Into the Black: Odyssey One (4 page)

The Odyssey shuddered slightly as the electromagnetic launchers threw the missiles from the bay, their Cee-Emm fields already charged, and into the black that surrounded them. The short endurance, but powerful, plasma jets lit off and the hunks of metal leapt away almost like lasers made physical.

As their minimal on board sensor package detected the proximity of their targets, the Cee-Emm fields instantly dropped, leaving the projectiles traveling almost seventy percent the speed of light while massing in at their full, un-reduced, weight. The twelve one ton missiles slammed into their target just an instant later, raising plumes of dust and debris as they cracked the great rock wide open, and sent it’s component pieces scattering to the solar winds.

Weston nodded in satisfaction, “Outstanding. Helm, take us closer to the grouping at twelve by fourteen.”

“Aye, Sir.”

The Odyssey rolled slightly to port as the ship pulled over, heading for a grouping of relatively small rocks that had caught the Captain’s eye.

“Tactical, bring up the defensive armaments. Target the rocks in that grouping and fire at will.”

Outside the ship, small hatches and covers flipped away from the hull, revealing recessed weaponry that had been hidden beneath the heavily shielded flaps. Multi-barrelled EM Rail-Cannons rose from their compartments, swivelling on powerful turrets and locking onto the floating debris. Even as they began spitting their payload through the airless void, similar flaps popped clear to reveal banks of recessed rockets and smaller versions of the Odyssey’s Primary Laser Array.

On the screen, Weston watched as the Odyssey’s close quarter weapons pulverized the floating debris, clearing the way for the large vessel, as it sailed clear of the treacherous Trojan Point and back into open space.

“Excellent work people,” Eric stood up, a slight smile on his face. He reached down, tapping a command on his command console and activated the ‘blower’.

“Captain to all hands, congratulations on a textbook weapons test. Outstanding,” Eric said, then flipped the switch off.

A cheerful murmur went through the bridge personnel. They were glad that the Captain’s impromptu testing of the weapons systems had gone smoothly, and even happier that they had performed up to his expectations. Throughout the ship, a similar sense of confidence had boosted the already high morale of the crew as the word of the test spread through the ranks.

*****

“If you Slackers don’t get off your flat butts and double-time… I’m going to start knocking heads!”

The room full of crewmen scrambled to their feet as the harsh voice of the Chief growled out at them. They snapped to as she marched down the length of the long, slightly curved, room and glared at them.

“Damage Control Drills. Now!” She hissed softly, her tone brooking no argument as the crew quickly snapped into action, grabbing their gear and rushing out the door.

Corrin sighed as she watched them go, letting her mask drop for a second once, she was alone.

This crew needs more than drills, in the worst way;
she shook her head, moving along behind the retreating figures.

Whoever had been behind the formation of the Odyssey’s crew had either been complete imbeciles, or hidden geniuses.

Corrin wasn’t sure which, though she had money on the former.

The individual crew members had been drawn from some of the best pools of military talent available and in the post war nation she served, that meant that they had some damned fine people on board.

The problem was that damned few of them had ever served with any of their shipmates.

And that was a recipe for disaster, if Chief PO Corrin ever saw one.

*****

The Odyssey, now back en route to the Saturn refuelling rendezvous, accelerated back to its ‘in-system’ cruise speed of point three of light speed. Ahead of the massive ship its navigation beams roughly shouldered aside any debris unlucky enough to be caught in its path, causing the occasional shudder to run through the ship as a particularly large piece of rock slowed the ship slightly, as it passed.

Shortly thereafter the rings of Saturn became visible, as the vessel roared towards the orbit of the sixth planet. Out of the rings, a black shape became visible, its trajectory altering almost as soon as it was spotted. It rocketed free of the big planets gravity well and slid into a parallel course with the Odyssey.

“Odyssey Command, this is the Indigo. Welcome to Saturn.”

“Indigo, this is the Odyssey. Thanks for the welcome, but I don’t think we’ll have time to sightsee.”

“Pity, we’ve taken in the sights for the past day, while waiting for you. Least you could do is hang around and keep us company, for a while.” Weston could hear the smile that had slid across the face of the Indigo’s Captain.

“’Fraid not, Indigo. We have a mission to start and I understand you have something to help us along?”

“Roger that, Odyssey. Lines are coming across now.”

Snaking out from the Indigo, thick hoses were gliding across the space between the two ships as they continued to slide together, reducing the distance to a few hundred feet before the tanker altered its course and paralleled the Odyssey exactly. Small pods were in place on the ends of the hoses, each containing a two man crew that guided the hoses into place. The five hoses were soon locked into the Odyssey’s rear compartment and the tanker began emptying its cargo.

The fuelling would take the better part of what remained of the night, so Weston retired shortly after the process had begun. When he woke, Eric could tell by the low hum he felt through the deck that the big ship was again under full thrust and moving toward the edge of the Sol system.

On the bridge, everything was running smoothly. They had just crossed the orbit of Pluto and although the planet itself was nowhere in sight, it was a cheerful milestone in itself since they were the first humans to reach that far. Roberts had relieved the night watch a couple hours earlier and was sifting through crew assignments when the Captain stepped onto the bridge.

“Captain on the bridge!”

“Status,” Weston ordered as he stepped over to the command chair.

“We just crossed the orbit of Pluto thirty minutes ago, Sir. Technically we can engage the drive when ready, Sir,” Roberts replied crisply, “Though, the official heliopause is still a few minutes away.”

“Good. Helm, calculate the trajectory… and be precise.” This last was spoken firmly as Lt. Daniels bent over his console and began the calculations.

“Yes, Sir.”

“Mr. Roberts, contact the transition team. Tell them to charge the system.”

Roberts nodded and turned to a console on his left, tapping a series of commands’, he then spoke softly into a recessed microphone.

“Transition team reports ready, Sir. We can engage the drive at any time.”

“Good.”

Weston flipped a switch on his console and activated the ship wide intercom, “Attention, this is Captain Weston speaking. We are preparing to engage the ship’s transition drive system. We have all been briefed on what to expect, and the psychological impact of what we are about to experience. Please brace yourselves and report any problems to the medical labs when we have exited transition. That is all.”

Weston took a deep breath, “Helm, do you have that trajectory for me?”

“Yes Sir, I just fed it into the system. We’re ready on this end.”

“All right. I want a Go / No Go check from all stations.”

“Helm, Go.”

“Transition Control, Go,” The speakers didn’t convey any uncertainty and Weston wished that he shared that sentiment.

“Reactor Control, Go.”

The list ran through all of the ship’s stations, each confirming in turn that their section had prepared for the effects of the jump. The list slowly ran down, until finally Roberts spoke the final phrase.

“Odyssey Command, Go.”

“All systems, we are a go for transition in T-minus…,” Weston glanced down and punched a series of commands, “two minutes.”

Chapter 3

The tension on the bridge continued to mount as the count ticked down, the numbers dropping rapidly, until the crew was confronted with the final ten seconds.

Weston shifted nervously in his seat as the number ten went by, the transition effects had been kept highly classified for a reason. He knew what to expect, as did the entire crew, but in this case that was worse than ignorance.

In the medical, labs Doctor Rame was rapidly running through the procedures that they had drilled into him when he was selected for this assignment, he was already planning a book about the experience.

Commander Roberts had to force his hands to unclench; small blood red marks were left to decorate his palms.

All through the ship people were holding tightly to things, as if preparing for massive acceleration despite what they had been trained to expect. In one room, a particularly nervous crewman had accidently knocked himself out while trying to strap himself to a chair, in retrospect he was considered lucky.

A high-pitched whine began to reverberate through the ship, usually being felt long before heard, the sound continued to rise.

On the bridge, Captain Weston watched the small red light flicker on as the count went past five seconds and noted a slight relaxation that swept through him when it did. They were now past the point of no return. The Odyssey and her crew were about to make history.

The whine had reached painful levels in some areas of the ship, causing people to cover their ears and close their eyes in the vain attempt to shut out the sound. Outside the ship, a strange disturbance was affecting the ship’s forward sensor spires, causing the Odyssey computers to begin insisting that the spires were no longer present.

The disturbance had apparently begun making its way towards the aft of the ship. One by one, key systems appeared to go offline, each system insisting that it simply wasn’t there.

The count hit zero and Weston’s eyes widened as the disturbance intersected the bridge, the entire forward section including the view screen disintegrated into uncountable particles that were swept away into the void of space. Weston soon found himself sitting on the edge of the void, grasping his chair for protection, as the effect encompassed his crew, one by one. When the maelstrom engulfed him and the universe went black, Weston’s last conscious thought echoed through what was left of his universe.

If we survive this, I’m going to have a very serious talk with the techs back home about what constitutes ‘need to know’.

*****

Four and a half light-years from where the Odyssey vanished, an unusual disturbance began in the Alpha Centauri star system, where a cloud of particles decelerated apparently from nowhere and rapidly reformed themselves. First, the long forward spires of the Odyssey’s primary communications array and soon the rest of the vessel were reconstituted as the tachyon disruption faded and left the massive ship hurtling sunward into the system’s primary.

Odyssey Command recovered before the rest of the ship, the transition shock rippling through them even as they turned their attention back to the status reports that began filtering in. Weston found that he had almost slipped from the command chair after they re-entered dimensional space and was quick to correct his posture, a moment later his head stopped screaming long enough for him to begin reacting.

“Report! All stations,” he snapped, hoping his voice was steadier than his vision.

“Ship is undamaged Sir, minor wear evident on the Tachyon reactors, The Tachyon based sensors are out of alignment, however. Two hours to repair,” The technician behind him sounded badly. Weston turned to look at him closer.

Weston stood up and walked over to the shaking tech, “Ensign Waters, you are relieved. Go to the Med-lab and get yourself checked out.”

Waters shook slightly and looked up at Weston in relief before heading for the back of the room. Weston glanced around the room again, looking harder for evidence of trouble. The rest seemed all right, but he would have to keep a closer eye on them until they had a chance for some rest. He returned to his seat and thumbed an intercom switch after tapping in the channel number.

“Med Lab, how bad is it down there?”

Doctor Stevens voice sounded pretty shaky, even over the intercom, “Pretty bad, Captain. Over thirty crewmen have reported in for varying causes…,” the pause in the doctor’s speech seemed ominous, “And we have at least one that we have to confine to the labs… Lt Tearborn snapped, Captain. Security picked her up in engineering. Apparently she witnessed the reactor vaporize and she thought it was a breech.”

Weston’s words were uttered too quietly for anyone to hear him, but his body language transmitted the message to anyone on the bridge unfortunate enough to be watching. It had been hard enough watching the ship, apparently disintegrating into a vacuum, but to watch the reactor fall apart? Too many horror stories had been told about reactor breeches on board ships for that to be easily dismissed.

Eric let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding, and nodded, “All right, Doctor. Do what you can. Oh, by the way, I just sent Ensign Waters down to you. He should be arriving soon.”

“Yes sir, we’ll clear some space. Med Lab out.”

Weston thumbed the switch back and sank into his seat. Tearborn was a good engineer, not someone he would expect to snap.
When I get home, I think I’ll recommend sedatives for nonessential crew members prior to entering transitional space.

He shook his head, compartmentalizing the thoughts and emotions, then quickly straightened and locked an iron grip on his Command Persona. “Helm, plot us a nice long hyperbolic course. Commander, tell the labs to make good use of the time, because we’ll transition out when we clear the gravity well.”

“Aye Sir,” Both Daniels and Roberts chorused as they turned to their tasks.

The Odyssey sailed into the system, sails almost literally unfurling as the ships massive retractable sensor arrays were raised and locked into position, strengthening the impression of an ancient sailing ship.