by Alex Kings
Hanson was standing in front of the window, talking to Kuta. The conversation finished as Agatha approached. Hanson handed Kuta a tablet, and she turned and walked away.
“Hey!” Her voice was loud enough to carry. Hanson looked around for a moment, then saw her as she stuck her arm up above the crowd and waved at him.
“Hi,” he said as she came up to him.
“I won't be on the ship with you,” Agatha said, showing him her tablet. “I'm with Moore's team on breaching pod duty.”
Hanson glanced at it.
“Best place for me,” Agatha explained, trying to stop a hint of nervousness creeping into her voice. “Not much I can do if the ships are just running about shooting each other.”
“Alright,” said Hanson.
They hugged.
“It'll be quiet without you onboard.”
“Even in the middle of a battle?”
“Especially in the middle of a battle.”
“You charmer.”
“Well,” said Hanson, handing her the tablet. “Don't get shot, and I'll meet you over Tethya.”
She gave him a mock salute. “See you there!” Then she retreated into the crowd.
Walking across the station, Agatha barely noticed the people around her. Announcements came over the tannoy without her registering them. Eventually she stopped.
She pressed her forehead to the wall and stood there, trying to control her breathing.
A giant hand settled on her shoulder.
She looked up. Srak stood beside her. She put her hand on his arm, and they stood for a few moments in companionable silence before he said, “Ready?”
She nodded. “Let's go.”
*
Tethyans [x]
Varanids [x]
Albascene [ ]
Petaurs [x]
Glaber [x]
Shadowwalkers [ ]
The Afanc [x]
The Glaber fleet began to jump in over Ghroga. They organised themselves according to the hive they belonged to, then joined the rest of the fleet.
It was something Hanson never thought he'd see in his life. Ships from the five great powers, standing side by side. The Tethyan Battleships, still bearing scars from their last encounter, dominated everything by their size alone. Then there were the Varanid and human ships, with long monopole cannons bolted hastily to their exteriors. The ugly, irregular Glaber Hunters arranged themselves into formations behind them. Then, at last, a small fleet from Unity included a few dodecahedral Albascene ships.
Hundreds of tiny Varanid vessels clung to the outside of every ship. Civilian liners, shuttles, even missiles with warheads removed. Some were still joining the Glaber. These were the chaff, piloted by remote.
The console in front of Hanson chimed. He accepted the call and smiled. “Glad you could make it,” he said.
Uruth snorted. “Did you doubt me?” he said. He leaned forward. “As you can see, I will be commanding the Glaber fleet. We're ready to go when you are.”
“Soon,” Hanson said.
After the call he stood at the console, directing the fleet, checking everything was where it was supposed to be.
After a while, Chang came striding across the space station's hall towards him. “How are we doing?”
“All monopole cannons fitted and operational,” Hanson reported. “The chaff is very nearly in place. We're in communication with the Afanc.”
The Afanc was their ace in the hole. Hanson had kept it in hiding, far from Ghroga, in case the Dominion was watching. They would rendezvous in the last stop outside Tethya.
“Good, very good,” said Chang. “Any news on the Shadowwalkers?”
Hanson shook his head. “They're still ignoring us.”
“We'll have to go on without them, then.”
“Their loss.”
Soon after, a message came in from their scout outside Tethya. Finally, they had an idea about what they'd be facing.
Two Ancient ships. Good – that would give Yilva data on how well the Afanc could handle multiple ships, but less risk of it being overwhelmed.
On top of that, there were the human ships. And the Albascene were out in force.
The strategy was simple enough. All those with monopole cannons – Tethyans, Varanids, and humans – would go after the Ancient ships. Meanwhile, the Glaber, Sweetblade and Unity (who hadn't been entrusted with cannons) would keep the Dominion and Albascene ships off their back.
At last, everything was prepared. Hanson stepped back from the console.
“Ready to take command of your new ship?” Chang asked.
“Yes, sir.”
It came into view as they walked to the dock. The SAV Indomitable. A dreadnought, more than twice as long as the Dauntless. It still bore hastily-patched scars from the last battle. The long tube of a monopole cannon was slung under its belly. Varanid shuttles clung to its hull down its entire length.
At the docking tunnel they stopped to shake hands. “Good luck, James,” said Chang.
“Thank you. You too.”
Everything inside the Indomitable was uncomfortably big. The bulkheads seemed to hum with power. Hanson headed for the CIC.
“Captain on deck!”
They were all there. Lanik, Dunn, Miller, Fermi. For the first time, Hanson began to feel at home. “XO,” he said, nodding to Lanik.
“Sir.”
A circle of ten displays hung from the ceiling over the command console. Hanson gestured at the controls, running a quick system check. Everything was in order.
“Well,” said Hanson. “Are we ready to show Mr. Pierce what we're made of?”
The answer came in unison, from Dunn's slightly overenthusiastic chant to Lanik's calm, measured answer: “Yes, sir!”
Chang's voice came over the comms. “All ships, move out.”
“Fermi?” asked Hanson.
“Calculations prepared, sir.”
“Good. Jump.”
Miller spoke into her console. “Prepare for jump. All hands, prepare for jump.”
A hundred wormholes opened in front of a hundred ships, and the fleet jumped away.
Chapter 62: Pass the Parcel
Hayes sat behind his ship's console, watching the wormholes close. The rippling stars reformed, and everything was quiet again.
In orbit over Ghroga, there were other civilian ships like his own, plus some of the Free Petaur fleet. A few Varanid dreadnoughts remained to protect the planet. The Tethyan noncombatants were hiding elsewhere.
Now was his chance.
With so many Tethyan Battleships around, there was no way he could have gone unnoticed. But now he could slip past undetected.
He took his pistol from the console and headed into the back. The stealth shuttle was ready and waiting. He settled in the little seat, closed the door, and waited for some more bad news to fall on him.
Nothing happened.
With a smile he opened the doors of his liner and let the shuttle drift out into space.
The frigate he'd found had left with the rest of the fleet. But he'd been keeping watch. It hadn't been hard to deduce where they were hiding Emily.
He approached it now. A large luxury liner. It was painted in blue and silver, with an IL logo on its nose. He snorted softly when he saw that.
Cautiously, he guided the shuttle alongside it and brought the two into contact. As soon as a seal was formed, he picked up a cutting torch and opened the hatch in the shuttle's floor.
It was finally time to get Emily.
*
He'd already disabled and faked the security feeds. There were two guards on watch. Hayes took one down before they'd even noticed him, and the other as he reached for his weapon.
He moved the bodies aside, rifled through their pockets, then pressed a strip of smart matter against their fingers.
The door was locked. He fed the control panel their ident cards. It asked him for fingerprint confirmation. He held up the strip of matter to the scanner and ac
tivated it.
The door slid open.
Having dispatched another guard, he found them in an observation room. There was medical equipment in one corner, a collection of board games in the other. A tablet on the wall showed a drawing of a hyena. Emily stood looking out the window at Ghroga. The carer, Anne, was sitting in a chair watching something on a tablet. She noticed him first.
Her eyes went to his pistol. He was holding it casually, pointed down so as not to appear too aggressive.
Dropping the tablet, she stood. “Who the hell are you?”
Emily turned around. She looked more curious than frightened. Hayes addressed her first.
“Miss Millicent has sent me to come and get you,” he said, taking a tablet out of his jacket.
Emily came forward, but Anne put out a hand to stop her. Instead, she stepped forward and took the tablet.
The recording was ready to play. Anne tapped the screen.
“Emily, it's me. It's okay. I've sent Mr. Hayes to come and get you. It is too complicated to explain, but please go with him.”
Still fixing him with a suspicious glare, Anne said, “That's not enough to make me trust you.”
Hayes gave his gun a significant look. “Is this?” He fixed his gaze upon her. “Believe me, I am going to take Emily back to her aunt one way or another. It'd be easier if you were alive – it'd keep the kid happy. But I'm happy to do it without you.”
Anne glared at him. Emily seemed a little wary of him now, too.
“Christ,” hissed Anne, walking across the room towards the medical equipment. “Being shuffled back and forth across the galaxy like it's bloody pass the parcel.” She took the heaviest piece and rolled it towards him. “Let's go, then.”
He led them out of the room and down the corridor, heading back to the stealth shuttle.
“What happened to the men here?” asked Emily.
“They had to go away,” said Hayes. Changing his tone to address Anne, he said, “You'll have to have one on your lap if you want to bring that stuff.”
“I don't want to bring it,” Anne told him in a clipped voice. “She needs it.”
Hayes held up a hand to tell her to be quiet, then glanced around a corner.
All clear. With everything else going on, it seemed no one was too worried about keeping Emily secure.
Halfway down the corridor, there was a hole in the wall, just a few inches off the floor. That was where he'd docked his shuttle. Summoning them with his hand, he strode over to it. He checked both sides of the corridor, listening intently for footsteps.
“It's clear,” he said. “Come over.”
Something came tiny came flying out of the hole. Hayes lifted his pistol as it bounced lightly off his shoulder. He stepped forward.
Then his legs seemed to collapse beneath him. He fired. The pistol made a dull pop. The bullet buried itself in the wall. He saw a head poke out of the hole, grinning. Then he passed out.
*
“Agatha!” said Emily.
“Hey, kid,” said Agatha, crawling out of the hole.
Emily ran up and hugged her.
“Please tell me what the hell is going on here,” Anne said.
Agatha picked up the Albascene stun prod from the floor, turned it off, and pocketed it. “I saved you from this guy,” she said, taking Hayes' pistol, and going through the contents of his jacket.
“He had a message from my aunt.” Emily pointed at the tablet.
“Did he?” Agatha offered the tablet to Emily, who extended it and played it for her.
“Well?” asked Anne.
Agatha considered this for a moment. She made sure to address Emily too. “Imagine your aunt did send out someone to collect you. What if this person – ” She tapped Hayes with her boot. “ – killed that man and stole his tablet?”
Emily thought this over. “Oh,” she said.
“Did he threaten you?” Agatha asked.
Anne looked tired and confused. “Yes,” she said eventually.
“Thought so,” said Agatha. She squatted in front of Emily. “I'm sorry to break the news, but you're in danger. Your aunt has an important role, so a lot of people want to get to you.”
“I know.” Emily looked quite pleased with herself for figuring this out. “It's fun.”
“No, it isn't,” Anne told her.
“We can't stay here,” Agatha said. “It's obvious this place isn't safe. You should come with me.”
Anne made to object, but Agatha turned back to Emily. “Hey, Emily, d'you wanna see a Varanid up close?”
“Yeah!”
“And you trust me, right?”
“Of course!”
“Then let's go!”
Chapter 63: Savage Light
The fleet gathered outside the Tethyan system. The Afanc had finally joined them, it's giant body overshadowing even the Battleships.
Their intel was right. Two Ancient ships were guarding the system, one in orbit over Tethya and one near the star. They were joined by a large fleet of Albascene and Alliance ships.
Hanson stood on the Indomitable's CIC, listening to Admiral Chang's broadcast.
“We're calling the ship closest to the star Ancient One, and the ship over Tethya Ancient Two,” Chang said. “We will concentrate our fire on Ancient One. The Afanc will try to immobilise both ships but concentrate its efforts on Ancient One. Remember, stay in formation. Firing monopole cannons simultaneously is our only chance at doing significant damage. We jump in two minutes.”
The broadcast finished.
Hanson was at work immediately. “Miller, check our communication line to the Afanc. Dunn, monopole cannon status. Fermi, emergency jump calculations in case things go wrong.”
Everything had been checked and double checked, but he wanted to make sure everyone was focused.
“Communications lines are clear.”
“Monopole cannon charged at full capacity.”
“Emergency jump calculations on standby.”
“Good. Prepare for jump.”
A timer on the command console gave a countdown. As soon as it passed twenty seconds, Miller opened shipwide comms. “Prepare for jump. All hands, prepare for jump.”
The timer hit zero. Fermi went to work, and ahead of them, a wormhole opened. It shot towards them. A wave of compression and expansion ran down the ship. The bulkheads creaked. And they were through.
“Location check,” Hanson ordered.
“Ancient One is 20,000 klicks away.” Dunn recited co-ordinates.
They were close. The star blazed a blinding, savage white. All around them, wormholes opened, spitting out ships. Everything was lit up into brilliance by the star's glare. At last, the Afanc emerged. Its own tentacles cast long, dark shadows across its body. Its ridged flesh became a surrealist map of light and dark.
“Get in formation and take us in,” Hanson ordered. “Deploy chaff.”
“Albascene ships closing in,” Dunn reported.
The Glaber, Unity, and Sweetblade fleets pulled away from the rest, spreading out to engage the Albascene. The flashes of kinetics lit up between them. One or two at first, then dozens, then hundreds.
Ancient One swung to face them. By now, they were arranged in formation: Tethyan Battleships arranged themselves into regular arrowheads, with the smaller Alliance and Varanid ships in the gaps between them. Six arrowheads surrounded the Afanc as they flew in together. At this scale, the chaff flying ahead of them really did look like chaff.
“Ancient Two?” asked Hanson.
“It's approaching, but it won't be here for another couple of minutes,” said Dunn.
Ancient One fired.
Great sprays of water erupted from the battleships. Already beginning to boil in the starlight, it joined the chaff ahead of them.
The ripples shattered the chaff and began to dissipate. Great strips of it seemed to fall off and vanish. The remains hit a Battleship, chewing a hole in its side.
Not ideal, but the ho
le was half the size it should have been.
Hanson opened a channel to the Afanc. “Yilva?” he said. “Please don't give us a repeat of last time.”
“We're trying!” Yilva said.
Ancient One flew in towards them, squaring off against the Afanc. Then it seemed to shudder. It still flew towards them, but it didn't turn to aim, and it didn't change course.
“Trajectory's ballistic,” Dunn confirmed. It was drifting without power.
“Fire,” Hanson said.
Every ship in their arrowhead fired monopole cannons together. Silvery threads met on the ragged black surface, and a giant plume of plasma erupted. Seconds later, the other arrowheads joined in.
They concentrated on the same spot, carving deeper and deeper into the Ancient hull.
Around them, pockets of Glaber and Albascene ships harried each other. Nuclear explosions like flashbulbs peppered the space between them. The dodecahedral hulk of a dying Albascene dreadnought, its hull torn open and spraying superheated vapour, rammed into a Glaber Hunter, pushing into another ship behind it.
Hanson checked the command console. Ancient One was still immobilised. The monopole cannons were having an effect, but it was slow work, like trying to cut through a giant girder with a blow torch.
Ancient Two was still closing in. It swept through the furthest Glaber fleet without even bothering to fire. The Hunters crumpled against its hull like gnats on a windshield.
Thirty seconds until it was in range.
Ancient One had a giant scar carved into its surface, but they were still less than a quarter of the way through.
Ancient Two quivered slightly.
“Yilva, please tell me that's you?” Hanson asked.
“I think so!” said Yilva.
There was a stutter to Ancient Two's motions, like it was constantly wrestling free of their effects. It lost power as it drifted into range.
“Direct all attention to Ancient One,” came Chang's voice, broadcast to the fleet. “We can't afford to divide our fire.”
Ancient Two twisted suddenly. It fired into one of the arrowheads. A Varanid dreadnought crumpled and exploded.