by Mara Amberly
“That’s biological research,” she told him. “Yet another reason not to take off our masks.”
Over the comms, Cora asked, “What does that mean?”
“I’ll explain later,” Juliane replied, and they left it at that.
It gave Eric a reason to wonder about the business conducted here. There was a lot he didn’t know about, and likely never would, no matter how thorough their search was.
As they ventured deeper into the base, they found their way blocked by a door they had no way to open.
“That looks like a flood door,” Juliane explained. “They probably sealed it to stop the water getting through; that, or it closed automatically. We can’t get past it without cutting through it.”
They tried another corridor and found it sealed too, but there was a hatch leading up with a hand-wheel like the first door they’d passed through.
There was a short ladder on the wall to reach it, and Eric had to climb several rungs and turn it carefully to get it open. As soon as he did, water came gushing through with so much force, he had no hope of closing it again. It was like a tap he had no way of turning off. It knocked him back, and climbing to his feet, he urged Juliane down the corridor quickly.
“We don’t want any of those flood doors closing on us.”
Sure enough, within moments of escaping the corridor, a flood door dropped, sealing it off.
“We’ve tried every corridor we could. There’s nowhere else we can go,” Juliane said, her voice heavy with sadness. “Unless we cut through the walls.”
Eric checked his TSAI and he was down to 9 hours of oxygen.
“I think we have enough of this part of the base mapped,” he said. “I know it’s fragmented at the top; if we get some readings from outside, that should be enough.”
“I want to find another computer terminal,” Juliane said. “I know it’s unlikely but perhaps there’s a remote chance someone is still alive in the base. I didn’t think so before, but with some areas intact it’s possible.”
Eric spoke to his wrist device. “TSAI, scan for present network connections.”
“Scanning,” it replied.
“Secure network found. Clearance blue-beta required.”
He was sure he wouldn’t have the access required for it.
He glanced at Juliane. “What’s your clearance level?”
“What makes you think I have any?” she asked.
It seemed to Eric that she’d been on the base before the attack. After all, she knew a fair bit about it.
“It isn’t that high,” she added with a sigh.
He wasn’t sure he believed her, but he couldn’t think of any reason she’d be lying.
“You couldn’t try hacking it, could you?” she suggested.
“I’m afraid not,” Eric said. “TSAI devices are hard-wired to prevent hacking attempts and there are limited commands I can use on military property. If we reached a terminal I could try some things, but I don’t think we have that kind of time.”
“You think we should leave?” Juliane asked.
Eric could tell she was exhausted and short of breath, but she also seemed stubborn enough to keep going regardless. After all, this mission meant everything to her.
“Yes,” Eric answered simply. “What we have will need to be enough. We’re not going to achieve much by staying here. I don’t think it’s worth the risk.”
“We’ll leave then,” she replied.
Eric could tell she was disappointed, but they still had the potential to change time.
He considered scanning for her husband’s DNA, but his TSAI technology had its limits, especially here.
They started back the way they’d come, their footsteps slow and careful. Eric knew they had a long way to go and he was exhausted already.
“How do I go about reaching your husband in the past?” he asked.
It was a question he knew could wait until later, as talking consumed more oxygen than silence, but he also found it reassuring and right now he needed that.
“You should be able to reach him through the main comms channel for the base. His name’s Commander Tom Woods. He was stationed on the base for over seven years, so we’ll need to contact him between April 2125 and the attack on the base on the 18th December 2132,” she said. “It happened at 09:30 hours local time.”
“Alright. We need to give him time enough to put plans in place. It shouldn’t be so close to the attack that it’s easily dismissed.”
“I know my husband and he wouldn’t dismiss it,” she said. “Maybe give him six months to avoid it, and if it doesn’t change the present, we can contact him again.”
“Are we sure the base doesn’t have chronyon shielding?” Eric asked, considering the possibility.
“The military wouldn’t have changed time if it did, as I understand it?”
“The current time for you wouldn’t have changed if it was, so I believe you’re right, unless it was destroyed. I don’t understand how our people could justify this kind of attack,” he said. “I thought we were above barbarism.”
“I don’t know either,” Juliane replied.
“Before I left Valtera, I heard the ascension spoken of as though it was the best thing that could happen to our people. Instead, it brought them to this.”
Cora was silent. She didn’t know the full story about the people from Eric’s planet, Valtera, but they’d caused a lot of trouble. They’d acted violently and callously, and for what? What did this ascension mean and why did everyone else have to pay the price for it?
Cora looked over the buttons and switches she’d seen him use, and enhanced the range of the scanners. He probably didn’t realise she knew how to do that, but Cora had paid attention.
Oddly, she noticed a single light higher in the atmosphere. Could it be another ship? She’d seen Eric stretch the image on the screen with his fingers to expand it, so that’s what she did now. A dotted line connected it with the base, but she couldn’t tell what it was. It was too small. She considered whether to tell Eric. He mightn’t like her tinkering with the scanners, beyond the basic settings he’d asked her to use. In fact, she distinctly remembered him using the word ‘don’t’.
“Eric, do you promise not to be mad at me?”
“Oh God, what have you done?” he asked Cora over the comms.
“I altered the sensors and I think there’s a ship coming. Something headed for the base. Please don’t be mad at me, but I…”
“What kind of ship?” Juliane asked, her voice booming over the comms.
“I don’t know. It’s small. I can’t make out any details. There’s a dotted line that connects to the base.”
There was a moment of silence, and then all hell broke loose. “We need to get out of here. We’re transporting aboard. Don’t touch anything and stay out of the cargo bay!”
“Sorry, Eric. I won’t touch anything more, I promise.”
Eric sighed because he knew that wasn’t overly likely.
He wanted to ask Cora how close it was, but he couldn’t afford to waste even a split-second.
Eric formed a rift, and then smashed his way straight through it with Juliane. As soon as his feet touched the cargo bay, he stepped to the side and reached a hand to help Juliane through. She was with him in the cargo bay, and then fire surged through behind her. She stood no chance at all as the blast wave hit her, as it would’ve hit Eric if he hadn’t stepped out of the way. There was nothing he could do. She wasn’t dying – she was gone, and the whole ship rocked from the force of the blast.
It was seared into his mind – what he’d seen, and with shaking hands he sealed the rift, and then ran to the nearest fire extinguisher. He didn’t have time for this, he realised.
Eric ran out of the cargo bay and along the corridor toward the cockpit, issuing an order through his TSAI. “Activate the ship’s fire suppression system. Cargo bay one.”
There was only one cargo bay, so there shouldn’t be any kind of
mix-up.
He heard a distant door close and assumed it was the cargo bay being sealed. He didn’t look back, and he didn’t even pause to look at the sensors.
Eric powered up the thrusters and pointed his ship at the open sky. Only then did he look to see if any other ships or weapons were directed their way.
There were no weapons but he spotted a small craft in orbit. Below him in the water, the recent attack had achieved what the first one had failed to do. The cloaking field was gone. So were the base and the docks. The explosion had been massive. If it wasn’t for the filtering effect of the rift and his ship’s shields, it would’ve taken out the Equinox entirely. If Cora hadn’t meddled in things she wasn’t supposed to, he’d be dead, and she and his ship would likely have been next. He counted himself lucky he’d left his ship’s shields up. They were well beyond those of a standard freighter; they were military-class.
Eric hadn’t expected to attack a military target, especially his own world’s, but he couldn’t let that ship get away. The Equinox didn’t have any cloaking capabilities, but like most modern ships it was hard to detect by conventional means. That would help him against the world’s occupants, but probably not the Valteran military. There was only one solution – to strike fast and hard.
“Strap yourself in,” he told Cora. He realised he ought to do the same, so he followed his own advice.
The fire suppression system had vented the cargo bay, and he sealed the vents before the ship could hit the atmosphere; otherwise, he’d lose half the cargo. At least he knew the hatches should hold if they hadn’t been damaged by the blast.
“Where’s Juliane?” Cora asked with a tremor of fear in her voice. Her eyes were wide as she secured the straps in her co-pilot’s seat.
“She didn’t make it, but I can’t think about that right now,” Eric replied, as he adjusted engine flow regulator.
“What?” she gasped.
She clearly wanted to ask more but knew better than to push the issue right now.
“Later,” he promised her. “We’ll save her when we fix the timeline if we can.”
He knew they’d try if the enemy didn’t blow them out of the sky first.
Eric would’ve appreciated a co-pilot or gunner who knew the ship inside out. Perhaps Cora could help him; he hadn’t bridged the topic of fighting yet.
“I’m taking us into orbit first, then I’m going to make a run at whoever fired that missile. The weapons controls are to your left. The second panel along,” he said, as she found the ones he indicated.
“What do you want me to do?” she asked.
“I need you to lock on to them, as soon as they show up on the screen beside the panel. There’s a lever. When you push it – the crosshairs will move. Set it on them exactly, then press the first two buttons below the screen, one after another. The crosshairs should then follow their movements without you needing to do anything else.”
It was clear from Cora’s expression that she was struggling with the idea.
“I don’t want to kill these people,” she said with some uncertainty.
“You don’t need to,” he said. “Just get me a lock on them as fast as you can and I’ll do the rest.”
“Alright,” she agreed.
“You know what crosshairs are?” he double-checked.
As she moved the lever, she saw the corresponding movement on the screen. “They’re like a cross and they show where it’s aimed. Is that right?”
Eric nodded. “Yeah, that’s it. You have any trouble, you tell me?”
“Yes, of course,” she said.
“If for any reason you lose the lock and the crosshairs slide off the ship, hone in on it again and press those buttons. Do you understand?”
“One after another. I understand,” she said. “It’s not really that complicated.”
She was right, it wasn’t, but he wouldn’t have called any kind of combat simple either.
The Equinox surged upward and the view screen showed the clouds far below as they entered the upper atmosphere.
Eric keyed in the new course and released the piloting to full manual control; he wanted as much precision as possible. As soon as they reached orbit, he fired the manoeuvring thrusters to match his planned course, and then the engines.
The enemy ship appeared on Cora’s targeting screen a split second later, and with shaky hands, she moved the crosshairs over the ship. It wasn’t staying in the same place, but it followed a clear course so Cora moved the lever in the same direction, locking it on. A beep sounded, which Cora assumed must be the ship’s computer.
“It’s locked in,” she said.
“They’re firing on us,” Eric said. He pressed the fire button, hoping to beat them to the punch, but they had plenty of time to avoid the shot.
“There’s a missile – it looks like the ship but smaller on your screen. It’s following us. I need a lock on it, Cora.”
“It keeps moving,” she exclaimed, as she could feel the pressure to hurry. She eventually got the crosshairs moving with it and keyed the buttons with her left hand.
The tone sounded and Eric fired!
The shot went wide as the lock was lost, leaving the missile untouched. It was coming for them and it was close. Unsure of its firepower, he took the ship into a sudden dive.
“Get another lock. Try again!” Eric ordered.
Cora did exactly as he asked and the tone sounded.
Eric fired! In the distance, he saw an explosion of flame. They’d taken out the missile, but the ship was still there.
Eric pulled the Equinox out of its sharp dive and took it straight up again toward the enemy vessel.
“Target the ship. If possible, aim for the engines toward the back,” Eric said.
Cora saw it as a tiny symbol on the screen, no bigger than a fly, but the closer they got, the larger it appeared. It took her a moment to be certain the crosshairs were even on it, and then she locked them on the back.
“I think that’s the back,” she said, as the beep sounded.
Eric fired quickly, then took the ship into a sudden, convoluted course that would make it harder for them to hit. He managed to evade their laser fire, which couldn’t be blocked in the same manner as a missile.
It took a moment, but his missile hit the enemy and the whole thing bloody well blew!
Before it went, Eric could tell it was a Valteran mid-range bomber. Ten years ago he’d have been shocked if anyone had revealed his actions of the present day or the fact he’d be so damn happy to watch that ship go up in flames.
“I want you to scan the area for any other ships,” he said. “The same as you did before.”
The scanners by her seat were different from those she’d used while Eric was on the base, but the principle was the same. It took her a moment but she figured it out.
“I don’t think there are any other ships but I’m not sure.”
“That’s good enough for me,” he said.
“What’s going to happen to the debris?”
“It’s caught in a decaying orbit. It’ll fall to Earth, but most of it will likely burn up on the way down.”
Cora glanced at him uncertainly. “So it’s safe?”
“I wouldn’t say safe,” he declared.
Eric realised Cora was probably right in being concerned. It wouldn’t be that difficult to make it safer.
The Equinox had lasers. They weren’t much use in a fight against a military-class vessel, but they would be now. He set a wide firing pattern to further weaken the drifting debris from the ship. After a quick scan for life pods, of which there were none, he fired on the ship.
“That should make it safer,” he said.
“Thank you,” Cora replied with a smile.
“You did very well there,” he told her. “You saved our lives.”
“Thank you,” she said. “So is there any way to find out who was actually on that ship?”
“No, probably not. Most likely some ruthless b
astards following orders.”
“I don’t know what their illegitimacy would have to do with it.”
It took Eric a moment to realise what she meant, and he laughed hard.
“Come on. Let’s go back and put this right.”
As he opened the rift, he gave thought to Juliane and where she was now. The most important thing was where she’d been after all of this was over; in fact, where they all would be.
Chapter 15
June 2132 – Aboard the Equinox, High Earth Orbit
“This wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen,” Cora said, “but I think Juliane would be happy that we’re going to see the mission through. I trust she’s with God now, and I wonder what He would think of us changing the timeline and snatching her soul away. Still, if time is changed, it mightn’t be that way at all. Perhaps it just means things will be put back as they should be. What do you think?”
Eric shrugged. “I think you’re trying to rationalise it in terms of spirituality when things will just be as they’ll be.”
“You have an odd way of seeing the world, Eric.”
“Yes, I probably do,” he agreed; then he grinned. “But it’s my way, and that’s what matters to me. You can’t go wrong with it.”
“I’m not sure now is the best time for a debate. We need to save these people if we can,” she said.
Eric drew as much of a conclusion himself. These weren’t just strangers to him who were lost. They were brave men and women who deserved a second chance at the life they should’ve had.
“Yes, we do. I also need a part for the Equinox. Without it, I can’t go back in time to repair the ship, which is necessary to bring us here… even though we’re already here. It’s a causal loop, and with the chronyon shielding we’d probably be safe, but I’m reluctant to risk it.”
Cora nodded. “I must be learning because that actually made sense to me. You said when I returned to the ship you’d give me chronyon shielding like the object at your wrist gives you.”
“Right you are,” he said. “I’m forgetful today, which is far too easy to do when you’re focusing on the past, present and future all at once.”