Chapter 11

Their time was quickly running out. They’d been at the Burel space station for three days, and its orbit was rapidly deteriorating. Loki kept warning Brodie of the danger of continuing to work on the station.

The Pursuer’s and Relentless’s holds were full of alien technology. Loki’s Mischief’s remained fairly empty because the scientists had run into trouble with the Burel computers. They were unable to find any way to download their contents and were having difficulty removing the hardware since it seemed to be embedded in the station’s structure.

Brodie had joined Aurora on the station so he could get a firsthand idea of what they were up against. He arrived in time to see his first officer throw a heavy plasma cutter on the floor in disgust. Brodie noted that there wasn’t a mark on the wall she’d tried to cut into.

“I’ve tried everything and can’t cut the metal housing the computers,” Aurora said.

The lead scientist, Dr. Xander, looked on, worried.

“Could we detach the entire node and get a cargo ship to take it back to Mulheim?”

Over one of the drone speakers, Sven weighed in, saying, “If we’re going to do that, it has to be now.”

Brodie knew Sven was right. He worried they’d been there for too long already. It wouldn’t be long before scavengers began to show up; this station represented too large a prize for someone not to have leaked its location to earn a quick payday. Cutting off a node from the station would leave them a sitting target until the cargo ship arrived. But he knew King Denhardt would order them to do whatever it took to gain the knowledge stored in those computers.

Brodie turned to the drone to address Sven. “Get your people off the station. Our team will figure out how to decouple the node.”

“I want to stay and make sure everything is done right,” Dr. Xander said, obviously worried they would damage something.

Brodie knew Aurora was rolling her eyes without having to look. He was impressed that she hadn’t already tossed the scientist out of an airlock.

It had taken them all day to decouple the node and drag it back from the brink of obliteration. When it had finally separated, two other nodes of the station broke free and were sucked into the gas giant’s atmosphere. The team watched the flames as the two nodes plummeted until they disappeared into the clouds below.

Brodie had stayed with Aurora on the command node to personally oversee the crew. He’d turned off Sven’s communications when the man tried to micromanage their work. Loki told them the King’s hersir had devolved into a tantrum, and the medical team had tranqed him to get him to calm down.

“Let’s get back to the ship,” Brodie ordered.

“Yes, let’s. I can’t wait to get off this station. I have a bad feeling about this place,” Aurora said.

“Unidentified contact,” Loki announced.

Brodie glanced over at Aurora, who shrugged. He remembered Aurora telling him about Murphy’s Law as he looked at his heads-up display. His blood ran cold as he recognized the sleek design of a Burel ship. Unlike the scouts they’d encountered in the past, this looked to be a warship, one even larger than his father’s heavy cruiser, Balder.

“Execute standing order Alpha One!” Brodie called out.

He’d just told his two support ships to jump to Norse. Erik and Val both objected to his order, not wanting to leave Loki’s Mischief alone to face the massive ship bearing down on them. But Loki passed the order to their AIs, who immediately wound up the jump engines. A moment later, Pursuer and Relentless jumped.

Brodie and Aurora’s team boarded the transport. Dr. Xander, for once, hadn’t offered any complaints about abandoning the node. As soon as the door closed, the pilot launched.

Loki’s Mischief placed itself between the transport and the Burel ship. Brodie watched in horror as the giant ship unleashed a plasma bolt that punched through his ship’s shields like they didn’t exist. A long line of damage coursed down the side of the hull. He noted that the new coating they’d installed peeled away as it took the brunt of the damage.

Loki rotated the ship because another shot like that on their bare hull would likely destroy Loki’s Mischief. Brodie watched Loki return fire with the rail cannon, EMP cannons, and a salvo of missiles. He couldn’t see it, but he expected Loki would also be foaming out new armor coating. It would replace what had been shorn away, carrying heat away from the ship’s interior in the process. In short order, the Burel ship dealt with the missile barrage, and their shields handled the rail gun. But it looked like the EMPs had done some damage, made more severe when the Burel point-defense system hit the missiles, and their failure mode gave off an EMP burst.

Loki launched more missiles as the cannons reloaded. This time, they reached the Burel hull and inflicted significant damage. When the crew cheered, it startled Brodie. A moment later, the Burel ship fired off another plasma bolt that ripped down Loki’s Mischief’s hull, punching a hole in Brodie’s ship.

“Surrender or die!” came over Brodie’s comms.

“Execute standing order Alpha Two!” Brodie commanded.

Loki’s Mischief winked out as they jumped home per the standing order, abandoning the transport and node and leaving them undefended. The Burel ship fired its enormous plasma cannon into the station, ripping it apart. Then a smaller cannon took out the transport’s engines and destroyed the command node.

“What do we do?” Aurora asked.

“Surrender,” Brodie said, then gave the order.

They watched as the gargantuan ship closed in. They were jolted when a tractor beam latched onto the hull and pulled the transport into a landing bay.

Aurora had been trained on how to handle capture scenarios. She was impressed when the Burel ordered them to disarm and remove their space armor before they would allow their team to exit the transport. Once the ramp was lowered, Brodie led everyone into the landing bay, where they were met by Burel security dressed head-to-toe in silver armor and carrying laser rifles. Drones whooshed forward and began to scan them.

These actions gave Aurora a chance to study their foe. No one had ever laid eyes on the Burel before. She noted that she had to look up and guessed them to be over 200 centimeters (seven feet) tall. When the scans completed, the Burel apparently in charge stepped forward.

“Who is in command?”

Brodie stepped forward, followed by Aurora.

Aurora’s mind raced as they had spoken in Common, the universal language for the humans in this sector of space. There had been reports of ships going missing, but that wasn’t unusual on the edge of the human territory. Space was unforgiving, and accidents happened. But now she suspected the Burel might be responsible for some of the missing ships.

Another thought caused Aurora to worry. If that were the case, then every ship the Burel had encountered must have been unable to flee or win their encounter because they didn’t escape to report back.

“You two, come with me. The rest of your team will be taken to a holding area.”

Aurora started to object, but Brodie reached over and touched her arm. She gave him a dirty look, trying to tell him to let her take the lead in this situation.

Brodie and Aurora were led to the command center, where they saw their first Burel without a helmet. There were five of them at different stations, with one sitting in the apparent command chair. The Burel appeared humanoid in that they had two arms and two legs, but there the similarities ended. Their noseless faces featured dark red eyes, large foreheads, and were topped with silver hair.

On the backs of their necks were colored scales that ranged from gold to black. When the captain opened his mouth to speak, Brodie saw pointed teeth that reminded him of a predator.

“Why is your mate with you? Do you not have enough common sense to leave her at home?” the captain asked in a clipped speech. A moment later, a translator conveyed his message.

To his credit, Brodie didn’t react. Instead, he fired back with, “Tell me about your neck scales.”

The security guard took his helmet off, and Brodie sensed his confusion before the translation came, telling him two things. First, the Burel security guard could understand the humans.