Zero

by J. S. Collyer

  The monstrous bridge arched up out of the main body of the ship like a cobra's head. Her guns mounted below were easily each as big as the Zero. He swallowed, knowing that another, newer, one of these ships was waiting for them at the strip.

  He was so busy staring that Hugo had to repeat his command.

  Webb shook himself. “Say again... Captain? Commander? What do I call you, anyway?”

  “Hugo's fine,” Hugo grunted and Webb couldn't stop his grin. “Be ready. Admiral Wilson's fleet is almost re-grouped. We'll be launching for the strip in four minutes.”

  “Roger, Hugo,” Webb said. “Everyone got that?” His crew all responded with clipped affirmations. Webb hesitated then turned the comm back on. “Look, guys... I know this is weird for you. And I'm sorry. I'm aware I haven't exactly handled this whole thing well. But Hugo's right. This could be the beginning of better things. If we make it through.”

  Silence replied to him but he blundered on.

  “You might get some medals. Or some decent pay. Fuck, you might even get a chance to make your own decisions about your future. Weirder things have happened. Apparently. But... I know it's what he would have wanted for you. What do you say?”

  “Sure thing, Commander,” Sub replied. “For Webb.”

  “For Webb,” said Bolt.

  “For both of you,” More said. “And for Hugo.”

  “Steady, More,” Webb tried to make his smile heard in his voice. “Don't you think his head's gonna be big enough after this as it is?”

  “Depends how it ends, I suppose Commander.”

  “Guess so,” Webb relented. He paused, chewing his lip and staring at the fighter positions on his display. Then he switched the band to single communication before he could change his mind. “Anita?”

  There was a pause before Rami replied. “Yes?”

  He took a breath, shook his head. “Look… I… dammit. It's just -”

  “It's okay.”

  “No,” he snapped, rubbing his eyes and willing the ache inside his ribs to ease, just for a moment. “There were lots of things he should have said to you, Anita. Lots of things he wanted to say.” He paused. Commands from Hugo started to scroll over his screen but he just stared at them, listening to Rami not speaking. “I know what they were... if you want to hear them.”

  “I think I know already, Commander,” she said after a silence. “But... thank you.”

  He nodded though he knew she couldn't see him. The ache hadn't shifted, it had just became sharper. Power surges from the surrounding ships showed on his display. He switched the comm back to group transmission, breathed in, straightened his back and put his hands on the controls. “Okay folks. This is it. See you on the other side,” he said, impressed despite himself that he managed to say it with a steady voice. He tightened his grip on the controls and told himself again to ignore the feelings that weren't his battling in his brain. He'd made up his mind. They'd already done their mourning for him. He was making things right.

  ɵ

  Hugo took a breath as his fighter got up to speed and allowed himself one moment to close his eyes to be away from it all, then he opened them and slid into his role like climbing back into a second skin. He only let himself check that the Zero and her three fighters were in formation behind him once as Gamma Company moved out before being taken over by the command feed from the Assertion, reports from his company and the Analyst data already feeding in via murmured commands in his headset and data on his screens.

  At maximum speed they came up to the Lunar Strip in less than three hours, but to Hugo it felt like it could have been anywhere between three seconds and forever. The moon hung bloated and pale in the distance, her string of colonies nothing more than glints stretching off into the darkness of space until they looked like no more than extra stars flecked across the blackness.

  His screens showed the Resolution and her fleet were right in their path, but they weren't even in visual range before Pharos flung her first wave at them.

  The flat, toneless voice of an Analyst came through his headset over the pounding of his own pulse. “Alpha, Omega. Sweep 6-6-1 and come up at level 3 engagement. Gamma and Beta counter-approach. Fire at Will. Acknowledge.”

  “Acknowledged,” Hugo muttered as he swept his fighter down and away from the approaching enemy. “Stay tight, Gamma. Engage at 6-8-4.” He paused. “Fire at will and listen for commands.”

  The lights from the unit's auto-acknowledgements all flicked on across his monitors. Webb didn't respond but a scan of his instruments showed the Zero hanging just out of formation and then he pushed them from his head.

  Pharos's fighters started firing even before they were near enough for accurate hits. He'd seen the technique before, designed to split up formations before they got too close, but Hugo sent a course correction on silent commands through to his company and they missed the bulk of the shots and pulled up as they did so, slamming into the midst of the enemy squadron from below.

  He skimmed and pulled, swerved, shot and swept through the formation. His company followed his commands and section by section they started to split the nearest enemy squadron up. His cockpit was occasionally swept white with the light of the fire from the Assertion's cannons.

  Hugo shook his head. The flagship’s cannons were powerful but the fighters were too manoeuvrable, dodging the Assertion’s fire more often than they were hit. But too many of their people had died already at the hands of supposed comrades. He suspected Wilson was trusting in their numbers to negate the need to conserve firepower. Either that or showing mercy was not in the forefront of his mind.

  Hugo kept one eye on his screens as he swept back again. Another enemy craft ballooned into a silent fireball on his port side but a glance at his reading showed he had already lost three of his own. One civilian. His heart climbed into his mouth before he realised it wasn't Harvey. He shuddered and re-engaged.

  The battle wore on. His pulse stayed steady though sweat was breaking out on his forehead. His scopes displayed his unit as green dots taking out the red dots of the enemy. Out of the viewscreen he saw them as flashes of fire against the blackness of space that flared before being sucked into nothing.

  “Beta sweep though 8-5-7, push in on a Lunar heading,” an Analyst purred in his ear. “Gamma bank 5-2-5. Engage enemy. Acknowledge.”

  Hugo ground his teeth a moment.

  “Gamma, acknowledge,” Luscombe snapped.

  “Sir,” Hugo growled. “There's a break to port. If we -”

  “Bank 5-2-5, Gamma. Engage enemy. Acknowledge.”

  Hugo ground his teeth some more. “Acknowledged.”

  He relayed the instructions to his unit and swept them along the edge of the battle, firing as he went. He barked more orders, keeping his unit on its course, wincing when the enemy fighters reflected their move and took out two of his fighters before they'd gained position.

  “Hugo?”

  “What?” Hugo snapped, pulling his fighter round to avoid an oncoming enemy, pulse cannons blazing.

  “There's a break,” Webb replied. “Point 7-4... uh... over there! To port. Between you and the Resolution.”

  “Stick to formation, Commander. You've got a bank coming through below.”

  “I got them,” came More's calm voice and Hugo caught the flash of the Zero's heavier guns taking out two of the engaging on-comers, breaking their pattern.

  “Hugo -”

  “Webb, the break's closing.”

  “We could still get your fighters through. And the Zero.”

  “What for? The only thing that can engage the Resolution is another flagship.”

  “That's Service thinking. And just what Pharos will be expecting.”

  Hugo switched his comm feed to order a bank of Gamma to swing round in response to the re-engagement of a new squadron attempting a sweep from above. When he switched it back Webb was still talking.

  “Stick to your orders, Commander,” Hugo talked over him.

&
nbsp; “Since when do you care about orders, Hugo?”

  “Since ignoring one got you killed,” he snapped.

  “That wasn't me,” the clone's voice was low and dangerous. “Hugo, three or four good shots could take out her communication rig.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Webb knew. I know. Seriously, Hugo. We cut the puppet strings and her fleet will fall apart. Tell me I'm wrong.”

  “Captain, watch out!”

  Rami's warning had come just in time. Hugo swore as he swerved out of oncoming fire. “Dammit, Webb.”

  “Hugo, do it!”

  Hugo swore again then switched his comm. “Gamma Company...” he took a breath, checked his instruments then swung his steer stick round. “Follow and flank. Needle formation to point 7-4-0. Acknowledge.”

  Every Service pilot in his company acknowledged without question which caused a momentary chill to brush through him. Harvey was the only one to pause.

  “You sure about that, Hugo?”

  “Stick close,” Hugo said. “Webb has a plan.”

  “Why doesn't that reassure me?”

  “Move out,” Hugo ordered and he banked hard. The battle disappeared from view and yawning, starry blackness filed his viewscreen, looking calm, cool and peaceful in comparison to the blinking chaos of his controls. A glance at his scope showed the remains of Gamma Company tailing him, with the rogue blips of the Zero and her three fighters alongside. He sent one more glance over all his instruments, ignoring the cool voice of the Analyst in his ear ordering him to respond, and plunged his fighter into the thick of the action.

  He held his breath and willed his control to let his eyes and hands do the thinking. The drift was a tangle of fighters with the Resolution insignia across their sides, all pressing forward for a chance to break through. The break in their own line ebbed and flowed but Hugo wove and ducked with cannons on full, his company keeping in a tight cluster behind him and together they blasted a narrow channel through the swarming fighters.

  The Zero went by on his starboard as nothing more than a flash of light. Its weapons blazed and three enemy fighters that had peeled off from the main engagement to tighten the defence were reduced to so much rubble bouncing off his cockpit. The pale backdrop of the moon gleamed in the distance, Tranquillity glowing in its crater. The Resolution hung like a giant insect before them. Some of Beta and Omega that had managed to get this far were engaged around her. She was expertly placed, just far enough towards the moon to be out of range of the Sincerity's and the Assertion’s guns but still close enough to get accurate readings on the battle.

  “Keep tight and close, Gamma,” Hugo said. “Pilots Brian through Jango engage the defensive fleet. Keep in close with Beta. Everyone else...” he took a breath. “Engage the Resolution. Concentrate fire on the communication towers and network relays. Co-ordinates and schematics being transmitted.” Hugo keyed in the numbers from memory then engaged his thrusters to maximum power before he could change his mind and slammed forward between some approaching fighters, firing as he went.

  Three more of his unit were lost in the first few minutes. He pressed on, backing up the fighters drawing up the defences. The Resolution was radiating interference, so his readings on the flagship were sketchy, but from what he could tell by eye his unit were landing the hits.

  “Concentrate fire,” Hugo barked and three fighters swerved to obey. “Zero. We need your cannons.... where's Webb?” Hugo asked, scanning his readings “Sir,” More sounded uncertain. “Sir... Father made impact with the flagship.”

  Hugo went cold. “Repeat, Zero.”

  “He cut his comm and Father went straight in at speed and took out a whole docking sector.”

  “Is he okay?”

  “I don't know sir,” said More.

  “Sir?”

  “Sub?”

  “Sir... I feel I should tell you...”

  “Sub,” More warned.

  “Silence, More,” Hugo snapped. “Sub, what's happened?”

  There was a pause when they all had to dance away from an incoming wave and let the next wave behind them make a hole in the line before they could swing back round towards to the Resolution. “Sub?” Hugo prompted again.

  “Webb took some explosives from the hold before he launched. He told me not to tell you.”

  Hugo swore, long and bitterly. “Idiot,” he growled. “Fucking suicidal moron.”

  “Sir,” More started again but Hugo ignored him.

  “Webb,” Hugo barked into the comm. “Webb, come in. Come in now.” Just static returned on Father's comm channel. He tried Webb's wrist panel and still no response. He swore again. “All Zero crew, flank Gamma and run interference and defensive manoeuvres. Report in to the Assertion and keep in track with the battle plan.”

  “Kaleb, what are you doing?”

  “Marilyn, stick with the Zero,” he ordered.

  “Kaleb,” she called again before Hugo could no long hear anything over the blaring of proximity alarms in his cockpit. The Resolution loomed closer and closer until he could pick out individual viewscreens in her hull. His readings blurred and buzzed from the interference as he approached the impact site that had once been the starboard docking station.

  XX

  Webb had expected to feel anger. He'd expected the wash of red that almost blinded him when he had overhead the conversation between Hugo and Luscombe to rise up and swamp him again, make him so charged with the emotion that it gave him energy. He had been concerned that it might cause him to get clumsy or caught before the job was done.

  But he needn't have worried.

  He didn't feel hot or cold. There was nothing. Just a blank coolness like the drift of space. He knew what he had to do and that was it. It was easy.

  He hadn't even felt a pang when Father's chassis crumpled and flame from the engines bloomed and snuffed in the vacuum of the ruined docking bay. His neck was a bit sore from the impact but that was it. The harness and crash frame had done its job, just as Sub had said it would.

  He'd already sealed on his helmet and what was left of the controls along with a few determined kicks got the hatch open. He shrugged the pack on his back then launched a wire into the mess of shadow and floating debris that was the docking bay. He pressed the recoil and was speeding through the silent space deeper into the Resolution. One body, eyes wide and mouth frozen in a silent scream, bumped past him in the dark then drifted on.

  He activated his boot magnets and set about trying to override the breach protocols on the first door he came to. The chilled determination in him guided his fingers and he had the door open in moments. There were alarms blaring in the corridors and people running. Orders scrolled on wall displays. He ducked into the first dark space he could find and shed the vacuum suit. He prowled through the back corridors, the ship's schematics cold, hard lines inside his head and grabbed the first unfortunate technician who happened to pass by on his own.

  Webb left his body tucked in a corner of a conduit cupboard. The glassy eyes stared up at him from either side of the bullet hole as he pulled on the Service-issue coveralls.

  “Don't worry buddy,” Webb mumbled. “Better a hole in the head now than eating drift later.” He nudged the technician’s legs further into the corner with his foot, not looking at the slack face, then moved out into the busy corridor. No one gave him a second glance.

  Part of him marvelled at the efficiency of the activity around him. There was no panic. Every face was calm, every workstation had an occupant and every officer had a headset they were muttering orders into. Everyone was dressed in black and grey and moved with control, even the ones pelting down towards the engineering decks with tools and panels.

  Not that it would do them any good.

  He got down to the engineering decks and still no one looked at him. The breach he'd caused with Father was scrolling in the damage reports but nowhere was there a report to check for an intruder. He guessed they thought no one would be tha
t dumb. Or perhaps sneaking in wasn't the proper ethics of war.

  He strolled into the main reactor chamber without any technicians even glancing up from their displays. He paced through the safety hatch and up to the towering metal structure that housed the port reactor. The humming was so loud it made the air feel solid. He took a moment to gawp up at the structure, was caught unaware by the thought that Kinjo would love to see this, then shook his head and bent and shoved the block of high-power explosive as far under the reactor housing as he could reach.

  He made a show of pausing at a workstation and tapping in some commands as he left, taking the opportunity to re-route some of the reactor's diagnostic scans, then paced back out of the reactor room and into the teeming corridors.

  The river of activity continued to flow by him. He turned towards the bridge, keeping his pace steady but finally starting to feel fire mounting inside him.

  The command levels were emptier but still no one gave him a glance. The viewscreens looked out on the battle, but he kept his eyes on the deck. The guarded doors of the bridge were in sight when he heard a familiar voice.

  “Governor Cho-Jin, you must stay put,” Fitzroy was growling into a wrist panel as he came up behind him. “I’m on my way to Pharos now. All is going as planned. Stay in Tranquillity to centralise communication.”

  Webb slowed and let Fitzroy overtake him and proceed onto the bridge, the security men nodding him through.

  Webb drifted along, putting in a pair of ear plugs, searching inside himself for fear but finding none, until the guards at the door asked for ID. He dropped the stun charge right between them, squeezing his eyes shut. He could still felt the blast ripple through his flesh and had to blink as the effects dissipated, then stepped over the downed guards, pulling out the ear plugs. The double doors to the bridge hissed open as he approached.