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By Root 526 0

and a grinding crash reverberated throughout the ship. I’m running out of time, he thought suddenly and scrambled back along the aftward passage, alert for more security turrets. He planted several charges down the stretch leading to the compartment where the admiral was shot then retraced his steps, arming the devices as he went. Kicking aside still smoking pieces of drone, he then ventured up the forward passage, setting and arming another eight charges before returning to the hatch area. Kao Chih still had a handful left so he climbed up into a wide but low passage and crawled along it, pausing after a dozen metres or so. He had just fixed the last charge in place when he heard a loud bang and felt air start rushing past him, back the way he’d come.

The charge I gave to Marko, he thought. He must have set the timer too soon …

In the next instant an armoured divider slammed down, cutting him off from the decompression source but trapping him in with several devices now primed to detonate in minutes. If there was a disabling procedure the admiral hadn’t told him and he never thought to ask – his only option was to follow the low passage to its end and hope that he could get behind a hatch strong enough to withstand the explosion. On hands and knees he scrambled madly along, turned a corner and found himself facing an abrupt end. Then he realised that there was a long gap above his head which was high enough for him to stand up.

The moment he did so, immensely strong hands grabbed him from behind and bodily hauled him up onto some kind of platform. He’d hardly begun to take in his surroundings when a bag was roughly tugged over his head. Kao Chih’s cries of surprise turned into angry shouts as he was spun round and hurried off. Moments later he heard a hatch close and pressurise and seconds later multiple thuds. The deck shook underfoot and his captors staggered as they marched him along. There was another lurch and Kao Chih swung a kick round, knocking the legs out from under one of them. Bellows of fury rang out as he used his free hands to try and wrench free of the other’s grip.

But a clenched fist dealt his head a blow that made his ears ring and his senses spin. Tripping, he fell to his knees. Someone grabbed both his forearms with hands that were bony and rough-skinned – it was like being seized by fingers made of old boot leather – and bound his wrists with plastic stripping. A voice muttered in his ear, hoarse, incomprehensible words, then he was hauled upright. A corrupt mustiness filled his nostrils. Another voice spoke, same hoarse, dry sound but with a different tone, to which the first replied.

And in his head, the linguistic enabler that Tumakri had given him weeks ago began picking apart the syllables, matching grammar patterns, running definitional comparisons, and eventually feeding something intelligible into his auditory centres.

‘ … bad fate, hear you me, cracked fortune. For we to attack the hull of devices before the life-ripe one … ’

‘Your fate, your fortune – whispers from the ash, all is … ’

‘You say? See Old Irontooth when we bring him this one – with the other one, makes only two from whole hull. Very poor, bad fate … ’

Listening to this exchange, Kao Chih experienced a shiver of déjà vu that sent him back to memories of his capture at Blacknest Station by the minions of Munaak, the gangster lord who murdered Tumakri. He wondered if there was any point in offering up prayers to his ancestors.

Honourable forebears, if it pleases you to extend deliverance to this humble and unworthy descendant, would it be possible to provide it via someone reliable, be they mechanical or organic?

A hatch slid open to admit them, sighed shut behind them. Kao Chih was steered forward several paces, stopped, turned, then pushed back to drop into a hard chair. The wristcuffs were removed but then his wrists were bound separately to the chair arms while his ankles were restrained. Only then was the hood removed.

The room wasn’t very bright yet it took Kao Chih’s eyes a moment or two to adjust. Illumination