Forty-eight
An image took form in Lee Wokan's unfocused field of
view and startled him. He sat up and straightened his collar.
"Lord Gaston."
He had been daydreaming, giving his pressured mind a
chance to relax and contemplate pleasant impossibilities. Gaston's image
had appeared upon the wall screen unexpectedly.
"The dreadnoughts Amikol and Sereeb have arrived at
your position," Gaston said mildly. "Even so, problems are developing.
Many of the colonies have become openly defiant of Alliance policy
regarding matters of treason. Expect colonial vessels to arrive in our
area to interfere with operations against Covonia. Do with them as you
see fit. Finish your mission and return immediately to the core worlds."
"I have command of the dreadnoughts?"
Lee Wokan said incredulously.
"You have the authority to direct their activities
within your sphere of operations. Do what you can to quell this
disturbance. We’ll deal with consequence later."
"I'll get back to you shortly, my Lord."
Before Lee managed a line of communication to the
dreadnoughts, an incoming message interceded. Responding to the priority
code, an unfamiliar face took form on his screens. "I am Commander
Biester of the Amikol. I have been told I answer to you directly, Agent
Wokan. Immediately upon our arrival, a Hive craft appeared from nowhere
directly off our port bow. The MI in control of the vehicle is not part
of the Hive web. It informs me that it carries two passengers, Jeremy
Kael and Myla Rhodes."
Lee shot to his feet. "In the name of all the gods,
destroy them!"
Biester frowned. "Not within the defensive fields of
the Amikol. I would have to release the craft first, and they may escape
if I do so."
"Don’t let them escape,” Lee said, calm but emphatic.
Biester's expression remained passive. "A
coincidental emergence of a craft so close to the Amikol is not within the
range of possibility. I must assume the craft was placed here for a
purpose by an outside agency. We may be in unseen danger."
It hardly mattered. Bait was being dangled before
his eyes. He could not resist the temptation. Myla Rhodes needed to be
destroyed. He had no way to contain her, and he dared not let her
escape. He would have to try to follow through-- at any cost or
consequence.
"I'll transfer to the Amikol immediately," Lee said.
"Under no circumstances are you to engage the vessel or its occupants.
I’ll handle this myself."
Lee mulled through his options. "Open an isolated
communications channel to this craft for me."
Lee could see it in the eyes of the girl's image that
took form on his screen. Defeat. And anxiety in the expression of Jeremy
Kael. "Please don't hurt Jeremy," Myla said, entirely aware of the
hopelessness of her situation.
"Release the boy to my custody," Lee said. ”He will be interrogated. I have no reason to harm
him.”
Jeremy walked up to the screen. "You'll kill her,
you bastard!"
Lee reconsidered. He needed the girl to remain
calm. "Very well. Accompany her if you wish."
Jeremy Kael mistook the concession as assurance.
"Your craft will be docked and shut down entirely
before you disembark," Lee said. "Do not attempt to resist at any stage
of your apprehension. I will meet you in a security chamber directly off
the docking bay. Please remember that this entire area is sealed by a
secondary field and can be jettisoned and destroyed within fractions of a
second."
Lee Wokan hurried, but it took
the best part of a standard hour to transfer from the destroyer Eimaton to
the formidable dreadnought Amikol. There, he met the ice-faced
Commander Biester face to face and found the man far more willing to play
the role of executioner and suffering none of the pangs of guilt of the
sentimental Yelsim of the Eimaton. A writ of execution had been
issued for Covonia. Myla Rhodes fell within its authority.
"What she did to the Hive, she
could do to us, given the time," Lee said. "I've never killed
before, but this thing is not human, and I must ensure that it is safely
disposed of." He gave Biester a grim smile. "If it was just my
life on the line, I'd let your people handle it, but the girl has come
close to costing me my career."
Biester unholstered a sidearm and handed it to him.
"Do you know how to use it?"
"That's a subnuclear dephaser," Lee said more than a little
apprehensively.
"Modified for on-board use. It will not damage a
bulkhead."
Lee Wokan accepted the side arm thinking that Myla
Rhodes had become a figure of historical notoriety. His name, too, would
go down in the records as the man who had killed the second and last of
the Dalikor manifestations. "Let's get this over with," he murmured, and
followed Biester through the final set of security airlocks to the docking
area.
He didn't have much time to think about what had to
be done. By the time they arrived and were sealed within the security
area, an airlock had opened at the far end of the chamber and two young
people climbed the slope of a ramp to their level, a young man and a
tow-headed child. Both parties caught sight of their counterparts at
the same
moment. Lee Wokan brought the weapon to bear on the girl. His heart beat
furiously, fearing she would bolt at the last moment and attack him at
superhuman speed.
He fired.
The weapon made no discernible noise, nor did it emit
a visible discharge. Myla Rhodes, the scourge of the known galaxy, simply
evaporated in a sudden dense cloud of carbon particles. The cloud
engulfed Jeremy Kael momentarily, then sent him staggering back in
confusion, choking violently. Black coils of smoke rose to the ceiling
vents and vanished, leaving nothing but two grotesque pair of tiny legs
from the knees down toppling to the floor.
Commander Biester wrenched the weapon from his
paralyzed fist. Lee glanced at him in a fugue of confusion, caught in a
conflict of powerful emotions. He had never killed before. He had given
no thought to what he was doing. Had he even believed it possible that he
might succeed.
Jeremy Kael was screaming hysterically and running in
frantic circles, not looking at what had been done to the girl, deranged
by the horror of it.
"An interesting reaction," Biester commented
absently, staring at the remains of the girl. "A human body is consumed
in a far cleaner fashion, cloud of steam and far less residue. This
was not human."
Lee felt sick at his stomach. The sense of triumph
and victory he had expected to feel were missing entirely. From the
perspective of his own five physical senses, he had just cold-bloodedly
murdered a helpless child. He had seen the look in her eyes the moment
before he had pulled the trigger. She had known she was about to die.
She had accepted it.
Lee turned and fled back through the airlocks,
beating a few times on the unyielding metal with his fists before they
opened and allowed him an avenue of escape. Fearing Biester would follow
and witness the extent of his upset, he took a side corridor to the
maintenance tunnels, paused to study a three-dimensional map, then
selected an alternate route back to his own nearby transport. The two
kilometer journey back to the Eimaton gave him far too much time to think.
The next time he looked into a mirror, he was going
to see the face of a stranger. He wasn't going to like what he had
became. There was no blood on his hands, perhaps no visible evidence or
record that he had fired the dephaser, but the guilt he was feeling was
not going to wash clean. It occurred to him that he'd not be able to
interrogate Jeremy Kael in person. He'd leave it up to Biester to dispose
of the boy and the courier.
But she was dead, he had killed her, and Khalin Nome
had gotten away with nothing. The damage Khalin’s oversight had caused
Lee’s career was now corrected. Lord Gaston's confidence in him would be
restored.
He returned to his office aboard the destroyer
Eimaton to inform Lord Gaston that the danger had passed. "Complete your
mission and return the dreadnoughts to the core worlds," Gaston ordered.
Lee opened a second screen to the bridge of the
dreadnought. "Commander Biester, you may commence firing upon your
predefined targets."
Biester's turned to face him on the bridge.
"Additional Hive forces have arrived. Also, vehicles of colonial design
stand between the dreadnoughts and the Covonian colonies."
"Anything to challenge the authority of our
dreadnoughts?"
"Nothing of consequence.”
"Commence firing. Destroy anything that resists or
intercedes."
Lee turned back to Lord Gaston. "We're cleaning up
here, my Lord. We'll be headed back to the core worlds quite soon."
Gaston severed the connection without comment. Lee
smiled weakly at the darkened screen.
Touché.
