Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Warriors
    Warriors
    Warriors
    Ebook501 pages7 hours

    Warriors

    By Graham Storrs

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    First contact with alien species had been a disaster, opening a Pandora's box of trouble for humanity.

    Hunted by alien warships, the survivors of the crew of the Canta Libre travel back to Earth, only to discover a ferocious global war has broken out in their absence. Earth's governments have branded them traitors and they too are hunting Captain Ashton and his crew for the alien technology they are supposed to have brought back.

    Fighting for their lives against old allies and new enemies, only the Canta Libre, with its rag-tag crew of scientists and civilians, can bring the world the weapon it needs to defeat the alien warships hot on their tail. But the strange reality-bending force they have on board is a two-edged sword and, in the end, the Canta Libre may be the biggest threat to human survival of them all.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGraham Storrs
    Release dateJan 11, 2016
    ISBN9780992498870
    Warriors
    Author

    Graham Storrs

    Graham Storrs is a science fiction writer who lives miles from anywhere in rural Australia with his wife and a Tonkinese cat. He has published many short stories in magazines and anthologies as well as three children's science books and a large number of academic and technical pieces in the fields of psychology, artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction.He has published a number of sci-fi novels, in four series; Timesplash (three books), the Rik Sylver sci-fi thriller series (three books), the Canta Libre space opera trilogy. and the Deep Fracture trilogy. He has also published an augmented reality thriller, "Heaven is a Place on Earth", a sci-fi comedy novel, "Cargo Cult", a dark comedy time travel novel, "Time and Tyde", and an urban sci-fi thriller, "Mindrider."

    Read more from Graham Storrs

    Related to Warriors

    Related ebooks

    Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Speeches

      Aug 22, 2023

      Speeches
      2 min read

    • Article

      Fiction

      Mar 10, 2023

      Fiction
      3 min read

    • Article

      Cut And Run

      Oct 9, 2023

      The earth shook violently as the enormous metal monster closed in. It was 100m away, 50, 20 … then it was on me. As I watched its giant steel tentacle, with its whirling, screaming blade, stretch down towards me, I was conscious less of the fear of a

      2 min read

    • Article

      Lost In Time

      Oct 5, 2022

      Lost In Time
      5 min read

    • Article

      Naomi Alderman

      Nov 1, 2023

      IT WAS AN ARTICLE, SAYS NAOMI ALDERMAN, that set her writing. Specifically an essay published in The New Yorker in 2017, in which reporter Evan Osnos detailed how some of America’s wealthiest people are preppers, putting a percentage of their vast re

      3 min read

    • Article

      The William Trevor Reader: “The Hotel of the Idle Moon”

      Jan 11, 2022

      For Trevor, advanced age and accompanying senescence are, if not an obsession, a fixation. The post The William Trevor Reader: “The Hotel of the Idle Moon” appeared first on The Millions.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Externalities

      Jan 10, 2023

      “In economics, an externality is the cost or benefit that affects a party who did not choose to incur that cost or benefit.”—James Buchanan and W. Craig Stubblebine The library rolled heavily into town, bearing its cargo of knowledge mundane, esoteri

      15 min read

    • Article

      Quotients

      May 7, 2020

      Quotients
      8 min read

    • Article

      Elf Quest

      Nov 30, 2022

      Elf Quest
      11 min read

    • Article

      A Dragon’s Perspective

      Jun 10, 2022

      There once lived a dragon named Deathwing. Well, at least that’s what they called him. Deathwing was growing old, far too old for his liking. The joints of his claws ached and groaned under his ever-growing weight and his scales were beginning to los

      18 min read

    • Article

      Georges Clemenceau

      Aug 2, 2023

      Georges Clemenceau
      7 min read

    • Article

      Curate's Egg By Atwood

      Mar 8, 2023

      By Margaret Atwood Chatto & Windus £22 These 15 stories by Margaret Atwood are a mixed bag. The first three and the last four feature an elderly couple called Tig and Nell. They are based, I imagine, on Atwood herself (now aged 83) and her husband, G

      3 min read

    • Article

      Horde Mode

      Jan 30, 2023

      Horde Mode
      5 min read

    • Article

      No-Signal Area

      Mar 27, 2020

      No-Signal Area
      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Warriors

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Warriors - Graham Storrs

      WARRIORS

      Book 3 in the Canta Libre Trilogy

      by

      Graham Storrs

      eBook Edition, Copyright © 2016, Graham Storrs

      ISBN: 978-0-9924988-7-0

      Book design by Graham Storrs. Cover design by Kate Strawbridge, Dwell Design & Press.

      Published by Canta Libre

      All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorised, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

      Dedication

      I dedicate this book to the people of Stanthorpe, a small town in rural Queensland, Australia. I wrote this novel entirely in and around Stanthorpe – at home, mostly, but large parts of it also by Quart Pot Creek and Storm King Dam, all beautiful places. You should go there and take a look. These kind people have always made us feel welcome. I've lived in a lot of places, all over the world. Some are indifferent to you. Some are even a little hostile. Some simply accept you and welcome you in, as if you have every right to just plonk yourself down in the middle of their lives. And that's what Stanthorpe is like.

      Part 1

      Chapter 1

      Elvira, Mr. Lanham would like to speak with you.

      All conversation stopped. Even the breeze that drifted in from the lake seemed to pause. Elvira looked around at her guests, reclining in various states of relaxation in the white marble gazebo they had chosen for their get-together. Her guests looked back at her, waiting for her response. She put a polite smile on her face and turned to the little avatar that stood waiting on the grass. It took the form of a liveried page boy, not out of keeping with the late eighteenth century European style Elvira's little group had affected for the meeting. Martin Lanham was nothing if not a stickler for detail.

      Ignoring the page, Elvira spoke into the air, directly at Lanham. Martin, can it not wait an hour or two? she asked, allowing a little irritation into her tone.

      The page bowed. I'm afraid not, Elvira. Mr. Lanham says this is extremely urgent.

      You should go, one of her guests said.

      Yes, it's OK. We don't mind, said another. They both sounded anxious.

      Elvira frowned at the page. Crossly, she said, Now look what you've done. She stood up and, with a last look at her guests, gave a resigned sigh.

      In an instant she was in another place, a large, oak-panelled room with a fire blazing in a massive fireplace. The furnishings were wood and leather, sumptuous beyond the point of ostentation. Alongside an enormous sideboard, stood a tall, handsome man in an expensive business suit. He poured two glasses of whiskey – Elvira had no doubt it would be the finest – and turned to her with a warm smile. Thank you for coming, he said, crossing the room with a confident, athletic stride.

      I was with friends, Elvira said, accepting the drink he offered her. The glass was heavy and the diamond-cut crystal bright with tiny rainbows.

      This is important, he said, placing himself in a high-backed leather armchair. There's another delegation here wanting to talk about the war.

      She took a sip of the amber liquid, barely wetting her lips. Why do we care? What she meant was, Why do you care? Elvira herself cared deeply that humanity was tearing itself to pieces.

      They'd like us to join in. Lanham smiled at the folly of the idea.

      Elvira cocked her head and studied him. For a year now, since the world had erupted into global war, Lanham had been dealing with requests from various Earth governments to declare Omega Point for them, or against someone else. All that time, Lanham had politely declined, assuring one and all that a human war was of no interest to transhumanity and that Omega Point would remain strictly neutral. Like Switzerland in the sky, as he once told an ambassador from the Union of Europe.

      So what's different this time? she asked.

      Lanham waved a well-manicured hand. Oh you know, desperation.

      If they're tired of fighting, why don't they sue for peace? No-one had expected the war to go on for so long. Everyone had assumed the Chinese would have won by now.

      Lanham closed his eyes in a show of weariness. They're starting to rattle their sabres at us. One of them just said that if we aren't for them, we might as well be against them.

      Just said? You mean they're here now?

      Yes, didn't I say? A Chinese delegation. I'm talking with them right now in the Reception Suite. For Martin Lanham, any number of simultaneous conversations with humans was quite possible. As an uploaded mind, inhabiting the largest computer complex in SolSystem, he could run himself at quite ridiculous speeds, dividing his time effortlessly between dozens of slow, tedious humans.

      Are you embodied?

      Lanham shuddered. "Please. Why would I go to the trouble of loading a copy into a robot and experiencing that awful constriction. His lips tightened in disgust. No, I'm using a projection."

      Of course he was. It had been three hundred years since Lanham had last used a robot body. She knew he had used it to pilot a spaceship into the Moon in a failed attempt to destroy the lunar city of Heinlein. In a crazy, Lanham-esque kind of way, it had been a noble attempt, Elvira thought, although completely misguided as it turned out. He never talked about the experience of a copy of himself dying in that fireball – an experience he shared with it right to the end – but it must have affected him deeply. He had not donned a robot body for a single moment since that day.

      So why am I here? Elvira asked.

      Lanham took a sip of his whiskey. Don't laugh. I need you to keep me from blowing our esteemed Chinese visitors out of the airlock.

      Elvira laughed.

      Lanham put on a pained expression. One of them is thumping the table even as we speak. I don't know how much I can take of these monkeys.

      Still smiling, Elvira said, What could they do to us if they did decide we were the enemy?

      Not much. We're a hundred-and-fifty million kilometres away from Earth. It took them three weeks to get here and we were tracking them from the moment they left Earth orbit. It's true, as they have just reminded me, that Omega Point is a big, fat, stationary target, but we are not without our defences. By the way, I just pointed out, that Hong Kong is a big, fat, stationary target too. They didn't like that. Of course, Beijing, the obvious choice of target, had already been nuked in the opening days of the war.

      I hope you're also reminding them of the services we provide their government. Elvira had little to do with the business side of Omega Point but she knew well that the transhumans living in the giant space station were almost all billionaires and trillionaires when they died and had their minds uploaded. Omega Point controlled a significant slice of the SolSystem's wealth and, as a neutral state, provided financial services, manufacturing and commodities, to all parties in the war. Perhaps you could mention System Lord Asamoto has his personal fortune in one of our banks.

      Lanham stood up and walked over to the fire. "That kind of thing used to be sufficient but it's losing its grip on them. The whole Chinese Hegemony has suffered badly in this war. Tens of millions have died. There is poverty and starvation from Eastern India all across Asia to Japan. The Union of Europe and the Federación Americana are doing just as badly. If it wasn't for the UNPF, China would be ruling the solar system by now but they failed to neutralise them quickly enough and now it's stalemate.

      Desperation, as I said. Asamoto is less concerned now about buying a new yacht than he is about a revolt by the South Asian states.

      Maybe we could help them, Elvira said. The idea of humanity in such peril was appalling. Perhaps we could offer to help them negotiate a peace? There must be something...

      Lanham sneered. Elvira fell silent, biting down her anger.

      At least if they're killing each other, they're not bothering us, he said. Perhaps you forget why we have such strong defences? Perhaps you forget three hundred years of persecution? What do you think has been happening to the other transhuman colonies, the ones on Earth, the ones in more accessible orbits with less formidable weaponry?

      They– She hesitated, unsure as to whether she wanted to go along with this. Some took sides, she said. Some are providing strategic computing services – battle simulations and such. Some... Some didn't take sides and were co-opted to serve one or another of the superpowers. Some had been destroyed.

      The Union of Europe passed a law two weeks ago seizing the assets of all transhumans in their territories. The Nation of Islam just yesterday decreed that all captured computer systems harbouring 'abominations' would be 'de-cluttered' and reassigned for military purposes. De-cluttered! There's a nice way to describe a genocide against our kind.

      Elvira felt sick. She'd had no idea things had become so bad. Like most of the thousands of uploads living in Omega Point, she had tried to ignore the war. It was something the humans were doing. Nothing to do with them.

      And so, here they are, a bunch of jumped-up little nobodies in their pantomime uniforms and their animated face paint, hectoring me about our duty to help bring the war to a speedy conclusion, promising us nothing we couldn't reach out and take anyway, threatening the ire of the Hegemony if we failed to support our friends in their hour of need. Tell me! Tell me why I shouldn't swat the lot of them like the irritating little insects they are!

      Elvira pulled her thoughts back from the awful news about their fellow transhumans. She looked into Lanham's glaring eyes and suddenly felt the urgency of the situation. There were people, right here in Omega Point, and Lanham would kill them, could exterminate them with a thought, if she didn't stop him. She too stood up. Her mind buzzed with the possible reasons she might give him to spare these lives. So many reasons! And yet not one she could think of that might sway Lanham.

      What have you become, Martin? she asked, thinking out loud, stalling for time. There are almost a hundred thousand people here in Omega Point. Every one of them deserves a say in how we respond to this war, and yet here you are, negotiating on our behalf, making the decisions that will affect all of our lives. What gives you that right?

      Lanham peered at her with narrowed eyes. She could see him trying to work out where she was going with this, what it meant, how he could leverage it to his advantage.

      Don't tell me, she said, as if he were about to. Every time there has been a choice to be made, every time there has been administration to do, a problem to solve, a crisis to handle, you have stepped forward while the rest of us have quietly stepped back. It's been going on for three hundred years. It's so much a part of the culture of this place, no-one even thinks to question it. You steered us through those early days when humanity hounded us off the planet and almost destroyed us. You kept us safe and strong throughout the Long War. You positioned us to grow and prosper as the Earth slowly clawed its way out of the rubble. It's no wonder the people here are happy to hand over their wealth, even their destiny, to your expert care. And you have grown so accustomed to leading you don't even ask permission. You don't consult, you don't report, you don't feel you are answerable in any way to the rest of us.

      I never did, he said, his voice cold. There are sheep and there are shepherds.

      Do it for me, she said, finally finding the only answer there was left.

      What?

      You asked why you should spare the lives of those people out there. That's my answer. Do it because I'm asking you to. That's why you invited me here, isn't it? To give you a reason to do the right thing?

      I always do the right thing.

      Then you were right to ask for my opinion.

      He regarded her in silence for a moment, then said, It's done. I am firmly but politely reiterating our long-held policy of neutrality. They are gnashing their teeth and repeating their threats. They'll be gone soon.

      Have we let you become too powerful, Martin?

      He laughed. Have I let you become too popular?

      She smiled back at him but the electrons simulating her blood ran cold.

      You know, he said. They didn't once mention the elephant in the room.

      The alien city? It was the spark that had ignited the war. A gigantic alien artefact had been discovered orbiting Gamma Sagittae, two-hundred-and-seventy-five light years away. A Chinese colony ship in the vicinity had been diverted and its occupants were now occupying the city. The Hegemony had claimed the city as their own. Yet the story from the UNPF, who had also sent a ship, was rather more complicated and frightening. They said that the colony ship had renounced its Chinese allegiance and declared the city an independent state. They said the giant alien artefact had been a trap, a Trojan horse to ensnare humanity. By a fluke, they said, the trap had failed and now the aliens who had built it were on their way to attack us. The UNPF's own ship, the Canta Libre, had been sent deeper into the galaxy to try to find friends who would help the human race.

      The Union of Europe and the Chinese Hegemony had both sent fleets to Gamma Sagittae to protect the alien city. Then the war had begun and the truth of what had happened out there had become its first casualty. It was possible that no-one in SolSystem would ever really know what had happened – unless an alien fleet turned up one day to destroy them.

      Don't be too hasty to pull me off my plinth, Elvira, Lanham said. This is no time for us to be rudderless.

      Chapter 2

      Professor Susan Iverson woke first. Coming out of the stasis she'd been in wasn't like waking from sleep. It was like blinking to find things had changed subtly. The hum of the ship's engines was the same but the lighting in her cabin had changed from daylight to nighttime mode. She might have been out for a few hours, but she knew it was more likely she'd been in stasis for a whole year – the time it would take the Canta Libre to fly at its top speed of 1,000c from M27 back to Gamma Sagittae.

      The other thing that had changed was that there was now a naked woman floating in the air about three metres from her. The woman was young and quite beautiful. She glowed with an inner light.

      Akiro, Susan said, sitting up in her acceleration couch. Is everything OK?

      Small compass, the woman said. Her voice was clear and gentle.

      What?

      You ask about everything but you mean everything aboard this ship.

      Susan studied Akiro's face. There was no sign that she meant it as criticism, or as a joke. Right. Just a figure of speech. Have we arrived?

      Soon.

      For want of something better to say, Susan asked, Are you OK?

      I don't know. Something is coming.

      Susan felt her heartbeat quicken. Akiro sounded anxious. And if there were something coming that could make her anxious, it scared Susan witless. Are we in danger?

      We'll see.

      And with that, the glowing apparition vanished.

      Akiro! Tell me. What's coming? What should we do? But Susan was shouting to the empty room.

      In frustration, she tried raising the others but they were all still in stasis. Only the robot, BS, was awake. Susan wondered for a moment why Akiro had woken her before the others but it seemed obvious to Susan that her research into the Iffot Onni's scientific archives was of such immense value that Akiro would have wanted to give her as much opportunity as possible to do more.

      Where are we, BS?

      We're in the Gamma Sagittae system, Professor, about two million kilometres from New Australia, closing on an intercept trajectory. We should reach them in about nine days, allowing for our rate of deceleration.

      Anybody else around? She left her cabin and wandered along the corridor.

      "The ship's telescopes reveal at least seven ships matching New Australia's orbit. There could easily be others behind the city. They all appear to be from SolSystem. One is the old Chinese arkship, the Bundaberg, which brought the New Australian colonists. Three of the others have Chinese Hegemony markings. The remaining three are from the Union of Europe."

      Have they tried to contact us?

      "Yes. As soon as we came out of the spacetime tunnel, both sides hailed us. The ship responded – I was unable to prevent it – declaring us a UE vessel. New Australia has been silent so far. A Group Commander Bedoit of the UE Deep Space Defence Force ship Armageddon has commanded us to rendezvous with her ship and to allow her troops to board us."

      Susan poked her head into Kitty's room. Sounds serious. What about the Hegemony?

      Kitty Hamilton and her pet nicoisi, Pinky, lay together on her bed. Both appeared to have been spray-painted in chrome. Susan crossed the room and poked at Kitty's leg. It was as hard as if the girl were a polished steel statue.

      "The Chinese have declared that, as a former UNPF vessel, the Canta Libre belongs to them. They say we are renegades and criminals and they have ordered us to surrender ourselves to their command ship."

      Quite a reception. She reached across the bed to pick up the silver figurine which was Kitty's little alien friend, Pinky. She saw her hand and face reflected in the smooth surface and wondered whether it might be perfectly reflective. Certainly, if you wanted a body to remain undisturbed in stasis, you wouldn't want electromagnetic radiation getting in, jiggling its molecules about. The creature seemed to have mass still, sparking speculations about fields a person in stasis might safely feel and which might need to be excluded. As soon as she gripped the figure it slipped out of her grasp and she fumbled for it. The surface she held seemed to be frictionless. She tried to imagine what might happen if she dropped it. Probably best not to try that particular experiment.

      So what did you say to our would-be interrogators? she asked the robot.

      I referred them both to Ambassador Hartmann.

      Is she awake?

      No. I explained that she is in a state of suspended animation and that I would ask her to call when she woke up.

      I bet that caused a stir. A practical stasis technique would be worth its weight in antimatter to the Earth governments.

      It caused a number of questions to be asked. Both sides seem to believe we have alien technology aboard and both insisted that we turn it over to them. They also asked me to explain it but, of course, I could not. I referred them to you. They would like you to call them as soon as you're awake.

      Susan smirked. I'll put it on my to-do list. She was not at all worried that half-a-dozen heavily-armed warships were waiting to grab the Canta Libre and her crew. She had absolute confidence in the power of Akiro to protect them. Anything else happen while I've been asleep?

      No, Professor, it has been an uneventful trip.

      What about you, Ship?

      The ship's artificial mind monitored all conversations and knew when it was being addressed. I am well, Professor Iverson. Your vital signs look good. I trust you are feeling well.

      I'm fine. What I want to know is what is your position on who has authority in this situation.

      My position has not changed since before we set off. As Ambassador for the Union of Europe, Ambassador Hartmann is the most senior local representative of any Earth government and, until the Chinese Hegemony can make good its claim that it owns me by right of conquest, I consider myself under her command.

      And the fact that she is unconscious at the moment?

      As you know, she laid out a clear line of delegated authority in case she dies or is incapacitated. As the only conscious person in that line, you have her full authority at this moment.

      Excellent. Susan grinned. Good old Inge. The ambassador had probably saved them again from being swallowed up by the Hegemony. My first command, then, is to cease all communication with either the UE or the Hegemony ships. Monitor their activity and tell me at once if they do anything that might be threatening. BS, I'm counting on you to keep watch too – and to respond appropriately, if a response is required. The robot was the most advanced tactical thinking machine humanity had ever produced. Susan had no doubt that, if the SolSystem ships tried to grab them or started shooting at them, the robot's judgement would be far better than her own.

      She set the slippery chrome doll that was the nicoisi back down on the bed and studied it a moment. She shuddered at the thought that she too had been in that state for a full year as they travelled back from Adanor.

      The thought of the Iffot Onni and the narrow escape she and the others had made as they fled the aliens' missiles, suggested another question. BS, have you checked that no-one followed us from Adanor?

      Yes, Professor. No alien pursuers have arrived yet.

      You think they will though.

      It has a very high probability. The Iffot Onni, the Sevrans, and the Veemans all believe that we have some extremely powerful weapons. The Iffot Onni and the Sevrans, at least, have strong motives to follow us and acquire these weapons.

      You think the Sevrans would follow us? Somehow, Susan could not see the large, orange sluglike creatures chasing after them, whatever the potential gain.

      The likelihood is low. They are merchants, not adventurers. Besides, I do not believe they would risk upsetting the Iffot Onni, who seem to be an important trading partner. The robot hesitated, not because it needed time to think, or because it experienced any kind of nervousness, but simply because it had been taught to use such mannerisms when speaking with humans. Of course, this speculation is based on a tiny sample in each case.

      Of course. Susan sighed and headed for the door. Low probabilities or not, there was a possibility that four separate alien species were heading towards SolSystem intent on destroying it or stealing from it. The K'Ha – crazy religious zealots – intended to enslave or wipe out humanity. The Iffot Onni, warlike and arrogant, saw Earth purely as a source of weapons for their internal conflict. The Sevrans were probably benign, peaceful traders as far as Susan could tell, but the sinister Veemans, squid-like, intelligent and apparently emotionless, might have inscrutable designs of their own. All of them, except the Sevrans, had tried to destroy the Canta Libre's crew at some time in the past two years.

      OK, guys. I'm off to get some breakfast and then I'm going back to my research. You know where I am if you want me.

      But she didn't go straight to the rec room. Instead she detoured to the cargo bay where the ship's landers were docked. In the echoing gloom were two gurneys containing the dead bodies of Dr. Henri Petain and Stephen Logan. She ignored Logan and went to stand beside Petain. Even though both men had been her lovers, only Petain had commanded her respect or affection. For a long time, she stared down at his body. It too was silvered by the stasis field. Akiro had laid it on each of them like a magic spell. For an instant she thought about kissing his frozen lips and waking him like a prince in a fairy story.

      Tears blurred her vision. She shook her head in irritation but then touched his cheek. You, my friend, were no prince and I'm no princess, that's for damned sure.

      -oOo-

      Task Group Commander Claudine Bedoit was not a patient woman. She had survived the three-month journey from Earth to Gamma Sagittae by drilling her troops hard, plotting the assault on the alien city, drinking too much brandy, and forcing her officers and crew to play her at poker every night in the mess. She always won, or they always let her. Either way, she took a grim satisfaction in the games. It had never been Bedoit's way to suffer alone.

      Since reaching New Australia and discovering that the damned place was impregnable, her mood had deteriorated. To make things worse, her three-ship task group was outnumbered and outgunned by the five Hegemony vessels that had turned up just a week later. There had been a brief skirmish and, by great good luck, she'd taken out two of the enemy ships. This, it seemed, had put the wind up the Chinese commander. Since then, for six of the longest months of her life, she and the Hegemony had dodged and feinted around that useless, white, alien monstrosity, neither side daring to commit to an engagement.

      What do you mean, they're not answering?

      She scowled at her second-in-command and captain of the Armageddon, a prissy Englishman called Porter.

      They just stopped answering our calls, Ma'am.

      They know we're the good guys, right?

      Yes, Ma'am. We did explain.

      Are they talking to the Hegemony?

      No, Ma'am. They've just gone silent.

      She stood up – the Armageddon was a state-of-the-art destroyer with IR drive and artificial gravity throughout – and stomped across to the viewscreen where an image of the alien city was constantly displayed. Who do those bastards think they are?

      Potter shrugged, a gesture Bedoit found particularly irritating. They're UNPF, Commander, I assume they feel they are not under our jurisdiction.

      A couple of Mark IVs up their tailpipe would change their minds, don't you think?

      You're not seriously considering...

      No, of course not! Tempting though it was. With the Hegemony claiming the Canta Libre and Berlin insisting that Bedoit bring it home, the situation was dynamite. One false move could spark a battle that none of them might survive. Blowing Canta Libre out of the skies might just save everybody's lives.

      What about the artefact? It was UE official policy to refer to the gigantic alien city as the artefact. Calling it New Australia as the colonists living within it did, was considered dangerously close to conceding the Chinese territorial claim.

      "No word from them either, Ma'am. They haven't tried to contact the Canta Libre. They could all be dead in there for all we know."

      Recommendations? She knew there wouldn't be any but she wanted to put Porter on the spot. More and more, lately, she had the feeling that the man didn't care whether the artefact ever opened its doors or not. He seemed quite happy to sit out the whole war in the Gamma Sagittae system twiddling his thumbs while the months ticked by.

      Again he shrugged. "It looks like the same old stalemate, Ma'am. Even when the Canta Libre gets here, there's nothing either side can do about it. If the New... If the colonists in the artefact open their doors for the UNPF people, there's a small chance we could get a lander in too. A special ops team, maybe. I don't know how the Hegemony might react, though."

      It was like taking tactical advice from an infant. Nobody goes in or out of that flying aspirin. Do you understand? You will shoot down any craft attempting to make such a move. Get onto TAC. I want scenarios for attacking the Chinese as soon as that UNPF ship is close enough to cause a significant distraction. You might tell them to assume the Chinese will be planning the same thing. I'll be in the War Room in two hours to review what they come up with. You're dismissed.

      She watched Porter leave. Despite her disdain of the man, she had found no good reason to demote him and advance some other miserable time-server to the post of Captain of the Armageddon. Besides, Porter was well connected – the son of the British Minister of Defence no less, and just as incompetent as his father. Unless Porter actually drove the ship into an asteroid, she'd never get away with sacking him. The idiot would probably get a medal and a promotion out of their little skirmish with the Chinese, even though everyone knew they'd been lucky it wasn't the Armageddon that had been blown to pieces, rather than the two Chinese destroyers. Sooner or later, Porter would be an admiral and she'd be thinking about early retirement.

      She sighed. So be it. It was the way the world ran. Nepotism and corruption were just as bad in the Hegemony as they were in Europe – worse in the other superstates. You took the situation as you found it and looked for the best way forward. At least this endless waiting, two-hundred-and-seventy-five light years from home, would soon be over. When the Canta Libre came within firing range, all hell would break loose. Bedoit's job was to make sure that, when the dust settled, Armageddon at least was among the survivors.

      -oOo-

      Geoffrey Cejka came out of stasis just as he'd gone into it, lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling. It took him a long time to notice that he'd been unconscious at all. He'd been thinking about his parents. They were Thomsonites, members of a cult that believed there was no point to anything in the Universe, so it didn't matter what people did. In fact, the more random one's decisions, the more suited to the true nature of existence they would be. Geoffrey had suffered a confused and unhappy childhood with a mother who had striven to be deliberately arbitrary in her approach to childcare.

      Why do you keep me around at all? he'd shouted at her. He was twelve at the time and had just been pulled out of a school he'd liked because his mother wanted to live among the morally insane in Tehran, capital city of the Nation of Islam. Neither of them spoke Persian and his education had been reduced to trying to recite the Koran in a hot dry madrasah, among tough, doe-eyed boys who teased and bullied him and called him an akhoond.

      His mother had seemed surprised at his outburst. She blinked at him and said, Oh. Would you rather be somewhere else? I thought you liked following me around. Like an imprinted duckling, you know?

      He left her two months later and went to live with relatives in New York. He was so happy to have found a sane and stable life at last that the guilt of it almost killed him.

      This is Ashton. Is there anybody else awake?

      The call over the ship's comm snapped Geoffrey out of his reverie. He looked around as if seeing his cabin for the first time in ages. Everything looked the same. Yes, Captain. It's Geoff. Are we there?

      There was no reply for a while. Geoffrey climbed off his bed, imagining the others calling in, one by one. Except maybe Susan. He grinned. Susan would say something like, Go away, I'm busy.

      Thinking of Susan reminded him of Petain, dead in the cargo bay, casually beaten to death by the Iffot Onni, and Logan, lying beside the Frenchman, a tiny hole drilled in his forehead where the robot's laser had pierced his skull and boiled his brains. A darkness descended on him like a heavy blanket. We are weak, fragile creatures, he thought, not strong enough for the rough and tumble of life among the other races of the galaxy. But he knew that was just the K'Ha speaking, looking at human frailty from the perspective of a ferocious warrior race, looking at Geoffrey's own gentle nature from the perspective of a mind born to lead armies and crush weaker species.

      The alien mind within his own had failed to defeat him, however, and, having failed, it had failed again in its attempts to destroy them both. Now the K'Ha's mind was being absorbed into his own, becoming an aspect of Geoffrey's personality. Not the dominant aspect – he would never allow that – but one that was ever-present, one that had changed him forever.

      He checked the ship's time and found it was mid-morning. He set off for the rec room just as Captain Ashton called for everyone to meet him there in five minutes.

      -oOo-

      Kitty Hamilton was already seated and waiting in the rec when Geoffrey arrived, the nicoisi curled up in a ball of long white fur on her lap. For someone who'd just slept for a year, she looked astonishingly fresh and beautiful. Of course, stasis didn't count. It was the past few months of subjective time that really mattered. For Kitty, that had meant being kidnapped by criminals, being dragged across hundreds of light years, seeing her friend murdered, being arrested by the UNPF, and living in constant fear for her life. Geoffrey could see little of that incredible ordeal in her lovely young face as she looked up at him and smiled a hello.

      No-one else here? he asked, aware, in a way he had never been before, of the banality of such pleasantries.

      Just me and Pinky.

      Can I get you a drink? He made straight for the food dispensers, thinking he might print himself a sandwich.

      I want a drink, Pinky said, its little head poking out of the bundle on Kitty's lap and rising on its long neck.

      Ambassador Hartmann walked in, stopped, surveyed the room, and joined Geoffrey at the drinks machine. She gave him a quick smile. I really don't like the idea of being frozen for a whole year, she said.

      Better than the alternative, perhaps. Geoffrey filled a cup with water for the nicoisi.

      Much better, Susan Iverson said, striding into the room. Akiro says the IR drive is irradiating us, but personally, I think the real danger of being cooped up in here for a year is that we would all kill one another.

      Irradiating us? The ambassador took the words right out of Geoffrey's mouth. This was the first time he'd heard anything about it. I thought you said the drive was safe.

      Susan shrugged and went for a coffee. Turns out there are subtle dangers involved in having a ghost living in your damaged IR drive. Who'd have known?

      Are we safe?

      Akiro thinks so. Susan took a sip of her steaming coffee and grimaced. Well, I see nothing's changed. She turned to Kitty. Where's your boyfriend? I haven't got all day.

      Geoffrey saw the quick flush of embarrassment in Kitty's face and wondered why Susan was being more than usually provocative. Could it be it was in honour of Petain who had happily worn the mantle of ship's goad until his sudden death? He watched her take a snack and sit down with it. How would grief manifest itself in a woman like her, he wondered? He was in no doubt that Susan, more than any of them, felt the loss of the big Frenchman.

      Sorry to keep you waiting.

      They all turned to see Robert Ashton walk briskly into the room along with his two ship's engineers, Heinrich Steiner, and Mauro Bellotti, and Wu Kwang Fu, formerly an agent of the Chinese Hegemony's secret service and now a man wanted for treason. As Ashton took his place at the head of the little assembly, the robot, BS, entered unobtrusively and found a spot against the far wall. Geoffrey watched it and asked himself why it always crept about like that.

      OK. Ashton's manner was brisk and businesslike. I know it only feels like a moment since we were here last but it really is a whole year and we really have come a thousand light years. So, let me bring you up to speed with where we are and what's going on.

      He took a moment, as if waiting for objections, then plunged into his spiel.

      "We are less than one day out from New Australia. There are six warships surrounding the K'Ha city, three European and three Chinese. The amount of wreckage in the region suggests there has been some fighting, but none for many months. We don't know who fought who or what the outcome was except we think two ships were destroyed.

      "Now, both sides claim ownership of New Australia and Canta Libre. Both sides want to talk to you, Ambassador, about our legal position, and to you, Susan, about all the alien weapons we're supposed to be carrying." Susan snorted.

      We haven't heard anything from Captain Lee and the colonists in New Australia. It's possible they don't know we're here yet. I've tried hailing them but we've had no reply so far. The old colony ship is still out there, orbiting alongside the city, so we can assume they haven't gone anywhere.

      What about the war? Geoffrey asked.

      Just coming to that. BS has been able to tap in to a few newsfeeds from SolSystem and has been monitoring things. I'm sure it will give you as much detail as you like if you ask it after the briefing. Meanwhile, the short version is that the Europeans and the Chinese retrofitted some warships – that neither of them should have had – with IR drives and sent them out here to claim New Australia as fast as they possibly could. They couldn't get in and the New Australians wouldn't come out, so they started shooting at each other. The Hegemony decided this was an act of war and attacked Europe. It all escalated pretty quickly. There was an exchange of nuclear missiles resulting in millions of civilian casualties. The UNPF came in to pull the kiddies apart – bombing their missile silos from space – and discovered that both sides had been arming their space fleets for years and neither of them liked being told what to do. UNPF space stations were attacked by both sides and hundreds of UNPF warships were captured or destroyed. Which meant that the war in space and on the ground could go on without any further interference from peacekeepers.

      Geoffrey had never heard Ashton speak in such a sarcastic tone and wondered just how angry the captain must be to

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1