by Alex Kings
Agatha talked to Hanson for a while.
“It's weird, coming back here again,” she admitted. “I felt like I'd outgrown it, y'know? New life, new Agatha.” She tapped her carbine with a faint smile. “Same old guns, though. Yeah, anyway, I thought I was past this, but now I'm here, it's like … I'm back in my old life, waiting for things to jump out and kill me or whatever.”
She tapped the toe of her boot against the gravity plating. The metal gave a dull clack. “It's that sound. Every step used to sound like that.” She shrugged.
Srak chatted with the Petaurs from Sweetblade. They laughed every so often. When the conversation finished, he came over to Hanson and Agatha.
“Worked with those two once, on a raid in The Glue Factory,” he said. “That's a club, by the way. Or was,” he added for Hanson's benefit. “Funny guys. I wouldn't trust them as far as … well … actually I could throw them pretty far.” He shrugged.
“Oh, yeah, I remember that!” said Agatha. “I nearly caught on fire,” she told Hanson with a grin.
Srak surreptitiously looked around to see if anyone might be listening in. Satisfied, he turned back to Hanson. “What are we going to do about Bloodtooth?”
“What do you mean?” said Hanson.
“We just crippled the Albascene establishment on Laikon,” said Srak. “But Bloodtooth is just as bad. He's an extremist. You know why Unity split from the Albascene Republic? They support Albascene rule, and the absolute order and rule of law with no mercy, no trials, nothing.”
Hanson sighed. “I know. Look, the difference is this. Free speech. The Laikon Albascene had instituted actual slavery. Bloodtooth is all talk, at the moment at least. He can say what he likes. As soon as he starts trying to give summary executions, we stop him.”
“We're still giving him the Afanc.”
Hanson nodded. “But we have the expertise to communicate with it. He doesn't. And he has to share that power with Sweetblade. If worst comes to worst …”
“We start another gang war.”
Hanson gave Srak a look.
Srak sighed and shook his head.
“I don't like it either,” said Hanson. “But right now, it's our only way forward.”
They were interrupted by a call from Yilva.
“Stop!”
The drill fell silent.
“We have reached the nerve tissue.” Yilva gestured at her tablet. “3.62 metres.” She looked up. “Okay, we need to remove the drill.”
The Sweetblade Varanids moved forward. Srak frowned and darted across the room ahead of them. He tugged the drill up and set it beside the pile of sludge. Its head was thick with slime.
The hole's smooth black walls glinted in the lights. At the bottom, the surface of the nerve was a greyish yellow. As soon as the drill was away, it gave off a smell of burnt fish.
Yilva, who had the most sensitive sense of smell, covered her nose.
A mass of medical equipment and tangled wires was stacked by one wall. Yilva rifled through it with her free hand and her tail.
They hadn't known what would make the best nerve stimulator. The equipment contained everything from defibrillators from the sickbay to temporary electrical links from engineering.
Wires and power cables linked the equipment to Yilva's tablet and a local computer terminal.
When she was satisfied, Yilva dived towards the hole. As she left the gravity plating, she became weightless. She caught the lip of the hole and pulled herself inside.
She jabbed foot-long needles into the greyish yellow nerve in several places, fiddled with the wiring, then went back to her tablet.
“First attempt. Running the program now.”
At the computer terminal, an Albascene from Unity and a human from Sweetblade studied the screen. By agreement, they could see everything she was doing. Hanson wondered idly if they could follow it.
The human shook his head. “It's not working,” he said.
In the hole, Yilva disconnected some of the equipment and rewired it.
“Second attempt.”
“Nothing.”
“I'll try doubling the current,” said Yilva. After a moment, she cried out. “Yes! See that? We got a response.”
The human looked up. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. It is just a twitch, but it is something. I am repeating the experiment.”
After a moment, the human said, “Yes, I see it.”
They kept working, occasionally throwing comments back and forth between periods of silence. Eventually Yilva's head popped out of the hole. He fur was oily in patches from the drill's sludge. Her ears were back against her head, and she looked frustrated.
“How are we doing?” asked Hanson.
“We can invoke a small initial response,” said Yilva. “But we can't go beyond that, no matter what we try.”
Hanson nodded thoughtfully. “It has been dead for close to a million years. That's bound to make anyone sluggish.”
Yilva sighed. “It seems like the Afanc's nerve is trying to respond, but is unable to.”
“Maybe it's a problem with energy?” Hanson said.
Yilva stared at him.
“That is it!” she said. “We get a small response when I turn up the current, because we are powering this piece of the nerve. But we need to power the whole length!”
“Can we do that?”
“Yes. The tissues here are advanced enough to feed off any source of energy.”
Hanson called the representatives from Unity and Sweetblade. “We need to use the power grid,” he said.
Yilva floated out of the hole, holding up her tablet, which displayed a map of the Afanc. “Just plug these points directly into the grid,” she said.
The two representatives talked into the comm units for a few moments.
“It's being done,” said the Albascene.
They waited for ten minutes or so for the work to be done, during which time Bloodtooth returned.
“I hope you're close to succeeding,” he told Hanson.
“So am I,” said Hanson.
The Albascene came up to them. Its suit bobbed briefly in an odd little bow to Bloodtooth. “The power grid has been modified.”
Yilva grinned. “Then let's go!”
She dived back into the hole.
Hanson's comm chimed.
He was in the process of answering when Bloodtooth's comm went off too.
So did the comms of several Sweetblade members. The room seemed to dissolve into a medley of clashing comm noises.
Hanson answered his. “We've got a problem, haven't we?”
“You could say that,” said Lanik. “An Ancient ship has just jumped in. IL's here.”
Chapter 44: We Will Repel Them
The Ancient ship sailed towards the Afanc. Seeing them together, Lanik could tell how closely related they were.
“It's in firing range,” said Dunn.
The Ancient ship lined up its weapon. There was no way Hanson and the others could get out of the Afanc in time.
The Ancient ship fired.
The ripple of space flew past the Afanc, missing it by less than a kilometre. A dozen docked ships, however, came apart and exploded in unison.
“What's it doing?” Hanson asked.
“I think it's attacking the docked ships,” Lanik told him. Speaking to Fermi, he added, “Undock us now. We need to be in free space. We can send in a shuttle if we have to.”
The Ancient ship fired again, taking out another set of docked ships.
Elsewhere, others were undocking and preparing to jump away.
“Good,” said Hanson. “They want the Afanc as much as we do. That gives up something to work with. They're not willing to destroy it. They just want to clear everyone off it first.”
“Then they can send in their new Blank army,” said Lanik.
“Yes. You need to leave now,” said Hanson. “If all goes well, we'll call you to come pick us up.”
Lanik frowned slight
ly. He knew he couldn't argue with Hanson.
Another set of ships were crushed as they tried to escape.
“The Ancient ship is turning to aim at us,” Dunn said.
“Evasive manoeuvres, then emergency jump as soon as we're free,” Lanik ordered. He went back to the comms. “Yes, sir. We'll be waiting for you. Dauntless out.”
They jumped away.
*
As soon as the call was finished, Hanson turned to Bloodtooth.
“I take it you just got the same message I did?” he said.
Bloodtooth was silent for a moment. “Yes,” he said. “I had heard the Ancient ships were powerful, but I did not imagine …” His segments turned back and forth uncertainly.
“It's hard to, unless you've seen it,” said Hanson. “That doesn't matter now. They'll try to take the Afanc.”
“Then we will repel them.” Bloodtooth's motions steadied. “We will crush their soldiers with such force and ferocity that IL, even with ships of such power, will recoil from us.”
“Glad to hear it,” said Hanson. “They'll send their forces over by shuttle.”
“And the shuttles are vulnerable?”
Hanson nodded.
“That is why they wish to get rid of the docked ships. Wait.” Bloodtooth activated his comm system. He spoke out loud, so Hanson could hear him. “This is Bloodtooth. Find all armed ships that have not left and requisition them immediately. Have them retreat inside the Afanc's interior spaces where possible. They will be safer there. And ask Sweetblade to do the same.”
“It won't be enough,” Srak said, coming to join them. “The Afanc has too many openings.”
“I agree. But it is my hope we can kill many of the overconfident first wave,” said Bloodtooth. “Captain, you have fought this scourge before. What can you tell us of their ground forces?”
“You've seen them before,” Hanson said. “They look human, but they're better armoured, stronger, faster, and harder to kill. They have perfect loyalty, better than soldier-caste Glaber. Some of them may have extremely powerful weapons – powerful enough to severely injure a Varanid with one shot.”
Srak put his arm to his side and winced from the memory. “You can say that again.”
“Numbers?” said Bloodtooth.
“Depending on how eagerly they want it, they may send all 15,000 Blanks after us.”
Bloodtooth was silent for a few moments. “With Unity and Sweetblade acting together, even counting all our available mercenaries, they outnumber us two-to-one,” he said.
“Then we shoot twice,” grunted Uruth, coming over. “Might also help to arm civilians.”
“You want to bring civilians into this?” Hanson asked him.
Uruth shrugged. “IL will probably try and clear the entire population of the Afanc. The civilians will die by the thousands anyway. They may as well be shooting back when that happens.”
Hanson sighed. Uruth was probably right. “Alright,” he said. “It's probably for the best.”
“Very well,” said Bloodtooth. He took a tablet from his suit and extended it until it was floating horizontally, the size of a tabletop. On it was a detailed map of the Afanc. “We can establish a defensive perimeter over the inner quarter of the Afanc, including its nerve section and our largest strongholds. Place microfusion mines outside it. When the enemy breaches our shuttle defences, our forces fall back, then activate the mines.”
“Good idea,” said Hanson. “You should get the entire civilian population inside the perimeter now.”
Bloodtooth activated his comms and began organising the movement.
Hanson went over to the hole. Inside it, Yilva had been working all this time, floating in the middle of a mass of equipment. One of her ears angled up to follow him, so presumably she'd been listening.
“Any luck?” he asked.
She nodded. “I am getting a response from the nerve,” she said. “But it will be some time before I can communicate with it properly.”
“I don't know if we can win this,” Hanson told her. “Is there any way you could destroy the information held within the Afanc?”
Yilva paused for a moment. “I think so.”
“If worst comes to worst, do it. We can't let the Dominion have that information.”
“Understood.”
Hanson stood, and looked around at everyone assembled there. He spoke loudly to all of them. “As of this moment, this is the most important room in the Afanc. Moore, Saito, stay here and protect Yilva.” He lowered his voice so only they could hear. “From everyone.”
Moore nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“Srak, Agatha, Uruth, you're with me.”
“Captain,” said Bloodtooth. “I've just received a reply. The Ancient ship is launching shuttles.”
Chapter 45: First Wave
Shuttles swarmed from the Ancient ship. Hundreds of them, of every type. Armoured shuttles, stealth shuttles, troop carriers. Anything the Dominion could steal from the Solar System's dockyards. As soon as they were away, they spread out like billowing dust against the scale of the Afanc.
Halfway along Fifth Tentacle, a small Albascene frigate lurked inside one of the Afanc's many mouths, sitting on a docking platform. A hundred metres in front of it, the open, fanged mouth looked out into empty space. A couple of small fighters lay alongside it.
In the CIC, its crew, a small group of low-ranking Unity soldiers, were plugged into the weapons systems and sensors.
“We have contact!” the leader said.
A human shuttle flew in through the mouth. It flashed into an expanded fireball under the frigate's lasers.
Three more shuttles tried to enter and met the same fate. Another was torn apart under the fighter's kinetics.
“Easy!” said the makeshift weapons officer. His segments turned with excitement. “Watching these corruptions of nature fall under our weapons is a true joy. I believe …”
An immense boom shook the CIC. Half the lights flickered out.
“What's happening?”
One of the fighters exploded.
“We're being attacked by a stealth craft,” said one of the sensor officers. “If we can find the source of the weapons fire …”
The CIC shook again. Parts of its angular hull lit up to a brilliant white heat and shattered. The other fighter exploded.
“There!”
The weapons officer saw. He fired the lasers. A normal-looking patch of wall revealed itself as a shuttle, halfway through exploding.
“Got it,” said the weapons officer with satisfaction.
More shuttles were already at the entrance. They fired.
*
The platform was packed with people of all species. The transit pods were packed, running back and forth continuously. There was muttering, shouting, crying, and sometimes screaming.
Along one wall, Albascene from Unity used their effector fields as barriers to herd the civilians. Varanids from Sweetblade shouted out directions. “This way!”
Some had fallen and lay trampled on the gravity plating.
“Who are these invaders?”
“Humans?”
“IL?”
“I heard they're mutants. Ancient-human hybrids.”
“Thalaya, where are you? Someone help me!”
One edge of the platform looked out onto a giant inner chamber. A Glaber was pushed through the effector fields by the crush of bodies and fell off the edge of the gravity plating. He passed through the air barrier and floated there, choking. No one paid him any heed.
A Varanid stood nearby, handing out pistols. “Any weapons experience? You? Here you go.” He offered a carbine.
“I'm not leaving my home! You can't make me!”
“Then stay and get slaughtered. I don't care.” The Varanid threw a pistol over. “Try and take a couple of them down before that happens.”
*
The lights in the CIC flickered and died. The Albascene plugged into the weapons system was so engro
ssed in his work he barely noticed.
“We've lost kinetics!”
“Shuttles are landing!”
“I know,” he said. “There are too many.”
He saw Blanks, emerging from the shuttles that had landed, and turned his lasers on them.
There was a boom. The hull rang like a bell. The last of the external sensors died.
“That's enough,” said the leader. “We need to get out of here.”
The weapons officer agreed.
The Albascene disconnected from the ship's systems and activated their systems. Something hit the ship, and a giant tear opened up one of the bulkheads. They slid down the frigate's main shaft with their effector fields and headed for the door.
They opened the ramp to see another two shuttles landing.
“Go, now!” the leader urged them.
A third shuttle full of Blanks turned to face them as they moved towards the exit. It fired. The leader's middle segment exploded, spraying water everywhere. Blanks emerged from the other shuttles, weapons raised.
The weapons officer decided this was no longer fun.
There was a thunderous bang as they reached the door. The suit of the Albascene beside him crumpled like a tin can. Its effector fields fluttered and water leaked out, and the suit collapsed with a thump.
The weapons officer was the only one to make it out into the tunnel intact. He glided down the tunnel to where a transport pod was waiting, doors open. He swiped at the control panel.
A Blank followed him into the tunnel.
The weapons officer fired his laser at the Blank. It stumbled back without falling and levelled its weapon at him.
The doors began to close. The weapons officer fired once more. This time he caught its neck, and the Blank collapsed.
The transit pod lifted off the ground and hurtled away.
Chapter 46: Gravity