Captain Turner watched as the monitors showed the temperature in the drive rising rapidly towards criticality.
Paul saw the ring in front of him move away and felt the jolt as they passed over the landing field and under the ship. He felt a sudden blast of heat from above. Looking us, he could see the glowing mouths of the altitude jets and knew that the invisible hydrogen flames were lancing out towards him.
The fields within the anomaly were complex. In places they combined in ways which would enable a ship to gain height. Finding these had taken weeks of surveying. Lynella never paused to think, she was at one with the fields and knew exactly where to go. She could sense all of the moves that she could make and prepared her next attack. By reaching to the limit of her senses, she could even detect the changes in the other ring so, when it moved away, she was ready for it. She knew now that she could do it and she drove all thought of the fate of her predecessors from her mind.
The watching crowds all knew that the end was coming. They could see the larger ring with the crude wooden platform racing towards the bare smaller one. At the last second the bare ring shot to one side as the other swept past. A minute later the attacker was back only just missing. They could see each attack growing closer. The big ring turned crazily and shot back. The crash that echoed across the valley. A bolt of lightning flew into the hill to the North. The larger ring was swaying. The smaller was gone, broken fragments exploding in all directions.
38
Three hundred feet above the muddy ground, on the curved side of the hub, well above the roots of the spokes, the construction crew had cut through the ties securing a construction access hatch. The delicate hard vacuum seals had been broken, and the waiting shuttlecraft had carried the gleaming metal away, leaving a large dark hole behind it. Further crews had worked with enormous care; and their precious charge was passed out to a second shuttle which was already hovering, waiting to carry it down to the new executive suite which had been built a mile away, just beyond the bulky torus. Now Captain Turner sat before that charge. The unblemished veneered surface of the boardroom table had been polished to the point where the victorious smile on the face of the mission director, who sat opposite, could be seen in it in every detail.
The nervous personnel officer sat next to him and, on an unspoken command in the form of an almost imperceptible nod of the head from his superior, the officer spoke into the microphone.
‘The mission director is going to permit you to know the exact contents of the executive summary of the report which he is sending to earth in the data bullet’. His words were carried through a network of patches to sufficient loudspeakers and headphones to ensure that every individual who had arrived on the ship could hear him clearly. He continued, ‘As soon as he has finished speaking the data bullet will be launched’.
One of the director’s attractive personal assistants picked up the microphone and placed it carefully on the table in front of him. ‘This report is being sent with great urgency to head office on earth to report a major discovery which will generate significant returns for the Great River Mining Company. On this planet company personnel working under my direction have discovered the basis of a totally new technology which can control very powerful electromagnetic fields. These field are as powerful as those generated by the fusion ring on our ship but require no major plant to control them.’
Captain Turner looked up wearily. The strain of uncertainty could be seen on his face. He knew that it was in the power of this man to cast him at will in the role of hero or villain.
The director continued. ‘A detailed account of the discovery is given in the body of my report. There is some involvement of persons who are not ship personnel and have been discovered on the planet living in primitive conditions. These persons are descended from the crew of a ship which must have left earth some time ago. Details of their journey are not yet known. Under the terms of the powers given to me by government they will be subdued as necessary and subject to the same regulations as ship personnel’.
‘In addition to this, our mining operations are proceeding well. The ship has landed safely on planet. A minor incident caused injuries to Engineer Paul Evans and one individual from the local population, but they are both recovering in the ship’s hospital.’
The bullet itself lay in a shaft which had been specially excavated below the centre of the hub to enable it to reach inversion velocity, from a planet surface launch.
The final countdown sequence showed on the screens and captain Turner struggled to suppress his anger. The un-necessary, and potentially disastrous, consequences of overloading the piles and the hull supports resting on them were not his most serious concern. The bullet entered hyperspace from within the planetary atmosphere. In less than a second it did more damage to that atmosphere than three centuries of uncontrolled industrialization had achieved on earth.
Two seconds later the shock wave reached the ground. Reinforced glass in windows, and good heavy duty ear defenders, ensured that ship personnel sustained no injuries or major discomfort. In the forest and the kingdoms beyond, the situation was totally different. People and animals were terrified and ancient buildings were damaged.
The wave did, however, just penetrated sufficiently to cause the smoke from the director’s cigar the move perceptibly, as it curled across the room. Below it a small piece of glowing ash was shaken off the end and, before he was able to sweep it away, it burnt an ugly black scar into the surface of the table.
Part 2. Tiana.
1
The dragon looked confused. This was not due to any expression that it could convey because its face was fixed in a metal mask. The confusion was visible from its hesitant movements. These were totally unexpected in a creature, which had, for many hundreds of years, never shown fear.
The man with the dragon showed no confusion. He was determined that none would be seen. The families from the first landing had said that more people would come and now they had arrived. They had said that they would arrive at the source and that was where they were. They had said that they would come in a ring-ship and that was also true. The machine now approaching him was not described but no description of their equipment was given so he assumed that they had known about it but had simply decided that a description was not necessary. This was his destiny, and he strode forward in his woollen cloak and worn leather boots with the dragon following.
The machine fled backwards. The noise from its engine increased, driving the tracks so fast that the man had to run to keep up. He made no attempt to overtake and the procession, machine man and dragon moved along the rutted muddy track and soon arrived at the compound. The dragon now found itself surrounded by large numbers of machines. Several of these were its equal in bulk and height and, collectively, they represented a formidable foe. The long excavator arms hung out towards it with threatening teeth on their buckets. It raised itself to its full height, with four of its six legs firmly on the ground and the front two reaching out with their huge claws fully extended.
‘Don’t shoot it.’ The voice of the mission director came over the public-address system. ‘We want it alive’.
The drivers and labourers all slipped away, and the man and his dragon stood motionless in the deserted space. On one side the site huts formed a two-storey temporary building and the others had barbed wire fences with the rows of earth-moving machines lined up in front of them on the hard-packed earth, with only a small gap between them for the entrance. The confusion in the offices was such that it was several minutes before one of the ship’s officers emerged.
‘On behalf of the Mission Director I welcome you. Under the terms of the amnesty you must surrender your weapons and you will be given food, shelter and employment.’ He showed no intention of moving more than a few paces away from the door.
‘I know of no amnesty and require none.’ The man stood his ground. ‘My people have had no contact with the kingdoms for many generations. It is not my concern if yo
u have been in conflict with them. I wish to see your Mission Director’.
The officer decided to concentrate on the practicalities. ‘What will the dragon do if you come inside?’ He glanced around in an un-necessary gesture to show how much larger the dragon was than the door way through which they would go.
‘The dragon will not move until I bid him to do so.’
‘Bring him up.’ The Mission Director’s voice came over the speakers again. Switching the microphone off he instructed the foreman, ‘You can’t move it so build a cage around it.’
Standing in the office the man looked out of place but, unlike the others, he did not look uncomfortable. It was difficult to judge the age of these people, many of them looked neither young nor old. His clothes were simple but in good repair. The Director reasoned that with an animal like that to clear the way, moving through the dense undergrowth without getting caught on it must be a lot easier. He had planned to leave all reception interviews to the personnel department, but this was certainly an interesting one.
‘What is your name?’
‘My name Christian. There are few of us. We do not use clan names’.
‘Which kingdom are you from?’
‘We were expelled from the kingdoms at the time of the rebellion, just fifty years after the landing. We live at the metal mountain.’
The Director looked up in amazement. ‘A metal mountain. Pure metal? What metal?’
‘The mountain is rock but in its heart, there is pure boiling metal.’
‘Where is it?’ The Director asked immediately, thinking of pure metal flowing directly into moulds for shipment.
‘It is a long way away. I started my journey when your ship arrived in orbit.’
At that point the interview ended. Christian was left making his offer of allegiance to the officer who had greeted him in the compound. He was assured that the offer would be conveyed to the Director. He was given an excellent meal and shown to a room with a comfortable bed. The following day he was told that, in view of the number of applicants, he would have to wait some time to be seen. He was not aware of applying for anything but saw no harm in waiting.
In the compound the dragon did not move. It watched with mild interest as the cage was built. Heavy steel beams were brought and lifted into place with cranes. Welders worked through the night and the following day connecting them together.
By the second day Christian was becoming impatient and, when called to interview, demanded to know if his offer of allegiance had been accepted. The interviewer looked bored.
‘I’m sorry sir. All I’m supposed to do is to find out what skills you have. Can you work with wood?’
‘I do not work with wood.’
The interviewer sighed. This was going to be a difficult one. He started his standard speech. ‘We can offer you an excellent life. You have seen how good our food is and how comfortable our accommodation is. When you earn some of our money you can buy things like this.’ He took a small radio out of his desk and turned it on. The music irritated Christian even more. With a glance he stopped it. Switching it on and off failed to cure the fault so it was replaced, and another was produced. This time the plastic case was visibly melted. The interviewer finally realised what was happening.
‘I see.’ he said, sounding shaken. ‘You can do what the girl can do. Just bear with me a second, sir, and I shall take you straight to the Director.’
The Director smiled broadly. ‘You are most welcome. If you had told me about your ability we could have avoided the delay. Can you do as much as the girl?’
Christian ignored the question. ‘I must know. Do you accept my allegiance, and that of my people? Do you pardon us for any crimes against the state that were committed in the kingdoms?’
‘Yes, I accept your allegiance’ The director was faintly amused.
‘And the pardon?’
The Director only hesitated for a second. He had no idea what crimes they were but surely it would have no standing in law. ‘Yes, a full pardon is granted.’
Christian breathed a long sigh of relief. ‘I shall tell my people.’ Looking through the window he could just see the dragon. Using four of its powerful legs, the animal calmly bent the steelwork out of the way and sped away across the plain.
2
‘You can hear her screaming from the corridor outside the infirmary.’ Smith knew that his reaction would be showing. He was trying to avoid eye contact. ‘The pain must be incredible. She always tried to look confident but she’s so young.’
‘I think they’re sedating her every time she starts.’ Gardiner sounded more detached.
‘That won’t do her any good, will it? She’ll just get worse.’
‘She won’t recover.’ They both already knew that she was only just alive.
They had taken a corner table in the crowded cafeteria. Hundreds of people around them were hurrying to finish their meals. Activity had been frenetic since the landing, ending months of boredom. As ship’s officers, they were the exception. Their workload was reduced so they could take time over their meal. And hear Lynella’s screams. Nobody else in the room seemed to notice, but Smith was sure he could hear them.
Smith stood up. The captain had been arrested and when they tried to go in it would be obvious that they were part of it. But he had to try.
He walked into the infirmary trying to look as if he had the right to be there. It was not difficult to see where she was. A group of three guards stood by a closed door. It was briefly opened for a doctor to hurry in, but it was impossible to see how many other staff were already inside.
She screamed again. The sound was scarcely human. He heard her gasping for breath and the shouts of the nurses trying to control her.
He took the circlet out of his briefcase. When Angus had given it to him three days previously on the hillside it had looked like the powerful artefact that it was. Now it looked ridiculous. He was an officer standing in the infirmary with a child’s toy. It caught the attention of one of the guards who noticed their uniforms.
‘Ship’s crew not allowed in this infirmary. Director’s orders.’ The guard started towards them.
Smith replied instinctively. ‘We’re not crew, we’re officers. Use your eyes man.’ Before the man had the chance to say that officers were also excluded he went on. ‘Now stand aside, that’s an order.’ He pushed past, Gardiner followed. His lack of true authority over the guards was made up for by his superior height and obvious strength.
Entering, he saw Lynella, just visible through the mass of medical staff gathered around her. Quite suddenly, she stopped screaming and there was a short silence while a nurse checked her breathing. An almost imperceptible nod from the doctor said that she still lived.
One by one those by the bed looked up to see the two officers. Smith saw them stare at the circlet.
‘Who the hell are you and what is that? Guards!’ He saw the fury in the doctor’s face as he turned back towards the bed.
The guards had already come in, but they were no match for Gardiner who kept them back while he ran forward.
‘Stand aside!’
His bluff did not work on the doctor. He took no notice and turned to face him.
He held up the circlet. ‘Put this on her.’
The doctor ignored him. The guards were getting around Gardiner.
Suddenly Lynella’s arm lunged out. It was weak and shaking. She reached directly for the circlet with extraordinary speed. Smith knew that it was the only thing that she feared above all else, even above the field that was killing her, but he knew that it must look as if she wanted it. Her eyes were gaunt. Her expression of eerie terror shocked all to silence. She was staring at the circlet. It was just beyond her reach. She seemed to summon a last reserve of strength to sit up and take it. Her body stirred pathetically but she could not move. Her raised arm faltered and dropped. But then Smith felt the circlet warming in his hand. He looked down. A blue glow was forming around it. He held it up.
The power was weak, scarcely enough to cause a spark, but the glow was now visibly pulsing, bright enough to be seen above the intense hospital lighting. It was enough. The doctor saw it and stood back while he placed the ring around her head.
Instantly her body relaxed. Her breathing steadied. The doctor looked at Smith.
‘It blocks the field from the fusion ring.’ He tried to explain. ‘It’s too strong for her here in the hub.’
‘You’re the expert, are you? How come it doesn’t affect anybody else?’
‘That’s what her power’s about. It’s something she can make for herself and she’s getting it forced on her. It’s too much for her to take. Don’t forget she’s never been in the source before.’
‘Nobody told us any of that. If only we’d known.’ The doctor hesitated. But one of the guards stepped forward. This time his authority was clear. Smith saw that he had drawn his gun. ‘You’re one of them. Sounds like you’ve spent quite some time with the natives. You must have been in this with the captain.’
Smith and Gardiner were led away to be held at the discretion of the Mission Director.
The doctor had routine access to check the drunks, so Smith was not surprised to see him in the corridor outside his cell. Suddenly he stopped right outside, produced a key, and let himself in in. ‘She’s not getting better’.
‘Every time she comes round, she’ll try to tear the circlet off, won’t she?’
The doctor agreed.
‘It was all we could think of. A full metal enclosure would keep it out, but we couldn’t see how that could be arranged. She needs to be moved away from the ship.’
‘I know, I’ve already asked. The Mission Director said that it would be a security risk’.
Ringships Page 21