This is a fan translation of Line of Dreams (Линия грёз) by the Russian science fiction and fantasy author Sergei Lukyanenko. The novel can be considered a fan fiction of the original Master of Orion game.
Chapter 10
Arthur woke up. His painful drug-induced oblivion could hardly be called normal sleep, but that was all he had. He was shivering, already used to the chills, and he had a splitting headache.
A doctor was sitting by the bed, a middle-aged man in a green lab coat with a very serious, understanding face. He reminded Arthur slightly of Harry Nerisian, who had been his doctor when he was little, which was a shame.
"He's conscious," the doctor said, glancing at the boy. "We've replaced his blood entirely and irradiated his bone marrow. I think his immunity is gone, but it's best not to rush with questions."
"Thank you. You may go."
Arthur saw Kal. She was wearing light armor, which looked about as appropriate in the whiteness of the hospital room as a handful of manure on a computer keyboard.
"I'm going to kill you," Arthur said. The doctor left after throwing him a glance.
"I doubt you'll get the chance, boy."
"I'm sick of you."
Kal reached out and patted him on the cheek. Arthur didn't even have the strength to turn away.
"Your friend is trying to free you, you know," she informed him.
"So what?"
"I think you'll see him soon. Not for long." Isabella looked above Arthur at someone standing at the head of the bed. "We have about ten-fifteen minutes. I'll try to get T/san out, we'll need him."
Kay Dutch didn't like killing. The fact of a particular person's death did at times feel good, but never the process itself.
Kay was categorically against the method of killing provided to him by the Seraph.
He released the grip of his hands, clad in the scales of cermet. Plasma flames licked a charred body one more time and were sucked into the pores. The soldier slumped to the floor. A young guy, who hadn't even had the time to put his armor on, carrying a low-power blaster of some kind, which Kay hadn't given him a chance to fire…
They came out of the technical passage the same way they had entered, by melting a section of the wall. They found themselves in the barracks, where there was no one but the orderly, since the entire personnel was busy looking for them.
"Our pursuers are getting closer," Andrey said. He was finishing up planting charges at the opening, not that it would give them anything. Along the way, they'd left behind a dozen booby traps, but none of them ended up exploding. Cyborgs weren't the only ones with good sensors.
"Plant a charge on the body," Kay ordered. He passed along a row of neatly made beds and carefully opened the door. He saw a large room with walls overgrown with vines, grass that seemed to come out straight out of the soft porous floor, and a not very convincing but pretty-looking hologram of a sky, which hid the ceiling.
"A recreation area?" the Meklar inquired. He slowly extended his damaged limb out of the body and was trying to put some weight on it.
"Yeah."
"We're two hundred and forty meters from the brig." Tommy came up to him, whose armor was still trying to stay close to Kay. He no longer kept his Argument ready, probably having decided that he wouldn't get an opportunity to use it. Catching his thoughtful and questioning gaze, Dutch looked away.
"Let's go." Stepping away from the dead body, Andrey quickly moved towards Kay. There was no emotion in the cyborg's voice, just a shadow of pride for a job well done.
They ran through the recreation area; occasionally, Andrey would pause and attach small disks to the trees, press them into the ground, and throw them through the "sky". The disks stuck, immediately changed color to match their surroundings, and spread across the surface.
"Sir, I'd recommend we leave behind a screen," one of the twins, the one who had destroyed the flight control post, said suddenly. "The servomotors of my right leg are damaged; I can't maintain the necessary speed."
"Do your best," Kay replied.
Doors of two dozen barracks opened into the recreation area. Those probably also had orderlies; fortunately for them, soundproofing prevented them from hearing their loud footsteps and dying as a result.
There was only one exit, a wide hallway to the transportation node of the base's habitation sector. That was also where the hallway of the brig came out.
"Had we employed more assault teams, we would have beaten you humans," the Meklar noted. His voice was even, as the reptilian cyborgs had long ago separated their speech and gas exchange functions. "Your bases are defenseless."
Kay decided to stay silent; unlike the Meklar, he had to conserve his breathing. They ran out into the hallway, which was empty and quiet. Too quiet. They crossed the fifty-meter hallway in seven seconds, and even the recesses in the walls, where soldiers were supposed to be posted, turned out to be empty. The square hall of the transport terminal looked abandoned. The lift doors were open, and the fanned-out hallways were completely clear.
Too quiet. Too empty.
A fatal luck.
"Get back!" Kay shouted, raising the Excalibur. With a clanging, the Meklar spread his limbs, switching to the combat form. At that moment, the people lying in ambush got the order to attack.
Localized space folders were an entirely new technology, which even the Family didn't have access to. The claps of disengaged generators merged into an even hum: both where they had just passed and in the other hallways, and at the center of the terminal hall, humans in powered armor started appearing. One popped up at the same spot Andrey was currently occupying, resulting in the cyborg being thrown to the side, right under the belly of the Meklar, who now looked like a big spider.
The soldiers were clearly not under orders to take them alive. Kay had been hit twice before he opened fire without looking at the enemies and leaping heavily from one place to another. His Seraph was holding up well. At the spot where a laser beam had hit him, a cloud of strange mirrored smoke appeared, showing all the colors of the rainbow. A plasma blast seemed not to have had done any damage to the armor at all.
There were too many attackers. They were holding back on using heavy weapons for fear of hitting each other. This gave the tiny group standing at the center of the hall a chance.
The Meklar, whose hops on his long legs looked funny, was running around the perimeter of the room. The plasma cannon he had extended from the chest segment was shooting without rest. His forelegs were tirelessly handing out monstrous slaps to the soldiers.
He was the most dangerous foe and, as it happened frequently, forced their enemies to forget about the others.
Andrey and Tommy were the first to open fire. The cyborg, possessing an inhuman reaction and no emotions, was shooting from a rapid-fire laser gun, which was plugged directly into his neural circuits. The boy only had to pull the trigger, and the Argument started jerking the barrel, giving out plasma bolts to anyone not listed as an ally.
The eight second skirmish had given the people in command of the soldiers an excellent lesson. Kay noticed their enemies retreating down the hallways, while those who couldn't do that were activating the devices attached to their belts, vanishing into localized space folds. The field of battle was being freed up for a new actor, and there was too much room for his appearance.
"To the walls!" Kay shouted, backing up. His armor was doing well for now. But there was no such thing as a perfect armor.
Sending a short burst of plasma fire after the retreating soldiers, Kas/s/is leapt at a wall without slowing down. A moment later, he was already crawling on the ceiling, stretching out his neck to the limit and turning his head to look in every direction. It wasn't difficult to figure out what the soldiers would send next, and only the Meklar's reaction and his unexpected position could help them now.
Rising up, Andrey was moving his laser gun back and forth. There was something wrong with his armor; it was smoking, and flames were dancing on the plates. It didn't look like a Seraph's combat mode; most likely, some bastard had managed to set the cermet plates on fire. But there wasn't even time to put out the flames.
Kay found one of the twins to the left of him, a little battered but alive. The other one was lying next to the corpses of the soldiers, motionless and wearing charred armor.
Luck was on Tommy's side for now. Even his armor looked untouched.
"Monitor the hallways!" Kay shouted. He was tempted to send a shot towards the soldiers disappearing around the corners, but it wasn't a good idea. The enemy could appear at any moment, and he needed all the reaction speed his Super's consciousness could give him.
"You shouldn't have pulled the strike team back," Lemak said.
The base commander threw a spiteful glance towards him, "Six of them were unable to retreat, Admiral. On your ships, you can send your people to die, but I prefer to sacrifice machines instead."
A tiny ripple was spreading through the screen that was showing the terminal hall; someone, probably the Meklar, was putting up interference. But, of course, it was impossible for him to suppress all the surveillance systems.
"I wouldn't rely on technology too much," Lemak said. He was sitting behind the base commander in front of an auxiliary console. More than likely, all executive circuits had been locked, as the relations between the base commander and the Admiral were far from friendly.
"Then don't." The base commander touched the communicator key. "Why is the Hunter delaying?"
"It has its own logic," an unseen voice replied without much respect. "It's choosing a moment."
"Speed it up!"
"That's a mistake," Lemak said. "A definite mistake."
For the past minute, he had been peering at the man that seemed to be in command of the attackers. If he accepted Kal's theory, then it was Kay Altos, Arthur Curtis's bodyguard. Powered armor (and not just any powered armor, but a top-of-the-line Seraph, no less) was concealing his figure, while an activated helmet was doing the same to his face. But his weapon was visible clearly. An Excalibur.
Lemak summoned his aide with a nod. He whispered quietly, "Recall our people from the brig and the hallways leading to the docks."
The young lieutenant gave Lemak a blank look. The Admiral sighed, "Internal Security think they're so badass. They're mistaken. Pull our people back."
Then he made himself comfortable and prepared to enjoy the show.
