He had found the rifle in an unclaimed pod in the city below. Its effectiveness against the squidvaders was far superior to that of his issued weapon. The squids had a thin barrier on their skin that made them glisten a glossy dark gray or black rather than a duller shade one would expect given their rough texture. That glossy barrier diffused the beam of his own weapon, spreading the energy over an area nearly four times greater than it was projected. And the heat of the beam morphed the barrier, enhancing the defensive effect. It thereby reduced the weapon’s power effectively to less than a quarter. Surely squids would dislike being struck by the beam, but it took many blasts to wound them enough to have any effect. The effect was not fatal however, and so it still required that the squid be dispatched by other means.
Clearly a heavier projectile would increase the effectiveness of the rifle, so Horn had requested new ammunition to replace the stone bullets. Thus far the original rounds had served well, and he was no longer in any hurry to make the switch.
“One.” The transmission, though audio in origin, was received silently and processed internally.
“One here,” Horn said. It was a slow communication style. But satisfying. In a way that he didn't quite understand. It had a sort of bonding effect. And though he hadn't felt that way before the big wait. He felt it now.
“The Grailliyn's have found a breeding ball, and they are literally being eaten alive. We are pivoting North to assist. At the end of that street …” said Commander Thompson. There was gunfire in the background of the message. “go down … Slump street.”
“Roger,” Horn said. The sound of gunfire reached him in the world. That combined with the transmission give him range data. The direction was more questionable, but he felt confident in his assessment of the location of combat. Of course, he knew exactly where Commander Thompson was, she showed clearly on his map as a pulsing pink star.
North was better than east. But where he needed to go was west, where Chaplin's signal had gone dead. Horn needed to make sure Chaplin himself was dead, and not merely his signal. And if he was alive? Then he needed to be rescued. If he were alive then he could remain so for a very long time, and Horn might not see rescuing as such a high priority. Years could go by and Chaplin would be alright. He could probably wait years with no lasting damage. But if he lasted years, then he might be forced to last centuries, or millennia alone. Until his power core finally gave out and he could finally be at peace. There would be no one to keep him company. This planet was doomed, or so it was said. And everyone who said it, believed it.
Horn needed to get Chaplin back. Yet no part of him even considered disobeying orders.
Chapter 15
Snow felt a thrill of excitement as Max piloted the Dee-Dub around Mega. They were off again on another adventure, freed from the monotony of executing the plan from Longissima. Admittedly, she had created the plan, but though important and effective, it wasn't terribly interesting, not when compared to their current expedition, off into the unknown.
They were using Mega for a gravity boost, intending to enter orbit around Grailliyn, all to put distance and planetary mass between themselves and Longissima. GE was capable, in some unfathomable way, of finding their jump point origin. Anywhere in the universe. So, jumping straight from Longissima again would surely draw GE's attention back to that starship relic, as it had done once already. Putting some distance between Dee-Dub, their jump-capable ship, and Longissima was an important first step before their real mission began. They were again impressed by the spectacle of the stars surrounding them. And now that they knew to look for them, they picked up dozens of SOS signals of pods in the ice around Mega. Icy columns arrayed in distinct concentric rings, somehow formed by crashed sleep pods, reflected the Dee-Dub's active scan revealing their position more obviously than would the sleep pod's light show. The positions were noted to be passed on to Longissima. Soon though, they were leaving Mega, and coasting back to Grailliyn. They spent their time preparing equipment, unpacking drones, and preprinting a few lines from their small line and tool generator, a very small version of the earthling printer factory. Between prep and sleep, the time passed quickly. Soon they found themselves above a somewhat familiar territory. They were high above the continents of Grailliyn and far from the populated regions of the planet. The surface below was as white and featureless as much of Mega.
“No way,” Max said.
“What?” Snow said. But he didn't need to answer. Snow saw on the canopy HUD what he'd seen. Several SOS signals spread in a line across the True North. That Max's parent would be down there, at one end of that line, was not lost on Snow. But Max didn't mention it and so Snow left it alone.
“That line points to Tawnee,” Linda said.
But, of course, it did. The new SOS coordinates were added to their list quickly before the Dee-Dub's orbit carried them away, beyond sight of the ice of the True North to the unfamiliar lands above the unsettled continents of Grailliyn.
“This is probably far enough,” Max said.
By then, Snow had actually started to enjoy the view of the uncharted Grailliyn lands. But where they were going would be even more uncharted! It wouldn't of course. Uncharted was uncharted, but it would be more exotic from a human perspective. And she was human, or at least mostly human, assuming you ignored or forgave the chimp muscles that covered the entirety of her skeleton (except for her jaw. Because, reasons.) And since she did ignore those parts (except when she was punching murderers and/or Max) she did qualify herself as human.
“It works for me. How about you Linda? Should we jump from here—”
“Yes! Let’s do it,” Linda said, bursting with enthusiasm.
“Okay,” Snow said, “let’s make sure we are all strapped in properly—”
“Sorry, I'm just excited. I've been waiting a long time for this…”
“How long have you been waiting?” Snow asked.
“Have you been waiting for thousands of years?” Max asked.
“Yes. I have,” Linda said, giggling her electronic-tinged giggle.
Snow grabbed Doozer's carapace and gave him a shake, confirming the tightness of his straps. He chittered and joined in, appreciating the assistance as he'd been intermittently trying to move ever since Snow had applied the straps to him. She gave him a comforting tap and gave a quick scan of the rest of the flight deck. All was still in order, unsurprisingly, given that she had put it in order only a few minutes before. She entered their chosen destination and gave Max two thumbs up.
“We are go for jump, Captain Lanky Pants.”
A touch of suspicion crept into his expression.
Snow only smiled.
“Do you want to do the honors?” he said, moving on.
“Yes, please,” Snow said. She placed her hand over the button. “Three-two-one-go!” she said rapidly, and with her whole hand, pressed the domed big red button in the center console.
Nothing happened.
“Ah man…” Snow said.
“Oh my god!” Linda said.
“What is it? I don't see anything.” Max unnecessarily ducked low and angled himself to look around.
“No, I just… I just love you guys sooo much. Ya know? I mean, you really take me places.”
“But we haven't gone anywhere…” Snow looked out and around through the domed window. But they had gone somewhere. She'd been expecting a light show, a sense of movement, something. But there was nothing, and with her eyes on the button she had missed the small clue, that of the stars changing, and the larger clue, that of the planet disappearing from below them.
“We like you too, Linda.” Max looked at Snow. “That was great. Much better than last time.”
Snow's shoulders sagged in disappointment. “I missed it all…”
“Awwww, poor sleeping beauty.” He grabbed her in a side hug. “It's okay. Next time I will press the button and you can watch.”
A tiny point of light caught her eye. She checked the sensors. “T
here's our target, promising asteroid number one,” she said, disappointment forgotten. She pointed towards the asteroid for Max's benefit then spread her hands out to control the zoom. The view through the canopy changed, with the center increasing magnification until the asteroid was large and obvious.
The look of shock on Max's face was hilarious. “I didn't know it could do that… I spent hours and hours training.” He looked at Snow. “Shouldn't that have been part of it?”
“Normally it would be, I guess. But we didn't have time to each learn everything. While you were learning to pilot, I was learning to navigate. I had a head start of course. I already know how to use most of the computer systems—”
Max worked the control stick and corrected the course of the Dee-Dub, sending it on its way to rendezvous with promising asteroid number one. PAN1 looked almost as if it had been two asteroids that had glommed onto one another, as it was thin in the middle and thick on the ends. From one angle it looked a lot like an hourglass, but the similarity quickly faded as the village sized rock slowly spun in place. In places, mostly near the two bulky end points, it was rough and jagged. But around the central connection it was softer looking, as though it were made of the fine loose material that it probably was made of. Its orbital home in the solar system was not too terribly distant from that of the twin planets Grailliyn and Mega, so the sun lit its day side surface brightly, making shadows on the night side seem all the darker.
With the exception of background chittering from Doozer, and the occasional beep or hum from the ship, they watched in silence as the asteroid grew larger and larger on approach, entranced by its rotation and by their presence before it.
“Why were we sent out here anyway. There are plenty of earthlings around now. Surely one of them would be more qualified,” Max said, breaking the silence.
“Nope,” she said, “not-a-one. The pods were packed onto the spine of the ship in layers. Like a sausage shaped onion.”
Max made a look that said, sausage? onion? How?
“Mmmm, like a rolled-up newspaper then. During atmospheric entry, the outer layers were ablated away. The whole front, and therefore outer, section of the newspaper just burnt off. Longissima was not supposed to enter the atmosphere. Anyway, most of the trained pilots and soldiers were in the layer just below duty crew…” She swallowed the lump rising in her throat and continued. “The pilots would be needed first obviously, to ferry the others to the surface. And the soldiers might be needed right away as well of course. Though they were all capable of fulfilling multiple roles, very few of the earthlings were primarily soldiers. We lucked out finding Commander Carrack. We should find some pilots and more soldiers eventually though. After the first few layers of orderly arrangement, the rest of the colonists were more evenly spread.”
“So were going to be replaced then.” It wasn't a question.
“Oh, I doubt that very much. There is a lot of work to do. A lot of people to be ferried about.” Snow said.
“Besides,” said Linda, “this job takes some serious legs, and…” she laughed, “I have seen the legs of the others. They. Ain't. Got 'em.”
“There's that,” added Snow,” and according to your chip, you have been flagged as a natural. I could have told them that though…” Snow breathed air onto her fingernails and rubbed them on her space suit dramatically.
“I'm a natural? A natural pilot?” A grin lit his face.
“Yep—”
He dropped the grin. “Sorry did you say my chip? What does that mean?”
“Oh, didn't I mention? You have a chip in your head,” Snow said, though she was fully aware she hadn't mentioned it. She hadn't been sure how he would take it. Now she would find out. She touched the back of his head. “See, here's the scar.”
“I was wondering what that was about.” He rubbed the spot on his head where his hair was trimmed short and bristly. He looked at her, cross. “I think you need to sort out your priorities,” he said, his face was stern. “Any time you have this sort of information about me, I want to know.”
“Sorry,” Snow said, “I didn't… it had to…”
“You've known about this the whole time? You have known that I am a special pilot person? All this time you knew, and you kept it from me?” His stern mask slipped a bit. “Next time, just lead with whatever ego boosting material you might have at hand.”
Snow punched him in the shoulder, but he didn't budge, thanks mostly to the straps holding him in place. “You bastard. I thought you were really mad!”
“So why do I have a chip? Is it to keep me from getting away?”
“You needed it to calibrate your arm. And you couldn't use the training sims without it.”
“Really? I thought that was run by the ship.”
“Sort of. But it interfaces with your mind through the chip.”
“So, Bob has a chip,” Max said, with the name Bob coming out as a curse word. Their introduction had not occurred in the best of circumstances.
“Yep,” she said. “When he saw that it hadn't killed you, he decided not to be left in the technological dust and took the leap.”
“Freenan and Ravaea too?”
“Nope. Or not yet any way. Ravaea is too afraid of having her brains scrambled. Freenan too, but he said it was to keep the pressure off Ravaea.”
“Doozer?”
Doozer click popped at the sound of his name.
Snow gave him a tap. “No. I doubt that would work.”
Before long, the Dee-Dub was close enough to begin scanning the asteroid for the telltale signatures consistent with the presence of Akoronite. A laser stitched across the surface, vaporizing small amounts of the asteroids loosely held dust. Another laser analyzed the gas along with any solid particles that were willing to give up their secrets.
Before they ever approached closely enough to scoop up samples, Linda had declared PAN1 to be a disappointment. “I have relabeled it DAN1. Where to next boss?”
“That's it? How do we know there isn't any Akoronite down deep?” Max said.
“We don't,” Snow said.
“It could be, boss. But chances are that if it did, there would be traces of it on the surface. It's had a rough life, been smashed into lots of times. Sometimes hard. And it isn't the right environment for the debris to settle strictly according to density. But you give me the order and I'm ready to blast that thing into tiny crab stones and continue the search!”
Max winced at Linda's use of the curse word. Clearly, he was a bad example passing his potty mouth on to her. “No, no. I believe you. Let’s hit PAN2.”
“Good call boss. It would take many ages of man to wreck that rock. All we have right now are the sampling and mining lasers.”
By the time they had finished relabeling asteroids one to twelve, from PAN to DAN, they were starting to feel like they knew what they were doing. The magic of jumping from place to place was still there, but it no longer inspired awe.
“This next rock is the one. I can feel it. It's lucky,” Max said.
Snow just looked at him, trying to determine if he was joking or not. He'd said the same thing before the fourth asteroid as well.
Thirteen turned out to be a DAN. Obviously. But its level of DANitude fell to mundane compared to Fourteen, which nearly lived up to the first half of its name. Early on the scans reported back with the happy chirp denoting a positive trace result. It was followed immediately by a burst of excitement from all aboard. Snow, Max, and Linda cheered the promising news, and Doozer falling in line with the mood of his people, chittered happily too. A few minutes later, when they closed with the bright, light gray, city-sized asteroid, Max launched one of the mining drones. It propelled itself right up to Fourteen and began drawing in dust from the surface where it would be spun in a pair of centrifuges. Lighter matter would be ejected from each side whereas heavier matter would be stored within a pair of bags that sprouted front and back. It might take a very long time for the small mining drone to amass a si
gnificant amount of useful material, but if necessary, a larger drone could be brought in.
Max maneuvered the Dee-Dub around Fourteen's immense bulk, continuing to scan with the hope that they could get a sense of how much of the mineral they might find. The positive result kept coming back, but it continued to report only trace amounts.
“Mmmmm. Captain? I think there's a cave in there.” The image through the canopy magnified a portion of Fourteen where jagged rock jutted out from smooth dust covered surface.
There were plenty of pitch-black shadows, but Snow couldn't see a cave.
“See this part? Like an ankle,” Linda said and directed a halo of light across the view to highlight the area. “and it leads to the toes.” The lighting profile changed. The brightness of the view was cranked up, causing the surface to become blindingly bright, and subsequently be masked off by the sensors on the canopy.
Snow didn't see any sort of foot. Obviously, Linda's pattern recognition was formed in the shadow of her leg fetish. Snow did see the cave, however. Each of the four digits, of what Snow assumed Linda saw as toes on a foot, was a shadow. Three of the shadows were cast by a ridge or rock jutting from the asteroid. The cave's shadow stood out however, as it was perfectly round.
“Wow,” said Max, “what are the chances of that?”
“Pretty low,” Linda said.
“Let’s take a closer look then,” Max said.
He piloted the ship laterally until they could scan deep into the tunnel. The smooth and even walls of the tunnel carried on far into the asteroid before making a gentle turn that the laser could not follow.
“We could send a drone,” Snow said. “The tunnel is big enough.”
“Ya. I have a feeling we aren't going to like what we find, though,” Max said. He launched another drone, sending it to explore the tunnel.
The view from the drone’s front camera was displayed on the monitor. Once it entered the tunnel, it became clear how big the tunnel was. Max could have walked through it upright, Snow on his shoulders, without scraping her helmet on the ceiling. The drone slipped through the tunnels and quickly reached the gentle curve. Out of direct line of sight, the curve became less gentle, twisting this way and that, and the tunnel itself was narrower. Shiny metal lined the walls of each bend in the path, suggesting a possible explanation for the indirect route. Suddenly the tunnel opened up into a cavern. That the cavern was not entirely natural was clear. Many of the walls seemed to have been scraped clean by a powerful laser or similar energy tool, not unlike what they had intended to use. And small enough to fit inside the tunnel system. The rest of the cavern seemed to consist of large boulders of various sizes pressed in on each other. The tunneling had started through a more solid chunk or rock, but had left that behind and was now in a less homogeneous region of the asteroid consisting of loose material. Or had been before something had mined much of it away.
Starship Invasion (Lost Colony Uprising Book 2) Page 12
