The Karasor

by Philip Hamm

  Before he could comment, a faint spot appeared on the right of the Exarch circle. “Durgah, I’ve got something...”

  “Shrink the field and then expand it again slowly. Stay calm...”

  Narikin twisted the dial by a notch and turned it back. The spot reappeared and then faded.

  “What do you see?”

  “Definitely something, on our starboard side...”

  “Shrink it and then change the vertical alignment – is it above or below us?”

  “It seems to be level with us,” he concluded as the spot appeared fainter than before.

  “Keep watching; I’m going to turn the ship around and see if it changes course with us. It could just be a trader on the Meros.”

  Slowly, the view from the bridge altered as the ship first pointed towards Larret’s sun and then headed north again. Narikin kept expanding and contracting the Exarch field, not hoping to catch sight of the spot again but frightened of missing it if it did.

  A few minutes later, the object crossed the invisible line and the spot reappeared on the left side of the screen. “It’s changed course, Durgah; it’s definitely following us.”

  “Is there anything on the radar screen?”

  “No...”

  “Then it must be the phantom ship; sound the alarm. Call the captain and tell him what’s happening.”

  The button for the alarm was close beside him and he pushed it down. Bells began to ring throughout the ship. He picked up the telephone and pushed another button for the captain’s cabin. He didn’t need to say anything. “I’m on my way,” said Kruvak without pausing.

  Another minute and Bysen ran up the stairs, “Typical,” he grumbled as Narikin let him have his chair. “I sit by this screen for hours and the one time I leave it is the one time something actually appears...”

  “It’s on our port-side,” Narikin told him. “I adjusted the vertical dial but it seems to be level with us.”

  With an expert’s eye, Bysen could tell Durgah how far away their shadow was and how fast it was travelling.

  “They must be watching us on radar,” he added.

  “I don’t doubt it,” Durgah replied.

  Kruvak appeared and came to the detector station to see the evidence. “It turned when we turned,” Narikin told him.

  “Durgah, take us closer to the border; we’ll dive into the asteroid field if we have to but I’d rather stay in the open. Keep our current speed; I don’t want them to suspect we know they’re there.” He stepped down to the lower level and sat in his chair. “Cousin, sit in the navigation chair - I need you to look in the almanac for hazards on this part of the Meros.”

  Narikin did as he was told, squeezing past the pilot’s chair to sit at the front where Durgah normally sat. The almanacs were on a shelf by his knees and the maps, in leather tubes, were by his elbow. The almanac he needed was already on top of the others, the right section marked with a piece of paper. He opened it up and began to scan the finely-drawn illustrations.

  The Meros, free of obstructions, was on one side of the page and a rash of asteroids around Larret system on the other. The background was shaded too, indicating billions of tinier rocks too small to document but still dangerous. Added by hand, in a red pen, were the locations of Taira warning stations and areas they had mined.

  “What latitude have we reached?” he asked.

  Kruvak held the sextant in his hands, lined it up with the stars of Larret in the north-east, Mormo further north and Sarillon to the west. He gave a figure and Narikin used a ruler to locate their position on the map. “There’s a radar station at four degrees’ latitude, mines for ten thousand miles beyond that and a clearway into the Larret system.”

  “Berith’s Bore,” said Durgah, glancing at Kruvak.

  The captain nodded and asked Narikin, “How soon will we get to the clearway?”

  Narikin made the calculations in his head. “Thirty-three minutes, Captain. It’s roughly two degrees’ latitude and ten degrees’ longitude.”

  Kruvak grinned at Durgah, “He’ll be after your job next.”

  “It would be good to have another navigator on board,” he replied and flashed a rare smile at Narikin.

  “What are you thinking, Captain?” asked Jamadar from his station at the back.

  “I want the Taira to know what our real enemy looks like,” he replied. “If we can draw the phantom ship into the Larret system, we can trap them together.”

  “Won’t the Taira have the same difficulty spotting them that we did?”

  “It is a risk - but the Taira will know we haven’t invaded their territory for no reason. If they give us a chance, we can let them know why.”

  It seemed more likely to Narikin the Taira would object to their presence vehemently, possibly with missiles and plasma bolts. But he didn’t say anything.

  “Look among the maps for Berith’s Bore,” Durgah said to him. “Then pass it to Querl; he’ll need to study the route in detail.”

  The bridge was beginning to fill up as the crew hurried back from their rest period. The pilot was among them, standing behind the captain’s chair, waiting to relieve Durgah. Narikin put the almanac down and looked at the labels on the leather tubes until he found the right one. He opened the top and took the map out, passed it across to Querl so he could look for hazards.

  “A second target,” said Bysen.

  “Where is it?” said Kruvak.

  “It was in front and now it’s behind; we’ve passed over it.”

  “Radar signature...?”

  “No; it’s another phantom, Captain... It’s following...”

  “It was waiting for us,” said Durgah.

  “Increase our speed gradually; let’s see if they can keep up.”

  Narikin took note of the increments and re-calculated the arrival time to ‘Berith’s Bore’. The name was as familiar to him as Scarp Rock. Before his defeat, Tsar Berith had used the clearway to move his forces through the mountains between Larret and the Meros to stop ships from the Pentī Alliance from reinforcing each other. Like an eel in a cave, Berith had preyed on them but the battle at Scarp Rock put an end to his reign and he slipped away into history along with the other Zarktek.

  “Ten minutes,” he said when Durgah had pushed the Claught drive lever as far as it would go.

  “They’re still following us, Captain,” said Bysen.

  “That’s unfortunate; I was hoping we’d be able to out-run them.”

  “They’re certainly fast,” said Durgah. “At least we know that much about them now.”

  Kruvak nodded, “But will they follow us into Berith’s Bore or will they disappear again? Querl, I want you back in the pilot’s chair when you’re ready.”

  “Yes, Captain...”

  “The route through the pass is complicated,” Jamadar said, reading the map alongside the pilot. “We won’t be able to maintain this speed.”

  “I know but we’ll be able to use the asteroids as shields if they get too close. And I’m trusting our pilot is better than theirs.”

  “Five minutes,” said Narikin, watching the clock on the pillar in front of him.

  “Get to your station, cousin, and Querl, prepare to take over from Durgah.” He picked up the telephone. “This is your captain speaking,” he said to the whole ship. “We’re about to enter Berith’s Bore. Two of the phantom ships are in pursuit. I want the mines made ready and the aft-turrets on stand-by. We know the enemy is using some kind of electromagnetic technology. We’re hoping to stop them from using its full force but if it catches us, the ship’s frame will conduct the electricity. Wherever you are, stay as far away from metal as you can. If you’re standing on the bare deck, put something non-conductive under you. Take anything metal off your clothes – even a belt buckle could burn you badly. I’d rather you were running around with your trousers around your knees than branded by your pride.” Everyone on the bridge laughed quietly. “If we get a chance, and I sincerely hope we do, we wil
l avenge the death of the Kyzyl Mazhalyk and prevent more ships falling to these abominations. Stand-by and good luck to everyone.”

  Narikin climbed into his chair under the observation dome. He turned it to face behind them, over the open deck where the lifeboats for the bridge stood, over the glasshouse where Durgah meditated among the memories of the Fallen Heroes, over the aft turret and the stern of the ship above the loading ramp to the hangar bay. He stared into the void, imagining the two black ships, like sharks, pursuing them, their mouths gaping and their microwave weapons ready. He wondered what was going on in the minds of their crew; what hatred they held for the Pentī that propelled them to kill everyone on the Kyzyl Mazhalyk and the Gory Kamen and wanted to do the same to the crew of Kyzyl Kum. What was motivating them?

  But if the weapon was Zarktek, perhaps their commander was too. A few hundred dead Pentī would mean nothing; just the beginning of their revenge for the loss of their empires, their power and for the slaughter at Variola and Abaddon. Narikin shivered. If this was the beginning of the next Hundred Year War, he wasn’t exactly well-placed to survive it.

  As they entered Berith’s Bore, the view swung around until he was facing Sarillon’s star on the other side of the Meros. They were moving further away from Karasor territory and into the Taira mandate. If the phantoms didn’t catch them, the Taira surely would.

  “They’re following,” said Bysen.

  19 – Larret

  An hour later, the phantom ships had made no attempt to attack the Kyzyl Kum or close the distance between them and it wasn’t obvious if they knew their presence had been detected.

  “I get the feeling we’re being ‘herded’,” said Jamadar.

  “How long to the solar boundary?” Kruvak asked.

  “We’re nearly there,” said Durgah.

  “When we cross it, we’ll take a wide turn and then head out again. I don’t want to be inside longer than we need to be. We’ll engage the phantoms and hope the Taira see what we’re doing and choose to help rather than attack us. Nokodo, prepare a message for the Taira command on Larret. Tell them why we’re here and ask for assistance – make it persuasive, Nokodo; our lives might depend on words rather than weapons.”

  He called his commanders in the outer hulls, Migi and Hidari; “I want the plasma launchers hot and ready to fire; prepare the torpedo tubes and the mine launchers. We’re going to hit them with everything we’ve got.”

  Narikin could feel his heart racing as the reckoning approached. Behind the ship, the asteroids seemed to close in, pushing them forward. The light of Larret’s sun was bright now, reflecting off the rocks and making them sparkle. It would have been a beautiful sight, like passing through a crystal crown, if it wasn’t for their pursuers, somewhere in the volumes behind them.

  Waiting to find out what the shadow ships would do was worse than if he’d been able to see them. In the pictures of the Hundred Year War, ships were always depicted side-by-side or nose-to-nose, fighting for their lives with flags and pennants flying. But in reality, he realised battles were rarely fought that way. The enemy was always dozens if not hundreds of miles away, exchanging fire at a distance with plasma and missiles travelling thousands of miles in a second.

  He kept expecting to see the Zarktek weapon light up their Exarch field and lightning crackle across their hull. The images of the dead on the Gory Kamen kept coming back to him. He didn’t want his friends to suffer the same fate. And they were his friends; they accepted him in ways he’d never felt before except when he was with Amah or Chikutei. He wasn’t a prince on the Kyzyl Kum but Narikin Karasor, ensign and photographer, valued for his skills rather than his father’s influence.

  He turned the chair around and looked at the asteroid-free sphere of Larret’s solar system. The star was directly ahead and through the binoculars he was able to find the blue dot of its single planet, over on the left.

  “Crossing the boundary,” Durgah announced.

  “Full speed - let’s give ourselves room to manoeuvre; all stations prepare for battle.”

  The Kyzyl Kum spun around and faced the enemy. The bell rang throughout the ship and the pressure doors between the decks clanged shut. Narikin imagined the gunners and the loaders, men like Naja and the others he’d met in their quarters and the mess-hall, holding onto their nerves, ready to fire and re-load, fire and re-load...

  And then nothing.

  “They’re not there,” said Bysen.

  “Where are they?”

  “I don’t know, Captain; they haven’t followed us past the boundary...”

  “Try again,” said Kruvak impatiently. “All ahead; we’ll take them in the pass if we have to...”

  “Nothing,” agreed Jamadar, watching the screen over Bysen’s shoulder.

  “Signatures on radar,” said Bysen’s assistant. “Multiple ships coming from behind us, from Larret, Captain.”

  “Nokodo – that signal, please...”

  There was a long pause while Nokodo tried to contact the Taira fleet. Narikin heard him reel off their list of reasons for being in the Larret system; the phantom ships, the loss of the Kyzyl Mazhalyk and the Gory Kamen...

  “The Aykhal is responding, Captain; she’s telling us to stand-down and surrender.”

  “They don’t believe us,” said Durgah.

  “Let me speak to them – who’s their captain?”

  “It used to be Captain Shinku,” said Jamadar.

  Narikin scanned the volumes through his binoculars. A light caught his eye. He thought it was a ray from Larret’s sun catching on an imperfection in the dome but then it separated into a tiny cloud of dots; searchlights on so Kruvak would know he was outnumbered.

  “I can see them,” he said, trying not to squeak.

  Kruvak spoke rapidly into the microphone, repeating all Nokodo had said but came away with the same answer. “Querl, take us back,” he said. “We’re wasting our time. Forward batteries, prepare to fire...”

  The Kyzyl Kum re-crossed the solar boundary.

  Pulses of plasma streaked ahead, some hitting asteroids seconds later and some disappearing into the void. The turrets sprayed shells like a hose. Missiles burned through the darkness and were lost in the distance. But nothing struck a Pavonine field.

  “Put us close to the rocks - if they mean to ambush us, I don’t want to be out in the open.”

  They slipped back into Berith’s Bore, closer to its edge. Chips and pebbles bounced off the Exarch shield and were sent spinning and skipping through the deeper green. The Kyzyl Kum twisted and turned through debris, hoping to confuse both their enemies.

  But the phantom ships had disappeared; their objective met. Bysen could find no sign of them. Full of apologies and self-recrimination, he offered to stand-down and hand over his position to his assistant.

  “Stay where you are, Bysen,” Kruvak told him. “If there’s blame then it’s mine.”

  “The Aykhal is giving us a last warning, Captain,” said Nokodo.

  “How many ships are with him?”

  “Four are following and two have stayed at the border,” said Bysen. “By the size of the radar responses, I would say the Aykhal and another frigate are in the lead with two light-frigates behind them. But I can’t be certain...”

  “I agree,” said Jamadar.

  Narikin could see their lights moving, like the fire-fish in the sea around Kimidori. And then they disappeared as their crews prepared for combat.

  “Keep telling them we’re not here to start a war, Nokodo – tell them we’re backing off...”

  A plasma bolt streaked past, smashed into a mountain and scattered molten fragments of rock across their path. Even though they couldn’t penetrate the field, Narikin ducked.

  “I don’t think they share your point of view, Captain,” said Jamadar.

  “No,” he agreed, pretending to sound surprised. “Querl, put us among the bigger asteroids; make sure their radar has something else to look at. And keep watch for those ph
antom ships,” he told everybody else. “They’re here, somewhere...”

  Like Scarp Rock, some of the asteroids were thousands of miles across, bigger than any island on Pentī Prime, and even the smaller ones could have stopped the Kyzyl Kum in its tracks. Narikin wanted, desperately, to close his eyes as Querl weaved the ship through the gaps. No matter where he looked, great bulks of rock seemed to be falling towards him. He could feel his stomach turning, acid burning his throat and hoped he wouldn’t be sick.

  “The Aykhal is still following,” said Bysen.

  “Nokodo, are they responding...?”

  “No, Captain; I’m still sending your message but they’re not listening.”

  Narikin heard Kruvak sigh, “All right; Migi, Hidari - prepare to lay mines. Let’s see if we can dissuade them. Querl, decrease speed...”

  A plasma bolt hit a mountain on their starboard side.

  “They’re catching up,” said Bysen.

  Narikin saw the Aykhal through his binoculars: a brief flash of light as it fired its plasma tubes and then the Kyzyl Kum turned behind the asteroid. He caught a glimpse of something else too; an outline on the rock below them.

  “The phantom,” he shrieked. “It’s down there...”

  “Drop mines,” said the captain.

  Narikin saw the drums roll out in groups of four. When they reached the edge of the Exarch boundary, the field was dropped, the mines fell away and were gone.

  “Take us back to the clearway, Querl - as fast as you can.”

  “The Aykhal’s coming around,” said Bysen. “She should be...”

  There were tiny flashes as the mines exploded.

  “She’s slowing,” said Bysen. “She’s dropping back...”

  There was a small cheer.

  “Where are the others?” Kruvak demanded.

  Before anyone could answer him, there was a brighter explosion. The flash lit up the gases in the void, turned one side of the asteroids white and the shadows behind even deeper. There was a hiss as radiation interfered with the radio-waves and then silence again.

  With spots in front of his eyes, Narikin located the source of the blast; a red dot, fading slowly, where the frigate had been...