The white mech aimed its ion bow at a Llyushin fighter, then sent a streak of laser sailing across the battlefield. The ion arrow went through the middle of the fighter without causing any damage. A second later, the holographic ship began another attack run, leaving the mech to spin and target another vessel.
The black mech held out the scale in its hand. Black poison began to spread in a cloud until it was large enough to engulf an entire flagship. A quartet of Thunderbolts raced through the cloud without being harmed, then curved and disappeared into the nearest portal. From the opposite direction, a Thunderbolt, one of the only real ships in the vicinity, blasted the mech with a pair of laser blasts to its torso, forcing it to retreat into the portal behind it.
The rust-colored mech brought its ion sword down in a long sweeping strike that would have cut straight through three Thunderbolts had they not been holograms. The mech spun and brought the glowing sword down on a pair of Llyushin fighters with the same result. A third time, it turned and sliced through a holographic Thunderbolt without causing any damage. Before it could spin a fourth time, Quickly pelted it with a pair of laser blasts. The mech stumbled forward, temporarily losing control before its hover platform adjusted to stabilize it.
He brought the transport into a sharp turn and approached the wreckage of the Carthagen shuttle. He saw another part of the ship explode away from the main body. The emergency hatch. With it, Philo was sucked out into space. Quickly knew it was the Fianna under the space armor because the other two occupants aboard the ship both had four arms and four legs.
Behind him, seeing Philo’s arms and legs briefly flail as he went from a sustained living environment to zero gravity, Traskk gave a low purring laugh.
“Can you help them?” Talbot said.
“Any closer and we’ll be caught in the explosion,” Quickly said, not needing to explain that he meant the Carthagen shuttle was about to erupt.
Another figure burst forth from the burning ship and floated in space.
“Come on,” Talbot muttered.
At their current distance, neither of them could tell if the Carthagen armor floating in space had Lancelot’s distinctive silver and gray patches or if it was the gold, bronze, and brown of Swordnew’s undamaged armor.
A third figure jumped from the shuttle. A moment later, the shuttle burst into a final massive explosion.
“What can we do?” Talbot asked.
Quickly came about, fired a pair of laser blasts at the gray mech, turned some more, then fired another couple shots at the white mech. All around them, holographic Round Table fighters swarmed space, confusing the four Hannibal mechs. He was going to turn the transport back around to face the occupants so he could pick them up but Lancelot’s voice came over the speaker in the cockpit.
“We’re fine,” she said. “Don’t worry about us.”
Talbot leaned forward to say something, his face contorted with incredulity. Quickly asked what her plan was. The third figure waved to the transport, and he and Talbot realized Lancelot had made sure Philo and Swordnew both got off the vessel before she jumped.
She motioned toward the portals as her voice came through the cockpit again: “We’re going to head over there.”
It didn’t make sense. Lancelot, Swordnew, and Philo were going to use the little bit of oxygen reserves in their suits to send themselves through another portal? But then he understood what she was talking about. Not through the next portal; between the next layer of energy fields.
“Without a ship?” Talbot said. “Don’t be dumb. Get on board and we’ll get you there.”
“No time,” Lancelot replied.
Already, Quickly could see that Lancelot was moving. A blast of oxygen had been released from her suit in order to give her the momentum needed to sail through space. Her silhouette drifted through a series of holographic fighters as it crept toward the gap between the two nearest portals. Swordnew did the same. As did Philo.
“They’re crazy,” Talbot said. “Go pick them up.”
An ion arrow sailed straight through the middle of a holographic Llyushin fighter, nearly hitting Quickly’s transport as well. He swerved to evade any subsequent shots. The gray mech was also back and sending one wave of energy after another from its scythe. The space all around them was illuminated with ripples of light.
When he spotted Lancelot again she was already near the gap between the portals. Swordnew and Philo were close behind. He began to guide the ship toward them but an explosion to his right made him swerve once more. A real Thunderbolt, one of only a handful of genuine ships in this portion of the battlefield, had erupted in flames and exploded.
“What the—”
Before Talbot could finish the question, Quickly’s instincts kicked in and he sent the transport into such a sharp incline that Traskk’s claws had to dig into the pilot’s and co-pilot’s seats to keep him from flying backward and out of the cockpit. Talbot gave an involuntary grunt. The rust-colored mech’s ion sword passed in front of the cockpit for a brief instant. It would have cut the ship in half if Quickly hadn’t reacted without thinking.
By the time he had evaded another ion arrow from the white mech, Lancelot and Swordnew were gone. Quickly saw a glimpse of Philo passing through the tiny gap between the portals and then the Fianna was gone as well.
“Lancelot, are you okay?”
A few seconds went by without any noise coming through the speakers.
“We’re here,” she said, her voice sounding slightly strained, even through the Carthagen helmet.
“Where is here?” Talbot said irritably.
“At the Juggernaut,” she said. “It’s right in front of us.”
111
On many different occasions, Swordnew had stood at the edge of various Carthagen asteroids. He was used to being exposed to the galaxy’s vastness, to being on the precipice, gazing into the void of space. Even so, he didn’t like his current predicament. After being enveloped in explosions, the Carthagen shuttle was gone. He wasn’t standing on the ledge of his home and didn’t have the option of turning around and walking back toward a safe environment. Instead, he was floating in the middle of a battlefield, with real and holographic ships and lasers zipping this way and that.
Worst of all, the Juggernaut, the thing the Dauphin had warned each Carthagen warrior about, was directly in front of him. It dwarfed any of the asteroids in Orleans. It dwarfed anything he had seen before. His first instinct was to turn around, get back aboard his vessel, and leave the space above EndoKroy. The sight in front of him was so jarring that he only remembered the shuttle was gone once he turned and looked behind him, then remembered why he was floating in space in the first place.
As another small puff of oxygen propelled Lancelot closer to the Juggernaut, her head turned to look back at him. Her voice came across the speaker inside his helmet and told him, as if sensing his fears, that they would be okay as long as they didn’t waste any time getting to the enemy vessel.
A trio of Llyushin fighters raced toward him and he had no idea if they were real or holograms. There was nothing he could do but hope they would swerve if they were real. Putting his arms out to protect himself would have been the equivalent of an insect bracing itself as Swordnew’s boot came down on it. None of the spacefighters swerved. All three sprayed holographic laser bursts at the Juggernaut before harmlessly passing through the same spot Swordnew was floating. The three ships continued speeding across the battlefield and he forced himself to remain calm.
On his way toward the Hannibal ship, he turned to see how Philo was doing. The matte gray mech was approaching from the distance, aimed straight for the Fianna. It swiveled slightly as it brought the glowing blade of its scythe forward in an arcing motion. Swordnew was going to yell for Philo to protect himself but there was nothing the Fianna could do to evade the wave of energy anyway.
Before the mech could finish its wind up, the human pilot sent a pair of laser blasts to its back, causing the me
ch to stumble forward. The wave of energy from its scythe sailed far from any intended target.
The white mech noticed the group of warriors floating in space and sent an ion arrow toward them. Lancelot turned one of her Meursaults broadside to deflect the shot. Before the mech could fire again, it was chased away by a group of Thunderbolts that Swordnew guessed were only holograms.
When he looked up the next time, Lancelot was standing on the Juggernaut, the boots of her armor fastening to the ship to keep her anchored. Swordnew and Philo landed a hundred yards further down the vessel, then ran across the ship’s surface until they were all together.
Philo had his vibro halberd out and brought it down in a lightning quick strike. Sparks sprayed all three of them as the blade hit the ship. There was no damage, though. Swordnew brought out his ion swords from their sheathes but Lancelot was one step ahead of him.
“You guys are funny,” she said as two lines of black vapor passed through the space in front of her. One of her Meursaults slashed a lined to her left. The other slashed a line to her right. She stepped to the side, then brought both invisible blades down again so a square was cut into the surface of the ship.
Alarms of some kind must have begun to sound inside the Juggernaut because all four mechs began racing toward them. The white and black mechs were intercepted by Quickly’s Llyushin transport, which hit them with a series of successive laser blasts and forced them away from their pursuit. The gray mech was swarmed by a squadron of Llyushin fighters. Each time it swept its scythe through one of the ships, the vessel was unaffected and turned to begin another run in front of the mech. The reddish brown mech, its sword ready to strike, ignored everything else and sped atop its hover platform directly for them.
“Let’s not wait around and see what happens,” Lancelot said.
Without asking what she meant, Swordnew watched as she walked to the middle of the square she had cut into the Juggernaut, then brought her front two boots up so she was momentarily standing on her hind legs. Her next movement sent her crashing down into the metal square, which gave way under her force, then blew past her as the pressure of the Juggernaut sent it rocketing into space.
Lancelot dropped down, into the Juggernaut. Philo and Swordnew looked at each other, then leaned over the side to see where exactly Lancelot had fallen.
A glint of light caught Swordnew’s attention. The rust-colored mech’s ion sword was coming for him. Without thinking, he, too, jumped through the hole Lancelot had cut into the Juggernaut.
112
The longer the battle above EndoKroy lasted, the greater Traskk’s frustration became. By the time he saw Lancelot, Swordnew, and the scum Fianna disappear into the opening they had cut into the Juggernaut, he was growling and his tail was smacking the cockpit floor. Quickly turned the modified Llyushin transport toward that part of the giant vessel.
The pilot was too focused on flying the ship to turn and see the holographic words that formed in the air to translate Traskk’s anger into Basic.
I’m not waiting around here anymore. I’m putting on a suit of space armor and joining them.
Talbot saw the words in the air and said, “Trust me, I wish we could, but we have to provide cover for them.”
On the side of the Juggernaut, two hangar doors began to rise. The black mech returned to one and the white mech vanished into another. The hangar doors immediately closed again as soon as the mechs were back inside. On a display panel, Traskk saw that the other two mechs were returning to the far side of the Juggernaut. They were converging on their home vessel in order to find and kill the people who had sneaked aboard it.
Talbot groaned. Traskk roared and stormed out of the cockpit to begin putting on space armor. To his surprise, Talbot appeared next to him, and instead of telling Traskk not to risk himself by doing something foolish, the human also began to put on the first pieces of a suit. The tip of Traskk’s tail tapped the floor in gratitude.
The ship swerved left and right, forcing both of them to brace themselves against the walls of the transport as they put on the lower half of their suits.
Quickly’s voice yelled from the cockpit: “Guys, if you’re going, you’re going to want to get there fast.”
Then the ship broke into a violent series of twists and turns. The final pieces of Traskk’s suit were difficult to fasten because of how long his claws were, so Talbot had to help. A steady growl emitted from Traskk’s throat the entire time. After their helmets were on, Talbot asked if the reptile was ready. The Basilisk hissed in the affirmative.
The two of them walked to the rear hatch. Talbot’s gloved hand reached and pressed a button for the ramp to open. A clear containment field maintained the artificial gravity and living environment within the ship. As soon as they passed through it, they would float away until they used oxygen bursts to guide themselves, much as Lancelot and the others had done.
More importantly, though, they realized why Quickly had yelled to them. Half of the Hannibal portals were gone. They had reverted to looking like projectiles and were rocketing back to rejoin the Juggernaut. The space all around them was still covered with hundreds of activated portals, but with half of them gone, larger gaps existed between each layer of energy that the Hannibal had established.
He thought about asking why the invaders might do such a thing but part of the question was answered before he could utter a noise. A blinding streak of bright light flashed directly in front of them. It took Traskk’s eyes a moment to readjust afterward.
Quickly’s voice yelled at them through the speaker of their helmets. “The Juggernaut is firing its cannons. Stay or get out, but whatever you do, do it right now.”
As Traskk watched, each of the two dozen cannons arrayed on the near side of the Juggernaut broke into life. Each sent a thick burst of laser strong enough to destroy a Solar Carrier in a single blast. Each one entered one of the remaining portals then exited another energy field located at a different part of the battlefield. It wasn’t long before the entire area of space around the massive ship was hundreds of laser blasts ricocheting with blinding speed from one portal to another. They enveloped every holographic ship located around the Hannibal ship, disintegrating the few real fighters located in the area and forcing Quickly to swerve so sharply that Traskk and Talbot flew backward against the far wall of the transport.
“Are we going?” Talbot asked as the pair righted themselves.
Traskk looked at the streaks of lethal light all around them. He also thought about the four mechs roaming the inner corridors of the Juggernaut looking for Lancelot and the others. It was an easy choice, and he nodded and stepped toward the clear opening again.
“Get us as close to that hole in the Juggernaut as you can,” Talbot said, knowing his words would come through a speaker in the cockpit.
“What do you think I’m doing?” Quickly snapped as the transport dived then rose then banked hard to the left.
The square that Lancelot had cut into the vessel came into view, got larger.
“Ready?” Talbot said.
Traskk’s reply didn’t come in the form of words. Instead, he merely jumped from the soaring transport, launching himself as hard as he could in the direction of the hole in the Juggernaut.
113
Vere and Mortimous watched the scene from the rear viewport of Quickly’s modified Llyushin transport. Unlike Traskk and Talbot, they were unaffected by the vessel’s sharp turns.
“They need our help,” Vere said.
Her teacher’s shoulders turned slightly toward her, his faced cloaked under the hood of his robe. Then he turned back to observe the brilliant array of lasers bursting from every portal. One by one, the portals deactivated just long enough to allow single bursts of laser to escape the confines of the enclosure of portals that the Hannibal had established. The Juggernaut’s cannons let loose one volley of laser blasts after another, most caught inside the web of portals and bouncing from one energy field to another at blinding sp
eed.
“You know what they’re doing,” she said. “The Hannibal are testing the Carthagen technology. They’re figuring out that the entire system is an illusion. As soon as they realize just how few ships are really out there, we’ll be beaten.”
“I know, Vere.”
It was clear to her that Mortimous was resigned to that very outcome, which made Vere shake her head in frustration.
“The mechs have converged on the Juggernaut. They’re going to find Lancelot and the others and they’re going to kill them.”
“I know. I wish there were more we could do.”
She wasn’t listening, though. Already, her eyes were closed and she was once again trying to speak to the Word, to get them to understand just how important Lancelot and Talbot and Traskk and the others were to the entire galaxy.
114
As she fell through the opening she had cut into the Juggernaut, Lancelot had ignited both vibro lances so all four of her weapons were ready to use. She expected hoards of aliens to rush at her. What she hadn’t expected and what she encountered instead was a completely empty passageway. Forty feet above her, she saw the square of black space she had cut. Everywhere else she looked, there were bright, glowing walls that formed wide and expansive corridors. There were no swarms of aliens with blasters pointed at her. It was quiet and eerie and she turned in a complete circle to make sure an enemy wasn’t camouflaged.
“Odd,” she said.
Neither Philo nor Swordnew replied. Both of them were busy taking in their new surroundings.
She had envisioned the interior of the ship to be comparable to the inside of every other space vessel she had ever been aboard, with doors to enter various rooms and lifts to change levels. Her expectation, she realized, was wrong.
The first thing she noticed was the size of the corridors, which were large enough to fly a spacefighter through. The distance from floor to ceiling and from wall to wall was roughly four stories. As far as she saw, she didn’t spot a single door. Instead, every two hundred feet or so, an intersection allowed the ship’s occupants to turn in any direction. Even up or down.
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