Endeavour (Atlantia Series Book 4) Read online

  The Morla’syn captain seemed satisfied, his gaze drawn to his own displays as he watched the gunship begin to traverse the no–man’s–land between the massive vessels, its two Raython escorts in close formation either side of it.

  As Idris watched he knew that there was nothing to prevent the Morla’syn from blowing the gunship and its escort into oblivion. What passed for justice on the Morla’syn homeworld might not resemble the kind of due process that Idris and all humans were familiar with on Ethera. Both he and Mikhain were placing their trust in a species that may have been deceiving them since they had first encountered each other.

  The shuttle passed the half–way point between the opposing factions, and the Morla’syn captain looked up from his display.

  ‘I’m curious, captain? Why would you choose to abandon your people so suddenly?’

  ‘If they have committed a crime, then surely they must face an appropriate punishment for that crime.’

  ‘But they are human beings, and I’m surprised you would not wish to know more about their punishment?’

  ‘We have bigger issues to deal with, captain,’ Idris replied, wondering whether the Morla’syn was beginning to suspect something. ‘I cannot waste any more time over these soldiers, especially if they are the mass murderers you claim them to be.’

  ‘Claim,’ the Morla’syn echoed his words. ‘To you it is just a claim even though the soldiers have confessed, as you say they have. That also could be a claim.’ One pale, hooked finger stroked his long chin for a moment. ‘Halt the craft where they are and we will board them from here. I have no need for the gunship, only its crew.’

  Idris clenched his fists by his side. ‘That will not be necessary. I do not wish to expose my pilots to a potential hostage situation.’

  ‘You think that I would do such a thing?’ the Morla’syn uttered in disgust. ‘You overestimate your importance to us, captain.’

  ‘Well apparently those eight soldiers are important enough to you. It makes me wonder how such an insignificant species such as our own could have caused such disruption so easily to a Morla’syn crew, let alone killed them so swiftly in cold blood.’

  The captain scowled at Idris. ‘There is no accounting for luck, captain.’

  ‘There will be no boarding,’ Idris insisted, his instincts alive with the sense that the Morla’syn did not intend to allow any human to leave alive. ‘You either take the soldiers or you leave. There will be no further debate.’

  ‘Then there will be no further compromise!’

  The communications link was shut off abruptly and Idris glanced immediately the tactical display.

  ‘The destroyer is charging weapons!’ Lael warned.

  ‘Full shields!’ Idris yelled, completely forgetting that Atlantia was under the control of the Word.

  Nobody moved or confirmed the command and Idris whirled to Lazarus on his screen. ‘The gunship will be destroyed!’

  ‘Yes. We must ensure that the Morla’syn fire the first shot,’ Lazarus replied.

  ‘Warn Evelyn!’ Idris ordered Lael, but he realised that his communications officer was staring at him helplessly.

  ‘I’ve been cut off,’ she replied. ‘The Word has control of the ship.’

  Idris turned and drew his service pistol as he aimed it as Lazarus. The plasma magazine hummed into life.

  ‘Warn them,’ he hissed, ‘or your time is well and truly over.’

  ‘Trust me,’ Lazarus countered, ‘or nobody will survive this engagement.’

  Idris’s finger tightened on the trigger, the pistol just a few cubits from Lazarus’s terminal.

  ***

  XLIII

  ‘They’re turning!’

  Evelyn saw the huge Morla’syn destroyer suddenly heel over, her bow swinging aside as she started to bring her immense port batteries to bear upon Arcadia and Atlantia.

  ‘Something must have happened,’ Andaim snapped from his Raython. ‘They’re preparing for battle.’

  Evelyn’s hand moved instinctively for the gunship’s weapon systems, but she caught herself and resisted the temptation.

  ‘Lazarus will have predicted this,’ she said.

  ‘He damned well might also have predicted the destruction of the entire human race here too!’ Andaim countered. ‘This might be what the Word wants!’

  ‘It’s what the Morla’syn want!’ Evelyn insisted. ‘Teera, are you in?’

  ‘I’ve got your wing,’ Teera replied.

  ‘This is suicide!’ Andaim snapped. ‘One direct hit and we’re all done for!’

  Evelyn rested her hand on the gunship’s throttle. ‘On my mark.’

  She heard Andaim mutter something under his breath, but the CAG’s Raython did not break off from the formation, hugging Evelyn’s wing tightly as ahead a swarm of Morla’syn fighters broke away from the destroyer and rocketed toward them.

  *

  ‘We’re within their firing arc and range!’ Lael called across Atlantia’s bridge. ‘Brace for enemy fire!’

  Idris saw the gunship and the two Raythons, tiny specks against the looming destroyer ahead as it turned side–on to the frigates. A wave of Morla’syn fighters bore down upon the three craft.

  ‘They’ll be obliterated,’ he gasped, his pistol still aimed at Lazarus. ‘We cannot protect them.’

  Lael’s voice rang out as the Morla’syn destroyer’s guns flared brightly with red light as they opened fire with a tremendous broadside.

  ‘You cannot protect them,’ Lazarus announced, ‘but I can. Brace yourselves!’

  Before anybody could respond Atlantia suddenly heeled over violently and accelerated as the Word manoeuvred in response to the Morla’syn attack. Idris staggered against the guard rail and glanced at the tactical display to see Arcadia likewise being banked steeply over in the opposite direction with a precision and aggression that no two Colonial helmsmen could hope to effectively coordinate together.

  ‘We won’t be able to attack her simultaneously!’ Idris yelled as he saw their carefully arranged formation break up.

  The two frigates turned toward each other, Arcadia pulling high as Atlantia dove beneath her sister ship. Idris felt a wave of panic hit him as he saw how closely the two ships were going to pass each other and how they were presenting such a massive and almost impossible to miss target for the Morla’syn.

  ‘Sheilds merging!’ Lael yelled.

  The Morla’syn broadside rocketed toward the two frigates, and Idris saw Arcadia’s shields merge with Atlantia’s in a rippling blue haze as the two frigates passed within a hundred cubits of each other, moving in opposite directions at flank speed.

  The Morla’syn broadside smashed into the shields and Atlantia quivered beneath the tremendous blows as the huge plasma blasts landed with brilliant flares of blinding light.

  ‘Sheilds holding, eighty nine per cent!’ Lael called. ‘We’re coming about!’

  ‘We’re going too fast,’ Mikhain cried out from Arcadia’s bridge. ‘We won’t be able to reform again in time.’

  Idris looked at the tactical display and with a rush of amazement he realised what Lazarus was doing. The combined shield strength of the two vessels had repelled the Morla’syn broadside. With the two frigates suddenly turning broadside to the destroyer and presenting the full strength of their guns while also moving apart, the destroyer was forced to select a single target. But with the Morla’syn vessel’s port cannons expended, it had no means with which to immediately return fire.

  ‘She’s exposed,’ Idris gasped. ‘One of us can hit either her bow or her stern.’

  ‘And you have not yet fired a single shot,’ Lazarus said.

  Idris held onto the guard rail. ‘We cannot. If we fire the Galactic Council may revoke what little chance we have left to redeem ourselves! What good is a tactical victory if we cannot use our weapons?’

  ‘Perfectly good,’ Lazarus replied, ‘if nobody is there to bear witness to them being used.’

  Before Idris
could think of a reply, Lazarus sent a command to Evelyn in the gunship.

  ‘Attack profile, go!’

  The Morla’syn vessel was heading toward a position that would leave it bow–on to Atlantia’s passing guns, with Arcadia passing astern of the huge destroyer with her port batteries coming to bear. Idris’s gaze moved to the tiny specks of the gunship and its two escorts as they rushed inward toward the destroyer’s fighter screen.

  The onrushing wave of Morla’syn fighters scattered in their formations as they attempted to avoid the rapidly bearing guns of both Arcadia and Atlantia. Their pilots, terrified of being caught in such a massive barrage, broke away from the onrushing gunship.

  *

  ‘This is it!’ Evelyn yelled. ‘Teera, attack velocity, engage the target now! I’ll cover you!’

  Teera saw the destroyer turn away from her advance and she yanked the control column over to one side and pulled hard as she aimed her fighter toward the bridge. The destroyer’s massive cannons were already aiming at her from its bow and suddenly an intense barrage of bright red plasma fire rocketed towards her and flashed past either side of the fighter.

  Teera rolled and pulled hard, kicked in left and right rudder as she careered left and right to avoid the massive plasma shots. Brilliant red orbs of fearsome plasma energy flickered past the fighter as it narrowly rocketed by, and she winced as she briefly imagined the pain of one of those blasts smashing into her Raython’s bow.

  ‘Maintain course,’ Lazarus ordered her. ‘You’re nearly there.’

  Teera rolled the Raython around a complete rotation as she avoided a shot that raced directly toward her. She levelled out as the destroyer continued its turn and both the bow and port guns were unable to hit her. To her amazement the fire ceased, her unusual angle of attack managing to avoid the destroyer’s main guns.

  ‘Perfect,’ Lazarus said. ‘Prepare to deploy the canister.’

  Teera activated her weapon systems and saw the single active plasma torpedo appear on her weapons screen, the device showing itself is ready for launch.

  Her Raython flashed across the Morla’syn destroyer’s bow, the seemingly endless hull rocketing by, every panel hundred times larger than her tiny fighter. The bridge loomed before her, rows of windows illuminated from within as she flew at maximum velocity and her targeting reticule settled on the surface of the bridge.

  ‘Deploy now!’ Lazarus called.

  Teera squeezed the trigger and the plasma torpedo was ejected from the Raython and plummeted towards the destroyer’s bridge. Teera hauled back on her control column and her fighter soared up and away from the destroyer. She strained to look over her shoulder and rolled the Raython over in order to see a bright flare as the torpedo impacted the Morla’syn destroyer’s bridge with all of its immense kinetic energy.

  The bright impact flare vanished and Teera saw a brilliant layer of glowing light swamp the destroyer’s bridge, a strange ethereal veil that shimmered as though alive. With a start of realisation she recognised the energy veil that they had liberated from Captain Taron Forge just weeks before, the pirate shroud. She felt her heart leap as she saw the lights across the destroyer’s bridge flicker out.

  ‘Direct hit!’ she yelled in delight as she pulled over the top of a loop. ‘The destroyer’s bridge is disabled!’

  *

  Capt Idris Sansin stared in amazement as he saw the pirate’s veil draped across the destroyer’s bridge and the lights beneath the veil flickering out. He knew that the Morla’syn aboard the bridge would be rendered unconscious by the veil’s strange electromagnetic properties, and would be unable to see what was happening outside their vessel.

  Lazarus smiled as he looked out of the screen at the captain. ‘Now, captain, you may open fire.’

  ‘I’ll be damned,’ Idris uttered as he turned and yelled, his voice carrying to every single fighter and every single gunnery station aboard Atlantia. ‘All stations, cleared to engage!’

  Atlantia shuddered as her main cannons opened fire on the defenceless destroyer, deep booms reverberating through her hull as bright blue and white plasma blasts rocketed across the space between her and the enemy ship. At the same time Idris saw the Raythons open fire upon the waves of Morla’syn fighters swarming away from the battle as they realised that their command and control was lost.

  Both frigate’s broadsides ploughed into the Morla’syn destroyer in a brilliant flickering inferno that rippled down the massive vessel’s hull. The Morla’syn shields absorbed the impacts one after another but almost immediately Idris saw lights flickering out beneath the impacts as the destroyer cruised in a straight line, it’s helmsman likely unconscious and unable to defend the ship. The simplicity of the plan was remarkable – no member of the destroyer’s crew would be able to enter the bridge without also being rendered unconscious, and despite their advanced technology the Morla’syn were known not to have a secondary control position in the manner of the Atlantia’s War Room. Preferring automation, the Morla’syn had overestimated their dominance in combat over the colonial frigates.

  Idris turned to Councillor Gredan, who had witnessed the entire engagement as it unfolded. ‘Are you sure that you don't want to take command, councillor?’

  Gredan, his forehead visibly sheened with sweat, shook his head once before he turned and walked off the bridge.

  *

  ‘Splash one!’

  Evelyn raced through the expanding fireball of what was left of a Morla’syn fighter and she swept hard into a right turn as she saw Raythons hammering the enemy vessels one after the other. Brilliant fireballs burst into existence all around as the Colonial fighters dominated their enemy.

  ‘They’re attempting to flee back to the destroyer!’ Andaim called.

  ‘We’ve got them on the run,’ Evelyn confirmed as she glanced at her tactical display and saw the Morla’syn fighters regrouping and attempting to flee the battle. ‘Let’s finish them off!’

  ‘Negative,’ Lazarus called. ‘All vessels cease fire and return to Arcadia and Atlantia. All craft will leave the area immediately!’

  ‘They will follow us again,’ Andaim insisted. If we do not destroy them now they will eventually catch up with us and they won’t fall for the same trick twice.’

  Lazarus’s voice brooked no argument as he replied.

  ‘By the time the crew aboard the ship are able to remove that veil we will be long gone, and they will be unable to track us because we will have sufficient time to emit countermeasures to conceal our trajectory. Destroying them now will gain you no favour with the Galactic Council. We must be seen to have fought only to protect ourselves and ensure our safe escape. They fired first, commander.’

  Evelyn heard the reluctance in Andaim’s voice as he confirmed the order.

  ‘All Raythons, disengage and land immediately.’

  ***

  XLIV

  Captain Idris Sansin strode down the corridor towards Atlantia’s prison cells, General Bra’hiv alongside him and a phalanx of Marines following.

  It had been a rare occurence indeed since the apocalypse for the captain to find himself visiting the cells. Atlantia’s former prison hull, Atlantia Five, had once been the home of all convicts, and misdemeanours among enlisted men and women were now scarce. As he approached the cells he saw further Marines standing guard, all heavily armed and both sets of security gates locked down.

  ‘I say we should enact Maroon Protocol immediately,’ Bra’hiv said.

  ‘I have no doubt so would the rest of the crew,’ Idris admitted, ‘but then that’s why we leave decisions such as this to the judgement of a fair trial and not gossip.’

  The captain stood still as the guards opened the security gates and allowed them to pass through. Idris walked with the general alongside him and reached the last cell. They turned to face it and saw Kordaz sitting quietly within.

  Kordaz had been transferred from Arcadia as soon as everybody was certain that the Morla’syn could not pursue th
em any further. After more than a week of super luminal cruise the two frigates had finally emerged into normal flight over a small, uninhabited system containing two moons suitable for the gathering of supplies. A binary star system, very common in the cosmos, both Sansin and Mikhain had taken the calculated gamble that the system contained present sufficient cosmic rays to have been avoided by any vessels contaminated with the Legion. One of the stars was a flare star, a red dwarf with variable output that was both highly unpredictable and likely lethal to the Word’s Hunters and Infectors. Likewise, the intense solar radiation and nebula emitted by the red dwarf provided a convenient means to camouflage the two frigates and further ensure that they were not detected by the Morla’syn destroyer.

  ‘The security camera feed didn’t catch the point where he got hold of Djimon,’ the general reported. ‘The only witness was Qayin, who was incapacitated at the time. Djimon was completely torn to pieces in some kind of frenzied attack. I can only assume that Kordaz simply lost his mind or is now completely in the grip of the Word’s Infectors. He cannot be trusted, he’s just not safe.’

  Idris paced closer to the cells gates and looked in at the warrior. Kordaz did not appear to see him, his dull red eyes staring vacantly into space and his hands clasped in his lap. He looked oddly calm, completely at odds with the persona that the captain had come to know over the past few months.

  ‘Can you hear me, Kordaz?’

  Kordaz blinked and looked up at the captain. Although the Veng’en could show no facial emotion, Idris thought he saw a flicker of colour across the warrior’s leathery skin, perhaps a sign of recognition.

  ‘Why did you kill Djimon?’

  Kordaz slowly stood from his bunk and moved toward the cell gates. Instantly the Marines around the captain raised their rifles and aimed them at Kordaz. The captain glanced over his shoulder and shook his head as he waved the soldiers down. The soldiers reluctantly lowered their rifles as Kordaz came to stand on the opposite side of the gates to the captain and spoke in his throaty, guttural dialect.