The Syn-En Solution (SciFi Adventure)

by Linda Andrews

21 Days Later

  Bei strode to the center of the Starfarer's bridge, the spring in his step tempered by the knowledge of all he must accomplish today. All that he could lose. Fear overrode his cerebral interface to force his heart into a staccato beat. This was it. The moment of truth.

  They would either open an event horizon or die.

  If he failed, Nell would number among the casualties.

  "Your woman's gone then?" XO Penig asked without turning from his position at the helm. His question echoed around the bridge. The crew had been evacuated so only the two of them remained, along with Shang'hai, who manned her station in engineering.

  "Yes." Bei clenched his hands at the more fatal implications of the question and crossed the half-moon shaped deck to stand beside his executive officer. He would not allow thoughts of losing his lover to distract him. And yet nothing seemed to keep them at bay.

  "You're sure?" Penig scratched the fringe of gray hair above his left ear. "I've found that women, enhanced or not, tend to be the more devious of the sexes. They'll agree with you, then turn around and do the exact opposite. And somehow, it's always us who didn't understand."

  Penig angled his body toward Bei, deep grooves in his cheeks bracketing his smile. His eyes turned to lumps of coal in their sockets, proof that he interfaced with CIC solely through the WA.

  "I put Nell on Starflight Three, strapped her into the seat and watched it glide through the cargo bay doors." Bei stared at his second in command's black eyes, still not understanding how the sight of blackening eyes could invoke such revulsion in citizens. Nell had rattled on about demons, eyes being the windows to the souls, and other superstitious nonsense. But she had been naked, and he had wanted to know if she'd make that amazing sound in the back of her throat if he touched her just-

  Penig grunted. The six LCDs banding the bridge flickered to life. "And did you check the cargo bay to see if she'd snuck out the emergency hatch?"

  "No." Bei rubbed his chin before summoning his avatar, knowing once his consciousness merged with the digital man, his own eyes would be as dark as the heart of a singularity. Another reason for Nell to be away from here. He hated to remind her of their differences. Despite the incredible closeness they'd achieved in the last three weeks, he sensed her unease. He hoped her doubts were about getting to the planet alive. Hell, he had his, even with reassurances from his scientists.

  And the odds were stacked against them.

  The Starfarer could give them only one shot, a mere twelve minutes six point two seconds until her engines overloaded from the stress of maintaining a focused magnetic field. Shang'hai, Penig and Bei would be lucky to make it last that long without a surge frying their interfaces and brains. But a handful of seconds less meant the America and her escorts would crash into the Fleet and the Syn-En race would come to an explosive end.

  At least that was the scenario in the original plan. But plans changed. Instead of waiting for the America to sail through first, Bei and his senior staff decided to send the remains of the original fleet through before she arrived. Nell would be in the first wave, followed by Commander Keyes and Chief Rome. They would lead whatever was left of the fleet to Terra Dos.

  They would survive.

  Bei clung to the thought, despite the ache banging around his chest at the idea that Nell might go on without him.

  Penig brought up the aft starboard visuals on the two right hand bridge LCDs. Three waves of dark ships freckled the white luminescent background of the wormhole. "Fifteen minutes before the Starcruiser America reaches us."

  Using the CIC, Bei brought up long range sensors on the two far left screens. The America's dark hull approached like a shark in white water and swallowed the visuals of her twenty escort ships in her bulk. Only Jane's identification marks on the screens told of their presence. Bei watched twenty digital versions of his pink haired engineer swarm the boxy engine, navigation and electromagnetic shielding mainframes. "How much longer until engines and shields are aligned, Shang'hai?"

  The miniature versions bumped into each other, merging and growing until one full-sized avatar remained. She smiled, and fireworks, a digital representation of her excitement exploded around her head. "Engines and shields are ready, Admiral. Wilson and I are just double checking the forward laser cannons. He thought if we could tighten the electromagnetic beam, we might keep the event horizon open an additional twenty-three seconds."

  Bei scanned for any crewmen still on his ship. The CIC recognized four ident chips and his temper flared. "Wilson should have evacuated the Starfarer with everyone else."

  Shang'hai's avatar turned red and apologies appeared in white bubbles near her head. "You said it yourself, Bei. We only have one shot at this. And while I can do a lot through the WA, sometimes I need another set of hands. Wilson has very nice hands."

  The apologies disappeared in a mist of lust and longing that Bei had come to know only too well these last three weeks. With all the Starfarer's life pods gone and the two newly minted Starflight shuttles launched, Bei had no choice but to let the civilian stay. But he didn't have to like it. "Finish your checks."

  "Aye, Admiral." Shang'hai's avatar beamed at him before bursting apart and running in twelve different directions.

  "Damn sneaky." Penig chuckled as the digital version of the bald XO disappeared into the telemetry hub.

  White luminescence filled the two LCDs in front of Bei, and sensors scanned the proposed exit in the wall of the wormhole. He strolled through cyberspace to the navigation hub and diverted the streams of sensor data into its processor. A clock appeared on all six screens. The countdown estimated the America's arrival in eleven minutes. Eleven minutes? They should have had the event horizon open by now. Bei verified the calculations before isolating the cause of the shifted timetable. "Sensors show the America's coming in too hot."

  Penig's avatar stepped around the telemetry console, holding packages with red, high priority tags. He fed the orders into the communication stream where they would exit the hull and shoot at lightspeed toward the America and her flotilla of ships. Penig switched the com to the navigation hub. "Beagle and Nebula escorts are attempting to delay her arrival."

  Bei eyed the countdown. The clock jumped up a second, then two. He waited. No further change. Ten minutes, forty-six seconds. Their revised plan was now behind schedule. "Shanghai, finish your final checks. I want mission status green in ten seconds."

  Her pink-haired avatars converged on a heap of spaghetti-thin wires. A dozen sets of arms began plugging leads into a panel of holes associated with the laser cannons. "Aye, Admiral. You'll have it in nine."

  Bei unleashed his command code on the CIC. The safety locks clicked open for all the Starfarer's systems. He might lose his ship, but his men would live. "Forward fleet check in."

  "All ships report ready for Operation Exodus." Commander Keyes's crisp words filled the com and resounded on the bridge.

  Bei pulled his consciousness back to his body, but kept his avatar ready to act at the speed of his thoughts. "What about the surplus?"

  It galled Bei to speak of his own people in such callous terms, but he couldn't afford the emotional distraction of remembering the capsule-shaped life pods as full of his men. He'd ordered the evacuation of the Starfarer to give them a chance to make it to Terra Dos. Yet there hadn't been enough room to house the soldiers on the fleet's ships, and the civilians were too fragile to endure the cramped conditions of the life pods.

  But today, their voyage would end.

  If Bei, Shang'hai and Penig succeeded, the Syn-En and their civilian comrades would enter Terra Dos's orbit within six hours.

  Keyes's soft voice returned Bei to the bridge. "All life pods are netted, and wardens are waiting to drag them through the event horizon."

  "Good." Bei shuffled the view on the forward screen to the aft starboard sensors. The boxy wardens bobbed on the tidal forces. Cream colored life pods were strung like pearls on the cables connecting the wardens. Three la
yers deep. Each kilometer long rope held one fourth of his crew.

  Penig walked back to the captain's seat in the center of the bridge, sat down and strapped himself in. His eyes gleamed like onyx. With his physical body secured, the XO would merge his consciousness with the CIC to whittle reaction time. "ETA on the America is ten minutes, Admiral."

  Bei nodded, eyed the ever growing arrow-shaped America and her escorts on the right hand screens before switching his attention to the middle screens and refocusing the middle LCDs on the targeted area of the wormhole. "Shang'hai, power up fusion drives."

  "Aye." Shang'hai's avatars glommed into one as she divided her attention between cyberspace and the engine room. "Fusion drives at fifty percent. Sixty. Seventy."

  Under Bei's boots, the Starfarer hummed to life. He felt the currents of power eddying around him. She was a good ship. If she did not survive, he hoped she died well. He could think of no finer end for a warship or her soldiers.

  "Engines at ninety." Shang'hai's voice was flat and, in the CIC, her avatar leaned against the engine interface. "One hundred percent power, Admiral."

  Bringing the engines online was the easy part. They'd practiced this routine daily since the repairs and modifications. During the sim, five minutes after opening the event horizon, events began their death spiral.

  Penig's body straightened in the captain's chair. "Delta probes reporting instability along the wormhole."

  Bei's avatar sprang to life, analyzing the probes' data while Bei searched the screen for any noticeable change in the fog of white on the LCDs. He knew better than to think his chief engineer would act without orders, but he had to know for certain. "Shang'hai?"

  "It's not me, Admiral." Even her pink-haired avatar shrugged and flashed her palms, denying responsibility.

  The elevator doors zipped open and footsteps rasped against the metal decking. Bei closed his eyes. He knew those footfalls. Hell, they were practically encoded on his audio sensors. Nell. But how?

  "I think the citizens have been lobbing nukes at the event horizon near Earth, causing the instability."

  His lover's pleasant notes stirred Bei's anger, and it had nothing to do with her confirming the America's assessment of the citizens' tactics. He'd put the damn woman on the shuttle himself, watched it fly away. How had this happened? He pivoted on his heel, breaking his connection to CIC so she would see his blue eyes.

  "Dammit, Nell. Why aren't you off my ship?"

  Executive officer Penig closed his eyes, but his chuckles flowed freely around the room.

  If the XO said 'I told you so' Bei would pinch his head off and use it as a soccer ball.

  "My place is with you." Nell walked to Bei's side and placed her hand on his forearm like they were about to stroll along Mars's Borealis Basin to watch Phobos and Deimos set.

  Bei shook off her touch and latched onto her shoulders, careful not to crush the delicate bones. He had to keep her safe. She was too important to the mission, to the survival of his people, to him. "Your place is where I damn well tell you."

  "Now Beijing." She smiled at him, flashing the slightly overlapping front teeth.

  "Don't Beijing me." Bei raked his hands through his short black hair, lacing then locking his fingers behind his head. He barely resisted the urge to fold her up, stuff her into an air tight drum and shoot her through the event horizon. Shit. Her presence had caused him to forget his mission. Already time worked against them. It was too late to send her away, but not to drive home his point. "When I give an order, I expect you to follow it."

  "And I do." She tucked her hand though the crook of his arm and leaned against him. "Most of the time."

  His body responded automatically. Bei clamped down on the rising desire. Now was not the time. "Status, Shang'hai."

  "Fusion engines ready, Admiral."

  Penig nodded. "ETA of America in nine minutes. If we want our people out first, we need to move."

  "Power up the array." Bei swore under his breath. Even if he did box her up, there was no time to get Nell off his ship. His place was on the bridge. Nell squeezed his arm and smiled up at him.

  "Aye, Admiral." Shang'hai's voice resonated around the bridge. "Diverting power from fusion engines. Twenty percent power."

  He felt the tug on his metallic limbs as the electromagnetic charge gathered in the front cannons. "We will speak of this later."

  Nell shrugged, her gaze darting from him to the middle screens. "What's to talk about?"

  The lights on the bridge dimmed and Bei's sensors registered a drop in temperature. Life support would be drained of power to maintain the magnetic stream. Yet another reason to have fragile biologics safely away. He drew her into his embrace, sharing his body heat as he felt her shiver against him. "Who will lead our people to Terra Dos if we fail, Nell?"

  "We won't fail." Nell kissed his jaw before stepping out of his arms. Without a backward glance, she walked to the emergency panel and grunted as she twisted it to break the magnetic seal. When she dropped it, the door clanged to the metal deck. She reached inside the compartment and removed an emergency evac suit.

  "You are being unreasonable." Bei's words misted on the air.

  She shook out a black unitard, unzipped the front and stepped inside. Wiggling, she tugged the uniform over her green civilian tunic and pants. "I'm being optimistic. It's one of my more attractive traits."

  Bei noted her body's every bounce and jiggle. Her optimism wasn't nearly as alluring as parts of her. Damn, but the woman got to him. "Not under these circumstances."

  After tucking in the extra material of her tunic, Nell zipped up the front of her evac suit. "Beijing, do you honestly expect me to live without doing everything I can to make sure you're by my side?"

  "Hell yes!"

  Nell's mouth dropped open. "That's why I told Doc I was taking a nap and not to disturb me so I could sneak off. You're so gung-ho to die for the cause and your people; you're not willing to live for them. Well, now we live or die together."

  She kicked the door on the deck, then yelped and grabbed her booted toe when the panel didn't move.

  Shang'hai spoke above the ring of metal. "Admiral, the array is fully charged."

  "Fire forward cannons. Forty percent strength." Bei joined Nell, reaching her side just as the induced magnet in the floor went offline. He grabbed the Enviromask from the locker, draped the straps of the plastic faceform around her neck then maneuvered the door into place before any emergency supplies floated out. "Nell, I-"

  Nell clutched the facemask, holding it away from her throat, but her attention remained on the middle LCDs and a smile lit her face. "It's opening."

  Bei extended the hooks from the soles of his boots to attach to the deck, then stood behind Nell and pulled her into his arms. On screen, the white edge of the wormhole roiled with black spots. Bei woke his avatar and began streaming the data through his mind. He added a red cross-hair to the screen so Nell would know where to look. For a moment, a circle around the targeted area changed to gray. When a black band formed between the white rim and the wormhole wall, a starry sky shimmered in the center. Bei's avatar double checked the result. His knees shook. "We did it."

  Nell twisted in his hold to wrap her arms around his neck. Her laughter washed over him between her kisses. "We did it. We did it."

  Penig slapped the arm of his chair. "Aperture diameter is at one-three-zero meters. It's holding!"

  Bei squeezed Nell tight, part in an effort to keep her still and part to keep her from floating away and part because he was overjoyed that it had worked. "Alpha wave you are a go for Exodus. I repeat, you have a go."

  Doc's face appeared in an inset on the middle screens. His grin echoed in his brown eyes. "Roger Willco. Alpha wave away. Maximum thrust, readying fusion engines. Six hundred meters and closing on exit."

  The dart-shaped Beagles shot forward, separating into seven ship groupings. The closer they neared the star field, the tighter their V-formation grew. Despite the sil
ence on the com, the WA buzzed with coordinating their efforts, all aiming at that one spot.

  Bei watched the distance to the event horizon shrink. At five hundred kilometers, his avatar powered up the wardens and updated the trajectory. "Shang'hai, up array strength to forty-five percent."

  "Aye, Admiral." Shang'hai's avatar grinned. "Increasing strength to forty-five percent."

  Nell twisted in his hold. Her gaze focused on the two right LCDs. "Oh look, they're moving." A frown wrinkled her forehead. "Is it big enough to have them pulled out at the same time?"

  The strings of life pods grew taut as the lead wardens towed their cargo toward the exit.

  "Yes." Bei's avatar reassessed the clearance needed. The pod/warden chains would need two minutes to exit the wormhole, before being pulled out of range of the America. The trains had to go side by side. Bei measured the changes to the event horizon the new power had caused. "Aperture at one-five-zero meters and holding steady."

  The lights on the bridge went out, then burned a pale yellow. Nell tensed in his arms. "That can't be good."

  "Fusion engines reporting fluctuations, Admiral." Shang'hai's avatar darted off toward the engine relays. "Compensating."

  Penig frowned while his bald avatar glared at the telemetry hub. "Delta probes reporting instability downfield of event horizon."

  "Cause?" Bei checked the beta wave's progress. The strings of life pods were almost two hundred kilometers behind the alpha wave of Beagle Class ships.

  "Unknown." Penig shrugged, but his digital man had divided into four and each version was double checking the information.

  "The first group is through." Nell set her arms over his and her fingers laced through his.

  Static scattered Doc's face on the screen, but his voice remained strong and clear. "Alpha wave through. Beagle One reporting clear space. Single star, twelve planet solar system within 1.7 au."

  Joy, relief and hope exploded through the WA.

  Bei reveled in the pop and sizzle of bright colored fireworks around him. He wanted to ask for them to transmit visuals, but didn't dare. They couldn't spare the power to boost the signal, to actually see their future home.

  Nell squeezed his hands. "We'll see it soon enough."

  Bei nodded but focused on sending his communication to the awaiting Beagles. "Beta wave is two hundred kilometers from event horizon."

  The clock mocked his earlier optimism. At the rate the life pods were moving, they'd take almost twice as long to clear the exit as Bei and his team had planned. Bei maxed the wardens' speed.

  Penig jerked as a power surge zapped his avatar. The digital man scattered into pixels before reforming. "Nets holding, but I wouldn't push it anymore, Admiral."

  Nell leaned back into Bei's chest. Her ponytail tickled his chin. "The exit looks smaller to me."

  A data blip confirmed her assessment. Damn. The simulation had been optimistic. They might not even be able to hold the event horizon for ten minutes.

  "Aperture down to one-three-eight meters." Bei recalculated the trajectory. "Adjusting formation to compensate. One hundred meters and closing."

  The lead wardens of the strands of life pods pinched close together. A quivering wave travelled along the train. Bei tracked the last pods and end wardens. They remained attached.

  The clock on the screens blinked then reset.

  Penig cursed and his fingers tightened around the arm of his chair. "America is five minutes out, Admiral."

  Bei nodded, knowing his XO could see through the information streaming down his eyes. "Boost array power to seventy percent."

  The ship bucked underneath Bei's feet, but the hooks in his boots held him tight. He winced as a shock traveled down his body. Nell's hair stood on end from the static buildup.

  "I've lost engine two." Shang'hai's pink-haired avatar disappeared. "Rerouting helium-three reserves. Main fusion engines at one hundred ten percent, Admiral. Transferring power to the array."

  "Aperture at one-five-five meters." Bei acknowledged as the first warden skimmed the triple halo to enter normal space.

  "We see them, Admiral." Doc's excitement rattled around the bridge. "We're moving into position to help them clear the road."

  Another power surge dispersed Bei and Penig's avatars. Bei gritted his teeth from the pain throbbing in his head. "Hold her steady, Shang'hai."

  Nell tugged the band from her hair and straightened the coiled metal. Wisps floated around her but the strap of her oxygen mask kept most of her hair against her neck.

  "Delta probes report softening in the wormhole's walls." Penig strained against his restraints. His digital representation had lost cohesion. "Seven sensors are no longer transmitting."

  Nell wrapped one end of the straightened hair piece around his forearm and lowered the other end to the deck. Blue light sparked from the discharge of built-up electricity on his NDA. She jerked her head toward the screen. "Wardens are through."

  Bei nodded, acknowledging the relays of the cleared ships on the other side. The pods would be pulled to the side and the trek to the fourth planet from the sun would begin. "Beagles clearing the exit. Gamma wave you have a go. Increase speed to point zero-zero-zero-niner lightspeed."

  "Aye, Admiral." Chief Rome's face appeared on the small insert on the far right screens. Near his head the saucer and rocket-shaped ships surged forward in groups of two. "Increasing speed to zero-zero-zero-niner."

  Inside the WA, Penig tossed a data packet to Bei. "America is two minutes out. Beginning final approach. Damn."

  Bei watched the gamma wave close on the exit while part of him monitored the last wave's approach. "The America's at the wrong heading. She's going to miss the event horizon."

  If she slammed into the wormhole at her current speed, all hands would be lost.

  The com stream bled verbiage. All said the same thing. The ship, her passengers and crew weren't going to make it. Bei's cerebral interface faltered, momentarily stopping his lungs, heart and thoughts.

  Penig's avatar frantically sorted through the data before collapsing into a heap. Lightning bolts flashed around him. "She's too big to turn."

  "No!" Nell tensed in his hold before pounding on Bei's arm. "We are not going to fail now. All ships to her port bow to manually push her on course."

  "Nell." Bei's voice quivered. He couldn't bear the loss of those children, but he had to save some. "I don't think."

  She raked her heel down his shin, before she turned and faced him. Her body vibrated, mirroring the anger in her blue eyes. "Tug boats do it all the time. Your ships can do it. For God's sake, it's just three lousy degrees."

  Tug boats. They still used them in Earth's harbors, but he would never have thought to apply those principles to space ships. Bei nodded to his XO. It was worth the risk. "Do it."

  Penig's lightning bolts faded. "Squadrons moving into place."

  Once the gamma wave cleared the event horizon, the far right screens faded to black. Bei focused on the two left ones. He zoomed onto the satellite squadron and winced as they made contact with the America's hull.

  Nell's fingers bit into Bei's forearms and she leaned toward the screens. "Tell them to fire engines when they have contact."

  Bei relayed the message. "America reporting damage to hull. No breaches."

  Penig tensed as his avatar processed the data before hurling it toward Bei. "One degree course correction."

  After opening the communication from Chief Rome, Bei repeated the ships' status for Nell. "Exit clear for omega wave."

  Penig smiled. "America's course is corrected. She's heading for home."

  Bei tensed at the new batch of information from the sensors. "Aperture down to seven-five meters. Shang'hai!"

  "On it." Shang'hai sounded out of breath on the com. "I've lost auxiliary engines. Switching to main."

  Power surged and ebbed like ocean waves under his feet. Damn. This hadn't happened in the simulation. Could they get the America and her escorts through? He checked th
e America's schematics. She was eighty-nine meters wide. The Starfarer needed nine-six meters for clearance. He tightened his hold on Nell. "Maximum signal."

  "Aye, maximum signal."

  The hum of the engines stabilized. "Event horizon remains at seven-nine meters."

  Nell bit her lip, and her blue eyes were wide in her face. Color seemed to have fled her face. "The ships on the America's hull won't make it."

  "Shanghai, open that damn hole."

  "Engines critical, Admiral."

  Bei pulled Nell closer to him. He didn't want to lose her, but if he chose to save her?

  "Save them," she whispered.

  Penig slumped in his chair. His black eyes faded to charcoal gray. The surges in the WA were damaging his interface. "America and company are two-hundred-fifty kilometers from exit. Aperture at one-zero-one meters."

  "This is Admiral Beijing York to satellite squadrons. Break off escort and get your asses through that event horizon. Maximum speed."

  On screen, ships of various shapes dashed away from America's arrow-shaped hull. Saucers, darts, rockets and round clusters became distinct shadows on the white background of the wormhole before melting into the darkness of normal space.

  "America is on course." Penig groaned. Light sparked across his mouth. The bridge fell dark, taking the visuals with it. Nell pressed her face against Bei's chest. He felt the drum of her heart echo through him.

  The hum of the engines faded. Bei entered the WA. Penig's avatar lay in a heap of bits and bytes on the floor. Ashes from the burning telemetry hub swirled in the room. Smoke rose from the Nav and com units. The door to engineering and helm controls had been obliterated. "Shang'hai?"

  Nothing.

  "Shang'hai report."

  "She's unconscious, sir." A man's voice, low and tight with pain, answered.

  Bei's relief faded quickly. It took a lot to knock out a Syn-En. Could his engineer recover and what of the America ? "Wilson?"

  "Aye sir." Wilson's breath rasped through the com. "The forward cannons overloaded and we got blowback. The EMP wiped out every system. I'm attempting to bring them online but I'm a little slow."

  Emergency lights cast a blue light on the bridge. Penig convulsed in his chair. Using his master code, Bei dissolved the XO's avatar and knocked the man's consciousness back into his body.

  Nell fisted the front of Bei's uniform. "Wilson won't make it."

  Still in the WA, Bei merged all controls into one hub. Sensors detected the starcruiser at the event horizon. "America's bow is through. Instability registering. Aperture fluctuating. Wilson, I need that power."

  Positive feedback in the com caused a high pitched shriek in the system. "I'm attempting to patch the line to the array now, but it'll burn out our engines."

  "Do it." They might make the event horizon with thrusters, but no one would make it without a little more power. Bei engaged the engines and the ship groaned around them. "Optical relays down. America's half way through. Aperture down to eight-five meters."

  "Is it enough?" Nell whispered.

  Wilson cleared his throat. "I'm at the relays. They're badly damaged. I'm gonna try-"

  The bridge's lights flickered off then went on.

  "Wilson?" The hum under Bei's feet settled into the gentle oscillation of thrusters only. Damn. They'd lost engines and the civilian. Cyberspace began to crumble around Bei's avatar.

  "Can the America make it, Beijing?"

  Bei ran the last sensor read through his head. "The event horizon is too small and closing. It'll crush her stern."

  Nell's eyes glistened and seemed to darken in the yellow light. "We can use that. Use the America's magnetic shields to repel the charge. That should keep the opening big enough for them and us to slip through."

  "How?" Bei wanted to believe that she could save the Syn-En, save them. He was grateful for the time they had together and that he would die with her, but with CIC gone he couldn't even stop his ship from plowing into the edge of the wormhole when the event horizon collapsed.

  Nell stiffened in his arms. "Can't. The information is coming too fast. I-I can't do it. I-"

  "Nell. Your eyes." Bei's heart raced. An electric light amplified the blue of her eyes. He'd seen it once before, when he'd broken up a ring of anti-government forces. Their hackers had implanted a crude cerebral interface inside their skulls to help them in their fight against the United Earth Nations. Their efforts had paid off until a power surge had liquefied their brains. Why had whoever sent Nell risked the same thing happening to her?

  "Aperture at nine-nine." Her eyes glowed in the darkened bridge. "The America is through. Damaged but no casualties. Starfarer is moving. We're going to make it."

  "Nell?" Bei clasped her upper arms, gently shaking her. "Nell you must disengage."

  "I must survive. My mission isn't complete."

  A chill washed down Bei's spine. The voice wasn't Nell's. It was too flat, too unemotional. He'd interfaced with computer banks with more personality.

  "Entering event horizon. Exit closing. Nine-five meters. Nine-zero."

  Metal screamed around them. Sparks flew from the walls. Red lights flashed then died. The Starfarer's bridge plunged into darkness, except for the glow from Nell's eyes.

  "I-I failed." The light faded and Nell fell limp in his arms.

  "No, Nell. We saved them. Everyone else made it through." Bei placed the mask over her face as his own neodynamic armor sealed his nose, mouth and covered his eyes. His systems registered the lack of atmosphere and he knew the closing event horizon was tearing his ship in two. Bei wrapped his legs around Nell's and locked his armor in place. One by one, his systems shut down. He wanted to override the failsafe, but couldn't. If he were rescued in two days, Nell stood a chance of survival. If not, he didn't want to be rescued.

  Maybe in the distant future, if Nell and he were found, he hoped his discoverers learned that this was as close to heaven as any Syn-En had ever been.

  A successful campaign involves more than intelligence.

  To win a war, you must find what the enemy values and trusts most, then

  undermine it.

  Syn-En Vade Mecum

  Chapter Sixteen