The Orphaned Worlds

by Michael Cobley

  ‘Seven dead, nine wounded, and all the Sentinels are either dead or out cold.’

  ‘How were you freed?’

  ‘No idea, sir.’

  ‘Right, I’m sending stretchers up for the wounded …’ Gideon pointed at Klein and Lange, who nodded sharply and were gone. ‘In the meantime, gather weapons and secure the holding area. Oh, and is Captain Horne among the survivors?’

  ‘Just a second, sir.’ The cam blurred, swayed back and forth, then was steadied to point down at a dark, gory form on the floor. It was Nathaniel Horne, half his head seared away into bloody ruin, one wide and glittering eye staring up from the other half. ‘I’d say that was a negative, sir.’

  After that it was a matter of getting the freed Stormlions down to the dock and aboard the Starfire. Theo went with Faraday up to the first floor to help stretcher out the wounded, and met Hartmann and Boyd who revealed that they’d been responsible for freeing the captives by cutting one of the power feeds to Holding Cell Omega. After that it took nearly an hour to get the 130-plus soldiers on board, berthed and quartered. Many of them were young and painfully earnest and as he spoke to them he wondered how they would react on seeing Rawlins’s vid testimony. Gideon had made it plain earlier that everyone had to see it, but Theo knew that these young men were in no fit mental state to deal with the radical challenge that the testimony represented.

  Finally, all hatches and seals were secured, the shipside anchors were declamped and the Starfire’s thrusters turned her towards the exit. Theo, now stripped of the SLAM armour, was sitting on a crate in a side corridor alongside another nine soldiers, watching exterior shots of their departure on a wall monitor, when there was a tap on his shoulder. It was Hartmann, one of Gideon’s sergeants.

  ‘Sorry to disturb your rest, Major, but Captain Gideon is requesting that you join him on the bridge.’

  Theo sighed, puffing out his cheeks, then gave a weary laugh. ‘Ja, Sergeant, and who would refuse such a request, eh?’ He got creakingly to his feet. ‘Then let us be on our way.’

  The Starfire’s bridge was really meant for the flight commander, helmsman and tactical officer – now it was crowded with them and Theo, Hartmann and a Tygran soldier Theo didn’t know.

  ‘Theo, my apologies for disturbing your well-deserved rest,’ Gideon said, half-turning in his couch. ‘But we have an odd situation – it appears that after you and Faraday finished with the stretcher parties, Captain Horne’s body went missing. Do you recall seeing his body while you were there?’

  ‘I did. No man ever looked deader.’

  ‘Interesting,’ Gideon said drily, then indicated the unknown Tygran soldier. ‘This is Corporal Fleischer. About ten minutes before we cast off, I sent him back into the base to recover the captaincy datalog from Horne’s body … Josef, tell these gentlemen what you found.’

  ‘Yes, sir. I re-entered the base as you instructed and took the elevator to the second floor. But when I reached the holding cell, Captain Horne’s body was missing. There was a trail of blood leading across to an open doorway and I saw handprints on the floor …’

  ‘Surely not, sir!’ said Malachi. ‘The man was utterly lifeless – it must have been one of the tech staff.’

  Gideon looked back at Fleischer. ‘Any evidence of the body being carried or dragged away, Corporal?’

  ‘None, sir, no footprints in the blood trail, no sign of anyone else.’

  ‘Captain, I saw Horne’s body,’ Theo said. ‘Half of his brains were charred meat – it would be impossible …’

  ‘No,’ said Gideon. ‘It is possible, if Nathaniel Horne was only outwardly Human.’

  ‘Field barrier ahead, sir,’ said the helmsman, Berg. ‘Transit in twenty-three seconds.’

  The entrance to Base Wolf was an immense ragged oval across which a forcefield stretched, a tenuous curtain of glitter against the deep black interstellar night. Set to sensor functions only, it brushed against the hull of the Starfire as it manoeuvred its way through.

  ‘Now clear of Base Wolf,’ said Berg.

  Gideon nodded and turned back to Theo and the others. ‘I think it would be wise to consider Captain Horne still, in some way or fashion, alive …’

  ‘Contact! – vessel at 490 kiloms, following intercept vector …’

  ‘Dammit! – shields to full, all weapons fire on acquisition! Why didn’t you see it?’

  The helmsman Berg was both appalled and angry. ‘Sir, my displays showed inner and outer vicinity clear and empty, then suddenly it was there …’

  ‘Intruder about to appear over the asteroid horizon, sir,’ said Malachi at tactical. ‘All weapon banks primed …’

  Theo caught a momentary glimpse of something flying into view before needling rays of blinding light stabbed out from it. A burst of dazzling whiteness flooded the bridge for a second, fading to reveal blank holodisplays and screens showing only cyclic patterns. The helmsman and tactical officer tried keying in commands but could only obtain limited sensor data, while ahead of them loomed a ship several times as big as the scout. Its lines were swept back with odd edges that curved out of the smooth hull. Theo nodded to himself – this was a predator and they had just become its prey.

  ‘It’s the Chaxothal,’ murmured Malachi. On seeing Theo’s puzzled look, he added, ‘Becker’s flagship.’

  A voice spoke suddenly from comm speakers in the bridge, and probably elsewhere in the scout.

  ‘Pirated vessel Starfire,’ came a voice rich with measured tones. ‘This is Marshal Becker. All your main systems are now under my control and all those on board should now consider themselves in my custody. Former captain Franklyn Gideon is directed to stand down and disarm all personnel prior to boarding by a senior officer.’

  Gideon was silent for a moment, staring so intently at the other ship that Theo thought he was about to let out a bellow of rage and futility. Finally, the man set his jaw and said:

  ‘No, I will not stand down.’

  Screens and displays suddenly flashed into life, showing the image of a grey-uniformed man, head and shoulders against a large dark blue command couch. The man had a long face with a powerful jaw, buzzcut dark hair and oddly mild brown eyes.

  ‘Oh, you will, Gideon. You see, I have in my hold a large number of prisoners, Human prisoners. You have heard of the Humans indentured to the Roug, I assume.’

  Some of the screens switched to overhead view of a few dozen people crammed into some kind of cargo chamber watched over by armed guards from a high gantry. Theo leaned forward to study the picture – some wore formal-looking robes and their features, he realised, were Asiatic.

  ‘They’re Pyreans … you’ve raided the Retributor,’ Gideon said in disbelief. ‘But Tygran troops are not to be combat-deployed against other Humans! – that was the core of the agreement with the Hegemony …

  ‘Don’t be naïve, Gideon. These Pyreans have become a threat to the Hegemony and therefore to Tygra. Now, unless you obey my instructions I shall have one of them shot every five minutes, or perhaps two every ten minutes …’

  ‘This is nothing short of barbaric.’ ‘This is methodology, Gideon,’ said Becker. ‘For the sake of Tygra, what must be done shall be done. The goal glorifies the path taken to reach it …’

  ‘A small craft has just flown out of the base entrance,’ said Malachi. ‘It looks like a personnel shuttle and it’s heading our way.’

  ‘Ah, that will be Horne and his men,’ Becker said. ‘He will accept your surrender and take command.’

  ‘You do know he’s not Human,’ said Gideon. ‘He is Human enough to serve Tygra,’ said Becker. ‘And strong enough, and loyal enough. So what’s it to be, Gideon – surrender or bloodbath? I’d give you time to think it over but I have a busy schedule ahead …’

  ‘Space–mass disruption!’ said Malachi. ‘Close-proximity hyper-space transit … very close!’

  And as the bridge quivered around them, space distorted, star positions sliding outwards as a huge, incredi
ble form emerged into solid reality directly behind Becker’s ship, staring down at it with blank stone-grey eyes.

  KAO CHIH

  Two hours earlier, Kao Chih was strapped into one of the padded recesses of a two-man short-range stealthed pursuit pod locked to the hull of the Vyrk, the Roug ship, waiting for the launch to begin. Most of the pod’s carapace was translucent, with autofilters regulating the light that passed through, the light of hyperspace. His companion, Ajegil, was calm and quiet, an experienced operative, apparently, although Kao Chih did wonder how and where a Roug would obtain this kind of experience. But his thoughts returned to brood upon the people taken prisoner by the Ezgara ship, the Retributor’s Duizhang as well as all the senior officers and some of the advisory elders. He did not think of himself as a traditionalist, but the abduction of these figureheads and mainstays had affected him deeply, making him wonder if he was in some way responsible. Clearly it was meant to be taken as a warning, that the Human Sept should refrain from sending anyone outside the Roug system, that they should cower in fear of stern punishment.

  Punishment really only works on the defenceless, he thought. Or at least those who think they are defenceless.

  At last the order came, a stream of whispery Roug syllables to which Ajegil responded, then glanced round at Kao Chih with his mesh-covered eyes.

  ‘Human Kao Chih, prepare yourself.’

  Suddenly the pod fell away from the Vyrk’s hull and spun several times before stabilising, the harsh hum of the reaction drive hurling them through the coiling void of hyperspace. All around walls and seas of impermanent matter rushed and flared into fleeting curtains of abraded light before swirling back to the former state. A flickering, flashing, heaving ocean of chaos through which they swung, their intercept vector leading them straight to that ship of kidnappers, itself powering on through hyperspace ahead of them.

  As the pursuit pod stabilised in flight, Kao Chih caught sight of the Roug ship from beneath and ahead. This was only the second time he’d seen the Vyrk’s astonishing shape – the first had been only hours ago, not long after discovering the terrible truth about Silveira, that there was no prospect of intervention by Earthsphere with regard to Pyre or Darien. He had never experienced such angry despair before, not when Drazuma-Ha’s betrayal became manifest, not even while he was captive aboard the Chaurixa terrorists’ ship.

  Yet the Roug Mandator Reen had promised assistance, saying that they would provide a ship appropriate to the task ahead. And when the Roug shuttle flew him and others over to the orbital Agmedra’a it was into the superior upper docks, where the sight that met his eyes gave that promise an unexpected edge. The Vyrk’s stern had a basic triform shape, with three clusters of reaction drive outlets jutting at the periphery. The simple lines swept forward, bulging and curving into a hull fashioned to resemble the features of an animal-like head. A blunt snout, a powerful jaw, thin lips drawn back in a snarl, and great eyes that were blank orbs staring forward. At first Kao Chih had been convinced that it had been modelled on some mythical beast from the Roug’s own far distant past. Then he realised that the eyes and the brow lent it a vaguely simian cast, and was uncertain again. The name Vyrk was little help, being a kind of presyllable to several similar words meaning valiant, or constant, or indomitable.

  Now that bizarre visage dwindled and was lost as they sped after the Ezgara ship. Kao Chih was intensely grateful at being chosen to go on the rescue mission, and excited, especially after Mandator Reen revealed exactly how they intended to effect the rescue.

  ‘The pursuit craft in which you and Assessor Ajegil will travel contains a stasis-locked tesserae field generator. This field is a sub-quantal mirror image of one that will be generated aboard the Vyrk. When both are activated simultaneously, the generated fields extend through the subspace boundary, sense each other and join seamlessly together, creating a wormhole doorway.’

  Kao Chih had been on the Roug shuttle when Reen had revealed this part of the plan, that the pursuit pod would latch onto the Ezgara’s hull, neutralise any sensors, then cut through to the interior. Once Kao Chih and Ajegil were inside, they would remove the couches and supporting frames from the pod, revealing the stasis-locked generator. Then a signal would be sent to shut off the stasis fields of both generators, activating the field generators, creating the wormhole.

  ‘It sound incredible, honoured patron,’ Kao Chih had said. ‘Is it similar to the warpwell Sentinel’s translocations?’

  ‘It was developed in an effort to emulate that function but the technology remains imperfect. Intrinsic limits restrict its usefulness over distance, while matter degradation within the generators themselves disrupts the wormhole after a brief time period. In Human terms, a little over four minutes.’

  Kao Chih’s eyes had widened. ‘That is … brief.’

  ‘Which is why you are going, Pilot Kao Chih,’ the Roug had said. ‘The prisoners will recognise you and follow your instructions, therefore you must be confident and organised, thereby ensuring an orderly and swift evacuation.’

  Confident and organised, he thought to himself, strapped into the pod couch as the chaotic continuum of hyperspace roiled and flickered past outside. Giving instructions … to the Duizhang? He pursed his lips for a moment then shrugged. Being an adventurer meant having to face all manner of hazards, after all.

  An opaque side panel displayed the parameters of their progress, one of which said that the time till intercept was less than eight minutes. Soon their field of vision was filled by the Ezgara ship, its hyperspace drive field shimmering, gently undulating as it carried the ship onwards. While Kao Chih watched, Ajegil matched velocity with the Ezgara ship then adjusted their own hyperspace field until its resonation pattern allowed the Roug pod to slip smoothly through. Dwarfed by the warship, the pod swooped in close to the underside. As it did so, Kao Chih felt four faint thuds. Ajegil was quick to explain.

  ‘I have dispatched four scanner probes, Human Kao Chih. They will affix themselves to the hull and survey the interior in order to discover the captives’ whereabouts.’

  ‘Understood, honourable Ajegil, but what about their exterior sensors and visual pickups?’

  ‘I have already performed relevant scans on approach,’ Ajegil said. ‘Counter-detection measures have been deployed.’

  Moments later, a new schematic appeared in the opaque data panel, a 3D deck layout of the Ezgara ship’s stern. Lifeforms were white dots, mostly scattered about the decks apart from a large stationary cluster located in a secondary hold on the aft port side, not very far from where the pod already was.

  ‘Ah, friend Ajegil, we are practically on top of it …’ Kao Chih said, tailing off as he realised that he might have overstepped the courtesies.

  ‘Indeed, colleague Kao Chih,’ came the Roug’s whispery reply. ‘However, we must assume that the captives are under close guard, necessitating that we find an entry point that is nearby and in an unoccupied space.’

  They quickly found eight secluded possibles, which were whittled down to two. Examining their proximity to both the hold and the patrol routes, Ajegil discarded one in favour of the other. Moments later the pod had traversed the hull to that very spot.

  ‘Be ready, Human Kao Chih,’ said Ajegil as the pod pressed itself against the Ezgara hull, clear carapace inwards. Once a solid seal was established, they sat back while an automatic cutter sliced an oval out of the hull. Minutes later the pod’s translucent carapace split open and by the light of slow, wriggling tendril lamps they clambered out. Then Kao Chih stood back as Ajegil swiftly removed the couch assemblies, revealing the portal device, a metallic oval encased in some clear substance. When he prodded it, Ajegil reminded him about the stasis field.

  ‘The apparatus is charged and ready,’ Ajegil said after checking a readout panel inside the pod shell. ‘When we have the prisoners released and brought here, I shall send the signal to the Vyrk, which will activate both generators and create the wormhole portal. Transfer to t
he Vyrk will then be straightforward.’ The Roug paused to consult a display on the back of his broad hand. ‘My superiors’ conjecture is that the Ezgara vessel will reach its destination in 8.6 minutes. The Vyrk will exit hyperspace within wormhole range 5.1 minutes after that. Therefore we must have the captives present and ready in less than 14 minutes.’

  ‘With respect, friend Ajegil,’ Kao Chih said as they went to the storeroom door, ‘but I feel that may be an optimistic aspiration.’

  He turned and saw the Roug’s form rippling and altering into a Human one, that of an Ezgara commando in light armour. Kao Chih had already shrugged off his onepiece to reveal a formal plum-coloured suit similar to Retributor issue.

  ‘Understood, friend Kao Chih,’ Ajegil said in a more Humanlike voice as he completed his transformation. ‘But my examination of the deck layout suggests that it is achievable – depending on the degree of guard presence in the hold.’

  Ajegil turned out to be wrong, but not because of the guards. A short side passage, which the layout scan suggested led through to a maintenance access, was in fact a dead end with a drink dispenser. After a hasty study of the deck layout they ventured further along and found a companionway winding down to a corridor leading to a door and an armed guard. The door was labelled Aux Hold B.

  ‘Returning this one,’ Ajegil said as they approached. ‘He’s just out of interrogation so he’ll give you no trouble.’

  The guard gave a bored nod, punched a code into the touchpad and the door swung inwards. Ajegil prodded Kao Chih in the back, and he shuffled forward, trying to look subdued. Ajegil told the guard he was to take another out for questioning and got another nod, after which the door locked behind them.

  Inside, a grille fence divided off a narrow section from the rest of the hold. Within it metal steps ascended to a walkway running round three of the walls, where four guards watched the people below, between muttering to each other. As he followed Ajegil up the steps, Kao Chih glanced at the groups of people that he knew well. Some eyes widened in recognition but nothing was said. The silence was eloquent with tension.