by Dave Bara
“Yes, sir,” she responded, clearly not happy at being left out.
“I’ll make the same decision in the future,” he continued, “so I think it best if you look at Lieutenant Commander Cochrane as an extension of yourself on these types of missions. An extension that is expendable, at least more so than you are. Are we clear?”
“Yes, sir,” she said again. Maclintock looked to me.
“Aye, sir,” I said.
“Good,” the captain said. “Now get on the horn to your friend, Mr. Cochrane. This ship needs its Historian on the bridge to make the jump.”
“Aye, sir,” I said again, then went to the com and made the call.
Serosian arrived on the bridge at 1430. Maclintock gave the order to spool the Hoaglands at 1445 as we closed on the jump gate.
“Status of the Hoaglands?” called out Maclintock.
“Spooling, warm, and ready,” I replied so all the bridge could hear.
“Gravimetric shielding?”
“One hundred percent, sir!” called Dobrina.
“Personnel status?”
“All stations report green, Captain,” I said.
“Astrogation?” I nodded down to Layton on the second tier, a silent acknowledgment that he could report his own status.
“Plotted and locked, sir,” he said. “On course to the jump gate event horizon in seven minutes.”
Maclintock turned to Starbound’s Historian. “Mr. Serosian?”
“My board is all green, Captain,” he said in his deep and confident voice. Then he caught my eye and winked at me.
The next few minutes involved the swapping of instructions and preparation for the final traverse of the jump gate membrane. When this was complete, Maclintock leaned forward in his chair.
“Mr. Cochrane, you’ve been through one of these fields before. I want you to get on the intraship com and explain it to the crew, such as you can,” he ordered. I acknowledged his order and stepped up to the com at his station, opening the channel that would allow me to address the entire ship.
“This is Lieutenant Commander Peter Cochrane, reporting from the bridge. The captain has instructed me to inform you what you might expect in the next few minutes, so I will do my best to describe the experience,” I said.
“When we pass through the membrane at the jump gate, you are likely to experience an unpleasant sensation, almost like you’re drowning. Don’t let this panic you. It passes in an instant, almost as fast as it comes on. When we come back out into normal space you may feel strange and disassociated from yourself, almost as if you are in a new body, but let me assure you this is not the case,” I said.
“Once we get through the event the best course of action will be for you to resume your duties immediately and report your station status. By the time you finish these tasks, any unpleasant feelings will surely have passed,” I lied. They’d probably all puke, but it was my duty to reassure them. I signed off then.
“Are we ready, XO?” asked Maclintock, apparently satisfied at my performance.
“I say yes, sir,” Dobrina replied. Maclintock opened the intraship com himself then.
“Stations!” called out Maclintock. “Prepare for jump! I say again, all hands prepare for jump in two minutes.” Layton switched the main display from tactical for forward view as we closed on the membrane ring. It was illuminated with energy and pulsed every few seconds as we approached.
“Shut down the impellers, Mr. Layton. Forward momentum only,” said the captain.
“Impellers off, sir,” called out Layton from his station at the thirty-second mark in our count. This time there would be no jump key. Layton would take an active Union Navy vessel through the membrane and into unknown space by himself. I felt a knot in my stomach tighten with anxiety.
“Take us in, Lieutenant,” ordered Maclintock. I held my breath.
Ten seconds later I was drowning in black.
I fought the desire to vomit again. I’d had enough of that for one day in the control room, thank you very much. But this traverse was unlike any other, and quite different from what I had told the crew to expect. I felt like I was carrying a rock in my belly and I huddled over my longscope display, head down. With each breath the effect seemed to wear off a bit and I felt more and more normal.
“Tactical situation, Mr. Cochrane!” called Maclintock. I looked down at my plasma display.
“All clear, sir,” I said. I could hear the rough edge to my voice.
“What’s our status, Historian?” he asked Serosian.
“We appear to have jumped into stable jump space, Captain. We’re at station keeping, no forward momentum carried over from the jump. The area of jump space we’re in is tiny and highly irregular in shape compared to a normal jump point. I would say this jump point was literally carved right out of normal space by some artificial means. If we weren’t right on top of it I doubt our instruments could even find it,” Serosian said.
“Helm, can we retrace our steps back here if we need to exit in a hurry?” Maclintock asked Layton.
“My confidence is high in that, sir,” said Starbound’s helmsman. Maclintock stepped up to the rail and leaned over to Layton’s station.
“I don’t need your confidence, Lieutenant, I need your certainty,” he said directly. “We’ve just jumped into unknown space which could contain numerous enemies. I need to know, can we navigate our way back to this jump space? Yes or no?” Layton looked to me and then back to Maclintock.
“We can, sir,” he finally said.
“Good,” replied the captain. He returned to his seat and then addressed me directly.
“Longscope scans if you please, Mr. Cochrane,” he said.
“Activating the longscope, sir,” I replied, then took up my station. The familiar voice of Serosian filled my ear com.
“This is very odd,” he said. “There is no hyperdimensional resonance wave . . . that’s not possible, unless . . .” he trailed off. I waited several moments before speaking, growing more anxious with each passing second.
“Unless what?” I finally asked in a hushed tone, placing my head farther under the hood of the ’scope to avoid being overheard.
“Unless Impulse is not generating any hyperdimensional energy at all,” he said, only loud enough for me to hear. “She should have left some sort of trace signature, unless her HD power core has been removed.”
“Removed? I didn’t think that was possible,” I said, trying to cover my growing uneasiness.
“It’s not, Peter,” replied Serosian, “Not by any member of a Lightship crew,” then he paused. “Except the Historian.”
“Tralfane,” I said. The line was quiet for a few seconds.
“Begin spectral scans on this vector,” he finally said, feeding me display coordinates. “We’ve got to find that ship.”
The Search
An hour later our search had proved fruitless. No disaster beacon. No radio signal or IFF transponder. No residual hyperdimensional signature. Nothing.
Maclintock called the staff into the Command Briefing room. I left Layton in charge of the search and joined Dobrina, Colonel Babayan, Serosian, and Maclintock. Dobrina, Babayan, and I sat around one end of the table while Maclintock occupied the other. Serosian, as always, placed himself in the middle.
“So what you’re saying,” said Maclintock, collecting his thoughts, “is that Impulse has gone dark in a very significant way. If we’re to find her, it will be by pure luck.”
“I don’t believe in luck,” retorted Serosian, more pointedly than I had ever heard him sound before. “And neither does the Church. It’s true that there is no hyperdimensional resonance signature. If we assume that we’ve jumped to the same star system as Impulse, then that leaves us with one of two possibilities: either Impulse has been destroyed so completely, down to the molecular level in fact, tha
t she has virtually disintegrated, or her hyperdimensional drive has been removed.”
“Removed?” said Maclintock, his voice revealing his alarm at this potential turn of events. “From what you’ve told me of the HD drive it’s an unlimited power source. No one outside the Historian community has the ability to disengage it, and the energy source itself is self-perpetuating. Anyone trying to ‘remove’ it without the proper tools would be exposing themselves to what—the power of a sun?”
“Much more than that,” said Serosian. “The power of an entire dimension, potentially. That’s why I believe the hyperdimensional drive was removed by a qualified Historian. Tralfane, to be exact.”
Maclintock looked around the table, then back to Serosian.
“So let’s get answers to the simple questions first,” he started. “Where are we?”
Serosian folded his hands in front of him, thumbs twitching together.
“I’ve analyzed the local stars, done a calibration to the galactic core, run our position through a series of complex algorithms. I’ll spare you the details, but there can be no doubt. Starbound is in the Altos system,” he said.
“Altos is the legendary home system of the Sri,” said Dobrina. “Do you think they’re behind this?”
Serosian shook his head. “It’s impossible to know. There are fourteen major planets in this system. But only Altos, which was planet two, and a moon of planet six were habitable in the First Empire days. And even in that time Altos was a very secretive world.”
“Didn’t the Church bombard Altos during the Secession Wars?” asked Colonel Babayan.
“I thought that was a myth,” said Dobrina. Serosian shook his head.
“It’s no myth. It’s not something the Church is proud of today, but one of the inciting incidents in the First Secession War was our bombardment of Altos with multiple atomic weapons,” he said.
“Why?” asked Maclintock. Serosian shifted in his chair at this. It was clear from his manner that he was reluctant to discuss it. He spoke anyway.
“The Sri are an order with no spiritual beliefs. They were dedicated to the pure pursuit of science and the exploitation of the material universe. This put them at odds with Church hierarchy. It was an uneasy truce held together by the empire, which had interest in both sides being in opposition to each other. The Sri were masters of technology. The Church saw themselves as the moral regulators of the excesses of that technology. When the Sri began to work actively toward an evolution of man, a conscious blending of man and machine through nanotechnology, the Church believed it had crossed a moral line from man’s domain into God’s domain. When Emperor Vilius IV publically declared himself to be a user of the Sri implants, it placed the Church in an untenable position.”
“Vilius was declared a ‘non-human’ by the Church,” said Dobrina. Serosian nodded.
“Exactly. What had been a deteriorating situation with an empire-wide economic and political crisis suddenly became a religious one as well,” he said.
“The perfect cauldron for war,” said Maclintock.
“And they fought for half a century,” added Dobrina.
“But what about the bombardment of Altos?” I asked. This was information I had never before heard from my mentor.
“The Church ordered it when it became apparent that the empire would win the conflict, using Sri technology. You got a taste of that technology today, Peter. The merging of a man’s mind with a machine. We believe that path was also the downfall of the Founder civilization. For the Church, at that time of the war, they believed the attack was justified,” Serosian said.
“Extermination of an entire world,” stated Dobrina, her distaste obvious.
“I cannot justify the actions of the past, Commander,” said Serosian. “The fact remains that we are in the Altos system. No one knows whether the Sri survived the war or not. All we know is that a Historian apparently loyal to forces of the former empire or the Sri themselves has hijacked a Lightship and brought it here. Our presence in this system must now undoubtedly be having the same effect on those forces as kicking a hornet’s nest on a summer day. We need to be prepared for whatever comes next.”
“And thank the Church of the Latter Days for rolling out the welcome mat,” said Dobrina.
“All of that was two centuries ago, Commander,” cut in Maclintock. “Our job today is to rescue Impulse.” He turned to Serosian. “What’s our location relative to the major planets? Where do you recommend we concentrate our search efforts?” he asked.
“Currently we are in the cloud rim of the Altos system, far away from even the most distant of the major planets, so we’ve little chance to explore the system from here. I suggest that we begin our search in a standard sweep pattern, perhaps using the shuttles to broaden our range,” said Serosian.
“That’s not much to go on,” said Dobrina. Serosian turned to her.
“Well, unless Tralfane, or the Sri, or the remnants of the old empire have the temerity to come and find us, Commander, it’s the only real option we have right now,” he said.
At that moment my earpiece com buzzed in. It was Layton. I linked him into the room line so we all could hear his report.
“Sir, we’ve discovered an object in the area, a ship, we think,” he said.
“Is it Impulse?” Maclintock asked. The line stayed silent for a second.
“I would say no, sir. The object we’re tracking is ten times the size of a Lightship, sir. And one other thing . . .”
Maclintock raised an eyebrow as Layton’s pause grew longer.
“Yes, Lieutenant?” he prompted.
“It . . . it appears to be drifting, sir,” said Layton. Maclintock shot from his seat.
“Hold stations, Lieutenant,” he said, making for the door.
“We’re on our way.”
We rushed onto the bridge, Starbound’s main plasma display filled by the image of a dark, pyramid-shaped hulk floating in space. Each of the four base points of the pyramid held a pillar, most likely coil cannon arrays that looked to be about as big as Starbound herself. In other words, it dwarfed us.
“Analysis, Mr. Serosian,” said the captain, taking his seat. I went quickly to my longscope station and started my scanning protocol.
“Very low level of energy detected, Captain, almost equal to background radiation from the Altos star. I would say for all practical purposes this is a derelict, probably abandoned for several centuries,” Serosian said. My scans told a different story. I stuck my head out from under the longscope hood.
“With due respect, Captain, I’m getting something on the bioscanner,” I said. I looked to Serosian. His face was impassive, showing no emotion at my report one way or the other. I switched the main plasma to a display showing the biosigns. They were faint, but they were there.
“Can you explain that, Historian?” asked Maclintock. From his tone I could tell he was annoyed that his ’scopeman had delivered information he had expected to get from his Historian.
Serosian didn’t miss a beat. “With their demonstrated ability to disguise energy signatures behind stealth fields I suggest we proceed with extreme caution. This could be a lure to get our troops over to the dreadnought,” he said. “They’ve already taken one Lightship from the Union Navy. Capturing or destroying a second would certainly advance their agenda, whatever that might be.” The captain turned at this.
“So you’ve identified the vessel as an Imperial dreadnought?” Maclintock said.
“Given its size, displacement, and apparent weaponry, what else could it be?” Serosian said. “Though stories of their use at the end of the war to destroy entire planets was part of the propaganda designed to intimidate enemies into quick surrender, this vessel appears to fit the description rather accurately.”
“I’d like to take a marine team over, Captain,” said Dobrina. “The biosigns we’re d
etecting could be anything, including the crew of Impulse. If so, we have a duty to try and rescue them. And before you object to having your two most senior officers off the ship at the same time again, I would remind you that myself and Lieutenant Commander Cochrane are the only officers aboard with experience dealing with Imperial technology.”
“I won’t argue with your logic, Commander, just your wisdom,” said Maclintock. Colonel Babayan stepped up then.
“I insist on going as well, sir,” she said. “A mix of thirty marines in a single shuttle should be sufficient to determine the conditions aboard.”
“I disagree,” I said, crossing my arms firmly. “We came here with sixty marines and two heavy shuttles for a reason. This dreadnought is that reason. I say we go over in full force or we don’t go at all. And I insist that we go, sir,” I said the last directly to the captain.
Maclintock turned to Dobrina, his decision made. “Request denied, Commander. I need my XO here on the bridge, commanding the teams. We’ll go in full force, both shuttles, all weapons. Mr. Cochrane will lead the Quantar marines in one shuttle, Colonel Babayan will lead the second shuttle with the Carinthians.” Babayan’s hands went to her hips at this and anger burned in her eyes.
“We’ve worked hard to get these detachments integrated! Why are you splitting us up now?” she asked Maclintock.
“Colonel, this is a critical operation. I don’t want someone to mess up an assignment because of language differences or a cultural misunderstanding. Let’s just keep to our own, and do our jobs.” The firm set of the colonel’s jaw indicated she didn’t agree, but she didn’t make any further protest.
Dobrina fumed in silence as Maclintock turned to Serosian.
“Thoughts?” The Historian shook his head.
“Nothing more than I’ve already stated. Proceed with extreme caution. I’ll continue scanning for Impulse on the longscope,” he said, then turned to me. “Keep your personal channel open, Peter. Things may end up moving much faster than we expect.”