Jed looked at Captain Fey before responding. “We’ll be right there.”
Captain Holt was careful to avoid the more populated areas on the way to the ready room. Almost everyone onboard had wanted to ask him a hundred questions each after his speech in the hold. He had given them all the information he had, as honestly as he could, with the promise of more information when it became available. Jed had been hesitant to explain the radiation leak, wanting to avoid panic, but it would be impossible to omit since most would require medical attention.
“The Paladin looks to be a great ship,” Captain Fey commented casually, clearly trying to strengthen any bond between them.
Jed was happy for the small talk however, it was distracting and he hated awkward silences. “I bet it’s nothing like what you’re used to. I can only imagine what advances were made in our absence.”
“Not as many as you would think really. Just the usual; fitting the software into smaller and smaller components. My last command was the Hammer, a brute of a ship - still, nothing compared to what the Conclave has. A point proven when the Laronians blew it to space dust.”
“Laronians…” Jed chewed over the name, trying to recall Fey’s description.
“Blue, very fine scales. They probably have the closest resemblance to us.”
Jed found it hard to see how anything that was blue with scales could resemble a human being. “If you say so…”
The ready room was already filled with occupants when they arrived. Two of the six Raiders had taken up positions outside the door, with Colonel Matthews and the other three stationed inside, occupying the corners with their weapons rested at their waist. The four Shay were busy with a variety of tools and alien datapads, all producing a colourful holographic display. They were working with Chief Grenko in an attempt to connect their devices to the screen that took up most of the far wall.
Jed noted Sharon Booth and Jim Langdale sitting at one end of the table, obviously comfortable among the aliens. Lieutenant Worth, who looked more at home amidst the UDC personnel, accompanied Sam, who walked around the long table and greeted them both, along with a small alien Jed had never seen before.
“Captain,” Sam turned on her side to introduce the alien, “this is Ch’vork, the Nautallon’s chief engineer.”
“Greetings of peace, Captain Holt.” The alien came up to his navel in height.
Jed wanted to reply immediately, as was polite, but he found himself taking in every detail.
Ch’vork wore a similar red and black uniform to the others, but across his chest and back was a mechanical apparatus that looked somewhere between a steam engine and a Solar Drive. The air around his head shimmered, but not enough to distort his squat little head and pale features. Sunken black eyes stared up at the captain, expectantly.
“Hi…” he finally managed. How was Sam so comfortable among them? Jed realised she was probably using all of it as a distraction from her parents.
“My engineers are preparing a simulation to show you exactly what we believed happened to the Paladin. High Charge Uthor will also join us momentarily.” Ch’vork removed a small disc from his belt and walked back to the table.
“Excellent,” Jed replied, absently. It took him another moment to fully grasp what Ch’vork had said. How was Uthor going to join them? He was bigger than every door on the ship!
“We are ready,” one of the Shay announced.
Grenko’s exhausted pallor reminded Jed how hard he had been working the engineer since they dropped out of sub-space. The man had barely slept, desperately trying to fix the Solar Drive and repair the radiation leak. The captain would be sure to allocate him some serious R&R when they had the opportunity, though what that would look like in this new world, he had no idea.
Ch’vork threw the small disc from his belt on to the floor, where it sprouted three legs and projected an almost life-size hologram of Uthor. Jed was impressed with the life-like quality of the image; the Raalakian could have been in the room with them.
“Greetings of peace, Captain Holt.” Uthor was still looking down on him.
“Greetings of peace, High Charge Uthor.” Jed decided to use the phrase he continually heard from the Conclave aliens.
Jed, Sam and Captain Fey took their seats side-by-side, while Colonel Matthews remained standing beside the hologram of Uthor. Grenko appeared more than happy to take a seat on the end and watch Ch’vork lead the presentation.
The screen came to life with a computer-generated image of space, overlaid with a blue grid pattern. A select number of stars expanded, decorating the black canvas with giant, yellow spheres.
Ch’vork cleared his throat, an oddly human thing to do in Jed’s opinion. “Now, as you can see, this is a typical flight plan through sub-space.” A red line appeared horizontally across the screen. At one end they could see a blue dot that represented Earth, and the other end was their current position. “This particular path is the one that you should have taken, in order to avoid other planets, moons, asteroids and stars. Had your navigation systems calculated this jump, it would have taken a couple of months to make the journey.”
“So why did it take us over two hundred years?” Sam asked.
“What do you understand about time?” Ch’vork asked without condescension.
“That it’s precious.”
Jed tilted his head to glance at Sam’s arm. He didn’t need to look her in the eyes to get his point across. Everyone was beyond frayed at the edges by this point, but patience was still required, and respect was expected.
Ch’vork bowed his head, conceding. “None more than the crew of the Paladin understand that. I shall explain it as simply as I can; I realise not all present are engineers.” The Ch’kara turned back to the screen. “These yellow spheres represent stars, scattered throughout the patch of galaxy between Earth and here. Now each of these stars has an effect on time, even in sub-space.”
The grid shifted into a three-dimensional model to show the Paladin in sub-space, with the top half of the screen demonstrating reality and the bottom half representing sub-space. The various stars were spread out, creating an effect that looked as if someone had dropped a series of balls on to a sheet of fabric, and where the balls lay, the fabric dipped.
Ch’vork continued, “The curvature you see around the stars represents the effect their gravitational pull has on sub-space. All nav-comms plot courses around stars specifically to avoid the effects of this curvature. In sub-space, the gravity from the stars, or black holes, can alter the perception of time. The closer one gets to either, the slower they perceive events - though, to the observer, nothing has changed.”
Grenko leaned forward in his seat. “This isn’t exactly new information…”
“Maybe to you Chief,” Sam replied. “All I know is that Maloy pulls the lever and the Paladin moves.”
Jed silenced them both with a hand. “Perhaps a simple explanation would be best. Please continue, Ch’vork.”
Ch’vork’s stubby hand played over the holographic display on the tabletop, altering the image on the screen. “From what we can piece together from your navigational array, as well as the chronometer built into your Solar Drives; this has been the flight path of the Paladin.”
The screen now showed a wavy red line starting from Earth, curving around almost every star between the planet and their current location. The ship appeared to have zig-zagged across the cosmos for more than two hundred years.
“Your proximity to these stars,” Ch’vork continued, “is the reason none of you have aged. You were only in sub-space for a couple of days by your perception, but in reality, you have been travelling for centuries.”
Jed sat back and studied the image, dismayed. “Do you know what caused this?”
Ch’vork hesitated, looking at Uthor’s towering hologram. “Sabotage. We found the partial remains of a human inside the conductor chamber.”
“Goddamn separatists…” Ava muttered behind them.
&nbs
p; “Whether he intended to die in the act or not, we may never know,” Ch’vork said. “But between the heat and the subsequent radiation leak inside that chamber, there isn’t much left of him now.”
Jed suddenly felt as if the universe was against him. “You’re saying we were flung two hundred and fifty years into the future because of another human being?”
“That would appear to be the case, yes.”
Sam turned to Jed, but she had no words to express how she felt. If she was anything like him, the commander would feel cheated. It was a hard thing to accept, made all the harder with no one left to punish. It was natural to seek out the source of such tragedy and focus on revenge, but there was nothing any of them could do with the news except move on. Duty demanded it.
“We have succeeded in repairing the damage,” Ch’vork added in a lighter tone. “The Paladin’s nav-comm is now connected to the Solar Drive. We can refuel it and give you the coordinates to Arakesh.”
Jed looked at Captain Fey for clarification.
“It’s the Raalak homeworld,” Fey explained. “It’s where our current habitat is located.” The older captain looked to Uthor. “Though, space might be an issue now.”
The Raalak bowed his head. “It is being reviewed.”
Jed was already thinking of his next speech to the masses. How was he going to explain that everything that had happened was a result of sabotage?
The Shay standing beside Ch’vork caught the captain’s eye, distracting him from current concerns. The alien dipped its head into one robotic hand as if suffering from a migraine. The engineer stumbled at the same moment the other three gripped their heads in equal pain. Ch’vork steadied the nearest Shay by the arm and inquired about his health. Jed could feel the Raiders in the room physically tense. Colonel Matthews nodded at the two in the far corners to close the gap.
“Is there a problem?” Captain Fey asked.
Her lack of fear helped Jed to assess the situation, taking her cues around the aliens as an indication of how he should respond.
That was a mistake.
As one, the Shay stopped nursing their heads and stumbling around. The alien closest to Ch’vork removed, what appeared to be, some kind of advanced screwdriver from his belt, and drove it down, directly on top of the Ch’kara’s head. The metal rod killed him instantly, squirting blood onto the ceiling. The closing Raiders lifted their rifles, ready to put holes in everything that wasn’t human, but the Shay reacted faster. Their robotic and organic limbs tackled the rifles away, while at the same time, throwing the two Raiders across the table as if they were no lighter than pillows. Now two of the four Shay were in possession of high powered rifles, while the other two were wielding engineering tools.
As the gunfire erupted, Sam, Fey and Jed ducked to the floor, while simultaneously flipping the table to use it as cover. The corner turned over and caught Jim Langdale in the face, knocking him unconscious. Grenko lept at the Shay in front of him but soon found himself flung against the wall with a sharp tool protruding from his shoulder and another in his thigh. The Shay backhanded him before Colonel Matthews put several rounds into its head. Blood exploded against the walls and Grenko as the Shay crumpled to the floor.
Within seconds the two Raiders from outside were bursting into the room and opening up with their own weapons. Jed covered his ears against the thundering guns of four Raiders and two Shay. Colonel Matthews grunted and collapsed to the floor behind them, blood oozing between the plates in the armour around her gut. The gunfire became staggered after a few seconds, quickly followed by close quarter fighting. Jed looked up in time to see the remaining three Shay run from the ready room, all with a rifle in hand.
Captain Holt lifted his head above the table to take stock. The room had filled with smoke and an acrid smell. Bullet holes lined the walls with blood and the ground crunched with broken glass. The holographic emitter being used to project Uthor had been destroyed in the fray. Jed could hear voices, but they were distant and hard to make out against the high pitch ringing in his ears. He soon realised it was Colonel Matthews barking orders beside him.
“Ava…” Jed looked at the blood trickling across her abdomen.
Ava Mathews quickly plunged a cylinder of medi-foam into the wound and gritted her teeth with pain. She followed this up with another cylinder Jed suspected was filled with adrenaline and painkillers.
Grenko was still unconscious with tools sticking out of him, while the two Raiders, who initially lost their rifles, were slowly picking themselves off the floor. One of the two who had been guarding outside was dead, besides Sam. The commander felt for his pulse, but it was clear to see from the tool, jutting out from his chest, that he was dead. The two remaining Raiders, who were currently being bollocked by Mathews, had each been winged by flying bullets but were not fatally hit.
“Oh no…” Captain Fey had found her way to the other end of the table, where Jim lay, semiconscious. Beside him, Sharon Booth was completely still, her white top coated in blood.
As the sounds of the world slowly came back, Jed discovered Sam and Ava were shouting at each other.
“I thought Raiders were the best of the best!” Sam yelled into Ava’s face - a brave thing for anyone to do.
“Their artificial augments make them fast!” Matthews retorted. “I didn’t see you jump into the fight!”
“I’m unarmed!” Sam strode over to Grenko.
“That didn’t stop Grenko from trying to help!”
“Enough!” Jed stood up, between them. Using the comm panel on the wall, the captain had Maloy, on the bridge, give him a ship-wide channel. “Attention. This is Captain Holt. Three armed intruders are loose on the ship. Everyone is to proceed to the hold in a calm manner and await further instructions; you will be safe there.” Jed looked at Sam, who knew what to do. On another channel she was quietly moving UDC personnel around, setting up guard posts around the hold. “The situation is being dealt with appropriately and will be resolved shortly.” Jed switched back to Maloy and requested a channel that only the crew could hear. “This is your captain, arm yourselves and prepare to sweep the ship.”
“Don’t.” Colonel Matthews put her hand on his arm. “Let my team hunt them down. Use your crew to lock down the ship and protect the civilians. It’ll be too messy if everyone with a gun is hunting the same thing.”
Jed considered her counsel seriously. For all his experience, Ava’s training alone would always trump his. “Belay that,” he spoke into the mic. “Lockdown the ship and take up positions. Guard the hold.”
Captain Fey finally left Sharon’s side. “Open a channel to Uthor. He has a strike team waiting on the other side of your airlock. They have more experience with the Shay; we should let them help.”
Ava shook her head. “Negative. For all we know this is on the big guy’s order.”
Fey frowned and gestured at Ch’vork’s corpse. “This is not the Conclave’s doing. I don’t know what’s going on, but Uthor wouldn’t order the death of his chief engineer.”
“Fair point,” Jed agreed. “But for now, we deal with this in-house. We’ll open a channel and explain what’s happened, but the Raiders are hunting them down, and as far as I’m concerned they can shoot-to-kill.”
Fey clearly wasn’t satisfied, but she obviously knew better than to argue the orders of another captain on his own ship. Jed just hoped he was making the right call.
Colonel Ava Matthews knew her squad like the back of her hand. She knew them better than her own family and certainly better than their families knew them. Their strengths and weaknesses were her own, always playing a role in the squad tactics. Losing one of them was akin to losing a limb. It was the only thing that drove Ava to forgo her training and dive right in without planning or recon. This weakness was known to her Raiders, who always had her back.
“Holmes is dead…” Jess said into the darkened corridor, trying to hide her shock behind concentration.
It would take time for that
fact to sink in.
“We’ll mourn Peter later.” It was Kyle Riddick who responded first, more than aware that those words made Ava’s blood boil. “Let’s just hunt these fuckers down and get some answers.”
“It’s hard to get answers from a corpse.” Jack Danvers had been close to Peter. Ava was sure there had always been something more between the men than brothers-in-arms.
The corridors were lit in red, casting shadows in every crevice. Lockdown had taken immediate effect in this part of the Paladin, in hopes of cutting the Shay off before they could reach the populated areas.
“I’m with Danvers,” Katie Wilson, the youngest in the group, added. “I say we cut em’ down, no questions.”
“Stow it, Wilson.” Kyle always took control when Ava’s head was in other places. “We’re Raiders, not cavemen. We have to be surgical.”
With their helmets covering their entire head, the Raiders could speak freely without the worry of being overheard. Their visors illuminated the corridors, piercing the shadows while keeping the team concealed in the dark.
“Surgery is what these fuckers are gonna need when we’re finished with em’.” Jess was easily the most sensitive one among them - though that wasn’t saying much for a Raider - and she was clearly hiding her unease behind hard words.
The squad approached every corner the same way; one taking the edge and stealing a glance before the second dashed across the gap and took up a position on the other side. With Katie bringing up the rear, watching their backs, Ava led the team down the empty corridors, their rifles levelled at shoulder height. They swept the first floor in minutes, clearing the way for the captains and the others to retreat to the medbay.
Ava silently commended her team for focusing on the present and not dwelling on recent events. Apart from Kyle, they had all lost friends and family to their extended journey amongst the stars. Ava could hear her twin brother’s voice in her head and held back the grief at knowing that her mind was the only place she would ever see him. The colonel could only dream of the life he might have had after she disappeared.
The Terran Cycle Boxset Page 109