by David Adams
Liao rolled her eyes. Summer’s voice had this amazing ability to drive her crazy when she was excited.
“... Go ahead, Summer.”
It sounded as though Summer had her mouth far too close to the microphone, causing a kind of static-y feedback. “I got a crack at the computer core of the Forerunner, right? Right? Well, this is like nothing-fucking-else I’ve ever seen, but at the same time, it’s totally understandable! It’s like... it’s like, only an operating system difference between our computers. All the basic stuff is here – electric current, low-high voltage as binary representations, simple message passing...”
Liao glanced down to James who merely shrugged. She took her finger off the talk key. “You understand any of that?”
James shrugged again. Liao keyed once more.
“Soooo, Summer, um- that’s great and all, but what can you get the computer to tell us?”
For a moment the only response that came down the line was a barking, nasally laugh. “Nothing! Sweet fuck-all, bupkis, jack shit, nothing... Nothing at all, but hey... it’s progress. It’s progress and it’s coming much, much fucking faster than I thought possible. We’ll have it talking eventually. Eventually. Like, real soon now.”
“Sooner would be better, Summer.”
“I know, I know, I know! But this is just fascinating! This is alien technology-”
“... just like the Toralii strike craft? Or did you get bored and forget?”
“Oh, no-no-no-no-no-no-no, no. Yeah. Yeah, but this is totally different – totally different! This is a computer! The one on Saara’s bird was fried – completely fucked – but this one works fine!”
“...Uhh, great. Let me know when you have anything useful. Liao out.”
“Killjoy.” Behind her, James playfully chuckled, doing his best to mimic her machine-gun-like speech pattern. “Oh oh oh, mummy, look what I made at school!”
She rolled her eyes. “If I had wanted children I would have never joined the military. Fate sure has a sense of humour if it’s giving me not one, but two overgrown kids to deal with on a regular basis... Maybe I’m being punished.”
The radio crackled again and Liao almost didn’t answer it, but Summer’s voice was insistent, suddenly. Frantic. Fearful.
“-tain Liaoooo! Captain Liaoooo! You need to come see this immediately! CAPTAIN LIAOOOO!” There was a sharp, intense squeal of static and then silence.
*****
Engineering Bay Four
TFR Beijing
She pulled on her uniform as fast as she could, tucking the string of pearls under her jacket, then she and James practically sprinted all the way down the ship’s long length to the forth Engineering bay on the ship’s starboard side. She tried several times to call Summer on the radio but the woman wouldn’t – or couldn’t – answer, so she did the next best thing and called for backup. About half way there Cheung and a handful of marines joined her in the corridors.
By the time they’d arrived Liao could tell immediately that something was wrong inside the Engineering bay. The tiny window on the hatchway was aglow with a strange blue light so bright that Liao couldn’t see inside the small porthole. There was an ominous humming noise, like the expression of some kind of vast energy source, coming from within.
That was where the Toralii computer core was being stored. Summer and most of the Engineering team were in there.
“Open that door!” she roared, “Use the explosives if you have to; Whatever's happening in there, I want it stopped!”
“Aye aye, Captain – breach and clear! Checking... there’s atmosphere,” confirmed Cheung, nodding to her team. “Do it!”
Three men attached long strands of plastic explosives to the hatchway seals and then, with a loud pop-bang, blew the door off its hinges.
Liao let the marines surge in, stepping in behind them. The Engineering bay was nearly fifty cubic metres and filling the whole of the previously empty space was a huge light display – so bright she almost couldn’t look at it – cast by a billion tiny glowing pinpricks of energy floating around a large, central, glowing vortex. It was unearthly and alien, and emanated directly from the large polyhedral object – possibly an icosahedron – sitting flat on the deck with hundreds of power and data cables running out of it.
Summer and the rest of the Engineering team stood right beside it, their necks craned up at the display. Liao pointed to the device.
“Warrant Officer, destroy that thing!”
“No!” Summer, appearing to break out of her trance, twisted around and waved for Cheung to stop. “No! Wait! Wait! Stop!”
Liao held up her hand for pause. “What the fuck is going on here, Summer? What did you do?”
“Don’t you see?!” The redheaded woman waved her hands wildly at the ceiling. “It’s a star chart! It’s a map, a three dimensional map!”
“Where’s Saara?” Liao squinted, trying to spot the woman’s outline in the glare. She needed someone more level-headed and the Toralii was meant to be here...
“Sleeping. We’ve had her up for hours now and she needed to rest, but that doesn’t matter – look! If you touch something-” Rowe reached out and jabbed her index finger at one of the points of light. Immediately, a thin red trail formed at her fingertip. She dragged it across the empty void, before poking another star. The red trail formed a much thicker crimson glowing line. Glyphs flowed across the screen far too fast for Liao to read them, and then all that remained were a series of numbers in the Toralii script.
“See? I’m betting my next month’s wages that those numbers are the jump coordinates to get from here to here. Saara did mention that the Toralii computer systems were designed to be very simple...”
Liao stared, then nodded in understanding. “...Right. So what you’re saying is... with this device, you could plot jumps between systems.”
“Yeah, I think so. I mean... sure, why not, right?”
Liao shook her head, glancing over to Grégoire. “What do you think, Captain?”
James gave a wide grin, admiring the blue glowing light show. “I think I regret turning this thing over to your crew. Having it here, with people who know how to operate it, effectively makes the Beijing the de facto flagship.”
Liao turned fully towards the dark-skinned Captain, putting her hands on her hips, her grin stretching from ear to ear.
“...Then I guess you slackers on the Tehran will have to pick up your game.”
*****
Operations
TFR Beijing
Four days later
Saara pointed toward the map. She spoke and Liao translated. The others in the command staff were beginning to pick up a few words, and Lieutenant Yu had distributed a very basic Telvan dictionary in English and in Chinese, which was required reading for them all. Slowly but surely Liao had to translate less.
“Saara says that this system is a dead system. The star there has long since extinguished, leaving nothing but barren husks orbiting its meagre gravitational field. They call it Kor’Vakkar – The Gateway of Eternal Ash – and it’s an important stronghold for the Toralii Alliance. They use it as a rally point, as a resupply venue, and as a shipyard. We call it the Hades system.” Liao gave a slight grin. “...and it’s completely staffed by Toralii Alliance crew. They’re the bad Toralii, in case you haven’t been paying attention.”
There were a few chuckles around the room, including from Saara.
“A valuable target,” observed Lieutenant Yu. “I’m guessing we’re going there.”
Saara spoke again and Liao nodded to her. “Right.” Then, to the others, “She says it’s standard protocol that whenever the Toralii Alliance commit a strike in this sector they rally their assault from this system. It’s difficult to jump to and, accordingly, easier to defend. However, it’s a central point of failure. Saara believes that if we strike here first, we may strike a blow which will cripple their ability to project force, in an organized sense, for some time.”
Lie
utenant Jiang nodded in agreement. “Time is what we need, but there’s the broader picture of what to do next. So we buy ourselves a few months, or a year – What then?”
“The plan is,” Liao began, “to hit the Toralii hard and hit them fast. We go in with a single ship and we immediately nuke the hell out of anything we see. We fire everything we’ve got, as fast as we can, and we burn down as much of the Toralii’s barn as possible. We then sow gravity mines to disable the system – leaving the last mine on a time-delay – and we jump out.”
“Sounds simple enough Captain,” offered Lieutenant Yu. “So what’s the catch?”
Liao flashed a sardonic grin. “We don’t call it Hades for nothing. This is a dead system – about a hundred thousand years ago the star went supernova. The inner planets were consumed by the star’s expanding mass, while the midrange ones were severely irradiated and baked to a crisp, the solar winds blowing their atmospheres clean off. When the star’s mass finally collapsed, the outer planets couldn’t be held in by the star’s much-reduced gravity and were flung away, becoming rogue planets. All this shifting of planets, loss of mass, and general chaos lead to anarchy in the system, every planet’s orbit is unstable, so it’s practically impossible to jump into the system without up-to-date charts.”
Yu nodded. “Which we have.”
Commander Iraj spoke up. “Yes, which we have. Lucky us.”
Lieutenant Yu raised his hand. Liao indicated that he wouldn’t have to do that, so he put it down again. “Captain, do we even know what’s on the other side?”
Liao shook her head. “Not really. Saara’s been there once, but it’s not like she could see much. That’s why we’re going to fly in there and start shooting as soon as we see a target.”
Yu spoke up again. “What about the Sydney and the Tehran?”
“The Sydney is going to be busy laying gravity mines in the Sol system to prevent a counter-attack, so they won’t be coming. No friendly fire that way, and only one ship to jump out if things go sour. We are, however, overstocked on nukes and railgun slugs. We’re jumping in with our missile tubes loaded... All we have to do is open the tubes and fire. As for the Tehran, well... although Fleet command believed it would be better if we send just one ship on this mission, the good Captain had other plans.”
Liao nodded to James, who spoke next. “I certainly did. The Tehran will be jumping to support the Beijing’s assault, but to a different jump point. We’re hoping that the two ships can create enough carnage covering two jump points to knock out basically everything of worth in the system. We don’t anticipate their assets to be very spread out... They’re not expecting an attack and spacing apart their assets would make their defences much more solid, but would also hamper the facility’s main purpose of resupply.”
There was a moment of silence as the whole of the crew digested the plan. Then, Iraj spoke up. “Any questions?”
Summer, who had been uncharacteristically silent the entire briefing, spoke up.
“Yeah. What am I gonna do?”
Kamal regarded her. “From the technology recovered from Saara’s fighter and the wreck of the Forerunner… what do you have that we can use?”
Summer paused a moment, collecting her thoughts. “The blue goo is already in use on the ship. It’s a simple compound to make when we had a sample. We’re using it as further insulation on the nuke reactors, to keep the heat down. It’s also used on the Wasp strike craft.”
Kamal nodded. “Any luck with their weapons?”
Summer shook her head. “Nope. They’re tricky to get right... Sorry. We’re still working on it.”
“Keep us informed.”
With no other business, Liao gave a curt nod and dismissed them all to their tasks. Soon it was just James, Iraj and her in the room; the three of them stared down at the table, a picture of the star chart displayed upon it, including the jump coordinates.
Grégoire spoke first. “...Lots of guesswork in this plan.”
Liao nodded. “Can’t say I disagree, but sometimes you just have to roll the dice and take an opportunity when one comes along.”
James gave a playful smirk. “Hey, I’ll be with you, you know. If you get into trouble, don’t worry... I’ll jump out at the first sign of trouble.”
Iraj gave a chuckle. “Thank you for the vote of confidence, Captain.” He stretched his back, yawning. “With your leave, Captain Liao, my shift ended hours ago. I wouldn’t mind some rack time.”
Liao nodded and the man left, leaving the two of them alone. With just her and James occupying the whole briefing, room the tone softened.
There was something on Liao’s mind, however.
“James... why are they sending the Beijing, anyway? I’m sure the Sydney is clamouring for some action by this point... They must be chomping at the bit. We’ve been the hero enough, I would have thought... for morale...”
Grégoire shrugged. “It had to be someone. It might as well be you.”
“... I suppose it had to be someone. Also, we’re the ones with the Toralii computer, so if we need to recalculate for any reason... we’ll need it. That, and the Sydney’s mechanical problems...” It was a concession by Liao, and she didn’t make it easily.
There was a brief silence as the two regarded each other. Finally, James spoke up. “...I mean, there’s all that, and... I wouldn’t trust anyone else by my side when the shots start flying.”
Liao blinked a couple of times, slowly letting that little bit of information settle in. “I... I’m touched. But wait. Wait. You specifically requested the Beijing instead of the Sydney? Just because I’m in command? Because of me?”
James nodded, giving a soft smile. “That’s right. Called in a favour with command, and as I said, they had to send someone. You’ve had some combat experience against the Toralii scout ship, and Fleet Command is grooming you for Captain... You just needed a little bit more on your CV, that’s all. I want you to succeed - I want you to make Captain - so I pulled a few strings. Don’t get me wrong, the Sydney’s a fine ship, but-”
Liao was gripping the edge of the conference room table so hard her knuckles began to turn white. Her voice was icy. “-but you thought you’d do me a favour. You thought you’d help me out, give me the choice assignment because we’ve shacked up together. Is that it? Is that how it was?”
James frowned, now, straightening his back. “...Yes. I did you a favour... I helped your career, because I care about you... What’s the problem with that?”
Liao leaned forward, hissing slightly, barely able to contain her rapidly mounting rage. “The problem is that I am not your whore, James, to be paid for services rendered! I fought hard to get where I am – I fought hard to become an officer - and while I may have had some extraordinary luck I’ve also earned this command... I do not need your favours. I do not need your help!”
Commander Sheng had referred to her as James’ whore before, an insult she had dismissed as childish and incorrect. Now, it seemed, his words were coming back to haunt her.
James’ face clouded over, frowning slightly, the man tilting his head to one side. “I didn’t mean to offend-”
“Oh, of course you didn’t...” Liao’s voice dripped with acid. “Fuck, James, this isn’t some small thing, you know? This is starting to get dangerous. A pretty little string of pearls slipped around the neck of an officer you’re fucking is one thing, but if you’re starting to give them the choice assignments, starting to help out their career by making tactically unsound decisions, then that’s a whole other kettle of fish. That’s a serious problem! People are going to notice this kind of thing!”
“Look, nobody will notice... The Beijing is very capable; you’ve proven that over and over-”
“I’ve been lucky.” Liao hated to say it, but it was true. “The Sydney’s CO – Matthew Knight? He’s been a naval Captain for years. He was one of the rising stars in Operation New Dawn and from all accounts he is one of the best. He has real, genuine experience i
n real combat since he served in Iraq... Further, the Sydney is holding the lion’s share of the nukes at this point. They’re carrying about fifty more warheads than we are... which means that we’re going to unload the nukes from the Sydney, then ship them over to an exactly identical ship which we’re going to send instead, lead by someone whose seen combat exactly once and been in command for a few months.”
Crossing her arms, Liao regarded the man, her face stamped with a deep frown. “There’s no logic in sending the Beijing instead of the Sydney.”
James blinked. “All of that is true, but there are justifications for having the Sydney step aside for this one and putting in the Beijing. They’ve had a history of mechanical trouble and we need our most reliable ship for this operation... The Sydney needs to complete its mine laying operation to make sure, once and for all, that the problems with her systems are fixed.” He held up his hands. “I promise you, nobody’s said anything about you going instead of Knight and they won’t, because there’s a good reason-”
“-but not the best reason!”
James leaned forward slightly, trying to placate the furious woman. “It’s a reason, and it’s good enough! I want this operation to succeed as much as you do, you know, and that’s why I want you with me! I want you to fight with my ship!” He shook his head. “I can’t believe you’re getting all offended at this. I’m putting you in danger! How would you feel if I was pushing you to the safe spots, huh? How would you feel if I kept you from combat?”
Liao folded her arms defensively, her face screwed up in anger. Her tone was so cold it could have tempered an overloading nuclear reactor.
“If you’d done that, Captain, I would have punched you in the head instead of just telling you that we’re through. This... ‘arrangement’... we’ve got ends. Now.”
James stared, his eyes growing wide, and then his vision narrowed. “... As you wish. Consider the arrangement void.”
He turned his back to her, staring at the crew roster drawn up on the wall.
“Dismissed, Commander.”
