The Commonwealth Saga 2-Book Bundle (237 page)

“They’ll be through in two minutes,” he told Justine, who was sitting next to him, chewing on a peppermint settler tab.

“Will you shut the gateway after that?”

“Completely. I’m recoding the management routines so that I’m the only person who can activate it. When that’s done I’m going to start firing half of my security operation. This was a total fucking catastrophe.”

“No more than the rest of this war,” she said equitably. “Who knows when the subversion software was loaded in? It could have been sitting in the arrays for decades waiting for today. The Starflyer really thinks and plans ahead. I just hope Bradley Johansson’s counterstrike is up to the task.”

“At least he has a plan,” Nigel said wearily. “I suppose I’d better send a starship to Far Away to provide backup. Oh, hell …”

“What now?” Justine asked.

“According to Johansson, the Starflyer’s going to take off and fly back to Dyson Beta, or somewhere it can link up with its own type.”

“Yes.”

“But it didn’t know we could build FTL starships when it started this conspiracy. We can catch the
Marie Celeste
at any time in the next six hundred years if it goes back to Dyson Beta at sublight speed.”

“Ah, you’re thinking it modified the
Marie Celeste
for FTL.”

“At least. I’m just hoping Alster didn’t give it the details of our new hyperdrive. We really would be up shit creek. No.” He shook his head. “We only just built the prototype drive ourselves two weeks ago, and there’s been no transport to Far Away for longer than that. If the
Marie Celeste
is FTL now, it’ll be using our original continuous wormhole generator.”

Mellanie and Hoshe entered the auditorium; they’d both been to see off Wilson’s team, staying with them while they suited up and caught their transport out to the Guardians’ train.

“Are you angry with me?” Mellanie asked Nigel.

“For what?”

“I was being a bit of a brat when I asked you to open the wormhole.”

“I just wish you’d asked earlier; we might have caught the Starflyer with its pants down.”

“Thanks.” She gave him a demure kiss. Both of them automatically looked over at where Dudley and the Bose motile were standing. Dudley was emphatically not looking in their direction. “Will you open it to get them back?” Mellanie asked.

“Not the main wormhole, no, it’s being converted to time travel, remember. If Wilson and Cat’s Claws do come back from Far Away, we can probably use the exploration division wormhole to retrieve them. I haven’t really thought any of this through. There’s also the question of the Commonwealth’s connection to Far Away as well. Which is going to be difficult and very expensive to renew, especially if the Commonwealth is paying for forty-seven new worlds at the same time. We might just reduce the connection to starship flights, or leave them as an Isolated world.”

“They wouldn’t care,” Mellanie said. “Morton could build himself his empire there. It’s that kind of planet.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t go with them.”

“Really? It’s simple enough. I don’t have a death wish.”

Nigel grinned. “How’s Paula?” he asked Hoshe.

“Not happy. I really don’t think it was a good idea forcing her to go.”

“She’ll survive.” His virtual vision showed him the Guardians’ Ables ND47 turning onto the Boongate line. Cars and small vans were popping through the gateway, where CST security was busy rounding them up. Sensors showed him a force field strengthening around the train. He opened a link to Wilson. “Good luck. I’m going to send a starship to Far Away to support you. It should be there in a week or so.”

“Thanks,” Wilson said. “See you when we get back.”

“Boldly they rode and well,” Adam muttered as the engine lined up on the Boongate gateway. A four-by-four Toyota pickup sped out of the glowing haze that capped the entrance. A CST security division helicopter buzzed over it. “Into the jaws of death.” His virtual hand twisted the power feed, and they began to pick up speed. The force field extended, sweeping out across the rails ahead. “Into the mouth of hell.” Now they didn’t need to be stealthy, he deployed the weapons from their disguised casings. The gold glow from the gateway shone in through the cab windows. Adam smiled in welcome at the placid light; this far above the ground, isolated, running smooth, it was as though he were gliding into the sunset. “Rode the six hundred.”

The Ables ND47 went through the gateway at close to a hundred kilometers an hour. The gold haze tore away from the front of the engine revealing the twilit landscape of the station yard. A big Audi Luxnat ten-seater was trying to turn onto the track. The train smacked into it, shredding the bodywork to splinters of carbon. Adam winced in guilt.
Hope the Investigator didn’t see that.

Dozens of other vehicles were jouncing their way across the multiple tracks, converging on the gateway. Cameras showed him exhausted runners flinging themselves down as the train hurtled past. He took in all the peripheral scenes with a swift sweep through his virtual vision display grid, concentrating on the tracks ahead. Radar showed them intact. The force field over the Far Away section was an impenetrable bubble.

“We’re closing the wormhole now,” Nigel Sheldon said.

“Thanks for nothing,” Adam retorted gleefully as the signal faded. Sensors were showing him some kind of firefight up ahead. His virtual hand throttled back on the power, and began applying the brakes. The cab’s array connected with the local traffic control. Adam used the authority codes he’d been given to open a route directly to the Far Away section. It was a superfluous order; the points were still open. The Ables ND47 rolled onward, using the same route the Starflyer had taken not thirty minutes before.

Adam concentrated on the firefight. Over twenty vehicles were clustered together outside the force field, guarding the point where the tracks led into the Far Away section. His sensors showed him weapons fire emerging from fast-moving locations. Whoever was launching them must be stealthed, the sensors couldn’t lock on to them.

“This has to be the navy team,” he said.

“We agree,” Wilson said. “One moment, I’ll try to contact them.”

“Got another one,” Vic claimed as the ground close by sizzled from a burst of maser energy.

Alic was jammed into a shallow drainage ditch beside Vic. Jim and Matthew were fifty meters away, using a raised roadway for cover.

The vehicles that had escorted the Starflyer’s train were spread out ahead of them, making sure no one got close to the big dome of energy that protected the station’s Far Away section. They’d encountered vigorous resistance from a kilometer out. It’d taken time to creep forward. Vic’s missiles had disposed of eight, but Alic didn’t want him to waste any more. They’d need serious firepower if they ever caught up with the Starflyer.

A particle lance swung up and over his shoulder, and he raised himself up so its sensors could lock on to the closest four-by-four. He fired, and the vehicle exploded in a spectacularly violent fireball. The blast wave slammed overhead, sending a rain of small stones rattling down on Alic and Vic.

“Good shooting, Boss,” Vic said.

Masers and a burst from a magnetic gattling cannon pounded the ditch. Alic and Vic started to crawl along through the trickle of dirty water in the bottom.

“Edmund, any progress?” Alic asked.

“No, man, sorry. All I can see is about ten cars and such ringing the gateway to Half Way. There’s been no change since the train went through. They’re just waiting for anyone to try and take them on.”

Alic wanted to give the man a swift kick up the ass. Even before they’d left for Wessex, the Paris tactical crew had come up with half a dozen safe routes he could take to the force field generator. Edmund Li had also been given powerful software to subvert Tarlo’s routines. Technical had shown him which generator components to shoot with his ion pistol. There was nothing stopping him from making the run.
Nothing.

“Edmund, you’ve got to kill that generator.” Another fusillade from an enhanced energy area denial cluster made him fling himself down. Blue flame sealed off the top of the ditch. Steaming water gurgled around his armor. “We can’t get you out.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t do it, I’m safe here.”

A repetitive drumming sounded through the roar of retreating flame. Jim was firing his rotary launcher. The air was split by a whistling shriek as hypervelocity kinetics zipped overhead. A moment’s pause, and another of the bad guy vehicles was reduced to flaming scrap metal.

“You can’t stay there,” Alic said; he was near to pleading now. “Tarlo will keep the force field on permanently. He doesn’t want any attempt to follow the Starflyer. That means you won’t be able to join the exodus. This planet will be abandoned. You’ll die in there, Edmund. Nobody will ever find your memorycell for re-life.”

“Oh, Christ, I don’t want this.”

Alic resumed crawling forward. “None of us asked for this war. Your part won’t take more than five minutes. Get to that generator, let us in. We’ll take care of Tarlo and the escort vehicles.”

“I’ll see if I can get there.”

“That’s fine, Edmund. Go for it, now, eh?” Alic accessed two of Matthew’s sneekbots as they scuttled over the hostile landscape, trying to triangulate on another vehicle.

“Which one is launching those bloody area denial clusters?” Vic asked.

“Not sure,” Matthew said. “They took out five sneekbots last time.”

Alic’s e-butler told him it was picking up a localized secure call from Paula Myo. “Localized?” he queried.

“Yes.”

“Thank Christ, put her through.”

“Commander, is that you engaging the vehicles outside the force field?”

“Yes!”

“Okay, stand by, we’ll take them out for you. We need you a minimum one hundred meters away from them.”

“We are. What have you got?”

“The Guardians tell me they have zone killers.”

“Guardians? You’re with the Guardians?” He didn’t know why he was surprised; the universe wasn’t operating logically today.

“I am. We’re in pursuit of the Starflyer. Stay down.”

“Trust me, I’m down a long way.” He and Vic were clinging to the bottom of the ditch. He strengthened his force field to maximum.

“Do you still have a contact inside the Far Away section?” Paula asked.

“Yeah. He’s proving reluctant to shut off the force field generator.”

“Why? We need the force field down.”

“He knows. I think he’s finally doing something about it.”

“Good. Heads down, here it comes.”

The sneekbots showed Alic something like a man-sized jet-propelled moth descending on the cluster of vehicles. There was a dazzling green flash, and every sneekbot signal vanished. Vivid green light flowed into the bottom of the ditch like a pervasive liquid. Then the ground thumped Alic upward as if he’d been caught in an earthquake. A prolonged thunderclap howl reverberated across the land. Alic could feel it through the suit’s insulation.

“Clear,” Paula said.

Alic slowly clambered up out of the ditch. Each of the remaining escort vehicles was lost inside a thick swirl of flame. He watched a big Ables ND47 approaching down the same track the Starflyer’s train had used. It was braking hard, with sparks zipping out from the huge wheels.

“Now that’s what I call making an entrance,” Vic said.

The Ables ND47 came to a halt. A small door opened in the side of the first wagon.

“Get in, please,” Paula said.

Alic and his arrest team sprinted across the blackened land. He noticed the zone killer had left the rails intact. Up on the front of the engine, a couple of dark cylinders twice the size of his armor suit were extending ponderously from the bodywork on malmetal stalks. He didn’t recognize the type of weapon, but he knew he didn’t want to be close by when they went off.

There were several bright flashes from above the engine’s chrome intake grille, accompanied by a
crack.
Something like a black nebula swirled across the gap between train and force field. A broad arc on the force field’s surface started to glow a gentle copper; static flames thrashed about close to the ground, raising a pack of small dense dust devils.

Alic jumped up into the dark wagon. Outside, there was a terrific
boom
as the weapons fired.

Edmund hit the outside door running. Behind him, the administration block’s network was crashing from the disruptor software he’d loaded in. The sensors couldn’t see him; but Tarlo would know for sure someone was inside the force field. Someone who was trying to sabotage the Starflyer’s return. It didn’t take a tactical genius to work out what the next stage had to be.

The building housing the force field generator was an elongated geodesic hall of pearl-gray composite. He could see it protruding over a warehouse on the other side of the parking lot. Once he was there, this nightmare would be over.

His parked Honda came to life as soon as he loaded in the drive orders. It accelerated hard, wheels spinning on the damp concrete, and headed out toward the main road. As a distraction it should gain him a few seconds—so the Paris tactical experts claimed. Edmund sprinted in the opposite direction; if he could just make it to the cover of the warehouse he should be okay.

The turbid gray sky above the parking lot flared brilliant white. A terrifyingly loud screech echoed around the inside of the force field. Edmund lost his footing and went sprawling painfully on the concrete. He gawped up at the force field, where scarlet lightning was now scrabbling furiously against it. The vivid streamers slithered up into the air to strike the bottom of the station force field.

White light blazed again, and the horrendous noise ripped across the Far Away section. This time he understood: someone was shooting at the force field with incredibly powerful weapons, trying to break through. He made himself get up. Blood was soaking into his shirt sleeve where he’d landed on his elbow. Wincing at the pain, and cowering as another energy blast struck the force field, he ran for the warehouse.

By the time he made it around the corner he was breathing heavily. The geodesic hall was only a hundred eighty meters away now. He dashed for it as fast as he could, ignoring the awesome burns of light overhead as they alternated between dazzling white and lurid crimson. The punishing noise trapped under the force field was just about constant. His ears were ringing badly.