‘Okay then,’ Yuri said dispassionately. ‘Let’s go.’
The environment suit the initiator had extruded was similar to the kind of gear Alik had worn on tactical raids back in his early days with the Bureau – a one-piece made from a grey fabric that had a weird blurred sheen, very hard for an eye to focus on. Presumably it would be equally difficult for the optically sensitive cells on the biological lattice of pipe trunks and leaves stretched across the hangar. The helmet was more sophisticated than the old tactical team gas masks, too. This was a simple hemisphere, with the same grey covering and no visor, so the optical fuzz was complete. He put it on, locking the collar, and his tarsus lens fed him the image from the helmet cameras, providing him with a sharp resolution and excellent zoom function. It had air recycler filters built in, so there was no breath exhaled for an infrared giveaway. Not quite a full spacesuit, but if they did suffer a depressurization event, it could protect them from the vacuum while they got to safety.
The one thing it lacked was armour reinforcement. That made him uneasy at some deep level; his instinct was to fight back if they were cornered by the Olyix. Intellectually, he agreed with Yuri that a firefight would accomplish nothing, but that didn’t make it easy.
As he pulled the suit’s front seal up, he saw Kandara – her back to Yuri – shoving a bulky pistol into her waistband before closing up her suit. They exchanged a knowing glance, smirking like kids putting one over on their parents.
The Avenging Heretic’s hatch opened. Alik saw Jessika pause for a second on the rim of the hatch before she sealed her helmet and stepped down onto the hangar floor. Yuri followed, carrying the small biological life-support module that contained the nodule of Olyix neural cells entangled with the Salvation of Life’s onemind. Kandara stepped down next. Alik gestured to Callum, then took a quick look back with doubts filling his mind – too late, of course. They were committed now.
The medical display splashing onto his tarsus lens showed him his heart rate climbing. He dismissed it and followed Callum across the rocky floor, unable to shake the sensation of vulnerability. The bulk of the Avenging Heretic blocked them from the other damaged ships lined up in the hangar, and he could see through the various feeds from outlying creeperdrones and sensor clumps that there were no quints anywhere near. Still, his anxiety didn’t start to diminish until several minutes later when they reached the fissure in the wall that led to the cavern.
Somehow he’d misjudged the size of the fissure off the main passageway; the thick pipe trunks were taking up more space than he’d thought. Squeezing past them was something of a contortion act. Which means getting out fast just ain’t going to happen.
Thankfully, the cavern past the egg tanks of fluid did match expectations – a dark, irregular space that was another couple of degrees colder than the passage. Alik lifted off his helmet and straight away saw his breath misting in the arid air. For the first time he breathed in the arkship’s raw atmosphere, wrinkling his nose up at the sensation. It was surprisingly dry for something produced by biological systems, although he could smell mild, exotic scents that confirmed its alien origin. It was also several degrees cooler than the air in the Avenging Heretic.
Without really knowing why, he was ridiculously relieved by the pile of their equipment waiting on the uneven rock floor. Ten of the fake spider creeperdrones were standing beside it, along with a couple of the larger service creatures they’d used to deliver all their gear.
They took off their suits and pulled on thick tunics against the chill. Alik made a mental note to produce a pair of gloves in one of the three small initiators they’d brought to the cave.
‘Are we ready?’ Yuri asked. ‘Okay then, let’s go.’
Alik settled himself as comfortably as possible on one of the rock ledges and let his interface envelop his senses with the simulation. Once more, he was back on the fanciful bridge and watching Jessika activate the Avenging Heretic’s drive systems. The central display showed them the hangar, with the array of damaged transport ships parked around them. A couple of larger Olyix maintenance creatures were clinging upside down from a thick pipe trunk on the ceiling, mandibles munching away at dead fronds. In the back of his mind, the Salvation onemind was a burble of impulses, like a distant waterfall – there, but without being directly present.
The Avenging Heretic lifted off the floor and swung around slowly, its nose a compass needle searching out the hangar entrance. There was nothing in the onemind’s flow of thoughts; the hangar’s perception simply didn’t register the movement.
‘Do you think we might just actually get away with this?’ Callum asked.
Alik had to bark a laugh at the almost childlike optimism. ‘Not a fucking chance, my friend.’
‘The perception impediment in the hangar’s neuralstratum is holding up fine,’ Jessika said. ‘The onemind doesn’t know we’re moving. The other ships do, but it’s not their concern. Ships are semi-independent. I doubt they even have the mental syntax for rogue behaviour.’
‘Maybe we should have stayed on board,’ Alik muttered.
The Avenging Heretic began to move forwards – at walking pace at first, then slowly increasing speed. Alik was mesmerized by the hangar entrance as the sublime light of the galactic core shone in through the tunnel, basting the rock with a rich solstice glow.
‘Ready to launch the Signal transmitters,’ Kandara announced.
‘As soon as we’re outside,’ Jessika replied. ‘I’m hoping there’ll be a moment
