by Worth, Dan
‘My hand...’ he managed to say eventually. ‘I can’t really tell in this light, but I think it might be turning blue.’
‘Ah, sorry,’ she replied a little sheepishly and released her grip.
‘I wouldn’t worry,’ he replied. ‘Numb fingers are the least of my worries right now. Dying out here, on the other hand? Well...’
‘I thought we’d had it back then,’ said Katherine. ‘I think my life really did flash before my eyes and I remember thinking that it wasn’t nearly long enough. I really, really didn’t want to die. When we were staring at that black hole, I remember thinking that that thing really was the end of everything and I thought...’
‘Yes, I suppose we’re lucky to be in one piece. Maybe Mentith isn’t as crazy as I thought, since we actually survived. We’re not out of this yet, though. We must be thousands of light years from home.’
‘It wasn’t Mentith that took down that portal and flew us out of there, it was Eonara. She saved everyone.’
‘Yes indeed, and what do you suppose has happened to her?’ Rekkid replied. He looked over at Mentith who was standing with a huddle of his officers and technicians. They wore concerned looks on their Arkari features and were talking hurriedly with one another in their own language. On the floor between them lay a silvery puddle of nano-form material where Eonara and the ship’s cat avatar had been standing.
‘Doesn’t sound good,’ Rekkid commented. ‘I can only hear snatches but the phrases, AI core offline and something about the jump drive sustaining critical damage cropped up.’
As he spoke, a number of crewmen dashed out of the bridge. Mentith came over and addressed Katherine and Rekkid.
‘It’s not good,’ he began. ‘We have no way of contacting the other parts of the ship, at the moment. We have light, heat and atmospheric systems online now, but the ship’s computer systems and internal communications are offline and as yet we don’t know how bad the damage is across the ship. We do know that there was some sort of power surge in the jump drive’s systems and it is possible this may have cascaded back through the ship’s other systems, causing them to shut down to protect themselves. If that’s the case, the Glory’s AI will have taken steps to isolate itself until we manually re-connect it. As for the state of the drive: well we just don’t know. The aft section of the ship sustained heavy damage before we jumped clear of the explosion. The hull will heal in time, but more complex components may need replacing. Auto-repair systems have their limits.’
‘What about Eonara?’ said Katherine.
‘I have no idea,’ Mentith replied and shrugged. ‘It was a jury-rigged solution when they installed her. Who knows whether she managed to protect herself? I will try and keep everyone updated, but we need to get at least rudimentary systems back online and find out where we are.’
‘I strongly suspect,’ said Rekkid. ‘That we may be on the part of the map labelled “Here be Dragons.”’
‘If I understand the reference correctly Professor Cor, you may be right,’ Mentith replied and frowned, before turning smartly and accosting one of his officers. They fell into deep conversation.
‘Great,’ said Katherine. ‘So what do we do now?’
‘We wait,’ said Steelscale. ‘Mentith isn’t lying. It takes a lot to kill an Arkari ship. Believe me, my people have tried and failed often enough. We should be patient.’
They waited. Arkari engineers and other crew hurried to and from the bridge. Mentith listened to their urgent messages and gave orders to them, then sent them back, on foot, to other parts of the five kilometre long ship. After a while the lights came back up, and then the bridge instruments came back on, although at first they seemed to be displaying nothing more than the same set of error messages in Arkari script.
After about an hour the internal transport system came back on, saving breathless crew members the less than enviable task of running through the ship’s seemingly endless corridors to relay messages between different parts of the vessel and eventually internal comms were restored, albeit on a very basic level.
Finally, after some coaxing, the ship’s computer systems came back up. Holographic displays appeared once more in the air in an arc at the front of the bridge. They showed self diagnostic information from the ship’s internal systems and sensors as various functions were restored by the vessel’s auto-repair facilities as well as by the efforts of her resourceful crew. One display showed the status of the warship’s skin, which even now was beginning to slowly re-grow itself.
Katherine, Rekkid and Steelscale sat amid the bustling Arkari whilst all of this occurred, feeling a little out of place and more than a little helpless. Still, the crew of the Shining Glory seemed well drilled and focused on their task of repairing the warship and it didn’t look as if they needed the assistance of two frightened, baffled academics and a K’Soth lord. Even so, there were still no signs of life from the ship’s AI or the mysterious Progenitor AI that had called itself Eonara.
Mentith left a gaggle of officers who had just reported their progress to him and walked over.
‘How go the repairs, War Marshal?’ said Steelscale.
‘Better than hoped in some areas,’ Mentith replied. ‘The skin of the warship’s hull is healing well, and we have restored primary power and a number of other systems including primary life support.’
‘But...’ said Katherine, she could tell that the old Arkari was holding something back.
‘But, the jump drive and primary relativistic propulsion systems will require extensive repairs before they will work again, and I’m afraid we’ve not had a lot of luck in getting either the ship’s AI nor the Progenitor AI to talk to us. Work is being carried out as we speak on the AI cores, but repairing the drive systems is a bigger problem, we think. The components in question are too delicate and require a level of precision in their manufacture that the ship’s auto-repair functions cannot furnish us with,’ he said and sighed wearily.
‘So we’re stuck here then? We’re just going to be stranded in deep, unexplored space until we all starve or freeze to death?’ said Katherine, panic obvious in her face.
‘No! No, absolutely not!’ replied Mentith, attempting to placate her. ‘You misunderstand, I think. This ship has facilities on board for the manufacture of entire replacement components for all of our systems. It will take time, and will probably require the acquisition of additional raw materials, but we can fully repair the ship’s drive given enough time.’
‘And the AIs?’
‘Are perhaps another matter entirely. However, in the event that we cannot repair them, the ship can be flown by the crew just as yours are. It will be more difficult, but we will manage if necessary.’
‘But Eonara said that she knew how to defeat the Shapers and that she shared that information with the ship!’ said Katherine. ‘We have to get her or the ship’s AI working again, for everyone’s sake. We need that knowledge!’
‘We struck them a decisive blow,’ said Steelscale. ‘Surely a great many of them must have perished and their portal device has been destroyed.’
‘Alas, I fear our success is only temporary,’ said Mentith. ‘We do not know the total enemy strength or what proportion of them was destroyed when the portal exploded. As for their slaves: I will wager that they will have little trouble in acquiring more, nor will they have little difficulty in constructing another portal in time. This will be a temporary setback for them, nothing more. We have bought time for our people, not outright victory, and now the Shapers will seek vengeance for what we have done to them. Their wrath will be terrible, I have no doubt of that. Katherine is right, we must have access to the data that the AIs possess if we are to stand a chance of winning this war.’
‘War Marshal,’ said Rekkid. ‘I hate to bring this up: but do we know where the hell we actually are?’
‘No,’ Mentith replied solemnly. ‘No, we have no idea whatsoever.’
‘Then how are we supposed to...’
‘
What else would you have me do!?’ Mentith exploded. ‘We’re still alive, can’t you be satisfied with that!? Taking us into the centre of the galaxy was a calculated risk in order to stop the Shaper invasion of our people’s home systems, to stop the massacre of billions! Do you not think that that might be weighing heavily on my mind right now?’
‘I’m sorry, I...’ Rekkid stumbled.
Mentith gave an exasperated sigh.
‘Professor Cor, our own people, the Arkari people may have suffered untold casualties. The Shapers may have destroyed entire populated worlds! Don’t you think I want to help our people? Our families, our friends and colleagues back home: they are relying on us! We cannot fail them, but it is one step at a time! We do not know exactly where we are, but we do know that we are in low orbit around a planet.’
Mentith manipulated one of the holos to expand it so that it dominated the far end of the bridge. An image appeared there, filling the display. It showed a vast curving swathe of boiling cloud tops lit by unknown alien suns, sweeping past as the ship continued to roll.
They watched the scene for a moment. As the ship’s orientation changed the image flickered to a different feed from another external camera. Beneath the swirls of cloud could be seen the grey-brown surface and the faint glimmer of patches of open water.
‘What is this place?’ said Katherine. ‘Where are we?’
‘As I said: we do not know,’ Mentith replied. ‘Initial sensor readings show a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere and the gravity is about ninety-percent that of Earth, almost the same as Keros. Based upon the density of the background stars, I’d guess that we’re on the edge of the central galactic bulge. But other than that I cannot be any more accurate. I’ve got people working to identify any obvious markers - known pulsars, black holes, nebulae and so on - to get a better fix on our position.’
‘Maybe the ship brought us here for a reason.’
‘Maybe. Maybe this was the only habitable world it could find in this part of space. The ship may have been trying to find somewhere where we could survive for long periods, if need be, if its systems failed completely.’
‘It doesn’t look very inviting,’ Rekkid commented. ‘I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t see much vegetation from up here, unless everything that grows down there is either grey or brown.’
‘Is there any life down there, War Marshal?’ said Katherine.
‘Doubtful,’ Mentith replied. ‘The atmosphere shows a very low methane content, almost undetectable in fact. The gas is chiefly produced by living things or by vulcanism but it doesn’t last long before it breaks down. There needs to be a constant supply. If there was anything living down there, I’d expect there to be a much greater amount of it in the planet’s atmosphere.’
‘If there is nothing living down there,’ said Steelscale, ‘then what is that?’ He jabbed a clawed finger at the screen, where a geometric pattern could clearly be seen, half hidden by a bank of clouds. It was a series of radial lines joined by smaller, fainter lines to form a spider’s web pattern. A thicker, straight line extended from this across the barren wastes until it was hidden by a range of cloud smothered mountains.
‘That looks like civilisation to me,’ said Rekkid. ‘That looks like a road network.’
‘I concur,’ Mentith replied and gave few brief orders in Arkari. ‘I have ordered my crew to begin sweeping for any signals of any kind. If anyone is down there, then they may have noticed us, or we may be able to pick up the general background chatter of their civilisation.’
‘I wouldn’t expect too much,’ said Katherine. ‘Look.’
Their viewing angle had changed as the Glory continued in its orbit and the clouds obscuring the network of roads had parted, allowing them a better view. What looked like a great city could now be seen below them, its network of streets extending over tens of kilometres. The centre, however, had been completely obliterated by a gigantic crater that abruptly erased the lines of streets right at the point where they appeared to converge.
‘That has to be the result of a weapon of some kind,’ said Steelscale. ‘That’s too accurate to be a natural occurrence, like an asteroid impact. It looks like someone targeted the centre of that city intentionally.’
‘Maybe this planet is dead after all,’ said Katherine.
‘Perhaps not,’ Mentith replied. ‘Others may have survived elsewhere on the surface. We should keep looking.’
As the Glory continued in its orbit, other devastated cities swept into view before disappearing over the limb of the planet. Though they differed in size, each was similar to the one that they had first seen, both in their general topology and the fact that all had been struck by some sort of devastating weapon. Some had been hit multiple times and in these cases, barely anything remained outside the limits of the overlapping craters.
‘I wonder what happened here,’ said Rekkid. ‘A global nuclear war? Bombardment from space?’
‘Maybe the Shapers did this,’ said Steelscale. ‘Perhaps this is the remains of another people who defied them? Perhaps this is what awaits us when we return home to our own worlds?’
There was an uncomfortable silence as yet another blasted city rolled by beneath them.
Then, one of the crew manning the comm. system called out something to Mentith in the Arkari language. Mentith replied in kind. An audio feed began to play across the bridge. It was faint at first, the sound quality poor and distorted. Icons began to appear on the display of the planet’s surface, denoting the source of the signal as having just appeared over the limb of the planet below.
‘The signal is very weak,’ said Mentith. ‘It is an old fashioned analogue radio transmission. Systems Adept Radila is working to clean it up.’
An alien voice began to echo across the bridge. The words were incomprehensible, the sounds strange and guttural. But after a few moments the pattern of syllables began to repeat itself.
‘Must be an automated message,’ said Rekkid. ‘But it’s in a language I’ve never encountered before. Hardly surprising, considering that we’re probably the first people from our respective civilisations to ever come here.’
‘It could be a greeting, perhaps?’ said Katherine.
‘The signal is omni-directional rather than directed at us,’ said Mentith. ‘It’s more likely to be a distress signal of some kind.’
‘Or a warning,’ Rekkid added. ‘Maybe someone left it here to tell anyone who arrived to stay away. Look at what’s happened to this place. It’s clear that something bad happened here, something very bad indeed. Maybe we should stay away.’
‘Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of choice,’ said Mentith. ‘The Glory’s orbit is decaying. In this low orbit we’re brushing the upper layers of the atmosphere. It will take some days, but eventually this ship’s orbital speed will have been reduced to the point where it will fall to the planet below unless we can restart the engines. We need to secure raw materials so that the ship’s manufacturing systems can replace its own damaged components, before we move the ship to higher orbit and repair the jump drive. To that end, I think we need to establish a base on the surface. We may be spending some time here and we need to know what we’re dealing with in terms of the environment, resources and so on.’
‘Are you saying that we might have to settle here?’ said Katherine.
‘I had considered that possibility, yes,’ said Mentith. ‘If we cannot repair the ship in time, we may have no other choice if we wish to survive. However, I also believe that we need to know what happened here and why Eonara brought us here in the first place. The initial reports from the ship’s engineers are not good and it may be difficult, if not impossible to restore her to full functionality with the resources that we have available. We need to know everything about our current situation. I would greatly appreciate it if the three of you would head up the investigation as to the source of these signals.’
Chapter 4
Fully protected in their suits, Isaacs
and Anna stood looking up at the Profit Margin, the nose of the sleek craft looming over them in the dimly lit bay. Behind them, other members of the Hidden Hand were using heavy lifting gear to push the piles of mangled debris and bodies from the battle out of the shattered dock.
‘So,’ said Anna. ‘What’s your big idea?’
‘We need to get back to the core systems still loyal to Earth, right? We need to tell the Navy what we know.’
‘That the Nahabe have found a way to detect the Shapers’ comms traffic and are about to join in the war. Gotcha.’
‘We can’t transmit any of this information, because we don’t know how secure the hypercom network is, so we need to deliver it by hand, preferably to Admiral Chen, since we can trust her. Thing is, we need to do that without being intercepted, or without giving away the location of this base.’
‘Warp signatures would be a dead giveaway, of course,’ said Anna. ‘Okay, go on.’
‘I’ve been going through the inventory of this place, not to mention the specs of my own ship. I found an engine stealthing kit amongst your stores. God knows how you guys got hold of that, since it seems to be a piece of Black Ops kit, but I guess you have your sources.’
‘Shigs ‘acquired’ it for us a while back from some dodgy ship dealer types he knows. We could never get the damn thing to work - it wasn’t compatible with any of our ships.’
‘It’s compatible with mine, being a newer model and all. It won’t hide us completely, but it’ll make the jump drive signature much harder to spot from a distance. It should allow us to leave this place without being spotted from the inner system.’
‘Uh-huh. Okay. We should talk to Maria and Farouk.’
They made their way back into the warren of tunnels and chambers within Port Royal and found Maria in one of the noisy mess halls. The brightly lit room stank of cheap, greasy food.