Weird Space 2: Satan's Reach (33 page)

Instantly he was blasted by an encounter Kreller had had with a human commando many years ago, and the resultant rush of feeling Harper read then was hatred. He saw Kreller mating, and felt the corresponding alien sensation of love or affection. He even caught fleeting images of Janaker in the alien’s mind, and realised that her dislike of him was reciprocated.

He searched for images of his transformed ship, and any indications of the Vetch’s future plans for it...

He recoiled suddenly. At first he thought that the Vetch had set up some sort of mental defence to repulse anyone, any telepath, who came looking for clues as to the Vetch’s intentions regarding the super-weapon. He mentally backed off, rebounded, and then dived back in – knowing that he had found something, some indication that all was not as it seemed.

Something pulsed in the core of Kreller’s mind – not a defence mechanism set up to repel an intruder, Harper realised now, but something...
other
. He probed, curious but at the same time wary. He realised, suddenly, that the thing was growing, expanding, taking up more and more room in the alien’s mind, in fact
becoming
the alien.

He tried to break into this other mind, but his probes slipped around its edges. Then, as it grew and he probed again, a cascade of bizarre images burst upon him and he screamed in mental anguish.

He felt the Vetch fight back – not against him, Harper, but against the mental invader, the parasite, as it grew inexorably within him. He read a stray, terrified recollection in Kreller’s mind: he saw images of a crashed alien starship which Kreller had investigated years ago...

Kreller was infected. The Weird parasite – alien beyond Harper’s comprehension – was little by little assuming control of his mind and body. He probed again, repulsed by the Weird parasite’s nascent mind, but catching Kreller’s diminishing fear... Harper knew, in that second, what the parasite wanted – because Kreller suddenly, terrifyingly, understood, and that understanding manifested itself in a visual image. The Weird wanted the transformed ship, the super-weapon, and far from instructing the ship to attack the Weird portal it was relaying orders for it to pass through the interface and enter the dimension of the Weird.

Harper screamed, verbally this time, and withdrew his mind from the terrible Vetch/Weird amalgam that Kreller had become. Through the viewscreen he saw mountain peaks flash by, saw the land below come ever closer as the ship angled down towards the valley where the Weird had their portal.

“Harper?” Janaker stared at him.

“Kreller’s infected! He’s taking the ship through the portal... Give me your pistol!” The only hope, he knew, was to kill Kreller where he lay, twitching as he was being taken over by the parasite in his head.

Janaker said, “A Weird parasite? You’re sure?”

“I read it!” he screamed in frustration. “Give me your pistol!”

She hesitated, staring at him. “How do I know...?”

“He’s infected, damn you! He’s taking us through the portal!”

She unholstered her pistol, still hesitant, and Harper grabbed it from her.

He stood over the Vetch, aiming at the alien’s chest so as not to damage the golden nexus that encompassed Kreller’s head.

He knew, once the Vetch was dead and removed from the sling, that he would have to take its place, meld with his transformed ship and re-issue orders – not to fly into the portal, but to unleash the super-weapon and destroy the Weird interface.
If
he could achieve control, that was.

Harper fired once, twice, the pulses drilling bloody holes into the massive chest. Kreller cried out in pain, spasming. Harper gestured to Janaker, and together they hauled the Vetch from the sling.

He took the alien’s place, feeling the familiar, welcoming sensation of the sling adapting to his contours, almost embracing him. What was wholly unfamiliar, however, was the heat that quickly encapsulated his head, that filled him with its golden glow.

In his mind he heard
Judi
’s familiar, maternal contralto, and he almost wept as she said, “Den... What has happened? A miracle. I feel... empowered. But – the thing that was in control, alien beyond my understanding...”

He thought:
Gone now, Judi
.

Through the viewscreen he saw that they were still arrowing towards the valley at the centre of which, reduced by the distance but growing ever larger, was a great lake of opalescent light, a flat disc perhaps a hundred metres wide. He thought he discerned images beyond the milky membrane, monstrous shapes, but that might have been a trick of his subconscious providing visible nightmares to accompany his fears.

As the ship tipped, he saw Janaker slide past him and fetch up against the console, brace herself against its housing and stare out in fear at the imminent impact.

He felt himself meld with the vessel, become one with it; he felt as if he could flex his muscles and the ship would respond, as if he could direct a thought and a corresponding program would obey his command.

He thought:
Judi, ignore all previous instructions and pull out of the dive.

“Affirmative.”

The opaque portal grew larger, and around its perimeter he made out bizarre shapes – the bloated flying vessels he had seen earlier, the embryonic humanoid figures that had issued from it, and great adipose protoplasmic horrors that dragged themselves across the ground on gelatinous pseudopods.

The ship screamed towards the portal, and just when Harper thought that impact was inevitable the scene beyond the viewscreen changed: blue sky and mountain peaks filled the screen as they accelerated away, and he flung back his head and yelled with heartfelt relief.

“That,” Janaker said shakily, “was way, way too close.”

“And now,” Harper said, “we go in again.”

She stared at him. “Are you mad?”

“I might be at that,” he said, “or supremely rational.”

Judi
, he thought,
am I able to command the weapons system as I can command your flight?

“Affirmative.”

In which case bank and approach the portal again, but this time don’t go in so close, and ready the system to fire
.

“Understood.”

Judi
rose and made a long, graceful curve through the air. He saw lofty peaks sail by as they turned, swooped, and seconds later the nestled green valley came into view again.

“Harper?” Janaker said.

He told her what he had instructed
Judi
to do. “Hold on tight.”

She braced herself against the console and stared out.

They dived, at a shallower gradient this time, coming in over a series of low peaks and approaching the portal from the south. Far below, a dozen bloated flying vessels rose into the air and turned to face the approaching ship.

One of them fired something, and then another and another.

What looked like globules of silver-grey metal hurtled towards ship.

What are they?
Harper asked.

“Whatever their constituents,”
Judi
replied, “they will prove ineffective.”

Seconds later, as two dozen projectiles arced towards them, as many golden needles bristled from
Judi’s
nose-cone and lanced towards the valley. They struck the ballistic missiles and exploded in dazzling starbursts.

Harper sensed
Judi
almost chuckle as she reported, “Acid, Den. Potentially dangerous if it were to breach our defences.”

They accelerated towards the portal, and more acid projectiles hosed up towards them, and
Judi
responded in kind.

Judi
, Harper thought,
at your leisure, take aim at the portal and fire.

“Affirmative.”

He saw Janaker grip the edge of the console, white-knuckled.

Seconds later the ship bucked as a great golden column of light lanced from the nose-cone, temporarily blinding him. He blinked, and as his vision adjusted he watched the bolt of energy fall on the valley and strike the portal. They peeled away, and he instructed
Judi
to patch images of the resultant destruction through the viewscreen. A scene of serrated mountain summits and blue sky flickered, to be replaced with a view of the valley: he saw a pall of steam, slowly rising, and when it lifted he expected to see... what? A crater where the portal had been, a gaping, fiery hole like the entrance to hell?

He strained forward in the sling, peering through the viewscreen.

The steam evaporated, and in its place was the opaque oval of the portal, seemingly undamaged.

His stomach turned sickeningly.

Judi
, he thought,
turn and approach and fire again.

They made a second approach run, and when
Judi
fired he sensed that the pulse lasted a little longer this time. The beam of blinding light plummeted, struck the portal and created another mushrooming roil of superheated steam.
Judi
peeled away, and Harper stared at the viewscreen and the portal now in their wake.

He cursed and gripped the sling’s frame.

Yet again the portal was pristine, pearly in the light of the afternoon sun.

And then, as he watched, a series of vessels emerged from the light – not the bloated, semi-organic ships this time but craft seemingly manufactured of plate metal and plastiglass.

The leading ship fired a dazzling blue laser lance, and seconds later
Judi
rocked.

Judi? Report damage.

“Negligible,” she responded. “I am effecting immediate repairs.”

Very well. Let’s get out of here. Make for the lake. Land close to the long-house and prepare for a swift phase out on my orders.

“Understood.”

They accelerated and left the valley in their wake.

Janaker stared at him. “You know what this means, Harper? If even the finest Vetch weapon can’t touch the Weird’s portal...”

He nodded, not wanting to consider the consequences.

The viewscreen showed the scene to the rear of the ship. A dozen and more Weird vessels were trailing them from the valley.

Judi, take offensive action
.

Golden beams lanced out, struck the leading ship. He saw an explosion, and when the smoke cleared he saw that the beam had struck a shield. The ship ploughed on, inexorable.

He ordered
Judi
to split the viewscreen between fore and aft, and in the right of the screen he made out the welcome sight of the placid lake and the collection of huts along its shore.

When we land, Judi, how long will we have before the Weird ships come within firing range?

A second later she responded. “Approximately three and a half minutes.”

Would that give them time to get the colonists aboard the ship before they phased out?

Janaker paced the flight-deck. “We’ll be cutting it fine, Harper.”

He stared at her. “We can’t leave them here!”

“I never suggested that, did I?” she snapped. “But you do realise, don’t you, that potentially some of them might be infected?”

Of course he realised, and her words brought to mind Teplican and the alien ship, and Zeela... He pushed the thought away. “My priority now is to save the colonists,” he said. “We can deal with that possibility later.”

They came in low over the lake and settled in a maelstrom of sand.

Harper leapt from the sling and sprinted from the flight-deck. He jumped down the ramp into dazzling sunlight and ran across the clearing towards the long-house. The rickety timber door shuddered open and a knot of timorous colonists peered out.

He yelled, “Aboard the ship! Hurry!”

He looked out across the lake. In the distance, kilometres away but closing, was the fleet of Weird ships. He stood staring in fear, an island around which a river of Kallastanians flowed.

Someone ran to him, her face streaked with tears – and his heart leapt at the sight of her.

She halted suddenly before him, unsure how to greet him. She murmured, “Den... I, I thought you’d left me here.”

He reached out, pulled her towards him. “As if,” he said, “I’d ever do that.”

The first acid bolt from the leading Weird ship fell short, hit the lake like a bouncing bomb and ploughed into the long-house at their backs. A hail of fragmented kindling peppered the fleeing colonists.

He gripped Zeela’s arm and half-dragged her towards
Judi
. Behind them, the timbers of the long-house ignited and raged with flame.

They came to the old woman, struggling to climb into the ship. She caught his gaze with wise eyes and said, “Such violence.”

He took her arm and assisted her the rest of the way. He began to say something, thought better of it, and turned to urge on the stragglers. The Weird ships were approaching at speed across the lake, and the leading vessel fired again. A bolus of acid ploughed into the blazing remains of the long-house, and a second hit the sand between the wreckage and the ship and bounced, missing
Judi
by a matter of metres.

Harper crossed the clearing, scooped up a child and grabbed the arm of its mother. They were the very last, and he almost dragged them across to the ship and in through the hatch. He climbed aboard after them and pushed through the milling crowd as the hatch sighed shut. Into his wrist-com he shouted, “
Judi
! Phase out now!”

“Affirmative. Ten seconds and counting...”

Zeela found him and they hurried to the flight-deck. Janaker was speaking urgently into her wrist-com. As Harper appeared, the bounty hunter said, “I’m instructing my ship to attack the Weird. It might gain us a few seconds.”

Zeela stared at the Vetch’s body, sprawled out on the deck. “What happened, Den?”

“I’ll explain later.”

He moved to the viewscreen and peered out. Janaker’s ship powered up, a golden wasp turning on its axis and darting out over the lake. A ball of acid shot from the leading ship and hit the ground metres from
Judi
’s nose-cone.
Judi
responded with spokes of golden fire, and the Weird ship took a strike amidships and listed.

Seconds later Janaker’s ship was blown from the sky before it had a chance to fire on the enemy.