Heart Of The Machine (Soulmates Book 2)

by Don DeBon

  "No, don't change speed. Make it look like we haven't seen them yet. They may let us get close enough to get a few shots off. Tell the fleet to aim for the engines only, I want them prevented from leaving. Not a scrap yard. Is that clear?"

  "Yes sir."

  "Thirty seconds until they are in range," Rechert said

  "Ready all cannons. Fire as soon as they are."

  "Ten seconds until—" His mouth hung open as the both ships hover engines glowed with intense energy. A micro second later a discharge erupted from them causing both ships to rocket straight up. "Umm sir?"

  "Track them! They must being trying to fly over us," Halburn said. "Prepare to follow."

  "I don't think we can sir," Naud said.

  "What? Why not? Did they jump already?"

  "No, they are … if my systems—"

  "Naud!"

  "In orbit sir."

  "In orbit? Are you telling me those aliens converted both carriers into space ships?"

  "I am not sure what was done, but they are in orbit."

  Halburn ran his fingers through his hair again. "This makes even less sense than before. Why would they make the ships space worthy? It would be far more difficult than using their own. If infiltration was their aim, they must know it wouldn't work now with our knowledge of them."

  "Could it be they don't realize we do?"

  "They would have to be really dumb, and I'm sure they aren't."

  Naud's eyes slid down to see a blinking light on his console. His eyebrows met. "Sir? Someone is trying to contact us."

  "The fleet no doubt."

  "No, I don't think so. At least the signal is not coming from their general direction."

  "It must be Lavine."

  "Not unless he is straight up about thirty miles."

  "Are you telling me the aliens are calling?"

  "No, the frequency signature is too exact. It is from the Defiant."

  Halburn gestured with his hand and Deven's face appeared on the big screen in front. "Odell, so good to see you again." The face bobbed up and down as if trying to maintain a position centered with the visual pickup.

  Halburn gritted his teeth. "Deven …"

  "I'm sorry we couldn't stay, but I had a feeling you were going to try to blast us out of the sky again. And I need to talk with you."

  "You have my attention. Nice stunt you pulled. How in the world did you manage it?"

  "You liked that eh? Well we had the assistance of a few new friends."

  "I kind of figured that."

  Deven nodded. "I thought you might. Especially when I tried to warn you before."

  "Yes, which makes me wonder if I am talking to Deven now, or something else."

  "Odell, it is me. Have no doubt. When I talked with you before, I didn't have the whole picture. Or even worse, an inaccurate one to begin with."

  "Meaning?"

  "Meaning the Lytherians are not our enemies. I am sure you have seen all their ships in orbit?"

  "Now, how would I have seen that?"

  "You can't tell me Lavine doesn't have something watching. The way you showed up with a fleet of Mechand carriers proves he has more up his sleeve than I thought."

  Odell folded his arms and puffed up his shoulders. "Point taken, let's say, for the sake of argument, I have. What's your point?"

  "My point is, haven't you wondered why they haven't attacked if they were the enemy? With an armada of such size, why didn't they come down in force when there is little to stop them?"

  "Again, for the sake of argument, let's say I did. Again, I ask, what's your point?"

  "The reason is simple. They aren't the ones we need to worry about. The Celloids are."

  Halburn mouthed the words slowly. "The Celloids?"

  "They are a plant based race that only exists to convert planets into a living green mass, extract everything useful from it, and move on to the next. The Lytherians have been fighting them for centuries."

  "And let me guess, they want our help?"

  "How astute of you, yes they do."

  "And why would such an advanced race want our help?"

  "Telepathy. They don't have it, but we do."

  Halburn turned, walked to his command chair and sat down. "And why would this race need telepathy?"

  "It is the one thing that will disrupt the Celloids enough for them to be destroyed once and for all."

  "Nice story, but one little problem."

  "Which is?"

  "I know they have been here before. And it was not what you told me last time."

  Deven's face went blank. "Oh."

  "Exactly, when were you going to tell me that part?"

  "I wasn't sure how much you would believe."

  "Deven, you should know me better than that."

  "You're right, I should have given it to you straight."

  "Yes you should have. But now we have an interesting problem."

  Deven chewed the inside of his cheek. His old friend wasn't buying this, and he knew it. But there was nothing left but to put all his cards on the table. He sighed. "And what might that be?"

  Halburn smiled. "How am I going to join you way up there?"

  Deven laughed. "You believe me?"

  "Of course. You should have known I would realize things didn't add up. It is what I have been telling Lavine. Sorry about the last encounter though, I assumed you had been taken over by these Lytherians, based on the technology changes and the non-human heat signatures."

  "You could have called." Deven glared at the man on his screen.

  "Yes, but at the time, we had the element of surprise on our side. And you did try to warn me about an alien threat. I assumed the threat was real and had managed a hostile take over. What would you have done?"

  Deven looked off to the side, his expression changing several times. When his eyes returned, the glare was gone. "The same. But you didn't have the element of surprise. We knew you were coming."

  "But you didn't take any action."

  "We couldn't. Most of the systems were offline at the time. You must have noticed the overdrive was down."

  "We did. But if true, how did you know?"

  Deven smiled. "We have an asset far beyond normal sensors, Aleshia."

  Halburn laughed. "Of course. But I didn't think she had that kind of range."

  "Let's say her abilities have grown."

  Halburn cracked a grin. "So are you going to come back down or what?"

  "We will, as soon as everything is secure." The coffee cup from before floated past his face again. Deven glared. "As you can see things are a bit of a mess up here at the moment."

  Halburn laughed. "Take your time. We're not in any hurry."

  "Unfortunately, we are. I will tell you more when we arrive. Deven out."

  The screen flicked off and Halburn sat back down in his chair. "I wonder what the next surprise is. But I have a feeling it is going to be a lot worse."

  Several things floated past, dirt, a screwdriver, a loose cable, as Gregory fastened down another vehicle with several large magnetic locks. Several other people did the same. No damage had occurred yet, but the main hanger bay was a mess. He was grateful no one had left out any unconstrained liquids, or it would have been a lot worse. Gregory grumbled as he moved on to the next.

  An hour later everything had been locked down and he hoped the rest of the Defiant was in the same condition. He floated over to the intercom and toggled the switch. "Main hanger bay and engineering are secure. You need me anywhere else?"

  "Nah," Galina said, "I think we're in good shape now. The Phoenix has been ready for some time, but there is not much that can be left out of place. I guess the battle Mechands were floating around the various rooms but Minerva woke them up, activated magnets in their feet, and moved back into formation. Except for the Mechand Otis took over, not much else could float away apart from for the ships, and Minerva had them locked down before."

  Gregory's one eyebrow rose. "Something happened with t
he cleaning Mechand of Otis'?"

  "Well, it doesn't have feet like most Mechands. And it would seem it lacks any sort of affixing devices either. Otis found it floating in one of the corridors beeping away. He moved the cleaning bot in one of the rooms with the other Mechands and told them to keep him from floating off again."

  "And he thinks that will work?"

  "It should, unless the bot tries to run off and clean something again. I've never seen anyone so happy about cleaning."

  Gregory chuckled. "Or anyone so happy to see Otis. Sounds like he has his hands full with that bot. I'm on my way up." He shut off the intercom and gave himself a push. He sailed across the open space and grabbed the side of the inner bay door as he propelled himself around going into the corridor feet first. It had taken him a few minutes, but he had adapted to micro gravity like a duck to water. Several of the Lytherians were not so lucky. He doubted they ever experienced micro gravity as lost lunches abound down the corridor. He didn't want to know what the multicolored sludge floating past was. Gregory gave a cleaner with a vacuum attachment to someone and told them to clean it up. While normally he would have done it, this was one time when rank had its privileges.

  He floated up to the bridge and pushed himself off the one wall, over to another wall, then off of the ceiling to a vacant chair.

  Galina glared. "Done showing off?"

  He sat as a grin spread across his face. "For now."

  Deven looked up from his data tab. "Are we ready to go back down?"

  "Yes, or should be unless the Lytherians got sick again. But I can't imagine them having anything left to get sick with."

  Deven nodded. "Add Aleshia to the list. From what I hear she is very green."

  Miles' camera moved back and forth with the conversation. He considered mentioning he knew Aleshia was doing better, but it would reveal he was watching without being asked. "I hope Ms. Aleshia is feeling better," he added.

  "I am sure she is. Or I would know." Deven tapped several keys on his data tab. "Miles, get Minerva."

  Minerva's face appeared on Deven's screen second later. "Yes?"

  "Are we ready? I am sure Halburn is wondering by now."

  She nodded. "Yes, we have been for some time. The question is more of, is the Defiant ready?"

  "Or a better question, are the Lytherians ready."

  The screen split and Dakarth appeared. "My men have reported everything is ready, we will begin adding gravity in small increments to verify everything is as it should be before our decent."

  "And nothing goes crash," Otis muttered from the background.

  Dakarth turned. "Yes, or that." The image shrank into a pinpoint and disappeared.

  Weight began as a mere fraction of Earth-normal. But it was enough to send items reaching towards the deck plates and landing with a gentle tap. After a few minutes, it was increased but left at a very weak level until everything was inspected. Gregory didn't float around with the grace as before, but instead bounced as if his feet had large springs. This proved more difficult than no gravity. Several times he miscalculated and ended up bouncing off of the ceiling, then back down towards the deck to bounce off again before he could get stopped.

  With inspections completed, the Lytherians dialed up the gravity to normal and Galina started their decent with the Phoenix right behind them. The shields began to glow with the atmospheric friction making a white hot bubble around them. "Galina, slow us down. The slower we go, the less friction, and the easier it will be," Deven said.

  "Duh. This is not as easy as it looks. The Defiant was not built to be a spaceship!"

  "I know, but I have every confidence in your abilities."

  Galina increased power to the hover engines. They groaned but their thrust expanded slowing the Defiant's plunge. The flames outside diminished, but did not disappear as the ship rocked back and forth. "Sorry, this is still going to be a bit rough. Can't be helped."

  Deven nodded and he hit a button on his console. Minerva's face reappeared. "How are you holding up?"

  "The calculations are proving to be difficult, but manageable."

  Aboard the Phoenix, the ship rocked and Otis grit his teeth. "If you call this manageable, I would hate to see a rough ride."

  Minerva smiled as her eyes shifted towards Otis. "If you don't like my driving, you can get out and walk you know."

  "Har har, very funny. I don't know what is worse, the humor or the attempt at it."

  Aleshia glared. "She is doing the best she can, and you know it."

  "Sure I know it, I just hope it's enough."

  Across from him, Leon's eyes rolled as he turned towards Dakarth who was sitting next to him. "My apologies, they are not usually this bad."

  "No apology necessssary. They are entitled. It would appear more modifications are required."

  Otis blinked. "Ya think?"

  "Please keep in mind, thissss was not planned. And therefore untested."

  Now it was Otis' turn to roll his eyes. "Great."

  Back on the Defiant, Deven's screen had split showing Minerva on one side with a wide shot of everyone else on the other. "Otis, that's enough. People are nervous enough without you adding to it. I know this is way out of your element, but deal with it."

  Otis sighed. "Sorry Boss, but I'm no astronaut."

  "None of us are. Relax, it will be over in a minute."

  Several screens flashed red as text rolled past. "There is an imbalance in the power core. It is currently at 23% and increasing. If it reaches 50% we may lose containment," Miles said.

  A second later alarms on the Phoenix went off. Minerva frowned. "I am having the same problem. It appears to be due to the artificial gravity system, coupled with engines and shields at full power. I am detecting a resonance feedback loop disrupting the core."

  Miles' camera whipped back and forth on the Defiant's bridge. "I concur. I suggest deactivating the gravity system. Nothing will float at this point."

  Dakarth's hand shot forward. "No! If you disable now, the new power core will go offline for a full miron cycle while it restarts."

  "I am guessing, that is quite a while?" Leon said.

  "Yes, we will impact with the planet before the restart is complete."

  "Well this is a fine mess," Galina spat. "We will be coming down in pieces if this keeps up."

  "Nudge the engines back. We will go down faster, and the shields will take more of a beating. But they should hold," Leon said.

  "Should being the operative word," Galina said.

  "We don't have a choice," Deven said.

  "Right." Galina grumbled as she lowered the power to the hover system. Minerva did the same and both ships began plunging through the atmosphere at an increased rate. Flames grew brighter threatening the break through the shields.

  "Shields at 80% of tolerance at this level and increasing. Expected failure in 32 seconds," Miles said.

  Minerva's brow furrowed. "My shields are at 86% of tolerance. One of the emitters is showing fluctuations."

  Aleshia turned her head towards Leon. "Anything we can do?"

  He shook his head. "Not now. I hope they hold."

  Otis shut his eyes. "Hope?"

  The shaking increased as both ships rocketed through the atmosphere sending out large shock waves behind them. Around the Phoenix the shields fluctuated around the one emitter. "Shield collapse is imminent," Minerva said. Outside, the flames grew white hot.

  "Minerva, which emitter is failing?" Leon said.

  "Stern, port side."

  "Nose us down, and throw all available power into the front shields. It might be enough."

  She blinked. "But it will send us down even faster, and the shields are at maximum now."

  "Push them over the line. We can't afford to play it safe, or we will come down in pieces."

  She nodded. "Acknowledged. Orientation adjusted, diverting power." All the lights on the bridge went out, causing the room to dim, cast in an orange glow emanating from the windows. "Ou
r course will now take us out over the sea."

  "Shield status?" Leon said.

  "Still holding, but it will fail in ten seconds."

  "Minerva, remind me to teach you a little optimism sometime."