Endeavour (Atlantia Series Book 4) Page 17

  The Marines were surrounding a body on the deck and she could see that the cockpit ahead was a smouldering, warped mess, the windshield shattered and blown out by the force of the impact. Evelyn made her way forward and was surprised to see a satisfied grin on General Bra’hiv’s face.

  ‘Well, well,’ he uttered. ‘Who’d have thought it?’

  Evelyn looked down and saw Qayin sprawled on his back on the deck. His eyes were hooded, his body lacerated with countless wounds and his uniform stained almost entirely with blood. The bioluminescent tattoos on his face were barely visible, faded and pulsing weakly. Qayin looked up at her and he tried to speak.

  ‘Stay still,’ Meyanna whispered to the convict urgently as she tried to stem the flow of blood from the ragged wound in Qayin’s chest, the silvery blade and spike poking upward from the wound.

  Evelyn gasped as she recognised the weapon.

  ‘That’s a D’jeck,’ she said as she pointed at the weapon, and then she looked at Qayin. ‘Kordaz?’

  Qayin nodded briefly, barely able to speak, but he managed to force a single word between his swollen lips.

  ‘Infected.’

  Evelyn looked out of the shattered cockpit windows.

  ‘I think we’ve got an even bigger problem now,’ she said.

  ***

  XXIII

  ‘What’s going on down there?’

  Captain Idris Sansin stalked up and down on the command platform, his hands grasped behind his back as he awaited a response from his command crew.

  ‘We’re re–establishing contact with General Bra’hiv, captain,’ Lael replied. ‘The communications links were severed when the gunship crashed into the landing bay, and the crash seems to have provoked the ship’s computer to force an emergency shut–down of all major systems.’

  ‘Is my wife alive?’ Idris demanded. ‘Do we have any contact with the team at all?’

  Lael did the smart thing and remained silent as she worked the controls at her station until, finally, a signal reached Atlantia. A display screen on the bridge flickered into life and showed an image of General Bra’hiv’s point–of–view as he stood over the bodies of three soldiers lying on the deck before him, Meyanna and two Marine medics working on the injured people.

  ‘General, what’s happening down there?!’

  Bra’hiv’s voice replied, as calm as ever.

  ‘Meyanna is fine, captain,’ he said, seeking to allay the captain’s primary concern as soon as possible. ‘We’ve lost three Marines and a lot’s happened since we lost contact. It’s going to take a while to explain.’

  ‘We’ve been busy here too,’ Idris admitted, calming as he noted on the screen his wife busily attending to a wounded soldier. ‘The gunship made a break for it and slipped through our defences.’

  ‘We noticed,’ Bra’hiv replied dryly. ‘Nobody thought to shoot the damned thing down?’

  Idris ground his teeth in his jaw. ‘That was precisely what Arcadia was attempting to do, but we blocked them from finishing the job.’

  ‘You did what?’

  ‘The situation was not as simple as it may have seemed to Mikhain, who has adopted a cavalier attitude toward the lives of anybody not aligned with Colonial thinking.’

  ‘I could have told you about that,’ Bra’hiv remarked. ‘He’s got his own agenda captain, and has had for some time.’

  On the display screen, the captain saw Andaim glance at Bra’hiv with interest upon the general’s remarks.

  ‘That notwithstanding, there may be some doubt about Qayin’s guilt of treachery at Chiron IV.’

  ‘I doubt that immensely, being as I was there,’ Bra’hiv countered, ‘but you’ll be overjoyed to learn that our old friend is now with us and looking remarkably the worse for wear.’

  Bra’hiv turned his head and Idris got a good look at Qayin, where he lay apparently unconscious on the deck with an intravenous line in his arm.

  ‘Kordaz?’ the captain asked.

  ‘Nowhere to be seen,’ Bra’hiv replied. ‘The gunship crashed into the landing bay and punched right through into the ship itself, so it’s possible the Veng’en escaped into the ship, although why he would have wanted to do so is beyond me.’

  It was Evelyn who replied.

  ‘He’s infected,’ she reported. ‘Qayin managed to warn me before he passed out.’

  ‘And now he’s aboard Endeavour,’ Idris said. ‘And there’s no way out of that landing bay?’

  ‘Not a chance,’ Bra’hiv confirmed, ‘the ship’s computer, that face welded into the control panels on the bridge, has shut half the ship down due to the atmospheric breach and Salim’s gunship is leaking like a sieve. As soon as the injured men are stabilised we’ve got to move.’

  ‘With Kordaz somewhere ahead of you,’ Idris muttered, realising the extent of the danger they were in.

  ‘It’s worse than that,’ Bra’hiv revealed. ‘The gunfight in the holds set off an emergency release mechanism for the various species being held in stasis. They’re all out, captain, and we barely escaped without losing anybody.’

  ‘What gunfight?’ Idris asked in exasperation.

  ‘We’ll explain it all later,’ Bra’hiv assured the captain. ‘Right now, I need you to look into the records for any evidence of the Word being behind the launch of Endeavour, or having any input into who boarded her as a passenger and whether they could, no matter how remote the chance, have been somehow infected.’

  ‘Infected?’ Idris echoed. ‘But Endeavour was launched almost a century ago!’

  ‘We know, but whatever has been done here looks just like the work of the Legion, although thankfully we haven’t found any evidence of them being aboard the ship.’

  ‘Until Kordaz,’ Idris reflected. ‘Do you think that might be why he suddenly flew that gunship into Endeavour? He was originally holding Qayin as hostage in return for me sending Meyanna to treat him.’

  ‘Perhaps,’ Bra’hiv said as he glanced at the shattered cockpit windscreen. ‘But right now I don’t give a damn. I need schematics and a way out of this ship.’

  Idris turned to Lael, who immediately got to work. Idris returned his gaze to the screen and saw Bra’hiv look across to where Evelyn was standing and watching Meyanna work on the injured soldiers. There, standing beside Evelyn, was a woman whose appearance made the captain startle.

  ‘Evelyn?’

  Bra’hiv looked at the woman accompanying Evelyn and his voice filled Atlantia’s bridge. ‘One of the things I wanted to talk to you about,’ the general said. ‘We found her in the capsules in the hold, and Evelyn here insisted on bringing her with us. I don’t like it, but so far she’s done nothing to harm any of us and she appears to be blind.’

  Idris walked closer to the display screen, fascinated by the woman’s appearance. Despite the mask obscuring her features and being smothered in thick fluid, she seemed almost a carbon copy of Evelyn herself.

  ‘That can’t be a coincidence,’ he said softly, aware that Evelyn would be on the same channel and able to hear him.

  ‘It isn’t,’ Evelyn replied for the general, ‘but right now I don’t know why.’

  ‘Did you find any other humans down there?’ Idris asked.

  ‘Many of the crew were being held in stasis,’ Bra’hiv replied, ‘but we didn’t get far inside the holds before we were chased out again by all sorts of fangs and teeth. If the crew were the first victims of this then it’s likely they were further inside the hold, and they’re also likely now loose as well. I don’t want to think about what it’s going to be like inside there.’

  Lael’s voice piped up from her console.

  ‘Then you’re not going to like what has to happen next,’ she said. ‘Sending Endeavour’s schematics over to you now.’

  There was a few moments’ pause as Bra’hiv examined the data that Lael had sent him, and then Idris felt as though he could almost hear the general scowl.

  ‘You’re damned well kidding me?’

 
Idris looked up at a second screen that flickered into life alongside the one linked to General Bra’hiv, and there the schematic was displayed. Obtained by overlaying Endeavour’s original deck plan over a three–dimensional scan of the ship’s now–wrecked hull, the schematic provided a detailed presentation of all available access corridors remaining aboard the ship.

  Of key interest was the only available route from the for’ard landing bays to the only other remaining operational landing bay on Endeavour’s starboard aft flank. The route descended the ‘tween decks, passed directly through the holds and then climbed aft.

  ‘That’s the only route?’ Idris uttered in dismay.

  ‘All other potential avenues of access to the aft bays are either cut off by hull breaches or obstructed by collapsed support beams and other major structural failures,’ Lael reported. ‘Normally the hold would not be used to access the aft bays, but in this case there is a series of ventilation shafts large enough to pass through that link the holds to a point for’ard of where the engine rooms were once located. The aft landing bays are served by the same shafts, thus providing access.’

  ‘Perfect,’ Bra’hiv muttered. ‘We’ve got to go back where we just came from.’

  ‘Can you not just use the environmental suits and board a shuttle via the breached hull?’ Idris asked.

  ‘Not enough suits to go around,’ Bra’hiv replied, ‘especially not now we’ve picked up new members. Anybody without a suit has to stay inside the pressurised sections of the hull.’

  ‘Is there any way we can get useable suits to you aboard Endeavour?’ Idris tried again.

  ‘Maybe, but we’ve got to leave right now. My men are reporting electrical fires throughout the gunship and she could blow at any moment. If you can get the suits to us, then you’ll have to find a way to do it while we’re on the move.’

  Idris looked at Lael, who shook her head. ‘The entire route is deep inside the hull. Best we can do is land a shuttle with reinforcements aboard the aft bay and hope to meet Bra’hiv’s team half–way.’

  Another, deeper voice replied from Endeavour. ‘That won’t be possible.’

  Idris watched as a man with a face concealed with a bandana, his eyes hard and cold, came to stand before General Bra’hiv.

  ‘And why is that?’ Idris enquired.

  ‘Because that bay is already full with our own craft, and the doors sealed from the inside. The only way out is via our gunship and there won’t be any room for reinforcements. We either do this ourselves or we’re here for what’s left of our lives.’

  ‘Who are you?’

  The soldier reached up and pulled the bandana from his face. He was a young man with short–cropped blond hair and icy grey eyes, his jaw thick with stubble. He peered at the camera, his voice gravelly as he spoke.

  ‘My name is Lieutenant Riaz, Specialist Tactics Squadron.’

  ‘What the hell are you doing there?’ Idris asked.

  ‘That’s a long story and we don’t have time to tell it now,’ Riaz said. ‘Your general will fill you in on the way but right now it’s time to move. Let’s go.’

  Within moments, the entire company of soldiers began moving towards the cockpit of the gunship. The cockpit was filled with smouldering panels and broken glass, sparks falling from the ceiling panels to scatter across the deck. Evelyn followed the Marines into the cockpit and searched for any sign of Kordaz, but all she could see was a splattering of blood across the cockpit panels where the Veng’en had crawled out of the cockpit and through the shattered glass.

  ‘He’s been here,’ said the general.

  Bra’hiv pointed to the bloodstains on the cockpit panels and Lieutenant Riaz examined them closely for a moment. ‘Someone you know?’

  ‘It’s another long story,’ Evelyn said.

  The Marines clambered through the gaping cavity where the gunship’s screen had once been, and Evelyn turned to help the woman through behind her. The woman stumbled uneasily through the glass and onto the bow of the gunship. One by one the Marines climbed down off the bow and into a wide corridor leading aft through the ship. Evelyn climbed down off the bow and then turned to help the woman off behind her. Not once did the woman release her hand, gripping as if it was the only thing keeping her alive.

  ***

  XXIV

  The corridor was long, the lights set into the ceiling flickering weakly as they walked, heading ever further aft into Endeavour. Evelyn led the woman by the hand, following the Marines as they fanned out and moved from cover to cover. Endeavour’s power system remained almost completely off–line, the ships fusion cores weakening and the supply unreliable.

  As they walked Evelyn tried to peer past the mask of the woman next to her but she could see nothing of her face. She glanced again at the identification patch on the woman’s uniform, transfixed by the image of her own features. To her surprise, the woman’s masked face turned slightly towards her as she sensed she was being looked at.

  ‘You’re safe,’ Evelyn said. ‘You’re surrounded by Colonial Marines.’

  The woman made no response, her masked face turning to face forwards again, but Evelyn could tell that she was listening to everything that was happening around her and she was walking with a tense gait as though expecting an imminent attack.

  Bra’hiv led the Marines to a bulkhead, the hatch sealed and the soldiers forming a guard around it. The general approached the hatch slowly and turned to look Evelyn.

  ‘Once we go through here there’ll be no turning back, you understand?’

  Meyanna stepped forward and gestured towards the woman with the mask. ‘Don’t you think we should do something about this mask before we go any further?’

  Bra’hiv looked at the woman and frowned. ‘I don’t think we have time to remove that thing.’

  ‘We going to need every pair of hands we can get,’ Evelyn said, ‘if we’re going to get through that hold.’

  The general looked at Riaz’s men, and one of them reached into his webbing and pulled out a compact plasma torch. Evelyn turned to the woman and squeezed her hand gently.

  ‘Don’t worry, we’re going to get that thing off you before we go any further.’

  Evelyn helped the woman to sit down on the deck as Meyanna took the plasma torch from the soldier and knelt down beside Evelyn. Meyanna activated the plasma torch and it crackled with energy as a bright blue–white arc of light flared violently. The woman instinctively backed away from the noise but Evelyn placed a hand on her shoulder and squeeze gently.

  ‘It’s okay,’ she said. ‘Trust me.’

  Meyanna leaned in, the torch perilously close to the woman’s skin as she began severing the solid neck brace of the mask. Evelyn grabbed a small canteen of water and prepared to wash any wounds down as the mask was removed. The Marines closed in around them and watched in fascinated silence as Meyanna carefully cut through the braces, the chunks of metal tumbling away as the woman sat motionless on the deck.

  It took almost five minutes for her to make the cuts, and then Meyanna shut the plasma torch off and handed it back to the watching soldiers. Evelyn sat back and looked down for a moment before she spoke.

  ‘We’ll take it off now.’

  For several long moments the woman didn’t move, but then slowly she reached up instinctively to touch the mask. Evelyn and Meyanna positioned themselves either side of the woman, Evelyn taking her shoulders in her hands as Meyanna gripped the mask firmly.

  ‘Are you ready?’

  She slowly nodded her head and her hands dropped into her lap as she waited for whatever was coming next. Evelyn took a deep breath and heard the woman do the same as Meyanna spoke.

  ‘On the count of three,’ she said. ‘One, two…’

  With a heave of effort Meyanna suddenly pulled on the mask, yanking it upwards and outwards as Evelyn pulled back on the woman’s shoulders. The mask shot away from her face and two long chrome probes slid from deep inside the woman’s throat and trailed a thin strea
m of crimson fluid.

  The woman gagged, her body jerking violently as the mask was hurled away to slam loudly into the corridor wall. She rolled sideways and hunched over, coughing heavily as she sought to regain control of her breathing. The Marines watched as they heard the woman’s breathing whistle in her throat, her body shaking. Evelyn moved around to kneel before the woman and gently push the canteen of water in front of her. The woman grabbed the bottle as if it were the last drink in the galaxy and poured it down her throat as she threw her head back. And as she did so Evelyn felt a tremor of supernatural awe trickle down her spine.

  Aghast exclamations went up from the Marines and they stepped back a pace as they stared down at the woman’s elfin features, identical to those of Evelyn. Her hair, her eyes, the shape of her lips were the exact mirror–image of Evelyn, tempered only by the pale skin of the face, a sickly torpor from years, perhaps decades of being suspended in stasis inside the capsule.

  The woman lowered the canteen of water, coughed again and then sucked in several long, deep breaths as she slowly looked up at Evelyn. The two women look at each other for a long beat, and then Lieutenant C’rairn broke the silence.

  ‘This isn’t weird.’

  The woman looked up at him and Evelyn thought she saw a tiny smile curl from her lips.

  ‘Who are you?’ Evelyn asked, fascinated.

  The woman did not reply for a long time, as though trying to take in everything that had happened to her. Evelyn remembered her own awakening from the mask that she had worn for so many years, her own confusion and uncertainty about where she was and what had happened. She too had been in a dangerous vessel surrounded by strangers, many of whom wanted her dead. At least this woman, whoever she was, was surrounded by people who actually wanted to help her.

  ‘My name,’ the woman whispered softly, her voice barely audible and sounding as though she were dreaming, ‘is Legion, for we are many.’