Descent

by Hamish Spiers

  Then Asten started running along the water’s edge, waving his hands around at ground level.

  “Asten!” Selina called out. “What are you doing?”

  “We’ve got to find our supplies!”

  Selina jogged over to her husband and pulled him towards her, wrapping an arm around his waist. “Forget it, honey,” she said. “We’ve lost them.”

  Asten grimaced. “But...”

  His wife silenced his arguments with a kiss. “Come on. Let’s go and lie down. We’ll see how things look in the morning.”

  Asten sighed and clasped her hand. “All right.”

  Smiling in the dark, Selina guided him up the beach until she was sure they were above the high tide line. Then they lay down on the sand and shut their eyes. Despite his anxieties, Asten fell asleep straightaway and Selina followed soon afterwards.

  Lord Erama looked at the data again and pursed his lips.

  Expected device total: 150

  Devices found: 104

  Devices remaining: 46

  They were making progress and over the past hour or so, he had begun to feel almost optimistic about their ability to deal with the danger. However, there was so much uncertainty about it all since when the Hie’shi task force would reach Imraehi space and when the Imraehi would decide the matter were both unknown entities. He and all the personnel still in Kerali were playing a game of chance and the devices could be detonated at any moment for all they knew. However, there was also the question as to what any one of these devices, if detonated, was capable of doing. Could the remaining ones do enough damage to destroy the spaceport? Could they destroy any of the buildings in the surrounding city? He didn’t know and even the demolitions experts conceded their own guesses were limited. The damage depended on the material of the surrounding structures, the exact locations of the remaining explosives throughout the spaceport, the proximity of nearby power sources and several other factors. Without knowing the exact location of the devices, guesses were meaningless.

  Then there was the other problem that had been plaguing him for the better part of the day. He switched the communicator on again. “Mauritz?”

  “I read you.”

  “I want to conduct another sweep of the shield generator.”

  “We went over that building twice,” the security chief reminded him. “It was clean. Besides, all the devices we’ve discovered have been here in the spaceport.”

  Lord Erama sighed. “I know that. But it feels like we’re missing something. The shield generator would make a far better target for the Imraehi than the spaceport.”

  “Perhaps that’s the problem,” Mauritz suggested. “The Imraehi may have realized it was too obvious. As I said, we did search it twice.”

  “All right,” Lord Erama said. “You’re quite right. I’m sorry for the interruption.”

  “It’s all right, Lord Erama,” Mauritz replied. “Uh... is that all?”

  “Yes, that’s all,” Lord Erama said. “Thank you, Mauritz.”

  Selina felt her body warming. It was pleasant at first and she smiled in her sleep as she lay back. Then she blinked. The sun on her skin wasn’t warm; it was hot. She opened her eyes and sat up, the events of the previous night coming back to her as she took in her surroundings.

  The beach was wide with white sands and the water looked as though it were shallow for quite some distance from the shore. Darker spots further out suggested the presence of rocks or maybe clusters of coral and the waves rolled with a gentle lull. She wondered whether the ocean had been more turbulent during the night or if it was just her impression of events in the confusion. The currents must have swept everything along at a great rate though. Of their simple but faithful little canoe, the lost supplies and their discarded clothes, there was no sign. Not that it surprised her.

  The sun wasn’t as high in the sky as she had expected though. With the heat emanating off the sand and her bare skin, she had guessed it was nearly midday. However, now she was awake, she judged it to be only mid-morning. “Still hot though,” she murmured, finishing her train of thought aloud.

  She turned to Asten, lying in the sand beside her. He showed no outward sign that he was planning on waking up any time soon. She nudged him.

  “Mm?” he murmured, smiling.

  “Wake up, honey,” Selina said, rolling him onto his side and giving him a kiss.

  Asten sat up, blinking in the bright glare for a moment, looking about him as Selina had done just before, and then his gaze settled on his wife.

  “Good morning,” he said. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”

  Selina shook her head with a grin. “It’s probably been twelve hours at the most since you saw me, honey. And you’ve been asleep the whole time.”

  “Well, those twelve hours were interminable,” Asten told her.

  Selina chuckled. “You looked fine to me.” She stood and offered him a hand up. “Come on. You can’t just lie in the sun all morning. You’ll get sun burnt for sure.”

  “You’ve been lying here the whole time too,” Asten told her.

  “I know,” Selina replied, brushing sand off her skin. She soon gave up the effort. “I want to rinse this sand off me.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Asten replied.

  They strolled to the water and waded out until they were waist deep. Then, after ducking their heads under and splashing around for a bit, they came out feeling much refreshed.

  As they emerged, they took another look at the beach. To the north, about three hundred meters away, there was a small rocky point and then another one immediately behind it in their line of sight but much further away.

  “So that’s the river mouth,” Selina said.

  Asten shrugged. “It must be.”

  Selina turned and pointed south. “And look there!”

  Asten did. There were buildings further down the coast, partially obscured by a headland. Perhaps three or four hours’ walk away.

  “You know, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that’s Port Alema,” Selina said.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised either,” Asten replied. He squinted to keep out the glare. “And look. There’s a flag there. About three hundred meters.”

  Selina frowned. “Yeah, you’re right. Who would put a flag in the middle of nowhere like that?”

  “I’m not sure,” Asten said as they walked up the beach. “It does seem to be in the middle of nowhere, as you said.”

  As they got closer to it, they noticed that it was affixed to a metal box with a hinged lid that was presently closed with a latch.

  “You know,” Asten said, “I think this might be a message for us.”

  “Open it,” Selina told him as they walked up to it.

  Inside, they found another box and, on top of it, a pad. The second box, Asten noticed, was locked with an electronic combination lock.

  “Curious,” he murmured, thumbing on the pad. “But I suppose there’s a message for us on this thing.”

  “So it would seem,” Selina said, looking over his shoulder. “One audio file.”

  Asten drew in a breath and let it out. “Well, I guess we may as well find out what it says.”

  He played the file and they heard Deramar Ardeis’ voice.

  “Lady Erama. Master Asten. It would appear that you have made it out of the jungle none the worse for wear. My scouts reported your progress to me and so I had this little package prepared for you. Inside that box, there are clean clothes, fresh water, another day’s supplies and a communicator unit.”

  Asten eyed the locked box, frowning.

  “It’s locked at the present,” the recording continued. “However, once you have heard all I have to say, the code for the combination lock will be revealed. Before I say anything else though, I must inform you with some regret that the United Frontier appears to be pushing ahead with its offensive against my people sooner than we anticipated. I had hoped that you two would act as emissaries to your people and warn them off such actio
ns. However, as they are forcing our hand, it seems more likely that your task will instead be to tell your misguided friends where they went wrong. But understand this. In crossing the Imraehi, they have brought calamity upon themselves.”

  Selina gripped Asten’s hand and looked at him with trepidation in her gaze. Asten’s eyes showed the same fear.

  “Now,” the recording went on after a short pause, “as for yourselves, what have you learned? Could you have made it down the river without my help? Without the supplies that were given to you before you even commenced your journey? Could you have made a watertight vessel without the sap of the eminently useful Halylithe tree, which I knew was prolific in this area? What have you learned, in short, about the interplay of freedom and opportunity? Would the former have brought you here without the boundless generosity of the latter? You are intelligent enough to understand my point, Master Asten.

  “However, you will have had time enough, I’m sure, to reflect on these questions during the course of your journey. And, no doubt, you will also have seen the ruins in the forest and formed your own thoughts on them. Just remember though, when you reflect on the crimes you discovered there, that human beings, Harskans, Heg-shur, Vaschassi and many others have committed those same crimes in their time as well.

  “And finally, on the admittedly worn subject of freedom and opportunity, I believe that now is an appropriate time to share with you something my father taught me in my younger years. When the Imraehi first discovered the Katarans, they were on the verge of annihilating themselves in a planetary-wide civil war. My people put a stop to this fighting and in doing so, prevented them from orchestrating their own genocide. Something else for you both to consider. Now, the number you wish to know is eight-three-six-one. And this, my friends, is farewell.”

  Asten switched the pad off in disgust. “And I hope you enjoyed your stay,” he muttered. He leaned over the second box and tapped the keys on the combination lock. “Eight-three-six-one. Great.”

  He lifted the lid up and before even looking at the rest of the contents, pulled out two flasks. “Yay. Room temperature water.” He passed one to his wife, opened his own and had a few mouthfuls.

  “Much better,” he said, closing the lid of the bottle.

  “Yes,” Selina agreed, leaning over the box. “Clean clothes. Does that include new underwear too?” She pinched the elastic band of her briefs. “I just realized I’ve been wearing these since we entered orbit.”

  “They should be well broken in then,” Asten said, pulling out the clothes that had been provided for his wife and passing them to her.

  Selina smiled. “That’s boots, honey.”

  “They’ve got those too,” he replied, pointing to the box. “But maybe we’ll wait until we’re off the beach before we put them on.”

  “Speaking of that,” Selina said, discarding the last vestiges of her old clothes and putting on the new ones, “where are we planning to go next? Do you really think it’s a good idea to head into Port Alema or whatever that city is over there?”

  “Maybe,” Asten said, getting changed as well. “I don’t know.”

  “Hm,” Selina murmured, running her hand over her new shorts. “These clothes are a perfect fit.”

  “I’d say they measured us in our sleep after that interrogation,” Asten replied.

  “How considerate,” Selina said. “And creepy. Anyway, should we check out that city?”

  “I’m thinking,” Asten said. “That asshole said there’s a communicator in this box. So maybe we’ll give Drackson a call and see when he’s going to get off his backside and get us out of here.”

  “Poor Drackson,” Selina said as she finished dressing. “He’s probably got enough on his plate as it is from the sounds of things. What do you think he was really doing when we talked to him?”

  “Investigating weapons smuggling,” Asten said. “He told us.”

  “Yeah but that only sounded like half the story.”

  Asten shrugged. “Maybe. Who knows what he’s up to when he’s playing things close to the chest?”

  Selina gazed down. “I wonder if it has anything to do with the Frontier offensive Ardeis was talking about.” She sighed and looked back at her husband. “Asten, what did he mean? What calamity?”

  Asten sighed too. “I don’t know. I’m afraid to even think about it.”

  “But maybe we can warn everyone.”

  “And tell them what?” Asten countered. “That something bad’s going to happen but we’re fuzzy on the details?”

  Selina opened her mouth to reply and stopped. “Yeah,” she conceded. “I guess a warning wouldn’t be much help, would it?”

  “No,” Asten agreed. “And that’s assuming it’s not too late already.”

  Selina frowned. “You think whatever Ardeis was talking about may have already happened?”

  Asten shrugged. “It’s highly possible.”

  Selina took in a slow breath. “I think we’d better call Drackson now.”

  Asten nodded. He fumbled in the box for the communicator that Ardeis had promised them. “Yeah. I think that would be a very good idea.”

  23. Catastrophe

  “The modifications to the Lady Hawk are complete. A pilot has been assigned and is ready to transport you to your command ship.”

  Deramar Ardeis regarded his colleague with a look of mock disapproval. “Commander Elos. We will shortly be coordinating all our ground and orbital forces simultaneously. I think in the interests of readying ourselves for the task ahead, we should keep to the language of our non-Imraehi comrades. Don’t you?”

  Commander Elos appeared slightly taken aback but only for a moment, being used as it were to his superior’s whims. “Yes, sir.”

  Ardeis smiled. “Still. Thank you, Commander. I shall leave the ground defenses in your more than capable hands.”

  “Um,” Commander Elos hesitated. “We never did find that Hie’shi. If he’s planning anything else -”

  “I doubt it’ll make a difference at this stage, Commander.”

  “Right, sir.”

  “Good luck, Commander Elos,” Ardeis said, giving him a curt nod.

  “To you as well, Lord Ardeis.”

  Admiral Seirvek nodded as the commander of his flagship entered his quarters. “Your report, Captain Areim.”

  “The long range scouts have returned,” Areim replied, handing a pad to his superior. “Their information appears to correlate with the intelligence the Harskan provided.”

  “Yes,” Seirvek said, looking over the scouts’ report, “I see I was wrong about Drackson. He is very good. Now, let’s look at what we have here. The Keyleich Sisters. Segreiv’s gang. The Shadow Masters, the stupidest name for a pirate gang I’ve ever come across...”

  “All old friends too,” Areim said. “Actually, the Planetary Security Network and the Justice Department would love to get their hands on any of those gangs.”

  “The combined United Frontier security network as well,” Seirvek replied. “And several Federation worlds have issued orders to destroy any vessel with the Keyleich Sisters’ markings on sight. If nothing else, this operation certainly promises to be a good opportunity to clean up a lot of unfinished business.” He put the pad down and looked at the captain. “And what of the Imraehi’s own vessels?”

  “Twenty-eight large warships and somewhere in the vicinity of thirty light cruisers and frigates.”

  Seirvek nodded. “So that fits too. It does seem a bit excessive to me. And then there are the estimates on the mines in orbit. They’re simply staggering. I understand the need for taking precautions to protect oneself but that many mines that close together is a large-scale disaster waiting to happen.” He gazed at the floor for a moment before looking up again. “And these warships... they’re like the Phalamkian Battle Titans?”

  “They appear to be, Admiral,” Areim replied. “They’ve just evolved slightly differently over the past few hundred years.”

  “I
wonder if the Imraehi made the switch to dual layered shielding like the rest of us,” Seirvek mused. Then, with a shrug, he climbed to his feet. “I suppose we’ll find out when we test fire a few electron shockwave charges. Captain Areim, we end communication silence now. Signal the task force to move to battle readiness.”

  “What the hell? What the hell? What the hell?”

  Drackson frowned and strode to Alia’s workstation. “What’s going on?”

  “What’s going on?” Alia exclaimed, gesturing at the several screens in front of her. “Jiang appears to be drifting in geosynchronous orbit with the planet and Asten and Selina have just gone off the radar entirely. According to my logs here, they appeared on the coast and then... whoosh. Gone.”

  “Right,” Drackson said. “And where’s Jiang? If she’s orbiting the planet -”

  “The computer’s crosschecking her position with our data on all that stuff those crazy bastards have in orbit,” Alia told him. She looked at one screen where a moving bar showed the progress of this crosscheck. As Drackson watched, the bar reached the end of the screen and the results came up.

  Drackson drew in a sharp breath. “She’s on Orbital Six. That’s one of the Imraehi’s floating defense platforms.”

  The shuttle touched down on the metal deck, its landing gear locking in place. Then, with a hiss of escaped air, the main hatch opened.

  Several non-uniformed personnel appeared around the ship. They entered it and retrieved a number of crates and, after loading them onto trolleys, they pushed them into the corner of the hangar by a service corridor. As they repeated the process over the next few minutes, the amount of crates grew to a substantial number. Then, somewhere in the middle of them all, a young woman climbed out of one and disappeared down the corridor.

  “We’re almost there!” Naima called from the bridge, her voice echoing through the corridors.

  “Right,” Drackson called back. “Thanks, Naima.” He turned back to the screens in front of him.

  “We’ve got to do something, Drackson,” Alia said.

  Drackson smiled at his friend. “We’re not giving up on her, Alia. I just need to think.”