"Holy shit, we're in the quiet spot already," Nigel said as he started looking at passive scan results. "A hundred thousand or so kilometres in any direction and there are infected ships everywhere. They're coming, we don't have much time."
"Well, that answers my next question," Frost said. "With how fast those bots killed our drone, I was starting to wonder if the defences here were reduced at all."
"They are, but there's a lot coming in now that something's seen activity."
Spin noticed something on the sciences display, a line of machine code that was transmitted three times. She translated and played it; "New technology detected. Begin forming a Scanning Net."
"Get to the guns. If we don’t transmit soon, we'll have to figure something else out," Spin said.
"Yes, Ma'am," Boro said. Frost smiled at her as though she was proving him right about something, but she was more shaken about being in a position of high responsibility aboard a ship than ever.
"Right, if we start taking too much damage, we'll jump out and do just that," Frost said as he retreated from the bridge.
"What does that transmission mean?" Nigel asked.
He was smart enough to know, he just had to use his head, but in the heat of the moment, Spin was sure that he wanted to be told. He wanted an interpretation that was honest but not as dire as the one he was formulating himself. "It means that there's an artificial intelligence in control, something at the top of a hierarchy, and it wants to find new technology, probably to improve itself. I assume they're going to organize and create scanning net around wherever they think we're headed. It thinks that there's a cloaked ship nearby."
"God, I wish they were wrong," Hal groaned.
Thirty-Two
The command seat was less intimidating than Spin expected. The view from there made sense, she could see everyone's station at a glance. Then she activated the interface and started to sweat. A tactical view with the status of all the ship's major systems on the left, the crew on the right, a communications overview above and a huge map between it all surrounded her. Simply by looking at something she was offered more information and given options for commands. "This isn't where I should be, it's too important, I don't know what I’m doing."
"You passed the command interface qualifier," Frost said. "Just relax and watch for patterns in their attack, transmissions that seem out of the ordinary, that sort of thing. I'll take care of the tactical directions and Hal knows how to get the scans he needs, where to fly from moment to moment."
"Oh, I'm in charge of tactical scanning now, too?" Hal asked.
"Well, you do it all the time in that fighter you fly, don’t you?" Frost asked. "Or do you let your computer do all the work?"
"Yeah, I run my own scanners, we don't have the people to have co-pilots and the computer misses a lot. No problem. I'd just like to remind you that this was supposed to be a milk run. 'There and back,' you said."
"You'll learn that a lot of errands become adventures in our fleet, lad. Everyone settle into your stations and focus on your jobs. Ignore everything but the task at hand. Spin, get ready to transmit that antivirus file," Frost said.
"It's ready," Spin replied. The interface was almost too easy to use, reacting to her intentions almost as if it could read her mind. She knew there were neural receivers that helped things along, but the reality of the system's responsiveness was amazing. The file she wanted was already highlighted and the nodes she planned on transmitting to were already up and selected. All she had to do was press the holographic send icon or command it aloud. Failing that, she could nod at it the right way and it would still work, but she turned that functionality off, aware that she didn't have that kind of control over her casual gestures. "Just say when," she said, wondering what she was missing. Everything felt too easy, there had to be something she was forgetting, or not tending to the way she should.
"All right, when we start transferring that file, all those robot buggers will see is a transmission source moving through space. They won't know that we're in a combat ready ship, our stealth systems will still be running. That'll work in our favour, but not for long. If they have any kind of talent for killing, they'll figure out our general shape as they score hits on our shields. No matter what happens, try to focus on your targeting system, or your station if you're not in a turret."
"Oh, that is reassuring," Della said cheerfully.
"Let's slag these assholes," Dori growled.
"Ready up there, Hal?" Frost asked.
Spin watched as Nigel nervously watched Hal crack his knuckles, take a long pull on a drink made to increase his focus and energy, then settle in at the controls and shake his head. With the turn of a knob he increased the size of his holographic tactical view until it filled his scope of vision then activated the ship's main rail guns. They ran the length of the vessel and were aimed wherever the nose of the ship was pointed.
"What are you doing?" Nigel asked him quietly as he watched Hal turn the ship so it was drifting sideways then slide the throttle controls all the way down.
"Just trust," Hal said as he got ready to pulse the active scanners. "I'm ready, Frost. Hey, Spin; when I turn the active scanners on, you'll get a really clear picture of what's out there. Watch for anything that has a long range, high speed weapon. That kinda thing could really ruin our day. Mark them, and I'll see it."
"Just wondering, are you going to use those one hundred forty-millimetre railguns?" Frost asked.
"Only if something looks at me funny," Hal replied.
"You spend too much time with Minh. Start transmitting," Frost said.
Spin knew that as soon as she started transmitting the antivirus, everything in a rapidly expanding area would be able to tell where they were. Bracing herself, she reached out and tapped the holographic SEND button. A progress bar appeared above every receiver node that was accepting the download and she was relieved to see the names of several stations, including Flesh Tech, and several outer Sa-Hadin communications nodes along with stations she'd never heard of picking it up and downloading it. Many of the nodes started passing the data on before their own download was past one percent. "It's at three percent now. Something cheated us out of our initial transmission burst, it's starting slow."
Hal pulsed the scanners on their highest setting and Spin watched as the tactical map was filled with new ships at a greater distance and those they already had marked became more detailed. The debris field stretched on for thousands of kilometres in all directions. It was denser towards the larger research stations and Sa-Hadin, where a massive defence station was in a quickly decaying orbit. Most of the hundreds of large ships were derelicts, but some were powering up. It was like watching corpses rise from the dirt: ships that were so heavily damaged that they couldn't maintain life support but had enough working systems to operate using automation served as hosts for smaller ships, where they recharged using hastily repaired, radioactive reactors.
Those corpse ships turned in their direction, large beam and kinetic weaponry warming up as small ships jumped off their hulls like fleas leaping at a more appealing target. Spin started marking everything with a long range, heavy weapon and watched as the status of the Sector Jumper changed.
"Let 'em have it!" Frost ordered. "Open fire and don't stop until your piece of sky is clear."
Everyone in a gun turret followed the order, sending small kinetic rounds towards small and medium drone ships that were still tens of thousands of kilometres away. It seemed like it was too soon, but with everyone shooting, their rounds created an expanding wake of destruction that the drones had to pass through if they wanted to pursue them. Several drones and smaller ships were destroyed before they were in effective range, many of their own micro-missiles were destroyed early as well.
They weren't having as much luck as Spin thought they would though, since Hal pushed the vessel's thrusters hard, taking a third of Nigel's directions while sending them between derelict ships swiftly, putting wreckage betw
een them and the hundreds of robots that threatened to tax their shields with beam, pulse and smaller projectile guns that added high velocity pieces of metal to the expanding field of hazards. It seemed like Hal's playground, which didn't do much for Nigel's nerves. "Okay, there's a good spot at five-mark twelve mark three and a heavy chunk of hull to hide behind."
"I see it," Hal said, turning the ship end-over-end so he could fire his main guns. Spin was shocked at the violence of the pair of guns under foot firing a burst of thirty shots in three seconds in alternation, she could feel it under her feet and in her chest. The percussive shocks as the killing machines reloaded rapidly followed immediately after.
Hal's deadly barrage sent most of the drones that were chasing them off in all directions as most evaded, but his real target was one of their motherships, which he managed to split wide open. The Sector Jumper slipped through a small rip in a free-drifting, thick section of hull before Hal fired the rear thrusters and guided the ship so it settled into position near it, drifting alongside. "This is your pilot speaking;" Hal said in an official tone. "We're going to use this as cover because its drifting towards another lovely field of floating junk, so please blast whatever comes around in the next few seconds to slag. Happy shooting."
"I really need to talk to your Wing Commander when we get back," Frost grumbled. "Head's up, there's incoming."
"They're coming around from all sides," Spin confirmed, marking a few larger drones armed with missiles. Hal was doing the right thing as far as she could see. If they broke free from their current cover, tried to get to the next large collection of floating garbage they would end up in open space and several of the larger ships would be able to take shots on them. If they turned and went back, they'd find some cover, but they'd be flying into a cloud of drones.
The shields started taking damage right away, and to Spin's relief they weren't losing much charge. The kind of weaponry that the enemy were firing would have slagged the Jolly Traveller in thirty seconds, but the Sector Jumper's shields were only down three percent by the time Dori, Frost, Boro, Della and Mirra were ripping through the invaders with white hot rounds.
Countermeasure beam weapons whined to life, pulsing for nanoseconds at incoming missiles and heavier explosive rounds. A drone flew into the open, setting off antimatter alarms, and thrust directly for the Sector Jumper.
"Fire on my target!" Frost announced and everyone who could bring their weapon to bear in that direction let loose at the antimatter carrying drone.
It exploded close enough to white-out most of their sensors and do seven percent damage to their shields. Spin marked a group in the distance as they appeared on her tactical map. "Nine more like that, coming aft, point three-four."
"Got it," Dori said.
"Moving! I'd rather brave a little open space than get hit with suicidal antimatter drones," Hal said.
"What are you going to do about those long-range guns?" Frost asked, the sound of his turret sending white-hot explosive rounds at the worst of their pursuers in the background.
"Serpentine!" Hal replied.
"What does that mean?" Nigel asked.
"Never fly straight." Hal demonstrated his tactic by sending the ship into a spin towards the larger field of wrecked ships and debris and pulsing the main thrusters. Their course was jagged, difficult to predict, and anything but a straight line and Spin could definitely see how a gunner at a distance - even a software based one - would find him almost impossible to hit.
"I don't have a shot!" Mirra said from her turret.
"Turn Flight Compensation on," Dori said. "And try not to throw up."
"It'll help you track targets while our madman sends us jinking through space," Frost reinforced.
"Got it, that works, thanks!" Mirra said.
The sound of someone vomiting filled their communication band for a second before it cut off, and Spin saw that it was Boro. Looking at his status, a video feed of him closing a bag and wiping his mouth came up along with the controls for his turret. She did him the favour of turning Flight Compensation on so his turret followed a relative point in space instead of spinning with the ship. He shook his head and was back at his controls a moment later.
"You all right, little brother?" Frost asked, amused.
"Never better, mind your gun," Boro replied.
Nigel had both his hands-on top of his head as he watched the main screen and his station, unable to cope with the jinking and spinning of the ship as they approached a thick mass of derelicts and torn hull plating. "What am I supposed to look at? I barely even know where we're going," he muttered to himself.
Their shields were blasted down to forty-two percent as several long-range particle beams struck their aft section. "Something has our number," Frost said.
"I see it; The Artemis," Spin said. "British Alliance Heavy Cruiser, looks like it's in good condition compared to everything else, but there are no life signs."
"Good condition?" Frost asked.
Hal stopped the ship's spin easily and sent them towards cover at full thrust, the roar of it echoed throughout the ship. "All the weapons are hot, the computer says it's fully functional," Spin replied. "We're at eighty-five percent on the upload."
"It's going to take some time for the virus to spread, right?" Nigel asked. "We'll have to keep fighting for a while once that's finished."
"Didn't think of that," Frost muttered to himself. "That thing has a long-range particle beam, bloody British and their big, modern guns."
"It's recharging," Spin said.
"Under cover now, they shouldn't have a clear shot," Hal said.
A short burst from the Artemis' beam weapon struck them directly aft, reducing their shields to thirty-one percent. "Aft shields are recharging fast, but fourteen panels report damage," Spin reported, looking at the schematic of the Sector Jumper. "It says they'll be regenerated in twenty-one minutes? "
"Self-repairing ship, remember?" Nigel said over his shoulder. "I don't mind if it costs me a job anymore."
"Don’t worry, our shields will have time to regenerate, we have cover," Hal said as he piloted the ship deeper into the thick mass of broken vessels. The drones were unending, joined by fighters whose pilots were programs. The corpses in the seats were silent witnesses to their ships new purpose.
"Keep it up, we're all racking up a hell of a kill count," Frost said.
The space several kilometres behind them lit up with several flashes in succession as the last of the antimatter carrying drones were destroyed near the outer edge of the debris field and Hal jerked. "Oh, damn, hang on!"
An instant later she saw why he was alarmed; the blast sent millions of tons of metal debris after them, and Hal's only choice was to fly through a complex maze of drifting, spinning wrecks faster. He used the cannons they were sitting on to clear smaller pieces, but the shields reported several small hits from the less substantial hull fragments. "God dammit, it's like driving a skid truck down a sky luge track," Hal grumbled as he operated the manual controls at a frenzied pace. "Even with neural assist."
Spin checked the upload and saw that all but two of the receivers had failed. "That pulse interrupted the upload for most of the nodes around us. One Sa-Hadin communications satellite and a numbered node are still receiving. It's at ninety-one percent."
"Gunners, face front," Frost said. "Blast anything in our way."
Spin gasped as her tactical map turned red with the waking of thousands of drones and fighters. Five derelict space carriers became clouds of red as every drone and small ship affixed to the vessels activated and started lifting off. Their automated countermeasures went to work right away, rattling thousands of tiny rounds at dumb fire missiles that launched by the dozen from a trio of round weapons platforms. "The sky is angry," she heard Nigel whisper as he stared at his navigation and tactical screen. "Thousands of targets. We're in more trouble."
"The mess behind us isn't slowing down either," Hal added. "Trying to find a way through s
o it can pass ahead."
"But, the Artemis?" Spin asked as she watched their shields recharge up to seventy percent. She dumped reserve energy into them so they leapt to ninety-five, then she pushed the rest of their reserves to the turrets.
"Goddamn it," Hal said. "You're right, but which is worse?"
"I don't know!" Spin spat back. "I thought this would be a sneaky thing, not a great big, gun-shootie thing!"
"We head into the smaller drones and hope that upload works," Frost said. "Light 'em up!"
"Yes, Sir," Hal said. He turned the ship sideways and tilted it so every gunner had a shot and adjusted their course to avoid the chunks of hull, hulks and stone that they rushed towards.
"You're fucking crazy! You're just making it hard for yourself doing it this way, and we're barely moving faster than that wave of junk behind us!" Nigel objected.
"But we are moving faster, right?" Hal said, a little smile on his lips. "But if you'd rather I took this on head-on, then I can do that too."
"Don't do anything Minh would do," Frost advised.
"Don't worry, it's time all the guns got into the fight," Hal said, turning the Sector Jumper so it faced the cloud of drones with a jerk then ducking a massive chunk of hull. When he came out from behind it, he began firing the ship's main guns. They sent white-hot projectiles through the cloud, raking the largest hangar of the nearest barely functional carrier with heavy fire before he ducked back behind cover.
Their shields were able to absorb the damage, the counter attack from the still distant drones only taking them down four percent, but that was just in five or six seconds. Spin couldn't imagine that there would be much of them left if they had to keep that up without cover. Her tactical computer reported that the hangar Hal attacked was disabled along with many drones still inside, however, so there was a little wisdom in his more aggressive tactic.
"We can't fly straight into that, we'll get shredded!" Nigel said, gesticulating wildly at his tactical display.
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