Just as he opened his mouth to say all that, though, Alex gave a significant look at both him and Harry Alington, and both of them shut up. This was not a place to start arguing over the relative rights of the Fourth and Excorps to be lead on this mission. That decision, after all, had been made months ago on Chartsey.
‘Mr Perkins,’ Alex looked at the LIA skipper.
‘I hardly feel entitled to venture an opinion, as I’m present only by courtesy,’ Harard observed. ‘But if it was my choice, I’d be inclined to play it safe – as Skipper Florez says, use this as a mapping opportunity and lay a network of nanoweb in the hope of detecting any potential ship movements.’
Alex nodded. That would indeed be a sensible, cautious way to proceed.
‘Mr North?’ he looked at Davie, who grinned.
‘You know me, Boss,’ he said. ‘Happy to go along with whatever you decide.’
There was a general burst of laughter around the ship, which Mako joined in with. There was also quite a lot of groaning, which alarmed Janil.
‘He already knows,’ Mako explained, seeing the concerned look on the student’s face, ‘what decision the skipper will make. Though it’s pretty obvious, really.’
‘Is it?’ Janil asked, but Mako was focussed on the screen again, with an air of breath-held expectation building in the lounge as everyone looked at the captain.
Alex smiled.
‘My orders,’ he said, ‘are to make every effort to locate the origin of the Phenomenon which has been seen in this sector. I believe that the best chance we have of doing that is to proceed to Aseltor, or as far as we can get, safely. I will not, however,’ he looked at the Excorps and LIA skippers, ‘order any other ship to accompany us. If you feel that the best and safest way to proceed is to map the space around this system and lay a nanoweb network, I am happy to leave you here to accomplish that in our absence.’
Skipper Florez nearly got to his feet in his mighty indignation, containing himself with a visible effort.
‘You are not,’ he said fiercely, ‘leaving us behind! Sir!’
Alex grinned at him, and as Dan Tarrance guffawed and Harry rested a consoling hand on his arm, Florez realised belatedly that the captain had been pulling his leg.
‘Sorry,’ Alex said. ‘But I had to make the offer.’ He looked at Harard and the LIA man sighed quietly.
‘Where you go…’ he said, and gestured to indicate that the Comrade Foretold was obliged to follow.
‘As you wish,’ Alex said, and looked at Davie then. ‘And I take it that we may continue to rely on the support of the Stepeasy?’
‘Ever and always,’ said Davie, grinning back. Neither of them stirred a hand, and yet there was a definite feeling between the two of them that they’d slapped hands in a moment of complete understanding.
Then Alex looked around at the meeting. ‘So – Aseltor it is. Departure at 1900, gentlemen.’
There were a few excited cheers from those who’d won the sweepstakes, rather drowned out by the sighs and muttered imprecations of the majority who’d lost. But then in the next moment they realised just what the skipper had said. Excitement surged again.
They were going to Aseltor.
Twenty One
It took them sixteen more weeks and three days to reach Aseltor. It was a journey which felt timeless; every day the same, with more or less progress made depending on how often they’d had to retrace their route or turn off the direct line. Day after day they took turn and turnabout at holding point, suiting up, running semi-rigged with the ship in a state of almost constant vibration. There were occasional respites, calm areas where they would rest for a little while and enjoy a burst of social activity, but for the most part they just ploughed on, feeling their way steadily and carefully.
Because they were so careful, taking no undue risks, there were no dramatic incidents – no explosions, no blowouts, no hull tech being ripped off the ships. The worst casualty they had, the whole trip, was a member of the Minnow’s crew who was bounced out of bed by a particularly lively jolt and reported to sickbay with a bruised coccyx.
Morale, though, remained high. For one thing they were all aware that if they did need to turn around and head back they could get back to Telathor one heck of a lot faster than it had taken them to get this far out. They knew the route back, of course, and could traverse it at high speed now, so they were never, even as they approached Aseltor, more than a seven week run from Telathor, which was no distance at all by spacer standards.
And then, for another thing, there was Aseltor, a beacon ahead of them which drew them on even when they were tired and fed up of the constant turbulence. It had been singled out in the starfield with a target lock around it, always on the command deck feed to keep them mindful of the reason they were putting themselves through all this.
And then, of course, there was the fact that the Fourth knew very well how to keep up their morale in such long haul, isolated operations. They kept themselves busy, not just with training but with all manner of shipboard activities, clubs and events. And since they were after all spacers, they enjoyed a good gossip, too.
The two highlights of the trip, as far as gossip was concerned, were the unexpected return of Simon to the frigate and the five month case review held on Ali Jezno.
Simon’s return was readily explained by the news that his most recent wife had not only demanded a divorce but told him to get off the Stepeasy before she kicked him through an airlock. It was, he said, probably a good idea to give her some space. Whatever the reason, though, his return certainly enlivened things on the Heron, as he strode around the ship hunting down anyone who went so much as one minute over permitted working limits.
Ali Jezno’s case review was rather more serious, and was the subject of intense discussion. Of course everybody wanted it to be confirmed that he was making excellent progress, as they all knew he was. He had already pulled himself back to leading star level and expected to regain petty officer rank within another year.
There were, however, other aspects to the review. In a decision unprecedented in the Fleet, certainly in recent centuries, Alex had given permission to Ali and Hali Burdon to serve together on the Heron.
The difficulty was that she and Ali Jezno had got married while they were on Kenso. Ali had been given medical leave to go back to his homeworld in order to see his family and try to fill in some of the gaps in his memory. Hali had gone with him, ostensibly as his friend although everyone knew they were in a relationship.
The visit had not gone well. The media had got hold of the story before his arrival and his own mother had sold a shock-horror ‘Zombie Son on my Doorstep’ story to a gutter channel. The things he had found out about his family and his past had made him wish he could forget them again. Amidst all the grief and stress, though, he and Hali had got married.
They had known at the time, of course, that that would mean that they could no longer serve together, as the Fleet forbade any relationships aboard ship anyway and married people were never allowed to work on the same ship. They had come to Alex with what they felt to be a fair arrangement – that they would take it in turns to be on base assignment, one of them remaining at Therik while the other went out with the ship. They had even decided already that Ali should be the one to go with the Heron first, as he was still in rehab and would benefit most from being aboard.
Alex, though, had not wanted to lose either of them, so he had gone to Internal Affairs with what he felt to be a workable solution. Ali’s position on the ship was highly irregular anyway, since he was in medical rehab and any duties he might undertake were on the same basis as if he were a civilian consultant. That being the case, Alex argued, there were grounds for an exception to the ‘no partners’ rule, on conditions which had already worked very well during their run back from Samart.
Internal Affairs, faced with the combination of legal technicalities, successful precedent and Alex von Strada being utterly determined, had caved and agr
eed to approve his decision. Hali and Ali, therefore, were allowed to serve together on the agreed terms. Essentially they were to comply with all the usual nix frat protocols – no kissing, no flirting, nothing more intimate than would be normal between shipmates. In public, at least. As when they’d been together on the ship before, time spent together in sickbay was regarded as time out from those protocols. And Rangi Tekawa was very much of the view that providing beautiful VR environments and leaving them alone together there was a valuable part of Ali’s rehab.
There had been, perhaps, just a little envy, some wistful talk from some of the crew about how lovely it would be to have their own partners with them on the ship. But as people really thought about the realities of that, regret had turned to laughter. And Alex had made it very clear, anyway, that this was no kind of precedent for anyone else to apply to serve with a partner.
‘The only people I’ll consider such applications from,’ he’d said, ‘are those in which at least one of the partners has had more than a third of their brain replaced.’ Which made it, indeed, a decision unique and specific to Ali.
Now, though, that decision too was up for review, as Internal Affairs had only been prepared to countenance it until such time as Ali was discharged from rehab and returned to active service. So, as much as everyone wanted that success for him, they knew that it would be tinged with loss, too, as either he or Hali Burdon would have to leave the ship.
There was huge relief when he came out of the review and announced that he was doing great but would be another five months in rehab before that got reviewed again. They threw a party for him on the Heron, in fact, which was as lively as it could be given the turbulence and lack of alcohol.
There were many other topics of discussion on the ship, of course – the ordinary minutiae of shipboard life, of interest to those involved but mundane and largely meaningless to outsiders. The LIA ship remained in this category – the Excorps crew had, by then, integrated into the squadron so completely that there was no effective difference between them, and even the Stepeasy, though they took no turn on point, had an active role in the life of the expedition.
Not so the Comrade Foretold. They remained on station at the rear of the convoy, following dutifully where the Fourth and Excorps led, but taking no part in the socialising or inter-ship gossip. They even declined the offer of taking their turn at naming some of the features they were traversing, explaining that they wanted to maintain absolute secrecy about their presence on this mission and for that reason would not put their names down on record as identifying stellar features.
Then, when they found an area of calm just a few days ahead of their anticipated arrival at Aseltor, Alex told them that this would be their holding point, that they were to wait here for three weeks.
‘If you haven’t heard from us by then,’ he said, ‘you can do your thing – head back to Telathor and declare us missing.’
Harard assented, though looking suspiciously at him.
‘Can’t help noticing,’ he pointed out, ‘a lot of shuttle activity between you and the Stepeasy.’
‘Yes, of course,’ said Alex, in the mildest of tones. ‘We’re transferring our Second Irregulars team and their lab equipment.’ As the LIA agent looked at him doubtfully, he explained, ‘It was always our intention to leave the Stepeasy at a safe distance, along with our civilians and their research. That is what we normally do on first contact operations.’ He smiled. ‘And, also as usual, they have orders to return at speed if we don’t make our agreed rendezvous.’
Harard was visibly clenching his teeth for a second or two. He and his crew had been juddering and jolting along behind the Fourth for five horrible months, now, only to be told that the Stepeasy was going to undertake the role they’d come all this way to carry out.
‘You could have told us,’ Harard said, with a dangerous edge to his tone.
‘You didn’t ask,’ said Alex, and then, seeing that the LIA agent was close to exploding, conciliated him with a slight smile. ‘Anyway, would it have made any difference?’
Harard thought about it and realised that it wouldn’t have. He would have been obliged to carry out his orders regardless of any assurances that Alex might give him about the Stepeasy having that backup-role covered.
‘Well, no,’ he said, and having thought a bit more conceded, grudgingly, ‘Well, all right.’
‘All right,’ Alex agreed. ‘So -.you keep company here with the Stepeasy, and we’ll see you soon.’
That would, regrettably, be a lot sooner than any of them were anticipating.
Twenty Two
Their arrival at Aseltor should have been an event rich with wonder and with triumph. The readings they were taking in the last few hours of their approach were increasingly exciting, particularly those from Excorps’ highly specialised sensors.
‘As expected,’ Skipper Florez told them in a briefing just two hours before they were due to arrive, ‘Aseltor Three is an ocean world with indicators suggesting at least a D3 biosphere.’ That meant that it was eminently suitable for human life, with a breathable atmosphere and considerable biodiversity. ‘Don’t get too excited,’ the Excorps skipper warned. ‘We’ve been here before, Excorps, many times – almost invariably these worlds turn out to be pretty low level. The most exciting world we’ve discovered since Quarus, in nearly a century of exploration, is a planet where the most advanced form of life is a species of rabbit.’ He grinned. ‘So don’t get your hopes up too high.’
It was apparent, though, for all his warnings that he himself was buzzing with anticipation.
They all were, obviously. It had taken so long to get here, not just from Telathor but all the way from Therik, and now they were within grasp of their goal, on the cusp of solving a mystery which had been baffling people for centuries. Or not, as the case might be. They might, here, today, discover the world of origin of that mysterious glimpsed Thing which spacers called the Space Monster. It might be a lost Olaret colony or a surviving enclave of an ancient species thought long ago gone into dust. Or it might be something they were not expecting at all, something totally out of left field. Or then again it might be nothing at all, an uninhabited ocean world with some fish and perhaps a few rabbits.
All of them tried to tell themselves that if it did turn out to be uninhabited then at least they would have succeeded in ruling it out as the world of origin of the Phenomenon. It might well be that it would be years, even decades, before human ships penetrated far enough through the Barrier Ridge to find that mythic world. They would have to be, they all agreed, extraordinarily lucky to hit on it in their very first deep-ridge exploration.
But all the same, they were all on their toes, watching screens with fervent attention, some of them talking a lot and some of them hardly even daring to breathe.
‘It’s very exciting!’ Silvie had declined the suggestion that she might stay on the Stepeasy with Davie and Shion while the rest of them completed their journey. It wasn’t that she was particularly interested in seeing what they might or might not discover – that, she said, they would see when they got there, so why get all worked up about what they might find?
As always, though, she was responsive to the mood around the ship. There was an electric fizz in the air and Silvie’s eyes were sparkling. ‘So much fun!’ she enthused, and Alex grinned at her. He didn’t need to speak, she knew exactly how he felt.
All the same, he made all the right, responsible decisions, slowing the squadron to a crawl as they approached the system and adopting a zig-zag approach, too, in the hope of establishing that they were not making an attack run and were no threat to anyone who might be watching their approach.
There was absolutely no sign of a response, though, and things went very quiet on the Heron as they swung carefully into long orbit at scanner range.
They had less than seven and a half seconds to look at Aseltor, and that was long enough to see what they had come here to find.
Aseltor Th
ree was, indeed, an oceanic world. The only landmasses were sprawling archipelagos, none of the islands larger than twenty kilometres across, at most. They were, however, intensely green. Within seconds, climatic and other analysis was revealing that the planet had a wide variance of habitats from ice at the poles to tropical at the equator, a range of forest biospheres on land and vast reefs in the shallow waters around the islands. There were nothing like cities, but pattern analysis showed that there were shapes on some of the islands, too vague at this distance to be any more than fuzzy pixels, but showing square lines that strongly suggested they were constructions of some sort.
Nobody, however, was looking at the little fuzzy blobs. They were all staring at the object which had come into their field of scan as they moved around in orbit.
It was there. It was right there. It was on solar orbit on the inner side of the planet, matching its speed as the world swung around its star.
And it was everything that people had claimed to have seen. It was so big it might have been mistaken for a small moon, had it not been for the bulbous shape and streaming tentacles.
It looked, indeed, just like an enormous jellyfish, pale and gleaming where the sun struck it. The body of it was around sixteen kilometres in diameter – a vast translucent dome with spots of white which were themselves hundreds of metres across. Joined to it below was a crystalline construction like a bowl-shaped cluster of feathery leaves. Tentacles trailed behind, kilometres long and each with a glowing white tip.
It was there. It was real. It was indisputably alien. It was the Space Monster of Sector Seventeen.
And then the screaming started.
Their comms arrays cut out immediately under the onslaught but that hardly mattered. The noise kept coming at them, apparently through the hull, though they could not understand how either then or afterwards. All they knew was that the whole ship seemed to be vibrating and voices were ringing out at them from all directions. They were shrieking with terror – impossible to say whether male or female, or how many, it was just an overwhelming multitude of high pitched, incoherent screams.
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