There was no window on the hatch; in fact, if you didn’t know it was there, you would overlook it. Being an emergency access dock, it could light up and guide civilians to it, but coming in from the outside, if you knew what you were doing, wouldn’t set off any alarm bells.
For a few taut minutes, I wondered if they’d faked their trajectory to here and had in fact gone down a deck to another habitat’s docking hatch.
And then the gel wall in front of us began to remould itself as instructions were given on the other side of the hatch.
“Get ready,” I said and was aware my officers had raised their weapons and taken up defensive positions across the corridor.
There was no cover here. That was back by Adi. But our suits could take a beating if needed.
The gel wall formed a hatch door and then opened.
I stepped forward and pressed the muzzle of my rifle into the first faceplate I could see.
My initial thought was she was a woman. And then the LSU suit behind her lifted his weapon and aimed it at my faceplate.
“Easy,” he said through his helmet speakers. “Identify.”
“You’re boarding my ship,” I growled. “You identify.”
He hesitated a second and then said, “Lieutenant Commander Leo Saitō of the AUS Corvus, Chief Science Officer.”
I looked at the woman.
“Commander Ana Kereama of the AUS Pavo, First Officer.” She cocked her head. “Lower the weapon.”
“You first,” I snapped.
“Leo,” the woman said calmly. “Oblige the potentially trigger-happy local.”
Her eyes never left me. I cocked my head at her.
“Australian?” I asked.
She made a scoffing sound. “Kiwi.”
Somehow that made her seem less of a threat.
I stepped back and lowered my weapon as Saitō had lowered his. But I kept it charged and my finger on the trigger. If she wanted trigger-happy, I’d damn well show her.
“You’re not Captain Moore,” Kereama said.
“I’ll ask the questions,” I replied, trying to keep my voice steady. I wasn’t sure if I was succeeding; my heartbeat was through the top of my head. “Why have you boarded our vessel?”
There was no point asking why they were firing on us; no doubt Aquila started it first.
Unless, of course, this woman and man were part of their leaseholder’s corp.
“We come in peace,” Saitō said.
“Don’t shoot to kill,” Kereama murmured. I heard Johnson snort behind me. I couldn’t spare him a glare, but I hoped he knew I was mentally giving him one.
Or that Wilson was for me.
“Why should I trust you?” I asked. “You’ve boarded using stealth measures.”
Kereama winced. “Clearly not stealth enough.”
Saitō stepped forward. My gun came up a few inches, but his, I noted, was already holstered.
“Look,” he said. “It’s a battlefield out there.”
And to prove the point, Aquila shuddered. But this was no ordinary gel wall rebellion. This was a direct hit that and taken out a large portion of our vessel.
“Shit,” Johnson said behind me. Kereama had braced herself on the wall. A wall that was fluctuating as if alive and in agony. Red pulsed through everything. Emergency lighting had taken over normal daytime illumination settings. The eerie glow cast strange shapes behind helmet visors.
I looked at the two officers before me, if that’s what they actually were, and said, “That was not friendly.”
Kereama looked a little worried, but Saitō said “If you check, you’ll see our ships withdrawing. That would have been a final salvo to allow them a safe retreat.”
“And what would they have been aiming at?” I snarled.
Saitō and Kereama shared a look. They both looked back at me and said, “Your leaseholder.”
I breathed out a sigh of relief, even as I was thinking of Adi and how this would affect her. But at least they hadn’t targeted Aquila directly. His computer core housed innocent civilians.
“And your leaseholders?” I asked.
“Dead, “Kereama supplied. “My captain killed mine.” She looked at Leo.
“Mine died when the mayor switched off his life support,” Saitō said. “Our first encounter with your ship,” he added for clarification.
It was a strange thing to have the results of our vessel’s endeavours thrust in our face like that. We weren’t responsible for what Aquila and Price had done, but it was still our ship which had fired on Corvus. And consequently killed their leaseholder.
I looked back at Kereama, not because looking at Saitō made me uncomfortable, but because there was still a hole in their stories.
“Your leaseholder was killed by your captain, you say?” I said. “Why?”
Kereama looked pointedly at the red pulsing gel walls, one hand still braced on the bulkhead to steady herself, and raised an eyebrow at me.
“I would have thought you’d understand,” she said.
Her leaseholder had organised a coup, too. Which meant this had been a fleet-wide attack. How had Anderson Universal overlooked this? How had they allowed this situation to happen?
“What about Vela?” I asked, feeling numb.
Both officers looked bleak.
“Solar flare on lift-off,” Saitō said. “The vessel didn’t make it.”
“Damn,” Wilson muttered behind me.
“The AI did,” Kereama replied.
I frowned at her.
“Look,” she said. “It’s a long story. And you haven’t even told us what’s happening here. Aquila tried to convince Pavo that he was the good guy, but Pavo can detect a lie a mile off. We knew something wasn’t right and that was before he started firing energy cannons at us. Is it your leaseholder? Did he kill Captain Moore?”
I had a choice to make. I could be honest and let the cards fall where they may. Or I could keep everything close to my chest and make these two work for it. I wasn’t sure what the latter would achieve, but I was sure the former would speed things along, and right now, we needed the speed.
Aquila was crumbling. The gel walls hadn’t stopped buckling, and the entire ship seemed to be on emergency settings. I wasn’t entirely sure that was Aquila’s doing, but more to do with whatever had been hit by that last torpedo.
Still, I didn’t trust them. And I wouldn’t trust them until I was sure they were who they said they were.
“Yes,” I said in answer to both questions, but there was a more important question here, I thought. “Why are you here?” I asked. “What could two AU officers do that we haven’t?”
Kereama shared a look with Saitō and then nodded her head.
“Tell him, Lieutenant Commander,” she ordered.
I looked at the chief science officer. What could a chief science officer do that we couldn’t?
“Do you know where my sector is from?” he asked.
I had to think. Corvus,and the Sector Three Fleet launched from Japan.
“Euro/Asia,” I said.
“Yes. Anderson Universal Technical Development was centred in Tokyo. I worked with Simon Anderson.”
Everything came into sharp focus.
“The AIs,” I said.
“Yes,” Saitō agreed calmly. “I can stop him. I can stop Aquila.”
Forty-Five
I Could Do That
Adi
They talked for a long time. I couldn’t hear them from where Lieutenant Garner and I were standing. But I could see them. Hugo had lowered his rifle a while ago, and the two suits that had boarded had stowed theirs completely. They appeared to be non-aggressive, but it might have been a ploy to gain our trust.
I was pleased to see Hugo hadn’t holstered his weapon yet.
Finally, they came to some agreement, and Hugo signalled for the boarders to walk ahead of him. I checked over their LSUs; they were Anderson Universal, not private security. I wondered what they thought when
they looked at our armoured units.
Lieutenant Armstrong fell back to the opposite side of the corridor to us. He didn’t say anything, but he kept his weapon hot. Garner, I noticed, was doing the same thing. Neither of them trusted our new friends completely.
My eyes searched out Hugo’s. Behind the faceplate, it was harder to see what he was thinking, but the fact that he was looking directly at me made me feel a little better. I turned my attention to the two LSUs that had boarded us. I couldn’t see any identifying marks, so I couldn’t tell which ships they were from. Probably Corvus, although Pavo had been out there too.
I shook my head. If Pavo had caught up to Corvus, then we had three sector fleets out there somewhere. I dreaded to think what my father could do with that.
The boarders noticed me with a flick of their eyes behind their faceplates, but they dismissed me in the next moment and kept on walking past. I was rather glad of that. But I was intrigued to note the faces were of a man and a woman. Ethnicity-wise, one could assume the guy was Asian and the girl Polynesian. But I didn’t want to restrict my assessment along those lines. They could be from anywhere and not necessarily the sectors that dominated those gene lines.
Hugo caught up to me and stopped, letting the others escort the boarders toward the central hub.
“Are you all right?” he asked, trying to keep his voice low, but that was hard to do with helmet speakers.
I nodded my head. “Who are they?”
“They say they’re from Pavo and Corvus,” he offered. I liked that he wasn’t just taking their word for it. “Lieutenant Commander Saitō is ex AU Tech Development. He might be able to help us.”
He looked after the two LSU clad forms and then sighed.
“Come on,” he said and started walking.
I fell into step beside him. Aquila had calmed somewhat. The gel walls were all emergency red, but the buckling had eased and it no longer felt like we were in a washing machine. Whatever had hit us that last time had done a number, but the repair bots had obviously got to work and stabilised matters.
The red gel was a worry. Aquila hadn’t said a word of warning to us. That was out of character for the Rogue AI. I gnawed on my bottom lip as we approached the lifts.
“How do you want to do this, sir?” Wilson asked.
“Any sign of the others?” Hugo said.
“Not on this floor,” Wilson offered. “But the lifts are functional again, so we can assume they got out.”
“Up on Deck A or back on Deck C, though?”
Wilson shook his head inside his helmet.
“All right, our best bet is the computer core,” Hugo announced.
“You have access to the core?” the male boarder said just as the female one asked, “Why not the bridge?”
Hugo answered the woman first. I thought perhaps she held the higher rank.
“The bridge is leaseholder territory, and we haven’t been able to get to him yet.”
“And the core would work better for what I need to do,” the male boarder said.
I wanted to ask what the guy thought he could do, but everyone seemed uptight and on edge, and the red emergency lighting wasn’t helping to ease the tension. I decided staying quiet and unobtrusive was the best plan for now.
“All right,” Hugo said. “Johnson, Wilson, you’re with us. Garner and Armstrong take the second lift and hope Aquila is actually distracted this time.”
“Aye-aye, sir,” the two lieutenants said and stepped over to the second lift.
The doors opened, and everyone started piling in. I presumed Hugo wanted me with him and when he placed a gloved hand on my shoulder and pulled me in close to his side out of harm’s way, I relaxed a little. I really did feel like I was a kid playing in the grownups area.
And when the female boarder looked down at me with an arched brow and wide eyes, I felt even more like an imposter.
“Who’s this?” she asked as Hugo swiped the wrist comm over the lift panel.
“Hi,” I said. “I’m Adi.”
“Ana,” she replied, but I think it was automatic. She looked back up at Hugo expectantly.
“Adi’s with me,” he replied smoothly.
Ana got a look on her face that seemed to say, “Ah.”
The lift disgorged us onto Deck C, and thankfully Garner and Armstrong stepped out beside us. Clearly, Aquila was distracted. And better yet, Mandy and Commander López were waiting for us.
“Sir,” López said, eyeing the boarders warily. “Thought we’d lost you.”
Such simple words that held a hell of a lot of pain.
Hugo paused. “Did you make it to Deck A?”
“Yes, sir.” This time López looked at me warily. “Torpedo hit it hard, Captain.”
The boarders shifted uneasily, which would have been amusing to watch in their LSUs. But something about López’s words held weight, and I felt like I was rooted to the floor, unable to move.
“Where on Deck A?” I asked.
Hugo shifted closer as if he could protect me. But not from this. I already knew.
“Sorry, Adi,” López said. “The leaseholder quarters have gone.”
I was aware of the boarders watching us keenly and of Hugo saying something. I thought perhaps Mandy did too, but I couldn’t hear a word being spoken. It was likely my father was on the bridge and not in our quarters at all. But our quarters had been my home, and I could have been there. I could have been killed by that torpedo.
But I wasn’t. I was still standing. Still breathing. I sucked in a breath of air.
“Can you confirm his death?” I asked, sound rushing back in as soon as I’d opened my mouth to speak.
I thought I might have cut a few people off, they all looked a little startled. Well, our guys did, the boarders looked puzzled.
“No, Adi,” Mandy said. “There’s a containment field across the mayoral hub. The leaseholder section of the deck has disappeared completely.”
“He’ll be on the bridge,” I said, straightening my back and starting to walk.
No one moved, and then Hugo was there beside me. He reached out his oversized, gloved hand and clasped mine carefully.
“I’m right here with you, Adi,” he said as quietly as the speakers would allow.
“I know,” I whispered back and put one foot in front of the other and kept walking.
That’s how I’d do it, I realised. That’s how I’d face the end. Because the end was coming for my father. There was no doubt about that. He’d harmed too many people. He’d killed for his own gain. He’d placed our entire fleet in jeopardy, and God alone knows what he had planned for the other sectors.
No. The end was coming. But I would keep putting one foot in front of the other until it was behind me. I could do that.
I could do that.
Forty-Six
Yes, Sir
Hugo
God, this sucked. I had no idea what Adi was thinking, what emotions she must have been feeling. Time and again she’d built herself up to face her father and time and gain Aquila had thwarted us.
But if this Saitō was as good as I thought he was, having been part of Simon Anderson’s inner circle, then we had a chance of finally facing Adi’s father.
But first, we had to deal with Aquila.
The computer core room was warm when we finally walked in. An increase in body mass would do that, and clearly, the coolant system was struggling. It couldn’t be good for the computer banks, but soon we’d have free reign of the ship, so the civilians could go back to their habitats without fear of reprisal.
“Flux and Nova,” I said once we’d made it to the pit. Kereama was trying not to stare too hard at Ratbag in Adi’s arms and failing miserably. Saitō was eyeing my wrist comm with clear hunger in his eyes. He was slowly putting it all together.
“Yes, sir,” both Wilson and López said in reply.
“I need eyes on Deck A and the remaining mercs,” I ordered quietly so Aquila couldn’t overhear.
>
“You got it, Captain,” Wilson said.
“And if they get a bit frisky?” López asked.
God, I was sick of this. I could see the understanding in López’s eyes. And the regret. She was wishing she hadn’t said anything and just dealt with it.
I wouldn’t let her wear that responsibility when I should.
“Take them out if they offer resistance,” I said, thinking this didn’t get any easier with prolonged exposure. “Detain them if they’re compliant,” I added.
Both officers looked inordinately relieved. They too were feeling the strain of all the deaths.
“Johnson,” I said, calling the lieutenant’s attention to me. He’d become my 2IC within the watch. I thought perhaps a promotion might be in order once this was over. For now, he had an easy task. “Get these civilians out of here and back to the habitats.”
“Aye-aye, Captain,” he said.
I didn’t want civilians aware of what we were doing. And now that Flux and Nova were containing the mercs up on Deck A, Decks F through H should be much calmer. There hadn’t been any mercs down in Habitat One when we’d been there. I thought perhaps Mandy had been right and most of those left had abandoned their leaseholder.
It didn’t make me feel happy about facing Price. Cornered animals were often the most dangerous.
I waited until all the civilians had left, aware that two of them still wore armour. Johnson would deal with that down on their respective decks, but a little extra protection just in case wouldn’t do any harm.
That left me, Armstrong, Adi, Mandy, and our two guests. Mandy had a right to be here. I might have baulked at the way she’d kept the leaseholder’s plans to herself, but she’d redeemed herself down in the habitats. She’d been willing to sacrifice herself in order for us to get back control of the ship. She deserved to see this to the end.
Adi, of course, I wasn’t letting out of my sight. And Armstrong was all that was left of Zenith watch with me.
Zenith Point (The Sector Fleet, Book 4) Page 23