Sunlord (37 page)

"They are going to warn the Federation. She said
Shaun was going to try and communicate with his leaders, and seek
their help."

Capac was almost speechless. "She told you this? Her
powers are great if she can see your mind from such a
distance."

Ashian nodded weakly, continuing with his bizarre
tale. "When she was talking to me, I sensed a horrible shrieking,
and just before I left her I just knew...I can't explain it, but I
felt a distant pain and knew my people are dying."

"Your people?"

Capac was startled when Ashian looked up sharply, his
eyes ablaze. "The city, the ones under the care of the Church. Time
is short."

"Hang on a minute." Capac shook his head and waved
his hands, gesturing for time out. "Why didn't I hear Myshia like
you did?"

Ashian briefly considered the intangible link that
joined his mind with Myshia's. For a split second the image of a
winged man flying down from a stormy, clouded night sky came to his
mind - a figure that bore down and lifted a grieving woman to
safety. And as they flew a wail grew in the cold air...

The currach shook himself free of the alien picture.
"I can't explain it, but you've got to believe me!" His words held
an element of desperation. He knew not where these strange images
came from, and what they meant, but they filled his soul with
foreboding. "I just know that the blood of our people spills on the
soil, as if an entire city is falling. I also feel, somehow through
Myshia, a uprising of currach are gathering for revenge. If we do
not complete our mission quickly the souls of many will
forfeit."

" You said Shaun has plans of his own, right? So
we'll finish our mission alone. It's just you and me."

"You mean, disable Avatar by ourselves?"

"That was the original plan," shrugged Capac.

Ashian drew in a slow breath. "Alright, we go it
alone. So what's the plan?"

* * *

Shaun cast the small laser pistol down at his feet in
disgust. The weapon skidded across the polished floor and into the
shadows.

"Damn useless Hartrias crap!" he cursed, pacing
angrily. The charge on the laser had run out, leaving the weapon
practically useless without a recharger. The laser was designed for
personal use as a sidearm used only for close range and individual
targets. Shaun had been using it like a battle cannon to mow down
their pursuers; it had not taken the punishment. Myshia did not
hear Shaun's wave of abuse. She sat cross-legged with her head in
her hands and green eyes glowing compulsively. She sat on the
rounded slope of the edge of a duct, breathing the heavy smell of
grease and feeling the rumble of machinery through the fabric of
her furs. She breathed heavily, as if inducing herself into a kind
of trance.

The tube they were now in was open enough to allow
Shaun to stand upright, the walls far enough apart for him to
stretch his aching legs and back. He cocked an ear and heard the
faint sounds of metal upon metal as the droids closed. He had
managed to keep them at bay using the now depleted laser and by
keeping moving, but all of a sudden Myshia had demanded a stop.

"Are you sure this is necessary?" blurted Shaun,
suddenly impatient.

Myshia stirred herself, and Shaun's impatience was
forgotten immediately as her confused, bewildered eyes fixed upon
his own.

"I feel them," was all she could mutter.

"Feel who?"

"I sense Ashian's mind. He is with Capac."

Shaun dropped to his knees and looked her in the
eye.

"Then they survived the fall? Thank God!" Shaun's
brow creased. "Where are they?"

Myshia was silent for a moment before replying. "Far
away. His mind seems very distant, but I cannot say exactly how
far. All I can get is a vague picture..." Her voice trailed off as
a thought grew in her mind.

Shaun was surprised when Myshia grabbed his wrist
firmly and placed it to her forehead. He complied a trifle
uncertainly, moving closer to the native as she drew him in. He
watched with his breath held as she bowed her forehead into his
palm.

Shaun reeled as an image appeared in his mind. It
felt as if he had been suddenly transported to another place and
was looking upon his surroundings through another's eyes. It took
him a moment to realise the green hues and cat-like sharpness of
the image must only be through a currach's eyes.

As abruptly as it had come the picture disappeared,
to be replaced by reality that seemed drab in contrast. An
instinctive feeling in the pit of his stomach told him Ashian and
Capac were a considerable distance away. In their flight, he and
Myshia must have put at least four sectors between them and the
other pair.

"Telepathy...?" Shaun pulled away his hand as if it
had been burnt. "Heavy shit."

"I can talk only to Ashian. He is asking you what we
should do."

Shaun's mind meshed into gear. He stood abruptly and
paced a short distance back the way they had come.

"We have to keep moving away," he mused. "From
that...picture...you gave me Ashian and Capac are back this way."
He stopped, hands upon his hips, in the direction from which the
robotic clanking emerged from. It was louder now and individual
ringing footsteps could be distinguished. "We're not going back
that way, so we're moving on."

"To where?"

"The communications lab," returned Shaun with
firmness. His mind was finally set - he had weighed the options and
had made his decision. Now all he had to do was play it out.

"I've got to get a message to the Federation," he
continued. "If this is truly the Critical Point as that smug-arse
Hartrias officer was blabbing about then the Federation is quite
literally screwed." As he vocalised the thoughts the pieces of the
puzzle began to fall into place. "That would explain that torpedo
hit. The Urisa waged a battle against a Federation ship, but only
took one blow. Yes, this must be the Critical Point, and the
Federation battlecruisers are falling from jumpspace like lambs to
the slaughter."

"So you're going to warn them?" asked Myshia.

"Exactly. If I can dispatch a pod message through the
jumptunnel relaying the coordinates of the Critical Point to the
Federation, they would be able to amass here in force. The only way
to get that message out is to use their comm-lab."

Myshia was confused. "But our mission was to disable
Avatar. We came to destroy the ship that wiped out our village, and
I'm not going to forgot my promise to the Elder."

Shaun paced back again. "That'll do no good, another
ship will be along before you know it and you will have gained
nothing! We've got to get the Federation."

Myshia was still unsettled. "But what about Capac and
Ashian?"

"They'll just have to look after themselves for the
moment. We have an important task in front of us - a task that will
decide the future of the Federation."

Myshia climbed to her feet. "Do you think Ashian and
Capac can stay alive?"

Shaun had taken Myshia by the shoulder and was gently
heading her down the duct. "Hey, who was it that warned you it was
a dangerous and suicidal to set foot in here in the first place?
But seriously, I think if they keep their heads low they'll make
it. Don't get me wrong," he added hastily, "I'm not forsaking them
- I don't want them to die."

Shaun's mind was already working overtime, already
putting the pieces of a plan together. He would have to warn the
Federation before any more ships were destroyed, and that meant
getting past the security net the Hartrias had put on the
jumptunnels. Now - if he could just remember - where the hell was
the comm-lab? During his three year imprisonment he had stolen and
analysed a schematic plan of the Urisa and it was now just a matter
of remembering where everything was. He racked his mind, surprised
at just how much he remembered. He had drilled the diagram into his
memory before his escape, and now sections were falling out from
the dark recesses in his brain. He recalled there was narrow duct
leading lengthwise close by...if he could reach that one...

Myshia had to run to catch up with Shaun. They kept a
brisk pace, a fast walk bordering on a run, travelling down the
curved sections of the duct.

She noticed he had barely took notice of her, he was
so immersed in thought. She cast a look over her shoulder in the
shadows they had left behind. All of a sudden she knew the droids
were close and their brief stop had allowed their pursuers to close
the gap.

And they were without a weapon.

Myshia closed her eyes, drew in a breath, and braced
herself. Even though the relentlessness of their flight was tiring
her muscles, especially in the heavy artificial gravity of the
Urisa, she pushed onwards.

* * *

A cold wind exhaled from the trapdoor as Shaun pulled
it back from its rubber sealing. He shielded his eyes as the white
light spilled in from the opening, waiting a moment for his vision
to adjust, blinking and squinting in his haste.

He dropped from the trapdoor and landed, his legs
springing like a spider's to absorb the shock as his feet hit the
polished floor. Even though he had fallen more than two metres he
had made not a sound. He remained in a crouched position, elbows
raised, as he scanned his new environment.

He was in a corridor, an unbroken twin row of lights
running overhead. A few closed doors lay in sight further down the
corridor, their surface bowed inwards to match the slightly
circular shape of the passageway. The surface was creamy white
coloured plastic, its durable surface unmarred and spotless.

Once he was satisfied no Hartrias guards were in the
close vicinity Shaun relaxed a little and drew back away from the
trapdoor above him. He motioned for Myshia to come down.

Myshia was not as agile as the other but the grace in
her movements demanded respect. In moments she too was standing in
the corridor at Shaun's side.

"The ceiling space is getting a little too crowded,"
explained Shaun. "It's time for a change of tactic."

Myshia had her short bow in her hand, an arrow
already notched. Her eyes flickered uneasily along the length of
the corridor.

"Are you sure this isn't going to get us killed?"

"Don't worry," said Shaun in a slightly too confident
tone. "This will be the most direct route, and the quicker we are
the better. Come on, we head this way."

The Hartrias officer was as surprised as Shaun when
they practically bumped into one another. The officer wore only a
light loose fitting helicasuit pulled tight at the waist, the Royal
Hartrias emblem on the broad shoulder marking him of high rank. The
officer's eyes widened in surprise, knocked from his thoughts by
the small human colliding against his chest.

Shaun heard a sharp thwack as Myshia released an
arrow from her taught bow. Shaun ducked instinctively, feeling a
movement brush aside his hair as the shaft slammed into the
Hartrias.

Shaun moved his feet and threw the Hartrias upon the
ground in a deadly efficient judo manoeuvre. The Hartrias lay
sprawled on the floor, a trickle of blood flowing from the corner
of his mouth and the last gasp of air leaving his lungs.

Looking down at the prone form, Myshia felt a stab of
remorse for the huge fearsome form now reduced to a bleeding
carcass. She thought she could feel the Sunlord's mind, watching it
shrivel and die like a flower exposed to an thermo-nuclear blast.
It was eerie to feel the presence of his mind shrink away into the
ether, leaving a vacuumous space.

What had he been doing? Myshia found herself
thinking. Had he been going about his own business, set upon some
unknown goal. Had, somewhere, a wife been just widowed?

Myshia shook her head, angry with herself. She
reminded herself why she was here, that she was to take revenge for
the Elder and everyone else who had died. The steel hearted
reasoning seemed to falter a little as she watched Shaun pick
through the pockets of the Sunlord. All of a sudden she didn't know
if she was doing the right thing, as if she had just realised what
Ashian had been saying for so long. She hadn't really listened to
the Currach's rambling of religion and respect for life, but now,
watching the alien blood stiffen about the Sunlord, she knew what
he meant.

She broke from her reverie as Shaun passed the wooden
bolt to her. One end of the arrow was coated in blood, the bulk of
which had been wiped onto the Hartrias' helicasuit.

"Here's your arrow back," he said, seemingly obvious
to Myshia's concerns. "I noticed you only had a few of them left,
so it's best if we can reuse them."

Myshia took the arrow numbly, shaking herself to wake
herself up. She put aside the wave of disgust as her hands met the
wood that had met with heart of the Sunlord, and tried to ignore
the sensation of slippery blood on her hands.

"We got lucky," said Shaun. "He was totally
unprepared. Wasn't even wearing chest armour. It was a good shot
Myshia."

Myshia accepted the compliment silently and turned
her mind to other matters. "We've got to keep moving."

Shaun nodded, clipping a belt to his waist as he
stood. It was a holster containing a sleek barrelled pistol,
numerous cartridges accompanying it. At last he had a weapon. And
it was a decent one - good old fashioned large calibre hollow
headed bullets. He tested its weight in his hands before placing it
back in the holster.

Myshia noticed his new weapon. "Do all Sunlords carry
firearms?" she asked.

"Most. Its standard procedure for them, just incase
of emergency. Even though they may not be in battle you hardly ever
see a Hartrias without a weapon. I also got the ID card from him,
and from the looks of it I'd say it will get us through a few
doors. At least for as long as Avatar catches up with the death and
cancels the card. Okay, let's go."