by Craig Allen
The ocean sloshed around them, and through the canopy, the surface was visible, just under ten meters above their heads. Sonja had managed to land underwater on a shelf just beneath a rock in the middle of the largest body of water on the planet. That was the only place they could find that was relatively out of sight of lidar and, as long as their engines were off, out of range of gravimetrics.
So far, none of the underwater denizens, many of which were large and terrible, had bothered them. They’d discussed going to Monster Island, but it was too exposed. Furthermore, they had no reason to attract undue attention to the fliers, assuming they hadn’t been wiped out altogether. God knew no one was around to prevent them from doing so.
Cody wiped his forehead. He had retracted his helmet though it probably wasn’t the best idea, given they were underwater. But as confining as the hopper was, at least retracting their helmets gave the illusion of having breathing room.
Earlier, they had secured the exotic matter they had retrieved from the alien mine. At least, Bodin had secured it, which meant cramming it into a locker and sealing it inside so it wouldn’t roll all over the hopper bay. Cody was reasonably sure no protocol existed for storing alien exotic matter, but he wondered if storing it amongst the coilguns and fusion grenades was really the best idea.
Then again, he didn’t have a better idea.
“Can’t sleep?” Sonja had bags under her eyes. She tried to smile at him, but her fear showed through.
Behind them, Bodin sounded as if he was sawing wood.
“Not really,” Cody said after a moment.
“Try anyway.” Sonja reverted back to gunnery sergeant mode. “It’s another hour until your shift anyway.”
Cody wanted to, but he was slept out. Sonja stared at the undulating surface while she chewed her lip and avoided eye contact.
“How are you holding up?” he asked.
She opened her mouth then closed it again. “Fine, I guess. Well, not really. You know?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Will you really wait for me?”
Cody wondered how any of that mattered, given everything that had happened. Then again, she probably just didn’t want to dwell on all the death. For that matter, neither did he.
“Do you want me to?” he asked.
She chewed her lip.
Not good at all.
“I haven’t been with anyone since…” She blinked several times, forcing back tears. “When John died, I didn’t care anymore. I signed up with the marines, not to kill Spicans. I…”
“You wanted to die.” Cody nodded ever so slightly. He’d suspected but didn’t let on. “You’re different now.”
“Not really.”
Outside the canopy window, a school of fish swam into view. In unison, their bodies opened, revealing a five-sided webbing pattern. They closed rapidly, shooting water behind them like a jet as they scurried into the darkness. If they’d noticed the hopper, they didn’t appear to react to it. Regardless, Cody became nervous that they’d tell another creature, one much larger.
Even so, the reeds themselves couldn’t go through rock like the shelf they were sitting on. At least, no one had ever seen them pass through rock. Furthermore, the ocean floor was still a good distance below them. They were safe unless they had been completely wrong about the reeds.
However, they had been completely wrong about the toads and their technical ability and their ability to acquire exotic matter… and their ability to attack and destroy the Washington.
Sonja spoke quickly, as if she wanted to get her thoughts out before she changed her mind. “I’m about to lose someone now.”
Ah, that’s it. “You’re not losing me.”
“You don’t know that. What if the toads find us?”
He pointed outside. “We’re in a good hiding spot. We just have to wait it out.”
“And hope we don’t get ratted out. You saw those fish swim by. What if they tell someone about us?”
“There’re other places we can hide. All we have to do is wait for rescue. We’re actually better off than last time we were stranded.”
She lowered her head. “I can’t lose someone again. I can’t take it. I can’t go through—” Her voice cracked, and she held up her hands. “I don’t want to talk anymore.”
“Sonja—”
“I said no.”
Cody leaned back in his seat. “Fine.”
They sat quietly for a few moments, then Cody pulled up a map on his console. Within a couple of weeks of the Washington’s arrival, they had done thorough sensor sweeps of the planet. Just off the shelf where they were resting was a drop-off of almost a full kilometer down into God knew what.
“Have you done a scan recently?” Cody asked.
“Yeah.” Sonja ran her hand over her console, speaking as if their previous conversation hadn’t taken place. “Take a look.”
The gravimetrics popped on, automatically blocking out the gravity reading from the planet and focusing on the myriad of readings across the sky. That, mixed with external cameras and the skeeters they had launched earlier, programmed to hover just over the water, helped refine the view outside.
Cody counted six smaller vessels, probably hoppers, in the upper atmosphere, anywhere from ten to one hundred kilometers over their head. He’d seen the pattern before. They would fly past the western horizon in moments, only to be replaced by more such vessels appearing from the east.
Ships at twenty thousand kilometers and higher were the larger ships, the Kali vessels. Periodically, one would appear on gravimetrics for a few seconds in geosynchronous orbit then vanish again when it shut off its engines.
Dozens of smaller vessels surrounded the larger vessels, some in the same orbit and others within the atmosphere itself. Cody counted some forty smaller vessels, which he assumed were hoppers.
“Been like that since we got here,” Sonja said. “They go mostly east to west but sometimes other directions. It’s like they’re searching for something.”
“Us.” Bodin popped his head into the cockpit. “The skeeters help a bunch, but we’d get a lot more information on lidar.”
“Which would also tell them where we are,” Sonja said. “So it’s passives only for now.”
“I didn’t say we should do it, just that it would help.” Bodin frowned. “Any weapons fire?”
Sonja shook her head.
“That’s good, right?” Cody asked.
“Maybe,” Sonja said. “It could mean survivors are well hidden or there’s no one left to shoot at.”
“Making us the only survivors.” Bodin wiped his face. “Shit. How long until rescue, you think?”
Sonja tilted her head slightly. “Hard to say. Washington sent signals to Camp Murray via bridge-space once a day. If they miss a day, Camp Murray will dispatch a ship. If Washington actually managed to get off a distress signal, then they’ll send a fleet right away.” She grimaced. “Or the Spicans will find us. Never been on a Spican cruiser before.”
“No one has,” Cody said. “How long can we wait here?”
“Well, supplies aren’t the problem,” Sonja said. “Water is recycled, as is the air. The fusion batteries will last for years. We only have about two weeks of rations, though. But that isn’t what worries me. It’s what if one of the locals manages to find us. That’s much more likely to happen.”
“The fliers would lend us a hand, right?” Bodin asked.
“Yeah, but to get to them, we’d have to fire up the engines, which would light us up on gravimetrics. And there’s a lot of eyes out there, watching for that sort of thing.”
“We can’t just walk away from them,” Cody said.
“You think I don’t know that? If we went to the fliers’ island, we’d just draw attention.” Sonja pulled up a chart. “I’ve been keeping track. Every ship is so similar it’s hard to tell for certain, but it looks like about thirty unique battle cruisers like the Kali have passed overhead. I’ve seen about three
times as many hoppers.”
“Takes a while to build this shit,” Bodin said. “They must’ve been doing it since they first got hold of that factory in the Kali.”
“Admiral Rodriguez was right.” Cody examined the chart Sonja had created, showing the different vessels. “What they threw at us two months ago was not all they had.”
“Why didn’t they throw everything at us back then?” Sonja asked. “If they had, they would’ve destroyed the Washington easily. These guys had to have known that. They’re not stupid.”
“Far from.” Cody rubbed his chin as he pulled up details of a cruiser that had flown low. The cross section was similar to the Kali but not exact. “This one is different from the Kali design, though. Any idea why?”
Sonja reached for the image and dragged it closer to her. “I’m a pilot, not an engineer. But if I had to guess, I’d say they’re structural enhancements.”
“Improvements?” Cody leaned back in his seat. “There’s no way they learned that on their own.”
“They’re pretty clever,” Sonja said. “You said so.”
“I wonder how clever.” Cody held up his hands. “Ten years ago, these creatures didn’t even know what space was. Now they’re building spaceships?”
“You been talking to Dr. Donaldson,” Bodin said.
Who is now dead. Cody didn’t share that thought, though. He had a hard time imagining any of the Washington’s crew were gone even though they were. Reality didn’t care what people believed, though, not one bit.
“Dr. Donaldson made a good point,” Cody said.
Bodin nodded. “Yeah, I miss the doc, too.” He ran his hand over the stubble on his face. “So let’s say Donaldson’s right and they got help? Who from?”
“Spicans are the obvious choice,” Sonja said. “But there’s no reason for them to. They’ve got the resources to start up the war on their own without anyone’s help.”
“Which they won’t do.” Cody held up his hands. “Hon, I know how you feel, but they won’t start up the war again. We’ve covered this.”
“I think Egg’s right.” Bodin held up three fingers. “So we got three more possibilities. The Tauns.”
“Who have never registered any interest in human affairs before,” Cody said.
“Right.” Bodin pointed at his second finger. “Other humans. Makes more sense. It’s our technology. Who knows it better than us?”
“But again, why?” Sonja asked. “If one world wanted to invade another, they’d just build an army and do it. And if they wanted to challenge the United Earth Treaty worlds directly, they’d do the same.”
“And why rely on aliens whose motivations are murky at best?” Cody asked. “And where have these humans been in the two months we’ve been here, anyway?”
“True enough.” Bodin held up his last finger. “That means there’s something else here we haven’t seen yet.”
“Or we have.” Cody tapped his chin. “The fliers kept talking about the reeds, remember? Almost like they ruled the planet.”
“They sure acted like it when they attacked us,” Bodin said.
“Could that be it?” Cody checked the sensors.
Nothing. No signs of life had registered since the school of fishlike creatures had swum past.
“Maybe those reeds are more than we thought they were,” Cody said.
“Well, whatever they are,” Sonja said. “They and everything else on this planet are in control right now. Whatever their plans are, ours should be to get the hell out of here.”
“But how?” Cody brought up the sensor readout of one of the hoppers passing overhead. The cross section was identical to the hopper they were in. “Their Kali vessels and hoppers are almost identical to ours. Especially the hoppers. There’s almost no difference. How do they know which ones are theirs and which ones are not?”
“Same way we do.” Sonja blinked. “Transponders.”
Cody pulled up communications. In seconds, he had a readout of the transponder signals from each ship above them, all on a network—typical of military transponder networks, as he recalled. The complexity was astounding—frequency hopping every microsecond, encryption that would take the hopper’s systems decades to crack… assuming the hopper didn’t already have access to the system in the first place.
Kali was the toads’ home turf, and they had just kicked out the enemy. They probably felt safe and never bothered to change anything. Cody checked for other transponders and hit the jackpot.
Cody displayed the frequency and amplitudes of the various signals on the main HUD for the others to see. “Those are definitely UEAF military transponder signals. But they’re encoded.”
Bodin leaned all the way over into the hopper bay. “Can you get in, Egg?”
“Trying.” Red alarm signals flared on the HUD each time Cody tried. “The hopper’s access codes won’t work. Too low-level. Without a command override, I’ll have to hack it myself.”
“How long will that take?” Sonja asked.
Cody shrugged. “A while. Days, maybe longer.”
“If they catch you,” Sonja said, “will they be able to trace it back to you?”
“If they know what they’re doing, yes,” Cody said. “The question is, how much do they really know? From what I’m seeing here, they’re just emulating existing systems.”
“I got a better idea.” Bodin brought up a holoconsole from the seat behind Sonja. “Yeah, you need an O-6 or higher access. I think I can get in, though.”
Sonja snorted. “Who promoted you to colonel?”
“Nobody,” Bodin said. “But a few months back, me and the boys were playing cards on the Spinoza. There was this corporal who wasn’t doing so hot. But he said he had something to make things worthwhile, access codes belonging to a colonel.”
“Deveau?” Cody asked. “He was a colonel, not a corporal.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t know that until he told us later.” Bodin snorted. “Guess that explains where he got the access codes. Anyway, it was too tempting to pass up, so we went along. He lost, I won, so I got the codes.”
“Shit, Sergeant,” Sonja said. “You know how much trouble you’ll get in when someone finds out?”
“A bunch, if someone talks, but there’s no one…” Bodin lowered his head, shaking it. “Damn, didn’t mean to bring that up.”
Cody put a hand on Bodin’s shoulder. “It hurts, but that’s for later, right?”
Bodin met Cody’s gaze and gave him half a smile. He had told Cody as much when they crashed on Kali two months before. Mourn the dead when you get a chance. Lock the pain away until then. Just don’t forget to let it out when the time’s right.
Bodin straightened and tapped at the console again. “The higher-ups probably cancelled his access back home, but if these guys just copied our existing system, it might work.”
“How?” Cody asked. “Everything they have is based on ten-year-old technology.”
“I’m betting they ripped off a bunch of stuff from Spinoza,” Bodin said. “I mean, it was sitting there for weeks before Washington cleaned it up.”
Bodin focused on the console for a moment. Cody settled in, expecting it to take time, but seconds later, large green letters mocked Cody and Sonja: Access Granted.
“That’s it.” Sonja grinned at Cody, again as if they hadn’t argued previously. “Babe, you got some competition.”
She was happy again, which made Cody happy. “I got other talents. You know that.”
“Anybody calls me ‘babe,’ and they gonna pay the price.” Bodin pointed at the HUD. “Can you make sense of this shit, Egg?”
“I used to work on this sort of thing back during the war.” Cody delved deeper into the newly opened transponder codes. “The pattern is unusual, but I should be able to… There. We can alter our transponder to match those on this network.”
“And they’ll think we’re on their side.” Bodin grimaced. “At least we can escape.”
“Escape where
?” Sonja asked. “We lost our Daedalus collar. At full burn, it’d take us years to reach the globular cluster we left a day ago.”
Cody pulled up the passive gravimetric readings of the ships. “Maybe there’s a pattern. If so, we could blend into it when we take off.”
He ran through the sensor logs, processing every flyby that sensors had picked up over the past twenty-four hours. The hopper’s system crunched the numbers, and he had an answer in a moment.
“See here?” Cody drew a line on the display. “From time to time, ships will follow this trajectory. Sometimes, they rise up into space, and other times, they are dropping from high altitude.”
“Takeoffs and landings,” Sonja said. “So there’s a base somewhere on the planet and close by.”
“Egg, can you figure out where that is?” Bodin asked.
Cody did some calculations and pulled up a topographical map. “Here.”
Sonja’s jaw dropped. “I’ll be damned. Does that look familiar to anyone?”
Cody zoomed in on the map to show a plateau in the middle of a desert area, one they had all been to before—the same one from which they had been rescued two months prior. It wasn’t far at all from the flier’s island, and it was within eyesight of where the hopper had vanished.
“Always wondered why the toads attacked us on that plateau,” Sonja said. “They were going to fight the Washington in space anyway. Why stop us from leaving?”
“We’d just wiped out the original Kali vessel they had used to understand technology,” Cody said. “They were understandably upset.”
“That too, Doc,” Bodin said. “But they didn’t do nothing to us until we showed up at that plateau with the fliers. Then they came at us full bore.”
Sonja crossed her arms. “They thought we were on to them. The question is, on to what?”
The wavelength on the HUD represented the signal being shared between every ship above them. Cody copied the code into their own transponder, which was currently shut off.
Sonja watched him with her eyebrows raised. “What are you doing?”
“I want to check on the fliers,” Cody said. “Since we can duplicate the transponder, we can check on them, right?”
