Atlantia Series 2: Retaliator

by Dean Crawford

  Andaim nodded but did not say anything.

  ‘We need to get off this ship,’ Lieutenant C’rairn insisted. ‘Maybe we can find a way to dump the supplies in the hold and pick them up externally?’

  ‘Not a bad idea,’ Andaim admitted, ‘but the Legion could be tucked away anywhere, could have split off into smaller groups and hidden away in food supplies, anything. We have to assume that anyplace astern of the bridge deck is contaminated.’

  ‘It’s worse than that,’ Evelyn said as she turned to Bra’hiv. ‘Kyarl, the Marine. Was he showing any signs of insubordination before we came aboard?’

  ‘None that I noticed,’ the general replied. ‘He’s pretty much the model soldier, a good man.’

  ‘Then he must have been infected recently, either immediately before or after we boarded this ship. We need to find out how or by whom, because right now we all could be carriers.’

  ‘You’re saying that we can’t get back aboard the Atlantia?’ C’rairn asked.

  ‘Absolutely,’ she replied. ‘Right now the biggest risk to the Atlantia is probably us. If we’re carrying and we go back aboard, that’s the end of everything. The Legion will see its chance and multiply.’

  ‘But wouldn’t it have done that already?’ Andaim challenged. ‘You’ve always said that somebody else aboard the Atlantia is carrying the Word. How come they haven’t infected everybody already?’

  ‘Because it takes time for one person’s body to provide enough materials for the Legion to replicate,’ Evelyn replied. ‘They use the iron in human blood to build new bots, then the carrier infects somebody else. But with only one infected person aboard the Atlantia, infecting large numbers of the crew is impossible. They would have to pick their targets when they’re ready and infect slowly enough so that they don’t become anaemic and expose themselves.’

  ‘How come you know all of this?’ Andaim pressed.

  ‘Meyanna told me,’ Evelyn replied. ‘She’s learned a lot from the bots we captured on the Atlantia’s bridge all those months ago.’

  Andaim thought for a moment.

  ‘We’ll need to scan every one of us again for infection,’ he said finally. ‘No exceptions, and then we need to talk to Kyarl and the Veng’en and find out who infected Kyarl and how the hell the Veng’en avoided being infected himself.’

  ‘It was the cold, wasn’t it?’ C’rairn asked. ‘Not enough bots to advance far without running out of power or freezing themselves. That’s why he shut down the ship’s systems?’

  ‘Maybe,’ Bra’hiv said as he prepared to leave for the landing bay. ‘But it doesn’t explain what happened to the crew and it doesn’t explain how the bots survived the cold until now. Somehow, they’ve evolved to hibernate or something until things warm up and then, bang! They’re back to life and attacking boarders.’ The general activated his plasma rifle and strode for the bridge exit. ‘Either way, nobody’s leaving this ship until we get some answers.’

  As Bra’hiv left the bridge, Evelyn looked at Andaim. ‘So, what now?’

  ‘We’re stranded here,’ Andaim said, ‘until we can figure out what happened and get ourselves cleared of infection and back aboard the Atlantia. The Sylph is a plague ship and a ghost ship all rolled into one.’

  ‘We don’t have any X–Ray scanners,’ Evelyn said. ‘They’re all back aboard the Atlantia.’

  ‘We could have them sent over aboard a capsule,’ C’rairn suggested.

  ‘No time,’ Andaim pointed out. ‘We don’t know who else heard that distress signal, and this ship could potentially be over–run by the legion at any time. I say we use the microwave scanners the civilians brought aboard with them.’

  Evelyn saw the faces of the Marines fall. All of them knew that, if infected, the microwave method would detect the infection by virtue of frying in situ any Infectors inside the body, causing excruciating pain and most likely death.

  ‘We won’t learn who infected us if we’re fried,’ Evelyn pointed out.

  ‘We don’t have time for niceties,’ Andaim snapped. ‘We amplify the microwave transmitter signal to match the Infector’s internal resonance. Meyanna has the frequencies, right? Then we zap everybody, same with the supplies in the for’ard holds if there’s anything of use there, and then get the hell off the ship.’

  ‘Why don’t we just zap the Infector’s too?’ C’rairn asked. ‘Build a microwave gun and blast them away?’

  ‘Hard to get close,’ Andaim replied. ‘The Legion is not stupid. They’ll scatter on detection of microwave beams.’

  ‘True,’ C’rairn said, ‘but they can’t escape from Kyarl’s body, can they?’

  Evelyn stared at the lieutenant as she realised what he was suggesting.

  ‘You want to torture him?’ she gasped.

  ‘He’s already dead, technically,’ C’rairn said. ‘The Legion is inside him and it knows who infected him. I say let’s find out.’

  ‘That could kill Kyarl!’ Evelyn protested.

  ‘And he could have killed us!’

  Andaim turned as Dhalere appeared in the bridge doorway. ‘The Veng’en is stable,’ she reported. ‘The doctors say it will make a full recovery.’

  ‘What about Kyarl?’ Evelyn asked.

  Dhalere appeared confused.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ she replied. ‘He has fallen into some kind of coma and is not responding to the drugs administered by the doctors.’

  ‘The Word,’ Evelyn replied instinctively, ‘it’s anticipated what we’re thinking and is trying to prevent Kyarl from being able to speak.’

  ‘And what are we thinking?’ Dhalere asked.

  ‘That we should use microwave scanners to clear us all of infection,’ Andaim replied, ‘and use those same scanners to interrogate Kyarl.’

  Evelyn saw Dhalere’s dark skin pale a fraction as her dark eyes widened. ‘That could kill him and would constitute inhumane suffering.’

  ‘There’ll be a lot more inhumane suffering if we don’t get to the bottom of how he got infected,’ Andaim said.

  ‘Couldn’t it have been when he boarded this ship with General Bra’hiv?’ Dhalere asked.

  ‘The Word was not active until the ship was heated,’ Andaim replied, ‘which Kyarl instigated without orders. He must have already been infected beforehand, which means whoever did it was aboard the Atlantia: one of our own.’

  ‘But he’s not talking,’ she persisted. ‘If you scan him while he’s unconscious it will simply kill him without us learning anything. I can’t allow you to do that.’

  ‘It’s not a matter for you to debate,’ Andaim snapped. ‘Kyarl is a military soldier and is infected. It’s for us to decide.’

  Dhalere appeared to tremble with indignation.

  ‘I insist upon being present at any interrogation,’ she said. ‘I will not have you and your men torturing and risking the life of an innocent soldier. There must be another way.’

  Andaim grinned tightly as he shouldered his rifle and made for the bridge exit.

  ‘If there is, and you find it, let me know.’

  *

  Meyanna Sansin stared at the sphere of roiling nanobots as she thought deeply about what was happening aboard the Sylph.

  ‘You’re sure that Kyarl could not have been infected after he departed this ship?’ she asked.

  Captain Idris Sansin stood beside his wife, likewise staring at the magnetically confined bots as he replied.

  ‘Almost certainly impossible,’ he said. ‘Bra’hiv’s Marines voluntarily submitted themselves to the full microwave scan during their training. The general felt it essential to ensure that all personnel tasked with the defence of the ship were vetted in that way. All passed. Kyarl was infected aboard Altantia by somebody else before he was despatched.’

  ‘Which means that somebody else is the carrier,’ Meyanna said.

  ‘How many of our people have you tested?’ the captain asked.

  ‘All of our staff and about a quarter of the civilians,’ she r
eplied and then sighed mightily, ‘and all of it for nothing. All scans will have to be repeated if somebody slipped through.’

  The captain thought for a moment as he looked at the ball of bots.

  ‘Andaim intends to interrogate Kyarl using microwaves, to threaten the bots infecting him with destruction if they do not comply.’

  Meyanna shot her husband a shocked look. ‘That would cause him unspeakable pain and…’

  ‘I know,’ Idris said, his eyes closing briefly. ‘But we don’t have much choice. It’s clear that whoever is infected among us can only have managed to pass that infection on to one or two people at most. We need to shut this down before one or two people becomes five, or ten, or one hundred. We don’t have the time for niceties, Meyanna. Andaim needs the frequencies so they can tune whatever scanners they have aboard the Sylph.’

  Meyanna sighed and turned to a cabinet on one wall of her laboratory, opening it and retrieving a data–pad that she handed to her husband.

  ‘The frequencies are all recorded there,’ she said. ‘If they’re lucky they might be able to tune with sufficient accuracy to target the bots’ internal circuitry only, saving Kyarl any pain and focusing only on the Legion.’

  Idirs hefted the data–pad thoughtfully.

  ‘Can’t that always be done?’ he asked.

  ‘Not to destroy the bots,’ Meyanna replied. ‘You can heat them up a bit, threaten them with destruction, but they won’t leave a human host as that’s the only thing really keeping them alive in the first place.’

  ‘But maybe we could get them to malfunction a bit?’ he suggested. ‘Enough to get through to Kyarl?’

  Meyanna considered this for a moment. ‘Maybe,’ she agreed. ‘If you targeted the bots clinging to his brain stem, you might be able to break the links there and let him speak for himself.’

  Idris smiled grimly and turned from the laboratory. ‘That’s good enough for me. If we can uncover who’s responsible for the infection, we take away any advantage the Word has over us.’

  ***

  XV

  Dhalere stood on the Sylph’s bridge as the captain’s face appeared on the viewing screen.

  ‘Where is Commander Ry’ere?’ he asked.

  Dhalere replied, the Marines around her manning their stations and focused on the ship’s systems.

  ‘In the landing bay,’ she said. ‘They’re organising a means to evacuate the ship as soon as everybody is cleared of infection.’

  ‘We have the frequencies for the microwave scanners,’ the captain replied. ‘They’re being beamed over as we speak. I’ll have them sent directly to the Sylph’s sick bay and inform the general.’

  ‘Is this really necessary?’ Dhalere pressed. ‘Such a crude means of ensuring our people are clear of infection may kill those who have no idea that they are carriers. Are we really going to sacrifice innocent civilians in this way?’

  ‘Would you prefer we did not scan anybody, and perhaps sacrifice every last living human as a result, including yourself, Councillor?’

  Dhalere bit her lip and thought fast. ‘I’m heading down to the landing bay right now. I’ll inform the general that the data is available, captain.’

  She turned from the bridge and strode down toward the exits, cursing as she walked.

  The Marines on the bridge had heard the captain’s command, so there was no way that she could not relay the information to the general without clearly exposing herself. Likewise, the Atlantia would also know of her deception immediately so there would be no going back.

  Dhalere knew well what would happen when Bra’hiv or one of his sergeants got to work on Kyarl with the microwave scanner. Faced with death by heat, the Word would either perish or be forced to abandon control of Kyarl in an attempt to escape destruction, which might lead the young Marine to recover consciousness enough to expose her as the carrier.

  A mild pulse of pain groaned through her brain and she cursed again under her breath. I know. There was no need to be reminded of the consequences of failure, nor the rewards of success. A serene sense of pleasure replaced the pain and she sighed as she walked, then focused again on the task at hand.

  Infecting Kyarl at short notice had depleted her store of Infectors, and although they were replicating again she knew that she had little time. Kyarl could not be allowed to speak of his own free will. He either had to die or the scans be delayed. That, of course, was not the only problem. Meyanna Sansin would eventually get around to screening Dhalere’s blood, and having been under the X–Ray scanner at the time the blood was drawn she knew that there would be no hiding. Infectors would be found in her sample and she would be detained and quarantined.

  Dhalere made her way down to the landing bay, felt the air stiffen with cold as the now deactivated heating systems lost control of the Sylph’s atmospheric balance. She walked into the landing bay and saw General Bra’hiv and Andaim talking near a pair of shuttle craft parked in the centre of the bay, pointed toward the closed bay doors ready for a rapid exit.

  Marines were posted around the landing bay, their pulse rifles held at port arms, expressions hard and without compromise. She knew that Kyarl had been young and impressionable, but the battle–hardened former convicts of Bravo Company would be a different game altogether. She glanced at the towering Qayin and knew that the chances of her being able to infect the shrewd, self–serving gangster were almost nil. She needed a man who had a weak spot, a willingness to help and a natural concern for others.

  Her eyes settled on Commander Ry’ere as she approached. Andaim was standing with Bra’hiv and examining a map, presumably of the Sylph.

  ‘General?’ she called, and saw Bra’hiv look at her. ‘The Atlantia is sending the microwave data aboard. It should be here within the next few minutes.’

  ‘Good,’ the general snapped in reply. ‘We can finally get some answers.’

  Andaim shut the electronic map down, rolled it up into a tube and slid it into a pouch on his flight suit.

  ‘Do you think that Kyarl will talk?’ she asked the commander. ‘He might die before he can impart anything of use to us.’

  ‘We’ll all die if we don’t do something,’ Andaim replied. ‘You know as well as I do that once a person is infected, they’re doomed. There is no cure.’

  Dhalere swallowed thickly. ‘We should always presume that there is something that we do not know. Perhaps the infected want to be cured, but cannot tell us that?’

  Andaim looked down at her, the commander six feet tall and surprisingly intimidating when standing so close.

  ‘We’re working with what we do know, councillor,’ he said. ‘We don’t have time for a softly–softly approach. If we don’t figure out everything we can about what happened aboard this ship, and about the Infectors inside Kyarl, we’ll all be doomed. Now, are you going to help me or hinder me?’

  Dhalere lifted her chin defiantly.

  ‘I’ll help,’ she said, ‘but perhaps you would allow me the chance to try to reach out to Kyarl? Maybe I can get him to fight the infection.’

  ‘I’d like to see that,’ Andaim snorted.

  ‘He’s a soldier,’ Dhalere insisted. ‘He deserves the right.’

  Andaim looked at her for a moment and then glanced at Bra’hiv. The general shrugged. ‘Give the kid a chance, but if he hasn’t folded by the time we get the frequencies into these scanners, he’s toast.’

  Dhalere smiled in gratitude and looked at Andaim. ‘Will you accompany me?’

  ‘What for?’

  ‘Kyarl is infected,’ she said, ‘and he could turn against me or even escape. The captain said that he wanted you present at any interrogation.’

  ‘He’s under guard.’

  ‘He’s under guard by former convicts,’ Dhalere insisted, ‘and we all know how they feel about councillors after what Hevel did.’

  Andaim sighed and turned to walk with Dhalere.

  ‘You’ve probably got about ten minutes before Bra’hiv zaps the Marine,�
� the commander said. ‘I can’t imagine what you think you’ll achieve in that short time.’

  Dhalere smiled. ‘More than I could without the chance to try.’

  Andaim led her to the elevator banks and they stepped inside, the commander hitting the button for the bridge deck level. The sick bay was located just aft of the bridge and one level down, as were most sick bays in order to facilitate injuries to bridge crews quickly. Most vessels, no matter how powerful, were likely to have their bridge targeted during combat and despite ray shielding some projectiles inevitably got through.

  The elevator doors closed and the elevator hummed into life.

  Dhalere’s heart was beating faster in her chest as she turned to Andaim and looked up at him.

  ‘We’re trapped aboard this ship, aren’t we,’ she whispered.

  Her lip trembled and she let tears well up in her eyes. Andaim’s stoic features seemed to quiver as for the first time he realised that he was standing in an elevator with an emotionally vulnerable woman. The commander cultivated a reassuring smile.

  ‘We’re quarantined,’ he replied. ‘There’s a difference. This is by choice until we figure out a way to get off the Sylph without infecting anybody aboard the Atlantia.’

  ‘And if we can’t?’

  Dhalere felt one of her tears trickle down her cheek. The commander saw it. He was, she knew, a decent and honourable man. A weakness, common among so many humans. Despite their bravado and often reckless courage, most officers were unable to withhold comfort from a distressed woman when faced with tears and a transparent plea for help.

  ‘We will,’ Andaim replied.

  The commander turned toward her and Dhalere let him fold his arms about her as he pulled her in close. She could smell his uniform, crisp and clean, and she could hear his breathing and the beat of his heart inside his chest. Sixty seconds, she reckoned, just like Kyarl. She felt a warmth in her mouth, the tingle of Infectors swarming upon her tongue.

  Still holding him, she drew her head back and looked up at Andaim. The commander, every bit as human as she had once been, looked down at her questioningly. She knew that he would not want her, just as she knew by the way he looked at Evelyn that it was the former convict he craved, but that did not matter.