by I G Hulme
Eve turned away as though pondering some difficult decision.
Eventually she murmured, “In a way you’re right, they are all trapped in a dream. Everyone aboard — it’s like they’re lost in their fantasies, unable to wake up. They’re all prisoner to the queen. And to Locke.” She spoke the last name with a shudder.
“Locke?” asked Ryann, looking up. “You mean James Locke — captain of the Battleship Oak?”
“You saw him. The Queen called for him. She rules this ship and everything on it, but Locke rules over all the ships.” Her face fell and she gazed off into space as she spoke. “He controls everyone — he, he’s terrifying, no-one can resist him. He’s everywhere — everything — even the Queen is powerless against him.” Her voice was rising in panic as she spoke.
Ryann shuffled closer in an attempt to comfort her.
“Hey, it’s okay,” he said quietly. “We’ll find a way off this ship and neither that queen or Locke will be able to reach you. It’ll be okay.” He went to reach out to her but she leaned away, turning her face from him to hide her tears.
“No! You don’t understand! I can’t get free of him! No-one can! I’ll never be free of him. Ever!”
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” he said softly. “I’ll find us a way out of this, I promise.”
Eve bowed her head, her sobs slowly dying away.
“Well, we can’t stay here anyway,” muttered Ryann at last, gazing around the hangar. “I wonder if there’s a way we could get one of these drone ships flying?”
“Don’t you have a ship?” she asked in surprise. “I thought you came from the one moored a little way off — I was signalling to it for help; I thought you’d come to rescue me.” The panic began to creep back into her voice.
“I did come from it,” muttered Ryann, a little embarrassed. “Just not by ship. I, er, I jumped.”
Eve turned to him with a look of astonishment.
“It’s a long story,” he muttered with an awkward grin.
He took a deep breath and began, recounting everything that had befallen him, all the way back from the creation of the Defiance, right up to the events during the war with the mysterious golden fleet that still raged on above them.
As he came to the part in his tale where he had leapt across the void from the Defiance, Eve could scarcely believe what she was hearing. A smile began to form on her lips, and at one moment she actually laughed out loud as he recounted flying out over the gulf.
“Well, when I was hoping for someone to rescue me, I never thought that they’d need rescuing themselves!”
For a brief moment Eve’s face lit up behind her visor, and all the fear seemed to fade away. In that instant, Ryann was struck by how beautiful she was — she had such a curious, unearthly aura about her that seemed to set him at ease. He found himself smiling along with her.
She looked up at him with those dark and sorrowful eyes, whispering, “Still, I’m grateful you’re here nevertheless. My reckless and brave rescuer.”
Ryann looked away self-consciously, unable to hold her gaze. A sudden image of Angelique entered his mind, during the time that she herself had accused him of being reckless. And then his thoughts turned to her laughing along with Mara Kobo and he was overcome with sadness once more.
“You have a kind face Ryann,” said Eve softly. She leaned in closer towards him and went to lay her hand upon his arm, then stopped, as though quickly changing her mind.
“You’re right, we should get moving,” she said awkwardly, pulling herself up to her feet. “The Queen will surely have sent out drones to hunt for us.”
“But where to?” asked Ryann, looking up at the rows of vessels above them. “Even if we could somehow get a drone ship flying, the hangar doors are sealed shut. We’ll never get out of this hangar, never mind the rest of the ship.”
“I might know a way to get power to doors,” said Eve, lost in thought. “There’s a control tower for each hangar — if we could get up to it, I might know a way.” She craned her neck to look upwards and Ryann followed her gaze. The hangar was a vast hexagonal shaft, and high up the sheer walls a structure jutted out on gantries. Ryann could make out rows of windows, like dark eyes staring back down at them.
“There’s an elevator over there,” she said, pointing across the hangar to an open doorway. “We might be able to get it working.”
“And if not,” muttered Ryann, gazing back up to the distant control tower. “That’s quite some climb.”
“Then we’d better hope I can get the elevator working,” she replied with a grin, and set off across the hangar floor.
Ryann went to follow and then stopped as he heard a faint sound echoing off to his left.
With a sudden hiss of venting gases a blast door slid open to reveal a dark group of figures standing motionless in the doorway. They were the same, ill-formed drones that had borne the Hive Queen upon her throne.
Ryann instinctively raised his rifle, but to his horror another door slid open, and then another, all around the periphery of the hangar. He looked to Eve, and they both jumped as the door directly behind them hissed open.
“Run!” he called, but Eve was already dashing across the hangar floor as the drones spilled out from the doorways with a terrible cry.
As he sprinted for the elevator shaft, Ryann raised his rifle, firing a quick burst across the hangar. His shots flew over the open space, exploding into the nearest group of drones. Several were knocked to the ground in the blast, but to Ryann’s concern, they all struggled back to their feet, seemingly unharmed. They came on with a slow, lumbering walk, converging upon them from all around the hangar.
He focussed all his attention upon the open entrance to the elevator and ran for his life.
“When we get to the elevator I’ll try and get the doors closed, but you’ll have to hold them off while I work!” gasped Eve at Ryann’s side.
“Well work quick,” he replied. “My rifle doesn’t seem too effective against them!”
He loosed off another burst, and more of the drones were sent reeling. But they soon pulled themselves back to their feet and continued on towards them.
Ryann glanced about in horror; it seemed like there were hundreds of shambling figures streaming into the hangar now.
“Just slow them down!” yelled Eve in fear.
Finally, they reached the imposing entrance of the elevator, and Eve crashed breathlessly down beside a control panel. With a deft punch she managed to buckle a corner of the panel covering, then took hold and tore it from the wall. She let it hang from a tangle of wires and quickly got to work sorting through them.
“Hey, you fix things the same way as I do!” called out Ryann with a grim smile, taking up a protective position in front of her. She shot him a grim smile before going back to her frantic work.
“Just keep them off me,” she muttered through gritted teeth.
Ryann risked a glance into the shadows of the elevator. It was a large open space for transporting the drone fighters. The power was out though and the protective blast doors remained locked open.
He turned back to the hangar, loosing off another shot into the nearest approaching figures. They were still a little way off, but more and more were appearing at the doors.
“Can you get the elevator working?” breathed Ryann without looking around, firing shot after shot into the drones.
“Doesn’t look like it,” replied Eve matter-of-factly. “But I might be able to get the blast door closed — that should buy us some more time.”
“Well, just do it fast.”
“I’m going as quick as I can,” she muttered irritably, pulling out a cable in a shower of sparks.
“Go faster!” exclaimed Ryann, picking out the nearest drone, barely ten metres from them. It fell backwards with a smoking wound in its chest, but more drones quickly overtook it.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE HUNT
They came on, one by one, like some endles
s, unstoppable tide. Each figure was a shadow, vague and ill-formed as though its features had been roughly carved in clay. They strode forwards with slow purpose, their arms at their sides and their faces blank.
“Where the hell are they all coming from?” called out Ryann over the sound of his rifle as he fired shot after shot into the approaching horde. But his weapon was doing little more than slowing them down. Each time his shot struck, the figure would stagger under the impact, then resume its steady pace with a terrible inevitability. It wasn’t until the third or fourth round hit before the figure would fall lifeless to the floor, its body breaking up and scattering like ash. Already the ground was littered with blackened husks, but still they came on.
“The Queen’s channelling all her energy into bringing the ship back to life,” Eve called back, wrenching at another handful of wires.
“Can she do that?” asked Ryann in alarm, taking careful aim before loosing off another burst of gunfire into the chest of the nearest figure. It fell heavily to the floor only metres from where he stood, but still more figures took its place. All along the walkways above them, the hangar was now a scene of constant movement. There must have been hundreds of drones, all marching towards them.
“There! I’ve got it!” shouted Eve, and Ryann glanced around to see the blast doors shudder as the power came back online.
He turned back and cried out to see the nearest figure almost upon him, its unformed hands reaching out. With a swift movement, Ryann drove the butt of his rifle into the creature’s face, sending it staggering backwards.
“Come on!” yelled Eve in fear as she ran into the elevator; already the doors had begun to close behind her.
Ryann went to make a run for it, but as he turned he felt the drone catch hold of his arm. Its hand was icy cold, and a jolt like electricity surged through him. He tried to pull himself free, but the creature’s grip was unnaturally strong. It gave a great howl that echoed all throughout the ship, and to Ryann’s horror, arcs of energy played over its skin and it seemed to grow in stature before him. The unformed face was changing, the features becoming clearer. As this creature grew, it was as though the life suddenly left all of the other drones around them; as one they collapsed to the floor, their bodies turning to ash. The creature that held Ryann pulled him closer, and he was unable to resist. He caught a glimpse in his periphery of the blast doors slowly closing — in a moment it would be too late.
And then, to his horror, Ryann realised what the creature’s face was forming into — it was the empty mask of the Hive Queen.
“Ryann!”
He heard Eve behind him calling frantically, but he couldn’t shake that vice-like grip as the Queen solidified before his eyes.
In desperation, he swung his rifle up, pressing it into the creature’s body, firing shot after shot at point-blank range. It let out another scream that almost knocked Ryann to his knees, but for an instant its grip loosened and he managed to wrench his arm free. He stumbled backwards, turning and diving through the narrowing gap of the blast doors a moment before they slammed shut with a hollow boom.
He lay for a moment upon the cold floor, gasping for breath. His whole body shook as the adrenaline flooded his system. He realised that all had gone deathly quiet; there wasn’t a single sound from beyond the door.
“What the hell just happened?” he managed to gasp at last. He looked up to Eve from where he lay; she was standing beside him, the fear etched upon her features.
“Not here,” she managed at last as Ryann struggled to his feet. “She will find a way around — we don’t have much time.”
“But, what were those things? And how did it turn into the Queen? I watched it turn, right in front of my eyes.”
“The ship is dying,” murmured Eve as she looked over the elevator controls. After a moment she gave a curse and hit the lifeless panel in frustration. “The link back to the source is all but severed. But the Queen and Locke are trying to keep it alive. They are pouring their energy into it, but it is leaking away and they can’t fully create large numbers of drones. But, once the Hive Queen found you, she channelled all her will into that single drone. That was why the others died. She hasn’t the power left to sustain any more.”
“I feel like my mind can’t take much more of this,” gasped Ryann, leaning heavily against the wall. His arm felt numb where the Queen had held him, and his body was chilled to the core.
They jumped as a deep boom echoed out. The blast doors shuddered, as though a great pressure were being exerted upon them.
“It won’t hold for much longer,” breathed Eve. “We need to get moving.”
“But where to?”
“Anywhere but here.” She reached up into the darkness, pulling at a hatch in the ceiling. To Ryann’s surprise, a ladder clattered down to the floor. He gazed up into the shadows, aiming his rifle through the gap. He could just make out more ladders disappearing up into the dizzying heights of the elevator shaft.
“Come on,” murmured Eve, setting her foot upon the first rung. She glanced back to the blast doors again as they gave an ominous creak.
“Er, do you think it’s safe?” muttered Ryann, giving the ladder a mistrustful kick before staring up into the gloom. The elevator shaft had buckled in the crash and seemed on the verge of collapse. Eve just grinned back at him and began to climb.
“You’re not scared are you?” she called back down.
“Yes, yes I am,” muttered Ryann under his breath. He cursed quietly to himself as he took hold of the ladder and began to climb.
CHAPTER TWENTY
CONTACT
The climb up the elevator shaft seemed to go on forever.
Ryann’s whole body shook with fatigue, and he could barely feel his feet upon the metal rungs of the ladder. The shaft had opened out now, and they found themselves climbing the exposed walls, the vast hangar stretching out beneath them. Endless rows of dormant drone ships clung to the walls, and far below he could make out the ashen remains of the fallen drones. But to his relief, there was no sign of the Hive Queen.
They climbed on in a strained silence.
The brooding control tower up above them seemed to get no nearer, still indistinct in the shadows.
The higher up they went, the more they began to see greater signs of damage. The walls were torn open to reveal twisted pipes and girders, and at one point, Ryann spied what he thought to be a cascade of water falling down the side of the shaft — some burst water pipe torn open in the crash. But as got nearer, he realised that it wasn’t liquid at all. It was some strange phosphorescent light shining down from a breached corridor. Ryann paused a moment in wonder, clinging to the ladder as he struggled to regain his breath. He saw that, as the substance fell like a fine mist, it was illuminating objects unseen. It was similar to the way he had been able to catch glimpses of the undamaged ship behind the wreckage. He could make out brief images of girders and walkways unveiled in the falling haze; they faded away to nothing as the light passed them by.
“Come on Ryann, we’ve still got a long way to go.”
Eve’s voice shook him from his reverie, and he took a deep breath, willing his aching limbs on, following Eve up towards the control tower.
At some point on that never-ending journey up the side of the hangar shaft, Ryann collapsed in a heap upon one of the walkways.
“Phew, I’m beat! I think the ship’s gravity plates must have been knocked out of alignment or something — feels like my body’s made of lead!”
He gazed wearily up into the heights; by the looks of it they still had around ten levels to traverse before they reached the foot of the control tower. Eve had already begun to climb the next ladder, but she stepped back down upon seeing the state that he was in.
“I don’t feel it,” she muttered, sitting down beside him. And true enough, she barely looked out of breath. “How are your tanks looking? If you’re feeling like that, it could be that your mix is messed up.”
Ryann pull
ed himself heavily into a sitting position, breathing hard. He ran through the diagnostics on the wrist panel of his flight-suit. After a moment he hit it in frustration, letting his head fall back against the wall in fatigue.
“I think you might be right,” he gasped. “But I can’t check for sure — all the electrics are fried. It might have been from when that drone grabbed me. I’ve been feeling a bit weird ever since.”
“You’re just lucky she hadn’t managed to move fully into form before you got free,” murmured Eve, and her face fell, as though she were reliving her own private horrors.
“Well I wouldn’t like to go through anything worse than that,” sighed Ryann. “It was weird. When she grabbed me, it was like she was pulling at something inside me — I felt as though I was being torn out of my body. I, I can’t describe it, but I don’t ever want to feel it again.”
“We better keep moving then,” replied Eve with a grim smile.
“It looks melted where she touched me,” murmured Ryann, inspecting the arm of his flight suit. “I think there might be a leak or something, but I can’t tell without the diagnostics. I can’t see any tears in the outer layers though.”
Eve moved closer, studying the damage.
“I think you’ve probably got an internal leak looking at how the suit material has been fused,” she said in concern. “I’ve seen it before on some of the newer Atlas suits — a coolant pipe from the EVA thruster system ruptures through the flight-suit inner — starts leaking into the suit lining. Takes a while to build up to a hazardous level.”
“The Atlas suits?” asked Ryann in surprise. “I haven’t seen one of those since when I was a kid. I remember my dad used to wear them.”
Eve looked taken aback, quickly shaking her head with a smile.
“Yeah, I told you, that old rust-bucket ship we were on was practically an antique. Anyway, we need to get you out of that suit before hypoxia sets in.”
