The Salvagers

by John Michael Godier

  "Alright, Captain Hunter. You win. Of course, this falls under your obligation of secrecy as a citizen of the UNAG."

  "I understand."

  "The engine research is real and successful, but it's a front. I have nothing to do with it. I specialize in black projects and secret research."

  "Black projects? As in secret weapons and new orbital interceptors?"

  "Something like that. Titan is a natural place for that kind of work. It's isolated and difficult to get to. In this case, it's research on dark matter. What's happening on your ship involves that. I can't say more."

  "Dark matter?" I was shocked. "It's supposed to be entirely non-interactive with our matter."

  "It interacts only through gravity."

  "I was under the impression that it was useless."

  "It is."

  "But you said we're dealing with that."

  "We are. Now if you'll get to your warning, please."

  "We've had people disappear on the Cape Hatteras and in our fleet. Three to date, gone without a trace. The only thing we know is that whatever happened was preceded by a blue light."

  "We expected that, Captain Hunter."

  "You expected?"

  "Yes. I also suspect that your people have been dreaming and hallucinating."

  "Something like that," I said curtly.

  "I apologize for not being at liberty to say more, but what I can tell you is that you were in grave danger every moment you spent on that ship. Danger that we'd hoped would stay bottled up in space for at least a few more centuries until we could figure out a way to deal with it. Your discovery of the derelict has changed that."

  "So whatever it is, UNAG felt it was better off left alone. Was it some kind of experiment?"

  "You could say that. Don't worry, Captain Hunter. We have some working theories that they didn't have 200 years ago. We think we can deal with it. And it won't affect your derelict once we've finished our work. You'll have your ship."

  I didn't believe him. They'd have salvaged it themselves if they thought it could be made safe.

  "I don't suppose you could tell me what happened to the crew? I mean, I don't want to know specifics, but is the blue radiation why there aren't any bodies on that ship?"

  "Yes and no. The crew froze to death on 974-Bernhard. The UNAG secretly recovered their remains about a decade after the disaster. Captain Nelson died on the Cape Hatteras. We think that he disappeared like your men."

  "How do you know what we're dealing with? Have UNAG personnel been aboard the derelict? The ship looks mothballed, as though someone cleaned it up."

  "We did send an exploratory mission, the same one that visited 974-Bernhard, but you were the first person to set foot on that ship in centuries."

  "Why didn't the UNAG recover the ship?"

  "Because there were two other disappearances."

  "Two others?"

  "Yes, part of the recovery mission. After leaving the asteroid, they were sent to the position of the wreck. They boarded the Cape Hatteras in hopes of returning it to Earth. They spent several days preparing for a cold restart of the engines, and then two members disappeared. We ordered the ship abandoned after that."

  "That's why the Cape Hatteras was spotlessly clean. You were preparing it for a new crew. And the engineering section was full of water and frozen solid. Was that related?"

  "Call it a last-ditch effort to make the ship safe to sit out here forever. But I've said enough already. Just two days, that's all we will need, and then the relic is yours with our blessing. Are you going to display it?"

  "It's classified," I said.

  He chuckled at that. It diffused the tense background of the discussion.

  "Yes, it's slated to be a museum ship."

  "We would appreciate it if you stayed here with us for the duration. We'll probably need more information from you."

  "Of course."

  I wouldn't have missed that for the world. I wanted to glean whatever bits of information I could. The Cape Hatteras tale was already a great story, but it was getting better—and more valuable—by the minute, and I was the first member of the public to hear these new parts of the saga. I was given quarters that consisted of a desk and a sleeping bag on the wall. I spent most of the first day in my room twiddling my thumbs and doing backflips in zero-G. Sometime late in the afternoon an excited ensign poked his head through the door.

  "Captain Hunter, you're needed on the bridge."

  I shot to the bridge as best I could without banging my head on an armored bulkhead. I found Dr. Westmoreland and the bridge officers floating around a map table and talking feverishly. On the table was a large diagram of the Cape Hatteras.

  "What's wrong?" I asked.

  "We've lost our crew," Westmoreland answered.

  "Your boarding party?"

  "No, Captain Hunter. The entire crew of that warship has gone silent," he said as he pointed out the window.

  I glanced out but had to take a second look. The other warship was listing and tearing away from the derelict, the pressurized corridor between them fluttering as its air released into space. I hoped to Pluto that didn't include the Cape Hatteras's atmosphere.

  "Disappeared like the others?"

  "We're not certain. Someone will have to go over and see. It could have been a simple accident that killed or incapacitated the crew. We don't have any information yet. May we ask you some questions?"

  "Certainly."

  "When your first crewman disappeared, what happened?"

  "Well, he just disappeared. One moment he was there; the next he wasn't. And then the radiation went away."

  "What do you mean?"

  "It was just gone, completely. I walked around the engineering section afterwards myself. It seemed safe, at least until the scientists were marooned. They said that the radiation appeared again in the engineering section and that the other people who disappeared were near that part of the ship."

  "Near the engineering section?"

  "Yes. One of the people was in the hold outside where we had found the gold."

  "It hasn't lost any energy, even after centuries," Dr. Westmoreland said to the Portsmouth’s captain.

  "What hasn't lost energy? The blue radiation?"

  "I'm sorry, Captain Hunter. I can't say. It might be best if you go back to your ship and move it to a safe distance. Have that pirate ship and the salvor do the same. This may take longer than two days."

  I had known it all along.

  "I can order my ship to a safe distance by using your communications station," I said. "I'd rather stay here in case you need me again."

  Dr. Westmoreland paused for a moment and then nodded in agreement. I contacted Stacey and Mary Joanna from the bridge panel on the warship and had them move to positions about 200 kilometers out. The Hyperion was experiencing engine irregularities as a result of rigging power to its engines after Stunt's lasers cut the electrical lines. They wouldn't be able to move for some time, so I instructed them to get out of there as soon as they could manage it.

  I found myself wishing that I had formulated some kind of a code with Stacey in case I needed to send a message to swoop in and pick me up if it looked as though the bogeyman was going to make us disappear like the crew of that other warship.

  "Captain Hunter, you've dealt with this before. Would you object to joining our boarding party to the Victorious?" the Portsmouth’s captain asked.

  I thought about it for a moment. "I'll go, but I'm not military personnel. At the first sign of trouble I want out of there."

  "Agreed."

  "How big will the party be? Who's in command?"

  "You are," he said.

  "I'm not an officer, but I'll do it if you say so."

  "Excellent," he responded.

  "Well, let's assemble the team."

  "I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. Captain, you are the boarding party. I've just lost half of the personnel assigned to this mission—152 people. I'll need every man I've
got left to complete it, and probably a few of yours as well."

  They had tricked me into it. I thought about demanding to be returned to my ship, but I realized that it wouldn't do any good. They held too many cards, and agreeing to board the derelict again would give me some badly needed leverage to get more information. Part of me was certain that I'd see the same thing I saw in the Cape Hatteras's engineering room after the first disappearance—nothing.

  "Alright," I said, "but I want more answers."

  "Answers about what?"

  "What's really going on here? What am I dealing with? What's this about dark matter? I'll need to know what I'm up against."

  The Captain of the Portsmouth and Dr. Westmoreland looked at each other. The Captain nodded.

  Westmoreland sighed and turned to me. "Captain Hunter, you're dealing with a weapon."

  "Oh, I see, a weapon gone wrong. Sounds like the UNAG of 200 years ago . . . and now. I suppose you want to get it back and threaten the other unions with it. Maybe I shouldn't go over there if it's just more government games. Contact my ship. I'm going home."

  "No, Captain Hunter, you don't understand. It isn't a weapon we made. It's from somewhere else."

  "Somewhere else? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

  "Not human," the Captain said, taking care to articulate very clearly.

  That was the kind of statement for which there is no possible rebuttal. My response was silence and shock. I dutifully put on a moon suit and went to the airlock to fulfill my mission on the Victorious.

  Chapter 19 Into the Fire

  "December 21, 2259. 1600 hours. Log of Captain John Andrew Nelson, Commanding Officer, UNAG Mining Vessel Cape Hatteras. The cavern system is significantly deeper and more extensive than anticipated. Marquez is now repositioned at the mouth of the cave and has sent the second sled. Galon continues his exploration deeper into the asteroid alone. The thickness of the rock prevents direct communication with him. His reports are being relayed by Marquez hourly."

  I pushed myself out of the open airlock of the Portsmouth and looked down its immense length. Its laser batteries bristled at regular intervals, all of the guns now retrained on the Cape Hatteras. I found relief in that. I was never comfortable with a laser cannon pointed at the Amaranth Sun—or at my salvor full of gold.

  Ahead I could see the Victorious still listing and slowly pulling away from the derelict. I activated my suit's maneuvering thrusters and crossed the distance, aiming for the same area of the Victorious that I had just left on the Portsmouth. I assumed the airlock would be located in the same place, but it wasn't.

  "Could someone tell me where to go?" I asked on open comms.

  "You're near the correct area. It's located on the top of the ship between ribs 84 and 85," the Captain replied.

  "Where are ribs 84 and 85?" I asked.

  "Go up and over; then head toward the stern. You can't miss it."

  "How am I going to get in?"

  "We can operate the airlock remotely. We'll need your help in gaining full control of the ship when you get inside."

  I followed his instructions and spotted the airlock. I peered in and could see a small part of the ship's interior bathed in red light. The door slid open without warning, startling me as it began to move. I felt a slight brush of residual air push me gently backwards into space. I thought it would not have been unreasonable to expect some kind of warning. I concluded that communication with me must have been secondary to monitoring the telemetry data from my suit. I wished that I had suggested that we use the drones from the Neptune's Revenge, but I doubt they'd have trusted them.

  The airlock immediately began closing, again with no warning. I noticed a camera in the lock. I realized that if they could see me, they'd probably be able to watch my every move anywhere I went on the ship. My gut feeling that I was an expendable guinea pig grew stronger. I was there to figure out how to safely enter a ship in which everyone had just vanished. It might even have been to their benefit if I disappeared.

  It didn't seem as though there had been enough time for the cycle to complete itself before the interior door opened. I checked my suit's display on my right forearm. It was reading a normal atmosphere, but I felt it best to keep my helmet on. I didn't want to add the extra step of putting it back on if I had to escape quickly.

  Boarding that ship was different from what I had faced when I entered the Cape Hatteras for the first time. The Victorious wasn't dead in space. It was lit up and operational, red and yellow alert lights flashing away as buttons that needed to be pushed went neglected.

  "Where should I go now?" I asked.

  "The bridge should be first. We will need you to assist us from there in gaining full control of the ship. You should see a corridor immediately on your left. Take it."

  I followed it, moving toward the bow and passing through a rotating artificial gravity ring. When I stepped onto its floor, I immediately detected the ship’s list. I pushed myself upward and back into the zero-G air to avoid disorientation. I felt a new uneasiness as I sensed that my escape route was getting progressively more complicated as I moved through the ship.

  I was passing through a hatch into the zero-G environment of the bridge when my peripheral vision caught a slight movement. It was a sleeve moving through the air. I briefly thought that I was seeing the crew, alive and well, still working on the bridge and that the ship had merely lost contact with the Portsmouth.

  I was fear-stricken when I realized what I was actually seeing. While the people had disappeared, their uniforms were floating around the room, still filled out as if there were living persons in them. They were moving on the last momentum of non-existent bodies, looping and turning in mid-air like slow dancers in a ballroom.

  I blinked, or I think I did, and they were gone. I was seeing ghosts again.

  "I'm on the bridge, and there's no one here. They've disappeared," I said chokingly. I looked out the bridge windows to see the Cape Hatteras and the Hyperion still near each other. They were still having engine problems on the salvor, I thought.

  "You'll need to go to the captain's station at the center rear of the room. You will see a screen that is the commanders operations panel. You will need to access it," relayed Westmoreland.

  "I'm here. It's giving a long list of warnings."

  "You'll need to touch the screen and back out of there to the main interface menu. Access the global operations interface at the top of the list."

  "I'm there. It's asking for the commanding officer's access code," I said after following his instructions.

  "The code is 41-54672-4783-BH."

  I never thought I'd ever have a captain's access code for a UNAG battlecruiser. The screen that came up wasn't anything like my display on the Amaranth Sun. The ship had a full complement of weapons, all of them fireable from that station.

  Westmoreland and the captain of the Portsmouth gave me a series of technical instructions. I saw their remote presence building in the system bit by bit as I put in the data.

  "You're clear to leave the bridge and move on now," said Westmoreland. "You'll need to go back the way you came."

  I stepped back into the the gravity ring and felt the ship righting itself as the Portsmouth's crew gained attitude control of the Victorious. I then jumped back into zero-G and passed into the main corridor with its red lighting and flashing yellow lights, just as they went green.

  "What's next?" I asked, hoping they'd say the mission was over.

  "We need you to enter engineering at the stern and give us a visual on what its condition is. The engine status indicates operational, but that doesn't mean there isn't a chair floating about ready to destroy an instrument panel if we reposition the ship."

  Great, I thought. Now I had to go to the exact opposite end. I wanted out of there badly, back to whatever inhabited ship I could reach first. The Hyperion and even the Cape Hatteras were both closer and safer than that place. At any moment I might lose consciousness or halluci
nate again, as I had on the Cape Hatteras. There was no way I could escape in that state. I didn't want to tell Westmoreland about the uniforms, not thinking it mattered. Whatever had made the crew of the Victorious disappear could make any of us vanish whenever it wanted, so I moved on as bravely as I could force myself to be.

  I floated down the corridor past the airlock entrance, more than a little tempted to jump in and escape, but I mustered up enough courage to move onward. At the end of the corridor I found the airlock again, or one like it. I turned around, and there was another airlock. My heart raced as I turned again, and there was another. In every direction was an airlock. They opened all at the same time, and I saw stars and deep space. I sensed that there was no ship at all and that I somehow had fallen overboard and was floating freely. I closed my eyes tightly.

  When I looked again, I found myself back in the corridor and staring into a common room just forward of engineering.

  "I think I'm hallucinating, Doctor."

  "Try to make it, Cam. You're fine. We're not seeing anything unusual."

  I was badly disoriented. Whatever had happened left me confounded and with a headache forming. I felt slowed down, my thoughts governed by something that wasn't me. Half awake and half asleep, I tried to use the comm again, speaking but not receiving an answer. Before I could check my display to see whether the radio was working, everything went dead.

  The whole ship and my suit lost power. Instead of panicking and heading for the airlock, I inexplicably tried very calmly to figure out how that could happen. It wasn't a time for problem analysis, but I was doing it nonetheless. Thoughts formed and aborted as my mind wandered to places far away. In the end I found myself thinking about a trip to an accountant I had made a decade ago.

  I'd lost my senses, though it wasn't apparent to me. I wasn't even awake; I was something else. I thought it was perfectly normal to think about that accountant. I didn't think it was important that ten feet away the blue glow had appeared and was rising in intensity.

  "We warned you to leave," said a very calm voice.

  I discovered exactly what Sanjay had meant by a voice inside his helmet. It was right next to my ear, or in my mind's dialogue with itself like thoughts in bold typeface. My senses returned with a vengeance, and fear paralyzed my body.