Stealing Light

Twenty-seven

Bourdain’s fleet fell into the Nova Arctis system like a swarm of avenging silver angels, the hull of his centre ship bristling with plasma weapons focused on the silent shape of the Hyperion, still locked into its tight orbit around Theona.

They had crossed the system at the highest speed possible, and were currently locked into a high-gee deceleration, their engines pointed in-system as they braked hard to avoid overshooting the gas-giant Dymas altogether. Warriors in dull-grey liquid body armour were couched in racked acceleration couches inside the two accompanying craft.

The three ships began to turn as they came out of deceleration, each slowly spinning around until they dropped towards Theona nose-first, their automated weapons systems swivelling to maintain their line of fire on the Hyperion itself and the base on the moon’s surface, far below.

Arbenz frowned, glancing across the bridge to where Kieran still maintained his post at a console. Gardner sat a little way off, in a couch at one end of the bridge area, watching them both with a contemplative look. Contemplating how to get rid of us, more than likely, the Senator mused.

Kieran looked up. ‘Sir, I’m concerned about what that woman Merrick said, about the Shoal placing software spies inside the Hyperion’s stacks-’

‘We can worry about that later,’ Arbenz responded dismissively. ‘Right now, we have this fleet to contend with. In the meantime, I’d love to know who was responsible for leaking information about the derelict’s existence to Bourdain.’

‘Senator?’

Arbenz glanced over at Gardner, who was peering down at a comms console with apparent fascination.

‘What is it, Mr Gardner?’ he snapped, his voice full of irritation.

‘It’s the derelict, Senator. You might want to take a look at this.’

Arbenz turned to Kieran, who then brought up what Gardner was seeing to the main screens.

There were severe tremors evident on Theona, bad enough to rupture the ice, and all centred on the derelict. The officer in charge of the surface base had already ordered an evacuation.

Doubt assailed Gregor Arbenz for the first time in a very, very long while. Things were starting to move far faster than he would have anticipated.

The staff and troopers stationed inside the Theona base had barely a few seconds to register what at first appeared to be a major ‘quake. Then they registered nothing at all, when the base, along with several cubic kilometres of ice and rock, was vaporized in an instant, leaving the churning ocean below exposed to the stars and the cold of space for the first time in half a billion years.

A hole had appeared in the pristine white surface of Theona, a vast chasm with foam churning at its bottom, as water boiled on contact with the near vacuum of the moon’s atmosphere.

From the centre of it all arose a shape like a nightmarish expressionist sculpture of a squid, carried upwards by incandescent bursts of energy. Water cascaded from its hull, freezing instantly and shearing off in great sheets, as the derelict fought its way through the clouds of debris and superheated steam that rose in a great mushroom above Theona’s fractured horizon.

‘Senator,’ Gardner’s tone became harsh and clipped, ‘I am asking you again to order the Agartha to fire on the derelict.’

Arbenz sighed and forced himself to turn away from what he was seeing on the overhead screens. So far, Bourdain’s fleet hadn’t fired on them, and Kieran had regained nominal control of the propulsion systems as well as the weapon banks, but hadn’t activated either. They were going to run silent for as long as possible. The Hyperion still looked like it was mostly inoperative: dead in the water, as they used to say.

So far it looked like their strategy was working, while the approaching fleet appeared to be heading for a rendezvous. Arbenz couldn’t help but wonder what they would make of the alien craft that had just wiped out an entire Freehold base.

Meanwhile, the Agartha was due to reappear, any minute now, from its hiding place on the far side of Theona.

‘Mr Gardner, you have no power aboard a sovereign Freehold military vessel. Your role here is purely advisory-and I’d counsel you to remember that.’

Gardner came round to stand directly in front of the Senator, thrusting his face forward. ‘If you don’t shoot that thing out of the sky before it jumps out of this system, our entire arrangement is over. All support for this expedition will be withdrawn, and you can pay your own damn bills.’

The Senator stared at Gardner, and then burst out laughing. ‘Why in the name of Christ do you think we would destroy the one thing we came here for?’

Kieran stood silently nearby, awaiting his orders. It seemed Gardner had forgotten about him for the moment. Good.

‘That derelict is clearly under the control of some alien force,’ Gardner persisted. ‘What if it jumps right inside the heart of this system’s star and turns it nova, Senator? What if it tries to destroy us all?’

The Senator gave him a pitying look. ‘Or you might consider the more realistic possibility that Dakota Merrick is controlling the derelict herself.’

Gardner stared at him, almost bug-eyed with horror. ‘You think this is just a matter of someone simply stealing the derelict?’ he choked. ‘We don’t have any reason to think it isn’t about to destroy this entire system, you fucking lunatic. Merrick said the Shoal knew from the start what we’d found and now, by the looks of it, they’re busy protecting their secret. If you don’t act right now, there’s a very good chance we’re all going to die.’

The Senator bristled. ‘Outside of you and the woman pilot and Corso, there isn’t a single human being in this entire system who didn’t fight to the death at some time to prove they were good enough to be here. We aren’t afraid of dying, Mr Gardner. But if we do die, at least we die with honour. Maybe you should think about that.’

‘No.’ Gardner shook his head furiously, taking a step back from the Senator. ‘No!’ He shook his head again. ‘You’re insane. I want to communicate with my partners. Now.’

‘That’s not possible. We’re under attack, hadn’t you noticed?’

‘You have a duty-’

‘I only have a duty to the Freehold,’ Arbenz replied wearily. ‘You can return to your quarters. We’re going to catch and disable the derelict, but only once we’ve dealt with the fleet. It might possess transluminal capability, but until it decides either to jump or not jump, it’s no faster than either us or the Agartha.’

Arbenz turned away from Gardner, implicitly dismissing him. But Gardner just stepped back around to confront him again.

‘Who the hell do you think you’re talking to, Senator? What exactly do you think you’re going to do without my help? You’re going to kill us all!’

‘Frankly, I don’t trust you, Mr Gardner.’

Gardner’s face darkened. ‘To hell with you. Corso was right: you’re going to kill us all, just to satisfy your fucking honour.’ He spat the words out with maximum derision. ‘Our relationship is over.’

Arbenz stared at him, his face twisted into a mask of fury, and then he burst out laughing.

‘Have you ever had those occasional moments of absolute clarity, Mr Gardner? I genuinely did wonder who was responsible for telling Bourdain about the existence of the derelict. Now that I think about it, I wonder how I could ever have harboured any doubts that you were the one responsible.’

Gardner said nothing, but Arbenz could see the truth hidden in his cowardly eyes.

‘Kieran,’ signalled the Senator.

Kieran came forward, quickly grabbing Gardner around the neck and pulling him back until he was bent over a console. Gardner flailed and twisted in his grasp.

Arbenz then stepped forward and punched Gardner hard in the stomach. The man slumped, winded, then redoubled his struggles when he saw the long, heavy knife Kieran had withdrawn from its sheath. He handed it over to the Senator.

‘Don’t take this personally, David. You’re a braver man than I thought, going behind our backs like that. But if we can’t trust you, we can’t take any chances either. We took the life of a loyal Freeholder just to keep you alive, and now it’s time for you to pay him back.’

Kieran yanked Gardner’s head back hard, exposing his throat. Arbenz wasn’t a sadist, so he made it quick. He took the knife and cut a deep slice across Gardner’s throat as Kieran kept a hand firmly planted over the man’s mouth. A spray of blood spattered on the deck. Gardner’s body twisted and jerked momentarily before it collapsed.

Kieran gave his superior an accusing glare. ‘You should have let him defend himself, Senator.’

‘This isn’t the time and place for observing tradition,’ Arbenz snapped. ‘Have you readied the systems yet?’

Kieran nodded. ‘We should evacuate straight away.’

‘Not yet.’ Arbenz shook his head. ‘Not until whoever’s in charge of that fleet is just about ready to board us-if that’s what they’re intending to do. Until the Agartha shows up and draws their attention, we’ll be an easy target if we abandon ship too soon.’

Dakota had already told Corso about the uninvited guest inside her skull. They’d watched, appalled, as a dome of dust and debris expanded across the face of the receding moon.

‘The derelict?’

‘It has to be, surely? I think Trader must have taken it over, now there’s nowhere else for him to hide. But the derelict itself- the machine intelligence in the heart of it-can still communicate with me. It’s the same with the other derelicts on Ikaria.’ She looked at Corso. ‘It’s like they want me to come to them.’

‘But your Ghost-?’

‘The physical circuitry still functions.’ She smiled. ‘With all the protocols and routines I built up gone, it means the other Magi ships will accept me as a pilot. No interface chair required whatsoever. Just me.’

Corso shook his head. T don’t know what to say. I know I don’t have any choice but to believe what you’re telling me.’

She stared off into space, far away for a moment.

‘I’m not crazy, Corso. Trader might have control of the Theona derelict, but maybe there’s a way to persuade one of the other ones on Ikaria to take us out of this system.’

The surface of Theona was hazed by cloud, pale tendrils slowly wrapping themselves around the surface of the little world, spreading outwards from the gaping hole the derelict had blasted through kilometres of encompassing ice. Dark and silent, the Hyperion drifted far above.

The three ships comprising Bourdain’s fleet manoeuvred to come alongside the inactive vessel, while sporadic automated mayday alerts and warnings of cataclysmic life-support failure continued to broadcast from the Freehold craft. Warnings blasted out from Bourdain’s fleet that the Hyperion was about to be boarded.

There was no reply. Before he and the Senator had departed the bridge, Kieran had deliberately left several communications channels wide open that permitted those in charge of the invading fleet to access the bridge’s video feeds and witness the carnage within.

In the meantime, on the far side of the Hyperion from the nearest ship of the attacking fleet, there was a brief burst of energy as an emergency rescue pod, carrying two people, jetted away.

A few moments later, once the central ship of Bourdain’s fleet was within a thousand metres, the Hyperion’s engines blazed into unexpected life and it began to move. Slowly at first, but then faster, heading for an intercept with the fleet’s command ship.

At that same moment, the commander of Bourdain’s fleet picked up the Agartha on long-range telemetry, approaching from over the curve of Theona’s horizon.

Missiles raced away from the Agartha, closing in on the other two vessels in Bourdain’s fleet.