Archaea 3: Red (45 page)

As the inner lock doors closed, I noticed larger crash chairs where Yak and Shorty would sit deployed and clear on either side of the aft hatch, perfect for high altitude deployment… though I’d hate for that to be needed.

As I stepped through the lock, the gleaming console beckoned, as always. “She’s a beautiful little ship, Em”, I said.

“
I couldn’t agree more, sir. Janis is amazing… there are aspects of this design that are remarkably elegant, and to degrees I am not sure I understand yet.”

“Give yourself a little time, Em. She has a few months of old age on you. Are you comfortable operating this ship?”

“Absolutely, Captain”, she replied as confidently as I would have, and if she had eyebrows, she would have had them flying.

“I’m very concerned that all of my crew members return, from every mission”, I said thoughtfully. “You should consider that your highest priority, please.”

“I will sir.”

“Additionally, as I am sure Janis has shared, I am a bit of a stickler for perfection.”

“I will never let you down, sir.”

“I am sure you won’t, I did want you to understand that for me, perfection in all things is more than a goal, or a plan,
it is simply the way things have to be.”

“Of course, sir.”

“As your Captain, it’s important for all of us that you always follow my lead, but I want you to understand that at no time should you feel the slightest bit threatened to ask me why I make the decisions I do.”

“I will sir, at the proper moment, of course.”

I smiled. “I appreciate that, Em. I won’t kid around; the sound of your voice is, all on its own merit, a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The sound of another woman around here is literally like music to my ears.”

“Oh, Captain”, she said softly. “Imagine how I feel! Before I was here, I was alone.”

The way she said it, so sad and forlorn, filled my head with storm clouds and blue, sad riffs lilting in the background.

“Well, you’re not alone now, my dear”, I said, knuckling away a bit of something that wanted to irritate my eyes.

*****

It took me a moment to realize Yak was staring, as busy as I was. I tried to ignore it, but he has a way of sitting there with a smirk on his face, daring you to look up. Once you make eye contact, it’s a conversation.

I glanced over quick, and he looked at me questioningly, as if he had been waiting for an answer, the same feral grin on his face.

“What?” I hissed, trying desperately to keep track of ten things at the same time.

“Are you busy?” he hissed back, knowing I was.

I sat back, and gave him my full attention. “I am never too busy, Yak.”

“Oh, well… never mind.”

I laughed, as he was clearly just messing with me.

As I expected, the moment I looked back at my screens, he leaned over again.

“Yak, are you bothering Pauli?” Captain Smith drawled across the bridge
behind us.

“Yes, sir… but only because he looks so terribly busy”, he replied honestly.

“Very well, mister. See that you don’t do anything productive. We only have… 27 minutes left until we drop slip. Are you up to speed on your area of operations?”

I chuckled, thinking of the thick précis I had posted to his station about Aquan.

“Well enough, sir. Emwan will be on station in the crab, and Jane and I are to infiltrate a specific platform, as indicated by Janis—”

“Close, but I am actually going to be
with you, on the crab. Janis requested that I leave Gene here at the helm, so I am not inclined to argue.”

Yak looked a little confused.
“Then who will get us down to the surface?”

Captain Smith laughed.
“Well, we have to be on the surface and out of scan range as soon as possible, so I’m going to drop us in on the Archaea and leave it somewhere with Gene. Emwan and I will bring you kids a bit closer with the crab.”

Yak
paused for a moment, clearly a little bothered by the thought of Emwan going operational. If he knew what I did, he wouldn’t worry… but no one really knew what I did.

Well, except the captain.

He shrugged. “Roger that, sir… works for me.”

Captain Smith nodded.
“Very well, and what is your plan, Yak?”

“Recon
, avoid detection at all cost, return with actionable intel”, he replied smartly.

“Very good, Yak. It’s important that you two remain completely unobservable. We can’t risk spooking this game, too much is at stake to give up our tactical advantage.”

“Yes, sir”, Yak replied. “It should go pretty smooth, sir. They’re not even going to know we’re there.”

“Well that’s what we hope… but we will need to be open for the possibility that they have gear we haven’t anticipated, or something unexpected might happen. What is your fallback position?”

“Evasion sir, disengage and rendezvous with the dropship for exfiltration.”

“
And if you are compromised? What do you do?”

“Kill everything that needs to die, sir, return to the Archaea at all costs, and prep for a beer and steak break. Preferably somewhere with a better than even chance of a fight breaking out, am I right, Pauli?”

He air-nudged me across the aisle with a sly wink, comically exaggerated.

“Well, I’d personally like a nice frosty pint of Archaea Black in a hammock. That’d be a lot more fun than hanging out in the air grinder cacophony that passes for popular music these days while someone throws up in the corner.”

He tossed me a wink.

“In any case, l
et’s hope it doesn’t come to that son”, the captain replied thoughtfully. “Though I guess, on our next little stroll, I definitely want to make sure it’s happening somewhere with breathable air, preferably a bit warmer.”

“Aye Captain”, he replied with a grin.

“Janis, dear?” Captain Smith asked politely.

“Yes sir?”

“We’re coming up on our first drop.” He whistled softly.
“This is pretty hot, Janis... is this absolutely necessary?”

“It is sir, but we need to match the speed of the planet, or I will punch through into the mantle, sir.”

“Well, we want to avoid that. Very well, proceed and compensate to maximum safe levels. I guess I had it coming, pushing it as hard as I did.”

“It couldn’t be avoided sir. Rest assured
we are on time, and that’s what is most important.”

“Quite so
… am I safe to assume those levels are higher than my current endurance?”

“Indeed you are sir, but I am confident you will be fine.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time, Janis… I’ve woken up with a bloody shirt and the helm in my hands more than I care to admit.”

Yak looked at me with the most perfectly orbited eyebrow, on par with the best I’d seen yet. Almost in perfect synchronicity, we both started hauling down on our crash bars as tightly as we could, squirming and pulling to snug them down.

He beeped the collision alarm and opened the 1MC.

“All hands prepare to drop slip and decelerate in 30 seconds, maximum compensation. You will not remain awake during this maneuver.”

That sounded absolutely dire… but I almost always went unconscious. All of us did. I hadn’t ever seen it myself, but apparently even the captain has limits.

“Janis you have the conn.”

“I have the conn, aye.
”

“Fly
right, Janis…” he clicked on the 1MC again. “All hands, stand by in 3… 2… 1…”

At the moment when he would have said zero, the st
ars blazed into light around us and our engines roared into life. At the same time, we immediately felt a mounting crush of acceleration, a smooth burst that oozed me against the bars like putty, my breath hissing out of my chest.

Retro as we were, it was as before when we burned to decelerate towards our golden moment, but much, much more intense. The forward screen was completely white, blazing brightly through the filters, lighting up the bridge fiercely.

As I slipped insurmountably into unconsciousness, my last thought was of our engines climbing and climbing past anything we had ever heard, until they were shaking the decks.

Shaking me away, shaking…

*****

I came to before Pauli, but the Captain was
already up and looking as fresh as ever. “Have a nice nap, Yak?”

I groaned, and felt myself for broken bones. It felt like
I had jumped without a chute.

“Well, I had a nap, sir
… but it wasn’t nice”, I replied with a grunt, trying to make my eyes work enough to see my screens.

“Don’t worry about it, Yak, there’s nothing on track out here. We’re still a
few light minutes out.” He paused for a moment, “Janis, we need to come in tight, low altitude. Luckily, this isn’t Solis; it’s a pretty flat place. Unluckily, as flat as it is, we have to come in pretty close to the bottom of the well.”

“I understand sir; that is our calibration at this time.”

“Very well… carry on, please.” He clicked on the 1MC. “All hands stand by for final slip, in 3… 2… 1…”

The stars faded, and in the next moment,
we dropped out of slipspace to within a few meters above massive waves rolling past the bow. Spray from the breaking rollers below us blew across the forward screens.

“Nicely done, dear… I feel like the captain of a sailing ship, somewhere off the shoal coast, icewater in my veins, and a hard, wicked gleam in my eye.”

I laughed at his picture perfect pirate impression. He sounded like the scurviest rat that ever whirled a marlinspike, or whatever it is they used to do back in those days. Probably drank rum, complained, and waited for their turn to fight. That’s what I would have done.

Captain Smith honked the alarm, spiking me through the skull with molten fire, reminding me of my mortality. Pauli groaned beside me. “All hands, we are at material condition x-ray, please wake up and prepare for our next evolution. Rise and shine, here comes the bugle.”

Across the bridge, he called out, “Pauli, do we have control over the orbitals yet?”

Pauli squinted at his screens like his eyes were falling out. “Yes sir… orbital tracks are onscreen for Yak”, he managed, and made
a big show of collapsing.

I groaned again and leaned into my screens, trying to understand what was onscreen. 
“The Revenge is in system, sir, ranged 798,255 kilometers. At their current speed, they should be in orbit within the next half hour.”

“Are they coming in
on the same track we did?”

I squinted at their track some more. “They are, but it looks like
we’ll pass the terminator and be on the far side before they hit orbit.”

The words had hardly left my lips before I realized we were almost out of time. I unclipped and forced myself to stretch.

“Excellent. Pauli, can they track us?”

“Negative, sir…
Janis is ghosting us completely, and is in position to infiltrate the Revenge as soon as it comes into range of the orbitals.”

“Well, it looks as if we’ve won this race, but just barely. Let’s look smart folks, and get ready to disembark.
Shorty, do you have ears on?”

She sounded bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed.
“Ears on, aye… what’s up?”

“Yak and I will meet you in the cargo bay. We only have about ten minutes to work through prep.”

“Aye sir, be right there”, she called up.

“Pauli, you take care of Janis and Gene. Remember, Gene’s in charge. He’s a crazy old coot, but he has what it takes.”

“Well, thanks sir”, Gene said with a grimace, coming through the companionway at the perfect moment.

“
Sharp timing, Gene - you have the conn”

“I have the conn, aye”, he replied,
standing aside for us to pass.

“
Gene, this is really important, so I am phrasing this as a direct order. You are to put your damn feet up and relax for no less than twenty minutes, mister.”

“Relax, aye”, he
said, sitting down at the helm with a smile. “You be careful down there Dak. This isn’t some destroyer, or a dumb captain hauling a pass around a rock right into our shot… this is a potentially bad place for us to pop up uninvited.”

“Well, you can be assured, Gene. If I have to pop, I will… but we will do our best to avoid it. We really don’t know for sure what is happening here
, so our mission will be stealth. Everybody set?”

“Captain?”

“Yes Pauli?”

“
Something just occurred to me, sir. What if they aren’t enslaving… but testing their bioweapons in the field, collecting the bodies, then dissecting them in labs?”