Andaim nodded and without another word marched off the bridge.
Hevel, flushed with impotent rage, turned his back to the captain and stared at the monitors.
*
Alpha pulled Meyanna along behind her as they crossed to the aft cell block exit, the same blast door that Evelyn had entered through hours before. She swung her legs out in front of her, her bare feet bumping against the cold metal walls over the gantry
‘What are you doing?’
Meyanna’s voice was weak and she was shivering, her arms wrapped around her body and her wrists smeared with dry blood.
Alpha said nothing as she set the video camera in mid–air and gestured for Meyanna to go inside. Meyanna hesitated, her eyes wide with fear as she stared into the half–darkness, the lights flickering sporadically and illuminating a dangerous path.
‘I don’t want to go in there if…’
‘Hey!’
Alpha whirled and saw two convicts appear at the control tower entrance, both of them carrying pulse rifles.
Alpha grabbed the door with one hand and Meyanna with the other and propelled her through as she heard the convicts shout again and start running toward them. A salvo of shots blasted out and hit the doorframe near Alpha’s head, a shower of searing plasma sparks raining down painfully on her back as she hauled herself through the door and pulled it shut behind her.
The heavy door slammed shut with a deep thump that echoed through the gloomy passage behind her as she locked the door from her side. The faces of the convicts loomed up in the observation window and she heard them screaming at her through the dense glass.
‘What the hell are you doing?’
Alpha pulled her uniform from where she had wrapped it around her waist and tied it around the manual security lock, pulling it tight and then tying the legs around the nearest wall brace.
Alpha grabbed the camera and pointed it briefly at the two convicts, hoping that the signal from the device was strong enough to reach the Atlantia’s bridge, then turned and pushed herself off the door and sailed down the tunnel straight past Meyanna.
The captain’s wife, faced with no option but to follow her, pushed off in pursuit.
Alpha floated rapidly down the passageway, glancing over her shoulder to see Meyanna a few feet behind her. The security door receded into the flickering gloom behind them but Alpha could hear the convicts fighting to release the door from the far side, her uniform preventing them from opening the latches enough to get through.
The bangs echoed in pursuit of them as they floated through the chilly darkness.
‘Are you going to kill me?’
Meyanna’s voice reached Alpha’s ears. The tone suggested that Meyanna was more than aware that Alpha did not intend to kill her, the question born more of nerves than doubt. Alpha did not respond, floating through the flickering darkness and feeling the air grow colder as she reached the security door that entered the storage unit.
The glass was frosted with ice particles on the far side, still chilled to the temperature of deep space from when she had evacuated the chamber of air and killed the murderous convict who had pursued her inside it. Alpha swung her feet to arrest her glide as she reached the door, then moved aside as Meyanna slammed awkwardly into the wall alongside her.
Alpha turned to the external control panel and opened the air–bleed vents into the storage unit. A humming sound reverberated through the darkened corridor as air was re–introduced into the storage section.
A dull, distant blast echoed through the tunnel, and Alpha knew that the convicts had broken through the security door and were heading her way. They had probably blasted it open by shooting one of their plasma magazines wedged into the door. She looked at the security door viewing panel, saw the frosting gradually starting to melt, angular pieces of ice fracturing off the glass and floating away.
Voices echoed down the passageway and in the flickering lights she saw figures running toward them, shouts as they were spotted.
‘They’re coming!’ Meyanna shrieked.
Alpha turned and grabbed the door’s manual release, braced herself against the wall and then yanked the mechanism into the open position. The higher air pressure of the corridor prevented her from pulling it open. Meyanna pushed herself off the wall opposite and grabbed the handle with Alpha, bracing herself against the wall and pulling hard.
A rush of air was sucked into the storage unit as the door’s seal was broken and it suddenly swung open as the near–vacuum inside the storage unit sucked in a great rush of air from the passageway. Alpha shot through the doorway and tried to maintain her grip on the handle, but she was dragged with too much force and felt her hand wrenched away as she was hurled through the darkness and slammed into the rear of the unit.
Meyanna was sucked through the doorway and tumbled toward Alpha, who pushed herself clear just as Meyanna thumped into the wall alongside her. Alpha pushed off the wall as the last of the vacuum was replaced with air from the passageway and saw the dead convict’s body floating high in the unit, his muscular body frosted with ice and surrounded by a grim halo of blood that had leaked from his corpse in the low pressure vacuum.
She pushed off the deck and floated up to the grisly remains, grabbed them as she rotated her body and then pushed off the ceiling toward the open security door.
Two pulses of plasma energy crackled as they zipped through the open door and exploded against the wall near Meyanna as shouts echoed loudly into the storage unit.
‘Give it up Alpha, there’s nowhere to hide!’
Alpha slammed onto the deck with the convict’s body, then reached up and pulled the security door closed. The latches clicked loudly as the manual locks shot into place. Then she lifted the dead convict’s body and pushed both of his arms through the locking wheel, jamming them in place as the convicts outside in the passage slammed into the far side of the door.
She saw the grimacing faces of several inmates leering at her and Meyanna’s naked bodies as they fought for a glimpse.
‘Let us in and we’ll be gentle with you bitches!’ one of them sneered.
Another, stronger voice broke through.
‘I say let’s send them out into space.’
Alpha heard Meyanna gasp in horror as an older, heavily scarred convict appeared to sneer at them through the window, his bioluminescent tattoos pulsing weakly.
‘You open up,’ he said, ‘or we’ll blow the vents again from here.’ He smiled, his teeth stained yellow and black. ‘You got one minute.’
***
XIV
‘We’re out of here!’
Qayin strode into the control centre and reached out for Governor Hayes’ bloodied head, lifting the bloated and grisly trophy by its thin grey hair and hoisting it aloft to the convicts amassed around him.
‘The governor is dead!’ he roared. ‘Long live the governor!’
The convicts let out a blustering crescendo of ragged cheers as Qayin slung the severed head over his shoulder to hit a wall with a wet thud somewhere behind him.
‘I want every single man armed,’ he boomed as he lifted a pulse rifle and the uniform filled with plasma magazines. ‘If the captain tries anything the hostages get blasted into oblivion, understood?’
Qayin unwrapped the uniform filled with ammunition magazines. More cheers as the men swarmed upon the ammunition and began arming themselves.
‘They’ll try to herd us in,’ Cutler snapped at Qayin. ‘Chances are they’ll keep closed all but one of the access passages. We’ll be funnelled into a holding area and shot like rats in a barrel.’
‘Not with the hostages behind us,’ Qayin soothed. ‘We blow them all away if the captain’s troops screw with us.’
‘Suicide,’ Cutler snarled with a grim smile. ‘Better that than be left to rot in here.’
‘I like the way you’re thinking,’ Qayin replied with a wicked grin. ‘The captain will want his wife alive and we’ll make sure he can’t have her. Once
we’re in the sanctuary she’ll be our guarantee of safe passage.’
‘Until what?’ Cutler challenged. ‘What happens if the Word finds us? The captain’s lost his stones and won’t fight. We should take the bridge and the ship for ourselves.’
‘You think that you got a say in this, Cutler?’ Qayin snapped.
‘It’s my life on the line too.’
‘Don’t worry about it. As long as we’ve got Meyanna Sansin, everything will be…’
‘Qayin!’ A convict burst into the control centre, his face flushed with panic.
‘What?’
‘Alpha! She’s got the captain’s wife!’
Cutler shot Qayin a look of wild dismay as Qayin stormed toward the convict. ‘What do you mean she’s got her?’
‘They’re running aft!’ the convict said.
Qayin cocked his rifle and turned to Cutler.
‘I’ll find them. As long as she’s still in our hands, the captain won’t dare try anything.’
‘This is heading south already, Qayin,’ Cutler growled. ‘It ain’t gonna work if we lose the captain’s wife.’
‘You got any better ideas, old man?’ Cutler swore under his breath but said nothing. ‘The convicts out first, Cutler,’ Qayin went on. ‘Keep the hostages behind you so that they can’t be grabbed by the captain’s marines, understood?’
Cutler nodded and followed the other convicts now rushing out of the bridge for the for’ard hatches. Qayin dashed in pursuit through winding, half–lit passages to the transfer bay at the bow. The convicts were amassed around the hatches and huddled against one wall with the hostages, their wrists bound and rifles pointed at their heads.
‘Open the hatch!’ Qayin yelled.
A pair of inmates slung their rifles over their shoulders and deactivated the hatch’s locks before spinning the locking wheels and pulling the door open. It swung open to reveal the docking tunnel, and at the far end an open hatch leading into the main hull.
The convicts backed away from the door, their weapons once again held ready as Qayin moved to stand in plain view in the hatch entrance. He peered down the tunnel, and glimpsed the movement of marines tucked either side of the Atlantia’s hatch.
‘We’ve got the captain’s wife and she’s rigged to blow!’ Qayin boomed. ‘And the hostages will remain behind us! Any of you try and pull anything, we’ll blow her to hell and take every last one of you suckers with us!’
Qayin’s mighty voice thundered down the tunnel. He stared at the amassed troops awaiting them on the far side for a long moment, and then he stood back and looked at his fellow inmates.
‘Get in there, all of you!’
The convicts flooded into the hatch, their boots hammering the deck as they plunged into the passageway connecting the two hulls. Whispers of excitement fluttered among them as they ran and Qayin slapped them on their backs one by one as they filed into the tunnel and vanished.
Cutler brought up the rear, his own rifle cradled in his grasp.
‘You better bring that bitch back here fast, or this will all be over.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Qayin grinned. ‘She’ll be aboard before you know it.’
Qayin slapped Cutler on the back, propelling him toward the tunnel as he turned to the cowering hostages.
‘On your feet, all of you, now!’
As Cutler entered the tunnel the hostages clambered to their feet, their weary faces lined with stress and their eyes downcast. Qayin turned and looked down the tunnel at the dirty little flood of convicts running toward the troops on the Atlantia’s side.
‘Unto doom do they flee,’ he uttered under his breath.
He saw Cutler running, the old man glance back over his shoulder. Something changed in Cutler’s expression, his eyes locked on Qayin’s, and in an instant the old man knew. He opened his mouth to shout a warning but it was far too late.
Qayin reached out and with one huge arm he hauled the hatch shut, the heavy door slamming with a boom that resonated through the passage. Through the thick glass viewing panel he saw the troops at the far side of the passage likewise slam their hatch shut, trapping the convicts inside.
The convicts panicked and opened fire, the bright plasma blasts hitting the distant hatch door in halos of wasted energy that spilled onto the tunnel floor. Their cries of panic filled the tunnel as the convicts turned and began running in a horrified mass back toward the prison hull.
Qayin spun the locking wheel closed, sealing it tight. He saw the look of utter disbelief on Cutler’s scarred old face that mutated into a grotesque howl of rage. The old man reached the hatch and hammered on the viewing panel, his mouth agape as he screamed at Qayin.
Qayin turned to the hostages and jabbed his thumb aft. ‘Move, now!’
The hostages turned and shuffled in the indicated direction.
‘Faster!’
Qayin slammed the butt of his rifle into the back of the nearest officer and sent him flying through the exit.
***
XV
Alpha turned away from the door and set the camera in the air to point across to the wall of the storage unit. There, set into the wall, were the two capsules that she and her deceased fellow convict had used to survive the blast in the high–security wing. One was damaged beyond repair, the screen shattered.
Alpha pushed off the wall and grabbed Meyanna, dragging her toward the undamaged capsule.
‘What the hell are you doing?’ Meyanna protested.
Alpha spun Meyanna around and shoved her backwards into the capsule. Meyanna’s face fell as she understood what Alpha was attempting to do.
‘No,’ she gasped, and then: ‘What about you?’
Alpha pulled the restraints loosely about Meyanna’s ankles and across her waist and then looked up at the captain’s wife. She was older than Alpha but attractive, and had a gleam of intelligence in her eyes that all academics shared. The prison physician, Alpha recalled: she had met her briefly for a routine medical after the mask had been fitted, to make sure that it was not causing her what had been termed undue discomfort. She remembered what the captain’s wife had uttered without interest after a cursory examination. She’ll live.
Alpha turned her back to Meyanna and hoisted the capsule’s lid up off the floor. As heavy as it was in normal gravity, the lid flipped up easily and Alpha pushed it into place. Still connected to the ship’s power supply, the capsule re–activated and the lid sealed shut.
Alpha opened a panel on the front of the capsule, and with a few simple commands had re–charged the capsule’s oxygen supply and batteries. She closed the panel and stood back, turned to a larger panel on the wall beside the capsule and entered a launch command.
She heard Meyanna’s voice through the capsule window, muted by the thick glass.
‘What about you?’
Alpha looked at the capsule and its occupant one last time and then she hit the launch button.
The capsule hissed as it sank back into its docking cavity, and a shield door slammed shut as it sealed the cavity off from the storage unit. Alpha heard a clunk as ejection bolts fired, saw a puff of vapour inside the cavity as the air was sucked out into space, and then saw Meyanna’s face shrink away as the capsule was ejected.
Moments later, Meyanna’s eyes still fixed on Alpha’s, she saw the capsule turn as Meyanna fired the thrusters and propelled herself for’ard toward the safety of the Atlantia.
The security door clanged and Alpha turned as she heard a dull crunch. The dead convict’s arms twisted awkwardly and a shard of bone punched through the dead man’s skin as his limbs were broken. The door shuddered, then the corpse slipped from its position and the door swung wide and six convicts tumbled into the storage unit, their rifles raised and pointed at Alpha.
*
‘She’s away!’
Jerren’s voice was charged with a volatile mixture of exhilaration and disbelief as the bridge crew watched the capsule being ejected from the storage unit, a tiny white speck
shining in the light from the nearby star as it turned and began drifting through space toward the Atlantia.
‘She got Meyanna out,’ Captain Sansin uttered.
Her turned, as did every other man on the bridge, to the monitor that still showed the footage from the camera in the storage unit. Several armed inmates stood with rifles aimed at Alpha’s diminutive, naked form. The masked woman stood her ground, making no effort to conceal herself.
‘They’ll finish her off,’ Hevel said, his face touched with a maniacal hint of excitement.
The captain shot the councillor a strange look.
‘Are our troops in position?’ he asked Jerren.
‘They’re manning the hatches now sir, and the shuttles are in position aft of the prison hull.’
‘What about the convicts?’
‘Most of them are trapped back in the prison hull again sir,’ came the reply. ‘It worked – they kept the hostages behind them.’
‘Where are the hostages now?’
‘We can’t account for them,’ Jerren replied. ‘And, sir, we cannot find Qayin.’
‘He’ll kill them,’ Hevel sneered. ‘Qayin will kill them all!’
The captain gripped the bridge railings more tightly as he surveyed the monitors. ‘Wait until I give the order. Nobody moves until we know where the hostages are.’
*
Alpha stood in silence as the lead convict, his teeth stained yellow and black from decay, edged toward her, his rifle pulled tight into his shoulder and the barrel pointed squarely at her chest.
‘Now then, missy,’ he sniggered, ‘best you lay down on the floor for old Tammer, eh?’
She remained silent and still. Tammer stopped moving, smart enough to keep the barrel of his rifle out of her reach.
‘I said down, now!’ Tammer screamed at her.
She did not move.
One of the other, younger convicts behind Tammer handed his rifle to the man next to him and walked up alongside Tammer.
Atlantia Series 1: Survivor Page 10
