Penance (RN: Book 2) (11 page)

Avery leant against a stanchion in the corner of the conference room, his legs crossed and left hand supporting his right elbow as he massaged the fatigue from his eyes. The eight seats around the oval table were occupied by the different heads of department, all of whom sat in a depressed silence.

Several minutes passed before the door opened and Canthouse entered looking washed-out and destroyed. He pulled his chair out but remained standing as he stared at the tablets he placed on the table, He gave the tablet a considering tap of a finger before pushing the chair back and facing his audience.

“Right. Commander Denz originally arranged this meeting as an after action review to evaluate the performance of the ship and crew, and to discuss any outstanding details regarding repairs and resupply. But first I think it’s important to address a more recent issue, which is of course, Commander Denz himself and the episode that occurred in the canteen.”

His audience remained quiet as he moved to the table and slid his finger across the screen of the tablet. Canthouse considered the digital note for several seconds before taking a step back.

“Earlier today, I visited the surgery where the commander was resting comfortably. The surgeon informed me his vitals were all normal and he was resting well without the aid of a sedative. Why he ended up in the surgery nobody’s entirely sure. Statements from those present at the time say that one minute he was eating breakfast whilst working on a tablet, the next he was beneath the table in some form of fit and crying for someone to save his crew. And ...” Canthouse fell quiet as he stared at the notes on the tablet, his hands in a splayed pyramid near his stomach. “You know,” he rubbed his eyes and face. “I asked the surgeon if he could explain what happened, as I’m sure I’ll bugger it up, But currently he can’t leave the surgery as it’s overcapacity and they don’t have enough staff as it is. But what it comes down to is this: the commander has had a psychotic episode. We’re not really sure what brought it on, but what I can gather from what he said as we held him down is something happened to his former crew of the Bristol, something unpleasant, and he appears to have relived some portion of it in front of those present at the time.”

A beep from Avery’s tablet saw him retrieve it, swipe the screen and return it to the table. He shook his head at Canthouse as he returned to his place by the stanchion.

“Now I know we were all told that the majority of the former crew were killed in the final battle with The Koll, with those who had survived the battle succumbing to their injuries on the trip back to Earth space, and were subsequently buried on route. But what the commander said in the mess seems to contradict this in a most disturbing way. Much of which was overheard by the crew who were present, which upset them a great deal. Especially many of our female crew members, though the upset is not limited to them.”

“So what did he say?” asked McWhitney, the bald headed head of electrical systems. He pushed his wire rimmed spectacles up his ebony nose and tilted his head inquisitively.

“The commander mentioned something about The Koll boarding the Bristol and taking her crew, and …” Canthouse paused, his gaze on the table and a crooked finger raised to his lips as he considered something. “What I think is best here is if we avoid any more direct questions in regards to the commander as …”

His flow was disrupted by disaffected murmurs amongst the gathering, who glanced at each other with dissatisfied looks. Canthouse raised his voice to regain their attention, “ …as I’m more concerned about getting my facts wrong in this matter than I am of settling curiosities. I’ll leave it to the commander to decide if what he said should become common knowledge, as he may have just been spouting nonsense whilst suffering from a delusion. Now!” He punctuated this comment with a finger stabbing the air. “If we can return to the original reason for this meeting, as I’m sure you all have questions regarding the recent encounter with the, with the ...erm! Actually, I’m not sure what it was.” Canthouse rubbed his hands thoughtfully. “I’ve consulted the EDP database and there’s no record of any such encounter before, so it’s safe to say that this entity is unprecedented in the history of recorded space travel. I believe this to be as literal a first contact situation as the term can describe and we have the bite marks to prove it!” He despaired inwardly when the faces remained impassive.

“With the then duty operations officer, Senior Petty officer Cummings, still in the medical unit and well on the way to recovery. I’ve asked Petty Officer Wheyer to join us to try and explain something of what occurred, and hopefully answer some questions regarding the recent confrontation. Which I’m sure we all have. So without further ...Wheyer …if you could,” Canthouse motioned Wheyer forward with the sweep of a hand as he stepped aside.

Wheyer moved to the front of the room where he nervously considered the hastily prepared notes he’d brought with him. “As Lieutenant-commander Canthouse has already stated, we’ve consulted the EDP database and there are no previous records of anything even remotely connected with such an entity. So all the data that currently exists in regards to such an event is contained in the data core aboard this ship. And, as hesitant as I am to say it, as thick skinned as she is the Bristol is no science craft as her sensors are limi –“

“It’s that thick skin that you can thank for us being here,” the chief engineer said to the nods and murmured agreements from several other officers. “That thing shorted out two, fifty megawatt generators as if they were nothing, and if she’d never had the armoured belts we’d have lost the rear section in an instant.”

Wheyer stalled. Being checked in front of the other officers broke the momentum of his hastily prepared report and drained his face of all colour, “I never meant any disrespect to the Bristol, Chief. I was merely –“

“The chief understands what you mean, Mr Wheyer. He was simply stating his gratitude for her solid bottom,” Canthouse said from where he stood next to Avery.

The chief engineer’s high cheeked smile was lost in his bushy moustache as he dipped his head in acknowledgement of Canthouse’s statement.

Canthouse circled a finger indicating the operations officer should continue.

Wheyer glanced about the gathering uncertain who to address, “What I meant by my last statement was, as tough as nuts as she is, the Bristol is no science vessel. Her sensors are calibrated for solid metaloid structures and complex energy signatures a great way off, which on the face of it would seem ideal given the clouds heavy ferrite composition. Yet the cloud expanded at such a rate that the computer struggled to classify it as a natural phenomenon and started looking for military patterns where none existed. This led it to classify every movement of the cloud as a separate entity, and as you would expect with so much activity the influx of raw data was overwhelming and the system simply, well …not so much lock up as throttle back. This is the reason the sensors were so delayed in detecting the presence of any super-fauna entities even though they were well within scanning range, and even when we could physically see them.”

“So now we know why we couldn’t detect these
super-fauna
creatures, can you tell us what they were and where they came from?” said sub-lieutenant Hewton. A full bearded man of imposing physical and intellectual abilities, and perfectly suited to his role as senior weapons officer.

“As to what the cloud is, what the creatures are and where they come from, I can’t tell you anything,” Wheyer said separating his hands and raising his shoulders in a surrender to ignorance.

The small group looked amongst each other with murmurs of dissatisfaction being exchanged.

“There must be something you can tell us,” said McWhitney to whom intolerance of lesser ranks was considered a virtue.

“I will relay the information in the order the computer categorised it, sir,” Wheyer said and consulted his notes. “The first sensor contact was on the limit of sensor range and categorised as an unknown event, though the computer later recategorised this to nebulonic formation as we got closer. Initial close up scans of the cloud indicated bulk ferrite materials, essentially a great cloud of rust that reflected our sensor emissions so effectively the computer registered it as solid. This is when the computer problems initially occurred. Next, there was the initial super-fauna sighting, which the computer classified as amphibian based solely on its movements. This was followed by the second entity, which the computer classified as reptile based on it physical construction. Putting the creatures aside for the moment, the sensors were unable to penetrate the cloud to a sufficient depth to determine a center point or source of origin. Now some things we think we do know.”

Many of the group shifted in their seats with several wearing a look of disappointment as if anticipated news had failed to enliven.

“The tendrils that were only visible through the Gausmeter were definitely generated by the cloud and advanced as its perimeter did. They appear to be the magnetic equivalent of water seeping through cracks preceding the failure of an earthen dam. As they advanced they interlaced to the extent that the Bristol’s mass became an element that worked against her, and attracting the filaments to the extent that the close packed web impeded the ship’s ability to navigate.”

“I’ve a theory about that,” the chief engineer said a wagging a finger to accentuate the thought. “If you overlay the gate attenuation fields and rotate them against each other, they’ll cancel out the interference and – “His hands formed a cat’s cradle as he spoke only for Avery to intervene.

“If you could save it for the moment chief. This is where it gets good,” Avery nodded at Wheyer. The chief engineer sank back giving Avery an aggrieved look.

“I believe, and I don’t fully understand how, that the creatures can influence the formation of these magnetic filaments at will. They may even generate them deliberately to entice or ensnare prey.”

“You mean like an Angler fish!” said Stephenson, the life sciences chief.

Wheyer nodded at the man’s supposition, “Yes.”

“Can you elaborate, Mr Wheyer,” Canthouse said.

“I’m no expert on marine zoology, but I believe an Angler fish is a deep ocean dwelling creature from Earth that uses a small bioluminescent bulb suspended in front of its face to lure prey towards it. What’s important in this reference is that the fish moves about in its own sphere of artificially created light where no natural illumination exists. From what the computer recorded during the encounter, the magnetic forces increased and diminished relevant to the creatures proximity to the ship, I believe these creatures use the same trick as the Angler fish only with magnetic influence instead of light.”

“And this is why we freed up when it went away,” said Hewton with a nod of understanding.

“Exactly.”

“And what about the noise?” asked Stephenson. Several of his colleagues turned to face him but no one responded. “Oh come on, Gentlemen, I can’t be the only one who heard it. The noise! It was a deep dull roar that shook nearly everything off the storage shelves.” He glanced around the inquisitive but unresponsive faces.

“I heard it to!” Hewton said with a nod. “Deafening it was. Like being in the belly of the beast. And it near dislodged an entire rack of munitions before it was done.”

“Roar!” An incredulous McWhitney said looking over his shoulder at Hewton. “How could the creature roar? There’s no atmosphere to act as a medium.”

“I believe I may be able to answer that,” Wheyer said. “At the time of the ‘roar’ the creature was in direct contact with the hull, and the time stamp for this sound incident coincided with the creature enduring some form of magnetic spasm. I believe it was this magnetic burst that shook the hull like a rod in an electro magnet. The fibrillation was transmitted to the atmosphere inside the ship and we heard it as a roar. Magnetic resonance may be a form of communication within the cloud.”

“And what about the creatures themselves?” asked Hewton.

“The entities themselves are more of a mystery. We recorded hundreds of terabytes of data but we can’t spare the cpu time to scrutinize it to any useful degree. We’ll need a serious mainframe to make any sort of sense out of it in a meaningful time frame. But what we do know is we can distract them, and we can even hurt them. Wherever they’re from they appear to be just as mortal as the rest of us, which is a good thing judging by their size. ”

“D’you think we’ll see them again?” asked Hewton.

“Well,” Wheyer scratched the side of his face as he considered. “Before coming to this meeting, I scanned everywhere within sensor range for further evidence of the clouds signature, and, well –“

“And!” McWhitney almost barked as he sat forward, his face a fine impatient blush.

“I detected nothing even close to the clouds signature.”

“So they’ve gone?”

“I believe they don’t pose any immediate threat to the ship, sir.”

The group again muttered amongst themselves. Wheyer caught Canthouse stifling a wide yawn as Avery said something too low to be heard, only to pause and habitually look up at the intercom, as did every man present when a double gong sounded. Canthouse automatically reached for his tablet and gave the screen a curious look. He passed it to Avery who considered it and departed immediately.

“Gentlemen, I’m afraid we’ll have to pick this up later as the commander is awake and I’m needed on the bridge. You’ll be made aware of any urgent updates as and when they occur. Thank you.” Canthouse recovered the tablet and departed with Wheyer following close behind.