The night of passion with Lee had been a turning point for her. Since returning from Ch’Tauk space, she had kept him at arm’s length, hadn’t wanted to commit to him fully. That was until she saw how much he needed her. She felt stronger for the activity, but deep inside she knew she was still afraid of him. A doctor on Earth had talked to her about the imprisonment. She had opened up only as far as she could to the man, and kept much of the experience within her. Long walks in the near darkness of night helped her sort through the danger and the fear, but she still could not make sense of her captivity. The Ch’Tauk were an alien race and she would have to contend with not understanding their motivations. The lack of control chilled her, and she rubbed her arms in the corridor.
She found herself standing outside the bridge. Gamma shift would be handling the operation of the ship while the captain was away. She did not feel like talking to Lieutenant Kramer, the shift commander. She was competent, but could talk ad nauseum about any subject, and Alice didn’t feel like listening right now. She needed to take her mind off the images she thought she had buried in her mind—images of gray aliens with long fingers and thick skin. They had returned to her mind after a mission to Aleinhelm a few months prior, and she couldn’t shake them.
A sound from behind caught her attention and she turned to see the conference room door open and Preston McGraw exit, followed by a gray-uniformed member of the security department. The man looked drained. During the battle and subsequent interrogation of the Tonal prisoners, McGraw and Melaina Petros had been working on interpreting the hidden data from the bank. Preston had access to only about a third of the information. According to Lee, the third he could get into was very technical and didn’t further their knowledge of the Raoists.
Alice watched the man as he was escorted further back into the ship and out of sight. She stepped closer to the door, looking in to see Melaina Petros still examining the holo-projection. The woman’s normally curly mass of black hair was bundled up into an unkempt bun on the back of her head. Deep black circles had formed under her eyes and her lids appeared heavy. Alice stepped further into the room, not wanting to disturb the woman, but she was worried for her friend.
“Melaina?” Alice asked softly.
Melaina looked up slowly, dazed from her study of the data. For a long moment she appeared not to recognize Alice. Her head shook almost imperceptibly and she appeared to return to reality.
“Alice?” Melaina said. “Hi! I didn’t recognize you for a second.”
“I’m surprised you can see through the bags under your eyes,” Alice replied, stepping closer and leaning over the table. “You need to rest.”
“What time is it?”
“Oh-two-thirty,” Alice replied. “You’ve been up all night.”
“Is it really?” Melaina said, her shoulders slumping as exhaustion began to set in. “I must have lost track of time. Where’s Connor?”
“The boys are conspiring in the command center. I couldn’t sleep either so I was just taking a walk. Would you like to get some recycled air?” Alice asked.
“I think if I stood up right now I would just fall right back down,” Melaina said with a tired smile. “This thing is amazing. I’ve got two doctorates and I still can’t make sense of most of these equations.”
Alice pulled over the chair closest to her out and sat down, looking over the scrolling numbers with amazement. That Melaina could read the numbers like a language had always fascinated her. She was an able pilot and a good mechanic, but the math involved in how ships moved through space without chemical rockets or propellant had always mystified her. She knew what parts made ships go fast and which didn’t. Then a bit of stray data that had been pushed aside on the projection caught Alice’s eye. She moved her head closer and took a look. The equations were different here.
“What’s this?” Alice asked, pointing to the discarded data.
“I don’t know, really,” Melaina said. “It is connected to the numbers, but I haven’t had time to interpret them. I think it relates to the sub-quantum flux initiation sequence, but the lattice matrix doesn’t want to coalesce. Most likely part of the numbers is missing.”
Alice reached up and pushed aside the streaming numbers Melaina had been trying to study. Minimizing the projection, she brought the stray data back to center and expanded it. The numbers weren’t scrolling, they were laid out in a simple pattern Alice thought she recognized. She tapped the table controls and moved the numbers around, pairing up sets and taking away common sub-sets. Melaina’s eyes began to narrow as she watched her friend manipulate the data. Alice was surprised when she finished the decoding and tapped a final key. The resulting diagram of numbers became obvious to both women as soon as she was done.
“It’s a machine?” Melaina said. “These are component identifiers here and here. What are these other sets?”
“I think they’re three-dee imaging coordinates,” Melaina replied. “I took a course once on engine design. The professor kept looking at my butt, but I passed the class with a low mark anyway. There’s missing coordinates, but I think we can still get an image from these.”
Alice tapped the table again, calling up an imaging program and overlaying the coordinates into the system. An image began to form above the table of an M-space reactor. Melaina’s eyes went wide as the recognizable spheroid coalesced. Steadily, more of the device began to form as the coordinates were swept into the program. Projections seemed to point out to nothing from all directions, and a wide, arcing base formed from below. The whole machine appeared to be cradled inside another oblate spheroid shape. As the program finished compiling the image, Alice leaned in close and pointed.
“Anything look familiar?”
Melaina leaned into the projection, peering into the unfinished crevices of the device. Alice saw the look on Melaina’s face as she traced the lines of the image—the same as the faces of engineers who became lost in a new design. She had seen it on Lee’s face as they travelled through M-space and he projected an exterior image. A rapturous expression of wonder.
“It’s amazing,” Melaina whispered. “I never even thought…”
“Thought what?” Alice asked. “What is it?”
“Alice, what do you know about M-space?”
“I know you shouldn’t enter it without shields or that weird armor, the … well that some races use. Other than that, not much.”
“M-space is really the barrier between dimensions,” Melaina said, a schoolteacher’s monotone. “If you imagine two layers of paper, one on top of the other, the molecules of space between them are like M-space. We call it M-space because it’s part of the membrane of super-space separating our dimension from another.”
“Okay, that much I remember from school,” Alice replied, feeling like a student again. “What does that have to do with this thing?”
“An M-space reactor squeezes exotic energy on the sub-quantum level using massive electromagnetic forces. That’s what this thing is here,” Melaina continued, pointing to the spherical reactor. “When you project the energy produced, it pinches space and opens a puncture between our reality and the membrane. That’s the vortex you see. It’s like taking the paper and squeezing it between your fingers. Are you still with me?”
“Yep.”
“Since the process was perfected centuries ago, the M-space engine has remained almost exactly the same. We’ve refined propulsion and everything else, but the process of opening the vortex has remained almost exactly the same,” Melaina said without really stopping for the answer. “I’ve seen drawings of hypothetical refinements to the engine that weren’t half as complicated as this. This spheroid shape here is some kind of accelerator, I think. What do you think?”
Alice stared back at Melaina, her eyes glazed over with the explanation. After a moment, she turned her attention back to the projection. She cocked her head to one side as she rose from her seat and stuck her head into the device. There was something about the device
which tickled her mind. She reached out and swept the reactor from the image, leaving the spheroid and projections. She used her own finger to trace the lines which might connect the projections into another circle. She reached to the table and tapped another set of commands. The image unhooked itself from a three-dimensional plane. She traced the circles again, this time her fingers leaving a trail of light between the projections and the spheroid. When she was done, she slapped the image, sending it spinning.
“What happens if we run the M-space particles from the reactor through these projections and get the whole thing spinning?” Alice asked, seeing something in the rotating image.
Melaina fell back into her chair. She stared at Alice in amazement. When she looked back to the projection, it had slowed its rotation and come to a halt at a strange angle. Bits of loose data had been spinning along with the device, and Melaina began to connect the strays into the main image. What she was envisioning was unbelievable, but it was the logical extension of what they had on the table.
“It’s an engine, Alice,” Melaina said in wonder. “It’s the strangest and most amazing thing I’ve ever seen, and I need to see more to be sure, but I think this generator may be beyond anything the Alliance has ever created.”
“What’s it for?” Alice asked, settling back into her own chair. “I mean, why do we need another engine? We can enter and exit M-space without a problem now. Why create another engine?”
“I don’t know,” Melaina said with a strange grin. “I really don’t have any idea. Alice, I am one of the brightest minds of our generation, and I have no idea what this thing is for other than to open an M-space vortex.”
“On top of that,” Alice continued. “What does it have to do with whoever killed Lee’s father?”
“I don’t know,” Melaina said, exhaustion overcoming her sense of wonder. “It’s all swimming through my head right now. I need to rest. I just need a few hours of sleep and I can take a look at it then.”
“Of course,” Alice said, tapping keys and saving the data. “Let me help you to your room.”
Alice stood and came around the table. She helped Melaina to her feet and the two women walked around the table. Alice stepped through the doorway and into the hall. As she turned to activate the panel closing the door, she looked at the image one last time. The farther they got into the investigation, the more questions they uncovered. She hoped, for Melaina’s sake, they found some answers soon. Otherwise, she would be carrying the shorter woman to bed every night and she didn’t think her back could take it.
12
The Alliance database contained very little data on the Xyphlic Colony. Lee had needed to speak to one of his Tonal crew, a pale-skinned engineer named Gallen, to find out why. Gallen explained the colony was a shameful loss for the normally boisterous Tonal. Taking control of the former mining colony in a bloody overthrow, the Ixloab had declared their independence from the Tonal Commission. Since then, the Tonal high commission had tried to retake the asteroid several times, but the religious zealots had always managed to fend off the attacks. Using funds donated by their believers, the Ixloab had purchased old ships and refitted them into an effective fleet. According to Gallen, he believed the ships which had attacked Resolute had been recent acquisitions and not fully restored.
Henry was quick to point out the flaws in the original plan, and interrogated the prisoners further to gather more data. An all-out assault would surely cause too much death, but anything less than the full power of the battleship would likely fail. In the end, Lee agreed to utilizing elements of subtlety and stealth alongside power. Gallen volunteered to help with the assault if he could, but the three men decided his lack of experience in combat would only hinder the mission. After a review of available assets and a mission briefing, the plan was put into action. The prisoners had informed them of the Ixloab fleet’s search patterns, and they set events into motion at a time when the asteroid was supposed to be the least defended.
The moment Resolute translated into real space and the energy corona bled off, Lee saw a set of cruisers on approach. The ships were vintage, but so was Resolute. These ships were better kept than the two escorts they had fought earlier, but the battleship had been upgraded beyond original design specs. Lee watched as Demon Squadron spread out behind them as ordered. Instead of racing into the battle, Lee wanted the powerful little fighters to wait and use Resolute as cover until the next phase of the plan could begin. Lee turned their starboard side towards the oncoming cruisers and prepared for a fight.
The opening volley was fired by the Ixloab, two of the cruisers firing plasma cannons towards Resolute. Lee watched the monitor as the faint blue sheen of their shields absorbed the energy and redirected it. In this instance, waiting for the other ships to get closer was in his best interest. A second volley of cannon fire peppered the shields again, this time from the other two cruisers. A glance at the octopod showed the creature analyzing the attack strategy quickly and programming a firing pattern to send to the gun crews.
The Demons had maneuvered back into the shadow of Resolute for cover. They stayed in a tight triangular formation, with Merlin at the center, moving slowly instead of their normal break-neck pace. As the cruisers came closer, the bay door on Resolute’s side slid open again and the small passenger shuttle launched. The shuttle moved upwards, turning as it flew to face the oncoming attackers. Near the apex of Resolute’s bulk, the shuttle stopped and waited in position.
The cruisers reached optimum firing range and came to a halt. Resolute’s shields were now crackling with pale blue energy as if she were engulfed in a storm, lightning flaring all over her hull plating. The first and fourth cruiser began to move away from the formation, sliding sideways away from the remaining ships. They had stopped firing during the maneuver, allowing the battleship time to bleed off some of the excess energy they had been pounding into her. They spread out, the first ships moving towards the bow and the fourth moving astern. As they floated away, they turned their bow guns constantly, scanning for targets as the nose of the ships stayed locked on Resolute. The remaining ships continued firing, covering the maneuver with plasma bolts in the hopes of blinding Resolute’s sensors.
“Two-dimensional,” the octopod’s vocoder whirred. “Initiating Beta pattern. Tonal grounders can’t think in three-dimensions. Good.”
“Alright,” Lee said to his bridge crew. “Give the signal and let’s get ready. Signal fire crews to mind the guns. It’s about to get hot down there.”
As a round of acknowledgements echoed around the bridge, Lee watched the screen to see the shuttle moving above the line of fire and out into space. A barrage of plasma fire narrowly missed the underside of the unarmed ship. It turned its nose upwards and shot away in a parabolic arc towards the asteroid base. The second cruiser changed its firing pattern and began to target the little ship, which bobbed and weaved in anticipation of the attack. The fore and aft cruisers began peppering the shields with light fire, testing the augmented system for weaknesses.
As the shuttle continued towards the asteroid, the Demons moved down and away from the attack. They were running in a low-power mode and moving very slowly. As Lee watched, their sensor signature began to merge with some of the small asteroids floating nearby. The ships stayed in the strange formation while advancing towards the base. Merlin was very careful not to allow the micro-meteors to impact his shields too often. It was a meticulous bit of flying but they were safe and out of the line of fire.
The shuttle took a hit on its underbelly and bucked up, kicking the tail of the little ship up and over the bow. As the ship attempted to right itself, another barrage of hits blasted across its powerful shields. The second cruiser had turned to face the shuttle as it got nearer to the base, and had turned the full power of its weapons at the ship. In a blast of plasma and exploding air, the shuttle burst apart, scattering itself amid the asteroids forever.
“Now,” Lee ordered.
Resolute’s cannons
opened up for the first time in the battle. The upgraded weapons threw red-orange bolts of plasma across the void and into the shields of the Ixloab cruisers. Fore and aft gun emplacements, not original features of the Independence class battleships, poured fire into the cruisers maneuvering around them. The second cruiser, still turning back to the battle, took a powerful series of hits along its flank, rupturing the hull and causing green flame to erupt and pour energy into space.
As the battle roared into life above, the Demons quietly used the cover of the conflagration to move closer to the Ixloab base. Jackal, at point, kept the four ships moving in and out of the covering asteroids while maintaining a beeline to their target. As they moved closer, she broke cover and came out of the field of small icy rocks and into cleared space. The squadron moved with her, maintaining the tight formation as they sped up and approached the base. Their speed was still minimal for the advanced fighters, but they needed to reach their target quickly, and stealth was no longer a worry with the battle behind them.
Resolute continued to fire its full fury at the Ixloab ships. The injured cruiser was trying to turn itself away from the cannons that had now ripped a massive hole in its armor plating. Like Resolute, the ships were made before battle shields were common, and she was heavily armored underneath. The armor, however, was no match for the power of the battleship’s cannons. The three remaining Estes cruisers tried to mount a counter-offensive, opening up with missiles as well as plasma cannons. One of Resolute’s aft shields flickered as one of the conventional torpedoes impacted the hull, blasting away a sensor pod and destabilizing the magnetic field which propelled the ship.
Resolute Alliance (The War for Terra Book 6) Page 10
