‘Victory is down,’ the tactical officer said, the regret clear in his tones. ‘Enemy, dead ahead.’
Marshall turned his attention to the Marauder closing in on them at the bow. The enemy ship’s immense plasma cannons glowing with restrained energy as she lined up her first shots while shouldering immense plasma salvos from Pegasus, which was passing her port flank.
‘Stare her down and keep moving!’ Marshall ordered the fleet. ‘Hit her as soon as we’re within range. All power to bow shields and prepare to get in close!’
‘Aye, admiral!’
The Marauder closed in, her hull glowing both in the light from the nebula of battle and from fires across her flanks. Marshall braced himself for the attack, and then he saw the Marauder suddenly heel over and begin turning away. Even as he realized that she was turning so the tactical officer cried out.
‘They’re disengaging!’
Marshall turned to the tactical display and saw the Marauders splitting out of the battle in multiple directions, scattering to prevent any one of their remaining vessels becoming a target for the CSS fleet. The bridge crew burst into cheers once more, this time echoed across the communications channels as the crews of other ships in the fleet joined in with a gross but most welcome misuse of CSS fleet resources.
Marshall finally felt the tension drain from his shoulders and chest, the stress of battle beginning to subside as he watched the Marauders turn tail on the immense glowing clouds of ionized gas and burning debris. A few moments later, their hulls were surrounded by rippling gravity wells and then with flashes of bright white light they vanished into super luminal cruise.
‘Victory,’ Olsen yelled and clapped the admiral on the back.
Marshall nodded, his mind echoing with a single quote that he could not for the life of him recall who originally spoke it, but that had endured for centuries.
United we stand, divided we fall.
*
Polaris Station
Nathan stepped off the shuttle with Sula, Foxx, Vasquez and Allen onto a crowded landing bay filled with crews all disembarking from warships now moving in to dock for repairs. A flotilla of smaller fast corvettes from the British fleet had been dispatched to discreetly follow the enemy Marauders, to ensure that their flight from the battlefield was not a ruse to tempt the CSS fleet drop their guard. As far as Nathan could gather, the Marauders had not yet dropped out of super luminal and were a long, long way from the Sol System.
‘Detective Ironhead!’
Nathan saw Doctor Schmidt awaiting them on the deck, and beside him a woman with bobbed dark hair and a smoldering gaze that could have melted metal from a distance.
‘Ah,’ Nathan said as he looked down at Sula.
‘Ah,’ she echoed.
Rosaline stepped away from the doctor and hurried to Sula before throwing her arms around her daughter. Nathan changed direction, deciding that he would be better off avoiding Rosaline for the time being until Sula explained exactly what had happened out there in the Ayleean system.
All around Nathan could see family members of serving CSS crew who had been flown out to the station to meet their loved ones. Detective Jay Allen held his wife, their infant child between them, Sula was with her mother, and even Vasquez was in a passionate clinch with an exotic looking woman who was evidently his current squeeze, the dark skin of her arms laced with chrome tattoos.
‘Your time will come,’ Foxx said as she noticed the direction of his gaze.
‘That an offer?’
‘Don’t get cute with me.’
‘I don’t see anybody rushing to your side either,’ Nathan said, and then noticed the little shadow that passed behind her eyes. ‘You know I didn’t mean that in a…’
‘I know,’ Foxx said.
Among the crews disembarking from shuttles and fighters were a tight knot of a hundred fifty blood–soaked Ayleen warriors who looked as though they were on the verge of panic, surrounded by humans who were all giving them a wide berth but for one. A single CSS pilot stood with them.
Nathan walked over to the pilot, who peered up at him.
‘Nice timing on the rescue there,’ he said. ‘Are you Sula’s father?’
‘No,’ Nathan replied. ‘Her father was a pilot, like you. He died at Proxima Centauri.’
Tyrone Hackett’s features shadowed with something that looked like a volatile fusion of realization and regret as the pilot’s gaze flicked to Sula, who was standing nearby and arguing with an older woman.
‘Damn,’ was all he could say.
‘I’m a family friend,’ Nathan said. ‘Just wanted to thank you for looking out for her.’
Tyrone blinked. ‘I’m afraid she saved my ass…’
‘As far as I understand it,’ Admiral Marshall said as he strode to join them on the flight deck, ‘you both saved a lot of people over the last two days. You should be proud of yourselves.’
Nathan managed a smile as the admiral shook his hand vigorously, the old man clearly beginning to suffer the after effects of battle, which for him meant showing emotions other than grumpiness. Then, the admiral turned to look at the towering Ayleean warriors huddled together and watching the events surrounding them with suspicious gazes.
Tyrone Hackett gestured to their leader.
‘This is Shylo,’ he said. ‘He led the Ayleeans against our enemies. We wouldn’t have go this far without them.’
The flight deck fell a little quieter as word spread and hundreds of CSS officers and enlisted personnel saw the admiral standing before the Ayleeans, their leathery skin smeared with purple blood from the enemy and red blood of their own.
Shylo’s yellow eyes peered down at the admiral, a man who had led Titan into many battles in the Ayleean War and was responsible for taking the lives of countless Ayleeans. Marshall stared back at the huge warrior, and then he stepped forward a single pace and extended his hand.
‘United we stand,’ he said simply. ‘Divided, we fall.’
Shylo stared down at the admiral for a long moment, and then one bloodied hand reached out and took the admiral’s.
‘Holy crap,’ Vasquez uttered.
Slowly, one by one, the CSS officers and enlisted moved forward and began mingling more closely with the Ayleeans as Marshall kept his grip on Shylo.
‘I understand that this is all that’s left of your people on Ayleea,’ he said.
Shylo nodded, saying nothing. The admiral took a breath.
‘Once we get you settled in here, how about we figure out a way to find the rest of them and take back Ayleea, together?’
***
XLVII
New Washington
Nathan sat in silence on his couch and stared at the lights of the city surrounding him, the walls of the apartment set to panoramic and thus transparent, giving Nathan the impression that he was sitting on a rooftop in the open air. To his left and right, the station’s giant city–filled rim rose up like a metallic wave to soar overhead, the giddying backdrop of earth’s vast blue, green and white surface turning slowly as the station rotated, brilliant sunlight casting moving shadows over the endlessly changing city scape. He could see showers falling to drench North Four’s shadowy streets far above and to the right, shafts of sunlight casting rainbow hues through the downpours, while closer by beams of slow moving sunlight bathed the streets of Constitution Avenue and the Capitol Building.
Nathan could see all of that, but his focus instead remained on the Lucidity Lens before him. He knew that he could don the slim silver device, which attached to the forehead and stimulated lucid dreams as it placed the user in a mild state of sleep, enabling the user to control their own dreams and thus creating the ultimate virtual reality – one where there was no actual difference between the lucid state and reality itself. Nathan had heard the early adopters of the technology had died while using the lens, so enthralled by their virtual world and convinced of their own health and vitality within it that their real bodies had succumbed to dehy
dration, starvation and sickness. Laws enacted as a result allowed only two hour stretches inside the lens before it automatically cut off, although it was believed that “hacks” for the device allowed longer sessions. Many missing persons reports back at the precinct suggested heavy use of the lenses before the users vanished, some believed to carry out lengthy sessions that had ultimately resulted in their demise in some squalid den somewhere beyond the reach of law enforcement, like digital drug addicts.
Nathan had been just such an addict, unable to relinquish his memories of his true home and the family who had been dead for so many centuries, but now he had found a new focus, people who were alive now, who had become as important to him as his wife and daughter from so long ago.
A soft beeping intruded into his thoughts and he looked at the door to see Rosaline Reyon standing the other side. From her perspective, the door would appear opaque just like the apartment’s walls. Nathan stood up and straightened his shirt.
‘Enter.’
The hard light door shimmered out and Rosaline walked in, the door reappearing behind her.
‘Detective.’
‘It’s Nathan. Please, take a seat.’
Rosaline sat down on one of the couches, a respectable distance from Nathan. He sat down and tried to relax.
‘Sula okay?’ he asked.
‘She’s planet side,’ Rosaline said with a soft smile that was somehow filled with regret. ‘Her little adventure cemented in her mind the idea that she wants to serve in the fleet. She’s about to start her training at CSS HQ.’
‘You must be very proud,’ Nathan said. ‘She already received a commendation for her service as an honorary Ensign aboard Defiance.’
Rosaline looked at her hands, folded in her lap. ‘I am,’ she said unconvincingly.
‘We can’t control what our children do,’ Nathan said, ‘even if we fear for them. They have to choose their own path.’
‘That’s what her father would have said,’ Rosaline replied with an uneasy smile.
‘It’s what any decent father would say,’ Nathan added. ‘Sula has a strong sense of duty and great determination. A service in the fleet is just the kind of thing that suits her personality.’
‘That’s what scares me,’ Rosaline said. ‘I almost lost her, and she isn’t even yet a commissioned officer. They say on the news that we’re at war again, that there is something out there that wants to take our planet away from us.’
Nathan knew that there was little point in denying it.
‘Ayleea fell, but we rallied here and now the Ayleeans are on our side. The enemy didn’t destroy the peace accord, they only strengthened it. They strengthened all of us.’
‘Doesn’t feel that way to me.’
Nathan found himself wishing that Foxx were here, riding shotgun for him again.
‘What do you want me to say, Rosaline?’
Sula’s mother squirmed slightly on her seat, as though she were even more uncomfortable than Nathan.
‘I want you to promise that you’ll look out for her. You work closely with the fleet, you will see her more than I will.’
Nathan raised an eyebrow in surprise. He had expected Rosaline to order him to stay away from Sula, not get more involved.
‘I can do that.’
Rosaline nodded, and apparently satisfied she stood up and headed for the apartment door, eager to escape. Nathan hesitated, and then spoke on impulse.
‘I won’t let her down,’ he said. Rosaline turned at the door to look at him. ‘I can’t be her father but I can be her friend. People are happier when they don’t feel alone, right?’
Rosaline appeared surprised as she opened the door.
‘That would be more than enough for her, and for me, Nathan.’
The apartment door shimmered out and Rosaline walked through and down the corridor outside. Nathan watched as the door rematerialized, and hoped that he could live up to his own promise.
*
CSS Headquarters
New York City
Director General Arianna Coburn stood before the senate, hundreds of senators gathered before her in their seats around the amphitheater. Beside her, sitting on chairs nearby, the commanders of the fleet had taken new places that had not been filled since the height of the Ayleean War. Behind her, likewise seated, were over a hundred Ayleean warriors, their metallic armor and leathery skin contrasting with the white robes of the senators’ ranks.
‘Senators,’ she began, ‘just two days ago, we found ourselves of the brink of annihilation for the third time in our history. Although we repelled an attack that cost the Ayleean people their world and perhaps their lives, we now know that we face an uncertain future. There are species out there who would wish us harm for their own gain, and they will stop at nothing to achieve their objectives. We now know that they view other species as something they call “corvu” – food.’
Ripples of disgust and fear fluttered across the senate, and Coburn waited for them to calm before she continued.
‘We will stand against them, as we have always stood against a threat against our survival, but we no longer stand alone. Despite their heavy losses the remainder of the Ayleean people have willingly joined us to oppose and to fight against the invasion of our worlds. The peace accord with Ayleea was not ended with the invasion, but strengthened by it. We shall not again be divided. We shall not be conquered. I have it on the authority of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the enemy has not fled forever, that they will return with more ships and that they will endeavour to defeat us once more.’
Arianna turned to the Ayleean warriors behind her, their leader Shylo now standing at their front as she spoke.
‘To this end, I am officially allowing the entry of Ayleeans into the fleet, to serve us all and to spearhead our newest mission: to retake Ayleea and the colonies from our enemy, and to bring an end to this invasion for once and for all.’
The entire senate stood, and as Shylo and the Ayleeans placed their hands over their chests so the senate mirrored the action. Arianna Coburn turned to the senate and spoke once more.
‘We are once again at war,’ she said, her voice tinged with regret but growing in intensity, ‘at a time when we thought that we were on the verge of peace. Rally your people, speak to them at every opportunity. I want every single person on earth, on every orbital station, in every colony on every moon, planet, prison and mining vessel we possess to know that from this day on we will fight for every last inch of our territory and that nothing and nobody will ever stand in our way. Defensionem ut impetum!’
The senate amphitheater trembled as hundreds of men, women and Ayleeans stood and applauded as one, a hymn of war rising up toward the wintery skies over the city.
***
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dean Crawford is the author of more than twenty novels, including the internationally published series of thrillers featuring Ethan Warner, a former United States Marine now employed by a government agency tasked with investigating unusual scientific phenomena. The novels have been Sunday Times paperback best-sellers and have gained the interest of major Hollywood production studios. He is also the enthusiastic author of many independently published Science Fiction novels.
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