Far From Home: The Complete Series

by Tony Healey

  He stepped to the side to allow the newcomer to the conversation. The sleek form appeared beside him, his face nothing but a curve of mirrored armour. Of course Jessica remembered who this figure was. The most famous adversary of the Union and a renowned warlord of the Draxx Dominion. No-one had ever seen the face behind that mirror mask.

  Jessica heard Nowlan gasp next to her at the sight of him.

  “General Carn,” Sepix said with a smile.

  The General nodded slowly. “Deactivate your defences. You are now the prisoners of the Draxx Dominion. Prepare to be boarded. Failure to comply would be futile.”

  The line was cut. The viewscreen changed back to show the enemy vessel.

  King looked from Captain Nowlan to Commander Greene.

  “What do we do?” Greene asked. “We’ve only just got this tub back together.”

  Jessica nodded. Her jaw tightened.

  “What choice do we have?” she said. She stood up, resolute. “All hands … battle stations!”

  PART THREE

  HERO

  1.

  General Carn targeted the group of craft in his scanners and sent his orders through the stealth communication circuits. The two ships following his lead acknowledged with similarly silent signals.

  He increased his speed. Once he closed the distance to the enemy, he would spring the trap.

  So, their intel had been correct after all: a Union task force led by Captain Gerard “Hawk” Nowlan was systematically destroying their replicant production facilities, a strategy he respected if not appreciated.

  But he couldn’t allow that to happen. They’d lost too many foot soldiers to unending battlefields like Massa E Kym. There was no way they could afford to lose the ability to quickly produce more. A ready-made battle force of unthinkable possibilities was an extremely valuable asset.

  He locked onto the craft at the rear of the group as he came up behind it, and signalled his own ships to fan out. Under no circumstances were they to open fire until he’d already done so.

  The General considered himself a true man of war; though man was the loosest possible term. In another life he’d once been like a man, it was true. But like the blacksmiths of a bygone age, he’d been reforged by the fires of chaos into something new entirely; a deadly weapon, tempered for war.

  And now, like an arrowhead formed from molten steel, he was headed for his target. Carn’s hand braced against the firing trigger. Wait … wait … wait …

  He fired.

  Red energy bolts tore free from the front of his fighter. His stream of fire struck the back of the small Union craft. “Yes …” he whispered with pleasure as it exploded.

  Now the two Draxx ships would perform a pincer movement to pick the other ships off. However, unlike the custom design of his own ship, fitted with the latest in stealth camouflage technology, the other two could not fire while cloaked. Their energy banks could not handle the vast amount of energy required for both acts, leaving them open to attack.

  He watched from the side of his cockpit as the lead Union ship climbed away. The little ship spun on its axis. As it came up behind the Draxx vessel it let loose the cannons at its front, firing in rapid succession.

  The Draxx ship was no more.

  Carn brought himself to a standstill, to see what would happen next. However he hadn’t counted on two things. The first was that the stealth technology was not entirely without flaws. It reflected a fraction of the ambient starlight. Perhaps not noticeable to the average observer. But at the right angle …

  The second was that his enemy would have the eyes of his namesake. And those hawk-like eyes spotted the subtle shift in light as Carn’s ship drifted on the currents of space.

  Hawk’s fighter swung to the right. Then, without warning, it fired on him. The powerful bolts struck him dead on.

  Circuits blew as the cloak failed. Carn ignored it. He threw the ship into overdrive and rocketed forward. Immediately he fired two warheads at Hawk’s ship. Hawk ducked out of their way, and they went hurtling through the pocket of space he’d occupied a second before.

  Carn hurled his ship into a seemingly impossible barrel roll that evaded every one of the bolts Hawk fired his way. The swift response of his limbs was unnatural in its cool fluidity.

  The other Union ship took out his last wing mate, burst the ship like a metal balloon.

  That’s enough. Time to leave.

  As Carn turned, he unleashed a single warhead on the small Union ship. It didn’t have time to react, and its radio chatter over his comm. system was immediately silenced.

  He sped away. Immediately Hawk tried to close the gap.

  Carn hailed the pursuing vessel through the comm. He didn’t need to identify himself. As the saying went, they were well met.

  “General,” Hawk said.

  “How did you know?” Carn said with mock innocence in his trademark silvery voice.

  “It looked like your type of ship, to be honest,” Hawk said.

  Carn chuckled. The last time he’d had cause to laugh was when he had Hawk on a slab torturing him, back on Mephisto Mara. But that was months ago. Nowlan had obviously regained his strength and confidence since then. Of course, the purpose of the torture had not been to kill him. That would have been swift and clean.

  Uninteresting.

  The key had been to find his weakness, find his pain threshold and slowly break through it. Tease it open wide enough to exploit it. If that Union rescue force hadn’t arrived to free him, the General might have succeeded in finally breaking him in two …

  “Well, I have to say, your own ship suits you the best,” Carn said.

  “Oh yeah? And how’s that?”

  Carn checked his readout. “It’s small.”

  Hawk fired a warhead. It fell short of Carn’s ship, although the explosion behind rocked the Draxx vessel from side to side.

  “I’d have thought you’d know better than to waste your precious ammunition,” Carn said.

  “Just a taster for you, General. Now how’s about we stop this charade and get you under arrest,” Hawk said.

  Again, Carn laughed. He keyed several controls. There was no time to plot an exact course. If he waited any longer, he knew Hawk would close the distance between them and blow him out of the sky. What Hawk had probably guessed was that in disabling the stealth systems of the enemy ship, the battle had also damaged the ship’s energy shielding. Carn was a sitting target without it.

  Well, not for much longer.

  “You are confident, human. I’ll give you that. Anyway, it’s been pleasant enough but I grow tired of your company.”

  General Carn pushed the Jump Drive lever forward. The stars burst forth around him and he was gone.

  * * *

  He exited in the path of a black hole. With the immense speed of his mighty ship, Carn failed to brake in time to slow down. He tore straight toward the eye of the swirling singularity. There was no wait. No slow tumble into the prospect of nothingness at its centre.

  If the General believed in a God, he’d have sworn by one as his ship got sucked in like flotsam down a plughole. There was no panic. No fear. The methods taught to him so long ago to control his emotions kicked in again.

  He was still. At peace.

  The edges of the black hole slipped past, and he descended into the eye.

  Into the void.

  He expected the crush of unthinkable forces, but it didn’t come. Instead he found his mind opened like a flower, and every thought he’d ever had was released like dandelion seeds on a breeze.

  He wandered.

  Worlds and systems he’d seen. The star he’d called Sun in another life. A planet, small and covered in water. Blue skies. Dusk and dawn through blankets of cloud.

  He remembered what it was like to have hands - real ones. And to touch with them. To really feel, with natural, biological skin.

  A battle raged below his feet, and when he looked down he saw a war zone. Fire, blood, screa
ms of agony. Explosions. Misery.

  It was in this battle that he had ended. That he’d been pushed away. But war, a force of nature in itself, was not yet ready to let go. It pulled him back, breathed new life into his body. Made him return from death; reborn with hatred to fulfil the bitter and twisted torments of his masters.

  And now, he felt himself come back together. The darkness fell to the side. He opened his eyes, expecting the blazes of hell that surely awaited him. But there were only stars. And a bright blue nebula.

  Perhaps next time, he thought.

  * * *

  His ship tumbled through space, powerless. Every circuit blown, life support failing.

  That’s fine, he thought. I don’t need it anyway.

  He reached under his seat and activated the emergency beacon that would signal his presence to any Draxx forces within twenty light years.

  Carn caught movement from the side of his cockpit. He looked in time to see Hawk’s fighter zoom past. For whatever reason the human’s ship still had minimal power, at least. He tensed, wondered if Hawk would do an about face and make a visual reconnaissance of the area. With his own ship dead in the water, it wouldn’t show up on any immediate scans, but if he was seen …

  His fears were rendered moot when Hawk’s fighter limped away toward the nebula.

  He doesn’t realise I’m already here, Carn thought.

  He watched Hawk go, then settled in for a long wait. The temperature in his cockpit dropped dramatically, the air grew thin, but it was of no matter. The General could stand exposure to the void itself for several days before it would have any real effect on him.

  He closed his eyes and drifted away, deep in meditation.

  * * *

  The ship rocked from side to side. It broke his state of mental tranquillity. Carn opened his eyes to find himself staring at the back end of an enormous vessel. He could tell straight away that it was Draxx in design. His ship bucked in the eddy from the vessel’s engines.

  They’re here to collect me, he thought. And then he saw Hawk’s fighter fly underneath and away. Seconds later an enormous explosion blasted from the front of the gigantic ship, and it visibly lost power. The engines and lights died and it listed to port.

  He knew straight away that the passage through the black hole had knocked out the larger ship’s power and obviously its shields. For Union weapons to render such a critical blow, with one hit, they’d picked their moment well.

  Once more, he waited.

  An hour later, there were signs of power again on the gigantic ship. It righted itself and seemed to have recovered from the hit that Hawk had delivered to it.

  Then, when he began to wonder whether it would ever notice him, the vessel fired a grappler at his ship. He eased back in his chair as the larger ship reeled him in.

  2.

  BEFORE …

  Sepix smiled.

  The Defiant limped away like a wounded Grivnak. It gave Prince Sepix pleasure to see the human scum try to run for their lives. That was all they had done since their first meeting. Run.

  Now he would bring an end to the chase. His crew had no idea where the singularity had spat them out, but it was of no matter. The Draxx Dominion would do what it did best, wherever it was.

  Dominate.

  “Lock on weapons,” he ordered. “Maintain stealth status, and when I give the word, open fire.”

  Minutes ticked by, and then “The enemy has increased speed.”

  Now was the time.

  Sepix slammed his fists down on the front console. “Fire!”

  The helmsman let loose a burst of warheads. They flared away from the Inflictor on a direct collision course with the Defiant.

  Sepix watched in anticipation of the coming explosion, salivating.

  Out of nowhere a small starfighter appeared, firing streams of energy at their warheads. They erupted like fireworks. Not a single one of them hit the Defiant.

  The fighter shot down another swarm of Draxx warheads.

  “What!?” Sepix yelled.

  He watched as the little ship picked off the last projectile with a swift burst of fire.

  “Target that little ship! NOW!” he roared, furious. A few heartbeats later a single warhead shot toward the fighter. It was set to track and follow it until it caught up.

  The small craft ducked and dove, but the Draxx weapon stayed on its tail, inching closer and closer.

  At first Sepix chuckled.

  His expression changed to one of confusion then surprise as the fighter headed straight for the Inflictor. He cocked his head to one side.

  “What is he doing - ?”

  The little ship waited till the last minute, then ducked sharp beneath the Inflictor. The warhead slammed directly into the front of her. The huge hull took the full force of the hit. Sepix was thrown backward. The bridge burst into flame. The Inflictor shook as if riding a tectonic plate.

  Sepix had time to look up at the viewscreen and see the fighter heading away. Then the screen went blank, overloaded.

  He scrambled to his feet, looked around him at the destruction the warhead had done. Now the Inflictor was crippled. The Defiant would be long gone by the time they were operational again. His rage boiled over. He lifted his arms into the air and screamed.

  * * *

  The Inflictor was in chaos, and Sepix worked hard to ensure it was a controlled bedlam. While Carn floated undetected nearby in a state of meditation, the ship’s crew scrambled to fight the multiple fires across the ship. The old Union vessel had dealt a lucky blow, and probably bought themselves some time. Sepix knew that the minute they restored full power again, he’d resume his hunt. And this time he would not let the Defiant slip through his fingers.

  “Report!” he yelled.

  His senior command crew reported the situation of the various sections of the ship to him in tandem. They were making good progress so far, but it wasn’t quick enough. It was never quick enough.

  They’d suffered a temporary leak of reactor coolant following the explosion. It required someone to enter the chamber and redirect the coolant flow. But the assignment meant certain death. Sepix sent seventeen Draxx to their deaths, one by one, in order to get the job done.

  He was reminded of an old Draxx proverb: The needs of the Dominion outweigh the needs of all.

  “We have main power, my lord!” the Engineer reported through the comm. system.

  Sepix grinned. The Inflictor shuddered as power was restored to the engines. The deck levelled out as she righted herself.

  “Excellent,” he said.

  The weapons master spun about in his seat. “Lord, I have detected an emergency beacon directly aft.”

  Sepix cocked his head to one side, surprised.

  “What shall we do?” the officer asked him.

  “Scan it. Make sure it isn’t a Union ploy,” Sepix said. He was well aware that it could be a warhead fitted with an emergency beacon. “Then fire the grappling hook and bring it on board.”

  “Yes sir!” the officer replied.

  Sepix pointed a claw at him. “And you’d better be sure it isn’t a ploy, or you will join your comrades in the coolant chamber. Your remains will liquefy just as well as theirs, I assure you.”

  * * *

  Sepix stood in the hangar bay with his hands behind his huge back. He watched patiently as the Draxx fighter was lifted inside. It was of an older design, and the sight of the craft struck a chord, as though he should remember it for being important somehow.

  It made a loud clang as it settled heavily upon the deck. A legion of troops stood by with their weapons raised, lest the occupant prove hostile. Sepix strode forward until he stood six feet from the cockpit.

  The hatch opened slowly, and as it did the air from the hangar rushed into the ship. It threw him a moment before he realised it was rushing to fill a vacuum. There had been no air inside the fighter.

  But how -

  The pilot stepped out, onto the deck. Sepix wa
tched in disbelief as the pilot looked about at the hangar. He got down on one knee in front of Sepix and lowered his head.

  “My lord. We are not yet met,” the pilot said. “But you are clearly of pure blood. The oath I gave your predecessors still stands now. I am your loyal servant, and at your command.”

  The pilot looked up.

  Sepix saw nothing through that mirrored mask but his own face staring down. “Accepted. Rise, General,” he said, the words alien on his lips.

  Carn stood. Sepix turned and walked slowly across the hangar bay. Carn fell in step with him.

  “You’re right, I do not know you. Only of you. You were once a great a hero to our people,” Sepix said.

  After a moment, Carn said “Forgive me, I can tell that time has passed, but not how much. How long has it been?”

  “Fifty years,” Sepix said.

  Another long silence. “And the war to quell the Human plague?”

  Sepix nodded. “Yes, the purge continues.”

  “Excellent …” Carn said, pleased to find that though time might have moved on, other things hadn’t. There was still a place for him. And a job to do.

  3.

  “Report!” Captain King ordered as she strode onto the bridge.

  On the viewscreen the image showed the swirling maelstrom of the nebula, and coming up on their left the huge bulk of the Inflictor.

  “We are at red alert, hull plating polarised,” Change reported.

  “Very good,” King said. “Boi, open a channel. Try to hail them.”

  She sat down and strapped herself in. There was the sound of boots on deck plating, and she turned her head in time to see Commander Greene walk onto the bridge followed closely by Gerard Nowlan.

  Before she could say anything, Boi reported that a connection had been made.

  “Put it up, Ensign,” she said.

  The front viewscreen changed to a familiar face. Prince Sepix.