04 Dark Space (17 page)

“They said they wanted the Gors, but the Gors left, so you’ll have to ask them what else they’re after.”

“Very well.” With that, Hoff hurried out the door and down the corridor to the waiting room. Five minutes later he reached the rail car tunnel that would take him down to the
Valiant’s
ventral hangar bays, and ten minutes later he was standing in the hangar concourse, watching through the transpiranium walls as Sythian shuttles landed by the dozens in the port and starboard hangar bays. These were the venture-class hangars, and they were big enough to accommodate over a hundred shuttles each. Hoff found himself wondering at the absence of the
Intrepid
and the
Baroness
, the two venture-class cruisers which should have been docked inside those hangars. He decided that he must have forgotten he’d launched them to deal with the Sythian threat.

Hoff stepped closer to the starboard hangar and squinted out at the bustle of gleaming lavender-hued shuttles. Each one was at least twenty meters long and had the same teardrop shape as all of the larger Sythian vessels.

The stream of shuttles streaking in through the distant, fuzzy blue wall of static shields began to slow down, and they began opening up like mechanical flowers, their sides peeling away to form ramps in three different directions at once. Hordes of troops in glossy black armor with glowing red optics poured out onto the deck—Gors. Hoff’s brow furrowed and a stab of adrenaline sent his heart pounding. The Gors had tricked them! They’d been on the Sythians’ side all along! They were . . .

His thoughts trailed off as he saw a few squads of the black-armored troops form up and march toward him. He realized as they drew near that they were far too small to be Gors. The troopers were all human-sized. Now that he thought about it, he remembered the scans they’d taken from the Sythian fleet, scans which had revealed human crews on board the Sythian warships. Somehow they had recycled thousands of Gor-sized suits of armor into new, human-sized suits in just over a month.

Hoff heard a nearby clatter of armor and the sound of heavy boots clanking toward him from the direction of the rail car he’d arrived on. He whirled around to see a full platoon of sentinels, sans plasma rifles, marching toward him in their matte gray armor—the honor guard he’d requested. All sixteen troopers stopped as one and the platoon leader stepped forward to offer a salute. “Sir,” he said.

Hoff nodded and his eyes went to the man’s upper arm to read his rank insignia. Four bronze chevrons and three bars emblazoned on the black shield of the sentinels marked him as a Master Sergeant. “Are you ready to greet our conquerors, Sergeant?” Hoff asked.

“Ready as we’ll ever be, sir.”

“Let’s go.” Hoff turned and led his men toward the broad double doors leading from the concourse to the port ventral hangar. “This is it,” Hoff said, stepping to one side of the doors and raising his wrist to wave his imbedded identichip in front of the door scanner.

The doors swished open, revealing what seemed like an endless horde of troops wearing identical glossy black armor, their helmets glowing with countless pairs of blood red optics. Hoff heard a sharp hiss and his eyes were drawn to the front of the crowd to find the only being who stood out from the sea of identical black helmets—a human-sized creature in matching black armor, but with his helmet off and tucked under one arm. His breastplate was marked on one side with glowing bars and symbols which were the alien’s rank insignia, but his features were what caught Hoff’s attention. His skin was translucent but for a pattern of lavender-colored freckles on his gaunt cheeks. The sides of his neck were slashed with gills, and the top of his bald head was crowned with a bony cranial ridge. Large, wide eyes the color of dark sapphire found Hoff’s face, and the creature’s rubbery lips stretched in a facsimile of a human smile.

“High Lord Kaon,” Hoff said. “You’re back. I was beginning to worry you didn’t make it to a new body.”

Kaon warbled something in return, and Hoff waited to hear the translation. When it didn’t come, he realized he wasn’t wearing a translator.
Must have lost it when I passed out,
Hoff thought. He was about to turn and ask the platoon behind him if any of them had a translator he could borrow, but Kaon circumvented him by having one of his troopers step forward to translate.

“The Mighty Kaon ignores your sarcastic remark. He asks what you think of his new army,” the trooper said in a distinctly human voice.

“Tell him it is impressive and ask him what he intends to do with it now that we have surrendered. It would seem he no longer needs an army.”

“He understands you,” the human replied, followed by more warbling from Kaon. “Our Lord Kaon says that he plans to use us to take control of his new fleet—your fleet. It is to be his recompense for the fleet you took from him.”

“Yes . . .” Hoff frowned. “My apologies. I’m sure you can still find some fragments of your command ship out there somewhere. . . . enough for a souvenir at least.”

Warble.

“You are smug,” the human translator standing beside Kaon replied, followed by more warbling. “It is not fitting for slaves to speak to their masters that way, but in time your people learn.”

Hoff’s eyes narrowed sharply. “You agreed to leave us in peace, Kaon. You agreed not to harm us.”

Kaon warbled something and his translator said, “That is correct, you are not to be harmed, but the lords said nothing about your people’s freedom.”

Hoff gritted his teeth and turned to yell at the human translator, “My people? You
are
my people, you frekking skriff!”

“I am, and we
are
, servants of the lords, no less and no more.”

Warble.

The translator turned to look at his Sythian lord and passed on Kaon’s next message. “Kaon asks if you remember how you tortured him.”

Hoff felt a flutter of trepidation. “Why?”

Warble.

“He says now you are to know his pain. Justice is found in reciprocity.”

“I believe that’s revenge you’re thinking of,” Hoff replied.

Kaon smiled his rubbery smile once more and replied with more warbling. The translator passed on his message a moment later, “Revenge, yesss . . . why do you think I return?”

WHERE THE DARKNESS FINDS US

Chapter 11

Four days later . . .

T
he door swished open to reveal Commander Lenon Donali; the glowing red iris of his artificial eye dimmed and then brightened again as he blinked. “You’ve made your decision?”

“I have,” Atton replied slowly.

“Well, come on in.” The commander left the door open and retreated to his desk. “Can I get you a drink?” he asked, his hands landing on a crystal decanter with a fiery red spirit inside.

Atton stepped into Donali’s office and eyed the decanter, wondering at its contents.
Some type of Aubrelian Brandy perhaps.
“No, sir. We’re about to revert to real space, and I need to be alert and ready to launch.”

“Ah, well, that is true . . .” Commander Donali said, leaving the decanter where it was. By declining the drink, Atton had practically given Donali his answer already. “A glass of water instead?” the commander asked as he rounded his desk and took a seat behind it.

“I’m fine, sir. This won’t take long.”

“I see.”

“I’ve given your offer a lot of thought.” Atton stepped up to the pair of chairs in front of Commander Donali’s desk, but made no move to sit in one of them. “In a lot of ways sending you to Avilon instead of me makes sense.”

His senior officer raised an eyebrow. “But . . .”

“But, Admiral Heston is the only one who has ever been to Avilon, and it occurs to me that although I am
young and
inexperienced, and I
am
a mortal, as opposed to you, a human with a Lifelink implant . . .”

“Go on.”

“In spite of that, it occurs to me that the admiral must have had a good reason for sending me. I cannot second-guess his orders or his decision without knowing his reasoning.”

“I see,” the commander said again. “That’s your final decision, then?”

Atton nodded. “It is.”

Donali said nothing, the seconds ticking by until the silence became uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry if you are disappointed by my decision, sir.”

The commander gave a broad smile, but it never reached his eyes. “Not at all. I admire your conviction. Were I in your shoes, I would feel considerably less sure about my orders.”

Atton frowned. “I’m
not
sure, but I have made my decision.”

“So it would seem. Well, that will be all, Mr. Ortane. As you mentioned, we are about to revert to real space, and you had better be ready and waiting on the flight deck when we arrive.”

“Yes, sir,” Atton said, snapping to attention and offering a brisk salute. He left the commander’s office with a furrowed brow. Donali definitely hadn’t been pleased to hear his decision. Clearly he thought he was the better choice to send to Avilon, but they had their orders and they had to follow them. It was tantamount to treason if they didn’t. Commander Donali would just have to be content with his role as head of the extraction team.

Atton switched his focus to the mission ahead. He’d been preparing for it during their week-long journey through SLS, and now it was almost time for him to leave the
Intrepid—
and his squadron—behind. That meant he wouldn’t see either Ceyla or Gina again—at least not for a while, but perhaps never. If the Avilonians wouldn’t let him leave, and Donali couldn’t effect a rescue, Atton would be trapped there.

For that reason, Atton had kept to himself as much as possible over the last week. He wasn’t very popular with his squadron, anyway. As for Gina and Ceyla, they had seemed hurt by his sudden withdrawal from all things social, but now they had formed something of a friendship with each other. He suspected their mutual dislike for him was what they had in common. For her part, Gina had hooked up with the resident smart mouth of the squadron, Horace “Hawkeye” Perkins. Atton was certain she’d done that just to slight him.

He sighed and shook his head as he stepped inside a lift tube and rode it down to the flight deck. He needed to have his mind clear and free of distractions if he hoped to succeed in his mission. Humanity was depending on him; romance could wait. Atton smiled bitterly. That had been his philosophy for the last three years, ever since he’d agreed to take over from his adoptive father and impersonate the almost 100-year-old Supreme Overlord of the Imperium. Now, no longer wearing the holoskin which had made him old and unattractive to women, he had found a new reason not to get involved with anyone.

Convenient . . .

Atton scowled at the smug tone of that inner voice. It might be a convenient excuse, but it was also true. The lift tube opened and his comm piece buzzed.
Incoming call from Captain Caldin.
Atton reached up to answer it as he stepped out of the lift.

“Commander,” Caldin said. “We’re reverting to real space in five minutes. I see you’re not in the briefing room. What are you doing?”

“I’m on my way to the hangar, Captain.”

“Ahead of your squadron? Explain yourself.”

“I was told that the admiral had informed you of my mission.”

“Not the details of it, no.”

“But you know that I’m supposed to depart the
Intrepid
at some point.”

“Yes.”

“That time has come, Captain.”

“What about your squadron?”

“My XO is already in the ready room delivering the briefing that I was meant to give.”

Captain Caldin sighed on her end of the comm. “All right then. Immortals be with you, Commander Ortane.”

Atton smiled at the irony. “May they be with us all.”

*   *   *

Hoff hung from the torture rack, sweat dripping from his face and landing in a puddle at his feet. His chest was heaving, desperate for air. He felt simultaneously alive and dead, his head swimming, his nerve endings throbbing and stabbing with echoes of the pain the Sythians were inflicting. They’d rigged him up to a machine which could simulate any degree of pain in any or all parts of his body. Kaon told him he was lucky the pain was only simulated. He would be able to walk away from it without a scratch—no scars, no missing digits or limbs.

“I ask you again, Hoff,” Kaon said, his warbles converted into human speech by the universal translator they’d stuck in his ear. “Where is Avilon?”

Hoff shook his head. Fat droplets of sweat broke free from where they clung on his eyebrows, chin, and the tip of his nose. He looked around to distract himself from the echoes of the pain Kaon had just inflicted. He was aboard a Sythian ship. The dim lighting and the glossy black walls and floor gave it away.

“You ignore me,” Kaon said. “I see that you require more convincing.” With that, he flicked a switch on the torture rack’s control panel, and waves of searing, white-hot pain sparked through Hoff’s legs. Simulated flames made him believe that they were actually on fire. He could even hear the flames crackling and smell the burnt meat. Hoff gritted his teeth and squinted his eyes shut. It wasn’t real, just part of the simulation. Or perhaps the Sythians had grown tired of their simulator and resorted to inflicting real pain. Would it matter if they did? At least with real pain there was always the chance that the injuries inflicted could kill him.

Why had he surrendered?
Why,
if he’d known the Sythians were after the location of Avilon? How could he have been so stupid! He’d walked right into their trap!

“I offer my congratulations. Your endurance improves. Now you are able to handle a level five simulation. Perhaps you would like to try a level six?”

Kaon flicked another switch and Hoff’s mouth opened in a soundless scream. Conscious thought evaporated. Now the flames were cooking his entire body at once. He couldn’t see through the acrid smoke, or even breathe. His eyes felt like they were about to explode.