Termination Shock

by Gillian Andrews

  I gasped. “You can’t do that!”

  Ellison looked pleased with herself. “Actually, I can. I hardly think your two tame Tyzarans are going to stop me. Not so long ago, you were begging me to take you with me.”

  My face grew grim. “Times change.”

  “They do, don’t they? Don’t worry. I will tell your crew you might be a little late for lunch.”

  “We are on official business on behalf of the Interstellar Alliance.”

  “Yes. I know. You already told me. Thing is, I can’t see any of their ships here right now. So I guess the Omnistate is the governing body in this area. Under Omnistate rules, any foreigners who do not declare for us, are against us.”

  “You are way outside the Omnistate jurisdiction.”

  She shrugged. “Pity, that. Points of view, I suppose. Well, never mind. I expect your ship will limp back to your little … what was it …? Ah yes, Alliance.”

  Zenzie gave a sort of growl deep in her throat. If she hadn’t been restrained, I think she would have leapt at the Admiral. Denaraz was standing stock still, his hands in fists, having decided that it would be useless to struggle at this point. Our guns had been taken from us when we boarded Chibuzo, and we were surrounded by Omnistate marines. They, on the other hand, were armed to the teeth. Like it or not, we would be staying on the battleship for longer than we planned.

  Once we were locked securely in a holding cell, I deliberately stumbled against Denaraz, so I could whisper to him. “Can you contact the Supreme Council?”

  He didn’t even seem surprised. He nodded.

  So his ansible connection was some sort of implant. Good to know. “Tell them to inform Nivala of our situation. They are to fall back to five light years and trail this fleet at that distance. There is nothing they can do now. Their job will be to develop the electromagnetic blocking device. It will be up to us to try to stop the Flatlander fleet getting as far as Veka.”

  He nodded again, and his eyes got that unfocussed look that I had noticed before.

  I turned to Zenzara, who had slumped down on one of the cots, looking dejected. My eyes went to her neck. She was still wearing her nivala.

  She followed my glance and gently touched one of the brooches, to show that she understood. Although we had been searched, the hands that had patted us down had been cursory. These Terrans clearly had no idea that Tyzarans habitually used weaponry as adornments. One up to us.

  I started to check the cell carefully. First, we would have to get out of the place. Second, we would need a plan B.

  Pity I didn’t have one.

  Zenzie began to shake around three hours later. I could tell that we were underway by the dull hum of the decking under our feet. I had got nowhere in my search for a way out of the brig. I suspect many prisoners before me had done exactly the same thing, with the same result.

  I ran over to her cot and gently tried to lift her head. She was in some sort of a convulsion. Her eyes showed white and her tongue was slightly hanging out of one side of her mouth.

  Denaraz slid to the other side of the cot and raised her legs a little. We exchanged worried looks.

  “Has she been taking those injections?” I asked him.

  He shrugged. He didn’t know. I was infuriated that I didn’t either. I did know that she had asked Seyal to administer the medicine while she was on Nivala, but perhaps she had missed an injection here on Chibuzo? Could that matter? Surely not? Yet she was as stiff as a board and her whole small body was shuddering.

  What was I thinking? I should have remembered that. She should have brought the medicine with her. I should have insisted. And I couldn’t tell the Terrans about the problems she had been having. If they knew that she was linked in some way to the Chakrans she would become an Omnistate asset.

  “Hey!” I shouted. “Get a doctor!”

  Our guard was at first suspicious. It took him five minutes to accept that it was no trick to dupe him into lowering the force field that was retaining us. Once Zenzara’s face had turned blue, he accepted the very real desperation on our faces and called for backup. If I could have, I would have killed him for those long minutes when the Tyzaran girl nearly died. I have never felt so impotent in all my life. By then I was shaking almost as much as she was.

  A medical team finally bustled into the holding bay. The doctor took one look and signaled to the guard to let them into the cell. Denaraz and I were held back by small ultrapulse hand weapons while Zenzie was evacuated.

  I was horrified. For her to die like this, after all we had been through! Surely the universe could not be that cruel? But I knew it could. Fairness still could not be depended upon in this new world I inhabited.

  Denaraz was as frozen as I was. We simply stared at each other as the medical team withdrew and the gurney they had placed her on floated out of the bay. The last we saw of her was as the doors closed and silence came back to the cell area.

  We slumped down on our respective cots. Time began to drag. There was nothing we could do but wait.

  I hated every second of it.

  Two days passed and they still told us nothing. We demanded, pleaded, begged and tried to convince our guards to tell us how Zenzara was. We still had no idea whether she had lived or had died. Yet still they told us nothing.

  Finally, one of the guards spoke to us. He was bringing us one of the monotonous meals that they provided us with. A bowl of what I can only describe as gruel, some macerated fruit and some water. It was barely edible, but enough to sustain us. We had taken care to eat all we were given. It was hard, because I seemed to have a lump inside my chest that impeded swallowing. Still, we had to. It was important to stay as fit as we possibly could, despite the gnawing feeling of doom that had hung over us since Zenzie had been taken away.

  “Now you will see what the Omnistate can do,” he taunted us.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Wait and see.”

  “Have we reached Veka? Surely not?”

  He laughed. “They came out to play.”

  Ah. The Avaraks had brought their own fleets out to intercept the Terrans. Against impossible odds. The Terrans had ten times the speed, ultrapulse weapons that rang rings around the Avaraks, and now the RAMP missiles for good measure.

  But the Avaraks were nothing if not determined. They would die, and die gladly, for their world. I could almost hear their cohorts chanting ‘Avarak Karax!’ from here.

  Not that it would do them much good. They would be wiped out within a few hours.

  At least the Terrans would not use the RAMPs against ships. They only had three of them, and the missiles were so devastating that they would be held back for use against the planet itself. Unfortunately I was pretty sure Admiral Ellison planned to lob a couple of them at Rhyveka shortly after vanquishing the Avarak Fleet. She was nothing if not thorough.

  I squirmed with frustration. It was so important to get out there, to try to alter the course of history today, yet we were unwilling watchers of a process we had no say in. Back to being mere flotsam. It was almost unbearable. The combination of worry over Zenzara and impotence against what was coming was very, very hard to take.

  I wondered if Denaraz had updated the Supreme Council. From his hangdog expression, I rather thought that he hadn’t. He felt he had not done his job. I didn’t think he would be particularly eager to admit his failings to the governing body back on Tyzar. I wouldn’t have.

  Then the thumping started. The Omnistate fleet was putting up some sort of barrage to block physical missiles. We could sense the kickback as each battery flung its charges out into space. The deck began to rattle under our feet; it became hard to stand.

  We sat and clung to the edges of our cots. Waiting. Wondering.

  After about an ho
ur, Avarak fire broke through the barrage. I could tell that we were still firing back, but not what weapons Chibuzo was firing.

  A shattering explosion sounded, just above us. Cracks appeared in the ceiling above our heads, and small pieces of the wall showered down on us.

  “Let us out of here!” I shouted. “This place is disintegrating!”

  It was an exaggeration, but it might work, I thought. Our guard was himself looking up at the ceiling with some fear.

  “Come on, let us out! What would the Admiral do? She wants us alive, you know.” At least, I hoped she did.

  He turned towards me and I felt the hatred in his gaze. He thought we were the enemy. He wasn’t going to let us go. It was written in the dark eyes and the even darker stare. My shoulders dropped.

  “As far as I am concerned,” the guard snarled, “you can die in your own excrement. It is as much as you deserve. I wouldn’t let you out if that whole cell exploded. You and your kind are traitors to the Omnistate.”

  That is what happens when you only teach your own side of history in the schools. People grow into bigots. Pity. I mean, they used to be just like us. Surely we didn’t act like that? At least, I hoped we didn’t.

  A siren began to sound. I wondered if it were telling the crew to abandon ship. I hoped so.

  The guard read my thoughts. “No,” he spat with some enjoyment. “That merely tells us to prepare for incoming fire. You don’t have to worry. None of the Avarak torpedoes can penetrate our armor. You two cowards can cower safely in your cell.”

  I felt a sensation of pure glee as another explosion battered the Chibuzo. He was clearly wrong. He staggered and nearly fell. I wished that he had.

  “What about our friend?” I shouted as he struggled to right himself.

  “What about her?” he sneered. “Missing your little bed warmer, are you?”

  “You shouldn’t say things like that,” I warned.

  “Why not?”

  “I have seen her attack a grown man for the same implications.”

  “Yeah?” He held his hands up in the air and waved them about. “Ooohhh! See how scared I am?”

  There was a flash at the side of my vision. I turned my head, but I was too late to pick up what had caused it.

  The guard went suddenly silent. He slid to the floor. The shape withdrew something that appeared to have pierced him through the heart, wiped it clean of blood on her sleeve and replaced it in her vest.

  Zenzie grimaced. “These people have very impoverished minds.”

  “I did tell him not to say things like that.” I said mildly. I couldn’t help feeling that he deserved his rapid demise.

  Her face softened. “I was pleased to hear you recognize my strength. You didn’t even know I was listening. Now, what is the plan?”

  “We are most happy to see that you are recovered.”

  “No thanks to them. What I needed was one of those injections I have to take, but they didn’t believe me. Their Portable Triage Unit wasn’t a Zeroth and it said there was nothing wrong with me. So they tied me to a cot in the sick bay and left me there. I thought I was going to die.”

  “You forgot to take your injections?” I may have sounded rather accusing. It was hard for me to believe she would forget something so important.

  She blushed. “I should have brought a supply with me when we left Nivala. I forgot.”

  “Very helpful!”

  Her face got even hotter, but she lowered it, acknowledging her fault. “I’m sorry.”

  “But you seem all right now? Did they give you something else?”

  She shook her head. “That is the good news. I felt worse and worse, and then – all of a sudden – something clicked inside my head and I felt fine again! I think something has happened with the Nexus. It is as if the Chakrans can almost talk to me now.”

  I frowned. “I hope it is not just a temporary respite.”

  “I don’t think it is. I am feeling much better, though I was a pretty queasy the first time I stood up.”

  Denaraz stared at her. “You have begun to interact with the Nexus?” He seemed skeptical.

  “I think so. It isn’t as if they can talk directly to me, but I can feel … I don’t know … a sort of buzzing in one small area of my brain. They seem to be tugging me in one way or another, and I can feel more than one of them trying to speak to me. I think there are six.”

  “Six strands? That has never happened before. Chy Saphezzaraz only felt one strand.”

  Zenzie puffed out a little with pride. “Well, I have six.”

  I could see that Denaraz was about to challenge her on that. This was not the time or the place to provoke her, so I stepped in just as there was another tremendous rattling of the walls and the deck plating shivered. “Right. Can you get us out of here, please?”

  Zenzara bent down to retrieve the security card from the dead guard. She swiped it over the sensor and then frowned. “It is asking me for a pass code.”

  It was frustrating to be that close to freedom and to be baulked. I turned to Denaraz with one eyebrow raised.

  He pulled a face. “No idea. I didn’t catch it when they brought us here.”

  Zenzie bent again to the corpse on the floor, extracting his ultrapulse hand gun. “Stand back!”

  She aimed at the release mechanism and fired. There was an explosion of sparks and the whole swiper housing fell off the wall. A bundle of wiring bulged out of the wall. The force field still held.

  Zenzie tutted. “Not helpful.” She pulled the wiring further out of the wall. “Now, I just have to figure out …”

  There was another spark, and then a flash in front of us as the force field failed.

  “There!” She pushed the cables back into the hole in the wall.

  A siren started to sound in the hold. It was soft for all of three seconds, then it began to get louder and louder. That’s what happens when you blow open cell doors on battleships. Apparently.

  Zenzie’s crest stood up. “Oops!”

  Denaraz and I raced out. “Don’t worry,” I told her breathlessly. “Come on, we don’t have much time. Even in these circumstances, when they are at battle stations, someone is going to want to find out why that racket is going on.”

  We bustled out of the holding area, finding ourselves in a long grey corridor. I looked right and then left. There was no clue to tell us which way to go.

  Zenzie tugged at my arm, dragging me slightly to the right. “This way!” she shouted. “I came the other way, and there was a breach. There will be fire teams there.”

  Denaraz and I pounded down the corridor behind her. I was racking my brains on our destination, when I suddenly remembered Commorancy. The crawl tubes! That could keep us out of sight for a small time longer. On a ship this size, it would take them hours and a large number of their crew to search all of the miles of crawl tubing.

  I kept my eyes peeled for a hatch, and began to drag it open when I found one. Denaraz’s eager hands helping as soon as he realized the intention.

  We slid into the tubing with something like relief. It certainly didn’t feel safe, but it did give us the illusion of being safer. We began to breathe more easily.

  “Where to?” Denaraz asked. The tubing led in three directions.

  “What’s the plan?” whispered Zenzara fiercely.

  An enormous explosion shook the whole ship. We all skidded into the wall of the tube. Denaraz grabbed Zenzie so that she didn’t fall.

  She shook herself free angrily. “I don’t need your help!”

  “You’re welcome!” Denaraz glared back. Both their stares became challenging.

  I coughed lightly. “Err … if you are ready? Perhaps we could get on?”


  Zenzara now glowered at me. “Do you know where we are going?”

  “Of course I do!” I felt aggrieved.

  Zenzara put both hands on her hips. “Where?”

  “What do you mean, where?”

  “Are we going to get off this ship, or what? What exactly is your plan?”

  There were times that I wished this Tyzaran girl were not so bright. I was under a lot of pressure and I had been hoping for a bit more time to come up with something sensible. It isn’t easy for three people to make a difference in the middle of a war. I played for time.

  “Well, I can’t see any point trying to get away from this ship. We would only be torn up in the fighting going on outside.”

  She nodded. “So …?”

  I made up my mind. “… So we will make for the missile bay. Our priority is to disarm those RAMP missiles. We can make a start on Chibuzo.”

  Denaraz nodded. “If this is one of the ships with a RAMP missile on board,” he said quietly. “The flagship could have been left without one. Remember, only three of the battleships are equipped with the RAMPs.”

  “If we could remove one threat out of the three, it would be worth it. It would bring down the probability of failure considerably.”

  He nodded. “Yes. Certainly worthwhile. Let’s give it a go.”

  “If we can’t disarm the thing we can try to park it somewhere safely.”

  “Park it?” repeated Zenzie. “Leave it floating around out there for anybody to find and use?”

  “No.” Sometimes she could be very irritating, I decided. “Leave it securely hidden in a location only we know about. Lay claim to it. Remove it from this environment. Take it out of the equation. At least that is better than doing nothing.”