Forged in Darkness

by James David Victor

  Commander Chou stepped up next to Pretorius and handed him a file. Pretorius took a quick look.

  “Looks like we’ve found the next device in the network. The quicker you can get back the less speed I’ll have to take out of the Scorpio. We could be at the next device in a matter of days.”

  Jack nodded and stepped away from the holostage. “I’ll assemble my team in the airlock right away, Captain.”

  “Remember, it’s a stealth operation. Don’t give away your presence,” Pretorius said. “We won’t have succeeded until we have taken down the network. We should be hidden from the Chitins once the network is down. Then we can fire up the reactor and race for home space. But for now, soft and quiet. Clear?”

  Jack nodded. “Clear, Captain.” He looked over to Griff. “I’ll get it done.”

  11

  Jack stood on the Marine deck in front of his team. They were all fully suited except for the helmet that each member of the team held under their arm. Jack had a large bag with the demolition charges lying at his feet. It weighed close to a hundred kilos and would atomize the facility when it was detonated. The team was armed only with pulse pistols. Jack had decided that the pulse rifle might be too big to be effective if the interior of the Chitin facility was cramped. They would be better served by the small sidearm.

  The pulse pistols were all rigged with an electron blade, a short version of the electron bayonet that was an integral part of the pulse rifle. Jack hoped they wouldn’t need the blades for close-quarters fighting. They would probably be used only as a cutting tool, not a weapon.

  “I’ve assembled the four of you here for a short operation to lay explosive charges on a Chit facility. We are going to fly across to the facility, find a way in, set the charges, and get back on board the Scorpio. We need to be quick and quiet.”

  Jack walked along the front of the small team.

  Sam Torent had his game face on. The man had seen plenty of action and he was one of the calmest Marines Jack had ever seen. Torent was fearless and the first name on the list. Jack felt better having his old squad-mate along.

  Jenks was a brute. Jack disliked the man. He was uncivilized, ugly, and needlessly violent. Where Sam Torent was cool under fire, Jenks seemed to relish it. He possessed a bloodlust that Jack found unsettling, but the man was strong and a good fighter. Jack hoped they wouldn’t need him.

  Osho was one of 6th squads best all-round Marines. She was fit, fast, determined, and clever. She was an invaluable addition to a stealth mission.

  Finally, Sarah Reyes. She was a not a Marine, but she’d been in the thick of the action more than once. She was closest thing to a Chitin expert the fleet had. She was an exceptional engineer and seemed to understand any machine and its workings intuitively. It was almost as if the machines talked to her and told her how they worked and how she could fix them. She had been able to understand Chitin technology in a way no one else Jack had ever met could. If Jack would’ve had to choose just one person to accompany him on this mission, it would be Reyes. With her along, their chances of success increased. The only problem was Jack liked her and he didn’t want to put her in danger. But if they didn’t complete this operation, the entire human population of the system would be in danger. Jack had to take Reyes. He trusted the rest of his team to keep her safe.

  “Okay, team,” Jack said, turning and walking back across the line. “I will lead us across to the facility, and hopefully Reyes will find a way in and a good spot to plant the charge. You listen to her, get me?”

  The team nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  Jack stood in front of the team. “We are exiting from the Marine hangar deck’s secondary airlock. The facility will be dead ahead.” The lights on the Marine deck blinked on and off as a signal from the command deck that the Scorpio was in position.

  “This is a small operation that will have a massive impact on our chances of victory in this kravin war.” Jack looked at each member of his team briefly. “Helmets on. To the airlock.” Jack pulled his helmet over his head. He heard it lock into place. The display lit up, the enhanced data overlay showing him the names and vitality of each of his team in a small data box displayed over their left shoulder. He noticed Reyes’s heart rate climbing. He stepped over to her as Torent, Osho, and Jenks jogged past toward the Marine hangar deck. Jack grabbed the bag filled with the demolitions and slung it over his shoulder.

  Jack placed a hand on Reyes’s shoulder and leaned in closely. “You are probably the most important person on the team. We’ll keep you safe. Okay?”

  “I don’t mind the Chitin facility,” she said. “It’s the empty space I’m worried about.”

  Jack patted her on the shoulder. “We’ll be fine. The meat suit will pilot itself,” he assured her. “Just look at your destination. You ready?”

  Reyes shook her head.

  “Are you confident I can look after you?” Jack pressed his helmet against Reyes’s.

  Reyes nodded. “Let me hold on to you when we go across,” she said.

  Jack held out his hand and took hers. “I’ve got you,” he said. “Let’s go.”

  Jack ran with Reyes toward the hangar deck. The team was already inside the small secondary airlock. Jack led Reyes inside and closed the door behind him. He tapped a few controls on the sleeve of his meat suit and activated the decompression panel. Jack tapped the decompression key and turned to face the outer airlock door. The enhanced data overlay alerted him with a message that the air pressure was dropping. Suit pressure was good. Meat suit life support systems were operational.

  The data over Reyes’s shoulder showed her heart rate was climbing still further. Jack accessed the pharmaceutical systems of her suit and using a command override, initiated the administration of a mild sedative. The medical data on Reyes showed a sudden improvement in her condition. Her heart rate dropped and her breathing became more settled. Jack noticed his own heart rate was climbing. He didn’t need a sedative, he just needed to focus.

  The airlock’s outer door began to slide open. The view of the dark void caused Jack to gasp suddenly for air. The heart rates of each of his team jumped momentarily as they found themselves standing on the edge of the deep abyss, and there, away in the distance, a small shimmering object, the Chitin facility.

  “Wow,” Reyes said in wonder.

  Jack noticed from her medical data that she was calm.

  “I’ll take point. Move out on my mark.” Jack stepped toward the edge of the airlock, deep empty space in all directions. He stepped away from the Scorpio and out into the darkness.

  12

  The only point of reference was the Chitin facility and it grew steadily, like an image projected onto a black screen, an image that grew moment by moment.

  Accessing a rear-view projection on his helmet visor, Jack checked the progress of his team. They were arranged in a line behind him at intervals of only a few paces. And further behind them, falling away into the black, was the Scorpio, shrinking to a tiny spot in the vast emptiness.

  Jack had no sensation of moving. It felt as if he was hanging in space, stationary. The Chitin facility up ahead seemed to grow while the Scorpio behind seemed to shrink at the same rate. Only when the distance to the target facility was reduced to a few hundred meters did Jack begin to sense actual movement.

  The Chitin facility was small compared to the Scorpio. On the holostage, it had looked insignificant, but as Jack came closer, he realized it was a massive, towering structure. It was the height of six-story tower block, and he began to feel small next to it. The tentacle-like structures protruding from the bottom moved gently, like the tentacles of a sea creature drifting in a slow ocean current. Jack feared the facility might come alive and those tentacles would reach out and pluck them out of the black, consuming them like a predatory creature does its prey.

  But Jack was not the prey. He was a stealth killer. This Chitin facility wouldn’t even know they had been on board. They would sneak in, deposit their deadly pa
ckage, and be far away without being detected. If not, then Jack and the entire Scorpio crew would certainly be destroyed. Jack felt his breathing become heavy and loud. He took a hold of his nerves and traversed the final few meters to the Chitin facility.

  Bringing himself to a halt with his suit’s small thruster jets, Jack hovered just a meter from the hull of the Chitin facility. It was made from the same black, shiny material as the Chitin space craft. It had a tough and durable quality to it. Jack turned and waved his team in.

  Using hand signals alone, Jack sent the team on a scouting mission to locate a likely entry point to the facility. All EM frequencies were isolated and the team had no other communication options while they were in the void of space.

  Jack and Reyes waited while Torent, Osho, and Jenks flew off in various directions. Jack gave Reyes a sign that all was okay. As soon as an entry point was found, they would sneak inside. Jack reached out and took Reyes’s hand. He was always hoping for some moment where he could be alone with her. She was amazing, and Jack felt that she liked him too. They hung together in space. It was almost frustrating that even though they were alone, they could not talk. They could not touch. And with the radiation shields activated on the helmet faceplate, they could not even see each other’s faces. Jack felt Reyes squeeze his hand.

  Osho was first to return. She floated in front of Jack and pointed along the facility. She’d found a possible entry point. They waited for a few minutes until Torent and Jenks returned. Jack indicated they were all to follow Osho.

  Drifting over the surface of the facility was strangely relaxing. Jack floated within reach of the surface. It was tempting to reach out and run his fingers over the surface, but they would not touch the facility until the last moment.

  Osho continued to the top of the facility and the flat upper surface. Jack waved Reyes toward it. Reyes inspected it as the rest of the team floated behind. There was a groove about four millimeters wide and the same deep. It was running in an ellipse that was about four meters at its widest and only two at the narrowest. Reyes floated over the surface and followed the ellipse until she turned to Jack and gave a thumbs up. She turned back to the hull and pressed her fingers into the groove.

  The ellipse sunk deeper into the hull and then slid aside. Jack shone a lamp into the cavity and saw a large space big enough for two Chitin soldiers, or four of his team.

  Jack sent Torent in first and then Osho. He sent Reyes in next. Then turning to Jenks, he instructed the last member of the team to hold and wait on the exterior.

  Jack floated into the space and once inside, nodded at Reyes for her to continue. Reyes reached up and again by pressing her fingers into the edge of the opening, caused the elliptical panel to slide back into place.

  The moment the panel locked home, the space began to flood with a dense liquid. The fluid pumped in from nozzles on the side and base of the space. In zero-gravity, the liquid floated in long tube-like tongues, splitting and breaking up into spheres that drifted around the cavity, colliding and connecting with each other until every empty space was filled with the dense liquid. It had the consistency of a rich cream, but it was completely transparent.

  When the cavity was finally full, a panel at their feet slid away.

  A long tunnel appeared at their feet and ran vertically downward. The tunnel was flooded with the same dense fluid. All around the walls of the tunnel were groups of tentacles of various colors and thicknesses. They seemed to be grouped in multicolored groups, each a different length, from a few centimeters to a meter long, and various thickness, from some the thickness of a human arm to others as fine as a hair. They all stood rigid but appeared soft and malleable.

  Reyes started downward. Jack motioned Torent and Osho to follow. With his team floating ahead of him in the dense fluid, Jack wondered if he should be leading from the front. But Reyes was keen to study the Chitin facility and had gone ahead. He hoped she could discover something that would help them. Jack swam downward, moving easily through the dense liquid.

  Heading through the liquid-filled tunnel, Jack drew his pulse pistol. The weapon was designed to function in various environments from total vacuum to subaqueous. He had no reason to believe it wouldn’t work in this strange environment, but he had a strong urge to test it. Instead, he drew a sample of the fluid into his suit’s environment sampling device for the Scorpio’s laboratory to test when he got back.

  Reyes had stopped at a junction halfway along the tunnel. Jack came alongside her and looked. Four new tunnels ran off in different directions, a crossroads in the middle of the facility.

  Jack didn’t know where to go first. He turned to Reyes and gave her the option. Reyes picked a direction and headed off along the first tunnel. Jack sent Osho after her and then turning to Torent, instructed him to hold position at the central tunnel junction.

  Following Reyes and Osho along the short tunnel, Jack soon came out into a wide space. It was coated with many tight bunches of multicolored tentacles. Reyes was examining the room closely, studying the collections of tentacles. She paused at one bunch for a moment and then went to another on the opposite wall. She moved easily in the fluid and studied one after another.

  Jack floated up next to her and she made a sign of someone holding a handgun. She mimed the firing of the weapon. She pointed at the bunches of tentacles protruding from the walls and again mimed the firing of a gun.

  Jack wondered for a moment and then guessed that Reyes had found a weapons control room. The facility was armed. Jack was suddenly concerned that they were on a military-grade Chitin craft, despite Reyes’s enthusiasm for the strange facility.

  Reyes swam out of the room and crossed the vertical corridor to the room opposite.

  Jack followed. The next room was the same dimensions as the weapons control room, and as far as Jack could tell, the walls were covered in identical bunches of colored tentacles. Reyes was darting about, swimming in the dense, clear liquid, and studying one bunch after the next.

  Reyes turned to Jack. She put her hands at her throat and wobbled her head side to side. It looked as if she was choking. Jack worried that some of the fluid had gotten into her suit somehow, but he checked her health data and saw that she was fine, if a little excited. Then Jack realized, Reyes was miming again. She did the action again, someone choking. Jack got it. This was the life support control room.

  Jack followed Reyes to the third room. Reyes studied the clusters. Jack began to realize that the tentacle clusters were the Chitin’s control interface. Reyes turned to Jack and made a sign that looked like flying. Reyes had deduced that this was the propulsion control room.

  Jack was about to ask Reyes to find a spot for the demolition charges, but she was off again, swimming out of the propulsion control room and back to the junction. Jack was slow to follow, slowed by the large bag over his shoulder.

  The last room looked almost identical to the others but as Jack watched Reyes, he began to see subtle differences in the bunches of tentacles. He couldn’t tell what any single bunch was supposed to do, but Reyes was moving excitedly between them and studying them closely.

  After a few moments, she swam back to Jack. She made a sign with her hand as if she was telling Jack someone was talking. She pointed to the collections of tentacles and made the sign again. Jack was confused for a moment but then he realized what Reyes was saying. They were in a communications room.

  Jack held up the strap of the bag containing the demolition device. He shook it gently, miming that they needed to set the charge. Reyes nodded and beckoned for Jack to follow her. She swam to one cluster of fat orange tentacles. She ran her fingers over one or two and then grabbed one firmly. She gave it a tug and the whole cluster came away from the wall. Inside was a branching network of tentacles and fibers. Reyes pointed at the space behind the cluster.

  Jack realized it would be a good fit for the demolition. Jack pressed the bag containing the device into cavity. Once it was placed, Reyes returned the clust
er. With a few tugs of one tentacle and then another, the panel snapped back into place, causing a small stream of bubbles to float out from the panel.

  Reyes gave Jack a thumbs up. The device was set. They could leave. Jack looked again at the area Reyes had removed and could see no signs that the area had been touched. Reyes nodded and gave a thumbs up again. Jack didn’t want his work to be for nothing, but he had to trust Reyes. If she couldn’t find the best position for the demolition charge on this facility, then no one could. Jack signed for them to leave.

  Back at the junction, Torent was floating in the tunnel back up and Osho was in the opening of the tunnel that led to the propulsion room. Jack looked down along the central tunnel. At the end there was an opening into another room. He tapped Reyes on the shoulder and pointed down, then he made a sign for Osho and Reyes to follow him. He took out his pulse pistol and set off, swimming directly down the central tunnel.

  At the bottom, the tunnel opened into a wide area. It was like a large upturned bowl. Around the sides of the bowl were small recesses, each surrounded by a fringe of long, fine tentacles. Reyes went on down into the space. It was the single biggest area the facility had. Jack followed Reyes, but he knew he was much more cautious than the excited Chitin expert.

  Reyes swam around the perimeter, looking briefly at the collections of tentacles and the recesses. After a short time, she swam back to Jack.

  Jack held out his hands as if to ask what she had learned. Reyes floated close to Jack, suddenly cautious. She held her palms together, held them next to her head, and leaned her head to one side.