“So how's everyone holding up?” He asked.
Katie shrugged.
“As well as can be expected I guess, but I'm worried about that shengyet girl,” she added with a concerned expression.
Lieutenant Harbid looked at the little girl, sitting next to old shengyet woman he now knew as Shassa.
“Jones ordered me to interrogate the shengyet children,” he said in a low voice.
Katie’s face tightened.
Harbid fumbled with the waist strap of the environment suit, he looked down trying to figure out why it wasn't coming undone. Suddenly he felt Katie gently place her hand on his shoulder. He looked up and their eyes met.
“You did the right thing James,” she said.
Her hand came up from his shoulder to gently brush his cheek, then she turned and walked away to join Shassa and the shengyet girl. He just stood there for a moment, then gave himself a little mental shake and resumed taking off his environment suit.
Once he'd gotten it off and put it back in its storage crate, Harbid made his way to the cockpit. Darmst, who was once again sitting in the copilot's seat, turned to face him as he entered.
“It must have been hot out there,” he remarked.
Harbid nodded.
“I still think you should have let me go,” said Darmst.
“I'm pretty good at repairing ships and my people can handle heat quite well.”
“It's not the ship that's damaged, it's the Dimension drive,” Harbid countered.
“And besides, you'd have a hard time fitting in one of those environment suits.”
Harbid moved over to the pilot's seat and let himself fall into it.
“Here,” said Darmst, tossing him a canteen of water.
“Thanks,” said Harbid as he unscrewed the cap and took a hefty swig.
“So, what now?” Asked Darmst.
Harbid lowered the canteen and slowly screwed the lid back on.
“I don't know,” he conceded.
“Your old base is toast and we can't get out of the system. On the other hand, we're quite well hidden here.”
Darmst's expression darkened, or at least it seemed that way to Harbid, he wasn't very adept at reading shengyet facial expressions.
“About that, while you were out there trying to fix the Dimension drive, I did a little checking. We've got about another day or so of combat rations and water left.”
He lowered his head slightly.
“But that's not our biggest problem. I've been checking the internal temperature readings and they've been steadily increasing for the past hour.”
“How long have we got?”
“Until the heat becomes life threatening, maybe five hours for you and Ensign Smith. Like I said, my people are more tolerant of heat, but we'll last maybe another three to four hours after that and then.”
“Damn it,” said Harbid.
The cockpit door opened and Katie walked in.
“What's wrong?” She asked, seeing both their faces.
Harbid told her.
“So we've got to get out of here,” she concluded.
“Yes, but where to?” Asked Darmst.
Harbid sighed.
“There's only one thing I can think of.”
“What's that?” Asked Katie.
“Well, we can't stay here and I doubt we're going to find another place to hide. So the only option left to us is running and since we can't run in this ship, we'll have to take another one.”
Both Katie and Darmst looked at him in surprise.
“And just where are we supposed to get another ship?” Darmst wanted to know.
“The bessra trading post.”
The other two were silent for a moment, then Katie spoke.
“James, how would we even get near the outpost, let alone dock there and then convince them to give us a ship.”
“Who said anything about asking for a ship?” Harbid countered.
“Look,” he said, holding up both hands before anyone could raise any more objections.
“We're still in a Human Imperial shuttle, that should at least allow us to dock with the outpost. I know Jones probably has everyone of his agents looking for us, but if we get in and out fast enough, that shouldn't matter.”
“What about Darmst and the other shengyet?” Asked Katie.
“We'll never get away with several dozen shengyet traipsing through that place.”
“We'll leave them on the shuttle while you and I commandeer a ship,” Harbid explained.
“Once we've got one, I'll send you a signal,” he said turning to Darmst.
“As soon as you get it, take the shuttle and meet us near the system's edge. Most bessra vessels are capable of forming a temporary link with standard Imperial airlocks. We'll transfer your people to the other ship and then make a run for it.”
Katie and Darmst still looked dubious.
“Okay,” said Katie slowly.
“Let's assume that everything goes to plan, that still leaves us needing a place to hide.”
“I've got an idea,” replied Harbid.
“It's risky, but if we can get there we should be fine.”
Chapter 29
Sergeant Andrew Williams followed the young woman down another gleaming white corridor. They hadn't met a single other person in the five minutes they had been moving through this maze. As they rounded yet another corner, they came across a hallway that appeared to be a dead end. As they approached, a line of light appeared in the shape of a doorway, however the section of wall inside it did not disappear as it usually did.
Major Clark, who was in front of Andrew and directly behind the young woman, looked at their guide with a worried expression. The young woman turned to face them.
“This door has a security system,” she explained.
“If the door senses anyone unauthorized attempting to pass through, it will seal itself and sound the alarm.”
“And we're not authorized,” said Clark.
The young woman nodded.
“I will override the door's security system, that will allow you to pass,” she hesitated, then went on.
“There is a problem however.”
“And what's that?” Asked Anna.
“Someone is bound to notice that I've overridden the door's security system.”
“So in other words, once you do this we'll have to make a run for it,” concluded Major Clark.
“Yes, we will need to hurry. Your ship is just on the other side, we will need to get to it and leave as quickly as possible.”
Major Clark turned to the rest of them.
“You heard her, as soon as that door is open, move your asses.”
She turned back to the young woman who regarded them all for a moment, then stretched out her hand and touched the wall. She closed her eyes and appeared to be concentrating hard for a second, then the section of wall inside the glowing lines vanished.
They raced through the opening and despite the need for urgency, Andrew noticed the others slow for a moment and there were a few stifled gasps. They had stepped onto an enormous rectangular room. It had a floor and ceiling made of the same gleaming white material as everything else. Except that the far wall of the room was, not there. For a moment Andrew's mind didn’t process what his eyes were seeing. Instead of a gleaming white wall there was black, star filled space. So how could there be a pressurized environment here if a huge section of this room was open to the vacuum of space. Then he noticed the odd shimmer, distorting his view of the inky blackness beyond. The far wall had to be made of an energy field.
Glancing left and right, Andrew could barely make out the far walls. The Twilight sat parked on the platform right in front of them. The ship's outer hull bore no marks of the damage it had sustained during their encounter with the alien ship. On either side of her however, was a row of alien ships, stretching the length of the bay. The white light glistening strangely off their black hulls. They were all, as far as Andrew could
see, the exact same size and shape as the one they had first encountered.
Now that he was getting a closer look at them however, he could also see that the ships had what looked like intricate carvings covering their hulls. They looked to be similar and yet each had subtle differences. The soft mechanical sound of the Twilight's airlock doors opening, broke Andrew’s train of thought. He quickly followed the others through the open doors.
Once they were inside, the outer airlock doors shut and a moment later the inner doors slid open. They all hurried through them into the ship's main corridor, the young woman still in the lead. They followed her to the bridge, the door was already opening. It wasn't until he felt the rumble of the Twilight's engines, that Andrew realized something was wrong.
He looked around the bridge, it was empty save for the people who had just entered it. So who had just started the engines? Had the young woman or one of her people programmed the ship's computer to do it? Major Clark seemed to have come to the same realization, because she turned to the young woman with a questioning look.
“How did?”
“I will explain later,” the young woman cut across her.
“I,” Major Clark began again.
This time it was Ensign Aziz who cut her off. He had sat himself in the pilot’s seat and was staring in alarm at the controls in front of him.
“Major, the navigation controls aren't responding, neither are any of the instrumentation panels.”
“What?!”
“I've got nothing here,” said the young Ensign, his fingers scrambling over the control surfaces.
Major Clark rounded on the young woman.
“I thought you said you'd repaired our ship?”
“We have,” the young woman assured her.
“Please, remain calm, I will explain when we are safely away.”
Major Clark didn't look happy, but decided it wasn’t the time to argue.
The Twilight shuddered as her vertical thrusters kicked in. The ship rose a few meters off the launch bay floor. There was a clang as the landing skids retracted and the ship started to drift towards the shimmering energy shield. The main viewer on the bridge showed the forward camera's view of the shimmering barrier drawing ever closer. Everyone except the young woman stiffened as the Twilight hit the barrier. The ship however simply slid through, like a fish gliding through water.
As soon as they were clear, the ship's main engines engaged in earnest and they accelerated. As they did, the picture on the main viewer changed to the aft camera. At first, all they could see was the rectangular outline of the launch bay, growing smaller as they pulled away. It was surrounded by a black glistening material like that of the alien ships they had seen. Andrew saw more narrow rectangular lights appear further out from the first one. First a few, then dozens, then hundreds. And then, all of a sudden, the whole structure they were looking at came into view. Lieutenant Graham swore softly, but everyone heard him in the utter silence on the bridge. The titanic size of the thing they were looking at struck Andrew like a round from a Gauss rifle.
It was, the term ship just seemed inadequate. The thing was nearly double the size of a dreadnaught. Moving city, might have been a more apt description. While the alien ships they had seen earlier reminded Andrew vaguely of sting rays, this was different. It looked more like some enormous prehistoric sea monster. The thickest part of the ship was in the middle and it seemed to smoothly taper down, growing thinner towards the edges. The 'upper' part, rose into a fairly pronounced dome. Whereas the 'lower' part only protruded very slightly. Along the thin outer edges, there were what looked like odd protrusions that stuck out in front of the ship and curved inward. They looked like enormous tentacles, about to reel in some hapless prey they had ensnared. The glowing lights of the launch bays looked like hundreds of narrowed eyes glowering at them.
As the Twilight moved further away, the enormous ship shifted its orientation slightly, so that it was now directly pointing at them.
“That's not good,” said Chief Nolan in a would be calm voice.
Major Clark turned to the young woman.
“We need to get out of here, warm up the dimension drive.”
“It is ready now,” the young woman replied calmly.
“Brace yourselves.”
Tendrils of light extended from the Twilight to form a swirling vortex and a second later, they were gone.
Chapter 30
The Twilight made its way through the seemingly endless tunnel of swirling light. Anna stared at the image on the main viewer for a moment longer before turning her attention back to the group of people on the bridge.
“How did the dimension drive engage so quickly?” Major Clark was asking.
“When we repaired your ship, we also made a few modifications,” the young woman explained.
“What kind of modifications?” Anna broke in.
The young woman hesitated, she looked slightly uncomfortable.
“You must understand, we didn't have much time to make these repairs. We also had to work in relative secrecy, our options were limited.”
“You seem to have done alright,” Saskill remarked as he surveyed the bridge.
Major Clark gave the young woman a calculating look, then said.
“It is imperative that we know about any modifications you may have made to this ship, we need to know its capabilities and its limitations.”
The young woman nodded.
“Very well, the first thing you should know is that I am not the only member of my species aboard this ship.”
“How many others are there?” Asked Clark.
“Just one.”
“Where are they?”
The young woman looked at Andrew.
“Sergeant, could you touch the wall over there for me,” she said indicating a patch of wall between the tactical station and the bridge door.
Andrew moved closer and reached out his hand. As soon as his finger came into contact with the bulkhead, he felt that same sensation of calm he had felt on the alien ship. And there was a new feeling, one of recognition. He looked up at the young woman in amazement.
“That presence I felt aboard your ship, the thing we saw in the control room, it’s aboard this ship.”
“Not so much aboard, as part of the ship,” the young woman corrected.
Anna rounded on her.
“Are you saying that one of your people has, possessed my ship or something?”
“Not so much possessed as merged with it.”
“Well un-merge them,” Anna demanded.
“I think you will find their presence quite beneficial,” the young woman assured her.
“Besides, we also made some upgrades to your ship that will only function with the presence of this individual.”
“What upgrades?” Clark cut in.
“Well, as you might have noticed, we have modified your dimension drive.”
“I surmised as much, what else?”
“We've also made some changes to your fusion reactor. These were necessary to incorporate the shielding system.”
“The Twilight has shields?” Lieutenant Graham asked.
“Like the ones we saw on your ships?”
The young woman nodded.
“That could come in handy,” said Aziz.
“But I still don't have any navigation controls,” he added.
“Unfortunately, the navigational instruments aboard this ship are incompatible with the upgrades we've made to your dimension drive,” the young woman explained.
“Once the dimension drive is disengaged, your navigational controls will function once more.”
“I see,” said Major Clark.
“What about the energy shield, will that also have to be operated by this, whatever, inside the ship?”
“Yes, but you merely need to ask and the shields will be activated or deactivated.”
“How long will the shields last, will they weaken when absorbing damage?” Anna wante
d to know.
The young woman shook her head.
“No, the shields will stay on for as long as you like. There are however, a few considerations to keep in mind while the shields are in operation. First, while the shields are active, you will be unable to use the Dimension drive. Secondly, while the number of impacts the shield absorbs has no effect on its strength, there is a limit to how much energy it can absorb at any given moment.”
“How much energy exactly?” Major Clark wanted to know.
The young woman thought for a moment, then answered hesitantly.
“It is hard to say exactly, but in your words the shields can absorb a single hit of up to fifty thousand terajoules.”
The bridge was silent for a moment.
“Damn, that's one hell of a shield,” said Lieutenant Graham.
“Are you sure about that number?” Anna Asked.
“Reasonably, like I said, it is hard to say exactly,” the young woman replied.
“If that's true,” said Graham thoughtfully.
“Then this ship could take a hit from just about anything up to a type four ion projector. Those things put out just over fifty thousand terajoules.”
“In that case the shields would absorb most of the energy but collapse,” the young woman explained.
“What happens if the shields collapse?” Asked Major Clark.
“Assuming the mechanisms that generate the shield are not damaged, they will reactivate in slightly more than ten minutes.”
“I knew there was a catch,” said Graham.
“That's an awfully long time to be sitting there unprotected in a battle,” agreed Clark.
Lieutenant Dolohov, who had been hanging back slightly from the group, now stepped forward.
“That ship, or whatever it was we saw, the giant one,” she said.
“How strong are its shields?”
The young woman considered her before answering.
“I do not know,” she said finally.
“Why not?” Asked John.
“We have not had an opportunity to test its strength yet.”
Dolohov said nothing, but her disbelief was etched all over her face.
Major Clark seemed to feel it was time to change the course of the conversation.
Imperium: Contact Page 23