Kei looked at the excavation drones, slowly digging through the asteroid with their bucket-chain arms.
“What do you think we're going to find when we get there?”
“Honestly, who knows?”
“Your best guess, then. What are we going to find down there? Is it even going to be traversable?”
“After all this time? I'd say the safest bet would be that no, there's not going to be much down there after all this time. After hundreds of thousands of years it's going to have collapsed. Even out here in the dead of space.”
“But you're a gambler.”
“Indeed I am,” Elsner said. “Which is why I think something might still be in working order after all this time. The scans from the ground-penetrating radar make me think that.”
“Any reason why, from a technical person to a non-technical one?” Kei asked. “My electronics expertise is pretty limited.”
“Take a look at this, then,” Elsner said.
Kei glanced at the image that appeared on his suit's HUD and studied it for a moment. He saw the shape of the asteroid they were standing on, along with a dark mass in the core of it.
“See the dark spot? That's what makes me think that there's something down there. It's definitely not natural. It's too spherical for that. And it's also very, very dense. Other than the possible entryway that we're looking for right here I don't think that we'd be able to break through it with the equipment we have with us. I'd have to see the material up close, but even heavy-duty industrial stuff might have trouble.”
“So there's definitely something down there.”
“Not just something. A very particular something,” Elsner said. “This kind of thing seems like it was built to withstand the apocalypse. And maybe it did. How it's out here in the void is a complete mystery.”
“So you think it wasn't here originally.”
“It might not have been. And it might not have been covered in rock, either. If enough time passed and it was dense enough then it could have attracted passing debris over time and coalesced them into the asteroid. Just a theory, but who knows.”
Kei nodded. “This place… it's strange. I can tell that just standing on the surface. There's not a star around for lightyears. It's orbiting the black hole in the center of the galaxy, right?”
“Yeah, effectively. There's nothing else to pull on it out here.”
“There's almost no light out here, barely anyone knows that this place exists, and yet it might be one of the most important discoveries we've ever found. Sometimes… sometimes it just makes you think about how small we are.”
“It's a big universe,” Elsner agreed. “And we haven't even scratched the surface of what's out here. Even on settled planets we're still finding new things. Heck, they're still exploring the oceans on Earth.”
“And yet we're out here.”
Neither of them spoke for several minutes. Kei continued to watch the drones work, pulling the dust and debris from the asteroid and depositing it into piles.
Who knew what lay underneath?
AN ALARM WAS GOING off in the dream world. Lauren kept looking around, searching for the source of the noise, but she couldn't find it. The only thing around her was flat, dusty ground and the void above. There were no landmarks, no moons or planets, not even stars. And still the alarm continued to blare.
She sat up, the dream fading from her memory. Lauren rubbed her eyes. She was in her bed, inside her cabin on the Starlight.
But the alarm continued to sound.
“All personnel to battle stations. All personnel to battle stations.”
She rolled out of bed and pressed a button at her terminal. Every piece of furniture retracted into the walls or the floor, save for a single chair along one wall. Lauren sat down and strapped herself in. The artificial gravity would likely switch off shortly.
At this point she didn't need an announcement to tell her what was going on. Somehow, Eon Path had found them.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“What's going on?” Nina asked over the radio link.
“We have an incoming ship. Likely hostile,” IVIN said
“Likely? And what size?”
“Judging from the signature it's the size of a large cruiser, maybe even a battlecruiser. And it hasn't hailed us, which means it's likely hostile.”
Nina frowned and headed out of her quarters. “Understood. Cheryl, are you on the bridge?”
“Headed there now.”
“Soko? Bradley?”
“Going up there now,” he confirmed.
“On my way as well.”
“The rest of you, get up to the observation deck and the battle stations there,” she ordered.
A battlecruiser. How had they managed to get their hands on something that powerful without anyone noticing? Intelligence never indicated that Eon Path possessed anything larger than a small cruiser, and even that was in question. Where had they come up with the resources for this ship, and how had they kept it out of sight for so long?
“Has it made any aggressive moves?”
“It's heading for us with full shields and weapons powered up, but it hasn't given us any signals or fired shots.”
“OK. Keep things steady while we regroup.”
Nina tried to form a plan in her mind. She had expected trouble ever since they had crossed into the Central Expanse, but this? This was far more than even she had anticipated.
“One more thing,” IVIN said. “I ran a scan of the vessel and attempted to trace its origin.”
She frowned. “What did you find?”
“As expected it's not registered, but the hull seems to match the description of a ship built at Redon Delta about thirty years ago. It was decommissioned at the end of the Interstellar War and sold for scrap.”
“Let me guess, the ship probably never made it to the shipbreaker,” she said. That explained how they had managed to get their hands on a something that size.
That also meant they had no idea what the enemy was carrying aboard their ship. It could be a skeleton armament, the standard compliment of weapons, or something completely unexpected.
“IVIN, can you-”
“I'm already running a scan on the enemy ship to determine its strength, but it's attempting to jam my attempts,” he said.
“Do what you can. Boost shielding to maximum and turn the artificial gravity off. We're probably going to need all the power we can get.”
“As you wish.”
Nina heard the alert go off over the intercom, and a moment later the gravity cut out. She gently pushed herself to the floor and began to pull herself the rest of the way to the bridge.
“YOU'RE GOOD AT THIS,” Rappa commented as Kei moved past him.
“Interstellar Rescue. This was pretty common for me,” he said, using his arms and legs to push himself along the side of the passageway.
He made his way through the hatch and into the observation deck, then moved to his spot behind one of the consoles.
The Starlight had two faces. In its normal state the ship was a relatively normal transport ship, albeit a little cramped at times. But when engaging in serious combat it could change itself into something far more dangerous. The observation deck became a command center where the crew could direct the different weapons systems and drones.
Normally the gunnery officer and IVIN would take care of that from the bridge, but with so many tasks to deal with during an intense battle it helped to split duties. The bridge would take care of the shields, maneuvering and engines, while the secondary command center focused on weaponry.
Kei strapped himself in and waited for a signal to begin. He scanned the data readout to his left. A single ship, the size of a large cruiser.
He sighed. So much for getting through this without any serious troubles. That ship might have enough firepower to blast them into dust, even with all the weapons and shielding onboard.
“Having fun yet?” Elsner grinned at him.
&nbs
p; “We can never have a quiet job, can we?”
“Come on, where would all the fun be without times like these?” Rappa joked.
“I'd like to be alive to spend all my hazard pay,” Salim said.
“Secondary command center is online,” Griz said over the radio link. “Sentry to Bridge. Sentry to Bridge.”
“We're here Griz,” Cheryl said.
“Any orders?”
“None so far. We're going to wait on-”
She didn't get a chance to complete her sentence before something rocked the Starlight.
“Oh, that's not good,” Rappa muttered under his breath.
Kei looked down at the display and the closing enemy ship. What had just happened?
“STATUS!” Nina demanded.
“Shields are below fifty percent,” Bradley said.
“What hit us?”
“Looks like a mass driver. Not like one of the ones that we're carrying. Something more like a spinal weapon.”
Not good. Not good at all, especially given the size of the enemy ship. A spinal weapon usually ran the entire length of a vessel, and that allowed the projectile to gain significant amounts of velocity. Paired with the mass of the shots they'd be firing, and it made for an extremely powerful weapon.
They were lucky that the shields were so strong. If they had been inside of a regular Voyage-class yacht or even a destroyer they'd have been dead before they knew what hit them.
But another shot would kill them just as quickly.
“Status on the shields.”
“We're charging them as fast as we can, but another hit from something like that is going-”
“I know,” Nina said.
“This is going to compromise our weapons systems,” Soko said.
“I know. Focus on shielding and engine power. Griz? Hold off on our weapons. For now.”
“Copy that.”
Nina looked over at Cheryl. “Keep us out of the line of fire as best you can. We have more power.”
“Got it.”
Dodging the battlecruiser shouldn't be too hard. With minimal friction in space a ship's engines needed to work against its mass in order to change direction, and the larger the mass the more difficult that became. The Starlight had a clear advantage in the maneuverability department.
But that would only cause them more problems in the long run. They still had to get to their objective inside the asteroid, and ceding position to the enemy ship would only allow them to gain the initiative. By the time her crew forced their way back Eon Path might already be inside of the structure.
They had to find some way to maintain their orbit and drive off the ship. Even if they were outmatched, even if they were in serious danger of being killed in the blink of an eye they had to try it. The potential value of what lay inside Object 495 was too great to give up, especially to a terrorist organization.
“IVIN, what else are they carrying besides the spinal mass driver?”
“I'm still having difficulty obtaining a clear scan, but it appears to have a bank of plasma cannons, as well as several regular-sized mass drivers.”
“Any specific number?”
“Still counting. There's thirty plasma cannons so far, and sixteen mass drivers. But there's likely more.”
That was at least as much armament as the Starlight, and though they lacked the power of the spinal cannon the damage would add up very quickly. If they stood off at long range the enemy could try to pick them off, but if they moved close then the other weapons systems might be enough to kill them anyhow.
“Try to stay out of their line of fire. If they're using a spinal cannon then they're going to have to move the whole ship to aim it. Use all three dimensions.”
“Understood,” Cheryl said.
She didn't need a reminder. Nina had recruited her out of the military as soon as her term of service had expired. Though she didn't have any combat experience, she had flown fighter patrols at one point and moved up to helming escorts. The transition to the Starlight was relatively simple, and she had taken to it well.
She had the natural instincts for space flight. Things out here worked differently than in a planetary atmosphere. With no air resistance maneuvering was all about thrust, and using it to point a mass in the right direction. Cheryl had a knack for it, a natural feeling that allowed her to intuitively maneuver the ship without many problems. In some ways she could equal IVIN and his predictive capabilities.
“Bridge, what's your orders?”
“Stand by, Sentry. We're trying to recharge the shields.”
“Understood.”
“Unless we're just trying to cut and run, we can't let them take a bunch of potshots at us without responding,” Soko said. “We're going to have to fight back.”
She knew that very well, but Nina remained unsure of how to deal with the problem. They needed all the energy they could spare for the shields and the engines, because if they let either get too low it would likely spell their doom. If it was just a destroyer or even a cruiser they'd have no trouble simultaneously taking hits and shooting up their foe, but this battlecruiser was in an entirely different league.
“We're going to have to use the missiles.”
“I know. The question is how we use them. We're only going to have the element of surprise once, and we need to get them past the shields.”
The Starlight had missile launchers, but they could only fire ten at a time. The ship had a limited amount of munitions, though they probably had enough to deal with the threat.
The bigger issue was whether those missiles would do any good. Against a shield the only thing that mattered was the amount of force the shot could project on impact. A missile wasn't much more powerful that a railgun, which meant they'd be firing very expensive projectiles for minimal gain. Their advantage was the guidance system and the fact that they drew minimal power to operate, but they could scarcely afford to throw away their best weapon for nothing.
They also had torpedoes, which moved slow enough to avoid triggering the shields, but would likely be picked off by the point defense weapons at long range. The systems were probably offline to conserve energy, but it would be easy enough to switch them back on. The torpedoes had a lot of distance to cross.
“We're going to need cover,” Cheryl said.
“I know.”
The only cover in the area was Object 495. Nina wondered if they could use the asteroid to their advantage. Eon Path might be hesitant to fire their cannons and risk hitting it, especially if they wanted what lay inside. Or the Starlight could use the asteroid as physical cover, moving to put it between them and the enemy ship.
The problem with the second option was their orbit. Once they went into an orbit around the asteroid then they had a limited number of maneuvers they could take. They either needed to continue the orbit and risk being shot up, continue forward and reach escape velocity on the far side of the rock, or use the orbit to align themselves to charge straight at the enemy ship.
None of the options were appealing. Right now their most prudent option would be to flee. That was what the enemy was probably counting on, because they hadn't bothered to fire their other weapons. Maybe they were saving power to recharge the spinal gun faster. If that was the case then they were likely using it as a threat to force Nina to jump away from the location.
They couldn't do that. They couldn't just leave this place to the enemy. By the time they returned the asteroid would be swarming with Eon Path troops, and they'd miss their opportunity to get their hands on the new technology. They had no backup, no support they could call upon. At this point success or failure rested squarely on their shoulders and their shoulders alone.
“Go into orbit around the asteroid,” she ordered.
“When we come around they're going to have us lined up,” Soko warned.
“Do it. I have an idea.”
THE LACK of information was nerve-wracking. Lauren heard the banter going back and forth between the
rest of the crew over the radio link, but she had little context for their words. At this point she was just an observer anyhow. She could listen, but she had been shut out from speaking into the link.
That was probably for the best, since the crew didn't need any outside interference right now, but…
A battlecruiser. She heard them say that more than once over the link. The thought sent a chill down her spine. Eon Path wasn't just a group of fanatics. They were perfectly capable of bringing highly destructive weapons to bear as well, and they had the will to use them.
She closed her eyes, feeling her heart thumping.
“They'll do it,” she said quietly.
The rest of the crew would find a way to keep them all safe. She trusted them to do it.
At this point that was her only choice.
“SO WE'RE GOING around the asteroid in an orbit,” Gilroy said. “That puts us on a predictable path, and they know it. They'll probably line up for a shot when we come back around from the far side.”
“It's not as bad as that,” Elsner said. “There's any number of spots we can come out of if we adjust the path.”
“Still puts us in the position of being chased from the stern, unless we go over the top of the asteroid. And they're going to notice the engine bloom.”
Kei wasn't a pilot, but he knew enough about space combat to realize what she was saying was true, or at least true enough. They either had to maintain their orbital path with small deviations, or they had use a huge amount of power to alter their course.
He questioned whether they could manage it without putting the ship at risk. Diverting extra power to the engines meant taking it away from the shields and the weapon systems. If the battlecruiser managed to line up a good shot while they were still recharging…
The prospect of being vaporized by sheer kinetic force before they even had a chance to shoot back worried him. Kei was no stranger to death, having come close to it more than once, but if he was going down he wanted to do it while fighting to his last breath. Sitting here in the secondary command center, unable to do anything…
Eon Gate (The Eon Pentalogy Book 1) Page 14