by R. A. Nargi
A deep, ominous rumble sounded from deep within the ship.
Mindful that we had less than three minutes left, I undid the neck strap for Chiraine’s survival suit and activated its emergency life support mode. A soft helmet/hood extended outwards and I secured that over her head. Then I worked on sealing her hands and feet.
“Jannigan,” she said. “Whatever happens…thank you. Thank you for trying.”
“You can thank me once we’re back on the Freya. Now come on!”
“And I need to tell you something.”
“No time!”
“It’s important!”
I checked my own suit. Everything looked good. Life support was in the green. Temp control was activated. Full seal. We got in position within the airlock.
Ninety seconds left.
Here goes nothing. I slammed my fist on the airlock release button and the outer hatch door flew open in a puff of air.
“Hang on!” I clutched Chiraine against me, set my boots to max thrust and then pushed off into space—propelled by the suit’s magtouch unit. Even in combat mode I knew it wouldn’t do much, but I also fired all the weapons I had towards the ship, trying to create a little thrust away from it. I was thankful I had chosen slug throwers instead of blasters.
“You okay?” I asked Chiraine. Our comm units had automatically linked once her survival suit activated.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Faiurae ship quiver.
“Listen, this is important,” Chiraine said. “There’s something you should know…before we, um, die…”
Another voice joined the conversation. “No one’s dying just yet!” It was Ana-Zhi Agrada. “Turn around! Three o’clock!”
I turned and there—seventy-five meters away—Ana-Zhi stood upright on the Freya’s sled. She held some sort of weapon-like device at her hip. And not too far beyond the sled was the Freya herself.
“I hope you’re better at catching than rescuing,” Ana-Zhi said.
“What?”
“Incoming!” she bellowed. Then she shot her device right at us.
It was a grappling harpoon with a magnetic head and a hundred meters of carbon nanotube line. Ana-Zhi Agrada’s aim was pretty good, but the head came towards us much faster than I expected. It flew between my outstretched arms.
“Fuck!”
“I got it!” Chiraine yelled. She had managed to nab the line as it flew past.
We both grabbed the line and each other as Ana-Zhi reversed the harpoon and yanked us back—as she simultaneous keyed the sled’s throttle to full.
Behind us, the Faiurae ship convulsed and cracked apart, almost in slow motion. I could see small hydrogen explosions ripple throughout the ship’s superstructure, and energy surges spilled from the fractured hull.
Chiraine and I whipped away, swinging wildly behind the sled, closing on the Freya. But there was no way we’d get inside in time.
And then the Faiurae ship blew.
A globe of bright light erupted from the craft, exploding outward in a spherical burst—just as Ana-Zhi swung us behind the Freya’s hull to shield us from the debris.
I held Chiraine so tight I thought I could feel her pounding heart through our suits. I know that was just my imagination, of course. But she looked reassured. We stayed that way for a long time.
“Everyone okay?” came Ana-Zhi Agrada’s voice.
“Yeah,” I responded numbly.
“Good. Let’s go inside so I can kick your ass properly.”
We barely had time to get patched up by the Freya’s MedBed before Ana-Zhi started chewing us out.
“I know it was a damn fool thing to do,” I said. “But there was no way I was going to leave Chiraine behind.”
“I know,” Ana-Zhi said. “Neither was I.”
“It sure looked like you were,” I said bitterly.
“It’s called strategic planning, junior. And we’ll talk about it later.” She turned to Chiraine. “Now I need to know what the Faiurae got out of you.”
“Nothing.”
“You sure about that?”
“They had their own data. They knew that the Kryrk was in Bandala.”
“Makes sense,” I said. “That’s why they were in the neighborhood.”
Chiraine continued, “But they didn’t have the coordinates. And neither did I.”
“So why aren’t you dead?” Ana-Zhi asked.
“Beats me. Maybe they were going to put me to work slicing.”
Before she could elaborate, Yates rushed in. His eyes were wild and it looked like he was hopped up on something.
“We found it. The location of the Kryrk!”
“The slicer worked?” Chiraine asked.
“Yeah, chewed through the encrypted section slow and steady, but it got the job done.”
“Start the mission programming,” Ana-Zhi barked. “Get Hap and Obarral down here. We need this sled checked and loaded ASAP! Jannigan, why don’t you put on some undies and get ready to join us.” She slammed her hand down on a worktable and announced, “We’re going treasure hunting!”
Chiraine followed me back to my cabin. Once we were alone, she told me to sit down.
“You’re acting weird,” I said.
She sat down next to me. “Right before the Faiurae took me, I was working on reviewing Bandala’s defense system status logs for the A419 node.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“I thought it might give us a better handle on what type of defenses we’d be up against in the event we weren’t able to shut down the defense grid.”
“But we can shut it down, can’t we?”
“Yes, but I’m a little OCD about these things,” she said.
“You don’t strike me as OCD, but whatever. Go on.”
“So the logs are pretty boring. Yueld is a quiet place overall and these repositories have been largely undisturbed for seven hundred years or so.”
Then something occurred to me. “Not all of them have been undisturbed.”
She nodded.
“You found something about my father on Bandala?” My heart quickened.
“I can show you the logs,” Chiraine said. “There’s a lot of data there. Information about Sean Beck.”
I found it hard to speak the words, but I had to know. “His death?”
“That’s the thing, Jannigan. He might not be dead.”
13
A wave of dizziness washed over me. I took a deep breath and tried to get a grip. “What are you talking about?”
Chiraine took my hands in hers. “The system logged a life form in deep hibernation—possibly as a result of some sort of cryopreservation activity.”
“But, how do you know that—”
“The log entry first appeared after your dad and Yates entered Bandala and triggered the fortress’s defense grid.”
Her green eyes glimmered with hope.
Then she said, “I don’t think your father died. I think that somehow he’s in hibernation.”
How could that be? Then it hit me. “The exosuits. Even back then they had long-term life support.”
She nodded.
My head was spinning. “Let me get this clear. My dad and Yates enter Bandala…?”
“Yes,” she said. “They made two attempts. Both times they trigger the security grid—which results in a series of active security measures. All logged.”
“The scrubbers?”
“Yes, but there were also other active defenses,” she said.
“According to Yates, they went directly to the location of the Tabarroh Crystal.”
“That’s right. They obtained the Crystal and then the security bots caught up with them. At some point your father sacrificed himself so Yates could escape. Supposedly.”
Her last word hit me like a ton of bricks. “Supposedly?”
Chiraine looked me straight in the eyes. “What if Yates knew your father wasn’t dead? What if he abandoned him?”
“On purpose? Th
at’s crazy.”
“Maybe not. Think about it. There’s a code among crewers. You don’t leave anyone behind, right?”
Chiraine was right. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered.
“What if Yates really thought that my dad was dead?” I asked, playing devil’s advocate.
“How? He didn’t see any definitive proof. We know that. In the best-case scenario, Yates might have been convinced that your father was in some sort of hopeless situation and was going to die. So he left him. But in the worst-case scenario…”
I finished the thought. “Yates left my dad to die. On purpose.” I rubbed at my eyes. This was inconceivable.
“I need to ask Yates myself,” I said.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why?”
“Think about it. Yates has been telling the world that Sean Beck sacrificed himself. He’s been very definitive. He’s never said anything like ‘I’m not sure what happened to Sean,’ has he?”
“No.”
“He won’t admit it, and you’ll be tipping him off that you know.”
She was right.
“What do you think I should do?” I asked.
“Forget about Yates. For now. Don’t tell him anything. We have to focus on finding your father.”
At that moment, Ana-Zhi Agrada’s voice blasted over the intercom. “Incursion team, get your asses down to the launch bay. Briefing in five!”
I stood up.
“Give me your AuraView,” Chiraine said.
“Why?”
“I’ll load the data from the security logs. Don’t leave without me, okay?”
Ana-Zhi and Galish stood waiting at the arms locker.
“Dig in, kids,” she said. “Grab whatever you want.”
I returned to my old favorite: the Winton snub railgun, and added a Kinesis radiant blaster. I also grabbed a bunch of bonerattler sonic grenades. They might come in handy.
As I was suiting up, Yates arrived. He had a sour expression on his face, but then abruptly smiled when he saw me. I couldn’t help but wonder if the smile was fake—and also wondered what else was fake about Virgil Yates.
“First field mission, Jannigan,” he said. “How does it feel?”
“Technically, wiping out a ship-full of Faiurae and rescuing Chiraine all by myself was my first field mission, but I’m feeling okay.”
“Don’t get cocky, kid,” Ana-Zhi said. “Nothing gets you killed quicker than cocky.”
“I know there’s a lewd joke in there somewhere,” Galish said.
“Seriously, even if the Princess is able to shut down the defensive grid, this won’t be a walk in the park,” Ana-Zhi said. “Not by any means.”
“Duly noted,” I said.
“Speaking of which,” Galish said. “Where is the little—”
“Genius?” Chiraine asked, as she walked into the room. “Was that the phrase you were looking for, Galish? Little genius?”
“Yeah, you read my mind, sweetheart.”
Chiraine ignored him and told Ana-Zhi that she would set up her datapad in the ready room for the briefing. As she brushed by me, she slipped my Aura into my hands. It was a pretty slick move, and no one seemed to notice.
Once we had loaded our gear on the sled, we all headed to the ready room. There Chiraine had a holo schematic of Bandala up on the conference table. A circle marker pulsed with light towards the center of it.
“Unfortunately, the Kryrk is pretty far into the Bandala,” Chiraine said. “And it’s a big place.”
“So this won’t be a simple smash and grab,” Ana-Zhi said. “Yeah, I figured as much.”
“I sent the coordinates to your Auras as well as full topographs.”
“Yeah, they’re here,” Galish said.
I checked my own AuraView, keeping it tilted so no one else could see. Besides the coordinates for the Kryrk, Chiraine had added a lot more information—including the location of the lifeform in hibernation: my father.
No, I couldn’t get my hopes up. I didn’t know for sure that it was him. But I sure as hell would find out. That was when I started making a plan.
“What about the defensive grid?” Galish asked.
“I’ve got that,” Yates said.
I looked questioningly at Chiraine, and she said, “Yates has the codes from what we sliced. It’s a persistent block system, so there’s no way to just flip a switch and shut everything off. You’re going to have to deactivate one zone at a time.”
“And let me guess,” Ana-Zhi said. “They don’t stay deactivated.”
“Yeah, that’s the gist of it,” Yates said. “The zones are roughly a hundred meters cubed, and we’re going to have to go through a bunch of them. No way around it. Stop and go.”
“That’s going to slow us down,” Galish said.
“It could take us a few hours,” Yates said. “Maybe longer.”
Chiraine said, “That doesn’t take into account the time it will take to remove the Kryrk from its vault. That’s on a separate control grid.”
“Which you’ve sliced, I presume?” Ana-Zhi asked.
“That’s why you brought me along.”
“Actually, it wasn’t our choice,” Galish said.
“But it was a good choice,” I said. “A very good choice.”
Ana-Zhi took over the briefing and described how we would go in, the movement protocol, communications protocol, and combat protocol.
“Speaking of which,” I said. “That Faiurae is still out there. What if he follows us in?”
“That’s where Obarral earns his paycheck,” Ana-Zhi said.
A voice came over the intercom. “I heard that, darling!” Obarral said.
“Good!” Ana-Zhi said back to him. Then she turned to us. “Hap’ll set the Freya down nose out on the landing deck. We’ll be running all systems battle ready for the duration of the ground mission. Something comes near us, Obarral blasts it. Ion lances are fully charged, as are the proximity plates. No one’s catching us with our pants down again.”
That sounded good to me, although I was still bothered by the Faiurae out there.
I stood in the bridge watching Bandala loom larger in the viewport as we drew closer. It was a massive alien-looking cube of metal with all sorts of extrusions, sensor arrays, heat dispersement units, solar mirrors, and nav beacons.
As Yates had told us, it was easy to enter Bandala. Ana-Zhi scanned for any potential hazards while Galish carefully maneuvered the Freya through the containment field and into position on the landing deck. Once we touched down, Ana-Zhi had one final exchange with Obarral, then called for us to meet at the launch bay. There, Ana-Zhi, Galish, Yates, and I did another check of our gear and Yates locked into Bandala’s defensive grid with the LVX controller mounted on the sled. There were smaller controllers he could have used, but Ana-Zhi didn’t want to take any chances with range issues, so we went with the highest-powered unit we had.
“First zone is officially locked down,” Yates said.
“Clock’s ticking, ladies. Let’s do this.” Ana-Zhi entered the airlock, with Yates and Galish lined up right behind her. As low man on the totem pole, I brought up the rear—with the sled.
“Good luck, Jannigan.” This time Chiraine planted a chaste kiss on my cheek. “I hope you find what you are looking for.” Her green eyes twinkled.
I smiled at her, but inside I couldn’t help feeling some anger welling up. Anger towards Yates. I wondered how he’d act when I told the team that I thought my father was still alive and that we were going to recover him from the bowels of Bandala. Yeah, how might that go over?
We sealed ourselves in the airlock and once Galish gave the okay, opened up the outer bay doors, extended the ramp, and I took my first step on an ancient alien orbital fortress.
The gravity was pretty good here. It was impressive that their generators kept humming away—even after nearly 700 years.
“Look alive,” Ana-Zhi said. “Jannigan,
no lagging. You and the sled need to keep up, got it?”
“Aye aye, Captain.”
The landing deck was a cavernous space with gantry cranes, mech and refueling stations, cargo depots, and what appeared to be shield projectors—everything was barely lit by faint glow tracks along the floor and ceiling. We hiked across the deck to its back wall. There, set into a plated archway, was an airlock.
Galish used Xooth’s donokkal to do the honors. The blast doors opened to reveal the interior of the airlock itself. It was plenty big and the sled had no trouble fitting in.
We had to sit around for a bit until Yates figured out how to trigger the admission sequence, but soon we were into the fortress proper.
Ana-Zhi had us stop and wait at the beginning of a wide entry hall while she did some environmental scans. I gazed back at the Freya through big hyaline observation windows. It felt weird, but good to finally be off the ship—doing something useful.
“SE/EA deviation only point one two,” Ana-Zhi announced. “We could probably breathe this soup if we want, but let’s not. It’s a bit on the chilly side in here. Pressure’s at 600 millibars. Gravity’s at point nine. All in all, not bad. Not bad at all.”
Even with my external audio monitors cranked up, Bandala was as quiet as a tomb. I powered up the sled’s lighting array and Galish helped launch our recon drones so we could get a better look at our surroundings.
“This look familiar, Yates?” Galish asked.
“Actually, no. We might’ve come in through the other side of the landing deck.”
The hallway itself was immense—probably thirty meters wide and thirty meters tall—and it stretched out into the darkness, running perpendicular to the airlock.
As far as I could tell the hall was largely empty, except for the shells of what looked like some maintenance bots. The walls of the hallway were a different story, however. They were adorned by strange murals depicting hellish-looking landscapes with rivers of burning lava and jagged peaks of black volcanic rock.
I walked closer and shone a hand-lamp at the wall to get a better look. In one of the murals I saw what appeared to be a hooded humanoid figure kneeling beside a corpse on the shore of a bubbling lava lake.