"Captain, their bombers have launched. We have." Joshua did a quick scan of his HUD. "Sixty four inbound towards you."
"We see them. Get clear now. I'm going to unmask and go live."
"Understood, sir." Joshua switched to the fighter channel.
"Everyone, get clear of those inbound torps, unless you want to be anywhere near them when the Nest opens up." His last words were consumed by a light show over to his port side unlike any of them had ever seen.
The entire silhouette of the Nest was gone in an instant as every weapon along the threat axis came alive with multicolored energy bursts.
Joshua watched the march of detonations move closer and closer to the Nest and made a decision.
"Everyone that can fly, get back to the Nest. It's about two minutes to show time and I don't think anybody wants to be left behind. Remember, all we have to do is be within five miles of the surface and the jump bubble will pull us along, so don't try to dock." He cut the channel and slammed his throttle to the stop.
He saw an alien fighter settling in a Talons six o'clock, winged over and with a full deflection shot watched his energy rounds stitch across the craft's cockpit. Without power or direction, the fighter fell off on one wing and continued off into the void of space. He watched as his men disengaged from their individual battles and turned for the Nest.
Drawing close to the station's side, he once again marveled at the sheer size of the vessel. At over three hundred miles from the vessel, he could no longer see the end of it. His line of sight simply could not see that far. The surface stretched to his visual horizons. Purple dots appeared on his HUD, flying the opposite course he was. He knew them to be automated SAR, search and rescue craft. Equipped with a more advanced model of the cloaking devise that had allowed him and his brother to reach Earth's surface, each of these crafts were designed to rescue a down pilot, keep him alive, and reach earth without the aliens being able to interfere. He said a silent prayer for his downed men, then settled to the task at hand.
The Rougarian missiles were slaughtered by the Nests defenses. Fired from an unfavorable angle, from extreme range, they were picked off one by one by computer controlled anti space craft fire. With each explosion, they crept closer and closer until there were a dozen, then ten, then only five. It was then that the Rougarians got lucky.
Each missile, seventy-five feet long and twelve feet in diameter, was equipped with a salvage fuse. Once it got within damage range, the range that its tiny on board computer sensed its explosion could do damage to the target. The last two missiles salvage fused, and sensing their own demise, detonated.
The twin rolling balls of pressure and heat expanded like miniature suns. The count down to jump hit zero just as the outside edge of the pressure wave touched the Nests hull. A split second later and the Nest was somewhere else, in another star system, leaving the explosions to fade into nothing in the vastness of space.
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"Well Steve, your generator is working at almost eighty percent capacity now. You shouldn't have any problem with power from here on out." Malachi tuned to the three men standing behind him and stretched.
All three had their weapons trained on him, more to make them feel better than any threat they were to him. But there was no point in pointing that out. They needed to feel they could protect themselves in their homes. So he shrugged and walked past them.
"That's good to hear, and just in time. Tina just went into labor. You wouldn't know anything about that kind of thing, would you?"
"Hey, I don't know nothing about birthing no babies." Malachi told him.
With the sound of running water fading from his ears, Malachi spent the next few minutes going over the communication channel they were using. With his suit interfaced into all the small communication systems, he could peruse any system he wanted and fix any problems he found. So with the comms he added fifteen percent power.
"How's that Steve? Any clearer?"
"Absolutely. The static is almost gone. How did you do that?"
"I added some of the now surplus power to the comms system. You should be able to hear anywhere in this complex now."
"Thanks man, I'm going to start sending teams to explore the lower levels, now that we should be able to get power down there."
"Good idea, but first things first. Where is Tina's room?"
Minutes later, he was outside his own room, ready to face what he knew would be a very pissed off Tamar.
"How in the world do I get myself into these situations?" He asked himself before the door swung slowly inward.
"Where have you been?" The voice from inside the room was quiet, far too quiet for Malachi's liking.
"It's only been a few hours. I told you I was going to be gone that long, didn't I?" Tamar jumping right in front of him, her yellow eyes boring straight into his.
"You have been back for over a half hour, a HALF hour, and you didn't even come to tell me. I'm going crazy in here and you couldn't even come and tell me you were back!" Malachi reached out and laid both hands on her heaving shoulders.
"Tamar, I had to work near water, lots of it."
"Water? There's water down here?" Her eyes began to dart around the room like a geyser could erupt from the floor or walls at any moment.
"Yeah, there's an underground river that runs through the rock." He saw her soften and pulled her close. "I wanted to get the repairs to their generator finished before I came back. I didn't want you to have to be that close to that much water again."
"Thanks," she sniffled. When was she going to stop expecting the worst from him?
"How did you know I was back?" He asked.
Tamar stiffened, then answered.
"One of the guards told me." She tried to add as much casualness to her answer as she could.
Malachi knew better. He'd felt her as soon as he got down into the complex. She was like a pole star to him, his mind able to pick hers out from a far distance, and getting longer every day.
"I felt you too." He told her.
Tamar sagged in his arms. Lying to him was becoming harder and harder. But why did she lie to him in the first place? He'd been nothing but honest and kind to her from their first meeting, and now here she was lying to him.
"Sorry, I guess I've been so closed off for so long that my first thoughts about someone are negative, even you."
"I can't blame you for that, and neither should you. You need to renew your mind, concentrate on the good in the people you know," he looked down at the top of her head." And let me worry about the rest. Deal?"
"Sounds good to me."
They stayed that way for a few minutes until Malachi asked.
"Do you know anything about child birth?"
"Child birth, really? Even if I did, do you think these people would let me near a pregnant woman? They barely let me stay down here in the first place."
"You didn't answer my question." Malachi could tell she was evading him.
"Fine, yes, I studied child birth. I have no idea why, but I've always been fascinated by it." She answered into his chest.
"There is a woman in labor right now. No one here any clue what to do. If you were to help her, it would go a long way towards getting these people to trust us."
"Look." She glanced up at him, fire returning to her eyes. "I know what has to be done, and I know what to watch for. I'll couch someone on what to do, but there is no way I'm getting too close to any woman in labor."
"Why not?" He asked.
Tamar held up both hands finger tips out and ran them slowly down his chest. Each claw left a smooth incision in his suit as they passed. She followed their progress down,retracted them, then looked back up at him.
"Even if I keep them retracted, they're not going to trust me."
"Good point. Someone else it is then. But it's not going to be me. I can tell you that right now." Malachi told her as they walked out of the room and into the hall.
It was a relatively short labor. Four hours later, a healthy boy was delivered. Tamar coached the father as to when and how to tie off and cut the cord. Then, after the three of them were bonding well, she and Malachi left the room.
"See, you did great. I knew you had it in you." Malachi put an arm around Tamar's shoulders and pulled her to his side.
"That makes one of us. They didn't want me there, and I can't blame them."
"What did you do to these people?"
"That's a story for another time." Tamar nodded down the hall to where Steve was walking towards them
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