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THE FIRST SALVOES FROM the Adirondack had exploded around the Azrael’s Tear twenty minutes before they’d reached the perimeter of the Udukiin Priex. By the time it crossed into udukiin territory, the HMAS Newcastle had caught up and Singh’s pilot – a cadaverous blond man named, of all things, Crash – was sweating profusely as he dove and banked and performed evasive maneuvers with old-style control sticks.
"They’re getting really fucking close, Singh," said Sigurdsson, bracing herself against a bulkhead as an explosion rocked the small ship.
"Please keep your calm," said Singh.
"We’ve crossed into the Priex!" someone yelled.
"LiDAR on full alert. Visual spotters to your stations," said Singh, his deep, gravelly voice cutting through everything.
Whatever else she may have thought of the man, Sigurdsson couldn’t deny his aura of authority. As one of the designated visual spotters, she’d unquestioningly taken her spot at one of the observation ports – a circular window about as wide as her arm-span.
"No sign of intercept," she said as she looked at the empty starfield.
Not quite empty, she corrected herself. The Udukiin Priex was rich in planetoids and asteroid belts and, though she couldn’t see it yet, the infamous udukiin homeworld. If anyone knew its native name, it hadn’t become common knowledge, but its odd composition was well known. It was right there in what everyone but the udukiin called it – The Shattered World. Millions of years ago, the planet had fractured into two separate pieces, but those pieces had remained close enough together that they had retained the same orbit and even the same atmosphere. The udukiin had reportedly even built bridges between the halves of The Shattered World.
The Azrael’s Tear banked sharply again, dodging some weapons fire that Sigurdsson couldn’t see, and Jaeger huffed as he stumbled against her calf. Reaching down with her left hand, Sigurdsson rubbed his head reassuringly. At least she hoped it was reassuring.
Then one of the other spotters shouted and moments later Sigurdsson saw it: a large almost x-shaped vessel appearing and disappearing within the Priex asteroid field.
An udukiin warship bearing down on them.
The external comms crackled to life and for a moment, Sigurdsson expected to hear the blandly translated voice of an udukiin. Instead, she heard Vossek.
"Captain Singh, the udukiin have seen you and are moving into position. If you surrender now, we will help you escape."
Though Singh replied, Sigurdsson missed what he’d said. The buzzing in her head had exploded, flooding her mind with images and sounds and even smells and she somehow understood what was happening: the Matriarch was communicating with the alien warship. As she watched, the ship changed course sharply, heading to intercept the Adirondack and the Newcastle.
"Captain Singh," said Sigurdsson. "You need to get your ship and crew out of here while our pursuers are occupied. I’ll take the icaran shuttle to The Shattered World."
Singh turned and looked at her for a moment, then simply nodded before turning back to his screens.
Hurrying off the command deck, Sigurdsson stopped only briefly to grab her duffle bag – her duffle bag that represented all of her belongings – and her vayan pistol on her way to the small shuttle bay of the Azrael’s Tear. When she arrived, Elgrapharr and his commandos were already loading their gear onto the gleaming blue shuttle.
As she and Jaeger approached, the dog ran up to Elgrapharr and the tall icaran knelt to scratch him behind the ears.
"We can depart at your command," he said, looking up at Sigurdsson.
"You don’t have to come," she said. "I don’t know what to expect down there and you’ve more than covered your agreement with Radko."
"I would like to see The Shattered World," he said, standing. "And I would not like for you to die there."
At the mention of the planet, a feeling surged through Sigurdsson via the Matriarch that told her without a doubt she was doing the right thing.
Without another word she tossed her bag onto the shuttle and climbed in, Jaeger on her heels and Elgrapharr not far behind.
With Aylarr at the controls – strange, entirely holographic controls that Sigurdsson didn’t understand in the slightest – the icaran shuttle launched at a far faster speed than would otherwise have been advisable, just barely dodging rail gun fire from the Adirondack.
As they arced outwards and toward the planet, Sigurdsson felt another burst of emotion and images.
"You better be telling your people to leave Singh’s ship alone, too," she said quietly.
Glancing around, she was caught by a momentary wave of dizziness unrelated to the Matriarch. Somehow, the shuttle had become almost skeletal, the space and stars and asteroids around them becoming visible. Elgrapharr reached out a hand to steady her.
"It is holographic," he said. "To allow the pilot full field of vision."
Nodding, Sigurdsson took a deep breath and watched the asteroid field streak by. Looking aft, she saw the udukiin vessel engage the Adirondack, but saw the Newcastle in pursuit of the shuttle. At the edge of her vision, a second udukiin ship appeared.
"Don’t destroy the Commonwealth ship," she said to the Matriarch. "Scare them off, do whatever, but don’t do any serious damage. We’re already low on resources."
And again, she knew the Matriarch understood. It was amazing to Sigurdsson how quickly she’d begun to understand the Matriarch and it her.
She glanced down at Jaeger, sitting happily at her feet, watching space fly by, his tail wagging slowly. The dog's calm calmed her... to a certain extent.
"The Shattered World," said Aylarr.
Almost in unison, the icarans and Sigurdsson all turned toward the front of the shuttle.
And all of them stared.
Hearing the name ‘The Shattered World,’ one thought one knew what to expect. It would be a broken place, fractured into shards, where the hardy udukiin eked out their existence in an unforgiving landscape.
But it was none of that.
"It’s beautiful," said Sigurdsson, her voice barely a whisper. She felt a surge of agreement from the Matriarch.
The Shattered World. The place with a native name unpronounceable to any but the udukiin, looked like a paradise. Lush greens and reds and yellows covered nearly the entire surface, broken only by sparkling purple mountain ranges and deep blue oceans and rivers. And, of course, the jagged bisection of the planet, through which shone the light of its sun. The Shattered World was not what any of the shuttle’s occupants had expected. And, in that moment, with her connection to the Matriarch, Sigurdsson understood that the protection of their beautiful homeworld was one reason for the extreme territorial nature of the udukiin.
Having seen what many other species – humans especially – had done to their own homeworlds and to their colonies Sigurdsson couldn’t begrudge them their stance.
Just as suddenly as it had been cast, the spell was broken. The small shuttle bucked wildly from impact of weapons fire.
The Adirondack had managed to outmaneuver the larger udukiin ships and was again in pursuit of the shuttle.
"I’m taking us down," said Aylarr. "This will be a more rapid descent than preferable. I’d recommend securing yourselves."
The icarans immediately donned their battle helmets and Sigurdsson watched as they withdrew devices about the size of her head from the walls and secured them to the deck. Each icaran, save Elgrapharr and Ventaris, sat in front of a device and activated it, their bodies immediately being enveloped in an opaque force field. Elgrapharr clamped one to the deck in front of Sigurdsson and motioned for her to sit, while Ventaris did the same for Frankenstein. Sitting as instructed, Sigurdsson clutched Jaeger to her chest.
"I shall see you once we make planetfall," said Elgrapharr, then he activated her device and everything went dark.
Though she could see nothing, she could feel impacts striking the shuttle’s hull at regular intervals and then she felt the shuttle vibrating and then she could hear the shuttle vibrating. Sounds meant atmosphere. Which meant they’d-.
And then the shuttle slammed into the surface of The Shattered World.