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Kila eyed him and Nako grimly. “Here’s where it gets ugly. Containment won’t hold them. Ilid said one went through a field to grab control of him when he was put in the brig.”
Nako stared at him. Containment fields were no good against the Darks? “Why bother, then?”
“Because it’s what we have. Containment will stop the men being ridden by Darks, in any case. Lokmi’s going to try to alter the fields so they respond automatically to the Darks’ level of phasing, but it’ll take time and we won’t know if they’ll work until put to the test.” Kila stood and leaned on the table. “Let me line this up for you piece by piece. Before the away teams return to the ships, you’ll send your Matara and Imdiko out on a shuttle. They’ll wait fifty kilometers from the marauder and spyship until we clear them to return.”
Nako’s heart skipped a beat. The distance Kila named was the minimum safe distance from the ship if it were to explode.
Kila nodded, seeing he’d gotten the message. “We lock down the shuttle bays and have our away teams dock in the ships, but not at the same time. My shuttles return first. We put them in containment, which Lokmi will monitor. The crews will test their blood sugar levels. If they check out, they leave the shuttles, one by one, and Ilid confirms whether he sees riders on them or not.”
“What if the blood sugar levels are low?” Terig asked, his expression deadly.
“Then I’ll blast the shuttles into space and blow them to hell. Same if Ensign Ilid sees anything the least bit off.”
Nako’s first officer, Nobek Hamres, whistled.
Kila ignored him. “Ilid will be on an open channel to your ship during the entire procedure. If the Darks manage to remain on my ship, even if they haven’t accessed beyond the bay, you’ll destroy my ship immediately. Its defensive shielding will be disabled, so it won’t be difficult to take us down. I plan to go to the planet myself, so I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to set us for self-destruct.”
Kila’s weapons commander growled.
Nako swallowed against the dryness in his throat. “I’d hoped to go to Bi’is myself.”
Terig growled.
Kila disregarded the unhappy weapons officers. “I figured you would. I assume your first officer can do what has to be done?”
Nako glanced at the grizzled warrior. Hamres grimaced. “That means I can’t be part of the away party.” His eyes glittered suspiciously. “If I’m forced to destroy your spyship, Captain Kila, what of the shuttles belonging to Captain Nako’s marauder?”
Kila’s gaze met his, then Nako’s. “I suggest you assume they’re also under the control of the Darks and deal with them accordingly.”
After a beat, Nako nodded and glanced at Hamres. “I don’t suggest. I order you to destroy any away shuttles in such a situation.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Ifyou go, Captain,” Terig muttered. “Don’t bet on it.”
Kila moved on quickly. “If the situation seems all right after my shuttles dock on the spyship, your shuttles repeat the procedure after landing in your marauder. In the event your crew is compromised and I have to eliminate you, I’ll pick your Matara and Imdiko up afterward. We’ll then haul ass to Laro Station to alert them for possible evacuation and wait for reinforcements from the fleet. That will be this ship’s responsibility if the situation is reversed. Any questions?”
Nako eyed his officers. Terig and Hamres shook their heads.
“Good. Assign your teams…we’ll launch two shuttles of six crew from each ship.” Kila’s trademark mocking smirk pulled at his lips. “Let us return well if we can, or die well as befits Kalquorians if we must.”
* * * *
“Can I skip the dying part entirely?” Lokmi asked Kila as they left the bay where they’d just seen off Nako and his officers. Alone, they spoke as clanmates rather than commanding officer and chief engineer. “My blended Dramok and Imdiko sensibilities are highly geared to glorious survival, unlike you Nobek types.”
Kila snorted, but the warmth and amusement in his gaze told Lokmi his attempt at humor was gladly accepted. A fatalistic gloom had fallen over his captain and clanmate as Ilid had revealed more of what had happened to the other spyship. Their separation from Piras and Hope wasn’t helping Kila’s darkening mood either.
Lokmi had been so intent on nudging him from of his somber frame of mind, they were in the corridor outside Engineering before he realized Kila was accompanying him rather than heading to the bridge. “Hey, hey, hold on there,” he said. “What are you up to?”
“What do you think? You and I are amping up this old bird for all the speed she can give us before we show up on that damned planet.”
“Look, you speed junkie, stay off my engines. They’re maxed for accepted velocity guidelines—”
“We’re tossing the rulebook. I want unacceptable velocity, to the point we chance shaking the vessel apart.” Kila stopped short to keep their presence from tripping Engineering’s door open. He grasped Lokmi’s shoulder to halt him too. “Chief, you saw how fast that shadow mother ship moved. You viewed the recordings of my interviews with Ensign Ilid.”
Lokmi swallowed. He’d been horrified at the threat the Darks posed, but he hadn’t been forced to consider how little chance their ship had against such a menace. He’d left it to Kila, who possessed the rank and paygrade to worry about those matters.
The time had come for him to worry too. “Okay. I get it.”
