by Ryk Brown
“These pods only have enough power to jump clear of the ship,” the commander explained, “so we can’t be more than a few light minutes out. The Amonday’s antimatter reactor was not very powerful.”
“Not very powerful,” Jessica commented, one eyebrow raised.
“As antimatter reactors go,” the commander added. “The transponder has already activated, and this pod has sufficient air, water, and rations to sustain six people for up to ten days.”
“Then, you don’t know where we are,” Jessica surmised.
“This pod is not equipped with navigational equipment,” the commander explained.
Jessica sighed.
“You don’t think…” the sergeant began.
“I hope not,” Jessica replied.
“What is it?” the commander wondered, realizing they had concerns of which he was not aware.
Jessica sighed, again. “A long time ago, a ship jumped just as an antimatter reactor in a nearby ship went critical. The result was a massive dump of energy into the jumping ship’s shields, propelling it nearly a thousand light years in a single jump.”
The commander looked at the sergeant, then at the corporal, then back to Jessica. “You don’t seriously believe that this pod may have jumped a thousand light years?”
“I don’t believe anything,” Jessica replied. “I don’t know anything. I only know that it has happened before, under nearly identical circumstances.”
“This pod’s jump system is rudimentary. I’m no engineer, but I am certain if that much power had been channeled into its single, low-power jump emitter, it would no doubt have failed in spectacular fashion.”
“Perhaps,” Jessica agreed. “However, it could have caused us to jump much further than designed. A light month; a light year; ten light years…any of them would complicate our rescue.”
“Are you saying your people may not find us?” the commander realized.
“I’m saying our situation might be more serious than you think,” Jessica replied as she settled into her seat and secured her weapon.
“What are you doing?” the commander wondered.
“I’m getting comfortable,” Jessica said, looking at the sergeant and the corporal. “What about you guys? Are you hungry?”
“I could eat,” Corporal Teel replied, also settling into his seat.
“Sergeant?” Jessica asked.
“I wouldn’t mind a bite,” the sergeant replied, disconnecting his weapon from his body armor and stowing it in the empty seat next to him.
Jessica looked at Commander Andreola. “So, what’s on the menu for this flight?”
The commander looked confused. “Who are you people?”
“We’re Ghatazhak,” Jessica replied. “Trust me, we’ve been through much worse. Now, break out the chow, and tell us about your world and about the Dusahn.”
* * *
“Jump seventeen, complete,” Sasha announced.
“Start your scans, Kas,” Robert said over comm-sets, knowing full well that his sensor officer had done so the moment they had come out of the jump.
The truth was, Robert felt rather helpless. The auto-flight system was flying his gunship, and the auto-jump sequencer was handling all the jumps. Other than monitoring their systems, and Kasma monitoring the sensors, they were just passengers, hoping for something important to do. For once there was, it would mean that they had found their missing comrades.
Robert closed his eyes. The deep penetration, hit-and-run missions were already long. Hours of jumping for minutes of combat, followed by even more hours to get back home.
Home. The word struck him as odd. He had not had a home, in the usual sense of the word, for most of his adult life. The academy, flight school, officer training, his deep space missions…the closest he had come in more than twenty years of service had been the months spent on Tanna, teaching Cobra crews. Even during his years spent commanding a destroyer, he had never taken a residence back on Earth. Since his parents and siblings had all moved to the Pentaurus sector, he had seen little point. Instead, he’d spent seven years on that destroyer, only going planet-side for the occasional liberty, or to visit Gil at his girlfriend’s place on Kohara.
Right now, he wished he had followed Gil’s original advice and set himself up with a pretty gal, a lake house, and a boat of his own. Then he wouldn’t feel the guilt. The guilt for failing to save Tanna. The guilt for going against his oath to his homeworld. The guilt for the deaths of three of Striker Four’s crew, and now…
Robert swore an oath to himself, right then, that if he survived this war, he would find that woman, that house, and that boat, and never look back.
“Contact!” Kasma reported over comm-sets. “Debris field,” he added a moment later, his tone sinking.
“Is it Striker Three?” Robert couldn’t help but ask.
“Affirmative,” Kasma replied.
“Damn it,” Robert cursed.
“But it’s not enough,” Kasma added.
“What do you mean?” Robert asked.
“It’s not enough debris. It looks like part of their starboard side, just aft of their gun turret. I’m picking up part of the number one starboard heat exchanger, an emitter, a plasma vent grate, and a laser turret, but that’s all.”
“Maybe they broke up even more than we thought,” Sasha suggested.
“Negative, sir,” Kasma insisted. “We’d pick that up, as well. It’s as if just this little bit jumped to this location, but nothing else.”
“Is that even possible?” Robert wondered.
“Theoretically, yes,” Renny replied. “If they broke up while the jump charge was being sent to the emitters, not all the emitters would receive the same charge, so all parts of the ship might not jump to the same location.”
“But they’d all still jump along the same course, right?” Robert asked.
“I suspect so,” the engineer agreed, “but, I don’t know that anyone has ever modeled that scenario, Captain.”
“It’s good enough for me,” Robert insisted. “We continue the search on this path. Same intervals and we keep searching until we find them or we find all their pieces.”
“Damn right,” Renny agreed.
“We’re with you, Captain,” Kasma added.
Robert looked at his copilot.
“You know I’m with you, Robert.”
* * *
Commander Andreola sighed, leaning back in his seat. “The truth is, or at least many suspect it to be true, the Dusahn were at the end of their rope when they reached my world. Their ships were in disrepair, and their numbers were dwindling. From what we could piece together over the years, they had been wandering the stars for centuries, taking what they needed from any human-inhabited world they encountered.”
“How did you determine how long they had been traveling?” Jessica wondered.
“It was simple to determine the age of their ships. Level of wear, material fatigue, many things. For reasons unknown to us, they had left their world behind. We don’t know if their world had died or had suffered from the same plague as the Earth. Whatever the reason, they were seeking an industrialized world to conquer in order to rebuild their empire, once again. Our world was the best option they had come across since their journey began.”
“A few days ago, you said the Dusahn had invented the jump drive,” Jessica commented.
“Yes,” the commander replied. “It came rather suddenly. We had no idea they had been working on such a thing. They suddenly began conducting upgrades and repairs on one of their oldest ships, the Lor-Tantin. We had always assumed they were going to retire that ship, since it had been sitting idle for years, while they built newer ships and repaired others. When they were finished, the Lor-Tantin could instantly jump up to ten light years at a time. It was like a miracle. It was also the moment we realized we would never be rid of the Dusahn. Then, five years later, most of their ships, including all of the ships they had built in our shipyards, just l
eft, leaving only the Jar-Razza behind. That is when they began fitting our ships with jump drives, but with devices to ensure that we could not use our ships against them.”
“Pretty clever of them,” Sergeant Sodano commented.
“What about the Lor-Tantin?” Jessica wondered. “Did they take that one with them, as well?”
“The Lor-Tantin was lost only a few months after her jump drive became operational,” the commander replied.
“What happened?” Corporal Teel asked.
“We are not certain,” the commander admitted. “Her original jump drive might have been faulty, but most believe she was just too old of a ship to withstand the additional stresses of jumping.”
“I wasn’t aware that there were additional stresses,” Jessica said.
“It seemed logical,” Commander Andreola said.
“Actually, no,” Sergeant Sodano disagreed. “My understanding of how the jump drive works is that it temporarily slips the vessel contained within its jump fields into a dimension in which time does not exist. Therefore, movement from point A to point B is instantaneous. It stands to reason that since time is part of matter, no stresses should be placed on the vessel itself, not even the normal wear on the vessels hull.”
“Then why are jump-capable ships unable to jump through solid matter?” Commander Andreola asked.
“I have wondered that myself,” the sergeant admitted. “Unfortunately, no one fully understands precisely how matter in the transition dimension interacts with matter within the jump fields, which is still technically in our dimension. Perhaps the interaction is at the jump field level.”
“Interesting,” Commander Andreola said. “You are well educated, especially for a soldier.”
“The Ghatazhak are all highly educated,” Corporal Teel explained. “Except for her,” he added in jest.
“How many languages do you speak, Skippy?” Jessica retorted.
“Only three, I’m afraid,” he replied, smiling.
“Then, shut up,” Jessica replied, smiling back at him. “I’m assuming when most of the Dusahn’s ships left your world, they went to the Pentaurus sector,” she said, looking back at Commander Andreola.
“Most of them, yes, but not all,” the commander replied. “At least eight went in a different direction, back toward the Sol sector, in fact. We assumed they were headed back to their homeworld but later, most of the ships returned. Some of them were damaged and had to undergo repairs. But eventually, they also headed for the Pentaurus sector.”
“The false-flag fleet, no doubt,” Sergeant Sodano decided.
“No doubt,” Jessica agreed.
“False-flag?” the commander wondered, unfamiliar with the term.
“We have evidence that the Dusahn used their older ships to renew hostilities between the Earth Alliance and the Jung,” Jessica explained.
“The Jung?” the commander asked.
“You haven’t heard of the Jung?” Jessica wondered, surprised.
“I have not.”
“The Dusahn are the Jung,” she explained. “At least, they were. They were cast out centuries ago, after a failed coup attempt by their caste.”
“I see,” Commander Andreola said. “That would explain a lot. And these Jung were once at war with the Earth Alliance?”
“How did you know that?” Jessica wondered, her brow furrowing.
“You used the word renew,” Sergeant Sodano told her. “You’re not as good at this as you think…sir.”
“I’m tired,” Jessica sneered, turning back to the commander. “The Jung invaded Earth. We managed to push them back, eventually establishing a thirty-light-year perimeter around Sol. We liberated all the core worlds in the process.”
“Quite an accomplishment,” Commander Andreola praised. “I’d be interested to know how you accomplished such a feat.”
“That is a really long story,” Jessica told him.
“It appears we have time,” the commander replied.
* * *
“I’m picking up more debris,” Kasma reported as soon as Striker One came out of the jump. “Jesus, it’s their outer airlock hatch and part of the outer hull around it.”
“Robert, if the jump field cut them straight through at the airlock, the entire cabin would be open to space,” Sasha surmised. “There’s no way they’d survive.”
“We don’t know that it did,” Robert insisted.
“Sasha’s right, Captain,” Renny said. “Every partial jump event so far has cut cleanly on a vertical plane, or awfully close to it.”
“The ventral emitters are spaced differently because of the smoother hull,” Robert argued. “If the cut line was from the dorsal midship emitter to the aft-most one on the dorsal side, the cut could have been at an angle, and it could have missed the inner hull of the cabin.”
“I want them to be alive as much as you do, Captain,” Renny replied, “but the cut line would still catch the upper corner and vent the cabin.”
“We keep searching until we find them,” Robert insisted, “alive…or dead. Either way, we find them. Is that understood?”
“Of course,” Renny replied.
* * *
“Captain and XO on the bridge!” the guard at the entrance announced as Nathan and Cameron entered.
“Report,” Nathan requested, pausing at the comms station.
“Shuttle Two Five reported that Lieutenant Commander Nash ordered them to jump clear before they made it back to the shuttle. Rogen command has launched twenty jump-equipped Gunyoki to search the area for survivors, but they are restricted to visual only, due to the amount of residual radiation from the antimatter event. They have search and rescue shuttles standing by.”
“How long will it take before sensors will work in the immediate area of the event?” Nathan asked the sensor officer.
“At least an hour until it scatters enough for sensors to be even somewhat reliable,” the ensign at the sensor station reported.
“Did the Amonday have escape pods?” Cameron wondered.
“Good thinking,” Nathan commented.
“One moment,” the ensign replied, calling up the sensor logs on the Amonday. “Affirmative,” the ensign reported a moment later. “Twelve of them, evenly spaced throughout the habitable areas of the ship.”
“Is the Falcon in the area?” Nathan wondered.
“It’s in the hangar at the moment. The crew just returned from another recon over Ahka.”
“Other than the Aurora, the Falcon has the best sensors. If they can jump around and analyze the Amonday’s old light at the moment their containment fields failed, they might be able to determine if an escape pod was launched at the last second and which way it went.”
“The Falcon’s crew is in their racks, Nathan,” Cameron said. “They were flying for twenty hours.”
“We’re not doing anything,” Josh said from the helm.
Nathan looked at Josh, then Loki. “Think you can remember how to fly one?”
“Are you kidding?” Josh replied with a smirk.
“Go,” Nathan told them without hesitation.
A broad grin came over Josh’s face as he jumped up from his seat and headed for the exit.
“Find them,” Nathan told Loki as he passed.
“We’ll do our best,” Loki promised.
“What do we do for a flight crew if we get attacked again?” Cameron wondered.
“I think you and I can still handle her,” Nathan replied.
“Jump flash,” the sensor officer announced. “New contact, Striker Two.”
“Incoming flash traffic from Striker Two,” Naralena reported. “Captain Roselle reports that Striker Three never made the departure rally point. Striker One is searching for them now. He is requesting additional resources.”
“For crying out loud,” Nathan exclaimed. “Okay, new rule: from now on, only one crew can go missing at a time.”
* * *
“One minute to the next jump point,�
� Sasha warned.
“Still nothing,” Kasma reported over comm-sets.
Robert glanced at the clock.
“Even if all they’ve got is whatever’s left in the cabin, they’ve still got a few hours,” Sasha reminded Robert, noticing he had checked the time.
Robert said nothing as he prepared for the next jump.
“I’m getting something,” Kasma reported, uncertainty in his voice.
Robert suddenly froze. “How big?”
“Not very,” Kasma replied, “but big enough. It’s just under five light minutes out, maybe twenty degrees to port of our course, and eleven degrees down relative.”
“Probability?” Robert asked the sensor officer, looking nervously at Sasha.
“It’s definitely made by humans,” Kasma insisted. “Metals, composites, but almost no thermal signature at all. Whatever it is, it’s ice-cold. I’m surprised we detected it at all.”
“Jump point in twenty,” Sasha warned.
“I need a probability, Kas,” Robert reminded him.
“I don’t know, Captain. We’re not far off the shipping route between Palee and Volon. It could just be debris from some long-lost vessel.”
“Kas,” Robert pushed, his tone becoming impatient.
“Fifty-fifty?”
“Good enough for me,” Robert replied without hesitation. “Cancel the jump.”
“Already did,” Sasha replied. “Plotting new jump.”
Robert was already turning their gunship to port and pitching down slightly as he brought up his throttles. “Coming to intercept course,” Robert announced as he dialed up a four-minute jump. “We’ll jump in with the object to our port side, Kas.”
“Got it.”
“On course and speed,” Sasha announced.
Robert pressed the jump button on his flight control stick, transitioning their gunship ahead four light minutes in the blink of an eye. “Jump complete.”
“Scanning… I’ve got it,” Kasma reported. “Holy shit!”
“Is it them?” Robert asked anxiously.
“Yes…I mean, no…I mean, it’s their debris, and a lot of it, but the big piece is not the main cabin. It’s a section of their port drive section. There’s a lot more debris scattered around it, as well, all of it too small to be picked up from a distance.”
