Endeavour (Atlantia Series Book 4) Read online

  Idris stared into the middle distance for a moment as he pictured his wife and wondered whether she had even made it out of Endeavour alive. Suddenly their arguments and bickering seemed puerile and pointless against the vast canvass of threats and challenges that they had faced together.

  ‘I’m sure she made it out just fine,’ Lael attempted to console the captain and then she glanced down at her display. ‘Arcadia is leaping.’

  Idris looked up at the screen and saw Arcadia’s massive ion engines suddenly flare brightly as she accelerated away with maximum force toward leap velocity. The frigate rapidly vanished to a small point of light as though it were just another star among billions.

  ‘Track her trajectory and lay in a pursuit course at maximum velocity!’

  ‘Aye, captain,’ the helm responded immediately.

  The helmsman advanced Atlantia’s throttles and the frigate surged forwards and out of the barrage of plasma fire being directed at it by the Morla’syn destroyer. Idris held onto the guard rail of the command platform as Atlantia heeled over and turned to pursue Arcadia even as Lael called out.

  ‘Arcadia has jumped into super luminal. Trajectory recorded, gravity wake data being received now.’

  ‘All Raythons aboard, all bay doors sealed and atmosphere is stable. Shields at fifty eight per cent!’ called the tactical officer.

  ‘Maximum power, get us out of here!’ Idris yelled.

  The helmsman did not hesitate and threw the throttles fully forward, and in an instant Atlantia responded and accelerated away from the battle. The plasma blows ceased, and in their wake the distant echoes of alarm claxons sounding through the ship from damaged areas of the hull. Idris held onto the guard rail as Atlantia accelerated, her mass drive spinning up as he watched the Morla’syn destroyer lumber through a turn to pursue.

  ‘We are out of effective plasma cannon range,’ the tactical officer informed Idris.

  Idris watched as the massive destroyer turned, and as she did so she launched a tremendous salvo of blasts that smashed into Endeavour’s unshielded hull with a brilliant supernova flare of light. Idris squinted and shielded his eyes as the aged vessel exploded in a blazing fireball, her hull shattering into countless billions of fragments expanding out into the bitter vacuum of space.

  ‘Mass drive engaging, five seconds,’ Lael reported

  Idris maintained his grip on the guard rail and counted down in his mind as he watched the pursuing Morla’syn destroyer make a last desperate dash to catch them before they made the leap. The huge ship was just starting to grow in size on the display screen when suddenly the lights in the bridge appeared to become polarised as Lael’s countdown was completed and Idris felt a familiar, comforting surge as Atlantia leaped into super luminal flight.

  In an instant, every display screen on the bridge flared bright white and then turned completely black and the massive Morla’syn destroyer vanished from view.

  ***

  XXXV

  ‘I want a full environmental team deployed to the landing bay immediately, and have Bravo company’s Marines supporting them.’

  Mikhain strode off the command platform with Lieutenant Scott following him.

  ‘Contact has been lost with Atlantia, but our last observation of them showed their Raythons making to land and the frigate disengaging from the Morla’syn. It’s almost certain that they will pursue us.’

  ‘Good,’ Mikhain replied. ‘Make no attempt to conceal our gravitational wake so that Captain Sansin has a clear signal to follow.’

  ‘What about the Morla’syn?’ Scott asked. ‘They will be able to follow the same trail and are sure to attack us as soon as we emerge from super luminal flight.’

  ‘One problem at a time, lieutenant,’ Mikhain advised. ‘You have the bridge.’

  Lieutenant Scott glanced at Djimon, the XO. ‘Aye, captain.’

  Mikhain marched off the bridge, this time with Djimon in hot pursuit, the pair of them heading directly for the elevator banks that would take them down to the landing bays.

  ‘What are we going to do with them?’ Djimon asked as soon as they were safely inside the elevator with nobody able to listen in.

  Mikhain stared at the featureless face of the elevator door as he considered the problem they now had to resolve. Qayin was alive and Mikhain could only assume that Kordaz too had survived the engagement. He had learned never to assume the best, especially since the apocalypse. Either Qayin or Kordaz could expose Mikhain’s involvement in jeopardising the success of the mission on Chiron, not to mention Djimon’s complicity in the conspiracy. Exposure of what truly happened would mean the end of Mikhain’s command and likely the end of Djimon’s career. Damn it, they could both be subjected to Maroon Protocol and there likely would not be a single person aboard either ship who would speak in their defence.

  ‘For now we keep them in complete isolation. We know that the Word is on board, but right now I don’t care whether it’s in computer form or in the shape of viable infectors. We use the Word’s presence as an excuse to prevent communication with our crew or indeed that of Atlantia, and we maintain super luminal flight for as long as possible.’

  ‘We need to separate Kordaz and Qayin from the rest of them, give us the chance to develop a suitable accident,’ Djimon said.

  ‘And there was me thinking that you were a true colonial soldier, devoted to the defence of the fleet.’

  ‘That’s exactly what I am,’ Djimon snapped back. ‘None of this would have happened were it not for Qayin’s betrayal and lies, and I’m damned if I’m going to stand up and take the blame for anything that involves the betrayal of a Veng’en. I don’t care that Sansin trusts him, the captain no longer speaks for everybody.’

  ‘Neither do you, as it happens,’ Mikhain pointed out.

  The towering former Marine glared down at his captain. ‘That’s no longer for you to decide. Tow the line, captain, while you still have a command from which to do so.’

  The elevator doors opened and the captain led the way out toward the landing bays, Djimon close behind him as they approached ranks of Marines all wearing environmental suits and guarding the entrance to the aft landing bay.

  Their commanding officer approached the captain, his voice reaching them through a microphone amplifier from behind the thick plastic mask he wore.

  ‘We’re ready whenever you are.’

  ‘Into the bay, lieutenant,’ the captain ordered. ‘Maximum caution, and maintain an open feed on your helmet camera. All microwave scanners active to prevent any contamination outside the bay. Take absolutely no risks, is that understood?’

  ‘Aye, captain.’

  The Marines turned as a unit and their commanding officer approached the landing bay hatch and entered a code into a panel next to the doors. Activating a security protocol, the code automatically reduced the air pressure inside the landing bay so the air could only flow in and not out. As the pressure inside the bay reduced, the commanding officer opened the hatch by just enough to allow the Marines to filter in one by one with hurried precision. Moments later the last Marine passed through the hatch and it automatically slammed shut behind him.

  Mikhain and Djimon switched their attention to a display screen set up nearby by the Marine’s support personnel, and watched as the Marines approached the landed gunship.

  *

  ‘They’re armed,’ Andaim observed through the cockpit window of the gunship as he watched the Marines fanning out, their faces obscured by environmental masks. ‘They’re not taking any chances.’

  ‘I can’t blame them,’ Evelyn replied as she stood and strode out of the cockpit.

  The Marines hefted Qayin’s stretcher onto their shoulders and followed her as Meyanna helped Emma toward the access ramp. Standing beside the ramp was the computer terminal with the Word’s silent face. Evelyn could never tell whether the face was silently watching everyone while hiding behind an image of man with its eyes closed, but she could not believe it was simpl
y sitting idly by and not thinking all the time. That, surely, was how the Word had first evolved into the conquering force of mankind–thinking.

  ‘They know that the Word was on board Endeavour,’ Bra’hiv said as he watched Evelyn descend from the cockpit toward them. ‘They’re going to act as though we are all infected and I don’t know what they’re going to do about Kordaz when they see him.’

  The Veng’en warrior stood at the rear of the ship’s ’tween decks, his wrists manacled and Marine guards standing four–strong around him.

  ‘I have the impression that Kordaz wishes only to be close to the Word,’ Evelyn replied as she eyed the warrior and considered the infection that was coursing through his body. ‘That’s what caused you to crash to Endeavour, wasn’t it.’

  Kordaz said nothing, instead staring at her with those red eyes that were now even harder to judge. Evelyn could not tell whether Kordaz truly had chosen once again to side with humanity or whether he felt it was his only chance to infiltrate it, this time with the Word on his side, but right now she had to focus on what was most important.

  Emma’s features were now even paler than before and her uniform was drenched in blood. That she was not already dead was a miracle in itself, and yet again she wondered why it was that Kordaz had missed the heart with the blade, that such a skilled warrior and killer would have failed to take the life of a single, unarmed woman. The only conclusion she could draw was that Kordaz had believed Emma to be Evelyn and that his intention was not to kill but to injure, to somehow allow himself to be captured without being killed. The conclusion bothered her immensely.

  ‘Ready?’ Andaim asked.

  ‘You first,’ Evelyn said to Meyanna.

  The captain’s wife nodded and helped Emma to her feet, and Evelyn reached out and hit the main ramp’s release switch.

  The gunship’s ramp hissed as air escaped and it descended and hit the deck below with a loud clang that reverberated around the sealed landing bay. Evelyn watched as Meyanna descended the ramp with one arm around Emma, and her voice sounded small as she called out.

  ‘I need a medical kit as fast as you can,’ Meyanna insisted. ‘She needs to be stabilised as soon as possible.’

  The Marines responded instantly, having no reason to assume that the woman with the captain’s wife was anybody other than Evelyn. Two Marine medics hurried out from among their comrades, both of them pulling medical kits from their webbing as alongside them two further Marines produced microwave scanners.

  ‘Go ahead, as fast as you can,’ Meyanna insisted to the two Marines with the scanners. ‘We’re clean, but she’s not going to be able to hang on much longer.’

  The Marines began scanning them both as Emma was laid on the deck onto a rapidly unfolded stretcher. From the darkened interior of the gunship, Evelyn felt a pang of respect for the two Marines as they busied themselves inserting an IV line into Emma’s arm regardless of the danger of potential infection by the Word. Within moments desperately needed painkillers were surging into Emma’s bloodstream and the pained, barely conscious expression on her face gradually began to melt as she relaxed.

  ‘They’re both clean!’ the two scanner–wielding Marines called.

  ‘Okay, clear them to the starboard side of the bay and make way for the next batch!’ their commanding officer shouted.

  Evelyn began waving Marines down the ramp in groups of four, but kept herself out of sight and close to Kordaz and Qayin until they were the only remaining people aboard the gunship but for a single marine guard.

  ‘You ready?’ she asked, looking at Kordaz.

  The Veng’en nodded once, his dull red eyes fixed upon Evelyn’s as she turned to the Word’s computer terminal and its unreadable face. She reached out to manoeuver the terminal into position to push it down the ramp when suddenly the eyes on the face opened and stared it seemed directly into her own.

  ‘Your time is coming,’ the voice said, and Evelyn was shocked to realise that she could hear not just the warbling digital tones that she had heard her before but actual dialogue, the voice strangely human and digital at the same time.

  Only once before in her life could Evelyn recollect hearing such a voice, a bizarre chimera of man and machine speaking to her, and that was when she had encountered Tyraeus Forge months before. The former Colonial commander and celebrated battleship captain had been almost entirely consumed by the Legion, his body little more than a technological characterisation of what was left of the man himself, a seething mass of tiny machines.

  Evelyn shivered but did not reply to the machine, did not dare to in front of the Marine and Kordaz. She pulled the computer terminal until it was over the ramp and then she set off pushing it in front of her as she descended into the landing bay. Behind her, Kordaz used Evelyn as a defence against any impulsive rifle fire that might come from the waiting Marines. Behind the Veng’en the remaining Marine guard descended the ramp with one hand on his rifle and the other gently pushing Qayin’s stretcher ahead of him.

  Evelyn heard the gasp of the Marines as they caught sight of Kordaz and his clearly infected body, not to mention Evelyn appearing yet again, and Qayin on the stretcher behind her.

  ‘Hold your fire!’ Evelyn snapped. ‘It’s not what you think.’

  ‘We’ll be the judge of that,’ the commanding officer of the Marines snapped. ‘Hands in the air, get on your knees!’

  Evelyn positioned the Word to one side and got onto her knees with her hands in the air as behind her she heard Kordaz follow suit. The Marines with the microwave scanners approached her and within moments of scanning they confirmed that she was uninfected.

  ‘She’s clean!’

  ‘Don’t scan Kordaz,’ Evelyn ordered the Marines. ‘He is infected, but not in the manner we’re used to seeing. The Word we found aboard Endeavour is not the enemy of mankind but an earlier incarnation of the same program. The infectors in his system are following its orders, not those of the Word that intends to destroy us.’

  The Marines glanced over their shoulder at their commanding officer but it was not the officer who replied. Instead the voice of the captain, Mikhain, echoed across the landing bay as it was emitted by speakers set high into the walls.

  ‘I want Kordaz completely isolated from the rest of the crew and the ship. Likewise, Qayin is also to be isolated. He has been in close quarters to Kordaz for an indeterminate amount of time and may himself be infected. We cannot allow either of them close to our people.’

  ‘Qayin was not responsible for Kordaz’s betrayal on Chiron,’ General Bra’hiv announced loudly enough to be heard across the landing bay. ‘Despite all that he’s done he should not be considered a suspect at this time and should be held in the sick bay along with other injured parties.’

  ‘Noted,’ Mikhain replied, ‘but right now I’m not about to take any chances. Isolation for both of them, no exceptions. The rest of you will be assigned quarters and will be interviewed as soon as we have ensured that the gunship itself harbours no infectors. Arcadia is now in super luminal cruise and we have no contact with Atlantia. I need to know as much as possible about what happened aboard Endeavour so that we can share it with Captain Sansin as soon as our ships emerge from super luminal. The commander of the Marines will deploy you as required – please follow his every command.’

  ‘What about the word?’ Evelyn asked, surprised at her own level of concern for the safety of the machine that appeared to be willing to help human beings survive. ‘Emma is the only one who appears to be able to communicate with it.’

  ‘I take it that Emma is the woman found aboard Endeavour who is apparently your identical twin?’ Mikhain enquired.

  ‘She is,’ Evelyn replied, ‘and she’s on our side. We would not have gotten off Endeavour without her.’

  ‘We don’t know that,’ Mikhain snapped. ‘We don’t know anything about her or anything about what really happened aboard Endeavour. As it happens we can’t be sure we know everything about you, Evelyn.�
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  Andaim stepped forward. ‘That’s ridiculous, Evelyn was a convict aboard Atlantia five, we know that she’s not infected and is not an agent of the Word.’

  ‘And can you explain how a woman who is identical to Evelyn in every respect can possibly have been found aboard a ship that launched a hundred years ago?’

  Andaim opened his mouth to reply but his words fell short as he glanced uncertainly at Evelyn. To her dismay, none of the Marines or General Bra’hiv stepped forward to her defence. All of them were wearing expressions that suggested they weren’t sure of what to believe or what to do.

  ‘Are you telling me that you’re going to make me some kind of prisoner?’ Evelyn demanded of Mikhain.

  ‘I’m going to play it safe until we can figure something out,’ Mikhain replied, ‘and as for that machine I wanted it isolated just like everything else that came off Endeavour and surrounded by a frequency jammer that prevents it communicating with anyone or anything. If it’s got anything to do with the Word, I don’t trust it.’

  Before Evelyn could respond Arcadia’s Marines fanned out, and within moments both she and Kordaz were separated away from the rest of their team as the Marines took hold of the Word’s computer terminal and began guiding it away from the gunship. Mikhain’s voice filled the landing bay once more.

  ‘Get them to their quarters, the cells and the sick bay, dismissed!’

  ***

  XXXVI

  ‘How badly injured is Qayin?’

  Mikhain strode toward Arcadia’s sickbay, Djimon walking alongside him as crew members separated to let them pass and saluted as they did so.

  ‘He’s currently unconscious,’ Djimon replied, ‘and the doctors are examining him now. I didn’t get a good look but I suspect he will make a full recovery. His injuries are not life–threatening.’

  Qayin must by now be aware that he had been set up to take the fall for whoever had betrayed Kordaz on Chiron, and would be on a mission to use that knowledge to reinstate himself with Atlantia’s crew and regain Captain Sansin’s trust. The longer he was kept in isolation aboard Arcadia, the better.