Chapters (50)
- Cover
- MARAUDER
- HISTORICAL ARCHIVES SUBSECTION C/5 category ALPHA
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- EPILOGUE
- TIME LINE
- SHOAL TRILOGY
- EVENTS FOLLOWING EMPIRE OF LIGHT AND PRECEDING MARAUDER
- Acknowledgements
- Also by Gary Gibson
Theres a slot in the cradle. Use the card to activate the arming mechanism directly. After that, itll tell you what to do. Theres also a code . . . He coughed, then winced. Zero-six-nine-six-zero. Got that?
She repeated it back to him.
He nodded. Nothingll happen unless youve entered that code. Once its in, the countdown starts.
She slipped the card into a pocket and then pushed herself upright. Once she had armed the mine, she would have to go and find Bash. She knew there were escape pods that they could use to get to Megan.
Gaby, I should . . .
She looked down at him, to see his grey eyes were staring sightlessly upwards, his lips slightly parted. Whatever he might have been about to say, she would never know.
I have to go, she murmured to his silent body, then she exited the command bridge.
THIRTY-NINE
Gabrielle
She pulled up an offline map of the Ingersoll even as she exited the command deck. It showed her the location of the nearest escape-pod bay, which was close to her own and Bashs quarters. The fabricator and engineering bays were further away, located towards the stern.
The corridor beyond was lined with cupboards and storage spaces. She searched through them for a spacesuit or a breather mask, or anything else that might keep her and Bash alive while they traversed the depressurized sections of the ship.
As she searched, she became more frantic, able to feel the seconds ticking by. And yet there seemed to be nothing. But there had to be, surely, somewhere.
On hearing something clunk and scrape further around the curving corridor, followed by a kind of electronic chittering, she felt her panic grow greater.
Then she remembered those orange boxes mounted at various points around the ship, containing emergency breathers and other survival equipment.
She turned around, pushing herself away from the source of the chittering and heading towards the drop shaft. With relief, she could see two of the orange boxes mounted next to the opening.
The chittering grew closer and she looked behind her, back along the curve of the corridor, and heard the sound of metal scraping on metal.
At a yank of the cord attached to one of the boxes, it dropped open. She quickly pulled on the emergency breather found inside, then extracted another one from the second box. After that, she dropped down the shaft and passed through an emergency pressure field to get into one of the depressurized zones.
As she glanced back up, she saw something loom across the far end of the drop shaft. It possessed cutting implements that reminded her of mandibles, and a dozen eye-like sensors that rotated towards her. It began to drag its immense bulk inside the shaft, clearly intent on pursuit.
Gabrielle screamed, inside her mask, and kicked her way down the airless corridor towards Bash.
<Megan! I thought Id lost you.>