“Sorry about that,” she apologised.
Her father gave her an expectant look. Ravana remembered what she was supposed to be doing and using her implant selected the scanner array at the stern of the hull. As her father had noted, there was nothing on radar but she saw the optical scope had detected a moving object on a matching trajectory several thousand kilometres behind. She set the scope to maximum magnification and routed the output to the console screen.
“That’s what Wak saw behind us,” she said at last. “I found it on long-range visual. It must be a stealth gunship not to show up on radar.”
“Or an ex-military transport,” murmured Quirinus. He seemed impressed by what Ravana had done. The image on the screen showed an angular flying-wing spaceship that to all of them looked stupefying familiar. “That is almost certainly the Sun Wukong.”
“What are they doing here?” asked Ostara.
“More to the point, why are they ignoring Wak’s communications?” Quirinus asked. He checked a scanner reading again and then sat back, looking more puzzled than ever. “Their ship’s location beacon is switched off. Why would they hide from us?”
“Shall I try to get them on the holovid?” asked Ravana.
Quirinus nodded. Ravana called up the contact reference for the Sun Wukong and sent a call signal, then when there was no reply sent another, but the screen remained blank. Meanwhile, Surya experimented with his implant’s built-in communicator, but if Ganesa was on the other ship she was out of range. They both quickly admitted defeat.
“Nothing,” said Ravana and sighed. “Equipment failure, perhaps?”
“Perhaps,” mused Quirinus. Something was very odd indeed.
Space-traffic controllers in the Barnard’s Star system were far more laid-back than their Epsilon Eridani counterparts and the Platypus had been able to come out of extra-dimensional space a mere three hours away from the Dandridge Cole. The spinning asteroid was getting larger through the flight-deck windows, but behind them and closer still was the rapidly-approaching Sun Wukong, its crew still ignoring all transmissions.
Quirinus and Ravana pushed this particular mystery to the back of their minds, preoccupied as they were with the manoeuvres needed for their final approach. The entrance to the hollow moon’s dock was a large rectangular airlock on the central axis, which like the rest of the asteroid spun at a stately one revolution per minute. The Platypus had to come in on a perfect trajectory and match this spin precisely if it was to make a successful landing.
“Ravana? Surya? Can you hear me?”
Ravana looked around the cabin, confused. The woman’s voice was familiar but there was only herself and her father on the flight deck.
“Ship?” she called, hesitantly. “Was that you?”
“Please clarify your query,” the AI intoned, inadvertently answering her question. Its voice was not the one she had heard.
Quirinus looked up from the console. “Who are you speaking to?”
“I thought I heard someone,” said Ravana, looking wary. “Didn’t you?”
“First sign of madness, hearing voices in your head.”
“Hello? Is there anybody out there?”
“There it is again!” cried Ravana.
Surya appeared at the hatch, excited and out of breath.
“Ganesa!” he exclaimed. “She’s trying to contact us via her implant!”
“Oh my,” murmured Ravana. She located the headcom icon in her mind. She had forgotten to switch it off after their hasty departure from Ayodhya.
“Finally!” gasped the voice in her head. “I can’t stay here much longer!”
“Ganesa? Is that really you?” asked Ravana, astonished. “Where are you?”
“Hiding in the toilet on the Sun Wukong!”
“Yuck,” remarked Surya, pulling a face. “How gross.”
“What’s worse is Hanuman dumps his dirty laundry in here and it smells as bad as the toilet itself,” replied Ganesa. “But you must listen! You are in grave danger!”
“We’re nearly home!” Ravana protested. “What can possibly happen now?”
“Fenris is here, holding a gun to Hanuman! He made us follow you back!”
“Fenris!” Ravana hissed. “He’s hijacked the Sun Wukong!”
Her father looked up in alarm. “What?”
“Ganesa is hiding in the toilet,” Surya added, feeling he should say something.
“This is too much,” muttered Quirinus. He pressed a switch to activate the ship’s intercom. “Ostara? Can you get up here?”
Ostara was at the hatch almost immediately, relieved to have an excuse to leave the carousel. Having finished reading Sherlock Holmes, she had run out of things to talk about with Miss Clymene and the rest of the Newbrum band were dozing in the bunks.
“Are we there yet?” she asked brightly.
“We’ve got trouble,” Quirinus told her. “Fenris has taken over the Sun Wukong.”
“Ganesa called us on her implant headcom,” Surya explained.
“What does he want?” asked Ravana, speaking hurriedly to Ganesa. “Can we help?”
“Fenris has gone crazy!” Ganesa wailed softly. “He’s put a b…”
Ravana and Surya winced as Ganesa’s sharp scream sliced through their thoughts like a wayward laser-cutter and then just as abruptly cut off. As they sat staring at one another, wondering what had happened, the console holovid flickered into life. Recognising the incoming call-sign as that of the Sun Wukong, Quirinus hesitated a few moments and then touched the screen to accept the call.
“Fenris,” he growled, as the man’s unpleasant leer appeared on the screen. Fenris sat in Ganesa’s usual seat, calmly pointing a plasma pistol at Hanuman, who was at the helm beside him. “You’re the one person I really did not mind leaving behind on Yuanshi. What have you done to Ganesa?”
“Never mind her!” snapped Fenris. “Where is the Raja?”
“I’m here,” declared Surya, moving into view. “What do you want, Fenris?”
Fenris trembled slightly and the holovid screen revealed beads of sweat upon his brow. When he spoke again, his careful words were filled with the quiet desperation of a man who knew the consequences if he did not accomplish his mission.
“My dear Raja,” he said slowly. “Taranis and Kartikeya were ready to give you the throne of Yuanshi, yet you cast them aside. It is not your fate to hide away like a rabbit in a hole. I beg you to accept your calling and return with me to Lanka.”
“You tricked me!” exclaimed Surya. “Endymion found the brain-washing device at the conference. You wanted me as a phoney figurehead to use in your rebellion!”
“Yes, I saw your friend’s broadcast,” Fenris growled. Next to him, Hanuman gave a wry grin. “You have every right to be angry. We have not treated you with the loyalty and respect that a future Maharaja deserves. Come back with me and Yuanshi will be yours!”
“Put the gun down,” said Quirinus, his voice stern.
“You are in no position to give orders,” retorted Fenris. He lifted his other hand to the holovid lenses and showed them the small device in his grip, his thumb poised over its single red button. “Indeed, you would be wise not to cross me at all.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” asked Quirinus.
Without warning, the image on the screen flickered and they were suddenly confronted by the haggard and grotesque countenance of a man poised to give them nightmares. The face of the dark-clad figure was disfigured by metal skull plates, from which a tangle of tubes emerged to run down over the back of his seat. A haze hung in the air, partly obscuring the bubbling vats and laboratory equipment visible in the background. Of those watching from the flight deck of the Platypus, three of them instantly guessed the man’s identity. Quirinus, shocked at how time had taken its toll, knew without a doubt.