Author: A. C. Hadfield
Date: 2015-02-26 08:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Space Opera; space fleet; Military; Science Fiction; Fantasy; Galactic Empire; Colonization; First Contact; Adventure; Science Fiction & Fantasy; Space Marine; Alien Invasion
Description: A legendary enemy attacks... Galactic peace is threatened... Unless one man can find and stop the Atlantis ship Carson Mach, a former war hero turned freelancer, seeks the biggest payday of his life when he’s tasked to hunt down a ghost ship that has echoed through the centuries. The legendary Atlantis ship has become a reality, appearing at the Commonwealth frontier, and obliterating an orbital station. Facing a lack of resources, a ragtag crew, and aliens who want him dead, Mach must use all his leadership skills and experience if he’s to beat the overwhelming odds.His mission will take him
Publisher: Brilliance Audio

The Atlantis Ship

A Carson Mach Space Opera

By

A.C. Hadfield

Copyright

First published in 2015 by A.C. Hadfield

Copyright © A.C. Hadfield 2015

The moral right of the author has been asserted. All characters and events in this publication, other than those

clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Contents

Title

Copyright

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Support the Author

About The Author

Chapter One

The outer rim planet, Retsina, never ceased to amaze Ethan whenever he had to carry out repairs on Orbital Station Forty.

A crusty frozen surface enveloped the dwarf planet. Black lines of dust deposits, left by erupting nitrogen geysers, streaked across its thick polar cap.

One of the Quick Reaction Force satellites, situated outside the station’s hypervelocity shield, failed to authenticate the defensive drones on the planet’s surface. Images from the command center’s remote-controlled maintenance vehicle showed a small hole punctured in the transponder unit, which meant a manual repair.

Space junk left over from the Century War, twenty standard years ago, littered the frontier section of the Commonwealth-controlled Salus Sphere, a twenty-light-year-wide sector of stars and planets.

Debris from a destroyed ship was usually the likely candidate.

Ethan maneuvered his hand-control unit and thrusted toward the top of the huge ring-shaped structure that housed two hundred crew. He floated past the solid dark gray walls of the habitation deck and hydroponic farm and grabbed the maintenance rail that led to the fifty-meter-wide communications platform.

A small ship powered across space thousands of meters below; its fusion motors emitted a blue glow. Ethan’s magnetic boots connected with the platform and he used the power of his suit’s exo-legs to approach the damaged satellite.

“Engineer Five in position,” he said through the helmet’s comm system.

“Roger that,” replied a female voice from the communications deck. “Do you see any other damage?”

A visual inspection of the solid black bases around the nine working high- and low-gain antennas revealed no other impact damage. The beam expander housing for the long-range comms had two dents and a black scuff, but they had been present since he started his posting on the station a year ago.

“All looks good apart from Sat Two,” Ethan said. He crouched in front of its base and ran a gloved finger around the jagged hole. “Stand by for an assessment. Out.”

He unclipped his bolt remover from his hip and placed it against the panel.

On the newer stations, this could all be done from the inside, but all junior engineers were posted to the older stations on the frontier to serve their time. The war against the horans ended twenty years ago. Drones were only occasionally scrambled from Retsina. They shadowed ships that strayed into the area of dead space designated as the NCZ—non-combat zone—defined in a peace treaty between the two empires.

A weak orange glow crept across the platform, brightening the antennas and base unit. Ethan clipped the tool back on his belt and turned to view the light source.

Orange mist swirled in a huge circle about fifty klicks away from the station.

Ethan’s heart rate spiked. “What the hell is that?”

Static interference hissed through the comm speaker, masking the response. He switched to the command channel.

“This is Engineer Five on the comms platform—”

Frantic voices cut him off. They talked about a massive energy source and transmitted back to CW command on Fides Prime, asking for advice.

A brilliant white light engulfed the center of the swirling mass. The orange mist extended out, forming a huge, roiling tunnel. Ethan squinted and turned away from the eye-piercing glare.

He grabbed the maintenance rail and moved back down the station, wanting to get to safety, realizing this phenomenon was probably a wormhole; it certainly looked like one to him. But where the hell did it come from?

Nobody in the Commonwealth or Axis Combine empires had harnessed wormhole technology. They were still considered spontaneous occurrences, but it seemed too convenient that this phenomenon had appeared next to the station.

The bright light reflecting off the metallic walls of the habitation deck dulled to an orange glow. Ethan glanced over his shoulder.

An impossibly large light-gray trapezium-shaped ship, with myriad cannons mounted on the top and both sides of its hull, had blocked out the light at the end of the tunnel. It was bigger than anything in the CW or Axis fleets, with the width at least the size of two destroyers.

Could it be? He thought… could it be the… Atlantis Ship? But it was just a rumor, a myth from the Century War: a ship so powerful that it could appear and disappear at will, and take down the most powerful of destroyers, seemingly on a whim. No one knew if it was real or not, it had never been caught on camera. The only records were those from panicked captains and ensigns.

A command center operator sent repeated messages asking for identification. Nobody responded and the ship proceeded through the tunnel. The captain ordered the weapons to lock on. The QRF (Quick Response Force) drones immediately scrambled from Retsina.

“This is Engineer Five. I’m still—” Ethan said.

Two blue bolts zipped from the top cannons of the approaching ship. Ethan gripped the rail and tensed. A second later, both energy bolts slammed into the side of the station.

The structure shook violently, huge pieces of infrastructure splintering and spinning off into space.

Ethan lost his grip and floated away from the station. He gasped at the pair of ten-meter-wide smoldering holes in the superstructure. Mangled debris surrounded him. His comms feed cut to silence.

Cannons on either side of the attacking ship fired. Ethan thrust away, avoiding pieces of wreckage. Four blue bolts smashed the station, creating a blinding flash of light all around him, obscuring his vision.

The comms platform had been reduced to a twisted mess. The command center took a direct hit and lights flickered off around the top half of the cylindrical station. The alien ship cruised out of the side of the orange tunnel and headed away. Its cannons swiveled on their turrets, maintaining aim.

Ethan knew the damage was terminal and closed his eyes for a moment, thinking about the horror his colleagues must have suffered. They could’ve handled two hits away from the key infrastructure by shutting down the areas, but nothing like this. He let out a deep breath, activated his distress beacon, and checked the air supply readings on his HUD. His only chance of survival was if a CW ship came in response.

Small parts of debris floated to Ethan’s left. He glanced back at the wormhole. Its swirling orange wall continued to extend forward. Parts of the station that exploded were being sucked in.

The mouth of the tunnel widened. Ethan drifted toward it. He thrust against the force, but it had no effect. His velocity increased and a brilliant white light flashed at the far end of the tunnel again.

He screamed as he let out the full load of energy in his motors, but it was useless. He spun around and looked back. The wormhole had surrounded the station and it careered toward him, closing in and gathering momentum as it entered further into the swirling anomaly.

A large chunk of metal smashed against Ethan’s arm.

The rest of the crippled station’s fragments were going to hit him in a matter of seconds. He covered his visor with his gloves and screamed as he, and the remnants of the station, headed into the oblivion created by the Atlantis ship.

And all the while, Ethan thought, It’s not a myth! We’re doomed.

Chapter Two

Admiral Morgan gazed out of his window at the new CW—Commonwealth—recruits being marched around the parade square in their crisp dark blue uniforms.

Running the command center and training wing meant he had the responsibility of ensuring Fides Prime produced humans, fidesians and the cross-breeds, fidians, that would continue to maintain order in the Salus Sphere—even during this prolonged twenty-year period of peace with the Axis Combine.

Morgan hated the increasingly ceremonial nature of his role. Captains were still patrolling space while he inspected gleaming buildings and accepted salutes from rookies.

The setting sun over the distant mountains told him it was time to go home, his shift was over for the day. He swept up his cap from the desk and turned to leave.

Three rapid knocks sounded on his sturdy wooden door. A breathless soldier burst in before Morgan could answer.

“What now?” Morgan said, irritated about the lack of courtesy.

“You need to come to operations right away, Admiral,” the soldier said. He swallowed hard. Panic was written all over face. “It’s Orbital Forty…”

Morgan frowned. “What about it?”

“It’s gone.”

“What do you mean, gone?”

The soldier gestured to the corridor. “This way, Admiral. You’ll want to see this for yourself.”

The CW Fleet hadn’t lost an orbital station in the thirty years since he joined. Eight were destroyed during the Century War with the Horan Empire, but that was different. Morgan knew the horans wouldn’t dare attack now. Despite the fact that they formed the Axis Combine with the vestans and lacterns and were building their capabilities, an all-out war risked too much for either side.

Morgan’s boots squeaked along the black rubber floor as he followed the soldier down the white-walled corridors. Pictures hung at regular intervals of former officers who served with distinction during the war.

They entered a glass elevator and the soldier depressed the button for the eighth floor—the location of the operations hall, where they tracked CW ships and communicated with every planet and station. Ops was the nerve center of the Salus Sphere, coordinating every mission.

The brown-haired fidian soldier fidgeted with his cuff and avoided eye contact. Concern built inside Morgan. This felt like more than a pirate raid on an outer rim planet.

“Well, Private, are you going to tell me any more?” Morgan said as they rode in the elevator.

“It was attacked and I was sent straight to your office after we lost contact. We redirected a scout ship to the area and it only found a few pieces of debris.”

“That’s impossible. Stations don’t just vanish.”

The elevator doors smoothly slid open. Morgan strode out and headed to the main area. Rows of Ops staff sat behind desks. He could hear them communicating to stations, ships, and planets about the status of Orbital Forty, telling them to activate black alert procedures. That meant prepare for an imminent attack.

It had been five years since CW activated a general black alert, when the horans feigned a probing assault on a mineral planet rich with uranium. Morgan guessed it was a bluff to test and monitor their reaction. The horans’ current empire had more than enough deposits to stop them taking such a risk. He was still on the command call, a communication sent to the heads of all operations when an event occurred. That provided a small crumb of comfort that he could at least keep his finger on the pulse of events around the Sphere.

Large high-definition screens were spread around the walls of the operations hall. The one directly in the center showed the seventy-five orbital stations spread around the frontier of the Salus Sphere circling moons and planets.

Morgan searched for Orbital Forty on the map amongst the light green globes that denoted them on the black screen. Like the soldier said, it was missing next to the faded outline of Retsina.

Five officers stood around a central desk, all dressed in the operations uniform of light blue shirts with a name-tag on the chest, rank insignia on both arms, and dark blue cargo pants. They turned to face him as he approached.

“Admiral Morgan,” a young officer said, “at 18:30 Salus Time, we received communications from Orbital Forty about a sudden burst of energy. We have a video feed of the events shortly afterward. A ship exited a wormhole and fired what we think are large ion cannons.”

“A ship out of a wormhole? Are you sure?” Morgan asked.

“I’ve made you a copy, sir,” the captain replied and handed him a memory chip.

“Your soldier told me a scout ship only found a few pieces of debris. What other measures have you taken?”

“We’ve sent orders to the nearest destroyer. It’s a light-year away and heading straight for Retsina in a hunting pattern.”

Morgan glanced down at the desk at the orange blur in the middle of the flat screen. “Is that the feed?”

The captain tapped the pressure keyboard and a light green timer ran in the top corner of the screen, displaying Retsina time. “This is the feed from Orbital Forty’s observation deck. I’ve sped it up to give you a better impression.”

An orange swirl transformed into a tunnel and a bright light flashed at the end of it. A ship cruised through the wormhole. The description matched the myth. An imposing dull gray giant, although it had been reported to have a graphite sheen, cannons on the top and sides, four times bigger than the common CW standard. They only had ion cannons that size for ground defense.

It fired at the station and uneven lines of static interference cut across the feed. Blue bolts of concentrated energy shot from both sides of the ship and pounded the station. The wormhole extended toward it and the feed stopped.

Morgan took a deep breath. It looked like the myth that had become a joke amongst the ranks. During the Century War, a ship would appear from nowhere and attack both the horans and CW. It had no pattern, never communicated and had devastating weaponry.

Eventually the story changed to blaming every disaster and crash, every missing person or just about anything that couldn’t be explained on the supposedly mythical Atlantis ship.

“Do you have a fix on the ship?”

“No, sir,” a tall thin female fidesian lieutenant said. “Do you think the wormhole swallowed the station?”

Morgan replayed the images in his mind. He’d even stopped believing the Atlantis ship existed. Nobody had that kind of tech in the known universe. The rumors were that this ghost ship of destruction had trawled space for centuries, appearing in solar systems that were light-years apart in a matter of minutes, arbitrarily targeting anything it could find.

The myth was the reason that people didn’t believe it existed. If CW and Axis technology wasn’t even close to accomplishing wormhole travel, how could a centuries-old ship?

“It’s possible in theory,” Morgan said. “I need to report this to the Space Marshal. Stay on black alert, and if you find its location, I want every available ship in the area to bring hell down upon it.”

Members of the ops team had stopped working and peered at Morgan. This was the first time as admiral he’d been tested. Twenty years of peace, punctuated with minor skirmishes against inferior forces, had left everybody in a comfort zone.

The Atlantis ship had destroyed it with a single cruel blow.

***

Morgan climbed into a two-seater transport pod outside the command center building and sat on the purple leather chair. The clear plastic door slid shut with an electric whine. He needed to come up with a realistic plan before speaking to Marshal Kenwright.

The gruff old man was a fighter pilot during the Century War and the soldiers loved him. The senior officers under his command had a less favorable view because he didn’t suffer fools and wasn’t scared to speak his mind when he suspected they were taking the easy option.

Morgan leaned toward the voice-recognition system’s speaker in front of him. “Area five. The marshal’s residence.”

It set off along the magnetic track and whirred past the air base. Three black arrow-shaped drones took to the air, joining others outside the atmosphere as part of the black alert proactive defense shield. At the side of the airstrip, a crew of the fidesian artillery peered out of the windows of a hundred-meter-tall orbital cannon. The setting sun radiated off its white barrel and support rods.

Without a firm location or a trackable path for the Atlantis ship, Kenwright wouldn’t commit a destroyer group to a search mission. It would leave sections of the Salus Sphere wide open. The old dog was cautious about this for a reason. The horan always looked for signs of weakness. If the Atlantis ship continued attacking CW stations, it would expose parts of the frontier and would require a destroyer presence to plug the gap.

The pod slowed and stopped outside the stone gates of the marshal’s residence. Two soldiers guarded each side and held their X50 carbines across their chests. Only vestan heavy armor could stop a caseless round fired from an X50. With the motion finding and enhanced vision scope, it was the best on the market in terms of energy efficiency but lacked the stopping power of the energy weapons.

Morgan stepped out and straightened his dark blue jacket. The door slid closed behind him and it hummed back toward the central pick-up point.

“Good evening, Admiral,” the left soldier said and waved him through.

Morgan returned the nod and thought they were getting younger with every year that passed. Or perhaps that was just him getting older. He walked up the road toward the large three-story lilac dome. The former marshal used to be a fidesian and had the place remodeled to look like the best houses on the planet. Kenwright didn’t bother changing it back to the typical square colonial style. He loved the fidesian culture and art.

It showed in the way Kenwright arranged the residence gardens with native plants and statues of fidesian gods. Most humans liked to have their own little slice of Earth. Even though almost everyone had moved to the Salus Sphere over two hundred years ago after resources dried up and the ozone layer disappeared.

Eight, ninth, and tenth generation humans lived in the Sphere along with a few sevens like Kenwright. Some humans crossbred with genetically modified fidesians to create fidians, but most still had reminders of the old world like grassed lawns, wooden benches and genetically engineered flowers made from DNA blueprints.

Morgan saw it as misplaced nostalgia for a place they would probably never visit. If any did, they’d be bitterly disappointed to find a crumbling empty world, used as an outpost for pirates. The Salus Sphere provided everything they needed to sustain the species and a whole lot more.

A junior officer met him at the pair of open front doors. He saluted. “This way, Admiral. The marshal’s expecting a strategy to find and destroy the ship.”

“What does he know about it?” Morgan said, surprised that Kenwright already had the details.

“He read the black alert order about the wormhole attack.”

Morgan turned the chip in his hand and thought about the ideal person to send out in search of the Atlantis ship. Most of the well-drilled crew of the fleet were excellent in formation attack, but that wouldn’t do it. A set-piece battle would prove costly against the kind of weaponry used to take out an orbital station with a few shots. He needed something completely different to avoid exposing the Sphere to a horan invasion.

Kenwright sat behind his white marble desk and gazed at a pair of monitors. Morgan’s footsteps echoed around the empty cream walls as he walked across the polished stone floor toward the desk.

“I see the Atlantis ship’s back,” Kenwright said, keeping his focus on the screen. “I take it we haven’t managed to locate it?”

An orange glow reflected across Kenwright’s face. Morgan guessed he’d ordered a copy of the Orbital Forty’s feed to watch in advance before their meeting. It didn’t surprise him that the old marshal would be all over this like a rash.

“No, sir,” Morgan said. “It’s just like the historical reports from decades ago. A scout ship reported most of the station missing.”

“And now we’ve finally seen the big ugly brute. I don’t recognize the design.”

“Somebody once told me it was built by an ancient alien race who no longer exist. All part of the myth, I suppose. I’d like to put myself forward to take a capital ship out and hunt it down.”

Kenwright slowly nodded and smoothed his gray mustache. “We lost two hundred good people today. I want you to put your best crew on it. You’re an admiral. I don’t expect my top team to put themselves forward.”

“With respect, sir,” Morgan said but didn’t mean, “we need an experienced crew to capture something like this.”

Kenwright rolled his eyes and sighed. “You’ve got your own responsibilities and I can’t allow it. Do you have anyone else in mind?”

The response didn’t surprise Morgan. He expected it, but it was worth a shot. It was always worth having a plan B when dealing with the old goat.

“I’ve already been thinking about that, sir,” Morgan said. He paused briefly, wondering if his suggestion would appeal to Kenwright’s maverick nature, or if he’d receive a dressing down. “We need to keep our frontier defended, but we have our own special predator. I’d like to ask your permission to contract Carson Mach.”

A smile crept across Kenwright’s face. “Bleach is just the sort of crazy bastard that could pull this off. You have my authority to make the transfer from our central funds.”

“Thank you, sir,” Morgan said. The use of Mach’s nickname irritated him, but it was well deserved. Whenever a dirty job needed doing, they always used him to clean up the mess. “I’ll start the ball rolling and update you later.”

Kenwright narrowed his eyes. “Make sure you do. And not a word about this to anyone. If it’s known that I sanctioned a Bleach mission, it won’t be just my head on the block.”

Morgan nodded, turned, and headed back outside.

Dusk had firmly set in and he peered up at the tiny white dots of the drones buzzing around in the starry sky.

Carson Mach had served with him on a destroyer twenty years ago and left the fleet after a string of charges and short spell in military prison. He couldn’t take discipline back then, but always delivered on his contracts after going freelance.

The only nagging doubt was if Mach had finally let his vices completely consume his life. For the sake of the Salus Sphere, Morgan hoped that wasn’t the case.

Chapter Three

Carson Mach chambered a round in his SamCore Stinger, his favorite illegal firearm, and glared at the most hideous horan he’d ever seen at the far end of the bar.

The horan, an ex-commander of an Axis Combine warship, glared back, the hate distorting his reptilian face. This one had dark crimson scales that looked wet and glossy under the bar’s neon lights.

Ralex was the big bastard’s name, and he carried a bounty that Mach desperately needed to pay off his bar tab here in The Tachyon, lest he himself received a bounty on his head by the criminal owners, the Laverna.

The horan wore a thin black robe over his muscular body. He leaned forward on the bar, propping his thick, bony elbows onto the surface. His green and yellow eyes stared right at Mach, not even pretending that he didn’t want to rip Mach into shreds and then feed him to the horan’s pet dogs—although dog was a generous term for the quadruped lizards with razor teeth and claws that slice through titanium.

It was at this point, as Mach downed another shot of Gasmulch to stop his hands from trembling, that he thought about the terrible situation he was in.

Ralex was the head of a rogue group of horans who had fled from the Axis Combine after they lost the war with the Commonwealth powers of the humans and the fidesians. This rogue group, unaffiliated with their former commanders, was free to roam the CW worlds as they saw fit, spreading their hate and bile as they went.

Mach knew that the reptilian swine was planning something, some attack on one of the CW home worlds in the Fidesian system. The Commonwealth had gotten soft in the previous twenty years of peace.

While they continued to expand the cultures of art and exploration throughout the now peaceful Salus Sphere, the Axis Combine were rebuilding their forces beyond the Non-Combat Zone: the ring around the sphere, where all parties had agreed not to establish any military outposts and to maintain a free-fly zone for all.

It didn’t take a genius to know that the Axis were preparing for another attack. Letting scum like Ralex travel freely was naïve at best.

“What are you looking at, filthy human?” the horan said in his dry, raspy voice. It was barely audible over the pulsing electronic music blaring out of The Tachyon’s speaker system.

Mach squinted his right eye, the black one, and read the temperature of the horan. The beast was ten degrees warmer than his natural body heat. Mach had learned, through his prosthetic eye, that the horan’s lizard-like bodies became much hotter as they prepared for battle. He presumed it was a speeding up for the immune and metabolism systems—the very things that gave them their ability to regrow limbs.

A tall thin fidesian wearing a leather waistcoat hurried behind the bar, serving people as quickly as she could, perhaps sensing things were about to hit the fan. The fidesian glanced at Mach; her ruby red eyes glinted under the lights, as though they were miniature nebulae as seen through a Hoffberg telescope. Her head, like the rest of her body, was almost bald. She, like all of her race, had a fair, almost transparent thin layer of hair on her skin, which under the right kind of sun had a hint of green to it. It was a look that appealed to Mach greatly.

He liked the tall, lithe bodies of the fidesians, their shape the result of their home planet, Salus Prime’s lower than the average human world’s gravity.

Her slight, thin mouth tensed at the edges.

Mach knew this look; it was the disapproving look she had given him just that morning when he asked her to stay in bed for another round of copulation. That word always made him laugh; the fidesians loved their euphemisms almost as much as they loved to copulate.

“I asked you a question,” Ralex rasped again. This time the big creature stood up from his stool, knocking it back, making a group of younger fidesians dart out of the way.

Mach ignored the horan and took another gulp of his drink, finishing the bottle. The sweet buzz of the genetically modified alcohol spread throughout his body and limbs, loosening up forty-three-year-old muscles that had seen more combat and action any human had any right to.

The Stinger vibrated gently against the leg of his GraphTech fatigues, letting him know the molecular disruption module was fully charged. Mach would only have two shots at this. If he missed, it was unlikely he’d beat the horan in hand-to-hand combat; they were just too big and powerful, even with Mach’s varied prosthetic upgrades.

Even a human with advanced tech couldn’t regrow limbs or benefit from having three compartmentalized hearts like a horan. And it was those differences, among others, that made the horans think they were superior to the CW species.

The bartender saw Mach empty his bottle. She swiped it away from the bar and gave him a knowing look that said, “Don’t do anything stupid,” but copulation aside, she didn’t really know Mach all that well; being stupid was what he did best.

“You really are ugly, even for your kind,” Mach eventually said with a growl to his opposition. The hush in the bar seemed to get heavy as the varied patrons sucked in their breath at the insult. From the corner of his eye he watched as most of the bar emptied. A few others stayed, hiding in shadows to watch the fight.

“I’m serious,” Mach added. “Were your parents experimenting or something? They must have either laughed or cried when they saw what crawled out of their egg. It’s no wonder you were chucked out of the Axis Combine.”

Through his temperature filter, he saw the horan’s body continue to enflame. Ralex pushed away from the bar, swiping the barstool violently to one side with his thick, barbed tail.

This was what Mach was hoping for; he spotted the black matte blade attached to the end of the tail; the bastard was equipped with a stun knife. One hit from that, and Mach would be paralyzed.

Better make this one quick, he thought.

He turned to the bartender. “You better duck for cover while you make me a cocktail. I’m gonna need a drink after this,” he said in Salus Common, an amalgamation of English and Fidesian that had become the majority language all across the Salus Sphere.

She blinked her beautiful eyes and did as he suggested, moving in her elegant way. She really was quite a special one and the sole reason why he had spent the last six standard months drinking away his gambling winnings here… totally nothing to do with forgetting about his court-martial with the Commonwealth Defense Force, and totally nothing to do about his broken, now nonexistent marriage, and least of all the loss of pension and earnings.

Letting the Gasmulch help with his denial, and sheer stupidity, Mach picked up a shot glass and threw it with his cybernetic right arm toward the horan. As soon as the glass left his hand, Mach rolled to his right, falling to the ground.

Ralex roared as the glass struck him on the face. The horan leapt up onto the bar with the spring of a Salusian wildcat, smashing his tail left and right, the stun tip sparking as it struck against the wall of bottles, each one smashing, sending fragments of glass spraying around the bar. His robe, although looking thin, was a mesh of graphene and deflected the shards as though they were nothing more than seeds in the wind.

Coming out of his roll, Mach rose up on one knee and pulled the Stinger from his hip holster. The horan likewise had raised a weapon: a small laser blaster from a hidden compartment on his forearm.

“Sneaky fucking lizard,” Mach muttered as the scenario started to slow down for him, the BuzzKill stim finally reacting to his adrenalin. He got off a shot before the horan could aim the laser.

Both men fired… and missed. Mach’s blast flew over Ralex’s left shoulder. The horan’s laser bolt struck a fidesian somewhere behind Mach in the shadows, the yelp telling him it was a young male.

Ralex leapt off the bar with a low hiss.

Mach staggered back and ducked below the swipe of the tail. He dodged to his right, rolling over a table and firing his second blast from the Stinger. The shot hit this time, catching Ralex on the ribcage. The blast sent the horan crashing to the ground, clutching his wound as the disruption bolt ate away at the muscle and sinew.

A loud explosion erupted from behind Mach. He swung around to see three massive silhouettes appear in a nonlethal cloud of paralyzing gas.

Shit, Invidian security droids!

Although not unexpected, they were quicker than he had hoped. Someone must have set him up; they didn’t normally give a crap about bar fights, or… anything, really. The planet Invidia was the place that let anything go, which was one of the many reasons why Mach liked it here… well, like was a strong word, but few planets would allow the likes of Mach to stay around for long. He was the portent of trouble, after all; the Ill Wind, some factions had called him; Bleach, by others for his ability to go in and clean up a situation no matter how dangerous or risky it might be.

Just like this one, he thought.

Before the droids could open fire, Mach used his heightened senses to locate the exits now that the droids had cut him off from his previously planned route. There was a door to the staff office in front of him and behind the horan that stood in his way, now even more furious.

Mach noticed that the effects of the disruptor blast hadn’t lasted; Ralex’s system was already repairing the damaged tissue and the horan was stalking Mach with murderous intent.

This really wasn’t going to plan, but when did it ever?

Mach hit a button on the smart-screen wrapped around his left forearm. He had earlier spent two eros on a jukebox playlist. The blaring sounds of space metal, his favorite fighting music, drowned out the sounds of screams and droid servos.

The pounding beat and the driving riffs helped the BuzzKill stim to further enter his system, slowing time down further, making his reactions borderline impossible. He would pay for this in the morning, but right now he didn’t care.

He had a big damned horan wanting to rip his face off, a group of droids sent by god knows who, and great music pounding into his ears. Bliss! This was goddamned bliss.

Without looking behind him, he unclipped an EMP grenade from his GraphTech utility belt and tossed it somewhere toward the back of the bar. The bright blue flash and the fizzing sparks told him that the droids hadn’t yet been upgraded to defend against nanopulse technology.

With a big grin on his face, Mach crouched down to receive the charge from Ralex. “Come on, bring it!” Mach yelled as he dropped his Stinger and pulled out his combat knife.

There was nothing technologically special about this thing, just a sharp piece of metal that could cut through granite given enough force.

Ralex bounded into Mach, slugging him around the face with a heavy, scaly fist. Mach didn’t feel the pain, but the physics of it sent him flying two meters back into the bar. His head hit the surface, making his vision blurry.

The horan stepped closer and whipped his tail around.

Mach just about managed to fall out of the way. As he did so, the creature’s momentum brought him close enough that Mach was almost laying directly beneath him, between Ralex’s pair of thick, powerful legs.

The music hit the chorus and a chugging riff blared out as Mach grinned as wide as he had for months. He slammed the knife upwards, driving up with as much strength as he and the various stims in his blood would allow.

Ralex’s tail whipped frantically, but he wasn’t articulated enough to be able to reach down to hit Mach.

Green blood poured from the horan as Mach twisted the blade and jerked it forward, splitting the alien apart. Ralex’s innards flopped out, bringing with them an acidic stench that made Mach want to gag.

On some worlds, these would be cooked into a delicacy. He never bothered to try and this would likely put him off forever.

With a piercing yell that was audible even over the jukebox, the horan slumped back onto his own tail, the stun tip striking his back, sending the beast into a frenzied spasm.

Mach rolled out of the way and pulled himself up to his feet, leaning against the bar. He reached over and grabbed another bottle of Gasmulch. He took a long draw and watched as the horan continued to jerk and twist, all the while trying to reach for his varied organs that now lay in a slump on the floor.

He turned the volume of the jukebox down by tapping the control program on his smart-screen. The bartender stood up from her hiding position below it. She eyed Mach with that disapproving look again.

“I’m sorry,” Mach said to her. “I’ll pay for it.”

He held out his forearm and let her swipe the transaction rod over his smart-screen. It transferred thirty eros for the bottle.

“Thanks,” Mach said, recognizing she had given him a discount.

“I never liked Ralex,” she said, her thin lips showing the barest hint of a smile. “You better finish him off and go collect your bounty before more Invidian security turn up. You’ve caused quite the mess.”

After slugging another shot, Mach placed his hand on her shoulder, mostly to steady himself. “They’re not damaged… much,” he said, nodding to the pile of inert droids. “A reboot and they’ll be fine… mostly.”

“You better put the horan out of his misery. He’ll be like that for days, trying to regenerate.”

With a sigh, Mach nodded. “I suppose you’re right, but given what his lot did to our people, a little bit of suffering is due, don’t you think?”

Under her breath she said, “I do, but Carlo Laverna didn’t offer the bounty for suffering, did he?”

“No, he didn’t. Oh well, I guess fun time’s over.”

“For now,” the bartender said with a wink as she headed to the other end of the bar to serve a group of fidesians wearing a nice shade of panic and shock on their faces.

Mach staggered over to the writhing horan. He bent over its body. “Ralex, my old buddy, I bet that stings? Well, I can help you with that.”

The horan gurgled something deep in his throat in response.

Bored with the situation now, Mach reloaded and fired his Stinger to put Ralex out of his misery. Using the smart-screen sleeve, he scanned the body for signs of life; there were none. He took a photo of the corpse and a recording of the scan and sent it to the head of the Lavernan crime syndicate, Carlo:

Scans and evidence of the completed job—as promised. I’ve attached my secure eros account transfer credentials. I’d prefer cryptocurrency on this one. Don’t want it coming back to me if we get audited by Central Accounts.

Within two ST—Salus Time—minutes, he received a response notification:

Impressive work, Mach. When you want some more jobs, you know where to come. Funds have cleared. Enjoy your hangover.

Mach smiled as he read his account notification. The Lavernans were many things, but they always paid what they promised, and in this case it seemed they’d given him a bonus. The job should have paid three hundred thousand eros, but they’d thrown in an extra fifty grand.

They were trying to keep him sweet. The Lavernan Syndicate had been trying to recruit him for years, ever since he got court-martialed from the CW Defense Force. But these days, he preferred to be a freelancer; non-affiliation kept his options open.

It also meant he knew who his enemies were: everyone.

He waved goodbye to the bartender and exited The Tachyon into the sunny evening of Invidia. They’d only get two hours of darkness tonight and he intended to make the most of it. He decided to head for the beach and drink cocktails until he either passed out or got arrested.

Just three steps away from The Tachyon he walked right into an Invidian security droid. With the BuzzKill stim wearing off, he had the reactions of a slug and couldn’t avoid the blow to the head that sent him crashing to the ground as the blackness of unconsciousness took over.

Chapter Four

Cold air wafted around Mach’s bare limbs, making his skin crawl. The bright light beyond his closed eyes made it seem as though he were behind a red curtain. At least that was an improvement on blackness.

The pain in his head made him groan as he tried to move. His face hurt. His spine hurt. His legs, arms, feet, jaw and chest… hurt. At first he wondered if he had been in a ship crash or had decided on an unauthorized naked space walk.

Carson Mach had done many odd things in his life, but never that… so why did it feel like it?

He blinked his eyes, letting the light in slowly so his pupils had time to adjust. The prosthetic had no problem; it dilated automatically down to a tiny aperture if needed, but his real eye, that would take time to adjust.

The hard surface he was slumped on told him exactly where he was even before his vision adjusted to the brightness: Invidia prison.

Of course! It all came flooding back to him. And then he smiled when he thought of his three and a half grand sitting in an off-planet account.

He was in the clink—again. The light gray surfaces only stained slightly but with old blood. A single hard bed and a shit-pan in the corner decorated the two-meter-square room.

An electronic whir of servos grabbed his attention and reminded him in stark clarity of why his head and face hurt: the droid. “Was it you?” Mach groaned. He made out the bipedal form of the Invidian security droid—or sec-bot as most people called them—looking at him via a vid-screen on the east wall of the cell.

This particular sec-bot had a snide attitude to it. Its singular orb of an eye, set within a narrow rectangular face, spun as it focused on Mach. Somewhere within its head lay a quantum chip running its AI program. It often surprised a lot of visitors to Invidia that these sec-bots had distinct personalities.

Some people, mostly idiots, thought they were self-aware and conscious. Which Mach knew was utterly ridiculous. He had tested this theory so many times that he now knew most of the sec-bots by their serial number.

This one, no. 8094-12, known as just 94-12, had arrested Mach on at least fifteen occasions, mostly due to Mach shooting it, shutting it down with EMPs, or messing with its code for shits and giggles. At no time during all that did it display any kind of self-preservation.

It was just a big dumb robot.

Mach knew he was getting stale, lazy, if he could be so lax as to be sucker punched and arrested by 94-12—the dumbest of all big dumb robots on the security force.

“Carson Mach,” it said, with a strangely cheery male voice that wouldn’t be out of place in a church choir. “You’ve been arrested for…” It reeled off a long list of crimes for the next minute and a half, making Mach yawn.

“Just tell me the damage,” Mach said. “How big’s the fine this time?”

Given his little bonus from the Syndicate, he wasn’t too bothered. His bar tab was probably higher than his fine. Usually he’d give the warden a little ‘gift’ of ten k eros and he’d be on his way, after having had a nice night’s sleep and a delicious prison breakfast.

It was a running joke on Invidia that if you wanted to take a date out for a nice meal you should get her arrested first.

“Your fine, Carson Mach,” 94-12 said, “has the remaining balance of two point three million eros.”

Mach didn’t think he heard correctly at first and ordered the stupid sec-bot to repeat. But to his horror, the numbers didn’t change. And there was a troubling word in that sentence too—remaining.

Leaning forward, now feeling very much awake, Mach said, “What the hell are you talking about? That’s outrageous! I only killed one person this time, and the security droids will be fine after a reboot. There wasn’t even that much damage to the bar, and what in god’s name do you mean ‘remaining balance’?”

“We have seized your ship and all of its possessions, the value of which we have assessed to be seven hundred thousand eros, leaving a remaining balance of—”

“Yes, I heard you the second time!” Mach said, standing and walking around in circles in the tiny two-meter-square cell. A three-million-eros fine! It was simply… “Bullshit,” Mach said, slapping his hand uselessly against the vid-screen. “I want to see the warden, right now.”

“That won’t be possible.”

“And why’s that, you waste of silicon?”

“Warden Farage has been indicted on charges of fraud and sent to Summanus to serve out the rest of his life.”

Summanus—the prison planet!

Mach reeled back and slumped onto the hard bed. This wasn’t right; no one on Invidia was charged with fraud—ever. It was just how things worked here. It was currency for laws and for the most part it worked well. Invidia wasn’t even an affiliated planet under the governance of the CW.

“Who even has the jurisdiction to do that?” Mach asked. Invidia didn’t even have its own government. The security force was privately funded by a treaty account set up by the various criminal families. As odd as it was, it worked out okay; even the families knew there had to be some kind of order, even if the punishment was financial.

“Do you have sufficient funds to pay your fine?” the sec-bot asked.

“No, you know I don’t; you stole all my gear. I’ve nothing else to give.” He didn’t mention his off-planet account. They’d have wiped out his CW account and pension, along with anything else they had found in his ship. He didn’t want to give the buggers his last remaining funds.

“Sentencing will begin this afternoon in lieu of payment.”

“This is madness! No one on Invidia has ever faced charges. We can work something out, I’m sure. A payment plan perhaps? Let me talk with the new warden.”

Mach could have sworn that 94-12 smiled as he said so very cheerily, “I am the new warden. I’ll return in one hour to see if you have found the funds required for your fine. Good day, Carson Mach.”

The vid-screen switched off just as Mach ripped the bed plank from the wall and threw it against the screen. The plank bounced off without harming the surface and clattered to the floor, knocking over the shit-pan.

“Just great,” he yelled, slapping his palm against the wall.

This was not what he had expected at all.

He tried to call someone, but his smart-screen wouldn’t connect. They’d updated the security protocols, closing the loophole in the system he had often used to get in touch with Carlo or other heads of families.

He’d need to find a new way out, hack into the system, but that would take far longer than the one hour that 94-12 had given him. There was no way he could cover the fine. In his off-planet account, he had just over nine hundred grand, and that was the sum of everything now that his ship had been reprocessed and sold on.

A slight comfort came to him as he thought about the ship’s various problems that he’d managed to hide from the dock inspection during his last authentication. Whoever had bought it would soon realize the fusion motors were shot and the LightDrive barely functioned below two hundred HPL—hours per light-year—making it possibly the slowest FTL ship in the Salus Sphere and a prime target for raiders and pirates.

He considered himself lucky 94-12 had gotten as much as he did for it.

But it still didn’t help him out of this particular hole.

There were few options left open to him. In time he may be able to hack some comms to Carlo and get a loan, or there was the option of breaking out, though that seemed as likely as busting someone out of Summanus, which to his knowledge had never been done.

Perhaps if he could convince 94-12 to come and see him personally, he could try to override its functions… As that idea started to coalesce, his smart-screen around his forearm buzzed with an incoming notification.

“Whoa…” he said, whistling as he looked at his screen and saw who it was calling him—Admiral Morgan.

They hadn’t spoken in at least three or four years. At one time, Mach and Morgan were like father and son, the latter was his commanding officer during Mach’s entire career. Their unit had the highest kill and success rate of any CW military unit.

Until the Situation happened and Mach was thrown out of the force.

Morgan was then promoted to the admiralty and oversaw the naval fleet. Easy job these days, though, considering the peacetime. Mach always viewed it as a way for the CW hierarchy to keep Morgan out of trouble.

He was a hero to the home Sol System for his efforts during the war when Earth and Mars were on the precipice of horan control. If it wasn’t for Morgan, the system would have fallen and humanity’s first home would be no more than a slave world.

Mach, however, didn’t have such heroics to keep him nice and safe in a cushy role upstairs, so why, after all this time, would Morgan be calling him now? Given the changes to the warden and the fine system, it didn’t take a genius to realize these events were linked.

The notification bleeped again. Mach tapped his finger on the screen, accepting the call. A hologram image of Admiral Morgan appeared above his screen.

“Well, well,” Mach said. “It’s the old man. How are you doing?”

He looked old, Mach thought. Not just regular old, but tired, worn out… as though lacking in vitality. It appeared a life in the pen-pushing admiralty wasn’t his kind of thing after all. The wrinkles around his eyes were deeper, craggy. His eyes were deeper set and shadowed by a low brow.

“You look like you’ve had an interesting day,” Morgan said, an uneasy smile on his face that reminded Mach of those days when his lovers inevitably delivered their speech about how much they loved him and that’s why they had to leave.

“It’s something bad, ain’t it, Morg?”

The older man nodded his head.

“We didn’t want to have to do this, but we had little choice. You wouldn’t have agreed otherwise, I’m sure of it. I know your feelings toward the CW Defense Force, and if we just came to you asking for help, you would quite rightly tell us to go ram our heads up our collective asses.”

“You’re quite the mind reader these days, old friend. So you’re telling me that you arranged all this? The removal of the warden, the ridiculous fine?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“You know,” Mach said, shaking his head with disappointment. “Would it have killed you to have put our friendship, our history first, and give me a heads-up? At least have given me a choice. You know I can’t afford that fine.”

“Yeah, I know. We know.”

“And who exactly is we?” Mach asked. He leaned against the wall and dropped his arm for a moment. He was still hurting from his beating the night before.

“Are you still there, Mach?”

“Yeah, I’m still here. My arm hurts is all. So you better just get on with it. What do your bastard superiors want with me this time? Some crime they want to pin on me? A suicide mission into the NCZ?” The NCZ—Non-Combat Zone—was the ring around the Salus Sphere that the treaty between the Commonwealth and the Axis Combine listed as a safety zone.

In truth, it had become a freeway for lawlessness. Occasionally, the CW would send out a number of scientific ships to scan some sector of space for the Hoffberg Protocol, the project to identify habitable planets outside of the Salus Sphere and the areas under the control of the Axis Combine.

“None of that,” Morgan said, with what Mach thought was a slight tremble in his voice. Mach couldn’t tell if it was fear, nerves, or something else. He raised his arm to stare into the holographic eyes of his old friend.

“So what is it? What do you want me for?”

Morgan looked away for a moment, appeared to give someone a nod and returned to Mach. “Orbital Station Forty is no more.”

Mach racked his brains. It had been quite a while since he had memorized all the CW orbitals and various stations. “Is that the one above Retsina?”

“It was,” Morgan said.

The two words echoed in Mach’s mind, birthing a hundred ideas and consequences. “War?” he uttered. “An Axis attack?” It made sense, really. Retsina was a small planet on the very edge of the Salus Sphere. The orbital provided secure communications and defensive network systems. These stations created a first line of defense against any potential attack from the Axis and covered the entire collection of CW planets.

“Not an Axis attack, no, something far more troubling.”

“Just spit it out, old man. I’m running out of time here. Just tell me, what the hell’s happened and what do I need to do in order to get out of here.”

“Just one thing,” Morgan said, looking at Mach directly so their eyes locked. “You must find, and disable… the Atlantis Ship.”

At first Mach laughed, thinking Morgan was yanking his chain, but the seriousness with which the words were spoken told Mach he was deadly serious. The Atlantis ship was just a myth; everyone knew that. It was like the ghost ships of old. Tired, drunk, scared sailors would often see things in the fog and attribute it to a dread ship sailed by ghosts. The Atlantis ship was just the same thing.

Mach had been in deep space enough to know the human mind often saw all kinds of weird shit out there. When the CW pushed its crew hard, especially during the conflicts with the Axis, people got stressed, saw things that weren’t there.

The idea of this Atlantis ship just appearing and disappearing while leaving a wake of destruction behind was just the fever dreams of the scared or the insane. The myth had been around ever since humanity first settled a colony on Mars.

“Did you hear me, Mach?”

“Yeah, I heard you. I was just wondering what you’ve been drinking recently. Or have you taken to enjoying the benefits of stims in your old age?”

“Dammit, Mach, I’m serious. We received a distress signal earlier just before the ship arrived and obliterated the station. We have a snippet of video too, if you don’t believe. An Ethan Bloom, one of the mechanics, managed to record a few seconds before he, along with most of the orbital, was sucked into the Atlantis ship’s closing wormhole.”

Mach wanted to dispute it, say it was all a load of crap, but Morgan’s hologram changed to a 3D video of the recording. All Mach could see was floating debris passing over the head of Bloom’s helmet cam. When the mechanic looked up, the great looming shape of a dark ship completely filled the view. The thing looked… ancient was the only word Mach could come up with. It was of a design the likes of which he’d never seen before.

The ship was ginormous any way you looked at it. Before he could focus in on any detail, Bloom screamed and turned his head. For a split second, Mach saw the collapsing wormhole, a swirling ball of orange and black colors, sucking in anything close to it. The rear of the ship broke away from it and away from the field of view.

The recording became static as the mechanic’s scream was cut off by the radiation in the wormhole.

Mach stood in stunned silence.

Morgan reappeared in the hologram above his wrist. “Well?”

“Well… I think that’s all kinds of madness. That was no ship of the Axis.”

“Of course it wasn’t. It’s the Atlantis ship. You know it; I know it; that poor sod Ethan Bloom knew it. As quick as it arrived and destroyed the orbital, it was gone, vanished, like the damned stories of old. It’s real, Mach, the damned ship is real. And we want you to find it before it destroys anything else.”

“Why me? Why not send one of your CW destroyers after it?”

“I wish it were that simple. Dealings with the Axis have become difficult. The treaty is on the verge of collapse and they’re massing forces on three fronts: the horans to the north, vestans to the east, and lacterns to the south. All our resources are being geared up for a potential war. We cannot afford to go after this thing, and…”

He broke away, but Mach knew what he was going to say. “I’m the only one mad enough to do something so stupid? It’s essentially a suicide mission, isn’t it?”

“I don’t think the odds are good, let me put it that way. We want you to find the ship, board it, and disable it. It’d be a huge coup for the CW if we could capture it and reverse-engineer the tech. You’d be doing the Salus Sphere a huge favor, Mach. This is your way back into the fold. A way to clear your name.”

“How much?” he asked, not caring about clearing his name or doing the CW any favors. He was way beyond that now.

“What do you mean?” Morgan asked.

“How much will I be paid to do this? I’m only interested in cash. And seeing as your lot have forced my hand with this crazy fine, I want to make sure that I enjoy my last few months or years while I go after a myth.”

“We’re cleared to offer three million eros, a CW ship and crew.”

“No,” Mach. “I won’t work with a CW crew. If I’m doing this, I want my fine cleared, the three million on top, and a choice of my own crew. My terms are non-negotiable. I’d rather be sent to Summanus than do this for anything less.”

The shadowed ‘hold’ image replaced Morgan’s face as he was probably delivering Mach’s terms to his superiors. They must be desperate, Mach thought, if they had come to him. Just how big was the Axis threat if they couldn’t even spare one destroyer from their fleet of twenty thousand?

Morgan returned. “We agree to your terms. A CW ship will pick you up tomorrow. Your fine will be cleared, and half the funds will be deposited into an escrow account to pay for your crew. Who do you have in mind, and will it take you long to mobilize?”

“You leave the crew choice to me, Morgan and I’ll do this mission for you.”

“Fine, it’s probably better I don’t know anyway.”

This time Morgan gave Mach a genuine smile, reminding him of the old days when they had patrolled the NCZ together. They had some good times until the Situation.

“Okay, Morg, consider this my formal acceptance. One way or another, I’ll find that damned ship.”

Chapter Five

Mach had to stay in the prison cell for another full day as he waited for the CW-approved ship to arrive from one of the nearby orbitals. At least he had some good food and rest during that time to consider how the hell he was going to find a mythical ship. No, he thought. It’s no longer a myth.

94-12 personally escorted him from the prison and shut the gate behind him. It was chirping about something, but Mach wasn’t paying any attention, happy to be back outside in the bright sunshine on a new day.

The dumb robot refused to give him back his Stinger, though. Mach had thought about making more of a scene, but the funds in the escrow account would be plenty for him to get re-armed.

He checked his smart-screen for the time. The shuttle wasn’t due for another two standard hours, so he decided he should perhaps book into one of the local motels to freshen up and make a plan. And the walk would do him good.

Invidia really was quite a pleasant-looking planet with its bright sunshine that wasn’t too warm or too cold, its sandy beaches that stretched for miles around its island landmasses, each one connected together via the maglev monorail system. Along each beach there were innumerable bars and eateries, all of which were owned by one crime family or another, but as long as you weren’t a dick, then you’d be fine.

Which was always Mach’s problem; sometimes he just had to be a dick for the fun of it. Life was just too dull to go about one’s business without causing a little bit of an uproar.

The traffic this morning was slow. Mach remembered it was a public holiday and sighed when he realized he’d be charge ten times the going rate for the motel room. He’d have to keep track of all these expenses if he was going to have enough for all the things he thought he might need for this mission, his crew being one of them. They would not be cheap. He had them in mind as soon as Morgan offered him the job. There were few people more daring and risk loving than him, and he knew all three of them.

He just had to find a way of getting them on side. One of them would be easy enough, but the other two… well, he’d cross that bridge when he came to it. The sidewalks were quiet with few pedestrians out doing business.

Looking over to his left and down the low cliff side, he saw where they all were: at the beach, under their graphene umbrellas, stripping off to get the famed Invidia tan. Drink and stim vendors wandered in sandals up and down the beach, doing a brisk trade.

The families would be happy; the vendors were usually the first lot of new recruits. Most of them were young kids from the ’burbs or neighboring planets looking to make their fortunes. Few ever did, really. It was one thing vending drinks and stims to the locals, it was another to deal arms and ships with unaffiliated factions. That’s where all the real money was—and bounty hunting, of course.

But then that took a special kind of stupid—the brand of stupid that Mach had made his own since leaving the stifling regulations of the CW.

Dart-shaped ships whizzed by overhead, their atmosphere fusion drives whining above a low almost subsonic bass thump. Street racers were at it again. He counted in his head, five, four, three, two, one…

The sirens of four sec-bot interceptors peeled out around him, echoing against the polymer-fronted buildings of the financial district. He smiled as the flat disks flew overhead in pursuit of the racers. They wouldn’t catch them; Mach knew those engines were non-regulation, he could tell by the smell of sulfur in the air. They would mix a potent range of powders into their fuel to max the KPH of their crafts.

A dozen or so passersby watched the proceedings before returning their gaze to their forearms, their smart-screens delivering them the news of the day. He ignored them and crossed a small bridge that arched over a bright blue stream. Below the bridge he saw the manic movements of a school of yellow piper fish frantically swimming against the tide, snapping at any smaller morsel that passed their hungry mouths.

Carlo had once used them to torture a rival.

They tasted great with fried Sol potatoes.

At the end of the bridge, he headed across a grassy area until he came to a glass building constructed to resemble a huge arc. The glass was tinted a metallic blue today, reflecting the rich tones of the cloudless sky above.

He waved his forearm across the door scanner, entering his credentials. The door opened and he walked inside, stopping at a telepresence concierge. The holographic fidesian wore a pink silk scarf around her head, covering her hairless pate. She smiled at him. “Welcome to the Invidigroup Motel, Mr. Kain, what can I do for you today?”

Kain was his pseudonym that he used for his everyday work. An old friend of his, Kingsley, had created a hacked ID chip that allowed Mach to set up to twelve different names and identities. Perfect for staying off the grid and out of the CW’s watchful eye.

“I’d like a room for an hour,” Mach said.

“I’m afraid as it’s a holiday today, Mr. Kain, our rates have gone up. And I’ll have to charge a full day’s rate.”

“What? I’ve been here hundreds of times and booked rooms for a few hours at a time. So what, it’s a holiday, do loyal customers not get some preferential treatment?”

The downside of dealing with a telepresence meant that he couldn’t bribe it without the appropriate hacking software packages, none of which were currently available for this model of holographic concierge. It was an arms race these days between telepresence companies and hackers.

The concierge started to waffle on about rules and regulations when Mach’s attention was taken away from her by the sound of a ship landing right outside the motel on the grass. Most unusual.

Mach exited the motel and waited a second for his vision to adapt to the change of light. His prosthetic eye scanned the ship and delivered to him the recorded specifications from its public serial ID number.

Of course! A CW ship.

This one was a Phalanx-E—the E standing for executive. It measured twenty meters from bow to stern and five point five at its widest part: the two stub wings that flowed toward the stern with a slight bow curve.

It looked brand new to Mach, with its black curved windshield and spotless matte silver hull and wings. A tail fin rose ten meters into the air, the base of which held the two swollen pill-shape fusion motors. It was as dull to look at as it was to pilot. He’d used them before when he was an officer and had to escort CW dignitaries around various systems. It was barely faster than the broken ship 94-12 had sold.

With a depressed sigh, Mach walked over to the right side of the hull, knowing this was the ship Morgan had said he could use. The damnable ship didn’t even have a laser turret, let alone disruption emitters.

As he approached, the square door hissed and lowered to the ground, creating a ramp, at the top of which stood two young CW cadets, still wearing their blue training uniforms. Each one had a single white stripe attached to their left shoulder: junior pilots, otherwise known as JPs. They were the first step of the CW Defense Force ladder. This meant neither of them would have even been outside of the Salus Sphere. Their only flight-combat experience, if they even had that, would have come from the simulators at Fides Prime’s training center.

Mach shook his head in disbelief. How could Morgan have sent him two greenhorns and a glorified taxi and expect him to hunt down the biggest, baddest ship in the known universe. You wouldn’t give a hunter a blunt spoon to take down a Salusian saberdog.

The two JPs gave him a perfect salute and stepped down the ramp, their motions perfectly in sync. Mach just watched them approach, still in somewhat of a fog of disbelief.

He pondered that he could take the ship and leave the newbs behind. He’d get a decent amount of cash for a perfect condition Phalanx-E and could put that toward a decent-but-used warship that might actually have some luck at surviving the pirates in the outer rim, let alone take on the Atlantis ship.

On the exchange boards, he’d seen a fairly nice vestan Battle Budgie, named after the Axis Combine’s strategy of sending one into a battle zone to see if it died or not. They were small, tough craft that could take a beating. When put together in a squad, they could cause havoc to larger ships.

The best thing about the Budgies was their LightDrives. They could fly almost as fast as a CW destroyer, clocking in an impressive sixty-five HPL. And that was done on a modest fuel load, meaning one could get around the Salus Sphere and beyond without too much fear of a pirate interception.

“Sir, did you hear us?” the boy said, dragging Mach away from his thoughts.

“Yes, JP, I heard you. What’re your names?”

“I’m Danick, and this is Lassea, my sister.”

“It’s an honor to work with you, sir,” Lassea said, bowing slightly.

Mach hid his distaste for this formal bullshit and tried to remember that he too once was a greenhorn. “At ease, you two, this is no CW mission. I won’t need any of that formal stuff. Call me captain or Mach, your choice, it doesn’t matter to me. Now listen, the first thing we need to do is get this taxi off this grass. It belongs to one of the biggest crime families in the sector and wasn’t designed for landing ships on.”

Danick blushed and fidgeted.

Mach realized they were twins. They both stood at about five and a half feet tall and wore their dark brown hair closely cropped as per CWDF regulation. Neither featured what one would call an athletic physique. To Mach they looked malnourished with sunken cheeks and barely an ounce of fat on their bodies.

They both stared at him with blue eyes, waiting for further instructions.

“To get the ship off the grass, one has to actually fly the thing. You two are JPs, right?”

“Yes, sir, Mach, I mean Captain,” the girl said, turning on her heel and striding up the ramp. Her brother, Danick, followed. Mach shook his head and entered the craft, wondering why on the all the sins he had ever committed he had been lumbered with this pair.

Once inside the ship, Mach entered the bridge and took the central captain’s chair. The two twins sat either side of him at a pair of navigation consoles, their hands poised over the holographic haptic displays.

Mach breathed in the smell of new ship. It still had that stringent smell about it of drying glue and welded polymers. His seat was upholstered in the softest of Bora leather. He sank into its cushions and felt himself relax for a moment.

The sparse light-gray design of the CW shipbuilders brought it all back to him: his days in the force, rising up the ranks until he became an officer of his cruiser. If he hadn’t fucked things up, he would have been navigating his own destroyer by now. But then who needed a destroyer when one was going to get the Atlantis ship.

“Okay, kids, let’s get on with this, shall we? We’ll get to know each other on the two-day journey.”

Lassea turned to face him. “What is our destination, Captain?”

Mach grinned as he delivered the coordinates.

Both Lassea and Danick balked, speaking at the same time. “What? The prison planet via the Vekron Valley? But, Captain, that’s certain death through there. The horans are supplying the freedom fighters.”

“Indeed, my young charges. Is there a problem with that?”

Danick added, “The AI won’t let us plot a course that close to the NCZ.”

“He’s right, Captain,” Lassea added. “It’s too dangerous.”

“Is it now? Tell me, do you two also let your mother wipe your ass?”

The twins opened their mouths and closed them, reminding him of those yellow piper fish. “This is our ship, and now, despite my reservations, you are my crew—for now—so let me show you how to fly this waste of metal. Someone pass me a laser blaster.”

Danick reached under the console and brought out a plastic box with a yellow caution sticker on the front. He entered a code and opened the box, retrieving the laser blaster. He handed it to Mach, thankfully not barrel-first.

“You keep guns in safety cases now?” he said, raising an eyebrow.

“Protocol, Captain,” Lassea said.

“Peacetime… goddamned peacetime has turned everyone into a bunch of scared pups.”

Mach took the gun and approached Danick’s console. He rested a hand on the boy’s bony shoulder. “Is this the AI-Nav?”

The boy nodded.

Mach shot it twice. Smoke billowed from the black box, sending sirens and lights wailing in the bridge.

“Turn all that crap off,” he shouted to Lassea. The girl frantically looked for the override codes. Mach just sat back and waited.

Eventually, she found the correct button and brought the ship back to an oasis of calm. “Right, Danick, tell me, how old are you two?”

“Nineteen, Captain.”

“Well, let’s see if you two can see twenty. Enter the coordinates for the Vekron Valley.”

“We don’t have any outboard weapons, Captain,” Lassea said, her face becoming pinched with fear and panic.

“Well, I guess we’ll have to improvise, won’t we? Now hit that launch button and let’s get going. I’ve got a crew to get and the quicker we get to Summanus, the quicker we can go after the Atlantis ship.”

“Um…” Danick said, his hand hovering over the manual flight controls.

“What is it?” Mach said.

“We don’t have credentials to enter Summanus space.”

“That thing I said about improvisation? That extends to breaking into a prison. Now launch this bird. That’s an order, boy.”

Mach grinned as Danick touched a trembling hand to the manual launch controls and set the coordinates for the Vekron Valley. One way or another, these JPs would find out if they were good enough to be on Carson Mach’s crew.

Chapter Six

With Carson Mach agreeing to take the Atlantis ship assignment, Morgan knew he had the Commonwealth’s best man on the job, not that he’d admit it to Mach’s face. The Atlantis ship’s weapons could wipe the smile away in a heartbeat.

Successful completion would achieve Morgan’s dream of captaining the flagship, returning to active service and shedding the boredom of his ceremonial position. Some people dreamed of being an admiral, for him it took away his purpose. With the Axis massing on the edge of their empire, the CW didn’t have enough combat-experienced officers on active duty.

In order to assist Mach’s mission, Morgan decided to visit the man that most people on Salus Prime considered a fruitcake. Theo Beringer worked in the Fidesian Remembrance Center, a museum dedicated to the history of the twelve planets in the Fides solar system. Beringer was obsessed with the Atlantis ship.

Morgan regularly visited his old technical officer below the two-hundred-meter-high, blue-tinted glass pyramid, in the ancient catacombs now used to store historical information. Beringer spent nearly every working hour in his office. He was the man to visit for any human requiring a deeper cultural understanding of the fidesians, but more importantly, had a useful network of colleagues throughout the sphere.

A virtual reality figure of a fidesian in traditional dress, tall and thin with green-tinged skin and wispy hair, wearing a multicolored woven robe, appeared on a sheet of glass when he entered the complex. “Welcome to the Remembrance Center. Would you like to take the official tour?”

“No, thanks. I’m here to see Theo. I’ll show myself to his office.”

The figure steepled her fingers and bowed her head. “Have a pleasant day.”

So far Morgan’s day had been far from pleasant. He spent most of it drafting personal letters to the families of the Orbital Forty victims. Some thought it an unfashionable thing to do, but he thought the old tradition carried more meaning than an electronic message.

A group of thirty human, fidesian and fidian children in their matching yellow uniforms moved around the eroded statues of mythical creatures and tall glass display cabinets containing excavated artifacts, tapping notes into their smart-screens. Morgan headed for the underground display of cave paintings and basic tools, created thousands of years ago during the fidesians’ version of the Stone Age.

Fidesians took their culture seriously and this place was as much a temple as a museum. Morgan stood on the electronic ramp and cruised down the catacombs at a gentle speed while a neutrally accented female voice talked through an overhead speaker in Salus Common, the hybrid language used by the fidesians and humans, which was thankfully dominated by English. She was explaining the evolution of the species from cave-dwelling hunters to sophisticated artists and explorers.

The tour led left at the bottom of the ramp, along a clean brightly lit tunnel. Morgan headed right, past the vaults containing the non-displayed items and shelves of historical documents. Beringer’s office was at the end of the smooth stone corridor. He loved being close to the detail, he always did, and predicted a lot of the horan moves accurately during the Century War.

Morgan raised his hand to the authentication pad outside Beringer’s door. Before his palm connected with the black glass plate, the door slid open with a pneumatic hiss.

Beringer relaxed back in his antique brown leather chair and smoothed the sides of his wiry gray hair. Light brown scrolls were piled on the left-hand side of his desk. A monitor and touch pad sat on the right-hand side. Three slabs of stone, with ancient symbols chipped into their sides, leaned against the back wall of his brightly lit office.

“Admiral Morgan, what can I do for you today?” Beringer said and peered at him with his light green eyes. He’d instructed the medical support unit to create him a new pair of fidian eyes after losing his sight due to age-related macular degeneration. Morgan still couldn’t get used to them. He’d engineered himself to be a hybrid, but the fidesians and fidians loved him for it.

“The Atlantis ship’s back. I’ve been tasked with destroying or capturing it.”

Beringer’s eyes widened. He bolted forward, tapped on the touch pad and swung his monitor to face Morgan. “The myth becomes reality. One of my team found this in a cave on the other side of the planet. Take a look at this.”

Morgan squinted at the image of a carving on a wall of rock, brightened by artificial light. He recognized the shape of the Atlantis ship instantly. Boltan, the fidesian god of destruction, stood next to it and held a sphere.

“How old is that?” Morgan said.

“At least four thousand years. I’ve collected every single known occurrence and still can’t work out a pattern. It might help if I had access to the horan records.”

“I’m sure you know a man who can get them,” Morgan said. He sat on the plastic chair in front of Beringer. “That’s the reason I’m here. I need your help.”

“Why come to me? You’re an admiral with powerful resources at your fingertips.”

Morgan sighed. “You’d think so, but it doesn’t work like that. I’m no more than a desk jockey nowadays, but finding the ship can get me back into active service. I’m putting a specialist team together, but it’s top secret.”

“What kind of top secret?” Beringer said, raising an eyebrow, creasing the wrinkled skin on his forehead. “The type that Kenwright doesn’t know about?”

“You know me too well. I’ve recruited Carson Mach and tasked him with putting together a crew.”

“Mach?” Beringer laughed and continued to tap his spindly fingers against the smart-screen. “I can see why you need to keep this under wraps. I’m surprised he hasn’t drunk himself to death.”

“He’ll survive longer than all of us. I want you to join him. If he finds the ship, we need to get our hands on the tech and harness it.”

Beringer stopped typing and looked up. “I gave that kind of work up years ago. The only man I know who can do it and would join the crew is Kingsley Babcock.”

Morgan shook his head. “You can’t be serious? I can take the heat for a secret mission using Mach. Babcock would kill any chance I have of returning to the fight.”

“It was twenty years ago. Most people have forgotten about it.”

“The marshal won’t forget the hundred thousand casualties after he hacked into the vestan artefact.”

“He didn’t know about the virus,” Beringer said. “Marshal Kenwright should remember who programmed the AI-driven advanced combat systems that tipped the war in our favor.”

“People always remember the screwups. I can pay him well and the fleet won’t know a thing.” Morgan sat back and thought for a moment. Babcock was the finest technical mind in the CW. He escaped into exile after unleashing the virus while trying to gain a better understanding of vestan technology. If Mach captured the Atlantis ship, Babcock would be the best man for the job. “The problem is locating him. He could be anywhere in the Salus Sphere.”

Beringer bowed his head. “I’m still in touch with him. He keeps his finger on the CW pulse and we share information on the Atlantis ship. If anyone can track it or predict a behavior model, it’s Kingsley.”

The revelation came as no surprise. Morgan knew Beringer and Babcock were tight during their time in the fleet. Kindred spirits with insatiable curiosities and a shared obsession about the Atlantis ship. Neither of them ever accepted the myth.

“Can you contact him and get his agreement?”

“Only if you promise he doesn’t end up in a Summanun cell.”

“You have my word on it,” Morgan said. “Please do it as soon as you can. I’ll communicate with Mach when you give me Babcock’s coordinates.”

Beringer smiled. “I’ve already messaged him.”

Morgan’s screen flashed. He glanced down at the display. “I’ve got to go. I’ll trust you to explain the situation.”

Morgan stood and left the office, pleased that he had a team in place that was capable of finding and hacking the Atlantis ship. If they could survive an initial meeting.

***

Morgan left the Remembrance Center and climbed into a transport pod. Operations had messaged him, requesting his presence in the center. Horan destroyers were on the move. “Command center, please.”

The pod whined through the apartment blocks at the western end of the base. Morgan gazed at the sun reflecting off the shimmering glass structures. They replaced the older traditional-style housing that the humans first built on arrival in the Salus Sphere.

Confident that he’d put together the best combination to track and hack the Atlantis ship, it now meant he could focus on the horan threat. They would already know about the Orbital Forty and be carefully monitoring CW movements.

The pod stopped him outside the command center block. Morgan returned inside and took the elevator to the eighth floor. As usual, they would report events to him and communicate strategy, and expect him to play nodding dog. But he’d already decided to start taking a more proactive role.

Organizing the secret mission had reinvigorated him and stiffened his resolve to get back amongst the action. If the horans were planning an attack, the CW needed combat-experienced officers to lead the fight.

Morgan approached the central operations desk. “Update me on the movements.”

A young fidian lieutenant pointed to a large screen on the left, monitoring the noncombat zone around the sphere and a small area of the Axis territory beyond. “A group of five horan destroyers have gathered on their frontier, a light-year from Retsina.”

“We think they’re trying to take advantage of the wormhole attack.”

Morgan gazed at the screens. It didn’t make sense that the horans would use such an unsophisticated plan to probe with five destroyers. They would realize that a heavily armed CW ship would be heading for the area to bolster the frontier.

“What formation are they using?” Morgan said.

“They’re extended across an AU, orbiting a series of dwarf planets.”

“The captain’s ordering four more of our destroyers to the area.”

Morgan shook his head. “Tell them to stand down. Horans wouldn’t send five destroyers into the Salus Sphere. Keep me updated if you see any more buildup.”

“But, sir,” the lieutenant said. “The captain has authority—”

“From now on, any CW movements come through me. We may be entering a period of war, and another enemy has returned. Do you have a problem with that?”

“No, sir, but I’ll have to speak to the captain. It’s going against his direct orders. ”

“I’ll speak to the Ops command and let them know the new approval line.”

Morgan scanned the monitoring screens. The horans had a reason for being in that location. They had a reason for doing everything. This wasn’t just a case of waiting for the CW to commit their resources to a search and taking advantage. If they weren’t planning an attack, their presence could only mean one thing. They were also looking for the Atlantis ship.

The consequence of the horans finding it and harnessing the tech sent a shiver down Morgan’s spine. Mach’s mission had taken on an even greater significance.

Chapter Seven

Mach was sitting in the captain’s chair. He gazed at the two JPs maneuvering the holocontrols. Wet behind the ears, inexperienced, and would likely crumble if the shit hit the fan. The Vekron Valley had been quiet so far, but he’d expected that while on their light drive.

During the first part of the journey, Mach rested in the sleeping bays and left them to monitor the ship during the L-jump. He busied himself and read as much information as he could find on the Atlantis ship. Disappointingly, most were Salus network posts by conspiracy theorists. He needed to find a technical expert who had a real interest in the alleged myth.

Danick and Lassea changed to the shuttle’s fusion motors as they approached the Valta asteroid belt, telling Mach they were only half an AU to Summanus. This was a prime hijack zone. Ships were forced to slow in order to navigate through without taking significant impacts.

One of the console screens let out a high electronic beep. Danick peered down and quickly turned. “We’ve got five unidentified ships. Four klicks away and heading in our direction, Captain.”

“You can drop the rank now,” Mach said. “I stopped playing military man years ago.”

“Did you hear me? Five ships!”

Mach smiled back at his panic-stricken face.

As predicted, the JPs would be tested and would prove either way if they were suitable for the mission. If they failed to come through this minor problem, he’d need to find a good pilot from the prison.

“What do you want us to do?” Lassea said.

The Phalanx-E provided a nice target for pirates. Mach would’ve been disappointed if pirates didn’t take the bait. No visible weapons and the possibility of ransoming a dignitary, how could they not decide to take a bite?

“Keep at full speed and head for the closest part of the belt,” Mach said. “Follow my instructions and you’ll get out of this in one piece.”

“We should’ve known,” Danick said. “The AI—”

“Screw the AI.” Mach stood and walked to the console. Five green dots, without the standard CW ship codes above, flashed on the edge of the screen. Two split in either direction; one maintained a course directly behind them—the classic pincer movement of pirate fighters. They were gaining on the Phalanx-E.

“We’ll be in the belt in a minute,” Lassea said. “I need to slow us.”

“Hold your nerve and take her in,” Mach said. He watched the monitor. Two fighters headed below them on the starboard side, two high on port. “Let’s find out just how much they want us.”

Lassea thrust to port and passed between the first two asteroids. Danick leaned in his seat and winced as they narrowly avoided the huge piece of rock on their starboard side. The way ahead looked impassable, but it always did because of the different sizes and orbits.

“Commonwealth ship,” a voice crackled on the intergalactic distress frequency. Mach loved how the pirates abused the channel for their holdups. “Return to the valley or we fire. You can make this easy on yourselves if you just give up now.”

“What do we reply?” Danick said.

“Nothing,” Mach said. “Maintain your speed and head for the middle of the belt.”

“We’ll get hit if we don’t thrust,” Lassea said. “It’s too dense.”

A small rock bashed against the side of the Phalanx-E and the cockpit juddered. Mach grabbed the arm of his chair to maintain balance. “These E classes have five times the heavy armor as a pirate fighter.”

“We can’t take hits from asteroids and lasers.”

“Have faith in CW design,” Mach said, enjoying watching the flustered two young officers out of their comfort zone. If they were coming along, this was only a starter. “If you want to return to your comfy apartments on Fides Prime, follow exactly what I say.”

Danick glanced down at the tracking monitor. “They’re almost on top of us.”

“Commonwealth ship,” the voice crackled again. “This is your final chance.”

Mach configured the distress frequency on his smart-screen and raised it. “Give it your best, shitbird.”

A rock bounced off the side of the Phalanx-E. The ship vibrated and something dropped to the floor behind Mach. An alarm repeatedly bleeped. Lassea gasped. “Our port thruster’s gone. I need to reduce our speed.”

A red laser zipped past the front window and hit an asteroid. Tiny fragments of rock chipped away into a small cloud of dust.

“You see that?” Mach said. “They ain’t gonna hurt us. I want you to head directly for that asteroid and thrust to starboard to hit it side on.”

Danick spun and gave Mach a wild-eyed glare. “You’ve got to be kidding me?”

“Not in the slightest,” Mach said. “We’re going to play a game of skillion.”

Lassea set a course for the asteroid and glanced over her shoulder. “You want to knock it out of its trajectory and disturb the others around it?”

“Now we’re getting somewhere. The ship can take it. The pirates can’t.”

The shuttle jolted. Mach knew the pirates would score a hit eventually, but they were using scare tactics. It served no purpose to destroy the Phalanx-E. The pirates were banking on the pilots to surrender. If Mach wasn’t here, they probably already would have.

Half a klick from the asteroid, only slightly smaller than their ship, Lassea engaged the starboard thruster and they spun on their axis, positioning the heavy side armor toward it.

Mach checked the monitor again. The pirates had closed right up and clustered behind them. The heat traces from their weapons registered at regular intervals.

The brother and sister held hands and braced. Mach held the arms of his chair and hoped for a decent bounce. The density of the asteroid belt thinned half a klick away and they’d enter Summanus’ space zone, safe from the pirates.

A laser hit their underside and rocked Mach out of his chair. He held his breath. The shuttle slammed into the side of the asteroid and the structure groaned. An array of alarms beeped on the console. Danick and Lassea frantically spun their holocontrols to set the shuttle back on course.

“Put the rear camera on-screen,” Mach said.

Danick nodded and manipulated a floating green cube on his left. The top screen flicked from status indicators and measurements to a view from their stern.

They had managed to knock the asteroid into a new orbit. It crashed against a smaller one and sent it hurtling into others. Mach glanced down at the tracking monitor. The pirates split in different directions away from the shuttle. One disappeared.

A burst of fire erupted behind a large asteroid. Parts of a fighter scattered into space, colliding with smaller rocks.

Mach continued to survey the monitor. The remaining fighters continued away, but he decided to keep his eye on them. He knew they often used this tactic as a ruse to launch another assault.

Lassea puffed her cheeks. “I don’t think we can afford to take another hit. The armor’s down to ten percent effectiveness and the thruster’s going to need repairing.”

“Keep switched on,” Mach said. “Rule number one: put your biggest strength against their biggest weakness. They didn’t have our range or integrity. Rule number two: never surrender unless you want your throats cut.”

Danick and Lassea ignored him and continued to fiddle with the controls. He was confident they got the message.

***

Summanus was a living hell for most of its residents. The Commonwealth used it as a prison planet, because nobody wanted to live there. Dark angry clouds constantly filled the chilly skies. Rain lashed down incessantly and bolts of lightning regularly crashed against the ground.

Mach spent six months locked up in the damned place during his early years as a freelancer, falsely accused of gun-running and with a fine he couldn’t meet until one of its recent inmates helped him and bought his freedom.

Ernesto Sanchez paid Mach out, ironically in exchange for doing a spell of gun-running through the noncombat zone. Easy work and they built up a good relationship. Ernie was imprisoned last month, accused of killing two lactern diplomats while escaping the local security droids after a deal went bad. His advanced knowledge of CW and Axis weapons made him ideal for the crew, and Mach could finally return the favor.

Two drones zipped through the clouds that shrouded the planet, and approached. They both locked their motion torpedoes on the Phalanx-E.

“You have failed to automatically authenticate. Please identify yourselves,” the monotone voice said through the open CW channel.

“We’re here on authority of Admiral Morgan. This is JP Danick. My copilot is JP Lassea. We’re under the command of Captain Mach.”

Good, Mach thought. They were already starting to think on their feet. Despite not having the quintuplets to handshake and confirm a landing position, Danick used the weight of Morgan as leverage. The prison security wouldn’t dare go against an admiral from Fides Prime and impose the non-CW approved taxes.

The drone didn’t respond. Mach knew it would be replaying the message back to flight control, and guessed they’d be in pointless debate before coming to the predictable conclusion that the Phalanx-E would be permitted to land.

Mach twisted an atomic blue capsule between his fingers. He considered swallowing it for a brief moment. Although it provided an unbeatable rush and quickened his thinking, buying out a prisoner was a mundane routine. It also had hallucinogenic properties when mixed with alcohol, which proved handy in certain situations. He slipped it back into his breast pocket.

“You are free to use bay five,” the drone said over the speaker. “We will escort you down.”

Coordinates flashed across the console screen. Mach rolled his eyes. Summanus was king of officiousness in the Salus Sphere.

“Thank you,” Lassea said and smiled across at her brother. “We’re coming in for landing.”

The shuttle descended through the black clouds and rocked around in the tropospheric turbulence. Lightning flashed across the sky and rain pelted against the cockpit window.

Bright lights formed a square below them. The perimeter of the prison. Mach remembered the electronic ring they placed around his neck when being admitted. If an inmate attempted to escape and passed the outer boundary, the ring automatically tightened around their neck for every meter they went beyond. Thirty meters led to strangulation. They had a different type for every species.

Lassea thrust and the Phalanx-E bumped against solid ground. The side door slid open and cool air rushed inside. Mach stood and wrapped his collar up. “You two wait here. I’ll be half an hour.”

“One of us can come with you,” Danick said.

“I think I’ll be all right,” Mach said. These twins had potential, but it was still early days. He reminded himself that he was once a young green officer, wanting to impress but lacking in experience. “We’re going to a local bar tonight. Get some food into your guts.”

“We don’t drink,” Lassea said.

Mach raised his eyebrows. “We’ll see about that.”

He turned and headed out into the darkness. Rain splattered against Mach’s head and he tucked his neck against the back of his collar. Thunder rumbled overhead and a bolt of lightning forked across the sky, silhouetting the distant mountains.

The imposing square gray concrete structure of the prison, lined with hundreds of security lights, lay directly in front. He splashed across the landing strip, past two old rectangular supply shuttles, and headed for the entrance. It was a smart place to build a prison. Anyone who escaped would end up in a bigger kind of hell if they avoided being choked to death.

A guard with a bushy beard opened the door as Mach neared the entrance. He jogged the last few meters, nodded his appreciation to the guard and swept back his soaked hair.

“Why has Admiral Morgan sent you?” a stern-looking fidian woman, dressed in a black warden’s uniform, said from behind the reception desk.

“He didn’t send me, but I have his authority,” Mach said. “I’m here to buy out one of your inmates.”

“Who do you want?”

Mach knew the price would double if he told her. “I need some crew. If one of your people could give me a guided tour…”

“I can’t waive the extra ten percent without the admiral’s approval.”

“Do you want me to message him and give him your details?”

The fidian leaned over her desk and scowled. “I’m letting you off with the landing tax. If you want this to be quick, you’ll pay freeworlder prices.”

“Didn’t you see the CW shuttle outside?”

“Didn’t you forget your authentication quintuplets? You can go through the official process and spend two days here. I’ve got all the time in the Salus Sphere.”

“Fair enough,” Mach said. The staff always skimmed and this guard was an experienced player. “Let’s get this over with. I want to get out of this shithole.”

She gave him a lingering glare and pushed a solid white ring across the desk. “Confirm you have credit.”

Mach wondered if the weather had taken over the guard’s mind. She could’ve been replaced by an AI-drive cyborg with more personality. He placed his wrist through the ring and a green light on top of it beeped.

The guard nodded toward a squat bald human partner, who stood by a thick internal steel door. He swiped his security pass against the pad and the door to the prison block clanked open.

“This way, please,” the squat guard said.

Following the guard through another security door that led to the cells, Mach peered along the brightly lit ten-meter-wide corridor at the light blue walls and shiny red floor, polished every day by prisoners. Nothing had changed in twenty years on A-wing.

At the end, two more corridors split off at right angles, giving the prison building a huge T-shape when viewed from above. B-wing and solitary confinement, the latter housing the most dangerous and disruptive inmates.

One hundred metallic doors lined either side of A-wing. Each had a small transparent viewing window and a digital display below it, giving the inmate’s name, fine and period of incarceration.

“Are you looking for anything in particular?” the guard said.

“A human. Nobody who’s been in here for more than a few months,” Mach said, trying to narrow the parameters for a quick find. He felt sure the miserable guard at the desk watched and listened through the security feed, ready to increase the price on the digital display of anyone he named directly. “I’d rather not have anyone from the defense force either. Too institutionalized for what I have planned.”

The guard nodded. “We’ve got a few options. Follow me.”

He led Mach to a cell halfway along the corridor. “Loppy Wood. He’s been here six weeks. Caught smuggling on Salus Gamma.”

Mach gazed through the window at the thin man, dressed in the prison’s green coverall, who lay on his bed in the corner of the cramped sparse cell. He rubbed his chin, feigning interest. “He looks a bit on the skinny side. Are you starving them?”

“I have to eat the same meals,” the guard said and slapped his bulging gut. “Do I look malnourished?”

“Not at all, you’re fine specimen. This one isn’t quite right. Can I see more?”

The guard continued along the corridor and showed him a few more pirates and smugglers. Mach held his nerve. Not that many inmates would fit his requirements.

Finally, after being shown two more cells on B-wing, they came to Ernie’s.

His fine was two million eros. The right amount for a double homicide of lactern dignitaries. Ernie sat against the wall with forearms resting on his knees, the coverall hiding the Fides Gamma animals tattooed all over his body. Mach hadn’t seen him clean shaven with a buzz cut before. He always had long black shaggy hair and a thick handlebar mustache.

“Had much trouble from this one?” Mach asked.

“He’s only been out of solitary for two days. Smashed up two lacterns in the showers after they attacked him.”

“Sounds ideal for what I want. I’ll take this one.”

The guard shrugged. “There isn’t any more that fit your description. Personally I’d take Loppy.”

“He doesn’t suit my needs. Prepare the transfer.” Mach turned and glanced along the opposite corridor. He still needed another crew member and wondered if any of his acquaintances were locked up. “How many have you got in solitary?”

“Ten at the moment. Mostly horans.”

“What about the others?”

“A lactern spy and a real mean bitch serving life for killing twelve high-ranking officers.”

Mach had read about Adira’s arrest last month, but her location was kept secret. She was exactly the kind of person he needed. A ruthless CW assassin, considered the best in the Salus Sphere. He guessed she had taken the fall for superior officers. Adira was too careful to make that kind of move without being under orders.

“What’s her price?”

“You can’t buy her out. Nobody can.”

“Are you sure we can’t come to some arrangement?” Mach said and gave the guard his best smile. “I can make a direct payment if you help me out.”

The guard sighed. “Sorry. I’d end up replacing her if I let her go.”

“I understand. I’ll take…” Mach squinted at the display below the cell window, keeping up the act in case of any complications back at reception. “Ernesto Sanchez, and be on my way.”

Adira would be leaving Summanus on the Phalanx-E. If they wouldn’t let Mach pay for her, he had little option but to bust her out. Once he had Ernie Sanchez safely out of the building, they needed a plan.

Chapter Eight

A gust of wind blew across the dark landing strip, spraying ice-cold rain against Mach’s face. He jogged toward the Phalanx-E and the side door opened, throwing out a shaft of light into the gloom. Sanchez followed, looking more like his normal self, dressed in a dark brown leather jacket and trousers made from balto hide.

Mach’s boot splashed through puddles on the floor and he sped up the ramp. Lassea worked at the back of the shuttle on the damaged interior, running diagnostics through a pad balanced on her lap.

Danick sat at the cockpit and turned in his chair. “Did you get what you came—” His eyes widened as Sanchez’s large frame entered the shuttle.

Sanchez glanced around its dull interior and shook his head. “They don’t make ’em like they used to.”

“Let me introduce you to Sanchez, Ernesto Sanchez,” Mach said. “He’s officially part of our crew.”

Lassea placed down the pad, approached the big man, and slowly extended a hand as if placing it into a predator’s open mouth. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Ernesto Sanchez.”

Sanchez smiled down at her, flashing his two gold front teeth. “A sprog from the fleet, eh? What’s this crazy bastard had you doing? Oh, and call me Sanchez.”

“We’re here to help him find the Atlantis ship,” Lassea said.

Silence filled the shuttle. Sanchez’s smile dropped. He turned to Mach. “You busted me out to search for a myth?”

“A myth doesn’t destroy an orbital station,” Mach said. “I’ve seen the footage. It exists and could make us both rich, far richer than running some rusty guns.”

“How are we supposed to capture it in this thing? It doesn’t even have basic weapons.”

“That’s for us to work out. But we have a more immediate priority. We need more crew members… I want to break Adira out.”

“Adira? She’s in max security solitary, you know that, right?”

Mach shrugged. “I’m sure we can put our heads together.”

“Why do you want her, of all people? I heard she once tried to remove your testicles from your body with a steak knife.”

Lassea eyed Mach with a hint of alarm.

“That’s just her take on a romantic evening. But seriously, Sanchez, we’re not going anywhere until we have her onboard. You know this place better than I; I need you, man.”

Sanchez sighed and rubbed his thick hand across his chin, the rough skin of his fingers scraping across the stubble, the sound rasping like glass-paper against wood.

“I’ll help you break her out and stay with you for a month to find this Moby Dick of a ship—on your dime, but not a day longer. Oh, and I want fifty percent of any proceeds.”

“Fifty?” Mach said, incredulous. “Twenty-five. I’ve got costs and a better ship to arrange. I’m on the favor of a minor CW dignitary. I don’t have an endless budget here.”

“Forty,” Sanchez said.

“Thirty, and that’s my final offer. Any more than that, and it’d be cost effective for me to have you go back inside.”

“Fine, I can live with that,” Sanchez said with a satisfied grin. He spat in his hand and held it forward. Mach shook it, the warm saliva smudging against his palm.

Danick joined them in the midsection and stood next to his sister. “We can’t be involved with this. Everyone in the Fides system knows about Adira’s murders.”

“You’re here to follow my orders,” Mach said. “Download the prison plans from the central database and get them up on screen.”

The JPs stood looking at him like a pair of lost puppies. Sanchez moved behind them and wrapped his arms around their shoulders. “You better listen to the man. I’ve seen him in a bad mood, and let me tell you, it ain’t a pretty sight.”

Mach loved Sanchez’s style of passive-aggressive persuasion, but his other skills got him on this particular mission.

“I’ll have them up for you in two minutes,” Lassea said and brushed Sanchez’s hand off her shoulder. “For the record, I don’t like being touched.”

Sanchez laughed and sat on the soft leather captain’s chair. “Fides Primes and their stiff culture. You need to relax a little.”

Danick and Lassea sat at the cockpit controls and worked the holocontrols to get the required information. If Mach could find a way out, that didn’t involve passing reception, he was confident of springing Adira.

“Did Adira really try to kill you?” Lassea said.

“It was a long time ago.” Mach thought back to the encounter. Apparently he was the only person alive in the Salus Sphere to survive one of her attempts. “I’ve spoken to her since, in a sense. There’s no hard feelings.”

“I’d be careful,” Sanchez said. “If she had a contract on you, I wouldn’t put it past her to cash in at the first available opportunity. I would.”

Mach shook his head. “It’s over, trust me. Get what tools you need to break off her security neck-ring. I’ve already thought of a way to get inside.”

Sanchez grunted and heaved himself from the chair. He walked toward the back of the shuttle and pulled open the hatches on the unbuckled left-hand side.

“I pulled in a favor from one of my friends at HQ,” Lassea said.

The 3D technical designs for the prison flashed across the left screen above the cockpit. Mach studied the designs. They had to have emergency exits in case of a fire. The CW was health and safety mad, and wouldn’t have only one point of access. He spread his finger and thumb on the console and zoomed in on the solitary wing.

The wall thinned on a one-meter section at the end of the corridor. He checked B-wing and it had the same feature. False walls that could be blasted through, or brought down by a group of angry horans at full sprint. It initially seemed convenient, but he remembered his time in prison. Armed guards stood in front of the walls whenever cells opened and inmates were strictly controlled.

Mach’s suspicion proved correct. He now had a way in and a way out. The last thing required was access to the cells. For that he’d need a security card.

“Are you two ready for a drink?” he said to Danick and Lassea.

“We’ve already told you—” Danick said.

“Start to live a little. You’ll appreciate these little downtimes in a week or two.”

Lassea disabled the holocontrols and stood. Sanchez appeared from the back of the shuttle, holding a cylinder-shaped multipurpose electro-tool. “Did somebody mention a drink?”

Mach nodded. “We’re going to find a security swipe.”

***

A small group of buildings clustered around an apartment block half a klick from the shuttle. Mach headed for their dim lights and caught up on the latest Salus gossip with Sanchez. All of it was standard. The outer planets expected war. Pirates were still a problem, and there was still good money to be made smuggling.

Danick and Lassea trudged along beside them, shielding their faces from the rain that swept across the road.

Prison staff and a few crazy people who decided to make Summanus their home lived in apartments. A CW defense force station, a bar stocked with only basic goods, and a derelict clothing shop spread around its base.

Staff and visitors frequented the bar. It was an easier spot to find an off-duty guard to target. Failing that, they’d have to visit a few apartments and find an unoccupied one to burgle.

A crackling red light hung above a set of steel doors. Not the most welcoming place, but it suited the rest of the planet. People nicknamed it The Bar With No Name.

Mach entered and glanced around.

Two crimson-colored horans sat at a table near the front, in frayed old black battle dress. Both turned and stared through their lizard yellow eyes. He continued past them and headed straight for the long filthy gray metallic bar at the end of the room.

Two guards sat on stools and leaned over their drinks. A single fidian, dressed in a blue robe, stood behind the bar and rested his hands on the electric drink pumps.

“Take a seat in the corner,” Mach said to Sanchez. “I’ll get us all a star-chaser.”

“You got it,” Sanchez said, leading the JPs to a circular table on the right-hand side.

“What can I get you?” the fidian said.

“Four chasers, please.” Mach held his smart-screen over the shiny black payment plate. The fidian registered the order on its console and the plate bleeped.

Mach glanced at the two guards from the corner of his eye. Neither had a security swipe attached to their belts, but they might still be carrying it. The fidian filled four medium-sized glasses with blue liquid and pushed them across the sticky metal surface of the bar. He clasped his hands around the glasses and headed for the table.

A star-chaser was a strong alcoholic drink made from fruit farmed on Fides Delta. For a seasoned drinker, it hit the spot. Carson smiled at the thought of Lassea and Danick being knocked sideways for an hour or so. It didn’t matter, he’d have hatched his plan by then, and they’d have time to recover. He placed the glasses down on the table.

Sanchez immediately grabbed one and took a large gulp. He exhaled in satisfaction and held the drink in front of his face. “I’ve been waiting weeks to have another one of these.”

Danick and Lassea pulled their glasses across the table. They looked at each other as if Carson had just asked them to down a cup of cold sick.

“It’ll put hairs on your chest,” Sanchez said.

Lassea narrowed her eyes and sipped from the top of the glass. She closed one eye and winced. Mach remembered his first drink and smiled. At least she didn’t pretend to enjoy it like he did, in a vain attempt to impress the old dogs at the fleet bar on Fides Prime.

Danick met Mach’s gaze, rolled his eyes and took a large mouthful. He covered his mouth, swallowed hard, and squeezed his eyes tightly shut.

“That’s the way to do it,” Mach said. He downed half of his chaser and enjoyed the burning sensation at the back of his throat.

One of the guards, a young human with sandy hair, looked over at the group. Carson gestured to the spare seat at the table. “You’re welcome to join us.”

The guard sighed, hopped off his stool, and brought over his drink. He sat next to Mach. “What are you doing on Summanus?”

Mach smiled. “Just came here to see the sights.”

“Yeah, right. You look the sort who buys crew.”

“You got me. I’ve just bought him out,” Mach said and nodded in Sanchez’s direction. “How long have you worked here?”

“Two years. I’m transferring out in a few months. Had enough of the place.”

“That’s what you all say,” Sanchez said. “I bet I’ll come back here in twenty years and still find you slumped at the bar.”

“Not a chance,” the guard said. “I’m out of here. This place has a way of bringing you down.”

“I can imagine,” Mach said, detecting a hint of a slur in the guard’s words. “Can I get you another drink?”

“Sure, I’ll have a nebula bomb.”

Mach returned to the bar and ordered. While the fidian mixed the orange-colored drink, he slipped the atomic blue capsule out of his breast pocket and pulled it apart. A small part of the white powder inside sprinkled onto the muddy footprint-stained brown plastic floor. He rubbed it with his boot and cupped the two sections in his hand.

The fidian handed Mach the drink. He briefly lowered it, emptied the contents of the capsule inside, and sloshed the drink around, ensuring it dissolved any traces of powder on the insides of the glass.

Sanchez watched him approach and gave a quick wink. They’d used this technique before. The guard downed his current drink and wrapped his fingers around the nebula bomb. “Thanks. Next one’s on me.”

“There’s no need. Enjoy it.”

Lassea and Danick eyed Mach suspiciously, but they didn’t need to know what was going on. He sat next to the guard and waited. The two horans ordered more drinks. They would provide the route into the prison after he got the pass.

“I’m not feeling so good,” Danick said. “Do you mind if we go back to the shuttle?”

“You haven’t finished your chaser,” Sanchez said. “Mind if I have the honor?”

“Sure,” Danick said. He stood and pressed a hand against the table to steady himself, clearly affected by only half of the drink. Lassea paused for a moment. Mach gestured his head toward the entrance. She downed her drink, grimaced, and left with her brother. That was another tick in the box for Lassea.

“Drink up,” Mach said to the guard. “I’ll get you another.”

“I’m happy if you’re paying.”

The guard got to the bottom of his nebula bomb and his eyelids drooped. He sat back in his chair and frowned at Mach. “Who are you?”

“He’s gone,” Sanchez said. “How many capsules did you put in?”

“Just the one. I think it’s time we gave him a breath of fresh air.”

They grabbed an arm each and propped the guard up. The fidian barman looked across and shook his head. Mach wrapped the guard’s thin arm around his shoulder. “Just taking him outside to clear his head.”

The guard continued to babble. His speech became unrecognizable and a line of saliva dangled from his bottom lip. Sanchez propped him up on the other side. The guard’s dangling feet scraped across the floor as they dragged him outside.

They carried the guard around the side of the tavern and leaned him against the side of its rough block wall. Mach patted down his pockets and felt a square object in the front left of his cargo pants. He fished his hand inside and produced a security swipe.

“Bingo,” Mach said. “Let’s get him back inside. We don’t want him to die of hypothermia out here.” Mach’s breath plumed in the frigid air.

“What’s our next move?” Sanchez said, showing no effect of the cold weather.

“We’ll just be kept overnight for a disturbance, right?”

“Yeah. They’ll search you, though.”

“No problem. Can you get your tools in?”

“Does a balto shit in the woods?”

Mach forced the swipe against his right forearm. It punctured through a section of artificial skin and he slipped the swipe between two of his cybernetic muscles. He didn’t bother asking Sanchez where he concealed his multipurpose tool.

They dragged the delirious guard back to the table and placed him on a chair. He slumped forward and rested his face in his hands. Mach had never seen an atomic blue have such a powerful effect, but he’d never tried after a skinful of booze.

“Ready to have a little fun with those two horans?” Mach said.

“I’ll take the left one, the ugly one.”

The horans placed their glasses on the table and watched as Mach and Sanchez approached.

Mach picked up the closest horan’s glass. “Mind if I finish your drink?”

“Give it back, you fool,” the horan croaked.

The other horan stood and hissed. Mach threw the contents of the glass into his face, knowing they couldn’t resist a challenge once somebody compromised their honor.

Liquid dribbled off the horan’s chin. The one seated to the left sprang up, knocking the metal table over. Glass shattered across the floor. The fidian behind the bar gestured at his smart-screen and ducked.

Sanchez, true to form, didn’t wait for a seven-foot-tall horan to get in the first strike. He leaped forward and thrust his shoulder into the horan’s chest, sending them both skidding to the floor.

The horan facing Mach swung its scaly, clawed hand. Mach ducked, the swipe glancing off the top of his head.

Mach balled his fist, gritted his teeth, and slammed an uppercut into the horan’s stomach. It roared and smashed an elbow against his left shoulder.

Pain shot through Mach’s joint. He jumped up and forced the top of his head against the horan’s snout. The alien staggered back and a trickle of purple blood poured from its nostril.

Sanchez sat on the other horan’s chest. It bucked underneath him as he rained down punches.

Mach’s opponent twisted off a metal chair leg and held the jagged part forward. “You won’t live to see your home world, human.”

The metal doors flung open. Two dark blue uniformed CWDF soldiers entered, lasers raised, shifting their aim between Mach, Sanchez, and the two horans.

Sanchez rolled free and held up his arms.

Mach raised his too, and with a panting breath said, “We don’t want any trouble.”

One of the soldiers, an unusually stocky fidesian, moved around to the back of Mach while keeping the laser pointed at his head. “You come to Summanus and start a bar fight, you’re gonna find it.”

The soldier pulled a cuff block from his belt and stuffed Mach’s wrists through the gaps. The cuffs automatically tightened around his wrists.

“Where are you taking me?” Mach said.

“You can cool down in solitary for the night. I want you off the planet in the morning—when we’ve charged your account, of course.”

The other soldier cuffed Sanchez.

The two men were pushed out of the bar, back into the driving, freezing rain. Mach kept his head down as he was dragged into the blocky Summanus prison. He glanced at Sanchez and shared a minuscule nod of accomplishment.

Chapter Nine

Kingsley Babcock lurched forward, spilling his cup of coffee all over the printouts that had continued to spew forth from his ancient system for the past thirty minutes.

He grabbed the pile of paper and dripped most of the liquid before mopping up the rest with a cloth.

“Kingsley, you need to be more careful,” he said to himself as he always had since he came to Minerva, a barren rock on the far northern edge of the Salus Sphere, over twenty years ago in exile. Though these days he could barely remember his life before coming here and setting up his HAB on the rocky planet.

The lights of his fabricated home, made from the modified fuselage of his destroyed ship, dimmed as the old computer system drew more energy and continued to spit out reports. Along with the paper copies, the solid-state drives were quickly filling with recordings of communications.

“Squid, what do you make of this, eh?”

The little hovering hexagon with eight articulated tentacles was half the size of Kingsley’s head and floated near his shoulder. It chirped a quizzical response.

“Don’t chirp at me like that, you infernal little machine, I’m asking you a question. Why is there so much Axis chatter? Why now? And what’s all this about an Atlantis ship sighting?”

Two red lights, Squid’s eyes, blinked on and off and its small voice spoke. “It’s quite the coincidence, don’t you think, sir? The Atlantis ship appearance has rumors flying around the CW communications channels. I’ve filtered the least redundant phrases and saved them to your smart-screen. It appears that Orbital Forty was destroyed, and not by the Axis Combine.”

Kingsley nodded and checked his smart-screen. His devices had taken a beating during his years on the planet. Despite being sixty-five years old, his cybernetic heart kept him ticking along as well as someone a third his age.

The screen on his left forearm, however, was crazed with scratches, mostly from clambering about on the planet’s surface, looking for resources. Although it was never habited, it had been the grounds for a battle during the Century War. Kingsley had, over the years, found enough debris and parts to build out his HAB.

The computers that he used to listen in on the Salus Sphere’s communications were actually vestan quantum units. He had cracked the encryption and reprogrammed them for his own uses. They would surely be ancient artifacts these days compared to what the CW and the Axis Combine had developed, but for him, and his experiments, they were all he needed.

With those he had created a brand new kind of self-learning AI, the code of which now ran his coterie of companions, of which Squid was one, and although he never said so, in order to avoid any tensions between his creations, Squid was his favorite. It was as close to the loyalty of a dog as he would get.

Sure, it didn’t play fetch with as much enthusiasm or lick his face, but with its articulated tentacles, it could play a mean game of skillion and was helpful in maintaining the HAB. The harsh conditions of Minerva, including its dry, frigid winters, meant there was always something that needed fixing, and to better use his talents elsewhere, Kingsley had delegated those tasks to his mechanical crew members.

Kingsley slouched into his favorite chair in front of his single screen salvaged from his old human-made attack ship. It was so old it didn’t even have holographic capacities, meaning he had to squint at the printed display. He synced the smart-screen on his forearm to the larger display and read through some of the CW chatter.

As he scanned the rumors and surprise, he thought back to his friend Beringer. Back in the day, before Kingsley exiled himself, he and Beringer used to talk and dream about the Atlantis ship. “What if it was real?” Beringer had posited. “Imagine what we could learn from it, what cultures and technology it would hold.”

They had guessed, based on the few snippets of sightings and reports, that the ship was likely thousands of ST years old. Which meant its creators were likely ancient, given the reported technical abilities of it.

In the intervening twenty years of peace, there’d been fewer and fewer sightings and reports, making Kingsley less excited about the prospect of it being real. He had resigned himself to rationalizing it as a folktale, a space legend.

But now there was this sudden explosion of communications and the destruction of Orbital Forty.

“It’s not the damned horans, is it, Squid?” Kingsley said, rubbing his bony hand across the stubble on his chin. “Perhaps they’ve developed some kind of stealth technology.”

“The odds aren’t likely, sir,” Squid said. “Besides, we’ve been tracking Axis movements and none were in the vicinity of Orbital Forty. Even if they had somehow developed wormhole technology, we would have noticed a sizeable ship on the move.”

“Indeed. But Atlantis ship rumors aside, I don’t like how the Axis Combine forces are massing around the Sphere. It seems to me that war is imminent once again.”

“Will they come for you, sir?” Squid said as it hovered to the pile of papers and used its tentacles to arrange them in neat piles for later reading and filing.

“Who?”

“The Commonwealth, of course. If war breaks out, won’t they need your help? It is your combat-AI protocols their destroyers use, is it not?”

Kingsley shrugged and downed the rest of his bitter coffee. The beans were freeze-dried Alurian beans that he had found on some lactern wreckage. It was a trading ship and loaded with varied foodstuffs and drinks. Without that find, Kingsley, along with his mechanical companions, would have had to fix the destroyed ship and return to civilization.

Which was not a good idea considering his reputation and wanted status.

“I imagine they would have updated the protocols by now, Squid, especially after my screwup.”

Squid finished sorting the piles of papers and brought Kingsley a tray of mashed potato. Using some parts from his crashed ship, he built a rudimentary microwave oven so that he could cook some of the crops he had managed to grow from his six eco-domes.

“Your wanted status expired three years ago,” Squid said.

Kingsley, of course, knew this, but it didn’t matter. He still had a bounty on his head, even if it wasn’t official anymore. One doesn’t do what he did and get away with it just because a few years had passed.

“I’m sorry Squid, I’m not hungry. Please can you take it to the recycle bay and let Dozer deal with it. Thanks.”

Kingsley got up and exited the computer station that had once been the bridge of his ship. He ducked below the bulkhead and entered the main corridor. Moving down the length of it, he moved through the plastic sheeting and out into one of the domes he had connected to the HAB.

Two of his smaller creations, named T-Pod and Q-Pod on account of their respective number of limbs, busied themselves around the rows of corn and wheat. Kingsley had salvaged the seeds from the lactern trade ship and with some chemical know-how had turned the usually inert Minerva soil into nutrient-rich mulch with which to grow vegetables.

T-Pod’s three-inch-diameter chromed spherical head twisted around to regard him. Its single camera eye focused on him. It approached on its three legs and looked up with the single eye. “Good evening, sir,” it said. Kingsley had given T-Pod and Q-Pod female voices to remind him of a certain fidesian he had once fallen in love with.

“Evening, T-Pod. The farm all okay, is it?”

“Affirmative. Q-Pod and I have been monitoring nitrogen and pest levels and we’re currently growing at one hundred and thirty percent efficiency. You’ll have enough crops to freeze and survive for at least another two ST years.”

Two more years, he thought. How many more could he last for?

His physical health wasn’t in question and he could easily expand food growth into another eco-dome to build up more reserves if he needed. The solar cells and wind turbines provided all the power he would need, and in his mechanical companions, he effectively had company.

But it still wasn’t quite the same.

Q-Pod noticed T-Pod talking with Kingsley and approached slowly, being careful to place its four spindly legs between the rows of vegetables. Kingsley noted that its gyros would need recalibrating as it walked with an almost drunken sway that reminded him of Carson Mach.

Good old Mach was inebriated more than he was sober, but he could still pilot a ship and captain a squad as well as anyone Kingsley had worked with.

“I sense you’re feeling sad about something,” Q-Pod said, folding its legs beneath its boxy frame as though it were a miniature horse. Kingsley had built this one out of an old gun locker and some droid servos. It was his first attempt at creating a companion and he modeled it on a real pony he had once owned.

“All this news about the Axis and the Atlantis ship has brought up some old memories, Q-Pod. I miss my old friends.”

“That’s what we’re here for,” Q-Pod said, raising its two ear-like antennae.

Kingsley wanted to say they weren’t enough, but didn’t want to introduce any glitches into the AI algorithms. The self-learning protocols could be influenced by negative input and he didn’t have the mental energy to recalibrate.

He walked to the edge of the dome and stared out at Minerva.

It was the perfect planet for living in exile. So desolate and offering nothing of value in terms of minerals or resources meant that not even pirates would come here.

All anyone would find if they were to visit would be dry air that scorched the lungs after a few hours, winters that would chill even the most frost-resistant of species; sunsets that made the planet look as if it were on fire, and jagged mountain ranges that were sheer and smooth as glass, making traversing the landscape a difficult, if not impossible prospect.

Any life that may have once existed here was long gone. Kingsley had made two drones to survey for signs of life—methane deposits, carbon dioxide emissions and even any kind of radio signal—but after five years, the two drones found absolutely nothing. Just how Kingsley wanted it.

He sat in a well-worn armchair he had made from one of the ship’s berths, in front of the glass panes of the dome. The bright red sun dipped down behind a craggy collection of mountains he had called ‘The Spires’ due to their triangular uniform shape. They pierced the red sky like black talons as if some great creature from beneath the surface was trying to bust out of its prison.

Yet they never moved.

They were as permanent as the sand and the dust that blew constantly against his makeshift HAB. He had come to enjoy the sounds at night when the winds died down and Minerva’s dry particulate rained down rhythmically, creating a soothing white noise.

This solitary soundtrack helped chase away the memories, the reasons for his exile. It happened twenty years ago and was the one and only time he had regretted his curious nature. With regard to the old saying, curiosity killed more than just cats; through his undying need to know, he had inadvertently signed the death warrants of more than a thousand humans and fidesians.

He was manning the cyber-combat unit on the CW’s flagship destroyer when they had breached through the battle lines into deep horan territory. After the horans were defeated and scattered they were left in a sector of uncharted space… only it wasn’t empty.

And they weren’t alone.

Kingsley and his crew had detected an unusual radio signal. When he tracked its source, he discovered an unknown alien object. Even now Kingsley didn’t know what it was, whether it was a station, ship, or just some satellite.

It didn’t matter in the end, though.

All that mattered was that Kingsley, under no orders, decided to hack into the source of the signal and by so doing unleashed a devastating virus that spread throughout the CW, taking down communications and altering the commands of the QRF drones.

Two shuttles full of civilians heading for Fides Beta were caught in a devastating crossfire that killed thousands before Kingsley and his team realized what had happened and managed to quarantine the alien virus.

Shortly after, the signal had disappeared along with any trace of the alien source. Kingsley faced court-martial and even more severe punishment, but he fled and made his way to the most remote planet his ship could find: Minerva, an ancient lactern mining planet that had nothing of value left in its rocky crust.

For the next twenty years, Kingsley had been trying to decode the signal and the virus in order to seek revenge, or at least gain some understanding of what happened so that it might bring some closure to the families of those who were killed. He owed them that much at least.

Still, he had yet to make a breakthrough.

The old memory brought him back to the present. “Better get working again, Kingsley. All this chatter about mythical ships is just going to distract you from your primary task.”

With the sun now fully set, the planet outside shrouded in darkness, Kingsley made his way back to the office and slumped into his chair, preparing to try a new idea that might lead to a breakthrough in breaking the alien encryption.

“Sir, there’s… a message coming through for you,” Squid said. The small drone hovered over a table made from an empty gas drum. It was Squid’s preferred place to rest when not in active mode.

“Are you pranking me again?” Kingsley asked. He had programmed Squid to have a sense of humor, knowing that all the years spent alone would be damaging to his psyche. A certain amount of humor would help him remain grounded and focused.

“Not at all, sir, I believe it’s a friend of yours, if your muttering is accurate.”

Kingsley raised a wiry gray eyebrow and adjusted his spectacles. “I have few friends, Squid. Just tell me, what’s the message? And where did it come from? No one should know I’m here.” He picked up his cup of coffee from earlier and began to sip the bitter contents.

“They don’t,” Squid said. “It was a broadcast message using a signature encryption belonging to Theo Beringer, and it appears to be about all this Atlantis ship nonsense.”

Kingsley nearly choked on his coffee, spitting it out of his mouth. “Theo? You sure?”

“Unless you have shared your encryption keys with anyone else, then I’d say I’m sure.”

With a hand that trembled with excitement and nerves, Kingsley Babcock switched his smart-screen on to his communication program and read Theo’s message. The blood drained from his face, and his heart, although cybernetic, quickened its pace.

“What is it, sir?” Squid asked.

Kingsley looked up at his small friend. “He… wants me to join a secret mission… with Carson Mach to find and capture the Atlantis ship. It’s apparently real.”

Chapter Ten

Mach rolled his right shoulder and grimaced. The horan at the bar had dealt him a heavy blow during their brief fight. He stood at his cell window and watched the circular ceiling lights in the corridor flick off in turn.

Night procedure, meaning no cells were opened until the morning checks. Two guards patrolled the corridors at fifteen-minute intervals.

After their next pass, he planned to make his move.

The soldiers locked him and Sanchez in neighboring solitary cells. They didn’t go through the full checking-in procedure designed for long-term residents. This was more of a screw around on our planet, and we’ll make things uncomfortable for you deal. Carson twisted his fingernail into the artificial skin around his forearm and released the security swipe from the secret pocket.

Morgan had sent a message two hours ago. He provided the coordinates on Minerva for Kingsley Babcock, an old pal of Mach’s from back in the CW. He was a techy geek that nearly brought the CW down. Babcock was the final member of Mach’s crew… if he could convince Adira to join.

Adira had a simple option, agree to the mission or rot on Summanus for the rest of her natural days. Mach knew that went against her instincts. She was a fighter and would relish the chance of winning her freedom by assisting him in finding the Atlantis ship.

Footsteps echoed along the corridor outside. Two beams of light flashed around the corridor’s walls. Mach jumped back on his bed and lay in the fetal position. He waited for the guards to walk to the end of the corridor, return, and gave them a couple of minutes to get back to the reception area.

Mach keyed in a message to Phalanx-E on his smart-screen, telling the JPs to prepare for takeoff. He gambled that the drones wouldn’t shoot them down right away.

Sanchez could be relied upon in situations like this. During every tight spot when they spent a few months gun-running, the big man always had his back. Cornered by lactern pirates, Sanchez always fired first and asked questions later. Threatened in a bar, he threw the first punch. This was all on top of providing Mach with modified CW weapons he created after reengineering the best parts of horan and vestan technology.

Taking one last check outside, Mach took a deep breath and decided to go for it. He held the security swipe against the door. A bolt clanked and he pushed the door open.

The lights along the corridor blinked on.

A piercing siren blasted from speakers on the ceiling. Security cameras spun toward Mach’s cell.

Sanchez peered through his window. Mach swiped his door and the electronic bolt thudded open.

“You take me out, bring me back in and now we’re in a world of shit,” Sanchez said with enthusiasm. Mach felt pleased Sanchez had lost none of his sparkle.

“Did you see Adira’s cell on our way in?”

“Nope, but we need to find her quick,” Sanchez said.

Mach turned and looked toward the thirty cells leading toward the false wall at the end of the corridor. A vague square outline betrayed the position of their escape.

Boots echoed along the A-wing corridor. The guards would round the corner in less than a minute. Mach didn’t fancy being on the receiving end of their stunners. If they had any sense, they’d be accessing the system to block the stolen swipe too. He sprinted past the cells, checking names on the digital display. Half were blank. The rest had horan names.

Mach skidded to a halt at the second to last cell.

Adira’s green-tinged face pressed against the glass. Her delicate claret lips, ski-slope nose, and dazzling emerald eyes looked as beautiful as ever. She took a step back after seeing Mach and her eyes widened.

Mach placed the swipe against her door. He wouldn’t have time to explain and hoped Adira would follow. The guards were close. One of them shouted, but he still didn’t have a visual.

Adira ripped the door open and stepped out. Her black ponytail flicked over her shoulder. “Mach, what the hell?”

“You’ve got two seconds,” Mach said. “Follow me. I’ve got a ship outside. Are you in, or do you want to stay here?”

“Where are we going? The guards—”

“Decide,” Mach said, cutting her off. “I’m going now. Are you in?”

“Lead the way,” Adira said.

“We all need to throw ourselves at the vague square outline,” Mach said and pointed to the false wall five meters away. “It’s a hidden emergency exit.”

Sanchez dropped his shoulder and charged. Carson immediately followed, making sure they created a dual impact. Adira’s footsteps lagged behind, but she carried far less weight. Her skills were stealth and expert knife handling.

Mach threw himself at the wall. Sanchez hit at the same time and they punched through a section of painted plasterboard and hit a firmer wall half a meter on the other side of it.

Guards skidded around the corner and aimed their lasers. Adira jumped in the cavity and slipped to one side.

Sanchez slammed his boot against the outer wall, but it didn’t move.

Mach joined him and they kicked it repeatedly. Nothing happened. He raised his smart-screen. “Danick, Lassea, bring up the map and check the cavity.”

Adira waved them to the right. Mach hunched and followed her between two thin walls. She edged around a right angle and continued forward.

Dust hung in the cool air and stung Mach’s eyes. He squinted into the gloom as his shoulders bumped against either side of the blocks.

“There’s a sewer system. Leads to the landing zone,” Lassea said. “We’re tracking you and it’s fifty meters ahead.”

“You’re a diamond,” Mach said. He rushed forward and grabbed Adira’s shoulder. “Keep your eye out for a sewer entrance in fifty meters.”

“Got it.”

Mach glanced over his shoulder. Sanchez’s stocky figure followed directly behind. A figure appeared at the end of the cavity and a laser zipped into the gloom. It passed over their heads and dust dropped from above.

Adira rounded another corner. She knelt by a circular metal hatch and heaved. Mach dropped to his knees, shouldered her out of the way and grabbed the handle. He gritted his teeth, heaved, and the hatch opened upward with a metallic groan.

Shouts echoed along the cavity. Mach waved Adira and Sanchez down. They both descended down a ladder into the gloom. A laser fired again, passing underneath his arm.

Mach ducked and scrambled through the hatch. He gripped the cool ladder rungs and clanked down. A stench of human and alien waste invaded his nostrils, reminding him of the long-drop toilets on Fides Gamma.

Sanchez and Adira waited at the bottom and peered up at Mach. He jumped a meter from the water and his boots splashed in the fetid mess.

The tunnel led left and right. He raised his smart-screen. “Give me a direction?”

After a brief pause, Danick replied, “Left and up the second ladder. It takes you close to us. We’ve got the Phalanx-E ready to go.”

A laser punched down the shaft and sizzled in the water. Mach ran between Adira and Sanchez and headed down the tunnel. He cupped his hand against his nose and ignored the small objects that brushed against his legs. They both followed.

The metal clanks of somebody descending the ladder echoed through the tunnel, between their splashing footsteps.

Mach reached the second ladder along the tunnel. He scrambled up it and thrust his arm against the hatch. Adira and Sanchez followed him up the five-meter ladder and waited. He shoved it again and it swung open.

Rain pelted against Mach’s face from the pitch-black sky. He came out between two swallow-shaped horan fighters and hauled Adira out of the gap.

“You need to get this off me,” Adira said, gripping the security ring around her neck.

“We landed inside the perimeter,” Sanchez said after climbing out and retching. “I’ll get it off when we get back to the shuttle.”

Security lights thumped on around the building behind them, brightening the area around the prison. Mach sprinted straight for the shuttle, two hundred meters away.

By the time the guards approached with caution from the sewer, it would be too late to catch them; they could cover the ground in twenty-five seconds. The reception door slammed open and two other guards ran out. It wasn’t too late for them.

One crouched and fired. A thin red line stabbed into the gloom, passing just over Adira’s shoulder.

Sanchez cried out and stumbled. “They hit my bloody boot.”

Mach grabbed his arm and pulled Sanchez along. He staggered and winced but didn’t slow too much.

The Phalanx-E’s side door opened. Mach could just make out Danick’s and Lassea’s faces through the cockpit window, probably wondering what the hell was going on. Adira raced up the ramp. Mach dragged Sanchez up. The two men collapsed to the smooth black rubber flooring.

The door slid down behind them with an electric whine.

“I take it we need to go,” Lassea said, already manipulating the holocontrols.

“Took the words out of my mouth,” Mach said. “Head away from the drones.”

“What about the ring?” Adira said.

Sanchez produced the multipurpose tool from the back of his pants. “Come here and I’ll take the damned thing off.”

The shuttle’s engines roared and they rose off the ground. The chasing guards had stopped their pursuit, their weapons no match for the protective armor of an E-class shuttle. Only the drones stopped them getting away.

“Guys,” Mach said to the JPs, “this is Adira. Be nice to her or she’ll slit your throat.”

Lassea looked over her shoulder and nodded. Danick remained focused on the controls. “Tracking three drones to the west,” Danick said. “We’ll head east and go straight for the atmosphere.”

They thrust diagonally up. Adira took a sharp intake of breath and grabbed the security ring around her neck.

“It’s tightening,” Sanchez said while he worked on the electronics. “Make a pass over the prison.”

“It’ll give the drones time to catch us,” Danick said.

“Do it or she chokes to death,” Mach said. He sat in the captain’s chair and watched the tracking monitor. The shuttle banked over the prison. Rain battered against the window and sheet lightning flashed in the sky.

“It’s still tightening,” Sanchez said, his voice rising an octave.

Adira gasped and coughed.

Three drones closed in, only a klick away. Mach looked through the window and saw their dim lights approaching in the dark angry sky. Metal clanked against the floor behind him. He turned to see the security ring on the floor. Adira rubbed her neck and took a deep breath. Sanchez sat with his back against the door and unfastened his boot.

“Head for the atmosphere,” Mach said. “Give it everything.”

Lassea worked the controls and the ship thrust upward. Mach continued to watch the holoscreen. Two of the drones changed course and headed straight after them. The other went into a holding pattern below.

“They’re actually going to try to shoot us down,” Mach said.

Danick’s hands trembled on his controls. “You can’t be serious?”

“Do I look like I’m joking, boy? The drone in the holding pattern is there to take us out after we crash land. Get ready to switch to the LD.”

“We can’t jump inside the atmosphere, it’ll rip us to pieces,” Danick said.

Mach rolled his eyes. “Wait until we’re three-quarters through. Don’t they teach you anything at the academy?”

At least the two young JPs were reacting. Mach remembered Morgan saying that the best way to test a person was to chuck them in a container of runny shit. Some naturally swam; others sank while taking a mouthful. Morgan probably quit opining the analogy now he was an admiral, but Mach found it to be true.

The Phalanx-E juddered as it entered the atmosphere. An electronic beep pulsed from the console.

“Torpedoes locked on,” Lassea said. “Preparing to L-jump.”

“Wait for my command,” Mach said.

Ten more seconds would do it. Adira and Sanchez joined Mach in the cockpit and gazed at the tracking monitor.

The electronic beep switched to a constant hum.

“Torpedoes deployed,” Danick said.

Mach watched two red dots arc toward the shuttle.

“They’re gonna hit us!” Lassea said.

“Engage light,” Mach snapped.

The torpedoes closed a klick. Two seconds before a hit. Mach braced. Switching to light had the least chance of destruction, but carried risk because they weren’t far enough through to assure structural stability.

The Phalanx-E shot forward. The stars ahead turned to streaks. The ship’s engines increased in tone and they accelerated clear of the torpedoes. The monitor map changed and Summanus rapidly shrank in size. Mach sighed with relief. “Set a course for Minerva. We’re going to pick up an old friend. ”

Chapter Eleven

Morgan read his latest dressing down from Marshal Kenwright and felt his guts burn with acidic bile. The old goat had warned him over his assuming command last week. What the hell was he supposed to do? Just stand there and watch the blundering fools in Ops, none of whom had actually served in any kind of military operation, make a mistake that cost the treaty…

He closed the message on his smart-screen and kicked away his office chair. The seat crashed into a metal pot stand, knocking over some fake tree that was supposed to emit relaxing chemicals into the air to keep the stress down.

But it was stress he needed, not some pathetic job that kept him locked up in an office doing nothing but signing off on dull reports of nothing in particular. To make matters worse, he still hadn’t heard from Mach after the kerfuffle on Summanus a few days ago. He just hoped that Mach was en route to get Kingsley Babcock.

Taking a deep breath, he stood at his windows and watched as yet more junior pilots and infantry units marched up and down the parade square, pretending they were soldiers. It all seemed such a waste of money if they weren’t actually being used for anything.

A knock on the door brought him out of his funk. He turned and said, “Come in.” He was just happy for a distraction at this point. With the ships in transit, moving to their locations, there was nothing much else he could do but wait.

Like he had time to wait.

The door opened and one of his assistant staff entered. “Are you busy, Admiral?” the fidesian said.

“I wish I was, Seazza. I’ve mostly been occupied these last few days with the mind-crushingly dull act of waiting. Waiting for reports that only require me to sign off and sit here, doing nothing.”

Seazza fiddled with the edge of her blue headscarf and looked away, unsure of how to respond. Morgan had taken a shine to her a few years ago when she was transferred over from central CW government. She used to be an aide to Fides Gamma’s Senator Orloza. Orloza had now ascended to vice president, no doubt due to Seazza’s exceptional organizational skills.

But she also had something else that most at the CWDF didn’t have these days: combat experience. “Before your diplomatic role, how much did you enjoy your time as captain of the Harrakziestra? Oh, and please sit.”

Seazza slid her lithe body onto the chair in front of Morgan’s desk.

“Well,” she began in Salus Common, “it was a demanding role. I commanded the Harrakziestra heavy bomber into vestan territory. We won some battles, lost a few, but ultimately we provided our CW brethren with good support.”

Morgan nodded, listening to her diplomatic answer.

He thumped his closed fist against his chest. “But in here? Did you feel that rush inside? That fear, the excitement, that heightened sense that you were meant for it?”

The blush on her face told him she hadn’t. She inclined her eyes and politely stared at the desk surface.

Morgan sighed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I guess I’m just getting sentimental in my old age.”

“It’s quite all right, Admiral. I have something that you wanted to see.”

“Yes?”

“I’m patching you in now. It’s the feed directly from the capital ship, Aeon. It’s arrived at the coordinates of the wormhole. Captain Mieko Mori is on the line.”

Morgan nodded. The holographic display hovered above his right forearm.

“Good afternoon, Captain Mori,” Morgan said to the Japanese woman. She cut a formidable sight with her fitted captain’s uniform of gray and gold and more medals on her lapels than Morgan knew even existed… yet this was someone who hadn’t yet fired a weapon in anger.

“Admiral Morgan,” Mori responded with a clipped accent and a curt nod. “I was told to report my findings to you regarding Orbital Forty and the wormhole.”

“Indeed, what can you tell me about the attack? And of the wormhole itself?”

Without flinching or apologizing, Mori said, “Nothing, Admiral. There is just the usual debris one would expect and nothing else. No sign of the wormhole or of any craft that did this. I’m afraid our journey has been a waste of time and resources. The forces at Retsina could have told us exactly the same thing.”

Morgan bristled at the accusations. “That might be so, Captain, but I wanted to have an experienced crew’s assessment of the situation given the scale of the issue we’re dealing with, or would you have preferred to stay at home while the Axis Combine forces continue to mass on the NCZ border?”

Mori’s eyelid twitched. She took a breath and bowed her head a few millimeters. “No, of course not, Admiral. My crew and I are ready to serve the CW. But about the Axis Combine, we’ve detected that they have moved into an attack formation.”

“And where are they currently?”

“Still on their side of the NCZ, but their intentions are clear.”

“No, they’re not,” Morgan said. “I spoke with their commander recently. They’re in the vicinity to investigate the wormhole anomaly and for no other reason. Do not engage.”

“I’m sorry, Admiral, but I’m afraid that isn’t your call.”

Morgan’s face flushed with blood, bringing heat to his cheeks. He slammed his left fist on the desk, letting out the built-up anger. “How dare you, Captain! I am your admiral! You’ve only had simulation experience. You do not get to make that call. Now stand down and remain in patrol.”

Mori didn’t flinch, just stared at him via their holographic displays. “I’m under orders of the space marshal. I suggest that if you feel so strongly, then you speak with him. We will, of course, send you any reports should we happen to spot another mythical ship appear from nowhere.”

With that, Mori’s display shut down and the line cut.

Seazza fidgeted in her chair, her thin lips moving as though trying to work out what to say. Morgan slumped in his chair, too tired for a tirade. What good would it do anyway? With his disciplinary threat from Marshal Kenwright three days ago and now this, it was clear to him the rank of admiral meant absolutely nothing.

“The Atlantis ship mission is bullshit, isn’t it, Seazza? Just a way for the marshal to keep me out of his hair. I’m beginning to doubt if it even was this elusive Atlantis ship. There’s been no sign of it since the first attack. I’m starting to think this is just the marshal’s way to keep me occupied. He’s treating me like a fool, isn’t he?”

“I… couldn’t possibly speculate, Admiral. But… if I am to speak freely?”

“Of course you are. What is it?”

“Even if it is true that the marshal is just playing you for a fool to keep you out of his way, there’s still the question of what destroyed Orbital Forty. Whether it was this Atlantis ship or not, if you were the one to find and capture this enemy, whatever it is, would that not give you some standing to go to the senate and appeal for a new role within the defense force?”

Morgan nodded his head slowly, gripping his chin. “I suppose that’s one option. He did promise me a way in to active duty if I completed this mission, but if he truly believed it to be a real threat, why not give me more resources? More ships? According to him, we’re still in peace mode, so even if the Axis are gathering their forces, it doesn’t mean he couldn’t have spared at least one destroyer.” Morgan’s brain worked it over.

The whole idea of this being a small, covert mission smelled funny to him now that he thought about it. He’d let his excitement and hope of being back on a ship cloud his judgment. He looked up at Seazza.

“I think there’s a chance that there might be a grain of truth in that,” she said, hitting the nail on the head in the most subtle and noncommitted way possible. For her, this was as close as Morgan would get to a complete confirmation.

“That old bastard,” Morgan said, standing up and pacing across his office. “Would Orloza be open to my concerns, do you think?”

Seazza pondered on it for a moment. “It is unlikely in the current climate, but it wouldn’t be impossible to gain his favor. He and the marshal are old friends, but Orloza is no fool. If the Axis Combine is preparing for war, it would make strategic sense to have someone of your captaincy experience in the chain of command. But you would need to find a way to get his attention. He has spent many years climbing to his current position. He won’t act on a whim.”

“So I’m back to square one, a useless title in an organization that is sleep-walking its way into a war, and probably defeat.”

“Not necessarily,” Seazza said with a conspiratorial tone in her voice that he had never heard before. He cocked an eyebrow and waited for her to expound her point.

“Complete the mission given to you. If it is the Atlantis ship, and your crew finds it, then Orloza would not be able to ignore your concerns.”

Morgan straightened his jacket.

“Are you suggesting, then, that I do as I’m told and not get involved with this Axis Combine business and focus my attentions on a ship that may never reveal itself again?”

“Considering your goals and desires, I would say that is your best chance.”

“Okay. Seazza, prepare a secure message to Carson Mach. I have some motivational instructions to give. From now on, you’re on my team for this mission. Delegate your usual tasks to the rest of your department. We’ve got some work to do.”

“Right away, Admiral.”

Despite her reserved nature about his earlier question, Morgan could see that spirit within her, even if it was only shown in micro-expressions. He felt it too. The desire to act, affect his destiny.

One way or another, he would find this damned ship and take control of the CWDF before the Axis Combine could take advantage.

Chapter Twelve

Mach always hated the long journeys; it made him itchy for trouble. It had taken four solid ST days at full LD speed, which wasn’t exactly amazing. Though they were flying about in a beat-up old Phalanx-E. The craft only had a maximum speed of sixty-one HPL, and that was with his and Ernesto’s modifications.

Mach was sitting in his captain’s berth, nursing a headache that reminded him of the old days when he and Adira went a little crazy, both on the booze, and on each other. He still had the scars on his shoulders and back to remind him of her unorthodox approach to sex.

That wasn’t the reason why he had busted her out of prison—well, perhaps not the sole reason, but given her frosty reception during the journey, where she had barely said a word to him, he doubted they’d fit back together like a well-worn pair of gloves. But then that was one of the many reasons he liked her.

Adira was unpredictable, and that made her exciting to be around, even when she was being unresponsive. He thought that perhaps it was just a hangover from her time in solitary. That would certainly be an appropriate assessment for anyone other than her.

He lay back on his bed and let his body rest. He always felt more fatigued when he was doing nothing but traveling in a tin can for days on end. Still, at least Babcock was kind enough to exile himself within reach.

The crazy old hermit could have done something really stupid and taken up residence on one of the abandoned vestan breeding worlds. Now that would have been an interesting journey.

Outside of the berth’s door, Mach could hear Sanchez’s hearty laugh reverberating around the bridge. It was followed by Lassea’s nervous giggles. Ernie was certainly the charmer, and if anyone could get the stick out of her ass, it was he.

Danick, on the other hand… Mach doubted that even Adira could get him to open up and go with the flow. But that was okay; the boy would have to at some point if he were to survive the mission.

Mach took a silver pharmaceutical cylinder from the leg compartment of his worse-for-wear GraphTech fatigues and jabbed the end into his upper arm. The point of contact froze, sending tingles down the length of his forearm and fingers.

He sighed and closed his eyes as the painkilling effects of the drug kicked in. He would sleep for a day, and when he woke up, his muscles would be repaired and revitalized and he’d be ready for whatever was waiting for him on Minerva. God knows what kind of crazy defenses Babcock had set up.

Despite Morgan’s assurances, there was no way of knowing whether Babcock would change his mind and decide that living in the ass-end of nowhere wasn’t actually preferable to another crazy mission with Carson Mach.

Outside, the laughs continued until they became background echoes, mixing with the hum of the ship’s LD drive. And then there was no noise at all, the drug sending Mach into that sweet, deep sleep.

***

A thunderous explosion woke Mach with a start. His body slammed against the floor, his head striking the support post of his bed. His vision blurred and his head swam as though he’d downed an entire bottle of Gasmulch.

The banging continued louder. He put his hands over his ears and managed to crawl to his knees. He thrust out a hand and clutched the frame of the open door. Smoke billowed in from the central corridor.

A black shape darted past him to the stern of the ship.

Danick suddenly appeared before Mach, knocking him back into his berth.

“Sir, there’s been an explosion!” Danick said, his face slick with sweat and deep bags under his eyes.

The drugs still in Mach’s system made everything sound as though it were wrapped in cloth. Danick seemed to vibrate before Mach. He shut his real eye and focused with his prosthetic; the organ’s chips stabilized his vision and fed him a number of metrics, the main being the stern of the ship was at least fifty times hotter than it should be.

“Sir, did you hear? There’s been an explosion.”

“I was having the best dream,” Mach drawled, his throat dry and his words croaking. “There was this girl; she wore the tiniest skirt and had legs that went up to—”

“Dammit, sir, you’re not listening to me. We’re all going to die!”

Mach shook his head to clear the fog. “So? You gonna do something about it, boy?”

The boy stammered his protests as his eyes grew increasingly wider. “I… but… sir… a proximity mine… it…”

Mach pushed him out into the corridor. “I’m going back to bed, Danick. You have captaincy; you deal with this and wake me up when we’re not on fire. Be quick, though. There’s a good lad.”

With that, Mach slammed the door shut and smiled as Danick screamed with panic. Mach moved to his bed and sat down, dropping his head to his chest. He massaged the crick from his neck and wished someone would turn off the bloody alarms.

A few minutes later Adira staggered into his berth, her face covered in soot, her fatigues smoking and scorched. She slumped onto the bed next to Mach.

“You really ought to have dressed in something more comfortable,” Mach said.

“This is comfortable.” Adira scowled. “I like the feel of superheated plasma burning through my clothes. Don’t you?”

Mach shrugged. “Not my favorite experience.”

“But getting us all killed at the hands of two rookies is?” She turned to face Mach then, giving him her ‘I’m going to kill you slowly’ look.

“Trial by fire never did me any harm. How are those kids supposed to learn to survive if they don’t face some real peril now and then, eh? Simulation machines, no matter how convincing, just aren’t enough.”

Another loud roar erupted from the stern of the ship, rocking Mach and Adira together, the impact sending them sprawling to the floor. Adira moved first, mounting Mach so that she sat astride his chest, a knife in her hand already at his throat.

“Nice to see your reactions haven’t dulled in those years of solitary.”

The tip pressed further into Mach’s skin, teasing it to the breaking point.

“Sounds like your pup found the balls to jettison the primary fuel rod container.”

“Aye, the temperature is going down. Looks like he busted a hole in the structure. The vacuum’s put out the fire. Smart kid.”

“All well and good, but we’re down to auxiliary,” Adira said. “How are we going to find your precious ship with only five Ls of fuel?”

“You really need to have some faith, my love. Have I ever let you down?”

“Constantly.”

She spun away from him, rising to her feet and pocketing the knife.

The shuddering of the craft had stopped. The door flew open with Danick peering in; his clothes were wet with sweat and blackened by the smoke. “Sir, we did it. We put out the fire in the LD containment unit. We survived Mr. Babcock’s proximity mine.”

Mach nodded a few times. “Not bad, kid, not bad. Now bring us into atmosphere and hail Babcock. Oh, and go to fusion motors unless you want to L-jump us right into Minerva’s crust.”

“Oh crap…” Danick said, spinning on his heels and sprinting to the bridge to bring the ship out of its LD jump.

Mach stood up and eyed Adira. “See? Have some faith. This is shaping up to be a decent crew after all. Let’s go get strapped in and prepare to meet our dear friend Kingsley.”

Adira slipped past him and disappeared into the corridor, the words, “I hate you, Mach,” echoed back at him, bringing a wide smile to his face.

She did still like him.

***

With a little expert help from Ernie, the JPs brought the ship in to land just a dozen meters away from the wreckage of what was Kingsley Babcock’s home.

Mach peered at it out of the viewscreen. “What a crap hole.”

“I’ve lived in worse,” Ernie said, his voice low with a drawl that sounded like he gargled with fusion oil. “I once spent three ST years on an unnamed jungle planet, living in nothing but a dirt hole with leaves for a roof. Looks to me like Kingsley’s got himself a bit of paradise all to himself down here, what with his domes and all. Nothing on here to hunt, though, apart from hyperthermia in the winters and rotten lungs in the summer.”

Lassea looked up at him with wonder before snapping out of her distraction. “Um, we’re good to go when you are, Cap… I mean, Mach.”

“Right, to the airlock, then. Ernie, make sure it’s closed behind me. I’ll bring Babcock in by myself, make this quick and easy.”

“You got it,” the big hunter said, lumbering behind Mach and shutting the airlock door behind him as Mach stepped through after putting on his EVA.

Mach checked his suit and helmet; the ship came supplied with two atmosphere suits that generated both air and gravity. The new designs were much improved on the old versions. Gone were the robotic-like bulky exteriors to be replaced by sleek almost skin-fit GraphTech Adaptive material that would naturally adjust its composition to suit the temperatures of the wearer. Even the helmets were small, essentially a tight-fitting cap with a transparent cloth for the face and a breathing grill that was flexible enough to allow natural speech.

Checking his comm connection on his smart-screen, Mach gave the order to open the external airlock door. With a hiss the ramp lowered and Mach stepped out, right into the barrel of a heavily armored disruptor rifle.

Chapter Thirteen

The wind howled, blowing dust into Mach’s face mask, yet the rifle didn’t move a millimeter, its wielder remaining as calm as a statue.

“Mach, you okay?” Danick inquired over the comm.

“Just fine, kiddo, you guys stay in there. I’ve got this.”

Mach lifted his hands up to show that his palms were empty. “Hey, Kingsley, old pal, long time no see.”

“Name, rank, number,” Babcock said emotionlessly as though Mach was just some random Joe who had turned up out of nowhere.

“Kingsley, it’s me, Mach. You got the message from Beringer, right? We’re here to pick you up.”

The disruptor rifle crackled as its energy core heated up.

“Name, rank, number,” the old man said again.

It seemed the old guy had lived in quite a rough state. His skin was gray and sallow, his cheeks sunken so that his face looked skeletal beneath the wiry gray stubble and wild locks of patchy white hair.

The threadbare suit he wore had more holes in it than the Phalanx-E.

Mach sighed and complied with his question. “Carson Mach, unranked, unaffiliated. Kingsley, it’s me, look! I’ve got Sanchez and some other crew with me in the ship.”

“Huh. You best follow me inside,” he said. The old man turned and headed through a thick plastic curtain into a ramshackle dome that looked handmade.

Inside, Mach could hear better now that the sandstorm wasn’t blowing into his face. Kingsley placed the rifle against an old metal workbench; upon its surface were strewn dozens of small mechanical parts and half-constructed gadgets of some kind or another.

In numerous rows, running lengthways down the dome, small green plants were growing. The humidity meant the dome’s panes were running with moisture, creating an almost tropical atmosphere. Mach realized Kingsley had enough food here to last him for months on end. It was all a very impressive setup; especially the two little droids that were attending to the vegetable garden.

“Are you coming through?” Kingsley said from a door at the end of the dome. Mach followed inside, expecting to walk into another weapon but was relieved when he saw his old friend now sitting on a tatty chair as he rifled through a pile of printed paperwork.

A small drone with numerous articulated limbs hovered about Kingsley’s head, chirping something Carson didn’t understand. Whatever it was, it made Kingsley laugh. He and the drone turned to regard Mach.

“What’s so funny, old man?”

“I’m sorry, Mach,” Kingsley said. “Squid has a strange sense of humor… and, after all these years, I’ve kind of gotten used to it. Having someone else here is… peculiar.”

“Almost as peculiar as the reasons why I’m here.”

“I know,” the older man said. He picked out a particular leaf of paper and handed it to Mach. “Here, thought this might be of use to you.”

“What is it?”

“You’ve not forgotten how to read Salus Common in these intervening years, have you? Perhaps taken a few too many stims and burned up your brain cells.”

“I see that you’re still a sarcastic douche after all this time,” Mach said, sharing a smile with his old friend.

Mach put his attention to the piece of paper and started to read. It was a star map and an algorithmic set of coordinates with some of Kingsley’s scrawled handwritten notes. “I can’t read your writing,” Mach said. “Are you sure you didn’t retrain as a doctor while you were hiding out here?”

“What would I practice on, plants?”

“Droids… you seem to have enough of them around this place.”

“Plenty more in places you can’t see.”

“Yeah, like your friggin’ proximity mines. How’d you stealth them?”

Kingsley stood up and rubbed his lower back. “I’m sorry, Mach, I had forgotten they were even there. I had my drones up there alert me to your arrival, but it’s been so long since anyone has come here that it had slipped my mind that they were still floating about in orbit. Was there much damage?”

Mach shrugged, his attention still on Kingsley’s report. “Nah, just lost our main fuel cell. We’ve got auxiliary left. But…” He pointed to the rough sketch of a location on the piece of paper. “If you think we’re going there, you’ll likely have more luck getting this old wreckage there. We won’t have the fuel. Besides, what’s so special about this place?”

“It’s why Morgan and Beringer asked me to join you. I think I’ve figured out where this supposed Atlantis ship might be.”

“What? How?”

“Why don’t I tell you on the way to Feronia?”

“That’s not the location of these coordinates,” Mach said, knowing that Feronia was a couple of days L-jump from here, which was the opposite end to the place marked on Kingsley’s report.

“You’re still sharp,” Kingsley said with yet more of that sarcastic tone. “We’re going to Feronia to get a decent ship. How else do you think we’ll travel into contested space and survive? I hear the shipbuilders have a new experimental model they’re working on.”

Mach raised an eyebrow. “And how’d you know about that?”

“This old man has ways and means. Now come on, if we’re doing this, we better not dally around here. We’ve got a new ship to procure… somehow. And I’ve got some information from Beringer that you might find useful.”

“Grab your stuff and let’s go, then,” Mach said.

“I’ve got everything I need,” he said, grabbing his stack of papers and nodding to Squid. “Lead the way, Mach.”

The two men walked through the dome. Kingsley stopped and snatched up his modified SamCore PXP disrupter. “This old girl’s been with me this whole time. Never let me down.”

Mach stopped and shook his head. “I doubt you’ve had much shooting to do out here. I guess we’re the first people to turn up here since you arrived.”

“A man can still keep his skills sharp with some target practice. I’ve machined the barrel on this to increase its accuracy. I’ve redrilled the disruption chambers and amplified the signal using a series circuit booster. There won’t be a more powerful PXP in the Salus Sphere, you can rest assured of that.”

“Can that Frankenrifle magically shoot eros out of its chambers? Because given what I had to pay to get Sanchez and Adira out of the clink, we’re gonna need to find some funds from somewhere if we’re to get a ship capable of travelling and surviving in the contested sector.”

“I’m sure you’ll improvise something,” Kingsley said with a grin that brought back some of that old roguish charm and wit that Mach had once grown accustomed to. He’d missed the mad hacker.

When the two men boarded the battered Phalanx-E, Mach had introduced him to the crew and the JPs. They were all sitting in the mess, sharing a coffee and eating some of the CWs least-worst precooked meals.

Danick seemed to have calmed down after his mini-heroics.

Lassea sat next to Adira. The assassin was showing the young girl how to twirl a combat knife. Adira gave Kingsley a simple nod and brought her attention back to Lassea as though disinterested with the whole affair, but then perhaps she was. Adira wasn’t really her fully functioning self unless she was involved with some kind of violent or shady activity. Mach was sure she would have all that and more sooner rather than later. He would certainly need her on Feronia.

Sanchez entered the mess with the grace of a panther, his footsteps making no noise despite the heavy boots he wore. The others, including Mach and Kingsley, turned to look up at him.

“That thing’s fucked, but it should hold for a while,” Sanchez said, his face and arms were smeared with grease and he wore a pair of welding shields over his eyes.

“Sirs, are there repairs I could perhaps assist with?” Squid said as it hovered above Kingsley’s right shoulder as if it were a pirate’s companion parrot.

Danick approached the drone and looked on with wonder. He was so green he’d never seen any tech outside of the boring stuff made available to junior recruits.

“How does it float?” Danick asked.

“It has a name,” Kingsley replied. “It is Squid and you may address it as such; otherwise, it’ll get a little cranky. Squid, why don’t you take Danick with you to the stern of the ship and see what kind of mess our friend Ernesto has made of the repairs.”

Sanchez flipped the welding shields up and narrowed his eyes. “You always were a sarcastic lizard’s-ass,” he growled.

“Better than a knuckle-dragging ape with body odor issues,” Kingsley retorted. The old man patted Sanchez on the cheek with his gnarled hand as he made his way through the mess. Sanchez wrapped his big arms around Kingsley, swamping him like a Koranian Conda wrapping its massive coils around a small mammal.

“Great to see you again, Babs,” Sanchez said as he hugged his old friend.

“You too, Sanchez… now could you please stop breaking my ribs, there’s a good chap.” The hunter dropped him and gave him a wide grin. Mach found himself smiling too at the reunion of his associates.

“While Squid and Danick are fixing Sanchez’s repairs,” Mach said with a wink to the big hunter, “shall we go through Beringer’s info and figure out some kind of plan?”

“Make me a brew of that good coffee and I’ll divulge what I know,” Kingsley said as he took a seat opposite Adira and Lassea. He placed his pile of papers onto the table’s surface and spread them out.

Lassea got up and fixed a cup of coffee for everyone and rejoined the group.

Mach, sitting next to Kingsley, looked over the information. Among the blocks of text were photographs of old tablets and carvings, all of them showing a gigantic, geometric ship. Each one was slightly different, featuring a range of armaments and other attachments Mach couldn’t identify.

Among the text were a series of coordinates listed in a table.

“These,” Kingsley said, running a thin, bony finger down the list, “are locations of the previous one hundred and twenty sightings of our Atlantis ship, including the last one at Orbital Forty.”

The crew stared at him, waiting on his every raspy word.

“Okay, so how does that help us?” Mach said, prompting him.

With a shuffling of papers, Kingsley pulled out a piece of paper covered with what looked like random scribbles.

“Doodles?” Adira said with a dry, unimpressed expression.

“Non-Euclidean geometry,” Kingsley said as though it were as simple to understand as an old game of noughts and crosses. “I applied one of my own filters to the coordinates and I found a pattern among the chaos. There was a signal just before it arrived at Orbital Forty. One of the Qerfs picked it up, but it was out of usual communication frequency range and was encrypted. I’ve… almost managed to decrypt the signal.”

“Okay,” Adira said. “That sounds… promising. So this location you’ve identified, what’s there?” She pressed the tip of the combat knife onto a hastily scrawled map with an inked circle around it.

“That, my new friend, is the last known source of the signal.”

Sanchez grunted as he used a wet towel to clean the grease off his face.

“What is it?” Lassea said, looking up at her new object of fascination. She’d barely taken her eyes off him since he’d come aboard, but Mach could see why. If any young JP wanted someone to look up to, to feel secure around, Sanchez was it… as long as Lassea didn’t get to know him too closely; she might not like some of the more… combat-oriented activities he had gotten involved with over the years.

Giving Lassea his attention before regarding the rest of the crew, Sanchez said, “We’re gonna need heavy arms if we’re to go into that particular contested zone.”

“Why’s that?” Lassea asked, her shoulders tensing.

“There’s a new trading orbital there. Built by some of the Lavernans more vicious families—the exiled ones.”

Adira snorted. “You talking about the rumors of the Black Swan? That’s just a Summanus tale. Most of the traffickers and other assorted scum would often talk about the runs through that sector of space. Rumor was that the Black Swan, aka Marlene Laverna, had set up an unaffiliated black market trading post. Anything and everything is up for grabs. No restrictions, and apparently the place is protected by some old horan destroyers that were signed for decommission before Laverna got them and armed them to the max with restricted weapons.”

“Well, that makes things a little more interesting,” Mach added.

“If we get suitably armed,” Sanchez said.

“Like I said, it’s just rumor. Might not be anything in it,” Adira said.

The crew all looked to Mach, who looked across to Kingsley. “You really think we’ll find something there?”

The old man shrugged. “Could be a complete waste of time. It wouldn’t be the first time I made a mistake analyzing a rogue signal.”

“Wait,” Mach said, grabbing the man’s arm. “This signal… it’s the same one, isn’t it? The same one you found during the war?”

Kingsley swallowed and nodded his head once.

“We’re gonna need a bigger ship. Lassea, set a course for Feronia. We’ve got some dealing to do.”

Chapter Fourteen

Three days into the L-jump to Feronia, Adira had finally decided on her course of action. She stood in the shadows of Mach’s berth, the blade in her right hand. It was cool against her skin. She’d waited years to be in this position, to fulfill the contract taken out on Carson Mach’s life.

Such strange circumstances life had conjured to bring her here in this moment. For years she had sat inside her solitary cell, thinking about what she would do if she got out. Which contract she would be compelled to complete first.

When she first saw Mach’s face, she couldn’t believe her luck. Perhaps Fortuna herself had decided to smile down on her. Given her previous run of luck, or lack thereof, she’d be a fool to turn down this situation.

All it would take would be a single cut across the throat.

Mach slumbered the sleep of a man on strong meds. She didn’t even need to try that hard. She could sing while she killed him in his sleep and he wouldn’t even know it.

The subsonic rumble of the repaired LightDrive pulsated through her back as she stood there, leaning back against the titanium hull. She heard footsteps outside in the corridor and knew them to belong to Danick. He walked with grace but with a lack of subtlety. When she killed him, she’d make sure she was quieter than his heavy footfalls.

Lassea she would leave alive. They would need someone to pilot the bodies back to Fides Prime for their burial. Adira wasn’t a monster; she’d let them at least be remembered by their friends and family first.

Mach coughed and rolled on to his side before falling back into a deep, snoring slumber. Adira ghosted forward, the blade slicing through the dark of the room until she brought it up to his throat.

She leaned over, smelling his scent. He always had a nice musk to him, she thought, remembering some of their more enthusiastic bed exploits. Her hand wavered for a moment, but she shut out the memories and refocused on the pulsing artery in his neck.

Just one slice and it’d be done; she’d have enough money to escape the Sphere and finally make her way back to Titan, the Sol system… her home world. She’d never felt at home here in the Sphere with the CW. There were too many rules and regulations—too much politics for someone like her.

Mach’s prosthetic eye opened and fixed her with a blue-glow stare.

“If you’re going to end me, get on with it, I’m bored listening to your breath,” Mach said.

Adira jerked back. Mach’s words jolted her from her trancelike state. Suddenly her actions seemed foolish, the games of some spiteful child. Before she could say anything, Mach grabbed her arm and pulled her over his body, dumping her heavily onto the bed. Quicker than she’d ever seen him, he flung his leg over her so he straddled her waist, pinning her down.

She still held the blade in her hand and brought it up to his throat as he bent his head down toward her face.

“Do it,” he whispered. “Run me through, right here, right now.”

Her breathing quickened as his weight pressed down on her. His heat flowed through her thin suit; her palms moistened with sweat. “I had a contract,” she muttered. “It seems the logical thing to do. It’s just one more death, after all.”

“And the crew?” Mach asked. “You’re not going to leave Sanchez and Babcock alive. They would avenge me. And then there’s Lassea and Danick.”

“What about them?”

“They’ve got more about them than you realize.”

The Phalanx-E shuddered with a violent lurch, sending Mach flying to the side and clear of Adira. She used the momentum to her advantage and pinned him, bringing the blade to his chest this time, the tip resting between his ribs.

“What are you waiting for? Just lean your weight down and fulfill your contract if it means so much to you. Don’t worry about the fact that it was me who got you out of that damned place.”

“That was a mistake,” she hissed. “I was there for a reason.”

“We’ve all done things we’re not proud of,” Mach said. Beads of sweat formed on his wrinkled forehead.

“No, you really don’t understand. I was there for a reason!”

“Enlighten me.”

She turned away from him, unable to look him in the eyes. All the while her blade remained exactly where it was, tip-deep into the flesh of his chest. “I don’t want to do these things. I’m compelled, Mach. It’s in my blood. In solitary, I was safe… you were safe. But then you had to bust me out. You don’t understand what you’ve unleashed. There’ll be repercussions.”

“Everything has consequences,” Mach said. His body relaxed beneath her. His hand gripped her chin and brought her face round in line with his. Their eyes locked. “You don’t want to do this, I understand. You have a contract, you’re compelled, you don’t want the reputation as someone who isn’t capable of delivering.”

The words hit her hard. The truth always did. But it wasn’t really her reputation she was worried about; it was the repercussions of not fulfilling the contract.

But still, she couldn’t deny her feelings toward Mach. They’d shared a difficult history together, and she couldn’t deny her emotions when he had got her out of the cell. He, among a few of her family, were the images that had kept her sane in that place.

“Who took the contract out on me?” Mach asked.

Adira’s hand gave way and she let go of the blade. It fell uselessly to the side. Mach still didn’t move, his eyes bored into hers, communicating everything and nothing with the micro-expressions of someone who she knew would have to know.

“I can’t say,” she said, lowering her head. “It’s not important now. I can’t go through it after all. I’m sorry.”

She grabbed her knife and spun away from him. Before she could leave, he lurched forward and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her back to the bed. He stood behind her and held her close, his lips brushing against her ear.

“When you’re ready, you tell me. I will need you to eventually. You know that, don’t you?”

“What if the truth would be worse than me killing you?”

“I guess I’ll take that risk.”

“This isn’t a game of skillion,” Adira said, running her fingers across his hands as they interlocked around her waist. “It’s not a gamble where the only thing at stake is your eros fund. This would destroy you.”

“Is that not my choice to make?”

“So be it. But not now. If I’m staying, we need to remain apart. You’ll cloud my judgment and maybe next time I won’t be so weak.”

Mach let go of her. She turned round to face him.

“You’ll be needing this if you change your mind.” He handed her the blade.

Without a word she exited his berth and headed back to her own.

“Hey, Adira,” Lassea said, heading toward her in the corridor. “We’re half a day away yet; if you want to grab some more sleep, I’m just taking over from Danick.”

“It’s okay. I’m not tired,” Adira said. “Mind if I join you on the bridge? I won’t say a word. I just need some company for a while.”

“Of course I don’t mind. I’d like the company too. It’s all been a bit mad lately. It’ll be nice to have some friendly quiet before we get to Feronia and the crazy starts all over again.”

Adira nodded her thanks and followed the girl to the bridge, all the while thinking, The crazy has barely started yet, you poor young thing.

Chapter Fifteen

The Phalanx-E broke through Feronia’s atmosphere and descended.

Mach stretched and relaxed back in the captain’s chair. Readings on the overhead monitors were eighty percent red. He hoped the feronians would see the value in acquiring a new E-class shuttle, despite it being bashed up with a terminal drive.

“This is space traffic control,” a crystal clear voice said in Salus Common through the comms speaker. “Who are you and what’s the purpose of your visit?”

“Captain Carson Mach, of the Phalanx-E. We’re here to trade.”

“Please proceed to zone four; I’m sending you coordinates. Representatives will be with you shortly.”

Mach grunted and shook his head. Feronians were all business. Every time he visited here in the last twenty years, they always drove a hard bargain, and he left with a feeling that he’d come out on the losing side of negotiations.

Their landing position flashed on the screen. Lassea configured the digits through the holocontrols and the shuttle banked over a jagged range of mountains.

“It’s a beautiful place,” Danick said, staring out at the sun-drenched glistening green sea.

“You won’t be seeing much more of it, I’m afraid,” Mach said. “We’ve only got three light atmosphere suits in back. But trust me, it’s an industrial flea pit once you see it up close and personal.”

“Do you need us to do anything?” Lassea said.

“Sell the hell out of the shuttle to the feronian rep when they board to inspect it. Make sure to let them know you know all the specs. They’re going to look for reasons to knock down the price.”

“We can’t hide the damage,” Danick said and glanced back at the scorch marks on the buckled right side. “But we’ll do what we can.”

“They’ll try every trick in the book to knock you down,” Mach said and stifled a yawn. “Make sure Adira keeps a close eye on them.”

Sanchez, Adira and Babcock were still sleeping in berths. Neither of the first two had lost their spark. Babcock remained an exuberant anomaly, albeit a useful one that had identified the source of a signal that appeared moments before the Atlantis ship’s arrival. That was more than anyone else had managed to do throughout the years.

Mach decided to take Sanchez and Babcock to deal for a new ship because of their technical know-how. To have any chance of completing the mission, they needed the best bang for their buck in terms of weapons and speed.

The industrial area came into view along the coastline. Sun glinted off the roofs of twenty huge metal hangars in a uniform line between the mountains and sea. Fifty supply warehouses, organized in a neat grid system, sat behind them. The main city lay just beyond a spiked peninsula.

“The marshal’s giving them a contract for two more capital ships,” Lassea said.

“Doesn’t surprise me,” Mach said. “They’re second to none when it comes to construction. I’m surprised the old bastard hasn’t taken the place over.”

“Why would he do that?” Danick said. “They don’t cause any problems.”

“It’s all about the fusion crystals. Feronia has abundant quantities, but the builders don’t control the supply. That dictates the rising prices whenever CWDF places an order.”

“The CW can afford it,” Lassea said dismissively.

Mach grinned at her naïve comment.

It would soon get to a point where a full-scale colonization would be cheaper. The CW and the Salus Sphere were all about peace and protection, but the level of protection depended on price and cooperation. If a new war started, and it seemed likely, the feronians would bring it on themselves if they supplied anything to the Axis Combine.

The JPs brought the Phalanx-E to a rest in zone four by the side of the hangars. Other small craft were spread around the three-hundred-meter long strip of terra-cotta bedrock. Ten were old CWDF block design, when they were less bothered with aesthetics. Three faded black horan warbirds, semi-circular in shape and relics of the Century War, were parked directly in front of them. Pirates were here, but that wasn’t unusual. It made sense that some would pool resources to get a larger, more powerful ship.

Two tall thin feronians, in wireless powered cobalt exoskeleton suits, trudged across the landing zone.

Sanchez walked through the cockpit, fastening the belt of his leather trousers, and squinted through the tinted window. “Ready to trade?”

“Grab Babcock and suit up,” Mach said. “The others are staying here and giving it the hard sell.”

Mach groaned out of his chair and followed Sanchez to the back. Feronia, unlike the other three planets in the system, had a breathable but light atmosphere. Most of the spindly workers, who were closely related to the fidesians, used exoskeletons to move around and carry out their work.

Sanchez thumped his fist against Babcock’s berth door.

Babcock immediately opened it and stared out with bloodshot eyes. Squid hovered over his shoulder.

“Get some decent shut-eye?” Mach asked.

“I’ve been working on decoding the signal. It’s gonna take a few more hours.”

“Leave it for now and suit up. We’ve got a new ship to buy.”

Mach, Sanchez and Babcock dressed in the matte black gravity suits and set the pressure to feronian specifications.

The Phalanx-E’s door opened and the ramp slid out with an inconsistent electric grind. Mach grimaced. Two feronians stood outside in their exos.

“Welcome to Feronia,” the tallest one said. “What can we do for you today?” He looked the battered craft up and down, muttering something to his friend.

“We’re looking to part-ex this fine example of CW design for something a little more… combat oriented,” Mach said, his suit relaying his words via the external speakers.

The feronians nodded at the same time. The shorter one of the two, with nervous hands, looked up at Mach. “I’ll need to value your ship for a part exchange,” he said, consulting an oversized smart-screen attached to the arm of his exo.

“My crew will show you around,” Mach said and held his arm toward the cockpit.

Adira was awake and waited with the two JPs. She knew what to do. The feronian clunked up the ramp, its suit gently humming, and edged past Mach.

Mach received a strong waft of rotting cabbage and crinkled his nose.

That was their natural smell, but it always took some getting used to.

The taller, female feronian smiled and bowed her head. “I’m Harn. Follow me and I’ll show you what we have to trade.”

“I’m Mach. That’s Sanchez and Babcock.”

Babcock cleared his throat. “And this is Squid.”

A warm breeze blew across the landing zone, providing little relief from the thick humid air, as Harn led them across it. The sun beat down directly overhead. A bead of sweat trickled along Mach’s back.

Metal crashed together in the distance. Two dirty white rectangular machines, with pairs of folding mechanical arms, towered over the walls of a scrapyard and carried around mangled pieces of wreckage.

“What kind of ship are you looking for?” Harn said.

Mach quickened his pace and walked alongside her. “Heavily armed and fast. Do you have any capital refits?”

“Not at the moment. The CWDF acquired most of our stock yesterday. We’ve got two C-class ships with quad-mounted laser cannons that have just been refurbed.”

Sanchez shook his head. “Not good enough. Do you have any with ion cannons?”

“Seventy-five HPL isn’t good enough either,” Babcock said. “We need at least sixty, preferably faster, and over one APD.”

“I’m afraid you’re out of luck,” Harn said. “We need to keep our contracts with our main suppliers.”

“You haven’t got anything?” Mach said. “What about the other manufacturers on the planet?”

“I don’t have access to their stock. It’s safe to assume that they’re in the same situation as us.”

“We’ve got access to the CW bank.”

Harn stopped and turned at the edge of the first hangar, her suit’s shoulders smoothly twisted around. “How many eros are we talking?”

Mach gave her his best smile. “Name your price?”

“We do have an option that fits your description, but I need to speak to the master-builder. It’s an experimental design we commissioned ourselves.”

“Sounds promising,” Mach said. “Tell him our money’s good and we have an E-class to trade.”

“If you reduce the price,” Babcock added, “I’ll provide full technical and performance reports. You’ll be getting a free field test.”

“It’s not free if we reduce the price,” Harn said, reverting from helpful to the sharp salesperson that Mach expected. “Your shuttle looks close to salvage and we currently have orders coming in from all parts of the Sphere and beyond.”

“Okay,” Mach said, realizing she knew they had a weak hand. “Speak to your boss. We want to make a deal if the ship meets our requirements.”

Harn raised her smart-screen. “Master-builder, we have an interested party for the Jaguar Mk 1.”

She waited for a response. Mach guessed they named it after an extinct animal from Earth for human appeal. Feronians were clever like that.

“Bring them to hangar two. I’ll deal with this personally,” a high-pitched voice warbled through Harn’s comm.

“This way, please.”

Harn led them past the open slide doors of the first hangar. Mach peered into the large cavernous space. Eight ten-meter-high robotic arms worked on building the shell of a destroyer’s superstructure. Sparks fizzed from the frame as they attached parts. A Feronian sat in front of a shiny black control panel and monitored the work.

The doors to the second hangar were also wide open. Harn entered and stood in front of a large, completed matte black ship. Quad laser cannons on a spherical turret were attached to the bottom of the one-hundred-meter-long hull. A swivel turret, mounting a ten-meter-long ion cannon, sat on the roof, bigger than a destroyer’s but smaller than a capital ship’s. Thick wings sloped from the midsection to the floor at thirty-degree angles. Each had four torpedo tubes.

Two feronians clanked down the side ramp, gesturing with screens and chatting. Sanchez looked up and whistled. “That’s a beast. You’ll have to rob the senate to pay for it.”

Mach wanted it like no other ship before. He hadn’t even looked inside, but guessed it was equally as impressive as the exterior.

An unusually stocky feronian, wearing a dark green coverall without an exoskeleton, walked out of an office along the side of the hangar and approached them.

“That’s the master-builder,” Harn said.

“What’s he like?” Babcock said.

“He builds ships,” Harn said without a hint of sarcasm.

Sanchez turned away and covered his mouth. Babcock groaned and whispered something to Squid. The little machine let out three beeps and spread its tentacles.

“Harn informs me that you’re interested in the Jaguar?” the master-builder said.

“That’s right,” Mach said and shook his hand. “You don’t look like a typical feronian, if you don’t mind me saying?”

“Not at all.” The master-builder looked down at his own physique. “I’m just back from spending five years in vestan shipyards. We’ve moved across to their drive technology and I’ve been learning about their operation.”

“How fast is she?” Babcock said.

“Two-point-five APD on the new Gamma Drive and fifty-five HPL on LD,” the master-builder said and looked over his shoulder at the Jaguar. “If you’re serious about buying, I need evidence that you can afford it.”

Babcock produced a handkerchief from his pocket and mopped his brow. He moved toward the ramp. “Mind if I take a look around the engineering deck?”

“Yes, I do.” The master-builder gestured toward his office with a stiff arm. “Finance first, then you look around. We don’t deal with time wasters.”

The group followed him inside his office and sat behind a metal desk. A light on the ceiling beamed down holographic images of ships to glass plates that lined the walls.

“How much do you want for her?” Mach said. “You can knock off twenty million for the Phalanx-E.”

The master-builder let out a throaty laugh. “Five million for your piece of junk. That leaves a balance of ninety million eros.”

“That’s insane,” Sanchez said. “We could buy a twenty-year-old horan destroyer for that kind of money.”

“At a time like this?” the master-builder asked. “The Axis and CW are laying their hands on every battleship they can find. You won’t find another option in a hundred light-years.”

Mach knew he was exaggerating the distance, but he took the master-builder’s point. The problem was, they didn’t have that kind of money and Morgan wouldn’t give them a tenth of it.

“Your silence speaks volumes,” the master-builder said. He pushed a button on his desk and the office door slid shut.

Babcock glanced at Mach and raised his eyebrows.

“What’s going on?” Sanchez said and took a step toward the desk.

Mach grabbed Sanchez’s shoulder and eased him back. Feronians didn’t bring in the cavalry for people turning up with a lack of funds. Plenty window-shopped and checked on current prices. He also still had enough eros to buy a C-class.

The master-builder peered beyond them at the office window and returned his focus on Mach. “Perhaps we can come to an arrangement.”

“I’m all ears,” Mach said.

“The orcus still control the mines and supply of fusion crystals. They have a stake in two of the companies along the coast.”

“And you’re in short supply,” Babcock said. “So you can’t run your new vestan drives and beat the competition?”

“I’ve sold arms to the orcus before,” Sanchez said. “Nasty bunch.”

The master-builder nodded. “You understand my predicament. If you bring me four dextans of fusion crystals, the ship is yours.”

Mach did a quick conversion in his head. Roughly two kilos’ worth. That was enough fusion crystals to power ten destroyers and a couple of weeks rock-blasting for their small team, if they could find the right tools. “We haven’t got time to go working in one of your pits.”

“An armed convoy transfers crystals from the mine to the orcus building in zone six every evening. Most get immediately distributed to the Axis or the CW contracts. That gives you two options. I know who you are, Mach, and you, Sanchez, but I don’t know the old man or his little creature.”

“His name’s Squid,” Babcock said. “My identity is irrelevant.”

“You’ve priced us out of the Jaguar on purpose,” Sanchez said. He tensed and balled his fists. “You’re using us to—”

“Easy there, Sanchez,” Mach said. He didn’t want to lose the chance of getting his hands on the Jaguar. “We’ll bring you the crystals if your team give half of my crew a crash course?”

“I’ll give the crash course once you have delivered. My resources are limited and we have multiple projects ongoing.”

Mach shook his head. “No deal. We’re risking our lives to keep your shipyard going. Do the crash course and we’ll complete the mission.”

The master-builder waved his chubby fingers toward the door. “You can leave. I’m not worried about getting a good price for my ship.”

“But the crystals and your future production?”

The master-builder paused and his soft green face scrunched. He pressed the button on his desk and the office door punched open. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

“Excellent. I’ll need three atmosphere suits.” Mach understood the motivation behind the request. He didn’t fully understand the sticky politics on Feronia, but knew enough that the master-builder would be keeping his hands clean by using outside assistance. If the heist went wrong, they’d be accused of being pirates.

Getting the crystals would take careful planning.

The orcus’ ruthless reputation spread way beyond the Feronia system.

Chapter Sixteen

Mach slung an atmosphere suit over his shoulder, provided by the master-builder, and crossed the landing strip. Babcock and Sanchez followed with two more spares.

His pulse quickened through a mix of the thought of owning the Jaguar and trudging under the oppressive afternoon sun that baked the top of his head. The team split was a straightforward decision. Babcock and the two JPs would take a crash course on the controls and engineering deck. Sanchez and Adira, the two most capable in a fight, would join him for the heist.

The rep inspecting the Phalanx-E stood outside it and tapped on his pad while looking at the asteroid damage on the side. Black dints and scrapes peppered the heavy armor.

“You can drop your little game,” Mach said. “Speak to your boss.”

The feronian jobsworth ignored him and continued to survey the outer structure. Mach continued inside and dumped the suit behind the cockpit.

Adira shook her head and smiled. “It’s never straightforward with you, is it?”

“We’ve got our hands on a badass ship. But there’s a catch. We need to complete a little mission to seal the deal.”

“A little mission?” Adira said and cocked her right eyebrow.

“I’ll explain in a moment.”

Sanchez and Babcock dumped their suits. Both JPs glanced down at them and back to Mach.

“What do you want us to do?” Lassea asked.

“You two and Babcock are going to take a crash course on the Jaguar Mk1. Which, with some luck, will be our new ship.”

Danick sat forward and clasped his hands together. “What kind of spec is it?”

“Two-point-five APD and fifty-five HPL,” Mach said, pleased that something had at last got the young JPs’ juices flowing. “It’s armed to the teeth and being prepared for you at this very moment.”

“Wow,” Lassea said. “That’s as good as anything in the CWDF, but we’re not qualified to pilot it.”

“Are you willing to learn the ropes?” Both JPs nodded. “You’re qualified in the Carson Mach school of flying. Congratulations.”

“Suit up and come with Squid and I,” Babcock said. “I’ll provide assistance, after I’ve looked around the engineering deck.”

Danick and Lassea sprang from their seats, like two children having Christmas presents revealed to them for the first time. Some old customs were still celebrated in the Salus Sphere, but had no deeper relevance than a day off and the exchanging of gifts.

The JPs suited up and left with Babcock.

“So what’s the plan?” Adira said.

“We need to get our hands on some fusion crystals. The orcus control the supply and transfer it from the mine to the compound on the edge of the city every evening.”

“We’re holding up an orcus convoy?” Adira frowned. “We haven’t got any weapons.”

“I’ve got in touch with an old contact and we’re meeting him in twenty minutes,” Sanchez said, before giving one of his sly grins. “It’s an orcus gang member. He’s trading us three SamCore Vipers.”

“Vipers!” Adira said. “The CW dumped them when my grandfather served in the war.”

“They’re the most reliable weapon SamCore have ever produced,” Sanchez said.

Mach patted him on the shoulder. “Nice work. Let’s scout their building and the route from the mine. We’ll take the easiest option.”

“Are you expecting any easy option?” Adira asked.

“No, but the alternative is leaving in this twisted bucket of crap.”

***

Adira dressed in an atmosphere suit and they headed for the meeting. Mach knew if they were to bring down the Atlantis ship, the Jaguar gave them the most realistic chance.

Going up against the destroyer of an orbital station in a beat-up E-class was suicide. And perhaps Morgan knew that. It’d sure be an easy way of getting rid of Mach and the others. Friends or not, Mach knew he’d made Morgan’s life difficult over the years.

Sanchez led them between the hangars and warehouses. Feronians floated between buildings on anti-g platforms, transferring crates of supplies. Two white armored vehicles, emblazoned with the star-shaped Feronia logo on the side, rumbled past on their chunky black tracks. They were local militia, paid by the feronian council but probably in the pockets of the orcus.

“Do you know the orcus’ strength?” Mach asked.

Sanchez rubbed his stubbly chin. “Most of the grunts supervise in the mines. They run a few rackets in the city, but it’s hard to tell who is affiliated. I’ve got a couple of contacts and supplied them horan carbines last year.”

“Leave it to the expert,” Adira said. “I carried out a hit here a couple of years ago. The compound’s gonna be a tough job.”

Sanchez grunted. “A hit’s not exactly the same as robbing a gang.”

“Whatever,” Mach said, stopping their conversation before it ended up becoming a scar-comparing contest. “We’ll scout the two locations and come to a decision.”

They trekked away from the shipyard and crossed over the peninsula separating it from the main city. At the top of the hill, Mach shielded his eyes and scanned a snaking track that led through a shallow, sparse rocky valley to the distant mountains. Plenty of places to mount an ambush, but they didn’t know the level of protection the convoy had.

The city lay directly ahead, hugging five miles of coastline. Like the warehouses behind the hangars, it was designed in a grid system. Eight long streets extended along the full length, crossed by others at regularly spaced intervals.

Mach remembered visiting the city for the first time, thinking the square white buildings had a boring look. It turned out not to be the case. During the evening, the central streets turned into a sea of seedy activity. Feronian prostitutes prowled outside the bars; visiting species from the CW and the Axis drank inside and took part in high-stakes gambling.

Sanchez checked his smart-screen. “He’s waiting for us behind the Nebula Club. That’s a street away from their stronghold.”

“Perfect,” Adira said. “Grab as much intel as you can.”

The club had a familiar-sounding name, but Mach couldn’t remember if he’d been in it before. He woke up in his old ship after a night out a few years ago, with a blank memory, black eye and eighty thousand eros knocked off his balance.

At the bottom of the gently sloping paved hill, leading from the peninsula to the city, Sanchez headed right and ducked down an alley between two filthy white buildings. Both had dull black power units attached to their sides. It provided the home management system for feronians. Electricity, communications, and the strange virtual reality games they played that were supposed to assist them with their work.

Mach let Adira go ahead and noticed the outline of her knife’s handle in the thigh pocket of her suit.

The alley led to a thirty-meter-wide pod park, just off a main street that ran through the city. A feronian, dressed in a tight brown bodysuit, stood next to a dusty black hover bike, under the shade provided by the back of the Nebula Club’s block wall. He acknowledged Sanchez with a nod.

“Tarkun, how long’s it been?” Sanchez said, turning on his best gunrunner’s charm. “Not using your exo nowadays?”

“It’s back at the mine,” Tarkun said and looked around Sanchez as Mach and Adira approached. “Who are they?”

“Two of the crew. We’re staying here tonight for a bit of fun. What time do you finish work?”

“I’m not sure I want to be in a bar with you, Sanchez.”

The big hunter laughed. “Oh, come on. Once I’m back on my feet, I’ll bring you some vestan lasers. Just a couple of drinks for old time’s sake?”

“Very well. I’ll be back with the convoy before sunset. They’ll probably join me. Tell your friends to keep their mouths shut unless they’re asked a question.”

“The entire group?” Sanchez said and puffed his cheeks. “There’s not enough room to swing a snake in the Nebula.”

“There’s only five of us. You can buy the drinks.”

“Sounds good to me. Let’s get our business out of the way. I want to stash them on our ship before the militia start sniffing around.”

“You won’t get any trouble from them,” Tarkun said, and nodded toward the main road. A feronian in a leathery royal blue uniform stood by the side of it and rolled an electric bat in his hand.

Tarkun flipped open a compartment at the back of his hover bike and pulled out a long gray bag. He unfastened it and showed three antique SamCore Vipers. Stun weapons that ceased to be produced seven decades ago. Mach had used a couple before; they were reliable old beasts.

“They’re charged and ready to go,” Tarkun said. “Ten thousand eros.”

Sanchez waved Mach forward. He configured the amount on his smart-screen and held his wrist against Tarkun’s. The exchange confirmed with a soft electronic bleep.

Mach tucked the bag under his arm. “Pleasure doing business.”

Tarkun turned to Sanchez and pointed a spindly finger in Mach’s direction. “Don’t bring this one tonight. There’s something about him I don’t like.”

“He won’t be at the bar,” Sanchez said. “You can trust me on that.”

The feronian straddled his hover bike and fired up its engines to a whine. The bike gently lifted a meter into the air and drifted toward the main road. Dust and small stones sprayed across the ground in its hot wake.

“If these are your friends,” Adira said, “I’d hate to see your enemies.”

“He’s gonna be my enemy soon enough,” Sanchez said. “Five on the convoy shouldn’t be too much trouble if we find a decent place on the trail.”

“Agreed,” Mach said. “Let’s take a quick scan of the compound.”

Adira shook her head. “If it’s anything like the last time I checked it out, we’ll be facing at least twenty armed feronians.”

“She’s right,” Sanchez said. “The numbers have swung it.”

Mach shielded his brow and checked local time on his smart-screen. The sun had dipped in the sky since he last checked, meaning they only had a couple of hours to find a suitable position for the crystal heist.

Chapter Seventeen

Mach crouched on top of the peninsula’s hill, positioned between the shipyard and the city, and surveyed inland. The trail to the mine at the bottom of the mountain had been quiet for the last ten minutes.

Sanchez had stripped and reassembled each of the Vipers, ensuring their serviceability.

Adira stood by Mach’s side, resting a hand on his shoulder. She pointed at a cluster of rocks on the trail, at the mouth of a shallow valley that led toward the city. “That’s where we should do it. One of us provides covering fire from height. The other two take the convoy down from ground level.”

The plan was solid enough. They would never know what kind of weapons they were facing until they sprang the ambush, but the one-shot deal to secure the Jaguar was good enough to take the risk.

Mach decided to check on the other group’s progress. He keyed Babcock on his smart-screen and raised it to his mouth. “Babcock, how are things going on your end?”

“Like a dream. You’ll love it. They’ve opened the hangar roof for takeoff, and the JPs are being taken through the controls.”

“Nothing out of the ordinary for us to worry about?”

“Nope. The engineers here know about your mission and they’re buzzing. It means they’re all in work for another year. All seems legit.”

“Be ready to go around sunset. If we don’t return after dark, get back to the Phalanx-E and head for the nearest space port.”

“I know you well enough, Mach. See you in an hour.”

Sanchez placed the Vipers back in the gray bag and shouldered it. Keeping the weapons concealed was the best approach. Two humans and a fidian walking along the trail to the mine and armed with Vipers would set off alarm bells. As it was, they were just a crew having a stroll out of the city. Nothing out of the ordinary for people who landed and didn’t want to sample Feronia Prime’s delights.

Adira led the way down a dusty thin path, surrounded by wiry brown shrubs. The sun’s heat weakened as it dipped toward the sea, casting long shadows across the ground. Mach wondered why they only had five people in the convoy. The only logical conclusion was that most people wouldn’t have the balls to rob the orcus on their home world. After years of having the freedom of the city, their guard had dropped.

“Do we kill after we stun?” Adira said, jumping straight to an obvious practical problem. They would be hunted down if any of the gang lived to tell the tale. Mach didn’t like cutting off access to planets in the Salus Sphere, or killing for no reason, so stunning would do the job.

“Stun and move quick,” Mach said. “They’ll contact others and they’ll be straight on top of us.”

“Agreed,” Sanchez said. “We can pay back a holdup if we complete our mission. They’ve got plenty more crystals in the mine. They won’t forgive us for killing their crew.”

“Screw them,” Adira said. “They’re jumped-up pirates and smugglers. I’m never coming back to this hellhole.”

Mach could see both points of view, but they had to have a clear strategy, but he refused to kill anybody in cold blood. The orcus wouldn’t think twice about killing them, but the plan was to not give them a chance.

“I’m leaving on the Jaguar,” Mach said. “As much as I hate to say it, Adira, we’re taking the soft approach.”

Adira shook her head and kicked a stone along the path.

Mach understood that it probably railed against her killer instinct, but once they captured the Atlantis ship, Adira could forget that life.

At the bottom of the path, they joined the trail toward the mountains. The brown dirt valley rose twenty meters either side of them. Nothing came in either direction and they reached the rocks after two minutes. Sanchez handed out the Vipers.

Twice as heavy as the new graphene models, Mach thought. He shouldered it, flicked on the electronic scope and peered through it. The rifle automatically focused on moving objects: great for hunting single creatures, but confusing in a firefight. He switched it back to manual.

“I’ll take the top,” Adira said.

She scrambled up the small hill and nestled between two boulders in the prone firing position. Sanchez edged behind a pile of rocks and dropped to one knee. Mach ducked alongside him. Carrying out moves like this always took him back to the old days on Fides Prime, carrying out military exercises in the sweltering jungle. All CWDF destroyer crew had to learn basic soldiering before the boring technical lectures began.

The white streaky cirrus in the sky took on a pink tinge as the sun continued to lower. Natural light began to fade, but they still had a good level of visibility, and the Viper had a night-sight option.

“Something’s coming,” Adira said.

Mach craned his neck around the pile of rocks. Two black vehicles snaked around the trail, leaving a cloud of dust behind. Two-track trucks with open cabins. At least the five orcus hadn’t come on hover bikes. That would’ve made things a lot harder if the one carrying the crystals split, and the others fired their mini laser cannons.

The gruff engine noise and the monotonous cranking of the tracks grew louder.

“Two TTs. Fire at the front cabin. I’ll take the rear one,” Mach said.

Sanchez nodded and slipped his finger around the trigger. “You got it.”

Tracks crunched over loose stones only thirty meters away. A single headlight stabbed out of the front of the lead vehicle, brightening the increasingly gloomy valley. Mach glanced back at Adira. She aimed down, ready to fire.

“Ready?” Mach asked.

Sanchez didn’t wait for a command. He sprinted to the edge of the track, aimed at the truck’s windshield and fired an energy burst.

Mach ran straight past him. An orcus gang member jumped out of the side door and raised a laser. Before he could fire, Mach zapped him in the chest. He quickly switched aim to the cabin. The other door was open. Multiple footsteps pounded against the dirt.

The distinctive fire of a Viper crackled high to his left. Adira found her target. A body hit the ground.

“Front truck clear,” Sanchez called out.

A head appeared around the back of the rear truck. Mach ducked in front. “We’ve still got one back here.”

Mach took a few deep breaths and wiped sweat from his brow. Sanchez dashed around forward and skidded to a halt next to him. “Three in the front cabin. One here. That’s one left.”

“Sanchez,” a voice called out, “is that you?”

“Damn,” Sanchez said and glanced around the side of the truck. “It’s Tarkun.”

Fuel from the front engine pooled around Mach’s boots. He elbowed Sanchez and gestured down with his rifle. “We have to finish this. Now.”

“Come out, Sanchez,” Tarkun shouted. “If it’s the crystals you want, take them.”

“He’s gonna call in our position,” Carson said. “You go one way, I’ll go the other. Ready?”

“Wait,” Sanchez said. “I’ll talk to him.”

“No. It only buys the orcus more time to get here.”

Carson reached out to drag him back, but Sanchez moved swiftly around away and stood around the side with his rifle shouldered.

“Come out with your hands up,” Sanchez said.

Quickly glancing in either direction, Mach couldn’t see anything approaching. He hunched down, edged around the front end, and provided cover.

Tarkun leaped from the back with a laser pistol raised in each hand. A shot echoed high to Carson’s left and the gangster’s head snapped back. The pistols fell from his hands and thudded against the ground. Adira accurately stunned him.

Sanchez stared at Tarkun. Carson rushed past him to the back of the truck, climbed the mini ladder, and searched for the crystals. He popped open two dull metal crates, but both were empty. Switching on his night vision, he searched around the dark corners with his sights. There was nothing else here apart from an old blanket and some empty food trays.

Carson jumped back out of the truck and found Sanchez crouched over Tarkun.

“Forget about him,” Carson said. “He’s not going to give you a present when he wakes.”

“I’m not bothered about him. I’m checking for anything useful.”

“We need the damned crystals. If they’re not in the front truck, we’re leaving here on the Phalanx-E.”

Adira had descended into the valley. She opened the lead truck’s door and aimed inside. Carson climbed into the back. Two shiny metal boxes, one on top of the other, were position at the front end. He pulled the lid off the first and ripped away the foil seal, revealing it packed full with blue fusion crystals.

Mach picked up the box and guessed it weighed double what the master-builder requested. Sanchez and Adira both looked at him in anticipation as he carried the rear end and held it down.

“This is our ticket out of here,” Mach said.

Sanchez cradled the box in his tattooed arms.

Adira looked inside it and her eyes lit up. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Mach jumped down and they climbed the opposite side of the valley. From here, it was a descent to the grid of warehouses and back to hangar two.

Two bright lights shot into the air over the city and headed for the location of the ambush. Another one came from the direction of the mine. Orcus hover bikes reacting to a call they probably received from Tarkun.

All three of them ran down the opposite slope, toward the shipyard lights that twinkled in the dusk.

Mach scrolled through the contacts on his screen and called Babcock. “We’ll be there in a few minutes. Make sure everything’s ready.”

“I’ll have the master-builder wait by the ramp.”

“Thanks.”

Unlike the JPs, who would probably ask dumb questions, Mach knew Babcock would understand the situation. No surviving witnesses also suited the master-builder’s needs. He could stash the crystals and deny everything. If an investigation were launched by the orcus, their ship would be long gone. Mach guessed it would be the last time he visited Feronia Prime.

They continued at a fast pace between warehouses. No craft flew overhead, meaning a hot pursuit hadn’t begun. The stealth of their operation was the key to its success.

A door opened at the back of hangar two and an engineer beckoned them inside. “Have you got the crystals?” she asked.

“We’re delivering them to your boss,” Carson said and continued toward the ramp.

Babcock and the master-builder turned as they slapped across the hangar floor. Sanchez dumped the box at their feet, rested his hands against his knees and gulped for air. Adira rubbed her forearm across her brow and leaned against the wing.

“Are we good to go?” Mach asked.

The master-builder scooped out a chunk of shimmering crystal and held it against a shiny black device. It registered a beep and reading. He smiled and buried his hand deep into the box, checking the quantity.

“Can we leave?” Mach said. “For the record, we only stunned your local gangsters.”

“You are free to leave. I wish you good luck and safe travels.”

Chapter Eighteen

Mach engaged the ignition protocol and the advanced Gamma Drive engines on the Jaguar bellowed into life like the roar of Zeus himself. A thunderclap boomed around the shipyard, its massive roar shaking the craft as Mach increased the power slowly into the experimental motors.

A ship tech spoke over the comm channel. “How’s she doing up there?” the grizzled voice, thick with pride, asked.

“Purring like a lion,” Mach said, thrilled by the power pulsing through the ship. The rest of the crew were strapped into their seats and just looked on at the curved holographic screen with a mixture of fear and excitement.

“How’re the crystals holding up?” Mach asked as he let the engines idle.

“So far so good,” the tech said. “Temperatures and frequencies all within tolerances. Captain, Mach, I do believe you have yourself a new ship. Go fly her like the wind and put her through her paces. And be sure to send us reports.”

“Roger that,” Mach said, and then to his crew: “Wanna go fly a new bird?”

“Punch it,” Sanchez said with a boyish grin on his face.

“Take it steady at first,” Danick said, “just in case.”

Mach’s laugh was almost as raucous as the Jaguar’s engines. He didn’t come this far to take it easy. If this ship was as good as everyone had promised, he was going to damn well see what it could do.

The Gamma Drive was said to allow the ship to fly at an incredible two-point-five APD: astronomical units per day. Coming from the heap of crap that was the Phalanx-E it was like suddenly being fired out of a rail gun where before you were flung from a boy’s slingshot.

Mach placed his hands into the holocontrols and disengaged the landing locks. The ship rock to one side as the weight of it settled naturally on its landing feet. He adjusted the angle of the auxiliary thrusters and, when he received the all clear from the tech, slowly took the ship up and out of the vertical hangar.

Once clear, he banked to starboard, pointed the nose to the sky and, when he was a few hundred meters away from the shipyard, engaged the Gamma Drive and punched it to thirty percent power.

The ship shot forward, accelerating to thirty percent in less time than it took to take a breath. Mach was forced back into his seat, the ship pulling hard Gs in the instant it climbed out of Feronia’s gravity well.

Lassea screamed with the shock of it. Sanchez’ smile hadn’t moved at all.

Adira looked at him, her face passive as though this was just an everyday occurrence.

“There goes the atmosphere,” Danick said after a few seconds. They blasted out of the planet’s atmosphere and charged on forward, reaching well over thirty-four thousand KPH.

Mach slowly increased the power of the ship to fifty percent capacity and the thrust continued to drive them faster and faster. He banked the ship half a degree, flying starboard of an asteroid cluster.

The rocky formation blurred away, the Jaguar burning up the klicks. “My god, this thing is good,” Mach said. He glanced over to Babcock, who held his head at an angle, watching the telemetry metrics flowing down his screen. “All good over there?” Mach asked, concerned at the worried expression on the other’s face.

“I think we’re being…” Babcock waved his hands over the console, leaned closer and nodded before sitting back and turning to Sanchez and Adira. “Arm the lasers, we’ve got company. Three signals, point two AUs, ten degrees north, behind that asteroid.”

“What?” Mach said, doing a double take at the screen in front of him. He enlarged the magnification and squinted at the three specks of yellow fusion burners. “Orcus fighters. I guess they figured they’d get their crystals back.”

Sanchez grunted as he manipulated the weapon’s controls. “Lasers at quarter capacity, ready to fire in three seconds.”

Adira fixed Mach with a cold glare. “Ions ready to go.”

Nodding, Mach analyzed the orcus fighters’ positions. They swooped round in an arc, the three ships splitting direction so that two banked either side of the Jaguar’s vector, the third dipping below.

“They won’t escape the firing arc,” Lassea said, surprising Mach with the focus on her face. Danick looked pale, but calmer than he had been when they flew through the Vekron Valley, making that decision justified in Mach’s eyes.

“You two monitor the flanks,” Mach ordered the JPs. “Adira, Sanchez, blast ’em when you have them in your sights.” With a chorus of affirmatives, Mach increased the power to the Gamma Drive and pulled the yoke back to angle the motors down, sending the craft in an upward arc.

The central orcus fighter started to turn and head upward, following their vector, just as Mach hoped. The other two were curving inward, approaching the Jaguar’s flanks.

“They’re trying to hack our nav systems,” Babcock said.

“Then stop them,” Mach yelled.

“I’m on it. Launching digital chaff mines.”

Squid appeared in Mach’s peripheral vision. “Yes?” Mach snapped.

“Sir, would the UAV-Interceptors be of use in this situation as we do seem to be outnumbered,” Squid said.

“Of course!” Mach had completely forgotten about them in the excitement of taking the Jag out for its first flight.

“Mach,” Danick said, looking around from his console, his eyes eager, “I trained on UAV-drones in CWDF academy, the controls here look similar enough; the AI-driven defense programs are the same. I can—”

“Do it,” Mach said, cutting the kid off. “Focus fire on one orcus ship at a time. Lassea, you monitor both flanks and comm with Danick to help with targeting.”

Lassea nodded and adjusted her console’s holodisplay to show both sides of the Jag’s field of view. Mach turned his attention back to his maneuver. When the ship had reached the zenith of its arc, he snapped the yoke to the left, spinning the craft through one-eighty so they were now facing the orcus ship below.

Before the enemy could react, Mach gunned the Gamma Drive to seventy percent, launching the ship to within firing distance.

“Locked for torpedoes,” Adira said.

“Fire three when ready,” Mach replied.

“Launching torpedoes.”

Mach watched the screen in front of him as a weapon’s HUD showed the feed from each torpedo. Much like the orcus fighters’ formation against the Jag, the torpedoes split wide to ensnare their target from multiple angles.

“Orcus closing on our flanks,” Lassea said.

Danick nodded and manipulated the controls for the UAVs. The two interceptors launched out of their bay in the stern of the Jaguar and with their miniature fusion motors were soon closing in on the fighter from the port side.

Turning his attention back to the torpedoes, Mach watched the orcus ship barrel-roll out of the way of one but then arced away into the path of another. It struck the orcus fighter amidships, sending it into a tight flat spin.

“In range,” Sanchez said. “Firing lasers.”

Mach matched the path of the orcus fighter to give Sanchez the best chance of a hit. They were less than half a klick away when Sanchez fired with a cry of, “Yeah!” The quad lasers, along with the other two torpedoes, hit home, turning the orcus fighter into a spray of light and debris.

“One down,” Adira said.

“Digital chaff mines active,” Babcock said. “We’re safe. Should I engage stealth mode?”

“Do it,” Mach said as he steered the Jaguar out of the way of the wreckage. Some of the debris struck the ship. Bits of metal and plastic struck the Jag’s hull, echoing the crashes throughout the bridge. A couple of minor alarms rang out.

“Squid, investigate,” Babcock said to his floating friend. The small drone zipped out of the bridge.

The lights within the ships dimmed when Mach tried to increase the power to the Gamma Drive. The drive wouldn’t power up more than seventy percent.

“Flanking ships with point six of a klick,” Lassea said.

“I’ve got one,” Danick said. “Firing ion blasters.”

Two blue triangles on the combat screen bleeped, indicating the UAVs had successfully fired and hit with their miniature ion weapons. One of the orcus fighters disengaged its interception path.

“Sir,” Squid said over the comm channel, “there’s an issue with the fusion crystals. We’ve lost power in three of the array.”

“Dammit, can you fix them?” Mach asked.

“Stealth mode not activating,” Babcock reported. “System error.”

“I’ve lost control of one of the UAVs,” Danick said.

“No power in the ion cannon either,” Adira added.

Mach slapped his hand against the arm of his chair, wondering what the hell was going on though accepted it was his own damn fault for taking an experimental, untested ship out like this. “Sanchez, what about the lasers?” he asked.

“Single fire only,” the hunter growled.

“We can’t stay and fight like this, we need to L-jump while we still can,” Babcock said, turning to face Mach. “Squid says we should have enough juice to get us to our destination, but not sure what condition we’ll be in when we get there.”

“Well,” Mach said, “we can’t stick around here. Looks like more orcus fighters launched from Feronia.” Mach nodded his head to the viewscreen, which showed half a dozen smaller craft break the planet’s atmosphere.

“Danick, bring the UAVs home. We’re getting out of here.”

“Done, they’ll be in the hangars in approximately a minute and a half.”

“Sir, the remaining orcus fighter is drifting out of firing range,” Lassea said.

“It’s waiting for the support of the others,” Adira said. “We ought to chase it down.”

“No,” Mach said. “We’re jumping. I don’t like these odds.”

Mach reduced the power to the Gamma Drive by fifty percent and brought the ship around to face the coordinates of their destination: the contested sector beyond the NCZ. He waited until the UAVs had confirmed their re-entry to the ship’s bay before plotting the course and diverting all power to the LD. It wasn’t quite enough to engage. He had to shut down the power to the laser and ion cannons.

“We’re a sitting duck,” Adira snapped.

The group of orcus fighters was closing in to torpedo range.

Mach watched the power to the LD increase, but it still wasn’t enough.

“EMP torpedoes fifteen seconds from impact,” Babcock said.

“There’s not enough juice left,” Mach said, trying to think where else he could divert the power from in order to give the LD enough to engage. “Squid,” he said, “re-engage the damaged crystals.”

“But, sir, they could destroy the array completely.”

“Could, but not certain. What are the odds?”

Squid waited for a moment before saying, “Ten percent at a minimum chance they’ll blow the entire array, damaging the LD beyond repair.”

“That’s good enough for me. Do it.”

“As you wish,” Squid said with a chirp.

“Ten seconds from impact,” Babcock informed them.

Mach tapped his fingers against his knee, waiting for Squid’s confirmation.

The entire crew turned to face Mach, each person’s face taut with a mix of fear and expectation.

“Five seconds,” Babcock said before counting down. “Four… three… two…”

“Crystals re-engaged,” Squid said.

Mach hit the LD control on his holoscreen.

“One…”

The roar of the EMP torpedoes sounded like a thunderstorm had erupted within the craft, but it was too late. The LD kicked in, launching the Jaguar forward even as a dozen or more alarm icons flashed, warning on one issue or another. The ship entered that weird state of FTL travel where they saw only darkness on the holoscreen and the hull seemed to vibrate with an impossible frequency. A subsonic susurration filled the bridge.

The crew waited for Mach’s update, almost as if they needed him to say if they were dead or alive. How would Mach tell the difference, he didn’t know, but what he did know, was that it was too damned close for comfort.

At least this time, his gamble paid off.

The Jaguar’s LD held up despite the damaged crystals.

They’d just need to wait now and see what kind of state the ship was in once it finished its jump—if they made it that far.

“We’re okay,” Mach said, wiping the sweat from his face. “We’re all okay.” For how long that would last, he just couldn’t say.

Chapter Nineteen

Morgan ascended the steps toward a defense control room, close to the base of the thirty-meter-tall, light gray pulse cannon.

Seazza followed, ready to take notes. It wouldn’t be necessary. Part of his monthly routine was to inspect the six batteries that ringed the capital city. This was just another notional duty as part of his routine. He had already been around four. The ground crews ran them like a smooth machine and didn’t need his patronage.

Two fidesians and a human, in the sky blue artillery uniforms, rose from their chairs around a console and stood to attention. A red-tinted window ran the full length of the twenty meter room, giving an all-round view of the skyscrapers that dominated the central city, the smaller CWDF base buildings, and the distant dark green mountains.

A sharp chemical odor hung in the air, the standard-issue cleaning fluid CWDF used before any kind of inspection. Morgan wondered if desk jockeys assumed this was the usual smell in the military installations outside their offices. He had served time on battleships and knew different.

The human, a young fresh-faced lieutenant with mousy hair, stiffly saluted. “Battery Two ready for inspection, sir.”

“At ease,” Morgan said and glanced around at the sparkling metal desks, console and his own reflection in the gleaming window. The men relaxed and sat in their chairs, waiting for the vacuous questions. How are things? Are you enjoying it here? How long have you been in the artillery?

They and he knew it was all an act.

Bigger things were at stake. With the Axis forming up for battle and searching for the Atlantis ship, Marshal Kenwright playing down events, and Carson Mach busting out a prisoner from Summanus, the Salus Sphere felt like a big shit sandwich. If events weren’t handled properly, all of them would have to take a bite.

“Anything to report?” Morgan asked.

“We haven’t received a credible threat since the exclusion zone was set up around Fides Prime,” the lieutenant said.

Morgan frowned. “Exclusion zone?”

That was a procedure only taken when they expected an attack. It made no sense; Morgan hadn’t received anything on his smart-screen.

“We received the command call,” the lieutenant said and bowed his head. “I can’t believe Orbital Twenty-Two has gone.”

“Excuse me?” Morgan asked. He refreshed his smart-screen and had no notifications. “When did this happen?”

“Fifteen minutes ago. I thought you…”

Morgan felt anger surge inside for two reasons. They had lost more lives and it wasn’t hard to guess the source. Secondly, all operational units and staff officers were supposed to receive the command call notifications. It wasn’t hard to work out that the marshal had had him removed from the distribution list after his last dressing down.

“I’ll be back in a moment,” he said to the artillerymen and gently grabbed Seazza by the elbow. She took the hint and followed him back to the stairwell.

“Did you receive any messages about this?” Morgan said, keeping his voice low. His cheeks burned from the humiliation of being told about the situation by a junior officer. Kenwright and his staff didn’t even have the courtesy to make him aware of the move.

“I’m not part of the command call,” Seazza said in her matter-of-fact way, maintaining her best political poker face. “I presume you were taken off to concentrate your efforts on the search for the Atlantis ship.”

Resisting the urge to punch the internal wall, Morgan bit his lip and took a deep breath. He selected Ops on his screen and raised it.

“Ops, Captain Paterson speaking,” came the reply above the noise of loud conversations.

“This is Admiral Morgan. Please update me on what happened to Orbital Twenty-Two.”

“It was just like before, Admiral,” the captain replied after a brief pause. “A wormhole appeared, a ship came through and blasted the station before we lost all trace of it.”

“The same design as the one that destroyed Orbital Forty?” Morgan asked.

“Exactly. We had a fighter doing a sweep at the time. It recorded a feed. I’ll send it through to you now.”

“I want all the information you have. Wormhole coordinates, last tracked location of the enemy ship and energy readings. Do you understand, Captain?”

“Perfectly, Admiral. Will that be all?”

“Can you give me an update on the Axis frontier movements?”

“I’m sorry. I’m not authorized to do that, Admiral. Outside of the marshal, we’re only to provide officers updates on their allotted tasks. The order came down this morning.”

Morgan clenched his fist and moved the screen closer to his mouth. “I need an overall picture to figure out if the Atlantis ship is working in conjunction with the horans.”

“We don’t have an established connection,” the captain said, his voice becoming increasingly wobbly. “You saw it yourself, Admiral. The horans are searching for the ship too.”

“I’ll be over in twenty minutes.”

“The operations center has gone to lockdown. Sorry, Admiral, you’ll have to speak with the marshal if you want access.”

“Thank you for the information. Out.”

There was little point continuing to put a young officer under pressure for doing his job. Morgan had been in the situation before, caught between a direct order against a high-level protocol. It wasn’t much fun. They all had the same goal. To keep the Salus Sphere safe.

Senior officers in the CWDF all had different ways of doing things. The mentality stretched back to the Century War. A lot of the old sweats believed the strategy that helped them to victory remained true to this day. They didn’t factor in the Atlantis ship punching holes in the frontier’s defensive ring or the growing technical edge the vestans provided the horans.

With two orbital stations down, and hundreds of lives lost, the Salus Sphere had two weak points to plug with capital ships, and many citizens in mourning. The situation was becoming increasingly critical. Kenwright’s reactionary strategy of putting out fires wasn’t going to work.

Morgan sighed and looked at Seazza. “Did you hear all of that?”

“Your best opportunity to make a difference is to capture the Atlantis ship. If war is coming, your team’s success could prove the difference between success and failure.”

“That’s my point,” Morgan said, trying not to show his exasperation at the situation. “I’ve been blocked from joining the fight and have limited resources for a mission that could mean the difference between defeat and victory. Even if we destroy the ship, it will mean we lose no more stations, which will make things much harder for the Axis.”

Seazza glanced in either direction and stepped closer. “You haven’t had any official word from the marshal yet. Once you do, I’ll speak to Vice President Orloza and arrange a meeting.”

“He’d have to be blind not to see what’s happening,” Morgan said, feeling a release of tension at the promise of speaking with the senior member of the senate. It wasn’t the correct chain of command, but the risk was worth it, if it meant preserving their territory and lives. “I’m going to the marshal’s residence immediately. Meet me back at my office. We don’t have any time to lose.”

***

Morgan watched the attack on Orbital Twenty-Two on his screen as the transport pod hummed past the empty airfield toward the marshal’s residence. The orange wormhole appeared again. It formed a wide tunnel. The bulky Atlantis ship drifted through, surrounded by crackling lights. It fired six blue bolts at the station, crippling it, before sucking in the wreckage and surrounding debris.

The feed sent a chill down his spine. That kind of destructive power would be difficult to stop, even for capital ship with a capable captain at the helm, but it needed stopping. At the moment, the Atlantis ship was the biggest threat to security.

Mach still hadn’t sent an update. Morgan carried out a generic search on the Salus network to see if his name popped up. He groaned when the results flashed across his screen. Carson Mach had been added to the Feronia wanted list, for the resource robbery. Morgan knew Mach had his own way of getting things done, but if Kenwright found out, it would torpedo the mission. As things stood, that was their best chance of eradicating the threat.

The pod came to a gentle halt outside the stone gates and its door slid open. The gate guards slapped their hands against their rifles and clicked their heels together. Morgan returned a salute and crunched up the pebble path toward the two front doors.

A junior female fidian officer met him in the entrance hall. “Good morning, Admiral. I don’t have you down for an appointment?”

“I need to see the marshal immediately,” Morgan said, admiring the array of medal ribbons on the right breast of her dark blue shirt.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible. He’s holding a meeting with the defense chiefs.”

Morgan shook his head and looked up at the painted mural on the ceiling, depicting a destroyer battle from the war. Both he and Kenwright captained ships during the struggle. “Doesn’t that include me?”

The officer spun and faced a desk, danced her fingers over a holographic keyboard and gazed at the screen. “You are down for a meeting tomorrow morning. I’ll send you out an invite later today.”

Being omitted from the defense meeting was the final straw for Morgan. He’d be sidelined to the point where he had nothing to lose. He turned and headed straight for the meeting room at the end of the glass-paneled corridor.

The junior officer’s boots thudded against the light green marble floor as she followed. “You can’t go in there, Admiral. I’m under strict instructions that they’re not to be disturbed.”

Morgan stopped and looked her in the eye. “Since when do you tell an admiral what to do? I’ve spent twenty-five damned years in the CWDF and fought for my first five. The marshal can do his own dirty work.”

The officer raised her smart-screen. Morgan narrowed his eyes. She lowered her wrist and turned away. He felt no satisfaction about pulling rank, but if he wanted to see the vice president, he needed verbal confirmation about the changes Kenwright had imposed; otherwise it would just come across as speculative whining.

A cool, calm head would be the best way to play this. Morgan took a second to compose himself, knocked on the door and opened it before receiving a response.

Two young captains sat in padded black leather seats on either side of the polished wooden conference table. Kenwright, sitting at the head, glared at Morgan. “What’s the meaning of barging in like this?”

“I heard the news about Orbital Twenty-Two from artillerymen in Battery Two,” Morgan said, making sure he stuck to the facts and kept emotion out of his words. “I’ve seen the feed and it’s obvious that the Atlantis ship has struck again.”

Kenwright glanced at both captains. “Leave us for a minute, would you?”

Both captains stood and left the room. Morgan made sure the door closed behind them and turned to face the marshal. “How many years have we served together, Marshal?”

“Take a seat, Paul,” Kenwright said in a conciliatory tone and gestured to the chair on his left. “We’re heading for war.”

“I think that’s pretty obvious,” Morgan said, remaining at the opposite end of the table. “What isn’t so obvious to me is why I wasn’t told about being taken off the command call and why I’m no longer a defense chief?”

Kenwright groaned and poured himself a glass of water. “We need young blood to win. Like you and me twenty years ago. Bellies full of fire, fearless, and the stamina for a long campaign.”

“You do realize that the Atlantis ship is currently causing the damage, dragging our ships around and creating gaps?”

“Of course I realize. That’s why I’ve put you on the job.”

“With no CWDF resources and a tight budget,” Morgan said and sensed a chance to push for what he wanted. “Let me captain a capital ship and join the hunt for the Atlantis ship. I’ll forgive the disrespect shown to me.”

“That’s completely out of the question. They’re required to keep back the Axis.” The marshal’s face twisted into a scowl. “And who are you to forgive me? Get out of here, and don’t come back until you’ve got some news on your little project. I don’t want to hear about you meddling in the ops center or pressuring junior officers either. Am I making myself clear?”

Morgan saluted. “Yes, Marshal.”

Returning along the corridor, Morgan passed the two young captains, who both gazed at their boots. Kenwright shouted them back in through the open door.

A grin stretched across Morgan’s face. The old goat had finally lost it. Using two captains in his defense meetings, putting a low priority on the very thing that destroyed the two stations, and sidelining one of his most experienced officers in battle. The marshal had spent years getting lazy after the war, whereas Morgan yearned to be active. Now he had his chance. Now he had reason to go higher, to Orloza.

Mach still needed to get in touch and provide an update, before any news of his mission got out, but more importantly, Orloza would see him, and Morgan didn’t feel a shred of guilt about it. The CWDF would not fall due to incompetence.

Chapter Twenty

After two standard days, Mach and his crew on the Jaguar came out of their L-jump. Mach was in the captain’s chair with Adira by his side monitoring the sensor array. So far, no sign of the Atlantis ship signal.

The navigational viewscreen at the front of the bridge switched on the moment the LD engine whined down. They had entered real space-time once more. Mach engaged the damaged Gamma Drive and brought it up to a comfortable thirty-five percent so as not to overload the remaining crystal array.

“Hey, Squid, how are things down there in the drive module?” Mach asked.

“Stable, sir, though I’m afraid the L-jump has somewhat made the vestan design irreparable.”

“The sensors are picking up chatter,” Adira said. She brought the signals up on the main screen and squinted at the waveforms. “Looks like general communications and flight control,” she added.

“So it does,” Mach replied. “This is a rare piece of good news. It means the rumor of the Black Swan having a station out here had more to it than you realized.”

“And that’s good luck? If half of the rumors about this psychotic Laverna reject are true, I doubt she’ll just let us approach without some kind of tithe. Especially given the rarity of this ship.”

“Well, we don’t have much choice at this moment. How much do you know about this woman?” Mach asked, thinking of a way they could perhaps trade for help to repair the ship. It wouldn’t be such a bad thing to spend a few days here; it would give Babcock a chance to scan the area to see if there was any sign of the Atlantis ship.

“And besides,” he said, “who knows, there might be some interesting intel to be had. When we get inside, I want you to come with me.”

“Oh, that’s gracious of you.”

“I’m sorry about last time, but I wanted you back here.”

“Don’t forget, Mach, that your contract is still effectively open.” She gave him a cold look that made him look away.

“I know,” he said with a sigh. “It’s not as if I’ve just forgotten. Someday, whether you close that contract or not, I want to know who took it out regardless of how much it would hurt me. I can’t live not knowing.”

“You’re assuming we’ll survive the Black Swan,” she said and shut the conversation down with, “I’m going to wake Babcock and the others. You can take us into the station—it’s just point three two of an AU away. I’ve marked it on the chart.”

Mach simply nodded as she passed him and headed down the corridor to the berth section amidships. He input the coordinates into the AI-navigator and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes, thinking of their likely next move.

A few moments later Babcock joined Mach in the bridge.

“Sanchez’ snoring is like nothing I’ve ever heard before,” the old man said. “It rattles through the bulkhead with more noise than the LD.”

“Means he’s resting well. We need him alert.”

“Adira said there’s an orbital here after all.”

“Yeah,” Mach said, bringing a magnified view of it up on the screen.

“Huh,” Babcock said, scratching at his whiskery chin. “Can you enlarge it still further? I want to get a look at the surface detail.”

Mach did as he asked. “What is it?” he asked.

Babcock stood up and approached the viewscreen so he stood just a few meters away from it, the screen swallowing his small form up as though he were an element of the orbital.

“It’s of vestan design,” Babcock said. He raised a bony finger and pointed to an octagonal protrusion from the center of the spinning ring. It reminded Mach of an old-fashioned satellite dish. Around its vast perimeter, hundreds of small cylindrical pods were attached to its edge, giving the station a knurled look from this far out.

“It’s old,” Babcock added. “Looks to be one of their early defense orbitals.”

“So you mean it’s got massive weaponry on it?” Mach said.

“Uh-huh, almost certainly. I think you should send a communication to its owners and be very polite when requesting that we dock.” Babcock turned to face Mach and with a hunched limp, made his way back across the bridge and sat in the copilot’s chair with a groan.

“We’ll need something to trade,” Babcock said, casting an expectant look. “You got anything with you that might be valuable to nonpartisan Axis and Lavernan scum?”

Mach thought for a moment; other than the ship itself, he had nothing he could call valuable per se. But then it came to him… “I’ve got you,” he said, pointing a finger to his old friend.

Babcock sat back in his chair and inclined his head. “Me? You want to trade me? I doubt I’d fetch many eros given my age and condition, and prostitution is out of the question.”

“Hah, no, not you specifically, but what’s in your brain. All those years sitting in your HAB listening in to the Salus Sphere’s every communication… you must have learned a few things that would be useful to people who aren’t exactly the CW’s best buddies.”

“You’re talking about selling secrets?” He fixed Mach with a stony glare.

“Well, is there anything that wouldn’t be too terrible to sell? What about trade agreements or something like that?”

Babcock thought for a few minutes, tapping a finger against his chin. “I think I might have something that would be valuable to this lot. The repercussions wouldn’t be too severe. But let’s keep that as plan B.”

“I’m fine with that.”

The Jaguar continued its journey toward the great spinning orbital. Mach sent out a hail on all communications frequencies via the sensor array. At first, he didn’t think they would respond with words, but just blast him out of space.

Sanchez and the twins entered the bridge and took their places. Sanchez looked up at the viewscreen. “It’s colossal. Way bigger than the CW orbitals.”

“The vestans designed them centuries ago to act as planets,” Danick said, surprising everyone with his sudden confident delivery of useful information. “Their part of space has fewer habitable planets than any other in this sector. Before they joined the Combine, it was the only way for them to defend their home planet.”

“Get you with the history lesson,” Sanchez said, twirling the end of his mustache. “Where’d you learn that?”

Danick blushed, shrugged, then with a croaky, self-conscious voice replied, “I took advanced history at the CW educational foundation. We don’t all just march up and down the parade square… we do have some other talents.”

“Easy, kid,” Sanchez said, “I’m just yanking ya chain. No need to get defensive. It’s very useful information, thank you.”

Mach gave Danick a smile and ordered him to continue to hail the station to spare any further embarrassment. While they waited on a response, Mach had Lassea scan the area for any other signals and gravitational anomalies.

“Mach,” the young JP said, pointing to a highlighted cluster of debris she had brought up on the viewscreen. “Look, damaged ships.”

Mach zoomed in the image. The debris field floated approximately point eight of an AU behind the station and a small belt of asteroids. Their movements caught his attention. “Babcock, does that look like normal movement to you?”

The older man leaned forward in his chair. His lips moved; physical manifestations of the working out going on in that curious brain of his. “I… no,” he said. “You would expect more of a uniform movement. They look to me as though they’ve been disturbed recently. You can tell something has disrupted their normal path. The asteroids on the east and west side of the belt are moving laterally, while that group there toward the middle is moving tangentially to the rest.

“And that debris,” he added, “is horan. You can tell by the yellow and black livery. Squid, patch into the viewscreen and run a search on the serial number fragments from the debris.”

“Running search sequence,” Squid said over the comms. Babcock’s device was still in the engine module carrying out repairs and reports.

“You’ve done well with that one,” Mach said. “It’s a handy device.”

“It’s… more than a device, Mach,” Babcock said.

“I know, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to diminish Squid’s importance to you. It must have been extremely lonely on that old dry rock.”

His face flushed red, Babcock looked away, inspecting the screen again.

“Sir,” Danick said, raising his voice with excitement, “we’ve got a response.”

“Patch them through to the comm channel,” Mach said.

The boy did just that and the voice, a female one, boomed out of the bridge’s audio system. “Unaffiliated ship, hold your position. This is Flight Coordinator Xuxii of the Black Swan orbital; please state your intentions and last port of call. Over.”

“Xuxii, this is Captain Carson Mach, freelancer of the…” He realized then that in his haste to test the ship that he’d not yet given her a name. He ran a few options through his mind, considering just calling it the Jaguar, but that seemed impersonal.

“Go ahead, Captain Mach,” Xuxii prompted.

“Sorry, freelancer of the Intrepid. We… erm, come in peace. Over.”

“What was your last port of call, Intrepid? Over.”

Mach looked to Babcock, who whispered, “Chrimes IV.”

Good option, Mach thought. That was an independent planet outside of the Salus Sphere. “Chrimes IV, Black Swan. Over.”

“And your intentions, Intrepid? Over.”

“Our ship has suffered a number of malfunctions during a long L-jump. You’re the closest station of any sort that we could find. We’re hoping to dock to find an engineer and parts so we can be on our way. We mean to stay no longer than is absolutely necessary. Over.”

Adira stepped onto the bridge and stood by Mach. She stared up at the viewscreen and nodded.

“What is it?” Mach said, muting the comm.

Squid hovered into view from behind Adira, who said, “This little guy identified those horan fragments up there.”

“And?”

Squid jiggled its complement of arms as if excited to have done something useful. “They were a group of Kasmian-class cruisers. Prewar ships that were decommissioned shortly after the Battle of Balsoom and sold off to a private organization.”

“That organization wouldn’t happen to be an offshoot of the Lavernans by any chance?” Mach said.

“The very same,” Squid replied. “And, according to my scans, they’re recently destroyed.”

“Define recently,” Babcock said, cocking an eyebrow and pushing his small spectacles further up on the bridge of his nose.

“Just three standard days ago.”

“That times perfectly with my discovery of the alien signal,” Babcock said. “I think we’re looking at the wreckage of an Atlantis ship appearance.”

“Hell yeah,” Sanchez said. “Feels like we’re on the trail of that bastard. But where’d it go?”

“No idea,” Babcock said. “I’d need more time to study that. Let’s hope we get clearance.”

The group chattered about their possible next move when Lassea, with a quiet, nervous tone said, “Um, Mach, there’s a gravitational anomaly roughly two AUs beyond the wreckage. I think it’s a…” She turned back to her holoscreen and scrutinized the numbers closer.

“Go on,” Mach urged. “What is it?”

Squid spoke up for her, saying, “I believe the girl has located the Atlantis ship’s exit wormhole.”

“Um, yes, that,” Lassea said, smiling, pride coming through with all the eagerness of a JP passing their advanced fighter assessment.

“Good job, everyone,” Mach said. “We’re on the right track.”

Adira whispered into his ear, “By the way, I like the name Intrepid. Let’s hope we actually get to let her live up to her name.”

Mach switched the viewscreen back to the Black Swan orbital and waited for a response from the flight coordinator. When she did come back online, the suddenness of her words made him start.

“Intrepid, dock at bay fifteen. Wait on your ship, unarmed, for a security team to fetch you. Noncompliance will result in your deaths and your ship’s confiscation. Is this clear? Over.”

“Understood, Black Swan. We’re initiating docking procedure. Over.”

“We’re sending coordinates for your AI-nav. Come in slow and steady and don’t try anything stupid; we have you in our sights. Over.”

The comm line cut after the Intrepid’s AI-nav computer approved the coordinates and started to maneuver toward the docking bay.

“Not exactly a warm welcome,” Adira said. “I think I like them already.”

“You would,” Sanchez said.

“What are you suggesting?” Adira said, fixing him with a steely eye.

To Mach, Sanchez said, “Can we trade her for repairs?”

“I’d gut you before you had the chance,” Adira said to Sanchez.

“Easy, boys and girls,” Mach said. “No one is trading anyone. Let’s just play it by ear, shall we?”

The Intrepid approached the spinning orbital, matching its rate of spin so that it seemed as though they were interlocked and no spin existed, the huge station blotting out any other elements from the viewscreen.

The AI-nav brought her in slowly, docking into the allotted bay. Before the craft had a chance to land, a hangar door at the end of the bay opened and a group of fifteen heavily armed, heavily armored troops, wearing a mix of horan and vestan colors marched in, their rocket launchers and laser cannons aimed at the ship.

“There’s a cold welcome,” Sanchez said, “and then there’s this. It doesn’t look too promising.”

Mach had to agree. He okayed the AI-nav’s request to complete landing procedures and prepared to be boarded. He considered having Sanchez waiting somewhere with one of his modified rifles, but they were too outnumbered. No, he had to play this smart… for once.

“Okay, ladies and gents, let’s get this over and done with. No one do anything stupid… or in your case, Adira, smart.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Mach tried the cuffs on his wrists, but they continued to bite deeper. He winced and slouched back against a cold metal wall. Adira was sitting next to him, projecting an air of calm and control.

“I can’t believe they didn’t even give us a chance to explain,” Mach moaned. The armed guards had kept the others locked in the Intrepid while they took Mach and Adira away at the behest of Marlene Laverna, the so-called Black Swan, and owner of the orbital. “Do you know why they decided to take you?”

Adira shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Sure there’s nothing you should tell me?”

“No.”

“Well, that’s super helpful. I’m starting to think I ought to have left you in solitary.”

“You’re making me wish you did too. Do you ever just shut up for more than a minute? The Black Swan will be here eventually; it makes no sense to take us away if she didn’t want to talk about something. Just have some patience. You always were so eager and in a hurry.”

“Not in all things,” he said. “Besides, we don’t know how long that wormhole will stay open for. I’d rather not miss our opportunity; it’s our only lead.”

Adira moved her shoulders to the left and then the right until a crack rang out. She winced and cracked again.

“What the hell are you doing?” Mach asked.

“Insurance policy,” Adira said between gritted teeth. She closed her eyes with pain and lifted her right hand free of the cuffs, then the left. Her wrists bled with the shallow cuts. She wiped it away on the back of her crimson tunic. She kept her arms behind her back.

“Nice trick, want to help me out here?” Mach said.

“How about you let me deal with the pain of dislocating both of my shoulders for a moment. See, always so damned eager.”

“Fair point. So would this be a good time to ask who took the contract out on me?”

“No,” Adira said, and that was that.

Mach leaned forward onto his knees and stood up. The cell was half a meter taller than his two-meter-tall height and less than three meters square. The door was made from extra-thick titanium with some kind of strengthening material that striped through the dull gray surface.

A single overhead glow lamp provided a meager wash of light. The place stank of oil and blood. The floor had a series of four holes that he realized were probably areas to lock in a chair… for ‘questioning.’

On their way to the cell, escorted by four not unfriendly guards, Mach had noticed that the orbital was massively understaffed, with decks and decks of empty rooms and hangars. They had passed one area that looked like a bar given the kind of entertainment and excited voices coming from within the gloomy room. He had thought that if they were to have any luck in finding an engineer, that’d be a good place to start.

In all his experiences, engineers often spent as much time in bars as they did engine modules. At least Squid and Babcock being detained on the ship meant they could perhaps start work on the repairs—the ones that they knew about. They really needed to find a vestan engineer to really understand what had happened to the crystal array to blow two units like that.

“I can literally hear the thoughts in your head,” Adira said. “What are you planning?”

“Nothing, just considering what we need to get the Intrepid up and running.”

“A miracle would be good.”

“Perhaps I could trade you in for one, eh?”

Adira didn’t take the bait. She just sat there, her eyes half-closed as though she were in a state of meditation.

With his hands cuffed behind his back, Mach paced around the cell to keep the blood flowing through his legs. His GraphTech fatigues weren’t as good as his full suit in keeping out the cold.

At least thirty minutes must have gone by when finally someone opened the cell door.

The waft of cold air made Mach shiver. A silhouette of a large man appeared in the doorway. “You’re to stay to the back of the cell and not move,” the deep rumbling voice said. “Ms. Laverne is here to speak with you.”

Mach and Adira shuffled until their backs were against the wall. Adira kept her arms in position as though she were still cuffed. Even Mach wouldn’t have guessed anything was wrong.

The large silhouette disappeared. A small thin woman with long, flowing black locks cascading over her shoulders stepped in. She wore a black leather waistcoat over a long leather skirt that had a varied range of pleats around the hem. She wore a pair of incongruous CW-issue combat boots, their bulky shape at odds with her slim frame.

Around her waist Mach noticed a Stiletto—a discreet, but powerful laser weapon—hanging in an ornamental belt that looked like it was studded with the very stars that surrounded the orbital.

“Your IDs checked out,” the woman said, closing the door behind her so that she stood over them. “But what I can’t work out is why you, Mr. Mach, are transporting a known killer and now a wanted prison escapee.”

“That’s because it was me that broke her out,” Mach said, smiling up at the middle-aged face that featured a pair of green eyes that wouldn’t be out of place on a bird of prey and a petite, upturned nose that told of her selected breeding. Her small chin dimpled slightly when she spoke.

“You have us at a disadvantage,” Adira said politely. “May I enquire as to whom we’re speaking?”

“Sure you can,” the woman said. “Though it shouldn’t take a genius, really. You can call me Ms. Laverna. And this is my orbital. You say you’re only here for repairs and then you’ll be on your way.”

Mach didn’t assume it was a question and kept quiet, preferring to let the Black Swan dictate the direction of the conversation. He thought that would be the fastest way out—if there was one.

Adira was a backup option.

Ms. Laverne continued, “So tell me, why is it that your ship scanned a considerable area beyond the station before hailing us? And why were you scanning far outside of regular communication frequencies? It’s clear you were looking for something. What is it? What’s your true destination? Who sent you?”

“No one sent us,” Mach said. “As I told your flight coordinator, we’re unaffiliated freelancers and just trying to make a living. We were trailing a reported sighting of the Atlantis ship, knowing it’s all a load of crap but hoping we’d find something worth salvaging—we had come from the Retsina system after something destroyed Orbital Forty, leaving behind lots of valuable scrap. We were planning on selling it to the shipbuilders in Feronia.”

Ms. Laverna scoffed. “Those two-penny tight-asses wouldn’t give you anything for scrap metal. They’ve got it all locked up from the Axis Combine’s upgrade program.”

She seemed bitter about it, but given the rumor she was booted out of the family, it didn’t come as a huge surprise. “Look, Ms. Laverna, I don’t know what else you want from us, we’re just trying to get our ship fixed and then we’ll be on our way. I’m sure we can work out some kind of deal.”

The woman tapped the toe of her boot on the floor as she thought, all the while regarding Adira with a canny eye. “This one has a reputation,” she said, pointing to Adira. “That could come in handy for a small problem I have. You see, there are some deluded fools on this orbital who think they could do a better job, regardless of the fact that under my stewardship we repelled an attack of this so-called Atlantis ship.”

The mention of it made Mach’s heart beat a little faster. He tried to remember what Adira said and controlled himself so he didn’t look to eager. He feigned surprise and said, “It was here too?”

“A ship jumped here, yes. Was it that old myth? I doubt it very much.”

“So what did destroy your fleet of horan cruisers?” Adira said.

“That’s a good question. I have no answer—yet. I’m looking into it, but first I need to deal with you two and that ship of yours. It’s an interesting design. I’ve not seen one like it before. Vestan, isn’t it?”

Mach could tell she was fishing. He didn’t want to go into too much detail of what it was, or how he procured it; he couldn’t tell whether she still might have loyal connections within the orcus.

“Yes,” Mach said. “A new design of assault ship. An old contact of mine managed to procure it during the Axis’ recent upgrading of ships.”

Ms. Laverna eyed him up with a suspicious look, but then her face relaxed. “War’s imminent. I suppose you know that.”

“We do,” Adira said. “Which is why we’re trying to make as much eros as we can now so we can be far away when the shit really hits the fan. Look, Ms. Laverna, can we just cut to the chase here. We don’t care what you’re doing here; we don’t care about Atlantis ship sightings or any of that bullshit, we just want to get our ship fixed and scoot out to some safe little rim world until the next war is over.”

“What she means,” Mach said, interrupting before Adira built herself into a frenzy that would make it much harder for them to talk their way out, “is can we do a deal with you? All we want is access to a vestan engineer, or someone familiar with their tech, and some parts. I’m sure you’d have them here given the number of ships that must come here to trade.”

The Black Swan smiled and paced the room, her arms crossed over her chest. “Trade, indeed. It’s obvious to me that you two are deceiving scum, but that’s okay, we’re all two-faced here; it’s the way of the universe, is it not? So let’s get down to it, shall we?”

She fixed her attention on Adira.

“I know who you are and what you are. You will take someone out for me. In return I’ll give you the name of someone who might be able to help you. In the meantime, your ship stays where it is under my guard…. So basically, I’m not giving you a choice here. You take the deal or I’ll just have you killed along with the rest of your two-bit crew.”

Adira stood up, letting the loose cuffs clink to the ground. She brought her hands casually to her sides. “Who’s the target?” she asked, gaining a genuinely entertained smile from Ms. Laverna, who just let out a satisfied laugh.

“My girl, you’ll do fine here. Come with me, I’ll give you the briefing.” She opened the door and gestured to her guard. “Adekafka, release Mr. Mach, we’ve come to an agreement.”

The giant human—clearly a product of advanced genetic modification and muscle-growth enhancers—stepped inside the cell, making it seem suddenly much smaller than it did a moment ago. The brute, wearing a set of ceramic-plated armor colored a dull green, leaned over Mach’s shoulders and with a wave of his hand unlocked the cuffs.

The giant smelled of tobacco and linseed oil.

Mach sighed with the relief of his release and rubbed at his wrists that were bright red. “God, that feels good,” he said. “While we’re on good terms, any chance I can use your bathroom? I seriously need to have a piss.”

“Ade, would you show Mr. Mach to the facilities before the poor man spoils his fancy fatigues. Adira, come with me, we’ll get started on your target.”

***

Mach stared at the image of the Black Swan’s target on his smart-screen and committed it to memory. The person she wanted to have killed was a young woman, no older than nineteen by the looks of her.

With Adira by his side, they stalked down the deserted corridor of the orbital. Broken glass littered the metal floor. Rust accumulated in the corners, providing homes for vestan rust-spiders.

“What did the Swan say this poor woman did for her to be killed?”

“She’s the girlfriend of her son,” Adira replied, her voice cool and distant.

“And that doesn’t bother you?”

Adira shook her head and increased her pace.

While Mach mulled over their plans, he observed the emptiness of the orbital. The place was huge, easily capable of housing twenty million souls comfortably, but with just a few thousand on it, there were hundreds of levels that remained empty.

“Here,” Adira said, pointing to a transport tube.

The once-transparent tube was now a dull yellow color as though the very orbital was sick. With the Black Swan running things, it probably was, Mach thought. They stepped inside and entered the floor where the Swan had said they could find the girl. “Stessoa,” Mach said, enjoying how her name sounded on his lips.

The transport tube’s maglev mechanism activated and they shot up through the orbital. Adira read her mission brief again on her smart-screen before closing her eyes during the ride.

“What are you thinking?” Mach said, sensing anxiety in her outwardly calm body language. Though to others she looked as though she were relaxed, Mach could tell from the minute tightness in her shoulders.

“That the Black Swan is full of shit, and we ought to get back to the Intrepid as soon as we can. I wouldn’t put it past her to be setting us up.”

“Well, one can never trust a Lavernan. But we do need the location of that vestan engineer if we’re to leave this damned place.”|

“And you think if we kill this girl, the Swan will do as she suggested?”

“Probably not,” Mach replied with a sigh of resignation in his voice. “But without comm access to the others and no way to find an engineer, what else can we do?”

“Who said we have no way of finding the vestan?”

“You have an idea, do you?”

“I might do. Let me think on it.”

The tube transporter stopped at level ninety-three. Mach and Adira exited and stepped out onto a brightly lit gantry that split the floor in two. It stretched out across the level in a shallow arc, connecting two transport towers. Below them, a few hundred mixed-species people went about their business, some looking shadier than others.

Mach stopped for a moment and gripped the glass railing. He took a deep breath and turned to Adira, who remained upright, her face neutral, which always told Mach she was working something out.

“Stessoa’s boutique is down there,” Adira finally said, inclining her head to the far right side of the level. A narrow doorway, illuminated by blue laser light and surrounded by tall green fanlike plants, stood out from the dozen or so other open-fronted kiosks.

Some had signs offering various stim packages; others sold food and alcoholic beverages, while still others provided clothes and various weapons. Stessoa’s little place at the end of the row sold soaps and perfumes. Given that the orbital reeked of grease and pungent sweat, he doubted the girl was doing much of a trade.

Adira made to move across the walkway toward a spiral staircase that led down the twenty meters to the level’s floor below. Mach grabbed her arm and pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her waist so she couldn’t pull away.

Her body stiffened against his, but she didn’t struggle.

Mach leaned in, his lips brushing against her neck. He whispered, “Act natural; we’ve got an interested party coming this way.”

Adira ran her hand up his neck, her fingers gripping his thick hair. Mach looked up out of the corner of his eye to snatch a look at the two bulky-looking horans coming their way.

The two aliens were jabbering and clucking away in their native language, only occasionally glancing at Adira and Mach. They eventually moved by and entered the tube transport Mach and Adira had used earlier. Satisfied they were alone, Mach released Adira and stepped back, but Adira held on, moving with him.

She stared at him with those frustratingly passive eyes of hers. Like two small suns they burned into him, neither betraying what might be happening in their core, what was driving Adira’s thoughts.

He wanted to ask her. Wanted to know so many things, but just when the words began to form on his lips, she released her hold on him and stepped back. Mach’s mouth remained open for a moment. He shut it, swallowed, and looked away, unable to stand Adira’s opaque scrutiny.

It maddened him how they could be close in one instant, yet so very far apart, as if they were two entirely opposable species with little genetic coding in common. And yet, just for a few, occasional moments, she made him feel. Feel that there was something there between them… whatever it was. Fleeting, he thought. He knew that much. Whatever they had was always so fleeting.

“What?” he finally said, looking back at her.

“The vestan engineer,” Adira said. “I believe we can find her without killing Stessoa for the Swan.”

“Oh? And how do you propose that?”

“While you were freshening up in the facilities, I took the liberty of hacking the Swan’s smart-screen—they’re not even using two-fifty-six-bit encryption here. It’s like we’re living in the twentieth century again.”

Mach snorted a nervous laugh. “That was quite the risk, given how we’re at her mercy. But regardless, what did you find out?”

“Come look.” Adira grabbed his shoulder and led him across the gantry to stand by one of the huge vertical windows that looked out on the vacuum of space.

“Yeah, the stars are awe inspiring, and the debris indicates there was a battle recently, but what am I supposed to be looking at?”

Adira pointed to a small pod hovering in a geosynchronous orbit to the station. “That’s where the engineer is, and where we’re going. We’re going for a little space walk, Mach. Romantic, eh?”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Mach and Adira slipped through a shaded access corridor behind Stessoa’s boutique. Mach rested against the steel door and watched Adira expertly clamber to the ceiling, remove a panel and disappear into the gloom above.

A few seconds later, Adira’s face dropped out of the darkness. She wore a satisfied expression on her face and gave him a thumbs-up, indicating she’d cut the video feed. She fell from the ceiling, landing on her feet with barely a whisper. Her voice hushed, she said, “We’ll have about thirty seconds before they know the feed’s been tampered with.”

Rolling the stim-injector around in his hand, Carson Mach nodded and ran the plan through his mind once more: get in, jab the girl, remove her unconscious body and take a body scan with his smart-screen for insurance.

“You sure that stuff will stop her heart for long enough?” Adira said, eyeing the chromed cylinder in his hand.

“One BPM guaranteed. She’ll be fine; the readings will suggest she’s dead. Ready to bust the door?”

Adira grunted an affirmative and bent over the nondescript door’s control panel, a small gray blister the size of a human thumb. Adira easily removed the casing with the tip of her knife and got to work on the wiring while Mach stood guard.

The orbital must be reaching its evening, he thought, given the lack of traffic in and around the boulevard. That suited them just fine.

“We’re in,” Adira said. A wire sparked and the sound of a servo whirring inside the door’s mechanism told Mach she’d done a fine job, but then given the age of the orbital, it wasn’t especially difficult; most of the security devices and protocols had long since been cracked, the data shared across the various Sphere networks so any two-bit crook would know how to bypass most of the things here.

“Ready?” Mach said.

“Let’s do it,” Adira replied, opening the door to expose a narrow and short hallway leading into the boutique. The scent of soaps and other fragrant gifts wafted out, making Mach choke on the cloying air.

Wasting no time, he and Adira entered, closing the door quietly behind them. They passed a number of racks filled with stock until they came to an office that resembled a prison cell due to its stark whiteness and utilitarian furniture—a plastic table and a tall, gray locker with its door hanging open.

The soft beats of some ambient electronic music were coming from the shop front. Mach returned his attention and caught up with Adira. She stood by an entrance that led into the shop. A glass-beaded curtain stood in their way.

Peering between the strands, Mach watched Stessoa’s shadow move across the shop, replacing stock on the shelves. The front doors had since closed, giving the place a deserted feel.

When he made sure her back was turned, Mach entered the shop. The glass beads clicked and clacked together. Stessoa spun round; her eyes grew wide. The human woman brought her hand up to her mouth then to her chest. She cocked her head like an inquisitive dog.

A red silk wrap clung to her body and shimmered beneath the light of the boutique. Her eyes picked up the sparkle, making her shock and panic all the more visceral. For a brief heartbeat Mach stopped, wondering if all this would be a mistake; not that they had an option.

Shaking himself out of it, Mach stepped forward, closing the distance between them. Adira sprinted out from behind Mach and grabbed the woman’s arm, pulling it behind her back and forcing her to the carpeted floor. Mach winced when her face struck the surface and she let out a sharp scream.

“I’m sorry,” Mach said, leaning a knee onto her back.

One quick jab to the back of the neck was all it took. Her body went limp when the stim entered her bloodstream. Mach read her pulse with two fingers against her neck. “It’s slowing already,” he said.

“Take the readings, then.”

The scan took just over thirty seconds, but it would be enough biometric data to ‘prove’ to the Black Swan they had killed her if the orbital owner had them intercepted before they headed off to retrieve Tulula, the vestan engineer.

With Adira’s help, Mach dragged Stessoa back through the narrow corridor and placed her into the locker. “We should get going,” Adira said as she closed the locker door behind her. “Quicker we get the vestan, the quicker we can get out.”

Back in the hallway to the rear of the shop, Mach and Adira stepped inside a pair of EVA suits that they had stolen off some guards on their way to the boutique. These two were from a couple of human engineers who had come in via an airlock after presumably carrying out some maintenance.

Mach assumed the station had suffered some damage from the Atlantis ship if the horan destroyer debris was anything to go by. The EVA suits were of the latest CW design, no doubt smuggled out by people like Sanchez. The black form-fitting material fit snugly around Mach’s joints and muscles, the nanotechnology embedded into the fabric would keep the effects of space at bay, while the small helmet would provide comms and breathing.

The thin backpack tanks, attached to a pair of micro-reactor motors, would provide enough air for at least an hour of space-walking; that would be plenty of time to reach Tulula’s pod.

Mach and Adira set their comms to a rarely used frequency.

“Can you hear me?” Adira said.

Mach confirmed he could and added, “We go in, grab the vestan and get back to the hangar ASAP. Understand?”

“What are we going to do about the Swan’s people guarding the Intrepid?” Adira asked.

“I haven’t thought that far ahead; I’m sure something will present itself. In the meantime, let’s just go grab that vestan before the Swan’s goons realize what’s happened.”

“Are you sending the biometrics first?”

“Already done. Come on, let’s go.”

***

It took Mach and Adira longer to get to the orbiting pod than he had first realized. It didn’t help that one of Swan’s goons had tried to accost them at the airlock. If it weren’t for Mach’s quick thinking, Adira would have killed the man.

Mach had managed to convince him that they were the maintenance crew going back to finalize some repairs. With that little obstacle successfully hurdled, Mach and Adira entered the airlock and shut the bulkhead behind them.

Mach hit the red depressurizing button, and with a loud, protracted hiss, the airlock equalized its pressure with the vacuum of space. The anti-g switched off. Mach and Adira floated toward the external hatch.

“Give me a hand,” Mach said, gripping one side of the metal ring.

Adira grabbed the other and nodded.

It took an initial heave, but soon the ring was spinning and the hatch door opened, allowing them to float out into the great expanse. The suit around Mach’s body reacted instantly, expanding a few millimeters away from his skin to create a warm pocket of air. Controls for the thrusters were embedded into a small panel on his hip.

“I see the pod,” Adira said as her lithe body floated away from the orbital, the station’s lights illuminating her in a stop-frame motion, its great bulk spinning behind them.

Mach maneuvered his thrusters so he caught up with Adira. Together they headed for the pod that stayed within approximately two hundred meters of the orbital. It was only as they neared that Mach noticed the pod was tethered with a thin nanosteel cable.

“Here,” he said, grabbing hold of it. “Use this to guide you to the pod.”

“I’m quite capable,” Adira snorted back at him as she fired her thrusters. She flew away, head up and arms by her side as she sped toward the pod.

“Show off,” Mach said. He continued to use the cable as a guide, preferring to preserve the suit’s reactor fuel as much as possible. It took a few minutes, but eventually Mach joined Adira by the pod’s airlock. The pod was much larger up close than he had initially realized. It was at least ten meters in diameter. The dulled silver surface of its titanium shell glinted under the larger orbital’s light.

“Are you expecting to just knock?” Mach said.

“I never knock,” Adira said, reaching into a tool pouch around her thigh. She pulled out a long thin rod with a hexagonal-shaped socket at the end. “I’ve studied more airlock mechanisms than you’ve had hookers,” she said, pressing her body flat against the pod as she searched her hands across its surface.

Mach pulled himself around the pod’s outer shell until he found a small porthole. He peered inside and saw no movement. There was a light on, though, casting angular shadows among the console desk and flight chair.

“It’s a ship,” Mach said to Adira. “Not just a pod after all.”

“Huh, clever disguise,” she said. “Ah, found it. Give me a hand here.”

Adira had fitted the tool into a narrow slit.

“Just keep turning,” Adira said. “It’s the manual airlock control.”

“This isn’t exactly stealthy,” Mach said. “Whoever is in there is going to know what’s going on.”

A burst of static exploded over their comm channel, making Mach wince with the unexpected blare of white noise. Adira yelled out but continued to turn the airlock release bolt. Mach stared back to the orbital, convinced the Black Swan or one of her many goons suspected what they were doing, but a small, almost digital voice spoke over the comm channel.

“Who’s out there? I’m armed and not afraid to blast you into space.”

“Is that you, Tulula?” Adira asked as both she and Mach continued to wind the airlock bolt. The hatch was starting to open, a few millimeters at a time.

“Who’s asking? I’ve paid the Swan this week; I was promised I’d be left alone.”

“We mean you no harm,” Mach said. “Look, I’ll come to the porthole; you can see me. We’re nothing to do with the Black Swan. We’ve come to help you.”

“I don’t need helping,” the small voice said. Mach detected a considerable tremble of fear.

“Tulula, you’re a vestan engineer, aren’t you? Well, we’ve come to hire you.”

“No, can’t be hired. I stay here.”

“Listen to me, we haven’t come to cause any trouble, but if you stay here, the Black Swan is going to do something you really don’t want to happen.” Mach left the unwinding to Adira and floated around to the porthole. When he peered through, he saw the small vestan hunched over her console desk. He waved and smiled. “See, I’m just here to help you. The truth is we were hired to kill you, but we couldn’t do it. We just want to get away, get as far from this place as we can. We have transport; we can help you.”

He didn’t like lying to the vestan, but he didn’t see any other option with their time running out.

“You’re the people from the Jaguar Mk1, aren’t you?” the vestan said, standing up from her console and coming closer to the porthole. She was shorter than most vestans, probably no more than a meter and a half tall. She had bright yellow hair plaited into four ponytails. Two flopped down on either side of her head, reaching down to a small, pointed chin. Large yellow eyes looked out at him with a mix of wonder and fear.

Like most vestans she had altered her physical makeup to the most practical for her designated lifestyle. She had double-jointed elbows and fingers, allowing her to manipulate complicated tools with ease. Her short size meant she could probably fit into almost any ship’s maintenance hatches.

Her near-black skin was smooth, almost glossy where it showed around her neck and upper arms. A leather jerkin, stained dark with grease and oil, featured a multitude of pockets and loops, all of which seemed to carry one type of tool or another.

“The Jaguar, yes,” Mach said, smiling, trying to appear friendly and nonthreatening. “How did you know?”

She turned and pointed to a bank of computers lining the left side of the pod. It reminded Mach of Babcock’s place. She must have been listening in on flight control, but how did she know his ship was a Jaguar?

“How did you get that ship? They’re not even in general use yet,” the vestan asked.

“You know about that, how?” Mach asked. He looked back briefly to Adira; she was nearly done with the airlock, the hatch hanging open at a forty-five-degree angle.

“I was one of the principal designers, before I was shipped out here. How does she fly?”

“She doesn’t, not really, that’s why I need your help. I need an engineer to fix the fusion crystal array; something happened during an L-jump and we’ve lost almost all flight capacity apart from thirty percent on the Gamma Drive.”

Mach kept her talking while out of the side of his eye he spotted Adira climbing into the airlock. “Listen, Tulula, we really mean no harm, I promise. I’m not sure what else I can say for you to believe me.”

“There’s one thing,” she said, bringing her face closer to the porthole.

“Name it,” Mach replied, finding himself mesmerized by her huge eyes.

“Take me with you.”

“What?” Adira said.

Tulula spun round then back to Mach. “You want me to fix the array, right? Then you take me with you. The Black Swan… she uses me for vestan secrets, and… other things. I can’t take it anymore. And with what happened yesterday to the destroyers, I don’t think there’d be a better time.”

“Let us in and we’ll talk about this,” Mach said. “I’m sure we can come to an arrangement.”

The vestan hesitated for a moment, her eyes lingering on Mach. Then, as if a switch in her mind had gone off, she nodded. “Okay, come in.”

Mach smiled and pushed himself over to the open airlock. He gave Adira the thumbs-up as the hatch closed behind him and it started to pressurize. When it had equalized with the pod’s interior, the bulkhead opened.

Tulula stood there, holding a stun webber.

“Walk slowly,” Tulula said. “Don’t try anything stupid. I’m not afraid to shoot.”

Adira inclined her head to show her agreement and stepped into the pod. “It’s not loaded,” she said almost as an afterthought as she spun round, taking in the pod’s interior.

Tulula glared at her, lowering the weapon. “How did you know?”

“It’s her business to know these things, don’t worry,” Mach said. He placed a hand on the vestan’s shoulder to show her he meant no harm. “I’m Mach,” he said, “and this is my able colleague, Adira.”

“You already know my name,” Tulula said with a curt nod to both of them. “Now, we ought to get moving if you’re to get your ship away from the orbital.”

“Before we do that,” Adira said, taking off her helmet and shaking her hair out. “What do you know of the attack on the destroyers? Did you see what happened?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try us,” Mach said. “Perhaps it was the Atlantis ship per chance?”

The young vestan narrowed her eyes in that scrutinizing way of her species. “You knew?”

“Of course we do. Why else do you think we have a Jaguar?” Adira said, crossing one leg over another as she sat back.

“You’re…. going after it?” Tulula said.

“We are if you can help us.”

The vestan engineer whooped with a surprising joy and dashed across to the console, sitting down in the swivel chair. “You’ll take me with you? You promise me?” she said over her shoulder.

“Sure,” Mach replied. “Fix our ship and you can stay onboard as long as you want. But we’re going to need to get to the hangar and beyond the Swan’s armed guard first.”

Tulula spun the chair to face Mach. “I have a plan. How adverse to risk are you?”

Adira laughed. She jabbed a thumb towards Mach. “This fool doesn’t know the meaning of risk.”

“What do you have in mind?” Mach asked.

“Take a seat next to me and we’ll get started,” Tulula said with a glee in her face that Mach couldn’t quite tell was from living like a hermit or genuine insanity. Either way, he sat in the copilot chair and held on as the vestan decoupled the pod from the tether and blasted up and away from the great spinning orbital. The hangar was on the other side, toward the end of a central hub that stretched out for at least a couple klicks from the main orbital structure.

When Mach got his breath back from the surprise thrust, he asked, “If this thing could move like this all the time, why hadn’t you left before?”

“Orbital defenses and the old destroyers…” she said, pointing to the field of slowly orbiting debris. “I’ve already disabled their main laser battery array after it took damage from the Atlantis ship, or whatever it was, but they could come online any time.”

“We better be quick, then,” Adira said from the couch, her fists gripping an overhead handle to prevent falling around the pod’s interior.

“Here,” Tulula said. “The hangar bay door.”

“Can you hack into the Intrepid’s comm system?” Mach asked.

Tulula brought the pod to a quarter klick away from the hangar and matched its rotation so that it appeared they were stationary. She then brought up a holoscreen over the console and started to mess with the radio system.

“I’m not seeing any system to get into,” she said, “which is expected, but there is a live node in there. Something I’ve not seen before.”

“Must be Squid,” Adira said. “Can you get a message to it?”

Tulula manipulated the controls some more before saying she could.

“Tell the squad to make sure everyone’s inside the Intrepid,” Mach said, “if you’re planning on doing what I think you’re doing.”

The vestan smiled and nodded.

“The message is sent. They’re all inside. Now we go in.”

“Go in?” Adira asked. “What do you mean exactly?”

“Once we’re inside, make sure your helmets are on.”

“You’re not…” Adira gripped the overhead handle with both hands. “Oh shit, you are.”

Mach leaned forward as Tulula laughed and launched the pod toward the hangar bay door, her hands speeding across the ship’s controls. As they came closer, Mach could see the hangar doors opening. He could only imagine the surprise of the guards inside.

When the door had slid up into the station about halfway, the pod was just a few meters outside. Orange bursts of gunfire lit up the dark space. The pod boomed and rattled as half a dozen rounds struck against its shell. It was clear to Mach it wouldn’t stand too much of that.

Tulula raised the pod higher, following the rising hangar bay door.

Mach could see the half-dozen armed men and women struggling to open the door behind them.

“They won’t get out,” Tulula said, her voice flat. “I’ve overridden the controls. They’ll die of hypoxia in a few minutes. Now we wait.”

For those two solid minutes, Mach had to look away, unable to watch those guards die a horrible death, even if they did pass out after just fifteen seconds due to the pressure difference.

“Don’t pity them,” Tulula said. “They’re murderers and rapists. They deserve this fate.” She lowered the pod and navigated it inside the hangar, bringing it next to the Jaguar. It clattered to the landing deck, rocking back and forth until a landing magnet engaged. “We’ve got just a few minutes,” the vestan said, nodding her head to the airlock door already opening.

Mach made sure his suit was appropriately set up and made his way over to the airlock. Adira was also suited up and joined him. The vestan took a look around her pod without any show of emotion and stepped out of the airlock with no suit, her body far more hardy to the perils of the vacuum of space than humans.

“Patching us into the device onboard the Intrepid,” Tulula said.

“It’s called Squid,” Mach said.

A garbled response came over the comm channel and eventually resolved into Babcock’s surprised voice asking a hundred questions all at once.

“Just open the airlock for us, we’ll explain everything.”

When Mach and the others stepped out of Tulula’s pod, alarm klaxons blared.

“That’s our cue to get out of here,” the vestan said, dashing across the hangar bay floor, leaping over the still bodies of the guards until she reached the airlock on the side of the Jaguar.

Mach and Adira followed her into the craft.

Sanchez waited for them on the other side, helping them through to the main cabin area. “What the hell’s going on?” he said. “And who the hell is that?”

“Sanchez, this is Tulula. She’s going to help us. Now let’s not hang about here,” Mach said. Then, raising his voice so all could hear him, “Everyone, get to your stations. We’re leaving right this minute.”

Adira raced through to the bridge, where she settled into her position on the lasers, getting the systems online. Danick and Lassea were already firing up the Gamma Drive.

Mach showed Tulula to the engine module and introduced her to Babcock and Squid, the latter chirping happily at her.

“Can you fix it?” Babcock asked the vestan, the two engineers leaning over the fusion crystal array. The first three of which were dimmed, unusable in their current configuration.

“I think so,” Tulula said, leaning closer to inspect the installation. “You have the configuration all wrong. It’s a wonder the LD worked at all.”

“How long will it take?” Mach asked. All around him the klaxons continued to blare. It surely wouldn’t be too long before the Black Swan figured out what had happened, especially as Stessoa was going to come to any minute now.

“I don’t know,” the vestan said, “ten minutes, maybe fifteen.”

“You’ve got five.”

“Where are we going from here?” Babcock asked.

Mach grinned. “I think you already know the answer to that, old friend. We’re following your signal scan, after all.”

The two engineers, and even Squid, stared at him.

“The wormhole?” Babcock said with a hushed, almost reverent tone.

“Damn straight. We’re gonna go catch us a fish.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Today was the day of the arranged meeting. Morgan sat up in bed and watched the sun rise over the distant mountains through his penthouse apartment window. The view was fit for an admiral, albeit a puppet one.

Three days had passed since speaking with Marshal Kenwright. Seazza managed to pin Vice President Orloza down to an early morning appointment, before his endless senate duties discussing the impending war. That’s what the senate did. Talk. President Steros had brought in a decade of endless discussion.

But, Orloza had the political weight to provide a route back to an active role. Morgan had to make him accept that their current strategy of sitting on their backsides and waiting for something to happen wasn’t working. The best form of defense for the CWDF was attack: confront the Axis in numbers at the NCZ and include more resources directed toward the Atlantis ship mission.

Morgan stepped out of bed and walked to the window. A pair of drones zipped across the brightening sky, leaving faint vapor trails. Fides Prime had the ground defenses to deal with a wormhole appearance, and the senate could sleep soundly, but hundreds of other planets in the Sphere were vulnerable.

Talk around the base continued about Axis ships clustering on the frontier, opposite the former locations of the two destroyed stations. Morgan felt like a shell not being part of it. He intended to grab today’s opportunity with both hands. If it didn’t work, he feared for the Commonwealth’s future.

After getting in touch with the feronian authorities, Morgan found out that Mach had taken a powerful experimental ship. It seemed things were progressing on the mission, but he still hadn’t heard a thing. That in itself wasn’t a huge issue. Whenever Morgan used Mach before, he’d often go silent until he was finished. When Mach liberated ten members of a captured mining vessel from inside horan territory a couple of years ago, it had taken him two months to confirm his success.

Morgan slipped off his underpants and stood in the transparent hygiene cubicle. “Activate.”

Jets of warm scented water sprayed from twenty different points on the wall, instantly soaking him. Morgan swept back his thinning brown hair and blew water from his face.

The jets of water transformed into hot air and he slowly spun while the water dried off his skin. He grabbed a fresh towel from a shelf outside and dabbed at a couple of damp patches.

“Teeth.”

Two mechanical arms extended from a compartment over a chrome sink. Morgan put his mouth around the dentalbot at the end of the left arm. A minty taste blasted around his mouth as the micro-machine whirred around each tooth. He grabbed the glass of water from the cup holder in the right arm, swished it around and spat it out.

Returning to the bedroom, Morgan decided that he’d put on his best ceremonial suit for the occasion. It fit the role the marshal had given him, but he also wanted to create the best possible impression on Orloza with the vast array of medals across his chest.

Morgan knew he wasn’t an old has-been with an axe to grind. He had something to offer.

After dressing in the suit, he checked himself in the full-length mirror, picked a spot of dust off his dark gray lapel, and straightened the golden victory lanyard around his left shoulder. If politicians were shallow enough to be swayed by appearance, Morgan wouldn’t have any problems today. He doubted things would be that simple.

***

Morgan’s transport pod stopped outside the senate. He climbed out and straightened his jacket. Seazza waved over from the tall set of eight glass entrance doors. As instructed, she also wore her dark blue uniform instead of a dress. He returned a nod and glanced up at the large square granite building. The early morning sun reflected off hundreds of black-tinted windows that ran around the four floors. Mostly offices of admin staff who served the Salus government.

This was a place he had generally avoided throughout his career. The senate’s funding and resource decisions were based on the space marshal’s advice. Morgan always felt he had no business mixing with politicians. His place was at the coal face, executing high-level orders, defending the Sphere.

Trudging up twenty wide stone steps, Morgan felt a sense of foreboding. This was his last chance to make a tangible difference in the defense of the Sphere. Politicians usually backed the winning horse, and he had a clear case to make. Mach didn’t help matters by not communicating, but Morgan decided to use a little artistic license for that part.

“Good morning, Admiral,” Seazza said and smiled, exposing her light green teeth. “I’m confident we’ll get a decision today.”

“I hope you’re right, for all our sakes.”

“I know how to handle Orloza. Follow me.”

Seazza swiped her screen against a black plate on the wall and two of the glass doors smoothly swung open. She headed inside, through a three-meter-wide black frame that scanned for weapons, and entered the domed entrance hall. Morgan followed and peered around at the thirty-five stone busts of the previous presidents that circled the area. In the officers’ mess they had pictures of some of the dead men and women who served with distinction during the war. He thought the mess display more poignant but admitted to himself that he did have a level of bias.

A young fidian soldier, dressed in the beige service uniform designed for wear in civilian facilities, pressed a button to call the elevator as they approached the opposite side of the room.

The elevator dropped through the transparent shaft and came to a soft bouncing stop.

“Which floor?” the soldier said.

“I can take it from here,” Seazza replied. “Thank you.”

They climbed to the fourth floor, catching brief glimpses of corridors as they passed, and stopped at a bright open-plan office. Hundreds of humans, fidesians and fidians, dressed in white business shirts, worked in open-plan offices behind the glass walls, peering at screens and moving their fingers over the holokeyboards.

“Orloza’s at the end,” Seazza said. “He likes to keep close to the workers.”

“Looks like he runs a tight ship,” Morgan said, but knew a man of Orloza’s position wouldn’t have much day-to-day responsibility dealing with individuals. It wasn’t like captaining a real ship, where it was a duty to know the crew and every high-level detail. Thinking about it made Morgan wonder why he ever accepted the rank of admiral in the first place. He never guessed it would turn out like this.

Seazza walked through the middle of the office area and opened an opaque door at the far end. Orloza’s secretary, a young woman with blond hair, sat behind a desk to the side of a wooden varnished door.

“Seazza!” the secretary said. “He’s ready to see you. Is this Admiral Morgan?”

“That’s me,” Morgan said. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Likewise.” The secretary thumbed a pad by her side. “Seazza and Admiral Morgan are here. Shall I send them straight in?”

“Send them through,” a high-pitched voice replied through the speaker.

Morgan had seen Orloza before at official functions and on CW broadcasts about upcoming building projects. They hadn’t spoken. Never really needed to. Morgan wasn’t one for small talk with politicians.

The door opened with an electric whine as Seazza approached it. Morgan followed and stood to her side.

Orloza, an old fidesian, dressed in a black trouser suit with his wispy white hair slicked back, rose from behind his desk and extended a bony hand toward two brown leather bucket seats. “Seazza and Admiral Morgan. Please, sit down.”

“Thank you for agreeing to see me,” Morgan said.

“You can thank Seazza,” Orloza said. “She tells me you have some important ideas to discuss? If it’s for the good of the CW, I’m all ears.”

The vice president continued to smile and poured himself a glass of water. Fidesians were poor actors and Morgan instantly recognized the falseness of Orloza’s facial expression. It was probably his default mode when meeting new people.

“I’d like to be frank with you,” Morgan said. “We are facing multiple dangers and I don’t think we’re prioritizing our forces correctly or proactively addressing the threats.”

“Do you mean the marshal isn’t prioritizing?” Orloza said. “He told me that you’ve been assigned to deal with the Atlantis ship.”

“That’s true, but I’m looking at the full picture. The main reason the Axis have an opportunity is because of the Atlantis ship. We’re two orbitals down and I believe they’re smelling blood.”

“And how is your assignment going? Are you any closer to eliminating the ship?”

“My team is making progress, but I don’t believe enough resources are assigned. I also think we need to send a message to the Axis. The longer we wait, the more chance they’ll see it as a sign of weakness. We’re sleepwalking toward war…”

Orloza gazed over Morgan’s head. He glanced over his shoulder and realized the vice president was watching the Sphere newscast on the high-definition screen attached to the wall.

“Vice President,” Seazza said. “You need to listen to a man of Morgan’s experience. I’ve seen the evidence myself. This isn’t going to end well if we continue along our current path.”

“What are you suggesting?” Orloza said and focused back on Morgan. “Are we to go against the space marshal’s advice?”

Morgan leaned forward, hiding his irritation at how Orloza got so easily distracted before he’d barely stated his case. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. It doesn’t have to be painful. I want command of a capital craft to bolster the hunt for the Atlantis ship, and we need to send out strong communications to the Axis with consequences if they continue to gather at the frontier.”

“An aggressive stance is not always the best option, Admiral,” Orloza said. “We mean to avoid war, not provoke it.”

“We can’t continue to wait and have our outer defenses picked off. CWDF lives are being lost. We’re more vulnerable after every attack. This is a storm we can’t ride. Give me an active role and I’ll ensure our long-term security.”

Orloza sighed. “The marshal told me you’d say this. For the record, he’s aware of our meeting today. I decided to grant Seazza’s request out of respect for your service. We all need to be pulling in the same direction to achieve a positive conclusion, and I feel you’re not with us.”

“Of course I’m with the Commonwealth. Give me time to explain.”

“Time is something I haven’t got. I have an appointment in five minutes with the agricultural senator.”

Morgan clenched his fists and took a deep breath. Orloza was just paying him lip service, just like his current role to the CWDF.

“I think you need to hear the admiral—” Seazza said.

“The admiral is being retired,” Orloza said, avoiding eye contact with Morgan. “He will receive the full benefits of his rank, and I’m allowing him to keep his apartment. This is my final decision.”

“You damned coward,” Morgan said, springing from his chair, realizing he now had nothing to lose. “Thousands of lives could be lost around the Sphere. You and the marshal will lead us to disaster.”

Orloza pressed the pad on his desk and leaned toward it. “Please come to my office and escort two people from the building.”

Morgan ripped the embroidered star epaulets off both of his shoulders and threw them at Orloza. The vice president protected his head with his hands before composing himself. He gave Morgan his shit-eating grin again. “If you don’t want to spend the rest of your living days on Summanus, you better show a little more respect.”

“You don’t deserve any,” Morgan said. He turned to Seazza. “Let’s get out of here. This was a waste of time.”

The door whined open and two soldiers entered. Morgan extended his palms toward them. “Don’t worry, guys. You won’t get any trouble from me. I don’t want to spend another minute with this useless cretin.”

Seazza joined him, and they headed between the soldiers for the door. She looked at her shoes. Morgan guessed she felt embarrassed by the meeting. He should have guessed the outcome. The useless old men were all in each other’s pockets.

“Admiral Morgan,” Orloza said, “Summanus is the easy choice. If you step further out of line, I can arrange something else. I’m sure you can work out what I mean.”

Morgan didn’t acknowledge the obvious threat and left at a quick pace. Seazza half-jogged to keep up with his long strides.

Just before the elevator she grabbed his shoulder and gently pulled him to a stop. “We do have another option.”

“It’s over,” Morgan said. “We’re going to sit here like rabbits caught in headlights and take a pounding.”

“I’m serious. We have another option that can make a difference. But, you’re not going to like it.”

“Will it piss off Orloza and Steros?”

“In one way, yes.”

“Then I like it already.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Mach watched the orbital disappear on the rearview screen as the Jaguar headed for the wormhole. Tulula had worked her magic on the drives and they were back to full power, cruising only five minutes from their destination. The thought of coming face to face with the Atlantis ship sent a tingle down Mach’s spine.

Most of Morgan’s jobs were extractions, but now they had a chance to take down a legend. If they pulled it off, the JPs would dine out on it. Adira and Babcock would get pardons, Mach wouldn’t need to work again, and Sanchez… Mach wasn’t sure what he ultimately wanted but knew a lot of his eros would keep the bars in the Sphere in business for the next few years.

Turning his attention to the sensor array, Mach concentrated on their direction of travel. The wormhole’s energy registered as a faint line, fifty klicks ahead and four below. He knew the crew was aware that they might end up thousands of light-years away from the Salus Sphere, with no way back, but nobody questioned the decision. Not even the JPs. After a bumpy start they had integrated well.

Danick turned from the holocontrols. “How do we enter it?”

“Bring her in nice and slow,” Mach said. He didn’t know a single person alive that had traveled through a wormhole. Common sense dictated that they shouldn’t enter at speed in case they encountered an obstacle directly outside the opposite end.

A hush descended around the deck. Mach leaned forward in his chair and gazed at the viewing screen. An orange glow appeared in the distance. As they closed in, the tunnel became clearer.

Lassea fired the retro thrusters. Sanchez and Adira peered at their monitors, with their hands over the ion cannon and laser controls respectively, ready to zero in on any immediate threats.

An orange gas swirled around the front end of the wormhole. Deeper inside, it slowly rotated. A shimmering white light radiated from the far end of the tunnel.

Mach wondered why it was still here. Drone reports from the area of Orbital Forty said it vanished within a couple of hours. Whatever the reason, it provided them with a first real opportunity of closely following the Atlantis ship’s escape route.

The Intrepid reached within thirty seconds of entry. An orange glow cast from the screens. The scale was far bigger than Mach imagined. They had clearance of at least four hundred meters in all directions.

Sweat beaded on Mach’s brow. He avoided eye contact with the rest of the crew. There was a possibility they could be crushed to a mangled wreck or meet a fleet of unknown ships on the other side. It was pointless sending a probe through; they’d lose comms as soon as it transported.

Danick and Lassea focused on the controls as they entered, drifting through the first half a klick until they reached the spinning part of the transparent wall.

“I’m losing response,” Lassea said.

Bright lights flashed around the edges of the wormhole. The Intrepid vibrated and jolted forward, similar to a feeling of plowing through a thick cloud of space dust.

An electronic pulse sounded from the main console. Energy readings on the sensor array were off the scale. The screen showed a solid green mass.

“We’re increasing velocity, but it’s not down to us,” Danick snapped.

“Just go with it,” Mach said. At least one of them had to keep their cool. The Intrepid was committed and he had no intention of turning back. He raised his smart-screen. “Babcock, Tulula, how are things looking down there?”

“Normal. The energy is taking us through, just as I expected.”

The bright light at the end of the tunnel intensified. As the Intrepid accelerated forward, the white surface ahead shimmered. Mach squinted at the glaring screen, not wanting to miss a moment of the experience.

Vibrations increased, and the superstructure let out a metallic yawn. Lassea grabbed the arms of her chair. Danick hunched down as they approached within seconds of hitting the light source.

“Here we go,” Sanchez said.

An earsplitting crack blasted around the ship, followed by silence. The ship returned to a smooth cruising speed and the display screen returned to normal measurements.

Mack shook his head and focused on the scanner array. “What the hell is that?”

From the display, it looked like they were surrounded by a five-klick ring of interconnected meteors and planetoids. The location displayed as unknown, which wasn’t a huge surprise considering they were in uncharted territory. The ship would reorientate once it decoded a known signal—if they were close enough to receive one.

Danick engaged the retro thrusters to reduce their velocity.

Lassea switched the main screen to the upper camera and zoomed in on one of the larger dark planetoids. Giant metal rods connected two meteors to either side of it. Two small ships buzzed between them. Clusters of lights peppered the planet’s surface, looking like the areas of population on Fides Prime when viewed at night.

“Something’s locked on to us,” Adira said. She spun the holocube and primed the laser.

“Scrap that,” Sanchez said. “We’ve got multiple locks, and I mean hundreds.”

“Do you want us to engage the LD?” Lassea said.

Mach quickly considered their options. Getting out of here seemed like the most sensible option, but if the inhabitants of the surrounding cluster intended to blast them into pieces, they probably would have already fired. Besides that, the Atlantis ship came this way and the scanner array only showed small ships in the surrounding area. If he could communicate with whoever lived here, he might find some answers.

“Prepare to engage the LD, but send out a fighter drone,” Mach said. “I want a closer look at this place before we split.”

Sanchez moved across to the drone controls and initiated the launch procedure. Mach, the JPs, and Adira peered at the screens, waiting for any signs of weapons being fired in their direction.

The comms console pinged.

“We’re receiving a laser signal,” Danick said.

The Intrepid’s advanced systems automatically calibrated the beam, and a soft garbled voice came through the speakers. Mach glanced around at the vacant expressions pasted across the faces of the crew. He raised his pad. “Babcock, we need you and Squid up here.”

They were the only people on the ship capable of attempting to translate an unknown alien language—assuming it was even possible.

“We picked it up on our console,” Babcock replied. “Squid’s already running it against translation algorithms. Give him a minute.”

In an attempt to show them a friendly front, Mach transmitted back in Salus Common until they worked out a way to communicate. He thumbed the pressure pad on his armrest. “This is Captain Mach of the Intrepid. We have traveled from the Salus Sphere and have peaceful intentions.”

No immediate response came back. Mach considered if they could send anything else. When humans first communicated with the fidesians, they used mathematics and physics as a starting point, using common rules to gain a basic understanding of their different words.

The entrance door punched open with a hiss. Babcock, Squid, and Tulula entered and peered up at the screens.

“Seen anything like this before?” Mach said to Tulula.

“Nothing. We sent out some pings to try to reach the vestan and salus networks. Got no reply.”

Mach watched the screen as Lassea swept the upper camera around the joined formation surrounding their ship. The wormhole was still clearly visible behind them. Stars dotted the distant space. Nothing like the amount they could see from any planet in the Sphere.

“Two destroyer-sized ships have taken off from one of the planets,” Danick said. “They’re heading straight for us.”

“But they haven’t fixed us as a target,” Adira added.

“We don’t even know if they do that,” Danick said.

Mach shook his head. “Their ground defenses have.”

“I’m ready to launch the drone,” Sanchez said. “Just say the word. At least we can probe the ships and get a better idea of their capability.”

Squid extended his tentacles and chirped.

Babcock’s eyes widened. “Are you sure?”

“What did he say?” Mach said.

The comms console pinged again.

“Salus Sphere ship,” a quiet voice said through the speaker. “Land or die.”

A tracking beam shot from one of the planets, displaying a sequence of undecipherable symbols across the scanner array. The two large ships closed on either side of the Intrepid.

Lassea cupped her hand over her mouth and gasped.

“Salus Sphere ship,” the voice repeated. “Follow our guidance system.”

The fact that they spoke Salus Common was both encouraging and unnerving. With hundreds of weapons from the asteroids and dwarf planets locked on, two ships approaching, and a clear threat about what would happen if they didn’t land, Mach decided to follow the instructions.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Morgan read over Seazza’s latest communiqué and kicked the aluminum pot stand across his office. Artificial compost littered the tightly woven beige carpet, the dark fragments resembling some far-off nebula.

Orloza was beyond reach. Morgan’s efforts had failed, and now it seemed like the CW would sleepwalk into a war that they weren’t prepared to win. The horans had spent the intervening years improving their ships, their skills, and ultimately gaining a technological edge by uniting with the vestans within the Axis.

He slumped to his chair and spun round to look out the great open window across the beautifully landscaped picture of Fides Prime. Perhaps that was the problem, he thought. The planet was so comfortable, seemingly perfect in every way, that the idea of war light-years away on the edge of the Sphere just didn’t seem real enough.

Behind him, the door to his office slid open. The quiet footfalls of Seazza’s calm approach made him spin back to face her.

“You got my message, then?” she said, waving a hand toward the mess on the floor. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out with Orloza. He just needs some time. I’m sure we can—”

“No, he’s a lost cause, along with all the other old fossils stuck in their comfortable ways. Their heads are firmly buried in the silica.”

Seazza drooped her shoulders and sighed. She took a seat opposite him and rested her elbows on his desk, dropping her chin onto her hands. “So what do we do now? Orloza was my main contribution. Without him, I’m not sure what else I can do.”

“I’ve been thinking about that ever since Orloza became our last chance. I have to admit I wasn’t confident he’d listen to me. It seems the marshal has done a fine job of discrediting me across the CW hierarchy.”

“Oh?” Seazza said, sitting back in her chair. “What do you have in mind?”

Morgan scanned the room, more out of paranoia than any real concern they were being watched. In two places across the top of the rear and right side wall, wires poked from the plaster: cameras and mics that he had searched for and removed. That was a skill he had learned from Mach during their time serving together.

Sometimes, during war, it paid to be out of communication reach when trying tactics that were… experimental.

His assistant followed his gaze. Her forehead wrinkled with a silent query.

“I think it’s time for me to call in one last favor. But I need to know you’re not going to be a problem for me on this. What I’m about to do would be regarded as high treason. Your association with me would likely implicate you in my crimes if I were to fail and my actions become public.”

“Okay…” Seazza said, her body tightening with tension. “What is it you have in mind? Do I get a choice whether I keep this, whatever it is you’re about to do, a secret?”

“No,” Morgan said, standing and placing his fingertips to the surface of his desk. “I need to know now. Are you with me… or them? I need to know if I can trust you.” They locked eyes. Morgan drew a breath and waited for her answer… it could all stem on her next few words.

Seazza stood, pushing her chair back with the rear of her knees. She stared directly at Morgan as she said, “I’m with you, Admiral. Whatever it is you have planned, you have my trust. Just let me know what I can do for you.”

In any other situation, Morgan would have smiled with the relief and renewed confidence he had in his assistant, but the gravity of his actions prevented any expression other than a grim determination.

“We leave right away. I’ve procured an alternative ID pass. An unregistered ship is waiting for us in hangar eighteen.”

“Where are we going?”

“The vestan embassy.”

“That doesn’t seem so dangerous… why the cloak-and-dagger approach?”

“Because the embassy is more than it seems. We’re going to meet with the true rulers of the Vestan Empire, and we’re going to betray the CW to them—in order to save the CW.”

Morgan checked the message he had just received on his smart-screen. “They’re ready. Let’s go.” He looked up at his assistant, wondering if she would change her mind and become a problem for him. Over the years, he’d grown fond of her and he would prefer not to have to kill her.

After a moment’s hesitation, Seazza saluted him. “Lead the way, sir.”

***

The flight went without incident. They flew across the CWDF base during the evening, the sun setting, casting shadows over the lush tall trees that swayed back and forth together in the permanent tide of Fides Prime’s easterly breeze.

Morgan had always thought that the trees on this planet were interconnected, so synchronized and alive were their movements, but as far as he knew, no scientist had yet deduced any communication between individual specimens.

It was that same kind of telepathic inference he felt with Seazza now she was fully committed to his deceit and betrayal. Like he, she saw the bigger picture, realized they had to go above those in power if they were to save the lifestyle that they’d grown accustomed to.

Their actions would be for the betterment of the entire population of the Salus Sphere. Not just a handful of the elite.

Below them, the scenery turned from rural to urban in a hard line. Where once trees colonized the surface, here they were replaced with towers and spires, steel, glass and titanium, concrete and marble.

The capital city of Fides Prime glowed like a rare, complicated jewel, still uncut and embedded into its stone womb. Amber and blue lights lit up thousands of windows overlooking the city from their elevated position of the towers.

Morgan sat back as the AI autopilot took them lower and banked around a pair of huge rectangular commercial buildings, their surfaces glossy mirrors with its black, smooth surfaces.

Their E-class ship reduced its velocity and swept down in a graceful arc until it landed atop the vestan embassy building in an empty bay spot. Without getting out of the craft, Morgan sent a message to his contact via his smart-screen and waited, staring out of the ship’s observation screen to the embassy’s rear maintenance door.

Seazza yawned and leaned forward. “So who is this contact?”

“I only know him by his false ID number: 6160.”

“And he’s vestan?”

“Not quite,” Morgan said. “He’s… a crossbreed, of a sorts. You’ll understand shortly. I once did him a favor, saved his life. This is his chance to return that favor.”

Before Seazza could ask him any more questions, they both spotted a dark shape appear at the maintenance door. It raised a hand and waved once before disappearing back into the building.

“That him?” Seazza asked.

“It is. Come on, we ought to move. Lower the robe over your face in case we have any drones floating about.”

The woman did as he suggested, and he followed suit. The two black robes were official vestan dignitary items, supplied to Morgan by 6160. It would buy them some time once inside to get to where they needed to go without being seen.

Being a human and in the embassy wasn’t an issue itself, but considering who he was, and Seazza’s known association with Orzola, it would raise more questions and exposure than Morgan was comfortable with. Not to mention his contact absolutely insisted.

“Ready?” Morgan asked, standing by his captain’s chair.

Seazza shrugged the robe in place and affirmed. “You can trust this guy, can’t you?”

“I did save his life.”

“I know, but these are vestans. They’re not exactly our best friends right now, especially as Orzola and his lot ended embassy contact recently over the whole Axis tension thing.”

“That’s only a good thing for us, fewer people to avoid. Come on, we better not hold him up.”

The two of them left the craft.

Morgan shivered. The slicing chilled air whipped harshly through the thin fabric of the robe, making it stick to his legs and body. The door to the craft closed. The back of Morgan’s neck warmed suddenly with the hiss of hydraulic air. He focused on the door ahead, a shadow a shade darker than the dull gray of the vestan embassy.

The tower rose up a further twenty stories from their current position. The needlelike protrusion created a long, thin shadow across the landing bay.

Staying within that narrow strip of shadow, Morgan led Seazza to the door, and when they reached it, he tapped three times. They waited.

Morgan knocked again, trying to ignore the flutters in his stomach, his anxiety manifesting as it always did when he was about to enter battle. That pre-adrenaline state where it seemed like the body was trapped within a series of quantum states, unable to settle on one thing or another, being everything at the same time.

When he thought he was about to lose his calm and knock again, the door opened. The waft of a minty spice flowed out, making his throat burn slightly. He stifled a sneeze and stepped inside, ushering Seazza with him.

It was so dark inside he couldn’t make out the corridor or the person he had come to meet. The door slammed behind him. Seazza startled, knocking into Morgan’s arm. He turned and placed a hand on her shoulder just as a bag was pulled down over his face. He struggled, but his attacker was too quick and too strong.

Something kicked him in the knees, sending him sprawling face-first to the hard floor. He opened his mouth to protest, but his effort was futile. A stun stick struck him on the back of the neck with a sharp pop, knocking him out instantly.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Mach had tried a number of communications after the threatening message but received no reply. Lassea and Danick set a course for the tracking beam’s source—a green planetoid. The two destroyers, blocky and dark gray with large cannons on either wing, cruised at the sides of the Intrepid.

Sanchez checked over his rifle and joined Adira and Mach around the viewing screen. “It’s a strange way to introduce themselves. Do you think they want our ship?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Mach said. “They’re not getting it, unless they exchange it for the Atlantis ship.”

“How do they know Salus Common?” Lassea asked.

Babcock shrugged. “We don’t know how close they’ve got to the Sphere. I think it suggests they’re interested in us. The level and reason why remains to be seen.”

“I don’t like this,” Adira said as she gazed at the images. “Look at all that infrastructure.”

Details on the gloomy ground became clearer as they descended. They were heading toward a brown square space on the edge of a three-klick-wide area of metallic roofed buildings. Yellow lights surrounded the landing zone. Small arrow- and circular-shaped ships dotted around it. None were recognizable.

Both destroyers held their positions a klick above the planet. Whatever happened next, Mach knew they were committed to seeing it through.

Danick thrust near the ground and clouds of dust puffed from the surface, obscuring the view around them. Surface pressure displayed at 1.5 bars, temperature -4 and 85% carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If they were leaving the ship, it’d have to be in suits. They had four available.

Four solid dark blue armored vehicles on six wheels powered through the murky sky. Their single headlights stabbed through the dust toward the ship. Two parked at the front of the Intrepid, two outside the side entrance.

Six large figures clambered out of the back of the vehicles, dressed in black armor-plated suits and angular graphite helmets. Mach zoomed in on the side of the ship. The stocky aliens hunched over and carried long metallic energy weapons with glowing red dots on the sides. Standing straight he guessed they were at least seven feet tall, but they moved like upright primates.

All twenty-four aliens surrounded the side entrance in a semicircle.

“That’s a nice welcoming committee,” Sanchez said. “They don’t exactly look like a friendly bunch.”

“I don’t think they want a battle,” Adira said. “Only suicidal maniacs would stand outside a ship with handheld lasers and start one.”

A ten-meter-high droid, with a large window on the front of its square body, thumped across the landing zone on two mechanical legs and stopped behind the armored aliens.

Mach focused the top camera on the window of the droid. A three-eyed alien sat inside. A purple shiny suit stretched around its bulky frame.

A ping came from the comms console and the alien inside the droid moved its downturned mouth. “Welcome to Tartarus. Please excuse bad Salus talk.”

The crew crowded around the screen and stared at the scene outside.

Mach returned to his chair. “I’m Captain Mach. We are not here to fight. We only seek information.”

“What information?”

“Do you know about the previous ship that came through the wormhole above your asteroids and planets?”

“Bad ship,” the alien said. “We do not approve of it.”

Mach let out a deep breath and felt a release of tension. “That’s the only reason we’re here. We came through the wormhole from our area of the universe. The ship’s been attacking our orbital stations.”

“We talk and can help each other. Come outside and I’ll take you to the boardroom.”

“We only have three suits,” Mach said. “The rest of the crew will stay onboard.”

“This isn’t our atmosphere. Our buildings may be conducive to your body.”

“We’ll be out in five minutes,” Mach said.

It didn’t surprised Mach that they weren’t native to this huge, cobbled-together ring of dwarf planets and asteroids. He tried to imagine the size of the machines that constructed Tartarus. Nothing existed in the Sphere that could carry out this kind of work in a remote part of space.

Mach had already decided who would join him. This wasn’t a task that required any level of technical knowledge. He wanted the most capable members of the team alongside him in case the shit hit the fan.

“Adira and Sanchez,” Mach said. “Suit up. You’re coming with me. The rest of you, be ready to move. If you don’t hear from me in an hour, get the hell out of here.”

***

Mach peered into the gloom outside the airlock window. The tartaruns continued to surround the entrance. None aimed their weapons, but their size and stooped posture gave them an air of menace. Mach held his adapted laser in his left hand and placed his glove against the pad to open the door.

“You both ready to do this?” Mach said through the helmet’s comm system.

“Go for it,” Sanchez said.

Adira turned to face them. “We should assume that they can pick up our speech when we’re not using our external speakers. It’s not a stretch to imagine they have frequency scanners and decryption devices.”

“Agreed,” Mach said. “All casual conversation ends here.”

The door rose with an electric hum and the temperature reading on Mach’s HUD plummeted below freezing, stopping at minus five. He trudged down the short ramp, ready to thrust his laser forward at the first sign of trouble. The alien in the droid moved its muscular arms around a set of controls to its front. The droid’s body swiveled around and it pounded toward dull gray warehouse-sized buildings on the edge of the landing zone.

Mach briefly paused to look at the different colored ring of dwarf planets and asteroids. It had the look of a giant misshapen bead necklace floating in space. The tartaruns who formed the semicircle around the entrance parted into two lines. They flanked Mach, Adira, and Sanchez as they followed the droid. The armored vehicles rumbled behind them.

An electric grinding noise came from one of the buildings. A metal door, the size of a destroyer’s hangar entrance, rolled to one side. A shaft of artificial light radiated across the ground. The droid headed for the gap and entered.

Tartaruns on either side of Mach made soft whining noises, like wind blowing through a gap in a derelict structure. The one immediately to his right pointed its weapon, a meter-long black rectangular block with a grip at the bottom, toward the open entrance and grunted.

Mach glanced across to Sanchez and Adira. Both focused on the light ahead. Sanchez’s laser gently rocked in his grip. Mach had seen him do this several times before on other planets, usually when he expected a fight.

They entered the building into a clean bright space around the size of half a football field. Twenty dark blue armored vehicles lined one side of the smooth silver walls.

Across the scuff-marked scarlet floor, ten droids on folded legs had been parked in a neat row. The tartarun positioned his droid at the end and the body lowered with an electric groan. A side door punched out and slid to one side.

The alien, now wearing a transparent mask around the bottom half of his dark gray face, jumped out and landed in a crouch on the ground. He looked at the group through his three eyes and strode toward them. A bone protruded from his back with every stride.

“We move to next compartment and talk,” he said. “My name is Pank.”

Without waiting for an acknowledgement, Pank turned and headed for a light blue transparent door at the far end of the area. The soldiers remained beside the vehicles as the group followed.

Pank didn’t seem particularly threatening, but that didn’t mean much to Mach. His main concern was heading further away from the Intrepid. If the tartaruns turned out to have hostile intentions, this made an escape much harder.

The door slid to one side, revealing another on the opposite side of a small square empty room. A tartarun version of an air lock no doubt, after Pank told them during their initial communication that this wasn’t his atmosphere.

Mach, Adira, and Sanchez squeezed in behind the alien and waited. Pank reached into a hole in the wall and twisted his arm. The door behind them closed, and air hissed into the room from holes in the roof.

The door in front jolted to the side and Pank led them into a darkened room. A long black screen filled with flowing green symbols ran along the right wall, providing weak light, highlighting the faces of twelve tartaruns that sat in front of it on white blocks.

“Head ambassador is coming to see you,” Pang said. He took off his mask. “This is engineer room.”

“Do you have any information about the Atlantis ship?” Sanchez said.

Mach had decided to let the tartaruns lead the conversation, in case of accidentally offending them, but he saw no harm in Sanchez putting their cards on the table.

Pank’s prominent brow, over his large central eye, creased. “What ship? You mean wormhole ship?”

“That’s the one,” Adira said. “Has it attacked you?”

“Yes. Head will negotiate with you. His Salus Common better than mine. I spoke to him on our journey to the engineer room.”

“How do you know our language?” Mach asked.

“Speak to Head. I’m at my limit. Thank you.”

Peering around the twenty-meter room, Mach couldn’t gauge the level of their technology. The droids, armor and destroyers were reasonably standard for developed races, but he wondered where they came from and what resources they had access to. It seemed impossible that they’d be able to build up a fleet and advanced weaponry from a series of dwarf planets and asteroids.

A door at the far end opened and bright light flooded into the room. Pank retreated to the tartaruns watching the monitors and crouched between two of the blocks. A single neon strip blinked alive on the ceiling, brightening the area.

A tartarun dressed in a yellow robe over his arched body walked into the room, using his arms to assist his stooped walk. He stopped in front of Mack and rose up on his legs, towering over all three of the group.

“My name is Borkan and I lead the Empire of Tartarus. Welcome to our system.”

Mach extended a hand, but quickly withdrew it after Borkan flinched back. “Sorry. It’s normal for us to shake hands when being introduced.”

“Pank tells me you want information on the wormhole ship?”

“That’s right,” Sanchez said. “The damned thing has been causing havoc in our Sphere. Has it attacked you?”

“Eight times,” Borkan said. “We salvaged the ship many generations ago and tried to understand the technology. It was hijacked in the Zelus Quadrant by another species and they use it to attack us.”

“It’s been attacking us for centuries,” Mach said

“How do you know our language?” Adira asked.

Borkan moved to within inches of Adira’s face. The tartaruns clearly had no idea what personal space meant. “You sent out detailed signals. We extrapolated them to gain an understanding of your language. If we can harness the wormhole technology, we wanted to meet new allies.”

Mach remembered the old programs that used to run from the comms center. When he was a junior officer, they sent long-winded messages into space in an attempt to contact new species. The CWDF offered resources and parts of unpopulated territory in exchange for defensive assistance. As far as everyone was aware, those signals fell on deaf ears.

“Allies for what?” Mach said. The last thing they needed was to be dragged into another war, but allies against the Axis were welcome.

“Allies to trade. Share information. We are a peaceful race, forced from our home world by oppressors. This is where we can make a deal.”

“A deal?” Sanchez said and glanced at Mach.

“What are you proposing?” Mach said.

Borkan peered into Mach’s visor with his soulless central eye. “We can strengthen your ship. Your lasers are not powerful enough. You need cannon like the one we fitted to the wormhole ship.”

“You fitted it? That thing’s been destroying our orbital stations.”

“We wanted to arm it like our destroyers,” Borkan said. “The wormhole ship probes here but doesn’t wait, because we have the capability to destroy it. At the moment, we can’t risk chasing it and lowering the defensive capabilities of Tartarus.”

“Sounds familiar,” Mach said. “If you’re prepared to arm us, how long will it take to install?”

“The energy reading on the wormhole indicates that it will remain for six certas,” Borkan paused and his eye flicked from side to side. “I believe that’s fourteen more of your hours. We can concentrate on upgrading your ship.”

“What do you want in return?” Adira said.

“We want peace. That is all I ask, but you need to make a decision because of our time constraints.”

The deal sounded too good to be true, but the more Mach thought about it, the more it made sense. If an alien craft arrived in the Salus Sphere and the CWDF discovered they shared a common enemy, getting the aliens to do their bidding by arming them with powerful tech was a perfect solution. It suited all parties.

“You’ve got to understand,” Mach said. “We don’t even know you—”

“Follow me,” Borkan said and headed for the entrance he appeared from.

Mach turned to the others, shrugged his shoulders and followed. Borkan stood on a travelator and headed up toward a transparent glass dome. He hunched against a rail and looked around the ring of planetoids and asteroids. Mach moved to his side.

“This isn’t our home,” Borkan said and swept his three fingers through the air. “We fled our home world after coming under attack. Everything you see here was constructed by an ancient race.”

“Where are we?” Mach asked.

“The coordinates are irrelevant. We are over two life cycles away from our home, many more from yours. Mine probably doesn’t exist anymore. Tartaruns believe the wormhole ship was created by the species who created this system.”

“Didn’t you find any evidence when you arrived?” Adira asked.

“Very little. We made basic sense of their technology, but it’s nothing like we’ve seen before. We fitted the wormhole ship with our weapons for defense, but it was hijacked soon after.”

“Can you give us the info you have?” Mach asked.

Borkan snorted. “I talk in generations. Your life may be long or short, but tartaruns have a long existence. We haven’t controlled the ship for twenty generations and the information is lost. We can work together and provide a better life for both species.”

“You’re sure that’s all you want?” Sanchez asked.

“My first priority is for my people to survive. As long as we stay on this configuration, our existence is limited. You can help us, and we can help you.”

Mach gazed at the cobbled-together configuration in space. If this was the home for humans, they would quickly die out. He understood Borkan’s motivations, but couldn’t give any promises in terms of the Sphere.

“How can we help you?” Mach asked.

“Perhaps the wormhole technology information,” Borkan said. “This is the part where we shake hands?”

Mach breathed a sigh of relief, glad Borkan didn’t ask for a planet, and extended his hand. The alien clasped his stocky fingers around it and squeezed a little too tightly, causing Mach to wince and pull away. The pain was a small price to pay.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Mach rolled over on his bunk, stretched his arms and yawned. Clanking from the roof of the ship had kept him awake for the last few hours. The plan had been to try to catch a bit of sleep while the work was being carried out.

That was wishful thinking.

A quick check of the smart-screen confirmed they’d been on Tartarus for seven hours. The work was due to be completed at any time. Mach groaned, rolling out of the bunk, and headed along the corridor.

Lassea and Tulula sat at the holocontrols. The vestan manipulated them and gave the young JP a lesson in handling. Mach thought she already did well enough, but more knowledge was welcome, especially as he had decided to offer her a full-time position on his crew.

Sanchez slumped over the laser controls. Saliva pooled on the console below his mouth. Mach smiled and gently kicked his leg. “How’s the cannon coming along?”

“Good morning, evening, or whatever the hell it is to you too,” Sanchez said and glanced at his smart-screen. “They’re supposed to be finished in twenty minutes. Borkan messaged us earlier. He wants to speak with you. Lassea told him you were resting.”

“Fair enough. What do you make of him?”

“Impossible to tell. If he were a lactern, I’d say he was shifty. If he were a horan, I’d call him polite. They’re fitting us with a powerful cannon and sending us on our way. I’d say we got lucky.”

Mach slowly nodded in agreement. “Where’s the rest of us?”

“Danick’s sleeping,” Sanchez said. “Four tartarun engineers came and asked to look around. Babcock and Squid are giving them the grand tour. Adira went along just in case…”

“Where’s the new controls for the cannon?”

“Here,” Sanchez said and gestured to the laser console. “Tulula configured it a couple of hours ago.”

Mach watched the initial part of the construction work. Tartarun ships swarmed from the other planetoids and asteroids like flies, and were soon crawling all over the top of the Intrepid’s hull. Two huge mechanical arms on tracks carried the ion cannon over from inside one of the buildings.

The mix of man and machinery fixed it in place.

As soon as the ship’s integrity passed diagnostics and the configuration work started, Mach retired, confident that all was in hand. He turned to Lassea. “School’s out for the moment. Reply to Borkan and tell him I’m available for a chat.”

This was the point where Mach expected to learn about a catch. In his eyes, when something was too good to be true, it generally was.

Lassea shifted across the comms console. “This is the Intrepid. Captain Mach is available to meet with Borkan. Over.”

Mach suppressed a smile. Aliens outside the Sphere didn’t respect Salus Common voice procedure. Lassea would soon learn that a large chunk of her training counted for very little outside the fleet.

“Borkan’s on his way,” a soft voice replied.

Shortly after, a droid walked out of the building that Mach had previously entered. It bobbed up and down as it strode toward the ship through the gloom. As it closed in, he noticed three tartaruns sitting in the brightly lit cockpit.

“Looks like he’s bringing company,” Mach said.

“I’m going back to the engineering deck,” Tulula said. “Will you be okay without me?”

Sanchez gave her one of his attempted seductive smiles. “I think we’ll live. I’ll call you if we have any problems.”

Tulula stared at Sanchez with a blank expression. Lassea ushered her away, probably to save her the embarrassment of being on the receiving end of clumsy pickup lines.

“You’re too old and ugly, Sanchez,” Mach said.

“That makes two of us.”

The droid’s legs lowered and the three tartaruns, two with large packs on their backs, exited through the side and jumped to the ground.

“Follow me,” Mach said. “I’m not celebrating until we’re at the other side of the wormhole.”

Sanchez rose from his chair and cricked his back. They walked to the inside door of the air lock. Borkan stood outside the outer door with two taller guards behind him.

Mach palmed the black glass identification plate to open the outer door. All three moved inside. The eyes on the side of Borkan’s head flicked around, looking at the smooth white walls, but his front one remained focused inside.

The panel next to Sanchez bleeped, confirming pressurization. Mach opened the inner door. “Borkan, I heard you wanted to see me?”

“Work is due to be completed in twenty minutes,” the alien said and hunched inside. “The wormhole is weakening, so it’s imperative that you transfer through while the walls remain stable.”

One of the guards followed, slipped off his plastic mask, and took a wheezing gulp of the ship’s air. Its wide chest puffed out as the alien exhaled. Mach received an eye-watering waft of sulfur, making him squint.

Sanchez took a step back and cupped his nose.

“Ship is good,” the maskless tartarun said.

Borkan and the other slipped off their masks. Thankfully the sulfur smell dissipated after the aliens took a few more breaths.

“Who are your guests?” Mach said.

“This is Daskell and Kaskas,” Borkan said, gesturing his chubby hand at both in turn. “They will provide tartarun representation in your part of the universe.”

“You want them to come with us?” Sanchez said.

“We would like the wormhole technology,” Borkan said. “They will report back directly to me.”

Mach scrutinized the grizzled aliens. They would be excellent in a fight, but he still felt like he didn’t know enough about the tartaruns to even contemplate bringing on extra crew. “If we capture the Atlantis ship and manage to decode the technology, I’ll give you my own personal guarantee that we’ll provide the information.”

Borkan stepped toward Mach and glared down at him. “We are friends, yes? This is what you might call our guarantee. They both have knowledge of the ion cannon, and if you want to bring down the wormhole ship, you can’t risk any faults.”

“Babcock and Tulula are fine for our requirements,” Mach said. “Thanks for the offer, though.”

“This is not an offer. This is part of the deal. We have suffered at the hands of many species and won’t risk being used. With respect, we don’t know if you’re lying.”

Both tartaruns closed in behind Borkan. One whined something in his earhole and he replied in similar tones.

“What do you think they’re saying?” Sanchez whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

“Kaskas said you are increasing your chances of success,” Borkan said, answering the question directed at Mach. “Any problems and the wormhole ship will consume you. They can operate the weapon effectively and speak with the head of the Salus Sphere on my behalf.”

Mach thought for a moment. Their proposition didn’t seem unreasonable, and they could offload the pair as soon as they got to Fides Prime. He still wasn’t happy with the request and decided to test Borkan’s resolve. “If we refuse to take them?”

“We are a proud race and don’t take kindly to insults,” Borkan said. “Turning down a request after we provided help would be seen as such. In order to maintain our dignity, I would have to order your extermination.”

It seemed they had little choice and the request was more of an order. Borkan had a strong hand to play and he knew it. Although it did make sense to have some expertise onboard in case of any teething problems with the new installation, especially if they quickly hunted down their prey.

“I’ll agree, but only as a temporary solution. If we haven’t found the Atlantis ship after our crew has gained a good level of competence on the electronics, both will still be dropped off at Fides Prime.”

Borkan held a hushed conversation with Daskell and Kaskas and turned back to face Mach and Sanchez. “I will give you this concession. Hopefully you will complete your mission and our two species can be allies.”

Mach doubted the senate would be interested in brokering a treaty with a race of aliens stuck in the ass-end of nowhere, on a ring of glorified rocks. But Borkan didn’t have to know that. He would find out when the others were safely back in the Salus Sphere.

“Thank you for your assistance,” Mach said. “We may see each other again someday.”

“Next time I will deal with your heads,” Borkan said. “Please let me leave.”

The statement sounded strange, but Mach assumed Borkan equated the ranks and positions on Tartarus to the ones in the Sphere. He felt relief that the negotiation was over although the threat to force them to take two extra crew members sent a chill down his spine.

***

Mach relaxed in the captain’s chair and glanced across the screens.

All tartaruns had left the immediate vicinity of the ship. Tulula confirmed from the engineering deck that they were good to take off, and the two JPs ran through the launch sequence. Adira sat next to Sanchez and kept glancing over at Daskell and Kaskas. The introductions were frosty and both only spoke a few words of Salus Common. They stopped by the comms console and silently watched proceedings.

“Just waiting for the ships to clear,” Danick said.

Hundreds of tiny dots scattered away from their planetoid on the scanner array.

Mach doubted he would ever see this place again. Researchers might visit out of curiosity if the CWDF harnessed wormhole technology, but he had no reason to come back. He also didn’t want to bargain with the tartaruns again. This time their request managed to suit both parties, Mach didn’t want to be around when somebody compromised their position.

“All systems good for takeoff,” Tulula said through the comm speaker, her voice partially obscured by Babcock and Squid holding a busy conversation in the background. “Gamma and LD at full performance.”

“Thanks,” Mach said. “Ask Babcock to scan for the Atlantis signal as soon as we reach the other side of the wormhole.”

“He’s already preparing for it.”

A smile stretched across Mach’s face. The two tartaruns were an inconvenience, but one he could live with. More importantly, they had added a powerful cannon to their arsenal and were getting out of Tartarus in one piece.

Lassea turned in her chair. “Ready to go?”

Mach nodded. “Keep a screen on the wormhole. I want to watch our approach.”

The Intrepid’s engines roared and the ship vibrated. It lifted off the ground and dust clouded the cameras. Lassea increased thrust and they powered into the sky. Kaskas whined and hunched further down. They quickly broke through the atmosphere as their velocity increased and the Gamma Drive smoothly hummed to a higher pitch.

On the central overhead screen, the wormhole appeared as an orange dot in the middle of a black expanse. It quickly grew in size as they approached. The tunnel was still intact although the walls appeared slightly fainter.

“You know the drill,” Mach called down to Danick and Lassea. “Straight to the rotating part and let her drift.”

Danick fired the retro thrusters as they entered the orange swirl and they headed toward the bright light at the end. The ship gently rocked as the walls, half a klick either side of them, spun.

Blocks of static peppered the overhead screens.

Lassea leaned back, taking her hands away from the holocontrols. The shimmering light at the end increased in brightness and a loud crack split the air when they hit the white sheen.

Moments later, the screens returned to normal, Salus Sphere coordinates flashed up, and the previously damaged orbital appeared on the scanner array.

Sanchez let out a long breath. “I thought we’d end up even further away.”

Daskell and Kaskas gazed up at the screens and talked to each other in their soft undulating tones. Adira narrowed her eyes as she continued to observe them. Mach knew she didn’t trust the tartaruns, but paranoia was part of her makeup after spending years as a CW assassin in hostile territories. It was what made her so good at her job.

“Mach,” Babcock said through the speaker, “I’ve picked up the signature signal straight away. Sending the coordinates to the main console.”

“You’re a legend, Kingsley,” Mach said and watched the digits flash across the screen. “Keep tracking it.”

“That’s a big jump,” Lassea said and looked over her shoulder. “Do you want me to switch to LD?”

Mach smiled. “Do you need to ask?”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Three distinct voices spoke in hushed tones. They weren’t speaking Salus Common. Morgan couldn’t quite understand what they were saying but recognized the language as vestan.

He opened his eyes, but the bag was still over his face, making everything black. A tight knot of muscle in the back of his neck sent a pulsing, throbbing ache all the way down his spine.

He groaned and tried to move his arms and legs, but the synapses seemed to be slow as viscous cooling oil. When he shuffled his body around on the chair on which he sat, the voices became quiet.

The bag was taken off his face. The cool air wicked away the sweat that had formed on his forehead and neck. He choked when he tried to speak. A figure in a dark robe brought a cup of water to his lips. He took a sip to wet his throat and said, “Where am I? What have you done with the woman?”

“I’m right here,” Seazza said from somewhere to his right. He turned his head, wincing at the pain. She was there, leaning her elbows on a huge granite slab tabletop. Next to her were three old vestans.

They looked alike, their foreheads low and angular, their eyes set deep and glowing a bright yellow color, reminding Morgan of what the horans looked like, hiding in their birthing caves.

The figure to his right pulled his robe down away from his face, revealing it was 6160. Morgan blinked, getting used to the light in the room. The walls were carved stone and the ceiling was domed and about five meters high. Hanging from the dome was a ring light, glowing pale blue, casting the room with a cool shade.

“I’m sorry we had to do it this way,” 6160 said. “Here, take a stim for your neck. We never intended to hurt you, but we had to move quickly; the embassy is in turmoil. We don’t have much time and we have an agreement to settle.”

The young vestan, his body rippling with muscles beneath the thin robe, leaned behind Morgan and applied the healing stim. Within seconds, Morgan’s muscles grew cold as the compound set to work with its nanoparticles eradicating the source of soreness. Morgan leaned back into his chair and let out a moan of relief. His back unlocked and he stretched his arms above his head, feeling the muscles stretch, and let go of the tension.

“That’s much better,” he said. “Thanks. But what do you mean about the embassy?”

It was then that Morgan realized who the three older vestans were staring at him from the other side of the great table. He leaned forward and squinted, making sure his recognition wasn’t being fooled by the dim light.

“You’re… the Three.”

They nodded together at the same time, then spoke as one. “6160 told us of your plight and your idea. Rumors of war circulated in the embassy, splitting the loyalties of our dignitaries. Some would prefer to stay and negotiate continuing peace, but others fear the repercussions from the horan leaders. The latter see this time as theirs and see an opportunity to weaken the CW for good.”

“But you three don’t?” Seazza said. Her face was pinched with anxiety as she spoke. “We can’t go to war, not now, not while the—” She broke off at Morgan’s stare.

“We know about the Atlantis ship,” 6160 said, now standing a few meters to Morgan’s right, outside of the ring light, shrouded in shadows. Seazza, sitting to the vestan’s left, looked up at him with raised eyebrows.

“You do?” Morgan prompted. “We didn’t discuss it; we were only talking about the impending war. I thought the president and the CWDF had kept the mention of the Atlantis ship under wraps.”

“I’m afraid, Admiral Morgan,” the Three said, “your president has been compromised and is under the influence of the Horan Hierarchy.”

“You know this for sure?” Morgan said.

“With complete faith,” they replied.

“So, we must do what must be done, Atlantis ship or not. You must realize we can’t go to war again. Last time nearly destroyed us all.”

“Our people have pledged to assist the Horan Empire,” 6160 said. “They don’t know the Three are here. Admiral Morgan, I did as you asked. I brought you here, but now you need to consider what exactly it is you want.”

The Three spoke, talking for Morgan as though they saw into his mind. “You’re unhappy with your government. You feel ostracized and ignored. You feel old and useless. But you also see the bigger picture. As do we. We have a proposal for you, Admiral.”

He could guess what it was. The vestans were the reason why the horans had the technological advantage these days. The vestans were the reason for the horans’ confidence in their movements, and their predictions of a complete and total victory. Although the horans also had the lacterns, they weren’t of the vestans’ class of skill. They weren’t prized for their technology.

“I’m listening,” Morgan said, eyeing Seazza, who remained passive. It seemed she had already had a conversation with the Three before Morgan had awoke. What had she promised them, if anything?

6160 placed a smart-screen onto the table and gestured across it. The holodisplay lit up, creating a 3D visual of the Salus Sphere. Red areas were those previously occupied by Orbitals Twenty-Two and Forty respectively. Around the Sphere, a blue line indicated the NCZ and beyond that, yellow triangles represented the horans’ forces, including those of the vestans.

“As you can see,” the Three said, indicating with their long, bony fingers to the astromap, “the Axis numbers multiply every day, mostly from vestan-built ships. Our planet alone has provided over fifty-three percent of the Axis’ ship quota. It’s of no surprise to you, I’m sure, that this time around the vestans hold the fate of the Sphere in our hands.”

Morgan decided to get straight to the point. “So what do you want from me in return for your people to leave the Axis and join the CW?”

“Two things,” the vestans said. “First, the Atlantis ship.”

Morgan spluttered. “What? We’re not even sure the attacks are from the Atlantis ship. It could be some other enemy…”

“It’s the Atlantis ship,” they replied. “Our people have inspected the area with the horans and confirmed it with our data. You see, Admiral, the vestan people have been searching for this ship before the CW was even formed. To you it’s a myth, to us, it’s our birthright.”

Seazza regarded Morgan with an expression that implored his cooperation. Originally, he had thought he would just give some information to the vestans in return for their withdrawal from the NCZ, but this… was so much more.

“I can’t do that,” Morgan said. “You know the Axis already have the technological advantage over us. If I give up the Atlantis ship, if I even have it, that is, then I’ll be giving the Axis the biggest weapon in the known universe. That would be both career and physical suicide.”

6160 ran a hand through his black hair. “Not necessarily, Admiral.” The young vestan looked to his elders. “I think it’s time to lay our terms on the table. Time is running out.”

The Three leaned forward together. The room seemed to shrink and the temperature drop as they said, “Give us the Atlantis ship, and we won’t just withdraw from the NCZ, but we’ll withdraw from the Axis entirely… on one condition.”

“Go on,” Morgan said.

“You ensure Vesta is included in the Salus Sphere and protect us from the horan and lactern backlash.”

“I would love to promise that, but I don’t have that kind of authority.”

Seazza grinned and stood from her chair. She walked over to Morgan and placed her hand on his shoulder. “Admiral, your role, although not active in the chain of command, is still valid in the Fides Prime list of hierarchy. Even as a ceremonial position, you outrank everyone in the senate. Everyone apart from two people.”

“This is madness,” Morgan said, an incredulous smile stretching on his lips. “My position has always been ceremonial. I hold no such rank.”

Seazza’s smile didn’t fade. She lifted her forearm to him so he saw the page of text on her smart-screen. “This,” she said, “is the original treaty papers of the Commonwealth. Let’s just say you’re not the only one with friends in high places.”

Morgan focused on the text and began to read the small print. The temperature of the room suddenly got much hotter. He stared up at her, then stood, planting a kiss on her lips as he grabbed her shoulders. When he broke away, he said, “You’re a genius. I never thought to look.”

Seazza blushed but held his gaze. “The old fools never read it either. It’s right there in the CW treaty. You outrank everyone in political terms apart from the president and vice president.”

“So,” the Three said. “This means you have the authority to give us what we want, and for the CW to remove the technological advantage from the Axis. In return for increasing the Salus Sphere’s border to include Vesta, not only will you have our tech at your disposal, but you’ll also have our top scientists, who will share their discoveries of this Atlantis ship with you and the rest of the CW. This will ensure peace for a millennium.”

“But what about the president and the vice president?” he asked.

6160 pulled the robe’s hood over his face.

“In every agreement, there has to be a compromise… and a sacrifice.”

The Three gestured over their smart-screen, replacing the map with a new treaty. An empty space lay at the bottom, waiting for Morgan’s thumbprint.

So this was it, then. It had come to this: a coup. And it was all on his shoulders. Though he felt no strong loyalty to the president and vice president, he was essentially signing their death warrant—but it meant saving millions, perhaps billions, of lives if they could avoid war.

The other problem was that he didn’t have the Atlantis ship like they thought.

Not only would Morgan be sanctioning two assassinations, but he would be doing so on the chance that Mach would come through for him. The entire fate of the Salus Sphere would rest on Carson Mach and his band of criminal mercenaries.

A bead of sweat tracked slowly down his forehead and dripped to the table.

Seazza, 6160, and the Three waited with bated breath.

Morgan closed his eyes and pressed his thumb against the treaty.

“Good,” 6160 said. “We’ll handle the other business.”

The Three stood and took it in turns to shake Morgan’s hand. “We’re happy to join the CW,” they said. “We’ll announce it to our people in a few hours. We’ll recall our ships from Axis command. You did the right thing, Admiral.”

He wasn’t so sure… He trusted Mach implicitly, but if he couldn’t find the Atlantis ship now, the treaty would fail, and he’d have the blood of many on his hands.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“We’re coming out of LD,” Mach said. He leaned forward in his chair, looking closer at the holoscreen in front of him, eager to see their prey.

Hunting the Atlantis ship reminded him of the days he would go hunting for perillion with Morgan. Mach was just a teenager back then, but those days and nights, stalking the great perillion lizards through the jungle, remained with him forever—the thrill of the chase, the adrenaline rush when he caught sight of his quarry.

The difference now, though, was that the Atlantis ship was infinitely more dangerous a target—and far more elusive.

Babcock and Squid entered the bridge and took a position to Mach’s right. Adira and Sanchez were stationed either side, in control of their weapons. Danick was resting after a long shift during the L-jump. Lassea had taken over navigational duties.

She yawned and looked up at the holoscreen. “… and we’re out of the L-jump,” she said. The ship groaned as its hull resettled after the high intensity of an FTL jump. “Engaging Gamma Drive,” Lassea said.

The ship rocked once, twice, and settled on course with a low hum, the fusion crystals now perfectly aligned. “Your new friend did a fine job,” Mach said to Babcock.

“She’s fascinating,” the old man said. “Really knows her way around a fusion array. I knew the vestans were advanced, but she really showed me things I never knew were possible with such a drive setup. We’re blessed to have someone like her onboard.”

Sanchez looked up at Babcock with a lecherous smile. “She’s not a bad looker either, right, Babs?”

“Trust you to go to that,” Mach said. “Leave ’em alone, and concentrate on your weapons. We should be coming in on the ship any minute.”

Sanchez saluted him and returned his focus to his control station.

“Any sign of its signature signal?” Adira said.

“Yes,” Squid replied, hovering close to her. She lifted a hand to swat it away, but it anticipated her movement and drifted away with surprising agility. “I’ll forward it to the holoscreen.”

“We tracked it all the way through the L-jump,” Babcock said. “The signal is interesting in that it changes frequency seemingly at random, but I’m sure there’s an algorithm there somewhere that dictates it.”

Mach enlarged the view on the screen. Their cameras rotated toward the signal’s direction. It was a very narrow beam, so they got an accurate lock on their target. “Enlarge two hundred percent,” Mach said.

The ship’s AI responded.

Within the vast expanse of utter blackness, Mach could see a pinprick of orange light. “There,” he said, pointing. “That’s the damn ship. Lassea, full power to the Gamma Drive. We’re just two AUs from it. We might be able to catch up before it… wait, it’s—”

“Preparing a wormhole,” Adira said, glancing up at the screen. “That orange light is not coming from its engines. It looks just like the wormholes it uses to travel. It’s jumping again already.”

The two aliens stepped onto the bridge and considered the view on the holoscreen. “We’re too late,” the elder of the two said. “We should try to intercept.”

“That’d be great in theory,” Mach snapped. “If we knew where the fucking thing was going. Do you two have ideas? What about the signal… Could you help figure that out?”

“We could try.”

They just stood there looking at Mach, their expressions impossible to determine.

“We don’t have time,” Babcock added. “We’ll have to jump through the wormhole again and see if we can gain some distance on it. Lassea, could you L-jump us through it from here?”

The JP ran some calculations and turned round to face Mach. “It’s theoretically possible, I suppose, but no one has L-jumped to a specific point this close. We could miss the wormhole altogether. I don’t like the chances of coming out of an L-jump that close to a gravitational anomaly. We could severely damage the ship.”

“I’m game for this if anyone else is,” Adira said with a bored tone to her voice. “All this chasing around and not shooting anything is getting real old.”

“Right on,” Sanchez said. “Let’s just do it. We can’t risk letting the Atlantis ship getting to a strategically dangerous area in the CW. We’re so close.”

Mach thought about it. They’d taken a lot of risks up until now, but each time it had paid off. He had spent long enough gambling to know that kind of luck would run out sooner than later, and if it did… well, that could be final, for all of them.

But it was also a gamble to let the Atlantis ship get too far from them.

If they didn’t follow it, then they could lose another orbital, or worse.

The crew was waiting for his decision.

“Do it,” he said to Lassea. “We’re L-jumping through the wormhole.”

She just swallowed and returned to her console to enter the commands. Babcock and the two aliens looked at the holoscreen with a tense gaze. Sanchez and Adira gave him a curt nod each, telling him he had made the right decision. He just hoped their confidence in him wasn’t misplaced.

Lassea counted them down. “Engaging the LD in three… two… one…”

The ship shuddered as the engines kicked in. The light around them twisted before the holoscreen faded to black. Lassea ran her hands across the holocontrols. “We’re heading for the wormhole, course is fine and…. Wait, it’s changed, the coordinates are different.” Lassea’s voice rose an octave with panic. Babcock dashed across the bridge to her. He bent his head to read the screen. “She’s right; the ship has changed course.”

“What?” Mach said, standing out of his chair. “How? Where the hell is it going?”

Babcock ran a hand over his face and locked eyes with Mach. “It’s set a course for… Larunda.”

“No way,” Mach said. “How? Only a handful of people know the coordinates to there.”

“It’s a close jump,” Lassea added. “What’s Larunda?”

Adira answered for Mach. “It’s the heart of the CW intelligence. Fides Prime is the public capital, but Larunda is the real seat of power, and the place that the entire Salus Sphere’s safety hinges on. If that orbital is destroyed…” Adira turned to look at the aliens. Mach had noticed their interest and their silence too.

“Change course, now,” Mach said.

Both Lassea and Babcock tried, but the ship wouldn’t respond. “We’ve got no control; we’ve been locked out,” Lassea said. Mach tried to connect to the ship’s AI with his smart-screen, but his access was refused.

NO ACCESS flashed on his screen.

Lassea was correct; he and the rest of his crew were no longer in charge of the Intrepid. But neither was the AI. That had gone offline. There was something else, and it didn’t take a genius to work out who the likely culprit was.

He turned to the two aliens, who had remained conspicuous by their silence.

“It’s you two, isn’t it?”

They just blinked at him, feigning ignorance, but they tensed and shifted, now looking far more menacing than they had before. They whispered something to each other in their own language.

Mach felt disgusted that he’d let these creatures onto his ship, how they had so easily duped him. Danick and Tulula came rushing onto the bridge, blocking the main corridor. The two aliens spoke to each other with their weird, breathy language of theirs. The one on the right, named Kaskas, opened its third eye and glared at Danick, then Mach.

Its friend, Daskell, launched toward Sanchez, reaching out with its huge, muscular arms. Sanchez, still sitting at his console, yelled with surprise as he received the full momentum of the alien. The two of them rolled over the console and wrestled on the floor to the far left of the bridge. They had fallen down to the perimeter walkway, the barrier obscuring Mach’s vision.

Kaskas made a deep hissing noise to Mach’s right.

Mach stood up and drew a laser pistol from his hip holster, but he wasn’t quite quick enough, Kaskas’ attack far quicker than he had anticipated.

Danick didn’t know what to do. He barely had time to react when the tartarun grabbed him by the shoulders and flung him over its great rounded back. The force knocked Tulula against the bulkhead. Danick slammed to the floor in the middle of the bridge with a hard thud and a snapping sound. His back arched up, his mouth stretched in a breathless rictus of pain.

Mach aimed for the alien and fired. The laser bolt flew wide of Kaskas, the beast spinning and ducking out of the way. A flash of blue light came from the hull, but the laser wasn’t powerful enough to punch a hole. If it did, while they were in an L-jump, they’d all be liquidized in a moment.

With a leap, Mach jumped from his elevated central position to the main floor of the bridge. He brought his gun up and aimed for the creature’s back. He fired. The laser struck an armored section near its shoulder blade.

The shot had little effect; it leapt forward toward Danick’s prone, writhing form. Adira, to the right of it, spun out of her chair, drawing her knife, but the tartarun’s right arm flew out, striking her in the ribs.

Adira collapsed against her chair with a scream.

Before Mach could off another shot, Kaskas slammed its great bony fists down onto Danick’s head, crushing the poor kid’s skull with a terrible squelching sound.

Lassea screamed a terrible wail as she watched on. She fell to her knees, her arms out to Kaskas as though begging for it to take back what it had just done, but the alien just looked up at her and spoke in its gusting voice. Standing tall, it swatted Squid from the air and lurched toward Babcock, who had backed away.

“Adira, you okay?” Mach said, lifting her to her feet.

Her face was screwed up in a mask of anguish and pure hatred. She and Mach turned their attentions to Kaskas. Lassea had fallen onto her back and was scrabbling back away from it as it stalked her.

Mach emptied the laser pistol into the alien’s back. Only one of the four shots seemed to have any effect. A patch of dark gray skin bubbled and popped. A yellow-green puss-like substance oozed out.

Kaskas roared and turned to face Mach. It flung out its fists, the knuckles of which were extended into sharpened daggers of bone. Mach leaned back away from the strike, the air of the swiping fist blowing against his bare neck.

Adira was already on the move when Mach rebalanced and prepared to attack.

Someone to the left of the bridge, another alien voice, yelled out. Mach looked over and saw Sanchez stagger up to his feet, his face covered in human blood and the yellow-green substance. He had ripped a piece of the railing away and raised the sharpened pole high before slamming it down into Daskell’s chest.

Kaskas spun when it heard its ally scream its final breath.

That was the opportunity Mach and Adira needed. Adira tackled it around its thick legs, driving her dagger deep into the rear where its thick tendons connected its muscles.

Under the attack, Kaskas collapsed to one knee. It grabbed Adira by the back of her neck and flung her away. Her back struck the corner of her console. Mach drew his old blade from his GraphTech fatigues and launched a kick that connected with Kaskas’ head. His boot rammed into its right eye.

He felt the squishy organ pop under the heel of his boot. The force knocked Kaskas back, its arms flailing. Lassea got to her feet. Sanchez approached, ready to join the fight, but the young JP grabbed the jagged pole from his hands and while Mach wrestled with Kaskas, Lassea rammed the pole down, right into the ridged forehead of the alien.

The beast gasped once, its lips pulled back over its thick, powerful teeth. Its chest no longer rose or fell. Mach’s heart, however, continued to bang against his chest. He slumped off the creature and grabbed Adira. The two of them held each other for a moment to catch their breath.

Sanchez stood over Mach and held out his hand. Mach took it and was pulled up to his feet. He surveyed the wreckage of the fight. Tulula was still crumpled and unconscious. The two aliens were dead… as was the poor kid, Danick.

Adira rubbed her ribs. Mach helped her to her feet.

“Everyone else okay?” he asked and got stunned nods in return. Babcock leaned against Lassea’s console. Although he hadn’t been in the struggle, the shock must have taken its toll on his old body.

“Lassea,” Mach said, approaching her and removing her hands from the pole now firmly embedded into the dead alien. “It’s over. It’s dead. You’re okay.”

The girl let out a whimper and the tears flowed. She stepped away from the alien and knelt by the side of Danick’s body. Huddling over him, she cradled his head and wept. Mach knelt beside her and put his arm around her shoulder. She turned to him, burying her head into the crook of his shoulder.

“It’s okay,” Mach said. “Let it all out. You’re safe now.”

“He was a good kid,” Sanchez said. “Brave.”

Adira added, “I had grown to like him. I will miss him.”

Babcock just shook his head and ran a hand over his sweat-drenched face. “I should have known,” he croaked. “I should have seen this coming, how could I let these… things, get this far without me suspecting something?”

No one said anything in response; there was nothing to say. They had all been duped. It was clear to Mach now what the tartaruns had planned to do: control the now-upgraded Intrepid to take out the Larunda Orbital while the Atlantis ship was on its way to god knows where to carry out more of their attacks.

Lassea’s body became still, her sobs quieting to deep breaths. Mach stood and lifted her to her feet. He held her away from him and lowered his head to get eye contact. “You can’t blame yourself for this,” he said. “I know what it’s like to lose someone so close to you. You’ll grieve for him, blame yourself, then blame others, but ultimately, you’ll come to the realization that nothing could have stopped this and that for your brother’s memory, you’ll need to go on, make him proud, but for now, you don’t need to do anything. We’re here for you, okay? Whatever you want, we’ll take care of you.”

“He’s right,” Sanchez said, stepping toward the girl and wrapping his big arm around her small shoulders. “You’ve got us, for whatever you want to do.”

Lassea dipped her head and stared at her brother for a moment, then looked up to Mach then Sanchez, then Babcock, grabbing each person’s attention. “I want to go on,” she said, her voice warbling with shock and a million other emotions that no doubt ran through her. “I want to stop the Atlantis ship. I’ll grieve for Danick later. He would want me to complete the mission. He was always like that—duty before anything else. It’s what makes him… made him who he was.”

“Okay,” Mach said, “let’s get organized, then. Adira, can you check on Tulula, make sure she’s not hurt.”

“Sure,” Adira said with a quick salute, bringing a sense of order to things. She quickly stepped over to Tulula and carefully lifted her head and brought her round. While Adira was talking with her, bringing her up to speed, Mach turned to Babcock.

“Kingsley, I want you and Squid to find a way of getting control of the ship.”

“We’re on it,” the old engineer said.

Sanchez let Lassea go and lowered to his haunches. He picked over Kaskas’ dead body, rifling through its many pockets and items attached about it. Using his old hunting knife, Sanchez cut open the fabric of the dark gray uniform, splitting the pockets so that varied objects fell out.

Mach joined Sanchez’s search. There was nothing of much interest to begin with, the creature only having a few trinkets and coins from its home world, but then as Sanchez emptied a pocket attached to its pants leg, Mach saw something interesting: a five-centimeter-long obsidian black rectangle. It was no more than a few millimeters thick. It was cool to the touch and seemed to be made of some kind of metal. On one edge were two square holes that looked like ports.

“Kingsley, what do you make of this?” Mach said.

The engineer and Squid approached and looked down at the object in Mach’s hand. “Could be some kind of storage device,” Babcock said. “I can wire it up and see if we can get anything off it.”

“Good,” Mach said. “Do that.”

“I’ll check the other bastard.” Sanchez grunted as he stood up and approached Daskell’s body.

“Squid,” Babcock ordered. “Can you try to find out what kind of software patch is keeping us out of the system while I figure out an interface for this thing?”

“Of course, sir,” Squid chirped, rising to head height and flying out of the bridge, presumably to the main computer core of the ship.

“I can help with that,” Tulula said from the corridor entrance. Adira had helped her to her feet, and apart from looking dizzy, she seemed okay. “I worked on interfaces and interconnects back on Vesta.”

“The priority must be the ship’s control,” Mach said. “Can you all work together on that first before we start getting into the alien tech? We can’t afford to delay. The longer we wait, the closer we’re getting to Larunda.”

Lassea turned to her console and punched in a few commands. “I’m getting no response, but the logs say we’re due to reach our destination in less than an hour.”

“That’s the deadline, then, everyone,” Mach said. “Sanchez, Adira, take the bodies to the stasis bay. We can inspect them further another time. Kingsley, can you still track the Atlantis ship’s signals without use of the Intrepid’s radios?

“I can. I have my gear in the engineering bay.”

“Right, let Squid and Tulula work on gaining control for now. I want you to track the Atlantis ship, find out where it’s going. If we can get control of the radios, we might be able to send a warning to wherever it’s heading.

And maybe that’ll prevent the destruction of Larunda, and the fall of the CW.

Maybe…

Chapter Thirty

Mach couldn’t wait any longer. It had been fifteen minutes since Kingsley Babcock went to work on tracking the Atlantis ship’s signature. They were less than that away from reaching Larunda, and Tulula and Squid hadn’t yet managed to wrestle control away from the malicious software.

“Take the helm,” Mach said to Adira. “I’m checking on the others.”

“Not much I can do,” Adira replied dryly. “Those damned aliens have screwed up this ship beyond control.”

“We’re working on it, but for now, be in a position to act on anything at all while I’m gone.” He stepped lower and whispered into her ear, “And keep an eye on Lassea. She’s running on anger at the moment, but her energy will drop at some point and she’ll probably need a shoulder to cry on if she does. I’d rather it be you.”

“Why?” she said.

“Because despite your coldness, you do actually care somewhere deep inside.”

“You’d like to believe that, wouldn’t you?”

“I do.” Mach turned and left the bridge before she had time to refute it. Mach knew her well enough that beneath her frosted exterior she cared for him, and cared for the crew. He saw it in her eyes and body language. The crew had united quickly and she was as much a part of it as anyone.

Mach walked with a quick pace through the corridor and down a flight of steps that led to Babcock’s computer bay. He ducked through the bulkhead and stepped into the large room.

A bank of quantum units lined the far wall. In the center was a three-meter-square white workstation with a holoprojector raised on a dais in the middle. It showed a three-dimensional schematic of a ship. He knew it wasn’t the Intrepid.

Babcock adjusted his glasses and peered up at Mach. “It’s a maze,” he said. “I’ve never seen a structure like it before.”

“What is it? Where did you get this? And weren’t you supposed to be tracking the signal?” Mach sighed, reminding himself not to be so harsh. Everyone was under pressure; it wouldn’t help matters with him snapping at people, least of all old friends.

To Babcock’s credit, he didn’t rise to Mach’s tone of voice. Instead, the engineer turned to the quantum units and switched on their display. Scrolling lines of holographic metrics were running down the length from ceiling to floor.

“She’s right there,” Babcock said. He motioned at the screen and stopped the scrolling. A coordinate highlighted from the strings of code.

Mach’s heart sank. Larunda.

“Those damned tartaruns were sending us both.”

Babcock pressed his lips together, a silent sigh. “I suppose when we arrived in their sector they saw us as an extra weapon. Which brings me to the schematic. That, my young friend, is the insides of the Atlantis ship.”

Mach stepped closer as Babcock gestured some commands into the project. The model rotated slowly, giving Mach a full close and highly detailed view of its construction. There were levels upon levels, staircases at odd angles, rooms that seemed to defy all logic in their placement and shape.

“It’s so… alien,” Mach said. “Any idea who built it? Was it the tartaruns, do you think?”

“I don’t think so, no. From what I can tell from that memory stick we recovered from Kaskas, the tartaruns intercepted it in the same manner they did with us, only the difference was there was no crew onboard to fight back. If you look at the designs, you’ll see no plumbing and no facilities to support a carbon-based life form that needs to breathe air.”

“Given its age, I can’t imagine anything on it being alive anyway. How did they stop it long enough to reprogram it to attack the CW orbitals?” Mach asked.

Babcock smiled then. He gestured away the schematic and brought up a set of files written in an alien script.

“What’s this I’m looking at?” Mach asked.

“It’s a tartarun mission log. I had Squid translate from the recordings he took while on their craft. The ion cannon they fitted to us is the same as the one on the Atlantis ship. Their mission was to use us to get into position, and then when they were onboard, they were to install the AI-software that would jump us to Larunda, and use the ion cannons to disable some of the defense platforms…”

Mach took over from him. “So we’re like a minesweeper to clear the way for the Atlantis ship to destroy the orbital.”

“Something like that, yes.”

Mach eased the tension from his shoulders and thought about their next steps. It seemed than in about ten minutes, the very ship he was now a captive on would fire its new weapons, disabling Larunda’s first line of defense, aiding the damned Atlantis ship in the destruction of the CW’s most important intelligence outpost.

“What can we do about this?” Mach said.

“Sir, I think we’ve cracked it,” Squid’s chirpy voice said as the little device came floating into the room, its tentacles flapping wildly with excitement. Tulula entered soon after, her face flustered, presumably with having to keep up with Squid.

“Cracked what?” Mach said. “The AI overrides?”

“Yes,” the vestan said. She gestured an open palm to Squid. “This little machine first spotted the code. It was wrapped around the Intrepid’s central AI kernel. Really clever programming. Smart too. Better than anything I’ve seen before. It was taking instructions from a mission download.”

“The item you recovered,” Squid said. “It gave the latent virus executable instructions. I do believe Kaskas was responsible for uploading the instructions shortly after we made the L-jump to our last location.”

“Are we sending any data back?” Babcock asked.

“No, we managed to block any communications from the software. We have full control now, all thanks to Squid’s quick thinking,” Tulula said, smiling up at the device.

“Good job, everyone,” Mach said.

“What do we do now?” Tulula asked. “I could take us out of the L-jump with a hard reset of the fusion array if we needed.”

“No,” Mach said, grabbing her by the shoulder. “We’re going to Larunda still, because that’s also where our target is going. The damned tartaruns had us designed as a minesweeper. Only that’s backfired on them now. We’re going to attack that ship as soon as we’re out of the L-Jump. Come with me to the bridge.”

He turned to face Babcock and Squid when he reached the bulkhead. “Great job, you two. Kingsley, I need you to assess the Atlantis ship, find out what we can do to stop it. It must have weak areas we can focus on, engine cores, computer bays, anything that could help us stop it from firing on Larunda. Also, are the radios working? I really need to get a message out as soon as we’re in Larundan space.”

“We’ll work on it and let you know as soon as it’s up and running,” Babcock said.

“Be quick; we’ve only got a few minutes.”

Running with Tulula by his side, Mach dashed up the steps and down the corridor toward the bridge. In a few more minutes, he would face his destiny. Face the Atlantis ship toe to toe. He ignored the cold dread that settled in his guts.

***

Mach gripped the armrests of the captain’s chair. The Intrepid blasted out of its L-jump. Sanchez, Adira and the others were all gathered on the bridge. The holoscreen flickered once, twice, and then bloomed with a vision of the sector, bringing detail to the void of black from their L-jump.

A tunnel of orange and white swirling light disappeared, their momentum leaving the wormhole exit behind in their wake.

“We’re out,” Lassea said. “Engaging Gamma Drive. What heading, Mach?”

At first Mach couldn’t see anything more than the stars in the inky blackness of space. He felt a twinge of anticlimax and disappointment. “Tulula, scan the sector. We can’t be that far from the Larunda station. Lassea, sweep us around. Let’s see if we can get a visual… on anything.”

Tulula, now taking up Danick’s position, took the order and gestured commands to the holocontrols. Down the right side of the viewscreen a stream of signals flowed. “We’ve got radio signals across the frequencies,” the vestan said.

“Can we transmit?” Mach asked.

Babcock approached Tulula’s workstation and entered a few commands of his own. “We can, Mach. Do you want me to establish connection to the Larunda Orbital?”

“Yeah, we have to warn them about… oh shit,” Mach said, leaning forward. He magnified the view and the feeling of disappointment soon changed to one of dread and not a little fear. Lassea had angled the ship down and to the port side. There, no more than a tenth of an AU away, was the hulking great form of the Atlantis ship.

“There she is,” Adira said.

“Ready to fire when you are, Mach,” Sanchez said.

“Hold fire for now,” Mach said. “Tulula, send all we have on the Atlantis ship to the Larunda Orbital. Tell them to initiate evacuation procedures while we engage.”

Their target approached the LDP—Larundan Defensive Platform—a colossal destroyer armed with nukes, lasers, and pulse weaponry. The LDP hung in space like a black granite wedge. Over a klick long and half wide, it orbited the Larunda station: a giant diamond-shaped structure that housed over five thousand of the CW’s best intelligence officers and tactical minds.

“Lassea, take us within firing range of the Atlantis ship. Sanchez, you’re on lasers; Adira, you’re on the ion cannon. Babcock, did you find us a target? We’ve only got enough juice in this bird for one ion shot; if we’re to disable that thing, we can’t afford to miss.”

The engineer approached Mach and lifted his smart-screen up. Mach leaned in close, reading the plans and schematics. A rear section of the enemy ship was highlighted with a red outline. “What is that exactly?” Mach asked.

“I believe it’s the power cell module for its primary weapon and wormhole drive.”

“They’re run from the same source? You’re saying its weapon is based on wormhole tech?”

“I can’t be sure yet, but the infrastructure tells me it’s likely the case.”

“Okay, patch the information to Adira’s targeting module.”

“Consider it done.”

Lassea brought the Intrepid to within fifteen klicks of the Atlantis ship. Even from that distance, the massive craft filled the viewscreen. “Would you look at that,” she whispered, her voice shaking with fear.

“Sure is a big bastard,” Sanchez said.

“Captain, we’ve got a message from Larunda,” Tulula said.

“Send it to my smart-screen. Lassea, we need to flank it. Take us slowly under the stern and prepare to engage full speed to the port. Use the LDP for cover.”

The LDP had already started to fire upon the Atlantis ship. Five orange-yellow plumes from the nukes’ rockets blazed across the five-klick distance. The missiles slammed into the side of the Atlantis ship’s left flank toward the large boxy bow section. A bright purple field rippled around the ship, absorbing the blasts. The last nuke managed to break through to the hull, but it barely dented the matte-black surface.

Mach pumped his fist, urging the LDP to keep going as Lassea brought the Intrepid within striking distance.

“Carson Mach, do you receive me?” a harsh female voice called to him via his smart-screen. He raised it and opened the video channel. The reception intermittently broke to a horizontal static each time the Atlantis ship fired its alien weapon at the LDP. Great blue bolts struck the defensive platform, smashing huge chunks from it as though it were made of eggshell.

“I receive you. Who am I talking to?” Mach said, trying not to let the terror of watching the LDP get smashed to bits show in his voice.

“Senator Margray, head of CW Intelligence. What the hell is going on up there?” The woman wore her hair in a bun on the top of her head. Her dark skin shone beneath a stark white light, picking out each individual wrinkle and eyes that held a stony determination.

“You got our message about evacuating, right? I suggest you do that. I was tasked by Admiral Morgan to track and disable the Atlantis ship. I’m sure you’re aware by now that your LDP will be an expensive pile of rubble within a few minutes. Larunda station will be next. You have to leave, right now.”

“Evac protocols are in operation as we speak,” Margray said. Behind her, Mach noticed dozens of people running in an orderly fashion toward a wide door in the dark office. “What are your plans?”

“Shoot the crap out of the ship until it stops, I guess, not much else we can do. We’ll at least buy you time.”

“Before you go,” she said, “are you up to speed on the news regarding Admiral Morgan?”

“No, I’ve been kinda busy with a few things. What’s going on?”

Mach looked up from his smart-screen to watch the final piece of the LDP get blasted by a huge blue bolt. The energy weapon tore through the platform’s defenses, ripping the titanium graphene hull as though it were nothing more solid than a sheet of rice paper.

Lassea had followed his order and was bringing the Intrepid around in a sideways drift, flanking the hulk of the enemy ship. At least they had the maneuverability advantage.

“Fire,” Mach said to Sanchez. “Full quads, use Babcock’s target coordinates.”

“I’m on it,” the big hunter said, thrusting his hands back into the holocontrols and powering the lasers.

Mach turned his attention to the spy boss. “The news,” Mach said. “Make it quick, then get the hell out of here, you don’t have much time.”

“Very well. Morgan’s taken over the CW. The president and vice president were killed in a terrorist attack earlier this morning. Morgan negotiated with the Vestan Three. They’ve pulled away from the Axis and joined the CW. Hostilities have come to an end on the NCZ.”

Mach couldn’t quite take it all in; he had so many questions but not enough time. He was thankful that Morgan had managed to do something about the Axis, but it didn’t change the fact that he was about to get blasted across the Larunda sector any minute.

“That’s great,” Mach said. “Now run. We’ll hold the Atlantis ship for as long as we can.”

“Thank you, Captain Mach,” Margray said, saluting him before cutting the transmission. Mach dropped his arm and focused on the view in front of him.

All around the shining diamond that was Larunda, ships launched out of hangar bays and immediately engaged their LDs, creating dozens of pinched points of light winking out like supernovae.

“Firing everything we’ve got, Mach,” Sanchez said.

Lassea stabilized the Intrepid with the retro thrusters so they matched velocity with their target. A loud hum echoed throughout the craft; a pulse from the quad-lasers shot out across the three-klick distance, striking the enemy ship’s stern section.

The first pulse activated its shields, but the LDP’s nukes must have weakened them; three remaining laser pulses got through, striking the hull, but they only managed to create a small scar along the matte-black surface.

In response to the attack, two cannons, half the length of the Atlantis ship and installed atop the hull, swiveled to point in the Intrepid’s direction.

“Get ready to engage full power to the Gamma Drive,” Mach said. “Get us under and out the other side, then swing us round. Adira, you’ll fire the ion cannon, we’ve got one chance at this. Ready?”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Lassea said.

“Do it,” Adira said.

“GO!” Mach shouted as the first of the cannons fired, belching out great gobs of blue plasma.

Lassea engaged the drives to full power, thrusting the Intrepid forward like a bullet from a gun. The cannon blast missed them by a few meters. Within five seconds, they had passed beneath the behemoth and came out on the other side.

“Hold on,” Lassea said as she put the Intrepid into a tight half-spin, bringing the bow around to face the opposite flank. The momentum meant they were flying backwards away from it, but still within firing range.

“Now, Adira!” Mach yelled.

Adira coldly followed his order with a single gesture of her right hand. The lights within the bridge went out. A thwump thwump noise vibrated through the hull. The hairs on Mach’s arms stood on end as the tartarun ion cannons drained every last watt of power from their converters.

The viewscreen flickered back on after the cannons fired.

“Oh crap! Everyone hold on!” Mach shouted as a blue bolt from the Atlantis ship came firing their way; the damned thing must have anticipated their movement and had a cannon ready on the other side.

Lassea screamed and lurched her hands across the holocontrols. The Gamma Drive didn’t fire, due to the lack of power, but the retro thrusters kicked in, jolting the Intrepid to the starboard side and flipping her over in a barrel roll.

Mach glimpsed the viewscreen as he fell out of his chair and crumpled to the floor. The blue bolt struck the portside wing, tearing it away. The hull of the Intrepid sounded like the insides of a thundercloud, boom after boom came, metal rending and tearing.

Adira and Babcock were tangled in a pile. Tulula lay motionless on her side, her face illuminated by the swirling red alert light. Then sirens blared; warning signs flashed on the screen. Smoke and air hissed from somewhere behind Mach, and then, finally, silence.

Mach’s vision blurred when he tried to stand. The ship’s anti-g had switched off. He floated up and spun round. Tulula’s leg was trapped against her console, pinning her to the bridge floor. Everyone else hovered a few meters off the floor.

Squid approached Mach, its OLED eyes blinking.

“Is everyone alive?” Mach said, his voice sounding far off. His ears still rang from the din before. “Is there a hull breach?”

“Screw that,” Sanchez said, grabbing onto Mach’s leg and pulling himself closer. “I thought that was it… damn, this ship can take a hit. Did the ion cannon hit?”

Squid flickered its tentacles and chirped before saying, “No hull breach, the port wing is gone, taking with it the missiles and retro thrusters. The vestans designed the ship in such a way that the wings could be removed separate from the hull.”

“Well, that’s something, I guess,” Mach said. He floated over to Adira and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Hey, you okay?” he said, shaking her gently.

Adira blinked and winced. She held her head. “Are we dead?”

“Not yet, no, but we might be in a minute.”

Mach went around the crew, making sure they were okay. Babcock, Lassea, and Tulula were mostly fine with just a few grazes and cuts. The ship, however, was in bad condition. They only had one set of thrusters on the starboard wing, no access to weaponry, and no Gamma Drive or LD. They were the proverbial sitting duck.

“Squid, do we have visuals?” Mach asked.

The floating device hovered over to the viewscreen and used its tentacles to adjust the wiring behind a console cover. “The external cameras are damaged, but I think we can get… yes, here.”

Half of the screen flickered on, showing a grainy image of the Atlantis ship receding slowly into the distance. Its cannons were pointed at the Intrepid, but it wasn’t firing.

“Wait a damned minute,” Mach said, floating over to the screen until he was just inches from it. “Look at the stern… does that look like—”

“A big asshole,” Lassea said, pumping her fist. “The ion cannon worked!”

“Holy mother…” Sanchez whispered, shaking his head.

The whole crew gathered together and stared at the inert ship.

“I guess we ought to get closer,” Lassea said. “We should board it. I doubt it’ll stay inactive for long.”

“Lassea’s right,” Babcock said. “From what I could gather from the tartaruns’ intelligence, they believe the ship to have a failsafe system. We’ve probably only got thirty standard minutes before the systems reboot.”

“Lassea, do you think you can pilot us into that hole?”

“I’ve done okay so far, haven’t I?”

“That’s the spirit. Okay, everyone, let’s get to the airlock, get suited up. When Lassea brings us in, we’ll see if we can find our way into the ship and shut its core down. Babs, you got the schematics on your smart-screen?”

“I do,” he said.

“Good. Tulula, would you stay behind and help repair what you can, see if you can get the Gamma Drive or the LD back online? If we fail, you’ll need to get the hell away from here and deliver all we have learned to Fides Prime.”

“I’ll do that,” the vestan said. “It’s the least I can do.”

“Right, everyone, get your shit together, we’ve got an alien ship to deactivate.”

He just hoped no one was at home preparing for them.

The legendary ship just floated there, looking menacing, waiting…

Chapter Thirty-One

The Intrepid loomed alongside the Atlantis ship. Mach peered through the airlock window at the gaping hole created by the tartarun ion cannon. Pieces of twisted debris floated around the mangled chasm and bounced off the side of their ship. With only thirty minutes before a reboot, it was now or never if they wanted to disable and capture it.

Adira, Sanchez and Babcock held a rail by his side in their suits and helmets. Squid was attached to Babcock’s belt on a graphene line. All had attached the mini thrusters around their forearms. The airlock was already depressurized and Mach held his gloved hand over the black glass pad, ready to open the outside door.

“Just a little closer if you can,” Mach said through his smart-screen.

“Doing my best,” Lassea replied from the controls. “It’s difficult with a missing wing and thruster.”

“Bump into the damned thing,” Sanchez said. “We haven’t got time for perfection.”

“Once inside we should split up,” Mach said. “Sanchez, Babcock and Squid, you head for the core. Adira and I will find the bridge. If you can’t stop it rebooting, we’ll try to get it the hell out of here.”

“You need to head up and forward,” Babcock said. “It’s at the front end of the ship. We’ll head for the guts.”

“Okay. Stay in touch. Let me know if you come across any trouble.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Sanchez said. “I’ll make sure nothing stops us.”

The Intrepid thrust to the side and drifted toward the damaged superstructure. Mach pressed the pad and the door whined open. He hit the thrust button and drifted forward with his laser raised.

Sparks crackled and quickly vanished in the cavernous space inside the Atlantis ship. Mach swatted away floating parts of smashed electrical boards and white plastic casing. He switched on his shoulder lights. The remaining equipment looked like it was designed for giants. A ten-meter-high console, with a series of symbols, shattered screens, and buttons the size of his head, lined the opposite side of the room. A five-meter-high stool, still secured to the chrome floor, sat in front of it.

A tall corridor, matching the scale of the infrastructure, on the right-hand side provided access further into the ship. A vertical shaft in the bottom right-hand corner led down. Mach twisted around to check the other three, who had also activated their lights.

“Split from here,” Mach said. “We’ll take the corridor.”

Adira thrust toward him. Babcock, with Squid in tow, and Sanchez tilted and powered themselves down in the direction of the shaft. For a brief moment, Mach thought splitting up wasn’t the best idea, but with the clock ticking, it was the most sensible option.

Light shone through the meshed flooring and ceiling in the twenty-meter-high corridor, creating beams of light that crisscrossed the space. Darkness lay beyond, but Mach realized that he had no time to analyze every last little detail and delay their search for the controls.

Pounding echoed through the helmets’ listening sensors. Mach looked up. Something scuttled across the floor two floors above them. Life or machine was still active on the ship. He curled his finger around the trigger and gestured his laser up.

“Seen it,” Adira said. “Let’s keep heading up.”

“Not unexpected,” Mach said. “Shoot first, ask questions later.”

She thrust toward another upward shaft and advanced. Mach immediately followed and they rose through dull mirrored walls that rose at least forty meters up toward flashing lights. He pressed his glove against the wall to maintain a steady ascent and glanced up.

“How are things with you?” Sanchez said through the intercom.

“We’ve got company in here,” Mach said. “Keep your eyes peeled.”

“All good so far,” Sanchez replied. “What did you see?”

“I’m not sure. Not big but it made a lot of noise.”

“We’ll be at the core soon. I’ll—”

The transmission cut to static.

“Sanchez? Sanchez, are you there?”

Nobody replied.

“Could just be frequency jammers or protective shields for the core,” Adira said. “We better keep moving.”

Mach continued up and tilted his chest back, allowing his lights to shine into the space above. A murky ceiling stretched fifty meters above the edge of the shaft.

“Cover me,” Mach said, pushed his arms back and thrust. He rose out of the shaft and glanced around. Whoever designed the Atlantis ship had a strange way of doing things, but it all seemed configured for giants.

Adira’s helmet knocked against his boot. He knew she wouldn’t be far behind. Two things were reliable when she was around. Death or conviction. It’s what drew Mach to her in the first place. She had a compulsive nature and saw things clearly in black or white.

The lights brightened overhead and Mach punched his thruster to shoot higher. Twenty large dust-covered space fighters, with broad wings and triangular bodies, pointed diagonally toward a closed oblong exit shoot. These craft hadn’t moved for generations to be in this kind of state in space. A fresher looking tartarun droid stood by the closest. The fighter bay was the size of the Intrepid.

“Look out,” Adira screamed.

Mach looked down. He couldn’t see anything and thrust left. A pain shot across his right leg and droplets of blood floated in front of his visor. He twisted down and powered toward the first fighter, coming to a rest at its side and grabbing the wing. Dust puffed away from it and spread in the immediate area. He looked down at a tear in his suit. The compartmentalized nature of the fabric meant he wouldn’t have his life support degraded, but it stung like hell.

“What the hell happened?” Mach said.

“Gimme a second.”

Adira fired her laser and a red beam stabbed across the fighter bay. She dropped by Mach’s side, briefly glanced at his leg and rose again, hovering over the fighter’s domed cockpit with her laser raised.

Mach winced and drifted to her side. “What are we up against?”

“Not sure. A thin silver cable whipped from behind a fighter. It rolled back like a huge robotic tentacle.”

“Whatever it is, we need to take it out. The clock’s ticking.”

He dropped lower and peered along the ground underneath the fighter. Something glinted ahead. A dim light rushed toward him. Mach thrust up and felt a sharp pain in his hip.

A silver cable shot ten meters past him and retreated with the same rapid speed, back underneath the row of fighters. Mach pressed his glove against his hip and looked at the blood streaked across his fingers.

“Damn it,” Mach said.

Adira fired her laser and shouted, “Fire, Mach. Fire!”

Light spread across the high metallic red ceiling. A three-meter-wide spinning bright blue star moved across it toward them. Five cables attached to each point. All snapped in Mach’s direction.

***

Babcock glanced to his left, making sure Squid was by his side. If they were to hack the core, stop the boot sequence and gain control of the ship, it would require their teamwork. Sanchez descended ahead of him. The burly gun-runner’s two lights punched into the dusty gloom of the shaft.

They came up against a dead end.

“The map looked like a continuous route,” Babcock said.

Sanchez searched around the space. He pressed his gloved hand against a series of five pressure pads.

A section of the wall to their side rumbled, vibrated and slid to one side. Bright light flooded the shaft from a smooth white five-meter-wide corridor leading to another dead end. The light blue lines crossing the ceiling gave it the appearance of a huge circuit board.

A loud groan murmured ahead. Not infrastructure straining under the pressure of the damage inflicted by the cannon. This had a living sound. Sanchez paused and pressed himself against the wall.

“You ready for this?” Sanchez asked.

“We haven’t got a choice,” Babcock said. They did, but running would mean all of their deaths, and the people of Larunda. He wasn’t a fighter, but there were exceptions to nearly every rule. “Lead the way. Squid and I will be right behind you.”

Sanchez nodded, spun and thrust forward.

Three metallic clanks came from somewhere below. The corridor shuddered. Babcock checked his smart-screen. They had less than ten minutes before the Atlantis ship’s systems restarted. He studied the map of the ship and realized they were right on top of the core.

“There’s another shaft at the end,” Babcock said. “We’ll be there in a minute.”

Another deep undulating moan echoed from below. Babcock wondered how it was even possible, as they were still in an unpressurized environment, and glanced around the walls.

“Sounds like we’ll have company,” Sanchez said. “Stay close. You’re the one who needs to stay alive if the shit hits the fan.”

The solid white wall at the end punched to one side and slammed open. The corridor jolted, knocking Sanchez, Babcock and Squid against the wall.

Babcock panicked, thrust and hit the ceiling. Squid hung below him. He twisted and looked toward the open entrance ahead.

A chrome trapezoid, with two whirring arms on either side, shot out of the dark space. It headed directly at them and scraped along the wall, tearing a jagged gouge through the white material as it advanced.

Sanchez hunched and repeatedly fired.

Babcock fumbled with the laser’s controls with his trembling hand. He aimed down and fired. His beam hit the floor, creating a black smoldering dent.

Sanchez ducked to one side.

The trapezoid passed directly between them, smashing into Squid. It came to an abrupt halt and its arms, in a spinning blur, smashed Babcock’s little AI friend into hundreds of pieces.

Babcock gritted his teeth. His hand steadied and he fired down. Sanchez’s laser struck the underside of the trapezoid. They both kept their fingers on their triggers, draining the charge of their weapons.

Thin wisps of smoke drifted from the trapezoid and its arms slowed to limp shiny rods. It drifted lifelessly to one side and clanked against the wall. Pieces of Squid floated past Babcock’s visor and his heart sank. His favorite partner for the last decade had been destroyed in a heartbeat.

“Switch on,” Sanchez said. “There’ll be time to mourn Squid.”

“Without him, it’s gonna be a whole lot harder.”

“I know, but as harsh as it sounds, you need to forget it… him. We’ve got a mission to complete.”

Babcock took a last glance at the smashed circuitry and wires he had lovingly constructed into a friend. The task became doubly difficult without Squid’s assistance, but he would complete it in his honor. The Atlantis ship had made it personal. “Lead the way, Sanchez. The tartaruns are going to regret the day they crossed Kingsley Babcock.”

Sanchez thrust forward. Babcock checked the charge on his laser. He still had four seconds of shot left.

A shaft led down at the end of the corridor. The maps so far had proven correct, and this was their final descent. Sanchez didn’t waste any time heading down. As Babcock followed him, descending into the gloom, he feared they might not have enough time.

***

Mach thrust to his side, keeping his finger on the accelerate button. He shot across the bay and smashed into the solid wall. His leg and hip throbbed and droplets of blood drifted in his wake. The star’s cables thudded against the ground, sending debris and space dust floating in the air.

Adira split in the opposite direction. She scrambled under the body of the second fighter in the row of ten on the opposite side of the bay.

The brilliant blue star zipped in her direction and snapped its glinting cables down, sending up a plume of gray mist.

“Adira?” Mach said.

“Close call. Do something!”

Mach leaned forward, raised his laser and thrust forward. He’d faced worse than this, but the thought of Adira being attacked motivated him in a way that he hadn’t felt before.

Thick gray dust shrouded the whole bay. The lights on the ceiling glared through the dusty haze.

A thin blue glow punctuated the gloom. Snapping noises cracked through Mach’s earpiece as the machine continued to attack Adira.

“Still alive?” Mach asked.

The beam of Adira’s laser shot up, hitting the ceiling at multiple points as she fired in different directions. Mach advanced further forward, toward the light blue star, and swept his visor clean.

Stiff-lined arms crackled with electricity and snapped down toward Adira. Mach fired, sending his thin red shot directly into the machine’s central body.

The machine struck the fighter again, splitting it down the middle. Sparks momentarily fizzled around the wreck. Mack spotted Adira roll under the next craft. He raised his laser and fired at the star. It turned its focus on him. A cable whipped over his shoulder and smacked into the wall. Shrapnel peppered his suit. One shard punctured his chest, sending Mach spinning against the tartarun droid, and he took a deep breath before crashing against one of the mechanical legs.

Both lungs drew in air from the life support pack. Just a cracked rib, Mach guessed. He glanced at his smart-screen. Three minutes before the ship restarted its systems. Without word from Sanchez and Babcock, he felt it was down to him and Adira. They needed to reach the bridge.

Adira rose behind the machine and fired. Her beam ricocheted off the body, but its cables drooped. Mach ascended, breathing heavily and feeling faint. He fired his last charge and thrust toward the ceiling.

The star slowed on its axis and plummeted. It hit the floor and tumbled to a skidding stop below them.

“Go now,” Adira said. “Before that thing recovers.”

Mach felt momentarily disorientated. He gripped his side to stem the blood flow and surveyed the area. The blue star had lost most of its effervescence, dimming the bay. A shaft led up at the far end. He leaned forward and powered toward it.

Adira drifted up from the dust-clouded floor.

“Are you okay?” Mach said, looking at a gouge on the arm of Adira’s suit.

“I’ll live. Lead the way,” Adira said. “I’m on five percent laser.”

“Let’s hope we don’t come across another.” Mach checked the reading on his weapon. “I’m out.”

The five-meter-wide shaft rose toward black star-studded space. It had to be the bridge. The Atlantis ship didn’t have an open structure.

Mach shot up twenty meters into an open space. A thick glass dome spread around the top half of the area. An oversized dark gray console stretched around the front half of the room. Hundreds of pink and orange lights winked on it.

Twenty screens flickered against the back wall, strobing the area. Small rods and buttons spread across a smaller console below it.

“Recognize anything that’s weapon or navigation related?” Adira asked.

Mach frowned and surveyed both consoles. “Navigation at the front and weapons at the back… probably. We’ll have a small window if Babcock fails to stop the Atlantis booting.”

“So we just wait?”

“We can try now, but it might not do any good. Let’s just pray Babcock and Squid do the business.”

The ship groaned and spun. Larunda came into view and they were heading directly for it.

***

Babcock followed Sanchez into a cavernous space. Four tall light green blocks, three stories high, sat in a row in the center of the room, casting an eerie glow. To the left, red symbols streamed across two large screens.

“That might be the restart sequence,” Babcock said and glanced at his smart-screen. They had two minutes. He thrust immediately toward a glowing control pad below the screens.

A dark figure shot across the ceiling. Thirty small marble-sized blue orbs sprayed in their direction. One struck Babcock’s leg. He looked down and screamed. His suit had instantly melted at the impact spot and the orb burned into his thigh.

Sanchez clutched the right side of his stomach and gasped through the intercom. “Leave this to me, Babcock. You do your thing.”

Babcock winced and drifted across the console. A red light flashed against the wall above him. Sanchez’s laser firing. He tried to ignore the searing pain and focused ahead.

The controls had symbols he’d seen somewhere before. Beringer’s ancient cave painting of the Atlantis ship. They had attempted to decrypt it years ago, but didn’t have enough data to complete a translation.

A bar was rising on the left side of the screen, over three-quarters of the way to the top. Babcock guessed it measured the progress of the system restart. He captured the streaming data and controls on his smart-screen and ran them through his recognition software. This had all known universal code and would hopefully translate enough to enable him to stop the ship becoming operational again.

“I’m hit,” Sanchez’s voice crackled. “I’m heading to the other side of the core to draw the damned thing away.”

A blue orb shot over Babcock’s head and hit the edge of the left screen, creating a smoldering hole. He instinctively ducked and raised his trembling wrist. The timer he’d started on the Intrepid had reduced to fifty-nine seconds.

The Atlantis ship’s superstructure let out a metallic scream. A laser blast shot across the ceiling. Babcock’s smart-screen worked on the code but hadn’t produced a response. He pressed the controls, hoping something would happen.

Lights thumped on across the ceiling, bathing the area in bright light. The bar reached the top and the four tall blocks behind him whirred.

“I think I’ve taken it out,” Sanchez said. “How are you getting on?”

Babcock pushed away from the controls and felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. “It’s too late. I can’t stop it.”

***

The screens on the bridge flickered to solid, displaying outside images of Larunda, the ship’s tartarun-built cannon pivoting around, and a three-dimensional radar display. Mach forced his eyes open, refusing to lose consciousness. Deep blue holocontrols rose from the front console. Green ones rose from the panel at the back of the bridge.

“You try the weapons,” Mach said. “I’ll try the navigation.”

Adira thrust below the screens and floated above the controls. Mach turned and headed for the oversized console at the front. There had to be some recognizable logic to their operation.

Through the glass dome, Larunda was less than a klick away, and they were closing fast. Mach placed his gloves around the large sphere in front of him and spun it. Nothing looked obvious, but they had to try something.

“Oh shit,” Adira said. “I don’t know what I’ve done, but the cannon’s gonna fire.”

Mach glanced over his shoulder. On the central screen above Adira, a bright light glared from the cannon’s mouth. He’d seen this before on smaller ion cannons. It only meant one thing. The weapon was primed and would fire at any moment.

He spun the sphere and pressed the symbols. The ship powered forward and Larunda loomed larger ahead. They were seconds from impact.

“Do something, Mach,” Adira shouted. “Nothing I’m doing is working.”

Mach took a deep breath. He spun the sphere and hit another group of symbols, hoping it wouldn’t trigger the cannon or thrust faster toward the orbital.

The view outside twisted as the ship went into a roll. They headed to the right of Larunda but were still in danger of a collision.

A blue light flashed above the glass dome and zipped toward the edge of Larunda. It smashed into a defense platform on the edge, sending debris in all directions. At least it hadn’t hit the main target, but they were still on course.

Mach hit the symbols again and took a deep breath. He raised his gloved hand over his visor as they drifted within meters of Larunda.

The Atlantis ship’s superstructure screamed as it scraped along the side of the orbital. Mach and Adira were both thrown to the side of the bridge and smashed against the wall. He couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer and felt himself bump against the ceiling as a distant alarm pulsed.

A voice echoed through Mach’s intercom, but he couldn’t respond.

***

Babcock regained his composure after being forced away from the controls after the force of the impact. Two of the core towers died, their block structures turning from light green to gray. CWDF and private contacts appeared on his smart-screen. They had comms back and he hoped it wasn’t too late.

Sanchez appeared at his side. Blood spattered the internal left-hand side of his helmet and his left arm hung limply by his side. “What the hell was that?”

“No idea,” Babcock said. “But I’ve got contact with the space relays and I’m sending the information to Beringer. If there’s one man who can crack this, it’s him.”

“Sanchez, Babcock,” Adira said through the intercom. “How’s it going down there?”

“Haven’t cracked it yet,” Babcock said. “Do we still have Larunda?”

“Yep. We’re drifting at the moment. I’m trying to work out the controls.”

“What about the cannon?” Sanchez asked.

“It’s not priming at the moment. We’re heading away from the orbital, so I’m not trying anything stupid.”

“Is Mach there?”

No immediate reply came. Babcock swallowed hard and bowed his head.

“He’s out cold,” Adira replied. “His screen shows a weak pulse, but he’s still with us. We need to gain control and find medical assistance.”

Sanchez groaned. “He’s not the only one.”

Babcock’s smart-screen vibrated. A message from Beringer. He knew his old friend would be online and this was the subject that Beringer had studied for years. With the pressure off and a code to crack, together they would reel this thing in. For Squid, Mach, Sanchez, Adira and the Commonwealth.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Mach exhaled a long slow breath, misting the window of his gloss-white medical room. A bed took up most of the space, with a cabinet and a dresser sitting opposite. A smart-screen attached to the wall showed graphs and charts of his condition.

He looked up at it, pleased to see his heart beat in the normal range. For the previous four days as he recovered, his pulse had been erratic. He shifted his gaze back to the viewport and watched hundreds of engineers and drones inspect the docked Atlantis ship. It had taken two full days for them to drag it into Larunda’s outboard hangar bay, and even then the ship’s colossal size required an EM-tether, its bulk too large to reside within the bay completely.

Fragments of the LDP still drifted by like an asteroid belt. He was glad the CW had changed it to an unmanned defense platform the year before; a thousand individuals usually populated them.

Images of the alien ship still flashed in his mind, as did the screams of his crew during the fight. But they’d done it. They’d finally captured the Atlantis ship, proved it wasn’t a myth. It was nothing more than an extremely powerful ancient warship belonging to a long-lost alien race.

He had wondered about them over the last two days it took for his body to heal. Where were they? What happened to them? The CW would no doubt have the best minds crawling all over it, picking together the story of its origins and makers. Theo Beringer would no doubt make this his life’s work.

Below the frenzied activity surrounding the prize sat his ship, the Intrepid. Even with the damage it had sustained, it still evoked a sense of pride and passion within him. Without that ship, and ironically, the sabotaged weapon the tartaruns had installed, there was no way they could have stopped the Atlantis ship.

Someone coughed behind him. Mach turned round, wincing only slightly, the pain in his hips and back tweaking a damaged nerve.

“Morgan,” Mach said, smiling. “Nice of you to drop by. I wasn’t expecting you for a while yet, considering your new position. Shame what happened to Orloza and Steros. Any luck on finding their killer?”

Morgan stood up straight and pulled his presidential jacket down with a sharp jerk. “It’s currently undergoing investigation,” he said. “But we’ve currently got no leads.”

For the briefest of moments Mach almost believed him. It seemed he had learned the art of the diplomatic bluff after all. It certainly took him long enough. “And what of the marshal?”

“That’s what I’m here for, actually. Listen, Carson, you did amazing out there with limited resources. I tried to give you more, but my hands were tied.” Morgan looked over his shoulder, turned, and closed the door, clicking the lock into place. He joined Mach by the viewport and stared out at the ship. “I need a new marshal. Someone capable. These tartaruns, they’re planning a full-scale invasion.”

“And you know this for sure?” Mach said, although it didn’t exactly come as a shock considering what they had done with the Intrepid.

“Our intelligence officers have been busy over the last few days inspecting the materials gathered from the Atlantis ship and that memory stick you recovered.” He waved his hand at the viewport. “All this was just a trial run. They are a vast people, nomadic and scattered throughout vast regions of space. My reports suggest that they have achieved advanced wormhole technology reverse-engineered from the Atlantis ship. We need to be ready.”

Mach started to feel weak. He stepped over to the bed and sat down. “I’m tired, Morgan. Tired of the CW, tired of rules and regulations. I was better off freelance, working the way I want to. I can’t do the job of marshal—you know that. Think about it logically. Would you really want someone like me in a position like that? I’d be a liability. I take too many risks. I’m not calm and considered. I’d put too many people’s lives in danger.”

“You do yourself a discredit, Mach. You’d be the best damned marshal this Commonwealth would ever see.”

“That’s very kind of you, but flattery isn’t going to change my mind. I’m out, Morgan, for good. I only did this as a favor to you, and because you and your CW buddies screwed me over with an excessive fine.”

“I’m sorry about that, but I did what I thought was best.”

There was something about Morgan’s steel and justification of his decisions that flipped a switch in his brain. He thought of Adira, what she had said to him, the years she had spent locked away because she thought it was for the best.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” Mach said. “You took the contract out on me. It was you who hired Adira.”

Morgan tried to smile, brush it away as something ludicrous, impossible, but Mach was too quick; he saw it in the older man’s eyes, the guilt, the shame, the deceit. Given he thought nothing of killing the people who stood in his way, even if it was ultimately the right thing for the CW, it told Mach everything he needed to know.

“Why, Morgan? Just tell me that at least.”

“Damn it, Mach, don’t you think I had valid reasons? You’re my oldest friend, it wasn’t easy for me, why do you think Adira spent so long in solitary?”

“What, you got cold feet?”

“No, I realized I couldn’t imagine the Salus Sphere without you in it, even with all the chaos and trouble that you create behind you. I took the contract because you would have suffered far worse. You don’t realize the enemies you made in the CW. You would have been tortured, beaten, buried alive on some godforsaken rim world. At the time I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t find you.”

“That’s because I was hiding. I was happy out there on my own, minding my own business. I could handle my enemies myself.”

“Not these ones you couldn’t. But see, after I took the contract, I worked hard to reach the people who wanted you dead. I struck a deal with them, paid them off. But Adira… well, you know what she’s like. She refused to cancel the contract, didn’t want to ruin her record or reputation, so I had her locked up.”

“I bet you nearly had an aneurism when you heard I busted her out.”

“Something like that, but listen to me, I did what I thought was best at the time. I was looking out for you, but you don’t make it easy for me.”

“So who were the people who wanted me dead, and what did you do to get them off my trail?”

Morgan lowered his head and his voice. “It was a group of horan spies working out of Fides Gamma. I was using them to filter misinformation to the Axis Combine. You had killed one of their number in some minor skirmish a few years after I had made contact with them.”

Mach laughed and shook his head. “Those horans, eh? Tetchy about that kind of thing, aren’t they?”

“So that’s that,” Morgan said. “You know the truth, about me, about Adira… take the position, Mach. You’re getting too old to go chasing around the stars like some young rebel. It’s time to grow up, do something bigger.”

“Like have the president and vice president assassinated because I can’t get my own way?”

Morgan turned away, hiding the pain of the truth that showed so clearly on his aged face. To Mach, it seemed he had aged far beyond his years. But then, shame and guilt would do that to a man.

“That answer will always be no,” Mach said.

“We’ve wiped your criminal record, and those of your crew. You can start afresh,” Morgan said, but the enthusiasm had left his voice. He knew he couldn’t get his own way this time.

“It’s not enough, President Morgan.”

His old friend took in a deep breath, his shoulders rising before falling again with the resigned exhale. “If that’s the way you want it, then I won’t stand in your way. I’ll have your ship fixed and you’ll be free to go about your business.”

“Wait, how are the others?”

“All fine, recuperating down the hall. Kingsley is working on a new design for his Squid AI. Tulula… well, she’s taken a position within my new tartarun task force and will help liaise with the horan hierarchy now that they’ve back off from the NCZ.”

“She’s a clever one,” Mach said. “Don’t ruin her.”

“I won’t.”

Morgan faced Mach and held out his hand. Mach shook it out of an old respect but said nothing more. There was little else he wanted or needed to say. Morgan held his gaze for a moment before nodding and letting go of his hand. He stepped around the bed and approached the door. He stopped for a brief moment, but when Mach said nothing, he opened it and left, closing it behind him with a soft click.

Mach fell back into his bed and stared up at the ceiling, trying to absorb everything they had said and admitted to. He had to give the old man credit; he had worked the system well. He’d never imagined Morgan would have been the type to work horan spies or organize his way to the very top.

But he guessed all those years in a seemingly ceremonial position took its toll. He supposed at some point Morgan snapped and realized he was just dying slowly in an office that no one cared about or respected.

Everyone comes to that turning point in their lives at some point, he thought, considering his turning point so many years ago now. The day he decided to leave the CW and be a freelancer—the most freeing day he had ever experienced.

And he wasn’t going to let the promise of some title take that away from him.

Carson Mach was no one’s marshal.

Carson Mach was his own man, with his own crew.

Lying there, he eventually drifted off, the painkillers and various stims within his system dragging him off to a dreamless void. He had survived the Atlantis ship; he had survived Adira.

The only thing he had to decide now was… what next?

Thank you for reading The Atlantis Ship.

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A.C. Hadfield always wanted to be an astronaut as he grew up reading science fiction novels and dreaming of the stars. He ended up as an engineer but developed a passion for the world of writing. He hopes you get the same enjoyment out of the books as he does writing them.

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