Where's the event horizon? Still paralyzed in his command chair, Bei sent the wireless signal to Shang'hai and opened the WA for his bridge staff. The dark spot grew bigger on the LCD by her head. Ninety-seven million kilometers. At his ship's current rate of speed, the Starfarer and her crew had approximately seven minutes before they would splatter against the wormhole's dead end.
"There is no event horizon, Admiral." Shang'hai's soft voice cracked and she shuddered. After raking her hand through her spiky pink hair, she unraveled two more optic fibers from the knot of interfaces at the base of her skull and filled the rest of the navigation hub's ports. "This part of the wormhole has collapsed. Switching plasma emission to bow vents, all hands brace for imminent full stop."
Kneeling on the grated metal floor near Bei's chair, Captain Penig removed the cover plate on Bei's cerebral interface. "The smaller ships won't be able to stop in time. I've ordered all hands to abandon ship. We'll pick them up later."
If the Starfarer stopped in time. If not, everyone would die a slow death from starvation, oxygen deprivation or hypothermia. A buzzing sounded near Bei's ear seconds before he felt the tug at the base of his skull. Send out the grappling hooks. Lash as many ships as possible to our hull.
Remaining at her station near the communications hub, Commander Keyes nodded once. Her brown eyes were wide as she stilled her trembling hands by placing them on the LCD. "Seven Beagal Class Starships are moving into position. Admiral we're not going to be able to take them all without damaging the Starfarer."
The dart-shaped ships appeared on the screen by the commander's head.
Age carved deep grooves around the captain's mouth. Although kneeling by Bei's side, Penig remained tethered to the telemetry hub a yard away. A red close proximity warning flashed on the screen and was quickly extinguished. "Fifty ships are hanging back. I've ordered the Chief to oversee the evacuation of non-essentials from the Starfarer."
Tingles erupted across Bei's skull. His fingers jerked, then slowly curled and uncurled in response to his command. The captain would soon fix Bei's paralysis. In the background, he heard the click and whirl as his neural software performed diagnostics and scanned for errors. For the next six minutes while his systems rebooted, he would have to fly his ship the way human captain's did-relying on his eyes, ears and instincts instead of his technology. That did not change his duty to the Syn-En, it only made it harder to fulfill. The Starfarer has enough surface area for forty-five ships. Have the rest double-up near the stern. Our hull is Nickel-titanium Memory Alloy. It will self-repair.
"It will take four minutes for the ships to attach." Shang'hai stepped back and clutched her head. Images flashed in quick succession across the navigation screen. "Evacuating outer rings and sealing bulkheads on levels one through three of Starfarer. Bow vents at one hundred percent. Estimated stopping distance one billion kilometers."
Not fast enough. Bei's limbs went numb and hung from his torso like rotten hams. Damned if he'd meet his end paralyzed on the floor of his bridge. He willed time to speed up to hurry his healing but perversely he wanted to slow it down, give himself time to find a way out of this other than imminent death.
"Even with the extra weight?" Commander Keyes squeaked, resting a hip against the bare metal wall next to the communications hub. "And all engines firing toward the bow?"
Nodding, Shang'hai wiped her hands on her pants. "The barnacle crafts won't be able to use their engines without frying the ships attached near them. They're attaching using thrusters."
Damn. Bei glared at the growing black disc at the end of the tunnel. There may be a chance, just one. And like everything else on this blasted journey, it would come at a price. His men would pay it, he just wished there was another way. Bei opened the WA to all the ships in the fleet. His people had a right to choose their fate. Which ships have the fastest engines?
"Aside from us?" The captain opened the repair terminal under the armor covering Bei's forearm. He pulled out three red biometric strands. "The Oppenheims, but they're the ones with the best chance of stopping and the last ones that will attach."
Pain blazed through Bei's synapses as the recycled filaments replaced the burned out ones in his motor nodule. They also carry enough Helium-three to create an impressive explosion. At a dead end, it might blow the entire wad in our direction.
Dread thickened the air as the ramifications drifted around the Starfarer's bridge officers. With Bei's cerebral software rebooting, the ships would have to be piloted to the end and the engines manually overloaded.
Time counted down. Six minutes remained until their mission would come to a rather dramatic end. The knowledge filtered through the WA. The wireless com system crackled with fear and turmoil before quieting into steely resolve. The Syn-En knew their duty. Maybe a little too well. Bei allowed the traitorous thought for a moment before banishing it.
"Seven ships attached, next wave moving into position." Shang'hai picked at her thumbnail, lifting and shutting the access port underneath. "Recalculating stopping distance."
Commander Keyes's breath came in short bursts as she slid the stowed metal seat in and out of its slot next to the com station. "Oppenheims report all non-essential personnel aboard pods, command staff awaiting orders and mission status of Operation Blowback."
"Pods ejecting." Shang'hai inset the Stargazer's aft visual sensors on her LCD.
The tiny capsules scattered in their wake like spilled pills on luminescent paper.
The commander shook out her hands before setting them on the LCD. "Orion, Beagel and Nebula ships launching life pods? now. Captains report all hands away. They're moving into position on the Starfarer's hull."
Bei's heart drummed inside his chest. Syn-En captains wouldn't abandon ship, neither would their command staff. Over three hundred soldiers would be stuck to his ship like flies in ointment and he literally couldn't lift a finger to help. Yet. His internal clock hit the five minute mark. Where are those damn calculations?
Captain Penig placed a hand on Bei's chest. "Rebooting motor nodule in three? two? one."
Despite the restraining hand, Bei slid out of the chair as his armor unlocked. His head bobbed uncontrollably down the seat back and cushion. The captain thrust his knee between Bei's legs preventing the momentum from cracking open the admiral's skull against the floor's metal plating. The maneuver might have hurt if Bei could feel anything.
Shang'hai straightened, her pink hair seemed to bristle in agitation. "Calculations coming in now. Operation Blowback has a five percent chance of success with damage to barnacle ships projected at sixty-three percent."
The commander set her tan hand on the other woman's shoulder. "How many ships will it take?"
"Ten." Both women turned toward Bei. Hope, resignation and sadness hummed along the WA. Shang'hai squeezed her eyes closed for a moment. "They'll all have to reach critical mass within zero point five nanoseconds of each other while allowing for not more than one degree deviation in their formation."
Side by side, Bei's entire complement of Oppenheims would meet their deaths. The spacecraft were the only means the Syn-Ens had to reach the surface of Terra Dos. Yet without their sacrifice no one would arrive at their destination. If they could still reach it. Bei shook off his doubts. They would reach it. There had to be a way out of the wormhole. Earth had shown the world pictures of the planet sent back from their probes. Send the call for volunteers.
Captain Penig looked Bei in the eye, nodded once then cleared his throat. The older man seemed to have aged a decade in the last few minutes. "All Oppenheims willing to ride the chariot. Ramping engine output and accelerating. Two are midship. The others are pulling abaft of the Starfarer."
Shang'hai cleared the inset from the screen. "Oppenheims have cleared hull. Lead ships have punched through magnetic shielding. Lagging ships pulling abreast."
Flying in perfect, tight formation, the rocket-shaped Oppenheims raced toward the end of their suicide mission. Four minutes left.
&nbs
p; Bei arched his back as one by one the systems of his motor nodule came online. His limbs jerked twice as control was restored. Status of the Oppenheim command staff?
The commander blinked in rapid succession, before wiping her nose on her sleeve. "Riding with their captain."
Fifty more deaths. By the time they reached Terra Dos, Bei would be neck deep in the blood of his comrades, all because he'd volunteered the Syn-Ens on this mission. His internal systems flashed green. How ironic to have his body back under control just as his world ended. Nodding to the captain, Bei held out his hand. The two clasped forearms and Bei struggled to his feet. His legs trembled beneath him, but held. "How- How long until they reach their mark?"
At the moment, he didn't care if his bridge crew thought the stammer was because of his systems' reboot or the impending loss of some of his closest friends.
Staring at the navigation screen, Shang'hai clasped her hands behind her back. "T minus two minutes. Engineering is transferring maximum magnetic shielding to the bow."
Two minutes, if the mission went as planned. That left his ship a minute and a half to stop. Bei walked the two steps to stand between the two women. "Count it down."
In an androgynous voice, the Starfarer's computer marked the time until the Oppenheims exploded.
Knowing his ports were too fried to connect with Shang'hai and Commander Keyes's interfaces, he clasped one of their hands in his. The touch lacked the intimacy he'd grown accustomed to with his crew.
The commander's cold fingers slipped between his. "I always knew we would finish our term of service together."
"I thought you always said you'd finish me before I completed my term of service." Bei smiled. As wards of the government, these two as well as half of the Oppenheims' command staff had been conscripted into the Syn-En Fleet together. They'd been his lovers, friends, and rivals. If he could not lead them to Terra Dos, perhaps it was best to board the chariot with them as company.
One minute remained.
Shang'hai glanced over her shoulder at the captain then held out her free hand to him.
Accepting it, Captain Penig strode to her side. "Delta probes in place."
The knots in Bei's stomach folded in upon themselves. How could he have forgotten to monitor the wormhole's integrity? Of course, if it collapsed because of the explosion, they'd be dead before the probes reported in. He focused on the navigation LCD. The Oppenheims' white bodies freckled the blackness.
Thirty seconds.
Bei cleared the tightness from his throat. "All hands disconnect from Starfarer. I repeat, all hands disconnect. Inertial dampeners to maximum."
The commander's shoulder brushed his as she stooped to remove all her interfaces from the navigation and weapons ports before verifying her attachment to the com system. "Communications ready, Admiral."
Still clasping Shang'hai's hand, Captain Penig freed her from the weapons hub but left one fiber optic cable in the navigation station. Using the nail of his index finger he secured his connection to Telemetry. "All ports secure. Telemetry ready, Admiral."
Shang'hai leaned against Bei. "Navigation ready."
Ten seconds.
Her silky hair brushed his jaw. Bei inhaled the sharp scent of soap wafting from her head. "All hands brace for full stop. Kill the visuals."
A ripple traveled through Shang'hai into him. "Visuals off."
Black panels yawned in the silver walls of the command deck.
Bei glanced at the soldiers beside him. If his connector hadn't been overloaded when the Perseus exploded, he would be up here alone bearing the risks.
Five seconds to the Oppenheims' self-destruction.
"Take all non-essential systems offline." His heart kept time with the countdown. Three. Two. Detonation. Death.
Commander Keyes shifted closer to him. "All non-essentials offline. Grounding wires deployed. First, EMP wave rendered harmless."
Shang'hai inhaled sharply. "Sensors register three explosions. Zero point six-one percent apart."
Three explosions. Not one. All because of a hundredth of a nanosecond delay. Would it be enough to stop them from reaching the dead end?
Captain Penig's fist slammed into the telemetry hub. "First blast wave in six seconds."
High pitched alarms blasted the bridge as blood red lights bathed the deck and the ship's computer calmly announced, "Collision alert. Collision alert. Impact with wormhole in twenty-five seconds."
"Shut it down, Captain." Bei clenched his jaw. His men didn't need the reminder of their journey's end.
"Alarm off. Aye." The captain spoke into the deafening silence. "Second wave in six point eight seconds. The third in six point twelve. Fourth wave in ten seconds."
Fourth wave? The deck bucked underneath Bei's boots. In unison, the soldiers beside him adjusted to the motion. All around him, metal groaned. His gut clenched. And he only heard the damage; the others would feel it like a blow to their body. Yet to break the connection would drastically increase response time. They couldn't afford to lose even a nanosecond. One down. Could his ship survive three more?
Commander Keyes licked the perspiration forming above her top lip. "Two ships reporting damage to steering. Power surges on piggybacked ships."
Shang-hai squeezed her eyes closed for a moment. "Recalculating full stop range on new data."
"Magnetic shields down to sixty percent. Bow damage reported." Light crackled around Penig's fingernail. The command deck filled with the acrid scent of burning armor. "Venting atmosphere on outer rings."
The second and third blasts slammed into them. Even with the metal in his uniform, boots and bones attracted to the magnetic floor, the jolt knocked Bei across the room and the women from his grasp. Landing on his backside, he skidded over the metal deck before crashing into the elevator doors and denting them. His right shoulder dislocated with a loud pop. Pain suppressors flooded in, clearing his thoughts but the room spun, keeping him pinned to the wall.
High pitched shrieks pummeled his auditory enhancements as the hull was peeled away from its bulkheads. Could his ship take another hit? And what of the others attached to her?
"Report." Bei pushed his body along the curved wall until he reached the recently repaired tactical bay. Baring his finger ports, he jacked into the system. Red lights blinded his visual centers. Every system had been damaged. Gritting his teeth, he fought against the Starfarer's uncontrolled spin. Starboard thrusters were offline. He glanced at the rest of his crew.
Shang'hai lay at an odd angle across the command chair. Red blood made furrows into her pink hair. Her optic cable had been ripped from her skull and now snaked across the metal grating.
Still attached to the telemetry hub a foot away from Bei, the captain twitched. Sparks shot out of Penig's mouth and his severed finger remained inserted in the port in the hub.
Bei would have them attached at disposal. Syn-Ens deserved to ride the chariot whole.
Clinging to the side of the com hub, the commander moaned. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and let the tangled lengths slide over her shoulder. Slowly, she pulled herself to a sitting position. Her fiber optic cable glowed orange. "Magnetic shields offline. Full stop calculations? incomplete."
Bei dug his fingers deeper into the round ports of the tactical bay. After rebooting the Starboard thrusters and stopping the Starfarer's spin, he'd powered off the hub and ordered a reboot in one second. "Disengage from the com system."
Commander Keyes's connection fell dark. "It was-"
The next wave hit. Metal buckled. Bei diverted energy to increase the magnetic attraction of his floor to him and his crew. His skin felt raw beneath his uniform as he slid along the wall. Sparks sprayed in white bursts from the hubs before the room went dark. Even activating his nightvision upgrades in his ocular implants made no difference. He couldn't see a thing. Something banged loudly in the vicinity of his feet. He hoped it wasn't the commander being hurled across the room. Focusing on his hearing, he listened for Keyes
's breathing. Nothing. Damn.
Tingles raced up his arms. Blue static electricity crawled over his armor, casting an eerie glow around him. A instant before the tactical hub hummed to life, Bei noted the change in the room. The Starfarer had stopped. So many dead and yet? His cardiac implant quickly compensated for the skipped beats in his heart.
They'd done it.
No synthetic enhancement needed. Data flooded into his cranial interface, now working properly. Emergency protocols quickly prioritized the damage and relayed implementation steps. Like the touch of a long lost friend, he felt the brush of other Syn-Ens in the fleet as captains, commanders, lieutenants and ensigns checked in through the wireless array.
A groan came from near his head before an identification ping bounced off his interface.
"Fricking implants." Shang'hai's voice growled through the darkness. She uttered a curse a second before he heard the scrape of metal against metal. "Sorry to miss all the excitement, Admiral. Stupid snap disconnect caused an emergency reboot. And humans think hangovers are bad."
He pinged her back, a sign of his sympathy. Emergency reboots fried circuits engineers had forgotten existed in an effort to prevent an electric surge from liquefying a Syn-En's brain. "I've restored life support in inhabited areas, but radiation is rising and unless we can get the shield up, we'll die of exposure long before we freeze to death."
"I'm connecting via the WA to engineering," Shang'hai grunted. The soft rasp of a panel opening fluttered around the room. "Ninety percent of the hull is gone. Wardens are retrieving the larger chunks. Engines offline. Not responding to commands. Initiating manual override."
"Starfarer's com systems are down," Commander Keyes hissed from his left. Light flooded the command deck emanating from her wrist. She set her detached right hand against the waistband of her trousers. "Stay."
The fingers looped around her belt and clung to her flat stomach.
Bei grinned at the old trick used to disturb their human officers. Magnets had their uses, especially in battle when spare parts were needed and just lying around ripe for the picking. "I register four aft ships attached."
"They also report the least damage through the WA." Shang-hai appeared in a blue glow as she removed her twisted synthetic right leg and tucked it under her arm. Using the captain's chair as leverage, she hauled herself to a stand then hopped toward the ladder access near the briefing room's entrance. "I've asked them to focus a five percent venting at the Starfarer's hull. The heat should quicken the Alloy's return to its programmed shape."
"Estimated time to restored hull integrity?" Bei found the emergency lights and powered them with the stored energy reserves. Orange light pulsed in the half-moon shaped room. It wasn't much, but working by the light of amputated body parts had a negative effect on morale, especially among non-Syn-Ens.
"Thirty minutes." Keyes snapped her hand back on her wrist. "Sorry Admiral, but the pieces of hull are everywhere and the wardens are having a hard time distinguishing them from the other debris."
Bei's forehead pounded from deciphering the data. "How many are lost?"
After clicking the bits of armor back into place over her legs, the commander rose to her feet. Pain pinched her orange cast features. "Twelve darts are no longer registering. But I count only sixty life signs among the field. I've diverted two wardens to retrieve the crews."
Nodding, Bei decided against adding the additional deaths to the running tally. Syn-Ens could survive for fourteen days in open space, but they couldn't survive any more rads than an ordinary human. A technical glitch no one had thought worth fixing. "Their radiation dose should be within tolerances by the time all are reclaimed."
The ladder hatch popped open. Its lid clattered against the metal floor. Civilian Montgomery Smith stuck his dark head through the octagonal opening before clawing at the grates and pulling himself up. Although he had a gash on his cheek, he appeared unharmed. No doubt thanks to being strapped into one of the chairs in the Starfarer's storm cellar with the rest of the crew that remained on board.
"I've checked the wireless array, sent some techs to repair the com system and thought I'd visit you all to see if anyone could use a good mechanic." The Civie's green eyes locked onto Shang'hai.
She tossed her leg at him. A smile curved her full lips. "Repair that after you see to the captain and I expect it to be returned to me. Personally."
Bei raised an eyebrow at the invitation. Syn-En celebrated their survival with sex. Most humans, enhanced or otherwise, looked down on the practice, viewing it as proof of the low morals of lesser humans. Since he accepted the ritual with such ease, Smith certainly bore closer scrutiny. Not that Bei begrudged Shang'hai happiness, but the nine months on this mission punctuated the growing tensions between the Syn-Ens and the civilians.
Smith's eyes glittered as he caught then stroked the shapely leg. "Aye, ma'am."
"I'll send you an engine update as soon as I get down there." Shang'hai hooked her remaining leg around the opening, flopped on her belly then wiggled back into the ladder access. Her fingers fused together as they wrapped partway around the tubular ladder's sides. After a quick glance down, she disappeared. "Look out below."
Her warning echoed throughout the tube.
Using the armor to protect her hands from burning, Shang'hai would slide the four decks to engineering. Bei hoped one leg would be enough to stop her descent. He disconnected from the silent engineering port. Updates and request for intell on rescue operations clogged the WA. Com systems needed to be restored before panic set in.
Commander Keyes wobbled to the access hatch.
Syn-Ens didn't limp. His communication's officer had obviously suffered significant injuries. "How badly are you damaged, Keyes?"
At Bei's words, Smith looked up from his place by the captain's still form. He quickly set the damaged limb to the side and shrugged the pack off his back. His questioning gaze drifted from the commander to the captain and back again before settling on Bei.
Shuttering his thoughts, Bei met the civie's gaze. The captain's outmoded enhancements had overloaded in the second wave. All they could do now was wait until his human heart and brain gave up the fight.
"I won't know that until I've finished the self-repair algorhithms." The commander stumbled, hitting the ground with one knee before pitching face first into the floor. Blood oozed out of the cuts on her face before they quickly scabbed over. "I don't think I'm supposed to walk with my face."
Bei smiled. Leave it to his friend to find the humor in a bad situation.
Smith scooted closer, setting his hand on her back while he attached two alligator clips to the fiber optic cords dangling from her nape. His leads disappeared under the sleeves of his blue uniform. "Stop moving."
"I have a job to do, Civilian Smith," she snapped but stopped struggling.
Bei focused on resurrecting the targeting system. He kept meeting dead ends in the mainframe. The hair at the base of his neck rose. Only a physical cut could do that. Had the Starfarer taken a physical blow from flying debris?
"So do I." Smith tucked the commander's hair behind her ears, allowing her to glare up at him. "You've sustained damage to your spinal column, severing most of your auxiliary connections. The only place you're going is to the infirmary."
Bei choked on his snort. Commander Keyes would die before going to the infirmary. His amusement faded as quickly as it came. Too many Syn-Ens were willing to sacrifice. Not this time. The commander's subordinates could handle the problems. Already he felt them searching the decks looking for the manual tear. He sent the command overriding her mobility core. "You'll return to duty after a medic and tech okay you."
"But, I have to restore the com link." A spasm curled her into a fetal position and locked her in place. Anger flashed in her dark eyes. "Admiral, I need to do my job."
Ignoring her, Bei searched for Chief Rome's signal on the WA. Where was security when he needed them? Bei switched his focus to the waiting tech. "S
ee to the captain."
Smith nodded, flipped open his pack, then leaned over Captain Penig. Slim ebony fingers danced over the older man's torso before slipping into the white hair and tugging free the fiber optic cables. "Hey, Captain. I came to make sure you weren't trying to get out of that fishing trip on Terra Dos."
Captain Penig's head twitched. Drool glistened in the corner of his mouth.
Bei watched the civie closely. If he so much as treated the captain with a picogram of disrespect, the tech would find himself at the bottom of the access shaft.
"I'm going to turn you now." Smith gently rolled the captain onto his left side. Quickly connecting the alligator clips, the tech smiled at the readout on his arm. "No liquefied or scrambled brains, just a few burned out circuits." The civie flicked back a fingertip and unscrewed the plate covering the back of the captain's neck. "Guess you're glad I insisted you try my upgrades, huh?"
The captain jerked again then lay still.
"No chariot ride for you, not until you've caught a fish." A soft twang infused the civie's voice. "It should only take me a minute to replace the leads, then I'll see to you, Admiral. A man's toes and face should point in the same direction."
Bei leaned against the hub. The tech definitely needed a closer look. Captain Penig would live because Smith had done what other humans refused to do, upgrade the older Syn-Ens. Static filled the LCDs. Bei glanced at the white screen.
"Guess, I trained my crew pretty good after all if they got the com system up and running so quickly." The commander craned her neck.
Ensign Faso's smirking face filled the LCD. "Hello Syn-En. I've taken control of the ship's com and tactical systems. If you don't comply with my demands, I'll use all the Syn-En life pods for target practice."
Terrorist: An individual or group that uses illegal methods,
including fear and violence to obtain an end, usually at odds
with the established order. Solution: immediate termination.
- Syn-En Vade Mecum
Chapter Three
The Syn-En Solution (SciFi Adventure) Page 3
