Chapter 19

Regroup

“So, you’re not the real Gravane, hey?” said Dez. “Well that’s all fine and dandy I guess, and I guess that annoys us, but not half as much as telling us by bloody message and then leaving us to go off on another of your grand adventures. Without us! That’s twice you’ve done it to me! I said to Gadget Dude, I said, serve him right if we don’t come and rescue him, that would show him for lying to us and then abandoning us. But Gadget Dude said...”

“Grey in trouble.”

“Yeah, like that, and I said, right, well we’re going to go, and we’re going to give him a piece of our minds and then we’re going to pull him out of whatever mess he’s gotten himself into. Sky Diamond said you were coming to Nymanteles, so we hopped on the next shuttle out of the Academy, and here we are. We’ve trekked across half the galaxy, had just about the most terrifying landing in shuttle history, so now, here we are. Sky Diamond’s mother pointed us towards the right hotel.”

“I came too,” Avrim added.

“Right, yes, Avrim’s here as well. He didn’t really want to come but I told him he was being a winged ass, and that convinced him. You’re not the only one with the powers of persuasion, see Grey?”

I was still busy being stunned at them being there. “Guys...” I said.

Dez frowned, her tail twitched. “Grey, what have you done to your leg?”

I let out a noise, half laugh, half sob. “It’s great to see you guys. Truly. It’s... not been like Bantus. We really are in trouble, Pilvi’s hurt, Seventhirtyfour is waiting at the hospital with her. Sunbolt is... Sunbolt died.”

“Oh.”

“But things aren’t over, and I can really use your help. If you’re still willing to give it. It will be dangerous.”

I was surprised that it was Avrim who answered first. “If you need us, Grey, we’re with you.”

Dez nodded vigorously. “We didn’t sign up to be space alien superheroes because it would be safe.”

Gadget Dude just wandered up to my chair and started taking apart the motor. I took that to indicate his vote too.

“Thank you. All of you. I will catch you all up, very soon, but first, I need to speak to Lady Jane. Avrim, can you go fetch her?”

“I’ll comm Sky Diamond,” he said.

“Wait, Lucy’s here too?”

“There’s superhero work to be done on her homeworld, of course, she’s here,” Dez said, tail twitching. “She’s just getting caught up with her mother.”

Perhaps I’d get my chance at an apology and a thank you, after all. Although it made sending her mother into potential danger more difficult.

“Dez, comm Seventhirtyfour and see how Pilvi’s doing. He will be glad to hear from you too.”

“Right.”

“Gadget Dude... I, uh, need to get back to the console to make some arrangements. Could you put enough of the motor back, so I can head there... or maybe give me a push?”

“Moment,” he said, pocketed half of the workings from the chair’s motor, then put something of his own crafting into the space he’d made. “Try?”

The chair moved smoothly, silently and notably quicker when I pressed the control stick forward. “Nice. Thanks, Dude.”

I retreated into the suite’s communal area and fell to work on the console, documented everything we’d seen and found out about the Vadram, it wasn’t much, but seeing it written down helped. I added in notes about the base, though the cave-in made most of the information I had about that redundant. Finally, notes about the Ascension Machine, and its effects on Hauberk and Gravane. I wrote the name Kayda Buchanan, and next to it ‘Powers ????’. Maybe I could find something about that. If she was also unstable like Gravane, she might be finding it hard to keep a low profile. I set up a net search and left it running.

I was studying my notes, hoping to find some sort of answer, when Lady Jane and Lucy arrived.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi, Grey,” she said, pushing her hair back away from her face. The jewelled headband sparkled; there was no mistaking it, that was Ascension tech.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dez jab Gadget Dude with an elbow, nodding in my direction, flashing her grin.

“It’s great to see you, Lucy, thank you for your help. For coming all the way here.”

She folded her arms. “This is my home, I don’t want you to break it,” she said. Then she relented, somewhat. “I’m here to help, that’s all. Tell us what the situation is.”

I told them the full story, start to end, once more. They asked questions, and I answered what I could. At the end, I turned to Jane. “Sorry to ask this, but we need to know if the Vadram are moving. What the state of their shuttle is, what they’re doing, basically. Can you do a flyby and report back? I can access Gravane funds, you’ll be well compensated.”

“Sure can,” she said, “and I won’t take your money, except perhaps refuelling costs. Their shuttle have weapons? Any sign of anti-aircraft tech at this base of theirs?”

“No to both, I think. They were trying to keep a low profile, and military tech would have drawn attention.”

“Right. I’ll get the Beast in the air, and let you know what I see.”

“Thank you, Captain McKenzie.”

“Pft,” she said and left to find her ship. Without a word, Lucy followed her mother out.

Avrim volunteered to fly a quick circuit of the city to see if the Vadram were close already. An unpleasant thought, but I could see the sense in it, and he headed out.

My comm chimed, and I left Dez at the console while I took the call.

# # #

Chief Orinus Gult was the Frantium leader of the Nymanteles police and militia. Like the Vadram, he was solidly built, a little taller than me, but twice as wide at the shoulder, his broad face was encircled by wiry fur, starting to darken with age. He didn’t like me much.

“You’re the private security consultant that I’ve been told is in charge of me?” he said over the comm. “What are you, twelve?”

I didn’t rise to it. Wouldn’t have helped to respond. “I’m just asking for a little co-operation. The Vadram...”

“Have been causing trouble in town on and off for months, and we’ve handled them just fine. A night in the cells to sleep it off is all that’s required. I’ll tell my men to keep an eye out for trouble-makers.”

“All due respect, Chief Gult...”

“If you were respecting me, you would have come to me, not pulled out a political hammer to hit me with.”

“Chief. The Vadram are here in bigger numbers than you know and, I’m sorry to say, in no small part thanks to an investigation I was running, they’re riled up. It may be nothing. I’ve asked Jane McKenzie to go take a look, I’ll know more soon. But if it’s not nothing, you’ll need a pretty big cell to hold all these Vadram, and it’s going to take more than sleeping it off to cool them down.

“I need to know what forces you have available, what sort of protective gear and weapons you can arm them with, and how quickly we can mobilise them.”

“Ah, that’s what you need, is it? Just that?”

I was off my game. I’m not saying I could have talked him around normally, but I’d be making better headway than this. I took a breath. “Guess what, I hadn’t wanted to be in charge anyway. On one level, you’re doing me a favour. Thanks. But I need you to at least believe the threat is real. You don’t want me giving you orders, fine, I get that. But at least… it can’t hurt to... consider the possibilities.”

I hung up on him.

“Well, that could have gone better.”

# # #

Gadget Dude had appropriated the desk for some project or another, it was already spilling onto the floor: cables, components and… was that Seventhirtyfour’s Power Ball kit? I had to steer around it to get back to Dez at the console.

“I think I’ve found something,” she said. “I’m not sure how much it helps, but I think I’ve figured out why the Vadram are here.”

She hesitated, took a breath. “Look I don’t talk about it much, but… before coming to the Academy I was… a librarian. I know you thought I was a rock star or something, but I used to spend my time buried in books. In a library.”

She seemed to think I’d be shocked or disappointed. I wasn’t sure why. “That’s great Dez. Did you come across something useful there?”

“In the library?”

“Yes.”

She shuffled in her seat. “Right, well, yes. Your description of the Vadram reminded me of something I’d read, a kind of legend from thousands of years ago before you humans even made it out to the stars. The details aren’t great. This really is the wrong end of the galaxy for good record keeping, but look, here.”

She brought up an old text. “I can’t be sure, but these aliens they’re describing here, the ‘Great Conquerors’? They sound a lot like the Vadram.”

I skimmed the description. “Broad shouldered, powerful frame, skin tones in purple and grey. Well, it doesn’t not match. Yes, it could be them.”

“Right, and here,” she brought up another book on screen, “it talks about the fall of their empire. They were run out of the civilised part of the galaxy, the last pitched battle was fought against them on a ‘barren and cold world with crimson skies, the first the Conquerors took, and the last to be taken back’. There’s no coordinates or anything, so, there’s no way to be sure... but I think the Vadram are feeling conquery again. If I were some high muckety-muck Vadram and wanted to show people they were ready to take over the galaxy again, I’d start with the last place we lost. To make a point. I think that world was Nymanteles.”

“Why not pitch up with fleets and assault craft then? Why sneak a hundred in for an infiltration, relying on funding from some human?”

Dez cocked her head, thinking. “Maybe not everyone back home is convinced, and one Vadram Warlord is hoping to show the way with a victory?”

“Maybe, but a victory with the help of a human?”

She shook her head. “Well, okay, they’re not here to invade. But there’s something here they need. Some relic of the last war? The Glorious Winged Hat of Glumthop III, or the like?”

“Ha! Or the Divine Laser Gun of Triumphant Glory?”

Dez laughed. “Yeah or... or...”

“Ascension Machine,” said Gadget Dude right at my elbow.

“What about...” I stopped. Oh no. “I assumed they brought it with them, but what if it was why they were here? Gravane said its purpose was to augment their warriors. When would they need that most but in their last war? They didn’t come to invade, but to reclaim a lost artefact and get it working again. They needed Buchanan and her surveying team to locate it and they needed Gravane’s money to get the tech imported to get it repaired and working again. They came to this world because the Ascension Machine was here, an item of vast cultural importance.

“Which we blew up. And then dropped a cliff on.”

Dez said, “They won’t have liked that.”

“No. And if we’re right, it means we don’t have a question of if the Vadram are coming here, so much as when.”

# # #

We didn’t have to wait long for the answer to that. I only got to stew over these new possibilities for about fifteen minutes, before Lady Jane commed me.

“Yeah, they’re on the move,” she said. “Put me on the console, I’ll send you what I see.”

I did so, toggling the console to record the call too, I might need this the next time I talked to Gult.

“I thought they were bugging out at first,” she said and keyed up footage of the Vadram shuttle.

There was plenty of activity around it, but... “There were more than that survived the cave-in,” I said.

“Yeah, figured that. Took me a while to spot them, they’re using cover well and travelling faster than I thought, but, here they are.” The console view changed, showed another group of Vadram sheltering under a rocky overhang. “They spotted me and took cover before I could get a proper head-count. Two dozen, I reckon. I’m following that group now, and they’ll need to head out into the open sooner or later, so I can give you better numbers when they do.”

“Thanks.”

“If they push on through the night like it looks like they’re planning, they’ll be at the town by about midmorning.”

“Midmorning?” Dez asked, disappointed. “Shouldn’t they arrive at dawn? Or at the least, high noon?”

Lady Jane barked a laugh. “Looks like the Vadram haven’t watched the same holos as you, kid.”

“What about weapons?” I asked.

Lucy’s voice joined the channel. “We’ve not spotted anything big yet, a few pulse pistols, maybe, but they could be keeping something larger on the shuttle. I did see one of the travelling group carrying something that looked like a large sack over his shoulder. It could have been a big bag of grenades, but otherwise, I don’t think it was a weapon.”

“Weird. Okay, thanks, I’ll pass this on to Chief Gult, see if it convinces him to get the police out.”

“Gult giving you some grief? Tell him from me to pull his finger out,” said Lady Jane.

“Thanks, but I’m not sure that’ll help calm him down.”

“Ha. Maybe not. I...”

Suddenly the view of the travelling Vadram whip-panned upwards in a blur. The night sky swung into view, stars spiralling madly. Lady Jane swore viciously into the comm. Then an alarm sounded, another.

“Jane! Jane! Are you okay? What happened?”

The sharp retort of an energy discharge cut across the audio, and the comm screen dissolved into static.

“Jane! Lucy!”

“Dammit!” Lady Jane shouted. The comm screen was dead but the audio continued. The Beast’s engines whined in the background. “Some kind of anti-aircraft laser. Lucy? Sweetie? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, mum,” Lucy sounded strained. She was using her powers to pilot the Beast. “I have us.”

“Good girl. Get us out of here. Sorry, Grey, I know you need eyes on, but we can’t stay. The Beast is tough, but not designed to take hits like that. One blast fried half the control console. I hate to think what another would do.”

“Understood Captain, thanks for the help. Get the both of you back here.”

“That’s in my daughter’s hands now, but I know she can do it.”

“Thanks, mum. I’ve never tried controlling a ship this damaged, it’s taking a lot of concentration. The Beast is hurting.”

I nodded, though they likely couldn’t see. “Understood, Lucy. Sky Diamond. Get home safe.”

Lucy answered. “We’re on our way. But, Grey, you should know: I saw the beam that hit us. It wasn’t coalescing properly, it was kind of ragged and angry looking. Red and black. Just like you said.”

I turned back to Dez and Gadget Dude. “Gravestone is still alive.”