Deep

by Linda Mooney

When nearly five minutes passed without an answer, Lawn ran her fingers through her hair. “What do you suggest we do now?”

  “I meant to show you this earlier. You need to see it.”

  “See what?”

  Her attention was drawn back to the 3-D representation, and the white, thread-thin line tying their position with the other outpost. Lawn watched, dumbfounded, as the line extended past Sixteen until it reached another position in space, which Deep lit with a tiny blue light.

  “Don’t…tell…me.” It was almost as if she could read his mind. “The blue light.”

  “Are the two neighboring anomalies,” he told her.

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  It was a perfectly straight line linking all three points.

  If whatever happened to Sixteen had originated in the 4T8U area, Lawn, Deep, and Buoy R6Y6 were lying directly in its path.

  And a few short light years past them, anchoring the other end of that same thin thread, lay Earth.

  Communique 6B

  To: G.E. Coordinator Millner

  See attached tag. There is a direct correlation between the disturbances at 4T8U, Outpost Sixteen, buoy R6Y6, and Earth. Please advise.

  Addendum: Now comes the trial by fire to see how well we fit together.

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  Chapter 15

  Filed Under “Preparation”

  “Until we get official word from the bureau, what should we be doing? Want me to batten down the hatches over on the buoy?”

  was rotating the ship, placing it directly behind the buoy to take advantage of the outpost’s greater defensive shields. “I want you to go over there and plug me into the buoy’s main brain,” he told her. “That way I can control its weapons systems, as well as its shields.”

  Lawn nodded and hurried into her suit. Without needing to be reminded, she double-attached herself to the bulkhead and slowly, carefully, made her way to the larger docking area.

  Although the buoy was nearly three times the size of the ship, the majority of the outpost was made up of sensors, shields, mirrors, cameras, and weapons. The area where Lawn went in was able to accommodate only one suited figure, and that was a tight fit in itself.

  Reaching the outer hull door, she clipped herself to the buoy and checked the white umbilical riding along with her.

  The length of light cables was as thick as a finger. At the end was a plug and patch.

  The buoy door opened and slid back, and Lawn floated inside.

  “I’m inside. Where do you want me to put this?”

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  “Go to the console,” Deep said through her helmet. “There should be a set of plugs somewhere on the console. One red, one green, one yellow.”

  She raked her eyes over the dull gray expanse that was lit up like a Christmas tree with multicolored lights. “How big are these plugs?”

  “About the same size as the one you’re carrying.”

  “There they are. Found them. Now what?”

  “Take off the cover to the red one. You should be able to pry it off.”

  “What’s the red one for?” He was right. The seal popped right off into her hand. “Plug cover is off. Is this where I plug you in?”

  “Yes. Plug in the umbilical. I’ll let you know when to set and seal the patch. The red plug is for weapons, Lawn. The green is shields. The yellow is for all the other mechanical aspects of the buoy, like its camera and telescope.”

  It took her a few seconds to find the right way to set Deep’s umbilical into the plug receptacle. “All right. You’re in.

  Now what?”

  “Hold on. It’ll take me a minute or two to confirm control,”

  he said.

  Lawn eyed the other two seals. He had wanted her to give him direct control over the weapons system in the buoy, not the shields.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to bring another umbilical over for the shields?”

  “The buoy will take care of the shields.”

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  She turned slightly in the bulky suit and glanced out the open hatch where she could see the Vogt poised less than a hundred feet away. This close to the buoy, if the shields were deployed, the ship would be included within their parameters.

  “Do you really think we’re going to need the buoy’s weapons? What about your armament?”

  “I don’t want to take any chances, Lawn. I want all the weapons I can have at my disposal. Okay. We’re set. Peel off the umbilical and replace the cover.”

  Lawn quickly separated the umbilical from the plug patch, leaving the patch inside. The patch would give Deep direct control over the buoy itself, allowing him to decide when and where to fire the large array of guns and cannons.

  She replaced the cover, giving it an extra couple of whacks to make sure it connected while Deep reeled the umbilical back to the Vogt. “Commencing full readout,” she said.

  “How’s it look out there? Any word back from base?”

  “If we were back on Earth, I would say there’s a massive storm brewing out in the open waters, and the mainland was about to be clobbered. No word yet from the GEB.”

  Lawn nodded and began to run the checklist. She was nervous, and no doubt Deep was aware of it. Which was why the simple, almost monotonous task was soothing. The familiarity allowed her to get her mind off the trouble intensifying a few short light years away.

  Something started blinking off to the side. She caught it with her peripheral vision and turned to stare at it. “Deep?”

  “Yeah, I read it,” the ship replied almost simultaneously.

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  “What is it?” She glanced at the Lucite clipboard, searching for the designation number etched above the glowing orange pulse. Orange wasn’t a good color. Green was the best. Blue needed your attention, but it wasn’t for anything crucial. But orange was above yellow, and just below red. Orange was important.

  “Shields have been brought online.”

  “Did you do that?”

  “Maybe. Maybe me plugging into its weapons triggered it,”

  he admitted. “Let me see if I can cancel them. Continue with your checklist.”

  Lawn sighed loudly. “I wish this buoy had a window.”

  “Windows would weaken the structure. You can’t reinforce a window like you can an outer hull.”

  “I know that. Just wishing.”

  The orange light went from blinking to being steady. Lawn stared at it in surprise.

  “The light stopped blinking. Was that you?”

  “No.”

  In that one word Lawn heard the edge of panic. “Deep?”

  “Get back to the ship. Now.”

  He was controlling his panic so as not to scare her. The fact that there was something to panic the ship was enough to make her hurry and hang the checklist back onto its carabiner clip.

  At the edge of the hull, she stared over at the Vogt. The initial tether hooking the ship to the buoy was intact. If she didn’t know any better, all appeared normal. She hit the switch to close the buoy’s hull door.

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  “Hurry, Lawn,” he urged.

  Making sure she remained attached to the buoy, Lawn gave herself a little push with her knees to float back over to the Vogt. At the same time, Deep opened the outer hull door to let her in. She was almost halfway across the divide when she hit something and bounced back. The impact didn’t hurt her, but it was enough to send her floating back toward the buoy.

  “Uh! What the…Deep?”

  “The buoy must have erected a secondary shield between us. Give me a moment to drop it.”

  Lawn looked down at the single tether keeping her stabilized. Without it, she would have started to drift off into space like she almost had a few days ago. The thought chilled her.

  “Lawn, if I drop the secondary shield, it’s going to affect all of them. Which means we’re going to be vulnerable to whatever triggered the buoy’s defense system.”

  “You mean the orange light really wasn’t you?”


  “No, Lawn. Go back to the buoy. When I tell you to, push hard to get back here. I don’t know how long I can keep the shields down, so do what you have to do and make it snappy.”

  “Okay.” She reeled herself back to the buoy and placed her feet firmly on the hull plating, double-checking that her magnetic boots were turned off so she wouldn’t remain attached to the metal. “I’m ready.”

  “Now.”

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  This time she shoved harder, propelling her with greater force toward the open entryway in the Vogt. When she reached where she’d bounced off earlier, she felt herself tense in expectation, but the shield was down. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Deep, but she was afraid the shields could slip past him.

  Seconds before she reached the Vogt, Lawn switched her boots back on. They would grip the ship’s flooring and enable her to get a firm hold once she entered the airlock. She felt her suit adhere itself to the metal.

  “Docking!”

  Reaching around for the tether that still attached her to the buoy, she was barely aware of a stinging sensation in her upper right arm. Stunned, Lawn stared at her suit and the minuscule, almost invisible dot of red on the suit’s white surface.

  “Lawn!”

  In the next instant, a mechanical hand grabbed her by the oxygen pack and yanked her into the airlock. The outer door swung closed, catching the tether in the framework. There was a grinding noise, and the door literally sliced through the nylon rope before it set the seal.

  “Lawn!”

  The dot of red had gotten bigger. Now it was the size of a tiny bead, and it was emerging from an almost invisible hole in her suit.

  She could hear the loud hiss as the chamber filled with air.

  Her arm stung where she’d been hit, although she had no idea what might have struck her.

  121

  Reaching for the panel to let herself into the main area of the Vogt, Lawn waited for the all-clear to let her know the pressure had been equalized. Instead, she felt the ship buck under her feet. Her boots kept her attached to the floor, or else she would have been thrown about the chamber. Still, she felt rattled.

  “Deep! What’s wrong?”

  “We’re under attack!”

  “Whaâ��”

  Before she could finish, she heard a pop, and a teensy hole appeared in the outer bulkhead. A split-second later, every red claxon went off inside the ship.

  Communique 6E

  To: G.E. Coordinator Millner

  Emergency! Emergency! This is a Code One Alert! Repeat!

  This is a Code One Alert! We are under attack by forces unknown! Send help immediately! Emergency!

  Addendum: (no addendum attached)

  122

  Chapter 16

  Filed Under “Emergency”

  The nip of pain in her arm was quickly becoming more intense and harder to ignore. Lawn grunted at the sharp, piercing fire as she got to her feet and opened the airlock to let herself inside the ship.

  “Deep!”

  “Shields are up and at full capacity,” he responded. “But keep your helmet on, Lawn! Don’t leave your suit!”

  She could barely make out his words, even though the microphone was right next to her ear. Lawn paused at the bottom of the ladder and glanced up the narrow corridor into the bridge.

  “Shut off the alarms!”

  By her next breath, he did. She grunted as her arm protested having to help her up the short set of rungs. She could feel blood trickling warm and ticklish to her elbow.

  The sound of thunder rumbled off to her right. It was immediately followed by the feel of the ship bucking. Lawn got the impression of a vessel being caught out on the ocean waves, fighting against a storm, as she clung to the bars.

  When the ship steadied itself enough, she gritted her teeth and managed to make it up to the bridge. Deep was not visible, but she figured he was having to use all his energy elsewhere.

  123

  Quickly, she stumbled to the small drawer near the console that was marked with a red cross. It slid open at her touch to reveal a small array of pharmaceuticals. The suit had already self-sealed the tiny hole, but whatever had plowed into it was still inside her, hurting like hell and getting worse.

  She was undoing her glove when Deep yelled again at her,

  “Don’t compromise your suit, Lawn!”

  “It’s burning me!”

  “Keep your suit intact, damn it!”

  Lawn stopped. He had never yelled at her in anger. More shocking was the undeniable fear in his tone. Fear for her. He needed her to take the pain, because the alternative was much worse.

  “Deep, what is it? What’s attacking us?”

  Outside the window she could make out the pale, almost luminescent bluish aura of the protective shield surrounding the Vogt. As she stared at the aura, there seemed to be millions of points of light exploding against it. Billions of infinitesimally small particles exploding on contact.

  As she continued to be glued to the dangerous beauty of what she was watching, an immense ball of white shot out of the buoy. Deep was firing the laser cannons into the middle of whatever was attacking them. Simultaneously, the world around her rumbled loudly. Shock waves followed like ripples on water. Lawn swayed with the ship as her boots kept her firmly attached to the floor. Her helmet’s visor automatically darkened against the nearly blinding glare of the cannon blast, but it didn’t take long for her to realize that the cannons were ineffective against the swarm.

  124

  “Deep, what are we up against? What kind of weapons do they have?”

  It was nearly a full minute before he answered. “My hull was breached earlier, but it’s been plugged. Still, keep your helmet on, Lawn.”

  “You haven’t answered my quesâ��”

  “We’re under attack by the nature of the universe.”

  There was a finality in his voice that chilled her. She waited, knowing he would explain further. Meanwhile, the burning in her arm was steadily creeping up to her shoulder, and her hand was beginning to feel numb.

  “Look outside, Lawn. Remember what you’re seeing. Can you describe it?”

  “I see our shields are up.” She squinted. “And it looks like some kind of fog is approaching.” Lawn glanced up at the ceiling. “Is that the danger?”

  “It is. Lawn, please proceed to the escape pod. Hurry.”

  The escape pod?

  “Deep?”

  “Go now, Lawn! There isn’t much time!”

  Going down the ladder was not as difficult with one hand.

  The magnetic soles of her boots prevented her from slipping as the buoy’s cannons continued to fire. With each blast, the Vogt rocked in the repercussive wake. When she reached the bedroom, she noticed the outer shell of the bed was already glowing. That’s when the truth hit her.

  “Deep, what are you doing?”

  “Get in the pod, Lawn.”

  “Not until you fucking tell me what’s going on!”

  125

  “It’s called a ‘no win situation’, Lawn. What you saw was a micrometeorite shower. Get into the pod before I throw you in.” He sounded angry, desperate, and unbelievably sad. Yet it didn’t explain why he needed her inside the lifeboat.

  “Deep, are you sending me out?”

  “I have to, Lawn.”

  She froze with one knee on the sheets. The buoy’s cannons fired again, this time twice in quick succession. The Vogt almost rattled.

  “Be honest with me, Deep!”

  “Despite the shields, particles no bigger than atoms are managing to penetrate through. Already I’m being riddled with hundreds of nearly invisible bits of matter.”

  “Are the cannons effective?”

  She slid down over the covers as a safety harness dropped down from above her head and locked into place at the foot.

  At the same time, the lid to the bed began to lower itself.

  “The cannons are not making any impact on
the cloud, Lawn. Not when the cloud itself is nearly eight hundred thousand miles across.”

  “Is this what attacked Outpost Sixteen?”

  “I’ve sent my full report and supposition, plus I’ve notified base of our emergency status.” Deep sighed when the pod’s lid sealed shut. “Galactic Enforcement should pick you up in a few short months.”

  “A few short… Deep?”

  She struggled against the restraining harness, even though she knew it was useless. Her brain was whirling as the full implication of what he was telling her came to light.

  126

  “Deep, what are you doing? What are you going to do?”

  “My hull’s been too severely compromised, Lawn. I can’t take you back to Earth.”

  “Deep, no!”

  The floor beneath the encapsulated bed opened, and she could feel the lifeboat slowly being lowered into the bottom of the ship.

  She knew what was happening. She knew without him telling her what he was going to do. The pain enveloping her right arm was nothing compared to the agony filling her chest. Suffocating her. Clawing at her heart and dragging it to a standstill.

  “Don’t do this, Deep!”

  “The cannons alone can’t stop it.”

  “Oh, and you can?”

  “There is the chance that if I can make it another twenty-eight percent of the way inside the core of this cloud, a full-range blast will disperse it enough so that it will no longer be a threat to Earth.”

  A full-range blast.

  “Oh my God.” The words hitched as she began to cry.

  “Deep. Please. No! Don’t blow yourself up!” She knew her protests were useless. She understood everything now, without him having to explain any further. Angrily, she tried to kick the foot of the bed. Deep had her where he wanted her. Soon, with luck, she would be on her way back to Earth.

  Without him.

  Forever without him.

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  The pod entered the darkness of the ship’s lower belly. She could hear a whining sound.

  “Wait! Wait! Stop! Give me your jar, Deep!”

  “What?”

  “Your jar! Your heart! Let me take it with me. Can’t you still control the ship by remote or something?”

  “I wish I could, Lawn, but it’s not possible.” He sounded as depressed as she felt. “By locking my engines and weapons in sync with the cannons on the buoy, I should be able to gain a maximum dispersal range of eighteen thousand miles. That should be enough to extend the blast radius an additional forty-eight percent. It won’t completely destroy the cloud, Lawn, but it’ll rip the guts out of it.”