Shadow of Oblivion

by Richard Tongue

  Nodding, she asked, “Do you think it’ll work?”

  “I haven’t the faintest idea, but there’s only one way to find out,” he replied. “Start setting up for the course change, as soon as we’re ready.” He turned to Volkov, and said, “Anything?”

  “We’re being scanned, sir. I’ve got our defenses firmed up, and I’ve armed our forward particle cannons for appearance’s sake, but I haven’t attempted to get a firing solution yet.”

  “That order isn’t going to come, Vlad, so you can relax.”

  “Thank you for that, sir,” Volkov replied with a relieved smile. “I don’t think I could do it.”

  “Even if they shot at us?” Novak asked.

  “Even if they were pounding us into a million pieces,” Corrigan said. “That’s not what we’ve come out here to do.” He paused, then asked, “Anything from Commodore Maddox?”

  “Not a thing,” Volkov said. He frowned, then added, “Interesting. Pericles has broken off, sir. She’s heading back to orbital space, staying well clear of us. Commander, she could have just about….”

  “Admiral Alvarez has given some new intelligence to our friends on Gateway,” Corrigan said with a smile. “They’ve got to make it look good, they’ve got to make it look damned good, but they don’t want to catch us, not now. We’ve just got to give them a good excuse to let us run.”

  “I hope so,” Novak said.

  “Docking Four to Bridge,” Dixon said. “We’re ready.”

  “Let her fly,” Corrigan replied. “Then get back up here on the double.”

  “Shuttles are still closing, coming fast,” Volkov warned. “They’re altering course, trimming to head right for the bridge. Timed for three minutes minus before impact.”

  “Triton course is locked in,” Novak said. “Shuttle is away.”

  “Let’s see if they take the bait,” Corrigan replied, watching the trajectory plot, the images dancing around in the three-dimensional projection to his right. Something else to get used to. One more feature of this ship that was overwhelmingly impressive. After a moment, one of the two shuttles curved away, moving to match course with the decoy, veering off.

  “That’s more like it,” Dixon said, as the hacker walked onto the bridge with a smile, moving to his station. “Just one to go.”

  “Quick question,” Corrigan asked. “That woman we found…”

  “Lieutenant Carter,” Volkov offered. “I checked the records.”

  “Do we have enough of her voice recorded…”

  Nodding, Dixon interrupted, “I’ll see if I can fake something.”

  “Is that fair?” Singh asked. “She’s not involved…”

  Corrigan shrugged, and replied, “Given that she has insisted on coming along for the ride, there’s not much we can do about it. She’s involved in this, whether she likes it or not.”

  “Message sent,” Dixon said, stabbing a control. He paused, then said, “It’s working. They’re heading for Docking Airlock Nine, right by Engineering. I’m isolating those systems, locking them out. They won’t think anything is wrong until they try and dock.”

  “How long?” Corrigan asked.

  “Sixty seconds,” he replied.

  Tapping a control, he said, “Bridge to Engineering…”

  “I’m on it, I’m on it,” Collins said. “Thirty seconds.”

  “Looks like we just might be able to get away clean after all. Stand by for the jump. Novak, are you ready?”

  “I’m ready, but this could go very wrong, very fast,” the pilot warned.

  “Little late to worry about that,” Dixon said, strapping himself in.

  “Ten seconds,” Novak said. “Starting the turn.”

  “So long, Earth,” Dixon added. “See you later.”

  “Five seconds. Four. Three. Two. One. Mark!”

  Avenger’s warp rings glowed a deep, deep crimson, the dimensional projectors ripping a hole in the fabric of space-time itself, reaching out into the void to carve out a passage to take them directly to their far-distant destination. Everyone on the bridge felt a terrible lurching sensation, deep in their stomachs, as though every atom in their body was being ripped from its foundations. At the best of times, warp transfers were a serious strain. This was worse. Far worse.

  Corrigan struggled to hold on to consciousness as the ship surged through the void, hurled towards its destination, the stars finally snapping back into life as the warp transfer was completed, the vast, icy landscape of Triton rolling out before them. Warning claxons echoed through the bridge, the trajectory plot showing them on a collision course with the surface, and Novak frantically worked her controls, struggling to bring them back up, to guide them into a safe orbit.

  “Come on, you damned beast, come on,” the pilot muttered, all eyes locked on the viewscreen, watching as she attempted to surge more acceleration out of the engines, building speed to get them into a safe, stable orbital path. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the lights flickered from red to amber, the plot showing them clear of the surface.

  “Nice work,” Corrigan said.

  “You’re buying the drinks when we get to Prospero,” Novak replied, wiping the sweat from her forehead. “I’m keeping her pretty low for the moment. No sense taking any chances of someone spotting us. All of the facilities here should have been evacuated by now, if the information we got was accurate, so we ought to have the whole sub-system to ourselves.”

  “I still don’t want to linger too long,” Corrigan said. “Bridge to Collins. Great job. Any damage?”

  “I haven’t the faintest idea,” Collins barked. “Damage control needs more hands than I’ve got. Send Dix and Vlad down here, will you?” She paused, then said, “My best guess is that we’re fine, but I’d like at least an hour to check everything over and bring the warp drive back online properly.”

  “You’ve got it,” Corrigan said. “Singh, any contacts?”

  “Nothing in range, just the automated beacons and communication relays. They’ll work out where we’re going soon enough, but we should be well away from here before they can do anything about it.”

  “Keep looking out, and inform me if there’s any change,” Corrigan said. “Novak, you have the conn. I’m going to go talk to our new recruit.”

  “That should be fun,” Novak quipped.

  “One of the perks of the job,” Corrigan replied. “Just be grateful I don’t send you down there.”

  “You’re the commander,” Novak said. “Don’t worry, I’ll mind the store.”

  “I’ll stop worrying when we’re out of the system and into free space. Until then, I think I’ll keep my paranoia. We all might live longer that way.”

  Chapter 8

  Carter waited in the storage room, looking around to find something she could use as a weapon, some way to escape and take the fight back to the hijackers. Abruptly, the door slid open, and Corrigan walked in, pistol in hand, a wry smile on his face.

  “Have a seat, Lieutenant,” he said. “We’ve left Earth. There’s nowhere to run, and my team now has total control of the ship. So please, let’s avoid any further unpleasantness, shall we?” Sliding his pistol into his holster, he added, “I’ve looked over your personnel file. Pretty damned impressive, and your experience with this ship can be extremely useful.”

  “I have no intention of helping you.”

  He reached into his pocket and tossed her a data chip, saying, “My orders from Admiral Alvarez, directing me to assume command of this ship and head for interstellar space. We’re ordered to take the fight directly to the enemy, hit any vulnerable spots. Outposts, convoys, staging areas, anything we can find. This ship is perfect for that, and with any luck, right now the Belters will be assuming that a group of disgruntled criminals have somehow managed to steal this vessel.” He paused, chuckled, and added, “To be fair, that isn’t so far from the truth of the matter.”

  “I know you,” Carter said. “You killed Admiral Klein.”
r />   “That’s what the court-martial said, certainly.”

  “You shot him! Right on the bridge of his flagship!”

  Shaking his head, Corrigan took a seat, and said, “I was his flag captain, on Courageous. We were out on deep patrol at Barnard’s Star when war broke out. He attempted to order us to engage the enemy. It would have been suicide. Pointless, meaningless suicide. The odds were ten to one against. We were up against Goliath. The biggest ship in the Belter fleet, capable of wiping out every vessel we had. Simply getting home would have been tough enough, and the Republic doesn’t have that many warships to spare that we can just throw them away. Still less the experienced crew. I refused the order. There was a fight, a fistfight right on the bridge, and a weapon was discharged. His weapon. He died.”

  “Did you do it?”

  “I honestly don’t know,” he replied. “I do know that the loss of two lives was worth it to save three hundred. The squadron got away, escorting a few dozen civilian ships back to Earth. That was the priority, not some sort of crazy kamikaze run on a warship we couldn’t defeat. A full-scale task force would be hard-pressed to take that beast down. Even three battlecruisers couldn’t pull it off. Not with the tactical position as it was.” He grimaced, then added, “Though I’d have dearly liked to take that bastard down.”

  “You should have followed orders.”

  “Neither of us would be here if I had. Nor would a lot of other people. I’m afraid it’s taking quite a while for most of the fleet to get used to the idea that we’re at war. It doesn’t come naturally. I suppose there’s no shame in that, nothing wrong with that, but nevertheless, it’s the truth. The reality is that we are waging a total conflict with the Belters, and that if we don’t totally commit, we’re going to lose.” He paused, then added, “A slight variation of your words, I understand.”

  “Not fair,” she replied. “This is for real?”

  “Absolutely,” he said. “The whole purpose of this mission fails if we don’t obtain surprise. The Belters are going to be deploying pickets all across the near stars, and we’re going to have to force our way past them if we’re going to have a chance of completing this mission.” He paused, then added, “As you may recall, I did everything I could to send you home, but you appeared absolutely determined to come along for the ride.”

  “I’m still not at all certain about any of this,” she said.

  “That’s a bit of a shame, given that I was forced to implicate you in our escape.” Raising his hands, he added, “I had to improvise a little to hold up the assault shuttles. As it is, we only got clear by the skin of our teeth, and if it is any consolation, you managed to force us to some rather unusual extremes to get out of cislunar space in something approximating one piece.”

  “I’m aware of your reputation,” she said. “How much of this has been an intelligence cover-up? How deep does this go?”

  “Believe me, there hasn’t been much in the way of forward planning on this. I was only briefed myself yesterday, and as far as I know, almost nobody is in the loop. I suppose that’ll change soon enough, once we start to make our presence known, but for the moment, we’re going to have to run dark.” He paused, smiled, then added, “Which at least means we’re operating entirely on our own initiative. A nice change.”

  “And the crew? Those cut-throats…”

  “Technically, only half of the crew have been convicted of a crime involving murder. The other half are one of the best criminal gangs Fleet Security ever managed to turn out. We’re lucky to have them.”

  Shaking her head, she said, “I was rather holding onto the idea that this was all some sort of cover-up…”

  “I’m afraid not. We are as we appear to be. A collection of escapees from a maximum-security facility. None of us would have been released for more than a decade under normal circumstances. I’m afraid the circumstances are about as far from normal as it is possible to get.”

  “That’s putting it mildly. I know things are bad…”

  “We’ve lost the war,” he said, bluntly. “Too many mistakes in the opening moves, and the Belters have decided to kick over the table. They’re attempting to get a foothold on Luna. If they manage that, we lose. If that doesn’t come off, then the plan is to bombard our largest cities with asteroids.” He paused, then added, “Technically it’s intended to be a threat rather than anything that might actually happen. I’m assuming our leaders would surrender first, rather than let the cities die, though I wouldn’t rule out a warning shot across the bows.”

  “Christ, that’s not made it to the…”

  “All classified. For obvious reasons.” He looked at the door, and said, “I’m operating with a skeleton crew. I’ve got the best pilot the Fleet ever threw in jail, a top weapons officer and a crack covert operations team. What I don’t have is an engineer who knows these systems with her eyes closed, one with field experience and sufficient cunning to be of use. To be blunt, what I need is you. I know that you’ve been applying for combat duty, and I know that your commanding officer has vetoed those applications…”

  “That bastard Hanson,” she said. “If I get my hands on him…”

  With a soft chuckle, Corrigan replied, “Don’t worry, I think the odds of you ever taking a shore-side posting again are pretty low. Given all the ships that the Republic is hoping to throw into the line, you’d have probably ended up somewhere sooner or later. It’s just happening a lot sooner than you might have expected.”

  “Do I have an alternative?” she asked.

  “We’re obviously not going back to Earth any time soon, but if you are really opposed to taking part in this mission, if you really think that it isn’t worth risking your life for, then I’d be willing to leave you here. With enough supplies to last for a couple of weeks. As far as we can work out, the sub-system’s been abandoned, but someone will probably come get you sooner or later, and there are almost certainly enough supplies for you to stay alive indefinitely. It might mean sitting out the war…”

  “Not an option,” she interrupted. “I wanted to get into the action. I guess I’m going to get my wish after all. I admit this isn’t quite what I had in mind, but subject to looking over these supposed orders of yours, I guess you’ve got yourself an engineer.” She looked at his shabby clothes, and added, “I think there are some spare uniforms on board, and the fabricator…”

  “This isn’t going to be any sort of military operation, and at least for the moment, we’re safer wearing civilian clothes.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever heard about any mission quite like this.”

  “We’re doing our best to make sure that it is a one-off experience,” he replied. “It’s a good crew. On paper, at least, and we managed to get this far.” He frowned, then said, “You said you wanted to get into the action. I assume we’re not talking about ticking a box off your career checklist.”

  “No, I wasn’t.”

  “Anything you want to tell me about?”

  “Not really.”

  “Maybe I should rephrase that, given that I’m now your commander.”

  She sighed, then said, “I was engaged to be married to the Weapons Officer on Invincible. It was guarding the Jupiter Trojans, before the withdrawal, and the Belters caught it by surprise. Technically, he’s listed as missing in action, but it’s been two months, and for all their sins, the Belters have been pretty good about exchanging prisoner lists. There’s nobody from that ship. Nobody at all. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that he isn’t coming back.” Shaking her head, she said, “That ship shouldn’t have been out there alone anyway.”

  “I can’t argue with that,” he replied. “This war has been badly handled right from the start.” He paused, then continued, “Though I suppose I need to make one thing clear. My crew and I are fighting for our freedom. We get through this in one piece, which I admit is somewhat unlikely, and we get to start over. I picked people I thought earned that chance. If you’re out for revenge, then
that’s fair enough, as long as it doesn’t affect your judgment. I’m not on a suicide mission, and if that’s what you want to do, then you can do it alone. Is that clear?”

  “You’re almost sounding like a real officer,” she said.

  “I think I still remember how to act like one,” Corrigan said. “They didn’t quite beat it all out of me during interrogation and sentencing. Though I’m damned sure they tried.”

  She looked at him, and said, “You don’t look like a murderer.”

  “Just what is a murderer meant to look like?” he asked. “I did what I thought was right. I happen to believe that the outcome proves it. In another world, they’d have promoted me for what I did, and Admiral Klein would have gone home in disgrace. It’s far from impossible that he knew that.”

  “Then he did shoot himself,” she replied.

  “I never said that,” he said. “Though he certainly did everything possible to put himself in harm’s way. Put it that way.” He gestured to the door, and said, “Ready to get to work?”

  “I guess so,” she replied. “Just how did you manage to navigate the warp jump, anyway? I made sure the astrogation computer was down.”

  “We did a blind run,” he said with a smile. “Pointed at Triton and hoped for the best. We’re still here, so it worked.”

  “Triton?” she asked. “We’re at Neptune?”

  “Yes, why?” Corrigan replied. “According to what I heard, it’s been evacuated, and we haven’t picked up anything in the area…”

  “The Triton evacuation convoy was attacked by the Belters yesterday. Most of the ships were lost, others running. The extremophiles on the surface are critical to keeping Mars as a friendly neutral. Commander, I find it very, very hard to believe that the Belters would just let that resource go.” She raced to the wall, tapped a hidden panel, and said, “Carter to Bridge. Launch a probe to look at the far side of Triton, and do it right now.”