The gauss attack on the door began anew. With each impact, the inner surface of the door flexed and creaked. The noises came faster and Duggan guessed the men outside were becoming desperate in case he managed to take control of the shuttle and use it to carry them back to the Tillos base for questioning.
Duggan was also becoming desperate to find a way out. He wasn’t frightened, though this situation was entirely unexpected. Amongst the clamour, his mind offered him a plan. Even in the circumstances, it wasn’t a plan he wished to enact, but there was little time for him to address the moral conflict it produced – once his enemies breached the door, he’d no longer be able to do what was required.
“They’ve brought this upon themselves,” he said angrily.
His fingers moved swiftly through the sub-menus of the shuttle’s control systems. Within seconds, he found what he was after. The activation button glowed invitingly and he pressed it at once. The onboard computer refused the request as he’d expected it to do, but it did offer him a chance to enter an override command. He tapped in a code and sent it to the mainframe. Moments later, the shuttle’s external door opened.
An alarm chimed in the cockpit and a red warning light flashed on and off at intervals. Additional alerts appeared on the shuttle’s monitors, to let him know about a critical pressure drop in the main passenger cabin. The cockpit was well-insulated against noise, but Duggan wondered if he could just make out the sound of a scream through the bulkhead wall. He waited for a further ten seconds and then instructed the mainframe to close the external door.
It was done. The three men sent to kidnap him had been sucked out of the shuttle and into the planet’s upper atmosphere. They’d have frozen to death quickly, with hardly any time to feel pain or fear. Their swift deaths were scant consolation to Duggan, who was furious he’d been forced to kill three people without knowing what they wanted from him. There was no chance of getting information from them now they were dead and tumbling towards the ground a hundred kilometres below. He swore for the dozenth time and put the matter from his head for the moment. There were only a few minutes remaining until the shuttle’s autopilot set it down and Duggan didn’t want to sit around passively waiting for it to happen.
While he thought, a request came through on the comms from an anonymous source. Duggan would have dearly liked to answer it in order to hear the voice of whoever it was in charge, however he had no access to the comms system yet, so could do nothing about it. The inbound comms light winked for a few seconds, before it stopped flashing.
With two minutes left until the autopilot reached the end of its pre-programmed course, Duggan finally managed to gain full control of the shuttle. Whoever was responsible for the alterations, they had a good idea of how to make things difficult. Fortunately for Duggan, the override codes provided to officers of captain grade allowed him to get into more or less anything. The shuttle had been partially re-programmed, but there was no way the culprit could strip out the deep coding installed in the hardware.
Duggan searched through the navigational system to find the shuttle’s destination. He was disappointed to discover it to be nowhere of apparent significance – the vessel was programmed to halt above a section of jungle, several hundred kilometres away from the nearest major population centre. He studied the local charts and assumed it was nothing more than a waypoint. Or a rendezvous, he thought, keeping the shuttle on its existing course.
The shuttle reached its destination. It stopped in the air, ten kilometres above the surface and did nothing else. Duggan watched the sensors carefully. There were no other aircraft within three hundred kilometres. The ground was dense with foliage and the shuttle’s sensors were fairly low-tech, making it hard to be certain there was nothing waiting below. However, there were no roads or any other way to easily reach this place from the ground, so Duggan had to assume the intended rendezvous was in the air.
He waited for an hour and nobody showed up. He conceded that the other parties involved in the kidnapping must have been spooked when the shuttle’s pilot failed to respond to the earlier comms request. Duggan was stubborn enough to wait for as long as it took, but he admitted to himself that he would be wasting his time. He took the controls and executed a tight turn. The Tillos base was on the opposite side of the planet, so he allowed the vessel’s mainframe to plot the most efficient course. Soon, the shuttle was skimming across the upper reaches of the planet’s atmosphere at maximum speed.
As soon as he was close enough, he requested a priority landing slot at Tillos and set the shuttle down on landing pad one, which he was pleased to find was much closer to the central administrative cluster than landing pad two. Once on the ground, he left the cockpit and spared a moment to look around the passenger bay. Anything which wasn’t firmly screwed in place had been sucked out, along with the three men who had been up to no good. There was a chance some evidence might remain for the forensics teams, so he didn’t touch anything on his way through. A team of security guards was waiting and he told them to keep away from the shuttle until it could be properly examined.
Fifteen minutes later and he was in the same reception area he’d visited prior to his ill-fated journey on the shuttle. The base security officers were exceptionally keen to speak with him, though Duggan managed to deflect them for the moment. He was as keen to find out what had happened as they were, but he realised that his true orders from the Space Corps were still awaiting him and he was very interested to learn what they might be. He walked to the same desk with the same gentleman sitting behind it and asked what instructions were on his file. If the receptionist recognized Duggan, he showed no sign and he checked his logging software obligingly.
“You’ve been given an office on the second floor, sir.” He looked puzzled. “I’m not sure what’s up with the system. The dates are screwed up and there’s a gap in the timeline. I wonder if the IT guys have been running some updates.”
“Maybe. Are there any details on how long I’m to stay?”
“No, sir. There’s an office number and that’s it.”
“Thank you,” said Duggan. He was about to go, when he had a thought. “Can you have a look at the last instructions for a Commander Lucy McGlashan, along with Lieutenants Bill Breeze and Frank Chainer?”
The receptionist took another look at Duggan, as if to be certain he had the authority to request these details. “Certainly. Commander McGlashan has been given accommodation in another building. Likewise for Lieutenants Breeze and Chainer. Someone’s granted them a bit of downtime, huh?”
“Seems that way.” Duggan smiled at the man and left to find his office.
It didn’t take long to find and was larger and more luxuriously appointed than he was used to. There was a carpet and real wood furnishings. On another occasion, he might have appreciated the details. For now, he had other things on his mind. He sat at the desk and made a call.
“Lucy?”
She sounded confused and happy. “John? What’s happening. I tried to make myself available to the personnel pool, but something must have gone wrong. I was told to go and put my feet up for a while instead. I’ve spoken with Frank and Bill. The same thing happened to them.”
“Someone tried to kidnap me. I have no idea who it was or why. They must have inserted some fake details into the base logging system in order to separate us. The bastards were waiting for me on the shuttle.”
“What? What happened?”
“We fought and I killed them. The evidence is likely gone. The forensics guys are looking and there’ll be an inspection team poring over the shuttle’s audit logs. I don’t know what they’ll find.”
“I don’t like this, John. Who’d want to kill you?”
A seed took root in Duggan’s head, giving him an idea. He didn’t speak about it yet. Instead, he changed the subject. “We’ll talk about it when I’ve had a chance to think. Want to get something to eat off-base later?”
“You can get clearance for that?”
<
br /> “I think I can manage.”
“Great!” She hesitated. “Should I invite Frank and Bill?”
“They can sit this one out.”
He ended the call and sat back. The faux-leather of his chair squeaked convincingly and he looked at the white-painted ceiling, lost in thought. He’d imagined that life would become simpler once the Dreamer mothership was destroyed. It didn’t look as though it was meant to be.
An hour or two drifted by and Duggan found his eye constantly drawn to the comms unit on his desk. He knew he was going to get a message from Admiral Teron at some point, he just didn’t know when. For once, it appeared as though he wasn’t in demand.
“Or perhaps the good Admiral has decided to give me some time to myself as a reward,” he mused out loud. Now the mothership was destroyed, there was no urgent requirement to micro-manage Duggan’s movements. Teron still had plenty on his plate – peace negotiations with the Ghasts would have the added complication of how to deal with the wreckage of the mothership. The pieces were dirty with radiation and badly damaged from the force of several nuclear explosions, but there’d still be valuable information to be gathered from the remains. Whatever was coming to Duggan could wait. Or so he told himself.
By early evening, Duggan was showered and spruced up. He headed to the reception area at the agreed time. Commander McGlashan was waiting for him. She was wearing her uniform – like many in the Space Corps they were the only clothes she owned - and had tied her hair back in a way he’d not seen before. She smiled warmly and he smiled back.
“I’ve not been on a date for a long time,” she said.
“Who said this is a date?” he joked. “We’re going to talk about strategy and planning.”
“I don’t think you’d dare,” she replied.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.”
They set off towards the main doorway. The Tillos base had originally been built far from anywhere, but the Space Corps’ money always created places to spend it and there were several modestly-sized towns within a few minutes’ drive.
Before they could leave, an announcement came through the building speaker system, clear and in defiance of Duggan’s attempts to ignore it.
“Priority message for Captain John Nathan Duggan. Please report to Meeting Room 73 at once. Repeat, priority message.”
Duggan stopped in his tracks. “I could ignore it.”
McGlashan looked at him. “You wouldn’t be John Duggan if you did that.”
He sighed. “I suppose not. Can we postpone for an hour?”
“I don’t think there’s much choice, is there?”
Duggan left her alone in the reception area and hurried to the meeting room. It was empty and there were no milling crowds outside. He entered and settled himself in a chair, looking expectantly at the video screen. A connection request came through and he answered it. The screen lit up, showing the familiar image of Fleet Admiral Teron, sitting at his desk on the Juniper.
“Captain Duggan. I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
“It’ll wait, sir.”
Chapter Five
Duggan had already spoken extensively to Teron since the destruction of the Dreamer mothership. During the aftermath of the battle, he’d kept the ESS Crimson in local space to watch over the Archimedes and the Ghast warship Sandarvax whilst they’d repaired their engines sufficiently to allow lightspeed travel. The first encounter with the mothership had been utterly devastating for the human and Ghast fleets and the enemy had also demonstrated their capability to disable a warship’s engine. Since that time, the Space Corps labs had been hard at work researching a way to counter or reduce the effects of this new weapon. Their efforts were partially successful and the stranded Archimedes had been able to lift off after ten days, with another six days until it was capable of lightspeed.
Teron was straight to the point. “You’re needed, John.”
Duggan sighed inwardly. “I’d hoped to have a few days off, sir.”
“I’m sorry. Truly I am. I’ll let you in on a secret – I’d arranged a ceremony for you and your crew, to formally thank you for your bravery. There’s a warship due to land later this evening. It was meant to bring you to the Juniper, but plans have changed.”
“Has there been more conflict?”
Teron permitted himself a smile. “No, fortunately there has not. For once, your skills are required in the pursuit of peace, rather than the pursuit of war.”
“What do you mean?”
“You have impressed Subjos Gol-Tur and he has asked for your presence during the final stages of the peace negotiations.”
“Me?” asked Duggan. He quickly realised the response made him sound like a bumpkin, so he continued. “What does he feel I can bring that our trained negotiators can’t?”
“Does it matter? One of the most senior Ghasts has asked for you to come. He might want to share war stories or he might want you to wear a top hat and dance with his wife.”
Duggan briefly wondered if Teron had been drinking, since it was unlike him to be so flippant. “I’ll do whatever it takes, sir, though I draw the line at dancing.” A question leapt from his mouth before he could stop it. “Have you seen Gol-Tur’s wife? I was beginning to think there were no Ghast women and that they were a race of clones.”
Teron laughed. “You’re not the only one to harbour such thoughts, John. Gol-Tur does have a wife and yes, I have seen her with my own eyes. In fact, I have spoken to several Ghast women in the past few weeks. The more familiar we become with our intended allies, the more willing they are to open up to us.”
Duggan couldn’t help himself. “Is she seven feet tall and built like an ox?”
“Not one bit of it. The few I’ve seen were in the region of six feet tall. Compared to the males, they are slender and dare I say it, exceptionally graceful. There are some image files in the Space Corps databanks if you ever want to take a look.”
“I must confess to my curiosity, sir. After all these years of fighting the males, it might help me understand their race better if I were to see the other half of the population.”
“You might get the chance.” Teron leaned forward, his gaze intense. “This really is it. There are unanswered questions about the Ghasts, but nothing which is a barrier to lasting peace. We are on the brink of a monumental achievement – settlement and friendship instead of annihilation. After everything which has gone before, we’ve shown we can fight together against a common foe. The Dreamers will return and when they do, they must face two determined and united races. We’ll destroy those bastards again and again, until they finally give up trying.”
“Do you think they’ll ever stop?”
“Does it matter? As long as we keep beating them, that’s the only thing which counts.”
“Eternal war.”
“It won’t come to that. I have no plans to die soon, but when I finally go, I want to look back upon a time of peace, not a lifetime of conflict.”
“Me too, sir.”
“Are you prepared to speak to the Ghasts?”
“I am. Do I have a list of goals?”
“What’s the point in me giving you a list? You’d just ignore it anyway. No, John, all you’re required to do is be there as Gol-Tur has asked. Speak to him and hopefully he will see mankind’s strength and determination.”
Duggan realised he was being complimented. “Thank you, sir.”
“Your ship lands later - you’ll be in command. Take your crew if you wish, though they might have to do a bit of waiting around, twiddling their thumbs.”
“I doubt they’ll mind.”
“I thought that would be the case.”
Duggan opened his mouth, wondering if he should bother Teron with details of what happened earlier. There were security teams who could investigate and Duggan felt he was capable of looking after himself. After a moment’s consideration, he decided to share the details.
“Someone tried to kidnap me today, sir
.”
For once, Teron had no immediate response. He spluttered, but no words came out. Eventually he managed to ask for some details, which Duggan duly provided.
“How dare they!” Teron shouted, crashing his fist down.
“The Tillos security guys are on the case, sir.”
“That isn’t enough! This is unheard of!” The set of Teron’s jaw showed him to be livid. “You understand this isn’t minor criminal activity? For someone to have access to the military’s equipment…” He tailed off and Duggan knew he’d been right to let the Admiral know.
“They failed, sir,” he said, hoping it would calm Teron.
After a few deep breaths, Teron did become outwardly calm. “If you were specifically targeted, you’ll be safe once you get onboard your transport. It’ll give me time to find out what’s going on.” He clenched his fist unconsciously on top of the table, reassuring Duggan that the consequences would not be pretty for those involved.
While Duggan wasn’t uncaring about his personal safety, he suddenly felt uncomfortable at the attention. “What do the Projections Team say about our situation now the dust has settled?” he asked, knowing the question would distract Teron.
“It’s…complicated,” Teron replied, taking the bait.
Duggan stared at the screen.
“I’m not sure what else to say,” Teron finished. “Previously, the destruction of Atlantis was a nailed-on certainty, with things looking precarious for Overtide and Freedom. As it stands, the odds have receded somewhat.”
“The emphasis on the word contains the complication, I assume?”
“Indeed.” Teron rubbed his scalp. “There is now a uniform three percent chance for each of the Confederation planets to be destroyed. The peculiar thing is, if we assume the loss of one planet, the chance of the others being annihilated climbs to one hundred percent. The fate of all is tied to the fate of one.”
Terminus Gate (Survival Wars Book 5) Page 3
