by M. D. Cooper
She fired the full spread a second later, eight new markers moving away from the Inquiry’s bow, while three closed astern.
“A little closer,” Emma whispered. “Just a little closer….”
Two seconds later, the AP drive kicked on, the ship accelerating once more on a spike of gamma rays.
Janice lanced out with the forward beams, tagging the Bozan ship at extreme range. “Their shields are back up, but weak. I’m going to one-two punch them across their port side.”
“Good idea,” Mira said. “Let ‘em have it.”
“Caught one!” Emma shouted before giving Mira an apologetic glance. “I’ve…uh…always wanted to try that.”
“Now try it on the other two,” the commander replied, her focus locked onto the enemy frigate, watching as it began to accelerate on a new vector, positioning itself to protect its vulnerable flank.
“I bet they thought we didn’t have any missiles left, since we didn’t use them to stop their barrage,” Brock observed.
“Uh huh.” Mira nodded. “That was my plan all along.”
Emma glanced her way. “Really?”
“Yes! I’d hope you think enough of me to believe I can be a little wily.”
“Almost there,” Janice whispered as she brought the missiles around the Bozan ship, which was desperately jinking as much as it could to avoid the incoming warheads.
But it wasn’t enough.
The enemy only tagged one missile before the first group struck its shields, knocking them out entirely. For a moment, the frigate’s engines flared, firing at max burn, but a second later, they sputtered and died, the drifting hull becoming easy pickings for the remaining weapons.
“Done,” Janice said in a venomous tone as the final four missiles struck the vessel simultaneously, the resulting explosions completely obscuring visuals.
When the light and energy had dissipated, all that remained was a slowly expanding cloud of debris.
“Well done, Lieutenant,” Mira praised, finally turning her focus back to the last two enemy warheads closing in on the Inquiry’s AP nozzle. “Should we come around again?” she asked Emma as the gap closed to a few hundred kilometers. “We’re nearly out of antimatter.”
“No, ma’am,” the pilot said through gritted teeth. “I got this.”
True to her word, Emma slewed the ship to one side, causing the missiles to adjust and re-home in on the AP nozzle. Then she slashed the engine wash across both warheads, triggering the first to explode, and the second to spin off course.
“I just had to learn how they reacted,” the pilot explained, her face flushed. “So…uh…did we survive?”
Mira placed her hands on her stomach, then shoulders. “I think so. Shit…that was something else.”
“Picking up emergency beacons,” Brock said, his voice wary. “Two escape pods made it off that ship.”
“What’s the range on the pods in that class of frigate?” Mira asked.
“Two AU,” Janice replied. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Uh huh.” Mira nodded. “Let them spend some time at the mine. At least there are no more drones.”
Brock’s lips twisted, and he gave Mira a worried look. “Can they survive till rescue comes?”
The commander nodded. “I saw an aired-up admin section in the refinery. Plus, so long as they didn’t skimp, their pods should have enough supplies to last a few months. However, drop a few beacons noting that they’re wanted felons, and list the charges we have on record against them.”
“Right away, ma’am.”
Mira turned her attention to the alien ship, which was still boosting toward a jump point twenty-six AU from Pellick.
Now it’s your turn. Let’s see where you’re headed.
CHAPTER 30 - KRAI
GALACTIC DATE: 412.12.153
LOCATION: Far Patrol Shell, XI Phrysi
REGION: Void, Mass Conformity Qa-Loar
Krai had to admit that the small shell had a sharp bite. The one commanding it was clearly shrewd. The way je had tricked the enemy into believing kes mass lances were expended was quite clever.
Alas, it is also clear kes have spotted Phrysi. Now is not the time for stealth, but for speed.
The jump point je had selected led to a mass conformity not often visited. It was marked as a navigation hazard, filled with the debris of a massive battle from ages past. Krai had never been there, and didn’t plan to remain in the deep black until je reached it.
Instead, je would fool the strangers by exiting the deep void midway between the conformities, and they would end up in a system so cluttered with the remains of ships and radioactive waste that they’d never know if Krai had passed through or not.
After making a few adjustments to kes vector, je brought Phrysi up to its maximum thrust, plasma pouring out of the engines and propelling it to the jump.
In an attempt to ease kes mind over encountering the strangers—and also discovering that they were at war with one another—je took to wandering kes travelshell, relying on the shell’s automated systems to warn kes of any danger.
A part of Krai wanted to reach out to the commander of the small shell. To congratulate them on their victory and learn what they knew. If anything, je hungered for knowledge, for the joy of exploring the far reaches of known space.
And now that je had finally seen the most amazing thing, made the most astounding discovery, je had to leave before even so much as offering a greeting.
It was maddening.
Still, Krai knew kes duty. The Far Patrol would want to see kes knowledge before a plan for contact was established—if it was to be made at all.
It would be up to the leaders, and je had to trust in their wisdom.
When the time to transition into the black deths came, Krai was ready. Kes mind was at ease, and je felt at peace with the decision to leave the system.
A final check over the knowledge streams from Phrysi’s eyes confirmed that the strangers were indeed in pursuit, though they’d not made any attempt to communicate—at least, not that Krai had detected.
It still felt like a pity to leave them behind, but nothing more. Even so, a whispering escaped kes gills before je dropped the ship into the depths.
Perhaps we’ll meet again someday, sharp-toothed commander.
CHAPTER 31 - MIRA
STELLAR DATE: 01.08.8960 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: OASS Inquiry, outer system
REGION: Khorina System, Outer Alliance
It took nearly a minute for the engineer to reply, and during the wait, fear stabbed at the commander’s heart.
When the aft beams failed to fire, the number of failing systems aboard the Inquiry crossed the threshold necessary for Mira to believe that someone was actively working against the mission.
The lynchpin was that the failures, while dire, were all ones that would not cause the total destruction of the ship. Instead, they would cripple the ship, allowing the crew to surrender, or escape pods.
Up until now, the failures had centered around a-grav emitters, but the weapons systems were entirely segregated, so a random failure in those—especially one with no warning whatsoever—lent credence to malicious action.
Mira had separated the crew into people she could trust and those she was uncertain about. Brock and Emma were guarantees; there was zero chance that the children of Perez and Rory would be subversives. But at the same time, she wasn’t certain they’d be able to aid in an investigation into the goings-on aboard the Inquiry.
Lorra, on the other hand, had the knowledge and skills to help Mira dig into what was really going on.
Given the crewmembers involved in and around each failure, Lorra was the one least likely to be behind any sabotage. Not to mention that if the dolphin had wanted Mira off the board, she could have accomplished that several ti
mes on the trip downworld to Kyra.
Janice, being an AI, would normally be considered above reproach, but Mira was a student of history. AIs had often been on both sides of conflicts, and while they were typically less likely to be spies than humans, it had happened.
In addition, it was entirely possible that Janice’s report of the aft beams failing had been a straight-up fabrication. A subsequent test of the systems had revealed no errors whatsoever.
Mira pursed her lips as the warrant officer relayed the update.
Choosing to ignore the disrespect, Mira said,
Mira suppressed a laugh.
Mira signed off and turned back to her office console, reviewing the after-action report that she’d been working on. It was nearly complete—another review and the XO’s sign-off, and she’d be able to encrypt it and file it away.
A minute into her reread, her doorchime sounded. Mira checked the feeds, unsurprised to find Janice standing in the passage outside.
Janice strode inside, her face bearing a neutral expression as her eyes darted to the console. “Good afternoon, Commander. Working on your copy of the report, I see.”
“Yeah, getting a head start on it while the details are still fresh. You?”
“Mine is complete, it only needs your review.”
Of course…AIs have it easy with these sorts of things.
“Would you like me to do that now?” Mira asked.
Janice nodded to the seat across from Mira. “Do you mind if I sit, Commander?”
“Not at all. What’s on your mind, Janice?”
The AI lowered herself into the seat and took a moment to settle before meeting the other woman’s gaze. “I believe we have a saboteur aboard.”
“Oh?” Mira did her best to feign innocent curiosity, though it was impossible to know if an AI ever bought such ruses. “What has led you to that conclusion?”
“Simply put, there have been too many systems failures aboard the Inquiry. I know what you’re thinking; the ship is new, and the bugs haven’t been ironed out. Not only that, but we took a pounding in Regina. However, even taking those into account, the aft beams simply going offline is too much to swallow.”
Mira leant forward, interlacing her fingers as she set her elbows on the console. “I have been having thoughts along the same lines.”
“And you did not think to bring them to me?” Janice tilted her head to the side, a half-smile on her lips. “Am I a suspect?”
Mira shrugged. “I have no specific reason to suspect anyone, which means I have no mechanism for ruling anyone out.”
“I would have thought my actions would be enough proof of my loyalty to the mission and the OASF,” the AI replied.
“They have been. But they also align with your own self-preservation. The damage we have taken, as well as any damage we came close to suffering, was all something we could survive. Meanwhile, we successfully staved off any assaults that would have proved fatal to everyone aboard. I’m not saying that anyone made decisions based on a desire to cripple the ship rather than destroy it, but it bears examination.”
Janice didn’t respond for a moment, then a measure of stiffness went out of her posture. “Permission to speak freely, Commander?”
“Granted.”
“We should return to Bysmark. We’ve consumed all of our antimatter reserves, our missiles are expended, and if we enter another fight, we’ll likely run out of countermeasures—even if we utilize more home-made grapeshot on the railgun. We’re simply not equipped to tail this alien. And now that we have the possibility of a saboteur aboard…it’s unconscionable.”
“And yet it is exactly what we are going to do,” Mira replied.
“Ma’am, we have the alien ship’s vector. We know where it’s going. We can return to Bysmark, and they can send a proper team after it.”
Mira leant back and folded her arms across her chest. “We already had this conversation on the bridge.”
“That was before we thought someone aboard was working against us. You know that if that’s the case, they’re working for Bozas, right?”
“Yes.” Mira nodded. “But that alien we’re following has to know we’re tailing them. Which means they’re going to try to lose us in the dark layer.”
“You don’t think they’re going to jump to FN-371?” Janice cited the star thirty-seven light years away that was directly ahead on the alien ship’s current vector.
“Maybe. We’ll have to check it out, though. Remote survey has flagged that system as a navigation hazard with a rather dense planetary disk. It could be that they’re going to dip into that mess and try to lose us.”
It looked as though Janice was going to argue the point, but then the AI shrugged. “Alright, we follow them to FN-371 and drop beacons along the way to see if they dropped out en route.”
“And if we find a vector?” Mira prompted.
Janice cocked a brow. “Trying to get me to agree to another system hop? You know we only have so much fuel.”
“We can make it a hundred light years on what we have left,” Mira countered. “We’ve sent a probe to Bysmark, someone will be in Khorina before long, and we’ve dropped OASF-keyed beacons with everything we’ve learned thus far. This is the best move.”
“Are you sure you’re not just trying to get out of your parent’s shadow?” the AI asked, her voice low.
Ah…now we’ve come to the crux of it.
The commander took a moment to really think about whether she was trying to impress her parents and prove herself worthy of being their daughter.
“I don’t think so. Maybe I’m acting like a cocksure young commander with her first ship, but even if that’s the case, I think we are still capable of fulfilling our mission. Additionally, if there is a saboteur aboard, at this point, it does them no good to damage the ship. There will be no one to pick them up, no rescue. They need to get back home just as much as we do.”
“Unless they decide that killing you would be the most expeditious way to achieve that,” Janice suggested.
Mira snorted. “That’s a leap.”
“It’s something you have to seriously consider.”
The two women stared at each other for nearly a minute until Mira finally blew out a long breath. “Alright…we get the alien’s true vector, then we make our decision. But if there is zero evidence of a subversive aboard, then we continue our pursuit. Agreed, Lieutenant?”
Janice’s posture was defensive—which didn’t necessarily mean anything from an AI—but she gave a slow nod. “Agreed.”
“Good
, then give me five, and I’ll have my report for you to review.”
* * * * *
After six days of travel, the endless black of the dark layer disappeared, replaced by the brilliant light of space—most notably, that of FN-371’s type-G1 star.
“Cutting delta-v and shifting vector,” Emma announced a moment later as the ship turned, slowing relative to the system, and moving them into a wide outer-system orbit.
“Ready to deploy probe, ma’am,” Brock added.
“Send it out,” Mira ordered. “Let’s see what it learns.”
The probe released and burned hard to shed v and turn back the way the ship had come.
They’d run out of all their purpose-built drones, but during the journey through the DL, the engineering crew had used leftover components from their raid on the X-Cor supply station to cobble together one capable of transitioning in and out of the dark layer, stripping the data from the beacons they’d released during the trip.
If the alien had dumped out the DL and changed course, the beacons would have—hopefully—picked up the ship’s corrective burns and calculated a new vector.
By the time the Inquiry made a full orbit around FN-371, the probe should be back with the information.
And let’s hope either it or we find something, otherwise we’ll be going home emptyhanded.
“Our little searcher has cleared our nearspace way, ma’am,” Brock announced. “Barely, though. The remote survey wasn’t kidding when they flagged this system as a nav hazard. Look at this mess.”
Mira nodded in silent agreement.
She’d been watching the ship’s scan build a current model of the system on the holotank. There were two inner planets that they could see from their current position, both terrestrial, and nine major outer planets—three of which were transjovian in mass.
But the planets weren’t what was interesting; it was the five dense asteroid belts separating the major outer system planets. Each one massed as much as a standard one-g world, maybe more. It was almost as though some angry god had stomped through and kicked a few worlds about before going on his way.