by M J Dees
The hangar was full of Alliance soldiers waiting for shuttles to take them to the surface.
“I don’t think we are dressed for the occasion,” said Ay-ttho, passing Tori and Sevan Alliance space suits and helmets from a locker. “Put these on.”
Once dressed, Ay-ttho shot her weapon into a few of the control panels in the cockpit, setting fire to one of the consoles.
“Follow us,” said Tori, and Sevan followed his friends out of the shuttle.
“We have a weapons malfunction,” Ay-ttho shouted at the engineers and guards who had arrived to investigate the blasts. “There’s a fire you had better put out. We are taking him to the infirmary.”
Sevan tried to look ill.
Once beyond the hangar into the interior of the ship, they removed their helmets. Tori led them along a corridor until they reached a control room. Tori entered first and shot the occupants.
“Sit here and touch nothing,” he instructed Sevan. “Whatever you do, don’t open this door. We’ll be back.”
Ay-ttho and Tori left, shutting the door behind them. Sevan heard a blast which he assumed must have been Tori shooting out the door controls.
No sooner had they left than a screen flickered into life and the purple face of an Alliance officer appeared.
“Unit 364? Why have you sealed your unit? What is happening there?”
Sevan said nothing but just stared at the image.
“Identify yourself,” the officer demanded.
Sevan said nothing but just sat looking sheepish. A guard approached the officer.
“Sir, we have detected unauthorised access to our weapons system. Someone is trying to disable the system from within the ship.”
“Disable access from Control Unit 364,” the officer ordered.
Most of the lights in the room Sevan was occupying extinguished or dimmed.
“Sir, the weapons systems continue to shut down, the incursion was not from unit 364.”
“Where are they?” the officer shouted at Sevan. “Blast the door. Get me that idiot.”
Sevan turned around to see whom the officer was speaking about and then realised it must have been him the officer was calling an idiot. Moments later he could hear them applying laser cutting equipment to the door.
“Sir, weapons functions have entered shut down process. We are isolating the incursion but it might take time to reboot.”
The officer cursed, and the screen went blank. Sevan sat in the near darkness watching the bright point of the laser moving across the door.
Sevan could hear distant explosions. As they became louder, he presumed they were getting closer. Before long he could feel the ship shudder under the weight of the explosions and the laser cutting work ceased.
Another explosion extinguished all the remaining lights in the room, leaving Sevan in total darkness. He didn’t move, he just waited, putting his trust in Ay-ttho and Tori.
The waiting seemed to last forever and as the explosions came closer and the ship shuddered more violently, Sevan began to feel more and more anxious. What if something had happened to Ay-ttho and Tori?
Before Sevan could panic, a monitor flickered to life and Sevan saw a hooded figure.
“Is that him?” the figure asked someone off-screen.
“That’s him,” said an unknown voice.
“Sevan, we meet at last,” said the figure.
“Do I know you?” asked Sevan.
“My name is Barnes,” said the figure.
“Barnes? The head of the Corporation?”
“Amongst other things,” said Barnes. “You and your friends seemed to have caused us some bother.”
“Yeah? Sorry about that.”
“You won’t be so smug, Sevan, when I have you here and I am making you pay for your transgressions.”
“What transgressions?”
“I don’t quite know how you managed it but your friends somehow disabled the weapons systems of our entire fleet. Congratulations.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Oh, it’s not over yet. You may have disabled my command ship, but I am bringing it back remotely and when I get you here, I will make you and your friends suffer in ways you had not imagined possible.”
Sevan sensed his anxiety rise a little. The explosions were dying away and there was an eerie silence which pervaded the ship. He wondered where Ay-ttho and Tori might have got to. The screen showing the figure of Barnes’ went blank, and it plunged Sevan into darkness once more.
He tried to stay calm in the darkness and not think about what might have happened to his friends or what might happen to him when Barnes had Sevan in his grasp.
A noise outside the door made Sevan jump. Someone started banging on the door, hammering with something, which also sounded metallic.
“Who is it?” Sevan shouted, but he doubted they could hear him above the hammering.
The hammering continued until, with a clunk, the section of the door on which the Alliance had been using their laser dropped out and fell to the floor with a loud metallic thud. In the gap left in the door stood Ay-ttho and Tori.
“What happened?” Sevan asked.
“Are you okay?” asked Ay-ttho. “Sorry it took so long to get back.”
“Where is everyone? Why is it so quiet?” It frustrated Sevan that no one was answering his questions.
“They badly damaged the ship when we disabled the weapons systems,” said Tori. “The corporation severed it from the fleet and gave the command to another vessel so any Alliance forces, which survived the attack left to join the other vessels.”
“So we are just floating through space?”
“If only,” said Tori. “The Alliance are controlling the ship remotely, they are taking us back to Tomorrow.”
“I know, Barnes told me.”
“What?”
“Barnes told me he was bringing us back to Tomorrow where he will kill us.”
“When?”
“When we get there.”
“No, when did he tell you?”
“When I was trapped in that control room.”
“Great.”
“Is there no other shuttle we can steal?”
“I’m afraid not,” said Ay-ttho. “All the working shuttles have gone and we no longer control any of the systems here. They are controlling everything.”
“So, we just have to sit here in this dead ship and wait while it delivers us to our deaths?”
“That’s it,” said Tori. “The good news is that disabling the weapons system allowed the Republic to do more damage to the Alliance forces. Come on, we’ll show you.”
Sevan followed them out into the corridor and back to the almost empty hangar where, through one of the huge observation windows he could see, in the distance, the most spectacular sight. In the distance he could see the brilliant lights of the battle raging between the Alliance and Republic forces. It looked like the Republic had the upper hand. The many explosions shone in the darkness of space and Sevan couldn’t help feeling that it looked somehow beautiful.
“Do we just wait then?” asked Sevan, looking through the windows.
“We don’t have to just stand here,” said Ay-ttho. “Tori and I found some personal quarters. They’re not much to speak of but at least we might get a bit of rest before we arrive at Tomorrow.”
Sevan followed them through the corridors to a room containing a series of bunks. They took one each and Sevan lay down.
Ay-ttho began shaking him.
“What are you doing?” Sevan complained.
“Wake up Sevan, you’ve been asleep for hours,” she said.
Sevan sat up.
“Is there anything to eat?” he asked.
“There’s no time to eat. We’ve arrived at Tomorrow.”
Sevan didn’t feel like he’d slept for hours and he was very hungry. He followed Ay-ttho and Tori back through the corridors to the hangar where the observation windows were obscured by the huge space station.
>
“What are we going to do?” asked Sevan. He felt faint.
CHAPTER 14: RETURN TO TOMORROW
As they entered the huge hangar, Sevan noticed the marks by the entrance where he had crashed the Mastery of the Stars while trying to pilot it for the first time.
It was a testament to the sheer enormity of Tomorrow that it could fit an Alliance command ship comfortably within one of its hangars.
“Look,” Sevan said with excitement as the ship entered the hangar.
At the opposite side of the hangar, looking a bit battered, sat the Mastery of the Stars.
“Ron!” Ay-ttho was as excited as Sevan.
Tori was confused.
“That’s our ship,” Ay-ttho explained.
“We stole it,” said Sevan.
“It’s our ship,” Ay-ttho appeared filled with a renewed determination. “I’m just going for a quick nap.”
“What?” Sevan and Tori watched in disbelief as Ay-ttho marched back to the sleeping quarters.
“Should we go after her?” Tori asked.
“I don’t think so,” said Sevan. Something about the first time he met Ay-ttho was telling him she knew what she was doing.
As the hangar doors were closed behind them, Sevan noticed how many of the Corporation’s security forces were waiting for them. He couldn’t help but feel a little anxious. He looked at Tori who appeared to be looking forward to the confrontation.
“Does it not worry you that the Corporation has what looks like half of their entire security forces lined up to meet us?” Sevan asked.
“It is a great honour to fight for the Republic,” said Tori. “This is an opportunity for me to show my loyalty to President Man.”
“It’s a great opportunity for you to get yourself killed. What are you going to fight them with?”
Tori showed Sevan the hand held weapon he had brought with him from the forested planet. Sevan began to think of places he might hide.
“Do you think you might be able to lock me in another control room?” he asked.
“Of course, do you have a plan?”
“Yes,” Sevan wasn’t lying. His plan was to hide in the control room for as long as possible in the hope that someone else came up with a better plan, one which didn’t involve him confronting anyone.
“Come this way,” said Tori, leading Sevan along a corridor to a control room very similar to the one in which they had sealed him earlier.
“Would you like to hide here, too?” Sevan asked, without thinking.
“Are we going to ambush them?” Tori asked, excited at the prospect.
“Something like that,” said Sevan ushering Tori inside. “Give me your weapon.”
Tori handed the gun to Sevan who used it to blast the controls.
“Now we won’t be able to open the door,” Tori looked very confused.
“Exactly.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You’ll see.” Sevan sat at the control panel and made himself as comfortable as possible, watching the door. Tori did not see, not surprising as Sevan’s plan was to hide until someone or something came and saved them.
There was a clunk and a thud as the ship docked in the hangar and then more whirring noises and metallic thuds as the ship was being boarded by Corporation security forces. In a short time lasers were set to work on the control room door and Sevan realised it was naïve of him to think the Corporation would not know they were there. They were sure to know where Ay-ttho was as well.
The loud sounds of blasts and explosions soon after, told Sevan that the Corporation had found Ay-ttho. It reminded him of what Ron had said when Sevan had complained about having to pilot the Mastery of the Stars out of Tomorrow, Ron had warned Sevan that he should never wake Ay-ttho before she is ready. Back on the concession, Sevan had known many colleagues who were grumpy in the mornings but Ay-ttho took the concept of getting out of the wrong side of the bed to a whole new level. Almost as soon as it had started the ferocious sounds of fighting ended.
“I think they’ve got Ay-ttho,” Sevan said.
His words had barely finished echoing around the room than the centre section of the door fell out and Corporation security guards rushed in to point their weapons at Tori and Sevan, but mainly Tori who, to Sevan’s surprise did not shoot them but followed Sevan’s example and surrendered.
The Corporation Security Forces led them through the corridors, past the crew’s personal quarters where they could see for themselves the extent of the damage which had occurred in the attempts to suppress Ay-ttho. There was no sign of her and Sevan assumed they must have already led her away.
As the guards led them from what was left of the command ship, Sevan could see the Mastery of the Stars lying still and quiet at the opposite side of the hangar. He had an odd sensation that he was approaching the end and that all of his adventure had been futile. Here he was back at Tomorrow in a worse position than he had been when he had left.
There was a huge amount of activity on the station with security forces running all over the place. Sevan felt almost as if he was walking in slow motion and that everyone around him had been speeded up rushing around him as if he wasn’t even there. He wasn’t concerned about why they were rushing around and wasn’t even worried about his own fate but just accepted that it was over and whatever would happen now would happen.
The security forces led Tori and Sevan to a detention wing and threw them into individual cells with a sinister sneer which suggested that they knew a hideous fate was awaiting them.
Sevan sat on the floor of his empty cell and stared at the wall. It was as if he was the only stationary object in the vast station whose crew was racing around preparing for something.
He waited for a long time but on this occasion the wait did not bother him. He stared at the wall opposite and waited.
The door opened.
“Get up,” barked a security guard. “Come with us.”
Sevan took his time getting up and going into the corridor where more guards were waiting. They escorted him through a labyrinth of passageways and a series of doors until they reached a door which, when it opened, revealed the huge bridge. Tori and Ay-ttho, who had been beaten, were also there surrounded by an excessive number of guards.
“Ah, Sevan. Good of you to join us.”
Sevan saw Barnes approaching.
“I was just apologising to your friends,” Barnes said with mock sincerity. “I will postpone the pain I intend to inflict on you all before I kill you. It seems the Republic has followed you back. I’m glad they have. We have been waiting for them and it will be a pleasure to finish them. I equipped this station with more firepower than the entire Republic fleet combined. While President Man has been wallowing in his own self-importance, we have been biding our time out here waiting for the moment to strike. That moment is now.”
“Why are you telling us all this?” asked Ay-ttho. She was annoyed.
“I just wanted you to know, while you wait in your cells for your slow and very painful deaths to arrive, that outside we will be slaughtering your friends from the Republic and their lifeless bodies will be scattered all over the moon you idiots think is a giant cup. After I have slaughtered your friends, I will torture you until you plead for death. Then, as you beg me to end your pathetic lives, I will torture you more until you are on the very edge of the ability to sense pain and then I will keep you in that universe of pain until your pathetic body gives in. Then I shall take great pleasure in liquidising all your pathetic little friends on the concession. Oh yes, they will suffer. When there are none left, I will destroy the planet itself. Did I not tell you this station can destroy planets? Small insignificant planets like yours should be no problem. Take them away.”
The security forces dragged Sevan, Ay-ttho and Tori back towards the door.
“Who’s your friend?” Sevan shouted to Ay-ttho.
“Nice, isn’t he?” she shouted back.
“Sevan, when do we implem
ent your plan?” Tori shouted.
“You have a plan?” Ay-ttho asked.
“Not really.” Sevan admitted.
“Shut up,” a guard shouted, giving Sevan a slap for good measure.
“Is it because you made us in your image you hate us so much,” Sevan shouted as loud as he could.
“What?” Barnes exploded with rage. “Bring him here.”
The guards stopped and then began dragging Sevan back again.
“Did we disappoint you, father?” Sevan continued to shout.
“Silence!”
The rest of the crew were looking, not just at Sevan, but also at Barnes.
“You created us like yourself but because we remind you too much of yourself you think you can just liquidate us once we have served our purpose. Why don’t you show us what you are hiding under those robes?”
“Silence him!”
A guard punched Sevan so hard his marbles were swimming for a while. A sudden explosion rocked the bridge.
“We are awaiting your order to engage the enemy,” one of the crew who had been staring at a bank of control panels, said.
“Take them away!” Barnes ordered.
“Father!” yelled Sevan. “Why have you forsaken us?”
Another explosion ripped through the bridge, sending guards, crew and pieces of control panel flying across the room.
“Sir? The attack order?” The crew member was panicking.
“I said get them out of here!” Barnes was still staring at Sevan, everyone, still alive on the bridge was staring at him.
Some guards began to drag Sevan, Ay-ttho and Tori towards the door but they were looking at Barnes.
“You want to see?” Barnes shouted. “Look!”
He pulled his hood back and revealed that, rather than having the red appearance like the Corporation security forces, he was turquoise like Sevan and on the bluer side of turquoise. Also like Sevan, he had antennae with marbles at the end, albeit larger marbles than Sevan’s.
As the room stared at Barnes, the largest explosion yet, destroyed the door and half the ceiling covering everyone in smoke and debris. Sevan wondered where he was for a moment and when he regained his bearings, he looked for Barnes but he had vanished.
The Corporation Security Forces, without their leader, were unsure of what to do. Ay-ttho and Tori disarmed two guards and, finding themselves on the wrong end of a pair of hand held weapons, the rest of the guards did not hesitate to surrender.