by Chris Ward
Most of her injuries were superficial, but the thigh wound had come from a stray blaster shot. A deep burn had cut almost to the bone. The recuperation tank on the shuttle would fix it, but when she turned on a video news screen, she found the spaceport was on temporary lockdown.
A ship of bandits out of Trill System had landed without authorization. Three members had been captured, but a hunted fourth had stolen encrypted government documents and was still on the run. Reports said a woman, but there were no confirmed sightings and no video footage. The spaceport would remain on lockdown until the fugitive was caught.
Lia sighed with relief. The video feed scrambler had worked, but she was now hunted. Hopeful was small by spaceport standards, and sooner or later guards would come knocking, but for now she had no choice but to stay hidden.
She lifted the device she had used to download the encrypted message. If only she could get back to the shuttle to read it properly or find some way to distribute it.
The fate of the entire Fire Quarter could be at stake.
34
Caladan
‘Were we to clean the thing, it might gain some appeal.’ Jake ran a finger over a surface and lifted it to show a coating of dust. ‘Hmm, metal filaments. I’d guess you’ll find parts missing all over the place.’
Caladan scowled. ‘It flies. I’ve tested it. We only need it for one journey.’
‘The Raging Fire,’ Lump said, from where the little man had taken a seat close to a clear window with a view of Galanth’s beehive-like inner core. ‘I like it.’
‘No one’s interested in what you think,’ Caladan said. ‘Can’t you make yourself useful? Go shimmy through the waste disposal tubes and make sure there aren’t any blockages.’
Lump pouted. ‘Don’t we have droids for that?’
‘I couldn’t afford any. Go on, get out of here.’
Lump lowered his head and jumped down from the chair. He scuttled past Caladan and Jake without looking up. A sliding door opened to let him out, then got jammed halfway closed.
‘I’m guessing you’re new to fatherhood?’ Jake said, wearing only half a smirk. ‘The little one has commendable enthusiasm in such a dark time, don’t you think?’
‘Drink your still water and find something useful to do,’ Caladan said, turning away. Far across the machine world’s core, a metal protrusion marked where the trader’s bay was situated. He had left the trader there, an old but well-serviced and maintained vessel. Instead, he now piloted a floating junk heap.
‘Life’s not fair,’ he muttered.
‘I’ll drink to that.’
‘Good for you.’
They blasted out of Galanth, heading for deep-space. Caladan worked the ship’s clunky controls, occasionally requesting help from Jake while sending Lump off on a series of errands to keep him out of sight. It made him sick to think such a beast could have been spawned from his genetics and hoped the time would come where they could leave Lump behind in a remote spaceport somewhere to make his own way in the galaxy.
All that mattered was finding Lia again. She had given her coordinates, but every moment they were apart he ached to be with her, to know she was safe. It wasn’t a feeling he would readily admit, but her absence was like a second beating heart, one that refused to still.
Jake, constantly yapping like an irritating dog about his beloved Stillwater, kept him company, busying himself with auxiliary controls, but occasionally retiring to a corner to tap away on a small handheld screen he had found, the first time Caladan had really seen the journalist at work. As the bare bones of their plan began to grow sinew and flesh, Jake was determined to record everything for his eventual return to Cask System.
Caladan, however, felt no such optimism. They were heading back into Trill System, site of a vicious war. To think that this was anything but a one-way journey was hopeless optimism. It was far better to focus on the job in hand.
The Raging Fire shuddered as it made its stasis-ultraspace jump into Quaxar System through a lightly traversed wormhole that exited near Ergon-7. As the stars realigned, Lump came running back from his latest errand, but Caladan silenced him with a finger to the lips.
‘Jake’s concentrating,’ he said. ‘What do you want?’
‘Father, there’s a—’
‘How many times have I told you? I don’t like being called that.’
‘But I found—’
‘I don’t care what you found. Get out of here. There’s an elevator that needs fixing on level three. See if you can find some tools. You’re good with your hands. I’ve seen that close up.’
‘But—’
‘Go!’
As the door—having been fixed by Lump—slid closed, Caladan tried to calm himself. The boy—was he even a boy?—made his skin crawl. And yet, he had to admit, Lump could fix anything. During the long days out of Galanth to the wormhole, Lump had repaired all manner of broken systems across the barge. He had a future in a remote shipyard somewhere if only Caladan could find a suitable place to leave him behind.
Ergon-7 appeared as a tiny dot on a monitor screen. Caladan pointed it out to Jake, who gave a thoughtful nod.
‘So far, so good,’ he said. ‘I’ll begin reducing our cruising speed to take us in. We’re picking up no sign of ships in the area, so we should be safe.’
‘Praise to the Stillwater,’ Jake said. ‘Have you figured out how this old thing works, yet?’
Caladan grinned. ‘Working on it.’
‘The boy was raving about something he found in the engine system,’ Jake said. ‘He thinks that dealer you bought from was using this thing for parts.’
‘It got us here, didn’t it? Don’t worry. If it was going to break, it would have done so by now.’
‘I hope you’re right.’
Caladan grinned. ‘Believe me, I’ve flown bigger junk heaps than this.’
Ergon-7 was growing from a dot into a gray ball on the view-screen. Caladan kept an eye on the course coordinates, aware the barge’s systems were old, that its computers were likely out of date. Ergon-7 was in deep orbit around Ergogate, about as far out as he could have hoped. The likelihood of running into anyone still following their trail was remote.
‘There she is,’ Jake said, as the moon grew below them, stretching out in an undulating blanket of gray-black. ‘Are we on course?’
‘We are. I’m locking us in, preparing the shovel.’
‘The what?’
‘The arm thing.’ He pointed at a screen showing an external representation of the Raging Fire. A lower hatch had opened and what looked like a ball on the end of a massive metal arm had lowered down. Caladan pressed a button and it clicked open and snapped shut like the jaws of a massive snake.
‘We just pluck it out?’
Caladan shook his head. ‘No. We have to activate the detachment procedure from inside the base.’
‘How do we do that?’
Caladan turned to look at him. ‘I’m afraid that’s your job.’
Jake slowly turned to meet Caladan’s eyes. ‘I’d like to remind you that as a journalist, I reserve the right to take a back seat and observe the events as they unfold.’ He grinned, but Caladan saw the nervousness behind it. ‘While sipping on the glorious Stillwater.’
‘Nice try,’ Caladan said. ‘You might have noticed I’m missing an appendage, while the critter off making a nuisance somewhere is slightly shrunken. Plus, I’m needed to fly the ship, and while I’d like to send him and leave him behind, I don’t trust him as far as I could throw him. And with my balance off-kilter due to the missing arm, that isn’t far.’
‘But—’
‘I’ve already remote-activated a shuttle. You’ll find it in hangar three.’ At Jake’s look of terror, Caladan rolled his eyes. ‘Look, all you have to do is go down there and program a couple of commands into the computer. I’ll guide you through everything.’
After another look of dismay, Jake nodded. ‘OK, I’ll do it.’
‘Good. Let’s get this done and be on our way.’
Caladan watched on a view-screen as Jake’s shuttle set down on the landing pad outside the research facility. In the glare of a spotlight cast by the Raging Fire, he followed Jake exiting the shuttle in a spacesuit and heading through the airlock into the facility. A few moments later, Jake’s transmitter came online.
‘OK, I’m here. Guide me through.’
Caladan pulled up an overhead map the Raging Fire’s computer had downloaded from the facility’s database via a powerful remote link. He ran a finger over the labeled corridors until he found the control room he needed.
‘Go straight, then take the second door on the left. I’m trying to get the computer to override the security systems but blast it if you have to.’
‘How did the little people get in and out?’
Caladan shivered. ‘Apparently they grafted the scientists’ fingers on to their own and used the DNA identification system. It was one of the ways that the leaders controlled the others. Those in possession of the fingers… ruled.’
Jake was a silent a moment. Then, ‘Blessed be the Stillwater,’ came his voice through the transmitter.
With Caladan directing Jake as he followed the map on his screen, the journalist found his way to the security room surrounding the radiation core.
‘There’s a physical lever,’ Caladan said. ‘I can do the remote disabling from here, but the lever is a precaution against exactly that. Someone on the ground needs to pull it. When I say the word…’
‘Ready and willing,’ Jake said.
Caladan surveyed the information scrolling up his screen. Much of it was over his head, but if he’d picked out the right sections, the disabling procedure would set the chassis surrounding the radiation core into a process where it would exit through a hatch in the upper surface, from where it could be collected by the scoop mechanism on the Raging Fire. It was hardly hi-tech, but for something so old, they could count themselves lucky the whole core wasn’t a fractured, leaking mess.
‘There’s a code,’ Caladan said. ‘Thirty-odd digits at a rough guess. You have one minute to input them or the system resets. Are you ready?’
‘Of course not,’ Jake said. ‘I never will be. But let’s get this over with.’
‘OK. Three … four … two … six….’
Caladan read the numbers out as quickly as he could, one eye on a timer ticking along the top of the screen. After he said the final number there was a brief pause. Then Jake’s voice came again: ‘We’re in.’
Caladan closed his eyes. ‘Nice one.’
He was about talk Jake through a series of voice-activated commands when a crash came from outside the door. It began to slide open then Lump’s fingers appeared, vaulting his grotesque body through.
‘Father, what are you doing? There’s something you should—’
Caladan stood up. ‘For the last time… don’t call me that. Now, get out of here, we’re in the middle of something important.’
Lump’s conical head was flushed. ‘I saw the extractor arm descending,’ he said. ‘I have to tell you—’
‘Out!’
Caladan grabbed the nearest object—a packet of dried food refill for the old dispenser in the corridor—and flung it in Lump’s direction. The little man wailed and ducked out of the way, retreating to the doorway for safety.
‘I don’t want you anywhere near me!’ Caladan shouted. He pulled his blaster. Lump fled through the doorway as Caladan leveled it. With one shot he blasted out the door control. It slid shut through a screen of smoke. Lump’s earnest voice came from the other side, but the words were mercifully inaudible.
‘Trouble?’ came Jake’s voice.
Caladan grimaced. ‘We need to fix the door control when you get back. It’s had a… malfunction.’
He didn’t let himself entertain thoughts of guilt as he talked Jake through the rest of the procedure. Lump had asked for it, always getting in the way, disobeying instructions, relentlessly insisting on calling him something that couldn’t possibly be true—
‘OK, I’m ready,’ Jake said. ‘When you give the word, the Stillwater and I will eject this monstrosity into the heavens.’
‘On three,’ Caladan said. ‘Three!’
‘Got it!’
Caladan moved his gaze between the view-screen and the information scrolling up his computer terminal screen. At first nothing happened then in the light of the spotlights he saw a hatch opening in the roof of the facility’s tallest tower. A glow appeared, flickering as something moved up the shaft. A black box appeared, suspended on a crane arm.
‘That’s it! Quick, get out of there. Jake?’
The only answer was the thumping of small fists on the broken door.
Caladan got up from his seat and jerked the door open. Lump appeared on the other side, looking up at him.
‘Is there something you know that I don’t?’
Lump nodded. ‘You’ve shut down the radiation core, haven’t you? You have to switch it back on if Mr. Jake is down there.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘It powers the whole station. Releasing it cuts the station’s power. It’s the reason you found it still active. Ken Norf-Oven wanted to load it onto an old freighter and set it on a crash course for Ergogate, but it would have condemned us all.’
‘The station’s without power now?’
‘Yes. All the heating systems, the artificial gravity, it’s all been shut down.’
‘So Jake—’
Lump shrugged. ‘Mr. Jake is likely floating against a ceiling somewhere, quickly freezing to death.’
Caladan grabbed Lump by the overalls and lifted him up. ‘If you’re joking with me—’
‘Check the systems,’ Lump gasped. ‘Please, Father. Let go.’
Caladan let Lump drop to the floor and ran back to his terminal. Lines of systems updates scrolled rapidly up the screen. He caught a few before they passed:
…life systems at ten percent…
…transmissions now at zero…
…coolant nine percent…
‘He took one for the team,’ Caladan said, face flushing. ‘You’re a hero, Jake.’
A hand closed over his. He jerked it away, finding Lump standing at his hip. ‘Mother told me you were a great space hero,’ he said.
‘Yeah, I’m afraid we didn’t know each other too well. Perceptions tend to get screwed when your only knowledge of someone is through a line of numbers on a test tube.’
‘She said you were famous throughout the galaxy.’
‘Kids’ stories.’
‘I loved hearing tales of your adventures. How you rescued princesses—’
‘Look, you’re going a bit far now….’
‘She said you were given a reward by the beautiful Oufolani queen—’
‘It was a titling rank! Have you ever seen an Oufolani?’
Lump sighed. ‘I like Mr. Jake. We can’t leave him behind. Can’t you hero-rescue him?’
‘What?’
‘Isn’t that what heroes do? Rescue people? You rescued me.’
‘You stowed away on our ship!’
‘But if you hadn’t have come, I’d be dead. I wasn’t long for the cooking pot. Ken Norf-Oven showed no mercy, and I knew he was getting tired of me.’
Caladan stared at the map. Jake was down there somewhere, lost, perhaps dying a slow and painful death.
‘I’ll get a shuttle,’ Caladan said. As Lump’s face creased with a lopsided grin, he added, ‘You stay here. Much as it pains me to say it, I’m trusting you to look after this ship.’
35
Beth
Focus, Beth, focus.
She tried to calm her shaking hands as she tied strips of cloth around Paul’s wounds. If she could just get him back to the Matilda, the recuperation tank would fix him up, but she couldn’t concentrate as her mind screamed why, why, why over and over until it was a rotating cacophony like the screech of angry b
irds.
‘I can still fight,’ Paul grunted. ‘We can take a few with us.’
Beth clamped her mouth shut to stop herself from screaming at him. You fool. We’ve taken enough already. And they’ve killed Davar. Why did they have to kill Davar? Why couldn’t they have—?
‘Wait here,’ she said, her bottom lip trembling, thundering heart giving each word a vibrato like the shuddering ground underfoot. Not waiting for a reply, she left Paul where he lay and clambered to the top of the ridge.
On the plains below, a battle raged. Survivors from the battered ships had taken up defensive positions wherever they could, in grooves torn out of the ground, behind debris piles, among fallen trees, even among dead Evattlans or crumpled heaps of discarded eggs. The queen still directed her anger at the downed ships, but thousands of Evattlan workers rushed the entrenched survivors in massive, suicidal waves.
Beth stared at the slaughter in disbelief. Oil-black blood stained the ground, and body parts emerged from the gunk like the skeletal remains of dead trees.
A humming came from above. Three ships appeared out of the clouds, smaller and sleeker than the transports. A large, circular cannon hung from the central ship’s underside, while the two smaller ships bristled with fighter-to-fighter weaponry.
A seek-and-destroy unit.
Moving in formation, they circled the queen, rising out of the way as she turned, lifting her massive horns in a posture of threat.
The blast when the cannon fired was deafening.
With a wail that sent Beth diving to the ground, her hands over her eyes, the queen’s body exploded, drenching the battlefield in gunk, shattered exoskeleton, and clusters of unfertilized eggs. Huge legs jerked and kicked, knocking aside dozens of defenders and attackers alike.
The cannon fired twice more. As the boom from the second blast died away, Beth dragged herself up to look. The three ships in the seek-and-destroy unit touched down in the middle of the battlefield. The queen’s body had been reduced to a twitching ruin, but the Evattlans still controlled the battle, overwhelming the defenders by sheer weight of numbers, ripping apart any they could reach.