by Craig Allen
The Washington’s maneuvering jets glowed, and she drifted away from the hopper.
“That’s it,” Hayes said. “Hit it, Gunny.”
The hopper’s engines roared to life when Sonja grabbed the stick, and the hopper maneuvered away.
“Camo online,” she said. “We’re hidden, except for our engines. Think the Washington’s jets will cover us, sir?”
“Damn straight,” Hayes said. “The engines on a hopper are nothing compared to the maneuvering jets on a warship. You’re like a goldfish next to a whale. The wake your tail makes ain’t nothing compared to the whale.”
“You don’t know a thing about my tail, sir,” Sonja said.
Cody couldn’t see the effect from the inside. Tiny cameras on one side of the hopper broadcast the view to the other side. The effect wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough to deflect lidar and passive systems, which was what mattered.
Sonja maneuvered almost straight down, approaching the moon at an alarming speed. Finally, Sonja reversed thrust, and their descent slowed.
“Not bad, Gunny,” Hayes said.
“Thanks, sir.” Sonja grinned. “Stand by for second drop. Remember we’re maintaining radio silence until you and your team rendezvous at our position at nineteen hundred hours.”
“Copy that.” Bodin muttered something else over the comm but not loudly enough for Cody to hear. “Depressurizing.”
Cody checked his suit out of habit, which showed green. The suit’s sensors gave a silent alarm as they detected the drop in pressure. In moments, the hopper had as much air inside as there was on the outside.
Sonja brought up a map that reflected off the canopy. An X, of all things, marked an area well above the surface, in synchronous orbit around the moon.
“There she is,” she said.
Cody couldn’t see the array at first, but then it appeared. The entire structure could’ve fit easily inside the hopper’s bay if it weren’t full of marines. The black alloy absorbed light, as it was designed to do, so much so it was only noticeable because of the highlights the hopper’s HUD placed around it.
Hayes pulled up a schematic of the satellite. “Can’t see how we missed that.”
“It’s shielded. See?” Cody pointed at the emitters spread evenly across the array. “Ten years ago, Kali was supposed to dump these things around various worlds while they were searching for the Spicans’ true home world. Lidar and radar bend right around them, and they don’t use gravimetric drives. You wouldn’t see it unless you walked on top of it, and space is too vast for that to happen.”
“So how’d we find it now?” Hayes asked.
“A sensor operator with a sharp eye,” Cody said. “He used to spot similar arrays the Spicans left behind.”
“Goddamn,” Hayes said. “They had a peephole and were gawking at us the whole time.”
“Just hope Bodin doesn’t kick the wrong thing and let the toads know we’re onto them,” Sonja said.
“I heard that shit,” Bodin nearly shouted over the open channel. “Eggman should be doing this. You’re the expert.”
Cody smiled at Sonja. “You can spacewalk better than me, Marine.”
“Bullshit,” Bodin said. “You did orbital drops. You did it for a fucking living, as I recall.”
“It’s been a while.” Cody chuckled. “And I dropped from orbit. I didn’t do spacewalks. And I had the luxury of parachuting into an atmosphere, and—”
“Yeah, yeah.” Bodin switched to a channel only Sonja and Cody could hear. “You get to stay behind and diddle Gunny.”
“You sound jealous, Sergeant,” Sonja said.
“I’d rather take a cold shower.” Bodin hesitated. “Wait, I didn’t mean nothing by that.”
“She just thinks I’m better looking than you.” Cody winked at Sonja.
“Don’t lie to me,” Bodin said. “I’m the best looking one here.”
A yellow light illuminated the interior, and Bodin switched back to the open channel. “Oh, shit, here we go.”
“Five seconds to drop.” Sonja waited then said, “Drop.”
The light in the hopper’s bay flashed to red, and the rear hatch opened and disgorged the marines into space. According to the map on the canopy, the sensor array passed fifty kilometers below them. The door closed, and the hopper pressurized.
“Looks dangerous,” Cody said.
“They’ll be fine,” Sonja said. “Those sensors are designed to detect space vessels, not floating marines. Their camo fields will keep them hidden. Unless they overshoot the target—then they’ll have to use grav-jets to keep from crashing into the moon, which will announce to anyone watching the array’s sensors that we’re on to them.”
“And then we’d have to go get them, further announcing our presence.” Hayes checked gravimetrics. “Washington’s going to be out of range soon. Park us, Gunny.”
The hopper’s maneuvering jets pushed them closer to the moon’s surface until they were in the same orbit as the sensor array, only several hundred kilometers away—not so far that Bodin and his team couldn’t get to them with their suits’ grav-thrusters, which they would only use after the array had been shut down.
“That’s it,” Hayes said. “Kill it.”
The drive shut down, leaving an eerie quiet lingering throughout the hopper, the kind of quiet one might associate with being buried alive. They would stay that way for a while, even after the window in the satellites passed. If the Washington returned immediately, the toads would be fully aware humans had discovered their sensor array. Thus, they had to wait several hours for the Washington to return on what appeared to be a typical survey trip.
For a moment, they sat in the cockpit, the only light being the holocontrols and the green light in the hopper bay, which Hayes promptly switched off.
“Pretty good, Gunny.” Hayes unbuckled himself. “You’ll make a fine pilot one day.”
“Thank you, sir,” Sonja said.
“Would they detect the artificial gravity in the hopper?” Cody asked.
“Nope.” Hayes dusted off his hands. “It’s mostly contained. If we were within a few dozen meters, however, that’d be a different story.”
Hayes rose and slipped passed Cody. “Have a seat on the pilot’s throne, Doc.”
Cody wondered if he could fly the thing in a pinch. “Where are you going?”
“All this flying’s got me beat. Gonna take a nap.” He opened up four seats along the wall and stretched out across them, yawning. “Let me know if shit goes wrong. And whatever you two do to each other, try not to make a lot of noise.”
In moments, Hayes was asleep.
Cody slid up into the pilot seat, where Hayes had been sitting. “So that’s how he got his call sign.”
Sonja snickered. “You learn to do that in the military. Sometimes, you’re on the run for twenty-four hours or more. You sleep whenever you can.” She glanced at the sensors again, which didn’t register the probe. “How long do you think that sensor’s been out there?”
“Probably since before we showed up two months ago,” Cody said. “We’ve been watching the planet like a hawk since then, but those sensors are designed to hide. In fact, it’s possible there’s a port in the moon itself where the sensor can disappear, which it probably does when the sun’s out.”
According to the hopper’s passive sensors, the Washington had already retreated to the other side of the moon.
Cody leaned back in the seat. “How long until we see the signal from Kali?”
“Ten mikes.” Sonja drummed her fingers on the edge of the seat. “Hey. I want to talk about something.”
Cody noted the fact she was fidgeting with her hands. Here it comes. “What’s on your mind?”
“Well, I completed Platoon Leaders Class some time before we got stuck here,” Sonja said. “So, recently I requested to go to Officer Candidate School, and I was accepted at Bernard’s Star.”
So that’s what she’s been hiding. “You wan
t to be an officer?”
“I want to be a pilot.”
“You already are.”
“From my civvy days before the war, sure. But military craft require specialized training.” She waved her hand over the cockpit. “Technically, Lieutenant Hayes should still be up here. I’m not authorized to fly this thing on my own. But we’ve been playing it fast and loose out here.”
“I noticed.” Cody frowned. “Don’t you need a college degree to be an officer?”
“Graduated from Grant University of Carmen’s World. Majored in history.” She gave a thumbs-up. “Go Hogs.”
Cody laughed. “I haven’t watched football in years.”
“Me either. Not since…” She fidgeted her fingers. “Not since the war.”
Cody remembered the story. Her husband had been among the first to die when an Alcubierre Superluminal Energetic Burst, or ASEB, wiped out the atmosphere of their home world. Billions died. She signed up right after.
“Why didn’t they make you a pilot then?” he asked. “You had the skills.”
“It’s not that easy in the Marine Corps,” Sonja said. “You have to be a competent ground commander before they let you near the stick of a hopper.”
“Navy would’ve signed you up right away.”
“Yeah, but…” She wiped at her eyes. “I wanted to fight. I wanted to be hands-on for what the Spicans did to…”
To her husband. Funny how he kept learning things about her. “So now you want to be an officer like your son?”
“Yeah.” She grinned. “He’s up for captain. Might get a cruiser.”
“I hope he does.”
Cody had never met her kids, but Sonja had four of them from that marriage, and some of them had their own kids. She looked twenty-five but was really over a hundred.
“Could you end up serving under him?” he asked. “That’d be a little odd.”
“I’d be fine with it.” Her smile vanished. “Truth is, I’m not sure where I’d be serving. I might return to the Washington. I’d request it, but there’s no guarantee they’d grant that request.”
Cody began to understand. “How long is OCS?”
“Ten weeks. Then about the same in piloting school after that.”
“Twenty weeks.” Cody blinked. “Wow.”
“What? It’s not so bad.”
“I guess not.” Cody sighed. “Why’d you wait until now to say anything?”
“Because… I don’t know.” She threw up her hands. “I didn’t know what you’d say.”
“You didn’t trust me.”
“What? That’s not it. Christ, Cody, it’s just…” She gripped the edges of her suit for a moment. “What if I were stationed elsewhere? Would you come with me?”
And that’s what’s bothering her. “Sonja, I’m an ambassador here. Granted, that’s not the same as ambassadors on other worlds, but the fliers chose me to speak for them. I’m not sure how to get away from that.”
“I see.” She bowed her head.
“I want to.” He did. Sonja was a good woman, and he didn’t want to be away from her. “When do you leave?”
“When the new station arrives,” she said. “I’ll head back on the Washington and catch a ship to Bernard’s Star.”
“We don’t have much more time is what you’re saying.”
“What do you mean by that?” She put a hand on her forehead. “That’s not what I want, Cody.”
“But that is what you’re doing, isn’t it?”
“No, I’m…”
Cody hadn’t noticed until just then that she had tears in her eyes. He reached for her hand, but she pulled away. “Hey, look, I’ll—”
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
“Sonja, I just want—”
She held up her hand and turned away. Fine. Twenty weeks was longer than they had been together, but she couldn’t see that for some reason. He couldn’t miss it.
And I just don’t want her to leave.
Finally, she took a deep breath as if to say something, but the sensors flashed a warning. “Shit.”
“What?” Then Cody saw the sensors on the hopper’s HUD. “The satellite’s sounding an alarm?”
“Bodin must’ve triggered something.” Sonja hit the comm. “Bodin, what the hell?”
Bodin’s voice squawked over the radio. “What happened to radio silence, Gunny?”
“That changed when you dropped the ball, Bodin.”
“Yeah, I know, Gunny. I’m working on it.”
“The planet already knows you’re there,” Sonja said. “We’re coming to get you.”
“Don’t you dare, Gunny.” Bodin grunted. “I got this shit. We still got time.”
“He’s right.” Cody pulled up the sensors at his station, which traced a narrow beam transmission emanating from the probe’s position. “Look, the probe is behind the moon, still. That transmission won’t reach the planet.”
Sonja frowned. “Unless they have repeaters on the surface.”
“Deep scans showed nothing of the sort,” Bodin said. “Guys, quit bending my ear so I can… Oh shit.”
“Not the words I want to hear, Sergeant.”
“Sorry, Gunny, but I really fucked up.” A signal came from Bodin’s suit, showing an entry screen with large red letters that said Locked. “I connected, and everything went fine. I tried to bypass the main viewer and get to the guts of the machine directly when this shit came up.”
Cody had studied security systems during the war. He’d always had creative ways of bypassing systems, both human and Spican. The readout was showing the system had locked down. Shutting down the satellite was no longer possible, but that didn’t mean they were out of options.
“Bodin,” Cody said, “do you still have your bypass in place?”
“Yeah? But what good will that do? The thing’s locked up. Can’t shut her down.”
“Connect me to it. I have an idea.”
In seconds, Cody had access to the satellite’s terminal. All access was locked out. The satellite was broadcasting a signal and would continue to do so until it got the okay from someone with permission to do so, and that was none of them.
Cody dug through the files. The toads had done little to change the old UEAF satellite, which would work in his favor, provided he had time.
“Thirty seconds until the satellite is in view of the planet,” Sonja said.
Cody found the file quickly and placed it in the broadcast pattern. “Bodin, try to shut it down now.”
“She won’t shut down, Egg. If I do it, she’ll just come back online and start sending the signal again.”
“I’m counting on it. Just do it.”
The terminal vanished for a full second then returned. The signal continued to broadcast but not like before.
“Hey, what happened?” Bodin laughed. “This thing is broadcasting an okay signal. Shit, Doc. That was good thinking.”
Sonja raised an eyebrow at Cody, then her eyes went wide. “Five seconds until Kali is in view. Maintain radio silence.”
The terminal view vanished from the HUD, and the cockpit was quiet again. Soon, Kali appeared over the horizon.
“What’d you do?” Sonja asked.
Cody smiled. “These old satellites can send prerecorded messages if you know where to look for them. I grabbed one that was essentially an ‘all is well’ signal, replaced it in the broadcast location, then had Bodin shut it down. It came back on, obviously, but the signal it’s sending simply says everything is okay.”
Sonja chuckled. “I forgot how clever you can—Holy shit, there it is. Kali’s sending a signal.”
The HUD lit up, displaying a diagram of the signal, but it wasn’t a signal Cody had ever seen before. Of all things, gravimetrics picked it up. Less than a second later, it was gone.
“That was fast,” he said, “but why did we read it on gravimetrics?”
“That is an abnormal curvature of space-time,” she said, “the same kind
made by bridge satellites when they send signals to other star systems.”
“That’s a wormhole?” He studied the signal, and the ship’s systems identified it as precisely that. “But this can’t be right. It’s registering as being on the planet’s surface.”
She blinked. “That’s impossible. The gravity of a planet would disrupt the bending of space-time.”
“Let me try something.” Cody’s hands swept over the sensor controls and pulled up the logs. “The curvature itself will be perpendicular to the… There we go. The signal is heading in the direction of Kali V.”
Three gas giants were in the system, and one of them, Kali V, was bigger than Jupiter in the Sol system. To top it off, it had some thirty moons and a ring system.
“Maybe the toads have a base out there,” he asked.
“We’ll have to go and see. We have an angle on the beam, and we can follow it from there.” Sonja frowned. “How the hell did they open a wormhole on the planet’s surface?”
He didn’t have an answer, and he was certain the most intelligent men back home didn’t either. Even worse, the fact the denizens of Kali could do it worried him. “I’m assuming that hole that swallowed the hopper wasn’t caused by a wormhole.”
“No way. The wormhole created by a bridge sat is microns across. You can’t even see it, and it’s nowhere near powerful enough to affect the ground like that.” She waved her finger through the sensor readings, searching through the results. “That’s what ticks me off. None of this actually explains what happened to our people. That’s still a complete mystery.”
“Yeah.” Cody leaned back in his seat. “I wonder what else can they do?”
“What do you mean?”
“They created a wormhole on the surface of a planet and, presumably, sent a signal through it. No one’s been able to do that. So what else have they figured out?”
“You’re right.” Sonja pulled up the time. “Bodin and his boys should be here before long. Hopefully, when the Washington shows up, we can go find some answers.”
