by Alex Kings
There was silence for a moment.
“But someone here has the intel to take down the entire resistance,” Iya said. He looked at Hanson, all traces of camaraderie gone. “Someone you bought onboard.”
Silence hung for a moment.
Iya's gaze turned to Uruth. “I think there's an obvious candidate.”
Uruth, who had been leaning against the wall, ignoring the drama until now, looked up. Everyone was staring at him.
“You worked for Karnasc,” said Iya. This seemed to offer him sufficient proof.
“Yes,” said Uruth. “And the bastard tried to kill me too. Believe me, I'm not on his side anymore.”
“Yes, very convenient,” said Iya. He pulled out a stun-prod and held it like a throwing knife. “We can't let you leave.”
Uruth looked around them and snarled. It was clear he was working through the implications in his head: If he did have the information memorised, he could cripple the resistance. He'd already worked for Karnasc, which made him guilty as far as Iya was concerned. Killing him was the most convenient option. If Iya stunned Uruth now, he'd never wake up.
So even if he was innocent, Uruth knew he had to fight.
“Srak!” said Hanson. “You've been watching him this whole time, haven't you?”
“Yes,” said Srak.
“Has he been near any of the consoles?”
Srak paused. “I hate to say it,” he said. “But no. He's been good.”
“Are you sure of that?” Iya said, not taking his eyes off Uruth. “Are you absolutely sure your attention didn't wander for a moment? “
“Yes,” growled Srak.
“Who could it have been, then?”
Hanson looked around the group of them, all still focussed on Uruth. “Siro,” he said. “Where's Siro?”
Chapter 27: Traitor
Yilva was the first across the room. The door to the submersible's middle chamber was closed. She swung it open and dived through. Hanson followed.
Behind him the door swung shut. There was a second clang – the sound of a bolt sliding into place. Behind him, someone tried to open it, without success.
That left just the three of them.
Siro stood with her back to one of the consoles, looking confused.
Yilva pulled out a pistol and aimed it at her.
Siro's ears fell flat against her head. She cowered in a defensive posture. “M-Miss Yilva,” she said. “What's wrong?”
“What are you doing in here?” Yilva said. A murmuring growl ran through her voice. “Why did you close that door?”
“I … I … I didn't!”
Hanson saw that behind her, a contracted tablet was connected by a thin wire to the terminal. “Drop the act,” he said, taking out his own pistol. “We know it was you.”
Siro sighed. She was still shaking with fear. “Okay,” she said, looking at the floor. “It was me.”
“Why?” asked Yilva. “You are selling out your own people!”
There was a pause. Siro still seemed shy. “Karnasc knows best,” she said. “He just wants all this sorted out, so we can go back to living in harmony.”
“He tried to kill you!” cried Yilva. “If we had not been rescued, we would have all been crushed!”
Siro shook her head. “He had a plan,” she said. “He knew the resistance was hiding under his estate. He knew I would survive and be rescued, so I could do my duty. If I had managed to get away with it …. I could go back to him afterwards.”
“I don't think that's true,” Hanson said softly.
Siro's ears turned towards him. She gave him a questioning look.
“Karnasc couldn't have known for certain we'd be rescued. If we hadn't closed the cell doors, we would have died. If this submersible was further away, it wouldn't have reached us in time. We survived through luck as much as anything. No, I think Karnasc was just covering all his bases. If we were rescued, you could unearth the resistance. If we weren't, then he'd still be free of Yilva and me.”
Siro was silent for a few seconds.
“He didn't care whether you lived or died,” said Yilva.
Siro looked back at her, then to Hanson. Suddenly she bared her teeth. “You're lying!” she cried, turning back to the console with lightning speed.
“Stop!” shouted Yilva.
Siro's fingers moved across the console.
Yilva shot her.
The bullet clattered off the hull without penetrating it. Siro went rigid and put her hand to her chest. Then she collapsed.
Yilva stood, still holding the pistol outstretched. She looked at it, then Siro's body, as if she still couldn't quite believe what had happened.
Hanson ran over to the console. Most of it, written in Albascene, was impenetrable. But he recognised some of the symbols. With those, he unlocked the door.
Iya and the others came rushing in.
“Oh crumbs, oh crumbs,” murmured Yilva. Charin ran over to her, and caught her as she sank to the floor, shuddering.
Iya looked at Siro's body. “It was her, wasn't it?”
“Yes,” said Hanson. “I don't know how far she got.”
Iya went to the console and gestured at it a few times. “Oh no,” he muttered. “She sent the data. The resistance has been uncovered.”
Chapter 28: Infiltration
Moore glanced back at the Black Cat before it took off.
It was an angular arrowhead of perfect mirrors, reflecting the grasslands and the sky and parts of the facility. It looked bizarre. From this close, you could see the imperfections, but from more than a hundred metres or so, it would merge into the landscape.
It took off and vanished from sight.
She nodded at her team – Corporal Saito and Specialist Newman. “Let's move.”
The rear of the facility was a corrugated wall, painted white. No windows, fortunately. Near one corner there was a door with a security camera focused on it.
“Let's see what we can do about that,” she said. “Saito?”
Saito took out a piece of kit that Serafin had given him. A high-level SIS gadget.
It looked like a transparent square.
“Think you can hit it?” Moore said.
“There's never been a carnival game I couldn't lose,” said Saito with some pride.
“Even the rigged ones?”
Saito lined up ready to throw the square. “Especially the rigged ones.”
He flung it with a practised hand, sending it spinning on a gentle arc. It connected with the security camera and immediately changed shape, contracting to grip the camera.
They waited.
It stayed transparent for a few seconds, then went black.
It was, in fact, a sophisticated piece of smart matter. When it was stuck to the camera, it recorded some footage from the camera POV – then went dark and played that footage back to the camera in a continuous loop.
The door was locked. No surprise there.
Specialist Newman took out his tablet and held it over the door.
“What do you think?” said Moore.
“I've been studying Yilva's work,” Newman said. “I think I can work with this.” He gestured a few times at the tablet.
The tablet flashed green. It was unlocked.
“It also helps that I have some of her sniffer programs,” said Newman.
Moore took out her pistol, and quickly pulled the door open.
A lone guard stood inside. He nearly jumped out of his skin. Clearly they'd caught him by surprise. He raised his gun halfway, then stopped, seeing Moore already had a bead on him.
“Drop it, and kick it over to me,” she said. “Don't say a word.”
The guard did so.
Newman closed the door behind them and locked it again.
Saito had his pistol ready too. He went up to the guard, unhooked what looked like a comms device from his belt and handed it to Newman. Then he checked the guard's collar. There – another microscopic comms unit, built into the fabric. He crushe
d it between thumb and forefinger.
They tranquillised the guard with another one of Serafin's gadgets and headed deeper inside.
“This seems kinda easy,” commented Newman.
Moore nodded. “But not suspiciously so. They didn't think the people on Iona could get a message out, so they weren't expecting us. They have an Ancient ship in orbit, which is their main line of defence, and they're understaffed anyway.”
They entered what looked like an office. A computer terminal sat on one wall, and a large window looked out onto a sort of warehouse floor.
“Specialist, the computer.”
“On it,” said Newman. He connected the tablet to the computer and started running through the tricks he'd learned from Yilva.
Moore looked out the window.
A bit less than a quarter of it was full. Stacks of stasis pods were lined up against one wall. Moore peered at them. Inside, she could just make out the pale face of an unarmoured Blank.
“Where are the rest of them?” she asked.
“Nearly there,” said Newman. “Okay. Let's see. Inventory. They've got records for … sixteen thousand Blanks. Wow. They're already at 97% completion. Where are they …?” he gestured a bit more, then said, “Oh.”
“What is it?” said Moore.
“Most of them have been loaded onto the Ancient ship.”
Moore went to the screen and read through it. “Shit!” she said. “We've missed them.”
Moore paced back and forth. “Mission's a bust.” She came to a halt and looked at Newman. “What else is on there? Anything we can use? Anything at all?”
“I'm looking now.” Newman paused, reading a screen of text. “There's something about … the Afanc?” He frowned.
That caught Moore's attention. “What's so special about the Afanc? Are they using it as a base of operations again?”
Newman shook his head. “No. They're planning a mission there. It's important, but they don't say why. Maybe if I –”
There was an immense bang. The door to the warehouse floor crumpled inward and flew off its hinges.
Chapter 29: All of Us
For the next hour, Iya and the rest of the crew worked frantically, calling up the other Resistance cells to tell them they were in danger. Hanson had his team chip in wherever they could. Yilva worked silently, filled with a grim determination and refusing to speak to anybody. Siro's body was moved to the corner.
They struggled. Many cells were on missions, under radio silence. Many didn't reply.
Then the reports started coming up. Cells vanishing. A lone survivor got in touch to say his mission had been compromised and the rest of his cell killed. Others called in as a safe house was attacked. Iya kept a running tally of cells that had been destroyed. It rose steadily. It had passed 20 when an official Albascene news item was broadcast.
Petaur Rebellion Destroyed, the headline shouted with glee. It showed clips of Albascene soldiers storming buildings, and Petaurs being carried away in cuffs.
“I know him,” Iya murmured. He quietly added to the tally of destroyed cells. “We've got sixteen at least who are confirmed safe.”
“We've picked up another submersible,” said one of the crew. “It's right on top of us!”
Iya looked over the Petaur's shoulder. “How is that possible?” he hissed.
“It's a stealth fighter.”
The submersible boomed. Everything lurched to the side. One of the walls started to cave in, and water began to bubble up from somewhere under the floor.
“It's fired a torpedo,” said the crewmember.
“Obviously!” said Agatha.
“How can we fight something like that?” the crewmember asked Iya.
Hanson saw it on one of the screens. It was an ugly, angular thing, designed to shrug off sonar. He took note of its torpedo tubes, and how their mountings were arranged.
“We need to rise,” he said.
“What?”
“Rise! Now!”
“Do it,” said Iya.
The next torpedo sailed under them.
“It has a limited angle of fire,” Hanson explained. “Now we need to get behind it and stay there.”
Iya said something to the pilot in Albascene. The pilot nodded.
“She says she'll try,” Iya told Hanson.
The little submersible pushed forward above its attacker. The attacker was rising too, but the resistance submersible managed to dart above it in time and slip behind it. The attacker turned; the resistance submersible tried to match it.
For a few moments they kept up. Then the attacker pulled forward.
The pilot muttered something. “They're too agile,” Iya translated.
The attacker twisted around so it finally had its sights on them again.
It fired.
The resistance submersible shook. More water began to flood in from a hole in the ceiling.
“Engines are out,” Iya said.
The attacked aimed at them again.
It fired.
But as it did so, it turned to the left. The torpedo sailed past them.
“Did you see that?” said Hanson.
Iya's tail flicked back and forth. “Yes.” He switched to Albascene to tell the pilot something. “It may not matter,” he said. “We still can't move, and we've got two breaches.
Water was already several inches deep on the floor. There were breached in every section – closing the doors wouldn't do anything.
Their attacked turned back to them. It readied another torpedo – and turned away at the last moment again.
This time it kept turning. It began to rise.
“The hell is going on?” muttered Agatha.
The attacked came to a halt. It hung there silently for a few moments.
One of the control panels chimed. Iya talked to his team, then rushed over to the panel.
A voice came out in Isk. “You're the Resistance? You have the humans there with you?”
“Yes,” said Yilva, glancing at Hanson. “And others. Who are you?”
“Maintenance engineer,” came the reply, as if this job description was all that was needed. “We don't want to destroy the resistance. So we … took over.”
Yilva stood up suddenly. “Hello?” she said into the microphone. “Are you with the resistance?”
“Not members …”
“Good!” said Yilva. “Thank you. You saved our lives. Could you help us a little more?”
“Of course! It would be an honour.”
Yilva nodded in satisfaction, then turned to address everyone in the submersible. Her voice had hardened. “I've had enough of scurrying about in the darkness. I have a plan.” She turned to Hanson. “What was it you said on the Dauntless? 'Freeing the whole bloody planet'? Well, that's exactly what we're going to do.”
*
Hello. I am Yilva Vissin Avanni.
If you are receiving this, you're trusted by the Petaur Resistance. If there if anyone you trust, completely and totally, pass this message on to them. For everyone you don't fully trust but want to save (this should be nearly all Petaurs), tell them only this:
We are leaving. Tonight. All of us, all at once.
Yes, you heard me correctly.
I want you to choose a ship you have access to. One that won't have too many Albascene onboard. This will be your escape vehicle.
I have sent a snippet of code along with this recording. Add it to your chosen ship's ident. (Instructions are provided).
Get all the Petaurs you can aboard the ship by 27.00 Capital Time.
When you time comes, leave.
I'll do the rest.
Yilva finished the recording and went to work immediately, writing the code snippet she had promised.
They had moved to the angular ship that had attacked them, transferring whatever data they could. The old submersible had fallen to the ocean floor, taking Siro's body with it. Here, everything was cleaner and brighter. The Albascene crew were tied up toge
ther in the hold, with the lasers and communications systems gouged out of their suits, and several Petaurs watching over them with stun-catapults. Hanson, Yilva, Charin, and Iya had moved to the new sub's bridge.
“Less than a quarter of the resistance is left,” said Iya. “Will that be enough?”
“If they split up and use all their contacts, yes,” said Yilva. She gestured at the screen. “I've calculated word-of-mouth diffusion rates. You know how there are only six degrees of separation between every Petaur on Laikon? We're using that.”
“You know the Albascene will find out about this?” Hanson said.
Yilva nodded. “It is quite likely. 60 million Petaurs. One of them is bound to … “ She paused and looked at the corner where Siro's body lay. She sighed, then continued. “But I am banking on three things. One, only 'trusted' Petaurs will know about the code fragment. That means it will be less likely that the Albascene will find that information. Two, even if they do find it, the plan is so audacious that they are unlikely to believe it. Three, even if they do find it and believe it, they still will not know the full plan, and they will have very little time in which to respond.”
“Speaking of which, what is the full plan?”
“Every dock on Laikon is connected to the same computer network. Using it, the government can lock down any ship, anywhere. That includes all the docks in orbit, too. So we just have to get into that system and change its parameters.”
“Ah,” said Hanson. “So we lock down every ship in the system, except those the Petaurs are using.”
“Exactly,” said Yilva.
“How long will it take to program?”
Yilva grinned and held up her contracted tablet. “You told me to prepare for Laikon, so I prepared. I only have to write something to change the ident code, and we're set.”
“So how do you get that into the docking computers?”
“Every law enforcement craft has access to the system. They see a criminal, find him on the network, and lock down his ship.” She tapped the wall. “Guess what sort of submersible we're on now?”
She gestured once more at the console, then tapped it with finality. “We are done.” She summoned Iya. “Please share this with all your allies.”