The Night's Dawn Trilogy (96 page)

All the glass in the office shattered at once. In the instant before he slammed his eyelids shut, he was engulfed by a beautiful
prismatic cloud of diamonds, sparkling and shimmering in the weak light. Then the slivers of glass penetrated his skin. Blood
frothed out of a thousand shallow cuts, staining every square centimetre of his clothes a bright crimson. His skin went numb
as his brain rejected outright the shocking level of pain. His sight, the misty vermilion of tightly shut eyes, turned scarlet.
Pain stars flared purple. Then the universe went harrowingly black. Through the numbness he could feel hot coals burning in
his eye sockets.

“Blind, I’m blind!” He couldn’t even tell if his voice was working.

“It doesn’t have to be like that,” someone said to him. “We can help you. We can let you see again.”

He tried to open his eyelids. There was a loathsome sensation of thin tissues ripping. And still there was only blackness.
Pain began to ooze its way inwards, pain from every part of his body. He knew he was falling, plummeting to the ground.

Then the pain in his legs faded, replaced by a blissful liquid chill, as if he was bathing in a mountain tarn. He was given
his sight back, a spectral girl sketched against the infinite darkness. It looked as though she was made up from translucent
white membranes, folded with loving care around her svelte body, then flowing free somehow to become her fragile robes as
well. She was a sublime child, in her early teens, poised between girlhood and womanhood, what he imagined an angel or fairy
would be like. And she danced all the while, twirling effortlessly from foot to foot, more supple and graceful than any ballerina;
her face blessed by a bountiful smile.

She held out her arms to him, ragged sleeves floating softly in the unfelt breeze. “See?” she said. “We can stop it hurting.”
Her arms rose, palms pressing together above her head, and she spun round again, lightsome laughter echoing.

“Please,” he begged her. “Oh, please.”

The pain returned to his legs, making him cry out. His siren vision began to retreat, skipping lightly over the emptiness.

She paused and cocked her head. “Is this what you want?” she asked, her dainty face frowning in concern.

“No! Back, come back. Please.”

Her smile became rapturous, and her arms closed around him in a celebratory embrace. Stewart gave himself up to her balmy
caresses, drowning in a glorious tide of white light.

Ilex
coasted out of its wormhole terminus a hundred thousand kilometres above Lalonde. The warped gateway leading out of space-time
contracted behind the voidhawk as it refocused its distortion field. Sensors probed round cautiously. The bitek starship was
at full combat stations alert. Waiting tensely on his acceleration couch in the crew toroid, Captain Auster skimmed through
the wealth of data which both the bitek and electronic systems gathered. His primary concern was that there were no hostile
ships within a quarter of a million kilometres, and no weapon sensors were locking on to the voidhawk’s hull. A resonance
effect in
Ilex
’s distortion field revealed various ship-sized masses orbiting above Lalonde, then there were asteroids, satellites, moons,
boulder-sized debris. Nothing large was in the starship’s immediate vicinity. It took a further eight seconds for
Ilex
and Ocyroe, the weapons-systems officer, working in tandem, to confirm the absence of any valid threat.

OK, let’s go for a parking orbit; seven hundred kilometres out,
Auster said.

Seven hundred?
Ilex
queried.

Yes. Your distortion field won’t be so badly affected at that altitude. We can still run if we have to.

Very well.

Together their unified minds arrived at a suitable flight vector.
Ilex
swooped down the imaginary line towards the bright blue and white planet.

“We’re going into a parking orbit,” Auster said aloud for the benefit of the three Adamist naval officers on the bridge. “I
want combat stations maintained at all times; and please bear in mind who could be here waiting for us.” He allowed an overtone
of stern anxiety to filter out to the Edenist crew to emphasize the point. “Ocyroe, what’s our local space situation?”

“Nine starships in a parking orbit, seven colonist-carriers and two cargo ships. There are three interplanetary fusion drive
ships en route from the asteroid Kenyon, heading for Lalonde orbit. Nothing else in the system.”

“I can’t get any response from Lalonde civil flight control,” said Erato, the spaceplane pilot. He looked up from the communication
console he was operating. “The geosynchronous communication platform is working, as far as I can tell. They just don’t answer.”

Auster glanced over at Lieutenant Jeroen van Ewyck, the Confederation Navy Intelligence officer they had brought with them
from Avon. “What do you think?”

“This is a backward planet anyway, so their response isn’t going to be instantaneous. But given the contents of those fleks
I’d rather not take any chances. I’ll try and contact Kelvin Solanki directly through the navy ELINT satellites. Can you see
if you can get anything from your planetside agents?”

“We’ll broadcast,” Auster said.

“Great. Erato, see what the other starship captains can tell us. It looks like they must have been here some time if there
are this many left in orbit.”

Auster added his own voice to
Ilex
’s affinity call, spanning the colossal distance to the gas giant. Aethra answered straight away; but the immature habitat
could only confirm the data which Lori and Darcy had included in their flek to the Edenist embassy on Avon. Since Kelven Solanki
had transmitted the files to Murora there had only been the usual weekly status updates from Lalonde. The last one, four days
ago, had contained a host of information on the colony’s deteriorating civil situation.

Can you tell us what’s happening?
Gaura asked through the affinity link between Aethra and
Ilex
. He was the chief of the station supervising the habitat’s growth out at the lonely edge of the star system.

Nobody is answering our calls,
Auster said.
When we know something, Ilex will inform you immediately.

If Laton is on Lalonde he may make an attempt to capture and subvert Aethra. He has had over twenty years to perfect his technique.
We have no weaponry to resist him. Can you evacuate us?

That will depend on the circumstances. Our orders from the First Admiral’s office are to confirm his existence and destroy
him if at all possible. If he has become powerful enough to defend himself against the weapons we are carrying, then we must
jump back to Fleet Headquarters and alert them. That takes priority over everything.
Auster extended a burst of sympathy.

We understand. Good luck with your mission.

Thank you.

Can you sense Darcy and Lori?
Auster asked
Ilex
.

No. They do not answer. But there is a melodic in the affinity band which I’ve never encountered before.

The voidhawk’s perceptive faculty expanded into Auster’s mind. He perceived a distant soprano voice, or a soft whistle; the
effect was too imprecise to tell. It was an adagio, a slow harmonic which slipped in and out of mental awareness like a radio
signal on a stormy night.

Where is it coming from?
Auster asked.

Ahead of us,
Ilex
said.
Somewhere on the planet, but it’s skipping about. I can’t pin it down.

Keep tuned in to it, and if you track down its origin let me know right away.

Of course.

Jeroen van Ewyck datavised his console processor to point one of
Ilex
’s secondary dishes at a navy ELINT satellite orbiting Lalonde, then opened a channel down to the office in Durringham. There
was nothing like the usual bit rate available, the microwave beam emitted by the navy office was well below standard strength.
A flustered rating answered, and switched the call straight through to Kelven Solanki.

“We’re here in response to the flek you sent on the
Eu-rydice
,” Jeroen van Ewyck said. “Can you advise us of the situation on the planet, please?”

“Too late,” Kelven datavised. “You’re too bloody late.”

Auster ordered the bitek processor in his command console to patch him into the channel. “Lieutenant-Commander Solanki, this
is Captain Auster. We were dispatched as soon as we were refitted for this mission. I can assure you the Admiralty took the
report from you and our Intelligence operatives very seriously indeed.”

“Seriously? You call sending one ship a serious response?”

“Yes. We are primarily a reconnaissance and evaluation mission. In that respect, we are considered expendable. The Admiralty
needs to know if Laton’s presence has been confirmed, and what kind of force level is required to deal with the invasion.”

There was a moment’s pause.

“Sorry if I shouted off,” Kelven said. “Things are getting bad down here. The invaders have reached Durring-ham.”

“Are these invaders acting under Laton’s orders?”

“I’ve no idea yet.” He started to summarize the events of the last couple of weeks.

Auster listened with growing dismay, a communal emotion distributed equally around the other Edenists on board. The Adamists
too, if their facial expressions were an accurate reflection of their thoughts.

“So you still don’t know if Laton is behind this invasion?” Auster asked when he finished.

“No. I’d say not; Lori and Darcy had virtually written him off by the time they got to Ozark. If it is him backing the invaders,
then he’s pulling a very elaborate double bluff. Why did he warn Darcy and Lori about this energy virus effect?”

“Have you managed to verify that yet?” Jeroen van Ewyck asked.

“No. Although the supporting circumstantial evidence we have so far is very strong. The invaders certainly have a powerful
electronic warfare technology at their fingertips, and it’s in widespread use. I suppose Kulu will be the place to ask; the
ESA team managed to get their prisoner outsystem.”

Typical of the ESA,
Erato said sourly.

Auster nodded silently.

“How bad are conditions in the city?” Jeroen van Ewyck asked.

“We’ve heard some fighting around the outlying districts this evening. The sheriffs are protecting the spaceport and the government
district. But I don’t think they’ll hold out for more than a couple of days. You must get back to Avon and inform the First
Admiral and the Confederation Assembly what’s happening here. At this point we still can’t discount xenocs being involved.
And tell the First Admiral that Terrance Smith’s mercenary army must be prevented from landing here, as well. This is far
beyond the ability of a few thousand hired soldiers to sort out.”

“That goes without saying. We’ll evacuate you and your staff immediately,” Auster said.

Forty-five of them?
Ocyroe asked.
That’s pushing our life-support capacity close to the envelope.

We can always make a swallow direct to Jospool, That’s only seven light-years away. The crew toroid can support us for that
long.

“There’s some of the ratings and NCOs I’d like to get

off,” Kelven Solanki datavised. “This wasn’t supposed to be a front-line posting. They’re only kids, really.”

“No, all of you are coming,” Auster said flatly.

“I’d like to capture one of these sequestrated invaders if possible,” Jeroen van Ewyck put in quickly.

What about the marines, Erato?
Auster asked.
Do you think it’s worth a try?

I’ll fly recovery if we can spot them,
the pilot said. His thoughts conveyed a rising excitement.

Auster acknowledged his leaked feelings with an ironic thought. Pilots were uniformly a macho breed, unable to resist any
challenge, even Edenist ones.

The Juliffe basin is proving difficult to resolve,
Ilex
said with a note of annoyance.
My optical sensors are unable to receive a clearly defined image of the river and its tributaries for about a thousand kilometres
inland.

It’s night over the basin, and we’re still seventy thousand kilometres away,
Auster pointed out.

Even so, the optical resolution should be better than this.

“Commander Solanki, we’re going to attempt to recover the marines as well,” Auster said.

“I haven’t been able to contact them for over a day. God, I don’t even know if they’re still alive, let alone where they are.”

“None the less, they are our naval personnel. If there’s any chance, we owe them the effort.”

The statement drew him a startled glance from Jeroen van Ewyck and the other two Adamists on the bridge. They quickly tried
to hide their gaffe. Auster ignored it.

“Christ but—All right,” Kelven Solanki datavised. “I’ll fly the recovery myself, though. No point in risking your spaceplane.
It was me who ordered them in there to start with. My responsibility.”

“As you wish. If our sensors can locate their fishing boat, do you have an aircraft available?”

“I can get one. But the invaders knocked out the last

plane to fly into their territory. One thing I do know is that they’ve got some lethal fire-power going for them.” “So has
Ilex
,” Auster said bluntly.

Joshua Calvert fell back onto the translucent sheet and let out a heartfelt breath. The bed’s jelly-substance mattress was
rocking him gently as the waves slowed. Sweat trickled across his chest and limbs. He gazed up at the elec-trophorescent cell
clusters on Ione’s ceiling. Their ornate leaf pattern was becoming highly familiar.

“That’s definitely one of the better ways of waking up,” he said.