Star Blaze (44 page)

A moment later Clara appeared on the bridge, holding a new wristcom for Johnny. She looked at him and said, “It should work, but there wasn't time to test it.” Johnny took the device and fastened the Velcro strap around his wrist.

“Finished, Master Johnny,” said the android, who had a slight sheen across his metallic face.

“Send the code,” said Johnny. He looked out of the windows running along the side of the bridge. The Sun was unrecognizable, blood-red with its disc many times wider than he was used to out here. The Andromedan beams were working well. Worse, Johnny was seeing it as it had looked several hours ago—the supernova might have already happened.

He shook himself—he couldn't afford to think like that. If there was any chance of saving Earth's closest star, he had to act fast. On cue, a patch of nothingness began to appear, obscuring the viewscreen at the front of the bridge. As it widened, a heavy whiteness spilled out of the opening and began to spread across the floor.

“Where is he? I want to see him,” said Clara. “I'm coming with you.”

“No!” shouted Johnny. “It's too dangerous.”

“I don't care—he's my brother. It's my right.”

“Please, Clara,” said Johnny. “There's no time.” As he dived into the open fold, he hoped the furious look emblazoned across his sister's face, wasn't the last he'd see of her.

Johnny felt the fold seal itself behind as he was squeezed forward through the narrow tube. The freezing white mist swirled around his face, seeping inside through his ears and nostrils. Only now did he truly remember how insignificant he'd felt within the Monk's fold before—it was madness to believe for a second that he could save Earth. He should give up now—let the universe get on with being the universe and not interfere. Yet, somehow, he stretched his fingers out in front to pull himself along, working in tandem with the great intestine. Thankfully it wasn't long before his hands reached the end and he hauled himself out into the warmth of the
Astricida
—into the belly of the Star Killer. Everywhere was dazzlingly bright, the currents flowing inside Nymac's ship were working overtime to channel the destructive beams flowing through the entire Andromedan fleet.

He'd wondered if, this time, the fold would lead straight to the bridge, but Johnny found himself on the outer floor of the vast ship, a posse of Owlessan Monks floating around him. He moved quickly so the tarry floor couldn't bind him. With his right hand he pushed the nebulous Monks away while he raised his left wrist to his mouth and whispered, “I'm in.” There was no response. He tried again … nothing. He was on his own.

In asking Clara to adapt the wristcom, Johnny had taken a leaf out of Nicky's book. Hoping it had worked, she'd turned the communicator into a four-dimensional tunnel. The
Spirit of London
should be collecting the reprogrammed nanobots which would travel through the device and into the
Astricida
. Johnny pressed a button to begin the process. The Sun was a poor absorber of tachyons—it would take all Nymac's concentration to keep the reaction going. In contrast, Alf's miniature
machines had been reprogrammed to be far more efficient, and build as many extra copies of themselves as possible along the way. Sadly, with communications down, he had no idea if his sister's gateway had opened as planned.

It also meant no hope of rescue, but he pushed that thought from his mind and ran toward the foot of the nearest shaft that would carry him toward the strange bridge, glinting in the distance at the heart of the ship. Reaching the base, Johnny looked up and jumped. As he began to slow, he panicked for a moment, thinking he might simply fall back down, but then the new gravity field took over. Now falling upward and traveling headfirst, he performed a forward roll in mid-air as he reached the end of the tube, and landed expertly on the diamond floor. None of the three-legged Mamluks at the corners moved a muscle.

“Better than your normal splat,” said Nymac, not taking his eyes off the holographic controls in front of him. In places, the black body suit he always wore was glowing silver.

Johnny found himself standing on a different surface of the diamond shape to his brother, meaning he could overlook the controls. All the power readings were in the red—the
Astricida
was giving Nymac everything she had. Johnny tried to probe the circuits with his mind, but he was too far away to sense them properly. “Where's Stevens?” he asked, trying to break his brother's concentration.

Nymac didn't look round. “As you know, we had a disagreement. Happily, I never told your teacher of the plan to create a Star Blaze here. He and the rest of his kind have fled, like the cowards they are, to their base within the solar system. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Do not mourn them—they are the scavengers of this galaxy—they add nothing. Together we will have no need of their services.”

“But do you … we … still have enough ships for the beams,
General?” asked Johnny, really hoping the answer would be no.

“I have summoned the whole fleet,” said Nymac. “The circle is complete. Our ships are linked together through the
Astricida
and they will suffice. We have taken casualties around Pluto, but not enough to thwart the plan. If I use all my power, I can do this. The burden is heavy, but two more minutes—without interruptions—and it will be finished.”

Even presuming they were coming through the wristcom, that was too little time for the nanobots to do their work. If he'd had a blaster, Johnny wondered whether he'd be able to shoot his own brother in the back to save Earth.

The air on the bridge was becoming strangely hazy, so he couldn't see the control panel properly. If he didn't act now, it was all over. His heart pumping at what felt like a million beats per second, Johnny walked as calmly as he could down the wall and onto the same floor level as his silvery brother. The closest Mamluk twitched but did not attempt to intercept.

“What's going on?” shouted Nymac, but only to himself. For an instant, Johnny's brother took his hands away from the controls, raising them high in frustration. “Ship—that's too much power. I can't control it.”

A staccato female voice from all around said, “I am having difficulty moderating the tachyon flow—a feedback loop is in operation.”

“That's never happened before,” said Nymac. “How is it even possible?”

“I am detecting the presence of nanoscale foreign bodies throughout my internal systems,” said the ship. “They are attempting to overload the tachyon field.”

“Then stop them!” shouted Nymac. He didn't seem to have noticed that Johnny was now right behind him.

“I am compensating,” replied the ship. “The stellar collapse will still commence in thirty seconds and then Star Blaze can begin.”

Johnny had to do something. He closed his eyes and tried again to feel the
Astricida
's systems—the circuitry was so alien he had no idea where to begin.

“There is a disproportionately large concentration of the nanoscale devices here on my bridge.” As the ship spoke the words, Johnny glimpsed her mind. It was beautiful, but in a very different way to Sol's. The Star Killer was so focused on holding everything together she had left herself defenseless. Even so, Johnny hesitated to do again what he'd been forced to do to his own ship.

“Locate the source and destroy it,” said Nymac.

Johnny's communicator melted while a pain so intense, he couldn't believe he'd felt anything like it before, tore into his wrist, along his arm and through his entire body. At that moment he'd have done anything to make it stop and he lashed out, but not physically. He slashed at the links connecting the ship's mind to her systems. The pain lessened just a fraction, but then roared back as the
Astricida
redoubled the torture. Johnny slashed again and again—it was like using a broadsword rather than a scalpel.

Somewhere, in the distance, he heard Nymac shout that nothing was working, demanding to know what was going on.

In a voice that was slow and unrecognizable, the ship replied, “Tachyon overload imminent—abandon ship.”

Johnny severed the final bond. When he opened his eyes he found himself and the Mamluks floating, the gravity generators having failed. Only his brother was standing where he'd been before as, beyond him, an explosion ripped through the hull where two of the massive rivers of electricity had come together. His silver glow fading to black, Nymac turned, disbelief etched across his face, which looked properly at Johnny for the first time. The beam of white light, shining out of the mask, fell on Johnny's cheek and burned like a welder's torch.

“You!” shouted Nymac. “You're not wearing the locket. You're not the clone. The Nameless One knows you are not the clone.” He raised his head toward Johnny, revealing the black ring and the death it promised. Floating in zero-G, there was nothing for Johnny to push off from to escape the beam. Nothing happened. Nymac roared in frustration and lunged forward, hitting Johnny full in the ribs, winding him and sending them both flying into the wall behind. Johnny couldn't breathe. Nymac was on top of him, hands around Johnny's throat and shouting, “What have you done to my ship?” while choking him. The bridge was disintegrating all around, debris and pieces of three-legged soldiers flying through the air. Above, the five Plicans had begun their elaborately choreographed moves, perhaps trying to escape before the whole ship was destroyed.

“Nicky?” The new voice, never before heard on the
Astricida
's bridge, was Clara's. “Stop it … now. The ship's going to explode.”

The grip around Johnny's neck slackened. The beam that had been burning his face blinked, and went out. As he coughed, he heard his brother—not the terrible Nymac but his real brother, Nicky—say, “Clara?”

Johnny and his brother turned together. Their sister was standing on the shattered floor of the bridge with an open fold to the
Spirit of London
behind. Her hands were reaching out to pull both of them through and they each grabbed hold.

The strange tunnel fold Johnny had witnessed before was forming along the length of the
Astricida
's bridge and he didn't want them to be swept away. Clara pulled her two brothers backward toward the sanctuary of the
Spirit of London
as another massive explosion tore through the sides of the
Astricida
. Something—a Mamluk tossed through the air by the blast—glanced off Johnny, but then cannonballed into his brother's and sister's faces. The impact was too strong and their hands fell apart.

Johnny landed hard on the deck of the
Spirit of London
's bridge, with Clara beside him. She was out cold from the collision, blood trickling down her forehead. He fought to get up, but the fold had already closed behind with no sign of Nicky. Outside, the
Astricida
disappeared within a gigantic fireball.

“Sol—full shields,” said Johnny, still gasping for breath.

“Happily, I anticipated your command,” the ship replied.

From somewhere Alf produced a cushion which he slipped underneath Clara's head.

As the explosion began to die down, another flared in the distance, and then another, and another, like beacons being set alight along the summits of a mountain range. Soon the entire sky was ablaze, forming a chain of lights encircling the distant swollen Sun.

“It appears your plan is working perfectly,” said the ship. “The tachyon overload begun in the
Astricida
is feeding back through the entire Andromedan fleet.”

“But the Sun? Did we stop it? Please tell me we stopped it?”

“Computing … I estimate the Sun came within 6.674 2867 seconds of becoming a supernova. The tachyon potential has peaked and is correcting itself—according to Boloban's Second Law, your Sun will have returned to normal in approximately 2 days, 10 hours, 38 minutes and 32.458 seconds.”

Johnny leaned over Clara who opened her eyes, but looked away. Alf was beside him fidgeting. Johnny said, “Thanks,” but his sister didn't respond. He took hold of her hand and helped her to her feet—she didn't resist. He led her to the side of the bridge showing where the
Astricida
had disintegrated moments before. There was nothing at all left of Nicky's ship.

“We had to do it,” said Johnny. “It was the only way to save Earth.”

“What's so special about Earth?” said Clara.

“Miss Clara—you really need to come to sickbay. Let me do something about that cut.”

“Not now, Alf,” said Clara and, before the android could respond, she'd folded herself elsewhere on the ship.

The celebrations were taking place aboard
Cheybora
. Johnny stood on his own sipping a tasteless blue fizzy drink handed to him by a Viasynth. He'd felt he had to be there, but now he wished he was anywhere but. Around him, together with the crew, were several Tolimi he recognized and a few officers from the Imperial Navy he didn't. The only seat on the bridge had been left empty as a mark of respect toward the ship's missing captain. Johnny didn't feel much like partying.