Ghost Fleet

by Isaac Stone

  When I reached it, all eyes were on the largest screen in the middle of the room. It showed the new corvette with a series of telemetry readings rolling up the side.

  I couldn’t tell much about the ship, but it was the subject of every one’s concern. Four women stood with our pregnant captain and watched the data continue to scroll out in front of them. I could see Captain’s eyes flare before her and felt the anxiety from Captain wash over me. The sensation was shared by the other women in the room. I worried that something terrible had happened. I was about to find out what it was.

  “I need you to talk to her,” Captain spoke to me.

  “Who?" I asked, but the answer was already evident by the corvette on the screen.

  “Dredge,” she told me. “She they left to conduct their first scout. That was twelve hours ago and we’ve been unable to hear a thing from the Rhapsody Danger since then.” I watched as her long nails drummed on a table near the screen.

  “Communication problems?” I asked her. "Physics is getting a little crazy out here, maybe the signal was lost.”

  “Far as I can tell,” Captain Sophia responded. "They still receive signals from us. Besides, if there was a problem, the right thing to do would be to return here so we could get it fixed.”

  I felt a small hand in mine and turned to see the big eyes of Precious look up to me. We were on the roster for the evening and I looked forward to sleeping with her again. I squeezed her hand in return and turned back to the captain.

  “What about any other ghost ship activity in the sector? Any possibility they’ve run into some stragglers? Those things don’t always fly in formation.”

  “No. We'd know it if there was ghost ship activity around here. There’s supposed to be some portal not far from here and I haven’t seen anything around it.”

  “So what do you think they’re up to?” I asked. The screen showed several probable courses for the Rhapsody Danger based on its flight pattern.

  “I think she’d taking the ship right into the heart of the dark matter expansion,” Captain concluded. "I think Dredge wants to hit that thing that she claims is inside the cluster.”

  “How can she do that? There’s no way a ship of that size can get close to the dark matter without being torn apart. She’ll have that corvette in pieces if she heads into it.”

  “I didn't say that was what she had in mind, but it's what I’m speculating,” Captain spoke. Her eyes never left the screen. “She hates that thing and wants to destroy it for how it used her and the other women. All I can do now is continue to track and keep an eye on her position. I’ve sent the information to Udie central. I’m not about to risk the lives of everyone on this ship by following her. It is possible that despite how well she has come along since her days of captivity that being in proximity to her enemy has caused her to take leave of her senses. I should have seen this coming.”

  I nodded. Still, we’d lost contact with the corvette and the women on it, and after another twelve hours on the watch, they remained silent despite their continued activity.

  Two weeks later Captain Sophia’s pregnancy began to show.

  “Are you sure Captain is alright?” I asked Cherish, one of the medics, after I’d noticed Captain’s bulge. I seemed to recall that most women didn’t show signs of pregnancy until further along in the process.

  “She's alright,” Cherish informed me. “Blood pressure, electrolytes, hormones, everything is in balance. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a fit woman with child on this ship before.”

  “And you don’t find it a bit strange that the baby is showing already? How far along is the baby?”

  “Not even four weeks. Nope don’t find that a bit odd. The baby is a ’he', by the way, that much we do know. Look, everyone has realized that something strange is happening with Captain, ahem, Marshal Sophia. Your psychic powers have advanced, her physical form has changed, and even ships are repairing themselves now. We fight ghosts in deep space. Strange is where we live these days.”

  I paused and thought for a minute. No way in hell would she have that much showing at four weeks. Not even if the mother was small and the dad a giant. There was no such size contrast with Captain and any of the men on the ship.

  “Any idea who the father is?” I probed a bit further.

  Cherish looked to make sure there were no security cameras anywhere about. She checked for anyone who lingered in the corridor. “I can’t figure it out,” she whispered to me. "It makes no sense.”

  “How can that be so hard?” I asked her again. “You have DNA samples of everyone on this ship. By now, you should be able to test the unborn child and find out.”

  “I did. I found samples that matched everyone on this ship who is male.”

  I was stunned. How could one person contain so many strands of DNA? It wasn’t possible. I rubbed my head and tried to concentrate.

  “I have to run,” Cherish excused herself. “We can talk later.” She vanished down the corridor.

  Something very strange had taken place. I couldn’t approach Captain with this new knowledge, because she would want to know how I came by it. I needed to talk in private with Captain, but she’d taken herself of the roster again. No way would I be able to have an evening alone with her. Plus, she was still the Marshall of the Orders and her day was busy with those demands.

  There was also the problem of the corvette that Dredge and her women commanded. It was on a strange flight pattern, but one that took it closer to the dark matter barrier each day. The best we could figure was that the Rhapsody Danger wanted to find a way through the dark matter barrier and to the cluster without being ripped open by the gravitational forces. It's not like Hard Rain could follow them in there and ask in person.

  Dark matter was not easy to capture. It involved the use of remotes designed to bring back just enough to fuel the Insubstantia barriers that permitted the jumps across space. Even the amounts that were capturable were small. One gram of the dark matter had more gravitational pull than most planetoids.

  14

  We made contact with the Rhapsody Danger a few days later. This was the first time Captain was able to raise Dredge or any of her women since they went comms dark. I found out when I received an audio from Alyx. She told me to report to the bridge right away.

  I arrived to see Captain in her chair with her feet slightly elevated. Once again, the rate of this child’s growth was unprecedented. I’d talked with Cherish about Captain’s pregnancy a few more times. She told me Captain and the baby were still good, but the growth rate made no sense.

  “At this rate,” Cherish informed me. "Captain will deliver in another three months.”

  “That's insane," I’d told her. “I've heard of premature children, but never that early.”

  Cherish shrugged and moved on back to her workstation. After the Spear Cluster expansion and ghost ships battle, we disbelieved little. When your basic assumptions no longer hold up, what do you do?

  I’d brought a cup of coffee for Talia, since I knew she would appreciate one. Four other women stood at their stations and watched the image of the corvette on the big screen in front of us.

  “Corwin's here,” Talia called out to Captain as I handed the cup to her. She lightly touched me on the shoulder. I was with her the night before and it was exceptional for the both of us.

  “Come over here,” Captain called out to me. I strolled over to her command chair and stood by her. She never once took her eyes off the screen.

  “Bring Dredge back,” Captain ordered. “Tell her we’ve got Corwin with us. She can tell him the story since they have a bond I don’t share with her.” It sounded sarcastic, but I could tell Captain spoke her mind.

  The screen shimmered and the image of the corvette was replaced by Captain Dredge’s face. I could see she was in the pilot’s chair of the corvette. Behind her, a few of the former pirate women went about their business as they checked instruments and made adjustments.

  “I'
ve got Corwin here, as you can see,” Captain told Dredge. “Now you tell him what you just told me.” I could see the steel in Captain’s jaw.

  “We're going to take out Yaldabaoth,” she told us in a plain voice. "That thing used us to bring itself through the Spear Cluster and into this world. We’re going to kill it. We’ve got enough fire power on board this corvette to do the job.”

  “You know this is a direct violation of your oath to the pack,” Captain swore at her. “Did you pledge into the pack only so you could get access to the navy’s weapons?” Captain was furious, in all the years she’d ran the Hard Rain, there had not been one attempt at mutiny.

  “I've told you my reasons several times,” Dredge snapped back at Captain. “We’ve done enough damage to people because that thing made us feel it was right. We’re taking the battle to it. We’ll drive straight to the heart of the cluster and vaporize Yaldabaoth. It might have powers greater than anything you’ve ever seen, but it also has a physical form. A form that can be broke apart.”

  “How do you expect to do that?” I asked Dredge. “The gravitational forces of that dark matter will rip you to shreds before you reach the barrier. Seems like a bad way to waste your lives”

  “We've found a way to penetrate it," She announced. “We’ll bore straight through to where it sits and drop the Lithium bomb we smuggled off of Hard Rain in the beast’s lap.”

  “Why don't you come back here and share your method with us?” I cried out. “Humanity needs to know how you’re going to do it. You think that thing will sit there and let you walk into its chambers? It has to have some countermeasures prepared.”

  “Oh, I'm sure it does,” Dredge returned. "I’m looking forward to meeting them. Sorry, but we don’t have the time to share it all with you. I’ve sent a copy of what we did to find the entrance point to your captain. If we fail, someone else will benefit from what we learned.”

  “Tunnel about to open,” I heard one of her women call out to Dredge. “Are you ready? We won’t have a second chance.”

  “Almost,” Dredge replied to her. She returned to me. "You can travel anywhere across the universe once you’re inside one of these space-time tunnels. It’s how the ghost ships get through the barrier. We found a way to tell in advance when one would open. I could not risk sharing details until we knew for certain. We’re headed for it.”

  “Once inside,” Dredge continued. “We’ll open up an Insubstantia port and take it right through to the center of the cluster. We’ll come out in front of Yaldabaoth and give him a present he’s always wanted: total annihilation.”

  “I just have one thing to ask of you,” Dredge concluded. “It’s why I asked Captain Sophia to bring you here.”

  I was certain a single tear flowed down Dredge’s right cheek.

  “Anything,” I responded and meant it.

  “I need you to probe across the barrier and help us concentrate on the tunnel when it opens. I don’t know what form it will take or how big across it will be. It has to be large enough to accommodate this ship, since we’re smaller than most of those ghost ships. You’ve made contact with that thing before, I need to know if it tries to reach out and stop us from entering the tunnel. I know that your ability to probe minds is limited, but try hard for me. We won’t have another opportunity to destroy this monstrosity.”

  I felt Captain reach over and take my hand. She’d counted on me to help and I would. I prayed the rest of the Hard Rain wouldn’t be in danger on account of my actions.

  “I'll do what I can,” I told her. “This is bigger than I’ve ever attempted.”

  “It's all I’m asking,” Dredge replied.

  Then the screen to our front went blank. There was a hum and the image of the corvette returned. I noted by the telemetry readings that it was about to reach the dark matter barrier around the cluster.

  “She's ready to make contact,” I hear Talia call out. “Contact in four, three, two...”

  I grabbed Captain’s hand and held on tight as I could. The ship in which I stood went blank and my conscious mind was propelled outside the boundaries of space and time. I looked over the dark matter that protected the Spear Cluster.

  Captain was with me, but I knew there was little she could do because most of her mind was devoted to protecting her unborn child. I looked down at her and could see the baby inside her as it grew to maturity. There was something odd about her child, as it didn’t have the signature of any one individual, as I’d expected. My power reached maturity after I was tested and trained by the Goat Squad, so I had little experience with the mental processes of the unborn. It was an odd and divergent path for Sophia and myself. While my powers grew outwards into the world, hers had focused inwards, altering her biology and inner realm. I reached out again, and then decided I needed to focus on the Rhapsody Danger and her crew.

  As I regarded the dark matter, I began to see an area of depleted power not far from the ship flown by Dredge and her women. So far, I did not detect the alien intelligence of Yaldabaoth this time. Whatever it did, the thing was busy elsewhere. At least we had that much working for us.

  I felt the inner thoughts of Dredge and knew what she planned to do.

  This was a suicide mission. She and the other women had decided it was the only way to destroy the threat to humanity. They were going to make the jump the second that tunnel opened and appear at the other end. Once on the inside they would locate the physical presence of Yaldabaoth and travel to the exact location. When they were in range, the Rhapsody Danger would unleash every weapon at it until they no longer felt its presence. The pirates could sense the creature as well. They were its slaves for a long time and knew what it felt like to be possessed by it.

  They had no exit plan. All Dredge wanted to do with the other women was to find Yaldabaoth and kill it. They knew humanity had no chance of survival so long as it was around.

  I wanted to reach up and experience the sum total of all reality. I was beyond everything in the existence before me. This was far different from the times when I could merge the pack into one level of awareness. Here I stood over the mass of humanity. I could peer into the slightest thought and sensation of the most obscure person in the galaxy. It was a dangerous state of mind, one that could drive you mad. The only thing that anchored me was the presence of Captain and her unborn child.

  I wanted the baby to be mine, for some reason. Captain wouldn’t say who the father was. Maybe this was part of her plan, bind us all together, as no one man on the ship could claim the fatherhood of the child.

  I felt the area of the tunnel begin to decrease in dark matter concentration. The dark matter had no form that the naked eye could see. All radiation was pulled back to it. It resembled a black ball in the middle of space. No starlight came through from the other side, or from any point near it. Space itself was bent around the field, which created a distorted visual display. Even with space looped around it, I knew the dark matter was there. It grew, but I knew the location of the tunnel about to open.

  I sent the location to Dredge’s inner thoughts. She confirmed the location and had the crew of the Rhapsody Danger adjust its course. They wanted to be right in front of it when the tunnel opened. It was crucial they be in the right location to make the jump to the other end.

  “Tunnel opening,” I heard Dredge inform her women. “When it’s all the way open, we make the jump.”

  I saw a light emerge from the dark matter barrier that indicated the tunnel was about to open. The Rhapsody Danger moved right in front of the tunnel as it battled the gravitational forces of the dark matter.

  The tunnel opened.

  Out of the tunnel flew the largest starship I’d ever witnessed. This one was twice the size of a full battle carrier and dwarfed the Hard Rain. It was made of the scattered parts of a thousand ships. It unleashed chain cannons and rockets as it came, pounding ordinance into the corvette the instant it entered real space.

  The monster ghost ship almost smashed i
nto the Rhapsody Danger, though the smaller ship outmaneuvered it at the last second. I could hear Dredge's mind bellowing with rage as she had her crew unload every weapon available on their craft, just to rattle the larger ship and buy them precious seconds to react.

  I felt their thoughts of horror and rage as the massive ship ripped into the corvette.

  The monster ghost ship was held in reserve until the tunnel opened. Dredge and company were lured out there to be eliminated. I could feel the crackling energy of Yaldabaoth radiating from the titanic ship, and knew that it had been onto Dredge's plan the whole time. It waited for me to reach out in search of the tunnel, waited for me to probe its aperture, and then made its move.

  “Stars and stones!” I heard Talia speak as I returned to my body in the ship. "What the hell is that?”

  She stared at the screen in front of her and watched the monster ghost ship and the corvette exchange blows, and already the smaller ship was damaged beyond repair. Talia was stunned into inaction, as was every other woman on the bridge.

  "I advise retreat," came the voice of Dredge through the static on the comms, "We aren't dying alone."

  “Jalilah, Imani,” I heard Captain yell after she released my hand. “Get us out of here now!”

  Captain slammed her fist down on the red button to her right. “Attention all crew!” she yelled. "Prepare for immediate jump. Secure the children; we have to get out of this sector in a hurry!” The klaxon began to scream.

  We made the jump just as Dredge detonated the Lithium bomb and atomized both the dying remains of her ship and the titanic beast that had mauled her.

  15

  Captain had the images and information about the latest threat sent to the UDF Central Council the instant we made it across. I wasn’t needed any longer and returned to doing what I’d done before.

  That night I was scheduled with Precious. Although Captain made it clear that I wasn’t to show any favoritism to her, at least until she’d allowed us to work on making a child, I’d looked forward to spending the night with her all week. When the shift was over, I made my way to Precious’ quarters fast as I could.