Harbinger

by Stephen Christiansen

  “Warning...Main computer offline. Navigations offline. Communications offline. Cascade failure …”

  This computer warning had stopped as soon as Vincent punched in the passwords and was able to get all systems back online. The added memory and performance enhanced the mainframe and helped stabilize the cascade failure that threatened to disable the entire ship.

  “Warning...Breach in warp core. Detonation ... ”

  The rest of the computer warnings and emergency lights stopped as Denise typed in the last few command strokes. She simply couldn’t think with the computer constantly giving them the impending doom that was “imminent”.

  As soon as the computer voices had died off, Denise moved from one laptop to another. Her eyes took in the information that they were trying to tell her. None of it was good. The question was, what needed fixing first.

  “I’ve got bad news and worse news. The bad news is that the engines have not only shut down, but since these are singularity drive engines and weren’t shut down properly, they have created a reverse gravity well. I’ve tried to stabilize the singularity drive from here, but with no luck.”

  “I thought those were outlawed during the international space committee meetings a few years ago,” Richard stated. “Not only were they unstable, but even when they were functioning correctly the gravitational wells played an adverse effect upon the physical and psychological health of any and all of the crew members. There were reports of skeletal degradation and even mental breakdowns. Some papers had even suggested that singularity engines had created temporal anomalies within some patients, aging them rapidly.”

  “They were outlawed,” Bruce commented. “However, if a ship falls into a grandfathered clause then they weren’t forced by law to retrofit to the new and more stable ion drive.”

  All eyes turned toward Bruce. Bruce gave a shrug.

  “I know someone who’s been caught up in the legal debate over his ship.”

  “Well, legal or not,” Denise interrupted. “We have to shut down the engine and reverse its effect. If we don’t then we’re looking at a geometric cascade gravitational failure.”

  Confusion seemed to sweep through the crowd.

  “She means,” Doctor Atkins added. “The engine will collapse into a black hole.”

  “Wait, what?!” Tracy was in near hysterics. “You mean to tell me that we are sitting on a black hole?”

  “Well, technically, yes.” Denise answered.

  It was Bruce that changed the subject, albeit for the worse.

  “You said you had worse news?”

  Denise nodded. “According to our sensors, the gravitational well from our ship has attracted nearby asteroids. As the gravity increases we will attract more and more items. If our ship doesn’t implode under its own gravity first, then we’re looking at being destroyed by the asteroids heading toward us.”

  This brought Tracy to tears. Her body started to shake under the stress of the situation. She turned to the closest person nearest her, Doctor Atkins, and threw herself into his comfort. Her crying seem to be inconsolable despite Richard’s attempts.

  “I don’t want to die...I don’t want to die…”

  “What are we going to do?” Bruce asked.

  “Does this ship have any defenses?”

  Denise’s question was aimed toward Vincent. The security officer gave a slight pause. This was supposed to be a cargo ship, not a war ship. There had been too many incidents in the past where trigger happy captains were shooting down their competition. Then there were the individuals that had turned to piracy. Finally all of this came to a head when there had been reports of smuggling weapons to some of the colonies. A bill was passed to ban all ship weapons aboard nonmilitary ships.

  However, not everyone shared the politicians’ point of view. The politicians that were sitting in their comfortable mansions and spent their time squabbling and debating were out of touch with the real situations out here in the deep fringes of known space. There were asteroids, meteors, and comets to consider. There were those that had turned to piracy that weren’t going to obey any law anyway. Finally there were the Dagons. It was suicide to be out here without bringing something for protection, even if it was illegal. With a sigh and a slight nod of his head Vincent replied.

  “Yes, we have a couple of short range lasers, but with the power off across the ship’s main power grid and the targeting offline then they are out of the question until they are fixed. We also have some medium ranged railguns. A couple of them are located here and here,” Vincent said as he pointed to a model of the ship on his computer screen. “But those are in compromised areas either due to hull breach or radiation leaks. Since maneuvering is out of the question at this point, the only one available is here. Now, since we have coolant leaks across the ship, we will only have one or two shots at best before it overheats.”

  “We don’t have time to deal with these situations one at a time,” Denise stated. “We’ll have to split up and deal with them simultaneously. I’ll head to the engine rooms and deal with the singularity drive. Once I stabilize the gravity well, I’ll head to the ship’s engines. As soon as I get at least the maneuvering thrusters online then we’ll be able to stop our momentum toward the star that we are currently heading toward.”

  This created a gasp from Tracy who almost broke down in tears again. She knew that the situation was bad, but after hearing that they were also heading toward a sun, she now understood how bad things really were. She didn’t know how much more she could take before she totally lost it.

  “I know how to operate a railgun,” Helena said as she stepped forward. “I can take care of the asteroids.”

  “We shouldn’t be roaming this ship alone,” Vincent added. “There are bulkheads that threaten to fall apart and collapse. Anyone of us could be cut off or worse, be trapped under one of them. If we move out, we should do so in teams. I’ll go with your engineer.” Vincent stated as he nodded toward Denise.

  “I’ll go with Helena,” Eric stated.

  “Good,” Vincent continued. “Then it’s settled. The rest of you stay here, we should be right back.”

  “But what if you don’t…” Tracy couldn’t bring herself to say the words.

  “Pray that we do.”

  Chapter: 13

  “Now, there something you need to remember about the railgun,” Vincent had told them before they split up. “The weapon draws a lot of energy, and it will probably tap into what little we have left until Denise can get the rest of the ship up and running. However, that’s probably not going to be your main concern. With all of this coolant leaking all over the ship, there won’t be any left to cool the railgun. It can cool down by itself over time, but the coolant allowed it to cool faster which would allow quicker shots, almost constantly under ideal conditions. These aren’t those conditions. I would say you have two shots, perhaps three in a row, before the gun overheats. If that happens, it will explode. You better not be anywhere near that side of the ship if the gun reaches critical mass.”

  The warning still registered in their ears as both Helena and Eric opened the door that lead into the room with the railgun. There was nothing more on their minds than the fact that this ship was very unstable and to add to the complication, the railgun was even more so. They also understood that if the railgun hit critical mass then it would not only explode and take out anyone in the area, but it would also potentially degrade the integrity of what was remaining of the ship. Yet, it was their only hope.

  The room was set up into two sections. The first was a control room near the back. It was a more of three walled sectioned off area from the rest of the room. This would allow an individual to monitor any building heat and direct coolant as needed. It would also help track a target and even synchronize with the other railguns. The post wasn’t really needed to fire the railgun, but it would definitely help.

  The other section was the railgun itself. It was more of a one man, domed chamber that had
the seat for the gunner and the firing mechanism. The chamber would rotate and spin as the gunner moved his body. This in turn would pivot the corresponding weapon on the outside of the ship.

  The railgun itself was on the outside the ship, but they could see it through the thick window that gave a view of space that was immediately in front of them. The massive weapon was a splendor to see.

  Helena’s eyes widened. Although she was used to shooting a railgun, it was nothing compared to this weapon. This was easily a 50mm dual cannon. Anything that size would put a substantial hole into anything it hit, especially when the projectile was traveling at a substantial speed.

  ‘No wonder why this overheats,’ she thought to herself. ‘The amount of power that was required to toss something that size at any considerable speed would require a substantial amount of energy and would create a large amount of heat.’

  She also wondered about the speed of the projectile that she was about to shoot. At home, on Earth, a railgun could easily shoot its projectile somewhere between five to ten times the speed of sound. But that was through an atmosphere and while being pulled by gravity. Here, in space, without gravity and without an atmosphere or any friction for that matter, the missile would probably travel at a greater speed at a much greater distance. The impact would be incredible and the destruction and damage that it would do would be absolute.

  Eric had no problems letting Helena take the gunner position of the weapon while he took the control panel. She had already stated that she knew how to operate one and he had to admit that he didn’t. If they were to survive then he would let her take her best shot and he would do everything that he could to help her do it.

  Behind the control room, Eric found that the controls were basic and simple. He easily found the main power lever and shifted it into the up position. Lights lit up across the consol. Gauges sprang to life and several of their needles automatically shot to the red while others didn’t come on at all. Electrical current danced from one part of the control panel to another, sending sparks in all directions. Eric had to back away momentarily until parts of the panel short circuited themselves before he came back to them.

  From what Eric to tell, the coolant wasn’t making its way to the main reactor. He gave the controls a quick look over and was able to find a few ways to redirect its flow, although he wasn’t sure where he was redirecting it from. As soon as he saw the gauges start to drop at least into the yellow range he started to signal toward Helena.

  “Ok, I think it’s alright to…” He never did finish his sentence; Helena had already entered the weapon’s chamber.

  Helena had to almost gasp as she sat in the gunner’s chair. The gun’s handles were similar in design to the railgun that she had fired only slightly larger. Two buttons, one on each handle, let her know where the firing mechanisms were. It would be easy enough to get off several rounds at a time.

  ‘What am I doing?’ She thought to herself. ‘I’m the oceanographer, not the gunner.’

  Her heart was racing and beating through her chest. She really hadn’t realized what she had gotten herself into. If this massive weapon were smaller than she probably wouldn’t have the trepidation that was she feeling right now. Yet, she always seemed to do this to herself. She was always biting off more than she could chew just because it needed to be done and she always seemed to put herself into the position that she was the only one to do it.

  “You can’t go out there in that storm,” her father had told her. “You’ll drown.”

  “It needs to be done. If we don’t get those readings then we can’t prepare for the next storm. We need to understand how this is happening. We also need to know what’s happening to our environment. The oceans will tell us everything that we need to know. It needs to be done.”

  “But you’ll be putting your life at risk. Besides that’s someone else’s job. Your job is to sit here and process the information that comes back to you.”

  “If I don’t do this then no one else will. I can’t just sit here, like everyone else, and pass the job on to someone else that won’t do it either. Either I’m part of the solution or I’m part of the problem. I can do this dad.”

  “I can do this dad,” Helena repeated, this time to herself.

  “Did you say something?”

  Helena poked her head out of the small chamber. “I said let’s do this.”

  “Alright, I think I got a bearing of two point three mock…”

  “Just tell me left or right, up or down.”

  Helena knew that the real points of a ship were aft and stern, port and starboard. However she never took to heart to remember where each one was. Was port on her right while facing the back of the ship or her left while facing the front? She didn’t remember. She let others remember things like this while she focused more on the instruments, the data that it was collecting, and meaning behind those results. Her dad was right; she really was more of a desk person. Perhaps after this she would take these to heart. After all, she would be the only one taking out the water craft on their new planet, Phoebe, and it would be very embarrassing if she didn’t get the references correct.

  Eric had to think about that. He was still running on military time and military tactics. He had to remember that not everyone was going to understand what he said. He would have to adapt if he wanted to be helpful to others and get full cooperation in return.

  “To your right and slightly up, quite a few kilometers away.”

  Helena swiveled her body to her right and pulled the handles down. She watched as the railgun followed her lead and pivoted to her right and then pointed up. Her suspicions were correct, it would follow her horizontal controls, but it would reverse her vertical. It would be just like the smaller version that she had used before.

  Helena squinted her eyes. It was hard to see anything out there in the darkness of space. She could see stars off in the distance and could tell that they were entering a solar system; there were solar reflections off of some of their ship. However, what she couldn’t see was what she was supposed to be shooting at.

  “I don’t see it. What is it? Where is it?”

  “Just fire.”

  “I don’t see…”

  Helena stopped mid-sentence. She was able to eventually make out something silhouetted against the stars. At first she couldn’t actually see what it was only the fact that something was there due to the fact that the stars were hidden in a certain spot. Then her eyes finally adjusted to the darkness as the thing came closer.

  The massive meteor was larger than she had suspected. It’s sheer size alone had momentarily gripped her in fear. She didn’t have to be an astrophysicist to know that something this size, traveling at this speed, was going to be detrimental to their well-being.

  “Helena...Fire...Fire…”

  Helena heard her name off in the distance. It was her father, she was back on that rolling ocean, in the middle of the storm that she shouldn’t have been in in the first place.

  “It’s either them or us...fire the weapon…”

  Helena pushed down upon the two buttons on top of her handles. She could feel the electricity course through the weapon. She could feel the power build and then, suddenly release.

  The weapon fired a short burst of three rounds each from its twin barrels. The recoil of the cannon with each shot shook Helena to the core of her being.

  Helena was sure that she had heard the minor explosions as the projectiles left their barrels. She was sure that she could smell the melting shells, the scent that would be made when their outer casing melted from the heat of being shot down the cannon as such a speed as they were going. She was also sure that she had heard the projectiles as they broke the speed of sound. However, she knew all of this was impossible. Those had all played out in the vacuum of space; she was simply remembering what it was like when she had fired the smaller version off of her boat.

  The projectiles flew at an incredible speed through space. With the target as
big as it was, and as close as it was, it would have been difficult to miss. As such their trajectory flew true. Each projectile shot slammed into the incoming meteor with massive and devastating force.

  The meteor was struck so hard that dust and debris flew everywhere. For one brief moment the large oncoming rock was no longer visible. For one brief moment both Helena and Eric was sure that they had succeeded in destroying the incoming fate of destruction. That brief moment came and went too soon.

  Eric gave a quick glance as his targeting screen to ensure that they had, in fact, destroyed the meteor. His face went dead calm as the realization of what they had done had hit him almost as hard as they were about to be hit.

  “The shots...they only…”

  “...shattered it into smaller pieces coming our way, I see that.” Helena had finished the sentence that Eric had started to say.

  Without hesitation Helena swung the weapon around and fired off two more rounds toward one of the incoming chunks of the rocks that were coming at them. Again she felt the surge of energy and the recoil. But this time she felt something else. The weapon was starting to give off heat.