by I G Hulme
He looked up as another groan of metal echoed around the shaft above him. Directly overhead, he spied a familiar flicker of blue light. In an instant, it traced its way up the walls to a fallen girder resting precariously amongst the wreckage. There was a brief, heart-stopping moment of silence and then the girder dropped with a deafening crash.
Ryann fell to a crouch, raising his hands above his head, but to his relief the girder only fell a few feet, before it became lodged in more wreckage. Small pieces of debris clattered around him, echoing away to silence.
“This doesn’t feel safe. Not one bit,” cursed Ryann under his breath as he resumed his careful progress across the bridge.
“It feels like a trap,” he heard Eve whisper in his earpiece.
“Yeah, thanks for that.”
Ryann practically ran the last few steps across the bridge. He crashed down to the floor on the other side, panting heavily.
“Ryann, you okay?” he heard his father’s concerned voice over the comms. He gave a weary thumbs up, and was surprised to see his hand shaking.
“I’m okay,” he muttered. “Just get yourselves across quick.”
Watching the rest of the team come across was excruciating. The bridge creaked and groaned under the weight of each man’s armour and equipment. But eventually all but Grayell were across without any more incident.
Ryann saw his father step out on to the slender walkway. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the same flicker of blue energy coruscate briefly up the walls.
“Dad, get a move on,” he muttered anxiously as another groan ran around the shaft.
“Going as quick as I can,” he heard his father’s strained voice reply.
A shudder rippled across the bridge, and Grayell paused, his arms held out for balance. A faint glow was definitely forming within the heights, and the girder that hung above them gave an ominous creak.
“Dad, I mean it, get going!”
Grayell came on step by slow step, but he was still only half-way across the bridge when the heights above him suddenly lit up in a flash of blue.
“Dad run!” cried out Ryann, and he saw his father look up in alarm.
A wave of energy poured down the walls of the shaft, racing towards them. As it swept downwards it left a trail behind it of pristine white walls, as though the ship were somehow instantly repairing itself. But the force of the energy wave was dislodging everything in its path, and already small piece of debris were beginning to rain down upon them.
“Run!” screamed Ryann once more, and this time he saw his father sprinting over the bridge towards them.
Ryann felt Eve pulling him back into the safety of the corridor as more and more chunks of wreckage rained down upon them. But all he could do was stand and stare, willing his father closer.
With a great boom, the wave of energy reached the hanging girder, smashing it aside. It plummeted down, slicing straight through the centre of the bridge, sending up a huge plume of dust and debris.
With a final effort, Grayell leapt to safety, even as the walkway fell away from beneath his feet. He crashed to the floor as pieces of wreckage bounced off the armoured plates of his suit.
“Ryann! Get to cover!” he yelled, pulling himself back to his feet and charging for the safety of the corridor. He grabbed Ryann as he went, shielding him with his arm as debris fell all about.
They made it into the corridor only moments before the wave of energy swept past them, engulfing the shaft in a blinding show of light. The team stood there gasping for breath as electricity crackled and played out before them.
And then, in an instant, the light went out and they were left back in that ghostly silence.
Ryann peered out of the corridor. Where moments before the walls had been restored, now they were once again returned to their former wrecked state. Only a short section of the bridge remained, sticking out into the void.
“Everybody okay?” came Grayell’s voice at his side.
Ryann went to speak, but he was still overwhelmed by the chaos of events. He looked on in surprise as his father pushed his way past the team as though nothing had happened.
“Okay, let’s keep moving,” called Grayell. “We’ve still got a long way to the extraction point. “Garcia, any luck raising the Marianne on comms?”
“Still no luck sir,” replied the soldier.
“Well, keep trying,” replied Grayell. “Let’s see if we can get off this wreck before it manages to kill us.”
He stared pointedly towards Eve for a moment and then turned, stalking off down the darkened corridor.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
REVELATIONS
“More drones coming in through the south gate!”
Ryann loosed off shot after shot, sending the shambling group reeling. But, just as before, they quickly pulled themselves back to their feet and came on in greater numbers.
The drones had appeared out of nowhere. One moment, the team had been traversing some silent hall, and the next thing they knew, hordes of shapeless figures were pouring from the shadows.
They had fought their way back down the levels for almost twenty minutes now, two members of the team expertly pushing forward whilst remainder covered them. Ryann and Eve found themselves being ordered from one point of cover to the next amid a hail of deafening gunfire.
So far, the heavier weapons of the team had managed to keep the advancing drones at a distance. But as the corridors narrowed they found themselves pressed closer together.
“We’re nearly at the extraction point!” yelled Grayell as he pressed forward along a darkened corridor, momentarily lighting it up with sustained bursts of his rifle. The air was thick with ash as the drones fell to the floor before him. “Two floors down!”
They pushed on, a howl of noise at their backs as though the entire Luminal ship had come alive. As they passed an open doorway Ryann caught sight of movement in the shadows. He went to cry out a warning but he was too late. A group of around ten drones pushed forward, grabbing at Beck, who was heading up the team. He barely had chance to bring his gun to bear before he disappeared beneath a mass of bodies. Arcs of electricity flashed out from the drones, coruscating over Beck’s body and Ryann heard the soldier cry out in pain.
“Covering fire!” screamed Grayell, charging towards the group, firing shot after shot into them. In a moment, the nearest drones were blasted to ash, revealing Beck’s prone form slumped upon the floor.
Ryann ran forward and together they dragged him back along the corridor as streaks of gunfire from the team flew all about them, pushing back the remaining drones as they tried to follow.
“Hold on Beck, we’re nearly there!” called out Grayell as the man writhed in pain. His armour was blackened and melted from where the drones had touched him, and his visor was a web of cracks.
Somewhere in that blur of fighting they finally made it to the extraction point. It was a lofty shuttle hangar, empty apart from a couple of wrecked ships. But as they ran out of the corridor Grayell pulled up in shock.
“The doors to the the launch tunnel are shut,” breathed one of the soldiers in dismay. Grayell remained silent; he seemed to visibly deflate.
“What are we going to do?” called Ryann, gunning down a drone as it attempted to follow the team into the hangar. He looked around to see numerous corridors branching off from the hangar. A rising wail emanated from the doorways as more and more drones grew nearer. “Dad! We need to do something!”
Grayell looked up with a start as Ryann pulled at his shoulder.
“Garcia, get on that control station over there!” he called, pointing to a raised dais at the back of the hangar. “See if you can seal the corridors! We’ve got to stop these damn drones from getting in!”
The man nodded and headed off at a run.
“I’ll go too!”
Ryann looked around in surprise to see Eve at his side, watching on in fear.
“I can help,” she said nervously. “I know their system
s.”
“I bet you do!” cursed Grayell, taking aim upon one of the corridors as the rising wail of the drones grew louder. “You stay here with me where I can see you!”
“But I can get the hangar doors open — I can help!” she retorted. With a final glance back to Ryann, she turned, running off towards the control station.
To Ryann’s horror, he saw Grayell swing his gun around, training it upon Eve’s back.
“Dad!” he called out, jumping forward and pushing Grayell’s rifle away.
His father turned upon Ryann in a rage, his eyes wide and fevered.
“Dad, she can help!” stuttered Ryann. He watched as Eve made it up the steps to the station and began working feverishly at the controls.
For a moment, Grayell went to go after her, but then turned as a shout went up from one of his team.
“Contact front!”
The hangar lit up as the team opened fire on the drones as they poured from the tunnels with a deafening scream.
Ryann raised his rifle, overwhelmed by the volume of noise.
And then, one by one, the doors all around the hangar slammed shut.
There was a brief, frantic moment of chaos as the remaining drones staggered on through a rain of fire. But soon, the last of them fell, burned away to a brief scattering of ash.
Ryann looked around the hangar as the sounds of gunfire echoed away. He could still hear the muffled wail of the drones fighting to get in, but for the moment they were safe.
Dane, the medic, set to work stabilising Beck’s injuries where he lay in the shelter of some storage crates.
“How’s he looking?” asked Grayell in concern.
“He’s badly burned, but he’ll be okay,” replied Dane as he worked.
Ryann turned back to the control station to see Eve smiling wearily down at him. She gave him a shaky thumbs up.
“You did it!” Ryann called across to her and turned to his father. “I told you she could help,” he said breathlessly.
Grayell ignored him, glancing around the hangar in concern, and then up to the sealed gates of the launch tunnel. He turned and walked off towards the control station, Ryann following behind.
“Garcia, can you get those launch gates open?” he demanded, ignoring Eve.
The soldier looked up at him with a sigh.
“I’m not sure sir. I don’t know the systems — they’re like nothing I’ve ever seen before.” He nodded across to Eve. “She was the one that sealed the hangar off to the drones.”
Grayell merely glared at her angrily.
“Well, can you open them?” he hissed at last.
Eve looked across to Ryann before she spoke.
“I can do it,” she said with a hint of uncertainty. “But it’s locked down at the highest level. It will need a full system override.”
“So do that,” hissed Grayell angrily.
“Well, that’s the problem,” replied Eve, glancing across to Ryann. “I’d need to reboot the security protocols system-wide. There’s a good chance all the other doors will open up too.”
“Well, that’s convenient for you,” murmured Grayell. “Do it. And Garcia, watch everything she does — and if you get the slightest hint that she’s trying to play us, then stop her in any way you need to.” He turned, striding back down the steps as Ryann looked on in horror.
“It could take a while,” called Eve after him.
“How long?” replied Grayell without looking around.
“I don’t know, it could be hours.”
Grayell stopped and turned, glaring up at her.
“We don’t have hours,” he replied at last. “We’re running on emergency air tanks as it is. Aren’t you? You seem to be lasting okay.”
Eve looked down at the controls.
“I think I should be able to restore the atmosphere in the hangar,” she said, working away at the control panel. After a little while she looked up, a smile forming on her face. “There! Give it a moment, then you can take your helmets off — save some air.”
She glanced over to Ryann and he smiled back at her.
“Good job Eve,” he said. There was a quiet hiss as he unlocked the collar on his flight suit, pulling his helmet off over his head. He stood a moment with his eyes closed, savouring the feel of the air upon his face. “Ah, that feels good,” he sighed.
“Stay sharp,” grunted his father as he opened up his own visor. “I want defensive positions up by the flight pad. We need to be ready to go the moment the Marianne touches down. Garcia, any word yet? Well keep trying. They’ll have seen that the launch gates are closed, so they’ll be just waiting on us to get them open.” He strode off, issuing orders to the rest of the team.
Ryann caught up with his father as he took up a position between the control station and one of the wrecked shuttles where the team was preparing their defences. He knelt in the shelter of some storage crates, taking aim upon the nearest doorway. To Ryann’s alarm he saw it shudder under the weight of drones as they continued their fight to get in.
“What the hell’s going on Dad?” demanded Ryann, glancing up to where Eve still worked frantically at the control station. “What does Eve have to do to make you trust her?”
“Get back with the rest of the team,” hissed Grayell. “We need to be ready to get going the moment she opens up the launch gates.” He pushed Ryann away from him but he resisted.
“Not until you tell me what’s going on.”
Grayell sighed, glancing anxiously back towards the dais. The roar of the drones was steadily increasing, a rising storm ready to burst.
“Eve’s been nothing but helpful and you treat her like she’s the enemy.”
“Whatever you think about her,” muttered Grayell at last in a low voice. “You’re wrong.”
Ryann merely looked on in confusion.
“I don’t get it Dad. Why are you always so damn suspicious about —”
“Are you too blind to see anything?” spat Grayell, glancing up to be sure that Eve was out of earshot. “She’s one of them dammit! She’s a Lumina!”
Ryann laughed out loud, but then his face fell as he saw the look in his father’s eyes.
“She’s a part of this ship Ryann — a facet of the host’s personality playing out, just like those drones — that messed-up queen. It’s all an illusion — none of it’s real!”
Ryann stared at his father in horror, unable to take in what he was saying.
“No, no Dad. She was a prisoner, her ship was captured. She was taken prisoner.”
“And did she ever tell you the name of the ship that she crewed? Or why she removed the badges from her flight-suit? It’s because they were from the Battleship Oak, Ryann. First-Officer Eve Ellissonne. Just like the rest of the crew, she was taken by the Lumina entity twenty five years ago.”
Grayell stared down at his son sadly.
“I’m sorry Ryann. I don’t know — perhaps in her mind this part of her consciousness really believes that she is trapped — a prisoner. But you’ve seen the other projections of her mind. The drones — that queen, they’re all part of that same consciousness. Just remember, it was Eve that destroyed your homeworld Ryann, and almost killed both of us. We cannot trust her.”
“But, we can still save her!” exclaimed Ryann desperately. He glanced across to Eve, and as he did so she happened to look up at him. A beaming smile broke upon her face before she self-consciously looked away. Ryann found that he was smiling back at her, then caught himself and turned angrily back to his father.
“We can still save her,” he repeated forlornly.
“No Ryann. We’re leaving — the moment she gets the outer doors open,” whispered Grayell, leaning up close to Ryann. “And when she does, we’re going to have to stop her from betraying us.”
Ryann looked down in horror to Grayell’s hand resting lightly upon his rifle.
“We can’t take the risk son. If we don’t kill them first, the Lumina won’t think twice about killing
us. And that includes her — she has to be stopped.”
“Then you’ll have to go through me,”replied Ryann in a leaden voice. For a moment, he thought his father was going to strike him, he looked so angry.
“Dammit Ryann! Can you just stop acting like an idiot long enough to let me bail you out of trouble one more time? This isn’t some damn movie we’re in —so stop behaving like a petulant child. There’s more than just your life at risk here. Just think for a minute!”
“It’s you that’s not thinking! You never do!” hissed Ryann. “Not beyond what’s good for you! If it doesn’t suit building the myth of the Great Grayell Wade, then you don’t even see it!”
“Now isn’t the time for some teenage meltdown Ryann,” cursed Grayell, looking back to the rest of the team.
“You really don’t see it do you? We can save her dammit! And if she is what you say she is, then think of what we could learn from her! She can tell us more about the Lumina than anything we have learned since the start of this war!”
Grayell paused a moment, taken aback. He looked up at his son with an air of mistrust.
“Please,” begged Ryann. “She’s done nothing but help us so far.”
Grayell remained silent for a moment longer before letting out a long sigh.
“Very well. But the moment I get even a hint of her acting in a way I don’t trust — then don’t get in my way Ryann. Son or not, I won’t let you bring down everything I’ve fought for.”
And with that he got to his feet, storming off to where the rest of the team were waiting.
Ryann watched his father with a burning anger as the old man spoke quietly to the others, occasionally glancing back their way.
“Everything okay?”
Eve’s voice at his side made him jump.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, seeing the look upon his face.
“It’s nothing,” he muttered morosely. “Me and my dad had a bit of a disagreement.”
Eve gave a half-smile and shook her head.
“That’s parents for you. They certainly know how to push all our buttons.”
