The huge command deck was as calm, as peacefully dim, as
ever, silent but for the small background sounds of
environmental recordings. The bulkheads were invisible
beyond the projection of star-specked space and the blue-
white shape of a life-bearing world. It was exactly as it
ought to be, exactly as it always had been-tranquil, well-
ordered, as divorced from chaos as any setting could
possibly be.
But Captain Druaga's face was grim as he stood beside his
command chair and data flowed through his neural feeds. He
felt the whickering lightning of energy weapons like
heated irons, Engineering no longer responded-not
surprisingly-and he'd lost both Bio-Control One and Three.
The hangar decks belonged to no one; he'd sealed them
against the mutineers, but Anu's butchers had blocked the
transit shafts with grab fields covered by heavy weapons.
He still held Fire Control and most of the external
systems, but Communications had been the mutineers'
primary target. The first explosion had taken it out, and
even an Utu-class ship mounted only a single hypercom. He
could neither move the ship nor report what had happened,
and his loyalists were losing.
Druaga deliberately relaxed his jaw before his teeth could
grind together. In the seven thousand years since the
Fourth Imperium crawled back into space from the last
surviving world of the Third, there had never been a
mutiny aboard a capital ship of Battle Fleet. At best, he
would go down in history as the captain whose crew had
turned against him and been savagely suppressed. At worst,
he would not go down in history at all.
The status report ended, and he sighed and shook himself.
The mutineers were hugely outnumbered, but they had the
priceless advantage of surprise, and Anu had planned with
care. Druaga snorted; no doubt the Academy teachers would
have been proud of his tactics. But at least-and thank the
Maker for it!-he was only the chief engineer, not a bridge
officer. There were command codes of which he had no
knowledge.
"Dahak," Druaga said.
"Yes, Captain?" The calm, mellow voice came from
everywhere and nowhere, filling the command deck.
"How long before the mutineers reach Command One?"
"Three standard hours, Captain, plus or minus fifteen
percent."
"They can't be stopped?"
"Negative, Captain. They control all approaches to Command
One and they are pushing back loyal personnel at almost
all points of contact."
Of course they were, Druaga thought bitterly. They had
combat armor and heavy weapons; the vast majority of his
loyalists did not.
He looked around the deserted command deck once more.
Gunnery was unmanned, and Plotting, Engineering, Battle
Comp, Astrogation.... When the alarms went, only he had
managed to reach his post before the mutineers cut power
to the transit shafts. Just him. And to get here he'd had
to kill two subverted members of his own staff when they
pounced on him like assassins.
"All right, Dahak," he told the all-surrounding voice
grimly, "if all we still hold is Bio Two and the weapon
systems, we'll use them. Cut Bio One and Three out of the
circuit."
"Executed," the voice said instantly. "But it will take
the mutineers no more than an hour to put them back on
line under manual."
"Granted. But it's long enough. Go to Condition Red Two,
Internal."
There was a momentary pause, and Druaga suppressed a
bitter smile.
"You have no suit, Captain," the voice said
unemotionally. "If you set Condition Red Two, you will
die."
"I know." Druaga wished he was as calm as he sounded, but
he knew Dahak's bio read-outs gave him the lie. Yet it was
the only chance he-or, rather, the Imperium-had.
"You will give a ten-minute warning count," he continued,
sitting down in his command chair. "That should give
everyone time to reach a lifeboat. Once everyone's
evacuated, our external weapons will become effective. You
will carry out immediate decon, but you will allow only
loyal personnel to re-enter until you receive orders to
the contrary from... your new captain. Any mutinous
personnel who approach within five thousand kilometers
before loyal officers have reasserted control will be
destroyed in space."
"Understood." Druaga could have sworn the voice spoke more
softly. "Comp Cent core programs require authentication of
this order, however."
"Alpha-Eight-Sigma-Niner-Niner-Seven-Delta-Four-Alpha," he
said flatly.
"Authentication code acknowledged and accepted," the voice
responded. "Please specify time for implementation."
"Immediately," Druaga said, and wondered if he spoke so
quickly to avoid losing his nerve.
"Acknowledged. Do you wish to listen to the ten-count,
Captain?"
"No, Dahak," Druaga said very softly.
"Understood," the voice replied, and Druaga closed his
eyes.
It was a draconian solution... if it could be called
a "solution" at all. Red Two, Internal, was the next-to-
final defense against hostile incursion. It opened every
ventilation trunk-something which could be done only on
the express, authenticated order of the ship's commander-
to flood the entire volume of the stupendous starship with
chemical and radioactive agents. By its very nature, Red
Two exempted no compartment... including this one. The
ship would become uninhabitable, a literal death trap, and
only the central computer, which he controlled, could
decontaminate.
The system had never been intended for this contingency,
but it would work. Mutineers and loyalists alike would be
forced to flee, and no lifeboat ever built could stand up
to Dahak's weaponry. Of course, Druaga wouldn't be alive
to see the end, but at least his command would be held for
the Imperium.
And if Red Two failed, there was always Red One.
"Dahak," he said suddenly, never opening his eyes.
"Yes, Captain?"
"Category One order," Druaga said formally.
"Recording," the voice said.
"I, Senior Fleet Captain Druaga, commanding officer
Imperial Fleet Vessel Dahak, Hull Number One-Seven-Two-Two-
Nine-One," Druaga said even more formally, "having
determined to my satisfaction that a Class One Threat to
the Imperium exists aboard my vessel, do now issue,
pursuant to Fleet Regulation Seven-One, Section One-Nine-
Three, Subsection Seven-One, a Category One order to Dahak
Computer Central. Authentication code Alpha-Eight-Delta-
Sigma-Niner-Niner-Seven-Delta-Four-Omega."
"Authentication code acknowledged and accepted," the voice
said coolly. "Standing by to accept Category One orders.
Please specify."
"Primary mission of this unit now becomes suppression of
mutinous personnel in accordance with instructions already
issued," Druaga said crisply. "If previously specified
measures fail to restore control to loyal personnel, said
mutinous elements will be destroyed by any practicable
means, including, if necessary, the setting of Condition
Red One, Internal, and total destruction of this vessel.
These orders carry Priority Alpha."
"Acknowledged," the voice said, and Druaga let his head
rest upon the cushioned back of his chair. It was done.
Even if Anu somehow managed to reach Command One, he could
not abort the order Dahak had just acknowledged.
The captain relaxed. At least, he thought, it should be
fairly painless.
"... ine minutes and counting," the computer voice said,
and Fleet Captain (E) Anu, Chief Engineer of the ship-of-
the-line Dahak cursed. Damn Druaga! He hadn't expected the
captain to reach his bridge alive, much less counted on
this. Druaga had always seemed such an unimaginative, rote-
bound, dutiful automaton.
"What shall we do, Anu?"
Commander Inanna's eyes were anxious through her armor's
visor, and he did not blame her.
"Fall back to Bay Ninety-One," he grated furiously.
"But that's-"
"I know. I know! We'll just have to use them ourselves.
Now get our people moving, Commander!"
"Yes, sir," Commander Inanna said, and Anu threw himself
into the central transit shaft. The shaft walls screamed
past him, though he felt no subjective sense of motion,
and his lips drew back in an ugly snarl. His first attempt
had failed, but he had a trick or two of his own. Tricks
even Druaga didn't know about, Breaker take him!
Copper minnows exploded away from Dahak. Lifeboats crowded
with loyal crew members fanned out over the glaciated
surface of the alien planet, seeking refuge, and scattered
among them were other, larger shapes. Still only motes
compared to the ship itself, their masses were measured in
thousands upon thousands of tons, and they plummeted
together, outspeeding the smaller lifeboats. Anu had no
intention of remaining in space where Druaga-assuming he
was still alive-might recognize that he and his followers
had not abandoned ship in lifeboats and use Dahak's
weapons to pick off his sublight parasites as easily as a
child swatting flies.
The engineer sat in the command chair of the parasite
Osir, watching the gargantuan bulk of the camouflaged
mother ship dwindle with distance, and his smile was ugly.
He needed that ship to claim his destiny, but he could
still have it. Once the programs he'd buried in the
engineering computers did their job, every power room
aboard Dahak would be so much rubble. Emergency power
would keep Comp Cent going for a time, but when it faded,
Comp Cent would die.
And with its death, Dahak's hulk would be his.
"Entering atmosphere, sir," Commander Inanna said from the
first officer's couch.
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