Yep. They sure can.
44
AFS STALWART II
TARACH STELLAR SYSTEM
* * *
“THREE CONCENTRIC SHIELDS, each as strong as an Imperium’s double shield?”
“And the innermost one is snug up against the hull. Plus, there’s a diati barrier.”
Miriam frowned. “Even with the Praesidis Primor dead?”
Alex shrugged.
“Just what I need, more diati.” Caleb grimaced, then forced a closed-mouth smile. “It’s fine. I can swat it away from…maybe as far away as a parsec.”
David noted how his son-in-law’s voice managed to sound both bitter and flat at the same time. Caleb’s pain was blatantly obvious, as was Alex’s troubled reaction to it, but one crisis at a time. Save civilization first, save souls later. “It won’t matter if we can’t get through those shields—” he looked to Miriam “—and we can’t, can we?”
Her brow was knotted tight. Variables, contingencies, options and their costs spinning in her mind for certain. “Alex, can you quantify exactly what ‘snug up against the hull’ means?”
Thomas spoke up first, however. ‘Valkyrie has passed along the data files to me. The distance between the innermost shield and the exterior of the Prótos Agora’s hull varies between fourteen and twenty meters.’
Miriam absorbed the new data without blinking. “Assuming a wormhole can bypass all three shields, can one be opened within so small a range on a target moving at over 6 AU per hour? One that we could send a cluster of negative energy missiles through?”
Alex grimaced. “Um…we could try.”
Thomas chimed in again with more bad news. ‘Actually, to try would likely be futile. The turbulence of the energetic and dimensional forces at play so close to the galactic core render opening any form of wormhole there nearly impossible, never mind a stable one.’
“Thomas, you should know by now how I feel about the word ‘nearly.’ Valkyrie, let’s try it anyway.”
‘From your location on the Stalwart II?’
“No, I’ll let you take the lead on this one. Open it in front of the Siyane, with the exit point as close to flush against the Prótos Agora as you can finagle it.”
‘Proceeding—’
Alex staggered back into the wall behind her as forcefully as if someone had shoved her. David started to move toward her, but Caleb was at her side instantly.
She ran a hand down her face, eyes wide. “I’m okay. But Thomas is right, or mostly right. The wormhole did open, but the exit was like the eyewall of a hurricane. I could feel it from here. Obviously.”
David sighed. His daughter’s frequent death-defying feats were damn impressive, but a mite tough on the parental instincts. “Is Valkyrie all right? Was the Siyane damaged?”
‘Nothing a coat of polish can’t buff out.’
Alex winked at Caleb. “We’ve buffed out far worse.”
He squeezed her hand. “Yes, we have.”
“Regardless, we’re going to need another plan….” Alex’s face abruptly brightened, and she cast her gaze to the ceiling. “Mesme!”
“Does that work? Can you really just call the Kat like that?”
She rolled her eyes at David. “No. Valkyrie contacted Mesme. But it felt good to make a show of it.”
Oh, milaya. You are such a beautiful, astonishing person. I weep for your burdens and stand in awe of your accomplishments.
Alex may not have noticed the broadcasting of such sentimental thoughts on his countenance, but Miriam did. She glanced toward Alex while giving him a small smile. He gave her a bigger one.
A minute later a Kat’s trademark swirl of lights swept into the room. You requested my presence?
Alex crossed her arms over her chest as if spoiling for a fight. “We need the Tartarus Trigger.”
Oh. David watched Miriam’s expression transform. Though skeptical and cautious, she wasn’t dismissing the idea out of hand.
What? No. I cannot permit its use.
“We have to destroy the Prótos Agora in the next six hours or all of this warfare, destruction and death will have been for naught. The Tartarus Trigger—or rather the black hole it creates—is the only weapon that won’t be stopped by the Prótos Agora’s shields.”
I recognize your dire straits, but there are no circumstances under which the device can be used safely.
“ ‘Safely’ is more of an ideal to strive for than a requirement. The Prótos Agora is orbiting 2.6 parsecs from the event horizon of the supermassive black hole sitting at the center of the Milky Way. Does this alter your judgment?”
Mesme undulated for a moment. Applying those parameters, it could perhaps be used with a marginal degree of safety.
“That’s what I thought.” Alex directed her attention to the human beings present, all of whom David was fairly certain had no idea what had been discussed and decided. “So long as the black hole singularity created by the Tartarus Trigger is initially located less than about four parsecs from the one at the center of the Milky Way, and so long as its size is less than twenty-two percent of the Milky Way black hole when the two event horizons meet, the far larger Milky Way black hole will consume the Tartarus Trigger’s creation and continue on with its day.”
She tapped her temple. “Or so Valkyrie says, after spinning a few cycles on math and Thomas checking behind her. Mesme, do your scientists agree as well?”
The math is accurate. It will continue to be a dangerous endeavor.
“Dangerous we can do. Nearly impossible we can do. All we need are the tiniest odds of success.”
Miriam arched an eyebrow in David’s direction. “She’s your daughter.” Then she banished all levity as swiftly as it had arrived. “To launch the device with a high enough level of precision, we would need to be within twelve megameters of the target, same as with negative energy missiles. Our shields can’t take the abuse the core will inflict, but the Dimensional Rifter can, at least for a few seconds. Running the Rifter so close to the core will require a great deal of power…but I suspect if we shut down non-critical systems, we can manage it, again for a few seconds. Thomas, please confirm.”
Alex frowned at her mother. “What’s all this ‘we’ stuff? I’m doing this.”
David leaned into the table. “No, you’re not. You’ve done enough—more than enough, the both of you. The Stalwart II has both the strongest shields and the most powerful Rifter in the fleet. Let us fire the final shot in this war. It’s our responsibility and, frankly…” he turned to face Miriam “…it’s your mother’s right to do it.”
Alex glared at him, and for an instant the pout she wore transformed her into the little girl he remembered. “Fine. But we’re going with you.”
45
TAYGETA
EXPERIMENTAL WEAPONRY TESTING FACILITY
URSA MAJOR I
LGG REGION I
* * *
CASMIR HURRIED AFTER THE PRIMOR like a loyal dog nipping at its master’s heels. But he wasn’t following out of loyalty any longer. “Sir!”
The Primor gestured dismissively over his shoulder and didn’t slow.
Casmir increased his gait to a rapid jog until he caught up. “Sir, if you will tell me what our objective is, I can take care of the details so you needn’t bother with them.”
“Our objective is to punish our enemy. If we can’t have victory, we can damn sure have vengeance.”
The shocking news had arrived in ever worsening waves during their brief trip here. Class 4 Dynasty regenesis labs destroyed, attacks on homeworlds, Primors slain. Then, a claim too outlandish to believe: Solum destroyed more thoroughly than even an armada of Igni missiles could achieve. The reports were vague and often contradictory, but the weight of them suggested Machim may very well be the only Primor still living.
For now, no Directorate existed to step forward, to guide the people and implement a response. Furtive messages among elassons crossing Dynasty lines indicated there may be h
ope for resurrecting some of the Primors, but Casmir wasn’t inclined toward a hopeful mood. Not with his Primor out of his mind and bent on fiery retribution.
He kept his voice level and chose his words carefully. “What are your plans in that regard, sir?”
The answer only served to stoke the dread churning in his gut. “You will see soon enough.”
Hulking workbots guided the large cylinder and its protective casing up the ramp of the battlecruiser as Casmir looked on in growing horror. As anticipated, the Humans had destroyed the Advanced Weaponry Development Facility at Centauri E, but the monstrous device had been moved prior to its destruction and completed here.
The last time he’d carried such a device on his ship, he’d have faithfully followed his orders to deploy it; he simply hadn’t gotten the opportunity. Now, though?
His throat had gone dry, so he cleared it awkwardly. His Primor stood beside him wearing an expression of almost maniacal glee. “Sir, what are you intending to target? There are no portals we can access to traverse.”
“Of course there are.”
“Hidden, sir, and scattered across megaparsecs of space.”
“Hidden, yes, but not unknown. I possess the location of one.”
“What? How, sir?”
“Praesidis—Zeus rest his pretentious soul—tried again to track a provision vessel, this time using one of his vaunted elassons. The Inquisitor escaped detection and returned with a set of coordinates. I have not heard from him since, so I assume he now shares his Primor’s fate. We were planning to move on the portal before….”
Before what didn’t need to be said. Casmir eyed the device as it disappeared into the hold. “I see. Sir, are you certain this is the wisest course of action given the current state of disarray among our—”
“Enough! I am done with your mealy-mouthed questioning and quivering protests. I no longer require your services. You are relieved of duty.”
Casmir swallowed, surprised that relief dominated shame in his reaction. “As you wish, Primor. Where shall I be reassigned?”
“I don’t care. Live, die, whatever suits you, but go.” The Primor pivoted and headed toward the ship’s airlock.
Casmir stood there and watched the Primor board. He watched the bay door close the doomsday device up inside the hull. He watched the ship’s engines engage and the ship depart.
He couldn’t say whether the Humans deserved to die en masse, for moral judgments were not his role. The Humans were indisputably his government’s and his Dynasty’s adversary. He’d been tasked with defeating them, yet he and all others had failed.
But no matter the particulars of the enemy, such a device as this should not exist, should never have existed—and it absolutely should not exist under the control of a madman. The decision to use such a weapon would be suspect even if made by the sane, and his Primor had lost all reason.
Casmir was a military officer, and military officers didn’t stroll around indulging ethical crises. They chose a course of action and pursued it to its end.
He had no ship from which to act, no destination from where to act, and no platform upon which to act to prevent his Primor from using the device.
But others did. His enemy did.
He spun and hurried back into the heart of the Facility.
46
AFS STALWART II
PEGASUS DWARF GALAXY
LGG REGION VI
* * *
MESME AND TWO OTHER KATS delivered the Tartarus Trigger to the waiting Stalwart II at a location a full hundred parsecs from Post Delta. A contingent of AEGIS bots retrofitted it to the end of one of the negative energy missile tubes. Since it was too large to fit inside, the launching mechanisms had been hurriedly rigged to act across the full length of the tube.
Alex paced around the conference room, dropping into sidespace every twenty seconds or so to check on their progress. Time slipping out from beneath her, one accelerating second at a time. It wasn’t truly, not here. Felt like it, though.
She would not let the sacrifices of the last days be for nothing. She would not let the suffering Caleb endured be for nothing.
Her father entered the room and paused to give her a half-smile before coming the rest of the way to grasp her shoulders and bring a halt to her haphazard meanderings. “Calm down. You’re making me dizzy.”
“Bullshit.”
“Mozhet byt’, moya oba bezumny.”
She grudgingly laughed. “Conceded. Where’s Mom?”
“Down in the weapons bay supervising the installation from as close a position as she can manage without donning an environment suit and going outside—which she almost did. Caleb?”
“Interrogating Nyx, trying to extract anything else out of her that might help us.”
“Then they’re both putting their skills to their best use. What’s our excuse?”
She made a face. “You and I, we do. And for a few more minutes, there’s nothing for us to do.”
“You mean we run headlong into danger, then once we get there make up a plan on the spot, roll the dice and hope our gambit works.”
“Well, you can’t know what your gut is going to tell you is the right move until you have to make it.”
“Truer words, milaya.” His expression grew serious. “No matter what comes, we will persevere. It’s not over until we win.”
Oh, how she wanted to believe him. How she wanted to believe that her father not only had all the answers, but the power to make everything okay. Once upon a time she had believed it; then he hadn’t come home. “Why are you so sure?”
“Because I didn’t cross universes to return to life, simply to die again.”
She hugged him. “Damn straight you didn’t.”
‘Pardon the interruption, but the installation of the Tartarus Trigger is complete. Commandant Solovy has ordered our departure in one hundred twenty seconds.’
“Thanks, Thomas.” She exhaled. “To the bridge, then.”
MILKY WAY GALACTIC CORE
AFS STALWART II
The Caeles Prism had rendered even the greatest cosmic distances trivial, which had proved to often make such journeys rather anticlimactic. Not so this one.
Despite being masked by maximum filters over the viewport, the blinding, writhing light of the galactic core nevertheless bathed the bridge in a pale magenta glow.
Alex could spout the numbers: twelve million stars packed into a cubic parsec, a deafening roar of radio waves propelled across the galaxy by the 46,000 megameter-wide Sagittarius A*, and beyond it a four million solar mass black hole crammed into a Schwarzschild radius of less than 12,000 megameters. The numbers did nothing to render its size or power fathomable.
As she’d thought, she was back here again—much closer this time, too—and this visit she allowed herself the smallest measure of appreciation for the sight.
Her mother, however, was all business; of course she had to be. “Systems, confirm the Dimensional Rifter and its shielding are operating at maximum capacity. Thomas, confirm our location.”
‘Our location is Milky Way l 17° 44’ 39.15” b 29° 14’ 21.93”, which is within the margin of error of our targeted destination.’
“Thank you. The Prótos Agora should cross twenty megameters in front of us in the next minute. Prepare to match its velocity and orbital trajectory as soon as we detect it.”
‘Acknowledged.’
One could slice through the strained air with a blade, so coiled was the tension on the bridge. Was it always like this on a military ship during a mission? During pitched combat, with wailing sirens and panicked damage reports, sure. But here there was no enemy fleet, no chaos of the battlefield.
Only a deadly supermassive black hole in front of them, a deadly weapon ready to launch beneath them, and the fortress protecting the rotted heart of the enemy speeding between the two.
‘Object detected on sensors. It matches the profile and orbital characteristics of the Prótos Agora.’
Her mother’s voice was cold steel. “Proceed.”
Advanced inertial dampeners meant the floor barely shifted as they accelerated into a parallel course. The lights dimmed as power was reallocated. The ship held only a skeleton crew for the mission, and likely most of the other decks had just been pitched into darkness.
Caleb squeezed her hand. “Time for me to work.” He strode forward to the viewport.
She wasn’t at all convinced the structure’s diati barrier could withstand the forces their black hole would generate, but he was, and now was not the time to leave any measure undone.
Her heart ached with pride and sorrow at the tragic, heroic cut of his silhouette cast against the shining viewport. The weight of universes rested on all their shoulders now, yet though he felt that weight more profoundly than any of them, his shoulders remained unbowed.
She wanted to run to him—she wanted him to not stand alone—but she had a job to do as well, if a small and brief one. She switched to sidespace and located the oval structure hurtling around the core. “Confirmed. The structure is the Prótos Agora. No detectable activity, but the shields are operational. We should be clear to proceed.”
From what seemed a great distance away, her mother spoke. “Weapons, confirm a lock on the target. Remember, detonation needs to occur within two megameters of the target’s location.”
“Target lock confirmed. Distance confirmed within parameters.”
“Mr. Marano, proceed.”
The shimmering crimson shell surrounding the structure quivered once and whipped away.
She opened her eyes to see Caleb stumble back for two steps then catch his balance. He huffed a breath. “Didn’t expect it to find me over such a distance. Diati shield is down.”
She hurriedly returned to sidespace. “Confirmed. Diati shield is down.”
Her mother wasted no time. “Weapons, fire the Tartarus Trigger. Confirm successful ejection.”
Requiem_Aurora Resonant_Book Three Page 33