He had missed something, something important. Lives were being lost and more were about to die. The distractions had kept him from seeing the truth and now perhaps it was too late. Luke's dream faded, along with the sense of danger as he came more awake. He had been in a deep sleep, most likely caused by the exertion of surviving under such intense and prolonged acceleration.
Luke scanned his systems, both internal and on the board. The feeling of something wrong wouldn't leave him, like a whispering threat in the back of his mind. He used his Admiral privileges to peek at Bruce's boards, then Erica's. Nothing. Laying back he stared at the ceiling.
"Musashi," Luke said opening a direct link. "How's it going?"
"Like slave labor always goes," Musashi replied. "Slow and tedious. Care to join us slaves?"
"Good," Luke sent. "Don't want you to get bored sitting on a fattening metal ass. I'm feeling paranoid. Check with the others and make sure I'm not missing anything."
"Aye, aye Commander," Musashi sent, all business.
Luke was sitting there going through battle logs an hour later when Musashi linked in.
"Nothing to report Commander," Musashi linked in. "The power plant is damaged but not likely to explode, ordnance is not a danger, I'm not finding anything and neither is the rest of Gray's battalion. All quiet. We will keep looking and let you know if we find anything but I would just say you are being paranoid, like a typical meat sack. However, you have been right once or twice before so we will try to find it."
"Thanks metal head," Luke sent. "Much appreciated. Luke out."
"Musashi out," Musashi sent and closed the link.
Luke spent another hour going through the logs, and then an hour meditating, trying to understand his sense of unease. Nothing looked out of the ordinary on the CIC. Luke cursed in the privacy of his cocoon and then decided he needed more sleep. He had another three hours before break out and he took a short term sedative.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Papi
"Ten minutes to wormhole transition," Erica said from her cocoon.
Everyone looked up. The CIC and restroom were the only chamber with air pressure. Plenty of rations and coffee for bridge crew and observers but Bruce wasn't interested. The 'passenger lounge' was still unpressurized and everyone there had to subsist in cocoons. Fifteen hours was a long time though to be stuck in a room but at least those in the CIC could move around outside their cocoons and could use a real restroom rather than the facilities built into their cocoon. The 'passengers' didn't have that luxury.
Bruce had promised them pressure in the next hour, after the remains of the Proud Infidel made it out of the wormhole.
Luke sat there watching everyone with his cocoon lid retracted. He seemed confident which made Bruce nervous. He couldn't help feeling the failing mission was his fault.
A timer appeared on the now repaired main holographic display.
"Might be bumpy," Bruce said. "Sound battle stations. I want everyone in their cocoon until we know what is waiting for us."
Erica sounded battle stations and Luke slid his shell closed. Bruce looked at Luke who was glancing at Leonessa but she looked busy bringing up displays.
"Stand by for transition," Erica said. "Wormhole is open. Proud Infidel is transitioning to normal space."
The ship rattled and shook like she was spinning out of control near a gravity well. Bruce grimaced, waiting for the ship to break apart and then the worst was over.
"Better than I expected," Bruce said and Luke threw him a look but Bruce was looking over his board.
"Launching probe," Erica said. It would be the Proud Infidel's only eyes and ears at the now. The enemy missiles had stripped off or damaged most of the sensors on the hull of the Proud Infidel. "Probe away. Gathering telemetry, incoming transmission."
"Send it to me," Bruce said. "Who is it?"
"Conglomerate patrol vessel Five-five-two-seven," Erica said.
"This is the Proud Infidel," Bruce said and glanced over at Luke.
"Proud Infidel," a voice came over the external link so everyone on the bridge could hear it. "This is patrol vessel Five-five-two-seven, your arrival, appearance and condition is unexpected. Are you being pursued?"
"Maybe," Bruce said. "If you. . . Shit"
Sensor data from the drone was coming back. There were six patrol cruisers surrounding the wormhole in guard position. Further back was an ancient Conglomerate battle cruiser. The probe detected numerous Conglomerate weapon locks on the Proud Infidel. Ready for a fight their appearance and actions weighed on Bruce.
Luke's eyes widened as he saw what was present.
"Say again?" Five-five-two-seven asked.
"Disregard," Bruce said regaining his composure. "Are you expecting trouble?"
"Affirmative," the patrol captain said, without elaboration.
"No weapons fire," Erica said in a private command link and glanced at Bruce. "Yet."
"There might be hostiles a day behind us," Bruce said. "Maybe not. We were attacked by unknown vessels. Do you know anything about that?"
The patrol captain was silent for several moments. Perhaps discussing it.
"Not your concern," the patrol captain said, which wasn't very informative and made Bruce think he was lying.
Bruce looked at Luke and Luke just shrugged.
"Can you invoke Shoka status to get more info?" Bruce asked in a separate link.
"I'm not Conglomerate Military," Luke said. "Just an agent. I don't get the time of day from the Conglomerate Military."
Bruce nodded, he got the same. The Conglomerate Military was very closed mouth and intolerant of questions and they only interfered when one party had the authority to deny conflict.
"You may continue to your destination," the patrol captain said.
"Not even going to offer assistance?" Bruce muttered.
"Do we still need it?" Luke asked.
"We can limp along, but I don't think we can make another wormhole transition," Bruce said. "We need repair facilities if we want to get to Churen and then Bronkaw Prime this year."
"Is this normal?" Luke asked Shum.
The Pral shook his head.
"I have never heard of more than one patrol vessel monitoring a gate like this. That appears to be a Beshra class battle cruiser. An ancient design, but still used throughout Conglomerate fleets. To have this kind of force guarding the wormhole indicates a problem. Perhaps the strangers have attempted to raid into this system."
"Wouldn't that provoke a full Conglomerate response?" Luke asked. "Attacking a Conglomerate world or ships without authorization?"
"It would," Shum said. "Perhaps they are building up a fleet to begin an expedition."
"They don't seem talkative," Bruce said.
"They have nothing to say to you," Shum said staring at the holographic display, dots floating in a sphere with small markers. Shum's hands flew across the human keyboard like he had been born to it, pulling up data and information.
"But they aren't sharing any information," Bruce said.
"You are not Conglomerate Military," Shum said.
Bruce glared at Shum who didn't even bother to glance in Bruce's direction.
Papi was a binary star system with two different stars, one was a G-type main sequence star, sometimes called a yellow dwarf and the other was a K-type main sequence star, sometimes called an orange dwarf. The wormhole deposited the Proud Infidel nearest the Papi A star, which had six planets. The main planet in the system was Dazi-Mnolchirshtili, a nasty ball of ice with a higher than normal gravity. It wasn't as populated as Bizzen had been, but it had a native species, the Dazi who lived there in an oddly cold adapted ecology. The Dazi were large omnivores, almost three meters tall, covered in white fur, there was plenty of information on them in the database, but Luke wasn't too interested. He was looking for space ports.
"Dazi has a space station, Dazi-Sakalli," Luke said. "They have a class three space port. They might help. I'm not finding
anything else in system that can handle something this big."
Bruce nodded. "Thank you, Commander," he said.
"Ensign One, please set a course for Dazi-Sakalli," Bruce said.
"Setting course for Dazi-Sakalli, aye Captain," the droid said. "Estimated time of arrival at current speed is three days."
"Carry on," Bruce said.
"Carry on, aye," the droid answered as Bruce sat back to hurry up and wait.
* * * * *
The command deck was finally pressurized when Bruce assembled everyone in the conference room. It was still cold and everyone who wasn't in their spacesuit was wrapped in a blanket. They could still see each other's breath and there was the smell of burnt plastic that permeated everything. The room had lost its sterile grace and beauty. Now it looked and felt like an abused meeting room.
"It will take major repairs to make the Proud Infidel battle worthy," Bruce said trying to keep the emotion out of his voice. "Her spine is broken and so are the plasma lances. She has suffered severe structural damage and is warped from a detonation that occurred on the port side. That warping on the port caused a structural tear on the starboard side and plugging that hole is what took so long. We plan on getting deck two pressurized by tomorrow."
"Weapons?" Luke asked.
Bruce sighed. "The Plasma lances are complete write offs. We have to straighten the keel which will require a class six ship yard. Other than that, we have a pair of missile launchers on the starboard side and assorted secondary weapons and point defense turrets. We might fight off a frigate or two but anything in the cruiser class or bigger would eat us for lunch."
"Then we should avoid fights. What about wormhole drive and engines?"
"Good news, bad news," Bruce said. "Good news the wormhole drive and gravity compensators are repairable. Of the four engines, the two on the port side are a complete write off. The two on the starboard side are functional, only one is running right now so we can take the other offline and repair it. We will not be doing any high-speed maneuvers, as if the keel could handle it, which I doubt. Anything too fast and the ship might snap in two."
"It will get us to Bronkaw Prime?" Luke said.
"Barely," Bruce said. "The Nalee might even fix it, and I will bill the Topa for every mini-credit."
Luke nodded.
"How far behind schedule will we be?"
Bruce shrugged. "Can't say for sure. If we are lucky, maybe a few days in dock getting the engines repaired, the hull patched. After that our top speed will depend on how much we can stress the engines and hull. I won't blame you if you want to hire a courier to get you to Bronkaw Prime."
Luke shook his head. Topa Suresh had not given them a solid deadline and Luke didn't want to arrive there without a military vessel. He still had to have a ship built before he could take the Topa's job and that was not a rapid process. Whatever border problems the Bronkaw Emperor was having would have to wait. Although now Bruce was suspecting the problems the Bronkaw were experiencing.
"I sent everyone a task list," Luke said. "In a nutshell, I want more information on the space port, prices, who's in charge, etc. I also want a good work up of where the Tonkan secret empire is, based on what we have from our former prisoners and what the Conglomerate star charts show. I also want to know if that empire brushes up against Bronkaw space.
"When we hit the deck on the space station I also want more local information," Luke said. "Why are those ships sitting on the wormhole and what rumors are coming out of the Bronkaw Dominance."
Everyone looked over their task list except Bruce's crew. There was a lot of information to gather and people could start as soon as they came in range of the Dazi data net.
Bruce knew Luke and his team would be very busy.
CHAPTER FORTY
Dazi-Sakalli
When Luke could see Dazi-Sakalli he was less than impressed. The station just looked old. A massive ring around a central cylinder. It was a generic design. The ring provided gravity but the central cylinder didn't have gravity, and it was where the ships would dock, load and unload. At least a third of it appeared unlit and abandoned. The Conglomerate records showed the population might be as high as fifty thousand but it could have held much more than that.
They had a repair facility that could accommodate the Proud Infidel, but they couldn't perform full repairs. They weren't busy, but they said a minimum of a week to perform the repairs Bruce wanted. Luke walked out in the middle of the argument but heard Bruce got it down to two days, of course they hadn't yet seen the Proud Infidel so that might change.
Heading to the CIC Luke wanted time to think, he didn't want to be stuck here for a week. A sense of urgency nagged him.
* * * * *
Tugs came out to move the Proud Infidel into position as Luke watched from his cocoon. He rendered the rest of the Proud Infidel transparent from his cocoon so he could look at the station without anything obstructing his view.
Only a single Conglomerate patrol cruiser was docked, but it didn't look damaged. A couple ancient merchant ships and some equally archaic local mining ships were present. This looked like a back-water space station at the edge of explored space, nothing to warrant the small fleet at the wormhole.
"Check this out," Leonessa said from her cocoon, shunting a news feed to his link.
It was text with some pictures, more universally shared than some talking head, like back in Sol, but it was current.
"Conglomerate Military Forces on alert after wormholes to the Ubashi system faded?" Luke asked.
"I get the impression a fading wormhole isn't normal," Leonessa said. "And it was all the wormholes to Ubashi. Not just some."
"That makes little sense," Luke said as Bruce looked up.
"Ubashi is a major hub since it is the sector capital," Bruce said. "The Ubashi fleet is there and there is a major Tal base. There are ten wormhole links. Hell, that will cripple trade routes."
"There were a few trillion sentients in that system as well," Erica said. "That is a lot of cut off people. Do they have enough food?"
"Shum to the bridge please?" Luke sent as he continued to read the report. Details were minimal and more information wouldn't be available for years because that is how long it would take an expedition to get there and back without wormholes unless the Topa had other technology. The Topa said none of the FTL communication relays in Ubashi were responding which implied a disaster. A star could not have gone supernova that fast, or without warning. Ubashi's blackout had people worried and confused.
According to the news, the Topa were silent on what they knew, but they admitted they didn't have answers either. Local governments were consolidating their forces, and that didn't pose well for regional peace. Without the Topa or Conglomerate Military forces to keep the local forces from fighting there would be problems. Throughout the sector people were preparing for war in case the Tal and Ubashi fleets and that was not likely to be good for trade.
Falla Shum entered the CIC moments later and Luke opened his cocoon.
"It looks like Ubashi system has gone silent," Luke said looking at the Pral.
"Silent?" Shum asked, looking as confused as Luke felt.
"All the wormholes are gone and they aren't responding to FTL communications," Luke said.
Shum stared at Luke for several long moments.
"I was stationed at Ubashi before I became Falla," Shum said. "You are serious?"
Luke nodded.
"This makes little sense," Falla said. "May I see the reports?"
Luke sent the report to Shum's link and waited while Shum digested it.
"Ubashi was destroyed," Shum said. Even Luke could understand the look of shock on Shum's alien face.
"How do you know?" Luke asked.
"It was too quick, there were numerous FTL relays, the Tal forces were dispersed throughout the system," Shum said. "They would have had to be destroyed for the relays to go silent. We had our own FTL relays on the outskirts of the system."
"That is three trillion sentients," Luke said. "How can that happen?"
"There are ancient weapons," Shum said. "Or said to be. The Topa destroyed the weapons and buried knowledge of them away. Agents of the Topa hunt and kill any who proceed down those research paths. I do not know the science, but I have heard of such weapons. I will not discuss the details and may have told you too much already."
Luke nodded, "It won't leave the room. How will this affect the Conglomerate?"
"There will be war," Shum said, looking concerned. "Without the Tal to stop it, the different empires within the Conglomerate are likely to take advantage of the situation. If Topa justice is not swift, it is not effective. There are three other Tal bases but it could take a year for them to assemble sufficient forces and build another response fleet for this sector. It may destabilize the entire Conglomerate without the Tal or Ubashi fleets."
"That seems like bad planning," Luke said, watching Shum.
Shum looked at Luke.
"By human standards, perhaps," Shum said. "But by Conglomerate standards it provides a stability, a sense of knowing, a sense of understanding and peace. Ubashi was a central system where it was quick and easy to deploy military forces. Now it can take months or even years to move around this sector. This will upset the balance, disrupt trade routes, cause confusion and friction among traders who must now seek new routes.
"With your permission, I would like to make an FTL communication," Shum said. Luke nodded. They were expensive but if Shum had family in Ubashi, he would want more information.
"How much will you need?" Luke asked.
At first Shum looked shocked, then he looked embarrassed, unable to meet Luke's eyes.
"It will be a short call," Shum said, realizing perhaps for the first time he was not Tal and didn't have access to unlimited funds.
Luke nodded. "Go ahead and assess it against my account. Gray will help you with the details. Take what time you need."
"Thank you," Shum said.
"If you have to go on station," Luke said. "Let me know and I will go with you. It will give me an excuse go on station and I'm curious."
The Darkness: The Conglomerate Trilogy (Volume 2) Page 23