Part 32 (1/2)

'Yonder in the north, cloud beings rise,' Miles intoned. 'They ascend unto cloud blossoms. There we take our being.'

The Angel that was Paula Engado appeared to turn, without turning. 'I have to go, Dad.'

'Yes, but you don't know why I've come here.'

'It doesn't matter.'

'What do you mean?'

Paula began to drift slowly away, drawn by the new configuration of Angels. In desperation, Miles reached out for her. The starpod's external manipulators swung through a short arc, intersected with Paula's body, pa.s.sed through it with no resistance.

Paula's voice held a smile, if her eyes did not. 'Careful, Dad. You might hurt me.'

'Paula, wait! There's something important I have to tell you. All of you.'

'It doesn't matter, Dad. Nothing matters any more. It's nearly time.'

Paula began to move faster. Her eyes began to lose their shape. Gradually, the colour bled away into the amorphous glowing ma.s.s of Paula's body.

'Oh, G.o.d... Oh, G.o.d...' Miles said.

'Miles...'

There was a long silence. The Angels rose to meet Paula and she merged with them a final time. The conglomerate creature formed a spinning ring from which tentacular shapes erupted and whirled in orbits of their own. Within the ma.s.s, Paula began to undergo her final change. There was a burst of glittering fragments.

Paula appeared to shrink.

She fell clear of the ring of Angels.

And kept falling.

'NO!'

Miles's voice was a roar. His hands blurred across the navigation console and the starpod lurched into motion.

Piper screamed, 'What are you doing?'

'I can't let her go again, Piper. Not again. I can't!'

Frantically, Piper fastened her safety harness, and tried to take control of the pod from Miles. 'Miles! Unlock my board! You'll kill us both!'

Miles did not reply. The starpod gathered speed. Far below, Paula hit the ocean with a soundless splash. Dull silver liquid cascaded upwards, and shockwaves rippled outwards for kilometres.

'I'm going to get her, Piper. The Whale won't have her this time!'

'Whale? What are you '

There was a tremendous crash as the starpod drove through the ring of Angels and impacted with the ocean of zelanite. The cabin lights blinked and went out, then came on again at reduced power. The console flickered with a rash of warning lights. Miles clamped his jaw and sent the pod spinning into silver*tinged darkness.

Alex Bannen watched as Adjudicator Bryn led two troopers, Bishop and the Doctor from the Mushroom Farm. Ace brought up the rear with her gun trained on the Doctor's back.

He waited until the party was out of sight, then sidled towards the doors.

'You're back early, Dad. You told me you'd be gone for hours.'

He turned swiftly. 'Mark. You made me jump. There's something I have to do in here.'

'Can I come with you?'

'No.' He reached out for his son, smiling sadly when his fingers pa.s.sed through the boy's. 'It's something I have to do on my own, I'm afraid.'

Bernice strapped herself into the executive transporter pilot's couch and began the warm*up procedure, as she remembered seeing Ace do only a couple of hours before. Behind her, Christine spared a glance for the executive transporter pilot, out cold on the floor.

She dropped the short, heavy tool she was holding beside the body. 'Speaking purely as a psychologist, I am beginning to understand the attraction of physical violence.'

Bernice laughed aloud as Christine strapped herself into the copilot's couch.

The executive transporter began to move.

Legion corkscrewed out of nothing on to the bridge of the Insider Trading Insider Trading as the proximity warning klaxon sounded. as the proximity warning klaxon sounded.

In chorus, it whispered, 'Executive transporter three is no longer important. Its destruction is already a.s.sured. Begin Phase Two.'

A technician, used to Legion's habit of answering questions before they were asked, said, 'Executive transporter three is leaving the docking bay without authorization. What are your orders?' and then began to operate controls.

Surrounding Lucifer at the points of a cube, eight IMC heavy*duty tugs began to position their cargoes for release.

The technician spoke again. 'Orbital trajectories are firm. All systems are reading positive.'

'Release.'

Three million kilometres away, the first tug switched off its containment field. The tug vanished, squeezed out of existence in a microsecond by the most powerful force in the universe. Moments later, the planetary envelope began to whirl in patterns that were not determined by purely meteorological phenomena.

On the bridge of the Insider Trading Insider Trading, Legion whispered a quiet prayer of exultation to its own private G.o.d.

'Profit margins are in the black...'

The rape of Lucifer had begun.