Dreaming of Atmosphere

by Jim C. Wilson

  Sooner than we had hoped Tac announced that the shells were five minutes away from reaching us, so I left my motley crew of boarding defenders and headed back to the command module. The plan was to disperse the crew across several compartments prior to the attack. This would mean we had less of a chance of being wiped out should the boarding pod penetrate the hull in one hit, which was possible. It may give the enemy precious seconds to cut through the hull and disgorge the synthetics into our ship, but with the hatches between compartments sealed we could easily make up that time. In addition, I needed to be in the command module to get the bigger picture before I go help repel them. If I had misjudged the enemy captain’s plan I needed to be able to respond as the situation developed.

  Zoe had asked me earlier what our chances were of avoiding the boarding pod, why risk letting it board us if we could add more distance to our manoeuvre and clear it all together. Fel and I had explained that with the massive acceleration that the pod was capable of, we’d have to thrust pretty hard to port to even have a remote chance of avoiding it. We’d lose our nanite net and we’d probably not have enough thrust to avoid it anyway. The best bet was to ambush the ambushers and turn the tables on our attackers.

  I entered the bridge as the others were preparing to start our lateral burn to port.

  “We’re as ready as we’re going to be.” I reported.

  “I took the liberty of informing our absentee Captain of our situation. In case any boarders knocked on her door, that is.” mentioned Fel.

  “Has she ever done this before?” asked Zoe. She looked a little more confident, her shaking had stopped and she was more relaxed now.

  “No, but she took Eric’s death pretty hard. They’d spent most of their lives on this ship, you have to remember. Pretty much the closest thing to family she has.” I explained.

  “Besides you.”

  “True. But even Fel’negr only joined the Dreaming a couple of years before she got captain from my father. Eric was crew before Max joined.”

  “It just seems so out of character for her, though. I thought she’d be pushing all that aside and soldiering on, especially considering our circumstances.”

  “It…does seem a little belligerent of her, yes. But she believes in us enough to get this out of her system. She’ll be right in no time. She probably figures she’ll be a liability to us if we leave her in command right now. If she broke down while we were depending on her it would be worse than if we just didn’t include her in the chain of command at all.”

  “I suppose I can see the wisdom in that. A little.”

  “What our interim leader fails to mention,” offered Fel, “is that Maxine also knows that Seth is up to the task. She has faith in him to stand when she cannot.”

  “Well…I wasn’t going to talk myself up, was I?”

  “Endless effort, endless humility, endless modesty.”

  Acting Captain Donovan shows unusual guile and cunning for his species. His chances of success are higher than anyone else on board the Dreaming of Atmosphere, given Captain Cooper’s incapacity.

  “Thanks, Tac. I think.”

  You are welcome. 27 seconds until convergence.

  “Here we go. Just like we talked about. On my mark apply thrusters to port, seven seconds of burn then level out. Roll to port eleven degrees as well. Should present the boarding pod with our cargo hold…okay, engage manoeuvring thrusters.”

  Zoe began to apply burn through our manoeuvring thrusters and the ship began to slide to port. Fel must have been going through concentration exercises with Zoe while I was gone, because she was handling the ship excellently. She was breathing steadily through her nose and mouth. A slight wildness to her eyes was the only indicator she was frightened.

  “Here they come!” said Fel, “Detonation detected! Gamma rays are blinding our sensors. Shields holding. Alpha particles and neutrons detected scattering on our hull. Minor damage to the nanite net, but it’s repairing already.”

  Sensors were down for 2 minutes 42 seconds.

  “That’s their window then. Next round will be it. Any other detections?”

  “Negative, the others appeared to be kinetic rounds, just as you predicted.”

  “Tac, time to second convergence?”

  31.2 seconds.

  “Okay, twenty seconds – we thrust to port again. Same deal.”

  The countdown ticked down to eleven seconds, then Zoe hit the thrusters once more. A slight nudge of the control stick and we tilted slightly. I grabbed the PA mic.

  “All hands! Brace for impact!”

  “Detonation detected! Another nuke! Sensors down!”

  Suddenly the ship was hit by something hard that shunted us slightly off course. A great metal clunk reverberated throughout the ship.

  “Hull breach detected! Aft cargo hold!”

  “Art, Hergo and Denno! Prepare to repel boarders in aft cargo! I’m on the way!”

  I got up and gave Zoe a quick kiss on the head before running off, Fel calling out for good luck. I ran aft, headed down the ladder well to the mess deck and slid down the ladder well rails to Deck 3. I caught the tail end of one of the Argen dashing through the hatch to the aft cargo hold and chased after him, readying my energy carbine.

  We’d restored lighting to the hold after repairs had been finished in there, so there was ample light. We’d pulled as many of the cargo containers as we could out of their secured spots and dragged them to the port side of the hold, but there was still several large containers spaced around the hold. Even with Art’s powered exo-rig we couldn’t move them without dropping gravity from the compartment, and we just didn’t have time to spool the grav-plates down and then up again in time to fight. I’d rather we had gravity, and give the enemy a few pieces of cover.

  It didn’t take much to find where they were attached. Luckily the pod hadn’t punched clean through the hull, we still have about forty five seconds before they could cut their way through the plating. We gathered around the circular hole the synthetics were cutting away, setting up overlapping fields of fire. Art and I were in the centre, with the Argen on either side of us. There was a small kill zone in front of the hole, not the largest space but better than nothing.

  “We give them three seconds to pile out and then we hit them with everything. They’ll probably keep pushing, so I want us all to fall back after the initial barrage to that clearing we made in the middle. Get your head down into cover, but make sure you can see at least one of us still. Ready?”

  They all nodded grimly. We watch the last metre of inner hull get cut, as the bright sparks flew out of the glowing edge towards the deck. When the burning cut got to the bottom it suddenly stopped and there was a moment of silence.

  Clank!

  The newly cut hatch was smashed to the deck and a hunched metallic form barged out of the hole. The synthetic was huge, easily two and a half metres tall, and the same again wide. It had hunched up to fit through the hatch, an armoured shield held before it like another chunk of hull plating. As it barged out a personal shield winked into existence as well. A small, glowing red optical sensor could be seen peering through a slot in the large shield. It was on two legs, with a tail behind it for balance and it moved with a shuffling gait.

  “Hergo, Denno, hold your fire! Art, we draw its attention!” I yelled. Our two rapid fire energy weapons hammered into the shield, but were deflected harmlessly off it and onto the deck. Little glowing red patches remained where several rounds hit the same spot. It did the trick, however. The hulking synthetic stomped its way over to us and when it was only a few metres from us, I called out to the Argen.

  “Thudguns! Now!” The Argen fired their guns at the robot’s flanks, bypassing the giant shield it held. In seconds the energy shield popped with a flash and fizzle, and several concussive blasts hammered into the synthetic’s armour. The shield was yanked from its upheld appendage and I got my first proper look at it.

  The monster was resting on short, squ
at legs that bent backwards and rested on haunches. Its central mass was a great barrel like affair, a solid armoured plate with several glowing red optical sensors spaced at different angles. It had three arms, one which had once held the giant shield, now a sparking dangle of torn wires and squirting hydraulic fluid, the others ending in large grasping claws. There was no head, the upper body simply ending at the barrel torso.

  “Look out!” called one of the Argen. I dived to one side as a volley of hard light projectiles flew right at me. Over the giant robot’s shoulder flew a dozen small, bat shaped drones. Where I lay I could see through the big synthetic’s legs and saw a cloud of even smaller buzzing drones spew out of the boarding pod.

  “Tranq-drones!” called Art. Shit, we were in trouble. Tranq-drones were exactly what they sounded like. Small drones about the size of your fist that could deliver a sedating shot of a drugs that would knock you out in moments. Riot police were fond of using them. The other flyers were rapid firing security flyers. Nasty in swarms, and deadly in close confines. Unless you had Thudguns.

  “Thudguns on the flyers! Fall back towards forward cargo!” I ordered. The big synthetic swung a mighty fist in my direction, in a great arcing downward haymaker, but I activated Spatial Translation and appeared at the top of a nearby cargo container. I unleashed a barrage of shots with my carbine, but they mostly just petered out on the armour bulk of the synthetic. From my vantage point I could see several regular sized assault synthetics file out of the boarding pod and disperse as my allies fell back and gave up ground.

  The two Thudguns pounded into the swarm of tranq-drones and flyers, taking down half of their number in a matter of seconds. This caused the assault synthetics to home in on them as the highest threat. I had to intervene before Hergo and Denno were hit. A quick glance at Art showed her engaging the giant synthetic in hand to hand, her strength bolstered by the exo-rig, and she seemed to be holding her own, so I leapt across to another container and jumped down onto the backs of two synthetics. I crashed down hard, completely smashing one and causing the other to collapse in a heap of twisted metal and flailing limbs. I finished it off with a three round burst at close range.

  Two more synthetics rounded the corner and before they could get off a shot I sent a blast of Ionise into them both. Lightning played over their chassis and they shuddered and jittered about. Sparks flew out of one of their optical sensors as it popped, and I opened up with a barrage of shots to take them out. I rolled backwards and to the right as several projectiles hammered into the container bulkhead, fired from a flyer drone that had me in its sights. I brought up my nano-shield and repelled another several shots from it as I returned fire, knocking it out of the air.

  More synthetics were piling out of the boarding pod. I checked the Argen I had moved to assist, and made sure he got to cover, then translated to the roof of a container again. I saw the flash of a shield go out about fifteen metres away in the direction the other Argen had run. I leaped over to another container and almost got my undercarriage shot off by a quick reacting trio of synthetics that were traversing between the containers. I kept running, dashing across two more containers before I saw Hergo (I think) hunkering down behind a couple of crates. Four synthetics were pinning him down with fire while another moved to flank him.

  I shot a blast of Ionise at the flanking synthetic and then leapt at the four firing ones. As I arced through the air a couple tracked their fire upwards to intercept me. Before the first one reached my shield I translated again and landed behind them, spinning as I appeared and stitching dozens of shots into their backs. The synthetics were unable to adjust their tactics, unable to compute what had happened. The last one went down in a hail of gunfire still firing blindly into the crate that Hergo hid behind. He popped up and fired a blast at the shuddering, paralysed synthetic and sent it smashing into the bulkhead like a bucket of tossed nuts and bolts.

  “Seth!” he called, pointing behind me. I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder and twirled about, throwing a tranq-drone off my back. I felt a warm numbness spreading about my shoulder. I fell to my knees and my head began to swim. On instinct, I sent nanites flooding through my blood stream and activated the Repair paradigm.

  I could hear my heart beat, and the blood rushing through my ears. It was like a deep drum beat. Boom, boom, boom, boom. I was dimly aware of someone dragging me to cover, and I could make out bright flashes of light and colour.

  I must have blacked out completely because next thing I knew I was staring down at Artemis’ arse, my head banging against the exo-rig frame as I was carried. I flailed about and she dropped me in a hurry. Art swung about and fired off several shots, and two rounds caught her rig. I could smell burning metal and heated lubricants. Hergo was with us, he grabbed my head and gave me a shake.

  “Seth! Wake up!” he said.

  “Amright. Waddapened?” I had cotton mouth and my tongue was swollen.

  “We’ve lost the aft cargo. We’re falling back to the forward hold. Denno is trapped inside. We can’t get back in to find him.”

  “Gotta get him!”

  Art turned and gave me an angry glare. “Did you not hear him? The hold is lost, we have to hold them here.”

  “No, let me up. I’ll get him.” My head was clearing, fast. I could feel my nanites eating up the poison drifting through my blood.

  “You’re mad. They’ll cut you down.”

  “They can try. Hold this position.” I looked around and saw we’d moved into the forward cargo hold, as they said. We’d set up a secondary fortified position here, with several nests of cover leaving a wide killing ground before the hatch to the aft hold. I’d lost my carbine, so I drew my PX-2 with one hand and unsheathed my blade with the other. Already I could see a plasma cutter starting to work on the sealed aft cargo hatch.

  Didn’t matter, I didn’t need to use the hatch anyway.

  I ran towards the bulkhead, and leapt at it, activating my Spatial Translation again. This time it felt different, as I moved through 5th or 6th dimensional space. I slipped through the bulkhead molecules like they were nothing but a wall of confetti. I popped out the other side short of breath and my head spinning again. I looked around and saw that I was exposed, but the synthetics hadn’t spotted me yet. There was seven assault robots and the large one waiting to get through the hatch, while a flyer worked a cutting torch.

  I took aim with my PX-2 and shot the flyer square in the chassis, blowing it into pieces. As one the synthetics turned and fired, and several shots hammered into my shield. I dived to the side and rolled, coming to rest against a cargo container. A dark shape suddenly blocked the bright lights overhead and I saw the big synthetic flying through the air, both claws bunched into fists ready to pound me in to pulp. No such luck.

  I teleported to the top of the container, and rolled to my feet and dashed aft towards the rear where I last saw Denno running for cover. I picked him up immediately, his wireframe outline appearing in my Tactical App, linked up to my overlay as he was. I leapt over another container but had to teleport across a large open gap to another side. He was prone, and wasn’t moving, but my overlay listed him as unconscious only. A tranq-drone must have gotten him too. I looked around for more of the drones, but it looked like we’d managed to take care of all the flyers and drones.

  I looked behind me and saw the last cargo container I’d jumped from suddenly get shoved aside as the large synthetic barged through it. This thing wasn’t going to let up. I took aim and fired a double tap at the thing’s optical sensors, managing to pop one. It continued its charge and would have smashed me off the cargo container if I didn’t translate to another one. I took aim again while it looked about in confusion and shot another optical sensor. That appeared to madden it further. It flailed about, tearing crates free and sending them flying. It tossed one directly at me, but I jumped aside and took a running leap across to another container roof. I fired from the hip but missed hitting a sensor.

  “Come on, you
metal bastard!” I called, firing at the thing repeatedly as it hunkered over towards me. I hit another sensor and it whirled about in confusion. There weren’t too many more left. It had to cant itself sidewise to see straight ahead, and I started to strafe the thing keeping to its blinded side.

  It started to twirl and spin, swinging wildly about. I timed my move and slid in under its reach and slashed with my blade into its knee joint, severing a cable of some kind. Sparks flew from the joint, showering me with hot metal swarf. I translated back out of reach and watched it tetter about on its damaged leg. I shot out another sensor and kept moving. It seemed to be slowing down so I turned and ran back towards Denno.

  I jumped down onto the deck beside his comatose form and sent my Repair nanites into his body. With luck, it will wake him up sooner. I scooped him up into a fireman’s carry. He was heavy, most Argen are stockier than humans, with heavier bones. I stumbled a few times before I had his weight balanced, then started to thread my way forward towards the forward cargo hold bulkhead. When I got to the wall, I could see the synthetics had broken through and made their way into the next compartment.

  “Tac! Show me the forward cargo hold!”

  A camera image appeared in my overlay showing me the compartment. Art and Hergo had fallen back as the synthetics had moved in under fire. Somehow the synthetics had managed to avoid the fire from pair, and had used the opening to rush the duo. I could see the remains of one synthetic scattered about by the aft bulkhead. They’d hit one at least.

  I noticed that Hergo wasn’t returning fire, he must have depleted his last battery. There were six synthetics still attacking, using the cover left behind by Art and Hergo. I slipped Denno to the deck and propped him against a crate. He was beginning to stir. I checked my charge levels in my overlay, I was still only just below half. Plenty of juice to finish this. I ran towards the open hatch and counted to three. I was just about to swing around and open up on the synthetics’ exposed backs, when the ship lurched to the side suddenly. I was thrown off my feet and a loose crate crashed into me, knocking the wind out of me. I scrambled to my feet, wheezing for air. What the hell was that?