The Blind Gods
Copyright© 2025 by Wau
Chapter 71: The Expected Arrival
The weeks had gone by, almost tedious. And then, like a thunderclap in a summer sky...
... in the distant reaches of the Camerone system, five small stars twinkled. The Deimos radar operator confirmed they were military ships.
- “Either it’s a discreet invasion force and Huan screwed us, or it’s Huan himself and he’s got utterly useless Drift pilots,” said Tohil to Rav. “Officer Ruslan, establish contact.”
Contact was not accepted. Tohil wanted to remain optimistic-an incompatibility of Drift, perhaps. But the scenario of an invasion force, even a small one, seemed increasingly plausible. He ordered Rav-who was aboard the Alké-to recall all units to Camerone and prepare for a jump to the secret destination given by the captain of the Alecto, grumbling:
- “That fucking Andreï, he jinxed us.
- And you, where will you Drift to?” asked Ravzan.
- “We’ll manage.”
Tohil cut the contact. He had no idea. He asked his pilot to prepare a jump for Francisco, but he knew they would be picked off like flowers there. Find a solution...
The radar operator announced that a unit about two meters across was moving at grapnel speed toward the ships. Scans ruled out the hypothesis of a fusion bomb: it was an organic device. A passing Xeno? No risk to take: he ordered a missile fired.
The missile shot toward the thing, but it abruptly changed direction.
- “What the fuck is that thing?” asked Tohil. “A damned Xeno with an inertial grapnel in its gut?”
- “Some Xeno ships are organic, Admiral,” commented Ruslan, the radar operator with a forked beard.
- “How can we blow it up mid-flight?”
- “My admiral, if it’s organic,” declared Favour, a short, stocky woman with braided blond hair, “we can concentrate a drilling laser on it. By the time it gets here, part of its mass will have burned.”
- “Drilling laser it is. This Xeno picked the wrong day to travel.”
The laser was invisible but the monitors confirmed their alignment with the object, which was approaching the Deimos steadily.
- “It has lost ten percent of its mass,” announced Favour. “It burns like a comet.”
- “The onboard AIs have reconstructed the interferometer images, my admiral. These are Starfleet ships.”
Ruslan turned toward the admiral, worried:
- “They wear Lodovico’s blue.”
Tohil leapt up:
- “It’s a biological weapon. Favour, keep going full force, burn it! Ruslan, tell Admiral Ravzan and the entirety of the Fleet to flee to the agreed-upon destination! Adelaide, relay the message: the entire crew must arm themselves and wear full protective suits. Bring fifty suits to the bridge. At once! This is a matter of life or death! Where is the supply officer? You, Sybilla? Put a pilot in every one of our Ravens, Tygers, and any ship lying around, and send them to help the others flee. Huan ... Huan betrayed us. Goddamn it, I’ll kill him.”
Through the Deimos’s screens, everyone could see the flow of Tygers, Ravens, Alexandrites, and small auxiliary craft, overloaded, working their grapnels to bring back ground troops as quickly as possible. The Anicroche had landed to gain time. Already the Alké and the other major ships were orienting and drifting apart from each other to avoid tangling in the imminent Drift.
Tohil refused to believe that a burning, dying organic mass two meters long could undo their meager forces, but on second thought the Aleph had been even smaller.
Ozzie, the other radar operator-a man who kept calm in all circumstances, with huge eyes and a middle part-added:
- “Other masses are arriving from the ships. Five. The ships are slowly moving. Impact of the first mass in ten seconds, the others in ten minutes, the ships in thirty.”
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