The ring slid perfectly over the velociter coil and he loaded another three, each time carefully reaching inside to retrieve a new positronic storage ring. Once the load was full, Ethan carried the coil gun and the threaded fuel rings back towards the cargo hold, walking slowly and delicately down the path, solenoid boots silenced in the airless environment, his feet carefully feeling the station’s centrifugal forces. Ethan made his way for the cargo’s locking holds and neurophased with one of the screens, then aimed the coil gun at the cargo orb consignment and waited for Kelly’s signal.
‘It’s done.’ Ethan suddenly neuromitted. ‘That’s as much antimatter as we can spare. Get ready for overmass.’
‘We all said our prayers?’ Kelly asked. The silence of the bridge told her that it was cruel to hold off with anticipation now. It was time to put their method to the test.
Ethan switched on the magnetic flow, firing positron particles at the drills. He watched as micro-sparks occasionally twinkled, subtly releasing motes of light as they collided with the black alloy. He was glad to see it too, it was a good sign that the overmass was working and the Obsiduranium was growing heavier. Station klaxons began to indicate a strain on the tower’s centripetal force. Emergency alarms bleated through the command bridge now and he heard it through his helmet. Locking mechanisms shattered and warped. Support prongs broke into space and strained titanium cracked like ice releasing air pressure from the fissures. The umbilical snapped, pulling the airlock from its hinges left tenaciously attached to the golden ship. A graceless, confused batch of military security came with the floats of structural damage, swimming into the void aimlessly, laser cutters flashing through the darkness. Pawel adjusted their orientation and arrowed the ship towards the tower’s end. He worked assiduously to stabilise the ship as the Cosmo tower vibrated from pressure leaks and jets of escaping atmosphere, and silent burgeoning flames erupted from the tower outside. Steel components and alloys showered into space as the structure rattled them around.
‘Fuel traps are sealed!’ Pawel shouted above the din of impacts echoing through the Griffin’s hull. ‘Ethan, get out of cargo and belt up. We have pulled away from docking. Debris is everywhere and shit has hit the fan.’
Anxiously they waited, shifting around in the debris while Omicron’s administration figured out what the hell just happened to the Cosmo tower. Pawel piloted the shuttle on chemical thrusters through scintillating embers and radioactive flames, blasting clouds of gas forth and throwing the ship into reverse. They fell away from the tower’s tip and Pawel spun the ship’s nose a full one-eighty, facing towards a local velox point.
‘This is Omicron to Griffin’s Claw, you are not cleared to leave orbit.’ Said a new voice, ‘return to the Cosmo towers immediately. Failure to comply will be met with extreme prejudice.’
Just then, the augmented hologram field once producing the ship’s oriented celestial position dissipated to reform new shapes which weaved and peeled to construct the image of Anton Regallio, an image morose and yet withstanding some dormant ferocity seeking its way through any chinks in his otherwise professional composure.
‘The personnel aboard your starnavis are terrorists,’ Anton stated directly. ‘Our scans confirm the illicit crew. There are no negotiations here. You are to relinquish these two criminals immediately.’
‘Weyl fukkmi,’ Caspian scathed over the Griffin’s network from somewhere down in the ship’s galley. ‘Dees ees an honour. Haf-lah Anton Regallio, howseet?’
‘The damage to my station is irreparable. I don’t know how you pulled yourselves free like that but you are in substantial trouble. We have Rail- velociter targeting your starnavis, and all local saltus-carousels have been deactivated. Long story short, you won’t be able to velox out of here and your main aft engines won’t get you far enough to escape our militarised platforms. You need to surrender or you will die.’
‘Yew sure about thet?’ Caspian broadcast.
‘Don’t test me. You harbour intergalactic terrorists and refuse to follow the procedure mandated as an agreement for staying here. When you cut off Omicron’s safety, you are open to a lot of enemies, I can’t protect you henceforth. You realise that this place is a hub, the last political hub for people like you? You will be black-listed, if not killed. We will inform all your enemies of future activities, should we cross you again. Alternatively, we can offer you asylum and no harm can come to you under my jurisdiction, but you know what the price is. You have to give over those terrorists. Think wisely Griffin’s Claw.’
‘Fuk sayk Keyl!’ Caspian was pulling at his dreads in frustration. ‘We don eevin know theese peeple.’
‘Steady as she goes, Pawel.’ Nitro informed.
‘You are making a very poor choice,’ Regallio flatly disclosed on the communication heads-up display.
‘Get us up to speed, Pawel,’ Kelly commanded, and The Griffin’s Claw escaped Omicron’s Cosmo tower reach and arrowed away from Jupiter’s orbit.
The Omicron’s Rail- Velociter aligned with the shuttle as the dazzling engine stream pushed them on, vectoring quickly out of orbit, but still well within range of the station’s weapon systems.
‘Madam Kelly Banner, I employ you to surrender. I do not like being put into a situation whereby I must kill but my hands are tied here and you are a great threat. Believe, I will do it!’
‘I believe you will,’ Kelly said, nervous about her present recalcitrance and pulling the webbing over her chest. ‘Prepare for a veloces, Pawel.’
‘Preparing for velox.’
‘There are no saltus-carousels!’ Anton reminded. ‘I shut them all down. You cannot connect with saltus rings. Repeat, you cannot connect with saltus rings. You’re not jumping anywhere.’
‘Kelly, this is very bad idea...’ Pawel whimpered.
‘Make the velox!’
‘You are in our sights,’ Regallio said, ‘the rest is down to fate. A tragic loss.’
‘GO PAWEL, VELOX, NOW!’ Kelly screamed.
The starnavis Casmir batteries shivered under pressure as particles were drawn through The Griffin’s Claw’s external gills. In an instant, a large metallic ring snapped silently open from the midsection of the starnavis, expanding to a diameter that doubled the ship’s width, splitting into a clock-work of rings that began wheeling and flipping in layers around the starnavis, oscillating with dense superfluid and electro gravity within.
‘What the hell…?’ Anton Regallio exclaimed when he saw the view of The Griffin’s Claw on the forward screen of his operations room. His team stared as they realised The Griffin’s Claw had suddenly grown a giant hoop section of polar saltus-carousels. And all at once focus fusion drives magnetised the toroid into a frenzied spin, folding space at the front of the vessel and expanding the area behind. And the engines fired up to full throttle. In a flash, The Griffin’s Claw tapered into a vanishing point, leaving a wake of Cherenkov blue, a fading chevron stream pointing into the dark, shimmering gradually out of existence.
-51-
The Perigrussia Skybus came down not over a city, but in a huge industrial camp. Its buildings were constructed of stone and timber and the misfit addition of high-technology; of surveillance drones that circled the area, of magnetic fences establishing a field around the perimeter and a large elevated landing zone for V-TOL craft and helicopters. A mass of wires slewed for miles through the muddy grounds like snakes, huge six inch power cables running out of power generator sheds that seemed to glow and pulse with an ethereal fire within. The Perigrussia Skybus approached as alarms sounded from the camp’s watchtowers and the electro-magnetic defences deactivated.
Vadim snapped a thick silver bracelet onto each of Kyo’s wrists and stared down his nose at him.
‘Now,’ he told Kyo, holding up a device that was shaped similar to a wand. ‘They are called ferromag-cuffs. This is called stasis diviner.’ He said waving the wand. ‘Go walk over there.’
‘Screw you!’ Kyo defied.
Vadim activated the stasis diviner and Kyo suddenly found his bracelets were drawn down to the floor. He huffed out a long breath as they slammed against the ground heavily. Kyo pulled against them as hard as he could, doing his very best to stand, but the bracelets were unyieldingly positioned.
‘Try harder, move!’ Vadim teased with caustic laughter.
Kyo ground his teeth and pulled away as best he could as the Russianomai boxer broke into hysterics and Hattle came scurrying in just in time to see the hilarity. Hattle moved behind the gene-freak, putting his foot on his tail.
‘That hurt?’ he asked.
Kyo didn’t answer. He found a place on the floor to look at and wondered how much pressure he could take without showing that it did. Hattle pressed the tip of his foot down harder and he groaned through his teeth, eyes watering from the pain.
‘Just say stop and I will.’ Hattle offered.
‘Okay! Stop stop!’ Kyo quickly shouted.
Hattle walked away laughing and shaking his head, enjoying himself immensely.
‘So, he’s your dog now.’ Hattle said to Vadim. ‘Do you have a collar for him? Could work better.’
‘Collar would kill him,’ Vadim replied with a trenchant glare. ‘There is big magneto-field around camp. Want to train him not break his neck.’
Krupin stepped into the cargo bay with Pierce and held out his hand.
‘Not a toy!’ He told his student. Vadim handed Krupin the stasis diviner and the large man released Kyo, allowing him to stand.
‘Come,’ he told him. ‘This thing is precaution. I won’t use unless you make me.’
Rubbing his aching wrists Kyo climbed to his feet and marched angrily over to Krupin and down the cargo ramp. Pierce sauntered into the cargo bay, leering lustfully as the cheerleaders arrived. Krupin started down the cargo bay ramp and the others fell in line behind him, his cheerleaders the last out of the ship.
As they crossed the mud Kyo had almost slipped twice on his feet and his lower skinny legs were caked in the stuff from the knees down. He steadied his balance as Krupin marched him past various log cabins in the late evening sky. A cold wind was blowing over the howling flat landscape and it gently rocked the spot-lights angled down from watch-towers. Kyo saw in the cabins’ many heads of people undergoing some kind of education. He saw martial artists training. He saw body builders lifting parts of machines in mechanic workshops where the rattling of power generators whirled louder than the men’s heave-ho’s. They were all uniformed in a single jumpsuit and they all wore ferromag-cuffs like his.
‘This way,’ Krupin said, dragging Kyo’s top and leading him a different direction.
*
‘Here is our set-up,’ said Krupin opening the doors to a large cabin room. It was no bigger than thirty metres, all completely made of wood and occupied with old plastic desks and cheap metal and plastic chairs and there was the distinct smell of damp and rot that tainted the air with a grotty aspect. Most of the Western wall was fitted with opticidyne fixtures, smart screens and real time responsive projection mapping technology that sometimes worked well and sometimes didn’t.
Kyo stood obediently at the door and Krupin bound the bangles together, mitigating his attempts at a struggle. Krupin approached the boy with a serious expression.
‘Make one sound, utter one word,’ he threatened, ‘I will have you fed to dogs.’
‘Yes sir,’ Kyo nodded fearfully.
‘Good.’ Krupin said, petting his head. ‘Stay right here.’
And Krupin closed the door locking Kyo into a dark corridor while they conducted business. As the doors shut Kyo’s arms dropped earth wise, pulled down by some magnetic force beneath the mud stained and rotting plywood wood. He pulled against the magnetic shackles and grunted but they were like anchors, his wrists firmly inside. Defiantly and tenaciously, he struggled against them, hefting his feet by his wrists and tightening his teeth, pulling back on the magnetic forces and with all his strength and a reddening face managing only to budge their position slightly.
Pierce Lewis looked around and nodded in agreement.
‘You can stand here while we discuss what happens now,’ said Krupin, pointing to a clearing in the centre of the room. Pierce stood where instructed and Hattle joined him. By the door, Vadim turned down the lights and Krupin folded his arms, popping a tooth pick into his mouth.
The opticidyne screen on the longest wall fluctuated with colours, a screen saver dancing within the confines of the display.
‘So, you want to be a ruler of a city?’ Krupin said, walking around Pierce.
‘I want my city back, yes,’ he said. ‘It’s my inheritance and it was stolen from me by the anarchists.’
Krupin was smiling vaguely.
‘Those Blue Lycans killed my men,’ said Krupin. ‘And one day I’ll get them back for that. One day, I will avenge them. And that boy in the other room is going to help me become a Blue Lycan slayer.’
Kyo could hear them. He peered through the gap in the poorly aligned doors, its old frame warped over the years. He caught his breath, still attempting to muster up whatever vestiges of Laux’s serum were still in his blood, but he doubted there was nothing his body hadn’t burned off in those first minutes of swallowing that thing.
‘Sure,’ Pierce nodded.
‘You should kill him,’ Hattle stated.
‘Shut up!’ Pierce said to his side.
‘You should hand him over to the Atominii and have him incinerated…’
‘I SAID SHUT IT!’ Pierce barked, grabbing Hattle’s shirt. And Hattle pulled free, breathing sternly through his nostrils and staring at Pierce with eyes filled with hate.
‘I’m negotiating,’ he told his son, lowering his voice now. ‘Don’t fuck this up for me.’
Krupin began to laugh now as Vadim crossed the room, also mordantly smiling as he moved to stand by the far wall.
‘Such spiteful relationship you two have,’ Krupin noted, beginning a train of thought as he stood before the large screen. ‘Now me…I have no children. This place is where the unwanted come to be put to use. I give them purpose. I teach them to fight. Those who most respect me, I give the best treatment. Those who understand my vision, I give the most compassion.’ Krupin smiled wide, his golden teeth scintillating insipidly in the dim light. ‘Vadim is closest thing I’ve had to a son. But I am sorry to tell you, I would never talk to him with such disrespect.’
Pierce seemed confused. Was he being lectured? Hattle was equally confused, it was the first time he’d heard anybody speak up to his father outside the squalls and name callings from the anarchists, but who gave a shit about them? This guy was like his father in so many ways, where’d this disagreement come from?
‘Respect is big word, Mr Lewis,’ said Krupin with his hands behind his back. ‘I do not show respect unwittingly. It must be earned. We all seek respect. Thus we all should work to make it. But I do not mind telling you I have none for you.’
‘What?’ Pierce gasped. ‘How dare you-’
‘Oh, I dare!’ Krupin glared, and Hattle saw the psychopathy in his eyes, the menace of a look that many had seen moment before their death. And Hattle realised then the shit they were in. ‘You are no longer home, Mr Lewis. You are no longer in the anarchist safety. You are in my world now.’
‘But – I thought we were partners? I helped you damnit! I HELPED YOU!’
‘Please keep down your voice,’ Krupin hissed on the brink of a headache, ‘electromagnetism in here is painful enough.’
‘You are going back on our deal?’ he asked. ‘Why? Just why?’
‘Because you are drunken sot!’ He smiled slightly. ‘You disrespect your son who is a fine fighter with much potential. You abuse your role in life and have no compassion. I hate anarchists as much as you. However, I at least respect their idealistic cause in Cerise Timbers. It won’t last, unfortunately for them. It can’t last. But it will not be you to destroy it. No, you have not the vision. You have not the know how to m
anipulate. You cannot understand how power is acquired. You think running to Atominii for help will garner respect? No! They will laugh at you…pathetic slime.’
‘I have insiders!’ Pierce shouted. ‘I’m working the angles. You’ll ruin everything!’
‘You have already done it yourself.’
Vadim moved into the centre of the room now and aimed his rifle on Hattle and Pierce, pushing the nozzle right up to Pierce’s face.
‘NO!’ Kyo suddenly screamed.
Krupin turned his head to the door and decided the gene-freak should see this. It would be an expression of his vengeance. Krupin opened the door and deactivating the ferromag-cuffs to drag the gene-freak to his feet. He threw him down before them, anchoring the shackles back to the floor.
‘Don’t do it!’ Kyo pleaded. ‘Don’t do it, don’t shoot them.’
Hattle froze with a stupid look on his face. Pierce dropped quickly to his knees.
‘What’s happening Krupin?’ he yelled, pulling Hattle down to his knees beside him. ‘Vadim? This is not how our negotiations should take place.’
‘Oh, yes,’ Krupin smiled picking at his teeth as he looked over to Kyo. ‘Gene-freak is to see how I can extend mercy and how I apply discipline.’
Chaos Cipher Page 48
