by Alex Kings
“At this pressure, no,” said Vyren. “A bubble large enough to contain three Petaurs wouldn't be strong enough.”
Srak knocked lightly on the wall and stepped back out of the cell. “Shame,” he said. “This wall isn't too thick. I could probably punch through it.”
The wall creaked.
Srak stared at it.
“Yilva!” said Hanson. “Cell doors, now!”
“Oh crumbs,” muttered Yilva. “Cell doors. Right. Right.”
The back wall of the cell leaned inwards.
“There we go!” said Yilva. All the cell doors slammed shut simultaneously.
They waited, staring at the walls.
After a few seconds, Srak laughed. “You know, I actually though they were going to –”
The back walls of every cell imploded together. Water filled the cavity instantly, smacking against the sapphiroid walls with a thunderclap.
Siro let out a little squeak.
The corridor groaned under the strain.
Agatha patted Srak on the shoulder. “I think you should stop saying stuff, buddy.”
Srak nodded silently.
Hanson's pressure counter now said the outside would be lethal for all of them. “Come on, people,” he said. “We need a plan. If we can't leave the tunnel, we need to make the tunnel rise.”
“Shed excess weight,” offered Yilva.
“Or find a source of thrust,” said Charin.
They were interrupted by motion and a soft snarl coming from the other end of the tunnel. One of the Glaber began to move.
After a few moments, the Glaber raised his head to find himself looking down the barrels of three guns.
He looked from Hanson to Agatha to Srak. “Ah, crap,” he growled in a gravelly voice. His eyes went to the cell doors, where inky black water swallowed the light. “You may as well kill me now,” he said. “We're all going to die anyway, aren't we?”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence!” Agatha said. “I mean, we probably are, but that's no reason to be negative!” She frowned. “Wait, why am I talking to you?” Then she turned to Hanson and asked, “Can I shoot him now?”
“Not just yet,” said Hanson. This Glaber seemed a little more lucid than most he'd encountered. Probably middle-rank. Certainly not blinded by loyalty. “Take your helmet off, raise your hands, and stand up.”
The Glaber stared at him with a sort of cantankerous bewilderment, then did as Hanson asked.
“Vyren, move all those guns away from him,” Hanson said. “Other end of the tunnel, if you can.”
“Yes, Captain,” said Vyren. He reached out with his effector field and dragged away the guns.
“So, you work for Karnasc?” said Hanson.
“Well, I did.” The Glaber looked around the tunnel. “I think this counts as a termination.” He growled. “That bastard. If I ever see him again, I'm going take each one of those little fish and crush them one by one until he's a paste.”
The tunnel creaked and shuddered again.
The Glaber closed his eyes. “But that's not going to happen, clearly.”
“What's your name?”
“Uruth.”
“You're Hiveless, aren't you?” asked Hanson.
Uruth gave him a sharp look. “Yes,” he said at last. “I was born in Hive Bultinger, but most of us were wiped out by Hive Shrike. I tried to join another hive with my brother, Oth, but that attempt ended when he bit my throat open and left me to die.” With a bitter smile he pointed to the scar on his neck. “Bastard didn't realise I'm harder to kill than that.”
“So Karnasc came to you and your friends here with an offer of employment?”
The Glaber nodded.
Something thumped against the wall from outside. It made the tunnel ring like an immense bell.
“Uh, what was that?” said Agatha.
It hit again: A lone beat. Then two in quick succession. Then three.
The Fibonacci sequence.
Someone was trying to communicate with them.
Yilva was the first to react. She took out her tablet, grinned at Hanson, and held it against the side of the tunnel where the sound was coming from. “Acoustic network,” she murmured.
The thumping pattern against the tunnel reached thirteen, then fell silent. After a few seconds, Yilva said, “I have it!”
“Hello?” said a distorted voice from the tablet. “Are you alive in there?”
“Srak, keep an eye on our friend here,” said Hanson. He walked over to the tablet. “For the moment. I have to admit we weren't expecting to run into anyone else down here. Who are you?”
“We're from the Petaur Resistance,” said the voice.
Yilva's ears perked up. She and Charin stared at each other.
Siro cocked her head. “Who?” she whispered.
“We have a submersible in position,” continued the voice. “We can dock with the tunnel and cut a hole in the wall. However …”
“What?” said Hanson.
“If we breach the tunnel segment, it will lose some structural integrity. In this environment, it may implode.”
Hanson nodded. “As I understand it, if we do nothing, it'll implode eventually anyway.”
“Yes.”
Hanson thought for a moment. “Vyren?”
“Yes, Captain?”
“Could you hold up the tunnel with an effector field?”
“It is not strong enough to withstand these pressures.”
“Hear me out,” said Hanson. “You don't need to take all the force yourself. You just have to make the walls a little stronger, so we don't have a critical failure. Can you do that?”
“Perhaps,” said Vyren.
“That'll have to do. Yilva, close the partition between the two tunnel segments. Everyone, come into this section.”
Yilva ran over to the open panel in the wall and, when everyone was through, closed the door.
“Uh, Hanson.” Agatha pointed at Uruth. “What about him?”
Hanson looked Uruth up and down. “He's coming with us.”
“You sure about that?” Srak asked.
“I've been shot in the back by an Albascene, but never a Glaber,” said Hanson.
“That's probably just luck,” said Uruth.
“You're not helping your case,” Hanson told him.
Uruth shrugged.
The tablet lit up with a crackly voice. “We're still descending. Are you ready?”
“Vyren?” said Hanson.
A ghostly blue shell of light expanded from Vyren's bubble until it coated the inner surface of the tunnel.
“We're ready,” Hanson said.
There was a clang, trailed by a brief clatter of noises. Then a white-hot needle of plasma pierced the wall. It moved quickly, tracing a circle.
The tunnel gave off the long, drawn-out whine of buckling metal.
The plasma-blade finished its journey, and the circle of metal fell inwards. On the other side, a Petaur crouched, face covered by an elongated mask. Behind him, an open airlock led to the cramped interior of the shuttle.
“The tunnel is about to fail,” said Vyren.
“Let's go!” shouted Hanson. He stood by the hole and waved them through in order: Siro, Charin, Yilva, Agatha, then Srak.
The tunnel creaked even more. The effector field flickered.
Hanson dived through the hole. As soon as Vyren was through, the Petaur in the mask slammed the airlock shut and spun the wheel.
Through a small sapphiroid window, Hanson saw the tunnel implode. One moment it was there, the next it was a twisted bit of scrap tumbling downwards. The force of it kicked against the submersible's hull like a giant's fist.
Chapter 25: The Petaur Resistance
The submersible was cramped and dimly lit in reds and oranges. Coloured control panels sat along the walls. It smelled faintly of cleaning oil and antiseptic. The metal ceiling was low enough to brush against his head. There was barely enough room for all of them in this chamb
er. Srak looked distinctly uncomfortable, his head low, his body tucked in, still getting in everyone's way. Vyren had shed most of his globe of water, and now only had a much sleeker bubble, only a couple of inches away from his carapace.
The Petaur in the mask was chattering at great speed to Yilva, Charin, and Siro in the Albascene language. His mask was now pushed up over his head to reveal his eyes. He had a burn scar running from his nose to just below his cheek.
He greeted Hanson in Isk. “My name's Iya. It's an honour to meet you, Captain.” He looked around the group. “All of you.”
*
The submersible had three chambers in a line. At the front was the bridge. Various sensors and transmitters sat alongside the engine in the middle chamber. The aft chamber, where Hanson and his team had entered, was mostly for storage.
It was manned by four Petaurs beside Iya. As the submersible glided over the ocean floor to avoid detection, Iya explained their plan.
They were going to a safe house. From there, Hanson and his team could return to the Dauntless.
He also explained the Resistance. It was a tenuous organisation, spread all across Laikon. It had been around for years, but the news of Yilva's escape, and then the Free Petaurs, had given it a boost. The Petaurs were beginning to realise freedom was possible, and the resistance had been orchestrating strikes, sabotage, and rebellion.
“This is it,” Iya explained. “This is our chance. The Tethyans aren't supporting the Albascene anymore. It's our chance for freedom. We just have to prove we're more trouble as slaves than as free partners.” He turned to Yilva and Hanson. “This is all because of you.”
She smiled at him, but her tail was rigid with tension.
Siro talked to Iya for almost an hour, eagerly listening to all he had to say. She seemed continually star struck. In the end, she went to sit down, and fell asleep in the corner.
Uruth sat in the corner staring at the wall opposite. Sometimes he go up and paced back and forth. Iya and the other Petaurs had no experience of Glaber but became suspicious as soon as they learned he had worked for Karnasc.
“Nothing against you, fuzzball,” he said when Charin challenged him. “He had money. I had skills. That's all there was to the equation.”
After that, Charin went to talk to Iya. The two Petaurs talked softly for a while in the Albascene language. Then, gradually, their voices rose. Their tails started to flick with irritation. Their fur became puffier. Iya turned away. Charin grabbed his shoulder and snarled. They stared at each other in silence, teeth bared, then began to argue again.
Meanwhile, Hanson and Agatha stood with Yilva on the far side of the chamber.
“What's happening?” Hanson asked.
“Charin wants us to stick to the mission,” said Yilva. “He wants to find the Free Petaurs' families. Iya says we can't do that. He says …” Yilva paused, ears swivelling to better pick up the conversation. “Iya says there have to be sacrifices in rebellion.”
The argument broke up as both participants stormed off.
“Iya's not turning back,” said Yilva.
Her ears fell flat against her head. Leaning against the wall, she sank down and curled herself into a ball. “I can't do this,” she said.
Agatha put a hand on her back. “Come on, girl,” she began.
“No!” snapped Yilva. “This is a mess! I never intended for all this to happen. I never wanted to be the figurehead of a revolution! The Albascene are killing and imprisoning Petaurs. And the Petaur Resistance just says it's all a necessary sacrifice.” She looked up, tears in her eyes, to Hanson and Agatha. “And it's all my fault.”
With this display, she attracted Charin's attention. He came bounding over. “What is it?” he asked her, then looked up at Hanson and Agatha. “What did you say to her?” But he clearly wasn't interested in their responses, because he turned back to Yilva.
Yilva looked up at him. “I'm sorry,” she said.
Hanson gave Agatha a look, and they moved away to give Yilva and Charin some privacy.
“Poor little mite,” murmured Agatha. “She had the entire weight of the galaxy dumped on her shoulders.”
“At least we knew what it was like to be responsible for others' lives before we got into all of this,” said Hanson.
“What it's like to kill.” Agatha shook her head. “But she had to learn sooner or later.”
They were interrupted as one of the Petaur crew came rushing in. “Who's been messing with the machines?” he said.
Hanson stepped forward. “What's happened?”
“Someone's used a computer terminal,” said the Petaur. “They left a different window open. It's not one of our crew.”
Hanson looked around. “Well?” he said. “Anyone want to own up?”
Nothing. People had been milling about the submersible since the journey began. The Petaurs had made little attempt at keeping order.
“Let's see it,” said Hanson.
He, Yilva, Vyren, and Iya gathered around the terminal. It was old, with a tiny screen on an articulated arm that could be fixed in different directions, and a control pad beside it.
“May I?” Yilva asked.
Iya nodded.
She called up the computer and looked through it. “You can find a history of commands on these machines,” she explained. Windows and commands skittered across the screen. “There has been a large download here. What is –” She recited something in the Albascene language.
Iya's ears went back. “Oh dear,” he said, peering at the screen. “This isn't good.”
“What is it?” asked Hanson.
“These are the details for the entire resistance.”
Chapter 26: Decoy
“Go,” said Lanik.
“Prepare for jump. All hands, prepare for jump in five … four … three … two … one.”
The Dauntless jumped.
They came out in a high orbit. Immediately the CIC crew set to work.
Dunn was first to speak. “Ancient ship identified, bearing 22, 35.”
“I have it,” said Lanik, eyes on the command console.
“It's changing course to intercept.”
“Move in,” said Lanik. “Head for Iona's east hemisphere, maximum acceleration.”
The Dauntless swung about and hurtled towards the planet.
“They're getting a bead on us,” said Dunn.
“I see it,” said Fermi.
The Dauntless held its course steady. The Ancient ship centred on it.
It fired.
As soon as he saw the first ripple in space, Fermi turned the ship 90 degrees and pulled them upwards. The spatial distortion passed below them.
It would take a couple of seconds before the Ancient ship would be able to fire again. Using this time, the Dauntless quickly closed the distance between them, heading for Iona.
The Ancient ship moved towards them.
“It's passed critical range,” said Dunn. If it fired now, the project of distorted space would come too quickly to dodge.
Fermi changed his tactics, moving to keep out of the Ancient ship's field of fire, bobbing and weaving so it would struggle to get a lock.
Iona was huge between them. The Dauntless circled around the planet, trying to hide behind it. The Ancient ship followed.
“They're out of sight of the facility,” reported Dunn.
“Send the message,” said Lanik.
Bulkwave was being jammed, but they were prepared for that.
The jump engines, running at their lowest power setting, fired. The calculations had already been completed. A millimetre-sized wormhole appeared in front of the Dauntless, then vanished a fraction of a second later.
*
A light-day away from Iona, Serafin saw the other mouth of the tiny wormhole open and close.
“Here we go,” she said into the console's microphone, for the benefit of Red and her passengers. She loaded finished calculations, then jumped.
Something soft and i
mmensely powerful thumped into the Black Cat. It was like being smacked by a gigantic foam hand.
She'd jumped into the upper atmosphere, directly above the facility. Air roared around her, heated by friction until it glowed red. She decelerated and took the Black Cat down.
She had about five minutes before the Dauntless, with the Ancient ship chasing it, circled the planet and came up over the horizon again.
The Black Cat came to a halt a few hundred metres over the facility. Serafin checked the layout. Behind the building, there were no shuttles. No one was standing guard, as far as she could see.
“Get ready,” she said.
She took the Black Cat down, landed behind the facility, and opened the hatch.
“We're on the surface,” came Sergeant Moore's voice over the comms.
“Acknowledged,” said Serafin. “See you … well, tomorrow, I suppose.” She took off again.
*
“Stupid idea,” Agatha said. “Why do you have everyone's details? The way you organise a resistance is with cells. You limit information, so if one is compromised, the others can keep fighting.”
Iya stared at her, teeth bared. “Well, we didn't do it that way,” he said. “Tell me, did you come up with this cell idea, or did you learn it from someone else?”
“It's common knowledge,” Agatha told him.
“Well we don't have that knowledge. The Albascene never taught us rebellion! We've had to figure out everything ourselves. So excuse me if we missed out on something.”
Hanson stepped between them. “This isn't the time. You can argue about this later, if we're still alive.” He turned to Iya. “What information are we talking about exactly?”
“No names,” said Iya. “But planned movements, contact points, computer idents.”
“So if the Albascene find this, they could locate all your bases?”
Iya nodded.
“It is okay!” said Yilva, looking up from the computer. “Well. Not as terrible as it seems. The information has been downloaded, but it has not been transmitted yet. We are safe. For the moment.”
