Immortal Suicide: A Fight Across Time And Space

by Simon Bown

  “One minute.”

  “If we survive the next ten minutes I will be very happy to leave this office.” Mistry cut the connection and handed the terminal to Erutan without looking at him. “Collision. Is it slowing?”

  “No sir.”

  “You may fire your lasers.”

  Silence reigned over the room, every display showing the same image. A black cylinder seemingly connected to the station by four glowing, pencil thin, shafts of light. Heat warning icons lit up across the collision desk display as the lasers reached their critical temperature. The object detonated. The sudden increase in light temporarily overloaded the display software and the entire bank of equipment blacked out. Mistry desperately looked about the room for some indication of what was happening. Stunned personnel found not one of them had a functioning display. The blast wave hit with tremendous force throwing the station off axis.

  “Sound emergency quarters.” Mistry shouted.

  Gea’s mother lifted herself off the floor of the kitchen. The soup she was carrying had soaked her dress, she pulled her wet hair from her eyes and opened the kitchen door. “Gea? Are you OK?”

  “Yes mum I’m fine.” She said urgently.

  “I’m going to call your father and find out what is going on.” As Gea’s mother picked up her terminal the emergency quarters alarm sounded. She looked up at the ceiling. “Oh thanks, now you tell us.” The terminal had no connection to the station’s net. “OK Gea let’s get down to the life raft.”

  Gea could sense her mother’s fear, but even as her mother was so frightened she also sensed in her a determination to protect Gea in any way she could. “What about dad?”

  “There are life rafts where he works.” Gea’s mother held out her hand for her. “Come on we’d better get going.”

  “Collision. What is our status?” Mistry asked.

  “The software has built in protection, we should get a picture back any second. The numbers on my board indicate movement on the star-ship and the software has acquired another lock.”

  “Abela any luck with communication?”

  “No sir, I need a couple of weeks at least.”

  At once the many display screens came back online. Both the waiting objects below the star-ship had accelerated on to a direct course of attack.

  “Fire on them.” Mistry shouted.

  “No.” Erutan said angrily. “I told you not to fire and now look what you have done.” Erutan held Mistry by his jacket. “You couldn’t trust them to be peaceful could you? That object they sent over could have carried their envoy.” Erutan turned to the astrophysics officer. “Signal our surrender.”

  The astrophysics officer looked between Mistry and Erutan. “How?” He asked.

  “The blast was far too massive to be from a passenger shuttle. The only thing that object could have been was a weapon.” Mistry pulled Erutan’s hands from his clothes.

  Josan pulled Erutan away by his elbow. “I think we’ve had enough from you.”

  “The two objects are within range.” The collision officer shouted. “I’m firing on them now. The four lasers are split between them I don’t know if they will be effective.” He quickly accessed the laser’s coolant management system and pushed it to maximum. “The lasers are having no effect.”

  “Concentrate all the lasers on one of them. How close are they?” Mistry asked.

  “Too close, I can get one but not the other.” The collision officer talked as he re-targeted the lasers.

  “Damn it. Where are the Mezzyima?” Josan asked.

  Gea and her mother joined the hurried, anxious people in the passageway outside their apartment. The frenzy of movement hampered their progress as they struggled to find their assigned life raft. The last emergency drill had been treated as something of a joke and most residents had neglected to take part. The result being nobody was sure of his or her life raft’s location.

  “Why didn’t they just put us in the one closest to our apartment?” Gea asked.

  “Oh Gea, you don’t expect the emergency council’s plans to make sense do you?” Her mother replied.

  Gea sensed her mother trying to make light of the situation despite her serious concern that something dangerous may really be happening. They turned a corner to find the passageway blocked by a large number of people.

  “This is ridiculous. Come on we’ll go round the other way.” Gea’s mother turned and pulled Gea back the way they had come.

  “Lasers are over-heating again.” The display shut down as the collision officer tried to push the coolant system beyond its limits. “First object destroyed, I’m firing on the other one.” He input a command on his keyboard.

  Mistry called over his shoulder to the room. “Somebody disable that damn auto shutdown on the display system.”

  The room shook slightly, Mistry and Josan exchanged puzzled glances. The display systems came online.

  “What happened?” Mistry asked.

  “The second weapon hit the station but didn’t detonate. I think the lasers damaged it.” The collision officer replied. He switched his display to view the star-ship. “Three more weapons have been deployed.” A red warning icon came up on his display. “Lasers are off line.”

  Mistry called to Abela. “Sound abandon ship.”

  Gea followed her mother towards the first life raft in their segment.

  “The raft is full, we will fit in another one around the next corner.” Gea said.

  Her mother knew better than to question Gea’s intuition. Both Gea and her mother were thrown off their feet as a terrifying explosion detonated in an adjacent part of the station. Artificial gravity failed momentarily causing a dizzying sickness to crash across Gea’s already fragile nervous system. A gust of wind blew across her face, for a second she was puzzled by this but then realized the station must be losing atmosphere.

  “Mum, we must move now.” Gea was desperate, she grabbed her mother’s arm and pulled her up from the floor.

  They pushed their way forward through the panicking mess of people, a lack of coherent decision making on the part of the others in the passageway helped and hindered their progress. A sharp creaking noise echoed through the structure around them, Gea looked up in an attempt to pinpoint the location of the noise. The people around them, now reminded of their desperate situation, started to panic. Yelling and screaming, they moved with greater effort and less care for their shipmates. A powerful subsonic thump resounded through the corridor. For an instant a peculiar silence gripped the passageway as every occupant stopped and waited for the consequence of the strange sound. A series of booms became apparent from the far end of their station section. The noises came closer and louder with each successive report. The lights flickered an intermittent dance of light, shadows rose and fell around them. The booms reached their place in the station and at last Gea realised the implication of the hideous resounding rhythm. The windows were, one by one, being blown out of the station by an explosive decompression.

  Gea’s mother looked at her with great sadness. “I’m sorry I brought you here.” She said.

  They held onto each other in a final embrace, Gea hung on to her mother as tightly as she could. The doors in the passageway buckled under the tremendous pressure of the rushing atmosphere. Within seconds the occupants had collapsed. Gea felt her mother go limp and found her weight too much to support. She quickly let her rest on the floor. She walked between the creases of a pair of warped doors into a room and found half the wall missing. A gaping hole proudly presenting the vacuum of open space. Gea was shocked to realise she had not died. There was a feeling of strength in her body that made no sense. She looked back through the door and saw the distressing sight of her dead mother. Her body attempted to weep but a lack of air denied her even that release.

  A dumbstruck agent Aro viewed the collapsing station with a desperate, empty mind. Many people were dying right before his eyes due to his pathetic attempt at defence. The accommodation section where h
e lived had suffered a violent decompression and his wife and daughter were probably dying in the wreckage. He felt angry and powerless. Tears blurred his vision and he collapsed in a chair and started weeping.

  The room lights blacked out, only to return seconds later diminished.

  “We’re on reserve power.” Abela shouted.

  “How long will it last?” Josan asked.

  “Twelve hours if we cut all non-essential systems. Hopefully the Mezzyima will be here by then.” Abela moved to her display and started to shut down various apparatus.

  Josan talked quietly to Mistry. “There was nothing you could do. They would have destroyed the station no matter what we did.” He waited for a reply but none came.

  “I’m picking up three, no four, gravity jumps, one of them is definitely a Mezzyima ship. The others are Amalgam vessels.” The astrophysics officer struggled to contain his delight.

  Mistry pulled himself into something of a coherent whole and coughed to clear his throat. “Communications signal the Amalgam ships and request emergency assistance. Abela? You’re the most talented telepath here. Do you sense anything of the Mezzyima?”

  Abela closed her eyes and relaxed. “Yes. Yes, I do. They are intent on taking control of that ship. They are letting all here who can access their objective do so. I feel it’s a kind of reassurance for us. You know it is as though they feel they are protecting children.” She was astonished. “That is how they view us. Children!”

  The Mezzyima ship, dwarfed by the alien craft, moved into a position two miles above it and extended a crimson cloak of energetic plasma over the entire vessel. The vast unknown star-ship shifted slightly as if floating on an unsettled pond. The space station ejected a multitude of tiny life rafts in a startling explosion of cosmic embers. The Amalgam ships opened their launch bays and began their rescue operation.

  Gea watched the catastrophic events through the gaping hole in the station structure with little or no emotion. Her shock was starting to take control and the immense spectacle before her made no impression. Artificial gravity failed, she lifted her feet off the floor of the room and curled into a foetal position. The slow movement gave her a small push and she drifted out through the hole into open space. A small black oval spacecraft appeared close to her. Gea found herself instantly transported inside the craft as the Mezzyima teleported her into their influence.

  STROCIR SUMAE

  Sutton Courtney paused at the side of the road and waited for a gap in the traffic. The horse drawn carts moved at a pace and the men in control had little regard for pedestrians crossing in front of them. She had to choose her moment carefully if she was to make it across safely.

  Sighting their base on such a backward colony never seemed more absurd than at moments like these. The ideal of rejecting all technology except for the bare cogs and wheels of Victorian machinery left her aghast. The founders had completely removed themselves from the Amalgam. The star-ship that had brought the colonists here and all her support vessels were destroyed in a joyous ceremony intended to mark the start of a new life. The settlers saw the spacecraft suffer their fate as nothing more than a spectacular orbiting firework display.

  She spotted a gap, hurried across the road and narrowly missed a pile of manure as she made it onto the pavement. She checked her long muslin skirt in case something undesirable had attached itself. Satisfied everything was clean she made her way into a cheese shop. The assistant gave her his usual leering smile as she approached the counter. Sutton sensed someone wished to make a telepathic connection with her and she opened her awareness. The familiar clarity of Teafu’s mind linked with hers and the contact was set. “Teafu, have you any news?” She asked.

  “I have not started yet, I would like you and Weedon to return immediately.” He said.

  The puzzled shop assistant watched Sutton turn and leave without saying a word.

  Weedon Bec waited for her outside his favourite tobacconists. He put a cigarillo to his lips, pulled on the pungent vapour and drew the many hazardous chemicals into his lungs. He smiled and watched the cloud of smoke melt away as he slowly exhaled. His dress sense portrayed him as something of a dandy, the extravagant shirt and walking cane did little for his masculinity.

  Sutton approached, scowling. “You know those things will kill you.” She said.

  Weedon took a long drag and smiled as he slowly exhaled through his nose. The smoke drifted down his chin, obscuring his features.

  Sutton put her hands on her hips and raised her voice at Weedon. “Teafu wants us back, now.”

  Thunder rolled down the hills surrounding the

  town. Weedon twisted, searching the clouds. “It appears the weather is turning.” He said.

  “Are we leaving or are you just going to stand

  there and decompose on the spot?” Sutton asked.

  Weedon smiled. “You know my dear you have

  a lovely turn of phrase.” He said.

  “Urgh, fine, stay here. I’m going back.” Sutton turned and walked as fast as she could, knocking people out of her way.

  As the clouds did not appear particularly menacing Weedon opted for a much more leisurely pace.

  The area of the capital where Teafu had chosen to site their base was decidedly poor in relation to the rest of the small city. Stoke Branwurst was a mass of small terraced cottages arranged with little breathing space. The large amount of residents and lack of work had led to a collapse in community pride and the area was now a neglected neighbourhood.

  Sutton slowed her pace as she entered Stoke Branwurst. At any other time and place her conceited nature would have turned her away but here she had no choice. She put her hand in her bag and gripped the handle of her energy pistol as she passed a group of unemployed men. She turned into a road made up of average terraced cottages and opened the gate to the first one. The door opened easily when she turned the key in the lock.

  Weedon quickened his step as he approached the door but he was not fast enough and Sutton closed it in his face. He entered as Sutton disappeared through the door to the basement. He followed her down the stairs, through the security doors and into the base.

  The complex network of corridors led to a large number of rooms that made up the base they had established on Strocir Sumae.

  Weedon had argued against sighting their base in such a distant system. Even as they were emerging from the gravity jump he hoped Teafu would change his mind. The Strocir Sumae colony had been established by a regressive group enthralled with an ancient, basic way of life. Their denial of technology appalled Weedon and he was yet to find something redeeming in their backward principles.

  After Teafu decided on the location of the base it had been Weedon’s job to ferry all the equipment Sutton required from orbit. Many journeys between the surface and the star-ship had bored Weedon but now he longed for the chance to pilot a space plane. Once the transportation needs had been met he became somewhat surplus to requirements. The constant sniping banter between himself and Sutton had become the only outlet for his irritation. His sense of humour tempered his comments but that was slowly slipping away to leave an insensitive, frustrated individual. It galled him even more that Teafu had been proven right to place them so far out of the Amalgam, not once had a star-ship entered the system. Two successful operations many lights years away and still their pursuers had not followed them to this world. His hope of a quick exit had shifted further and further to the back of his mind and so it was something of a pleasant shock when Teafu suggested they might need to leave soon.

  Every planet in the Amalgam had made their capture the highest priority. The campaign to drive the Mezzyima out of human space demanded extreme tactics and as every world was under an equal threat hiding was becoming increasingly difficult. The three fugitives had spent five years here and if fate cast them a cruel glance this place of refuge would be their last. It was only Teafu’s extraordinary telepathic talent that had made sure they had not died for the cause. That t
hey had remained hidden for so long was a testament to his ability to turn away prying minds. The three of them were plainly visible to any investigation but interest in reporting them was simply absent. The Mezzyima attempts to elude his power of misdirection had so far been ineffective.

  Teafu’s immortal body had settled down to an age of approximately thirty years old. At six foot two he was taller than Weedon and Sutton. He was dressed all in white and his piercing blue eyes were framed by his long blond hair.

  Brightwell Baldwin awoke as Teafu entered the cell. He quickly sat himself upright and held Teafu with an intense loathing gaze. He found this position difficult to maintain after the interrogations performed on him by Teafu. No physical harm had come to him but the mental strain had damaged certain brain functions, his training had so far helped him keep his defences in place. A series of useless memory forms hidden in a strong mental maze allowed Teafu no easy access to his knowledge of Amalgam security. Teafu cross-examined Brightwell at irregular intervals to keep him continually harassed and unable to recover. If the attacks on Brightwell’s psyche persisted it would soon falter and all his information would be available.

  Teafu pulled him up from the floor by one arm and dumped him onto the chair at the centre of the room.

  Brightwell smiled at Teafu, a defiant, toothy sneer of a smile. “You’re going to be caught soon Teafu, your murderous attacks cannot be allowed to continue.”

  Teafu bent his knees to bring their eyes level. “I’ve heard these words before, I’m still free. You are a Teg you should be helping me.”

  Brightwell shook his head in disbelief. “You have killed millions. Do you have no understanding of the pain you cause?”

  Teafu talked quietly and without emotion as he walked behind his prisoner. “The Mezzyima took control of the known worlds by force. We have no control over our lives. We must force them to give us back our freedom.”