Part 16 (1/2)

'Oh my G.o.d!' someone else said. 'Sorry, sir, a firefight has just broken out in docking bay four!'

There was a moment of stunned silence on the bridge.

'Report!' snapped Sokolovsky.

'It's the crew of the Claremont Claremont!' exclaimed s.h.i.+pOps. The Doctor ran to their station, peering into the monitor. Sokolovsky 125 punched it up a securicam display of the fight. 'What are those things?'

'Aliens!' someone said. 'I've never seen body armour like that, ever.'

'What kind of aliens?'

'How did they get our codes?'

'Security teams iota, epsilon, scramble immediate!'

Captain Sokolovsky said nothing.

What Cappiello would really have liked to do was to leave his post.

There were alarms going off everywhere, troops running up and down corridors, das.h.i.+ng past him. Twice, he heard distant explosions, the sound and vibration cut short as bulkheads crashed down to seal areas exposed to s.p.a.ce.

He couldn't get an answer on his comlink, and no one would stop long enough to talk to him.

So he stayed in front of the brig, his rifle armed and ready, waiting for someone to tell him what was going on.

He was leaning against the intercom grille when it beeped.

Cappiello jumped, spinning and aiming his gun at the speaker before he realized.

'Hey!' shouted one of the prisoners. 'Help!'

Cappiello thumbed the switch next to the grille. 'What?'

'For G.o.d's sake, open the door!' shouted a voice. 'Get us out of here!'

There was an appalling roaring sound. 'Jeez,' said Cappiello.

'Is that the Ogrons?'

'No!' shouted the human voice. 'There's a dinosaur in here with us!'

'A what?'

'A crukking dinosaur!' A blood-curdling scream cut across the roaring. 'It's killing them! Let us out! Let us out! ' '

Cappiello raised his weapon and opened the door.

Before he knew what was going on, he was lying on the floor with two Ogrons sitting on him.

'Hey,' said Cappiello.

126.

The yellow-haired human prisoner was holding his gun, flipping it over in his hands. 'Flechette gun,' said the young man, 'ideal for s.h.i.+pboard combat.' Another dreadful roar came from inside the cell. 'Put him in with the dinosaur.'

The Ogrons pulled Cappiello to his feet. 'What?' he said. 'You can't!'

'Professor Martinique is still in the cell,' pointed out one of the apelike aliens.

The blond stuck his head around the door. 'Come on, Professor!' he said.

The Ogrons pushed Cappiello towards the cell. He couldn't even struggle it was like being held by a couple of buildings.

The cell rang with roars, but the dinosaur was conspicuous by its absence. Cappiello looked around, bewildered, hoping what he'd been taught about the Ogron diet hadn't been true.

The human was talking to the remaining prisoner, an older man. 'We can't leave you here,' he insisted.

'Don't be insane!' said Martinique. 'I can't fight. I'm staying right where I am!'

'Professor '

'I've had enough!' squeaked the man. 'Don't you see, I can see it, I can see everything that's going to happen! Everything, everywhere, ever!'

The blond looked at Cappiello. 'Sorry,' he said. 'The professor's not been very well.'

The Ogrons put Cappiello on to the opposite bunk. He looked at the piles of banana skins, and the video-game terminal, the circuitry teased out of its volume control and cranked up four times as loud as it was supposed to go. Error messages were flas.h.i.+ng on the screen, over the graphic of a big green dinosaur chasing a little human figure around.

The door slammed shut. Martinique looked at Cappiello.

Cappiello looked at the door.

's.h.i.+t,' he said.

Sokolovsky sat in the captain's seat, listening to his bridge crew speaking. The initial shock was firmly under control, their voices taut but calm as they relayed orders and reports.

127.

Some of them were glancing at him, wondering why he wasn't giving more orders, doing everything he could to stop the intruders. Wondering why he seemed so very calm.

On his screen, there was an icon, just a black dot. The icon was attached to a file covertly attached to a normal console maintenance program. The file was full of pointers attached to a dozen programs in the security and life-support systems. Those programs were linked to emergency hatches and vacuum bulkheads throughout the Victoria Victoria.

Touch the icon, enter the security code, and the entire s.h.i.+p would depressurize within thirty seconds.

Sokolovsky hadn't discussed this option with the intruders.

He'd thought of it himself, late, late one night as he watched the news from home. Before the disaster, he'd never paid much attention to the news. Now he found it necessary to view it every night. Perhaps in case another disaster befell the Empire. Perhaps hoping that it would.

Late, late one night, considering strategic options while the light from the news screen flickered over his face... Asking himself how committed he was to this mission. Sending the intruders a coded message, asking if they'd be wearing HE suits.

The intruders were gaining ground, but slowly, much too slowly. His crew were putting up one h.e.l.l of a resistance. G.o.d, he was proud of them.