Terminus (Fringe Worlds #1) (26 page)

Chapter 38

Maker didn’t know what kind of job Wayne and the others did on the ship, but after fifteen minutes they were all back aboard and ready to go. Again, Maker pushed the dropship – and his squad – to the physical limit, rising as fast as he could go.

The minute they cleared the atmosphere, he was on the comm to the
Mantis
, requesting permission to come aboard.

“I’m sorry, Lieutenant,” said the comm officer he spoke to. “We’re in the countdown stage of our jump. Opening the bay doors would jeopardize that.”

“But we’re already here!” Maker insisted as the dropship closed on the
Mantis
. “It will only take a couple of minutes at most!”

“I’m sorry, but the captain has given strict orders,” the officer said. “No one else is allowed to board at this time.”

“But we’re right outside!” Maker almost screamed. “Just open the damn bay!”

“That’s not going to happen, Maker,” said Browing, taking over the comm. “I’m sorry, but you’re too late. We go to hyperspace in thirty seconds.”

Browing disconnected.

Maker sat in the pilot’s seat, thinking at a furious pace. If ever he needed a brain boost, now was the time. He needed a plan.

“El-tee,” Adames said after about ten seconds, causing Maker to turn towards him. “It’s over. We need to be moving.”

Adames appeared deeply concerned, and rightfully so. The area that a jump engine would shift into hyperspace was known as the jump field, and it typically didn’t extend beyond a spaceship’s exterior. However, most experts agreed that anything that got too close when a jump drive activated ran a real risk of being torn apart, with a portion of it being dragged into hyperspace and the rest left behind.

“Gant,” said Adames when Maker failed to respond, “we gotta go.”

“No,” Maker said, coming to a decision. “Everyone, make sure you’re strapped in tight.”

Maker turned back to the controls, guiding the dropship forward until they were almost flush with the hull of the
Mantis
.

All of a sudden everyone pitched forward in their seats as the dropship came to a sudden halt.

“What the hell was that?” asked Diviana. “Did we ram them?”

“Not quite,” Maker said over his shoulder. “I activated the magnetic clamps.”

Six pairs of eyes suddenly bulged in surprise, staring at Maker.

“We’re attached to the hull of the
Mantis
,” he stated.

“Oh my G–” Loyola began, just as the
Mantis
leaped into hyperspace.

Chapter 39

Captain Henry was on the bridge of the
Mantis
, nervously drumming his fingers. His ship had just come out of hyperspace in some unknown region of the cosmos even farther out than that open sewer of a world known as Terminus. (Scans revealed that they were in a solar system with three planets, none of which contained any life.) Now they were supposed to hang out here for who knew how long until that popinjay Browing had some super-secret meeting or other.

He looked around his bridge. In addition to the usual complement of officers, he also had Browing present, Dr. Chantrey, and – sitting in a hoverchair because he was allegedly too weak to walk – some guy who looked like he’d done hard time in the worst penal colony in the galaxy.

“Captain,” one of the officers on duty said. “I’ve got an airlock opening on the starboard bow.”

“What?” Henry was more than a little perturbed. “Where was the opening sequence initiated?”

“Outside the ship,” came the answer.

“What does that mean?” asked Dr. Chantrey, who was a little intrigued by what she was hearing.

“It means we’ve been boarded,” answered the captain. He turned to one of his officers. “Get a security team down there on the double.”

“Yes, sir,” the officer replied and then departed.

A few minutes later, Maker – stripped down to a pair of exercise shorts – was escorted onto the bridge by four armed men.

Neither Browing nor Dr. Chantrey could hide their surprise.

“I don’t believe it…” Browing muttered.

“What’s this?” Captain Henry asked.

“Sir,” said one of the men guarding Maker, “we found seven people who had boarded from the compromised airlock. This one insisted on seeing you.”

“Why’s he half-naked?” the captain asked.

“They were wearing armor when we found them,” the guard replied. “We didn’t think we should bring him onto the bridge suited up like that, so we had him strip and leave it by the airlock.”

“You didn’t have to bring him to the bridge at all,” Henry countered.

“Captain,” Maker said, stepping forward, “I know my being here is against protocol–”

“Protocol?!” Henry exclaimed. “It merits a court-martial!”

“Fine then, convene a court-martial if you want, but right now you need to listen to me,” Maker said. “You’re about to be attacked.”

“No,” Browing said, “you’re not. We’re here to conduct a peaceful interchange, and there is no indication that anything untoward is going to happen.”

“Captain, you’re a seasoned officer,” Maker said. “From one military man to another, I’m telling you that an attack is imminent. You have to trust me.”

“Trust you?” Henry said to Maker. “I don’t even know how you got here!”

“Easy,” Maker said. “We magnetically attached our dropship to your hull before you jumped.”

There were a few harsh intakes of breath as people realized what he’d done.

“I see now that the stories about you are right,” Browing said. “You really are a maniac and a madman, only that’s an understatement.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Maker said with a smile. Mentally, however, he had to admit that there was a certain amount of truth to Browing’s comment. Hitching a ride when the
Mantis
jumped had been a terrible gamble – one that could easily have cost the lives of the Marines under his command.

“Wait just a minute,” the captain said. “Are you telling me that there’s another vessel attached to the outside of my ship?”

“No sir,” Maker answered. “There was, but we detached it before we came inside. It’s moving away as we speak.”

“Thank heaven for small favors,” Browing said sarcastically.

Before Maker could retort, one of the bridge officers spoke.

“Sir, I’ve got a large ship that just dropped out of hyperspace heading our way.”

“That’s them!” Maker yelled. “You need to go to high alert!”

“I don’t need to do any–” Henry began, only to have his words cut off as the ship suddenly shook violently and klaxons began sounding.

“What the hell was that?” the captain asked.

“Sir, we’re under attack. We’ve got a breach of the outer hull along three decks.”

“Get our shields up!” Captain Henry shouted.

“Shields activated, sir,” said one of the other officers, just as the ship shook again.

“What the…?” the captain began. “I thought you said those shields were up!”

“Shields
are
up,” said the officer in question. “But they’re ineffective. The enemy weapon is somehow managing to penetrate them.”

The sub rosa tech
, Maker thought. The Vacra were using it to blast through the shields on the
Mantis
.

“We’re just sitting ducks here,” the captain said. “Why aren’t we returning fire?”

“The weapons can’t get a lock on the target,” someone said. “It’s like it’s not there as far as the instruments are concerned.”

“Happy now?” Maker said to Browing. “All your machinations are going to end up with us getting blown to bits in space.”

“Me?” Browing said with incredulity. “This is probably your fault. They probably saw your ship out there and recognized it from your attack on their hideout. You’ve ruined a great deal!”

“You never had a deal, you idiot!” Maker responded, as the ship convulsed again from another attack by the Vacra ship. “You want to know why they were willing to give you some of that tech, maybe even promise you the rest of it? Because they had
him
!”

Maker pointed at Planck, who was sitting in a hoverchair nearby – the man Captain Henry had thought was in bad shape.

“He was the lead scientist and he knew everything that was going on aboard that ship. Anything the Vacra gave to you, he could probably duplicate. But now we have their ace in the hole. Remember that bomb on his spine? They’d rather have him dead than lose him.”

As if to confirm this statement, the ship got hit again by the Vacra.

“Shield integrity is failing,” someone said.

“Enough of this,” Maker muttered. He pulled the little square Wayne had given him from a pocket, flipped it open, and firmly pressed the button inside.

For a moment, nothing seemed to happen. Then, a few seconds later, lights on board the ship began flashing and a number of computer screens on the bridge began shooting sparks.

“What in the world…?” Dr. Chantrey began.

“Shields are down!” someone yelled.

“So are weapons!” another officer said.

“And the engines!” said a third.

“What the hell was that they hit us with?” the captain said.

“Instruments are reading it as a solar electromagnetic pulse,” was the reply. “It knocked out the shields, weapons, and a few other systems, but we still have some online, like scanners.”

“A solar EMP?” Captain Henry said, confused. “We aren’t anywhere near the sun in this system.”

“The source wasn’t the sun, sir,” said one of the officers. “It originated from a small vessel – dropship configuration – that is now drifting between our position and the alien ship that attacked us.”

“A dropship…” Browing mumbled, then looked at Maker, as did Dr. Chantrey and Captain Henry.

“What did you do?” Browing said to Maker.

“I stopped the Vacra from attacking,” Maker replied.

“How?” asked Dr. Chantrey.

“Easy,” Maker said. “With a nova bomb.”

Chapter 40

Browing tried to laugh, but couldn’t.

“Yeah, right,” he scoffed in disbelief. “A nova bomb.”

“Yes,” Maker said. There was silence for a few moments as everyone weighed his statement.

Maker didn’t blame them for being skeptical. Nova bombs were banned weapons, explosives that detonated with the force of a sun. One of them could destroy a solar system.

“Are you really trying to say that your dropship is carrying a nova bomb?” Browing asked.

“No,” he retorted. “I’m saying the dropship
is
a nova bomb.”

“How is that possible?” Dr. Chantrey asked.

Maker simply smiled. Frankly speaking, it hadn’t been particularly difficult. Adames had managed to obtain most of the supplies needed (although he surely didn’t know what they were for) and had actually done a lot of the work in the form of Maker’s “upgrades.” After that, it was just a matter of incorporating everything into the ship’s structure. (There’s no law that says a bomb has to adhere to a certain shape.) Plus, building it into the ship made it easier to hide the weapon from prying eyes. Finally, Wayne had built the trigger mechanism for him, which he had just pressed moments earlier. (Again, Maker felt a debt of gratitude to the young Marine. Even had Maker chosen to have Erlen give him a constant brain boost, he still wouldn’t have had time to do everything himself.)

“Fine, if that’s truly a nova bomb,” Dr. Chantrey continued, “how much time do we have until it detonates?”

“Nova bombs are really built to take out entire fleets,” said Maker. “They first send out an EMP, which is designed to disable the shields of any ships in the vicinity. Then, when the EMP reaches the end of its outward trajectory, the bomb explodes, destroying the now-unprotected ships.”

“That still doesn’t answer my question,” the doctor said. “How long?”

Maker shrugged. “A large fleet can extend the breadth of a solar system. The bomb doesn’t explode until the EMP has a chance to reach all of a fleet’s ships. At a guess, I’d say we have twenty minutes, while the pulse is radiating outward from its point of origin.”

“But it can’t be a nova bomb,” Browing insisted. “A nova bomb is initiated by a unique chemical reaction, and the specific elements required for it are kept in secure vaults in secret locations and their exact tally – how much is on hand – is known at all times. Where would he get…”

Browing’s voice faded as the truth dawned on him.

“Erlen,” Dr. Chantrey said. “He can duplicate any chemical.”

“Or a reasonable facsimile,” Maker added. “And if you’re wondering if I really know how to build a nova bomb, I’m happy to remind you that I had the pleasure of seeing one dismantled once, during that bogus mission I was sent on. Building my own just required me to reverse that process. Plus, the scientist who took it apart had all kinds of plans and schematics to make sure he did it right, and I got a chance to look at them all.”

“So all you’d need was a brain boost from Erlen to remember how to do it,” the doctor summed up.

“Holy crap!” Browing screamed in frustration. “You’ve killed us all with this homemade weapon of yours.”

“No, I’ve
saved
you, because right now that weapon is the only thing standing between you and oblivion,” Maker corrected. “The Vacra’s shields are down, along with their engines, just like us. If they’ve got weapons available, they’re probably terrified to fire them because if our ship explodes it might trigger the nova bomb.”

“So, that really is a nova bomb out there?” asked Captain Henry, who had been trying to follow the conversation (but really couldn’t because he didn’t know half of what they were talking about).

“Yes, sir,” Maker answered.

“Do you realize the position you’ve put us in?” asked the captain.

“I realize it’s a bit of a footrace to see who can get their ship back in working order first, but I didn’t have much choice. They’ve got my friend on their ship, and now’s the best time for a rescue, while they’ve got their hands full trying to–”

Captain Henry held up his hand. “Hold on, you’ve got a friend on that ship?”

“It’s just a
pet
,” Browing interjected. “One that made the trip to Terminus with him.”

Maker frowned but said nothing.

“Alright, even if I were willing to help you – and I’m not,” Henry insisted, “what you’ve done in simply building that bomb is a major crime, let alone activating it.”

The captain turned to the men who had escorted Maker in. “Guards, take him away. And this time keep him off my bridge.”

“I’ll personally see to it, sir,” said a voice Maker recognized but had practically forgotten about.

Kepler.

Maker had been so intent on warning Captain Henry about the Vacra that he hadn’t even noticed the man, who was apparently part of the bridge crew.

“Thank you,” the captain said.

Kepler and the guards moved to flank Maker, but found their way blocked by Planck, who had unobtrusively floated over next to Maker while everyone was talking. Quickly, he said something to Maker too softly for anyone else to hear. Maker nodded to Planck, and then allowed himself to be escorted from the bridge.

Henry spent the next few minutes cracking the whip on his people, reminding them that they had roughly twenty minutes to get the
Mantis
back on her feet. They were in a tough situation thanks to that nut Lieutenant Maker, but he wasn’t about to give up.

“Sir,” said one of the officers near the captain, “I’ve got another air lock opening.”

“Is it from the outside again?”

“No, sir. It’s from the inside this time.”

Henry frowned, a sudden distasteful thought occurring to him.

“Check on the security team who just escorted the lieutenant off my bridge,” Henry said.

One of his officers answered with “No response,” a few seconds later.

“Have the closest security guard check the route they took with the lieutenant,” Henry said, now worried. The answer came back moments later.

“The security team is down, sir,” was the response.

“All of them?” Henry asked.

“Yes, sir. All.”

Henry closed his eyes and massaged his temples, feeling a massive headache coming on. Assuming they survived, this was going to go into the captain’s log as the worst day ever.