by Alex Kings
“I think we can delay the arrest,” the Mettlesome's captain said. He looked squarely through the screen at Lanik. “You saw that thing wake up. How can we stop it?”
“With much more firepower than we have,” Lanik said.
“I was not expecting a final battle today,” said the Mettlesome's captain. He sighed, then cut the signal.
“Take us towards the Ancient ship,” Lanik ordered.
“Yes sir,” said Fermi, pulling the Dauntless up out of the orbit of Tethya. He didn't comment, but he must have seen – this was an insane order. In its current state, the Dauntless could barely handle a fight with another frigate, let alone something like that.
On screen, Lanik watched as the Ancient ship and its cargo dove towards the star. Less then a million kilometres from the surface, the cargo detached.
What was that thing?
It unfurled quickly into masses of black feather, growing longer and longer. The outer feathers, Lanik realised, were just arrangements of cables. The inner surface was something else. Some absurdly complex and advanced arrangement of machinery. It formed a hollow cylinder, something like a dry-dock. The other feather began to extend cables in ever-longer arrangements, hundreds of kilometres across now.
The Ancient ship itself left its unfolding cargo and hurtled up away from the sun, towards Tethya. The Tethyan battleships closed in on it, about to enter firing range.
Chapter 65: One Last Plan
They set out from the shuttle, Srak wincing, Yilva still working on her tablet. The tunnel was just about wide enough to be blocked by the shuttle. A few metres ahead, the three blanks lay with the armour dented and split open by the impact, blood spilling out.
One of them moved, and Agatha shot it immediately.
Hanson checked the bodies as they passed. The three Ancient sphere weapons they'd carried had all been broken by the impact, cracked or even shattered.
They hurried down the tunnel, Yilva still working. “Nearly there,” she assured them.
The tunnel ahead opened up into the final chamber, and the shallow slope of the embankment came into view.
Something exploded behind them. Hanson turned in time to see the fragments of the shuttle spreading out from a fireball.
And one giant chunk – half an engine attached to a bit of the floor, lined with charred edges – flew straight at them. It was too close to for him to call to the others, or even to move out of the way.
In that same second, Srak leapt to the fore. As the shuttle fragments came up to meet his hands, he grabbed it and swung around, pushing it to the side, and then released it. It crashed into the wall with a squeal.
Two things happened at once:
First, Srak cried out in pain. The force of the motion had torn his plaster from one corner to the other. Blood flowed freely from the tear, and Srak slumped to the ground.
Second, an assault team of blanks and armoured security personnel came running down the tunnel, raising weapons.
“Move!” roared Hanson.
Agatha grabbed his arm. “What about Srak?”
Srak tried to get up and fell back again. “Go,” he grunted. “Don't be stupid.”
“I'll be a stupid as I bloody well want to be!” Agatha told him. The blast from an Ancient weapon landed a few feet way from them. “Oh, piss off!” she yelled at the tunnels, and fired back. Then she ducked down under Srak's right-front arm, grabbed it, and tried to drag him forward.
Hanson sighed. “Moore,” he ordered. “Get Yilva to the cable!”
“Yessir!” said Moore. She and Yilva hurried forward up the slope of the embankment.
Hanson turned and warned their pursuers off with a wide-angle fire from his assault rifle, then ducked under Srak's other front arm, took a firm hold, and pushed on.
Srak was even heavier than he looked. Yet he began to move. He pushed himself forward so Agatha and Hanson didn't have to take all the weight.
They moved at what seemed like a crawl up the slope. “Come up, you great lump,” hissed Agatha through her teeth. “You can make it.” Tears ran down her face. Without looking round to take aim, she fired the Ancient weapon behind them as often as she could.
Up at the peak of the embankment, Moore leaned out from cover to fire at their pursuers.
They were nearly at the peak. Another blast landed behind them, thumping into the rock. Gunfire chattered, a few bullets glancing of Hanson and Agatha's armour.
And then they were over, scrambling downhill, behind the cover of the embankment.
Agatha stood panting for a moment. Then she grabbed Hanson with a sudden motion and hugged him for a second. “Thank you,” she said, smiling up at him. A second later, she had let go and was checking her sighting with the Ancient weapon, preparing to fight.
At the far end of the chamber, the cable snaked across the floor. It was grey, about a metre across. It entered through a small pipe to the left, and exited through a similar-sized pipe to the right, covering about ten metres in between. Yilva sat near the middle of it with her tablet out.
Hanson walked over to her. “How are we doing?” he asked.
“I'm done!” she said excitedly. “Now I just need to get inside their system.” From her pack she took out a transparent, flexible strip and wrapped it around the cable. This she plugged into a thin wire, then plugged the wire into her tablet, and started gesturing at the screen. “Just a moment.”
“Uh, captain?” said Moore. “We might have a problem here.”
Hanson ran back to check the embankment. Not just a strike team, but a whole army was entering down the tunnel. Every available blank? It certainly looked like it.
“Take them out,” he ordered.
A second later came the roar of his and Moore's assault rifles, and the boom of Agatha's Ancient weapon. Srak struggled around, his belly wet with blood, smearing across the floor. He too raised his handgun and fired.
The first wave of blanks went down under the onslaught. Another row walked calmly over their bodies. Hanson ducked as they raised their weapons – some had assault rifles, some had Ancient weapons – and a clatter of bullets and Ancient fire smacked into the lip of the embankment. He glanced round again. Even more blanks were advancing up the tunnel, all trapped in a confined space.
“Grenades,” he told Moore.
“Yessir,” she said, grabbing one from her belt. She flipped the pin out with practised ease and lobbed it over the lip of the embankment.
A second later came the boom, and a wash of reddish light against the ceiling. Agatha was up immediately and firing the Ancient weapon into the cloud of smoke.
A trio of blanks came as a full sprint out of the cloud and up the embankment. One was unarmed; the other two had assault rifles. Hanson ducked as they fired together. He shuffled to the side, and when they stopped shooting, managed to look up again and shoot one of the armed blanks.
The second nearly reached the lip of the embankment before a blow from Srak's gun tore its chest open. It went down after a few steps.
The last one reached the lip of the embankment. Then Hanson saw it wasn't unarmed. It raised a pistol hidden behind it, aiming at Agatha.
Srak reached out and grabbed its leg, pulling forward. The Blank fell back, its shot going into the ceiling. This gave Agatha enough time to shoot it.
More blanks were coming forward. They were still down the tunnel. Things seemed to have died down a little. Preparing for another push?
“Captain!” called Yilva. “I'm in!”
“Good, good.”
“I have an idea, but we'll reach Tethya before I can finish it.”
Hanson frowned. Tethya. Why Tethya? Then he realised: “The data spine!” he told Yilva.
She stared at him. “What?” Then her eyes opened. “Oh, yes, of course! The spine! In the museum! Yes!”
“Can you get in contact with the Tethyans?” Hanson asked.
“Maybe. Let me try!”
“Uh, what spine?” said Moore. She p
aused to throw another grenade.
“The Forge is like a giant 3D printer, right?” cried Yilva. “It needs a program to tell it what to build. I bet that information is in the data spine on Tethya. They need to get the spine before they can use the Forge!”
“Oh.” said Moore. She shrugged, then checked over the lip of the embankment and fired down into the tunnel. Hanson did the same.
Yilva was still working. She called to Hanson, “I'm sending out a signal using the ship's energy emissions. Someone might pick it up and … oh. Captain, over here!”
Hanson checked. They were holding the blanks at bay for the moment; they could spare him. He ran at a crouch over to Yilva. She held out her tablet. On the screen, his XO looked out at him.
For the first time since Hanson had met him, Lanik was genuinely smiling. “Hello, sir.”
Hanson smiled too. “Glad you could join us. I'd love to tell you about our daring failed plans, but there's something I need you to do. Relay a message to the Tethyans: This ship is coming after the data spine in the museum. That's why they're heading to Tethya. They need to get the data spine off the planet.”
“That'll stop the ship?”
“It might delay it long enough for us to finish,” said Hanson.
“Understood, sir. I'll see what I can do,” said Lanik.
“Also,” said Hanson. “We'll be rooting around in the ship's systems. Could you keep Mr. Bell busy?”
“By having a large fleet of battleships to attack?” said Lanik. “I think I can manage that, sir.”
“Hanson out.” Hanson handed the tablet back to Yilva. “What's your plan, then?”
A brief roar of gunfire and grenades drowned out everything for a moment.
“I have access to the navigation and jump controls, right? So I had this idea, what if I connect them?”
“What would that do?”
“Every bit of Ancient technology is meant to talk to every other bit, right? This ship has the co-ordinates of the Forge on file. I'm going to take those co-ordinates, and feed them into the jump co-ordinates!”
“Meaning?”
“The ship will try and jump right on top of the Forge.”
“They'll both be destroyed?”
“Exactly! And because the co-ordinates will be in the native Ancient format, it'll override anything they try and do in the CIC.”
“I don't suppose you can set it on a timer?”
“That's the plan. Fifteen minutes, yeah?” said Yilva.
“Do it.”
“Sir!” called Moore.
“We're about to get royally screwed!” called Agatha.
Hanson looked over the lip of the embankment and saw the blanks had pulled back. Instead, coming down the tunnel, was an armoured shuttle.
Chapter 66: Chase
As soon as Lanik got the message from Hanson, he relayed it to the Tethyans. He told them that Hanson was aboard, that Hanson had a plan, and that they needed to get the spine away from the planet. They were the only ones who had a chance of getting the data spine out of the museum.
A response came immediately, text only: Acknowledged.
Did that mean they were going to take the spine or not? He had no idea.
On screen, a fleet of six Tethyan battleships engaged the Ancient ship, coming in from all directions. Together they released their monopole cannons: six silvery threads dancing across the jagged spikes and thorns of its outer hull. Flames danced across its surface. It swung quickly, turning flat towards one of the battleships. A moment later the battleship's nose exploded.
But Mr. Bell wasn't interested in fighting. The Ancient ship took another shot, tearing out the side of another battleship, then accelerated ahead.
More battleships came in from all directions. The Ancient ship fired again, and again. Each shot was crippling, but the space between its blasts were too long.
On the other hand, the battleships had the advantage of numbers, but even though monopole cannons did some damage, it was only scratching the hull.
“Looks like they believed you,” said Serafin. She pointed at another display, showing a battleship descending to Tethya city. It hovered over the museum for a minute or two, then hurtled upwards.
*
Mr. Bell watched the Ancient ship rise from the planet's surface.
“They've figured it out,” he murmured. He'd been in command for less than a day, been the first human ever to destroy a Tethyan battleship. He wasn't about to lose now.
The CIC shuddered around him as a monopole cannon tore through some part of the outer hull.
“Follow that ship!” he ordered. “Maximum acceleration.”
On the displays, he saw the fleet of battleships harrying him fall back. They couldn't match his acceleration.
Meanwhile, their quarry came close and closer.
“Cripple that ship if you can,” he ordered. “But don't destroy it. And pull some blanks away from Hanson! They'll have to go aboard and get the spine.”
One of the last battleships of the fleet swept in front of them, directly in their path. It was too close to evade. A last-ditch attack. A suicide run.
Even Mr. Bell didn't know if the Ancient ship could stand up to such a collision.
Closing distance.
Last prayers? Mr. Bell found he had none.
The two ships collided.
The battleship's hull radiated white-hot cracks, fragmented, then a moment later exploded completely. The CIC seemed to screech. Mr. Belle felt a faint tug to the side – the artificial gravity couldn't quite keep up with their deceleration.
For a few seconds, their screens were blinded by light and plasma glowing as hot as the sun. Then they were through, unharmed.
Only one ship lay ahead now: The one carrying the data-spine.
Chapter 67: Armoured Shuttle
Hanson readied his grip on the assault rifle as the armoured shuttle approached.
“Agatha,” he said. “You're the only one who can take that thing down. As soon as you have a clear bead on it, shoot.”
“Gotcha,” said Agatha.
She readied the Ancient weapon.
The shuttle came flying out the end of the tunnel. Agatha fired. The shuttle dived to the left as soon as it entered the chamber, avoiding the shot by inches.
“Shit,” Agatha hissed.
Right away, the mini-gun mounted under the shuttle swung over to them.
“Down!” cried Hanson, throwing himself flat against the floor.
The roar of the mini-gun blocked out everything else. Shells bounced off the lip of the embankment, passed inches overhead and clattered off the back of the chamber by Yilva, who lay flat beside the cable.
The mini-gun stopped. Hanson could hear the whine of its barrel spinning down. Then a click, and a distant-sounding thump.
He grabbed his assault rifle and lifted it over the lip of the embankment, to find himself staring down the throat of a missile launcher bolted to the shuttle's roof.
There was no time to check his aim properly. The shot was too far to take. The sort of shot you'd get chewed out for even considering.
But it was the only shot he had. He pulled the trigger.
The shuttle fired a missile.
And as the missile left the barrel, it ran into Hanson's shot.
The missile launcher exploded. The shuttle lurched suddenly, nose in the air, turning a half circle and juddering. A door on its side opened, and a Blank leaned out with its weapon raised.
Agatha shot it. A thunderclap: the Blank came apart, and the door was torn off its hinges. The shuttle, one engine crippled, lurched to the side and then dropped with a crash on the floor. Hanson waited until a second door opened. A Blank began to crawl out, and the entire team shot it together.
The sound of blanks marching in unison came echoing down the tunnel.
“We're done!” said Yilva. “The jump's locked in. Ten minutes.”
“I'm guessing we're not waiting to die?” Moore asked.<
br />
“No, we're not,” said Hanson. “I need you and Agatha to get to the shuttle.”
“We can't fly on that thing.”
“And we're not going to. I think one engine is still working, so it shouldn't be too heavy. Turn it to face the mini-gun down the tunnel.”
Agatha nodded. “Gotcha.” She looked over at Srak, who sat beside a puddle of his own blood, head slumped, breathing ragged. “What about … ?”
“Don't worry,” said Hanson. “We won't leave him behind.”
Agatha nodded, and she and Moore set off over the lip of the embankment, running at a crouch down the slope. “It would also help if you could get that thing to move forward!” Hanson called after them.
He turned to Yilva. “Get me through to the Dauntless, and pull up a map of the area.”
Yilva went to work immediately. On one corner of the screen she'd set up a timer The map came up immediately. Hanson scanned it. That was the way. Down the tunnel, turn right, down another tunnel. Then they'd get to an airlock. Beyond the airlock was a giant internal cavity, connected to a giant opening. Big enough to fit the Dauntless.
Lanik's face came up. “Sir?” he said.
“XO, see these co-ordinates on the ship?” Hanson sent the data and checked the timer. “If you can get there in the next … eight minutes, do it. We'll be ready for pickup. And have a medical team on standby. We have injured.”
Lanik checked the co-ordinates. “Understood, sir. We'll be there. Dauntless out.”
“Now let's go,” Hanson said. She hurriedly disconnected her tablet from the cable and followed him to the lip of the embankment.
“Srak? Can you move?”
Srak lifted his head a few inches. “Captain. Hah, Captain.” he laughed weakly.
Hanson grabbed Srak's arm, and directed Yilva to grab the other. They pulled Srak forward, straining against his weight, over the lip of the embankment and down the slope.