Kwaide (The Ammonite Galaxy Series, Book 2)

Chapter Twenty

Chapter 20

IT TOOK THEM three days to find the first of the Sellite ships. It was coming in on a vector from the direction of Xiantha, heading straight for Kwaide. Six was the nearest.

He made sure the Resistance was on an automatic course, and then he signed to Arcan, and ‘showed’ him the position of the enemy ship. Arcan transported him instantly across the intervening thousands of miles of space, and deposited him safely in the stasis hold of the other spacecraft. Six instantly detached a tiny piece from the new orthogel bracelet around his ankle, and deposited it behind one of the consoles, fairly sure that it would remain there totally undetected. In any case Arcan could move it if it were noticed. At least he would now be able to ‘find’ this ship anywhere it went. They were no longer blind.

Six looked around. The layout was exactly the same as that of the Resistance. The weapons should be two corridors down, and to the rear of his current position.

He began to search for the weapon bay, ‘showing’ Arcan his progress. If he were discovered, he wanted to have led the orthogel entity as close as it needed to be to the nuclear warheads. He hoped he would have plenty of time, but nothing had been left to chance. It was too important for any slip-ups.

At last he found it. There were three crated missiles with radiation warnings posted very clearly. There wasn’t much doubt what they were. He shivered. He hated to think of the damage just one of these things could do. And if each ship were carrying three! They would have enough blast to completely demolish all three camps many times over.

He ‘showed’ Arcan the position of the three deadly tubes, and slipped a tiny piece of orthogel under each one. Then he quickly signed on the orthogel bracelet, which had regained its previous size. 

“Get me out of here, Arcan!”

In a second he was enveloped in a bubble of orthogel, and back on the Resistance. He breathed out slowly, and then sat down to contact the girls.

“That went really well,” he told them. “I was able to leave small pieces of orthogel under all three warheads, so there should be no problem, when the time comes.”

“It took you forever, nomus,” said Diva.

“I was in and out within five minutes!” he retorted.

“Exactly. It should only have taken you three minutes, according to our calculations.”

“So sorry, your huffiness, I’ll do better next time.” He pulled on an imaginary forelock.

“Make sure you do!”

Grace giggled. “You did great Six! I just hope it goes as well with all the other ships – and on Valhai.”

“Piece of cake. Unless Arcan happens to transport us straight into one of the holding cells, of course, or on top of some unsuspecting Sellite!”

“Well, one down and however many to go!”

It took them five more days, alternating the task from one ship to the other, to tag the six Sellite ships currently on a course for Kwaide. Then they left Six in the Resistance to mop up any latecomers, and Arcan transported Diva and Grace, together with the Variance, over to Valhai. The girls thought that they had definitely been given the worst part of the job.

“Trust Six to skive off and take the easy option,” said Grace. “I don’t see how on Almagest we are going to be able to pinpoint all the warheads stored here in Sell. It is a mammoth task. There might be thousands of them, for all we know.”

“There aren’t,” said a voice, and Grace jumped about a metre straight up in the air.

“Don’t DO that! You nearly caused a heart spasm.”