‘The one that keeps calling my name.’
‘A voice is calling to you by name?’
Alivia heard the note of wariness in Sulaiman’s voice and replayed the last few moments in her head.
‘Ah, yes, I see how that might sound, but don’t worry – I’m sure it’s just translation ghosts.’
‘I think that perhaps you need to rest, Mistress Sureka.’
‘Look, I’m okay,’ insisted Alivia. ‘I’m just worn a bit thin, that’s all.’
‘I must insist,’ said Sulaiman, nodding to the two armsmen.
They hesitated, knowing how beloved Alivia was among the crew and refugees.
‘Remove her from the bridge,’ said Sulaiman. ‘That’s an order.’
Alivia backed away from the table.
‘I’m telling you, I’m okay,’ she said. ‘But you have to listen to me. If we come out of either of those gates, we’re going to die. Do you understand?’
Alivia, listen to me… I can help.
‘I told you to shut the hell up!’ she shouted.
The racking of a shot-cannon brought Alivia back to the present.
‘Please, captain, you have to believe me,’ Alivia pleaded. ‘I understand this has been a long voyage, and it’s asked more of us than we knew we could give. We all want to see Terra, but this isn’t the way home. You have to trust me.’
Sulaiman snapped his fingers and the two armsmen stepped forward. Hesitation or not, Sulaiman was their captain.
‘Mistress Sureka, you have been a great help in getting us this far, but Molech’s Enlightenment is my ship. I flatter myself that I know the void better than a mere civilian. We will translate through the Elysian Gate, so let that be an end to the discussion.’
‘Just think about what I’m saying, captain. We’re a ship that’s probably been declared lost with all hands, suddenly appearing without warning in the Solar System from a world that’s just fallen to the Warmaster. How does that look? Would you trust a ship with that baggage?’
‘Remove her from my bridge,’ ordered Sulaiman.
The captain’s men took Alivia’s arms and marched her towards the bridge entrance. She’d fought her share of up-close-and-personal brawls, but this wasn’t the time to break bones.
The armsmen marched her beyond the bridge, and stationed themselves to either side of its entrance as the armoured door closed and internal bolts slammed home within its reinforced frame.
Nothing short of multiple melta charges would breach it now.
Let me help…
The maddening voice felt like it was right next to her.
Another angry shout died on her lips as she now heard the specific inflexion of tone, the sardonic undertone and the easy familiarity.
She turned from the bridge and whispered under her breath.
‘John, is that you?’
Alivia found a cramped maintenance conduit and squeezed herself inside, crouching in the lee of heavy ductwork. Her heart beat like a jackhammer, and her mouth was sour with the taste of bilious memories.
Deep breaths. Calm yourself.
Find a place of serenity within.
She closed her eyes and carefully erected a series of mental barriers, compartmentalising areas of her consciousness and walling off a quarantined mindspace.
She couldn’t know for certain if this was truly John or some malicious warp entity.
‘Whoever you are, tell me something only John would know.’
For a moment she wasn’t sure the voice would answer.
I’m sorry I didn’t reach the Khyber in time.
Alivia opened her eyes and was back on the mountains of her youth. She took a breath of the wild air, no less refreshing simply because it was conjured from memory.
John was here, sat on the grass by the edge of a steep cliff overlooking a port town where masted ships were moored to a series of interconnected jetties. A castle of black rock stood on a jutting promontory, where the lord of the isles held his court.
‘I always loved coming here with you,’ he said.
She sat on a boulder a safe distance from him.
‘I thought you were a city boy.’
He grinned. ‘I am. Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the beauty of the great outdoors. Especially now it’s gone.’
‘It’s been gone a long time.’
‘Is that why you’ve held on to it so clearly?’
‘This is where I’m from,’ said Alivia. ‘This place shaped me more than anywhere else. I come here when I need to remember the good times.’
He shrugged. ‘I don’t remember too many of them. All the lives we’ve lived, all the things we’ve seen? Can you honestly tell me the good times outweigh the bad?’
She didn’t answer.
‘You can only hold on to so much, you know?’ said John, throwing a pebble from the cliff and watching it start an avalanche of scree. ‘Not all of us have held to the same identity as long as you, Alivia. I admire that about you.’
‘Spare me the flattery, John. Why are you here?’
He smiled and said, ‘You always did like to cut to the chase.’
He made to stand, but she waved him back.
‘No, stay down. Just tell me, and don’t try playing me like one of your marks.’
‘I swear I’d never do that to you.’
‘Not again, you mean.’
‘Well, yeah. Again. Sorry.’
‘So tell me what you want.’
He nodded and looked out to sea, as though he were trying to figure out how best to ask. An act, she knew; John was never unprepared.
‘I need to find Oll,’ he said.
That wasn’t the simple answer she’d been expecting.
‘I seem to remember Oll Persson telling you he wanted nothing to do with the rest of us in no uncertain terms.’
‘At Béziers, I remember,’ said John.
‘So why would you think he’d want to see you now?’
‘Actually, I’ve already seen him since then. On Calth.’
‘In the Five Hundred Worlds?’
John shrugged. ‘Maybe not as many as that now, but yeah. He’s mellowed in his old age.’
‘Old age?’
‘You know what I mean.’
‘You still haven’t told me why you’re looking for him.’
‘He’s needed.’
Alivia laughed. John scowled, and that only made it funnier.
‘Needed? By who?’ she asked, though there could be only one answer.
‘The Emperor. I know Oll told us he was done, but the universe decided otherwise,’ said John with a lopsided grin Alivia remembered from all the times she’d kissed it. ‘Funny how often that happens, isn’t it? Almost like we don’t get a say in how things turn out. I mean, look at the three of us, all heading to Terra just as the Warmaster tightens the noose. You think that’s an accident? You think there isn’t some grand scheme at play?’
Alivia shook her head and moved to sit next to him.
They looked at the sun, dipping beyond the horizon and turning the cold northern ocean into a rippling expanse of gold. Dark clouds threatened where the ocean met the sky, and a cold wind began to blow, rippling the grass on the hillside.
‘After all that’s happened and all you’ve done, why would you ever think I’d tell you where Oll is?’
‘So you know where he is?’
She sensed the urgent need in him.
‘Of course,’ she lied. ‘But I’m not going to tell you. And if you dare ask why, I’ll push you off this cliff right now.’
John looked over the edge to the jagged rocks below.
‘Would it help if I told you I could get you through the fleet blockades to Terra?’ he asked. ‘I’m the prodigal son now, back in the fold so to speak.’