I felt my own spirits lighten as the tactic appeared to be working. Fewer swarms were reaching the warheads, which were getting nearer to the vessel.

  “It has dismantled one warhead,” a crew member announced.

  I glanced around us and observed the warhead in question, now just a cluster of parts like the original nuke. I then spotted a second dismantled nuke and then a third.

  “No, no, no!” Tynan yelled.

  The vessel dismantled a fourth, a fifth, and then a sixth nuke before they could reach it.

  “God damn it, no!”

  A blinding flash filled the view, and I shielded my eyes. When the light intensity decreased, I peered out and noticed a sizeable round fireball. The consoles all around the bridge flickered – an EMP pulse.

  “Ha ha!” Tynan exclaimed. “We did it!”

  The fireball dissipated and revealed a great wound in the vessel’s surface. Then the wound healed, the gash filling in, the surface smoothing over.

  “No, no, no!”

  “I appreciate this isn’t a good time, Your Grace,” a crew member said. “But the vessel is moving. It’s accelerating towards us!”

  Chapter 6

  Akka’s Fall

  2159, Common Era – Planet Akka, Frontier Space, the Republic of Humanity

  Tynan’s body was rigid, his eyes wide and unblinking, and the blood had drained from his face.

  “What do we do, Your Grace?”

  No sound emerged from Tynan’s mouth, even though his lips moved in slow, deliberate motions. I glanced around at the crew and watched as they grew more concerned and panicked.

  “Your Grace? Your Grace! What are your orders?”

  Despite the crew’s pleas, Tynan remained still, unable or unwilling to give a command.

  “Well, come on!” Lorcan roared. “Who’s the second in command? Now’s the time to step up!”

  I watched as the crew exchanged glances, and their eyes nervously flicked between Tynan and a male who, based on his uniform, I was pretty sure was the first officer.

  They’re all too scared to act for fear of retribution from Tynan …

  I rotated and stared at the advisors, making eye contact with Phobus. He scowled, uneasy like the crew, and then a look of recognition spread across his face.

  “Lead us,” he whispered.

  I exhaled as my shoulders slumped and my head fell.

  Why did it always have to be me?

  Raising my head, I clapped my hands together and shouted, “Alright, everyone, listen up! There’s no time to waste – we must act now!”

  The entire crew looked at me with disdain and who could blame them; from their perspective, who did this putrid, skeletal looking man giving orders think he was? Simultaneously, I heard the rustle of the soldier’s uniform behind me and knew he was drawing back his rifle.

  Good. Without Tynan to order that my family be struck, better for me to take the hits!

  “Soldier!” Phobus called out. “Leave him be!”

  “But Advisor Phobus, His Grace said –”

  “I know what he said,” the old man snapped. “Listen to what I am telling you now!”

  I turned to look at the soldier, his eyes flicking between me, Phobus, and Tynan.

  “Time is of the essence, soldier,” I said; I made sure to speak calmly. “It’s a simple choice: hit me, and we all die when the vessel outside kills us, or don’t hit me and let me give this crew the direction it needs to save our lives!”

  The soldier glanced at the vessel outside, then at me.

  “Why should we listen to what you have to say?”

  That was a great question – why should any of the crew listen to me? Most of them were clones with programmed loyalty, whilst a handful were old loyalists, volunteers, or captured individuals, no doubt indoctrinated – but either way, why listen to me?

  “Because I am the original. Before he was your leader,” I said as I motioned towards Tynan, “I was your leader. Everything that he is comes from me.”

  The soldier considered this for a moment then nodded in acknowledgement and stepped back, putting down his weapon.

  “Thank you for trusting me,” I said, then turned back towards the crew. “Alright, helmsman, quick as you can, spin the Chupacabra around and take us back towards Akka!”

  The helmsman hesitated for a moment, then replied “Yes, Your Grace.”

  “Don’t call me that,” I replied with a little more bite than intended. “I’m no emperor.”

  “Of course, sir.”

  Close enough.

  “Okay, do we have a transportation officer?”

  “Present, sir,” said a short female officer, stepping forward.

  “How many dropships are onboard?”

  “Twelve, sir.”

  “I want all twelve airborne ASAP – as soon as we’re close enough, send them down to Akka’s primary settlement and pick up as many civilians as you can fit on those ships. We may only get the opportunity for a single run.”

  “Yes, sir. On it right away.”

  “Thank you! Now –”

  I stopped as I glimpsed something out of the corner of my eye. The Chupacabra had rotated and was facing Akka again, and as I looked at the side that had been obscured during our approach, I saw a sizable asteroid, easily the size of a large continent, seemingly in orbit around the planet.

  “Has that always been there?”

  “Yes, sir. The Akkarians pulled Vesta 2a into orbit early on during Akka’s colonisation because of its rich mineral deposits. They’ve been mining it for resources ever since.”

  “Thanks, ah …”

  “First Officer Faberson, sir.”

  “Gotcha. Thanks, Faberson. Say, do we have anything that could push that asteroid towards the vessel?”

  The first officer weighed this briefly, then replied, “Just the ship, sir.”

  “Would that be doable?”

  “We’d damage whatever part of the ship contacted the asteroid, but doable, yes.”

  “Doable is all we need right now. Helmsman …”

  “Nerys, sir.”

  “Helmsman Nerys, can you please fly us behind the asteroid and get ready to play tugboat?”

  Nerys smiled. “Yes, sir, I can do that.”

  “Good man, thank you!”

  Alright, what else needed to happen?

  We would attempt to evacuate citizens, and we maybe had one last offensive manoeuvre available to us – was there anything else we could do?

  “Do we have any observation … drones or surveillance satellites onboard?”

  “I’m afraid we don’t, sir,” Faberson replied.

  “Please … just call me Raith.”

  “Yes, si – Yes, Raith.”

  “Thank you.”

  A lanky man with bright blue hair stepped forward. “I’m Chief Engineering Officer Norton, Raith. I believe I may be able to jerry rig a surveillance device or two if I can better understand your requirements?”

  “Thanks for coming forward, Norton. It’s almost certain that we’re going to have to retreat, so I want to leave behind some monitoring devices, drones or satellites, that can transmit visual data to us. I think that vessel is going to come for other worlds, and the more we can learn about it, the better our chances are of finding a weakness.”

  “I understand. I’ll put my team to work immediately.”

  “Thank you, Norton. I appreciate it.”

  As the chief engineering officer departed, I looked back at the bridge window and realised that we had almost finished our manoeuvre to get behind the asteroid. I glanced at Tynan. He still sat in his chair, his eyes fixed vacantly out the bridge window. It was almost like he was a computer that had encountered a critical error and crashed.

  “I feel like we need to turn him off and on again,” I said.

  The room remained silent except for one stifled laugh. The odd crew member appeared to be attempting to conceal smiles. I understood – laughing now could mean they die tomorrow when Tynan learnt of their enjoyment at his expense.

  “Seriously though, is there a medical officer?”

  “Yes, Raith – here,” said a gaunt-looking man.

  “Hi. Can you please take Tynan to the med bay? Maybe the soldiers can help carry him there. You’ll know more than I do, but he doesn’t look good.”

  “Of course. You two! Help me grab His Grace.”

  Two soldiers moved forward, one on either side of Tynan. They grabbed him by the arms and lifted him to his feet, rushing him out of the room with the medical officer following close behind.

  I was still weak from my months of captivity and had been standing for quite some time now, so with the captain’s chair now vacant, I walked forward and sat down, gratefully melting into the soft padding of the seat.

  “Oh, yeah … this is comfortable!” I said, eliciting at least two chuckles.

  Now that Tynan had left, I hoped the crew would lighten up, although I understood why they felt the way they did about me – I was likely public enemy number one in many of their eyes.

  Helmsman Nerys rotated in his chair to face me. “We’re ready to begin when you are, Raith.”

  “Thank you, Nerys. Have the dropships launched?”

  “Yes, they have,” Faberson replied.

  “Okay, great. Take us in, Nerys.”

  The Chupacabra moved forward, metre by metre, closing the gap between us and the asteroid.

  “Easy does it,” Faberson said.

  An ear-piercing alarm reverberated throughout the bridge, and Nerys quickly reached over to a console and silenced it.

  “Not to worry,” Nerys said, glancing over at me. “Tis’ just the proximity alarm.”

  Suddenly, the sound of grinding metal filled the ship, and the entire vessel shook.

  “And we’ve made contact with Vesta 2a. It appears to be a stable connection, as far as ship-asteroid docking goes.”

  I exhaled, trying to calm my nerves. I glanced up at the monitor where Zavis, Amorina, and Emma were still displayed. They appeared okay despite the jolt, and I sighed again with relief. I hoped like hell that this would work for everybody, but for them most of all.

  “Okay … let’s give it a push.”

  With a deep groan, the ship’s frame creaked and strained as Nerys slowly increased her thrust, allowing the ship to bear the mass of the asteroid. After a minute of pushing, the ship and the asteroid slowly moved forward.

  We’re going too slow.

  “Can we push it any faster?”

  Nerys shrugged uncertainly. “We can, but I don’t know how much the ship can take.”

  “There’s only one way to find out. Either we act now or we won’t have a chance to act at all. Can we push it faster?”

  “Yes. Yes, we can.”

  “Good. Then punch it! Give it everything we’ve got!”

  I watched as Nerys dialled up the primary thrust output to maximum and then engaged the auxiliary thrusts as well. The ship groaned in protest, but it and the asteroid pushed onward with a surge of speed.

  “That’s it. Keep it going!”

  Our velocity increased, going faster and faster, rushing towards our unavoidable target.

  “Okay … reverse thrust!”

  Nerys tapped away furiously at his console, disengaging all rear thrusters and activating forward thrusters instead. The ship’s forward movement came to an abrupt halt before reversing direction. The asteroid flew onward, a dusting of metal fragments trailing in its path. Applause rang out on the bridge as the crew watched Vesta 2a hurtling towards the vessel.

  Suddenly, there was movement on the vessel's surface; much of it had congregated into the swarm, but instead of enveloping the asteroid as it had done with the nukes, the swarm formed what I could only describe as a blade or a wedge, the tip of its formation aimed at the centre of the approaching rock.

  “What’s it doing?” Phobus asked behind me.

  “I don’t know.”

  We watched in amazement as the swarm formation swiftly moved forward, cutting through Vesta 2a with ease and splitting it in two. The swarm reversed its course and returned to the gap between the halves it had just created. We watched in awe as it then pushed them apart. The asteroid was now almost right on top of the vessel, and its surface swarmed forward to meet it, catching the halves and redirecting their momentum so that both halves now travelled along the surface of the vessel, one to the left and one to the right.

  “What is it doing?” I asked as the asteroid halves continued to travel along the vessel’s surface.

  “Whilst I can’t answer that, I can tell you it’s stopped moving,” said Nerys.

  I gazed out the window at the featureless machine, thinking about all its unknown aspects: its enormous size, its formidable capabilities, its mysterious origins, and its uncertain motivations. Of course, I had no way of responding to those questions, and the hopelessness of my curiosity abruptly gave rise to a sense of being completely out of my element. I felt like I was in a deep body of water, and I feared what might lurk beneath me.

  “What would you like us to do, Raith?” Nerys asked.

  “Back us up, and once we’re closer to Akka, hold position. Let’s give the evacuation as much time as possible.”

  “Will do!”

  As the ship reversed, I monitored the asteroid halves, now almost out of sight.

  “Do we know how quickly the asteroid halves are moving?”

  “Let me check for you,” Nerys replied.

  Whilst Nerys checked the sensor data, I pondered the vessel some more.

  Where had it come from? How had it found us?

  But the more questions I asked, the more helpless I felt to produce any answers.

  “The asteroid halves are moving at a constant speed. I’m guessing it’s just passing the pieces around itself. Perhaps it couldn’t have survived the impact.”

  “Okay, thanks, Nerys.”

  I peered through the bridge window once again and watched, mesmerized by the asteroids gliding around the curved edges of the vessel, slowly fading out of sight.

  “I’ve just gotten word from the dropships, Raith – they’ve made it to the surface and are loading up civilians now,” reported a crew member, who I assumed was the communications officer.

  “Thank you.”

  I ran through my mental checklist again: we were rescuing civilians, jerry rigging some surveillance satellites, and we’ve made one last, albeit unsuccessful, offensive attempt at the vessel.

  Is there anything else that needs to be done?

  “What are you doing here?” a voice I knew well said from behind me.

  I slowly stood up and turned around, finding Ichirō standing in the doorway. I quickly assessed the state of my son; his eyes were dark, and there was a discolouration on his face, almost like a badly concealed bruise. My heart sank, and my stomach fluttered as a cocktail of emotions surged through me: sadness that he appeared to be suffering, joy at seeing him again after all these months, and pain at the anger in his voice.

  “What is he doing here?” Ichirō’s voice was sharp as he addressed the crew this time, his angry gaze sweeping the bridge.

  “Tynan became entirely incapable of leading this ship. He ignored the counsel of his advisors and crew and kept attacking an enemy that was clearly more powerful than us, and after we’d provoked it, he completely froze up, risking the lives of everyone aboard this ship and on the planet below,” Lorcan answered.

  Ichirō rounded on the advisor. “What are you trying to say, exactly? Because it sounds like you’re accusing my father, the emperor, of incompetency and cowardice!”

  His voice full of frustration, Lorcan snapped, “Boy! First of all, you’d do well to show respect to your elders.”

  “I don’t have to –”

  “I wasn’t finished! Second of all, the emperor isn’t your father; he’s a science experiment and a failed one at that!”

  “He is my –”

  “I … wasn’t … finished!” Lorcan’s voice was low and menacing as he hissed each word. Lorcan pointed at me as he said, reluctantly, “And last of all, that man right there is your father. Certainly, in body, if less so in mind – although I’m sure that’s still inside his head, buried deep down somewhere.”

  Ichirō didn’t appear to have a retort against Lorcan’s latest statement and remained silent.

  “Now, despite my grievances with the man, Raith is doing what Tynan failed to do,” Lorcan continued. “He stepped up, despite great personal risk to him and his family, taking command of this ship, prioritised civilian evacuation, formulated an information gathering strategy, and tried an offensive strategy that actually had some merit!” Lorcan said, concluding his dressing down of Ichirō.

  My son looked around the room rather sullenly. If I were to hazard a guess, this was not how he’d envisioned events playing out when he’d stepped onto the bridge.

  “Where is the emperor now?” he demanded.

  “He’s in the medical bay, getting the help he needs,” I replied.

  This earned me a scowl, and then Ichirō promptly turned and exited the room. I felt a pang of guilt, torn between chasing after my son and doing my duty for the greater good. Part of me wanted nothing more than to say fuck it, to hell with the otherworldly horrors outside – my son needed me. The other part of me said this was not the time to win back my son – that time would come another day – and right now, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of lives on the line. As I remained stationary, I knew which part of me had won this round of reasoning.

  I slowly turned towards Lorcan. “That’ll cost you. You know that, right?”

  “Don’t you lecture me, Raith,” Lorcan said with a sigh. “I’ve no love for you. You killed my emperor – the true emperor. You’ve caused me irreparable harm.”

  The advisor’s words seemed to trigger something within him, and he suddenly looked ancient and wary, as if the weight of the years were suddenly bearing down upon him.

  “But despite that, I am man enough to admit we’d be in a lot more trouble right now if you hadn’t stepped up. You’ve done what our pale imitation could not, and for that, I’ll face the consequences of my actions, whatever they may be.”