Showdown
21 Aug 2021Kodeyne
Alison awoke with a start, gasping. Clawed her way back from the dream...she had been back in that tiny apartment in Olympus Village, knowing she had to go back to work tomorrow, back to work in the same place as...same place as...him...her stomach knotted...But even in the darkness, her senses reassured her that she was safe. In the comfort of her bed at her parents' house. The gentle glow from the face of her old bedside clock. Most of all, the slender arm that looped across her sternum and the hand that cupped her shoulder - the warmth of a body snuggled behind her and the soft exhalation of breath on her neck. Ophelia. Messed up, beautiful, fierce and loving. My 'Lia.
In the morning, they would return to orbit, to Devil's Daydream, docked at the starport above, to begin their voluntary exile. Even though it had been her idea, Alison still wondered if it was the right thing to do.
Yes, she told herself, better a little period of inconvenience now, if it meant they could have peace in the future.
As they finished loading supplies aboard the Asp, the lobby doors opened to admit a couple in flight suits. Alison paused from stacking rations on a trolley to look up as Tristan and Rose approached. Ophelia appeared at the top of the boarding ramp, beaming.
“Ooh! Look, hun, the olds have come to visit!”
Rose gazed at her daughter levelly.
“Saucy wench, isn’t she?” Out loud to Tristan.
“Not half,” he replied, “must get it from her mother!”
“Shut it, you cheeky git!”
“And if I don’t…?”
Ophelia coughed politely. “When you two are quite done playing?”
After coffee and a general catch-up, Ophelia and Tristan wandered around the hanger, whilst Rose helped Alison sort food, toiletries and other essentials aboard the ship. They stopped under the front of the ship and Ophelia squinted at her mentor through light reflected off the canopy.
“Tristan…” she began, a little awkwardly.
“Yes, Ophelia?”
“Can I, uh, ask you something?”
“Of course, my dear. You may not get a reply, but ask away.” He winked.
“Um...once...I was having a few drinks with Jehnah...and he said there was a rumour that you’d, uh...slept with Arissa Lavigny-Duval!” She blurted the last sentence out, blushing slightly and feeling annoyed with herself for blushing.
“There was indeed such a rumour,” he confirmed, eyes twinkling.
“Well...is it true?”
He was grinning at her. “What do you think?”
She actually stamped her foot. “I don’t bloody know! That’s why I’m asking!”
He began to laugh, and impulsively caught her in a hug. “Oh, precious child!”
“Tell me!”
He released her, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. “Of course I didn’t,” he finally said, “I’ve met her, which was a long-standing ambition of mine. When one reaches the rank of King in the Imperial Naval Auxilia, there’s a little gathering of the newly-promoted, and one gets given a nice shiny medal by the Emperor herself. Okay, I may have flirted with her a little…”
Now Ophelia was laughing. “How did she react?”
“Oh, she politely told me to ‘bugger off because I’ve got another eight of you lot to pin baubles on!’ but she was smiling, so I think she liked it.”
“But you did a runner from Imperial space soon after?”
“Hmm….well, those gatherings are social events too, and it’s possible I ended up that night in the arms of a rather fine lady called Elissa Lavigny...a distant cousin. So, wagging tongues and Chinese whispers and all that, you can see how that got misheard and the rumour started. Discretion seemed the logical choice at that point!”
They were maybe four jumps out now. One night spent on a tidally-locked planet close to its star, carefully landed on the cusp between light and dark, with the half-disc of the sun blazing over the horizon.
The ship ambled in supercruise towards a ringed gas gaint. Ophelia was absorbed in the system scanner screen, picking out a good moon to land on for a view. Alison’s voice sounded in her earpiece.
“Uh...’Lia? I think there are ships on the scanner?”
“Can’t be, we’re nearly two hundred LY out of the bubble!” And then just the faintest tingle at the base of her neck. No..wait..it couldn’t possibly -
The interdiction was hard and fast. The scanner screen deactivated and she frantically throttled up, throwing the ship all over as she fought the interception. But whoever was on the other end was good. Very good indeed.
The Asp crashed out of supercruise, tumbling over and over. She barely had time to get the ship moving in a straight line again before the attacker opened fire. Managed to get a lock on them and deployed weapons. A Krait Phantom, no name, no markings of any kind - not even any details in the HUD.
Almost immediately, another ship dropped into realspace and commenced firing. An Eagle.
"Warning. Incoming torpedo..." the COVAS reported. The Eagle fired at precisely the right distance; enough for the torp to get up to speed, but not far enough away for her to try and evade it.
The explosion shook the ship so hard, Ophelia's head slammed forward them painfully back into the head restraint.
"Shields offline. Taking damage. Warning: shield generator inoperable."
"No. NO! Shit shit shit shit!"
Laserfire began to eat its way through the hull. Another announcement from the COVAS made her aware that their assailants were deliberately targeting thrusters and frame shift drive.
She spun and dived Devil's Daydream about frantically and drew in a breath as the comms crackled to life.
"Commander Kodeyne." A familiar gravelly rasp. "We do not leave a job unfinished. But you have been a most worthy opponent..."
Sparks, smoke, red warning lights. And Alison, voice trembling.
"Ophelia!"
The sensors picked up the crack of a ship dropping from supercruise.
Three ships? Ophelia thought, gods below, they really do want to finish us off...
"Ophelia, what's happening?"
"We're getting shot to bits. We are fucked, we are finished, we are dead!"
There was a pause, then Alison spoke again, strangely calm.
"I love you, Ophelia."
"I love you too, Alison," she replied, tears forming in her eyes.
She hoped the hitmen heard. Take that with you, murdering bastards!
And then -
"Eagle pilot. You have five seconds to eject!"
Ophelia gasped. That voice -
The Eagle vanished in a storm of light; at the same time, the incoming fire against the Asp dropped off as the newcomer positioned itself between them and the Phantom. The Eagle was a spreading cloud of debris. No, wait...the trace of an escape pod amongst the wreckage...
She risked a look at the contacts pane, then out of the canopy. The angular slab of a Lakon Type-10 Defender, accompanied by a darting GU-97 fighter, now hung over them like an ancient warrior's shield.
Gravel-throat spoke again. "You should mind your own business, stranger. Don't know who the hell you think you are, but you just made a big mistake!"
"Funny, I was going to say the same thing, without the accent. And this is my business. You don't try to kill an angel! "
And she knew for sure. "Mikael!"
"Commander Kodeyne, disengage! We've got your back. "
The Phantom pirouetted, trying to use its superior speed and manouvrability to bypass the T-10. But the larger ship's turreted guns and the nimble fighter battered it until it suddenly boosted away and leapt into witch-space. Ophelia clung to the Asp's controls as she realised they were safe. Well, probably safe .
"Ophelia! Are you all right?" Mikael's words echoed in her ears.
She shook herself. "Uh...ship has had the crap knocked out of it..." she consulted a flickering screen. .. "But the auto-field maintenance is more or less intact. Should be able to patch things up."
"Good. Listen, Ophelia. Get the ship working, and pick up that escape pod. Get to Sol. Fedsec will be expecting you. "
"Mikael, how did -"
"Can't stop to talk, chica. Got to follow that jump wake, hope they've gone to a nearby system..."
"Mikael! "
"No time, Cody! I'll see you at Sol! Luck!"
She stared helplessly as the T-10 picked up its fighter and accelerated away, a glow and it vanished.
Ophelia slumped in her seat and spoke into the mic.
"Shit, that was a close one, babe!"
No response.
"Ali?"
"Alison!"
Panic fired her limbs and she released the seat restraints and scrambled awkwardly in zero-g, magnetic boots keeping her in place as she climbed down the ladder into the lower cockpit.
Alison's eyes were closed, her arms floating. Ophelia grasped her shoulders.
"Ali!"
No obvious sign of injury. The canopy was undamaged.
"Ali!!!"
Sick to her stomach, she desperately patted Alison's face and shook her.
"Oh girl, please..."
Alison's eyes flickered open and gazed at her woozily.
"Uhh...umm...hey there, gorgeous..."
"Ali! "
The dark-haired head shook for a moment.
"Ahhhh...hey, girl. I must have fainted. Or are we dead?"
Ophelia slid her arms around Ali's neck and suppressed a sob.
"No, my love, we got lucky. Old friend showed up just in time."
"Well, that's not so bad then... "
They hugged for quite a while.