“It’s not possible...” Elandar looked to him for answers, “...It’s too soon.”
His rage bubbled to the surface as he backhanded the hologram, ending it altogether. He should have expected this kind of tampering.
“It doesn’t matter.” He turned to Elandar, gripping both his shoulders. “It ends today. Prepare the Eclipse - nothing will escape it.” Walking away, the command module anticipated his needs and produced a throne-like chair for him to sit on. He thought about the individual on the orbital station. “I think it’s time we let the beast off its leash, don’t you?” Elandar met his eyes and knew of his master’s desires. “We will have no use for it soon anyway. Let it die with the rest of them.” It pleased him to think of that particular individual aboard the station, whom the beast would slowly kill first.
Let him suffer before I end his world.
Elandar keyed in the commands to the pilot before another piece of information blinked to life on a new column. He squinted at the two words that appeared in holographic form above the pilot: They Are...
Elandar shut the hologram down like he had all the others. He attributed it to a minor glitch that had most likely occurred during their time in Rem-stores. After all, the pilot had been on her own for thousands of years, allowing plenty of time for ghosts in the machine to crop up without his direct supervision. He left it to Elandar who had always taken the greatest care with her.
“She’s downloaded everything.” Elandar paused. “They have another planet...”
That didn’t surprise him much with their current level of technology. It was inevitable that they would spread across the stars, it was in their nature.
“When we are finished here, set a course to the other planet, I will see this war to its end.”
“I don’t understand, where did this thing come from?” The Ambassador hadn’t prepared for this. “How could another alien ship just appear? Don’t we have sensor nets for this exact reason? This isn’t making sense! We don’t know them, and you don’t know them!” His robe lashed out towards the Novaarians. “Forgive me but I was under the impression we were the ones who didn’t know anything!”
Telarrek hadn’t taken his eyes off the ship.
“From these readings,” said Numanon, “they appear to have scanned everything in your solar system in one short burst.” He sounded a little impressed at the technological feat.
“Yes!” Commander Hawkins clenched his fist in triumph. “I’ve got a direct link to-” He stopped as a console on his left caught his eye.
Kalian couldn’t see what he was looking at.
“Commander?” Li’ara looked concerned.
“Shit! They just launched something!” He paused as more information appeared on his screen. “Long-range sensors put its trajectory...” He paused mid-sentence with a confused expression. “It’s heading for the sun.” He looked up meeting the eyes of everyone on the bridge, all as confused as he was.
“What are the specs?” Li’ara was entering commands into the holo-projector next to Kalian.
“Unknown. But from these readings, it’s the size of the Hyperion!”
It all felt surreal to Kalian. He couldn’t imagine a ship big enough to release a projectile the same size as the UDC’s largest vessel. The holo-projector transformed into an image of an oblong that slowly became more detailed as long-range sensors fed back the telemetry. The majority of the object was a smooth sphere housed in between four structures that gripped around the back. These structures all converged into a long point at the front of the object.
He turned to the Novaarians who were all huddled round Numanon’s bracer which had produced its own holographic image of the projectile. To Kalian’s eyes, it looked to be a far more detailed image with various alien symbols floating around the different sections of the projectile. Numanon’s other bracer began to flash several large symbols across the metallic screen. Moments after that, another light began to flash on the Commander’s console taking his attention away from the sun-bound object.
“Wait a minute, there’s something else.” He squinted at the image on the console, trying to make sense of the data. “There’s been another launch, it’s tiny in comparison. Within ten feet in size but I can’t be sure, it’s giving off too much interference!”
Li’ara was simultaneously checking her own console. “It’s heading for us!”
“Our own sensors confirm the trajectory. It is moving at great speed.” Telarrek looked out in space beyond the viewport while taking several steps back.
“We need to evacuate!” The Ambassador had his hand pressed onto the glass.
“There’s no time, get away from the viewport!” The Commander reached out his arm as if he could pull them to safety from ten metres away.
Everything then happened at once. Li’ara grabbed Kalian with both hands and threw him, using her own body as the pushing force, away from the viewport. He heard one of the Novaarians shout as they all jumped as one towards the Commander’s position. The Ambassador was stood frozen in place by fear and curiosity as the light of the Sun reflected off the dark object hurtling towards him.
Kalian heard the sound of the impact before he hit the floor. It was only brief before the vacuum of space replaced the noise of twisting steel and shattered glass with the tornado of air escaping the bridge. He could feel the tug of the universe pulling Li’ara and himself into its cold embrace. It was hard to tell in all the chaos but at one point he was sure he couldn’t feel the floor beneath him. The chaos was suddenly replaced by pain as his head collided with the nearest console, dropping him into darkness.
Chaos had erupted inside The Hub’s central command theatre. Alarms on every console were blaring their warning as holograms in every colour erupted across the various terminals. Commander Barnes furiously tapped his fingers against the glass station in an effort to collate all the information. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“Sir, the Icarus has been breached... Ambassador Arlek is dead.”
Barnes scanned through the Icarus sensors and confirmed the cadet’s report for himself. Something had actually penetrated the bridge and killed Arlek in the process. The ship that had fired it was formidable in size and just as alien as the purple ship.
“Where the hell did that come from?” The Chief Commander slammed his palm onto the glass top.
“Sensors show it appearing from subspace but there’s no trace of Solar Drive activity, sir,” the nearest cadet answered.
“How did they move through subspace without a Solar Drive?” Barnes examined the data but couldn’t understand it.
“What’s the location of the second missile?” the Chief Commander asked.
Barnes double checked the data coming in from the Hyperion as it traversed the distance back to Earth from the sun. “It’s missed every ship and satellite. It’s on a straight course for the sun, sir.”
“A misfire?”
“We don’t know...”
The Chief dropped his fist onto the glass again. “Any activity from the first ship?”
Barnes glanced at the information streaming across the table. “None, sir. At this point, we have no idea if they’re together.”
Lieutenant Walsh strode over with a Datapad in hand. “Sir, you need to see this.”
She handed the pad to the Chief Commander. Barnes watched him scan through the information with annoyance etched across his face.
“I have no idea what this means.” The Chief handed it back to the Lieutenant.
Barnes walked over, curious himself.
“These are the preliminary results from the lab, sir. They’ve been going through the scans we made of Kalian Gaines. His DNA is different. What we have on file from the Birthing Databank doesn’t match these scans.”
The Chief looked up from the central station for the first time. “What DNA was in the message they sent?”
“It was the same one we have from the databank, sir. That’s why we knew it was Kalian.
What we don’t know is why his DNA is different today.”
“How is it different?” Barnes asked.
“They don’t know, sir. Apparently, it could take years of research to understand, but the scientists looking at it seemed very excited.”
The Chief rolled his eyes, looking back to the constant stream of holograms. “We’ll deal with this later.”
Barnes turned to the image of the Icarus, its blast shield now covering the hull breach. He could see that the emergency teams were already leaving the hangar, making their way up to the station. He could see that the remains of the team on the bridge were in bad shape. The sensors in Li’ara’s suit showed she was unconscious but alive.
“Come on, Ducarté, get up.”
3
Li’ara opened her eyes for the first time since the nightmare had erupted. She had collided with something hard as the sound of rushing air came to a swift end and gravity returned. Her eyes had remained closed to protect her from flying debris but she had managed to remain conscious. As they were being sucked out of the broken viewport she had lost her grip on Kalian. It had all happened so fast she only had time to push him as far away from the breach as possible.
She lay on the floor in an awkward position between a half-destroyed console and... She craned her neck to see what her back was against. From the layout of the bridge, she knew it should be the viewport but now there was just a wall. Li’ara turned her whole body to get a better look. The brown wall covered the entire space where the viewport had been, arcing over the ceiling where the glass and tungsten frames hadn’t even been broken. The security walls that formed the outer shell of the command bridge had been activated when the hull was penetrated. All UDC ships had the same design since the bridge was considered integral for maintaining order; it had to have fail-safes for any direct attack.
Seeing how close she was to the wall, Li’ara realised she had only been inches from a blood boiling death. She pulled at her chest plate catching her breath as the air recyclers finished replenishing the oxygen supply.
Kalian...
The mission flooded every crevice of her mind: Protect Kalian Gaines. She rose quicker than she knew she should have; her training told her to check herself over first. Li’ara didn’t have time for that. She used the broken console for support and pulled herself up, taking in her surroundings as she searched for him.
Everything was in shades of red and black since the emergency lights had activated. Only a few feet away was a large jagged hole where something had swan dived through the command bridge. She could see the flickering lights and sparking consoles of the next two levels down. The rest was in darkness. How far had it gone?
She couldn’t put the pieces together. In what universe could a species build that ship but not construct a working missile? She slowly moved passed it making sure to avoid the drop; she didn’t have time to think about it now, she was just glad it hadn’t blown them to stardust.
The room had filled with smoke as multiple consoles had been fried and split apart. She headed in the direction she had pushed Kalian, praying he hadn’t been sucked through the breach. Li’ara let out a breath she hadn’t realised she was holding. Kalian was lying face down on the floor with various innards of a console scattered over his legs. She quickly knelt down next to him shoving aside the wires and charred panels.
“Kalian!” Li’ara had to shout over the constant sparks and flames around them.
Li’ara rolled him over to see his face. He had ash smeared across his skin and clothes; she instantly noticed the cut over his right eyebrow. Her training kicked in again, this time she listened. She visually inspected his airway checking for any obstruction. Her hand was rising and falling with the breathing of his chest.
“Kalian!” Li’ara shouted again. She gave him a quick shake around the shoulders. “Kalian... Kalian you need to get up, now!”
The environment had changed, Li’ara no longer felt in control. Her new priority was to get Kalian off the Icarus and planet-bound as fast as possible. His eyes flickered for a moment. She gripped his shoulder a little tighter bringing him back to the room. Kalian looked in pain as he lifted his head.
“What happened?” His voice was groggy. “You’re bleeding.”
Li’ara couldn’t help but be a little impressed; most people weren’t able to speak after an explosion, let alone ask questions. She could feel the blood slowly trickling down the side of her face but she ignored it. He had distracted her from finishing the checks, next was circulation.
Li’ara began patting him down, moving his clothes and limbs looking for any blood loss.
Shit!
Her hands soon found the foreign object under his jacket sticking through the shirt. At first, she thought it might be a compound fracture of the ribs but it was situated too low. After moving his jacket aside, she realised it was a piece of shrapnel from an exploded console. The blood appeared black under the emergency lighting.
Li’ara instantly started searching each of the compartments on her belt looking for the med pack. Just ammo and a knife. She chastised herself for leaving it on the rack in the Fathom’s armoury. She had made the split-second decision to take extra ammo charges instead. Such was the influence of Commander Hawkins.
“There’s Medifoam back on the shuttle. I don’t have anything on me.”
“I don’t understand, what’s...” Kalian tracked Li’ara’s eyes to the shrapnel piercing his abdomen. The alarm on his face was obvious.
“I don’t know how deep it goes, but if I pull it out I’m going to need Medifoam to stop any bleeding!” She felt confident the foam would do the job, having had need of it herself in the past.
She would always remember her first time as the lead on a protection detail for the negotiator from Central Parliament. A rebel faction on Mars had claimed responsibility for several terrorist attacks on Earth, their goal - to intimidate Central Parliament into decreeing Mars an independent planet. That wasn’t going to happen. In the appearance of peace, a negotiator had been sent to Great Athens at the base of Olympus Mons. Li’ara hadn’t liked it from the start; Great Athens was too big a city with potential rebels everywhere. To make things worse, she was confident Central Parliament had been counting on negotiations to fail. If it was seen that the rebels had no interest in peace, Parliament could use the UDC to remove them without losing face. They were right, it had only taken five minutes before the peace talks fell through and the shooting began.
The negotiator survived making the mission a success as far as Li’ara was concerned. But if it hadn’t been for Medifoam, she wouldn’t have been so lucky. A rebel had configured an ancient buckshot-style weapon. One of the old-fashioned projectiles had passed straight through her femoral artery. From her point of view, Medifoam was the only reason she hadn’t bled to death right there and then.
A sound to her right shot her instincts into overdrive. In one swift, smooth motion she had drawn her weapon and levelled it in the direction of the sound. It was only after raising her gun that she registered the noise as a cough. Orientated to the room she knew it had come from the central console. Li’ara recognised the tattooed head of the Commander as a small flame illuminated his shaven scalp through the smoke.
“Commander Hawkins!” Li’ara was relieved to know he had survived.
Although she had never worked with him before, Li’ara was well aware of his reputation. He didn’t usually do personal security like her; he was bred to fight and nothing else. Nothing was ever confirmed, but if Central Parliament needed a show of force and didn’t want it public, rumours were they sent Commander Hawkins. If he hadn’t been so well known amongst the ranks he would have been an agent by now. When Li’ara was informed of his presence on the mission, she knew he was being sent as a fail-safe. If everything went wrong and the aliens proved to be hostile the UDC would unleash Commander Hawkins on them.
“Li’ara is that you?” His voice sounded like he’d inhaled too much smoke.
Li’ara could account for three of the four members of her party; where was the Ambassador? She looked through the gaps in the smoke hoping to glimpse his large robe.
“Bridge is clear. Where’s the Ambassador? Did you see what happened to him?” Li’ara was still crouched by Kalian and couldn’t see everything.
The Commander was shaking his head. “Whatever crashed through the viewport took him with it, there’s no way he survived.” The Commander was staring at the jagged hole a few feet away.
Like Li’ara, he had to reprioritise now. The Ambassador had literally been obliterated, Kalian and Li’ara were still alive. Now they had to get off the station and report back to the Chief Commander.
He took in Kalian’s prone form from head to toe. “Can he walk?”
Li’ara knew he was really asking her if they should leave Kalian behind. Before she could answer Kalian slowly twisted his body rolling onto his knees.
“I might not have the training you two have, but I’m not useless.” He was beginning to surprise her more and more.
Li’ara remembered thinking what a moron he was when they were first introduced at The Hub. He had no real training she could count on; he wasn’t even an officer of Central Parliament, just an average citizen who should have crumpled under the first sign of stress. He rose to his full height just above her own but couldn’t maintain the posture causing him to hunch over. He stumbled backwards, his head rolling slightly out of control. Grabbing him by the shoulders Li’ara turned him to face her, keeping him upright in her grip.
The Terran Cycle Boxset Page 8