The Avenging Heretic’s nose pushed at the invisible pressure membrane over the entrance, and Alik could have sworn he felt the artificially combined air molecules slithering over the skin of his own torso like the stroke of an oily feather as the ship passed through. Then they were in space, with the massive rock wall of the arkship behind them.
‘Now!’ Jessika ordered.
The Signal transmitter vehicles were the best stealth technology Kruse Station could devise, combining human and Neána technology. The development team had utilized the concept employed by the Neána insertion ship to produce spheres four metres in diameter with a matt black body that was totally light absorbent. Internal heat sinks meant they maintained an ambient thermal profile, and their systems were shielded to prevent any electromagnetic emission. Instead of a gravitonic drive, they had an external layer of active molecular blocks, which meant the entire fuselage was a rocket motor with an exhaust of cold neutral atoms, which left only the faintest of traces. In theory, it should be no different from a gust of solar wind particles.
Alik caught a brief glimpse of the five covert transmitters as they left their silos – and that was only because the ship’s sensors tracked their black outlines against the rock as they dropped away. His display came alive with the feed from the transmitter he was remote piloting. He triggered its surface blocks, propelling it further away from the arkship, quickly building distance and velocity. Then he cut the drive, allowing it to coast along inertly. The transmitter’s own sensors showed him the Salvation of Life receding quickly, its surface gleaming in the vivid silver light that ruled the star system.
‘Explanation of your flight required.’
Alik’s limbs twitched with instinctive guilt as the Salvation of Life’s onemind queried the Avenging Heretic. Its thought came directly through the nodule of entangled cells. For now it was just a secondary level of consciousness; the arkship’s main routines weren’t even aware of the departure.
‘On course for designated repair station,’ Jessika replied, along with an identification code of a station in the ring that she’d picked up as the assessment of each damaged ship was being conducted.
‘You did not receive that designation.’
Jessika increased the thrust of the Avenging Heretic’s gravitonic drive, allowing it to accelerate away at eight gees. The ship settled on a vector that aligned on the gateway. ‘Error,’ she answered. ‘Designation received and confirmed. En route.’
‘Incorrect. That course is not authorized. You are deviating. Return.’
Alik could feel the timbre of the Salvation’s thoughts change as higher levels of its consciousness began to focus on the errant cargo ship.
‘It’s waking up to us,’ Yuri said.
Alik thought he sounded amused, or maybe excited.
‘Following original designated instruction,’ Jessika insisted.
There was a pause for several seconds, then: ‘What are you?’
It was the Salvation of Life’s primary consciousness asking the question. Alik could feel the change, the enormous presence stacked up behind the query. Strange whispers began to slither out of its awareness, probing into the nodule . . . but Jessika blocked them easily.
‘Neána,’ the Salvation of Life declared.
‘Close, but you don’t get to ride the unicorn,’ she retorted.
Watching through the Signal transmitter’s sensors, Alik saw a dozen Deliverance ships abruptly break away from their escort formation around the arkship and accelerate hard in pursuit of the Avenging Heretic.
‘You are one of the human constructs sent to Sol by an abode cluster,’ the Salvation of Life pronounced. ‘Why are you here?’
‘For fuck’s sake,’ Yuri told it. ‘How dumb are you? In what universe do you think anyone is going to answer that?’
‘A human. I feel your thoughts, the uncertainty behind your bravado. Your instinct is right; the Neána have lied to you. We are your friends; all we want is to bring you to the greatest gift life can achieve. You will know the God at the End of Time. We will carry you to that glory.’
‘We’ve died in our millions fighting against our own gods throughout history, and they don’t even exist. What the fuck do you think we’ll do to your god if we ever come face to face with it?’
‘I weep at your bewitchment by such dishonesty.’
‘They’re closing,’ Alik warned. The Deliverance ships were accelerating at fifteen gees, eating up the distance between them and the Avenging Heretic.
‘My turn,’ Kandara said gleefully.
The Avenging Heretic released a cluster of Calmines from their silos. They used the same principle as Calmissiles: a fuselage that was ninety per cent portal, but without having a spatial entanglement to a portal inside a star’s corona, they didn’t have a plasma drive, denying them hypervelocity manoeuvring ability. Instead, they were equipped with a small active molecule section protruding from the portal fuselage. That provided sufficient thrust to fly them into the course of the Deliverance ships.
Kandara didn’t have quite enough time to spread the Calmines wide enough. Only seven of the pursuing Deliverance ships struck them. Not that there was anything to strike. The holes in space sliced clean through the Deliverance ships in milliseconds. Seven violent explosions flared behind the Avenging Heretic.
Kandara’s fist punched the air.
‘Oops,’ Yuri mocked. ‘I thought you’d cleared all the debris out of this star system.’
‘You achieve nothing by this,’ the Salvation of Life said.
More Deliverance ships abandoned their escort duty around the Salvation of Life to chase after the Avenging Heretic.
Alik switched on the molecular block drive of his Signal transmitter, as did the other four. Undetected, the dark spheres began to fly further away from the arkship, aligning themselves on the vast radio telescopes orbiting far outside the ring.
More Calmines dropped out of their silos. This time they only intersected one Deliverance ship.
‘Shit. Sorry,’ Kandara grunted. ‘Missed.’
‘Come to us,’ the Salvation of Life urged. ‘We understand your panic and confusion. Let us welcome you into our home.’
‘Amp it up, Yuri,’ Callum said in an uncharacteristic snarl.
‘We will never surrender,’ Yuri said. ‘Know this: We will have our vengeance. If not today, then your reckoning
