Khallini tapped his cane against the ground. “Enough of your fatuous outburst, Fitzwilliam. Shut up or I will silence you.” He raised his voice. “You too, Pryxian with the heavy blaster. I see you.”
“Stand down, Sinofar,” said Izza.
Fitz’s eyes caught motion two hundred meters away as Sinofar threw back her stealth sheet. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
“You must leave before Wei arrives,” Khallini insisted.
“I’m not going anywhere until you give me a damned good reason.”
“I’m the only way you’re flying out of here on Phantom.”
Fitz looked to Izza.
She nodded.
“Yes, well,” he said to Khallini. “That is a good reason. How exactly are you going to achieve it?”
“Sorcery. Now, hurry! Summon the rest of your forces.”
Fitz turned his back on Khallini and took Izza’s hands in his. “My dear, do you foresee the right path for us?”
She shook her head. Shame. He’d been so excited when his mother had sent the message about his wonderful wife. It was something he looked forward to working on together. Another time.
“I got nothing, either,” he said and turned to address Khallini respectfully. “My lord, we have already made our loyalty commitment. It is to Kanha Wei.”
“Pathetic,” the old man rasped.
Fitz expected his head to explode at any moment. Or to be turned into a slimy toad.
But crossing Lord Khallini didn’t prove immediately fatal this time. The man levitated out of the hole and floated across the dead riverbed toward Phantom.
“Captain,” said Lieutenant Hjon over the radio. “3Condax went rigid and then jumped out of her vehicle. She’s headed for your position.”
“It’s not us she’s headed for,” said Izza. “Her creator just showed up.”
“I see,” Hjon responded, with admirable coolness, Fitz thought. “Recommend we haul ass to your position.”
“Agreed,” said Fitz. “My gut tells me things are going to move real fast from now on. We need to be in one location. Speaking of which…”
The sky exploded with exotic light that tightened into a ring. Then it was gone.
It was a jump portal. An impossibly close one. Even he wouldn’t dare to emerge so far inside a gravity well.
“It must be Kanha Wei,” said Izza. She sounded impressed, and maybe she had a right to be, but Lynx had said Wei’s ship was twenty-four minutes out.
He didn’t think this was Kanha Wei.
* * * * *
Chapter 50: Maycey
Expedient Bridge, Near Doloreene Space
After docking Annihilation with the Expedient module, Maycey had barely enough time to bring Expedient’s systems online and tighten her harness before the nightmare vessel jumped in. Almost on top of her.
Hot with exotic zeta-radiation, its hull still glowing across the EM spectrum from its jump space exit, the incoming ship got its bearings and accelerated closer with a swish of its body.
Its emergence was dangerously close to Expedient but impossibly close to the planet. To attempt such a thing in a conventional ship would be suicide; gravitational riptides would tear it into plasma.
The ship was like none Maycey had encountered before. But she did recognize it as a predator. And that she was its prey.
“Snap out of it!” rumbled the Nyluga. “You know what this is. It’s the ship the Legion dug up, or one like it. On Rho-Torkis, it tore through two squadrons of Legion orbital superiority fighters without a scratch. Run! Then jump.”
“We won’t make it,” Maycey replied.
Kaycey snarled. “Then we turn and claw out its eyes.”
“Sister, if the Legion couldn’t find weak spots, neither will we.”
Maycey pushed out the stops, feeding in all the reserve power she could get her claws into.
The ship responded, but sluggishly.
Annihilation was lightning quick, but when linked with the much larger Expedient module, the combination wallowed. Expedient gave them living space, a hold, a much greater air supply and, crucially, jump engines. None of that was of any use if she couldn’t shake the enemy vessel.
The ship from Rho-Torkis was catching them…but only just. “It’s playing with us. Like you would, sister. It could catch us if it wanted.”
“Multiple emergence signatures ahead,” said Kaycey. “I’m calling three frigates and eight corvettes. Multiple ship classes. Most of which the tac-system doesn’t recognize.”
“Perhaps they were dug up too.”
Maycey had meant it as a quip, but when the visuals came onto her flight screen, she began to think she might be right. None of the ship designs looked familiar. Wings and nacelles were missing on several. One had a huge gash in its hull. Although all of them were deploying force keels for tactical maneuvering, the keels looked like recent retro-fits.
The Rho-Torkis ship made sense now. It was herding Expedient toward these old warships.
Maycey spun through 165 degrees, aiming the nose at the planet below, and applied thrust.
Gradually, the ship’s vector eased downward, but Expedient had no force keels. The warship flotilla was going to catch and destroy her long before she made it a safe distance out to jump.
“Strike your foe!” screamed Kaycey. “It won’t be expecting prey to fight back.”
“We won’t survive.” Maycey turned to face her Nyluga. Ree’s despondency told her the boss had reached the same conclusion. “We have only one chance. We need Phantom.”
“Do what you have to,” the Nyluga told her.
“Very well. I want the two of you back in Annihilation. I shall follow.”
Kaycey hissed, her fur rigid with anger. But when Ree unstrapped herself and hurried off to Annihilation, she followed.
Alarms screeched as the flotilla’s lasers found Expedient and began burning through her shields.
Maycey ignored them and set a simple automation process running to fight back and then self-destruct as Expedient reentered the atmosphere.
She’d have to time this to perfection if Annihilation were to separate like another innocent chunk of debris.
With her new system running, she raced for the bubble ship.
She had fifty-one seconds to get inside, strap herself down, and launch.
The warning screech raised in pitch and settled into a continuous moan. Shields were critically low.
This would be close.
* * * * *
Chapter 51: Tavistock Fitzwilliam
Mouth agape, Fitz stared at the Phantom’s burial site, a burial mound that had seen some grave robbery over the last few minutes.
“Well, I’ll be doused in brandy and flambéed by cannibals,” he commented, and took a drag of oxygenated air.
While the rest of Chimera Company had driven to his observation spot in the crater, he’d watched Khallini float across the ground to his buried ship and work his…his sorcery! It was the only word to describe it.
The mound had shaken. Fitz had thought it would explode like a volcano, but then rivulets of red dirt had flown down its slopes, tributaries merging into great rivers that drained into the riverbed. After eons of death, this ancient watercourse flowed once more, only with dirt this time.
The Corrupted appeared unable to perceive Khallini. Their four-armed leaders stared in astonishment at this dirt river, scratching their horns trying to figure it out.
They didn’t. But when Khallini floated back to the crater where Fitz was hiding with Izza and Sinofar, they ordered in their dig teams to finish the task of uncovering his ship. Chimera Company was heavily outnumbered. They couldn’t take on the Corrupted alone.
“Fregg to Fitzwilliam. Are you nearly here? I’m getting sensor readings again, but no visual.”
“A wildcard is in play, Fregg. Lord Khallini has mostly uncovered you. But the Corrupted look as if they’ll get to you first. Hide. Help is on its way, but you may have to retake the shi
p yourself. Frankly, so much weird shit is flying, I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Oh, my lives! You want me to… kill the boarders?”
“You can do this, Fregg.” Fitz oozed calm across the radio, but the truth was, he was as out of his depth as she was. “I believe in you.”
“Five Hells,” she muttered and cut the transmission.
Khallini descended to the ground and walked the last hundred yards to the crater like a tired old mortal, with a robot dog that burst up from beneath the ground, then walked alongside. He was sweating, his breathing labored, and his replica ancient uniform was filthy with red dust. Before, it had looked incongruous on him. Now, the uniform seemed like something the man deserved to wear with pride.
Khallini must have some epic stories to tell, Fitz thought. Maybe, if I’m nice to him, he’ll tell some when this is over.
The spell he’d cast over the Corrupted lifted. Two of their mutated commanders pointed excitedly at Fitz’s position.
Resting his hands on his cane, Khallini took several deep breaths. He seemed to be working up to something.
The skies cracked with thunder. A streak tore their way. “Is that Annihilation?”
“It is,” Izza confirmed. “Perhaps they found some more spoons.”
“Useless cretins,” Khallini snapped.
“And he’s back,” said Fitz.
Khallini jabbed his stick at Sybutu, who was standing in the back of a hover-tub, PA-71 pointed at the nearest Corrupted only a few hundred meters away.
“Legion,” Khallini sneered. He pointed the stick at Arunsen. “Militia.”
His performance was interrupted by Annihilation flying overhead, brushing the nap of this broken world. Fitz was cheered by the look of shock on Khallini’s face as he ducked.
The bubble ship swept around behind and hovered twenty feet above the ground in front of them. Nyluga-Ree jumped out and scurried on her little legs toward Fitz. A twenty-foot drop was no concern to a Glaenwi.
“And, somewhat unexpectedly, the Outer Torellian Commerce Guild,” said Khallini. Then he returned to pointing out individuals with his stick. Fitz: “Legion Naval Intelligence.” Bronze: “Special Missions Executive.”
He leveled his cane at Enthree and screwed up his face, but he made no comment about her.
The sky crackled with bursts of lightning that did not strike the ground. It was a dramatic backdrop to Khallini’s performance. But this wasn’t his doing. They were weapons discharges in the upper atmosphere.
“Is this going to take long?” Fitz asked. “The enemy were firing howitzers at us yesterday, and I’d hate to provide an easy target.”
“Not anymore,” said Khallini. “A long time ago, I learned to take care of my enemy’s artillery first.”
“Thank you for the clarification, my lord. Please continue.”
Fitz never understood why he said such dumb things when he was nervous.
Khallini only laughed, though. He waved his cane over the assembled team once more. “So, you are Chimera Company. Whoever assembled you from the Federation’s competing factions had the right idea. But you’ve been hitting the wrong targets. Too often, they were my proxies. These invaders—” he pointed his cane at the column of Corrupted trucks that were stacking up like a cavalry squadron getting ready to charge, “—they are your real enemy.”
“Are they?” Sybutu roared. “Your proxies nuked my family.” It seems I’m not the only one to tempt fate today. “On Rho-Torkis you killed my comrades. The woman I loved is irradiated ash. The rebels launched the weapons, but it was you who let them in.”
Khallini pursed his lips and considered the defiant jack.
Sybutu had thrust out his chin, but it was quivering.
Meanwhile, the enemy trucks had assembled and were charging their way.
A beep from Fitz’s wrist announced a holo-comm request. It was Kanha Wei. At last!
Her ghostly holo-image projected from his wrist, but he tore his attention away to watch Khallini walk up to Sybutu’s vehicle.
“Over the years,” said the sorcerer, “I have come to adopt the Jotun way of thinking. I value not just humanity, but Zhoogenes, Kurlei, Glaenwi, Xhiunerites, and all other species.” He paused as he looked over at Enthree. “Even yours, Muryani. And yet, I value you as peoples and as civilizations but rarely as individuals. It was that Jotun attitude that saved my species in the Orion Era. And it is that attitude that we need again.”
“Hold tight,” Wei told Fitz. “I’m sending dropships to extract you.”
Meanwhile, Khallini was trying to justify the fall of Rho-Torkis. “I am sorry for what you suffered, Sergeant Osu Sybutu. Truly. But I do not apologize for my actions. The many peoples of the Far Reach Federation must look up from their petty bickering and see the threat we all face. We must unite. Only then can we survive what is upon us.” He pointed at the onrushing trucks. “Only then can we repulse them.”
“I understand,” said Nyluga-Ree.
Khallini inclined his head to the Guild boss. “Of course. You all have such brief lives that you will die before long. Wouldn’t you prefer your lives have meaning? Don’t you want to believe the people of your generation can have grandchildren and that they would, in turn, hope to have grandchildren of their own?”
“You are inhuman,” said Sybutu.
“I am beyond human. And that is why you need me.”
“Lord Khallini speaks well,” said Ree. “I will help you, my lord. The Guild shall. My vengeful heart is all the motivation I require to punish these Andromedans. Regrettably, my colleagues in the Guild and our allied organizations will require more financially liquid forms of motivation.”
Khallini bowed his head. “My funding can be extensive for those who support my cause. But I do not look kindly upon those who abuse it.”
“Do not impugn my honor, my lord,” said Ree sharply. “However, I may from time to time require some small miscellaneous expenses.”
Khallini laughed. “I don’t expect you to come cheaply. I’m glad to have you and the Guild with me.”
The sorcerer settled his gaze on Fitz. “Are you also with me, Captain? I think you know now that I’m the only one who can save the Federation.”
“Save it? It looks, from here, like you’ve been trying to destroy it.”
The old man scowled. “You have not been paying attention.”
“Fitzwilliam, please,” Ree interjected. “Let me handle Lord Khallini.”
“Status?” Wei’s holo-image prompted Fitz.
“I seem to be in a bidding war for my affections,” he replied. “Meanwhile, we’re about to contact the enemy.”
“More than you realize,” said Wei. “The Andromedans are sending dropships to your location. My troops will get there first, but only by a minute or so.”
“You and Izza are my family,” said Ree, frowning at Wei’s image as if trying to place her. “I know we have had our disagreements, but they are merely family arguments. All is forgiven. Come home. My trio is shattered. I am shattered. I need you. Work for me. We’ll subcontract to Lord Khallini and you and your people—” she nodded at Sybutu, “—needn’t dirty their hands directly.”
Wei stared at Ree. “Fitz, if you and Zan Fey are family with Ree, then it is only by professional association.” She lifted her golden glasses. “But we three share blood!”
In the ghostly light of the holo-comm, colors were washed out and tinted yellow, but Fitz could tell those eyes were blazing with indigo fire. He must be distantly related to her, but he’d never given a frakk about any notion of purple-eyed solidarity. He sided with her because—dammit!—she’d emerged from the same dark hole of Legion Navy Intelligence as he had. She represented the good guys. Probably. The others didn’t need to know that, though.
Blaster bolts lanced at them from the Andromedan trucks, but the fire was inaccurate at this range.
Bullets skimmed off the ground. Much too close for comfort.
“I lov
e you all,” Fitz announced. “But you know the old saying: Blood is thicker than thieves. Mount up, everyone! There’s killing work to be done.”
“Good luck,” said Wei. Her image vanished.
Finally, some peace and quiet, Fitz thought to himself as he climbed into his vehicle.
Nyluga-Ree clambered into the same tub.
“Good work, Fitzwilliam,” she whispered in his ear. “I need to know everything about that human female you were talking to. I recognize her. She stole something precious of mine.”
* * * * *
Chapter 52: Osu Sybutu
With Fitzwilliam at the controls, Osu’s hover-tub slewed around, giving him a clear firing channel at the charging trucks filled with Corrupted.
“Andromedans,” he said quietly. “I’m calling them Andromedans. The Corruption is the horror those bastards inflict on us. Not who my enemy is.”
“What did you say?” asked Catkins, who was nervously checking his blaster pistol.
“Nothing. Just get ready to kill them before they kill you.”
His words seemed to stiffen the Gliesan’s resolve.
Standing at the rear, with his rifle mounted on the firing brace, Osu sighted his first target.
At last, the endless chatting and standing around was over. He was what he was born to be. A Legionary with a PA-71 in his hands.
The scope haloed the truck he was aiming at with a green ‘target locked’ glow. He was good to go. He eased out his breath and was on the verge of squeezing the trigger when the lower rim of the scope flashed white.
What the hell?
The rifle was warning of potential friendlies in his cone of fire.
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