There was a comnavsat at the jump point, but not one on the other side. So we had no idea what we were about to jump into. I'd had Jane slow us right down for this jump. There was no point in taking chances.
"Jumping," said Jane.
"Shit!" said the twins together, as I yanked our heading upwards.
The huge asteroid we'd been on a collision course for, floated serenely by below us. I brought us to a stop. Jane popped up external cam screens.
Beneath us, in all directions, was the asteroid field to end all asteroid fields.
"What have we got Jane?"
"Red giant sun, but it's not as big as I would expect. Certainly no sweet-spot here. Whatever inner planets this system once had, were long ago eaten by the sun."
"Makes sense," said Dick.
"How so?" I asked.
"War rides a red horse. So a red sun makes the system aptly named."
"What gives with asteroids so far out?" I asked Jane.
"I'm not sure. I can't detect any planets. The entire system appears to be a giant rock field. There's no rings either, so we're not seeing destroyed planets. The asteroid field simply covers the whole plane of the system, between the sun itself, and where an Oort cloud should be. It's like planetary bodies never formed here."
"Like the whole system is at war with itself?" suggested BA.
"Fairly apt," said Alison.
"Where's the next jump point?" I asked.
"About 5 hours away, over past the left of the sun. But avoiding both the sun and the asteroids, will add another hour. War into Famine represents the bottom line of the Z."
"Launch the mapping Hives, a comnavsat, and hit it."
"Confirmed."
I thought for a moment, doing the math. Going fast would bring us to the next jump point around two in the morning. We needed to do this fast, but doing it too fast in the middle of the night, was a recipe for disaster. Night and day were the same in space, but people were not. Two in the morning was the low ebb of functionality for most people. When you could avoid doing foolish things at foolish times, it was better to.
"On second thoughts, slow us down, so we arrive at the next jump point around seven in the morning. If we skip training and have an early breakfast, we can jump in ready for anything."
"Confirmed."
BA was frowning, but Annabelle and Jack nodded to me.
I sent everyone off to whatever evening entertainment they were into, and suggested early nights.
Angel and I stayed on the Bridge, watching a strangely fascinating asteroid field sweep by underneath us. Sometime after eleven, Aline practically dragged me back to my suite. Angel trotted in sometime later after we had stopped moving around, and curled up between us.
"GOOD MORNING WAR!"
Breakfast was a fast affair for everyone, and the Bridge was well settled by the time we arrived at the jump point. The Hives had met us there, and docked for jump. They hadn't found another jump point, or anything else of much interest. The whole system was a red sun with rocks. The only really interesting thing was no asteroid rings, just wall to wall rocks. Most systems had asteroid rings, where a planet hadn't been able to form, or had been destroyed. Jane was still looking, but she thought this one was unique in being just randomly placed rocks.
We dropped a comnavsat. The jump into Famine was done cautiously, but proved to be routine. There was nothing there to worry us on down jump.
Actually, there appeared to be nothing there at all.
"Black dwarf sun," announced Jane. "And as far as I can tell, there is nothing else here."
"Bit like Midnight," I said.
"Exactly like midnight, although Midnight's sun is a lot hotter. Four hours to the jump point. It's to our right, and not far past the sun. Famine into Pestilence makes the center of the Z."
"Famine rode the black horse," said Dick.
"Rinse and repeat," I ordered.
"Rinsing."
A comnavsat shot out. Followed by the Hives. Jane started us moving.
"Training!" said BA with a grin.
Seventeen
Training so close to breakfast was somewhat of a sadistic thing to do to a person, it being the wrong way around. Pushing yourself to the limits after eating, is a good way of causing yourself to puke. BA took it into account, putting us through non-intensive target shooting courses first, and the full assault courses after.
By nine I was back on the Bridge talking to Magnus and Jane.
"So just how were you planning on retrieving Prometheus?" I asked Magnus.
"The same way anyone salvages something big. Use a grav sled."
My mouth twitched, but I kept it closed. This is why you don’t let scientists out of the laboratory.
"So your explorer ship was just going to extend a grav sled, latch on, and tow her out?"
"That was the plan."
My mouth twitched again, firmly shut, but going left and then right several times.
"What were you going to be doing with your shields while this was happening?" asked Jane.
"Shields?"
Jane and I looked at each other, and I could see she was suppressing the need to face-palm as well.
"When you slide out a grav sled," I said, trying to remain calm, "you either have to drop the rear part of the shield, or extend the shield around the sled and what it's towing."
"Yes, so?"
This time I did face-palm, but it rapidly became taking a moment. The two are similar, but face-palming involves resting the face in the palm of the hand, while taking a moment involves holding the back of the nose between thumb and first two fingers, while looking downward. Very similar, and meaning pretty much the same thing. I got a grip and looked back at Magnus.
"If you drop a shield in the Death system, it would kill you very quickly."
"Oh."
"And if you extend your shields around an object the size of Prometheus, they would thin to the point where they would no longer protect you."
"Oh."
"Hasn’t anyone thought about this properly before?"
"No-one's been able to get in there before to try anything."
"Still should have been thought out in case you did. Otherwise there would suddenly be two ships to salvage instead of one."
"I get your point!"
Note to self. Scientists don’t like the very obvious being pointed out to them.
"Any ideas Jane?"
"Safest way is not go in there."
"True, but not very productive."
"It requires some in-depth naval gazing."
"Fine. You have until we get there. Then we need a plan."
"Confirmed."
Magnus was looking at us as if we were crazy. Maybe we were.
"In-depth naval gazing?" she asked eventually.
"Deep thought," I said. "It's when you sit there thinking so deeply, the world goes by without you noticing it. People going past think you're doing nothing at all, but when you come out of it, you burst into frantic activity."
"Ah, that. Yes."
I guess scientists called it something different. She went away, and left me to my own in-depth naval gazing.
Just before eleven, as we approached the next jump point, I told Jane to link up all the smaller ships, and bring Magnus's shield up.
We had to wait a while for the Hives to catch up with us. As far as could be detected, there were no other jump points in the system, and nothing at all else, even out on the fringes of the system. This in itself was very odd.
What was more odd, while two jump point systems were common, a string of them was not, and we were three along a potentially five system thread.
Well, that’s not strictly true. They were common, like the big V, but when you looked at the space around them in three dee, you found the jump points all looped around each other, or doubled back across adjacent space, occupying a large volume of space.
This seemed to be different. It was like this part of the spine was a twisti
ng corridor, separating Human space from something else, with a lethal barrier in between.
Half an hour after we arrived, the Hives landed, and having dropped another comnavsat, we jumped.
"That’s odd," said Jane almost immediately.
"What is?"
"The star here is a green-white hyper giant, which makes it really rare, both in size and colour. But I've identified the system, and it's recorded as having a blue hyper giant star."
"Pestilence rides a sickly green-white horse," said Dick.
"Yes, that explains things nicely," mumbled Grace.
"It's always been seen as green by the expeditions who've come here before," said Magnus.
"Why did they call it Pestilence?" I asked her.
"Because no-one leaves this system without some form of serious sickness."
"Now she tells us," muttered Grace.
I shot her a look, wondering what was up with her. She seemed to have taken on the role of point out the darkly obvious, which wasn’t her normal mood.
"At least up until the last expedition," went on Magnus, "who had adequate enough shielding to keep their exposure to a minimal level, which allowed them all to recover after leaving."
"Could the green be some sort of nebula effect?" I asked Jane.
"Could be. I'll investigate it."
"I assume your people are currently doing tests to determine if we are safe or not?" I asked Magnus and Carter.
"Of course," said Carter.
"I'm not going any further in until I know our shields are protecting us."
"Give us half an hour to be sure."
The two of them hurried out. I turned to Jane.
"Comnavsat and Hives please."
"Confirmed."
"Tactical please."
The tactical map of the system popped up.
The twins and I shivered violently.
The system had but two gas giants in it, and a few asteroid fields in orbits, none big enough to occupy a full orbit. So from the vantage point given by the two dee map, there were the two gas giants in far out orbits, and scattered fairly small asteroid fields further in. Unlike say Nexus, which also only had two gas giants, where the asteroid fields occupied the entire orbits.
It was eerily familiar for some reason. I felt the eyes of the twins on me, and looked at each in turn.
"Nightmare?" asked Amanda.
"Is this the system?" asked Aleesha.
"Are we eating lunch?" asked Dick.
The tension I hadn't known was there, broke.
"I don’t know," I said, answering all three questions. "Jane, how many systems are there with only two gas giants, and asteroid fields in them?"
"Including this one, six."
"One in six chance," I said to Aleesha.
"Where are they?" asked Amanda.
"Here," answered Jane, "Nexus. And two on each side of the arm, roughly a third the way each. One of them is beyond Dead Man's Chest, one is on the outer edge of the Corporate sector, another beyond Arab space, and the last is in the Canadian sector."
"So the darkness could be coming from any direction," stated Annabelle.
"Fraid so," said Jane. "Unless Jon can provide some more insight from his nightmare."
"I'll try to pay more attention to detail when I next have it."
"So will we," said the twins together.
"Lunch?" asked Dick again.
"Waiting on the doctors," I said.
"Why?" asked BA.
"If it's going to be our last meal, we maybe want to make it special."
"True," said Alison.
We sat there silently for another fifteen minutes, before Carter bounded back onto the Bridge, and declared us perfectly safe.
There was a palpable sense of relief in the air.
"Move us right along Jane."
"You want to do that footloose and fancy free?"
"Of course."
"Moving right along."
"What?" I said generally, when I noticed everyone just looking at me. All except Grace, who was face-palming. "Lunch!"
I led the way out, a white blur leading me out.
Eighteen
Pestilence was a large system, which is only to be expected when the sun is a hyper giant. While the jump point was in the same position as the War system, and flipped from the Famine system, it took us twice as long to get there. We laid comnavsats along the way, giving plenty of overlap. As such, we never lost touch with the rest of the spine as we went further and further away.
Amy walked into my Ready Room with a grin on her face, and waved at the wall.
HUNTER VANISHES AGAIN.
HUNTER RUNNING THE WRONG WAY.
ANY LIMITS TO THE HUNTER MADNESS?
"We probably need to make a comment to these, boss. There's no real detail to the stories. It would seem someone on Last Hope told the media which direction we left in."
"Would now be a good time to suggest we have evidence the Midgard prophesy might be real after all, and as such, salvaging the Prometheus seems like a wise move to give us another useful ship should we find the need to help evacuate planets from whatever comes?"
"We could try. But this end of the spine isn’t going to pay any attention, and it might well backfire on you."
"You think 'Hunter Insane' might become a general use slogan?"
"It might."
"We need to say something sometime. The military down this end, such as they are, need to have some plans in place to defend key systems, and evacuate whole areas of space in a hurry. There needs to be some preparation, or if the darkness comes through here, it could be disastrous. All the sectors down this end of the spine, have only one or two systems connecting them to the spine. Once their connection is overrun, there would be no escape for anyone left behind. Between here and Earth, ten systems control the way to escape for half of Human space. And we know the Earth end is wiped clean."
"Is it worth saying we believe the Midgard prophesy to be true, and so are trying to find a way of crossing the blockage system in case we have to flee that way?"
I looked at her in shock.
It had never occurred to me. And yet, it should have been obvious. If the Darkness came from any direction but here, some part of humanity was going to have to flee this way. And crossing what had previously been uncross-able, might be the difference between survival and extinction.
We talked it out for a while and decided to try to get the message out. After a number of false starts, and some editing, we finally had a vid we thought worth sending. Amy threw it to the wall for one last look.
I was sitting at my desk, in Hunter Dress uniform, with flat images of Angel, Gunbus, and BigMother behind me.
"Hello. I'm Admiral Jonathon Hunter from the Mercenary unit Hunter Security. I'm also the Duke of Hunter's Run, and the Duke of Norfolk, in the British sector. I am recording this vid from a system with no official name, one jump away from the system which stopped man's expansion down the spine. The system where the explorer ship Prometheus died, and which still prevents us from moving core-wards."
"I'm here for several reasons. Not yet a year ago, the Australian, Sci-fi, American, and British sectors, fought the Midgard war. The planet Midgard, have prophesy they call 'Ragnarok', or the end of the world. It foretells the end of everything. The planet Outback in the Duchy of Hunter's Run also has a similar prophesy. Both appear to be about the same event."
"Recently, I visited the Sirius system, which is the most complicated system known to us. While there, we found evidence that one day, whole planets would be wiped clean of all higher life forms, and all evidence of humans having been there. The scientists I have with me are in no doubt that this will happen, although we do not know where or when it will begin. Nor do we know what the threat is. We have some indications that six key systems scattered along the length of human space may be the first system to see the threat. The system I am currently in is one of them. My home system of Nexus 618 is another."
>
"Our goal in the coming days is to salvage Prometheus. In doing so, we hope to demonstrate that passage across the blockage system is now either possible, or soon will be. Should it be necessary for humanity to escape a threat we cannot handle by going core-wards, knowing how to do so safely is essential. Should prophesy actually happen, having a ship the size of Prometheus available for moving people to safety will be invaluable, especially as it appears a Carrier class ship size is the smallest which might safely cross this lethal system. Once salvaged, she will be converted for this purpose, along with her sister ship Enterprise, which is already on her way up the spine to my shipyard."
"Why am I telling you all this? I've lived with the Outback prophesy all my life. The foretold signs are happening. I don’t know when, or where, but I believe something we call 'The Darkness' is coming. And when it gets here, humanity is going to need to move, and move fast, to stay alive. I'm not in the create panic business, but now is the time for all sector's to plan for the defense of the key systems along the spine, the loss of which would prevent hundreds of millions of people from gaining safety. They also need to plan on how to move planetary populations through those key systems to safety, whichever direction this proves to be."
"To sector militaries I say this: I've been on a crusade to remove mankind's internal threats. It is now vital to begin preparations to defend your sectors from an external threat, while your populations flee to safety. This will require co-ordination with your neighbor sectors. It will require many more ships than any sector has now. It will require every station and merchant ship we have being used to move people in the direction we identify as being where safety lies."
"Now is the time for planning, building, and forging ties with allies. I know the threat is coming. It might be tomorrow, next month, next year, or next decade. I know some sectors have these sorts of plans already. Now is the time to get them out, dust them off, and update them. Now is the time for Mercenary units to re-forge ties with their origin sector militaries, or to join me."
"Why should anyone take me seriously? Midgard, one planet, went to war with multiple sectors, on the strength of prophesy, and nearly won. This alone should give anyone pause. We are woefully underprepared for any kind of external threat, as indicated by nearly having been overwhelmed by an internal one. The Midgard war was a wakeup call. I have evidence of what is to come, should sector leaders and their military commanders wish to see it. It will not be made public, until we know where and when the threat is coming. My aim right now is to get preparations started. I will be in contact with key governments on my way back up the spine, but I won't be stopping for long winded discussions."
Hunter Legacy 9: Hero at the Gates Page 10
