‘Ty’ek won’t have killed them,’ Mikhain said. ‘He’ll still consider them as leverage, for now at least.’
‘And I can be their ticket home,’ Kordaz said.
‘Ty’ek might kill you,’ Idris reminded him.
‘Yes,’ Kordaz replied. ‘He might.’
Idris nodded and then glanced at Mikhain. ‘Prepare to hail the Veng’en as soon as they arrive.’
The XO hurried to his console.
‘Ty’ek may not be reasoned with,’ Kordaz warned the captain. ‘He will seek your destruction regardless of what you say to him.’
‘I know,’ Idris replied, and turned to Bra’hiv. ‘Prepare your men for an assault.’
‘You want to
attack
them?’ Bra’hiv asked.
‘We’re going to get our people back, either by force or by guile. If Ty’ek won’t release them, all we can do is give them the best chance possible to break free of their captors and make it to a shuttle. You and your men will be on board that shuttle.’
Bra’hiv saluted and marched from the bridge and Idris turned to the main viewing screen as a swarm of asteroids drifted slowly by. A distant series of dull, laborious booms echoed through the ship.
‘Impacts to port,’ the helmsman announced, ‘low angles, no damage reports.’
‘Keep her slow and steady,’ Idris replied. ‘Manoeuvre her to conceal as much of our hull as possible from being targeted.’
‘Aye sir.’
‘We could breach our hull if one of those asteroids hits us hard enough,’ Mikhain pointed out.
‘Maybe,’ Idris replied, ‘but the Atlantia’s hull is older than the Veng’en cruiser’s, built back in the day when brute force was the way to combat micrometeorite damage and radiation. She’ll hold up okay.’
‘For how long?’ Mikhain challenged.
‘Five seconds sir.’ Lael’s voice warned the captain. ‘They’re coming through.’
‘On screen.’
The image of the dense asteroid belt and distant star changed to one of deep space, and Idris searched the starfield for the tell–tale conical warping of starlight as the Veng’en cruiser’s mass–drive warped space–time ahead of it.
Almost immediately he saw a scattering of bright, hot blue stars bend in a kaleidoscope, twisting in upon themselves. The warped patch of spacetime rippled and then went entirely black, then flared with white light as the Rankor leaped into view and the starfield behind it returned to normal.
‘Signalling them,’ Mikhain reported.
‘Hold the fighters back,’ Idris ordered. ‘I don’t want a battle commencing before we’ve had a chance to talk to them.’
‘Aye captain.’
The main screen flickered and then Ty’ek’s face appeared once more.
‘Captain Sansin,’ he snarled. ‘Finally, your time has come.’
‘We have a cure for infection by the Word,’ Idris announced without preamble.
‘We have no need of your cure,’ Ty’ek snapped in response. ‘All we require is the annihilation of your people and your hideous creation.’
‘We have removed the infection from our vessel,’ Idris pressed. ‘The Word is no longer aboard and we have captured a Hunter nanobot. We are studying it right now to find a weakness, and would be happy to share any information we find with you and your…’
‘Your pleas are for nothing, captain,’ Ty’ek growled. ‘You cannot hide your ship and your people under space rocks forever, like the mud dwelling slime that you all are.’
‘I’m telling you that we have no infection aboard this ship,’ Idris repeated.
‘And I’m telling you that I don’t give a damn.’
‘You should.’
The voice was Veng’en and Idris saw Ty’ek’s eyes narrow suspiciously as Kordaz walked into view, his wrists manacled.
‘I propose an exchange of prisoners,’ Idris said.
‘What makes you think that I want Kordaz back at all?’ Ty’ek smirked. ‘It would be an act of greater courage for Kordaz to kill as many of you as possible and die while doing so, if he had any sense of pride or honour.’
‘It would serve no purpose,’ Kordaz said. ‘I have seen them cure the infection and destroy the Word. We can learn from them.’
‘What more could we learn of pain and suffering from humans?’ Ty’ek sneered. ‘Theirs is a world of machines now, machines that seek to destroy us all. There is nothing new to be learned from them but how to destroy them more quickly.’
‘Destruction is not the only way,’ Idris said. ‘Kordaz here has seen that. There are other ways, Ty’ek, to defeat an enemy.’
‘Indeed,’ Ty’ek snarled. ‘Perhaps I should try one of those alternatives myself?’
Ty’ek stood back from the screen and revealed behind him the captured crew of the Sylph. But among them now was a new hostage, a towering man with bitumous black skin, braids of blue and gold hair and bioluminescent tattoos that glowed as though venting the rage seething in his expression.
‘Qayin,’ Idris gasped. ‘We thought you were dead!’
‘Sorry to disappoint,’ Qayin murmured.
‘We found him in an escape capsule jettisoned from the Sylph,’ Ty’ek sneered. ‘You must have abandoned him, captain, which says a great deal about how similar we are.’
‘We share nothing,’ Idris snapped.
Kordaz stepped forward, addressing Ty’ek directly.
‘The soldier you are holding prisoner,’ he said. ‘Without his courage I would not be standing here. Return him, and I shall return to you.’
Ty’ek’s eyes narrowed again and despite his emotionless face Idris could sense the suspicion clouding the Veng’en’s thoughts. ‘You have been turned, Kordaz.’
‘No.’
‘You are lying,’ Ty’ek snapped. ‘Either the infection is still aboard or you have turned traitor. Either way, to let you back aboard would be suicide for one or for both of us. You have chosen them, as they have chosen to abandon their own.’
‘Let the hostages go!’ Idris snapped. ‘Or by Ethera I’ll crush your ship into dust.’
‘No Veng’en shall ever bow to a human,’ Ty’ek seethed, ‘and no Veng’en shall fall but fighting for his life. Attack them where they lay!’
The viewing screen went blank and then showed once more the Veng’en cruiser against the starfield, her giant hull glowing in the light from the star as from her launch bays the tiny specks of dozens of Veng’en Scythe fighters rocketed out into the void.
‘Send the Raythons in,’ Idris snapped. ‘Launch Bra’hiv’s Marines, and tell them that all of the hostages are captive upon the Rankor’s bridge!’
‘Sheilds up!’ Mikhain replied.
‘Fire all cannons!’ Idris bellowed.
***
‘All fighters engage! Take them down!’
Evelyn heard the command and turned her Raython toward the Veng’en cruiser, Andaim’s Raython tucked in close alongside her.
‘This is it,’
Andaim called.
‘Stay in pairs and stay sharp!’
Evelyn saw flashes of bright blue light and a tremendous salvo of plasma shots race by overhead as the Atlantia opened up against the Rankor. The salvo rocketed away and smashed into the Veng’en cruiser’s huge hull in brilliant flares and explosions that made Evelyn squint. In the same instant the Rankor fired back, brilliant red plasma shots smashing into the asteroids shielding the Atlantia.
‘Here come the fighters!’ Teera yelled.
Evelyn saw a cloud of Veng’en Scythe fighters rocket toward her, their plasma shots zipping past. No thoughts entered her mind as she weaved left and dove between two streams of plasma and fired twice, unthinking reflexes driving her responses with supernatural speed. She registered the two shots impacting two different Scythe craft, blasting their cockpits into flaming wreckage and causing them to spiral out of control in bright blossoming balls of flame and debris.
‘Splash one and two!’ Andaim yelled as he opened fire.
The Scythes flashed past as a second salvo of giant plasma shots blazed overhead from the Veng’en cruiser, heading for the Atlantia. Evelyn hauled her Raython around in a tight turn to see a vast cloud of Raythons and Scythes arcing ion trails through space as they fought to manoeuvre against each other.
Behind them, the Veng’en cruiser’s salvo of plasma charges smashed into tumbling clouds of asteroids in a flickering array of explosions.
‘Stay in pairs!’ Andaim commanded. ‘Combine your firepower and make your shots count in each attack!’
Evelyn picked out a pair of Scythes amid the melee, their wings flashing in unison as they caught the starlight and pursued two Raythons. Evelyn focused in on the lead Scythe and closed upon it, moving her control column without thought and with brisk movements as she slid in directly behind the Scythes.
She did not see her aiming reticule turn red as it locked onto the enemy fighter, nor did she see the bright plasma shots erupt from her guns. All she saw was the Scythe split in two by the direct hits, bright flames and debris flashing in the sunlight as they spiralled past her Raython and the Scythe fighter broke up into fragments.
She did not make the splash call as other pilots were doing. The second Scythe fighter pulled hard left and then rotated in mid–flight, maintaining its trajectory as it pointed its weapons back at her and opened fire. Evelyn pulled hard on her control column and simultaneously threw it over, rolling the Raython through a tight barrel–roll and making it as hard to hit as possible. Trails of glowing plasma rocketed in red streaks past her canopy, always just out of reach, and as she rolled back into plane with the Scythe fighter she fired once.
The shot hit the fighter square on and smashed it into two, the flaming debris flashing by either side of Evelyn’s fighter as she rolled it up onto its side and sliced through the expanding fireball.
‘Splash four!’ Andaim reported. ‘Evelyn, form up now!’
Evelyn blinked and realised that Andaim was now following her, having been left behind as she pursued the two Veng’en fighters.
‘Roger that,’ she replied.
‘Stay on my wing damn it, before you get us both killed!’
Evelyn slid in alongside Andaim’s fighter as they wheeled back into the fight, clouds of Scythes and Raythons and countless flashes of plasma zipping across the starfield between them.
Evelyn saw the Atlantia fire another salvo at the Rankor. The blue plasma shots blazed between the two massive ships and hammered the cruiser’s aft hull, peppering it with flickering fires and shattering sections of hull plating, but the ray–sheilding still protected the majority of the larger vessel’s hull from permanent damage.
Andaim’s Raython opened fire on a pair of Scythes and caught one of them on its port side, smashing the wing off. The engines exploded in a bright fireball and Andaim jinked right to avoid the debris. Evelyn went left and cut in ahead of Andaim as she settled in behind the remaining Scythe.
‘I’ve got him.’
‘You’re covered,’ Andaim replied.
The Scythe jerked frantically left and right, trying to shake Evelyn, but she held on easily and waited for the perfect moment to take a single shot. She squeezed the trigger and two plasma rounds converged on the Scythe’s cockpit and smashed it into a glowing mass of molten metal. The Scythe, pilotless, spiralled slowly downward and smashed into a tumbling asteroid to vanish in a roiling cloud of burning fuel and flame.
‘Good shot!’ Andaim called as he pulled up and rocketed over the asteroid.
Evelyn skimmed the giant rock, the surface of it flashing by as she pulled up and aimed back toward the battle. She glimpsed the underside of the Atlantia’s hull, saw multiple small fires flickering from where plasma damage and asteroid impacts were battering her.
‘The ship’s taking too many hits,’ she called as she emerged from the asteroid field. ‘She can’t stay in there forever.’
As if in reply a plasma round from the Veng’en cruiser ploughed into the Atlantia’s bow amid a flare of bright light, and Evelyn glimpsed debris spiralling off her hull plating in the aftermath of the blast.
‘They don’t have much choice,’ Andaim replied as explosions burst around his Raython, the shockwaves making the little fighter rock and quiver.
‘We need an edge,’ Evelyn snapped. ‘Kordaz said that Veng’en ships are filled with forest materials.’
‘So what?’ Andaim asked as he tried to get on the tail of a Scythe that itself was following a Raython. ‘The Atlantia can’t go up against a cruiser that big in open battle. She’d be smashed to pieces!’
‘She can’t,’ Evelyn replied, ‘but we can.’
*
Sergeant Djimon jogged up the shuttle’s ramp as Bra’hiv watched, holding on to the shuttle’s interior wall with one hand as the Atlantia shuddered and rocked under the plasma blasts and asteroid impacts.
‘We need to get out there and do this before this ship gets torn apart!’ the sergeant yelled.
Bra’hiv hit the button to close the shuttle’s ramp and then turned and called to the pilots.
‘Lift off, now!’
The shuttle tilted as it lifted up off the Atlantia’s deck and Bra’hiv saw the launch bay doors open as the air was sucked out into the oblivion of space. The dense asteroid field, a morass of tumbling rocks cast in harsh light and shadow, loomed into view as the general strapped himself into his seat behind the pilots and watched as they guided the shuttle out of the Atlantia’s bay.
‘Stay close to the debris field,’ Bra’hiv ordered. ‘We go only when the captain orders, understood?’
The pilot nodded, the shuttle accelerating away from beneath the Atlantia’s bow even as a barrage of red plasma fire tore through the asteroid field. A gigantic ball of rock was shattered by a direct hit from the Veng’en cruiser’s guns and a cloud of vast and chaotically tumbling debris rocketed toward the shuttle.
‘Incoming, starboard bow!’
The pilot responded instantly, diving down into cover behind a larger asteroid as the hail of debris flew past. Smaller rocks hammered the shuttle’s hull with a loud rattling, and through the glow of the distant star Bra’hiv could see veils of thick dust and other flotsam suspended in space, and endless minefield of threats to the shuttle’s hull and engines.
‘We need to get out of this,’ the pilot said to Bra’hiv without breaking his gaze out of the viewing panel. ‘We’ll either get pulverised by the big ones or our engines will clog with debris and fail us.’
‘Stay in the holding pattern,’ Bra’hiv ordered, his voice equally calm and betraying none of the consternation enveloping him. ‘If we’re spotted, we’re doomed.’