Izikiel (21 page)

Now that he had regained a significant portion of his memories,
Izikiel marvelled at how similar the interior of the
Valiant Crusader
was to that of a twenty first century jet airliner. A composite plastic moulding covered the walls and ceiling, with narrow light fixtures providing a steady illumination. The central couch was heavily upholstered, with a series of compartments along its sides for storage. Even the viewport looked similar to those on an aeroplane. The only difference appeared to be the absence of a window shade.

But that was where the similarities ended. On some level
, Izikiel was still struggling to accept the fact that he was on board a space ship. A vessel that he now remembered reading about in stories as he was growing up. Science fiction stories about space travel, distant worlds and alien beings. The stuff that dreams were made of. He found it even harder to believe that dream was in danger of dying out.

‘Surely there must be someone who still has the knowledge to construct a space ship?’ Izikiel asked.

Vorn shook his head.

‘The
Valiant Crusader
was the last ship to roll off the
Tellus
shipyards assembly line. That was almost ten years ago, when I...
liberated
it from the Defence Department.’

‘You
stole
this ship?’ Jonas asked.

‘Stole is such a harsh word. I prefer the term borrowed indefinitely,’ Vorn said.

‘Isn’t that the same as stealing?’

‘Technically
, yes but it sounds better.’

Both Vorn and Jonas laughed as the others joined in. Except Cassandra who was staring at Izikiel intently as if she wanted to say something. He met her gaze, marvelling at how the power of the Eternal Flame was barely contained beneath the surface of her luminous blue eyes.

‘There’s something I’m missing, isn’t there?’ Izikiel asked.

Ca
ssandra smiled but didn’t reply.

‘Wait. The technology is obsolete because there isn’t anyone left to build it anymore. But where are all the people?’

‘Now that, disciple, is the
real
question,’ Cassandra said.

Izikiel fell silent as he considered the human-form Elemental’s words.
Where are all the people?
He had seen several hundred people on
Vesta
. But then most of them had been wiped out by the Void Lord citadels.
Aurora
had been a ghost planet with only a solitary human-form Elemental as its final Guardian. Da’Amo had told him that the Void Lords had swept through the colony worlds and decimated humanity. A deep seeded feeling of unease began to well up within Izikiel as realisation slowly dawned on him.

‘
How many people are actually living on the colony worlds?’ he asked.

A strange silence descended throughout the
ship as everyone appeared to consider the question. Jonas was the first to answer.

‘
Vesta
had a population of about thirty thousand, predominantly living in and around the New Babylon star port. Most of them made it off world. It’s unlikely that those living along the deep desert trade routes would have survived.’

‘What about the other
colony worlds? We know
Aurora
is lifeless.’

‘
Tellus
is undoubtedly the most heavily populated of the seven colony worlds. Its vast skyscrapers stretch well into the planet’s atmosphere,’ Vorn said.

Izikiel
recalled his vision of Vorn as a child, standing on a landing platform with his parents, silhouetted against a backdrop of futuristic buildings.

‘You were born on
Tellus
, weren’t you?’ he asked.

Vorn nodded.

‘Yes. But I moved to
Ceres
as a child. It was a strange contrast to the endless cityscapes of
Tellus
. It was essentially a primitive technology world, full of lush greenery and wooden buildings. It would have barely had a hundred thousand people living on it.’

‘What about the other worlds?’

‘Well,
Pomona
and
Vertumnus
were heaviest hit during the Void Lord attacks. Their cities were reduced to little more than small trading outposts.
Pomona
has flourished more over the years, mainly thanks to its abundance of natural resources,’ Vorn explained. ‘That leaves only
Fortuna
. Last time I was there it had two reasonably sized cities of about two hundred thousand people.’

‘That’s it? That’s everyone?’ Izikiel asked.

‘Apart from a few scattered asteroid bases and space stations, yes. That makes about five million people altogether, by my count.’

Five
million people
.
But Earth had over six billion people living on it during my time, how could this have happened?
Izikiel felt a sense of extreme isolation and partial despair set in as he finally understood the full extent of what he was fighting for. He felt the weight of his calling on his shoulders. Moving towards the couch, he sat down. His hands found the photograph in his pocket. Pulling it out, he stared at the blue eyed woman for a while. Somehow it made him feel better as her smile chased away the feelings of despair.

‘No wonder we haven’t seen any other ships out there,’ Te’Anne said.

‘That’s for sure. Less than a thousand ships remaining and not enough people to really fly them. I never realised that things were this bad,’ Jonas said.

‘I guess living on
Vesta
we were slightly isolated from what had happened everywhere else. I suspect that this wasn’t exactly a fact that the magistrate of New Babylon wanted widely publicized either,’ Xavier said.

‘But why hide the truth from us?’ Jonas asked.

‘Because they needed us to believe that everything was alright. I’m sure most people knew on some level of the devastation caused by the Void Lords. But if you don’t hear about it all the time and don’t know the details then it’s easy enough to get on with normal life.’

‘I guess.’

Cassandra’s smooth tone cut through the conversation.

‘I hate to interrupt but the ship’s sensors have just detected something approaching us.’

‘Another asteroid?’ Vorn asked, already moving towards the control room.

‘No,’ Cassandra replied
, shaking her head. ‘It’s another ship.’

The atmosphere in the control room was one of heightened anticipation. Following Cassandra’s announcement
, they had all crowded around the forward view screen. Even the little girl had re-appeared and stood next to Xavier. Leaning over, the powerful scavenger scooped her up in his massive arms and hoisted her up onto his shoulders. Izikiel was becoming accustomed to seeing the two of them together. He was glad that Xavier was looking after her. On some level, Cassandra’s words still lingered at the back of his mind but he found it difficult to believe that the little girl could be a powerful true believer and even more so that she could be a disciple. Her display of power with the waterfall back on
Vesta
did cast some credence to the human-form Elemental’s theory though.

‘
So what are we looking at?’ Jonas asked.

Craning his neck forward, he stared at the view screen. It was showing the amethyst gas giant directly ahead of them, partially obscuring the
Tellus
sun. The effect created a strange purple haze as the light from the distant sun refracted through the gas giant’s halo.

‘There, bottom right
hand corner of the screen. It looks like a small freighter ship,’ Cassandra said.

S
he adjusted the controls. A section of the screen expanded and magnified, showing a dark metallic ship. Its bulky design was similar to that of the
Valiant Crusader
but it appeared smaller. It also appeared to be damaged as plumes of gas slowly vented from its sides. A series of small metallic panels floated around its mid-section.

‘Are they broadcasting anything?’ Vorn asked.

‘No,’ Cassandra replied.

‘Alright, hail them.’

Cassandra pressed a switch on the console in front of her and said, ‘Unidentified vessel, this is the
Valiant Crusader
ID-77445-TDD. We have you in our sights, do you require assistance?’

Silence filled the cabin as everyone held their breath. Cassandra repeated her communication.
After a long silence, a heavily distorted voice resounded throughout the control room.

‘Thanks...to Serafine...travelling for...hit by...require immediate...’

The message faded into static. Cassandra turned to Vorn.

‘What do you want to do?’
she asked.

Vorn seemed to consider his options for a moment before replying.

‘This could be a ruse. It’s not the first time that I’ve seen something like this, a seemingly damaged ship in an isolated region of space. When another ship approaches to assist, it’s attacked and boarded.’

‘But what if they’re really in trouble? Surely you wouldn’t turn your back on them?’ Te’Anne asked.

‘No, but we need to be careful. I’ll need to take us in closer so that we can scan them properly.’

‘Leave
that to me,’ Izikiel said.

‘You mean you can
…?’

Izikiel smiled
. Then he was gone. He floated up through the purple haze created by the
Tellus
sun’s rays refracting through the amethyst gas giant’s corona. He felt the touch of the Eternal Flame flow through him as the distant sun’s rays washed over him. His thoughts turned to their upcoming arrival on
Tellus
and what that would bring. The fact that a human-form Elemental had been unable to tell him what had happened on
Tellus
concerned him greatly. He took small comfort in his growing ability to command the power of the Eternal Flame.

Approaching the other ship, Izikiel saw straight away that the damage they had seen was real. A series of deep gashes marred its metallic surface. White vapour was escaping slowly from a damaged side panel and a darker gas was venting from underneath the ship.
Several metallic panels interwoven with complex circuitry spun harmlessly past him.

Moving around the ship, he saw that one of its rear engines had also sustained severe damage. Its fuselage was bent inwards and a sizeable piece was missing. The ship was adrift.

Floating through the outer hull, Izikiel entered the ship. He found himself in a narrow corridor. Moving along its darkened interior, he reached a large compartment similar to the one on board the
Valiant Crusader
. Except that this one was filled with people.

Men, women and children of all ages sat and stood huddled throughout the compartment. Their faces clearly denoted their predicament as they clung to each other. Izikiel had seen enough.

‘We need to help them now,’ Izikiel said, back aboard the
Valiant Crusader
.

‘You’re sure?’ Vorn asked.

‘Yes. The ship appears to have sustained heavy damage, probably from that asteroid field we passed through earlier. There are about fifty people of all ages on board and it looks like they’re slowly running out of air.’

‘Fifty?’ Vorn asked as he cast a guarded glance at Cassandra.

‘Yes. Surely we can accommodate that many, this is a freighter ship after all. I’ve seen it from the outside, there’s a large cargo bay at the rear that could hold four times that many people.’

‘Yes, but it doesn’t have any padding or amenities,’ Vorn
said.

‘These people will die soon if we don’t help them. I’m sure they won’t mind sitting on a metal floor for a few days,’ Izikiel
said.

Vorn shook his head.

‘I’m sorry, I can’t.’

Izikiel looked at the ship captain. There was clearly something
that he wasn’t telling him, something that was in the cargo hold that he didn’t want anyone to know about.

‘
What are you hiding, Vorn?’

‘Nothing, I
-’

‘You know I can get in there just as easily as you can take
a breath of air. Now tell me; what is worth sacrificing fifty people for?’

Vorn looked at Cassandra and then at the others. Finally, he
turned to Izikiel.

‘As I told you before, this ship was constructed by the
Tellus
Defence Department. When I
borrowed
the ship, they weren’t too happy and pursued me for several years. They finally caught up with me on
Fortuna
. That’s when they gave me a choice; either they execute me for my crime or I secure for them a dangerous cargo and bring it back to
Tellus
. Clearly, I chose the latter.’

‘What
was the cargo?’ Izikiel asked.

Vorn hesitated
.

‘Vorn?
’

‘
Alright,’ the ship captain said. ‘This ship is carrying twenty five high yield nuclear flare bombs. They are the most powerful weapons ever built by mankind.’