One Dark Future

by Michael Anderle

  Raphael nodded slowly. “Should we be worried that one of those ships blew up the other one?”

  “This is a good thing.” Captain Osei gestured to the debris cloud. “That means fewer enemies to deal with on foot, and the surviving ship had to have taken damage. If we need to have a ship-to-ship battle, it gives us additional advantages.” He pointed at the dot marking the surviving ship. “The big question we still have is if they know we’re coming.”

  Emma smiled. “We’ve been able to track them before contact with the target because we knew they were there. The Bifröst’s stealth elements reduce our signature, though the jump made us visible for a brief moment. If they were paying attention, they might have noticed, but they didn’t react noticeably to our post-jump arrival.”

  “They’d have to be bothering to look, too,” Jia commented. “All things considered, we didn’t jump that close. I imagine they were spending more time tracking each other than assuming a third ship would pop out of nowhere. We might still have the element of surprise.”

  “Does it matter?” Erik asked with a shrug. “It’s like Osei said. There’s one of them now to deal with, not two, and if they run, we can follow. Even if they’ve got better thrust, Raphael, Lanara, and Emma will fix the jump drive, then we can jump ahead of them. They could get a couple of days’ worth of head start, and we’d still catch them.” He grinned. “I’m already liking the possibilities I see for this jump drive.”

  Raphael winced. “I’m not sure we’ll be able to do that kind of pinpoint jump so soon, and the longer we wait between jumps, the less risk we’ll have of drive damage.”

  “It doesn’t have to be pinpoint.” Erik shrugged. “We just have to get in front of them. That’s my point. We win whether they run or not.”

  “I’m confident I can at least jump in front of them,” Emma replied.

  Captain Osei gave her a cool look. “Or we could take them out while they’re still aboard. Even if that comet is a ship, it’s not like they’re going to be able to control it, and they’re not going to leave a pile of alien tech just to save their asses. They probably lost some men during the previous fight, too.”

  “We’ll know soon enough if they’re going to run,” Jia murmured, staring at the debris cloud. “If they don’t, we’re boarding. Is that what everyone agrees on?”

  Erik nodded. “No reason to come all this way to sit on our hands.”

  Hours later, Jia sat in the cockpit at the controls while Cutter napped in his cabin. She sent the relevant data feeds directly to the others’ PNIUs.

  The action of the mission had seemed so distant before, despite the unusual nature of their travel, but now they were changing from a situation where vicious agents of the conspiracy would present a greater risk than experimental propulsion systems.

  “We’re close enough now to verify a debris cloud,” she reported. “No escape pods, no distress signals, and from what I’m picking up, this is the remains of a human ship. Right composition, based on an analysis of the debris.”

  “And the other ship?” Erik asked over comm. “How are they doing?”

  “They look like they’ve successfully rendezvoused with the comet,” Jia replied. “Though we’re still too far away to resolve what they’re doing, other than seeing some extremely mild thermal spikes. There haven’t been any other major changes, and it’s like before. If they know we’re coming, they’re not giving any indication.”

  “Then we stick to the plan: close in and confirm what’s going on.”

  “And then?”

  Erik chuckled. “We decide how big a gun we need.”

  Jia smiled despite the situation. They were now close enough that the camera feeds provided a visual of the massive, irregular ball of blue-and-gray-tinged white ice passing through the Solar System. A faint fuzzy shell surrounded the comet, but it had no tail.

  That made sense, given how far they were out from the sun.

  She sucked in a breath, the enormity of what they’d done hitting her in a way it hadn’t before. They weren’t just another mission. They’d jumped a thousand AUs to the edge of the Solar System.

  Plenty of humans had traveled farther in absolute terms, but their ship and the crews of the two vessels ahead of them were the only humans to ever travel directly to this part of the Solar System. They’d come on a mission of security, but it was also a mission of exploration.

  It was too bad they were only doing it because they needed to hunt down threats to the security of the UTC.

  She looked to her side. Cutter was manning the primary controls, with Erik and Captain Osei behind the pilots.

  “Damn.” Cutter whistled, shaking his head, faint awe in his eyes. “I fly around all the time, but this is the closest I’ve been to a comet. It’s pretty in its own way.”

  Jia magnified the image of the comet and zoomed in on a gray speck, which resolved into a triangular ship. Scorch marks and holes peppered the body. Turrets lined both sides, but many were now twisted and broken. A small opaque gray tube extended from the ship into the comet.

  Erik leaned forward to peer at the image with a huge smile “They took a nasty beating. Now that we see how big they are, and their remaining weapons, there’s no way they could survive in a straight-up fight against us. We’ve got this, even if they stand and fight.”

  Captain Osei pointed at the ship. “What if they are planning a final, nasty act?”

  Erik looked at the captain. “You mean, blowing up the target?”

  The captain nodded. “They’re damaged, and if they don’t see us yet, they’re going too soon enough. It’s like you said, Blackwell; they can’t win. What choice do they have?”

  Jia frowned at a data window. “There are some unusual sensor readings on the comet, not just thermals. There’s definitely something under the ice layer. It might be a ship, but it’s strange.”

  “How strange?” Erik asked.

  “We’re close enough now that I’m surprised the docked ship isn’t reacting. There’s no indication they’re activating their weapons or shields. Minimum energy readings from the ship. Even if they think they can’t win, you’d think they would at least do something.”

  “Go ahead and hail them,” Erik suggested. “We now have the upper hand. We know there’s something strange about the comet, but we don’t know what it is, and if they’re going to blow it, I’d rather they do it now when we’re not right next to them.”

  “Attention, unknown vessel,” Jia transmitted. “Attention, unknown vessel.”

  “How long is the comm lag at this distance?” Captain Osei asked.

  Jia glanced at a data window to her left. “A little over a half a second.”

  “Their comm might be out,” Cutter suggested with a shrug. “If they got hit that badly, they might not even have life support.”

  “They obviously survived,” Erik replied. “The ship didn’t dock itself and then connect that boarding tube. They’d probably needed some sort of drilling or digging equipment, too.”

  “So, they fled into the comet?” Jia asked. She furrowed her brow, staring at the sensor displays and the fluctuating readings. “Even if it is a Navigator ship, it might not have life support for humans, assuming they could even get inside.”

  Erik unfastened his harness and stood. “I’m not going to sit here and wait for them to come back. If they’re at minimum power, they’re not ready to deal with us. We should launch the Argo with the squads inside. We’ll take their ship first and proceed from there. We keep the jumpship at a safe distance. Cutter and Raphael can stay aboard.” He turned to Cutter. “You can fly the big ship without Emma?”

  Cutter offered her a thumbs-up. “I don’t need Holochick around all the time to wipe my ass.”

  “I can’t imagine a more disturbing example of being a fleshbag,” Emma muttered.

  “Won’t they need troops on the Bifröst in case someone tries to board?” Jia asked.

  Erik looked at Osei. “Cutter and Raphael
can just blow the hell out of anyone who gets close. I’d rather have the firepower with us when we raid the human ship, let alone the floating Navigator palace or whatever garbage is inside the comet.”

  “They won’t be able to jump without me,” Emma observed.

  “Emma, you are going to stay in the Argo.” Erik inclined his head toward Osei. “Between what we have in our cargo bay and what the captain brought, we’ll be able to keep in touch with some creativity, but if we all get taken out, you can run back to the Bifröst.”

  Captain Osei frowned. “You planning for a suicide mission, Blackwell?”

  “Hell, no, but if we’re all dead, I want to make sure the conspiracy doesn’t get their hands on the jump drive and Emma. That’d be a better immediate haul than some advanced tech they’ll have to spend twenty years reverse-engineering.” Erik headed toward the door. “I suggest you get your soldiers ready, Captain. Just because it looks like no one’s home, it doesn’t mean this isn’t a trap.”

  “What’s your position on taking them alive?”

  Erik’s cold grin sent a shiver through Jia.

  “It’s simple. If they want to live, they surrender.”

  Chapter Forty

  Erik took slow, deep breaths as he checked his tactical pressure suit and mag boots.

  He didn’t want to test their functionality under heavy fire. Most of the soldiers near him were probably thinking the same thing as they finished inspecting their suits and gathering their weapons and helmets.

  Everyone stood in the cargo bay of the Argo. The ship was near its final approach to the suspect ship, with Emma ready to fire the turrets if the enemy was feigning inactivity.

  Then it’d be up to the assault infantry, Erik, and Jia to board and clear the vessel.

  This wasn’t a tubular assault against a handful of ragtag terrorists. Erik and Jia might have dealt numerous blows to the conspiracy, but he’d seen firsthand how well they could fight, and if they were determined to make this hard, it might end up bloodier than he’d like.

  Erik shook his head. The bastards were probably all inside the comet. He looked around again.

  He was glad he’d left the MX 60 behind. They’d transferred all the squads’ exos to the Argo, along with several crates of equipment and a drill bot he hadn’t noticed before. As much as he would have liked to bring the tank, even if they crammed it in, it wasn’t practical for a ship-based raid. However, it was nice to have professional military assaults, even without the tank.

  The upcoming raid did highlight one of the few disadvantages of the Argo. They could extend emergency pressurized tubing from the cockpit and the lower-level airlocks, but it didn’t have a dedicated boarding tube.

  There was always something else to anticipate when dealing with the conspiracy, but he suspected most of their space-based encounters would end more like their battle with Sophia Vand. Boarding actions were dangerous.

  If it weren’t for the possible Navigator tech, he would have just said they should blow the ship to hell.

  Jia locked her helmet into place and tapped on the faceplate. “Emma’s bringing us up on one of the side airlocks. Energy readings are still minimal. If they know we’re here, they’re not doing anything about it or giving any sign.”

  “They obviously survived long enough to connect with the comet,” Erik replied. “That means there’s got to be more than one guy, but if we overwhelm them with force, it’ll be easy.”

  “We’ll need to figure out where we want to lock them up,” Jia commented. “Assuming we run into them, they might not all be idiots.”

  “We’ll worry about that when we get that far.”

  Captain Osei walked over to the pair and adjusted the rifle slung over his shoulder and attached to his pressure suit with a line. “We’re ready whenever you are.”

  Erik nodded. “We’ll take point.” He motioned toward a door. “Everyone follow me. Time for a good old-fashioned boarding action.”

  “Squads, prepare to move out,” Captain Osei barked. “Luo, Brown, bring the torches. We’re not hard-blowing anything we don’t have to in space.”

  Erik had to give Emma credit. She’d gotten the Argo close enough to the airlock and manipulated the grav field emitters so they didn’t have to float to the airlock. The lack of reaction by the enemy ship further cemented Erik’s belief that they were no longer aboard.

  “You popped open that sub pretty easily in Japan, Emma,” Erik commented. “How about this?”

  “I’m attempting to use remote override protocols, but I’ll admit this might not be a swift process,” Emma replied. “The system is more sophisticated.”

  “Their oxygen fields might not hold if we physically breach and don’t reseal,” Erik replied.

  “I’ll perhaps have a better opportunity once I can directly interrogate the internal systems. The internal door should be less of a problem.”

  “Fine. We’ll do this the hard way, then.” Erik nodded to Osei, who motioned Luo and Brown forward, then readied his rifle and pointed it at the door. There could be anything on the other side from a Tin Man to a yaoguai.

  The two soldiers carried curved torches connected by a thin line to their suits like their rifles. They both carried small tanks on their backs instead of the packs of their comrades. They approached the door with determined looks.

  Erik and Jia cleared out of the way of the soldiers, who set up on either side of the external door. Bright white-blue flame erupted from their torches and bit into the door, emitting a shower of sparks. Minutes passed as they gouged lines in the door until it finally fell into the main airlock, revealing the interior door.

  “Ah, yes, this will do nicely,” Emma commented. “There are now access points that were being blocked by the previous door. I can’t gain total control of the ship instantly, but I should be able to open and close the door behind you.”

  Captain Osei made a circular motion with his hand. “Set up one of the repeaters here while the AI gets to work.”

  A soldier crouched and placed the small gray tripod on the deck. It expanded and grew in height, bundled columnar arrays pulling away from the body. The others readied their rifles. Anyone on the other side would get to experience a heavy rifle volley firsthand if they so much as aimed in the general direction of the troops.

  The inner airlock groaned and clicked before sliding open without Erik touching the manual hatch. Erik and Jia edged inside the darkened ship, sweeping through their areas of responsibility with their rifles. Dim red emergency lighting pushed away complete blackness, along with the occasional spark in the distance.

  An unbreathing man in a gray uniform lay right outside the airlock on his side, staring at the airlock, his lips and face blue and dark ligature marks around his neck.

  “He has no active heartbeat,” Emma reported.

  Erik crouched near the man and shifted his head back and forth with his gloved hand. “How does someone end up strangled after a ship-to-ship battle?”

  “It could be survivors from the other ship boarded this one,” suggested Captain Osei. “We might have missed something in the debris field.”

  “There was no indication of that from outside,” Jia replied with a frown. “And I doubt you could destroy an entire ship and have a couple of men in escape pods successfully board the responsible ship.”

  Captain Osei nodded. “True enough.” He pointed his rifle at the body. “But if everyone aboard is dead, that might explain why it’s so quiet.”

  “We still need to know who or what killed them.” Jia narrowed her eyes, a look familiar from their cop days when she was thinking deeply about evidence.

  Erik stood with a frown and peered down the passage connecting to the airlock. “We should check the ship in small squads to see what else we can turn up. If there are hostiles aboard, they can surrender, or they can take a bullet through the head. Jia and I will be our own squad.”

  “You heard the man,” Captain Osei shouted. “Keep your eyes ope
n. If any of you idiots gets yourself killed by one of these conspiracy bastards, I’m going to follow you to the afterlife and kick your ass in front of the Almighty himself.”

  Erik chuckled. That was one way of motivating men, and it wasn’t like he hadn’t said similar things to his soldiers.

  “How are you doing, Emma?” he asked.

  “There is unexpectedly impressive security on this system,” she replied. “It might be necessary for me to have direct access to gain full control, but I can give you door control in the meantime. I’m having trouble locating the cameras in the systems.”

  “If the conspiracy sent this ship, they knew it would be out of contact for a year,” Erik replied. “It makes sense they would want to keep this thing as secure as possible. It’d be embarrassing if some lucky Fleet corvette showed up and took it over with a squad and some quick hacks.”

  Erik motioned to Jia and nodded down the corridor, and she fell in behind him. Two of the squads headed in their direction while Captain Osei took two other squads the opposite way.

  No one spoke as they looked for survivors or threats. Erik remained unsure if the dead body was a sign of good luck for his team or a bad omen.

  They continued several meters down the passage to an open storage room. There were two bodies inside among the scattered boxes and what appeared to be sealed packs for food printers.

  There was no mystery about the causes of death, considering one body had its hands wrapped around the throat of the second, but a large knife protruded from his neck.