Requiem (42 page)

They were
walking down the runway of the abandoned airport. The hangar they
were looking for was stationed in the centre of five other
identical hangars. As they approached, Daniels emerged from the
centre hangar and pushed the large, rolling door to the side.
Daniels turned to the Warlord. His face was tanned almost to the
colour of cured leather and his eyes squinted beneath the glare
from the sun. His expression was blank, neither pleased nor
upset.

'The ship is
almost ready for departure, sir.'

The probes had
passed through the Atlas Gate. Arriving on the other side, they
beamed back the silent and vulgar scenes that played out before
them. There was something grotesquely sacrificial about the images
they relayed, as if they had stumbled upon some savage, cannibals'
banquet. The entire crew was present within the cockpit, watching
the monitor.

Belameir
brought himself closer to the monitor as if he were directing his
question to it. 'What the fuck are we looking at exactly? Is
that... is that thing eating that sun?'

The Atlas Gate
the probes had passed through was in close orbit to the system's
star. The light of which was being steadily eclipsed, engulfed in a
coffin of metal. The machines – distinguishable only as small, dark
specks against the star's remaining light – marched across the
surface of the star.

'Icarus,' said
Tialus.

The star was
almost completely gone.

'What happens
after they cover it?' asked Belameir.

No one spoke.
They continued to watch the screen for some kind of clue.

'Well, can it
see us?' Belameir asked. 'I mean does it know we're watching
it?'

'If we can see
it, chances are that it can see us,' said Therin.

'Then what the
fuck are we doing? Why are we just sitting here?'

'Because if we
leave, the probes will be out of range. We'll lose the feed.'

'We'll lose
more than that if we stay here.'

'Belameir's
right,' said Sear.

'We still have
time,' said Tialus.

'For all we
know, this is exactly what happened to the scouts.'

'They've shown
no interest in us. They might not be able to detect the drones this
far out.'

'Do not
underestimate them,' said Sear.

'Don't tell me
how to do my job. We need this data. We found the scouts but we're
even more confused now than we would be had we found nothing.'

'We've seen
what this thing can do. Caution should proceed every other
consideration.'

'We are being
as cautious as we possibly can but we're here to learn about Icarus
and if this is the risk we must take, which it is, then we will
wait,' said Tialus. 'That is the final word on the matter.'

Within an hour
the entire star had been surrounded. No light escaped. The drone's
spectrograph read nothing.

Tialus switched
filters on the camera. The screen showed what must have hundreds of
billions of drones, slowly taking on shape and texture, each one
individually rotating as if basking in the star's heat. The filter
showed the difference in heat in different shades of fluorescent
green. From this distance the moving, rotating drones looked like
billions of blotches and freckles of light. The surface of the
shell they had created around the star looked diseased and hideous,
and beneath the ultraviolet lens, gangrenous and sick.

'They're
probably absorbing energy,' said Therin. 'They must run on some
kind of solar power, that's why they're attracted to the
stars.'

'Makes sense,'
said Mercer.

'What's that?'
asked Seline, pointing to a much darker sphere hovering above the
cluster of drones. 'It looks like it's one object. Way bigger than
the other drones.'

'It may be some
kind of control centre,' said Tialus, 'but it's hard to say, its
emissions are almost identical to the other ships. It must be
masking itself extremely well.'

Tialus took a
step closer to the screen. She watched it carefully for a moment.
Seline was watching her, bent slightly forward, her eyes focused,
intent as ever. This was the first time she'd had a chance to watch
her since she'd known her. The thin ridge rising slightly at her
forehead, like the scales of a reptile, overlapping one another on
their way from the crest of her head down the back of a slight,
muscular neck and beneath the collar of her shirt. Her skin looked
so fragile, so paper thin, like she could tear a hole through it
with one touch of her finger. Seline was following the patterns in
her skin when Tialus slammed her hand into the ship's on-board
alarm.

'Therin, turn
this ship around. Head straight for the other Atlas Gate, back the
way we came, no diversions. Everyone else, follow me.'

Tialus turned
and started towards the lift, they all followed immediately behind
her. Seline caught a glimpse of Therin, seated alone in the pilot's
chair and the neon light of the Atlas Gate disappearing from the
cockpit windows. The door slammed shut. There was a hum around the
lift chamber as it descended.

Belameir turned
to Tialus. 'What did you see?' he asked.

The door opened
at the armoury, beneath the personal chambers. The smell of the
room, of the equipment, made Seline's spine rigid. The smell of
training, of exercise drills and war games, of Pavlovian
conditioning.

'Everybody gear
up,' said Tialus. 'We won't have much time.'

Seline rushed
towards her locker. She almost tore the door from its hinges in her
harried confusion.

'I'm sure you
can guess,' said Tialus as she attached one of the plates to her
left shoulder, 'one of the drones is heading straight for us.'

Seline fumbled
with the clips of the belt she was strapping around her waist. She
finally managed to attach both ends of the mechanism. The sheets of
carbon fibre terraced up and stopped just below her breasts. She
was trying not to think, trying to let her body run through the
routine. Her muscles could remember much more than she ever could.
Her hands took the shoulder panels from the locker and started to
strap them on. She connected the latch at the base of her neck and
more carbon fibre sheets extended from the mechanism to cover her
chest and attach to the other sheets covering her stomach. She
rolled her shoulders forward and back to make sure the plating
hadn't caught on her under-suit.

Tialus tried to
contact Therin on the comm but could only raise dead static. She
tried again. More static. Sear and Mercer's comm gave the same
result.

Seline had just
fitted on her boots and greaves and was about to reach for her
rifle when Tialus stopped her.

'The comms are
down. Seline get back up to the cockpit. Tell Therin to set
acceleration to 3G's then get her ass down here.'

Seline gave a
sharp nod and started towards the lift.

Tialus yelled
behind her. 'Use the ladder, Seline! That drone's already
compromised the comms, I don't want you stuck in the lift if the
ship's circuits get fried.'

Seline turned
and ran towards the ladder which was embedded within the interior
wall of the cruiser and ran the length of the ship. Seline squeezed
herself inside the hole that served as the doorway and started
climbing upward.

Her heart was
thumping when she stepped off the ladder into the cockpit. Therin
was still seated in the pilot's chair, frantically swiping and
turning and dialling at the holographic display. She glanced up at
Seline then returned to the screen.

'The comms are
down,' said Seline.

'I know,' said
Therin.

'Tialus said to
set the acceleration at 3Gs and get down to the armoury.'

Therin kept her
eyes on the screen. 'The turrets are firing everything they've got
but whatever hits they're making are just being deflected. That
thing is coming fast and if these defence turrets can't even hit it
then what chance do we have?'

'I don't know,'
said Seline. 'All I know is that we should all be in the armoury
right now.'

Therin said
nothing. She swiped at the screen, set the flight and defence
logistics to auto and programmed in the new speed. Immediately, the
acceleration kicked in. The weight pressed down against Seline but
her suit absorbed most of it. If Therin felt the weight then she
gave away nothing.

Therin locked
the controls and stepped back from the console. 'Let's go,' she
said.

The lights
flickered. Therin kept walking towards the ladder. Seline stopped,
looked around at the faltering lights then up out the small eye of
the cockpit window.

A small speck
of red light shone directly into her eyes. She took a small step
back. Therin turned from the far side of the room to see Seline
staring, opened mouthed, through the window. Then they both could
see it. It grew larger and more defined. A single, black orb
surrounding an intense point of light. Seline took another step
back. It grew larger. Another step back. It grew larger still.

The red iris
was against the cockpit window, staring directly at her. Its shape
and the darkness of its glossy exterior eclipsed the light of the
stars behind it. Its eye was a bleeding sun with the universe
revolving around its centre. Seline stepped closer. She was falling
towards it. The walls, the floor, the entire ship was falling with
her; distorting and bending towards that red, furious light.

Therin slammed
her hand into a button on a nearby console and alloy sheets
cascaded over the window. Seline finally blinked. She turned to see
Therin, staring directly at her. She felt drained. She shook her
head to clear it but only made the aching worse. She looked back at
the shuttered window but there was nothing to see.

'Did you... did
you see that?' Seline asked.

Therin was
silent for a moment. 'I don't know what I saw.'

The throbbing
in Seline's head was growing, keeping pace with the beat of her
heart. She raised her hand to her head.

'Are you
alright?' Therin asked.

'What? Yeah. My
head just hurts a bit.'

'We need to get
to the armoury.'

'The ship's
going to be a sitting duck like this.'

'No less than
it was before. There's nothing else I can do against that drone if
I'm in that chair. Come on,' she said as she began walking towards
the ladder. Seline hurried behind her, checking the window one last
time before slipping into the wall cavity and climbing down.

They were
descending when the ship shuddered around them. The lights
flickered again. Metal creaking and whimpering as if something were
beating and hammering against the ship. They arrived at the armoury
amid a seizure of lights and groaning of metal. Therin came rushing
in. Seline was with her, wide eyed and breathing heavily.

'What the hell
is it doing?' said Sear.

'It's trying to
get in. You saw what it did to the scouts,' said Belameir.

'Yes. I saw
that enormous hole it blasted right through the side of their ship
and I'm wondering what's stopping it from doing that to us,' said
Athene. 'That drone could break right through any time it
wanted.'

Sear agreed.
'So it wants something. But what?'

Therin glanced
across at Seline then down at the floor. Neither spoke.

Tialus was
looking at the ship diagnostics showing on her arm display. Her
words were quick but calm. 'I have no idea what it wants but it
damaged our oxygen storage tanks. We need to think of something
fast.'

'Open the
airlock,' said Sear.

'What?
Why?'

'We need to
give it a way in. Any longer out there and it's going to tear a
hole right through the hull.'

Belameir turned
to Sear. 'Sure. Roll out the welcome mat. “Come right in for tea
and crumpets, dear.”'

Tialus shot a
glance at Belameir. Athene almost slapped him on the back of the
head.

'It's too close
to fight with the cruiser's external weapons-'

'The EMPs,'
said Tialus.

'Exactly,' said
Sear.

'We don't even
know if they'll have any effect,' said Athene.

'We know that
if it breaches the hull we'll be dead anyway,' said Sear.

No one spoke.
The ship shivered around them.

Athene argued,
'If we let EMPs loose in here we could end up damaging vital
systems. And if Icarus sends another ship, there's no way we'll be
able to defend ourselves.'

'With EMP
grenades we can time our shots and if we aren't careless with our
aim then we can limit the damage. We're going to be defending
ourselves inside a ship; there's going to be damage either way.'
She looked directly at Mercer. 'You'll open the airlock on my
command but we need to fortify this armoury first.'

She pointed at
the locker on the far wall. 'Therin, take the portable sentry
turrets and set them up. Two in the hall, outside the door. Set
another on the inside directly above the door and the other on the
wall directly opposite. We have three blast shields. We'll have one
stationed on each wall for the grenadiers. Doctor, set those up.
Everyone else, pull the lockers down and form a barricade back from
the door.'

Belameir was
the only one who hadn't moved. 'We're just gonna stand in here like
fish in-'

'You saw what
that thing did to the scouts,' said Tialus. 'It knew exactly where
they were. I don't think sneaking up on this thing is going to be
an option.' She looked straight at Belameir. He still hadn't moved.
She spoke coldly. 'Start helping before I shoot you in the foot and
throw you into the hall as bait.'

Seline grabbed
Belameir's arm before he could answer back. 'Help me pull this
locker down,' she said.

The barricade
was formed several metres back from the closed armoury doors.
Therin had placed the four automated turrets and joined the others
behind the barricade with their rifles resting on the upturned
lockers. Mercer, Athene, and Tialus positioned themselves evenly
behind the barricade with the blast shields as their main defence
and a few EMP grenades at their sides.