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 10

The mechanist was crouching over Arthur's body and touching his shoulder.

"Get up… get up…"

Kay didn't know where this strange stupor had come from. But he continued to stand and stare at Mohammadi.

"Come on, stop it," Marjan said gently. "It's your own fault. Stop pretending!"

Arthur's face was as white as chalk. He had once again begun his dance with death.

Kay bent down; the mechanist managed to react to the movement, but it was too late. Kay's fingers, augmented by the motors, clamped down on her arm, just below the laser opening.

A gleaming white lance pierced the air.

Dutch started to slowly twist the arm. It wasn't easy even in powered armor, as the mechanist's body wasn't much less durable. The beam jerked, slicing through the consoles with a hiss. The pilots dropped to the floor, except for one, either the most reckless or the most disciplined, who continued to enter deceleration commands.

The laser interrupted his work.

There was a crunching sound, when the mechanist's wrist broke and hung limply on a cord of colorful wires and ribbed gear tubes. Marjan screamed; after the "gulp" of wine, her sensitivity to pain was still at the human level. The laser beam vanished.

Kay pushed the mechanist away and threw a brief glance at the consoles. The surviving pilots were lying on the floor, covering their heads with their hands.

"Slow down!" Kay shouted, rushing to Mohammadi.

Marjan had already risen to meet him. The strike she had dealt with her intact arm forced the armor to shudder dully and dent a little.

Dutch grasped the mechanist's throat and froze, holding her in his stretched-out arm.

She kicked him twice. The armor held, for now.

Kay started to clench his fingers.

"You won't," Marjan said clearly. Her trachea was protected far too reliably for the steel grip to keep Mohammadi from speaking. Kay's fingers grated, sliding across the metal rings of her neck.

With his free hand, Kay punched the mechanist in the face. Again, and again. The silver mask crumpled, the crystal lenses shattered into tiny pieces.

"Go to hell," Kay said.

"You're the devil himself."

"I'm no one."

One of Kay's strikes forced the mechanist's head to tilt back at an unnatural angle. Marjan wailed, trying to get away in a painful strain.

Trying not to notice the light blinking near his face, indicating that the armor's power had almost been depleted, Kay continued to press.

There was a hideous sound. The flesh hadn't held.

Mohammadi's body went limp, as her spine broke. Dutch released it, and the living statue fell.

With a movement of his chin, Kay engaged the boost mode, draining the last drops of power from the armor's batteries.

"For Artie," he said, lowing his metal-clad foot onto Mohammadi's face.

There was a squelching sound of splattering flesh. The high-pitched whine of closed circuits. The mechanist's body continued to lie there, twitching slightly in the final electronic convulsions. The flattened silver face reflected the light vacantly.

Kay turned to Tommy, who was kneeling next to Arthur. He met the navigator's gaze. The man wasn't even trying to get his blaster out, one of his hands holding the back of his head, and the other still on the keyboard.

"It's too late," he said. "The process has been interrupted. Seven minutes to jump exit… at sublight."

Lemak rose, his eyes never leaving the screen. That was it. There wasn't time.

They were going on a little trip into the future.

Someone laughed madly behind him, but Lemak didn't turn to look. He was suddenly gripped by a calm… an icy indifference. When Kay had killed the mechanist, the Admiral merely nodded.

Good job…

Shegal was about to burst onto the bridge, and Dutch would share Mohammadi's fate. Well then, the final show promised to be interesting.

Bending over the screen, Lemak stared at Kay, who carefully picked up Arthur Curtis.

"Thank you," Kay said.

There was still life in Arthur's eyes, somewhere deep under the veil of encroaching darkness.

"Stimulant…" he whispered.

Kay didn't hesitate. If the armor hadn't yet injected the drug, then it could only do harm. But Arthur had a right to this last burst of strength, even if it burned him out a minute earlier.

Dutch manually activated the armor's medical unit.

"Leave," Arthur whispered only slightly more clearly. "Leave the ship."

Kay thought that the young man was delirious. The thought was probably visible on his face.

"This is hyper… different laws here,' Arthur was trying to explain something desperately. "When you go past the ship's field… you lose the inertia. You'll be thrown… into real space… with zero movement relative to the exit point… Like the shuttle… at Dogar, remember…"

It took Kay a few seconds to realize that he wasn't delirious. Arthur Curtis had an escape plan.

Except he himself wouldn't have time to use it.

"There's a chance…" Arthur's lips were turning blue, but his voice grew firmer. The stimulant was working. "Don't worry, if you're right, then there's going to be a chance."

"We won't be able to take you," Kay touched the punctured armor carefully. Blood bubbled on the metal gauntlet.

"I have aTan… remember?" Arthur even tried to smile. "Just one more time… what's the difference… Finish me off."

"No. Hold on, I'll try to seal the armor."

"You're saving… a corpse…" Arthur said with a sudden clarity and volume. "This is only a shell… you won't be able to take it with you."

"I won't shoot you."

"Dutch, I'm asking you. It's important that I die… in this time."

"You'll have time to do it yourself," Kay replied roughly. "I won't kill you."

"Dutch…"

"You've gotten too used to pain… to death…" Kay corrected himself, lowering Arthur to the floor, tenderly and carefully. "You love it too much. I won't be your death."

He didn't face Arthur again.

Shegal's shot melted the lift's floor as effectively as Marjan's built-in laser had opened up its ceiling.

Showered in the glitter of hardening metal, he popped out onto the bridge. The first thing he saw were dead bodies. The guards killed by Arthur, the mechanist, one of the pilots, sliced nearly in half, and Curtis Jr. himself. Dead or dying… having left or still leaving into aTan… it didn't matter.

The living weren't much more talkative than the dead.

"Where?!" Shegal yelled. The officer at the navigation console nodded briefly.

The Clinch Commander turned to the doors that led to the emergency airlock.

It didn't take him long to figure out Dutch's way out.

Giving the marines and the pilots a chance to make their own choices, he dashed after Kay.