The Epherium Chronicles: Embrace (19 page)

The Marine team lead for the mission was Sergeant Toronaga and his voice came over the channel. “Watchtower, this is Recon 1. We can see a lot of battle damage along the hull. Strikes are consistent with rail-gun impacts. Can you confirm?”

Hood and the others behind him watched the camera vid closely. The impacts along the armor plates were indicative of high velocity rounds. The shuttle’s camera looked into one of the larger holes in the superstructure. He couldn’t tell what caused the explosion, but it was near one of the damaged docking bays; possibly a secondary ordinance explosion.

“Confirmed, Recon 1,” Hood said over the open channel. “We thought the same thing. Scans show severe damage to her jump drive. She could have tried to jump out from a fight during the war and the resulting failure could have sling shot her here.” He looked over at the sensor scans. “Recon 1, I want you to proceed to the docking bay aft of your position. It looks to be your best way inside.”

“Roger that, Watchtower,” Toronaga responded. “We’re heading there now.”

The assault shuttle arrived at the docking bay and pivoted so its loading ramp was facing the open bay. “Watchtower, we’ve arrived. The bay has some internal damage, so we can’t set down the shuttle, but my team can use our packs to get us inside.”

“Proceed with caution, Recon 1,” Hood ordered. Things were going well so far, but he still didn’t like it. Derelict or not, it wasn’t like the Cilik’ti to leave ships or equipment lying around.

Toronaga and his other two team members activated their MACE suit jet packs and one by one, they entered the docking bay. “Watchtower, I’m seeing a lot of drones still in the bay, most in carriages of some sort on the walls. There’s ordinance all over the deck. Whatever fight they were in, it must have been pretty chaotic.”

“Roger that, Rover 1,” Hood said. “Mind the ordinance and see if you can find a path on one of the lower levels. Maybe you can get to their Engine rooms.”

Toronaga and his team slowly made their way to the left side of the bay, where a large hallway led deeper into the ship.

Something flashed on Aldridge’s panel. “Sir, I’m picking up a strange signal.”

“Confirmed, sir. I’m getting it too,” Wells added. “It’s origin is remote and weak, sir. It’s not coming from the ship.”

“Sir, I’m picking up movement in the bay,” Aldridge alerted Hood. “It’s not our team.”

“Oh no,” Hood mouthed. “Rover 1, get out of their now. I repeat. Get out of there!”

Toronaga ordered his team back to the shuttle. “Watchdog, I have drone movement in the bay. Correction, drones are free and live!” Sounds of gunfire from his MACE’s weapon consumed the channel.

Hood looked back at Aldridge. “Get those fighters on station now, Lieutenant, and I want solutions on that cruiser!”

Two of Toronaga’s team leaped from the bay and onto the waiting assault shuttle’s boarding ramp. From the camera vid of the shuttle, Hood could see Toronaga retreating to the edge of the bay. An explosion erupted to his right and his MACE was thrown backward toward the shuttle. Toronaga turned, but his trajectory was low. With his free hand, he reached up and grabbed the ramp’s support arm. “Go, go, go!” he yelled to the pilots over the comm.

The shuttle burst away from the Cilik’ti vessel just as several Cilik’ti fighter drones emerged. Toronaga twisted his body and fired more rounds from his weapon at the approaching drones, while his team struggled to bring him inside. His weapon fire was joined by the cannons of the assault shuttle. Two of the drones exploded, but more exited the bay firing wildly.

Toronaga stopped firing and crawled onto the ramp, just as the shuttle swerved around a large piece of armor plating in the debris field. The shuttle was losing ground to the drones, but their particle blasts failed to score any hits and the drones lacked the typical attack patterns. The shuttle blasted clear of the field and cannon fire from the fighters decimated the first group of drones to reach the field’s edge.

“All port side batteries open fire on the cruiser. Target that docking bay!” Hood shouted.

The
Armstrong’s
rail guns launched a hail of projectiles toward the cruiser. Three of the rounds entered the exterior of the docking bay. Their sheer kinetic energy shredded the bay and parts of the ship around it. Secondary explosions soon began to erupt.

“Sir, I’m reading massive explosions on multiple levels of the ship,” Aldridge said. “She’s breaking up.”

“Is the shuttle back aboard?” Hood asked.

“Yes, sir, and all remaining drones have been destroyed.”

Hood could hear McCracken almost whimper. “No.”

“Helm, return us to the beacon,” Hood ordered and walked over to McGregor. “Check on your people, Major.” Hood gave a hard look over at McCracken who stood passively watching the Cilik’ti vessel be consumed by the explosions tearing it apart. Hood felt the twinges of anger build up inside him. He shouldn’t have let McCracken influence his decision and it nearly cost the lives of more people under his command. He looked at McGregor, “They’re lucky to be alive.”

Wanting to put some distance between himself and McCracken, Hood walked over to Lieutenant Wells at her station. “Lieutenant, anything on that strange signal?”

“No, sir,” she said with disappointment. “It was weak and seemed to be targeted at the cruiser. We only picked up a remnant of it from the Marines and their shuttle.”

Hood added it to a growing long list of concerns. If the signal didn’t come from the wrecked cruiser, then where?

Chapter Fourteen

EDF Armstrong
Deep Space Route to Cygni
Wednesday
,
January 22
Earth Year 2155
Six Hours Since Third Jump

“
Captain’s Personal Log
,
Wednesday January 22
,
2155.
I
just finished my operational status briefing.
Despite our nearly disastrous incident
,
I’ve been extremely impressed with the professionalism of this new—and by my account—very young crew.
There have been a few system malfunctions over the past few days
,
but each has been handled expertly and without permanent damage or spillover to other systems.

Admiral Tramp assured me that he and Admiral Grant supported my decision to investigate the wrecked Cilik’ti cruiser and its ultimate destruction.
I
am sure Mr.
McCracken will still be grumbling for days
,
but there was no good result from the situation.
Only an ideal one and experience has taught me well that there is broad stroke between the ideal and reality.

I’ve finally had the chance to review Lieutenant Greywalker’s security assessment
,
and she definitely comes as advertised.
Her report is remarkably thorough and includes insights on various potential threats and crew personalities
,
including my own.
I
never thought of myself as a lion silently waiting for the cage door to open
,
but I am open to understand her conclusions on that one.
Her level of detail is exhaustive and frankly
,
I
am surprised she was able to find the time to review and correlate all her findings.
She has to sleep sometime doesn’t she?

Her observations before our last jump put the crew’s anxiety levels as higher than I would have expected
,
but completely understandable.
We are farther out from Proxima than any other EDF ship has traveled since the war.
Coupled with our most recent events
,
I
too
,
find myself still a little on edge.

Anyway
,
I
can’t let myself dwell on the possibility of an enemy attack in deep space.
If it happens
,
I
am confident we will be ready.
Instead
,
I
have looked more closely at the final jumps of our mission.
We have three more full range jumps to reach Cygni
,
and I am continuing our practice of charging our space-fold batteries to full power in case of emergencies.

The next to last jump looks to be near a rogue asteroid field.
According to EDF stellar records
,
the field may have occurred due to a planetary collision with a comet in the Cygni system
,
and the impact pushed the debris out of the system.
After reviewing the projected flight path of the Magellan
,
there was a specific course plotted to circumvent the field and provide a clear drop point for their hyper beacon.

Before our last jump
,
the use of the beacons as remote scanners has been extremely effective.
As an added precaution
,
I
will instruct Lieutenant Aldridge to widen the scan range and look for threats from the asteroids.
If the Cilik’ti want to hit us
,
that is where I would strike.

I
keep thinking about the Magellan’s crew and what we’ll find.
As each jump brings us closer
,
my prayers for their continued safety have increased
,
and my hope remains strong.
I
still keep playing the scenarios of meeting my uncle again over and over again in my mind.
Will he even recognize me?
What do I tell him?
How do I explain all that’s happened since they left?
Will they understand that I may have to evacuate them from a threat they have never seen?

But then again
,
what if he didn’t survive?

Right now it’s too much to think about.
The crew
...”

Hood turned off the recording as his terminal flashed with an incoming communication. He pressed a button on his terminal to open the channel. “This is Hood.”

Lieutenant Aldridge appeared on the screen. “Sorry to bother you, Captain, but I felt this was important.”

Waiving off her concern, Hood replied, “It’s alright, Lieutenant. What’s on your mind?”

“Well sir, Mr. McCraken stopped by my station a little while ago. You know the usual chit-chat about systems, and how they compared to my previous assignments. It was normal, but he caught me at lunch and was inquiring about members of the crew and their specialties. I just shut him down there and left, but he’s been asking around other areas, sir. It’s almost like he’s recruiting for something,” Aldridge explained. “I thought it best to let you know firsthand before it became a bigger problem.”

Hood’s door chime to his quarters chirped, and a voice called from the hallway. “Captain Hood! Do you have a moment? I would like to talk with you.” The voice clearly belonged to Henry McCraken.

Hood turned back to his console. “It seems our cricket is now chirping at my door. Don’t worry, Lieutenant, I’ll take care of our pest problem.”

“Thank you, sir,” Aldridge whispered as she closed the comm channel.

Hood sat back in chair and put on his best look of respectful contempt. “Come in, Mr. McCraken.”

As the door slid open, McCraken stepped in confidently. Hood noticed he was dressed slightly out of style for the Epherium executive. His typical business suit was replaced with dress slacks and non-descript short sleeve shirt with a sweater vest, but his sly smile was intact. “Good afternoon, Captain. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to see me.”

Hood sat forward in his chair. “Yes, Henry, my schedule is busy, so let’s get to it.”

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about Cygni and our mission. I was going to bring this up in our meeting we were to have today, but I’ve talked to a few people and I think—”

Hood put up his hand and interrupted him. “I know, I’ve heard.” McCraken tilted his head slightly in confusion. “It’s a big ship, Henry, but not that big. Word gets around.”

McCraken seemed slight taken aback by Hood’s revelation. He tried to speak again but Hood beat him to it.

“Let’s look at what you just said, shall we. First of all, this is not our mission. This is the EDF’s and the
Armstrong’s
mission. You, as a representative of Epherium, are an observer and an observer only.” Hood gestured for McCraken to pull up a chair. “I thought I made that clear when you came on board,” Hood nearly shouted. “Secondly, as an observer, you and your staff were duly informed that they were not to interfere or hinder my crew during your time on board. I’ve already received a list of complaints and that doesn’t make me happy.”

McCraken finally found a chair and sat down. “Captain, I am truly sorry if I or my staff have caused any undo harm or hindrance to any of your crew. It was clearly not my intention.”

Hood silenced him with another annoyed look. “Just tell me what you want. If it’s information you wanted, I should have been consulted first. It would have saved you the hassle.”

McCraken nodded his head in capitulation. “Understood, Captain. What was I trying to gauge from members of the crew were their thoughts on the planet. As you know, Epherium has a great deal of capital invested in these colony ships, and the promise of what we might find.” He sat back and assumed a more casual conversational pose as he crossed his legs. “I was merely hoping to determine skill sets among the crew that could help benefit my team and Earth’s best interests in evaluating the planet’s potential.”

Hood shook his head in disbelief. “Henry, I’ve known most of the top level Epherium execs for several years, but you, you still continue to amaze me. There are over five thousand people on that planet whose lives may be at risk, and all you can think of is turning a profit?” Hood stood. “What kind of ethics does Epherium stress these days? I figured you were heartless, but when exactly did you sell your soul?”

“Please Captain, calm down,” McCraken pleaded. “Of course our first concerns are the colonists and their safety. We are simply looking at the possible future, if the planet and our people are safe. If that is the case, we need to be ready to identify all the ways this new planet can alleviate our needs back home.” McCraken stood and slowly walked to the sink on the wall of Hood’s quarters. As he poured a glass of water, he turned back to where Hood was standing. “I know you get the same reports I’ve received of the unrest back home. Who can tell what we might find? New resources, new species of animals or plants, or a variety of other discoveries that could offer new possibilities for our people may well be out there.”

Hood snorted and crossed his arms. “So what do you need?”

“I propose that once you determine that the planet and the colonists are safe, you assign a team from your crew to assist us in surveys, both on the surface and via the orbital satellites your ship will deploy.” McCraken walked over to Hood and put his water on his desk. “Look, the technology to gather the data we need about the planet on the
Magellan
is ancient compared to what we have today. The
Magellan’s
crew will be spending weeks on overland missions alone just to do scans. We can cut it down to a fraction of the time, and that will help the higher ups back home decide who would most benefit. That is, if they chose to come out here.”

“And of course, Epherium would want some sort of consulting fee for providing this information to those interested parties,” Hood said.

McCraken drank the water in one long gulp. “Oh, come on, Captain. Let’s not get into the nitty gritty, but yes, I could see that Epherium could provide a valuable service to anyone interested.”

Hood sat back down and rubbed his chin as he thought for a moment. He knew McCraken’s intentions, while a bit crass, did have some merit. “Alright, if indeed we find the colonists safe and there are no immediate threats, I will assign a small group to work with you, but I want assura—”

Hood’s terminal beeped with a priority message. “One moment,” he said as he opened the channel.

Commander Sanchez was standing next to Aldridge at the Tactical station on the bridge. “Captain, our long range sensors have picked up a contact, just at the edge of our range.”

Concern flooded Hood’s mind and he could feel the hairs beginning to stand on his neck, but he didn’t let it show as he responded, “Any ID or signature?”

“No, sir. Whatever it is, it’s small. We can’t get a reading on it. I ordered a course correction to close and identify, but she’s shadowing us and maintaining distance,” Sanchez explained.

“Sound General Quarters and scramble two squadrons of fighters to close and identify. I’m on my way to the Command Deck. Hood out.” Hood switched off his terminal and headed for the door, as he looked over at a now very concerned McCraken, “Sorry Henry, but this will have to wait. We
will
continue this discussion later. For now, I suggest you return to your quarters.”

“Will do, Captain. Thank you for providing me your opinion. I do value it,” McCraken answered and as they both left, Sanchez’s voice could be heard over the
Armstrong’s
communication system calling the ship’s crew to their battle stations.

* * *

As Hood entered the Command Deck, Sanchez was already waiting for him. “What’s the situation?” Hood asked, as they walked to the Command Station.

“The contact is still shadowing, but our fighters are closing,” Sanchez stated. He checked the monitors again. “Estimated four minutes to visual range.”

Hood watched the tactical display from his station. As the fighters continued to close in on the contact, time seemed to slow down to a veritable crawl, and Hood could sense the tension at many of the stations on the Command Deck was high.

Aldridge continued her countdown to contact as the squadrons approached. As she reached the one minute mark, the contact dropped from the sensor grid.

“Blast!” Hood yelled and quickly looked back at the Tactical Station for Aldridge. “Do the fighters have a visual?”

Aldridge immediately contacted one of the squadron leaders. After a few moments, she looked up and shook her head. “Negative, sir. Contact has bugged out.”

“Have the fighters do a sweep of the last known location and return,” Hood told Sanchez before turning back to Aldridge. “How fast can we get an analysis on all sensor readings? We need to know what we are dealing with.”

“My team is uploading it now. We should have something in about fifteen,” she responded without even looking from her terminal.

Hood shook his head and sat down. Sanchez joined him. “This is a different play for the Cilik’ti. Bait and run isn’t their style.”

“I agree. If you see them they’re going to hit you. They may strike from hidden positions, but they never run off,” Sanchez said.

Hood typed some commands on his terminal, and the scenario they had just encountered replayed on the screen. He watched it through twice before turning it off and sitting back in his chair. “At that range, one of their recon ships would have easily had us in sensor range and could remain hidden.”
Or send a directed signal to that wrecked cruiser
, he thought to himself. He looked back at Aldridge again. “Any gravimetric disturbances or other faint energy spikes in the area?”

Aldridge scanned her station quickly. “Negative, sir. No space-fold events or energy spikes detected. If she’s out there, she went silent.”