‘My mistake,’ Nathan replied and turned to face the Marine. ‘If you want your men to get off this ship alive, leave right now.’
Sergeant Agry stared at Nathan for a moment and whatever he saw there in Nathan’s expression was enough to convince him.
‘Delta Company, withdraw immediately to rendezvous point Echo and prepare for extraction. Call the shuttle!’
Nathan turned to Schmidt. ‘The drones, you said that some of them were carrying an inert substance that wasn’t venom.’
Schmidt’s eyebrows raised as he considered this.
‘I didn’t have time to analyze them. You think that it’s the drug that incapacitated Foxx on New Washington?’
‘I’ll be willing to bet that if it’s not, it’ll be something to do with it,’ Nathan said as he recalled the drones. ‘Can you check it out, find out what it’s really for?’
‘I’ll get right on it,’ Schmidt said. ‘What about this ship?’
Nathan turned to Sergeant Agry. ‘We need to get off it and then blow it to pieces, utterly annihilate it.’
Sergeant Agry was about to reply when his communications channel barked a warning.
‘Delta Company, extract now, new contact in-bound!’
Nathan realized that his hunch had been correct, and that the giant ship aboard which they were standing was not just a plague ship but a trap.
‘Too late!’ a Marine corporal yelled from one of the work stations.
The soldier activated a holographic display and Nathan saw an image of Neptune’s vast and graceful blue sphere appear in the center of the bridge, along with a depiction of the locations of Titan and Icarus. There, alongside them, was a fast-closing red blip that suddenly came to a halt almost on top of their position.
The soldier activated another screen and an image appeared of Titan, Icarus and a third vessel. Nathan noted her sharp, rakish lines and aggressive styling, the styling of a warship bearing down upon Titan.
Sergeant Agry hissed a single word as he saw the huge warship.
‘Aleeyans.’
***
XXXII
‘Battle stations!’
Captain Marshall’s voice boomed across Titan’s bridge as the vessel heaved into motion, the helmsman simultaneously slamming the throttles to maximum sub-luminal power and diving and rolling all at once to spoil the attacking vessel’s aim.
The huge warship plunged downward and away from the stricken Icarus, her broad hull rolling as she fought to bring her main weapons to bear upon the new arrival.
‘Launch the alert fighters, cats one and four!’ Marshall ordered as he pointed at the Commander of the Air Group’s station. ‘Shields up and all power to combat sensors and engines!’
The crew scrambled to carry out their orders as from the battleship’s launch bays Marshall saw pairs of Phantom fighters streak out into space even as the ship was maneuvering, their sleek wings rolling and their engines blazing as they turned toward the warship bearing down upon their position.
‘Aleeyan vessel is charging weapons!’ cried a tactical officer. ‘Their shields are up and they’re moving into attack position. Range twelve thousand meters and closing!’
Marshall whirled to his Executive Officer, Olsen, who was standing nearby and maintaining a watch on the tactical displays. ‘Where are our people?!’
‘Moving to extraction from the landing bay!’ Olsen replied, his back ramrod straight and his upper lip adorned with a metallic moustache favored by older servicemen. ‘Two minutes and they’ll be off the deck!’
‘Not fast enough,’ Marshall said as he looked at the tactical displays. Years of experience told him in an instant what he needed to know. ‘They’ll hit Icarus. Get us in their way right now!’
The helmsman responded with the speed of thought, Titan pulling up hard toward an intercept point between the colony vessel and the incoming warship.
‘She’s firing!’ the tactical officer yelled. ‘Salvo four, incoming!’
Marshall looked at the optical display and saw four fiery red charges streaking from the Aleeyan warship toward Icarus, just as he had predicted.
‘Get a warning to them!’ Marshall yelled even as Olsen passed on the warning to Sergeant Agry and his men.
The red charges smashed into the stern of Icarus with a series of blasts that flared in the darkness of space and contrasted sharply with the blue hue of the gas giant below them. Marshall saw the rear of the defenseless ship shattered by the impacts, saw clouds of sparkling debris expand away from the blasts amid clouds of escaping gas that were instantly frozen by the chill vacuum of space.
‘She’s been breached on all stern decks!’ the tactical officer called. ‘She’s losing atmosphere fast!’
Marshall whirled to a technical officer on his left. ‘Can we hack her internal systems, shut the bulkheads down and give the Marines more time?!’
‘I’m already trying captain!’ the officer replied. ‘But the ship’s computers have already been hacked and our military override codes are not working!’
‘Ambush attack,’ Olsen said out loud. ‘They’re one step ahead of us, probably planned this whole damned thing.’
Marshall scanned the tactical displays and saw his fighters forming a defensive perimeter in case the Aleeyans attempted a fighter assault as well, and then saw the shape of Titan moving protectively in front of the damaged colonial vessel.
‘We’re blocking their line of fire,’ Olsen reported. ‘Whatever they’re here for, they’re going to ask for it real soon.’
As if on cue the communications officer signalled the captain.
‘Incoming transmission, high frequency channel. The Aleeyans want to talk.’
Marshall stood with his fists clenched and his jaw tense as he glared at the display showing the huge warship looming closer now. Her hull was a deep red in color, as warlike as any scheme could be, and now as she passed before the contrasting blue light from Neptune she looked like some exotic predatory shark cruising the blue depths of the ocean.
‘We don’t negotiate with terrorists,’ Marshall snapped.
Olsen’s voice whispered to Marshall, low enough not to be heard by the rest of the crew.
‘Captain, our people are still on Icarus and we don’t even know why the Aleeyans are here. This could be something else entirely. Perhaps it would be wiser to at least give them the chance to speak.’
‘You remember what Dwight said before he died: Aleeyans,’ Marshall uttered back. ‘They caused this, and you want me to dignify them with talk? We should blow them to hell right here!’
‘They’re up to something,’ Olsen insisted. ‘Maybe that’s what they want, a justification to continue an attack. Let them talk, and if they don’t satisfy us we take them down.’
Marshall fumed in silence for a few moments and then he directed a sharp nod at the communications officer, a holosap named Alison who was bestowed with a century’s worth of data in communications and languages.
‘Open a channel,’ he ordered. ‘Maximum security sheilding. I don’t want this conversation being tracked by third parties.’
‘Aye sir, opening channel now.’
Marshall turned to watch an open area before the main viewing screen, and there upon it appeared the towering holographic image of an Aleeyan warrior, his form so vivid and solid it appeared that he truly was standing right there on Titan’s bridge.
The Aleeyan was eight feet tall and bore only a superficial resemblance to a human being. A powerful musculature was visible beneath a hard, leathery skin that was mostly dark brown but flecked with patches of lighter color, almost gold. Dressed in metallic armor that covered approximately half of the Aleeyan’s body, the rest was naked but for the thin, skin-like nano-shielding that the species traditionally wore. Its head was a tangled mess of thick black hair surrounding a thick, heavy boned jaw, hunched shoulders and a fearsome yellow eye. The other eye was covered by a device that seemed to be some kind of laser sight, a thin red bea
m flickering as it caught on dust motes in the air aboard the Aleeyan ship that were faithfully reproduced by the projection. The Aleeyan had small, sharp teeth that had been ritualistically filed, its lips thin and regressed as though the creature was showing a permanent snarl, and it wore a large plasma rifle in a long sheath on its back.
‘Greetings,’ the Aleeyan growled. ‘I am Captain Shylo Havok, of the Aleeyan Destroyer Wrath.’
‘Admiral Marshall, CSS Titan,’ Marshall replied with a distaste equal to that of the Aleeyan warrior. ‘This is Republic Space and you’re not welcome here. Leave at once or face the consequences of …’
‘Your lives are in my hands.’
The Aleeyan’s interruption was not forceful, but his claim and his apparent lack of concern forced Marshall to think fast.
‘This ship has repelled simultaneous attacks from not one but three of your destroyers in the past and prevailed,’ Marshall replied with not a little pride. ‘You’re no threat to us.’
‘I wasn’t talking about you,’ Havok replied. ‘I was talking about humanity.’
The bridge of Titan had already become quiet as the crew listened to the exchange, but now it seemed as though they had stopped breathing as well. Marshall could hear the tiny beeps from computer workstations right across the far side of the bridge, and for once was acutely aware of the eyes of his crew watching him.
‘Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,’ he said finally. ‘If you’ve nothing real to say then leave or we’ll vaporize you.’
Marshall had never much been one for diplomacy and now the Aleeyan snarled at him as he replied, his vicious white teeth brilliant against his leathery skin.
‘Then do so,’ he grinned. ‘But it will make no difference, for we are here not to fight you but to witness your demise. Your people aboard that ship, they will not be alive for long captain. We are here to watch them die.’
Marshall felt something cold creeping up his spine as he tried to fathom what Havok was talking about. Gut instinct told him that it was something to do with the plague, but then he heard Alison calling him.
‘Priority signal from Earth, captain,’ she said, and he could hear the concern in her voice. ‘A frigate has just come out of super luminal into the system. You need to take this one.’
Marshall yanked the blade of one hand across his throat and purposefully turned his back on Havok, knowing that the support from the frigate had now turned the tide of the confrontation fully in their favour. He glimpsed the warrior’s face twist in outrage at the insult just a moment before his image vanished from the bridge. It was replaced by the form of a CSS Captain.
‘Captain Reece, CSS Endeavour.’
‘Captain,’ Marshall greeted him. ‘What news?’
‘The fleet received a priority signal an hour after you left Polaris,’ Reece informed him. ‘The police on New Washington have been conducting an investigation into drug runners operating out of the city and have uncovered evidence that could jeopardize the mission.’
‘In what way?’ Marshall asked, momentarily thrown by the reference to the decaying orbital city.
‘They claim that a new form of the drug Shiver has been purposefully manufactured to remove human immunity to plague, sir,’ Reece replied nervously. ‘They’re asking that we do not board any unknown craft or engage with any colonies on the rim without first ensuring that all involved are wearing full bio-hazard gear.’
Marshall barely heard Reece’s last as his eyes flicked to the tactical display and the icon showing the position of Icarus.
‘They’ve been aboard over an hour,’ Olsen said as he moved alongside the captain. ‘Our last communication reported that one member of the team was down, some kind of illness, and requested extraction.’
‘There’s more,’ Reece said. ‘They believe that Doctor Hans Schmidt, one of the team assigned to Titan, or people on his team, may be involved. They’ve discovered links between the medical team and Aleeyan sympathizers in the orbital cities.’
‘That’s ridiculous!’ Doctor Helena Sears cried in disbelief from where she was standing on the bridge. ‘Doctor Schmidt has dedicated years of his career to reviving and protecting Nathan Ironside.’
Marshall thought long and hard before he replied to Reece.
‘Take up battle stations, defensive position,’ he ordered. ‘Stand by for further orders.’
Captain Reece saluted and his projection vanished as Olsen whispered to Marshall.
‘We can’t afford to bring them back aboard,’ he warned. ‘If the reports from New Washington are accurate, the team could be compromised.’
‘They could also be cured,’ Marshall said and glanced at Alison. Moments later the Aleeyan captain’s image reappeared before them and Havok growled.
‘You cut me off, an insult to my…,’
‘I don’t give a damn,’ Marshall snapped back, ‘and we don’t appreciate being threatened. You claim to hold humanity’s existence in your hands and that you’re here to watch the flames go up?’
Havok’s grimace changed to a cruel smile, although in truth it was hard to tell much of a difference between the two.
‘You are already doomed,’ he replied calmly. ‘Soon, there will be no more wars between us for you will no longer exist.’
‘You’re talking about the sickness aboard that ship,’ Marshall said, deciding to come right out with it and call the Aleeyan’s bluff. ‘What about it?’
‘Your people are not immune any longer,’ Havok sneered, one long finger pointed at Marshall. ‘The plague has returned and this time its work will be completed and we will be here to witness the final days of the human race.’
Marshall feigned a yawn and shoved one hand into his pocket as he examined his fingertips.
‘Been there, done that,’ he said. ‘You’ve launched assaults on the solar system four times in thirty years and been repelled every time with massive casualties and the loss of your fleets. This time, you’re trying to poison us. It won’t work. Our people will by now already be creating the cure.’
‘I doubt that,’ Havok replied, ‘as such a thing does not exist, captain. This is the end for all of you.’
Marshall grinned without warmth. ‘No, captain, it’s the end of you.’ Marshall’s head whipped around to the tactical officer. ‘Offensive positions, cleared to engage!’
Marshall was about to cut off the communications channel when the Aleeyan raised one eyebrow.
‘You cannot engage a fleet, admiral.’
Marshall hesitated and on cue the tactical officer yelped in surprise.
‘Multiple contacts bearing oh-five-niner, elevation two six degrees!’
The tactical display behind Havok’s image showed a vast fleet of vessels rush out of super-luminal cruise and into view. Marshall saw perhaps thirty battle-class vessels, saw the alarm signals begin flashing as Titan was automatically targeted by the Aleeyan craft, their massive plasma cannons switching on.
Olsen whirled.
‘We’re out-numbered! Twelve destroyers, eight frigates and assorted cruisers!’
Marshall took the information in and felt his guts twist in fury as he realized that he had been caught by surprise and that there was no way a single battleship and a frigate could hope to win against such an overwhelming force. His gaze fell upon Icarus, stranded in orbit above Neptune’s serene blue atmosphere, and as he saw the Aleeyan warship open fire on the colony vessel he knew that he had no choice. A flare of plasma shots hammered the disabled vessel’s stern once more, silent explosions ripping across the ship.
‘What do you want?’ he asked the Aleeyan captain.
Havok smiled. ‘I’ll let you leave, in return for just one man. Hand him over, or we’ll blow you and your ships to hell.’
‘Whom? Me?’
Havok grinned. ‘You flatter yourself, admiral. No, you’re not nearly important enough. I want a man named Nathan Ironside.’
An instant later, Havok jerked one hand acr
oss his throat and turned his back on Marshall just as the communications channel was cut off.
***
XXXIII
‘You can’t do that! You can’t just hand Nathan over to those animals!’ Helena Sears insisted as Marshall turned away from where the Ayleean’s holographic projection had been moments before.
Marshall shot her an angry look.
‘His medical team are suspected of sympathizing with our enemy and now the Aleeyans want Ironside. What do you expect me to do? Ignore the obvious?!’
‘Nathan’s caught up in something here that’s not his fault!’ Helena insisted.
‘So are we,’ Marshall growled back as he turned to Olsen. ‘Where is Doctor Schmidt right now?’
‘He’s still aboard Icarus with the boarding team.’
‘Shut him down, effective immediately,’ Marshall ordered.
‘You can’t do that!’ Helena insisted. ‘That’s homicide!’
‘It’s security!’
‘Whatever happened to innocent before proven guilty?!’
‘Extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary measures!’ Marshall boomed back at her across the bridge, loudly enough to momentarily silence the entire crew. ‘And if you question my orders one more time, I’ll have you thrown into the brig for good measure, doctor, because in case it’s escaped your attention you’re on the same medical team as Doctor Schimdt!’
Helena Sears fumed in shocked silence as the admiral turned to his communications officer. ‘Signal the Marines!’
*
‘Go, now!’
The ship rocked violently as the Marines staggered onto the launch bay, showers of sparks cascading like burning water from the ceiling as the shuttle appeared through the bay doors ahead of them.
The Marines ran with Foxx aloft on a stretcher between them, the shuttle’s doors opening as the craft turned around in mid-air, ready to blast her way out of the bay once more. Nathan watched as the troops carried Foxx safely aboard, and then he turned and saw Sergeant Agry running behind him and shout into his communicator.
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