“Get ready,” Vere said.
They were beside the Supreme Athens Destroyer again. She thought about taking the Griffin Fire up and around the command deck in hopes that Mowbray’s own fighter pilots would miss their target and hit their ruler’s Destroyer instead. It wouldn’t damage such a large and armored ship but it would infuriate Mowbray. Deciding against it, she took her ship under the Supreme Athens Destroyer’s massive belly to get away from the swarms of Thunderbolts.
Once she had the Griffin Fire pointed in the right direction, she said, “Punch it!” and Traskk sent all the power that had been going to the rear shields into the engines.
The Griffin Fire roared ahead. A few Thunderbolts tried to keep up the pursuit but rapidly lost too much ground to hope for anything but a lucky shot.
The Supreme Athens Destroyer, a giant only moments earlier, now faded into the distance of space.
Vere cringed, knowing that even though the Vonnegan fleet was getting smaller with every moment that passed, it was because they were heading closer and closer to Edsall Dark while she was flying further away from it. The thought made her chest burn the same way it had when she had arrived at CamaLon too late to stop the Athens Destroyers from appearing through the Tevis-84 portal.
A minute after the last of the Thunderbolts had fired at them and they knew they were safe, Traskk grumbled. His tail moved between his legs.
“It’s okay,” she said. “You’re still learning. A year from now, you’ll be working in the cockpit with a blindfold on.”
She gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder, knowing that even the gesture and the words wouldn’t be enough to keep him from being upset with how he had performed. Basilisks were cold-blooded and vicious when they were fighting, but they were also emotional and had misgivings any time they made a mistake.
When he hissed a question, she replied, “We can’t go back home. I wasn’t lying to Mowbray; the Excalibur Armada really is the only thing that can save us now.”
24
Westmoreland stood at the observer’s deck of a shipbuilding complex so large it could been seen from outer space. Inside the dry dock facility, hundreds of humans and aliens worked side by side on welding the armor plating to the undercarriage of a Solar Carrier. Dozens of tiny blue torches fused metal while machines pressed and held the slabs of atomized steel in place. Sparks rained down all over the factory floor from where the workers were finishing up on the ship.
In order to have a vantage point above the Solar Carriers as they were being built, the observer’s deck had to be over a mile in the air. Even that high, all Westmoreland could see was the mighty ship in its final stages of construction. The giant frame of the Solar Carrier blocked out the horizon and any view of the land in the distance.
“Sir,” the shipyard foreman said, entering the deck and standing beside his guest.
Westmoreland nodded. Far below, a winged alien with creamy blue flesh and no legs was hovering next to where a crane lowered a sheet of atomized steel toward the spot it needed to be welded. Further below that, a team of MacMaqs yelled at a clumsy Alonquon, who was carrying a tank of sealant all by himself—a job that not even one hundred MacMaqs could perform. They appreciated the Alonquon’s strength and work ethic. What they didn’t appreciate was that the sealant sloshed out the top of the tank, near where a team of red horned aliens with thick leathery skin worked with torches to finish some electrical systems.
“It looks hectic up here,” the foreman said, trying to sound confident. “But it’s all under control.”
“I have no doubt that it is.”
“The armor on this Solar Carrier will be completed in two more days.”
Again, Westmoreland only nodded. He wasn’t upset with the foreman; the man had come highly recommended, and the reports Westmoreland read through each night proved that he ran a tight crew. What bothered him was that for all of the resources they had devoted to rebuilding their fleet of Solar Carriers, Westmoreland knew the Vonnegan empire had greater resources at their disposal, and because of that they would always be able to rebuild their fleet faster and larger than he could rebuild Vere’s.
The foreman said, “We won’t have time to finish construction of another Solar Carrier before the Vonnegan fleet arrives. Do you still want us to continue work on the ones we have started?”
Looking at the crews working hundreds of yards below, finalizing the final parts of the largest ship in the CasterLan fleet, Westmoreland sighed and shook his head. Would the Vonnegan empire always be able to send a fleet large enough to destroy Edsall Dark? Was that all that modern space warfare had come down to, who could build starships quicker?
There was a time when generals had earned places in the pages of galactic history with their bold maneuvers above stars and planets, in asteroid belts and near black holes. History was full of generals who had gone into war with inferior armies and had somehow managed to emerge victorious. Every child learned about the heroics of the three hundred Phantom-Die ships that had somehow managed to defeat thousands of Arachnian fighters.
The galactic annals were full of examples of leaders who had gone into battle knowing they were facing superior numbers and yet they rallied their forces through superior tactics, adapting quicker than their enemies as the battle unfolded, keeping their troops fighting instead of fleeing. The only problem was that everyone who graduated from military school knew the same battles, the same generals, the same tactics that had been employed. What had worked for the Phantom-Die general would never work for Westmoreland or Morgan because the Vonnegan generals would have been educated on the same battle and would be ready for it. What else was there? Why even fight the battle if the Vonnegan army would always be able to send more ships than could be produced here?
“Sir?” the foreman said.
Westmoreland blinked back to attention on the observation deck. He scanned through his memory to think of what the foreman had asked him.
“Yes,” he said. “Go ahead and continue building them.”
Then he turned and walked toward the exit, still unsure why he had bothered to order a shell of a Solar Carrier constructed when it wouldn’t be able to contribute anything to the battle.
25
Baldwin forced himself to breathe in, then out, then in, over and over again. If he didn’t, he was sure he was either going to vomit in his space armor (if he was lucky) or have a complete mental breakdown and go mad (if he was unlucky). This was a common reaction when people went out into space for the first time; they forgot who they were and what they were doing. Without a clear train of thought, they either floated off into infinite space, never to be seen or heard from again, or simply forgot their space armor had a limited supply of oxygen and wandered off. Their bodies were found lying peacefully on a planet’s or moon’s surface as if they had simply decided to take a nap and had never woken up.
There were scavengers in the galaxy who were known for traveling from one colony to another, putting on space armor, and walking the outside perimeter of each uninhabitable area for the bodies of people who had either panicked or worn malfunctioning space armor. The scavengers picked over the bodies for anything of value, then left the forgotten to mummify.
“It’ll be fine,” Quickly told him. “Just stay focused on the rock in front of you. Don’t look away from the asteroid.”
It was sound advice. Baldwin wished, as soon as the words had been spoken, that he had been close enough to Quickly to grab his arm. Already, he was incredibly close to having a panic attack. What he did next was inevitable.
Just like standing at the top of an overhang and looking down after being told not to, Baldwin couldn’t help himself. Knowing it was a terrible idea, he looked at the one place Quickly had told him not to: the vastness of space as the Excalibur asteroid hurtled through the solar system at twenty miles per second.
One moment Baldwin had been looking directly down at the boots of his space armor, taking one step after another. The next
moment he was looking out at a sea of black so immense that he knew if he accidently drifted away from where he stood he would never make it back.
His pulse doubled.
Everything was unending and empty. Even with the millions of stars twinkling, there was a complete void. So empty there wasn’t even any color, only infinite black space and dots of white stars. For millions and millions of miles in every direction, there was nothing but a vacuum of life and air. And in the middle of that great void, the asteroid that Baldwin and Quickly were standing on didn’t seem very large any more. This was because, when he looked out at the rest of the solar system, he realized just how fast the asteroid was racing through space and how easy it would be to jump one time, break away from Excalibur’s almost nonexistent gravity, and begin drifting on his own course.
He was sweating profusely.
If he looked down at his feet when he stepped out onto the asteroid, it was impossible to tell it was moving at all, the same way he couldn’t tell that a planet he was standing on was orbiting at thousands of yards per second around its sun. But, unlike when he stood on Edsall Dark and looked up at the sky, as soon as he looked away from the Excalibur he began to appreciate how fast they were speeding through the galaxy.
He wobbled, felt as though he were going to fall.
He was standing on a rock that was flying through space at incredible speeds. If it collided with another asteroid, both rocks would break into pieces and Baldwin would go drifting away into space. The worst way to die.
That was when he began to scream.
As he choked inside his helmet, his legs began to tremble and go weak. Everything began to spin. This was where he was going to die.
“Breathe,” Quickly said, grabbing Baldwin around both arms. “Calm down and breathe.”
For a few seconds, Baldwin’s arms tried to thrash out at the area in front of him. Quickly wrapped his arms around the physician, not letting him move from where he was standing, until he calmed down. The bear hug not only ensured Baldwin knew he was protected and could stop flailing, it also kept his arms from grabbing at Quickly’s space armor or his own and accidently changing a setting on it that would further endanger their lives. Baldwin’s hands, outside Quickly’s grasp, continued to shake.
“You’re going to be fine,” Quickly said in a soothing and steady tone. “I’ve got you. You’re in a suit of space armor. You have oxygen. Just breathe.”
The trembling in Baldwin’s hands began to subside. A minute later, his fingers stopped grabbing for anything they could find and fell to his side.
“Breathe,” Quickly said, scolding himself mentally.
He never should have let Baldwin come out on the asteroid with him for his first experience wearing space armor. Only because the physician had been so insistent on seeing the legendary Excalibur Armada had he relented. If something happened, how would he explain going back to Edsall Dark with only Fastolf? And worse than that, he would have had to live the rest of his life knowing that someone had died under his watch. He had known it was a bad idea and had still allowed it.
Even with space armor on, going out into the solar system and seeing just how far you are from everything else in the galaxy is more than most minds are prepared for. It takes training and drills to get people ready.
“Are you okay?” Quickly asked, his arms still holding Baldwin in place. When Baldwin nodded, Quickly said, “Say something. Tell me you’re all right.”
For a second, Baldwin was silent. Then, when he tried to speak, only gibberish came out. Finally, his tongue started obeying his brain and he said, “I’m okay. I’m better now.”
Quickly let his arms move away from Baldwin’s torso once he was sure the man could stand on his own power and wasn’t going to do something stupid like jump off the asteroid and start floating away.
“Sorry,” Baldwin said.
“It’s fine. I know how overwhelming it can be. I’ve seen guys do a lot worse than yell like you did.”
“Quickly?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you do me a favor and not tell anyone about this?”
The pilot nodded and gave a courteous smile. “Of course, buddy. You want to sit down for a while and get your wits back?”
“We can’t. The Vonnegan fleet isn’t going to wait for me to toughen up.”
Quickly wasn’t going to be the one to suggest their next course of action. If Baldwin wanted to go back to the ship, Quickly was fine doing the exploring by himself. If Baldwin wanted to tag along, that was fine as well.
“You ready to explore the Excalibur?” Baldwin asked.
Somehow, he had already recovered enough that he was actually smiling at the thought of seeing firsthand the fabled fleet of ships he had loved hearing stories about as a child. Quickly guessed it was either the physician putting on a strong face or else unconsciously compensating for the moment of terror by being a little too manic afterwards. Either way, Quickly nodded and let Baldwin lead the way so he could keep an eye on him.
It took five minutes to walk to the closest area where one of the ancient ships was sticking out of the rock. The part of the ship they came upon appeared to be a corner of the vessel’s aft end, but, now close enough to touch, the ship was so ponderously large that it was difficult to tell one part of the behemoth craft from another.
They both ran their gloved fingertips along where the rock met the ship. The metal jutted out of the stone, curved slightly, revealing the edges of what were probably two cannons, then sank back into the rock about a quarter of a mile away, where the rest of the ship was buried. There was no gap between ship and asteroid, no tiny crevices where rock had been chiseled away so the ship could be embedded. It really was as if the asteroid and the ship had been merged in some natural phenomenon.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Baldwin said, almost whispering.
Quickly nodded in astonishment. “Honestly, I know most people who come here are drunk on the idea of what technology the ships possess and what the Excalibur Armada can do for them, but I’ve always been more fascinated by the race of beings who were able to embed a thousand ships in stone, as if the rock just grew up around them somehow. I can’t get over it.”
When they had first landed on the asteroid, the pair of exposed cannons appeared to be about as large as the medical transport they had arrived in. Directly in front of the Excalibur ship, though, it was apparent that thirty or forty Llyushin transports could be dropped inside each cannon with room to spare.
Touching the nearest part of the ship, Baldwin looked straight up. Smooth, flawless metal rose out of the asteroid for hundreds of yards. Just this one cannon looked strong enough to cause significant damage to an Athens Destroyer. From the books he had devoured as a kid, he remembered that most Excalibur experts agreed that each ship had approximately thirty cannons.
“Can you imagine what this would do?” he said, the fingertips of his space armor gently caressing the metal.
“These ships could destroy the entire Vonnegan fleet,” Quickly said. “And any other ships they tried to build in my lifetime. Heck, they could wipe out the Vonnegan fleet and the CasterLan fleet combined.”
Baldwin tapped the ship with his knuckle. “It sounds and looks just like the metal our ships are made out of.”
He knew it wasn’t, though. Sensors couldn’t determine what was different about this metal that enabled it to remain flawless for thousands of years, but normal metal could never withstand the harsh environment of this solar system. Only hours earlier, the ships had passed so close by the sun that the Excalibur Armada had glowed from the heat. A normal ship would have been incinerated. These ships, however, didn’t even have minor scorch marks.
They walked to the far side of where the cannon disappeared into the asteroid. Both men let their gloves run back and forth between metal and rock as if that would give them clues as to how the fleet could be freed.
Baldwin said, “I couldn’t perform an operation where I tried
to make a foreign object seem like it belonged where it obviously didn’t. But this... it’s seamless.”
Everywhere the two men turned their attention, the ship disappeared into the asteroid without looking as though the rock had been manufactured around the ships.
Quickly shook his head. “I know this will sound silly, but even after hearing all of my life that the asteroid was one giant rock, I always expected to get here and find little seams or signs of tampering that would show there wasn’t as much mystery behind the Excalibur Armada as everyone said there was.”
It was a common sentiment; many people felt exactly the same way. And then everyone found that when they arrived at the Excalibur they saw the legend really was true. There really was an asteroid the size of a small moon with nearly one thousand ships made of a type of metal no one could identify.
“Fastolf,” Quickly said into the comms system that was also patched into their ship, “we’re going to be returning in a few minutes.” When he got no response through his speaker, he said again, “Fastolf? Are you there?”
Baldwin sighed. “He’s probably passed out again.”
They circled the second cannon. When they were satisfied that everything they had heard about the Excalibur was true, they began walking back to the medical transport.
“People have been trying to get these ships out of the rock for thousands of years,” Quickly said, then added, “Without causing them to detonate.” He shook his head, dumbfounded at what he had seen. “Any thoughts yet how we can do something that no one else has tried?”
A second wave of panic came over Baldwin. This time, however, it wasn’t because he was overcome with the void of space in all directions around him and the phobia of drifting off and running out of oxygen. It was because, deep down, he knew he had no idea how to free the armada from the asteroid. And yet, if he didn’t come up with something soon, the Vonnegan fleet would be appearing near Edsall Dark, ready to kill everyone.
The Excalibur (Space Lore Book 2) Page 10
