by M. R. Forbes
Gabriel waved his hands in the air. "You're saying it's the stuff that holds all of this together?"
"It may be, Major. We also now think the reason that slipspace is black instead of white is because the density of darkspace is keeping the light in realspace from penetrating through."
Theodore whistled. "Mrs. Larone, I have to say that you and your husband and Reza have done fantastic work here. Simply fantastic. I'm happy to hear we may be breaking new ground on our understanding of the universe, and I hate to spoil the fun, but what does it mean for us today? We've still got a Dread fortress on our tail, and they ain't going to stay back there forever."
FORTY-FOUR
"Ah, General," Guy said, looking up as Theodore entered the makeshift lab with Gabriel, Sarah, and Colonel Choi. He was hunched over his tablet, his hair messy and his eyes red from lack of sleep. "I assume you spoke to Sarah." He stumbled to his feet.
"That's why we're here, Mr. Larone," Theodore said. "She gave me the rundown on this so-called darkspace. Where is Mr. Mokri?"
"He went to retrieve some of the phase paint from inventory," Guy said. "We were about to test my theory."
"Which one?" Theodore asked. "You seem to have come up with a whole barrel of them."
"It's amazing what you can do with the right motivation, and with a little push from alien technology. I haven't been this excited about anything since I met Sarah." He looked at her. "You're still more exciting, darling."
She blushed and smiled in response, acting demure. Gabriel didn't know what the current situation was between the three scientists, and he didn't care. At least they were working together on the problem.
Reza approached behind them, holding a container of the paint.
"Oh. Uh. General." He put the paint on the floor and saluted. "Sir. You're just in time to see if we're onto something."
"I hope for all our sakes you are, Mr. Mokri," Theodore replied.
"Yes, sir." He picked up the paint and carried it across the lab.
They had taken root in a large space deep inside the Magellan. They had moved a ton of equipment from its original place on the ship into a corner of it, along with a simple workbench and stools, tablets and projectors. It was an organized chaos of tools and devices that Gabriel didn't recognize or understand the purpose for.
Reza walked to the far end of the space, a hundred meters distant from them. He lifted the paint container and began spraying it against the inner bulkhead. It dried nearly instantly, leaving a dark, uneven film across the area.
He came back to them. A battery was resting in a cart nearby, attached to his tablet and connected to the Dread rifle, which was protruding a thick wire. He grabbed it and began pushing it toward the painted wall.
"Mr. Mokri," Theodore said. "Would you mind telling me what you're doing? We don't have much of that paint as it is, and last I heard we needed it to repair the nacelle."
"We would have to be able to get someone outside to repair the nacelle, sir," Reza said. "Which we can't do as long as they're vulnerable to attack."
"Gabriel can keep the Dread away from the repair team."
"Maybe. Maybe not. You may not have to take that risk if our theory holds up."
"My theory," Guy said.
"Whatever," Reza replied. He kept walking back to the paint, kneeling beside it and rigging the wire against the surface of it. "The paint is conductive," he shouted back, his voice echoing in the chamber. "In simple terms, the quantum phase generators pass energy into it in a defined frequency, which causes the nanoparticles within the material to accelerate and spin. The spin creates a bond between the material here and sibling particles in slipspace, which drags the Magellan out of this spacetime and into that one. These particles travel through slipspace in various densities, always moving and spinning. It is these densities that make up the waves. When we create a strong enough bond, we join the wave, and move from our space into that one."
"I'm a soldier, not a scientist. I'll take your word for it, son," Theodore said.
"Uh. Right. Anyway, the theory-"
"My theory," Guy said again, interrupting. "Is that we can use the phase modulator on the Dread rifle to alter the spin of the particles, so that instead of pushing us toward slipspace, we pull slipspace to us."
"And how is that going to help?"
"My dearest Sarah explained the concept of Laronespace to you?"
"Darkspace," Reza said.
Guy looked back at him.
"Darkspace," Theodore said, confirming Reza's naming. "Yes, she did. Go on."
"To pull slipspace to us, we have to lift Laronespace with it. How do I explain simply?" He paused, considering. "You were born on Earth before the invasion, so you'll understand this simile. It is like swimming instead of sinking. We want to skim the surface, to bring the Magellan into phase with Laronespace instead of slipspace. But, as you know, it's a lot easier to sink than swim."
"Not if you just relax and let yourself float," Theodore said.
Guy paused. "Not exactly like swimming, then."
"You said darkspace is dense," Gabriel said. "Wouldn't that make it easier to sit on top of it, not harder?"
Guy's face tightened. "I'm trying to put things in layman's terms so that you all understand. Density is a relative analogous synonym, in this case. I can show you the calculation that describes the properties we have theorized, but that will be even less meaningful to you.
Gabriel opened his mouth to reply. Theodore interrupted him. "I get the point, Mr. Larone. What exactly are you preparing to do?"
"We've been skirting the edge of the dead zone for the last two days. We're going to cross a short break in it in about a minute. Ten seconds at most, but that's all the time we need."
"Mmm. What exactly are you going to do?" Theodore asked again.
"You might want to roll back, General," Sarah said, putting her hand on his shoulder. "We aren't completely sure about the results."
"Are you telling me you're putting my ship at risk again?" Theodore barked.
"No risk, no reward, General," Guy said. "My calculations are good. Sarah checked them. So did Reza. Besides, I don't think it will damage the ship if it doesn't work."
"Let's hope not."
Guy watched his tablet as the seconds passed. Gabriel, Theodore, and Colonel Choi stood behind them, waiting to see what they were going to do. Gabriel glanced down at his father at the same time Theodore looked up at him. His face hopeful and doubting. This was the culmination of the effort Major Peters and his team had made to get the weapon to them in the first place. It was what Soon had sacrificed himself for. What so many had sacrificed themselves for.
Gabriel felt his heartbeat increasing, his body tensing as the seconds ticked away. He put his hand on his father's shoulder, squeezing it lightly. His other hand landed on his mother's crucifix. Would this work? Would they finally have a way to fight back against the Dread?
A small chime sounded from Guy's tablet. He bent over, retrieving a standard issue assault rifle from beneath the workbench. He held it out to Gabriel. "Major, if you would shoot the wall." Then he turned to Reza and shouted, "Turn it on."
Reza responded by tapping something on his own tablet. There was no change in sound, no difference in the before or after, but the scientist gave them the thumbs-up and then backed away from the area.
Gabriel approached Guy, taking the rifle from him. He pointed it at the bulkhead. He had no idea what was supposed to happen.
He pulled the trigger.
The noise of it echoed across the room. At the far end of the wall, an inky blackness appeared around wherever the bullets struck, flashing for the briefest of instants before vanishing again.
Reza stood at the end of the space near the wall, his fists up in triumph as he whooped and cheered. "Yes. Yes. It works. I don't believe it. It works."
FORTY-FIVE
He turned to face them, a huge smile on his face. A moment later, smoke began pouring from the battery.
His smile vanished, and he ran to the cart, grabbing the Dread rifle and running back toward them. "Watch out," he shouted. He threw himself to the ground as a small flame erupted from the battery and then went out, leaving the entire chamber in silence.
Reza pulled himself to his knees, looking back at the smoldering, half-melted battery, and then at them. "I think we were a little off on the power requirements," he said. "We can work on that."
"Did you see it, General?" Guy said, smiling.
Gabriel thought it might be the first time he had ever seen the man smile.
"I saw something," Theodore said. "Now tell me what it was."
"Darkspace," Guy said, forgetting to use his name for it in his excitement. "We modulated the phase of the paint at the point of impact to bring it into this spacetime, using it as a shield against the Major's projectiles. Because the impact occurs, it still exerts a force on the surface, but the interceding layer of darkspace absorbs most of the energy, limiting its penetrating effects."
"In other words?"
"In other words, we just replicated the Dread's shields."
Theodore smiled. "That's a fine step forward, Mr. Larone. I assume that since you now know how the shields work, you can find a way to defeat them?"
Guy's smile vanished. It was as if Theodore had punched him in the gut.
"What is it?" Theodore asked.
"General, the Dread plasma rifle has two billion phase modulators in an area the size of your first. That's billion, with a 'b.' We don't have anything that can come close to replicating that kind of nano scale construction, and even if we did, it might take months to design a template."
"The other problem is power," Reza said, joining them. He handed the Dread rifle to Gabriel. "That was the largest battery we had in inventory, and it was enough to power the system across a two-meter square section of the wall for about five seconds. Based on that, the power supply in the Dread weapon contains fifty to sixty times more energy. Our battery might be able to fire ten to twenty rounds, and that was the only one we had."
Theodore stared at them. Gabriel could tell his mind was working, taking in the cold facts and trying to adjust strategy around them.
"You said if it worked we might be able to get the nacelle repaired without risking our people."
"Yes, sir. We could theoretically create a shield that would cover the team as they worked on the repairs. If we hook into the Magellan's power supply, it should be enough to protect them from attack."
"Except the Dread can shoot right through their own shields," Gabriel said. "Remember? How would that help?"
"On its own, it wouldn't," Guy said.
"We have another theory," Reza said. "But it's a little harder to test out."
"Which is?" Theodore asked.
"Phase modulation," Guy said. "We think we can alter the phase such that it cancels out the ability of the Dread's weapons to bypass it. Or at a minimum reduces the impact."
"You mean to create a shield against their weapons?" Theodore said.
"Yes, sir. If we had two of the Dread rifles, we could use one to power the shields, and another to test the theory, but-"
"But you don't have two weapons," Theodore said. "And I don't think we'll be getting another anytime soon. There's no way to prove your theory without them?"
"The math seems to be holding up," Reza said. "But without a real test, there's no way to be completely confident."
"Sir," Colonel Choi said. "We need to repair the nacelle if we're going to get out of the system and back home. If we put our fighters out there at the same time, we can minimize the risk."
"Understood, Colonel," Theodore said. He shifted his attention to the wall at the end of the space, staring at it in silence.
To Gabriel, it seemed like the decision was cut and dry. Like the Colonel had said, they had to fix the nacelle, and this was a chance for them to do it. The Dread would undoubtedly target the nacelle, knowing that destroying it would keep the Magellan stranded here forever. They wouldn't even need to do any further damage at that point. They could just leave them here to drift and starve to death.
Wouldn't it be a shock when their attack proved ineffective?
"No," Theodore said a moment later. "I'm not going to do that."
"Sir?" Gabriel said, surprised by the response. "What do you mean?"
"Am I speaking another language, because that sure sounded like English to me? I said I'm not going to do it. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't. It don't matter because either way, it's short-sighted, plain and simple."
"Short-sighted?" Sarah asked.
"Yes, Mrs. Larone. Short-sighted. As in, it ain't going to solve our bigger problem."
"Which is what?" Gabriel asked.
"Power, son. Energy. According to our resident geniuses, we need a pool of it the size of a bayou to feed the tech the Dread are using. What we've got on board is more like a single drop on the head of a pin."
"We can work on the power problem, General," Reza said. "I'm sure we can reduce the overall requirements."
"Can you?" Theodore asked. "The Dread haven't been able to, and I bet they've had a long time to do it."
"We have different materials to work with. There may be limitations to their organic compounds that we can avoid with minerals."
"How soon?"
None of the scientists replied.
"My point exactly."
"Do you have another idea, General?" Choi asked.
"As a matter of fact, I think I do."
FORTY-SIX
The report of a single round echoed in the hallway. A soft grunt, and then a rifle fell from the open space in the ductwork, clattering on the floor.
"What the?" Kraeger started to say.
Donovan threw himself forward at the man, grabbing him around the waist and pushing him to the ground. There was no time for him to worry about what was going to happen next, or if Soon had caught on quickly enough to survive. They had one chance to try to get out of this, and he had to take it.
A second report sounded. Then a third and a fourth. Donovan felt blood land on him as he fell to the ground on top of a surprised Kraeger, whose face curled into a snarl as he punched Donovan in the ribs. He couldn't see the Dread cloth beneath the other clothes. He didn't know the punches barely had an effect.
"You son of a bitch," Kraeger cursed, still hitting him. Donovan punched back, hitting him in the jaw and then the eye. The older man shouted, using all of his force to turn himself over and push Donovan off.
Donovan rolled away to his feet. One of Kraeger's men was there, raising his rifle to shoot him point blank. Then the butt of a second rifle cracked against the man's head, dropping him and leaving Soon standing behind him.
"Watch out," Donovan said. Another jackal was coming at Soon with a knife. He went down as a fifth shot sounded, hitting him square on the side of the head.
Donovan started to turn back to Kraeger, suddenly pulled off balance as the man tackled him from behind. They sprawled on the floor, but Donovan managed to get his balance and roll his assailant off again. They both got to their feet facing one another.
A gun appeared against Kraeger's head.
"Don't move," Ehri said, holding the pistol against his temple.
Donovan looked at her. Her arm had been bleeding, leaving a stain around the wound. There was another stain on her leg.
"Tell your people to back off," Donovan said, noticing the four jackals still standing were regrouping.
Kraeger looked defiant. Ehri pushed the gun harder against his head.
"Do it," she said.
"Okay. Okay. Back off," he said. He glared at Donovan. "I'm sure we can work something out."
"Are you okay?" Donovan asked Ehri.
"Yes. The gori'shah reduced the impact sufficiently. The wounds are healing. I didn't think it was wise to give myself away."
"Good call."
"Gori'shah?" Kraeger said. "You sound like one of them. You should hav
e been dead."
"You should have checked the bodies instead of assuming," Donovan said. "She sounds like one of them because she is one of them. The clones are turning on their masters. We have their weapons. We're killing their pur'dahm, and stealing their transports. Don't you get it? Whatever you think you're trying to do, you're wrong. The tide is turning. We have a chance to fight back. To really fight back. I don't like what is happening to the civilian settlements, and I don't feel like a hero. But I do think we can win."
Kraeger laughed at that. "You're crazier than I am if you think you can win. One Dread warrior. One transport. Big deal. They have hundreds of both."
"Everything starts with one," Ehri said. "One escaped starship. One unsecured rifle. One clone who wants to choose for themselves."
"Whatever. It looks like you've got me by the balls now, Major. You're right. I screwed up. Now I've got to face the consequences. If I were you, I would kill me. I would kill every last one of us. We've done things, Major. Terrible things. Torture. Murder. I even ate human flesh once. I don't regret it, either. I survived the way I had to. We all survive the way we have to."
Donovan looked at Kraeger. As much as he wanted to despise him, he found that he couldn't. He could have just as easily ended up like him if his situation had been different. All of humanity was doing what it could to survive. It didn't mean fighting with one another was the right thing, but what if there was no other choice? What if it meant living or dying? At least Kraeger was trying to put something together, to build some kind of community, even if he didn't understand how it worked yet. The man wasn't killing for sport.
At least, Donovan didn't think he was.
"Where did you get these weapons?" he asked, taking the rifle Soon was carrying and holding it up to Kraeger. "These are newer than anything I've seen."