The Orphaned Worlds (44 page)
Greg shook his head and shrugged. ‘So they’d have some prisoners to play with, maybe?’
Varstrand brought them to a gentle boulder-littered slope a hundred yards or more from the devastated entrance. As they clambered down the rope ladder, Greg noticed a scattering of smoking rock fragments further down and lower still, near the tree line, an advancing line of green-garbed figures, pale in the drifting haze.
‘Aye, I can see ’em, chief. Didnae waste any time, eh?’ He pointed to the east. ‘And there’s more on the way.’
A cluster of carriers were coming in low across the wooded hilltops.
‘C’mon,’ Greg said. ‘No time to lose.’
They waved to Varstrand as the
Har
lifted clear, then quickly headed up the stony slope. Minutes later the smoke-swathed blasted hollow was in sight and a rocky clamber away. An awful dread was growing in the pit of Greg’s stomach, even as the enemy transports were touching down at the foot of the mountain. If they could gain the entrance, and if there were any survivors, could they mount a defence of the stronghold, somehow? In the fading hope that at the last minute of the eleventh hour Robert Horst would return to Darien with a mysterious salvation?
Then, as he began to climb over the rocks dislodged by the strike, doom fell upon them again, a second bright dot which appeared on the slope some distance above them and began sweeping down towards the crater. This time the dust and smoke betrayed the targeting beam, a glowing, glittering spear that lanced down from the heavens, bright, inexorable.
Rory shouted an obscenity at the sky and leaped down from the rock barrier. ‘C’mon chief, we gotta get outta here!’
But Greg felt trapped between his own rage and the seeming impotence of his efforts in the face of such colossal power.
How can we fight this?
he wanted to say.
How can we even outrun it?
Then the beam reached the crater, a fateful shaft of light. Rory let out a wordless cry and curled up in the lee of a jutting boulder, while Greg slid down behind several piled nearby, crouching with his arms over his head …
Instants stretched out into moments. The silence was expectant and terrible. Yet no sudden burst of ferocious light erupted, nor any buffeting shock wave. Cracking open his eyes, Greg saw no change in the light, until he noticed the sharp shadows cast by small rocks close by, shadows that fell towards the sun …
He jumped up and gazed into the sky. The heavens were dominated by a bright and now fading point of haloed light. He fumbled with the binoculars, thumbed the focus wheel, but still it seemed like a dot, its glow dwindling, and, perhaps, a hint of glittering fragments?
‘What’s going on, chief?’ Rory said. ‘We’re still alive, not that I’m complaining, like.’
‘I think,’ Greg said, peering up through the binoculars, ‘that someone’s just blown the Brolturan battleship to bits.’
Grinning, he handed the bins to Rory, who quickly raised them and looked up at the pale dot. ‘That it, aye?’
‘Certainly is.’
‘Aw, ya dancer!’ Rory laughed out loud. ‘Yeess! Who d’ye think did it? The
Heracles
, maybe?’
‘Could be. Won’t know for sure until we get back inside the mountain so that I can have a wee chat with the Sentinel.’
Then Greg noticed movement on the mountain’s lower slopes and, shielding his eyes from the sun, he peered down. From this height it appeared that the DVF troops were withdrawing back down to where personnel carriers were landing, rear hatches already gaping. Retrieving the binoculars he took a closer look and yes, the Human troops were hastily piling into the carriers, which scarcely touched down before taking to the air again.
Greg laughed. ‘They’re pulling out! … I mean, they’re not even pulling back, they’re leaving the field altogether.’
Rory laughed madly and danced a jig, then yelled imprecations down at the retreating soldiers, interspersed with a few energetically thrown stones.
But through his own feelings of euphoria, Greg began asking himself why – even if that battleship, the
Purifier
, was wrecked or destroyed, why break off from a strategic engagement like an assault on Tusk Mountain?
Minutes later the last of the transports had lifted off to follow the rest back to the coast. Greg stared after them, frowning. Then he sighed.
‘C’mon, Rory. We’ll have to find out what the situation is, in there.’
Suddenly sombre, Rory nodded and together they climbed over the fallen rocks to where the original stony track had curved the last thirty yards to the Uvovo stronghold’s entrance. Except that now it stopped a few yards away at a precipice overlooking a huge bowl-shaped crater. Its surface was blackened, encrusted with charred soil and glassy patches of melted stone. Vapour drifted at the bottom and faint crackling sounds came from cooling rock. And there, incredibly, was a large, square opening in the curved wall straight ahead, its edges slightly warped, its interior sooty and dark, yet a couple of figures stood on the lip, shouting and waving. Could that mean that the rest of the stronghold was intact?
Just as he was figuring out how to get across, a high-pitched whine became audible and quickly grew louder. Suddenly, a compact, blue-winged craft flew into view, banked sharply and swooped down towards the scene of destruction. It slowed as it passed overhead then climbed and sped away eastwards. Greg already had the trusty binoculars up to track its progress, taking in such details as the W-configuration of its flying surfaces and the symbol prominently adorning its wings. It was a spiral overlaid with a narrow chevron, its apex touching the centre. It looked like no Earthsphere emblem he had ever seen but it did remind him of something else, a conversation with the
Heracles
’ xeno-specialist who’d said something about the Spiral Sages of Buranj …
The return journey to the Roug homeworld took about three hours via the faster Tier 2 hyperspace, yet to Kao Chih it seemed to last far longer. Impatience ate at him. In his mind he went over all that he’d seen on Pyre, the grinding poverty, the despair, the degrading squalor, people living like animals in a cage while their tormentors squeezed the last profitable drops from them. Silveira had already transloaded the data from his camera into the little spyship’s system and had promised to make a copy available to the leaders and people of Human Sept. Another would be passed to Roug officials as a partial explanation for Qabakri’s decision to remain on Pyre.
It should have been me
, Kao Chih thought to himself more than once. He had wanted to stay behind but Qabakri had persuaded him to return and provide a ‘reliable testimony’. The implied uncertainty concerning Silveira’s reliability was not lost on him.
Finally, the Earthsphere agent announced that they would soon be emerging from hyperspace in the outer reaches of the Roug home system. Moments passed, along with that familiar brief wave of nausea.
‘That is it, we have arrived.’
Kao Chih had closed his eyes before the jump, and opened them to the sight of Silveira pondering an astrogational holochart of the Busrul system, using his finger to zoom into it and across and down and back. Pinpoints and symbol clusters in red, with a few in blue, littered a large area surrounding the gas giant V’Hrant.
‘Odd,’ said the agent. ‘There seems to be some kind of systemwide emergency going on. Most of these beacons and scanners weren’t active last time – I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ve set off …’
A trill of urgent notes sounded and the rare-heard voice of the
Oculus Noctis
spoke:
‘Enforcement Overseer Juthonag of the High Index has served you with a Response-Or-Summary-Internment writ.’
‘How insistent of them,’ Silveira said. ‘Open a channel.’
‘Now open.’
Silveira glanced and smiled at Kao Chih before speaking.
‘This is Captain Baltazar Silveira of Earthsphere Alliance Navy. How may I be of assistance?’
‘Your vessel is unknown to us,’ said a low, chorus-like voice. ‘Your intrusion in our system at this time can easily be construed as unfriendly and potentially hostile. What is the reason for your presence?’
‘We are acting under the special orders of Mandator Qabakri. We bear intelligence data objects of a crucial nature.’
There was a silent pause, then the deep vibrant voice spoke again.
‘I am instructed to convey you to the nexus of the crisis.’
From the transparent viewport Kao Chih and Silveira saw space quiver and distort as an immense V-shaped vessel revealed itself. A striated column of light sprang out from the flat grey prow to engulf the
Oculus Noctis
. Kao Chih felt nausea well up for a moment as the stars swung around their small craft, then realised that it was false motion sickness – Silveira’s ship dampened internal inertia.
‘This should not take long,’ Silveira said with his usual confident composure as the Roug ship charged across the system with his ship held in its grapple beam.
Minutes later, as a pale dot expanded into the dull, dark face of the gas giant V’Hrant, another far smaller speck grew rapidly directly ahead and became the rockhab
Retributor
. No sneaking in through Maintenance this time – the
Oculus Noctis
was peremptorily directed to a vacant berth in the new landing bay. As they disembarked onto the convex dockside, Kao Chih noticed a group of Roug emerge from a small, blockish vessel similar to the large V-shaped one.
Strangely, there seemed to be no one there to greet either themselves or the Roug, no security detail, no officials. They glanced about for a moment, received no attention from the few loaders and hull techs, then moved towards the main exit. Suddenly the doors parted and a knot of arguing people spilled out. One of them, a stocky bearded man in engineer’s red and black, broke away and quickly approached.
‘Honourable Kao Chih, I am Kung Wei, senior engineer. I must speak with you …’
A small woman in yellow and beige elbowed her way to the front.
‘Unfortunately, respected Kung Wei has no authority. I, on the other hand, am Shang Yi, environmental manager …’
A taller man in plum and black firmly pushed them apart and stepped forward. ‘Sadly, neither of my associates is competent to deal with matters of security. I am Captain Ji Yen, officer commanding
Retributor
security …’
Another babble of argument threatened to break out until Kao Chih, suddenly infuriated, said loudly, ‘Silence – have you forgotten your manners in the presence of our patrons?’
Voices tailed off abruptly, and embarrassed glances took in the Roug party now drawing near. Silveira arched both eyebrows and nodded approvingly.
‘Thank you,’ Kao Chih said amiably. ‘Now what has happened to bring about this unseemly behaviour?’
‘Everything has been turned on its head,’ said Shang Yi. ‘There are Roug patrons running the command bridge …’
‘They were taken,’ explained the security captain. ‘The Duizhang, the senior officers, many of the elders, all captured, kidnapped!’
‘It is without precedent in this age, Human Kao Chih,’ came the sharp, papery voice of one of the Roug as they approached the group of Humans. The officers made respectful bows, Kao Chih and Silveira too, and the senior Roug gave a stiff nod as it halted a few feet away, flanked by two companion Roug, each bearing what had to be weapons with long, segmented barrels.
‘Greetings, honourable patrons,’ Kao Chih said, trying not to stare at the escort. The sight of armed Roug was completely new.
‘And to you, Humans Kao Chih and Baltazar Silveira,’ the Roug said. ‘I am Mandator Reen of the High Index. It is understood that you bring word from Qabakri – we shall attend to this in due course. First, you should understand the ominous nature of what has transpired.’
Kao Chih frowned. ‘So this is more than a kidnapping.’
‘If we are fortunate, this is a hostage-taking,’ the Roug said, producing a small brown lozengelike object which unfolded to a thin, square, rigid display. With one of its long brassy fingers the Roug tapped the lower edge then handed it to Kao Chih, who found himself looking at security vidage from various locations within the
Retributor
. Panicking people ran for cover as armed invaders rushed through Many-Voices Hall, along corridors, up stairs, armoured figures that he recognised from personal experience as Ezgara commandos. Then came the spectacle of Human Sept’s leaders, wrists bound and mouths taped, being herded down passages, familiar faces wide-eyed with fear, the Duizhang Kang Lo, Tan Hua, the department commanders, the elders like Wu and Mother Yao, and also, stumbling along on his short legs, his eyes blazing with fury, was the Voth pilot, Yash. At a rough guess, there were about twenty-five captives in all.
‘A few hours after you departed for Pyre,’ Mandator Reen said, ‘the Hegemony warship left with the Potentiary on board. One point five hours later, a smaller ship entered our system claiming to require the use of a repair dock at Agmedra’a. On the way to the orbital it vanished from our sensor displays, clearly by virtue of stealth technology. Our next indication of their whereabouts was when they approached this asteroid vessel and boarded it by force, with such results as you can see.
‘An insult of such gravity cannot be disregarded. These Ezgara invaded the ambit of our system-zone, concealed themselves from legitimate detection and appraisal, ignored the protocols of civilised communication, then carried out a violent incursion and abduction of protected sentients. Such an affront requires that pursuit is swiftly undertaken with the aim of procuring an appropriate apology. The appropriateness, of course, will not be inconsequential.’
‘My vessel is T2-capable,’ said Silveira. ‘It may not have the weaponry to engage, but it can certainly track the Ezgara to their destination. I would be happy to put both it and myself at your disposal.’