A pang of hunger and thirst gave him impetus to inspect the replicator on the rear wall of the bridge. The device didn’t look complicated and consisted of a screen with a touch panel underneath. Recker stared at the alien script on the display and the language module in his helmet computer gave him a translation.
“Nothing difficult,” he muttered.
Not yet ready to be adventurous, Recker tapped in a code he hoped would produce an energy paste, along with a cup of water. The machine gurgled and a round tray appeared in a horizontal slot underneath the touch panel. A drab, green-coloured mush occupied the centre of the tray, alongside a square cup of water.
The water was plain old water and the paste reminded him of cheese, though not in an unpleasant way. He finished both while leaning against the wall and then put the tray back in the slot, whereupon it disappeared into the inner workings of the replicator, ready for the next lucky customer.
Recker didn’t return immediately to his seat and he stopped at Lieutenant Larson’s station. She had star charts on two of her screens and muttered as she compared their positional data to a list of numbers on a separate screen.
“Any progress?” asked Recker.
“Some.” Larson leaned back and ran fingers through her blonde hair.
“Tell me.”
“This list here,” she said, pointing at the leftmost screen, “is a cut down version of the chart data from our suit helmets. Obviously, the coordinates are scrambled and offset in case the Daklan ever managed to extract the files, but it’s easy enough for a trained comms officer to make sense of the numbers.”
“You’re trying to match them with the Fulcrum’s star charts.”
“Yes, sir, and not very successfully.”
“What’s the problem? The charts in the Vengeance’s navigational system allowed us to get home.”
“I didn’t get to see those charts, sir. All I can tell you is that these ones here don’t match anything I recognize.”
“And you’re confident you aren’t missing anything?”
“Not one hundred percent confident, but near enough.”
“That would suggest the Fulcrum’s star charts are different to those in the Vengeance.”
“Yes, sir, that’s a possibility.”
“Which in turn indicates that the Meklon were extremely cautious about what data they loaded onto their ships,” said Recker. “We know what the core override is capable of, so it makes sense.”
“You may be correct, but I thought of something else, sir,” said Larson. “What if Meklon space is so widely dispersed that their fleet operated in different spheres of their empire? Perhaps they had several fleets, each active in a different place.”
Recker cast his mind back to the Gateway map on Excon-1. He remembered the different nodes and had imagined each to be a location – a planet or a primary orbital. Now he asked himself if those nodes were representative of territories within Meklon space.
“There was nothing at Kemis-5 to indicate it was a place of great significance,” he said. “A landing field big enough for a handful of warships and no signs of another Gateway generator.”
“We don’t know what else the Lavorix did there, sir. They could have destroyed or taken away some hardware that we never got to see.”
“Maybe,” Recker rubbed his stubbled jaw. “I’m not denying the possibility, but I’m not convinced. There’d have been signs we couldn’t have missed. Kemis-5 was a shithole and I can’t think of a reason why the Meklon Gateway took us there.”
“You mentioned nodes, sir. What if each node did represent a thousand different Meklon worlds and Excon-1 sent us to a sub-node it thought would be safe?”
The idea made a lot more sense when Recker considered it. None of the map nodes had been individually labelled, so he’d only assumed that Kemis-5 was one of them. Perhaps the Gateway generator could send a spaceship to any planet in any of the nodes and the Excon-1 station had chosen Kemis-5 thinking that the surface facility was active and operational.
“That’s a good suggestion, Lieutenant,” said Recker. “I wish I could think of how it might improve our situation.”
“It may be that we’re lost, sir, and that no amount of thinking will change that.” Larson turned her perfect face upwards and attempted a smile. “Once we accept the reality, we can move on.”
“You may be right, Lieutenant,” said Recker. “We’ve got the Fulcrum’s star charts and Lieutenant Burner has begun identifying places of interest.”
“He’s left me a file containing his progress so far, sir,” said Larson. “I’ll pick up where he left off and when he’s back on duty I’ll talk to him.”
“Lieutenant Burner sounded like he’d discovered something he wanted to discuss,” said Recker.
“I’ll see if he left notes, sir.”
“I already read through his preliminary list of destinations and didn’t find anything.”
“He was tired, sir. Maybe he forgot to add in the details.”
“You don’t need to stick up for him, Lieutenant,” said Recker, his expression making it clear he wasn’t angry. “If I thought it was important enough, I’d drag him out of bed.”
“Yes, sir.”
Recker took his seat once more and settled in for a wait. He couldn’t stop fidgeting and checked the clock every few seconds. After twenty minutes, he opened a channel to Sergeant Vance.
“How’s the clean-up going, Sergeant?”
“We stowed the last body a couple of hours ago, sir. There’s plenty of blood left in places you wouldn’t want to find it, but there’s no cleaning cupboard on the Fulcrum and no mops.”
“We’ll have to put up with the stains, Sergeant. They’ll remind us of what we’re facing.”
“Yes, sir.”
“How did your exploration of the armoury go?”
“Mostly small arms stuff. The Meklon gauss rifles don’t seem any better than ours, but if they’re just as good that means we’ve got something to fall back on.”
“Anything heavier?”
“Launchers and repeaters.”
“Have you been able to run tests?”
“Yes, sir – Sergeant Shadar and I have been down in the bay along with some of the soldiers. The launchers have a real punch.”
“We’ll stick with the tried and tested for the moment, Sergeant.”
“Yes, sir.”
Recker closed the channel and stared at nothing for a few seconds. He felt his usual optimism slowly returning and even thinking about the Lavorix Galactar didn’t dampen his mood too much. For the last few hours since departing Kemis-5 it felt to Recker as if he’d been a different person and he put it down to a combination of accumulated exhaustion, painkillers and the injury he’d suffered. Usually he could handle the mental pressure and that strength was steadily coming back to him.
When their off-duty time was over, the crew returned to the bridge looking rested and alert.
“I’m glad the bodies are gone,” said Burner. He carried a Meklon square cup from which steam rose. “Coffee!” he said, presenting it like he was showing off a medal for valorous service.
“Are you trying to tell us that coffee grows on Meklon planets as well?” asked Lieutenant Fraser, his voice dripping with doubt.
“It’s not exactly coffee, Lieutenant,” said Burner. “That was what I thought I’d call it, so you’d all get jealous. It’s near enough.” He cleared his throat. “Kind of near enough. In truth, it tastes like shit, whatever it is.”
“You punched some random buttons until the replicator spat out a hot drink and then you came here and told us it was coffee,” said Aston.
“Maybe.”
Recker cut short the conversation and pointed at the comms station. “Sit.”
“Time for talk,” said Aston, dropping into her own seat.
“That’s right, Commander.”
“What are we talking about, sir?” asked Eastwood.
“How we’re getting ou
t of this crap. That’s for starters. First - watch this.” Recker’s seat was designed to rotate 180-degrees, allowing him to face the rest of his crew. Using the side of his foot, he activated the mechanism and a motor beneath the chair swung him gently around.
“I like it,” said Burner. “Maybe the HPA military should start adding the same facility to their warships.”
“I’ll mention it in my report,” said Recker dryly. “While you’ve been sleeping, I finished my check of the Fulcrum’s hardware. We aren’t fitted with a Fracture.”
“Do we need one?” asked Aston.
“I hope not. We’ve been wondering at the difference between the Meklon battleships and the Vengeance, which we know is a terminator class. I think the Vengeance was designed purely to carry a Fracture.”
“Why not fit it on everything?” asked Fraser.
“The Vengeance can hold a higher lightspeed multiple than the Fulcrum,” said Aston. “Maybe it was designed for rapid deployment planetary destruction.”
“That’s likely part of it, Commander,” said Recker. “I think it’s also likely the Vengeance – and any other terminator class ships if they exist - was created in the closing stages of the Lavorix-Meklon war. By that point, the Meklon may have been struggling both for resources and for the facilities to build something as massive as a battleship.”
“Why not retrofit the Fracture instead?” asked Larson.
“I don’t know,” Recker admitted. “Perhaps the retrofitting also required surface facilities which the Meklon no longer had.”
“They must have been well up the creek for that to happen,” said Eastwood.
“The Meklon lost the war, Lieutenant. There’s a good chance they’re extinct or near as damnit.”
“Doesn’t stop the Lavorix leaving their warships near every Meklon facility we happen to stop by at,” grumbled Burner.
“I could be wrong about the Meklon extinction,” said Recker. “However, our limited experience suggests the Lavorix have plenty of spare warships. Once they’re recalled from their places at known Meklon installations, they’ll be ready for deployment in other conflicts.”
“Like an attack on the HPA and Daklan,” said Aston.
“Yes. If we’re lucky, those data cubes from Excon-1 will contain Meklon estimates on the strengths of the Lavorix,” said Recker. “If the two sides came close to wiping each other out, we may be able to handle what’s left of the Lavorix.”
“They have a Galactar and the ability to destroy our planets from seemingly unlimited range,” said Aston.
“I didn’t say it would be easy,” said Recker. “That’s why it’s imperative we return these data cubes to the HPA and the Daklan.”
“We could start combing through the files you recovered, sir,” said Aston.
“We’re going to do exactly that during our next lightspeed journey,” said Recker. “Excon-1 had outline data on the Galactar and I’d like to find out what else it knew.”
“The space station told you that the Galactar was a major influence in the outcome of the war,” said Aston. “The Meklon must have learned plenty about it.”
“More accurately, Excon-1 said the Galactar was the deciding force in one section of the conflict sphere,” said Recker. “And the Fulcrum’s data files suggest the Meklon knew a lot less about the Galactar than we hoped.”
“I wonder how many other sections of this conflict sphere exist,” said Eastwood. “Maybe the Lavorix-Meklon war is only decided in a limited area.” He gave a gruff laugh. “Damn it makes me dizzy thinking about it.”
“Me too,” said Recker. “Anyway, in a few hours, we’ll re-enter local space and that’s the moment we’ll have to make a choice about where to go next.”
“Have you read through my list, sir?” asked Burner.
“Yes, Lieutenant. If I understood it correctly, you’ve extracted a list of low-tier Meklon planets, none of which were heavily populated.”
“We haven’t had much opportunity to discuss our appetite for risk, sir.”
“That’s true,” said Recker. He drummed his fingers. “Neither have we discussed how to escape from the Galactar beyond running and hoping something turns up.”
“I thought the same,” said Burner. “What I’ve done is chosen places where I believe the Meklon have established outposts of one kind or another. That way I thought we had a chance to learn stuff about the Galactar, while not leading the Lavorix directly to a Meklon planet that they may not already know about. Assuming any Meklon are alive.”
“You don’t look happy, sir,” said Aston, studying Recker’s expression.
“I accept the reality of our circumstances, Commander. This is a situation where the best path isn’t going to be obvious. We’ll have to learn fast if we’re to make it home without a Lavorix planet-killer hot on our heels.”
“Six hours and we break out of lightspeed,” said Burner. “That gives us some time to work on the star charts.”
“If the comms team can work out the distance between Excon-1 and Kemis-5, that’ll give us some data on the Galactar’s lightspeed multiplier,” said Eastwood. “I’m certain it has an additional overhead to calculate the path of a ship heading into lightspeed and I suspect it also models the ternium traces left behind.”
“Traces which dissipate in seconds,” said Recker. “We’ve seen the Galactar home in on our arrival place at Qul more than an hour after the event.”
“It’s a theory, sir. It’s even possible the enemy can detect a lightspeed tunnel as it closes and make calculations based on that. If the Lavorix have mastered the method, they’re potentially decades ahead of our own sensor tech.”
“Nothing about this is good, Lieutenant.”
The conversation ended and Recker returned his chair to its usual forward-facing position, where he mulled over what had been said. After a time, he gave a mental shrug. The name of the aliens had changed and the tech was different, but the overall situation was something he was familiar with - Recker and his crew were neck deep in it and finding a way out would be challenging.
He sat back and calmed his mind, hoping serenity would bring ideas.
Chapter Three
An hour before the Fulcrum was due to enter local space, Burner and Larson had a breakthrough of sorts.
“We’ve located Excon-1,” said Burner.
Recker sprang out of his seat and strode to the comms station. “Where?”
“Here.” Burner had the Fulcrum’s star chart zoomed all the way out so that its collection of planets and solar systems formed a rough blue sphere. Other, much smaller, orange dots appeared outside the sphere and Burner pointed at one.
“That’s Excon-1?” said Recker. “What about these others?”
“Zicon-1, Vacon-1, Atcon-1,” said Burner, his fingertip moving across the screen. “Want me to continue?”
“No.” Recker took a deep breath. “All of these are orbitals like Excon-1?”
“We believe so,” said Larson. “The Fulcrum’s charts don’t contain data for those areas of Meklon space, but it’s likely each of the stations is in the middle of a similarly extensive territory.”
“The Meklon empire is much larger than I expected, sir,” said Burner.
“Much larger than I expected too, Lieutenant. Damn.”
“So we’ve got a total of twelve facilities similar to Excon-1,” Burner continued.
“Twelve Gateway nodes from Excon-1,” said Recker.
“And watch this, sir.”
Burner zoomed in the Fulcrum’s chart and kept on zooming. Eventually, he stopped, leaving another orange dot in the centre of his screen.
Recker leaned in to read the text label. “Oracon-1,” he said. “This one’s in our current sphere.”
“Yes, sir. I spoke to Lieutenant Eastwood and he believes Oracon-1 is fifteen days travel at our maximum velocity.”
“However, we don’t know if the facility is active or destroyed,” said Recker.
“No, sir
. And neither do we have any way to find out if Oracon-1 can generate a Gateway.”
Leaning in, Recker tapped the dot representing Excon-1. “How far to fly from here to there?” he asked.
“We don’t know, sir,” Burner admitted. “The Fulcrum’s charts show the existence of these other stations without containing any data that would help us go from one to the other.”
“The Meklon broke their territory into spheres, sir, and kept them separate on their charts,” said Larson. “Presumably if one territory fell, they hoped the others would be safe.”
“I don’t think it worked for them,” said Recker. He scratched his stubble, absently realizing he didn’t have a razor to shave it off. “Fifteen days to Oracon-1,” he mused.
“The Galactar already followed us from Excon-1,” Eastwood reminded him. “If we head directly to this new station, the enemy could easily do the same again.”
“And assuming the station is operational, we could find it’s filled with angry Meklon who want to know why we stole their battleship,” said Burner. “That’s if Oracon-1 isn’t already destroyed or guarded by a Lavorix fleet in the same way as Excon-1.”
Recker lifted a hand to stem the flood of other potential problems. “I’m aware this isn’t going to be plain sailing, Lieutenant.” He returned to his seat, talking as he went. “So, we don’t know where we are in relation to HPA space. Without that knowledge and even if it was a two-year voyage – hell, a ten-year voyage! - we can’t get home. Given what we’ve learned about the Lavorix-Meklon war, it seems likely that Oracon-1 is out of action or heavily guarded. Added to all that, we haven’t even started working out how to counter the Galactar’s pursuit.”
Fulcrum Gun (Savage Stars Book 4) Page 2