“We’ve got a problem, folks,” he said.
“Our lives are full of problems, sir,” said Kroll. “What harm’s going to come from adding another to the heap?”
“Answer me that when I’ve finished explaining.”
When he was done speaking, Griffin waited for ideas and input. Dominguez had something to disclose, but it wasn’t a plan.
“While you were speaking to the Nullifier, I got some cleaned-up images from the recorded feeds of the military facility, sir.”
“I’m not going to like this.”
“Not much. You might want to get Captain Conway in to look since I guess your first solution was going to be a troop deployment.”
Conway wasn’t far from the bridge and he arrived in a few seconds, his face giving away little of his feelings.
“Check out the feed,” Dominguez instructed.
Griffin turned to see what Dominguez had found. It wasn’t a surprise. One of the bulkhead screens showed an enhanced version of the sensor data gathered from the facility. Griffin saw spaceships and collapsed buildings in greater detail than before. As well as that, he saw dark shapes moving amongst the rubble and along the gaps between the spaceships. Some of these shapes were enormous.
“Sekar,” said Dominguez. “I estimate the largest are in excess of a hundred meters in height. The angle isn’t good enough for certainty.”
“Too big to knock out with a couple of tharniol-coated bullets,” said Conway. “Something like that’s going to need a shot from a tank.”
“Tanks are in short supply out here, Captain.”
“I know that, sir. A tharniol bullet puts a big hole clean through a Sekar, but some of those things on the feed are likely to require twenty seconds of concentrated fire from an entire squad to bring down.” He lifted the alien gauss gun which was in his hand. “A few of my soldiers are desperate to give these a field trial, sir. They won’t be so eager when they see what’s on the surface.”
“It might end up that you don’t have a choice, Captain.”
“We’ll do what we always do, sir.”
“I know that. You haven’t let us down yet.”
“What do you intend, sir?” asked Shelton.
Griffin had the makings of a plan. It wasn’t a great plan. In fact, it was hardly a plan at all. With a deep breath, he disclosed the details.
“The Nullifier is carrying two shuttles, both in the rear bay and both with green status lights on their launch activation systems. Captain Conway knows how to fly – he can pilot one of those shuttles to the surface and wait for the Nullifier’s dark cannon to clear away any debris blocking the path to the tharniol casings. Private Lester can blow a hole in the outer and inner casings and we can inject the override codes directly into the flight control computer using the combat suits.”
“Sir, I have some comments to make,” said Conway.
“Go ahead, Captain.”
“We have a likely Ragger presence on the Nullifier, numbers unknown. Assuming we split our forces, the bridge will have less protection than it does now.”
“A risk we’ll have to take.”
“What if the Sekar make it onto the Nullifier, sir? With the internal tharniol shielding damaged, they could walk clean through to the bridge.”
“I’ve been assured that the dark cannon can operate beyond the enemy’s detection range.”
“And a third problem, sir.” Conway looked almost embarrassed.
“Keep them coming.”
“I can fly a ULAF shuttle. I qualified a few months ago and have about forty hours flight time under my belt. At a pinch I could probably fly a Fangrin or a Ragger shuttle if the passengers don’t mind a hard landing. But if you put me in the pilot seat of something completely new and expect me to execute a precision assault on a well-defended enemy facility, I can’t guarantee I won’t screw up.”
“I appreciate your honesty, Captain. Do you have any other qualified soldiers in your squad?”
“No, sir.”
“I will go,” said Captain Isental. “With your permission, Captain Griffin.”
The Fangrin needed this, Griffin could see it in his face. More than that, the mission needed Captain Isental as well.
“Do it. Give it your best shot,” said Griffin.
“I know nothing else.”
With the plan outlined, Griffin, Isental and Conway spent a short time working out tactics. On the surface, the method was straightforward. When it came to the implementation, nobody was confident. Ten minutes later, Griffin spoke to the Nullifier’s control entity and was relieved that it wasn’t in the mood for idle chat. He requested, and obtained, the override codes for the Dominion flight control computer, which he provided to Conway and Isental.
It was done. Conway selected a group of soldiers to come along with him and they made haste from the bridge. At first, Griffin thought he might feel vulnerable with the reduced protection. Then, Lieutenant Atomar arrived on the bridge to introduce himself. The Fangrin was a mean-looking bastard with a scarred face and an invitation to Chew On This emblazoned on his chain gun’s magazine housing. Griffin knew at once he was in safe hands.
It was a long run to the shuttle bay and a much longer flight to Dominion. Fortunately, Griffin could help with the latter. While Conway and his squad made their way through the Nullifier’s interior, Griffin piloted the battleship towards the planet and levelled out at a million klicks.
Then came the waiting and it was as hard as it ever was.
Chapter Twenty
For the first time he could remember, Captain Conway’s journey through the interior of an alien spaceship was not beset by combat. The route was straightforward and made easier by the map each soldier had downloaded into their suit computers.
The route took them through the usual corridors and across rooms filled with oversized pieces of tech. After a while, Conway stopped trying to guess what role each new object played in the function of the ship. Some of the others enjoyed the game more and Corporal Freeman kept on at it long after Conway wished he would have stopped.
Captain Isental was old in appearance yet showed no sign that it had slowed him down. The Fangrin marched near the front, carrying one of the Hantisar gauss rifles like he was born to it. He was clearly accustomed to command and Conway noticed how Lieutenant Rembra and Hacher showed the closest thing to deference he’d ever seen from the aliens. Isental was obviously well known amongst his kind.
The Nullifier’s transports were surprisingly compact and they sat on the floor of an equally compact bay. The atmosphere was non-existent owing to an ugly tear in the rear bay wall, through which Conway saw twisted alloys and a hint of darkness.
“We are lucky these shuttles survived the damage to their parent ship,” said Isental. He pointed at one. “That is ours. It is lined with tharniol. Should the Sekar detect our approach, they will be unable to teleport within.”
The Fangrin walked from the airlock door which had brought them to the bay and he stopped briefly to examine the shuttle. Conway looked too, though with a less practiced eye. The transport was grey and resembled a flat-topped, thirty-meter-long wedge with landing skids and a blunt nose.
“The shuttle is not defenseless,” said Isental, looking as if he wanted to rub his hands together in glee.
The underside of the shuttle’s nose was fitted with a turret. From this turret, a single, stubby cannon with an unpleasantly large bore poked outwards.
“What does that thing fire?” asked Kemp.
“I do not know,” said Isental. “But I will find out.”
The shuttle was low to the floor and its side entrance was accessed by a short flight of retractable steps. Conway wasn’t expecting any trouble, but he made sure plenty of guns were aimed at the door when he opened it. The shuttle wasn’t even fitted with an airlock and the door gave access directly into the passenger bay.
Conway ordered a quick sweep of the interior, which unearthed no hostiles. In minutes, Captai
n Isental was at the controls, grumbling Fangrin profanities beneath his breath.
“I’ll go check on the squad, sir,” said Conway, glancing at the contents of the cockpit. The shuttle’s main console was more intricate than anything he’d seen before, with seemingly hundreds of switches and buttons. Above these buttons and switches were six different viewscreens, all of which were illuminated and awaiting input.
Isental moved fast. “We will be ready to depart shortly,” he said.
Conway believed him. He exited the cockpit which was sealed from the passenger bay by a single door. The bay was filled with cloth-bound seats in eight rows of five, with an offset aisle. Everything appeared in a good state of repair and Conway detected none of the usual scents he associated with similar craft in the ULAF. It smelled clean and clear, with no odors of grease, suit polymers or stale sweat. The purity probably wouldn’t survive the trip.
“Make yourselves comfortable,” Conway ordered. “Captain Isental tells me we’ll be on our way soon.”
At that exact moment, the shuttle’s engines fired up with the kind of purr the ULAF’s current propulsion technology was incapable of replicating. The soldiers weren’t reassured and they found their seats quickly, exchanging the usual witticisms and verbal barbs.
“Captain Isental is one of our most renowned officers,” said Lieutenant Rembra, yet to sit.
“We’re in good hands?”
Rembra nodded. “It is not my place to tell his story. Suffice to say wherever he treads, death and glory follow.”
Conway caught something in the tone. “Death for more than just his enemies?”
“Captain Isental is worthy of our greatest respect.”
It didn’t answer the question and Conway didn’t press. “I’m sure he is.”
“Captain Conway, you must join me,” said Isental on the comms. “Our success may depend on having a second pilot - in case my life comes to a premature end.”
With a grimace and a reminder to himself that he should welcome opportunities like this, Conway returned to the cockpit, where he found Isental operating the controls without any apparent need for concentration.
“Sit.”
Conway took the second seat. It was close enough to the first that his shoulder was pressed against Isental’s flight suit. The Fangrin didn’t mind, but each movement of his muscular arm jolted Conway in a manner which quickly became irritating.
The Fangrin pointed a thick finger at one of the screens and Conway leaned in to look. The sensor was focused directly on the inside of the sealed bay door.
“Lieutenant Kroll’s blanket lockdown on the security means I am unable to open the bay door from here,” said Isental. “I have requested he remove the lock so that we might depart.”
“Is the Nullifier in position?” Conway asked.
“It is,” Isental confirmed. “We have a one-million-kilometer flight ahead of us, human. Let us hope the Hantisar built their shuttles for speed, otherwise we will all be asleep before our arrival. Look here - the bay door opens.”
A black line appeared at the base of the door and rapidly widened. Isental wasn’t patient and he put his hand around a smooth bar which jutted from the left-hand side of the console.
“Is that the control stick?” asked Conway. He’d seen the crew on the bridge using these bars, though he hadn’t got around to asking what they were for.
“This forms a neural link through which the shuttle is controlled,” said Isental.
“Sounds good.”
“I assume so. I have not yet attempted it.” Isental laughed. “I see from your face you lack faith, human! I have not yet found a vessel I cannot fly.”
“Here’s your chance to prove it, sir,” said Conway, determined not to show any more signs of uncertainty.
Isental’s spare hand operated the console, while his other hand stayed clamped around the bar. A vibration under the floor became more intense and the purring of the engine increased in volume.
“It is time.”
With that, Isental lifted the shuttle away from the floor and accelerated through the outer bay door in one seamless maneuver. The subdued lighting of the Nullifier’s interior was replaced by inky blackness and the Fangrin adjusted the sensors to exaggerate the visible stars.
“We are carrying the battleship’s velocity,” said Isental in approval. “It will save us many minutes.”
Conway sat and watched, trying to understand the different functions of the shuttle. Already, he’d identified the dedicated sensor and comms panels. The rest of it was unclear.
Isental banked the shuttle and the planet Dominion appeared on the forward sensors. The image wasn’t anything like so sharp as the one on the Nullifier’s bridge, but Conway wasn’t expecting it to be. He saw the different colors and the fractured surface. The military base was visible too, as a uniform grey area which formed a rectangle. Everywhere else, pieces of ejected rock raced into the sky.
“Obtain a magnified view, human,” ordered Isental.
After a short period of experimentation with the sensor panel, Conway obliged. On maximum zoom, the surface facility filled one of the command console screens. When he looked closely, Conway discerned blurry shapes, some of which he believed to be spaceships, while others were likely no more than piles of rubble and debris.
It's all I ever see, he thought. One day this will end and I can go home.
No matter how he tried, Conway couldn’t imagine a time when war was done and he could hang up his guns. The intensity of his emotion caught him off guard and a lump came to his throat.
“Show me how this neural link works, sir.”
“Very well.”
Isental rose from his seat and made a gesture to indicate Conway should take his place. Having committed, this wasn’t a time to back down and Conway swapped seats.
“Hold the neural link and access the framework.”
“I don’t understand what that means, sir.”
“You will.”
With a surge of movement, Conway reached out and took hold of the bar. The framework was inserted into his mind in a way which gave him no cause for fear. His mind accepted the knowledge it was offered and suddenly, Conway found he was flying the shuttle. Isental had set the craft on course, so there wasn’t anything that required attention. Conway made a few subtle changes to their vector before returning to the previous settings. He removed his hand.
“How did you feel?” asked Isental, the words loaded with unexpected meaning.
“It was easy, sir. I think I’d prefer it without the computerized hand-holding.”
Isental rumbled a laugh. “Your fears slowly dissipate, Captain Conway. It is too late for you to accomplish everything, but you may yet accomplish some things.”
Conway didn’t know how Isental understood him so well, but he could already see why the other Fangrin held him in such high regard.
“All yours, sir,” said Conway, changing seat.
“Are you confident? The framework guides, but if you had nothing to begin with, flying this shuttle would be difficult for you.”
“If we have a problem, I’ll get us out of here.”
“There was never a doubt.”
With the speed carried from the Nullifier, Isental estimated the journey to Dominion at only twenty minutes. Depending on the situation when the shuttle came in close, additional time for monitoring was likely.
“The Nullifier is providing us with the information we require,” said Isental. “Once we are within a hundred thousand kilometers of Dominion, I believe our own sensors will provide greater detail.”
“Let’s hope nothing spots us.”
“These Sekar are a strange and vile species. I do not wish any surprises.”
“I definitely don’t want to see what happens if that main rift gets any wider.”
“The Nullifier’s control entity has seen much. It is troubling that it has not witnessed an opening of this size before.”
Conway ag
reed with the assessment. Each new engagement with the Sekar revealed a little more, but they remained an enigma. Opportunities came up to expand the alliance’s knowledge, but each time one arose, something new and urgent diverted attention elsewhere.
“Maybe once we return to base, we can interrogate the Nullifier,” he said.
“We will learn much from it.” Isental went quiet for a few seconds. “Though it will not be enough.”
The certainty in the Fangrin’s words reflected Conway’s own feeling on the subject. The Hantisar had lost and the Ravok also. People liked to say that knowledge was power, yet it hadn’t done those species much good, nor the others which Conway felt sure had fallen to the Sekar.
He felt his thoughts descend into a bleak depression. Fear of death and defeat was one thing, but a dead soldier could lie peacefully in the grave knowing that the fight would go on. The Sekar destroyed even that scant comfort. What they offered was a promise of the endless void – oblivion without hope of redemption.
I’ll never give up, Conway thought angrily. Come what may, I’ll face it with a gun in my hand and strength in my heart.
The shuttle flew on, bringing the soldiers ever closer to the unknown.
Chapter Twenty-One
Captain Isental levelled the shuttle at an altitude of ninety thousand klicks and held it in position with the Dominion base on the far horizon. The planet was close enough to its star to have a vivid difference between day and night, and a sharp line cut across the surface. On one side, darkness. On the other, light. The shuttle’s sensors didn’t much care either way and Conway noticed no difference in the amount of detail they resolved.
Elsewhere, the Sekar rift went from south-east to north-west in front of the spaceship and the two of them watched as a thousand-meter chunk of rock detached itself from the planet’s crust and jumped into the air. Everywhere he looked, Conway saw more of the same.
“Are those rocks going to cause us a problem, sir?”
“Only if we come too close, human. The flight control computer is situated to the south-west of the main rift – nearer than I would prefer, but not so much that we will be at risk of an unwanted collision.”
Nullifier (Fire and Rust Book 6) Page 16