Titan (Old Ironsides Book 2) (21 page)

Schmidt opened his eyes as he stared again at the screen, his voice soft but carrying to every corner of the bridge.

‘It’s alive.’

‘It’s what?’ Olsen asked.

Schmidt moved to the command platform to get a better look at the visual display.

‘It’s biological,’ he said, almost it seemed in awe. ‘Life signs are permeating every single inch of the interior of that vessel, which matches no known human endeavour.’ He shook his head in wonder. ‘If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that it’s a parasite of some kind.’

‘Parasite?’ Olsen echoed, finding Schmidt’s analogy somewhat distasteful. ‘You mean that ship’s been infected with something?’

‘That’s why I pulled Titan back after the first salvo,’ Marshall replied for the doctor. ‘Looked to me that we haven’t encountered one alien species, but two.’

‘Or more correctly, one alien species and another species’ spacecraft,’ Schmidt corrected. ‘I’m detecting spectrographic evidence of titanium, magnesium and carbon in the hull, common materials with which we’re all familiar. She was built by a species not unlike our own, but now is home to…, that.’

Marshall managed a brief flash of humor. ‘But I thought that all species had feelings, doctor, that there was no “
that
” in medicine?’

‘There is when we don’t yet have a name for it,’ Schmidt replied with unassailable logic. ‘Scans indicate that it is cellular in structure, but we’re too far out to get much detail and I recommend we stay that way and send a drone or two in.’

‘Agreed,’ Marshall nodded, and gestured for the Commander of the Air Group to comply with the suggestion. ‘Then what?’

‘Then, we analyse it,’ Schmidt replied. ‘We don’t know what we’ve got here, so caution is our best bet.’

Lieutenant Foxx gently eased her way into the conversation. ‘Admiral, the prison?’

Marshall shook his head. ‘Not now lieutenant, it’ll have to wait and we can’t break that jamming signal anyway. The prison warden will have everything under control I’m sure and…’

‘Nathan’s over there, admiral,’ Vasquez said quietly, ‘along with Detective Allen.’

Marshall exhaled noAsily as he realized the danger that the two men could be in, but he knew that there was nothing that he could do to support them when far more lives were at stake right here and now.

‘They’ll have to look after themselves until we can send support,’ he said through gritted teeth.

Lieutenant Foxx and Vasquez got the hint and backed off as the Tactical Officer raised her head from her screen.

‘Drones launched, sensors active. I’m detecting no output from the vessel’s fusion cores, no internal power sources.’

Marshall frowned. ‘She just came out of super–luminal cruise, she
must
have power.’

Schmidt stared at the huge vessel which was now silent and dark, hanging like a massive icy cocoon in deep space, invisible but for the occasional reflection of Titan’s running lights glinting in the immense void.

‘It’s an ambush predator,’ he whispered softly. ‘It’s hunting.’

***

XXI

Tethys Gaol

Nathan paced up and down in an office adjoining the prison’s processing area, a series of hard–light quarantine cubicles where he could see prisoners being contained as they were ordered to strip naked and be scanned.

There was little left to chance in Tethys, the ingenuity of inmates in creating and smuggling weapons in and out of the prison a constant source of amazement for the
sticks
, as he had learned that the security personnel were known as. Nathan had already heard one story of a particularly violent inmate who had been locked in a bare cell for striking one of the sticks. With nothing but the clothes he wore, the inmate had managed to fashion from the buttons and threads of his shirt a small and roughly spherical object. When one of the prison’s medical staff arrived to tend to him the inmate was able to shove the object down their throat, blocking their windpipe as he held their choking body to ransom, the object connected to his finger by a single thread.

Nathan shivered. Although he had faced violence on many occasions in the past, he was not by his nature a violent man. Here inside the prison it wasn’t just the ever–present threat of violence and danger that broke the will of men, but the bizarre and unexpected forms which that violence could take. By definition, half of the inmates could be considered border–line psychopaths, and who knew what they might be capable of if they were let loose amid the population.

Detective Allen entered the room.

‘You got anything yet?’ Nathan asked.

‘Nothing,’ Allen replied, equally dismayed. ‘All communications are down, something to do with what’s going on outside but there’s a media blackout too, so we’re essentially blind in here.’

‘You think the warden’s done it?’ Nathan hazarded.

‘Nah,’ Allen shook his head. ‘It’s too big for a small fish like him, this is something to do with Polaris Station.’

‘What would cause the fleet to shut down everything like this?’

‘Beats me,’ Allen said, ‘but right now we’re stuck here and we don’t know what the warden’s going to do next.’

‘If he’s in on whatever’s going to happen to Reed, then we need to be there to stop it,’ Nathan said. ‘If Reed gets killed this whole thing is over.’

‘He’s probably in protective custody,’ Allen pointed out. ‘Lieutenant Foxx’s message about doubts in the conviction got through to Tethys before the communications were cut off, but we haven’t heard anything from the San Diego DA. The warden would be risking his career to keep Reed in population now.’

‘Did we get anything else from Foxx and Vasquez?’

‘Afraid not,’ Allen said, ‘they clearly had more to say but it got cut off.’

Two more men entered the room, prison guards dressed all in black armor. One of them, with a shaved head and an impossibly wide jaw, spoke in a monotone voice.

‘All Blocks are on lockdown, warden’s orders.’

‘Did the warden receive our priority request?’ Nathan asked. ‘Has Reed been placed in protective custody?’

The guard, a sergeant, shook his head. ‘Follow me.’

Nathan hurried out of the office and followed the two guards down the corridor outside. The huge passage had once been one of the conduits for gas being pumped from the station out into the huge holds of transport spacecraft, the prison merely having placed a level floor at the bottom of the immense tube to turn it into an access route. Nathan could see many more smaller and unaltered pipes running above his head that had probably contained coolants and power cables protected from the gas itself.

The guards led them through the four security gates guarding the entrance to the prison proper, and Nathan handed in his service pistol at the first before being scanned at the second and patted down at the third. The fourth gate opened onto the prison itself, the guards leading him through with Allen. On the far side, sitting on a metal bench and still manacled, was Xavier Reed.

Reed shot to his feet as he saw Nathan and Allen approaching, his features alive with wonderment.

‘You didn’t,’ he gasped.

Nathan grinned. ‘We did,’ he replied as he realized that the warden must have heeded Lieutenant Foxx’s message. ‘We’re out of here.’

Nathan walked with Xavier Reed out of the main hall and toward the exits, beneath the brooding gazes of inmates watching from the gantries above. Nathan could see the security guards ahead of them unlocking the sally port, could almost sense the fresh air that awaited outside this hellish catacomb of constant death and threatened violence. His heart began to beat more lightly as they walked and he felt the tension slip from his shoulders as the sally port appeared ahead. There awaiting them was the warden, his arms folded across his barrel chest and his red hair twinkling with glowing embers.

‘Warden,’ Nathan greeted him without warmth.

Arkon Stone showed no interest in Nathan as he looked at the sergeant. ‘What’s he here for?’

‘Prisoner two–one–oh–five–niner, Reed for transport out of population.’

Nathan stood forward, forcing the warden to acknowledge him. ‘Reed is innocent.’

‘That’s not what I heard.’

‘There is sufficient doubt over his conviction to pull him out of Tethys until further investigations can be conducted.’

‘I haven’t heard anything from New Washington, much less the DA’s office in San Diego.’

‘News is on its way,’ Allen assured him as he reached into his pocket for an electro–film, which contained a recording of the conversation he’d had with Foxx . He handed it to the warden. ‘This should cover everything. Reed’s coming with us.’

The warden looked down at the electro–film and frowned as he watched it, glancing up occasionally at Nathan as he reached pertinent points in the document. He finished it and handed it back to him before folding his arms once more.

‘This isn’t enough for me to just release Reed on your say so,’ he said. ‘If I don’t hear from the DA, he doesn’t get moved.’

Nathan felt his jaw tense as anger rippled through his nervous system. ‘The DA’s office seems tied up with something bigger than Reed’s case right now and communications are down. We’ve put in the application and the DA’s office in San Diego confirmed they’ll act upon it but we haven’t heard back yet.’

‘Then they’ve only confirmed that they’ll
act
upon it,’ Stone replied, ‘not that they’ll
free
Reed.’

Nathan was about to reply when the warden raised a huge hand to forestall him and turned his back. Nathan bit his lip as the warden consulted his optical implant, and then his voice boomed like a cannon across the sally port.

‘Shut the gates, immediate lockdown across all blocks!’

Nathan’s prior excitement withered like a flame gusted out by the winds of war as the guards heaved the gates shut once more, the warden this time on the inside as they boomed shut. Nathan glared at him.

‘Seriously, you think this is a good idea when the DA’s office has ordered you to...?’

‘No order has been received as of yet and the situation has changed,’ the warden boomed back down at Nathan, a gleefully malicious twinkle in his eye. ‘You’re staying put, and with no order for Reed’s release I have no option but to place him back in population. For safety’s sake Ill allow him a cell to himself once more.’

‘You really want to play this game?’ Nathan challenged.

‘It’s not a game,’ the warden insisted. ‘Reed stays until I get the clarification I need to let a convicted murderer walk out of this prison. Nothin’ less cuts it.’

Nathan took another pace and squared up to the warden, the big man at least an inch or two taller.

‘Wanna know what I think?’ he said. ‘I think that you’ve spent so long running this place that you’ve become a law unto yourself. You like to think that you’re untouchable.’

‘In here,’ the warden growled back, ‘that’s exactly what I am.’

‘Right up to the moment I arrived,’ Nathan shot back. ‘If anything happens to Reed in the time between now and when the DA’s clearance arrives, it’s on you warden.’

Stone shrugged. ‘Whatever. Sergeant, take Reed back to his cell and the detectives back to the main office.’

The duty sergeant and two guards hauled the miserable inmate to his feet, Reed’s eyes locked on the immoveable sally port gates as he was pulled away.

Allen sneered at the warden. ‘Another little power play? Keep us here until you see fit? Y’know I always figured that the bigger the bully the smaller their dic…’

‘Direct confirmation,’ the warden cut him off as he turned his back on both of them and strode away, ‘nothing less for Reed to walk.’

Nathan leaped forward and cut Stone off, put himself right in the warden’s face.

‘He’ll die back in population. But then I take it that’s what you want?’

The warden glowered down at Nathan, anger replacing the malice in his expression. ‘Another comment like that from you, Ironside, and I’ll put you in there with him.’

Nathan held the warden’s gaze for a long moment, and suddenly he knew without a doubt that he had no choice.

‘That’s exactly what you’re going to do,’ he replied.

The warden’s eyes widened, all pretense of anger gone as he stared down at Nathan. His voice spoke in perfect concert and harmony with Detective Allen’s.

‘What the hell are you talking about?’

‘You send Reed back in there, you’re knowingly sending him back to his death based on the warnings I’ve already given you,’ Nathan said. ‘I’ll use that in any court proceedings that I’ll start against you the moment I get back to New Washington.’

The warden opened his mouth to protest but Nathan cut him off.

‘It’s my duty to protect this prisoner for as long as his conviction is in doubt, and by forcing me to do so you’re placing two New Washington detectives directly in danger just to satisfy your own lust for power and control. Anything happens to either of us, it’s gonna be on your hands and the DA’s office will get to hear all about it. So go for your life, warden.’ Nathan cultivated a confident grin. ‘Make my day.’

The warden glared down at Nathan, now suppressed fury radiating from him like a latent supernova waiting to explode. Nathan waited as he saw a security officer jog up behind the warden and speak softly.

‘All communications have been blocked by Titan, warden,’ the officer said. ‘Everything’s on lockdown until further notice, nothing and nobody to come in or out.’

The warden’s anger faded and Nathan felt a sudden pinch of concern in his guts as the warden looked at him with a brilliant smile that split his fiery beard with white teeth. The warden folded his arms across his gigantic chest as he replied.

‘So be it,’ he rumbled. ‘You want to be sent down with Reed here, for his protection.’

Detective Allen stood forward.

‘Well, now, I think that what Nathan actually meant was that…’

‘I’d be happy to oblige!’ the warden cut him off jubilantly as he boomed his response loudly enough for the entire block to hear. ‘You’re right, Reed does indeed need protection and I deeply appreciate your offer,
Detective
Ironside!’