“Michael, what did Colonel Kadir tell you he intended to do in the past?” asked Tarina.
Sheridan scratched his head. “That’s the problem; I’m not sure what he’s planning to do. He was quite cryptic. If I recall correctly, he said something like, he wasn’t going to change the past so much as to alter the future.”
“What the bloody hell does that mean?” said Cole.
“Beats me.”
“Boss, you’re the one with the history degree. What was the decisive turning point in the struggle for Terra Nova?”
“That’s easy,” replied Sheridan. “It was the battle for the Sayan Highlands.”
“I remember reading something about that back at the academy,” said Wendy. “It was a meat grinder of a fight in which both sides lost over one million men during the three-month long battle.”
“It was described as a hell on Earth by the survivors,” said Sheridan. “After the Kurgs nuked Terra Nova’s capital and its five other major cities, they dropped long-lasting chemical and biological weapons all over the planet. Anyone above ground was forced to wear a survival suit and gas mask or they would die within seconds. What was left of the planet’s civilian population along with the armed forces burrowed underground. It became a war of attrition. Men fought and died in tunnels and trenches, fighting in an environment filled with poisonous gasses.”
“Sounds God awful,” said Tarina.
“That’s why the Kurgs resisted using nukes when our war began for fear the fighting would devolve fast and look something like our last fight.”
“What made the planet so valuable that both sides were willing to risk so many lives?”
“In a word, perlinium. At that time, it had the largest deposit of perlinium ore anywhere in the known universe.”
“Do any of the key players in our current government or armed forces have relatives who fought at the Sayan Highlands?” asked Cole.
“I’m an avid historian, not an expert on the battle,” said Sheridan. “The only person I can think of off the top of my head is General Denisov. His ancestor was a battalion commander.”“Did he have a profound impact on the battle?” asked Tarina.
“Oh, yes. Lieutenant Colonel Denisov’s unit, although eventually reduced by ninety-seven percent of its original strength, held a key ridgeline for several days against a force far larger than his.”
“If you believe time can be altered, which I don’t, kill him and you could change the tide of the battle and possibly the war,” said Wendy.
“Yes, but this is all academic anyway,” said Sheridan. “Until we come out of the wormhole in the past and track the other craft down to the surface, we won’t have a good idea what they’re up to. Denisov might not be their target. Someone else, who I can’t recall, could be who they’re after. Or perhaps they’ve got a entirely different task in mind.”
“You are correct, sir,” remarked Kurt. “Denisov is a target, as is a person with the last name of Suparat.”
“Damn, they’re after the federation vice president’s ancestor,” said Tarina.
“Kurt, why didn’t you tell us this before now?” Cole asked.
“You did not ask me nor had you openly discussed this subject,” replied the robot. “I am not programmed to engage in small talk.”
“I’m getting a headache just thinking about the possibilities,” remarked Cole. “All I do know is the next couple of days are going to be unlike anything any of us has ever been through. I suggest everyone gets as much rest as they can because I doubt we’re going to get much when we land.”
The white dwarf shone through the cockpit glass. Not much larger than Earth, it had the gravitational pull equivalent to our sun.
Tarina pressed a button, dimming the glare through the glass.
“So, where is this portal?” asked Cole, looking over Wendy’s shoulder.
“It’s seventeen million kilometers from the white dwarf,” said Wendy, pointing at an icon on her computer screen.
“That’s cutting it a bit close,” noted Sheridan. “I hope this ship can take the gravitational pull from the dwarf.”
“By the looks of things, it was designed to,” said Tarina, tapping her hand on her flight console. “This ship could conceivably fly closer than five million kilometers and not be caught by the dwarf’s gravity.”
“I’ll take your word. Any sign of the other ship?”
“It looks like they’ve already flown into the past,” said Wendy. “I’m picking up their trail and it leads straight to the portal.”
A light flashed on Tarina’s console. She looked down at her screen and saw the ship had sent a message to the portal ordering it to begin its movement toward the white dwarf. “Folks, it looks like it’s beginning. I’d strap yourselves into your seats if I were you.”
Sheridan and Cole buckled up their harnesses and pulled them extra tight.
“Of all the stupid things we have done over past few years, this has to be the dumbest,” said Cole. “Can anyone tell me how we get back home after we do whatever we’re supposed to do on Terra Nova?”
“We’ll worry about that when the time comes,” responded Sheridan.
“Yeah, that’s if time does come our way.”
Wendy brought up the portal on her screen. “Our current distance from the wormhole entrance is half a million kilometers. Time to penetration of the opening is ten seconds.”
“Speed of portal’s rotation?” asked Tarina.
“Three-quarters of the speed of light.”
Sheridan looked up at a monitor built into the hull of the ship. The image came from a camera in the nose of the shuttle. The portal grew closer by the second. He wasn’t sure what to expect as they raced toward the portal. Inside the rapidly rotating opening to the past was a shiny convex bubble. In the second before they entered the wormhole, the outer rim of the bubble became distorted, and in the dead center, he saw Terra Nova.
“My God, it’s beautiful,” gasped Tarina.
Outside of the ship, brightly colored waves of light shot past as they hurtled through time and space.
“Time to Terra Nova?” called out Cole.
Wendy checked her chronometer. “If I’m reading this right, we should come out of the other end of the wormhole approximately three minutes from now.”
“That’s unbelievably fast,” said Sheridan.
“Nothing like taking a shortcut through spacetime,” remarked Cole.
Sheridan’s pulse quickened. He was excited and terrified at the same time. He had no idea what to expect when they arrived above Terra Nova. All he knew was he had to stop Kadir’s assassins from completing their mission. The only problem was Sheridan had no idea what they were planning to do on a planet gripped in a life and death struggle.
Chapter 18
Terra Nova loomed large on the monitor screen. The planet was almost the same size as Earth but was further away from its sun. Summer temperatures there rarely got above fifteen degrees Celsius. From space, most of the southern continent where the war was going on was covered by a curtain of white clouds.
“Ending our journey in three-two-one,” announced Wendy.
The thrusters on the shuttle’s nose fired slowing the ship.
“Manual controls have been restored to flight and navigation,” said Tarina, placing her hands on the flight controller.
“Have we been detected?” asked Sheridan.
Wendy checked her screen. “Not yet, but I’m sure it won’t take either side long to spot us.”
“Folks, less talking and more flying,” said Cole. “We don’t have a friendly force transponder on this ship, so both sides will naturally assume we’re hostile and try to blow us to pieces.”
“Can you detect the other shuttle’s trail?” asked Sheridan.
“Wait,” said Wendy, scanning for the energy signal left behind by the first craft’s engines. “Got it.”
“Follow it down.”
Tarina applied power to her ship’s engine
and dove toward the planet’s surface through a massive debris field. The shattered remains of dozens of Kurgan and Terran ships floated silently as a reminder of the tens of thousands of lives lost during the first ship-to-ship engagements above Terra Nova.
“I thought there’d be a Kurgan blockade in effect,” said Cole.
“No, neither side ever achieved sufficient force superiority above the planet,” explained Sheridan. “It was a real dog’s breakfast, but it did allow reinforcements and supplies to occasionally reach the surface.”
“How occasionally?”
“Maybe one or two in ten made it all the way from Earth’s solar system to Terra Nova.”
Cole groaned. “Those odds aren’t anything to be proud of.”
“It was the same, if not worse for the Kurgs. Let’s not forget that they had further to travel than our forces did.”
The cabin light turned red as an alarm sounded. “Warning, you have an incoming missile,” reported a metallic-sounding voice over the ship’s speakers.
“From where?” asked Tarina. Her voice was a cool as a glacier.
“Starboard. It’s one hundred thousand kilometers away and closing fast.”
“I have it on my screen,” reported Wendy.
Sheridan tried leaning forward in his seat. “Countermeasures?”
“Michael, let us fly this ship,” responded Tarina, ending any more discussion.
“Time to impact?” asked Tarina.
“Eight seconds,” replied the computer.
“There,” said Wendy pointing at the jagged remains of a Kurgan warship floating in their path. “That should do quite nicely.”
Tarina took one look at the wreckage and made a snap decision. She dropped power slightly to her engines, allowing the missile to close in faster.
“Warning, the missile has locked onto our engine,” said the computer.
With a flick of her wrist, Tarina flew straight at the dead Kurgan ship.
“Time to impact three seconds.”
The shattered hulk filled the cockpit windows. Tarina flew straight at the side of the ship. When she was less than fifty meters from it, she pulled back on her stick and applied full power to the engines. Behind her, the missile unable to react fast enough slammed into the side of the wreck and exploded. Tarina’s shuttle shot straight up for a couple of seconds before pirouetting and diving down through the planet’s atmosphere.
She glanced over her shoulder. “Sorry to cut you off, Mike, but this ship has no defensive measures on it, and I didn’t need a backseat pilot trying to help me fly this shuttle.”
Sheridan’s knuckles were still white from where his hands had grabbed the arms of his seat. “No, you were right. You did what was best. I’ll keep my mouth shut from now on and let you do your job.”
“Can you bring up where the first ship landed on the monitor?” Cole asked Wendy.
She flipped a switch, sending the information from her console to the screen on the wall.
“Looks like it landed in a gorge a few kilometers from the Sayan Highlands,” said Sheridan.
“Good for them, but they came down in the middle of no-man’s land,” said Cole. “It’s going to be damned nasty down there. Chemical and biological weapons, mines, drones, you name it. A wonderful bouillabaisse of death.”
“Can’t be helped. Where they went, we must also go if we’re going to pick up their trail. Besides, when was the last time you had any bouillabaisse?”
“It’s been a while, but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re going to be leaping from the frying pan into the fire.”
The shuttle shook from side to side as it began to descend through the outer atmosphere. Within seconds, the heat shield beneath the craft glowed white as the temperature soared to more than 1600 degrees Celsius.
Sheridan dug through his pockets. He swore when he realized he had forgotten his mouth guard.
“Just try not to bite your tongue, and you’ll be okay,” said Cole, winking at his friend.
“You’re all heart.”
A warning light flashed on Tarina’s dash. She turned her head slightly and yelled over her shoulder, “Hang on back there! I think a fragment from that missile may have struck our portside wing.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” said Cole.
“It’s not,” replied Tarina. “From here on out, it’s going to be hard for me to fly the ship.”
The shuttle began to pick up speed as the planet’s gravity reached out and grabbed it. With the port wing damaged, the vessel shook violently. Tarina tried to compensate by applying more power to the starboard side engine, but it wasn’t enough. The shuttle was doomed.
Sheridan took in a deep breath through his clenched teeth. He looked out a side window at the sun as it dipped below the horizon. With all the toxic clouds in the air, the sun had a purplish hue to it.
“Gents, we’re not going to make it. Stand by to eject!” yelled Tarina over the noise of the ship pounded by the winds.
“Helmets on,” ordered Sheridan as he reached down and grabbed his survival suit helmet.
Snow-covered mountains appeared through the clouds.
“How far to the other shuttle?” asked Cole.
“One hundred kilometers!” yelled back Wendy.
“Keep us in the air for as long as possible,” ordered Sheridan.
“Warning, you are being tracked by multiple weapons systems,” said the ship’s computer.
“Come on, baby, keep us together for a few more seconds,” said Sheridan under his breath.
“Missile launch,” warned the computer.
“Time to go,” hollered Cole.
“Eject, eject, eject,” said Tarina as she flipped up a red plastic cover and pressed the button underneath.
With a thunderous bang, the roof over the cockpit blasted free as did the side door of the shuttle. Tarina and Wendy’s ejector seats fired, sending them hurtling out of the cockpit. The row of seats the three men were sitting in detached from the floor and shot out the open door. One by one the chairs detached and the men found themselves free falling toward the ground. At three hundred meters, their parachutes automatically deployed, slowing everyone’s descent.
Out of the corner of his eye, Sheridan watched the shuttle as it was struck in the engine compartment by a missile. Consumed by fire, it smashed nose-first into the ground and exploded. At least no one will be able to retrieve anything of value from the wreck, thought Sheridan.
The ground came up fast. Sheridan placed his knees together and bent them slightly to help with the impact when he landed on the hard ground. A couple of seconds later, his feet touched rock and he rolled with the impact. Happy to be in one piece, Sheridan removed his parachute harness, drew his sidearm, and stood up. He saw Wendy having a hard time with her harness and was being dragged over the ground by her half-inflated parachute. He ran over to help her.
They had landed in the middle of what had once been a town. Almost all the buildings were damaged beyond repair. Many had been burnt from a fire that had raged through the settlement when the Kurgans had first arrived. Glass, metal, and other debris littered the streets.
“Everyone in here,” said Cole, waving to his comrades from a partially destroyed warehouse.
“Where are we?” asked Tarina.
“I think we’re in what was New Cairo,” said Sheridan, looking around. “It was the largest settlement near the Sayan Highlands.”
“This place gives me the chills,” said Wendy. “How many people lived here?”
“I can’t recall, but I’m sure it was probably in the tens of thousands at one time.”
Cole checked his GPS watch and shook his head. “As I suspected, none of our electronics will work down here. Nothing we have is compatible with the technology our ancestors once used.”
“What about the robots, can we still track them?” asked Wendy.
“That’s the only thing we can do,” replied Cole, running his scanner in the air next
to Kurt and getting an active signal.
“Folks, we need to ditch our survival suits and equipment for protective gear worn by our people here on Terra Nova,” said Sheridan.
“That maybe a wee bit tricky,” said Cole. “I didn’t see any quartermaster stores anywhere around here.”
“Leave that to me,” said Kurt. Before anyone could say another word, the robot walked away and disappeared down an alleyway.
“Let’s hope he doesn’t run into any Kurgan or human soldiers patrolling this part of no-man’s land,” said Sheridan.
“Boss, as much as I don’t want this to happen, I think we need to look at splitting our party up,” said Cole. “Since our shuttle is not going anywhere soon, we need to get our hands on the other one or we’re going to be stuck here for an awfully long time. We also can’t sit here and let those five robotic bastards get away with whatever they’re here to do.”
“I agree, Mike,” said Tarina. “I have a rough idea where the other ship is. Wendy and I can head there and seize it for ourselves. Without it, we can’t go home, and I don’t want to be marooned here in the past.”
“How far would you say we are from the other shuttle?” asked Sheridan.
“No more than thirty, maybe thirty-five, kilometers. We can do that in a couple of days.”
“Yeah, if you don’t get lost or run into any opposition.”
“Mike, we can do this.”
“Maybe you can, but since none of our comms gear works, how will we contact one another when it’s time to leave?” asked Sheridan.
“I don’t know,” she replied.
Cole placed a hand on Sheridan’s shoulder, “Boss, we have to get moving as soon as Kurt gets back. Every minute we spend here doing nothing gives them another minute to complete their task.”
Sheridan looked over at the woman he loved and saw the look of resolve her eyes. If she was bothered by the prospect of leaving his side, she didn’t show it. He hated the prospect of not having her near him but saw the dilemma they were in. “Okay, people, we’ll do as Alan suggests.”
Renegade (The Kurgan War Book 7) Page 10
