by T J Bryan
Abel drifted into the deep thinking only of his long gone wife and children.
But Ingvar, long accustomed to the Quark and her idiosyncrasy, fought against the forces of the spin. He grasped the ceiling bulkhead distribution lines and moved toward the rear facing bulkhead and toward the engines and their fuel pods. Ingvar fell once and was slammed against the bulkhead wall his jaw broken as well as his left arm. Thrown against the bulkhead Ingvar somehow managed to regain his stance and continue toward the engine compartment. As he stumbled and fell again Invgar grasped the enormous wrench, yanked it from its' stanchion, and fought his way aft. Again and again he was slammed against the bulkhead by the forces of the spin but eventually reached the portal to the aft engine section.
"Son," Ingvar shouted. "In ten ... against the pump." That was all he said as he fought against the spin to enter the aft engine compartment.
Helen, who had remained conscious because she had tightened her seat restraints well beyond reason saw Lennie fight the centrifugal forces and lay only one wavering hand on the flight stick. Lennie's single hand trembled on the stick as his other hand seemed pinned against the sidewall of his seat.
Above the roar of the uncontrolled engine jector Helen heard Ingvar cursing in Old Norse. Somehow, in what was their hopeless situation, Helen found the swearing comforting. As she lost consciousness she briefly thought perhaps the Old Norse Gods might welcome them to Valhalla.
Moments later Abel found himself regaining conscious, very sick to his stomach, and confused; his sense of up and down gone. The roar of the jammed jector engine had ceased, but much of the uncontrolled spin remained.
Lennie shouted, "Dad, I've got the jectors down and impulse up. But were still heading to Sentinels." There was no reply. Lennie shouted again, "Dad?" From the rear of Quark there was a flash and a series of loud pops followed by the venting of steam and hydrogen from the engine compartment into the bridge. As the cloud of fuel streamed into the bridge the automatic fire suppression system kicked in and the aft hatch closed shut with a violent bang. The tiny window in the aft hatch door showed fire and smoke.
Abel slowly cleared the fog in his head and eventually his eyes regained focus. Lennie was totally committed to the flight controls and correcting the insane spin, but Abel could see that the nav-scope had them headed directly into the path of a functioning Sentinel.
Abel took a quick look at Helen and Emmitt. Helen was out cold with blood streaming from her mouth to her left ear and spattering on the aft bulkhead. Emmitt seemed conscious but confused as drool and spittle hit the bulkhead having given way to the forces of the spin.
Abel found the spin forces easing as Lennie forced the controls about in a violent fashion and within moments the spin ceased, but the direction of flight toward the Sentinel remained.
"Hold on tight," yelled Lennie as if those on the bridge had eased their grip on their seats and restraints. "It's gonna be close."
Lennie jerked the control stick hard left and then counted out loud, "One, two, three, Oskilgetinn!" Then Lennie jerked the stick up and to the hard right, his feet hit the manoeuvring jector pressure switch beneath the control station with everything he had left in his body. Abel saw that Lennie almost stood as his foot pressed down on the pressure switch jamming it into the deck. The ship nosed up and the star field flashed by several times as the Quark looped through three revolutions and then came to a still star field outside the portals. Dees Rock lay directly ahead and their closing speed was far from assuring.
"I can't take the chance of directional change. Were too close to Dees," shouted Lennie into the now silent bridge. "Were going to have to shoot the needle."
Able was unsure what Lennie had meant about the needle, but as he looked out the bridge window, and at spinning of Dees 'U' shaped rock he understood. The gap between the two arms of Dees Rock flashed, opened and closed every few seconds. There was no way a ship as large as Quark could pass between the tumbling arms of the asteroid.
Once again Lennie began counting out loud. "One, two three, one two three, one two three." Abel realized that Lennie was setting up a cadence to time his way toward the spinning rock. "One, two, three. One, two, three. Lennie continued chanting and then, "One, two, three... Now!" Lennie slammed down his feet again on the jector pressure switch beneath his feet and Abel felt the sudden slam of acceleration as the roar of jector engines filled the ship.
Moments later they were clear. Lennie had threaded the needle. Abel had never seen piloting like Lennie's before.
Abel released his seat restraints and yelled for Lennie to stay where he was. The ship was stable and Abel moved toward the aft engine compartment. He reached the aft hatch and its' tell-tales glowed yellow indicating that while the compartment could be entered in an emergency it was still dangerous. Abel reached for his turtle neck and activated his rebreather as his left hand hit the O2 bottle at the waist of his ship suit and thumbed the release tab. The hood deployed and the sting of cold oxygen filled the bubble like hood over his head. He entered the hatch and immediately slammed the hatch shut. Insulation against one wall was burning and Abel realized there might be a hydrogen leak from the now blackened and smashed nacelle 7 gimbol. Abel could see high pressure oil spraying out in a tiny stream covering the bulkhead and running down upon the deck. Abel found Ingvar slumped against the bulkhead the wrench not far from his hands. Ingvar's ship suit was blackened and his face and left arm badly burned. Ingvar, Abel realized, was dead. Kids grew up fast in a vacuum thought Abel. Too fast.
...
The bridge was silent. No one spoke after Abel informed Lennie and the others of Ingvar's death. Abel noted that Lennie just stared at the bulkhead wall after learning of his fathers death. Lennie said nothing. There seemed to Abel to be no reaction from Lennie other than silence.
Helen spoke, "I think we need to go back to the Habitat. We can come again at another more appropriate time."
"Yes it's time to return," Emmitt Wong said in almost a whisper.
Lennie was motionless and silent. Then he gathered himself together and stretched his thin young frame to stand tall. "No," he said. "This is a mission and we need to finish it. As Chief Abel said those vac suits and whatever else is out there will save lives. We gotta go on."
Abel was about to object but realized that we all deal with grief in a different manner, and that Lennie was committed to the evaluation of the ghost fleet, and to insist on a premature return would be disrespectful of Ingvar, the Karrlson family, and more importantly Lennie.
Abel took a few steps in order to look fully into Lennie's face. "Lennie, are you up to this? Are you sure we should press on?"
Abel noticed that Lennie was silently crying as tears formed and began to slide down his thin face. Lennie turned away from Abel to hide his tears. Abel knew in his heart that sometimes grief was best managed by an intense focus on the task at hand. Focus on work he thought. But he also knew that eventually the grief would come down and threaten to crush the soul, but that was the way of human kind. We all love. We all grieve.
"Yeah. I'm sure," Lennie replied. "We gotta go on."
After a few tense moments Lenne returned to the pilots station and guided the Quark down slope and then angled up at 30 degrees below the elliptic. Dees Rock continued spinning a kilometre to behind them. The scope indicated dozens of Sentinels, but as Abel looked out the forward windows it was clear that several were dead, their flashing beacons cold in the reflected gloom of the brown star they called Jamon and the baleful glare of Obsidian.
"Looks like more than two are down," said Helen leaning toward the forward aperture.
Abel strained in the dim light to see the geometric pattern of the Sentinels was broken in several places and he knew that more than two were down. Looking closer as Quark approached the edge of the Sentinel enclosure he realized that six or seven Sentinels were now dead.
Emmitt Wong standing near the engineering station reached down to the control panel and fingered
a well worn switch. The star field outside the bridge window shifted in color and definition and the Sentinels now appeared in false color. The living Sentinels were bright yellow and the cold dead Sentinels were a dull pulsing gray. As they looked one bight yellow light flashed and then faded to gray. The entire complex was failing.
Lennie had resumed his seat at the pilots station and with gentle pulses to the guidance thrusters the ship passed slowly through the gap in the Sentinel wall. Abel realized they were in.
Chapter Five
Jamon System - The Ghost Fleet - Year 3245. May 14 ET: Time 16:19
Lennie sat in the pilot's station and Emmitt Wong moved to sit at the engineering post. Emmitt seemed almost familiar with the engineering station's controls even if the switches, levers, dials and instruments seemed old and sometimes so worn one could not tell their function. Emmitt looked up and at Abel, "Quark is old, but her design was to a Greayson standard that almost every pilot knows. So don't worry. This switch here," he pointed to a rocker switch covered by a safety tab, "That's the helm override in case Lennie gets to rambunctious." Able could see that Emmitt was suppressing laughter. Lennie paid no attention, his focus instead on the approach to the Sentinel's enclosure.
"Best to look at the scope given our distance, " commented Helen. Abel could see nothing out the forward screens even given the scanning augmentation the ship provided. He stood and moved to a position behind Lennie where he could see the scope more clearly. There was nothing but a field of debris visible on the scope, not unlike the entire Jamon system itself. But as the ship slowly moved forward on its' manoeuvring jectors the chaos of the debris field began to coalesce in to fine lines of various sizes. Some lines contained huge masses, while others of lesser mass were visible farther from their ship.
"I can bring up a projection screen for a closer look," Emmitt said and without waiting he toggled several switches and the window view spun around and brought into focus an astonishing sight. Off to the starboard of Quark lay a Greayson dreadnought. Her hull was intact but that was about all that could be said. Her two kilometre length was spattered with plasma hits, scorch marks, and torn bulkheads. At one point the hull was so badly breached that Abel wondered how it could have held together. The ship had gone down and gone down hard Abel realized. She had once been magnificent but was now a wreck. The dreadnaught had a long tubular shape and at the forward end her weapons bays, capable of firing nuclear impact missiles, anti-mater torpedoes, and plasma guns were still visible, but even at this distance it was clear they were smashed almost beyond recognition.
Moments later as Quark progressed down the line of silent warships another dreadnaught came into view. This one was more intact, but it too had clearly seen horrific hits to its' structure. Like the other ship Abel could see that it was open to the vacuum of the void. A third and fourth dreadnought passed equally damaged but to Abel's eye perhaps still serviceable in time of war after a shipyard worked its' miracles. Then another; this one only a shell of a ship. Dragged fresh from the shipyards and uncompleted Abel realized.
"Unity was exacting in its' inventory. I think that one was never completed in the yards, but still towed here for inventory and destruction," answered Helen to Abel's unasked question.
"There is a lot out here," said Abel, "and we have only a few hours left on this trip. Lennie can you bring us about and take us to where you found the vac suits? You know out by the small frigate ships." Abel found himself annoyed at his own words, but if they could recover more vac suits the trip would be worth more to Habitat than even their short lives.
"Hold on," Lennie replied as the Quark slid off to the port side and the Window Screens revealed another line of smaller ships. Abel made a quick calculation looking out the augmented window and then taking a closer look at the scope. About thirty in this line he counted. "Helen?" he asked.
"Yes those are SAR frigates," responded Helen. This line seems to have about thirty or so, but look further and you'll se another line or two."
Emmitt spoke next, "I've got a low level energy reading on that line; the frigates. They might be powered down and vac-d but the energy signature is consistent with a cold reserve state."
"I thought Lennie said they were cold? Dead as a doornail." Abel almost caught himself wondering what a 'doornail' was from the ancient expression.
Lennie shrugged his shoulders. "The runabout has a knock off energy scanner Larry built last year and the Quark scanner is, or was, military grade. If were are picking up a cold slumber fusion engine then it's there. Perhaps we can salvage those engines. Sure would help in keeping the Habitat lights on."
Abel looked to Emmitt and then to Helen. Helen responded, "These are Greayson designed interchangeable fusion engines. Commonwealth purchased used engines of Greayson design at our founding. If we can pry these engines out we probably can replace our failing units. This is a big find Abel, even more important then those suits."
Quark pulled alongside the first line of small ships. Lennie was delicately manoeuvring the Quark alongside the line and Emmitt focused the vid screen on the passing frigates. "Which one did you board Lennie?" asked Emmitt.
Lennie paused a moment, stood, and leaned forward to the vid screen window. "I'm not sure, but it had a number ending in nine. I remember that. Larry always said that nine was his lucky number. Hard to forget. Yeah ... There it is. What's it say? SAR 1039. Yeah that's it."
Quark pulled up alongside number nine within a few meters and it became clear to all that the ship was vac-ed and although her fusion engines might be in standby sleep mode the ship had no systems power. Her hatches were open and the ship was for all intents and purposes dead. Emmitt spoke, "Looks like she was a new build. No damage that I can see and her engine nacelles aren't even scorched. Her torpedo tubes lack the orange stains of frequent release. Must be new build." Helen nodded her head in agreement.
Abel spoke, "Take us down the line a bit Lennie. No sense in looking into nine at this point."
Lennie sat back into the pilots chair and nudged the ship on down the line. The next ship in line was a heavily damaged and as Abel looked at the ship he realized that none on that ship could have survived the plasma hit it had taken amidships. They moved further down the line, and came upon a ship number SAR 1043.
"1043 looks interesting," said Helen. Emmitt nodded his head in agreement. Abel saw a streaking burn mark across the starboard side, but the ship looked intact, and but for her cold status serviceable. "Lets take a look," said Helen.
"Ok. Time to suit up, " Helen said and started toward the aft hatch and down to the cargo hold. Abel had a brief doubt as to whether this was a fools errand, but he knew well that if they could recover more military grade vac suits then lives would be saved. With the new suits EmVac and Habitat Maintenance would begin restoration of the integrity of the Habitat and there might well be fewer blow-outs. In fact with enough vac suits, hard work, and engineering focus, they might well eliminate blow-outs entirely. Or at least till old man Entropy raised his ugly head again.
It took longer than expected for Helen, Emmitt, and Abel to don the Greayson vac suits. Even though almost every citizen of the Commonwealth was familiar with vac suits, even to the extent that it was taught in primary school, these suits were far more complex and capable than the old civilian suits they were familiar with. Abel realized that he should have given instruction to try on the suits well before their departure, but now was too late. They would have to press on.
Once Abel got into the stiff armoured suit he found the suit unresponsive and very cold until he brought down the helmet and latched it into place. The suit immediately adjusted to his short frame and became flexible almost to the point that Abel hardly realized he was encumbered by the suit. A gentle flow of warm air brushed his face and upon the faceplate a green tinted display began to flash.
Abel heard Helen cough.
"Can you hear me Hellen? Emmitt?"
"Hell yes," replied Emmitt. "Don't shout."
Abel heard Helen laugh. The comms system seemed to be working just fine.
"Hey can you guys here me down there?" asked Lennie up on the bridge.
"Yeah, loud and clear Lennie," responded Helen. "Greayson ship, Greayson vac suits, all seems compatible."
Abel began to review the menu of options displayed on the inside of his face plate and wondered how to activate them. "Any idea about how to activate any of these functions?" he asked of no one.
Emmitt replied, "I think if you stare at one and blink a few times the function will activate. At least it does in my suit."
Abel chose 'Systems Status" and blinked a dozen times and the display changed to a reading of suit integrity, oxygenation levels, metabolic status, and a variety of other indicators that Abel only vaguely comprehended. Well that works he thought.
Abel stretched a bit and decided to jump and juggle in his suit. He bounced up and hit the ceiling of the cargo hold with a bang. "More augmentation that I thought," he muttered.
"Better be careful," said Emmitt, "I think you can dial down the augmentation. But we better be careful until till we figure out how these work."
Abel turned and looked carefully at Helen in her suit. In a flash Helen's suit stiffened and fell into a lower stance and Abel found himself staring down the maw of a hand held plasma cannon.
"Oops," said Helen. "My bad. Don't blink on the weapons menu."
Moments later Helen's suit relaxed and the plasma cannon retracted into the arm of the suit. That was close.
Abel was getting anxious to move forward and get this excursion over ."Ok, everyone check Systems Status to see if we are ready?"
"I'm good," said Helen.
"Me too," responded Emmitt.
Abel shook his shoulders to relieve tension but it really did not work. "Ok Lennie. Were ready. Open the cargo hatch."
Lennie responded "Hatch open in 30, counting down now."
When Lennie completed the count down the oil stained grey steel door of the hatch slid open revealing the dark open hatch of SAR 1043 just meters away. Lennie is a good pilot thought Abel but even this was a bit close. Abel reached for the boarding cable slingshot attached to the bulkhead, aimed it at the open hatch of the SAR and pulled the trigger. With a puff of compressed gas the cable unwound and stretched out to the adjacent ship and magnetically attached itself to the far bulkhead. Abel reached for a suit beener and attached his suit to the cable and then kicked off into the void. Well, it's now or never he thought. He found himself racing toward the SAR and crashed into the far bulkhead of the Greayson frigate. Too much augmentation he thought. Soon after Helen and Emmitt boarded having seen not to pull so hard on the boarding cable. Both landed gracefully on the deck their gravitic boots firmly planted on the dark deck. "There is a setting for no light on the heads up. It's under vision. Try 'black.' I think it also activates an infrared light."