Excited murmurs filled the room.
‘Some of you are about to become very wealthy,’ Captain Mohib announced, ‘and your discoveries will keep paying dividends – Merckon dividends – once the Arkady’s secrets are unlocked.’
More cheers and backslapping ensued. Adam suppressed a yawn.
‘Now, every mission has its doubters,’ Captain Mohib said, looking towards Viola. The room silenced. ‘But we should welcome scepticism. It inspires diligence in our preparations. Our mission does raise ethical questions … Dr Silveri is right to ask them. Is it ethical to capture an alien life form so we can learn more about it? I’ll answer simply with this: the Arkady have a homeworld. We don’t. In the universal ecosystem of life, we are but one small creature in a galactic sea, and we must feed. Life is an invasive species. It began on Earth when a comet brought microorganisms that spawned from elsewhere in the cosmos. What we do, we do for our own survival. We must unlock the secrets of the Arkady. Our lives depend on it. Gavin and Karyn? Please join me up here.’
Adam frowned as they walked to the podium. These two had allegedly demonstrated the highest piloting proficiency in the EVAM simulator, and would be the ones who manually aimed and fired the harpoon. Of course, the training was in itself a competition that had brought out the worst among the scientists, because the winner would draw additional ‘hazard pay’ for taking the risk.
To help mitigate the danger, the EVAM mechs were armed with 30mm Gatling guns that fired hollow-point slugs, plus white noise pulse emitters that would cause the same carnage the Lycidas’s radar had wreaked on Pegasus.
To Adam, the measures were illusory compensation for the electronic blackout requirement of the mission. Nothing, not even the new security cameras Merckon had installed, could be operational. And the manned EVAMs themselves would have to be placed on passive standby, running life support and little else. Adam had tried warning them that even with the reduced EM signature, the Arkady would see the EVAMs as clearly as they had his own mech. But no one took his opinions about anything seriously.
The Lycidas would be unable to see or hear what was happening on the rig until contact was made, or a ‘contingency’ forced them to abort the mission. Only then could radio silence be broken, at which point the research vessel would activate its powerful radars to drive the Arkady away.
Captain Mohib raised a hand towards the two beaming scientists.
‘To the best of the best,’ he said. ‘We’re in your capable hands. You are leading Merckon – and all of mankind – into a new frontier. Cheers!’
The group shouted encouragement as they converged on the pair with celebratory hugs. Viola moved away from the crowd, towards the exit.
‘Hey,’ she said, with a warm smile. ‘You okay?’
‘I’m fine,’ Adam replied. ‘Just don’t know what the point of me being here was.’
She nodded towards the podium.
‘Control,’ she said. ‘That’s all.’
‘I’m tired of it,’ Adam said. ‘When this is over, I want to leave. Or for the Lycidas to go.’
She gently turned his shoulders away from Captain Mohib’s stare.
‘Good things come to those who wait,’ she said.
Whether the implication was really there or not, a glimmer of hope rose in Adam’s heart.
‘How long?’
‘Let this run its course,’ she advised. ‘Never quit on hope, Adam.’
Captain Mohib nearly startled him.
‘And how is our little mech pilot doing?’
‘Fine,’ Adam said.
‘Let’s have a chat,’ the captain said, forcing him away from Viola. He placed a hand on Adam’s shoulder as they walked.
‘You’ve always provided for your family,’ he said. ‘I admire that. This is a chance to secure their welfare permanently. Your mother and sister could live more comfortably than they ever imagined. But that depends entirely on you. Do your part and they’ll never have to worry about money again. Cross me, and I’ll make them suffer.’
Adam could only nod.
‘I’m glad we understand each other,’ the captain said, before frowning suddenly. His eyes were darting back and forth as though reading something. Then he left in a hurry, pulling himself briskly away.
Viola said nothing, motioning for Adam to keep silent.
He looked up towards the Orionis star. The Inner Rim was out there somewhere, huddled close to her for warmth. Adam wondered if he would ever see it, that faraway place that produced monsters such as Captain Mohib.
‘Come on,’ Viola coaxed, tousling his hair. ‘Let’s get ready.’
Dawn Lethos/Dayla Straka was smoking in her cabin; green smog streamed from her mouth, snaking towards the air ducts above. She needed more of the drug to get high, and wished something stronger was on board.
Captain Mohib walked in without knocking. He sat at the table, while she kept staring blankly at the bulkhead in front of her.
‘Something’s happened in Tabit,’ he said. ‘The Orionis government has fallen. House Oberyan destroyed the Tabit Genesis. The Archangel has been overrun by Ceti. And the corporations are scrambling to protect themselves.’
‘Oh?’ she responded, cocking her head to one side. ‘You should be well informed.’
‘As you were, once,’ Travis growled. ‘What do you think is happening?’
‘I’ve been exiled for a long time,’ she said. ‘You really must be desperate to be asking me.’
‘Tell me why you and Tomas left,’ Travis demanded, his voice thick with annoyance. ‘Why did Titan go after you?’
Dayla turned slowly, exhaling a long line of smoke.
‘You rub shoulders with Argus Fröm, right?’ she asked. ‘Ask him.’
Travis stared at her for a moment, then struck her face with the back of his hand. The impact bent her sideways in the microgravity, but not hard enough to break the grip of her greaves on the deck.
She straightened up, rubbing her cheek, her eyes dark. But the slightest hint of a smile was there.
‘When the Archangel was commissioned, there were two hundred living highborns remaining,’ she began. ‘Even then, Argus Fröm was the most influential among them. His vision for the Archangel wasn’t a ship that could just reach another world. After Eileithyia, he wanted a ship that could create one.’
‘What do you mean, “create one”?’ Travis scoffed, watching her gather up the burning joint that had been knocked from her lips. ‘Who else was involved with this?’
‘Lance Alyxander, Franz Hedricks, and his son, Vadim. They were members of the Archangel consortium, including the Orionis government. But they disagreed with its charter, which vowed to leave the indigenous, intelligent life forms of any discovered world undisturbed – even if that world was habitable. To Franz, that was madness. Argus concurred. So they conspired to build support for their position. Not only were they willing to eradicate alien life to make room for humans. they wanted to reformat the new world itself.’
‘How?’
‘With biotech,’ she said, stabbing the joint out. ‘The forbidden weapons of the Third World War. Lance was a headstrong fellow with his own ideas for a mothership and ran off to found his cult. But he claimed to know how to get the Archangel into Fröm’s hands. So they struck a deal. Argus and the rest agreed to acquire the entire Catalogue, including the biocybernetic weapon sequences. In return, Lance would deliver them the Archangel.’
‘And that was what made you run?’
‘No,’ Dawn said. ‘Tomas had discovered that Fröm succeeded in stealing the weapon sequences. But he couldn’t understand what there was to gain from it. Titan was already the wealthiest corporation in civilisation. He didn’t know what Fröm planned to do with them, and we didn’t find out until after it was too late. Had he not gone to the police, things might have been different for us.’
‘Poor you,’ Travis spat. ‘Was Ceti in on this deal?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Well who else was?’
Dawn smiled as she lit another joint.
‘All I know for certain is that Argus asked the founders of Iopa, Dyselan … and Vulcan.’
‘He asked Cerlis?’ Travis fumed.
‘Mhmm,’ Dawn acknowledged. ‘But she refused. Imagine, saying “no” to Argus Fröm and Franz Hedricks. The most powerful men in existence. And yet, helpless before her.’
Travis stood up.
‘Is she the one who told you all this?’
Dawn smiled when she noticed his eyes.
‘Wondering why you weren’t asked?’ she cooed.
His expression told her everything and more.
She turned her back as he rushed out, and resumed getting stoned.
For all their meddling on the mining rig, the Merckon people had the decency to leave his beloved Pegasus mech alone. And they’d given him access to the EVAM hangar on the Lycidas, with his pick of spare parts to nurture the old mech back to health. She was as good as new – in fact, better than new. Adam had replaced the entire electrical system, including life support. A new Merckon fusion reactor sat in its engine housing, making her overpowered for her size. But he left a few things untouched, especially the limbs and main chassis. They were worn and dented, but now had shiny accents from all the joints he had replaced.
Adam liked the rugged look of it, especially in the company of the white-plated EVAMs travelling down on the rocket sleds. With the new optics system he could zoom across the cloud vapour and see them on the cables from hundreds of metres away. Viola’s was the only one that was unarmed. He focused on her face inside the reinforced glass. She was scared. They all were.
As the sled plummeted through the cloud ceiling, Adam glimpsed Orpheus rising from the centre of the platform, a trapezoidal monstrosity ringed with spherical tanks. The rig looked nothing like the one he had left weeks ago. Everything was different.
The braking rockets fired, sending a shudder through the mech. Now the reality hit home, twisting his conscience in knots. As the sled gate opened, Adam caught himself staring at the rails surrounding the platform perimeter.
Violence had never entered Adam’s mind until now: he envisioned Captain Mohib trapped in the grasp of his mech, savouring his pleas for mercy as he hurled him over the side.
The flash of Gavin’s floodlights from afar broke his dark fantasy. Viola’s EVAM did the same.
It was time.
He walked towards the leading edge of the rig, where the atmosphere scrubbers had been.
He thought of his father, back to better days when there’d been no context for understanding how little they had, or how dangerous their work was. When there was only each other, and the rig, and learning how to make it all work.
Adam switched on his radio. Set it to the same frequency he always used.
‘I miss you, Dad.’
Panning left and right, he gazed upon the dark clouds rising in the yellow sky.
‘If you’re out there, listening,’ he said aloud, eyes filling with tears. ‘I love you. I wish we had had more time.’
The wind was howling; wisps of vapour zipped over the deck.
He walked along the former intakes, scanning the horizon. There was nothing left to say. If they didn’t come, that was fine. Eventually he reached the inert EVAM piloted by Viola. She was looking at him, her violet eyes glistening with empathy.
Then they opened wide in terror.
A sole hunter flew low over the rig, soaring just a metre or two over their heads. Extending its flaps, it slowed as it passed, regarding Adam for a moment. Then it dipped beneath the downwind rail and out of sight.
Two hundred metres upwind, he saw Karyn signalling with Gavin. Neither had seen a hunter in its element before. They were trying not to panic.
The hunter reappeared upwind. Karyn’s mech was already powered up, moving towards the harpoon.
Adam’s heart filled with grief.
‘I’m sorry,’ he breathed, thinking of Pegasus, and of the hunter that was about to die. ‘Please tell Mother I’m so sorry.’
Swooping towards him again, the hunter braked and halted directly above the mech. Flaps opened in its gelatinous skin to bleed off more air; thick tentacles lashed onto the railing, anchoring it in place.
Then premonition struck Adam like a bolt of lightning, and there was death in the vision.
‘Karyn, now!’ Gavin shouted, breaking comm silence.
The hunter turned in Gavin’s direction. Karyn raised her weapon. She couldn’t miss.
Before Adam could blink, the spear impaled the creature, deploying its grapple on the far side of its body.
The hunter arched in agony, subdermal lightning bolts of pain shooting away from the entry wound. Karyn hooked the end of the spooling wire to the winch.
Then she activated the current.
Thousands of volts seared through the hunter, turning its belly into a coruscating chaos of suffering.
Adam had seen enough, and sprang to action.
It began with a march – then a sprint, as fast as the mech would allow – around the perimeter of Orpheus, rounding the bend just as a tentacle knocked Gavin’s EVAM over, sending several large tanks of compressed oxygen flying across the deck.
‘Gavin!’ Karyn screamed. ‘Do it!’
Adam wasn’t sure what he was doing; pure instincts compelled him. But before he could reach him, Gavin’s EVAM was up, aiming the harpoon.
Again, the hunter recoiled from the impaling shot, then froze as more current flowed in.
Adam accelerated his charge, but Gavin timed a perfect swing of the EVAM’s powerful arm at him, connecting at the shoulder and knocking the Pegasus clean off its tripeds. Adam was slammed into his harness as he crashed into the deck.
‘Little shit,’ Gavin said. ‘Karyn! The winch!’
Flipping himself over, Adam saw the cables begin to retract, hauling the struggling hunter towards Orpheus.
Viola, who had been trying to reach Adam, was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In a desperate spasm of pain, the hunter flailed a wild tentacle. It smashed into her with such force that her EVAM tumbled end over end before smashing into the deck. The Orpheus winches were working hard, but the beast was tiring.
Adam rushed towards Viola’s downed mech, checking it for damage. As he did, Karyn gasped.
‘Holy God,’ Karyn whispered, when a great shadow fell over Adam, just like it had before when …
He reeled around, full of hope.
There, looming above the rig and surrounded by a furious pack of hunters, was …
‘… Pegasus!’ Adam exclaimed.
The beast’s underside unleashed an angry pulse of light.
NO
The hunters attacked, lashing at the deck. Some had attached themselves to the suspension cables. Others were ripping anything that resembled a transmitter off the deck.
‘Lycidas, abort, abort,’ Gavin cried. ‘Send the pulse!’
Adam turned over and shielded Viola with his own mech.
‘Don’t look,’ he said. ‘You can’t help them.’
Gavin switched on his fire control radar. The hunters had blocked their routes back to the sleds.
‘Lycidas, come in!’ he said, panic in his voice. ‘We’re under attack! Send the pulse!’
Captain Mohib’s cold voice answered.
‘What do you mean, abort?’ he said. ‘Why can’t I see what’s happening? Is the specimen trapped or not?’
The last camera on the rig was ripped from its post by enraged hunters. Adam saw Viola’s eyes regain focus; she was breathing fast, and then shrieked as the booming sound of an EVAM cannon cut into the Zeus air.
Adam saw its tracer rounds chase a hunter across the sky.
‘Run!’ Gavin cried.
Karyn switched on the white noise emitter, freezing some hunters midflight. They convulsed helplessly as the current swept them past the rig; others began hurling themselves at the deck, sending
metal skidding with each terrifying impact.
‘Lycidas!’ Karyn screamed. ‘Help us!’
‘Did … you … capture one?’ Captain Mohib repeated.
Suddenly, Viola stood upright and marched towards Orpheus. Before Adam could warn her, she had ripped open its panels and plunged the mech’s hands inside. After a moment, the electrical current paralysing the trapped hunter ceased. It went limp, flapping in the wind, held in place only by the harpoon tethers.
Adam heard the horrible sound of shrieking, snapping metal; the entire deck shuddered beneath his feet as Pegasus wrapped its enormous tentacles around the radio tower and ripped it off, hurling it over the side.
Then Karyn really screamed.
A tentacle had lashed around her EVAM, raising her high above Orpheus. Pegasus brought her close to its skin, regarding her as Gavin raked cannon rounds across its flesh.
Karyn tried to defend herself with her own guns, firing wildly as Pegasus shook her.
Then Adam’s vision exploded into stars; his lungs suddenly had no air. A devastating blow to his midsection had knocked him flat on his back. Wet, excruciating pain spread through his legs and hips.
The mech’s UI warned that the leg actuators were destroyed; severe structural damage had been incurred in the torso; but the reactor was unaffected, and there was no breach. The stray cannon round had pushed the armour plating in, displacing everything in front of it, including Adam’s pelvis.
‘Adam!’ Viola cried, rushing towards him.
‘No!’ Adam croaked, his teeth clenched in agony. ‘Stay there!’
Blinking through pain, he looked up in time to see Gavin torn in two.
Then Karyn was thrown over the rails.
‘No!’ she cried in terror. ‘Oh my God! No! No!’
She screamed and screamed, falling towards oblivion.
The hunters came for Viola next. She stumbled backwards, arms raised to protect herself.
‘Stop!’ Adam cried. ‘Please, stop!’
Angry tentacles stopped just centimetres from Viola’s faceplate. Agony was overwhelming Adam. His vision tunnelled as he fought the urge to sleep.
The Tabit Genesis Page 40
