Audrey was about to reply when something changed on the main holo display. The section of space ahead of them abruptly vanished, replaced by a blank black screen.
“Engineering, report! What happened to the main holo display?”
“It... it’s still working, ma’am.”
“Then where are the stars?”
“I might have an answer,” Fields said from sensors. “I’m detecting eight tube-shaped anomalies protruding from our hull. Each one corresponds to one of our hull breaches, and they appear to connect to equidistant points along the inside of another anomaly—one that’s cylindrically shaped.”
“They’re not hiding anymore...” Audrey said.
“Good. We should blow them to hell,” Markov replied.
“We’re inside of the target, Councilor. If we destroy them, we’ll destroy ourselves, too.”
“Clever little bastards. Then we should send out as many Marines as we can muster to board and capture them.”
“That’s actually not a bad idea, ma’am,” Major Bright put in.
“That’s not my call to make.”
“So contact the Governor and suggest it,” Markov said.
Audrey turned to him with a look of strained patience. “Don’t you have somewhere else you need to be, Councilor?”
“I’m fine right here.”
“I wasn’t asking.”
Markov returned her glare and nodded crisply. “All right. Fine. Be sure to let me know if there are any new developments.”
“Of course,” Audrey replied. Turning back to Major Bright she said, “Get our VSM drones back into Section Eight to re-examine the hull breaches. Now that they’re not cloaking anymore, we might be able to learn something about whatever it is they used to breach our hull.”
“Aye, ma’am. Re-deploying VSMs,” Bright replied.
* * *
“Welcome home, Benjamin,” Alexander said as he opened the door to his and Catalina’s quarters.
Their prefect, Ana Urikov, had given permission for Benjamin to stay with them until his nearest relatives could be contacted.
“You’ll have to stay on the couch for a while,” Catalina said as she led the boy by the hand to the living room. “Is that okay?”
Benjamin nodded, but said nothing. He looked around, taking in the sights. “It’s the same as our room. Except ours was in a forest,” he added as he stared out the sliding glass doors to the terrace. Holographic waves crashed, racing up a dazzling golden beach. “Can I watch a holovid?” he asked, looking suddenly back to Catalina.
“Sure,” she said. “You know how?”
He nodded and went to sit on the couch facing the holoscreen. Benjamin summoned it to life with a gesture and began swiping through channels until he found the one he was looking for—a blank screen with a few lines of text.
“It doesn’t work,” Benjamin said.
Alexander walked up to the screen so he could read what it said.
Solar flare warning in effect. External cameras disabled.
The channel Benjamin had selected was a live feed from the ship’s bow cameras.
“I don’t remember anyone mentioning a solar flare...” Catalina said.
“Neither do I,” Alexander replied.
Moments later the announcement came over the PA system. “Please be advised. All cameras and external viewports have been shielded until further notice due to a solar flare. Thank you for your patience. We hope to restore all shipboard functions soon.”
“No comms, no engines, and now we’re blind, too...” Alexander mused. “This just keeps getting better.”
Catalina looked suddenly worried. “What if we get attacked again? Won’t we be sitting ducks?”
“We still have sensors and weapons, so no, we should be able to defend ourselves. You’ll have to watch something else for now, Benjamin.”
“Okay,” he said, and went flipping through the channels again.
Alexander turned away with a sigh and went to sit at the breakfast bar. He waved Catalina over and she sat beside him. They watched as Benjamin settled on watching old, pre-recorded cartoons.
“So much for career day,” he muttered.
“Right, with everything going on I almost forgot to ask—what did you choose?”
“Marine corps, Navy crew, or Navy pilot.”
Catalina’s brow furrowed. “Those are all military careers.”
Alexander shrugged. “Stick with what you know.”
“Are you sure you want that life again?”
“It won’t be like the last time. We’re both on the same ship together, so they can’t possibly separate us with my deployment.”
“And what happens after we arrive? They could leave you on the ship in space while the colonists go down to the surface.”
“Which is why I picked the Marines as my first choice. If they give it to me, I’ll definitely be going to the surface with you.”
“And if they don’t?”
“Then I’ll finish my term of enlistment and transfer to the surface.”
Catalina looked uncertain. “You promise?”
Alexander nodded. “Promise. What about you? What did you choose?”
“Campaign manager, political aide, and political activist, but I’m really hoping to run for office and get an elected position.”
“You’re diving back into politics. You sure you want to have that life again?”
“Like you said—stick with what you know.” Catalina glanced back at Benjamin and whispered, “What are we going to do about him?”
“Wait until we can contact his relatives. Maybe his uncle will take him when he arrives in Section Ten.”
“I know that,” she replied, still whispering. “I meant emotionally. He just lost his mother. He must be grieving. He needs someone to talk to.”
“Go ahead,” Alexander replied.
“I was thinking maybe you should talk to him.”
“What? Why me?”
“Because you lost someone you cared about recently. At least, you went through grieving for her recently.”
Alexander’s eyes narrowed, and he realized that Catalina wasn’t just asking him to help Benjamin. She was also checking to see if he missed his girlfriend and former XO, Viviana McAdams. “I haven’t thought about her in months,” he said, and it was true.
“Still,” Catalina insisted. “I know how hard that was for you. After we came out of the Mindscape you spent a year being treated for depression because of her.”
“It’s complicated.”
“So explain it to me.”
“I was depressed because we just spent a hundred years together in a virtual world where you were impersonating Viviana in order to help me get over the fact that she was actually dead.”
Catalina nodded. “See? Not so complicated.”
Alexander shot her a dubious look. “If you say so. Look—I understand what happened. I know she’s dead, and I know that you were really the woman I was married to and in love with for all those years. What I actually had with Viviana before the Mindscape seems like a dream now, and not the kind that I wish could come true. I wasn’t depressed because I missed her. I was depressed because I couldn’t tell what was real anymore. I’m surprised you weren’t affected by that just as badly as I was.”
“It was an adjustment,” Catalina admitted.
“Yeah, you can say that again. There’s still something I don’t get, though. We were divorced, and I was in the Mindscape living a lie. I didn’t want to leave because I supposedly couldn’t handle the truth that I was responsible for Viviana’s death. Benevolence went to you and asked you to impersonate Viviana in the Mindscape so that I could get over her. You spent a hundred years with me living a virtual life and impersonating her.”
Catalina grabbed his hand and laced her fingers through his. “And I’d do it all over again.”
“That’s what I don’t get—why?”
“I never stopped caring for you.”
/>
“Even after you learned that I’d moved on and was hung up on someone else?”
“Even after that.”
“Mmmmmm.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“Well I don’t really have a choice. You’re here, aren’t you? I can’t deny that without plunging myself back into a depressive spiral, wondering what’s really real and whether or not I actually woke up from the Mindscape.”
“It is real, Alex.”
“I’ve come to terms with that. But there’s something else I don’t get. Benevolence kept us in the Mindscape for a century. Do you really think that’s how long it took for me to get over Viviana?”
“Does it matter?”
“What if it does? What if he was keeping us prisoner there and he only let us out now because he has some kind of agenda?”
Catalina’s brow furrowed. “You think Benevolence brainwashed us while we were in the Mindscape?”
“Maybe.”
“What for?”
“I don’t know. To turn us into spies, maybe.”
Catalina laughed. “Well, we’re going to make terrible spies with the comms down.”
“They’ll get fixed.”
Catalina patted his hand and got up from her bar stool. “I’ll let you know if I catch you trying to send any coded messages.”
Alexander turned to watch her leave and caught Benjamin staring at them. The boy quickly turned his head away and went back to watching his cartoons. He’d been listening in on their conversation. He smiled wryly and said, “Don’t worry, Ben, I’m not a spy.”
Ben turned back to him and nodded, looking suddenly very serious. “I know you’re not, Alex.” And with that, he went back to watching his cartoons.
* * *
“What the hell is that? Get us a closer look, Sergeant Torres,” Commander Audrey Johnson ordered.
“Yes, ma’am.” Torres walked up to the hull breach with her Virtual Space Marine (VSM) to examine the damage more carefully. Glossy black tubes—or cables?—snaked along the ceiling from the breach, crawling into a pair of nearby air ducts. “It looks like they tried to get into our air supply.”
“What the hell for?” Commander Johnson said.
“No idea, ma’am,” Torres replied. She was all alone for this inspection. The rest of her squad wasn’t cleared to see whatever she was looking at. Torres followed the invading tubes to the nearest air duct. They’d pushed their way through the vent on the outside of the duct, bending it into a pretzel shape, and the air gaps in and around the damaged vent were all sealed with a translucent white substance. Fortunately, because of the hull breach, those air ducts had already been sealed off from the surrounding areas.
“I don’t like this,” Commander Johnson said. She could see everything Torres saw via the VSM drone’s live holofeed. “See if you can cut one of those conduits open.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Torres removed a cutting beam from her equipment belt and raised it to the ceiling. She studied the knot of glossy black tubes slithering into the duct and traced one of them to a point where it separated from the rest. “Here goes...” she said, and activated the beam with a flash of light. A simulated orange beam of light appeared connecting the muzzle of the device to its target.
The tube glowed red hot and began to smoke. “I think it’s working,” she said.
The tube abruptly snapped and a stream of smoke gushed out, quickly dispersing through the vacuum in the breached corridor.
“What is that coming out of the conduit?” the commander asked.
Torres shook her drone’s head. “We’ll have to take a sample.” Torres opened a compartment in her drone’s chest and withdrew a small, transparent flask designed for collecting air and water. The Liberty’s VSM drones had been designed for exploring planetary surfaces, so they came equipped with several types of sample containers. She aimed the flask at the stream of smoke pouring from the severed conduit and activated the miniature aspirator in the flask. It sucked in a cloud of smoke before sealing itself. Torres held the sample up to the light and watched smoke swirling around inside of the container, as if driven by miniature convection currents.
“Strange,” she remarked.
“Seal it inside of one of the other sample containers, just in case something leaks out, and then bring it back to Section Seven,” Commander Johnson ordered.
“Yes, ma’am,” Torres replied, already withdrawing a soil sample container to encapsulate the flask of smoke.
Chapter 10
Safely ensconced in a hazmat suit and standing on the other side of the bio-safety lab, Audrey watched through a broad window as the lab technician withdrew the sample container from Sergeant Torres’ VSM drone.
She held her breath as the technician carried the sample over to the examination area. Beside her, Councilor Markov fidgeted, shifting his weight from one foot to another.
“Opening the first container now...” the technician said, moving awkwardly in his bulky mustard-yellow hazmat suit. “Ah... Commander, we have a problem.”
“What kind of problem?” Audrey asked.
“The containers appear to be broken.”
“What do you mean they’re broken?” Audrey demanded.
“The outer one is deformed, while the inner one is shattered, ma’am.”
The VSM drone’s head turned. “That’s impossible! They were both fine when I collected the sample!” Torres said over their shared comm channel.
“The containers are not indestructible. Perhaps you were too rough. VSM drones are calibrated to administer far more force than any human could. You might not have noticed that you were damaging them.”
“I know the difference between a gentle squeeze and a death grip,” Torres snapped.
“Well, however it happened, the fact is that it happened,” Councilor Markov said, “and that means our quarantine is breached.”
“I need to report this to Admiral Urikov,” Audrey added. “Meanwhile, see if you can detect any residuals from the inside of the container, and if possible, find out how it broke.”
“Will do,” the technician replied.
Markov turned to her, his face deeply shadowed behind the hazmat helmet. “What was in there?” he asked.
Audrey noticed a closed loop comms icon on her ARCs; the councilor was speaking to her over a private channel. She switched to the same one and shook her head. “You know as much as I do, Councilor.”
A frown creased his face. “I doubt that. Don’t think I didn’t notice how you shooed me out of the CIC earlier.”
Audrey held his gaze without blinking. “If there is something I’m not saying, it’s because I’m not allowed.”
“The safety of this ship and its crew is my responsibility, Commander, and the civilian government is in charge of this mission—not the Navy. Whatever you’re allowed to know, I’m allowed to know.”
“You mean the safety of this section.”
“What?”
“The safety of this section is your responsibility—not the entire ship.”
“You know what I mean,” Markov replied, waving his hand dismissively in her face. He looked away to watch the technician work.
Audrey switched comm channels to update the admiral before Markov could say something else.
“Yes, Commander?” Admiral Urikov answered after a moment.
Audrey explained about the broken sample containers, and the admiral let out a guttural sigh.
“Now we have four sections compromised.”
“Four?”
“Sections One, Six, and Eight were all breached, Commander. Now with Section Seven, that makes four.”
“I thought the breaches were contained?” Audrey said.
“They were, and they are, but from what you’re telling me we can’t be sure that they can be contained. That smoke you sampled could be bleeding through our air supply as we speak.”
“If that’s the case, then you’d detect a loss of pressure in the areas ar
ound the hull breaches.”
“Not if they re-sealed the ducts. Isn’t that what your sergeant found? Some kind of sealant around the grilles?”
“Yes, but breaking through a flimsy vent with mechanized conduits is one thing. Breaking through sealed bulkheads is another, Admiral. It would take a cutting beam for anything to get in.”
“I hope you’re right. I’m sending a team from engineering to look into it. I’ll let you know what they find. Meanwhile, until we know what we’re dealing with, you should confine everyone to their quarters and shut down the ventilation system.”
“Shut it down, sir? We’ll suffocate.”
“There’s enough air in the dormitories to last everyone for at least a week. Hopefully long before then we’ll know what’s going on and what to do about it.”
Audrey nodded. “Yes, sir. What should we tell people as the reason for their confinement?”
“There was a containment breach. Tell them that. It just happens to be the truth.”
“I’ll pass along the message to Councilor Markov, sir.”
“Good. I’ll be in touch. Urikov out.”
Audrey turned to Markov only to find him already engaged in a conversation with the lab technician.
“So the sergeant didn’t break the containers,” Markov said.
“No,” the technician replied. “There’s no way she could have caused this type of damage.”
“What type of damage?” Audrey interrupted.
“The soil sample container is shot full of microscopic holes, ma’am. Millions of them. It’s like...”
“Like something ate its way out,” Audrey said.
“Yes, exactly,” the technician said.
“Any sign of whatever that was?”
“No traces of the sample, ma’am.”
Audrey grimaced and turned to Markov. “Councilor, we need to confine everyone to their quarters until we can find and contain whatever was in that flask. I’ve been ordered to shut down the ventilation system to prevent it from spreading.”
Markov regarded her silently for a long moment before conceding to her with a nod. Neither of them liked taking orders from the other. There was a constant tension in their relationship, professional and otherwise, over who would get to wear the pants—and for how long. Fortunately, he seemed to realize they had bigger issues to deal with right now.
Exodus: Book 3 of the New Frontiers Series (A Dark Space Tie-In) Page 8
