Brackitt shrugged. Even without a mouth, Jack could tell he was smirking.
"You're the one who called her wonderful, don’t forget.”
Jack stared at the smorgasbord of buttons and levers littering the dashboard. He ran his hand along their surface.
"And she is," he replied. "Simply wonderful."
He clenched his hands into fists to keep them from shaking. This was it. This was everything he ever wanted. All his training at the Academy; all those late nights he spent pushing himself on the sims, desperate to come top of his class; all his dreams dashed when he went backpacking because he couldn't bring himself to fly. Yet here he was, sat behind the wheel of not a jet fighter but an actual spacecraft. Everything – everything – had been leading to this moment. Forget engineering. Forget qualifications. He was a pilot, had always been a pilot… and a damn good one, too.
All he had to do now was keep his nerves from flaring up.
He steadied himself, pushed one of the levers forward, and led the Adeona out into the Ceros star system.
16
Under the Radar
Jack took less than three minutes to get to grips with the basics of Adeona's controls. Her setup wasn't quite as intuitive as that of a fighter jet or even one of the United Earth Government's more hefty supply ships, but neither was it too complicated. A lever to his left regulated the strength and speed of her rear thrusters, while a joystick directly in front of him allowed for movement up, down, left and right. Paddles on the second lever activated the air brakes on each side of the ship, which swapped a strafing manoeuvre for a sharper, banked turn.
Any kid who'd ever gone near a video game controller could have picked it up. But there were dozens of other buttons and flaps and switches which remained completely alien to him. He didn't even want to know which button activated the skip drive.
As they drifted slowly in the direction of the cracked planet, an almighty clanging sound came from inside a panel beneath the ship's dashboard. Tuner poked his head out.
"We're a fair way inside Ceros' heliosphere now," he said, referring to the outer limits of the solar system, "but so far I'm only picking up the faintest traces of Negoti's radar signal. I can scramble it for the time being, but it'll get a lot stronger once we're closer to the Gate."
"The Adeona says everything is good so far," said Brackitt, nodding like a doctor checking a patient's heartbeat through a stethoscope. "You can go a bit quicker, if you like."
Jack was going at the speed he felt most comfortable with, thank you very much. But he knew Tuner couldn't hold off Negoti's radar scans forever, so he gently pushed the left lever further forward.
He shouldn't have been surprised when there was no sensation of increased velocity outside the cockpit's windows. The pressure on his chest grew for the most marginal of moments as they accelerated, but the stars remained as static as always, like tiny white flecks of paint on a black canvas.
Of course they wouldn't appear any closer. This was nothing like flying across oceans or fields of corn. Most of the time, space couldn't offer a point of reference. Considering the distance from solar system to solar system, and the speeds at which a ship could travel, the stars on the horizon weren't really any closer at all.
Unless you used a skip drive, of course. Everett Reeves really hadn't been joking when he said getting to the nearest star could take humanity dozens of lifetimes. No wonder he was so desperate to get the wormhole tech to work.
And yet, even without jumping to subspace, the planets beyond the Ceros Gate were growing noticeably bigger as they approached. God only knew how fast the Adeona must have been going. Faster than any ship Earth had ever produced, that was for sure.
"At our present velocity, we should reach Ceros-VI within five minutes," said Rogan, monitoring the ship's course on the hologram table. "Keep on the planet's starboard side as much as you can."
Brackitt kept the left-hand windows of the Adeona magnified so that everyone could better monitor the Negoti space station, just in case it became alerted of their presence and sent out attack drones. As Jack pitched the Adeona to the right, he marvelled at the queue of supply ships waiting to pass through the checkpoint.
"Kill the engines," said Rogan. "Now!"
Jack didn't even have to press anything – the Adeona did it herself. The levers and joysticks snapped back to their original positions and her thrusters shut down, killing the rumble that permeated through her hull. Even without propulsion, she continued to rocket forward through frictionless space.
"What happened?" Jack spun the chair around. "Did I do something wrong?"
11-P-53 shook its head and marched down the steps to join him.
"Out there," it said, pointing out the window. "Do you see that?"
Jack squinted, then magnified the screen, then increased the brightness. A small, stocky spacecraft was headed towards them. Large filament-bulb searchlights ran along its roof. It had what looked like rocket launchers attached to either side.
"It's a patrol ship." 11-P-53 dashed back to the hologram table. "It must have seen the flare from our engines."
"What should we do?" asked Jack.
"Nothing," said Rogan, snapping at him. "We'll give away our location again if we use our thrusters. Our momentum is still carrying us towards Ceros-VI. The patrol should be headed towards where we were, not where we are."
"Won't it see us anyway?"
Rogan paused, then shook her head.
"This far out from the system's star? Probably not. They have lights, but they're for short distance searches. With any luck they'll dismiss the glare from our thrusters as nothing but a reflection bouncing off a piece of space-junk."
Jack looked back out at the patrol ship. It was definitely getting closer.
"You think that'll work?" he asked. "There's no chance we could outrun it?"
"Sure. We're probably faster."
"Then why don't we do that?"
"Because we can't outrun the missiles it'll fire once it sees us. Now stop talking. And for bolts' sake, will somebody kill the lights and screens?"
Everyone fell silent. Tuner flipped a switch under the dashboard and everything inside the cockpit turned dark. The golden forcefield outside the windows rolled out of frame as the Adeona tumbled lifelessly through space. With each slow rotation of the ship, the security patrol appeared to grow a little nearer.
"Come on," whispered Jack, clutching at the leather straps of his captain's chair.
Everybody held their breath. Or Jack did, at least – the automata simply froze in their positions, not moving an inch, which he guessed was their equivalent. If the Negoti patrol had even the slightest suspicion that the Adeona was trying to sneak through the Ceros system, it would blow the ship right back out of it – this time in a million different pieces.
And nobody would ever come sifting through the wreckage for him.
Nobody would even know he'd died out there at all.
He went to reach for the photograph, only to remember that it was ruined.
Just when it looked as if the patrol was headed on an interception course with the Adeona, it veered off to the right. Jack let out a sigh of relief. Even though it couldn't have been any closer than a kilometre or so away, it felt as if they'd missed each other by mere inches. If they'd been two jet fighters flying in broad daylight, they would have spotted each other for sure.
Once the automata were confident the patrol wasn't looping around for another pass, Tuner switched the lights back on. The blue hologram of the solar system popped back up from the table. Rogan studied their new, uncontrolled trajectory with a stern expression.
"Okay, everyone back to their stations." She turned and faced Jack. "Keep the main thrusters off until we reach the planet's upper atmosphere. I've labelled a viable entry point on your NavMap – until then, use the air thrusters if you need to keep the ship steady."
Jack nodded and spun his chair back round. A flat, green hologram had been superimposed over the windo
ws in front of him. A dotted arrow plotted the best path between the ship and Rogan's suggested destination.
Tapping the paddles on either side of the joystick, Jack brought the Adeona back under control. He knew the ship could have done it herself with far less trouble had her navigation systems not been compromised by the disrupter mine, but he appreciated the chance to practice.
He was about to fly through the guts of a planet. He needed all the practice he could get.
As they broke through the upper atmosphere of Ceros-VI, Jack was filled with a plethora of questions… the most pressing of which were how and why it still had an atmosphere at all.
"More gravity wells," said Rogan, standing beside Jack. They both looked down at the planet. "It's much easier to mine an asteroid or even a moon than it is a whole planet – that's why they crack them apart. But that's quite an explosive procedure, as I'm sure you can imagine. The detonation leaves behind a small artificial gravity well, which keeps the chunks – and with them, the planet's atmosphere – from flying off into space."
"Like a miniature black hole?" asked Jack.
Rogan bobbed her head from side to side.
"Sort of… but not really. More like a deep chasm in space-time. Think of a bowling ball on the surface of a trampoline, stretching it down. We might survive the trip inside, but it would take more fuel than we have to get back out. And gravity does weird things to time – who knows what year it would be when, and if, we escaped."
Jack swallowed hard.
"So we want to avoid the planet's core, then?"
"What's left of it, yes," said Rogan, patting the edge of Jack's seat. "Best if you stick to following the crust around, if you can. Tuner, how's the signal blocking going?"
Tuner wriggled out from his cubby hole.
"No successful pings yet, but it's getting harder and harder to scramble their radar." He sounded stressed. "We ought to be quick. Their video scanners must surely know something's up by now."
"Keep going," said Rogan, nodding to them both. She returned to the hologram table before any more questions had the chance to slip off Jack's tongue.
He did as she said, gently guiding the Adeona towards Rogan's NavMap destination with only the most minimal use of the ship's thrusters. Their flames were far less visible now that they'd entered Ceros-VI's atmosphere, but they'd hardly go unnoticed by patrols on the lookout for intruders. Uninterrupted, they would reach the planet's surface in less than a minute.
Although Ceros-VI still retained an atmosphere, it was thin – a pale, white-blue line on the horizon that barely rocked the Adeona's hull upon entry. There weren't clouds floating in the skies below so much as a thin, blanketing mist, one which occasionally showered the broken planet with light rain but just as often spilled the precious water down through the cracks, where its droplets tumbled longways and lengthways towards the core.
The planet rose up to greet him. Colossal green forests waved as if celebrating their arrival. Translucent lakes lay pocketed amongst the trees. Even now, flocks of small birds migrated from one planetary chunk to another. Far from the dusty red rock Jack had thought it would be, the fragments of Ceros-VI were teeming with life. It could have been a paradise, once upon a time.
He couldn't understand why anyone would want to destroy such a beautiful thing.
"I thought you said the Negoti Corporation bought the Ceros system because it didn't harbour any life?" he said to Brackitt.
"It didn't harbour any advanced life," replied Brackitt, shaking his head. "If automata don't have any rights, why would you expect anyone to care about a few trees?"
"It's terrible."
"Welcome to the galaxy." Jack could have sworn he heard a hint of exasperated laughter in Brackitt's voice. "It's a pretty terrible place."
"We've been picked up on the radar." Tuner suddenly emerged from the maintenance hatch. "Sorry, everyone. Patrol ships are on their way."
"No need to apologise, Tuner." Rogan brushed her hologram aside and marched down to the front of the cockpit. "We figured this would happen sooner or later. Do you know where you're going, Jack?"
"Sure do."
"Is the Adeona ready?"
Brackitt paused, then nodded. Rogan crossed her arms.
"Then let's take her inside."
Jack guided the Adeona towards the largest chasm Rogan had been able to locate with the ship's scanners – at its mouth, it stretched almost a mile across. For now, it was like riding a scooter down an empty freeway… but they all knew the landscape could change without warning. What was presently a canyon might become a hairline fracture in an instant, crushing whatever foolish ship happened to be passing through.
Thick roots stuck out from the soil where the chunks of planet had broken apart. Rocks and dirt came loose where the pieces had recently collided together, falling downwards and inwards. Water spilled out from where underground streams had been cut in half.
Jack couldn't see much further than that. Anything deeper than the uppermost level of crust was cast in a thick darkness so black that had it not been for the lack of stars, Jack might not have believed anything lay there at all.
He wiped his sweaty hands against the edge of his chair, then tightened his grip on the controls.
"Don't worry," said Rogan, noticing the nervous expression on Jack's face. "By the time they work out what our plan is, we'll be long gone. Nobody would be stupid enough to follow us in there."
Jack went to swallow but found his throat too dry.
That's what he was afraid of.
17
Journey Through the Cracked Planet
The thick, sweeping floodlights of the Adeona cut through the dark and dusty chasm like a broadsword. Large boulders floated in their gaze. Stray rocks and pebbles clattered harmlessly across the ship's hull.
So far, so good. Jack hadn't crashed into any of the canyon walls yet, nor any of the rock faces levitating above and below. But controlling the Adeona in such a tight environment was proving harder than he'd anticipated. With her main rear thrusters offline – partly to conserve fuel, partly to save from ploughing into the first corner he came across – the only way he could turn was to fire short bursts from the air thrusters that ran down her flanks. It was nervous, twitchy work.
Slow, too. But slow meant safe, and when every narrow corridor felt like a set of hungry cosmic jaws waiting to chow down on them, everybody on board felt that safe sounded pretty damn good.
A gargantuan mass of asphalt-grey rock rose sharply overhead. Jack rammed the joystick forward and threw the Adeona into a steep dive. They levelled out just as the skyscraper-sized rock crashed into the cliffs behind them. The thin atmosphere had leaked down from the surface – though they couldn’t hear the impact, they all felt its vibrations.
"I think we've drifted towards the asthenosphere," said Rogan. She studied the unusual material with awe. "Look at the way the molten rock has cooled and hardened having lost the heat from the planet's core. Don't worry," she added, "we're still nowhere near the gravity well. Stick to heading starboard, if you can."
Jack suppressed a shiver and continued onwards. He was flying through the bowels of a planet that seemed intent on killing him, and his hands were starting to cramp up. Rogan's geology lessons could wait.
His interest regarding the landscape changed after a further thirty minutes of flying through stark, monotonous canyons and – depending on the orientation of the ship – narrow slits that letterboxed his vision. When he caught sight of a bright blue glow in the distance, he turned the Adeona towards it without thinking.
"What is that?" he asked aloud.
Brackitt looked up from his dashboard and shrugged. Tuner climbed up from his cubby hole and Rogan adjusted the magnification of her eye lenses.
"I have no idea," she replied, her expression blank. Jack was taken aback. Up until then, he'd assumed Rogan knew everything. "Take us closer if you can, but be careful."
As the Adeona glided between tight
walls of rock, the blue glow grew ever brighter, then divided into two, then the two into four, and so on. At first Jack wondered if they might be some sort of radiant life form – like flying, glow-in-the-dark jellyfish or something. It already felt as if he were piloting the Adeona through the deep blackness of the ocean abyss as it was. But then the lights revealed themselves to be just that – industrial lights, embedded in the side of a massive rock chunk. Small, unmanned ships were boring into it with razor-sharp drills.
The rock chunk split. More of the drilling ships swept in, breaking it down further still and syphoning all the precious material through the channels in their drill heads.
"So that's how they do it," said Rogan, nodding. "Interesting. I've never witnessed planetary mining before."
"Are they automata?" asked Jack.
"They're automated, not automata," she replied. "No sentience, no genuine thought. They don't even know they exist. Still, give them a wide berth. We don't know how they communicate with the central station, or what they might tell them."
"Will do," said Jack, listing the ship to the left.
"Hold on," said Brackitt. His voice sounded frantic. He tapped a button and threw a new holographic display across the front windows. "Does anybody know what that is?"
The green, 3D-matrix image clearly resembled the Adeona as she was at that moment, floating in an ever-shifting labyrinth of rock. Jack guessed the ship was picking herself up on her own short-range scanners. Ahead and to the right of them were the drilling machines. To the left, another empty chasm. Behind them, something was coming in fast.
"A missile," said Rogan, her eyes growing wide. She shook Jack by the shoulders. "Fly, Jack. Fly!"
"Whose bright idea was it to fly through a bloody planet anyway?" muttered Jack, throwing the left lever as far forward as it would go.
The Adeona rocketed down the chasm to the left, her thrusters suddenly at full power. The rocky corridor was tight – barely twice the width of the ship – and Jack struggled to keep her from bashing off the walls. He suspected the Adeona was helping to stabilise herself as best she could.
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