Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (94 page)

              He was lying flat on his back, half way underneath the main cockpit console when a pair of booted feet appeared beside his head.  They belonged to Anna.

              ‘Cal, you need to see this,’ she said.  He looked up and saw that was holding a datapad.

              ‘See what?’

              ‘It’s Haines.  They’re trying him for war crimes right now.  It’s about to be streamed live across all networks.’

              Back in one of the communal areas, they gathered around Anna’s datapad and watched the broadcast unfold.  Judging by the opulent surroundings, the trial was taking place inside the Assembly House.  Admiral Cox was presiding as both judge and prosecutor whilst rows of uniformed figures sat on the benches, as motionless and regimented as automatons.  A bedraggled figure sat slumped in the dock.  It was Haines. 

Commander Baldwin gasped in shock as she caught sight of her commanding officer.  Haines looked considerably worse for wear.  Normally clean shaven and impeccably turned out, his grey hair and scruffy beard had grown long from weeks of neglect and he was clad in the remains of his naval uniform, now ripped and scuffed and heavily soiled.  His remaining eye appeared unfocused and he seemed to be unaware of his surroundings.  That eye peered out of a face that was mottled with bruises from repeated beatings.  He also looked to have lost a considerable amount of weight, his features gaunt and sunken.  As the list of charges against him was read out, he didn’t react.

              ‘...crimes against humanity, deliberate targeting of civilian populations, torture and execution of POWs, leading an unprovoked attack against a sovereign world, namely Orinoco, acts of terrorism including conspiracy to plant explosives and carry out kidnapping and murder on the world of Orinoco...’  Cox stood behind the dais at the head of the room and continued to read off the list of supposed crimes that Haines had committed.

              ‘This is nothing more than a show trial,’ said Baldwin in disgust. ‘The Admiral deserves better than this.  He’s a goddamn hero.’

              ‘What did you expect, due legal process?’ Isaacs replied.

              ‘Why are they doing this?  Why not just kill him, or enslave him with one of their creatures?’

              ‘Propaganda, I imagine,’ said Steven.  ‘They’re trying to tarnish the reputation of a highly decorated hero of the Commonwealth.  Not only that; they want the people of the Commonwealth to see their hero broken before they kill him.  They want them to see what happens to those who stand against the Shapers.’

              ‘Is this footage genuine?’ said Maria.

              ‘Impossible to tell,’ Steven replied.  ‘If it is, then Haines is still alive, and if he really is as sedated as he appears, then that suggests that he’s still one of us, not one of them.’

              ‘Then we have to get him out of there,’ said Baldwin.  ‘He’d do the same for us.  Admiral Haines never left any of his own behind.  We owe him that much.’

              Was he in a court room of some kind?  There was a figure up at one end of the room, up on some kind of platform.  It looked like he was reading off something.  Haines struggled to see him, struggled to hear what the figure was saying, but it was like trying to see and hear things underwater.  He concentrated and made the figure swim into focus.  It was wearing a dress naval uniform and had dark brown skin.  A thought struck Haines through the fog in his brain.  He strained for clarity of thought and vision, leaning forward to see better.

              ‘Cox, is that you?’ he heard himself slur.

              ‘Yes, Admiral Haines.  It is Admiral Cox standing before you.  You are charged with the aforementioned crimes.  I ask you again, how do you plead?’  The words took a while for Haines to digest.

              ‘Admiral Cox.  You always were an asshole,’ he answered.  ‘I see that’s one part of your personality that the Shapers couldn’t destroy.’

              ‘Admiral Haines, if you do not provide an appropriate answer, a guilty plea will be entered.’

              ‘Go and fuck yourself,’ Haines replied, and slumped back in his chair.

              The feed suddenly stopped, the image frozen for second or two, before an error message overlaid itself.

              ‘Damn it,’ said Anna, fiddling with the datapad.  ‘Looks like we lost the connection.’

              ‘Maybe Haines didn’t play along with their little charade,’ said Isaacs.

              The feed suddenly resumed after a few moments, just in time for them to hear Cox read out the sentencing.

              Death.  Haines felt strong arms lift him out of the chair and drag him from the room.  Well, that was hardly a surprise.  About time, he was tired of waiting for them to get on with it.  He guessed that the whole trial thing was a little piece of theatre that they were going to broadcast to the rest of humanity.  The great Admiral Haines laid low at last.  Well fuck them, they hadn’t broken him, and that was why he knew in his heart that they could never truly win.  As long as there were humans left free somewhere in the galaxy, they would keep fighting on, keeping the species struggling on against the encroaching darkness.  As they hauled him back to his cell, Haines felt nothing but a perverse sense of victory.

              Steven’s orders arrived soon after via the secure comm.  Hunched over the device in one of the cabins of the
Profit Margin
, he looked them over on its small screen, responded briefly and received a further acknowledgment a few moments later.  He sat back on the narrow bunk for a moment, contemplating what he was about to do and then went to find the others.  He found them lounging in the same communal area as before, transfixed by the rolling news coverage of Haines’s trial.  He pointed at the screen and said simply: ‘I’m off to go get the old guy.  Who’s with me?’

              ‘Me,’ said Commander Baldwin, immediately.  ‘Those of us who served with Haines, I think you can count us all in.’

              ‘Are you fucking out of your mind!?’ said Isaacs.  ‘You saw the hordes of those things landing around the city.  It’s a suicide mission, and you know it.’

              ‘This is a strictly volunteer mission only.  My orders state that I cannot compel any of you to accompany me.  Captain Isaacs may well be right - this may be a one way trip.’

              ‘How the hell are you going to get in there and come back out alive?’ said Maria.  ‘Those things ain’t just going to let you.’

              ‘The Navy has a task force headed this way to attack the Shaper vessel in orbit above us that’s powering that portal and hopefully destroy it, stopping any more enemy ships from arriving.  I don’t have an ETA, but I will receive a go signal via the secure comm. once they enter the system.  That will be my key to move in, when the Shapers are distracted.  My orders are to cause as much disruption as possible in Bolivar City, strike behind the enemy lines and give them something else to think about besides the capital ships bearing down on them.  By the sound of things, it seems like the Navy has some new intel., possibly scanning technology or recon, that indicates that the Assembly House has a Shaper node somewhere within it.  We are to destroy it, and if possible, rescue Haines from the same location before we do.’

              ‘So, go on Steven, I can tell that you must have some sort of viable plan of how you’re going to do this, or else you wouldn’t be standing here asking us to come along,’ said Anna.  ‘Let’s hear it.’

              ‘I’ve been going over the inventory of this place.  You now have two ships capable of atmospheric and space flight after you cannibalised all those parts and wreckage, the
Profit
Margin,
and a cargo freighter, the
Unholy Matrimony
as well as an AG flitter.  On top of that, you have the plentiful supplies of weapons and ammo that we brought with us, and it seems, two highly illegal anti-matter tipped missiles.’

              ‘Yeah about those...’ said Maria, uneasily.

              ‘Look, right now I don’t care where they came from.  These things are just what I need.’

              ‘Yeah, those things are pretty effective against the Shapers,’ said Isaacs.  ‘We used  individual containment spheres against the ship that rammed its way into Port Royal’s docking bay, hurt it real bad, but if you set one of those entire warheads off it’s going to wipe Bolivar City off the map.  It’s got what, a ten megatonne yield?’

              ‘It’s the intense EMP effects that the Shapers can’t stand,’ said Steven.  ‘You saw how that police cruiser reacted when I fired that EMP gun at them, SOC have documented similar reactions before.  If we fire one of these things and detonate it in the upper atmosphere, the blast should barely touch the city, but the EMP effects should temporarily knock out the Shapers on the ground.’

              ‘Yeah it was like the ship was in actual physical pain when we hit it,’ said Isaacs.  ‘I’d assumed that it was the intense heat and radiation and the physical damage but...’

              ‘It won’t have much effect on any of their ships in the area unless they’re close to the blast, but it should temporarily disable or disorientate those enslaved hordes of theirs for possibly tens of kilometres in all directions.  We’ll have a few minutes to race in, find Haines and make a quick getaway, and then we detonate the second warhead inside the Assembly House on a timer.’

              ‘Jesus, you’ll flatten the city,’ said Maria.  ‘All those people...’

              ‘All those people are very likely no longer in control of their own bodies,’ said Steven firmly.  ‘Bolivar City now belongs to the enemy and Command has designated it as a legitimate military target.  Their intel. data shows a very high Shaper presence within the city limits, high enough to account for the entire population.  If we do not detonate that warhead, then the Navy has orders to level the city from orbit if it can, before the entire world is lost to the Shapers.  Hopefully the blast and the distraction and subsequent shock to the Shapers’ chain of command in the system could give the Navy the lucky break it needs to take down that thing in orbit.’

              They each considered Steven’s words for a moment.

              ‘Well, you’re going to need a fast ship to get you in and out, and someone who can actually fly it too,’ said Isaacs, breaking the silence.  ‘This will probably be the death of me, but I’m in.  I’m certainly not going to wait around for those things to turn up again.’

              ‘Well in that case, I guess I’m coming too, dear,’ said Anna.  ‘Wouldn’t want you to go off enjoying yourself without me.  Besides, you need someone to man the turrets.  Steven can play at being co-pilot for a bit.’

              ‘I’m in too,’ said Maria.  ‘I’m about the only one around here who can get that damn junk freighter into the air anyway.  Besides, I don’t have anything better to do except sit on my ass waiting for the Shapers to come calling.’

              ‘Excellent.  Thank you, all of you,’ said Steven.  ‘Okay, let’s start planning this thing in detail.  See if we can get any plans of the building, and let’s see who else wants to join us.’

              ‘What about those who can’t come along?’ said Anna.  ‘What happens to them?  We have families here, children even.’

              ‘Well, we’ll be taking the only two ships,’ said Maria.  ‘So they ain’t getting off this moon without us.  They could take the flitter if they want and head east away from the city, or stay here and hope the Shapers don’t come calling.  I intend to urge them to make a run for it.’

              ‘Yeah, I was afraid those were the only options,’ said Anna.

Chapter 53

              Admirals Morgan and Cox waited in the classical splendour that had been the Governor’s Office on the top floor of the Assembly.  Soaring ionic columns held aloft a richly decorated ceiling that displayed the colonisation of the Achernar system in stylised reliefs.  Tall windows, flanked by sumptuous drapes, looked out over the city skyline - still illuminated despite the fact that now its citizens could see perfectly well in the dark, unaided.

              Morgan sat at a broad, ornate desk near the centre of the room, the strain obviously showing in his features, his hands tightly clenched, shaking despite his attempts to control his fear.  The source of his terror stood at his shoulder.  Admiral Cox remained calm and composed - his face implacable, his hands clasped loosely behind his back.

              The doors swung open, and two armoured figures dragging a third handcuffed form entered.  There was a chair in front of the great desk and the two armoured figures deposited their charge in it, handcuffed the man to the chair and then stood smartly to attention, as motionless as statues.

              ‘Admiral Haines, can you hear me?’ said Cox.  ‘Admiral Haines?’

              ‘I can hear you,’ muttered Haines.  ‘Whatever your people gave me to keep me sedated during that show trial of yours is wearing off a little.  What do you want?  You going to kill me yourself?’

              ‘No,’ Cox replied.

              ‘Thought not.  What do you want?’

              ‘I thought that you ought to know that two Commonwealth Navy fleets are converging on this system.  They will be here shortly and so, regrettably, I must depart soon in order to oversee their destruction.  I could control everything from here, but I feel that appearances are important, and I will relish finally killing Admiral Chen.  Then, after your fleet has been obliterated, and of course I will make sure that you are able to view the proceedings,  I shall return and I shall have you executed, with the whole of humanity watching.’

              ‘Chen won’t go down that easily,’ growled Haines.  ‘I know her well enough.’

              ‘Ah, but she will, and I feel that it’s important that you watch her defeat.  Admiral, do you wonder why you are still alive, why you haven’t been implanted like the others?’