Empire of Light

Corso could see the fine network of work-bays and pressurized cabins surrounding the frigate, and several tiny craft moving steadily away from it. One was a shuttle carrying Simenon's skeleton crew, while the rest undoubtedly contained the engineers and repair specialists who had been working on the hull until the order to evacuate.

According to a string of data floating next to the frigate it was indeed under way, but its speed was still relatively incremental despite the enormous amount of energy flowing out of the fusion drives.

'Any sign of Dakota's ship?' asked Corso, still holding Lamoureaux upright. He appeared to be barely conscious.

'I think she's on the frigate's far side,' Perez replied. 'One moment.'

The starscape overhead wheeled suddenly, spi

Lamoureaux's head flopped against Corso's arm, and he grasped the machine-head under one shoulder and guided him down from the interface chair. Perez helped drag him over to one of the couches lining the walls of the bridge.

Leo Olivarri suddenly appeared, looking breathless. He glanced from Lamoureaux to Corso with a questioning expression.

'Leo,' said Corso. 'I need you to get Mr Lamoureaux here to the med-bay.'

Olivarri nodded and came over, clearly recognizing this was no time for questions. Lamoureaux's skin was clammy but together they managed to get him back on to his feet. He gradually seemed to become a little more aware of his surroundings, and then Olivarri helped him out of the bridge.

Perez looked worried. 'Senator, without someone ma

Corso sucked in a breath and turned back to study the overhead projection. By now the Mjollnir had mostly passed out of the orbital dock, while the Magi ship had drawn abreast of it. The two hostile corvettes, identified by icons floating beside them, were still a few thousand kilometres distant.

Another string of data appeared directly between the Magi ship and the frigate, marking a single blip moving quickly across the gap between the two craft.

That's her, Corso thought. But why was she leaving her ship? Surely she was intending to accompany the Mjollnir from inside her own vessel?

'Senator.' Corso turned to Perez. 'We have pulse-weapons mounted on the hull, but we've had to divert most of their power to the fusion drives. Unless you can come up with something very soon, we're going to be sitting ducks for those corvettes.'

Corso nodded, and stepped forward until he stood directly underneath the projection of the Mjollnir. It looked real enough to make him feel he could reach up and touch it. He watched as the blip representing Dakota reached one of the frigate's external airlocks, and disappeared from sight.

'Dan, patch me into the frigate's general address system. Dakota just came on board, and I want to be sure she hears me.'

'Patching you in now,' Perez replied, his hands sliding rapidly across the surface of his console. 'One moment and I'll have a visual on her.'

The Mjollnir and the surrounding starscape began to shrink overhead, as if receding at enormous speed. In its place appeared a larger-than-life image of Dakota, now inside an airlock already halfway through its opening cycle.

She was naked, but her skin was coated in what looked like thick black oil, her eyes gleaming and alien-looking. She had a bag slung across one shoulder, out of which she pulled a jumpsuit.

Corso glanced over at Perez and saw a censorious look on his face. It was hard to remember that he too had been that buttoned-down before he first left Redstone.

Overhead, Dakota pulled on the jumpsuit, the black slick coating on her skin draining away. She glanced briefly towards the microscopic lens buried in one wall of the airlock with a sardonic smile, and Corso felt his face redden.

'Dakota, if you can hear me, we need you on the bridge right now. We've got a couple of corvettes approaching and Ted's-'

She had stepped out of the airlock and was now pushing her way down a co

Dakota disappeared from the overhead display, replaced by the previous view of the local starscape. The corvettes had by now resolved into distinct shapes.

'We're being signalled by one of the corvettes,' Perez a

'Bullshit,' Corso heard himself say. 'They're bluffing. This is the only colony-class ship the Senate has left.'

'Maybe so, Senator, but if whoever ordered those corvettes to come after us lets us get away, he's going to face a firing squad, or at least a challenge from a queue of subordinates. Blowing a hole in our side might look like a safer bet, with that in mind.'

Damn you, Dakota. How long could it take to get to the centrifuge hub, then to the bridge?

'They must know there's no way we can just stop the acceleration. Even if we shut down the fusion drive, and used the manoeuvring systems to push us back, it'd be hours before we could come to a halt relative to the docks.'

'Look, Senator,' said Perez, 'I'm not necessarily counselling surrender, but if they do fire on us, they could cripple us, or a lot worse.'

Corso shook his head and licked suddenly dry lips. 'No. We keep going. Don't respond to their messages.'

'They're getting ready to fire on us,' Perez retorted, growing visibly angrier and stepping out from behind the console, with bunched fists. 'They're letting us see their targeting systems to make sure we know exactly what they're intending. Senator, if we don't signal them now and agree-'

Perez stopped abruptly at a sudden bright flare of light from the overhead display. Corso looked up to see that several pale spheres had now appeared between the frigate and the two approaching corvettes.

Except the corvettes weren't there anymore.

'What-?' Perez stopped and turned back to the console, staring down at its softly glowing surface as if he couldn't believe his eyes. 'They just… hang on.'

Perez replayed what had just happened. They both watched as bright beams of light flickered out from the spheres, tearing the two ships apart.

Dakota entered the bridge at that same moment, looking breathless. Perez stared up again at the overhead display, then at her, clearly putting two and two together.

'Tell me everything I need to know,' she said, stopping briefly to draw breath at the edge of the dais supporting the interface chair.

'We're breaking orbit,' Corso told her. She dropped her bag on the floor next to the dais and pulled herself up and into the interface chair. 'But it's taking too long,' he warned.

Dakota nodded, and Corso watched the intense way her small white fists gripped the chair's armrests.

She closed her eyes and for a few moments fought to steady her breathing, then nodded tightly. 'I'm going to ramp the drive up for a premature jump. If we can get out of range of the orbital defence systems, we might be able to take our time before making a longer jump.'

Corso watched as the petals surrounding the interface chair began to fold up around it, surrounding Dakota in silent darkness. He could feel the frigate's acceleration begi