by I G Hulme
But the larger section continued its course straight towards the broken moon.
“It’s going to hit us!” called out Mellarnne. “All hands, brace for impact!”
Like some slow-motion catastrophe, the vast wreckage of the Luminal battleship came inexorably onward, ploughing through the debris field, smashing into asteroids, sending them flying off in all directions.
For a brief moment, it seemed as though it was on a direct collision course. But then, as it came closer and closer, Ryann saw the wreck slide past them, barely three hundred metres from their positions.
With a cataclysmic crash, the remains of the ship impacted upon the surface of the broken moon.
Ryann just had time to see the golden warship disappearing off into the distance before a wave of rock and ash erupted out from the moon, filling the space around them and hiding them from view.
The Defiance lurched violently in the the shockwave; the lights flickered and went out, plunging the control room into blackness.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THE HOLY EMPIRE
“My god, what the hell just happened,” croaked Ryann as he slumped back into his chair. “Was that a Navy fleet? I never knew they had so many ships left.”
“They don’t.”
Grayell spoke as though he were unaware of his own words; he looked as pale as a ghost. “Those weren’t Navy ships.”
He was sitting at the head of the conference table in the briefing room just off the control centre. They had waited for the past few minutes in a strained silence, but to their relief, had seen no more ships beyond the flashes of battle that lit up the debris-field. For the moment at least, it seemed that they were hidden.
Ryann went to speak, but at that moment a bustle of officers came in through the door led by Mellarnne. They all took their seats around the table, and Ryann’s mood lifted as he saw Angelique file in behind Anders and some of the other fighter captains. But it was quickly replaced with a pang of jealousy as Mara Kobo appeared just behind her.
Upon seeing Ryann, Angelique smiled and approached him, slumping down heavily in the seat at his side.
“Good to see you with a bit more colour,” she whispered, leaning in close as the officers settled down at the table. “You looked like crap earlier.” She laughed quietly, but Ryann couldn’t share her levity. He found himself staring angrily at Mara Kobo, seated in the chair across the table.
“What the hell’s going on Ryann?” continued Angelique. Ryann felt himself bristle as he thought she were confronting him about his mood. But then she continued, “We’ve been hearing all kinds of stuff about another fleet appearing out of nowhere, taking on the Lumina and giving them a good kicking — is it true?”
Ryann went to reply, but before he could speak, Mellarnne’s voice cut across the briefing room.
“It certainly is true Angelique,” he said with a smile, adding, “Though I’m not certain that they gave the Lumina a good kicking.”
The room fell silent and Angelique lowered her gaze towards the table in embarrassment.
“I had thought that this was a briefing for senior officers,” continued Mellarnne, raising a questioning eyebrow towards Anders.
The gruff pilot just waved him away with a lazy gesture.
“I promoted her — to admiral,” he muttered sarcastically, leaning back in his chair. “Can we just get on with what’s happening? Are the Lumina on the run or not? Should we be helping out this fleet while they have the advantage?”
Mellarnne simply shrugged and turned towards Grayell who was still sitting deep in thought at the end of the table; he didn’t reply.
Mellarnne continued in a weary tone, “Now that we’re hidden in the debris-field, all we can tell is that by the way the clouds are lighting up, the battle is showing no signs of abating. We can’t tell who is kicking who.”
“But who the hell are they?” replied Anders in his gruff voice. “Every report we had told us that Unity was on its knees. They couldn’t hope to field a fleet on this scale. And unless I’ve been hearing some gross exaggerations, they haven’t got anything on the scale of these ships. If you ask me it sounds more like a battle-fleet from the New Crusades a hundred years ago.”
Ryann grinned at the thought, but then the look on Mellarnne’s face caused him to pause.
“You’re not being serious are you?” he asked uncertainly.
“It was an Empire fleet to rival the Millennia Wars of old.”
Grayell’s voice sounded frail and lifeless, and he still stared into nothingness as though reliving the sight of that golden armada.
“Empire?” scoffed Ryann, looking up at the grim-faced officers seated around the table. “Surely, you don’t mean the Holy Empire? You can’t be serious — I kind of thought the Crusades were all a bit of a myth really.”
“Jeez, what were they teaching you at all those fancy schools Grayell kept sending you to?” asked Mellarnne with a sarcastic smile.
“I barely made it out of the Academy at sixteen,” laughed Ryann. “I might have gone back one day — if it hadn’t been torched by the Lumina. No, who am I kidding. But, I was taught that we drove the Empire all the way back from Earthspace to the Third Spiral.”
“I have to admit, I’m with Ryann on this one,” cut in Angelique. “I was never much of a one for history lessons at school, but didn’t we beat the Holy Empire over a hundred years ago?”
“Well, the New Crusades were no myth — they were very real I can assure you, and the last of the Rift Wars only finished a little over sixty years ago now. My grandfather was a bomber pilot over at the Battle of the Alhasseen Trench. It wasn’t much of a myth for him.”
“But, we won though, right? I thought Unity beat the Empire.”
“We did, we pushed them right back to the Aula system. They surrendered when our fleets were at the gates to New Rome. Ever since the cessation, the Holy Empire cut itself off from the rest of us and expanded out beyond the Third Spiral.”
“But, that’s over half a galaxy away. What are they doing here? And more to the point, how is that fleet here — I thought we beat them didn’t we?”
“If by we you mean the alliance of the core systems with the various autonomous system states, the tech corporations and the trade guilds to form the Unity government we now know, then yes, we won the expansionist war. We overran the systems colonised by the missionaries that set out from Earth at the beginning of the Great Expansion.” Mellarnne gave a self-satisfied grin at the sound of his own explanation. “We fought the new empire to a standstill, until we’d taken every system that we now call the Outer Spiral Borderlands. After they sued for peace, that’s when they cut themselves off and destroyed all the trade lanes. Surveillance suggested that they struck out away from Earthspace, colonising the systems beyond the Spiral, but they never tried to expand back into Unity space again.
“Until now.”
“So, how have they managed to amass a fleet like this after we wiped them out?” asked Ryann.
“Believe me, we never wiped them out,” replied Grayell in a leaden tone, finally looking around as though he were only just aware of the others. “That’s just Unity propaganda that they teach kids in school nowadays. Those dreadnoughts — we’ve seen them before, haven’t we Mellarnne? A thousand deep off the ice-fields of Planet Aula, guarding the Holy Emperor in his palace fortress.”
“You’ve been to Aula, the gateway planet?” exclaimed Anders sitting forwards in his chair. “No outsiders have been into the Empire since the cessation — everyone knows that.”
Grayell merely glanced across to Mellarnne and gave him a knowing smile.
“Well, let’s say that we didn’t really choose to go,” replied Mellarnne with a grin. “We were invited by the Holy See to the audience chamber on Aula — you know it’s a kilometre long — it can house over a million pilgrims; it felt a bit empty with just the two of us.”
Ryann stared open-mouthed at the two old men.
“Th
at’s a story for another day,” muttered Grayell self-consciously. “For now, we’re going to have to tread carefully. It looks as though the Holy Empire are striking back against the Lumina, and we’ve found ourselves in the middle of their war.”
“Do you think it’s an invasion? They could be taking advantage of the Navy’s weakened state against the Lumina.”
“Or they could be allies — we just don’t know.”
“So, should we try and make contact?”
“No,” said Grayell firmly. “We have our own course, and the Empire is not to be trusted. If their attack on the Lumina can distract them, then fine, but we stay hidden.”
The room fell into a heavy silence
“And what about that Luminal ship that crashed alongside us? Any signs of life from it?” asked Grayell eventually.
“Nothing so far — power’s out, it looks completely dead,” replied Mellarnne.
“Well, keep a close eye on it, we don’t want them getting a transmission out and alerting the rest of their fleet to our position.”
“We should go over to it.”
Ryann’s voice made the others look around in surprise.
“If there are any survivors,” he continued, “think of what we could learn — about their plans and capabilities.”
“You heard Mellarnne,” muttered Grayell. “That Luminal’s dead, there’s nothing left. We’ve got more important things to think about.”
“But, we don’t know what’s left,” protested Ryann. “This is an amazing opportunity to get aboard and find out more about the Lumina. We might be able to get some of their systems back online, study their technology.”
“It doesn’t work like that Ryann,” replied Grayell impatiently. “Once the Lumina are gone from a ship, they’re gone. They don’t leave anything behind. That ship’s nothing more than a husk.”
“But, you don’t know without looking — there might be survivors!”
“I said forget it!”
Grayell hit his hand down upon the table and the sudden noise trailed off into an awkward silence. After a moment, he turned to Mellarnne.
“I think now would be a good opportunity to get the refugee problem under control. We can hide up here for a few days at least and concentrate on getting everybody safe and housed. We need to clear the interior of all that wreckage as best we can.”
“It’s going to be difficult,” replied Mellarnne, his eyes glancing briefly across to Ryann. “It’s going to take weeks not days. We haven’t nearly enough accommodation for them. The control station is almost filled to capacity.”
“Just use whatever you can — strip the New Eden ships out to make more space, use cargo pods, storage containers — just get everyone seen to or we’ll have a riot on our hands.”
“I can’t believe I’m hearing this,” cursed Ryann under his breath. “We’re in the middle of a war zone and all you can talk about is building houses! This is crazy!” He got angrily to his feet, his chair scraping loudly across the floor.
“Ryann,” interjected Mellarnne, looking to Grayell with a questioning gaze.
“Let him go,” murmured Grayell without looking up. “He doesn’t understand.”
Ryann felt another surge of anger welling up inside. He went to reply, and then shook his head in frustration before storming out of the briefing room.
CHAPTER NINE
CONFRONTATION
“Look, I’m sorry for flying off the handle back there in the briefing this morning, but I told you before, I can’t have you undermining my authority all the time. I need you on my side.”
Grayell caught up with Ryann as he picked his way through the busy hangar, down on the flight deck levels.
“Even when I think you’re wrong?”
Grayell’s unshaven jaw clenched.
“I’m not wrong on this one Ryann. You’ve got to believe me. More than anyone alive — I know the Lumina. Now, we could do with your help — Anders needs good pilots to help setup the refugee structure — what do you say?”
“How can you be so sure that this Luminal ship isn’t different to the others?” pressed Ryann, his voice rising in anger. Grayell gave a sigh of frustration and turned to go.
“What about the transmission? The Luminal ship was trying to hail us before that Empire dreadnought took it out. I’ve been listening back to that message — I think they realised who we were, and were asking for our help.”
“Ryann,” sighed Grayell impatiently. “Will you just stop? You’re hearing what you want to hear — nothing more. There’s nothing aboard that damn derelict!” The hangar crew nearest to them looked up in alarm as Grayell’s voice rose to a shout, then quickly went back to their duties.
“You can’t know that!” spat Ryann in frustration. “Just let me go over and investigate — I can take a shuttle — get a look up close. Where’s the risk —”
“Ryann, I’m warning you — it’s too dangerous. No one leaves this ship — that’s an order!”
“But —”
“Just get some rest and try and be of some help.”
Ryann watched his father stalk off out of the hangar.
“Well, I guess that now you know how it feels when you’re right, and the ones in charge are wrong.”
Ryann turned in surprise to see the imposing figure of Carl Ransome standing a little way off. He was working at the open engine compartment of a fighter, replacing a turbine blade. He stepped back from the ship, wiping the oil from his hands with an old rag. His unshaven face was covered in grime and sweat and he wore that perennial arrogant grin.
“What do you want?” snapped Ryann angrily, turning to leave.
“Hey, I’m with you on this one,” replied Ransome. “I heard what you said at the briefing, and I think you’re right — we should be looking over that Luminal wreck for anything that could be used to our advantage. What you said back there took courage; it’s hard going up against your old man.”
He looked back up at the battered fighter he was working on.
“See this old crate here?” he muttered, absently batting the corroded hull with his fist. “I’ve got a list as long as my arm for replacement parts — she’s practically held together with rust. Now I’ve been searching the stores for spares for the better part of a week now — nothing. So where are we going to get spares for a C-18 this far behind enemy lines?
“We need to scavenge what we can, when we get the chance. And it seems like now might just be the ideal opportunity. Who knows what we’ll find aboard that derelict? They got drone ships by the thousand haven’t they? Surely we can find something of use?”
“So, I agree with you,” grunted Ryann mistrustfully. “You heard Grayell — no-one’s allowed to go across to the wreck.”
Ransome’s smile broadened.
“Don’t you think that’s a bit strange?” he asked, stepping closer.
“What do you mean? He doesn’t want to give away the Defiance’s position, that’s all.”
Ransome looked unimpressed, replying, “Well, that’s what he says. But maybe he just likes things the way they are.”
“What do you mean?” asked Ryann in confusion.
“Maybe he enjoys being the only person to have ever had contact with the Lumina? And who knows, if someone else happened to do it, well they might find out more than he knows. And I’m not sure that Grayell would be too keen on that.”
“That’s my father you’re talking about,” growled Ryann defensively. Ransome merely shrugged, his smile undiminished.
“Well, sometimes the truth hurts,” he muttered, and turned back to the old fighter with a wink. He picked up a wrench and went back to work on the turbine, whistling absently to himself.
Ryann found himself unsure as to how to respond. He felt angered by Ransome’s words, and yet at the same time found himself agreeing with him. He went to speak, and then changed his mind and walked off towards the exit.
CHAPTER TEN
OBSESSIONS
“This is First Officer… …the Battleship Oak… …Please… …He’s here! He’s always here! You have to…”
Ryann replayed the Luminal recording yet again. The woman’s voice was barely audible amid the static, but what little he could hear sent a chill running through him. It was such a terrified, pleading tone — it felt as though he were listening to a voice from beyond the grave.
He strained to make out any other words, but there was too much interference. Rubbing his eyes wearily, he let his head fall back to his pillow. His quarters were in darkness, and though he was desperately tired he found that he couldn’t sleep. The image of that Luminal ship kept haunting his thoughts. All he could picture was the sight of it bearing down upon them, moments before it smashed into the boiling surface of the broken moon.
The ship that had destroyed his homeworld.
He had hated that ship for almost three years. It had driven him, kept him alive; he had built around it his whole reason for living.
And now, there it was, agonisingly close. He felt that he should be experiencing a thrill of victory at its destruction, or at least some sense of closure. But then, he knew that this wasn’t the end. For whatever driving force was responsible for giving life to that ship, he knew that it still lived. That ship would return again and again until the source had been destroyed.
Ryann felt himself drifting off to sleep, the recording still playing its haunting refrain.
What was it that gave that ship life? Who was it? he thought wearily. Could this frightened woman in the recording really be the object of his thirst for revenge?
He fell into a deep and troubled sleep.
In his dreams, ghostly images of the wrecked Luminal ship played out before him. He saw its dark silhouette rising out of the smoke and ash like some silent monolith. And then he heard that plaintive voice once more, far off in the distance. That woman was calling out to him, pleading with him to find her.
Ryann felt himself being drawn inexorably through the smoke of the broken moon, the wreck rising up before him.
