Slave Empire - The Crystal Ship (7 page)

No ship was
built to withstand such immense strain, but the Shrike’s were
better than most, since this was a tactic he used on slavers. No
slaver he had ever tackled was a big as Norvar, however, and all
three of his cruisers sustained serious structural damage. At the
same time, they were tearing Norvar apart. If her captain admitted
defeat and deactivated his repellers, he could save himself, but
Draycons never surrendered, and this one was no exception.

A boarding
tube protruded from one of the Shrike’s cruisers, spanning the gap.
When it reached Norvar’s hull, his men would have to burn their way
through it, which would take several minutes. Once a boarding tube
was in place, his men would pour into the enemy ship. It was a
swifter method than transferring, which limited the numbers to less
than a dozen per energy shell. Under normal circumstances, this
tactic was useful, but time was something he did not have.

“
Get the waveform and synchronise our shell, then transfer me
as close to the girl’s location as you can. Tell the carrier to
send its men to the same location, but not too many.” He studied
Norvar. “That ship’s not going to last long. There won’t be much
time to get them out, and they’ll be a long way from the boarding
tube.”

“
An Atlantean ship is approaching, and the four Draycons are
now engaged in battle with the Atlantean ships and each
other.”

“
Send a couple of mine to join in the fun, but tell them only
to fire on the Draycons unless the Atlanteans start something, in
which case they should withdraw. If the ship that’s approaching
fires on you, fight back, and tell Shadowen to help you. The two of
you can manage Vengeance easily.”

“
What if they wish to communicate?”

“
They won’t.”

Chapter Four

Rayne beat the
little monster that clung to her so tenaciously, hammering it with
her fists in hysterical desperation. In her mind, she screamed at
Shadowen to help her, but he remained silent, probably because he
could do nothing. Grabbing the mariner’s legs, she tried to pull it
away so it could not bite her. The thing was immensely strong,
however, and she might as well have tried to prise a barnacle off a
rock. Never had she longed so much to be parted from her leg, but
at that moment she would have gladly chopped it off.

Evidently the
beast did not feel her leg was the optimum place to inject its
paralysing fluid, for it moved up it, keeping a firm hold on her,
the tri-tail still wrapped around her ankle. Rayne’s fists bounced
off its carapace, bruising her leg and hands. Her suit’s thin
material would not impede its jaws, and even if she stripped off
her clothes, the beast had too firm a hold on her.

The three-eyed
nub had withdrawn into its bony protection, and its feelers where
like bristly rubber, impervious. With indomitable fortitude, it
marched up her leg. She was hardly aware of the faint thuds as
energy weapons and laser beams hit the ship’s hull, or the slight
judders that ran through the floor. Her mind raced in a fury of
desperation.

The alien
reached her thigh and crawled over her belly, its tri-tail shifting
its grip to her waist. Its six legs clasped her in a lover’s
embrace, the muscular tail pinching her waist in a cruel grip. The
mottled orange carapace seemed to glow, throbbing in her fevered
eyes. Its scissor jaws opened, gleaming, and she screamed as they
sank into her.

The energy
shell released Tarke in a corridor filled with hurrying Draycon
crewmen. Twelve of his troopers emerged from another shell mere
metres away and fired on the Draycons, sending them scuttling for
cover. Tarke ducked into a doorway to avoid the crossfire, not
bothering to draw his weapon. Distant explosions shook the ship and
an alarm whooped. A soft female voice, calm and unhurried as only a
ship’s neural net could be, repeated in Drayconar, “All crews to
battle stations. All crews to battle stations...”

While his men
occupied the enemy, Tarke headed down the corridor away from the
fight. He turned into the first doorway he came to, which slid
open, so he moved to the next door, with the same result. He
checked four more doors that all opened, revealing a canteen, a
gymnasium, a bathroom and a library. On a big ship like this, the
living areas were broken down into sections, usually by rank or
occupation. This meant that each group of crewmen had their own
facilities. Somewhere in this section were cells where unruly or
criminal crewmembers were kept as punishment, and, according to
Shadowen, Rayne was in one of them.

Fewer men
dashed about now. It seemed those who had been sent to deal with
the invaders had all reached them. A crewman came around the corner
and spotted Tarke, grabbing his laser.

“
You! Stop!”

Tarke dived
into a doorway, and a laser bolt sliced through the door as it slid
shut behind him.

“
Intruder!”

Tarke ran
through a supply room and out of another door into a busy corridor.
The pursuing Draycon, now with reinforcements, emerged soon after,
still shouting. Wild shots hummed along the corridor, cracking into
the walls. The technicians and engineers who thronged the passage
added to the confusion as they ran about, blocking the patrolmen’s
aim. The ominous buzzing hum was not a sound Tarke liked. It
reminded him too vividly of injuries he had sustained in the past.
The Draycon crewmen dived to the floor with thuds and yells to
avoid the laser beams that blazed amongst them. Tarke sprinted down
the corridor, cursing the patrolmen for driving him away from the
area where the girl was held.

Drawing his
laser, he flattened himself against the wall and razed the corridor
with a waist-high lash of light. Half the guards fell; the rest
flung themselves down. Tarke stepped into an office and ran through
it, turning sharply to go through a door at right angles to the one
through which he had just entered. Drayconar decoration was
unimaginative, and the bare rooms drab. An officer stood up behind
a console, his scaly crest raised. Tarke shot him in the heart and
was halfway across the room before he hit the floor.

The thuds of
the crewmen’s booted feet faded as he increased his lead, and he
ran down a corridor, ducking into the first doorway that opened at
his approach. He entered an empty recreation room with no other
exit and flattened himself to the wall next to the door, listening
to the patrolmen’s confused shouts.

Two pairs of
booted feet approached the door, which opened to admit a guard.
Tarke grabbed his throat, yanked him inside and snapped his neck in
a swift movement. Dropping the corpse, he waited to see if any
others came. Explosions rattled the fittings, and a glass wandered
to the edge of a table and fell off, shattering. When the patrolmen
passed by, Tarke re-emerged and hurried back the way he had
come.

Rayne writhed,
struggling to break the alien’s iron hold, her hands bleeding from
the scratches the horny carapace had inflicted. The creature’s jaws
were locked in her chest, clenching as it injected paralytic into
her bloodstream. Numbness spread through her, and her arms went
limp, then her legs, ending her futile struggle. She lay wedged
against the wall, her head propped up, staring at the alien that
gripped her.

Perhaps the
cruellest thing about death by mariner execution was that her mind
would remain unaffected to the end. The mariner opened its jaws and
raised itself. The two needles on its belly unsheathed, and, with
an obscene thrust, it jabbed them in, injecting the preserving
fluid that would turn her into an imperishable meal. No longer
distracted by her struggles and grunts, she became aware of distant
thuds and booms.

The scene on
Vengeance’s main screen beggared Tallyn’s ability to believe his
eyes. The four ships now shared a shell, and two smaller ones
hovered close by while the massive battleship hung overhead. None
had objected to Vengeance’s proximity, but he had the impression
the truce was a tenuous one, and a wrong move would end it. He
contemplated calling more of his ships from the other battle, but
that would only heighten the tension.

Marcon claimed
that the Shrike had now transferred to Norvar, which defied
everything Tallyn knew about the slaver. All the ships around the
Draycon vessel pounded her save Vengeance, and areas of her hull
were breaking apart under the strain of the combined firepower and
tearing force of the cruisers’ attractors. Tallyn found it hard to
believe the elusive Shrike had gone into that unstable, hostile
environment, risking life and limb for a human girl he barely knew.
He certainly did not understand it.

“
Find that shell’s waveform, so we can transfer some men in
there to find her, Marcon,” he ordered.

“
Sir, that could take hours, and we have no idea where she
is.”

Tallyn
scowled, hating to admit that a criminal had outdone him, and the
fact that it was the Shrike was even more infuriating. In this
instance, however, Rayne’s safety was paramount, and he swallowed
his pride. “I wasn’t suggesting we try to analyse it. Contact one
of those ships and ask them what it is. If they want our help,
they’ll have to tell us.”

“
Yes, sir.” Marcon touched his sensor pad, and moments later
the information flowed into one of the holograms on his console.
“They already have men aboard Norvar, and more are being
transferred from their carrier now.”

The massive
carrier was parked some distance away, an oblong ship honeycombed
with shuttle bays. “They didn’t object to giving us the
information?” Tallyn asked.

“
No, sir. They’ve been ordered to co-operate unless we take
hostile action, at which time we become the enemy. This also
applies to our boarding parties, of course. And they’ve informed us
that Rayne’s location is at the centre of Norvar.”

“
How the hell do they know that?”

“
I don’t know, sir, but they do seem positive.”

Tallyn
muttered, “It could be a ruse, to put us in the most dangerous area
while they find her.”

“
I don’t think so. I guess it’s our choice, whether we trust
them or not.”

“
I don’t trust them at all, but if it’s not a ruse, it’s
valuable information we’d be fools to ignore. If it is a ruse,
we’re not much worse off than we were to begin with, since we have
no idea where to look. That’s one hell of a big ship. If only Rayne
still had her beacon, we’d be ahead of them.”

“
So we send men to the centre?”

“
Yes. And I’m going too.”

Marcon’s jaw
dropped, and several officers turned to stare. “Sir, that’s
unheard-of.”

“
I might be able to capture that bastard; this is the perfect
opportunity.”

“
May I point out -”

“
I know, Rayne’s safety is the priority, and we’d be breaking
this unspoken truce. But once we had him prisoner, they wouldn’t be
able to do anything.”

Marcon shook
his head. “He’s under sentence of death. Once we captured him,
there would be nothing to stop them attacking us, and we’re badly
outnumbered.”

“
Then if I get the chance, I’ll just kill him. They won’t know
who did it.”

“
It would be underhand to use their information to hunt the
Shrike when he’s trying to save her too.”

“
Perhaps,” Tallyn said. “I’ll decide if and when the moment
presents itself, but I intend to go aboard Norvar
anyway.”

“
This is a breach of protocol.”

“
Noted.”

Back in the
original corridor, Tarke resumed checking doors. The corridor was
deserted now, and the ship shook with shuddering thuds and muffled
bangs. Blackened scorch marks and several corpses testified to the
battle his men had fought here, and they appeared to have driven
the Draycons off and pursued them. Tarke checked two still,
black-clad forms, but they were dead. The alarm still whooped in
the distance, but the dulcet message had stopped. Ominous groans
and creaking underscored the distant explosions as Norvar was torn
apart.

Finding a door
that would not open, he fired at the lock mechanism until it burnt
out in a shower of sparks and the door slid open. He entered the
smoke-filled room, peering into the haze.

“
Rayne!”

A Draycon
sprang from the smoke, crest raised, throat sacks swollen, his
claws reaching for Tarke’s throat. The Shrike sidestepped, and his
laser shot almost cut off the alien’s head. Returning to the
corridor, he went to the next door. As he aimed at the lock, a
massive explosion tore through the ship, making it judder. A harsh,
braying klaxon added its cacophony to the din. The Draycon ship was
taking a terrible pounding. He scanned the corridor, but evidently
the warren of passages and corridors that made up this ship had
swallowed his men. Undoubtedly they were searching as diligently
for him as they were for the girl, but their hunt had taken them in
a different direction. He sent a brief order to Scimarin.

Tell the
others to ease off on the attack, or this ship will break up.

The men can’t
find you, and I cannot guide them to you, since I have only a vague
idea of where you are.

He burnt out the lock of the next door.
I’m okay. I think I’m in the right area now.

You should
have some men with you.

I’m fine.

A Draycon
charged from the cell as the door opened, almost bowling Tarke
over. The alien paused and snarled, then ran away down the
corridor. Tarke moved on to the next door, aiming at the lock.