by Damon Alan
“Give me a moment, Captain, sensors are intermittent.”
“Now, Mr. Harmeen. This is no time to fail me.”
“Got it. By the gods, the atmosphere of Fandama literally exploded. It blasted away from the moon, superheated. The rock surface below is still thousands of degrees, and is boiling away into space. We're still in the plasma cloud created by the atmosphere, but it cooled quickly enough to be harmless now.”
“How can that be?”
Harmeen looked at her blankly. “I don’t know. We can’t do anything like it, Captain.”
Sarah’s fists clenched, and she growled. “Merik.” She breathed deep, gathering her senses. “Status of the ship?”
“Captain, maybe this should wait until the doctor...”
Sarah yelled. “I don't have time for the doctor to...” She paused, taking control of her pain. “Sorry Mr. Harmeen, that was undeserved. We don't have time. I heard Seto call for medical help. In the meantime, fill me in.”
“Systems are down across the ship, the plasma that struck us was.. well, it’s as if we bathed in a star. The plasma ablated our armor, but most of it held. We have open compartments along the side that faced Fandama. Our armor isn’t perfect, it wasn’t designed for this.”
“How’d she do this?”
Harmeen gasped. “Galaxies, Captain! Take a look at Ember.” Harmeen put an image of the gas giant on the screen. The face of the planet had a huge depression that was growing. The planet was collapsing in on itself.
Sarah stared at the screen in disbelief, watching the gas giant’s roiling atmosphere. “What the? How can that fucking be?”
“The surface is supercooled, on a scale I can't imagine. The cooled material is sinking toward the planet's core. I'm not sure what the interim effects will be. Masses are unchanged, so the orbits of Ember’s moons will remain stable. I’m not sure what Ember will look like when this is done. Without thermal pressure to keep the planet stable, it’s collapsing. The interior will definitely heat up from the pressure. We might see sporadic fusion before friction makes the planet rebound.”
“Will the planet become a star?”
Harmeen shook his head. “No, if fusion ignites, thermal pressure will blow out any ignition. The planet doesn’t have enough mass to sustain it for long. But the surface temperature of Jalai may increase. I don’t know how much.”
“Say a prayer, Mr. Harmeen. It’s time.”
“Will do—” An alarm sounded, and Harmeen checked his panels. “Fuck us…”
Sarah had never heard Harmeen be profane.
He turned to look at her. She’d never seen the frantic look on his face either. “We're losing containment of the singularity. Part of the drive core housing was sheared away by the plasma cloud.”
Sarah tossed her one good hand upward in resignation, then took a breath. “Can we save it?”
“I don't think so, there is a lot of internal damage to the magnetic containment system.”
A decision was upon her. Either eject it or risk the Stennis being consumed. “Eject it,” Sarah ordered.
“I can't guarantee it will follow the ejection corridor, Captain.”
“I'm listening for options, Mr. Harmeen, do you have one?”
“No... ejecting now.”
The containment system for the singularity at the heart of the Michael Stennis was grabbed by magnetic forces of unimaginable power and hurled outward from the vessel. Emergency thrusters pushed the critically damaged ship in the opposite direction. The FTL core passed safely into space, and away from the two stricken ships. The ship groaned as gravitational stresses twisted his frame.
Sarah hung on to the webbing at her command station with her good arm, then let go as the Stennis returned to zero gravity.
“On screen,” Sarah ordered.
Harmeen put the core on the main display. The lattice which contained the Schwarzchild-Kerr gravitational lenses bent as the structure became unbalanced, then began to collapse inward. Within moments the entire structure was pulled within the event horizon. There was no visible energy release, no flash of light, but the power of the singularity was undeniable.
Sarah stared in awe. “What's the path?”
“The computer predicts Ember will slingshot it out of the Oasis system,” Harmeen said.
“Good, that's the best possible outcome.” Sarah grasped Harmeen's shoulder with her good arm. “Good work Lieutenant Harmeen. We're not going anywhere FTL anyway. And now Merik won't be able to see us anymore. Check the Stennis out and see if we can move him to a safer spot.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Sarah pushed herself over to Seto, who was still trying to raise the Schein.
“Seto, order my shuttle readied.”
“Are you going to the Schein, Captain?” the comm officer asked.
“No. I'm going to kill Merik. You're my acting first officer. You’re in charge until I get back. If I don't get back, hand the fleet over to the highest remaining senior officer.”
Harmeen broke in. “Captain, you're needed here. We have to get the Stennis back on his feet.”
“Lieutenant, did you know Merik could hit us halfway across the Ember moon system?”
“No.”
“Are you willing to risk that she's done, or incapable of hitting us again?”
Harmeen's shoulders lowered in resignation. “No, ma'am.”
“Then I'm going to go kill her. Seto has the conn. Tell Dr. Jannis I'm coming to her in the medbay.”
A medic spent half an hour patching Sarah's broken shoulder, then administering a time release pain killer on Sarah's orders. Sarah needed to function for a few days before she could rest. The medic fitted her with a sling.
Sarah left the medbay, straight to her ordinance officer. She burst into his office, catching him by surprise.
“Lieutenant Commander, I need to speak to you.”
The officer dropped his work. “What is it, Captain?”
“Sit down, it's informal, but classified. You're not to share anything that we discuss, other than to have my orders complied with.”
“Yes sir,” he replied.
“I want your largest warhead loaded on my ready shuttle. I'll depart in two hours. What's the largest warhead the Stennis has left?”
“Three megatons, Captain, we have six of them.”
“Load one up. I want it set to detonate with a hand detonator.”
The ordinance officer laughed uncomfortably. “That's not how they work, Captain. You don't remote control three megatons.”
“It is now. Set one up I can trigger by hand. You have two hours.
The officer looked hesitant.
Sarah put on her command face. “This is the third order in a few minutes I have had questioned. It will be the last or I will start putting people in the brig. Do I have a problem here?”
“No captain, no problem, but I don't think you understand.”
Sarah's arm surged with pain, and she was frustrated her officer wasn't cooperating. She relented, letting him speak. “Tell me what I don't understand.”
“When this bomb goes, if you can see it, you go too.”
“Some events call for desperate measures.” Sarah looked the officer flat in the eye, delivering her command. “Put the bomb on my shuttle with a hand activated detonator. That is a direct order.”
The intensity of her stare forced him to look away in surrender. “Aye, Captain.”
* * *
Sarah waited at her shuttle for the bomb to be loaded. A small AI walker lifted it up and into the shuttle. The package wasn’t very big considering it represented twelve point six petajoules of explosive force.
She sat on the back ramp to rest and think a moment. Thea Jannis stormed into the shuttlebay with a couple of medics, including the one who fixed Sarah's arm.
“You here to check on my arm, doctor?” Sarah smiled at the medic. “Your fill-in did a great job.”
Thea's eyes narrowed at Sarah, she didn't sp
eak to the Captain.
“Put those cases on the shuttle, boys,” she said to the medics.
Sarah stood up and stepped in front of the medics. “Don't even think about it.” Her voice was deep and angry.
The medics stopped, frozen in their tracks.
Dr. Jannis, in turn, stepped immediately in front of Sarah. “I'm done thinking about it, Sarah Dayson, now I'm acting.” She looked over her shoulder at her medics. “Put that those on board, or I'll have you cleaning beakers for the rest of your lives.”
The two young men rushed the packages onto the shuttle. Sarah didn't stop them. Instead, she stepped even closer to Dr. Jannis, pushing well into the doctor's personal space. “Have you forgotten who is the captain here?”
“No, of course not. But I have entered in my log that I think you're mentally unfit for command. I can erase that entry if you let me accompany you, or I can have you relieved of command. I believe you already appointed Lieutenant Seto as acting first officer?”
Sarah stared at the doctor, battling wills to see if the doctor would break. Sarah glared in anger, then broke. “Get on board.”
“Let me take a look at that arm first. It should be rested, not taken into battle. But I'll see what I can do about making it work for a while.”
Dr. Jannis examined the arm and shoulder, using a portable scanner to image the rapidly building bone concrete.
“It looks good. Should hurt like squirting a baby, but that’ll keep you focused.”
“The least of my pains. Have we become friends? Why are you coming with me?”
“We're not friends.” Dr. Jannis poked the healing arm.
“Ouch! Shit!”
“See, would a friend do that?” Dr. Jannis stepped away from Sarah and climbed the ramp into the shuttle. She looked into the large crate sitting in the middle of the shuttle floor. “You really going to use that?”
Sarah tapped her sidearm. “This if I can, but that if I have to.”
Dr. Jannis pointed to the cases she'd had her medics load. “I have some toys I took the liberty of asking engineering to get ready when I wanted you to capture Merik instead of killing her. This has better range than your pistol, and smart munitions. But I figure if we're close enough to Merik to use this we're dead anyway, so we'll have to see.”
“Show me.” Sarah winced in pain, which the doctor ignored.
Dr. Jannis pointed at one of the cases. “This is a rail rifle.”
Sarah snorted. “Impractical, what do you get, three shots before the power pack is down?”
“The engineers say you might get four. This shoots the neutering fléchettes, so I don't think more than three is necessary.”
“Seriously? You still want to capture her?”
“Sit down.”
Sarah sighed, but did as the doctor ordered.
“Taking Merik alive will let the other adepts know that we cannot be beaten. I've been speaking to Alarin, keeping him company, since we can’t rescue him while Merik is still out there. He says he's the second most powerful adept in his country, yet he's not anywhere near as powerful as Merik has become. He's starting to wonder if she’s right. Maybe she’s becoming a god.”
“Nonsense.”
“It's not up to me to judge this man's religion. My point is that compared to the other adepts, she's like the Stennis compared to a space tug.”
“Okay, I get your point. But all the more reason Merik needs to die.”
“I know you don’t want to let her live, but it’s the right thing to do and—”
“I want to kill her so bad I can taste it,” Sarah spit out. Tears started to flow.
Dr. Jannis closed the door of the shuttle, leaving two flustered deck hands staring at the closing door with packages in their hands.
“Nobody but me needs to see this,” Dr. Jannis said.
Sarah’s walls collapsed and pent up emotions exploded. “I want to kill her! I want to fucking kill her for what’s she’s done to my people. I want to watch life leave her eyes while I twist a knife in between her ribs to make her pay for Gilbert. The Hive are more like animals than anything, they’re almost instinctual. But Merik…” Sarah paused and her voice dropped to a growl and her hand dropped to the combat knife at her side. “Merik is a singularity of evil. If I could, I’d gut her right now.”
Dr. Jannis sighed. “I believe you. She’s hurt you. Nobody would blame you at this point. But it’s not the right thing to do. Inside you know it.”
In the privacy of the shuttle, Sarah wailed. “I’ve lost everything that ever mattered, doctor. My son Jac, my husband Vonn… my ship and who knows how many crew. And now the man who made me happy for the first time in years.”
“He wanted to fight this fight, Sarah. He died doing what he wanted to do.”
“I sent him to his death. Me. Just like I left my family before.”
“Nonsense. Nothing could save your family from the Hive, and Gilbert knew the risk of going down there. Hell, he and his tank crew are the only ones who’d seen the danger firsthand and lived. He knew what he was protecting us from.”
“I knew too.” Sarah’s hands covered her face. “I knew too.”
The doctor stepped forward and embraced Sarah. Sarah didn't turn her away. Instead she surrendered to her pain.
The doctor patted Sarah’s back. “Gilbert died for us, Sarah. He’s a hero. You didn’t send him unwillingly, he wanted to go and finish this. For you, for us, and I think maybe even for the people of this world.”
The Captain of the Seventh Fleet cried deep powerful sobs on Dr. Jannis’s shoulder. “I hurt in ways you can't imagine. I never wanted to feel this way again.”
“I know you hurt. The bitch killed Franklin, and I know how you feel.”
Sarah was quiet, she had nothing to say. Her sobs slowly subsided into uneasy breaths.
Everyone suffered during the Hive War, everyone knew pain.
Dr. Jannis held Sarah as if she were consoling a sister. “I lost my husband on a training mission. He wasn't fighting Hive, he wasn't even supposed to be there. He was filling in for another officer who was sick.”
Sarah pulled away from the doctor, took a deep shuddering breath. “What happened?”
“Weapons overloaded due to an engineering fault. Someone crossed some wires on a harness during construction was the official story. The Indignant was a new ship, and this was the trial run. A practice missile went off in the tube, blowing the ship in two. Harrison was in charge of the launchers, the control room was vaporized.”
Sarah pulled away to regain her composure. “When was this?”
“More than forty years ago now. I've felt deeply bitter about this war since, even though I know it's necessary.”
Sarah shook her head. “Not this war, the Hive war. We're fighting an entirely new thing now. The Hive are twenty thousand light-years away.”
The doctor smiled wanly. “True, but killing is killing. You've reminded me that a bit of it's necessary when people just won't get along.”
Sarah breathed deep then exhaled slowly. “I'm in control again,” she said. “We'll try to use your gun.”
Dr. Jannis’s smile grew more sincere. “Maybe we are friends. You should call me Thea. One name, local style. Dr. Jannis is too formal.”
Sarah wiped her face and smiled. She opened the blast door to the cockpit and spoke to the pilot. “Open that back door so they can finish provisioning us. Once the last box is on, we're out of here.”
“Does the pilot know this is a suicide mission?” Thea asked.
Sarah opened the blast door to the cockpit and looked at the pilot. “Do you know this is probably a one way trip?”
“I'm volunteering,” the pilot said, shrugging his shoulders.
Sarah nodded at the man. “He volunteered, like you, Thea. I wouldn't have it any other way.”
Chapter 51 - Search and Sacrifice
36 NODER 15327
The shuttle pilot landed in a clearing three kilometers fro
m a burned out farm, a small area in the woods half a kilometer from where Sergeant Hamden said Sarah would find the remains of the the assault team. They flew over carnage Merik left behind, the area was devastated and highly radioactive. Fallout was still raining down in a line east of the initial blast zone.
Sarah looked down angrily from a view port as Gilbert's final resting place passed beneath. She felt the same emotions she’d shared with Dr. Jannis try to break free again.
Not now. There will be time after.
She breathed deep breaths, and Thea gripped her shoulder. The doctor’s face showed her friendship and support.
Sarah’s jaw set. “I’m good.”
External sensors indicated the landing zone was within raised but acceptable radiation levels. The shuttle touched ground, the engines spun down as the Captain opened the rear hatch.
“Wow, planet air. I wish I was here to enjoy it.” Sarah breathed deep. The air was filled with life, the smell of an ocean not far away, and traces of burnt land.
“You and me both,” Thea replied.
“Let’s get to business.” Sarah opened the case with the rail rifle in it.
Thea knelt in the grass, running it through her fingers. “Yeah. If Merik burns us to dust, at least we'll die under a real sky.” She scanned the environment with a Geiger counter. “The good news is we're not going to cook anytime soon, the bad news is there is a bit of radioactivity in the environment, so take these. They're potassium iodide.” She handed Sarah two white pills.
Sarah gulped them down with a drink from her canteen. “Five fusion reactors went critical within a few kilometers. I’ve been radioactive before, we just need to stay functional long enough to get Merik.”
Two small cargo tracks in the floor of the shuttle rolled, unloading the nuclear weapon in the grass. The women watched as it slipped off the end of the ramp.
“It's not every day you leave a nuclear weapon laying in a field.” Sarah grabbed the remote detonator and slipped it onto her belt. “The Stennis can detonate it from space as well. If Merik gets us, the bomb should still go off.”
“Should?”
“I'm not assuming anything these days,” Sarah replied.
