BK> They’re scared.

  JN> Not of us.

  BK> Nope. They don’t want to go to the lower levels of Isob-2.

  JN> Maybe they won’t have to. Not if whoever is in charge plans to let that planet buster off any time soon.

  BK> They’re in the dark like we are. Not just the soldiers – all of the Estral.

  JN> Was that a Psi premonition?

  BK> Not a full one. Just a hint.

  JN> That has me worried.

  BK> It has me worried too.

  The lift took an age to climb to the hangar level. Usually, an airlift could travel hundreds of metres in only a few seconds, so whatever was afflicting this one, it was serious. Nation guessed it was running on backup power, along with the rest of the facility. Not only that, he was sure the backup power was failing or at least partially malfunctioning. Eventually, the lifts and doors would stop working entirely, along with everything else tapping into the backup generators. He had an unwanted thought.

  JN> What if they can’t get the main hangar doors open?

  BK> Let’s pretend that hurdle doesn’t exist until we reach it.

  The lift stopped and for a few seconds, the doors didn’t open. Lieutenant Mack swiped the panel twice before the doors finally slid halfway to the side.

  “Out,” said Mack.

  Nation was able to get through the doors first and he emerged into the hangar bay. It was far more crowded than last time and he thought there might be another six or seven large shuttles. In addition, a fully-fledged, older-style light cruiser, pushing five hundred metres in length, was parked against the far wall. The spaceship’s upper section loomed over the other, much smaller vessels.

  “What the hell have they brought that here for?” asked RL Griffin.

  JN> Ideas?

  BK> Beats me.

  There were hundreds of Estral soldiers moving amongst the shuttles, dressed in their battle suits and every one of them carried some kind of armament. Nation spotted a row of plasma repeater artillery guns, along with crates of ammunition stacked next to one wall.

  The Estral came from the lift and the lead alien spoke. “You will wait here.”

  “We would prefer to find our shuttle and leave,” said Mack coldly.

  “You will wait here,” repeated the alien. This time the threat was clear.

  “What’s happening?” said Hunter across the open channel.

  “These soldiers don’t have the authority to simply let us go. They are waiting for Koltar-Reon or someone else,” said Keller. “Then they’ll start asking questions.”

  “They can’t do this!” said Spinks.

  “Have you had your eyes closed for the last two days?” snapped Mack.

  “They don’t have the right,” persisted Spinks.

  “Be quiet,” said Nation, the steadiness of his tones unable to disguise his simmering anger.

  Spinks shut his mouth.

  It was an uncomfortable wait. Ten minutes passed and then twenty. Enny Hunter and Lola Fletcher sat with their backs against the hangar wall, adjacent to the airlifts. Keller stood impassively, exuding a calm she didn’t entirely feel. Using the base comms antenna, she checked in with the SC Gundar.

  “Teal, how are things?”

  “There are actually fewer Estral ships here than when we first arrived, ma’am. A group of nine performed a lightspeed transit not fifteen minutes ago. Those which remain are pretending the Gundar does not exist.”

  “Any news from base?”

  “Only what you know, ma’am.”

  Keller frowned. “They haven’t responded to your updates?”

  “Not that I am aware.”

  “Someone in high command has their head buried in the sand.”

  “I am not permitted to offer a subjective opinion on the matter, ma’am.”

  “Of course not. Anyway, we’re evacuating, assuming the Estral don’t conjure up obstacles.”

  “I can open those hangar doors if you require.”

  “It might come to that.”

  While Keller talked, Nation took himself off to explore under the cover of his stealth cloak. He didn’t want to go too far in case the Estral commanding officer showed up, but he had some checking to do. There were plenty of Estral and spacecraft, but the hangar bay was large enough that there was no danger one of the aliens might stumble into him.

  He located the shuttles belonging to the SC Gundar and the SC Givens. They were both sealed and with no sign of tampering. Nation was trained to be suspicious and he ran a quick diagnostic check over the vessels in case the Estral had planted charges on the hulls. He turned up blank on all known explosive substances.

  BK> I just realised something.

  JN> Don’t keep me in suspense.

  BK> What are all these Estral doing?

  Nation paused and watched a few different groups. It dawned on him.

  JN> They aren’t exactly getting ready to leave, but they aren’t heading to the lower levels either.

  BK> What do you think that means?

  JN> They’ve either contained the threat, or they’ve given up on containing it and are waiting for something to happen.

  BK> That’s what I think.

  JN> What about that group we saw near the comms hub? It looked like they were heading down, not up.

  BK> Maybe the orders just came through.

  JN> Conclusions?

  BK> I was hoping you would have some.

  JN> I’ll let you know.

  BK> There are some Estral heading our way. You’d better get back here.

  Nation broke off the neural link, ducked under a nearby shuttle and ran towards the airlift. He reached RRT Alpha at the same time as a group of twenty Estral. The aliens spread out in a semi-circle around the humans. These ones carried plasma repeaters, which were shockingly effective weapons at close-to-medium range and which could bring down a small shuttle if given sufficient time.

  The soldiers were led by another Estral, this one close to eight feet in height. His spacesuit was identical to the others, except for a green, rectangular badge on the shoulder. He carried no gun.

  JN> An admiral, or the Estral equivalent.

  BK> Koltar-Reon must have been muscled out.

  JN> I’m not surprised.

  BK> Let’s hope this new one is not well-informed.

  The lead Estral made a rumbling, growling sound, to suggest he would happily strangle everyone in RRT Alpha if he could get away with it. His hatred of humanity roiled out like a physical wave and he snarled. Nation clenched his fists tightly. It was Estral like this one who were responsible for war after war, death heaped upon more death.

  Nation watched and waited to see what would happen.

  Chapter Nine

  The conversation began predictably enough.

  “I am Redar-Finor and you are human shit.”

  Lieutenant Mack quailed at the outright hostility. Not so, Lieutenant Keller. She took a single step forward and kept her eyes fixed directly on Redar-Finor.

  “Shut up and listen! We are leaving here and you will not impede us! We will return to our shuttles and you will order the hangar bay doors to open.”

  For a human, this would have been a challenge. With the Estral it was different and if you didn’t stand up to them – within reason and following a set of nuanced rules – then you lost face.

  “Treat me with respect or I will destroy your shuttles and your spaceships afterwards.”

  “Your threats are unimportant, but here is my promise; the SC Gundar will annihilate this facility if we are not permitted to leave. Your spaceships lack the capability to prevent it.”

  “One ship amongst many,” growled Redar-Finor.

  Keller recognized the concession underlying the words – the early exchanges of the conversation were over and now they might be able to move on to the details of an agreement.

  “Our inspection is complete, though not to our satisfaction.”

  “There is nothing here to find, human.”

  “That is for our superiors to decide. You will order the hangar doors open.”

  Keller saw Redar-Finor’s eyes narrowing. “I was told to expect fourteen of you. I count eleven.”

  The Estral had been waiting for the right moment to drop that one in.

  Keller thought quickly. “They will follow later with our number cruncher and sniffer. We will send the shuttle for them.”

  There was a collective holding of breath. It was possible Redar-Finor was unaware of the murder of Sasso and Bonner, or simply might not think it important. The Estral played by different rules and it wasn’t always easy to guess what they were thinking, especially the more intelligent ones like this admiral. Keller allowed her psi powers to brush across the Estral’s upper consciousness and she saw at once that he knew. Redar-Finor was fully aware of the murders and though he was curious about the third missing member of RRT Alpha, the Estral didn’t especially care one way or another.

  JN> What’s up?

  BK> I’m pretty sure Redar-Finor ordered the murders. The only thing stopping him killing us is the threat of the SC Gundar destroying the facility.

  JN> I didn’t know the Estral cared so much for their miserable skins.

  BK> Something’s worrying him.

  In the split second it took for the neural exchange to take place, Redar-Finor reached a decision.

  “Go, otherwise I will have you killed.”

  Keller addressed the others across the open channel. “Move, before he changes his mind. Don’t act grateful and whatever you do, don’t offer thanks.”

  They strode past the Estral soldiers. One or two of the aliens made aggressive movements with their guns. Keller ignored them, but a couple of her companions flinched.

  “Lieutenant Mack, do you know which way you’re going?” she asked.

  “Yes, our shuttle is over this way.”

  They passed two Estral shuttles and then the group split. It was clear most of RRT Alpha were finding it hard to stay calm and Keller kept her fingers crossed they’d keep it together until they reached the SC Givens.

  BK> Watch them.

  JN> On it.

  Nation followed the group of investigators towards their boxy, lightly-armoured shuttle. The Estral didn’t attempt to stop them and most of the alien soldiers acted like the group of humans didn’t exist.

  “Here goes,” said Mack, activating the shuttle’s side door. It dropped smoothly open to reveal the brightly-lit interior. The readings on Nation’s sensor told him it was much warmer inside than it was in the bay.

  “Take off and wait for Lieutenant Keller’s word,” he advised.

  “I’ll be so glad to get out of here,” said Hunter.

  The group climbed onboard and the door closed behind them. Nation turned at once and jogged to where the SC Gundar’s much smaller, sleeker shuttle was berthed. Keller was already inside and the craft lifted off vertically, with Nation still fifty metres away. The shuttle hung in the air, with the barrels of its massive chaingun aimed directly at the place where Redar-Finor and his group of soldiers stood watching.

  Keller spun the barrels up, without firing.

  JN> Nice touch.

  BK> It’s the kind of thing the Estral appreciate.

  The second shuttle was still planted on the ground. Nation focused his sensor to try and pick up how warm the vessel’s engines were. There was too much going on in the bay and he got a garbled reading. He linked to its comms.

  “How long?”

  “Not long,” said Mack.

  Keller joined the channel. “I’m waiting for confirmation from the base mainframe that it’s going to open the doors.”

  The shuttle carrying RRT Alpha finished its brief warmup and it, too, rose into the air. It was an older model than the one from the Gundar, but there was nothing slow or ponderous about it and it could carry many more passengers. The only thing it lacked was design flair and a nose gun, not that they’d be shooting their way through the enormous bay doors.

  Minutes passed and Nation became progressively more concerned that the Estral were about to change their minds. His mood wasn’t helped by another development.

  “That light cruiser just locked on with its missiles,” said Keller.

  “It’s locked on to us as well,” said Mack. Her voice was an octave higher than normal. She was out of her depth and struggling to stay afloat. “They won’t fire at us in here, will they?”

  It would get messy if the cruiser launched high-explosives in the hangar bay. Past experience suggested the Estral didn’t mind a few friendly-fire kills and would probably do whatever they wanted.

  “Don’t worry,” said Keller soothingly. “It’s only for show.”

  Just when Nation was wondering if the bay doors had a manual element he should go and check out, a siren started. The noise was loud and piercing, and it filled the bay.

  “Got clearance!” said Keller.

  Lieutenant Mack wasn’t ready to be reassured. “The cruiser is still locked on.”

  “Ignore it.”

  Slowly, and with a deep, uneven vibration, the hangar doors slid apart. Nation crouched at the nose of an Estral shuttle and craned his neck to watch. There was nothing smooth about the movement of the alloy slabs and at one point, he was sure they would grind to a halt.

  Keller didn’t wait for the doors to reach the end of their travel. Once the aperture was wide enough for the shuttle, she took the craft straight through the gap. Nation knew she had skill, but seeing how tight the margins were left him impressed.

  Lieutenant Mack was a competent pilot and nothing more. She waited fifteen seconds longer and then guided the larger shuttle into the upper airlock.

  “Those missiles are still locked,” she said.

  The inner hangar doors opened completely and the two shuttles remained suspended in the upper space. Keller positioned her own craft to cut out the cruiser’s firing angle. In reality, it didn’t matter – the Estral missiles travelled so fast that their guidance systems might not be able to make the turn, but the detonation of the warheads would be more than enough to reduce the shuttles to molten wreckage.

  After a short delay, the hangar doors began closing with an equal lack of speed. Nation watched the aperture become progressively narrower until he could no longer see the shuttles. Soon, a faint seam was the only sign of a join between the two massive pieces of alloy.

  “I’ll get you out of there,” said Keller on a private channel. “One way or another.”

  “Let’s hope you don’t have to come through the base energy shield to do it. Anyway, this is too important a mission to leave unfinished, whatever it takes.”

  “They’re opening the outer doors. If we’re lucky, the orbiting Estral fleet won’t blow us to pieces on the way back to our ships.”

  “Will the Gundar respond?”

  “I don’t know. It might have received high-level instructions that we’re unaware of, telling it to do something else.” She gave a short laugh. “I’ll have a little look when I get onboard.”

  “I wonder how divided the Confederation Council is on this.”

  “Something to wonder about later. I’m outside the facility and waiting at an altitude of ten klicks for Lieutenant Mack.”

  “I’ll wait until you’re docked, then I’ll hit the lower levels and find out what the Estral are hiding.”

  “Here we go – I’m heading towards the Gundar.”

  “How long till you get there?”

  “A few minutes. You may as well get on with it.”

  “Good idea. I’ll see if I can find an empty lift.”

  Nation left his position beneath the Estral shuttle and jogged across the floor towards the nearest bank of airlifts. There was no change in the level of activity since the shuttles departed, not that he was expecting the Estral to suddenly reveal a bunch of secrets now that RRT Alpha was gone. He crouched near to the airlifts and waited for an opportunity.

  For some reason, he didn’t want to commit until he was sure the others were safe and he hesitated. The comms had been quiet for Keller’s vague few minutes and he assumed something was keeping her distracted.

  “Keller?”

  “Just docking.”

  “What about RRT Alpha?”

  “Same. Well, Lieutenant Nation, it appears as though we made it to safety.”

  The link went quiet again and Nation was gripped by an unshakeable conviction that he was about to hear something bad.

  “Holy crap!” said Keller.

  Somehow, Nation knew immediately what she was going to tell him.

  “What?” he asked, in case he was wrong.

  “Just had word from Teal. There’s been an Estral attack on our Istoliar plant on Sindar. There aren’t many details yet, but it looks like the bastards have started another war!”

  Nation closed his eyes for a moment, searching deep inside to find anything which might resemble shock or even surprise. There was neither. The Estral considered themselves proud, strong and superior. To the Confederation, they were a treacherous species responsible for billions of deaths on both sides.

  “How the hell did they find Sindar? I thought they only knew about a handful of our worlds.”

  “The Space Corps’ deep space monitoring stations can detect a dog crap on the pavement of a city six galaxies away. I’m sure the Estral can pull off a similar trick.”

  “I’m sure you’re right. They must have got lucky.”

  “Enough to embolden them to attack us.”

  Nation switched to the neural link to save time.

  JN> If we’d got that news fifteen minutes ago, I could have been on the shuttle with you.

  BK> Sucks, huh?

  In spite of the situation, Nation laughed at the response.

  JN> What now?

  BK> Teal has put the Gundar into stealth and taken the ship to a quarter of a million klicks out. It has orders to return through Primol-1.

  JN> Damn.

  BK> I have put a block on those orders and sent a message to base, requesting confirmation that they are happy to abandon personnel in hostile territory. The comms message will require more than one hour to reach its destination and then a further hour to return.