Battle for Earth (34 page)

Johnny thought it very generous she included Kovac in that last statement. “They swim like fish,” he said, “in shoals. Maybe they're some sort of hive or collective, so what Peter knew was passed on to the others—especially if the Krun created them.” He shivered at the thought that the Krun may have added a hive gene from their own DNA into the hybrid mix. No wonder Peter had hated what he was becoming.

“I fear none of this helps us with the matter in hand,” said Alf. “Sol, how soon until the Krun fleet arrives?”

“Computing … 27 hours, 18 minutes and 28.18 seconds, approximately,” said Sol. “Having analyzed their capabilities at close quarters, I will be able to hold a sizable number at bay.”

“By no means all of them,” added Kovac, rather unnecessarily.

“If only we had the other ships,” said Louise.

“There'd still be no one to fly them,” Johnny replied.

“I would,” she said. “I'd fight for Earth, whatever the risk.”

Johnny could tell she meant every word.

“If only we had allies to call upon,” said Alf. “Now the Tolimi are gone, there are no advanced civilizations for several light years.”

Johnny thought briefly of the dinosaurs living within Neptune's artificial hollow moon, Triton. Fierce though they could be, there was little point involving them in a space battle.

“Any news about David?” Louise asked, adding, “Professor Bond,” when Johnny looked questioningly at her.

“At best, we can only assume he is the Krun's prisoner,” said Alf. No one wanted to mention what might be worse. “Why in the name of Melania did His Imperial Majesty have to choose this, of all times, to leave the galaxy?”

Johnny had rarely seen the android so frustrated. He knew the Emperor would have done anything to save Earth and, if anyone knew how to help Clara, it would be Bram. Perhaps, even now, there was a chance the Emperor would turn his armada around. If not, they were all out of options. “Things couldn't be any worse,” he said, taking himself by surprise that he'd spoken out loud.

“I am forced to concur,” said the ever optimistic Kovac, “but that is because I continue to monitor the Cornicula opening from Melania.”

“Why?” Johnny asked. “What's happened there?” With everything else going on, he'd managed to push thoughts of
the Nameless One and his arrival on the Milky Way's capital to the back of his mind.

“As I have intimated on previous occasions,” said Kovac, “English is an appalling medium for complex communication. I suggest you visit Halader House and see for yourself.”

“We don't have time for that,” said Johnny.

Beside him, unusually nervously, Alf asked, “Is there any word on Ophia?” Even though the two had never met, Johnny recognized the special bond the android must feel with the only other one of his kind in the whole galaxy.

“So much wisdom to impart and so little time in which to deliver it,” said Kovac, “yet I am forced to repeat myself to a clunking mechanoid. To understand the situation, you must see for yourself.”

“But how can I leave Miss Clara?” said Alf. “Without constant attention, we will lose her forever.”

Johnny saw the desperation behind Alf's eyes. As he didn't have any better ideas, he said, “It's OK. I'll go. I'll find out what I can.” He looked down at his sister, tossing and turning, and said, “She reminds me of my mum … in St. Catharine's.” It was probably his imagination, but it felt as if Clara had squeezed his hand.

Johnny had wanted to make the trip to his old children's home as quick as possible, but Bentley had barked furiously when it appeared the Old English sheepdog would remain behind on the shuttle deck. Now they sat, side by side but invisible, in the front two seats of the
Bakerloo
. The world as everyone knew it could well end in about a day's time, but the streets weren't packed with traffic as in the well-known disaster movies. Castle Dudbury New Town was so flat and boring there were no hills for the locals to escape to, except for a derelict artificial
ski slope. Landing on a deserted Edinburgh Way in the driving rain, Johnny changed the shield configuration so that it would appear to anyone mad enough to be out in this weather that they were watching a run-of-the-mill black London taxi with a single passenger in the back seat. They turned the corner into the railway station parking lot and came to rest outside the station's main entrance.

No one was around to see the unexpected twosome emerge from the cab, and together they ran through the rain toward the back door of Halader House. Johnny hated returning to the children's home. If only, when he'd first had to take the decision, he'd created the Wormhole somewhere out of the way, far from prying eyes and not here in his old bedroom. He couldn't afford to be seen and wondered about leaving Bentley in the backyard, but he couldn't do it to his old friend in this weather. The simple electronic lock on the door was quickly opened and the pair crept inside.

Halader House was the quietest Johnny had ever known it. At first he presumed the residents and staff must all be in the common room—maybe watching something on TV—but when he tiptoed past he saw the door was ajar, revealing empty battered sofas and an eerie silence. As he climbed the stairs to the deserted first floor, Johnny began to wonder if the home had been suddenly closed down. Finally, they reached the spiral staircase that led to his old attic bedroom. Glancing at the “No Entry” sign, Johnny pulled down the trapdoor, allowing Bentley and himself to climb inside.

It appeared that no one had been in Johnny's bedroom since he'd given Miss Harutunian the slip after the soccer match. His discarded clothes lay piled on the floor where he'd left them. Immediately Bentley made his way to his favorite spot underneath the bed and curled up beside the radiator.

Johnny sat on the bed. It struck him that he hadn't slept
for ages and he had to fight the urge to simply lie down, shut his eyes, and hope that all his problems would simply dissolve into sleep. A pain seared his temple as a growling voice filled his skull:

“
Give me my ships, Johnny Mackintosh. Give them to me. We are coming—you cannot resist
.”

“Get … out,” he shouted, clutching the sides of his head. Bentley growled. Johnny took several deep breaths to calm himself. Before him, the air glowed as if a cloud of dust were sparkling in bright sunlight, yet through the big box window the rain still poured down outside. It was now or never. Taking a last, deep breath, Johnny pushed his face forward and tried and failed to stop his eyes closing. When they opened it was to look upon the ancient square at the heart of the Imperial Palace on Melania.

Unusually for a planet in a binary system, it was twilight. Johnny wondered if, not long before, those living there had been lucky enough to witness a double sunset, perhaps watching from the Senate Platform as the twin stars Arros and Deynar sank behind the Great Tower of Themissa at the heart of the palace. In the half-light, it took a moment to register the scene before him. At first his brain didn't want to accept the evidence of his own eyes. It tried to convince him the rough globes, stretching in regular rows halfway back across the courtyard, were some sort of new decoration demanded by the Nameless One, though Johnny wondered how they stayed up. Then, as his eyes adjusted to the light, he couldn't deny exactly what they were. It didn't make the shock any less. Floating in midair were row upon row of severed heads, their eyes mostly still open in terror, witness to the instant they were killed.

Nearest to the Cornicula opening, though, one pair of especially large eyes were closed, almost as though sleeping. They belonged to Ophia. Her synthetic spinal cord was still
connected to her beautiful head and hung at an odd angle, not quite vertical.

“Hello, Johnny.”

He remembered the voice. It was hers—speaking English, with the same rich tones that he'd heard through the Wormhole before—yet the figure he hoped to have heard speaking remained unmoved, her eyes and mouth firmly closed. Had he imagined it, like the Krun Queen? Was he going mad?

“I know you cannot see me talking … not yet,” the voice continued, “but it is I, Ophia, once briefly the Emperor's Emissary on Melania.”

The android opened her eyes and her spine began to curl. Johnny gasped. “I see my light has now reached you,” said Ophia.

“I don't understand,” said Johnny. “What's going on?”

“This place, this courtyard, is an experiment. The palace has become the Nameless One's plaything.” Johnny noticed that the android's words didn't match the way her lips were moving. “He desired a method to prevent Bram from ever returning to the galaxy he once ruled. Now he has found it.”

In those few words, Johnny's best hope for Earth's salvation was dashed.

The head continued: “With his own great power, amplified by the piteous creature in the tower, the laws of nature have bowed completely to his wishes. There is no gravity in this small place and, from me to you, the speed of light has been slowed to the pace of a Sulafat Tortoise. From you to me, I believe it is unchanged.”

“Why?” asked Johnny. “What's that have to do with Bram?”

“Between the galaxies, in the void without stars or planets, space cannot be folded,” said Ophia. “Light speed is a true limit—one that can never be exceeded. All around the Milky Way, at the rim of the galaxy, the Nameless One has created
a barrier like in this square. Not even our Emperor can cross it.”

“But that means the Nameless One can't bring his own ships here. People can still fight him.” Johnny knew he was clutching at straws.

“The Nameless One doesn't need ships, Johnny. No one dares challenge his power. Yet still he brings them. I have witnessed fleets of Andromedan Stardestroyers flying overhead. I do not know how he has done this. If Bram knew, he would not now be trapped within the void.”

The Emperor had hinted about bending the laws of physics, but not by so much. “I wish I could help you,” he said. “Earth's being invaded. The Krun arrive tomorrow and there are too many of them for us to fight. If we survive, I'll come save you—I promise.”

“No, Johnny. If you survive, you must do what Bram could not. Find Lysentia. It is the only way to save any of us.”

“What's going on in there? Decease at once.”

Johnny thought he recognized the haughty voice speaking broken Universal. Ophia confirmed his suspicions. “It is Erin. He stands guard nearby and has just seen my eyes open. You must go.”

“What's he doing there?” Johnny asked, well aware of the anger in his own voice.

“He serves the Nameless One,” said Ophia. “Those who do not soon end up collected around me. There are very few who resist. Go now … Save Earth … Find Lysentia.”

“I won't forget you,” said Johnny. He pulled his head out of the Wormhole just in time to hear footsteps coming up the spiral staircase.

Johnny panicked. He'd faced all sorts of dangers over the last year, but something about being back in the children's homemade him behave like a child. There was no time to
grab Bentley. He bounded across his bedroom in one stride and dived inside his wardrobe. His heart was pounding so loud he thought whoever came through the trapdoor must hear. He remembered being dragged in here by Clara, months before, as someone he now knew to have been his clone moved about his bedroom. If only he'd seen his double—known who it was—things could have been so different. This time, he held the door open, just a fraction of a millimeter, to see the interloper.

“Bentley.” With her head poking through the trapdoor, Miss Harutunian had spotted the Old English sheepdog curled up by the radiator. “I hoped I'd find you here,” she said, climbing fully into the room and crouching close to Johnny's bed, peering underneath.

Bentley came willingly to be fussed, the red-haired American stroking his coat firmly as the sheepdog licked her face.

“Now where's your dad?” Miss Harutunian asked, lifting Bentley's fringe and gazing into the dog's one brown and one blue eye. It took a few seconds before Johnny understood she was speaking about him.

Miss Harutunian looked around the small bedroom and her eyes alighted on the only possible hiding place. Johnny could try to fold, but then he'd be leaving Bentley. The social worker was on her feet now, hand stretching out toward the wardrobe door. Johnny had a split second to decide what to do. Before she reached it, he opened the door from inside and said a very sheepish, “Hi.”

“Johnny!” The social worker grabbed him and pulled him into a surprisingly strong hug. “Where have you been? Come on—we need to see Mrs. Irvine.” She released him, but grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the trapdoor. “Now.”

“No,” he said, trying but failing to break free. “I can't. Not right now. It has to wait.”

“It can't wait, Johnny.” Miss Harutunian looked upward,
lost in thought. Then she turned to face him. “I wish it could, believe me, but in less than a day a fleet of alien spaceships will reach Earth.”