Which brought her back around to the reason for her fear of imminent death. If the wormhole drive ran out of power, they would no longer be able to escape the alien fighters. The ship would be overwhelmed and destroyed. So far, they’d used small micro-jumps to stay just outside the enemy’s range while able to return fire with their own guns.
But a quirk of the wormhole drive was that each short-range jump took up enormous power. Jumping from one system to another would deplete the ship’s capacity completely. Jumping in-system generally gave them a dozen or so short hops, but it didn’t matter whether the trips were thousands of kilometers or tens of astronomical units. For such short range, it was the act of opening the wormhole itself which used most of the energy.
“Prep another wormhole,” Majel said.
“Coordinates?” Foster asked.
Where to run? That was the key problem. If the Satori fled too far, they’d leave the pair of human fighters behind. The alien ships were ignoring them for the most part, but Majel thought that wouldn’t last if they no longer had the Satori to focus on. They needed to run. The enemy outnumbered them by too vast a fleet to effectively fight them. Almost a hundred alien fighters zipped around through space like a swarm of angry hornets, despite their best efforts to whittle the numbers down.
“Sending coordinates now,” Majel said.
Foster hesitated, then replied. “That’s almost in the middle of their swarm.”
“I know. But they’ll have moved some before we arrive. If we can meet our fighters there, then jump out with them alongside us…” Majel said.
“Yes, ma’am. Where do we go for the second jump?” Foster asked.
“Got the Independence on scanners!” Harris all but shouted. “They’re heading our way.”
“That’s your second destination,” Majel told Foster. “We’ll link up with the Independence. Set up two jumps, back to back.”
By her estimation they had enough power for probably three more jumps. There was a little room for error or problems, but not much. Majel reached out via radio, trying to contact either the Independence or Beth, but predictably the alien jamming was blocking their contact. She used the Satori’s targeting system to stab out at the human fighters in the same code she’d used before. Quick flashes of a targeting laser in rapid succession allowed her to tell the pilots what she had in mind.
With luck, they’d follow through.
“Enemy ships closing toward their firing range,” Harris warned.
“Jump the ship,” Majel said.
Foster didn’t waste time with a reply, which she appreciated. He was always focused on what needed doing. With the exit coordinates already plotted, the jump was a simple matter of engaging the drive. A wormhole blossomed to life in front of the ship. Seconds later, they were in transit.
And emerged just past the enemy fighters, traveling away from them. The alien ships spun about to give chase, but they would need to dump all their velocity first. It bought the Satori much-needed time.
The two human fighters fell into formation on either side of the Satori. One of them opened a radio channel. They were too near for the jamming to be effective.
“What’s the plan?” Lieutenant Rodriguez asked. Majel’s records marked him down as the leader for this two-pilot team. “Our fighters are low on fuel and ammunition, and there are more of those alien ships than ever!”
He wasn’t wrong. The swarm seemed to keep growing despite their best attempts to thin the herd. They were facing a planet-sized defense force. For whatever reason, the planetoid was only sending ships up a few at a time, but even at that pace they would eventually smash the human forces by sheer weight of numbers alone.
“We’re getting out of here. Independence is moving toward our location. I plan to jump the Satori out to meet them,” Majel said.
“Begging your pardon, ma’am,” Rodriguez replied. “I can see the Inde on my radar, but I’m not sure our fighters have enough fuel for the trip.”
“I agree,” Majel said. “Which is why you’ll jump with us.”
“Say what?” Rodriguez replied, startled.
It was a difficult feat, sending more than one ship through a single wormhole. But it wasn’t impossible. They’d accomplished it using the Independence and Satori together to reach this star system, for example. Adding a third ship created a level of complexity that was giving even Majel difficulty solving the math, however. It seemed like the computation had a geometric curve in complexity as more objects were added. Even subtle differences in vector could throw off their exit point.
There was a better way. “I’ll need to take control of your fighters for the trip, if you’ll allow me?” Majel asked.
To his credit, Rodriguez only hesitated a moment before replying. Many humans would have required more time and convincing. “You got it, ma’am. Giving you access to my flight control…now.”
The other pilot — Perkins, she saw — did likewise. The controls of both fighters were now under her direction. Majel concentrated, sending flight paths to both craft which gently brought them together. Subtle thruster fire aligned the pair of fighters perfectly with one another, bellies facing each other.
The tiniest additional bit of thrust brought them into contact. Magnetic landing gear did the rest, locking the two fighters against one another. Now she wasn’t computing a course for three ships. The two fighters had effectively become one vessel. This was math Majel was used to performing. The numbers flowed fluidly through her processors.
“Wormhole plot complete,” Majel said over the bridge speaker. “Adam, sending it to your console now.”
“Got it,” Foster replied.
“Make sure the fighters are through before us. Same as the jump from Earth,” Majel reminded him.
“No trouble. We’ve done this a couple of times now, right?” Foster said.
True enough. Majel missed Dan. He’d been the finest pilot she’d ever met, his skill and intuitive sense of flight control approaching something that almost made the AI believe in magic. Dan was a better pilot than her. He was the only human she’d ever met that she could say that about.
But Foster was good; outstanding, in fact, and getting better all the time. She felt more than comfortable with him at the helm of her ‘body’, in no small part because Foster had always addressed the AI like she was a person, even from his first day on board. She appreciated that consideration.
“Ready to jump,” Foster said.
Majel brought the thrusters to life on both fighters, steering the coupled ships so they would slip into the wormhole ahead of the Satori without getting cut in half by the beam generating the hole. “Execute jump.”
Brilliant light bloomed in space. The fighters dropped into the wormhole, the Satori following a moment later, leaving the swarm of alien ships far behind.
Twenty-Six
Beth’s party worked their way back in the direction of the planetoid’s surface as quickly as they could manage. They’d lost contact with the Satori entirely, which meant things had to be heating up in space. It was time to make an exit. If she could get her team to the surface, Beth felt sure she could find some way to signal the ship. Majel would certainly be watching for a signal.
But every time they reached a turn which would lead to that outermost ring of passages, the door was closed. The same thick blast doors barred their way everywhere she looked. While it was likely they could blow or cut their way through, after the nanite experience earlier Beth wasn’t sure she wanted to risk it unless they were entirely out of other options. After running into six proverbial brick walls in a row, it was beginning to feel that way.
“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Beth said.
Ayala nodded. “I agree. This door, at least, used to be open, according to the map I’ve been making. It’s not anymore.”
“Something is trying to keep us in, then,” Beth said.
“Maybe. It could just as easily be an automated system trying to keep everyt
hing else out,” Ayala said, shrugging. “No way to really know for sure.”
“No, that feels right,” Beth said. Now that Ayala had brought the idea up, it meshed well with all their other observations. The whole place appeared to be running on autopilot, right? It made much more sense for those doors closing to be the results of some sort of automated defense system, rather than a concentrated effort to trap their team.
The planetoid had effectively closed blast doors to seal off its outer ring of tunnels and passages. From a defensive perspective that made good sense. If someone were attacking, it would certainly slow their advance if not stop them entirely. Well, it would if there hadn’t been a gaping hole in the planetoid’s surface. The breach was big enough she could have flown the Satori right inside! But automated defenses might not be aware that actions designed to protect the innermost systems were futile.
“It’s a good answer. I think it’s the right answer,” Beth said. “The better question now is, what are we going to do about it?”
“Well, if we can’t go out, I guess that leaves only the other direction,” Ayala said. “Unless you want me to blow a hole in that door?”
“Down it is.” Beth twirled her finger around, directing her party to change direction. “No blasting. Not yet, anyway. Don’t want to wake our friends.”
Beth pointed at the still, silent robot standing a short distance away. Ayala nodded and set off in the new direction.
She hoped she was making the right decision, but staying put wasn’t going to help them any. Moving would at least let them do some more exploration, and might help them unravel more of the mysteries behind this place.
This time, the going was easy. Trying to move toward the surface, she’d encountered barriers almost every step of the way. Moving toward the core was entirely the opposite. No doors barred their passage, and if anything the corridors themselves were becoming larger as the party went deeper. Like a series of rivers flowing into one another, getting ever wider as they ran downhill toward…what? What would they find when they went as deep as they could go?
Here and there, they saw more of the robots, others just like the ones they’d already encountered. Most of these were utterly motionless. They stood like statues waiting for an order to march. Beth had her team steer clear of them. There was no telling when those sleepers might awaken. They crept on, leaving the slumbering guardians in their wake.
The deeper they went, the more frequent their encounters with those robots grew. Beth began seeing smaller ones as well, about the size of her fist. Like their bigger brothers, these too were mostly powered down, although a few demonstrated repetitive twitches. More than ever, Beth was sure those were the result of damage or corrupted programming. The planetoid was dying. It had been in the process of doing so for a long time, and it would take a lot longer before it ultimately ‘died,’ but it was gradually falling apart. The evidence was everywhere, in the half-finished repairs and barely functioning robots. In systems that worked and others that did not, apparently at random. There was no sense of organization or structure about the place.
Only after they’d traveled a couple of kilometers deeper into the planetoid did they begin seeing more signs of life. The robots at that depth were more likely to show at least some motion. More than a few of them were actually performing one task or another, working to maintain the ship.
“Like a tree trunk that’s rotting from the outside in,” Beth murmured to Ayala.
“I think we’re stretching all our metaphors here,” he replied. “This isn’t like anything I’ve ever seen before. Not really.”
He was right. The whole place was remarkable, and they’d barely even begun exploring the tiniest fraction of it all. The planetoid’s surface area was larger than that of the Earth! The interior space was scores of times bigger again. If teams of thousands explored the alien device, it might still take a hundred years or more to delve into all its secrets. The scope was enough to take her breath away just thinking about it.
“Ma’am, we’ve got some company here,” Evans called out. He was the security man watching their rear.
Beth stopped and turned around. A dozen or so of the smaller robots were following them down the passage. When she stopped, so did they. “Curious. I wonder what we did to set them off?”
Everything they’d encountered so far was running on autopilot. Basic programming, set in place long ago. What program were these little guys following? Were they assessing Beth’s team as a possible threat? Now that they were deeper into the ship, their presence might be considered more dangerous.
She took a step toward them. They didn’t move, so she walked forward a few more paces. At about a meter away, the robots all raised their forelegs and waved them in the air at her. The message was clear. She’d gotten too close. Beth backed up a pace, and their legs all settled back to the deck again.
“Well, I guess we’re not going back that way,” Beth said. “Evans, keep an eye on them? They start doing anything different, let me know.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Evans replied. He eyed the robots nervously and raised his weapon a bit. Beth stopped him before he could actually aim it at the robots.
“Don’t,” Beth said. “Our ships outside got in trouble for targeting the planetoid with lasers. Anything which can be perceived as hostile seems to rile them up. Everyone keep your weapons aimed at the floor.”
She didn’t want to see what those little bots would be capable of if they decided her party was an enemy. Sure, they were armed, but they were up against an entire planet of potential hostiles. Sometimes the best way to win a battle is to never fight it at all.
“All right, let’s keep moving,” Beth said.
They pressed on with more speed now, everyone fully aware of the little band of spiderlike robots scampering along in their wake. The passages were still growing wider. Beth looked down a side corridor that stretched off to her left, wondering where it might go. She took a step toward it so she could get a better look, but before she could enter the passage, a trio of small robots appeared there, waving their arms at her like the others had.
Beth backed away and returned to the central passage. “We’re being herded.”
“I saw that,” Ayala replied. “Any idea where they’re taking us?”
“Nope. Just down. We know the ship is hollow. There has to be something at the innermost layers. Right?” Beth asked.
“Probably the dining room,” Ayala replied with a dry chuckle.
“Always the optimist, you,” Beth said. “Besides, robots don’t need dining rooms.”
That didn’t mean they were safe from the alien machines. Despite the light conversation, both of them had enough experience to understand the depth of the danger they were in.
Twenty-Seven
Dan saw the Satori vanish from radar about the same second that it emerged from a wormhole on the starboard side of his ship. A little warning would’ve been helpful, but at least he’d been able to figure out what she was up to. The rest of his bridge crew, not so much. The atmosphere on the bridge was tense. There was that sense of an impending storm around the room, which was typical for pre-combat situations in Dan’s experience.
“Wormhole arrival off the starboard bow!” Will said.
“Targeting with weapons,” Bill said. But he was as quick to recognize the true nature of the situation as he had been to react in the first place. Before Dan could tell him to stand down, he already had. “False alarm. It’s the Satori. Looks like she brought our wayward fighter pilots back to us, too.”
It was a good response time, both in the alert and the realization that the arrival wasn’t a threat. Dan was pleased to see his crew more vigilant than they needed to be. Had that been an enemy arrival, every second of hesitation would’ve hurt their chances of survival. Sure, it was a friendly ship. This time. It wouldn’t always be.
“Get our fighters docked. They must be running on fumes, after everything they’ve been through,” Dan
said. The pilots as well as the ships, he figured. “And patch me through to the Satori. I need to find out what’s been going on over there.”
“They’re calling us, sir,” Will said. “Audio only. Putting them on the bridge speakers now.”
Dan had a moment to wonder why the Satori wasn’t using video. Was the ship that badly damaged? Then the answer became apparent. It wasn’t Beth talking. It was Majel.
“Independence, good to see you. I released control of your fighters,” Majel said. “They should be winging their way toward you.”
“Thanks for bringing our people home,” Dan said. “What’s your situation over there? Where’s Beth?”
Was it his imagination, or did Majel hesitate a moment before replying? “She’s down there, Dan. On the planetoid. I couldn’t get her out.”
Dan swore quietly. Of course Beth had decided to go down to the strange, potentially hostile, and unexplored environment. That was completely her style. He shouldn’t have been surprised. “Where’s Ayala?”
“With Beth.” Majel replied. “He went down there with her exploration party. They left me in command of the Satori.”
Dan blinked. That certainly wasn’t what he’d been expecting. They’d left the AI in charge of the ship? Then again, she had more experience than most of the Satori’s crew. “I suppose congratulations are in order.”
“I don’t think I understand,” Majel said.
Dan smiled at her words. It was rare to hear Majel sound so unsure of herself. Pretty much only happened when it came to understanding some human foible. “It’s customary to congratulate an officer on her first command. Especially when she’s handled it as well as you have.”
“I’m not sure congratulations are in order, then. I left my captain behind,” Majel replied.
“To save the ship and the rest of the crew. You did well. Now we can figure out how to get Beth and her team back together,” Dan said. He thought quickly, trying to plot a way through this mess. One possible answer presented itself immediately.
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