The Celaran Probe (Parker Interstellar Travels Book 7)

by Michael McCloskey

  She interfaced with the breaker claw. Telisa forced calm in herself and gave it the target signature. The adapter took only milliseconds to translate that into whatever instructions the alien weapon accepted.

  KA-BOOM!

  An immense explosion rocked the field. Telisa dove for the ground and buried her face under her arm. The light wind sharply increased into a shock wave. Tiny bits of rock or ceramic bit into her exposed skin where her arm had not completed protected it. Suddenly silence fell across the paved field.

  She looked up. The light was extinguished.

  “Cthulhu crying, is anyone down?” asked Cilreth from the ship. Telisa checked her team’s vitals.

  “Imanol, are you there?” asked Siobhan. Telisa saw he was still green on her tactical. She started to check everyone.

  “I’m alive,” Imanol said. “Half buried under pavement.”

  We all made it. Minus a handful of attendant spheres.

  “Everyone, hold your positions. There could be more,” Telisa said.

  “What was that thing?” Caden demanded.

  “It was a Destroyer robot,” Telisa said. “A war machine from the race that attacked Shiny’s homeworld.”

  “Then what are we doing fighting it? Sounds like our ally to me,” Imanol said.

  “In case you didn’t notice, it attacked us,” Jason said.

  “I think it was shooting at the attendants,” Siobhan said. “None of us were hit. Was it just luck, or were we not targeted at all?”

  Might have been a mistake to start shooting. Imanol had to make a quick call, though.

  “It knows of the attendants as its enemies. And we, by extension, might have been categorized as enemies. But you’re right. It may not have shot at us until we returned fire. I still wouldn’t take the risk, though. Imanol, you made the right call. Assuming that was your laser rifle I heard.”

  “It was my laser pistol. I shot back when it slagged an attendant close to me. At first I thought it was shooting at me anyway.”

  Telisa saw several columns of the black smoke rising across the field from the video feeds. The surviving attendants finished checking each open basement for more Destroyers. There were no more on the base, unless they could stealth or burrow.

  “It’s clear for the moment. Everyone, with me.” Telisa stood. “Unless you want to hang out and wait for more of them.” The others rose after her. They double-timed it back toward the New Iridar.

  “What’s with the name? Destroyer?” asked Siobhan.

  “Not inspired, I admit,” said Telisa. “That’s what they were to Magnus and I at the time: the destroyers of Vovok.”

  “Any better ideas who they are now?”

  “No. I don’t know where that race comes from, so for now, I guess they’re just the Destroyers.”

  “What does Shiny call them?” Jason asked.

  Imanol laughed. He stomped his feet rapidly on the hard surface of the field, mocking the Vovokan’s speech.

  “Right,” Jason said abashedly.

  “Well, we know now they’re the enemies of the Celarans, too,” Caden said. They arrived at the fence. The net was still broken where they had cut it, so they retreated back out into the vines.

  “Not necessarily. I saw no signs of battle,” Telisa said.

  “Yet it was here waiting. And something caused the colony to fail,” Caden said.

  “It proves nothing,” Jason said. “It could have been their friend. Possibly the only survivor of some other attack or catastrophe. Maybe it even thought we were the ones who killed this place.”

  Well, he’s coming out of his shell nicely.

  “I agree. Nothing is clear,” Telisa said.

  And I need to think about this. Are the Destroyers really our friends?

  “Cilreth, we’re almost there. Then we’re taking off. Everyone watch for more of them.”

  “Got it. The ship’s ready.”

  Chapter 3

  Cilreth had the New Iridar ready to leave the planet in a hurry. She watched for the other members of the PIT team in a video feed at the top of the ramp. She could see the relief on their faces as they retreated back into the ship. The hatch closed and sealed right on their heels.

  Hrm, there could be enemies here we don’t know about. Like Telisa said, err on the side of caution.

  Cilreth hit the crash tube alert in her link and increased the power to the Vovokan gravity spinner. The aliens had achieved cleaner, more efficient spinners than Terrans could yet build. There was less leakage to the vicinity, and the spinner took less power than its Terran equivalents. The New Iridar gently lifted above the vine forest.

  She gave the warning twenty seconds to soak in, then powered up the spinner more aggressively. Her view of the terrain expanded as the ship rose. She kept a sharp eye out for signs of missile trails, even though beam weapons were more likely. Nothing threatened them.

  Cilreth took a deep breath.

  We could have lost someone today. By Cthulhu, we could have lost everyone today.

  The New Iridar climbed into orbit. As her tension eased, she turned her attention to what might lay above the atmosphere. Cilreth told the ship to search for anomalies in the vicinity of the planet. She set various reporting thresholds lower than they had been for the first search, and allowed the ship to take much longer to sweep the surrounding void.

  “Can we come out?” Jason asked from somewhere.

  “Yes,” Cilreth said. “It’s as safe as it’s ever going to get considering where we are and what we’re doing.”

  She checked the crew locations. She could not tell for sure, but it looked like Jason, Caden and Siobhan were the only ones that had entered a crash tube.

  That’s weird, Siobhan wouldn’t... oh.

  Caden and Siobhan were still in the same tube and had not come out. She did not bother them.

  Lucky kids.

  A new anomaly caught her attention.

  “Small oddity here. Maybe an unusual fluctuation in the planet’s gravitic field,” Cilreth said. “Maybe its mass isn’t distributed normally...”

  Cilreth pinged the area with active scans. Nothing came of that, so she compared active signals from the far side using a remote probe. The results were even stranger. There was something there. The New Iridar knew exactly how to classify the effect: an object cloaked from radar. The ship’s computers put the object up on the shared tactical.

  Cilreth immediately contacted Telisa on the team channel.

  “Yes?” Telisa answered.

  “There’s a hidden artificial object nearby. Its course is not a natural orbit. Whatever it is must have a gravity spinner.”

  Cilreth focused her investigation on the object. It was large and complex.

  “It’s a big ship. Really big. We’re in danger,” she concluded.

  “Stay calm,” Telisa ordered. “Cilreth, prepare two contingencies: Emergency flight to the planet’s surface, and an emergency exit of the system.”

  “As good as done,” Cilreth said. “These Vovokan shuttles don’t take much preparation. Not like the Clacker.”

  “How about fighting?” Imanol asked.

  “Probably a poor choice,” Telisa said. “It’s bigger than us. Or at least, we think it is. We can’t be sure just yet. In any case, this Vovokan bucket of bolts can barely fight.”

  Cilreth felt a very real tension. There was very little she could do to protect herself. If the alien ship proved superior and hostile, they would be left helpless.

  At least the death would probably be so fast we wouldn’t even notice.

  “We’ve only ever seen a small Celaran ship,” Cilreth said. “How can we tell if this is a larger Celaran or a Destroyer?”

  “I’ve seen Destroyer ships, luckily from afar,” Telisa said to her on a private channel. “And the New Iridar no doubt knows about them.”

  The New Iridar had not yet classified the object. Cilreth tried to force an identification. The ship reported that the anomaly did not fit
any known signatures.

  “Well, this ship doesn’t recognize what little we can glean. I certainly don’t know how to ask it about Destroyers in particular. Besides, if it’s cloaked, maybe it can further distort what little we can detect.”

  Telisa appeared in the control room Cilreth had set up and sat down across from Cilreth. Telisa went off-retina for a few seconds, then sent Cilreth a pointer.

  “These are Destroyer classes, I can recognize them. This must be the Vovokan marker for that race.”

  “I’m sending an attendant out there,” Cilreth said. The New Iridar could release an attendant through small ports in its hull. Everyone waited while the tiny sphere traveled out into local space and approached the anomaly. Five minutes later, the probe neared the anomaly and disappeared.

  “I think it’s inside the cloaking envelope. It should come back—” Cilreth said.

  The probe returned to visibility and delivered a batch of sensor data. Cilreth and Telisa pored through it for the next few minutes. The information verified that the object was as large as they had suspected. It did not match any of the signatures they had found for the Destroyers.

  “Doesn’t match, not even close,” Cilreth sent Telisa on a private channel.

  “I agree,” Telisa said. “Of course, that race might have designed something new, but these differences are prominent across many categories.”

  “I see a lot of data from the attendant, but it’s pretty crazy,” Imanol said on the team channel.

  “Bottom line, we don’t think it’s from the Destroyers,” Cilreth told them.

  “I suspect it’s Celaran,” Telisa said. “Its surface has some similar characteristics to the tiny ship that emerged from the hangar at the last outpost.”

  “Nice to have some good news, then,” Caden said.

  Aha, they’re back. No need to let on I noticed anything I suppose. That would be so Imanol of me.

  “What kind of ship?” Imanol growled on cue. “Obviously the colonists never got here.”

  “A factory,” Siobhan offered.

  “Maybe yes,” Telisa said. “It’s big, maybe it’s the Celaraformer. And probably lots of other things.”

  “Can we communicate with it?” asked Caden.

  Telisa steepled her hands for a moment.

  “We’re going to try for a day,” Telisa declared. “Failing that we’re going to investigate it up close.”

  “Everyone?” asked Siobhan eagerly.

  “Well, you and Caden are the assigned Celaran experts. So you two are going in,” Telisa said.

  Cilreth watched Telisa carefully as she made the order.

  Those decisions weigh more heavily on her than she lets on. It sounded effortless, but she knows what could happen.

  Cilreth determined to learn as much as they could before the couple had to go out and approach the ship in the vacuum of space.

  Chapter 4

  “I get five attendants? Nice!” Siobhan exclaimed. The team had gathered near an airlock to help Caden and Siobhan into their space gear. Only Cilreth remained remote.

  “Cilreth and I think the cloaking probably forms a curtain around the ship,” Telisa said. “Within the curtain, things should be detectable. Once you pass the border of detection, you’ll likely be cut off from us as the probe was. So you’ll need to rotate the attendants in and out of the field to keep reports coming to us.”

  “Sounds dangerous,” Siobhan said.

  Caden and Telisa laughed at the excitement in Siobhan’s voice.

  “What? It’s just that things have been... a little slow around here, that’s all.”

  “Right. The firefight was yesterday, so you’re bored again already,” Imanol sniped.

  “I said around here, on the ship,” Siobhan said.

  “There’s danger, of course,” Cilreth scolded. “The ship could vaporize you for getting too close. Or the cloaking field could cancel out every electromagnetic impulse in your bodies, turning you both instantly brain dead and stopping your hearts.”

  Imanol nodded. “I’m beginning to see why you chose these two for the mission. They already operate without their brains most of the time.”

  Jason nudged him. “You’re going to feel like a pain conductor if they die,” he said.

  “I feel like one all the time,” Imanol said.

  “Enough,” Telisa said. “I’m trying to prepare my away team.”

  Imanol and Jason promptly shut up.

  “If you get in there, don’t stay long unless there are live Celarans inside. If there are, you have my permission to stay as long as it takes to establish some kind of peaceful rapport. I figure it must be unmanned, though.”

  Telisa glanced at Jason. Siobhan understood her look.

  He wants to correct unmanned to un-Celaraned and Telisa knows it.

  Jason did not rise to the bait after his recent warning.

  “That’s all. Attendants first, in everything. We’ll be watching.”

  Watching with a delay, if the signal can’t come back through the cloak.

  “I’ll meet you outside in five,” Caden said to Siobhan. She nodded.

  Her five attendants spiraled into orbit around her. They gracefully synchronized their courses to avoid collision, yet managed to keep their flight paths casual and chaotic looking.

  “Good luck,” Telisa said. Siobhan nodded.

  Siobhan picked up a real space helmet in the main bay. Her Veer suit had an emergency helmet, but since she had a chance to prepare, she took the heavy duty version. Caden showed up a minute later to grab his. They put on the large, round helmets and sealed them against their tough Veer suits. The helmet had a clear faceplate, but also provided a 360 degree view service, so Siobhan connected to test it out. She watched the new views in her PV. It was like having another attendant feed attached to her head. It would be useful for seeing to the flanks without having to awkwardly turn her head. For now, she anchored the view straight in front, as if seeing with her own eyes.

  Siobhan grabbed her propulsion unit, a flat suitcase-sized driver with handles and three attachment cables. She snapped one cable on, then exited through the Vovokan spiral lock in silence with Caden at her side.

  To action!

  Siobhan referred to her tactical to guide her. Her driver sent her moving away from the New Iridar with one pulse of reactant. Siobhan concentrated on slowing her breathing. Caden traveled beside her.

  “You’re quiet,” he said to her in a private channel.

  “No, you’re quiet,” she said contrarily. They were both just distracting each other through the uncomfortable wait. Siobhan felt the familiar high of danger as soon as the New Iridar receded and she realized this was no simulation. At least not a known one.

  “Are you a simulationist?” she asked Caden.

  Caden laughed. “Well the way I see it, maybe life is real or maybe it isn’t, but either way, it’s not going to affect how I choose to live it.”

  “Ah, the cop out answer,” she teased. Siobhan actually respected anyone with the guts to just say ‘I don’t know’.

  “If it is a simulation, that means you’re probably just an agent in my virtual universe,” he said. “That should put you in your place.”

  “Ah, but maybe we’re competing against each other. We suppressed our memories and we went into this VR to see who would live life to its fullest. No doubt we have some serious money riding on the bet.”

  “Maybe we did it to see if we would fall in love again from scratch,” he said.

  “You can’t sweet talk me, mister,” Siobhan said. She released a bit more reactant and pulled ahead of him.

  “No racing,” Telisa told them on the shared channel.

  Caden chuckled to Siobhan. He let her gently pull ahead. She told her helmet’s view to lock onto him. Caden’s three attendants orbited him just as they did in atmosphere, except perhaps moving a bit faster than usual. It made Caden seem a bit slow-motion.

  I’m probably moving slower,
too. Despite our occasional VR training in vacuum, we’re really not used to this.

  The target on the tactical grew nearer. She quickly snapped her helmet view back to the front.

  Any time now? Or will we actually run into something we can’t see?

  Siobhan prepared herself to decelerate relative to the alien object. The hidden ship snapped into view ahead of them as if it were the product of an instant teleportation. Siobhan smiled. The instant appearance of something so large caused an adrenal response.

  Fracksilvers! That’s intense.

  Predictably, it looked alien. Hexagons formed most of the chaotic surfaces she saw. The New Iridar was a combination of many softer shapes, in the Vovokan style. As they neared the cloaked object, she got an idea of its size: at least as large as a Core World skyscraper.

  “We have visual contact,” Caden reported. “No doubt it’s not one of ours.”

  There was no answer.

  “Telisa?”

  “Just like we thought. We’re cut off inside the cloaking threshold,” Siobhan said. “I’m starting the attendant rotation.”

  “Got it,” Caden said.

  One of Siobhan’s five attendants abandoned its orbit around her and launched itself away from the ship. Siobhan locked her helmet video feed on it. She watched the attendant in the feed until it disappeared at the edge of the cloaking. The attendant would give its report to the New Iridar and head back in.

  “Well, here we are,” Caden announced. “Looks more like a ship than a station.”

  Siobhan studied the construct. It had near-symmetry along one plane she could discern. She did not see any reaction drive nozzles from her position. Cilreth had said the thing had a gravity spinner anyway. Its shape was wide rather than slender.

  “Seems like it to me, but with aliens, who knows? Now to get in, if it even has crew spaces.”

  Siobhan let herself drift closer to the thing. The surface of the object was mostly dull colored, but a handful of stretched, six-sided sections of it were bright lavender.