by Dan Worth
‘Katherine, what are you talking about?’
‘I think,’ said Rekkid. ‘That we should be leaving. We are quite possibly in an enormous amount of danger.’
‘Danger?’ said Reynaud. ‘What danger is there?’
‘Because,’ said Rekkid slowly. ‘If I’m correct, then this ship represents one of the greatest threats to our species. Oh god, it’s all so clear now… the writing… no wonder it contains Progenitor script...’
‘Then why are we still alive if it so dangerous? Don’t be so dramatic, Professor,’ Reynaud scoffed. ‘What harm is a dead ship? Marines, use your cutting gear to open this door please.’
The two men stepped forward and removed plasma cutting torches from their belts. Rekkid started to protest.
‘Look, we have no idea what could lie in wait for us in there….’
‘Maybe we should investigate,’ said Katherine. ‘Maybe someone could still be alive in there. Someone does keep asking me to help them.’
She heard Rekkid utter a groan as the marines began cutting the surface of the hatch. The guttering actinic glare cast flickering shadows over the scene.
‘Cox here,’ said the Admiral. ‘You will proceed inside and investigate the human ship, if that’s what it is. God knows how it got there, but as long as there is no visible threat, then continue. Doctor Reynaud, are you satisfied that it is safe?’
‘Absolutely Admiral,’ Reynaud replied. ‘Professor Cor is being a little... melodramatic.’ Reynaud smirked at Rekkid as he returned the insult levelled against him earlier. There was a dull clang as the cut section of the hatch fell inward onto the deck behind, to show a narrow corridor of antique, but familiar design.
‘Rekkid,’ said Katherine over a private channel. ‘I don’t trust Reynaud enough to let him in here on his own. I suggest we gather as much information that we can, and get off this rock. Am I correct in assuming that this is a Shaper vessel that we’re standing in?’
‘Yes, I think so.’
‘We need to get back to Mentith, or get in touch with Haines and let them know about this. If you’re right, this thing needs to be destroyed, not studied. Or at least secured somewhere where it can do no harm. You and I both know that the Arkari should handle this, not the Navy, and certainly not where over inquisitive, over ambitious and incautious types like Cox and Reynaud are concerned. This thing is like bait to them.’
‘And are we any better I wonder?’ said Rekkid. ‘Let’s get this over with.’
Reynaud and the marines had already stepped inside. Katherine and Rekkid moved to join them. Once inside, Katherine stopped and looked around. It was the same ship. Everything was identical to her dream: from the scuffed deck plating to the cramped design and the antiquated computer consoles fixed to the walls. She recognised this section now too. They were just aft of the main bridge. The hatch they had just burned through was one of the docking ports for this section. The inner door had been left open, oddly. Odder still, the ship still had power. Those antique computer consoles and other interfaces were quite clearly active, and the interior lights shone brightly.
‘We should go to the bridge,’ said Katherine. ‘Maybe we can access the ship’s log from there, or something. We need to find out what happened to her.’
‘Agreed,’ said Reynaud, who took one look at the signs on the walls and made for the bridge. The rest of them followed. Reynaud had just entered the bridge itself. It was gloomy, lit by low level lighting and the glow of displays. Then the others heard his startled cry. The two marines pushed past Katherine and Rekkid to reach him, and they too were heard to gasp in horror.
The bridge was as Katherine remembered it, except for one major addition. Where the captain’s chair had been, there was now a tangled mass of alien machinery that plunged downwards through the ceiling to the floor. It was as if it had punched through the ship itself to invade it. As she grew closer she realised to her horror that there was flesh within that jumbled pile. Human flesh.
The remains of a man were clearly visible. His tortured face seemed to scream in silent agony at the black tendrils of alien technology that burrowed into his eyes, down into his throat, and through the very fabric of his skull. They were visible under what was left of his skin, pulsing silently as if alive. Little was left of the rest of his body. His torso disappeared into the electronic morass of crystalline shards, tangled bundles of tendrils that spread and divided like veins of black ichor and fatter cables that flexed rhythmically. The man’s flesh merged with the alien metals, the flayed skin and distorted muscle stretched and pinned and invaded until it was hard to tell where the man ended and the machines began. His limbs had been removed entirely. The stumps of arms now sprouted more of the evil looking cables, whereas the pelvis was buried deep within the machines. The ship had taken his brain and discarded the rest of his body, replacing it with its own diabolical methods of sustaining life.
She heard one of the marines curse, and try to prevent himself from vomiting inside his suit.
‘Dear god,’ said Reynaud quietly. ‘What sort of… of power could do this?’
‘What sort of evil you mean,’ said Rekkid. ‘The alien ship appears to have killed the crew and kept this poor man in some sort of state of near death for its own purposes, whatever they may be.’
‘Perhaps not, perhaps it tried to save him and bring him home?’ Reynaud conjectured.
‘Oh yes, he looks the very picture of health, wouldn’t you agree Katherine?’ Rekkid responded, sarcastically.
‘That poor man…’ she said. ‘He should have died decades ago and instead he lived out those intervening years like this.’
The flesh around the man’s violated eye sockets twitched visibly. What was left of his face convulsed. She heard one of the marines swear and saw him draw his weapon. The figure of a man had appeared in the space between them. He was middle aged and uniformed with thinning, close-cropped hair and an aquiline nose. She recognised him at once as the captain of the Magellan.
‘Stop!’ cried Rekkid. ‘It’s just a projection.’
‘You finally came,’ said the figure. ‘My name is Richard Blake, captain of the USS Magellan. I’m… not sure how long I can hold them off, but you need to listen me. My ship was captured and devoured by the alien ship you found. It killed my crew and did this to me.’ His hand indicated towards the horrific pillar before him. ‘Our ship took us all the way to the centre of the galaxy, right into the orbit of the central black hole. The race that built this ship reside there – The Shapers. They took my body from me, took away my humanity and made me a part of them. They… they made me submit, they tortured my mind until I could do nothing else… god look at me… look at what they did to me! They others… they… dissected them like lab rats. Those poor bastards, I can still hear their screams… They made me watch, they asked for my co-operation and when I refused, they cut them some more until there was nothing left but pieces. God knows how but they were still alive until the end.
They used my mind to find the location of Earth and find out everything they could about our species. They are interested in us, very interested. I’ve heard them speak - the only voices I heard until you came here… I’ve been so alone all these years… my mind a prison and I could only pry open the bars a fraction each time. I should be dead, and I want to die. I’ve wanted to for so long… You… ahhh.’ He winced as if in pain. ‘You should destroy this ship and warn whatever governments we have now. This vessel is too dangerous to remain here, and you should kill me, please.’
‘Why did you single me out?’ said Katherine. ‘The others reported visions and nightmares, but nothing like the ones I witnessed.’
‘After a time I found that I could use some of the ship’s systems independently, often only for a short period before it regained full control. I tried to speak to many who came here, to warn them, but I got no response, no recognition. It was so hard. At first I shattered their fragile minds by mistake with the raw power of this vessel. Whe
n I finally tuned the ship’s abilities to be less harmful I found that what I tried to tell them only produced confusion and hysteria. The human mind is complex and difficult to manipulate. You were different. With you I found a pattern of recognition that I could exploit to communicate with you. You have seen those who enslaved me before. You know them. I knew that you would listen and understand. The Arkari too, I could read his mind and see what he had seen, but I couldn’t communicate with him, his alien psyche was too different, I had never even seen his like before.’
‘You spoke to me too,’ said Reynaud. ‘You showed me the most wonderful things.
‘No,’ said Blake’s image. ‘It was the ship. The ship was reaching out to touch people’s minds, to tempt them, to lead them here. I exploited it, undermined its systems to send a warning when I could. I had to show people its true nature, its true horror. There are things out there in the dark… Sometimes… they intruded and stopped me. Don’t try to access the ship’s log or any of its systems, they infested it with many malicious programs and routines that would give them total access to your systems and infest them like a plague. Your computer systems are like toys to them. Your security mechanisms would present no obstacle. That’s what they do, you see, they devour, they absorb and the change things to suit themselves. You become like them, enslaved in darkness. I…’ He seemed to double over as if in pain. ‘Please, kill me, destroy the ship.’ His voice was desperate now, pleading. ‘Please, I’ve wanted to die for so long… they’re…’ His image flickered and vanished.
‘Don’t even think about it!’ barked Cox over the comm. ‘This ship is property of the Commonwealth Navy and any damage it suffers as a result of a deliberate act will be treated as a crime.’
‘Sorry, were you not listening?’ said Rekkid. ‘We need to destroy this thing, right now.’
‘I am aware of what that recording just told you, but we have a secure location prepared for the study of this ship. If this was built by a hostile race we need to know our enemy through studying their technology.’
‘And who would be studying who, Admiral?’ Rekkid shot back angrily. ‘You are way out of your depth here. You need to contact Vice Admiral Haines immediately about this.’
‘Vice Admiral Haines is not in the loop on this operation. He is currently overseeing the demilitarisation of the former imperial territories.’
‘Then I’ll do it myself.’
‘You’re way out of line here, Professor. This is a classified military operation run on a need-to-know basis. That was made explicitly clear to you both when you signed on here. You may be civilians, but any betrayal of the top secret information that you have been privy to you will result in criminal proceedings.’
‘Well it seems that there’s only one way to settle this,’ said Katherine.
She had sidled up behind Corporal Stamp, who remained transfixed by the awful pillar of flesh and metal before him. In one swift move she grabbed his rifle and shouldered him out of the way. Caught by surprise, the man stumbled and tripped. As his colleague shouted in alarm she thumbed off the safety and unloaded the entire magazine of depleted uranium slugs into the remains of Blake’s skull, pulverising it. Before it was annihilated, she swore she saw the trace of a smile on those tortured features.
‘God damn it!’ bellowed Cox into the comm. ‘How dare you! Marines, arrest Doctor O’Reilly immediately! Destruction of Navy property, assault on one of our men…’
As Jones lowered his rifle to cover Katherine, the sound of heavy booted feet could already be heard hammering up the corridor towards them. Rekkid looked at her in admiration.
‘Fucking civilians!’ swore Cox. ‘Doctor, you will be detained. I’m going to throw the fucking book at you for this and anything I can make stick, I will! Do you realise the magnitude of what you’ve done!? My god, woman! The things we could have learned from him!’
‘It’s what he wanted,’ she said simply. ‘What was I supposed to do?’
Chapter 20
High above the plane of the ecliptic of the Hadar system, the Churchill slipped out of hyperspace and came smoothly to a complete stop. From this distance, the entire system was clearly visible to Chen as she sat in her command chair, her HUD monocle lowered over one eye, the device picking out for her the various bodies in the system with labels and orbital paths. As the ship began its scan of the system, the tracks of jumping ships began to appear on the display, their warp wakes highlighted as rapidly moving trails.
‘Report,’ said Chen to Lieutenant Commander Singh, manning the ship’s sensors.
‘No sign of the Profit Margin,’ he replied. ‘None of the engine signatures we’ve detected match a ship of that type. If Isaacs is still in the system, he’s docked somewhere.’
‘Alright.’ She turned to Ensign Andrews at the comm. station. ‘Ensign, contact Barstow traffic control. Ask them for the whereabouts of the Profit Margin.’
‘Yes sir.’
Andrews contacted Barstow Station via the hypercom.
‘Admiral, Barstow reports that the Profit Margin was docked in one of its bays until oh-nine-thirty hours standard, yesterday morning,’ Andrews reported. ‘She posted a false destination and jumped in-system to the fourth planet of Hadar A, Inyo. Barstow lost track of them at that point due to the planet obscuring their sensors. There are no registered settlements either around Inyo or on any of its moons.’
‘Okay, so maybe he went to a hidden base there, or maybe he was clever and jumped again. Alright, let’s check it out. Helm, plot a course for Hadar A4, best speed.’
Chen watched the star-field beyond the bridge windows shift slightly, then vanish as the ship jumped.
It took the Churchill barely ten minutes to reach Inyo and its system of moons. The carrier emerged high above the north pole of the gas giant and began scanning for any signs of ships or settlements. The banded clouds of the planet formed a wine coloured bullseye in front of the ship.
‘Anything?’ said Chen to Singh.
‘That’s a negative. No signs of life here.’
‘Commander Haldane, I want our recon wings out there. Have them search the moons and ring system. It’s possible that there’s something we can’t detect from here.’
Haldane set about passing the order down to the flight deck. Within a few minutes the small, nimble shapes of Seraphim reconnaissance fighters emerged from the bow of the Churchill. The sleek craft, slightly larger than the Azrael torpedo bombers that the Churchill also carried, would be able to sweep the space around Inyo in a few minutes. Chen watched them jump out in scattered directions towards the planet and its family of moons.
‘The other possibility is that he jumped elsewhere,’ said Chen. ‘Stopping off here could just have been a trick to disguise his real destination, whatever that is. It’s a common smuggler’s trick. If Isaacs has reverted to his old business habits, this could explain his behaviour. Mr Singh, widen your search to include the position of the planet Inyo between nine and eleven hundred hours yesterday.’
‘Widening search,’ Singh replied, then scrutinised his console for a few moments. Chen saw his brow furrow.
‘Any luck?’ she asked.
‘Possibly, we’d need to get in closer. From here it looks like two different warp wakes become one.’
‘Alright, pass the co-ordinates to the helm. Helm, take us to Mr Singh’s co-ordinates. Comms, have our recon wings informed of our change of position and have them rendezvous with us there.’
The Churchill made another short jump of just over one hundred thousand kilometres to emerge within twenty kilometres of the co-ordinates that Lieutenant Commander Singh had specified. At this stand-off position, the powerful jump drive of the Saturn class carrier wouldn’t perturb the space-time distortions left by the recent passage of any vessels through the volume. As soon as the vessel re-emerged from hyperspace, Singh set about scanning at higher resolution.
‘It does seem that two ships jumped in from different directions,’ said Si
ngh. ‘Both ships are approximately the same size as the Profit Margin. However, it then appears that they then jumped together to within orbit of the innermost planet, Furnace. I’ve extrapolated their trajectory and it matches the position of the planet around eleven fifteen yesterday, standard.’
‘Good work, Mr Singh,’ said Chen. ‘Commander Haldane, recall our recon wings. Helm, plot a course to the position Mr Singh is about to relay to you. Prepare to jump once all our ships are aboard.’
Chen was starting to get a little tired of this wild goose chase. Just what was Isaacs playing at? Had he been tipped off that he was being followed, or was he just involved in some shady transactions that he’d rather the locals couldn’t trace? Repeated jumping like this smacked of paranoia. Who was it that he was running from? Did he still think Bennett’s men were tailing him, or was he running from her? If the latter answer was correct, she wanted to know why.
It took a few minutes to recall the recon ships from Inyo and its esoteric collection of moons. Once the small craft had all docked, the Churchill came about and jumped once more.
They emerged a few minutes later in the orbit of Furnace. The planet itself was now over eighty thousand kilometres distant along its orbital track, a bright waxing crescent bathing in the radiation from the Hadar A star.
Singh set about his scanning tasks once more. He looked frustrated.
‘Results, Lieutenant Commander?’ said Chen.
‘Not good I’m afraid. The planet has passed over the point in space where the ships must have emerged. Its gravity well has disturbed the warp wakes too much, I’m afraid. I can tell that they jumped out again, but I can’t tell you where to.’
‘Try widening the scope.’
‘I have. There’s too much traffic in this part of the system. Freighters come and go from the arrays around the star all the time around here. We’re not far off one of the main shipping lanes. The wake of a small ship like the Profit Margin would easily be lost amongst all those bigger ships. My guess is that Isaacs knew this and used it to his advantage. Given the direction of the local lanes, I’d say that either they jumped out of the system entirely, or that they crossed back over to the Hadar B star.
