Voyage of the Valkyrie

by Robert Horseman

  “Let’s get to the bridge,” said Mac, and launched herself toward the forward hatch. They made a few more paces before the lights went out, then all remaining ambient noise abruptly ceased, and the gravity plating went off-line. She found herself weightless in the dark, floating toward the forward bulkhead. She rolled herself into a tight ball in the hope of minimizing injury from whatever impact she was about to experience. A moment later she thumped into the forward bulkhead at running speed, her back absorbing a bruising blow. The pain was brief but intense, as though she had hit something with a sharp corner. She rebounded and groped for anything to grab onto. Her hand found the edge of a console, and instinctively reached for the grab bar that ran along the front for just such emergencies. A loud metal crash echoed nearby, and she knew that Rae had collided with the forward bulkhead as well.

  “Chief,” she yelled, but got no response. She tried several more times, hoping that at least one of the other half-a-dozen or so personnel in the propulsion bay would respond, but none did. Red emergency lighting came on, and Mac saw Rae cart wheeling like a pile of discarded pipe fittings at the forward bulkhead. She pulled herself along using whatever handholds she could find, keeping low to the floor in case the gravity plating came back on-line. She found the Chief unconscious, floating between two banks of electronics cabinets. Blood trickled from a gash on his forehead, but he seemed otherwise uninjured. She pressed a hand to his neck. His pulse was strong and his breathing slow and steady, so she slapped his cheeks lightly, hoping for a reaction. All she got was a brief groan. Not wanting to leave the Chief to float into the cavernous engineering space, she searched his coveralls and found a pack of leak sealant. The stuff was carried by all the engineering staff, and was intended to plug atmospheric leaks in an emergency. She peeled off the backing and glued the chief to the nearest electronic cabinet. It was all she could do for now.

  She headed forward, and was surprised to see Rae standing erect on the floor, her holographic skin nowhere in evidence.

  “Rae, what the hell is going on?”

  Rae’s sensor head swiveled in her direction and said, “Please forgive me. The computer core and all other systems are down. I am operating in reduced local memory and power conservation modes since my connection with the main system has been severed.”

  Part of Mac’s mind found it fascinating that Rae’s drone would be running at all without its link to the computer core, but she had more important issues at the moment. “What happened? Did we hit something?”

  “The interstellar compression drive cut off due to the proximity of an intense gravimetric field. Prior to power loss, sensors indicated the presence of a rogue planet with a single ship and automated defensive platforms in orbit. From the limited sensor data available, I extrapolate that we are now in orbit around the planet.”

  Mac felt herself near panic and struggled to keep her mind focused. “Why did the power go down?”

  “Unknown, although the most probable scenario is that we hit some type of mine.”

  “Status of the crew?”

  “Unknown. Internal bulkheads would have automatically sealed shut when the power went down. Internal communications are down.”

  A series of loud thumps reverberated through the hull. “What the hell is that?”

  Rae’s sensor head rotated a full circle, apparently listening to the continuing sounds. “Spectral analysis suggests magnetic grapples attempting attachment. A futile effort, given the Valkyrie’s outer hull construction.”

  “Futile or not, someone is trying to board us. We need to get off the ship unless we want to be captured by whoever is out there.”

  “Capture would not be optimal.”

  Mac frowned. “Rae, how is it that you are standing with your feet rooted to the floor while I float around like a soap bubble?”

  “The ship’s inner hull and decks are fitted with steel faraday mesh to minimize electromagnetic interference, and I have magnetic foot clamps.”

  “Then why didn’t the faraday mesh protect us from the mine?”

  “Insufficient data, although I estimate an eighty-two percent chance the mine was not magnetic-pulse based.”

  “I see,” said Mac, meaning exactly the opposite. She looked around the red-lit space. “Damn, if we could just get into the hanger bay. I saw some infiltration suits down there. We might be able to get over to one of the automated defense platforms you mentioned, but with all the doors sealed we’re stuck here.”

  “That should not be a problem. With the gravity plating off line, we can go over the balcony, down two grating levels, then forward through the BERP into the hanger.”

  “What the hell’s a berp?” asked Mac.

  “An acronym for bolted equipment removal patch. It is a design feature intended to permit large pieces of equipment to be moved between the engineering bay and the hanger.”

  “Can we get it open?”

  In answer, an extra arm unfolded from Rae’s spinal stalk, the tip of which was festooned with several types of tools.

  “A regular Swiss army knife,” muttered Mac. “Okay, let’s give it a try. Lead on.”

  Rae walked aft in a shuffling gait that was apparently intended to keep strong contact with the floor, and Mac grabbed onto her as she passed. At the balcony railing, Rae turned to starboard and walked outboard about six meters to the inner hull. The drone raised a foot and rotated until it stood on the gently curved surface. Mac had to brace herself several times to keep from getting flipped off into the engineering bay. She caught sight of the floating body of a crewmember, but like the Chief this one was also unconscious. There was no way to reach the person without risking both her own neck and that of the crewmember, presuming the person was still alive. Still, she felt a pang of guilt for not trying.

  Numerous pieces of equipment, piping, and conduits lined the inner hull, but Rae found a path that took them down two levels and onto the lowest grating. A wide variety of tools floated around them. The bulkhead separating the engineering bay from the hanger was right where Rae had described, and the drone got busy unlocking the mechanical clamps that held the BERP in place. Two minutes later the hatch swung open, revealing the dim hanger bay beyond. They swung through, and Rae re-sealed the hatch behind them.

  “Hello? Is anyone in here?” yelled Mac. She didn’t expect to see anyone in the gloom since the hanger was rarely occupied, except for occasional maintenance and shuttle operations. She was surprised, then, when a light came on in the small shuttle craft, and Cale’s face peered out at her. A moment later he popped the side door of the shuttle, and Rae shuffled them over to it.

  Mac said, “Cale, what the hell are you doing down here?”

  He grinned. “Nice to see you too, Mac. Hardly anyone comes down here, and it’s nice and quiet. I like to rack out between shifts in the shuttle. There’s a lot more room in it than my tiny cabin. What’s going on, and what’s that smell?”

  Mac looked around and sniffed at the air. “Probably ozone, but that’s not important right now. We’ve got to get off the ship. Rae thinks we’re being boarded.” She proceeded to fill him in on what had happened in engineering. For his part, Cale had slept through the whole event and had nothing additional to report.

  He looked grim. “They will try to get into the hull through the main docking port. If they caused the power loss, they’ll know the crew will be stuck behind sealed doors. Once inside they’ll be able to take over the ship.”

  “Like I said, we’ve got to get out,” said Mac. “We have to save ourselves to have any chance of rescuing the rest of the crew. I’m thinking of using the infiltration suits to get over to one of the automated defense platforms.”

  “Why not use the fast-attack boat?”

  “We stand a small chance of getting off the ship undetected as it is. If they’re trying to board as we suspect, they’ll hardly miss a departing boat. We’ve got to sneak off. It’s the best way.”

  Cale let out an exasperated sigh. “Ri
ght, I should have thought of that. Do you have any experience with the infil suits?”

  “Just simulations back at the academy.”

  “I’ve done it twice in practice exercises, plus the simulations. The real thing is pretty close to the simulations, so you’ll do fine. What about Rae?”

  Rae said, “I can stay. They won’t look twice at a drone.”

  “No, I want you with us,” said Mac. “If they restart the ship, you might be able to link up with the ship’s systems and give us a chance to retake it. Can your drone handle freefall?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right then, let’s get moving.”

  Chapter 10, Jump

  With Rae’s help, Mac dug into the storage locker and found two infiltration suits in approximately the right sizes. They were skin tight and matt black with no reflective surfaces, and carried a small environmental pack and propellant tank.

  Cale took the suit Mac offered, and his face colored. “We have to strip down to get these on.”

  Mac looked over at him. His green aura was now tinted toward turquoise, which in her experience was a sure sign her subconscious was becoming fixated on him. She mentally shrugged off the thought to concentrate on their immediate problem. “I won’t look if you won’t.”

  He grinned. “Not something I can promise at this time. It may be the one chance I get.”

  Mac squinted at him. “Fine, but then the reverse is true as well. Just make sure not to lose the clothes you take off. We don’t want them floating around in here, and advertising that someone attempted to leave.”

  “Right, boss. Rae, can you hold me down while I change?”

  The drone shuffled over to Cale and held out its arms for him to hold onto. Mac watched in amusement as Cale peeled off his clothes and tied them to Rae. With nothing to hold his feet to the floor and needing at least one hand to deal with his clothes, he gyrated in slow loops over Rae’s sensor head. A giggle spilled past her lips, and Cale glowered at her. “Something funny?”

  “No, nothing. Just Rae with your clothes tied to her is all.” A implausible lie, but one he had no direct way of refuting.

  It took a long five minutes for him to accomplish the feat, and then it was Mac’s turn. She was glad Cale had gone first because it had given her a few clues about the task in zero gee. She stripped off her clothes, and decorated the drone just as he had.

  “Nice. Very nice.”

  Mac glared at him, then glanced at where he was looking. Her breasts were no longer pulled by gravity, and stood up as though at attention. “Keep it up and you may never see them again.”

  He continued to stare and said, “Then I’d better drink in the view while I can.”

  Mac stared daggers at him, but he didn’t seem to notice. She pulled on the suit a bit too fast, and found herself swinging wildly. Rae reached out and steadied her, and after a long few minutes settled into the suit.

  She said, “Use no more than ten percent transmission energy. That should be enough to stay in contact if we keep close together, and it won’t carry far. If we somehow get separated, use no more than twenty percent.” She pulled the suit’s balaclava hood over her head, then touched the control pad on her left wrist. The suit powered up and the faceplate sealed shut. Cale did likewise.

  She spoke into the suit’s lip mike. “Rae, can you plot a low energy trajectory that will take us to a platform without missing it or splattering us over its surface?”

  “I have insufficient data to plot a trajectory. I will need to observe one orbital pass of a platform in order to compute the proper trajectory.”

  Cale said, “We can’t wait around for that, Mac. We need to get off the ship right now.”

  “I know. Rae, if we jump now, will you be able to compute and execute a trajectory on the way?”

  “If we all stay together, affirmative.”

  “Good enough for me. “Ready Cale?”

  He nodded, and they both grabbed onto Rae. The drone moved first to the locker so that they could stow their clothes, then to a small manually operated man-port set into the main hanger door. It was set up for emergency operation without the need for power, but required the dock to be manually depressurized first. The atmospheric scavenging pumps were off-line like everything else, so they had to waste the atmosphere into space.

  Mac grimaced as she watched her suit’s outside pressure indicator drop. Every spacer dreaded wasting atmosphere, because you needed the stuff to live. It took a full five minutes to empty the bay, and then Rae cracked the hatch open.

  She said, “Rae, poke your sensor head out first. Let us know if it is safe to exit, and begin gathering orbital data.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  The drone extended its head out through the partly open hatch, and suddenly Mac’s vision was filled with a view of the exterior. She had to suppress nausea as Rae transmitted a rotating exterior image into her faceplate. She heard Cale gagging, and knew he was having the same problem. The image stopped and magnified part of the planet’s horizon. The rogue planet was dark since it was not part of a solar system, but she saw a speck of white with the enhanced suit optics.

  “That is an automated defense platform. Gathering orbital data.”

  “Is it coming or going?” asked Cale.

  “Neither. We are approaching it. The platform is in geostationary orbit, and we are orbiting approximately thirty-five thousand kilometers below it.”

  “Do you have adequate telemetry data for an intercept?” asked Mac.

  “The probability of success with present telemetry data is thirty-two percent. I can partially compensate en-route, but success is not assured.”

  Mac asked, “Can you collect additional telemetry en-route, and if so, do our chances improve?”

  “I’m projecting a maximum fifty-four percent success probability for our first orbit assuming additional telemetry gathering in-transit, seventy-six percent for our second, and ninety-seven percent if we use three orbits.”

  Damn. Every minute they waited was increasing the odds of discovery. They had to move now. “Rae, what is the tactical situation?”

  “There is nothing on visuals, but an energy corona above us indicates the presence of a large ship there. We should be able to exit from here undetected.”

  “Rae, open the hatch all the way and prepare to jump.”

  “Acknowledged.” The drone cranked the hatch open, and Mac and Cale climbed onto its thin frame. To Mac it felt more like a romantic embrace with a thin bundle of metal rods between them than anything else. She shrugged off the thought. They squeezed through the circular hatch as a group, and Rae attached her drone’s feet to the ferrous metal rim of the hatch frame.

  Mac swiveled her head, saw nothing threatening, and checked her passive sensors. The sole target was the approaching defense platform, but it was lost to sight as it passed above the bulk of the Valkyrie’s hull. “Looks clear to me.”

  “Same here,” said Cale.

  “Standby for jump,” said Rae. Five, four, three, two, one, zero.”

  The drone’s jump was powerful, and even though Mac hung on with all her strength using both arms and legs she felt her grip slip. Fortunately, Cale’s powerful embrace kept her from sliding off. Then they were floating away from the Valkyrie, tumbling slowly in their own orbit about the dark planet.

  As they drifted away, Mac stared in shock at the sight of a large vessel stationed alongside the Valkyrie’s docking port. In the weak interstellar light, she saw a red sword painted on her bows. A Redshift vessel then. It had to be. No other explanation fit.

  Cale swore under his breath. “You see what I’m seeing?”

  “Yes.” They had escaped, but even if they could get to the defense platform, it was unlikely to be a refuge. She had a premonition it would not be.

  Chapter 11, Defense Platform

  Rae’s small ion thrusters were not designed for the extra mass of Mac and Cale, so Mac permitted Rae to use three long orbits to conserve
fuel while they gained the required altitude. It also increased their platform intercept accuracy and reduced their intercept speed. Every time they passed over the Valkyrie, Mac was certain they’d be spotted. There was no reaction from the Redshift vessel though, which had now extended a docking collar to the Valkyrie. She could guess what was going on. Their crew was locked-down behind sealed bulkheads, so all the boarders had to do was restart the ventilation system and introduce hazine to knock them all out. The big unknown was Rae. Would they try to restart the computer system? If they did, how would she react?

  The defense platform was getting close. Fortunately, their arrival orbit brought them in from below, since such platforms’ sensor equipment generally looked away from the planet they were guarding. It was shaped rather like a mushroom, with a massive antenna complex extending down from the central axis, and a bewildering array of armaments affixed to the upper surface.

  Mac said, “I’m not familiar with this design. Do either of you know anything about it?”

  “Negative,” said Rae. “My local memory does not include that information.”

  Cale said, “I toured one of these during my junior-year internship at Bellina colony. It’s an Alpha class platform, one of the first ever made by the look of it. They’ve all been decommissioned, had their military grade armaments and computer cores removed, and auctioned off. A lot of them ended up being scrapped, but some like the one at Bellina were refitted with conventional computer cores and human crews, and outfitted with whatever armaments they could find. It looks like they have everything from laser cannons to rail guns from at least a dozen vessel classes on this one.”

  Rae used her maneuvering jets to slow them, then at Mac’s command they separated. They each had to get their own grip on the surface of the platform, and that would be impossible if they stayed clustered together. Mac activated the tiny thrusters on her stealth suit, and aimed for the base of the antenna complex. Rae landed first, simply absorbing the impact with her legs, and stood on the platform’s metal surface. Mac wasn’t quite that lucky. She wasn’t experienced with flying the stealth suits, and ended up in a slow tumble as she neared the platform. The back of her right shoulder hit hard, and she bounced off into open space. She hit again, this time on an antenna frame, and managed to wrap a hand around one of the struts. Her grip slipped as her body arced around the handhold, but her other hand snagged a small antenna and she held firm.