Blackstone Fortress

by Darius Hinks

  ‘Where is it?’ said Draik as he emptied a bag of numbered skulls onto the floor.

  ‘What?’ asked Isola, whipping drawers out and emptying them.

  ‘The axial interrupter we took from the Corliss Sector,’ muttered Draik.

  Isola shook her head, frowning at him, still rifling through the piles of objects.

  ‘This!’ said Draik, emptying a crate of finger bones and holding up a battered old leather strap as if it were a trophy. It looked like a wide belt, but it was trailing bundles of wires and studded with dials and switches. There were needle-tipped prongs running along its length, and as Draik flicked a switch the prongs crackled with electric current.

  ‘That’s for restarting plasma cells,’ said Isola, eyeing him warily.

  Draik rushed back to the dead pilot on his couch, turned a dial and flicked the switch again. This time it sparked with such force that fingers of electricity arced between the prongs, burning so brightly that Draik could hardly look at it.

  ‘Wait!’ cried Grekh, with more emotion in his voice than Draik had heard before.

  ‘She’s already dead,’ Draik pointed out.

  Grekh fell quiet and backed away but Draik hesitated. Dead or not, there was something ungallant about what he was about to do. Then he shook his head. Without Audus he would leave Precipice with nothing. He wrapped the belt around the pilot’s wrist, forced the prongs into her veins, fastened the clasps, flicked a switch and then stepped back.

  There was a hiss of burning skin and the smell of cooking meat filled the room. As the device bucked and flickered with electric charge, the seconds stretched out and Draik pictured himself as the other two must see him, hunched over a corpse, burning a hole in its arm. The whole scene was extremely undignified. He was about to deactivate the strap when Audus sat up with a howl, knocking Draik back across the room. He crashed into Isola and they slammed into one of the cabinets.

  Audus continued howling as she leapt to her feet, smoke trailing from her wrist, her eyes rolling wildly.

  ‘Bullosus!’ she cried, grabbing Grekh by the throat and slamming him against the wall. Sparks were shimmering across her face and flashing in her mouth until Draik rushed forwards and turned the device off.

  She froze. ‘Grekh?’ She sounded dazed, her hand still locked around the alien’s throat. She let go and looked around at the commerce lounge, taking in the subdued, hidden lighting and the fearsome hunting trophies mounted on the walls.

  ‘What is this?’ she asked, looking at Draik and Isola.

  ‘Sit down,’ said Draik, taking her by the arm and removing the strap. ‘You’ve just–’

  Audus shoved him away, nearly falling, then managing to steady herself. She stared at the strap. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Bullosus’ drugs reacted with a splinter I fired into you,’ said Draik. ‘You were temporarily insensible.’

  ‘You shot me?’

  ‘You were attacking me. But my shot should not have had such a serious effect.’

  Audus touched the burn marks on her wrist, staring at him.

  ‘You need a drink,’ said Draik, pouring brandy into a crystal tumbler and offering it to her.

  Audus ignored him. She massaged the stubble on her shaved head and winced. ‘Why did you break me out of there?’ She glared at Grekh. ‘Did you bring him to me? Why?’

  Draik waved to the couches, gesturing for everyone to sit.

  Isola and Grekh took a seat, but Audus remained standing, swaying slightly and looking warily at the door, as though expecting Bullosus to appear with shackles in his hands.

  ‘You need to rest,’ said Draik.

  Audus glared at him and there was a moment of awkward silence, broken only by the occasional crackle of sparks flickering across Audus’ jumpsuit.

  ‘I have a proposition,’ said Draik, sipping the brandy as if nothing untoward had happened. ‘I am planning another attempt on the Blackstone and I have a very specific route in mind.’ He nodded at Grekh. ‘Your acquaintance here tells me you are uniquely equipped to advise me.’

  Audus looked around the room, seemingly trying to gauge if she was hallucinating or not, then she strode over the drinks cabinet and poured herself a shot with a trembling hand.

  ‘You’ve got the wrong person.’ She was still massaging her head and grimacing. ‘I’m done with this shitty place. I’m out of here.’

  She finished her drink and looked at the animal heads that decorated the walls. ‘Are you going to show me out of this zoo, or do I need to start breaking things?’

  ‘Where will you go?’ asked Draik, speaking quietly, still sipping the brandy. His augmetic eye hummed as it focused on her face.

  ‘As far from Precipice as possible,’ she said, heading to the door.

  ‘You must have a great deal of sway with the proctors,’ said Draik. ‘Not many people can get off this station, not without giving them a substantial payment. But you are presumably so trusted, they will let you leave for free.’ He finished the drink. ‘And pay for your place on a ship too.’

  ‘You must have your own pilot,’ she said, her eyes narrowed. ‘What do you need me for?’

  ‘To get through the Teeth,’ said Grekh.

  Audus laughed. ‘The Dragon’s Teeth?’ Her tone was derisive, but Draik noticed she was no longer looking at the door. Something had sparked in her eyes.

  ‘Tell me how to fly through the Dragon’s Teeth,’ he said, ‘and I’ll make you so rich you’ll have no problems leaving Precipice.’

  Audus headed back to the drinks cabinet and refilled her glass. Her hand was steadier this time. ‘Why risk such a dangerous route? The Blackstone will kill you soon enough. Why hurry the inevitable?’

  Draik shrugged. ‘I can transfer the credits as soon as I land on the fortress. My survival, or failure to survive, will be of no consequence to you.’

  She sipped the brandy thoughtfully. ‘You’re trying to reach the place those priests were babbling about? The obscure vault?’

  ‘The Ascuris Vault.’

  ‘Whatever. Why do you want to go there? Are you one of those babbling devotees?’ She glanced at Grekh. ‘Like him.’ She raised an eyebrow. ‘Does the Blackstone talk to you?’

  ‘I have business there.’

  Audus dropped onto the couch then gasped in pain and placed a hand over her chest. After a while her grimace faded and she relaxed again. ‘No, you’re not chasing visions like those other idiots, are you?’ She looked admiringly at the wealth scattered around the room. ‘You’re chasing something else.’ She stroked the brocades that dangled from the arm of the couch. ‘I’m not interested in being your employee, Mr…’

  ‘Captain Draik,’ said Isola.

  Audus glared at her and continued. ‘But if you tell me why you’re willing to risk so much to reach this vault, I might consider a partnership.’

  Draik struggled to keep his expression neutral. ‘I have important reasons for finding the vault. Important for the wider Imperium, not just for my–’ He cut himself short, shaking his head. ‘It doesn’t matter why I need to go there. What option do you have but to help me? You’re trapped on Precipice until a bounty hunter puts you back in a cupboard. You’re deluded if you think you can just fly out of here.’

  ‘I’ll take my chances.’

  Draik glared at Grekh. ‘Is she really the only pilot who can do this?’

  ‘I’m the only one,’ said Audus.

  Draik shook his head. There was an infuriating lack of naivety in Precipice. Common and discourteous they might be, but the people here had only reached the Blackstone Fortress because they were shrewd enough to spot every opportunity. Draik felt as though he had landed in a world in which everyone was a little too much like him.

  ‘Show me what you’re after,’ she said. ‘What’s so important that you’d lower yourself to conv
ersing with the likes of me?’

  Draik paced around the lounge, muscles rippling across his clenched jaw. ‘This is more important than you realise.’

  Isola shook her head, a warning in her eyes.

  ‘What use will our research be if we have to leave?’ said Draik. He came back to the couch, sat down and looked at Grekh. ‘I belong to a certain school of thought. It’s old fashioned, perhaps, but I believe that a man’s word should mean something. I admit, I doubted you’d find me a pilot, but you proved me wrong and I will not renege on my oath. If we manage to land on the Blackstone, you may join my party.’ He turned to Audus. ‘Clearly, I am not in the habit of working with deserters.’

  Audus’ face darkened and she was about to argue, but before she could speak Draik held up a hand and continued.

  ‘However, I must weigh up two evils. Associating with a possible criminal – I do not profess to know the veracity of the claims against you – or leaving Precipice without completing the task I set myself, which I believe could have a significant effect on the war against the Great Enemy. If you truly are able to steer the Vanguard past the Dragon’s Teeth, then I will offer you a place in this expedition.’ He lowered his voice, speaking very precisely. ‘However. If either of you betray the confidence I am placing in you, or reveal the details of our arrangement with any other party, I will consider you enemies of the Imperium and,’ he touched the handle of his rapier, ‘deal with you accordingly.’

  Audus tried to speak but he held up his hand again.

  ‘I will need confirmation from you both, in writing, that you have understood the binding nature of our agreement.’

  Audus poured herself another drink. She looked at the scrolls and papers Isola had scattered on the floor. ‘Rogue traders. How you people love contracts.’ She shrugged. ‘Whatever. I’ll sign. And I’m not greedy. Fifty per cent of whatever proceeds this expedition generates.’

  Draik gave her a bemused smile. ‘For flying me in?’

  ‘For being your partner.’

  Draik had to applaud her gall. And the truth was, he doubted there would be any proceeds to split. His plan was to share whatever information he found with the authorities on Terra. His prize would be of another nature. There was, however, a principle at stake.

  ‘Ten per cent for each of you,’ he said, holding up a hand as she prepared to reply. ‘Janus Draik is not in the habit of haggling. Such an undignified way to approach matters. You may accept my offer or we may part company. It is entirely your prerogative. I feel it is only fair to warn you, however, that your friend Bullosus will be waking up around now, and, from what I hear, he is not the only intermediary contracted by the Imperial Navy to locate you.’

  Audus raised an eyebrow and nodded, looking at Isola.

  ‘Ten per cent. You heard the man.’

  Isola was pale with anger, but she nodded to an auto-quill in the corner of the room. It trundled across the room and spat vellum from its chest.

  ‘Standard terms,’ said Isola, her voice brittle and icy.

  The servitor’s bundle of digits rattled over the scrolls, inking them with script and stamping them with juicy gobbets of hot wax. Isola snatched them up, pored over the clauses and handed them to Draik.

  Draik took a quill from the machine and signed the contracts without looking at the text, then handed them to Grekh and Audus.

  Grekh seemed unsure what to do, but finally scratched a symbol and handed a copy back to Isola. Audus took longer, staring at the text and sneering. Then she signed and gave a copy to Isola, stashing the other one in a deep pocket.

  Draik nodded to Isola. ‘Show them.’

  She hesitated.

  ‘Isola,’ said Draik. ‘Your captain has just given you an order.’

  They both knew their relationship was subtler than captain and subordinate, but Isola could not defy such a blatant command. She cleared the table, placing the books and papers on the floor, then ran her finger over a rune engraved in the glass.

  The lights in the chamber died as a hololith leapt from the table – a spiral of loops and nodes, like a genetic helix made of shimmering, static-slashed light, hovering a foot above the glass. It rotated, slowly, and the light waxed and waned, washing over the faces of Draik and the others as they leant closer.

  Draik was still holding the strap he had used to revive Audus, and he pointed it at some of the intersections.

  ‘Linear motors. Crystalline chambers that cross the whole Blackstone Fortress. The Precipice locals call them maglevs. If you’ve been on the Blackstone then you will have used one of these to reach your destination. Their design is baffling, obviously. They employ a form of magnetic propulsion to hurl transport chambers along ever-changing routes.’ As Draik pointed at the various loops, they flowed and reformed constantly, creating new, increasingly complex variations. ‘We can navigate them to a certain extent. The controls are easy enough to decipher. But the trips are always one-way and often not to where you intended.’

  ‘Pretty,’ said Audus, tracing her finger over the projection.

  ‘Lethal,’ said Draik.

  Audus nodded. ‘They’re random. They spit you out wherever they like.’

  ‘They do not like or dislike,’ said Draik, irritated by the suggestion of a personality. ‘But they’re certainly unpredictable. If you find a location that holds a clue to the fortress’ past, or its workings, you can rest assured that you’ll never get there again. All these expeditions and deaths and we’re still no closer understanding the Blackstone.’

  Audus narrowed her eyes. ‘It’s a treasure trove. Relics. Pieces of archeotech. What else do you need to know?’ She was watching Draik closely.

  ‘Those boors in the Helmsman lack ambition,’ he said. ‘They’re happy to risk everything for a few fragments of alien weaponry.’ He stared back at her. ‘But it was not avarice that brought me to the Western Reaches.’ He waved at the finery surrounding them. ‘House Draik is not in need of funds.’ He shrugged. ‘I admit, Isola and I have accumulated some intriguing finds. When we first set off from Precipice we followed the same routes as every other wide-eyed adventurer.’ He nodded to the rows of heads mounted on the walls. They were as eclectic a mix as the creatures heaped in Bullosus’ hold: leering, monstrous horrors of every size and form. ‘I’ve hunted species on the Blackstone that I have never seen mentioned in any scientific texts – and the Draik archives are extensive.’ He waved through an archway to a companionway lined with cargo crates. ‘And you’re right – we have discovered technology so ancient and peculiar that a single piece could occupy an adept of the Cult Mechanicus for decades.’ He shook his head as he considered everything they had seen. ‘The Blackstone is unique. One could trawl its depths for a lifetime and barely glimpse a fraction of its mysteries. A brave man could certainly make himself rich in there.’

  ‘But you want more.’

  ‘I want control,’ he said as the hololith flashed in his eye. ‘I want to claim it. Think what that would mean for the Imperium. Power beyond anything in our arsenal. If I could hand that to Terra they could turn it on the Great Enemy.’ Draik’s words became more impassioned as he tapped a book on the table – a crumbling, gilt-edged relic called Ravensburg’s Treatise on the Gothic War. ‘From what I can gather, the Imperial Navy have harnessed similar star forts in the past with incredible results. I intend to give them the means to control this one.’

  ‘And the Ascuris Vault?’ asked Audus.

  Draik pointed at the nodes in the hololith. ‘Every one of these points is linked. I tracked signals from every one we found and they all look towards the Ascuris Vault. It acts almost like the Astronomican – guiding the transport chambers through the fortress.’

  ‘You don’t know that for sure.’

  ‘Isola can show you our calculations. There’s no question that the chambers link to the vault – every single on
e we encountered.’

  Audus was nodding. ‘So, if you could reach the vault, you might find a way to control the movements of the other chambers. You might make the place less of an impenetrable labyrinth – make it easier to navigate.’

  ‘Perhaps. And perhaps, if the Ascuris Vault is the nexus of the transportation chambers, it might control other things. It may be the command bridge of the whole space station.’

  Audus laughed. ‘You think you’re going to fly that thing to Terra.’

  ‘All I know is that the Ascuris Vault is the obstacle that has stymied every attempt to understand the fortress.’

  ‘And the Dragon’s Teeth?’ asked Audus. ‘Why there? Why that particular docking point?’

  ‘We have roughly located the vault, based on the signals we tracked from the other chambers, and the only way to get close is through the Dragon’s Teeth.’

  ‘Even then we may be sent off track by this,’ said Isola, nodding to the shifting spiral of routes in the hololith.

  ‘The Dragon’s Teeth will place us very close to the vault,’ said Draik. ‘We will have a good chance of reaching it before we become lost.’

  Audus laughed again. ‘I’ve never heard so many ifs, buts and maybes. You’re as insane as Taddeus.’

  ‘Taddeus?’

  ‘The last lunatic who tried.’

  ‘Oh, the priest.’ Draik shook his head, remembering who Grekh and Audus had travelled with last time. ‘This is no holy crusade.’

  ‘Then what is it? What are you chasing?’ Audus leant across the table, bathing her shaven skull in glowing vectors. She was studying Draik with renewed interest. ‘You say you’re not as desperate as all the other wretches in Precipice. So what’s driving you to take such risks?’

  ‘I have just explained what success could mean for the Imperium.’

  ‘No, it’s more than that. I can see it in your face. This is personal. What does success mean for you?’