Fire Storm

by Chris Ward

  Raylan smiled. ‘Captain, your counsel is wise. Details, please.’

  ‘We have sent multiple transmissions informing them that the threat is near. We have requested their best ships enter orbit and prepare a blockade. To save time, they will commence armament after arriving in orbit. For a few Earth-minutes, the entire fleet will be unarmed, yet within range of our fleet’s full firepower.’

  ‘How soon?’

  ‘In less than one Earth-hour.’

  ‘How have we explained the presence of ground troops?’

  Captain Al-Thith smiled, the grin splitting half his face as though sliced with a knife.

  ‘As extra protection for their cities. Seen’s own troops have assisted with the movement of ours into defensive positions. When you give the word, we will annihilate them.’

  Raylan stamped his feet and began to hiss like a cat, flapping his hands back and forth. Almost no one reacted, as they had no doubt been warned, but one man working a computer terminal to the right of Raylan allowed the tiniest flicker of a smile to soil his face.

  It wouldn’t do to have the man killed in front of the other duty officers, but later, Raylan would ensure a slow, painful death.

  No one mocked him. Not ever.

  ‘Captain, I leave my fleet in your capable hands. Good work.’

  ‘Thank you, Lord. Your service is the greatest bestowed honour.’

  Raylan turned to leave, his guards turning with him. The doors were just sliding open when an alarm sounded.

  ‘Captain? What is that?’ he snapped, turning back.

  For the first time, Captain Al-Thith looked flustered as he shouted commands to his men.

  ‘We’ve detected the presence of an unknown ship on the far side of Cable,’ he said, turning back to face Raylan. ‘Our systems have identified it as a Phevian naval vessel, but there is something else. It’s emitting a tracker signal that originates from our own sources.’

  ‘Lianetta Jansen,’ Raylan breathed. ‘So, you’ve come at last.’

  ‘Prepare an intermediary force to engage it and blow it out of the sky,’ Raylan said. ‘I fear a disruption to our plans.’

  Captain Al-Thith shook his head. ‘Lord, your navy is too powerful, your plans too secure. Failure is not an option. We will prevail.’

  Appreciating the captain’s words but not sharing his confidence, Raylan left the bridge, heading down to a lower deck where a transmission chamber had been set up for his personal use.

  ‘I will record a private message for Lianetta Jansen now,’ Raylan said. ‘Are the systems ready?’

  A guard snapped to attention. ‘We are ready, Lord.’

  Raylan stepped into a recording booth and looked up at a camera pointing at his face.

  ‘Lianetta Jansen … someone so familiar I could almost call you “friend” … you have come to me again at last….’

  30

  Lia

  ‘We’re all set,’ Caladan said. ‘As I expected, they’ve dispatched a force to deal with us. They’ll be coming out of Cable’s night in the next few minutes to begin their engagement.’ He grinned. ‘I’ve automated all of the battleship’s firepower. They’ll take some serious losses for nothing.’

  ‘I need to find Harlan, so I’ll meet you on the Matilda.’

  Caladan help up his hand. ‘Good work.’

  Lia lifted the opposite hand and grinned.

  ‘Can’t help reminding me, can you? You don’t have a beard, but I don’t keep tugging mine in front of you, do I?’

  ‘Sorry, couldn’t resist. Good work, highest of all high admirals.’

  Caladan snapped a salute. ‘Forever at your service.’

  As she descended through the battleship’s levels to the maintenance bays, Lia considered it a shame they were giving the ship up as a sacrifice. Caladan couldn’t wait to get back on board the Matilda, but she would miss the little luxury they had enjoyed. Such tranquility was a rarity when most of the galaxy wanted you dead or imprisoned.

  ‘How are you doing, Harlan?’ she asked the droid, who was undergoing some final tests on his repaired body.

  ‘My programming would like to point out that it’s the equivalent of a human fixing up an old land car,’ he said. ‘While it’s nice and everything, I’d prefer my old body back.’

  ‘So would we. You were much more useful in a firefight. However, the Matilda’s never been cleaner. Did you authorize some droids to give her a clear-out?’

  Harlan5 shook his head. ‘It was the battleship’s droids.’

  Lia smiled. ‘I wish we could take a few with us, but I know you’d get jealous.’

  ‘Only if my memory banks were upgraded so I would understand what jealousy was.’

  She gave Harlan5 a little time to get ready then headed for the Matilda. Worker droids repairing the outer casing had finally located the tracker they had been hunting for so long, and it now sat on a gurney next to the entrance hatchway, a tiny square of metal the size of her thumbnail.

  She picked it up in her hand then waved forward a nearby droid. ‘Have this packaged carefully then placed into an escape pod,’ she commanded. ‘Set the pod’s course for the asteroid belt around Abalon 3. Set it to launch shortly after the ship comes under enemy fire.’

  ‘As you wish,’ the droid said, taking the tracker in a pincer and dropping it neatly into a tray.

  Lia took a deep breath and looked up at the Matilda. With her repaired hull polished and her two damaged arms rebuilt and bristling with cannons, she looked fresh off an assembly line.

  With luck she would fly like it, too.

  Lia headed around the side of the ship to check on the repairs to the damaged guns, but something buzzed at her waist.

  A message, picked up by the battleship’s transmitters, but forwarded direct to her own intercom device.

  She frowned, unaware such a thing was possible.

  Perhaps it was dangerous, some kind of virus, residue from the Barelaon influence on the lighthouse.

  It was unwise to check it without running it through a scanner first, but they had little time to waste and her curiosity got the better of her.

  She found a private room away from the main hangar and activated the message.

  It was a projection beamed in from outside the ship. She set up a tiny portable projector device that fixed to her belt and trained it on a clear patch of wall.

  The image, when it appeared, made her spit on the floor in disgust. Raylan Climlee, his ugly, sneering face that contained hints of both a domestic Earth-cat and a monster hiding beneath, glared at her from the wall, his eyes darting around as though unsure from which angle she would watch.

  ‘Lianetta … dear. How I have missed you. So deep is my love for you that I have searched relentlessly these past Earth-years in the hope of being able to tell you to your face that I forgive you for your sins.’

  ‘You dirty scumbag!’ Lia shouted at the projection, before remembering it was a recorded message.

  ‘I’m sure you are wondering what is going on. Having made your acquaintance already, I am aware you are planning to become the proverbial thorn in my side once again. Alas, it won’t happen. Not even you have the power to change what has already come into place. However, I like you. I believe you are a wonderful human being. A delight. And to show my appreciation for your assistance, should you choose to keep your fingers out of my neatly prepared political hotpot, I would like to offer you a gift. Your family.’

  The camera turned, focusing on two new figures. Lia’s legs buckled and one knee hit the ground hard before she recovered herself enough to stay upright.

  ‘What have you done…?’

  The man and the boy at his side peered at the camera lens with a fearful look in their eyes. There was a strong sense of uncertainty, of confusion, as though they could neither understand nor explain how they came to be standing there. The man was holding the boy’s hand tight in his own, his lips set firm as though to hold back tears.

  How lon
g had it been?

  Her husband, Stephen, and her son, Andrew.

  Tears streamed down Lia’s face. ‘I lost you,’ she breathed. ‘You’re dead. Both of you. I saw you … I heard you die.’

  The camera panned back to Raylan. Lia screamed, and almost in anticipation, the evil dwarf began to laugh.

  ‘I know what you think you saw, what you think you heard. I was guilty of misleading you for my own gain, I’ll admit. For that I apologise. But to prove that this time I’m being truthful, you must admit that you never saw their bodies, because there never were any. You read an incident report, and you watched a rather chilling view-screen account of what occurred. But it’s such a waste, isn’t it? To end a life? So much more useful to keep one’s victims around in case they can be of further use.’

  ‘I’ll kill you!’

  ‘I’m sure you’re getting a little worked up right now, aren’t you?’ Raylan grinned, despite sharpened incisors. ‘You’re getting rather hot behind your pretty little ears? I’ve kept your husband and child in stasis these past few Earth-years, so you have no fear that I will kill them now. They’re too valuable. I will, however, make them scream rather violently and over a prolonged period of time if you don’t do exactly what I command. And you know what that is, don’t you?’

  Lia’s knees gave way, and she slammed her fists against the ground. ‘No!’

  ‘You give yourself up. You come to me, and in return, I will set your family free. What a great deal, don’t you think? I have one or two further conditions, however….’

  Lia wiped her eyes as the putrid little dwarf explained what he wanted her to do. She was still in disbelief, but as the camera panned back to Stephen and Andrew, slowly zooming to focus on Andrew’s face, she began to sob.

  My darlings. Oh, my darlings. What I wouldn’t do to see you, to hold you, to touch you one more time—

  Raylan had taken them from her once, and left her broken. Now, he was threatening to destroy them all over again.

  And only she could stop it.

  ‘I’ll do whatever you want,’ she cried, burying her face in her hands.

  31

  Caladan

  ‘Are you sure you’re okay? Don’t tell me you’re getting teary over this big shiny lump, or did you find a secret stash of booze you’re not telling me about?’

  Lia shook her head. ‘I’m just thinking about the people down there,’ she said, rather vacantly. ‘They have no idea what’s coming for them.’

  ‘Well, they have a better idea now we’ve sent out a few warnings,’ Caladan said. ‘That should ruin Raylan’s element of surprise.’

  Lia wiped a tear out of her eye and stared straight ahead at the opening hangar doors. ‘So many will still die.’

  Caladan turned to face her. ‘Are you sure you’re all right? I’ve met plenty of hardasses over the Earth-years and you’re right up there. What’s going on?’

  ‘Nothing,’ she muttered.

  ‘Well, don’t tell me, then. I’ll just let the droid speculate. Robot? What’s up with the captain?’

  Harlan5 shook his head. ‘I’m afraid my programming no longer has the ability to fully process that request.’

  Caladan sighed. ‘We really need to get you an upgrade, or just bite the cannon blast and invest in a newer model. All right, we’re jettisoning in five. Hang on.’

  As the battleship, set to autopilot, turned into the face of an oncoming onslaught, the Matilda glided across the hangar floor to the opening doors and dropped out into orbit. Caladan pulled up the real-time visuals and they watched as the battleship unleashed a ferocious barrage on Raylan’s fleet. Two large frigates went down under a blaze of photon cannon fire, breaking up and sinking into lower orbit.

  ‘It’s going to rain metal for weeks,’ Caladan muttered. He glanced across at Lia, waiting for a quip in return, but none came.

  Something was up with her, but if she wouldn’t say, there was little point trying to squeeze it out of her. Instead, he turned his attention to the visual screen, and the curve of Cable stretching out below them. The space battle was playing itself out as a series of silent flickers of light, slowly slipping away into the distance as they drifted, but the planet was quickly transforming itself from a blurred mass of colour into the outline of seas and continents.

  He waited until the curve of the planet had taken the battle out of view, then engaged the side thrusters. In seconds, space had disappeared, replaced by a haze of glowing colour as they descended through Cable’s thermosphere.

  Then, just when Caladan was beginning to go dizzy, the haze of gas departed, replaced by a vast expanse of water dotted with tiny islands.

  ‘The Gul Sea,’ Caladan said. ‘I heard there’s good fishing if you like eighty-metre water snakes.’

  Lia said nothing.

  ‘Apparently they distill really good, but the bottles are a little large for most taverns. A bit of a cottage industry, mostly servicing the giant lugworm people on Cesspool One.’

  Lia stared straight out at the water. They were low enough now to see rising swells as tall as buildings.

  Caladan shrugged. ‘I’ll bring us in as close to Parlow as I dare. I notice the magnetic radar repulsion unit got fixed, so we’ll be able to fly in unnoticed. Useful, that. I wish I’d had a chance to thank that dead engineer.’

  Lia finally looked up. She gave her a head a little shake, then nodded. ‘I’ll go below to get our suits ready. Harlan can come with me.’

  ‘We’re taking the droid? Are you serious? We’re landing on an ice sheet.’

  ‘Exactly. We’ll need him to clear the way.’

  ‘If you say so.’

  ‘I do.’

  Lia left the bridge, an obedient Harlan5 following behind. Caladan frowned. Something was up with the captain, but if he knew her, in the absence of a little spirit to loosen her tongue, she would take whatever it was to her grave.

  He turned his attention back to the scanners, which were rapidly mapping out a 3D image of the terrain, complete with buildings and landed spacecraft. Parlow was a pseudo-town, an ugly cluster of a couple of hundred buildings designed solely to house workers and guards. A small high street lined with the kind of shops that could be found in any of Cable’s large cities continued the charade, but the readings Caladan was picking up told him the town was all but deserted.

  All the activity happened below ground.

  ‘Cannon emplacements … roving mobile anti-fighter craft units … ground infantry, most likely drones or droids….’ Caladan reeled off a list of Parlow’s weaponry, not caring that he spoke to no one. ‘Good job we’re not going in first.’

  Engaging the lower thrusters, he put the Matilda into landing mode, then brought her down in a mountain hollow a couple of dozen Earth-miles out from Parlow. Then he pulled a silver box up on to the pilot’s dashboard and activated a touch screen.

  ‘Let’s see what you can come up with,’ he said, patting the box he had taken from a storeroom onboard the battleship. A seismic scanner, it would locate subterranean chambers, old mine tunnels, and analyse underground disturbance.

  If one existed, it would find an emergency escape route.

  ‘Ha. Well, what do we have?’

  ‘What?’ Lia said, making Caladan spin around. She stood behind him, dressed in a white jumpsuit that, despite being figure-hugging, contained a self-heating system that would keep Lia’s body warm outside while still allowing her plenty of mobility.

  ‘How do I look? My first time to wear this thing.’

  Caladan groaned. ‘Well, you never thought you’d need it. A shame you didn’t think to buy a spare. I’m stuck with a jacket.’

  ‘I did, but your missing arm would screw up the system alignment. I checked.’

  Caladan wiggled his stump. ‘If this thing ever grows back, I’ll be having stern words about all the trouble it’s caused.’

  ‘Perhaps that’s why it’s staying away.’

  Caladan grinned. ‘You’re so
unding better.’

  Lia shrugged. ‘Let’s just get down there and get this over with.’

  ‘Well, I’ve found our way in.’

  Caladan explained the use of the machine he had taken from the battleship, then showed Lia the snaking red line that began a couple of Earth-miles to their north and continued underneath the base at Parlow until it intersected with dozens of others.

  ‘The back door,’ Caladan said.

  He engaged the lower thrusters again, then moved the Matilda to a snowy ridge a little closer to the hidden entrance. With her camouflage mechanism now working, she became the grey-white of a large snowdrift so convincing Caladan found himself glancing back as they walked to check the ship was still there, but finding himself less sure with each step.

  ‘Are you sure I wouldn’t be better staying with the ship?’ Harlan5 grumbled from the rear. ‘My programming suggests this weather isn’t good for my sensors.’

  ‘We need you,’ Lia called back. ‘Now be quiet, in case they’ve got scanners or sentries out here.’

  The trail they were following opened out, and they found themselves in a dead-end valley, steep gully walls on either side.

  ‘There,’ Caladan said, pointing at a wall of ice. ‘That’s where our hidden entrance is.’

  Lia frowned. ‘There’s nothing there.’

  ‘It’s under the ice, according to the reading. We’ll have to dig our way through.’

  ‘It could be half an Earth-mile thick!’

  ‘About thirty Earth-metres,’ Caladan said. ‘Don’t worry, I brought something.’

  He pulled a tiny object out of his coat and held it up. ‘This is a remote charge. I came prepared.’

  Holding his photon blaster at a downward angle, he shot a couple of holes into the ice, the hot payload burning a deep hole. Then, with a grin, he pushed the charge inside.