G.A.C. Durgon, 7:30 Turo Standard Time-
It had been an hour since 626 had left her, half that since the battle had started in earnest (at least, as far as she could tell by way of listening at the door), and just as she had promised Lilo had spent all that time waiting patiently for things to wind down and be safe again. No matter how much she wanted to explore an alien ship and see what it were like.
It wasn't easy, staying put in the little room the commanders had reluctantly provided her and 626. There was just nothing to do: sure, there was a computer terminal and a couple of books, but they were all in this weird language, and although the computer did respond to voice there wasn't anything she could do with it besides stare blankly at the images and the weird letters. Thus, when suddenly the ship rocked so suddenly that Lilo was knocked from her feet, she was almost excited. Something was happening!
But then the lights flickered, winked out, and returned in a deep shade of blood-red. Lilo barely had time to stand back up before warning sirens exploded and practically burst her eardrums, shouting "EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY!" She clamped her hands over her ears, but it didn't help; the sirens were so loud that it was as though someone was yelling at the top of their lungs right into them.
Lilo ran into the hallway, through the red and the noise, through the mass of aliens scrambling around the ship, trying not to cry. Be brave be brave be brave… She needed to be brave, otherwise she'd break down. Eventually, though, the unending cacophony of sirens and movement from the aliens around her was too much, and when Lilo found a dark corner in the hallway her legs gave out and she curled up into a little ball.
"Aloha 'oe, aloha 'oe,
E ke onaona noho i ka lipo…" Maybe singing the song Nani always sung for her when she had a nightmare or got hurt would help her feel safe, as if her big sister was actually there.
She wasn't, but someone else was.
"Hey! Kid! Are you alright?" It was one of the aliens 626 introduced to her. What was his name? Spon? Spon sounded right.
Spon bent down in front of Lilo, his face surprisingly soft. "Is it the sirens?"
Lilo nodded. "What's going on?"
"Those bas-uh, the bad guys had a bigger laser than we would have figured. Pretty much caught us with our pants down, honestly. It sheered off one of the fins on the belly of this thing, so right now we're trying to regain our balance. The ship'll hold, but…" his voice trailed off. Spon shook his head. "Never mind. Doesn't matter now, I guess. Come on, we have to go – they've ordered us to abandon ship and make for the planet." He pulled Lilo to her feet. "Stay with me."
They ran through the hallways until they reached a hangar so large that Lilo was sure it could fit an entire volcano inside. Spon pulled her towards one of the troop ships in front of them, giving another alien a little nod as they entered. "Sorry for the delay-I found the little Earth girl in the hall and she didn't know where to go, and I couldn't just leave her."
"Well, I suppose here is as safe as anywhere can be, not that that's saying much."
"Unless we get shot down."
"Shut up, Vis." Spon hissed.
The doors closed, locking them in to the ship.
Things up on the deck had gotten a great deal more hectic, leaving Gantu no time to catch his breath as he shouted out command after command. The chief maintenance officer had reported in that, miraculously, save for the three that had been obliterated with the rest of the wing all of the Durgon's engines were still on line. They were listing badly, and it would only get worse, but at least they would stay in space, and if things got too angular the officers in charge of the life support systems had been instructed to adjust the artificial gravity in compensation. The shields had also been moved entirely to the front of the ship in order to ward off further attacks, with defense of the rear entrusted to the ten-thousand surviving fighters.
Once the immediate concerns were taken care of, Gantu turned his attention to the next problem: what to do with their crippled ship.
"Ombit, what's the status of our movement?"
"Very slow, sir."
"Can we still retreat?"
"In theory, yes, but that could prove…difficult."
Gantu frowned. "Difficult? How?"
"Well, sir, to put it bluntly, if you'll pardon my language the Durgon's going to be a bitch and a half to turn like this, and from how we're facing going forwards to escape isn't really an option."
"So we're stuck here, is that what you're saying?"
"Well, not exactly, but if we want to get moving again it's going to take some time."
"Time we don't have." He grunted and stared out the window. Protect the Federation at all costs. The vow he had taken upon enlisting echoed through his head. Without turning away from the window, Gantu addressed his First Officer again. "Ombit, what would happen if we continued forwards."
"We'd tilt, sir. Like crazy. The wing would wind up pointing straight down before long."
Good. That would give everyone in the hangar all the space they need to get out of the way. "Gatco, Open a channel to the hangar."
"Yes sir."
"This is Captain Gantu speaking. I want all the transports to be ready to take off within the next five minutes."
"Exuse me, sir, what?" A shocked voice on the other end replied.
"You heard me!" Gantu snapped. "Be ready to launch at once! And once you do, I want you to immediately turn towards your crafts to port and make towards the planet!"
"But sir!"
"DO IT, DAMN YOU!" Gantu yelled before turning back to Ombit and Gatco. "You two, slave all the Durgon's controls to the steering panel on my chair and tell the crew that they are to tie themselves down at once."
They both stared at him. "Come again, Captain?" Gatco ventured.
"We're about to do something that is both very brave and very stupid, and I want to have full control." Whether this succeeds or fails is all up to me.
"Well, ok, if you're sure." Uncertainly, they relayed the orders, and Gantu soon heard the click denoting that full control of the Durgon had been transferred to him.
The Captain of the Galactic Federation took a deep breath. "Ombit, Gatco, strap yourselves in. The moment I get confirmation that all the transports have launched, we're doing it."
The two bridge officers exchanged a look that said: doing what? They had no idea.
Melia was the first to notice that something was off. "Are you all seeing this?" There was suddenly a mass of ships spewing out from the Durgon and heading towards them, and almost the moment that the last of them disembarked from the hangar the great ship started to tilt heavily towards the side, the remaining wing pointing downwards like a knife. "What in space are they thinking?"
Before anyone could answer the comm roared to life. "This is Commodore Inaho. Make for the wing of the Durgon! Now!"
Are they…626 had a sickening feeling he knew what Gantu was thinking. "Everyone, we need to move fast. We're not going to have much of a window."
"A window for what? Commodore, sir, what's going on?" Dixon sounded confused.
Inaho's only response was to say, "Something they'll speak of for decades to come."
Sections One through Four dutifully jetted forwards as the Durgon lurched towards the planet. Slowly, inexorably, the great ship approached the shield, and as it did the comms flared to life with a thousand shouts and a thousand questions, all some variant on the same question:
"What the hell is it doing?"
Veterans on both sides of the battle would swear that things got deathly still, that all radio chatter ceased, all the guns went silent, and that all those present held their breath as one.
Then, with a sound that seemed to come from a demon as opposed to a ship, the wing of the Durgon slammed into the planetary shield and cut a deep trough to the other side. The energy of the shield, displaced, arced upwards towards the ship, bathing its underside in lightning red as a star.
Inaho urged them forwards. "We need to move! We don't have long!"
So, in the shadow of a ship covered in lightning, the Armada pressed downwards.
"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCKKKKK!" Ombit shouted as the Durgon violently shook back and forth. The console in front of her snapped with red electricity, sending her back into the recess of her seat with a help. Next to her, Gatco was screaming his head off and clinging to his chair so hard that she was surprised the side hadn't broken off.
Gantu sat in his chair, an island of calm in the middle of an electrical storm, the tenseness of the situation only evident in the rigidity of his jaw. He kept his hands on the controls, even when the electricity started arcing up through the seat and burning his palms, intent on his course. "Almost there!" He shouted above the din. "Ombit, Gatco, hang on just a bit longer!"
"HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?" Ombit yelled back. "THE CONSOLE'S ABOUT TO BLOW!"
It was, Gantu realized, and worse than she knew. "Get out of the way, both of you! I'm going to try and withdraw!" Damn it, I'm not done, the hole needs to be bigger –
Gantu slapped himself. No. NO! I won't throw Ombit and Gatco's lives away. The Armada will have to make do with what they have. He forced the Durgon to start pulling up.
The consoles in front of his two officers bleeped one final warning and then went silent. "Huh?" Gatco stared at it quizzically. "What's going on?"
Gradually the lightning faded from the cabin, leaving nothing behind but a vaguely burnt smell. "Did we do it?" Ombit asked.
For a heartbeat, it seemed like they had.
Then, from deep within the consoles, all three of them heard a low, echoing moan that gradually worked itself up into a high-pitched whine.
Gantu moved without thinking. He flung himself forwards and grabbed Ombit and Gatco's chairs, and with a strength far beyond anything he had ever used before ripped them out from the floor and tossed them to the back of the bridge, the two officers collapsing into a heap. Then, as Gantu threw himself on top of it, the console exploded with fire and electricity.
Ombit's ears were ringing as she got to her feet. She could barely see, she realized, from both the blinding flash of light in front of her and the blood trickling down from a wound on her forehead. "Captain, what in the blazes was –" She stopped talking almost as soon as she started.
Gantu stood hunched over the console, and as Ombit watched his immense legs buckled and he fell to his knees. Slowly, clearly in great pain, he turned to face them. "Go." He whispered the word through the charred remnants of a mouth; from head to foot, the entire front of his body was covered in burns. "I…order…you. Abandon ship…now."
Ombit, her body screaming in protest, pulled Gatco to his feet before looking at her captain and throwing a salute. "Aye aye, sir. Captain Gantu, it's been an honor."
Then, tears completely blinding her, Ombit left her Captain, Gatco trailing behind her.
Gantu watched them leave. Breathing was getting harder, he noticed, the breaths getting shallower and more labored. Not yet. I still have things to do. Gantu half-dragged himself back to his chair, turning on the intercom with one shaky hand and using the other to support himself on the other armrest. "This…is your captain speaking. Everyone…a-abandon ship at once. It has-has been…an honor…serving with a-all of you." Without waiting for a reply he switched to a different channel and paged Commodore Rikke.
"Captain? What happened?" She sounded half frantic. "Are you alright?"
Gantu laughed, the action sending waves of pain down his spine. Within a few seconds the laughter dissolved into coughs. "Alright? No, I-I can't say I am."
"Is there anything I can do, sir?"
"Just…just this. Commodore Rikke, I name you commander of the Armada in my stead and Acting Captain." Gantu's strength was failing him rapidly. "Lead…lead…lead where I no longer can. Farewell."
His hand slid off the armrest, sending him crashing to the floor and silencing any reply Rikke might have tried to give.
The world around Gantu started to fade from focus as he turned to the stars. See, Grand Councilwoman? The only life I'm throwing away is my own. Although, I suppose for you even THAT is one too many…
They were halfway through the hole when Commodore Rikke called. "Sections One through Four, continue down to the planet and clear the way for the rest of us and for the ground troops." Her voice was heavy with grief. "From now until we return to Turo, I have been given command of this operation."
"What about Captain Gantu?" Someone protested.
"He gave his life so that we could push onwards." Rikke spoke in almost a whisper. "We cannot let his sacrifice be in vain. We must not."
Sections One through Four zoomed down with uniform purpose, their way blocked by little shieldships and stray fighters that were easy prey for their guns. "And this is for Gantu". 626 muttered as he blasted a shieldship apart. Then the way forward was clear, and he continued downwards, towards the surface of the planet.
The Durgon, power failing, jettisoned the last few escape pods and came to a stop above Saiccano, the great ship silenced.
Up on the bridge, the eyes of Captain Gantu reflected the light of the stars he had devoted his life to protecting.