“We will be safe there,” she said softly.
“The bad people who put you in that cell won't be able to find us there.”
The girl's face brightened slightly.
“Really?” She asked.
“Yes, I promise you'll be safe,” Katie assured her.
The girl smiled at her.
“I'm Lessa, by the way.”
Katie returned the smile.
“It's nice to meet you Lessa, I'm Katie.”
“Katsie?” The young girl asked.
“No, Ka-tie.”
“Ka-tsie,” the young girl replied.
“Close enough,” said Katie, grinning.
Harbid glanced around the cargo bay.
“I was going to get myself something to eat, anyone else hungry?” He asked.
“I could eat something,” said Katie.
“What about you two?”
“We ate back on the shuttle,” said Shassa, looking down at Lessa.
“It was awful,” said Lessa, pulling a face.
“Is all human food that bad?” She asked, looking up at Katie.
Katie laughed.
“Well combat rations aren't exactly the best example of human food. Once we get to earth, I can get you something better to eat.”
“So just you then,” said Harbid, looking at Katie.
“You know what, on second thought I'll wait until we get back to Earth too,” she replied.
Harbid shrugged.
“Suit yourself, but I don't know what you're all complaining about, I like combat rations.”
Chapter 46
The Twilight's bridge was silent, save for the soft beeping that emanated from the various control consoles. It had been like this since they had entered the dimension vortex. Finally, Anna broke the silence.
“Major, what was that, thing?”
Major Clark, who had been silently standing near the bridge door, looked up.
“I'm not familiar with all the details,” she replied.
“About a year ago, I was at a meeting of the military high command where we were briefed on the project. It was still in the early stages of development. Most of the science behind it is completely over my head, but from what I understood, it works on a similar principle to a dimension drive. Except instead of opening a stable vortex, it's designed to be deliberately unstable.”
Major Clark’s brow furrowed.
“From what I remember, the basic idea was first discovered during the initial dimension drive research. The first dimension drive prototypes suffered from instability issues. The vortexes they produced were microscopic and collapsed within a matter of milliseconds. But even that brief instant of having an unstable dimension vortex was enough to cause a massive release of energy. During one incident, an unstable vortex managed to destroy an entire research station. The idea behind the Ragnarok project was to create a much larger unstable vortex.”
She shook her head.
“The scientists who were at the briefing told us they expected it would release a tremendous amount of energy, but what we just saw is far beyond any of their estimates.”
“I still can't believe what just happened back there,” said Graham.
“That thing just destroyed an entire solar system.”
“So what happens now?” Anna wanted to know.
“I know we were going to Earth so you could negotiate a peaceful solution to all this,” she said, turning to the young woman.
“But given what just happened, is that even an option anymore?”
The young woman was silent for a moment.
“I,” she hesitated.
“I will not pretend this does not make peace more difficult to achieve, but I still wish to try.”
Major Clark sighed.
“That is something of an understatement. Jones may have been acting outside the military chain of command, you could even go so far as to call it treason. But there's no escaping the fact we just witnessed the single most costly defeat in the Empire's history.”
“No kidding,” Graham said grimly.
“Eight destroyers, four carriers and a dreadnought, completely wiped out. Not to mention thousands of fighters and the shipyard.”
He turned to Major Clark.
“Sorry Major, I'm all for peace, believe me. But given what just happened, we’re almost certainly wasting our time.”
Major Clark smiled bitterly.
“I wish I could say you're wrong Lieutenant, unfortunately I have to agree. I expect the senate to be outraged when they hear about this. They'll be out for blood and never mind how or why this happened.”
Clark turned back to the young woman.
“But if you're still willing to try, then I will as well.”
The young woman smiled.
“Right,” said Clark.
“If we're going to have any chance at pulling this off, we need to get back to Earth as soon as possible. If we can get word to Admiral Constantine, he can present what actually happened to the Senate and hopefully calm things down.”
Major Clark turned to Anna.
“Commander, how are we doing?”
Anna switched on the com panel.
“Chief, status report.”
“Not good, Commander,” came Nolan's reply.
“We've got serious damage to the main reactor and plasma conduits.”
“What about the Dimension drive?” Asked Anna.
“It's working fine,” Nolan replied.
“But with the main reactor this damaged, it'll take a very long time to re-charge the drive's capacitors for the next jump.”
“I see, any idea how long it'll take to fix it?”
“I'm not sure, if you just need it to recharge the dimension drive at a reasonable rate, I'd say three hours.”
“Get on it and let me know if you need any help.”
“Will do Commander.”
Anna swiveled her seat.
“How many jumps until we get to Earth?” She asked.
Ensign Aziz scratched the back of his head.
“This jump will get us to the Akaan system, from there I should be able to get to Sol in two more.”
“What's our ETA to Akaan?” Asked Major Clark.
Aziz glanced at his console.
“About eleven minutes, from there it'll be another jump to Epsilon Indi and then a final jump to Sol.”
“Epsilon Indi, there's nothing there,” Major Clark mused.
“What about Akaan?”
Lieutenant Graham looked up from his console.
“Not much, it was first discovered by the bessra. It's got a single type A blue giant star, no planets to speak of, just a large asteroid belt. There used to be a bessra mining operation in that belt, but Imperial records show it's been abandoned for years.”
“So no chance of getting any help with repairs in either of those systems,” Anna remarked.
“I wouldn't bet on it,” said Graham.
“Well then, we'll just have to do the best we can. As soon as we're back in normal space I want to search this ship from stem to stern,” she added.
“I want a complete damage report and be on the lookout for anything unusual. I wouldn't put it past Jones to have left a few surprises aboard.”
Eleven minutes later, Aziz was rapidly typing in commands into the navigational console.
“Coming up on normal space in thirty seconds,” he announced.
Anna switched on the com.
“Engine room,” prepare for transition to normal space.
“Aye, engine room ready.”
“Here we go,” said Aziz.
The swirling vortex of light collapsed and the main view screen was filled with the harsh blue light of Akaan's star. Anna activated the Twilight's sensor array and boosted the power to maximum.
“Not reading any other ships in our immediate vicinity,” she announced.
“But the radiation from the system's star makes it impossible to be sure.”
“Any sign of that old mining facility?” Asked Major Clark.
Anna bent over the sensor console.
“I'm reading a few ore processing capsules scattered among the asteroid belt, but they're in pretty bad shape.”
“Anything else?” Asked John.
Anna shook her head.
“Nothing.”
The main view screen zoomed in to show the asteroid belt. Billions of rocks, of all shapes and sizes, drifted lazily through the vacuum of space. Anna focused the screen on one of the sensor contacts, a mining capsule came into view. It was a square box, with small mining drone ports covering its surface. Its hull was dented and scratched with no running lights or any other signs of activity.
“Looks pretty beat up,” said Graham.
Anna focused the Twilight's sensors on the pod.
“Nolan, I'm sending you a sensor readout of an old mining capsule,” she said.
“Anything there we can use to speed up the reactor repairs?”
“Hmm,” came Nolan's reply.
“Well, human and bessra technology isn't exactly compatible, not to mention this stuff is pretty old.”
“So that's a no?”
“Yeah I'd say-wait a minute,” Nolan interrupted himself.
“If these sensor readings are right, the superconducting magnets in the capsule's reactor are still intact. A lot of the magnets in our reactor are fried. I was going to fabricate some more, but if we can get these out of the capsule. I'd still have to adapt them to fit our reactor, but it would be a lot faster than fabricating new ones from scratch.”
“All right,” said Anna.
“Aziz, lay in a course to that asteroid field.”
“Aye Commander, but all I've got are chemical thrusters, it'll take a few hours.”
“Understood, Nolan get started on your repairs.”
“Aye Commander.”
Anna turned to the young woman.
“If you could give Chief Nolan a hand.”
The young woman nodded and headed for the bridge door.
“John, you go with her.”
“Sure,” said John and hurried after her.
“The rest of you, begin a search of the ship and see if you can find some EVA suits.”
Anna looked at Major Clark.
“Any orders Major?”
“You seem to have everything under control. I think I'll make myself useful and help search the ship, keep me in the loop on our repair status.”
“Will do,” said Anna.
“Aziz and I will remain on the bridge to run navigation and sensors, the rest of you get to it.”
They filed out the bridge door, spreading throughout the ship. Graham, Andrew and Saskill went to search the hangar and cargo area. Major Clark went to search the living quarters and briefing room. Graham and Saskill started their search in the ship's small hangar bay, which left Andrew alone in the cargo area.
The first thing he did was look for something else to wear. He was still wearing his armor and its bulk made getting around the ship difficult. He had been forced to leave his uniform behind when they'd abandoned ship after the crash. He hoped it would still be here, one look around the cargo hold dashed those hopes. Jones' people had removed every last scrap of cargo. The only thing in the room was a diagnostics pad lying on the floor, probably dropped by one of the techs who'd been working on the ship.
Andrew approached it. As he did so, the small recon drone detached from his back and flew over the pad. The drone hovered above it for a few seconds, then a small tentacle of light protruded and touched it.
“It's just a diagnostics pad,” said Andrew.
The drone beeped and continued examining it.
“Find anything interesting?”
The drone made a sound almost like a derisive snort.
“That would be a no than, huh?”
The drone retracted its tentacle and began zooming around the room.
The metal covering Andrew's face and head slid back and merged with the rest of his armor. He bent down and picked up the pad, it activated and he skimmed its contents. It belonged to a Lieutenant Alan Smith, senior technician. Had belonged, Andrew corrected himself. Smith was dead now, along with the crews of every ship in Jones' fleet. He looked up at the small drone, still buzzing around the room. It was hard to imagine that the being inside it and the young woman down in the engine room were members of the same species. Andrew wondered just how many of them had died in that last battle. How many more of them and how many more humans would die before this was all over. He continued browsing through the pad, smith had been the head of the team in charge of repairing the Twilight. Well if nothing else, the work logs in here should help them discover any modifications Jones may have had made to the ship. Andrew looked up at the drone.
“You coming?” He asked.
The drone beeped and flew back towards him, settling itself onto the back of his armor.
He made his way back to the bridge. When he arrived, it was empty save Ensign Aziz.
“Where's the Commander?” Andrew asked.
“The sensor console lost power,” Aziz explained.
“She's gone to check the power conduits leading to the bridge.”
“Any idea where that is?”
“Yeah, there's an access hatch to a crawlspace a few meters down the hallway.”
Andrew exited the bridge and made his way back down the ship's main hallway. He'd only gone a few steps, when he spotted the access hatch to his left. Keeling down, he pressed the hatch release and the cover slid aside.
“Commander, you in there?” He called.
There was no answer, he got down on his stomach and stuck his head in the crawlspace. Dim red light illuminated the narrow passage that stretched out in front of him, before rounding a corner and out of sight. There was no way he was going to fit in there with his armor on. Just as he'd decided to head back to the bridge, he saw Anna come crawling around the corner.
“Sergeant,” she said, sounding slightly out of breath.
“Did you want something?”
“Yeah, I found something you might want to take a look at.”
Anna nodded and crawled towards the hatch, Andrew got to his feet and waited for her. He held out his arm as she exited the hatch, she hesitated for a moment than grasped his armored hand. Andrew pulled her to her feet and they made their way back to the bridge.
“Aziz told me about the sensor console,” said Andrew.
“Did you manage to fix it?”
“I think so,” she replied.
“One of the power conduits was damaged, but I think I managed to bypass it.”
They entered the bridge and Anna sat down at the sensor console.
“Looks good,” she announced.
“So,” she said, turning her chair to face him.
“What is it you wanted to show me?”
Andrew gave her the diagnostics pad, Anna scrutinized it for a few seconds.
“Yes, this should help.”
She tapped the pad a few times and activated the ship's com.
“Nolan.”
“Yes Commander?”
“I'm sending you a work log for the crew that did the repairs on this ship after the crash. I want you to look it over and let me know if you find anything out of the ordinary.”
“Commander, I'm up to my eyeballs just trying to get this reactor fixed,” protested Nolan.
“I know, but if Jones had any alterations made to this ship that we're not aware of.”
“I understand Commander,” Nolan sighed.
“I'll have a look and get back to you.”
“Thank you Chief.”
Anna examined the sensor readouts on the console in front of her, no new contacts. She spun in her seat and nearly jumped out of it. Andrew was standing next to her, also looking at the sensor data.
“Sergeant, you scared the hell out of me,” she said, still breathing heavily.
Andrew
took a step back.
“Apologies Commander, I didn't mean to startle you.
“It's okay,” Anna replied.
“Just don't sneak up on me like that.”
Andrew smiled, wryly.
“Sorry Commander, force of habit.”
“How did you even manage to be so quite? I remember the deck shaking when you walk around in that thing.”
Andrew looked down at his armor.
“Built in shock absorbing system,” he explained.
“The nanites in the armor's boot-soles spread out a bit and compress with every footfall, absorbing most of the energy. I didn't want to disturb you, so the neural connection to my armor automatically engaged the system.”
Anna looked at him for a moment.
“What's that like?” She asked.
“Having a suit of armor directly wired into your brain?”
Andrew shrugged.
“It's pretty much the same as always. I've already got nanites integrated into my body, putting on the armor just feels like I've got more of them.”
Anna looked at him again and hesitated.
“Do you mind if I ask you about that?”
“About the nanites in my body?”
Anna nodded.
“What do you want to know?”
“How much of you is, well human?” Anna asked.
“I mean, how much of your body is organic cells and how much is nanites?”
Andrew didn’t say anything, but a pained expression crossed his face.
“I’m sorry Sergeant,” she apologized.
“I shouldn’t have asked.”
“No, it’s all right Commander,” said Andrew.
“To be honest I’m not sure, but most of the tissues and organs in my body are infused with nanites.”
“What about your brain?” Anna asked.
“If they replaced parts of it with nanites, are you,” she hesitated before finishing the question.
“Are you still the same person you were before the procedure?”
Andrew was silent for a few seconds before he answered her.
“That's a good question, I have no idea.”
“What do you mean?”
“I did feel physically different after the procedure,” Andrew admitted.
“Then again, that's understandable, my body was different. You've got to understand, the procedure doesn't just make you stronger or faster, it changes everything.”
“How so?” Asked Anna.
Imperium: Contact Page 36