by D. M. Pruden
After verifying on his own station that all systems were green, Hayden said, “Awaiting your authorization sequence sir.”
The captain entered the access code on his console.
“Codes accepted by gate control. We are authorized to transit,” said Bates.
“Roger that,” said Cora. “Spinning up light-gate drive. Maximum power available in twenty seconds.” Her eyes were riveted to the redundant console readouts at her station.
Following the requisite delay, she announced, “Drives at full spin. We are go across the board.”
Mindful of all the various rumours about what awaited them on the other side, Hayden swallowed hard and prayed his voice would not crack. “Initiate FTL transit.”
The sensation of a jump was something he had never been able to get used to. The only way he could ever manage to describe it was to say that the world winked out for a brief moment. A slight dizziness was the only residual effect he experienced.
According to the readings, they were in the Mu Arae system, 100 kilometres from its own light-gate.
“Jump completed, Captain,” he said. “All systems read as normal.” The information was available on their implants, but Pavlovich insisted on verbal confirmation of status.
“Long range scans?”
“Actively scanning, sir. No contacts,” said Bates. Moments later, the pitch of his voice rose. “Correction. Bogie contact, 100,000 kilometres off the port bow.”
The exact coordinates flashed up in Hayden’s implant.
“Identification? Size and vector. Give me something,” said Pavlovich.
“No ID beacon. Configuration: small recon drone. Heading parallels our own.”
“Raiders?” asked Hayden.
The captain nodded. “We’ve seen these things before. Ensign, is it sending out any communications?”
“No comm detected, sir, but I began jamming the moment we spotted her.”
The corners of Pavlovich’s mouth curled upward. “Gunney, I don’t want that thing telling its pals about us.”
“Already on it, Cap’n,” rasped the tactical officer.
Hayden followed on his LINK as the ship’s port bow rail gun array targeted the drone. The firing solution flashed up the same moment the rumbling deck plates told him they’d fired. Seconds later, in concert with his implant readout, Gunney announced, “Target neutralized.”
“Thank you, Tactical. Any further contacts, Mister Bates?”
“None, sir. I’m getting intermittent static on the dorsal stern sensor array, though.”
Pavlovich frowned at Cora.
“I’ll get right on it, Cap’n.” She rose from her station and exited.
“All right, people. So far, nothing out of the ordinary, so either the bogeymen are asleep or they don’t exist. Deploy proximity drones for maximum coverage.”
He turned to Hayden, a mischievous glint in his eye. “Let’s go see if we can find the scientist Command is so hot about. Set our heading for Dulcinea at best speed.”
“Aye, Captain,” he replied, now fully awake.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Mu Arae
TWENTY HOURS LATER, Scimitar approached Dulcinea. Hayden had not left his post during the transit to the inner system. He spent the time obsessively checking preliminary data summaries for any sign of another vessel with more hostile intentions than the destroyed bogie.
As with many things aboard, the orbital sensors were outdated. Still, he was impressed by the customized upgrades Cora built into the drones to modernize them. Fifty-five tiny robotic craft circled Scimitar at variable distances, each feeding multiple channels of data back to the ship.
“Mister Kaine, we are now getting high-resolution imagery of Dulcinea,” said Bates, who also had not taken a break since arrival in the system.
On the three-dimensional viewer at the front of the bridge, a life-like hologram of the planet, still fifteen million kilometres away, resolved.
The world was a hellish wasteland. No part of it was untouched by the lava flows that erupted from a major impact site defacing its surface. Dulcinea’s once Earth-like atmosphere was gone, blasted away in the cataclysm. The once teeming seas had boiled off in a matter of days. The emptied ocean basins were filled with the molten rock that belched from a global chain of ruptured tectonic plate boundaries.
Above it, in random decaying orbits, were the remains of the defensive fleet that fought in vain to protect the colony world, the spinning debris flashing in the sunlight. The crew stared, speechless at the slowly rotating image.
“Nothing could be alive down there,” said Hayden.
“According to the original rescue ships, nothing is,” said Pavlovich, who had joined him, unnoticed. “It looks pretty much the same as the images recorded by the Titan. Those poor bastards couldn’t do a thing. By the time they made orbit, the attackers were gone.”
“How many survivors were there?” asked Cora.
The captain shook his head, never taking his eyes from the image. “There weren’t any.”
“Nobody?” She wiped tears away.
“I don’t think there is any point going to the planet,” said Pavlovich. “Our missing scientist couldn’t survive down there. Where else might Dr. Gabriel be hiding?”
Hayden said, “Sir, I analyzed the sensor logs from our encounter with the drone. It received a short encoded signal before we jammed it.”
“Is there a fix on where it originated?”
Kaine nodded. “The system’s asteroid belt.”
The captain smiled. “There was a mining operation in place there forty-years ago. Titan evacuated them, but if others still hang about, it would provide a place for them to live.”
“It would be a perfect base of operations for raiders, sir.”
The captain regarded Hayden and raised an eyebrow. “Are you afraid of some scruffy pirates? We are a warship, Mister Kaine.”
He smiled. “Aye, Captain. Helm, plot a course to the source of the transmission.”
As Kwok executed the command, Pavlovich said, “Anything else of interest come up during your watch, XO?”
He frowned. “Rear viewing sensors are still experiencing intermittent static.”
“Really? Cora couldn’t fix it?”
“She reports that all drones are working up to specs. It might be coming from the light-gate back there.”
Pavlovich seemed distracted when he replied, “I’m sure it is something like that. Nobody has been around to run maintenance on it for a long time. Still...”
“Sir?”
“Keep an eye on it as we change course.”
“You think we’re being followed? Nothing is showing up on any sensor channel. We’re running the full electromagnetic spectrum.”
“I think we’re going to be very cautious, Lieutenant. Whoever attacked Dulcinea all those years ago managed to surprise everyone. Who’s to say they all left? Three warships disappeared in this system since then.”
“Those stories are true?”
“Just watch the sensors, XO.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Hayden wondered if doing radiation or sewage maintenance would be such a bad assignment after all.
CHAPTER TWELVE
A Pursuer
SCIMITAR WAS FIVE hours into what was supposed to be a four-hour transit. The mining facility, Friston VI, was constructed on the largest asteroid in the belt. The captain had insisted Kwok plot a wandering course to their destination. Though none of their communication hails were answered, they maintained the meandering path. They simply had no other leads for where to begin looking for the scientist, Ishmael Gabriel.
The intermittent static continued astern of them, so Pavlovich ordered additional turns to their heading in an effort to give the ship’s drones a chance to triangulate an origin for the interference. Hayden constantly monitored the processing output of the sensor analysis.
“Sir, the bugs detect a source beyond the maximal ones out at 1,000 kilo
metres. Can we extend their orbital range? Maybe we can get it within their orbits and narrow down a location.”
Pavlovich turned toward the engineering station. “How about it, Cora? How far out can you push the bugs?”
“Well...” she drawled with a slight upward curl on her lips, “I tinkered with the software a while back to let them move out to ten thousand klicks from the ship, but it isn’t tested yet. This might be a good opportunity.”
“You won’t lose any of them, like the last time? It took me months to get replacements authorized.”
“That was not my fault, sir. You decided to do a light-gate jump before I could retrieve them all. No, Cap’n, that won’t happen. Can I try it? I have been dying for a chance.”
“Yes, Engineer, you may proceed with your test.”
“Whee!” squealed Cora like a teenager. She spun her chair to face her console and brought up a keyboard on it. Hayden raised his eyebrow and looked at Pavlovich.
“Believe it or not, Kaine, she can program faster using that ancient interface than any other engineer with their implant. She is a bit of a savant that way.”
“Aww, Cap’n,” said Cora without looking up from her station, “you say the sweetest things. You’re gonna make me blush in front of our XO.”
Pavlovich smiled at her, which surprised Hayden, who had to date not seen him show any kind of favouritism toward anyone. He hesitated with what he realized was an impertinent question dangling on the tip of his tongue. The captain frowned at him.
“You want to say something, Kaine?”
He was rescued by an announcement from Cora. “Okay, bugs’ orbital range is now extended to ten thousand klicks astern. I adjusted the search parameters to triangulate a position of the source, but it won’t be precise.”
Pavlovich did not hide his annoyance. “How approximate?”
“Positioning error of plus or minus one hundred metres, which isn’t a problem if it’s really, really huge.” She shrugged and grinned sheepishly. Hayden smiled back at her and began to monitor the output from the new configuration.
“Thank you, Engineer,” said the captain. “Bates, any luck on raising a response from the mining facility?”
“Still nothing, Cap’n.”
“Hmph,” grumbled Pavlovich as he slumped into his chair. A moment later, he straightened and addressed Hayden.
“Oh, by the way, that was a good idea you had about extending the bugs’ range. Keep up the acceptable work.”
He suppressed a smile. “Yes, sir.”
The bridge fell into silence as everyone focused their attention on their tasks. It was evident that the cause of the static bursts had followed them. Hayden was glad of Pavlovich’s presence. Left on his own, he might have been tempted to order Bates to try to establish communications with whatever was out there. For the second time since his arrival, he conceded this assignment was a beneficial learning opportunity.
“It looks like the repositioning worked, Captain. We are getting location information for the interference source,” he said.
“Uh-oh!”
Pavlovich sat forward in his chair and turned to glare at the engineer. “What’s uh-oh? I hate uh-oh, Cora. Fix it.”
Her fingers flew over her keyboard. “I don’t think I can, Cap’n. We’ve lost telemetry with the light-gate.”
“What? Is the problem on this end?”
“No, sir. It simply stopped returning our pings. I’m trying to restore contact with it now, but I get no response.”
“Light-gates don’t do that, Cora. There are redundancies on top of contingencies.”
“Well, getting mad at me won’t help. This one did stop talking to us.”
Pavlovich scowled at her for a brief moment, before turning to Hayden. “XO, what were you saying about the static source?”
“It is 5,060 kilometres astern, give or take.”
He continued to monitor the results on his implant when his eyes widened in surprise. “And it appears to be closing on us.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Attacked
“ACTION STATIONS!” ORDERED the captain.
The bridge lighting dimmed, replaced by red, night-vision illumination.
“Helm, accelerate to point 15 c. Heading: toward the nearest rock in the asteroid belt.”
“Targeting data is being forwarded to tactical,” said Hayden, unable to suppress the stress in his voice.
“Estimates, XO?”
“Our triangulation is preliminary, sir. I think they figured out what we were up to and made their move before we could nail down their position.”
“Hmph. We got caught with our pants down.” The captain rotated his chair to address the tactical officer. “Gunney, is there a firing solution computed?”
“No precise positioning info, Cap’n, but there is enough for a spread of laser fire with a good chance of hitting home.”
Pavlovich looked sternly at Hayden. “Now I only need to decide if I’m going to shoot first. What does your fancy academy education suggest, XO?”
Perspiration ran down Hayden’s cheek. His only exposure to this type of situation had been simulations, and he had never performed well in them.
He addressed Bates. “Comm, is there any kind of signal from astern? Any sign they are trying to hail us?”
“Not a peep, Lieutenant.”
Hayden returned Pavlovich’s dark, angry stare, then made a decision. “Their actions are provocative, sir. I recommend we fire.”
“It took you long enough. Okay, Gunney, give it to ’em.”
The lighting on the bridge dimmed further, and Scimitar’s hull vibrated as the ship’s stern array of twelve, 500-exawatt X-ray lasers fired at their pursuer. The barrage continued for twenty-seconds before stopping to allow the weapons to recharge.
“Status of target?” asked the captain.
“No indications of impact, energy discharge, or debris.”
“You mean we missed?”
“Not bloody likely, sir,” said Gunney.
The ship lurched and the pull of the gravity plating weakened. The lights winked out, and only emergency illumination prevented them from plunging into total darkness.
“Status report!” said Pavlovich.
Hayden futilely tried to access his disconnected implant.
Cora’s hands flew across the manual interface at her station, and she scrutinized the readouts. “We’ve been damaged astern. Engine two is inoperative, and number four is barely hanging on. Attitude control is offline...give me a second.” Her fingers danced over the keyboard, and a moment later Hayden felt himself being pushed sideways by an invisible force. He grabbed the captain’s console to steady himself.
“Okay, attitude control reestablished.”
The hull hummed again with another barrage of laser fire. Pavlovich turned expectantly to Gunney, who shook his head.
“How the hell did you miss?”
Anger flared in Gunney’s human eye. “There is no bloody way I missed, Cap’n. The lasers ain’t touching them.”
Cora examined her readouts in more detail. “No hull breach, but magnetic plating didn’t do much to stop whatever they hit us with. We’ve got a lot of structural damage on ventral decks six through nine.”
“Evacuate all noncritical personnel to the central core. Clear the compromised sections and vent whichever ones are unoccupied. I don’t want any explosive decompressions.”
Pavlovich activated ship-wide address. “All hands: prep for possible zero-g battle conditions.” He addressed Cora. “I didn’t like how the plating responded to that last hit, Engineer.”
“Yes, sir, I’m doing my best but...” She shook her head.
“Analysis. What the hell did they use on us?”
With his link to no longer talking to ship’s systems, Hayden had migrated to an unoccupied console and strapped himself into the chair.
“Whatever it was didn’t register with the bugs.”
The ship was rocked a
second time. Hayden’s stomach lurched as the pull of gravity vanished.
Cora called out a litany of damages. “Power to grav-plating is out; damage to stern laser array elements six through eight; aft rail gun is destroyed; structural breaches on decks nine and ten; engines four and three and two offline...”
“I need a solution, people!”
Hayden shouted above the noise, “Captain, the fact that we can’t see them and our lasers don’t affect them...”
Pavlovich stared at him. “Well? Go on?”
He swallowed then said, “Try using projectile weapons. Fire a volley as they approach us; they’ll be within one hundred klicks in fifteen seconds.”
“Our aft array is gone, boy!” said Gunney.
“Attitude control is functional. Bring us around and present our forward guns,” said Kaine.
“Helm, do it!” said Pavlovich.
The cyborg returned his attention to his tactical console. Hayden felt himself pulled sideways as Kwok rotated the ship to face the invisible attacker. Before the rotational movement stopped, the sound and shaking of the forward rail gun being unleashed vibrated the deck.
Anxious, he monitored the sensor drone readouts for any indication of an impact.
“We hit them!” he shouted. “Registered three hits. Some damage, I think. I read some kind of gas venting. They are breaking off and heading away from us.”
A cheer arose on the bridge from everyone except Pavlovich.
“Where did they go, Kaine?”
“They accelerated and left our drone range at high speed. We’ve lost them.”
“Great, so we only hurt them. Who knows when they’ll come back and maybe bring reinforcements?”
“Cap’n, we’ve got some serious damage repairs to make,” said Cora.
He nodded at her, and she unbuckled herself and floated to the hatchway.
“We’re going to need a place to hide while we repair ourselves and come up with a plan of action,” said the captain.
“Aye, sir,” said Hayden, eyes still trained on the screen in front of him. “I think we’re too far from the mining colony under our present condition, but I found us somewhere to lie low. There is a debris field 100,000 klicks to our port. We might be able to power down and float among the wreckage until we are repaired. Hopefully it will mask our signature from...whoever they are.”