Corso stared aghast at the screens on board the Piri Reis. Piri Reis. One showed a second flood of neutrinos emanating from deep within Nova Arctis, while the other displayed what could only be missiles rapidly closing the gap between the One showed a second flood of neutrinos emanating from deep within Nova Arctis, while the other displayed what could only be missiles rapidly closing the gap between the Agartha Agartha and Dakota"s ship, though still some considerable distance away. and Dakota"s ship, though still some considerable distance away.
"Piri!" he yelled in panic. "We need to take evasive action, now!"
"Not possible," the Piri Reis Piri Reis replied. "Further course alterations would use up too much fuel and we would rapidly lose orbit. Alternative courses of action are required." replied. "Further course alterations would use up too much fuel and we would rapidly lose orbit. Alternative courses of action are required."
"I can"t think of any!" Corso yelled, literally tearing at his hair. "For G.o.d"s sake, isn"t there something we can do? If one of those hits us, there won"t be anything left to hit the ground!"
There was an agonizing pause, for four or five seconds. "All possible courses of action result in fatalities. I recommend we maintain our current position. The missiles may not have enough fuel to strike us. Also, we represent only a small target."
"Can"t you scramble their brains?" Corso yelled again. "They"re just missiles, for G.o.d"s sake! Tell them to hit something else!"
Another agonizing pause.
"Attempting," Piri Piri replied. replied.
The first missile missed the Piri Reis Piri Reis by just fifteen metres. The onboard systems showed its path, spiralling down towards the surface of Ikaria. The second, arriving a minute or so later, was entirely on target, however. Corso watched numbly as it drew closer and closer, accelerating towards him. The blip wavered slightly while the by just fifteen metres. The onboard systems showed its path, spiralling down towards the surface of Ikaria. The second, arriving a minute or so later, was entirely on target, however. Corso watched numbly as it drew closer and closer, accelerating towards him. The blip wavered slightly while the Piri Piri attempted to subvert the device"s internal instructions remotely. attempted to subvert the device"s internal instructions remotely.
Corso realized it was too little too late. He remembered how he"d quickly gone over the Piri"s Piri"s systems in order to understand how the ship functioned, and had found there were manual systems just aft. systems in order to understand how the ship functioned, and had found there were manual systems just aft.
A few seconds of scrabbling located them.
He found what he needed. The only option for survival was performing a manual fuel dump. It was tantamount to suicide, but there weren"t any other options.
He tapped at a manual interface with shaking fingers, more than a little aware just how quickly the seconds were ticking by. A few moments later the Piri Reis Piri Reis shuddered as half its remaining fuel was jettisoned into s.p.a.ce, causing it to veer slightly in its...o...b..t. shuddered as half its remaining fuel was jettisoned into s.p.a.ce, causing it to veer slightly in its...o...b..t.
He listened to the sound of his own frenzied gasps as he waited to be blown to smithereens.
And waited.
I can"t still be alive. can"t still be alive.
He crawled back through to the command module and laid shaking hands on the back of an acceleration couch, before peering up at a display.
A blip was closing fast on the Piri Reis. Piri Reis. Corso didn"t even have time to open his mouth to scream. Corso didn"t even have time to open his mouth to scream.
A thousand hammers slammed into the hull.
Dakota looked up at a tiny flash of light far above.
Oh please no, she thought. she thought. Piri>. Piri>.
Dakota had never felt more relieved. Where"s Lucas? Where"s Lucas?
and subsequently hit by a missile. I have lost contact with the cargo area, and a.n.a.lysis of footage recorded at the moment of impact suggests it may have either been damaged beyond repair or entirely sheared off. There has been loss of pressure from some internal s.p.a.ces, and internal communications are currently offline. It may take fifteen minutes at current estimates to re-establish contact with the command module and ascertain if he is still alive.> Dakota felt the bottom drop out of her stomach. Find out now, Piri. Find out now, Piri.
I get the idea, she replied, cutting the connection. she replied, cutting the connection.Light filled the chasm.
The edges of the valley were thrown into stark relief. Her eye filters dimmed to their very darkest, but even at that setting she was blinded. Every surface, every grain of rock and sand was brilliantly lit up.
At the very edge of the horizon, she thought she saw the edge of a mountain melt.
The third missile"s guidance systems were sent into confusion by the sudden, overwhelming increase in albedo from the direction of Nova Arctis. The missile strayed towards the edge of the cone of shadow cast by Ikaria, and was turned to a puff of superheated gas in a fraction of a second. This was carried outwards by the advancing storm of energy expanding in a sh.e.l.l around the neutron core where a star had been.
The expanding wave front of plasma rushed on towards the Agartha. Agartha.
Kieran stepped towards the Senator, who looked up at him.
"We only have a few moments, Senator," he said. "The wave front will reach us very soon."
The Senator nodded tightly; it was clear he was barely holding himself together. "I hope it"s-"
He shook his head. I I hope it"s quick, hope it"s quick, Kieran knew he"d meant to say. Kieran knew he"d meant to say.
Kieran reached out, almost lovingly, and cradled the surprised man"s face in his hands.
"I hope it is, Senator. But it may not be."
He broke Arbenz"s neck with a sudden, swift twist. The Senator didn"t even have time to look surprised.
Kieran lowered the dead man"s body to the deck with due love and respect, before standing up straight again to wait for the end with the rest of the crew.
The sh.e.l.l of plasma swallowed the Agartha Agartha totally, tearing it apart and transforming it into superheated vapour in barely more time than it had taken to envelop the missile. totally, tearing it apart and transforming it into superheated vapour in barely more time than it had taken to envelop the missile.
It continued to expand, racing towards Newfall, a hundred and thirty million kilometres distant, carrying the gaseous remains of the Freehold ship and its crew ever outwards, as it would continue to do for many tens of thousands of years.
On the sunward side of Ikaria, the effect was devastating. The amount of energy slamming into the planet was equivalent to several thousand nuclear warheads exploding every few seconds, as plasma that had been trapped within the photosphere of a star for untold epochs was unleashed instantaneously.
Ikaria"s crust literally began to melt away, turning white-hot and then vaporizing, the overwhelming fire digging deeper into the planetary crust at a rate of hundreds of metres every second. Ragged mountain peaks, which had formed long ago during asteroid impacts, exploded under the pressure as they slowly turned from the night side to face the rage of the dying sun.
Within hours, rather than days, the planet would cease to exist, joining the wave of expanding gas as it was reduced to its const.i.tuent atoms and spread through the local constellation.
The ground trembled under Dakota"s feet. She broke into a run, bounding under the low gravity straight towards the skeletal alien ship.
She couldn"t help but feel, as she approached, that she was somehow tumbling into a trap. The ship"s spines were too much like the reaching cilia of some hungry sea creature. The beckoning s.p.a.ce that had opened beyond the spines in antic.i.p.ation of her arrival was too much like a gaping, expectant maw.
She kept her eyes half-shut and focused on the ground, her thoughts filled with the terrible, pervasive light slowly seeping over the horizon and turning the top of the valley a dull orange-red.
Almost there.She threw herself forward, as the terrible light began to overrun even the filmsuit"s filters, dashing through the derelict"s spines and into its interior.
The impossible light began to fade as the entrance behind her flowed shut. There were no open s.p.a.ces beyond the entrance. Instead, the body of the derelict began to enclose her, entombing her like a dinosaur that had stumbled into a swamp.
She felt it cool and soft against her skin and realized in a moment of terror that her filmsuit had somehow shut off by itself. She struggled to draw breath as her lungs kicked back into action, but there was no air in here to breathe.
She was buried alive, deep within a chasm on a dead world orbiting a dying sun.
Madness began to seep into her thoughts.
Then she saw stars rushing towards her.
Several minutes later, the shockwave reached Newfall.
Shallow oceans were turned to superheated steam, and the very atmosphere burned. As one hemisphere facing Nova Arctis dissipated under the equivalent of ten billion suns beating down on it, Newfall began a process of losing ma.s.s that would last, at most, a day or two.
It was like taking a flamethrower to a crumpled ball of paper. As gases burned away and the nova dug deeper towards the planetary core, Newfall"s gravity would drop, making it easier for burned-away atoms and molecules to achieve escape velocity under the intense pressure of nova heat.
Newfall would soon be little more than a memory.
Corso had cried out in terror as the Piri Piri lurched. Then he heard a high-pitched whistling that tore at his nerves, and felt air rush past his face, tousling his hair. lurched. Then he heard a high-pitched whistling that tore at his nerves, and felt air rush past his face, tousling his hair.
The Piri Piri was losing atmosphere. The lights had gone out. was losing atmosphere. The lights had gone out.
He grabbed fistfuls of wall-fur as the air vented, sucking him in the direction of Dakota"s sleeping compartment. If he didn"t do something now, he"d be dead in seconds.
He let go of the fur, twisted around and landed just next to the entrance to the s.p.a.ce where Dakota slept. He saw where the hull had been ripped open, sucking out half the contents of the room. He found the emergency-seal b.u.t.ton and slapped it, waiting while the compartment was sealed off.
The howling ceased abruptly and he gasped for air. Automatic pressure sensors had picked up the oxygen drop, and hissed quietly as they replenished the supply from the Piri"s Piri"s depleted supplies. depleted supplies.
Corso paused there for the next minute or so until he had stopped shaking too violently. Then he pulled himself over to a console that still appeared to be active, though unresponsive. He couldn"t even tell if the Piri"s Piri"s stacks were still functioning. stacks were still functioning.
There was enough basic systems information, however, to tell him the worst had happened. He was drifting now, and in another twenty minutes or so, the Piri Reis Piri Reis would orbit into Ikaria"s sunward side, and then straight into the path of the nova. would orbit into Ikaria"s sunward side, and then straight into the path of the nova.
Thirty-two.
Dakota awoke naked between cool sheets.
She sat up with a start and looked around. Tall windows looked out over an azure sky.
There was no sign of the derelict, of Ikaria ...
After staring about herself for a while, convinced she"d gone mad, she stepped over to the window and looked up to where the sun should be. Instead there was only a black dot surrounded by a visibly expanding ring of fire.
She looked down, at the empty city below her, and crumpled to her knees.
Below the window lay a chasm of such magnitude that it made the valley on Ikaria look like a crack in the pavement. Lights burned all the way down as far as she could see, illuminating windows and verandas all the way down into an apparently bottomless pit.
On the other side of the chasm, a vast alien metropolis spread out yet further.
Without knowing quite how, she became aware she was now the only living thing on this entire world.
She moved away from the windows, and from the sight of the pitiless chasm below, and noticed a door at the far end of the room. She raced over and tugged it open, finding a corridor stretching beyond. Everything-the shape of the corridor itself, of the doors, of the windows-suggested this place had been designed for creatures larger than humans, and of entirely different proportions.
Dakota wandered down steps not designed for human legs and constantly peered about her. When she reached ground level, she saw that a street stretched away into the distance.
Something about her surroundings made her sure this city had been abandoned for a long, long time. She wandered about, naked and still in shock, then turned back for fear of losing her way. Eventually she found her way back up to the room she had woken in.
The bed was of entirely human proportions, as was the data book that stood on a plinth to one side of it. She had no idea if it had been there or not when she"d woken.
She picked up the book and began to read the words there.
Some hours later, she wandered back into the empty streets in a daze. She was still naked, so clothes appeared to be a concept alien to whoever or whatever had brought her here. She didn"t feel cold, however. And though she felt hungry, the actual need to eat, just in order to stay alive, appeared to be absent.
This entire world was a library: the book had told her that. The library obligingly shaped itself to her memories of human libraries, giving her information in the form of words on electronic pages. It had also told her she was still inside the derelict, and still on the surface of Ikaria.
This, then, was how the derelict chose to communicate with her. Corso"s interface chair seemed laughably primitive by comparison.