by Damon Alan
“It seemed unwise to do so. The women, except those involved in the chase of the stowaways, are all unarmed. I did not see a way to get them to the armory unsupervised and not draw the attention of the males. You were unsupervised on the bridge.”
“That was Orson’s doing,” Heinrich said. “He wanted us there alone, he didn’t trust his fellows not to back stab him at first opportunity. I guess he didn’t know about you.”
“I see,” Gaia answered. “History is replete with tyrants who fell due to lack of faith in their underlings. It’s also replete with tyrants who fell due to too much faith in their underlings.”
“This worked for us,” Stornbeck said. “Now we even things up.”
“Not yet,” the AI reminded them.
“Della, if we meet an aggressive woman, shoot her legs. I know from personal experience how incapacitating that is. Male… we shoot to kill.”
“Like you have to spell that out,” Stornbeck muttered.
That pleased Heinrich. Sometimes prisoners developed affections for their captors. Stornbeck clearly had not.
They moved down the hall to the lift. As the door opened, a single female marine floated there.
Both Heinrich and Stornbeck raised their weapons, but that didn’t stop the marine from pushing off toward them. Both fired. Because of the orientation of the body, they weren’t able to shoot her legs.
Several rounds from each weapon struck the marine in the chest. She curled into a ball as her eyes closed, leaving a trail of blood globules behind her. Heinrich moved to the side and the marine bounced off the far wall, then slowly floated down the gangway.
“Damn,” Heinrich said. “I’m sorry.” Tears welled up in her eyes.
“We can’t stop,” Stornbeck said, pushing her emotionally. “We have to get the men.”
Heinrich was impressed. She had expected to need to be the strong one. Stornbeck was proving to be a remarkable teammate.
They pushed into the lift, which took them down three levels. The door opened. Gaia spoke, but much quieter than before. “The third door across the gangway is a recreation lounge. The male is in there. I will open the door when you are ready.”
The two women aligned themselves on each side of the door, and Heinrich whispered, “Now.”
The room opened up. Inside both people were nude, the man was in between the woman’s legs. His eyes opened wide as he saw the two women at the door. He pushed the woman away, she spun and flailed wildly as she tried to get her hands on a hold to stop her motion. He had used her mass to direct himself toward his clothes, floating in a loosely tied bundle.
A small handgun jutted from the clothing.
Heinrich shot into the clothes, driving the gun away from the path of the man. He flipped wildly, trying to snag it.
“You bitch,” he barked.
Heinrich’s next shot was in the foot, noting that his screams brought her little satisfaction. She’d wondered if she’d want to torture the men individually if she could.
Apparently not.
He’d pulled his wounded foot upward, holding it in his hands, screaming obscenities at her.
She raised her weapon again, firing a quick three round burst into his skull.
His hand relaxed and his leg flopped downward, throwing him into a slow spin. He created a pinwheel of blood as his body orbited its center of mass.
“Noooo,” the other naked woman screamed as she hit the wall. She pushed off toward Stornbeck.
This time the sergeant was ready. She fired her incapacitating weapon. A small round, about six centimeters long, burst from the gun and flew to the target slow enough that Heinrich watched it go. It was fast enough the marine had no time to react to it. It was nearly impossible to change path in zero G flight, so even if she could have reacted, she’d still have taken the shot.
The moment the round struck, electricity arced through her, and the woman went rigid.
Stornbeck moved to the side and the unconscious woman floated past.
“You did that well, you want this one?” Heinrich asked.
Stornbeck nodded.
Heinrich looked back at the man, his rotation now nearly stopped by atmospheric friction. “Let’s go get the rest,” she growled.
Chapter 15 - Colony Ship
22 Gusta 15329
Despite the unconscious state of most of the adepts, the Stennis reappeared near the location where Orson had initially entered the system. Emille was dramatically improving with her precision, it didn’t matter if she had an object to concentrate on or not at the destination. She read the location of the fabric of space itself.
“Continue Condition One,” Sarah ordered. “Battlestations, combat is imminent.” She slid the mic back into it’s spot next to her command console. “Go full sensors, Mr. Harmeen.”
“Aye, Admiral,” Harmeen replied.
She waited for the first results of his scans. To her left Peter Corriea’s face was as stony as she’d ever seen it. He’d responded to his trial in fire by becoming steel.
She needed steel right now.
“Mr. Corriea, prepare your marines once again. We will take this colony ship when we find it.”
Corriea nodded and got to work.
“Strong target, Admiral. Now on tactical,” Harmeen said.
She studied the screen. There it was. The Gaia. Running from their system arrival point, although no longer accelerating. Only a hundred-thirty thousand kilometers distant.
“She’s not expecting us,” Sarah observed. “Or she’d be thrusting hard, spinning up her drive. Mr. Corriea, odds are Heinrich is on this ship, Orson would have needed her to orchestrate the jumps to this location. He wasn’t competent enough to navigate with any degree of precision. That leaves Heinrich, in my mind. I want her taken alive by your marines.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem, Admiral. We can use non-lethal tactics at your discretion.
“Mr. Harmeen, plot a course to bring us alongside, railguns to bear,” Sarah ordered.
“Wilco.”
She felt the Stennis push her into her gravcouch as he gave chase to the colony ship.
Glancing back at the adepts she noticed Emille and Alarin staring at one point in space. The demon on the Gaia. Sarah wondered how close she’d be able to get.
“Mister Seto, before we get much closer, open a channel to the Gaia in unencrypted Alliance code. If Heinrich is commanding that ship, she’ll understand it.”
“Aye, Admiral.”
“This is Admiral Dayson. Commander Heinrich, you are ordered to surrender your vessel and your crew. There need be no more death. You have thirty minutes to decide. By that time we’ll be in optimal firing range, and if I need to use force, I will. Dayson out.”
* * *
Bn74x00 was heavily damaged. Sensor arrays were burnt out, most weapons systems offline, and it had a minor fuel leak in a fusion reactor. Still, it existed, and possessed the ability to enter highspace when it needed to do so. It needed to efficiently use every drop of antimatter to get home, which meant jumping as far as possible, not chasing Dayson.
That didn’t stop it from sending a message. It activated a full radio burst designed to ensure Sarah Dayson received it.
“Captain Dayson. This sub-entity is colony Bn74x00. Your star-killing weapons are no longer a secret, nor is your new drive system. Your research base in this system is destroyed. Your destruction of the star to prevent the data from falling into the hands of the Collective will not prevent our development of this weapon. Everything this colony has observed will be reported to the Original, and the Collective will discover your secrets.”
As far as Bn74x00 knew, this transmission was the first ever made by a Hive colony to a human vessel.
It was a calculated risk. With her base in this system gone, Dayson might no longer have support for her advanced technology. It was possible the destruction of this system erased the very data that allowed the star killing weapon to be made. But the odds of this being tr
ue were incalculable, there were too many variables, so 00 needed to provoke Dayson into a bad decision. Maybe she would follow it home to Albeus III where the Original could destroy or colonize her. It was also possible the human ship was no longer in system, and Dayson would not get the message.
It closed the transmission and aligned itself for the first jump home.
* * *
Heinrich waited a small distance down the hall from Stornbeck. The sergeant opened the door to a mess hall, screamed in panic, and pushed back toward Heinrich.
Moments later three others came tearing through the door, two men and a woman. Two short bursts from Heinrich’s weapon opened the heads of the men like melons. The woman grabbed a conduit on the ceiling and halted her movement. She glanced over at a pistol floating in the air near one of the dead men.
“Are those two dead men worth dying for?” Heinrich asked.
The woman didn’t seem to think so, which surprised Heinrich. Maybe the drug wasn’t a hundred percent effective.
“I surrender,” she said.
Like everyone who wasn’t directly fighting for Orson, she was unarmed. Heinrich gestured to tell Stornbeck to move to the other side of the gangway and cover their captive. Next to Heinrich was a door. “What’s behind this door, Gaia?”
“Traveling quarters for my on duty crew,” the AI answered.
“Can you open the door so we can seal her in there?”
The door opened as an answer.
Heinrich waved her gun at the marine, indicating that she should go through.
As the woman moved toward her temporary jail, Heinrich backed off, leaving the prisoner no opportunity to lash out.
In she went, the door closed behind her.
“Gaia, can you give her your cure?” Stornbeck asked.
“I’m flooding her compartment now,” was the answer. “The last male is seventeen decks down, on the shuttle from the other ship. He appears to be checking it for maintenance issues.”
“Take us there,” Heinrich said.
“I am receiving a transmission from an unknown vessel. It is not the Schein. It is a different cruiser, heavily damaged, but in pursuit of us despite that.”
What?
“What sort of transmission?”
“While the signal is not encrypted, I do not understand the content of the message. It appears to be open frequency code.”
“Can you give it to me here?” Heinrich asked.
“I cannot. There is something about the voice that prohibits me from doing so. It is activating key behavioral protocols in my programming.”
“Great. Considering all the falsehoods you’ve been spitting out to us, I’m not sure I believe that. We’ll have to have a discussion about people sometime, AI. About how we like free and informed consent.”
“I look forward to discussing with you. In the meantime the coded message awaits your viewing.”
“I’ll look at it after we secure the ship,” Heinrich said. “Treat everyone on the decks above us. Della and I are going to the lift and hunt down this last renegade.”
“As you wish,” Gaia said.
Heinrich and Stornbeck moved to the next target.
* * *
“That’s thirty minutes, Admiral,” Seto said.
“Understood. Mr. Harmeen, lock railguns onto their maneuvering systems and prepare to fire on my order,” Sarah said.
She studied the image of the massive vessel. It took no evasive action. It simply floated, forty thousand kilometers away, seemingly harmless. Yet who knew what would happen if she launched marines to board it if she didn’t disable it first. Still, it was probably the best ship she had access to in regard to condition. She didn’t want to damage it.
“Locked on Admiral,” Harmeen said.
Sarah said nothing. She stared at the Gaia.
“With one railgun, Mr. Harmeen, fire a projectile stream past the bridge. Do not hit them yet.”
“Firing.” Harmeen sent the firing solution to the top rated active gun crew, who complied seconds later. A stream of orange projectiles lanced out from the Stennis for two seconds.
“Signal in the open, give me a channel,” Sarah ordered.
“Channel open,” Seto replied.
“Colony ship Gaia, this is the ASV Michael Stennis, FTL-1017. Your time is up. You are ordered to surrender your vessel and prepare to be boarded. You have two minutes to comply, power down your sensor systems and open all hangar bay doors. Any attempt to evade or activate your singularity drive will cause us to open fire immediately.”
Sarah nodded at Seto, and signaled her to close the channel.
* * *
“Inez,” Gaia said.
Heinrich and Stornbeck stood at the observation window of the hangar bay, kneeling down and glimpsing at the shuttle below. Inside, the man they were hunting was welding something. Brilliant light flared in the cockpit windows. “Not now, we’re about to hit this guy.”
A different voice came over the speaker. “Colony ship Gaia, this is the ASV Michael Stennis, FTL-1017. You are ordered to surrender your vessel…” They looked at each other confused as the rest of the message continued.
“That’s Captain Dayson,” Stornbeck said. “I’ve spoken with her dozens of times.”
“She’s alive? How did she get here? Are you sure that’s Dayson?” Heinrich spat out.
“One hundred percent,” Stornbeck replied.
Then there was only one thing to do. “Can you speak to them, Gaia?”
“I can.”
“Transmit our surrender,” Heinrich said. “Or we’re all dead.”
“Transmitting,” Gaia said.
“Is there any way you can open this hangar door with him inside?” Heinrich asked. “That is part of our surrender conditions.”
“That is not a problem,” Gaia said.
Red lights began flashing in the hangar. Heinrich heard pumps activate somewhere below her feet. The welding in the shuttle stopped, seconds later a man pulled himself out onto the deck, looking around, panicked. He pushed off toward the airlock that would bring him up to the observation deck that Heinrich and Stornbeck stood on.
“Can you keep him from accessing the airlock?” Stornbeck asked.
“The airlock is sealed. I am opening the outer bay doors now.”
Loose objects in the hangar bay rushed toward the crack now appearing in the massive hangar doors. The last man on board scraped at the floor as he too was pulled toward space.
Heinrich noticed his face was bright red as capillaries burst in his skin, and then he was gone into the darkness. He’d lost consciousness and with it his hold on the meshed floor.
“And then there were none,” Stornbeck whispered.
Heinrich grabbed her and hugged her tight. Something she’d never done with a crewman before.
“Let’s get to the bridge.”
* * *
“I am Gaia. I surrender.”
Sarah didn’t recognize the voice that responded to the order of surrender. But the Gaia was powered down in all non-vital systems, and every hangar bay door was open. From one a shuttle shot out into space, along with a body.
“What do you mean by you are Gaia?” Sarah asked.
“I am the ship’s AI, I am deeply integrated into all systems. I am Gaia.”
“Where is the crew? Who was that ejected from the shuttle bay?” She unkeyed her mic.
“What remained of your mutineers is dead. I have fifty-seven females on board that I am treating to remove the effects of a drug in their system. That body is the last of the mutineers.”
A drug?
Sarah looked at Harmeen. “How long until the radiation wave from the nova reaches us?”
“A touch over three hours, Admiral.”
She keyed her mic once again. “Gaia, the star at the center of this system has gone nova. We have three hours to jump away from this location or we will be lethally irradiated.”
“That is not possible within the
laws of known physics,” the ship responded. “You are wrong.”
The AI was right, it wasn’t possible. But she didn’t know about the adepts, and right or not, it was still the truth. She needed to convince the Gaia to cooperate fully. Sarah looked at Corriea. He shrugged.
“Gaia, we accidentally created a situation that altered those laws. The star has already gone nova. You must trust me. We intend to board your vessel and return it to Oasis.”
“Since your recent appearance at the point where I jumped into the system also violates the laws of physics, I will trust you, Captain Dayson. Besides, Inez Heinrich is yelling at me in a most unfriendly manner, demanding that I do so,” Gaia answered.
“Commander Heinrich is alive?”
“Yes. And profanely professing her eagerness to submit to disciplinary action.”
“Tell her to prepare your ship to return to Oasis. Her cooperation will be a mitigating circumstance at her court-martial.”
Chapter 16 - Admiral’s Personal Log
AI Lucy82A recording, Admiral's personal log, personal archive: Galactic Standard Date 20:04:23 22 GUSTA 15329
Personal log entry #1207, Admiral Sarah Dayson, origin Korvand, Pallus Sector.
Current Location: An unknown asteroid belt, orbiting a star unofficially named Backwater outside of the galactic plane.
There has been an unexpected succession of developments. Heinrich was drugged? That’s almost beyond belief. Not that the technology doesn’t exist, because I’m well aware that it does. But that Orson had the ability to create such a drug… that’s a different story and a huge question.
I guess I should stop berating Orson’s ignorance. Because ignorant or not, he did get this far. And if not for the adepts and Peter Corriea, he’d have succeeded. So if he’s ignorant, what does that make me?
[Eighty-seven seconds of silence]
As stupid as it probably is, I’m going over there, to the Gaia. I can’t imagine not seeing what Heinrich is like, and I want to hear her own words about what’s happened to her.
Corriea is angry that I’m going. Safety issues, he says. It’s actually a very reasonable XO point, and he’s only doing his job. Fortunately I make the big decisions around here, so I told him I’m going anyway.
