On the way down to the hangar, Andy and Bache filled Ed in on everything that had happened while he was in Klatt custody.
‘So let me get this straight,’ said Ed, stepping out of the tube lift on deck ten. ‘We’re all dead and if either the Klatt or the GDA find out we’re not, then they’ll quickly ensure we are because we caused the destruction of a cruiser?’
Andy and Bache both looked at each other and nodded.
‘That’s about the sum of it,’ Andy said.
‘There’s something going on that we’re not a party too,’ said Bache. ‘And it all started with your abduction.’
‘And that Klatt cruiser out there,’ said Ed. ‘Groxl told me I was grabbed as payback for him losing the ship and there was to be a show trial on their home planet of Zee-Klatt III. He said they’d abandoned the ship before it got dragged into the system’s star.’
‘How did you end up on Uskrre?’ asked Andy.
‘Uskrre?’ Ed exclaimed. ‘What – as in Alpha Centauri?’
Bache and Andy nodded.
‘So that’s where we were, I had no idea,’ he said. ‘The ship Groxl was on was attacked and soldiers from a different clan came and grabbed us. I think they got a bit over-zealous with the takedown as a sudden hull breach had them changing plans and quickly bundling us into a lifeboat.’
‘I won’t bother asking what became of the soldiers,’ said Bache. ‘I presume it was their uniforms you were wearing?’
‘Yeah, they were ordered to kill us and bury the bodies,’ said Ed. ‘They obviously didn’t know about our internal translators.’
They all turned to look towards the starboard hangar.
‘Well, let’s hope he survived and can answer a few questions,’ said Bache. ‘Do you want me to grill him? I have a bit more experience in dealing with the Klatt mentality.’
‘He’s all yours,’ said Ed. ‘I’ll remain out of sight initially, see what he says about me and the fact his ship is still around. But be careful, Andy. He knows about our DOVIs and had a jammer that makes your head explode in agony if you activate it.’
Andy nodded as they arrived at the starboard hangar door.
‘Is it safe to enter, Cleo?’ Ed asked.
‘It is,’ she said. ‘But look out for any remaining carbon dioxide, as I used it to cool the ship’s hull down when it came aboard.’
The door de-materialised and they entered to find a twenty-metre, still steaming, almost smooth lozenge-shaped lump in the middle of the hangar floor.
‘Were we in time?’ Andy asked. ‘It looks really fucked up; all the extremities are burnt off.’
‘I’ll wait and listen in one of those,’ said Ed, moving away in the direction of the Gabriel’s nearest shuttle.
Andy circled the wreck and tried unsuccessfully to peer into the darkness through the front screen, before pointing at a rectangular indentation in the hull.
‘That looks like a hatch that would have been on the underside,’ he said. ‘The ship must be sitting on its port side.’
He tried feeling around for the lock mechanism with his DOVI, only to find a bunch of fried electronics.
‘Cleo, can you open this for us?’ he asked hopefully, looking up at the ceiling.
A narrow beam of intense laser light flashed down from a small protrusion high on the hangar roof. They both stepped back and shielded their eyes as it crept around the outline of the hatch. Twenty seconds had it completing its encirclement and returning back to where it had begun. As it did so the whole hatch dropped out and clattered noisily onto the hangar deck.
‘Mind the edges, darlings,’ said Cleo. ‘Still a trifle warm and if it’s any help, I’m detecting one unconscious life sign inside with a broken arm and a few lumps on his head. He has a laser pistol, but I’ve taken the liberty to disable it. Can I be of any other assistance?’
‘No, that’s excellent, Cleo – love your work,’ said Andy, sticking his head through the hatch and peering up towards the cockpit.
‘Can you see him?’ Bache asked.
‘Yeah, he doesn’t look very well, we might actually need to get him up to an auto nurse.’
They bound his legs and unbroken arm, hooded him and carried him up to the medical suite. He woke halfway and began wriggling and mumbling about traitorous Spleeta, which they just ignored and Cleo was able to secure him in one of the auto nurses that immediately began working on his arm and other various injuries.
Ed joined them again and stood directly behind the auto nurse where he couldn’t be seen. He nodded at Andy to remove the hood.
Groxl’s piercing eyes roamed slowly around the room, settling on Andy and Bache.
‘Who are you and what the hell are you doing with a Klatt cruiser?’ he snarled. ‘Why did you fire on me?’
‘My name is Commander Bache Loftt,’ said Bache, softly. ‘I’m afraid you have a few details wrong about what just happened. You are now on a civilian GDA-registered vessel and we just saved your life, Captain Groxl.’
‘How d’you know my name?’
‘We watched you illegally abduct Edward Virr and his assistant from his home on planet Earth.’
‘He had to answer for his crimes against the Klatt Empire, something that is no business of yours.’
‘And what crime might that be?’ Bache asked.
‘I don’t have to answer to you.’
‘No, you don’t have to say anything – but I’ll bet you’d like a few answers though. Like, why did your replacement ship get attacked and destroyed soon after you took possession of Captain Virr? and why did the Spleeta arrest and imprison you when you entered the dome on Uskrre? Most of all though, I’d like to know why you lied to Captain Virr about your original ship being lost?’
‘We were forced to abandon it, of course it was lost. That DOVI thing he had completely fried our drive software, leaving the ship heading straight into the gravity well of the local star.’
‘Then why is that same ship sitting above Uskrre? The same ship that fired on you as you approached one of its hangars not too long ago?’
Groxl’s eyes widened.
‘Impossible,’ he spat. ‘You’re lying.’
‘Cleo, can you provide the captain a view of the Klatt cruiser above Uskrre, please.’
A holographic image of the vessel appeared above them, moving slowly as it followed the rotation of the planet.
‘That’s a different ship,’ Groxl snapped.
The image zoomed in on its identification code, XXIV (ZX) painted adjacent to the bow airlock. Bache and Andy turned to stare at Groxl. There was a barely discernible change in his resolute expression, it was just the slightest look of doubt for a second and then it was gone.
‘That’s not the same ship,’ he growled. ‘That’s just been painted on.’
Cleo changed the view to the ship’s main array that clearly showed recent repair work, where, at the time of the attack, Ed had turned one of the ship’s laser cannons back on itself and badly damaged it.
‘It’s definitely the same ship, Groxl,’ Bache reiterated.
‘It can’t be,’ he said. ‘You weren’t there.’
‘No, he wasn’t,’ said Ed, stepping out where Groxl could see him. ‘But I was – and so was that gentleman there,’ he pointed at Andy. ‘And so was our ship’s computer that confirms it’s the same vessel. So, we’ll ask you again, why are you lying and what was the real reason you kidnapped me, and then, down on the planet, you murdered my assistant Pol?’
Groxl was clearly getting flustered now. His eyes had nearly bugged out of his head when Ed had stepped into view. The defiance had evaporated as he appeared nervous for the first time and kept looking between Ed and the hologram. His mouth opened, then closed again, twice.
‘Any time you feel like explaining, Captain. The stage is yours,’ said Bache.
‘This is a joke,’ he mumbled eventually. ‘It has to be. I and my crew abandoned that ship several hours after our altercation. We had to wait for a rescue vessel to reach us and as for murdering someone, it can’t possibly have been me. I picked up a laser pistol off a dead Spleeta soldier, but I never fired it.’
‘No,’ said Ed. ‘You fired your ship’s cannon though, didn’t you?’
Andy stepped over to Pol’s auto nurse and touched an icon on the control panel. The opaque cover cleared so Groxl could see her lifeless body.
‘And that was the result,’ he said.
Ed would have sworn Groxl’s leathery skin went a shade paler.
‘The armoured truck,’ he said, almost in a whisper. ‘I thought it was about to ram that ship that was doing me a favour and attacking the Spleeta.’
All three of them shook their heads slowly.
‘That was me driving that vehicle,’ said Ed. ‘Trying to escape the Spleeta and my friend here landing the ship to pick us up.’
‘Oh,’ was all Groxl could mumble.
‘And while we’re at it,’ said Bache, pointing at Uskrre on the holomap, ‘what was that fleet of ships doing out here concealed under that dome?’
‘That’s classified,’ Groxl said, avoiding eye contact. ‘It would be a death sentence for me.’
‘As far as the Klatt Empire is concerned, Captain, you’re already dead. Dead men can’t be killed again.’
Groxl seemed to chew on that for a moment.
‘They didn’t see you rescue my ship?’
‘No,’ said Bache. ‘A hologram of your ship burnt up and exploded in the upper atmosphere.’
‘Why would you want to protect an empire that wants you dead, anyway?’ said Ed.
Groxl exhaled, shrugged and seemed to come to a decision.
‘It was a mothballed invasion fleet,’ he said, dejectedly.
‘Mothballed?’ said Bache. ‘For how long?’
‘Er – about a hundred and fifty of your years.’
‘Invasion of where?’ asked Ed.
‘The Sol system.’
‘What?’ both Ed and Andy said in unison.
‘You mean, Earth,’ said Bache, as the other two, who’d reeled back, recovered.
Groxl nodded.
‘It got cancelled because the habitable planet suddenly started getting too warm for us,’ he said.
Ed and Andy glanced at each other.
‘Well, fuck me,’ said Andy. ‘You mean, global warming actually saved the human race from an alien invasion and mass genocide?’
Groxl nodded again.
‘Our predictions had shown the planet was on the verge of slipping into another ice age and we were to get rid of the backward indigenous race and claim it for ourselves, long before you became spacefaring.’
‘That was during the Victorian era,’ said Andy, shrugging at Ed. ‘They wouldn’t have stood a chance.’
‘What about the GDA?’ Ed asked. ‘Surely they wouldn’t have let you get away with that.’
‘They were busy elsewhere.’
Ed and Andy turned to face Bache.
‘He’s right,’ said Bache. ‘I remember my GDA history lessons. The Tellemat conflict had the navy at full stretch on the other side of the galaxy during that time. We wouldn’t even have known about it, or been able to help even if we did.’