Endurance: The Complete Series Read online

  Echo’s ear tendrils rose and fell in the equivalent of a sigh. “I will try again to convince the First Leader. If only your species were more eloquent and gifted with verbal harmony, you could explain your position yourself. Such a shame.”

  * * *

  After another hour, Echo returned with good news. The People of Tone would agree to lend their shuttle to the Dirt People (their term, not Thomas’s) in exchange for the rest of Earth’s language databases, current and past, to be delivered with the return of the shuttle. Thomas agreed at once. If he wasn’t able to deliver them, it would be because he’d failed. His dead body wouldn’t be too inconvenienced by having an unpaid debt.

  The Haxozin shuttle was about a quarter the size of the Endurance. Tangled wires and messy interface screens bore testimony to the People of Tone’s year-long study to learn how to fly the thing. Thomas received an explanation of the controls and a translation program to convert the interfaces to something he could read.

  Only once he made sure he could pilot the shuttle did he have Vinlin brought aboard.

  The Haxozin soldier was still in his borrowed UELE uniform, his purple neck straining against the shirt collar. He was unarmed, but Thomas had no illusions about how dangerous he could be. He had Vinlin secured in the shuttle’s cramped berthing compartment, and the door locked. He didn’t need any ambushes while he was trying to fly through a blockade.

  The only other officer accompanying him was Areva Praphasat. The rest of the crew would be needed on the Endurance, and would be in less danger there. Areva was ex-special ops. She could handle danger, so long as it didn’t see her.

  Thomas seated himself in the pilot’s chair, facing the pyramid of viewports on the front of the narrow bridge. “Ready?” he called over his shoulder.

  Areva’s voice came from somewhere amidst the displays and control panels behind him. “Ready.”

  Thomas located the communications system and activated it. “Withers paging Endurance.”

  His first officer answered. “This is Captain Ivanokoff.”

  “You’re not a captain.”

  “I am in command of the ship. The title applies.”

  Thomas rolled his eyes. “Just remember that I want it back later. Are you ready to go?”

  “Da. The D Drive is ready for the final jump.”

  “Good. Once you meet up with Captain Nandoro, proceed with the rest of the plan immediately. You’ll distract the enemy and give us time to land. If things go smoothly, they should all surrender to you shortly afterward.”

  “And if it does not go smoothly?”

  “Then start disabling their ships, and don’t stop until they’re all adrift. Then have somebody land at the capital and come find us. We might need help.”

  “Understood.”

  Areva appeared at Thomas’s side, making him jump. “Can I say something?”

  “Uh, sure.”

  “Viktor?”

  Ivanokoff answered. “Areva?”

  “I love you,” she said.

  “And I, you. ‘Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love.’”

  She paused in thought for a moment. “Eliot?”

  “Da.”

  “Apt.”

  A muffled groan sounded over the intercom line. “Great, Ivanokoff,” said Chris Fish’s voice. “Now something awful is going to happen because you had a touching departure.”

  Areva smiled and disappeared into the back of the shuttle once more.

  Thomas hesitated before closing the channel. “Ivanokoff.”

  “Yes?”

  “Put me on shipwide.”

  A few beeps carried over the line. “Ready.”

  Thomas took a deep breath. “I know I didn’t get off to the best start with most of you. Or any of you. I’m sorry for that. I’m sorry for the misconceptions I carried onto the ship with me. When I first received this assignment, I couldn’t wait to transfer to another ship. But over the last year, I’ve realized that beneath the nonconformist, confrontational, unconfident exterior, you all are an excellent crew.”

  He heard a whoop. Matthias.

  One side of his mouth turned up. “We’re all cracked, but sometimes those cracks are just what we need to get results. I’ve been proud to be your captain, and I’m proud of how we’ve started to reclaim the Endurance’s good name. Let’s finish that process today.”

  An auditory slush of “yes, sir!” “all right!” “woo-hoo!” and “UELE!” blared through the speakers.

  With the voices of his crew ringing in his ears (literally—the volume had been turned up too high), Thomas engaged the Haxozin shuttle’s engine and lifted off.

  * * *

  Matthias sat on the bridge’s aft bench and tried to ignore his icy fingers and shivering arms. His body was in trouble; he knew that. But despite the clear encroachment of the zombie virus through his veins, despite the ever-present security guard waiting to stun him should he turn, his mind felt no symptoms whatsoever.

  That was good. His mind was his most important part. If it stayed intact long enough to liberate Earth, medical researchers would be able to do something about the rest of him. For now, he surveyed the ragtag fleet of UELE fighters, cruisers, and civilian craft gathered near Mars and tried to quiet his pounding heart.

  At the scanners station, Chris Fish cleared his throat. “Captain Nandoro is paging us. Video call.”

  “Answer,” said Ivanokoff.

  A moment later, one of the overhead screens blinked to Nandoro’s face. “We’re all set, Endurance. Once we get there, focus on disabling the Haxozin gravity drives. I’ll oversee the rest. A few Haxozin stars have broken off to visit the other planets, but we’ll still have to face the majority of their fleet. Disable one star, then move to the next.”

  Ivanokoff nodded. “Understood.”

  “Good luck.”

  “I do not do luck.”

  “Good luck anyway.”

  The feed switched back to Endurance’s external thermal scanners, currently showing the bulk of the fleet. All the UELE’s mustered forces totaled no more than fifty vessels, most of them the size of Endurance or even smaller. A swarm of mosquitos against a herd of rhinos.

  “Engage engines,” said Ivanokoff. He raised his chin and deepened his voice. “‘Either victory, or else a grave.’”

  “Um, dark,” said Chris Fish.

  Matthias hefted the computer panel he’d rigged to display reactor output, D Drive stability, and the positions of all targets simultaneously. He’d need to stay on his toes to make sure the jumps were long enough to pass all the way through the star prongs, but short enough not to drain the reactor too fast.

  Good thing his brain still worked.

  Endurance fell into place on the right side of Nandoro’s ship. Together humanity’s remaining law enforcement crews engaged their engines and headed off to serve and defend, possibly for the last time.

  * * *

  The Haxozin shuttle handled poorly at high speeds. Thomas gritted his teeth against the rattling from every bulkhead, every console, every bone in his body. The view outside, though not as nauseating as D Drive, still turned his stomach. Most stars were too far away for this speed to make them appear to move, but the bending effect of the ship’s false gravity well rippled space like an optical illusion.

  Thomas didn’t start to slow down until the last possible second. He wanted to appear in the midst of the Haxozin fleet in the hopes that, with their less-than-skeleton crews, they’d miss his arrival and assume he’d been there the whole time.

  “Here we go,” he murmured, and disengaged the gravity generator at the nose of the shuttle.

  The illusory bending of space boggled his eyes for a few more seconds, and then slowly the night returned to a solid pattern, no longer broken by sloping lines and curves. Earth loomed ahead, big and blue. It looked almost normal.

  Except for the grid of grey hulking vessels surrounding it. Thomas’s deceleration brought the shutt
le right beneath one of the largest star ships, and he had to force himself not to stare upward as they drifted along the length of one of its prongs.

  Scanners beeped. Thomas held his breath. Had his entrance been noticed?

  But none of the giant ships turned to intercept him, nor did any of them show a buildup of stored weapon energy. He didn’t get so much as a “hello” on the intercom.

  He exhaled and engaged a meandering path that wouldn’t look too determined, but that brought him slowly toward the surface. He passed from the shadow of the first ship and crossed a patch of empty space before passing over the arms of a second. He gave the central spire a wide berth, not wanting to get their attention, and changed course to drift a bit closer to the atmosphere.

  “Come on, Ivanokoff,” he muttered.

  “Viktor will be here,” said Areva, making him jump with yet another sudden appearance in the cockpit.

  “I know. Just talking to myself.”

  “Did you mean what you said? That you’re proud of us?”

  Thomas made another turn to avoid a Haxozin shuttle heading in the opposite direction. This maneuver directed him away from Earth, but that was just as well. He didn’t want to look suspicious. “Yes. I did.”

  “Even me?”

  Thomas laughed. “Areva, you’re one of the most capable members of the crew.”

  “Sometimes.”

  “When it counts.”

  “Not always.” She lapsed into silence, and Thomas had the sense that she wanted to say something important but couldn’t find the words.

  “When we’re on the surface,” she said, “I’m not going to shoot anyone who can see me. No one should see death coming.”

  “I’m familiar with your habits.”

  “I mean it, Captain. Even if it’s the last chance to save our lives, I’m not going to break my principles. If they see me coming, I won’t kill them.”

  Thomas pursed his lips. “So don’t let them see you.”

  “I don’t intend to. But I thought you should know, since you’re depending on me.”

  Another turn, this time back toward Earth’s surface. Where was Ivanokoff? Where was Nandoro? “I appreciate the warning, Praphasat. I trust you.”

  “Thank you.” Another pause. “If we succeed, we’ll be heroes.”

  Thomas nodded and stifled the flutter of excitement the word put in his stomach. “Probably.”

  “I’m not good at that. If we succeed, I’m quitting law enforcement. I thought things would be fine if we stayed in our quiet orbit of Neptune, but we’re back in the middle of things. I’m not suited for it. One way or another, this is my last mission.”

  Thomas couldn’t claim to be surprised. “Does Ivanokoff know?”

  “He knows.”

  “What does he think?”

  “He hasn’t decided yet.”

  Thomas ducked the shuttle beneath the spire of a star ship rotating on its axis. “I’ll be sorry to lose you. But I understand.”

  “Thanks.” Like a whisper, Areva disappeared into the background again.

  And like chain lightning, a series of blips appeared on Thomas’s scanners, rapidly growing larger. Ships.

  The UELE was on the scene. Ten seconds out, at their current speed.

  Thomas pointed the shuttle’s nose at the center of the Mediterranean Sea and prepared to dive.

  * * *

  “Now!” shouted Matthias.

  Ivanokoff gave the order. Endurance’s D Drive engaged. One second the viewports showed the rapidly oncoming bulkhead of a Haxozin star ship’s prong. The next they showed empty space. The jump was too minute for even a blinking eye to catch.

  “Bring us around,” ordered Ivanokoff. Every bridge officer held their breath as the ship pivoted to face their struck target.

  The star was pitching, one of its arms darkened, its ability to maneuver gone. A trio of UELE ships followed the Endurance’s path, opening fire on the unpowered prong and stripping away sections of the bulkheads. Then a fourth vessel swooped in and fired an EMP into the crippled target.

  The rest of the star dimmed and went out. The red thermal readings from its charged weapons began to dissipate to blue.

  Cheers erupted. It had worked. Matthias breathed a sigh of relief.

  Or tried to. His lungs wouldn’t quite obey. He gasped a few times and got them working, but each inhale was laborious.

  “Next target,” said Ivanokoff. Matthias shook himself and began checking the computer’s plan for the next jump. Some portion of his brain concentrated on filling his lungs, but he had no time to worry.

  His mind was still working. As long as it was, he could let the rest roll off.

  * * *

  The Haxozin shuttle plummeted through the atmosphere. Waves of heat rolled off its bow, creating a haze over the viewports. Thomas piloted by instinct and scanners. The rickety barge shuddered with every bump, and his knuckles went white as he fought to keep an even angle of descent. He had no idea what he would do if he lost control and went into a spin. Die, probably.

  A glance at one of the side scanner panels showed the havoc breaking loose in orbit. The UELE had fallen upon the sitting Haxozin ships much the same way the Haxozin had done to them a few days ago. The tiny UELE craft darted in and out of attack runs, never maintaining one course for more than a few seconds.

  One of those blips represented his ship, his crew. Somewhere up there, they were fighting for their lives.

  He refocused on the approaching ground, now dimly visible through a final layer of clouds and his re-entry shockwave. He slowed his descent and changed direction a few times to shake off any weapons tracking him. His heart hammered in his ears. As the re-entry haze began to clear from the viewports and he broke through the last wispy clouds, he searched for any sign of surface-to-air assault. If the Haxozin had landed ground troops, they might have taken over Earth’s defunct, pre-unification military installations and found some way to re-initialize them.

  He flew in a high circle before descending toward Median Island, an artificial landmass in the sparkling blue Mediterranean, equidistant from European, Asian, and African soil. Skyscrapers covered the island from shore to shore, leaving only minimal swaths of white beach. On a normal day the skies would be filled with multiple layers of hovercars, the streets crowded with pedestrians. But the city lay quiet, its air and ground still. If it weren’t for thermal scanners showing heat signatures in the buildings, Thomas would have thought Median was deserted.

  “Areva,” he said, “expect trouble. They’ve got the city locked down.”

  He heard the whirr of a bazooka rifle coming to life and the click of a round being chambered in a projectile gun. “Ready,” said Areva.

  “Got the carbon monoxide canisters?”

  A backpack zipped. “Got them.”

  Thomas passed the tops of the tallest buildings. He couldn’t see through any windows; the blinds were drawn, the lights dark.

  “Better get our friend ready.” He rounded an office building, and the grey ten-story cube that housed Dispatch headquarters came into view a few blocks ahead. “I’m going to land right at the back entrance. With luck they’re too short-staffed to notice our approach.”

  “If they do,” said Areva, “they’ll think we’re more Haxozin.”

  “I hope so.”

  He glided in over the walled-off parking lot that normally sheltered off-duty patrol hovers.

  It was empty.

  An eerie feeling crawled up Thomas’s spine. Commissioner Wen must have dispatched all hovers right after ordering spacefaring ships to retreat. It magnified the deadness Thomas sensed over the whole metropolis.

  He landed a few feet from the rear entrance into Dispatch headquarters, straddling one of the lines delineating parking spaces. He powered down the Haxozin shuttle and held his breath.

  Nothing happened.

  Where was everybody?

  He motioned Areva to follow and headed for the berth where they�
�d stowed Vinlin.

  The Haxozin was standing by the door when Thomas triggered it open. Thomas barely avoided jumping back in surprise. Without a word, Vinlin stepped into the hall and walked toward the airlock. “The Sovereign will be with your military leaders,” he said.

  “We know,” said Thomas. “The people here are the closest we’ve got to that.”

  “He will be armed,” said Vinlin.

  “We know that, too. We’re prepared.” Thomas glanced over his shoulder. Areva had made herself scarce. No doubt she was still nearby.

  The thought that he had an assassin watching his back gave Thomas comfort. He let Vinlin trigger the airlock open and walked with him down the ramp toward the UELE’s back door.

  Still no challenge to their approach, no sign of recognition.

  A suspicion began to twist in Thomas’s mind, whispering fears. It’s as dead as Thassis.

  No. If the Sovereign really did have a genetic plague to use against humanity, and if he’d had time to deploy it, there wouldn’t be so many warm bodies in the buildings.

  Right?

  ... right?

  Thomas pressed his palm against the door scanner, and a moment later the entrance unlocked.

  He grabbed the handle and yanked it open.

  One way or another, he’d know soon what had happened.

  * * *

  The Haxozin ships were beginning to regroup. Once the initial surprise wore off, the star ships spread out around Earth, forcing the smaller UELE ships to leave the protection of their group in order to pursue them. Endurance had taken multiple hits, though none had yet caused serious damage.

  “Next target!” Ivanokoff shouted, and Matthias continued his feverish calculations. They had only disabled a dozen or so ships, but already it felt like a never-ending ritual—sitting on this bench, feeling the ship jolt and bounce with every sharp maneuver, forcing his mind through complex calculations and double-checking algorithms, because a single mistake by the computer would doom not only the ship but the planet. Feeling ice encrust his finger bones and dig through his arm muscles. Realizing his legs had gone numb some time ago, and he hadn’t noticed. He had to focus on the work. Everything else could roll off.