Duggan set his gaze on the pilot. The man was stocky and with a helpful face. “Only three passengers?” Duggan asked.
“Yes, sir. Lieutenants Chainer and Breeze, and one Captain Duggan. I take it I have all three of you present, in which case we can set off right away once you’ve seated yourselves.”
“There’s a fourth passenger,” said Duggan.
The pilot looked confused. “I was only told about three, sir. Do I need to wait?”
“Yes, you do. I need access to your comms.”
Only the pilot was meant to operate the transporter’s comms and for a second it looked as if the man might stand his ground. He was wise enough to know which fights were worth fighting. “All yours, sir. We’re already behind schedule. They’re going to start giving me crap about blocking this pad soon.”
“I’ll handle that,” said Duggan, entering the transporter. Chainer and Breeze came after, their expressions speaking of a thousand unasked questions.
The cockpit was cramped, with a single battered chair covered in worn fabric. Duggan dropped into the seat and ordered the comms system to connect him.
“Hello?” said McGlashan.
“It’s me. Are you still due for release the day after tomorrow?”
“Another thirty-six hours. Not that I’m counting.”
“How do you feel?”
“Bored.”
“I mean, can you walk? Can you get yourself to landing pad three? I need you here now.”
Excitement, clear and unmistakable came into her voice. “A couple of needles to pull out and I’ll be on my way. Assuming my legs remember how to walk.”
“Take one of the cars outside,” said Duggan.
“You’re all heart, sir.”
“See you in ten minutes.”
The call was cut from the other end. Duggan climbed out of the cockpit. The pilot was standing uneasily nearby, clearly worried about letting someone unauthorized use the onboard systems. Duggan thanked him and told him they’d be waiting for a final passenger.
“What’s going on, sir?” asked Chainer.
Duggan smiled in response. “I have no idea, Lieutenant. All I know is that I’m pleased to be sitting here, rather than sitting at a desk.”
“There were some important tests to run on a new gravity drive modification tomorrow,” said Breeze, sounding disappointed.
“I have a feeling we’re going to hear about something of a greater significance in the near future.”
“And you’re not going to tell us what until we get there,” said Breeze, not quite making it a question.
“I might be completely wrong, so you’ll have to wait.”
A few minutes later, a white-painted car sped across the open ground. It stopped on the pad, violating several regulations by doing so. Commander McGlashan got out, walking in a manner which suggested she’d be more comfortable with assistance. Duggan helped her onboard and she dropped gratefully onto one of the hard seats.
“That wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped. I had to fight off a horde of medical staff who were insistent that I stay. In the end, I had to order them to leave me alone.” She took a deep breath, though she didn’t appear in any way flustered. “What’s this all about?”
“You’ll have to wait and see,” said Chainer. “The captain likes his secrets.”
“We’re going to the Atican shipyard,” said Duggan.
“I see,” said McGlashan. She knew enough to guess the possibilities that might ensue.
“She knows. I can tell,” muttered Chainer. “Maybe I should have gone for that promotion after all. Then I’d get to hear this stuff.”
Duggan laughed. He shouted to the pilot that they were ready to leave. The man lifted a thumb in acknowledgement. The outer door slid shut and there was a barely-noticeable lurch as the transporter left the ground. As soon as they were in the air, Duggan felt elated. Even if the trip turned out to be something other than he was hoping, at least it had shattered the monotony of life on the ground.
The Atican shipyard was nine thousand kilometres away. The transport vessel was basic and it only had a single screen for the passengers, which showed the unending blackness of outside as they swept through the night. After an hour, the pilot came from his cabin to speak to them.
“We’re almost there, folks. It’s still night here so you get to see something special. I’ll point the camera ahead so you can see what we’re coming to. It’s something of a sight, let me tell you.” He returned to his cockpit and the view on the screen shifted. At first, it appeared as if there was a white glow on the horizon. They came closer and the glow expanded, until it seemed as if there was a pocket of daylight in this single area.
As they approached the shipyard, details became clearer. It was huge, covering at least one hundred square kilometres. There were five great trenches running in parallel. Four of the trenches were five kilometres in length, with the last one closer to ten. There was something in the longest trench – an incomprehensibly large hull was being constructed, which filled the whole length available.
“A new flagship,” said Duggan. “I didn’t know.”
“They’ve hardly started it,” said Breeze. “It’ll be years.”
“That one next to it’s got to be a Hadron,” said McGlashan. “They weren’t wrong when they said this was a shipbuilding planet. The hull looks complete.”
“Over there,” said Chainer, pointing at the screen.
Of the remaining trenches, one was empty. The next one held the damaged hull of the Cadaveron. It looked undersized and misshapen in comparison to the other two vessels. The final trench contained a fourth spaceship, this one the smallest of them all by a considerable margin. Its sleek lines and purposeful shape spoke promises of death. In spite of its size, this was the most dangerous vessel in the Space Corps.
“The Crimson,” whispered Duggan with longing.
Chapter Twenty
The transporter landed without fuss on a pad situated in one corner of the shipyard. The artificial light was so bright, Duggan found himself shielding his eyes against the glare. It was a hive of activity – there were people and vehicles everywhere, moving continuously. There was evidently a great deal of order behind the chaos, as witnessed by the rapid progress of the construction.
The four of them crossed a few hundred metres of open ground on foot and entered one of the largest buildings in the compound. It was as busy here as it was outside and Duggan saw more than one individual with unnaturally wide eyes which suggested they’d been using stimulants to keep themselves going.
“Office Seven, Captain Duggan,” said a smiling lady behind a desk. “You’ve been asked to attend alone.”
“What about us?” asked Chainer.
“The Star Building’s facilities are available for your use,” said the lady. “If you wish, I can show you around, sir.”
“That would be great,” said Chainer. “I need a gallon of hi-stim to stop me falling asleep.”
Duggan left them to it. The low number of the office was indicative of the likely importance of the occupant. He was therefore unsurprised when he found Admiral Teron within. The Admiral usually looked on top of his game. On this night, he looked haggard and close to exhaustion. The room was filled with the odour of freshly-brewed coffee and an oversized cup sat on his desk.
“Captain Duggan. I hear you’ve brought an additional visitor.”
“I couldn’t leave her behind, sir.”
Teron didn’t seem too interested. “Well, it might be for the best anyway. I’ll trust to your judgement that Commander McGlashan is ready for duty.”
Those were the words Duggan had desperately wanted to hear. Ready for duty. “Sir, I can vouch that she’s ready.”
“That’s good. You’ll need to be prepared for what’s to come.”
“What’s happening, sir?”
“Events have moved on apace, Captain Duggan. There’s a lot to fill you in on. It would normally be above your grade, bu
t I’ve been given clearance to let you know most of it. Your ability to make the right decisions may be impaired if you’re kept in the dark.”
Duggan was intrigued. “I’m going somewhere?”
“Yes, you are.” Teron took a deep breath and shook his head, as if to clear the fog from it. “We’ve found out where the Ghasts are. They live on nine worlds, the closest of them a long way distant from here. The statisticians tell me we had less than a one percent chance of finding them by accident in the next five years, if that gives you any idea of how remote the likelihood was. The Dreamer core, Captain Duggan. It smashed into the Cadaveron AI two days after we made the interfaces. We pulled out so much data we’ve had hundreds of our intel team working on it around the clock. And we found what we were looking for. Coordinates, flight paths, codes. We already had a faint grasp of their language, now we’re working on putting together an interpreting module that we can install on every ship. Perhaps even in every spacesuit.”
“What are we doing with this information?” asked Duggan.
“Coming to a decision has been…difficult. There have been a number of conflicting suggestions and much of our time has been spent in coming to a unified position.” He flashed a tight smile, which told Duggan there was much the Admiral wasn’t going to speak about. “Anyway, here we are and we have made progress. The ESS Crimson’s sensors kept a record of your destruction of that planet. We’ve made the footage available to the Ghasts.”
“Did they respond? Did they believe it was genuine?”
“The images could be forged, it’s true. However, forensic examination would soon dispel the lie,” said Teron. “We’ve never been able to confirm if the Oblivion battleship you were in combat with at the time survived the destruction. If it escaped, the Ghasts will have corroboration the information we provided them with is accurate.”
“We simply showed them what we’re capable of and nothing more? What could that achieve?”
“Give us a little more credit than that, Captain Duggan. We showed them what we could do. The threat was implicit enough. However, we have also provided them with the coordinates of one of their home worlds and threatened to use the Planet Breaker on it if they don’t agree to a negotiated ending to the war. Only this time, it will be on our terms, rather than theirs.”
“This is huge news, sir,” said Duggan. He felt bewildered at the speed it had happened and was in grudging admiration of the Confederation Council’s resolve in making the threat.
“We can’t pat ourselves on the back yet. We’ve arranged to meet with them, where we hope to agree a truce. Afterwards, we’ll look for a permanent settlement. In fact, there’s a contingent of our spacecraft on route to the meeting place already, led by the ES Devastator and the ES Lancer.”
Duggan gave a nod at that. “Two of our remaining Hadrons.”
“And six Anderlechts besides. The Ghasts respond to strength and we’re determined to show them just that, yet without risking too much of our fleet. They may still decide to ambush us.”
“Where are we meeting them?”
“That’s one of the things I can’t tell you.”
It seemed strange that Teron had been told to withhold the information, but Duggan had no time to ponder it. “Why am I here? Where am I going?”
“You are going somewhere and your crew with you. We’re sending the Crimson to the rendezvous and you’re going to captain the vessel.”
Duggan was speechless. Of all the things he’d expected to happen, this was not one of them. “Sir, that’s got our only Planet Breaker in it. The engines and core are irreplaceable. What if they blow it up?”
“If they decide to destroy the Crimson, they’ll achieve little apart from the deaths of you and your crew. We’ve removed the Planet Breaker, Captain Duggan. It’s in a laboratory elsewhere, deep underground, where a team of our best men and women are working to create blueprints for a new one. If we lost the engines and core, it would be regrettable. In reality, they’re unimportant to the events which are now unfolding. We win or we lose based on that single weapon. The Crimson will be a show of force and intent, nothing more. Besides, the Ghasts are ignorant of the fact we’ve only got one Planet Breaker, a state of affairs we’ve done our best to encourage.”
“I’ll be more than happy to captain the Crimson again, sir. I can’t help but ask - why me?”
“You know the ship. In spite of my words, we’re not eager to lose the vessel. There has been some opposition, but in the end, it was deemed that you were the most logical choice for this mission. I wouldn’t expect it to be a permanent state of affairs. We’ve patched up the damage it suffered on your last flight, refitted the Lambdas with newer models and I believe the techs have managed to increase the cluster count to twenty, as well as fitting two new, additional Bulwarks. The Crimson won’t be an easy target.”
“It never was, sir.”
“Now it’ll be even less of one.”
“Why didn’t you send us out with the Devastator and Lancer?”
“We weren’t in a position to release the Crimson until earlier today. The plans were already made, though we weren’t able to put them into motion until a few minutes before I sent you that message. The Crimson is faster than everything else in the fleet. You’ll have to travel at maximum speed in order to arrive in time. It’s fifteen days out.”
“Fifteen days? At Light-V, that means the rendezvous point must be an incredible distance from anywhere populated.”
“That’s precisely the reason, Captain Duggan! You can appreciate there’s a lack of trust, particularly on our side. If the worst happens, we want the Ghasts to think our home worlds are in a completely different sector to where they really are.”
“I take it we’re leaving at once, sir?”
“Would you have it any other way?” Teron gave a genuine laugh. It made him seem younger, though the tiredness in his face returned as the laughter ended.
“I recall a series of unpleasant side effects from the Crimson’s acceleration to lightspeed,” said Duggan, remembering the injuries he and his crew had suffered. He had no desire to experience the feeling again.
“We’ve improved the life support modules. I’d give you the technical details if I understood them. Suffice to say, the engineers believe they’ve alleviated the problem.”
“Alleviated?”
“That’s what they told me.” Teron shrugged. “You’ll have to go with what you’re given.”
“Has the infantry been assigned yet? I’d like to speak to the sergeant as soon as I get onboard. Beforehand if possible.”
“You’ll have no soldiers. It’ll be you and your three crew. I had a commander assigned. I assume he won’t be needed any more.”
“No, sir, he won’t. Why will there be no soldiers?”
“You won’t be landing anywhere and we don’t want to encourage you into a position where you might be tempted.”
“You could simply order me not to,” said Duggan quietly.
“That’s been tried before, Captain. Anyway, you’re dismissed. You have permission to board the Crimson. Your destination has been programmed in and locked down. You’ll go immediately to maximum speed and, with any luck, arrive in time for the rendezvous. I expect negotiations will take several days, so I wouldn’t be concerned about missing anything.”
“Sir.”
“And Duggan? This really is good news. For everyone in the Confederation. I hope that next time I see you, we’ll be able to celebrate an end to the war. I don’t like to speak too much of these things in advance in case my doing so somehow prevents them from coming to pass. All I can do is wish you good luck, in the same way I did the other captains on this mission.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Duggan spun on his heel and marched out of the Admiral’s office. The corridor outside was near the building’s reception and he could hear the sound of Chainer’s voice somewhere ahead. Duggan walked smartly onwards, finding it hard not to break into
a run.
When he arrived in the waiting area, all three stared at him with concern. It was Breeze who spoke first. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
Duggan grinned at them. “There’s nothing wrong. Quite the opposite, in fact. Come on, we’ve been given a mission.”
He waved away their questions and took them outside. He didn’t know how long he’d been in with Teron – long enough for the sky to have turned from black into the deep, pure blue of early dawn. Duggan commandeered a hovercar and the four of them climbed in. He pushed the vehicle to an unsafe speed and steered it across the shipyard.
“Why all the mystery?” asked Chainer.
“There’s no mystery, Lieutenant. Or at least there won’t be when we get onboard. I can’t tell you about it until then.”
“Where are we going? Have we got another ship?”
The rapid trip across the ground came to an abrupt end when Duggan pulled up alongside an object which was eleven hundred metres long. “We have got another ship, Lieutenant. This one, and we’re departing as soon as we reach the bridge.”
Chapter Twenty-One
There had been dozens of technicians crammed into the narrow corridors of the ESS Crimson. These technicians were all heading in the opposite direction to the boarding crew.
“Left it to the last minute, huh?” Chainer said to a man who hurried by. He got no response to his question.
By the time they’d reached the bridge and completed their brief pre-flight checks, they were the only four on the warship. “Internal sensors report nobody else onboard, sir,” said Chainer. “We can take off whenever you want.”
“Anything external?”
“No gantries or cranes overhead and nothing left anywhere on the hull. Not even a hammer or a nail.”
Duggan laughed at that. There wasn’t a single screw or nail anywhere on a fleet warship. “Engines?” he asked.
Bane of Worlds (Survival Wars Book 2) Page 15