The stench was the first thing to assault his senses, then the visual carnage. A crewmember stood at the ship’s far end, closer to the bow. The other crewmen, nineteen in all, lay prone on the deck. Blankets and bloodied sheets covered their mangled bodies. The one crewmember, attending to the injured, looked back at them and said, “I hope you’re here to help.”
“We are,” Jason said, then turned to find Ricket standing nearby.
“I am here, Captain. We must quickly get the injured into Medical.”
“Nothing works here anymore! The ship is dead … like my crew!” Lieutenant Commander Polly fumed, not attempting to sound rational. “Nothing but those … killing machines … those robots.”
“CBDs? Caldurian Battle Droids?”
She nodded. “They appeared out of the blue … attacked us. It was horrible.” She stopped mid-sentence and screamed, “There’s one of them now!” crouching down behind Jason’s legs.
Jason followed her outstretched finger pointed at the blue-painted, friendly CBD.
“It’s okay. That’s one of ours. See, it’s painted blue. Reprogrammed. It’s only protecting us, Julie, I promise.” He helped her rise to her feet, though her eyes stayed locked on the Caldurian Battle Droid.
“I hate those things. If I had a multi-gun right now, I’d blast it into spare parts.”
“That’s understandable, I don’t blame you.” Jason turned to watch the two recruits, Scott and Lopez, now joining them on the wing. Lieutenant Commander Polly eyed their multi-guns as they passed by her. “Don’t even think about it, Julie. I promise you that one really is on our side.”
She nodded, though her icy cold stare at the robot didn’t change any.
Bright flashes emanated from the open hatchway. Startled, Polly tensed—her fists went up, reacting in fight mode rather than flight mode. A good sign.
“They’re moving your injured crewmembers. Phase-shifting them into Medical.”
“I told you … this ship is dead. None of that tech works here anymore, Captain.”
“It does now. Your ship, the Aries, was struck by a virus; the same virus affecting other ships within the Alliance. Thousands and thousands of ships brought down at the same approximate time. Transmitted via inter-ship communications. This particular virus … the Ingress Virus … is uniquely nasty. It specifically attacks Caldurian technology, on ships and within our own nano-devices. I’m sure you noticed your NanoComm was no longer accessible.”
Polly nodded. “Of course I did.”
“Ricket and Bristol came up with a cure. Your ship is already on the way to become fully functional again. Your nano-devices are now working.”
Her eyes strayed for a moment; Jason figured she was attempting to access her internal nano-devices.
“You’re right … I just opened a NanoCom channel.”
Jason peered into the fuselage, noting it was now empty except for soiled sheets and blankets. “Tell me, Julie, what is this … thing? A spacecraft?”
She looked at him with confusion. “Spacecraft?”
“Yes, this stubby little ship. Is it alien?”
“It’s just a shielded cargo container, Captain. Brought up from the planet Umbri a few days back. We’d just unloaded a shipment of … um … I don’t remember … something or other. These have no real technology on board, other than an electronic hatch and minimal environmental support. There is water and a small head, thank God.”
“Well, this cargo container saved your life. There was nothing for the Ingress Virus to latch on to.”
Teetering on her feet, Polly’s face suddenly lost color. “I think I need to sit down … haven’t eaten in a few days …”
“I’m taking you right now to Medical.” Jason then, placing his hands on her upper arms, flashed them away.
* * *
Jason wasn’t ready for Ricket to close the clamshell lid on Lieutenant Commander Julie Polly’s MediPod just yet. She’d be under for several hours, and he needed her to continue debriefing him first on the course of events that eventually led to them finding her.
“I heard from Admiral Mayweather. It was a terrible connection. He said the planetary Alliance was under attack … virtually all its fleet assets. Not just on Earth, or the U.S. fleet, but also on all the other planets within the Alliance. Somehow there’d been a clandestine intrusion, Mayweather said. I offered to bring the Aries back to Sol, but he was adamant. Under no circumstances was I to leave my district. That I must stay and defend it at all costs. I told him I would and the connection died.”
“What next?” Jason asked.
“We received a distress call. I heard it myself … it was a frantic call for help. Coming from Lieutenant Commander Tom Burn’s district … District Seven. The Libra was apparently under attack … attack from within!”
Jason nodded, immediately seeing the dilemma she’d been hit with—having been ordered, unequivocally, to maintain her present position within District 3.
“I blew off the admiral. I couldn’t let a sister Star Watch vessel be taken. Not without a fight. Oh God, did I do the right thing, Captain?”
“You did. I’ve been doing the same thing for the last twenty-four hours. Go on.”
“We exited an interchange wormhole, as close to the Libra as safety protocols permitted, within a few miles of her. But by then, we had our own problems.”
Jason saw Ricket hovering nearby, wanting to close the clamshell’s lid—allow her recovery process to begin. Jason signaled him with two fingers up: two more minutes.
She continued, “When the attack came … from the CBDs … we were alerted that it was ship wide. Things then quickly turned to total mayhem. I was on the bridge when two of those robots showed up right outside the entrance. We heard their plasma guns blazing away. Crewmembers were caught in the crossfire … a lot of screaming.” She stopped speaking. It was obvious those mental images were all too vivid.
“What next, Julie?” Jason asked.
“It was my comms officer who remained the calmest. I ordered him to send out a distress call … use all bands … all channels.” She gazed up at Jason, moisture welling in her eyes. “I watched him take a plasma bolt to the forehead.”
Jason patted her shoulder. “Keep going, you’re doing great.”
“It took several tries, but my SuitPac device still worked. I was able to initialize my combat suit, while others on the bridge tried in vain. I fought back, Captain. I fired at those … things … until my power reserves were close to zero. The bridge crew was already down … all dead. I phase-shifted aft … to the flight bay. I thought maybe I could get to a shuttle, or a fighter. Once there, I looked for anyone still alive and found Chief Stabler. Some others, all injured, also staggered into the flight bay. Together, the chief and I rounded up both the injured and dying. My combat suit retracted when the power drained away. It was pretty much by accident that we settled in the empty Umbri cargo container. The chief and I did our best to keep the injured hydrated. We ran out of water earlier today.”
“So you never were in contact with the Libra … after arriving here?”
She yawned, sleepy-eyed, and shook her head. “No, sir.”
“And you don’t know where all the CBDs went?”
Another shake of her head.
“Sleep now. You did good, Lieutenant Commander. When you next wake, you and your ship will be back in the Sol System, where you’ll intersect with the rest of Star Watch. I’ll need you to be one hundred percent strong at that point … a war is coming, Lieutenant Commander. So rest well now.”
Jason stepped away from the MediPod and heard the clamshell lid start to lower.
Chapter 44
Jason left the Aries’s Medical both angry and distracted. Angry at the planetary Alliance as a whole, at certain high officials within the U.S. Fleet—namely his father, the Omni—but mostly angry at himself. Years of relative peace within the vast sector had led to overconfidence and outright laziness. Who would dare challenge s
uch a mighty adversary as them? Well, now they were finding out. Finding out far too late to save them from the utter chaos coming.
Jason had just learned there were no survivors—zero active life forms—on the nearby Libra. Everyone, including the captain, was dead. So it seemed even more miraculous that those aboard the Aries had survived.
Taking three long strides into the Aries’s upper main corridor, Jason came to an abrupt stop. A fast-moving fetch-it drone was headed his way, carrying, in its two articulating clawed arms, another seemingly deactivated identical fetch-it drone. He watched the drone slow down then hover in place for several beats before lowering itself beside one of the side bulkheads. Only when it released its grasp on the drone, now lying prone on the deck, did Jason notice the many identical cylindrical two armed drones lined up on either side of the corridor. There must have been hundreds of them.
What the hell? Jason, ready to reach two fingers up to his ear, stopped when he heard fast footsteps coming up behind him. Ricket moved quickly, for someone well over one hundred and thirty years old.
“You going to explain this?” Jason asked, his tone not hiding his agitation.
Out of breath, and looking somewhat sheepish, Ricket tried to speak between deep gasps for breath.
“Just give yourself a moment,” Jason said.
“Captain, I am sorry. I wanted to talk to you about this … idea. You have a lot to contend with right now. When I first imagined this concept I knew there was only so much time …”
“It’s fine, Ricket. You should know by now that I trust you; trust your instincts. So what is this all about? Why all these fetch-it drones?”
Ricket’s face relaxed some—quickly replaced by excitement. “The Aries’s phase-synthesizer is manufacturing drones like these as quickly as it can pump them out. We will need thousands of them.”
“Why? It’s not like they’re capable of fighting … of defending us. Or even themselves.”
“No, Captain, that is correct. Very simple design. Very simple and quick to manufacture.”
“Are you going to get to the point anytime soon, Ricket?”
“As we well know, Captain, due to the Ingress, and similar viruses, there are now thousands upon thousands of Alliance warships, as well as U.S. Fleet warships, incapacitated … all virtually defenseless.”
“I know that. We all know that.”
“With that said, Captain, we now have a working software patch … an inoculation patch. One that is relatively easy to administer. That is, once someone is physically present on board the infected vessel, the patch can be easily administered.”
Jason nodded, his interest piquing.
“But now this process will no longer require either me or Bristol to manually interface with a ship’s AI. As I have demonstrated on two Star Watch vessels, with the right transmission hardware and software installed, the patch can be dispatched directly into a ship’s wireless network.” Ricket gestured to the ever-growing line of fetch-it drones along the corridor.
“So you’re saying we only need to get close enough in to phase-shift these little drones into the infected ships?”
“Yes, but know these drones are not capable of traveling vast distances that would require the use of … say, an interchange wormhole. But that …”
Jason, excited, cut him off: “But we can do that from here. Open interchange wormholes into every district. Then these little guys will be able to phase-shift … even do multiple phase-shifts … to get in close enough, right?”
“Yes, Captain. Once in close proximity, they can phase-shift into Alliance and U.S. fleet vessels. Once inside, they will dispatch the appropriate patch, depending on the configuration of the vessel. The patch used for a Star Watch craft is completely different from the one used on a Craing Heavy Cruiser.”
“That’s fantastic, Ricket! Gives me a glimmer of hope … to be honest, moments ago, I had none.”
Ricket nodded. “There is still much work to do, Captain. I am sorry that I did not clear this scheme with you first.”
“When will you be ready to start sending them out?”
“I hope within an hour. But Captain, we do not need to stay in Dacci space any longer. We can return to the Sol System—dispatch the drones from there … or anywhere.”
Jason thought about that. There was still the Libra, sitting several aeronautical miles off their bow, plus two other Star Watch ships in two separate districts: The Virgo in District Five, under the command of Commander McNeil; and the Sagittarius in District Six, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Craig Wilson. He didn’t know the present condition of either vessel, or of their crew. He also knew he’d now run out of time—needed to get the Parcical, the Aries, and the Libra, if possible, back to the Sol System. At least, using Ricket’s latest highly ingenious scheme, the Virgo and Sagittarius might still be saved.
Jason was being hailed by the Parcical.
“Go for Captain. What’s up, Ryan?”
“You’ve got incoming to the Aries, Captain! Coming from the Libra.”
Jason thought about the Aries’s bridge—battered, still strewn with dead crewmembers. Was it even operational?
“Missiles?”
“No, Cap. Lieutenant Meany says they’re Caldurian Battle Droids. Sixteen of them. They’re making their way across open space. Heading right for the Aries.”
“ETA?”
“Four minutes.”
Well, now I know where the eight Aries CBDs ran off to, Jason thought. Apparently, after joining the eight droids on the Libra, they’d taken out the crew. “Hold on, Ryan,” he said, noticing Ricket trying to get his attention.
“Captain, my nano-sensors have also picked up the approach of the CBDs … I find it strange they are traversing space.”
“Why? They’re coming to finish us off … or at least going to try to.”
“But why not simply phase-shift? Something they are more than capable of doing.”
“I don’t know, but you’re right, Ricket, they are capable of doing that. I’ve seen it myself, first-hand.”
Ricket’s expression changed as he figured something out. “They are very low on power. After combating the crews of two Star Watch vessels, they have nearly depleted their reserves.”
“You can tell that … just standing here, Ricket?” Jason asked, staring at Ricket’s somewhat-distorted shaped head—one that was jam packed with an array of all the latest nano-devices.
“Yes, Captain. They have sufficient power reserves to make one last phase-shift. I would suspect that will happen any time now …”
Jason hailed Boomer.
“Go for Boom—” Her father cut her off, “Be on the ready … CBDs inbound! Where are the recruits?”
“With me. We’ve got the blue CBD with us. We’re here … removing the Aries dead from the bridge …”
“Warn the others! I’m on my way!”
Jason cut the connection and looked down at Ricket. “Arm yourself and return to Medical. Find some place to take cover.”
“Yes, Captain.”
Jason, watching the small Craing run toward the stern, called after him, “Hey … initialize your combat suit!”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Hey, can you dispatch one of these fetch-it drones … over to the Libra?”
Ricket, still running, answered over his shoulder, “Yes, Captain … I can do that shortly.”
Jason spun on his heels and stared down the long corridor lying ahead. The bridge was on the same level, but at the far opposite end of the ship. He initialized his combat suit and phase-shifted there.
Arriving twenty-five feet from the bridge’s entrance, Jason found their big blue CBD carrying a dead crewmember toward the closest DeckPort.
“Put her body down and prepare for battle—” Jason’s command no sooner left his lips than two Caldurian Battle Droids arrived, appearing simultaneously in a bright white flash. In contrast to the blue painted CBD, these robots, with their numerous
mirror-like reflective panels, looked ominous—more lethal.
Jason raised his arms and fired off a series of plasma bolts from his integrated wrist cannons then dove toward the entrance of the bridge to avoid the inevitable return of fire. He hit the deck and rolled into a crouching position—ready to fire again. Boomer, appearing at his side, already was sending bright crimson distortion waves toward the two battle droids. The friendly blue CBD also fired off several plasma bolts into both enemy robots.
“Why are they just standing there?” Boomer asked, seeming disappointed.
Jason rose to his feet. “Because the second they arrived, the Aries’s network transmitted the Ingress Virus patch. I guess we know now it really works.” Studying Boomer, he said, “You should have initialized your combat suit. You could have been killed.”
“Sorry.”
“Take the two recruits with you and find those other fourteen CBDs here on the Aries. Just make sure first they’re as docile as these two.”
Jason, being hailed, said, “Go for Captain. We’re okay, Ryan …”
“Oh … good, but that’s not why I hailed you, sir. There’s an incoming communiqué … it’s from the Jumelle, Captain.”
Chapter 45
Once he’d phase-shifted onto the Parcical, Jason hurried onto the bridge, hoping to see Dira appear on the video feed—instead, it was Billy. It took all his will power not to bombard Billy with questions: Where is Dira? Is she okay? And the Omni, is he still alive? For too long now, he’d shelved his dire, ever-growing speculations about their fate—and the pent-up emotions that went with them. But he waited, letting Billy speak first.
“Hey, Captain … Jason … this mission has been one big clusterfuck after another. I’m sorry. First the good news …”
“No, Billy, hit me with the bad news first.”
“Emperor Digby has Dira. I don’t know if we didn’t move quick enough, or what, but they’ve already fled on the Aquarius.”
A part of Jason was instantly relieved, hearing that Dira at least most likely was still alive. Certainly in danger, but alive. “Wait, the Aquarius? I thought she was light-years away by now … hijacked by Granger.”
Scrapyard LEGACY (Star Watch Book 6) Page 24