by Randal Sloan
“How do we slow them down?” Jarra asked. “The Empire is not ready yet,” she told them all flatly.
“I don’t know,” Sasha told her. “There’s nothing in the data stream that I can find that we can use. Hopefully, I’m just missing something.”
“I don’t guess it’s of any benefit for us to pull another stream for you from somewhere else?” Jarra asked her.
“No. As I told you at the beginning, it appears the one we pulled is complete. As we speculated, the Aerstone are so arrogant, they can’t conceive of anyone getting into their systems, so they have no reason to hide the data from anyone. Instead, they send it all everywhere.”
“Document all your findings and include any details you feel are useful. We’ll send your report over to Amfiltrite so they can carry the information back to the Empire. I’ll compose a message to send to my uncle explaining the situation.”
The whole thing looked hopeless, but Jarra went on. “We still have the last part of our mission to complete. Somehow, we’ve got to find a way to get it done.”
Chapter 12
Into the Black Hole
Jarra sat at her control station as Katarina carefully made her way toward the “black hole” in Aerstone space. Moments before, they’d sent Amfiltrite off to carry back her report in the hopes that the Empire could figure out something out that they could use to help their cause.
She had sent her own message back for her uncle. “It doesn’t look good based on everything we’ve seen so far. I’m still not sure if we’re going to survive the next part of our mission, but something tells me it’s important that we attempt it. Something quite critical to this war is inside this ‘black hole’ in Aerstone space. We’ve just got to find it.
“I recommend that all the Empire’s efforts be placed on a delaying action as much as possible in the conflict with the Aerstone, at least until they stage a full-fledged attack. Use that time to try to find something that will give us a technical edge. I believe that is our only chance. Perhaps we’ll discover something with the Sentinels that we can use, so I’m still holding out hope.
“Everything we’ve seen indicates that our struggles in the Badlands have ended most of their efforts to use the rebels to aid their cause. If you can dedicate enough resources without weakening our defenses, try to eliminate the rest of the rebels while we have the opportunity.
“I would also recommend that you start putting together a mission to once more attempt to communicate with the Octarians. If Katarina survives, we would be the logical one to lead that mission.
“I’ve got to wrap up for now. Even though we still have a good feeling about the upcoming part of our mission despite the fact that logic says we can’t possibly survive, we’ve all put together a group of messages to be passed on to our loved ones if somehow we fail. I’ve sent them to a delayed delivery service so that if we don’t make it back to cancel the delivery, they’ll go out in a month’s time.
“You know how much I love you, dear Uncle, but you know how much I believe in carrying out our duty. Everyone on this special crew feels the same way and there’s no turning back. I know you understand.
“May the sun warm your days, and the moon and stars shine on your nights. Jarra out.”
“We’ll be entering the edge of the zone in five minutes,” Galen told her, speaking aloud for the entire crew to hear. “I recommend that we slow to half speed now and to minimum speed when we enter the zone.”
“Proceed as indicated,” Jarra replied. “Don’t exit fast hyperspace until we have a safe harbor where we can hide. Gabo, I know you’re doing it already, but maintain full stealth and use passive scans only. Finding us that harbor is your highest priority.”
She turned to the others. “Sara, be ready to work your magic if we’re detected. Everyone else, stand ready to do your part. I believe our plan is a sound one, but we still have to pull it off. Of course, I’d much rather wait until we know more and can be more prepared, so let’s don’t rush things.”
Katarina crept forward into the danger zone, her every system on alert and everyone on board ready to respond if necessary. Eventually, she reached the edge of the system at the center of the dead zone and they dropped out of fast hyperspace into the small nebula just outside the system. There Gabo worked his scanners furiously, as the data from his passive scans came in. Using the technique he’d used in the Badlands, he was able to use an energy source flowing into the system to hide semi-active scans within the noise so that he could get a much clearer picture.
Despite everything they’d expected to possibly find prior to entering the system, he was still surprised with what he did find.
Something they found themselves doing all too often, the crew once more gathered in the ship’s galley, nervously awaiting Gabo’s report. Jarra was much too nervous for coffee, so she went for a soothing cup of tea instead. Next to her, Jason did the same thing. He didn’t understand it, but more and more he found he could pick up on her emotions, something he knew was more than just responding to her body language. She was definitely worried about what Gabo had discovered.
It wasn’t that he could complain about their connection. When they were able to squeeze in a little alone time, he was able to feel just how deep her love was for him and he knew she felt his love in the same way. What they had was absolutely amazing. Despite his thoughts, he said nothing, merely taking up his position beside her as Gabo prepared to give his report.
Gabo used the galley’s 3D VR to display his survey of the system in front of them. “I’ve found two significant features in the system before us,” he told them, pointing out a large satellite orbiting the only planet in the system and something else further out in the system. “You need to understand the scale — both of these objects are huge. The bigger one is just so large it makes the second one seem small.”
He enlarged the smaller object. “First, this is what we now know is a Sentinel. It possesses weapons on the order of the magnitude of the ‘Death Star’ we discovered in the Badlands, scanners as powerful as Katarina’s, but worst of all, we know it contains a powerful and malevolent AI. It is without a doubt the foe we came to get information on.”
Jarra could only stare. This was the evil that was the real reason for their mission, something she’d figured out early on. It was terrifying to actually see it in front of them, especially knowing a considerable number of Borjon ships had perished fighting it.
Finally, she found her voice. “What is the second thing you discovered?” she asked quietly, unable to keep the apprehension from her voice. If it was worse than the Sentinel, it really had to be bad.
“It appears to be a shipyard,” he replied. “A shipyard where they construct the Sentinels. They have a nearly complete Sentinel in one of the bays of the shipyard, along with several others at various levels of production.”
Everyone just stared in shock. Suddenly Jarra smiled. A crazy idea had popped into her head, but it just seemed right.
“I believe our mission has just changed,” she told them. “I have no doubt our true mission is to find a way aboard that station so we can study that Sentinel in the shipyard and learn as much as we can about their technology. Somehow, we’ve got to find a weakness that we can exploit.”
Everyone just stared at her in disbelief. Even coming from their amazing leader, that was a giant leap. She didn’t give them a chance to argue. Just as she had done the last time they’d faced a challenge, she stood, announcing, “I’ll be in my quarters. Let me know when you have the beginnings of a plan.”
As usual, they all sat looking at each other, but this time there was a difference. Jason was getting used to the way she did this and he was much quicker to the draw. Rising to leave with her, he whispered, “Good luck.”
No one said a word. Perhaps they were getting used to it too.
The plan hadn’t come easy. After Jarra and Jason left, the others sat just staring at each other for a few minutes. Even Kaeden was at a los
s for words. In his case, his whole life he had been taught to fear the Sentinels and now he understood why they had done such. Everything in him screamed with the desire to get as far away from where they were as possible. Even having seen this team in action, he was surprised when Galen spoke.
“Well, the first part of the plan is easy enough,” he said, pointing to the asteroid belt that was located just a little further out from the system’s star as the planet where the Sentinel shipyard was located. “We should be able to reach this asteroid belt under stealth as long as we come in on the opposite side of the system as the Sentinel. I would think we could find a way to hide amongst the mining ships that seem to be continuously traveling back and forth to make it down to the station, despite the fact that we know the Sentinels possess such high-level scanning abilities. At least by the time we reach this point, it should be scanning outward more than in-system anyway.”
Sara just shook her head. “So all we have to do is slip past the Sentinel’s highly advanced scanning capabilities, hide amongst the mining ships until we reach the shipyard, sneak aboard the nearly completed Sentinel, and figure out what our fearless leader is looking for. Then do it all again in reverse, all without being discovered. Is that all? Piece of cake.”
Kaeden looked up in confusion. “What cake? You have cake you wish to eat?”
Everybody laughed. It was a good pressure relief for them all.
“It’s another human figure of speech,” Amy explained. “It means ‘Easy to achieve.’ Guess I left that one out of your language module.”
Kaeden still looked confused. “And she thinks that’s all going to be easy?” he asked incredulously.
“No, it’s another human thing called sarcasm. You’ve seen it before with Jason, but Sara has taken it to the extreme. She knows it’s going to be almost impossible, but she’s saying the opposite to help us deal with it.”
She looked around at the team she was now a part of. “Nevertheless, guys, I guess we need to figure out the details. I don’t think Her Highness is going to take no for an answer.”
Gabo nodded. “Once we get inside the asteroid belt, I should be able to develop fake plating for the Katarina to make our ship match the look of the mining ships, much as we used it on our last mission to make us look like a merchant ship. Sara, I’ll need your help matching our EM to theirs.”
“I should be able to figure that out,” Sara told him. “I’ll need your help to look over the specs to the mining ships too. We’ll need to know a lot more about them if we are to use them as our cover.”
Kaeden shook his head, the motion very close to the human one. “This is what you guys do? We’re all crazy, aren’t we?”
“Welcome to the looney bin,” Amy told him. Apparently he had that one in his language module, because Kaeden just smiled.
A few minutes later they called Jarra and Jason back in to join them. Even she was shaking her head when they finished. But her second sight seemed to be kicking in, because she still didn’t get a good feeling from their plans for getting back out. It was going to require some adjustments, she was sure. She also knew they had to do this.
“I’ll approve the first part of your proposal. Take us into the asteroid belt and let’s see if we can get enough data to refine the rest of it. It does us no good to get data on the Sentinels if we can’t escape. Right now, I would say the odds of that are quite low.”
Sasha looked up from her console. “Less than 10%,” she said, not having realized Jarra wasn’t actually asking for the number.
“That’s not good enough, but we have to start somewhere. Get started fleshing out the plan. Everything has to be done very deliberately and carefully.”
Jarra shook her head. Something told her this was what the Master had been talking about that was going to make all the difference in the galaxy — whether or not they survived. They had no choice but to do it, but she also had to find a way to protect her team.
“We’ll just have to find what we need.”
She wished she believed it.
It wasn’t until the next morning that they slipped out of their hiding place and began their carefully plotted flight to the asteroid belt running on full stealth. Jarra had wanted to get as much information as they could get before they went any further and she wanted them to have the night off before beginning. Once again she had the ship’s AI prepare an excellent meal for her crew and they all enjoyed their time together.
“You weren’t wrong about the food thing, were you?” Jason commented to her as they partook of the dinner that night. “I could definitely get used to this.”
“You’d better enjoy it,” she told him. “It’s going to be short rations for you here on out, bud. I should have done a better job of managing your expectations.”
Amy smiled at the two of them. “I think he knew exactly what to expect with you,” she told Jarra. “Still, here he is, about to take on the most dangerous, impossible mission yet attempted and all he cares about is being with you.”
Jarra sighed. “Yeah, I should have tried to resist his charms. He’d have been a lot better off to fall for some other girl. At least he wouldn’t be here.”
Jason leaned over to give her a kiss. “I’m right where I want to be. And you know what? Somehow, I know this group is going to pull it off.”
Jarra nodded. “I believe so too. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be doing it, even though that same sense of things says this is more important than anything else we’ve ever done before.”
She looked around at everyone. “I also believe in you.” She raised her glass to make a toast.
“Here’s to my special family: I love you all. I know you’ll find a way!”
Chapter 13
Infiltration
With Katarina sitting in the asteroid belt, Gabo was using his modified scanners to gather as much information as possible about their enemy. Once more using the trick they’d perfected in the Badlands, a strong energy source allowed him to piggyback onto the intense radiation in the area to squeeze in enough semi-active scans to resolve the details of the data his passive scans produced.
Finally, after an hour or so of work, he was ready to present the team with his findings. He pushed up a scan of the system on the main VR so they could all see.
“I believe I’ve found a better way into the system,” he told them. “It should work for getting back out too — as long as we’re not discovered.”
No one commented on how unlikely that was. “We’ll just have to not get caught,” Jarra told him, this time taking the high road. “What’s your plan?”
“We still need to pretend to be one of the mining ships, but instead of doing that all the way out here, I suggest we use the energy stream I was using to enhance my scans to slip Katarina into orbit around the planet. If we time it so we enter from the backside of the Aerstone station, we’ll never be seen by their sensors. We just need to find a way aboard the station.”
Sasha had been looking for patterns in the vicinity of the Sentinel complex. “I think I have something that will work even better,” she said. “The weakest part of our plan to mimic a mining ship was if someone used visuals to look at us rather than scans. Instead of trying to mimic one of them, based on the patterns the mining ships are completely automated with no crew and a relative low-level AI controlling them. A better idea is to get Sara to take over one of them that is about to make a delivery to the shipyard and hitch a ride. That’ll get us inside of the shipyard, the other weakest part of our plan.”
Gabo nodded. “That makes sense. We’ll just have to time our arrival to match one of their ships and then ride piggybacked the rest of the way.”
“It’s a good thing Jarra got us all a suit of that Marine armor,” Sara said quietly. “Once we get aboard the station, I’m probably going to need physical access to at least the control pod for the ship in the shipyard to be able to give you the details you’re asking for. With the armor as a space suit, I should be able to get cl
ose enough to do that even if those sections of the station don’t have air — if we can figure out a way to get there without being spotted.”
Kaeden’s fear had gradually turned to excitement as he listened to them. That last part gave him an idea. “I’ve studied the capability of your armor — what you call the chameleon circuits. Based on what we know about the Aerstone, we should be able to modify your armor to take advantage of the Aerstone ‘red’ eye. It has blind spots in the high-end light spectrum.”
Jarra gave him a smile. “I like that. It would definitely give us a better chance of getting out alive,” she mused. “I was worried about that before now. As everyone knows, if discovered we’ll have to try to get past that Sentinel and right now I don’t see any way to do that.”
She looked around at her team. “I’ll tentatively approve that part of your plan if the others can come up with something that will improve our chances of getting out.”
Sara looked up. She’d been reviewing the data Gabo had sent on the shipyard. “It appears to me that the Sentinel of interest is nearer to completion than we thought. I’m reading low-level signals coming from the core area. We know from the Fionachtina’s scans that should be the location for the AI. If the AI is actually intact but not activated, I should be able to get enough data from it to allow me to hack the other Sentinel.”
Everyone looked at her in disbelief. Kaeden was the most surprised, having been taught to fear the Sentinels his whole life. He couldn’t prevent the gasp that escaped his lips. “Impossible!” he told her.
“It’s just another AI,” she replied, “although I admit it is quite powerful. But if I can get the blueprint from the inactive one, I think I can do it with a little help.”