Arkship Vengeance Read online

  ‘Know this: I expect great things from you.’

  Mallory began to cry. ‘Derward, you’re scaring me.’

  ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t know when I’ll see you again.’

  Panic overwhelmed her, but he held her back, pushing her aside as he ran for the door.

  ‘Keres, get to safety!’

  Derward didn’t look back. He sprinted out of the chapel and through the main concourse towards the elevators. Around him people ran to their stations as alarms overlapped.

  Another impact lifted him off his feet and threw him to the floor. He felt the familiar pain of decompression and scrambled into a sprint. Ahead, the safety doors were beginning to close. He glanced back and saw Reader Mallory disappear behind the barrier at the other side.

  She was safe, at least for now.

  With a sense of relief, he rolled under the closing door and rushed towards the elevators. He had to get to the hanger bay.

  The elevator was packed, stopping at almost every deck on its way down. It felt like an eternity, punctuated by the vibrations of combat, and the intermittent loss of power and gravity.

  Eventually, the doors opened on the hanger bay. He saw chaos and confusion everywhere as the deck crew tried to clear the space of debris, fighting fires and power disruptions. In the distance was the hanger entrance, protected by an airlock of Gilgore grids that allowed ships to come and go. He could see out to space, just a brown haze of swirling particles and asteroids. Amongst them were ships on fire, casting haunting glows into the mist. Already, the fighter ships were coming home. The battle must be lost already, he realized with a feeling of dread.

  He pushed his way past the deck hands, his mind focused on the Lupaus ahead. Using his wrist com, he activated the pre-launch sequence and lowered the entrance ramp.

  ‘Hey!’ A deck officer blocked his path. ‘What the hell are you doing?’

  ‘I’ve got to go.’

  ‘We’re in retreat. You can’t–’

  Derward grappled with the man, punching him to the floor. He ran on board and was in the pilot’s seat in a matter of seconds. Outside, on the hanger deck, the officer got to his feet, stumbling towards the little ship. Derward closed the ramp and cleared the landing vents. A blast of hot gas spewed from beneath the ship, startling the deck officer into retreat. He turned and ran towards the hanger bay control tower.

  Already the engines were powering up. He’d practiced this, getting the launch sequence down to the shortest possible time. As the Lupaus lifted from the hanger deck his ship’s com crackled into life.

  ‘Lupaus, this is Bay Con Tower One. You are not authorized for departure. Return to landing pad six and–’

  Derward shut the com off, focusing on the hanger bay gateway in front of him. He pushed forward on his steering yoke and flushed power into the engines. The ship responded and darted past the in-coming fighters. The ship skimmed through the opening and accelerated into the brown fog. Streaks of dirt hit the windows, forming distracting lines in front of him as he turned the Lupaus to avoid a burning ship tumbling towards the Vengeance. Derward’s eyes followed it, watching as it crashed into the side of the hanger bay and erupted into a blinding ball of fire. He looked away, shifting his attention on the tumultuous fog ahead.

  ‘Come on, where are you?’ he muttered as he activated the ship’s holograph navigation display. A fleet of vessels appeared in front of his as tiny holographic icons.

  ‘Overlay,’ he barked.

  The computer obeyed, and the holograph adjusted to match the ship’s windows. Over the dark mist were the cool blue outlines of arkships and their support vessels, flickering ghosts in the fog. There were so many!

  ‘Which one is the Fenrir?’

  One of the holograph’s flashed an urgent red, and Derward tilted the ship towards it.

  PHANTOM

  ‘They are in the wrong place!’ Orcades Draig screamed. ‘They are meant to be at the beacon, not here! How did they know we were here?’

  ‘A mistake,’ Valine replied, keeping her composure. ‘They appear to have had a Cube drive failure.’

  ‘I don’t want them here,’ he said, catching his breath. ‘This is not the way it’s supposed to be.’

  ‘You are making a fool of yourself.’

  Orcades whipped round, furious. Then he saw his mother on the flight deck, and his anger turned to fear and confusion. He took a moment, trying to calm his breathing, but his heart pounded in his chest.

  ‘The gravel will be your downfall,’ Sinnsro said with a mocking smile. ‘You are a gravel head; do you know that? A common gutter addict.’

  ‘No!’ he shouted, closing his eyes.

  ‘Can you feel your heart? It’s beating so fast. Your face is red, covered in sweat. You are a mess!’

  Orcades put his hand to his face, desperately trying to remove the beads of moisture there.

  ‘You are not Valtais. You are a joke, Orcades Draig.’

  Orcades lashed out, but his mother was gone, just the echo of her laughter remained. A stab of pain speared his heart. He grasped the edge of the operations map, breathing hard, waiting for his heart to slow. The terror subsided, and he looked about him. His officers did not meet his eye, all except Valine.

  ‘What?’ he asked sharply.

  ‘The Vengeance is badly damaged. The Gargan has ruptured the enemy’s hull but has sustained heavy damage and has had to withdraw. The Hvalr and the Melrakki have adjusted formation and engaged the Vengeance. The rest of the fleet have moved in to close off its escape route.’

  ‘The . . . the other one?’

  ‘There is no sign of the Caerleon on our long-range scans. The Vengeance stands alone.’

  Orcades smiled, feeling some clarity return to his thoughts. ‘Then my plan worked. Good . . . very good. Prepare your boarding parties, Commodore. Let our arkships break the back of the Vengeance, then we shall go aboard, and I will kill their prince.’

  PRIORITIES

  ‘Sol! What are they doing up there?’ Bara said as she braced herself for another volley of enemy fire. The entire engine deck was a mess of torn cables, fire and smoke.

  ‘Where’s the fire teams?’ she shouted to one of the engine crew who limped past with a dazed look on his ashen face. The man said nothing, stunned into silence.

  She returned her attention to the severed Cube drive impeller, reconnecting the feed lines one at a time.

  ‘How’s it going?’ Chief Stavus Graan asked as he appeared at her shoulder, a desperate tone in his voice.

  ‘Slowly,’ she replied. ‘The power drains aren’t helping.’

  ‘I’ve got everyone on it. We fix one thing, another three things break.’

  Bara focused on the broken connections. ‘Shouldn’t you be in the control room?’

  ‘Heading back now, but I need you on the main drive, Bara.’

  She stopped what she was doing and stared at him. ‘We need the Cube drive fixed.’

  ‘Cube drive is no good if we can’t navigate our way clear of the battle to use it.’

  ‘I can’t do everything, Graan. You’ll have to do it.’ She turned back to the drive problem, the conversation over.

  The Chief hovered behind her. ‘Right, okay then.’

  When Bara glanced up again he’d gone. She replaced the last of the connectors and reinstalled the component. The power feed lines rattled back to life, and the impeller began to hum.

  ‘Tick that off the list,’ she said to herself, satisfied. Bara collected her tools and headed back towards the control room, certain there would be another job waiting for her when she got there.

  She was halfway along the deck when an explosion ripped through the engine stack. A wave of heat pushed past her, and she began to run. The air became thin, and she couldn’t catch her breath. The control room door was a vague, blurred outline, coming towards her. She grabbed at it, falling through the opening as it began to close.

  Her ears popped as the pressure returned to n
ormal. She pulled herself upright, staring at the ruin of the engine deck through the protective glass shield. This was bad, really bad.

  ‘Chief, we need to get suited up and get back out . . .’ Her voice faded away as she turned around and scanned the faces of the other engineers in the control room. ‘Chief?’

  Nielsen, a woman in her late fifties, approached her. ‘Bara . . .’ Her voice was soothing, but she couldn’t mask her grief. ‘The Chief, his com’s dead. He was out there, working on the engine.’

  Bara opened her mouth, but no words came. Slowly, she turned back to see the wreckage. The fires had died as the air escaped through the breeched hull, and the smoke was almost gone, but the devastation was obvious to see.

  DESPERATE MEASURES

  ‘Where the hell are our engines?’ Commander Van Leeuwen demanded.

  A flight deck officer coughed, clearing smoke from her console. ‘Engine deck not responding, sir.’

  ‘We can’t get out of here without engines.’

  ‘What about the Cube drive?’ Wynn asked.

  The commander shook his head. ‘We need to get clear of the battlefield first, otherwise who knows where we’ll end up. And the shockwave will–’

  ‘Will damage those other arkships,’ Wynn replied.

  ‘And us! The compression wave formed by generating a space-time bubble so close to other ships could damage us further.’

  Wynn stared at the holograph display. They were surrounded by the attacking arkships. ‘All we need is a window, a gap big enough for us to get through. If we stay here we’ll be boarded soon.’

  Commodore Van Leeuwen sighed. ‘But we’d be alive!’

  ‘For how long? You know what Draig does to other arkships it captures.’

  Commander Van Leeuwen didn’t reply, thinking. He jabbed at his com again. ‘Engine deck?’

  ‘Engine deck here . . .’ The voice was a woman’s.

  ‘Where’s the chief?’

  There was a pause, and Wynn felt his stomach turn over.

  ‘Dead,’ the woman replied. That’s when Wynn recognized the voice.

  ‘Bara? Are you okay?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m alive. We’ve lost a lot of people here. And the engines are gone. Take days to repair.’

  ‘What about the Cube drive?’

  Bara hesitated. ‘Online, but it’s no use without the engines.’

  ‘Stand by for Cube shift.’

  ‘What?’ The com crackled. ‘You know what will happen, don’t you?’

  ‘Prime the drive, then clear everyone from the engine deck. Get to the shelters in the core.’

  ‘Wynn, you’ll kill us all,’ she protested.

  ‘Bara, please. Prime the drive.’

  Wynn waited, the com channel hissing.

  ‘Understood,’ she said at last. ‘Give me five minutes.’

  ORDERS

  The Lord Chamberlain Cam Tanis paced the flight deck of the Ark Royal Caerleon, his nerves on edge.

  ‘Anything?’ Tanis checked at the sensor console.

  ‘Still nothing,’ the officer replied without looking up from his bank of information.

  They were overdue. The Vengeance should have checked in with them by now. Tanis had his orders; he was to wait here until the Vengeance contacted them. But Tanis hated waiting, and something about this situation set his teeth on edge.

  He walked to the windows and stared at the distant line of grey-brown that was the Fields of Venus. The Vengeance was in there, somewhere. Why had they not responded?

  Tanis walked to the commander’s position. Watson was in her seat, studying her console.

  ‘Thoughts?’ Tanis asked quietly.

  Commander Watson glanced up, looking distracted. ‘Com failure?’

  Tanis shook his head.

  ‘Perhaps they are staying silent.’

  ‘Why?’

  Watson didn’t reply, her face frowning.

  ‘What if they’ve engaged the enemy?’

  ‘They should still have called in.’

  ‘Unless they have been overwhelmed. The prince didn’t want to endanger two arkships. He may be ignoring us, hoping to protect the Caerleon.’

  ‘A possibility . . .’

  The Lord Chamberlain folded his arms, trying to hide his concern behind formality. ‘We can scan for new heat spikes, can we not?’

  The commander nodded, moving to speak to one of his officers. ‘I want a new scan of the region, starting at the refueling beacon and working out. We’re looking for any new discharge: heat, light, gas, anything that wasn’t on our last set of scans.’

  The flight deck became alive with activity as the officers set about fulfilling the commander’s orders. Tanis watched and waited, hoping that he was wrong. Wynn had made his wishes very clear, but he could no longer sit and wait.

  ‘We have something,’ Watson reported, pointing to a region on the holograph. ‘It’s very weak, but we have a thermal difference.’

  ‘Could it be an attack?’

  ‘At this distance, it might be two asteroids colliding, we just can’t tell. The only way to know is to go closer.’ Commander Watson gave him a knowing smile.

  ‘Then we will have to go closer,’ Tanis replied. ‘Bring the Cube drive online.’

  ULTIMATUM

  Commodore Valine checked the holograph; the arkship Vengeance was indeed as tough as their reports had suggested. It had sustained a massive bombardment, but still showed no signs of a critical failure, in spite of the multiple ruptures to its hull. The last wave had damaged the engine section, and it looked like they might be close to a breakthrough there. If they could not escape it would make the business of boarding and takeover that much easier.

  She glanced over her shoulder at Orcades Draig. He was sat in his command chair, with the vacant stare of a gravel head on the comedown from a hit. He would be quiet for the next hour, then she would take him to his suite and administer a sedative to help him sleep. His addiction had been a blessing and a curse for Valine. As soon as she had recognized the early symptoms, she had used it to further her own ambitions, but it was a difficult balancing act to keep him pliable. His growing dependency had become apparent to others as well, something she was keen to hide, but rumors of his health persisted. She calculated he had a matter of months before he would descend into complete addiction, followed by a slow, painful death. Growing up, she had seen it happen to those closest to her, over and over again. Now, at least, she was taking control, using it to her advantage.

  ‘Focus your fire on the engine section,’ she ordered the tactical officer. Valine checked the holograph, noticing a widening gap in the configuration of the Draig arkships. ‘Contact the Ormr. They’re drifting out of position.’

  She watched as the Fenrir’s weapons pounded the Vengeance, systematically destroying its defenses. The Ormr corrected its position, and the Draig fleet had the disabled Kenric arkship surrounded. They weren’t going anywhere.

  ‘Cease fire. Contact the Vengeance,’ Valine ordered the com officer.

  There was a short delay as the bombardment ended, then the officer nodded.

  ‘This is the arkship Fenrir, of the House of Draig. You have entered our territory and attacked our citizens. Under the articles of the Convention of Janus, we are exercising our right to defend ourselves. You will surrender your vessel for inspection, or face destruction.’

  FINALITY

  The flight deck of the Vengeance was dark and silent. Wynn lay on the floor, holding onto the railing that overlooked the lower section, trying to make out details in the gloom. The only light was coming from outside, a torrent of fire that trailed over the windows, searing the view with hews of crimson and yellow.

  He tried to stand, then realized the gravity lines were down. He fought against his body, trying to align himself with the deck, when the arkship listed under another bombardment. His hand slipped, and he drifted free of the railing, his arms searching for something to grab hold of in the dark. There was
a sudden crack of light, followed by a series of smaller pops of illumination, then the power returned to the flight deck. With a low moan, the grav-lines drew Wynn towards the floor again. He landed softly, rolled onto his side, and staggered to his feet. About him was a scene of carnage; exposed cables and machinery hung from the ruptured ceiling, sparks danced from a severed wire over the floor, and below, injured officers tended to the unmoving body of one of their comrades.

  Before Wynn could go to help, Commander Van Leeuwen grabbed him by the shoulders.

  ‘The bombardment; it’s stopped!’ he said, his eyes wide and bloodshot. ‘We have to retreat now!’

  Wynn shook him off, checking the flickering holograph display: they were surrounded by the attacking arkships. ‘We can’t use the Cube drive without a clear escape route. The power surge would smash us into another arkship.’

  ‘Then we should call the Caerleon, while there’s still–’

  The com system crackled into life, a sudden rush of sound that seemed painfully loud.

  ‘This is the arkship Fenrir, of the House of Draig. You have entered our territory and attacked our citizens.’

  Wynn stared at Van Leeuwen, hardly able to believe the lies he was hearing.

  ‘. . . Under the articles of the Convention of Janus, we are exercising our right to defend ourselves. You will surrender your vessel for inspection, or face destruction.’

  The message ended, leaving the hiss of an open channel: they were waiting for a response.

  Wynn took in the ruin of the flight deck. The fallen officer was being carried out by a medical team as others had their wounds assessed and treated. Some of the remaining officers attempted to resurrect hopelessly broken equipment, determined to continue the fight to its inevitable end. Outside, debris glittered as it burned in the dying flames of battle. Even Commander Van Leeuwen appeared dazed and distant as he wiped blood from his face.

  They had lost.

  Wynn had lost.