Deep Hydra

by Michael Formichelli

  “This is quite exciting,” Enéas stated.

  “This is our second space battle,” Europa added.

  Meia cocked her eyebrow. “Your second? I thought Mitsugawa was giving me experienced back up.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, we are,” her brother stated.

  “In personal combat,” Europa finished.

  “Better than nothing I guess.” Meia licked her lips.

  “Are you worried?” Europa asked her.

  “What?” She kept her eyes on the cockpit window, scanning the ship ahead of them for the tell-tale flash of the landing lights that would guide them to their assigned berth. Turrets swiveled this way and that, and streams of mass-driver fire spat out from the Laocoon like fireflies speeding off into the void.

  “As there is a VEM in EpiGenome Tower, even if this ship or the Laocoon is destroyed, we will be remade there. I’m just wondering what it is like for you, someone who isn’t going to be remade if they die. Are you worried?”

  She blinked, trying to tell if Europa was teasing her without looking. “You’re saying you can’t die?”

  “We don’t mean offense.” Enéas said.

  “Um…” She filed the strange conversation away for later. Her eyes spotted the flashing yellow light along the Laocoon’s back. “Prep for docking.”

  With careful motions Meia brought them in over the ship and fired the thrusters. Just like descending to a planet, she felt her body grow heavy as the gravity of the Laocoon’s neutronium fuel pulled them in. They landed in a niche in the hull with a jolt and the ventral docking ring clamped tight to its mate below them.

  Meia sagged in her chair letting out a deep breath. Objective one down, time for objective two.

  The chair’s restraints slid off her, and she stood up. Her legs shook as she got used to the pull of the Laocoon’s gravity. The twins waited until she moved past them before following suit.

  Iapetus knelt down by the ventral hatch in the payload bay. The sensor dots beneath his translucent skull flickered from blue to red.

  “Show time.” She moved to stand over it. Her armacorium, triggered by her command, shifted up around her skin, and assumed the appearance of a Star Corps officer’s uniform while masking her facial features.

  “We will be nearby at all times,” Enéas stated.

  “Good luck, Meia.” Europa and her brother flickered and vanished when their personal stealth systems kicked in.

  Iapetus, staying back out of view, triggered the hatch and the air pumps kicked on, equalizing the pressure between the shuttle and the ship before both doors whined and irised open. Below her Meia saw a young human male, an ensign by his insignia, looking up with wide, dark eyes.

  “Permission to come aboard,” she said.

  “Granted, Lieutenant. I have to say the Captain was quite surprised when we picked up your signal.”

  “Stay safe, Meia. Signal if you get into trouble and I will storm the ship,” Iapetus sent to her as she climbed down through the hatch. She had no doubt that he would. The Laocoon had DS-109’s on board of course, but they were all stored in the larger docking bays fifteen decks down. She wondered if he would make the bridge before any of them could come up to challenge him, and hoped it wouldn’t be necessary. Their plan depended on stealth; it was doubtful they would survive outright conflict.

  “The message from the Commodore is urgent enough that this was deemed necessary.” She followed the ensign though she knew the way herself. It was nearly a year now since she was last on the Laocoon, but she still recognized its hexagonal corridors. She couldn’t help a smile as she took in the nostalgic feelings the ozone, oil, and sweat smell in the air inspired.

  A distant explosion sent a vibration rumbling through the deck plates and an alarm blared.

  “As you might imagine, Captain Solus is quite busy. He’s not going to be happy you’re here.” The ensign was moving fast and she had to double her pace to keep up.

  I’ll bet he won’t be happy, she thought. Her armacorium picked up more vibrations her PLIA identified as the twins dropping out of the hatch. It would only be seconds now before they crept up behind the poor ensign and neutralized him. Once that was done they would head to the laser comm, neutralize its crew and broadcast the evidence to the entire battle group. She doubted Solus would last long in command after that—but they were in a full scale battle now and that hadn’t been part of the plan. As outraged as the crew would be the data wouldn’t be reviewed until after, and they needed Solus removed now.

  Abort, she sent to the twins. Change of plans. Head to the comm room yourselves and send the data. Here are the directions. I’m going to the bridge.

  They arrived at the lift at the end of the corridor. She waited, staring at the ensign, wondering if the twins were going to listen to her or if the authority Baron Mitsugawa granted over them was a sham.

  The doors opened.

  “Come on.” The ensign sighed and entered the two-meter wide car.

  Meia boarded. The doors slid shut and the lift was propelled sideways down the tube by powerful magnets. She breathed a sigh of relief.

  The car slowed to a stop and the doors slid open. The ensign lead the way into the chaos of shouting officers and screaming alarms that filled the air. The bridge of the Mahrem-class war cruiser was at least three times the size of her old one on the Iapetus. They entered on the lowest of its three tiers beneath the broad bands of windows displaying the starscape. Flashing lights among the stars showed the three-way battle continued in full swing. In front of her was the crystal dome of the holo projector, and in a semicircle around it was the tactical and ordinance control boards currently being manned by two frantic Galaeneans and three Cleebians whose long, elegant fingers danced among the holographic controls. Stairways on either side of the tiers lead up, first to the nav deck and then to the command level where Captain Milo Solus, the man that tried to murder her twice, sat in a broad, high-backed chair.

  “This way.” The ensign took them up the port stairway. Her eyes locked onto her former CO as they climbed.

  He leaned forward, watching the large holographic display of the battle, and scratched his chin. “Batteries six through eight lock onto that Xidor cruiser and give ‘em hell.”

  “Aye, Captain!” came the reply from the starboard weapons officer.

  A flash from the side of the ship let her know the targeting program controlling those batteries found its mark. She was almost to him now. Her mouth was dry as she scaled the last three steps. She could see the captain’s bars on his epaulets and the sweat glistening on his brow. His eyes danced over the icons floating in the air above the lower tier.

  A brilliant light exploded through the windows. Meia whipped her head around to see an expanding corona spewing forth glowing-red shards though the void.

  “Goddess, that damned Annihilator just took out another Cleeb ship. Prepare another salvo and target her,” Captain Solus shouted.

  “Sir, she just took out our last—”

  “I said do it!” Solus slammed his fist into the armrest of his chair.

  She was within arm’s reach. With her armacorium-enhanced strength she could reach out and snap his neck. The bastard deserved it for what he did to her.

  “Sir.” She saluted the monster.

  He cocked his eyes in her direction. “I’m busy.”

  “Urgent message from Commodore Graves,” she said in as neutral a voice as she could manage.

  He turned his head this time, scrutinizing her with his blue eyes. For a second her heart seemed to freeze.

  “Well?”

  “For your ears only, sir.” She felt her insides shaking.

  “I don’t have time for this shit, Lieutenant.”

  “It’s urgent, sir. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.” She licked her lips. What if he didn’t go for it? Could she survive killing him here? Doubtful. There were security officers at the edges of each tier with guns on their hips. Could she somehow get to one before
they could react?

  “Fine. Goddess-dammit. When you get back you tell Graves she’s got a lot of nerve doing this to me during a fight. For that matter, where the fuck is the Orion battle group? Shouldn’t they be backing us up here? This better be damned-well worth my time.” He snapped himself out of his seat and shoved the ensign out of his way before marching through the door behind the captain’s chair.

  She breathed in to steady herself and followed him to the Ready Room. Solus arrived at his desk and turned around with eyes blazing. He was framed by a hexagonal window behind him. Through it the flashes of the furious battle continued.

  The door slid shut behind her.

  “Well?” He clenched his hands into fists.

  Her revenge was at hand.

  “Here’s the message.” She held her palm up between them and pointed two fingers at his neck. With a command her armacorium coated them silver and shot two thin filaments into her target.

  Solus gargled as they penetrated his throat. His hand snapped up to grab at it, but electricity was already flowing down the polymorphic metal. His body vibrated like a plucked string for several seconds before he dropped to his knees. He gurgled again. His jaw clenched shut by the electrons flowing through it. She maintained the current and commanded the armacorium to flow away from her face.

  “Remember me, Solus?”

  His eyes were twitching but she saw recognition in them.

  “You killed Ostrin. You killed those people on Calemni, you bastard.” Her blood was on fire and she gritted her teeth, increasing the voltage. She watched with satisfaction as his body flopped like a fish on the deck. “You fucked up with me, though, didn’t you? I was on that fucking dust ball for 130 days… A HUNDRED AND THIRTY FUCKING DAYS!”

  She upped the voltage again. The smell of cooking meat reached her nostrils.

  “They came after me, you know. They tried to tear me apart…” She shuddered with the memory of it. If not for Iapetus they would have. She panted, unable to get enough air to fuel the fire burning in her chest.

  She heard something behind her. The door chime sounded.

  “But I’m not dead, am I? You fucked up, sir.” She squatted down, staring him in his clouded eyes—

  She frowned and cut the current.

  [Life signs absent, Meia.] Iapetus’ voice in her head was a balm to her rage.

  She flared her nostrils. The room refocused around her, and she yanked the cords of armacorium free of his neck withdrawing them into her fingers.

  She gasped. He was dead. The man who marooned her on a dead world had joined his victims in the Void. Her head swooned with the reality of it; she felt relief and nausea in turns.

  “Dammit. I wanted it to last longer.”

  “Sir, are you all right? We heard shouting,” a voice said through the door.

  Fuck.

  “Sir, please, you are needed. The Annihilator is turning toward us. It’s locking on!”

  She looked through the hexagon of polyglass as though she could see the Abyssian warship in the endless night beyond.

  “It’s powering up the relativity cannon. Sir, please, we need orders!”

  Iapetus, status? she sent.

  “Standing by. Our sensors have detected a power surge in the Abyssian Annihilator. Recommend immediate retreat.”

  “It’s firing!” someone shouted.

  No time, she sent back, hoping the twins got their job done.

  She ordered her armacorium into full armor mode. Using her optics sensors she determined the hardness and material strength of the window before her, then exuded a few more layers of armacorium down her arm and set it to maximum strength enhancement.

  “Meia, I have detected an incoming projectile proceeding at 0.9c. It will impact in three seconds, two—”

  Detach now, and meet me outside. With that she charged the glass and launched her fist at her silvery reflection.

  There was a dull thud deep inside the ship as her fist made contact.

  The Laocoon exploded around her.

  Chapter Thirty

  TSDF Fukuro-Maru, The Matre

  J2400:3326

  The ship buzzed like an angry bee as wave after wave of vibrations passed through it. Strapped into one of the curved chairs along the Fukuro’s bridge, Cygni watched the spinning lights of their Einstein-Rosen bridge become punctuated with bright-pink flashes.

  “That’s not normal, is it?” she asked through rattling teeth. She shared a worried look with Rune seated across from her at a dark terminal. Beside him stood Athame as though the ship wasn’t trying to shake out her teeth.

  “Sensors indicate gasses consistent with the Matre’s atmospheric makeup around the ship. The exit end of our ERB is sucking in the atmosphere.” Agent Khepria said from the terminal toward the front of the bridge.

  “This is so funky.” Kae was seated within the egg-shaped chair. “It’s like I can feel what the ship is doing at the same time I’m flying her.”

  The ship shuddered again.

  “Perhaps you’ll wan’tah pay closer attention,” Armstrong drawled from her seat. Tengu whimpered on the floor beside her.

  “We’re good. We’re good, I promise. Exit in five—brace yourself, this is going to be rough—three, two, one—”

  The Fukuro-maru shot out of the swirling maelstrom clutching the spherical distortion in space-time. The ship shook from side to side, throwing Cygni against his restraints hard enough to knock the air from her lungs. They dropped altitude, and her stomach lurched upward. Through the windows she could see a bright fire born of the friction of their hull against the atmosphere racing around them.

  “We’re okay,” Kae said, gripping the armrests and fighting the turbulence. “We’re okay!”

  The ship creaked and jumped again, pressing her into her seat. She heard and felt something shift in the atmosphere around them as the Fukuro banked hard and slammed her down toward the deck. The pressure increased until she thought her organs might explode and her skeleton shatter—

  The ship righted. The pressure eased and the fire beyond the window faded into a dull, brownish-red haze.

  “Cabin pressure steady,” Athame reported. The whole time her expression and her stance did not shift so much as a centimeter. “Altitude stable.”

  “See? We’re okay.” Kae was breathing hard.

  “I knew you could do it.” Cygni had little force behind her statement. Sanul, you okay down there?

  “Rattled but all right. I hope that’s the last of whatever daring maneuver our brave captain just pulled off,” he sent back from one of the rooms below. They were out of seats on the bridge so he was forced to take one in the galley for his own safety.

  Come on up, she said.

  “Stealth field on,” Kae reported. The bridge lights shifted from dull incandescent to red.

  A hologram depicting their position and the local area around them appeared over the forward view port. Directly ahead of them was a large object. The wire-frame depiction showed the central structure was three kilometers wide and surrounded by eight smaller-structures connected to the center through massive cabling and pipes. Each was a towering city of columns and bridges built on platforms pulsing with dark energy.

  Eight red triangles appeared racing from it.

  Cygni cocked her head to the side. “What are those?”

  “Fuck,” Kae said.

  “Dad! Language!” Rune shouted a moment before Kae yanked the controls to the side and sent them into another bank.

  Somewhere behind the bridge door she heard Sanul yelp.

  “Are they tracking us?” Armstrong asked.

  “What are they?” Cygni asked.

  “Missiles.” Kae watched the red triangles bank to intercept them. “And the answer is yes. I thought this ship was supposed to be advanced!”

  “It would appear Daedalus is more so. I recommend evasive maneuvers.” Athame responded.

  “No shit!”

  “Dad!” Rune laughed.


  “Lead missile is thirty-kilometers and closing,” Athame announced.

  “I am getting a signal. I have their telemetric transmission. They are being actively controlled by Deep Hydra. I think I can piggyback a signal in to upload the virus complex.” Sorina’s ears twitched.

  Kae nodded. “How long do we have?”

  “Six-seconds from mark,” Athame responded.

  He looked at Sorina.

  “Maybe.” Her long ears twitched harder.

  “Dropping stealth. Aegis field energizing,” Kae said.

  The field flared to life around the ship, super-heating the atmosphere between its two magnetic layers into 6,000-degree plasma.

  “Will it stop them?” Cygni rubbed her sweaty palms together.

  “It may stop some of the missiles,” Athame responded.

  “Only some?” Her mouth went dry.

  “They are two-stage warheads. The primary charge will generate an EMP and disrupt our aegis. The secondary stage will explode and damage our hull. The ship will regenerate its aegis field before the second missile repeats the process. The odds of doing the same after that drop by 92.7%.”

  Cygni gritted her teeth.

  “Aren’t we supposed to have back up?” Kae asked.

  “Three-seconds to impact, two—” Athame was interrupted by eight flashes of bright light from beyond the ship. Cygni blinked, and when her optics cleared the missiles were gone.

  “I think that’s our backup,” Armstrong drawled.

  More flashes appeared among the clouds. On the display swarms of red dots shot upward toward space.

  “Defensive drones,” Athame stated. “They will attack our allies in orbit. I recommend haste.”

  They raced forward, bumping, dropping, and rising through the Matre’s atmosphere as Deep Hydra loomed ahead. The massive station appeared before them as a vast city of metal and light beneath the translucent marble of the station’s aegis field. It pulsed with energy as each orbital attack struck, but though it flexed and danced in the Matre’s air it did not yield.