The Last Story (15 page)

"Are you forgetting that we already have serious structural damage? The implosion will probably destroy us."

"It is a chance we'll have to take since it is our only chance." Sarteen stood. "I am going to my quarters. I will be back in time for our jump."

Once more Sarteen turned to her golden column of precious stones for guidance. Its proximity soothed her, brought her Into a state of calm clarity and intuition where she felt as if she could almost touch the great

secrets of trie universe to understand the reason for this attack. Yet in her heart she felt she already knew the answer to the riddle. The invasion had occurred because, as a people, they were not ready to be with the Elders. And even the Elders had not known that. Perhaps in their great love for humanity, they had reached out too soon to bring their children home. Perhaps the Elders, too, were under attack. That was a disturbing thought. Yet Sarteen somehow doubted that that was the case. The Orions were physical, the Elders interdimensional. The Elders could not be fenced in as Earth could be. Sarteen had tried repeatedly to contact home, any of the planets, without success. Sadly, she felt there was no escape for them. Not in the foreseeable future.

"But we must escape," she said to the empty room.

"We must live."

Even before speaking to Ewoii, she had sensed the hatred of the Orions. Now that they'd had contact, there was no doubt in her mind that the enemy planned to turn Earth into a planet of pain. To gloat over when they grew angry or bored.

What could defeat these hideous creatures? Where was their vulnerable point? Before contact was lost with the galactic center, the Elders had explained that three feelings in the heart guided the destiny of all creatures: love, hatred, and fear. Clearly the Orions had hatred in abundance and seemed to have no use for love. But what about fear? Were they easily frightened? Could their captain be tricked—out of fear—into making a mistake? Perhaps she would get the chance to test the

idea. The Elders had said where there was no love, fear always lurked close.

The communicator on her desk beeped.

"Yes?" she said.

"The Orion vessel is closing more rapidly than I thought possible."

"Will we still be able to implode the engines and get into hyperspace?"

"The farther we are from our desired velocity, the more difficult it will be. You'd better return to the bridge.

Also, we have another problem, if it is a problem. The aliens have fixed a peculiar beam on us. It is not a weapon of any sort, not one that I am familiar with anyway. But it is causing minute changes in the hull of our ship."

"What kind of changes?"

"It is irradiating the hull—slightly. I'm puzzled because this level of radiation could not possibly harm us.

It's more as if we are being marked."

"For what purpose?"

"I have no idea. But it makes me nervous."

Sarteen stood. "I am on my way."

On the bridge Pareen continued to analyze the energy beam from the Orion ship. Sarteen stood by his side as he worked. She had made the decision to implode the engines because it was, as she had said, their only chance. Her feeling on the matter had not changed, yet as the time of implosion approached, she grew anxious.

Pareen was correct: implosion was dangerous with a sound ship, but with the deep gashes in the hull, it was doubly so. The procedure called for them to transform their engines into the equivalent of a huge bomb, which would give them an extra kick in velocity as it was spent.

The trouble was that sometimes an implosion could go out of control and annihilate everything in the immediate vicinity. In her youth, centuries ago, Sarteen had witnessed a starship that had been forced to implode its engines. It had not survived.

"Are you certain their beam is not harming us?"

Sarteen asked.

"It isn't. As I said, it just seems to be marking us.

Perhaps they use it before firing their weapons, to get a better fix on us."

"I don't think so. They had no trouble getting a fix on us last time. I want to implode the engines now, and take our chances."

"I advise against it," Pareen said. "The closer we are to light velocity, the greater chance we'll have of surviving the jump into hyperspace."

"Another thirty minutes of acceleration will make little difference. Also, we don't know the actual range of their weapons."

"Last time they waited until they were close before they opened fire," Pareen said.

Sarteen stepped away, toward her seat "It means nothing. Prepare the engines for implosion. Alert all decks. It will be a rough ride."

"It may be a short ride," Pareen said grimly.

A few minutes later, just as the Orion ship came into view, they were set for their big gamble. Under maximum magnification, it still looked seriously damaged. Yet Sarteen noticed another weapons port on the far side, steadily increasing its energy discharge; an angry red eye in the black well of space. Wary of another trick, Captain Ewoii was preparing to attack from a distance.

Let him try firing over hundreds of light-years, Sarteen thought. If the implosion worked, they'd be that far from the solar system in a matter of seconds.

"What is our destination?" Pareen asked.

"The Pleiades star cluster," Sarteen said, having made the decision earlier. There were numerous planets in that particular system capable of supporting life. Plus Pleiadian skies, filled with hundreds of blue stars floating in rivers of nebulae, were glorious. A fitting heaven to give the children of humanity. Pareen nodded at her choice, approving.

"We are ready," he said a minute later, sitting down and fastening his seat belt.

"What are our chances?" Sarteen asked.

"Less than one in three."

"If we don't make it, I want it to go on the official record that you opposed this idea. That way history will say you should have been the captain."

"You are clever," Pareen said. "History will only have a chance to read the record if you're right. Let's leave our last entry blank. That way we're both wrong—or right."

Sarteen smiled. "Agreed." She sat back in her chair and fastened her belt. "Initiate implosion."

Her command was obeyed. Unlike when they were struck with the Orion energy beam, the ship did not convulse with shock waves. The Crystal had a dampening field around it that kept their frail human bodies from being crushed while they were under acceleration. Obviously, with the implosion of their engines, the increase

in acceleration was dramatic, yet even that pressure was cancelled out by the field.

Nevertheless, Sarteen felt terrific Internal motion when Pareen pushed the button.

It was as if her consciousness was momentarily split open, and it was able to extend in two separate directions.

Her body hummed; every cell could have suddenly begun vibrating at a high rate. She had closed her eyes and therefore could not be sure if the lights failed. Yet inside everything went black. And cold—it was an eerie sensation to feel as if she had been dropped into a galactic vortex, a whirlwind of colliding forces, that spun around and around and never reached bottom.

It was like being dead; at least, what she would have imagined nonexistence to be. How long she remained in that state, she didn't know. Out of nowhere Pareen was shouting something important.

"We have made the jump! We are outside the Pleiades!"

Sarteen opened her eyes, seeing the blazing blue splendor of the cluster on the main viewing screen.

She smiled. "Thank God."

"Don't thank anybody too soon!" Pareen cried. "The Orions have made the jump, too!"

Sarteen leaped to her feet. "That's impossible. Nothing can track a ship through hyperspace."

Pareen shook his head. "Now we know why they were irradiating our hull. That radiation must have left a trail of our jump. Their technology is even more advanced than we imagined."

"How far behind us are they?" Sarteen asked.

'Two minutes."

"Can we maneuver? Fire weapons?"

"No. We're dead in space, drifting. Our engines are gone. We have to surrender."

"We will not surrender!" Sarteen shouted.

"Then we will die, this time without a fight." Pareen consulted his instruments. "They are energizing their weapons."

Sarteen thought frantically. Their weak spot must be fear; the clarity bestowed on her by the golden column would not have misled her. Yet how could she frighten them when she had only minutes to live? Or was she asking the question backward? If fear was their blind spot, would they not assume it was humanity's weakness as well? How could she make it appear that they—her crew and herself—were helpless because of fear?

"We will go to Parting mode," she said.

Parting, as they called it, involved separating the living quarters of the ship from the control and power sections.

The living quarters could slip off from the spherical Crystal like pieces of a sliced fruit.

Lacking contact with the main engines, the sections could scarcely maneuver, and certainly could not fight. Yet, with the help of retro rockets, they would still be able to steer toward an Earth-like planet—and take fifty years to get there. It was better than going up in a ball of flame.

But as Pareen's stunned expression said, what was the point of executing a Parting? The Orions would just blow the other sections out of the ether.

"Why bother?" Pareen asked. "Shouldn't we die together?"

Sarteen shook her head. "Their captain must be able to see we are helpless. If we initiate Parting, he may

bring his ship in close." She nodded to Pareen. "Clear the bridge. Notify the remainder of the crew. I alone will stay to greet this Eworl."

"Wait" Pareen said.

"Do it) We don't have time for argument."

"I merely wanted to ask permission to stay with you."

Sarteen smiled as she sat back down. "Permission granted. After Parting is complete—and assuming we're still alive—I want you to go to the lab and get a nanoegg and bring it to the bridge. Attach it to the communication board. Rig it to explode on my voice command."

"But I told you—we have no nanoeggs left."

"You forget our experimental original. It is not spaceworthy, and contains only typical antimatter, not the condensed version. But it will still do nicely as a self-destruct weapon."

"Why not just self-destruct now?" Pareen asked.

Sarteen leaned forward, studying the screen and the approaching alien ship. "This Captain Eworl will want to gloat over his prey before destroying it. That will be his style, I think.

But he may make a mistake and come too close." She glanced over at Pareen. "Are you sure you want to stay with me?"

He didn't hesitate. "It will be my honor to die by your side."

Her plan was built on several factors. She had explained some but not all the details to Pareen. Because the Crystal's weapon systems and engines were as good as dead, Eworl would see her vessel as harmless.

Yet if he were human, he would not bring his ship close enough to be destroyed by a self-destruct command on her part. Nevertheless, that was her hope, and she didn't believe it a vain hope. Because Captain Eworl was nor human. He was the product of a hateful race, a race that probably cared as little for its own members as it did for those of another race. It was possible he could not conceive of an act of total sacrifice; that she should stay behind and give up her life to save the lives of her crew.

Also, as she had said to Pareen, he might want to take captives, to take her prisoner. To have her stand by his side while he wiped out the remaining sections of her ship. Yes, she thought, he would enjoy that. He would not start the killing until he had her.

But he would never have her.

Together, Pareen and Sarteen watched as the four living quarter sections of the Crystal fired their retro rockets and plowed away. Each section was self-contained; her people could survive in space for centuries if need be. If it took that long to reach a life-sustaining world.

Silently, she wished them good luck. Beside her, Pareen shook his head.

"If they do survive," he said. "Will their descendants remember this day?"

"It will take only one to remember," Sarteen said thoughtfully, again feeling the sensation she had experienced during the hyperjump. As if she were in two places at one time, in two minds. Shaking herself, she turned back to her seat. "Put the Orion ship on the screen. Hail their captain."

Pareen turned to obey. "He won't believe anything you have to say."

She sat down with a sigh. "He doesn't have to believe me. He just has to want something from me. Are their weapons still energized?"

"Yes. They have us in their sights. Hailing frequencies open."

"Captain Eworl," she said pleasantly. "We await your instructions."

Once again they received only audio, no video, from their pursuers. The alien captain did not sound as if he were in a good mood. "Prepare for boarding."

Sarteen winked at Pareen. "Our docking bays are open and ready. Do you require special atmospheric conditions?"

"Negative. Disarm and prepare to be taken captive."

Captain Eworl paused. "We will tolerate no further deception."

"Understood. Our surrender is total and unconditional.

We await your arrival." Sarteen made a motion to Pareen to cut the signal. "The beast falls for the bait,"

she muttered.

"I'm surprised. I thought he would have been more careful."

Sarteen continued to stare at the approaching Orion ship. Its purple taloned fin, its glowing weapons ports they reminded her of a nightmare of a half-seen monster she faintly remembered having had. Maybe the recurring dream was the reason she knew mankind's day of rejoicing had not yet arrived. Maybe it was something else. Something older.

"I'm not surprised," she said. "Victory is hollow without the spoils of war. For him to merely destroy us is not enough. He has to bring something back to show his comrades. A trophy to place on his shelf." She nodded to herself. "He wants me."

The Orion vessel, the Adharma, docked a short time afterward. At that instant Sarteen's plot could have borne fruit. She could have ignited the nanoegg implanted beneath the bridge communication board, and blown both ships to dust. Impatient, Pareen awaited the command but she shook her head. No, wait, she said.