Redemption Protocol (Contact) (87 page)

“Oxygen fire spreading into the relay arc of sector six.”

The Ship Captain highlighted a location on their ship topo.

“General Forge is establishing a position in sector five. He has two drones in support.”

Szabo shook his head as he gazed out the window. The sooner he got rid of Forge the better.

“Are we ready to jettison General Forge and his guest?”

“Affirmative, Comrade Admiral. The trajectory of the aft section is locked. Directional jets are configured and ready to fire on your mark.”

The Tactical Officer cleared her throat. Szabo glanced over his shoulder. The Tactical Officer was practically hopping from foot to foot.

“You have your assessment?”

“Yes, Comrade Admiral. The situation is far worse than we anticipated.”

Szabo’s eyes narrowed.

“Worse?”

“The cloud is accelerating in bursts, Comrade Admiral. Its acceleration dwarves our own.”

“So?”

“Given the scale of the Diss cloud, its acceleration and the acceleration of ejected ship section, I do not believe that the alien artifact will be sufficiently clear. We have at most a negligible chance of avoiding being consumed along with it.”

Szabo glowered at her.

“You’re telling me we’re too late to get rid of the alien artifact? Already?”

Her throat bobbed as she raised her chin.

“Yes, Comrade Admiral.”

Szabo spat air.

“Pizdets.”

They would have to fight the Diss.

He stared at the scintillating cloud extending in waves toward the
Relentless
. It was stunningly impressive, completely unknown and fucking terrifying. The light from the cloud played across his face. He cursed himself for waiting. He should have bundled Forge and his stick into a shuttle when he had the chance. Twenty-twenty hindsight, of course.

“That thing is coming to get us. Or to get Forge's alien technology back.”

He spun round to look at the Tactical Officer.

“Your assessment?”

“Directed energy weapons are inadequate due to the scale of the threat, Comrade Admiral. Our effect weapons do not cover the extent of the cloud – we could destroy perhaps thirty percent of its extent. That is not our main risk, however, which is the time we have before it reaches our vessel. It appears our ship will be consumed within twenty minutes at most.”

“At
most
?”

“Indeed, Comrade Admiral. It appears that an orderly withdrawal is our best option until we are in a position to counter the threat.”

Szabo glared at the woman.

“You are suggesting that we
abandon ship
?”

The Tactical Officer visibly buckled under his baleful stare, but to her credit she held to her recommendation.

“Yes, Comrade Admiral. We should stand off in the shuttles until we understand how to counter the threat that the cloud presents.”

“Our best weapon coverage is less than a third of the cloud? Even with antimatter munitions?”

“That is correct, Comrade Admiral.”

Szabo regarded her for a moment. He admired her tenacity.

“Thank you, Lieutenant.”

She nodded.

“Comrade Admiral.”

Szabo regarded the cloud. He blew out his cheeks.

“Ni khuya sebe. My actions will bring shame on us all. For that, I am truly sorry. Communications?”

“Comrade Admiral?”

“Request berths on the People's Republic
Loyalty
as per the Savrasov-Bukin Pact.”

The Vice Commander looked shocked.

“You plan to evacuate, Comrade Admiral?”

Szabo nodded. He could hardly believe the words coming out of his mouth.

“We must be realistic. Forge has brought a subversive device into the heart of our ship. We have no time. We cannot outrun this weapon so we must evacuate the ship.”

“Surely, Comrade Admiral––”

“Muster the shuttles. We will stand off and evaluate what happens.”

Szabo turned to the Communications Officer.

“Well?”

“The
Loyalty
offers berths for ten personnel, Comrade Admiral.”

“That would seem to cover the remaining crew, would it not?”

“It would, Comrade Admiral, but I had wondered about General Forge...”

Szabo’s waved his hand dismissively.

“There is no better place for General Forge to test his hypothesis that the Diss are not attacking. He can stay here with his magic stick. We shall retire to the People’s Republic
Loyalty
. If General Forge is correct we shall return forthwith. If he is not, well what better place to study what happens to our glorious
Relentless
than from an exploration vessel like the
Loyalty
? Set weapons to engage if the cloud comes too close. This shall provide even more useful data. Let the record show that I am more concerned with the collection of valuable data than the pointless sacrifice of crew.”

The Vice Commander nodded with due gravity.

“So noted, Comrade Admiral. When do we evacuate?”

“Immediately.”

“Should we inform General Forge of our decision?”

The glittering nebula rippled and seethed like a living organism.

“I see no need to interfere with General Forge’s tactical battle management. It is critical that the alien Scepter remains in a known location. Besides, no commander better understands the need for sacrifice than our dear General Forge.”

 241. 

Weaver leaned back against the curving surface of the alien ship. Its odd depressions and counterintuitive shapes felt utterly foreign. She felt like she was inhabiting the heart and lungs of a metallic predator. The ship structure snaked around her in a series of swooping arches adorned with sleek pipes and conduits.

Curving down each side of her elliptical central area were six crystalline towers. Each tower was oddly segmented and disjointed with their strata running in different directions as if the blocks that comprised their sparkling structure had been dropped at random. Thousands of fine needles protruded from each tower. It looked like if she swept her hand over them they’d break off like ice crystals. She didn't try.

What the hell am I doing here
, she thought. This would be the craziest thing she'd ever done – assuming she actually tried to do it. Even crazier than her weekend away with Toly 'The Skull' Maryin, lead singer of the Bojangel Murderers. And that weekend had been pretty crazy. Then again if she'd put a foot wrong that weekend then a river of energy wouldn’t have incinerated her brain and burned her eyes out. She compared her weekend with Toly to the last forty eight hours. Maybe it hadn't been so crazy after all.

She shook her head. She'd felt so confident when she'd walked out of the cabin to enter the library. She'd still felt brave when she’d crossed the library and come down the steps to the ship. It was inside the ship that things had felt a little different. A little different in the sense of the absolute diametric opposite.

She looked at the symbols by the plinth that indicated the power level. The progression of difficulty wasn't linear – as the rows went higher the difficulty increased geometrically. Her previous highest access level was two thousand. And here she was, looking at the glyphs for the power level of the ship. It was unbelievable, over nine thousand.

She was used to playing it safe. She liked to keep a large margin of error. She'd worked through the levels progressively. She’d nearly died at two thousand. To increase by five times in one go was crazy. Insane. She laughed at the stupidity of what she was considering. If she couldn't do it then it was two dead people instead of one.

'There's no point in trying if you're dead,
' Havoc had said to her.

She gazed around.

Assessing.

Deciding.

The access panel glinted at her. It was a gate. A transformation function. Whatever came out would be different from what went in, one way or another.

In this exact spot Kemensky's head had burned like a Roman candle.

She was better than Kemensky.

But was she that much better?

She sighed. She was just so scared. She didn't want to die. That was what it kept coming back to. She wasn't a hero. Havoc had a reckless bravery – he seemed to define courage. He understood the risks and did things anyway. He could function in that world. She couldn't even begin to imagine it. She was impulsive, she knew that, but not with life threatening risks. That was just stupid. And she wasn't stupid.

She shook her head. This wasn't just crazy. It was madness. And it was completely unjustifiable.

She wouldn't do it.

She sat back.

She thought about what Fournier had said. His rasping voice, abrupt and breathless. Her inspiration, now a broken house with the wind blowing through it. Fournier had sounded lucid when he'd spoken though, shutting up everyone else.

“
You were born to fly that ship
.”

She didn't trust herself.

But did she trust Fournier?

She thought of Havoc turning to her father, the two men dying together.

'What would you have said to her, if you could?'

'I'd say don't spend your whole life regretting what you could have done but didn't. Just do it.'

 242. 

Havoc blew through the hull plate in four places. He fired two explosive rounds in anticipation of the ship’s defensive reaction as he thrust forward. Inside the vessel, two autoturrets lifted out of the floor and were obliterated by his preemptive strike. He lased the wall at the far end of the corridor, calibrated the distance, and fired another explosive round. It detonated a meter short of the wall. The ORC drone lurking round the corner was blown apart.

Havoc was already rolling sideways, launching a stream of micromissiles as he threaded toward the far side of the vessel. His micromissiles swarmed through the ship like angry hornets, seeking out Forge and his network of passive sensors and active defenses. Micromissiles detonated along the ship and there were more hull breeches. A signal pierced through the blizzard of electromagnetic interference. Its source was unmistakable.

“Hello, Son.”

Havoc’s fury was implacable.

“It's your time, old man.”

“It's our time, Havoc. It's always a time for warriors.”

Havoc burst out of the far side of the ship into space. The glow at the front of the vessel was spectacular. Heavy ship weapons fired from the bow at point blank range. The Diss cloud churned brilliantly. Furious patterns rippled across its surface. The light generated by the Diss was incredible – it was evident that the
Relentless
wouldn’t last long. No matter, Havoc thought. He should have time. He poured kinetics into the funnel shaped section of hull that extended away from his position, then jackknifed and jetted back into the ship.

“You're no warrior, Forge. A warrior doesn't stand by and do nothing while my family burn.”

Havoc burst through the bottom of the vessel. He saw the flotilla of ORC shuttles abandoning ship. He wondered if Forge knew. He fired a salvo of micromissiles targeted in a bracelet pattern to clear the way for his advance to the next ship section. His sensor fusion detected an ORC drone launching a barrage and he looped back, threading through a rupture in the hull.

The plating in front of him vanished and he tumbled sideways, crashing through an inner wall. His electronic warfare package focused interference as he scrambled to interdict any follow up and get a lock on the drone. His battlespace showed the ORC drone’s strike was a probabilistic spread, directional micronukes detonated from further away to minimize his chance of interception.

He answered with a remise, redoubling his attack along the same line. His bracelet of micromissiles reached their destination and detonated together, taking out a sixty degree arc of the hull ahead of him. Pressurized gas erupted into space. He tried to pinpoint the position of the drone as Forge spoke in his ear.

“I did what was right, Son. I did what was necessary. I was the only one strong enough to make those choices.”

Havoc launched a salvo of micromissiles at the glimmer of a probabilistic target offered by Forge’s transmission and jetted in their wake.

“By claiming to save everyone, you save no one, Forge. There’s always a greater good for bastards like you. You lost sight of the value of a single human life.”