HAWK

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: IRIS (3/5)

The Torus was located precisely 240 miles from the IRIS itself, locked in a fast orbit that saw it circumnavigate the bubble once every eight hours. Though it was much smaller than Selva, Kas thought it was actually much more beautiful.

It was essentially a large ring, just over twelve miles in circumference with a band half a kilometre thick. Three thousand people lived and worked on it, their purpose to monitor the IRIS and control who came and went from it. Before Selva was destroyed, visitors wishing to travel through the IRIS would first have to get authorisation from the Federation (which usually took between three and six months, depending on cargo), after which they would receive their IRIS transit codes. Those codes would only be valid for a particular ship and at a very specific time. Miss your trip and you'd have to start all over again.

The reason the station was shaped like a ring was that it also doubled as a large scale security scanner. The final stage for journeying ships - and usually the most nerve-racking - was to pass through the centre of the Torus which would scan it for everything, from how many living beings were on board to what kind of weapons it was armed with. To deter would-be terrorists from blowing it up on their way through, the station itself was built to withstand enormous explosions and reflect them back at their source, making it a very expensive and time-consuming way to commit suicide.

Swanne didn't say a word for the entire trip but stared distantly out of the viewport, watching the IRIS as it loomed steadily towards them. Kas lost track of the minutes it took for the Torus to finally bloom out of the distance like a small smoke ring. Once it did, it expanded very quickly. The voice returned when they were two minutes from arrival.

'Remain at your current speed and proceed through the centre of the Torus for scanning. Do you understand?'

Swanne confirmed, then returned to silence as the nine escorting X1 fighters pulled away from the Pegasus in unison, leaving the freighter to coast alone towards the white halo.

Kas would once have relished the experience of a trip through the Torus but her nerves had turned her excitement to unease. She waited and watched as the Pegasus drifted almost serenely through the station's eye until finally its perimeter expanded beyond the peripherals of the viewport and only the blue surface of the IRIS was visible. As they passed through its centre, the nine X1 fighters reformed in front of them and welcomed them to the other side.

'Our scan shows four humans on board,' the voice said. 'One male and three female. It also shows four life-forms of an unknown species. Please identify.'

'They're bio-mechs,' Swanne answered.

'What is the species?'

'One is a panther.'

'What species are the other three?'

Swanne chewed on the question for a moment but could see no easy way to spit it back out. She held her chin up high as she responded. 'They're human.'

'There is no record of a human bio-mech procedure.'

'That's because Eidol doesn't publish its records. These three are experimental prototypes.'

'Who controls them?'

'I do.'

The Federation took its time to consider this new intel.

'You will now be docked remotely,' it said at last. 'Upon docking, ensure all bio-mechs are inactive. Failure to comply will be treated as a hostile response. Do not attempt to control your ship. We will now direct you to the docking station.'

The Pegasus began to rotate seemingly by itself, stopping only once the curved body of the Torus was centred in the viewport, at which point it was pulled towards it slowly. As it drew closer, part of the station's body split open and revealed a huge doorway that opened up into the dock.