“We’ve cleared the field,” informed Halbard moments later, “upcoming visual of Slingshot.”
“I see it. Input coordinates for Caras 4. I’ll chart our course on the holostage.”
Kelerin was peering out the front glass trying to get his own glimpse of the Slingshot. At first he saw nothing, but then he too caught sight of a circle within a second circle of lights, shining like a manmade constellation in perfect symmetry. Its gray structure was mostly invisible from this distance in the dark of space, but as the lights came up on them fast and then rapidly slowed, the cruiser correcting for speed, the full structure of the Slingshot subsection gradually came into relief:
Among the largest electromagnets ever built, Slingshots were multi-sectional superstructures made up of massive, individual rings rising to heights of fifty stories each. Imposing before the cruiser now was the first of twelve of these subsections that together with the others comprised the full Caras 1 Slingshot.
No sooner could Kelerin make out the Slingshot subsection, however, before his attention was stolen away by the holostage as it came to life, projecting a ball of light from cameras lining the stage periphery, and from a second set on an identical track hanging from the ceiling above. The light ball hovered center stage for a moment in time before exploding into a million points, these then coalescing into a holographic rendition of the cruiser’s real-time approach on the Slingshot subsection. The scene panned out further to reveal a scaled down version of Caras 1 surrounded by eleven more identical sections of Slingshot, each section pulling away from the moon by marginal degrees and collectively forming an orbiting arc around it. The final sections of Slingshot pulled fully away from the lunar sphere, aiming directly out into the void of space.
This careful arrangement of strategically spaced giant electromagnets was nothing more than the largest acceleration track ever devised by Osmosian kind. Each electromagnet acted upon a counter magnetic force emitted by Slingshot-compatible ships. Passing through a section added a singular burst of speed unattainable through rocket propulsion alone, further amplified by the arc arrangement’s close proximity to the gravitational orbit of a celestial body, in this case Caras 1, creating, quite literally, a sling-action effect on all vessels running the course, increasing speed exponentially - hence the name.
“Coordinates sent,” Halbard informed.
Not to be outdone by an artificial version of itself, the forward viewing glass fought to regain Kelerin’s attention, offering him the spectacle of multiple small thruster bursts firing at various points along the massive structure. Slowly the giant ring tilted and turned before counter bursts brought its progress to a halt. On the holostage a similar adjustment was underway across every section of the collective superstructure. The course was set.
A simulation of the upcoming Sligshot run began playing out on the holostage with the view panning in toward the center of the first sectional ring. Passing through, the view jumped in acceleration and quickly came up on the second section. At that point light blended together in a blaze of speed, giving way to total darkness. Shortly thereafter, another point of light appeared on the horizon, expanding quickly into a full-sized Caras 4. The view decelerated and the simulation came full stop.
“We’re ready,” Halbard declared.
Jonas swiveled around to face the rest of the group. “Slingshot boosters are given directly from your cockpit. You’ll also be bio-synched with ship systems at the same time. Place your left arm on the armrest. You can call up the booster from the launch menu in the prep sequence.”
Booster injections were necessary for every Slingshot run to counter the extreme gravitational forces of instant acceleration/deceleration. Without them, internal organs would liquefy from the stress. However, in Kelerin’s experience boosters had always been given manually, with a syringe. Finding the option on his menu, he selected it and immediately felt a quick, sharp jab of a needle on his lower wrist. Fancy.
“Everyone ready?” asked Jonas. No one responded verbally, but looking the crew in the eyes he saw the itch for revenge reflected back at him by each and every one of them and took that as a yes.
“It’s time, Professor,” said the Headmaster, making it official. Jonas swiveled back toward the glass and ran his hands along the walls of his cockpit. The cruiser moved forward in response, closing in on the first section of Slingshot looming ever larger in front of them. They were already traveling at high speed by the time they passed through the first section. Kelerin blinked, and he was hurdling through the deep dark of space.
Chapter 35: Vengeance
The Habitat - hangar bay, Caras 4
Dunner
“Coast looks clear,” declared Dunner authoritatively, pulling his head back into the Life Pod after venturing a quick peek outside. He’d opened the door only moments before behind the safety of his Rippler expecting a full-on assault.
“I know it’s clear. I told you it’s clear.”
“And now we have corroboration of your opinion.”
“It wasn’t an opinion,” his Prophet said testily, placing heavy emphasis on the word wasn’t.
“Hunch then.” Dunner heard his Prophet sigh in frustration. “Sorry angel, but a good Academic has to always check the empirical evidence for himself, whenever and wherever possible.”
“First off, call me angel again and the next time you try dodging a Pulse burst, don’t be surprised to find yourself diving directly into it instead.”
“Really, you can do that?”
“Secondly, a good Prophet/Academic TEAM has to trust each other if they want the best possible chance at succeeding in their mission.”
“Well, do you trust me yet?”
“No.”
“Probably should get to work on that, then.”
“… I’m really starting to dislike you.”
“Ditto, angel.”
He’d already switched his shredded suit for Oppo’s, taking the raider’s Pulser as well. His ensemble now complete, Dunner slung the weapon over his shoulder and hopped down to the hangar bay tarmac.
It was clear to him why these people didn’t have the standard skybridge docking system most off-world basses employed, weather conditions making it impossible to pull off. Instead, the midsized hangar was built directly into the mountain right along with the rest of the base, and as an added benefit, the camouflaging effect was total. Dunner had no doubt if he hadn’t hitched a ride when he did the Islands would never have found the place.
But he did hitch a ride and his Prophet did manage to connect with him somehow. She informed him that because of their ongoing session together the Prophecy was able to hone in on his exact location - distance and storms having little effect on pure consciousness - and his coordinates were being relayed to an attacking force comprised of several Academics and a couple of Island Guard Anti-Raider Units. They were on their way over that very instant. In fact, they might already be orbiting Caras 4 directly above the base, waiting for his signal to begin the assault.
What began as one man’s reckless, and most probably fatal quest for vengeance, had transformed into a multi-faceted and fully sanctioned mission with a reasonable probability for success, providing he, Dunner, could accomplish the one task a group of strategist two moons away had charged him with. Fail, and that success probability dropped to near zero.
After briefing Dunner on all the finer points of what had to be done and why, his Prophet asked him if he had any idea as to how he was planning on accomplishing the task.
“I’ll think of something,” was his answer.
“‘You’ll THINK of something’. That’s your plan.”
“Yeah.”
“Come up with that all by yourself, did you?”
He’d ignored her sarcasm. His Prophet didn’t know him. She didn’t know that he was always at his best when improvising. He found this place by improvising, didn’t he? Good news was the mission looked to be going over rather smoothly. Truth be told, he w
as a little spooked at just how smoothly. “Not that I’m complaining or anything, but does any of this seem odd to you?” he asked, deciding to share his reservations. “No one’s here. No one responded to our arrival. They must have ways of detecting ships accessing the hangar bay. They had plenty of time to get here by now. Where is everybody?” Looking around at the two other Life Pods and the one more impressive raiding ship occupying the hangar bay, along with the Pod he’d flown in on, it was obvious someone was home. “You think it could be a trap?”
“One can only hope.”
“Wow, Prophet, I’m surprised at you. What happened to all that team ethic you were so preachy about a minute ago?”
Sighing laboriously, “Would you like me to use my incredibly accurate hunch and see what I can see?”
“Uh, yes, Prophet. That’s what you’re here for.”
“Yes, what?”
“Excuse me?”
“Yes, Prophet… what?”
“Yes, Prophet… please?”
“Now, was that so hard?”
“You haven’t the slightest.”
His Prophet didn’t hear his retort. She’d already stopped paying attention and was panning out slowly, trying to get a lay of the land and a fix on where the Aberrations were at that very instant. Using Dunner as an anchor, she was able to see over to the next module but that was about all. Any further and her clear Sight would be blocked by surrounding rock. Ignoring the limitation, she continued on, searching for individual Wave patterns instead. The initial seconds of her search fruitless, she began wondering whether indeed she and Dunner were actually the only two sentient beings on the base at present, but those thoughts were quickly dispelled when she came upon what she’d been scanning for:
“I found them.”
“Where? How many?”
“It’s tough to tell, on both counts.”
“Now’s not the time to let your feelings about me affect the mission.”
“You really think I would do that?”
“Well, if that’s not it then what’s the problem?”
“The problem is this giant mountain of rock, you might have noticed, sitting on top of us.”
“I thought you people can see through anything?”
“We ‘people’ can pass consciousness through anything. It’s like riding the edge of an expanding bubble with you as my center. Consciousness isn’t limited by physical barriers but clear Sight is. I can only see what’s in front of me at any given point, and right now, at the edge of my circle with you acting as its center, what’s in front of me is rock.”
“Then why’d you say you found them?”
“Because, even though I can’t see objects through the rock, what I can see are individual Wave patterns. I can determine their nature, their state of being and their origin points. Right now there’s a cluster of people congregated in a single area. They’re too close together to tell exactly how many there are - about 10 or 15 it looks like. I don’t have any defined navigational points either, like floors of a building for instance - this is just a big mountain - so I can’t give you an exact location, like say a room. But I do have a general idea of where they should be. If you start advancing deeper into the base I think I can guide you to them.”
“You think?”
“Yes, I think.”
“Aha, you do realize not a minute ago-”
“Yeah, I know.”
Bar-Kas
Bar-Kas stood with Cheserg and the rest of the Aberrations in the larger-than-average module. It was completely devoid of furnishings of any kind, save for a single chair at its center in which a man was sitting, arms bound behind his back. They were all watching Ashpan wade into their mystery guest with heavy fists. The answering smack of knuckle on flesh, the heavy feedback of a flush hit, it was satisfying to hear. Made it seem like they were making headway in breaking the stranger’s will.
Not that Bar-Kas was too worried about making headway with the man. Ever since he and his Aberrations had succeeded in destroying Academy Island he felt different. Like a huge, crushing burden had finally been lifted off his chest. Pulling the medallion absentmindedly from the neckline of his suit, Bar-Kas hefted its weight in his hands. He was surprised to find that it felt like what one would expect a small Ipsidian stone to feel like. It felt light. He had fulfilled his brother’s blood honor. He was free.
Cheserg was another story, however. When they first arrived back at the Habitat the sight of a Life Pod already there in the hangar bay had him fuming. His first thoughts were that some of his men, or more likely from the Patriarch’s First, had disobeyed direct orders and beaten a cowardly retreat back to base. A thorough search for the transgressors caught everyone off guard when it turned up this suspicious stranger snooping around inside one of the personal quarters modules.
The discovery threw Cheserg into an immediate panic. He requested permission to conduct sweeps of the surface and to send out orbital patrols every few hours under the assumption that this man could not be acting alone. Bar-Kas granted both requests and both turned up nothing. Only then did Cheserg calm down some, but he was still anxious for answers. Now he looked on while Ashpan continued with his interrogation, unconsciously shifting his weight from one leg to another in a kind of nervous dance.
Bar-Kas could understand where Cheserg was coming from. The Aberrations had been whittled down to exactly a dozen raiders and they couldn’t afford a pitch battle at their doorstep just now. Not until they recruited and trained more men, which could take months. It would take years before they would be back to prior strength. So yes, Bar-Kas understood his fear. He just didn’t share it.
Thwack.
Another blow from Ashpan and those answers crept ever closer to the surface. The prisoner was sapped, the initial fight he displayed when first found all but beaten out of him. His shoulders drooped, his head sunk into his chest, dangling from a neck like slack rope. Blood and spittle dripped from the corners of his mouth and ran down his chin into the collar of the pressure suit he wore.
Clearly the man was resourceful. He must have discovered pretty quick the need to wear a pressure suit at all times on this rock. Probably found a spare lying around in one of the personal quarters somewhere. His helmet now sat next to him on the floor. Already once they had to put it on him to ensure his questioning didn’t end prematurely when the siren from the pressure burst warning system kicked in during the second interrogation session. This was the third session, Cheserg’s third attempt at breaking the man.
Over the first two sessions their guest’s penchant for uncooperative sarcasm had eventually succeeded in getting under Ashpan’s skin. Both times he wound up knocking the stranger unconscious. Cheserg made it clear that if Ashpan messed up one more time it would be him sitting in that chair answering the question as to why he was so incompetent he couldn’t carry out a simple interrogation. The message seemed to have gotten through and things were going smoother this time around. That’s why Bar-Kas was sitting in on this particular session instead of waiting for the typical update from his right hand man. The prisoner was on the verge of breaking.
“Let’s start at the beginning,” Ashpan suggested with measured control, rubbing the red knuckles on his right fist. The cuts he received from the first interrogation session hadn’t reopened just yet. He had used his left hand for the second session. Now he was back to his right.
“Who are you, and why are you here?”
The stranger’s sentences came out piecemeal with each labored exhale. “I… tol you,” his words garbled by swollen lips, “I… eject… fromna… Nebulous. Followpods… to survive… havetofollow… pods.”
Ashpan stuck his face right into the prisoner’s. “BUT YOU’RE LYING!” he spat.
“No, na… lyin-”
Thwack.
“YES YOU ARE. YOU’RE LYING! How is it we didn’t see your pod on the redundancy beacon? How did you slip through on the Slingshot run? Why were you overturning that room when we f
ound you? You’re lying! Just tell me what I want to know and this could all be over.”
“No, no, no…” the prisoner shook his head weakly, tears streaming down his face mixing with blood and saliva - and then the red warning lights began flashing:
Warning system updates began at one minute intervals and decreased incrementally as Zero Threshold draws near. Ashpan grabbed the prisoner’s jaw and forced him to make eye contact. “Do you hear that? Pressure burst is coming. You felt it with your helmet on. Not too comfortable, was it? What say we leave the helmet off this time, see how that clears up your memory?”
The stranger smiled a bloody grin. He knew they wanted information from him. They would torture him but they wouldn’t kill him. Ashpan realized he’d made a mistake and with it set the interrogation back a step. Normally very clinical when divvying out violence and making threats, he never before went so far as to knock someone out when he didn’t intend to, and never, never, before did he make idle threats he couldn’t or wouldn’t follow through on. Something about this man, something familiar that he couldn’t put his finger on, had been throwing off his judgment from his very first interrogation session with him.
“I’ve seen you before, haven’t I?” he accused, voicing aloud the confusion in his head. He squeezed the stranger’s face harder till he heard groans of pain. The stranger seethed in and out, trying to suck air through cheeks crushed in Ashpan’s grip. “Where have I seen you before? What were you looking for? TELL ME!”
The man’s eyes darted around the room in desperation. Eventually they settled on Bar-Kas and remained there, something piquing his interest. The detail wasn’t lost on the Second Son who was watching more closely now. Pushing away from the wall, he walked over to the stranger.
Wave Mandate Page 32