Free Slave Empire III - The Shrike by T C Southwell

leant
forward. “I really should kill you. You don’t deserve to live. She
thought you were her friend and spoke highly of you. She told me
you saved her. You’re a traitor of the worst kind. You allowed
someone who trusted you to be harmed, and you were a part of
it.”
    “I was
following orders,” Tallyn said. “If I’d known -”
    “I warned
you.”
    “You could have
been lying. It sounded pretty far-fetched.”
    Tarke sat back,
lacing his fingers. “I said you had outsmarted yourself. You could
have had me. I would have given myself up rather than let her be
harmed, but you wouldn’t believe me. You could have saved her and
captured me. Instead, you’ve failed. She may not be dead, but
you’ve hurt her, and you’re going to pay for that.”
    Tallyn’s mouth
twisted in an unpleasant smirk. “You can’t hurt us with those
little ships.”
    “No?” Tarke
tilted his head. “You know nothing about my ships, and you’re in
for a surprise.”
    Tallyn
gestured, and the space line went blank and slid into its slot. The
challenge had been issued and the battle lines drawn. The three
Atlantean cruisers vanished behind energy shells as they activated
their shields.
    Tarke smiled.
“Tell Scimarin to choose one of the others. Vengeance is mine.”
    “Right,”
Shadowen replied.
    “Prepare energy
weapons.”
    “Energy weapons
activated, preparing to deploy. Target, Atlantean battle cruiser
Vengeance, range: five thousand, four hundred and eighty-two
metres.”
    Shadowen’s
energy shell brightened as the ship drew more power from the link,
building the necessary surplus to fuel his weapons. The Atlantean
ships did the same as they prepared to defend themselves. The
battle would be brief, a symbolic exchange more than anything, for
to destroy an Atlantean cruiser would take too long. Damage was
possible in a relatively short time, however, and Tarke would
settle for that.
    “Target has
raised stress shields,” Shadowen said.
    “Target the Net
link. Fire.”
    A bolt of Net
energy shot from Shadowen’s bows and flashed across the gulf to
strike Vengeance just behind her forward antenna array, which also
housed the Net link. Her stress shields shredded most of the fire
and the shell absorbed some, but the bolt was so powerful that it
still struck her hull, smashed the antenna array and melted a
portion of hull plating. At the same moment, Scimarin engaged one
of the other cruisers, and the Atlanteans fired back.
    Tarke did not
give them a chance to reply. Shadowen was underway even as he fired
another three energy bolts at the Atlantean battle cruiser.
Vengeance staggered under the barrage, her shots missing as they
strafed the space where Shadowen had been. Her energy shell
overloaded and shed a wave of fire into space, weakening the shell
and preventing her from using her energy weapons. A sizeable area
of her hull was blackened and stripped of all its delicate
equipment, and debris spread from the site.
    Shadowen’s
final shot hit the Net link, robbing Vengeance of her ability to
draw power from the energy dimension. The cruiser was crippled, and
had sustained a small fortune in damage, but Tarke wished the toll
could have been higher. Yet short of starting a full-scale war,
this skirmish was all he could do without earning reprisals from
Atlan and its allies. Tallyn would take it as a personal insult,
but the Council would not sanction retaliation for such a minor
attack. The oath Tarke had sworn had been specific. It required
Rayne’s death to take effect. He could not ask his people to die in
their millions to avenge a girl who still lived.
    As Shadowen
accelerated towards Darmon, leaving the Atlantean cruisers behind,
he went back to the cabin and sat beside Rayne again. If there was
a way to bring her out of this, he would find it, and if she died,
he would have his vengeance. He returned to the bridge when
Shadowen informed him of their arrival at Darmon. Seven more of his
ships had arrived in his