The Dark Wheel

by Robert Holdstock

  She was slumped in her chair. Blood flowed freely from her scalp and nose.

  Her eyes were closed. She must have had her seat belt too loosely fastened, and had struck the console when the cobra had bucked.

  Alex leapt from his co-pilot's seat and literally wrenched the woman free, throwing her to the floor. This was no time for courtesy. He buckled in, stabbed fire at the Anaconda's ram-scoop, then overflew, dodging laser and outrunning a missile, which then closed on him with alarming speed before he was able to destroy it.

  The planet Cirag was ahead of them once more. He began to run for safety, and then thought an alarming thought: what guarantees did he have that the Coriolis network would protect him if he got in range? He had no such guarantee. The space stations were as likely to be against him as the ships that pursued him.

  But if he could let them know what he carried, if he could communicate that he carried their god creatures, perhaps they would send their fighters to keep the freebooters at bay.

  To his right a Mamba appeared out of nowhere. He rolled the Nemesis and shot from his rear laser, then slowed speed, span and strafed the killer vessel from his port gun, watching the Mamba tumble out of control, not destroyed, just dead.

  If only he could release the cargo, jettison the cannisters containing the Mymurth life-systems, perhaps the pursuit would end. He and Elyssia would be out of pocket by three hundred credits, but so what? Neither he nor Elyssia were йlite, yet. He might feel like an йlite combateer, but faced with this sort of-A Mamba strafed him. Shields screamed. He targeted a missile, but used side-fire to battle with the attacker… — faced with this sort of pressure, neither of them could survive.

  Elyssia came round, staggered to her feet and stared, through blood-encrusted eyes, at the combat. Cirag came closer. A tiny spinning point of silver light winked and beckoned to them, but the sight of it did not fill Alex with joy.

  'There must be more than Mymurth in those cannisters…' Elyssia said quietly.

  'Let's discuss it later,' Alex retorted, as he rolled and veered to escape the fire coming from the closest of the big ships.

  The woman left the bridge. Hanging on for dear life, she went down to the cargo bay…

  And suddenly the attack finished.

  Alex nearly jumped with surprise. One moment his tail had been hot, and his port laser almost at exploding point. The next: nothing. The heavy lights of the massive pirate ships dropped away into the background. Two of the Mambas continued to dog his tail for a moment, firing last, optimistic bursts of fire. Then they vanished, streaking away into darkness, away from the sun.

  Alex slowed the Nemesis and checked damage levels. They were not seriously hurt, but two missiles were gone, and energy levels were low. Their cargo was intact, however, and if the pirates had backed off, this close to the world, it could only mean that Cirag would defend its visitors.

  Elyssia came back onto the bridge, holding the small, black box that was a Thru-Vis camera. 'They look like turtles. They stink like turtles. They're as boring as turtles. But I've taken a couple of Thru-V shots, just to see if anything else is hiding in there…'

  'Good idea. Let's see?'

  'Two or three minutes…'

  She placed the camera down, sat back in the co-pilot's seat and looked at him. 'You okay?'

  Alex nodded. 'Shaken. How about you?'

  'Bruised, bloody but unbowed. We in the safe zone?'

  'Looks that way.'

  The Coriolis station span gently before them, bright with sunlight, casting its shadow on the patchy grey and yellow of the huge world below. Several ships were tethered to buoys close by. They looked safe enough. Lights flashed on the Station. Everything gleamed, everything welcomed.

  Alex sailed gracefully past the immense flying city, then turned to face the entrance.

  But there was no entrance. 'What in God's…?'

  He sat there, motionless in space, rotation matched with the Coriolis, facing blank metal. By zooming in he could see the shape of the entrance, closed, now, protectively.

  'Afraid of strangers?' Elyssia suggested.

  'We need fuel badly. They'd better not be too afraid…'

  Then the crackle of an audio message coming in. On the screen, only the space station, with stars and the sun behind.

  'Identify, identify. This is Craig Orbit Space.'

  'Cobra class trader, the Nemesis,' Alex said. 'We have a cargo of Mymurth.

  Open the gates.'

  There was silence for a while, though the channel remained open because it continued to hiss and crackle. Then:

  'Attention, Nemesis. Mymurth trade in Coriolis stations is prohibited. '

  'What? '

  'Release your cargo before coming aboard. Release cargo. You will be compensated.'

  Alex glanced at Elyssia. 'What the hell do we do?'

  'Sounds unprofessional to me,' the woman said. 'Sounds a little fishy…'

  She picked up the camera and removed the developed and printed film.

  Staring at the two prints for a moment, she suddenly seemed to realise what she was looking at and gasped.

  'Oh my Sweet World…' she said slowly, and passed the prints to Alex.

  On the screen, the entrance to the space station began to open slowly.

  Two lights shone there, like eyes, tiny in the dark void space beyond.

  Alex looked at the Thru-V pictures, and for a second couldn't comprehend the grotesque sights he saw. Looking through the bodies of the Mymurth, the camera had picked up the spider-like life-forms that were living inside the shuffling, harmless turtle-forms. The sight was discomforting. Jointed legs seemed to be reaching out into every limb, and every body space. The central black body was shiny, and from it peered a number of bloated, faceted eyes. Two long, bristly tendrils stretched into the Mymurth's brains from each of these hideous parasites.

  'What are they?' Alex whispered, and Elyssia said, 'Trouble. They're immature Thargoids' Alex felt his heart quicken. Tharglets! He was transporting Tharglets, the larval forms of one of the most deadly life-forms in the known Galaxy!

  Set-up? Being set-up hardly began to describe the way they'd been duped on Xezaor!

  No wonder the pirates had closed so ravenously…

  'There's good bounty on Tharglets. Navy pays well for research purposes.'

  'They're also deadly; and they make ideal mercenary fighters if trained and developed. We've been carrying fighters for Cirag. Pirate fighters. No wonder they want to destroy us. They won't want any evidence lof this…'

  Alex stared at the space station. For a moment Elyssia's words just went in and didn't register. He was thinking of the pirates who had attacked, and who had been beaten back…

  He was thinking that the danger was over… they were at a Coriolis station, and the only danger now was illegal trading…

  He was thinking safety…

  He watched as the bright eyes slid forward, out of the space port. Behind the eyes came the bulky shape of the ship to which they were attached.

  Behind the ship came light, bright light, a gleaming yellow beam that cast the shadow of the ship across the Nemesis…

  The shadow of a snake.

  The Cobra!

  He would have known that ship anywhere. It was months since he had seen it, but not a night had passed when the shape of it, when the evil of it, had not infested his dreams.

  The ship that had destroyed the Avalonia came slowly towards him, and he had no doubt at all as to its identity.

  And nor had Elyssia.

  She sucked in her breath and moved towards the console. 'I want him. Let me take the controls…'

  'Sit down,' Alex said coldly, and Elyssia turned angrily on him.

  'I have as much stake in this as you…'

  'Luck of the draw,' Alex said. 'The pilot of that ship killed my father…'

  'Killed my whole family! We were escaping from Teorge, and we asked that ship for help, for supplies. It took my sister and myself as
slaves, and blasted my family's vessel to pieces. I escaped. My sister didn't. Alex, I want that bastard!'

  'Too late…'

  Fire blossomed from the front of the Cobra. The Nemesis rocked and rattled.

  Alex targeted a missile, then stabbed laser fire back. The energy spread over the Cobra's screens like a bright yellow flower.

  It accelerated towards them. Alex accelerated too, but rose over the killer, and over the space station.

  We can't fight it! We've not got the weapons, nor the defences. Not yet.

  Damn! What should we do?

  On the rear screen, Alex saw the sombre shape of the killer rising above the Coriolis station. A flash of light presaged the warning INCOMING MISSILE, and Alex targeted the ECM to destroy it. As he did so, he turned.

  The two ships tore past each other, majestic metal galleons, raking each other with fire before turning and approaching again.

  Twice they duelled in this way. The Nemesis groaned beneath the weight of the laser strikes on its hull; the energy in its storage cells began to drain away. In Alex's mind there was only confusion. The Cobra knew him, and wanted him, and wouldn't let go. And this was the ship he wanted to kill…

  But he wasn't equipped to kill it… Not yet. Not yet!

  So despite Elyssia's objections, Alex turned and ran for the sun.

  The Cobra followed. The two ships manoeuvred and looped, slowed and speeded up. Whenever possible, Alex rear-lasered, and this had the effect of driving the pirate back a little. It targeted and dispatched three more missiles, and Alex shot them down. He was tempted to think that that represented the full missile load of the Cobra, but he wisely avoided such complacency. His own missile remained targeted, ready to fly, but he imagined that it would meet a quick and pointless fate.

  The sun edged closer. It grew in size and majesty. The cabin temperature of the Nemesis rose.

  Immense arms of plasma curled out from the surface, like weird creatures rising above a molten sea. Alex flew towards one, fuel-scoop ready.

  The Cobra fired at him. Shields screeched.

  The duelling ships entered the realm of the Inferno…

  Alex said, 'It's working. Look…' The fuel gauge was edging up as the scoop sucked in raw plasma and converted it to the energy form needed for Witch-Space transit. He skimmed the Nemesis along the edge of the great ocean of fire. The arms of the corona was millions of miles long, thousands wide, and curling round, like a whirlpool. At its centre, then, there was a calm place, a place away from the heat and danger.

  Alex headed towards it. The cabin filled with an eerie brilliance in which shadows seemed to writhe and beckon. The sun was an unbearable glare. The temperature of the ship rose dramatically. Fire played about the hull, and the shields moaned and creaked.

  'Not long,' Elyssia said. At last she too had come to realise that they were just not ready to fight the Cobra. They had to get out of here, and fast. The nearest star was six light years distant, their fuel gauge showeda jump capability of four, and rising…

  In the calm sea, wrapped around by sunfire, the Nemesis hovered, and waited. Somewhere in the brilliant glow of the plasma arm the Cobra searched for them, but perhaps they were safe, now, safe from scanning, or from probing, since no electronic eye or ear could pierce the intense radiation field of the corona.

  'Five light years and climbing. Get ready to go, we're already targeted…'

  'I'm ready,' Alex said. He tried not to think of the consequences of such a long, unsupervised jump… in the first instance they would just jump small distances, but the hyperdrive mechanism wouldn't tolerate too many such feeble movements.

  Alex turned the Nemesis so that it gently span in a circle, searching the flickering, shadowy fire for danger.

  'Five point five light years. A minute more. Just sixty seconds…

  'Just thirty seconds… we're filling up lovely…

  The ship hummed. Alex dripped with sweat.

  'Just twenty seconds more, Alex, and we can fly like star seed…'

  On the scanners the merest flicker of light hinted at the presence of the Cobra. It was on the other side of the strand of plasma; a curtain of fire separated them. Nemesis and killer stood motionless in space, facing each other through the great erupting wave of sunfire.

  'We're ready to go,' Elyssia said. 'Alex. Go! Now!'

  Alex Ryder shrugged her off. 'No,' he said. 'Not yet…'

  'Alex! '

  He pushed the ship towards the fire. The flickering, ghostly image on the scanners moved too.

  Closing.

  And with a sudden cry, Alex stabbed speed into the Nemesis' engines, and raced towards the veil of flame and plasma. All vision had gone. All he could see was his father's face; and the white ball of flame that had been the Avalonia…

  All he could feel was grief, and anger, and hate…

  All he knew was that he had a missile targeted on the Cobra, and that he had one last, desperate chance…

  The ships closed. The distance between them was the distance of the plasma veil. It played on the hull of the Nemesis, and the shields screamed and complained. He could not go too deep…

  Not too far in…

  Too dangerous…

  He fired the missile.

  The tiny vessel sped into the sunfire, weaving and ducking as it homed on the Cobra. It didn't show on Alex's scanner. It didn't show on the Cobra's scanner. Not until it was too late…

  The Cobra triggered its ECM. Alex saw the burst of brightness, the sudden detonation… and then he saw the great fireball that gyrated around the destroyed missile.

  Momentum, heat, plasma, fire… all gathered together into a ball of death that swept from the corona and engulfed the Cobra.

  No shield known could stand against such intense energy, the raw energy of the sun, stung and screaming, blown into a great tidal wave of explosive terror.

  The Cobra bathed in light and fire. Alex watched the scanner, and suddenly.

  The light was gone.

  The Cobra was dead. Destroyed. Gone forever.

  The Nemesis slowed and turned, went back to safety.

  No-one on its bridge said a word. But in the bright light of the ageing sun, tears glistened on two faces.

  Chapter eight: Coda

  The holoFac of Rafe Zetter gleamed and shimmered on the bridge of the Nemesis, as if with pride. Behind it, the full face of Lave was a welcome and relaxing sight. The last of the Mymurth and their precious parasites had been off-loaded into two Navy Asp-type ships. The final payment had not yet been agreed, but the figure would not be less than one hundred credits per creature.

  'I knew you could do it,' Rafe said, chewing happily and stroking his wispy sidewhiskers. 'Had to be sure. But was confident enough to get you to Cirag before you were ready.'

  'We could have been killed,' Alex muttered. 'That system was crawling…'

  'But a good combateer, even an йlite combateer, knows when to run, and how to run. I'm proud of you… you ran and scored.'

  And as he spoke, so on the screen a message came through from the Galactic Police HQ on Lave Coriolis 6.

  Congratulations to Alex Ryder, and thanks on behalf of the Galactic Co-operative of Worlds for your efforts and skill in destroying pirate vessels as documented by you, and verified by on-board V-film. We have pleasure in assigning to you the Combat Status of 'Deadly'. Your legal status of 'Offender' has been negated. Your new rating as Deadly will be lodged in the GalNetwork within a standard day.

  'Select wisely in battle, and be strong.'

  So there it was. Alex was not yet twenty earth years of age, had come within one step of being rated more highly as a combateer than most people would even dream about.

  He was deadly; he had killed the Cobra; why the Cobra had killed his father Alex hadn't thought to ask… of the ship's pilot, at least. He had guessed that the ship and its bounty killer pilot had simply been earning a wage.

  Instead, he said to Rafe, 'Did you know the ship was
at Cirag?'

  'Had a good idea of it, Alex. That's why we sent the Tharglets with you.

  Nobody, but nobody — if they're a tad evil — can resist booty like that. I knew it would bring every freebooter for a light year after you, but I reckoned you could handle them. Most importantly, I was damn sure that your cargo would bring out the Cobra.

  'You fought well. You showed the sort of instinct for combat that I remember in Jason. He was right. You are the man to follow him.'

  'Follow him where?'

  Rafe chuckled and shook his head. 'You see, that's the big question. Your father was chasing the mythical plant Raxxla. Does it exist, or does it not?If it does, then on Raxxla there's an alien construct that's a gateway to other Universes, and all that's in those Universes in the way of bounty, and treasures, and aliens, and life…

  'Jason Ryder was convinced that Raxxla existed. That's why he trained for, and became a part of, the Dark Wheel, the legend-seekers. I hadn't heard much from him or about him for some time until just before he died, when he told me he'd found evidence for the real existence of Raxxla. He came back from Deep Space to get a proper team together… 'Rafe smiled bitterly.

  'But just before he was due to go back, he decided to take a safe-worlds holiday jaunt with his son… and an assassin was waiting for him.''But why?' Alex asked. 'Why kill him for finding Raxxla?'

  'Because there are people on Raxxla already. This is only a guess, mind you, but from what happened to Jason I'd say it was close to being right.

  We've long suspected that a corps of йlites lives there, and are exploiting the gateway. They're powerful, twisted men. Powerful enough to hire an assassin to kill the threat to their dominance.'

  Rafe leaned a little closer to Alex, his bright eyes gleaming, an intense look on his grizzled face.

  'I've put you through your paces, Alex, you and Elyssia both. The Dark Wheel needs you. Both of you. But believe me, what you've just been through is nothing to what you face now. You've got to become йlite, Alex. And that means a lot of training, and a lot of fighting, and maybe a lot of months, even years. But then the Universe will open up before you in a way you never imagined possible.'