by C. G. Hatton
Chapter 21
To hear of an alien so close again set them on edge.
“They were audacious to take on the Bhenykhn like that,” one said, unnerved.
“Foolish,” injected another.
“Is that what it takes?” one asked, unsettled by the humans’ capacity for violence, by Nikolai’s capacity for violence.
It had always been a dichotomy in him, extreme compassion and empathy on one hand, a chilling almost berserk ferocity, cold calculating ruthlessness, on the other. And that was just Nikolai. Sebastian was another matter entirely.
“He does what is necessary,” the Man said. “It is not easy to wield such power. Not when one has a conscience.” He looked along the line. “And be grateful that Nikolai does have a conscience. Without it, we would truly be lost.”
•
It went for LC every time. Until the kid reached his limit, fired back instinctively and dropped it, out cold, blood pouring from its ears and nose.
“Christ, don’t kill it,” NG said. He needed it alive.
He got a hooded glance from the kid who looked like shit and was about done.
They’d got nowhere.
“Can neither of you sense anything from it?”
Duncan and LC both said no. Emphatically. No doubt. No possible glimpse of what might be.
They had nothing. LC could zap it the same way he could disintegrate a playing card. Duncan hadn’t grasped manipulating energy but he was better at reading thoughts, facts, and harder to read himself when he wanted to block. That was why the Bhenykhn hadn’t attacked him.
NG leaned on his elbows against the handrail, trying to figure out what to do next.
The Senson engaged with no etiquette of request or permission. Elliott. “Quit fooling around,” the tech guy sent. “You’re wasting time. I believe you have the keys from UM and Zang for me, Nikolai. Let’s meet half way. On the orbital. It was most entertaining last time we were here. I must say, I’m impressed by the way your corporation has taken over the operation here. Very nice. I never would have guessed Centaur was Thieves’ Guild. There’s more to you than I realised.”
More than he’d raided from the Alsatia, he meant. Centaur was the Man’s. Not somewhere they wanted Elliott’s attention.
He looked round. “We’re done. Come back to the Man’s ship with me. I don’t want you here with it without me.”
The orbital on Poule was all but abandoned. Evelyn had made the decision to mothball the whole station, taken what she wanted and pulled out, pretty much pulled the plug.
It was strange to walk past the empty cages, footsteps echoing across the vast dock space, couldn’t help comparing it to the flashbacks LC had thrown at him from the last time Gallagher’s freighter had docked here. It was eerily quiet.
He walked out onto the docks, four of the Man’s elite guard around him and a team of Security flanking them. No other life signs inside the entire orbital. Yet there was a light flickering in an office up ahead. A shadow moving. Elliott was already in there, waiting for him.
He didn’t stand as NG walked in, sitting behind the desk, screens on standby, nothing in front of him, a sly confidence in his expression. He gestured towards the seat.
NG hefted his bag onto the desk and took out the two artefacts. They almost looked alive as the light danced across the polished angular surfaces.
He didn’t sit.
“How do we control the weapon, Elliott? When it’s activated? If it was so powerful that it was dangerous, how do we control it?”
Elliott took the UM key and turned it in his hand. “What’s your real question, Nikolai?”
“Who are you?”
Elliott gave a small chuckle but didn’t reply.
“I have no idea who you are,” NG said, careful to keep his tone non-confrontational, “and apparently, I’m about to hand you the keys to the most powerful weapon ever built.”
“Who I am isn’t relevant,” Elliott said. He stood, picking up the artefacts as if they didn’t weigh a thing. “You have little choice, Nikolai. Right now, you are the only thing standing between the Bhenykhn and the human race. You. Alone. How ironic… you are the most wanted man in this galaxy, everyone is after your head and yet you are the only one who can save them. You need whatever allies you can scrape together.” He turned away.
“Who are you, Elliott?”
The tall thin guy stopped, paused and turned.
NG stood his ground. He wasn’t going to be intimidated.
Elliott regarded him with narrow eyes. Not impressed. “Why are you questioning me now? Into whose mind have you been prying? Itomara? Zang? You’ve been associating with some powerful people, NG. They have no idea. Come on, Nikolai, you’d rather listen to the Order than someone who has been on your side since the start of all this? I didn’t give up Luka. I’ve done nothing but help you.” His tone was cold, almost bitter. He took a step closer. “What you…”
Dense black hit NG behind the eyes. Whatever Elliott was saying was lost. The pressure was unbearable. He tried to block it, felt himself sway, close to blacking out. He could feel his temperature rising, legs weak, nausea welling in his stomach. He reached for the edge of the desk, anything to steady himself, breathing too shallow. An urgent incoming was hammering at the Senson. He couldn’t acknowledge it. Couldn’t see straight. The pressure increased and he felt his knees going, a warm trickle leaking from his nose, eyes, ears.
He hit the floor, darkness closing in, hands grasping him as he fell.
“Kill it,” he heard, distant, through fog. “Kill it now or it’s going to kill NG.”
He tried to say, “No.” Christ, no.
‘Too late.’
‘Sebastian.’
The pain vanished, awareness creeping back slowly.
Leigh was trying to get through to him on the implant. He couldn’t think straight to answer.
Whoever had him was lowering him to the ground. He shrugged them off, recognising them as Security and muttering, “I’m fine,” sitting up, blinking and looking round for Elliott. He wiped his hand across his face, smearing it red and struggling to see.
The tech guy had gone but the Senson engaged with his usual abrupt connection. “There’s another one.”
‘It’s a scout ship. They connected,’ Sebastian murmured. ‘If it gets away, it will take everything it knows back to the hive.’
“Don’t let it get away,” he sent.
“That’s going to be difficult.”
He couldn’t feel anything from the Bhenykhn on the planet.
‘That’s because it’s dead.’
He couldn’t help the shiver, numb, cold, spreading ice into his veins. ‘No, I needed it alive.’
“Track the scout ship,” he sent, knowing how desperate he sounded and hating it.
“I am,” Elliott replied.
The connection cut out.
NG pushed himself to his feet, still trembling, wiping blood from his face.
‘My god, Nikolai, what the hell have you been doing to my body? What’s it been? A few weeks? Months? Didn’t you learn anything from me?’ There was a laugh.
Christ, he’d actually tried to find Sebastian. Now he was back, he felt sick.
He felt the injuries heal, the broken bones mend, a flood of energy flowing into every cell of his body to fend off the fatigue that had been pulling at him for so long.
‘You didn’t heal yourself.’ Sebastian laughed again. ‘Nikolai, that is just twisted. You’ve been punishing yourself all this time? Torturing yourself over what happened to Devon, what happened on Erica? I always said you were masochistic, but my word, Nikolai, you’ve really taken things to a new low this time.’
It wasn’t that simple but he wasn’t going to argue.
Once the pain had gone, it felt like he’d imagined it. He backed up against the desk, breathing erratic, a cold chill in his stomach, bracing himself, expecting Sebastian to fight him for control.
Sebastian laugh
ed. ‘Fight you? No… Trust me, Nikolai, I can and will take control whenever I so desire. But for now, you well and truly have the frontline.’
That was difficult to believe.
‘Believe what you want. I’m not going to snatch control from you. I don’t like pain, remember, and where we are heading, Nikolai, there’s going to be a lot. Trust me.’
He still didn’t believe it.
He sat there, perched on the edge of the desk, working to calm his breathing.
LC was trying to get through on the implant, concerned.
Sebastian was highly amused. ‘He knows I’m back. So how many of these creatures know about me now, Nikolai? Any more than just your pet telepaths?’
He tried not to think.
‘Ah, Leigh,’ Sebastian said, picking it out of his mind, ‘the little Wintran medic from Erica. Nice replacement for Martinez. Or is it Devon? You don’t waste any time, do you?’
That stung. More than it should have. She wasn’t and never would be, for either of them.
‘I’m teasing you, Nikolai. We have more to worry about than who you take to your bunk at night. Have some fun while you can.’ Sebastian paused then laughed maliciously. ‘Ah, no, I see what’s going on here. Really? Still punishing yourself? I know you can be overly sensitive but really?’
He was going to go insane. He’d forgotten what it was like. Sebastian was reading his memories, innermost thoughts, everything from the last few weeks, stripping his soul bare.
‘At least we don’t have to bother with a briefing,’ he thought, not managing to keep the bitterness from his tone.
Sebastian didn’t seem to notice, or care. ‘Nice move with Jameson. And Rodan. I knew you had it in you, Nikolai.’
‘This isn’t the first time I’ve come up against one of them. Why have you come back now?’
‘Because they were killing you. Two more seconds of that and you and I would have been history. For good. I really thought you would have got the hang of this by now.’
He’d been starting to think he had. ‘Have you been watching?’
‘No, Nikolai, I’ve been sleeping. And now I’m back. You seem to have found me some aliens.’
Leigh was at the airlock, horrified, relieved, looking at him as if she didn’t know what, or who, to expect. She was looking at the blood on his face and neck, thinking that he’d almost died. For real. She’d been watching his stats.
“We need to catch it,” he said, walking fast through the Man’s ship.
She kept up with him, noticing that he wasn’t limping any more.
He opened a link to Morgan. “I need it alive. Follow it.”
“Elliott’s taken the Duck,” the captain replied. “We’ve sent fighters but it’s fast.”
“Get us after it. We can’t let it get away.”
He felt the engines change, felt the mass of the ship shifting as it fell away from its berth on the orbital.
She was looking at him as if she didn’t trust him, didn’t even know for certain that it was him.
“It’s me,” he said, unwinding the tape from his fingers and flexing his hand. “I thought I told you, Sebastian has blue eyes.”
“But Sebastian is back?”
He nodded.
“He’s healed you?”
“Yep.” He’d never realised how much Sebastian had done to keep his energy levels up.
‘I take what we need. I don’t have your conscience.’
Leigh was watching as he unfastened the casing from his arm, not quite believing what she was seeing.
‘She likes you but then, of course, why wouldn’t she? You can make her do whatever you want. You always did need someone to like you, Nikolai. It’s a weakness and it’s pathetic.’
He really had forgotten what this was like.
He rubbed his arm, flexing the muscles in the forearm properly for the first since Erica.
‘We don’t need anyone,’ Sebastian murmured. ‘I thought I taught you that.’
‘Can you not stop the scout?’ he thought.
The reply was flippant. ‘Not at this distance.’
“I want it alive,” he sent to Morgan. “Catch up to it.”
“It’s going to make the jump point before we can get there.”
“Then we need to follow it.”
He switched to the others, open channel, breaking into a run, “Get your asses to Wraith. We’re going after it.”
Chapter 22
There were audible intakes of breath as he mentioned Sebastian. Some went so far as to shiver. They found it abhorrent, despicable, what he had done in taming the boy.
She had been the only one to see the necessity in his actions, to empathise with the dilemma he’d had. She looked at him with sorrow in her eyes as if she could see what was to come.
“Trust me,” he said. “Be grateful that Nikolai is who he is and is as strong as he is. It is Sebastian that we need but without Nikolai, he would be uncontrollable.”
•
They ran on board, his elite guard and a Security detail from the Alsatia with them, and got kitted up as Wraith dropped from the coupling and raced after the scout. It wasn’t easy at the flat out, engines screaming pace she was setting, but a helluva lot easier without broken fingers and a smashed up arm.
‘You could have healed it yourself,’ Sebastian chided.
He didn’t rise to it. He strapped on pouches and stashed extra magazines. He didn’t want to fight them hand to hand, but if it came to it…
‘If it comes to that, we’re done. Just get me within range again.’
‘Don’t kill it. I need it alive.’
Sebastian laughed. ‘Ah, yes, of course you do. Does anyone else know about your little secret?’
He felt LC’s attention as the kid glanced up from where he was standing with the others, keeping his distance, wary, not sure where he stood with NG now Sebastian was back.
No, no one knew and he shut it out of his mind. He grabbed a handhold as the ship shifted course. They were going fast but it wasn’t enough. If it made jump, they were screwed. He had no idea what range the hive worked at. Within a system? Within orbital distances? Ship to ship, decent existing tech could reach to the outer system, jump range easy. Even a Senson could reach from the surface of a planet to a ship in orbit. The Bhenykhn? He had no idea.
He called forward, heading to the bridge, “We need to stop it. Whatever it takes.”
What it took was breaking safety parameters.
‘Are you ready for this, Nikolai?’ Sebastian murmured.
He wasn’t ready. None of them were ready. He walked onto the bridge and dropped into the empty co-pilot’s seat. He could see from the numbers on the main screen that it was about to jump. Elliott was feeding calculations through to them, a rapid stream of data that was coming in far faster than anything they had to predict a jump vector.
He could feel that cold blade bite into his chest, blood pounding in his ears.
“Follow it,” he said to the crew, a lump in his throat, ice in his stomach. And he gave the order to jump.
They dropped out into deep space, edge of the Between, blank screens and for a second he thought they’d lost it.
‘There,’ Sebastian hissed.
It was moving fast.
The pilot changed course and accelerated hard, pushing Wraith to her limits.
The Duck had dropped in behind them, the data feed hardly interrupted. NG stared at the numbers.
The Bhenykhn was gearing up for another jump. Skipping out fast and trying to lose them. Neat trick.
They had enough capacity left for one more so long as it wasn’t far. The Duck was too far behind to catch up, the Man’s ship nowhere in sight yet. If they jumped again this fast, they’d be on their own.
“Don’t lose it,” he muttered.
He felt a curse flash through the pilot’s mind but she didn’t question him, taking the calculations from the navigator and throwing Wraith into jump the instant the Bhenykhn
ship made its move.
They emerged this time out onto the edge of a system, uncharted, the alien ship racing inwards towards an outer planet. The pilot didn’t hesitate in throwing Wraith headlong into a course to intercept.
There was no way it could go for jump again, not this close. They had it so long as they didn’t lose it and that wasn’t going to happen because he could feel it tugging at the back of his mind. Sebastian was tracking it, taunting it, almost purring as he toyed with his prey, as Wraith closed in on it.
It was never going to be that simple.
NG stared at the charts and numbers on the screens until they blurred.
There was something wrong.
The Bhenykhn ship was turning. Not fleeing.
He felt a realisation of something hit LC as the kid put it together. He shifted in his seat, looked back and saw LC look up, freaked out, standing and trying to move down the aisle as the ship lurched under his feet, sending, ‘No, NG, wait. This is…’
The Bhenykhn ship fired on them. The pilot threw Wraith into a desperate manoeuvre too slow to avoid the incoming blast of energy that skimmed her hull and sent them spinning.
NG flinched, grabbing the harness, nothing he could do as LC was sent tumbling, whatever the kid was thinking cut off as he crunched into the bulkhead, stunned, one of the elite guard reaching out to grab him.
Sebastian laughed. NG felt the blast he threw at the alien. It hurt but didn’t knock it out.
“Shit, it’s powering up to jump,” the pilot said, rolling with the spin and bringing them round. “We have nothing left.”
It was one of those sickening decisions.
“Open fire,” he said, cold, no hesitation, knowing they could destroy it, needing it alive but knowing they couldn’t let it get away.
They fired, Wraith’s ordnance impressive for her size, the scout ship’s shield flaring as they winged it.
Sebastian hit it again.
It turned, spiralling.
And vanished.
“Shit.”
For a second, his stomach knotted then the screen showed a blip, closer in to the planet’s orbit.