by Dan Worth
‘Yes, and there’s more besides that. Much more that you urgently need to know. Admiral Cox is way out of his depth and he doesn’t even realise it.’
‘Admiral, we have reason to believe that the security of the entire Commonwealth could be at stake,’ said Katherine. ‘You have to listen to these people. We believe Cox has gotten hold of a working Shaper vessel and doesn’t realised what he’s found, one that appears dormant but is very much alive.’
‘Alright,’ said Chen. ‘You have permission to come aboard, and I guarantee that Ms Favreaux and Mr Isaacs will be permitted to retain their liberty, for now. I’ll have someone meet you and bring you up to my office once you’ve docked. Chen out.’
‘See?’ said Rekkid. ‘She’s quite reasonable. The brief disappearance of Centrepoint can’t have escaped her notice either and we have the answers she wants.’
‘I just hope she keeps her word,’ Anna muttered as the cavernous mouth of the carrier’s docking bay loomed large in the cockpit windows, ready to swallow the smaller vessel.
Once inside the Churchill, the Profit Margin was directed to a berth on the hangar deck amid the rows of fighters, bombers and other craft Isaacs, Anna, Katherine and Rekkid left the vessel whilst Anita stayed on board to keep an eye on the ship and any of Chen’s people if they started sniffing around.
A security detail met them as soon as they descended the Profit Margin’s access ramp, scanned them, and then escorted them through the carrier’s internal warren of busy corridors, lifts and transport tubes up to Chen’s office, located just aft of the bridge. They were polite, Isaacs noticed, but they were all armed just the same. He couldn’t blame Chen for being cautious.
Chen was seated behind a desk strewn with datapads and paper documents, the sole ornamentation being a rather battered and scorched antique telescope. She told the security detail to wait outside and bade the four of them to sit.
‘Well, it’s good to see the two of you again,’ said Chen to Katherine and Rekkid. ‘Though I must say, wherever you go, trouble seems to follow in your wake.’ She smiled wryly. ‘Now, perhaps if you could fill me in on what the hell is going on around here?’
‘Certainly,’ said Katherine. ‘Several weeks ago, War Marshal Mentith despatched us here to assist with an archaeological dig taking place on the surface of Rhyolite. We were told that an ancient vessel of unknown origin had been uncovered and that perhaps our expertise in this could be put to good use. It was made clear to us upon arrival that due to the advanced technology used to construct the vessel, the operation was classified because of the potential military benefits. The dig was being run by Admiral Cox, as I’m sure you’re aware, as well as the well known archaeologist Dr Charles Reynaud.’
‘Both of whom, I should add, seemed to be using this whole thing as a vehicle to further their own ambitions,’ Rekkid interjected. ‘It seems that this blinded them to a few obvious truths.’
‘Such as?’ said Chen.
‘Well firstly, that vessel is considerably older than the planet that it was found on,’ said Katherine. ‘Hadar is a relatively young system, only a few million years, whereas that ship is billions of years old. It was also in remarkably good condition considering that it was supposed to have crash landed on the surface. On top of this, the ship has the ability to interfere with the minds of those around it. It… spoke to me on several occasions.’
‘It spoke to you…’ said Chen sceptically.
‘I know this sounds rather unlikely,’ said Rekkid in Katherine’s defence. ‘But Katherine’s story is not an isolated case. Numerous workers on the dig reported hallucinations, vivid nightmares, waking visions and other mental aberrations. Cox tried to dismiss these as rumour and scaremongering but that ship does appear to be able to communicate on what, for want of a better term, you might call a telepathic level, though the very word conjures up a load of superstitious nonsense, I know.’
‘It seemed that the ship was trying to warn me about something. I kept seeing images of an ancient human exploration vessel and its captain. I couldn’t make any sense of it until we went inside the ship itself and found such a vessel, the Magellan, embedded within.’
‘The Magellan? One of the early deep space missions? That ship was believed lost centuries ago,’ said Chen in disbelief.
‘We know,’ said Rekkid. ‘But there’s more. Our analysis of the ship found that its structure exists throughout multiple planes. It has no conventional surface as such, merely a hyperdimensional boundary that is difficult for our instruments to penetrate. It does however make use of machine languages that bear, in part, a strong resemblance to those used by Progenitor relics we have so far uncovered. However, the ship itself is not Progenitor technology. We had our suspicions about its origins, but inside we found the very ship’s captain that Katherine had seen in her dreams. The ship had incorporated his body and mind into its systems using technology that bears a fundamental resemblance to that found in the Shaper agents. It seems, however, that some element of Captain Blake had survived and he had been using the ship’s own abilities to attempt to warn people off, resulting in the aforementioned ‘telepathic events’. He pleaded with us to end his life and Katherine here was good enough to oblige. ‘
‘We tried to warn Cox but he wouldn’t listen to us. He even locked us up and had every intention of trying us for ‘vandalising’ the ship,’ said Katherine. ‘In retrospect it seems we delayed the inevitable. We have reason to believe that the Magellan successfully reached the galactic core where it was captured by the Shapers. Their ship then used the memories of the Magellan’s captain to navigate back towards Commonwealth space. Presumably he managed to resist giving up the exact location of Earth, but there’s little doubt that they knew where to look. The ship was bait for the Navy to take, and take it they did.’
‘So where do the Hidden Hand fit into all of this?’ said Chen.
‘We work covertly for Nahabe, as I said,’ said Anna. ‘The Nahabe encountered the Shapers many millennia ago and survived, just. However their culture has become highly isolationist and they are unwilling to intervene directly in the affairs of other races. Nevertheless, they do take an interest in the activities of the Shapers, and when it became clear that something was going on in this part of space they began recruiting people to work for them - but not just anyone. Yes, it’s true that many of us have backgrounds in piracy, smuggling and other shady business, but all members of the Hidden Hand have had dealings with the Shapers and survived, whether it be themselves or a loved one who was directly affected.’
‘Unknown ships have been sighted and logged in this sector, of that I am aware,’ Chen replied.
‘Indeed. Some of these were merely Nahabe craft, but yes, the Shapers have operating in this part of space. It appears that they assumed that their activities would go relatively unnoticed. However, we were working to disrupt their operations, hence our attempt to directly attack and destroy the alien ship which you sadly foiled.’
‘I’m afraid I can offer you no apology Ms Favreaux, ‘said Chen sternly. ‘Those ships of yours were carrying antimatter. It would have been a dereliction of my duty had I not answered a naval distress call and then failed to attack and destroy vessels that represented a clear and present danger to the safety of this ship. You know the law concerning those weapons. However, at the time we were attempting to ascertain the nature of Cox’s operations on Rhyolite, so it does seem that we were working at cross purposes. You should have contacted us sooner with what you know.’
‘We couldn’t be sure that the information would remain secure. The Nahabe have told us that the Navy has been infiltrated by Shaper agents. Admiral Morgan may be one of them.’
‘Morgan!? Are you sure?’
‘Not conclusively. But his actions have given the Nahabe reason to believe so. His deliberate obfuscation and obstruction with regard to Cox’s activities in this system, his role in ordering you into the demilitarized zone that precipitated the war between the
Commonwealth and the Empire He even orchestrated an attempt to have Cal followed by using paid members of the Sirius Syndicate in order that he might find our hiding place. It goes on and on. It’s all here.’ She held up a data wafer. ‘As are the testimonies of all our members regarding their encounters with the Shapers, or what they heard.’
‘Yours too, Captain Isaacs?’
‘Yeah, mine too.’
‘On behalf of the Navy I would like to apologise for the way that you were treated. We overlooked your testimony. It could still be of invaluable use to us.’
‘I’m not sure what I could tell you.’
‘You, Captain Isaacs, are one of the few people, perhaps the only person to have seen the Shapers up close and survived.’
‘He is the only one,’ said Anna. ‘None of our other members were ever taken aboard ship.’
‘I would very much appreciate it if you and I could talk at length about your experiences, Captain Isaacs,’ said Chen. ‘I came a long way to talk to you.’
‘Well, I hope I don’t disappoint you,’ Isaacs replied.
‘Anything you can tell us would be useful I’m sure. Now, Centrepoint Harbour: I take it Cox’s pet Shaper vessel had a hand in this? He told us it was just the result of its drive malfunctioning, though I have to say I was highly sceptical. Unfortunately we were out in the Kuiper belt looking for your base when the event occurred, and thinking that there’d been an accident we jumped in to investigate. Centrepoint had apparently re-appeared during the interim.’
‘Well we did take a good look, both with our base’s long range sensors, kindly furnished to us by the Nahabe, as well as high resolution telescopes,’ said Anna. ‘The evidence clearly points to a massive wormhole being opened and swallowing the base.’
‘But the power reserves needed for such an undertaking…’ said Chen.
‘Would be enormous, yes,’ said Rekkid. ‘However the Nahabe have a better understanding of Shaper technology than we do. Their representative believes that the Shaper vessel may have only acted as a form of anchor or beacon for the wormhole terminus. The hole itself would have been spawned elsewhere.’
‘Where?’
‘We don’t know exactly, but doubtless deep within Shaper controlled space. Somewhere near the core would be a good bet. Katherine’s visions, if they can be regarded as accurate, repeatedly showed to her a massive black hole, possibly the one at the centre of the galaxy, the one that my people dubbed the Maelstrom. If the Shapers have harnessed its power somehow they would have almost limitless energy for this sort of undertaking.’
‘My god! Cox had a whole fleet stationed there. Are you saying that thousands of our personnel might have been transported to the Shapers’ home systems and… infected?’
‘Yes, it’s possible.’ Rekkid nodded.
‘Am I right in assuming that wormholes allow travel both in time and space?’
‘Correct. Our experiences with the Maranos device showed that it managed to create wormholes to both the distant past and future.’
‘So even though the station was absent for only a short period, they could have been on the other side of that wormhole for any length of time.’
‘Yes, and there’s no telling what might have happened to them in that period. They could all have been made hosts to Shaper creatures.’
‘I have to warn the Navy of the possible threat. Cox has departed for Spica already, taking all of his ships, and the Shaper vessel with him. Southern Fleet Command has to be alerted to the threat.’
‘Tell them to scan any and all people who try to board the station,’ said Anna. ‘And for god’s sake tell them about the Shaper vessel.’
‘I will. After this I intend to return and brief Admiral Haines and War Marshal Mentith.’
‘Why not just send an encrypted transmission?’ said Anna.
‘Because, Ms Favreaux, we are dealing with an enemy who has already infiltrated our organisation and may very well have access to our encryption routines. Standard Spec Ops protocol involves not sending confidential data via any sort of transmission if we believe channels to be compromised. The warning to Southern Fleet Command to prevent the docking of Cox’s ships I can send in the clear without specifying classified details for now, but for anything else we will only use physical delivery.’
‘But it’s too slow.’
‘I can however send them certain code-words in advance that will give a basic outline of the alert. But this is the only way. Otherwise we risk losing whatever advantage we may have.’
‘We have another advantage,’ said Katherine. ‘Rekkid, show her what else we found.’
‘Yes of course,’ Rekkid replied and produced his computer. Unfolding it he poked and prodded at the keys for a moment before turning it around to show Chen. The glittering galactic model covered in labels written in an alien script confronted her. ‘You see, Admiral Chen, Katherine and I did some digging around in the materials we had gathered from our previous work on the remains of Bivian. What we uncovered is a complete, working model of the war between the Progenitors and the Shapers. We believe that the Progenitors may have left it deliberately for future generations to find. It gives us their tactics. It shows us how they fight. As long as we don’t repeat the mistakes of the Progenitors, it may show us how we can beat them.’
Chapter 27
Chen interviewed Isaacs for a long time. With his permission she recorded the entire conversation and he told her everything that had happened to him when his training flight had been captured by the Shapers and all that had transpired since they had last met. She sat and listened patiently, occasionally interrupting with questions or requests for clarification on a particular point. She was particularly interested in the manner by which the Shaper ship’s presence had been detectable even before it had emerged from hyperspace, not to mention Isaacs’ first-hand look at the Shapers themselves. Then he told her about their attempt to implant his comrades with their creatures.
‘They opened up Carlotti’s skull first,’ Isaacs began, his expression grim as he relived the memory. ‘Fucking hell, he was still alive, and they took this thing, this grub like creature with these spindly tentacles or legs or whatever and placed it in his brain.’ He grimaced. ‘I don’t think that worked too well, the thing began to squeal and Carlotti... he went into convulsions and died there and then I think. Then they let that thing scuttle over to Valdez. They hadn’t operated on him at all, but he was still tied down just like me. The creature... it was hard to see... I didn’t want to see, but I kept looking... it kind of gave birth to a smaller version of itself. You could barely see it, like a tiny caterpillar. It crawled up his nose and nothing happened for while, then Valdez... I don’t know how to put it... they let him out of his restraints, let him stand up. I looked at his face and called out to him, but it wasn’t Valdez looking back at me. There was someone else inside him now, I could just feel it.’
He had shuddered visibly as he had told her that. Chen could sense his remembered fear.
With his permission, Chen had him scanned once more to make sure he was free from infection. To her great relief, he was.
Finally at the end of interview, after more than an hour, Isaacs sat back in his chair and said:
‘So, was I worth it? You chased me a hell of a long way just to talk to me.’
‘Yes. You were,’ she replied. ‘We had to be sure that we hadn’t made a mistake in scanning you, that you hadn’t been infected yourself and compromised us and Captain, you’re the only human we know of to have seen these things and lived to tell about it. Now we know exactly how those things get inside people. What I’m about to tell you is classified, but I think you have a right to know some of the basic details, provided that you keep them to yourself. What you witnessed seems to confirm what we had already deduced; that the Shapers exist as a form of machine-based hive mind. We’re not even sure if they can be considered as individuals - each entity merely exists as a component part within a greater whole. Pe
rsonalities may only exist as vergences or eddies within the greater consciousness. Some of this we have managed to glean from scouting missions and intelligence, others from captured enemy agents. But so far we’ve only ever seen their agents first hand, the small semi-autonomous creatures that they use to infiltrate our societies by taking over the bodies of living people. We have records of encounters with the upper echelons of their species before, but none that exist as much more than the ravings of men driven beyond the realms of sanity. It’s been theorised that some sort of central controlling figure may exist, though again we can’t be sure. However, despite their great age and sophistication we believe that the Shapers themselves are few in number, which is why they choose to work through others, manipulating them via copies or extensions of themselves embedded within AI constructs.’
‘Well I got a good long look at the bastards, that’s for sure. I guess they were on some sort of recon mission. You know, capture a few of us, cut us up, find out how we worked and how suitable we would be to be used as agents.’
‘Yes, I think you’re right. You had a very lucky escape Captain.’
‘Yeah, though I don’t think I came away entirely unscathed; post traumatic stress disorder and the rest. I never did get any proper treatment for it, and it fucked me up good and proper. Anna found me too difficult to deal with, you know? She just couldn’t cope with me anymore, what I might do to myself. She couldn’t sit around and watch me destroy myself; watch me destroy what we had. But now… I’m better now, better than I was. I think maybe we’re ready to have another go.’
‘You’re going to stay here with her?’
‘Yeah, I think I’ve managed to exorcise a few of my demons. You know actually fighting these things is kind of cathartic for me. You might call it therapy I suppose,’ he said grimly. ‘Well… her little organisation does need good pilots and I am the best one around these parts, if I dare say so. Besides, we can act as your eyes and ears if you like. You might want to have a talk with Anna though, she’s got a better idea of what the Hidden Hand are capable of than I have. I only just got here, with you hot on my heels.’
