Idris frowned thoughtfully. The Word, the Legion, the Swarm or whatever people chose to call it had a means of protecting itself against cold by huddling together in dense spheres and vibrating, generating heat in the centre of the sphere. Those bots on the outside would move slowly, taking their turn in the cold before moving into the centre to warm up again. Although not a permanent defence against the absolute zero of deep space, the process did enable the Word to survive long periods of near–freezing temperatures.
Slowly, he began to imagine a scenario in which the Word may have managed to harvest humans to assist them in the process, and with the realisation his felt a tremor of disgust twist his stomach.
Mikhain turned to the viewing screen and spoke directly to Ty’ek.
‘How many of your soldiers did you leave behind on the Sylph?’
‘Four,’ Ty’ek replied. ‘Three of them died quickly, however.’
‘How many crew did the Sylph have?’
Ty’ek shrugged. ‘No more than two dozen.’
Mikhain turned to Lael. ‘How many heat signatures did you detect in the Sylph’s engine bays when we first arrived?’
Lael looked at her displays. ‘Eighteen visible signatures.’
‘They’re still alive,’ Idris whispered, almost to himself. ‘They’re still down there.’
He turned to the viewing screen. ‘We need you to cease jamming us so that we can contact our people and warn them. Every single person aboard that ship could be in immense danger.’
‘And we,’ Ty’ek snarled back, ‘want our soldier back and the entire Sylph blasted into history,
now
!’
‘We can’t solve this with conflict,’ Idris replied. ‘The Sylph is a plague ship and right now we could be on the verge of losing everybody aboard!’
‘We have only one life to lose over this, captain,’ Ty’ek snapped. ‘You have many.’
‘Then let us bring them home safely!’
‘I’m not talking about the humans aboard the Sylph.’
A silence filled the bridge as Idris peered at Ty’ek. ‘What do you mean?’
The Veng’en commander turned his head and jerked his chin up in a gesture to somebody off screen. Moments later, four Veng’en soldiers marched into view behind Ty’ek. Between them, dishevelled and weary, were four humans wearing the uniforms of the Colonial Merchant Service, each patched with emblems bearing the name
Sylph
.
Idris ground his teeth in his jaw as Ty’ek spoke. ‘One more shot from your vessel, captain, and I’ll have their throats cut right here and now.’
On cue, the four Veng’en soldiers drew savage looking hooked blades from their belts and held them to the throats of the Sylph’s crew.
‘Now, captain,’ Ty’ek growled, ‘you will stand your vessel down and let my men board the Sylph and recover our lost comrade. Then you will watch without action as we destroy the plague ship for once and for all. You have one hour.’
Captain Idris Sansin stared at the faces of the four hostages, indecision wracking his every cell as he felt the eyes of the bridge crew watching him intently. He forced himself to unclench his fists, to breathe freely, to abandon the terrible agony of being forced into a position where no solution was without great sacrifice, and make the only logical choice that he could.
‘Cut him off!’ he snapped.
Lael shut off the communications link as the captain whirled to Mikhain. ‘Open fire!’
Mikhain’s eyes widened. ‘You want to do
what
?!’
‘Do it!’ Idris snapped. ‘They’ve got to understand we won’t be intimidated!’
‘They’ll kill the Sylph’s crew!’
‘They’ll kill them anyway even if we obey their demands! Fire now!’
The XO, his features stricken, nodded to his gunners and in an instant the Atlantia shuddered as her port cannons thundered a blazing salvo of fearsome plasma charges that rocketed across the void toward the Veng’en cruiser.
‘Turrets re–charging!’
‘Defensive manoeuvring!’ Idris ordered. ‘Position for a stern attack!’
Idris saw the blazing salvo of shots illuminate the broad hull of the Veng’en cruiser for a brief instant before they ploughed into her in a blaze of searing heat and light, smashing into her cannons and power lines.
The cruiser moved forward and began to turn toward the Atlantia as a ripple of bright red flashes sparkled along her hull flank.
‘Incoming!’ Lael warned.
‘Full power, now!’ Idris yelled. ‘Ray shielding at maximum!’
The Atlantia surged into motion as the broadside of glowing red plasma charges hurtled toward her, some sailing past where her stern had been moments before. Then the rest slammed into the Atlantia’s slab–sided hull with tremendous force, the entire vessel shifting sideways under the blows.
Idris grabbed hold of the command platform’s railings as the ship heaved and distant claxons burst into life and echoed through the corridors outside the bridge.
‘Direct hits amidships and for’ard!’ Lael cried out. ‘Fires through mid–decks eight and twelve!’
‘Keep us in front of the Sylph!’ Idris roared above the claxons. ‘Don’t let her attack them or send a boarding party! All fighters engage now!’
The viewing screen showed the Rankor pulling up high in an attempt to move overhead the Atlantia and bring her guns to bear upon the Sylph. The Atlantia’s protective screen of Raython fighters broke away and rocketed toward the Veng’en cruiser as Idris bellowed commands to his bridge crew.
‘Hit them directly aft of the bridge, full salvo with all guns as soon as the batteries are charged!’
‘Stand by!’ Mikhain replied, watching the plasma batteries build up to full power. ‘Fire!’
A ripple of thunderous booms reverberated through the ship as the cannons blasted their plasma rounds toward the Veng’en cruiser, but this time the rounds converged on a tight spot aft of her bridge.
The cruiser began to roll in an attempt to protect her bridge with her heavily armoured keel, but the shots were fired from too close for her crew to avoid. Idris watched as the dull metallic hull flared brightly in the glow of the plasma rounds and then they impacted, twelve rounds one after the other in almost exactly the same spot.
The plasma blasts flared as brightly as a newborn star and then faded as an expanding fireball burst out into the vacuum of space, clouds of sparkling metallic debris trailing from the gaping wound torn in the ship’s hull.
‘Renegade Squadron!’ Idris yelled. ‘All firepower into the damaged bridge section!’
The Raython fighters swarmed in, rushing headlong into the Veng’en fighters sweeping out to meet them, but instead of engaging the Scythes the Raython’s rocketed past them and down, weaving to avoid the plasma fire being directed up at them as they attacked the depths of the cruiser.
Idris clenched his fist in furious delight as he saw the fighter’s cannons wreak hell one after the other, the blasts biting deep into the Rankor’s interior.
‘We’ve got them!’ Mikhain gasped. ‘They’re turning away!’
Idris restrained himself from shouting out in delight, instead turning to his XO. ‘Order the fighters to clear, now!’
‘We can hit them again!’ Mikhain said, ‘disable them entirely!’
‘No,’ Idris snapped. ‘That’s what they’d do to us.’ He looked at Lael. ‘Hail them.’
Mikhain seemed utterly stunned. ‘You want to talk to them
now
?’
‘Do it.’
Lael signalled the Veng’en ship and almost immediately Ty’ek appeared on the screen, surrounded by clouds of blue smoke. The sound of countless alarms shrieked in the background as he pointed at Idris, his skin rippling in shades of deep crimson.
‘You will pay for this! This is an act of war against…’
‘We are not like you, Ty’ek,’ Idris snapped, cutting the Veng’en off. ‘We will not abandon our own people to die but we will die to protect them.’
‘I will have their throats cut!’ Tty’ek shrieked.
‘You would kill them regardless of what we do. I know well that you will torture them for weeks, or months or even years, that you would cause them to suffer untold pain for as long as they could bear it without losing their sanity. I’d sooner see them die in this instant than leave them to suffer for years. Pull back or I’ll fire again and blast your cruiser into oblivion.’
Ty’ek seemed to tremble with impotent fury. ‘We will not run away,’ he seethed.
Idris turned to Mikhain. ‘Open fire, full power all cannons. Aim for the bridge!’
‘Aye sir, all cannons open…’
‘Stop!’ Ty’ek shrieked. All movement on the Atlantia’s bridge ceased as the fuming Veng’en glared at Idris. ‘One hour, captain, to hand over my soldier’ he seethed. ‘Or I’ll execute every last one of the Sylph’s crew and damn the consequences!’
Ty’ek glared at Idris for a moment longer and then the communication was cut off.
The viewing screen returned to an image of the Veng’en cruiser, and as he watched Idris saw it turn away and begin moving in the opposite direction, trailing debris as it went.
The cloud of Veng’en fighters wheeled about and followed the cruiser.
Idris watched them go and then he took a pace back and slumped into his seat.
Mikhain looked down from his station at the captain. ‘I had no idea that you were such a cold–hearted son of a bitch. Sir.’
‘Nor did I,’ Idris replied.
‘I think that they know we mean business now.’
Idris managed a smile in response.
‘Yes, but I can only pull that little surprise off once. Next time, and I can guarantee you there will be a next time, they’ll come at us with everything that they’ve got.’
‘How did you know how to disable them so quickly?’
Idris sighed. ‘Ty’ek’s story about how as a child he and his friends dreamed of killing me,’ he replied. ‘Ty’ek must be very young for a Veng’en commander, lacking in experience. The Veng’en must also have lost its most experienced commanders to the Word and are now populating their vessels with junior officers. I gambled that Ty’ek’s lack of experience means that he does not know his ship as well as he should. All Retaliator Class cruisers have weaker hull plating astern the bridge than later models, it’s something we learned about them back in the day.’
Mikhain nodded. ‘I remember, something to do with corrosion due to the high humidity atmosphere maintained aboard their ships. The Retaliator class are older ships too, like the Atlantia, which means…’
‘The Veng’en may have lost their own more modern ships to the Word, just as we did,’ Idris finished the sentence for him. ‘An older class cruiser like the Rankor would not be out here on its own otherwise.’
Idris nodded and turned to Lael.
‘We’ve got to break the jamming and find out what the hell’s going on aboard the Sylph before Ty’ek kills those people.’
***
‘I’ll be damned.’
Qayin’s voice rumbled through the bridge as the Marines watched the Atlantia repel the Veng’en cruiser, the damaged ship lumbering away with its escort of fighters.
‘Have we re–established contact with the Atlantia yet?’ Bra’hiv asked.
‘Nothin’,’ Djimon uttered as he strode to the communications platform and examined the displays. ‘The Veng’en are still jamming everything.’
‘Any light signals?’ Bra’hiv asked.
Djimon was about to search when Evelyn hurried onto the bridge. ‘The civilians are on the shuttles and waiting to leave,’ she reported, ‘but we’re running out of places to hide. If the bots keeping replicating…’
‘We need a way to slow the Legion down,’ Bra’hiv said. ‘Either that or we take our chances with the Veng’en.’
Evelyn glanced at the departing Veng’en cruiser, still well within firing range.
‘If they let us leave,’ she said. ‘I’m guessing they want to torch the ship?’
‘Most likely,’ Bra’hiv agreed, ‘which is why we need to find Kordaz. Any sign of him?’
‘Nothing,’ Evelyn reported. ‘He’s likely gone for’ard too, which complicates things. If he gets to the landing bay he could try to commandeer a shuttle, take hostages, anything.’
Bra’hiv cursed under his breath as he crossed the bridge to examine a tactical map of the Sylph.
‘He must want to return to his ship,’ Bra’hiv said. ‘It’s a natural act, so he’ll be looking for ways to get off the Sylph.’
‘The escape pods,’ Evelyn said.
‘Not likely,’ Bra’hiv replied. ‘He knows we could shoot him down as soon as he departed.’
‘Then why flee at all?’ Evelyn pondered. ‘He knew that the Veng’en were here. If he wanted to get back to his people he must have known that we would use him as a bargaining chip? His best bet was to stay put and wait to be sent over there in return for our escape.’
Bra’hiv shook his head. ‘I don’t know.’
‘I’ve got something,’ Djimon said from the communications console.
Evelyn followed Bra’hiv up to the console and looked at it.
A display screen showed a corridor deep inside the ship and on it they saw Kordaz moving slowly along, a rifle held at port arms before him and another slung across his back.
‘Where is this?’ Bra’hiv asked.
‘That’s the thing,’ Djimon said, ‘it’s aft, near the engine bays.’
Evelyn felt a chill ripple down her spine. ‘Where the Word is hiding.’
‘What the hell is he doing?’ Bra’hiv uttered in disbelief.
‘We need to stop him right now, before he gets himself killed,’ Evelyn snapped. ‘Let’s go.’
Qayin stood in her way, his bioluminescent tattoos glowing with ripples of light.
‘That’s not going to happen,’ he rumbled at her. ‘Kordaz is the enemy and right now we have bigger problems.’
‘Such as?’
‘Andaim,’ Qayin replied. ‘He’s a few breaths away from becoming one of them.’
‘I spoke to him,’ Evelyn replied. ‘The Word hasn’t taken him yet.’
‘And when it does? I don’t want him leaping up and trying to infect the rest of us.’
‘What, you’d rather shoot him when he’s strapped down to a bed?’ Evelyn shot back.
‘If that’s what it takes.’
‘You’re sounding less like a human and more like a Veng’en every day.’
‘Maybe that’s not a bad thing,’ Qayin replied. ‘You and me both have seen what the Legion can do to a man. You really want to leave it long enough that Andaim goes through the same thing?’