The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [44]
‘I had subfeeds from all main monitor nodes routed here. We should be able to get both internal and external views.’
Two screens began to show a succession of images from around the ship, views of people lying sprawled and unconscious in corridors down which glittering disc-shaped drones floated on patrol. Cabins and common areas were the same, as were the crew decks and the operations rooms. Smaller, arrowhead-like drones were also everywhere, mainly hovering. The subjugation of the Viteazul had been swift and efficient. Almost.
Yet Kao Chih could not see how they could do anything against such a numerous adversary. But he knew that inaction could only lead to the certainty of capture and imprisonment back on Pyre.
‘I wonder what’s been happening on the other ships,’ he said quietly.
‘The very question that has been vexing me,’ the admiral said.
Just then their surroundings quivered and Kao Chih felt the telltale momentary dizziness of a hyperdrive jump. Marko staggered a little, Sergeant Miczek leaned against the bulkhead and the admiral sat straighter, eyes glaring.
‘They’ve shifted us somewhere else,’ he said, fingers suddenly flying over controls both solid and holo. ‘Now we really do need access to the externals.’
One of the monitors switched to a view of the Suneye ship seen from a hull cam at the stern of the Viteazul. The grappler force-beams that Kao Chih saw earlier shone brightly now, a bizarre scaffolding of energies locking the two ships firmly in place, roughly twenty metres apart. In addition four opaque, fluted tubes stretched across to connect with the Viteazul’s flank. As they watched, several Suneye drones, the smaller fist-sized arrowheads, began gliding back to their mothership in pairs and threes. In moments this had become a constant stream, scores of arrowheads and the larger discs returning to the Suneye vessel. Studying this, the admiral nodded.
‘To be expected,’ he said. ‘Now that we’re effectively crewless and the colonists have been sedated, it’s safe for them to cast us adrift and return to the battle. Once that’s satisfactorily concluded they can come back to collect us. There, see?’
With the last of the drones back aboard, the Suneye vessel began to retract the boarding tubes. Kao Chih gazed at the sight, impatient to do something, purposefully ignoring futility.
‘Admiral, sir,’ he said. ‘Please excuse my lack of technical knowledge, but is it possible for even we four to reactivate your ship’s engines so that we may not be here when they return?’
‘I admire your spirit, Pilot Kao, but it is very likely that the control systems have been disabled.’ Then he gave a toothy grin. ‘But that won’t stop us trying! We’ll wait until … ’
‘Sir,’ said Sergeant Miczek. ‘The tubes are extending again.’
The access tubes had been detaching and retracting one by one, but now they were extending out again.
‘Something’s happened to change their mind,’ the admiral said. ‘Ah, look – there!’
A small craft darted into view, weaving in and out of the access tubes and grappler beams. As it raked the hulls of both ships with volleys of greenish energy bolts, the admiral’s sensor systems grabbed images from hull feeds and presented a tactical composite. The attacking craft had a bullet-shaped aft section ending in a pyramidal thrust assembly; the forward section had the look of a tapering cockpit in an oddly textured grey material, flanked left and right, above and below, by four curved weapon sponsons. And the newcomer had not come alone.
‘The drones are coming back,’ said Marko, voice wavering.
‘Not so many this time,’ Kao Chih observed.
‘Either they expect these unknown attackers to try and board us as well,’ the admiral said, ‘or … ’
The security station shivered and the screens flickered as one into a spiral standby symbol. A second or two later the external feed came back on – the Suneye ship, its boarding tubes and grapples, was still there but beyond they could see a wide segment of landscape with ragged edges, its surface made grey by millennia of exposure to hard vacuum. They had