“What’s happening?” I asked.
“All executive officers report to duty on the bridge. All executive officers report to duty on the bridge.” The AI voice repeated the phrase a half dozen times, and Slate took off, me right behind him.
We ran, arriving at the bridge a few minutes later. Loweck was at the door, along with a few other familiar faces, and we entered. The large room was full of people, the stations doubled in staff as everyone coalesced on the bridge.
Red lights flashed slowly, and the alarm still sounded, but was muted as Magnus stood up to fill us in. “We’ve approached an unexpected asteroid field. It wasn’t on our sensors, for some unknown reason. Dubs thinks the composition of the rocks is something our system hasn’t encountered before, therefore they’re hidden. Now that one hit us…”
“One of them hit us?” I asked, cutting him off.
“Yes, Dean. Our shield was struck, but we’re fine. Now that we’re amidst the field, we can use our localized sensors to determine where the asteroids are located,” Magnus explained.
Dubs tapped his console, moving his screen view to the main viewer. It displayed a map showing multiple asteroids of varying sizes.
“We contemplated going around, but that would add a lot of time to our journey,” Magnus said. “Dubs, can you explain what you’ve done?”
“Surely, Captain. I’ve created a trajectory plan that involves weaving the starship through the field.” Dubs tapped his console, and a line appeared on the screen for us all to see. “We have a ninety percent chance we will come out the other side with over eighty percent shields if we take this path.”
The odds didn’t sound too bad, but any chance we’d be destroyed or damaged was too high for me.
“KIM, what are your thoughts?” Magnus asked the AI built into Horizon.
“I almost agree with the pilot’s analysis, though I’d say the odds are more a ninety-one percent chance we emerge with eighty-three percent shields, given no other variances,” KIM answered.
“Then proceed,” Magnus said.
“Captain, may I speak with you?” I asked.
“Of course,” Magnus said, waving me to his side.
“Remember my journey to locate you on Fortune?” I asked.
He nodded. “You came across a distress signal and ended up on an asteroid, correct?”
“That’s right. There’s a high probability a few insidious things are hiding in a field like this one,” I told him.
“Good idea. Dubs, did you hear Dean?” Magnus strode behind the android, setting a hand on the back of his chair.
“Yes, Captain. What would you have me do?” Dubs asked.
Suma was beside him, and she glanced up. “I’ll run some telemetry-boosted scans to see if there’s anything other than rock in the vicinity. Since these rocks are so alien to our sensors, I suggest we use the tractor beam and bring a piece aboard.”
Magnus contemplated her suggestion. “Alien rocks on board. This sounds like the start of a bad movie. Do it, but bring it to Hangar Seven.” That was our hangar specifically for quarantine or emergencies. It required an EVA and pressurized decontamination on the way in and out.
“Perfect. Dubs, before we go, can you find a section of rock smaller than ten feet in diameter?” Suma asked, and he used the sensors to search the localized region around the ship.
“There’s something within our range. It’s nine point oh seven feet in diameter. Will that suffice?” he asked the Shimmali woman.
“That’s exactly what we need,” Suma said.
“Why can’t the sensors read the rock enough to pull composition from them?” I asked. The truth was, I didn’t know the first thing about geology, or the current technology we had to deal with it.
“They can determine some of the base minerals, but there’s too much that’s unfamiliar to our database. We need a core sample to have the right information. From there, we’ll be able to do a scan of the entire system and find anything that doesn’t match. If there’s anything hiding inside the field, we’ll know.” Suma stood up, moving for the exit.
“I’ll go with her,” I said, and Magnus appeared relieved.
Magnus grabbed my shoulder. “Dean, be careful. Bring Silo along too. He’s good with this kind of testing, or so I’m told.”
Suma’s boyfriend was a science officer, and I asked Dubs to call him to Hangar Seven, where we’d meet. Magnus barked orders to the crew, and Slate was already heading to the rear of the bridge, where I expected he kept a spare uniform.
I caught up to Suma, and we arrived at the hangar a short time later. Two guards stood at the doorway, nodding at us as we approached them. The alarms stopped ringing, and the red lights were no longer flashing along the corridors. I could still hear the warning klaxons ringing in my ears.
“Science Officer Silo is inside already,” the woman told us.
“Thanks. Don’t let anyone else in, do you understand?” I asked, and they both acknowledged the command.
We passed by them, entering the first room connecting the hallway to the hangar. I hadn’t been to this hangar yet and had questioned the need for such a space. Now I understood. Armored EVAs hung alongside regular ones, these all white. I found one close enough to my size and greeted Silo.
“Dean, great to see you again,” Silo said in English. Suma beamed over at the man, who stood half a head taller than his girlfriend.
“Likewise. What do we need to do?” I asked, clasping the last of my seals shut tightly.
Suma took this one. “We need to drill into the rock, gather the sample, and stick it into this scanner.” She pointed at the briefcase Silo had brought with him.
“Sounds easy enough,” I said, clicking my EVA helmet closed. When my suit gave me the green light, we walked into the next room, and I carried the core driller in my right hand. The door closed and a blue light glowed in a circle on the wall beside us. It flashed, and we were doused in a mixture of air and gases. It hissed to a stop, and the lights turned off.
The circular door leading to the hangar opened, rolling to one side. We stepped through, Suma first, followed by Silo, then me. My briefcase clipped the edge of the door frame as we entered, sending a clanking noise through the empty hangar.
The lights inside the hangar bay flipped on as we marched inside; one by one, they became brighter.
“We’re in place,” I called to the bridge from my earpiece.
“Very good, Cap… Dean,” Dubs replied from the bridge. “Opening the hatch now.”
The wall groaned and clattered as it spread apart from top to bottom, revealing dark space through a light blue energy barrier.
“Bringing the sample in now,” Dubs told us. We saw the yellow tractor beam pulling the tiny chunk of asteroid into our hangar. The barrier glowed brightly as the hunk of stone passed through the energy field, and the beam placed the rock gently in the center of the floor.
“We’re going to leave the bay open while you take the sample. I want that rock off the ship as soon as you’re done,” Magnus said through our earpieces.
“Roger,” I said, and we moved for the section of asteroid. It was black, speckled with gray and silver.
Silo was the first to arrive, and he ran a gloved finger along the edge of the stone. It was tall, almost ten feet, and just as wide. A flat spot on the bottom allowed it to stay in one spot without concern it was going to roll away.
“This is what it’s all about,” Suma said, grinning toward her boyfriend.
I didn’t understand the fascination, but since the alloy was new to our database, that did make it quite the scientific discovery. Suma used a handheld device, and it beeped repeatedly as she waved it around a foot from the asteroid.
“Small amounts of radiation emanating from the rock. We wouldn’t want prolonged exposure,” she said.
Our suits were made to handle a decent amount of rads, but the idea this was radioactive made my skin crawl. Basically everything in space could elicit that
feeling, and I pushed the concern from my mind.
Silo opened the briefcase I’d carried inside and pulled out a device. He placed it at the edge of the asteroid, and it stuck to the edge with unseen grips. It powered up, and red light poured from each corner of the square, centering into a circle. The beam grew in intensity, and I could hear it as the laser dug into the sample.
The entire process took mere moments, and I almost expected a gas or something nefarious to emerge from the asteroid. I’d been reading too many science fiction books.
Silo flicked it off, setting the device to the ground, and grabbed hold of the sample, sliding it from the asteroid. It came out in a smooth two-foot cylinder.
Suma had the next step ready, and he placed the core slice into it. She closed it and tapped it to life. “This should give us what we need to know.” She stood further away while it worked its magic. “Dean, do you think this is all necessary?”
“It’s hard to say. The trip through the field is going to take a few days, by the looks of it. Better safe than sorry,” I told her.
“Good call,” Suma said. The scanner blinked, an indication it was complete, and she sent the results to the bridge. “Use this. Scan the system, and you’ll have a better idea where the asteroids are within the field. You’ll also see what isn’t made of similar material.”
“Acknowledged. Wait, this can’t be right,” Magnus said. “Dubs, check again.”
The hair on my arms rose beneath my space suit. “What is it, Mag?”
“Something’s moving here. Fast,” Magnus said. “Ensign Tran, attempt communication.”
We couldn’t see what was happening, only hear them through our earpieces. It sounded tense.
“Captain, there’s no response,” Tran quickly said.
“Loweck, prepare to fire,” Magnus said.
Suma gawked up at me. “Should we move out of here?”
I nodded, and we began to clear out our supplies when Magnus shouted the warning. “It’s coming for Hangar Seven. Get out of there! Dubs, close the doors!”
“Captain, it vanished!” Loweck shouted.
“Find it!” Magnus yelled through my earpiece, and I gulped, pointing to the energy barrier. It flashed blue as something invisible passed through it.
“I think we found it,” I said through my mic. “Magnus. Something snuck past the doors. It’s in here with us!”
The doors closed with a thud, and Silo, Suma, and I glanced over to the exit.
Nineteen
“Get out of here, Suma. Go!” I shouted as the small ship flickered, becoming visible.
She moved, and I shoved Silo after her. I was unarmed and cursed myself for not being more prepared. How could we have anticipated this? They reached the first door, and I joined them, watching through the window. It wouldn’t open.
“What’s the holdup?” I asked.
“Dean, it’s jammed!” Suma shouted.
The vessel that had entered our starship rocked and jerked from across the hangar. A ramp lowered, and I pushed Suma behind me. “Keep trying.”
I heard her pressing buttons, and a soft denying beep repeatedly sounded. “Dubs, we’re having issues with the door to the decompression room. We have been invaded; I repeat, there is an alien vessel aboard the Horizon.”
“The guards have been notified. They’re coming in to assist,” Dubs explained through my earpiece.
The room was silent for a moment, my ragged breath the only sound I could hear until one of them emerged. It walked slowly onto its ship’s ramp, moving methodically and with purpose. From here, it was hard to tell, but they appeared humanoid. Maybe taller than humans, thin… wearing all black, matching the asteroid sample sitting in the center of the hangar.
The door hissed open behind us, and I urged Suma through. Silo went next, muttering under his breath.
The beings kept coming, three of them in total. Their ship was larger than I’d initially thought, but it was difficult to gauge in the wide-open hangar.
“Inside, now!” the guard shouted, pulling me away. The door to the hangar swung shut, and I watched through the viewer as the three invaders ran toward us. They were terrifying, moving faster than they should be able to. One moment they were fifty yards away, the next ten and still running toward the door. One of them hit it with a bang, and the blue lights began to flash on the wall next to us.
“Come on, come on,” I said, knowing the only way onto our ship was by this room forcing us through the decontamination cycle. “Magnus! Open the hangar. Cut the energy barrier. It’s the only way!”
“He’s right, Captain,” Dubs said, his voice as even in tone as ever.
One of the invaders was at the door, slashing at it with hands or a weapon, I couldn’t tell. The gases and air pressed against our suits, and the lights stopped.
“Prepare for airlock evacuation of Hangar Seven,” Dubs said.
“Go go go,” I whispered, wanting them to shoot the invaders out already.
The door between them and us was shaking on its hinges now, rattling with their ferocious attacks. Our guards weren’t in EVAs, and they stood at the doorway, trying to hold it closed.
“Evacuation in progress,” Dubs said at the very same moment the door tore away from us. The vacuum of space sucked at us, and I grabbed for Suma as we pulled away toward the hangar. Our guards had nothing to grip, and they were tugged away quickly. Silo was at the door, clutching the frame with a glove.
“Silo!” Suma shouted.
I fought hard to keep hold of my handhold at the edge of the room, and my feet were pulled toward the doorway, so I hung there horizontally, with Suma grasping my arm. She was trying to climb down my torso, then my legs, attempting to reach Silo.
“Suma, I can’t hold on! Stop moving! Dubs, shut it off. Are they gone?” I shouted.
“The rock and ship are gone from the hangar, but I’m picking up a lifeform still inside,” Dubs said.
“That must be us. There’s no way…” I started to say, and saw the long, thin black arm reach into the doorway and grab Silo’s arm. With a single tug, Silo went flying away with the invader, and we heard his screams through our earpieces the entire way into space.
Suma looked up at me, and I felt what she was about to do before she did it. “No,” I whispered to her, but it was too late. She let go of my leg and shot from the room, sucked out by the vacuum. I couldn’t leave them to do this alone. I thought about Jules and Mary, and closed my eyes. I had to act quickly, before Dubs shut the energy barrier again.
Suma had always been there for me. I couldn’t abandon her out there alone.
I let go.
The force of pull was tremendous, and it sent me reeling through the vacuum straight through the empty hangar, into the dark space beyond. I saw our huge ship race away from me as inertia kept me moving outwards.
“Suma! Where are you?” I asked. “Silo!”
I couldn’t see anyone, and I activated my suit’s lights, hoping to act as a beacon. The bad guys were out here too, but I didn’t have a visual on them either.
“Bridge, come in,” I said.
“Slate here, Dean. We’re picking up a life sign about a thousand feet from your position. I’m pinging it to you now. We’re sensing no response from the others,” he told me.
I checked the arm console and spun to face the location it showed. There was a blinking light, then two. Close proximity. “That’s them.” I remembered the first time I’d flown in space with nothing but an over-sized Kraski suit on. This was far less terrifying than clasping tethers to immense ships, trying to prevent them from being burned up by the sun, but dread still managed to seep through my veins as I activated the mini-thrusters built into the suit.
I started off moving slowly toward the targets and picked up speed as I went, finding the blinking lights closer and closer.
“Dean!” I heard Suma’s frantic voice call in my helmet.
“Stay tight. I’m coming!” I said.
&nbs
p; “They have us. They’re bringing us…” Her words cut off, and I saw the black round ship that had been evacuated from the hangar a short distance away. The thin aliens were taking Silo and Suma, whose bright white suits stood out against the backdrop.
I had no weapons, nothing to fight them with, but I couldn’t let them escape. I saw one of the guards nearby, floating there, clearly dead. I flew to her side, silently hoping it had been as painless as possible, and seized her weapon, a newly-designed pulse rifle. I left her there, knowing we’d come for her body later. If there was a later.
“Dean, we can tractor-beam the ship. Move inside,” Magnus called to me from the bridge. I wondered how much of this they could see.
“Not if they cloak again. You didn’t see them coming, you won’t see them leave. I have no choice. They’re almost there,” I said, and raced forward.
The five shapes moved through space toward the round waiting vessel, and I hurried, pushing the thrusters faster than I would have liked. I raced like a torpedo toward my target, recalibrating my trajectory as I calculated the path on my arm console.
The black-clad aliens pressed my friends into their ship through the open cavity to their airlock, and I knew there was only one shot at this. The rifle clasped in my grip, I took a deep breath, and headed for the ramp as it began to close. Three things could happen here. I could miss the ship, and with it my chance to save Suma and Silo. I could be squished by the ramp, chopping me in half. Or I could enter unscathed and attempt a violent rescue. I was hoping for the third option.
The ramp was closing, like the gaping mouth of a whale, and I raced through space as the maw was about to disappear. I flicked my rear thruster, cutting the other, and went into a horizontal spin. It worked. I breached their energy barrier as the doorway sealed shut.
I rolled along the metal floor of the ramp and came to a halt as their gravity took over. The three beings were surprised to find me there, and I had the advantage. I quickly assessed the situation, finding their vessel larger than expected. The tall creatures had enough head room, and two of them each held one of my friends. The third broke out of his confused state, shouted something in another language, and rushed at me.
New Horizon (The Survivors Book Nine) Page 16