She had set up a holographic projector in the back of the shuttle bay simulating the night sky. Underneath the open stars was a blanket and a makeshift picnic basket.
“Trying to recreate our last night together?” he asked.
“I thought it might be an appropriate setting to discuss our future again.”
“So you have come to a decision about where you would like to go from here?”
“You haven’t?”
He hated how she always tried to turn things around on him.
“The decision has never been mine to make Kara. If it were, we would never have separated. I have tried to find you, tried to contact you. What have you decided?”
“I want to pick up where we left off Sean, starting tonight. I’m sorry I had to leave you all those years ago. It was such a perfect evening, I was so excited about spending my life with you and I felt so sick that morning when we got word we were being separated. Can we start again? Right here, right now?”
He felt guilty in that moment. What about Akema? Or Rena? This wasn’t fair. As far as he was concerned they deserved better than being tossed a side. Rena he could, maybe, justify as a one night stand but Akema? He was still very confused and ashamed of their relationship. His crew didn’t even know he gave her a real name, they still called her Relentless. She never corrected them so neither did he so her name became an intimate thing between them.
He didn’t want to hurt either woman, after all they were both the same person, just different places in their lives. Akema’s life essentially diverged from Kara’s in the moment of the neural mapping. They were one in the same.
“Yes,” he finally stammered.
He hated himself for it. It was purely a logical choice. Kara was real and she had Jacob. He and Akema would suffer from choices that were never theirs to make.
He took Kara’s hand and sat down under the makeshift stars and did his best to hide his hurt from a woman that could tell he was hiding something.
***
The President appeared on the screen. He was quite nervous and fidgeting a lot.
“I told you to never contact me like this.”
“I am tired of waiting,” Yasa spoke coldly, calculating. “I want you to put him in the palm of my hand or I will transmit records of all you have done and when they are done with you, I will make good on my promise to scorch every planet in the Union.”
The President had seen firsthand what Tomac meant by “scorch”. The Telarians possessed a weaponized self-replicating molecule that was capable of setting a nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere on fire, scorching an entire planet with only a few thousand kilos.
Telarians had used it only once, testing it on a top secret Union listening station on the rim of the Union/Telarian border. The surface of the entire planet was burned to dust. No life survived on the surface and the water literally boiled off into space leaving a barren rock devoid of atmosphere. The same thing he had done to Paradisus.
President Maedar had no intention of that happening while he was in charge, it wouldn’t look good.
“I have contingency plans in place for this scenario. I will transmit you coordinates within the next thirty hours. I will expect a reply transmission as soon as you arrive and see that I held up my part of the bargain.”
“I will acknowledge it now. Too much hangs in the balance for you to fail.”
Chapter X
Sabotage
Sabotage, (from French, from saboter ‘kick with sabots, willfully destroy’. Deliberately destroy, damage, or obstruct (something), especially for political or military advantage.)
Galloway entered his quarters. He looked across the room and saw that a device on the table next his bed was flashing. He walked across the room to his engineering interface. He accessed the subspace communications array and rerouted a signal through the power conduit. By rerouting the carrier signal through the power conduit at the same frequency as the power coursing through it, the signal would essentially be undetectable. Normally it required special hardware but it was built into this array specifically for this purpose. Relentless was a ship of lies. Built from the ground up behind the backs of everyone, on technology sold for secrets and ultimately to betray those who commanded her. When he finished he sat down at his desk and initiated the link. As before he got the Union. logo screen as he waited. After several agonizing minutes the president appeared.
“It’s time. You need to disable the Relentless, completely. No power, no hyperdrive, nothing and send me the coordinates. Our friend wants his prize and he is tired of the games. I already relayed your current heading he isn’t far behind, you understand?” President Maedar asked.
“Yes,” replied Galloway nervously.
“Contact me when you are done. Oh, and you won’t want to be there when he shows up.”
The screen went dark and Transmission Ended flashed on the screen. It was time to earn his retirement.
***
On the bridge Lokae noticed the flickering warning from the program he had written informing him of power fluctuations in the subspace communications array power input and output. He had written the program to keep an eye out after he noticed it the first time. The signal was rerouted to Chief Engineer Galloway’s quarters, he was up to something.
***
Galloway paced nervously at the interface. His mind raced with engineering details, power routing, controls and redundant systems. He was formulating his plan to sabotage the ship. It would not be easy to do covertly. He was going to have to sabotage the ship openly and quickly before Captain Connor’s security teams could stop him. That would be the tricky part. Security Chief Chaz had elite Special Forces under his command. They patrolled the ship at irregular intervals and some were stationed permanently in sensitive areas, Engineering for instance. Galloway would need to disable the ships computer and the VEGA. Without the VEGA the hyperdrive wouldn’t work and he would have to dump the antimatter fuel for the redundant sublights. That should be sufficient to keep them dead in the water until Tomac arrived. Regardless of what the president wanted Galloway would wait until they crossed the border into Union. space. It wouldn’t be long now. He would need time to make sure he would be getting around all the redundant systems anyway.
***
Kale Lokae had taken his findings to the Captain in his quarters.
“I’m not sure who he was contacting but it was meant to be covert. I recorded the data steam, it’s encrypted and I haven’t decoded it yet. I wanted to get you involved before I went any further.”
“Let’s get to work on it. We need to know what he is up to.”
***
Galloway stood at the main VEGA terminal. He was preparing to disable the power core.
“Warning. Subspace singularity containment field failure eminent. Field integrity ninety percent,” an automated alarm sounded.
“EVERYONE OUT,” Galloway yelled! The crew members in engineering immediately left their work stations and exited through the closing blast doors. Nein’s security detail hesitated briefly looking at each for confirmation.
“GOOO!” Galloway yelled. “I don’t know if I can stop it,” he said pretending to operate the terminal.
They hurried though the doors.
“That was easy,” he said to himself once he was alone. He set to work closing the singularity to subspace. Once closed it would take thirty minutes or more to reinitialize the process and get it back online, but first they would have to bypass his encrypted lock out. The power fluctuated and failed as he shut the zero point energy device down. He braced himself for the lurch he knew would come as the Relentless dropped out of hyperspace, incapable of maintaining its flight.
The Relentless went dark and bucked violently as she fell out of hyperspace at a dead stop. The emergency lighting flickered to life flashing red. He went to another station and started the antimatter tanks diverting fuel into the primary tanks on each side.
It was time for phase two, he must disab
le the computer. He crossed over the VEGA and to a door on the right hand side of the blast door. Neural Core Access was stenciled on the door. He entered a short corridor maybe three meters long to another door. Galloway took a deep breath, this was the point of no return and he must be done quickly. He opened the door. The chamber was round and about the circumference built into the wall were large cylinders that contained vertically stacked discs of glowing blue separated by thinner black discs. In the center of the room was Akema’s neural mass containment device.
***
Akema was pouring through data to determine the source of the latest loss of power. Maybe, she thought, the zero point technology wasn’t ready for full scale use. Immediately she became aware of the door to her neural core opening. It was Galloway. She would have to see what he was up to.
***
He removed an access panel from the base of the apparatus exposing the hoses that carried the life giving fluid to the neural mass. About the room a gray mist started swirling itself to form the Akema’s nanite avatar. Galloway produced a cable cutting tool and started snipping the hoses one by one. Akema snatched Galloway up and threw him against the wall.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING GALLOWAY?” she screamed.
He had no answer. He only wanted to escape the room. Galloway bounded for the exit. She crossed the few steps to the door with lightning speed grabbing him by the throat choking the life from him. She could feel her life slipping away. Her power was ebbing as her blood poured onto the floor. She dropped Galloway. He stumbled out the door.
***
“SEAN,” Akema screamed over the intercom in captain’s quarters. “It’s Galloway. He killed me, he cut the hoses...” her voice drifted to a whisper.
The captain and Lokae were still picking themselves up from the violent transition to realspace. Connor adjusted his suit, checking for his pistol.
“Security. Report to engineering. Kill Galloway immediately, captain’s orders,” the captain spoke over the ship wide intercom. “Kale get to engineering. Save the Relentless neural core. I don’t think I have to tell you how important it is. I’m right behind you.”
Lokae bolted out the door and to the emergency ladder access from the bridge. He slid down the ladder out of sight.
“Akema, can you hear me,” he asked her. “I love you baby. Just hold on I’m coming.”
He took off after Lokae.
***
“Akema, can you hear me,” he asked over the intercom. “I love you baby. Just hold on I’m coming.”
She nodded a response with a smile. Akema fell to her knees and the nanite avatar dissipated in a mist.
***
“Security. Report to engineering. Kill Galloway immediately, captain’s orders,”
Hearing that over the ship wide intercom brought new inspiration to Galloway. He had to get out now. Akema had thrown him hard, he was convinced he had several broken ribs. His knee was twisted for sure. As he started over the VEGA the blast doors opened to engineering. He jumped down the other side as he saw Nein lead his team through the doors. He ran with new fervor. He punched the antimatter tank jettison and pulled the lever. Outside the tanks flew away. Then he was though the rear engineering blast doors and down the corridor. He tripped. It saved his life because Nein had opened fire. He stumbled to his feet and through the shuttle bay doors. When it closed behind him, he slapped what appeared to be tape on the door seam. It blazed a bright white sealing the door. Galloway limped to his waiting shuttle that he had prepped remotely. As he climbed into the pilot seat he realized he was trailing blood from a leg wound. He didn’t remember any shots hitting him. He smiled. It was not his original plan but...
“To hell with this ship,” he swore and he punched the emergency jump button.
***
Nein and his men reached the shuttle bay door.
“It’s locked sir,” his Sergeant informed him.
“Open it!” screamed Nein.
“It seems fused sir.”
“Damn, you Galloway,” Nein yelled banging on the blast door with his fist as the shuttle jumped in the bay.
At first the jump wake sucked Willow the Raptor and the other shuttle into its vacuum. The shuttle bay blast doors were little protection as they were sucked from their hinges along with Nein and his men. Then with explosive force the wake rippled outward crumpling the hull as it went. The wake rippled across the ship buckling the superstructure as it went before finally exiting the bow. Hull breach alarms rang out. Bulkhead doors across the ship started closing automatically.
The ejected antimatter fuel cells lost containment and exploded setting the ship in a slow, tilted, counterclockwise spin.
***
Lokae was outside engineering when the wake hit him, throwing him like a rag doll. Captain Connor was sliding down the ladder to the engineering deck. He lost his hold and was flung to the deck. He picked himself up off the floor. Klaxons rang. He could see Lokae just down the corridor, he was lying prone against the bulkhead. The captain stumbled to him. Lokae seemed groggy, his head rolled at first then he picked it up.
“Get up, let’s go. We don’t have time to nap right now,” Sean teased.
Lokae nodded an incoherent nod, Connor pulled him to his feet. He noticed the artificial gravity was less than it should be. It could have been from the damage or the lack of power. Reserve power would keep gravity in critical areas such as the bridge and engineering allowing the crew to work normally for as long as possible.
They managed to make it through the blast door to engineering before they closed. Connor grabbed a tool kit that was mounted in a recess in the wall and they limped into the neural core together. Akema’s blood was everywhere and pouring from the severed tubes.
“I got this. Try and fix the power problem. Seal the door behind you,” the captain told Lokae as he went to work.
In his haste to get to Akema he had almost forgot the rest of the ship. He had no idea what was going on with anyone else, including Kara and Jacob, he could only hope they were ok.
***
Kara and Jacob were in their quarters when the wave hit. Kara was slammed against a bulkhead. She began to float after she fell to the deck as artificial gravity failed in this section of the ship. Jacob floated to his mother.
“Mom, Mom.”
She would not rouse.
They had been planning to visit Dr. Pendrie this afternoon. It looked as though they would be seeing her sooner than planned.
***
Lokae worked feverishly to get the VEGA back online. The blast doors were not sealed completely due to the buckling of the hull and he wasn’t sure if the device would function after the devastation that had washed over the ship. The acrid stench of burned electronics filled the air. The device was passing diagnostics and integrity checks but would not produce power. He kept pushing the initialize icon but nothing happened. Then he noticed the countdown, the unit would be operational in twenty eight minutes. He could do nothing more with it so he went to work at the main terminal diverting reserve power to life support and trying to coordinate damage control teams. If the computer was operational it could seal the hull breaches with nanites. Without her they simply remain a rigid shell on the exterior which itself had cracked as the hull buckled. He hoped Sean could get her running again.
***
Connor placed splice tubes from the tool kit into the hoses and wrapped each one as he went. All the while Akema’s lifeblood poured from the wounds. He was laying in her blood. By the time he managed to repair the lines he was covered head to toe in it. It made him shiver to think of it. The woman he loved was dying and he was wearing her blood. The lines had stopped pumping anything shortly before he had finished. He could only hope the reservoir wasn’t empty.
That bastard Galloway would die, if his men hadn’t done it already, he would see to it shortly. That was of course if he was still on the ship. Sean was unsure if the explosion was a jump wake or some other device onboard explod
ing. It didn’t matter to him as he worked the panel that controlled the fluid pumps. There was a reserve he discovered and he diverted the flow to the main lines and started the pumps. His repairs held as the pumps came up to speed. Now all he could do was wait and hope she had not been irreparably damaged.
He imagined Akema could be brain damaged if she functioned at all. He was nearly in tears as he tried one thing after another with no results. He reinitialized the hard link connection to her brain with a jolt. He redirected a portion of reserve power to her interface, the last thing he could think of doing.
“Akema...Baby...can you hear me?”
***
Brice, Sotaki and Deas were working as best they could to determine what happened and repair damage. After the explosion, if that’s what it was, the intercom was no longer working from the bridge so they had no communication with the rest of the ship. As long as the computer was offline and with only reserve power it would be difficult to coordinate anything. Someone had reinitiated the power core but that was the only reading Sotaki could see. The Relentless was in dire straits he knew. The bridge was slowly losing atmosphere as well. A slim twisted piece of metal shivered as the air was sucked past it into the void. Without main power and the computer they might all be dead shortly. Even just the computer would be welcome. At least then he could survey the extent of the damage and possibly coordinate damage control.
***
“System online. Running integrity diagnostics,” Akema’s voice came over the intercom.
Sean leaned against the wall and slid to the floor.
“Ship wide system failures,” Akema’s voice was hollow as she informed the crew of her results. “Hull integrity fifty five percent. Vacuum energy generator system restart in progress. Running on reserve power. Evaluating priority power needs. Diverting power to biogenetic hull armor reconfiguring for damage control. Sealing hull breaches and restoring hull integrity. Remaining power diverting to life support. System integrity diagnostics complete. Ninety five percent recovery of Neural Core.”
Relentless: Book One of the Union Warship Saga Page 23