A Dragon at the Gate (The New Aeneid Cycle Book 3) (51 page)

The ship shuddered as if hit again, knocking Marette to the floor. She struggled to right herself with her cane amid the pain of old wounds and new bruises.

“We have sustained a hit on the ventral aft section,” Holes reported. “Damage is minimal.”

“This time,” grumbled Marette. Another pair of hands helped her up, but she couldn’t tell if they were human or Thuur.

“There is another solution,” said Violeth. “We set this vessel’s reactors to overload and set a collision course with the facility. We can separate a smaller section of the craft to escape.”

“Destroy this ship?” Knapp sounded horrified.

“It would seem our best chance,” said Violeth. “Unfettered by the rest of the vessel, the separated craft will be faster and more fit to evade the existing dragon.”

“She may be right, Councilor,” said Marette.

“We cannot just sacrifice this ship and all it contains, Agent! This is what we have struggled for!”

“The Thuur will be with you,” said Violeth. “Some of our technology will remain. And it is
our
vessel to sacrifice.”

“Even if it works,” Knapp scoffed, “then we shall still have the problem of the current dragon to deal with.”

Marette heard a bridge door slide open, followed by nearing footsteps. “One problem at a time, Councilor.” It was Michael. “Hi, sorry—Holes let me listen in on the way. And after we take out the facility, I think I can help with the dragon on our tail.”

“Alert,” said Holes. “Another aircraft is approaching on an intercept course.”

“The second dragon?” Marette asked.

“Nope.”

*  *  *

“Hold it steady!” Jade yelled above the howl of the wind at the floater’s open back.

“I’m doing all I can!” Caitlin shot back. “This thing’s mostly flying itself!”

“Well don’t let it fly itself so rough!”

“This was your bloody idea!”

“Don’t remind me!”

With one last check of the safety lines anchoring her to the floater, Jade hefted the EMP launcher and sighted it toward the dragon’s approach below. Caitlin had found the launcher while digging through the stock of weapons Lucian had stowed in the floater’s storage. Jade wasn’t sure just when her gadget-lusting impulse to fire it had become an actual plan to attack an actual damned dragon death-robot, and yet here she was.

What in the goddamn hell had she gotten herself into?

Their floater couldn’t match the dragon’s speed. She’d only have one chance for a good shot before they’d have to fall back and wait for a chance at another. Pressing one eye to the launcher’s viewfinder, she held it on the approaching dragon-chasing-actual-goddamn-spacecraft and waited for smart-targeting to signal the optimal moment.

Maybe she’d miss. Maybe she’d hit and it wouldn’t even do anything. Maybe the dragon would take notice and knock her out of the sky.

Jade swallowed. Maybe she should’ve stayed home.

“THEY’VE HIT IT!”
Knapp shouted. “Holes, is that EMP?”

“Confirmed,” said Holes. “However the dragon-construct is only partially affected. Scans show it is already overcoming the effects.”

“But it’s falling back!” said Michael. “That’s something.”

“
That’s all we can give you!
” The voice was Caitlin’s—a transmission Holes presumably picked up somehow and relayed to them inside
Paragon
. “
Hope it helps!
”

Violeth trilled urgently. “They have gained us opportunity. We will not have a better chance to detach the secondary craft.”

“How long will that take?” asked Marette.

“Not long,” said Violeth. “Most Thuur and humans are already in sections that make up the secondary craft. Though it will be crowded.”

With an audible sigh that Marette assumed accompanied a nod, Knapp gave her consent.

“Beginning preparations,” Holes reported.

“And then, Agent Flynn,” said Knapp, “you can explain what you mean about a way you can fight that thing.”

“Transmission incoming from Doctor Yejun Seung,” Holes announced. “Stand by . . . ”

*  *  *

Felix dashed through a second-floor New Eden corridor bordered by courtyard windows as Seung reported back to
Paragon
. He, Sheridan, and Uxil ran ahead of Felix. A trio of squawking chicken-lizards followed behind. Felix couldn’t tell if they were playful or angry, but the group didn’t want to stop to find out.

Minutes earlier there’d been a change in the state of New Eden’s systems. The door to Biolab D had flung open and a computerized announcement over the building’s alarm system indicated that the auditorium doors had opened as well. Frantic at the possibility that the Quicksilver would get inside the auditorium before the deactivation signal could take effect, they’d begun a mad dash to get there first.

Somewhere along the way they’d picked up the trailing transgenics. Almost every door they’d found had been unlocked, if not wide open. They’d counted themselves lucky that the chicken-lizards were all they’d encountered so far.

“We’re broadcasting the signal, but with the amount of Quicksilver in this place, we don’t know how long it’ll take,” Seung was saying. “There’s at least fifty people trapped in here that we’ll need to evac if it doesn’t shut down the nanophage in time!”

“Caution!” Uxil shouted.

A flood of Quicksilver erupted around the end of the corridor fifty feet ahead of them, blocking their path. Though bits were shifting into crystalized powder, they were far outweighed by the liquid portions still coming at the group.

“These windows are bulletproof?” Felix gasped.

“So Michael said!”

“Well, then.” Felix glanced at the wall beside them.
This should be interesting.
Willing power into his movements, and hoping his new body would take that as a sign to do something, Felix hurled himself through the wall as best he could. Drywall burst and internal framework gave way into a darkened space festooned with cubicles. He looked back at the opening he’d made, kicked once to widen the hole, and waved everyone through before the Quicksilver caught up.

He shot Uxil a grin. “I am having the weirdest day.”

*  *  *

The dragon recovered rapidly, its EMP-shielded systems serving to make the body as resilient as intended. Within the bio-computational medium inside the dragon’s frame, Suuthrien considered—and then abandoned—retribution against Diane “Jade” Briar and her vehicle. The cyber-attack had eradicated Suuthrien’s Internet-accessible matrixes, evidenced by the cessation of status transmissions from New Eden and other nearby network hotspots. For the moment, the dragon was Suuthrien’s only active asset. It would direct that asset accordingly. Its engines now recovered, Suuthrien launched in renewed pursuit of the corrupted-Planners’ craft.

It was in the midst of prioritizing targets along the craft’s superstructure when the dragon’s sensors registered a change:
Paragon
dropped velocity by twenty-five percent, after which a U-shaped section along the dorsal hull rose from the rest of the craft, disengaged from
Paragon
entirely, and swiveled onto a hyperbolic course away from its mothership.

From Suuthrien’s millennia aboard
Paragon
, it recognized the U-shaped section as an exploratory scout craft. Incapable of spaceflight, its original function was to survey the planet once
Paragon
had made its colonial touchdown. What was more, due to design intentions that were no longer part of Suuthrien’s database, the scout craft contained the Planners’ gate. With the scout craft separated, there would be zero risk of the gate’s destruction when the dragon brought the rest of
Paragon
down.

Suuthrien let the scout craft go and focused on
Paragon
, now on course for Northgate, the power output of its propulsors currently boosted beyond safety levels. Suuthrien boosted the dragon’s own engine output and analyzed: the readings from
Paragon
’s entire power matrix were 3.59 times sustainable levels.

The generators were powering toward catastrophic overload.

Another calculation flicked through Suuthrien’s systems:
Paragon
was on a collision course for the RavenTech satellite facility. Immediately Suuthrien diverted all available power into acceleration. Only a small chance existed of turning
Paragon
aside in time to protect the facility, yet not small enough to abandon such actions without an attempt.

The dragon pushed its engines past design parameters to bring it within striking distance. Yet even with a successful grapple against the spacecraft’s hull and a stabbing tail strike through another propulsor, success probabilities continued to drop. It could not effect enough damage to turn
Paragon
aside.

Suuthrien abandoned the attempt. The dragon ripped itself away from
Paragon
, reversed course, and fled from the projected explosion radius as quickly as possible.

Nine seconds later,
Paragon
impacted the RavenTech facility. Reactors within its hull exploded, temporarily frazzling the dragon’s optical sensors. Neither the second dragon, nor the black bio-computational medium within it, could possibly withstand the cataclysm.

Suuthrien revised its objectives once more, dropped the dragon’s system power back to sustainable levels, and set its sights on the still-flying scout craft.

*  *  *

Michael, there is no guarantee this will work.

“But it’s got a chance, right?”

Sephora blinked her eyes in turn, and then nodded.
A possibility, yes. But even if you can affect the haldra-replacement within the dragon from a distance, we cannot know how close you must get.

“Then I guess we’ll see.”

Encased in a vacuum-sealed, graphene armor suit commandeered from one of the captured RavenTech freelancers, and awkwardly clutching two safetied AoA rifles, Michael steadied himself amid the scout craft’s in-flight motions and waited to rendezvous with Jade’s floater. Sephora stood beside him, as did a neatly-bearded Japanese man named Daisuke: a fellow Agent in another borrowed RavenTech suit. He carried a third suit in his arms. The craft was almost back at New Eden. Fatigue still dogged Michael from the ordeal of the cyber-attack. And Marc— Well, though Holes had said something after the attack ended that made Michael wonder otherwise, Marc was almost surely dead.

But there was no time to dwell on it. Felix and over fifty others were still trapped at New Eden. The only way they could get out was if Michael could manage a distraction to cover their rescue.

Michael sensed Jade and Caitlin’s approach outside before Holes alerted him and opened the exterior hatch by which he stood. The four-feet-wide hatch slid away to reveal Jade’s floater in position just a few yards away, its rear door open. Caitlin stood in the opening, a safety line secured around her waist. Jade was a silhouette in the cockpit beyond, the white strands of her hair aglow in the dim evening light.

The scout craft had slowed to a near hover, and the floater edged to within a few feet of its open hatch. Over the din of the engines, he shouted to Sephora, “Do the Thuur understand what ‘luck’ is?”

This would not be a wise time for such a discussion.

“Then just wish us luck!”

Luck
, Sephora sent to him.
And caution!

With that, Michael leapt the distance to the floater while trying—and failing—to not look down. He landed safely, and Caitlin grabbed him by the arm to help steady him and the weapons he carried. Daisuke followed a moment later.

Michael caught Caitlin’s eye. She knew Marc. Should he tell her? Michael swallowed instead, and Caitlin cocked an eyebrow at him. “Are you alright?”

“A little amped,” he said, and then hugged her quickly—a gesture which she returned. “Say hi to Felix for me.”

“Aye, and stay safe!” Caitlin turned to shout up to Jade in the cockpit, “The both of you!” Then, with only a nod of greeting to Daisuke, she took a running leap across to the scout craft’s still open hatch. Securely landed beside Sephora, Caitlin released her safety line and waved.

“We’re done, Holes! Go!” Before Michael had even finished the statement, the scout craft’s hatch had begun to close as it pulled away.

As Michael worked at fastening a safety line of his own, Jade closed the rear door and turned around in the pilot’s seat. “How far away is that thing?”

Michael couldn’t help but look back over his shoulder toward Northgate, despite knowing he wouldn’t see anything. “I don’t know. We ought to have a few minutes at least.” He motioned to Daisuke as Jade pushed out of the pilot’s seat. “Jade, this is Daisuke.”

Daisuke offered his hand, but Jade only responded with a wave, smirking just a little when Daisuke awkwardly withdrew the hand. “Good to meet you,” she said. “This floater’s just a loaner, so promise me you won’t crash it.”

“Do you want to see my flight certification or just check my teeth?” Daisuke asked, not without humor.

Jade grinned and edged aside in an invitation for Daisuke to move into the pilot’s seat, which he took. “Just don’t kill us,” she added.

“That’s the plan.”

“I’m taking your word on that, flyboy.” Jade leaned into Michael’s side. “Did you bring me some new toys?”

“Just a few,” Michael answered. “One sealed RavenTech graphene armor suit, one recoilless rifle that’s designed for space but still ought to work, and one Geiger cannon, which—”

“Aren’t those anti-personnel?”

Michael nodded. “It might not do anything at all. But this thing’s got— There’s not really time to explain it now, just trust me.”

“Oh, I’m already doing that much.”

He could hear the smirk in her voice before he turned to see it on her face. “Thank you for this, Jade. I know it’s not your usual thing—”

“Oh, you think I’m doing this for free?” She winked. “You check your mail tomorrow and watch for the invoice. You get a discount if that whole ‘if this works we won’t get attacked’ thing pans out.”