This is a fan translation of Emperors of Illusions (Императоры иллюзий) by the Russian science fiction and fantasy author Sergei Lukyanenko. The novel is a sequel to Lukyanenko's Line of Dreams (Линия грёз) novel and can be considered a fan fiction of the original Master of Orion game.

Chapter 9

Marjan was naked. Her body, created by engineers as much as by nature, seemed perfectly motionless. It was a deceptive appearance…

"Bring me water," Mohammadi demanded.

Arthur Curtis, standing by the mirror, hurried to obey.

"Admiring yourself?" the silver face produced a smile.

Arthur nodded.

"Why do you want Kay, boy?"

Standing motionless in front of his "bodyguard", Arthur narrowed his eyes a little.

"I already told you."

"Don't lie to me," Marjan's voice grew tender, purring. "Whatever you're thinking of doing to him, forget it. He's mine."

"The Emperor wants him brought back alive."

"The Emperor is far away."

Mohammadi grabbed the glass from his hands and took a sip. She returned it to Arthur and commanded tersely, "Finish it. And remember, I'm always first. At everything."

Curtis Jr. obediently drank the water.

"You don't know how to avenge," Marjan went on quietly. "Knowing the threshold of life and death, suffering and pleasure, is not everything. Vengeance must be nurtured like a flower that blooms only once… but even an unopened bud can be enjoyed for many years."

"Marjan—"

"Silence!" with a powerful jerk, Mohammadi brought him close to her. "And don't argue with me. You know how much I love you… and how much I suffer when I have to punish my boy."

"Lemak told us to be on the bridge before we enter the orbit of Fieras."

"Karl, the old fool," Mohammadi reached for her clothes with a sigh. She tossed her stockings to Arthur. "Put them on…"

The young man knelt in front of the mechanist and started putting on the silk over the mosaic of steel and flesh.

After the scream-filled spaceport, the landing field seemed like a completely different world. The shift supervisor's access card was working despite the alarm. Following a short hallway, Kay and Tommy ran out of the building onto the sun-scorched concrete slabs.

Even the safety zone around the spaceport was filled with ships that had arrived for long-term stays. Most of them were small, and Kay thought apathetically that, if their Grasshopper had also been towed here, then they were doomed.

"Dutch!" Tommy grabbed his hand, pointing at a service cart near the wall. They hopped into the open vehicle, and Kay slid the card into the detector slot with timid hope.

The engine hummed evenly.

It was luck, simple luck, which had nothing to do with their efforts. Kay spun the wheel, directing the cart towards the center of the landing field. The safety circuit indicator started blinking rapidly; Dutch tore the circuit out of the console and tossed it onto the concrete.

If they ended up dying under the thrusters of a landing ship, then such death would be more preferable to ISS torture masters.

"Is the ship where we left it?" Tommy asked, shouting over the engine noise.

"Pray that it is!" Kay stuck his blaster in his hands and focused on the controls. The young man rose slightly and hopped over to the rear seat.

"Shoot at everything!" Dutch shouted. After a moment's pause, he heard plasma discharges behind him.

A blaster, even a heavy one, was incapable of damaging a ship's hull. But the spaceport building hadn't been built to withstand being shot at, as the Mrrshans weren't keen on the idea of having a human citadel on their planet.

Huge windows weren't shattering from the blasts, since the metal mesh, melted into the glass, was keeping the shards in place. They boiled and showered the people pressing against them as flaming shrapnel. If any of the security guards had planned to take up an elevated position and take shots at the cart, it was no longer a possibility. The screaming mob was knocking back anyone trying to get to the windows.

Kay drove the vehicle, fighting the desire to look back. The rally through the ships, placed in a checkerboard pattern, wasn't particularly difficult, but it was hard to orient himself. There was no time to call up the reference program in the cart's computer. Kay could only hope that at least one of the ships he'd remembered as reference points was still on Fieras.

There was a rising hum in the sky. Kay saw a passenger shuttle landing half a kilometer ahead… just in time. They dashed by it, and Dutch could see the pilots' confused faces through the absurd visual overview dome.

Without ceasing firing the Bumblebee, Tommy reached one hand into Kay's jacket pocket.

"Left!" Dutch shouted, taking out a charge pack and handing it to him.

Tommy stopped firing for a few moments, reloading the Hornet. Then both blasters were once again shooting. Kay thought that the spaceport building was already outside the range of the Bumblebee, but he said nothing. Now wasn't the time to save charges. At least the boy would calm down… nothing made one sure of oneself like a gun in one's hand.

Kay barely noticed the fat tanker truck on six reinforced supports. He'd ended up veering too far to the left and had to take two expanding circles around the tanker before the cart came out to the Grasshopper.

There were no technical service vehicles there. Either they'd had time to leave, since replacing a fuel tank took no more than fifteen minutes, or the fugitives had been unlucky after all.

With squealing brakes, the cart stopped right under the nozzles. The charred vehicle would be the last of the damage they dealt to the spaceport… if the Grasshopper was refueled, of course.

While Tommy was climbing the ladder to the hatch, Kay flipped open the lid of the drive section's control panel. There was no time to activate the console if the ship hadn't been fueled.

The fuel indicator was at maximum.

Lady Luck was still on their side.

Kay slammed the panel closed and started climbing after Tommy. They had a chance, since orbital stations only monitored ships on landing approaches. The bureaucratic machine of the Mrrshan military wasn't much better than that of the humans, which meant that the chase wouldn't start until it was too late.