“They fell out of hyper?” asked Sue, his eyes widening.
“Another translation,” said the Sensor Officer. “Not large enough to be the vessel we are chasing. Only a half million tons. Another one.”
“Are they falling out of hyper a bit at a time?” asked the Captain, looking at his Engineer in the repeater screen.
“I’ve never heard of that, Captain,” said the Chief Engineer. “It’s always been an all or nothing proposition.”
“Still picking up hyper resonances ahead, sir,” called out the Sensor Tech. “Somewhat reduced from before, but still there.”
“So whatever happened, most of their vessel is still there,” said Sue, shaking his head. “But I’m betting they won’t be there long. Helm. How long till we catch and match velocities?”
“One hour, forty-one minutes, sir.”
“Do you want to tank, sir,” asked Mustafa. “We could cut ten minutes off that time.”
Sue thought it over for a minute. It would be risky approaching an unknown while the crew was in the tanks. “No. We’ll just have to chance it without the tanks.”
“Keep a close ear on them, Chief,” ordered the Captain over the com. “Let me know if anything changes. Anything at all.”
* * *
“What the hell now?” cried the Captain as the bridge lights dimmed, then died, then came back on with the emergency power. The ship shook and shuddered for a moment, then smoothed out. “Talk to me Chief Engineer. What’s happening?”
“The power feeds have taken too much damage, ma’am,” called out Hernandez over the com ,among a burst of static. “And there’s nothing we can do about it at this time, except what I have already done, switching the power feed to the backup relays. The primaries need a complete rebuild. Something the nanites can’t accomplish in less than four hours.”
The ship shuddered again, and the artificial gravity went off for a second, came back on at triple the norm, then off again. “Can she hold up for another couple of hours?”
“Unknown, ma’am,” replied Hernandez. “I have my people working on rerouting everything we can. But we also have another problem, ma’am.”
“Christ, not another one?”
“Afraid so, Captain. The stern fusion reactor is overheating. The cooling system was damaged when we jettisoned the rest of the ship. I’m afraid she could melt down any minute now.”
“And then we’re fucked,” said Jackson, looking up from the station he was manning.
“And then we’re surely fucked, sir,” said the Engineer. “One reactor will only charge the batteries at half the rate of two. We’ll soon not have enough power to keep the hyperdrive projector going, and it’s back into normal space for us.”
“In pieces,” whispered Mei, closing her eyes tight, visualizing the half a ship coming apart through the transition. She opened her eyes and looked at the Engineer in the holo. “I didn’t bring us this far to lose us now. Find a way to give us some more time, Hernandez. Or this will go on your report.”
“I’ll try, Captain,” said the Engineer with a grim smile. “I’ll try.”
“This is the Captain speaking,” said Mei over the ship wide intercom. “All instruments not needed for the absolute minimum operation of this vessel are to be turned off. That includes life support and gravity, as well as lighting in areas where it is not essential. All portable devices and weaponry are to be brought to recharging stations for draining back into the grid. Let’s move, people, if you want to be alive for that rescue vessel to catch us.”
“If they are a rescue vessel,” said Jackson.
“They have to be,” said the Captain. She shrugged her shoulders and looked at her Exec. “If they’re someone else, here to destroy us, they just might have to wait in line.”
* * *
“We have a visual, sir.”
Captain Sue glanced up from his side screen to look at the main viewer, which was now showing an extreme view of the ship they were following. Extreme being a relative term, as hyperspace did not allow the electromagnetic radiation they were used to using in normal space to exist for more than ten light minutes or so. Lasers and other focused sources did much better, but there was still a drop off.
“She doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen,” said the Tactical Officer.
Sue had to admit that what the man said was true. The vessel looked like a total wreck. But the familiar shape of the hyperdrive projector on the top of the vessel showed that it was an Imperial ship, if not otherwise recognizable.
“Engineer. Any idea on what kind of ship that was?”
“Working now, Captain. Computer shows a possible match.”
The Captain’s side screen produced a representation of the object, then a superimposition of an Imperial ship. “That’s a battle cruiser,” said Commander Mustafa, watching the presentation on a display in CIC.
“It was one,” said the Captain, looking back at the main viewer that showed the moving wreck. “They must have gone through hell to get to this point.”
“We’re picking up major fluctuations in their hyper field,” said the Sensor Office.
“I don’t think they have much time,” said the Chief Engineer. “We need to get the survivors off of that ship.”
“Agreed,” said Sue. “Helm?”
“They are traveling at point eight light. We are overtaking, and should be able to match velocities in another one hour four minutes.”
“Com. See if you can get a com laser to them.”
“Yes sir,” said the Com Officer, turning to her board, then back to her captain. “We’re receiving a message from them, sir. Standard emergency code.” The officer went back to listening. “They are the Hyper VII battle cruiser Jean de Arc, Captain Mei Lei commanding.”
“Send them our identification and our intentions,” said the Captain.
“Their reply is, hurry,” said the Com Officer.
* * *
“This is the Captain speaking,” said Mei over the shipboard com. “All crew are to evacuate to the port side of the ship. I want all crew members to gather at the surviving locks and designated openings. We are leaving this ship, people. As soon as our ride comes alongside.”
“Your people got the data ready, Lieutenant?” she asked the Com Officer.
“We’ll have them loaded in a moment, ma’am,” said the officer, pulling memory crystals out of her console and loading them in a carrying case. “Wish we could get it all.”
“The truncated version will have to do,” said Mei, pulling some crystals from her own console and putting them in one of her belt pouches. The same was being done all over the ship, as every portable data storage device, including those of the suit computers, had been loaded with all the information from the ship’s computers that they could hold. Ship’s logs, information from combat actions, anything that might be of use to intelligence, was readied for carrying off the ship.
The Captain looked over at her side screen, which showed the combat information center as a hive of activity. “You ready, Exec?”
“Ready, Captain,” said Xavier Jackson, his helmeted head looking into the screen. “We’re heading for the egress point right now. Not all the lifts are working, though.”
“Just get there as fast as you can, Commander. I doubt this wreck is going to wait for our convenience.”
The screen went blank, and the Captain sat there for just a moment longer, looking around the bridge that had been her home for these many months. You went before your time, girl. But you did what needed to be done, and you did it well. The ship shuddered around her, and she knew the time was near.
“We need to get moving, ma’am,” said the Tactical Officer, standing by the hatch.
Mei looked up and noticed that the bridge was empty, everyone following her orders. She tapped the arm of her chair one more time and got up. “Right you are, Lt. Commander. Let’s head on out.”
The corridors were dark, the lights down, but the night v
ision systems of the battle armor allowed them to move quickly through the halls. Mei decided to not wait for a lift, they were busy carrying other crew out of the central capsule that was the human quarters of the vessel. She followed her Tactical Officer as he made his way down the corridor to the outer skin of the capsule, and the wide open bulkhead that led to the exterior portion of the vessel, home to the working machinery of the ship, including her weapons and defenses. Now all was quiet, all systems, what were left of them, powered down so the ship would live a little longer.
“Mr. Hernandez,” said the Captain over the com. “Is your crew out of engineering?”
“They’re all heading toward the skin, Captain,” said the Engineer.
“And where are you?”
“I’m still watching over the systems, ma’am,” said the man in a calm voice. “Someone needs to baby them.”
“Negative. You are to immediately leave engineering and head for an egress point. Is that clear?”
“But, ma’am.”
“That is a direct order, Commander. Now move.”
“Yes, ma’am,” came the voice of the officer, dejected and relieved at the same time.
The opening to space was just ahead, a corridor off a larger room that used to lead to an outer section that had been jettisoned during the truncation of the ship. People were crowded into the room, all in battle armor, and there were about twenty of the cylinders containing those too wounded to make it on their own. The Captain moved through the people, who made room for her to pass. The opening had a jagged unfinished look to it, as left by the explosion that had left it exposed to space.
Just beyond the opening was the shimmering of the hyper field that kept the alien environment of hyperspace at bay. Mei felt a shiver down her spine as she looked at the blurred space through that field, the reddish cast, the black dots that were the shadows of gravity wells in the real Universe, where hyperspace didn’t exist. That’s space we were not made to endure, she thought, looking out over the reddish expanse of infinity.
And then something blocked that expanse, a solid object behind the blur of another hyper field, moving in slowly as it sidled up to the Jean de Arc. The blurring of the field intensified, then disappeared as the field from the other battle cruiser overlapped the stricken vessel’s. Hatches on the side of the other ship opened, including the large portal to a hangar deck directly across from the Captain. There were figures over there, men and women in battle armor, ready to help the survivors aboard.
“Start moving them across,” called out the Captain of the Baron Pepperdine. “And hurry.”
“You heard the man,” yelled Mei into her own com, backing out of the opening to let the others by. “Start moving them across.”
The first of the crew jumped into space, moving on suit grabbers toward the other ship, then into the hangar. From there the crew of the Pepperdine moved them off the hangar to make room for more. Soon scores of people were in space, moving between the ships, some in pairs hauling a cryo cylinder. Scores turned into hundreds.
“Isn’t it time for you to move, ma’am?” called Jackson over the com.
“Last one off, Xavier. You know the tradition as well as I do.”
“Yes, ma’am. I won’t fight you for that honor.”
“All the wounded are off,” said the Medical Officer.
“Get everyone else moving,” said the Captain, looking at her HUD and seeing the dots of suit transponders. There were still about twenty aboard, most of them moving toward the edge of the ship. A couple moved into space. And three. “Dammit. What are those people still doing back there?” She zoomed in on the HUD and saw the IDs. A petty officer and two ratings.
“I’m on the way,” said Jackson.
“Belay that, XO,” yelled Mei, starting to move back into the ship.
“Captain,” said Jackson, his ID moving back into the ship. “I’m closer. They’re just back a hundred meters from me, and I’m already on the com with them.”
“Jackson.”
“You’re four hundred and fifty meters away, Captain. They’re trapped in a lift, and you’ll never get to them in time.” As the officer was talking his ID was moving further into the ship.”
“OK, XO,” said Mei, turning back toward the exit. “But if you die on me I’ll bust your ass down to lieutenant. You hear me?”
“Loud and clear, ma’am. I’ll just get them out of the lift, and we’ll be off this wreck before you know it.”
Mei grunted, worried about her Exec and the three crew. She jumped into space, engaging her grabbers and shooting over to the hangar. As soon as she landed she turned and looked back at her ship, heart sick from the look of the once beautiful battle cruiser, one of the best in the Fleet.
While she was watching the ship rippled, shook, and rippled again. In an instant she was gone, taking the four people who had still been aboard with her. Mei Lei stared in shock for a moment, then closed her eyes as the tears started flowing.
“We need you to move, ma’am,” said one of the Pepperdine crew. “We need to close these doors.”
The Captain nodded her head and shuffled back. A moment later the huge hatch slid closed, cutting off her view of the emptiness of hyperspace.
* * *
“Welcome aboard my ship, Captain,” said Captain Jon Sue, watching the captain of the other ship walk onto the bridge. She’s so tiny, he thought. And lovely, despite that forlorn look.
“Thank you for getting us off of that death trap, Captain Sue,” said Mei, giving him a short bow, then offering her hand.
“My pleasure and my duty, Captain,” said Sue, smiling. “I’m sorry about your executive officer. And the others.”
“Can we go back and see if they survived?” asked Mei, a twinge of hope in her voice.
“You know the chances of anyone surviving a catastrophic translation are astronomical.” The Captain held up his hand as she started to open her mouth to protest. “I know. I know your ship survived one, but that was an entire ship. Still a hundred to one proposition. And this was a ship that was barely holding together before it was ejected from hyper . A one in a million chance that any of them survived.”
“So you’re not going to drop out of hyper and check for them?”
“You know the answer as well as I do, Captain Lei. It will take us more than a day to decel down enough to drop into normal space. And deceling and coming back to her to drop out would take three days, at the very least.”
“I know,” said Mei, looking down at the floor. “But I hate to give up on my people, after all we have been through.”
“It’s a miracle that you came through everything you did,” said Sue, knowing how the other captain must feel. “You deserve a decoration, and a promotion, for getting your ship and your people through what looks like a gauntlet of the enemy.”
“I didn’t do it for a promotion,” said Mei, shaking her head.
“I know you didn’t, Captain. None of us do it for the glory. At least not the ones worth a crap.”
Mei nodded her head, then looked the other captain in the eye. “Thank you.”
Sue nodded his head, happy that his words had some effect.
“Did the heir make it back?” said Mei in a quiet voice.
Sue looked at her for a moment, wondering how to tell her, then deciding to just say it straight. “There was no word of him when we left Conundrum base. But that was over a week ago, and there’s no telling what may have happened in the meantime.”
“So it might have been for nothing after all,” said the other officer. She turned to walk away. Sue wanted to say something, but couldn’t think of what that should be.
* * *
Commander Xavier Jackson opened his eyes and looked out on a scene of both emptiness and glory. The stars of normal space filled the firmament, and after looking around he decided they were his only, distant, company. My God, but I hurt, he thought, remembering back to those last terror stricken moments on Jean de Arc, befo
re the ship took him back into normal space. That part he didn’t remember, as his consciousness had fled by that time.
It’s a fucking miracle, was his next thought. To survive two catastrophic translations in less than a month, much less a lifetime. The second worse than the first. And a damned lot of good it did him, lost out here in space with no hope of rescue.
The suit will keep me alive for a couple of weeks, was the thought after that. But do I really want to hang around out here by myself for that long. There were ways to die before the suit ran out of power and life support failed. Jackson knew all of them. But I’ll hang out for a little while longer, he thought.
His internal clock told him it had been sixty-three hours when the ship appeared, streaking out of space and slowing to a stop with what seemed like impossible deceleration. It was like nothing he had ever seen, nothing he had ever imagined. And yet it was somehow familiar.
When the occupants came for him he got the same feeling. They were radial symmetry creatures, with six arms around a central core, and bulbous helmets over the center of that core region.
When they got him back to their ship he was even more amazed when his suit told him that the atmosphere and gravity was of the types almost perfect for his species. And then the aliens took off their helmets, and Jackson was more amazed and delighted. “I thought you were all gone,” he said to the one that looked like the leader.
* * *
THE DONUT, APRIL 14TH, 1000.
“The autopsy report is ready, Director,” said Agent Chung, Captain Matthew Callahan standing next to him.
Lucille looked up from her flat comp, not needing to be told what autopsy they were talking about. She still shuddered when she thought about the alien tissue she had seen through the wound in the arm. “And what were the findings?”
“Definitely not human,” said the IIA Agent, looking down at his own flat comp sheet. “In fact, like nothing our biologists have ever seen before. Capable of imitating other life forms.”
“And we’re not really sure how it does that,” said the Captain, scanning his own comp. “It’s not an instantaneous process, thank God, or we’d never be able to secure any installation ever again without a complete body scan of everyone asking for access. Seems to take some days to complete a transformation, especially if there are changes to be made in the long bones. And the creature of course must maintain more or less the same mass.”
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3: The Rising Storm Page 59