Steele's Demon Star

by Dietmar Wehr

  Steele was not happy about having to risk a shuttle and crew to get close enough for a good look. NavComp’s numbers said the shuttle had enough EG thrust to offset the black hole’s gravity, but the margin of safety was not significant. A missile boat would have been ideal, but the Diamond K no longer had any. Steele’s call for volunteers to pilot the shuttle produced no volunteers and Steele wasn’t surprised considering what happened to Murphy and Kasparov. Lavrov flat out refused to send one of his shuttles. That left Steele with only one choice. He would pilot the shuttle himself without having a co-pilot. Lavrov tried to talk him out of it but to no avail. As a safety precaution, Vanquisher would hold position below the derelict. If the shuttle was unable to maintain its distance from the black hole, Steele should be able to maneuver it for a docking with the heavy cruiser.

  Steele arrived at the hangar bay wearing his pressure suit and found Chilton waiting for him by the shuttle entrance.

  “Don’t get too comfortable in the Command Chair, XO. I’ll be back before you know it,” said Steele with what he hoped was a relaxed tone.

  Chilton smiled. “Please do, Skipper. I don’t want to have to tell Admiral Hara that we lost you in the black hole.”

  Steele laughed. “No. I’ll try to spare you that ordeal. Is everything ready?

  “Yes, Skipper.”

  “Then let’s do this.”

  With the shuttle buttoned up and Steele strapped in the pilot’s seat, the shuttle was lowered into a docking bay that was still airtight, and the internal doors closed to separate it from the hangar bay. When the air was evacuated, the outside doors slid open, and a docking arm lowered the shuttle until it was entirely outside the ship. With the shuttle now inside the gravity hill effect caused by the EG drive, the docking arm was the only thing holding it in position. As soon as Steele had completed his pre-undock checklist, he ordered the docking arm to release the shuttle which began to move slowly downward toward the derelict and the black hole. As the shuttle moved further away from Diamond K, its velocity began to increase. Steele had already programmed the autopilot to power up the shuttle’s EG drive as soon as the velocity reached the maximum level of 100 meters per second that he wanted. The trip over to the derelict would take just under 18 minutes.

  With less than five kilometers to go, Steele disengaged the autopilot and fed more power to the drive to slow its approach velocity. When the shuttle was only 100 meters away, he brought the shuttle to a stop. The shuttle’s external cameras were on, and everything they saw was being transmitted back to Diamond K along with Steele’s audio transmissions.

  “I’m turning on the external lights,” said Steele. The dark mass that filled his field of view suddenly took on distinct shapes along with some color. Steele found the alien ship to be somewhat intimidating.

  “Okay, K, as you can see, the overall shape of the hull from this angle appears to be wide and flat. The race that built this obviously didn’t care if their paint job made their ships easier to detect visually. The pattern reminds me of how North American aboriginal peoples used to apply war paint to their faces before going into battle. I’m going to move up the long axis then around to the other side and back down. Stand by.”

  The shuttle began to move forward slowly. Because the derelict was slowly tumbling around its long axis, Steele and the cameras were able to see it from different angles.

  “I think I see what looks like a weapons turret. Are you seeing this, K?” asked Steele.

  “We see it, Skipper,” said Chilton. “If that’s some kind of laser, it’s an awfully big one.”

  Steele felt the same way but kept his thoughts to himself. He was actually looking for something else, and he eventually found it. “See those smaller ovals? I’ll bet you anything you want that those are either missile tubes or launch tubes for drones. This is clearly a warship. Haven’t seen any sign of a docking hatch yet. Not that I would try to dock with it if I did. That tumble is just fast enough to make any docking attempt very difficult, and it’s likely that the shuttle’s docking collar wouldn’t form a tight seal. I’m coming up to what I think is the ship’s bow.”

  Steele manually steered the shuttle so that it cut across the derelict’s blunt bow. He now had a better idea of the derelict’s overall shape which resembled that of an arrowhead with the point cut off. Compared to the long, flattened cylinder shapes of most human warships, the derelict’s design was less functional but more aesthetically pleasing to look at. The race that built it either didn’t care if they sacrificed function to beauty or they did it to impress potential enemies. Look, our ships are so powerful that we don’t need to care if they’re not as efficiently designed as they could be! It was a disquieting thought. As the derelict continued to tumble, Steele thought he saw what could have been a docking hatch located in the center of the bow. It was also slowly rotating but otherwise holding position. If he could get the shuttle to match its rotation, he could at least try to use the shuttle’s docking collar to attach magnetically to the derelict’s hull and attempt to create a tight seal although that wasn’t absolutely necessary. He could still try to board the derelict while wearing a spacesuit and would do so even with a tight seal, to protect against alien micro-organisms. He brought the shuttle’s forward motion to a stop.

  “That looks like a docking hatch to me. I’m going to try to dock with it. Stand by, K.”

  He realized how rusty his shuttle piloting skills were while moving the shuttle to within one meter of the derelict then trying to exactly match its rate of tumble.

  “I’m in position. Extending the docking collar now…Contact! The magnetic grapples are holding, but the seal isn’t airtight. I’ll be out of contact for a minute or two while I get the spacesuit on. Stand by.”

  It had taken more than a couple of minutes by the time Steele was suited up and ready to depressurize the shuttle’s rear compartment where the docking collar was.

  “Sorry I took so long. Are you still receiving me, K?”

  “Loud and clear, Skipper,” said Chilton.

  “I’m ready to open the hatch. Here we go.”

  The shuttle hatch slid back to reveal the dark metal of the derelict’s hull. Steele took a close look at what he was now sure was an access hatch. Unlike the hatches of human ships, which were generally rectangular with rounded corners, this hatch was almost a perfect oval. The reason why the seal wasn’t airtight was that the oval was long enough to overlap the edge of the docking collar where the raised rim of the oval was preventing the collar at each end from sitting flush against the surrounding metal.

  “I see a small, square panel to one side that has to be the control mechanism to open the hatch. Can’t think of what else it could be. I’m going to try to activate it…somehow.”

  He reached forward to touch the panel, which revealed a thin covering of dust. After brushing most of the dust off with his gloved hand, he saw that there was the outline of a design composed of a line that overlapped itself several times. He wondered if it was a symbol of the alien race like the seven-pointed star was for the Hereditary Republic of Caledonia, or something else. His heart almost skipped a beat, when a green and red light appeared in the panel. Each light was at the end of the curving line. On an impulse, he touched the panel at the beginning of the line close to the green light and traced along the line until his finger reached the red light. Both lights went out, and the oval hatch door began to slide open slowly.

  “Aha! You activate the door by tracing the outline of the curving line with a finger. The hatch is now open, but there’s not much light inside. The fact that the hatch mechanism is still working proves that this derelict still has some power. I’m going inside. If the aliens designed their ship the way we do, the hatch door will automatically close once I’m inside. If you lose communications with me, don’t panic. I’ll take a quick look around and come back in about ten, fifteen minutes or so. Ah, let’s make that twenty minutes. I’m entering now.”

  As he floated in
to the alien vessel, he activated the magnets in his boots and hoped that he was now walking on the deck and not the ceiling. The room he was in was on the large side if it was intended to function as an airlock. When the light spilling in from the open shuttle hatch began to fade rapidly, Steele turned around to see the oval hatch closing again just as he had expected.

  “Can you still hear me, K?” There was no response. “Apparently not,” he said in a low voice.

  “External atmospheric pressure rising,” said the electronic voice of the suit’s environmental computer. He checked the readout on his left arm. The composition of the gases now entering the chamber was quite similar to normal air, but Steele had no intention of opening his helmet’s faceplate to take a breath. His suit had plenty of air and breathing the alien atmosphere just for the hell of it with its attendant risk of alien micro-organisms did not tempt him at all. When the pressure stabilized, an inner oval door slid open. On the other side was a long corridor with minimal light coming from panels along the bottoms of the corridor walls. After staring at the scene for a few seconds, Steele still wasn’t sure if he was using the deck or the ceiling to stand on.

  He was about halfway down the corridor when he was finally able to answer that question. There was an oval opening to his right, leading to another room and when he aimed his wrist flashlight into the room, he saw unmistakeable signs of consoles with chairs that proved that he was standing on the deck and not on the ceiling. A quick look inside the room showed more alien devices but no aliens. At the end of the corridor were two more corridors running off to either side. He chose the right side and started down it. He could see five more open ovals, three on one side and two on the other. It was the third opening where he found the first alien body. The room was obviously the alien’s personal quarters with a bed, desk, chairs, wall decorations, and a few small sculptures here and there. The alien was slumped over the desk. Steele almost gagged when his wrist light showed how much the face and hands of the humanoid alien had decomposed. It took all his willpower to keep from throwing up inside his spacesuit helmet. When he was sure his stomach was under control, he looked around for anything that he could take back which might contain information on this alien race but didn’t see anything. A check of his chronometer showed that his 20 minutes was already half up. After making sure that his suit’s external video camera was on and recording everything, he checked the rest of the openings in the corridor. Three more of them contained bodies, the last of which was female. Steele decided he’d seen enough even if he did have more time left.

  He quickly made his way back to the airlock. After tracing the same pattern on the inner panel, the inside hatch closed, the air was evacuated, and the outer hatch opened. It was a relief to step into the docking collar and then into the shuttle.

  “Steele to Diamond K. I’m back aboard the shuttle. I’ve seen enough. Can you patch me through to Captain Lavrov?”

  “Good to hear your voice again, Skipper,” said a relieved Chilton. “We have the connection with Vanquisher and Captain Lavrov is on the line.”

  “Captain, I don’t see what else we can learn with the limited resources the K has on board. I’m going to take her back to Caledonia as soon as I’m back aboard. Your ship’s services will no longer be required. Thanks for watching our back. You can let Admiral Hara know that I found extremely decomposed alien bodies and that I’ll be suggesting that a full forensic retrieval and salvage team be sent back. Over.”

  There was a pause as Lavrov processed what he had just heard. “I’ll pass that on to her, Captain Steele. I’ll miss our chess games. I believe the score is three to two in my favor, so maybe this is a good time to stop. Over.”

  Steele chuckled as he watched the docking collar retract in preparation for closing the shuttle hatch. “That’s funny. I thought it was three to two in my favor. Give the Admiral my regards, Captain. Steele out.” He waited for the telltale click to confirm that his connection to Vanquisher was gone. “Still there, XO?”

  “Still on the line, Skipper.”

  “Good. I’ve almost got the shuttle buttoned up, and then I want you to arrange to bring the shuttle aboard remotely. Flying her manually with my suit still on would be too tricky, and I don’t want to take it off until the suit’s exterior has been decontaminated as soon as I exit the shuttle. I know we didn’t plan for this and in hindsight, we should have. The cold and radiation during a brief spacewalk should do the trick as far as killing any micro-organisms on the suit’s exterior. Make the necessary arrangements.”

  “Understood. We’re standing by, Skipper.”

  “Fine. Docking collar has retracted, and I’m closing the shuttle hatch. You can initiate remote control now, XO.”

  “Yes, sir. Initiating remote flight control now. We’ll have the shuttle back on board in…seven and a half minutes. Vanquisher is moving off now, Skipper.”

  “Very good. I’ll stand by the shuttle hatch to minimize any contamination of the shuttle’s interior. It’ll have to be decontaminated too as soon as we get back to Caledonia since we don’t have the necessary equipment on board.”

  After a pause that lasted almost a full minute, Chilton spoke in a low voice. “What was it like inside there, Skipper?”

  Steele shrugged even though he knew the XO couldn’t see him. “Nothing surprising about the ship itself from what little I could see but the bodies…I wasn’t prepared for the condition of the bodies. You’ll be able to see for yourself from the suit’s recordings.”

  “Can I ask…how alien are they?”

  “Hard to tell exactly but generally speaking, they’re humanoid, two arms, two legs, one head, roughly the same height as humans. Other than that, I can’t say.”

  “Understood. The shuttle is halfway back now. I’ll let you know when we’re about to bring you aboard.”

  Steele concentrated on his breathing and tried not to remember how grotesque the corpses had looked as he waited. He hoped his precautions would be enough to prevent any alien micro-organism from spreading to the crew. If those bodies had been decomposing for weeks or months, the air in the ship could be full of air-borne bacteria or viruses. If he’d been thinking clearly, he would have kept the shuttle a few meters away from the derelict and spacewalked over to it and back without the radiation shielding that the docking collar provided. A minute or so of exposure to cosmic rays and extreme cold during the jump from derelict to shuttle would have been an excellent first step in the decontamination process.

  “Coming up on the hangar bay, Skipper. Thirty seconds to touchdown.”

  “Understood.”

  Steele felt the vibration of the shuttle settling down on the hanger bay’s deck through his suit’s boots. The shuttle’s hatch opened with no one in sight. He nodded his approval. Keeping the crew away from him while he walked over to the small airlock within the hangar bay was an excellent precaution. The XO was undoubtedly watching from the Bridge.

  “Close the hatch behind me and keep that shuttle sealed until we reach Caledonia, XO,” said Steele as he stepped down to the deck and began to quickly walk over to the airlock.

  “Yes, sir. Don’t forget to clip your safety line to the ship before you step outside, Skipper.”

  “I won’t.”

  Steele shuddered at the thought of what could happen if he didn’t take the XO’s advice. With the ship still using its EG drive at moderate power levels to hold position against the black hole’s gravitational pull, failure to hook himself to the ship risked being pulled away from the ship by its own gravity field. As it turned out, the spacewalk was uneventful.

  An hour later, with the ship on its way to the wormhole leading to the indirect route back to Caledonia, Steele was finally able to relax in his quarters. He was starting to get tired and wondered if he’d be able to sleep without nightmares or even at all.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Diamond K arrived at the New Troy super-giant star now officially designated as AG47, to find two HRCN d
estroyers on station near the only two wormholes that any merchant was likely to use. Steele also saw the ID of a Stellar Alliance-registered merchant that appeared to be returning to S.A. space from Hollerman Imperium territory. With the two destroyers far beyond effective comlaser range, Steele didn’t bother sending a message to them. His ship had its transponder on, and they would recognize it by the time the light-speed signals reached them. As the Diamond K accelerated to FTL transition velocity, Steele turned his thoughts again to the derelict and what he suspected Admiral DeChastelain would want him and his crew to do next.

  Captain Hanson Carew looked carefully at the main display, which was showing the tactical situation in the AG47 system. A new ship had just emerged from the wormhole that supposedly led to unexplored space.

  “That’s not a warship,” said Carew to his Helm Officer who had pointed it out to his Captain. “But it is registered under the HRC. Check our database, Jon.”

  “Hm, she’s a Mercury-class freighter owned by Hermes-Tyche Company, a privately-owned outfit. Ah, there’s a special notation for this ship. Head Office instructed all our ships to keep an eye out for this Diamond K. She and some Paradyne warships had a, let’s call it a difference of opinion and Paradyne ended up getting a bloody nose.” The HO looked back at Carew. “The final entry says there are unconfirmed reports that she was contracted to do wormhole surveys by the HRCN. I would say that rumor has now been confirmed, eh Skipper?”