“Yeah. What sort of bastard sets out to create something that can do so much damage?”
“I do not wish to empathise with our enemy, but we don’t know what drove them to it,” said Duggan.
“It’s because they’re warmongering swine, sir.”
“We don’t know what their motivations are, Lieutenant and we can only guess.” Duggan sighed. “As I told you, I don’t want to sound like I need to understand their reasons. At the moment, I only wish they had never come through the wormhole and we knew nothing about them.”
“It was easier when it was only the Ghasts.”
“The AI core is holding at a steady one hundred and twenty percent,” said Breeze. “That’s higher than it should be, but I’m a lot more comfortable with how it is now.”
“Where are we going?” asked Duggan, remembering there were still urgent matters to attend.
“I have no idea, sir. I just plugged in some numbers and set us on our way. We’ll exit lightspeed in about five minutes. I didn’t think you’d want us to go far.”
“Indeed not. We’ll take stock and consider the best way to proceed.”
“The way it’s going, we’ll surely appear in the middle of seven of their combined fleets,” said Chainer. “Anyone want a coffee?”
“I’m beginning to have serious concerns about the state of your mental health, Frank,” said Breeze.
“Really?”
“He’s speaking for everyone,” said McGlashan.
“We need to calm down, folks,” said Duggan. The thought came to him that the crew were high on battle – it was a buzz that could make men and women act differently to normal. We’ve been out here for too long. It’s time to fix that.
He stood up and faced the others. Chainer was halfway to the doorway in his hunt for coffee and Duggan motioned for him to sit again.
“These have been trying times for us,” Duggan said. “I realise we’ve not been here for anything like an extended period, but there’s hardly been a moment where we’ve been able to sit back without the threat of death hanging over us. We’ve far exceeded my expectations and I’m sure we’ve far exceeded anything Admiral Teron wished to come from this.”
“If we get back alive and nothing else, I’m sure he’ll be surprised,” joked Breeze.
“I’ve no doubt that’s true, Lieutenant. Think of what else we can tell him – not only have we got enough data to map out this area of enemy space, we’ve also obtained technical specifications on their warships, details of their comms hubs and some of their home worlds. If those things alone were not enough, we’ve knocked out two of their lightspeed catapults and surely reduced most of those eighteen warships to wreckage.”
“Not bad for a few days’ work, sir,” said Chainer.
“We’ll exit lightspeed in about twenty seconds,” said Breeze.
“Get yourselves prepared,” Duggan ordered, hurrying to his station. He hadn’t intended his pep talk to last quite so long.
“We have entered local space.”
“Nothing on the fars,” said Chainer. “I’ll have the results from the supers shortly. Other than that, we’re pretty much nowhere.”
Duggan was relieved. It would have been tremendously bad luck if their randomly-chosen trajectory had exposed them to an immediate hostile encounter.
“Give me the run-down,” he said.
“The core is still churning over something,” said Breeze. “It’s going at a near-constant sixty percent utilisation. If the Dreamer tech is anything like our own, it’ll run for decades at eighty or ninety percent without problems – anything much over and you start to run into problems.”
“Why is it still running so hot?”
“I’m not sure, sir. I shut down each of the remaining process threads from the wormhole launch sequence program and that’s what brought the utilisation down. I’m out of ideas when it comes to getting it to its expected level. If you think about it, the core fell most of the way down a thirty-metre shaft onto a hard metal surface. We should be thankful it’s working at all.”
“Will it get us back to Confederation Space?”
“I don’t know. My honest opinion is that we’re in real danger of being stranded here.”
“There’s nothing stopping us activating the launch sequence is there?”
“No, sir.”
“If we make it through the wormhole, it doesn’t matter if the core burns out.”
“Aside from the fact that it’s an irreplaceable piece of hardware.”
“I’m more interested in getting everyone home alive. Admiral Teron can worry about what comes after.”
“In that case, we need to do the same as we did on the first transit – point the Crimson towards the wormhole and activate the double-jump at the last possible moment, hoping we don’t get crushed by gravitational forces or blown up by an enemy warship.”
“We did it once and we’ll have to do it again,” said Duggan. “We’ll head towards the Blackstar as soon as we’ve got our stealth capabilities and sufficient spare gravity drive power to manoeuvre.”
“The gravity engines are on forty-seven percent. The core is repairing slower than usual.”
“An hour or two won’t make a difference.”
“The super-fars have come back clear,” said Chainer. “Unless a Dreamer ships decides to come sightseeing in this precise location, we’ve got the time we need.”
“Remain on high alert. I’ll let you know when we’re going for our second traversal of the wormhole.”
The others fell into a silence that spoke of concentration and trepidation. For his part, Duggan watched the progress of the AI core on the engine re-routing. Staring at a gauge occupied his eyes, while his mind searched ahead, trying to weave future possibilities into something he could grasp and mould.
Whatever happened, they had to risk the dangers of travelling through the Helius Blackstar. That was an unavoidable fact. There was much he didn’t know and it was the uncertainties which he hated. There had been only fifteen fission signatures at Glisst. Fifteen out of eighteen enemy warships had succumbed to their desire to pursue the much smaller Space Corps vessel and been destroyed for their rashness. That left three unaccounted for. It was likely they’d destroyed one of those three, but that left two remaining which may or may not have been knocked out of action. The sensor data from their recent lightspeed jump to the wormhole was inconclusive and there was no way to be sure how many spaceships had been wrecked or rendered inoperable.
The end of a mission is always the hardest part and we always pull through, he told himself.
On this occasion, the words brought no comfort.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“The gravity drives are at seventy-five percent,” said Breeze. “The core utilisation is creeping up again.”
“Is that expected?” asked Duggan.
“It happens at times. If the core hits a particularly difficult run of realignment choices, it can go up. Given our current situation, I view every deviation as a cause for concern.”
“I’d like to wait until at least eighty percent,” said Duggan. “That’ll give us some flexibility if we need to take evasive action.”
“You’re looking at another hour or so.”
“We’ll wait. Is everyone aware of what we’re going to do when we reach local space around the wormhole?”
“Keep our fingers crossed,” said Chainer.
“We need a bit more than fingers crossed, Lieutenant.”
“Yes, sir. I understand what lies ahead of us.”
After what felt like an interminable wait, the gravity drive reached eighty percent of its maximum theoretical output. Duggan gave it an additional five minutes for luck and then informed his crew it was time to be on their way.
“Lieutenant Breeze, take us back to the wormhole.”
“Am I aiming for close in or far out, sir?”
“I want caution. We’ll aim for a good distance out, which should give us time
to activate the stealth modules. I’d like a chance to scout the area first – we’ve seen first-hand that the enemy visit the place with regularity. We may need to wait for our opening or we may not. Either way, I don’t want to be dodging missiles at any point if I can avoid it.”
“The fission drives are building up. We’ll only be at lightspeed for a few minutes.”
“We could be in Confederation Space in three or four hours,” said McGlashan.
“It’s just as cold and dark as it is in Dreamer Space,” Chainer replied.
“It’s still home.”
“That it is, Commander.”
“We’re at lightspeed,” said Breeze a short time later. “I wonder what fun and games lie ahead.”
There wasn’t much chance to ponder it further. With barely a murmur, the Crimson switched to its gravity drive and entered local space, three hours out from the Helius Blackstar.
Duggan called for updates.
“There isn’t anything close to us,” said Chainer. “The fars and super-fars are updating slower than normal, but so far there’s nothing highlighted as a possible risk.”
“That’s what I like to hear. Lieutenant Breeze, I want you to activate the stealth modules the moment they become available.”
“Yes, sir. That should be two minutes, give or take.”
The Crimson was enveloped in its cloak minutes before Chainer had completed his area scan.
“It’s amazing how much less vulnerable I feel when the modules are running,” said McGlashan.
“This is the best technology we’ve come up with in decades,” Duggan replied. “Give me a ship-mounted cluster of miniaturised Shatterer missiles to go with it and I’ll be a happy man.”
“I can’t give you miniaturised Shatterers, but I can give you some good news,” said Chainer. “The fars and super-fars have come back with negatives. There are no enemy warships in the vicinity.”
“What about somewhere behind the wormhole?”
“Yes, there could be something I can’t detect from here. Other than that, it’s clear.”
“I’m going to take us in,” said Duggan. “We’re three hours away – that’s ample time for an orbiting spaceship to show its face. Lieutenant Chainer, can you look for any signs of wreckage that might tell us what happened to those Dreamer spacecraft we attacked when we did our double-jump into this area?”
“I’m doing so right this moment, sir. I don’t expect it to take long, given the size of the vessels.”
As he waited, Duggan brought up an image of the wormhole on the main screen. It looked no more inviting than it ever had, though it was now a gateway to what felt like freedom. Duggan had gone into this mission with open eyes, yet he’d been in no way prepared for what was to come. That’s the nature of the beast.
“There are floating scraps close to where their fleet was positioned, sir,” said Chainer. “There is also radiation in the form of gamma rays. They’re dispersing but they’re easy enough to detect, especially on the wreckage.”
“Can you confirm the kill?”
“With confidence, sir. We took out one of their battleships.”
“There are two more unaccounted for.”
“There’s other wreckage. It’s drifting away in a different direction, with the large bulk of it spiralling towards the wormhole. There’ll be nothing left of it in a day or two.”
“Is that the wreckage of three separate vessels?” Duggan persisted.
“I do believe it is. One of them hasn’t broken up entirely – there’s a kilometre-long section, close to another piece of a similar size. They’re drifting slowly and in parallel.”
“Show me the coordinates,” said Breeze.
“There you go.”
“That’s a lot of their hull,” mused Breeze. “There’s something still active onboard – the power output is rising and falling. It’s decaying slowly, but there’s plenty going on.”
“I’ve heard it said Gallenium reactions can continue for what is effectively an eternity,” said McGlashan.
“You could power a few big cities from what’s left of that warship,” said Breeze.
“I’ll try not to crash into them,” said Duggan. “We’ll need to deactivate stealth in order to launch into the wormhole and I’d prefer to do it at the last possible moment.”
“I’ve got an eye on the timings,” said Breeze. “We launched at sixty thousand klicks on the way here and it seemed to work. I’ll assume we’re doing the same thing this time.”
Duggan nodded his agreement and turned his attention to the course leading towards the Helius Blackstar. During the following two hours, he spoke little, other than to check for updates from the crew. With the inevitability of death, the wormhole beckoned the Crimson onwards.
“Even if we don’t make it, I’m glad we came,” said Breeze, when they were less than thirty minutes away.
“Me too,” said Chainer. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
“It’ll have shown our enemy that we’re not going to be a pushover in the coming conflict,” said McGlashan. “I’m sure we took them completely by surprise. Their defences were poor and they have been slow to react to the threat of our presence.”
“I don’t want to be the voice of gloom, but for all we know, this could be a tiny, near-forgotten corner of the great, eternal Dreamer Empire,” said Chainer.
“I’ll speak to Subjos Gol-Tur when we return,” said Duggan. “This time I’ll get answers.”
At ten minutes away, the signs of nervousness were clear. Chainer fidgeted and drummed his fingers, Breeze cleared his throat constantly, and Duggan felt a sheen of sweat prickling on his forehead. Only McGlashan appeared unaffected and she smiled at Duggan when he looked at her.
“We’re going slower than usual owing to our reduced engine output,” said Breeze. “Assuming we experience a modest acceleration when we’re closer, we’ll need to activate the launch sequence approximately forty seconds out. On top of that, we should deactivate stealth an additional three minutes away, which gives us room for manoeuvre if we need to make any last-moment alterations.”
“How is the core activity?” asked McGlashan.
“Elevated,” said Breeze.
“Succinct,” she replied.
“There’s nothing else to say, Commander.”
With five minutes remaining, Duggan spoke to Ortiz on the internal comms. “We’re going to attempt the second and final transit in a few minutes. Let the troops know.”
“It won’t be the final transit, sir. Even if we don’t make it, there’ll be another bunch of us ordered through from the other side at some point,” she said, without apparent rancour.
“No doubt,” he said. “If it goes wrong, I want you to know I’m proud of everyone who came.”
“This won’t be your last voyage, sir. There’s always another.”
“We’ll see, Lieutenant. Over.”
“We’re coming up on some of the larger pieces of wreckage, sir,” said Chainer.
“There’s plenty of gamma radiation and I can see a few plasma craters,” added Breeze. “We hit them pretty hard, considering how little time we had to do it.”
“The risks of war,” said Duggan.
“Indeed.”
They flew by the wreckage and Duggan checked the sensor feed. It looked as though one of the enemy’s mid-sized cruisers had been torn in half and the pieces placed side-by side. The overall shape of the vessel had not been altered by the damage, though many of the delicate structures which the Dreamers attached to the hulls of their spacecraft were missing, presumably knocked away by the Crimson’s missile barrage. Here and there, anomalous pockets of excess heat showed up on its outer plating.
“We’re three minutes away. Stealth modules deactivated,” said Breeze. “Preparing for the final run home.”
“Good luck to us all,” said Duggan. “Hold the launch until sixty thousand klicks as agreed.”
“Yes, sir. I’m getting it
ready to go. We’re about to see some extra burn on the core.”
“Sir?” said Chainer. “That’s not all we’re about to see. There’s movement along the closest flank of the Dreamer wreckage.”
“What do you mean, movement?” asked Duggan.
“Crap, I think I know what it is,” said McGlashan. “They’ve opened their missile ports. They’re preparing to fire!”
“The Commander is correct, sir,” said Chainer. “The enemy vessel has opened fire on us!”
“Shit.”
Whatever damage the enemy cruiser had suffered, there was evidently sufficient command and control remaining to order the launch of exactly one hundred missiles. Duggan didn’t know if there was a crew left alive on the cruiser or if this was an automated response from the warship’s AI. It didn’t make a difference which it was.
“Will we be in a position to launch into the wormhole before those missiles impact?” he asked.
“Negative, sir. Even if we take into account our increased acceleration as we get pulled in.”
Duggan swore again. “Prepare countermeasures,” he said. “And blow the crap out of that cruiser.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
“Countermeasures launched,” said McGlashan.
“Again.”
“We’re nearly out of drones.”
“It doesn’t matter now. Release more.”
“Done. I’ve fired two Shatterers, but only sixty Lambdas – we still can’t target the bastards and that’s all we have pointing their way.”
“What’s our distance from the wormhole?” asked Duggan.
“One hundred and thirty thousand klicks, sir. Ninety seconds.”
“Enemy missile impact in thirty seconds.”
“We’re not going to make it,” said Chainer.
“Not without taking damage,” said Breeze.
“We’ll have to activate the launch sequence early, Lieutenant. Do it at eighty-five thousand klicks.”
“That’ll reduce our chances of a successful transit.”
“It’ll be an improvement over our deaths.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll initiate the launch sequence at eighty-five thousand.”
Terminus Gate (Survival Wars Book 5) Page 22
