Chapter 9-2
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Selene was about to investigate further when a squawk of static sounded through her suit"s comms system. According to the lander, it was the Dragon attempting to communicate. It was incredible anything was getting through given where they were.
“What was that?” asked Lilith.
“Probably Ondo getting jumpy. We should leave.”
Another squall of white noise sounded in Selene"s ear. Once again there was nothing discernible.
She touched the black bead to remove it from the orb. The images of the red sun disappeared. She put the green and black beads into separate pockets of her suit, then turned to leave. One day she"d return with Ondo, and they could study everything they"d found properly.
They raced back along the pathway they"d come down, Selene worrying that they might find themselves trapped in the rock; that the paths would have twisted around into Möbius strips, no ending or beginning, imprisoning them forever. It was hard to tell if they were even following the same route through the maze. Every pathway looked the same.
But the outer shell of the rock drew nearer, and they found the doorway waiting for them. Selene stepped through first, and she was immediately back on the surface. Nothing had changed, the lander waiting nearby, casting no shadow in the monotone glow. Lilith appeared beside her a moment later. Back on board, everything powered up sweetly.
More bursts of static came from the comms as they rose and headed away from the surface of the Heliolith. As with their arrival, a judder went through the craft as it crossed the boundary that kept the rock safe from the raging star housing it. Then they were free, moving through blazing plasma once more, the hull temperature climbing rapidly.
They had only to reach the Dragon and run up to metaspace translation to be safe. She knew, now, where Concordance"s home world was. She didn"t need to be able to interpret Recorder writing to be able to work out the galactic coordinates. Stars had obviously shifted over the aeons, born and died, but she and Ondo could rewind time, model the evolving galaxy and get to a pretty close approximation.
They were nearly there, the end of their quest in sight. She"d so often thought they"d never get that far. Ondo was going to be delighted when she showed him what they"d found. They"d lost the Refuge but this more than made up for it.
They emerged from the hazy outer layers of the sun to find a ring of Concordance craft waiting for them. Selene stared at them in disbelief, too stunned to move for a moment. The Dragon was there, too, a little way off, also surrounded. Ondo had come for them, despite her words, despite the risks. He"d seen the Concordance ships approaching and tried to rescue her. The inaudible messages had been his warnings.
“Ondo, what are you doing here?” She was shouting into the comms. Perhaps he could still get away if she kept Concordance busy for a time. It was all she could think of.
Two display screens lit up as two image streams came in to the lander. On one, Walker Kane appeared from his ship, a predator"s grin seeping across his features. On the other was Ondo. His hair was wild and a cut over his left eye ran freely with blood. Two more Walkers were there with him, holding his arms pinned behind his back. Behind them, the clutter of the laboratory lay in shattered ruins. There had clearly been fighting on the Dragon.
“I"m sorry, Selene,” said Ondo. His voice was slurred, his lip cut, the side of his face swollen. “I tried to reach you but there wasn"t enough time. You were right, and I should never have made you come here. I should never…”
The audio from the Dragon cut off, and Kane spoke. “Selene Ada, is there any last thing you wish to say to your master?”
She looked desperately from Ondo to Kane, trying to work out what she should do. She could think of only one thing to say in reply. “Let Ondo go, and I"ll come with you. Malleus, too.”
Another figure stepped into the frame to stand beside Kane.
“Malleus?” she said. “They captured you?”
Malleus shook his head, as if pitying her. “They rescued me, as I knew they would.”
Everything was spinning out of control and there was nothing she could do. “What the hell is going on here? What do you want?”
Kane spoke again. “We"ve simply been waiting for you to reappear so you can watch. That"s what is happening.”
“Watch what?”
Kane nodded. Back on the Dragon, one of the two who held Ondo, perhaps given orders via the fleck in his head, stepped backwards while the other held both Ondo"s arms. The first Walker drew a blaster from some pocket in his robes. He pointed it at Ondo.
“No,” said Selene. Alarm thundered through her. She had to protect Ondo. “Don"t harm him, I"ll tell you what we found. I"ll tell you everything.”
“You will,” said Kane. “I know. But that doesn"t stop us doing this.”
He nodded his head again. There was still no audio from the Dragon, everything happening in silence. Ondo"s eyes were on her as he mouthed something to her. She knew what he was saying, knew what he was instructing her to do. Allowing her to do. His last act.
The Walker holding the blaster fired. The focused energy beam tore into Ondo"s body and he slumped to the ground, eyes shut, a ragged wound blossoming on his chest. He twitched once then moved no more.
The images moved to an external view, to the pyramidal shape of the ship encircled by its enemies. The Concordance vessels fired in unison, their beam-weapons converging on the Radiant Dragon.
A second later the straight, sharp lines of the ship burst into a silent, bright explosion.
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