Sirens Journey: The Founder Saga
Page 17
‘Something no one else has. Unrestricted free-merchant status across Proxima Centauri.’
‘It’s a shame you’ll never get to enjoy it,’ Roger D said, taking a step forwards.
‘Still trying to protect your little Centaurian friends?’ Marvik asked. ‘How is Dayna, by the way? Unharmed after her stay aboard the prison ship, I hope.’
‘Watch yourself, Marvik,’ Roger D said.
Lars’s smile widened.
‘Things not quite the same any more? Or maybe Dayna found someone more interesting during her—’
Roger D’s punch caught Marvik on the right cheek. His head snapped to the side and back. When he looked at us again, his lip was bleeding. His smile returned.
‘What are you going to do? Run away like you did in the asteroid field?’
Before Roger D could respond, I said, ‘Your Kadmian Raider friends are all dead. Courtesy of the Space Navy.’
‘Impossible,’ Marvik spat, although his voice betrayed a hint of concern. His smile vanished.
‘Yet true. The wing of Kadmian Raiders is gone. While the First Fleet may not have deployed fully in Alpha Centauri, their ships are sweeping the system for Proxian gateway anchors. You’ve lost. Tell us what you know and maybe we’ll hand you over to the Centaurians.’
Marvik smiled, the blood from his lip coating his teeth in dark red liquid. It was a gruesome sight.
‘I don’t think so. You’re desperate to know what the Proxians are going to do. Which tells me you’re badly outnumbered and you know it. The Centaurians won’t stand a chance.’
Roger D looked like he was about to swing at Marvik again. I placed my hand on his shoulder.
‘He’s not worth it,’ I said. ‘Besides, we need him to talk. If you keep hitting him, he’ll be no good to us.’
Reluctantly, Roger D relaxed.
‘I really hope you get out of here somehow, Marvik. That way I can chase you down like the rabid Omicronian swamp dog you are.’
Roger D turned and left the holding cell. Captain Argus looked at me. I nodded. He followed Roger D outside. They closed the door behind them. I was alone with Marvik.
I faced him. He still had that stupid grin on his face, like a SyntheticD-44 user on a high. I was surprised at how calm I was. All my previous anger at what he’d done had faded away now that I had him in custody. My only concern was saving the Centaurians.
I leaned forwards.
‘Last chance, Marvik.’
‘Go to hell!’ he spat at me.
I wiped the blood-stained spittle from my cheek. I straightened up.
Selize?
We’re ready.
Are you sure?
There was a momentary silence.
Yes.
The door to the holding cell opened. I felt the buzzing sensation at the base of my skull as Selize and Dayna entered the room. Facing Marvik, they opened their minds to his thoughts and memories. Marvik’s eyes opened wide. He clenched his hands tightly as his feet arched backwards.
Through the telepathic link, I was able to experience Marvik’s memories.
46.
I saw myself, Roger D and Captain Argus standing in holding cell 5-A. I felt my head snap back as Roger D’s punch connected with my face, the sharp sting of pain exploding along my jaw. The metallic tang of blood filled my mouth. I smiled.
I was at the controls of a Harbinger-class mercenary attack craft, the Eos Rising. The view screen showed five matt-black stealth ships surrounding me. The control panel in front was awash with amber warning lights. A voice, my voice, resounded inside the cabin ordering me to power down. Reluctantly, I reached for the coms button.
My ship was travelling at maximum speed through the darkness of space. Reaching Proxima Centauri, it dropped into the upper reaches of Gamma V’s atmosphere as I aligned on the Proxian star port, located in the Lagrange point between Gamma V and its icy moon.
I was seated inside a private room in the Frozen Nebula bar in the Proxima III asteroid base. The curtain pulled back and Roger D, Selize and I entered. A smile spread across my face. I knew the Proxians were inside the room with me. Calmly, I spoke.
‘Get out of my head!’ Marvik cried out. His face contorted in pain as he gripped the sides of the chair, his hands and legs still held in place by the energy restraints. I ignored him, focusing on the memories the Centaurian mind-read was showing me.
I was back inside the Eos Rising. The prison ship, the one Dayna had been confined to, filled the view screen before me. The Helios Ark drifted two hundred metres from its hull; Roger D, Dayna and I, in EVA suits, hung suspended outside the Helios Ark’s airlock. I reached for the weapons console. Just as I was about to fire, a proximity indicator alerted me to the presence of a dozen Centaurian Banshee-class light fighters, along with a Wraith-class command vessel. A Centaurian voice spoke across all channels. I hesitated for an instant. Then I accelerated hard, disappearing into the darkness, the light fighters in hot pursuit.
I was firing my neutronium disintegrator. Two heavily armoured guards vanished in a cloud of fiery molecular dust. We reached Roger D’s cell. Releasing him, we made our way back to the docking level. Retrieving the shimmering bars of centurium, I taunted Roger D and then made my way back to my ship.
I was sitting in a bar inside Proxima III. I calmly drank my Jovian wine, watching the other patrons. The Proxians were careful not to show themselves, not to be seen with me. I smiled, knowing that my ship was uploading the final scans of the near-complete gateway anchors and gravitational readings to their vessels.
The asteroids spun all around me. A wing of Kadmian Raiders was positioned behind the larger rocks as I watched the gateway anchor being completed. It was the last one. My sensors alerted me to a ship approaching. Pulling it up onscreen, I recognised the Helios Ark. I knew I couldn’t allow them to discover what we were doing. And, with a smile, I realised this was my chance to get some revenge.
Marvik cried out in agony as his entire body arched backwards.
‘John, should we stop?’ Selize asked. ‘I don’t know how much more of this he can take.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘Keep going, we still don’t know enough. Push deeper, further back.’
The images began to flow faster. They were less coherent, blurred yet still recognisable. Encounters with the Helios Ark, with Roger D, flashed past. Searching remote parts of Alpha Centauri, establishing the gateway anchors, rendezvousing with Proxian dark-space vessels. Negotiating a deal with the Kadmian Raiders, in the Martian shipping lanes near the Helios Installation. Travelling through space, so much travel. It would all be worth it. When I saw …
The mad rush of images stopped. I was inside a Proxian base, standing in a metallic corridor lit with auburn lighting. There was an ovoid door before me. I pressed the door activation button. It opened. A Proxian stood inside. She was shorter than me, with mauve skin, jet-black eyes and long dark hair. She held her arms out to me. I embraced her as I entered the chamber.
With a strangled cry, Marvik collapsed onto the ground. The sound of the metallic chair hitting the floor resonated throughout the holding cell. Marvik twitched once then lay still. I looked at Dayna.
‘Is he alive?’ I asked.
‘Yes. He should recover,’ Dayna replied. ‘Eventually.’
‘We’d better tell the others. At least now we know why.’
47.
Dayna, Selize and I exited holding cell 5-A. Roger D and Captain Argus stood outside. They looked up expectantly.
‘Everything we suspected is true,’ I said. ‘Marvik’s been working with the Proxians for a long time. He scouted Alpha Centauri for them, helped them establish the gateway anchors and engaged the Kadmian Raiders to protect those gateways. His frequent trips to Proxima III were a cover for him to transfer phenomenal amounts of gravitational and sensor data to the Proxians—most probably to allow them to calibrate the gateway generators.’
‘Damn. We should have tried to stop him when we had th
e chance,’ Roger D said.
‘There was no way we could have known.’
‘Why did he do it? Why help the Proxians?’
I looked at Roger D. Then my gaze flicked to Dayna. Roger D followed my gaze. He frowned.
‘You can’t be serious?’
‘Yes, I am. I’ve seen his memories. Marvik fell in love with a Proxian. He’s doing this for her. The Proxo-Centaurian war did not end well for the Proxians when the Space Navy intervened. It was the largest mobilisation ever undertaken and the Space Navy knew it had to win, and win convincingly, to ensure no one ever questioned its supremacy. The casualties on the Proxian side were extreme, to say the least. Even the Proxians’ dark-space abilities were no match for the combined firepower of both fleets. The operation was deemed a success; the Centaurians were saved, the Proxians defeated, and the Space Navy’s fleets were established beyond a shadow of a doubt as the most powerful military force in the known universe.’
‘So he’s helping them get revenge? Knowing Marvik, I’m sure the promise of free-merchant status across Proxima Centauri had something to do with it.’
I nodded.
‘Proxima Centauri has been all but closed to outsiders for the last hundred years. An exclusive free-merchant status across the entire system would make Marvik as wealthy as the free-merchant families of Icarus.’
‘So Marvik’s doing it for the money and the Proxians are out for revenge. Sounds like they have a pretty good reason for it too.’
I nodded, my mind elsewhere.
‘John?’ Selize said. ‘What is it?’
‘Why you?’ I asked.
‘What do you mean?’
I turned to her.
‘Why kidnap you? What was the point of kidnapping you from Proxima III?’
‘They wanted a Centaurian,’ Dayna said. ‘Given Horris asked about me first, I don’t think they wanted her specifically.’
‘That’s what’s concerning. They wanted a Centaurian, badly enough for Marvik to risk challenging the Centaurians openly before the Proxians were ready to invade. He knew his chances of getting one of you away from Dyson Alpha were slim so he lured us to the edge of the system. But why? Why go to all that trouble?’
‘I don’t know, unless …’
‘What is it?’ I asked.
Dayna closed her eyes. The base of my skull began to pulsate, that familiar sensation of the Centaurian telepathic bond extending outwards. While no one really understood the science behind the telepathy, it was clearly something that was real—you could feel it.
Dayna’s eyes snapped open. She looked at Selize, then at Roger D. Finally, her eyes came to rest on me.
‘I think I know why they needed one of us,’ she said, her voice quiet.
‘Why?’
‘The Proxians have always had the ability to move in and out of dark space. Against most races, this would have given them an incredible advantage. But we have something which can not only detect them but stop them: the power of our minds.’
‘I still don’t understand what kidnapping one of you would do.’
Selize smiled, taking my hand.
‘That’s because you still don’t fully appreciate what it means to be Centaurian. You’re not just connected to other Centaurians—you become an extension of others. While each of us remains an individual, capable of our own thoughts and actions, we also operate as a collective. On a day-to-day basis this is something that happens on a subconscious level to a large extent but when it’s brought to the surface, when Centaurians consciously combine the power of our minds together, we can achieve incredible feats.’
‘Is that what you did back in the bar on Proxima III? When you used the power of your mind to stop the Proxians?’
‘Yes, that was me channelling the Centaurian bond.’
‘So how can kidnapping one of you help the Proxians?’
‘They must have figured out a way to disrupt our telepathic link. If we’re unable to communicate and act in unison, then our abilities are greatly diminished. We would be easily overpowered.’
‘Luckily, whatever they did to me was only temporary,’ Selize said. ‘If you hadn’t rescued me when you did, they may have succeeded.’
I thought for a moment.
‘That makes sense,’ I said. ‘It also means they’ll change their invasion strategy.’
‘What do you mean?’ Roger D asked.
‘They know their attempts to neutralise the Centaurians’ mental abilities have failed. Which means they’ll need to move quickly to take control of the system. The Space Navy will defend the Epsilon Centauri shipyards and the inhabited planets, Omicron Alpha and Sigma Alpha, but the other installations will be vulnerable.’
‘John, what are you saying?’ Selize asked.
‘I’m saying that this star port, along with others like it, will be prime targets without the First Fleet to defend them.’
‘Sir,’ Captain Argus interrupted. His port-to-ship coms device was active.
‘What is it, Captain?’
‘Spectre Squad Alpha just detected gravitational disturbances in the vicinity of the frozen moons orbiting Dyson Alpha.’
‘Ships?’
‘Yes, sir. It looks like a Proxian strike force.’
‘How many?
‘Two capital ships and twenty-eight fighters.’
‘That’s a serious strike force.’
‘Orders, sir?’
‘Get back to the ship. Provide support to the Centaurian vessels and get a message to the vice admiral. Tell him we’re under attack.’
‘Yes, sir.’ Captain Argus snapped off a quick salute and disappeared down the corridor.
‘What can we do?’ Roger D asked.
‘We need to—’
‘John!’
Selize screamed as she clutched her stomach and fell to the ground. A shearing stab of pain exploded in my mind. Images of our unborn daughter impinged on my awareness as Selize’s mental anguish permeated every part of my being.
‘Selize! What is it?’ I asked.
‘The baby’s coming!’
48.
We exited the turbo-lift on deck one of the star port and moved through the corridors towards the medical centre. I supported Selize as she clutched her stomach, while Roger D and Dayna walked behind us. News of the Proxian strike force spread like a Martian firestorm. Star-port personnel, free merchants and civilians rushed about trying to either get back to their ships or reach the command deck. There was a palpable sense of urgency in the air, mixed with something else: fear.
Selize stumbled, crying out. I knelt beside her.
‘Can you make it to the medical centre?’ I asked.
‘Yes, I think I can. But John ...’
‘What is it, Selize?’
‘I—look out!’
The familiar tingling sensation I had first experienced on Proxima III suddenly appeared at the back of my head. I managed to stand up just as a Proxian materialised in the corridor before me. Dropping out of dark space, the Proxian raised her arm, a fusion pistol held at the ready. I reacted instantly. Grabbing the Proxian’s arm, I pushed her backwards, slamming her into the wall. The Proxian grunted in pain but refused to release her weapon. Roger D dodged past me and pinned the Proxian’s other arm to the wall. Then I felt the buzzing at the base of my skull as Dayna brought the Proxian to the ground with the power of her mind.
‘Everyone okay?’ I asked.
‘Yes. How did they get inside the base so quickly?’ Roger D asked.
‘There must have been at least one of those dark-space ships near the star port. I don’t know how it got past Spectre Squad Alpha but we need to move.’
As I said the words, an explosion rocked the station. The sounds of people screaming drifted down the corridor, even as the lighting in the ceiling turned from indigo to a deep red. Then it began to pulse in time with an automated warning.
‘Decompression alert. Evacuate decks two through four immediately!’
‘One of the graviton flux generators has been sabotaged,’ Dayna said. ‘That’s why we’re losing gravity on decks two through four.’
‘If we lose the grav generators, then the star port will be vulnerable to boarding as they won’t be able to throw up a shield around the docking points,’ Roger D said. ‘Although, given the Proxians’ dark-space abilities, I’m not sure how much use the shields would be anyway.’
‘Security teams are sweeping the star port. We’re helping them flush out the Proxian invaders.’
‘I think we’ve just run out of time,’ I said, helping Selize to her feet. She seemed to have recovered enough to move along the corridor. Roger D and Dayna followed. I activated my port-to-ship coms device, tuned to the Spectre ships.
‘Status?’ I asked.
‘Sir, the Centaurians have engaged the Proxian strike force. No casualties so far,’ Captain Argus replied. ‘The UEP gateway has been locked down remotely.’
‘That’s going to make it hard to evacuate the star port. What about dark space?’
‘We’ve detected several Anubis-class ships near the star port. I’m sorry, sir, but it looks like one ship managed to slip past us.’
‘That explains why we’ve got Proxians popping up inside Dyson Alpha. Can you stop the others?’
‘Yes, sir. We’re in position.’
‘Any word from the vice admiral?’
‘It appears that Helios is now in open rebellion. The marines deployed to the station were set upon by militia and mercenaries while both Space Navy frigates have come under heavy fire from a combined force of militia and Kadmian Raiders. The vice admiral has deployed five more capital ships with supporting vessels to Helios. The remainder of the fleet is holding position near Icarus. We’ve received reports of a free-merchant armada massing around the Jovian installation. It looks like Icarus is on the verge of another uprising.’