Death to the Imperium (Imperium Cicernus) (20 page)

phase drive now.>

“Silence
on deck!”

Alyce
tensed as she stared at the scanner, waiting to assess the situation. Seraph
had been ordered to show a close-up view of Station 949 immediately after
entering normal space, so instant action could be taken. Luckily, the station
was located right on the edge of the system, so there would be little laborious
sublight travel involved. The ship left phase space, and within minutes the
shape of Station 949 appeared on the scanner. It took Alyce a moment to
evaluate what she was seeing; it was so unexpected. There was no sign of any
battle. Ozytan’s ship looked undamaged, and there were also many Navy ships in
the vicinity of the station. But the situation seemed peaceful.

“What’s
going on, Captain?” Lieutenant Jameson said, noticing her expression.

“I
don’t know. But we will proceed with the plan. Are your men ready for boarding?”
The Lieutenant nodded. “Good luck, everyone.” She picked up her sonic rifle,
and joined the men in the docking bay with Glitz, Tekka and Doland. “If any
hostile ships are located, helmsman, fire at will. Seraph, can you obtain
boarding permission?”

Captain. We will be able to board without impediment.>

Alyce
frowned. It was of great help to them, but it seemed strange. Perhaps the
Imperial forces had already won the battle. Either way, they had no choice but
to dock and evaluate the situation themselves.

“Fine.
Dock with the station.”

Captain.>

The
Deliverer
effortlessly docked with the space station, and the Marines
stepped into the station first, led by Lieutenant Jameson. The docking chamber
was empty, so they proceeded through the ship. They entered a kind of large
control room, which was filled with complex machinery. The men had their sonic
rifles raised, ready to shoot at any hostile targets.

“Don’t
shoot!” someone shouted. “Mission is completed. I repeat, mission is completed!”

Captain
Wickham stared at the scene in the control room; it took a few seconds for her
brain to process the full situation. A handful of Marines and Navy officers
were holding the control room, and the floor was strewn with bodies. Alyce
peered at one of the corpses, which she realised was a dead Weerm. She noticed
with some distaste that sticky green blood was pooling beneath it. So it
was
over. The Weerms had all been killed.

“Tell
your men to stand down, Captain,” said a deep voice. She smiled when she
realised who had spoken. It was Admiral Trenna, who had been leading the fleet.

“So
it’s over?”

The
Admiral nodded slowly. “It’s over.”

Feeling
a little dazed and disoriented, Alyce nodded to the Lieutenant, and he turned
to the commandos. “Stand down. It looks like the battle’s already been won,”
the Lieutenant said.

Glitz
and Doland exchanged a glance; they were both relieved to have avoided the
fighting, but it seemed somewhat of an anti-climax. They had both seriously
expected a huge battle on arrival, but now it seemed they would not see any action.
Glitz stared around at the control room. Bodies were littered everywhere, and
both members of the Navy and commandos were standing around.

“What
happened, sir?” Alyce said slowly.

The
Admiral smiled again. “When our fleet arrived at the station, we were ready for
a full-on fight. All of our ships were armed to the teeth with fission beams,
antimatter cannons—all of the most advanced Imperial weaponry. Ozytan must have
known that he was overpowered, because we didn’t even get a chance to fire a single
shot. As a matter of course, we made contact with the base, ordering the enemy
to surrender or we would have to take the base by force. To our surprise,
Ozytan capitulated. He accepted all of our terms without a quarrel.” He paused.
“Of course, we expected some kind of deceit, but we boarded with the station,
ready to fire on any hostile forces. But it was not a trick. Ozytan genuinely
surrendered, and we sealed him in a force vault. The Weerms, unfortunately,
didn’t think much of Ozytan’s submission, and they tried to attack us, contrary
to Ozytan’s orders. But those sonic rifles did the trick—they were superb. Each
of the creatures went down with a single blast, and none of our men were
killed. Most of the fleet are still on board their ships; I will soon give the
order for them to turn back and go home.”

“That’s…
great news, sir,” Alyce said. She was still finding it hard to take in. It was
incredible to think that Ozytan had surrendered. But she couldn’t help thinking
that some details were strange. She turned to the Admiral. “Sir, would it be
possible for me to question the prisoner?”

“I
suppose so, Captain, but why do you wish it?”

“I
have a few… things to clear up, sir,” she replied vaguely.

The
Admiral seemed a little confused, but there was no reason not to allow it. The
Captain had proven herself to be a loyal member of the Navy, and Ozytan was
safe in his force vault. A human being could not penetrate the energy field
without frying every cell in his body.

Captain
Alyce Wickham turned to her men. “Thank you for being ready for this battle,
even though it seems our skills were not required in the end. If we
had
fought the enemy, I feel sure that you would have acted valiantly.”

“Yes,”
the Lieutenant agreed, nodding.

“Come
on,” Alyce said, gesturing for Glitz, Doland and Tekka to follow her. “Let’s go
and see our old friend.”

A
commando, on instructions from the Admiral, led the Captain and the others to
the location where Ozytan was being held. He had been placed inside a force
vault in a large storage room, which was filled with boxes containing petri
dishes and other simple scientific supplies. The room was filled with glowing
blue light from the force vault. The devices had been developed nearly a
hundred years ago, and as yet, no one had discovered a way to circumvent them.
They worked by projecting a field of destructive energy into a concentrated
bubble around the captive; although you could technically walk through it, the
act of passing through the force membrane would certainly kill you, even if you
were wearing the strongest armour in the galaxy. Private individuals and
corporations were banned from using them, due to their inherent danger, but the
Imperium found them to be a useful tool. Two more ships were on their way to
the station—a passenger liner containing a new set of workers for the station,
and a prison ship from Varon. Oyztan was to be kept imprisoned until the ship
from Varon arrived, and then he would be taken away to be placed on trial.

He
smiled when he saw Captain Wickham, Glitz, Doland and Tekka enter the room. He
was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the force vault, wearing a grey robe.
Despite his defeat, his eyes were still gleaming with the same revolutionary
zeal.

“So…
you surrendered,” Alyce said.

Ozytan
nodded. “I am no fool. I was outnumbered and outgunned—it was a choice between
surrender or death. I will be placed on trial on Varon, and no doubt the
Imperial Prosecution Service will seek the death penalty. However, I have money
enough to afford some very expensive lawyers, as well as a certain amount of
personal legal experience. I think it is safe to say that I will be able to get
off with a mere thirty years imprisonment.” He smiled wryly. “At least I will
have my books.”

“I
don’t understand—” she began, and then paused, marshalling her thoughts into
coherent speech. “With all the capital you have at your disposal, why did you
only have one ship to protect the station? And why did you bring so few Weerms?
There can’t be more than a hundred out there dead in the control room. With a bigger
army, you might easily have beaten the Imperial fleets. Also, you must have
known that the Weerms could be easily defeated—given the right weapons.”

Ozytan
tilted his head slightly in the direction of the floor, and said nothing. But
he didn’t need to reply. Sometimes, expressing a question out loud has the
remarkable effect of causing the brain to process the problem in a different
way—or a more efficient way—which has the result of making the answer
immediately clear. Alyce stared at Ozytan, realising the truth.

“You
never expected to win,” she said slowly. “And the reason is because you only
had a tiny number of Weerms on your side. You tried to give us the impression
that you had harvested millions of the creatures from the planet, but in actual
fact the majority of the Weerms had killed one another before you could rescue
them.”

“They
were too vicious,” Ozytan admitted. “They had no loyalty, even to their own
species. By the time I disabled the chrono-disrupter, the majority of the
species had been annihilated. The corpses you saw in the control room are the
only thing left of my army.”

“And
that’s why you only had one ship,” Alyce realised. “The Weerms couldn’t be
trusted to be pilots—and even if they could, you needed them onboard the
station for protection. And what human would be insane enough to help you on
this impossible mission?” She paused, staring at Ozytan with a sudden look of
disgust. “But you never wanted to
win
, did you? You knew taking the
Imperium was impossible. You just wanted to make a name for yourself, to go out
in a blaze of glory. In true revolutionary spirit, you wanted to satisfy your
own egoism. But you showed yourself to be a coward at the last minute—you
backed down from the might of the Imperial Navy. And now you will be remembered
as nothing but a weak rogue.”

Ozytan
said nothing, and Glitz stared at the man. He understood what Alyce was saying,
but some parts of her argument did not seem to ring true. Of course, it was
possible that Ozytan had simply been a madman who wanted to generate personal
glory, but
why
? Why would he place himself in such a position of
weakness, when the only two possible outcomes were defeat or surrender?
Mathematically, his chance of success against the Imperium had been zero. And
there was more. The light in Ozytan’s eyes had not gone out. Although his head
was bowed slightly, he still retained his composure. He did not seem a man
broken by defeat.

And
then something inexplicable, and terrible, happened. Doland fell to his knees,
as if suddenly experiencing terrible pain. Alyce knelt beside him, her eyes
wide with concern. “Doland? Doland? What’s the matter?” He began to convulse
violently, and she had to let go of him.

His
appearance began to change. His skin began to change colour, and his face was
distorted into an uglier shape. Sharp claws shot out from his limbs. His teeth
became pointed and vicious. Doland stood up, and hissed angrily. None of them
could quite believe what had happened. Before their eyes, he had transformed
into a Weerm. And then Ozytan began to laugh within his force vault. Alyce,
Glitz and Tekka began to back away from the Weerm slowly, who seemed to be
considering his next more. They pointed their sonic rifles at Doland, but none
of them wanted to shoot. Until a few seconds before, he had been their friend.

“What
did you do?” Tekka said coldly.

“Can
you not work it out? You see, I am not beaten, as I had you all believe. I only
wanted you to
think
that I had been defeated. The Weerms had never been
intended to be a fighting force—at least not in battle. In fact, it was I who
killed the majority of the creatures on the planet Chaos; the sheer number of
them was proving to be dangerous.”

“Then
what’s happening?” Alyce said, staring with terror at Doland, who was slowly
advancing on them.

“You
have all overlooked one important fact, and that is the function of this
station. If you recall, it houses the Genetic Archive. As a result, it contains
a large store of genetic equipment. I have used this apparatus to produce a
device of my own, with the assistance of a certain genetics professor who shall
remain nameless. Now, the function of Station 949 has been radically altered. It
has become one giant transmogrifier!”

Glitz
swallowed; he was starting to understand what was happening. The memory of his
own transmogrification at the hands of Shaitana was still fresh. That had been
a minor change to his DNA, but what if someone tried to cause a bigger change?

“The
transmogrification cloud will radiate out from this station over the course of
the next hour,” Ozytan said proudly. “The nanobots contained within the cloud are
programmed to pass through the nearest wormhole, using the wormhole network to
spread out through the galaxy, activating additional nanobot generator nodes. A
third of the human race will be transformed into Weerms!”

“Why?”
Alyce said, keeping tight hold on her rife with sweating hands. “What’s the
point of it all?”

“Don’t
you see? With a third of the human race turned into Weerms, there will be
anarchy. The creatures will tear apart the Imperium from the inside. There will
be no invasion fleet—no war—no battle strategies. Chaos is my only strategy.
Every governmental establishment will be utterly wiped out; whole planets will
fall into lawlessness; swathes of the remaining human population will die. Finally,
the Weerms, in their terrible evil, will turn on one another, and utterly
annihilate themselves.”