They kept flying closer. Soon Ben-Ari wouldn't need to use the zoom function to see the wall.
She turned toward Aurora, the ship's pilot. "Aurora, adjust our course. Give us a wide berth around the wall. Whatever it is, let's not disturb it."
Aurora nodded—at least as much as a mollusk could nod. The Menorian slumped in her seat, boneless and blobby. Her skin turned deep purple, then flashed with swirls of gold and blue. A camera attached to her seat picked up the patterns—her species' language—and translated them into English.
"Yes, mistress of dark waters," the translator intoned in a calm, feminine voice. "We shall swim around the jagged boulder like a lone podling seeking not to wake a jaw-snapper of the depths."
Ben-Ari nodded. "Thank you, Aurora."
The mollusk gave another nod, then reached out her eight tentacles. The digits manipulated eight holographic interfaces that hovered around the pilot. The Lodestar changed course, thrumming as it turned left, steering clear of the wall in space.
As they kept flying forward, the wall moved to block their passage.
Ben-Ari frowned.
Once again, they were on direct course to meet the wall.
"Aurora, fly around it!" Ben-Ari said.
The pilot hit more controls. The Lodestar thrummed unhappily and swerved, this time moving to the right.
Once more the wall moved, again blocking their course.
"Mistress, we're about to hit!" Aurora said.
"Full stop," Ben-Ari said.
With the hum of brakes and thrusters, the Lodestar came to a halt. The wall hovered before them, smooth and dark, just large enough to block their passage. Ben-Ari stared. She saw no bricks, no bolts, no mortar—just a wall of polished stone.
"Are we detecting anything?" she asked the professor. "Any radiation? Signals? Something?"
The professor looked up from his controls. "No, Captain. It's very curious. We seem to have discovered something completely unique."
"Wonderful," Ben-Ari muttered. She turned toward her communications officer, a young woman with a mop of red curls under her cap. "Lieutenant Hirsi, send out a message. Say hello. See if anyone answers."
The officer nodded. "Yes, Captain. Sending standard Earth greeting in two hundred languages." She hit a few buttons, then waited. "No response, ma'am."
"Feels like we're talking to the wall," Fish said, stepping back onto the bridge. Finally he had put on his uniform, though he still wore his shark-tooth necklace.
"Hilarious." Ben-Ari turned back toward Aurora. "Back up. Just a short distance. Then fly as fast as you can over the wall."
Aurora flashed yellow and green. "Yes, mistress of the dark seas."
The Lodestar reversed. The wall stood ahead, still, and Ben-Ari had the uncanny feeling that this black square was staring at them. For long moments they kept backing up, and the wall grew smaller and smaller.
They came to a halt. For a moment they hovered in place.
Then the engines roared.
The Lodestar charged forward and upward at top speed.
The wall shot up to meet them.
"Stop!" Ben-Ari shouted.
Aurora hit the brakes. The Lodestar rumbled to a halt. The bridge rattled. Alarms flashed. Crew members fell. Ben-Ari had to grab her seat, and the floor trembled beneath her feet.
They came to a stop only meters away from the wall. It hovered before them, impassive, silent, still.
Ben-Ari sneered.
"Aurora, fly upward in a direct path."
"Yes, mistress."
The Lodestar changed course. They began soaring. The wall followed. It curved above them, blocking their ascent. Once more, they screeched to a halt. The wall stood before them.
"Some kind of ancient guardian, I assume," the professor said, staring at the wall. "Protecting this sector of space. We should study it. Whatever civilization built this wall must possess astounding technology."
Ben-Ari sighed. "We have no time for games nor investigations. A guardian protecting its territory? Fine. We'll take a detour. Aurora, do a U-turn. Fly us a hundred million kilometers back from where we came. We'll take a detour, giving the wall a nice astronomical unit as a berth—too far to possibly disturb it. It'll add a few hours to our journey, but we can tolerate that."
As the starship was turning around, the professor's gaze followed the floating wall. He sighed.
"I hope to someday return and study this artifact," he said. "I hope that someday, when war ends, we humans can resume our true purpose: exploration and noble understanding."
Has that ever been our true purpose? Ben-Ari wondered. Throughout history, it seemed to her, humanity had fought wars, had struggled, had faced evil, sometimes falling to darkness, sometimes rising from ashes with new fire. To the professor, perhaps, humanity found nobility in understanding. Ben-Ari often felt that she understood too much—about the nature of evil, about darkness and despair. To her, human nobility was found in struggle, in shining light in darkness.
Yet perhaps that was exactly what the professor was doing too, what all science did. It lit the darkness. A single candle in the night.
Perhaps we soldiers and scientists aren't that different.
They began to fly away, leaving the wall and its mysteries behind.
And the wall followed.
It shot overhead, so fast it appeared as a blur, and descended ahead of them, blocking their retreat.
Ben-Ari cursed as Aurora hit the brakes. The Lodestar again slammed to a halt, rattling the ship. Again crew members fell, and alarms blared. They stopped only meters away from crashing into the wall.
"Aurora, do whatever you can to get past that thing!" Ben-Ari said.
The pilot nodded. She flew upward, downward, side to side. Wherever they moved, the wall followed. No matter how fast Aurora flew, the wall was faster. Ben-Ari felt like the ball in a game of Pong.
"Full stop," Ben-Ari said. They came to a halt, the wall once more ahead of them. "I've had enough of this. Lieutenant Hirsi, open another communication channel. Connect it to my mic."
The young officer nodded. "Yes, Captain. Connecting . . . You're on."
Ben-Ari walked toward the edge of the bridge. In the circular room, with its viewports covering every surface, it felt like standing face-to-face with the artifact.
"Alien vessel!" she said. "I am Einav Ben-Ari, Captain of the ESS Lodestar. You are preventing passage of a diplomatic vessel through neutral space! If you do not move aside, we will be forced to destroy you."
No reply came.
Ben-Ari turned toward her crew.
"Suggestions?"
They stared at her. Professor Noah Isaac, her chief science officer and second in command. Richie "Fish" Fishburne, her exobiologist. Aurora, her pilot. Half a dozen junior officers. They were all silent, out of ideas.
It was Lieutenant Commander Niilo Virtanen, her new security officer, who stepped toward her.
Last year, her old security officer—the famous martial artist Mario Marino—had betrayed her. She had killed him herself. Niilo had joined them only weeks ago, replacing the traitor. He was a towering, burly man, hailing from the hinterlands of Finland, and liked to boast of his Viking blood. His hair was long and platinum, so pale it was almost white, and hung down to his waist. His beard was just as blond and forked into two braids. A medallion shaped like a drinking horn hung around his neck. He wore a HOPE uniform—navy blue with brass buttons—but Ben-Ari imagined that he'd be more comfortable in furs and leather, rowing a raiding boat, an axe instead of a gun hanging from his side.
"I say we blast it apart, Captain," the Viking said, voice rumbling. "Our cannons will make short work of it."
The professor gasped. "This is a valuable, perhaps ancient piece of technology. We cannot simply blast it away. We are explorers. Not vandals."
"Wrong." Ben-Ari turned toward the professor. Her voice was hard. "We are soldiers."
The professor stared at her. She saw the feeling of betra
yal in his eyes. It pained her to publicly contradict him. She loved him. But she had to make him understand.
"I am no soldier," the professor said softly.
"We all are." Ben-Ari's voice softened too. "Every man, woman, and child. Every human healthy or ill, strong or weak, young or old. We are all soldiers now. Our entire species is an army. Our entire species is at war. There will be time for exploration, for wisdom, for the beauty of understanding. Right now it is time for war. We need to reach the Galactic Alliance. We need to join their union, to seek their fleet. And that wall is in our way. And we will let nothing stand in our way." She turned toward Niilo. "Blast it away."
The towering Fin nodded. "Gladly, Captain."
The warrior returned to his control panel. Engines thrummed deep within the Lodestar. They watched as shells flew out.
The shells slammed into the wall and exploded.
Shrapnel flew through space.
When the dust settled, they all stared at the wall. Stains appeared there—the remains of the shells.
The wall itself was undamaged.
"Plasma blasts!" Ben-Ari said. "Melt that thing!"
They fired bolt after bolt of plasma. These weapons could melt through hulls of warships. They could liquefy asteroids. The inferno kept blazing, washing across the wall. When the fire finally died, the wall still stood, showing no sign of harm. They tried other weapons. Lasers. Even conventional bullets. They tried everything other than the Lodestar's nuclear weapons, which Ben-Ari didn't want to risk at such close range. Nothing so much as scratched the wall.
"Curious," the professor said, tapping his chin. "I called the wall stone, but surely it's made of a different material, artificially created by brilliant chemists. I would love to fly out with a mobile lab and run some tests."
"Professor, the fate of humanity!" Ben-Ari said, letting her exasperation sound. "Remember?"
He nodded. "I do indeed, Captain. The first step in solving a problem is understanding the problem. We do not understand this wall."
"We don't have time for research," she said. "But I have an idea. We have two shuttles on this ship. We send one shuttle flying below the wall. Presumably, the wall will move down to block it. Then we fly over the wall. So far, even as it chased us among the stars, the wall has shown us only one facade. Why does it keep only one side facing us? It's possible that the other side of the wall is undefended, that we can destroy it from there."
"And if we can't?" the professor said. "Would we abandon the shuttle—and its pilot—behind?"
Ben-Ari shook her head. "We'll continue confusing the wall. Flying at it from two directions. If it's a simple algorithm, it'll follow whatever vessel approaches first, allowing the other vessel to pass through. We'll get our shuttle back."
Niilo, the towering security guard, stepped forth. The two golden braids of his forked beard swayed. He puffed out his massive chest.
"Allow me to fly the shuttle, Captain. I volunteer."
She shook her head. "No. I need you aboard." She turned toward Lieutenant Jordan Smith, one of the twins. "Jordan, you're a quick pilot. You'll man the shuttle. Don't worry. We won't leave you behind."
The young man smiled. "I'm Connor, Captain. That's Jordan." He pointed at his twin. "I'm the smart one. He's the good pilot."
The real Jordan bristled. "I'm smart!"
Ben-Ari cursed inwardly. She always got the twins confused. Only one of them had a bionic eye, but the damn thing was so lifelike.
"Jordan, come." She snapped her fingers. "Connor, you stay and keep helping Aurora."
Jordan rose and nodded. "Yes, Captain. It would be my honor."
Ben-Ari waited on the bridge as Jordan made his way to the shuttle bay. The wait seemed intolerably long. The wall kept hovering ahead, and she couldn't shake off the feeling of consciousness, of that black surface staring at her like the black eyes of the grays. Of something there mocking, calculating, and cruel.
Finally the shuttle emerged from the Lodestar. Ben-Ari saw it flying beneath her feet, heading toward the wall. It descended deeper and blasted forth, ready for an attempt to fly under the obstacle.
As expected, the mysterious wall began flying lower, prepared to block the shuttle.
"Fly over it!" Ben-Ari shouted. "Now!"
The Lodestar blasted forth.
Everything happened at once.
The shuttle kept flying. At the last moment, the wall seemed to notice the Lodestar attempting to fly over it. The wall changed course. It shot upward, flying to block the Lodestar, leaving the shuttle unmolested.
The Lodestar had to slam to a halt.
The shuttle almost made it under the wall.
And from the bottom of the wall, a beam of searing, blinding laser emerged.
The beam slammed into the shuttle. The small vessel exploded.
The Lodestar hovered before the wall. Below them, the shuttle was mere shards. Lieutenant Jordan Smith was gone.
Connor, his twin brother, stared with huge eyes. He let out a hoarse cry.
"Jordan," he whispered. "Jordan . . ."
Ben-Ari stared at the wall.
She took a deep breath.
"Fire every goddamn weapon we have!" she shouted.
They fired. They fired everything. Plasma, shells, bullets, lasers. They pounded the wall with a force that could topple civilizations.
And the wall moved—toward them.
"Reverse, reverse!" Ben-Ari shouted, and Aurora grabbed controls, and the Lodestar began to move back, but the wall was too fast, and—
Viewports shattered.
The bridge shook so madly control boards ripped free from the floor.
Crew members shouted and fell, and klaxons blared. Robotic voices sounded across the bridge.
Front hull cracked. Front hull cracked.
Deck 17C breached!
Sealing off corridors 17I to 17K.
Ben-Ari reeled. She rose to her feet, stumbled toward a fallen control panel, and summoned a holographic diagram of the ship. The Lodestar was shaped like an old sailing vessel sans the masts. Now their prow had crumbled. Their figurehead—Eos, the Greek goddess of travel—hung loosely. Cracks ran across the front of the ship.
"Casualty report!" she barked.
A robotic voice answered. "Eight crew members no longer show signs of life. Number of wounded—unknown."
Reports came in from the medical bays. Already the paramedics were rushing into the breached bays, wearing helmets, trying to rescue whoever they could. Ben-Ari knew that when the dust settled, the casualty count would climb.
Kneeling, Ben-Ari looked up. Through strands of loose hair, she stared at one of the monitors that still functioned.
She stared at the floating wall in space.
She rose to her feet.
She opened a communication channel and spoke in a cold, hard voice. "Who are you?"
Ahead of them, the wall changed.
Its surface bloated, bubbling outward in a thousand black boils. The dark tumors took form, becoming a twisted, leering face.
Across the bridge, officers gasped.
With hard eyes, Ben-Ari stared at the face on the wall.
It was a massive face, as tall as the Lodestar. The eyes were black pits, the mouth wide and filled with black teeth. There was no color, just that black stone, twisting, staring.
And the face on the wall spoke.
"I . . . am . . . Beleth."
Ben-Ari squared her shoulders. "I am Captain Einav Ben-Ari of Earth. Beleth, you have carried out an attack on a starship of Earth. Move aside now, and resist us no further, or we will consider your hostility a declaration of war."
Beleth laughed. The deep, grumbling sound emerged from every speaker on the Lodestar, reverberating through the ship.
"Humans . . . So violent. So aggressive. So quick to declare war. Such barbarous, pathetic apes."
"You are the one who greeted us with aggression!" Ben-Ari said. "You destroyed one of our shuttles! You rammed
into our hull!"
Beleth sneered. His deep voice rumbled. "Your little vessel almost fled me. I could not allow that, Captain. You are my toy-things. You are my slaves. Rebel against me again, and more of you shall die."
The face melted back into the wall.
Ben-Ari stood for a moment, staring.
Then she spun around and began walking toward the elevator.
"Fish!" she barked. "Niilo! With me." She paused, then turned toward Lieutenant Connor Smith. "You too, Connor. Come with us."
The young officer nodded, eyes still damp. His twin brother had died only moments ago, but he joined them, chin held high, back straight.
"Yes, ma'am!" the young officer said, voice trembling yet determined.
Before they could reach the elevator, the professor rushed toward them.
"Einav, what are you planning?" the professor said.
"I'm going out there," Ben-Ari said. "In a spacesuit. I'm going to land on that damn wall and climb over it. Fish, Niilo, and Connor are coming with me."
The professor's eyes widened. "The wall will shoot you when you approach. You saw what it did to our shuttle."
"That's why you'll blind it," Ben-Ari said. "When I give the signal, blast out lights. Crank up those lights as bright as you can. Blind the son of a bitch."
The professor still blocked her passage to the elevator, himself like a wall.
"Even if you can make it over the wall," he said, "what do you expect to find?"
Ben-Ari smiled thinly. "The unknown." On a whim, she kissed the professor's cheek. "Your favorite thing. You have command of the bridge, Noah."
She left the bridge. She walked down a corridor past running engineers and technicians, under flashing lights, over shattered glass. Two medics raced by, carrying a wounded man on a litter. With Fish, Niilo, and Connor, she made her way to the armory.
They pulled on armored spacesuits with jetpacks. Niilo was so large they had made him a custom suit when he had joined the ship. They grabbed rifles and climbing gear—suction cups that attached to their boots and gloves, able to pump out air to work in vacuum. They headed toward the airlock.
Ben-Ari spoke into the communicator built into her prosthetic arm.
"Professor?"
Isaac's voice emerged from the speakers. "Here, Captain."
Earth Eternal (Earthrise Book 9) Page 4
