“I can. I have my gear in the engineering bay.”
“Right, let Squid and Tulula work on gaining control for now. I want you to track the Atlantis ship, find out where it’s going. If we can get control of the radios, we might be able to send a warning to wherever it’s heading.
And maybe that’ll prevent the destruction of Larunda, and the fall of the CW.
Maybe…
Chapter Thirty
Mach couldn’t wait any longer. It had been fifteen minutes since Kingsley Babcock went to work on tracking the Atlantis ship’s signature. They were less than that away from reaching Larunda, and Tulula and Squid hadn’t yet managed to wrestle control away from the malicious software.
“Take the helm,” Mach said to Adira. “I’m checking on the others.”
“Not much I can do,” Adira replied dryly. “Those damned aliens have screwed up this ship beyond control.”
“We’re working on it, but for now, be in a position to act on anything at all while I’m gone.” He stepped lower and whispered into her ear, “And keep an eye on Lassea. She’s running on anger at the moment, but her energy will drop at some point and she’ll probably need a shoulder to cry on if she does. I’d rather it be you.”
“Why?” she said.
“Because despite your coldness, you do actually care somewhere deep inside.”
“You’d like to believe that, wouldn’t you?”
“I do.” Mach turned and left the bridge before she had time to refute it. Mach knew her well enough that beneath her frosted exterior she cared for him, and cared for the crew. He saw it in her eyes and body language. The crew had united quickly and she was as much a part of it as anyone.
Mach walked with a quick pace through the corridor and down a flight of steps that led to Babcock’s computer bay. He ducked through the bulkhead and stepped into the large room.
A bank of quantum units lined the far wall. In the center was a three-meter-square white workstation with a holoprojector raised on a dais in the middle. It showed a three-dimensional schematic of a ship. He knew it wasn’t the Intrepid.
Babcock adjusted his glasses and peered up at Mach. “It’s a maze,” he said. “I’ve never seen a structure like it before.”
“What is it? Where did you get this? And weren’t you supposed to be tracking the signal?” Mach sighed, reminding himself not to be so harsh. Everyone was under pressure; it wouldn’t help matters with him snapping at people, least of all old friends.
To Babcock’s credit, he didn’t rise to Mach’s tone of voice. Instead, the engineer turned to the quantum units and switched on their display. Scrolling lines of holographic metrics were running down the length from ceiling to floor.
“She’s right there,” Babcock said. He motioned at the screen and stopped the scrolling. A coordinate highlighted from the strings of code.
Mach’s heart sank. Larunda.
“Those damned tartaruns were sending us both.”
Babcock pressed his lips together, a silent sigh. “I suppose when we arrived in their sector they saw us as an extra weapon. Which brings me to the schematic. That, my young friend, is the insides of the Atlantis ship.”
Mach stepped closer as Babcock gestured some commands into the project. The model rotated slowly, giving Mach a full close and highly detailed view of its construction. There were levels upon levels, staircases at odd angles, rooms that seemed to defy all logic in their placement and shape.
“It’s so… alien,” Mach said. “Any idea who built it? Was it the tartaruns, do you think?”
“I don’t think so, no. From what I can tell from that memory stick we recovered from Kaskas, the tartaruns intercepted it in the same manner they did with us, only the difference was there was no crew onboard to fight back. If you look at the designs, you’ll see no plumbing and no facilities to support a carbon-based life form that needs to breathe air.”
“Given its age, I can’t imagine anything on it being alive anyway. How did they stop it long enough to reprogram it to attack the CW orbitals?” Mach asked.
Babcock smiled then. He gestured away the schematic and brought up a set of files written in an alien script.
“What’s this I’m looking at?” Mach asked.
“It’s a tartarun mission log. I had Squid translate from the recordings he took while on their craft. The ion cannon they fitted to us is the same as the one on the Atlantis ship. Their mission was to use us to get into position, and then when they were onboard, they were to install the AI-software that would jump us to Larunda, and use the ion cannons to disable some of the defense platforms…”
Mach took over from him. “So we’re like a minesweeper to clear the way for the Atlantis ship to destroy the orbital.”
“Something like that, yes.”
Mach eased the tension from his shoulders and thought about their next steps. It seemed than in about ten minutes, the very ship he was now a captive on would fire its new weapons, disabling Larunda’s first line of defense, aiding the damned Atlantis ship in the destruction of the CW’s most important intelligence outpost.
“What can we do about this?” Mach said.
“Sir, I think we’ve cracked it,” Squid’s chirpy voice said as the little device came floating into the room, its tentacles flapping wildly with excitement. Tulula entered soon after, her face flustered, presumably with having to keep up with Squid.
“Cracked what?” Mach said. “The AI overrides?”
“Yes,” the vestan said. She gestured an open palm to Squid. “This little machine first spotted the code. It was wrapped around the Intrepid’s central AI kernel. Really clever programming. Smart too. Better than anything I’ve seen before. It was taking instructions from a mission download.”
“The item you recovered,” Squid said. “It gave the latent virus executable instructions. I do believe Kaskas was responsible for uploading the instructions shortly after we made the L-jump to our last location.”
“Are we sending any data back?” Babcock asked.
“No, we managed to block any communications from the software. We have full control now, all thanks to Squid’s quick thinking,” Tulula said, smiling up at the device.
“Good job, everyone,” Mach said.
“What do we do now?” Tulula asked. “I could take us out of the L-jump with a hard reset of the fusion array if we needed.”
“No,” Mach said, grabbing her by the shoulder. “We’re going to Larunda still, because that’s also where our target is going. The damned tartaruns had us designed as a minesweeper. Only that’s backfired on them now. We’re going to attack that ship as soon as we’re out of the L-Jump. Come with me to the bridge.”
He turned to face Babcock and Squid when he reached the bulkhead. “Great job, you two. Kingsley, I need you to assess the Atlantis ship, find out what we can do to stop it. It must have weak areas we can focus on, engine cores, computer bays, anything that could help us stop it from firing on Larunda. Also, are the radios working? I really need to get a message out as soon as we’re in Larundan space.”
“We’ll work on it and let you know as soon as it’s up and running,” Babcock said.
“Be quick; we’ve only got a few minutes.”
Running with Tulula by his side, Mach dashed up the steps and down the corridor toward the bridge. In a few more minutes, he would face his destiny. Face the Atlantis ship toe to toe. He ignored the cold dread that settled in his guts.
***
Mach gripped the armrests of the captain’s chair. The Intrepid blasted out of its L-jump. Sanchez, Adira and the others were all gathered on the bridge. The holoscreen flickered once, twice, and then bloomed with a vision of the sector, bringing detail to the void of black from their L-jump.
A tunnel of orange and white swirling light disappeared, their momentum leaving the wormhole exit behind in their wake.
“We’re out,” Lassea said. “Engaging Gamma Drive. What heading, Mach?”
At first Mac
h couldn’t see anything more than the stars in the inky blackness of space. He felt a twinge of anticlimax and disappointment. “Tulula, scan the sector. We can’t be that far from the Larunda station. Lassea, sweep us around. Let’s see if we can get a visual… on anything.”
Tulula, now taking up Danick’s position, took the order and gestured commands to the holocontrols. Down the right side of the viewscreen a stream of signals flowed. “We’ve got radio signals across the frequencies,” the vestan said.
“Can we transmit?” Mach asked.
Babcock approached Tulula’s workstation and entered a few commands of his own. “We can, Mach. Do you want me to establish connection to the Larunda Orbital?”
“Yeah, we have to warn them about… oh shit,” Mach said, leaning forward. He magnified the view and the feeling of disappointment soon changed to one of dread and not a little fear. Lassea had angled the ship down and to the port side. There, no more than a tenth of an AU away, was the hulking great form of the Atlantis ship.
“There she is,” Adira said.
“Ready to fire when you are, Mach,” Sanchez said.
“Hold fire for now,” Mach said. “Tulula, send all we have on the Atlantis ship to the Larunda Orbital. Tell them to initiate evacuation procedures while we engage.”
Their target approached the LDP—Larundan Defensive Platform—a colossal destroyer armed with nukes, lasers, and pulse weaponry. The LDP hung in space like a black granite wedge. Over a klick long and half wide, it orbited the Larunda station: a giant diamond-shaped structure that housed over five thousand of the CW’s best intelligence officers and tactical minds.
“Lassea, take us within firing range of the Atlantis ship. Sanchez, you’re on lasers; Adira, you’re on the ion cannon. Babcock, did you find us a target? We’ve only got enough juice in this bird for one ion shot; if we’re to disable that thing, we can’t afford to miss.”
The engineer approached Mach and lifted his smart-screen up. Mach leaned in close, reading the plans and schematics. A rear section of the enemy ship was highlighted with a red outline. “What is that exactly?” Mach asked.
“I believe it’s the power cell module for its primary weapon and wormhole drive.”
“They’re run from the same source? You’re saying its weapon is based on wormhole tech?”
“I can’t be sure yet, but the infrastructure tells me it’s likely the case.”
“Okay, patch the information to Adira’s targeting module.”
“Consider it done.”
Lassea brought the Intrepid to within fifteen klicks of the Atlantis ship. Even from that distance, the massive craft filled the viewscreen. “Would you look at that,” she whispered, her voice shaking with fear.
“Sure is a big bastard,” Sanchez said.
“Captain, we’ve got a message from Larunda,” Tulula said.
“Send it to my smart-screen. Lassea, we need to flank it. Take us slowly under the stern and prepare to engage full speed to the port. Use the LDP for cover.”
The LDP had already started to fire upon the Atlantis ship. Five orange-yellow plumes from the nukes’ rockets blazed across the five-klick distance. The missiles slammed into the side of the Atlantis ship’s left flank toward the large boxy bow section. A bright purple field rippled around the ship, absorbing the blasts. The last nuke managed to break through to the hull, but it barely dented the matte-black surface.
Mach pumped his fist, urging the LDP to keep going as Lassea brought the Intrepid within striking distance.
“Carson Mach, do you receive me?” a harsh female voice called to him via his smart-screen. He raised it and opened the video channel. The reception intermittently broke to a horizontal static each time the Atlantis ship fired its alien weapon at the LDP. Great blue bolts struck the defensive platform, smashing huge chunks from it as though it were made of eggshell.
“I receive you. Who am I talking to?” Mach said, trying not to let the terror of watching the LDP get smashed to bits show in his voice.
“Senator Margray, head of CW Intelligence. What the hell is going on up there?” The woman wore her hair in a bun on the top of her head. Her dark skin shone beneath a stark white light, picking out each individual wrinkle and eyes that held a stony determination.
“You got our message about evacuating, right? I suggest you do that. I was tasked by Admiral Morgan to track and disable the Atlantis ship. I’m sure you’re aware by now that your LDP will be an expensive pile of rubble within a few minutes. Larunda station will be next. You have to leave, right now.”
“Evac protocols are in operation as we speak,” Margray said. Behind her, Mach noticed dozens of people running in an orderly fashion toward a wide door in the dark office. “What are your plans?”
“Shoot the crap out of the ship until it stops, I guess, not much else we can do. We’ll at least buy you time.”
“Before you go,” she said, “are you up to speed on the news regarding Admiral Morgan?”
“No, I’ve been kinda busy with a few things. What’s going on?”
Mach looked up from his smart-screen to watch the final piece of the LDP get blasted by a huge blue bolt. The energy weapon tore through the platform’s defenses, ripping the titanium graphene hull as though it were nothing more solid than a sheet of rice paper.
Lassea had followed his order and was bringing the Intrepid around in a sideways drift, flanking the hulk of the enemy ship. At least they had the maneuverability advantage.
“Fire,” Mach said to Sanchez. “Full quads, use Babcock’s target coordinates.”
“I’m on it,” the big hunter said, thrusting his hands back into the holocontrols and powering the lasers.
Mach turned his attention to the spy boss. “The news,” Mach said. “Make it quick, then get the hell out of here, you don’t have much time.”
“Very well. Morgan’s taken over the CW. The president and vice president were killed in a terrorist attack earlier this morning. Morgan negotiated with the Vestan Three. They’ve pulled away from the Axis and joined the CW. Hostilities have come to an end on the NCZ.”
Mach couldn’t quite take it all in; he had so many questions but not enough time. He was thankful that Morgan had managed to do something about the Axis, but it didn’t change the fact that he was about to get blasted across the Larunda sector any minute.
“That’s great,” Mach said. “Now run. We’ll hold the Atlantis ship for as long as we can.”
“Thank you, Captain Mach,” Margray said, saluting him before cutting the transmission. Mach dropped his arm and focused on the view in front of him.
All around the shining diamond that was Larunda, ships launched out of hangar bays and immediately engaged their LDs, creating dozens of pinched points of light winking out like supernovae.
“Firing everything we’ve got, Mach,” Sanchez said.
Lassea stabilized the Intrepid with the retro thrusters so they matched velocity with their target. A loud hum echoed throughout the craft; a pulse from the quad-lasers shot out across the three-klick distance, striking the enemy ship’s stern section.
The first pulse activated its shields, but the LDP’s nukes must have weakened them; three remaining laser pulses got through, striking the hull, but they only managed to create a small scar along the matte-black surface.
In response to the attack, two cannons, half the length of the Atlantis ship and installed atop the hull, swiveled to point in the Intrepid’s direction.
“Get ready to engage full power to the Gamma Drive,” Mach said. “Get us under and out the other side, then swing us round. Adira, you’ll fire the ion cannon, we’ve got one chance at this. Ready?”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” Lassea said.
“Do it,” Adira said.
“GO!” Mach shouted as the first of the cannons fired, belching out great gobs of blue plasma.
Lassea engaged the drives to full power, thrusting the Intrepid forward like a bullet from a gun. The cannon bl
ast missed them by a few meters. Within five seconds, they had passed beneath the behemoth and came out on the other side.
“Hold on,” Lassea said as she put the Intrepid into a tight half-spin, bringing the bow around to face the opposite flank. The momentum meant they were flying backwards away from it, but still within firing range.
“Now, Adira!” Mach yelled.
Adira coldly followed his order with a single gesture of her right hand. The lights within the bridge went out. A thwump thwump noise vibrated through the hull. The hairs on Mach’s arms stood on end as the tartarun ion cannons drained every last watt of power from their converters.
The viewscreen flickered back on after the cannons fired.
“Oh crap! Everyone hold on!” Mach shouted as a blue bolt from the Atlantis ship came firing their way; the damned thing must have anticipated their movement and had a cannon ready on the other side.
Lassea screamed and lurched her hands across the holocontrols. The Gamma Drive didn’t fire, due to the lack of power, but the retro thrusters kicked in, jolting the Intrepid to the starboard side and flipping her over in a barrel roll.
Mach glimpsed the viewscreen as he fell out of his chair and crumpled to the floor. The blue bolt struck the portside wing, tearing it away. The hull of the Intrepid sounded like the insides of a thundercloud, boom after boom came, metal rending and tearing.
Adira and Babcock were tangled in a pile. Tulula lay motionless on her side, her face illuminated by the swirling red alert light. Then sirens blared; warning signs flashed on the screen. Smoke and air hissed from somewhere behind Mach, and then, finally, silence.
Mach’s vision blurred when he tried to stand. The ship’s anti-g had switched off. He floated up and spun round. Tulula’s leg was trapped against her console, pinning her to the bridge floor. Everyone else hovered a few meters off the floor.
Squid approached Mach, its OLED eyes blinking.
“Is everyone alive?” Mach said, his voice sounding far off. His ears still rang from the din before. “Is there a hull breach?”
Galactic - Ten Book Space Opera Sci-Fi Boxset Page 23