The TechRate laughed. “I can’t see Lieutenant Regidur allowing that, sir.”
“Nor can I, actually,” Harry admitted. “He’s too smart for that.” Harry stiffened when the display flashed briefly. “Is that the scan signal you were talking about?”
“That was it, sir!”
Harry brought up his connection with the ship.
“Beagle, lock on to the point I’m studying and scan the location of the signal at full power. Focus everything on it.”
“Will do,” Beagle replied.
“Right, the ship is about to go to full scanning power. Scan that area and log anything that appears.”
“Got you, sir. There! There it is. Shit! Sorry, sir, didn’t mean to curse. It’s gone again. But something else is showing up. Looks like one of ours. Seems it’s using that tech the Consortium used early on.” He adjusted his scanners. “I got him. It’s a large ship, Consortium type—one of their conversions, I think. He’s just gone to transit, sir.”
“Did the scanner get an image of the other contact?”
The TechRate adjusted his displays. “After a fashion, sir.” He stared at the screen. “It’s very strange, sort of egg-shaped but with bits sticking out—or stuck onto it.”
For reasons Harry couldn’t explain, he felt a chill run down his spine, and the hair on the nape of his neck stood up. He called up the holographic image of the drawing he’d made with the telescope. “Like this?”
The TechRate stared at the painting. “That’s him, sir. Look.”
“Contact Surveyor One and tell the team to come back now, no delays. They are to head straight back immediately. I’m going to see the Commander.”
“You’re absolutely sure of this, Mr. Heron?” The Captain asked, looking up from the tablet.
“Aye, sir. It’s out beyond the edge of the system, and it seemed to be trying to close the other ship that we spotted.”
“What do you think, Alexei? Is it the same one that tried to close on us at Vogon?”
The Commander stared at the two images. “Could be, sir, but somehow I don’t think so.” He turned to Harry. “Did it go into transit?”
Harry shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think it uses some sort of screening field to hide.” He frowned, thinking. “If it had made a transit singularity, I’m pretty sure our scanners would have noticed the power surge. They certainly did for the other ship.”
The Captain stared at the display for several minutes. “So, once again, we have a ship configured like one of the Consortium’s lost ships, plus an unknown stranger that seems to be just sitting out there watching us. And then we have a habitable planet totally devoid of all animal and avian life forms, and all major marine life as well, and there’s a ship of unknown origin that’s been totally stripped of anything resembling any sort of technology and all evidence of the life forms that might have built it.” He shook his head. “I don’t like mysteries. I want some answers, but first, I’m going to call again for support and further instructions. There’s too much resting on our exploration to just run away.”
“I agree, sir. Shall I get Fleet online?” The Commander frowned suddenly. “I forgot. That damned LPSL ship is due in a day or two. What are we going to do about them?”
“Nothing. Those are my instructions from Fleet. They can play shepherd to the derelict if they like, but they are not to interfere with it, put anyone aboard it, or land anyone on the planet.”
Mary retired to her hotel room. She was exhausted. The performance was demanding, but the audience was appreciative, and everything had gone very well. Even the post-concert interview with Monty Montaigne, at his wittiest and most charming, had been a success according to her manager. Now she could look forward to two days’ rest, then it was on to the next part of the tour. She smiled as her thoughts drifted to Harry. She wondered when she could expect a new package of letters from him. He still didn’t believe in using electronic message transfers for anything other than official purposes, and as far as she could work out, he only did so if he had no alternative. At least she’d managed to get him to use the hyperlink so that she could see him and talk to him once a month.
“Lights out, please,” she instructed the room controller as she sank into the comfortable bed and situated the pillows just the way she liked them. “Music, please—a selection of the Irish harp.”
There was a brief pause before the liquid tones of a folk song began. The music reminded her of Harry and their sweet night at home alone together in Ireland before he shipped out for his current assignment on the Beagle. Oh, how she yearned for him. “I love you so much, Harry,” she whispered aloud, and her thoughts reached out to him across the vast distance separating them.
Chapter 6
Brush with the Unknown
“Any signs of our stalkers, Mr. Heron?”
“No, sir.” Harry rose to greet Commander Polen. “We’ve seen nothing more of either contact, though I’ve had the ship doing random full power scans of the system just in case.”
“Good.” He waved Harry back into his seat and took a seat next to Harry’s display. “I just had another run-in with Dr. Palmer.” Polen grimaced. “He wants to carry out a search of the derelict ship we found. I’ve talked it over with the Captain, and we’ve agreed to let him have Surveyor Six for the purpose. I want you to detail a crew for it. I’m sending Korinna Hohenstein in command of the team. Make sure that she has a warrant officer with her who won’t let the doctor or his people do anything stupid.”
Harry nodded. He rather wished he could have charge of one of these expeditions, but he understood the Commander’s reasons for not sending him, particularly on this one. “No problem, sir. Warrant NicLiam will be best for this expedition, I think.” He grinned. “I gather she hasn’t much patience with men in general and the doctor in particular, sir.”
The Commander studied him a moment. “You don’t miss much, do you? You think it’s wise sending her?”
Harry grinned. “Wise? I expect we’ll get a long list of complaints from the doctor on his return, but she won’t allow him to get away with bullying her either.”
The Commander eyed Harry. “Make sure she knows that I won’t tolerate anything outside of strict Fleet orders and regulations.”
“I trust her, sir. She will make sure that everyone toes the line, and she’ll keep the doctor off Lieutenant Hohenstein’s back as well.”
“OK. I’ll trust your judgment on this. Now, what have we got from the surface?”
“The aerial scans are complete, sir. We have a full set of maps for all the continental landmasses and their environs. We also have all of the larger islands mapped, and all of the smaller ones and groups are located on the overall map. The geology teams have completed their primary tasks, and their labs are full of samples to be analysed. The Alien Cultures team are still examining the urban centres and have found some sites that appear to be either burials or cremations.” He looked up. “Dr. Palmer seems extremely pleased. He has found some inscriptions and is now happily engaged in deciphering them. Hopefully it will keep him out of everyone’s hair for a while.”
“So we’re about as far as we can go with our objectives for conducting a primary survey?”
“I think so, sir.” Harry hesitated. “It will require a number of years to fully examine everything here.”
“I sense a ‘but’ in there, Harry.”
Harry grinned. “Yes, sir. I’ve been following a lot of the analyses the science teams have uploaded into Beagle’s memory, sir. None of them seem to actually put their data together with anyone else’s. So they all have a small part of the picture, but none of them want to look outside their own expertise.”
The Commander frowned, nodding. “Yes, I’ve noticed this as well. The climatologists all bang on about temperature proxies, heat islands and weather patterns, while the xenobiologists rabbit on about biodiversity, and the ecologists talk about soils, flora and so on, but they might as well all be talking di
fferent languages.” He paused. “So what have you spotted?”
“The geologists said that these craters didn’t show rock fracturing beneath them, so I ran some scans, and they’re correct, sir—there is no rock fracturing beneath them, but then I heard the eco teams discussing the stunted growth of plant life around the craters. Apparently, their roots are affected by something in the soil. So I did some searches across the data and came up with this.”
Harry input a command, and some images displayed. For several minutes, the Commander studied the screen. He let out his breath in a long, low whistle. “So something has literally fried the soil in those craters. The changes in mineral composition suggest a sort of microwave burst.” He pondered this. “If that hit a big pocket of water, it would’ve flashed it to steam and caused a crater that looks just like that.” He looked at Harry. “You may just have something here, Harry. It doesn’t explain everything, but it could certainly explain those craters and perhaps give us a hint of what may have happened to the life forms there.”
“I did ask Dr. Knop if a steam eruption could generate enough force, sir, and he felt quite certain that it could, but only under the right conditions. He also suggested that a burst of plasma could generate sufficient heat to cause the same sort of patterns, so I ran a few more checks. As far as I can tell, the fusing of some of the soils and rocks in the craters suggests that plasma generated by a particle beam weapon, such as the primary weapon on our starships, is the most likely heat source, though it would have to have been more powerful. But there doesn’t seem to be much enthusiasm from any of the science teams to take this further.”
“I bet not.” The Commander grinned. “Admit that someone outside their specialist discipline could possibly make a useful contribution to unravelling a puzzle they might get research grants for? I should think not. File your thoughts on this as a report to the Captain, and copy your friend Dr. Knop and me. I should think that Dr. Klonowski might be interested as well.” He stood up. “Okay, get Surveyor Six detailed off, and remember what I said about Warrant NicLiam.”
Lieutenant Hohenstein was in command of the surveyor investigating the derelict ship. “Beagle, Surveyor Six is now in docking with the ship,” he reported. “Dr. Palmer and his team will be disembarking with the security detail.”
“Very good, Surveyor Six. Keep the comms channel open, and send in a camera to monitor activity.”
“Confirmed, Beagle. Dr. Palmer’s people don’t want the camera, but Warrant NicLiam has explained the need for it to the team leader.”
Captain Kretzmann stifled his bark of laughter. “I should think they wouldn’t want our camera.” He grinned. “It’ll be damned difficult to claim that our team ‘interfered’ with anything by altering the recording if they haven’t got control of it.”
“Anyone would think that you had experience with something like that, sir.” Commander Polen’s expression was innocent, though his eyes danced with amusement.
“I have. They stitched up one of my friends that way—doctored the record to take out the bit that showed the reason for his actions, and then made it appear that he’d acted entirely without provocation. They even rearranged some of the film to make his actions appear to have preceded the actual attack—and all that after he’d saved their lives taking the actions that he did. But to hear them tell the story, he provoked the attack.” He frowned. “It’s not going to happen on this trip. Make sure that the live feed from our camera is logged in the secure archives.”
“Count on it, sir. I’ve seen some of the interviews where their stooges set up Harry for an ambush.” He paused, his expression droll. “It’s a pity some of them can’t be made to face the conditions he had to deal with. A dose of reality always does types like this a world of good.” The Commander’s link chirped. “Go ahead.”
“Sir, we have an unidentified contact on scan.”
“Location?”
“Bearing three five seven positive elevation eighteen. The contact appears to be moving to close Planet Seven.”
All eyes now searched the position given on the command display. “There, sir. Something just occluded that small moon.”
“Ah! Got it.” He keyed his link. “Mr. Heron, are you timing the occlusion of that moon?”
“Aye, sir. It’s a very large object, but not as large as the one we encountered at Delta Whiskey Romeo one four seven seven.” He watched as the moon reappeared. “This one is about two-thirds as large. Definitely a ship, sir, and it’s changed direction.”
“Damn,” the Commander expostulated. “Surveyor Two is in the asteroid field between Planets Six and Seven.”
The Captain interjected. “Contact them and tell them to stay quiet. Everyone use essential systems until further notice, nothing more.” He hesitated before adding, “Contact Six as well. Warn them to avoid attention and to prepare for emergency recovery.” He waited until the orders were relayed, and then he contacted Engineering.
“This is the Captain.”
“Sir?”
“Han, get your people on the alert. I might need to move us in a hurry. Can we transit at short notice?”
“I need twenty minutes to get everything online, sir. We’ll get the pods hot to go at once.” As the link closed, Lieutenant Commander Xipao Han could be heard issuing orders, and Harry spoke. “The contact’s on the move, sir. It’s closing the asteroids.”
“Tell Surveyor Two to go as deep as she can. Take evasive action.”
“Surveyor Two, we have a possible hostile heading for your location. You are advised to go deep into a cluster so that he can’t follow. Try to keep something between you and him until we know what he intends.”
The Commander watched the flashing beacon on the display. “He’ll have to try dodging. There’s no way he can transit out of there at present.”
“Beagle, this is Two. We have the intruder on our visuals. I’ve never seen anything like it. Looks like something put together by a kid with a puzzle set and no plan or picture.” There was a pause. “Or something built out of scraps of everything the builder could find.”
Harry replied. “Turn on your recorders and link them to our archive database.”
“Done, sir—oh, hell, they didn’t like that. They’ve turned away—the target has entered transit, sir. At least that’s how our instruments interpret it.”
Harry looked dubious. “What do you mean?”
“We didn’t pick up the usual surge and interference we get when something transits, sir. It just, well, vanished.”
The Captain interjected. “Did you say it vanished?”
“Yes, sir. No power surge and no interference—it just disappeared.” The comms link remained active, but there was a pause. “Sir, that ship launched something at us just before it disappeared. Whatever it is, it’s now attached to our hull.”
The Captain glanced at the Commander. “Stay where you are. We’ll send someone to pick up you and your crew and bring you back. Park Surveyor Two where she is. I want to know what this thing is before I allow Two anywhere near Beagle.”
“People, we have a problem. Mr. Heron and his team have identified the device attached to Surveyor Two.” The Captain paused while a series of images appeared on the large screen in the conference room. “As you can see, it’s an unusual design. The outer shell appears to be a type of keratinous material, and it’s attached itself by integrating with the hull.” He paused. “Han, can you explain further?”
“Yes, sir.” The engineer officer zoomed the image. “Whatever this thing is, it has attached itself by melding its casing to the ship, effectively becoming a part of the hull. We don’t know whether it will attempt to access the onboard systems, but so far, it has not done so. We think that it might remain dormant until activated, or perhaps it’s waiting until it’s brought aboard a larger ship.”
“Thank you, Han. Surveyor Two will remain where it is until we know who or what these strangers are and what they want. Until then, we must assume the
y are potentially hostile, and therefore, avoid provocation or contact. I’ve been in contact with Fleet Command. We will be joined by a squadron any day now, and probably by the LPSL’s Galactic Shepherd.” He grimaced. “I could do without them, but as soon as the cruiser gets here, they’re the SFO’s problem.” He turned to Harry. “Can you get the Beagle to tell you if that thing tries to access Two’s systems?”
“Aye, sir. I will do so.” He paused to think then nodded. “Beagle understands, sir. He can monitor Two for any anomalies without exposing his own systems.”
“Good. Record everything, please.” The Captain stood. “We’ll continue to examine the cities on Planet Four. Dr. Palmer and his people can keep searching for the inhabitants.” His eyes swept the other officers. “Korinna, did your visit to the derelict turn up anything new?”
“Not much, sir. Some sort of glyphs on a bulkhead in an area where there was evidence of weapons damage. They appeared to have been scrawled in a hurry, like graffiti, and we only found them by accident.”
“Any translation yet?”
“Negative, sir. Dr. Palmer’s busy, but these are a new type altogether, and without any sort of reference point, we reckon it could take centuries to decipher them unless we can find a link to what they have on the planet.”
“Not much hope there then!” He waited while the group chuckled. “Okay, keep everyone alert, and log, record and report everything unusual. I’m not sure what we’re up against here, but until we know, I’m assuming a hostile contact.”
Chapter 7
Friend or Foe
“We have a ship in drop-out, sir,” reported the TechRate on the scan arrays.
“Identity?”
“Unconfirmed, sir. Her transponder gives an unrecognisable ID.”
The Captain studied the newcomer’s image. “Looks like a freighter, but she’s got a few modifications to her hull. Those look like weapons pods.”
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