Sword of Axia (The Arcadian Jihad) (29 page)

“The Grand Pasha set the code, he kept it a secret from all of us. I’m sorry, I just don’t know.”

Blas hunted everywhere for a place the code might be written down. People always wrote their passwords down, didn’t they? But not this time, there was nothing. Suddenly the voice changed. “Warning! Countdown sequence has entered the final ten minutes. Insert abort code if you wish to disarm the weapon.”

“Think, man, you knew him. What would he have used, what was most important name to him?”

“Axia, I suppose,” Kerawan said. “Ahura maybe, they're both the leading figures of his religion.”

Blas noted the way he said ‘his’ religion. He’d completely divorced himself from it.

“So how would he use those names, AxiaAhura, like that?”

“The other way around, AhuraAxia, the God would come first.”

“Let’s try it, we’ve got two failures in hand. It might work.”

He keyed in the names, all he got was a warning that he had two attempts left. He hunted again, every tiny crevice or surface where a reminder of the code may have been written and hidden, but nothing.

“What else would he have used?”

“I don’t know,” Kerawan said. “Perhaps it’s the other way around, AxiaAhura, nothing else mattered to him other than those names.”

Blas held his breath, keyed in the letters carefully. All he got was another warning, after the next failed attempt the poison gas would flood the tunnel. The warning voice sounded again. “Warning! Countdown has sixty seconds before final detonation sequence.”

“We’re fucked!” Kerawan said despairingly. “There’s nothing! Our lives have ended, we’re dead.”

“Think!” Blas shouted at him. “Snap out of it, what was more important to Gluck than anything in this life, what would he have used for the code? There must be something, there’s still time.”

His mind went completely blank, despair overwhelmed him almost completely.

“Warning! Countdown has thirty seconds before final detonation sequence.”

But his mind was no longer blank. “Constantine, who does Gluck love, who do you love more than any other in the Universe? Trust me, Constantine.”

It was like some kind of hallucination, he was hearing voices, which was a bitter joke at the very end of his life. No, not voices, one voice. Hypnotic and sincere, a voice that could persuade millions, or just one man.

“Warning, countdown has ten seconds before final detonation sequence.”

Wait! Could it be a message? He didn’t understand it, but…Evelyn. It was worth a try.

“Seven, six, five, four, three,”

He punched in the name. Evelyn.

“Countdown aborted, system is disarmed.”
  

He almost blacked out as the proximity of death receded. That thought in his head, where had it come from? It must have been Evelyn herself. He shook his head to cleared it. Kerawan was cringing in the corner, his hands over his head.

“It’s alright, it’s finished.”

The man looked up and nodded. “How? How did you know?”

Blas shook his head. “I’ve no idea. Let’s get back to the command bunker, we need to find Evelyn and Guide Tell, we have to tell them about this device, that it’s de-activated.”

They found their way up to the outer office and went through to the bunker. Guide Tell had recovered and unstrapped Evelyn from her bonds.”

“Is she ok?”

Tell nodded at them. “She only started to regain consciousness a few seconds before you came in. But I think she’ll be fine, the gas should not have any long lasting adverse effects.”

“Where is Gluck?” Blas asked. He had unfinished business there. It was time for his parent’s murderer to face justice.

“He’s gone,” Tell replied. “I’ve no idea where.”

Kerawan stepped forward. “He had a ship standing by at the Intersystem Spaceport, a fast cruiser. There’s a small landing pad on the roof of this building, he would have called it in and evacuated as soon as the atomic device started the countdown.”

“Any ideas where he may have gone?”

“No, he never told us his emergency plan. My guess is that he’s disappeared completely to a distant System.”

Blas nodded. “It’s too late to worry about him now, they can put out a trace on that ship, we may strike lucky. If we find him, he has a lot to answer for. Guide Tell, would you contact the Rescom Command Center and tell them it’s all over, they can stand down the attack.”

“I’ll do that, of course. Kerawan, you can help me with the comms system.”

Blas looked down at Evelyn, she was starting to show signs of realizing where she was.

“Evelyn, how do you feel?”

“Strange,” she gave him a wan smile. “What’s happening?”

“It’s all over. Your father has fled, the war is over.”

“That’s incredible, I thought we were all going to die.”

“We’re safe. Was it you who came into my mind and told me the code to disarm the device?”

She shook her head, mystified. “I’ve been unconscious, how could it have been me?”

She was right, it would have been impossible. Was it a random thought, what had happened in that tunnel? How had the code been put into his mind? The only Orphexians on the planet were in the distant Rescom Command Center, it couldn’t have been them. Here in the bunker complex there were no women present apart from Evelyn who was unconscious at the time. It was a mystery, one that nagged at a corner of his mind. Guide Tell came back into the bunker and told him that Rescom were standing down the attack, they’d be inside the city in minutes.

“We owe you a lot for what you did today, Mr. Blas.”

“We owe a lot more to the person who put that disarm code into my head.”

Tell glanced at him, as their eyes met Blas felt something move inside him. The man had a raw power, a charisma, it gave him a familiar feeling, similar to the one he’d had when the code had come into his head down in the tunnel. But that was ridiculous. Tell was a man. Men did not have the power of mind control. He’d have to talk to Evelyn about it, she was at least someone he could trust. The only one he could trust, she would understand. They had a lot more to discuss and a lifetime in which to do it.

System Standard 2728.1347 Above Planet Axis Nova

Gluck abruptly realized that his pilot was not the usual officer, this man was swarthy, huge, with a neat beard. He'd never allowed his personal staff to wear a beard, the impudence of the man! Obviously he was a replacement, he wondered what had happened to his regular man. Perhaps he was fighting on the front line, that was too bad, he would soon go the way of the rest of them, blown apart in the explosion. But why were they in orbit? His orders were to jump straight into hyperspace before Rescom realized he had got away.

“Pilot, take us straight into hyperspace, if the Rescom Fleet picks us up on their screens they’ll blast this tiny ship to pieces.”

The man turned to face him. It was damned insubordination!

“I’m sorry, Sir, I can’t do that.”

Gluck noticed something else that was strange, why was the man wearing a pressure suit, with the mask hanging on his chest ready to strap on if they lost their atmosphere? It wasn’t necessary, this craft had every safety precaution that had ever been invented, it was designed for speed and comfort, not primitive travel in space suits.

“How dare you disobey me? Put us into hyperspace at once. Who are you, I’ll have you put in prison for disobedience?”

“My name is Berg Smetana, we last met in the Supreme Court when you sentenced me to a term of imprisonment on Nabucco I. My current post is Commander of the Rescom Federation Ground Forces on Axis Nova.”

Gluck swallowed rapidly, he felt himself breaking out into a sweat. “What do you want, why are you here? Do you want money, land? I can give you whatever you want.”

“I want an end to the filth that you represent, Gluck. Lies, torture, repression, everything that is bad in our society, it’s everything you stand for. It has to end.”

“Are you taking me into exile, or what?”

Smetana smiled grimly. “I would hardly want you to have a second chance at spreading your poison. No, I’m sending you to paradise, Grand Pasha. You’ll have a chance to meet your friend Ahura and the prophet Axia. I’m sure you’ll all have lots to speak about.”

His hand moved to the panel and he pressed a switch, as the low atmosphere alarms sounded on the ship he clipped his mask in place. Gluck heard his final words, “Give them my regards when you see them.”

He had almost passed out with lack of air, but not so much that he couldn’t make out the escape hatch opening. He was gasping for breath, the agony got worse, it was terrible, “Please, make it stop, I’ll give you anything!” But Berg only smiled through the mask, the gravity compensator was switched off and the dark depths of space surged into the small craft. Gluck’s last thought as he floated semi-conscious out of the hatch was to realize that Smetana was strapped into his seat. Strange, why hadn’t he noticed that before? He’d assumed the man was just another minion, beneath his notice, but it was his last mistake. He passed out, gasping, desperately trying to suck air into his tortured lungs, but there was none to suck. Smetana watched him float out into space then closed the hatch and brought the atmospheric systems and gravity compensator back on line. He removed his mask and watched out of a porthole for a few seconds as the body floating away through space, the man who wanted to rule the universe was now a part of what he had coveted. A permanent part. Berg sighed, it was all over, he set course for Axis Nova. He felt tired, his bones ached, perhaps he was getting too old for this. Perhaps.

System Standard 2728.1349 Lyra City, Planet Axis Nova

Guide Tell was alone at last. His troops rounding up the last of the enemy into temporary captivity, but it would be short and merciful. They would be disarmed, made aware that they would not be punished provided that they did not betray the democratically elected government of the Nine Systems, then they could go back to their daily lives. His military forces would be busy for the time being, people had gone short of food during the struggle. The most urgent priority was to transport supplies to the outlying planets. It would mean that his administration would be more popular as a result. Exactly as he’d envisaged when he’d pressed for the initial attacks on Corazon. Oh, it made strategic sense, although there were other options that would have left the food supply intact. But none that would have given him the political advantage of delivering food to the hungry. Politics were so interesting, so complicated at times, but mostly so simple, why did people not realize the obvious before it was too late. He made sure the door was locked and then started to strip off for a very welcome shower. Serena and Nightingale were due to call shortly to discuss how they would help him go forward with the re-organization of Res Publica, the controlling council of the Rescom Federation. It was a victory for them all, a wonderful victory. A pity that Evelyn couldn’t know what they’d really done. Although she was Orphexian she’d not been allowed to know their plans to make Orphex the ruling elite, a government within a government that would steer a wise and sensible path for the Nine Systems for the rest of time. Perhaps she could be told later, but it would be necessary to handle that friend of hers, Constantine Blas, very carefully. They’d discuss it a more convenient time, Blas could always meet with an accident if he proved to be difficult. Guide Tell had been chosen carefully by the rulers of Orphex. The Axian secretary had been more than useful too, it was fortunate that Gluck never realized that Kerawan’s home planet was Orphex. As a man he couldn’t have the powers of mind control that women possessed, but still, he’d grown to have some limited power, more than was normal for a man. It had made him extremely useful at the center of the Axian administration. Tell instinctively felt uncomfortable at the idea of a man having even a fraction of the power of the Orphexian women, it would be worth looking into the question of Kerawan at some later date. He made a note to arrange for Shemal Kerawan to be transferred to his personal staff.

As he took off his clothes he revealed curves that were anything but male as the body of Sister Grace of Orphex was uncovered. None of them had ever guessed the real purpose of the battle between Axia and Rescom. Both sides were fighting and yet there could only be one winner. Orphex. She’d been chosen for her physical similarities to Xerxes Tell, the rest had been easy, a little surgery and voice training. The real Guide Tell had been hidden beyond reach, he could be valuable in the future. Soon, it would be time to re-convene Res Publica with two Orphexians, President and Vice-President at its head. Res Publica, overlords of the Nine Systems, united once more. Under Orphex. Who knew, perhaps in their wisdom they would decide to appoint a supreme ruler, one who would devote their wisdom to the everlasting peace and prosperity of the Nine Systems. A new King Emperor. Perhaps it would be as well never to reveal the truth about herself, Queen Empress did not carry the same gravitas as King Emperor.

Outside the bunker, Blas watched the Rescom troopers continue to secure the installations. Soldiers flooded the city, they were safe. Blas took Evelyn’s arm and helped her to a comfortable seat where she could enjoy the cool, fresh air of Axis Nova. More Axian troops walked past in long lines, disarmed, their hands in the air. Watchful Rescom soldiers guarded them but there was little to worry about, the faces of the Axians were painted with the dejection of defeat. Rescom had won. But something still nagged at him. That thought in the tunnel. Who was it, if it wasn’t Evelyn, it had to be another Orphexian, yet there were none in the bunker system, at least, he wasn’t aware of any. It was a loose end that needed to be tied up. They’d won, he knew that for sure, but something about their victory rang hollow. He’d worry about it at a later time, for now they were entitled to celebrate. He sat next to Evelyn and took her hand, they smiled at each other.