“That was really stupid, Dice,” he said through a crackling in his voice. His eye was filling with water. “You should have let me go,” he said softly.
“Ship needs its captain,” she replied, head still buried. Carrie looked at Tyrell’s confused expression.
“We must go, Carrie,” he said, motioning to the oncoming army of alien machines approaching.
“Shit,” said the captain, looking at the wide variety of alien faces approaching. Some tall, some bipedal, some with four and five appendages, some with multiple eyes and some with none. He nodded as they all turned and headed for the ship.
“The running lights,” Carrie said, looking at The Agathon. “I think they’re about to leave,” she said.
“Stop them, Carrie,” said the captain, as the trio broke into a sprint. Behind them the gathering army emerged from the treeline and began a pursuit.
Agathon Bridge
20:52 Martian Standard
“Activate thrusters,” said Boyett from the centre seat.
“We’re really leaving them?” said Chavel from the flight chair. Boyett didn’t answer. She tapped a comm panel on the chair.
“This is Boyett. All hands secure stations, we are lifting off. This could be a bumpy ride so strap in,” she said.
“We really thought this was the place,” said Young from behind her.
“We’ll find another, Mr Young,” she said, without looking back at him. The bridge was sombre. Boyett knew the odds but what could she do?
“David,” she said. “Thrusters.” There was a moment’s hesitation from the flight chair, but a few seconds later his hands were moving across the controls.
“Thrusters engaged,” he said. The bridge rattled as the ship began to lift off from the surface.
“I’m sorry, Captain,” Boyett whispered to herself. She thought no one had heard, but caught Young’s eye as he moved across her to the navigation station.
“Bring us into orbit, Mr Chavel,” she said, sitting back into the chair. Chavel didn’t answer. He was looking at one of the screens.
“Lieutenant?” she said.
“Carrie?” he said out loud. Boyett followed his gaze, as did Young. The screen showed three figures crossing the open plain towards the now airborne ship followed closely by hundreds of other figures, some of which looked humanoid.
“Jesus!” Boyett said.
“I think that’s the captain!” Chavel said, turning his head.
Boyett looked at the screen in disbelief for a moment. “Land!” she said.
“Looks like they have company,” said Chavel.
“Get closer, David,” she said.
“Ferrate, open the main airlock doors,” she said.
“Done,” he replied, eyes staring at the screen.
“I don’t believe it,” said Young.
“I don’t like our chances if those things get on board,” said Chavel. Boyett leant on her hands as she tried to think.
“Engine room,” she said, tapping her comm panel.
“Tosh,” came the reply.
“I want you to run an ionisation charge through the length of the hull on my mark.”
“That will burn out a lot of the electrical systems along the outer decks, Lieutenant,” came his reply.
“No time, Tosh. Just get it done,” she said, leaving no room for questions.
“One hundred meters,” said Chavel.
“Medical to main airlock,” she said into the comm panel.
“Acknowledged,” came the swift reply.
“In position,” Chavel said.
“Swing her around, David,” she said. They watched the screen as the ship reoriented itself, giving access to the airlock.
“What’s she doing?” Boyett said, watching as Carrie stopped running and turned to face the oncoming hordes of life forms.
“Come on, Carrie. What the hell-” Chavel said.
“It looks like she’s turning to...” Boyett started but was silenced by what she saw next.
With arms outstretched the captain’s daughter had bolts of blue light coming out of her body in all directions. Young stood from his console, mouth open in disbelief. The energy struck several of the life forms, like a pulse gun lifting them clean off their feet. One of the long black worm creatures moved towards her. She reacted quickly, sending a bright blue bolt of energy its way. It struck the creature, which split in two with a burst of white light bright enough to make Boyett cover her eyes. The oncoming force stopped in its tracks, as Carrie turned and made her way to the rear of the ship. Chavel looked at Boyett, who looked back at him and shook her head, bewildered. Young’s face bore an expression Boyett had not seen him wear before. He looked horrified.
“Airlock closed. We have them,” Ferrate said. “Sir,” he followed, “on the ground,” he said. Boyett looked at the screens. The landscape below them began to crumble inwards as if being swallowed into nothingness. From the empty chasms huge dark metallic structures began to emerge. The army of life forms began to fall into the disappearing landscape.
“What the hell is happening?” said Chavel. Boyett looked at the screens.
“Full thrusters! Get us the hell off this rock,” shouted Boyett.
“Got it,” Chavel said, grappling with the flight controls. The landscape beneath them disappeared as the ship angled itself straight up. “Dampers are off, so this may be a little rough,” he said. He pushed the flight controls full on and Boyett felt the pull of several Gs as the ship began to soar upwards and away from the surface.
“Engine room, spin up the FTL, Tosh,” Boyett said after several seconds. The sky began to turn dark as the ship rose.
“That’s gonna be tricky, Lieutenant. We lost one plasma intake in the attack. I can’t guarantee she’ll fire at all.”
“Do what you can,” she said. She tapped a command into her chair and revered the angle on the main viewer. The planet began to fall away at speed, but it looked different. The surface was collapsing in on itself and was being replaced by enormous cone-shaped structures across its entire surface.
“I think you’ve stuck around long enough, Lieutenant,” came John Barrington’s voice from behind her. She stood immediately and looked at the captain.
“Captain,” she said, trying to stop herself from running over to him. He looked beaten. Tired. She looked into his empty eye socket. Carrie and Tyrell flanked him on either side. Chavel turned his head and smiled at Carrie. The bridge went silent. Boyett felt her eyes water and knew the captain could see it. He walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Very nice, Lieutenant,” he said smiling. There was enough sincerity in one eye to easily make up for the one missing.
“Captain,” said Tyrell quietly. The captain nodded at him.
“We have to leave this system,” Barrington said loudly to the bridge crew, “These are not the signal makers.”
Tyrell looked at Boyett.
“David, get out of the flight chair before you crash into something, and take navigation,” Barrington said. Boyett nodded and suddenly felt a real sense of relief smother her. Chavel locked the controls and moved over to the navigation station. Boyett slid herself back into her flight seat and released the control lock.
“There will be plenty of time for explanations as to what many of you will have seen today, but right now we need to survive,” Barrington said, sitting in the centre seat. He took a breath and tapped the comm panel.
“Engine room, report,” he said.
“Eh Tosh here, is that you, Captain?” he said.
“It is,” he said.
“Good to hear from you,” Tosh said.
“I need FTL capability fast,” he said.
“Sir, I’m working on it but there are a lot of damaged systems down here. We currently have no direct l
ink to navigation, so if we jump now God only knows where we’ll end up.” The screens above them showed the planet disintegrating and forming into a twisted shape that looked like a collection of engine parts all stuck together.
“It’s changing,” Carrie said from the rear of the bridge.
“The Targlagdu will not allow our escape,” said Tyrell from beside her.
“The what?” Boyett said. The captain waved it off.
“You and Emerson put your heads together and spin up the FTL ring now or we’re all dead,” he said forcefully.
“Emerson is dead, sir,” Tosh said. “But your point is well received. I will begin FTL ring prep immediately.”
After a moment’s silence the captain responded, “Understood.”
Barrington turned and looked at Boyett.
“How many did we lose, Charly?” he said.
“Probably best if discuss it later, sir,” she said.
“We have incoming!” Chavel shouted, turning to the captain. They raised their eyes to the centre screens, which showed varying angles of the planet. It had now completely changed shape and looked like it was moving.
“It’s definitely closing on us, sir,” Boyett said, looking at the growing twisted mass approaching the ship.
“David, where are we on the FTL?” the captain said.
“Ring deployed, sir. She’s heating up now, one revolution per second.”
“Engine room,” Barrington said into the comm panel.
“You’ll have it in three minutes, Captain. Engine room out,” Tosh said, sounding a little more than harassed.
Engine Room
21:17 Martian Standard
“Jesus, the man’s only back from the grave five minutes,” Tosh said. “Where are we on the flow regulators, Roach?” he shouted across at a weary-looking engineer covered in scrapes and bruises.
“Way above the red line, Doctor. The anterior intake valve is completely fused, we have to rely on the backup which has never been tested with only one plasma injector. I don’t recommend this,” she said. Tosh looked at The Betty as the spinning orb began to glow. He had a feeling this was going to be his last few minutes in this world, but he had to admit that the bang this baby would make in deep space would be a sight to see from outside the ship.
“Open them up to a hundred and twenty percent,” he said, smiling, thinking of Emerson’s reaction to that one. The young woman looked at Tosh and raised her eyebrows. Tosh returned her gaze with an expression that told her it was their only chance. She nodded quietly and made the adjustments. Plasma flowed into the engine as the orb’s light filled the room with a light blue.
“Well then,” Tosh said, crossing his arms. “Your move, Betty.”
Bridge
Carrie took a seat next to one of the diagnostic consoles and looked on at the screen.
“Two minutes,” Chavel said. The view screen on the left of the bridge showed the exterior of the ship. The FTL ring was now circling the ship at speed and the hum of the vibration gently flowed through the bulkheads. All eyes were on the centre screen. The planet had split down its equator and was beginning to open up.
“What the hell is it doing?” her father said, turning to Tyrell.
“Looks like it’s going to swallow us whole,” Boyett said.
“Will the FTL fire inside a planetary body?” the captain asked, looking at Young.
“I honestly don’t know,” Young said, eyes on the screens. The planet-sized mass of twisted metal was almost upon them. It looked like an angry mouth with jagged, continent-sized teeth ready to chew them up.
“Sir, I need to shut down the thrusters in prep for FTL,” Boyett said.
“What?” Ferrate said suddenly, from behind the captain. Carrie could feel the young man’s panic. She shared it. The ship was about to be crushed like paper.
“Proximity alert,” Chavel said, as the screens above them went black.
“Exterior,” the captain said. The centre screen showed The Agathon’s hull and the spinning FTL ring now blurring what was outside it. All around them was twisted darkness, as the planet began to engulf the ship.
“It has us,” Tyrell said. Carrie looked at him.
“What can I do?” she asked Tyrell.
“Nothing, Carrie,” her father said, looking at her and smiling. “You’ve done enough. It’s up to The Agathon now,” he said, sitting back in his chair calmly.
“We are inside the perimeter, sir. I think it’s closing,” Chavel said, looking at the screen. They looked above them at the screen, as the star field ahead began to disappear behind the closing orifice. Carrie felt her father’s mind and watched him close his eyes.
Sorry, Jennifer, he thought. Carrie stood and walked over to her father. She placed his hand on his.
“It’s not over yet,” she said quietly. The ship began to vibrate intensely as Carrie reached her hand to steady herself against a computer console.
“Got it!” said Boyett, looking at the captain.
“Hang on, everyone. FTL in five...” Carrie looked at Tyrell, whose eyes were now black.
“Four...” She looked at the screen which showed a small star field, barely visible through the gap in the mechanical planet.
“Three...” She looked at Chavel, who was bracing the control panel in front of him with both hands.
“Two...” She saw Young looking at her intently. He looked like he had seen a ghost. She tightened her grip on her father’s hand.
“One...”
28
The young boy looked out of his bedroom porthole at the nearby village. The latest repair to the umbilicus connecting the Jycorp to the nearby Clark looked patchy at best.
“What are you still doing up?” came his father’s voice from behind him. The boy jumped and looked around.
“Nothing, just looking outside,” he said, smiling before climbing under the blankets. His father walked over to the bunk and sat beside him. He reached around and began tucking the blankets tightly under his son.
“You know the rules,” he said, turning off the blue night light beside the head of his bed. “No lights after eight,” he said.
“Sorry, Dad,” the young boy said.
“Tell me a story,” he added, pulling the covers up past his nose.
“Which one?” his father said. The young boy smiled.
“Not again,” his father said.
“Last time, I promise,” the young boy said playfully. His father sighed and made himself comfortable at the edge of the bunk. He looked out at the star field. The lights of one of the nearby ships reflected off the dark circles under his eyes. He looked down at the young boy.
“Once upon a time, over a thousand years ago before humans lived in the stars, there was a place called Earth,” he said. The young boy’s eyes widened.
“It was a beautiful blue planet with more life in the seas than on the land. It was so warm that you could walk along its shores barefoot.”
The young boy watched his pale father’s face and tried to imagine being there. He tried to imagine what it felt like to never be cold.
“The skies were blue and it was home to billions. Then one day a signal came from the stars and told the humans they were not alone in the universe. They tried to find who the signal makers were, but they would not respond. It was decided that whoever had sent it had been long gone for millions of years. The humans searched the galaxy, trying to find the signal makers, but could still find nothing.
“Then one day it was decided to build The Agathon. The humans colonised Mars and began to construct the first ship capable of travelling faster than the speed of light, but before they could finish something terrible happened.” The young boy’s father looked out the window.
“The signal makers destroyed the Earth,” he said.
“Why did
they do that, Dad?” said the young boy, pulling the torn covers over his mouth.
“Nobody knows,” said his father. “The last of the surviving humans banded together in these stations and set a course for Titan, led by the great Sienna Clark. It is thought that The Agathon was then sent to find the signal makers, but after years of hoping it never returned.
“Did it really look like that, Dad?” the young boy said, pointing to an etching placed against the back wall of his room.
“According to the story tellers,” said his father. “After the great revolt most of the history of our people was erased, so all we have to go on is what was passed down by the elders.”
“Do you think it’s still out there? Do you think they found the signal makers?” said the young boy, wide-eyed. “Do you think they will be able to find us?”
“Enough,” said the young boy’s father quietly.
“Go to sleep.” He rested his hands on the boy’s chest and leaned over, giving him a kiss on the cheek. The young boy closed his eyes as his father walked over to his door.
“Dad?” he asked quietly.
“Yes, Arturo?” he said, standing at the entrance.
“Do you think we’ll have food tomorrow?” There was a moment of silence.
“Yes, Arturo,” his father said, “I promise.”
The Agathon: Book One Page 33