Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three)

by Worth, Dan

  ‘Impossible to say at this distance. There are quite a few warships hanging around there though.’

  ‘Of course there’s no way of telling if any of these ships are friendly or not. Hell, even if we found a few names we recognised there’s no guarantee. They could have been taken over if the Shapers have beaten the Commonwealth here. Are any of the ships the same ones we encountered in Hadar or Spica, the ones that Cox was commanding?’

  ‘Nope,’ Anna replied and shook her head.

  ‘Well that’s something. It’s not exactly a cast iron guarantee that they’re on our side though. We need to get closer and have a look at these guys, and then get the hell out of here if they turn out to be the enemy. I don’t suppose there’s any sign of Shaper vessels in the system?’

  ‘None that I can see, but of course our on-board sensors can’t pick them up. We need a data feed from a more sophisticated array, like the one at Port Royal, that’s been modified according to the Nahabes’ specs. So the Shapers could be lurking in this system, it’s just that we can’t see them.’

  ‘Great. That doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence,’ said Isaacs.

  ‘Me neither. Huh...’ Anna’s brow furrowed as she peered at the display, then she added: ‘That’s odd...’

  ‘What’s odd?’ Isaacs replied, leaning over to take a look at the display himself.

  ‘Just for a second, I swear the sensors registered a Nahabe gunsphere in the system. No sign of it now though...’

  ‘Could be a glitch. A false return off some debris or something.’ Isaacs shrugged. ‘Still, the buggers can cloak their ships, you know? Maybe they’re here to hunt Shapers. The Speaker said that the Nahabe were sending a fleet to help Earth.’

  ‘Maybe. I just hope that they aren’t being hunted themselves. I saw what happened to the Uncaring Cosmos and the Blessed Nothingness. They can take on the Shapers, but they had a hell of a fight on their hands, and they may have got here too late. In any case, we need to get deeper into the system and find out what the hell is going on around here.’

  Isaacs had plotted a looping, indirect course away from Achernar to the heart of the Commonwealth, taking the Profit Margin through all manner of backwater systems and little used trade lanes, using the stealth module to mask his ship’s signature when they approached inhabited systems and then dropping out of hyperspace in the depths of interstellar space to dump the excess heat built up in the ship’s drive system. Finally, he had skirted the mining settlements in the Ross 128 system before heading for the Solar System by making a short jump towards Sirius and then another, back across towards the Sun. As a feat of creative navigation it was impressive. Anyone following the ship, if they were capable of tracking its dampened drive signature, would have been unable to guess its final destination until the final jump for Earth. It was unlikely that anyone would have had the foresight to guess where the Profit Margin was going and attempt to prepare an unwelcome reception. So far, it seemed to have worked.

  Isaacs was leaning over and squinting at the sensor display, whilst pulling co-ordinates off into the navicomp. He adjusted them a few times before he seemed happy and then set about prepping the jump drive and stealth module.

  ‘Okay, you have a plan?’ said Anna, peering quizzically at her husband, busy over the ship’s instruments.

  ‘Yeah I do,’ Isaacs replied. ‘Jupiter’s on this side of the system at the moment, and like you said, there are plenty of what appear to be Navy ships in the vicinity. Meanwhile, the monitoring arrays at the Pluto-Charon Lagrange point are currently on the other side of the system, making it harder for them to see us. My bet is that sensor coverage in Jovian space is pretty spotty, what with Galileo Station out of the picture, plus there’s plenty of bodies orbiting the planet that we can sneak in behind and then poke our noses out to take a peek at what’s going on. If it all goes pear-shaped, we’re not too deep inside the system and escape should be a bit easier. We’ll have a head start on the rest of the ships in the system and we can use the stealth module to evade pursuers as we head for Arkari space.’

  ‘Wow,’ said Anna, taken aback. ‘You really do have a plan then. I’m impressed.’

  ‘Yeah well, planning is the reason I’m not sucking vacuum right now in some godforsaken system.’

  ‘Really? You’ve been known to cut things a bit fine, you know.’

  ‘That’s true, I guess, but I’m still alive. Look you’re going into something like this, you need to plan your escape routes. Jupiter or Saturn seemed like the sensible choice to jump to on the way over, what with all the places to hide around them, and there doesn’t seem to be too much going on around Saturn, so Jupiter it is. That’s where all the activity is, aside from Earth.’

  ‘So what now?’

  ‘I’ve plotted jump co-ordinates that will bring us in from the opposite side of the planet to where Galileo Station ought to be, then we do a short jump to behind the sensor shadow of Sinope, one of the outer moons. It’s an uneven rock, little more than an asteroid captured by the planet’s gravity, so we should be able to sneak in close and poke our noses out for a look at what’s going on around Io before we head on in. We’ll keep the stealth module on until we’re tucked in behind Sinope and dump the heat in its shadow.’

  ‘That’s a pretty small pebble to hide behind,’ said Anna.

  ‘It’s big enough,’ said Isaacs. ‘Let’s go, before someone sees us.’

  A few minutes later and the Profit Margin slipped back out of hyperspace in the sensor shadow of the irregular shaped moon of Sinope. She had briefly emerged above the cloud tops of Jupiter, the great swirling storms seeming close enough to touch outside the cockpit windows before disappearing once more and slipping across the giant planet’s vast system of moons to come to rest behind this small, distant worldlet. Isaacs brought the ship to a halt, relative to the moon, then when it was safe to do so, deployed the stealth module’s radiator panels and sat back in his command chair with a look of smug satisfaction on his face.

  ‘Nice,’ said Anna. ‘I’m impressed. You got it right on the money.’

  ‘Yep, and you know what the best part is? No-one else can see us. There isn’t a single ship or sensor array in the system that can see us clearly right now.’

  ‘Really?’ Anna replied, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

  ‘Of course one of the military arrays might have picked us up, but the question still remains: did they know what they were looking at? If we showed up at all they’d probably mistake us for a much smaller ship,’ said Isaacs, basking in the glow of his navigational achievement. He pressed a couple of controls on the console in front of him and retracted the ship’s radiator panels.

  ‘Hmm. I don’t know, this is the most heavily defended system in the entire Commonwealth, you know,’ said Anna. ‘Don’t get cocky. This stealth module was fine for getting away from Port Royal without being seen and masking our trail, but there’s some serious hyperspace monitoring kit in this system. I’m still not convinced that they can’t see us.’

  ‘The Shapers in Achernar didn’t.’

  ‘We think...’

  ‘Well, so far so good. Let’s get a look at what’s going on around Io.’

  With incredible care and precision, Isaacs brought the Profit Margin in close to the moon, using the ship’s manoeuvring thrusters to gently push her into position. Now, close to the frost rimed surface, where back scatter from the potato shaped moon would hopefully hide their presence, he edged the ship forward until its sensors were able to see over the horizon and deeper into the Jovian system. At this distance, the massive gas giant was visible as a thumbnail sized disk, brilliantly reflecting the light of the sun. Io was just visible as a smaller point of light just off to the left. The Profit Margin’s sensors were, however, able to see much more.

  ‘Shit, yeah. Looks like Galileo Station’s gone,’ said Anna, examining the feed from the sensors as Isaacs adjusted the attitude and relative velocity of the ship. ‘There’s nothing lef
t where it should be except a hell of a lot of debris.’

  ‘Shit,’ Isaacs replied. ‘There must have been thousands of people on that station.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Anna quietly. ‘I guess there must have been. We’re dealing with monsters here, remember?’

  ‘How could I forget?’ Isaacs replied, grimly.

  ‘Want the good news?’ said Anna.

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘There’s a medical frigate just arrived in Jovian space, the CNV Hippocrates. I’d say that’s a rescue mission underway around Io.’

  ‘Which means that they’re likely to be friendly.’

  ‘Probably, yes. The rest of the ships look like transports and warships. There’s a couple of frigates, a handful of cruisers and a destroyer, the Hadrian, not to mention a whole host of transport and salvage craft coming and going from the area. I’d put money on that destroyer being the command ship.’

  ‘Okay. I’ll jump us in to the edge of that area and we can hail the Hadrian and see what happens.’

  ‘Just be careful, Cal. Given what seems to have happened here, they’re likely to be pretty nervous and so, trigger happy. Don’t do anything that could accidentally see us staring down the wrong end of a particle beam cannon. I suggest we turn off the stealth module. We don’t want to suddenly appear on their sensors and surprise them.’

  ‘Yeah... I think you might be right about that,’ said Isaacs, and activated the Profit Margin’s jump drive.

  The Profit Margin sped towards Io, dropping out of hyperspace on the edge of what had previously been the traffic control zone around Galileo Station. The pockmarked, yellow moon hung outside the bridge windows, the banded orb of Jupiter filling the space behind it.

  Isaacs and Anna gasped in shock. They had been correct in their assumptions – Galileo Station had been almost totally destroyed. Barely anything remained of the gigantic wheel shaped station, save for the battered remains of the docking hub and a section of the outer habitation ring still attached to it by one of the spokes. It rotated eccentrically, attended by a small fleet of salvage craft who were trying to stabilise it. Space around the destroyed station was filled with debris, not just sections of the station but dozens, if not hundreds of destroyed vessels. A couple of warships patrolled the perimeter, whilst the rest seemed to be assisting in the rescue efforts. The Titan class destroyer Hadrian hung above the scene, apparently co-ordinating the operation with the medical frigate Hippocrates and a handful of large military transports parked alongside her. A fleet of salvage craft, mainly shuttles and medical evac. vessels, came and went between the larger ships and the debris field. A quick glance at the Profit Margin’s scanners revealed that all of the warships had both their shields up and their weapons charged and ready.

  Isaacs brought his ship to a complete stop as the comm. came to life.

  ‘Independent vessel Fairy Wings this is the destroyer Hadrian. This area is under naval jurisdiction. We have been tracking you since you entered the system. State your business.’

  ‘Fairy Wings!?’ said Isaacs, shooting a hostile glance at Anna. ‘I take it Maria changed the ID transponder and that this is her idea of a joke.’

  ‘Well we needed some cover,’ replied Anna with a smirk.

  ‘Very funny. More to the point, how the fuck have they been tracking us?’

  The comm. came to life again. ‘Vessel Fairy Wings, please respond. We are at full combat readiness and are targeting your vessel. Hostile acts will be met with lethal force.’

  ‘Hadrian, this is the uh, Fairy Wings,’ said Isaacs into the comm. ‘We are here on a matter of some urgency and have information that you will find useful.’

  ‘Please be more specific, Fairy Wings.’

  ‘I’d rather not discuss it over an open channel,’ replied Isaacs. ‘However, we have been working with Admiral Michelle Chen and have vital information to give to her.’

  There was no reply from the Hadrian for a few, tense moments, then a reply came from the warship. It was a different voice this time, a woman’s.

  ‘Fairy Wings, this is Captain Ellen Macpherson of the Hadrian. The cruiser Lycurgus is approaching your position. You will allow the Lycurgus to escort you to our position whereupon you are to dock with us. Upon docking you will be met by a team of armed marines and you will follow their instructions. Do I make myself clear Captain...?’

  ‘Captain Caleb Isaacs. Yes, ma’am. Absolutely clear. We will await the escort.’

  ‘Very good, Captain Isaacs. Hadrian out.’

  Isaacs exhaled with relief and sat back in his couch, running a hand through his short, untidy hair.

  ‘Well that went pretty well, I thought,’ he said, checking the scanner display which, sure enough, showed the cruiser moving towards them.

  ‘Yeah, except if they all turn out to be slavering monsters once we dock with the Hadrian we’ll have delivered the data right into the hands of the enemy with no means of escape,’ Anna replied.

  ‘You said it yourself, this is a rescue operation here. These guys aren’t the enemy. Besides, what choice did I have?’

  ‘Hmm, I guess you’re right,’ Anna replied, cautiously. ‘I suppose we’ll just have to trust them.’

  Escorted in to the Hadrian, the Profit Margin was instructed to dock in the small bay located underneath the vessel’s superstructure between the twin V-shaped keels. Isaacs powered down the vessel, then he and Anna stepped cautiously out of the ship. They were met by a squad of armed marines in full combat armour.

  Isaacs and Anna put up their hands and allowed themselves to be searched whilst four of the marines dashed inside the Profit Margin and began to systematically search its compartments. The marine sergeant searching Isaacs, whose nametag read Bryson, held up a hand scanner.

  ‘Okay, I know the drill,’ said Isaacs to the expressionless visage of Sergeant Bryson’s visor. ‘There aren’t any nasty things inside my head except my catalogue of bad jokes, but you can look anyway.’

  Bryson held the device to Isaacs’ head and then Anna’s and scrutinised the display as the four marines that had been searching the ship re-emerged and reported that they had found nothing untoward.

  ‘Okay, they’re clean,’ said Sergeant Bryson into his suit comm. and then paused as if he was listening to a reply. ‘Do you have any ID?’ he said to Isaacs and Anna.

  ‘Um, there’s our civilian pilot licenses,’ said Isaacs, fumbling for the battered data card in his pockets as Anna did the same. Sergeant Bryson held up the cards with his bulky, armoured gloves and then slotted them into his scanner and peered at the readout.

  ‘Caleb Isaacs, registered captain of the vessel Profit Margin and Anna Favreaux, registered captain of the vessel Jilted Lover. DNA matches our scan results. Would you mind telling me who that ship belongs to that you arrived in?’ said Bryson.

  ‘That’s the uh, the Profit Margin,’ said Isaacs. ‘She belongs to me. We were deep inside enemy territory in the Achernar system and the bastards had my ship ident. We needed to make a clean getaway.’

  ‘I see,’ Bryson replied. ‘Flying with a false ID is a serious offence. We ought to impound your vessel and arrest you.’

  ‘Seriously, there are bigger things at stake here than traffic offences. Besides, you haven’t show me any ID yet.’ said Isaacs, interrupting, then wished he hadn’t.

  ‘Just who the fuck do you think you’re talking to!?’ barked Bryson into his face. ‘You don’t get to make the rules around here son. So shut the fuck up!’

  ‘Okay, sorry,’ Isaacs replied, a little stunned by the man’s shouted response.

  ‘As I was about to say, before you cut me off. We ought to impound your vessel and arrest you. But under the circumstances, we’ll turn a blind eye, providing you get that ID changed back at the earliest opportunity.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Now, come this way,’ said Bryson. ‘The Captain wants to have a word with you.’

  Captain Macpherson was a tall, middle aged woman
with dark, greying hair, high cheekbones and a piercing gaze. She eyed Isaacs and Anna with a certain amount of suspicion over a desk strewn with papers, datapads and other clutter as they were led into her office, flanked by Sergeant Bryson and another marine.

  ‘So, Captain Isaacs and Captain Favreaux. Welcome aboard the Hadrian. Now would you mind telling me what this is all about, and what you were doing sneaking around the Solar System with a false ID and an illegal black market stealth module?’

  ‘We have intelligence on the enemy, on the Shapers,’ said Isaacs.

  ‘Sergeant Bryson, please wait outside,’ said Captain Macpherson. Then once they had left she continued. ‘Okay, I had my people run your pilot licenses against our databases. You’re on a list of civilian pilots that we should give all possible aid to if requested, I can tell you that. Beyond that, I don’t have clearance, but I’m listening.’

  ‘How do we know that you aren’t...’ Anna began.

  ‘Aren’t one of them?’ said Macpherson. ‘Here.’ She passed Anna a scanner, similar to the one that the marines had used on them moments earlier. ‘Best I can do. Scan me.’

  Anna did as she was instructed. When she was satisfied with the result, she turned and nodded to Isaacs.

  ‘Okay. We have been working with the Nahabe in the Hadar, Spica and Achernar systems conducting covert operations against the Shapers,’ said Isaacs. ‘We were feeding intelligence to Admiral Michelle Chen of Special Operations Command, however our base of operations was attacked by the Shapers and many of our people were killed.’

  ‘And your base is...?’

  ‘Currently within the outer reaches of the Achernar system.’

  ‘I see, so presumably you have a pretty good view of what is going on there.’

  ‘We saw Haines’ fleet get wiped out, yes,’ said Anna. ‘But it goes further than that. The Nahabe sent a couple of their warships to aid us. During the Shaper attack the technicians on board the Nahabe ships figured out a way to detect the Shapers by modifying their ships’ hyperspace sensors to pick up the Shapers’ communications links in higher dimensions. Sadly we can’t decipher what they’re saying to one another, but if you can pick up their communications, you can pinpoint their positions, their principal communications nodes, even their home-world if you could see far enough.’