by C H Gideon
“This is tied into the same communication tether the Gulg superdreadnoughts were; the same one that shuttle is still tied into,” she answered, eyebrows arched.
“You can send a message to the ship?” Asya asked, trying to figure out what Geroux was getting at.
“I can do something better,” she answered.
Geroux tapped her comm and sent a request to the Reynolds. Takal came back a few moments later.
“Yes, child? What can I do for you?” Takal asked his niece.
“I need your and Xyxl’s hacking assistance,” she told him, smiling as Asya stared at her, confused.
“What do you need us to do?” the Gulg asked over the comm.
“I happen to have the computer your people gave to Aht Gow to summon your shuttle to the church,” Geroux explained. “I have an idea how I can use it to catch our elusive foe, but I need some coding from you.”
“Aaah,” Xyxl said. “You want to use the computer to reconnect the tether, correct?”
Geroux giggled. “Exactly.”
“I suppose I could download the file to you, but you have to understand that that computer is not powerful enough to take complete control over another craft. It’s designed to operate in short bursts. It might be an inconvenience, little more.”
“What if we tie it into the power source of the shuttle?” Geroux asked.
“You risk our stolen craft reversing your intent and taking over your ship, since his signal generator is far more powerful than yours and could easily override anything you tried to do.”
Geroux sighed at hearing that, slumping into her chair and staring at the computer screen.
Asya reached over and nudged her shoulder, offering her a sympathetic smile. “It was a great idea,” she said.
The young tech bolted upright, and a crooked grin flashed across her features.
“Send me the file anyway,” she told Xyxl.
“As you wish,” the alien replied.
There was a beep a few seconds later and Geroux’s fingers played across the keyboard of the device. Asya thought the young tech looked manic as she worked, eyes gleaming.
Asya laughed. “You’re scaring me.”
“You’re not the one who should be scared,” Geroux replied with a smile. “Keep us as close to that shuttle as possible.”
Asya nodded but could do nothing more than she was already doing.
Geroux hammered on the keyboard as Asya dodged the attempts by the ever-growing fleet of mining ships to ram and knock them out of space.
She and Helm took out all the ships they could, darting and weaving, then unleashing blaster fire when the opportunity presented itself.
Opportunities came more often as more ships filled the space above Muultar and pursued them. The entire time, Geroux’s keyboard clattered at Asya’s side, the sound a pounding rhythm driving her on.
The shuttle veered back once more, rocketing past the Pod, and Asya got her first glance at the pilot. The scarred face of a Muultu sneered at her, and Asya saw the arrogance in his eyes when their gazes met for an instant.
Asya pulled hard to starboard and chased the shuttle.
“Motherfucker,” she swore as the ship circled back and strafed her again, dodging her weapons fire easily.
The space above Muultar was starting to get crowded.
“How much longer before you’re ready?” Asya asked.
She desperately wanted to blow that asshole out of the sky, especially now that he was taunting her, but she was also becoming worried about how many ships there were to contend with. Helm was trying to keep the way clear, but the coordination between the Gulg shuttle and the mining ships always resulted in the Federation Pods getting dragged into aerial killing zones.
Piloting through the cluster of mining ships was starting to get dicey.
The shuttle hurtled over them again, the pilot laughing. Asya thought she could hear him.
She realized a second later that it was Geroux she’d heard, the young girl chuckling alongside her.
“I got him,” she said, amusement in her voice.
“Wait, what? How?”
Geroux grinned at Asya’s confusion.
“I mixed two different programs, breeding Xyxl’s remote control system with the coding that Jora’nal used to hijack Gorad’s ships and the Muultu cruisers,” Geroux explained.
“What will that do?”
“Watch,” Geroux replied, smiling so broadly Asya feared she might split her face in two.
The shuttle darted back around, the pilot’s arrogance growing
The ship flew past, dropping under the Pod this time. Asya couldn’t see the pilot, but she knew he was smirking.
And then she realized he would never smirk again.
Asya burst into laughter when she saw what Geroux had done.
It wasn’t the shuttle that she had tried to take over, but the low-tech mining ships the pilot had tethered to the Gulg system.
Believing himself in charge of the other craft, the pilot of the shuttle had gotten careless. He zipped by Asya’s Pod and streaked into a crowd of mining ships he thought would obey his commands and move aside to let him through.
Instead, they closed ranks as he neared.
There was nowhere for him to go.
He pulled back hard on the controls, desperate to slip through the jumble of ships, but Geroux tightened the gauntlet, turning the ships in such a way that there was no room to maneuver.
“Ohhh!” Asya exclaimed when the drills flared at the moment of impact.
They sliced into the shuttle as it collided with the fleet of mining ships.
There was a fountain of sparks, and a half-dozen ships crumpled into a mangled ball of steel and tumbled end over end into the bleak emptiness of space above the planet Muultar.
Helm dropped in right behind the mess and lit it up, blowing the whole pile into so much debris.
Asya whooped and leapt out of her seat to hug Geroux.
The young tech fought to breathe, mumbling something Asya couldn’t understand, pushing at her until she let go and flopped back into the pilot’s seat.
“What was that?” Asya asked.
“I was telling you to watch where you were going,” she said, her face pale as she struggled to catch her breath.
Asya laughed and swung the Pod around, heading back toward the Reynolds. “Thanks to Geroux, that wonderful Gulg technology will never grace another cultist’s hands.”
They could hear the grin in Reynolds’ voice when he told them to, “Come on home. We’ve got some cultist asses to kick.”
Asya had never before been so inclined to follow an order.
She grinned until the Pod docked with the superdreadnought, and probably for a while after that, too.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Part of the city is burning,” L’Eliana reported. “The tide seems to have turned, but no one is in control now. That’s the big issue. It’s one big stalemate.”
The revolt had been an aggressive one, which was surprising, but it hadn’t been an entirely effective one.
The cultists and their followers hadn’t found the emperor or his council, all of them remaining safe in their hideout in the irradiated wastes that had been abandoned by even the lowest dregs of society, far from anywhere the cultists had thought to look for them.
So, the cultists had been unable to parade their captives in front of the crowd they’d tried so hard to turn against the government.
The royal guards had pulled themselves together after the initial rout and were able to maintain discipline in the face of the uprising. They lost a number of soldiers and installations, but the royal compound had been cleared of cultists and reclaimed, and several other locations had been defended. At these, the cultists and their would-be converts were made to retreat.
And since the cultists had been unable to plant a figurehead on the throne to legitimize their claim—the emperor’s sister, Aht Gow, had been captive in Asya’s P
od for the entirety of the attempted coup—they had also failed to win the people over with a valid successor to Krol Gow.
Reynolds flew to the emperor’s hideaway in a cloaked Pod to collect him and the council and explained what had happened on the way back to the Reynolds. They gave the group an opportunity to clean up, eat, and catch their breath before Reynolds initiated the next move in his plan to break the last of the uprising.
“You think this is going to work?” Jiya asked the AI.
Reynolds nodded. “I had the bots do a run along the bottom of the ship and take a good look at it,” he replied. “From down there, the Reynolds looks as it should: a vicious beast of a superdreadnought.”
“Just as long as no one gets a look above that.” Jiya laughed.
Reynolds sighed. “Too true.”
The ship was a mess, and it would take a long time for it to be adequately cleaned up and repaired and ready for combat again.
Xyxl and his people had volunteered to help, as had the emperor, but Krol Gow’s offer was more one of support rather than actual assistance.
The emperor would be too busy mending his own fences to worry about Reynolds’ problems. Besides, given the disparity in the level of tech between the two societies, there wasn’t much the Muultu could offer with regards to fixing up the superdreadnought.
But that was fine.
Reynolds was perfectly content to stick to the original agreement between Krol Gow and him, where the emperor provided them with a safe haven and occasional supplies when the ship wandered through the system.
Not that the SD Reynolds had needed much of late when it came to food or general equipment, but they would definitely need raw materials to repair the hull and reinforce the damaged portions of the ship’s armor.
“You ready?” Jiya asked.
Reynolds nodded. “Yeah, let’s get everyone and go save the day.” He turned to Asya, pointing at the captain’s chair. “You’ve got the conn, Captain.”
She saluted him and took the seat. “This is going to be interesting.”
“Shock and awe!” Tactical crowed.
“Let us know when we’ve arrived,” Reynolds told Asya as he and Jiya marched off the bridge to meet the rest of the folks who would be joining them.
The Reynolds broke orbit and plunged through the atmosphere of Muultar. The ship rattled as it descended, and Reynold worried it would fall apart before they arrived. All his plans would be scrapped if an engine fell off during their descent.
He chuckled at that thought, and Jiya caught him. He cast a smile her way.
“What are you so happy about?” she asked as they wound through the wide corridors of the ship.
“Despite everything that happened, we learned a lot about our enemy on this mission, and while it’s not quite over, I expect we’ll learn far more once we get a chance to sit down and have a real discussion with Xyxl and his people, not to mention the emperor’s sister.”
Jiya nodded her understanding.
“Now all we have to do is quell a rebellion, then we’ll be able to get to work on the ship. Maybe just this once we’ll be able to get ahead of Jora’nal and that bastard Phraim-‘Eh, whoever he is.”
After that, the pair walked in companionable silence until they reached the chambers within the superdreadnought where the emperor, his council, and his sister had been quartered.
Reynolds had set guards on the door and left Ka’nak in the room to contain Aht Gow in case she got rambunctious. However, she’d been a model prisoner since she had learned that her precious cult had been all but wiped out and the leaders she’d believed were true members turned out to be alien imposters.
It probably helped that Krol Gow had threatened to throw her into space for daring to try to usurp his throne.
Reynolds had escorted them both to the hangar bay and had shown the emperor how the airlocks worked. Aht Gow spent a few eternal hours locked in the airlock’s decompression chamber, fearful that the glowing green light would go out and be replaced by the crimson glow that would see her ejected into the cold of space.
Aht Gow stared at the floor as Reynolds and Jiya came into the room.
“Emperor,” Reynolds greeted him, giving the monarch a shallow nod.
Krol Gow returned the greeting, smiling at Jiya. The council was quiet, but they offered their own greetings. Aht Gow, of course, said nothing.
Jiya smiled and waved at Ka’nak, who raised an eyebrow and pointed with his eyes at the emperor’s sister. He stuck his tongue out, and Jiya stifled a laugh.
“Are you ready to reclaim your empire?” Reynolds asked, ignoring his crew’s antics.
“Indeed,” Krol Gow answered, “although I don’t feel as if I lost it, thanks to you and your people. We will need to discuss my gratitude once all this is behind us.”
Reynolds dismissed the idea. “We need very little from you, Emperor, yet we can offer you much to show our friendship.”
“You have done that and more already.” Emperor Krol Gow smiled.
He paused a moment, his pleasant expression turning darker. Maudlin, almost.
“Do you believe that this will work?”
“Only one way to find out,” Reynolds replied. “Let’s get this show on the road. Or on the hull, as it were.”
“We’ve touched down,” Asya reported over the ship-wide comm.
Reynolds waved for the emperor and his people to follow him and Jiya. The council walked at their backs. Ka’nak escorted Aht Gow, and although he didn’t touch her, she flinched every time the Melowi warrior got too close.
The group made their way down the hall to a hatch that led out onto the hull of the ship. Bots opened the hatch as they approached, and fresh air spilled into the Reynolds along with murmured chatter from below.
Reynolds stepped out on the wide platform of the ship, urging the others on. They gathered outside after a moment, the royals doing their best to maintain their appearance of regality. Reynolds knew they were afraid of the height and the exposure.
Asya had brought the superdreadnought down so that it hovered above the city of Ulf, a great monster in the sky above the swirling chaos of the uprising.
The crowd stilled as the ship loomed and Tactical ignited the ESD, charging the system. Impressive arcs of lightning played across the barrel of the massive weapon, and it was only the sudden burst of loudspeaker static that kept the crowd from fleeing for their lives.
They stood frozen in terror, having never before seen a steel behemoth such as the Reynolds dominating their city.
The AI Reynolds stepped out where he could be seen and raised his hands to the crowd, the ship’s system magnifying his voice while the ship magnified his presence.
“I am Captain Reynolds of the Federation Superdreadnought Reynolds,” he announced.
There was absolute silence in the wake of his announcement.
“I stand before you today to declare that the Cult of Phraim-‘Eh is no more.”
Murmurs washed over the crowd.
“We have conquered them here on Muultar and beyond, and we warn you now,” he went on, not caring that he was exaggerating or straight-up lying to the people. He needed them scared and compliant. He needed them to listen. “You have been lied to by Phraim-‘Eh and his minions. He is no god, and he is no savior. He is a being just like us.”
The crowd shuffled around as Reynolds spoke.
“Let it be known that we protect the emperor against all enemies.”
Reynolds waved the emperor forward, and Krol Gow came to the edge of the ship where he could be seen. His council slowly came up behind him.
“Emperor Krol Gow is alive and well, and he is still in command of Ulf and the Empire of Muultar.” The AI gestured to the monarch, who waved in response. “The ruling council remains in place, unharmed.”
Ripples of surprise spilled through the throng at seeing their leaders hovering above them upon the machine of death.
Ka’nak nudged Aht Gow forward, staying
close enough to ensure that she could be seen but couldn’t do anything stupid like jump into the crowd.
“The rebellion stirred up by Phraim-‘Eh is no more!” Reynolds said again, motioning so that everyone got a good look at Aht Gow and the shame on her face. “We will not tolerate another attempt,” Reynolds warned.
As agreed upon before they had gone outside, Reynolds stepped back and let the emperor speak.
“I understand the desperation and fear that drove you to do what you did, and I forgive you, since the circumstances that led to this unfortunate situation were manufactured by the Cult of Phraim-‘Eh. They were behind our shortage of devium and behind the darkness that has crept into our lives. You have my word that neither will hold sway over us any longer.”
The crowd was slow to respond, but then cheers went up in waves, the various sections of the throng joining in until the whole raised their voices as one.
The emperor waited until the noise abated before continuing.
“If you had any part in this attempted rebellion, I ask that you return home to your families and never speak of this again. Never speak of this horrid cult or Phraim-‘Eh ever again.” He leaned out and met the eyes of the crowd. “Those who stand down and walk away will be allowed to return to their lives as though this never happened. We will move forward from this day on, and we will do it together!”
The crowd roared their approval, and although they couldn’t see what was going on around them, Reynolds spied the soldiers slipping unnoticed through the assemblage.
The rank and file citizen who’d gotten caught up in the frenzy and fear would be left to go about their lives. The true cultists, however, would be rounded up and imprisoned, and Reynolds would get his turn at questioning them in the hopes that they would divulge everything they knew about Jora’nal and the cult.
“Now, return to your homes, comforted by the fact that we have new allies with much to share with us and that our source of devium is accessible to us once more. Ulf and the whole of Muultar will prosper!”
The emperor raised his hands, and the crowd cheered until the soldiers tactfully began to nudge people on their way.