Burnt Ice (33 page)

‘All
crew. Upload your Soul Saver backups to Patrick. Then I want everyone in heavy
suits and in their assigned craft. Patrick, as you get them, flash the data
blocks to the frigate. They await the information.’

Marko picked up the completed
ACE, who was partially activated and alive but not sentient, and stroked his
beautiful head with its frill and dog-like ears. And he really was beautiful —
everyone agreed. He had a silky, gunmetal-grey coat with heavy, rippling muscle
groups under the skin, a long body shaped from the hybridising of a Fossa and a
Jesus lizard with a prehensile tail, true hands on his forelimbs with double
opposable thumbs and feet/hands on his powerful rear legs. They had designed
the ACE so that he could walk easily bipedally or quadrupedally, as he wished.
Marko patted him and he purred, snuggling into him. He walked into the cryo
suite with Topaz moving behind him on its AG unit.

Jan was there with Ernst. Marko
placed the ACE into one of the cryo units, told him to stay, then sealed and
activated the unit. Jan and Marko assisted as the two AI units bolted
themselves to the floor, then plugged in the data feeds. Marko told Jan how
much he loved her, hugged her, then they went to get into their combat suits.
As the suit was forming around him, Marko opened a channel to Patrick and initiated
the Soul Saver data upload.

He had seen in his mail, from the
frigate, that a considerable amount of money in salary and bonuses had amassed
during their extended time away — and he’d collected some rather tidy sums from
info processed by their own intel group from the other ACEs that he had
created. There was no need to claim back the life continuation fees if they
were killed during the slow-down — he could pay them immediately. He sent this
message to the frigate, for both Jan and himself, and felt at peace.

‘OK. Last checks, everyone. Ready
to go do this? No bright ideas left to the last minute? None? Bugger! Good idea
of Harry’s to detonate the nukes ahead of us to set up additional pressure
waves, sadly a no go. The rock cap is too thin.

‘All drones on board. External
hatches sealed and locked. Stephine, are you sure about having that bloody
urchin aboard with you? Would have been a lot happier if you’d chucked it
overboard.’

‘Thank you for your concern,
Michael. The urchin is very peaceful now, and cooperating. And my thanks to
Fritz. We have established a limited type of communications with it. It’s
giving up information — and considers us to be its family now. But don’t know
how it’ll react if we encounter another urchin. It’s contained, of course. May
I say, before things get busy, that should we lose our lives in the next day
and hours, I and Veg treasure you all and thank you most sincerely.’

‘You’re welcome. See you soon, no
matter what. Let’s roll this beast around and plug the hole.’

Marko sat in the pilot’s seat of
the lander, with Jan and Fritz attached outside in skuas. Stephine and Veg were
in their craft, behind them in the hangar. Marko had powered down the AG and
evacuated atmosphere from internal spaces in
Basalt.
Harry, the captain
and Sirius were on the main flight deck. Video feeds showed a steadily growing
star looming in front of them. No one anticipated seeing much for long — the
cameras were disposable. The captain was targeting
Basalt
as close as he
could, following Fritz’s trajectory maths to slow them down — then with speed
scrubbed off, they would race out towards the gas giant to rendezvous with the
frigate
Petra.

‘
Basalt
, this is
Petra.
We have large groups of urchins arriving at this location. Too many to fight. We’re
initiating a jump sequence around the system. Two other frigates inbound. The
info received from the latest picket ship is they’re carrying large stocks of
antimatter and containment systems for you. We note from your briefings that
the urchins are attracted to the antimatter.’

‘Shit,’ muttered Marko. ‘I so
hate urchins.’

‘The Administration AIs are aware
you have a communicating urchin on board. You are now top priority. We have
discovered the urchins amass a large amount of antimatter to initiate their own
jumps — the only known biological that can create its own wormholes. We are
instructed to drop small amounts in containment units at as many of the LG
points as we can get to in the system, to attract them away. Note these
coordinates where we will drop large amounts for your use. They’ll be dropped
at speed. You should be able to RV with them. Good luck.
Petra
out.’

‘Final checks, people. Here we
go.’

Basalt,
with its giant rock cap, slid
towards the star in a tight orbit. Watching via many feeds, they could see the
effects on the cap edges as it started heating. When it had burnt off, an
envelope formed around
Basalt,
generating sufficient gas pressure for
the crew to hear sound generated against the hull and through the landing
struts of each craft. It started as a low moan. Within an hour it had built to
a thunder, causing the crew to don hearing protection. The vibrations increased
until they were palpable.

Harry’s giant turntable was
working — slowly spinning the ship so the hull temperature stayed within
acceptable limits as it was heated by the direct light from the star. There
were large thumps and bangs signifying lost exterior cameras. There was nothing
they could do. They mostly took turns sleeping and waiting. It was almost a
non-event. The vessel slowed down to a manageable speed. The ship did not
encounter any Coronal Mass Ejections — which would have made them very dead.
Nor did they go over the top of any sunspots, the magnetic structures of which
would also have killed them.
Basalt
climbed out of the star’s
atmosphere, slowed further by its gravitational effect as Fritz and Patrick had
predicted would happen. Marko checked fuel tank integrity, the fuel lines, then
the engines themselves.

‘Stand by for separation. Marko,
bring the engines and thrusters online. Harry, please launch four
astronomicals. Have them attach equally around the hull so we can see what’s
out there.’

‘Engines online. Thrusters
online. Starboard number five forward thruster offline. Damage sustained.
Isolated. Portside numbers seven and thirteen offline. Partial damage
sustained. Isolated. Primary engine three offline. Serious damage. Isolated. Request
test fires of remainder.’

‘Proceed.’

Marko ran small amounts of fuel
into each rocket motor, giving them two-second bursts. Two side manoeuvring
thrusters failed dramatically, his screens showing them disintegrating within
their housings. But with the rest OK they had enough for flight control.

‘Tests complete. You have control
of the remainder.’

‘I have control.’

There was a small, distant
vibration and a gentle thump, as the carousel disengaged. For the first time in
a long while
Basalt
was a free ship. They slid sideways from under the
rock cap, which the redeployed navigational drones showed to be much the worse
for wear. It was down to tens of metres thick in places. Its overall diameter
was a fraction of its original size, with chunks continuing to detach while
they watched. They felt a little sad that no thanks had been given to the large
lump of fused material now headed out of the system.

Jan started to compose a suitable
tribute in her head, but Harry beat her to it.

‘So long, great pancake,’ Harry
said, ‘been nice knowing ya, and thanks for the ride. Message from the boss,
people. Stand down from your posts. Full inspection of all internals. Drones
deployed for hull inspection. Marko, once satisfied with each section, please
secure atmosphere and gravity.’

From their workstations, and
using available drones, they checked every system in the ship.
Basalt
had sustained some hull damage, but nothing serious. A compartment had been
breached by a big lump of the rock cap that was embedded in the rear wall.
Sirius decided bits would sell very well on the souvenir market. Most of the
gardens were intact. This meant a lot to them — even Fritz, who had taken to
sneaking into the gardens during his downtime, relaxing under the altered fruit
trees. Stephine had watched him on several occasions stroking the trunks of the
apple trees, but had left him to enjoy his fragments of peaceful solitude.
After the inspections, Stephine, Fritz and Jan prepared the first proper meal
they had had in days.

‘
Basalt
, this is
Tribute.
Nice work. Glad you made it this far. First big AM package will be deployed
ahead of you in twenty-one hours. Currently accelerating to match your speed.’

‘Thanks,
Tribute.
An
honour to be assisted by such a prestigious ship. Did
Petra
make it out
of system OK?’

It was some hours before the crew
learnt that the
Petra
was away safely, with only moderate damage, back
to the nearest base for repairs.

‘First of antimatter containers
in sight, boss.’

‘OK, Harry. Fritz, is the
inspection drone ready?’

‘Uploading software. Yeah, it’s
away. Coming up on the container. Hard dock established, protocols done. Checks
done. Clean of octopoid infection.’

‘Good. Did not expect it
otherwise, but nice to know. Harry, bring it in.’

Harry, from his station, took
control of the container, accelerated it a little more and then brought it
close enough to the main engineering cargo airlocks for the loading waldo to
reach out and grasp it. As the AG powered down in the engineering compartment,
the container was brought in and locked down while drones connected magnetic
feeder pipes directly to the antimatter engines.

Over the following days the crew
inspected and repaired the wormhole generator engines, swapped the antimatter
rockets back to their original positions and replaced the oversized
diamond-fusion rocket bells with the originals. Only then were they able to jump
to the next LP, where the frigate
Octavius
had dropped off another
package of AM for them. This was done three more times while they steadily
worked their way out of the system, then jumped to a newly established forward
base.

‘It’s called Honey, for whatever
reason.’

‘What is, Harry?’ Veg asked.

‘The new base.’

‘Wonder what pampered,
bureaucratic prick came up with that stupid name.’

‘Something to find out for us,
Fritz.’

‘Why would I bother?!’

‘Great work, guys. Looks like we’re
back to civilisation. OK, a heads up for you all. The messages I’m getting are
all very nice and welcoming, but we’ve been placed under the guardianship of
two MP frigates. Doesn’t look like they’ll be letting us off this bus any time
soon. Cooperate and be polite. Don’t expect any ability to reply to outside
messages. We’re being isolated. Sirius, a Games Board courier is arriving in
three hours. They expect you to deliver all your edited stories and files to
me, then the MPs. Get them up here within the hour. Things are going to get
very busy. Harry and Marko, the frigates have additional antimatter for us.
Stand by to receive and secure within fifteen minutes. Load it up. Change of
plan — we’re being ordered to go directly to Cygnus 5 instead of Honey. We’re
being treated as hostile until proven otherwise which is why no Hauler is going
to give us a lift. So don’t give the MPs any excuses: that means you, Fritz.
Stephine and Veg, please come to the bridge. You have been
invited
by
the MP colonel to state your credentials.’

~ * ~

They
arrived back at Cygnus 5 weeks later than they expected. The crew got together
for a meal while the ship was completely isolated at the second LP in the
Cygnus system. Stephine appeared to know more about the protocols than Patrick.
She explained that any crew who had been away from mainstream Sphere influence
for more than three standard years would be expected to undergo a series of
rigorous checks — first medical then psychological examinations.

The crew found out what she meant
when, a few hours later, a pair of landers arrived and docked with
Basalt.
They had been instructed to remain in their cabins. Each was assigned a pair of
investigators. Everyone was convinced that none of the examiners had a sense of
humour. They certainly did not see the funny side of things when Nail and Flint
decided to do a little investigation of their own, and lifted all the data on
the special teams — including their backgrounds and the questions that they had
for the crew. The crew thought the captain appeared to suffer the worst of it,
considering all the decisions he had made, as every detail of the events was
minutely investigated by the teams and their attendant AIs. Patrick was whisked
away — together with the remains of Lotus and the other AI casing which they
removed from the hull — for a couple of days to be interrogated by the base
AIs. Stephine had signed across the little urchin, with its data files, much to
everyone else’s relief.