Crimson Tempest

by Anthony James

  Duggan rose to leave.

  “Oh, and Captain Duggan?”

  “Sir?”

  “Good work bringing the Crimson back.”

  Duggan didn’t say anything more and left Admiral Teron’s office. A few minutes later, he was in the lift again, alone as it climbed silently through the Juniper’s immense interior. The overly-chilled air should have been a welcome change after weeks in the hot and claustrophobic confines of the Crimson’s bridge. Instead, it made him crave to be back in the heat and oil-scented humidity. His earpiece bleeped and a voice came through. It was Commander McGlashan. She sounded excited.

  “Sir? Monsey’s found something.”

  “What is it?”

  “I’m not sure yet. She’s breached one of the databanks. There’s reams of stuff in there, much of it still encrypted.” She paused. “I didn’t want to start looking until you got back.”

  “Start looking now, Commander. Get Lieutenants Chainer and Breeze on it as well. Tell Monsey to keep up with her efforts.”

  “What are we looking for?”

  “I don’t know. Anything that looks interesting. Something that tells us about the Crimson.”

  “We’re on it, sir.”

  “Commander? I’m heading back to the ship now. I’d planned to wait so that I could tell everyone face to face. There doesn’t seem like much point now. We’ve run out of time. Find out what you can, but we’ll need to leave the Crimson soon.”

  McGlashan didn’t answer at once and Duggan was sure she’d guessed the implications of what he’d said. “Understood. See you when you get here, sir.”

  The lift ride took a few minutes, though it felt much longer. A voice came from a tiny wall speaker to announce the arrival at Hangar Bay One and Duggan stepped out into the vast, open space. The Crimson was still there, low, sleek and menacing in the artificial light of the Juniper’s interior. Duggan could see pocks and scalding across the rear of the vessel where it had taken hits from the Ghast plasma launchers. There were areas of a darker grey, which he recognized as damage from the Cadaveron’s beam weapon. The bay was much busier than Duggan had ever seen it, with groups of men and women clumped everywhere, dressed in a variety of uniforms. The area around the Crimson’s boarding ramp was crowded and there was a lot of shouting coming from the middle. Duggan pushed his way through, uncaring if he ruffled any feathers as he did so. Sergeant Ortiz was standing at the bottom of the ramp, accompanied by Turner, Jackson and Nelson. They held their gauss rifles threateningly and Ortiz was talking loudly to someone. Duggan elbowed his way to the front.

  “Captain Duggan!” she said, giving him a salute. She looked unruffled.

  “What seems to be the trouble, Sergeant?”

  “Sir, these people are attempting to board the Crimson. We have not been told that they are permitted to enter, therefore I have been obliged to assume that they have no authority to do so. Not until the captain of this vessel advises otherwise.”

  “Thank you, Sergeant, you’ve done the right thing. I’ll handle this.”

  “Aye, sir!”

  Duggan turned to face the tall man who had been shouting the loudest at Sergeant Ortiz. He had an off-white uniform and a badge that indicated he was one of the Juniper’s leading engineers. The man opened his mouth to speak, but Duggan cut him off with a hard stare.

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m Engineering Captain Newt Miller, deputy head of engineering on the Juniper. We’ve got a lot to do, Captain and your soldiers are preventing us from getting on with it.”

  “These soldiers are doing their duty, Captain Miller, as I’m sure you’re aware. If they had let you board without direct orders from me, they would have been open to a court martial. This is a vessel of war and you are in no position to order them to stand aside.”

  Miller swallowed, but didn’t lower his gaze. When he spoke, his voice was conciliatory. “Captain, I’ve been instructed to get working on this spacecraft as soon as possible. I have nearly a thousand men ready to begin.”

  Duggan doubted that Miller knew any more than he did about the secrets of the Crimson. The man had a job to do and he just wanted to get on with it. “To begin on what, exactly, Captain Miller?”

  Miller hesitated as he considered whether or not Duggan had any right to know. “We’re to set up an interface between the ship and the Juniper to expedite an extraction of data. Some of the vessel is to be dismantled in preparation for delivery to New Earth. What they plan to do with the pieces when they get there, I have no idea. After that, I believe we’re to fit replacement engines and upgrade the weapons systems.”

  Duggan outranked Miller, but he wasn’t in a good position to instruct the man to stand down. Nor did he have any justification to do so, given that he’d been technically removed from command of the Crimson. Before the conversation could progress to its inevitable conclusion, the blue-white light in the hangar bay turned abruptly to a deep, sickly red. At the same time, a siren began to wail. Captain Miller and his technical leads looked about them in confusion.

  The impersonal, androgynous tones of one of the Juniper’s AIs spoke calmly over the blaring siren. “All personnel to station, all personnel to station. Attack imminent. Repeat: all personnel to station, all personnel to station.”

  There was admirable purpose amongst the hundreds of men and women and Duggan could see them hurrying off towards the many exits from the hangar bay. Captain Miller turned away and started giving out instructions to the people next to him.

  Duggan forced open a channel to the Crimson’s bridge. “Commander, what’s happening?”

  “The Juniper’s sensors have picked up a Ghast Cadaveron breaking out of light speed, sir. Right at the extremes of detection range.” She swore. “Make that two Cadaverons. Looks like they’ve got lucky and found us.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The crowd at the end of the boarding ramp had almost dispersed. Duggan turned to Sergeant Ortiz. “Get onboard and fast!”

  She didn’t need telling twice and ran up the ramp, with the other three soldiers close behind. Duggan followed at once and shouted through an order for the ship to be sealed. There was a hiss as the ramp began to close, cutting out the red light from outside and leaving Duggan to race along the dimly-lit corridors of the spacecraft. Before he was halfway to the bridge, he felt the familiar vibration of the Crimson’s engines coming online.

  When he arrived, he found McGlashan, Chainer and Breeze at their stations, each of them looking ready for action. There was no sign of Monsey.

  “What’re your orders, sir?” McGlashan asked at once.

  “We need to defend the Juniper. It’s too valuable to lose.”

  “Sub-lights are ready to rock and roll, sir,” said Breeze.

  “Lieutenant Chainer, get us clearance to leave. The Deeper and Delectable can’t beat two Cadaverons.”

  “On it.”

  “Find out what’s in Hangar Bay Two. We’ll need everything we can muster.”

  “I already checked,” said McGlashan. “One Gunner. The ES Brawler.”

  “There’s no captain assigned to it. That’s the ship I’m meant to command.”

  “They must have found someone, sir. From what I can tell, the Brawler’s in the process of leaving its bay.”

  “Sir, the Juniper’s denying our request to leave,” said Chainer.

  “For what reason?”

  “It says that you’re no longer in command of the Crimson and the ship has been placed under quarantine.”

  “Ask it again. Make it clear we have sufficient firepower to provide worthwhile assistance to the ships already out there.”

  “Okay, I’m trying.”

  “Tell the stubborn bastard that it has insufficient authority to approve its own inevitable destruction.”

  McGlashan laughed. “Like that’s going to work.”

  “It’s come back with a negative again. Doesn’t look like we’re going anywhere soon.”

  “Pa
tch me through to Admiral Teron.”

  “His channel is blocked, sir.”

  “All warships above Vincent class can override channel blocking. I’ll bet the Crimson could get through to the Confederation Council weekly congress meeting if it wanted. Get me the Admiral.”

  “Yes, sir. Here we go. Got him.”

  A voice crackled through to Duggan’s earpiece. It was Admiral Teron - he sounded surprised at the interruption. There were other voices in the background to suggest he was attending an emergency meeting.

  “Who is this? What are you doing?”

  “Duggan, sir. You need to overrule the Juniper’s AI so that the Crimson can assist the Deeper and Delectable.”

  “Captain Duggan, I can’t allow that vessel to leave. I’ll be strung up if it gets destroyed.”

  “We can’t do anything sitting in the hangar, sir. Two Anderlechts don’t stand a chance against those Cadaverons. I know the Juniper packs a punch, but it’s an easy target.”

  Teron paused before he spoke again. “There’s only the Deeper out there, Captain Duggan. The Delectable’s been ordered elsewhere. Very well. Give me a moment and I’ll authorise your departure.”

  It happened quickly. “The Juniper’s provided approval, sir,” said Chainer. “It won’t open the doors until the hangar’s cleared. From what I can see on the external sensors, it looks as if that won’t be too long.”

  Teron spoke again. “Captain Duggan, will that be all? My attention is needed here.”

  Duggan wasn’t done yet. “Sir, the unlock codes for the Crimson’s weapons systems, please.”

  “I am not permitted to give you those.”

  “You know what we’re carrying.”

  “Of course I know!”

  “The codes please. If it’ll give us a fighting chance, you owe it to us to provide those codes.”

  “I only have the authorisation for the disruptors, Captain.” He sighed audibly. “Very well. I’ll transmit the unlock codes. They should come online in the next few minutes.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “I’ll have your balls for this, Duggan.”

  Duggan smiled. “I’m sure you will, sir.”

  “Good luck out there. We don’t want to lose the Juniper. The Corps has big plans for it.” Teron’s concern sounded far more for the orbital than for his own life.

  Duggan closed the connection. “Have you received anything?” he asked McGlashan. The others on the bridge had only been party to Duggan’s half of the conversation with Teron. They’d gathered enough that they didn’t need to ask for details.

  McGlashan didn’t look up from her console. “We’ve got something coming through now.” She raised an eyebrow. “The unlock codes are fourteen trillion characters in length. There are thirty of them in total. No wonder Monsey was taking so long to crack them.”

  “Let me know when we have access to the disruptors.”

  “Will do, sir. These are the same disruptors as the Ghasts have been using against us?”

  “I hope so, Commander.”

  “Captain, the hangar doors are opening.”

  Duggan reached for the control bars and pulled gently back. It already felt completely natural and his instrumentation told him that the Crimson was hovering thirty feet above the hangar floor. The nose of the ship was pointing away from the doors and it would take precious seconds to rotate it in order to fly out forwards.

  “I came out of a cave backwards, this hangar should be easy,” he muttered. The pilot’s viewscreen showed the floor of Hangar Bay One speeding by underneath the spacecraft. Moments later, the cold alloy was replaced by the unending blackness of space, against which the icy blue of Kryptes-9 was sharply contrasted. When the Crimson had completely emerged, Duggan wrenched hard on the controls to spin it around, simultaneously feeding in enough power to thrust the craft away from the Juniper. The tail of the warship came within a hundred metres of the orbital’s wall. The AI would be pissed again. Duggan didn’t care – there were more important things to be concerned with.

  “The gravity drive repairs were completed while we were docked,” said Breeze. “They’re at one hundred percent.”

  “I’ll have a picture for you in a moment, sir,” said Chainer. “Right, got them. The first enemy vessel is engaged with the Deeper. Looks as if they’re trying to lure the enemy away to the other side of Kryptes-9. I can’t tell if it’s working or not. The Brawler’s moving to intercept.”

  “What about the second Cadaveron?”

  “Heading straight for the Juniper. Four hundred thousand klicks and closing.”

  “Let’s cut them off,” said Duggan. He pushed the gravity drive to maximum output and the giddiness came. It lasted a second or two until the life support negated the effects of the acceleration.

  “I’m getting a fission signature, sir,” Breeze announced. “An absolutely enormous one.”

  “Another Oblivion?” asked Duggan sharply.

  “Not this time. It’s coming from the Juniper. They’re getting ready to hit lightspeed.”

  Duggan shook his head at his own stupidity. Naturally the orbital wasn’t going to hang around. Even if the Ghast attack was repulsed, the enemy would have certainly relayed the Juniper’s position on to the rest of their fleet. There’d be twenty Ghast warships heading at full lightspeed towards their location already.

  “Any idea how long?” he asked.

  “I’m sorry, sir – I have no idea. It’ll be nothing like as quickly as a warship can do it. I mean, have you seen the size of the thing?” Breeze sounded breathless with excitement.

  “The disruptors are online, sir! We’re carrying two of them!”

  “Give me the details, Commander.”

  “Range almost two hundred and fifty thousand klicks. They’ll pull juice from the fission engines. The power draw is huge.”

  “Can we use them yet?”

  “No, sir. Their status tells me they’re still warming up. They’ll be ready in less than a minute.”

  “If they draw from the fission engines, that must be why the Ghasts haven’t been firing them at will,” said Breeze, studying the disruptor feeds. “My top of the head calculation tells me the Detriment couldn’t provide enough power to use the disruptors at anything more than ten or fifteen thousand klicks.”

  “Two hundred and fifty thousand klicks, Commander? That’s far more than the range of the newest Lambda prototypes. What’s the longest range we’ve taken a hit from a Ghast disruptor?”

  “One hundred and thirty-two thousand klicks from that last Cadaveron we escaped.”

  “Incoming enemy warship at three hundred and forty thousand klicks,” said Chainer.

  “Can you give me anything on the ES Deeper’s situation, Lieutenant?”

  “Negative, sir. They’ve gone behind Kryptes-9. We’d pick up a fission signature. Anything else? Not a hope.”

  “Want me to hit the bastards as soon as the disruptors are ready?” asked McGlashan.

  “Hold till I say.”

  “Aye, sir.” She looked disappointed.

  “Three hundred thousand klicks.”

  “Fifteen seconds for the disruptors.”

  “Two hundred and sixty thousand klicks.”

  “Disruptors ready when you say the word, sir.”

  “Fire as soon as they come in range, Commander.”

  “They’ve launched something, sir,” said Chainer.

  “Firing the disruptors.”

  The lights on the bridge dimmed low. There was a high-pitched whine, almost beyond the scope of hearing. A thumping sound shook the entire hull of the spacecraft.

  “Fission engines down to ten percent. Enemy vessel no longer emitting positrons,” said Breeze. “We just used enough power to light the biggest city on New Earth for a month!”

  “Enemy missile on its way. At our combined speed it’s closing at six thousand klicks per second. I’m picking up the same readings as I got from the missile the Oblivion sent afte
r us,” said Chainer.

  Duggan frowned. “They can’t target us from so far out, can they? Neither our missiles or theirs will target until they’re within a range threshold.”

  “Another piece of new tech for us to deal with,” said McGlashan. “This could be a game-changer if they can launch from so far.”

  “We’re still closing with the enemy vessel at three thousand klicks per second, sir,” said Chainer.

  “We’ll be in Lambda range in approximately thirty seconds,” said McGlashan.

  “Fission drive at twenty percent. Climbing fast.”

  “Their missile will reach us in a little over twenty seconds.”

  “Recommend evasive manoeuvres, sir,” said McGlashan. “The Bulwarks aren’t targeting again.”

  “We don’t know the range of that missile, Commander. It might follow us across half the galaxy. We’ve only got a minute before the Cadaveron’s power comes back.”

  “Fission drives at twenty-eight percent.”

  “Target that missile, Commander. Hit it with the disruptors.”

  “We’ve not got the power to hit it from far out, sir.”

  “Fire them, Commander. Do it soon.”

  “Five seconds to impact.”

  “Firing disruptors.”

  The whining sound was repeated and the walls of the bridge shuddered at the outpouring of energy. Duggan hauled the Crimson away to one side and off the path of the inbound missile.

  Chainer blew out a lungful of pent-up air and McGlashan clenched her fist. “Got it,” she said.

  “Fission engines at three percent and climbing.”

  “The enemy missile has gone by, sir,” said Chainer. “Negative strike.”

  “I want every Lambda locked onto that Cadaveron as soon as you’re able, Commander. Give those bastards hell.”

  Less than twenty seconds later, the combined velocities of the two ships brought the Cadaveron into Lambda range.

  “Twelve clusters away, awaiting reload,” said McGlashan.

  “Bringing us round. Give them the other side.”

  “Remaining six clusters have launched sir.”

  “Fire again when ready,” Duggan said, altering the trajectory of the spaceship in order that the first twelve clusters could launch again as soon as they were ready.