“Copy that, Aktip—”
I have no time to finish as the room erupts in a flash of plasma fire from Herg. I drop to the ground with the others, grateful for magboots that keep me from floating up into the air.
I see Herg at the ready, laying on his stomach; boots and magbelt holding him to the deck. My headbeam reveals an inert body just ahead of him. Danielli holds a laserpistol in one hand, and with the other, motions us to push backwards on our bellies. Our podPlates are outside in the passageway.
We retreat, worming our way backward, wary of the silence and the dark.
My body is tense and I recoil when an explosion rocks the overhead, blasting debris and smoke across the room. Shadowy suited figures descend from the newly created aperture. I fire my own laserRifle, but the lack of visibility, and the headbeams flashing everywhere, make it difficult to hit the targets. The room is filling with smoke. Luckily my suit’s filter removes any smell of burning flesh.
I shuffle back further and come up against an obstruction behind me: the entry door. It has closed behind us. I’ll have to come up to kneeling in order to palm the exit control. I have a flash grenade I picked up from Armory Two, so I activate it, throw it over the battling figures, and yell over the comms. “Eyes closed! Flash grenade.”
The searing flash burns bright red through my closed eyelids. I jump up, and slap the doorpad by feel. The door slides away from me. I yell again. “Exit open. Fall back, I’ll cover. Stay down.”
I back out behind the door’s edge, spin around, stand up, wedge myself against the door jamb and lean around with my laserRifle. I aim high, but my team are on all fours and I fire easily over their heads. Strangely, the return fire is wildly inaccurate, and through the drifting smoke, my headbeam plays across stumbling figures.
My brain finally makes the connection. I keep firing until everyone is clear of the room, and yell over the comms. “Danielli, Plexi, Herg. Anyone have an EMP stunner?”
Danielli and Herg both reply with a “no.”
“No stunner. But I have a Pulse bomb,” Plexi says. She’s already understood my intention, nods to me and throws the package into the room. I slap the door closed. I can only hope that the armories are EMP-sealed. It would be pretty crazy on a battlecruiser like this for them not to be. EMPs are soundless and emit no light, but I see Plexi has the bomb’s remote in her hand.
She waits for my signal, which I give. She thumbs the remote, pauses, then holds up her other hand. “Clear to enter.”
“Enter?” Herg doesn’t speak much. “You want to fight more?”
Danielli laughs over the comms. “Captain Jackson is smarter than the lot of us, Herg. It’s a SIM ambush cluster. That EMP would have disabled the lot. But we’ll take the usual precautions.” He motions to Plexi to ready herself, then to me to operate the doorpad.
The door slides open and we peer in. Smoke curls around our feet. Someone points their headbeam into the armory and I see five figures held by their own magboots on the deck. One is still sparking and jerking. There is no other movement, but we venture in carefully and spread out.
I move across to the first inert simulacrum, part android, part organic. No wonder Aktip wasn’t sure what she sensed. There are no SIMs on Rykkamon.
It is lying on its side, eyes open and unblinking. I kick it. It does not move. I reach down around its back with a laserdagger and slice in deeply through its suit, drawing an opening from the back of its head. The skin pulls apart, exposing artificially-grown cartilage and, lower down its back, various organs. Which spill out. I put my laserdagger away, stuff my hand into the mess of guts and rummage around, in close proximity to what in a human would be a spine. I hear a groan of protest from Plexi, which I ignore. I find what I am searching for and pull hard.
A sucking sensation vibrates up and along the stringy sinew I yank out from the SIM. I tug harder at the end, and the entire, meter-long neuronic entrail and its bulbous terminal shoot out, spattering liquid on my suit. I stuff the whole disgusting assembly into a suit pocket.
I look up to see the others gaping at me through their faceplates.
“I needed a souvenir.” Which triggers an idea.
“Danielli—can you subdue that one?” I jerk my head at the SIM still moving. He nods and heads over, placing one boot on its chest. I trail behind him, one eye on the gap in the overhead above me, but we are not troubled further.
I bend down to the SIM. “Roll it over.”
Danielli obliges. I unplug my diagnostic multiplug from my belt and attach it to the SIM’s rear neck terminal.
Herg keeps watch and Plexi joins me. “Whoa, sister—uh, Ma’am, I mean—that’s some major geek skills you have there. Just let me know when the autopsy starts so I can look away this time.”
I say nothing and concentrate on the task. I tap into my armpad. My time with Errikson not only taught me how to hack into his ship, but I learned more than a thing or two about SIMs. Probably why I was the first to recognize their disorientation from my flash grenade. SIM optics in night vision mode are vulnerable to irreparable damage from extreme light blasts. They were literally firing blind.
“Stand back and cover me. I’m going to hack it. Hopefully download some data, if it’s not too fried.” The others retreat a little, but Danielli keeps his foot on its back and gestures for me to continue. He keeps his headbeam trained on the disabled SIM’s neck, and a laserpistol on its head.
I tap the run button, and immediately the SIM straightens all limbs and tries to push off the deck, but Danielli kicks it down, using a nearby grab rail for leverage. Smoke pours out of all its joints. The SIM’s bionic optics must have melted because there is a disgusting thick rivulet of yellow fat coming out from underneath its face.
My armpad flashes a warning, and simultaneously I hear the pad’s comm system in my ear. “SIM destruct sequence initiated. Evacuate the area.” I rip the connector from its neck.
“Everyone out, fast. SIMs are blowing up. MOVE IT PEOPLE!” I yell the last three words, and the comms system shrieks in protest.
We turn as one and push off the deck, flying into the passageway. I catch the jamb with one hand, swing myself around violently and knock all my breath out when I slam into the bulkhead.
But not before slapping the doorpad to seal the room.
The door’s plastiflex viewport flashes red and I feel the thump and vibration of the explosion through the deck’s alloy. I look down at my squad, all gripping the passageway where they landed after clearing the room. Herg is partly on top of Plexi. She pushes him off with one elbow. “Get off me, Herg, before you start enjoying it. I don’t give free feel-ups.”
Clearly my team are in one piece.
“Captain?” Danielli looks up at me. “Sitrep?”
I must look worse than I am. “A-OK. Winded, s’all. Team sitrep?”
Herg gives me a thumbs up. Plexi kicks off the deck and somersaults. “Primed and ready for fightin’, Ma’am.”
“Sergeant Danielli?”
“Humiliated, Captain. That’s twice you’ve saved us. It’s supposed to be the other way around. Other than that, no serious injuries. Did you get the data?”
I’d almost forgotten. I punch into the armpad, then realize the podPlate has a bigger screen, so I push the data over to the plate’s system and step on. The screen flickers to life.
“They’re Errikson’s SIMs. Ganymedian origin.” I see a protected file and brute-force it open. Errikson had a bad habit of using junior coders for some of his SIM basic functions, and they almost always left a poorly protected back door. I stare at the information on the screen, tapping back and forth to make sure I haven’t made a mistake. I look over to the others. “I don’t know how much you know about Errikson and the Jovian mafia, but they aren’t exactly the best of friends.”
Herg makes a spitting noise through his suitcomm. “I wouldn’t work for those Jovian crazy bastards if you killed me,” then he realizes what he just said and starts laughing, as
does Plexi.
I snort. “Neither would I. But Errikson was on a paid commission. And not a small one either.”
Plexi and Herg are still finding it hard to keep a straight face.
But Danielli and I are not laughing. If the Jovians have Errikson in their pocket, then our mission has just become an entire dimension more complicated.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I tell my squad we’ll head—cautiously—to the helmroom. After our last skirmish, they appear to have a new regard for me and do not question my direction. We float off on our podPlates and negotiate almost thirty decks before we emerge in a wide multilane passageway.
“This is it,” Plexi tells us. “The central connection to the helmroom’s outer ring.”
“Copy that,” I say. The last time I looked at the schematic I noticed the unusual outer and inner ring configuration of the main helmroom. I still have no idea why the Constellation has been built this way. “Danielli, Plexi, Herg—your best assumptions about the helm design?”
I figure it might help us either avoid more traps, or better understand how to use the Constellation—or both.
“Negative, Ma’am,” Danielli says. “Not seen anything like it.”
“He’s seen a few,” Herg adds. He seems more talkative after our last run in with the SIMs.
Plexi looks at me and shakes her head.
We continue along the wide passage until we reach one of the outer ring bulkhead doors. I place my hand on the doorpad.
<
Apparently my authority is less automatic here. “Captain India Jackson entering the helm.”
The doors slide apart and we enter into a dimly-lit, and much smaller passageway, leading off to the left and to the right. Our podPlates will not fit comfortably into the confined space, so I order our team to disembark and leave them outside the bulkhead door on standby.
“Port or starboard?” Danielli asks.
“Makes no difference. Port.” We push around to the left, and I re-anchor my magboots so I can almost walk.
“What are we looking for Ma’am?” Danielli says.
“I’d like a recon of the entire helmroom’s outer circle. Resources, entry points, exit points. Match them up with the schematic and note any changes. Just because I have a schematic doesn’t mean it’s correct.”
I lead us around, weapons at the ready. We each sweep our headbeams carefully into all alcoves, doorways and commPanels. This time, I take care to include the overhead.
I open my comms. “Aktip? Captain Jackson to Salvage One.”
“Yes, Madam Captain. Aktip at the helm.”
“Any more changes in EM background?”
“No, Captain. But your signal is reduced by 22db since you entered the last section.”
“Shielding,” I murmur.
“Sorry, Ma’am?” It was Danielli.
“Shielding, Danielli. The outer ring is already shielding some comms.”
We continue until we complete a full circuit. I re-open the bulkhead we entered through and am relieved to see our podPlates where we left them, hovering in waiting.
“Let’s attempt entry.” I take us around to the nearest doorpad and slap my gloved hand on it, expecting the suit to transmit my biodata as it usually would. But instead of glowing green, the door is unresponsive. I look at the others.
Danielli shrugs in his suit, and points past me. “Maybe another equipment failure? Try another.”
The next doorpad responds in exactly the same way. With nothing.
At the third pad I decide to try a different approach. I place my hand on the pad and speak. “Captain India Jackson requesting access to the helm.”
The pad glows green, and I look over my shoulder at the other three and smile. “Needed to be more assertive, obviously—”
<
Huh? I look at the others, while still holding my hand on the panel. Danielli holds out his hands. “Request override?”
Good idea. “Captain Jackson requests override of secondary authorization.”
<
What the? What kind of Captain is denied access from their own helm? Maybe I’m not the real Captain after all?
I try one more approach. “Provide information list of secondary authorization requirements.”
<
I remove my hand and look at my squad. “Seems like we’ve gone as far as we can. We’ll fall back to the salvage ship and regroup for our next move.”
We exit the outer ring and mount our podPlates. I am lost in thought as I follow behind Danielli and Plexi, with Herg providing the rearguard. We ascend and descend endless decks; traverse ghoulishly lit and cavernous workshops—empty of any equipment—and everywhere we pass, there’s no sign of any fighting, defensive activity, scorch marks on bulkheads ... nothing.
“Captain?” Plexi calls back. “Look at this.” We all stop and crowd around Plexi’s podscreen. “I’ve been looking through that SIM’s data. They weren’t the only cluster in place.”
I frown. “Then why haven’t we been re-engaged? Where are they—can you tell?”
Plexi swipes across to another view, zooms in and taps a zone on the schematic. “They’re in Armory Five.”
I chew my cheek. “Then my bet would be either Armory Four or Six has some weapons left in there as bait.”
“It might not be wise to—”
“Don’t worry, Danielli. We can leave them there. I’m certain they are human-triggered. Think about it. We got excited in Armory Two and then wanted more, so we went to Armory Three. Prior to that we’d had no electromagnetic traces until Aktip alerted us. Someone left a trap—a pretty crude one at that. Probably the same people who set the plasma missiles. I’d also lay a strong bet that any salvage teams who made it past the missiles met their demise this way.”
“They didn’t have their own Constellation Captain, either,” Plexi says.
“Still ...” I pause for a moment. “It begs the question: who took away the bodies and ships of the other failed attempts?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
We board our salvage vessel without incident and I order a command meeting in the limited space of the mess. All seven of us anchor at various points around the bulkhead—there’d be no room if we all mag-anchored to the one table.
I have Danielli give the sitrep. I figure his authority over his own team gives him that right, and confers me some assumed leadership. When he gets to the part about the battle with the SIMs, I see the two crew members who remained on the salvage ship looking at me with increased curiosity.
No one has any clue as to why there is no evidence of previous salvage attempts. Maybe the SIMs doubled up as forensic cleaners. Aktip just watches everyone, seemingly entranced by the discussion.
We end up agreeing that other ships must have been caught by the plasma missiles, and maybe the one that managed to get by them and supply coordinates to Sloper never attempted to board. Sloper would have killed the returning crew and destroyed the evidence.
But the mystery takes us around in circles, until there is silence.
Finally I get to speak.
“I can’t deliver on my promise with what is left on the Constellation. Yet. But my offer remains. If anyone wishes to opt out, now is the time to speak up.” I look around the room—some heads are upside down, peering at me from the overhead, but all seem to be waiting on my next move. I give it to them.
“I’m going to Ganymede.”
I see a few exchanged glances.
“I plan to find out from Errikson what the Jovians want. In the meantime, I have to stall Sloper, send a hyper-relay message to Jordi to confirm our meeting place, and discover where my brother is being held. I need a good team—belay that—I need the best team money can buy. From what I’ve seen of Danielli, Plexi and
Herg, I already have that team. And I’m willing to bet all of you believe you’d beat anyone in a street brawl.”
I see grins and hear a few suppressed whoops. I pause and look around. “So is anyone up for a fight?”
The room erupts, and I catch Plexi looking at me, her eyes sparkling. I smile at her, and while holding her gaze, I hold up my hand for silence.
“Here’s my next question. Does anyone have any good ideas about how to hide a battlecruiser?”
Plexi laughs.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
I’m not really surprised that it’s Plexi who devised a plan. It worked, and now we’re already almost three days into our series of hyperspace hops to Ganymede.
Which means in the next two hops, I’m heading into a hornet’s nest. My hyper-relay would have reached Jordi two days ago, and he in turn may have already found Sloper. The cogs are turning. There’s no turning back, despite what my body might scream.
I ignore the fear and meet with Danielli and Aktip in the helmroom.
They wait for me to speak, datapads in hand.
“Here’s how we roll.”
“Roll?” Aktip says.
“It means how we’ll work together. Ganymede is controlled by the Jovian mafia, and it’s not the most healthy destination. I’d rather not draw undue attention, so we’ll dock at Ganymede’s trading station. Danielli and I will head down in the public shuttle.”
I turn to my Rykkan companion. “Aktip, you’ll stick out like a Rubidian arm-digit on Ganymede. So you’ll stay here and station the comms. Comms will be dark, except for our emergency beacons. Plexi will be the acting captain, and what she says, goes, unless I order you otherwise. Clear?”
“Yes, Madam Captain.”
I furrow my brow. “I think we’d better avoid calling me ‘Madam Captain.’ Just in case.”
“With all due respect, Ma’am,” Danielli says, giving me an odd look, “if we’re not going to draw attention to ourselves, purely showing yourself might be a giveaway.” He taps his own cropped hair, and points to mine.
Constellation (Blood Empire Book 1) Page 9