Burnt Ice (8 page)

~ * ~

Four

‘MP
Command,
what’s the status of your prisoners? We believe they are
carrying large amounts of tech. Isolate them immediately!’

‘They’re in isolation here on the
MP frigate. They are currently being examined, captain. I believe that they are
mindless soldiers. They have shown no attempt to communicate with us. Apart
from a series of colour displays from their bodies I do not believe them to be
a threat. Please carry on with your excellent work investigating, captain. I’ll
continue containing these creatures. My compliments to your crew, and the
Marlin pilots, on a brave series of encounters with these vermin. MP
Command
out.’

‘Get that fool person back,
Fritz!’

‘No go, boss. No answer. We’re
out of the loop.’

‘What the fuck?! How the hell can
we be out of the loop? Marlin Alpha, have you contact with the surface?’

The commander of the Marlins
spoke. ‘Negative, sir. None of us have comms. Our gear shows us that the
signals are being received, but something is blocking them. The lifters are
having the same problem.’

‘OK. Bring your guys in close,
Alpha: something is very wrong here. Fritz, did you manage to hack the monitor’s
feed?’

‘Not yet. Close, but not yet. I
have managed to get a rerun of an earlier GB report about us. Evidently we
found, and had a punch-up with, another large group of what the Games Board is
calling the Chromic Squid, a vicious predator that came up from the south pole
of this planet in a normal migration to feeding grounds, and then decided human
flesh was tastier. We have all been commended for our actions in eliminating
the last of this threat.’

‘Longbow, this is Alpha. This is
all complete bullshit, but we had better play the game. Admin can be pretty
nasty at times about keeping secrets.’

‘Agreed, Alpha. How come you’re
broadcasting in clear? What about the monitors?’

‘They’ve gone, captain. Bugged
out a few minutes ago.’

Fritz interrupted, saying, ‘Captain,
I’m being relayed distress beacons by the hundred from way above us. Some
serious shit is going down among the Orbitals. The lifters want to be advised
of what to do. They have identified many escape pods descending through the
atmosphere. They are also reporting that some ships have exploded. No one has
satellite information. GPS is also offline.’

‘I was afraid of this. Alpha, get
your guys topside. Pronto. Assemble and then lock yourselves together. We are
coming up as well. OK, Fritz, advise the lifters that they are released to
render any assistance for recovery of the escape pods.’

The Marlins started to move away
ahead of the Sunfish.

‘Boss, I’ve located a central
unit. Looks like a type of computer. I have two recovery drones a minute away
from it.’ Marko reported.

‘OK. Jan, take us out and
surface. Fritz, can the drones bring it to the surface on their own?’

‘Yeah, but it’s a big piece of
kit so they’ll need another pair to help them.’

‘Do it. We’ll grab it once on the
surface. Anything further, Marko?’

‘No, boss.’

They surfaced ten minutes later
with Jan lifting the sub right out of the water on its AGs. There was a light
sea swell running underneath them and a large bank of stormy clouds moving
across the northern horizon. Marko moved to the centre of the ship and
activated a hatchway above him, a ladder descending from it. Saltwater dripped
down on him as he clambered out through the hatch. At the top of the hatch a
pair of handles deployed so he grabbed them, locked on a short lanyard from his
belt and looked skywards with enhanced vision, replaying the images to the rest
of the section. They could see at least three expanding balls of debris and the
upper atmosphere was alive with escape pods.

All the ships and Orbitals were
moving away from each other as obviously no one had any idea what was
happening. The Marlins had rafted up and Jan powered over towards them, holding
a position fifty metres from the mottled iridescent blue vessels. As Marko
watched, he could see that most of the escape pods were making their way
towards the land, but a few were obviously in trouble. Two started to tumble
and rapidly burnt up in the atmosphere while another three made it through the
re-entry, but obviously would not get as far as land. He zoomed in on each and
could see hull damage.

‘Fritz, send a signal to the
three pods. Tell them to put down here and we’ll attempt recovery. Tell the
Marlins to stand by for a possible rescue mission as well.’

‘Yes, boss.’

Ten minutes later the first of
the pods hit the sea hard some four hundred metres away, completely out of
control. It immediately sank from view and three Marlins broke away and dived
to intercept it. The other two pods came down with reasonable control, although
it looked as if the pilot of one of them had done a remarkable job getting it
down through the atmosphere, as it had its side burnt away almost to the
insulation. They could see that it would not float. Fritz finally managed to
make contact with it and had it hover over the remaining Marlins as the twelve
or so crew dropped from the hatch. Its pilot was the last to jump as the pod
accelerated away and exploded into flame, small pieces of wreckage landing on
the Marlins.

The remaining pod had dropped
right beside the Sunfish and held station sufficiently long for the survivors
to quickly walk across to the cargo hatch of the sub. Once emptied, it too
drifted off, although Marko could see it slowly sinking towards the water’s
surface. The senior surviving member went forwards to talk with the captain.

‘Marko, hang tight where you are
and keep an eye out for the returning Marlins. We are going to grab the
survivors off them before this wind gets up any more. Jan, I have control.’

Captain Michael Longbow carefully
turned the Sunfish about its centre, lowered and gently backed up on the outer
edge of the Marlin raft, holding precise station while placing the main bay
ramp exactly where it was needed and then maintaining it there as the raft
started to drift in the increasing wind. Jan watched from the other pilot’s
seat and silently admired his graceful actions in controlling the large
machine.

The survivors quickly moved up
into the craft and, when directed, the captain moved off, gained some altitude
and distance then swung the ship around to watch the raft.

‘Jan, move aft and lend any
assistance that you can. Harry, hop in her seat, mate.’

Twenty minutes later, Marlins
surfaced below them with the remains of the first pod and, staying underneath
it, pushed it as high as they could with water and debris cascading out of the
numerous gashes in its spherical hull. One of the Marlin pilots climbed down
into it and moments later four survivors, looking battered, slowly emerged,
assisted by the Marlin pilots.

‘Just had a message from Marlin
Alpha commander. Only four survivors; others perished.’

‘OK, Fritz. We go for a pick-up
of those as well. Jan, grab an oversuit and go check those survival capsules
per extinction-of-life protocols please. Also take down the emergency flotation
devices and a location beacon. When you’re finished, deploy them on the wreck.’

The remainder were confirmed dead
by Jan and another medic, a survivor of the crashed pods.

The captain spoke. ‘Right, crew
section, make everyone as comfortable as possible and let’s get back to shore
before anything else has a go at us. Fritz, send a message to the Marlins
thanking them for their work and telling them to hold station and await a
pick-up. Have we any better comms with Orbital Command yet?’

‘Patchy.’

‘OK, do your best and get a
weather forecast and give that to Alpha as well. Looks like it’s turning to
rubbish.’

The survivors were made as
comfortable as possible. The engineers cleared out their remaining stores of
food and drinks, passing them around. Marko watched the fuel usage closely, as
they were heavily overloaded.

‘Boss, deploying the aerial water
gatherers and bringing the standby oxygen/hydrogen cracker online. Fuel is
getting low.’

‘OK, thanks. I’ll compensate.’

‘Can I get you anything, Marko?’

‘Anything wet and hot would be
nice thanks, Jan. Who is the guy who went down into the wrecked pod with you?
Pilot and medico is still regarded as a rare mix.’

‘None other than Flight Officer Demetre
Garland. Seems that he is not just a medico but a field surgeon to boot.’

‘The prick who likes to scare
people with his flying?’

‘Yup. I like him!’

Marko laughed and went back to
his monitoring board.

~ * ~

Harry
was finishing a cup of tea and making his way back to the flight deck through
the pressed throng when he heard a shout from the main cargo area. He quickly
walked back to see what was happening.

‘Boss, the
Jade
CO is
arresting!’ he announced through his comms unit.

‘Jan, get back there!’

Everyone pushed themselves up
against the walls as Jan rushed back towards the cargo area, briefly detouring
to grab a large medical briefcase. She knelt down beside the dying woman,
placed the briefcase on the deck and slapped the top of it as Demetre Garland
arrived and took over from the commander administering CPR. Jan’s unit opened
and unfolded to present a compact field surgeon’s unit. She grabbed a
diagnostic tool from the unit and attached it to the woman’s arm. Seconds later
the readout started to provide information.

‘Cardiac arrest. OK, sir. Slap
the mask on her.’

Demetre reached across, picked
out the slim mask from the case and placed it across the CO’s face. It folded
out, grasping her face, taking over her breathing for her.

He reached back into the case and
took out a band of metal as Jan overrode the seals in the CO’s suit, exposing
her chest. Demetre placed the band down on her skin. It also folded out,
conforming to her chest, and slid probes down into her heart to supply direct
stimulus to it.

‘OK. We have good heart.’

‘Yeah, but I am showing a massive
stroke occurring.’

‘Shit! Through the shunt?’

‘Might be too big for that.’

‘Show me, Jan. Right. I need my
faceplate; I’ll actually see what’s going on then. OK. We use the neck shunt. I’ll
set up the machine. If that doesn’t work we’ll have to use the heart one as
well.’

Jan lifted another small piece of
equipment from the case, locked it onto the faceplate, plugged a jack from the
scanner to the faceplate, and activated the screen. The micro-surgical tool
unfolded with a portion rolling out and locking onto the shunt in the CO’s
neck, sliding a cluster of fine probes into her carotid artery and then reached
deep up into her brain, first seeking out the clots then dissolving them and
ejecting the resulting bloody mess onto a towel that Jan had placed under the
unit.

‘Good. She is stabilising, sir.
The scanner shows blood supply reaching past the blockage site. Heart OK, but
still needs assistance. I wonder why her suit didn’t do this for her?’

‘Not sure about that, Jan. Some
nasty shit going down today. Perhaps just overwhelmed, considering her
injuries. I would recommend emergency medivac. Admiral, I’ll need your OK on
this.’

Admiral Riddell, the commander of
the fleet whose flagship had been
Jade,
looked down at his unconscious
friend of many years.