The Agathon: Reign of Arturo (35 page)

“There are three guards in section seventeen and one guarding the entrance to the umbilicus. You won’t make it to your ship with just the two of you,” she said.

Aron smiled again at her and squeezed her shoulder in appreciation.

“We are not going to the ship, Jane. We are just paying Arturo a visit. We need to have a little talk with him,” Aron said.

Jane nodded.

“We are with you, Aron, we are always with you,” she said turning away from him and walking quickly down the corridor.

Aron watched her as she walked away and was filled with a new hope.

“Impressive,” Vishal said as he took his place by his side.

“What’s that?” Aron said.

Vishal raised his eyebrows.

“They believe in you,” Vishal said.

Aron looked at Vishal.

“They believe in being free,” Aron said, “let’s move.”

The Kandinsky

“They are just sitting there,” Escat said looking at the view screen.

Arturo stood next to him and looked at The Unity docked quietly at the Earth One main hangar deck. He frowned.

“Lock the main cannons on that ship and fire,” Escat said to his weapons officer who was sitting at a console on the right hand side of the bridge. He was a young man no more than twenty, dressed in a black jumpsuit. He looked back at Escat.

“Yes, sir,” he said.

“Do nothing!” Arturo shouted at the young man suddenly.

Arturo did not like this. The Unity could have easily outrun The Kandinsky. Why were they just sitting there? They would have seen them on their scanners long ago.

The young man looked at Escat who nodded at him. Arturo thought about opening fire and cleansing his soul of the baggage he had carried for all these years. They were all traitors. A new beginning awaited them. He only needed two things from that piece of space junk. The codes to the communication buoys, and Vishal. The bridge remained silent. He ran his fingers over his bald head and felt the small cut that ran the length of his scalp. He looked at Escat.

“I am going aboard,” he said to Escat who was now looking at him with strange eyes.

“All due respect, sir, but do you think that is wise?” Escat said.

Arturo just looked at him and frowned. He should execute him for questioning him in front of others. He watched as Escat looked away seemingly aware of what he had just done.

“I will go with you, Chancellor,” Escat said.

“No, I want you here. Keep those guns locked on The Unity. If she makes a single move off that docking port, I want you to take care of her, is that understood?” he said to Escat.

“Yes, sir,” Escat replied.

Arturo turned and began walking off the bridge. He was flanked by two Colonial Guards. Escat had explicitly instructed the guards that anyone who came within ten feet of the chancellor was to be shot on sight without hesitation or question. Failure to comply would result in an immediate trip to the nearest airlock. Needless to say, the corridors of The Kandinsky cleared quickly when the chancellor was in sight.

Earth One

They made their way through the bowels of the ship while Escat docked The Kandinsky next to the umbilicus docking port. The long cylindrical walkway that connected Earth One to the other space station was in constant need of repair and normally would only be used by maintenance crews. It was a good tactical link up point, allowing for a swift departure when the time came. Arturo and his entourage of Colonial Guards left the ship and began walking through the hallways of Earth One. Streams of yellow light were pulsating from emergency beacons all along the corridor. Arturo frowned as he looked at the flashing lights. They were met at the airlock by six Colonial Guards who lined the halls.

“Report,” he said to the nearest one.

“There is a fire, sir, in one of the waste disposal shoots. All colonists have returned to their quarters as per the fire protocol,” the guard said in his mechanical computerised voice. Arturo frowned and looked up and down the halls.

“We have three guards unaccounted for at present and we’re conducting a search,” the guard continued.

Arturo felt eyes looking at him. He could feel a change on the station.

“Where is Florence?” he asked one of the guards.

“She is currently on board The Unity, Chancellor,” replied the guard.

Arturo frowned and looked down the deserted corridor.

“Find her and bring her to my office,” he replied starting to walk.

The large contingent of guards followed.

A few minutes later and Arturo was at the entrance to his office on the upper deck of Earth One. They had not encountered a single soul on their way. The empty hallways bathed in yellow light came one after another. Arturo began to regret coming on board. He should destroy this place quickly. He told the guards to wait outside as he entered the code to the door of his room. He stepped inside. It was pitch black.

“Lights,” he said out loud as he closed the door behind him.

The room remained in darkness.

“Lights,” he said again taking a step inside. He was sure that he heard breathing. He was about to turn to open the door once again when he felt an arm around his neck and a strong hand across his mouth.

They’ve got you, you fool. You idiot! Escape or die now!

The other voice inside his head screamed as he was lifted off his feet and dragged across the floor in darkness. He felt so stupid. He was being assassinated. He should have blown the place to high heaven. What was he thinking coming on board the station?

Earth One

Office of the Chancellor

The lights came on suddenly as Vishal entered the manual override on the room’s systems. Aron dragged the chancellor, who was kicking hard, across the floor towards his desk. He was surprised at how strong the old man was. He had his hand firmly pressed against his
mouth. All he could hear were muffled screams as he lifted him off his feet and slammed him straight onto his large desk, towards the rear of the room. He pointed his pulse gun at the chancellor’s head and kept his hand firmly on his mouth.

“You make a sound and I pull the trigger, end of game, you get me you piece of shit?” Aron said furiously looking into the eyes of the chancellor.

His heart was pounding through his chest. He felt the chancellor’s breath begin to ease as he went silent. He saw a ferocity in his eyes that he was not expecting. A true hatred. And something else. His eyes kept darting from one side of the room to the other. Arturo nodded slowly.

“I am going to take my hand away now. I think you and I should have a little chat. It is taking everything in my body to NOT pull this trigger, so don’t think for one second that I won’t do it. I have killed three men today already. If you can call them men,” Aron said, as he slowly released the pressure on the chancellor’s mouth. Arturo remained silent. Aron lifted his hand completely off and watched the chancellor as his eyes continued to dart from left to right. There was a tense moment of silence as Aron stepped back from the desk, leaving Arturo just lying there. His chest rising and falling. He rolled onto his side and sat up slowly looking at Vishal, who was at the door. He turned his attention to Aron, who had his arm outstretched following Arturo’s head movements with his gun.

Arturo looked carefully at Aron and smiled. Standing up slowly and facing off against the threat calmly.

“Impressive,” Arturo said, “you realise that you aren’t getting out of this room alive.”

Aron took a step towards the chancellor. He ran all the reasons not to pull the trigger through his mind. There were not that many. He was right though, if he killed him now, the odds were, that the door would be stormed in a matter of seconds and they would both be taken out before they had a chance to do anything about it.

“Shut up,” Aron replied gritting his teeth.

“What did they say, Mr Elstone?” Arturo said.

“Guess you’ll never know, will you, you murdering psycho,” Aron replied.

Arturo turned to Vishal.

“I presume you have introduced Mr Elstone to his daughter, yes?” Arturo said.

Vishal did not respond. Aron’s hand began shaking. The mere mention of Maya was boiling his blood. He was expecting some form of manipulation from Arturo and thought he had been prepared for it, but when the words finally came out of his mouth, he could not help it. With a quick movement of the arm holding the gun, he struck the chancellor hard across the cheek with the butt of the weapon. He was angry with himself for doing so. He had just weakened his position and shown Arturo that he could get to him easily by mentioning Maya’s name. That being said, he had to admit that it felt good. Damn good. Arturo pulled his head back from the corner of the desk, where he was propping himself up from the force of the blow. He began to laugh. Aron frowned and took a step back. Arturo’s laugh began to grow into hysteria. He began holding his sides as his bent over frame convulsed. Aron looked at Vishal who looked grimly on at the strange scene beginning to unfold in front of them.

“You idiots!” cried Arturo through fits of laughter, “you poor, poor children, look at you both, you have no idea.”

Aron took another step back, but kept the gun trained tightly on the chancellor’s lightly bobbing head. Arturo coughed and stood up straight looking at both of them. His demeanour suddenly changed. He became calm. He stared at Aron with cold eyes.

“What exactly is your plan, hero of the colony?” Arturo asked, “a new world awaits us, you fool. Don’t you understand?”

“You were going to kill us,” Aron said.

“Was going to?” Arturo said smiling.

Arturo suddenly took a step towards Aron.

“You are a resourceful man, Aron. I can respect that. Why don’t you and Vishal just quietly come with me to The Kandinsky and we
can discuss the future of the human race. We all want the same thing here,” Arturo said.

“Take another step and it will be your last, Chancellor,” Aron replied.

Arturo looked at Vishal.

“And you? The saviour of our race. Without that man’s mind right there, we would have suffocated decades ago,” Arturo said.

His voice began to rise.

“Maybe,” Aron said, “but that’s not something you need to worry about right now. I want you to move your guards away from The Unity and clear a path for us, all the way to the airlock.”

“Are you insane?” Arturo said.

“I just found out that you stole my daughter and that for her whole life she has been plugged into a machine. Yes, I am insane. Now send your guards away before I really lose my temper,” Aron said through gritted teeth.

Vishal remained silent. Arturo seemed to think about it, but finally raised his hands.

“Very well, Mr Elstone, on one condition,” Arturo said.

“What’s that?” Aron said.

“I want to speak to The Agathon, IF we make it to your ship,” Arturo said.

Aron thought about it for a moment.

“As you wish, Chancellor,” Aron replied.

25

The Void

C
arrie emerged from the fireball of metal fragments. The orb had been huge, at least five times the size of the smaller ones. It had been slower though. A single hit with her electrical energy bolt was not cutting it. She had been flying around the floating ball for the last half an hour dodging a variety of beams being directed her way. She had to admit, she was becoming quite adept at handling herself in zero gravity with this advanced space suit. She manoeuvred quickly and began to refine her hand movements to make fast adjustments to her trajectory and direction. Jack and Tyrell watched her from a distance as she battled the attacking alien technology. In the end, it took a continuous pulse of all her energy, directed at the centre of the orb, as she flew straight at it. She thought at the last second about pulling away from its surface, but she began to see large cracks forming in its surface, so she continued her kamikaze approach. The sphere blew apart as Carrie travelled straight through its centre tearing it apart from the inside out and emerging from the other side. She felt the heat of the explosion all around her body, but distanced herself from it in time, so as not to get incinerated.

“Excellent,” Jack said over the comm system, “Let’s return inside, shall we? We have much to discuss.”

Carrie watched the fireball fizzle out, leaving a large debris field floating towards the planet surface. She was out of breath. The last burst of energy really took it out of her and she was exhausted. She watched as Jack and Tyrell made their way to the transparent space station then slowly fired the jets from her feet and followed.

“I want to go back to my ship,” she said suddenly.

“Come inside, Carrie, and let us talk about it,” Jack said waving her inside.

A few minutes later and she was standing inside the main hall of the space station. Her faceplate retracted into a rear compartment in her jumpsuit and she began breathing normally. The air tasted sweet inside the space station. She could not place the taste, but it was like some sort of exotic fruit. Jack looked up at the clear glass dome and waved his hand around in a circular motion. A grid of stars appeared from thin air and began swirling all around them. A few seconds later, a small pinpoint of light emerged.

“There,” Jack said pointing to the speck of light, “that is your ship.”

Carrie looked up in wonder. It was incredible. This race was thousands of years ahead technically. She wanted to learn so much about them, but she had to warn The Agathon.

“I will allow you to return to your vessel, but you must do something for us,” Jack said turning to look at her.

“What do you mean,” Carrie replied.

Jack smiled revealing his sharp teeth again.

“You must help us with the Targlagdu threat,” he replied.

Carrie began to feel a knot in her stomach. She had the feeling she was never going to see her father again.

“Hang on, those things are the size of planets. It was fun playing with your little toys out there, but how am I supposed to deal with thousands of robot planets?” she asked flabbergasted.

“Those are my conditions,” Jack said suddenly, lowering his lips and letting the smile, if it was a smile, dissipate.