There was a pause, and she continued, “We still have no better idea of the nature of the anomaly. Our research suggests that if it is a singularity, it's a damned strange one, and there are some signs that it might be an artificial phenomena. No matter what, I believe it to be our top priority that news of this discovery is brought back to the Confederation immediately, to permit a full-scale research project to begin at once. If this system holds the secret of the manufacture of artificial singularities, we cannot allow United Nations forces access under any circumstances. End entry.”
“That's the last recording,” Harper said. “My inference is that she attempted the slingshot, and for whatever reason, it failed.” Shaking her head, she continued, “We must assume that she is dead, along with her crew.”
“I don't agree,” Clarke replied. “That shuttle came from Pioneer, ma'am, and we know she reached the anomaly as well. Somehow, the ship survived the slingshot, and Monitor is more than capable of living through a similar maneuver.”
“You've been on board?” Salazar asked. “That little piece of information isn't even in your confidential record, Midshipman.”
“I served on her for a couple of months, sir, while we worked our way back to the Confederation after my mission.” He looked around, red-faced, and said, “It was made quite clear that I couldn't pass on any specific information, but there's no harm in stating my opinion that anything a shuttle could take, she could.”
“And Maggie's too good a ship driver to take on something she thought she couldn't handle, not putting her crew at risk,” Salazar added. “It sounds like there was no critical threat facing Monitor, only the desire to get news of her discovery back home as soon as possible.”
Frowning, Marshall asked, “Are we talking about the same Monitor that's been sitting in the Fleet Museum since the War?”
“She isn't there any more,” Harper replied. “I can't tell you any details, sir, but suffice to say that she's been brought back into service on a covert basis, and that the trip to the brown dwarf was advertised as a shakedown cruise.”
“That sounds depressingly like Alamo's current mission,” Marshall replied. “So two ships have vanished in this system.”
“Four,” Salazar said, shaking his head. “Two of ours, one United Nations, one civilian. And almost certainly a Republic team as well, though they might not have been so well equipped.” Frowning, he added, “And that's just those ships that went this way, sir. Any number could have reached the system from UV Ceti. It's a long jump, but a military drive shouldn't have any trouble pulling it off. A dozen ships could have gone astray out there.”
Marshall looked coldly at Salazar, and said, “And the Combined Chiefs were happy for me to take Alamo out into unknown danger without even a word of warning. Just what were your orders, Lieutenant, or don't I need to know about those, either?”
“To be fair to our lords and masters, sir, I think the general consensus was that this was some sort of a United Nations trick, and that we would be able to fight our way out of any conceivable ambush. Major Pastell has made it clear that the UN blames us for the disappearances, and God knows what the Republic has learned about the anomaly. Though the transport they hired did make it home.”
Nodding, Harper added, “I've got the data they gathered, though it's going to take a lot of time to analyze. We probably won't get it until we're deep into hendecaspace, I'm afraid.” She looked at Salazar, and said, “Our orders were to watch and gather any information we could on the situation, and report back as soon as we returned to Mars, before heading off on our mission.”
“If the situation demanded it,” Salazar said, “we were authorized to brief you about the disappearances.” Shaking his head, he said, “Given that we've found out that far more ships have vanished than we knew about back home, I think the time has definitely come to tell you everything we know. Though I'm afraid that still doesn't amount to very much.”
“And Clarke?” Marshall asked, glaring at the young midshipman.
“Is as near as you're going to get to an innocent, sir. He was assigned here because of his skill at covert operations, as well as his service experience on...his previous postings. As far as I'm aware, he hasn't been briefed until now.”
Running his hands through his hair, Marshall said, “So let me get this clear, just to make sure I haven't missed anything. There's some strange anomaly, possibly a quantum singularity, lurking at the brown dwarf that is meant to be our ultimate destination, one that has potentially destroyed at least four starships. The United Nations blames us, we blame them, and someone with more stars than brains decided to throw a battlecruiser into the situation without bothering to brief her commanding officer. With an intelligence cover-up impressive enough that we have a saboteur, presumably working with someone on Waldheim, working on board. Would that be a good assessment of the situation?”
“I'm afraid so, sir,” Salazar said. “We didn't know anything about it until we reported in. All of this happened while we were away. As far as I know, only the four of us know everything, though I'd like to bring Sub-Lieutenant Lombardo into the loop to provide engineering expertise on the shuttle. I think that's the key to the whole business, and Clarke is meant to be the Deck Officer's Mate anyway.”
“I thought I assigned you as Systems Officer's Mate, Midshipman,” Marshall said.
“You did, sir, but Senior Lieutenant Dubois had a different interpretation of those orders.”
Raising an eyebrow, Marshall said, “I'm going to be having words with that gentleman in the near future, I think.” Looking at Salazar, he added, “If there is anything else relevant to this mission that I haven't been told, I need to know, and now.”
“We just don't have that much to go on, sir,” Salazar replied. “About the best we can come up with is that there is something strange out there, something that Captain Orlova thought was worth risking her crew for. She wouldn't have got so close to it, otherwise.”
“I'm still going over the logs,” Harper added. “Midshipman Clarke and his team were able to extract them from a United Nations trap, which suggests that they've probably gone through them all themselves.” She paused, and continued, “I have a feeling they're hoping that we follow them to the brown dwarf. We've got to assume that they know everything that we do.”
“Colonel Cruz and her faction want a war, and General Estrada is doing everything he can to prevent it,” Salazar said. “For the present, the General is winning the argument, but I can see that changing very quickly if the situation deteriorates.”
“I'm forced to agree,” Marshall said. “Incidentally, you have an appointment with the good General, Midshipman. He'll be coming aboard in an hour to question you in regards to the death of one of his agents. I understand Colonel Cruz will be with him.” He looked at the young officer, and added, “Will that be a problem, Midshipman?”
“They had us trapped, sir,” Clarke added. “And for the record, it was Midshipman Koslowski who found the tapes.”
“My assistant was in on this?” Marshall asked.
“No, sir, but she managed to, well...”
With a smile, Harper said, “She stumbled into an undercover operation in progress, and managed to come close to wrecking it. Not her fault, sir, given the circumstances. Frankly, all three of them should be commended for the job they did over there.”
“Lieutenant, the actions of your team almost started a war,” Marshall said. “We came far too damned close to a firefight with Waldheim, and so far all that we've managed to do is find out information the enemy probably wanted us to know in the first place. If this is success, then I hate to think what failure would be like.” Taking a deep breath, he looked at Salazar, and asked, “Given your experience, what would your recommendation be as to my next action.”
“Run for home, sir.”
“Pavel?” Harper asked.
“
There's something out there that has already destroyed two capital ships that we know of, and I don't think we can dismiss the possibility of a UN trap, even now, no matter what Estrada said. My reading of the situation is that he has been set up to fail, someone the hawks would be perfectly happy to see leave the service in disgrace.” Shaking his head, he added, “We've gathered a lot of useful intelligence, sir.”
“Come on, Pavel,” Harper pressed. “If there's something that dangerous out there...”
Turning to her, he replied, “You said it yourself. They know what we do. And you can bet that the Conor Cruise had just as much information as we've got, and they didn't manage to survive the experience. If the United Nations Space Fleet wants to throw a dreadnought into the abyss, I say we let them get on with it, and return with a more substantial force later on.” Pausing, he continued, “If you decide to proceed, sir, then I would recommend extreme caution.”
Looking at Salazar with a nod, Marshall replied, “And Triplanetary Intelligence? What would they want?”
“A full investigation, with all the close-range information they can get. Though they'd want us to come back, which would mean keeping the risks to a minimum. I suspect that's why they sent Pioneer, rather than a larger ship, first time out.” He glanced at Harper, and added, “Those old scoutships are still on permanent assignment to Triplanetary Intelligence.”
“Sir,” Harper said, “I have to disagree with Pavel. We've got to investigate, no matter what the risk. The ability to manufacture a singularity would be a weapon of unimaginable potential, and...”
“I agree with you, Lieutenant,” Marshall said, nodding his head. “We can't pass this up, even knowing the risk.” Looking at Salazar, he added, “Nevertheless, Pavel, I appreciate your comments, and to an extent, I concur. We'll take the minimum risk to gather the maximum data.” Looking around the room, he continued, “Kris, I want you to brief Sub-Lieutenant Lombardo, and have him begin a full investigation into the shuttlepod. Keep it quiet, and make sure nobody else knows what exactly you are doing. I presume there is no question as to his loyalty?”
“None, sir. He's Double-Ultra classified.”
“And of course, Triplanetary Intelligence never makes mistakes,” Marshall replied with a wry smile. “Well, we have to trust someone, though I assume none of this information is to leave the room.”
“Not unless it is absolutely necessary, sir. Even if that hinders our investigation of the anomaly.” Salazar paused, and added, “We're working with a hand tied behind our back. Waldheim will doubtless have a team on board that is ready to start their investigation as soon as they arrive.”
“None of the scientific team are cleared?”
Shaking his head, Salazar replied, “I think the Combined Chiefs were too determined that it was some sort of United Nations trick, sir. That it might be some sort of natural phenomenon never occurred to them.” With a shrug, he added, “Enemy action was my first thought, to be fair, sir, and I still don't discount the possibility.”
“Neither do I,” Marshall replied, nodding. He looked at Salazar carefully, then continued, “Pavel, I'm going to be honest. I've been uncertain about your intentions ever since you have arrived on board. Especially given your reticence in divulging the true nature of our mission.” Before he could protest, Marshall raised a hand, and said, “I understand that you were following orders, and I don't envy you the dilemma you were faced with. Frankly, you should never have been placed into such a situation in the first place.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Nevertheless, I respect you as an officer, and consider you one of the best men under my command. For whatever it is worth, that applies to you as well, Kris.” Shaking his head, he continued, “It's going to take a while to get used to you having brown hair instead of green, though.”
“It didn't seem to fit the part when I was sitting center seat, sir,” she replied.
“I'm going to need all three of you at your best when we reach our destination, especially as I will be unable to provide full briefings to the majority of the senior staff. That means I'm going to be leaning on you pretty heavily.” Turning to Salazar, he said, “Especially you, I'm afraid, Pavel.”
“That's fine, sir. All part of the job.” With a thin smile, he continued, “My remit as Security Officer has always been rather wide.”
“Well, I'm going to take Deadeye's advice, and expand it a little. Effective immediately, you will assume the role of Second Officer.” Before Salazar could reply, Marshall continued, “No protest on this, Pavel. That's an order. You've got more command experience than the three Senior Lieutenants I've got combined. Hell, you've got more than I had when I first reported on board Alamo. I need to make full use of that, and to do it, I need to make sure you are in the correct position in the command structure. You'll be reporting directly to me, henceforth, out of the current organizational chart.” He smiled, and added, “Don't worry, I'll break the good news to Senior Lieutenant Francis.”
“That's one meeting I'm glad I'll be able to skip, sir,” Salazar said. “I won't let you down, Captain.”
“I know that,” Marshall replied. “Or I wouldn't be giving you the job.” Glancing up at the monitor, a clock ticking away in the corner, he continued, “Speaking of which, I think we'd better get moving. We've got a lot of work to do before we break orbit, and if we've got some guests coming on board, we need to make sure that they receive a suitable welcome.”
Chapter 14
Clarke wiped a hand across his sweaty forehead, then looked up at the tangled cables dropping down from the Pioneer shuttlepod. While it had appeared to be intact while they were flying it, someone had made a mess of repairing the interior components, probably hoping to patch it up sufficiently to sell it on to an unsuspecting buyer. Over in a corner, Lombardo cursed, wrestling with a piece of hull plating, trying to get a readout on the portable stress analyzer.
Rolling out from underneath the hull, Clarke shook his head, and said, “I don't know how much data we're going to get out of this system, sir. As far as I can tell, someone stripped out most of the memory modules.” Looking back at the mess behind him, he continued, “I guess someone was hoping that they'd get a buyer who could be tricked out of a pre-purchase inspection.”
“Frankly, I think this pod is worth about what we paid for it,” Lombardo said, a grim smile on his face. “We're not even going to get that many spare parts out of this monstrosity. All we're doing is filling a storage compartment with junk we're probably going to end up scrapping.” His smile grew, and he continued, “Maybe we could get into the used spacecraft business for ourselves. Make a few quick credits.”
The door opened, and Salazar walked in, looking at the shuttle with mournful eyes, and said, “Always a shame to see a ship ripped to pieces like that. Any news, Art?”
Holding up the hull fragment, he replied, “This ship has been through Hell, Pavel, and don't ask me how it lived to tell the tale. From the log entries I've seen from Monitor, I'd say she completed the slingshot maneuver, but a lot closer than anyone could have survived. More than a hundred and fifty gravities. Four times the absolute maximum any human could take.”
“I don't think there was anyone on board, though,” Clarke replied, shaking his head. “We haven't found any trace of organic residue, certainly no sign of a body.” Pulling a battered datapad out of his pocket, he continued, “The bill of sale lists a fairly obvious faked company, probably the transport the Republic agents hired. If I was to guess, sir, I'd say someone tried to send a message on this shuttlecraft, but it was intercepted by the wrong people.”
Nodding, Salazar said, “A ship that couldn't get away itself, hoping at least to warn others about the danger faced by getting too close. Can you work out the course they used, Midshipman?”
Looking at Lombardo, Clarke replied, “Given time and a lot of computing power. We'd have to do a full str
ess analysis of the entire hull.” Shaking his head, he added, “There isn't any telemetry record to use, sir. Any projection would be educated guesswork at best, though it might give us a start once we know exactly what we're facing.”
“Are we going in, Pavel?” Lombardo asked.
“That's the idea,” Salazar replied. “And we're going to need every scrap of information we can get our hands on when we arrive. So far, four starships have been destroyed by this anomaly, and I don't intend Alamo to be the fifth.”
“That second transport did survive, sir,” Clarke said. “Though my guess would be that they stayed well clear, used shuttlecraft to conduct close-range analysis.” He paused, then added, “Are we sure that this is a singularity, sir?”
“Captain Orlova's logs are frustratingly short on specific detail,” Salazar replied. “Probably already picked clean by Colonel Cruz and her friends before we could get them. Nevertheless, that's how she described it. Why?”
“Just that I don't see how a shuttlecraft could escape a singularity, sir. This is an old ship, and she isn't capable of much greater acceleration than Alamo. I can't help but think that we're missing something, Lieutenant, and I don't even know where to start. Can we bring any of the science team in?”
“We don't dare,” Salazar replied. “Doyle is only cleared to Most Secret level. You would have thought that Intelligence would have thought of that, but everyone was so damned sure that this was an enemy trick, we aren't properly equipped for it.” He paused, then added, “We're going to have to make do with what we've got.”
“Which isn't much,” Lombardo said, shaking his head. “Pavel, without real experts, we're not going to get anywhere.”
“It might not matter,” Salazar replied. “It isn't as though we have much to go on now, and as soon as we get to the brown dwarf, a big part of the secret will be out. All we can do for the moment is gather as much information as we can from the sources we have access to, and hope that our astrophysics team can make something out of it at the end.” Glancing at his watch, he added, “In any case, Midshipman, you have an appointment with a General.”
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