by Geoff North
An exceptionally hard thud behind them shook the cabin. Canis moaned weakly. Sulafat looked over his shoulder and saw the door was still solidly locked into the wall. Fortunately, cockpit cabins were the most secure areas of ships in more than one civilization throughout the galaxy. The captain turned quickly back to Emin. “This is an alien prisoner transport ship. Perhaps you’re not just looking at Pegan languages.”
Emin was continuing to cycle through blocks of varying shapes, squiggles, dots, and patterns. “My thoughts exactly, Captain. I think they’ve been collecting dozens of extraterrestrial transmissions over the centuries. Why they’re storing them into the computers of their ships is beyond my—”
He pulled his hand away from the control suddenly, as if a shock had jumped out from the dial. Before them was an instantly recognizable series of letters arranged in single-line sentences. “English, Captain! They have English in here!”
IMPROPER LANDING DETECTED
PLEASE PROCEED TO NEAREST EXIT POINT
ENSURE CREW / PASSENGER SAFETY
EXIT VESSEL CAUTIOUSLY
CONTACT SHIP MANUFACTURER WITH COMPLAINTS / SUGGESTIONS
THANK YOU FOR TRAVELING WITH PREEGUS
Sulafat sighed. “I had hoped it might be something a little more… dramatic.”
Emin experimented with more controls, and the readout changed.
ALT. 1255
AMSTAT. 330.05 (27.96)
XT: -54.7
IT: 16.2
“Global positioning?”
“Perhaps,” Sulafat answered. “The other figures could be atmospheric conditions, temperatures maybe. Keep working at it. You might figure out how to send a distress signal.”
“There’s no one out there to receive it, Captain.”
“Then we’ll send out a farewell,” he growled. “It may take fifty or sixty years to reach Earth, but at least someone, someday, will know what happened to us.”
The cockpit seats shook as the creatures rammed against the door. The motion seemed to rouse Canis out of his slumber. He propped himself up on one elbow and tried to speak. “Talk… talk.”
Sulafat tried to ease him back down. “Easy, Wez. Save your strength.”
“No… talk.”
“It’s no use.” Emin threw up his hands in defeat. “We can now read what the computers are telling us, but there’s no way to understand what controls what. It could take days to figure out how to do something as simple as sending a message out.”
Canis was clawing his way up to the controls, resisting the captain’s efforts to make him lay back. “Talk… talk to the goddamn thing.”
“You think it’s voice activated?” Sulafat asked.
Canis nodded frantically, and finally slumped back into the co-pilot’s seat.
Emin shrugged. “I suppose it doesn’t get much simpler than that.” He took a deep breath, and gave it a try. “Computer, send message.”
The screen readout changed from global coordinates and temperatures to a two-word instruction:
DICTATE MESSAGE:
Emin looked helplessly at the captain with an expression that read—I don’t know what to say.
Sulafat cleared his throat and said the words for all three of them. “To anyone out there that receives this message…”
In less than a minute, he went on to tell what had become of the Ambition hostages—from the moment they’d left the Pegan system, to their final hours trying to escape from Alderamin 4. He paused near the end, placed a hand on Emin’s shoulder, and added, “Squadron Boss Wez Canis, and General Tor Emin especially, deserve to be remembered for their exceptional bravery… End of message.”
MESSAGE RECIPIENT / DESTINATION:
“To Earth, third planet of the Sol star system.”
MESSAGE SENT
Emin rested a hand over the captain’s. “Damn nice of you to say, sir. It is more than I deserve.”
The console buzzed.
MESSAGE UNDELIVERABLE
CAUSE: PLANETARY SHIELDING PREVENTS RELEASE OF UNAUTHORIZED TRANSMISSIONS
YOUR MESSAGE WILL BE DELIVERED WITH PROPER AUTHORIZATION / PLANETARY SHIELDING DEACTIVATION
Canis groaned. Emin cursed.
Sulafat sat back into his chair. “So much for posterity.”
The pounding behind them continued. The door was slowly beginning to buckle in.
Chapter 41
Every department control section on the bridge of Retribution was empty. All her remaining command officers, and the two highest-ranking from Ambition, were at the tactics table, studying the three-dimensional display of a massive spheroid revolving slowly above its surface.
Commander Edmund was the only one not seated. He was walking around the others, still trying to convince them that the only way to destroy Alderamin 4 was by taking out its primary source of power—the Alderamin sun itself.
“We can’t do this,” Vin argued. “Centuries ago, our people set out to wipe away a civilization. In the last few days, your ship has destroyed an entire planet. Now you want to extinguish a star? I’d ask what you have planned after that, but I can’t even imagine anything… bigger.”
Major Weldheim brushed her outrage off with a wave of his hand. “As far as stars go, Alderamin isn’t that large. It’s a main sequence star, generating approximately half the energy of Sol, but even a monarch detonation at her center still wouldn’t be enough to disrupt it.”
“The commander hasn’t suggested a single missile,” SIC Barret said. “We’d send all nine remaining monarchs into it.”
Weldheim nodded. “That would do it. Simultaneous monarch detonation coupled with the star’s active fusion process will create enough energy to achieve instability. The star isn’t massive enough to go nova, but it would tear apart. Anything living on the planet’s surface facing the explosion would be wiped away.”
Edmund spoke. “The planet’s shielding may be capable of neutralizing our weapons, but it wouldn’t be able to withstand that much energy hitting it. Alderamin 4 would tear up along with its sun.”
Weldheim corrected him. “The shielding would fail, but most of the planet would remain intact. Its atmosphere and outer crust would vanish. If that doesn’t instantly kill all life, the radiation will finish any surviving Hunn shortly after.”
CS Vir had remained silent while the Retribution officers discussed species extinction. She’d heard enough, and pleaded to her captain. “Ras, talk them out of this. This entire system will die without its sun.”
“I think we should go through with it, Vin. The other three planets are dead, and the life on this one…” He rubbed at the scars on his cheek. “Isn’t worth saving.”
She wanted to bat his hand back down to the table. She wanted to scream. Vin held her silence instead, and looked at the grim faces seated around her. Their minds had already been made up.
“It’s settled,” Edmund said. “If we launch the weapons now, how long until they reach the star’s center?”
Marie Mara gave him the information. “At point nine lightspeed, the monarchs will detonate in twenty-three minutes. We’ll have less than nineteen minutes after that before the first wave of solar debris hits the planet.”
“We won’t be here when that happens, helm-master,” Edmund replied. “In forty-two minutes, you’ll have taken us back through that rift.”
Vin glared at him. “And the Alderamin system will be no more.”
The commander ignored her. “SIC Barret, go to weapons section and launch the monarchs into the Alderamin star.”
Chapter 42
The shuttle had docked at the refuelling station in high Mars orbit. Loke and Charm were already beginning to recover from their ordeal on the planet’s surface. They had eaten, they were warm, but they weren’t happy, and neither was their mother. The family stared hatefully at the man seated in the bench across from them.
August Hegstad smiled back at them. “Why all the long faces? I could’ve just as easily left you down there.” He p
ointed to the bloody bandage on the side of his head. “After this, I should’ve.”
“I wanna go back for Lucky,” Charm blurted out.
“That cat?” The big grin dropped a bit. “Lucky’s lucky I didn’t stomp his goddamned guts out in the dirt.”
Tarrace leaned forward between the twins and spoke in a calm voice. “You have what you want. The revolution has ended. There’s no need to keep frightening the children.”
“Yeah, I gotta quit being so insensitive. Don’t worry about that fur-ball, sweetie. He’ll eventually work his way into Deimos City’s subterranean sections when it gets too cold to stay up top. There’ll be enough stale air and rotten food down there to last him months. Poor thing will have it pretty rough, though, fighting for scraps from all the other feral kitties and dogs left behind.”
Charm started to cry.
“You bastard,” Tarrace whispered.
The door to the cockpit slid open. Kent Ducette called to him. “Shuttle’s fueled and ready for the next leg of our trip, Magistrate.”
Hegstad’s eyes never left the grieving family in front of him. “Excellent. Let’s get these people where they’re supposed to go.” There was a slight shudder as the shuttle disembarked from the station and headed out for deeper space. “You kids want to see something neat?”
The children didn’t answer him. August shrugged, and pressed a button located on the armrest of his bench. A monitor dropped out from the cabin ceiling. Mars filled the display. Its jagged mountain ranges and endless plains of red dust and rocks slowly started to recede.
Hegstad stood and tapped on the screen. “Not the planet… up here in the corner… wait for it… There! Isn’t that one of the prettiest things you ever seen?” The moon of Phobos came into view, tumbling between Mars and the departing shuttle.
“It isn’t pretty,” Loke said. “Looks like a dirty old potato.”
Hegstad sat again. “Hey, it’s going to be a long trip. I thought maybe a little visual stimulation would be appreciated.”
“Wish I still had that gun,” Loke snapped back at him. “I’d shoot you right in that stupid mouth of yours.”
Tarrace dug her fingernails into his arm. “Be quiet.”
“Yeah, that’s right, mom,” Hegstad said. “Keep that little shit under control. We wouldn’t want to see him end up like his uncle Jonas.” He grinned again at the reactions on their faces. “Oh, I forgot to mention what happened at the Pavonis facility. We ran in to a little more resistance there than we did at Deimos City… Jonas Edmund was killed.”
It took all Tarrace’s will not to lunge at the man. “You’ll pay for what you’ve done. I swear the entire Mars government will answer for their crimes when we get to Earth.”
“Earth? Whatever gave you the impression we were headed there?”
Chapter 43
“The planet’s shields have dropped,” Weldheim announced.
Edmund wasn’t at all surprised, in fact, he’d silently anticipated it. “That thing’s still inside the ship’s computers. It knows what we’re attempting.”
“Revenge?” Barret suggested. “Are they going to try and take us out before the planet’s destroyed?”
“I don’t think so, SIC. That shield was their greatest defense. They don’t have the firepower to take us on.”
Barret stood up from his stool. “They’re going to make a run for it, aren’t they?”
Simmons called out from navigation. “Three vessels have just appeared in the planet’s upper atmosphere!”
Edmund almost smiled. “It seems escape from a fiery end is exactly what they have in mind. Lock onto their coordinates, and launch three nightfalls in their path.
“A moment, Commander,” Weldheim said. “Incoming transmission.”
“We’re through talking to these bastards,” Barret yelled. “Do as your told!”
“It isn’t from the Hunn ships—it’s coming from the planet’s surface.” Weldheim’s face went white. He stared at Captain Drac and CS Vir. “My God… you’re going to want to hear this.”
Ly Sulafat’s voice filled the bridge. Tears started to roll down Vin’s cheeks as they learned what had become of Ambition’s hostage crew. She threw her arms around Rastaban’s shoulders and hugged him tight when the message ended. “They’re here. Some of them survived… our captain’s still alive.”
Drac wasn’t at all hurt to hear her say our captain. It was a position he’d never wanted in the first place. He hugged her back twice as hard. “We’ll find them, we’ll bring them back.”
“To hell with that,” Barret said. “We have to go after those Hunn vessels.
Weldheim interrupted again. “Another transmission, commander. It’s Nash on Ambition. He says he’s less than four minutes away.”
Edmund rubbed his temples with the tips of his fingers. Between Retribution, the men stranded on the planet’s surface below, and the ancient ship heading towards them, it felt as if the entire human civilization was converging on the one spot none of them wanted to be in the next few minutes. “Let’s hear what the robot has to say.”
“Forgive the intrusion, Commander Edmund, but I’ve heard everything you and the others have been discussing. I will retrieve Captain Sulafat and the others. Take your ship and go after the Hunn vessels.”
“Ambition doesn’t have an operable fold drive,” Drac pointed out. “Even if you get them off the planet, that ship won’t have time to clear the blast radius.”
“That is true, but I am working on a plan. Trust me on this, Captain. I can make it work.”
“How long until the monarchs reach that star?” Edmund asked.
“Less than two minutes now,” Weldheim answered.
The commander turned to Drac and Vir. “Can Nash do what he says? Is he that capable?” They nodded without hesitation. “Very well then. Let’s go after the Hunn.”
Helm-master Mara engaged Retribution’s fold drive to maximum, and the mighty ship surged ahead. “They’re headed for the rift. We’re gaining on them, Commander. We’ll be within firing range in under seven minutes.”
Ambition passed under Retribution a hundred thousand kilometers away, headed straight for Alderamin 4. Edmund watched the tiny light representing the ancient ship fade on the screen. There was no possibility of Nash conducting a rescue mission, and pulling that ship away in time. Drac and Vir were deluding themselves to think otherwise. That decision would be theirs to deal with.
The bridge fell silent for the next few minutes as Retribution continued cutting the distance to its targets. Finally, Mara gave the word. “We’re within range.”
SIC Barret replaced Weldheim at weapons control. “Allow me the honor, Fredrik.”
Edmund waited for the science major to return to his section, and then asked. “Is that Hunn monster still in control of Ada’s audio functions?”
“Yes, Commander.”
He pressed a button on the tactics table, allowing the computer system to speak again. “Hunn Prime, this is… how did you put it earlier? Oh, yes… this is your adversary. I don’t believe it’s necessary to show you on our screen again, is it? I’m quite sure you’re on one of the three ships heading for that rift.”
“Don’t so sound so smug, Alexander. You may have destroyed the Hunn home system, but our empire’s reach is vast. You know this won’t end here. The Hunn civilization will continue to spread its influence in the Pegan system, the Sol system, and far beyond.”
“I know the Hunn will try. It’s my belief they’ll fail. One thing I do know for certain—you won’t be there to see it. SIC Barret, fire the nightfalls.”
“About goddamned time.” Barret threw the switch.
A few moments later, the unshielded vessels blew apart on the battle screen. The brilliant flashes had barely begun to fade away when CS Vir asked. “Do we still have time to help Nash and the others?”
“The system’s star has already blown apart,” Weldheim said. “In a few more minutes, the surface of A
lderamin 4 will be fried. Anything nearby will burn with it.”
“Take us into the rift, Mara,” Edmund instructed. He looked sadly at the Ambition officers. “Whatever Nash’s plan is… he’ll have to carry it out without our assistance.”
Chapter 44
Sulafat dragged Canis back towards the cockpit entrance, closer to the six-inch claws slicing through the padded insulation and wires. Even with the beating and bending it had sustained, the metal door was still in one piece. Unfortunately, the frame holding it all together had started to split apart at the top and along the one side.
The squadron boss cried out as Sulafat dropped him in the corner of the cabin not yet buckling inwards. The fused flesh below his knee had split open, and blood was slowly beginning to trickle out of the wound. “Sorry, Wez. I tried to be as careful as I could.”
“Don’t be,” Canis gasped. “The pain’s waking me up. I’m ready… for whatever comes next.”
“You sure you want to do this, Captain?” Emin squeezed his big form between the two and sank down for maximum protection. He pointed the rifle towards the cockpit window and steadied his aim directly at the crack in the reinforced glass four meters away. “A couple of really unpleasant things might happen when I pull this trigger. First, I punch a hole through the glass, and the cockpit ceiling caves in from the snow’s weight overhead. Second, I miss that crack a centimeter to the left or right, and a spark ignites the methane sitting in the cabin.”
A meter-long section of door framing fell across the captain’s legs. A massive arm worked its way through the widening crack. Sulafat kicked the material away, and shifted his body to the left. “I prefer the first scenario we decided on—you blasting a hole through that window big enough for each of us to climb through.”
“Not sure how long we’ll survive out there. Even if we get away from the things on the other side of this door, these environment suits won’t keep us warm forever.”