"Not good enough!" Taylor shouted.
He thought for just a second before grabbing Morris and hauling him aside. As he did, he ripped the officer's rifle from his hands and took aim at the console with it. He didn't hesitate for a second before firing full auto into the computer console, and then turning to the other and fired until there was nothing left but twisted metal and burnt out components.
As his rifle went silent, they waited, listened, hoped, and then heard it. The weapons stopped. Morris gave out a sigh of relief.
"How did you know that would work?"
"I didn't."
Chapter 2
Taylor strode towards the bridge, but when he took the final turn, a shot from one of their weapons struck the wall beside him. He stopped, looking to see it had come from one of the crewmembers beside Parker at the barricade ahead. He saw her backhand the perpetrator.
Bodies lay atop one another, and he had to tread in an ungainly fashion from one to another. He reached Parker. Her cheek was bleeding where a few pieces of shrapnel had cut into her flesh, but she was still standing, and that was all he needed to know.
The defenders split apart and allowed him to pass where he found Huber sitting beside his operations table, with his rifle next to him. He did not have the look of a man who had successfully held onto his ship.
"We have secured all system control points. We're just carrying out final sweeps of any stragglers. This is over," Taylor stated.
Huber nodded and sighed as if there was no relief in the news at all.
"You didn't get to them in time," he muttered.
Taylor took offence to the comment.
"Yes we did, Sir!"
The Admiral turned in surprise but could not get a word out as Taylor carried on.
"We stopped the weapon systems as fast as was humanly possible. We saved all the lives that could be saved, so don't you start calling this a failure. Whatever, and whoever, we lost to our own weapon systems was tragic, but let's not forget who the enemy is. Let's not forget who fired those weapons. We cannot afford to turn on one another and blame one another when this is all we have left!"
The Admiral nodded in agreement as Taylor approached.
"I don't like losing a single soul anymore than you do, but let's get real here. This is a war. We may have escaped it for a while, but we are going to keep losing people until we have won."
"Won? You think we can win this?" Huber whispered.
"Fuck yeah. And if you don't believe it too, we have no chance."
Taylor was speaking quietly, but it was still carrying throughout the room. Everyone stood and listened. Taylor took a step closer and whispered to Huber.
"They need you. So what do you say? Will you fight for this?"
Huber nodded in agreement, and Taylor stepped back for him to address the crew.
"We've got people that need our help. I want emergency crews out there now, doing what they can. All crews are to be escorted by marines until further notice. Let's get to work!"
He looked to his XO, Captain Vega. "See to it."
"Aye, aye, Sir," he replied, calmly moving to take control of the situation.
"What are our losses? What sort of damage was done?" Taylor asked of the Admiral.
"One frigate, the Valiant destroyed, severe damage to a Destroyer, the Tuscon, and one of the barges destroyed."
"Completely?"
Huber nodded and brought up a small display screen so that only the two of them could see. Taylor saw thousands of little bits of debris floating in space. It was only as Huber zoomed in a little that he could see many of those pieces of debris were actually bodies.
"There were up to twenty thousand souls aboard that ship. Gone, just like that, and at the hands of our own weapon systems. This happened on my watch, and I will never forgive myself."
"You take that anger, and you vent it somewhere else. You are the leader of this fleet, and perhaps the de facto leader of the human race. You do not have the luxury of feeling that guilt."
Taylor rested against the table and took off his helmet, placing it beside him. He tried to think about the next step. It was hard to even imagine what life now had in store for them. He looked up. His own people looked to him for direction now, just as did many of the ship's crew.
"First things first," said Taylor, "Where the fuck are we?"
He looked to the Admiral, who in turn looked to his navigation officer who was as speechless as the rest of them. Eventually, Taylor looked to Jafar, who had not spoken up yet.
"You said you would choose our final destination. That is what you told me, wasn't it? That you would know and no other until we made it through?"
Jafar slowly nodded in agreement.
"Then start talking."
All eyes turned to the alien. They did not stare in contempt or distrust now, but in curiosity. They wanted to hear what he had to say, and they were willing to believe it, no matter what. They simply wanted answers.
"Well, are you gonna share, or what?" Taylor asked.
"Maybe this is better done in private," added Huber.
"No," he replied and pointed to the crew, "They have all sacrificed enough and given enough to be deserving of answers. I won't keep them from it now."
The Admiral nodded in agreement.
"All right, let's hear it..."
He stopped abruptly, not sure how to address the alien.
"Jafar is a Sergeant in my unit," Taylor prompted him.
"Sergeant Jafar..."
"I plotted a course for us to the only place I knew they would not be, and the last place they would want to go to pursue us. No Krycenaean would ever choose to come to this place. "
"Why?" Taylor asked.
"This system is called...what can only be translated as the 'Death Space'. To the Krys it is a kind of hell mixed with the myth of your Bermuda Triangle. Those who come here never return."
"And you brought us here?" Huber asked sternly.
Taylor lifted his hand to stop the Admiral as he stormed towards Jafar. The Admiral first took offence, but then calmed himself.
"So where the hell is this place?" he spat.
"With the correct maps, I should be able to show you, but it is not where we are that need concern you, but what the place is."
"And what is that?"
"In truth, I do not know."
"You what?"
"You’d better start talking some sense," added Taylor, "as this is starting to sound like crazy talk."
"Yes, it is, and always was," Jafar replied.
Taylor strode across the room and leaned in close to whisper to Jafar.
"Look at these people. They are ready to give up. You need to give them something. Make them know we are safe."
"But I do not know that we are."
"I don't give a shit. You brought us here, and you must have had some pretty good reasons for doing so. Make them understand, and better still, help me understand."
He looked into Jafar’s eyes as the alien thought it over and finally nodded once in agreement. Taylor took a few paces back and let him continue.
"This place is feared by all of my race. Rumours and myths surround it. I do not know how many if any are true. All I know is that no Krys has ever gone there in my lifetime and returned."
"And why would that be?" Huber asked, "Don't you think whatever makes it so dangerous to your people might be equally so for us?"
"Maybe, but it cannot be worse than the alternative. There is no other place I know where Erdogan would not find us and bring an end to us all."
Huber shook his head. "I'm hearing a whole lot about what you don't know about this place, what do you know?"
"Nothing that is fact."
Taylor could see there was something Jafar was wary of telling them, almost fearful. He wanted to press him on it but knew it was neither the time nor the place.