.

  “Trying to isolate the breach,” Jag updated as he popped up display after display.

  Dani grunted as she wrestled with the yoke before the nose of the ship plunged into the upper wall of the wormhole tunnel. The wall wasn’t solid, but it was like getting an oar stuck in the mud when rafting down a swiftly moving river. The impact caught and flipped Alaska’s Vengeance, causing the deformed hunk of metal to dislodge, but she was now accelerating through the wormhole backward.

  We’re not going to make it, Dani thought in a moment of panic, but managed to maintain her composure. She always knew she’d die doing what she loved, but this was beyond anything she could have imagined. She eased her grip on the yoke and took a quick look around the bridge. In that brief moment, she saw three sets of eyes staring back at her in horror. Even Cruz had pulled himself up to peek over his console wall. So many lives had been lost already. The least she could do was try to save those still aboard her vessel.

  Dani set her jaw and grabbed onto the controls once more. She attempted to spin the ship around again, but it was far too damaged to respond. She fought, nonetheless, hoping that by some miracle they would make it through alive. She closed her eyes, reaching out with her instincts, trying to feel the universe around her, but things moved far too fast inside this tunnel of destruction.

  Suddenly a horrendous force pushed Dani and her crew deep into their seats. The familiar hum of the engines ceased and the tug of artificial gravity released. For a moment, she felt like she couldn't breathe. She was certain they’d hit another object, but there was no shudder, no explosion, no agonizing metallic scream. Instead, there was just silence.

  Out the open windshield of Alaska’s Vengeance appeared the other end of the wormhole. It gradually shrunk in size as they drifted backward, away from it.

  Dani and her crew watched in silence as the swirling funnel rippled and jerked before them. The outer edges of the vortex quivered before one side collapsed inward. The wormhole continued to pull itself in until there was nothing but a concentrated white ball of light, which burst and spewed the blue and purple dust out around them in its dying breath. It was gone, and they were free.

  The silence of space surrounded them. Quiet stars appeared to drift through the night as though there had never been any disturbance among them. Dani stared through the gap in the solar panels, her jaw agape in disbelief.

  “Yes!” Jag shouted, pumping his fist into the air.

  The rest of the group offered a collective sigh of relief as Jag continued to cheer and Cruz rang his bell happily.

  Dani let the controls slip from her hand and relaxed her shoulders before rubbing her forehead. They had survived.

  Chapter 2

  “Oh, shit,” Jag mumbled as he raised another display at his station, cutting the celebration short.

  “How bad is it?” Dani asked, already knowing it couldn’t be good with the hits they took. Alaska’s Vengeance may have had top-of-the-line energy shields, but nothing could have stopped that twisted spire from piercing her hull.

  “Scanning now.”

  The ship tumbled quietly through space. Dani didn’t want to attempt to fire up the engines again without knowing how much damage was sustained.

  “Cruz, can you get those solar shades closed? I want to limit our radiation exposure with our shields being down.”

  Dani heard the familiar ding and watched as Cruz unfastened his restraints and floated up into the air. She admired his grace during times of no gravity. His muscular upper body, kept strong through his use of a manual wheelchair and regular exercise, helped him pull himself effortlessly across the bridge to the solar shades.

  “Update?” she turned to ask Jag.

  His face was somber as he tousled his shaggy brown hair and nodded towards the display screen.

  Cruz had successfully closed the solar screens, allowing the scanned holographic image of the ship to appear before them. Cassia gasped immediately, and Cruz stopped his flight back to his station.

  A significant portion of the ship was missing. Dani’s breath caught in her throat. It was worse than she imagined. Even with Jag’s quick response to limit the breach, there was little chance anyone back there could have survived.

  From the looks of the image displayed before them, the hull was punctured near the bridge before the metal cut through the ship like a knife. About one-third of the ship was completely absent, with the rest mangled beyond recognition. One engine and a few thrusters were still intact, but it would only provide them with minimal maneuvering power at best.

  Dani sighed beneath her hand that covered her mouth before grasping the console to steady herself. “The med bay is gone, most of the private quarters, storage, the recon cruiser, and one of our primary engines.”

  “So, Dr. Lombardi and the rest of the on-board staff?” Cassia asked with a croak.

  “Jag, I need you to scan the ship for signs of life. See if anyone back there survived this mess.” Dani turned to Cruz. “See if you can figure out where we are and how far we are from help.”

  Cruz dinged the bell, signaling his understanding, while Jag just nodded and got to work.

  Dani unclipped from her captain’s chair and floated over to check on Cassia’s head wound. She pulled away the cloth Cassia held to her head, and blood bubbled around the wound in the absence of gravity. “This needs attention. I’ll get the first-aid kit.”

  “Someone’s alive in the engine room,” Jag alerted, “but the comm has been damaged.”

  Dani stopped short of the first-aid kit and looked back at Cassia. Her wound needed stitching, but if anyone was alive back there, she wanted to get to them as soon as possible.

  “I’ll be fine, go.” Cassia made a shooing motion, then pointed. “Look, Cruz is going to help.”

  Cruz was already nudging Dani out of the way with the first-aid kit in hand.

  Dani returned to her seat and pulled herself down in front of her console. She expertly rerouted the remaining engine’s power supply to life-support systems.


  “Hang on, guys.” She switched the gravity back on and landed gracefully on her feet.

  Jag quickly retrieved Cruz’s robotic prosthetics and passed them to Cruz, who sat on the floor at Cassia’s feet.

  Cruz nodded and signed, “Thank you,” before donning the prosthetics. He got to his feet and picked up the first-aid kit, setting it on Cassia’s console and turning her head toward him. His combat medical training was an asset on the ship when they were in a pinch, and this was no exception.

  Dani almost wished she could leave the gravity off for Cruz because his discontentment with his prosthetics had been the discussion of many late-night coffee chats. However, she’d be able to rescue whoever was trapped in the rear of the ship much faster with it on.

  “Alright then. Stay safe, you two. Stay on comms. Let me know if something happens,” Dani said as she adjusted her earpiece. “Can you hear me?”

  “Loud and clear,” Cassia beamed, then grimaced at the pain caused by her smile.

  “Jag, you’re with me. I don't know who's back there or what kind of shape they’re in.”

  “You got it.” Jag grabbed a second first-aid kit near his console, along with a portable console unit.

  Dani glanced back at Cruz and Cassia once more before Jag used his port-con to open the door. Together, they stepped into the icy hallway and sealed the bridge door behind them.

  “It seems the heating and ventilation system sealed properly. How’re the oxygen levels?” Dani asked as she surveyed the damage.

  Jag held his portable display out in front of him. “Oxygen looks good, but we’re not going to want to open any of the doors on the right.”

  Dani nodded and pulled a light from her utility belt, clipping it onto the lapel of her uniform. The light offered a white cone of sight, better illuminating the surrounding destruction. Ceiling panels dangled from above, the typical floor lighting flickered at random intervals, and ice crystals were beginning to form on the doors lining the right side of the hallway. It wouldn’t take long for the cold to overtake their systems. Life-support systems would keep them warm under normal circumstances, but without the exterior walls to shield them from space’s cold grasp, she wasn’t sure how long they’d have.

  “It’s a good thing the pilots were off-ship for the battle, otherwise...” Jag trailed off.

  Dani ignored the comment. The thought had already occurred to her when she had him scan for life, but it didn’t take long for her to remember that their fate would likely have been the same either way.

  “Let’s focus on what we can control.” Dani attempted to rally her confidence. “Right now, there’s one very scared and possibly injured person back in the engine room. Let’s get back there and then we’ll figure out our next step.”

  Dani proceeded down the hallway slowly, listening to the ship as it creaked and moaned. She hadn’t heard metal languish like this since she started her flight career piloting sea crafts on the bottom of the ocean.

  “The primary hall to the back of the ship was involved in the hull breach,” Jag said, studying the screen. “If we cut through the galley, then we can wind through the showers and gym. It won’t get us all the way to the engine room, but we’ll be close.”

  Dani nodded. “Close is a good start. Let’s go.”

  Jag opened the door on the left side of the hall to the galley. “Oh, wow.”

  Dani stepped in before him, her eyes darting around the mess. Tables were bolted down, but the chairs were scattered around the space. Compartments were thrown open with food and supplies littering the floor. Even their celebration nights didn’t take this much of a toll on the galley. She took a deep breath before gathering a bag and placing select supplies inside: towels, knives, tape.

  “We’ll grab some food to take to the bridge on our way back through,” she said as she approached another door.

  Jag hurried to her side to open the door to another, smaller corridor. The floor of the hallway was buckled and crumpled near the connection point to the main hall, which was sealed off with emergency doors, which, thankfully, remained sealed. The flickering floor lights continued on down the second hall. Sparks flew each time the electricity hit the buckled part of the floor. Jag moved toward the communal bathroom door and raised the display.

  Dani grabbed his arm. “Wait.” She peered through the window into the adjoining gym, her eyes landing on the water pooling from the access door between the gym and bathroom. “Run another scan.”

  Jag nodded and pushed a few buttons before frowning. “The main water line ruptured. The room is flooded.”

  “That means a good portion of the ship’s water supply is in there, waiting to rush out. We can’t open that door.” She pointed at the damaged emergency floor lights.

  “The gym door is probably out, too.” Jag peered through the window at the water slowly spreading across the gym.

  “You’re right.” Dani glanced around the hall, then stepped back from the window and into the cafeteria, returning with a steel chair. “Get back.”

  Jag stepped away from the window as Dani approached it. She swung the chair toward the transparent panel, but it rebounded off of the durable material. She frowned and raised the chair again.

  “Wait. Hand me one of those knives,” Jag said with an outstretched hand.

  Dani set down the chair and fished a knife out of the bag. She took the port-con and watched as Jag slid the blade around the rubber seal, stopping to twist screws out of place. She was relieved to see she was still picking up the life sign. When the last screw was removed, the pair hoisted the reinforced glass away from the frame. The chair made the climb into the gym easy, but once inside, Dani eyed the bathroom door.

  “We need to hurry. I don't know how much longer that's going to hold.” She hurried across to the far wall of the gym, the water squishing between her shoes and the rubberized floor. The engine room was on the other side, but there was no door to access the space from the gym.

  Jag began digging through a pile of exercise equipment while Dani looked for access to the room beyond. She slid her hands over the wall, then rapped on the metal sheet dividing the two rooms. A quiet clanging echoed back.

  “Sounds like they’re conscious in there.”

  “Step back.”

  Dani turned to see Jag holding a twisted piece of exercise equipment that appeared to have fared poorly through all the commotion.

  “What are you going to do with that?” she said, stepping to the side.

  Jag pierced the thin wall with the sharp end of the metal beam easily. “Give me a hand,” he said, waving Dani to his side. Together they seesawed the twisted metal back and forth in a circular manner, much like an old-fashioned can opener.

  When there was a sizable semi-circle, Dani used a deflated, thick rubber ball over the edge of the metal they cut away. Together they peeled it back until they had formed a crude door and opened the way.

  “It’s about time someone got me out of this mess,” a voice, shaky with age rather than fear, called out from within the dark room.

  “I should have figured it was you in there, Howard. If anyone could survive what just happened, it’d be you.” Dani chucked as she stepped into the room, her lapel lighting up the deep wrinkles in the face of her favorite mechanic.

  Jag and Dani got to work digging Howard Glenn out of a pile of supplies that partially buried him.

  “Mind the leg now. I tripped over something when I was putting out that damned fire and got a bit of a scrape.”

  “That’s a bit more than a scrape, old man.” Jag commented as he took the fire extinguisher from Howard and pulled the first-aid kit off of the wall. He removed a thick bandage and carefully tied it around the old man’s leg. “But good job on the fire. I didn’t know what kind of inferno we were going to find back here.”

  “Old man, eh?” Howard snorted before turning to Dani. “This jackass was flying the ship, wasn’t he?”

  “Actually, no.” Dani sighed.

&
nbsp; Howard squinted in the dim room. “Alright, well, get me out of here. I need to see how banged up my girl is, then I’ll swing by and pay Dr. Lombardi a visit.”

  Jag and Dani shared a look.

  “Wait, what’s that? What’s going on?”

  “Dr. Lombardi is gone,” Jag muttered quietly.

  “Oh.” Howard’s chest deflated somewhat. Worry quickly spread across his face. “And the rest of the crew? The ship?”

  “I’ll tell you right now, it’s bad.” Dani grunted as she helped him to his feet.

  “Worse than last time?” he said as he reached out to sturdy himself using Jag’s arm.

  “Worse than all of the times... combined,” Jag replied.

  “Oh, I’m going to need to sit back down.” Howard frowned and tried to lower himself.

  Dani protested, not letting go. “We can’t stay in here. We need to get you to the bridge and stitch that up.”

  “The bridge? Why would we go there for an injury? What’s wrong with the med bay?”

  Dani and Jag exchanged another look, but neither spoke.

  Howard’s brow furrowed, but he didn’t ask any more questions.

  They carefully helped Howard through the hole in the wall and into the gym, their feet splashing in what had now become a few inches of water.

  “You know, there are easier ways to access the engine room than by cutting holes in my walls,” Howard grumbled.

  “Not today there aren’t,” Dani answered as she helped him toward the gym window.

  Jag reached through and grabbed the chair, pulling it into the room to use as a step.

  “So we’re just not going to use any of the doors then,” Howard stated as he balanced on the chair.

  Jag climbed through the window and retrieved a second chair for the other side before helping Howard down, with Dani following immediately after.