The Veng’en staggered sideways in shock, completely taken unawares as Qayin rushed in, his rage supercharged by the Devalmine soaring inside him and the memory of the pain that Kordaz had forced him to endure for no other reason than the Veng’en’s own pleasure. The plasma whip hummed into life as Qayin brought it crashing down on Kordaz’s skull. The crackling plasma sliced deep into the Veng’en’s flesh and exposed a slim white shell of bone beneath his leathery skin in a puff of smoke.
Kordaz emitted a hellish roar of pain as he fought back and a ceremonial D’jeck dagger appeared as if by magic in one clawed hand as he swung it toward Qayin, aiming to unzip his guts from one side to the other and spill them across the deck. Qayin jerked aside, sucked his belly in and let the wicked blade flash past him, then swung the plasma whip back–handed with his second blow, the roiling weapon slashing across Kordaz’s face and upper arm as he tried to shield himself from the blow.
A wispy cloud of smoke coiled from Kordaz’s body wherever the whip sliced into him, and his cries of pain thundered out above the spitting sound of burning flesh. One thick leg shot out as he dropped onto one knee on the deck and kicked Qayin low in the belly, and Qayin felt the breath blast from his lungs as he folded over and was propelled backwards across the holds.
Qayin’s back slammed into the wall with a dull clang, and he twisted his arm awkwardly to avoid lashing himself with the plasma whip, the bright blue snake of light swirling above his head. Kordaz rushed at him and launched himself off the deck with frightening speed and murder in his eyes, the D’jeck whistling as its ornate blade sliced the air and whispered death toward Qayin.
Qayin ducked as he threw the whip up. The D’jeck smashed into the hull wall as Kordaz drove his own fist into the whip and pinned it against the same wall, his flesh bubbling and crackling as it burned.
Qayin drove upward with his legs and smashed the dome of his skull into Kordaz’s jaw, drove the Veng’en upward with a dull crack as he reached up and twisted the Veng’en’s wrist in an attempt to wrench the D’jeck from his grasp. The whip coiled and writhed above them as they fought, hanging in the zero gravity. Qayin tried to yank it downward, but Kordaz was too close to him and he would likely burn himself as much as the Veng’en.
Kordaz roared and leaned in, his savage fangs bared as he made for Qayin’s arm, the only thing between his throat and certain death.
Qayin released the D’jeck and dropped downward as he dragged the whip with him. The searing whip slashed down across Kordaz’s skull and he leaped back with a howl of pain, his face a bloodied mess as his wounds leaked across his eyes and obscured his vision.
Qayin rolled out from beneath Kordaz and away from the wall, and as he came up on his feet he saw the open hold doors before him. He hurled himself toward them and dashed through the exit as Kordaz thundered in pursuit, and then whirled and hit the emergency close switch on the panel outside.
The doors hissed shut as Kordaz plunged through, and then with a dull crunch they pinned the Veng’en in place about his waist, half in and half out of the hold. Kordaz roared in pain as the closing mechanism fought to seal the doors, the built–in safety features overridden by the emergency closure system to contain fires or hull breaches.
Qayin slumped against the wall, exhausted despite the Devlamine in his system, his vision blurring and starring before his eyes. He knew that he did not have much energy left and had no choice but to try to make it to the cockpit. He turned, raised the whip and brought it crashing down across Kordaz’s helpless body, smashing the super–heated weapon over and over again and rejoicing in Kordaz’s howls of agony that soared through the ship as the whip sliced deeply into his flesh.
The fifth or sixth blow missed as the whip slid from Qayin’s bloodied hand and tumbled away down the corridor, the plasma weapon coiling and humming as it spun lazily away through the air. Exhausted, Qayin slumped onto his knees before Kordaz, who was hanging between the doors with his great head dangling low, blood dripping from countless wounds as he struggled to maintain consciousness.
Qayin breathed deeply, sucked air into his weary lungs as he sought to summon the last of his strength. Somehow he managed to regain his feet and stand upright, wavering this way and that as his dangerously low blood pressure threatened to steal his consciousness from him.
Below him, Kordaz lifted his head and sucked in a long, loud inhalation of air as his thick arms bulged and he fought back against the doors. Qayin heard the motors whining as they were strained by the load being placed upon them. He tried to lift one leg to stomp it down on the Veng’en’s head but he was too weak, too unsteady. He searched for the D’jeck, but Kordaz had dropped it inside the hold–too far for Qayin to reach and the Veng’en would likely take a bite out of him if he tried.
He vaguely recalled what the Veng’en had told him.
It looks like it’s time for you to go home. Just be thankful it will be into the care of your own people…
Qayin turned and staggered away from Kordaz, headed for’ard toward the cockpit as he heard the door motors straining ever louder. The Veng’en was immensely powerful and it was not unthinkable that he might have sufficient strength to slip through the doors and pursue Qayin. The thought pushed Qayin on further and faster and he staggered into the cockpit to see ahead through the viewing panel a vast cloud of glowing hydrogen gas, and silhouetted before it two Colonial frigates and a giant, cylindrical wreck of a spacecraft.
Qayin slumped into the captain’s chair and with one bloodied hand he opened a channel.
*
‘On screen,’ Idris said from his seat as Lael informed him of the new communication, and prepared to greet Kordaz once more.
The main viewing panel switched once again from the view of Endeavour to the cockpit of Salim Phaeon’s gunship, and a collective gasp of surprise rippled through Atlantia’s bridge as Idris saw Qayin’s face on the screen.
The former convict’s blue and gold locks were lank and draped across his shoulders, his uniform shredded and deeply stained with blood. His bioluminescent tattoos were barely visible, pulsing weakly on his face and his eyes were hooded, sunk deep into their orbits.
‘Qayin,’ Idris uttered. ‘I never thought that I’d be glad to see you again, but when we get you aboard we’ll make damned sure you pay for…’
‘Shut up,’ Qayin rasped weakly, his voice a shadow of what it usually was. Something in the convict’s tones silenced Idris. ‘Don’t let Kordaz aboard,’ Qayin whispered, his chest heaving for breath as he spoke. ‘He’s infected, with the Legion. He’s trying to get aboard Atlantia…, to infect you all…’
Idris stood up, searching for any sign of Kordaz in the gunship’s cockpit.
‘Where is he?’ he demanded. ‘Where is Kordaz?’
Qayin’s jaw worked as he tried to form words.
‘He’s pinned down in the hold but not for long,’ Qayin gasped. ‘I don’t know how long I’ll hold out. I was trying to catch up with you all when he attacked and overpowered me, took the gunship. Kordaz tried to kill me on Chiron..,’
Qayin’s head slumped on the console before him.
‘You were trying to kill Kordaz!’ Idris snapped. ‘You betrayed your own people! You contacted Salim Phaeon in order to warn him of our plans on Chiron IV, and then you abandoned us in the middle of an attack by the Legion and fled!’
Qayin dragged his head up once more, his eyes barely open. ‘I went for Salim’s gunship,’ he rasped. ‘Bra’hiv’s Marines were pinned down, so were my men. The gunship had enough firepower to get them out, but I never made it.’
‘You were after the Devlamine,’ Idris shot back, ‘it was no rescue mission.’
‘You forget, captain, that it was not only all of us who were aboard the Sylph, and could have brought the Devlamine back to Atlantia. Kordaz was found hiding aboard the Sylph too, it was where we first met him. He also had the freedom of Atlantia…’ Qayin’s voice was weakening fast. ‘I never contacted Salim Phaeon…’
he rasped. ‘Ask Taron Forge. I wanted him to speak to Salim on my behalf. Damn, ask Salim yourself…’
‘Salim’s dead,’ Idris replied, suddenly uncertain. ‘Your pass code was used to access Atlantia’s War Room and contact Salim.’
Qayin’s voice was a mere whisper, barely audible.
‘Check the log times,’ he murmured, ‘and the testimonies of my men. I could not have been in two places at once.’
Idris ground his teeth in his jaw. The one thing he knew for sure that did not add up about Qayin’s betrayal of Kordaz was that Salim Phaeon had known Mikhain’s name and had spoken it in communication with Idris, despite never having seen or met the man before. That tiny inconsistency had haunted Idris from the moment they had escaped Chiron IV. How could Salim have known who Mikhain was, in advance of ever seeing or speaking to him, unless it had been Mikhain who had betrayed Kordaz and not Qayin?
Idris glanced at the communications log screen, a stream of all frequencies currently logged in to Atlantia’s bridge, and noted that Arcadia was currently not on the list.
‘Damn it man,’ Idris snarled at Qayin. ‘Tell me the truth. Were you behind the Devlamine supply on Atlantia?!’
Qayin, barely conscious, gave a weak shake of his head.
‘No,’ he mumbled, ‘I worked for Kordaz. Kordaz is trying to infect you all, that’s why he took the Devlamine, to infect humans just as the Word once used it for. He stashed it in the holds in this gunship when he took control of it. Get me the hell out of here…’
Qayin’s eyes rolled up in their sockets and he slumped onto the control panel as behind him the muscular form of a Veng’en, his body lacerated with wounds, stormed into the cockpit. One thick, clawed hand grabbed Qayin’s neck and hauled him off the control panel as he pinned the convict against one wall of the cockpit and glared at the camera.
‘Don’t listen to him captain,’ Kordaz insisted. ‘He cannot be trusted, not by you, not by any of us!’
Idris, his hands behind his back, clenched his fists tighter as he tried to figure out which one of the two was lying.
‘Kordaz,’ he said, ‘you told me that you were conscious when the Legion invaded your body and healed your injuries?’
‘Yes,’ replied the Veng’en.
‘Were you conscious throughout the entire experience?’
‘No,’ Kordaz insisted. ‘How could I have been? It might have taken them hours to repair the damage, days even.’
‘Then how can you be entirely sure that you are not now an agent of the Word? We have lost two senior crew members in the past who never knew they were infected until it was too late.’
‘The Infectors were destroyed by the cosmic rays!’ Kordaz roared.
‘And the ones inside your body?’ Idris pressed. ‘The ones protected by the same resilience to radiation that you yourself possess? Would they too have been completely annihilated, or are they the ones forcing you to seek medical help, so that they can infect more people?’
Kordaz stared silently at the screen for a long moment. ‘I cannot say,’ he growled.
‘Then I cannot allow you aboard my ship, or allow my people to board yours,’ Idris insisted. ‘I cannot afford to take the risk.’
Kordaz dropped Qayin and the big man slumped unconscious to the deck as Kordaz turned and glared at Idris.
‘Do not abandon me again, captain!’ he shouted. ‘Everything that has happened to me has been because of your people and the things that you have created! I am dying, captain! I have nowhere else to go! Even if I could return to Wraiythe they would shoot me on sight. This is my only option and if you will not help me then I will damned well help myself!’
Kordaz turned and produced a plasma pistol that he aimed down at Qayin’s prostrate form.
‘Send your wife to help me, Idris,’ he snarled, ‘or there will be nothing left of Qayin for you to find.’
Kordaz shut off the communications link with a swipe of one hand, and Idris turned to Lael.
‘Target the gunship, but hold your fire! And get me Bra’hiv on the comms link!’
***
XVII
‘What’s the damned rush?’
General Bra’hiv raised his left wrist and tapped in a new frequency, and instantly he could hear Captain Sansin’s voice on the new channel. Evelyn watched as the Marines gathered around and the general set his internal speakers onto wideband so that everybody present could hear the exchange.
‘General Bra’hiv, Atlantia.’
‘General,’ Idris’s voice replied, ‘we have a problem. Both Qayin and Kordaz have returned from the dead.’
Evelyn felt a pulse of alarm and disbelief jolt through her.
‘I thought you said that Kordaz was dead?’ Andaim said to her.
‘He was,’ Evelyn replied. ‘Half of his chest was blown away, so he couldn’t have escaped the bombardment, which was too heavy for anything to survive.’
‘Well, he’s here now,’ Idris said, ‘and he has Qayin as a hostage. I’m having a really hard time figuring out who’s guilty of what.’
‘Kordaz went out of his way to help us,’ Bra’hiv replied, ‘though I’m amazed that I’m saying it. Qayin’s his own man – he got away from us as soon as he was able.’
‘That may be true, but right now Kordaz is here because he received medical assistance from the Legion.’
‘He got what?!’ Bra’hiv gasped.
‘They repaired him, but then were damaged by the cosmic rays hitting Chiron IV and Kordaz escaped uninfected, or so he claims,’ Idris explained. ‘It’s a long story, but right now I can’t be sure if Kordaz is telling the truth, Qayin is, or they’re both lying.’
‘Let me speak to them,’ Evelyn said. ‘I’ve gotten to know them both pretty well, maybe I can figure it out.’
‘That’s what I thought,’ Idris confirmed, ‘but Kordaz claims that the Legion didn’t finish the job and that he’s dying. Qayin’s in bad shape too. I can’t send anybody aboard their ship for fear of infection, and right now Kordaz thinks that we abandoned him and that he’s been wronged. He’s got a gun to Qayin’s head and is demanding immediate assistance.’
‘And you can’t just shoot them down?’ Andaim suggested.
‘If Qayin’s innocent?’ Idris replied. ‘If they both are? What kind of enemies will we make if we try to destroy them and fail?’
‘If they’re infected then there’s little that I can do to help them,’ Meyanna said from one side. ‘Especially Kordaz. We just don’t have enough knowledge of Veng’en physiology to be able to do something as complex as that.’
‘We could use the microwave scanners on Qayin,’ Andaim suggested. ‘I imagine there would be a long list of people willing to help out with that, considering how painful the prodecure is.’
‘I think that Qayin may have suffered enough,’ Idris replied. ‘He’s barely alive as it is, and now he’s got a gun to his head. How soon can you get out of there?’
‘We haven’t even started yet,’ Meyanna complained. ‘There’s evidence here of unknown species, humans too, all of them being experimented on in some way. It’s something that we have to figure out before we leave.’
‘Not to mention the Special Forces team that’s been attacking us,’ Bra’hiv added.
‘We’d be better off blasting the ship back into history,’ Idris replied. ‘It’s not worth the risk, whatever is aboard.’
‘You haven’t seen what we have,’ Andaim replied for Meyanna. ‘There are humans aboard, and they…’
The CAG looked at Evelyn as though unsure of how to put it. Evelyn sighed as she spoke.
‘One of them looks like I did,’ she said, ‘back in the prison hull, Atlantia Five.’
Idris was silent for a moment.
‘Can we run tests, to see if…, if that’s even possible?’
‘I don’t know what will happen if we break open the capsules,’ Meyanna explained. ‘The bodies inside could just disintegrate. I need more time to figure out how
best to preserve them.’
‘We may not have much time if Kordaz keeps a gun at Qayin’s head. He believes us responsible for betraying him and the longer we delay, the more convinced he’s going to be.’ Idris’s voice changed. ‘Andaim, you know what we spoke about after Chiron IV?’
Evelyn looked at the CAG, and saw his features darken a little. ‘I remember.’
‘It may become a factor in how this plays out. I need you back here in case things get difficult.’
‘Difficult how?’ Bra’hiv cut in.
‘I’ll explain later,’ Idris replied. ‘Right now I need you all off that ship and at your posts as quickly as possible.’
A crash of gunfire erupted in the distance, Evelyn almost jumping out of her skin as another voice crashed in on the conversation.
‘We’re under fire!’
The general grabbed hold of Meyanna and pushed her back toward the hold, away from the gunfire.
‘Move, now!’ Bra’hiv snapped. ‘Get out of sight. Meyer, J’evel, guard her!’
Two Marines flanked Meyanna as she was hustled away from danger. The rest of the Marines instantly started running toward the sounds of gunfire, Bra’hiv leading them and splitting them up into pairs, hugging the walls of the corridor as best they could. Evelyn saw ahead flashes of light as rifle fire was exchanged in crackling bursts of energy, a thin haze of smoke obscuring the emergency lighting as the platoon burst out onto the deck stairwell.
A salvo of rifle fire zipped toward the Marines at terrific speed and they scattered in disarray as the blasts hammered the corridor entrance behind them. Evelyn threw herself down onto the deck as the shots raced by overhead, then rolled to one side to avoid a spray of white–hot plasma that splashed off the walls above.
Endeavour (Atlantia Series Book 4) Page 12