Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three)

by Worth, Dan

  ‘Yeah I remember that fucking thing,’ said Maria, half eaten burger in one hand. ‘So, your big shiny dick ship has come in useful after all, huh?’

  ‘Yeah, it has,’ Isaacs replied, ignoring the insult. ‘Plus it’s about the only thing we have left that still flies.’

  ‘There is that,’ Maria sighed and ran a hand along her corn-rows. ‘Listen,’ she said, above the noise of background chatter. ‘I think me and Farouk and the others can get this fixed up pretty quickly, since you say that your drive’s compatible. We can also maybe make a few tuning improvements along the way, but you need to consider the way that this thing works.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Okay, this stealth device is basically a dampening tool. It smoothes out your warp signature, so that it blends into the background more gradually and removes any regular patterns from the wave. Space-time ain’t totally smooth anyway, so this hides you within the low level chop, making you less obvious and even if they do spot you, it makes it harder to identify your ship type. But there is a drawback.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘This thing creates a lot of heat. We’re gonna need to swap out the heat exchangers as it is, but it’ll still produce more than they can cope with and it’ll be radiated into the hyperspace envelope. When you come out of your jump, all that excess heat will be dumped into space, making you more obvious, plus, you’ll have to limit the length of time that you use the stealth device. After four or five hours, the temperature outside the ship will be raised to dangerous levels. When that happens, the device will shut itself down and you’ll be easy to spot. If you try to override the shut down you risk melting the drive.’

  ‘I see. So what we have here is actually a stealth device that makes us really fucking obvious. What a great invention,’ said Anna, scathingly.

  ‘No. I think it’s still useful,’ said Isaacs. ‘We just need to learn how to use it. We can’t have it on all the time, just at the start or end of a jump. I guess if you were moving around for long periods and didn’t want to get spotted you’d have to do it in short hops between safe spots. Say, do a short jump to the sensor shadow behind an asteroid or moon or something, vent the excess heat, then jump again.’

  ‘Yeah, that’s what I thought too,’ said Maria. ‘You could move around pretty easily, as long as you planned your jumps out in advance.’

  ‘And as long as you knew where any interested parties might be.’

  Anna seemed distracted. Cal saw her check the screen of her comm.

  ‘Okay well, we’ll let you guys get on with it then,’ said Anna and shot Maria a grin. ‘Cal, come with me. The Speaker wants a word with us.’

  ‘Sure. Maria, can you and Farouk at least have a look at the thing as soon as you get chance?’

  ‘Mind if I finish my lunch before I take your ship apart, hotshot?’ said Maria and scowled at Isaacs.

  The Speaker, encased within his armoured sarcophagus, floated amidst a grove of small, purple trees in Port Royal’s lower arboretum. The chamber functioned both as recreational space and part of the base’s air recycling mechanism. The creature seemed to be inspecting the bright blue flowers that grew on the tips of the wiry branches – it held one delicately in the grip of a slender manipulator arm. As it heard the two humans approach, it released the delicate bloom and turned to face them.

  ‘You wanted to see us?’ said Anna.

  ‘Yes,’ said the Speaker. ‘I have here a copy of everything that we have learned of the Shapers’ communication methods and the means by which they may be detected. You must give this to the Commonwealth, or to the Arkari. It will be most useful to them.’

  The manipulator arm that had been holding the flower reached inside a recessed chamber within the Speaker’s armour and produced a couple of data wafers, proffering them to Isaacs and Anna. Isaacs took them and eyed them thoughtfully.

  ‘You said so earlier,’ said Isaacs. ‘What I don’t understand is how come we suddenly have this information to hand.’

  ‘Because of your help!’ exclaimed the Speaker. ‘You two, and the warriors from the Order of Dead Suns, bless their departed spirits – your courage led to this discovery.’

  ‘It did?’

  ‘Perhaps I should explain,’ said the Speaker. ‘You remember the boarding action that you undertook on the Casilinum, to gather information and bring back samples of Shaper parasites for us to study?’

  ‘How could we forget?’ Anna replied and shuddered, as both she and Isaacs recalled the shadowy halls filled with slavering beasts enslaved to the will of the Shapers that had once been the officers and crew of a Commonwealth warship.

  ‘The samples you recovered were taken on board the Uncaring Cosmos for study. It was evident that though badly damaged, a number of the creatures were still partially active. It was the assumption of the crewmembers assigned to study them that when separated from their controlling node – the one that you destroyed aboard the Casilinum - that these simpler creatures of the Shapers would attempt to seek out other Shaper creatures in the vicinity to try to find a link back to the main Shaper consciousness in order to receive further commands.’

  ‘And of course they didn’t find any, I suppose?’ said Isaacs.

  ‘We don’t think so. Previously when we fought the Shapers it had been theorised that although they must be using some form of hyperspace communication method, they were able to make use of dimensions that my people, with the technology that we possessed back then, were unable to access, or that they were able to mask their signals in some way. In any case, the war was over before we got a chance to test our theories and the Shapers were not encountered again for tens of millennia. Now it seems that in the intervening period the Shapers have developed drive systems that make their ships incredibly difficult to detect, particularly at long range. We believe that their vessels are able to exist in multiple dimensions simultaneously and gradually phase between hyper and real space rather than jumping suddenly between them as our vessels do. In addition, their methods of propelling themselves leave only the slightest of ripples in space time. Even the Arkari with their advanced technology are unable to detect jumping Shaper vessels over distances of more than a few thousand kilometres.’

  ‘Yeah, I seem to recall the sneaky bastards caught us by surprise,’ said Isaacs. ‘Those damn ships appeared out of nowhere.’

  ‘Quite so. However, it seems that those ancient researchers I mentioned were correct in their theories: the Shapers are able to access a dimension above hyperspace, and although it seems that they are not able to travel through it, they are able to make use of it for communications. The crew of the Uncaring Cosmos managed to jury rig modifications that enabled them to scan this higher dimension using the ship’s own hyperspace sensors. It was soon realised that a number of weak signals were coming from the captured parasite creatures that you had recovered for their study. When the Shapers attacked Port Royal in the Spica system, it became clear that the Shaper creatures were communicating with the attacking vessels. Their signals were duly monitored and analysed.’

  ‘Right, so let me get this straight,’ said Anna. ‘The crew of the Uncaring Cosmos just happened to completely re-engineer their hyperspace sensor array, just like that?’

  ‘No of course not,’ the Speaker replied. ‘The Order of Dead Suns and many others in the Nahabe scientific community have devoted years of study to this subject. However until now it was difficult to test any of the theories on ‘live’ subjects.’

  ‘Uh huh,’ said Isaacs. ‘So what, we can read their mail now?’

  ‘Alas, no,’ the Speaker replied. ‘We do not, as yet, understand the Shaper language and nor do we have any knowledge of the methods that they doubtless employ to encrypt their transmissions or the workings of any of their communications protocols. Even if we did succeed in doing so, it is likely, given that they are machine based life-forms, that they would not find it too difficult to change them relatively quickly.’

  ‘So what use is t
his new found knowledge to us then?’ said Isaacs.

  ‘The Shapers are a hive-mind. They are in constant contact with one another. If we can detect their transmissions, then we can detect their ships at range,’ the Speaker replied. ‘We have taken the liberty of also reprogramming and recalibrating Port Royal’s hyperspace sensor array. I think you’ll find the results quite impressive.’

  A map of the Achernar system appeared in the air in front of the Speaker. The current position of Port Royal was marked with a green icon on the edge of the system, within the Kuiper belt. The orbits of the various planets and their attendant moons were sketched in hair thin ellipses about the massive central star, a rapidly spinning, oblate blue giant that seared the inner planets. Humans had therefore colonised the verdant moons around the sixth planet, Tethys, and it was to there that the Speaker drew their attention.

  ‘This simulation is a product of our modified hyperspace sensors and observations by Port Royal’s telescopes,’ said the Speaker. ‘Here we see the system shortly after we successfully completed our jump from Spica. You can see the huge number of warp signatures indicating vessels moving to and from the moons of Tethys. As I’m sure you’re already aware, shortly after we arrived the fleet of renegade ships under the command of our old friend Admiral Cox arrived in the system and made straight for Orinoco, where they proceeded to attack the orbital station…’ As the creature spoke, a group of red icons entered the system and made a bee-line for the sixth planet. It continued. ‘The loyalist fleet, already waiting for them, responded and took down a number of Cox’s ships in the opening minutes of the battle.’ The icons indicating neutral vessels scattered and many simply vanished, before the tightly packed red icons were met by two groups of blue icons appearing from opposite directions. A number of the red icons quickly disappeared. ‘By this point the Uncaring Cosmos had succeeded in tuning its newly modified sensors to longer ranges and managed to capture the final stages of the battle,’ said the Speaker, as an approaching group of additional red icons in a massive claw formation appeared within the image. The Speaker paused the simulation and then zoomed the image inwards so that the battle was more clearly magnified. A faint tracery of lines could be seen linking each of the newly displayed ships to one another, whilst further lines extended from the larger ones back out of the image in the direction of the galactic core.

  ‘Shapers,’ said Isaacs.

  ‘Yes indeed,’ said the Speaker. ‘At this stage they are still within hyperspace, but we can see them nonetheless at a distance of billions of kilometres. That faint tracery of lines represents their network of communication traffic between one another.’

  The Speaker resumed the simulation and the blue icons quickly winked out.

  ‘If we’d only seen them coming earlier,’ said Isaacs. ‘We could have warned them.’

  ‘Yes we could,’ the Speaker replied. ‘Even though the Commonwealth would have been unable to repel an attack of that magnitude with that number of ships available to them, it might have saved the lives of their crews.’

  ‘So, we can see them. But how the hell can we kill them?’ said Anna.

  ‘The Arkaris’ spatial distortion weaponry and the dark energy weapons of my people are quite capable of taking down Shaper vessels as these are able to bypass their shields and in the case of the Arkaris’ weapons, affect the molecular fabric of the Shaper craft in this and other dimensions. Human vessels, relying on kinetic, laser and directed energy weapons, however, are likely to be much less successful.’

  ‘Well, that’s great,’ said Isaacs. ‘So, even if we give them this information, it’ll just let them know that the Shapers are coming for them and that there’s nothing that they can do about it.’

  ‘I suspect that this may already have happened,’ said the Speaker, and switched the simulation forward a few hours. The projection now clearly showed a formation of renegade Commonwealth vessels departing the system, shadowed by a fleet of Shaper craft. ‘Judging from their trajectory when they left the reach of our sensors, they were headed for your home-world,’ the Speaker added. ‘Enough time has elapsed by now for them to have arrived.’

  ‘Shit,’ said Isaacs. ‘So that’s it? We’ve lost already? So much for the human race,’ he added bitterly.

  ‘You should not give up hope,’ said the Speaker. ‘Before we left Spica I received word from my government that a contingent of gunspheres was to be despatched to Earth to aid in its defence. It seems that they have finally come to their senses after all. Hopefully they acted in time. However the fleet will likely be rather small as we require the bulk of our forces for the defence of our own systems. Doubtless the Shapers will move against the Nahabe in time. If you encounter the Nahabe fleet in the Solar System you should also ensure that this information reaches them too.’

  ‘Pardon me if that doesn’t fill me with confidence,’ said Isaacs. ‘So what, we get all the way to Earth, only to discover that it’s too late? Can’t we pick up anything from the hypercom network nodes in this system, any news?’

  ‘Not without our connection giving away our current position, no, and we are too far out from the inhabited worlds to pick up any general broadcasts of any kind, especially with that blue giant star in the centre of the system generating so much electromagnetic radiation. It would be like trying to spot a candle next to a star-ship engine’s exhaust.’

  ‘We need more information.’

  ‘We just don’t have time. I gather that you have been investigating the possibility of making use of the engine stealthing device in our inventory.’

  ‘Yes, that’s correct,’ replied Isaacs.

  ‘My advice would be to approach the Solar System with caution. Do not head straight for Earth. Skirt the outer system and use the device to conceal yourselves. If it looks like Earth has fallen, or it’s too dangerous to approach, you should leave immediately. On no account must you let this information fall into enemy hands. If you are about to be captured, you must destroy it. If the Shapers realise that we can use their communications traffic to track their ships they are likely to change their methods and the advantage that we now possess will be lost. I would of course have preferred to send the Uncaring Cosmos to complete this mission, but she is still too badly damaged to move. Yours is pretty much the only ship left in one piece and certainly the only one suitable for the job.’

  ‘I don’t get it though,’ said Anna. ‘Surely the Arkari could make more use of this technology in the short term. You said it yourself: their weapons are able to hurt the Shapers more easily.’

  The Speaker said nothing for a moment.

  ‘Well wouldn’t it?’ insisted Anna.

  ‘Our... passive hyperspace sensors have picked up... unusual readings from Arkari space. The signals were very faint at such great range, but it appears that there has been severe space-time disturbance in a large number of their systems indicating the presence of numerous wormholes and sudden spikes that point to what we think may have been the deployment of weaponry powerful enough to devastate entire planets.’

  ‘The Arkari have been attacked? By the Shapers?’ said Anna, open mouthed.

  ‘Difficult to ascertain for sure, but it seems very possible,’ the Speaker replied.

  ‘Okay, I get it,’ said Isaacs. ‘Mission of utmost importance. Fine, I’ll get the job done. You can rely on that.’

  ‘I hope so, Mr Isaacs,’ said the Speaker. ‘For all our sakes.’

  Several hours later, Maria called them in their quarters with the news that she and her team of mechanics had finished installing the stealth module into the Profit Margin as well as overhauling the ship. Isaacs and Anna made their way down to the still airless bay and inspected her. They found Maria and Farouk standing in front of the vessel in scuffed, armoured pressure suits, admiring their handiwork. Isaacs took once glance at his vessel and exploded.

  ‘What the fuck have you done to my ship!?’ he cried and gesticulated at the large, gleaming panels now extending from shoulde
r mounted recesses over the vessel’s power-plant like ungainly insect wings. ‘Was that really necessary? It looks like something from the twentieth century for fuck’s sake!’

  ‘Thank you for all your hard work, Maria, would have been nicer,’ replied Maria sarcastically. ‘Yeah it’s necessary. I told you, that thing generates a lot of heat. Those things are to dump the excess heat away from the ship. Don’t worry, those nice fairy wings we added retract back inside the hull when they’re not in use. There are another two on the underside, but you can’t deploy them whilst the ship’s resting on its landing gear.’

  ‘Uh-huh. Okay, I guess,’ Isaacs replied, testily. ‘So these things retract once I turn the stealth module off?’

  ‘Not straight away, it depends how much heat has built up. They’ll retract once it’s safe to do so without frying the power-plant. Shouldn’t be more than a minute or two at the most.’

  ‘Okay...’

  ‘Oh, and you need to avoid doing any hard manoeuvring whilst these things are deployed, or else you risk twisting them.’

  ‘Great. So, this so-called stealth module in fact makes us really visible for short periods to anyone with infrared sensors, or indeed eyesight – so that’s everyone – as well as stopping the ship from making any evasive moves whilst they retract. Fantastic.’

  ‘Quit your moaning,’ Maria shot back. ‘You’re just upset because I messed with your shiny boy’s toy, even though you asked me to.’

  ‘Yeah, I did. I guess I should thank you for the hard work.’

  ‘I guess you should. Use this thing sparingly. Plan your jumps. It’ll pay off.’

  ‘Well I like it, Cal,’ said Anna. ‘It makes your big bad ship look like a pretty butterfly.’ She smirked. Isaacs scowled back at her.

  They grabbed their things and clambered aboard the Profit Margin, taking care to secure the data that the Speaker had given them in the safe in Isaacs’ cabin. As she worked the controls to close the ship’s boarding ramp, Anna noticed that Isaacs was staring at something on one of the cockpit consoles. It was a woman’s bracelet: a simple, cheap thing. The silver plating was coming off it in patches. It wasn’t one of hers.