“I think I’ve located their target,” said Chainer. “There’s a block heading straight towards them, approximately one cubic kilometre in size.”
“Pure black rock with Gallenium,” said Breeze. “Enough to power a few more of their pyramids.”
“I’m not sure how they’re doing it, but the rock is slowing down, sir. Its rotation has stopped and its deviating fractionally from its original course.”
“Power output up to sixteen hundred percent above their normal,” said McGlashan.
“They’re dragging it in,” said Duggan.
“Another technology we haven’t mastered,” said Breeze.
“Add it to the list.”
Duggan didn’t want to stay any longer, but he was determined to capture a sensor recording of what was happening. The data they were gathering showed that the target object had slowed from three hundred kilometres per second down to a hundred, then twenty and then ten. It appeared as if the Dreamers had miscalculated and the rock would crash into their spaceship. In the end, they brought it to a crawl and it vanished into the hold of the enemy vessel.
“Shame that face of the cube was hidden from us,” said Breeze. “I’d have liked to see what was inside.”
“If I know mining vessels, there wouldn’t have been much worth seeing,” said Duggan. “I’ve witnessed enough - we’re getting out of here.”
“Happy to hear it,” said Chainer.
Duggan brought the ES Lightning around in as tight a circle as he could manage. He accelerated to the maximum speed the engines would allow, breathing a sigh of relief as he did so. It would be much easier to avoid the inbound debris when they were flying away from it.
“One of their two warships has come into sensor sight,” said Chainer.
“Do they know we’re here?” Duggan asked at once.
“I’d guess not, sir. We’ll pass pretty close to them if you stay on this course.”
Duggan swore under his breath. “It’ll slow us down since we have to drop the cloak in order to go to lightspeed. We’ll have to stay hidden until they’re out of range.” He watched the new red dot on his tactical readout and altered the Lightning’s course in order to give the enemy craft a wide berth.
“It’s going to be hours until we get far enough on the gravity drives,” said McGlashan.
“We might as well get used to the idea,” said Duggan, taking a deep breath to calm his frustration.
“Their mining craft is following us out, sir,” said Chainer.
“Following?”
“Sorry, bad turn of phrase. They’re heading in the same direction as we are, on a more or less parallel course.”
“They must have got what they came for.”
“An entire planet gone, just for one cubic klick worth of rock,” said Breeze. “What a waste.”
“They might not be as sentimental as we are,” said Duggan.
“There’s a priority message coming through on the comms, sir. It’s Fleet Admiral Teron.”
“Patch him through.”
“Captain Duggan?” Teron’s voice had the peculiar echo which spoke of the vast distances between them.
“Sir. We found the enemy.”
“You need to get out of there right now and return to the Juniper.”
The alarm in Teron’s voice made Duggan sit up. “What’s the matter?”
“It’s the Ghasts. They’ve declared war on us again.”
“What? Why?” asked Duggan. “What do they have to gain?”
“Everything’s gone to crap here, John. We don’t know what the hell they’re playing at. I need you to get back as quickly as you can. We should know more by then.”
“Understood, sir. We’re in close proximity to the enemy – it’ll be a few hours until we can go to lightspeed.”
“As quickly as you can. I’ll see you here soon – don’t be surprised if your visit is a short one.”
The connection went dead.
“He’s gone sir.”
Duggan turned to look at the others. They each met his gaze, faces displaying a dozen emotions, with fear and uncertainty prevalent amongst them. There was no point in speaking since they were thinking the same thoughts. None of them wanted a return to the war they’d fought in for so long.
“You get used to the fighting and then when it stops, you suddenly realise how much you hated it,” said Chainer. “It feels like someone’s offered to shake my hand and then kicked me in the balls instead.”
“Yeah.”
“We can’t do anything about it ladies and gentlemen,” said Duggan. “Except do what we’ve always done, whether we like it or not.” He swung towards his console again and closed his eyes tightly for a moment, wishing he’d not heard from Teron. However, the day was not done with giving bad news.
“Sir, there’s a fission signature at three hundred thousand klicks. It’s one I’ve seen before.”
Duggan felt the walls of the bridge close in on him and he closed his eyes again. “The mothership?”
“Yes sir. It’s just appeared in local space.”
Anger overcame inertia and Duggan shouted once – a harsh sound of rage and defiance which sounded like it had come from the mouth of an animal instead of a human being.
Chapter Eleven
The Dreamer mothership appeared on the ES Lightning’s sensors. Duggan had seen it briefly before, but the memory had a hazy, ethereal quality to it, like it had happened long ago and been brought up in a dream where the reality and his imagination clashed to produce an imperfect facsimile of the truth. Here it was again, in all its menace and glory – a cube of alloy with rounded edges and corners. In his mind, Duggan remembered it to be featureless. Now he saw that was not the case. The surfaces of the spaceship were covered in a mixture of dimples and bumps, their purposes unknown. There were other, more complex, structures protruding from the surface. These came in dozens of shapes and sizes, made from curved and straight alloy beams which bristled with antennae and sensor nodes. The crew stared in awe at the sight, while Duggan kept the ES Lightning heading in the opposite direction. The die was effectively cast – if the enemy ship was able to penetrate their stealth cloak, their deaths were assured. The only option was to run and hope.
“Are those domes for the beam weapons?” asked Chainer.
“I reckon,” said Breeze. “There must be dozens of them. Those ones in the centre are over a kilometre across. It’s no wonder they could destroy a Hadron or Oblivion so quickly.”
“And is that what I think it is?” Chainer got up and pointed at a triangular emplacement mounted on one corner. There was a short barrel, clearly visible, and with an unthinkably large bore.
“They could shatter a small moon with that,” said McGlashan.
“A few rounds would see off our largest warships.”
“In my head, I’d convinced myself that the mothership was just a cargo-carrier. It’s nothing of the sort, is it?” said Chainer. “It’s densely-armed like a warship, only it’s vastly bigger than anything we’ve got.”
“And much, much bigger than that Ghast capital ship we glimpsed during the attack on the Archimedes a couple of years ago,” said McGlashan.
“We’ve not got a hope in hell against it, have we?” asked Chainer.
“Not yet,” said Duggan. “That single ship could wipe out the entire Space Corps fleet and have plenty in reserve to face the Ghasts.”
“That’s assuming they’re not working together,” added McGlashan.
“It’s academic,” said Duggan. “We lose either way. The only hope is that we can stay hidden for long enough and they travel elsewhere.” He sighed. “It’s beginning to look inevitable.” He didn’t need to spell out what he meant by those words.
“Our main comms have just gone offline. Switching to backup,” said Chainer.
“Was there something directed at us?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, sir. The other Dreamer warships didn’t knock out our comms whi
le the stealth modules were running. The mothership isn’t moving, so I don’t know what happened.”
“It must have enough power to produce an undirected pulse through the space around it,” said McGlashan.
“Could be,” said Chainer. “Most importantly, we’re not dead.” He paused as if he’d just realised something of great significance. “We’re not dead,” he repeated.
Duggan felt a giddiness and he laughed. It wasn’t that Chainer had said anything amusing, rather it was relief and excitement that the Dreamer mothership hadn’t immediately detected their presence. “When this is over, I’m going to personally buy a drink for each and every one of the people who worked on these stealth modules.”
“That might be over five thousand people, sir,” said Breeze. He also laughed.
“Well shit, I’m going to buy them a drink anyway.”
“I’m quite partial to whiskey if you’re going to the bar,” said Chainer, joining in the laughter. “No ice in mine.”
McGlashan shook her head at the conversation. “This is what a brush with death does for you men, huh?”
“It’s the discovery of something significant, Commander,” said Duggan, sobering up at once. “A tiny speck of optimism when everything else has gone badly wrong.”
Chainer brought the mood crashing down. “They’ve started moving - fast.”
“Towards us?”
“In our general direction. Just shy of two thousand klicks per second, so they’re not exactly slow.” Chainer grimaced. “They did a jump.”
“Where to?” asked Duggan.
“They’re one hundred thousand klicks above and behind, sir.”
“Still moving?”
“Yes, sir. Same speed as before.”
“Do you think they’re looking for us?”
“I’m not certain,” said Chainer. Then, he made up his mind. “Yes, sir. I think they know we’re here.”
“That’s not good news, is it?” said Duggan, not expecting anyone to provide him with the obvious answer.
“Another jump. They’re seventy thousand klicks ahead of us.”
“There’s a big power spike each time,” said Breeze. “I’m sure you’re aware that when I say big, I actually mean indescribably enormous.”
“I get the idea, Lieutenant,” said Duggan. This was one of those moments where the only plan of action came to him without the need for conscious thought. If the Dreamer mothership was hunting for an anomaly on its sensors, it would eventually track them down. It was faster and infinitely more powerful than the ES Lightning. There was no chance they’d be able to decloak for long enough to warm up the deep fission engines, which left only one thing. “We’re going to try and lose them amongst this rubble.”
The crew responded admirably. “Let’s get on it!” said McGlashan.
“I’ll build up a picture of the larger pieces of rock,” said Chainer. “It might help you plot a trajectory.”
Duggan wasn’t thinking about specifics yet. He picked a course towards the densest area of Corai’s debris and aimed the Lightning towards it. The fastest moving objects were long gone, but the majority of the pieces moved far more slowly as they drifted from the centre. Far away, the remains of the two moons had interspersed amongst the pieces and they clashed and deflected, creating a maelstrom of spiralling stone.
“They discharged one of their particle beams,” said McGlashan. “It missed us by three klicks. A second one followed the first, again three klicks away.”
“Like pissing in a pot with your eyes closed,” said Chainer. “They might hit the target eventually and we have to hope it doesn’t happen soon.”
“Very descriptive,” said Breeze wryly.
It didn’t take long for the ES Lightning to reach its maximum sub-light velocity, stunted as it was by the stealth power draw. A hundred thousand tiny particles rattled off the hull as the vessel forged a way towards the densely-packed pieces of Corai. A few larger rocks smashed into the armour plates, leaving a series of dents across the nose section. Duggan would have preferred to avoid these, but this wasn’t the time for taking extra care. Soon, they were amongst the larger debris – thousands upon thousands of rocks, each large enough to destroy the spaceship if they collided.
Chainer scrutinised the area ahead and around, his mop of sandy hair plastered across his forehead by sweat. “I never want to see another asteroid belt again,” he said.
“This isn’t an asteroid belt,” said Breeze.
“Yeah, whatever. I just don’t want to be here, okay?”
“Where’s the mothership?” asked Duggan.
“High and wide. They’ve not made another jump – they must know we’re close.”
A huge fragment of splintering rock, fifty kilometres across, drifted into their path. On the viewscreen, it showed as half-molten, half-grey and it left a trail of luminous specks behind it, like a trillion fireflies pursued it through space. When Duggan pulled at the control bars to adjust their course around it, the rock suddenly exploded, disintegrating into countless pieces. Greys, oranges and reds filled the viewscreen, as the remains spread out in an unavoidable wave.
“Shit,” said Duggan, putting the Lightning into a sharp dive. “What was that?”
“Particle beams,” said McGlashan. “The mothership fired six at once. Took out the rock.”
It was too late to avoid the incoming objects. The best Duggan could manage was to keep clear of the largest pieces and keep his fingers crossed. The hull took a series of punishing blows. The warship was too dense for these lesser impacts to alter its course, but the sounds reached the bridge – distant, dull thumps. Just when it looked as if they might be through, two of the larger pieces smashed into each other, deflecting at an unexpected angle. Duggan tried his best to evade the incoming rock by dragging the warship’s nose upwards at the last moment. He was too late and the sharp edges of a five-hundred-metre rock struck them at an angle. This time, they were knocked off course and Duggan struggled to correct matters. The emergency lighting came on and a siren warned of danger. More rocks crunched against the hull, in a never-ending cascade.
“Someone shut off that damned siren!” shouted Duggan. “I can’t hear myself think!”
“There’s a hole right through our armour,” said Breeze.
“Any breach into critical areas?”
“Negative, sir. There’s about three inches of alloy covering one area of the engines, but the damage is minimal. If there’d been an engine breach, the trail of positrons would be easy to read.”
“Three inches between us and death,” said Duggan. “That’s a little closer than I like it.”
The warship passed through the last of the rocks and into an area that was comparatively clear for a few thousand kilometres. Such had been his focus that Duggan hadn’t been able to keep an eye on the pursuing mothership.
“Where are those bastards?” he growled. “Was their destruction of that fragment intentional to cause us trouble?”
“They’re keeping pace with us, sir,” said Chainer. “Ten thousand klicks to starboard.”
“I’m sure that was planned,” said McGlashan. “If they can’t see us, they stand a better chance of killing us by blowing up anything that comes close. They’re not in the clear themselves – take a look at this.”
McGlashan brought up a view of the mothership in one corner of the bulkhead screen. A thousand lines of white streaked away from it in an ever-changing pattern across the sky. The incoming fragments of rock were chewed up by gauss rounds into particles of dust which were too small to trouble the mothership’s energy shield.
“They’re probably not using half of their weaponry,” said Breeze with grudging admiration.
Duggan gave the image only passing attention. His mind was elsewhere, doing its best to pilot the ES Lightning into a position from which they could escape the pursuing aliens. He was convinced there’d been no alternative than to head towards the centre of Corai’s shattered remains.
Unfortunately, the mothership was much better equipped to follow the same path and showed no indication it was willing to break off the chase. Wiping away beads of sweat from his face, Duggan got on with his task.
Chapter Twelve
The next few minutes were the most stressful Duggan could recall enduring over the many years he’d spent in the Space Corps. Someone had managed to stop the bridge siren from wailing, but the red warning lights continued to cycle. More rock fragments bounced away from the Lightning, each strike leaving a deep indentation in the armour plating. Duggan tried his best to ignore the accumulating damage, but he knew the constant assault would eventually get through. Once that happened, it wouldn’t be long until one of the ship’s vital systems was knocked out of action.
As they went deeper towards the place Corai had once existed, the fragments of the planet became bigger and more densely clustered. Although these pieces weren’t moving quickly, they crashed against each other and it seemed as if their courses were constantly changing. The Lightning’s AI was using up a huge percentage of its available resources trying to predict collisions in advance and the new trajectories the boulders would follow afterwards. The computer had enormous reserves of processing grunt, but there were far too many variables for it to provide the exactness Duggan required. All the while, particle beams stabbed into the void, some coming within a few hundred metres of the Lightning’s position.
“Something’s gotta give,” said Chainer.
Duggan nodded his head without turning to look. The man was right – if nothing changed, the Lightning would be destroyed in the next few minutes. Duggan wasn’t ready to die yet – he felt as if he’d been through too much to be killed by a piece of rock or an unlucky particle beam hit. “I’ll think of something,” he said.
“It’ll need to be soon, sir,” said Chainer. “There are two big fragments inbound. One’s seventy klicks across and the other more than one hundred. They might collide or they might not.”
Fires of Oblivion Page 8
