by Peter Kenson
“And it gets worse. You’ve seen the reports of the non-Ystrad casualties on Sorinto. Apparently the original virus was targeted on a specific gene that only the Ystrad carry. But once released, the virus mutates into a non-specific lethal form that will attack and kill any living being. It’s a doomsday virus. It’s possible, probable even, that the Belsi do not know about the virus mutating but if they release it on Ystradis, the planet will be uninhabitable for centuries.”
There was a stunned silence for a few seconds as the two men tried to take in the enormity of what they had just been told.
“This cannot be allowed to happen,” Mikael said finally. “Does the admiral know?”
Suzanne nodded. “Lord David is already on his way here to try to prevent the attack, and he has King Jeren with him.”
“He’s bringing a swordsman to a gunfight?”
“I understand that Jeren was quite insistent. He was worried about Rachel and, as it turns out, with good reason.”
“But still…”
“Lord David’s priority is to prevent the attack if at all possible and you are ordered to provide him with whatever support he requires to do that. You should get official confirmation of those orders any time now. It seems obvious that Jeren’s priority will be different but that’s for David to manage. He can be quite resourceful as we both know.”
As if on cue, Mikael’s communicator bleeped. “Captain, flash signal from the admiralty. It’s top priority and encrypted for your eyes only, sir.”
“Put it through to my desk here.”
Mikael walked round the desk and placed his hand on the bio-scanner. He sat down and watched the message unscramble itself on the screen. When it finished, he looked up at the others.
“Well, you’re right. The Old Man doesn’t mention Rachel but he confirms everything you said about the virus. We’re ordered to take whatever action is necessary to support Lord David and prevent the attack. It looks as if nearly half the Third Fleet is on its way to join us but their earliest ETA is 36 hours. Until then, we’re on our own.”
“Did Lord David say when he would get here?” Frank asked.
“Not specifically, but he mentioned that he needed two more jumps,” Suzanne replied.
“Two to three hours then,” Mikael said. “Frank, let’s move in closer to Belsia. If they used the Destructor for the attack on Sorinto, they may use her again on Ystradis. I want to be all over her as soon as she breaks orbit.”
***
It was slightly less than two hours later that Suzanne came back onto the bridge and handed Mikael a datapad.
“Lord David’s arrived. He’s just outside the range of the Belsi detectors, at these coordinates relative to the local ecliptic. He wants to talk to you directly on a tight band link.”
Mikael checked the coordinates and handed the datapad to Ewan. “Set up the link on the tightest band you can and patch it through to my ready room.”
By the time the link was established, Mikael was sitting at his desk with Suzanne beside him. David smiled at them both.
“Congratulations on your promotion, Captain, and to you both on your forthcoming nuptials.”
“Thank you,” they replied in unison.
“Okay, now I’m under a certain amount of time pressure here, so let’s dispense with the formalities. You have my coordinates so you know where I am relative to the system. Normally on this type of mission, I would leave the Salamander here and drop down to the planet in a small stealth craft. I don’t have time for that today. So what I’ve done is to program two jumps into the ship’s autopilot. The first jump will take us in very close to the surface of Belsia. We will then exit the ship in the stealth shuttle and the Salamander will jump back to this position.
“Obviously the jump in will be detected. The energy discharge from the jump will trigger alarms all across the system, plus the Salamander will be visible on radar and every other tracking device until she jumps out again. When she goes, she’ll leave behind an EMP mine on a very short time delay fuse. The electromagnetic pulse will take out all the local tracking stations and we should be able to slip down to the surface undetected. With a bit of luck they’ll think that planting the mine was the primary reason for the incursion.”
“Jumping in that close is a high risk manoeuvre,” Mikael observed. “And your shuttle could well be caught in the pulse when that mine goes off.”
“I’m aware of the risks but there are two clocks running. They’ve had Rachel now for 24 hours. As soon as they discover who she really is, she’ll be in grave danger. Secondly, I’ve got no idea how advanced they are with the attack on Ystradis but I’m worried about the arrival of that Vostovian courier.”
“You think it’s linked to the attack?”
“I think that if it’s come directly from Vostov, there’s a distinct possibility that it was delivering supplies of the virus.”
“Right, what can I do? What do you want from the Swordfish?”
“First, when the Salamander jumps out again, I want you to re-establish this comms link and maintain it throughout. I’ll pre-set the automatics to accept your call sign. I will be in contact with the Salamander, and that gives me a backup mechanism for getting a message to you, even if there is a transmission delay.”
Suzanne frowned at that. “Won’t I be able to stay in contact with you, David?”
“I honestly don’t know, Suzanne. We’ve lost all contact with Rachel. The Belsi are very twitchy about all things telepathic and they may have defensive shielding on their major buildings. The comms link via the Salamander is a backup.”
“You said the comms link was the first thing,” Mikael said. “What else do you need?”
“Maintain your watch on the Destructor. I think we’ve both identified her as the primary threat to Ystradis. I would love to ask you to attack her where she is now but that would be a suicide mission with all those Belsian warships around. But, when she moves…”
“That’s in hand. Anything else?”
“Ignoring the disturbingly high possibility that I may end up dead in all this, I have two exit strategies. If the shuttle is still flyable, we will leave in that, almost certainly with a posse of hostiles in hot pursuit. Undamaged, that little ship can outrun almost anything but some high level cover might come in handy. However, if the shuttle is too badly damaged to use, then we are going to be trapped on the surface and in need of extraction.”
“I’ll do everything that I can, but there is a risk that when you want to leave, I may be off playing tag with the Destructor,” Mikael replied. “You may have to dig in until I can get back to you.”
“Understood. I will try not to put you to any inconvenience.”
“David!” Suzanne scolded.
“Only joking. I intend to be there at your wedding. You two take care of things up here and I’ll see what mayhem I can wreak on the surface. Salamander out.”
***
The cell was small, cold and damp. Rachel shivered as she sat on the edge of the cot and pulled her arms in tight around her. There were no windows in the cell and the only glimmer of light came through the grill on the door, from a source at the far end of the passageway. She had long since paced out the cell and explored the possibilities of the cot, only to find that she would be sharing it with a large colony of biters. Mackay had been put in the cell next door and they had managed to exchange a few whispers before the guards came and shouted at them to be quiet. Other than that they had been left alone without even any food or water.
Rachel had tried to contact Jeren but the shell of the building appeared to be shielded. She could detect some things within the building but nothing outside. The guards were all wearing protective collars that shielded their minds completely, so that they were invisible to her. She could not even tell where or how many there were. She did find a couple of sniffers inside the building who wore a different type of collar to enable them to detect sources of tel
epathy, but she quickly withdrew before they could notice her faint touch. Mackay’s presence in the next cell registered in her mind but he had no telepathic ability at all and they could not communicate. She badly missed the feeling of being surrounded by a sea of conscious minds, anyone of which she could contact if she wished. At that moment, Rachel felt more alone than at any time since she had been reunited with her people.
A door opened to let a stronger source of light flood down the passageway and she heard several sets of footsteps approaching. The footsteps stopped outside her cell and a face appeared at the grill, leering at her. Rachel slowly got to her feet as the bolts were flung back and the door slid open. Two guards stood in the doorway while a third shouldered his way into the cell to stand right in front of her.
“Me and my friends was thinking you might be lonely,” he said, pushing his face in close to hers. “Need a bit of company like.”
“Get out,” she hissed. “I could never be that lonely.”
“Now that’s not being very friendly. You look to me like you’re a very friendly sort of girl,” he said, eyeing her bump. He reached out to place a grubby hand on Rachel’s breast and staggered back as she slapped him hard across the face.
“So you like it rough, do you? Well that suits me just fine, darling.”
He stepped forward again and let out a shriek of agony as Rachel brought her knee up smartly into his groin. As he doubled over, she raked her nails down the side of his face and caught the collar round his neck. With her free hand she shoved him back and jerked hard on the collar, ripping it off and flinging it underneath the cot.
The other two guards rushed in and grabbed Rachel’s arms as the first man lay in a heap on the floor, with one hand between his legs and the other holding his torn cheek.
“Hold the bitch down,” he yelled. “She’s going to pay for that.”
“Are you sure you’re still capable?” one of the others smirked.
“I’ll manage,” he snarled.
The two guards forced Rachel down onto the cot as he got gingerly to his feet and started to loosen his belt. Suddenly he stopped and stared in surprise as his hand released his belt buckle and reached instead for his sidearm. He opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. Rachel was still struggling with the other two guards and they could not see what was happening behind them as he drew the laser pistol and pointed it in their direction.
There was a smell of burning flesh and she made a small grimace of disgust as blood and brains sprayed over her. One of her captors collapsed to the floor and she twisted herself free as the other guard released her arm and stepped back in surprise.
“What the…” he started to say as the gun swung to point in his direction. “What the hell are you doing?”
Desperately he reached for his own sidearm and threw himself sideways as the beam of light flashed out again. The smell of burning increased as the blast caught him in the shoulder of his gun arm and his weapon clattered uselessly to the floor. He stared in horror as the laser pistol swung inexorably back towards his face. But when the flash came, it was from a different direction and Rachel felt the first guard torn from her mental grip as his superheated head exploded.
A Belsi officer stood in the doorway with the bars of a senior commander on his shoulder and a heavy duty blast pistol in his hand. Idly he waved it in Rachel’s direction.
“Step back and don’t try any of your tricks on me. I am very well shielded.”
He stepped into the cell and the doorway was immediately filled with two more soldiers, both carrying assault rifles. He bent over to examine the first guard’s body.
“Why is this man not wearing a collar?”
“He was, sir. The prisoner ripped it off him.”
“I see. And what were you doing here in the first place?” He turned to look at Rachel. “Never mind, I think I can guess. My name is Commander Sitrona,” he said addressing Rachel. “And you are?”
“My name is Rakela Anosova… from Novaya Zemlya.”
“Hm. Forgive me if I doubt the truth of either of those statements.” He raised his voice slightly. “Maxil.”
A soldier with the insignia of a sniffer pushed past the guards in the doorway. “Sir.”
“Who is she?”
“Well she’s definitely Ystrad. I can smell that from here.” He stopped and looked at her curiously. “No…” he started to say, as he dropped to his knees and raised his hands to his throat. “No, please.”
A trickle of blood appeared from one of his ears and ran down his face. He turned to the commander and tried to speak but the words were choked off.
Sitrona had holstered his weapon but he drew it again quickly and aimed it at Rachel. “Release him,” he ordered.
Rachel ignored him as Maxil slid to the floor with blood now pouring from his nose and eyes as well.
“Release him,” Sitrona repeated. “Or…”
“Or what, Commander?” Rachel asked calmly, as Maxil gave a final twitch and lay still. “What would you do differently, if I had released him?”
Sitrona looked down at the body at his feet. “Impressive,” he said. “Very impressive. No ordinary Ystrad could break through a tracker’s defences like that. And Maxil was one of the best.”
“Trackers! Is that what you call them? We call them sniffers - like the dogs that they are. And now there’s one dog less.”
“And soon there’ll be one queen less. Bring her,” he ordered the soldiers in the doorway. “Bargas has been looking forward to this meeting.”
“What about the old space rat?” one of the soldiers asked.
“Leave him to rot. He is of no importance.”
***
The Salamander broke out of jump space, inside the envelope of the Belsian atmosphere. They had not intended to be that close to the ground but the perturbation caused by the planetary mass meant that it was difficult to be absolutely precise on the calculations. One of the unintended consequences of emerging into atmosphere was that the initial energy flash was followed about a minute later on the surface, by a sonic boom that shattered windows and rattled walls. There was no way that their arrival could possibly go unnoticed.
They had jumped with the docking bay doors open and David immediately launched the smuggler’s craft into the turbulent air. The little ship was bounced around in the turbulence as he fought to control the dive towards the surface. The benefits of emerging so low, however, were that they were nearly on the ground before the Salamander disappeared in a second blast of energy, and the resulting turbulence was probably masking their descent.
David had targeted their entry point to be directly above Bargas’ palace and seat of government, and that calculation appeared to have worked. He set the shuttle down just out of sight of the compound and quickly began closing down as many circuits as he could before the mine detonated. He was hopeful that the stealth shielding of the smuggler’s craft would protect them from the worst of the electromagnetic pulse but the point of detonation would now be much closer than he had originally planned.
When the blast came it took out all the interior lights on the shuttle and every instrument on the panels in front of David and Jeren. Emergency lighting came on within seconds and they quickly began assessing the damage. One or two systems came back up almost immediately as redundant circuitry kicked in but others remained stubbornly dark.
“Well the good news is that we have engines and life support,” David remarked. “That means we can fly. The bad news is that we seem to have lost navigation and comms, so we won’t know where we’re going and we can’t tell anybody about it.”
“Can we still get inside the palace compound?” Jeren asked.
“Not using the ship’s navigation systems, but we can use the tactical systems built into those helmets like we did in the simulations. Because they’ve been built to imperial specifications, they won’t have been affected by that pulse. We put those helmets on a
nd I can take this little baby anywhere.”
Khan had supplied them with the most up-to-date plans of the palace compound and these had been downloaded into the helmets via the Salamander’s tactical computers. On the flight from Sarnak, David had insisted that they spend hours practising with the helmets inside the holographic suite, rehearsing simulated attacks on the palace. They finished checking the shuttle’s systems and went through to the cargo bay to perform final equipment and comms checks with the others. Jeren picked up his assault rifle and slid his power sword into a specially constructed sheath on his back. Baltur had his assault rifle in his hands and a rucksack full of stun and fragmentation grenades. Carl cut an imposing figure with his new battle axe strapped to his back, the railgun cradled in his arms and draped all over with pouches containing extra ammunition.
They checked the comms circuits in the helmets before David lifted the shuttle cautiously off the ground and headed towards the compound. All the external sensors and cameras had been knocked out by the energy pulse so he was reliant on terrain information downloaded earlier from the Salamander. He was fairly certain that the palace compound would be electronically blind but that did not mean that they could not be visually spotted by guards on the walls. To minimise that risk, he took the shuttle up high before crossing the perimeter and dropping down into a courtyard outside the prison block.
Without the external cameras, they had no way of knowing if the courtyard was deserted so Carl and Baltur dropped the ramp and ran down to take up defensive positions at the base. Their helmet sensors showed that the nearest warm bodies were all inside the surrounding buildings and, with no sounds of alarm being raised elsewhere, they signalled the others to join them. David sealed the airlock and set up an interference field that would mask the position of the craft from anything overflying the palace compound. It would still be visible to anyone entering the courtyard on foot, but there was no help for that.
The plan of the compound was displayed on the helmets’ visors and they headed for the nearest doorway leading to the prison block. The door itself was locked with an access control panel on the wall to one side. David produced a small device from his belt pouch and pressed it against the scanner. After a couple of seconds, there was a soft click and the door swung open.