The Karasor Read online

  “Do you think I’m being too hard on them?”

  Narikin looked around the room, “It is a little austere in here; people like to be reminded of who they are fighting for and why they joined the ship. I have pictures of my friends, family and even my dog on the wall of my cabin and I think it helps.”

  Migi looked up at him, his face brightening, “Do you think you could take pictures of my crew? I could put them on the wall to show how much I appreciate them...”

  “I think that would be a good idea.”

  Narikin did as he was asked. He went back to his cabin, fetched his camera and took photographs of all the Pentī and humans in the starboard hull.

  After they were developed, Migi made a gallery of the operations room and invited his people to see their faces smiling back at them. As far as he was aware, there were no more complaints about the young lieutenant.

  When Narikin told his cousin what he had done, Kruvak was pleased. “I thought he was having trouble adjusting; Migi is a good organiser but his people-skills are poor. I’m glad I sent you to help him.”

  “It was his idea.”

  “You made the solution possible. You’re a peace-maker, cousin; you look for ways to keep out of trouble.”

  “Living with my father has taught me many things but keeping out of his way is probably the one I have excelled at best.”

  Kruvak smiled at him, “I had to come to the Third Sphere to do that. Have you finished the list?”

  “I have,” Narikin showed each item ticked off and with notes written in the margin. He had also filled pages of his journal with the names of everyone he’d been introduced to and their roles as well as details about the ship itself.

  “I’m sure I’ve met all the crew in one way or another and I don’t think I’ll get lost again.”

  “Excellent,” said the captain.

  “Is there anything else you want me to do?”

  “We’ll reach Sarillon tomorrow and I’ll need you back on the bridge under the observation dome. But get some rest and relax for now; you’ve done well and I’m pleased.”

  16 – Scarp Rock

  Narikin was in his cabin when the Kyzyl Kum reached the Sarillon system. Pelike had done an excellent job fitting the fan and ducting in the darkroom and the smell of chemicals was nowhere near as bad as it had been

  Over the loudspeakers, Captain Kruvak sounded the alarm and told his crew to report to their stations. The planet of Sarillon was less than an hour away.

  Narikin put his jacket on and made his way to the bridge with his camera over his shoulder in its bag. He was the last to arrive.

  Durgah was giving instructions to Querl. Bysen and his assistants were watching the radar and Exarch screens. Kruvak was sitting in his chair. Nokodo was talking to Sarillon Control on the radio. Jamadar was standing in his usual place with his hands behind his back. He frowned at Narikin, “Hurry up,” he said.

  Narikin climbed up into his seat and swivelled around until he was facing the prow. The planet was a just a blue dot in the distance but he could hear Kruvak saying, “And they’ve had no contact since?”

  “The Kyzyl Mazhalyk left two days ago,” Nokodo replied.

  Durgah asked, “What heading?”

  “Towards the Scarp Rock...”

  Narikin heard Jamadar grunt, “Did he give an excuse?”

  “Sarillon Control says he was crossing the Meros to check if the Rock was clear of smugglers...”

  “That’s in the Taira mandate,” said Durgah. “What made him think he needed to do their work?”

  “I think it’s clear what his real intentions are,” Kruvak said. “How long ago and when is he due back?”

  “He said he would be back today,” Nokodo replied.

  “There are at least eight Taira ships in the region,” said Jamadar, “Including the destroyer, Gory Kamen.”

  “Suicide,” said Durgah.

  “Nokodo, tell Sarillon Control to send a full report to Titer on Kaishaku. We’ll cross the Meros and if we’re not too late, we’ll try and persuade him to come back. If he’s already engaged the Taira, we’ll have to find a way to help him. But as he’s already over-due, I’m thinking we might be too late.”

  “Wouldn’t it be better to stay here and defend Sarillon,” said Durgah. “If the Taira believe they’re being attacked, arriving to support the Kyzyl Mazhalyk will just confirm it.”

  “I would agree but if Uigur’s ship has been captured or destroyed, we need to know sooner rather than later; waiting to find out what’s happened will be worse than seeing for ourselves. We will cross the Meros, see what’s left of Uigur, and return as quickly as we can. We will not engage with the Taira if we can possibly help it.”

  Kruvak gave a summary of the mission to the crew over the speaker system. Non-essential personnel could stand-down for the next four hours but then everybody would be expected back on duty and ready for a potential battle. He advised everyone to eat and get some rest. Secondly, because they were not going to Sarillon, he gave the order for short-rations in case they were caught in a conflict for any length of time. They had been reasonably successful in picking up supplies from Awa but not enough to last more than a week.

  Narikin stayed at his post for another hour and he used the time to practise giving accurate headings using the degrees etched around the bottom of the dome.

  He attached his camera to the binocular armature so he could take pictures without having to hold it. By changing to his long lens, he could also use it to peer further into space.

  By the time he left, the other side of the Meros, the neutral clearway between the northern and southern hemispheres, was beginning to emerge from the general fuzziness of the Equatorial Sea. A range of mountainous asteroids, dark against the paler background lit by the suns of Mormo and Larret, stretched across the horizon. Amongst them was the Scarp Rock, famous in the annals of ranger history as the scene of a major battle during the Hundred Year War.

  Narikin had read the story; to prevent Zarktek ships from Larret attacking a Tun fleet on its way to Han, a diversion was arranged. Ranger ships destroyed the Zarktek guard towers to the west of Larret, making Tsar Berith believe an attack was coming from that direction. His fleet left the Larret system to defend their border and ranger ships, hiding on the Scarp Rock, ambushed them. The battle was a complete success for the Pentī Alliance.

  However, since then, the Rock had acquired a reputation as a haunted and dangerous place. It was probably only a rumour put about by smugglers to hide their activities, but evil was supposed to follow anyone who dared approach its dark and pitted surface. When Narikin went down to the mess-hall, he found his fellow diners were talking about it, telling each other the legends, and generally not sounding very pleased to be going there, especially the humans on the crew who knew more about superstitions than anyone.

  “The dead don’t forget,” they said. “They haunt that rock like birds over a corpse.”

  Narikin ate quickly and went back to his cabin before he could hear worse. He wasn’t prey to ghost stories but the mood was catching. He pottered around in his darkroom for a while, making sure his equipment was stowed away properly, and then went back to the bridge an hour early.

  The mountains were now visible to the naked eye, not as a range as they might have appeared on a planet but as dark shadows or storm clouds floating in the vacuum. He could see why the region was unpopular with the crew; the asteroids seemed loom over the Kyzyl Kum, threating to topple in an avalanche even though there was no gravity to pull them down.

  The mood on the bridge grew quieter as they approached the Scarp Rock. Even though the planetoid was several thousand miles long, it took all of Durgah’s skill to find it.

  Kruvak announced their arrival to the crew. All hands were called to their stations and an alarm bell rang through the ship. They needed to be ready for an ambush.

  The Rock appeared; dark red like dried blood. Narikin used his powerful binoculars to pee
r at the surface. At maximum magnification, he could see the edge as it was caught by the distant light of Larret’s sun, sharp and jagged like the back of a giant reptile. There was no sense of scale and as they drew closer it grew bigger and bigger until he thought they were going to crash on the surface.

  Kruvak said, “Any sign of other ships, Bysen?”

  “Not yet, Captain,” the radar operator replied. “But the iron in the rock is interfering with our signal.”

  “Nokodo...?”

  There was a pause as the radio operator tried to call the Kyzyl Mazhalyk. “Nothing, Captain - not even background signals...”

  “I have something on the radar,” said Bysen. He gave co-ordinates and Kruvak told Querl to follow them.

  Narikin kept the binoculars trained on the space ahead. Then he caught a glimpse of an object with straight rather than rocky lines, “I can see a ship,” he announced.

  “I see it too,” said Durgah.

  “Is it the Kyzyl Mazhalyk?” Kruvak asked.

  It was another minute before they were close enough to see the outline but it was difficult to tell if it was Uigur’s destroyer.

  “Still nothing?” Kruvak asked Nokodo.

  “No, Captain...”

  “I’m only getting a weak signal on the Exarch detector,” said Bysen.

  “There’s something wrong,” said Jamadar.

  When they were less than a mile away, Narikin could see the ship was in parts rather than whole. The two outer hulls were floating away from the main section of the ship, tilted up at an angle and spinning quickly.

  “Bring us to a thousand feet,” said Kruvak to Querl. “But slowly; Bysen, keep checking the detectors. Are you sure we’re picking up nothing except the radar signature?”

  “Nothing, Captain,” Bysen repeated. “Only a trace and interference from the Rock.”

  “Try the signal lamps,” Jamadar suggested.

  Narikin saw the powerful lights on the top deck flash but nothing came back in reply. He could see clouds of debris surrounding the three separate hulls clearly now. It was certainly a Pentī destroyer but it was difficult to tell, in the darkness, if it was Karasor or Taira. Then the light of the lamps caught a patch of green on the main hull.

  “It’s a Karasor ship,” said Durgah, his voice hollow.

  “But is it a relic of the Hundred Year War?” said Kruvak.

  As they came closer, details began to appear: turrets were missing, decks had collapsed and there was nothing where the bridge should have been. Whatever had happened, it had been catastrophic. Narikin took a picture.

  “This is recent,” said Jamadar. “The debris should have dispersed.”

  “Then it can only be the Kyzyl Mazhalyk,” said Durgah.

  “Everyone keep alert - whatever destroyed her, won’t be far away. Querl, put us above the main hull and turn us over. I want what’s left of the ship between us and the Rock.”

  “It might be dangerous to get closer,” Jamadar warned. “There could be mines hidden in the debris. It might be better to send a boat for a closer look.”

  “Agreed,” said the captain. “Querl, keep her out of the debris field.”

  The Kyzyl Kum twisted over onto its back and Narikin gripped the arms of his seat. Though he knew there was no ‘up’ or ‘down’ in space, it still felt as though the ship’s contents were going to tumble down on top of him.

  “Was it an ambush?” said Durgah. “It’s not a tactic the Taira normally use...?”

  “I don’t see how Uigur would have been caught in any other way – he might have been a fool but if he’d had time, he would have tried to escape.”

  “But if he’d been over-whelmed...?”

  “We’ll only know if we examine the ship closely.” He picked up the telephone, “Quassin – take a small boat and a couple of your rangers with you. Take Danaide; I need an engineer’s opinion too.”

  While they waited for the search party to prepare, Kruvak ordered the scouts to go down to Scarp Rock and look for ships hiding in the deeper valleys. Bysen was still trying to use the ship’s detectors but he couldn’t cut through the interference. “There could be a whole fleet down there and we wouldn’t be able to see it,” he said.

  “They would know we’re here by now,” said Jamadar. “If there’s going to be an ambush, it will happen in the next hour.”

  “I want the nuclear missiles primed; they might be the only way to confuse the enemy long enough for us to get away.” A burst of radiation, an electromagnetic pulse, and it wouldn’t matter how many ships came after them: their instruments would be blind.

  Narikin saw one of the small lifeboats fly past the bridge with four people in vacuum suits sitting inside. They had to wait another few minutes as Quassin’s pilot picked their way through the rubbish and arrived at the main hull.

  As the team approached, the bridge speaker crackled and they heard Quassin’s voice say, “The signs are difficult to interpret, Captain.”

  “Can you determine the cause?” said Kruvak.

  “Not yet, Captain; I can’t see any impact craters – it’s almost as though the ship caught fire rather than was attacked...”

  Through his binoculars, Narikin watched the boat crawl along the side of the giant hull beside it. He could see the circles of yellow from the spotlights on the black surface. He saw empty portholes, devoid of glass, and ragged holes caused by sudden decompression.

  “The stern ramp is down; we’re going to take a look inside.”

  “Be careful,” Kruvak warned. “We might have to call you back in a hurry so don’t go too far.”

  “There could be survivors,” Jamadar suggested.

  “Agreed; Quassin; don’t open any pressure doors unless you’re sure there’s nobody on the other side.”

  There was a long pause and then the Sword Master said, “We’re inside the main hull but there’s massive damage. The whole of the internal structure has been ripped apart; none of the walls let alone the doors are intact.”

  “Any chance of survivors…?”

  “Not here, Captain…”

  “Keep looking,” said Kruvak.

  “Captain,” said Danaide, “The ship is an empty shell. None of the bulkheads have survived and we can see almost as far as the bow. An accidental fire didn’t do this, of that I’m certain.”

  There was a long silence on the bridge of the Kyzyl Kum.

  Then Durgah asked, “What kind of weapon could gut a ship like a fish?”

  “There doesn’t appear to be any external evidence of a hit from a plasma bolt,” said Jamadar.

  “Unless they were hit from behind; could it be possible the ramp was open when they were attacked? Danaide, did you hear that?”

  “Yes, Captain,” said the engineer. “But a bolt that could do this much damage should have passed through the ship and caused a massive exit hole. We can see no hole and it looks as though the ramp has been blown out rather than destroyed by a bolt coming in.”

  Jamadar asked, “What about the outer hulls?”

  Narikin turned his binoculars towards them. Even if the main hull had been gutted, perhaps there were survivors in the other two? But he could see no signs of life; no lights were blinking from the spinning remains.

  “Quassin,” said Kruvak. “Take a quick look at the outer hulls and let us know if we need to send the launches to rescue the crew.”

  The small boat reappeared and sailed quickly across the intervening space to the nearest of the outer hulls. “What can you see?” Kruvak asked.

  “It looks the same,” said Quassin. “The turrets are missing and the pressure doors have blown out. There’s a hole in the side – taking a closer look...”

  “Be careful, Quassin; I don’t want you batted across the Meros like a ball...”

  “Me neither, Captain – but we can see inside; there’s nothing left of the interior but molten metal. It’s as though the whole ship was cooked in an oven.”

  “Any chance of survivo
rs...?”

  “None-what-so-ever,” said the Sword Master.

  Kruvak sighed, “All right – take a look at the other hull to be sure and then return to the ship.”

  “Yes, Captain,” Quassin replied.

  “We should get away from here as soon as Quassin and Danaide are back,” said Durgah.

  “If the Taira were going to attack,” said Jamadar. “We would know by now.”

  Durgah agreed but insisted it would be better to move on while their presence was still un-noticed. “We should return to Sarillon and report what we’ve seen.”

  “We need evidence we can take away with us,” said Kruvak. “Narikin; will your camera work in a vacuum?”

  It took a moment for him to realise his name was being called.

  “Narikin,” Kruvak repeated. “Come down...”

  Narikin struggled out of his seat, forgot he was still wearing his headphones and nearly pulled his ears off.

  “Yes, Captain...?”

  “Will it work...?”

  “It’s a Clun camera, made in a vacuum – the film is sealed in an airtight canister and the workings can operate in sub-zero temperatures...”

  “Good – go down to the starboard loading platform and report to Gader.” He picked up the telephone, “Gader, prepare another suit; I’m sending Narikin to the Kyzyl Mazhalyk to take some pictures.”

  Narikin looked at Jamadar, his face pale, “I’ll have to put on a suit...?”

  “If you don’t want to die, yes,” smiled the War Master. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’ve never worn one in an actual vacuum...”

  He smiled, “Don’t worry – Quassin will keep you safe.”

  He nodded to tried not to panic. “I’ll need to change the lens on my camera first.”

  “Do it quickly and go down to Airlock Four on ‘C’ Deck. And change out of your uniform too; do you have an inner suit?”

  “Yes; I was given one on the Kyzylagash.”

  “Go and put it on; the vacuum suits are in the airlock and Gader will be there to help you.”

  Narikin ran down to his cabin. Despite his terror, he was thinking clearly. He put a small lens on the camera first and made sure he had a spare canister of film. He fitted a flash onto the body and checked the batteries were fully charged. Then he took off his uniform and put on an all-in-one fleece.