by Kal Spriggs
The arguments of the day lay heavy on his mind. His nightmares only seemed to give more weight to his worries. Did he push the others too hard? Was it his own uncertainty about them as companions that made him so hard on them… or it was it their lack of training and preparation that made him uncertain?
Eric walked through the back door from the galley. “Oh, hey Mike.” The mercenary looked as if he hadn’t slept at all and he blinked at Mike with bloodshot eyes. He carried a tray filled with pastries.
“A little early for breakfast,” Mike said. He kept his voice neutral.
“Huh?” Eric asked. He glanced down at the tray, “Oh, right. Pastries will keep just fine.” He set the tray down and then let out a sigh. “I couldn’t sleep.”
“Me too,” Mike said. “I…”
Alarms wailed and the ship shuddered. There was a surge of acceleration that threw them both into the food bar. Mike pushed himself upright even as he heard Simon’s strained voice over the ship’s intercom. “Captain to the bridge, all crew to the bridge.”
Mike rushed out the door and up the ladder well. Simon’s got watch on the bridge, he thought, and Matvei has the engine watch. It felt like an unguided transition,which would be very, very bad, he knew. Once they’d plotted their course, they shouldn’t emerge from Shadow Space early, not unless Ariadne had plotted their course incorrectly… or they’d suffered a failure to their Shadow Space drive. Due to the non-euclidean geometry of Shadow Space, they could be far off course. They could be back in the Chxor Empire or halfway across the Colonial Republic or even deep in the depths of uncharted space. The drive should only shut down if it had failed or if someone had shut it down.
All that went through his head as he stepped through the final hatch and onto the bridge. The forward view ports showed a baleful green star clouded in a nebulous gas cloud. Simon was at his console, “The shadow space drive went down, I’m getting no response from engineering. I’m trying to bring up the sensors now.”
Mike moved to the command console. “Bring up the sensor plot,” he said. He could tell at a glance that their unguided transition had given them a huge velocity differential with the system. Their defense screen could take a few hits but a large enough object would kill them at that speed. Far out on their plotted course, at least a half hour away, he noticed a large asteroid or planetoid.
Mike heard the hatch open behind him, but he was already bringing the engines online. They had time to alter course, but he didn’t want to wait. That was when he noticed the error code on his console. He bit off a curse and said, “The maneuvering thrusters are locked out.”
Pixel answered him, “Yeah, the engine room is on lock down. From what I can tell, the shadow space drive failed catastrophically.” He paused and Mike could hear regret in his voice when he spoke, “The engine room is showing lethal levels of radiation.” That meant that Matvei was dead, Mike knew. “I’ll try to bring the thrusters online remotely…”
There was a thunderous detonation and the entire ship rocked. The lights went out and then began to flicker. The flickering finally died, but the sullen red emergency lights came on a moment later, followed by a chorus of alarms.
Mike brought up a damage report even as he heard a litany of damage from Ariadne, who had slipped into her position without him noticing. “Impact near the bow,” she said, her voice tight. “Thirty degrees off axis, forward compartments are open. Looks like we have a fire in section three and four.”
“Yeah,” Pixel said, “Also severe structural damage. We’re in danger of catastrophic failure. Pressure is dropping in all forward compartments.”
Mike winced. The cargo bay was in section five. All their passengers were closest to the danger. Mike turned and found Rastar had just stepped onto the bridge, “Rastar, take Anubus and Eric. Move the passengers out of the cargo hold, past…” he paused and glanced at his display. “Past bulkhead fifteen, at least.” Rastar gave him two thumbs up and ran off the bridge, Eric and Anubus followed behind him.
Mike glanced over at Simon, “Get sensors online and find out where the hell we are.” He looked over at Crowe, “Get on the comms, try to find if anyone is out there, we need help.”
Crowe grimaced, “That hit took out our radio and laser transceivers. I have nothing to work with.”
“Then cobble something together,” Mike snapped. “We need help, that’s your department.” He looked over at Ariadne, “I think you need to go down and manage damage control.”
She nodded and when she spoke, her voice was level. “I’ll take Mindy and Miranda,” she said, “And gather others on the way.” There was a look of confusion on her face, almost as if something bothered her. She paused again, a question in her blue eyes.
“Get on it,” Mike said, “We don’t have time to talk.” He locked over at Pixel, “What can you tell me about our systems?”
“The fusion reactor went into emergency shutdown,” Pixel said. “Looks like it took damage to the control system. The thrusters are offline and the engines are out until I can get power online.” Pixel looked over at Mike. When he spoke, his voice was tight with tension, “I might be able to access the truck compartment and bring the reactor online from there.”
Mike glanced around the mostly empty bridge, he was running out of bodies. “Do it”
Mike keyed through his console. Without primary power, he had limited options from the bridge. He watched on the sensor relay as the planetoid approached. Surely Pixel can get something online in the next twenty minutes, he thought.
Rastars voice came from the console, “Hey Mike, we’re moving the passengers now. We’re putting them in the lounge, for now.”
“Any issues?” Mike asked.
“Nope,” Rastar said. “Anubus reasoned with a couple stragglers, I guess he was pretty persuasive, they just ran past me.”
Mike snorted, “Possibly a discussion of his food options for the evening. Keep me posted.” He toggled another switch and activated the intercom, “Ariadne, what’s your status?”
“We are at the damaged area, Mike.” Her voice was loud and there was a chorus of rushing wind and the noise of fire in the background. “It’s not-” Her voice cut out in a burst of static, followed by a chorus of new alarms on his console. Mike frowned and glanced at his overlay. The section she and her damage control crew had occupied flashed red and then went black. A message displayed structural failure of the compartments in that section.
Mike felt his heart go cold. “Ariadne?” he asked, on the open channel. He received no response. He let out a shaky breath and then opened a channel to where Pixel should be, at the console in the trunk compartment. “Pixel, I’m showing section four just suffered structural failure. We have people in there, what can we do?”
Pixel grunted and he sounded distracted. “Yeah, if section four failed, it would be explosive decompression. We can’t do anything.”
“Ariadne was in there,” Mike said. He kept his voice low, “She was trying to tell me something.”
Pixel took several long seconds to answer. When he spoke, his voice was sad, “I’m sorry Mike, but if section four went, she probably was blown out of the ship. She might have suited up in time.” Pixel gave a harsh grunt. “But you and I both know that without suit radios, we’d never find her.” Pixel was silent for a long while. “Look, Mike, I think I can get the reactor back online, but it will be risky.”
“Define risky,” Mike said. He felt like he had too many shocks already, but this was his job, and he would be damned if he didn’t do his best.
“Well, if something goes wrong, I’ll almost certainly die,” Pixel said matter-of-factly. “But it will probably bring up the reactor and should unlock the thrusters and engines.” He paused. “If it doesn’t work, it will almost certainly wipe out our emergency power.”
Mike frowned. A glance at the display showed the impact with the planetoid was in only ten minutes. “Can you get clear?”
“Not in time, I’ll have to
basically trigger a manual restart from here. If there’s any kind of plasma surge, it will vent through the trunk compartment.” Pixel said.
Mike closed his eyes. “Okay, do it.” He looked over at Crowe, “Any progress?”
Crowe grimaced again. He had no sneer in his voice when he spoke, but he still seemed sullen, “I have a transponder from what looks like a Ghornath battlecruiser. I can’t understand a word they said, but they’re talking with us.”
Mike blinked at that. The Ghornath had never had a huge fleet, their battlecruisers were their largest ships. From what he’d heard, most of them had been destroyed when the Nova Roma Empire attacked their world, only a decade back. “Very well…” he said, “Keep talking to them, I’ll get someone up here.”
He opened a channel to the lounge, “Rastar, you there?”
“Yes, Mike, we’re monitoring from here.” Rastar answered. “Mike are you aware—”
“Get up here,” Mike interrupted. He didn’t have time for questions, not when every second mattered. “I need you to talk with some folks.”
The emergency lighting flickered and died. Mike’s breath sounded suddenly loud in the darkness as the secondary systems shut down. Come on Pixel, Mike thought.
The bridge came alight. All the consoles powered up, many with flashing damage icons. Mike gave a whoop as his controls went live again. He spun the ship on it’s axis and brought the engines online with gentle force. “Great job, Pixel, system are online. Get back up here,” he waited a moment for a response. “Pixel?” A glance at his display showed a new red icon of damage near the engine room.
Mike bit off another curse. He hoped that the engineer had made it clear, yet after the other shocks of the past few minutes, he felt far from certain of that. “Simon I’m bringing us stable relative to the rest of the star system. Make sure we don’t have anything else out here to collide with—”
The screen cleared to show a Ghornath in military uniform. The Ghornath barked harsh words in his native tongue. The voice blared from all the speakers. At the same time, Mike’s console locked out again. “What the hell?!” Mike demanded.
Crowe swore, “Some kind of override.” He pounded at his console. “I’m locked out of everything.” He looked at the Ghornath and then back at Mike, “Well, this is your department, right?”
Mike stood up. “Hello, I’m Mike Smith, we captured this vessel from the Chxor Empire…”
“He can’t hear you,” Rastar said. The Ghornath on the screen continued to speak.
“What is he saying, then?” Mike demanded. “Why did he take over our systems… who the hell is he?” He felt exhausted and angry, especially at this Ghornath windbag who wouldn’t shut up.
“She is Fleet Consul Malika,” Rastar said. “She is congratulating us on our training and effort. She also is informing us that we are a compliment to our instructors.”
“What?” Mike raised both eyebrows in shock. “We almost died, half our crew did die.”
“She also informs us that this is the third tier of difficulty and the most hazardous of the surprise drills, which are part of the training package we activated. She congratulates us on our success and requests that we send any comments to Ghornath Fleet Training Command, attention Fleet Consul Malika.”
“A drill?” Mike said. Even as the screen cleared to show shadow space once again. A moment later, his console cleared as well to show all systems back at standby and all damage cleared.
“I sure have a comment for them,” Crowe snarled. “They can take their rutting sims and—”
“Mike,” Pixel’s voice came from the console, “I’m on my way up.”
Mike couldn’t force himself to speak for a moment, but he finally leaned forward and responded, “Acknowledged.” He opened up another channel, “Ariadne, you there?”
“We’re here,” Ariadne said. “The console locked out on us and notified us that we were casualties for the exercise. I was trying to let you know that there is no damage.”
Mike let out a breath of relief. He opened up the ship’s intercom. “All crew report to the bridge.”
He waited as they assembled. He felt both humbled by their actions and relieved that they had survived, after all. “First of all, I want you to know that I had no idea. I’m so sorry—”
“No worries,” Rastar said. “We all figured that out. And it was a good drill.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Crowe muttered.
“I haven’t sweat that much since rookie week,” Simon said. “But we did learn a lot and we worked well together.”
“I for one am very glad it was a drill,” Ariadne said. “But I agree, we worked well together. It just goes to show you who great a team we make.”
“When trapped like rats with our lives at stake,” Eric amended.
“You’re just unhappy you didn’t get to die gloriously,” Simon said. “You should have seen it, Mike got all misty over Pixel and Ariadne. Makes me wish I got the chance to do the same. Next time it’s our turn, guys,” Simon said with a smirk.
“Yeah,” Pixel said, “Uh, next time you can go through that. I, for one, thought I was going to die.” The engineer still looked shaky. “It even showed the plasma surge on the console.”
“Mike, you did great,” Ariadne said. “I think we can all agree that without you this would have ended in failure.” Her face showed total sincerity and she met his gaze with her level blue eyes.
“Thanks,” Mike said. He looked around at them all. “I think we all deserve a break. Eric, perhaps you could arrange something for us in the lounge. Since Matvei sat this one out, he can take the rest of Simon’s watch.”
As he watched them file out, Mike felt some of his worry ease. Yet at the same time, the weight of responsibility felt heavier on his shoulders. No matter what they said, he had failed them. Too many would have died. The so-called ‘level three’ difficulty or not, his crew had died and he had been unable to save them.
He would not let that happen again.
A Murder of Crowes
The Renegades, Book Five
Simon sat back in the couch and stared at the fish tank and sipped at his water. He reached up and adjusted the tie he wore and hid a small smile. They all had received some new clothing from the salvage of the Sao Martino. While some of the others, particularly the longer term escaped prisoners, wore a mix of whatever eclectic wear they could put together, Simon had rather different taste.
Fortunately, he had found a business suit that fit him almost as well as if made for him. He had also managed to trim his dark hair and he almost felt human again. Something about how they had looted the ship still left him with an uncomfortable feeling, as if he had directly robbed the dead. He knew that legally their actions were considered salvage, but emotionally it still felt wrong. Still… he had to admit that the change of clothes and the additional stores had changed them from what felt like a band of vagrants to something a little less unsavory.
Well, he admitted, changed some of us, anyway. He caught a reflection of Illario Urbano in the glass of the aquarium. The former gang member had changed out his ragged prison environmental suit for a set of skin-tight bright orange pants and a flamboyant sleeveless green shirt which hung to just above his ribs. Simon thought the man would have looked ridiculous but for the gang brands and multitude of knife scars and needle punctures that stippled his exposed skin. While the gang fashion might differ from what he would see in the Confederation, the obvious signs of a hardcore criminal showed clearly enough.
Had Simon still carried his badge he would have called for a backup before he frisked Illario and booked him for whatever illegal items he possessed. Instead, when Illario caught his gaze in the reflected glass, Simon forced himself to give the other man a polite smile. Ah, Simon thought a moment later, apparently Illario wants to have that conversation we’ve put off so far. A moment later the ganger swaggered over and sat down next to Simon.
“You busy?” Illario asked.
/> Simon maintained a polite smile. He tried not to think about how the other man’s cheap cologne burned his nose. Simon ignored every police instinct he had that wanted him to back out of knife range and go for his pistol. He knew exactly what a thug like Illario could do at such close range with even a toothpick, much less the small arsenal of knives he no doubt wore.
“Nope, just searching for Rainbow,” Simon said politely. It wasn’t entirely true, though he did spend at least a few minutes each day locating the chameleon-like eel, he mostly selected the spot because it gave him some time to muse and reflect. He didn’t think that Illario would understand that need, though.
“Rain what?” Illario asked as his scarred face pulled back in a grimace of confusion.
“Rainbow… you know, the unfortunately named Arcavian Fighting Eel?” Simon said.
“Oh, right.” Illario nodded. “The fish that the mind-freak named.” He gave Simon a leer, “You like to watch it, eh?” Somehow Simon doubted that Illario meant the fish.
“She has a name,” Simon said, “And looking for the fish is a good exercise in observation.”
“Right,” Illario’s smile seemed greasy somehow. “Anyway, bro, I just wanted to chat, you know, get to know you and let you get to know me.”
Here it comes, Simon thought, now to see how low he thinks he can buy me for.
“Of course,” Simon said. He kept his voice bland, and remembered his grandfather Montogmery’s advice. Never give them a sign, don’t look nervous, but don’t look interested either. They don’t know what to make of you then, and they’ll overplay their hand. A big offer, right up front, that means they’re in over their head, and that means you can turn them.
“So, I interviewed with Mike, earlier. He said that there might be a permanent place here, working the ship, security, maybe helping to find things we can’t get normally,” Illario gave Simon a wink. “You know.”