by Terry Mixon
She listened to the scientists hashing out theories while she waited for her departure time, but except for using bigger words, they were saying the same thing as the Fleet officers. They didn’t know what had happened. Not really.
Sure, they knew the flip point was defective, but not why. They’d be tearing apart the science behind everything for years without ever knowing what made these things tick, she suspected. The bottom line was that they were stuck until they found another flip point leading back to known space.
She pointed that out to them. The old Empire had gotten here somehow. If it didn’t use the defective flip point, then there had to be at least one more in this system.
That sent the scientists scurrying to the scanners. They shot probes in every direction, including toward the distress beacon.
The crew of Athena was busy when she finally got back, so she retreated to her seat on the bridge and sat quietly. After a while, they seemed to forget she was there. That was just fine by her. She had plenty to think about. Particularly Carlo Vega’s death.
She had no idea why some unnamed person had killed her mentor, but his death didn’t seem like an accident. What could motivate someone to murder him, though?
She’d asked some questions while she was on Best Deal, but gathered no new answers. She wasn’t exactly an investigator. Someone else would need to track down the person or persons behind the attack.
Lieutenant Anderson eventually reported the probe going toward the distress beacon had picked up a ship. Jared sat up a little straighter. “What can you tell me about it?”
“Just that it’s a ship. We’re too far away to get any more details.”
“Ramirez, confer with Best Deal and have her follow us at her best speed. Bump us up to full speed.”
“Aye, sir.”
When they finally had a visual, the tiny speck on the screen could’ve been a smudge for all Kelsey could tell. Light was a little dim this far from the primary. She watched it with intense interest as the probe drew closer.
To think, they were about to see a ship of the Terran Empire at its heyday. It was obviously in one piece and had some kind of power. The thought of what they could learn staggered her.
The dot slowly resolved itself into a tumbling shape. It looked a little like a toy spaceship.
Lieutenant Anderson spoke up. “We’re close enough to get some relative size data, Captain. That ship is significantly larger than Athena is. It’s larger than the biggest ship in our fleet, though not by a tremendous amount. Perhaps one class larger than a heavy cruiser.”
“Interesting,” Jared said. “A battlecruiser?”
The ship on the screen grew slowly larger until Kelsey could see the hull clearly. It was spinning as well as turning end over end, but it appeared intact. The value of the find was immeasurable. Even though the interior was in all likelihood wrecked, they could still learn so much just by studying what remained.
“The drone is in station-keeping mode,” Anderson reported. “I’m recording the exterior visual as it turns. I should have a complete picture in a minute.”
“Any sign of battle damage?” Jared asked.
“There’s something back in the engineering section. Not a rupture, though. I’m putting it on screen.”
The view of the spinning derelict vanished, replaced by a still of the hull. A long gash had split the hull open. It looked like something had melted the metal.
“That’s beam damage,” Jared said.
“Beam damage?” Kelsey asked.
He turned his attention to her. “The records mention them. The old Empire had missiles similar to the ones we do, but they also had beam weapons. That’s something Fleet has been experimenting with for years. Unsuccessfully, so far.”
“Surface scan complete,” Anderson said. “There are several other areas with similar damage. Nothing on the scale of the breach in engineering, though.”
Kelsey shook her head. “Something like that could’ve cut this ship into blocks. Why isn’t it worse?”
Jared tipped his head toward the screen. “That ship had energy screens, if the old stories were correct. An enemy would have to be damned close or have done a lot of damage to the screens to get to the hull. It’s possible the crew surrendered and then abandoned the ship. With that kind of damage, I’d expect something like that. They probably activated the distress beacon so it could be located later. Then they never came back.”
“Do you think it’s a renegade Fleet ship?”
He shrugged. “We may never know. It’s kind of moot at this point.”
“Captain, I have a name for the derelict,” Anderson said. The image on the screen changed to show the bow of the ship. The large white letters spelled out her name. Courageous.
“I bet they were,” Jared muttered. “How long until we reach the wreck? Are you picking up a power source for the distress beacon?”
The woman checked her screen. “We’re about thirty minutes out. The probe is picking up indications of an operating fusion plant in the stern of the ship. It’s running at low levels and seems to be fluctuating in output.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“I’m not certain. That’s more a question for an engineer, sir.”
He nodded and rose to his feet. “Call the department heads to the conference room. Ambassador, would you care to join me?”
*
The conference room on Athena was a lot smaller than the one on Best Deal. Kelsey took the seat next to Jared and tried to stop her brain from racing in circles. A relic of the fabled Empire of old, smashed and ruined, but still far more advanced than they were. She ached to explore its secrets.
Jared rapped the table with his knuckles, quieting the chatter. “Let’s get started. The fusion unit over there is the biggest concern. Dennis, what can you tell me?”
Lieutenant Commander Baxter looked a lot more serious than when Kelsey had seen him last. She’d never guess at his questionable sense of humor if she’d met him now.
“The fusion plant is on the verge of failure. I’m astonished it lasted so long, frankly. The technology behind it must’ve played a role, but it was probably also at a very low output setting. Otherwise it’d have crashed before now.”
Jared nodded. “What do you mean by crash? Would it explode?”
“Ordinarily, I’d say no. Ours for example would trigger a safety interlock and shut down if they became unstable. However, the fluctuations we’re seeing tell me that any safety system has already failed. We need to kill that power unit as soon as possible. I want to get a team over there without any delay. We might have weeks or months, but we might only have hours.”
“How much warning would we have before it fails?”
Baxter shrugged. “Who knows? Probably time enough to get out of there. Possibly not. Personally, I’m willing to take the risk. I already have a team of volunteers standing by.”
Kelsey couldn’t fathom why people could be ready to risk death that way, but she also didn’t understand why firefighters ran into burning buildings when there weren’t people inside. From his expression, Jared did understand the urge, though.
The Captain turned his attention to the tactical officer. “Zia, anything to add to our scanner take?”
“Quite a bit, Captain. The life pods are all still in place and so are the ship’s boats. Another ship must’ve done whatever evacuation they could manage. The interior is frozen. Life support is not online. Other than the power readings from the fusion plant and the distress beacon, everything else seems to be offline.”
“We’d go in wearing suits anyway, but that’s good information. Thanks. Lieutenant Reese, we’ll want volunteers from the marines to help provide security and some muscle if we need it.”
The marine officer nodded. “I have two squads ready to go in armored vacuum suits.”
“Do you have anything to help us get inside? I’m certain that the hatches are locked and we don’t have the keys, even if we had power for th
eir systems.”
“We can cut though a hatch with boarding cutters. It won’t be pretty, but it’ll be quick.”
Lieutenant Commander Graves gave Jared a look. “You’ve said ‘we’ several times, Captain. You aren’t planning to go over there, are you? Not before we make sure it isn’t going to blow up.”
Jared nodded. “Actually, I am. I’ve made a study of all the material we have on pre-Fall Fleet ships. It might not be much, but I might be able to make a difference. Besides, you heard Dennis. We’ll probably know before it goes critical.”
“I heard him say ‘probably’,” Kelsey said. “You can’t risk yourself like that. You’re the mission commander.”
He turned his attention her way. “Actually, I can. My orders regarding the recovery of pre-Fall technology are crystal clear. I’m to do everything within my power to do so, even at moderate risk. The ship can get along without me, and my personal knowledge might be critical to recovering this ship. In any case, I’m the one that makes that call.”
Graves didn’t look particularly happy at that response, but he nodded. Grudgingly. “We’ll keep a close eye on the situation from out here. If I make the call to evacuate the wreck, will you override me?”
“Probably not,” Jared responded. “I don’t want to die for a piece of junk any more than the next guy. If you say run, I’m not waiting to ask how fast.”
Kelsey didn’t like this one bit. Her elation at the find evaporated. She might not know him that well, but part of her quailed at the idea of her half-brother taking such an awful risk. Even if he wasn’t her blood, she didn’t want to lose him.
“What about the scientists?” she asked. “Could some of them help with defusing the power plant?”
The engineer shrugged. “Possibly, but most likely not. They’re theory, not hardware. I’ll have them available if I have a problem. Like not knowing whether to cut the red or blue wire.”
Kelsey gave him a quelling glare. “That isn’t funny.”
He grinned for a moment before his expression faded back to seriousness. “No, it’s not. We need to get a move on, Captain. We might regret chatting an extra few minutes later.”
Jared stood. “Bring the ship to alert status and back off to a safe distance. We’ll depart as soon as the teams are in the marine pinnaces. Dismissed.”
Kelsey wanted to follow him and say something, but she had no idea what. Be careful? Duh. She’d just have to trust him to do his job and come back safely.
Instead, she followed Graves back up to the bridge and commandeered one of the empty consoles. She’d watch every step of their mission on the big screen.
Graves stepped beside her console. “Let me enable the visual controls for you. Then you can pause, rewind, and zoom what we see on your console if you feel like it. The suits all have helmet cams.”
“Thank you. May I call you Charlie?”
He smiled. “I’d like it if you did.”
“Charlie, has he lost his mind?”
He chuckled. “I sometimes wonder. No. He wouldn’t be going if he didn’t think he had a reason to and a good possibility of coming back. He wouldn’t risk his crew for nothing.”
She took a deep breath. “Okay.”
“Athena, this is Marine Two. Both pinnaces are ready to depart.”
Graves walked back to the command console and opened the channel. “God speed, Marine Two. Come back safe.”
“Roger that. Marine Two out.”
The main screen picked up the two pinnaces shortly after that as they made their run to the wreck. The marine craft were significantly larger than the passenger cutters. Marines were armed and their ships armored. Perhaps if the ship blew up while they fled, that would give them an extra chance of surviving.
Kelsey sat back in her seat and tried to loosen her tense muscles. This was going to be a long, stressful day.
Chapter Thirteen
Rather than displace the marine pilot, Jared sat in the back with the rest of the marines and engineering techs in Marine Two. They’d be docking on the forward half of the derelict while Baxter went aft. If their way was blocked, Jared’s team might make it to the fusion plant faster.
He had the small screen in his vacuum suit tuned to the visual from the external cameras. The wicked spin on Courageous made matching course a challenge. One miscalculation and the wreck would swat them like a bug.
The pilot eased close to the derelict and then lined up with the tumble. Thankfully, the rotation wasn’t too bad or they might not have been able to match with it at all. The pinnace corrected for the spin and made contact with the other hull hard enough to rattle his teeth.
“We’re locked down, Captain,” the pilot said on the mission frequency. “We’re about a dozen meters from what looks like an emergency hatch. You’ll need to use magnetic boots and tethers. The centrifugal force is powerful.”
“Roger. Be ready to haul ass if we come running back.”
“Aye, sir.”
Lieutenant Reese stood and began hooking the men together with tough lines. “If someone comes loose, I want everyone to grab the hull with your hand clamps. We’ll always have half of us holding onto the ship, just in case.”
They all checked one another’s suits again. Only then did the marine officer pump the atmosphere out and open the assault ramp.
The stars spun crazily over the steady horizon of the derelict’s hull. It made Jared a little sick to his stomach so he focused his eyes on the back of the man in front of him. That settled him down. The floodlights on the pinnacle brightly illuminated Courageous’ hull.
They made their way slowly onto the old Empire ship and toward the emergency hatch. The team moved at a snail’s pace. A man broke loose halfway to the hatch, but they pulled him back down.
When everyone stopped moving, they hunkered down and activated their hand clamps. A bright red line surrounded the large hatch and rescue instructions were painted right on the hull. It looked very similar to the ones on Athena.
Jared didn’t expect it to work, but he twisted the emergency handle as instructed. The hatch slowly pulled into the ship revealing a large airlock with dim red emergency lighting.
“That’s useful,” Jared said. “It must be internally powered. Quite a tribute to its designers.”
He switched to the mission frequency. “Team One, we’ve opened the external hatch. We’re going in.”
“Roger that,” Baxter said. “No joy back here. We’re cutting ours open.”
Jared pulled himself into the airlock and wedged his arm through a handhold. The airlock had bags and boxes full of equipment, and probably rescue supplies. The interior hatch wouldn’t open while the outside one was open, so the team had to split up. The half that followed Jared inside held on tight as he closed the hatch. He held his breath, but the inner door opened as easily as the exterior.
The corridor beyond was in total darkness. Any emergency lighting had failed. He advanced inside far enough to plant his feet against the wall and turned his helmet lamp on. They’d need to be very careful of the centrifugal force inside, too. One inattentive moment could maim or kill.
Once the second team made it inside, Jared sighed in relief. “Okay, let’s start working our way back toward engineering.”
Movement inside was almost as slow as outside, if less nerve-wracking. Baxter reported that they were inside a few minutes later.
“We’re seeing some damage,” the engineer said, “but I think we’ll make it to engineering without too much trouble. Why don’t you head for the bridge? You might be able to bring some controls online from there.”
“Agreed,” Jared said. “Let us know when you get there.”
A hatch ahead of them was open. With the wicked spin, the wall it occupied was more of a floor. He looked inside and recognized a personnel cabin. It looked normal, though the spin had thrown everything against the outside bulkhead.
He started to edge past it, but something caught his eye. There was a body
in the detritus. “Hold up. We have a body. I’m going inside.”
It occurred to him as he lowered himself down the steep slope that the person below was centuries beyond his ability to help, but the impulse to go had be instinctual. A minute wouldn’t hurt them and the video might be helpful to the scientists.
He managed to get inside without injuring himself and moved the debris until he could see a woman’s face. At least he felt certain it was a woman. All the moisture in her body had evaporated in the vacuum leaving her remains mummified and frozen solid.
She wore a uniform very similar to the ones hanging in his closet. She was Fleet. A glance at her arm showed her to be a Senior Petty Officer. He moved the junk around until he could see all of her. There were no obvious injuries.
He climbed back up to the corridor. “Let’s press on to the bridge.”
Jared found an internal diagram near the first lift they encountered. It indicated they needed to climb five decks from the next lift forward.
“Captain,” Baxter said. “We’re in main engineering. That shot damaged the flip drive, but didn’t destroy it. It missed almost all the major equipment. I’m somewhat surprised they weren’t able to make repairs. We have some bodies in Fleet uniforms. It looks like the damage exposed them to space.”
“We found a body, too. We’re almost to the bridge lift. Find the fusion plant and get it shut down.”
“Aye, sir.”
They had to pry the doors apart when they reached the lift. Luckily, the platform wasn’t between them and the bridge. The particular nature of the spin made getting there an easy walk.
The lift doors at the bridge level were hard to open from the shaft, but they finally gave up the ghost. Jared stepped out onto the bridge and froze. It was significantly bigger than Athena’s bridge, but that wasn’t its more striking feature. Each seat held a dead Fleet officer.
“Baxter, we have bodies on the bridge. Something is very wrong.”
