Imperium: Contact

by Kabbabe, Malek

  “Nolan, you there?” He asked.

  “I'm here Sergeant,” Nolan replied.

  “Any idea where I should start opening this thing?”

  “The best place to start would be one of the drone ports. Fortunately for you, that landing of yours didn't damage any of the magnets we need.”

  “Yeah yeah, I get it, don't hurt the capsule,” said Andrew.

  “Can we get on with this?”

  Ten minutes later, Andrew had the dock cover and a fair amount of other parts from inside the capsule removed. They now floated lazily a few meters from the hull.

  “Okay,” said Nolan.

  “You should be able to see the outer reactor housing. It'll look like a metal sphere with a bunch of cables and tubes going to it.”

  Andrew shifted his grip on the capsule and peered into the opening.

  “Yeah, I think I see it,” he said.

  “Good, now you'll need to remove all the connections to the housing and the bolts mounting it to the capsule’s internal structure. I'd suggest starting with the-.”

  Andrew ignored him, he activated the blade on his right arm again. A few well placed jabs and the reactor housing floated loosely inside the capsule. Andrew reached in and pulled it out, it was roughly half a meter in diameter.

  “You were saying,” he said, retracting his blade.

  “I thought we agreed on no more stabbing of the capsule,” said Nolan.

  “It worked,” Andrew countered.

  “Legionnaires,” Nolan said irritably.

  “All of you, like Neanderthals with clubs.”

  “I take that as a compliment,” said Andrew.

  “Look, just get it back to the ship before you break it.”

  Andrew grasped a bundle of power cables that were still dangling from the housing and wrapped them around his wrist. He switched his armor's nav system back on and reoriented himself to face the Twilight.

  “Ready,” he said.

  “Hang on a second,” Anna replied.

  “We're going to rotate the ship so you'll be aimed at the hangar bay.”

  “Should be a lot easier to hit than the airlock door,” Andrew agreed.

  As Andrew watched, the Twilight rolled so its underside was now facing him. He zoomed in using his armor's optical enhancement. He could see the hangar bay doors slide apart and a nav marker appeared in the center of the opening.

  “Whenever you're ready Sergeant,” said Anna.

  Andrew adjusted his position, until the thruster on his back was aligned with the hangar bay, then activated it.

  He drifted away from the capsule, the metal sphere floating alongside him. Andrew checked his speed and cut the thruster. He glanced at the nav marker, one point five kilometers to go. Suddenly, his radio squawked.

  “Sergeant!” Anna's urgent voice sounded in his ear.

  “Sensors just detected a massive power buildup in the capsule.”

  “What? I thought they were inert?”

  “They are,” Anna replied.

  “It must be some sort of booby-trap.”

  “Why would the bessra booby-trap their mining capsules?” Asked Andrew.

  “Never mind why,” Anna cut him off.

  “You need to get out of there, now!”

  “My thruster doesn't have much fuel left,” said Andrew.

  “I could try-”

  He was cut off by a massive wave of energy that slammed into him from behind. It sent him tumbling, end over end. He could see globules of plasma and bits of molten metal fly past him. Warning lights and a persistent beeping filled his helmet. The next instant he felt stabs of burning hot pain in his back and his thruster exploded. A voice filled his helmet.

  “Warning, armor breach. Loss of atmospheric pressure. Warning, armor breach...”

  Andrew tried to inhale, but there wasn't anything there. Everything was going dark and the warning message became quieter.

  “In-initiate emergency armor seal,” he gasped.

  A strange hissing sound filled his ears and he was able to breathe again. He felt a stinging sensation in his neck and his eyes shot open. His armor had detected that his life was in danger and initiated its on-board emergency medical program. Andrew ran a diagnostic on the nanites connect to his neural interface, those in his armor and the ones in his system. The back of his armor was pockmarked with plasma impacts. The nanite armor had stopped most of them, but three of them had burned all the way through.

  The armor's self repair systems had managed to seal the breach and were diverting more nanites from other parts of the armor to help strengthen the area. Andrew reviewed the data from his internal nanites. The plasma had burned a hole into his lung, another through his stomach. The third impact had luckily gone through his chest cavity and not hit any internal organs. The nanites in his system had stopped any internal bleeding, but they didn't have the raw materials to start rebuilding the damaged cells. He'd be able to get that once he was back aboard the Twilight.

  Andrew was still spinning end over end, tumbling through space. He tried activating his nav system, but it was damaged. He tried the com next.

  “Williams to Twilight, do you read me?”

  A crackle of static filled his ears, he tried gain.

  “Twilight, are you there?”

  “Yes, I read you Sergeant,” came Anna's reply.

  “Are you all right?”

  “I'll live.”

  He looked up at the metal sphere that was still somehow attached to his wrist.

  “The reactor's got a few new holes in it, but it looks more or less intact,” he said.

  “We'll worry about that later,” Major Clark's voice cut in.

  “First we need to get you back aboard.”

  “My thruster was destroyed in that explosion,” said Andrew.

  “And my nav system is toast.”

  “Then we'll have to catch you,” said Anna.

  “I've got a good sensor lock on you. I'll have Aziz maneuver the ship so the hangar bay lines up with your current trajectory.”

  Andrew continued tumbling towards the Twilight. He shut off the visual interface in his helmet, the constantly spinning view was distracting.

  “Two hundred meters to the hangar bay,” Anna informed him.

  “That explosion increased your speed to fifty meters per second,” she added.

  “Aziz is trying to match your velocity as best he can, but get ready for a rough landing.”

  “Copy that,” Andrew replied.

  “Seventy meters.”

  Andrew re-activated the armor's visual interface just in time to see the Twilight's open hangar bay rotate into view. At the angle he was coming in on, he would enter near the top of the bay. It was only a three meter drop, but still, if he could avoid it.

  “Commander,” he said.

  “Can you deactivate the artificial gravity in the hangar bay?”

  “Copy that, hang on.”

  “Got it,” said Anna, just as Andrew entered the bay.

  Despite Aziz's efforts, the difference in Andrew's velocity versus the ship's was considerable. He flew along the bay's ceiling towards the back wall. Any second now he was going to slam into it. He activated the blade on his free arm and stabbed. The blade sliced a long gouge into the hangar bay ceiling, slowing him down. Andrew gritted his teeth and waited for the impact with the far wall.

  He needn't have worried, by the time he reach the back of the hangar bay, most of his forward momentum was gone. He gently bumped into the rear wall and was able to push himself off the ceiling onto the floor.

  “Okay, you can re-activate the gravity now,” he said, placing the metal sphere on the floor next to him.

  A moment later, the gravity returned.

  “What the hell just happened?” Anna demanded.

  “What do you mean?” Asked Andrew.

  “I mean the dozen or so system damage reports coming from in and above the hangar bay.”

  Andrew looked up at
the bay's ceiling. A trail of exposed wires and severed conduits ran almost the entire length of it. Smoke curled out and dispersed in the vacuum, every now and then a few sparks flashed.

  “Commander,” he said, sliding onto the floor and leaning his back against the wall.

  “Remember when I said I wouldn't damage your ship, I lied.”

  Chapter 49

  Lieutenant Harbid examined his surroundings, he was standing in the barracks’ mess hall. Before him stretched row after row of long tables with benches built into the sides. The tables went from each wall to the center of the room, where they left a long straight path running down the middle. The far wall had three food stations built into it. Katie and Lessa were standing in front of the center one.

  As he approached, Harbid caught part of their conversation.

  “So what would you like to eat?” Asked Katie.

  Lessa looked up at her.

  “I don't know,” she said.

  “Well what sorts of things do you like to eat?”

  “Roasted Abanu,” said Lessa.

  “Abanu?”

  “It's a kind of animal,” Lessa explained.

  “It's got this really big beak and brown feathers.”

  “Is that an animal from your home world?” Katie asked her.

  Lessa nodded.

  “Some of the clans brought them along when they left.”

  “Well we don't have those on Earth,” said Katie.

  “But we do have something similar, it's called chicken, how about that?”

  “Okay,” said Lessa.

  Katie tapped a few buttons on the food station, the machine hummed and beeped.

  “It should take about a minute,” she said to Lessa.

  Lessa stared at the machine.

  “So this has a 'chicken' inside it?” She asked perplexed.

  Katie smiled.

  “No, a chicken wouldn't be very happy in there. This machine has some basic building blocks of food in it. Things like protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, glucose, water and so on. It takes those things and creates the individual molecules that a certain type of food is made of, in this case roast chicken. It then assembles and heats or cools them to the correct temperature.”

  “Humans sure like to make things complicated,” said Lessa.

  Katie laughed.

  “You're not wrong.”

  Harbid made his way towards them, they both turned at the sound of approaching footsteps.

  “James,” said Katie.

  “Everything okay?”

  “So far,” Harbid replied.

  “Everyone seems to be settling in okay. Darmst is organizing the sleeping quarters with Jack. We've got enough bunks for everyone, but those things weren't exactly designed for shengyet.”

  “What about Visha?” Asked Katie.

  Harbid shrugged.

  “Jack and his men called for re-enforcements, they're searching the compound now, but so far they've found nothing.”

  “I don't think they will,” said Katie.

  “Yeah,” Harbid agreed.

  “I'm sure she's long gone by now.”

  The food station beeped one final time, a hatch opened and a plastic tray slid out. On it was a plate with roast chicken breast, rice and a side of vegetables. There was also a fork, knife and a glass of water. Katie handed the tray to Lessa, who took it with a puzzled expression.

  “All that's chicken?” She asked.

  “No, that's chicken,” said Katie, pointing to it.

  “Those other things are called rice and those are cooked vegetables.”

  “What animal do they come from?” Lessa wanted to know.

  “They don't,” said Katie.

  “They're plants and grains.”

  “And you eat that?” Lessa asked incredulously.

  “Yes, don't shengyet eat plants?” Katie asked.

  Lessa shook her head.

  “No, we only eat meant,” she explained.

  “Ahh, no wonder you didn't like combat rations then,” said Katie.

  “Well, in that case just eat the chicken and leave the rest.”

  “Okay,” said Lessa.

  “But what are those for?” She asked, indicating the knife and fork.

  “We use them to hold and cut our food,” Katie explained.

  “Why?”

  “So we don't get our food all over our hands.”

  “Is that bad for humans?”

  “No, it's not that,” said Katie.

  “People used to eat with their hands a long time ago, but we don't anymore.”

  “Why not,” Lessa pressed.

  Harbid laughed.

  “See, this is why I prefer combat rations, so much simpler.”

  Katie gave him an annoyed look.

  “It’s just a tradition,” she said to Lessa.

  “You don't have to use them.”

  Lessa cocked her head and took the tray over to the nearest table.

  “I think I'll go see how Darmst is doing with those sleeping arrangements,” said Harbid, watching Lessa examining the fork and knife with a dubious expression.

  “I'm going to get myself something to eat,” said Katie.

  Lessa was now holding the knife in one hand and the fork in the other. She had grasped the fork by the prongs and was now awkwardly prodding the chicken breast with the handle.

  “Has she told you anything more about herself?” Harbid asked.

  Katie shook her head.

  “No, I asked Shassa about her. She told me another group of shengyet that were staying with the clan brought her along.”

  “Where are they now?” Asked Harbid.

  “Apparently they went on a raid of a bessra outpost, only the leader made it back.”

  “So where is he now?”

  “He's dead.”

  “Dead?”

  “Yes,” said Katie

  “Shassa wasn't too sure on the specifics, but apparently he was at a meeting with the chief of the clan, Major Clark and a few others. Things got heated, he tried to kill the chieftain and ended up dead.”

  “Did Shassa know if the group of shengyet included Lessa's parents or relatives?” Harbid asked.

  “She told me they were pretty light lipped about the girl, but she told me that Lessa seemed to know them.”

  “Well I hope she tells someone,” said Harbid, still watching Lessa.

  She had now given up on the cutlery and simply grabbed the chicken breast in her right hand.

  “I know,” said Katie, watching Lessa tear off a chunk of chicken with her teeth.

  “If she has any family out there, I'd like to get her back to them.”

  The sound of approaching footsteps made both of them look up. A man in an Admiral's uniform was walking towards them. They exchanged a startled glance, then jumped to attention.

  “Admiral Constantine, I didn't know you were coming sir,” said Harbid surprised.

  “At ease,” said the Admiral.

  Lessa had put down her chicken, she threw a frightened glance at Constantine, then jumped up from the bench and ran to hide behind Katie.

  “Um, sorry about that Admiral,” Harbid said awkwardly.

  “It's alright Lieutenant,” Constantine assured him.

  Katie turned around and knelt down in front of Lessa.

  “It's all right, he won't hurt you” she said softly.

  “That's Admiral Constantine, he helped us bring you here.”

  Cautiously, Lessa peered around Katie at the Admiral. Katie held out her hand and Lessa took it.

  “Come on, let's go say hello,” she said.

  Katie stood up took a few steps forward, Lessa still holding her hand.

  “Lessa, Admiral Constantine, Admiral, this is Lessa.”

  “Pleased to meet you,” said Constantine, holding out his hand.

  Cautiously, Lessa stretched out her own and they shook.

  “Why don't you go finish your chicken,” said Katie.
/>
  Lessa nodded and walked back to her table.

  Katie watched her go, then turned to Constantine.

  “Apologies Admiral,” she said.

  “Really, it's all right,” Constantine assured her.

  “Based on your reports, after everything these shengyet have been through, I'm surprised she wasn't more wary of me.”

  “Admiral,” Harbid interjected.

  “If you don't mind my asking sir, why are you here?”

  A smile flitted across the Admiral's face.

  “I could tell you I wanted to see how you were doing, but to be perfectly honest, I just needed to get out for a while. Out of military headquarters,” he added in response to Harbid's questioning look.

  “I've basically been living in my office for the past few days.”

  “This have anything to do with Major Clark's mission and our guests?” Asked Harbid.

  The Admiral nodded.

  “I don't mean to pry Admiral,” Katie began.

  “But you're wondering what this is all about,” Constantine finished for her.

  “Yes Admiral.”

  Constantine sighed.

  “I know you both risked a lot following my orders,” he said.

  “You've both earned the right to some answers. This information is extremely sensitive however and I need to know you will tell no one else about this.”

  Katie and Harbid both nodded.

  “Very well,” said Constantine and began.

  After the Admiral had finished, there was silence for a full three seconds, then Harbid exhaled loudly.

  “That's one hell of a story,” said Katie.

  Admiral Constantine laughed.

  “You're telling me, when Major Clark told me about it, I was half tempted to just dismiss her as completely insane.”

  “So, what happens now?” Asked Harbid.

  “To be honest, I have no idea,” replied Constantine.

  “Once this alien ambassador gets here and Vice-Admiral Jones is dealt with. Well, at that point everything will be up to the Senate. I hope we can negotiate some sort of truce, but your guess is as good as mine.”

  Katie looked over at Lessa, who had finished eating now and was watching them intently.

  “What's going to happen to them?” She asked.

  “I haven’t really given it much thought,” the Admiral confessed.

  “They're going to have to stay here until I get things rolling with the senate, I can't risk the wrong person finding out about this. After that, like I said, I really don't know.”