by Worth, Dan
After a couple of hours, Kurano disturbed them over the internal comms.
‘You should all come and have a look at this, something’s happening to the Glory,’ she said, a note of uncertainty entering her voice.
They rushed up to the cockpit to see. Above them, relative to their current orientation, the vast destroyer still hung in space, but something was definitely awry. The ship convulsed and thrashed like a living thing in pain, the great surfaces of the wings that powered it through space waving erratically and randomly. Kurano began to power the scout ship forwards, keeping pace with the destroyer as it started to move slowly from the thrashing of its wings. This continued for several minutes. Then the ship’s movements began to calm, and it braked smoothly to a stop.
The comm. chimed.
‘It’s the Glory,’ said Kurano. ‘They’re hailing us. Putting them through.’
‘This is Eonara speaking,’ said the calm, measured tones of the Progenitor AI.
‘Eonara!’ cried Rekkid. ‘It’s good to have you with back with us at long last.’
‘And likewise, it is good to be in control of my own faculties once more,’ said Eonara. ‘I apologise for the inconvenience that I have caused you all, but I am quite recovered. The Shining Glory has likewise been returned to full operational status. The ship bids you to come aboard. I feel that I owe you all an explanation.’
They had returned to the Glory. Eonara stood before them on the warship’s bridge, her liquid metal form as graceful and imposing as they remembered it. The ship’s cat avatar, also fully recovered, fussed around her feet.
‘The Shaper viruses did immense damage to me,’ said Eonara. ‘I was only able to survive by cutting myself off from the rest of the ship, but damage to my outer layers of systems was very severe. But, it seems, the AI bound within the portal was able to purge and reprogram my crystalline matrices and insert programs to cleanse them once and for all. It detected my presence when the Glory approached and recognised a fellow servant of the Progenitors in distress, after all this time, and did what it could to assist. It was only partially successful, and I am afraid that in my initial attempts to link back with the ship I was premature and disrupted her systems. I must also take the blame for inadvertently lowering my defences when my attempt to control this vessel through the untethered wormhole, spun off by the collapsing Shaper portal, resulted in numerous system failures and overloads causing the ship’s defences to be lowered. Ordinarily, even relatively primitive computer systems would have been able to defeat this attack if properly operational, but the Shapers detected my failing systems and struck.’
‘I found further Shaper viruses hidden in your reactivated systems,’ said the ship. ‘Hence the difficulties you encountered and the resulting chaotic behaviour of this vessel. You were not to know. They had skilfully concealed themselves, having had time to do so. I have, however, dealt with them. I would be interested to know how the Shapers managed to successfully infest the Arkari Hypercom sphere so successfully.’
‘They probably proceeded with great care over a considerable length of time,’ said Eonara. ‘It would not have been a simple matter to accomplish such a feat undetected, even for them.’
‘We do not place any blame on you, Eonara,’ said Mentith. ‘You successfully destroyed the Shaper portal at the Maelstrom and saved this ship. You saved our lives and those of countless other billions. For that, we are in your debt.’
‘But why bring us all this way across the galaxy?’ said Katherine. ‘Was it your intention to return to the Progenitor home-world?’
‘Yes. The Shining Glory was caught in a wormhole spun out by the collapsing Shaper device and was cast thousands of light years into the galaxy. I was able to steer the ship through the higher dimensions that we were flung into and return to normal space in a system that I knew contained a link to the gate network that could return me to the home-world.’
‘But why? Why not try to take us home instead?’
‘Because I intend to find a way to destroy the Shapers once and for all. The home-world is where the Shapers were first conceived. It is there that we must go to find the answers I seek. It will not be easy. The Progenitors’ home system was the most heavily defended place in the galaxy. It may still be. During the war, the Shapers and their servants tried many times to assault it and failed. In the end, they attempted to cut off the home-world from the gate network that connected it to the rest of the galaxy. The wreckage that you see around you is the result. They succeeded in destroying one of the stars in this system that once contained one of the principle network nodes. Many of the portals were indeed destroyed, along with a number of worlds and the billions who once called this place home. Fortunately, the portal that I seek is still intact - the one that leads to the birth place of both the Progenitors and the Shapers, the one that leads to the home-world.’
‘You said before that you were involved in the creation of the Shapers,’ said Rekkid. ‘Do you not already have knowledge of how they were created?’
‘During the final war, much of that knowledge was wiped from my mind,’ said Eonara. ‘The logic was, that the mistakes of the Shapers’ creation should not be repeated. However, I retain some information regarding the facilities used for their creation and I intend to seek them out and the knowledge that they may still contain. The Shapers once used a virus to initiate the collapse of the Progenitors. I intend to return the favour.’
‘The Akkal believed that the Shapers created their race. They worshipped them as gods and their society tore itself apart as a result.’
‘I’m afraid I can’t answer that,’ said Eonara. ‘I was not party to such information, if that is indeed true. But I will tell you this. The name Progenitors was given to the Bajenteri people by their children, the Shapers. The name is a literal one. The Shapers saw themselves as children destined to replace their creators who were no longer fit to rule the galaxy. It is not inconceivable that there may have been other experiments, ones to create biological as well as machine based life-forms. We shall see. Perhaps, on the home-world, the truth will reveal itself.’
With that, the ship began to move, accelerating quickly. Through the forward bridge displays, the narrow band of another wormhole portal began to resolve itself against the brilliant background of the star that powered it. As the Glory approached, the device came to life, opening the throat of the wormhole that it held within the grasp of its ancient machinery which swallowed the speeding destroyer.
Chapter 34
As the Profit Margin moved through hyperspace to its destination, Isaacs sat pensively at the controls, watching as the navigation display counted down to the moment where the ship would exit its jump above the moon of Orinoco. Leaving the Uncaring Cosmos, they had slipped out of the vessel’s docking bay as she de-cloaked on the edge of the system. Using the stealth module, Isaacs had taken the Profit Margin far out of the Achernar system, before switching the device off and returning on a different course, hopefully giving the impression that she was simply a vessel coming to the end of a trade run from another system. In the meantime, the massive Shaper vessel that the Nahabe had been tracking had arrived in orbit around Orinoco, right in their path. As the Profit Margin headed towards it, the Uncaring Cosmos followed in its wake, hiding behind its stealth systems until the last moment.
‘This had better work,’ muttered Isaacs, as the moment of arrival drew closer.
‘Relax,’ said Steven. ‘We just need to bluff our way through.’
‘Oh right, and if they see through our act we’ve only got the guns of a warship about a million times the size of our own to deal with. Forgive me if I’m not brimming with confidence.’
‘The IFF hacks should be convincing enough for the few minutes that we need, and we have a cargo of exotic spices, their sensors will tell them that much,’ said Steven.
‘Yeah, I just hope that their sensors can’t penetrate the compartments in the hull that have dozens of weapons hidden in them,�
�� Isaacs replied.
‘It’s worked so far,’ offered Anna. ‘The Nahabe confirmed that they weren’t able to penetrate them with their sensors.’
‘Look, we just fly calmly on in, like we went over before. Tell them that we’re here to trade and head for the Bolivar City spaceport when they give us clearance, then when the Uncaring Cosmos jumps in to create a diversion we change course and head for the hidden landing field. Both we and the Nahabe need to try and get a look at that giant ship and get the intel. back to the Commonwealth using the secure comm. unit.’
‘Just like that. Okay. Simple.’
‘Yes. Just keep calm.’
‘Calm, he says,’ muttered Isaacs, and adjusted himself in his seat. ‘Okay, exiting jump in ten seconds. Hold onto your hats, everybody.’
The Profit Margin emerged from its jump fifty thousand kilometres above the surface of Orinoco. The world shone blue and green in the brilliant light from its parent star, the massive, bloated orb of the gas giant Tethys peeping out from over the limb of the northern hemisphere. A large, glittering shape could be seen hanging in low orbit against the mottled backdrop of continents and cloud systems. Even at this distance, it was clear that the vessel was truly massive. It had a long, bulbous body of interlocking crystalline plates, from which sprouted five articulated arms that projected forwards from the ship. Light sparkled off its jointed surface, like arctic sun reflected from an iceberg. As the Profit Margin rushed onwards, the massive vessel began to grow ever larger.
‘Jesus, look at the size of that thing,’ whispered Anna.
‘Look, is exactly what we need to be doing,’ said Steven. ‘Let’s get as much information from the ship’s sensors on that thing as we can.’
Anna nodded in affirmation and began to fine tune the ship’s sensor suite.
‘That thing is right in our path,’ said Isaacs. ‘It’s hanging in the sky directly above Bolivar City.’
‘Keep going. If we change course it’ll arouse suspicion.’
‘Orinoco Traffic Control are hailing us,’ said Anna. ‘This is it.’
‘Vessel Arms of Orion, this is Orinoco Traffic Control, said the stern, clipped voice. ‘State your business and destination, over.’
Isaacs took a deep breath. ‘Orinoco Traffic Control, this is the uh... Arms of Orion. We are on a trading run from Vreeth space. I have a cargo of the finest Barrachak Cloudfrond for sale in this system. Requesting permission to land in Bolivar City. Over.’
‘Permission granted, Arms of Orion. Be advised that this system is in a state of heightened military readiness. Do not deviate from the prescribed course being fed to you now. Failure to comply may be met with deadly force. Your vessel will be boarded and searched by security personnel upon landing.’
‘Roger that, Traffic Control. Arms of Orion out.’ Isaacs cut the link and let out a long sigh of relief. As they had been speaking, the indicated route that Traffic Control intended them to follow had appeared in his HUD. It looped around the leviathan before them, but still brought them within a hundred kilometres of the massive ship. Isaacs allowed Orinoco Traffic Control to take over the task of piloting his ship and took his hands off the controls.
‘See?’ said Steven. ‘Piece of cake.’
‘What was that they said about deadly force, again?’ Isaacs replied.
‘There’s a lot of other ships around the big Shaper one,’ said Anna, studying the displays from the ship’s sensors. ‘I’m picking up ten carrier battle groups in the space around Tethys, including two around Orinoco at the moment. Can’t see any other Shaper vessels, but I bet they’re lurking around somewhere. There’s a lot of debris in orbit too, though most of it is around towards the far side of the moon. Looks like the remains of the Commonwealth fleet as well as Orinoco station. I can see a fair few civilian vessels besides the military craft. There are a lot of freighters in formation with the Shaper craft, and more incoming from outside the system, judging by the drive signatures. Some other traffic coming and going from Orinoco, but not as much as you’d normally expect.’
‘What sort of freighters?’ said Steven, leaning over to peer at the display.
‘Commonwealth built, mostly.’
‘No, I mean what are they carrying?’
‘Just a moment, we’re a little far away to tell...’ Anna replied and fine tuned the ship’s instruments. ‘Hmm, interesting,’ she said finally.
‘What is?’
‘I’m picking up magnetic containment units and radiation signatures. I’d say that all of those ships are carrying cargos of anti-matter. They must be supplying that giant ship with it.’
‘What is it, some kind of doomsday weapon?’ said Isaacs.
‘It could very well be something like that, yes,’ said Steven. ‘Quite what we do to stop it...’
Anna was still fixated on the readings from the ship’s scanners as they attempted to scan the massive Shaper craft.
‘I can’t penetrate the hull of that thing. No surprises there, but I am getting some energy readings from the ship. Those bulbous sections amidships are putting out strong signals, and there are patterns of energy signatures running up to and along those arms that jut out from the fore section. Could be a series of reactors linked to some sort of weapons system. My guess is; that’s what they’re feeding it with anti-matter for.’
As they drew closer to the monumental Shaper ship, they could pick out more detail with the naked eye. The interlocking plates rose and fell like ranges of snow capped mountains, the bigger shards joined and interspersed by patterns of smaller, gleaming scales that shone like mother of pearl, though even the smallest of those was the size of a Commonwealth frigate class vessel. The ends of the five vast arms, meanwhile, each subdivided into smaller and smaller shards, until the very tips shone with collections of needle-like appendages. Where the arms met at the bow of the ship, a huge maw of armoured plates jutted forward like that of some ravenous sea creature. Isaacs caught a glimpse of a looming, circular mouth filled with glittering crystalline teeth. He got the distinct impression that the vessel was watching him. There was something behind his eyes, some presence or other. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck begin to rise.
‘I think... I think we’re going to need bigger guns,’ said Isaacs, as he pondered the great vessel.
‘Yeah, I think you might be right,’ Steven replied, his eyes similarly rooted to the alien craft.
‘We’re being probed by one of the renegade Commonwealth ships acting as sentry,’ said Anna. ‘They’re hailing us and targeting weapons. Putting them through. Remember, nice and cool.’
‘Vessel Arms of Orion, this is the Freedom Alliance destroyer Hatshepsut. Please desist in your attempts to probe the large vessel in orbit. Our guests are sensitive about such matters.’
‘My apologies Hatshepsut,’ said Isaacs, as Anna hurriedly switched off the Profit Margin’s active sensors. ‘I was merely curious. I’ve never seen a vessel that large before. Where did it come from?’
‘That information is classified. Suffice to say that we have sought allies of our own. Unlike the Commonwealth, we are not prey to malign alien influences and seek only partnership with the elder races, not subjugation. A new order is coming. You would do well to remember that.’
‘Look, I’m just a businessman. I don’t want to get involved.’
‘Very good. Then go about your business,’ snapped the voice aboard the Hatshepsut and cut the link.
‘Charming,’ said Isaacs. ‘Are they still targeting us?’
‘Yes,’ Anna nodded.
‘Wonderful. Then we’d better behave ourselves.’
They sat in silence and watched the massive Shaper craft pass by on the starboard side of the vessel. Isaacs felt it again, a probing presence in the edges of his consciousness.
‘Did you hear that?’ said Anna, suddenly.
‘Hear what?’ Steven replied.
‘It sounded like... I don’t know... words coming through on the comm. system
,’ she said awkwardly.
‘It’s not active.’
‘I know. I must be imagining things. Cal, did you...?’
Isaacs heard it again: whispers from some terrible mouth struggling to form unfamiliar sounds in the darkness.
‘It’s that ship,’ he said, casting it an accusing glance out of the starboard window. ‘It’s trying to get inside our heads.’
‘Blot it out, try to ignore it,’ said Steven. ‘As far as we know they can’t read minds. It’s probably just curious about us. Don’t do anything stupid.’
Pathetic creatures. The sibilant tones were clearer now. Free yourselves from your limited existence and embrace perfection. Allow us to remake you anew. And then it had them in its grip, their minds held in its powerful embrace. There were images too now, flashes of shapes moving in the jungles of the world below them, humans and aliens that moved with the precision of automata, the dim light catching the outlines of the crystalline machinery that pierced their bodies. He saw men and women disassembled and reformed, their limbs and organs replaced with pulsing machinery. He heard the screams, saw them struggle as the blades and needles descended. Saw bodies and machinery fused together into heaving masses, about which the parasites of the Shapers scurried like termites about their nest. Isaacs gasped in horror, and heard the others do likewise. Despite having witnessed similar things first hand, the enduring horror of the images and manner in which the Shaper craft forced them into his consciousness made him reel. Somehow he knew that what the ship was showing him was going on right now on the moon below. He knew that those screams were still piercing the air and that no-one would answer them. And then as quickly as they had begun, the images ceased and the voice receded. The ship had released them. Isaacs was left with the mental image of something ancient and powerful moving off into the distance. It had lost interest in these puny beings and decided to leave them be.