by Worth, Dan
‘A little of both,’ Steven replied. ‘I fucked up on a mission once. A lot of people died. Wasn’t directly my fault, but my lack of judgement contributed to it. I like to be properly prepared for whatever I’m about to walk into. I have to be.’
‘Yeah but... I can see it in your eyes. There’s something else, isn’t there? I’m only saying because sometimes I catch myself in the mirror looking like that. The Shapers do that to a man. Trust me, I know what it’s like.’
‘I know you do. Your bomber squadron was captured by them. You were the only survivor. Correct?’ Steven looked at him intently.
‘Yep. I guess it’s all in the file you read,’ Isaacs replied.
‘It certainly is. You still want more payback for what they did?’
‘That and the rest. Well, I’m here, aren’t I? You think I fly deep into enemy held space for a laugh? We need to get these fuckers. I can’t say I like the thought of what happened at Port Royal and Gagat’s Colony happening to the rest of humanity.’
‘You’ll get a chance to do your part, I promise you that,’ said Steven, firmly. ‘We get in there, we pull Haines out and we get a good look in the process as to what’s going on in Achernar and debrief Haines. Then we call for the cavalry.’
‘The Navy? What good will that do? They got their arses handed to them in Achernar, and Chen’s force only survived the battle for Earth because the Nahabe showed up.’
‘Command will have a few tricks up their sleeves, plus, if the new sensors that you brought us the details of work as intended, they should be able to hit the Shapers where it hurts and catch them off balance.’
‘I wish I had your confidence, I really do,’ Isaacs replied and shook his head dismissively.
‘It’s all I have to go on. What are we supposed to do, roll over and let the Shapers enslave us?’
‘No. So, you never answered the question. Is this business or pleasure?’
‘Both. I’ve seen a few things that keep me awake at night, put it that way,’ Steven replied and shifted uneasily in his chair.
‘Care to elaborate?’
‘Well, I can’t really tell you too much. But I saw one or two things during the war, and I’ve been beyond the borders of explored space as part of an SOC scouting force. Arkari led deep recon patrol. We were gone for over a year. I’ve seen their worlds, Captain Isaacs. Deep into the galaxy, in the remains of the civilisations that they have already dominated, are worlds of unimaginable horror. Living beings are remade there, prisoners mutilated and altered by those creatures, innocent beings turned into living weapons for their hordes.’
‘I’ve seen them too,’ said Isaacs. ‘Not the worlds, but those pitiful slaves you mentioned. They attacked Port Royal and stormed us. I saw my friend die under a mountain of those things. She was a good kid and they tore her to pieces. We killed them all but... god, their faces...’
‘Yes,’ Steven nodded hurriedly. ‘We think that the hosts for the Shapers’ more primitive creatures are still aware of everything that is going on. Only their bodies have been hijacked and they are forced to watch the atrocities that they commit, powerless to do anything about it. What we saw on that mission... it drove some of my team insane. The power of the Shapers is immense and witnessing such a force of near unstoppable horror, the sheer scale of the atrocities that they have committed, was too much. This is just the calm before the storm that we see now. The Shapers have been waging this war of domination for centuries in the core and only now have they begun to spread into the spiral arms of the galaxy. Perhaps they underestimated humanity and focused too heavily on the Arkari who seemed to have held them in check on their first attempt. They will strike back, and I very much doubt that they will make the same mistake twice. What we have seen so far in the Commonwealth is little more than a fraction of the forces available to them.’
‘So what’s the point?’ replied Isaacs despondently. ‘We can’t stand against that, can we?’
‘It’s the only choice we have,’ said Steven and went back to studying his map.
The days aboard ship passed far too slowly for everyone, unsure what they might encounter at the end of their journey. As they covered the last few light years to the Achernar system, Isaacs engaged the Profit Margin’s stealth module and the ship crept towards the furthest edge of the system, where they had left Port Royal floating in the blackness.
The three of them clustered in the cockpit, Isaacs and Anna checking over the displays from the ship’s various systems. Now all they could do was count down the seconds until the ship emerged from its jump.
‘We’ll be emerging ten thousand kilometres away from the base,’ Isaacs informed them. ‘I don’t like the idea of coming out right on top of it. Might give them an unnecessary scare and besides...’
‘We don’t know who might be waiting for us,’ said Anna, sensing his thoughts and completing the sentence.
‘Precisely,’ Isaacs replied. ‘If Port Royal has been discovered we could be walking into a trap. Steven, you any good at ship to ship gunnery?’
Steven shrugged. ‘I’ve never tried it, but how difficult can it be? I’ve fired lots of other guns.’
‘Well, get yourself down to the dorsal turret then. The general idea is to point the crosshair at the bad people and press the big red buttons that fire the guns. I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it. Call us on the internal comms if you need any help.’
‘Sure, no problem. Not much use against Shaper vessels though.’
‘No, but if there are any former Commonwealth ships hanging around waiting for us it could give them a nasty shock, smaller craft particularly. Anything bigger: we run like hell.’
‘Got it,’ said Steven and began to make his way aft.
‘You think that there’s bad guys lying in wait?’ said Anna.
‘Could be,’ replied Isaacs, grimly. ‘After all, that destroyer got a good look at us outside Gagat’s Colony. Maybe we were being followed and we never realised it.’
‘Maybe you’re just paranoid.’
‘True. Paranoid and alive, and I intend to stay that way. Okay, shields up, weapons armed...’ He spoke into the internal comms. ‘Steven, you all settled in?’ A muffled reply confirmed that he was. ‘Exiting jump in five, four, three, two, one.’
The star-field swam back into view. Ahead, the slightly flattened disk of Achernar glowed a searing blue-white against the background of stars and wisps of interstellar gas. The Profit Margin’s radiator panels dumped vast quantities of heat into space, briefly making the ship highly visible in the infra-red spectrum before they began to retract. As Isaacs concentrated on piloting the ship, Anna began to scrutinise the sensor read outs.
‘See anything?’ said Isaacs.
‘Not much. No ships in the area that we can see.’
‘That’s sort of a relief. What about the base?’
‘I’m not sure,’ Anna replied and furrowed her brow in concentration
‘What do you mean?’
‘The return looks odd. It’s fuzzy, somehow. We need to move in closer I think.’
‘Well is it there or isn’t it?’
‘Oh it’s there alright.’
Isaacs gunned the engines briefly, propelling the ship forward at speed before cutting them and allowing the ship to drift. Better to avoid detection. Even as they drew closer, it was impossible to see anything of the asteroid base with the naked eye, such was the meagre amount of illumination available this far out from the parent star. The ship’s cameras, operating in low light mode, managed to pick out a dim smudge, which as they approached began to resolve itself on screen. It was clear that something was very wrong.
‘Jesus, look at this,’ breathed Anna. ‘Port Royal, it’s... Cal you have to see.’
Isaacs peered at the grainy image of the asteroid base. Something catastrophic had befallen it. The vast mountain of rock had been pulverised, cracked open like an egg. Almost half of the asteroid had been entirely shattered into smaller chunks. T
hey hung in space, tethered to what remained of their parent rock by the mutual attraction of their gravities. There was a giant cloud of debris, water and frozen atmosphere surrounding the ruined base that had spilled out when it had been broken open.
‘Are you guys seeing this?’ said Steven over the comm. ‘What a mess. Looks like someone caught up with your friends.’
‘Shapers,’ replied Isaacs. ‘Fuck!’ He slammed a hand against the console in front of him.
‘That’s my guess. It would need a hell of a lot of firepower to crack that rock open like that. We need to make tracks, and fast. I don’t think it’s safe around here.’
‘Agreed. I’ll jump us out of the system, then we’ll come back via a different route.’
‘I just hope that the others got away,’ said Anna, her voice cracking as she eyed the field of slowly tumbling debris. ‘Maria, Farouk... there were even kids on that base too.’
‘Yeah, I know,’ Isaacs replied. ‘I’m sorry, Anna. We have to get out of here.’
He began programming the navicomp with new jump co-ordinates. Anna’s eye strayed back to the hyperspace scanner display, where a blip denoting a weak contact had appeared. It was growing nearer, getting more distinct.
‘Contact!’ cried Anna. ‘We’ve got a ship coming in!’
‘Where?’ Isaacs replied. ‘Shit, I can’t see a thing out there.’
‘It’s a cloaked vessel of some kind. Jesus, it looks like a big one.’
‘Where!?’ Isaacs barked. ‘Where the fuck is it? I knew it. I knew that those bastards would be waiting for us.’
‘It’s right on top of us,’ said Anna, with dismay in her voice, as the cockpit windows were suddenly filled with the hull of a large warship emerging from hyperspace.
Chapter 27
Almost smothered and totally blinded by the bag over his head, Haines stumbled as he was manhandled from his cell by the enslaved soldiers who had flung the door open and grabbed him, before frog marching him off to god knows where. The only senses still of any use to him were hearing and smell and the latter could only detect the musty stench of the bag. He tried to work out where he was from sound alone.
He was being marched down echoing corridors that rang to the sound of booted feet marching in step. He could hear the rhythmic breathing of the enslaved soldiers and the jangle of their equipment as they walked. There was something else too, an insect-like sound at the edge of his hearing, like the scurrying of cockroaches. He had seen the horrible, alien growths projected from the backs of their un-helmeted heads when they had entered the cell and he’d shuddered at the thought of those black, segmented things that now controlled the men that held him like puppets. Those puppets were now unnaturally strong. They held him as easily as a child would hold a favourite toy, in an iron grip that was inescapable.
They came to a halt. There was the sound of a door opening in front of them. He was shoved forward once more and then made to sit on a hard chair set slightly lower than was comfortable whilst his manacled wrists were secured to the chair’s metal frame. Then the bag was removed from his head.
Haines squinted in the bright, artificial light. He was in a large, windowless room with a screen at one end depicting what looked like an astronomical map. Admiral Cox stood directly in front of him, a look of mild distaste upon his face. Admiral Morgan was in the room also, seated further away and wearing an anxious expression. The two soldiers who had brought him in stood to either side, stock still like statues.
‘What does this mean?’ snarled Cox, flinging an arm at the map behind him. ‘What are your friends up to, Admiral Haines?’
Haines looked back at him blankly.
‘I have no fucking idea what you are talking about, you raving imbecile. Is that what you dragged me out of my cell for?’
Cox walked over and angrily struck him across the face, then grabbed him and hauled Haines, chair and all, across the floor so that he was closer to the map screen.
‘Look at this!’ Cox spat and stood to one side, so that Haines could see.
‘The Commonwealth Navy has been making a number of probing attacks and scouting missions into the territory currently held by ourselves,’ Morgan explained, wearily. ‘Admiral Cox here would like to know what they’re doing. I have already explained that I don’t fully understand, perhaps you would be so good as to shed some light on the subject?’
‘And why would I do that?’ Haines replied.
‘We were hoping that you would see sense in co-operating,’ Morgan replied.
‘Fuck off,’ Haines shot back.
‘Well in that case we’ll just rip your thoughts from your head,’ said Cox. ‘It’s a very unpleasant experience, as Admiral Morgan here will attest. So why don’t you save us all the trouble and play along?’
‘He’s right,’ said Morgan, with a haunted look. ‘The Shapers can do that. I strongly advise you to do what he says.’
Haines pondered his predicament. He would have to say something, but he was damned if it was going to be anything concrete, or anything classified for that matter.
‘Fine,’ said Haines to Morgan. ‘I don’t know what fresh insights I can lend you, and frankly I don’t care. You outranked me, so you had higher clearance at strategic level. Surely, you must know more than I do?’
‘George, we all know that you have been a law unto yourself of late,’ said Morgan. ‘Your links to the Arkari, the Special Operations Command outfit you set up with their help...’
Cox stepped towards the map screen and jabbed a finger at a system mid way between Achernar and the Solar System. ‘One these probing raids involved the carrier CNV Winston S Churchill, with Admiral Chen as her commanding officer. We know that that carrier was modified with Arkari weapons technology: that much has been clear from the engagements that she has been involved in. How else has that carrier been modified?’
Haines did his best to hide his relief. So, Chen was still alive then. Maybe things weren’t as bad as he feared with her still around and in command.
‘It hasn’t, as far as I know,’ Haines replied. ‘What are you getting at?’
‘I want to know what the purpose of these missions was. Are they hit and run attacks? Are they for reconnaissance? Are they probing our defences, trying to work out the disposition of our forces?’
‘Beats me,’ said Haines. ‘I’m sure you’re aware that we can’t detect your vessels in hyperspace. So any recon mission would be a fruitless task, unless they’re trying to draw you out.’
‘Is that the case? Are you sure that the Arkari haven’t figured out a way to detect our ships and told their human friends about it? And if they are trying to draw us out, then what do they have to use against us?’
‘I haven’t a clue. If I did, don’t you think I’d have used such things against you up there?’ Haines replied, indicating towards the unseen sky above with an upwards motion of his head. ‘If I knew about any of this horseshit that you’ve imagined, we wouldn’t be here having this conversation.’
‘I do not imagine things, and I think that you are lying to me, Admiral,’ Cox snapped. ‘I think you had other things at your disposal, but you held them back for the defence of Earth and hoped you could buy more time by engaging my forces in this system, but you miscalculated.’
‘I don’t miscalculate,’ Haines sneered back. ‘Our intel. was bad, and yeah, I tried to buy some time. Worked too, didn’t it? Chen gave you a bloody nose, Cox. She’ll do it again too, given half a chance. You seem awfully agitated... I think that you are the ones who miscalculated. Just what percentage of your own vessels were destroyed during your failed attack on Earth? Your hold here is precarious at best, I bet, for the time being.’
‘Think what you like, but when our main strike force arrives, the Commonwealth will be crushed without mercy. They will submit, or they will be enslaved or destroyed. The attack on Earth was just a taste of the capability of our forces. You cannot stand against us.’
Haines grunted dis
dainfully. ‘Doesn’t mean we won’t try. You don’t understand humans at all, do you? We don’t all just roll over and submit like Admiral Morgan here, you know. We’ll use everything we have against you, and when we’ve run out of ammo, we’ll resort to knives and clubs, and when those are taken from us, we’ll use rocks and our bare hands to tear you apart! You can take our worlds, sure, but you’ll never be able to control us all. We’ll always keep on fighting!’
Cox looked down at him in amusement. ‘Fine, brave words, I’m sure Admiral Haines. But so many others have said the same thing, and now they do as they are told, loyal servants of the Shapers all. You seem far too confident... I think that there is something that you’re holding back from me. I would dearly love to know what it is.’
‘You’re mistaken,’ Haines replied.
‘Am I? I doubt that the great Admiral Haines would spill his guts so easily. Let’s see, shall we?’
Haines became aware of another presence in the room. Something was entering through the door behind him. He heard the faint rustling of thousands of tiny creatures and saw the look of terror upon Morgan’s face. He turned his head, straining to see, though in truth he already suspected what it was. The Shaper coalesced in front of him, slowly obscuring Cox as the cloud of glittering motes assumed a more definite shape, that of an upright, lenticular cloud slightly taller than a man.
‘You will tell us everything,’ said Cox, calmly. ‘Whether you like it or not. After we have finished picking your brain clean, we will know all of your secrets. Your tactical skill may also be of benefit to us.’
Haines struggled against his restraints as the thing drifted closer.
‘Try not to struggle so much, Admiral Haines,’ Cox continued. ‘You must try to make this easier for yourself. You cannot resist, so just submit.’
‘Fuck you!’ Haines spat. ‘Fuck all of you! You and your entire goddamn race!’
The swarm swept closer, enveloping Haines in its embrace and smothering his defiant cries.
Later, the enslaved soldiers dragged Haines’ unconscious form back to the basement cell where he had been previously confined. Cox had to admit to himself, the old man had proved a tough nut to crack until now. But it didn’t matter how much interrogation resistance training the Admiral might have undergone, his thoughts had been stripped from him and read by the Shapers, the electro-chemical information from his brain interpreted and catalogued and disseminated amongst their collective consciousness for examination, interpretation and cross referencing to their other intelligence on the human military. It was a source of some frustration to Cox that Haines had in fact been telling the truth and was unable to explain the strange enemy fleet movements.
