John and Lt. Graham were staring at the armor in awe, but Anna saw Saskill's eyes flash with anger through the vac suit's face plate. He kept silent however and contented himself by slapping the air lock inner door release.
Andrew tapped the thruster control and corrected his trajectory. Ahead and to his left he could see Saskill, gliding slowly towards the dead hulk in front of them. The Dominance looked even more foreboding up close. Ghostly blue white flashes illuminated the exposed decks. Andrew could see sickly green coolant leaking from a ruptured conduit. It just hovered in the zero gravity, forming small clouds of green mist.
With a gentle nudge he landed on the hull. Off to his left Andrew could see Saskill do the same. They were near the rear of the ship, Andrew clicked on his radio. There was a hiss of static, the leaking radiation would play hell with their communications.
“Saskill, we should head to the nose of the ship. We might be able to find a battle record if we can access the bridge computers.”
“Provided there is anything left of the bridge,” came Saskill's static filled reply.
Andrew could hear the coldness in the other’s voice. Granted he didn't know much about shengyet emotional responses, but Saskill's face when he had seen Andrew's armor told him all he needed to. He had seen that look many times, on the faces of many different species. A mixture of hate and fear, one which was probably justified. That didn't change the fact that Andrew couldn't afford a confrontation with Saskill at the moment. They had to search the wreckage of the Dominance as fast as possible and it would go a lot faster if he didn't have to waste time incapacitating him.
“It's our best bet for finding out who did this,” said Andrew.
“The sooner we get this done the better.”
Saskill didn't reply but he tapped his thrusters and drifted towards the front of the ship, Andrew following him.
As they approached the nose of the ship, Andrew's hopes of finding anything on the bridge faded. The Alien weapon had hit the Dominance's bridge dead center. If the location of the shot had been intentional, the weapon must be incredibly accurate. Andrew pulled himself through the gaping hole. It was two and a half meters across and the edges were smooth, very smooth. This suggested the shot had melted through the hull. When he had seen the extent of the damage Andrew had assumed the weapon punched through the hull using brute force. Some sort of improved gauss cannon perhaps. If that were the case however, he would expect to see jagged torn edges. Not the mirror smooth surface his armor's gauntlets now brushed against. What could have done this? Perhaps some sort of plasma weapon, like an ion beam? But the edges were too smooth even for that.
Andrew pulled himself into what was left of the bridge. The place was a mess, tangled cables and wrecked electronics were everywhere. A pile of junk hovering in the zero gravity.
“There's something missing,” said Saskill.
Andrew nodded.
“Bodies, I don't see any.”
“Could the alien weapon have vaporized them?” Saskill asked.
Andrew shook his head.
“If it had, all this floating debris would have melted right along with them.”
Andrew clicked on his radio.
“Sergeant Williams to Twilight do you copy? Over.”
Andrew didn't like using the radios, what if someone triangulated their signal? Major Clark had insisted they use them however. There was a long hiss of static, finally Lieutenant Dolohov's voice broke through.
“Twilight here, we read you Sergeant.”
“We have made it to the bridge, it's completely destroyed,” Andrew reported.
“Any chance of locating the ship's battle record?” Major Clark's voice sounded in Andrew's helmet speaker.
“Attempting to locate Major, but there's a lot of debris floating around here.”
“Any chance it might be on one of the ship's dead crew?” Came Graham's voice.
“That's another puzzle,” Andrew replied.
“We haven't searched the rest of the ship yet, but there are no bodies on the bridge.”
There was silence for a few seconds, then Anna spoke.
“Someone must have removed them.”
“Removed them, why?” Asked Saskill.
“We can worry about that later,” interjected Major Clark.
“Keep searching the ship and report if you find anything.”
“Yes Major, Williams out.”
Andrew slowly spun in the vacuum, scanning the debris.
“Over here sergeant,” Saskill's voice came over his helmet speaker.
Andrew spun to face him. Saskill was standing next to what remained of the bridge's secondary sensor console. Half of the console was completely gone, the other half had dislodged from the wall and now hung loosely by a few cables.
“Looks pretty damaged,” said Andrew.
“I doubt we'll get anything useful from it.”
“Probably not,” agreed Saskill.
“But it's the only piece of equipment in here that isn't completely destroyed.”
Andrew glided over to the console and wrenched the remaining cables out of the wall. Grabbing one of the longer cables floating around the bridge he turned his back on Saskill.
“Here, use the cable to strap this to my thruster pack,” he said.
Saskill paused for a moment, then pushed himself towards Andrew. He heard Saskill give a snort that was half amusement, half surprise.
“What?”
“Never thought I'd see the day when a human soldier would willing expose his back to a shengyet,” replied Saskill.
Once the wreaked console had been securely attached to Andrew's thruster pack, he and Saskill made their way further into the ship. The path of destruction caused by the alien weapon continued in a straight line through the ship. The edges remained as smooth as ever. It looked like most of the damage had actually been caused by the ship's breached main reactor, not the weapon impact.
“This is amazing,” Andrew remarked.
“The accuracy of this weapon must be incredible, to cause such precise damage.”
Saskill nodded, pointing to the perfectly smooth hole in front of them.
“Even after passing through most of the ship, it still cuts through this smoothly.”
Andrew and Saskill both stared at the hole for a few seconds.
“How many more frigates do you suppose that weapon could have gone through before it stopped?” Asked Saskill.
“I'm not sure I want to know,” Andrew replied.
As they entered a corridor, Andrew could see a bright flickering light ahead.
“That's the engine room,” said Saskill pointing to the far end of the corridor.
The door at the end of the corridor had evidently slid up a few inches off the deck, and then halted. As they approached, the temperature sensor in Andrew's suit chimed a warning.
“Careful, it's hot in there,” he said.
“Stay back, I'll open it.”
Saskill considered him for a moment, then nodded.
Andrew slowly advanced on the door, the temperature mounted as he got closer. On the wall next to the door there was an emergency door release, but it had already been pulled, the door mechanism must be broken. Andrew planted his boots on the deck and clamped his armored gauntlets under the door. He pulled and the door slowly slid upwards.
The engine room was a complete mess. The alien weapon had apparently gone through the reactor housing, destabilizing the reaction. Andrew could see where streams of super heated plasma had spilled out, melting clean through the deck. What was left of the reactor resembled a melted blob. Parts of the deck and walls still glowed with heat and wreaked electrical conduits sparked with blue white energy.
Andrew slowly drifted through what was left of the engine room.
“It is obvious we will find nothing here,” Saskill remarked.
He was standing in the doorway scanning the mess before him.
Andrew nodded, then squinted at
a support beam half melted to the deck.
“Don't be too sure of that,” he said, pointing at it.
“Looks like someone got trapped under there.”
Andrew and Saskill drifted over; lying beneath the section that had not been melted, were the remains of a human head, arms and torso. All the flesh had been burned away, only charred bones remained.
“We should take back a sample of the remains, we might be able to identify them,” suggested Andrew.
“Yes, but that won't really help us discover who or what did this,” Saskill countered.
“I agree but it's better than nothing.”
Saskill grunted and drifted to the far side of the engine room.
“Over here Sergeant, there's a slight bulge in the wall here.”
Andrew started to move towards the spot he was pointing at.
His armor's temperature sensor showed that part to be hotter than the rest of the wall. Much hotter in fact and the temperature was increasing. It only took a second for Andrew to register the danger and his training kicked in.
“Watch out!” He shouted.
Not waiting for Saskill to respond, Andrew grabbed a twisted support beam that jutted down from the ceiling and propelled himself forward with all the strength he could muster.
The bulge facing Saskill exploded in a jet of molten metal, hitting him in the chest and swirling around him in the vacuum. A split second later Andrew collided with him, propelling them both across the engine room. They crashed into the wall, Andrew fighting to regain his orientation while still clutching Saskill. He managed to steady himself and looked down. The molten metal had burned and adhered to the space suit's chest. Fusing them together so it was impossible to discern which was which. Globules of the molten alloy had also adhered to parts of Saskill’s arms and legs.
He had to get him back to the Twilight, if he was to have any chance of surviving. Provided the shengyet wasn't already dead. Grabbing hold of the back of Saskill's suit Andrew made his way back to the bridge as fast as he could.
“Williams to Twilight, Saskill's been hurt, do you copy?”
“What?!” Replied Anna's anxious voice.
“He's been hurt, he got hit by a jet of molten metal,” Andrew explained.
“My guess is that the alien weapon melted a pocket of alloy behind one of the engine room walls and Saskill was unlucky enough to be standing right in front of where it finally burst through.”
“How is he?” Asked Major Clark.
“Unknown, but this will have given him some serious burns, not to mention the fact his suit might be breached.”
Andrew was on the bridge now and began pulling himself and Saskill through the hole. There was a moment of silence on the com, then Anna said in a shaky voice.
“We'll get the medical supplies ready, just get him back on board as soon as possible.”
Andrew had managed to pull himself through the hole and out into space. He activated his thruster pack on full power and rocketed towards the ship.
As he drew closer he could make out one of the Twilight's airlocks. The outer door was already opening. Andrew hurtled through, both he and Saskill slamming against the inner door. The outer doors slid shut and the air pumps began to pressurize the room. As soon as they had finished the inner door opened. Anna, John and Lieutenant Graham were waiting for them. John and Graham were carrying a makeshift stretcher.
“Put him on here,” said John.
“We've got the medical equipment set up in the briefing room.”
Andrew placed the limp form of Saskill on the stretcher and watched as Graham and John carried him off, followed by Anna.
Chapter 15
Andrew slowly made his way to the Twilight's cargo area. The doors hissed open and he moved in between the stacked equipment crates. He reached the one his armor had been packed in and started removing its modular sections.
He had just started removing the chest module when Anna entered the bay.
“You in here Sergeant?” She asked.
“I'm back here Commander.”
Anna emerged from in between the equipment crates looking tense.
“Sergeant I-”, she began but broke off in mid sentence.
He looked down at his naked torso, it was covered with dozens of scars and burns. Some of them were new, but most looked years old.
Andrew hastily grabbed the undershirt lying on the crate and pulled it over his head.
“Commander, what can I do for you?” He asked.
“I wanted to know if there were any more details you could provide about what happened.”
Andrew shrugged.
“I happened pretty fast,” he said.
“I know,” replied Anna.
“But any bit of extra information could help us treat him.”
“How's he doing?” Andrew asked.
He could see her wince slightly before answering.
“Bad, he's still unconscious which is probably a good thing based on the amount of burns he's got.”
Her voice had started to waver a bit and Andrew noticed her eyes were red and bloodshot.
“John's with him now, he’s had some training as a field medic, I guess he's the closest thing we have to an expert on shengyet physiology. He said he needed to concentrate and that we were all in the way.”
Her voice was even shakier now.
“I'm sorry Commander,” said Andrew.
“But I can't help you.”
Anna's face hardened.
“You can't, or you won't Sergeant,” she demanded.
“I wouldn't lie to you about something like that,” Andrew assured her.
“Of course you would,” snapped Anna.
“You wouldn't even think twice about letting him die, would you?” Her hands were now balled into fists.
“Tell me Sergeant, those two shengyet you killed before we found you, do their deaths bother you at all? Or were they just two more savage alien beasts to be put down? Just how many shengyet have you killed, dozens, hundreds?!” She was shouting now, slowly moving towards him.
Andrew continued to stand there, he had no idea what to say to her.
“Why did you even bring Saskill back to the ship, why not just leave him there? What's one more shengyet after all the others you've killed?!”
She was now feet from him, but Andrew simply continued to stare at her.
“Why?!” She repeated, shoving him.
He tried to take a step back but bumped up against the crate.
“I asked you a question Sergeant!”
Before Andrew could say anything, the sound of approaching footsteps made both of them turn around. Major Clark was picking her way through the cargo containers.
“Sorry to interrupt, but Chief Engineer Nolan thinks he might be able to salvage something from that wreaked console you found, I think both of you should be there.”
They both nodded and followed her out of the cargo bay.
When they arrived on the bridge it was to find the rest of the crew already assembled there. Most of the crew were standing in a rough circle around the main view screen. Next to the screen was the broken console Andrew and Saskill had salvaged. Crouched over it was Chief Nolan, attaching a few cables that ran directly into the main view screen.
The crew turned to face the newcomers.
“How are we doing Chief?” Clark asked.
Nolan shrugged.
“Any information on here will be scrambled at best, but I think I managed to repair enough of this thing to at least give us something.”
“All right then Chief fire it up, let's see what we've got.”
Nolan turned on the console, the main viewer flickered with static then snapped to black. Bright red letters flashed across the screen.
\ALERT! ALL BRIDGE FUNCTIONS OFF-LINE// \ALERT! ALL BRIDGE FUNCTIONS OFF-LINE//
“Hang on let me try something,” said Nolan.
He plugged a cable into his data pad, attached the other end
to the console and typed in a few commands. Blurry images and sensor readouts appeared on the main view screen.
“This is pretty garbled,” remarked Lieutenant Graham.
“You're lucky there's anything at all,” Nolan said dryly.
“Is there any way to clean it up a bit?” Asked Major Clark.
“With the right equipment it'd be quite simple. Problem is we don't have it, I had to jury rig this thing into the main view screen just to get what we have now.”
Chief Nolan bent over his data pad once more and resumed typing commands. The bridge was silent as he worked.
“Wait I think I've got something,” he said finally.
“It's a communications record no video, audio only.”
The main view screen switched to black and a voice thundered from the bridge speakers.
“Humans, this is your first and only warning, leave now or be destroyed.”
No one spoke for a while, finally Lieutenant Graham gave a nervous laugh.
“Well, they sound friendly.”
“Any way to know if that's a translation?” Asked Major Clark.
Nolan examined his data pad.
“As far as I can tell it's not,” he said.
“This audio record was simply received and then stored. It shows no signs of having been processed through the standard translation software. Although given the damage the record suffered there is no way to know for sure.”
“Well assuming that it isn't a translation,” said Graham.
“Whoever sent this knows our language quite well.”
Before anyone had a chance to respond the sensor's proximity alert sounded.
Lieutenant Dolohov scrambled for her station.
“Unidentified ship incoming,” she snapped.
“Are we still running at minimal power levels?” Anna demanded.
“Yes commander,” replied Chief Nolan.
“Get down to engineering in case we need to change that.”
Nolan hurtled out the bridge door and down the corridor. Major Clark flicked on the intercom panel nearest her.
“John, you still with Saskill?”
“Yes, what's going on?”
“We've made contact with an unknown ship, stand by.”
Imperium: Contact Page 12
