Wrath of Axia (The Arcadian Jihad) by Eric Schneider Page A

Don’t dirty your hands on this traitor’s face, Pieter.”
    He looked around to the trooper guarding the door. “You, man! Get some help and make sure this man is ready to be moved to the next ship bound for Axis Nova.”
    He contacted the spaceport for information on military departures to Axis Nova. The guards strapped Max to a gurney, for he was much too weak to walk. Rad Bose made sure he was manacled, and then he nodded at the guards.
    “Take him out to the ship, the Star of Orphex. They’re due to take off in a few hours, and they can lock him in the ship’s brig during the journey.”
    They picked him up and walked out. The guards bumped and stumbled across the spaceport. And twice they dropped the gurney, smiling as they did so. The jolts caused Max agonies of pain, as fire shot through his body. But he gritted his teeth, determined not to give them the satisfaction of hearing him cry out. He saw the ship loom in front of him, a cold, forbidding, armored naval warship. It was to be the means of his transfer to the laboratories of Axis Nova and the end of his life. But his comrades would be long gone by the time they got anything useful out of him. Even so, he didn’t want these bastards to know about Cadmus, or they’d land several elite divisions to hunt down Berg Smetana. No, it would be better to end it before he ever reached his torturers, so he resolved to kill himself in his cell on the ship as soon as he got the opportunity. There were many ways to commit suicide, and he’d have to make sure he found one. They arrived at the bottom of the ramp. He couldn’t see anything except for the massive bulk of the ship, but he heard the sentry give permission for them to go aboard and take the prisoner straight to the cells. Strange, but the voice sounded familiar. It must be the pain causing his mind to play tricks. They reached the cellblock and a man in sergeant’s uniform told his escort to put the gurney inside one of the cells and leave it there. It was yet another voice that sounded familiar, so it was clear that he was fast losing his mind. As soon as they released him from the gurney, he’d start looking for ways to end his life.
    The escort commander looked around with interest. “Not many crewmen on duty, is everything alright?”
    “They’re all hunting down artifacts they can buy cheap and take home. Hesperian stuff fetches a big price on Axis Nova.”
    The man snorted. “They’ll be lucky! The Hesperians got wise to that scam ages ago. They’ve hidden most of the good stuff that’s left.”
    Blas shrugged. “Too bad, I guess they’ll come back empty handed.”
    “They sure will. Have a good voyage.”
    “Sure, thanks.”
    The leader called his squad together and led them back through the ship and down the ramp. He didn’t see Rusal and Blas shadowing them as they walked through the ships passageways. The troopers nodded a farewell to the sentry, a grim looking Karn Vansen, as they walked away. Blas came down the ramp and spoke to him.
    “You can come up now and bring in the ramp. We’ll be leaving shortly. If the crew get back and find out what’s going on, it’ll make our task twice as difficult when they raise the alarm.”
    He returned to the control room. Evelyn and Xerxes Tell had gone to the cellblock to release Max and help him to the sickbay. He looked around the bridge. They would be operating on numbers that were barely enough for a ferry crew. All ship’s functions had been patched through to the bridge consoles, but there was no one in any of the departments to deal with malfunctions. The business of running the ship now depended on everything working perfectly, which almost never happened. Especially if they saw action. Admiral Rusal combined the functions of navigator and sensor operator to warn of impending threats. Lieutenant Largasse manned the fire control computer for the main batteries. Crewman Fallon was in the helmsman’s seat, nervously checking and