“Yes, sir.”
“Does it have a maximum rift size it can affect?”
“I haven’t got that far, sir. Also I’d require additional data on the formation or composition of a Sekar rift, as well as further knowledge on the vantrium drive’s maximum overstressed generation potential before failure. Then, I’d need to write a simulator program that can deal with the numbers. After that…”
“I get the message, Lieutenant. We’ll have to suck it and see.”
“That’s what I was telling you, sir. In a roundabout fashion.”
“What about the dark cannon?”
“It was scoring kills at a million klicks over Glesia,” said Kroll.
“That’s the range at which it’ll fire,” Jackson confirmed. “I don’t know if it’ll close a Sekar rift.”
“Find out.”
“Yes, sir.”
The brief conversation was enough for the Nullifier’s travel to reveal more of Dominion’s surface. The chasm which Griffin had noticed before grew and its widest visible point was more than fifty klicks. Other, smaller canyons and gorges joined with it, like tributaries of a vast, empty river.
Over the planet’s edge, the rocks still burst outwards, travelling fast enough to break free from the planet’s gravitational pull. A few seconds later and the LZ32-QN5 star appeared on the cusp and its faint rays broke amongst the fountaining stones, creating silhouettes and white-yellow spears. From so far away, the sight was beautiful and unique, yet Griffin was sure that up close the ejecting debris would be violent and dangerous.
“I’ve detected the first indication of ground facilities, sir,” said Dominguez. “Coming up on the main screen.”
The feed possessed a hint of the artificial resulting from the filters and enhancements applied to make the details stand out.
“Flat land broken up by surface fractures,” said Griffin. “What’s down there?”
“A mixture of concrete and alloys, sir.”
“These imperfections on the outskirts are structures, sir,” said Shelton. “Massive structures.”
“How extensive is this area?”
“The part we can see measures eight hundred klicks north to south,” Shelton replied. “The perimeter might have once been a straight line. Whatever produced all these breaks in the surface has likely made it unrecognizable from the original.”
“The Sekar have done this, Lieutenant.”
“I know that, sir. The enemy is here still and we’re going to run into them.”
For some reason the words made Griffin go cold. They shouldn’t have done – the Nullifier said the rift was here, so this wasn’t unexpected. It didn’t matter – the way Shelton put it conveyed the looming threat perfectly.
“Sir, can I have a word?”
It was Conway, waiting in the bridge doorway.
“You don’t need an invitation to come onto the bridge or to ask a question, Captain,” said Griffin. “It’ll need to be quick.”
“The spaceship told you that the tharniol core was breached, which makes the interior vulnerable to Sekar. Will the enemy appear inside the Nullifier?”
“I don’t have an answer for you.”
“We’ll keep watch. Is there an armory on the spaceship?”
“I can’t look now, Captain Conway. I’m sorry.”
“I’ve been watching the internal security systems,” said Kroll. “If I get a moment, I’ll access the software and see what I can find.”
“That would be appreciated.”
Griffin didn’t turn to watch Conway go. Instead, he kept his eyes fixed on the same enhanced sensor feed of the Hantisar facility. Each second, more became visible and the scene was one of devastation.
“This wasn’t a military base like we know them,” said Griffin. “It makes the Ragger facility on Reol look tiny in comparison.”
“I guess it’s going to cover an area fifty or sixty times greater once we can see the whole,” said Dominguez.
The Dominion facility was in ruins. What had once been a vast complex of buildings and airfields was now reduced to broken ground and shattered walls. A cloud of what Dominguez believed to be dust hung overhead, suspended in defiance of gravity. The chasm which Griffin had been following went right through the base at a diagonal, still widening and showing no sign that it would ever end. Many other cracks in the ground ensured the facility was so utterly broken that this could have only been a deliberate act.
“Here’re some spaceships, sir,” said Shelton. “Right on edge of sensor sight.”
It was a good spot from Shelton. The angle wasn’t perfect and the dust and piles of rubble conspired to limit the view. Rows of grey shapes covered an area of flat ground to the north and Griffin held his breath in anticipation while he waited to see what the Nullifier’s continued flight would reveal.
“Hundreds of spaceships,” said Kroll.
“Big ones,” added Shelton.
While many of the spaceships were parked in rows, others were in disarray in the same way as the rest of the base. Dozens were overturned or facing in different directions, like they’d been stirred with a giant stick. In other places, the spaceships had vanished into the ground fractures and Griffin didn’t know if those vessels were entirely gone or merely damaged. It made him feel sorrow to witness the sight.
A second landing strip came into view. This had once been as extensive as the first – perhaps a hundred kilometers north to south and half as much east to west. Once again the largest fracture went through, this time completely erasing the southern half of the landing area.
“More spaceships,” said Kenyon. “No open receptors.”
“How many of that fleet were lost when the Sekar did this?” asked Jackson.
“Too many.”
“I’m getting unusual readings from that central chasm,” said Dominguez. “Coming from way under the ground.”
“The same type you got from Qali-5?”
“I don’t know, sir – the Hurricane’s sensors only reported nulls. The Nullifier has a match for these readings in its database.”
“A Sekar rift,” said Griffin, before Dominguez could tell him as much.
“Yes. That chasm down there must be part of the rift which the Nullifier told us about.”
“The thin end,” said Kroll. “Damn, just how big is it?”
“Big enough for a Sekar-Major to get through, Lieutenant.”
“More than big enough.”
Movement on a different feed caught Griffin’s eye and he turned his attention to the sight of immense boulders being thrown into the sky, the source still hidden from view.
“We’ll have an angle to see that in about one minute, sir,” said Dominguez. “There’s plenty of seismic activity on the surface.”
“Suddenly I’m not totally ecstatic at the idea of finding out what’s throwing those boulders,” said Shelton.
Griffin didn’t say anything in return and he couldn’t deny having the same feeling himself. The Nullifier flew on and the crew watched the feed like it was the most important thing in the universe.
Chapter Nineteen
The chasm’s path across the surface was erratic and it made Griffin think of a lopsided mouth painted on the face of a nightmare clown. Sensor readings continued to indicate the presence of an immense Sekar rift and no amount of image enhancement was enough to obtain a clear sight of it. The opening in Dominion’s surface might as well have been a bottomless pit.
Wider and wider the chasm became, exceeding a hundred kilometers from one side to the other. A rock – several billion tons of mottled grey - detached from one edge and was ejected into the air like it was thrown by a creature of immense power. Griffin stared in a mixture of horror and fascination as it followed a perfectly straight trajectory, trailing smaller pieces crushed from the underside by the force of the initial acceleration.
“That piece will break orbit,” said Dominguez.
Another, larger, section of rock broke away
a few kilometers from the first. This one came faster yet and within seconds it attained a greater altitude. More and more of the chasm’s edge snapped free and even the smaller pieces were enormously heavy.
“I don’t think there’s a center,” said Shelton in a hushed voice. “I think this is happening most of the way along.”
“The rift is getting bigger,” said Griffin.
“This is happening for a reason,” said Isental, sounding troubled. “Something is forcing its way through from the other side.”
Griffin thought the same. “That’s exactly what it looks like.”
A minute later, the widest part of the chasm became visible on the sensors and Griffin found it hard to comprehend the enormity of it.
“120 klicks from one side to the other,” he said. “Like the planet could rip in two.”
“It might conceivably go deep into the molten core as well, sir,” said Dominguez. “The Sekar rift stops me obtaining an accurate reading.”
Viewed from ten million kilometers, the extent of the planet’s fragmentation was evident and the maelstrom of rocks was so dense it obscured parts of the surface. It seemed like invisible hands were tearing away the stone and hurling the pieces violently out of Dominion’s orbit.
“Is anything coming our way?” asked Griffin.
“There’s nothing on a collision course, sir,” said Dominguez. “I’m monitoring the situation.”
Griffin didn’t intend flying straight in with his fingers crossed. He maintained the same course for many minutes, watching the feeds. Gradually, the rift narrowed again, to eighty klicks, then forty, until it eventually became lost amongst the countless smaller canyons on Dominion’s surface.
“Ten thousand klicks in length,” said Shelton.
“I’m going to speak with the control entity,” said Griffin.
He wasn’t exactly sure how to make it respond, so he tried the simple method of asking.
GRIFFIN> I need to speak to the Nullifier.
NULLIFIER> You have seen the Sekar rift.
GRIFFIN> Were you watching?
NULLIFIER> I monitor the sensor feeds at all times.
GRIFFIN> That’s a big rift.
NULLIFIER> It has grown significantly.
GRIFFIN> I thought you said it would shrink once the Sekar-Major was gone.
NULLIFIER> I was wrong.
GRIFFIN> What’s happening here? Is another Sekar-Major about to emerge from the rift?
NULLIFIER> Whatever comes through it will not be a Sekar-Major.
GRIFFIN> What will it be?
NULLIFIER> Something more dangerous.
GRIFFIN> Like what?
NULLIFIER> I do not know. This is the largest rift known to the Hantisar databanks.
GRIFFIN> Will the emitter be enough to seal it?
NULLIFIER> Do you like to gamble, human?
The question caught Griffin off-guard and it seemed as if the Hantisar had instilled some additional personality routines into the control entity.
GRIFFIN> Not usually.
NULLIFIER> Neither do I.
GRIFFIN> What kind of odds are we talking about?
NULLIFIER> Very poor ones.
GRIFFIN> Are you in comms range of any other Rift class battleships?
NULLIFIER> No. I am not certain if any of my kind survive.
GRIFFIN> What do you suggest? Closing rifts is your sole purpose, isn’t it?
NULLIFIER> My processing core can manipulate numbers of effectively infinite length. I can simultaneously analyze the data within a hundred sensor streams and control the thousands of subsystems contained with my hull. I can calculate the trajectory of this spaceship across entire galaxies to within a thousand meters. Yet I cannot understand the method of extracting methods and plans from the unlimited variables that make up reality.
GRIFFIN> The brain of a biological organism is better at working out the answers to situations like this?
NULLIFIER> It is another reason why I was designed to operate with a crew.
GRIFFIN> We’ve all got our strengths.
NULLIFIER> You must find a solution, human. The Sekar rift must be sealed.
GRIFFIN> I’ll think on it.
He felt the presence of the control entity slip away from the neural link. It was disappointing that the battleship didn’t know how to fix the problem, since it was designed for this exact purpose. That was the problem with computers – it didn’t matter how complex and powerful they became, they were always limited by the coding upon which they were based and that coding was in turn limited by the people who created it. The Unity League still pursued the dream of a perfect artificial intelligence, but after a few hundred years and endless funding for the tech, humans still had their uses.
Griffin explained the outcome of his conversation.
“Not within expected parameters, huh?” asked Shelton.
“Looks like.”
“The solution seems obvious to me,” said Dominguez. “We’ve been promised a fleet and there it is on the military base.”
“If the Hantisar were at war against the Sekar, they would have equipped their warships with appropriate weapons,” said Isental.
“The fleet has been thrown about by the surface activity,” said Jackson. “How many of those ships are going to fly?”
“Plenty of them,” said Griffin. He grimaced. “It seems too easy – I mean it doesn’t take a tactical genius to figure out that a bunch of warships might be useful in a fight. There must be another problem.”
“Or the control entity is hiding information from us,” said Kenyon.
“I’ll find out.”
GRIFFIN> My sensor operatives estimate there to be 934 spaceships on the landing strips, plus whatever other ones fell into the rift chasm.
NULLIFIER> It is unlikely you will be able to recover any of the ships which dropped through the surface fractures.
GRIFFIN> Which leaves the 934 I just mentioned. What kind of weaponry are they carrying?
NULLIFIER> High caliber tharniol repeater cannons, tharniol missiles and tharniol explosives. Some of the larger spaceships have a payload of rift bombs.
GRIFFIN> Why can’t you disable their security systems and program their battle computers to attack the rift? I assume you have command priority over those other warships?
NULLIFIER> I have command priority.
GRIFFIN> In that case, what’s the problem?
NULLIFIER> I have detected their battle computers are still slave to the Dominion flight control computer. That computer takes precedence over my position in the command hierarchy.
GRIFFIN> Will the Hantisar spaceships revert to autonomy when their link to the controller ends?
NULLIFIER> Yes.
GRIFFIN> Which means the flight control computer is still actively linked to the surface fleet?
NULLIFIER> Yes. The hardware is located underground. Somehow it has survived.
GRIFFIN> You promised us a fleet.
NULLIFIER> The fleet waits for you.
GRIFFIN> It is not much use if we cannot control it.
NULLIFIER> Another problem for you to overcome.
GRIFFIN> I can use the dark cannon to hit the control computer.
NULLIFIER> Several discharges would be required to expose the protective tharniol casing.
GRIFFIN> The dark cannon doesn’t work on tharniol?
NULLIFIER> No – that was the intention of the weapon’s design.
GRIFFIN> Will a discharge from the dark cannon bring our enemy to us?
NULLIFIER> Its maximum range was designed to be greater than the detection range of the Sekar.
GRIFFIN> The Hantisar thought of everything.
NULLIFIER> When a mistake costs a billion lives, you avoid making them.
GRIFFIN> How big is the protective casing?
NULLIFIER> The inner casing is a three-hundred-meter cube with a wall thickness of twelve inches.
GRIFFIN> How many casings are there?
&nbs
p; NULLIFIER> An outer and an inner. The outer casing formed the main structure of the holding building and it is much larger than the inner casing.
GRIFFIN> Is there any point in firing the cannon at all?
NULLIFIER> Both inner and outer casings are partly subsurface. It was once possible to reach the flight control computer by using passages and doors. The sensor feeds are too indistinct for certainty, but I believe it unlikely the intended entrances are intact.
GRIFFIN> So we fire the dark cannon to expose the outer casing and then find a way to breach the inner casing?
NULLIFIER> Destroying the flight controller will leave the ships on lockdown.
GRIFFIN> You said they would revert to autonomy.
NULLIFIER> Only if the link is properly terminated. Incorrectly disabling the flight controller will not result in autonomy.
GRIFFIN> If we can’t destroy the flight control computer, do you have another way to disrupt its links with the surface fleet?
NULLIFIER> An override code.
GRIFFIN> Which you haven’t broadcast because?
NULLIFIER> The tharniol casings block external comms.
GRIFFIN> By design, I assume.
NULLIFIER> To prevent remote hijacking of the flight control computer by a fleet in orbit.
GRIFFIN> This just gets better and better.
NULLIFIER> As a biological organism, you are perfectly suited to overcome these obstacles.
GRIFFIN> I’m not sure if you’re joking or not.
NULLIFIER> I rarely joke.
GRIFFIN> I bet you go down great at dinner parties. Is there not a single spaceship on the Dominion facility that isn’t tied in to the flight control computer?
NULLIFIER> I have scanned and the answer is no. Every ship which landed on this base was obliged to operate under the flight controller’s guidance.
GRIFFIN> I’ll have to think on this.
NULLIFIER> Take your time.
On each occasion he spoke with it, the Nullifier’s control computer displayed more of its eccentricities. Griffin was seriously wondering if it was on the brink of madness. A long period of solitude could have that effect on a human. Maybe a computer replica of a biological consciousness was susceptible to the same thing. He broke the link, his thoughts churning.
Nullifier (Fire and Rust Book 6) Page 15