Meyanna turned and marched away before her husband could say anything further. Idris ground his teeth together as he turned away.
‘Stay and keep an eye on her,’ he ordered Andaim.
‘Aye, captain,’ Andaim replied.
Bra’hiv checked his rifle and then turned, and with a forward motion of one gloved hand he led Bravo Company toward an open bulkhead guarded by four Marines under C’rairn’s command.
‘Alpha Company should be leading this mission,’ Lieutenant C’rairn said as Bra’hiv drew alongside. ‘The convicts still cannot be trusted, you know that.’
‘What I know is that the more responsibility we give them, the more loyal they become. You want in, or would you rather stay here on guard duty?’
C’rairn’s reply was to activate his plasma rifle’s magazine and fall into step behind the general as he strode down the corridor. Evelyn followed them, watching as the Marines led the way but her mind filled with the grainy, indistinct image of the mask affixed to the face of some nameless, long dead civilian trapped aboard Endeavour.
‘You okay?’ Andaim asked as he walked alongside her, concern writ large across his features.
Evelyn nodded. ‘I just didn’t ever expect to see one of those damned things again.’
‘Nobody ever liked them,’ Andaim said as they walked. ‘Even when they were fitted to murderers they just made them look all the more sinister, like you couldn’t see their emotions and therefore couldn’t tell what they were going to do next.’
Evelyn nodded, unable to think of anything more to say. Images that she did not want to see flashed through her mind and she saw the family she had been forced to forget, her husband and their little boy: smiling faces, happiness, the peaceful existence of the colonies. Evelyn saw in her mind’s eye the office where she had worked for many years, for the media. An investigator. She had done well, uncovered corporate espionage, exposed corrupt politicians, crushed unjust convictions.
Then the Word had attracted her attention, the cries of protesters who feared that their lives were being controlled by nothing more than a machine that viewed humanity as little more than a distraction. The belief that somewhere, somehow, the police were showing signs of becoming militarised without government or democratic consent. The increase in political conservatism, the sense of always being watched, an invasive series of laws being passed that served no purpose but to justify increased military spending on classified projects and protect those projects from independent or even political oversight.
She had investigated for months, uncovering an ever growing number of deaths involving whistle blowers, government employees and unfortunate bystanders in remote regions of both Caneeron and Ethera that were described as unfortunate accidents. Then, the emergence of tremendously potent street drugs like Devlamine: her interview with a convict bearing the Mark of Qayin, the bioluminescent tattoos on his face and his braided gold and blue locks outshone by the rage infecting his massive frame.
Eventually she had gone too far. The threats began against her life, against the lives of her family. The media company she worked for suddenly fired her, her long–standing and honourable boss turning into a tyrant who almost physically ejected her from the building.
Drugs had been found in her home. Police arrived, arrests were made. She was questioned, recalled nothing of how the drugs had gotten into her home: she and her husband hated such things. She was released, her disgrace covered by the media company she had once worked for, no mention that the police found no evidence of her or any of her family being habitual drug users.
She saw herself at home that night, heard her husband’s kind words, saw her sleeping child, recalled feeling so afraid for him. And then the morning. The blood, everywhere. The confusion. Her husband dead, his head a mess of blood and bone where he had been shot. Her son, likewise dead. The crushing grief. The sirens, the arrest, the drugs scattered across her kitchen, the weapon found in the trash.
The tests followed. She was positive for drugs in her system even though she had taken not even pain killers for weeks. The charges for the murder of her entire family. The incarceration, immediate and high–security. The restraints and the mask, for her own safety and that of her gaolers. The lack of a trial, and then the prison system.
‘Evelyn?’
She blinked and looked at Andaim, felt him rest a hand on her shoulder. ‘You look like you’re about to kill something,’ he said.
She realised that they had walked a considerable distance through the ship and she hadn’t even noticed the passing of the time.
‘This feels surreal,’ she said. ‘I can’t get the images out of my head.’
‘Images of what?’
Evelyn opened her mouth to reply and then she hesitated and shook the feelings off, unwilling to share such things even with Andaim.
‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘It matters to me.’
‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ Evelyn muttered, and then caught her anger and offered Andaim a brief smile. ‘Not now, anyway.’
Ahead, General Bra’hiv raised his hand in a clenched fist and the Marines slowed as one. The emergency lighting further aft was more widely spaced, the holds less often frequented by the crew and the corridors darker and infested with shadows. The cold bit deeper too, or maybe Evelyn was just imagining things as she gripped the handle of her pistol more tightly and watched as Bra’hiv crouched down in the centre of the corridor and pointed ahead.
‘I’ve got a heat signature,’ whispered Lieutenant C’rairn, his voice audible in Evelyn’s earpiece.
‘Human?’ Bra’hiv asked.
‘Negative, it’s too small. Foot of the hold entrance.’
Through the shadows Evelyn could see the entrance to the main holds, and she realised immediately that something was wrong. The bulkhead hatches were intact, but the doors were wide open and she could see what looked like debris laying on the deck in the entrance.
‘It’s metallic slag,’ Andaim whispered into his microphone. ‘Somebody fried the locking mechanisms. If the metal’s still hot…’
‘… then they were here recently,’ Bra’hiv finished the sentence for the CAG. ‘Weapons hot folks, we’re definitely not alone.’
The faint hum of multiple plasma rifles coming to life filled the corridor, and Evelyn watched as General Bra’hiv crept forward to the hold entrance and used a hand–held scanner to sweep the way ahead before he turned and used hand–signals to beckon the troops forward.
The Marines jogged in a low crouch to the entrance and with oft–practiced efficiency they entered the hold and fanned out, seeking concealment and covering their colleagues as they moved.
‘Let’s go,’ Andaim said.
The CAG got up to move, but Evelyn hesitated. He looked back at her expectantly, but her legs felt like rubber as a premonition of doom swept over her like a dark wave.
‘There’s something in there,’ she said, her lips moving as though of their own accord. ‘Something I don’t want to see.’
Andaim’s hand touched her shoulder again. ‘It’s going to be fine, okay? You’ll be safer with us than crouching in this corridor on your own.’
Evelyn forced her legs to move as she advanced and followed Andaim through the hatch and into the holds.
The sight that greeted her was every bit as foreboding as she had feared. Endless ranks of escape capsules, all stood on end like a forest of glossy, frosty obelisks. The Marines were moving systematically between the capsules and Evelyn could see that many of the observation panels on the capsules had been brushed free of frost, revealing the bodies that were trapped inside.
‘Per–fluorocarbon,’ Andaim identified the fluid that filled each capsule, but he hesitated as he looked more closely at the occupant inside. ‘It’s not human.’
‘Nor this one,’ Bra’hiv gestured to another capsule that contained some sort of aquatic species.
The Marines were spreading out further, weapons aimi
ng this way and that as they weaved between the capsules.
‘I don’t even know what to call some of these things,’ Lieutenant C’rairn gasped as he surveyed the contents of capsule after capsule. ‘How the hell did they end up in here? Endeavour hasn’t travelled far enough to encounter this many species.’
‘It’s fascinating,’ Meyanna gasped as she observed the contents of the capsules. ‘Like a biological preserve of some kind.’
Evelyn crept through the darkness, peering into the bitter capsules and witnessing the bizarre life forms imprisoned within each one, as though Endeavour’s hold had been converted into some kind of macabre biological museum.
‘We’ve got one, a human,’ C’rairn said.
Evelyn instinctively converged on C’rairn’s position along with Andaim and several other Marines. The darkness seemed to deepen around her as the Marines silently made way for her, and she realised that they were all looking at her as she passed.
‘It’s just not possible,’ Andaim gasped as he stared up at the capsule.
Evelyn looked up at the observation panel.
Inside was a human being, a woman of lithe, slight build with light brown hair and an expression that was hard to judge behind the mask she wore, as though poised between grief and rage. Her eyes were closed, her body entirely suspended in the per–fluorocarbon, but the identification badge on her chest was clear for all to see.
For Evelyn, it was like looking at a ghost.
‘It’s her,’ Bra’hiv murmured in disbelief. ‘It’s Evelyn.’
A Marine jogged up from out of the darkness and jabbed a gloved thumb over his shoulder toward the rear of the hold.
‘There are more of them,’ he said, ‘humans, all wearing Colonial uniforms but not the masks.’
‘Start a diagnostic scan of the crew,’ Bra’hiv ordered. ‘Find out if they’re still alive!’
The Marine saluted and hurried away as Andaim looked up at the woman in the capsule.
‘How can this be?’ he asked Evelyn.
Evelyn was about to speak when a terrific blast of light flared like an exploding star and blinded her as an explosion ripped through Endeavour’s hold.
***
XIV
‘What the hell was that?’
Captain Idris Sansin saw the live–feed from Endeavour’s hold suddenly flare with white light as he walked back onto Atlantia’s bridge, and then the feed was abruptly cut off.
‘Explosion on H–deck,’ Lael called as she surveyed the signals coming from the depths of the aged ship. ‘I’ve got plasma fire, multiple rounds!’
‘Send in reinforcements!’ Idris snapped.
Lael relayed his command as Mikhain’s voice reached the Atlantia’s bridge.
‘New contact bearing eight four three, elevation niner!’
Idris whirled as the tactical display flashed a small red symbol located at the coordinates Mikhain had passed over. A data stream revealed mass, velocity, trajectory and evidence of weapons that Mikhain called out even as Idris was reading from the screen.
‘Four thousand tonnes, sub–luminal intercept course, plasma weapons and projectiles all charging up, military–grade shields!’
‘Block her,’ Idris ordered. ‘Send Raythons to intercept her before she breaks our defensive lines. Do we have a visual identification?’
‘Negative,’ Mikhain replied. ‘She’s too small to take on a frigate but she’s heavily armed. Some kind of gunship I’d say.’
‘This could be a coordinated attack,’ Idris warned. ‘Assume that her intentions are hostile but do not fire until fired upon.’
As Mikhain relayed the orders to his staff on Arcadia’s bridge Idris turned his attention back to the explosion on Endeavour. The communications link with General Bra’hiv was still blank, the screen showing nothing but static.
‘Can we re–establish communications with the Marines?’ Idris asked.
‘Negative, captain,’ Lael replied from her post. ‘We can only follow Alpha Company and hope that they get there in time.’
Idris clenched his fists in frustration but said nothing as he looked at a second screen which showed the view through the visor of an Alpha Company sergeant as he led his men deep into Endeavour’s interior.
*
‘Covering fire!’
Evelyn heard Bra’hiv bellow his order above the din of plasma rifles as she shook her head and tried to clear her vision after the blinding flare of the blast that had blinded them all. She crouched down by the foot of the nearest capsule, her pistol in her hand as she heard the Marines shouting warnings and commands at each other as they returned fire.
‘Man down!’ somebody cried. ‘Medic!’
‘We’re cornered!’ screamed another.
Evelyn saw Andaim a short distance away, aiming into the darkness as he fired off two quick shots with his pistol. A salvo of shots returned out of the depths of the hold and the CAG crouched out of sight and covered his face with his hands as plasma blasted past him in super–heated balls of blue–white light.
‘Where the hell did they all come from?!’ Lieutenant C’rairn shouted. ‘They’re all around us!’
General Bra’hiv leaped out from behind a capsule and fired into the blackness around them before he hurled himself down behind a stack of gravity–pallets against the far wall of the hold. Evelyn saw him peek over the top of the pallets in an attempt to get an idea of the situation, and immediately duck down again as three plasma rounds blasted the pallets around him and forced him out of sight.
Evelyn turned and peered around the edge of the capsule behind which she had hidden. Distant muzzle flashes flared from plasma rifles that illuminated the darkened hold in vivid flares of white light and revealed the ghostly forms of figures firing almost constantly in controlled bursts as they circled around the cornered Marines and headed for the exit. They dashed with almost supernatural precision from cover to cover, like demons flitting from one shadow to the next.
She aimed her pistol and fired once. Her shot rocketed away toward one of the figures and hit him square in the chest, but the plasma round flared as though it had hit something through which it could not pass. Its light flickered out and the figure aimed at her and fired back with one fluid motion and without even breaking stride.
Evelyn ducked out of sight and pinned her back against the escape capsule as the shot raced by and she spotted Lieutenant C’rairn a few cubits away, likewise pinned down.
‘The entrance!’ she yelled at the lieutenant. ‘They’re making a run for it!’
C’rairn looked over his shoulder and spotted the figures dashing for the hold exit, firing as they went. Evelyn aimed and fired twice in the general direction of the hold exit, and then suddenly the blaze of gunfire ceased as abruptly as it had arrived and a deafening silence filled the hold.
Evelyn peeked her head out from behind the capsule and looked in the direction of the exit. A cloud of smoke obscured the view, but she could see through the diaphanous whorls two small flashing red lights blinking on and off either side of the exit.
The Marines cautiously emerged from cover, and General Bra’hiv crouched down and ran low toward the exit before coming up short and raising an open hand.
‘Don’t come any closer than this,’ he called out. ‘Proximity charges.’
Evelyn stepped out and stared at the hold exit, the two charges either side of the door designed to detonate upon detecting motion nearby. Two barometric sensors were fitted to each charge as well as infra–red detectors, the two methods ensuring that nobody could get close to the devices.
‘Damn me,’ Andaim uttered in confusion. ‘Who the hell were they? And why haven’t we detected their ship?’
It was General Bra’hiv, still crouched down on the deck as the Marines gathered nearby, who answered.
‘Colonial Special Forces,’ he said simply.
Andaim shook his head. ‘No, not out here. We detected no other craft, no forms of life, nothing.’
Andaim frowned as he looked at the charges. ‘Can you disable them?’
The general shook his head. ‘Not from here and not without the correct tools,’ he replied. ‘We’ll have to wait for back–up to arrive. My communications link is down.’
‘Mine too,’ Andaim confirmed. ‘They must have used some sort of device in the initial blast to fry our communicators.’
‘Another popular SF technique,’ Bra’hiv added. ‘We’re dealing with real pros here.’
‘I shot at one of them and hit him,’ Evelyn revealed. ‘It was like the shot never touched him, didn’t even break his stride.’
‘Yeah, same for me,’ C’rairn said. ‘I could’ve sworn I got one of them but he just kept on moving.’
‘Like I said, Special Forces,’ Bra’hiv insisted. ‘They’ll have kit that we’ve never even seen before.
‘What are they doing here?’ Evelyn asked. ‘Could they be escapees from the apocalypse?’
Bra’hiv shrugged. ‘Maybe, either way it’s clear they don’t want anything to do with us. Maybe they think we’re infected or something?’
The rattle of boots on the decks outside the holds alerted them and the soldiers leaped up, weapons aimed at the hold exit, and then stood down as they recognised Alpha Company’s men arriving. Bra’hiv raised a clenched fist toward them and then pointed at the charges. The Marine sergeant slowed immediately and his men stopped behind him as they all looked at the charges.
‘Sapper,’ the sergeant called, and one of the troopers behind him moved out and peered at the charges from a safe distance.
Endeavour (Atlantia Series Book 4) Page 10