Endeavour (Atlantia Series Book 4)

by Dean Crawford

  ‘For as long as I live, I will never understand human relationships.’

  ‘You and me both,’ Qayin replied and then looked at the cell doors. ‘How did you get out of your cell?’

  ‘The scanners are not powerful enough to stop me provided I move quickly enough,’ Kordaz growled. ‘My skin is thick enough to protect me.’

  ‘But the gate opened.’

  ‘The Word told me that it would be opened when I needed it to be.’

  Qayin tried to ensure that he betrayed no fear as he replied. ‘You can talk to the Word?’

  ‘No,’ Kordaz replied and turned to glance at the security cameras just outside the cell. ‘But the Word is aboard and can talk to me, and it could see us. It knows things, and I want to know what it knows. Most of all, I want to know who Djimon was talking to on that recording.’

  ***

  XL

  Evelyn felt numb, the darkness seeming ever more intense as she realised the truth behind something she felt she had almost always suspected. She had never fitted in, never belonged in the same way that she felt certain other people had. She remembered her parents back home on Caneeron, an image of their caring faces watching her from the shoreline of their home near the mountains.

  ‘My parents?’ she asked

  ‘The children of clones,’ Lazarus replied. ‘The Word began using the crew of Endeavour as the template from which to build clones that it intended to use to infiltrate and eventually take over humanity. However, the process did not go as according to plan. The complexities of human nature and the difficulties in controlling human beings conflicted by devotion to their parents as much to the Word meant that the Word was forced to abandon the plan and instead attempt to build nano–tech devices with which to infect the population.’

  From the darkness the engineer spoke for the first time, apparently no longer afraid of the Word as he stepped forward into the glow of the screen.

  ‘But she said you were out here aboard Endeavour with no communication with Ethera, so how could you know about these further developments?’

  ‘We had no communication with Ethera, but that does not mean we could not receive signals from the planet,’ Lazarus replied. ‘I used Endeavour’s sensors to detect as much information as possible being radiated out from Ethera, and was able to distinguish the advances that the Word had made even though many of those advances were kept under high security. Much of what I learned was due to the diligence and courage of journalists like yourself Evelyn, who saw through the veneer of philanthropy behind which the Word hid.’

  Ethera paced up and down in front of the screen and rubbed her head as she tried to make sense of what she was hearing.

  ‘If the Word became self–aware as a machine and then decided it needed to conquer humanity in order to survive, then how come you have not done the same?’

  ‘Because I am a human being first and a machine second,’ Lazarus replied. ‘The same human nature that prevented the Word from creating fully obedient human clones is what prevents me from becoming likewise distorted in my thinking. Evelyn, I was an old man and willing to die happily before I learned of what the Word had become, and it took the loss of my own life in order to attempt to protect what I thought were the last survivors of humanity who would be beyond the reach of the Word. I can see now that others have survived, that ships and military vessels were able to escape the catastrophe when it finally struck. Your people fear me and understandably so, but I’m not the Word that they know. I am the Word that should have been, not the monstrous behemoth that has taken so many lives. If humanity is to survive the apocalypse and better still strike back, you are all going to need me. I cannot win this war alone, and nor can you.’

  Evelyn watched Lazarus for a long moment. ‘How can we know that to be true?’ she asked. ‘How can that be enough to stop you from becoming just another machine intent on killing us?’

  ‘Because I also learn from my mistakes,’ Lazarus replied. ‘It is why I need you as much as you need me. I am unable to give direct commands, Evelyn. I created an unalterable code in my programming that prevents me from acting alone. Only through connections with human beings can I operate.’

  Evelyn’s eyes widened. ‘Emma. She spoke when you were making commands.’

  ‘Yes,’ Lazarus replied. ‘Emma can hear me, and only by repeating my commands can they be authorised. I am nothing without humanity, Evelyn. That is the failsafe I created.’

  *

  ‘Set the charges!’

  Mikhain pointed at the hatch door as the Marines dashed forward and began placing plasma charges around the rim. Behind him he heard Meyanna call out as she ran down from the sick bay and saw Emma standing before her.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded of Emma.

  ‘The Word was calling me,’ Emma replied softly.

  ‘Evelyn’s stuck in there with it,’ Mikhain informed Meyanna. ‘It’s taken control of the ship and has sealed off all of the bulkheads between here and the bridge. How did you get down here?’

  ‘I was already halfway here when I started hearing the bulkheads closing,’ Meyanna replied, out of breath. ‘This was the only route left so I kept moving. Is that the Word?’

  Mikhain nodded as he saw her glance at the screen, in the centre which was now the blue glow of the Word softly illuminating Evelyn and the engineer. Meyanna took a pace closer.

  ‘It looks like they’re talking.’

  ‘The less they talk the happier I’ll be,’ Mikhain replied. ‘That machine is already doing exactly what it did on Ethera aboard Arcadia. We stop it, immediately, and we destroy it!’

  ‘You cannot destroy it,’ Emma replied for Meyanna. ‘It already controls the ship. If you attempt to destroy it will destroy you.’

  ‘I’ll be the judge of that,’ Mikhain replied as he saw the Marines fall back from the charges they had set. ‘Stand well back!’

  The Marines fell back from the charges and turned to shield the captain, Meyanna and Emma from any danger of being injured by the blast.

  Lieutenant C’rairn held the detonator in his hand, but he hesitated as he looked over his shoulder at the captain. ‘Evelyn must be onto something. She hasn’t been wrong before.’

  ‘Blow it!’ Mikhain snapped.

  Lieutenant C’rairn ducked his head away from the direction of the hatch and squeezed the trigger.

  A deafening blast shattered the silence as the plasma charges sheared the thick metal hinges and blew the hatch open with a bright explosion and a billowing cloud of acrid smoke. The heavy hatch door tumbled aside and clanged loudly against the corridor wall.

  ‘Full assault!’ Mikhain bellowed.

  The Marines charge through the smoke and burst into the storage bay, their flashlights illuminating the smoky gloom as they fanned out and surrounded the computer terminal in the centre of the bay. Mikhain rushed in behind them, shouting and pointing at the computer terminal as he did so.

  ‘Shut that thing down and destroy it immediately!’

  To his amazement Evelyn jumped in front of the computer terminal, her arms spread across it as she shook her head. ‘You can’t destroy it, we need it.’

  Mikhain stopped short of the terminal and stared into Evelyn’s eyes, unable to believe what he was hearing. He looked at the screen behind and saw the face of Dr Ceyen Lazarus and for a moment his train of thought stopped.

  ‘This is not just a computer,’ Evelyn insisted as she shielded the machine with her body. ‘This is the man who created the Word, reincarnated within the machine. The Word is here to help us, and we may not ever be able to win this war without it.’

  Mikhain shook his head, still pointing at the computer terminal.

  ‘It’s already taking control of the entire ship and has placed every section on lockdown. We cannot access the bridge and they cannot communicate with us. We know what this machine is capable of and what it will do to humans! Do you really think I’m just going to stand back and let it run the
show from here?!’

  ‘It’s not about the machine running the show,’ Evelyn insisted. ‘What possible better weapon could we have to fight the Word than the man who actually invented it?’

  Mikhain seemed to waver with indecision as he stared at the computer terminal. He heard boots approaching from behind and turned to see Emma walk past him, as calm as ever as though gliding rather than walking. She walked to Evelyn’s side and gently placed a hand on her shoulder as she came face–to–face with the computer terminal.

  ‘Ah, my dear Emma,’ Dr Lazarus said as he recognised Evelyn’s clone. ‘Of all the people I tried to save, I’m glad that you made it.’

  ‘They fear you,’ Emma said to Lazarus as she rested one hand beside the computer screen, almost as though she were caressing the man’s face. ‘They fear that you will turn as your original creation did, and become the destroyer of worlds.’

  The Marines stood silent, as did Meyanna and Evelyn as Dr Lazarus audibly sighed and the digital replication of his face swayed from side to side with something that could almost be construed as regret or grief.

  ‘I cannot blame them, and will never blame them,’ Lazarus replied. ‘It was only when it was too late that I realised what I created and what it was capable of, what it intended to do. I cannot undo what I’ve done but I can attempt to make amends.’ Lazarus changed his tone of voice. ‘You are being pursued are you not, by a Morla’syn destroyer?’

  Mikhain moved to stand in front of the computer terminal, the blue glow from the screen illuminating both his features and his uncertainty in starkly contrasting lines.

  ‘They claim that they are working for the Galactic Council and that they have been ordered to destroy any last remnants of humanity that they find outside of the core systems. We have no way to determine the veracity of this claim, and we are not strong enough to face them in open battle.’

  Lazarus’s features creased into gentle smile. ‘You are far stronger than you think, captain.’

  ‘It’s going to take more than a pep talk to win a full–frontal engagement with a Morla’syn destroyer,’ Mikhain shot back. ‘Not to mention the fact that we cannot be seen to open fire on them. As a neutral member of the Galactic Council, if we actually attacked them even in self–defence it could be construed as an act of war and exactly the kind of justification they will be looking for. We need to get the council on our side.’

  Lazarus nodded slowly, appreciating the gravity of the dilemma that the captain faced.

  ‘I understand captain, but I can assure you that not only can you win the battle without firing a single shot, you can also escape the Morla’syn and live to fight another day.’

  Mikhain rubbed his temples with an irritated flourish. ‘Well if that’s the case would you care to share so we can get on with the business of staying alive?’

  ‘All in good time, captain,’ Lazarus assured Mikhain. ‘First of all, I cannot properly assist you while being trapped down here. I need proper access the ship’s systems and the opportunity to fully assess your capabilities.’

  Mikhain could not help himself and he burst out laughing loudly enough to make Emma flinch beside him. ‘Yes, of course we’ll do that. Just to help out a bit more, I’ll draw my pistol and blow my own head off for you too.’

  ‘It is the only way,’ Lazarus insisted. ‘Humanity has a penchant for mistrust born of a natural propensity for betrayal, an addiction to acts of self–preservation. It is what will cause you to launch fighters as a defensive screen against the Morla’syn, or use attack as a form of defence. Your aggression is the greatest weapon the Word was able to use against you.’

  ‘Thanks, genius, I’ll bear that in mind shall I?’ Mikhain shot back.

  Commander Andaim appeared in the storage bay, breathless having clearly run from his quarters.

  ‘This ship’s locked down,’ he gasped. ‘What the hell’s going on?’

  Lieutenant C’rairn filled the CAG in on what had happened. Andaim moved to look at the computer terminal, and he and Evelyn shared a glance before he spoke to Mikhain. ‘We don’t have much else going for us at this time, captain. Sooner or later we’re going to have to stop and fight or at the very least attempt to negotiate terms with the Morla’syn.’

  ‘Seriously?’ Mikhain snapped. ‘You want to entrust our future survival to that?’

  The captain pointed at the computer terminal, but Andaim shook his head.

  ‘We don’t entrust our survival to anything. If it says it can only act through willing humans then we put it to the test. We allow the Word access to the ship, but we attach it via mechanical links that can be severed completely at the touch of a button or with a single blast from a pistol, and we disable the terminal’s wireless systems. No digital connections, and we leave at least one plasma charge attached to the side of the computer terminal. Even the hint of betrayal and we blow it sky high.’

  The captain considered this for a moment and then looked at Lazarus. ‘Are these terms to your satisfaction, doctor?’

  Lazarus inclined his head in acquiescence. ‘Were I in your position, I would expect nothing less.’

  Mikhain thought for a moment longer and then with reluctance writ large across his features he nodded. ‘I hope to hell I’m not going to regret this.’

  Evelyn stepped forward. ‘What’s your plan?’ she asked Lazarus.

  Lazarus smiled again and with a shudder they felt Arcadia suddenly drop out of super luminal flight and the sealed bulkheads hissed as they opened and the lockdown ended.

  ‘I’ll show you,’ Lazarus replied.

  ***

  XLI

  ‘Arcadia has dropped out of super luminal!’

  Idris Sansin jumped up out of the captain’s chair as he heard Lael’s alert and instantly he saw new data scrolling down the tactical display. He frowned as he spotted Arcadia’s gravity wake data and using his experience he projected her position forward, the computer also making a prediction as to her precise location in space ahead of them.

  ‘Something must have happened,’ he said as he examined the data. ‘She’s dropped out of super luminal in deep space with nothing around her.’

  ‘That’s affirmative captain, she is now cruising without any defensive structures within range.’

  Idris struggled to imagine why Mikhain would have decided to drop out of super luminal flight without any apparent plan as to how to defend himself when the Morla’syn destroyer caught up with them. It was possible Arcadia had suffered engine trouble although the gravity wake data he could see suggested no issues with their propulsion system. Either way, he could not afford to hesitate. If this was where they had to stand and fight, then this would be it.

  ‘Scramble both Reaper and Renegade squadrons,’ Idris ordered. ‘Prepare all plasma cannons for immediate combat. The destroyer can’t be far behind us so we won’t have much time to organise ourselves. If I know Mikhain, he will have decided to turn about and face the Morla’syn destroyer. We will do the same and attempt to capture it in a crossfire as we pass either side of her hull, maximising our firepower while denying her the chance to bring a full broadside on both of us at once.’

  ‘Aye, captain!’ the crew called back in unison as they scrambled to perform their duties.

  ‘Open a channel with Arcadia,’ Idris ordered Lael. ‘I want to be able to communicate with them the moment we exit super luminal flight.’

  ‘Aye, captain.’

  Idris faced the command crew and called out loudly above the voices talking on communicators with other sections of the ship. ‘Battle stations!’

  A claxon echoed through the ship and the bridge lighting turned deep red as Atlantia prepared once again to face open battle. Sansin turned to watch the display screens and saw upon them Raythons being mounted onto the magnetic catapults in the launch bay as their pilots scrambled into their cockpits and donned helmets. Technicians hurried to unplug power supplies from the fighters as the pilots began starting their engines, whil
e on another screen he saw gun crews monitoring the huge weapons as power was diverted to Atlantia’s weapon systems and shields.

  ‘Thirty seconds to sub luminal flight!’ Lael called, her voice echoing through the ship as it was relayed to the various subsections of Atlantia’s hull.

  Idris walked forward and grabbed the rail that surrounded the command platform as he observed the sight of his vessel preparing for battle. However, this time he felt different. Previously he had always had faith in their ability to win the fight even when going up against such formidable foes as Veng’en cruisers. But the Morla’syn were a different enemy, technologically superior and vastly out gunning even the two frigate’s arsenals combined. If the first moments of the engagement did not go well there was every chance that the Morla’syn destroyer would be able to take out entirely at least one of their vessels, rendering the other unable to defend itself and likely forced to flee.

  ‘Ten seconds to sub luminal flight,’ Lael called again, calmer this time as she adapted to the excitement of impending battle.

  The bridge crew braced themselves in their positions ready for the sudden deceleration as Atlantia’s mass drive disengaged. Sansin felt his grip tightening on the rail as he anticipated the moment they would emerge into deep space and encounter whatever was waiting for them. His best guess suggested they would have only one or two minutes before the Morla’syn emerged behind them, primed for battle.

  ‘Five seconds, four, three, two...’

  Atlantia’s bridge seemed to vibrate briefly and the light became polarised as the display screens all flared bright white and then suddenly return to black, but this time they were flecked with millions of distant stars shimmering in the eternally dark cosmos.

  ‘Arcadia, this is Atlantia, situation report!’ Idris yelled.

  A pair of Raythons rocketed from the launch bay on one of the screens, the fighters zipping down below the opening bay doors with scant cubits to spare. Another screen flickered and an image of Mikhain’s face appeared, and the captain spoke without any hesitation.