“So a peacekeeping force,” Traksit said, nodding.
“Trade is also key,” Mud said. “I admit, at this point, some days, I wonder if trade isn’t more important than peacekeeping, or even just another word for it. All the major planets have a voice in the High Council. They work together and trade allows an economy to work across the realms of human and known space.”
“Your species runs on trade?”
“We really do,” Mud agreed. “That might not be noble, I know it really isn’t, but it’s what we do. An economy this vast needs oversight, and it needs instant communication. I’m not sure how we remove one without removing the other.”
“But maybe,” Bee suggested, “we don’t have to remove communication fully.”
Mud looked at her and nodded.
The Sweepers considered in silence for a moment, looking at each other before Pelith spoke. “At first, the intrusions were small—”
“Was this in your lifetime?” Mud asked. “How long do you live?”
“Our time is quicker than yours, but yes, I was young then,” Pelith continued, “and the intrusions started, minor, odd, unknown.” The translator Bee had installed in the room kept updating, growing the translations’ accuracy using the Amalfi’s computing power. “This showed us the existence of your universe. But they grew.”
“Sure,” Bee said. “We used more and more communications as we expanded.”
“Yes, but the amount grew, quickly, and weakened the space between. Perhaps if you went back to the start it would be delayed. But the need is for this to stop.”
“Getting to full stop from here will be a process,” Mud said. “But Bee is right—if we can reduce communications, it can buy us time. We’ve been using long-range communications for decades now. Scaling back while we find a new solution might just be the only answer.”
The room was overcrowded. They’d had to move much of the lab equipment to the side to make room for the atmospheric shield the Sweepers stood in. Mills entered the room, followed by Sybil and Tiago Brand. Behind them walked Shae and Jonah. Already close, the lab now felt full to bursting. The Brands looked confused, seeing the Sweepers, unsure of the moment. Mills waved them off and sighed.
“The Gov doesn’t like any of this,” he said.
“Not that anyone’s surprised by that,” Jonah added.
“Why are we here,” Sybil Brand asked, “and what are they?”
“They,” Mud told her, “are our guests. And you’re going to help us, them, and all the people of two universes.”
“In exchange for pardons,” Tiago said bravely.
“In exchange for me not kicking you in the head,” Shae countered.
The Brands turned to look at her and managed to not cringe openly. They understood Shae didn’t joke. But they also knew the law, and that Mills would uphold it. “Why should we help?” Sybil asked.
“You live in this universe, too!” Bee said. The frustration of the mission, of the impending doom and her inability to get around it without outside help, burst out of her, directly at the Brands. “Stop being dumb. You’re not stupid, not if you actually came up with half the tech you supposedly did. So was it you, or the people who work for you?”
“It was Sybil,” Tiago said.
“Thank you for selling me out, brother,” Sybil said, shaking her head. “Yes, fine, but we don’t work for free.”
“You really do,” Mills told her. “You’re being pressed into service, emergency protocols.”
That sat even worse with her. “You come out of nowhere and invade our home,” she raged, “kidnap us—”
“Arrest you,” Mud said.
“—and now you expect us to do your work for you? What kind of—”
Sybil Brand hit the floor suddenly. She laid there, a hand on her back, rubbing at the fresh pain. Shae stood over her, lowering her foot to the floor slowly. “All right, I lied, I didn’t kick you in the head. We need your head. Get up, and get to work.”
“This is illegal,” Sybil said, standing slowly.
“You can’t—”
But Mills cut Tiago off. “Can we just get past this and do the work and leave the bullshit aside? Please? Fine, look, I’ll reduce any sentencing and put in that you helped save the universe. Just work.”
“That,” Sybil said, glaring at Shae, “is better. Now what do you need?”
“Do you have a way to use long-range communications that don’t go faster than light?” Mud asked.
“No, of course not,” Sybil replied. She rose an eyebrow and gave the Sweepers another look. “Do we need one?”
Mud and Bee caught everyone up on where the problem stood. As they spoke, Tiago started to write various mathematical formulae on a nearby pad, grabbing it from a workbench. Bee kept glancing at him but didn’t stop telling the tale. Even so, she let Mud handle most of it, finding herself paying more and more attention to Tiago’s ever-expanding equations.
After a few more minutes, Sybil joined him, grabbing a second pad and sketching out designs for some sort of tech, reading over the math Tiago supplied.
“Are we boring you?” Mud asked the siblings.
“If I answer honestly, will I get kicked again?” Sybil asked.
“Possibly,” Shae said, and Jonah rested a hand on her arm.
“No,” he amended.
“Tiago might have half a solution,” Sybil said, trying to not look at Shae.
“I thought he said you came up with the tech,” Bee said, “not him.”
“I do,” she said proudly. “He is much better at the math, though. Why do you insist on thinking you understand us, our lives, what we do?”
“Brand,” Mills said, not seeming to mind which of the siblings he addressed, “stop thinking we even care. This is about survival. Get it through your heads, all right?” He looked at Mud. “Bringing them in might have been a bad idea.”
“Nope,” Mud said, looking at the sketches the Brands drew, “they’ve already started on a solution. They’re worth the annoyance.”
“We are right here,” Tiago said.
“Oh, I know,” Mud told him. “I said you were worth having here to work. Stop being a pain and you’ll even be worth talking to. Seriously, just work with us, not against us, and this all goes smoother.”
“We are.” Sybil said, handing Mud her pad. “You say these larger beasts eat at the barrier, yes?”
“They do,” Traksit replied.
“Because of the communications,” she continued. “Lessening communications alone will not help at this point. They reflexively go for them now, and if you lessen the amount, they will possibly push through the barrier just to search for the rest. Tiago’s math, though—we could send a single, larger communication at a different frequency and spin.”
“You want to use quantum spin on a communications burst? But that would render it useless,” Bee said.
“For communication, yes,” Tiago said.
“But not for bait,” Sybil finished for her brother. “We use these...breach slingshots at different locations, always moving them, at random extended intervals. They should provide a much better meal.”
“How does that solve the communications issue?” Jonah asked, peering at the sketches.
“It doesn’t,” Sybil said. “That isn’t a thing that will happen. Tiago’s math proves it—I assume your own studies show the same.”
“They do,” Bee admitted.
“Then a reduction is needed, but as we’ve explained, that alone would not work.”
“Are they right?” Shae asked Bee, who nodded.
The Sweepers also nodded, waving limbs as they did. “This may work,” Wokha said. “If we understand what you are saying correctly.”
“I think you are,” Mills told them. “But the problem will still be convincing the Gov of a communications reduction. I’m not even sure what that would mean for...anything.”
“I can help there,” Jonah told Mills. “They’ll hate it, but they
can blame me, and yell a whole lot,” he shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”
“You can’t just shelter me from my own job, Jonah,” Mills told him.
Jonah smiled. “We’ll discuss later. But for now, can we even build these cannons?”
“Breach slingshots,” Tiago corrected.
“And yes,” Sybil said, “they should be easily buildable for a trial run.”
“Then,” Mud said, “this should be—”
The lights went out. Emergency lights flashed on and then sputtered themselves. In darkness, Mud said only, “No one move,” sharply, and checked his thinsuit’s readouts. The Amalfi hung dead in space. He cursed and considered their options.
CHAPTER 31
NOISE FROM OUTSIDE the room forced Mills to work his way to the door and slap the sensor to open it. Nothing happened and he sighed, flipping up the manual override and pulling the door open.
“Mills, hold on,” Mud said, placing his hand on the man’s shoulder. “I’m pretty sure this isn’t natural.”
“Could be another breach and creature attack,” Mills said, then reconsidered. “No, everything is out. All right, what’ve you got?” Mills felt the engines stop. Any ship, even one as large as the Amalfi, could be counted on to pick up a subtle vibration from the engines running. You stopped noticing it quickly, until it vanished.
“Nothing yet,” Mud said, “just suspicions.”
Mills stopped an enlisted woman going by the room and talked with her quietly. Nodding, she left, and Mills moved to follow. “I have to go to the bridge,” he told Mud. “What’s the plan?”
“Have everyone get into emergency positions, but hold there for now. I’ll wrangle my team.”
Mills hesitated. The Insertion Team weren’t the only people on the ship, far from it, and Mills knew he could call security and have a well-armed team in minutes ready to sweep the ship. But Mud’s instincts tended toward good, so Mills backed his play, running a countdown in his head for when he would resume control. “You’ve got mission ops for now,” he said, leaving the room.
Mud looked around quickly. “Mom, Dad, stay here and guard the Sweepers. Good thing their air shields run on an external source. Keep the Brands out of trouble, too. Bee, call the team on internal comms and have everyone meet up at the Arrow.”
“Without any power, that won’t be quick,” she told him.
“It has to be,” he said, stepping out of the room. “I’ll meet you guys there, I just need one thing first.” And with that he went down the hall, his staff clanking loudly along the floor.
Bee slid the door shut as she left, giving Jonah a final nod. Calling the rest of the team to meet them at the Arrow was the easy part. She still needed to get down to the hangar herself—but then she remembered something. Electric access tunnels.
They were equipped to run through the entire ship, and it was assumed by default that if you were servicing the conduits there, power problems would be happening, so ladders were always used to shift levels. She slipped into the nearest maintenance access room and started making her way to the hangar as quickly as possible.
Though the lights, and most emergency lights, had remained off, the Amalfi still had a final set of independent lighting that allowed the ship to take on a dark, gloomy, shadow-filled air.
Mud worked his way as quickly as possible, which was nowhere as fast as he’d have liked, to the Amalfi’s Document Cold Storage room. A little-known place, the DCS kept records for the vessel, as well as maps and certification backs printed out. Too many local governments wanted hard copy, still, as well as maintenance workers, in case of power problems like this. He grabbed a handful of maps and pushed the door closed behind him.
Sweating, Mud rested against a wall. The leg brace still hadn’t been quite fully calibrated, and even with his staff, this much walking, at speed, hurt. A deep breath, followed by another. Mud pushed himself off the wall and cracked open a maintenance door, heading for the hangar.
A short while later, as he stepped out into the hangar, Mud could see his team gathered around the Arrow. “We got power on board?” he asked as he closed in on them.
“Yeah, seems the Amalfi was knocked out, but just that,” Olivet said.
“I thought so. This was targeted,” Mud said as they climbed aboard the ship. “I think they’re after the Sweepers.”
“That’s a pretty big leap,” Steelbox said. “This could just be some electrical problem.”
“That took out the main and back-up generators, not to mention the engines?” Mud asked.
They each considered that for a moment. “So,” Chellox asked, “why do you think it’s someone after the Sweepers and not the Brands? Never mind who is even here doing this.”
“Could be a team on the Brands’ payroll here to bust them out, sure,” Mud said. “I’m open to it. But we saw those other Sweepers chasing us. Plus we know they can get to our universe.”
“That’s still assuming a whole lot,” Bee said.
“Is it?” Mud asked. “The Brands would have had folks here already.”
“They’d need time to plan,” Steelbox said.
“I’m still open to it, but I’m assuming this is Sweepers. It just feels like it. Worse, and more worrisome, so far their plan fits with what I’d do if I were them.”
“Regardless,” Bee said, “we need to find whoever it is and stop them.”
“Right,” Mud said, laying out the maps of the Amalfi he’d brought with him along one of the Arrow’s consoles. “We’ll use GravPacks to get around faster—we have no way to know what they’re using or how well they know the ship. Whoever did this knows at least enough to cut power and engines, though.”
Bee traced a line along hallways from the engine room to the main power junctions, and from there to the lab where the scientist Sweepers were. “So if they came in and took care of the engines—”
“Power first,” Steelbox said. “Lights went out, then the vibration stopped.” He traced the same line beginning from the power junctions. “Which tells me they may not have known the ship too well. Your way is quicker,” he said to Bee.
“Power first so everyone is rushing for that in confusion, then engines, even if it costs a bit of time,” Mud said. “While they’re working out the power drop, you take care of engines. But either way, the Sweepers and Brands are in the same room. So from that lab—”
“We go here,” Chellox said, pointing, “along this corridor. Even if they use the access shafts it would take them right along it.”
“Right,” Mud agreed. “Chellox—you, Olivet, and Steelbox take that route. Bee and I will come at it from the other side.”
“You think they doubled around and are looping the ship?” Chellox asked, tilting his head to consider routes.
“It’s what I would do. Whoever makes contact first, shout.” Mud strapped on his GravPack and checked the charge on his Acadian blaster. “Shoot to stun only, and keep a shield up. We don’t know how they’re armed, and we can’t risk the ship or any crew.”
Mud and Bee left first, both hovering slightly, using their GravPacks to propel them through the ship. Chellox, Olivet, and Steelbox followed soon after, splitting off at the access corridor. Once both teams had entered, they accelerated, shooting through the tunnels quickly to intercept the intruders.
“Why’d we really split?” Bee asked Mud as they rose rapidly to the engine level of the Amalfi.
“Nothing odd here, Bee, tactics,” Mud insisted.
“We can go fast enough that it—”
“I think they split up,” he admitted. They made a harsh-angled turn along the maintenance corridor and then went up another level, leaving them on the far side of the ship and three levels below the lab.
“Because that’s what you would do?”
“Call it a gut instinct.” He slowed, and Bee followed suit. They hovered, upright, a few inches above the ground. The darkened corridor left Mud uneasy. Too easy to hide, for anyone, and if t
hey were Sweepers, Mud didn’t know how their vision worked. They could have, he thought, far better luck seeing in the murk.
A blast spanged off the wall near him, missing by inches. “Contact front,” he said softly, reflexively, firing back with a wide, stunning shot from his blaster, even as Bee fired her sonic along the corridor.
Steelbox looked at Olivet as they heard Mud over comms. Before they could react, though, Chellox echoed him. “Contact front!” he yelled, firing his sonic three times in rapid succession, aiming at the walls of the corridor to ricochet the shots. Olivet followed suit, but Steelbox held back, sonic blaster held out, waiting for a clear shot. Wondering what they were shooting at.
“What’d you see, Chellox?” he asked, drifting forward. They hovered, same as Mud and Bee, along a corridor that fed from the engine room.
“Movement,” he said, “and an obvious weapon.”
Olivet nudged Steelbox and slid forward, taking point. “There’s a junction ahead,” he said. “If we go single file, maybe we confuse them.”
Steelbox nodded, taking middle position, and Olivet drifted slowly toward the junction. He vanished around it, the others waiting for an all clear. Instead, they heard shots fired and rushed forward.
Mud and Bee rushed forward as well. Mud in front, pushing out his gravity shield to a good five feet in front of him, using it like a battering ram. The shots kept coming, arcing through his shield, and he made contact before he could even fully see what he rammed. “Sweepers,” he said into his comm, turning around. Bee floated on the other side of them, boxing them in. Four of them stood in the corridor, wearing oddly bulky suits and clear helmets. They each carried the same weapons they used to clear communication packets.
“We know,” Steelbox replied, “contact here, too. Six.”
“We’ve got four,” Bee said. She waited, aiming at the Sweepers. If she took a shot with the sonic, some of the rebound could hit Mud. He floated, too, waiting.
The Endless Sky Page 22
