‘Her frequencies are open,’ she announced. ‘We can hail her.’
Mikhain ground his teeth in his skull. ‘Salim will not negotiate with us, we know that. I want him dead.’
‘So do I, captain,’ Lael said. ‘But let’s make sure we’ve tried everything before we attack her. Arcadia could finish the Veng’en cruiser off, if she can be turned.’
Mikhain felt his anger rising but somehow he managed to contain it.
‘Do it,’ he said, ‘open a channel to her bridge.’
***
XLIII
Salim Phaeon burst out onto the bridge deck as soon as the elevator doors opened and staggered out, his chest heaving with the exertion of his flight from the War Room. He paced back from the elevator banks and saw that another elevator was making its way up to the bridge deck.
‘Salim?’
The pirate king turned to see two of his men standing at the entrance to the bridge.
‘Sansin is aboard with his damned Marines,’ Salim hissed. ‘Get us out of here and prepare to seal the bridge. Sansin’s coming up! Get your weapons!’
The two men whirled and dashed back inside the bridge as Salim turned and aimed his pistol at the elevator doors, watching the deck numbers rise. He smiled grimly to himself as he waited.
‘Foolish old man,’ he sniggered to himself.
The two pirates returned and aimed their rifles at the elevator door.
The elevator whined as it reached the bridge deck and then the doors hissed open and Salim fired without hesitation into the elevator. His two henchmen fired at the same moment, the three plasma blasts smashing into the back of the elevator in a cloud of blue smoke and a deafening crash amplified by the elevator’s confined space.
Salim waited, his pistol still aimed as the elevator as the smoke cleared in thick whorls that glowed beneath the white ceiling lights.
The elevator was empty.
‘Where the hell is he?’ asked one of Salim’s companions.
‘He’s behind you,’ came a voice that sent a shudder of fear down Salim’s spine.
Salim spun around but the man to his left blocked him from aiming his pistol behind him as two plasma blasts crackled out. Salim screamed and hurled himself behind the body of his henchmen as the two blasts hit the pirates, their weapons spinning from their grasp as they were hit.
Salim rolled awkwardly along the deck and scrambled for the safety of the bridge as he saw Idris Sansin floating in mid-air above the deck stairwell, his fatigues devoid of their iron-filled gravity plating, a pistol in his grasp as he fired twice.
Salim screamed as a shot narrowly missed the back of his legs and he hauled himself inside the bridge. He turned and saw Idris rocketing through mid-air across the deck outside the bridge. Salim reached up and hit the emergency close switch for the bridge and the doors hissed into motion, but before they closed Idris flew through the gap. Salim desperately raised his pistol as Idris kicked off the closing bridge doors and plunged down toward him.
Idris whirled in mid-air and smashed Salim’s pistol aside as he crashed down and smashed his head into the fat man’s oily nose. Salim’s nasal bridge collapsed with a dull crunch as he staggered backward into a control panel, one fat hand searching for the wicked curved blade at his belt.
Idris rushed forward as Salim yanked the blade free and screamed as he charged, his free hand desperately wiping tears from his eyes. Idris kicked off a control panel and hurled himself to one side to avoid the blade and Salim faltered, off-balance and half-blinded as Idris grabbed his wrist and lifted the blade up between them. The action pulled Idris down toward the deck and he put his feet down and found his balance.
Idris heaved one leg up and drove his knee deep into Salim’s belly. The pirate’s eyes bulged and his breath burst from his lungs with a deep rasping noise. Idris drove upward with both legs and forced Salim’s knife arm up as the fat man doubled over in pain.
Salim flipped sideways and slammed backwards into a control panel, one hand still gripping the blade. Idris pinned Salim against the panel as he leaned his full weight into Salim’s arm and bent it backwards over the panel.
Salim screamed and the blade fell from his grasp and hovered above the console as Idris jerked back from the pirate and then drove the sole of his boot into the fat man’s face with a scream of rage. Salim’s jaw collapsed under the blow and his eyes rolled up into their sockets as Idris grabbed the blade and then braced himself against the fat man’s body and pressed the tip of the weapon against Salim’s chest.
The pirate regained his focus and looked up at Idris, and the slimy smile spread across his face again as he bared his bloodied teeth and kept the grin there despite the obvious pain it caused him.
‘You won’t kill me,’ he hissed, his breath rattling in his ruined nose. ‘You’re a Colonial, through and through. You know that I deserve a fair trial, it’s what your government would have wanted.’
Idris held the blade at Salim’s bulbous chest for a long moment.
‘As you keep reminding me, Salim,’ he growled, ‘there is no Colonial government any more and nobody to witness what happens to you.’
Salim’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth to protest, but Idris leaned his weight in behind the blade and it sank to the hilt into Salim’s chest. The pirate king’s mouth gaped wide and a strangled cry of agony pierced the air as the blade sliced through his heart and hit the metal surface of the control panel behind him.
Idris pushed back and away from Salim and watched as the cruel tyrant’s life blood leaked away inside him and the mischievous, nasty glimmer of life slipped away from his eyes. The fat man slumped onto the deck, the hilt of his blade still poking from his chest.
Idris hovered in mid-air above Salim’s bloodied form and wiped the sweat from his face. He was staring down at the dead pirate when he heard a voice call him.
‘Captain?’
Idris turned and saw that a display screen was showing Mikhain and the Atlantia’s bridge. He belatedly realised that Atlantia must have established contact with Arcadia and linked in, and that the entire bridge has just witnessed what he had done.
‘Mikhain,’ Idris gasped, both elated and shocked at the same time. ‘Status report?’ he demanded, to cover his discomfort.
‘We’re all out,’ Mikhain replied. ‘The Veng’en are pursuing us. We couldn’t save those on the surface.’
‘You did all you could, I have no doubt,’ Idris said, his expression pinched with regret. ‘And now, we have another vessel.’
A thunder of approaching boots alerted Idris and he aimed his plasma pistol out of the bridge as he turned. Lieutenant C’rairn, Coporal Djimon and two more Marines stepped fully inside and turned to seal the doors behind them. Idris grinned and lowered the pistol.
‘About time, Lieutenant,’ he greeted the officer. ‘Are her hacking frequencies open?’
‘She’s ours,’ the Marine replied as he looked over his shoulder. ‘Time to finish this, sir.’
‘Not us,’ Idris breathed as he looked up at Mikhain. ‘XO, would you care to take control of this ship and use it as you see fit?’
Mikhain’s face almost burst with delight as he whirled to Lael.
‘Access her computers and bring her here, right now!’
Idris smiled as he heard Lael’s voice reply to Mikhain without hesitation.
‘Aye, captain!’
Even before Idris could formulate further commands, Arcadia turned under Atlantia’s control and a new voice could be heard breaking across the Atlantia’s bridge. Evelyn’s radio call sounded like music after the hellish roar of battle and death.
‘Atlantia, this is Reaper Two, all craft away and all survivors aboard. Repeat, all craft away from the compound and climbing for orbit!’
Idris heard the cheer go up across Atlantia’s bridge and saw Mikhain’s shoulders slump as what looked like an eternity of stress drained from his shoulders.
*
‘Reaper Flight
, on me!’
Evelyn’s Raython was in tight formation with the Phoenix as the surprisingly fast freighter rocketed out of Chiron’s orbit, Teera’s Raython on the far side of the ship. Evelyn broke away from the Phoenix as it turned for the safety of deep space and away from the brightly illuminated hull of the giant Veng’en cruiser looming before them.
‘Roger that,’ came Teera’s reply. ‘All fighters inbound.’
Evelyn saw Teera form up on her wing, and ahead she saw the bright specks of eight Raythons swarming toward her.
‘There’s Arcadia!’ Teera announced.
Evelyn had already seen the frigate moving toward Atlantia, the latter glowing with multiple fires and trailing debris that sparkled like diamond chips in the vast halo of sunlight filling the heavens as she rocketed toward the fight.
A cloud of Scythes swarmed toward them, wings flashing in the light as they pursued the Raythons.
‘Enemy inbound,’ Evelyn announced. ‘Maintain course, we’ll catch them as they pass.’
‘Roger that, three!’
The six Raythons flashed past overhead as Evelyn opened fire on the incoming Scythes, the enemy fighters unprepared for the unexpected attack. Teera’s cannons blasted into the tightly packed formation and several fighters exploded or banked away with their engines aflame as Evelyn sped between them toward the Veng’en cruiser.
‘Reaper Flight, re-engage!’ she commanded, and looked over her shoulder to see the fighters sweep into tight turns to engage the pursuing Scythes.
‘This is Arcadia,’ a voice called across the communications channel. ‘Repeat, this is Arcadia, engaging now!’
As Atlantia limped away from the Veng’en cruiser, the brilliant flare of the sunlight consuming her, so Arcadia took her place and bore down upon the damaged cruiser at attack speed, the two vessels closing head on. Evelyn saw the frigate break away to the left and then her starboard batteries opened up on the Veng’en cruiser’s bow as it tried to match the manoeuver, a shower of blue-white plasma rounds hammering the cruiser’s damaged hull as bright explosions flared and rocked the ship.
Evelyn flew overhead the vast hull as Arcadia battered her, lights across the Veng’en vessel flickering out as Atlantia reversed her course and let rip with any cannons that were still serviceable. The two frigates passed slowly on opposite sides of the Veng’en cruiser, each battering her with a crippling series of salvos. Evelyn heard cheers across the communications channel as the cruiser’s hull was ripped open and an enormous blast split through the plating at her stern as the two frigates flew clear.
Evelyn squinted and looked away, one hand whipping up to shield her eyes as the cruiser’s fusion cores erupted like dying stars. A supernova blast radiated outward and vaporised the entire rear-quarter of the cruiser in a brilliant halo of flame and radiation.
The Raython’s wings rocked as the shockwave hit Evelyn and she fought for control, still hearing the cries of delight as the enemy vessel was torn apart by internal explosions. The cruiser’s bow dipped toward Chiron IV, her stern trailing debris and glowing tendrils of plasma from her shattered engines as the gravity of the planet below began to pull her down.
‘Reaper Flight, disengage,’ Evelyn called. ‘We’ll mop up the survivors one by one!’
She watched as the Scythe fighters all suddenly ceased to engage the enemy, their command source gone as the Veng’en cruiser lost power and the last remaining lights flickered out around her bridge.
‘Commander Ry’ere, report in,’ Evelyn called as she watched the huge vessel slowly plunge toward a terminal descent into Chiron’s atmosphere.
The radio calls and cheers gradually fell silent as Evelyn awaited a reply.
‘Commander Ry’ere, report,’ she repeated.
Moments later, the voice of Mikhain broke through.
‘Commander Ry’ere was lost in the battle,’ he said. ‘We have no distress beacon from him. I’m sorry.’
Evelyn stared momentarily into deep space, as though if she did not process what she had heard it would somehow cease to be true. Her voice when she replied was choked.
‘How?’
‘He charged the Veng’en cruiser and took out their sensor array, breaking the jamming,’ Mikhain replied. ‘His weapons could not have broken through their shields, so we believe that he performed a controlled impact into the array.’
A deep silence enveloped the radio frequency as Evelyn and many others heard of what the CAG had done.
‘You’re sure he didn’t get out?’ Evelyn asked.
‘We have detected no emergency distress beacon,’ Mikhain repeated.
Evelyn looked briefly at the star radiating its massive clouds of cosmic rays and stellar debris, and then down at the aurora soaring through Chiron’s atmosphere.
‘Reaper Flight, Renegade Flight,’ she called, ‘all Raython’s, visual search pattern. Make it fast!’
‘It’s no use,’ Mikhain insisted, ‘the debris field is too large and all of it will burn up within the hour.’
‘He didn’t give up on me,’ Evelyn snapped back as she recalled Andaim’s search for her in the aftermath of the battle in the asteroid field months before. ‘I’m not about to give up on him.’
‘You’ll never locate him before he hits the atmosphere,’ Mikhain cautioned her.
Evelyn did not respond as she flew through the debris field of the Veng’en cruiser, the massive vessel now rolling slowly out of control and tilting ever more steeply toward Chiron IV. Clouds of sparkling metal fragments glittered around her amid massive torn chunks of hull plating as Evelyn slowed down, searching for any sign of a distress beacon on her instruments.
‘The interference from the star is too strong,’ Teera called out to her. ‘I’m not seeing any signals from inside the debris field.’
Evelyn looked behind her, at where the Veng’en cruiser had been and then at the faint debris trail that extended off around the planet, marking the cruiser’s course as it had pursued Atlantia.
‘Damn it,’ she cursed, ‘we’re looking in the wrong place.’ Evelyn threw her throttles forward and turned the Raython out of the debris field as she accelerated alongside the trail of metal fragments. ‘He’d have hit her way back here,’ she explained, ‘if he ejected before impact, he’d be floating about somewhere before the cruiser started trailing debris.’
Evelyn guided the Raython alongside the debris trail and started to slow down again.
‘Atlantia, send me the coordinates of Commander Ry’ere’s last known position when he hit the cruiser, and include the cruiser’s position too.’
‘Stand by,’ came a voice that Evelyn did not recognise but assumed was the current tactical officer aboard the frigate. ‘Sending now.’
Evelyn looked down and saw a tiny speck appear on her holographic tactical display alongside that of the Veng’en cruiser, off to starboard and below her. She turned toward the signal, and then as she passed through it she looked again at the image.
Evelyn figured that Andaim would have probably flown down the length of the cruiser’s spine in order to maximize the damage he could cause upon impact with the solar array. He would have ejected just before impact and likely continued on a similar trajectory, possibly having rolled his Raython beforehand to angle his ejection slightly away from the cruiser to avoid hitting the hull.
She turned a practiced eye toward Chiron IV. In such a low orbit, and having ejected at such high velocity, the tiny thrusters on the Raython’s ejection capsule would have been unable to slow him down enough to avoid being pulled in by the planet’s gravity, and although the jamming had been broken the solar interference might have been powerful enough to shield his capsule’s distress beacon from view.
Evelyn let her eye trace a natural arc, the most likely course Andaim would have been forced to take as he struggled to reduce his rate of descent toward the planet’s atmosphere.
Evelyn threw her throttles open again even as the other squadron craft reached her and sh
e raced down toward the planet’s atmosphere. She could see small items of debris hitting the atmosphere below and lighting up as they were super-heated by atmospheric friction. She forced herself to keep an eye on her scanners instead, trusting in her instruments as she descended.
A blip sounded in her cockpit and a signal flared on her SAD, the sound a harsh, distorted beep transmitted once per second that demanded her attention, the signal bright red.
‘Contact!’ she yelped. ‘I’ve got him! Repeat, I’ve found him!’
As Evelyn slowed, she saw the tumbling cockpit capsule of the Raython ahead of her. As it rotated slowly and the sunlight pierced its gloomy interior, she saw Andaim’s face peering out. Slowly, without fuss, Andaim raised his right hand and with his left finger he tapped his wrist-com and raised an eyebrow
Evelyn stifled a grin and transmitted again.
‘He’s alive,’ she reported. ‘Better send a shuttle before he gets too warm.’
***
XLIV
‘You’re a lucky girl.’
Meyanna Sansin ran a scanner over a sample of Evelyn’s blood as she sat in Atlantia’s sick bay. Around her on the ward’s many beds were injured Marines, pilots, liberated slaves of all races and even a couple of pirates who had been caught up in the rush to escape Chiron IV and found themselves in with the fleeing slaves.
Meyanna kept her voice down as they spoke, despite the rush and bustle around them as nurses and orderlies struggled to keep up with the flow of patients flooding into the bay.
‘I guess,’ she replied. ‘I didn’t know what I was getting into.’
‘Yes you did,’ Meyanna whispered harshly. ‘You just went to the wrong damned supplier.’
Evelyn knew that Qayin had not joined the exodus from Chiron IV, and that several Marines from Bravo Company had also not been present when the company had been mustered after the battle. What nobody knew for sure was whether they had all died on the surface or that some fled the battle in the confusion.
Atlantia Series 3: Aggressor Page 31
