Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity (30 page)

"Allah
subhānahu wa ta'āla
preserve them," she said, as much to herself as anyone.

He did not.

C
HAPTER
XII

To The Last

*****

Mountains near the TFR
Beijing

Eden

T
HE
PLASMA
CHARGES
HOWLED
AS
they drew close, evaporating the atmosphere around them, separating the oxygen and hydrogen in the air into their primordial elements. When they hit the ground, the sheer heat and speed tunnelled into the soil, blasting up chunks of red-hot dirt that slowly turned black as it fell all around them.

Liao, laying on her back and looking up to the sky, watched it all with a stunned, mute fascination as Saeed, Saara, and dozens of strangers cowered all around, screams of alarm and pain drowned out by the sounds of more fire.

They had come far and accomplished more than she had anticipated. The cave system contained almost half the survivors they had found. More streamed in, a panicked stampede of people who pushed, shoved, and stomped their way into the tiny caves, cramming more and more into the soft water-worn stone. Liao had asked to be amongst the last to enter.

She didn't regret that decision, but as the sky turned to daylight from the bright glow of plasma sailing through the atmosphere and the growing heat all around them intensified, she did envy those who had found shelter.

["Captain, the
Tehran
is no longer shielding us!"]

Such was obvious to all around them. The ship was visible with her naked eyes, the tiny white dot that was the TFR
Tehran
hovering in the upper atmosphere. It gallantly deflected the lion's share of the death that flew down towards them from across the unimaginably vast distances between planets, protecting them with its massive shadow.

The foghorn of the worldshatter devices had not returned.

"We should move into the cave," said Liao, her voice weirdly calm even to her. Saara, her fur stuck to her body with sweat, looked at her.

["Can you walk?"]

"Yes." Liao climbed awkwardly to her feet, using only her left arm. Her right hung limply by her side. She could move it, wiggle her fingers, but the damage was severe.

["Then run."]

Saeed had re-bandaged the break. Liao had lost a lot of blood, but she was more level-headed than she had in a long time. Her injury and the visage of death had given her clarity of purpose that had not existed before. The pain of her immediate situation blew away the concerns of the past. Now was survival, clear and simple, and armed with this simple directive, Liao ran, stumbling and half dazed from shock, towards the mouth of the cave.

A light flashed above them, white and pure, and despite the dangers of running at night, she risked a glance up. A huge chunk of debris was falling into the atmosphere, a colossal fireball streaking across the sky, vanishing past the horizon in moments. It shed debris as it fell, little twinkling lights moving perpendicular to the falling stars of plasma, basking the entire world in a bright, lurid, almost blinding light.

She ran on, forcing one foot in front of the other. Saara, Saeed, and the others managed to get ahead of her. She wasn't fast enough. Running uphill with insufficient blood, with her wounds and her mind in a fog, was difficult. Slow.

Too slow.

A blast wave from behind bowled her over; the air was so hot, so burning hot, that her clothes and hair stubble ignited. She tumbled on the hard ground of the mountainside, her uniform ablaze, the polyester melting and sticking to her skin. She thrashed, kicked, screamed, and most of her uniform came off.

Along with a good portion of the skin from her back, the left side of her face, and her scalp.

The pain was indescribable. Every nerve ending screamed at her, and Liao screamed back. Her seared flesh begged the agony to end, for it all to just stop.

But it didn't.
 

The scrub around her caught fire, the wet vines and plants hissing as heat scorched them. A plasma charge had burrowed into the earth near her, and the heat of the weapon was so intense that it splattered tiny hunks of itself out in all directions. Fire was everywhere, and it radiated out from the plasma charge, cooking the leather soles of her boots.

A Human's fear of fire was a powerful thing, capable of overriding almost any barrier. Unable to walk, unable to stand, she crawled. Liao crawled on her elbows and knees, making slow progress away from the burning ball of fire. A figure, lit by the glow, braved the flames all around them.

["Captain!"]

Saara had come back for her. Liao instinctively reached out with her broken arm, that wound's pain overwhelmed by her burns.

A glob of plasma fell between them, slicing her arm off at the elbow and sinking inches into the ground, the heat of the white-hot ball instantly sealing the stump shut. Her severed right arm twitched on the ground, the fingers curling into a fist as the limb touched the white ball, then shrivelling into a blackened, wizened husk.

More pain. It did not come from the charred stump, though; it came from her
fingertips
, ghostly appendages no longer attached that she swore, against all logic and reason, she could feel.

Saara lunged for her, her claws exposed, the digits digging into her flesh. Saara dragged her forward across the ground, then into the air.

["Melissa, Sky Gods preserve you! Saeed! Saeed!"]

Every contact with her Toralii friend was excruciating, a deep, searing pain that overrode all thought, all instinct. Her burns were deep. Tattered ashes from her uniform fell off as Saara ran, taking with them strips of seared skin. Occasionally a clump of hair, tiny patches of skin still attached, fell, too.

She smelt pork, roasting pig meat, except it was her. Her flesh and muscles, seared deep.

Saara was exhausted. Her breath ragged, running uphill. Someone met them halfway. Doctor Saeed.

"
Allahu Akbar
! My God! My God! Saara, wait, do not remove the clothing. Hold her tightly. Do not let her touch the ground. She has been very badly burnt."

["I am aware, doctor!"]

They were shouting over the sound of her screaming. The sky above slowly disappeared, replaced by the roof of a cavern.

"Lay her down on this sheet. It is as sterile as we can manage. It will have to do. I will drug her and try to stabilise her, but she cannot remain here. The burns cover 40% of her body, maybe more, and her arm is gone. We must find a way to signal one of the ships in orbit. She requires emergency surgery, or she will not survive."

She wanted unconsciousness to take her. She wanted to no longer be awake for any of this, but no matter how much she screamed, not even Saeed's morphine could do anything more than take the barest edge off her pain. She screamed until her voice was hoarse and empty, a ragged gasp trying to will away the pain, but nothing worked.

There was only the murmur of voices, the distant thunder of incoming fire outside, and the agony.

Operations

TFR
Washington

Space above Velsharn

Anderson almost ordered the
Silk Jaguar
to destroy the escape pods. Almost. But Wolfe had made a good point—corpses had no value to them. They had heaps of those.

"The
Silk Jaguar
is ETA four minutes," said Wolfe. "They say they have thirty-two Toralii prisoners."

"That seems… low. What happened to the rest?"

Wolfe inspected the radar. "They're still in their pods, which have fallen into a stable orbit. Probably how they're programmed. We can pick them up later. The ones we got were taken from a damaged pod."

"Wounded?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very well. Have medical meet them in the hangar bay." It stung him to order it, but they were obligated to treat them now that they had saved them.

It was strange. They had been at war moments earlier, and now they were saving each other. It fought against his primal, basic instinct. To destroy his enemies. Kill that which was trying to kill him.

"Sir," said Cole, his voice charged with energy. "The Alliance ships are shifting formation."

"How so?" Wolfe moved over to Cole's console and inspected his readouts.

"They're… withdrawing."

It was a simple statement of fact, but its implications were profound. He needed to know. "Confirm that." Anderson struggled to keep the excitement out of his voice. "Check with the
Madrid
. Is the Toralii Alliance pulling back?"

"Surface bombardment has ceased, and the ships that are ambulatory are breaking formation and making for the L2 jump point. They're rabbiting, sir."

A wild cheer went up throughout Operations. Anderson was unable to contain his relief, either, clenching his fist by his side and slowly relaxing it. "Good work, good work. Status report on the
Tehran
?"

"Aflame on several decks," said Cole. "I can't raise them on any frequency, but they're holding position inside Velsharn's atmosphere. They appear to have sustained critical damage, but… they're still floating, sir."

That was all they could have asked for.

De Lugo's voice came through his headset. "Captain Anderson, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"If you're seeing the tattered and broken remains of the Alliance fleet turn tail and run, Captain, that's what I'm seeing."

De Lugo laughed, and Anderson had to resist the urge to do the same. "It's beautiful," de Lugo said. "Never thought I'd see that in my lifetime."

He nodded, even though the gesture would be lost on the other CO. "Roger that." He lifted his finger. "Mr. Cole, patch me through to the
Krekhan
."

It took a moment, and when he made the connection, the line was full of static.

["This is Worldleader Evek."] The Toralii's breathing was heavy, pained. ["I apologise for the delay, but my windwhisper operator is dead."]

"How can we assist you, Worldleader?"

His voice was full of fire. ["The Toralii Alliance show us their true colours, Captain, and retreat. My vessel is adrift, my fleet scattered… but take what ships we have, hunt them. Do not let them escape. Tear open their hulls, and show them the pain of the void."]

"So much for compassion," Anderson murmured. Then, louder, "Confirmed. Bringing our navigation systems up for link. We'll continue fire support. Move out towards the L2 point, strafing those remaining ships as we go."

["Very good, Captain. Leave us. We have sustained a great deal of damage and will require some time to repair. Trust in the strength of your ships."]

"I will.
Washington
out." He nodded to Wolfe. "We retrieve the prisoners from the
Silk Jaguar
then send it to the
Tehran
. Give them any assistance we can offer. Find out what their status is." He brought up the long-range radar on his console, staring at it intently. "Now it's our turn to hunt."

The
Washington
and the
Madrid
moved together, the stricken
Tehran
unable to join them. The two remaining Human ships sailed towards the L2 Lagrange point, sending slug after slug down their railguns, over half the Telvan fleet joining them. It was slow going, travelling through space firing barrage after barrage. Anderson's job was to monitor the repetition.

Aim.

Load.

Fire.

Manoeuvre.

Repeat.

The cycle continued until the
Tehra
n and the
Washingto
n ran dry on missiles, leaving only their railgun slugs. The space between Velsharn and its moon was a corridor of fire. They scored countless hits, chipping away at their fleeing attackers, and then the Alliance fleet slipped beyond the edge of Velsharn's moon, protected by the planet's mass.

They had been fighting for nearly four hours in a state of perpetual excitement and fear, but now they had a moment to relax. He was reluctant to let down his guard, but adrenaline could only last for so long. And he was out of coffee.

"Report," Anderson said, trying to keep the energy of the room up.

"At the current rate of acceleration, the Alliance fleet will reach the rendezvous point before we can obtain a firing solution."

"Can we slingshot rounds around the planet?"

"Not with any degree of accuracy," said Wolfe, "and not at a velocity where they won't be able to just move out of the way."

"Can we jump and fill the L1 point?"

"Yes, if you want to be the only thing between all the remaining Alliance ships and their escape."

"No, thank you. Wound a dog, back it into a corner with no way out, and that's when it'll bite the hardest. No matter how much we've hit them, those are still Toralii cruisers out there. Taking stupid risks is just that. Stupid. We need another option."

But none was forthcoming. His Operations staff was out of options, and so was he.

"Damn. Dammit, dammit, dammit." He lowered his head, thinking for a moment. "What if we pushed the reactionless drives?"

"Pushed them how?" asked Wolfe. "An over-spec acceleration?"

"That's what I was thinking. Might make things a mite uncomfortable around here, but we might be able to catch up with those bastards before they jump out of the system."