Casimir Bridge: A Science Fiction Thriller (Anghazi Series Book 1)

by Darren Beyer

  “How are you doing, Mandi?” Grae turned his body so he could face her.

  “A little nervous. I’m okay. Something about doing this in deep-space—last time, at least I had something under my feet.”

  “It’s not really different,” Grae said reassuringly. “Just follow Lieutenant Ivey’s instructions, and be very careful. We’ll be a long way from Dauntless, and even a small suit tear is bad news.”

  “I got it.”

  “EVA team, Dauntless. Comm check: one, two, three. How do you hear?” The comm officer’s voice came through the suit communications system.

  “Dauntless, EVA1,” Ivey responded. “Comm check good.”

  “Dauntless, EVA2,” Grae said. “Comm check good.” He motioned to Mandi.

  “Yes, Dauntless, this is EVA3. Comm check sounds good.”

  “Copy EVA team. Prepare for lock depressurization.”

  A rotating beacon cycled through the airlock.

  “Airlock delta pressure in ten seconds, nine, eight—”

  The hiss of escaping air could be heard even through Mandi’s sealed helmet. Her heart beat fast; her breaths became quick.

  “It’s just checking our suit pressures, Mandi. We’re still at half-an-atmosphere.”

  She nodded nervously inside her helmet.

  Ten seconds passed. “EVA team, Dauntless.” The comm officer’s voice came through the comm. “Delta P is showing good, all suits.”

  “Copy Dauntless,” said Ivey. “I read same.”

  Again there was the muffled hiss of air. Slowly, the volume of the hiss diminished, while Mandi watched with apprehension as her suit’s external pressure gauge dropped to zero.

  They were ready.

  The red airlock control was surrounded with yellow and black striping, and a placard above warned caution. Grae slid his boots under straps on the airlock floor and, with effort, moved the handle to the open position. As an alarm sounded through the comm, the massive doors split and slowly slid to top and bottom,

  Ivey was first to move. Small puffs of propellant from her maneuvering pack pushed her out the airlock into the void of space. Grae followed, as Mandi’s breathing and heartbeat quickened even more. She was sure that her eyes were as big as saucers.

  “EVA3, Dauntless. Is there a problem?”

  “Activate your maneuvering controls.” Grae arrested his forward motion and turned to face Mandi. “You wouldn’t have used them on the moon, but it’s just like your training.”

  Mandi gave the control the slightest nudge and slowly began moving. As she approached the open airlock door, the panorama of stars widened. She floated, transfixed by the utter beauty.

  The Milky Way cut diagonally across the open airlock, a myriad of stars—pin-points of white, blue, yellow and red—set in a collage multi-hued gasses. The glow from the galaxy’s core backlit the upper corner of the doorframe, while individual systems adorned the periphery. It was a portrait of the universe more vast and overwhelming than anything Mandi had ever seen.

  One of those hundreds of billions of stars could belong to Eridani or Earth.

  Her breathing slowed.

  “Mandi?”

  “Sorry.” She jerked her attention back to Grae. “It’s so—bright.”

  “It’s because we acclimated our eyes under the red light in the airlock.”

  Mandi shook her head in wonderment.

  “We need to get going. Nice and slow. Work yourself toward me.”

  Mandi peeled her eyes from the view and gingerly maneuvered across the airlock threshold. Looking down, she stifled a gasp. She knew that she was floating in zero gravity, but her eyes told her that she was stepping off a cliff into a void.

  “One small step for Mandi—” Grae’s voice calmed her.

  With another slight puff of propellant from her suit, she was pushed out of Dauntless. “It’s coming back to me.” She fired the maneuvering jets and shot past Grae toward the Gaussian.

  Grae’s chuckle came through her helmet comm.

  The Gaussian grew as the three slowly closed the distance. Again the scale became imposing, the massiveness of the hull unbelievable. The depiction on the holo screen on the Dauntless bridge hadn’t done it justice, and earlier helmet feeds had shown only so much. Now that Mandi saw the Gaussian up close, she saw the full scope of the damage. Entire swaths of the outer skin had been ripped away, exposing structural elements. The aft end was torn, mangled metal and gaping holes. Through some of those holes, she saw stars.

  Ivey led them toward the Gaussian forward airlock, where they positioned themselves at ten meters out.

  “Time to ring the doorbell.” Grae moved toward the lock and opened the small panel cover next to the door so he could work the controls within. “Not that I expected anything, but the airlock is inop. I’m moving to the secondary ingress point.”

  Grae worked his way down the length of the ship toward the Engineering section. At the largest breach, he maneuvered into the envelope of the hull and disappeared.

  “This is worse than I thought,” he said through his comm. “Odd. There’s major burn damage. The hydrazine tank has a hole that I could crawl through.” A few seconds passed. “Dauntless, are you seeing this?”

  “It’s a little tough to make out, EVA2.”

  “The entire secondary fission reactor is missing. There’s explosive damage all around the decking, and—it’s tough to say for sure— it almost looks as though it was cut with a torch.”

  “Noted, EVA2. Is there a way out of Engineering?”

  “I’m not seeing any,” he said after a few tense moments. “The hatch to the central shaft is crushed. With a torch and a couple days, I might be able to cut through, but for now it’s a no-go.” A few more moments passed. “Wait a minute. The main spar has buckled. There’s a gap in the bulkhead. Dauntless, EVA2. Are you registering?”

  “We see it, EVA2. Accessing schematics—it looks as though that will lead to the interstitial area forward of Engineering.”

  “There would be access hatches to the central shaft, correct?”

  “Standby, EVA2.” A few seconds passed. “Affirmative, EVA2. It shows as an avionics compartment at the ship’s nominal three o’clock position. There is an access panel.”

  “I’m pretty sure I can get in. I’ll have to lose my maneuvering pack.”

  “Lose your pack?” Mandi blurted. “As in, take it off?”

  “EVA2, EVA1. That’s a negative,” said Ivey. “I don’t want to have to chase you down again.”

  “I’m going to be inside the ship. I’m not worried about floating away. I’m worried about getting stuck.”

  “Okay,” Ivey said after a few moments. “But firmly secure your maneuvering pack where it’s easy to get at.”

  “Aye, aye, lieutenant,” Grae responded with a hint of annoyance.

  Mandi’s chronometer indicated that only seven minutes had gone by. The thought of Grae crawling around in the bowels of a derelict ship filled her with dread. The wreck of the Gaussian had almost killed him once. She couldn’t shake the feeling that it would try again.

  “Shit—” Grae let out a grunt.

  “EVA2, Dauntless. We’re reading a level-two suit breach. We’ve lost video.”

  “Grae!”

  “I’m okay, I’m okay. The breach is contained. And I think I’m in.” Grae’s voice was strained as it came across the comm. “Adjusting video. Dauntless, do you have it back?”

  “That’s affirmative.”

  “This is definitely the avionics bay—and there’s the access panel.” Some more grunts. “I’m in the central shaft.”

  Suddenly, Mandi’s worry for Grae was gone, replaced with concern that she was missing news in the making.

  “Um, Dauntless, EVA3. Is there any way I can get his camera feed?”

  “Patching you in, EVA3.”

  In the upper right of Mandi’s helmet, a small screen appeared, and she caught her first glimpse of the inside of the ship. The transmis
sion wasn’t clean, but it was clear enough.

  “Is that burn damage?”

  “Fuel and oxidizer must have made it in here and ignited. It’s just flash burns.” Grae worked his way down the corridor. Mandi saw his hands pushing floating debris out of the way. “Crew quarters ahead on the right.”

  As Grae turned his helmet to look into the compartment, his light illuminated three desiccated corpses. Mandi gasped and instinctively brought her hand to her mouth, only to be blocked by her helmet faceplate. Embarrassed, she quickly brought it back to her side.

  “Poor bastards didn’t even get their suits on.” Grae turned back down the corridor. “The airlock is up here on the left.” He knocked more floating debris out of the way as he moved along. “It looks intact. Digital pressure gauge is out, analog reading zero. I’m going to try the interior controls.” He reached to the hatch control and engaged. Nothing happened. “No power inside either. I guess we have to do it the hard way.”

  Mandi watched with her hand pressed to her helmet faceplate.

  Grae moved to the manual controls, released the cover, and forced the heavy, red metal latch downward. The camera panned up in time to see the airlock doors crack open half a meter. Grae wedged his arms between them and shoved them all the way into their recesses at the top and bottom of the lock. He repeated the process with the airlock outer doors.

  Mandi shifted her attention from the screen to the exterior of the ship, where Grae waved to her from the Gaussian airlock.

  “Come on in! The water’s fine.”

  Mandi smiled in spite of herself.

  “Per the procedure, I’ll stay on-station at the airlock,” Ivey said. “You and Grae have a go to explore the forward portion of the ship.”

  Firing her pack’s thrusters, Mandi maneuvered to the airlock and Grae’s open arms waiting to help her aboard.

  “You’re going to have to lose that.” Grae pointed to her pack. “Too much junk is floating around in here. It will definitely be in your way.”

  Mandi nodded and released the pack from her suit. As she did, she noticed sealing tape and a dark stain on Grae’s leg. Her eyes shot to his face in alarm, but he gave her a stern look and shook his head. If anyone knew the size of the tear in his suit, they’d put a stop to the mission.

  “Puncture hazards are everywhere,” Grae said a little too loudly.

  “I’ll be careful,” Mandi replied coldly, flattening her lips. “You’d better be too.”

  Mandi followed Grae through the airlock into the main corridor, where an eerie red glow emanated from the emergency LEDs. Looking aft, she saw broken structure and floating debris clogging the central shaft in the darkness.

  “We’ll hit the bridge first. We should be able to get to it this way.” Grae moved forward through the central shaft, pausing occasionally to push debris out of the way or secure something protruding from a bulkhead. Each time he paused, he looked back at Mandi to make sure she followed. Soon the shaft opened into a circular area with smaller shafts leading off it in five other directions.

  “That continues forward to the main sensor array,” Grae said as he stopped, pointing down the shaft. He spun himself to look into the four side shafts. “Dauntless, EVA2. I need a little help here. Which way to the bridge?”

  “EVA2, Dauntless. There should be placards designating the passages.”

  “Dauntless, EVA2.” Grae spun around again before stopping to move slightly into one shaft. “This one looks like shaft 2A-3. That’s two, alpha, dash, three.”

  “Roger, EVA2. That’s the starboard access shaft. The one to the bridge should be at your nine o’clock.”

  Grae again spun himself and pushed toward the nine o’clock shaft. “Two, alpha, dash, one.”

  “That’s the bridge access.”

  “Ready?” Grae turned to Mandi.

  Mandi nodded, and the two pushed and pulled their way into the shaft to the bridge hatch at the end. Grae studied it for a moment, then pulled himself through into the bridge beyond. Mandi took a deep breath and followed.

  Dull emergency lighting illuminated the space. Holo screens were blank. Control stations, navigation displays, data readouts were all dark. The bridge was dead. It was much smaller than that on Dauntless, but without information coursing through, it seemed larger. Grae worked his way forward, as Mandi turned aft.

  “Shit!” Mandi yelled.

  A man floated with arms outstretched, head down, hair matted and bloodied.

  “You okay?” Grae half-turned to her.

  “Yeah. Sorry.”

  The corpse wore a captain’s uniform and floated unrestrained like the rest of the flotsam littering the bridge.

  Mandi skirted past, trying not to disturb the body. Beyond, a dull white light emanated from somewhere out of view.

  “The bridge has some damage,” Grae said. “The control equipment took a hit, and the EMP probably fried all the unshielded hardware. Otherwise, it’s not bad. Hopefully, we can salvage something.”

  Mandi continued rearward, looking back as she did past the dead captain to Grae checking systems at the bridge controls. She bumped into the aft bulkhead and turned toward the source of the dull white light—

  Screaming, she kicked away, pushing herself back into the bridge. She slammed into the body, sending it spinning and losing control of her own position. She screamed again and hit something that steadied her and held her fast—Grae.

  “What is it?” Grae spun her to face him.

  “What the hell is going on?” Ivey’s voice shot through the comm.

  Wordlessly Mandi pointed to the aft end of the bridge.

  Grae shot away from her and around the corner. “Holy fucking shit! Dauntless, EVA2. Are you seeing this?”

  “Negative, EVA2. We have video interference.”

  “I’m at the Gaussian bridge lifeboat, Dauntless.” Grae took a deep breath. “We have a survivor.”

  Chapter 47

  Eridani

  Gregory Andrews floated in the observation deck of the CNS Resolute, along with many others of his team. They had entered Eridani space and were staring out at the New Reykjavik Space Station and expansive planet beyond.

  The station had a double ring design similar to the Titan space station orbiting Earth, although the outer diameter of the Titan station topped a kilometer, while the New Reyk station was barely half that. Like Titan, this station orbiting Eridani rotated to provide artificial gravity to its inhabitants and had a central docking hub extending out from the center like an axle. On one side were docked two spacecraft: one perhaps a personnel transport, the other clearly a cargo ship. On the opposite side were docked three atmospheric shuttles. One of these would be Andrews’ transport to the New Reyk spaceport on Eridani’s surface below.

  Beyond the space station, the surface of Eridani passed lazily by. Slightly brighter than Earth, it also seemed greener. If Andrews squinted his eyes, he might think it was his home scrolling past. Someday, he mused, this would be. A buzz from his comm broke his tranquility.

  “Erik, you couldn’t wait? I’ll be on the surface in an hour.”

  “The AIC nuclear materials distribution report just came in,” Erik replied. “I think you should have a look.”

  “All right. Better late than never.” Andrews looked to his comm as the file arrived. “What am I looking at?”

  “I’ve highlighted a few items of interest.”

  “These ships—” Andrews navigated the entries and studied them. They all belonged to ships in the AIC exploration fleet. The names looked familiar.

  “Match the ships on this list.” Erik transferred another file. “This is our list from our Centric operation.”

  Andrews shot his eyes back and forth, comparing the two.

  “You’ll note the names match.”

  “Can we get to the punch line, Erik?”

  “If you’ll take a look at the amount of uranium listed on each ship—”

  “They don’t match.” A shock o
f excitement coursed through Andrews. If he hadn’t been in zero g, he would have jumped. “The amount we processed through Centric is less than what AIC is reporting.” He looked at each. “It’s the same amount across the board, every ship. You’re sure about this? We couldn’t have lost some in processing or transport?”

  “I have been through it a dozen times. There is only one conclusion: AIC is over-reporting the amount of uranium assigned to some of their ships. But only some. My guess is that all such vessels are either in the exploration fleet or are long-haul transports. They cannot easily be verified.”

  And if the uranium isn’t on those ships—” A rare smile grew on Andrews’ face. “—it’s somewhere else. There’s another, unregistered reactor running out there somewhere.” He shook his head. “This is the first concrete evidence of an off-the-books facility we’ve found.”

  “A facility that does what?”

  “I don’t know.” Andrews clicked off his comm and raised his eyes to the curve of green planet rolling across the backdrop of space. “But I’m going to find out.”

  Chapter 48

  Rho Indi System

  “I think I’ve worn out my welcome in the med-bay.” Mandi smiled sideways at Grae as they approached the door.

  “Given whom the new patient is, I think you’ll get a pass.”

  “It’s true that she’s Jans Mikel’s wife?”

  “Wife? No.” he chuckled. “Sophia has always been devoted to Jans, but marriage isn’t her style.”

  “What was she doing out here?”

  “First, and foremost, she’s a brilliant scientist and a master of sensor technology. She also has Jans wrapped around her little finger, although neither would admit it. She’s always trying to get on interstellar missions to test her theories. Jans would never allow it. He had been on Earth for more than two months when a spot opened on the Gaussian, and she jumped on it.”

  “Overprotective, isn’t he?”

  “Jans’ little sister used to work for AIC.” Grae’s eyes narrowed. “She was on the Aurora.”