The Madness Engine

by Paul B Spence

  "Two destroyers disabled, Commander, not counting the destroyer we destroyed on entry into the system. The other three Federation ships were also damaged. Captain Maxwell used the new neutron cannon to great effect. We suffered minimal casualties."

  "Thank you, Alessa," Tebrey said. "See?"

  Geoffrey nodded. "My first space battle."

  "You did fine," said Tebrey. "Although I want you to get in some zero-gee training."

  "I'd like that."

  "You say that now," grumbled Pt'kar.

  "So, now what?"

  "Go back to your cabin. Take a shower. Thank fate or whatever god or gods you pray to that you're still alive. Go see if that marine commander will have dinner with you. Live as if each day was your last. It could be. Report tomorrow morning for grav training."

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The days passed slowly aboard the Marie.

  The medical nanopacks had done their work with Ghost, and she was back up and moving on her own, grumpy about having been carried to the ship. Many a shriek of startlement echoed through the ship as a crewmember encountered her prowling stealthily along. It made Ghost feel somewhat better, but didn't improve Tonya's relationship with the crew. They avoided the both of them as much as possible. Tonya and Ghost ate alone in the small galley.

  Tonya had never been comfortable with being on ships during long journeys. Not since the horror that almost killed Ghost and herself all those years before. She still had nightmares about awakening in darkness and knowing the pain was about to begin. The small size of the merchant vessel only made those feelings worse. There wasn't even a gym where she could work out some of her aggression. Tonya took to exercising as much as she could in the cargo bay; it was mostly empty. She didn't want to lose her edge. She couldn't afford to.

  "Commander?"

  "Nancy, right?" The woman seemed hesitant to come into the cargo bay. "Ghost won't bite, nor me. I have to really like someone for that," she added with a grin.

  "Rachael wanted me to let you know that we're nearing the edge of Federation space. We'll be dropping out of hyperspace to make sure we're still on target for Steinway."

  "You came all the way down here for that?"

  Nancy shrugged. "I admit to a bit of curiosity. I've never met a beastmaster before."

  Ghost growled.

  "We don't use that term," Tonya said sharply. "Ghost is my companion; she's not a beast, and I'm not her master. She's as smart as you or I, maybe smarter. Don't let the fact that you can't talk to her lead you to make a fatal error."

  "I'm sorry," Nancy said hurriedly. "I meant no disrespect." Her eyes roamed over Ghost. "You can really talk to her?"

  Let me eat her, Ghost thought. At least let me bite her.

  Tonya suppressed a grin. "We're telepathically linked. Ghost is a clone, made using my DNA as a template. She's my sister."

  "Hi, Ghost. Sorry about that."

  Ghost walked up to her and raised her head to look Nancy eye to eye. Tonya had to give it to the co-pilot: she had nerve. She stood her ground. She even put her hand out hesitantly.

  If she pets me, I will bite.

  "Nancy, was there anything else?"

  She looked embarrassed, but lowered her hand. "No, sorry. We just thought you'd like to know."

  "Thanks," said Tonya. "When do we drop out?"

  "Any time now."

  Tonya had a vague sense of unease. She trusted her premonitions. Ghost?

  I'm on it. Ghost was already bounding away to her spacesuit.

  There was the normal slight feeling of disorientation as the ship dropped out of hyperspace, and then a deafening screech of overstressed metal. Suddenly the ship was tumbling without gravity. Tonya expertly flipped herself over to the wall where her armor was racked, stripping as she moved. She was aware of Nancy flailing past, tumbling with the rest of the loose cargo.

  Tonya immediately felt better as her armor closed around her. With armor, she could fight. Ghost landed next to her, the claws of her suit catching in the milder steel of the bulkhead. Tonya waited a moment and then caught Nancy as she tumbled by again. Her head was bleeding from a collision.

  "You okay?" Tonya asked.

  "I'm fine." Nancy had one hand pressed against her head wound. "What the hell happened?"

  "I don't know." Tonya tried her com channel. "I can't raise Francesca or Rachael. We should get up to the bridge and see what's happening."

  Tonya led the way. It was difficult to move through the tumbling ship. Her suit sensors told her there were high levels of ozone, indicative of electrical fires, in the air of the ship. The recycling system was apparently out of commission.

  "Do you have a space suit?" Tonya asked. The air was close to unbreathable.

  "On the bridge."

  Tonya nodded grimly. If the bridge was sealed, Nancy would die. There was nothing she could do about that. Marty was outside the bridge, suited and working on a repair. Tonya didn't stop to talk to him.

  Rachael was suited and repairing a burned-out panel when they entered the bridge. Nancy moved past and pulled her suit from the locker. She didn't hesitate to strip and don the suit, only taking time to apply a sealant to her wound before locking her helmet down.

  "What happened?" Tonya demanded.

  "Fired on," said Rachael. "As we came out of jump. Francesca had just enough time to warn me before we were hit. I think they knocked out the drive, sensors, and coms."

  "Is Francesca okay?" Nancy asked.

  Rachael shrugged. "Marty is trying to find out. We think she's fine but can't talk to us because of the com situation."

  "What kind of ship was it?"

  "What?"

  Tonya repeated her question.

  "How the hell would I know that?" Rachael asked. "Something with guns."

  "I don't suppose we're armed?"

  Rachael gave her a look she could feel. "We've got a small asteroid defense laser. Nothing that could scratch a warship."

  "So you're saying we're fucked."

  "Basically, yes."

  What's new about that? Ghost thought.

  Francesca came back online at the same time as the sensors on the bridge. "Sorry, Captain. I was trying to reach you but couldn't." The MI sounded a little panicked.

  "Are you okay, Francesca?"

  "My core is undamaged. I don't ever wish to re-experience that, however. I was cut off from all sensory input. It was not pleasant."

  "Francesca, can you tell what kind of ship fired on us?" asked Tonya.

  "I only got a glimpse," Francesca replied "but I think it was the Federation courier that followed us from Bernard's Star."

  "How is that possible?" Nancy asked.

  "Military ships are faster than merchant ones," Tonya said. "We dropped out at a known reference buoy, right? Not hard to guess where we'd be. They must have pushed ahead and waited for us."

  "I hadn't thought about that," said Rachael.

  "Old trick," Tonya replied. "Francesca, can you get a visual on the ship?"

  "I'm working on it." The MI sounded exasperated. "There."

  "Hmm. That isn't good," Tonya said.

  "What?"

  Tonya pointed to the screen. "Shuttle, coming our way."

  "Shuttle?"

  "Boarding party. Francesca, any idea which lock they'll use?"

  "None of our locks are equipped for docking with a ship of that type. My guess would be that they're planning to blow the forward airlock. That would give them the easiest ingress to the ship and the bridge itself."

  Rachael groaned.

  Tonya stepped out of the bridge and pulled Marty inside. "I want you all to stay here. Ghost will stay with you and keep you safe."

  I will, huh?

  Yes, because your suit is still damaged, and you aren't up for combat anyway.

  Okay, okay.

  "What are you planning?" asked Rachael.

  "Something stupid," Tonya replied. "Don't leave without me."

  "As if we co
uld."

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Rachael got the ship to stop spinning as Tonya headed forward to the airlock. Tonya wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not. It was a signal to the attackers that the ship was still crewed and operational, but it would also make the coming fight a little easier, and Tonya needed all the help she could get. She had no idea what would be coming out of the shuttle, but she was as ready as she could be. At least, she hoped she was.

  "Francesca? Can you evacuate the air from the forward part of the ship?"

  "I can. What did you have in mind?"

  "With the air evacuated, you can open both of the airlock doors at the same time."

  "You want to let them in?" Rachael interrupted over the com.

  "They're coming in either way," Tonya said. "At least this way we set the terms, and they don't damage the ship any more than they already have."

  "Okay, Commander. The air is being withdrawn."

  Tonya settled down outside the airlock and checked her pistol: fully charged. "When they touch the outer hull, let me know and then open both doors."

  "I hope you know what you're doing," Rachael muttered.

  "Me too," said Tonya. "I'm just hoping it's only marines on that shuttle."

  "What else could it be?" Nancy asked.

  "You don't want to know," Rachael said. "Trust me. She told me, and you really don't want to know. The shuttle is slowing outside the hull."

  Tonya stood and readied herself.

  "Now!" said Rachael.

  The airlock door slid silently open, and Tonya launched herself from the bulkhead. A squad of marines was just preparing to enter. Tonya swept through them like an angel of death. Her suit thrusters kept her steady as she shot each of the marines with her plasma pistol. At close range, the five-thousand-degrees -Celsius blast of gasses easily punched through the thin armor of their spacesuits. Only one managed to fire his rifle at Tonya, but the energy from the laser was dissipated harmlessly by the thermal superconductor of her armor.

  The shuttle was starting to turn to bring its weapons to bear when Tonya struck the hull with a resounding thump. Tonya flung herself inside before the ramp closed. The internal gravity of the shuttle took hold, and she raced forward, slamming herself against the airlock to the cockpit. It didn't budge.

  "Damn it." She pulled down the overhead access panel and ripped out a bundle of wires, but the door still didn't open. She could feel the shuttle starting to accelerate, no doubt heading back to the courier. A second access panel hid the duct work for life support. She punched through the thinner metal of the duct. It was wasn't large enough for her to pass through, but it didn't need to be. It only needed to be large enough for a grenade.

  She set the charge at full power and five seconds, placed it in the duct and punched it hard. It vanished out of sight forward. Tonya heard the roar of the plasma grenade over the engines. The shuttle began to shake, and there was a definite shift in the direction of travel. The blast might not have killed the pilot, but he wasn't happy if he was still alive.

  Tonya opened the airlock on the side of the shuttle. The courier was coming up fast. The automatic braking thrusters fired, too late, and Tonya leapt into space, using her suit thrusters to slow down as the shuttle plowed into the courier at three thousand meters per second. She dropped flat against the hull as the shuttle exploded. The shock wave from the blast almost knocked her away, but she kept a firm grip on a jump spine.

  The courier was a small one, slightly smaller than the Marie. It couldn't have a large crew complement. Tonya was betting that they had sent all of their marines in the boarding attempt. The ship also wasn't going to be going anywhere anytime soon. The shuttle explosion had broken off a dozen jump spines. It hadn't breached the hull; Tonya wasn't that lucky.

  However, the airlock yielded to one of her older Federation codes. Sloppy.

  You okay? asked Ghost.

  Doing fine, Tonya replied. A little busy, though.

  She entered the lock and cycled it. Amazingly, the crew didn't seem to have noticed her yet. That wouldn't last. Even as she thought it, the intruder alert began to blare through the ship. She shrugged. It wasn't going to do them much good. Only marines carried weapons heavy enough to penetrate powered armor.

  Tonya went straight for the bridge. She used the emergency override to open the doors. The captain was waiting for her, his hands held above his head.

  "We surrender," he said clearly.

  That made her pause. She hadn't considered that they would surrender. The Marie didn't have the capacity to take on prisoners, but she couldn't quite bring herself to shoot them all in cold blood. She lowered her rifle.

  "You are…?" she asked.

  "Captain Kwan Bae," he said. "My crew is unarmed. You are…?"

  "Lt. Commander Tonya Harris, Concord Special Operations."

  He nodded. "I suspected. I told Commander Igwe that it wouldn't be as easy as he thought. Only the Concord could have stolen that tech. I see I was right. I assume the commander is dead?"

  "If he was with the boarding party, then yes."

  Captain Bae nodded.

  "How many crew?"

  "Twelve, including myself. Three were injured when your ship fired on us."

  That was what Tonya had been estimating. She didn't bother to tell him that it wasn't her ship firing on them, it was their own shuttle hitting them. If they thought the Marie was armed, so much the better. "We don't have a medical officer."

  "We do," he said. "It is being taken care of."

  "You sent a distress call?" she asked.

  He smiled. "Of course."

  "And you're stalling me because your backup isn't that far behind."

  "Very perceptive, Commander."

  Tonya sighed. "I want you and your crew in Medical."

  "My crew is already there. I sent them there when the intruder alert sounded. No reason to have them die for no reason. I didn't think even the Concord would fire on wounded."

  "We don't, no. You'll be restricted in Medical until further notice. Anyone caught outside Medical will be escorted to an airlock, without a suit. Do I make myself clear?"

  "Crystal, Commander. I'll go there now. We won't give you any reason to kill us.

  "See that you don't."

  Tonya escorted Bae to Medical, where his crew were waiting. They looked a bit rebellious, but none of them was stupid enough to attack someone in powered armor. She smashed the controls on the inside before sealing them in. It wouldn't stop them from getting out, but it would make it much more difficult. Tonya hoped they would stay put. She didn't want to have to carry out her threat.

  Θ

  Geoffrey hadn't had any idea that grav training could be as much torture as it was. It wasn't just zero-gee training; he got the hang of that fairly fast. No, there was also training in fighting in low gravity, high gravity, and worse of all, variable gravity. Sergeant Pt'kar moved like a gymnast in any environment.

  "How do you get used to the higher gravity?" Geoffrey asked after a particularly arduous session. He lay on the floor and tried to get his breath back.

  "My home world has what you would call one-and-a-half gravity on the surface. Yours feels weak to me. I pushed you up to two in training, but I wouldn't do that regularly. You'd need medical augmentation before you could fight effectively in an environment like that."

  "I always thought people from a higher-gravity world would be small."

  Pt'kar laughed. "Rhyr is not a world friendly to small, weak things."

  "I'm sorry I don't know more about your world."

  "I don't know much about Earth." She shrugged. "You accept me as a person, not an animal, which is the most important thing."

  "Is that normally a problem?"

  "Not with humans in the Concord, but in other places, yes."

  "I'm sorry."

  She sat next to him and met his eyes. "You are responsible for all humans everywhere? You are their keeper?"

  "Uh
, no."

  "Then don't apologize for behavior not your own."

  Geoffrey sighed and forced himself to sit up. "I'll work on it. How am I doing, by the way? Is there any hope for me?"

  "You're doing well, Meeks. You are strong and fast and smarter than you think you are. I don't know how you'll do against the Thetas, but I suspect that you'll do fine."

  "Fine. I hear that word a lot," he said bitterly.

  "You are doing better than expected. I think you'll be an excellent addition to the team. Is that better?"

  "Yes, thank you."

  "Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

  "Not at all."

  "Are you really not from this universe?"

  "I'm really not," Geoffrey replied. "Drake brought me here."

  "You used to travel with him, I've heard."

  "I did."

  "What was it like?"

  "Amazing," said Geoffrey. "And scary. There are some really weird places out there."

  "You've seen the place where he is from?" Pt'kar asked. "The world of the Firsters?"

  Geoffrey rubbed his sore neck. "World isn't exactly the right word. The Courts were built into a fragment of a planet. A ring of rocks and dust and who knows what else."

  "The Courts?"

  "That's what they call it. The royal and noble houses of Drake's people."

  "This asteroid orbits a star?"

  Geoffrey shrugged helplessly. It was difficult to describe. Difficult for his mind to even grasp. "It wasn't an asteroid, as such. It was a shattered world. As for what it orbited… I don't know if I have the language for it. They called it the Eye. It was a storm of destruction and creation. I think it might have been a hole into another kind of space."

  "A black hole?"

  "No. I've seen those. Imagine something the size of a galaxy – hard to say, since there was no frame of reference. It was surrounded by a… construct. An artificial ring. Anything that falls a certain distance past the rim, the ring, is destroyed. Torn apart by forces that make gravity seem mild. But it isn't just destruction. New matter forms in the depths. Sometimes living things, too. A halo of rocks and broken worlds orbits outside the ring. I never saw an intact planet. There were no other stars in the sky. Nothing but a faintly red emptiness away from the Eye."