Shadowplay: Book One of the Starcrown Chronicles

by Jon Gerrard

  Chapter Eleven

  “Toula control, this is the Prometheus requesting launch clearance.”

  I glanced around the bridge as Patty contacted the control tower. Everyone was focused and in good spirits after their brief holiday.

  I looked at Chris. “Status?”

  My first officer glanced across his board. “All moorings and external umbilicals are cleared. Ship operating on internal power. All external hatches secure. Hull integrity one hundred percent. Life support on-line. Artificial gravity engaged. Drive systems active and locked in stand-by mode. Fuel reserve at thirty-seven percent. Onboard control systems on-line.” He closed a series of circuits and looked up at me. “The ship is space worthy, Captain.”

  “Thank you, Exec.”

  “Prometheus from Toula control.” The flight controller’s voice sounded from the bridge speakers. “We have confirmation that your account is paid in full. You are authorized for departure. Your ascent vector has been cleared of all traffic. Safe journey.”

  “Thank you, control. Prometheus out.” Patty closed the frequency.

  “She’s all yours,” I said to Bobby who was watching me over his shoulder. At my nod he grinned and swiveled around to his controls.

  I could feel a faint vibration through the soles of my boots as he fired the belly thrusters. The ship’s artificial gravity kept us from feeling any motion but on the screen the spaceport began to drop away beneath us. When we reached a safe altitude Bobby cut in the main thrusters, starting us forward and arcing us up away from the planet. We gradually picked up speed as the ground quickly fell away. A short time later we entered a cloud bank and the view was swallowed up by whiteness.

  The bridge was quiet except for the electronic humming of the different control systems as everyone went about their various jobs. I checked our progress on my command board. The ship was flying true and steady. We would reach orbit in a few minutes. I glanced up at the main screen as we broke through the cloud layer. A sea of puffed cotton spread out before us reflecting the golden glow of the afternoon sun.

  “Do we have that course for Bricese plotted, Bobby?” I asked. This was mainly for the benefit of Captain Saha who was seated in the conference alcove in the rear of the bridge.

  “Yes, sir. Course plotted and ready to execute.”

  “Thank you. As soon as we’re clear of the planet’s gravity well–”

  “Captain!” Lucky’s voice shouted from the speaker on my board.

  “What is it, Lucky?”

  “I need you to come down to starboard cargo bay two now!” There was something in his voice that made me not ask any questions.

  “On my way.”

  I was out of my seat and heading for the aft bridge exit immediately. Without waiting for orders Chris moved over to the command seat as Alex fell into step beside me. We hurried down the three decks as quickly as possible. When we turned into the C deck starboard corridor we saw Lucky standing by the open cargo bay. He stood frozen in place staring into the open doorway. His eyes were wide and his complexion was pale beneath a sheen of sweat. I had never seen him like this before. He seemed terrified.

  “Lucky?”

  “Cordass!” He jumped like he’d just been shocked and started speaking in a rush, almost tripping over his own words. “Do you remember that extra shipping container I told you about? The one I thought was just a miscount? I couldn’t stop thinking about it so I went over my records again, but everything checked out. You know how careful I am with the manifest. There shouldn’t be an extra container. So I decided to do a visual check. I started with the port side bays first. Jonesy was in charge over there–you know how he can be sometimes. But there was nothing wrong there. Then I thought–”

  “Lucky! Slow down. What are you trying to tell me?”

  “Slow down. Right.” He took a deep, trembling breath. “I found that extra container,” he said, nodding toward the hold.

  One container had been pulled out into the open space in the center of the compartment. It was roughly the size of a deep footlocker and looked no different from any of a thousand other containers I had ever seen. Its latches had been opened and the lid raised and flipped back. I approached and cautiously looked inside. At first I didn’t know what I was looking at. The only thing my mind registered was some sort of complex electronics within a tapering metal framework. There was a small box with a series of lights flashing on its face dangling from one end by a group of fiber-op cables. At the core of the entire thing was a metal and glass cylinder that looked like some sort of magnetic containment bottle. On one end of the bottle was a radiation warning label. That’s when it all came together in my mind and my breath caught in my throat. I had seen something like this before. I pictured the entire thing not in a shipping container but encased in its normal housing–a blunt nosed cone.

  “Somehow I don’t think it’s a new cappuccino machine,” Lucky said.

  “Good guess.” What it was was an antimatter warhead.

  Alex slowly circled the container, making a visual inspection of the warhead without touching anything.

  “It looks like it’s armed,” she said, squatting down to study part of it more closely. “If I’m reading this correctly it’s set to go off in just under two hours.”

  “Oh, crap!” Lucky said. “I had to go and open it!”

  I grabbed him by the shoulders. “You didn’t do it. It was already set to go off before it was even aboard. In fact, if you hadn’t found it the ship would have blown when we were in deep space and we never would have known what happened.” Spinning him around I directed him out of the bay. He needed something to do to keep him busy. “Go to the comm panel in the passageway and have Ian and Mark come down here right away. And tell them to bring their tool kits.”

  When he was gone I squatted down beside Alex.

  “What do you think?” I asked.

  “I think somebody doesn’t like us,” she said. Then she pointed out identification markings on part of the framework. “This is from a USG arsenal.”

  First a sub and now an antimatter warhead. These weren’t things casually left around for just anyone to find. Gilead had a serious security problem. And at the moment that problem was threatening to kill everyone aboard our ship.

  “Can you disarm it?” I asked her.

  Alex shook her head. “Whoever did this jury rigged it in a way I’ve never seen. It might be booby trapped, too. If I start messing around in there I could set it off.”

  “They’re on their way!” Lucky said, racing up behind us.

  Standing up we backed away from the container.

  “Do you have any idea how it got onboard?” I asked Lucky.

  “It had to be with the stuff we picked up on Toula,” he said. “But I can’t tell which lot. It was labeled ‘machine parts’ and just kind of stuck in with the rest of the crates. Actually, that’s what made me notice it. There was nothing else on it telling what it was. So I opened it to have a look.” He seemed to be calming down.

  “It’s a good thing you did,” I said.

  “Cordass, why would anyone want to blow us up?”

  “That’s a good question.”

  Ian and Mark arrived at almost the same moment.

  Mark’s eyes went as round as Lucky’s had been. “Is that a–”

  “Yes,” I said. “And I need you to tell me everything you can about it.” We told them what little we knew and they cautiously approached the container to examine the bomb.

  After a moment Ian whistled. “There’s enough antimatter here to vaporize the ship.”

  “And you’re right,” Mark said as he carefully shifted a bundle of fiber-op cables. “It’s been booby trapped, alright. It’s going to be tricky figuring out which of these is the correct lead and which ones are blinds.”

  Ian called Mark’s attention to something inside the unit. They leaned closer
to continue their investigation. The two of them stayed hunched over the open container for several minutes speaking quietly to each other as they examined the bomb. Finally they stood up.

  “Can it be disarmed?” I asked.

  “That depends,” Mark said.

  “I was looking for something a little more concrete.”

  “It’s like this, Captain,” Ian said. “We know what to do. The problem is sorting through all those blind connections. If we cut the wrong lead we’ll set it off. We can eliminate the false connections–one at a time–but it’s going to take a while.”

  “And we might not be done by the time the timer runs out,” Mark finished.

  That was all I needed to hear. “Okay. Close it up. We’re going to push it out the airlock.”

  “I’m afraid you can’t do that,” Ian said. “When the container was opened it activated a motion sensor. If we shift it around even slightly now it’ll go off.”

  Someone really wanted us dead. “Then you’re just going to have to disarm it,” I said.

  Mark and Ian looked at each other. Ian picked up his kit and nodded to his partner. They stepped over to the container and started spreading out the tools they would need. Alex, Lucky and I stood watching helplessly as they tried to decide where to begin. After a few moments they seemed to agree on the best approach and were carefully reaching into the crate with a probe when I heard someone enter the bay behind us.

  “I wouldn’t do that.” It was Saha’s voice.

  The Fleet Captain walked over to the crate.

  “Do you know what you have there?” he asked.

  “Unfortunately, we do,” I said. “And whoever left us this charming little gift has it set to go off in less than two hours. Now, if you’ll excuse us, my men were just about to defuse it before it turns us all into a cloud of ionized atoms.”

  “Captain, bomb defusing is delicate work,” Saha said. “No offense to your crewmen, but if they don’t know what they’re doing they could end up triggering it.”

  “We’ve already been over that, but we don’t have another option.”

  “Maybe you do. One of my men is a munitions specialist. I could have him take a look at it.”

  Their asses were on the line too.

  “Alright, Captain, but we need to move quickly.”

  Specialist Martinez arrived at the hold within a minute. He quickly confirmed everything we had learned about the bomb. Ian and Mark were kneeling beside him as he carefully probed inside the warhead, following his movements and asking occasional questions about what he was doing. After a while the three of them got very excited about something they discovered. Ian handed Martinez some items from the tools spread on the deck beside him and they lost themselves in their work for several tense minutes. Eventually they sat back on their heels. Martinez was holding a disconnected piece of the bomb in his hand.

  “That’s it,” he said.

  I could feel the tension in my stomach relax.

  They stood. Martinez handed the box to his captain.

  “This was wired into the firing circuit, sir,” Martinez explained. “It overrode the safeties on the trigger mechanism and was acting as a timer. I’ve never seen a device like it before. It’s like it was tailor made to interface with the warhead. Whoever did it knew exactly what he was doing.”

  Saha turned the device over in his hand then passed it to me.

  “So it’s safe now?” Lucky asked.

  “Yes, sir,” Martinez said. “The safeties are re-engaged. It’s no more dangerous now than any other inactive warhead.”

  “Thank you,” I said, extending my hand. Martinez hesitated then took it.

  “Just doing my job, sir.”

  “You saved the ship. You saved all of us, and I won’t forget it.”

  Martinez smiled self-consciously. “You’re quite welcome, sir.” He turned to his commanding officer. “Is that all, Captain?”

  Saha nodded. “Yes. Thank you, Ensign. Good job.”

  Martinez tipped is head at us. “Sirs. Ma’am.” His eyes remained fixed on Alex longer than necessary before he turned and walked out. I remembered then how he had stared at Alex just like that when he first came aboard. At the time I thought he was just appreciating her looks. This time it seemed like something else. It was almost like he thought he knew her from somewhere and was trying to place her.

  “What do you want us to do with the warhead, Captain?” Ian asked.

  “Secure it in the armory for now,” I said after a moment.

  Captain Saha watched as they latched the container and prepared to move it.

  “I can’t let you keep that warhead, Captain,” Saha said. “That weapon is Gilead military property. I don’t know how it got out here but I can’t let it float around free.”

  My crew paused and looked at me, but I waved them back to what they were doing.

  “Walk with me, Captain,” I said.

  We left the cargo bay at a casual stroll and started back toward the main stairwell, Alex on his left and me on the right.

  “To begin with,” I said, “the warhead isn’t floating around free. We’ve got it and we’re not going to let it fall into the hands of some maniac. I appreciate your situation, Captain, but you have to remember that you’re not on a Fleet ship and we’re far from Gilead space.”

  “Captain, I must protest your decision. That weapon is extremely dangerous. You have missiles, or possibly even torpedoes aboard this ship. Yes, I recognized the fire controls on your weapons board. That warhead could be adapted to fit one in a matter of minutes.”

  I cocked my head at him. “And you think I plan to use it?”

  “I don’t know what you want with such a weapon, but I do know that it is too dangerous to be left in the hands of ...”

  “Yes?”

  “... of any one man. The use of such a device normally requires the authorization of the King and can only be launched with the consent of both a ship’s captain and his executive officer. To have such destructive force in the hands of one man is–”

  “Frightening,” I said. “Yes, I agree. But you’re forgetting something. We didn’t go searching for this weapon. It was placed aboard our ship by someone who already had access to it. Someone who was reckless enough to use it as a simple tool for murder. What if we hadn’t left on schedule? If that bomb had gone off while we were still in port we’d have taken the spaceport and most of the city with us. If I were you, I’d be more concerned with finding that person than I was with trying to make me surrender a single warhead to you. Antimatter devices are frightening weapons, but hardly secret technology. All of the major interstellar powers have them and more and more of the smaller nations are developing them every day.

  “What you should be asking yourself is how someone was able to get their hands on that weapon in the first place. Anyone who can casually lift an antimatter warhead from a Fleet arsenal is a threat not only to your nation, but to the stability of all inhabited space.”

  Saha narrowed his eyes at me for several moments. “This discussion isn’t over, Captain.”

  “It is for now, Captain,” I said.

  With a curt nod he spun around and stalked away.

  When he was gone I handed the device that Ensign Martinez had removed from the warhead to Alex. “Have Ian and Mark find out everything they can about that bomb. Somebody has a grudge against us and we need to figure out who it is before they get lucky.”