Morgan's Choice

by Greta van Der Rol

  “Me first,” she said when they reached the doorway. She pushed ahead of him. A troop of warriors passed her. She ducked back inside. “Yogina. But we can follow them to the hangar bays.” She didn’t add it would be dangerous for him. He knew that.

  “Good. Which way?”

  She slipped out into the corridor and into the driver’s seat of the cart. “Lie down in the back. They can’t shoot me.” She hoped.

  He did as he was told. She heard the little warriors before she saw them, jogging along in two files, weapons slung over their shoulders. They seemed intent, unaware of the vehicle behind them. Soon enough they turned left, back toward the perimeter of the ship.

  A row of hatches appeared on both sides. The double row of warriors halted at one hatch and the first file stepped through, one at a time. She kept the vehicle back while Ravindra peered over her shoulder.

  “Airlocks?” he whispered.

  “I think so.”

  As soon as the last Yogin stepped into the hatch, Morgan moved the vehicle forward. Ravindra leapt off the cart as the hatch began to slide shut.

  “Quick. Get in here.” He dived through the gap.

  Morgan battled the fogginess in her mind. I’ve got to keep moving, got to get away. The gap narrowed. She forced herself through into a confined space long and high enough for the Yogina assault ship it contained. Just in time. The locks thunked into place. Ravindra reached down from the top of the assaults ship’s hull, took her hand and pulled her up next to him.

  “Activate your helmet.”

  As soon as the helmet sealed, the suit’s air supply activated. Sixty percent still in the tanks. It should be enough. Pretty smart for a primitive, this admiral. This would get them off Artemis. She hoped he had an equally good idea to get them to the Starliner.

  His lips jerked in a tight smile as he looked at her through the helmet’s faceplate. He’d turned on the suit’s audio. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.” Somehow the words were so much easier to say now.

  Her suit sensors reported vacuum outside. This was it. The hatch at the assault ship’s bow opened outwards like a flower. The ship floated forward.

  The edge of the launch bay hung before her eyes. There wasn’t enough clearance. They were going to be scraped off. Heart bounding in her breast, she let go. Ravindra had, too.

  “It’ll be tight,” he said. “We have to get out as soon as the ship clears or the bay doors will close. Tell me when the end arrives.”

  She tuned her eyes to see in infrared.

  The assault ship moved beneath them, its barely activated drive emission a soft glow to Morgan’s eyes. When the red glow of the ship’s engines appeared beneath them, she said, “Now.”

  Ravindra took her arm in one hand and swung himself out, grabbing the closing segments of the bay for extra momentum. He kicked off against the assault ship’s hull, heading up Artemis’s side.

  Krystor appeared, a bloated ball against the blackness of space. The planet looked so peaceful. It wasn’t; it couldn’t be. Artemis was throwing more of her warriors into the fray. Vidhvansaka, outline thrown into stark relief by Krystor’s sun, hung in space against the stars. She wondered where the other two frigates were.

  “Where is the Starliner?” His voice sounded metallic in the suit.

  She found the ship, connecting to its computer systems. “A ways up there.”

  Ravindra took out the Yogina weapon and fired down several times. “When those assault ships accelerate, I’d like to be out of the direct line of their emissions.”

  Good point. The assault ship moved on, joining a flotilla. A few moments and the ships powered away, off to batter Krystor. The emissions buffeted them, pushing them closer to Artemis’s side.

  Ravindra used the beam weapon several times so that they drifted parallel to Artemis’s flank. Did Artemis know where they were? Perhaps. That pressure on her mind that Morgan had felt since they had boarded the mother ship was still there.

  The Starliner drifted ahead, glinting in reflected light from Krystor. Morgan connected to the ship’s systems and opened the external hatch. A few more bursts from the Yogina weapon and they were inside, floating in the darkness of the airlock. She locked the external hatch and started the sequence to equalize the air pressure. Nearly done. She heaved a sigh, feeling suddenly weary, so very weary. Her head ached.

  The hatch flashed green and they clambered out onto the Starliner’s deck.

  “It’s not over yet, Morgan,” Ravindra said as he removed his helmet. “Get moving and then contact Vidhvansaka.”

  Yes Sir, three bags full, Sir. She dragged herself up to the bridge and engaged engines while she scanned the surroundings. The adrenalin must be wearing off. She felt, basically, rotten and that presence still lurked in the corners of her mind.

  “Artemis isn’t attacking the capital ships.” She opened the comms to the battle cruiser.

  “No. She wants them to attack her. Right now, that’s what I want, too.” He sat and the harness deployed over his shoulders and legs.

  “Starliner, identify yourself”

  She sent the sequence and added the passenger list. Admiral Ravindra and Morgan Selwood. “You’re pretty confident we did the job, then.”

  Ignoring her, Ravindra picked up the microphone. “This is Ravindra. Put me through to whoever is in command.”

  “Admiral Ravindra? But… you’re dead.”

  “Do not waste my time. Put me through… now.” His voice snapped with authority.

  “Switching to visuals.”

  Ravindra scowled, his fingers beating a tattoo on the arm rest.

  After a few moments of delay for facial recognition and to match retinal image, Captain Lomandra appeared, eyes round. “Srimana.” He opened and closed his mouth twice, then licked his lips. “Your orders?”

  “Have the frigates stand off, full shield power toward the alien vessel. You will hit the mother ship with everything you have. I’ll head for the far side of Vidhvansaka and board when I can.”

  A stiff bow. “Srimana.”

  The captain disappeared from the view screen.

  Artemis hung in space, an ominous presence. Had her Yogina been able to open the valves on the energy sink? Had they even closed the right ones?

  The frigates moved, pivoting away from the alien vessel, their emissions glowing. Morgan pushed away a wave of tiredness.

  “We don’t have much time,” Ravindra said. “We must be behind the battle cruiser when the energy sink explodes.”

  “Yeah.” She ramped up power to maximum and checked the sensors. Artemis’s shields had begun to glow blue, a shimmering haze all around the great ship. Tendrils were forming, swaying like blown smoke. Toward their fleeing ship.

  Fuck fuck fuck. And she was already weary. A pulse pounded in her temple. “Hang on tight, Srimana. Looks like she’s lost patience with us.”

  She overrode the Starliner’s safety constraints and pushed the ship into the red zone, ignoring the alarms. The tendrils snaked out, searching for prey. Vidhvansaka grew larger. “Maybe we did nothing. Or her attendants fixed the valves.”

  Ravindra sat unmoved, outwardly calm, icy cold. “Maybe. Or maybe this is the last vestige of the power she collected when the frigates attacked. As I recall the blue tendrils were much brighter when she destroyed Ajagara.”

  His explanation was possible. But the tendrils stretched closer and closer. The Starliner couldn’t go any faster. Morgan’s heart couldn’t go any faster. Sweat gathered, trickled down the side of her face. She would have to make sure the Starliner was out of the way of the battle cruiser’s broadside, too.

  She engaged the top thrusters.

  The Starliner changed direction, forcing her body up into the harness. The blue tendrils dissipated, fell apart above them.

  Vidhvansaka fired, a massive broadside of energy beams, spitting bursts of blue energy that made Artemis’s tendrils look like mist. They sizzled above the fleeing ship. Ar
temis’s shields absorbed it all, sucking in the energy as though it had never been.

  “Behind the flagship, Morgan. Quickly,” Ravindra said.

  The dive had taken them beneath the battle cruiser. A burn of the lower thrusters brought the Starliner beyond its bulk, protected by its shields from whatever might come from Artemis. She burned the thrusters again to bring the ship to a halt relative to Vidhvansaka. Tired. She’d never been so tired. Or so hot.

  “Can you show me Artemis?” Ravindra’s eyes were on the screen.

  Her mind flowed through the data connection to the battle cruiser and found the sensors. She brought the images back and directed them to the Starliner’s audio-visuals.

  Artemis’s bulk hung directly between Vidhvansaka and Krystor, seeming to cut the planet in half. The rear of the ship erupted, flinging debris from the ruptured hull into space. For a moment the image was clear until the released energy lit up the battle cruiser’s shields. Fragments followed, bursting apart, sliding off, hurtling past the edges. She clutched her hands to her head. The entity’s shriek of fury sawed at her nerves. Then there was silence.

  Ravindra blew out a sigh of relief. She could almost see the tension draining from his muscles in response to the light show on the battle cruiser’s shields. If he’d been wrong about the energy sink, he wouldn’t have had time to apologize before Vidhvansaka was destroyed, and the Starliner with it. She’d bet there would be some cheering on the warship’s bridge.

  “Vidhvansaka to Starliner, we have dropped shields in sector eight four. Airlock AF forty is available for you when ready.”

  “Acknowledge,” Ravindra said. “Morgan, take us in.”

  “Srimana.”

  Might as well let the auto-pilot take them in. She selected the position of the airlock as the destination and let the ship plot its own course. The battle cruiser’s flank grew larger in the view screen, the line of airlocks like dark windows in an apartment building. A light flashed above AF forty. Something wasn’t right, though. Something hovered, a dark cloud, a niggling feeling. Something.

  “Starliner, shut down engines.”

  “Acknowledge.”

  She shut the engines down and settled into her seat. It would be pretty on Krystor, all this stuff burning up as it hit the atmosphere. Hot. She was so hot. Maybe she was burning up, too. Sweat dripped from her chin. She wished she could rub her face.

  “Morgan?”

  She opened her eyes. Ravindra gazed at her from his seat, still in his harness, eyebrows drawn together. The equalizer gauge beeped, signaling airlock opening.

  “Sorry. A bit tired, that’s all.” She managed a smile. “It’s been a busy few days.”

  The Starliner lurched as the tugs brought the ship into the hangar. The harness lifted from her shoulders.

  He bent over her. “You’re ill.”

  She waved him away. Why wouldn’t her eyes open properly? “I’ll be all right.”

  He straightened. “Get a medical team here. Now.”

  “No. No, not yet.” She waved a hand to stop him. “Yes, I’m sick but this is… this is something else.”

  Her heart lurched. Artemis. Artemis hid in a corner of her brain. Oh fuck. She tried to dislodge the function, neutralize it.

  Artemis chuckled. “You cannot defeat me.”

  Morgan opened her eyes and stared into Ravindra’s face. “She’s not defeated, Admiral. She’s only wounded and she’s here.” She pointed at her own head.

  He blinked, startled. “We’ll destroy the ship.”

  “You’ll have to do it quickly. And she’s orbiting very close to the planet.”

  In her mind she saw blue tendrils like mist around her data stores, probing, twisting like tree roots into rock. No you don’t bitch. You will NOT get into my implants. Blocking, blocking all the time Morgan spoke to Ravindra.

  “If she overcomes my defense she has access to the knowledge to get into your systems, destroy the ship. Don’t land anything on her and work quickly. And don’t on any account allow them to sedate me. I have to be conscious.” She shooed him away. “Go on, go.”

  “What will you do?”

  “The only thing I can do. Fight. But if I lose… you’ll have to kill me.”

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Ravindra ran for the transit and selected the bridge. The transit car moved to horizontal, numbers flicking by. He sucked in a deep breath. Set her to one side. He could do no more for her. Except destroy that mother ship.

  “Admiral on the bridge.”

  Men and women slammed to attention when he appeared in the doorway. He took it all in with one rapid glance, the curved line of stations, each with a screen, the central hologram of the current sector with the huge rectangle that was Artemis at its center, the captain’s command chair.

  Lomandra stepped forward and bowed, leading the salute. “Srimana. Welcome back. And may I say, it is good to have you back.”

  “Captain,” Ravindra said. Good to have him back, eh? Perhaps. Certainly Lomandra was smiling.

  “What are your orders, Admiral?”

  “The alien ship is wounded, not dead. But we must be mindful that it is in a comparatively low orbit around Krystor.”

  “With respect, Admiral, the orbit is already beginning to decay. The technicians estimate fifteen hours before the ship begins to enter the atmosphere.”

  Ravindra suppressed a shudder. “We can’t let that happen.” A twenty klick ship plunging into Krystor. The effect would be catastrophic. What survived the impact would perish in the storms and dust clouds. “We’ll just have to tow the thing away. I don’t want anybody going on board. Have the grav beam generators deployed along the starboard flank and use them to tow it out beyond the planet’s moons.”

  “Srimana.” Lomandra looked at his boots. “Admiral… there are so many questions.”

  “There are, Captain. But right now I want someone who can give me a situation report while I shower and change.” He’d almost said SenComm Lindar, but Lindar was dead, one of Asbarthi’s first victims. Anger boiled in his stomach. He hoped Asbarthi was still alive. When he got his hands on the slimeball… Enough of that.

  “Have SenComm Radisar attend to me in my quarters. I’ll be back shortly.” He afforded Lomandra a bow and strode the short distance to his quarters.

  Tullamarran opened the door for him, bowing especially deeply. “I have a uniform laid out for you, Srimana.”

  “Thank you.” Ravindra returned the bow, kicked off his boots and began to peel off the flying suit.

  “I am very pleased to see you back. I grieved at your reported death.”

  Ravindra paused in the act of taking an arm out of a sleeve. The man had been an integral part of his life since he’d reached the rank of captain, silent and efficient. What could he say? “I’m pleased to be back.” He met the man’s eyes for a little longer than usual. Tullamarran smiled and averted his gaze.

  “Get me a new sanvad, will you, Tullamarran.”

  “Srimana. Will you be dining here?”

  Dining here. With Morgan. Oh, how he wished. No, not yet. “I think I will be expected to make an appearance in the senior officers’ mess.”

  He showered and dressed while SenComm Radisar briefed him on the situation on the ground. The Yogina had targeted all major cities. Zaffra Bay was destroyed, as far as they could tell fighting continued in Krystor Central, Al Nara and Quito. No one had seen Hai Sur Devagnam or Asbarthi. The Yogina were spreading out over the less sparsely inhabited areas, killing as they went. Fires had broken out in many places.

  “Why did the fleet return to Krystor?”

  “Because of a speech Hai Sur Devagnam gave at a victory parade. He said the King and Queen of the Orionar had returned to lead all the worlds of the Union, that their message of equality for all would be spread.” Radisar grinned. “He even said they would avenge the death of the King at the hands of the Mirka.”

  “Huh. It seems I owe Devagnam thanks. So does his plane
t. Arrange a meeting with section commanders for an hour’s time.” Ravindra finished fastening his jacket. A singular luxury, this, to wear a uniform that fitted correctly.

  ****

  Morgan lay back on the med sled and closed her eyes. She probably had a fever, picked up from those pesky insects in the jungle. That would explain the heat. Artemis worried at her security like fingers picking at knots.

  “You cannot defeat me.” The voice cooed, almost a lullaby.

  “No, Artemis, you’re not defeating me. You’re crazy. Gone mad in your own mind, haven’t you?”

  The mind-fingers tore, vicious as hooks. She forced them away while her body was shifted onto something more comfortable. A needle pierced her skin and she felt the biots squirt into her blood stream.

  “You and I together would be invincible, I with my ship, you with your body. You could go down to these planets, lead my warriors. We could pave the way for the settlers.”

  “There are no settlers. No ships come behind.”

  A pause, a momentary lifting of the attack. “Doctor Rosmenyo promised settlers.”

  “He was killed. He couldn’t get to you, remember? He and his Makers. And you destroyed the rest of the facility. How could they leave? And where to?”

  Another probe, a lightning attack on three fronts, savage, uncoordinated. Morgan blocked and blocked again while the biots attacked the virus. “Settlers will come. All your primitives will die. You have wounded me. But my attendants work even now on restoring the energy sink.”

  The energy sink must have been badly damaged, surely? She hoped Ravindra was doing something about destroying Artemis, but if she checked, if she became distracted, the entity in her mind might… Morgan stiffened…get a foothold in Vidhvansaka, transfer from her ship to this one. Not the same, of course not. She would have no warriors but she would have weapons.

  “Let go, Morgan. I don’t want to hurt you.” Soothing as the waves on the shore.