Vila’s arms ached with the effort of helping Klagga manhandle Travis down into the teleport room. Klagga went first, his hands hooked beneath Travis’s armpits, Vila behind with his arms clutched around the Federation’s officer’s legs.
They moved through the entryway into the teleport room. Travis, trussed up like an Arcalian ostrich. The image would normally have been amusing, but he was too preoccupied with the device lashed to Travis’s chest. While it gave him a sort of perverse pleasure to see a weapon of enormous destructive capability tied to a man who wanted to kill him and his friends, the countdown bleeping happily away to itself, did not. The numbers flared ever down towards zero with each bleep.
8 MINUTES 30 SECONDS
8 MINUTES 29 SECONDS
8 MINUTES 28 SECONDS
Vila had a vague understanding of what would happen when this thing detonated. Lant seemed to think they’d be long gone by the time it happened, but what if they weren’t? What if the pursuit ships attacked? What if Blake stormed the flight deck just as they were trying to leave? A lot could happen in eight minutes.
Klagga stepped down from the entryway into the teleport room, backing further in to allow Vila to step after him. The tall brute looked around with uncertain eyes. ‘Over there,’ said Vila, indicating the silver-walled recess opposite the teleport control console.
They didn’t even know the range of the thing. The only time one had been tested, it had caused that nebula. Even if they did get away, would they be able to outrun the wave? And what about the inhabited worlds in this system? It wasn’t just Space Command. Wouldn’t they be affected too? Millions of people, trapped within the cloud. Blake would never sanction such a weapon. Could he follow a man who would? Suddenly the world didn’t seem so black and white, which was a shame, because grey just wasn’t his colour.
Klagga grunted and shuffled backwards, his boots stepping onto the teleport pad.
‘That’s it,’ said Vila, dropping Travis’s boots to the deck and darting to the teleport. ‘I need to prime the system. Hold him.’
Klagga did what he was told, lowering the Federation officer to the floor and waiting unwittingly as Vila activated the controls. With a loud chime, the silver panels at either side of the pad thrummed into life, the rest of the chamber falling into darkness. The Arklaxian glanced around, concern flashing over his heavy features.
‘Don’t worry,’ Vila said, snatching up a teleport bracelet from the rack, ‘this is all normal. Here, put this on Travis.’
He flung the bracelet forward, deliberately letting his aim go wide. It clattered to the back of the pad. ‘Sorry,’ Vila apologised, ‘I’ve always thrown like a girl. Could you get that for me?’
Klagga growled beneath his breath, obviously wondering what kind of idiot he was working with, and stepped to the back of the pad, stooping to pick up the bracelet. This was it. As soon as the bracelet was in Klagga’s hand, Vila brought his hand down fast on the console, pulling back on two coloured switches. Klagga’s body began to blur and twist as a throbbing, pulse filled the air, the room crackling with energy. Seconds later, Klagga’s body had dispersed into nothing, his molecules teased apart piece by piece.
‘Ha,’ Vila cried out to no-one in particular. You were working with a heroic idiot, Klagga, old son. Who knew?
Certainly not Vila.
But now was not the time to celebrate. Now was the time to defuse a bomb.
*
Lant turned his revolver over in his hand. How many times had he taken this apart and cleaned it over the years? How many times had it saved his life? How many lives had it taken? He looked up and reached out towards the Liberator’s gun rack, taking one of the sleek blasters in his other hand.
They looked so different. One was a relic of a bygone age, the other a promise of an exciting new future. A ghost of a smile played on his lips as he listened to the sounds of the Liberator, letting himself be cocooned in its symphony. The sound of freedom.
Grabbing a recharging pack, Lant walked purposely back to the front of the flight deck, throwing the revolver down on the row of cream seats.
With a flourish, he pulled the belt around his waist, plugged the cord into the gun and tested its weight in his hand. Farrow Lant was ready for the future.
‘INFORMATION,’ Zen boomed, the lights from the dome dancing across Lant’s face. ‘LIBERATOR NOW AT A DISTANCE OF ONE MILLION SPACIALS FROM SPACE COMMAND. RUNNING AT A SPEED OF STANDARD BY 12.
‘Keep us at this speed and reduce speed when we are at a distance of 10,000 spacials from target.’
‘CONFIRMED.’
Lant breathed in and out, a moment of satisfaction as he looked around the empty flight deck of this incredible ship.
His ship.
He completed a full circle and brought his eyes back to the viewscreen, which showed the Liberator’s distance from Space Command. A distance that was closing with every second, every second bringing him closer to the rebirth of Farrow Lant.
This was a good day.
‘Farrow.’
Lant froze where he stood. That voice. It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t. Staring wide-eyed at the two figures who had made their way onto the flight deck. At Mikel. Gangly. Terrified. Unnatural.
And behind him…
Alexa.
She was here. On board the Liberator. But that meant…
‘Where’s Blake?’
‘Is that all you can say to me? Where’s Blake? Is that it?’
His hand dropped to his gun.
‘What else is there?’
Alexa’s eyes narrowed.
‘Where’s your revolver?’
‘Replaced.’
‘But you love that gun.’
‘It’s a new dawn, Alexa.’
She was walking towards him now, slowly, uncertainly, clutching Mikel’s long, freakish hand. How had she got back on board? There was obviously something wrong about her. The way she walked, leaning for support on the stations she passed. She seemed unsteady on her feet. Had she been injured? An angry purple bruise had spread across her forehead. Where had she got that?
‘You need to stop this,’ she said quietly, reaching the lower deck. ‘Change the ship’s course.’
‘Why?’
‘Because you’re free.’ Alexa looked down to Mikel then back to Lant. ‘We are free. All those years of isolation, and now we have a chance for a new life.’
Lant gestured around the flight deck. ‘This is my life. It was my life the day I boarded the space station and it hasn’t changed. The man I was that day is the man I am today! Nothing changed that. Not even you.’
‘I never stopped trying.’
‘Then you were a fool. I used you. And you were willing. At first, I thought you gave yourself to me to keep you and that fool Karter alive. It’s what I would have done in your place. But I soon realised. However much of a monster I was, you couldn’t stop yourself from wanting me.’ Lant stepped up close to Alexa, Mikel instinctively shrinking back, shielding his face against the blow he assumed was coming.
Alexa didn’t flinch, but tears glistened in her hazy eyes. ‘The three of us. Together. A new life, a proper family.’
Lant shook his head. ‘Even after all this time, you’re still trying to make me love you.’
‘I hate myself for it,’ said Alexa, ‘but I’ll never stop trying.’
*
As soon as Vyse crumpled to the floor, Jenna fired. Halla cried out as the bullet slammed into his shoulder, blood spraying over the wall behind him. He staggered back, still clutching his gun. He slammed into the wall and, screaming like a banshee, fired wildly down the corridor, the report of his rifle like a thunderclap in the corridor. Jenna hurled herself aside, the bullet ripping a gouge into the wall with a metallic clang.
Blake had no idea if Jenna had been hit as he dropped to the floor and rolled away from Vyse’s corpse. Leylana and Rinney were firing indiscriminately down the corridor, their guns screaming with energy, forcing Cally and Gan back around the corner. The air above his head boiled with the heat of the discharge from their guns. So much for Lant’s boot camps, Blake thought as he brought his weapon up in one fluid movement and loosed off a shot. He fired and watched Rinney lift off her feet as the round smashed into her chest. She was dead before she hit the ground.
He swung his sights around to Leylana and squeezed the trigger. The dilapidated carbine clicked once, but didn’t fire. He saw Leylana grin wolfishly, knowing full well that she had him. Her weapon came to bare, and Blake’s muscles tensed against the blast he knew was coming as a shriek filled the air. Leylana’s face creased with surprise as her back arched, the gun tumbling from her hand. Her body went limp and pitched forward, her knees buckling beneath her.
Avon stepped forward, Rinney’s gun still outstretched in his hand, and bent down to retrieve Leylana’s weapon. He snatched it up and threw it casually across the corridor to Blake.
‘Halla’s gone,’ he reported calmly, as if that was all that needed to be said. Sure enough, the stretch of wall daubed by the blood and filthy matter from Halla’s shoulder was empty.
Blake caught the gun and got to his feet. Cally emerged from around the corner and helped Jenna to her feet, while Gan kept his rifle up and ready, in case Halla was planning to make a reappearance.
Blake looped the gun belt around his waist and walked towards Avon. The two men met in the middle of the corridor, the metallic bite of energy discharge still heavy in the air.
‘Let’s finish this,’ Blake said, looking Avon straight in the eye. ‘Are you with me?’
The corner of Avon’s mouth twitched up into that familiar sardonic smile. ‘Did you ever doubt it?’
*
LIBERATOR IS NOW WITHIN 10,000 SPACIALS OF FEDERATION SPACE COMMAND.’
Zen’s announcement broke the spell between Lant and Alexa. Lant moved quickly to the centre of the flight deck. ‘Drop our speed to Standard by one and hold us off at this distance.’
‘CONFIRMED.’
The pitch of the engines changed as the Liberator’s speed reduced, Lant swaying as he stared up intently at the viewscreen.
‘Zen, show me Space Command,’ ordered Lant and the viewscreen shifted, morphing from the tactical display to show a glittering starfield. In the centre hung Space Command, one large metal ring, turning slowly on its axis.
Lant’s eyes shone as he looked at his target. ‘At last, he breathed. ‘Look, Alexa. For all your denial, this is what we dreamt about.’
Alexa backed away from her husband, shaking her head slowly from side to side, Mikel as always at her side. Lant’s face twisted into a snarl and he lunged towards Alexa, pulling her viciously towards him. Mikel howled mournfully as Lant dragged Alexa into the centre of the flight deck. She gasped as he pulled her hair back hard, a frightened tear trickling a shining rivulet down her cheek.
‘Look at it,’ he screamed at her.
Lant moved in close to Alexa, his rough lips brushing against her cheek. ‘20 years,’ he whispered. ‘20 years abandoned and forgotten. This is our chance for revenge, Alexa, revenge on those who left us there to decay and rot. After this day, the Federation will never forget the name Farrow Lant.’
As Alexa sobbed, Mikel launched himself across the flight deck towards his father with an anguished cry, the fear in his eyes gone. Now there was only hatred. He cannoned into Lant’s back, raining blow after blow down on the man who had been his tormentor.
Lant released his hold on Alexa and wheeled with a bellow of rage. Mikel fell to the floor and Lant raised up his arm, bringing his fist down hard on the boy. Once. Twice. Mikel screamed in pain and scuttled spiderlike to the front seats, desperately trying to hide himself beneath them.
‘No!’ screamed Alexa. Her son was curled in a sobbing ball.
‘Freak,’ shouted Lant, moving to flick a switch at the side of the couch. ‘Klagga,’ he said, breathing through white flecks of spittle. ‘Prepare to teleport our package.’ The comm-unit remained silent. Lant pressed the call button again. ‘Klagga? Where the hell are you?’ Lant turned at a movement from the back of the flight deck.
‘Lant!’ The haggard form of Halla sprinted onto the flight deck, blood flowing from a wound at his shoulder. ‘We’re finished. It’s…’
A shriek screamed out across the flight deck, cutting Halla off as the words died in his throat. His entire body was slammed forward by some unseen force and he crashed to the deck. Lant looked up from the unmoving body with shocked eyes.
Roj Blake stood framed in the entryway, his blaster raised high.