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

by Darren Beyer

  “You know I’ve already been in the Dauntless brig once.” Mandi watched Sophia with a dubious eye. “I don’t fancy going back.”

  “Don’t worry,” Sophia said without glancing up. “When we return, we’ll have Jans in tow. All will be forgiven.” She intently worked at the station. “There. I’ve got the reentry path calculated. It will be close but doable. Hurry.” She turned to the larger skimmer and again worked the console. “The data feeds to the main systems on the bridge are temporarily disabled. We’ll be able to power up without anybody noticing. The airlock—well there’s no hiding that. I can block access for a few seconds, but as soon as we activate the depressurization sequence they’ll try to stop us. Here—” Sophia waved Mandi over. “—this button disables the docking mechanism. When I give the signal, you hit it and hold your hand ready for the airlock. On my ‘go,’ engage the airlock and run—don’t walk—to the skimmer. Got it?”

  “If we get caught, I’m blaming you.”

  Sophia gave a wry grin and ran lightly to the skimmer. With a hiss, the main hatch opened and she climbed aboard. Inside, her hands flew over the controls, the glow of the instrument panel illuminating her face. The grav pods came to life with a low hum, glowing blue. Sophia gave Mandi a nod.

  Mandi pressed the docking button and stifled a gasp as the skimmer fell from its mounts. The grav pods immediately took over, suspending the skimmer less than a meter from the floor, their hum filling the bay.

  “Fifteen seconds,” Sophia called above the din.

  Mandi nodded, her heart quickening. She glanced at the console and placed her finger above the airlock control.

  “Now, Mandi!”

  Mandi activated the airlock control. Spinning amber lights illuminated, accompanied by a cacophony of alarms. She stood transfixed.

  “Mandi!”

  Sophia’s scream brought her back to the moment and Mandi darted across the bay. She leapt into the skimmer’s open hatch just as it began to close. A pneumatic hiss sealed it behind her.

  “They know about us now. Strap in. We’re going for a ride.”

  Mandi slid into her harness and secured herself. Outside, the amber lights turned red, indicating exterior pressure had dropped to zero. Through the windows of the doors from the vehicle bay to the interior of the ship she caught a glimpse of an incredulous Grae. He mouthed something to her. Tears came to her eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” Mandi mouthed back.

  “Hang on,” Sophia called.

  Mandi felt as if the floor dropped out as the skimmer went into a freefall. Instinctively she screamed and put her hands on the ceiling. Next to her, Sophia let out a different scream—of exuberance rather than fear. In what seemed like a lifetime ago, over the South African hills, Mandi had experienced the same feeling. It had been a happier time. Her scream turned to laughter, as the skimmer shot through the open airlock away from Dauntless.

  The skimmer pushed against the ship’s mass, propelling it toward Eridani, rapidly gaining distance until the freefall transitioned into a tranquil zero g. It was short lived. Sophia oriented the skimmer and fired the main engines, slowing the skimmer and hurtling it toward the Eridani atmosphere. Mandi was pressed hard into her seat, straining against the high g forces.

  “I need you to monitor our entry corridor and hull temps,” Sophia grunted, “while I concentrate on flying.”

  “No autopilot?”

  “I disabled it.”

  “What—?”

  “Dauntless is sling-shotting around Eridani, going too fast to drop off a skimmer for a standard reentry. The autopilot won’t fly a reentry outside safety parameters.”

  “You couldn’t have told me this?”

  “No time.”

  Mandi strained to move her head to look toward the instrument panel and main screen. Two curved lines depicted the bounds of their reentry path and a dot near the center represented the skimmer. That was the corridor they must stay within to enter the Eridani atmosphere without either burning up or bouncing off. The dot moved slowly toward one side.

  “We’re getting off-center.”

  “I see. Can’t be helped.”

  “I thought the grav pods would help us.”

  “They are, at least as much as they can. We need to slow down in a hurry, and they don’t do much for us there. We’re using atmosphere to bleed speed.”

  Mandi’s worry grew as the dot continued moving off-center. Data showed the hull temperature rising gradually as colors shifted from solid green to yellowish green to yellow and into orange. The rumble of thickening atmosphere passing by outside the skimmer only served to add to Mandi’s anxiety.

  “Hull temperature is rising.”

  “It’s okay.” Sophia quickly shifted her attention to the display and back to her own. “Until it gets into red.”

  “Shit. We’re on the edge of the corridor, Sophia—”

  “I’m fine—it’s fine. We can go outside it a bit as long as we get back in.”

  Mandi watched the hull temperature continue to climb, and a distinct glow became visible outside the windows. The rumble grew louder as the hull temperature transitioned through orange and touched red. The display began flashing, and an alarm sounded. The rumble outside turned to a roar and the glow to a distinct flame.

  Mandi looked at Sophia, and for the first time saw fear in Sophia’s face.

  Chapter 67

  Eridani

  “We’ve got company,” one of the soldiers said quietly from the door.

  Erik’s head jerked up. He pointed to the soldier standing guard over Jans and made a series of gestures. The soldier slung his weapon over his shoulder, pulled restraints from a pocket in the leg of his uniform, and knelt to secure Jans’ arms behind his back. He rolled the security techs over and secured their arms as well. The soldier at the door signaled. Jans thought he heard the footsteps of a number of people coming down the hall to the control center. He glanced at the weapons in the soldiers’ hands and again to Danny Dagan lying cold and still on the floor.

  “Run!” Pain coursed through Jans’ jaw as he yelled. “It’s a trap!”

  Something hit his head, and he fell to the floor, only vaguely aware of explosions and gunfire. Muffled voices yelled, and footsteps thudded. After a time, there was only silence and the smell of acrid smoke in Jans’ nostrils. Roughly, he was hoisted to his feet to face the glaring Andrews.

  “Stupid, Jans.”

  “There will be more,” Erik said from behind Andrews, his blond head towering over the hunched figure. “Access to the rooftop helo pads is not possible. The extraction team is returning to the spaceport.”

  “How do we get there?” Andrews half-turned. “Nothing in this fucking city works.”

  “We have vans, trucks—” Peter had taken cover under a broken desk across the room. “Mr. Dagan kept his vehicles completely off the grid. They’ll work.”

  “You—” Erik motioned to the nearest soldier. “Go with him and bring two vehicles to the front of the building. Fast.” He turned back to the room. “And you—get him ready to go.” He gestured to Jans.

  Chapter 68

  Eridani

  Covered in sweat and panting with exhaustion, Mandi opened her eyes to look toward Sophia.

  A small smile of relief grew on Sophia’s face as she cast a sideways glance at Mandi.

  Mandi coughed a half-laugh.

  Sophia let out a whispered “phew!” and settled back into the pilot’s seat.

  The hull temperature monitor showed green, and the lines of the entry corridor were gone, replaced by a digital map of the surrounding area. Mandi stole a glance out the window. The sky above transitioned from a deep, dark blue into a brighter hue above the arc of the planet below. In the hundreds of thousands of square kilometers within her view, only a handful of people now stood. She could never imagine the same on Earth.

  “Skimmer, tune New Reyk ATIS,” Sophia announced.

  The comm remained silent.

&nbs
p; “Skimmer, tune New Reyk ATIS, please.”

  “Comm is currently tuned to New Reykjavik Automatic Terminal Information Service frequency. Negative signal.”

  “Well, damn. He really did it.”

  “That’s the—what did you call it? Mace Contingency?”

  Sophia nodded.

  “It sounds like a movie title.”

  “The idea is that in disabling critical systems, key people and assets can escape, go into hiding, and at the same time deny access to anyone else.”

  “Into the shadows? But you can’t expect to hide forever.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. But we hoped we wouldn’t have to. We never expected anything remotely like this to happen. A Casimir Bridge? Unimaginable.” Sophia looked to the navigational map. “We’re approaching New Reykjavik. No comm traffic, no data signals, nothing.”

  Mandi looked through the forward windows, straining to see New Reykjavik for the first time. A single spire stood barely visible above the green and alien terrain.

  “That’s AIC Tower. Jans will be there.”

  Mandi jerked her head up to a flash on the periphery of her vision.

  High in the atmosphere above, a dozen streaks of light hurtled down.

  “What are those?” Mandi pointed. “Another ship breaking up in the atmosphere?”

  “I’m guessing they’re pods from a dropship.” Sophia leaned forward and looked toward them. “The shit is about to hit the fan.”

  Sophia pushed the control stick forward, and the skimmer dove toward the ground. The altimeter read just one hundred meters when she leveled out and hugged the canopy of forest as they sped toward the looming tower. A road shot by below. Other than the tower, it was the first indication of humans Mandi had seen. Sophia banked slightly left, avoiding a communications tower, passing so close that Mandi snapped her head to see it. She faced forward just in time to see another whip past.

  Sophia seemed unphased. Suddenly they were over New Reykjavik proper, where Mandi made out people milling outside looking up to the sky at the falling streaks. The skimmer crossed a monorail track and passed so close to a stalled train that Mandi saw the astonished faces of passengers stranded inside. Suddenly she was pulled back in her seat as the skimmer shot straight up the side of the darkened tower. Floors flew by, until the skimmer cleared the top and came to a controlled hover. Two of the four helipads on top were occupied by AIC corporate helos. Sophia steered the skimmer to one of the remaining unoccupied pads and set it down quickly with a hard thud.

  With a pneumatic hiss, the skimmer hatch opened, and Sophia leapt to the pad surface, sprinting to the door of the central glass dome. Mandi stepped out as Sophia worked the door handle to no avail. She cupped her hands at the glass, shading her eyes to get a look inside.

  “It’s locked.” Exasperated, Sophia turned to Mandi and yelled over the light wind. “Must be the security protocol if the power goes.” Sophia looked around. She jogged to a grouping of furniture in an adjoining rooftop garden, hefted a chair and returned to the door. She swung it with all her might at one of the door’s glass panels, but it merely bounced off with a muted gong.

  From beyond the edge of the roof, a series of muffled pops got Mandi’s attention. In Wukari, where gunfire was a daily occurrence, the loud pops of ancient insurgent assault rifles had mixed with the more subdued fire of modern military small arms. It sounded just like this. She ran to the edge and looked down. Far below, bodies lay motionless across from the main entrance to the tower. Civilians fled in all directions, as a group of armed men crouched with their weapons at the ready.

  “Sophia,” Mandi called across her shoulder. When the futile banging continued, Mandi turned and cupped her hands around her mouth. “Sophia!”

  Sophia let one end of the lawn chair drop, and Mandi urgently waved her over. Sophia dropped the chair altogether and ran to Mandi. Together they looked over the building edge just as two white cargo vans pulled around to the front. Their doors opened to the armed men who now led a group of people whose arms were secured behind their backs.

  Sophia squinted. “That’s Jans!” Her eyes opened wide with alarm. “Getting into the first van right now.” The two vans sped off in different directions, the one with Jans heading toward the spaceport.

  Chapter 69

  Eridani

  Jans’ arms were painfully bound behind him, his mouth had swelled, and his head hurt. He kept his head down to avoid vomiting as the crowded van bumped over the road. With effort, he lifted his eyes to look through the windshield. The tops of native Eridanian trees sporadically appeared and sped by. They were outside the city proper now. But where? Of the hostages taken from the security control center, Jans was alone in this van. Erik, Andrews and four of Andrews’ soldiers accompanied him. Was the other van with them? The soldiers constantly scanned the sky and surrounding terrain. One thing seemed certain: whatever plan Andrews had for Jans was outside the broader mission of the Euramerican Coalition. At least he still didn’t know where to find Helios or even what it was.

  The van took a hard turn, throwing Jans onto his side. They were on the road to the spaceport. Jans could tell by the rutted gravel surface. He tried to sit up, straining for one last view of New Reykjavik, but something began forcing him down. At first he thought it was one of the soldiers, but the force lay across his whole body, crushing his face painfully to the floor and his shoulder against the side wall. Around him others fell, the metal of the roof creaked and crumpled, and the windshield spider-webbed as the van slammed to a stop.

  The force was suddenly gone. Jans rolled to his side, as Andrews and his soldiers pushed themselves from the floor.

  “Out, now,” Erik called to his soldiers from the front seat.

  The side door flew open, and the soldiers leapt out of the damaged van. Jans kicked himself toward the door, where he saw one of the new skimmers—his skimmers—hovering in the roadway blocking their way.

  With difficulty, Jans jerked himself to a sitting position so he could better see.

  Ripples of hyperium-induced gravity waves distorted the air under the skimmer as though looking through leaded glass. The blue glow of grav pods reflected off the white gravel roadway.

  Stunned, the soldiers let their weapons fall slack.

  “My God,” Andrews said in awe from behind Jans. “You’ve been busy.”

  Erik snapped to attention, calling commands. In unison, the soldiers raised their weapons and began firing.

  The skimmer rocked and slid to the side, as bullets impacted its hull. It shifted course to fly directly over them. Again Jans felt the crushing force, while the van sagged and crumpled, and soldiers outside fell to their knees. The skimmer made a skidding turn around the back of the van, lifting the force. The soldiers scrambled up, raised their automatic rifles, and renewed fire. Jans was heartened to see the bullets had limited effect.

  Behind him sounded a loud whoosh, and a trail of smoke from a soldier’s weapon headed directly toward the skimmer. A missile impacted under the port wing and ripped through a grav pod array, sending the skimmer into a sideways spin into the brush off to the side of the road. The ground shook with the impact.

  Jans head sagged, and he leaned back against front seat of the van as smoke began to pour from the wreckage.

  Chapter 70

  Eridani

  Mandi’s head was in a fog. She opened her eyes to acrid smoke filling the skimmer cockpit. Her arm hurt, and her eyes stung. She scanned the cockpit hatch, found the emergency release, and pulled it hard. With a bang the hatch flew away from the wrecked craft. Sophia hung, slumped forward against her harness, blood flowing down her face.

  “Come on, Sophia.” Mandi screamed and shook her shoulder. “We’re out of here.”

  Sophia flopped her head groggily. Blood streamed, and Mandi reached to apply pressure. Sophia groaned and pushed Mandi’s hand away.

  “Stop it.” Mandi put back Sophia’s hand and released her harness.

  “Mandi
—”

  Mandi frowned and pressed her hand hard against the wound. Looking around the cockpit, she searched for something to staunch the bleeding. Letting go of Sophia’s head, she hurriedly pulled a pressure suit from its compartment and opened its emergency kit. Inside she found a roll of sealing tape. She unraveled a meter and wrapped it clumsily around Sophia’s head. Blood dripped through, but most of the bleeding stopped. Quickly, Mandi found the skimmer’s med kit. Opening it, she found a painkiller and stimulant injector. She jabbed Sophia with the stimulant and pressed a painkiller between her dry lips. Outside, smoke lingered around the skimmer in a haze, as shadowy shapes made their way through it.

  “Get up, Sophia. Now!”

  Sophia closed her eyes and shook her head.

  “You’ve survived a nuclear attack.” Mandi’s voice was rising. “You’ve spent months in a tiny life boat with no hope of rescue. You’ve returned from the dead. All you have to do now is climb out—”

  “I can’t—” Sophia cracked open her eyes.

  “Yes, you can,” Mandi screamed, tears running down her cheeks.

  “Mandi—”

  “Come on!”

  “Mandi!” Sophia’s eyes opened wider. “I can’t feel my legs.”

  The shadowy figures closed in.

  Chapter 71

  Eridani

  Jans kicked himself out of the half-crushed van, landing hard on the gravel outside. With arms bound behind him, he twisted toward the smoking wreck of the skimmer. The wind carried bluish smoke across the road to him and he wrinkled his nose at the acrid smell. Like wraiths in the mist, shapes here and there became briefly visible.

  “You do make wonderful toys, Jans.”

  Erik helped Andrews from the van onto the support of his cane.