The Tarantula Nebula

by David Kantrowitz

  “Perhaps,” began Ari, “but we don’t know if the Kau’Rii or the Residerians are friends with Umber. They might blast us out of the sky just for showing up.”

  “I don’t know about you guys,” said Ray, “but I don’t have ninety credits in my ass pocket.”

  John looked sheepish. “Oh. Good point.”

  “I’m just as curious about the Residerian system as anyone,” said Christie. “It’s just too much of a risk right now.”

  “Okay. Unless there are any objections we won’t alter our course. I’ll continue to question Seth and see if I can get anything more out of him. Ari, I know there’s little to work with but I’d appreciate it if you and Seth could try and access the network.”

  “Roger,” said Ari.

  “I also want everyone at their bridge stations from now until midnight. I don’t want to miss any new information that might come up. After midnight we’ll go back to our normal shifts. We should be arriving at Umber in six days.”

  “About that,” said Dana. “I’ve been doing some calculating based on these transmissions. I think we overestimated the distance to Umber. According to my new calculations we should be there in less than twenty-four hours.”

  “Are you sure our speed isn’t the incorrect variable?” asked Christie.

  “Seth gave us that number and I’ve had ample opportunities to confirm it. Our travel time was based off of a total distance of 179,000 light-years, but that’s just an estimate made by Earth astronomers. Now it looks like it’s closer to 160,000.”

  “If you’re right,” began John, “we’ll be there early. That’s fine by me. I think we‘re all ready to confront our mission. I still think we should run standard shifts until we get there. I don‘t want anyone starved for sleep when we arrive.”

  “Like any of us are going to be able to sleep now,” said Ray.

  “Where do you want me?” asked Byron.

  “Don’t you have some toilets to scrub?” asked Christie.

  “Byron may observe quietly on the bridge as usual,” said John, aiming a harsh look at Christie. “Everyone clear?”

  There were no questions from the crew.

  “Cool,” said Richter.

  “Let’s get to work.”

  6. Day Thirty Seven

  The hour had arrived. Dana had checked her calculations several times and there was little doubt that their arrival was imminent. The crew of the Faith was present on the bridge. John sat in the pilot’s chair, which had been pulled forward into the manual flight position. Christie and Dana sat at their stations to his right, and Ray and Ari sat on the left. Richter tended to hang out near Ari’s station, as it dealt with the on-board weaponry. Byron stood at the rear of the bridge, unable to gain any useful information from the monitors. Tycho was pulling duty as a medium for Seth, and sat contentedly next to Christie.

  The object of their attention was a timer counting down. It was displayed at each of the stations. It was very nearly complete.

  “Ten seconds until we drop out of superspace,” John said.

  Umber was located in a clear area of the Tarantula Nebula. Brilliant red clouds of gas filled the space above the ship, and jade green gas filled the sky below. On the ecliptic plane of the ship, the stars of the Magellanic Cloud still shone brightly with the exception of the right side, where a very thin layer of reddish-green gas masked them somewhat.

  “Grab onto something,” John said. “We don’t know what the change in speed will...”

  A star that had been indistinct from the others suddenly grew drastically in size. It was not immediately obvious to anyone but John until he vocalized his surprise. When it filled about five degrees of the field of view it ceased to grow. It was reddish in comparison to Earth’s sun.

  “Superspace flight complete,” said Seth.

  “Well that was nothing,” said Ray.

  John peered ahead. “Where’s the planet?”

  “We’re still approaching it,” said Christie. “We’re doing about 167,000 miles a second, so it’ll be any moment now.”

  “Better throttle down, John,” said Ray. “You’ll overshoot it.”

  John nodded, and pulled back on the throttle control. A blue-brown marble appeared in the center of the viewscreen.

  “Home,” said Seth.

  John grinned. “Well, folks, we finally made it. Let’s hope it wasn’t all for nothing.”

  “I don’t care if they sent Seth out for milk and cookies,” said Christie, equally happy, “it was still worth it.”

  The planet grew ever nearer. Before too long, more detail became apparent. Land covered about sixty percent of what they could see. The land masses were mostly brown and gray, with an occasional patch of green. Clouds covered some parts of the surface.

  “I don’t see any cities or technology yet,” said Dana. “Perhaps if we circled over to the dark side we could see some lights.”

  John looked over his shoulder. “Christie, plot me an orbital course at about four hundred miles up.”

  “No problem,” Christie replied, typing at her station. “Follow the waypoints on your screen.”

  John concentrated on getting them into orbit. The planet filled the entire field of view until John rolled the ship around into position. He had placed the ship so that the north pole of Umber was up, and the planet on their right side. Richter crossed to that side of the bridge to get a better look.

  “Holy shit, there are a lot of satellites out there,” Richter said.

  Everyone else looked over. There were indeed many satellites readily apparent, at least a hundred that they could see. They were all in geosynchronous orbit and floated by slowly. They bore more than a passing resemblance to mosquitoes.

  “What’s with all the satellites?” asked John.

  “I do not recognize them,” said Seth.

  “I’m reading at least a thousand of them at several different altitudes,” said Dana. “They appear to be in a dormant state.”

  John returned his attention to his station. “What now, Seth?”

  “I’m home!” Seth said, elated.

  “Can you contact your people?”

  “Oh, right. Stand by, please.”

  Moments later an audio channel was opened. At first, there was nothing but static. Then, barely audible, voices. The crew listened intently and they could recognize Umberian being spoken.

  “Can you translate us into Umberian, Seth?”

  “Of course.”

  “Then start now. This is John Scherer of the Umberian vessel Reckless Faith. We have arrived from Earth at your behest and are awaiting communication. Over.”

  A voice came through the channel, quiet but clear.

  “Hey doc, that old radio is squawking at us,” the voice said.

  “Damn you, boy, can’t you see I’m busy?” a second voice replied.

  “That’s the one you saved from the government, right? I’ve never heard it working before.”

  “I said I’m busy right now! If I don’t freeze these samples right now they’ll... what did you say?”

  “The radio, genius. There’s a voice coming through on it.”

  “What? What! The radio? THE RADIO?”

  “Don’t shout, that’s what I said.”

  The second voice came through again, with much higher volume.

  “This is Professor Talvan to whomever is broadcasting on this channel. Repeat your last transmission please!”

  “This is Commander Scherer of the Reckless Faith. We’re from a planet called Earth. We built this ship to come see you. May we speak with someone in charge?”

  “It can’t be. It simply can’t be. Seth, is that you?”

  “Hello again, Professor Talvan,” said Seth.

  “Praise all that is good! You’ve returned! Our time of salvation has at last come! Listen to me very carefully, now. You’ve got to destroy all the defense satellites in orbit as fast as you can. They’ll realize you’re here any second!”

  “W
hat?” said John, aghast. “Which ones are the defense satellites?”

  “ALL OF THEM!”

  “Oh, shit,” said Ray.

  John shook his head in the negative. “Professor, we can’t possibly destroy all of the satellites. Even if we had enough ammunition to spare it would take hours.”

  Talvan sounded confused. “Hours? Ammunition? It shouldn’t take you but a moment with ten thousand ships.”

  “Ten thousand ships? Excuse me? Professor Talvan, we have only one ship.”

  Talvan began to laugh. “One ship? One ship? What good is that going to do? Why didn’t you follow Seth’s instructions? Didn’t your planet have the resources to make more than one?”

  “Hey,” said John, irked, “Seth was apparently damaged on his way to our planet. He didn’t say anything about ten thousand ships, and we did the best we could for this one.”

  “Damaged? Hold on, I’m going to link up with your computer.”

  “This doesn’t sound good,” said Christie.

  “Ten thousand?” said Richter. “I’d say we’re slightly under strength.”

  “The satellites aren’t doing anything yet,” observed Byron.

  “Oh, my God,” said Talvan. “Seth’s memory is badly fragmented. I can upload a repair program to you, but it will take five minutes. Don’t go anywhere.”

  “Wait a minute,” said John. “We’ve been flying blind for months. What is the mission? Why have you called for help?”

  “Hmm, Seth really was fragged. Ten years ago a race of beings called the Zendreen invaded our planet. Umber had the highest spaceflight and weapons technology in the galaxy at the time, and the Zendreen decided we weren’t sharing enough of it for their tastes. Despite all of our high tech weaponry and abilities, we didn’t have the industrial capacity to build enough war machines to resist. We didn’t have a standing military force nearly large enough to repel the invasion. We appealed to the Rakhar and the galactic community for help, but they didn’t want to get involved. We’re inventors and explorers, not warriors. We had to surrender without a shot fired.”

  “That’s terrible.”

  “If only the Rakhar had known the true level of our technology. They would have known, as we did, that we couldn’t allow the Zendreen to capture that technology. We destroyed all the data on the eve of the invasion, all but one database. We had an unmanned deep space exploration probe that was ready to launch before the trouble began, so we packed it with all of the data and sent it on a mission. Travel to the core galaxy, find a sympathetic race of beings with the appropriate level of technology and resources, use our technology to build ten thousand warships, and return to liberate us. Seth was the AI aboard that probe.”

  “Unbelievable. If Seth hadn’t been damaged, we probably would have been able to build that many ships. We definitely would have had to go to the government, though.”

  “Yeah, right,” said Christie. “The US would never agree to fight in a war in another galaxy. They’d probably take the technology and spend years bickering over how to proceed into space.”

  “The resistance movement has been working on a genetically-engineered virus that will destroy the invaders,” began Talvan, “but I fear I’ll never be able to finish the work without access to a fully-stocked laboratory. You are our only hope.”

  “Uh, guys? You might want to look at this.”

  Byron pointed out of the window. Several dozen of the satellites were now glowing with red lights and moving slowly toward them.

  “Professor,” said John, “the satellites are engaging us. I’m going to withdraw to a further distance.”

  Talvan sounded desperate. “No, you can’t break orbit. The uplink only has a seven hundred kilometer range. You’ll have to hold out until the upload is complete.”

  “What kind of armament do the satellites have?”

  “Standard Zendreen Mark Five plasma cannons. If you didn’t upgrade Seth’s standard energy dissipation ability, two or three shots from them and you’re history.”

  “Holy shit! What about landing on the surface?”

  “The Zendreen control this planet. Why do you think there are enemy defense satellites all over the place? We’re part of the underground, the resistance movement. We’d all but given up hope that anyone would return.”

  “Then we’re going to have to withdraw and find another way.”

  “I’ve already initiated the repair program. If you break contact now, Seth’s memory will be completely destroyed.”

  John’s expression became steely. “Then we have no other choice. All hands to battle stations!”

  “What, seriously?” asked Dana.

  “Move, damn it!”

  In a drill that they’d practiced a hundred times in simulation, the crew leapt into action. Richter and Ari exited the bridge to man the dorsal and ventral guns, respectively. Christie transferred control of Ari’s station to her own, while Ray remained seated to monitor the weapons systems from the bridge.

  John accessed control of the main forward cannon. “Ray, take control over the rear thirty,” he said.

  “Roger.”

  “There’s a spare seat,” said Byron. “May I sit there?”

  “Fine, but don’t touch anything.”

  “Dana,” John began, “remember the dampening field we used to mask the ship’s energy signal from ASTRA?”

  “I remember you telling me about it,” Dana replied.

  “The information is still there. Christie can show you the data file. See if you two can use it to hide us from the satellites.”

  “We’re already invisible, isn’t that worth something?”

  The satellites were heading directly for the Faith.

  “Obviously not. They must be locking onto something else.”

  “Yeah, like the uplink from the surface?” said Christie.

  “Shit. Never mind about that, any signals that we mask of our own will probably cut the transmission upload, too.”

  “Maybe, but we might be able to put up a firewall of sorts. It’ll take a lot longer than five minutes, though.”

  “Just monitor the systems, then.”

  “It’s not a bad idea...” began Dana.

  “This is Richter, I’m in position.”

  “Ari?” asked John.

  “Good to go,” Ari replied.

  “Power up all guns. All right, crew, listen up. I’m going to be punching it as fast as I can without breaking the seven hundred click limit. That means that we’re going to have to blast any satellite that is engaging us. Your heads-up display will tell you when your target is locked. I’m going to be flying in such a manner to target as many satellites as I can. The other gunners will have to take targets of opportunity. Let’s just hope our weapons are effective against these things.”

  A flash of blue light streaked by the bow of the ship.

  “Here they come,” said Ray.

  John brought the throttle up. More plasma bursts began to fly by. There was a dull thud and the ship vibrated unnervingly.

  “Damage?” asked John.

  “No structural damage,” said Christie. “Energy absorption limit at five percent.”

  “They’re not as powerful as advertised,” said Ray.

  “Either that or it was a grazing blow,” said John.

  Two more shots hit the ship. The lights on the bridge fluctuated momentarily.

  “There’s a concentrated field of satellites bearing zero two zero mark fifteen.”

  “Let’s get in the war, Ray.”

  John pushed the throttle as far as he could without breaking orbit. There was a considerable push of inertia against the crew, which was to be expected with drastic maneuvers. The plasma bursts became much less accurate. John pointed the bow of the ship directly at one of the satellites. His HUD showed a lock. Pressing the trigger on his control stick, the bridge was filled with the almost unbearable noise of the thirty millimeter cannon firing one deck below. Tracer fire shot a straight line
from the ship to the satellite, and the smaller craft was blown apart like aluminum foil. Sparks and electrical bolts crackled out from the wreckage and the satellite was no more.

  “Yes!” cried John. “Scratch one bad guy.”

  “The tracers work in space?” mused Ray. “That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I guess the phosphorous in the round...”

  Ray cut himself off as he engaged a satellite that briefly crossed behind them. A much less disruptive rumbling was heard from the rear of the ship. John began looping and banking randomly while trying to avoid the incoming fire.

  “Four minutes to go,” said Dana.

  A much more comprehensible staccato of fire was heard as Richter began firing his fifty. A moment later Ari joined him. John continued to fire. Tracers poured out of the ship in a shower of light. Two more plasma bursts hit the ship. Ray said something but was drowned out by the forward cannon.

  “What?” said John.

  “I said try varying your speed as well as trajectory!”

  “I know that, Ray! It’s happening whether I want it to or not. Every time we get hit my speed jumps up slightly!”

  “Seth must be shunting the excess energy wherever he can,” said Dana. “I’ll see if I can get him to bleed it off elsewhere.”

  “Why not shunt it into the energy dissipation field?” asked Christie.

  Dana’s response was lost in the din, and she repeated herself.

  “I said it’s worth a try!”

  There was a vibration throughout the ship, and it’s speed dropped by fifty percent.

  “Whoa, what’s going on?” yelled John.

  Several plasma bursts impacted the ship. Richter and Ari’s guns began rattling almost non-stop.

  “I shunted all the excess power to the dissipation field, but now it’s interfering with the sublight drive,” said Dana.

  “Fix it, quick!” yelled John, banking the ship sharply.

  “John, you’d better get back up to speed,” said Ari. “They’re closing in too fast.”

  The ship jumped forward as Dana canceled her previous move.

  “Energy absorption limit at twenty percent,” said Christie.

  “I can deal with the fluctuations in velocity just fine,” said John, “let’s not experiment with anything else during the middle of combat!”