Attunga

by Peter Wood

  Wirrin checked. Two minutes till match-up.

  ***

  ‘When will I see them on the visuals?’

  ‘Another thirty or forty seconds. We’re approaching from the side and then hugging the leading face of the asteroid till the collector returns. Having all that mass between us will increase our stealth factor while we wait. They won’t have a clue we’re there.’

  ‘I’ve got the asteroid!’

  Wirrin couldn’t help looking at the big display. Yes, there was a tiny blob. Calen had done well to pick it up so soon. Wombats! It was increasing in size while you watched, much more rapidly than on the stealth exercise to K74. It must be all the training and experience Thom had had in the meantime.

  ‘And there’s the convoy! I’m enhancing them.’

  Three slightly indistinct images sharpened over the next few seconds and Wirrin felt the last vestiges of unreality dissolve. Three monster ships for their tiny vessel to face. Where were the other four? The big display swung to the asteroid. Calen was wondering the same thing.

  There was no sign of them though and from the now rapidly changing aspect as they closed on the leading face it was evident they were well and truly hidden from view. The view broadened and one after the other the convoy ships were blocked from sight as well. The surface of the asteroid approached, so close Wirrin was on the edge of shock, then steadied as Thom locked them in a stable position.

  ‘Countdown for the collector completion please.’

  Wirrin had it ready. ‘Three minutes and five seconds. My InfoSystem will activate the launch the instant the picofactory finishes.’

  ‘Wirrin, I’m too busy to monitor our habitat transmissions. Check to see if there’s anything I should be aware of, and Calen, there’s tension time for a while so I want you to make use of it with one more run through on the sims.’

  The InfoSystem changed its immediate focus and Wirrin rapidly scanned the headings of all the automatic transmissions since Pirramar had last appeared. There was a vast amount of technical information, a report about the ongoing Witness meeting and its dissemination of information and warnings throughout the habitats, Quambi’s actions, an upgraded protection package for the ship’s electronics from Pirramar that needed integrating … Done … And a report from the Comet with news that Thom would want to know. How to do this? Thom was concentrating ferociously on his console and calling out might be too distracting.

  Better to post it on his display with an attention signal he could attend to when he was ready.

  Nine Comets combined in a multi-spectrum beam attack to disintegrate a second asteroid and disable the attendant Cadre ships. Now approaching the third.

  After posting the message Wirrin watched for a few seconds for any reaction from Thom, but forgot that when his own console signalled that the remote collector was launching.

  ***

  ‘Engine disabler unit one launched!

  ‘Engine disabler unit two launched!

  ‘Wirrin and Calen, thirty-seven seconds till disabler activation and the start of our own strategy. Engage your emergency harness and be ready for the hammer blow.’

  Thom had taken them through the strategy twice and grilled them to make sure they properly understood their roles.

  For two seconds the multi-spectrum beam would focus at maximum power on the five Cadre drive engines and then their ship would go into full evasion mode at the highest possible thrust. At the same time the first deployed jamming device would activate, and depending on their proximity, confuse any missiles to varying degrees. Four more jammers would be released and activated at intervals calculated by Thom to give the greatest effect while the ship strained to build speed and distance.

  ‘Multi-spectrum capacitors holding at maximum. Firing in four, three, two, one, zero.’

  Intensity filters dimmed the display to a comfortable viewing level and Wirrin watched the coruscating beam flicker between five targets in the two seconds it had available.

  Wham! His senses reeled as the ship reached the newly programmed limit of 25.6G. Practically helpless and clinging to consciousness, Wirrin felt an indeterminate time passing before the wondrous return of normal gravity allowed full awareness to release a surge of elation. They were through and safe.

  Wirrin could check with his InfoSystem for information but instead he looked to Thom. It felt like the right thing. Thom was busy with his console for what seemed like ages, but then he grinned and gave a victory gesture.

  ‘One Cadre ship down and six to go. Well done, Calen. You picked the best option for outrunning that concentration of missiles. We would have been okay anyway because their response was so slow, but you did it perfectly. Bring up the ship we targeted on the visuals.’

  A smiling Calen expanded the section of screen that had been dedicated to that particular ship.

  ‘I can’t see any damage.’

  ‘You don’t have to. Look where it is relative to the asteroid.’

  The view expanded enough to include the asteroid and then once again a few seconds later to accommodate the rapidly increasing gap between it and the ship.

  ‘Its engines are dead, Calen. It’s coasting and they won’t be able to fix them without help.’

  Wirrin jolted as red lights flashed on every console and display.

  ‘What’s wrong? Were we damaged?’

  Thom touched a control and the lights stopped.

  ‘Nothing’s wrong at all. Hang on, I’ll set in our new course now that we’re back on full stealth and we’ll have five minutes to talk and plan. There … They’ve responded the same way they did against the Comets. Look at this.’

  Thom took over the display to show a constant stream of red flashes appearing in the wake of the asteroid.

  ‘These are small nuclear devices and they’re detonating them at a rate of … thirty-seven per second. Now look at this.’

  New lights, purplish ones this time, appeared in huge numbers, fanning from the two red circles that signified the convoy ships.

  ‘These are surveillance drones, which they hope will pick us up if we close in again. They’re not dangerous and we know how to sneak past them.’

  Wirrin’s InfoSystem suddenly screamed for attention and it was Thom’s turn to wait.

  ‘They’ve just started transmitting the most complicated electronic signals I know of from a Cadre ship … They’re full of priority traps and useless disruptions against our systems. It must be the same as the signals keeping the mobile AIs behind their quarantine screens.’

  Wirrin wanted to work on the signals but that could come later.

  Thom suddenly laughed.

  ‘They think we’re one of the dreaded Comet ships that can mysteriously take over their controls. What’s the story with the Comets, Wirrin? How did they disable that asteroid?’

  ‘It’s three asteroids now and they weren’t just disabled. The Comets disintegrate them with their multi-spectrum beams. They can’t come at the Cadre ships from behind because of the nuclear devices so they move to the leading face and dissolve all the way through from there.’

  ‘The whole nine Comets onto one? How long does it take? Wait. Something’s happening.’

  He concentrated on the controls, then gave a huge grin.

  ‘You’re a wonder, Wirrin. The asteroid’s acceleration just dropped from 3.4G to 3.06G. The disabler units have just disabled their first engine each. They’re working perfectly.’

  Wirrin hoped they were. There was no way of knowing except through these results, as they were completely independent with no feedback to the ship.

  ‘Our Comets take close to eight minutes to burn through the asteroid before they can beam the externals of the Cadre ships.’

  He did a quick data check about the Comets.

  ‘The Comets have just finished with another asteroid. Their times are improving slightly and it’s now just under eight minutes for each.’

  ‘Eight! Wirrin, that’s not good. The countdown’s
now at thirty-two minutes and they won’t be able to stop them all at that rate.’

  Wirrin started to think about that but they were approaching the asteroid again and Thom went into command mode.

  ‘Are you prepared, Calen? This time will be a real test because they’ll be on full alert and their response will be quicker and more overwhelming. I made a bad mistake before by not letting you experience what the sudden change to high G would feel like. This time we won’t get away in the same 7.9 seconds because I expect all six ships will be involved in retaliation. Wirrin, are the jamming devices all cued and ready?’

  He knew they were. Wirrin understood he was being kept involved.

  ‘Here we go with the tricky bit. The pattern they’re using to release their mini nuclear devices is leaving a narrow band of safety near the asteroid surface and my calculations show I should be able to use it to get close to one of the connected ships. The two convoy ships are inaccessible at the moment and we’ll need a different tactic to get at them.’

  Wirrin could hardly believe the approach Thom made with his ship. The surface of the asteroid rushed past at a frightening speed and so close he found himself holding his breath in case of a collision.

  Did their evasion burst at extreme G have to follow the same course in reverse? Surely it wouldn’t be possible.

  He didn’t have time to wonder.

  ‘Multi-spectrum capacitors at maximum. Firing in five … four … three … two … one … zero.’

  Once again the spectrum beam flashed, focusing its destructive power for less than half a second on each of the Cadre ship’s five engines in turn and rendering them useless.

  Once again Wirrin memory-zapped the rapid action of the two seconds before the hammer struck.

  The evasion burst this time was frightening. After the first few moments the ship began lurching and twisting like a living creature striving in terror to escape a predatory grip. The violent forces continued, till Wirrin, on the verge of certainty that they weren’t going to make it, blacked out.

  And opened his eyes to wonderful calm. Calen was out of his seat and racing. Fear leapt as Wirrin took in Thom’s blank expression, lolling head and awful stillness.

  ‘Thom! Thom!’ Calen’s voice rang and Wirrin, shocked and frantic, released his own emergency harness and tried to stand. His head swam but with a stumbling run he made it to Thom’s side.

  Calen had one hand pressed against a throat artery.

  ‘He’s breathing and his heart’s beating. He’s all right. It’s just taking him longer to snap out of it.’

  ‘We’d better take him to the med-facility.’

  Wirrin started on the harness release then paused to watch Calen snap a finger against Thom’s forehead. His eyes blinked open, his head jerked upright and he stared at them. ‘What? What?’

  ‘You dingo brain! You flaked out.’

  For a moment Thom’s eyes darted between Wirrin and Calen but then his attention swerved to his console. ‘Calen, you totally saved us.’

  It was over a minute later and the ship was on a new trajectory back towards the asteroid with its stealth at full capacity.

  ‘I don’t know how. I nearly lost it myself. The high G never seemed to end.’

  Thom nodded with a quietness that Wirrin didn’t like.

  ‘That’s because it lasted 13.4 seconds, five and a half seconds longer than the first time. I don’t know how you stayed conscious and I don’t understand how we’re still here. We won’t survive another retreat like that.’

  ‘Yes we will. We have to.’

  At Calen’s comment Thom shook his head with a look that frightened both his friends.

  ‘What’s wrong, Thom?’

  ‘We can’t do that again. We’ll die and the asteroid will still be under their control and it will be my fault.’

  ‘You’ll think of something else.’

  ‘There’s no way past all those atomics and missiles no matter what I do.’

  Thom was now speaking as if to himself, and Wirrin, sensing his despair, shouted at him, ‘THOM!!’

  It worked because, to Wirrin’s relief, Thom twitched and stared in surprise.

  ‘Thom, we won’t do it the same way again. You’ll figure out something else. We know you will. Steady down.’

  ‘You shouted.’

  Wirrin wanted to grab him in a big hug. He was back. No hug though. It might not help at the moment.

  ‘I thought your ears might have been affected by the high grav. Anyhow, we made it and another ship is out of action … and … and look at this number.’

  Wirrin zoomed a section of display he’d noticed while Thom was concentrating on his console. It showed the asteroid acceleration down to 2.17G, a big drop from the previous 2.6.

  ‘That’s strange. It should be slightly higher.’

  ‘No it shouldn’t.’ The calculating look after Calen’s statement said Thom was in control again. ‘While that ship is connected without any engines the others have to push its mass along as well as the asteroid. They’ll disconnect before very long.’

  ***

  A blinking signal caught Thom’s attention and by his satisfied smile he was well and truly recovered.

  ‘The disablers just finished their second engine each and the asteroid acceleration dropped again. Building that second one was definitely worth the extra time. Wirrin, two ships are wondering what hit them … How do you rate their chances of finding the disablers?’

  ‘I don’t. They’d have to go external for a visual sighting, and the chameleon function’s so good they wouldn’t see anything anyway. Thom, have you had any ideas about how we can make it through?’

  ‘You mean whether I’ll make it don’t you? Well, you can stop worrying and my bios are all good. Look for yourself.’

  Wirrin and Calen both checked and exchanged a look as Thom indicated the relevant section on his display. This would have been the sensible place to look when they first rushed to Thom’s side.

  ‘We are changing tactics though. We’re targeting a convoy ship instead of the last impeller, and we’ll use your decoy to give us a chance at getting past those mini nukes.’

  Wirrin didn’t understand.

  ‘The decoy won’t do that. The explosions form a constant barrier.’

  ‘No they don’t. I’ve analysed both times our ship came out of stealth and discovered that every unexploded mini nuke changed direction to chase us. They’ll do the same again, and while the decoy keeps working there’ll be a clear path.’

  ‘What if they don’t?’

  ‘We’ll know in time to back off.’

  Calen looked as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  ‘You mean atomics were chasing us as well as missiles?’

  ‘It sounds bad but it’s not. The missiles are the real worry. Wirrin, can you provide the decoy with any extra jamming devices? I’m going to send it closer than we originally planned and every extra second it can survive will help us.’

  ‘Two extras, but we’ll have to use the last of our emergency resources for the picofactory to make them because that last escape used more than we planned for … How long have I got?’

  Another attention light flashed before Thom could answer and the trio watched a Cadre ship dwindle in size as it fell behind the onrushing asteroid.

  ‘You were right! We can forget about that one. Um … Can you manage three minutes? We’re running out of time.’

  Wirrin managed easily. The instructions only took moments. The picofactory did the rest, and in just under the three minutes Thom started a new count down.

  ‘Twenty-three minutes till the asteroid reaches the habitats. Engage your emergency harnesses and prepare yourselves. Decoy deployed.’

  There was a wait while the ship manoeuvred well away from the decoy to Thom’s planned line of approach.

  ‘Decoy activation in … five … four … three … two … one … zero!’

  This decoy had been Wirrin’s idea a
nd to make it real had been one of the biggest mental challenges he’d faced yet, particularly because of the time constraints, but also because he’d had to work with technical areas he didn’t know much about. The final outcome was an independently moving device that would register on the Cadre scanners as Thom’s ship. Wirrin was particularly pleased with his accomplishment because when he’d used his InfoSystem to link a simulation to their own ship’s controls it had taken Thom sixteen seconds to penetrate the false reality being presented. Thom, originally keen but dubious, had changed to being eager and totally impressed.

  In full zap mode Wirrin watched the fake ship flicker into existence, emitting the same signals Thom’s ship did when it left stealth, and the same light speed signal that would register with the Cadre ships as a target lock. The reaction was almost immediate, but not quite, and as if realising the need to escape, the decoy darted away at its full 4.2G capability and released its first jamming device. At 4.2G it was very slow, but Thom had calculated it would add an extra second or more before the inevitable destruction.

  For 9.4 seconds the alternate ship drew the full wrath of five Cadre ships, with every missile and mini nuclear device dedicated to preventing a repeat of the two previous disablements.

  At 9.4 seconds the alternate ship disappeared in a flash of light as the first missile, followed by hundreds more, locked on and exploded.

  At 7.1 seconds however, the last jammer from the decoy finished transmitting and Thom, sliding into position along a course suddenly clear of nuclear danger, was ready with full capability and full beam capacitor charge. His beam flashed for its two second darting dance of destruction then, again, the hammer of high gravity descended.

  One jolting lurch, another, and they were free.

  ‘Is that it?’

  Thom didn’t answer. His console was too important at the moment, but the smile plastered over his face said it all.

  Wirrin did some checking of his own. Yes, at 6.3 seconds it had definitely been a better escape this time, and there, automatically tracked on its allocated display screen, was the diminishing image of another disabled Cadre ship.