Выбрать главу

“The detector is here?”

“In an ice cave under the Torres volcano.”

“Too bad we didn’t think of it earlier! Maybe we wouldn’t be here now,” Kirk’an sighed.

“During peace, we never found the resources for such a project.”

“There’s not much time left,” said Kirk’an, worried, looking at the hundreds of enemy ships between them and the planets. “Tell me about the aliens.”

“We found twenty worlds. In several months of scanning.”

The Sigians on the destroyer fell speechless before the immensity of the number. Lliktakha held extraordinary surprises—they were aware of this—but the most incredible news was that so many worlds had reached the same level at the same time.

“Twenty civilizations with tachyon transmissions?” exclaimed Kirk’an, incredulous. “And in the last three hundred years, we found none?”

“I’m shocked, too—”

“It’s… I don’t understand! All developed at the same time? Impossible! How about Arnadok’s inference?”

“I’ve no explanation and didn’t search for one, either. Though I’m sure one exists, and you’ll find it,” Deko said, smiling. “We already made contact with the Alliance of the Six Stars, or Rigulians, after their native star, called Rigulia IX.”

“And they accepted to help our cause?” asked Kirk’an, skeptical.

“We didn’t say anything. It’s too late for us anyway and a too-great risk of scaring them away. What kind of aliens would join a total war on our side after hearing a sad story?”

“So what’s the plan, then?”

“You’ll be our ambassador to the Six Stars. They already sent an escort to meet you in the Antyran space about two months from now. You can hide there until they arrive.”

“Why are they coming so late?” asked Kirk’an, worried that in two months, the enemies wouldn’t have left a speck of dust unscanned in the whole quadrant.

“Rigulia is far from here. Do what you have to do, but be there in time. And don’t forget that the enemies will read the memories of the prisoners.”

“How many know about the meeting place?”

“Only three. Rest assured—they won’t get any of us alive.”

Because so many Sigians were involved in the project, the enemies would surely find out about the Alliance of the Six Stars from the prisoners’ memories. They’d know everything, save for the meeting spot. And Deko’s words meant something else: they had to warn the Rigulians. Otherwise, they would be the next to be attacked by the gray plague.

“Hide the destroyer on Antyra, and contact the aliens with the two shuttles,” continued Deko. “If you fall into a trap, make sure you don’t get caught alive!”

“We’ll have their fleets on our heels,” Kirk’an said with a sigh, pointing at the grays.

“I reckon you’re the most capable of us to fool them,” Deko smiled.

Kirk’an is too pessimistic. They’re going to need a whole fleet to stop us, thought the god of the bracelet. With a bit of luck, the grays will only send a couple of ships to scan Antyra, and we’ll blast them into smithereens before the arrival of the Rigulians. It may actually be harder to explain to the aliens why we have to run like crazy just after meeting them, he grinned at the prospect—Kirk’an’s not exactly famous for diplomacy.

“Sigia will fall before the contact,” said Deko, making efforts to hide his voice tremor. “You’ll be everything that’s left of our world.”

He stopped speaking for a few moments, crushed by the enormity of his words. For Sigians, the apocalypse had come.

“You’ll be the ambassadors of a dead world. Tell them how we fought to the last Sigian; tell them how we didn’t bow our heads and laughed in the face of death. Convince them we deserve to be helped.”

Deko stopped for a moment, looking into his eyes. His eyes. Gill felt the burning gaze piercing his skull like a hot platinum rod. Suddenly, it crossed his kyi that Deko wasn’t talking to the Sigians anymore. The Sigians were dead—all of them. After 1,250 years, they were surely dead, even the seed bearers, because somehow, they managed to meet their doom on Antyra II—maybe betrayed, maybe careless, maybe out of luck. No. Deko was speaking to him across the gulfs of time and space, to tell the tragic and unbelievably heroic tale of his species. The alien was seeking his help! And then he started to feel something growing inside him, something he never felt before: it was the implacable determination to keep this story from being buried back into nothingness… to become the new Sigian ambassador.

“Your purpose is to rebirth Sigia. With their help, you can bring back our world,” continued Deko. “Share our greatest achievements, and in return, ask for a world only for us.”

A loud sigh came out of Kirk’an’s chest. He began to feel the enormity of the task on his shoulders.

“You’ll have the plans for the bracelets, and they will work on aliens too, except for our enemies. If any of the grays get their hands on one, it’ll blow up in a rather spectacular fashion. Don’t forget about the wormhole prototype and, of course, our newest ship, the destroyer you command. You have multipoint forges. Print some incubators and everything else you need. Raise us from the ashes. And above all, don’t forget about—”

“Revenge!” exclaimed Kirk’an, grinding his teeth.

“Look at these cities,” said Deko, pointing at the huge flames stretching all the way to the orbit. “We’re all waiting for our death to get a purpose.”

As they talked, most of the enemy fleet had gone to the other side of the planet to hunt down the last sky towns and rogue ships.

“If Sigia falls before two months—which is all but certain to happen—the Six Stars will lose contact with us. They may get spooked and turn back,” Kirk’an said, worried.

“We already told them that our tachyon generators need maintenance, so we might go silent for a while—a small lie to buy us some time.”

They approached the battlefield, still undetected, their enemies being too absorbed by their sinister occupation to bother looking around. The ship steered toward the hydrocarbon planet, where the Sigian base was dug inside the southern flank of the Torres volcano.

“Be ready to take the package,” said Deko. “It leaves now!”

A large ship burst from a hidden ice gallery. The grays immediately detected it. Their fleet—most of which still gathered on the other side of the planet—rushed in pursuit. But since they were so far away, none of their ships had a chance to catch it before it reached Gill’s destroyer.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the same with the asteroid wreckers. They finally figured out the ruse and swiftly turned on a trajectory to bring them between the two Sigian vessels.

At first scattered, the enemies quickly coalesced into a distortion front. As if attracted by a magnetar, the gray ships slipped closer and closer, until they touched at the widest section. Automatic handlers linked them together, and their speed began to increase. They turned into a giant monster, rushing to devour them.

The fleet was moving incredibly fast—much faster than the older models—and it became clear they’d cross the path of the Sigians before the contact. The god of the bracelet started to shiver. How were they going to get rid of them?

No gray ship could ever dream of outrunning a Sigian one—especially the destroyer—but a fleet was a different beast all together.27 When the giant monster approached the Torres vessel, the crew reduced its speed and began evasive maneuvers. The enemies immediately broke the distortion front and launched their deadly dance like a swarm of licants around a light bulb.

Gill’s destroyer approached the hive while keeping the contact with the other ship’s bridge. No one there showed the slightest concern, even though they knew all too well they were going to be blasted into pieces. When the distance became small enough, the vessel made a final jump toward them and stopped pulling the space. The enemies focused their lenses on its engines, with two of them exploding almost instantly. Meanwhile, the ship crossed the bulk of the blockade, turned its back to the destroyer, and jettisoned a red conical cargo toward them. Then it accelerated again with all the speed it could squeeze from the dying engines, flying toward the bulk of the ships approaching from behind.