Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3: The Rising Storm

by Doug Dandridge

  The duplicate Lucille let out a cry and ran over to the box, and at the same time Lucille sent a signal through the com to Callahan. The duplicate cried out again as she reached for the box, and pulled an arm back that was missing some skin that had contacted negative protons. A confused look was on the woman’s face, and she looked around for a moment.

  A loud explosion sent the heavy blast door into the room, blowing it off its hinges. The woman turned around, her face contorting in pain while the door flew through the center of the room and struck the opposite wall. With a snarl she turned, raising the particle beam pistol to aim at the control panel, and Lucille felt her throat constrict as she thought that they still might fail.

  The double staggered, and Lucille was sure that sonics were being played over her body. She fired her pistol, just missing the top of the control panel, and started to pull the weapon back down, fighting the stunners. A trio of shots erupted from the chest of the double, and Lucille cried out as she saw what seemed herself being killed, the body landing on the control panel, then sliding down to the floor.

  “Let’s go,” yelled Chung, grabbing her arm and pulling her from the lab. As soon as she regained her wits she started running, the agent pulling her along. She looked at the clock in her head and cried out again. They were down to two minutes.

  The Marines made way while she approached, and she ran to the panel that would allow her to log into the system, trying to avoid looking at the body on the floor and failing. She cried out again as she saw the wound on the creature's arm, a deep gash where negative matter had negated the flesh. At the bottom of that wound was material of a graying cast which did not look anything like human tissue.

  “Lucille,” said Chung, pulling her toward the panel. “We don’t have a lot of time.”

  Yu nodded and went to work on the board, allowing to panel to read her DNA and her fingerprints, then giving it a voice sample. It seemed to take forever, and for a moment she was ready to panic as she realized that the imposter had locked the system down. Then the computer accepted her override codes and the system came up.

  In the center of the control room a holo faded in, showing the station in relation to the hole. A cursory glance showed the structure tilted, and the surface was very near to a red line that indicated the point where the grabbers would not be able to recover.

  “Come on, you bitches,” cried Lucille as she committed the grabber units to pushing and pulling at the station. The units were massive, and there were many of them, but the station was also massive. The grabbers started activating, those closest to the hundred wormhole links starting first and the others in sequence as the commands moved out. There had been some people who thought the station wormholes should have waited until others had been made for travel. Lucille had not been among those, and now she was glad that her side prevailed.

  The station shook underneath her feet, slightly at first and building to a deep rumbling as ether paddles fought the gravitational pull of the hole. Yu could feel the pull increase beneath her, and looking at the schematic realized that this section of the station was closest to the point source that was the black hole. They might rotate out enough to avoid being sucked in when that time came, or they might be compressed to nothing.

  The shaking continued to increase, and the schematic on the holo slowed in its movement toward the dead line. It was still moving forward, and she ordered more power into the grabbers, realizing that too much might pull the station apart as well. But I’d rather go doing something that might save us than not doing enough, and still falling in, she thought.

  She looked around the control room, to see faces filled with fear looking at her as if she were their last hope. Which she was. She applied just a little bit more power, knowing that any more would rip the station apart, and checked the timer. Crap. Thirty seconds and we’re all dead. But the motion continued to slow, then stopped. And slowly, ever so slowly, the station began to move out from the hole, its orbit shifting from ellipsoid to circular.

  Lucille let out a breath, looking at the faces that were watching the schematic and now smiling. They know they’re going to live, she thought, setting the computer for station keeping, letting it smooth out the transition back to a stable orbit.

  The Director wiped the sweat from her face and smiled at Chung. “Good job,” said the Agent. “But next time, I wish you would not wait until the last minute.”

  Callahan walked up, also smiling. “So what the hell did you do to take out that device?”

  Lucille explained to the officer about quantum teleportation, and the man stood there for a minute digesting the implications. “That could make a hell of a weapon in space,” said the officer.

  “Not if you were trying to beam a functioning weapon,” said Lucille, shaking her head. “Ramirez thought of that, and not enough is guaranteed to reach the target area.”

  “There are weapons, and there are weapons,” said the Captain, his expression contemplative.

  Like antimatter, she was thinking. The navy could teleport antimatter into the hull of an enemy, and even if only thirty percent made it, it would still make a terrible weapon. Lucille thought about that for a moment, then about the enemies they faced, and realized that a terrible weapon was just what they needed.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Hyperspace does not like us. By us, I mean normal matter. Normal matter does not exist in hyperspace, in none of the dimensions. The physical laws of the space do not allow for the existence of protons, neutrons, electrons, and the constructs they form, atoms. The same holds true for the antiparticles, antimatter and negative matter. Hyperspace cannot tolerate them, and will throw them from its substance as violently as possible.

  The Science of Hyperspace.

  HYPER VII BATTLE CRUISER JEAN DE ARC, HYPERSPACE NEAR CONUNDRUM SYSTEM, APRIL 13THAND 14TH, 1000.

  “I’m picking up hyper resonances, ma’am,” called out the Sensor Chief.

  Jean de Arc was almost a wreck in space. She was still travelling at point eight light through hyper IV. The Captain had debated decelerating, but that would have used up energy, and that meant antimatter. And any use of antimatter meant less time in hyper.

  “What do you make of it, Chief?”

  “It’s traveling in VI,” said the Chief. “Standard Imperial hyperdrive, and I’m guessing in the ten million ton range. Probably a heavy freighter, or a liner.”

  “Any way we can contact them, Lieutenant?” she asked the Com Officer.

  “We could try a gravity pulse, ma’am,” said the officer. “They are close enough to pick them up, but I’m not sure how they will respond.”

  “What about it, Hernandez?” she asked over the com, knowing that the engineer would respond. Since the last battle in hyper the officer had spent almost every minute in engineering control, keeping a close watch on all aspects of the ships power and propulsion systems.

  “It’s a risk, ma’am,” said the Engineer. “I hate to shake the systems up too much, but I don’t see any choice in the matter.”

  “Do it, Lieutenant,” said Mei to the Com Officer.

  The lieutenant nodded her head and started to work at her console. The lights dimmed for a moment, then pulsated as the officer transmitted a simple code by gravity wave. She went through a complete message cycle, telling the other ship who they were, and what problems they were having. After sending that info she went through the cycle three more times.

  “I think that’s enough, Rebecca,” said the Captain. “Any change in their status, chief?” she asked the Sensor Chief.

  “No ma’am. They’re maintaining same course and speed.”

  “I guess I can’t really blame them,” said the Captain, shaking her head.

  And hour later, while Mei was in her ready room with her XO going over another possibility of attracting attention, the com link buzzed.

  “We have another problem here, Ma’am,” came the voice of the Chief Engineer over the com.

  My G
od, what the Hell now? “What is it, Hernandez?”

  “We’re losing containment in reactor two, ma’am,” said the Engineer in a hushed voice.

  “How long?” asked the Captain, remembering that two was the only reactor they had left, the other having gone right after their catastrophic translation.

  “Could be any time,” said the Engineer, keeping his voice down. “Four hours at most.”

  “What about the backup fusion reactors?”

  “We can get some power out of them, ma’am. But nowhere near as much as from the MAM reactor. Adding in the batteries will give us about five hours before we drop below the power threshold and drop back to normal space.”

  “You jettison that reactor whenever you think we need to, Engineer,” said the Captain, hoping for the maximum and pretty sure she wasn’t going to get it. “I’m putting that part of the operation in your hands. I trust you to do it right.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Hernandez out.”

  “You heard,” said the Captain, turning to her exec, who was sitting beside her.

  “How could I not,” said Jackson, his normally cheerful face full of worry. “We don’t have a hope, do we?”

  “We always have a hope,” said Mei, forcing herself to smile. “Even if it’s the hope to survive another catastrophic translation.”

  “Not very realistic,” said Jackson, trying to smile, and failing.

  “Neither was the first one, XO. As the prisoner was supposed to have said, maybe we’ll teach the horse to sing.”

  “Not sure I’ve heard that one,” said the Exec.

  “Maybe later I’ll tell it to you. But remember, we can get out of this. After all we have been through, I don’t think God is going to wipe us off the playing board.”

  “I’m an agnostic, Captain,” said the Exec, a smile finally forming on his face.

  “I’ll just believe enough for both of us, XO,” said the Captain. “You just have faith in me.”

  “Always have, Captain,” said Jackson. “Always have.”

  “I’m ejecting the reactor, ma’am,” said the voice of Hernandez over the com. “Everyone is out of the reactor vessel.”

  Thank God for that, thought the Captain, remembering that she had lost her chief engineer when she had to eject the other reactor.

  “Ejecting now,” said the Engineer, and the ship shook for a moment as hull panels were retracted and a hundred thousand tons of reactor was ejected outward. The desk holo faded in and showed the process from the hull skin, as the great vesicle flew out of the ship, hitting the edge of the hyper field. The matter of the reactor glowed for a moment as it entered the hyperspace that detested its presence. And then it started to fade away and come apart at the same time. There was the briefest flash of an explosion that might have destroyed the ship if it had lasted, and then it was gone.

  “That worked out well,” said Jackson, looking from the holo to his Captain. “I was afraid it might blow while it was still close to the ship.”

  “It was a risk, but less so than letting it blow while it was still in the ship.”

  “So we have five hours,” said Jackson, looking down at the floor. “What should we do with them?”

  “Figure out how to add another five hours on top of that, then some more.”

  But no matter how they put their heads together the pair could not come up with a plan to give them more time, and it seemed like the Universe was finally putting paid to their account.

  An hour later the Sensor Chief was on the com. “I’m picking up a ship coming from astern, Captain. It’s closing at point eight five light and accelerating.”

  “Whose ship, Chief?”

  “It’s definitely one of ours, ma’am,” said the NCO. “Hyper VI battle cruiser, from the resonances.”

  “Navigator. How long will it take them to catch us and match velocities?”

  “About seven hours ma’am,” said the Navigation Officer. “Give or take a half hour.”

  “That’s damned close,” said Jackson, now back at CIC, over the com. “Too damn close. Most probably too much time.”

  “Captain,” said the Chief Engineer, breaking in on the conversation. “I have an idea.”

  “Can it save my ship?”

  “I don’t think it will save the ship, Captain,” said the Engineer. “But it might save us.”

  “Then let’s get to work,” said Mei. “Give me what you have.”

  * * *

  “It’s definitely an Imperial ship,” said the Sensor Officer, looking back at her Captain. “Resonances match the baseline of an Imperial warship, but it’s off somehow.”

  “It’s a damaged hyperwave projector,” chimed in the Chief Engineer from his control deck. “It’s amazing they’re even able to stay in hyper at all.”

  “Do they know we’re here?” asked Captain Jon Sue of the HIMS Baron Pepperdine, studying the plot that showed them gaining on the other ship. “And if so, why aren’t they trying to match velocities with us? Com. Send a grav wave code to that ship. Find out who they are, and what is wrong with their ship.”

  The Com Officer worked his board for several minutes before shaking his head. “They don’t answer, Captain. Could be their com systems are down.”

  “Helmsman. I want our best speed to that ship, and matching velocities at the earliest.”

  “What if it’s a trap, sir?” said Commander Magda Mustafa from CIC. “They could be luring us in to get a good shot at us.”

  “I don’t think so, XO,” said the Captain, shaking his head. “They were plowing through IV way before we got into detection range of them. The freighter reported that they sent a distress signal.”

  “Maybe the better to sucker us in, Captain,” said Mustafa. “I know. It’s unlikely. But it’s my job to give you my thoughts.”

  “We’ll be careful, XO,” said the Captain with a smile. “In fact, I want every weapon fully charged and ready before we sight that ship. If it is a trap, they’ll find they trapped a tiger by its tail.”

  * * *

  It took two and a half hours, more than she had wanted to spend, but what it took. A thousand crew used laser cutters to slice through armor and supports, while several hundred more placed explosive charges in the areas most critical to their plan. At the same time the engineering crew was working on making the hyper field do something it really wasn’t designed to do. And then all was in readiness.

  “You sure this is going to work, ma’am?” asked Jackson, standing beside his captain as she sat her chair, waiting for the process to begin.

  “No guarantees, XO. Hernandez thinks it will work, and he knows a hell of a lot more about hyperdrive projectors than the two of us combined.”

  The Captain looked at the holo, showing the Chief Engineer in the engineering control center, working on the control board ahead of him. “Just another minute, Captain,” said Hernandez, his brow furrowed in thought. “If I don’t get this right we might implode in the field, or drop out of hyper in a manner we don’t want.”

  “Take your time, Mr. Hernandez,” said Mei, though she really wanted to tell the man to hurry the hell up. The clock was ticking, but it would do no good to rush the man into a mistake.

  “We’re ready,” said the Chief Engineer, looking up from the control board.

  “Then go, Mr. Hernandez.” Mei closed her eyes and said a quick prayer, then opened them to look at the holo representation of her heavily damaged ship.

  “Proceeding with the program, now.” The Engineer hit the commit button and things started happening faster than a human could process.

  The charges went off all over the bow and stern areas of the ship, weakening the hull and supports that had already been partially cut by lasers. Other charges went off along the sides of the hull, loosening great sheets of armor plate, grabber units, laser rings, anything not needed to keep life support going in the habitable sections, the functioning of the fusion reactors, the crystal matrix batteries, and of course, the one worki
ng hyperdrive projector.

  Mei could feel the rumbling through the hull, and wanted to cry at the destruction of her beautiful ship. But the ship is going to be destroyed anyway, when we finally drop out of hyper, and this at least gives us a chance for survival.

  Part two of the plan went off like the tick of a clock, one second after all of the charges detonated. The hyper projector started to change its resonance, collapsing the field to a point closer to the center than it had been programed to attain. Suddenly, almost half the mass of the ship was outside the hyper field. Immediately it experienced the ejection of the mass from hyper back to normal space. Under normal circumstances it would have pulled the rest of the ship with it. With weakened supports the mass was ripped away and ripped apart, to come to rest in normal space as wreckage and fast moving particles.

  The Captain clenched her fists as her vessel shuddered beneath her like a dying animal. For a moment she feared they had not weakened the attachments enough. It was, after all, an unknown process they were attempting. All the crew were in their battle armor, batteries and consumables fully charged, with the exception of those too seriously injured to perform their duties. Those were in cryo stasis tubes. And if the other ship didn’t get to them in time that would not matter a bit, as they would all be ripped apart, along with their dying ship.

  “She’s steadying, ma’am,” called out the Chief Engineer, his face showing his relief. “I think she’s going to make it.”

  The ship shuddered again, then shook like it was caught in a planetary quake. The Engineer’s face showed panic, and the Captain wondered if they were all going to die after all. After a few moments the shaking stopped, and the ship smoothed out.

  “As I said, ma’am, the ship is smoothing. And we should be able to stay in hyper for an additional two hours.”

  And I hope that’s enough, thought the Captain, hiding her thoughts as she smiled at the Engineer.

  * * *

  “Catastrophic translation ahead,” said the Sensor Officer, her brow narrowed.