Rock nodded then closed his eyes. “Yes, I remember the location. The room is too small for safe porting with our people there, and who knows how many Primers.
“I’ll take us to the corridor area near the lab.”
Tee nodded. “Weapons hot. Ready? On my count. 3, 2, 1...”
They untangled within sight of the lab hatchway to what sounded like the squeak from a very large mouse. The lab hatch slammed shut.
Fierce decided to state the obvious. “They’re expecting us.”
Tee moved toward the door. “Rock, watch bow. Fierce, you take stern. I’ll get us in the old-fashioned way.”
He unwound two long strips of det cord, placed them around the hatchway, and set an igniter. Then he hesitated. Tee knew he had a tendency to overdo it when it came to explosives; blames it on too much fun on the 4th of July when he was a kid. He certainly didn’t want the blow-through or a flying heavy hatch hurting his own people. As Rock and Fierce glanced his way, he held up a hand as he queried his pid.
In a moment he had a satisfied look and an announcement. “Fire in the hole.”
They all moved to the side and covered up as the det cord detonated. The blast was their cue for a coordinated entry. Tee charged into the lab in a nanite-enhanced sprint, feeling more than hearing a sickening crunch of whatever was left of the Primer that had gotten in the way of the exploded hatch. As he charged to the right side of the lab, he took note of a second Primer curled up on the floor in a pool of blood. Rock took charge of the left side of the lab. Fierce evaluated the situation and then took a knee by the hatch opening to cover the corridor.
Tee had his .50 cal. shouldered as he and Rock moved slowly to position themselves for the best opportunity to take down the remaining target. Para looked fine in her casing of amber goop. Roll looked okay, though there was a sizable red bubble that looked like blood suspended in his goop. The third Primer was positioned behind Viz, holding a wicked looking device near her head. Tee and Rock froze when the Primer made a threatening motion with the saw.
Viz, Para, and Roll all started talking at the same time. That brought a wave of the hand and a command from the Primer; the goop silencing their appeals.
Tee never took his eyes off the reflection of Viz in the mirrored hull as he smiled at her reassuringly and barely whispered. “Hostage situation 3.”
Rock and Tee became the perfect picture of compliance. They slowly lowered their guns and laid them on the floor, then rose slowly with hands out so Viz’ captor could see there was no threat. That earned a wicked smile from the Primer. Viz squinted an eye at the evil monster who had obviously taken advantage of the situation in some kind of game for ill-gotten gain.
The timing of the rescue fit perfectly into the Primer’s improvised scheme. She would be named a hero, the one who captured the would-be rescuers. The one who had single-handedly beaten the fierce human murderers with only a hand tool. She relaxed her hand that was holding the saw, just a little, and started chattering in Prime, talking so fast it was difficult to understand more than one word out of three, before she suddenly went quiet.
Rock flash-ported behind the wicked lab brat, grabbed the arm with the saw, and levered her around so hard she flew eight feet to the hull and crashed head first. Viz wrinkled her nose as she watched the Primer ooze to the floor. That one wouldn’t be operating a saw again. Rock did a quick rub of his hands as if to brush off the residue of Primer filth. I could see his lips as he actually did mouth the word, filth.
Then he had something of a change of heart. “Crud. We could have used that one to open these amber casings. If they were port-able, Roll would have gotten everyone out of here by now. Let me see if I can move an entire casing.”
Rock touched Viz’ prison box and closed his eyes in concentration. Nothing happened. That wasn’t good.
Next came the sound of a Longarm discharging near the hatchway. That would be Fierce. “Uhhh, guys. We’ve got some company. And I hear the whine of portable shielding. This room is about to be compromised.”
Tee took a deep cleansing breath. “Rock, port a grenade behind their line. Then take Fierce’s place at the hatch.”
An explosion followed almost immediately down the corridor. Tee pointed to the Primer who was squirming on the floor in pain. “Fierce, this one may be able to help. Talk to her. See if she has any compassion at all. How can we release our team?”
Fierce knows the language of Cygnus Prime as well as any human alive. In fact, we recently discovered that language skills are an actual capability he’s manifested, even though he wasn’t with us at the time of that fateful lab explosion. Anyway, he picks up on languages faster than an AI on goose-juice.
And here comes a prompter-note circling my head. Fine, I’ll explain. If you’re not a techie, goose-juice is a co-opted term for a dedicated AI hooked up to a megaplex of quantum computers. I’ve seen them so hopped-up they almost glow as they spin-up into their eigenstate heaven. All that to say, our boy Fierce is picking up some amazing capabilities to add to his best-programmer-in-the galaxy resume. Who knows how that came about? Maybe the Shockwave nanite weavers decided to accept Fierce into the organization.
Fierce sat down on the floor next to the dying Primer. He gently took her hand, bent close to her ear, and spoke softly. He asked after her pain and if there was something in the lab he could give her that would help. She moaned something. He pointed to a slit in the wall and said something, an odd word with a technical ring to it. A small bubble floated out. Fierce spoke another odd word in Prime and the bubble floated down to him and he motioned it toward her mouth.
Tee moved fast to stop him. For all we knew, it would kill her, and end our chance for freedom. But it was too late as the bubble popped into mist, and the Primer smiled.
It looked to be a real smile, not one of malice, not something evil. Fierce gently took the Primers hand, moving it into contact with my prison, and spoke a simple command. My goop prison turned into droplets and flowed into a vent in the bulkhead. I was free.
Rock opened fire with the Longarm. Time was running out.
Tee looked at me and pointed to the Primer that Rock had splashed while he ran to the Primer trapped under the hatch. I dragged mine to Para as he dragged his to Roll. We set their hands on the goop and called out the command. Nothing happened. Did we mispronounce the word?
The dying Primer groaned a word, their word for alive. Fierce nodded as he ever so gently picked her up and moved first to Para. The Primer reached out her hand and said the command word herself. Para was free. They moved on, freeing Roll. Then the Primer exhaled loudly and was gone.
***
Freedom. Roll was bleeding from the saw wound, looking as though he might collapse. Fierce called to the slit in the bulkhead, receiving a hand sized bubble that he guided to Roll’s wound. I watched in amazement as it covered the wound in a transparent layer, the damaged area renewing before my eyes.
Rock ducked in the room as the corridor erupted in an energetic blaze, with Para barely managing to grab and brace the damaged hatch over the hole. “Ouch! That’s a bit scorching.”
I felt so dejected. After all of that, we still hadn’t accomplished our mission, to plant the transponder. The goop had dissolved Para’s vac-suit. And the transponder would have been with Para’s suit!
“We may as well head home. No transponder, no mission.”
Para had a big smile. “What do you mean, silly? I kept the transponder right here, in my sleeve pocket. It was nice of the Primers to NOT melt our clothes. They didn’t seem like the kind to stand on decorum. Maybe all the nanite tech in our clothes caught their interest. But they definitely made me grumpy when they wrecked my suit. It was just getting worn-in.”
Roll rubbed the wounded area of his back where there was a large oval spot missing in his shirt.
Rock jumped up. “Our time’s up. I hear the pitter patter of Primer boots. A lot of boots.”
The sound of an explosion reverberated thr
ough the ship, capturing our attention. Then there was a distinct shudder as the lights went out momentarily and sirens howled.
That captured Tee’s attention. So did the panicked shouts of the retreating Primers. “That little pop was our sensor mine going off. Still, the Primers seem a bit over-excited, what with all the sirens and shouting and all.”
Rock motioned to Para, prompting her to open the hatch a little, as he sent a floater down the corridor to assess the enemy situation. “Our guests are leaving. About that little bomb. I think we may have misbehaved with that.
“We, maybe, should have thought it through before placing a bomb in a matter/antimatter safety control room. If we messed up the safety dams or something, there might be a bigger explosion in the works.”
Roll took his brother by the shoulders and turned him to look him in the eye. “You guys blew up the reactor control room, one deck up and forward?”
Rock nodded. “Yes? Just a little.”
Roll let his brother go but gave him the evil-eye. “Just a little? We’d better do something really quick.”
That got Tee moving. “Fierce, see about getting into their computer and finding out what’s happening. Oh, first, shed your vac-suit. Para and Viz are going to need our suits.”
I held out my hand to Rock as he was moving back to watch the corridor. He knew instinctively that I wanted duct tape. Para and I would need to adjust the oversized vac-suits. I also noticed the scowl on Para’s face. “Don’t worry, Para, you’ll be rocking another fashion statement before we’re done with the tape, just like when you creamed the bug base on Mars.”
I could hear the smile in Tee’s voice. “All good, but let’s have less fashion statement and more hurry on the vac-suits, please, ladies.”
Fierce was working the ship computer. “I’m in. It looks like all but essential crew members are heading for the loading bay. Another dreadnaught is on route to evacuate the ship. It’s a general call for evacuation. It must be the reactor; probably unstable. Yup. There’s a secondary shielding of some sort containing an antimatter housing breach. And, that looks like a countdown to core shield failure.
“The rescue dreadnaught will be here in... Oh, it’s here. The ships have linked and the crew from this ship are on the move through an umbilical bridge. They’re abandoning ship in a hurry.”
Tee looked concerned as he finished wrapping Para’s suit with tape. “This is it then. Get that transponder onto the hull of the other ship. Para, the other ship will be moving away very fast. Hurry to set the transponder; don’t forget to set your own QuIM beacon so Rock can track you.
“Oh! Don’t forget to power down when you exit. I wish your original suit was intact to hide your thermal image with the liquid helium package like we planned. They probably won’t notice you in the wake of their drive if your electronics are down. Rock and Viz will be right there.
“Rock and Viz, get to Para. Fast! Keep up with that ship. Stay cloaked. Don’t lose Para!
“Fierce, go ahead and give the Logan sensor to Viz.
“Let’s move out. See you all back home soon. Roll, Shockwave HQ, if you please.”
Tee looked to Roll. “Roll, why are we still here?”
Roll shook his head. “They must have repaired the shield array. We’re blocked.”
Rock held his hand out toward Fierce. Fierce produced a satchel bomb from his pack. Rock nodded. “Yup, that should do it. I’ll blast the shield emitter and be right back.”
Rock barely shimmered as he conducted a flash-port to drop off the bomb. “I don’t get it; the shield array is still a mess.”
Tee rubbed his forehead. “Maybe a secondary array? Somewhere? Fierce, can you locate whatever is generating the shield? And see if you can find a way to slow their evacuation.”
Fierce jumped to the computer. “Uhhh. Sure. Let’s see if I can mess with their umbilical connection.” He started hammering away on his interface board. “Done. Oh no. The other ship is detaching; they’re not going to wait for the bridge to stabilize. They’re leaving some of the crew behind. And we’re trapped. I’m so sorry.”
Tee clapped Fierce on the shoulder. “This isn’t on you, Fierce. The sensor mine was my call.”
Roll was pacing. “This doesn’t make sense. I’ve studied Empire shielding technology. The shield emitter array has exacting location specs in order to provide effective cover, taking into account the fore and aft drive units.”
Rock and Roll turned to look at each other and spoke at exactly the same time. “It’s the other ship.”
Rock ran to gather Para and Viz. “The shielding of the other dreadnaught is enclosing both ships. We’ve got to get ready. Fierce, show me the other ship. I need to see our port-point.”
The ship shuddered.
Tee let out his breath. “Time to get off this tub. Everyone to your port-tech. Port when you have an opening.”
***
Rock, Para, and I cloaked and ported downline, far enough from the drive wake to stay alive. I had the Logan on passive observation and wriggled around to show Rock several spike patterns on the display. He held Para’s arm to keep her from moving out of the cloaking field as several black orbs passed on their return run to the dreadnaught. Those would be scout drones sent out to scan the area for intruders. We never broke cloak, so they would have signaled an all clear.
Para pushed and twisted a knob on her suit. The Logan lit up with a QuIM blip and I gave a thumbs-up sign. Operational. With QuIM, we could track her with the Logan on passive mode when she emerged from the dreadnaught wake, and the Empire fleet would be none the wiser. But we would have to be fairly close for the signal to register an actual location. A Logan has a QuIM setting, but it isn’t really set up to grab a QuIM signal. The Empire knew nothing of quantum instant messaging. Hopefully, that was still the case.
A standard QuIM transponder is a battery hog, so Para turned it off until it was needed. The InnerEar is powered differently, some quantum fluctuation of this or that. I smiled, mostly to cheer myself up. We would be able to find her, as long as we kept pace with the dreadnaught. We could also use the Logan for an intense long distance sweeping scan as a last resort. But the enemy fleet would pick up on that, inviting mission failure, and a scouting expedition that would find Para unless we managed to get to her first.
Para blew us a kiss as she embraced the edge of the dreadnaught drive wake. Her velocity increased as she moved closer to the raging tidal wave of the drive, then she vanished as the ship blurred out in a warp stream. We began a series of ports, trying to stay close enough to allow the Logan to register the location of the spatial anomaly while in passive mode. Rock was having a difficult time. It would have been a simple task for him if the dreadnaught’s velocity was stable. But there were those constant minor velocity shifts that made our stalking imprecise.
The chase game was getting old fast as we untangled, yet again, too close to the drive wake. It felt as though I had gone 10 rounds with an angry gorilla and I was nauseous on top of that. The next port sent us tumbling even more than usual. I don’t know how Rock stayed focused enough to keep us porting in the right direction.
After yet another port left me disoriented, I happened to notice a star suddenly appear, growing brighter and brighter, then dimming. That would be the ruins of the dreadnaught caught in the swirl of a matter/antimatter explosion. I eyed the Logan to get my bearings. Another port. Nothing on the Logan. Port. Nothing. Where was the ship? Such a small ship in the vastness of space. And no QuIM signal. Where was Para? She should have been done with her drop by now.
Rock sounded exasperated. “They must have changed course. I know I ported along the initial vector.”
I tried not to sound worried. “The Logan agrees with you. There’s still no QuIM signal from Para or the InnerEar transponder.”
We had hoped this would be easy. Para would pop out of the dreadnaught’s gravitational wake and we would rush to her QuIM signal. Or, if her suit transponder failed, a QuIM
signal from the ship would at least give us a general direction in which to hunt. If the ship continued using evasion tactics, the chance of finding Para in the depths of deep space would be minimal. A memory swept in unbidden; a recent nightmare Para shared with me, about being lost in space. Surely it was just a dream and not a premonition.
***
Para was straining as she pushed through the gravity wake of the ship, somehow pulling the energy she needed directly from the quantum gluon field. She was safe from detection within the energetic waves of the dreadnaught. Debris generally moves around a warp field, hurried along by the warping of space and sent tumbling by the gravitational froth. Yet, some small bits of torn matter still manage to work their way in and cling to the negatively charged warp bubble. Often, that debris is radioactive. This ship had only recently opened a bubble so at least that wasn’t a concern.
There had been opportunity to practice gravity walks, taking advantage of the small S3 missile drive. She had even walked through the wake of a pentalink drive to help bring an end to the last invasion. But that ship was at low power, and not moving. This dreadnaught was under way at full power and Para found herself struggling, nearing exhaustion, wondering if she should just give up.
What was that sound? Para turned, looking around in every direction. There it was again. A still small voice. It told her that she was an overcomer. Everything she needed, and more, was available to her. A memory. She had dreamed a dream of peace in the midst of the storms. Peace. Strength. A desire to soar into the winds like an eagle. She pulled deep from forces she wouldn’t be able to describe even if she pretended to understand them.
Para concentrated on her bubble. It was not of the same stuff as the warp energy field that surrounded the dreadnaught. Yet there were similarities. She focused. Polarity. Attraction. Her bubble danced quickly through the waves of power toward the much larger bubble housing the ship of her enemy. Doubts surfaced once again.
Everyone assumed she knew how to merge the two bubbles of tranquility floating in the controlled maelstrom of advanced technology. Her gift was amazing, but in this she was merely a novice playing with dangerous forces. She had only the vague understanding that her ability allowed her to interact with the stuff of gravity, gravitons, the Higgs field. Apparently, she could also draw power from the subatomic world of gluon field energetic fluctuations caused by the interaction of quarks and gluons. Heady stuff, all of which sounded like so much nonsense in the moment.
Invasion: Journal Three (Shockwave Book 3) Page 3