Atlantia Series 3: Aggressor (11 page)

‘You don’t want to clear your name?’

‘My name is clear to everybody that matters to me,’ Taron replied, and gestured with one casual waft of his hand toward Yo’Ki.

‘Yo’Ki Yan,’ Idris said as he looked at Taron’s exotically attractive co-pilot. ‘Wanted by Colonial Police for the murder of at least three men and maybe as many as seven in the charted systems, a former inmate of the colony’s most dangerous prisons and in and out of jailhouses all your life.’ Idris grinned without warmth at them both. ‘What a beautiful couple you make.’

Taron’s jaw creased with that annoying wry smile.

‘Double standards, captain,’ he said. ‘I noticed that half the Marines in your landing bay were plastered up to their necks in gang-colours.’

‘They’ve learned the error of their ways,’ Idris replied. ‘I wonder, can you?’

‘Already did,’ Taron said, ‘the moment I got the hell away from the Colonial Forces.’

‘Indeed,’ Idris noted as he looked at the second image of Taron on the screen. ‘You disappeared after your discharge…’

‘Dishounourable,’ Taron reminded the captain.

‘…dishonourable discharge and only re-emerged two years later after a shooting match with a Colonial Patrol out near the Tyberium Fields.’

‘I was minding my own business collecting minerals when I was attacked.’

‘Yes, but you were collecting those minerals from a legally certified mining vessel that you’d fought and disabled.’

Taron shrugged. ‘Picky, picky. They were damaged and I was helping them off-load their cargo.’

‘Cut the crap, Taron. You’re a pirate and smuggler, nothing more, and you spend most of your time tearing up people’s lives for profit.’

‘I only hit the big corporate ships,’ Taron said defensively. Yo’Ki shot a severe glance at her captain, and he shrugged. ‘Okay, times have been hard, but I
mostly
only hit the soulless corporations. They don’t notice the financial loss like the small operators.’

‘You’re all heart,’ Idris uttered. ‘What’s down there on that planet, Taron?’

‘Nothing much,’ Taron replied. ‘We were restocking water and other essentials. If there were any mining operations here, they cleared out a long time ago. You know that star’s about to go bang, right?’

‘The star doesn’t have enough mass to go supernova,’ Idris pointed out.

‘Nope,’ Taron agreed, ‘but sooner or later it’s going to blow out the Mother of all Solar Flares and when it does, everybody inside its orbit will be toast. That’s one light show I don’t want to see, hence our rapid departure from the system.’

Idris’s eyes narrowed.

‘You’re a very clever man, Taron,’ he observed. ‘Your Colonial records state that your inventiveness and improvisation skills were unmatched.’

‘At least they got something right,’ Taron beamed.

‘They also said that those skills made you a natural liar and deeply untrustworthy.’

‘Like I said, they didn’t get everything right. What do you want with me, captain, and what the hell are you doing here anyway? How come the Atlantia didn’t get swallowed up by that whole mess on Ethera?’

‘Same reason you didn’t,’ Idris explained. ‘We were outside the main systems. Atlantia had been retired from front-line duty and was acting as a prison ship. We had a chance to flee.’

‘You should have stayed away,’ Taron replied.

‘That would be cowardice.’

‘That would be smart,’ Taron retorted. ‘Ethera’s gone, captain.’

‘And we’re taking it back.’

Taron stared at the captain for a moment and then glanced at Yo’Ki. The silent killer watched Idris for a moment and then shook her head slowly and looked away.

‘And we want allies,’ Idris added.

A long silence descended upon the cabin.

‘Us,’ Taron said flatly.

‘You,’ Idris nodded. ‘You have skills, a fast ship, knowledge and…’

‘I’d sooner sign up to the Legion,’ Taron snapped. ‘It was the Colonial government who created the Word, the Legion and this whole damned mess. It was people like my father, like you, who allowed it to get out of hand and kill millions, billions of people.’ Taron stood up and pointed a finger at Idris’s chest. ‘You stand there and tell me and Yo’Ki here about how we’ve killed people? Well newsflash for you, numbskull; we only ever fired in self-defence, we shot straight and the people we killed were all kinds of evil. You, on the other hand, wear the uniform of an organisation that has killed entire worlds because your little toys got out of control and now you want
our
help to sort it out?’

Idris stood resolute before the pirate’s tirade.

‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘because you’re human beings and we’re becoming an endangered species real fast.’

‘No thanks to the Colonial government,’ Taron shot back. ‘I’m speechless, really. You’ll be telling us next that you’re off to the Veng’en homeworld to ask
their
help in cleaning your mess up.’

Idris ground his jaw a little. ‘We were on our way there when we stopped for supplies here.’

Taron stared openly at the captain and for once it seemed as though the cocky pirate was at a loss for words. He shook his head and turned away as Idris went on.

‘We have only two choices: keep running for all eternity and let the Word grow more powerful as time goes by, dooming our children and their children and who knows how many more generations to fight the war that we didn’t have the guts to fight for ourselves – or take the fight home to Ethera with what we have and destroy the Word for once and for all.’

‘Destroy the Word,’ Taron echoed as he slumped back into his seat and waved the captain’s words aside as though they were of no more substance than air. ‘Seems to me the Word has done the rest of us all a favour by destroying the Colonial Fleet.’

‘You don’t mean that.’

‘Don’t I?’

‘You’re the son of a Colonial hero. There must be at least some patriotic blood running in your veins.’

‘Clean out.’

A panel by the captain’s door beeped softly. ‘Yes?’

‘Technical has completed their analysis of the pirate shroud, as they’re calling it,’
came Lael’s response from the bridge.
‘It turns out that the shroud emits a low-frequency energy field that conflicts with both biological brain-wave patterns and some forms of electrical circuitry, causing interference in alpha and delta-wave signals and…’

‘The short version, Lael.’

‘It knocks people out, captain.’

‘Thank you.’

Idris turned away from the panel and then opened the door to the cabin. From outside walked Andaim, General Bra’hiv and Evelyn. Taron Forge raised an eyebrow as the door slid shut behind them.

‘Another greeting?’ he enquired as he looked at Evelyn. ‘You’ve quite a temper and not a bad right-hook. I could use somebody like you to…’

‘We’re not here to discuss Evelyn,’ Idris snapped.

‘First name terms?’ Taron noted immediately. ‘Not bad for a girl who hasn’t spent much time in space. How’d you get into the cockpit of a Raython?’

Evelyn strolled toward Taron and leaned toward him, a soft smile on her lips. ‘Nobody dared get me back out again. How’s the jaw?’

Taron’s grin broadened as beside him Yo’Ki glowered silently at Evelyn.

‘You sure you’re in the right place?’ Taron mocked her further. ‘Seems like you’re far too free a spirit to be chained to a Colonial frigate.’

‘Better than a common thief dwarfed by his father’s shadow,’ Evelyn shot back.

‘Enough small talk,’ Andaim interjected, watching the interplay between Evelyn and Taron with what looked like concern. ‘Right now, we want to know everything about every pirate you’ve come into contact with in the past few months.’

‘Sure you do,’ Taron replied. ‘Your captain’s already asked, though, and I politely declined.’

‘We’re politely insisting,’ Andaim snapped. ‘Unless you want your ship dumped out the back and left to plummet in a fiery descent toward Chiron.’

Taron did not move but his expression turned cold.

‘Go ahead,’ he replied. ‘And I will spend my dying breath killing as many of your crew as I possibly can, as will Yo’Ki.’

In response the co-pilot produced as if by magic a silvery, curved blade that flashed in the light as she idly spun it over in her hand.

‘This will get us nowhere,’ Evelyn said as she stood back from Taron. ‘If you’re both all done with the bravado? We need information about any pirates, smugglers or other like-minded captains you may know of operating in this system – their numbers, armaments and intentions.’

‘There are no pirates in this sector,’ Taron replied. ‘They’re as scattered and disorganised as everybody else. What did you think would happen to us? That we’d all gather together after the apocalypse and play happy campers on Chiron?’

‘Like attracts like,’ Andaim said, ‘and scum always gathers together at the bottom of the bowl.’

Taron chuckled in delight. ‘I’m not about to divulge what little I do know about pirates to some jumped-up little boy who only got his CAG badge because there was nobody else left aboard to take it on. If you want credits for hunting pirates son, you’ll have to find them someways else.’

‘We’re not interested in hunting pirates,’ Idris replied for the CAG. ‘We’re looking to recruit them.’

***

‘We’re looking to what?’

Both Andaim and Evelyn stared at the captain in surprise. General Bra’hiv grabbed Idris’s arm.

‘You want to employ pirates?! They’re nothing but common criminals. I wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them.’

‘You’ve seen how it’s worked out for your Marines,’ the captain pointed out. ‘Bravo Company has fought with considerable valour on numerous occasions. I don’t doubt that pirates would likely be as ferocious on our behalf, with the right motivation.’

‘The right motivation,’ Taron drawled. ‘I reckon that what motivates pirates and what you
think
motivates them are two different things.’

‘Is that so?’

‘Let’s assume you’re successful in recruiting them to your cause,’ Taron suggested airily. ‘And let’s assume that you defeat the Word and take back Ethera with a fleet of scum by your side. What then? You think that they’ll all settle down and have little pirate children and grow old together?’

Idris folded his arms.

‘The end game for our allies is a bridge we can cross when we get there,’ he said. ‘Right now all I’m interested in is building a fleet and equipping it to fight.’

‘Fight whom?’ Taron asked. ‘You’re not going to get a pirate fleet to attack the Word. They know damned well that the entire infected Colonial Fleet is ranged against them and won’t go within a dozen light years of Ethera, Caneeron or any of the core systems.’

‘You could ask them,’ Evelyn suggested.

Taron looked at her. ‘Sure, they’ll jump into line the moment I click my fingers.’

‘They might,’ Idris said. ‘It doesn’t matter whose colours we’re flying under, the fact is that the Word hates humanity and will hunt it down and destroy it wherever it is to be found. You and your kind are no safer than us or any other species in the cosmos right now.’

‘You’re all so damned
noble
aren’t you?’ Taron uttered as he got to his feet once more. ‘All for the cause of humanity despite being the proximal cause of its near-extinction. That’s where you differ from what you call “my kind”, captain. We walked away from humanity long ago because it sucked, and if we’re all about to become extinct then our natural response is to get drunk and have a good time until the end of days, you understand what I’m saying? You ever seen how much wonderful junk is floating around out there waiting to be found and sold for what meagre enjoyment the survivors of your apocalypse can get before they expire?’ Taron shook his head. ‘You go fight your war, but we’re done here.’

Yo’Ki got to her feet and followed Taron to the door.

‘Have a nice life, captain,’ Taron waved airily over his shoulder without looking as the door to the quarters opened.

Two massive, hulking Marines stood in the way, their weapons aimed at Taron.

‘I’m afraid leaving is not an option, captain,’ Idris said.

‘Keeping us here won’t make a difference,’ Taron replied. ‘You’re wasting your time.’

‘The energy shroud you were using to incapacitate crews and capture plunder,’ Idris asked. ‘Where did you get it from?’

‘I won it.’

‘Where does it comer from?’

‘Nobody knows,’ Taron replied as he rolled his eyes.

‘
Nobody
knows?’ Evelyn asked.

‘Well somebody does, obviously, because they must have found it in the first place,’ Taron admitted. ‘But the thing could be a thousand years old or built last year, I have absolutely no idea.’

Idris turned to Andaim and the general.

‘Just how far could brigands like Forge here have gone beyond the Icari Line?’

‘Mass-drives have been available for commercial use for over a century,’ Andaim said. ‘Including return journeys, it’s plausible that some human craft might have travelled hundreds of light years out into the cosmos.’

The Icari Line, proposed and enforced by the Icari, a race whose existence was supported by the atmospheres of giant stars and who themselves existed as little more than rays of light, was an invisible and yet rigidly enforced barrier to human expansion that had been observed for decades. The rules had been simple: there were things out in the cosmos that humanity was not yet prepared to face. Stay within the boundaries of the Icari Line and wait for permission to expand further. Nobody questioned the wisdom of the Icari, beings who had existed for countless millennia and who had chaperoned equally countless civilisations through the minefield of
first contact
with other spacefaring species and beyond.

‘You’re so naiive,’ Taron smirked at Andaim. ‘You don’t even consider who has come wandering into and out of Etherean systems when our ancestors were still throwing wooden spears at each other. Humanity is a young species, compared to many.’

‘He’s right,’ Bra’hiv agreed. ‘There could be countless things like that shroud littering the galaxy that we don’t even know about yet.’