Warpath (25 page)

When Eve was finished
taking the couple’s heavy gloves off she took one of each of the
hands. “You are both hard workers,” she said.

“Yes,” Yonda said
quietly.

“You don’t ask for
more than you’ve earned,” Eve continued.

“No, we never,”
said Merig.

“It has been hard for
you, and you have children, don’t you?” Eve asked.

Yonda nodded, a tear
shaking from her eye. “Three, three girls,” Merig said, suddenly
the proud one, the one with something to say. Governor Tate could
strangle him.

“I am not promising a
paradise you won’t have to earn yourself,” Eve said. “You will
still have to work, but we will take care of you, we will take care
of your family. You may have to defend the Order if you join, one of
you may become a soldier for a while,””

The couple in front of
Eve didn’t say anything, they just stared at her, frozen, with
their suit rotten hands in hers. Merig nodded after a long moment,
then his wife nodded.

“Have all of you ever
sat around a table without having to worry about how you will feed
your family? Without worrying about what kind of food you’re giving
them?” Eve asked. She paused for a long moment, then allowed
herself a little smile. “Have your daughters ever seen a garden?”

Yonda shook her head
and wiped tears away with her free hand. Her husband mouthed the word
‘no,’ but no sound emerged. The vast audience was silent, except
for one voice who shouted; “Take them to the Gate!”

“You only have to
ask,” Eve said quietly, but the amplification ensured that she was
heard. “For yourselves and your daughters.”

“Take us to the
Gate,” Yonda said, looking to her husband, who nodded his
agreement, then looked to Eve. “Take us to the Gate.”

Eve embraced both of
them, throwing her weight against them. They caught her and they
shared a tearful moment before Eve withdrew, revealing stains and
smears on her white and green dress. The crowd didn’t know how to
react, there were gasps, gaping mouths and covered eyes, but when she
laughed, looking down at the garment and her dirty hands, they joined
in. “Seems we could all use a good wash,” she told the couple.

Without another glance
at herself, Eve turned back to the larger crowd on the landing lot.
“Yonda and Merig are so much further along than they realize, I’m
so excited because I know they’ll do well. Their children will be
raised in an environment with education, good food, other children
and they’ll watch their parents elevate themselves, thriving as
adults, as good role models. That is the first story I’m here to
tell you. It’s your story, most of it hasn’t happened yet, your
lives have barely begun, and once you are shown to the Gate, you’ll
see that path ahead. Yonda and Merig are going to find their children
in whatever care centre they left them in this morning, then they’re
going to be shown to quarters where they can rest together as a
family. The next day they’ll spend time at our Welcome Centre with
their children and we’ll find out how far along they really are.
They’ll have a chance to look over all their opportunities, and
after three days they’ll tell us,” Eve emphasized the last then
paused. “
They will tell us
,”
she repeated. “Do you hear that?
They
will tell us
how quickly they want to rise in the Order by
choosing what they will do, and on the seventh day, they will be
doing it. They will be on the path to immortality, to paradise.”

Governor Tate noticed
that Order Knights in heavy black and green armour started slowly
moving to the left and right of Eve. They were far enough away from
her to avoid being captured on the holographic image projected above,
but they were definitely getting between him and Eve. Overhead he saw
a cloud of long shuttles approaching, and it only confirmed what he
suspected. Xane Company and several other operations in the area were
about to lose the majority of their employees. Most of them weren’t
legally bound to their employers by a contract, just desperate for a
payday and out of opportunities. They came cheap, they were trapped
in their employee housing, and he knew that most of them didn’t
think that was enough. “I knew that’s why she changed the
location,” Governor Tate said. “I was afraid of this.”

“Do you want to join
them?” Eve asked the audience. The air was filled with the
deafening roar of workers on top of the building and in front of it.
“Order shuttles are landing now, be patient, be courteous to all
the people around you, and your journey can begin today. You can be
aboard one of our ships taking your first steps up.” She spread her
arms wide, fully revealing her ruined dress and the black smears on
her neck and cheeks from embracing her example couple, looked up and
said; “I serve this Order. My service will make me immortal. My
service will elevate me to paradise. I embrace my fate, the fate of
all humanity to be the superior beings in the universe.”

By the time she was
striding back to her shuttle, there were twenty Order Knights between
her and the Governor. He didn’t warrant so much as a glance from
her. “Knock her off her perch and I’ll give you whatever you
want,” Governor Tate whispered to Wheeler.

The reserve control
centre of the Blessed Mission was a small room with control stations
all around. Jake leaned on the control console in the middle,
depending more on the display inside his helmet to tell him what was
going on than the display in front of him.

He could see several
craft approaching the Warlord, British rescue teams who offered to
board the ship and attempt to clear the Order Knights. If he weren’t
so tired, and if they didn’t already have their hands full taking a
larger ship, he would have told them to stop entirely and he’d lead
a team himself. Oz had his own solution. He sent three combat
shuttles from the Triton with what had to be the last of their
soldiers, and two shuttles with Rangers aboard were on their way from
the Barricade. The British Alliance shuttles were called back, seeing
that the situation was under control.

He wished he were
there, in the lead shuttle. It was his ship. He’d known its hull
and bones for what felt like a lifetime. He redesigned it, saw it
built, made numerous deals for everything from her deck plating to
landing gear. He should be in the lead shuttle, rifle in hand, ready
to take it back.

“The bridge is fried,
so are the main antenna arrays, and secondary sensor suite,”
reported Frost. “Everything electrical between frames nine and one
are burned out. We did a little too good a job with that EMP. There’s
other damage too, mostly hull breaches from taking hits in the
asteroid field. Two of our main thrusters aren’t worth powering up
either, we’re limping.”

“I was only asking if
we could scan the Warlord, Frost,” Jake replied. “Now I feel like
taking a trip through the airlock without a vacsuit.”

“No need to meet the
deep cold in your birthday suit, Captain. I’ve got a scanning array
working, looks like this ship has three,” Kadri said. “Scanning
the Warlord now, Sir.”

“While that’s going
on,” Ayan said, putting herself under one of his arms. “I’ve
confirmed that the reactors, launch bay, cargo sections, berths, and
most of the rest of the ship behind frame eleven is in great shape.
Lorander will be able to fix this up in a couple days, if you aren’t
making any modifications.”

“What if I want to
make modifications?” Jake asked.

“Well, depends on
which modifications you want, but if they’re like the Barricade,
then a week. Maybe four days if it’s a rush and you get bots in on
it.”

Jake brought up the
main schematic of the ship. It was a new model and class to him –
Seamark Industries Heavy Battlecruiser Version 4.221, built for
Regent Galactic. There was one launch and recovery deck that looked
like a squashed tube running along the bottom of the ship. It could
open in several locations along the sides, but the largest openings
were at the rear and the front. It already had several Sol Defence
system upgrades, from Citadel, no doubt, including the shields and
the thrusters. There were several upgrades on the bridge, all of
which were most likely fried.

Jake couldn’t help
but admit that he was impressed by the ship’s missile systems, and
the directed electromagnetic pulse beams installed along the side,
rear and front of the ship too. He looked at the maximum output the
beams were capable of and shook his head. “No wonder the Warlord
was stopped.”

There were only twenty
eight paired gun turrets spread across the hull, but they were all
sixty three millimetre shell guns that could fire several different
kinds of loads. They were wasted on the Order of Eden. They were
using solid slugs. There were countermeasure turrets that were
completely computerized, and a few antimissile micro-drone launchers,
but other than that, the ship depended on her heavy fighters to round
out their power in a fire fight. Much of their firepower was rendered
useless during their last engagement in the asteroid field, either by
the proximity of the asteroids, or the carrier they were helping to
shield. That wouldn’t happen again if Jake kept the ship.

“We’re getting an
antimatter containment alarm from the Warlord,” Kadri said. “It
started right before I finished my scan. Someone aboard is tampering
with the antimatter systems.”

“Those damned Order
Knights,” Frost said under his breath. “Bloody zealots won’t
let themselves be taken.”

“Order those shuttles
away from the Warlord,” Jake said, feeling whatever consolation
he’d taken in capturing another Order of Eden ship slipping away.

“They’re already
halting their advance,” Frost said. “They should all be at a safe
range in-“

The Warlord was
replaced with a white-blue fireball for two seconds. There was no
sign of the Warlord after the light faded. Ashley flinched, stepping
back from her terminal and backing into Jake’s. “Oh my God!”
she shrieked, her hands covering her face.

Minh-Chu locked the
pilot’s controls and turned, taking her into his arms gently. Jake
moved to take their place at the pilot’s console, leaving Ayan at
the command station. She caught his arm at the last moment. He looked
at her and nodded slowly, indicating that he was all right.

He wasn’t. A lump in
his throat refused to be pressed down, and all they’d lost that day
was brought into sharp focus. The pilot controls were almost exactly
the same as the Triton’s, easy to use, with all the information you
needed right in front of him. He was thankful, the last thing he
needed was to fail at holding the ship on a safe course.

“All the shuttles
survived, one’s engines are dead, rescue operations are already
taking place,” Kadri said quietly.

“It was only a ship,”
Minh-Chu said to Ashley. “We’ll make better memories on another
one.”

“Oh!” Kadri said
from the communications station. “You’re not going to believe
this! David Penton, they just brought him in.”

“This is Tamber
Ranger Rescue Shuttle Nine,” said a female voice over the intercom.
“I think this is yours, Captain Valent. He’s asking if you have a
Nerine aboard the Blessed Mission, and if he can come aboard for a
reunion?”

“David?” asked a
young female voice. Jake remembered her well, she was another of the
slaves he freed before Tamber, a young woman who served the captain
of the Palamo.

“I’m here, they’re
bringing me aboard,” David replied.

“David!” Nerine
shrieked, “Oh my God, don’t ever do that again!” everyone could
hear that, despite her excitement, she was crying.

“I’ll just put
those two on their own private channel,” Kadri said. “And tell
the shuttle to proceed.”

“Signal Alaka-“
Jake started, looking over his shoulder.

“To make sure the way
is clear between them,” Ayan finished for him from the command
terminal. “I don’t want to see an Order Knight make that a horror
at the last minute.”

“We have to get
looked at by something with a better scanning suite,” Jake said.
“Kadri, send a request to that Lorander Cruiser for a full scan of
the ship. We need to know for sure if there are any Order Knights
aboard. Volumetric scans aren’t perfect.”

“All right, you know
what they’ll say,” Kadri said. “Lorander Cruiser Intrepid. This
is Blessed Mission, now running under Triton Fleet flag. We request a
full scan of our vessel to verify that we don’t have any stowaways
or other surprises aboard.”

“Blessed Mission, we
are on our way. Please hold your course,” came the reply the
instant she finished speaking.

“Here’s to silver
linings and little miracles,” Frost said.

“Captain!”
exclaimed Remmy over their secure communications band. “One of our
captives just detonated a biological bomb in the hold. We got a
little rattled, but our personal shields saved us. No one else
survived.”

“Never mind,” Frost
sighed. “I’ll start looking for silver linings and granted wishes
tomorrow,” he muttered under his breath.

“So, forty two
captives, all dead?” Jake asked. “No one can be saved?”

“Confirmed. The
bio-bomber just said; ‘for the Order!’ then set himself off,”
Remmy said. “There’s nothing for a medic to do here, whatever
bio-bomb was mixing in that fanatic’s belly was enough to wipe
everyone around him out, and we had them corralled in a corner of
this cargo hold pretty close. I mean, we’re talking red and grey
goo here, I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m sorry, Captain.”

“Nothing you could
do, I’m sure,” Jake replied. “As long as all your people are
all right.”

“They are. I’m
surprised the explosion didn’t set off any alarms.”

“The sensors are dead
in that section,” Finn replied. “Goo? Really? Have some respect.”