There was a moment’s pause, in which he became aware of the two groups approaching, followed by an enormous flash of light. The next thing he knew, he was flying through the air. He cracked his head on the ice as he landed and he must have lost consciousness then because the next he knew he was lying on the surface with his clothes on fire.

  Without even thinking, he began rolling backwards and forwards across the ice. When he was certain the flames had been extinguished, he sat up and checked himself. The soldier who’d grabbed him was lying face down, the back of his skull torn open, but then there were bodies literally all over the place. Everywhere he looked he saw sections of broken and cracked carapaces. Some of them still burning.

  There were one or two Da’al still standing but they were moving about erratically making a horrible chittering sound. As far as he could make out, they posed no immediate threat to him.

  When he tried to get up his head started to swim so he had to kneel down until he could get his bearings. He focussed on the ground directly in front of him, waiting for the ringing in his ears to subside but when it didn’t he decided he was just going to have to move. Only, before he could do so, his eyes shifted onto something that looked familiar. The handle of his pistol was sticking out from underneath a section of engine casing.

  The engine casing was hotter than it looked and he burnt his fingers, but not before he managed to reclaim his side arm.

  The shuttle skeleton was still ablaze and he couldn’t get too close because of the ferocity of the heat so he had to scout around it. Miraculously, the bag of detonators was where he’d left it and he picked it up and slung it over his shoulder.

  One more job to do, one more shuttle to destroy and he’d be finished.

  But that all changed when he saw the sorry creature hunched against the side of the shuttle. Its uniform was covered in scorch marks but, other than that, it didn’t appear to be wounded. But it was the uniform which caught his attention.

  It was a different colour to that of the other ground crew.

  That was when he made the connection. It was wearing the same uniform as the pilot who’d attacked him earlier: brown with black patches. It even had the same type of lattice work headset.

  That gave him an idea.

  He grabbed hold of the front of its uniform and pulled the thing to his feet. Its mandibles started to vibrate and it made a kind of yelping noise, more panicky than aggressive. But Webster was tired. He’d had enough.

  He raised his pistol levelling it up with one of their containers and put two shots in the side. That appeared to get his message across.

  He pointed the pistol at the cockpit and inclined his head. Something in the Da’al’s eyes registered acknowledgement.

  The creature appeared to be having difficulty breathing, there were two sacs below its mouth section which kept inflating and deflating wildly but after a while they calmed down. The creature led him aft and they entered through the main ramp, the creature’s eyes never leaving him for a second. The unlikely pair made their way to the forward cockpit. The pilot settled itself in one crash couch while Webster occupied the other.

  Webster motioned upwards with his pistol and the pilot started the engines.

  The whole front of the ship suddenly tipped forward, as if swinging on a pivot and Webster had to throw his hands forward to stop himself being thrown from his seat. He wasn’t sure whether that had been deliberate or whether the pilot was just frightened but he started to relax as the craft lifted straight into the air. A black ball of smoke rose up into the air from the still burning shuttle, obscuring Webster’s view of the camp.

  What he was aware of was all the activity on the ground as the Da’al came to terms with their losses. It would be some time before they were in any kind of position to go after Markham and the others.

  Webster tapped the pilot on the arm to get his attention then pointed him in an easterly direction.

  “Let’s go and see how Mr Nash is doing.”

  CHAPTER FORTY

  The Da’al ship had beaten them to Laxx with several hours to spare but had resolutely failed to place itself in orbit, preferring instead to take up a position roughly seven hundred thousand kilometres distant.

  Ardent knew little about space warfare but even she could see how this was a clever move on their part. If the Da’al ship, which they had recently christened Loki, had entered orbit then it would have been able to menace the planet from a position of strength but in so doing would have left itself exposed to any oncoming threats from the Renheim. This way, the ship maintained its defensive priorities while still being well placed to neutralise any ships coming up from the surface.

  The one downside to this was that it couldn’t maintain line of sight with Laxx’s orbital station when it disappeared around the other side of the planet.

  Still, if it chose to do so, it could destroy the miners’ ships with impunity. The act of a true predator.

  That left the Renheim as the lead ship with only The Sundowner and the Molly Maguire as back up. Winterson in the Naked Spur, was sticking to his original plan of setting up a defensive line further out in the hope of facing down the remaining Da’al ships. He had seven other ships in total, with Blackbeard and Defiant counted among their number.

  “How do you intend to proceed, captain?” she asked.

  Meyer was standing behind her but she didn’t need to be able to see his face to know how he’d react to such a question.

  They were at the sharp end now, the tip of the spear, a position which Meyer had assiduously avoided all his working life. He had only ever operated in peacetime and had so far managed to play down his obvious shortcomings as a commander while all the time exaggerating his strengths. As a result, as far as his superiors were concerned, Meyer was the very epitome of what they would call: ‘a safe pair of hands.’

  While he had never excelled in any one particular area he had likewise never experienced the slightest set-back and so his tenure on the flight deck of the Renheim had largely been adjudged to be a success. His biggest concern was always to avoid saying anything in order to avoid generating any negative feedback from the various colonies he had been tasked with patrolling. He had carefully established a reputation for being tough on smugglers and pirates. He knew the threat that his ship posed to such people and he used that to his advantage, safe in the knowledge that these much smaller vessels were never likely to pose much of a threat. Plus, if such a thing was to occur then he had a team of brave and skilled subordinates who were more than capable of dealing with such minor inconveniences.

  The only time he had faced the possibility of a major engagement had been two months ago when the Anjharan Da’al had first appeared in the system and targeted Tigris. That engagement had never happened. Meyer had decided that in such circumstances discretion was the better part of valor and had run for safety. Considering how poorly the Nantucket and the Meridian had fared in the face of enemy fire, there was a case to be made that he had acted reasonably under the circumstances but this time things would be different.

  With Admiral Winterson keeping his every action under close scrutiny, there was nowhere else for him to run. Meyer had been charged with taking a firm line against the Da’al, and that was what he would have to do. There could be no backing down.

  Ardent knew that, despite the weaponry at his disposal, Meyer’s ship had never once fired a shot in anger. His attitude was in direct contrast to the bulk of the civilian captains who they were attempting to integrate into their command system. There were eleven in all the four main ones being: The Sundowner, Molly Maguire, Blackbeard and the Defiant.

  Blackbeard was Captain Frans Jacobs’s ship. A proud Afrikaner, he had at one time operated a huge fleet of commercial hauliers but had over the years sold most of these on. He had four other ships, two of which, the Montezuma and the Santa Cruz were accompanying them now. Jacobs was in his late 60s and a millionaire many times over but the rumours about his impending retirement were just that: rumours.

  Molly Maguire was Catelyn Stark’s ship. Stark liked to keep her business shrouded in mystery and it was widely purported that she’d carry anything if the price was right. There might have been some truth in that last part as Stark had a reputation for sailing very close to the wind on occasion.

  All were equipped, quite legally, with defensive lasers in an attempt to counter the threat posed by pirates. Ardent didn’t doubt for a moment that on top of these purely legal armaments the ships had also been fortified with a range of highly illegal weapons which they could fall back on should the occasion require.

  This kind of weaponry was hardly ever ‘discovered’ on routine inspections by USDC ships. The universe was a big place and everyone knew that it was impossible for the military to provide adequate protection for all ships at all times. So, inspectors who stumbled across caches of weapons such as this were often pragmatic enough to turn a blind eye.

  Ardent reflected that such weaponry might prove to be something of a blessing under the current circumstances but the extent to which each ship was armed would have to remain a mystery to all on-board the Renheim after Meyer had handled the request for information with his usual heavy handedness. Instead of contacting the captains separately and asking for an honest appraisal he had simply sent over the usual bureaucratic request forms asking for a list of each ship’s current defensive capabilities. The captains, all being miners or working within the industry and, therefore, suspicious of bureaucracy of any description had responded in kind, offering only the most minimal details. Some hadn’t even bothered listing the weaponry they carried legally, even though the most rudimentary perusal of their ship’s super-structure would quickly highlight the truth of the matter.

  And this was where Ardent felt Meyer’s management style was doomed from the start. If he couldn’t convince their allies to work with him then what chance did he have of getting this ragtag group to work against the enemy?

  She moved over to the conch shell shaped console where Farnese was currently working.

  “Can’t you do something about this?” she asked.

  Farnese emitted a good-natured growl. “Not without making the whole situation worse.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Aside from going aboard and inspecting these ships ourselves there’s no way we’re going to get them to come clean.”

  “I understand that,” she said lowering her voice. “But for Meyer to be effective in command he’s going to have to know what each ship is capable of: which ships can look after themselves and which ones can’t. It’s going to be an impossible job otherwise.”

  Farnese cast a glance over in Meyer’s direction. “It’s an impossible job whichever way you look at it. What if the captains had been straight with him? What if they’d told him the truth from the start? What then?”

  “Well, at least then we’d know what our strengths are.”

  “Wrong,” Farnese insisted. “If they’d told him the truth then Meyer would have been forced to respond. As a Confederation officer, he’d have insisted that they deactivated their so-called ‘illegal’ weapons. Dump ‘em or disable ‘em. That’s what would have happened. Trust me.”

  “Dump ‘em or disable ‘em,” Ardent’s voice was incredulous. “But not in these circumstances, surely?”

  “For Captain Meyer, there can be no exceptions, Governor.”

  “And you think that’s what he’d do?” she softened ‘he’d’ to the point where it was barely audible.

  “That’s exactly what he’d do. No question,” Farnese brought up a view of their whole ragtag battle fleet. “So, it’s perhaps best if we don’t know what it is these ladies might be carrying under their skirts.”

  Farnese was interrupted by a communication coming up on the main screen. It was Donald Resnik, captain of The Sundowner. It was a three hundred-thousand-ton cargo whose non-essential crew were now back on Iscaria.

  Resnik was heavy set with a shock of red hair. A company man through and through, a lot of people had been surprised when he’d added his ship’s name to the convoy. Normally, people like Resnik were risk averse: it wouldn’t do much for a captain’s career prospects if he wrote off one of his company’s largest assets.

  But the company which operated The Sundowner had its main office on Laxx and that was where they recruited most of their crew from. As a result, a lot of Resnik’s people had family on the planet, so it would have been awkward for him not to get involved. Ardent, however, hadn’t been surprised when Resnik had volunteered. She’d had dealings with him in the past and knew some of his history. The man had served in the USDC during the Long War and had lost most of his ear when his ship had been attacked by a Yakutian frigate. The story went that after they’d been hit, a fireball had torn through the engine room where Resnik was on duty. He’d sustained burns to forty percent of his body and subsequently been invalided out of the navy.

  To come back after something like that was impressive enough but to make a success of a second career suggested that the man had qualities which might come in useful in the days to come.

  “What’s troubling you, Captain Resnik?” Meyer inquired.

  The fact that he used the honorific at all was perhaps in recognition of his service record and Ardent saw that in itself as a minor victory. Initially, Meyer had refused to recognise the civilians’ rank at all, simply referring to them all as ‘Mister.’ It had caused no end of tension until Ardent had pointed out that if he wanted the civilians to respond to his requests he needed to show them an appropriate level of respect.

  It was largely because of his service record that Ardent had pushed for Resnick to accompany them on their run to Laxx along with Vivian Chu on the Defiant.

  Frans Jacobs had had a belly full of Meyer’s antics and had opted to accompany Admiral Winterson in setting up their forward operating position along with six other vessels.

  “We’re currently having some difficulty communicating with the two shuttles,” Resnik said. “Either they can’t pick up our communications or they’re deliberately ignoring us.”

  Labelling Botany Bay and The Galaxian simply as ‘shuttles’ was something of a misnomer as both were capable of carrying in the region of five thousand passengers at a time but, when you were in charge of something as big as The Sundowner, it was perhaps understandable that he was dismissive of smaller vessels.

  Botany Bay had successfully docked at Laxx’s orbital facility and was currently loading passengers while The Galaxian was forced to hang back and wait their turn.

  “Would you like my communication people to give it a try?” Meyer asked, for once playing the role of diplomat.

  “I’d appreciate that very much, Captain Meyer. We’ve already had one or two communication difficulties with The Galaxian, as you know.”

  The Galaxian was a luxury cruise liner and the only ship in the operation which had so far asked for payment to take part. The captain, a woman named Hidalgo, had named some ridiculous fee for her ship’s services and Admiral Winterson had surprised everyone when he had agreed on behalf of the Confederation to honor it.

  In retrospect, Ardent saw that he had had little choice. It was going to be a difficult enough task getting the thirty thousand colonists off the planet with two such ships. With only Botany Bay available it was felt that the armada would be in an impossible position- doomed to failure simply because they didn’t have enough capacity to carry passengers. With The Galaxian on-side they might just have a chance of getting the majority of people clear before the main Da’al fleet arrived.

  “Very well,” Meyer said. “I’ll see what I can do. Any other concerns?”

  Resnik looked troubled. “Other than that sonofabitch hanging over us like some shark waiting for its lunch to be delivered? No, other than that, no concerns at all.”

  Farnese strode towards the command chair and Meyer indicated for him to go ahead.

  “Loki. That’s what we’re calling it.”

  “Loki? As in the comic Jacobs?”

  “Norse mythology. The computer chose it. Loki the trickster. It kind of fits.”

  “Yeah, real cute,” Resnik said.

  “The other three are Odin, Tyr and Heimdall.”

  Resnik looked askance. “And you say your computer came up with these?”

  “We have call them something. Best to avoid confusion.”

  “Yeah, okay, commander. I’ll let the others know. Captain, if you could get through to those other two ships, I’d appreciate it.”

  “I’ll get Lieutenant Parkes to get onto it right away.”

  Once Resnik was gone it was Farnese rather than Meyer who instructed the comms team to try and establish a link with Botany Bay and The Galaxian. This, in a way, seemed to Ardent to define the two men’s relationship: Farnese did all the work while Meyer took all the credit. She wondered whether Farnese hadn’t done everyone a disservice by being such an able executive officer. If he’d been just a little remiss in his duties it might have helped to highlight Meyer’s failings as a senior officer all the sooner.

  She wouldn’t, of course, voice these thoughts to Farnese, however. He didn’t appreciate the suggestion that Meyer was anything other than an exemplary officer even though the vast majority of evidence appeared to point to the contrary.

  Theirs was a very complex relationship, to be sure.

  Ardent waited until Farnese had finished his main tasks before catching his eye. Farnese made a show of inspecting the work of some junior officers before finally coming over to her.

  “What’s wrong?” his nostrils twitched.

  He seemed to be anticipating her criticism of Meyer and was already preparing his defence.

  But Ardent decided to take a different approach.

  “I thought Captain Resnik made a good point earlier. He likened Loki to a shark waiting for its lunch to be served. I think he has a point.”

  “And I’d have to agree. Loki is here to disrupt our operations, clear and simple, but isn’t likely to attack until both ships are fully loaded.”