“What’s that mean?” a voice from one of Kongo’s officers called out from the back of the room. “Why would an engine distort the view?”
“Relativistic travel is still new,” Alice replied, stepping nearer to Lee to help him explain. “We may actually be seeing a primal view of the Earth through the lens of time. This could be a snapshot of the distant past for all we know.”
“This ain’t one of them time travel stories yer tryin’ to push on us, sir,” Roy Booth’s voice pounded out from the front row. “I hafta say I read those books and I didna like any of it.”
“No books, Roy,” Lee replied. “This is as real as it gets. The rest of the data the probe collected has been analyzed and the Alliance thinks we have a good chance of getting back into Sol with our modified engines.”
“And do what exactly?” Booth replied. “We got one ship and four fighters. Five, if you get out there. What chance we got of doin’ anythin’ against an invasion fleet? From the other side?”
“Your tone suggests doubt in our mission,” Na’Tora’s mechanical voice sounded. “This plan is sound and will succeed. Doubt will cause defeat.”
“Doubt has saved all our lives once or twice,” Booth replied, standing and pointing a stubby unlit cigar at the Ch’Tauk officer. “Doubt could have saved us all back before the invasion. Sometimes it’s a good idea to just stop and say no before doin’ somethin’ foolish.”
“Are you calling your Admiral Chang a fool?” Na’Tora replied, his bearing and pheromones suggesting a battle stance.
“I’ll call that lyin’ bastard a custard tart if it stops us from blowin’ up my ship,” Booth replied, lowering his head in reply. “Captain, ya hafta—”
“Enough,” Lee shouted, holding a hand up between the two officers to halt their aggression. “I’m not done talking yet. You two can kill each other later if you want. Right now I have a briefing to finish.”
“Aye, sir,” Booth replied, sitting back down and stuffing the foul cheroot into his mouth. “But I’ll hold ya to the promise.”
Na’Tora stepped back as well, leaving a clear space for Lee to enter. The room had gone quiet during the exchange and now there were whispers returning. He waved Farthing up to the podium to join him. The Vadne captain stepped up still wearing the soiled uniform jacket from the surface. It felt strange to have the man on board after his reassignment, but Lee was happy to see his friend. He waved the captain up to speak and stepped back.
“Alliance Intelligence has analyzed this image from Terra and found something quite significant,” Farthing said, tapping a control on the podium to zoom in. “We believe this might help us gain the advantage against the Gizzeen.”
A distant, barely recognizable dot on the projection swelled quickly. There was a collected drawing of breath as the image stabilized and cleared. Twin dots of silver on either side of a central hull stood out against the blue-brown haze. Around the image were several smaller images, each one resolving as the computer compensated for distance. When Lee had seen the image in the chancellor’s office, he had been reluctant to accept the sight, but a confirmation from intelligence services forced him to admit the truth.
“Trinity is still out there,” Lee said. “So is her battle group. We think we might be able to access her remote functions if we can get close enough and pilot her by wire. If we can punch enough holes in the Gizzeen defenses from within, we might be able to jump a fleet in and take back the planet.”
“Captain,” the voice of Josh Goldstein called out. “I can name about twenty things that are wrong with what you just said. Booth is right, sir. We’re only one ship.”
“Two, actually,” Farthing replied, his crest riffling with a small show of pride. “Kongo will be joining us.”
“Oh, well, that makes this so much better,” Josh said. “Two against an entire universe bleeding in from the other side of M-space. We don’t even have the control codes for Trinity. How are we going to access her remote systems without that?”
“We won’t be accessing Trinity, Josh,” Lee answered. “We’ll be taking control of Somerville. She’s a supply ship accompanying the carrier. The admiral provided those codes to our esteemed communications officer before we left space dock.”
“How convenient,” Josh replied. “So we can get some fresh asparagus from the supply ship. That’s all help.”
“Somerville is a supply ship, but she also houses the backup computer core from Trinity,” Kama Yu answered, reaching up to expand the image of the small supply craft. “Once we have her, we can access the backup core and—”
There was a snap as Kama expanded the image. A flash of light and the image shifted. Lee had a moment of vertigo as the universe seemed to shift and blur. The ships in the Trinity fleet changed abruptly, becoming derelict and damaged. Even the great carrier seemed to melt, replaced by an image of a scarred and damaged hull and broken bow cones. Earth seemed to darken slightly as well. Although her oceans stayed blue, they took on a greener tinge, and the clouds thickened over the land. In the middle of the small stage, a new image shimmered. A man, no taller than Lee but older, appeared in a standard duty uniform. His once black hair was now brushed with silver and the lines in his face were bold as he smiled. As Lee stared, the image resolved and the smiling face of Ronald Chang looked back at him.”
“Forgive me, Lee,” the image spoke as if Chang could see him. “I’m afraid this whole thing is a bit of a lie. The Trinity plan would never work. She’s a dead hulk in orbit of Earth.”
“Admiral?” Lee said to the holographic projection. “How are you—?”
“Interactive holograms,” Chang replied. “Preston keeps pushing me to use this more often, but I really hate this. I assume I’m not around to give you this in person, so let’s say right now you are staring at me with a gaping mouth. Please close it so we can continue.”
The crew had stood as soon as the image appeared. Alice stepped closer to Lee and put a hand on his shoulder. For her part, Kama Yu seemed to accept the image and stood away to one side, as she had before when the admiral was on board. Lee caught himself gaping at the man before closing his mouth and getting hold of himself. That Chang was standing here in front of him was not as amazing as his admission that he had lied.
“Admiral Chang,” Lee started, gaining control over himself. “What is the meaning of this? What lie?”
“Right to the point,” Chang said after a pause. “Alright, I assume we are on either Resolute or Kongo, the two ships I uploaded this program into. We can get to work right away. If the crew is there, let’s get everyone seated.”
It was an awkward request from a hologram, but Lee waved to his crew to sit. Chang walked past Lee to the podium and took his place. It struck Lee as off that the man would put this into a post-mortem message, but Chang had become an odd man in the last few years anyway. His projection seemed to tap controls on the podium and the image behind him shifted again. This time, Sol, Earth’s sun, swung around into view. There was an unusual tinge to the light emanating from the yellow main sequence star. It seemed to be glowing faintly blue. As Lee looked around the room, he saw the blue glow spreading across the sky, obscuring the stars and planets around him.
“Here’s what we know,” Chang began. “The Gizzeen are coming through by tapping the energy and gravity mass of the sun. In their universe, there is a star roughly the same size as Sol in the exact same space. That kind of bridge allows them to create a tunnel through M-space and into our universe. For the last few months, we have been keeping an eye on the system. This probe was the last we sent in to examine the crossing. The best minds we have concluded we can close the vortex between the two universes. I have been working on a device which will do just that, and I want you and your ships to deliver the package.”
Lee watched as the image shifted to a wireframe of the solar system. A parabolic course inwards showed him the route Chang was suggesting to the sun. The strange thing was the entry point into the system. Inste
ad of the outer edges of the system, they were going to make entry inside the orbit of Venus. Before that, there was only a dotted line. After their entry point, the ship would wind down towards the star until nearly inside its heliosphere. A red dot ejected from their trajectory toward the sun. After a minute of travel, there was a simulated explosion and the blue glow disappeared. Lee noticed the image of the delivery ship had also disappeared in the explosion.
“This is it,” Chang replied. “I needed to hide this plan from the chancellor and the Alliance, Lee. When the chancellor accepted the help of the Ch’Tauk, I realized I couldn’t trust the man and needed to hide what I was doing. I have already uploaded the mission details into your nav-computer.”
“The Chancellor?” Lee said. “I thought you were the one to ally us with the bugs.”
“He convinced me to take the credit for that,” Chang replied. “He said it would help give legitimacy to the plan and I went along to keep him from suspecting.”
“Admiral,” Farthing said, stepping closer to the projection. “This device, have you been able to test your hypothesis?”
“Captain Farthing,” Chang replied, the computer pausing to recognize the Vadne officer. “You have asked the logical question and I have to give you the illogical answer. No.”
“Are we to assume we will be on our own and that no other ship is coming to escort us in?” Lee said, grinding his teeth at the projection. “We’re on our own again, right?”
“I’m sorry,” Chang replied, looking downward to the deck. “The fleet will be notified in due time, but I cannot have anyone from the Alliance knowing what you are doing. I just don’t trust them.”
“So that’s it,” Josh Goldstein said, standing and holding his hands up. “We’re being sent on a suicide mission by a dead admiral? Is that really what I’m hearing?”
“Josh, wait,” Lee said, a thought occurring to him. “Admiral, you said you didn’t trust anyone in the Alliance with this. What else are you not telling us yet?”
“I know what you are thinking,” Chang said. “You think I’m sending you there without help. That’s not exactly true. There is a fleet already on the way to the Sol system that should be in place to distract the Gizzeen while you deliver the package. They aren’t exactly the best choice, but they are all I had to choose from. The details are in the files I uploaded to your ship. Your first stop is to pick up the device. Then you’ll need to meet up with them to get the priming ordinance.”
“So it is a suicide mission from a dead guy,” Lee said, turning back to Goldstein. “Now we have that settled, you can sit back down.”
“Lee?” Alice said, turning back to look at her fiancé. “Are we really going to do this?”
“Admiral Chang,” Lee said. “What are the odds this thing will fail?”
“If the device works, about a twenty percent chance of failure,” Chang replied. “There’s an even chance the device will fail, though. It’s still better than nothing. It is my hope you can get to them before they can leave the cataract. I’ll be leading a mission into the system to try and gather intelligence about their defenses.”
“Damn,” Lee muttered, before turning back to his crew. “I’m sorry, but he’s right. This may be our only chance. We’re going to have to trust him again.”
“Lee?” Alice said. “We’re all here and we’re all behind you.”
“I know,” Lee replied as he turned back to the hologram. “So, where to first?”
Chang smiled.
18
Perigee Station
As Resolute and Kongo translated from the swirling gold and blue vortex of M-space, the sight of the Perigee system filled Lee with confusion and dread. After needed repairs had delayed their departure for nearly twenty hours, the two ships had finally arrived at the presumed destroyed orbital space station. A hasty trip to the assault frigate by Alice had made the necessary adjustments and repairs to the ship, enabling it to make the jump at the swift pace of her metaphorical sister ship. Now the two vessels approached the station cautiously.
“Scanners on wide angle,” Lee ordered his sensor officer. “I want to know if anything so much as sneezes out there.”
The projection screen adjusted, showing a broad angle encompassing the defunct station, its pockmarked planet, and the twin inner planets. A rocky asteroid field surrounded the station and its celestial body like a minefield. Lee could make out new impact craters along the circumference of the planet, but the station appeared undamaged. It was a far cry from the destroyed hulk he had expected. Admiral Chang had ordered the destruction of the planet on wideband transmission, assuming the Ch’Tauk would come and destroy the distant outpost during the height of the war. Instead, the trans-dimensional beings known as Engineers had intervened and kept the invaders occupied. Chang had entered into the public record the destruction of the station, and the knowledge had become common as the legends of the war grew.
“Scanners report no unusual activity within the system, sir, but … I have recorded traces of M-space activity in the near past. Someone was here within the last ten hours.”
“Any idea who?” Lee asked, turning to face the young woman. “Can you get a fix on the ionic wave?”
“Whoever they are, they don’t really care about tuning their engines. I’ve got trace radiation signatures all over the place.”
“Sounds like scavengers,” Henry Moore said, stepping closer to the rail separating the command well from the sensor stage surrounding it. “We’ll be lucky if they haven’t stripped the place bare by now.”
“Do we have any readings from the station?” Lee asked his officer again. “Any communications signals?”
“Negative,” Kama Yu replied. “No communications, but there is power over there. I’m getting a low-level passive field surrounding the asteroid belt.”
“Alright, so they probably know we are here,” Lee replied, leaning forward to examine the station on the projection. “Signal Kongo and have Captain Farthing stand by. I’m sending over Gregor and his team to retrieve the device. I’ll need him to watch our backs.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Captain, I’m going with them,” Henry said, standing and moving towards the door. “Gregor’s good, but you’re going to need someone with more than bullets for brains and I’m about the only one you got.”
“I will be going as well,” Na’Tora announced. “As Tercero and first officer of this ship, it is my responsibility to oversee landing missions.”
“Oh no,” Henry said, stepping back to the rail. “I got this. You stay here and do whatever you do where everyone can keep an eye on you.”
“Captain, I must protest. This man is not a member of the crew and—”
“Both of you, stop,” Lee snapped, standing and facing the two men. “Save it for the enemy. Right now I need you both suited up and in the airlock in five minutes or less. Henry, I need you to download the computer system and find out what’s been going on in the station for the last year or so. If Chang has been here, I’d bet there’s stuff in there we don’t want the scavengers to see.”
“Na’Tora,” Lee said, turning to the Ch’Tauk with a grimace. “You’re in charge of the mission. Keep an eye out for traps and keep an eye on Gregor. He’s a good man but Henry’s right, he’s not exactly top of his class. The only fighting I want from either of you is if the Gizzeen or the scavengers show up. If that happens, treat them like you would each other. Got it?”
“Aye, Captain.”
“You bet.”
“Now get off my bridge,” Lee said as he sat back down and pulled up a tactical hologram of the area. “God help the scavengers or Gizzeen if they are over there.”
“Stick close,” Gregor said to the Ch’Tauk. “My team can cover you if we need to retreat.”
“Retreat is for Centurions,” Na’Tora replied, stepping past the big security guard and into the station airlock. “I am a Tercero of the Imperial Fleet. I run from no man.”
�
��Fine with me,” Henry said, pulling a sidearm and following the creature. “As long as I can see your back I can shoot you if you do anything stupid.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Gregor said in his thickly accented English. “I haven’t lost a first officer yet and don’t intend to. You shoot him and I shoot you, then I get demerits for losing both you. Either way, I’m back on the ship in time for dinner, while the two of you are dead.”
With that, the team moved into the darkened airlock. Resolute launched a shuttle and moved away to cover the station. Gregory’s team crowded into the small portal and waited as the cycle completed and the interior door opened. The two recon soldiers entered the corridor outside first, sweeping the hall with their plasma rifles before signaling the all-clear. Henry stepped out next, holding tight to a smaller pistol he had acquired from Lee. Two more security agents followed, with Gregor and Na’Tora bringing up the rear. After a silent scan of the surroundings, Gregor pointed a finger down one hallway, and the team moved out.
Travelling silently through halls he had once known as home put Henry in a dangerous mood. The last time he had been on the station was before he had gone to Earth and met Emma. It had been just after Lee had ejected him from Resolute in a far-fetched plan by Admiral Chang to convince the Alliance that Lee was dead. Now here he was, still on a wild mission for a man he didn’t trust and who was probably dead. Chang had a way of making a person feel helpless even when carrying a weapon and being surrounded by an armed security force.
“We’ll head to the central hub and take the courtyard stairs up to the office,” Gregor whispered. “The outer docking platforms appear to be clear. Let’s take the next cross corridor and head in.”
The station was laid out like a lotus blossom, petals spreading out around the central pylon. Their target was supposedly housed in a research lab just below the command center. Lee’s information had told them the lab was abandoned. Chang had wanted to make Perigee a complete dark project after it had been completed. There were security codes to be entered, but the lab was basically unguarded. It didn’t sit right with Henry, but nothing about this mission did.
Resolute Strike (The War for Terra Book 7) Page 15