‘It appears that work began five years ago on a new Stinger Class pursuit ship, one that would be capable of achieving speeds in excess of Time Distort 30. The ship was equipped with a direct neural-feed drive system, which meant that, once the Federation had begun mass production, an entire flotilla of such vessels could theoretically be gridlinked to a central flagship computer guaranteeing a precise co-ordinated attack response. Taking such decisions out of the hands of human pilots would mean a faster, more accurate response time with an almost zero percent probability of error. But an accident three years ago involving a prototype model caused the whole structure of the shipyards to be declared unsafe and the complex was soon evacuated and shut down.
‘Scans suggest that the ship may have been armed with phasium-tipped warheads, which may account for the widespread structural damage. A massive fire tore through the shipyards, killing hundreds of people and buckling most of the support struts on the west wing of the structure. They’ve not been used since.’
There was silence for a while, as everyone tried to process the implications of what Orac had just said.
Obviously Vila arrived at his usual conclusions, namely that it meant certain death for him. ‘So why are we going there exactly?’ he said at last.
‘Because we think that Project Archangel is being restarted by someone,’ said Blake. ‘And we need to put a stop to it. Fast.’
Avon said, ‘There is one obvious question that no-one has bothered to ask yet.’
‘I’ve a feeling that you’re about to ask it, though,’ Blake said with a smile.
‘Why stop the experiments?’ Avon asked.
‘Because there was an accident that cost hundreds of lives?’ Jenna offered.
Avon shook his head. ‘But why should that stop the experiments? A few minor teething troubles have never stopped them before. What are a few hundred lives to the Federation?’
‘Minor teething troubles?’ Vila said incredulously. ‘You consider the death of everyone in the shipyards as “minor teething troubles”?’
‘That wasn’t what Avon said, Vila,’ said Cally.
‘Avon’s quite right,’ said Blake with a frown. ‘For a project as important as this, that’s exactly how the Federation would regard those deaths: nothing more than a temporary setback, an inconvenience. If they had a ship that could reach such speeds—no, if they had an entire fleet of ships…They’d be unstoppable.’
‘They could reach the outer worlds in a matter of hours,’ Avon said. ‘Civil uprisings would be squashed before they had even properly begun.’
‘They’d even go after the smugglers on the outer rim, stop the supply line to the main dissident groups,’ said Jenna. ‘With ships like that the Federation could do anything they liked. No-one would be able to outrun them.’
‘Not even the Liberator,’ said Vila. And the thought unnerved him.
‘Which leads me to ask the question again,’ said Avon. ‘Why stop the experiments?’
Blake considered his colleague’s question for a brief moment before turning very slowly back towards the viewscreen, pointing up at the image of the dark and silent shipyards. ‘I’ve really no idea. But I have a feeling that these shipyards may be where all the answers lie.’ Blake glanced away from the screen, looking at each of his crewmates in turn. ‘Shall we go and look?’
artefact [5]
ADMINISTRATION BUILDING—EARTH.
Archive File: 20-09/077
Format: Datacube
Subject: Test Subjects, deaths of
Status: Encrypted (Eyes Only)
Scene—Committee Room.
[The lights are turned down and most of the room is in darkness. The only light comes from the vid-screen on the far wall. The film is grainy and a little out of focus. We see bodies suspended from the ceiling by tubes and wires, followed by men in white, sterile uniforms poking around inside bloody cadavers lying on featureless slabs of metal. After a while the film comes to an end and the lights snap on. Four people—two men and two women—sit around a large, semi-circular table; each has a terminal screen in front of them. These are Project Supervisor BRECK, Councillors ABNER and GYST, and Secretary RONTANE.]
GYST: [after a long silence] There were no survivors?
BRECK: None.
GYST: Do we have a full explanation yet as to why this happened?
BRECK: We have a pretty good idea. However Dr Judd’s team is currently looking into the matter in some depth, so we should have a full report by the end of the week.
RONTANE: Keldo said that there would be safeguards put into place, to stop this kind of thing from happening.
BRECK: He did. But from what I can gather the safeguards just didn’t work in this instance.
ABNER: According to Keldo’s initial report, the problem was neurological.
BRECK: That is correct, yes.
ABNER: So, the test subjects rejected the implants?
BRECK: In a way, yes, but the problem goes much deeper than that. As I say it’s still early days yet but it looks as if the real cause may stem from the Network itself.
ABNER: The Network?
BRECK: More specifically, its gridlink software.
GYST: This was also a problem in the original prototypes, yes?
BRECK: That is correct, although Pellas tried to compensate for the problem by introducing a neural-feed interface, which he had implanted at the top of each of the subjects’ spinal cords.
RONTANE: Neural-feed interface?
BRECK: In layman’s terms the neural-feed interface is what links the subjects’ minds to the ship’s guidance systems. Think of it as a kind of power transformer, only instead of altering power from one circuit to another it converts electrochemical energy into mathematical equations.
RONTANE: For what purpose?
BRECK: It’s rather difficult to explain, I’m afraid. I think Dr Pellas would be better equipped to answer that question. I could ask him to put it into the report, if you like.
RONTANE: Yes. Thank you.
[There is a pause as they consult their terminals.]
ABNER: Can you expand a little please on what exactly killed the test subjects.
BRECK: Certainly. A week or so after the alteration process, several of the test subjects began to display sudden, alarming reactions to the cybernetic implants: hypertension, aggressive mood-swings and extreme delayed sleep phase syndrome. Dr Tam believes that the subjects’ brains were systematically fighting the cybernetic implants. It would appear that whenever the subjects were connected to the Network, electromagnetic feedback was being intermittently discharged through the cerebral cortex and frying their nervous systems. Eventually all the test subjects died of a mixture of aneurysms, myocardial infarctions and self-mutilation.
GYST: But why didn’t any of the equipment pick up on this?
BRECK: Some of it did, the CPV in particular. But it was interpreted as ghosting.
ABNER: Ghosting?
BRECK: A data echo. It’s not uncommon in equipment of this kind.
ABNER: So it was ignored?
BRECK: At first, yes. But when the same anomaly continued to reoccur a full diagnostic was performed on the equipment.
RONTANE: And they found that it was this electric feedback?
BRECK: Electromagnetic feedback, yes. But by then it was too late, the damage had already been done. The subjects had basically torn themselves apart from the inside.
ABNER: And this would also account for the unfortunate incident at the Callidus shipyards, which resulted in the deaths of a number of Presidential and Administration officials, including Councillor Alexei?
BRECK: The same basic cause.
RONTANE: In your opinion, as project supervisor, could this have been avoided?
BRECK: It’s difficult to say. Certain things could have been avoided had Director Servalan addressed certain concerns.
RONTANE: In particular?
BRECK: Dr Keldo had voiced, on numerous occasions, his concer
n that the Director was pushing for faster results, despite his warnings that the test subjects had not been given appropriate time to adjust to the alterations.
GYST: And if the Director had allowed Keldo more time would the test subjects have survived the process?
BRECK: That’s not really for me to say, Councillor. I think we should wait for Judd’s report…
GYST: I assure you, Supervisor Breck, we won’t be making any decisions until we have all the relevant facts to hand. But for now, the committee would like to hear your own opinion on the matter—strictly off the record, of course.
BRECK: In that case—no, ma’am, I do not believe that allowing Keldo more time would have made a difference. In my opinion, and you did ask for it, this project was doomed from the start. The very idea of upgrading the mutoid programme was, quite frankly, a huge miscalculation on the part of Space Command. It’s bad enough that those bloodsuckers are now being allowed into pilot training, without us trying to breed a new strain of super-vampires. This is an unnecessary waste of manpower and resources, which could be much better utilised sorting out the abject poverty and appalling living conditions currently being suffered by those colonies on the outer worlds. [He pauses, then continues, quietly] You asked for my opinion and there it is. As you can see it is something I feel rather passionately about.
[There is a pause as the others consult their terminals again.]
GYST: Thank you Supervisor Breck, no more questions. If you’d like to leave the room now, please.
[BRECK rises from his chair and leaves the room. There is silence for a while.]
CHAPTER TWELVE
The picture on the viewscreen didn’t tell them very much, other than it was your basic, run-of-the-mill planetary system.
They’d dropped down to standard speed the moment the Liberator had entered the extreme detector range of any possible Federation scanning equipment. Blake had ordered both Zen and Orac to make a systematic sweep of all twelve planetary bodies, starting with the gas giants Callidus XI and XII, and slowly working their way inwards. Orac had picked up some faint energy traces near Callidus IX—which was obviously the shipyards—but other than that the system appeared to be clean; that is if you didn’t include the Hunter-Killer Class pursuit ship that was currently orbiting the third planet at an orbit range of less than 1,000 spacials.
‘Zen, magnify image,’ Blake ordered as he turned quickly to examine the viewscreen.
The Hunter-Killer appeared to be alone and completely oblivious to the Liberator’s presence—at least, it didn’t seem to be making any movements to the contrary. If the ship had known they were there it would have done something by now, either moved to intercept them, or turned tail and run.
‘It must be Travis!’ Blake’s eyes never left the screen as he spoke.
‘You think he’s planning to ambush us?’ Vila asked.
Jenna said, ‘Well, he knew we’d come here. This is where the Archangel trail leads. He just wasn’t counting on us turning up without those pursuit ships on our tail.’
‘Zen, what is the alert status of the Federation vessel?’
‘HUNTER-KILLER CLASS VESSEL IS CURRENTLY ADOPTING A NON-AGGRESSIVE POSTURE,’ Zen reported. ‘WEAPON SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN POWERED DOWN, SHIELD STRENGTH AT NORMAL.’
‘Has the Federation ship’s status changed or deviated in any way, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, since the Liberator’s arrival in the Callidus system?’
‘NEGATIVE.’
‘Has the Liberator been scanned by the Federation vessel since its arrival in the Callidus system?’
‘NEGATIVE.’
Blake spun quickly on his heel until he was facing his crewmates ‘We’ve got him!’ he pointed a finger at Jenna. ‘Set a course for Callidus III, nice and slow. Try and keep its moon in between us and that ship.’
‘What are you going to do?’ Cally asked.
‘What I should have done a long time ago,’ answered Blake. ‘I’m going to finish Travis once and for all.’
*
He’d been waiting for this moment for so long now that, when it finally came, Blake was almost disappointed.
Almost.
Perhaps he’d been expecting a little more from a lunatic like Travis, after all the Space Commander had always done everything in his power to survive in the past, even resorting to murder and blackmail on the odd occasion. Travis had always reminded Blake of a poisonous snake, the kind that sink their fangs into your finger and then refuse to let go no matter how hard you shake them.
The Liberator’s attack seemed to have taken Travis’s ship completely by surprise, slipping across the thin halo of the planet’s upper atmosphere with all neutron blasters firing. The first barrage had torn open the Hunter-Killer’s outer hull and knocked out its starboard thrusters, sending it spinning wildly out of planetary orbit.
By the time the Liberator had swung itself back around, readying for another pass, the Federation ship had got itself under control and was streaking away to port, trying to get behind the rebel ship.
The first plasma bolt missed the Liberator by a hair’s breadth as the huge alien ship rolled to starboard, but the second found its mark, pounding directly into the force wall, battering it with a wave of superheated energy.
The Hunter-Killer accelerated smoothly away, twisting downwards as the Liberator fired her neutron blasters again. The Federation vessel tumbled gracefully towards the planet for a moment, before quickly straightening itself for another attack run; this time its target was the rebel ship’s engine.
One thousand spacials away from its target, the Hunter-Killer let loose a second volley of plasma bolts, which streaked across the patch of empty space like a cluster of tiny comets.
But this time the Liberator was ready and once again the ship rolled deftly away, out of the path of the advancing plasma bolts.
The bolts exploded harmlessly above the atmosphere as the Liberator swung around a final time, energy erupting from the three blaster cannons.
The neutron beams hit their target, cleaving the engine housing in half, and causing the drive system to explode. The shockwave rippled outwards in an unbroken circle, tossing the Liberator violently aside as it swept its way out towards the edges of the Callidus system.
When the explosion finally abated there was nothing left of Travis’s ship except a scattering of dust and debris, which hung in space like a miniature asteroid belt.
*
By the time Blake had picked himself up off the floor it was all over.
The shockwave had shaken them up pretty badly, sending the ship spinning, so that it was now facing in the opposite direction to the explosion. As soon as Blake had dragged himself to his feet he had ordered Zen to turn the ship back around; the sight that greeted them as the Liberator swung back onto its original heading was pretty unambiguous. The Federation ship had been destroyed—Travis was dead.
Still, Blake was not going to take any chances, not where Travis was concerned. ‘Zen, bring the extra range detectors online. I want a complete sweep of the system. If there are any Federation vessels within detector range I want to know immediately.’
‘CONFIRMED.’
There was a long silence as the members of the Liberator crew stared up at the viewscreen, watching the debris that had once been Travis’s ship glimmer faintly in the orange-yellow light of the Callidus sun.
Vila was the first to shatter the peace. ‘So, that’s it then? Travis out of our hair for good?’ A frown etched itself onto Vila’s brow as he thought about this. ‘Is anyone else finding this a bit of an anticlimax?’
‘I think it’s best that we don’t make any assumptions yet,’ Blake advised. ‘At least not until we have the facts in front of us.’
The shockwave had dislodged Orac’s operating key, tossing it the length of the room until it came to rest by Jenna’s flight module. She bent to retrieve it, then took it back to where the computer had been wedged safely between two instrumentation
consoles. She pressed it into the recess at the top of the box and Orac burst into life.
At the same time, Zen began to announce his findings. ‘INFORMATION: EXTRA RANGE SCANNERS REPORT NO FEDERATION ACTIVITY IN THIS SECTOR. EXHAUST EMISSIONS SUGGEST THAT THE HUNTER-KILLER CLASS VESSEL ENTERED THE SYSTEM ALONE. USE OF EXTRA RANGE SCANNERS HAVE CAUSED A SIZABLE DRAIN ON THE SHIP’S POWER UNITS AND WOULD STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT THEY BE SWITCHED OFF IMMEDIATELY.’
Blake nodded his head in agreement. ‘Turn off the extra range scanners, Zen, and bring the ship into fixed planetary orbit.’
‘CONFIRMED.’
‘I don’t understand. What are we still hanging around here for?’ Vila wanted to know. ‘We’ve dealt with Travis now let’s get the hell out of here.’
‘Well, that’s it you see, Vila. I’m not entirely convinced that we have.’ Blake told him. ‘Orac, I want you to scan the surface of this planet for any anomalous readings.’
‘It would facilitate my search if you were a little more specific in your instructions,’ snapped Orac. ‘“Anomalous readings” is such a vague and misleading instruction. All planets are unique and possess what could be termed as anomalous readings when compared to other planets within the same planetary system. For instance…’
Blake held up a silencing hand. ‘In the interest of clarity, I’d like you to scan for anything that could be construed as man-made, any non-naturally occurring energy readings.’
Orac sighed. ‘Very well. Although, I warn you, this may take some time.’
‘Take all the time you need, we’re not going anywhere quite yet.’ Blake said.
*
Vila wasn’t completely sure what he was looking at. He squinted up at the viewscreen again, angling his head to one side as if this might make a difference. No, he still couldn’t see it.
‘And that’s one of those “anomalous readings” is it?’ Vila asked, after his latest attempt to peer at the image through half-closed eyelids had failed to produce results. ‘That’s man-made?’
‘I did not say that it was man-made,’ corrected Orac. ‘I merely said that it fell within the parameter of non-naturally occurring energy readings. However, what is causing the energy fluctuation is unknown to me at this time.’
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