by Dan Worth
‘Chen here.’
‘Admiral, this is Haldane. Sorry to disturb you, but I think you should come up to the bridge. Centrepoint Station has... disappeared, God knows how!’
‘I’ll be right there,’ she replied. ‘Chen out.’
She had a very bad feeling about this.
Chen strode briskly onto the bridge. Haldane looked worried.
‘Tell me what you know Commander.’
‘We were recovering the recon flights when something tripped our hyperspace sensors. We thought it was maybe another ship jumping in close by but when Commander Singh ran some checks he didn’t detect any other vessels. Instead it appears that some sort of hyperspatial wave passed through us.’
‘Another ship jumped through us?’
‘No, we thought so at first, but the wave was huge. It was far too large to be a ship. Singh did some further scans and we found that the wave itself was spherical and that it was expanding outwards across the system from the Lagrange point between the two stars at a speed far in excess of C. Whatever happened, that wave originated at Centrepoint Station. A high energy burst of neutrinos is expanding in a wave front inside the hyperspace wave at light speed. It’ll hit us in about ten minutes.’
‘And Centrepoint itself?’
‘It isn’t there, so it seems. We turned the long range hyperspace sensors on its position and we can’t pick up anything. Neither the station nor any of the ships that were stationed there are visible, though we did detect a short lived space time curvature event. It seems like a massive wormhole formed there for a split second.’
This had to be connected to Cox’s alien ship somehow, Chen thought. Even the most catastrophic jump drive accident wouldn’t produce a result of such proportions. Had he unwittingly released some sort of advanced alien weapon?
‘Commander. Is there any debris in the vicinity?’
‘None that we can detect for here, it’s like they all vanished right in front of us. It’ll take around two hours for the light to reach us as this distance, so getting a mark one eyeball on what’s left will cost us a critical amount of time if we’re to render any assistance.’
‘Very well. We need to get a closer look and render assistance to any survivors. Recall all recon flights. Once all ships are aboard, helm, plot a jump that will bring us in one hundred kilometres away from Centrepoint’s last known position.’
The Speaker felt the wave pass through him, and he shuddered within his sarcophagus as it relayed the results of its detection of the event to his central nervous system.
It had begun then. Those fools had taken the bait. He knew what would come next: Fire, death, corruption and suffering like his people had suffered centuries before. He dispatched an urgent message to his government with the data his sarcophagus had just collected, and pulled in additional data from Port Royal’s sensor suites that provided secondary confirmation as well as the location of the event.
They must act now. They must.
He summoned the others to him.
Half an hour later, the Churchill emerged from its jump and came to a full stop one hundred kilometres away from the Lagrange point where Centrepoint Station ought to be, and indeed was. The metal archipelago hung in space, shining in the light of the suns and surrounded by the armada of vessels that Cox had assembled.
‘What the hell…’ Chen breathed. ‘Lieutenant Singh, report.’
‘I don’t believe it… just a second ma’am; I’m scanning local space for any anomalies.’
‘I hope this wasn’t a wild goose chase, Lieutenant.’
‘It’s not. Our sensors were working perfectly before, I doubled checked… wait a second. I’m now detecting a second hyperspatial wave emanating from this point. It originated from the Lagrange point just over five minutes before we emerged from our jump. It’s over twenty AUs in diameter already and expanding. We must have passed through it on the way in. Helm, did you pick up anything?’
‘Confirmed,’ replied Ensign Goldstein. ‘The hyperspace envelope compensated for the chop so we didn’t feel it but yeah, we passed through it alright.’
‘I’m also picking up another expanding burst of neutrinos and, Admiral, the entire area around the station is swamped with tachyons and zero-point energy bursts. There are also a series of ripples in space-time, as though it’s snapping back into place after being heavily distorted, sort of like the backwash you get from jumping ships but over a much wider area.’
‘What the hell went on here?’ said Chen.
‘My guess: something opened a wormhole before and then did it again just now. These readings are very similar to some of the data collected about the Maranos portal. This is different though…’
‘Centrepoint Station is hailing us,’ said Ensign Andrews at the comm. station.
‘Put them through,’ said Chen. The image of one of the traffic controllers appeared in her HUD.
‘Good day to you Churchill, your arrival is a little unexpected. Is there anything we can do for you?’
‘We were wondering if there was anything we could do for you actually, Centrepoint. Put me through to Admiral Cox please.’
‘Certainly. Just a moment,’ the man replied smoothly. His image disappeared and was replaced a second later by that of Admiral Cox. He was sitting in a control room surrounding by busy technicians. He smiled genially at her.
‘Ah Admiral Chen, I was wondering when you might call on me again. I understand you came to offer us assistance.’
‘Yes. Our sensors registered a massive hyperspace pulse emanating from this location. It appeared to us that the station had been destroyed. Admittedly, we were some distance from the event – we were on the edge of the system at the time – but when we got here we found you still sitting here. Nevertheless we are tracking another more recent pulse created just a few minutes ago as well as waves of exotic particles.’
‘Well Admiral Chen as you can see we’re all safe and sound. However my technicians were attempting to activate the ship’s drive system. It would appear that something went rather badly wrong when we fed power to what we took to be the engines. We don’t fully understand what powers this vessel nor how it moves through space, but the drive appeared to misfire a couple of times. Gave us all a bit of a fright, felt like someone was trying to turn me inside out! But I assure you, we’re fine.’
He was being unusually genial, thought Chen. Her few dealings with Cox had revealed a bad tempered man, short on manners. More to the point she didn’t believe him.
‘Sir, our hyperspace sensors indicated that Centrepoint vanished entirely.’
‘Well I suggest you review your sensor logs. However I would theorise that the hyperspace pulse could have given you false readings.’
‘It’s possible.’
‘Hmm. Nevertheless, I appreciate your concern and your prompt response. You’re a credit to the Navy Admiral Chen. You certainly pulled my ass out of the fire back on Rhyolite. How’s your search for the Hidden Hand going?’
‘Not well. We’ve got a vast area to search out there. It’s like trying to find the needle in the proverbial haystack.’
‘Well look: why don’t you come over to the station with what data you have and we can pool our resources? I can lend a few ships to help you in the search if you like. You find your man, and I get rid of the pirate problem in this system. I might even show you our latest acquisition if you like.’
Something at the back of her mind screamed at her to refuse. She trusted Cox about as far as she could throw him anyway, and now he was offering to show her his pet project, something that he had kept hidden from her and her superiors and he had bridled when she had previously challenged him about it. What did he want?
‘Unfortunately sir, our mission priorities have changed. I’m to report back to Admiral Haines as soon as possible. My guess is that he’s written this off as a wild goose chase and has found me something more productive to use this ship for. We’ll be returning to Barstow to pick up t
he rest of our personnel there and then we’ll be leaving the system.’
Cox looked at her, slightly crestfallen.
‘Well that’s a pity Michelle,’ he replied. ‘I had the feeling that you and I might make a great team if we worked together. Perhaps another time. Again, thank you for your prompt response.’
‘Not at all sir. Chen out.’ She ended the transmission.
‘He’s lying about something,’ said Haldane, who had sat and watched the conversation on his own HUD monocle. ‘He sounded like he was trying to fob us off.’
‘Yes I think so too, but we need evidence to corroborate our story before we take this to Haines. Otherwise it’s just conjecture. We need someone else to have seen the station disappear. Helm, plot in a course for Barstow. Our security teams are still aboard undercover. Let’s see if they can find anyone who saw anything - anyone who was close enough to get a good look during those twenty or so minutes between the two pulses.’
The Speaker floated before the assembled members of the Hidden Hand who had gathered in his chamber. Katherine, Rekkid and Isaacs stood near the front of the throng along with Anna and Anita and watched again as the station and its attendant fleet of ships vanished in flash of blue-white light in the holographic projection before the Nahabe.
‘It has begun,’ said The Speaker. ‘The Shapers have made their move. I have informed my government of this and they are considering their response.’
‘Considering?’ said Isaacs. ‘What the fuck does that mean?’
‘It means they will deliberate for some time before making an appropriate counter move,’ said The Speaker, wearily.
‘Well how about this. Give the data to me, I’ll make contact with Admiral Chen in person and tell her everything we know. You know it makes sense.’
‘Cal, are you sure we can trust her?’ said Anna.
‘We can trust her,’ said Katherine. ‘Chen may be Navy through and through but she’s trustworthy, and she’ll listen to us. Cal’s idea is the best one any of you lot have had since we’ve arrived.’
‘Very well,’ said The Speaker. ‘Perhaps action is called for. I will probably be punished for this by my superiors, but you shall have all the data we possess on the Shapers in this system. I too think that Mr Isaacs is correct, and have become frustrated by my own people’s unwillingness to act decisively. Perhaps you may fare better than we did.’
‘You’ve done the right thing,’ said Isaacs. ‘You won’t regret it.’
Chapter 26
The creature that had been Admiral Cox gazed through its new and unfamiliar eyes at the console screen. It felt… uncomfortable. It hadn’t quite integrated itself into this body yet and some fragments of the man’s consciousness remained within his sequestered brain. It could hear it sometimes, like the voice of a man trapped in a locked cell screaming to be released. In time the voices would recede.
The others were experiencing similar problems. It took time to get used to these primitive sleeves of imperfect flesh and bone. It dug into its new-found memories and mouthed the necessary words to placate the human female known as Admiral Chen. It was pleased. It seemed to have successfully fooled her. It ended the transmission and opened another, this time using its own subspace methods to signal to the others of its success as it felt the Churchill move away from the station. Then it sent transmissions to its master asking for orders. The answer returned immediately. It was time for the next move.
Cox ordered messages to be sent up the Commonwealth chain of command to report of their progress. The answer came back quickly: the ship was to be moved to better facilities: to the Navy’s Southern Fleet Command headquarters in the Spica system.
The Churchill held station once more inside the traffic control volume around Barstow Orbital. Haldane had taken one of the carrier’s shuttles and had gone aboard to meet with the security personnel that they had left on the station undercover. Chen was taking the opportunity to review Lieutenant Commander Singh’s preliminary findings from their sensor logs, and those of Barstow Station from the period when Centrepoint had appeared to both disappear and re-appear again. The findings were, unfortunately, inconclusive. Neither had been close enough to verify that their apparently anomalous readings from their hyperspace sensors hadn’t been the result of a bizarre engine malfunction in the alien ship, and Barstow had been on the wrong side of the gas giant at the time to train any telescopes on Centrepoint.
Her desk console chimed, it was Singh.
‘Admiral I’m detecting a large number of ships getting under way around Centrepoint. It looks like all three carrier groups are assembling to leave. I can also pick up what looks like the two heavy lifters moving in formation.’
‘Cox is leaving? I wonder why? Get Andrews to open communications. Put it through to this console.’
‘Yes ma’am’
After a few seconds, Cox’s face appeared before her on her HUD wearing a quizzical expression.
‘Admiral Chen. So soon? What can I do for you?’
‘I was wondering why you were leaving us so suddenly, that’s all. After you got your little prize ensconced at Centrepoint and you were so keen to deal with the pirate problem in this system I expected you to be staying longer.’
‘Well, not that it’s really any of your business Michelle, but Admiral Morgan has recalled me and most the ships under my command to the Spica system. A token force will remain of course but it was felt that following our preliminary investigations and the subsequent problems that you witnessed, that the alien ship could be better investigated at the better equipped facilities of Southern Fleet Command. Meanwhile I’m due to receive my just reward, a promotion to full Admiral no less, and the fleet you see here will later be redeployed elsewhere. Admiral Morgan felt that there was no gain to be had from tying up such large assets for such a length of time. I may have a few announcements to make to the press also, regarding our discovery and what it means for the Commonwealth.’
‘I see, and given the recent mishaps you’ve experienced, do you really think it’s wise to keep that thing in such a key military facility? I trust that you’ve informed Admiral Morgan of that.’
‘I have, but we’ve analysed the data we gathered and we think we can better understand the craft’s propulsion method. It won’t happen again, and the superior facilities that will be made available to us will ensure that. Now if you don’t mind? I have to organise three carrier groups for the jump to Spica. Cox out.’
So, Cox had got his long sought after promotion at last. That’d be a boost to his career and his fragile ego, thought Chen, but what on earth had he meant by making announcements to the press? The dig had been a classified operation, even Admiral Haines hadn’t known about it. She didn’t like this at all.
‘This had better work Cal,’ said Anna from the rear of the Profit Margin’s cockpit. ‘The last time we encountered this woman she didn’t hesitate to open fire on us.’
‘Well, you were carrying antimatter,’ said Rekkid. ‘Look I’m sorry about your comrades, they were doing the right thing by trying blow up that damn ship, but what was she supposed to think? That it was somebody’s birthday and you’d resolved to give them an expensive fireworks display? Those are banned weapons and you’re lucky to still be alive. Besides, Katherine and I are on the same side as Chen, allegedly, so she’ll listen to us.’
‘Yes I wouldn’t exactly say we’re bosom buddies, but she’s never tried to shoot us. Well not yet anyway,’ said Katherine reflectively. ‘Oh there was this one time she brought most of the K’Soth Imperial Fleet down on our heads, but it wasn’t really her fault, if you know what I mean.’
‘Great. What are the chances of her throwing us all in the brig?’ said Anna.
‘Fifty-fifty I’d say,’ Rekkid replied. ‘Oh did you hear about the time she sawed a civilian orbital station in half with the main guns of a warship? Oh how we laughed about that one…’
‘Shut up, this has to work. It’s our only sensible choice
,’ Isaacs muttered. ‘Coming up on Barstow Station now.’
The star-field phased back into view. The slowly turning wheel of Barstow Station was clearly visible ahead through the cockpit windows. Next to it hung the huge grey slab of the carrier. Isaacs negotiated his way through the traffic patterns and signalled to Barstow traffic control that he wished to approach the carrier. He was ordered to stop until given clearance and duly did so.
There was a pregnant pause for almost a minute before the Churchill requested to communicate.
‘Captain Isaacs, this is an unexpected pleasure,’ said Chen as her face appeared on the comm. screen. ‘Have you come to your senses?’
‘We need to talk,’ said Isaacs bluntly. ‘I have Professor Rekkid Cor and Doctor Katherine O’Reilly with me on board. I believe you three are acquainted.’
‘Yes of course. Professor, Doctor, it’s good to see you again.’
‘We have much to discuss,’ said Rekkid. ‘We’ve made a number of important discoveries that we need to bring to the attention of Haines and Mentith.’
‘I also have Anna Favreaux, my ex-wife and also the de facto human leader of the Hidden Hand with me,’ said Isaacs. ‘She comes of her own free will and wishes to talk.’
‘I see. The Navy takes a dim view of piracy Ms Favreaux.’
‘We’re not pirates,’ Anna replied. ‘The Hidden Hand is a covert organisation sponsored by the Nahabe and dedicated to fighting the Shapers.’
‘Indeed?’
‘We’ll come aboard and talk if you guarantee that none of us will be placed in custody,’ said Isaacs. ‘I know how things look, but we’re on the same side here. It can’t have escaped your notice that odd things have been happening in this system of late.’
‘You’re talking about Centrepoint, aren’t you?’