John Brosnan - The Sky Lords

Jan waited. The floor shuddered and she heard a distant clang . The Sky Angel was here.

“I have authorized your boarding of the Sky Angel,” said Carl. “I will shut down. Remove the software now.”

Jan went to the computer. She pressed the button that ejected the software tubes. They emerged with painful slowness. She had to wait for the other five to emerge before she could get the one containing Carl and Ashley’s programs. But in her eagerness to take hold of it as it came out of the machine it slipped through her sweaty fingers and fell with a heart-stopping clunk on the floor. Jan stared down at it in dismay, expecting to see it slowly disintegrate. But it looked to be still intact. She bent down, gingerly picked it up and scrutinized it closely. Was it her imagination, or was there now a hairline crack running down its length?

No time to worry about it now. She slipped the tube in her pocket and ran for the door leading into the tunnel.

As the door opened she saw that the tunnel now extended much further. The circular door had disappeared and she realized she could see all the way into the Sky Angel.

She rushed down the tunnel and found herself in a round room with a dais in its centre and three tiers of comfortable seats surrounding it. There was soft music playing. A pleasant, sexually neutral voice said, “Welcome. You are on board Sky Angel A810 JLX. I have been authorized to admit you, but I have not been informed whether you are part of the delegation that will be attending the christening ceremony or a maintenance technician.”

“I’m here to christen you,” Jan said quickly. “Your name is now Alsa of Minerva .”

“It is?” The voice sounded puzzled. “But the normal procedure hasn’t been followed. By what authority do you—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jan interrupted. “I have to get to the control room. What’s the quickest way?”

“I’ll have an escort take you there,” the voice told her.

“What? An escort?” said Jan, surprised. Surely there were no living beings on board.

A door slid open on the opposite side of the circular room and a large metal spider scuttled in on its six metal legs. Jan started to back away from it, drawing her long sword as she did. “There’s no need for alarm,” said the spider in the same sort of pleasant and reassuring voice as the room. “I’m your escort. Please follow me.” It began to retrace its steps towards the open door. After a few seconds hesitation Jan followed it. She guessed it was a machine like Ezekiel, though she hoped it didn’t contain a human brain.

She followed the spider, whose body consisted of a shiny metal sphere about a foot and a half in diameter, down a long corridor and then into an elevator. Jan noticed that there was music playing in the elevator as well. As the elevator began to descend the spider said pleasantly, “Beautiful day for the christening ceremony, isn’t it?”

Jan, who had been regarding the creature with some nervousness, started to laugh.

“Did I say something funny?” asked the spider, sounding pleased with itself.

Still overcome with laughter, Jan couldn’t answer.

The elevator doors opened on to another corridor. The same music played here as well. Jan couldn’t get over how unfamiliar everything looked on the Sky Angel—without all the alterations, deteriorations and grime accumulated over the centuries in the Sky Lords it was a whole different world. The corridor that stretched ahead of her had a light blue ceiling, white walls and a thickly carpeted floor. There were murals on the walls and the lighting was soft and pleasant on the eyes.

“This way,” said the spider, scuttling off.

The doors opened on to a more familiar scene. She recognized the control room, even though it was very different from the one on the Lord Pangloth . “Here you are,” announced the spider. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“No. Just wait here,” Jan answered distractedly. She hurried to the rear of the control room and peered out through the curving glass, trying to see how close the Lord Pangloth was, but the great expanse of the Sky Angel’s hull obscured her view. She looked down and then saw, to her alarm, another huge shadow lying across the city beside the shadow of the Sky Angel. The Lord Pangloth had to be very close indeed. She groaned.

“Is there something wrong?” asked the original voice politely.

“I can’t see ,” she complained.

“Tell me what you want to see and I’ll show it to you,” said the voice.

“I want to see in all directions at once!”

Banks of monitor screens glowed into life. Jan turned to them. It took a few moments for her to comprehend what she was seeing, then she realized she was getting views being transmitted from different parts of the Sky Angel’s hull. She saw that the Lord Pangloth was indeed very close. Higher than the Sky Angel, it was descending to a position right alongside her. The Perfumed Breeze was still some distance away.

“Where is your software input?” Jan asked urgently, looking around the control room. A nearby console made a chiming sound and began to flash a green light. Jan went to it, taking the tube from her pocket. She inserted it into the console and waited. “Carl? Ashley?” she asked tentatively. There was no answer.

“Who do you wish to talk to?” asked the original ship’s voice.

“The programs on that software I just put into your system.”

“That software is inert,” the voice informed her calmly.

“What do you mean?” cried Jan.

“There are no active programs on it. It is inert.”

Jan groaned in despair. She had damaged it after all. The impact had destroyed Carl and Ashley. She glanced at the screens. What she saw plunged her into deeper despair. Gliders, spilling from the decks of the Lord Pangloth and into the air like fungus spores on a windy day in the blight lands.

“Sky Angel!” she cried. “You must leave at once. Disengage from the tower and fly from here at top speed.”

“I’m sorry,” said the voice, “but I cannot obey your orders without the proper command codes.”

Jan wanted to scream with frustration. “You must obey me!” she cried. “We will be invaded at any moment. Look! Look at your own screens if you don’t believe me …!” She pointed at the nearest screen. On it she saw some of the gliders heading for the top of the Sky Tower. They intended to gain entrance to the summit room in the same manner as the other three had done. And from there they could get into the Sky Angel through the connecting tunnel.

“Can you at least close the doors in your bow?” begged Jan.

“Oh, yes, I can do that,” said the voice.

“MILO HAZE!”

The voice boomed over the city, echoing from the walls of the towers.

“MILO HAZE! ANSWER ME!”

It was coming from the Lord Pangloth . It was the warlord.

“MILO HAZE! YOU HAVE LOST!”

Jan scanned the banks of screens. She saw gliders landing on the upper hull. She turned to the metal spider. “Are you armed?” she asked it. In response it extended a mechanical arm from its spherical body. “I have others if you need them,” it assured Jan.

“I meant weapons ,” said Jan. “Do you have any?”

“Oh no,” it replied. “No weapons.”

She tried to keep calm but it was difficult. Memories of the warlord’s description of what it would be like to be flayed alive kept flickering through her mind.

“SURRENDER, MILO HAZE! I WILL BE MERCIFUL!”

“Are there many of you on board?” Jan asked the spider.

“Yes,” it said. “There are five hundred maintenance and service mechanicals on active duty with another five hundred in storage.”