by Nick Cook
‘And thankfully keeping us all alive in the process,’ I said, as Tom settled Ariel into a hover directly over the top of Artemis with only a couple of metres between our craft.
From this close we could see that multiple panels on Artemis had buckled under the rockfall that the craft had been caught in. Sparks of electricity were also coming from an exposed section of the torus accelerator of the REV drive. Of more immediate concern was a single large boulder sitting on top of the main hatch.
‘That looks like it’s going to be really heavy to lift,’ Ruby said, eyeballing it.
Jack unclipped his harness and headed towards a tool locker at the edge of the deck. ‘We can use the winch on the ramp exit with a harness to drag that boulder clear once Lucy opens up that gravity air tunnel of hers.’
I nodded. ‘Talking of which, how’s it coming along, Lucy?’
‘Just another minute and it will be ready.’
‘Okay, everyone get ready because every second is really going to count here. Ruby, you stay onboard and operate Ariel’s weapons in case any of those torpedoes get past Niki.’
‘Understood, Commander,’ she replied.
I was just unclipping my harness when a line of green light shot out from the Zumwalt battleship above us. The beam swung around the sky in sweeping arcs like a searchlight until it seemed to lock onto something.
‘Shit, they’ve just fired some sort of laser that has taken out our Chameleon cloak,’ Niki said. ‘I need permission to take offensive action directly against that destroyer.’
‘What’s that meant to mean?’ I asked.
Tom stood up and turned towards me. ‘He means he needs to take out that Zumwalt.’
I stared at him. ‘But there are people on that ship!’
Mike and Jack were looking between us, appalled.
But Tom’s eyes held mine, his gaze unflinching. ‘This is now a fully fledged battle. You have to choose between our people’s lives or the lives of the people who are trying to kill us. Your choice, Lauren.’
His words were hard, but I knew they had to be in a situation like this when the truth, however brutal, was a matter of life or death. And in that moment I had absolutely no choice other than to issue the order.
‘Okay, Niki. Ruby, too. You both do whatever you have to do to sink that bloody warship.’
’Spooling up power to the railgun now,’ Niki said calmly.
‘Arming a Spearfish torpedo,’ Ruby confirmed. ‘Target solution locked on and firing now.’
With a loud gurgle of water a Spearfish leapt from one of our ports and streaked up towards the destroyer’s hull.
‘Railgun round fired and… oh fucking hell!’ Niki exclaimed.
A flash of light came from the Zumwalt, followed by a distance boom as a white cloud of water erupted around the enemy ship. Then, even though there was a vast expanse of water between us, a loud boom still reached us through Ariel’s walls. The Spearfish torpedo reached the turbulent boiling water and then suddenly veered away at a right angle.
‘What the hell?’ Ruby said, looking at her weapon targeting display.
Then we all saw for ourselves what had happened. The boiling water began to settle, revealing the destroyer still sitting on the surface of the sea, looking totally unscathed.
‘How the hell is that thing still floating? Why was our torpedo just deflected?’ Ruby asked.
‘Probably the same reason Thor’s railgun round didn’t do any damage,’ Lucy replied as her avatar appeared. ‘The really bad news is that the Zumwalt seems to be using some sort of gravity shield to envelop it. It seems that the Overseers have been taking notes from their previous encounters with our latest X-craft.’
‘You mean we can’t even hit that damn thing?’ I asked.
‘If even a hypersonic round can’t scratch it than I’m afraid it looks that way, Lauren,’ Lucy said. ‘Meanwhile, with the destroyer’s gravity shield still up they can fire that laser weapon of theirs straight at a target with impunity, unlike us, who have to drop our gravity shields to fire.’
‘Okay, as bad as this all is, there is at least one bit of good news,’ Niki’s voice cut in. ‘Thankfully our ablative armour did its job and absorbed the blast, but we won’t be able to take that sort of punishment indefinitely. So we’ll do our best to keep them busy, but you’d better get on with your rescue, Lauren.’
‘Understood, but you still need to fall back as soon as we’ve finished down here. Lucy, please tell me you’re ready with that gravity field tunnel to link us to Artemis?’
‘I just finished coding the patch for the REV drive. Activating now,’ she replied.
A gurgling sound came from outside Ariel and then something that resembled a – to be perfectly, revoltingly honest – giant snot bubble appeared in our craft’s belly. It began to grow downwards into a tentacle that was reached out towards Artemis’s partly buried hatch. Then with a popping sound, it latched onto the other craft.
‘Gravity umbilical connected. You need to get a move on, guys,’ Lucy said. ‘If they launch a torpedo whilst our gravity is stretched thin like this, we’ll take a significant amount of damage.’
‘Okay, let’s move it, people,’ I said.
Jack activated the ramp controls and began to unwind the winch.
Even though I knew what to expect, the air still caught in my lungs as what was outside waiting for us came into view.
An undulating tunnel of water led down from the bottom of Ariel, directly onto Artemis’s hull. The walls shimmered with the light from our cockpit as the gloom of the deep ocean pressed in round it. It resembled one of those transparent underwater tunnels you sometimes get in the really big aquariums, where you can see the fish swimming all round you. The big difference between them was that down here, there were no acrylic walls to stop the water rushing in if the gravity field failed for any reason.
‘This is completely safe, Lucy, right?’ Mike asked, peering down at it.
‘As much as I can make it,’ she replied.
‘Then that’s good enough for me,’ Jack said as he headed towards the end of the ramp with the winch cable hook in his hand.
The rest of us slipped earbuds in to maintain comms contact with Erin and Ruby, then joined Jack on the ramp. He was using a remote to slacken some more line from the winch.
I could see Artemis’s hull just a few feet below, its hull still glistening with sea water and silt from the landslide. The large boulder was still sitting on top of the hatch. Even though it was a small leap down, I found myself casting a sideways glance at Mike’s prosthetic leg, which he caught me doing.
‘Don’t sweat it, Lauren, I can manage this.’
’Sorry, I didn’t mean to—’
He waved my apology away. ‘Don’t worry. I’d be wondering the same in your position. But I promise you I’m match fit. And all that exercise in the gym to prepare me for active missions again has to count for something, right?’
I smiled at him. ‘Right.’
I got ready to drop down, aiming for a spot towards the summit of Artemis’s hull, and leapt. I landed with a thunk on the metal surface as the seawater splashed off my boots. I was followed a moment later by Tom.
In this, the strangest of impossible corridors linking our two ships, I could immediately feel the chill of the ocean around me. The intense smell of brine was already flooding my nostrils.
I glanced up to see the destroyer’s green laser beam firing at its assailants. Without the virtual cockpit to render the enemy ship, the only other clue to its presence was the smooth bulge in the water that its hull was making.
With another thunk, Mike landed next to us with not so much as a slip as he crouched to absorb the landing. He gave me a wink.
Jack was the next to land, trailing the harness down with him. He immediately began to tow it towards the large boulder.
I pressed my finger to my earbud. ‘Erin, we’re standing on top of Artemis and should be with you any moment now.’
‘You’re what? But how?’ she replied.
‘Long story and too little time to explain. Right now all you need to know is we’re starting to clear the rocks from your top hatch and we will be entering shortly.’
‘Understood and thank you, however you’re pulling this off.’
Jack finished trailing the wire around the boulder and looping it back through its hook. Then, grabbing the remote box from his belt, he pressed a green button on it. At once the winch on the ramp began to wind in the slack. The wire went taut and with a squeal, the rock began to grind its way backwards off the hatch. As it began to tip over the edge of the sloping hull, Jack released the cable.
The boulder tumbled away down Artemis’s hull towards the water lapping around the base of the gravity tunnel. It crashed through the invisible barrier with a splash, sending ripples radiating out through the walls as the rock dropped away into the ravine.
‘Ah, I was wondering what would happen if one of us slipped,’ Tom said as we watched the huge boulder disappear.
‘Yes, I should probably have mentioned that part,’ Lucy said through our earbuds.
I raised my eyebrows at Tom as we all set to work moving the rest of the smaller rocks by hand, sending them on their way to join their larger cousin at the bottom of the ravine. It was hard work, but in less than another minute we’d cleared it enough to open the hatch.
‘Shit! Heads up people, we have incoming,’ Ruby said over our earbuds.
With clattering booms, Ariel’s minigun let loose, and the projectiles lanced straight up towards a torpedo that was hurtling down towards us. The stream of flechettes scythed through the missile and it detonated with a flash of light and a cloud of expanding foaming water. The shockwave reached us a second later and both ships shook. More alarmingly, cracking sounds came from what was left of the stone pillar before it stilled again.
‘Take that, you son of a bitch,’ Ruby snapped.
Niki’s voice broke in over the comm. ‘Sorry about that. Those sneaky bastards launched that last torpedo when we were making a high speed manoeuvre.’
‘Thankfully Ruby was on the case. Are you doing okay?’ I asked.
‘As well as can be expected, but our armour-plating has soaked up a fair number of direct strikes. We’re going to have to fall back sooner rather than later.’
‘Hopefully, we won’t be much longer, Niki. We should be able to get Erin and get clear from Artemis any minute. Then we can work out together what we’re going to do about that bloody destroyer,’ I said.
‘Roger that,’ Niki replied as Jack and Tom grabbed hold of the lip of the hatch and heaved it open.
Erin stared up at us from her flight seat, her foot trapped in place by a beam that had collapsed from the roof. My gaze travelled the length of that same beam that had crushed Daryl’s skull into a bloody pulp. Grief for the young weapons officer pulsed through me as bile filled my throat. The guy was too young to die like this.
Tom and Jack traded grim looks and began to clamber down the ladder into the cockpit.
Mike glanced down into the cockpit and grimaced. ‘Oh God, that poor guy.’
‘I know…’ I shut my eyes momentarily. I needed to focus on the living, not the dead.
I drew in a deep breath and started to descend the ladder into the darkened cockpit, lit only by a low red light from the emergency battery backup system.
The bottom third of the cockpit had already been flooded by the water cascading down from several cracks in the hull’s metal panels.
Tom had thankfully found a flight jacket from somewhere and draped it over Daryl’s head for dignity. Meanwhile, Jack tried to pull the beam off of Erin’s foot, which was twisted at such a shocking angle that it could only be broken. The poor girl stifled a yelp of pain as Jack tried to lift the beam clear and only succeeded in making it shift a fraction.
My own nausea forgotten, I crossed to Erin and took her hand in mine. ‘How are you doing there?’
‘Oh, I’ve had better days, Commander.’
‘Look, enough with this commander nonsense already. You call me Lauren. Understand?’
She gave me a small smile. ‘Okay, Lauren,’ but as Jack tried to shift the beam again, this time with Tom, she practically crushed my hand as she whimpered.
I glanced at the ceiling, far too aware that a torpedo was probably going to land on our heads at any moment, and caught Mike’s gaze. He looked thoughtful.
He disappeared and a moment later reappeared with the winch harness in his hand. ‘You guys should probably try this.’
‘Good thinking,’ I said.
But Jack frowned. ‘Sorry for the straight talking, Erin, but I’m not sure that a winch is going to be powerful enough to shift that beam.’
She gave him a slow nod. ‘Got it. Then just leave me with a pistol to end it and get yourselves to safety.’
I stared at this young woman, not sure I could be quite so brave if I was in her place. I certainly wasn’t going to listen to that sort of talk.
‘Absolutely not on my watch,’ I said. ’Tom, Jack, we’ll all try pushing together as the winch starts to take the slack. Hopefully, that will be enough to shift this damned thing.’
‘Got to be worth a try, because I’m with Lauren on this,’ Jack said. ‘There’s no way I’m going to leave you to die in here, Erin.’
‘That goes for me too,’ Tom said as he patted her gently on the shoulder.
Erin breathed in through her nose and nodded, a single tear running down her cheek. It made me even more determined to save her, especially after the awful loss of Daryl.
With Jack’s help, I was looping the winch wire around the beam when Ruby’s voice rang out over our earbuds.
‘Hey, I don’t want to worry you, guys, but that last torpedo shockwave seems to have loosened a few more rocks on that pillar and it has begun to shift again. The headline is that you need to move it.’
‘Understood,’ I replied. ‘Guys, we need to hurry this up.’
Jack grabbed the remote box and pressed the green button. Mike joined us as the wire began to take up the slack, then we all got our hands under the beam. Bracing ourselves as best we could, we began to heave and push. A shudder passed through the beam as Erin squealed in pain.
Gritting my teeth, I pulled with everything I had.
‘Will you bloody move, you son of a bitch!’ Jack said as the muscles on his neck started to cable.
Despite the chilled air flooding the cabin from the open hatch, beads of sweat began to pop out all over my forehead.
The collapsed beam trembled again, but it still wasn’t shifting. Despair was starting to creep in, an emotion I could see mirrored in everyone else’s expressions too.
‘Dear God, just leave me here. This isn’t going to work,’ Erin said, her face pale.
‘Not with that attitude it’s not, Erin,’ Tom said, his tone sharp. ‘So rather than just sit there will you bloody well give us a hand?’ Then a rare smile cracked his face.
And just like that the mood shifted. I pulled harder than I ever had in my life, my muscles singing with the strain almost as loudly as the winch wire that hummed like an out of tune harp.
Jack braced his back against the beam, his feet shoving against another pillar that had burst through the floor. Then with all of us pushing with everything we had, the beam suddenly groaned and bent sideways. Erin’s foot was suddenly, thankfully free.
‘You see, I told you it would be okay,’ Tom said, panting hard.
‘Yes, and now I believe you,’ Erin said with a smile, gasping for breath.
None of us was going to hang around for a victory lap though. Jack had already helped Erin up from her chair and was moving her to the ladder as she gritted her teeth with every jarring step. Then Jack pulled her over his shoulder and with a fireman’s lift, carried her up the ladder and out onto the hull with some assistance from Mike.
I climbed out next with Tom right behind. But then any sense of rel
ief that had briefly filled me was swept away as a violent vibration suddenly ran through Artemis’s hull.
‘That pillar of rock is fucking giving way,’ Ruby shouted through my earbud.
I glanced up to see the massive stone formation starting to tip straight down towards us.
Erin screamed in pain as Jack threw her onto Ariel’s ramp and we followed her up onto the hull. At that same moment, a massive boulder about three metres across broke loose and began to plummet towards Artemis. Jack and Mike dragged Erin, whimpering, up into Ariel’s cockpit as Tom’s head began to emerge from the hatch.
In that frozen moment, I had a second to register it as he glanced up towards the plummeting rocks, and then his eyes found mine.
Time stopped. And that moment was something that was going to haunt me for the rest of my life.
A look of utter calm and acceptance filled Tom’s face.
Then time sped up again as the boulder crashed straight through the gravity tunnel and down onto Artemis. The hatch slammed shut, trapping Tom inside the other craft. With an explosion of water, the gravity tunnel shattered as Artemis was shoved downwards by the massive boulder’s impact, bubbles bursting from its hull as it started to buckle.
’Tom!’ I screamed as the saucer plummeted away into the darkness and a wall of seawater surged towards me.
Then strong hands were dragging me upwards onto the ramp, but I fought them even as freezing water crashed over me. I was yanked backwards past Mike, who’d slammed his hand on the emergency close button. Multiple warning alarms filled the cockpit as the view of the ravine disappeared. But still I struggled, trying to get back to Tom. Then the geysers of water that had been erupting around the edge of the ramp finally slowed to gentle dribble.
‘You have to get Ariel clear,’ Tom’s voice said over my earbud.
‘No, we’re coming back for you,’ I sobbed as Jack finally released me.
‘No time, the cockpit will be flooded by then.’
‘But you have to let us try to save you,’ I pleaded, even thought I could hear the certainty in his voice.
‘No, I’m going to activate Artemis’s self-destruct sequence. Hopefully, that will be enough to convince that bloody Zumwalt destroyer that any threat down here has been neutralised.’