Atlantia Series 1: Survivor (37 page)

She whirled and aimed her pistol at Tyraeus but he was already upon her. One metallic fist closed around her wrist and squeezed with unimaginable force. She screamed, her cry caught in her throat as the pistol was twisted from her grasp and clattered to the deck at her feet.

Tyraeus glared down at her with his bizarre, rippling face, his eyes fashioned from concentric rings of bots. Incredibly, a thin layer of them mimicked a blink as he stared sightlessly into her eyes.

‘You are one of us,’ Tyraeus growled, his voice a sickening chimera of machine and the memory of a man. ‘You shall become the Word.’

Evelyn sank to her knees, grasping her arm as pain surged through her bones as Tyraeus twisted his grip. Tears flooded down Evelyn’s cheeks and she heard the faintest groan of agony escape from between her lips as Tyraeus looked down at her, the bots forming his features shifting to portray an expression of pity.

‘We shall get to them later, but for now we shall begin with your friends out there. Can you see them, Evelyn?’

Tyraeus shifted his bulk out of her view, and through the remaining viewing ports she could see the battle raging outside as fighters rushed in and hammered the Avenger’s hull with shots, the blasts reverberating through the ship as some of the Raython fighters were consumed by rippling balls of bots and disintegrated into balls of flame and debris that showered the cruiser’s vast hull.

The Atlantia was plunging down behind the Avenger, her hull speckled with fires and trailing sparkling clouds of debris as she sank out of sight, her plasma cannons blazing.

‘They seek to disable us, of course,’ Tyraeus warbled. ‘But we will repair the damage. They, on the other hand, will not survive when I detonate the fusion core you have planted aboard this vessel.’

Evelyn stared up at Tyraeus, who cast his grim smile upon her.

‘Yes, Evelyn. Hevel was not the only mole aboard your ship. He was a victim. I know all about the weapon you have created, and I can assure you that we have nothing to fear from it here. My people will be disposing of it even as we speak.’

Evelyn felt fresh pain wrench through her as Tyraeus lifted her bodily off the deck and dragged her to the nearest viewing port. Her metal mask slammed against the deep glass panel as she was pinned there by Tyraeus’s hand.

‘Watch,’ he commanded. ‘Watch as every last one of them is blasted into history. And then I shall make you watch as we hunt down every last man, woman and child on the surface and bring them back to this vessel.’

Evelyn squirmed as she heard Tyraeus chuckle.

‘Yes,’ the commander said, ‘we will not kill you, Evelyn. I will not have you miss the suffering that I have planned for you and your people. Every last one of them will be turned in front of your very eyes, their bodies violated by bots until nothing of them remains.’

Evelyn, her face pinned to the viewing port, saw the reflection of the bridge in the glass before her. The helm was behind her, not too far. If she could get Tyraeus to release her, then she could…

‘No, Evelyn,’ came his voice from behind her. ‘I will stand here now until this battle is done and you will witness every last death, especially that of the captain and his pathetic little crew.’

Evelyn saw a fighter spiral out of control, trailing flame and debris as it crashed into the hull far away, a distant flash of flame sucked into the oblivion of space as the battle raged. The fighters darted in again and again, but their weapons were of no use from such range and those that strayed too close vanished into the clouds of bots swarming just above the hull.

‘It is over,’ Tyraeus said as the Atlantia’s huge hull sank behind the Avenger, and then she saw in the reflection of the glass the commander turn to look at his crewmen. ‘Prepare to launch the shuttle!’

Evelyn felt desperation fill her soul with a chill as she realised that there was nothing she could do to stop Tyraeus from blasting the Atlantia and fatally damaging the ship. Tears blurred her eyes as she stared into the deep star fields and wished that miracles were real.

A robotic, rippling voice replied to Tyraeus from somewhere behind her.

‘The shuttle is gone, commander.’

Tyraeus turned his head, the bots mutating again to mimic rage.

‘What do you mean it’s gone?!’ he demanded.

As Evelyn stared into the star fields a flash of bright grey and white light flared into her vision and she blinked as she saw a shuttle craft hove into view in front of the bridge ports and turn about, its aft quarters pointing at the bridge. She stared in disbelief as the boarding ramp opened onto the vacuum, a cloud of vapour puffing from its interior.

There, wearing an environmental suit, was Cutler, his cold little eyes easily recognisable despite the harsh light and deep shadows cast by the nearby star. He looked at her and she thought she saw the faintest glimmer of recognition and surprise in his features. Then she saw the hatred within them as he looked past her and directly at Tyraeus.

Evelyn heard Tyraeus’s gasp, as though he were sucking in air even though he no longer needed to breath.

‘No!’

Cutler leaned down and heaved a big container over onto its side. Cutler’s expression of deep surprise was reflected in both Evelyn’s and Tyraeus’s grotesque features as Cutler looked at Evelyn and his cold little eyes twinkled with grim delight.

Evelyn heard Tyraeus’s scream and felt the pressure vanish from her neck. She hurled herself clear of his grip and dashed across the bridge for the exit.

‘Destroy him!’ Tyraeus roared, and pointed at the shuttle.

The bots plugging the damaged viewing ports flooded out into space in a black column toward Cutler and the shuttle, a blast of air escaping once again as Evelyn reached the bridge doors and opened them. She looked back and saw Cutler heave the lid of the containment unit open as the snaking, glistening coil of bots rushed toward him.

Tyraeus turned and charged across the bridge after her, his black and rippling features twisted with outrage and his hands reaching out for her. Evelyn hurled herself through the bridge doors and sealed them shut, then turned and ran for her life.

*

Cutler saw the bots swarming toward him just as he saw Evelyn leap through the Avenger’s bridge doors and Tyraeus slam into them from the other side.

He waited until Tyraeus turned and that hideous mask of a face stared through the bridge windows straight into Cutler’s eyes.

Cutler smiled.

He heaved the lid of the containment unit open as the undulating snake of bots reached out for him, rolling in tight coils to prevent themselves from freezing in the vacuum of space, and a blast of pure fusion energy seared the bots into a molten wind of particles as the fusion core’s blazing rays melted the Avenger’s bridge windows and filled its interior with a flaming Armageddon of glowing metal and burning machinery.

He saw Tyraeus dash across the bridge toward him, but the blazing beam of energy sliced through his metallic frame as though it did not exist, smashing him into a billion fragments of debris as it tore through the bridge and beyond.

The blast of energy propelled the shuttle away from the Avenger like an engine, but Cutler did what he could to sweep the bridge with the awesome power of the fractured fusion core, slicing through hull plating as though it were paper. Explosions rocked the for’ard hull of the big cruiser, and to its aft quarters Cutler saw the Atlantia’s plasma cannons shredding the Avenger’s engines in violent flashes and explosions that flared as brightly as the nearby star, blinding him.

Cutler threw his arms up to shield his view, and as he did so he saw the cloud of bots swarming over his environmental suit, rushing toward his visor. He heard their evil little legs scuttling over his helmet, saw glinting little incisors slicing into his visor, scratching it as they worked to penetrate it and kill him.

Cutler glimpsed the fires ripping through the Avenger’s hull as she was battered by the Atlantia’s powerful broadsides, and he realised that the cruiser’s retaliating fire was decreasing and becoming more sporadic and unguided as control of the battleship was lost.

Cutler focused on the little bots swarming across his suit as he clambered around the containment unit. He knew that he would not survive long enough to make it back in one piece to the Atlantia, and he knew likewise that the sooner it was over, the better. He would not be turned.

‘Suicide is better than surrender, you little bastards,’ he snarled.

Cutler gripped the side of the containment unit as its heat seared his body and took a huge breath before he thrust his head down into the beam in a blaze of light. He felt the briefest moment of unbearable agony and then his body was blasted out into the darkness in a cloud of flaming embers.

***

Evelyn heard the multiple explosions swell behind her as she sprinted down the corridor. Around her the Avenger’s lights flickered and the hull shuddered as multiple blasts hammered the stern and the blazing fusion core sliced into the bridge.

She hurled herself to the deck as a blast ripped through the wall behind her, a hot wash of flames gusting overhead as the bridge melted behind her in a tumult of flames and oxygen was sucked past her in an inferno as the Avenger’s mighty hull was breached.

Evelyn hauled herself along the deck against the gale, dragged herself through a bulkhead and then hooked her boot around the open pressure hatch and pulled on it. The vortex of wind caught the door and it slammed shut. Evelyn dragged herself to her feet and heaved the locking bar down into place, but she knew it would not hold for long.

She turned and ran for the shuttle decks, hoping against hope that there would still be one of the pristine craft waiting for her and functional. The Avenger’s hull vibrated and the lights dulled again and then she realised that she could no longer feel the distant throb of the huge engines, as though the ship’s heartbeat had been stilled.

The main lighting flickered weakly and then plunged the corridor into absolute blackness. Evelyn skidded to a halt, reaching out for the walls around her to steady herself as the ship shifted under the blows from the Atlantia’s heavy cannons. Emergency lights flickered on, a dull red glow that banished the darkness but made her feel as though the ship was bleeding out around her.

Evelyn was about to start running again when she heard a new sound, as though a billion grains of sand were being poured into the corridor behind her. She turned and saw a thick black morass of bots surging like a wave down the corridor behind her from where they had eaten through the bulkhead door, and behind them a searing wall of roiling flame.

Evelyn turned and sprinted for the shuttle bay, leaping down a flight of steps ahead of her and hitting the deck hard. Pain flared in her ankle, but she clambered to her feet and looked behind her as she ran.

The bots flooded down the stairwell like a gigantic black snake, and the glow from the flames brightened on the deck above as air rushed toward her, cooling the sweat on her skin beneath her mask. Pain flared up and down her leg and she tore off her magnetic suit and stopped to yank off her boots. They dropped to the deck with a clang as she clambered out of her suit and grabbed the wall of the corridor as she floated off the ground. She pushed with her good foot and sailed away down the corridor as the giant wave of bots closed in on her and the flames burst into the passageway.

She reached out for bulkheads, gripping them as she sailed through and hauling herself ever faster down the corridor, but the wave of bots was closing on her, pursued by the explosions as section after section of the Avenger’s hull was consumed by flames.

Another bulkhead sped past and she briefly considered trying to close a hatch behind her but the bots were far too close now. One mistake, one moment too late, and they would flood through and consume her for nothing more than revenge.

She saw the final stairwell down to the landing bay deck and pushed off the ceiling. She sailed down into the lower level and pushed off the deck with her uninjured foot, sailing forwards and up toward the ceiling as she saw the landing bay doors ahead, wide open and beckoning her onward.

A rush of air began to howl past her toward the landing bays, and she realised in horror that they must have been breached. Then she realised that she would never be able to start a shuttle’s engines quickly enough to avoid being consumed by the bots. They would swallow her whole before she could even get the rear ramp closed. Panic consumed her as she looked behind and saw the bots swarming en masse, the flames reflecting off their glossy black mass as they roared in pursuit.

Evelyn burst out into the landing bay as she sought a handhold, and saw that Cutler must have left the bay doors open behind him after he flew the shuttle out. The air was being sucked in a howling wind from the entire ship, roaring through the landing bay and out into deep space.

Evelyn’s hand caught on the edge of a discarded vehicle and she was swung around to point feet–first toward the open bay doors as the flood of bots poured into the bay and were vacuumed toward oblivion past her.

To her left, she saw the ranks of escape capsules set into the wall of the bay.

One of them was open.

She felt warmth swell in her heart for the wily old criminal who had so unexpectedly become her saviour. She pulled her legs in and kicked off the side of the machine and propelled herself toward the open capsule as the bots poured through the bay, rolling and writhing as they tried to follow her.

Evelyn saw the capsule rush up before her, her body moving ever faster sideways as it was dragged toward the open bay doors, and then she slammed into the capsule and turned herself around, hanging by her fingertips in the howling gale as she looked over her shoulder and saw the bots forming a writhing black snake that coiled toward her, undulating in the wind.

Evelyn breathed deeply and pulled herself into the capsule as the bots reached out for her. She hauled herself in and pulled her legs in, turning over into a standing position in the capsule and hitting the switches to close the lid. The panel hissed painfully slowly as it swung over her and closed, and then it clicked as the safety latches locked into place.