New Dawn (Divine War Book 1) (12 page)

“After we boarded the ship, I tried to take your father with us. He refused. He said that he could be more use to us if he remained a naval officer. He could continue to be my agent and continue to pass information along. Against my better judgement, and motivated, I'll admit, by greed, I allowed him to do as he wanted. I never heard from him again.”

Lean swallowed. “Is this the truth?” she asked quietly.

“Upon my name, I swear that this is the truth,” Lucia said, looking directly into the girl's eyes. She knew that she could not let treachery go unpunished. But she also knew she could not kill this girl. “I will let you live. For your father's sake. But you will leave. Now. I do not want to see you again.”

The engineer's breath was coming faster, her colour fading from an already pale cream to a delicate shade of ivory. She swayed unsteadily on her feet, the knowledge of what she had done burning inside her. And finally, she did the right thing. She opened her mouth and spoke.

“It's too late.” Each word was a battle, getting her mouth to form sounds almost impossible. “I'm dying.” Her breath was short pants. The words were swimming in her head so she had to concentrate to snatch each one individually from the air. “And. I. Take. The.
Freedom
. With. Me.”

Lean crumpled to the deck, and Benho rushed to her side. The doctor bent and found a weak, thready pulse. Roughly pulling down an eyelid, he looked at her pupils.

“She's taken a poison. I don't know which,” he said, looking up. “Falorni, go to medical and fetch me every anti-toxin that you have.”

The medical officer nodded and fled from the bridge. Lean's hand raised and beckoned to her captain. Obediently, Lucia went to her side and leaned over, allowing the engineer to whisper into her ear. The woman's face froze as she heard the whispers, and she stood as Lean faded into unconsciousness.

“There are three time bombs in the engine room,” she announced to the crew. “Set to detonate in thirty minutes. Kabi?”

Kabi looked at the woman and nodded. “I shall do what I can,” he said.

“Bettie, take Kabi to the engine room immediately,” ordered Lucia. “If he can do nothing, we will be prepared to evacuate the ship on your order.”

The first officer nodded and escorted Kabi from the bridge.

“You two,” Lucia said to Maicee and Benho, “carry her to the medical bay. I don't want her here in the way.”

The two men picked up Lean's unconscious body easily and manoeuvred her off the deck.

Lucia sunk back into her chair, closing her eyes. Gods. How had it all come to this? Her crew betrayed, her faith placed in newcomers. Her ship in danger.

*

“We've found all three bombs,” said Bettie over the com. “One on each of the main engines, and one on the fuel conduit. One of them would be enough to cripple the ship. Should all three go off, we'll be vaporised.”

“Does Kabi think we should evacuate?” came back Lucia's voice, crackling over the line.

Bettie looked at Kabi, who shook his head.

“There's not enough time,” he offered by way of explanation.

“Then may the Gods be with you,” said Lucia, who had heard his response.

The com hissed and fell silent. Kabi moved to the first of the three bombs, gently removing the cover and examining the internal workings. Inside there was a chronos, and he saw blinking numbers counting down. After a few seconds he nodded, then moved on to examine the other two devices. After the third, he grunted with satisfaction.

“We can't move them,” he said, turning to Bettie. “They've got motion sensors that will detonate them if they're moved. But thankfully, all three devices are the same. Which makes my job a lot easier.” He paused for a moment, looking at the chronos on the nearest bomb. “Stand back for a moment. I need to try something.”

Saying a silent prayer, Bettie took two steps back and watched as Kabi lowered himself until he was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of one of the devices. He raised both hands, palms down, and let them hover over the box. Then he closed his eyes and was silent. After a few seconds, she noticed perspiration begin to trickle down his forehead but could see no other visible change. Heart leaping in her chest, she waited.

“One down, two to go,” said Kabi a few minutes later, standing up.

Stepping closer to the device he'd apparently disarmed, she noticed that the chronos was still running, counting down.

“That's just the timer,” Kabi told her. “Don't worry. It's harmless now.”

He staggered as he moved to the second device, seeming to grow older with each step he took. Whatever it was that he was doing, it seemed to be draining him somehow. Bettie kept a suspicious eye on the still-running timer of the first device, wondering if it truly was safe, seeing the minutes tick down. Approaching five minutes. Her pulse quickened. Then she jumped as a metallic clang echoed through the room.

“Did I frighten you?” Maicee asked, stepping through the metal door and seeing Bettie's shaking hands.

“No, no,” she said, lying through her teeth.

“Just in time,” Kabi said, looking up to see the boy. “I could use a little help here.”

He stood, shaking, and Maicee was astonished to see how old and tired he looked. Quickly he moved to take the older man's arm and supported him as he guided them both to the third device.

“The first two are taken care of,” Kabi said tiredly. “I need your help with the third.”

“I'm a surgeon, not an engineer,” said Maicee, doubtfully.

“It matters not your knowledge, but the power inside you,” said Kabi, sinking down in front of the device. “I will guide you. Come here and sit just so, like me.”

Maicee did as he was told and clearly saw that the chronos on the third device was reading less than four minutes. He gulped. He had no idea what to do. He could only trust in Kabi.

“Take a deep breath and close your eyes,” Kabi's voice said. “Stretch your hands out over the device but do not touch it. Now relax. Look for that place in your mind. The place that is focussed. The place that contains all the concentration that you have distilled down into one point. The place where the light comes from. And when you find it, jump into it with your mind.”

Maicee breathed slowly, opening his mind to what Kabi was saying. And he found that he understood completely. He knew this place. He'd been there before. It was the place he entered when he performed the perfect surgery. The place where everything was somehow more orderly, more controlled.

“Enter that place, Maicee. Let your senses stretch out inside it. Extend your senses; let the power run through you.”

“I... I think I'm there,” Maicee whispered, his voice hesitant. “I feel something. Something like a pulse.”

Kabi smiled gently at the boy's face. It radiated the power, and he had known even before being told that Maicee had found the place.

“Very good,” he said quietly. “That's the energy of the bomb.” He moved closer to the boy, bending so he was speaking directly into his ear. “Now, listen. I will show you how to alter the energy.”

Maicee nodded in silence, trusting completely in Kabi now. He felt sweat trickle down his body, wetting his clothes, fabric sticking to his skin. Energy leaked from him, and he began to feel lightheaded. But as he followed Kabi's instructions, it was like time began to slow down and the impulses coming to his senses slowed too. Soon he felt like he was floating through a room filled with balls, each ball being an impulse. When he felt a ball that seemed bigger or stronger than the others, he directed himself towards it and then began to mould it by doing as Kabi told him to. And after a time, the powerful energy ball turned to water. Why water? He had no idea. It just seemed natural to him. The process went on and on, and time ceased to have any meaning to him.

*

Lucia bent over the traitor, keeping out of the way of Benho and Falorni. The female medic was working on the blood that Benho had given her, and finally she looked at him and nodded. Tearing his eyes away from the stat machines, Benho thanked her.

“So?” asked Lucia, aware that something had happened.

“She took some sort of hemolytic poison, which caused her red blood cells to break down. But we got there in time. We've neutralised the poison with the appropriate anti-toxin, given her a transfusion, and she'll live,” said the doctor.

“Good,” Lucia said. “I owe her father a lot.”

“How are things going in the engine room?” asked Benho.

Lucia shrugged. “I guess we're going to find out one way or another very soon.”

*

Then, suddenly, there were no high-energy balls left. Pushing the power through his senses one more time, Maicee searched but found nothing. And then everything faded to black.

As he fell unconscious to the floor, Bettie's eyes followed the countdown, the red numbers flashing and her hands sweating. Three. Two. One. Zero. A click. Then nothing. She looked up and saw Maicee lying on the floor, a decrepit-looking Kabi bending over him.

“It seems too early for her to use her powers,” the older man said wonderingly.

Bettie ignored his ramblings. “You've done it.”

Kabi looked up, remembering that she was there. “Yes,” he sighed. “We did it.”

“But how?” asked Bettie, curiously. “I saw both of you sit there, but neither of you even came close to touching any of the devices.”

Rubbing his lined face with a large hand, Kabi shrugged. “I simply transformed the explosive material inside the devices into sand. Maicee did things a little differently, but the result is the same.”

He laid a hand on the cold forehead of his young accomplice; there was still a little warmth there, but not much. Reaching down, he began feeling for a pulse.

“How is that even possible?” Bettie said sceptically. She moved to get closer to the two men, to see what was going on with Maicee.

“It's called molecular transformation,” said Kabi, still busying himself with Maicee's health. “Only a handful of people can do it. There are few alive nowadays who are capable of it, anyway.” He put Maicee's wrist down and frowned. “I can explain more later if you're interested. But in the meantime, I think that we should get the boy to the medical bay.”

“Yes, of course,” said Bettie, reaching for the com.

She decided to probe no further. She probably wouldn't have understood anyway, and how it was done seemed to be of little importance.
What’s important,
she thought, as she keyed in the number for the medical bay,
is that whatever they did worked.
The ship was saved. The crew was saved. Now all they had to do was figure out how to get the
Freedom
moving again. Falorni answered the com.

“Send someone down to help me carry Maicee up to medical bay,” Bettie ordered. “And tell the captain that her ship is safe.”

T
he
Freedom
set sail
with the captured
Argoni
in tow. Lucia had plans for the naval vessel, but first she had to get it as far away from the island of Carooine as possible. And there was the problem. Whilst Bettie, Kabi, and even Benho had managed to cobble together a patch for one of the
Freedom
's engines, it was unlikely to last, and the second engine was well beyond their capacity to repair. The captain sighed, put the matter out of her mind for a moment, and concentrated on the task at hand. With Maicee and Lean both in the medical bay, Bettie was giving the rest of the crew an update on all that had happened, including the disarming of the bombs that had been on board. Reaching the end of her report, the first officer stepped back, and Lucia nodded.

“Right. Now, the first thing that is to be understood is that whilst I am still your captain, KabiOnn here will be the commander of this vessel as long as he's aboard. That means you pay him the same heed as you do me.”

“Yes, Captain,” murmured the crew. They had witnessed Kabi's skills and were impressed.

“Excellent,” said Lucia. “I want to get as far from Carooine as we possibly can, so attend to your duties. Bettie, stay here; I wish to speak with you.”

Kabi and Benho also remained seated, and little Niku, pleased to have her makeshift family back for the time being, scampered over the table and sat in the crook of Benho's elbow.

“You need to know more details of the mission,” Lucia told her first officer, once the rest of the crew were out of earshot.

Bettie looked on curiously as Lucia and Kabi explained the situation.

“So, let me get this straight,” she said, after listening for a while. “Princess Ausanne has been kidnapped, this little furry creature is her messenger, and we've got a data disk that contains something that the Supreme Emperor wants to get his hands on.” She raised her eyes to the heavens. “Fantastic,” she added sarcastically.

Kabi smiled. “I'd like to tell you more about the data disk, but I can't.” He shrugged. “You'll have to trust me. It contains something that could bring death and disaster to all of Archeonis.”

“Okay,” Bettie said slowly, obviously not quite buying Kabi's story but having no choice but to do as she was asked.

“Our first priority is to get this data disk back to Britannia,” Lucia said. “But we're taking the long way, for two reasons.”

“The long way?” Bettie asked.

“We'll be travelling through the Lawless Sea.” Lucia glared at her first officer, daring her to challenge this, and when she didn't, continued: “Firstly, because I want to find out if the princess is still being held there. And secondly, because we'll be far less likely to run into the Imperial Navy there. And given that we've currently got one of their vessels under tow, that seems like a good thing.”

Niku was hopping up and down, her tiny claws digging into a grimacing Benho's leg. “Do you think the princess is still alive?” she squeaked excitedly.

“We can only hope,” said Kabi.

*

Maicee opened his eyes, blinking in the bright lights of the medical bay. His body was still soaked with sweat, the remnant of the nightmare he'd just had. Or had it been a dream? He had no idea.

He'd been walking through a garden, lush and green, when he’d come upon a large pond. By the water, a little girl was playing, happily splashing. Watching over her was a woman, tall and beautiful, with a baby in her arms. He'd opened his mouth to call to her, the word ‘mother’ springing unbidden from his lips. But as he said the word, the air suddenly became freezing cold, ice forming on the hands of the little girl. The child had looked up at him, horror in her eyes as the ice crept along her limbs, freezing her until she fainted.