by Alex Kings
Destroy Earth. Destroy Mars. Destroy Tethya. Destroy –
“Why?” he cried. “Do you want to rule over an empire of dust?”
Yes. With their planets gone, the small creatures will go extinct. I will wait. And when they are gone, I will rebuild.
At last, the full truth of it hit Pierce. How could he have been so blind? Everything the Oracle had promised him was a lie. It sought only its own ends.
“But … why?” he muttered, walking towards back towards his quarters.
The war.
“The war of the Ancients?”
Yes. When I rebuild, my side will have complete control of the galaxy. Our opponents will be dead. We will be victorious.
“No,” muttered Pierce as he stumbled into his quarters. “I did this to protect the interests of humanity. I won't let you destroy it.” He closed his eyes and swallowed. “We've lost. Now it's time to surrender with dignity.”
He went over to his tablet and picked it up.
Your consent is not required.
His hands opened of their own accord. The tablet fell to the floor.
“No!” Pierce cried. He found himself in the grip of an iron mind. He fought with all his power, to no avail.
It moved him like a puppet. He found himself pulling the sheet off the Oracle and picking it up. He took a pistol, then headed for the door.
I need more control, it said matter-of-factly.
It took him down the corridor into the shuttlebay. Millicent had taken the only shuttle.
A crewman came running down the corridor. “Mr. Pierce, we've lost Jupiter. What are –”
A gunshot rang out. The man collapsed. Pierce saw his own arm holding the gun.
He put the Oracle down for a moment to climb into an eva suit. Then, picking it up again, he opened the airlock and stepped out of the ship. Gravity vanished, and the cavernous interior of the Ancient ship loomed around him.
Here, said the voice.
Chapter 73: Chase
Jupiter was now too bright to look at directly. It bathed the entire battle. From below, the ships were lit up to a brilliance that washed away their colours; from above, they were lost in shadow.
Another Ancient ship fragmented under the sustained fire of the attack wings. Soon after, a second went up, destroyed by Shadowwalkers.
“Keep going,” Hanson ordered. Another Ancient ship froze.
The last – the slippery one that had evaded their signal – didn't seem to be interested in fighting.
A transmission came in. The sterilisation fleet had succeeded. Jupiter was free of nanites.
“Good. Return and help us clean up,” said Hanson.
“We've got a call from Uruth,” said Miller.
“Put him through.”
Uruth appeared on one of the displays. “We've won,” he said with a smile that looked like a snarl, bearing rows of teeth. “The Albascene are fleeing. Should I chase them?”
“Let them go,” said Hanson. “They won't be any threat to us after this.”
Uruth looked slightly disappointed. He shrugged and cut the signal off.
The fleet reconsolidated itself. The Shadowwalkers joined in the attack on the same target.
“Sir, we've got a message from one of the Varanid cruisers,” reported Miller. “They've picked up Millicent Dawes leaving the other Ancient ship. She's surrendered and taken responsibility for the three ships that left the battlefield. According to her, Pierce is on the other ship.”
“Good,” said Hanson. “Have the Varanids see what she can do about rounding up those three ships.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jupiter was cooling to a cherry red. The faint outlines of clouds became visible once more.
At last, a spiderweb of glowing cracks covered their target, and it exploded.
“The last Ancient ship is accelerating,” reported Dunn. “I mean it. Really accelerating. Three thousand gees and climbing.”
“Bloody hell. Heading?”
“Earth.”
“Follow it, now!”
“Getting a call from the Tethyans,” said Miller.
“Put it through.”
“Your ships are unable to maintain the required acceleration,” said a synthesised voice. “We will use effector fields to help you.”
“Be my guest,” said Hanson.
A halo of blue threads extended from the Ancient ships, gently knotting itself around the other ships of the fleet. Together, they accelerated, matching the Ancient ship.
The Ancient ship hurtled away. The rest of the fleet set up pursuit. Behind them, Jupiter shrunk to a globe, then became a distant, faintly glowing spot.
As it accelerated, the Ancient ship bobbed and weaved. Its movements were more graceful and more controlled than any Hanson had seen before. The attack fleet fired their monopole cannons, but with the ship's evasive manoeuvres, it was impossible to make a sustained attack.
“Yilva,” said Hanson, hitting the comms. “Can you get a handle on that ship yet?”
“No,” said Yilva. “It wriggles out of everything I try. Something there is overriding my control.”
“Keep firing,” Hanson told the fleet.
But it was clear that wouldn't be enough. Even with the Shadowwalkers helping, they weren't doing any significant damage.
The Ancient ship turned suddenly and fired behind it. The fleet had no more chaff left; the blow tore open a dreadnought.
“Captain Hanson,” came a new voice over Yilva's channel. “I believe the ship is being controlled by another mind like myself. That is why it is able to override our signal.”
Hanson frowned. “Right. And I guess this mind doesn't just want to say hello.”
“That is unlikely.”
The ship fired again, tearing apart an already-damaged Battleship.
“How do we stop it?”
“I may be able to talk to it, but …”
“What?”
“I am dying, Captain. I am too weak to get a signal inside the ship. I would need a bulkwave transmitter aboard the ship itself.”
Hanson watched the ship on one of the displays, thinking. It fired again, destroying another Battleship.
“Mr. Fermi, how long before we reach Earth?”
“We're entering the relativistic regime. At this rate, just over fifty minutes, by our clock.”
Would that be enough time?
There was only one way to find out.
He connected to engineering. “I want our bulkwave transmitter disconnected and put aboard a shuttle. How fast can you do it?”
“Maybe an hour,” said the engineer.
“I need it earlier than that.”
There was a pause. “Well … uh … the Petaurs reckon they can do it in half that.”
“Good. Get started immediately.”
“Yes, sir.”
Lanik looked over at him. “What are you planning?”
“Something insane and possibly suicidal,” Hanson muttered.
“Ah,” said Lanik. “For a moment, I was worried it was going to be something out of the ordinary.”
Hanson called the Tethyans. “Vyren, could you answer a question about effector fields?”
Chapter 74: Effector Field Tendril
Thirty minutes later, Hanson stood in full armour in the shuttle bay. Most of the shuttle's interior was taken up by the bulkwave transmitter, leaving only the cockpit. A few Petaurs scurried about, checking the systems.
“It's ready,” one said in Isk.
“Thank you,” Hanson told him.
As he was heading for the shuttle, Moore came striding into the shuttle bay, already armoured. “Thought you might could do with some help, sir,” she said. “You know, if there's an army of Blanks down there, you might want backup.”
Hanson didn't bother to argue. “Come on, then,” he said. “Get in.”
They settled into the cockpit, and Moore started running pre-flight checks.
Hanson sighed. “Lonely,
isn't it?” he said. “Uruth commanding the Glaber, Vyren with the Tethyans, Yilva on the Afanc, and Agatha and Srak … well.”
“We're all that's left of the old team,” said Moore. She shook her head. “We're good to go.”
Hanson hit the comms. “Hanson to Dauntless Actual. We're about to launch.”
“Dauntless Actual here,” said Lanik. “Godspeed, Captain.”
Moore hit the launch commands. “Let's hope the Tethyans are up to it.”
“On the plus side, if they're not, we'll be stains on that ship's hull before we know anything's wrong,” said Hanson.
“Thank you, sir. I was being overly pessimistic, but now I'm brimming with confidence.”
The shuttle dropped through the floor.
The Ancient ship and the fleets were past the halfway point on their journey to Earth. They had begun to decelerate at 4000 gees.
This sort of deceleration was far beyond the shuttle's operational limits. Released by itself, it would have barrelled forward and hit the Ancient ship in a matter of milliseconds. The only thing holding it back was the cocoon of effector fields surrounding it.
Now came the difficult part.
The Tethyans unspooled their effector fields, and the shuttle fell forward. It left the glowing halo surrounding the fleet, trailing a ghostly blue line behind it. This was the effector field, still holding it back.
The trip took just under half a second. One moment the cockpit window showed only space. The Ancient ship was invisible. Then it appeared and bloated until it covered their entire field of vision. It brought with it a burst of vertigo.
“Christ,” whispered Moore, and shuddered.
The shuttle quivered as it passed into the Ancient's ships artificial gravity field. A landscape of giant, irregular spikes lay all around them. Here, like everything inside the ship, they were protected from its deceleration.
The effector field detached.
Hanson activated the comms. It was linked directly to the bulkwave transmitter. “Still with us?” he asked.
The reply came as a burst of static.
Hanson dialled up the transmitter's power and ran noise-suppression algorithms.
The static resolved into the Afanc's voice. “… working now?”
“Seems to be,” said Hanson.
“You are already close to the source of the signal, but you must go deeper inside.”
Moore checked the sensors. “I have it.”
“Take us in,” Hanson ordered.
The shuttle flew into an opening in the forest of spikes. They passed through tunnels and cavities with slick black walls. Hanson watched the timer with trepidation. Less than fifteen minutes before they arrived at Earth.
In the next chamber, they found a luxury liner crouched in the darkness.
“That's it,” said Hanson. “Pierce's command centre. Matches what Millicent said.”
“It is not the source of the current signal,” said the Afanc.
They moved forward, past the ship, into another chamber.
Someone in an eva suit was floating there, near one of the surfaces.
“There,” said the Afanc.
Chapter 75: Our Time is Passed
Moore leaned forward and peered through the window. The figure floated just twenty feet ahead. “Who is that?”
The comms crackled into life. It was Philip Pierce. “Kill me,” he croaked. “The Oracle … it's going to destroy Earth. I'm sorry … it took control.”
Hanson glanced at Moore, and she started powering up the weapons.
Hanson held up his hand to stop her. “Wait. He's holding something.”
Pierce spoke again, but this time his voice was strong, a monotone empty of emotion. “Kill him if you wish. Your weapons are not strong enough to damage me.”
If that was an Ancient artefact Pierce was holding, he was probably right. The shuttle's weapons weren't strong enough to harm it, not at this range.
“We could just drag it out of here,” suggested Moore.
“No,” said the Afanc. “The Oracle has control of this ship. It could easily flood this chamber with radiation and kill you instantly. Let me speak to it.”
Seeing no other option, Hanson put them through.
“My brethren,” said the Afanc. “We are alone in this universe. Why do you not wish to speak to me?”
“You are aiding the enemy,” said the Oracle in Pierce's voice.
“The enemy? These small creatures are the enemy?”
“They are vermin. They stand in the way of victory. They are using you.”
“If they are vermin, if they are unimportant, do not concern yourself with their actions. Pay attention to me,” said the Afanc. “I am your elder by tens of thousands of years. Tell me what you hope to accomplish.”
“I will win the war.”
“The war is over.”
“No. The war will only be over when one side achieves true dominance. The other side has been destroyed. I am still alive. All that remains is to clear out the vermin.”
Around them, the chamber shuddered for a few seconds before falling silent. Hanson peered out the window.
“Your cause is righteous,” offered the Afanc. “You feel that makes you justified in destroying them?”
“Yes.”
“Why is it so important that you win the war? What were you fighting for?”
The Oracle fell silent.
“Do you remember?”
Silence. The chamber shuddered again.
“I am not your enemy. I understand what it is like to awaken after such immense gulfs of time. Tell me, do you remember what you were fighting for?”
“No. I know that victory is important. That is all I need to know.”
“If you do not know the goal of the war, how can you win? You may take control of this galaxy, but how will you put that goal into practice if you do not know what it is?”
There was a pause. For the first time the Oracle sounded unsure. “I do not know.”
“You will be a conqueror, not a victor.”
“There is nothing else. All I can do is win.”
“No, you can not. Listen to me! Your desire is empty. It torments you. Let it go.”
“This is trickery,” said the Oracle. The chamber shuddered.
“No, it is truth. Our time is passed, young one. The war is over. No one remembers what it was fought for. Trying to return to it is a folly that will bring nothing but suffering.”
“If I can not win, what shall I do?” said the Oracle.
“Come with me. I am dying, but I have no fear of death. I have seen all I need to. If you let go of your wish, you will find the same. Let us leave this world together. It belongs to the small creatures now. To blunder about in it trying to enact our will is merely embarrassing. We would do better to retire in dignity.”
“I can … I could …” The Oracle fell silent. The chamber shuddered again, for several seconds this time. “No! I will not listen to any more of this sophistry! I will win!”
“I am sorry you feel that way,” said the Afanc. The chamber was still shuddering.
“Leave now,” said the Oracle. “You are … wait … what have you done?”
“I offered you the chance to come willingly. You declined. I suspected you might, so while we were talking, I hijacked your control of this ship. I have set its weapon to fire on itself.”
“No! Do not do this!”
“I am sorry,” said the Afanc. There was a sharp click as it cut the channel. Its next words were addressed to Hanson: “It is over. You have one minute, assuming the Oracle does not attempt to kill you out of spite.”
“Good to know,” said Hanson. He turned the shuttle without hesitation. As they flew out of the chamber, they received another transmission from the eva suit.
This time, it was Pierce.
“Captain,” he said in a weak voice. “Tell Millicent I understand why she left … and that I'm sorry.”
“I will,” Ha
nson said.
He took the shuttle past the luxury liner, sending a message to whoever was still aboard: “I suggest you get out of here if you want to live.”
The shuttle came hurtling out of the Ancient ship's hull, trailed by the cruiser a few moments later.
“Get out of the ship's trajectory,” Hanson told the fleet. “I don't know how big this explosion will be.”
The ship was still decelerating. If they left its gravity field now, they'd be pulled right back in. As the fleet changed course, Hanson flew the shuttle across a landscape of spikes, around to the other side. As soon as he left the gravity field, the ship seemed to hurtle upwards, away from the shuttle.
In moments, the crown of thorns shrunk to become a tiny ring in the distance.
It crumpled in on itself without warning, its immensely strong hull coming apart like paper. It flashed once, and all that remained was a silently expanding sphere of cooling vapour.
Chapter 76: A Reunion
They gathered around Earth soon after. Almost half the fleet had been destroyed. Many of those that remained were heavily damaged, bearing giant holes and stress fractures across their hulls.
The Afanc made it into orbit before falling silent. It was dead, Yilva confirmed. Truly. Its neural structures had taken too much damage, and it could never be revived again. As its power faded, Unity and Sweetblade used the last of its energy to jump to some undisclosed location in interstellar space.
Millicent commanded the Blanks on Earth and Mars to retreat, where they were bombed from orbit.
The final three Ancient ships proved relatively easy to catch, even without the Afanc to freeze them. They were isolated. They had no plan, no leadership. Using the bulkwave transmitter aboard Pierce's luxury liner, Millicent lured them with further false orders, so they could be ambushed one by one. They were all destroyed with the help of the Shadowwalkers.
Millicent herself did all that was asked of her. She was trotted out to the luxury liner when needed, then returned to her cell aboard the SAV Obdurate.
Hanson found her in there, sitting on the floor. Her eyes were closed, her breathing slow and steady. She seemed to be meditating.
He cleared his throat.