“I don’t have precise details, but I think Lieutenant Burner’s assessment is correct.” Aston spotted an inbound missile attack from the enemy warship. “Interceptors launched. Rear clusters one and two fired in response.”
“I’m reading another energy surge from their hull, sir,” said Eastwood. “The tenixite converter!”
“The mesh deflector is on cooldown,” said Aston.
In a split-second, Recker evaluated the possible outcomes of another discharge from the tenixite weapon. Without the mesh deflector, the Vengeance was going to be destroyed and everyone onboard killed.
“Ready the Executor,” he said, cutting power to the forward propulsion and giving extra to the rear modules. The Vengeance spun wildly, crazily, and the sensors feeds were of greens, browns and greys, the details moving too fast for the human brain to register.
Timing it as best he could, Recker brought the warship from its 180-degree turn and the nose was pointing almost towards the enemy spaceship.
“Fire!” he ordered.
From the corner of his eye, Recker watched Aston plant a finger on one of her console buttons and hold it there for a long second. The Executor fired and, at first, Recker wasn’t sure if anything had happened. Then, a bass note of such depth and intensity crashed through him that it made him groan with the pain and he felt like his bones were being ground into powder within his body.
In a flash of bottomless darkness which filled a sphere two thousand metres in diameter, the enemy ship exploded into countless pieces. Alloys, still burning from atmospheric friction, were sent in every direction at tremendous speed and Recker could only stare in wonder at the complete and utter destruction of his enemy.
“Done.” Recker couldn’t think of much else to say.
“As easy as that,” said Eastwood numbly. “The Executor kicked us out of mode 2,” he said, recovering enough to provide a status update.
“The weapon has gone offline,” Aston confirmed. “One shot and no more.”
“How soon before we can switch back to mode 2?” asked Recker.
“No idea, sir,” said Eastwood. “I’m sure there’s a way to find out and I’ll tell you when I’ve figured out the method.”
“That’s fine, Lieutenant. We’re all learning.”
This victory – which he attributed more to luck than anything else – left him feeling empty and he didn’t want to look at the pieces of the enemy warship, many of which had already crashed into the trees. He turned the Vengeance away and accelerated for orbit. The forest receded rapidly and the sky darkened as the planet’s atmosphere transitioned to vacuum.
“We’re leaving here,” said Recker.
“I’ll pass on the good news to Sergeant Vance, sir,” said Burner. “After that, I’ll send an FTL comm to Adamantine – in case something happens to us and we don’t get home.”
“Shame Excon-18 got caught up in the tenixite blast,” said Aston. “Else we could have taken down a data extractor and recovered what was available.”
Recker shook his head. “We’ve found the biggest prize, Commander, and I wouldn’t have risked a return to the planet. We came through an encounter with one enemy ship – next time it might be five. Or a dozen.”
She smiled tiredly. “Home it is, then.”
After five minutes at maximum sub-light speed, the planet was far behind, though the crater made by the depletion burst was clearly visible. Lieutenant Burner scanned it and confirmed his earlier assertion that the hole was 220 kilometres in diameter and more than 120 kilometres deep, even if the falling earth and stone made it impossible for him to be certain about the latter figure.
A minute later, Lieutenant Eastwood declared that engine mode 2 was again available.
“Want me to switch over so we can put in some extra distance, sir?”
“We don’t know if overuse causes additional stress on the warship, Lieutenant.”
“That’s true, sir.” Eastwood had something else to say. “I found a mode 3, sir,” he said. “It appeared while mode 2 was in operation.”
Recker turned. “What would be the results of activating this new mode?”
“I don’t know, sir - I was denied access. Since I didn’t have the required security level, that leaves you as the only one with authority to access mode 3.”
Recker felt troubled at the words. On the surface, a propulsion switch shouldn’t require the approval of a commanding officer to activate. The fact that this one did made him ask what he was missing. It didn’t matter yet – this was the time to return home, not to experiment.
“One of the control buttons lit up during mode 2,” he said eventually. “I didn’t get a chance to see what it was for.”
“There was plenty going on, sir.”
For a full hour, Recker flew directly away from Vitran and then he brought the Vengeance to a halt. “Five-point-two million klicks is enough,” he said. “Lieutenant Eastwood, we’re going to Lustre.”
“Yes, sir. Course set. Lightspeed drive activation in six minutes.”
“Where’d the two-minute reduction come from?” asked Recker.
“Some extra cycles on the processing core became available when you returned to the ship, sir,” said Eastwood. “With everything that was happening, I didn’t have time to mention it.” He looked closely at his console. “And the expected duration just came through – we’re down to twelve days for the return journey, so our lightspeed multiplier went up as well.”
Recker had plenty to talk about, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak. He waited with one eye on the timer and, at six minutes, the Vengeance transitioned into lightspeed.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The crew were exhausted and Recker likewise. In order to prevent mistakes resulting from tiredness, he called a halt to any investigation work on the Vengeance’s unlocked systems until everyone was sufficiently rested. The crew was accustomed to short rest breaks taken at inconsistent times and it didn’t require longer than a day for them to recover to full alertness.
From that moment, they devoted themselves to uncovering as much as possible about the alien warship, to ensure they wouldn’t be disadvantaged next time trouble showed up. Some secrets were easily dug out of their hiding places, others were more reluctant.
“We know the Executor is linked to propulsion mode two,” said Aston. “And when I fired it, the Vengeance was forced into mode one again.”
“For five minutes,” said Eastwood.
“I checked the logs for the mesh deflector and that was on a five-minute cooldown as well,” said Aston. “I don’t know the cause of the limitation.”
“I also checked those logs,” said Eastwood. “And I reckon the mesh deflector hardware contains its own power source. I can’t find the schematics, so I don’t know where it’s located in the hull.”
“I noticed that the deflector acted automatically against the tenixite weapon,” said Recker.
“Yes, sir,” said Aston. “And then I activated it manually against those incoming missiles.”
“The obvious conclusion is that the mesh was actually designed to combat depletion bursts, yet with the additional function of being able to block pretty much anything else, but at the operator’s discretion.”
“We’ve seen the cylinder network and we’ve discussed what might happen if someone decided to aim a full-charge depletion burst at a planet,” said Eastwood. “It makes sense that if you were on the opposing side, you’d want to develop a way to counter the effects.”
“I wonder if all those holes covering Vitran were a result of other depletion bursts blocked by a mesh higher in the atmosphere,” said Recker, rubbing his chin in thought. “Maybe the two sides – the Meklon and whoever else – fought over the planet for so long that eventually the Meklon were forced to abandon the place.”
“We might find answers in the Vengeance’s audit logs,” said Eastwood. “When you moved me to a new security tier, I found a whole bunch of them which I hadn’t see
n before.”
“Same with the comms logs, sir. I’ve had a look through some, but mostly it’s just checking in with bases and the automated replies. I’m sure I’ll find more interesting stuff if I keep looking.”
“Do you have access to any new hardware functions on the comms and sensors, Lieutenant?”
“There’s a distress beacon walled off from the rest of the comms system, where a core override can’t reach it. Other than that, I’ve got some extra processing cycles that will help with sensor work.” Burner sighed. “Weapons and engines. Those guys get the exciting stuff. I get extra filters on the sensor arrays.”
“You love it really,” said Aston, grinning broadly.
“A warship’s comms station is always the closest one to the replicator,” Eastwood observed. “There’s a degree of cold calculation behind his chosen specialisation.”
Burner let it slide off him. “So when we boil this down, once every five minutes, the Vengeance is a match for almost anything. Then for the next five minutes, it’s an easy target.”
“Not exactly,” said Aston. “That interceptor storm was remarkably effective.” She cleared her throat and a hint of pinkness appeared in her cheeks. “We’ve got gauss repeater turrets as well. I didn’t find them in time to use them against the enemy missiles.”
“No shame in that, Commander - we were all fighting to stay afloat. Next time you’ll know.”
“Yes, sir. Anyway, those missiles we fired were faster than anything in the HPA. I haven’t located their maximum lock range, or most of the other technical details, but I’m sure our weapons labs can learn something from the hardware.”
“It’s the unlocking of the mesh deflector we should be celebrating most,” said Recker. “If the Daklan don’t already have a tenixite converter in their possession, then they’re actively seeking to obtain one. Plus, we’ve found proof that the species which built those weapons are still active and not far beyond the fringes of our known space.”
“They might not be hostile, sir,” said Burner. “They attacked us, but they must have thought we were the Meklon.”
“It’s wise to prepare for both war and peace at the same time,” said Eastwood. “Expect the former and hope for the latter.”
“A lesson the HPA has had every opportunity to learn,” Recker agreed. “To conclude – in the right hands, the Vengeance is a match for maybe anything in the Daklan fleet, as long as we can deal with its weaknesses.”
“It’s not likely flying again, sir,” said Aston. “As soon as Admiral Telar reads your report, he’ll order this warship dismantled in order to copy the technology. With your upgraded security access to the Vengeance, an HPA shipyard should be able to extract the components without breaking anything.”
Hearing the words produced a sadness in Recker. He didn’t for a moment believe it was his right to pursue glory in this alien warship, yet it was in HPA control because he and his crew had fought hard to recover it from Tanril. He sighed inwardly, accepting that this would be his last mission on the Vengeance.
“I ran some figures based on recorded data from engine mode 2,” said Eastwood a few minutes later. “We’d top out at four thousand klicks per second.”
“Fast,” said Burner.
“More than twice the speed of an annihilator,” said Aston.
“Not faster than a missile,” said Eastwood. “Furthermore, I don’t know what limitations there are on engine mode 2. It might automatically shut down after ten minutes or it might last forever.”
“If it lasted forever, there’d be no requirement for a switchable engine mode,” said Recker.
“Maybe. I can imagine a few reasons why it would be preferable to set things up like they have, sir.”
“I’m curious about engine mode 3,” said Aston. “More precisely, I’m curious to know what happens if the Executor is fired at the same time.”
Recker felt the chill of promised death and he shivered. He’d earlier asked himself why a propulsion switch would require activation by a commanding officer and Aston had hinted at a reason. If the Executor had access to an even greater power supply, maybe it could destroy far more than a single warship.
“These alien species must have been fighting a nasty war,” said Recker.
“The more desperate you become, the greater the lengths you’ll go to,” Eastwood replied.
Recker exhaled noisily. “If we get caught up in this old war, will be facing opponents who are geared up to eradicate anything they come across. There may be no negotiation and no chance to build trust.”
“We’d better hope the Interrogator didn’t find anything in the databanks of our warships,” said Aston. “Otherwise we might find our planets taken out by the tenixite converter network without us being able to do a damn thing to stop it.”
“It could be that we’re of no interest to these two species,” said Recker quietly. “Either that or they fought each other to a standstill and they lack the capability to open up a war on a new front.”
“Or they pursue a war against us with enough brutality to finish it before it’s even started,” said Eastwood.
Recker didn’t want to shut down the conversation entirely, but he needed a break from the speculation. “We’re not getting anywhere with this, folks,” he said. “Once we return to Lustre we’ll find out if the Interrogator data produced anything to worry about. Until then, we should sit back and enjoy the ride.”
“Like that’s going to happen,” said Burner.
“And when we arrive at Adamantine, I want us to be familiar enough with the Vengeance’s unlocked hardware that we can finish the debriefing as quickly as possible.”
“So they can put us back on a different warship and send us to our deaths, sir?” asked Burner. “I’d rather put my feet up in a comfortable technician’s office for a few months while I help our sensor designers understand all this new stuff.”
“A few months?” said Aston with a raised eyebrow. “You could tell them everything about those extra lens filters in an afternoon.”
“I’ll draw it out as long as possible, Commander, while junior officers bring me real coffees made from real beans.”
“Like hell you will,” said Eastwood. “You’ll document everything in the ten days we have remaining before arrival at Lustre. When we land, you’ll be down one boarding ramp and up the next. If they park the ground transport close enough, your feet might not even touch the ground.”
“Enough,” laughed Recker. “Lieutenant Burner, I think that deep down inside, you know exactly what’s going to happen.”
“A man can dream, sir.”
Recker stretched. “Commander Aston, you’ve got the controls,” he said. “I’m going for a look about.”
“Yes, sir.”
When he left the bridge, Recker made straight for the mess area. Sergeant Vance was elsewhere, but Corporal Hendrix was killing time along with a few other members of the squad. Recker didn’t stay for long – he eschewed the potential delights of the Vengeance’s original replicator and instead ate a plate of bland food from the HPA equivalent. When he was finished eating, he walked a circuit of the warship’s interior. The break from his console made him feel better and when he returned to the bridge, Recker’s brain felt clear.
“Fracture,” he said, remembering something.
“Sir?”
“It’s a function accessible from my console,” he said. “I had a brief look after we entered lightspeed but I couldn’t work out how it activates.”
“Sounds interesting,” said Aston.
Recker called up the function again. The amber warning light was still on and he poked around to find the cause.
“Failure in linked hardware,” he muttered.
Eastwood became interested. “I can’t see any of the fracture hardware modules on my console, sir. If you send me the tie-in codes, I’ll check if they’re linked to anything else.”
“I’ve sent you the codes.”
“Those
tie ins are with the propulsion and the main processing core,” said Eastwood a couple of minutes later.
“Just like most parts of a warship,” said Aston. “Doesn’t tell us much.”
“Let me have a look at this failed module,” said Recker under his breath. “Hmm. It’s tied in to some different hardware.”
“Send me the code, sir.”
“Done.”
“That links to the tactical, sir,” said Eastwood. “Lieutenant Burner’s probably best placed to tell you the significance.”
“Already on it,” said Burner. “Give me five minutes.”
“Take as long as you want, Lieutenant,” said Recker, hiding his impatience.
“Got it!” said Burner at last. “The failed hardware links to the tactical computer’s decision-making brain. I think this Fracture is designed to activate automatically. Or maybe it’s meant to be remotely activated. I’m not sure.”
“Except it’s broken.”
“You can probably trigger it manually, sir. Override the automation and I guess you’ll see the option to switch the entire function to manual.”
It took a minute or two for Recker to figure it out. “Done,” he said. “Whatever Fracture does, I can activate it from the control panel.”
“Maybe we should test it out when we arrive at Lustre,” said Eastwood. “Before we hand over the Vengeance and never see it again.”
“I’ll think about it, Lieutenant.”
In truth, Recker was itching to find out what would happen if he activated the Fracture command, but he didn’t want to do it anywhere near a human planet in case the results were more explosive than he anticipated. Equally, he didn’t want to break anything that might otherwise prove useful to the HPA. With ten days until re-entry to local space, it was an easy decision to put off.
Those ten days trickled by like sand through an hourglass. Recker knew he was just one man, but he hated being effectively out of action for so long. As each day passed, the clenched feeling in his stomach tightened a little more and he craved the end of this journey more than any other he could remember.
Fractured Horizons (Savage Stars Book 2) Page 20