‘What the…? You’ve been shut down!’
‘Helena, I need you to be quiet and to listen to me very carefully.’
Schmidt’s tone and expression was so serious that every retort and protest she had formulated immediately fell away into silence as she listened.
‘Admiral Marshall has gone rogue and is operating without the consent of the Senate,’ Schmidt said. ‘I have been framed for the attempted spread of a new plague, in order to conceal Marshall’s genocidal plan to eradicate the Aleeyans and all undesirable humans so that the elite living on the surface can inherit humanity’s future.’
Helena stared at Schmidt for a moment.
‘How can I believe you? You’re alleged to have started this whole thing with your assistant, Jean Alliso!’
Beside Schmidt appeared a small blue head and Helena gasped as she saw Ironside looking back at her.
‘It can’t be the truth,’ he told her, ‘but then this whole thing could be a deception, I just don’t know everything right now. All I can say for sure is that Schmidt isn’t behind this, Helena, his assistant was working alone and was half machine himself, I saw his face. It’s no wonder he was an Ayleean sympathizer. Somebody else has planned this whole thing and they’re this close to pulling it off, and we’re pretty sure that Marshall is the weapon they’re using to crush any dissent.’
Helena looked up and down the hall in case anybody was listening in, but in the heat of the battle every man and woman was at their post.
‘You’re talking about a military coup d’etat!’ she gasped. ‘That hasn’t happened in hundreds of years!’
‘We know,’ Ironside replied. ‘That’s why we’ve got to shut this thing down before anybody gets to Earth.’
Helena looked back at the bridge doors. ‘Half of the fleet is engaged here,’ she said. ‘Marshall and the others are determined to crush the Aleeyans once and for all.’
‘That’s right,’ Ironside replied, ‘and with them gone there is no other military force with the strength to oppose Marshall. The Admiral will be able to do anything he wants, anytime he wants and without the Aleeyans to distract him.’
Helena frowned. ‘Where are you?’
‘We’re aboard the Aleeyan ship,’ Schmidt said, ‘and we’d very much like to get off.’
‘There are fighters all over the place out there,’ she said. ‘Even if you could launch, you’d be blown to pieces long before you could get back on board Titan!’
‘We don’t want to get off here,’ Ironside said. ‘We want to get back to Earth.’
‘What, now?’
‘Right now,’ Schmidt confirmed. ‘The only way to stop this is to get back to the planet and find out who’s behind it.’
‘How are you going to do that?’
‘It doesn’t matter right now,’ Ironside cut in. ‘We have to let the Senate know of what’s happened.’
Helena knew without a shadow of doubt that the doctor and Ironside wanted her to do something to help them, and she felt a pinch of fear in her belly as she realized that to aid and abet a suspected criminal like Schmidt could see her career brought to a premature and tragic end.
‘I don’t want to go to prison,’ she said.
‘And I don’t want to die,’ Schmidt snapped back, and then coughed and added: ‘Again.’
‘Marshall can’t be trusted,’ Ironside said to her. ‘We need to do this on our own. Can you get Schmidt back into the system aboard Titan?’
Helena’s eyes flew wide. ‘What the hell for?!’
‘Because I’m already in the Aleeyan’s systems,’ Schmidt replied with a cunning smile. ‘If I can take control of both of the major spacecraft in the fleet, then I might be able to do something about bringing the battle back under control.’
‘What do you mean, back under control?’
‘Marshall’s committing genocide,’ Ironside insisted. ‘The colony ship we found was not attacked by the Aleeyans, who came here following the same distress signal as the fleet did. This whole thing was set up and a major battle is precisely what whoever is behind all of this wanted. We’ve got to stop it.’
The ship suddenly heeled over sharply and Helena staggered across the corridor as she heard the sound of massive plasma salvos blasting the huge ship. Sparks flew from overloaded circuitry to shower down in bright halos around Helena and she covered her head as she sought the relative safety of an alcove.
‘What do you want me to do?’ she asked.
Schmidt’s voice came back calm and controlled.
‘Plug your communicator into the nearest data panel,’ he said. ‘I can do the rest from here.’
Helena looked about her and saw an active panel perhaps twenty metres from where she stood. She struck out across the corridor, dodging the showers of sparks as she went.
‘They’ll be able to trace the link back to my communicator, back to me,’ Helena complained.
‘By the time they realize what’s happened, we’ll have exposed them all,’ Schmidt assured her. ‘It’s vital we do this as quickly as possible, while there is still time to prevent this massacre and the suffering of millions of human beings.’
Helena reached the panel and held out the communicator toward it, and then hesitated.
‘Helena,’ Ironside urged, ‘this isn’t a rehearsal. Plug it in.’
‘You two could be in this together,’ she said. ‘You could be using me to send the fleet into defeat.’
Ironside shook his head. ‘You think I’d be into something with this guy? I’ve been dead for four centuries – there’s nothing in this for me, other than to do what I can to prevent a tragedy that’ll make the last plague look like a walk in the park.’
Schmidt too shook his head.
‘We’re doctors,’ he said to her. ‘Saving lives is what we trained to do, what I’m still here for.’
‘The holosaps once tried to eradicate humanity when they gained political power in Britain,’ Helena pointed out.
‘And if that’s the case,’ Ironside replied, ‘then trust me I’ll turn this guy off myself, because the only reason he’s here is me. I chose this, Helena, because something’s not right with everything I’ve seen and I’m not going to quit until I solve it. You can either help us or you can run to Marshall right now, but you saw what happened to that colony ship. There were a thousand people aboard her, Helena: men, women and children. I was the one who first contracted the plague, the vessel it used to infect humanity – I hate nothing more in my life than that plague and I’m not going to let it attack mankind again, not on my watch. Besides, do you really think I’d be able to wake up after four centuries of being an oversized Popsicle and then go arrange another pandemic within forty eight hours?’
Helena looked at Ironside for a moment longer and then she plugged her communicator into the wall panel.
‘I sure hope I’m not going to regret this,’ she muttered.
‘So do we,’ Schmidt said, and then closed his eyes as he opened the data streams and began absorbing the information.
‘Foxx?’ Ironside asked Helena.
‘Last I saw she was stable and being transported back to earth, but it won’t last long,’ Helena replied. ‘The plague will start attacking her body soon.’
‘Tell her what I’ve told you,’ Ironside urged her. ‘It might help if she can get her team back on New Washington up to speed.’
‘I’ll do that,’ Helena promised.
Schmidt’s eyes opened and he looked round at Ironside. ‘We’ve got a problem.’
‘What?’ Helena asked.
‘The orbital stations have already been quarantined and the public are in disarray,’ he said. ‘The military are already in control on Earth.’
***
XLII
Nathan heard Schmidt’s words even above the crescendo of blows now hammering down on the ship’s hull from outside. The heat was intense within the narrow alcove in which he sheltered, and the mist clogging the corridors seemed to
restrict his breathing.
‘This is it,’ he said, never more sure now of the plan behind the plague. ‘The Aleeyans attack at the same time as a new plague is spreading. The military have no choice but to enforce Marshall Law, no pun intended, claiming that not to do so will threaten the very existence of the human race. The cause for war is met, the Aleeyans are slaughtered wholesale both here and on their home world, and the orbital cities…’
Nathan paused as he realized that whatever happened on Earth, they would never let infected citizens travel down to the surface now. That would mean that cities like New Washington would have to be…’
‘They’ll keep them quarantined and allow the populations to die,’ Schmidt said. ‘They won’t treat the infected and risk spreading the new plague to the surface.’
Nathan stared into the middle distance for a long moment as he thought again of Foxx, Vasquez and Allen, of Doctor Sears and the countless lives that would be lost if Marshall’s insane play for dominance and empire was successful.
‘Can we get there before the fleet?’
Schmidt shook his head. ‘The fighter and shuttle craft aboard this vessel are not designed for super luminal cruise. I’m afraid that there is no way for us to escape this vessel and reach Earth.’
Nathan heard footsteps thundering toward them and ducked further back into the alcove as a squad of Aleeyan troops rushed by, their weapons at the ready.
‘It’s only a matter of time before we’re located,’ Schmidt said. ‘We need to make a decision now. Either we cross back to Titan and hope that her crew believes us and remove Marshall from the captaincy, or…’
Nathan nodded. ‘Or, we try to convince the Aleeyans to take us there instead.’
The small holographic image of Helena stared back out at him in horror. ‘You’re kidding, right?’
‘I’m not,’ Nathan replied. ‘We don’t have any other way off this damned ship and if we try to fly a fighter out of here we’ll be blasted to hell anyway.’
Schmidt shook his head. ‘There is another way.’
Nathan frowned. ‘What other way?’
*
CSS Titan
‘Fire!’
Admiral Marshall jumped up out of his seat and screamed the order loudly enough to be heard above the barrage of information, radio calls and plasma salvos thundering across the ship.
Helena staggered back onto the bridge and crouched alongside a main brace as she saw the main display show Titan roll onto her side beneath a huge Aleeyan vessel’s immense hull and a tremendous blaze of plasma fire rush like a tsunami of white fire toward her.
The blasts impacted one after the other with brilliant flares of light so bright that she was forced to turn her head away and shield her eyes. A chorus of whoops and cheers went up from the bridge crew as the shots landed in rapid succession, and then they turned to a roar of elation as Helena looked up and saw the battleship’s tremendous bulk suddenly split. Rivers of fire spread across the metallic belly of the ship and clouds of sparkling debris burst outward into space, gases frozen solid in an instant as they escaped from the interior.
‘Finish her!’ Marshall bellowed.
Titan rolled once again and another fearsome barrage raked the stricken warship from bow to stern. Titan shuddered as she launched each salvo and the huge enemy ship seemed to momentarily vanish from view amid the blazing storm of plasma until suddenly the screen’s display was seared by the light of the sun breaking over Neptune’s immense horizon.
Helena shielded her eyes again as another roar of victory went up from the crew and she realized that the sun hadn’t appeared over the planet’s edge at all. Instead, the engine core of the huge Aleeyan battleship had been breached and pure, raw energy had been unleashed. A cataclysmic blast radiated out from the vessel as the power of matter and anti-matter’s complete annihilation swept across the bitter vacuum of space. Titan’s huge hull rocked in the shockwave and Helena felt physically sick as she saw the enemy vessel torn into a billion pieces by the fearsome explosion.
‘Whoa, that got ‘em!’ Olsen yelled, one fist clenched against his chest.
‘Hard to port, flank speed!’ Marshall yelled. ‘I want Havok’s capital ship!’
Titan rolled to one side as she turned, her plasma batteries recharging as she aimed for the enemy’s flagship. Helena saw the huge vessel loom into view as Titan turned, the massive craft fully engaged with no less than five frigates. A series of blasts hammered Titan and she trembled beneath the blows as the tactical officer called out a warning.
‘They’re pitting everything against us, admiral!’
‘I wouldn’t have it any other way!’ Marshall yelled, and to Helena’s horror he actually seemed to be enjoying himself despite the terrible slaughter ongoing outside. ‘Full speed ahead, take her on!’
The helmsman threw his throttle banks forward and Titan accelerated toward her enemy, the ships engaged in a slow-motion dance as plasma salvoes blazed between them. Helena could see that one of the Aleeyan frigates was limping away from the engagement, her hull trailing debris and clouds of gas that sparkled in the sunlight creeping over Neptune’s horizon.
‘Almost within range!’ the tactical officer called.
‘Prepare for a high pass, port batteries at the ready!’ Marshall ordered.
*
‘Shields at twenty eight per cent! The frigates are falling back and we’re outnumbered!’
Havok heard the warning from his second-in-command, but he ignored him as he watched the battle unfold.
There was no doubt that he could not win, but then he assumed that being lured here to fight an impossible battle was precisely what the humans had wanted all along. There would be no evidence of the colony ship when the diplomatic teams inevitably came to discuss the incident: the humans would claim an illegal invasion of their space and an appropriate defense. That Havok’s fleet was hopelessly outnumbered would not be considered, only the assertion that they were bringing the plague to humankind and extreme measures had been necessary.
The CSS fleet might not stop there, though.
Havok knew that Aleeya was not as well defended as earth, and that in the past it had been diplomacy that had prevented a full-blown attack by the CSS. Three times had the Aleeyans faced humans in open battle and three times had his people been defeated. Three times.
‘We’re being engaged, captain,’ his officer warned. ‘Titan is engaging us!’
There was a hint of concern in the officer’s voice – not fear, but concern. Titan was undefeated and every Aleeyan knew of both the ship’s reputation and the uncompromising nature of her commander, Admiral Marshall. Havok knew that there would be no quarter, that Marshall would push his advantage now that one of the three Aleeyan capital ships had been utterly destroyed in open battle.
‘We should withdraw, immediately!’
Havok did not respond to his second-in-command, staring instead at the tactical display where he could see that the CSS vessels were starting to overwhelm his fleet. Superior firepower, better training, better resources, more robust ships – everything that a commander could hope for in battle rested with the humans.
‘Captain?’
He blinked and turned, saw the misty confines of the bridge flickering as though on fire as sparks and blinking warning lights caused a kaleidoscope of color to illuminate the otherwise darkened bridge. Smoke mingled now with the humid air, a clear indicator of the damage his ship was taking.
‘We can’t win this fight,’ the nearby officer urged him. ‘To continue now is to commit us all to death!’
Havok looked one last time at the tactical display and he made his decision.
‘This will be the last time we will make a stand against humanity,’ he growled. ‘There will be no diplomacy in the wake of this attack. The humans will pursue us now and forever more, across the galaxy if they must, because they want us gone from history.’
Havok turned and looked at his comrades, his brothe
rs in arms, as they sat at their stations with hatred and futile rage in their eyes.
‘They have shown us that they wish every last one of us to be dead, and this trap that they have set is their justification. It cannot have been achieved without the knowledge of the human’s Senate, and thus we have nobody left to turn to and plead our case. We will be hunted as aggressors and the eradication of our kind will be complete.’
Havok took a sombre breath and then turned to his second-in-command.
‘Order the fleet to disengage and return to Aleeya, maximum super-luminal velocity! The cure must reach our people!’
The officer turned to relay the order as Havok called to his helmsman.
‘Take course oh-three-eight, elevation five-two, maximum sub-luminal velocity.’
A hush fell upon the bridge for a long moment. ‘But that’s a direct collision course with Titan and…’
‘Do it!’ Havok roared. ‘Let us finish what they began! If our species must die then let’s take their warmongering admiral with us! Let’s show them what it means to be Aleeyan!’
The clouds of doubt were blasted aside by a roar of approval that soared across the bridge and the helmsman turned the warship, her broad bow swinging around to point directly at Titan. Havok stood upon the bridge and grinned, rage and pain and hatred searing his heart as he glared at the hated human battleship as though he could destroy her by fury alone.
‘Five thousand meters and closing!’ his tactical officer called. ‘They’re manoeuvring for a firing solution!’
‘Deny them!’ Havok yelled with the carefree prowess of the terminally doomed. ‘Hit them square in the centre!’
The huge human warship moved quickly despite her gargantuan size, Havok could see, but even she could not reposition herself quickly enough against the kind of attack now bearing down upon her. Havok grabbed hold of the combat rail and kept his gaze fixed upon Titan, willing his own vessel with all of his heart to reach her and crash through her with the unstoppable might of millions of tons of mass.
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