Slave Empire III - The Shrike (34 page)

“Thousands?”

“Yes, sir.
About a thousand are warships, and the rest are civilian vessels.
The space line chatter we’re tapping is unbelievable.”

“Where are they
coming from?” Tallyn asked.

“Quadrant
Fifty-Two, or thereabouts.”

Tallyn nodded.
“The Shrike’s territory. Sounds like retribution is on its
way.”

“Sir? What are
your orders?”

“Recall the
fleet. Defend Atlan, Lieutenant.”

The officer
marched off, and Tallyn gazed at the man on the execution block
again, pondering. If Rayne was right about his people, it boded ill
for Atlan. There were perhaps two hundred Atlantean warships within
a few hours travel of Atlan, and a hundred and fifteen in orbit. If
the Shrike’s civilian vessels were filled with soldiers, or at
least fighters, it would be a formidable invasion. The shadow on
the ceremonial sundial crept closer to noon, when the executioner,
a large, hooded man who waited at the far end of the platform,
would step up and cut out the Shrike’s heart with a surgical laser
blade.

The procedure
was, apparently, fairly painless and relatively bloodless, but
satisfied ceremonial tradition. His thoughts flew back to the
approaching flotilla of enemy vessels. Rayne had mentioned Empire,
and he knew the flagship quite well. It was indeed a formidable
ship, one he had shied away from engaging on several occasions. It
would decimate the destroyers and cruisers in orbit. Perhaps
executing the Shrike was not such a good idea. If there was an
element of doubt about his criminality, his sentence should be
reconsidered, perhaps even commuted. Then again, the approaching
ships were unlikely to break off their attack if they learnt that
the Shrike would be imprisoned for life. Somehow, Tallyn did not
think the Shrike would stay in prison long, in that case.

Tallyn
approached Rayne, whose head drooped. She was supposed to be a
witness, and her presence a show of support for the Shrike’s
execution, but anyone could see the girl was drugged out of her
mind. He squatted beside her chair and gripped her arm, shaking
it.

“Rayne! Hey,
snap out of it. Rayne?”

Her eyes opened
a little wider, but remained glazed, and she licked her lips.

“Rayne, can you
tell the Shrike’s people to turn back if I give you a com-unit?
He’ll be dead long before they get here.”

Rayne raised
her head, and despair seeped into her eyes as they focussed on the
Shrike, stretched out on the slab. “Oh… god.” She sobbed, and two
tears ran down her cheeks.

Tallyn gripped
her arm. “Will you tell them?”

“Who? What are
you talking about?” She tried to stand up, discovering that her
wrists were strapped to the arms of her chair. Tallyn had not known
about the restraints, which her sleeves hid.

He frowned.
“His ships. Tell them to turn back.”

“They won’t
listen to me. And why should I? I hope they annihilate you
all.”

“That will
include you.”

“You think I
care? You’re murdering the man I love!”

Tallyn nodded
and rose. Rayne stared at the Shrike, tears running down her
cheeks. Tallyn turned as the officer approached again.

“Sir, two
outposts have been destroyed, and three scout ships and a cruiser
that were in the flotilla’s path. It’s estimated that there are
over three thousand ships in that armada.”

Tallyn grunted.
“Tell the Council members, Lieutenant. They’re the only ones who
can stop this now.”

“Sir.”

Rayne’s eyes
glazed again, and her head bowed. The sundial’s shadow crept
towards noon. The executioner raised his curved instrument and
fingered it. Out in space, a vast flotilla of ships converged on
Atlan. On the execution block, the Shrike lay spread eagled, ready
for slaughter. Although he was sedated, his wrists and ankles were
shackled to the block in the ceremonial way. Tallyn had a really
bad feeling about this day. Only about half an hour remained before
the sundial’s shadow vanished. Rayne raised her head with an
obvious effort, her eyes still glassy. Her lips worked, and he
leant closer to try to hear what she was saying. At first it
sounded like nonsense, but she repeated a word he had heard before,
although it was slurred now.

“Scrysalza,”
she whispered.

Chapter Fifteen

Rayne sailed
the infinity of space in a world she had found behind one of the
doors in her mind. She had been hunting through them for what
seemed like an eternity, closing the ones behind which she found
the Envoy’s howling darkness. It terrified her, but she had braved
it to find a way to reach the Crystal Ship. If anyone could save
Tarke, it was Scrysalza. His fleet of warships would not reach
Atlan in time. The executioner would slice out his heart, and then
all there would be was revenge. Maybe, just maybe, the giant
crystalline entity could save him. After all, it could bend space
and time. It was a gentle creature, though, and she was not sure
what it could do to help. Perhaps snatch Tarke from the slab, or
take control of the executioner. The oscillating stress shield that
surrounded the platform would not stop the Ship, she knew from
experience. She jerked at the bonds on her wrists, cursing the
Atlanteans with all the virulence she could summon up.

Rayne drifted
towards a vast, hot nebula crammed with giant young stars and
clouds of cosmic dust. This was the ships’ home; she remembered it
from Scrysalza’s memory. She could not be here in reality, though.
This was just her imagination, surely? Perhaps it was just a way to
escape the harshness of reality, so she did not have to witness
Tarke’s death. Anything would be better than that. She longed to
save him, but she could barely keep her eyes open. She closed them
and gulped, searching through the nebula in her mind for the
distant, sparkling stars that were the crystal ships. They had to
be here. She had to find them. Tears ran down her cheeks. Summoning
all her mental strength, she sent forth a desperate cry, a plea for
help that she hoped someone would hear, and answer.

Scrysalza!
Help us! They’re going to kill Tarke! Help us!

The officer
approached Tallyn again. “Sir, some of the Shrike’s ships have
engaged our fleet in orbit. We’re taking one hell of a pounding.
His flagship, Empire, is there and… Well, we’ve already lost two
cruisers.”

Tallyn nodded.
“They’re tearing them apart, right?”

“Like you
wouldn’t believe, and their weapons -”

“Put it on the
screen. I’m sure the Council will want to see.” Tallyn nodded at
the giant vidimage screen floating above the platform, which showed
rousing scenes of planetary pride prior to the execution of the
most notorious and feared slaver lord in the galaxy. The Shrike’s
image had not been broadcast yet, but the time was fast approaching
when it would be. The Shrike was showing signs of awakening, too,
as he must before he was executed.

The scene in
the hovering screen changed to a star-sprinkled void where sleek
black ships sent lances of blue light and bolts of Net energy at
silver defenders. Atlan’s two orbiting capital ships, the
battleships Repulse and Orion, sprouted flames from their flanks,
fuelled by venting atmosphere. Beyond them, a silver cruiser broke
up, sending out a wave of debris. The Council gaped at the images,
which came from a scout ship, and occasional waves of interference
passed over them as weapons fired close by. Empire came into view,
pouring streams of laser fire at Repulse, her flanks flashing with
explosions as Repulse and Orion fired back. All the ships had lost
their stress shields, and their hulls bore glowing spots and
smoking holes. The Shrike’s warships attacked without strategy or
defensive formations, clearly intent on destroying Altan’s
defenders as quickly as possible, with no regard for the losses
they suffered. In the distance, what looked like an old ore carrier
rammed an Atlantean frigate, both ships vanishing in a burst of
fire and wreckage.

The Shrike’s
eyes opened to stare at the sky, glazed by the lingering effects of
the drugs. Even in the dull light, they were intensely blue. Atlan
was about to execute the last Antian, Tallyn mused, the people that
had supposedly been the most advanced, intellectually, of all the
races. The Shrike turned his head towards Rayne, and his eyes
filled with sorrow as they focussed upon her. A moment later, she
raised her head, as if she sensed his gaze, and her face crumpled
as fresh tears coursed down it. Tallyn wondered if the Shrike spoke
to her telepathically. It was all so bizarre, and so wrong. He was
becoming more and more convinced of that, and fought the urge to
release the Shrike. It would do no good, though. It was too late.
The shadow on the sundial vanished. The executioner approached. In
the hovering screen, Repulse exploded in a blaze of garish fire and
a wave of glittering debris. Empire staggered as explosions ripped
through her.

Two tears ran
from the Shrike’s eyes and dripped onto the marble block. Tallyn
had the sensation of impending doom. The executioner reached his
victim. The sundial passed noon. Orion blew up. Tallyn wanted to
stop what was about to happen. His gut chilled. The executioner
raised his blade. The clouds parted as black ships descended into
the sky, lasers blazing. The stress shield flared. Several Council
members stood up. Debris rained from the clouds. Tallyn knew he
would die, soon.

Rayne raised
her head and screamed, “
Scrysalza
!”

The world
froze.

The Crystal
Ship emerged from the energy dimension on top of Atlan. Its vast
wings parted the clouds and slammed into the ground with a
thunderous, rumbling boom. A sound, like the drone of an organ’s
deepest note, hammered Tallyn’s ears. The shockwave of the Crystal
Ship’s arrival swept away the clouds and bowed the forest around
the floating platform. The wall of force threw all the people on it
to the floor. The platform sank to the ground. The stress shield
flickered out. The planet quaked from the impact. Tallyn struggled
to raise his head. Rayne’s eyes were wide and blank. Sorrow
engulfed Tallyn in a wave so powerful that he wept from the
bittersweet shock of it. The Council members, dignitaries and
priests writhed and wailed. Tallyn raised his head to stare at the
Crystal Ship as the shockwave passed. Its wings drove into the
planet, tearing great canyons in it. The ground shivered and
rumbled as mountains of soil and rock were pushed up. A crystal
spear broke off with a report like a mammoth thunderclap and fell
in slow motion to strike the earth with a distant rumble. Agony
swept over Tallyn, stunning him, and blackness swallowed him.

Rayne turned
her head to look at Scrysalza, shocked by how close it was. It
filled half the sky, its furthest reaches beyond the atmosphere.
The ship had collided with Atlan in a mammoth impact that had
probably knocked the world several degrees off its axis and slowed
its spin by a few hours, for to be burdened with something as
massive as a crystal ship would affect even a planet the size of
Atlan. The Crystal Ship broadcast pain and sorrow in mind-bending
waves, and she only escaped its effects because her mind was a raw
pit of pain already. Tarke frowned, and she knew his mental shields
were taking a hammering, but he could handle it. Unlike the
Atlanteans on the platform, all of whom lay on the floor, stunned
or dead. Blood oozed from Tallyn’s ears, and his eyes stared
sightlessly at the sky.

The ship’s
forward motion slowed, its immense spears ripping through the
ground with a distant grumble. She jerked at the bonds on her
wrists, struggling to free her hands. The executioner had collapsed
beside the block, his mouth agape in his last, agonised cry. The
agony abated, to her relief, as the ship ceased to broadcast it.
The black ships that had entered the atmosphere descended to land
close to the platform. Presumably they had been outside the scope
of Scrysalza’s broadcast, which seemed to have been focussed on the
platform. She had not known the ship could do that, and a font of
gratitude blossomed within her. The Crystal Ship halted, mounts of
rocks and debris crumbling around its buried lances. The dull
thunder faded, rolling away to reverberate off distant mountain
ranges.

Rayne bent and
tugged at the restraints with her teeth, desperate to get free.
Endrix had said that a crystal ship could not land on a planet. The
gravity would crush it. Had Scrysalza plunged to its death? The
thought horrified her. She had not wanted it to sacrifice itself.
The again, could she have allowed Tarke to die instead? Hot tears
stung her eyes. Black-clad men exited the landed ships and raced
towards the platform, laser cannons at the ready. They headed
straight for the execution block, while two approached Rayne and
sliced off the restraints on her wrists. Two others used laser
cutters to melt through the shackles on Tarke’s wrists and ankles.
They retreated as he sat up, and she rose a little shakily to
stumble over to him, a soldier helping her. Tarke wore only the
grey trousers he was to have been executed in, his scars pale in
the sunlight that poured from the cloudless purple sky. When she
stopped in front of him and gazed at him through her tears, he
pulled her into his arms and held her so tight that she
squeaked.

Several minutes
later he released her, and she became aware of his men waiting
behind her, the ships that hovered around the platform, and
Scrysalza’s colossal presence. The Crystal Ship had sustained some
damage in its collision with the planet. One of its spears had
broken off, which was amazing, considering that it was over a
kilometre in diameter. Some of its wings’ crystal lances were
buried deep in the planet’s crust, and several smaller spears had
snapped off, too. Incredibly, it had not collapsed, and Rayne
wondered how that was possible, and if the ship would be able to
free itself. Tarke took her arm and tugged her towards the edge of
the platform, where his men waited. She reeled beside him on numb
legs, and his arm around her waist supported her. As they reached
Tarke’s cruiser, the ground trembled, and she stopped to stare at
Scrysalza.