by Alex Kings
Pierce cut the line.
Hanson smiled at the blank screen. “Thought so.” There was no time to lose. “Vyren, how long before the storm hits?”
“Ten minutes.”
“Right, we need to be quick. Look through this terminal, find out if there's any way we can trace that bulkwave. Anything. Even if it's only a distance.” Hanson checked his comms. As suspected, they were out this deep underground. “Agatha, Srak go to the shuttle. Send a message to the Dauntless and Councillor Kuta about what we've found. Give them the location of this facility. And tell the Dauntless to stop any ship that tries to leave from here without our permission.
“Gotcha,” said Srak. He and Agatha jogged down the tunnel towards the shuttle.
Hanson stood, looking over the pit. There was no time to get it out, but they could keep the facility secure. He wasn't going to let Arka escape his grasp.
*
Millicent stood, watching the blank terminal on Pierce's desk. The way Hanson had addressed her at the end had thrown her. Normally she was invisible when Pierce was having his conversations, but this time …
Pierce stood, brushed down his suit, and put a hand on her shoulder. “He's lying, you know,” he said quietly. “Hanson is willing to say anything to manipulate you.”
“I know,” said Millicent quietly. Once Pierce had said it, it seemed obvious. She looked up at him. “Is it really over?”
“I doubt it,” said Pierce. “Hanson is a resourceful and intelligent individual. But so is Arka. I am sure he will find a way out of this.”
“If he doesn't?”
“Then we will have to find another way. That's all.” Pierce gave her a warm smile.
*
“Anything?” Hanson asked.
The air between Vyren's globe and the terminal shimmered with blue and green effector fields. “I'm afraid not,” said Vyren. “This is a two-way link. All the location data has been stripped, and all the pathfinding encrypted. Even the microsecond lag times are artificial, so I can't get an accurate guess at distance.”
“Alright,” Hanson said. “Good try. “Is there anything else we can do to shut this facility down?”
“I'll try.”
The rhythmic pounding of Srak running, accompanied by Agatha's far lighter footsteps, came echoing up the tunnel. They appeared at the entrance. Agatha was out of breath. Srak's scales down his left side – including both his arms and his neck – were slicked with blood.
That didn't bode well. “Did you get to the shuttle?” Hanson asked.
Srak shook his head. “The razorstorm is already here, at its full power. I tried to reach the shuttle, but …” He looked down at his arm, then growled and punched the floor. The rock beneath his fist fractured, and a few pieces were sent flying.
“It's fine, buddy,” Agatha said, grabbing his arm. “You don't need to be invincible for us.”
“I must have miscalculated,” said Vyren. “I apologise …”
Srak shook his head. “Not your fault. The storms are unpredictable like that.”
“Right, we can still salvage this,” said Hanson. “We just need to wait until the storm abates. Then we send the signal. We're stuck in here, but Arka's stuck outside, so –”
At that moment, a ribbon of Vyren's effector field shot out, smacking Hanson in the chest and sending him stumbling backwards.
A fraction of a second later, a rock the size of a fist hurtled through the air where Hanson had been. It hit the computer terminal with enough force to tear a hole in it and wrench it halfway from the floor.
Hanson quickly regained his balance and swung round to face the place where the rock had come from.
A Varanid stood there, arm outstretched. He still held another rock.
“Stuck outside? Not quite, Captain,” Arka said.
Chapter 18: Varanid Wrestling
There was a moment of silence at everyone stared at Arka. A moment later, the Varanid had sprung into action. He drew back his arm, lightning-fast, and hurled his second rock at Hanson.
Hanson leapt to the side. The rock missed by inches, hit the wall behind him and shattered. Fragments of it smacked against his armour.
Arka had taken advantage of the distraction. Already he was running towards Hanson, fist raised. Hanson stepped back calmly. A running Varanid had a lot of inertia. It would hard for Arka to change direction. If Hanson stepped out of the way at the last second, it would be fine –
But it didn't come to that. Before Arka reached Hanson, Srak barrelled into him, sending both of them flying towards the edge of the pit. They scrambled to right themselves, all six limbs on the ground for traction, mouths open and baring teeth.
“Best stay back,” Srak growled to them. “You don't want to get squished.”
Arka was bigger than Srak, Hanson noticed. He hoped that wouldn't matter.
Arka lunged at Srak. Srak snapped at him, but it was a feint. His jaws closed on nothing. Arka lunged again, straight away, and this time Srak swung out with a fist, which connected at Arka's chin.
Arka recoiled and stepped back towards the pit. Srak went in for the attack again, rearing up, hitting him on the nose, on the chin.
Hanson's mind was racing. Srak was right: There was no way he could get involved in this directly. If he found himself in the path of Arka's fist – or Srak's – he'd be dead instantly. But there had to be some other way.
In a missed blow, Arka's massive jaws clamped on Srak's shoulder. A force strong enough to cut a person in half, enough to tear through metal, stopped short at Srak's shoulder. But the teeth still dug in. Blood ran freely. Arka twisted his head back and forth, shaking like a dog, while Srak rained down blows on Arka's head with his free arms, trying to dislodge him.
“Stay out of this like hell,” hissed Agatha. She ducked to grab a sharp fragment of rock. Then she broke into a sprint, crossed the floor in moment, and jumped onto Arka's back.
She looked insignificant there. Arka ignored her, and it seemed to take all her power to avoid getting hit by Srak's blows.
At last, an idea hit Hanson. The mining equipment! He summoned Vyren with a gesture to one of the terminals far from the scuffle.
Srak saw Agatha and growled at her, He stopped hitting for fear he might hit her. Arka grinned through his mouthful of shoulder, and pushed forward.
Agatha drove her rock into Arka's eye.
Arka roared, letting go of Srak. He stumbled backwards, batting at her with his middle arms. Agatha dived out of the way, but the rock fell from her hand and rolled out of reach. Arka snarled, blood running freely from his damaged eye. His backward stumble became more purposeful. He backed up quickly against one of the walls.
Agatha glanced behind her. She hissed some inaudible swear. Just before they hit the rock, she half jumped, half pushed herself away from Arka. Arka smacked into the wall with an immense crack. Agatha fell against the floor to her side with a sickening thud, and grunted with pain. Arka raised a fist to rush her as she tried to scramble away –
And Srak headbutted him, sending Arka away from Agatha and towards the pit. Before Arka could recover, Srak went in for another attack. But his injured shoulder slowed him, and Arka moved before he could land the blow. Arka moved to the side and wrapped two of his arms round Srak's neck. And with immense effort he threw Srak to the side, where he thudded against the wall.
With a growling thrum of machinery, a mining drone came hurtling across the cavern floor, four long drills spinning, and hit him.
Arka growled as one of the drills dug into his flesh.
“That button,” Vyren said, “ejects acid.”
Hanson hit it.
Arka roared in pain, retreating from the drone. He came up against an outer wall. To his left was the pit. To his right and to his left, Srak and the mining drone advanced.
“Weaklings!” he growled. “You swarm like vermin to make up for your lack of strength!”
“Yeah, yeah,” shouted Agatha, and she picked up another
sharp rock from the ground and advanced towards him. “Complain some more. It's really attractive.”
Another mining drone, piloted by Vyren, joined the fray.
Backed up against the wall, Arka snarled. With his good eye, he looked from the two drones to Agatha to Srak. “Enough!” he roared, lunging forward. It was another feint.
Then everything happened very quickly: Arka dodged between two sprays of acid, parried a punch from Srak, and grabbed one of the drones to smash it into the other. The two drills, rotating at high speed, clanged against each other. One whined and shattered. The drone's motors broke down.
Still moving, Arka reared up on his hind legs and with three of his hands, tore the three remaining drill-bits out of the drone. His final hand smacked at Srak, keeping him off balance.
Arka leapt up onto the broken drone. From that vantage point he hurled one of the drill-bits like a spear at Hanson. No, not at Hanson – the drill-bit missed him and instead tore through Hanson's console, then Vyren's.
Srak moved to tear the dead drone from under Arka. As Arka unbalanced, he plunged the second drill-bit – again, like a spear – into Srak's shoulder. Srak roared with pain and fell back, barely managing to wrench the drill-bit from Arka's hand.
That left Arka with one drill-bit left. The drone beneath him began to fall. Agatha ran towards him, trying to take advantage of his confusion to get behind him again. Arka leapt off the drone and swiped at her with the drill-bit.
Then he turned his attention back to Srak, who was getting to his feet. Before Srak could do so, Arka was on him. The swipe with the drill-bit caught Srak in the ribs. Arka continued to rain blows on him with the drill-bit and his three free fists. Srak fell to the floor. Arka stamped on his chest.
Hanson, seeing no other way out, went with Agatha's strategy He grabbed the sharpest rock he could see and ran for Arka. Vyren joined him.
Hanson reached Arka first. He made to grab Arka's back, but the Varanid was ready for him. He lashed out with his immense tail, catching Hanson's chest and smashing him painfully against the ground.
As Arka was about to stamp on Srak's neck, a glowing blue ribbon hooked around his foot and pulled him off-balance. He fell to the floor, grunting, and saw Vyren behind him.
Srak struggled to get to his feet. Covered in blood, he growled “Keep trying, Arka.” Hanson ignored a blinding pain in his side to get to his feet. Agatha was up too.
Arka looked round all of them, still undefeated. He snarled, then turned tail and dived down the pit.
Hanson stumbled up to the side of the pit to see where he'd gone. There was a small ledge a few metres below, and a cave leading out of sight.
“We need to follow him.” But even as Hanson said it, he realised such an action was impossible. None of them were in any shape to fight.
Except –
“I shall go,” said Vyren.
Hanson looked at him, then nodded. “Be careful,” he said.
“Yes, Captain.” Vyren's bubble of water floated over the edge of the pit, supporting itself with effector fields, and descended quickly.
Hanson sank to his knees. The pain in his side was savage. At least one broken rib. In fact, he thought, it might be the same ones broken the last time he'd got into a fight with a Varanid.
Srak lay slumped on his belly, his chin against the ground. His breathing was shallow. He looked a mess: Blood across his face, blood everywhere, in fact. Giant teeth-marks in his shoulder. Agatha sat by his side, holding her arm.
Srak lifted his head to look at Hanson. He let out a short laugh. “Bastard's tough,” he said.
“Yes,” said Hanson. “Yes, he is.”
“But we got him on the run,” said Agatha. She grinned at Srak, then turned to Hanson. For a moment her smile faltered. She was remembering their argument, Hanson realised. But then she grinned again. “Good idea with those mining drones.”
Seeing that grin, hearing that comment, released a knot of tension. He already knew they could maintain a good working relationship. But the loss of warmth after their argument had hurt him – he hadn't realised how much until now. So it was nice to see their friendship return. Even if the underlying issue wasn't solved.
“Yes,” said Srak. He turned to Agatha. “And you. Jumping on his back with a rock? That was stupid in a way only you can manage.”
Agatha thumped him on the shoulder, making him wince. “Cheers!”
The cavern around them rumbled loudly. A few seconds later, Hanson could feel the floor vibrating. Small pebbles began to skitter about.
“What's that?” he asked, not wanting the answer he suspected.
The rumble grew into an echoing roar – then quickly died away. The cavern was silent again.
A few minutes later, Vyren's globe of water rose up from the pit to join them. “Arka has a ship,” he said. “He escaped before I could stop him.”
“Is the storm over?” Hanson asked.
“No. His ship is armoured – it should be able to escape without damage.”
Hanson closed his eyes and sighed. Arka had escaped, and there was no way to follow him.
Chapter 19: They're Pretty Pissed
From ten thousand klicks away, the storm looked peaceful, even beautiful: A puffy spiral of clouds and, beneath them, black and grey lines. That was the black of volcanic rock, shattered into tiny shards and hurled by winds at a hundred kph.
It was changing too slowly to see from this distance.
“Communications status?” Lanik asked. He was watching the storm's progression from one if the displays above the command console.
“Still out,” said Miller. She looked over at him. “Shall I try again?”
“If you would. And check the Varanid meteorology transmissions, see how long this storm will last.”
“Yes sir.” It took only a few seconds for Miller to find the information. “The storm should clear enough to get a signal through in one hour, ten minutes.”
One hour, ten minutes before they could contact Hanson. Lanik had been watching the volcano Hanson was heading for. But the storm had moved in so quickly that there had been no time to contact him.
“There's a disturbance in the storm,” reported Dunn. “It's a ship. It came directly from the volcano where the captain went.
The shuttle? Thought Lanik. No, it couldn't be. The shuttle couldn't survive that ascent.
Dunn confirmed his suspicion: “It's a Varanid ship.”
“Heading?”
“Straight up, accelerating,” said Dunn. “Looks like it's trying to get out of the atmosphere as quickly as possible.”
“How long before it reaches a safe jump distance?”
“A couple of minutes.”
It could be a normal Varanid ship. One of those they weren't supposed to interfere with.
Perhaps he should let it be. Chancellor Rok had made his wishes quite clear to them, and the regulations said the affairs of aliens were off-limits …
And if the Dauntless had obeyed those regulations, IL would have conquered the galaxy by now.
“Hail the ship,” said Lanik.
“No response,” said Miller.
“Try again. Tell the pilot that it's related to the Tethyan investigation, and that we have authority to fire.”
Miller tried again. “Nothing,” she said.
“One minute before safe jump distance. It's powering its jump engines,” reported Dunn.
The ship was now visible in the display screen above the storm. It trailed a cherry-red stream of superheated air behind it.
Lanik's jaw tightened. “Forward laser turrets, 50% power,” he said. “Aim for its sublight engines.”
This was an order he'd never have considered a couple of months ago. And to their credit, the crew didn't seem uncertain. They knew exactly what the stakes were.
“We have a target,” said Dunn.
“Fire.”
There was a flicker near the base of the ship. It quivered slightly, leaving a ripp
le in its read tail. The lensing effect of the heated air – as Lanik had predicted – had taken most of the bite out of the laser, but there was still enough to hurt it.
But despite its wobble, the ship barely slowed. A few seconds later it was far enough out of the atmosphere that its red tail had dimmed to near invisibility.
“Thirty seconds,” said Dunn. “It's firing on us.”
“Shields up. Return fire,” said Lanik. “Active suppression. Try and aim for its engines – cripple it, don't kill it.”
A distant, immense boom rumbled through the CIC as the first shot hit. The space between them lit as lasers took out kinetics.
“Message from Ghroga's capital,” said Miller. “They say, stand down immediately.”
“Orbital weapons platforms are also firing on us,” said Dunn. The CIC boomed and rattled again. A squeal of heat-torn metal echoes through the ship.
“Ignore them,” said Lanik. “Concentrate on the Varanid ship.”
Ten seconds until it reached safe jump distance. The ship slowed, one of its engines opened up and trailing flowing molten metal. But its inertia carried it forward.
“It's jumping,” said Dunn.
“Keep firing,” said Lanik.
A wormhole emerged in front of the ship, even as fresh gouges appeared in its hull. A kinetic from the Dauntless took out another of its sublight engines – but then the wormhole shot forward and swallowed it.
The ship was gone.
The CIC rumbled again. “Ghroga's weapons platforms are still firing!” said Dunn.
“Call the capital and tell them we stand down, Lieutenant,” ordered Lanik. “Quickly.”
Miller did so. A few seconds later the onslaught stopped.
“The Varanids want to speak to you, sir,” said Miller. “They're … pretty pissed off.”
“I imagine they are,” said Lanik calmly. “Could I get a damage report? And put me through to the Varanids.”