by Drew Wagar
‘Core central, Ermaso,’ Jim replied quickly. ‘Family reunion.’
‘Woman trouble more like,’ Rus said. ‘You humans are so bad at hiding your emotions. Not worth it buddy. I reckon D’Vlin’s got it right; be a hermaphrodite. You can be your own best friend.’
‘Sex sex sex!’ D’Vlin chuckled.
‘You picked a great time, hope the bugs don’t mess it up for you!’
‘Who knows what they’ll do next,’ Jim muttered. ‘They’re acting strange at the moment. Spouting strange words and phrases when they attack.’
‘I heard that,’ Stepan acknowledged. ‘Weirder than usual anyway. Some strange language no one recognises.’
‘Erqk,’ Gasazck said again. Everyone looked at him but he ventured no further comment.
‘I just hope to avoid them,’ Jim added. ‘No telling what they’ll do.’
‘Kicking the living shit out of Galcop would be my guess,’ Rus replied, finishing his soup.
Jim raised his eyebrows. ‘Let’s hope not.’
Rus shrugged. ‘Had it coming for decades.’
Jim frowned. ‘What do you mean, had it coming?’
‘Not exactly witch-space science is it? You keep a species locked out of the mainstream, force them into deep space and prevent them access to any resources, stands to reason they’re gonna get pissed after a while.’
‘Thargoids invaded our space, they weren’t forced out,’ Jim replied.
Rus laughed. ‘That’s what it says in your books does it? No wonder we’re screwed.’
Jim frowned. ‘What are you talking about? Thargoids are everyone’s enemy. Kill or be killed. Every pilot gets trained from day one. They’ve been attacking us for centuries!’
‘And it never occurred to Galcop to ask why? Funny that.’
‘Thargoids are crazy…’ Jim replied.
‘Thargoids are as sane as anyone else,’ Rus replied with a growl. ‘You take what’s theirs; they fight to get it back.’
‘What’s theirs? They came from space, they didn’t have anything,’ Jim countered. ‘Thargoids invaded our space, mercilessly destroying anything in their path.’
Rus scowled. ‘I tell you what I think. The Thargoids didn’t just appear in space, they had a homeworld. Galcop took it, they want it back. ’
‘Erqk,’ Gasazck interjected again.
Jim stared at the lizard, astonished that he seemed to be defending the invaders. ‘That’s nonsense. There is no Thargoid homeworld! They’re just voracious killers and always have been! Taking whatever they want and discarding the rest. They’re still doing it, murdering innocent civilians along the way. Look at the rumours about the Formidine rift losses. Hundreds of ships! You’re wrong.’
‘Wrong am I?’ Rus snapped, getting up from the table and staring Jim down. ‘Not everyone was spaced in those attacks. Why do you think that was?’
The big lizard left the room, heading back down to the rear of the ship, to continue nursing the engines. Jim watched him go.
‘Don’t mind him,’ Hesperus said. ‘Rus has a chip on his shoulder about Galcop as a big as an Anaconda on steroids…’
D’VLin looked surprisingly subdued.
‘Lizard right right,’ he said in a whisper and also vacated the table.
Jim pushed the goat soup aside and got to his feet as well.
‘I need to catch up on some research,’ he said.
‘Can I have your soup?’ Stepan said eagerly.
Ermaso was a nasty little anarchic planet with a poor agricultural economy. It was in a dead-end location and not really on a route to anywhere in particular. There were plenty of alternative destinations nearby that were far more salubrious. As a result few traders made a stop in the system and those that did made sure they had the requisite Iron-Ass; a ship with enough firepower and defences to hold its own against all-comers.
Chromatic light flickered out in the depths of space and a witch-space wormhole exit suddenly appeared, briefly shimmered and then faded away. Four imposing ships drove forward rapidly. A classic Mk3 Cobra in the lead, flanked by two intimidating Caducei and trailed by a dark and mysterious snub-nosed vessel with a strange green glow emanating from it.
‘All secure from jump. Form up.’ Coyote’s voice echoed across the narrowband, encrypted and at close range.
The four ships adopted a close formation and accelerated forwards into the darkness.
‘Here are the co-ordinates,’ Udian’s voice rumbled across the channel.
Rebecca’s console plotted the destination. It was beyond the main inhabited planet in the system, out towards the gas giant that orbited three times further away.
Long way out. No one will spot us out there.
‘Spread out to engage Torus,’ Coyote said. ‘I’ll go first, then Derik, Udian and Rebecca.’
‘I thought it was ladies first.’ Rebecca snapped.
‘You see any ladies, just let me know,’ Coyote responded straightaway.
Derik winced on hearing the comment.
Ouch! You’ve taught her the lesson Coyote, no need to twist the knife…
Coyote’s Cobra’s injectors flared, driving the Cobra swiftly out of sight. As it disappeared from the scanner Derik followed suit.
‘Asshole,’ Rebecca muttered to herself.
She waited until Udian’s ship had likewise disappeared and then engaged the Torus drive on her ship. It swept forward into the void, floating on a wave of gravimetric distortion, surfing forward by bending space around it.
The gas giant was typical of its type; a huge ball of gas with turbulent marble-like surface patterning. Huge terrestrial-planet-sized storms of swirling methane whirled across it, dwarfing the approaching ships. It grew slowly in the viewer on account of its astonishing size. Rebecca could see the gravity sheer already affecting the course of her ship and she applied a little yaw in order to compensate.
Nothing else appeared on the scanner, they were millions of kilometres away from the main space lanes between Ermaso and the jump-point. The chance of meeting anything else out here was virtually zero. Rebecca sat back and watched the instruments. Minutes ticked by as the ships fled like wraiths through the darkness.
With time to stop and think she triggered the wide-band channel and requested a link, hoping to check to see if she had any messages. To her surprise the channel opened straightaway.
There was a message waiting.
Jim…
She flicked it up, biting her lip.
Rebecca,
Struggled to get a ship out of Teanrebi. Everyone is running from the war. Got passage on some old wreck of a Python with a half insane crew. Progress slow, food worse, currently at Inleus. No clues yet on the Thargoid messages – sorry. I’m working on it. Not sure if I’ll be able to get to Ermaso on time.
I’ve no idea how to say what I really want to say – don’t even know if you’ll read this. I’ve got to try I guess. I know you hate me. I hate me. I so regret what’s happened – how things turned out. It’s my fault. I guess it’s too late to put right but please, please look after yourself. Stay safe.
Call me as soon as you can.
Jim.
Rebecca blinked tears away and touched the screen in front of her, gently swiping her fingers across the display.
She typed a message back. There were things she wanted to say but the words wouldn’t come, so she kept it brief, unable to keep the bitterness away.
Let me know if you figure out the Thargoid message. I need to know why they’re after me. We’re already at Ermaso, next obvious rendezvous point is Anxeonis. I’m travelling with some other combateers; Coyote’s the leader, with Derik and Udian. I’ve attached their ship idents to this message along with my ship details.
Touched by the sudden concern but safe isn’t really an option for me, is it? Call you when I can. R.
The gas giant continued to loom in front of her, one of the huge cyclonic storms growing swiftly as they closed in. It was a deep red colo
ur, composed of gasses swept up from deep inside the planet. Before long the vast mass of the planet hung in space like an infinite wall of swirling colour. She felt uncomfortably reminded of the insignificance of her own existence.
Mass Locked. Hyperspeed aborted.
The Spectre slowed and she caught up with the three other ships. Udian’s Caduceus was now in the lead.
‘Nothing here,’ Derik was saying. Rebecca looked at her scanner; he was right, there was nothing else in range, no ships and no stations. It was hardly surprising given they were in low orbit around a gas giant.
‘You didn’t expect it to be easy to find, did you?’ Udian rumbled back. ‘Follow me.’
Udian’s ship turned directly down with respect to the swirling gas below them and accelerated away. The other ships followed cautiously.
Inside the atmosphere?
The astrogation scanner crackled and began to lose resolution as wisps of red gas began to stream past the cockpit windows. Visibility dropped swiftly as they descended. Rebecca cancelled the altitude warning indicator as it began to flash insistently.
Suddenly the Spectre was wrenched to one side, the shock almost jolting Rebecca from her pilot’s chair. She wrestled the ship back on course and pulled the harness straps tighter. Ahead she saw Derik’s and Coyote’s ships also adjusting course.
‘Frakking hell!’ the lizard’s tones sounded across the narrowband.
‘Make sure you’re secured,’ Udian announced. ‘It can get a little rough in here.’
‘You could have warned us!’
‘I just did.’
They were almost flying blind now. Rebecca could no longer see Udian’s ship and was hanging onto the exhaust glow of Derik’s vessel. They executed a slow bank to starboard and then continued descending.
Warning! Exterior hull pressure 2MPa and rising.
The Spectre trembled as the density and pressure of the gas around them continued to climb. It got quickly dimmer as light was filtered out from above.
‘How much further, Udian?’ Coyote’s voice queried.
‘We keep going.’
Warning! Exterior hull pressure 5MPa and rising.
It was getting increasingly difficult to keep the ships on course. None of the vessels were really equipped for operating in an aerodynamic environment. Rebecca and Coyote had the worst of it, neither of their ships being streamlined in any fashion. Rebecca found herself continually having to reduce forward power whilst managing pitch, roll and yaw to keep the Spectre flying in something vaguely approaching a straight line.
Again a blast of turbulence hit them, scattering the ships and forcing them to regroup.
Warning! Exterior hull pressure 25 MPa and rising.
Rebecca could see her grip on the flight controls was tight, her knuckles showing white through clenched hands. It felt claustrophobic; she was blind and helpless, surrounded by forces which could crush her in an instant, creeping forward cautiously. It was far cry from the freedom of space travel.
Warning! Exterior hull pressure 50 MPa and rising. Hull rating is 100 MPa.
Lightning flickered in the darkness, briefly illuminating the gas in which they were travelling. Rebecca got a brief glimpse of something away in the distance. A vague silhouette of something huge, a large foreboding horizontal mass with tall spikes jutting vertically from it both upwards and downwards. Before she could register any details it faded into the gloom again.
Warning! Exterior hull pressure 75 MPa and rising. Abort descent!
‘My ship is starting to complain,’ Derik announced irritably, the stress evident in his clipped voice. ‘Somebody might have warned me this trip was going to be dangerous…’
‘You’ve been keeping her in space too long, Derik,’ Udian replied easily. ‘She needs to feel a little pressure every once in a while, else she forgets.’
‘You call this a little pressure?’ the lizard retorted immediately.
Rebecca cancelled the pressure alarm as it honked through the cabin. A strange tinkling sound echoed through the ship; the sound of the hull contracting under pressure. It sounded wrong; an unfamiliar and threatening noise on a ship designed to travel in the vacuum of space.
‘Maintain altitude,’ Udian said softly. ‘Almost there. Prepare for landing.’
Landing?
Abruptly the gas around them burst into a glowing miasma. Ahead they could see a vast installation, floating in the clouds, holding station using huge exhaust jets in the depths of the atmosphere. It had to be a couple of kilometres square, a huge dark metallic platform bristling with antennae, access ports and pressure domes. Enormously powerful beams of light now illuminated the gas around it. In the centre they could see a landing field covered by a huge access port. As they watched the opening widened like a diaphragm, huge curving arcs of metal sliding aside to revealing a landing deck. It looked decidedly narrow from above. Faint navigation lights marked out the edges of the bay, slowly flashing red in the gloom.
‘Follow me in one at a time,’ Udian instructed. ‘Watch out for lateral gusting. The atmospherics can be entertaining.’
‘Entertaining…’ Derik replied. ‘Nice. What next? A vaudeville dancing troup?’
‘Don’t be tempted to activate your targeting computers by the way,’ Udian added conversationally. ‘You’ll find that will be a mistake.’
Rebecca could dimly make out a large number of defensive turrets on the surface of the platform. Traditional weaponry by the look of it. Not dangerous in small numbers but the combined effect of multiple bursts and zero manoeuvrability would make short work of a vessel caught above.
Somebody has a lot of secrets to keep…
Udian’s ship cautiously made its way down, extending its landing gear as it approached the docking entrance. Rebecca watched as it wobbled slightly as it passed the threshold and then settled down on the ‘ground’.
Derik was next, clearly finding it difficult to navigate his ship through the swirling gas. Rebecca estimated the wind speed at close to two hundred kilometres an hour. Udian was right though, the sheer across the surface was the problem, causing gusts and eddies close to the surface of the platform. Derik’s ship swung around in a complete circle and he had approach twice before he managed to glide into the entrance. His Caduceus came close to clipping the side wall and landed unsteadily on its undercarriage before straightening and powering down.
‘I am not doing that again!’ the lizard’s aggrieved tones sounded from the narrow-comms.
‘Coyote?’ Rebecca asked.
‘Ladies first,’ the smug tones came back straightaway.
‘Coward,’ she fired back.
She could imagine the dark grey eyes and the infuriating grin on his face.
Rebecca nosed her ship down gently, adjusting lateral thrust as she began to drift away from the landing zone.
‘Wish me luck. Here goes nothing.’
‘Watch that sheer,’ Derik’s voice advised. ‘It’s extremely… entertaining!’
Rebecca approached into the general direction of the oncoming wind. This made the yaw and drift less of a problem but increased the difficulty of maintaining pitch as the Spectre struggled with the adverse aerodynamic effects of its shape. It had a tendency to pitch upwards in the gusts, forcing Rebecca to compensate in the opposite direction. Too much and there was a risk of tumbling.
Slowly she wrestled the ship lower, keeping it as steady as she could. She was approaching at a relative rate of only a few kilometres per hour
Warning! Exterior hull pressure 100 MPa and rising. Tolerances violated! Abort descent!
The landing stage was close now, the entrance beginning to rise up around her.
Almost there. Let’s hope they built a safety factor into the hull!
A shudder ran through the ship and she was abruptly drifting off to one side. The walls of the entrance bay tilted around her. She spun the ship on yaw thrusters trying to compensate, finding herself drifting back across the bay.
The Spectre tilted, caught by a gust which threatened to roll the ship end over end. Rebecca gave it a burst of power and wrestled it back into the headwind. A horrible creaking sound echoed through the ship as the hull desperately fought to fend off the external pressure.
Lowering the undercarriage she nosed her vessel down again. It rocked unsteadily as she passed the threshold and dropped into the less turbulent atmosphere in the bay.
She touched down with a huge sense of relief. She was drenched in sweat, her hands trembling as she released the controls.
‘Nice and smooth,’ Derik’s voice called. ‘Enjoy that did you?’
‘I could do that all day…’ she managed, wiping her forehead. She heard the lizard cackle.
Rebecca shutdown the engines and secured her ship.
‘All clear,’ she said, with a sigh of relief. ‘Come on in, old man. We’ve done all the hard work for you.’
She could see the flashing navigation lights of Coyote’s Cobra blinking half a kilometre above the landing pad. The Cobra was already bucking in the wind sheer.
‘Comprende.’ His voice was tense.
The Cobra was an older ship design. A jack-of-all-trades vessel, its stability systems were not orientated with a view to landing in such conditions. Coyote decided that Rebecca’s idea of flying into the wind was the best approach and teased the Dark Star in the same general direction. He could see Rebecca had taxied her vessel out of the obvious landing spot to give him enough space to approach with a little more ease.
Warning! Exterior hull pressure 100 MPa and rising. Tolerances violated!
‘Tell me something I don’t know,’ he muttered, watching the range indicator cautiously.
The Cobra continued to buck and twist but he managed to keep it close to the straight approach he was aiming for. The landing bay grew slowly in the viewer, the other three ships reassuringly close by.
‘Hurry it up.’ Rebecca’s impatient voice crackled across the narrow-band.
Coyote backed the power down a little and lowered the undercarriage, waiting for the indicators lights to flicker green to show it had locked in position. Two green lights came on and then a third flickered on after a brief pause. Coyote frowned for a moment.