by V Guy
He surprised them Thursday evening, making only a cursory mapping of the system and completing three verifications of shallow adjusters. The fifth node, number thirty-six, took three hours to find and round out their night.
“Just when I grumble unkind things about you,” said Evelyn. “You raise your game.”
Malik rolled his eyes. “The model has been extensively tweaked. The adjuster’s locations are within close proximity to predictions, and accommodation has been made for the errors in their original launch timings.”
“One node a night?” asked Violet.
He nodded. “Get us back to Evaline.”
Pathfinder returned to the world, those on the bridge took rest, and Malik prepared for another day of interviews. Evelyn had the Dart prepped and waiting when he emerged after a short nap. The typical levels of fatigue missed him, and he looked noticeably encouraged.
“Running or riding?” she asked.
“Riding. No reason to tempt fate.”
Evelyn made a half smile. “Now that you’ve found some hope for Salient, will you finally tell the authorities at Marshall someone wants you dead?”
He examined the craft. “Getting help or deliberately avoiding death could encourage greater collateral damage. I sense this is a deliberate effort to kill me, and that the desire involves significant intention. I’d hate to cause additional casualties while avoiding mine.”
“You should still tell them.”
Friday and Saturday produced success, both in the work at Salient and the location of politicians. They stashed nodes thirty-four and thirty-two next to their predecessors.
“One more,” said James, meeting Malik in the galley.
Malik dug in to the first of three meals. “If we’re successful and complete our work early tomorrow, we’ll travel to either Petra or Tarabach for a break. I could stretch my wings.”
James’s lips curled into a smile. “It would be greatly appreciated.”
“One or two more politicians or criminal contacts remain, and then today is finished,” said Malik, mirroring the man’s expression.
Sunday’s search involved the same confirmations and references as before. This day, Malik directed them toward seven different nodes, finding, contacting, and reprogramming. The eighth node was the current end cap and was found and shut down. His crew looked expectantly at him when he emerged from his trance.
“We’ll need an extensive mapping,” said Malik, stretching. “The end cap will have been obliterated to set the stage for a new one, while seven other nodes along the chain are shutting down at scheduled intervals. This will sorely test the model.”
“That would leave eight active nodes,” said Li. “What will that do to the space?”
Malik paused. “The model has predictions but no guarantees; we’ll learn the hard way. Take us to Petra. I need a break.”
The effort to shorten their involvement meant relief from the daily trips. They established new node positions after Friday night and eliminated another end cap. A second node, adjacent to the end, was programmed to expire. His model was tasked, yet they were able to establish references on Saturday and eliminate two more.
Channel dynamics changed after the nodes’ shutdown and the model failed. An extensive search followed. Monday evening marked their next eliminations, and the nodes were again knocked off the predictions. Malik tweaked the model.
A month had passed since the warning over his life was awakened, and every exit to the north consisted of an increasing weight to the threat. The Tuesday trip into Marshall after his network meeting with Kroes felt no different than the others.
He eased the Dart into the waiting hands of James and Leala to have it serviced. As expected, Evelyn and Amal were waiting.
“No death?” asked Evelyn, smirking.
Malik shook his head. “Not today.”
She nodded as he eased the bike forward. “Serena’s nerve trimming sessions will be done by your return, and the others’ work to upgrade living quarters should have tailed off. We’ll be ready.”
Tuesday night efforts brought them into striking distance of their goal. Malik’s model for the absence of multiple nodes showed signs of meeting the challenge, albeit belatedly.
Wednesday was uneventful, and his evening return led to an immediate departure. The ship arrived at Salient a little over an hour later. A brief check of their previous surveys demonstrated that the channel topography met expectations. The final nodes were quickly disabled.
His crew heard the news, then glanced beyond the ports in discouragement—there was no sign of Salient’s star.
“Activate the array,” said Malik. He concentrated and after an extended silence, withdrew from his trance. “The suffocation of the channel has been relieved.”
“Then where is it?” asked James, looking outside and then at him in frustration. “We did what we were supposed to do.”
Malik nodded. “We did. The system is like us after Dakota. It’s under immersion.”
Li turned. “Is there a cure for that?”
“It’s why I preserved seven mass adjusters.”
A summons to Marshall postponed the finale. Early the next Thursday night, Pathfinder was back. After a brief survey to confirm the channel was gone, they flew to its original Nowhere outlet to check for observers. The Third Fleet was apparently convinced the channel was banished—no ships, beacons, or probes were posted. Salient was their next destination, and Pathfinder arrived near one of the installed beacons.
“Launch the first adjuster,” said Malik.
Internal and external tractor beams eased the mass adjuster from Pathfinder. They guided it to a planned position, its gravitational field was remotely activated, and the adjuster was scanned.
“Excellent; everything is on the mark. Now release the second one and open the sensor breach.”
The same procedures were followed for this mass adjuster, except that Malik pushed it through the substrate barrier and into Salient’s bubble of reality.
“The Salient adjuster is in position,” he said, rolling his neck to ease the tension. “Now release the third.”
This placement required another push to station it within the substrate near the second adjuster. He detected interactions between the two pieces of equipment then set the second one at the edge of breaking the gravitational connection. A check of the sensor array detected a pucker on the substrate near Salient’s adjuster.
He smiled to himself. “Number four.”
This adjuster was set closer to the local adjuster but within the substrate, creating a larger dimple on this side of the substrate/reality boundary. The next two were situated to lengthen the chain, while the seventh adjuster linked them all.
“Increasing the projected gravities,” he said, concentrating to ensure the adjusters received the messages.
Initially set to one gravity, the adjusters’ apparent masses were shifted upward. The effect was dramatic. Their weak connections expanded, a hole formed in space that then expanded, and the substrate encompassing the system retreated outward in a spreading, glowing, circular arc to expose a pale, red glow from the bubble’s internal boundaries. That residual shine diminished, but Salient’s star shone bright.
“Welcome back,” he said to the stellar beacon.
The moment wasn’t lost on the crew; they erupted into enthusiastic cheers.
A familiar visitor arrived at the bulkhead soon after, causing the newcomers wariness but raising the spirits of the others. A moment later, another visitor arrived, boisterously making her presence known.
“Drelas. Jum,” said Malik with pleasure, smiling broadly and guffawing. “Lead us in.”
62: Ambush
Day 944: Evaline
Pathfinder and its crew remained at Salient for the night, returning during the weekend to replenish fuel, assist the Remnant, and spend quality rest time on the world. The threat shadowing Malik had matured during the previous weeks, and some of the time in the syste
m and during the previous week had been spent in preparation. They returned to Evaline during Newday’s early morning hours in anticipation of upcoming action, and a predawn request from Marshall for Malik’s presence arrived.
The crew awakened and quickly made preparations. Malik’s Dart was ready and waited in the forward passage. Evelyn brought his pack and centered it upon his shoulders. Li, James, and Selena approached.
“How certain are you?” asked Evelyn.
“It’s today, no doubt. They’re ready.”
They nodded. “Then we are, too.”
“I should go,” continued Malik. “It’ll take ten minutes to check the bike, just as during my last two exits, and then I’ll fly the normal route to the capital.”
Li shook his head in disappointment. “There must be a better way. We know what they’re bringing.”
“There is no other. If I don’t go to them, they come to me.” Malik led the Dart forward to the hatch and spoke to Drelas on his shoulders. “Are you ready?”
The dragon released a stream of indignant barks and chirps and hopped impatiently between his shoulders.
Malik laughed. “You’re right; let’s get this finished. You’ll all get a play-by-play.”
“This isn’t a game,” said Evelyn, scowling. “This is serious.”
He made a slight smile and winked. “Ten minutes. See you out there.”
The Dart was moved to the tarmac and another preflight was begun, this time by Malik. He deliberated with the procedure then boarded the bike. It rose, maintained low altitude until clearing the spaceport, then rose to fifteen hundred meters and accelerated.
Numerous exits made toward Marshall had been shadowed by an atmospheric freighter departing the spaceport and turning toward the capital on the same time table. Today was no exception. Malik took note of the craft then sent his mind aft; two new contacts had entered the picture, concealed under stealth and revealed only by their minds. From the number of occupants and quality of the hardware, they could only be gunships. He vectored to the right and left to test his pursuers, and they responded appropriately. After sending word to Pathfinder, he inhaled a deep breath, trembling in anticipation. The moment was heavy upon him. Then it crashed.
Malik felt the new vessels’ aggression before it was expressed, and he took the Dart into a sudden, climbing starboard turn. Their direct fire shots missed, but the volley of launched missiles faithfully trailed. The gunships banked for containment, firing a new volley of plasma, projectiles, and missiles, and Malik rotated the craft to port and accelerated. The guided munitions were faster; they impacted the Dart in successive blooms of destruction.
Only his image had remained on the Dart. He had bailed moments before the impacts, plummeting for the cover of the ground. The gunships were specifically modified for detecting him under cloak; they turned, diving to finish the job.
Eight drop pods disengaged from the overhead freighter, falling toward the ground. Malik spread his wings to break his fall then folded them again to lessen his vulnerability to the overhead craft. A tractor push cushioned his landing; he recovered, and then he sprinted toward the spaceport. The pods landed, opened, power was activated, and a restrictive energy field was generated to link them all. A united forcefield formed. He was trapped.
Nine-man squads poured from each drop pod, and every member was shielded, armored, and carried grenade launchers. Part of the squads moved to prepare the launchers, half established attack positions, and a final man mounted the heavy cannon exposed at the pod’s apex. Malik was tracked by the gunboats, regardless of his cloak, and cannon fire zeroed upon him from eight different locations. He reached a third of the distance to the southernmost pod when a new combatant was revealed.
Malik carried a supplemental power source in his pack to boost his natural power reserve, and he drew from it liberally, diverting or stopping bullets, shielding himself from energy blasts, and concealing himself as well as possible. This addition would be inadequate. Heavier fire and explosives rained down from the two descending gunships while new, high-caliber projectiles descended from above the southern pod—an ASP had entered the fight. Besides those deliberate hazards, explosives turned the stand of timber into millions of wooden missiles. Although some things could be dodged, stopped, or diverted, some of the smaller projectiles struck.
Four more ASPs approached in formation with the first one, slipping forward to bring their weapons to bear and sliding into position on his flanks. Their armor-piercing rounds rocketed forward. He increased his sprint.
Weapon concussions sounded before him, but these were friendly. The nearest pod’s shield winked off as it was peppered with high-velocity, heavy rounds from the rear, the resident gunner was killed, and cries of alarm arose. Above them, destruction shredded the tail of the first hostile ASP. The onboard intelligence of the targeted sentinel shifted up and away from the new threat. Pathfinder’s ASPs had joined the fray.
Malik continued to divert, halt, shield, cloak, and self-heal, but his ability to continue these suffered under the barrage. Additional lesser-damage projectiles struck him, and many of the airborne-sentinels’ exploding rounds impacted him, knocking him down and tearing holes in his sides and wings. He sprang forward to avoid the converging ordnance, and when he approached the first pod, the gunships split, one passing to his left to maintain containment. The other moved right to a position of readiness.
One of the friendlies, his electronic warfare ASP, eliminated the opponents’ ability to pierce his cloak. This granted him cover; the incoming destruction lost accuracy. The hostile ASPs jockeyed to adjust to the newcomers’ presences. The second friendly decimated the closest pod.
The drop pods behind him advanced on hovering jets to keep the circle closed, while pods to either side rotated and moved to corral him.
James and Evelyn had paralleled his trek to the west in the Rumbler after his departure. Pathfinder’s sensors easily detected the gunships and the ASPs, and Evelyn knew revealing themselves early could be a death sentence. When their ECM ASP made an appearance, Li was dropped near pod three. The Rumbler made a tight circle to target pod five, where it hovered within the treetops.
Malik cloaked and plunged into the midst of pod zero’s squad, tearing into them with tooth and claw. Lallis arrived by way of Jum to join the fray, while Drelas ported in and immediately attacked. The pod designated as seven stopped firing, a new combatant having entered combat, distracting them and adding new, heavy-weapon reports to the cacophony.
A friendly ASP delivered withering punishment into the flanks of another enemy sentinel, cutting it in half. The other friendly severed a second enemy ASP at the neck, and both of their targets erupted in a ball of reacting BELEN and shredded hull.
Voices called futilely into comms—the enemy communications were jammed. Evelyn noted the reduced combatants and signaled James to advance the hovercraft. Two of the Rumbler’s four rocket racks launched to pod five, and she used the hovercraft’s mobile cannon to strafe the survivors. James banked the craft to make another pass.
Li fired his portable rockets at pod three, hitting it square, shutting down the field generator, and shattering the cannon. He dropped the launcher and sprinted forward to eliminate the survivors.
The semiautonomous intelligences on the remaining ASPs detected the new opponents, rocketing across the field to circle back. Malik’s ASPs followed, crossing paths in pursuit. The first gunship’s crew detected the gunfire and turbulence of the cloaked craft and trailed, while the second gunship slipped to the right to cover the ground fight. Surmising the significance of the disruption, the second vessel’s commander directed intense fire to destroy everything around pod zero.
Malik, Drelas, and Lallis were no longer there—they had quickly escaped after Malik’s premonition of danger. Their next target was pod one, and Malik and Lallis bolted for it. Drelas ported to the gunner position, deprived the shooter of his head, and cleared their advance.
The guns
hip that destroyed pod one rotated, using visible turbulence and baseline sensors to track the approaching ASP, while the outside gunship closed on the other ASP. Pod seven defenders went silent.
Pod three was in turmoil; destruction soon entered their midst. Li dropped an interrupter grenade, silenced three people on the perimeter, and waded into the center, stabbing, shooting, and breaking. He was a typhoon for whom there was no answer.
Evelyn and James strafed pod five then circled away to avoid fire from squads at pods five and six. Another loop set pod six squarely before them, and their remaining rockets broke the drop pod in half. Strafing fire scattered the remaining fighters. The hovercraft flashed overhead, banked sharply starboard, then slipped to pound them again. Nearby, a new terror crashed into six’s squad, and sounds of new weapons and close-quartered combat followed.
Combat ended the allies’ invisibility. Although the ECM ASP inflicted critical damage on the sentinel it targeted, it was in turn battered by the pursuing gunship and consumed by fiery oblivion. The other friendly ASP shot down its prey after a dogged pursuit; it then banked to critically hobble the first damaged ASP.
Malik and his allies were now exposed, but for the men at pod one, their participation was short. He had drawn power from their pod, pulling enough to dampen the shield’s intensity, and when he arrived, he was able to shift his natural shield to pass through it. The collected energy was dispensed outward in an expanding arc of interrupter pulse to break their personal shields. Even as he landed among them from the front, Lallis was tearing into their unprotected forms from the side. Drelas teleported between them to ensure that the most dangerous shooters were neutralized.
A gunship detected the Rumbler, rotated, and then surged after the hovercraft when it darted away. The second gunship directed its armaments toward the final friendly ASP, but the target vertically climbed out of lock. It stalled, diving and plunging into the attacking gunship.
Their consuming fireball illuminated Malik’s passage toward pod two. Li killed the remaining foes at three and sprinted counter-clockwise around the defensive perimeter toward pod four. Pod six’s combat ended.