Imperium: Contact

by Kabbabe, Malek

  The young woman regarded him for a moment, then nodded. She turned towards the spot on the wall where the door had been.

  “One more question,” said Andrew before she could reach it.

  She turned to face him.

  “What's your name?”

  She smiled sadly.

  “In this form, I am incapable of expressing it.”

  Chapter 24

  Lieutenant James Harbid looked up as an insistent beeping filled the drop ship's cockpit.

  “We're coming up on the Eridanus Five system,” announced Darmst.

  Harbid reached out to the control panel in front of him and flicked a switch.

  “Ensign, you there?” He asked.

  “Yes James,” came Katie’s reply over the intercom.

  “Get everyone ready back there.”

  “Got it.”

  The swirling white vortex surrounding the ship suddenly parted. Harbid could make out the large red sphere that was the system’s sun. Although he couldn't see them, navigational markers on the shuttle's view screen showed the four planets orbiting it.

  “Humans really don't have a lot of imagination when it comes to naming planets,” said Darmst, looking at the names displayed above the markers.

  Harbid couldn’t argue with that. The planets were simply marked as E1, E2, E3 and E4 respectively. E1 was closest to the sun, a small, barren rock of a planet. The second planet, E2, was larger and had a thin atmosphere of carbon monoxide. E3 consisted of a smaller planet with a thick atmosphere, mainly composed of ammonia and carbon dioxide. E4 was an enormous gas giant.

  “There,” said Darmst, pointing to the marker that showed E3's location.

  “That's where we had our base.”

  The cockpit door opened and Katie entered.

  “You think we'll able to hide there?” Asked Harbid, throwing a quick glance at the newcomer.

  “We built the base for that very purpose,” explained Darmst.

  The shuttle changed direction and headed off towards E3.

  “You know, someone might spot this shuttle heading down to the planet,” Harbid remarked.

  “And even if they don't-.”

  “I don't think we have to worry about that,” Katie interrupted.

  She was tapping the view screen, zooming in on the planet's surface.

  “What makes you say that?” Harbid asked.

  His question was answered even before he'd finished asking it. An image of the planet's surface appeared on the screen. It grew larger, revealing a crater that was blackened and still smoking. Darmst cursed softly in his native tongue.

  “Ion projector,” said Katie softly.

  “Type three, judging by the size of that crater” Harbid added.

  “I guess the task force came back to make sure no one would ever use that base again.”

  Katie turned to face the others.

  “So what now?”

  “We could still land on the planet of course,” said Harbid.

  “But this system's got a busy trading post. There's no traffic now, presumably because that task force ordered all civilian ships out of the system. After a while however, normal trade will resume and then someone's bound to notice a shuttle parked there.”

  “Is there somewhere else in the system we could hide?” Asked Darmst.

  Harbid shrugged.

  “It's possible,” he agreed.

  “If we hide the ship somewhere away from the main transport lanes.”

  He brought up the image of E4.

  “That gas giant's got three moons, is there one we could hide this thing on?” He asked Darmst.

  Darmst was silent a moment, apparently thinking hard.

  “There might be.”

  He tapped one of E4's moons on the display. An image of a small dark sphere appeared, the enormous gas giant looming in the background. Bright red lines crisscrossed the surface like veins of blood.

  “This moon is being stretched and squeezed by the enormous gravitational force of E4,” he explained.

  “As a result, its core is kept molten. Those red lines you see is lava being forced to the surface.”

  “Sounds like a lovely spot,” said Katie sarcastically.

  “No, Darmst is right,” said Harbid.

  “The heat from the lava will completely mask our thermal signature.”

  “Provided it doesn't melt the ship,” replied Katie.

  “There's got to be a slightly cooler, stable spot for us to set down,” Harbid assured her.

  “Trust me, it'll be fine,” he added, grinning.

  She shook her head, but smiled in a resigned sort of way.

  Harbid took hold of the shuttle's controls and laid in a course. He plotted a slingshot orbit around E3, the less they used their engines the better. Someone could already have spotted them when they entered the system and Harbid didn't want anyone seeing them going towards E4. At the same time, he couldn't shake the feeling that the safest course of action would be to leave Eridanus Five altogether. They could jump to some remote system and try to hide there.

  The problem was that the energy buildup of a ship's dimension drive was very distinctive. When a ship came out of a dimension vortex at its destination, the result was a fairly large release of energy. When a ship's dimension drive had to open such a vortex however, the energy involved was enormous. Such a buildup would instantly be picked up by any nearby sensor arrays.

  The shuttle also had a limited range, it wouldn’t be difficult to guess which systems they might reach with their next jump. He could of course, just try jumping into empty space. The problem was that the empty space might not actually be empty. There was a very good reason why dimension jump routes were so clearly defined. There were very specific jump staging areas in every charted system. Jumping into an unknown area of space, was extremely risky and a task usually performed by long range mapping or recon drones. On the whole, Harbid decided that it wasn't worth it and besides, if they were discovered they could still make a run for it.

  Two uneventful hours later, the massive form of E4 loomed on the view screen. Groans and pings of stressed metal reverberated through the shuttle as it approached E4's massive gravity well. Everyone on board felt themselves involuntarily lean sideways, as the shuttle's artificial gravity field fought the natural one they were approaching. Up ahead, the moon Harbid had plotted a course to, came into view. What had previously looked like red veins, now resolved themselves into fiery, orange and red rivers of lava.

  Harbid and Darmst wrestled with the shuttle's controls. They were coming up on the moon at a considerable velocity. They had to slow their approach and at the same time hit the relatively narrow band of space that would allow them to enter a temporary orbit.

  “Threading the needle,” Harbid muttered.

  “What?” Asked Darmst, not taking his eyes off the view screen.

  Harbid didn’t answer.

  Shassa Felt the shuttle buck beneath her once again. The little shengyet girl who sat beside her, shifted closer.

  “It will be all right,” She said quietly.

  The girl looked at her, but said nothing. Shassa threw a concerned glance at her, she still hadn't said a word to anyone. The door to the cockpit opened and the woman who had helped rescue them from the cells appeared, Katie that was her name. Katie walked over to Shassa and sat down on the other side of the girl. She looked up at Katie and seeing who it was, leaded towards her.

  Katie smiled down at the girl and put an arm around her.

  “How's she doing?”

  Shassa looked down at the girl between them.

  “I really can't say, I've tried talking to her and although she seems to understand what I'm saying, she won't say a word.”

  An uncomfortable expression appeared on Katie's face.

  “She's been through a lot.”

  Shassa looked at Katie for a long time, then she asked.

  “Why did you and that other man help us?”

  Ka
tie shrugged.

  “I had orders to get you off that ship.”

  “Why?” Asked Shassa.

  “It's complicated.”

  “So you two were ordered to get us off the ship?” Shassa wanted to know.

  “No I was, but Lieutenant Harbid agreed to help me.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  Katie glanced at the cockpit door before continuing.

  “It’s complicated.”

  Katie seemed to shake herself mentally.

  “The man commanding the fleet that hunted you down, has his own agenda. He wants to stop Major Clark from accomplishing her mission at all costs.”

  “Major Clark, the one that made the agreement with Saskill?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “I don't know what Major Clark's mission is,” Katie explained.

  “So I really couldn't say, but I know the man trying to stop her. Vice-Admiral Jones is arrogant and power hungry, but he’s not stupid. He’s taking a big risk by doing this and that’s not like him.”

  At that moment, Lieutenant Harbid's voice sounded over the shuttle's intercom.

  “We've entered orbit and found a decent landing zone. Everyone get ready for a bumpy ride.”

  The shuttle began to shake still more violently than before. Katie braced herself as best she could, but the shuttle was a military troop transport. As such, the seats consisted of narrow metal benches along the sides of the shuttle. They were designed to fold into the wall when the shuttle landed and deployed those walls into ramps.

  The shuttle was suddenly pushed sideways, as it encountered a jet of super heated gases, escaping from the rivers of molten rock. Harbid wrestled with the controls, fighting to stabilize their decent.

  “Oh yes, this was a lovely place to land,” Darmst shouted over the wailing of alarms now filling the cockpit.

  Harbid didn't reply, all his attention was focused on trying to keep the shuttle pointed at the landing zone. It consisted of an elevated rock plateau with a relatively flat surface. They had no real way of knowing how stable it was, but at least it wouldn't be quite so hot up there.

  The shuttle bucked once more, this time slightly upward, as another one of the thermal jets caught it. Cursing under his breath, Harbid tried to readjust their angle of decent to compensate. They were approaching the landing zone fast, too fast. He engaged the shuttle's retro thrusters and was slammed forward against his seat harness by the sudden deceleration. He swore, this time out loud and switched on the intercom.

  “Everyone brace for impact.”

  The shuttle hurtled towards the rocky plateau. The retro thrusters were now at full power, trying to halt their considerable forward momentum, but it wasn't going to be enough. As they passed over the leading edge of the plateau, Harbid brought the shuttle down on the rocky surface. Rock chips flew in all directions, as the shuttle's belly slammed down. They skidded for another fifty meters before finally coming to a halt.

  Harbid winced in pain, as he gingerly released the harness strapping him to the pilot's seat. He could feel bruises where the straps had dung in. Beside him, Darmst was releasing his own harness. They looked at each other and nodded. Then both stumbled towards the door leading to the rear compartment.

  Everyone in the passenger compartment had slid towards the cockpit, a few were slowly getting up off the floor. Harbid spotted Katie, helping an old shengyet woman to her feet. He recognized her, she had been in that cell where he'd decked the prison guard. There had also been a young shengyet girl with her. Harbid spotted her cautiously getting up off the floor next to the old woman.

  Katie turned and spotted him.

  “Everyone all right?” He asked.

  “Yes, I think so,” she said nodding.

  “Good, we need to-,” Harbid winced as the bruises across his chest protested.

  “Need to do a diagnostic of the shuttle, find out what damage it sustained,” he finished with a grimace.

  Katie moved quickly towards him, placing a firm grip on his shoulder and under his arm.

  “The only thing you need to do right now is sit down,” she said, steering him towards one of the metal benches.

  “I'm okay Ensign,” Harbid protested.

  “Of course you are tough guy.”

  Katie led him to one of the benches and sat Harbid down, she turned to the old woman.

  “Shassa, that box on the wall next to the cockpit door, has a med-kit in it.”

  Shassa turned, spotted the med-kit and went to get it.

  “Ensign this can wait,” Harbid began to protest again.

  “It's alright,” interrupted Darmst who had followed them to the bench.

  “I'll begin the diagnostics, you come help me when you're finished here.”

  “Do you know how to use the diagnostic system?” Harbid asked.

  Darmst grunted.

  “I've spent my whole life repairing ships cobbled together from scrap parts, I think I can handle your shiny new shuttle.”

  Shassa returned with the med-kit, Katie took it from her and placed it on the bench. She took out an injector, containing a solution of diagnostic nanites and pressed it against his shoulder. Harbid felt a slight sting as the injector pierced his skin. Katie took out a small data pad and switched it on. A frown creased her face, as she examined the telemetry the nanite probes were sending back.

  “You've got some internal bleeding and a cracked rib,” she informed him.

  She reached back into the med-kit and got out another injector. She injected Harbid with a solution consisting mainly of healing nanites and collagen.

  “That should take care of the bleeding and soft tissue damage, but it'll take the nanites a while to repair you're rib.”

  Lieutenant Harbid gave her a surprised look.

  “Where did you learn so much about medicine?” He asked.

  “I took some medic training courses.”

  “Why'd you do that?”

  “You never know what might be useful some day.”

  Then she added with a slight smile.

  “Like if your commanding officer is crazy enough to land a shuttle on a moon that's practically covered with molten rock.”

  Harbid laughed, then instantly regretted it as the movement shot lances of pain through his chest.

  Darmst's voice came over the intercom.

  “Lieutenant Harbid, you may want to get in here,” he said in a tense voice.

  Harbid got up and gingerly made his way to the cockpit. Darmst was sitting in the pilot's seat, examining the diagnostic readouts on the screen. He turned to face the door as it opened.

  “What's wrong,” Asked Harbid.

  “Well the good news is that the engines and life support are fine. The bad news is that the dimension drive is damaged.”

  Harbid felt his heart sink a few notches.

  “Can we fix it?” He asked, anticipating the answer.

  Darmst shook his head.

  Harbid wasn't surprised, dimension drives were incredibly complex pieces of technology. If one was damaged, fixing it required a lot of specialized tools and spare parts, neither of which they had.

  “So in other words, were stuck in the Eridanus Five system,” he said.

  “We better hope no one finds us.”

  Chapter 25

  Sergeant Andrew Williams followed the young woman back into the room where the rest of the Twilight's crew stood waiting. There was a mixture of curiosity and apprehension on their faces, except for Dolohov, whom Andrew noticed was staring at the young woman with pronounced dislike. Andrew cleared his throat and all eyes turned to him.

  “Major Clark, she would like to speak with you,” he said awkwardly.

  Major Clark gave him a concerned look.

  “Sergeant, are you all right?”

  Andrew was still feeling the after effects of the vision, or whatever it was he’d seen. He hastily arranged his face into an impassive look.

  “I’ll be f
ine Major,” he assured her.

  It was obvious from her expression, that Clark wasn’t buying it, but she turned to address the young woman.

  “Very well, what is it you would like to discuss?”

  The young woman glanced at Andrew who nodded encouragingly.

  “Major Clark,” she began.

  “I wish to inform you that not all my people feel the same way about humans. Some of us wish a peaceful resolution to this situation.”

  Major Clark looked surprised but recovered almost immediately.

  “I see and how do you propose we accomplish that?”

  The young woman looked uncertain.

  “I do not know,” she admitted.

  “I know there are others who feel the same as I, however I do not know exactly how many.”

  “So in other words, even if we come to some sort of agreement, there is no guarantee your people would honor that agreement,” Major Clark finished for her.

  The young woman nodded.

  “I and those that feel as I do, will try to convince the rest but we may not succeed.”

  Lieutenant Graham cut into the conversation.

  “Major, I think I should point out that none of us here has the authority to actually negotiate anything.”

  “You're right, Lieutenant,” conceded Clark.

  “We would need to arrange a meeting with your representatives and members of the Imperial Senate,” she said to the young woman.

  “That would mean getting word back to Earth,” Anna chimed in.

  “And getting the Imperial Senate to even give you an audience,” added Graham.

  Major Clark bit her bottom lip.

  “That could be difficult,” she agreed.

  “And would most likely take weeks of debate before the Senate reached a decision.”

  “There is another way,” said Andrew.

  “And that would be Sergeant?” Asked Major Clark.

  “The Emperor.”

  “The Emperor's just a figurehead, he doesn't have the authority to do this,” interjected Graham.

  “He can't make any deals,” Andrew agreed.

  “But he can set up an audience with the Senate, get the ball rolling.”

  Major Clark was nodding.

  “Yes, if I could get word to Admiral Constantine, he could take this straight to the Emperor.”