The Last Treason 28

"What happened?" Kirza screamed at the blank screen. She rounded on Kuruth. "What is wrong with the viewer? Where is our targeting lock?" She clutched at the armrest of the command chair. "My tactical repeater is blank -"

"Trying to reacquire target," said Kuruth. "Checking circuitry -"

"Sir -" Kingrol began.

"We will be in range of the enemy in seconds!" roared Kirza. "I need sensors! Fix this!"

"Sir -" Kingrol said again.

"What?"

Kingrol swallowed. "There was a surge in the temporal circuitry -"

"A surge? What does that mean?"

"It is possible that -"

Kingrol got no further. A hot wind started to blow across the Hov'etlh's bridge, and the ruddy light was suddenly augmented by a blinding glare that hung in the air -

"You!" Kirza reached instinctively for her disruptor - then let it go with a yelp of pain, as it turned intolerably hot in her hand.

Clefune glared at her. "You caused me personal inconvenience," he said. "More than that, you occasioned me actual physical distress. Actual pain. I had quite forgotten how unpleasant that was."

"Give me a chance," snarled Kirza, "and I will remind you." She bared her teeth at the Organian.

"I have no desire to be reminded further," said Clefune. "And your behaviour has been - has been impermissible. So I have taken action. I have used your temporal device to remove you to a place where you can do no further damage. I will now use it myself, to return to my own time - and I will fuse the circuitry in the process. You will not be able to restore it, I assure you. You may consider this -" he drew himself up, haughtily "- a condign punishment for your disgraceful actions." And, with a final dismissive sniff, he vanished again in a glare of light.

There was a sudden explosion, and a console erupted in a torrent of sparks. Kingrol cursed.

"Status," snapped Kirza, as she stooped to retrieve her disruptor.

"He... did not lie," said Kingrol. "That was a secondary surge in the control circuits. The Nhandesson weapon... it has melted."

"What of our status? Get those sensors back!"

"Sensors are operative," said Kuruth. "The screen is blank only because... there is nothing to see."

"What do you mean?" Kirza demanded.

Kuruth swallowed. "I have background radiation on scan," he said slowly. "Consistent with one source. Proton decay."

"Explain yourself."

"For proton decay to be detectable... we must be in a place where there is nothing else left. A place so old that there is nothing else left. The Organian... he has transported us into the ultimately far future. To the end of the universe."

"Leave out the poetry! How far in the future?"

Kuruth shrugged. "It is meaningless. Quintillions, sextillions of years. So vast a span of time as to be... unimaginable." His voice suddenly broke. "Except that we do not need to imagine it, we can see it...."

"Sextillions of years." Kirza stared into the empty blackness on the viewscreen. The corner of her mouth twitched.

"Some time track where the universe underwent continual expansion," Kuruth continued in a broken monotone. "Vaster and vaster, emptier and emptier, for all eternity...."

"Do you know what this means?" Kirza asked. Her mouth was still twitching.

"No way back," said Kingrol in a dead voice.

"No," said Kirza. "Do you know what it means?" Her voice was high-pitched, on the verge of cracking. "It means we are alone. At the end of time. All there is, is us...." She threw back her head and laughed. "It means I am triumphant! I am the last, the only, the ultimate commander! All hail! All hail Kirza, daughter of K'Var, of the House of Karav! All hail Empress Kirza, ruler of the universe! All hail!"

Kuruth and Kingrol exchanged glances. Quietly, stealthily, they and the other officers left their posts, left the bridge, left their captain alone with the empty screen and her laughter.