by Eric Warren
Both pilots confirmed the order.
“Is it working?” Greene asked.
“Yes, the band is weakening,” Zenfor replied. “Caspian, tell the other spacewings to converge on these larger bands.”
“You got it.” Cas sent the orders to the other seven pilots. The last of the smaller bands had just been destroyed. The ship shook again.
“Another band?” Greene asked.
“No. The band the other ships were headed for disappeared,” Zenfor said, confusion in her voice. “It’s reappeared, on the other side of the ship. Send them over there.”
Cas worked as fast as he could to relay the new set of coordinates.
“Commander, another band has disappeared. And now reappeared somewhere else. It is as if someone knows what the fighters are doing and is trying to keep them from interacting with it.” Zenfor worked furiously, trying to keep up.
“Send them over there,” Greene said.
“I’m on it,” Cas yelled. It seemed as soon as he was done telling the ships where to go, the band would move. Could that indicate…intelligence? “I think it’s anticipating our moves, sir.” The band had moved positions again just as he’d sent the ships to the new coordinates. Tempest was too large; they couldn’t get to where they needed to go quickly enough before the band would change positions.
“The spacewings are reporting they’re getting sluggish out there,” Blohm said.
“The electromagnetic field around the entire ship has increased in strength,” Zenfor replied. “It is starting to affect their ships.”
“Is there any hope of salvaging this?” Greene asked.
“I don’t see how, sir. Not unless we have enough spacewings to coat the entire outside of Tempest.” Cas gritted his teeth at his own monitor. Whatever this thing out there was, it was actively working against them.
“Call them back, get them in the hangar before they get stuck out there,” Greene ordered.
“All spacewing fighters return to Bay Two. Repeat, abort mission, return to Bay Two,” Cas said. Once all the ships were safely back in the Bay he glanced up at Blohm, whose face was on her own controls. “How bad is it?”
“We’re being pulled in at almost ten times the previous rate,” she replied.
“How long does that give us?” Greene asked.
“Eight hours. If the engines hold out,” she replied. “But there’s a possibility we’ll burn them out just trying to stay at this speed.”
“And the fleet is still nine days away,” Zaal said from Ops. “We couldn’t wait for them now if we wanted to.”
Cas turned to Zenfor. “What are you seeing?” he asked.
She studied the glyphs on her screen for a moment, seeming to consider her next words. “We’re now being held by four larger, stronger strands, and they are pulling us in. Closer to the center and closer to the creature. I fear we may have underestimated whatever sits at the center of this phenomena. I no longer believe this area of space is naturally-occurring.”
“Then what is it?” Cas asked.
“A trap.”
25
A trap.
It was like a punch in the gut. Now they had undeniable proof the creature was intelligent. That it wasn’t just working off some kind of instinct. And Cas’s first thought was they needed to blow it out of the sky using every weapon they had. But then his meeting with Evie flashed in his mind.
You don’t fit in this world.
Was destroying the creature what a Coalition officer would do? It’s what Rutledge would have done. But was it the right call?
“Chief Rafnkell, please report to the bridge asap,” Greene said into his comm. He turned to Cas and Zenfor. “What happened?”
“It seems the creature began anticipating our moves, and took actions to prevent us from breaking the ship free,” Zenfor said. She was calm and measured, an antithesis to the panic Cas was keeping veiled. He’d been rattled. He didn’t like how fast the creature had adapted to their countermeasures. It knew it wanted Tempest for whatever reason. But did it even know what Tempest was?
“This must have been what happened to the Iphigenia,” Cas said. “And the Genesis. I believe they both fell into this same area of space, and were pulled in by the creature.”
“And then what?” Greene asked. It was a fair question. Without any debris or evidence the ships had been destroyed there was no telling what happened to them once they reached the center of this area of space. Were they disintegrated? Pulled into the other pocket dimension?
“I’m not sure.” Cas motioned to Zaal. “Are we still receiving the distress signal from Iphigenia?”
Zaal shook his head. “No. It cut off…” He tapped a few buttons. “…as soon as the spacewings engaged their electromagnetic fields. Perhaps the use of the fields disrupted the distress signal. But we’re no longer receiving any transmissions.”
Greene turned to his Ops officer. “Is there any chance we could call for help from someone else? Someone closer?”
“I don’t think so, sir. We’re deep within Coalition territory. If there are any non-Coalition ships in this area, we probably don’t want them stopping by.”
Cas knew what he meant. Pirates, spies, and subterfuge vessels from either the Sargan Commonwealth or one of the non-aligned worlds. Even though this was Coalition-held territory it wasn’t as if the Coalition could patrol their massive swaths of territory all the time. Ships slipped through. Cas knew from experience there were at least a dozen smuggling operations on Coalition worlds operated by the Sargan Commonwealth. He hadn’t heard of any that went this far into Coalition-held space, but then again Veena hadn’t made him privy to everything.
He should have anticipated the creature’s intelligence. They should have had a backup plan in place. But he’d been so sure this could work because he trusted Zenfor’s calculations. She had experience with multi-dimensional fields and beings, he naturally assumed her plan would be successful. But in the end it wasn’t her responsibility to see this thing through. Despite Zenfor’s discoveries this had been his mission. The success or failure fell on his shoulders alone, and he’d let the rest of the crew down. He had no one to blame but himself. And it was an odd sensation. He wasn’t used to failing as an officer. Why had he thought things would be different once he put the uniform on again? He was still the same fallible human whether he wore it or not.
The hypervator doors opened and Rafnkell stormed in, helmet still in her hand and connected to her flight suit. Her face was covered in perspiration. “What the hell was that out there?” she demanded, staring at Cas.
“The creature countered everything we were doing,” he replied. “It’s intelligent.”
“For fuck’s sake,” she replied. “That would have been helpful to know before I risked eight of my pilots.” Her breathing was labored as if she’d run to the bridge instead of taking the hypervators.
“We didn’t know. If we had we’d—” He glanced over at Zenfor. “We probably still would have tried.”
“Pilots’ lives are cheap, is that it?” She took a few steps closer to him, her free hand clenched in a fist.
“That’s enough, Chief. I didn’t ask you up here to argue. What did you see out there? Full report.” Greene said.
She made a noise deep in her throat and turned away from Cas. “Everything started out fine. The anti-grav systems the robot installed worked well enough. I couldn’t feel any drag on the ship at all. But the longer we were out there the more sluggish the controls became. It started out small, but by the end we were having a hard time getting them to respond correctly. As soon as we got back in the Bay all the problems disappeared.”
“The creature seems to have increased the force of the electromagnetic field outside the ship,” Zenfor said. “It would have made it more difficult to maneuver.”
“Then I guess that was it, wasn’t it?” Rafnkell spat.
“Chief. Was there anything else?” the captain asked.
She r
egained a grip on her helmet which had begun to slip from her hand. “Yeah. I don’t normally go for frou-frou stuff but something weird is going on out there. I talked to Saturina and Alec and they both said the same thing. It’s like we could feel the ambush coming. It was like there was a presence standing over our shoulders, watching us. I don’t know what that thing is, but we need to do whatever is necessary to get the ship away from it, right now. I don’t care if you have to blow it to hell and back. Just get us away from it.”
Greene screwed up his face. “I don’t understand. You felt it?”
“You want me to take you out there? You can feel it for yourself if you like,” she yelled.
“Chief Rafnkell!” Evie interjected. “Compose yourself. You’re addressing a captain of the Coalition Navy.”
Rafnkell averted her eyes a moment and took a deep breath, composing herself. “Sorry, sir, it’s just…do whatever it takes to get us away.”
“It’s okay, Chief. I understand that can’t have been an easy mission. But just know that no one here tried to blindside you. Sometimes we don’t know exactly what we’re headed into, even if we think we do.” She nodded. “Are all your pilots alright?”
“Some are a little shaken up, but they’ll be fine. They’ve been through tougher than this. I have faith in my team. If you need us to go back out there—”
Greene glanced at Cas. “I don’t think that will be productive at this time, but thank you for volunteering. I’ll take it under advisement. You’re dismissed.”
Rafnkell left the bridge and Cas was struck at just how rattled she’d seemed. Had it really been that strange out there? He had a strange desire to experience it for himself. What was this creature? And was it possible for them to communicate with it? If he’d tried that in the beginning instead of agreeing to go along with this spacewing plan would they be free right now? He needed some time to think and to find a way to speak with this thing. He needed to review Zenfor’s sensor recordings of what happened to Iphigenia and Genesis. They might give him some more insight into what to do.
“Commander, keep us at this speed for as long as possible,” Greene said to Blohm. “Coordinate with engineering to see if there’s anything you can do to give us…a stay of execution.” He turned to Evie. “In the meantime, begin drawing up a battle plan. We may have no choice but to destroy the creature.” Evie nodded and returned to her station.
“Captain,” Cas said, stepping forward. “There may be another way.” He shot Zenfor a quick glance but her attention remained trained on her board, studying the information coming in.
“I’m listening, Commander,” Greene said, impatience tinging his voice.
“If we know this creature is intelligent perhaps we can reason with it. It may not understand that we’re sentient beings as well and if we can find a dialogue, we might be able to negotiate our own release without harming it.” Evie, her previous task forgotten, turned to face him, suspicion in her eyes. He didn’t return the favor.
“What makes you think communication is even possible?” Greene asked.
“I’m not sure yet sir, but this creature must have some awareness of us. I think by studying the information on the Iphigenia and Genesis I might be able to find something.” This was the right call, right? Wasn’t this what he would have done back on Achlys? The Coalition was sworn to protect life and this creature might not be malicious at all. They just had to try harder.
“You realize we don’t have the luxury of time,” Greene began. “How long would you need before you could come up with something? Days? Weeks?”
“Sir, Box is more capable than any other person I’ve ever known at interpreting language. Whether it be spoken or something completely different. Let me work with him and the consul. I believe between the three of us we can come up with a solution.”
Zenfor scoffed, having finally turned to face him. “It is a fool’s errand.”
Greene turned to her. “You don’t think a solution can be found?”
“I think you will end up wasting your time and by the time you realize the truth it will be too late. Something like this can’t be reasoned with. You should destroy the creature and continue on your mission. It’s more important.” She crossed her arms, leaning back against the display.
“Are you saying diplomacy is pointless?” Cas challenged.
“In this case, yes. You can’t reason with everything. Not everyone can be convinced of your goodness.” She scowled at him.
“It worked on you,” he said before realizing what had come out of his mouth. A white-hot pain exploded on his temple and he was on the ground, not remembering the fall itself. He glanced up through fuzzy vision to see Zenfor standing over him, seething.
“Nothing ‘worked’ on me,” she said. “I am on this ship because a threat to my people is out there and you are nothing more than a courier taking me to my destination. I don’t care about your Coalition or your ideals or even your people. All I care about is stopping a threat before it reaches my home. So don’t tell me diplomacy worked on me when you have done nothing to prove yourselves worthy of my attention.” She stormed off the bridge, not looking back as the hypervator doors closed behind her.
“Lieutenant, send a security team for the consul. Remand her to the brig,” Greene said.
“Aye,” Uuma replied.
Strong arms grabbed Cas and helped hoist him up. He expected to see Evie but was surprised it was Commander Blohm instead. “Are you okay?” she asked.
He shook his head, the blood running through his veins throbbed all over. Rubbing the spot where Zenfor had socked him he smirked. “I’ve seen worse. Thanks.” She lingered a moment until he had his footing before stepping back. Cas turned to Greene. “Don’t throw Zenfor in the brig.”
“She attacked you. That’s a punishable offense on this ship, Commander, I don’t care what species she is.”
“Yes, sir. But that was my fault, not hers. If you contain her in the brig, she’ll never help us again. Confine her to quarters if you have to, but don’t throw her in jail. It won’t go well, I promise you.”
Greene turned to his XO. “Commander? You’ve worked with her more than I have. Your thoughts?”
Evie stared at Cas a moment, searching for something in his eyes. He wasn’t sure if she saw it or not. “I agree with Commander Robeaux. If we want her help, we can’t antagonize her further.”
Greene sighed. “Lieutenant Uuma, make sure the consul returns to her quarters and if she attempts to leave again, notify me immediately.”
“Yes, sir,” Uuma said, tapping her control board a few times. She turned and left the bridge, presumably to keep tabs on Zenfor. The other set of hypervator doors opened and Ensign Yamashita took up the tactical station. Cas didn’t miss a quick glance between her and Evie.
“Get yourself to sickbay to check that out,” Greene said. “Then get started on your research. You have two hours.”
Cas nodded, grateful for the captain’s faith in him. Greene didn’t want to destroy this creature if he could help it. At least Cas knew he was still one of the purists and hadn’t been infected by whatever was happening in the Coalition. Rutledge would have destroyed the creature as soon as they found it. But this…this was promising.
Cas made his way to the hypervator, praying he could find a solution.
26
Evie couldn’t believe what she’d witnessed. Zenfor had calmly approached Cas—she wasn’t even sure he saw it coming—and decked him, sending him at least a meter sideways before he fell. She had jumped up but Greene held her back. By the time the Sil had left the bridge Evie’s breathing had slowed and she was finally able to take stock of the situation.
The fact was she agreed with Zenfor, she didn’t think they could communicate with this creature and they were delaying the inevitable. And it took her a minute to figure out why Cas had even suggested it. He was trying to be a better officer. She’d given him so much grief about taking his old rank back and now h
e was trying to fold himself back into that role: to become the man he used to be. Evie had no doubt at one time he would have done anything to protect this lifeform, but she wasn’t so sure that was him anymore. She couldn’t help but feel the slightest twinge of shame he was willing to go the extra mile to protect this creature when even she wasn’t. Thankfully he’d already left the bridge.
“Commander, I want you to coordinate with Robeaux on his progress. Keep me updated. If it looks like it’s not going anywhere I need to know. I’m not prepared to waste time on a venture that won’t help the situation.”
She hesitated. “Yes, sir. I’ll get right on it as soon as—”
“I know you and he are having personal issues, but I need you to put those aside,” Greene said in a voice low enough no one else could hear him. “Get the job done, Commander.”
“Yes, sir.” Evie stood and walked over to the tactical station where Laura was running through her pre-checks. “Is Consul Zenfor headed back to her quarters?”
“I just got an update from Lieutenant Uuma,” Laura replied. “She’s trailing her and she seems to be heading there now. She’ll update us if Zenfor changes course.”
“The sooner she’s back in her own room, the better I’ll feel,” Evie said.
“What happened?” Laura whispered. “Why is she under surveillance?”
Evie surveyed the bridge. No one paid them any attention. Blohm had returned to her station and the captain was speaking to Zaal about something. Ronde and River’s attentions were focused on the screen in front of them. “She hit Caspian. He never saw it coming.”
Laura’s mouth went agape. “No way.”
Evie nodded. “Swear to Kor. I’m not even sure I understand why, but I think he insulted her.” She shook her head. “But it was clear from the look on his face he knew he’d screwed up.”
“I’m surprised the captain didn’t throw her in the brig.” Laura tapped a few buttons on her console, though Evie knew they were dummy switches that did nothing other than display ship information.