Into the Black: Odyssey One (43 page)

Of course, Roberts knew that particular use had, had one rather nasty side effect. “You do know what will happen, if one of their lasers nails us while we’re using the Black Hole settings?”

“We’ll probably be vaporized before we know, we’re hit,” Eric told him flatly.

Since the net effect of the Black Hole setting was to
absorb
over ninety-eight percent of all energy directed against it, it would actually behave like an inverse of the normal armor, and offer absolute minimal resistance to enemy lasers.

And, given how powerful those lasers were, one shot would be all it would take.

“It’s reckless, Sir,” Roberts said calmly, finally taking a seat across from Eric.

Weston nodded.

“I know.”

*****

“Hey El Tee,” Burke called out. “We’ve got some company coming up here?”

Savoy glanced over in the direction that Burke had indicated and noted the armed force that was converging on their position. “Great. Don’t make any fast moves, guys. I’d hate to get toasted by the guys, we came here to save.”

“Don’t worry.” Burke muttered dryly.

The team watched as the militia or the military group came up, finally stopping just in front of them and one of the figures stepped forward.

He was a big man, Savoy noted, his face craggy with exposure to the elements and he handled the laser rifle in his hands, like it was a toy.

“You are Ithan Savoy?” The man rumbled.

Savoy frowned, the translator either scrambled the word or he’d just gotten a new rank. In either case it didn’t matter, so he nodded in an exaggerated fashion so the big man would be able to tell. “That’s correct.”

“Kimbo Yulth,” the man said, gesturing in what might have been a salute. “We are assigned to you.”

Savoy blinked, toggling into the command channel reflexively. “Hey Boss?”

Brinks growl came back, “what is it, Lieutenant? I’ve got mopping up operations in three quadrants and a firefight in a civilian building, in the fourth.”

“You know anything about local reinforcements?”

“They get to you already?” Brinks muttered, “Shit. I meant to warn you that they were coming. Didn’t think they’d be so fast.”

“I guess Milla got through to the local bossman,” Savoy stated evenly.

“That’s affirmative, Lieutenant,” Brinks told him. “They’re yours, use them as you see fit. The local guy has given us the lead.”

Savoy almost cursed from the surprise of that statement, blinking furiously as his mind whirred.

“Sir?” He finally squeaked out.

“I know, I know,” Brinks said, sighing. “I don’t know what to make of it either. I can’t say I’m opposed to it, mind you, just doesn’t make sense. The local military is acting more like a militia group or something…”

“Could be that’s all they are, Sir.”

“Whatever,” Brinks muttered. “Doesn’t matter. They’re yours, deal with it.”

“Yes Sir,” Savoy replied just before the channel went dead.

When he turned his attention back to Yulth, he found that the man was waiting patiently for him to say something, to all appearances completely at peace with the world. Savoy tried to shake off the disturbing feeling that gave him and started speaking.

“All right, Yulth,” he said through the suit speakers. “Here’s the situation, we’ve got over two hundred of those Drasin things down in tunnels, under our feet. We can’t ignore them, or they’ll rip this city out from under us. Got that?”

Yulth nodded.

“All right, here’s what I need to know,” Savoy stepped forward, placing a hand on Yulth’s shoulder and turning him around. He pointed down toward the wreckage moving his hand expansively to either side. “Are there any civilians in that area, and if there are, how fast can you boys clear them out?”

Yulth frowned and for a moment Savoy was worried that the interpreter had messed up the translation.

Finally the immense man nodded slowly and spoke, “there are civilians. Many. Too many to evacuate. It will take time.”

Savoy sighed. “We doesn’t have much of that, so you’d better get to work.”

Yulth nodded, turned with an almost alarming speed and started shouting orders to his men. Savoy and his team watched them break up and rush off, impressed with their speed, if nothing else.

Whether they would be as effective as they were fast, Savoy thought, was another matter.

*****

“Get those circuits degaussed!”

“Yes Sir!” The Tachyon Specialist said not looking up, as the Chief Engineer growled under his breath, while they all but dismantled his babies.

The Transition drive was first, but it was also the most painful.

The Captain’s orders had come down and at first no one really wanted to believe it. It was insane, for one, but the orders were quickly confirmed and the engineering team had gotten to work in short order.

All the ship’s Tachyon generation systems were being discharged, degaussed, and taken offline. Since that list included the FTL sensor systems, as well as the Transition drive, the net effect was to make the Odyssey blind, as well as lame.

Yet those were the Captain’s orders, so the teams got to work and ‘sailored’ on.

*****

“Admiral, we have the Orbiters prepared.”

“Ah, excellent, thank you,” Rael said, turning to Milla. “Pardon me, Ithan, could you contact Captain Weston?”

“One moment,” she told him, her eyes refocusing.

It was odd to watch from the outside, Rael decided as he saw the young woman’s eyes flicker around, looking at something he couldn’t see. He wasn’t sure if she knew how to use the system effectively, but from the outside it looked very odd and impressive as well.

His reverie was cut short, when a distinctly non-female voice came from the young woman’s direction.

“Yes Admiral?”

“Ah, Captain,” he caught himself, refocusing on the suit again. “We have prepared four Orbiters, if you wish to unload your passengers?”

“Thank you, Admiral. That will be fine,” Weston’s voice said again. “What is the size of these…, Orbiters?”

Rael blinked and waved a hand at one of his subordinates.

The answer came back in a few seconds in the form of a plate dropped into his hands, so he rattled off the numbers from the display, then looked back at the armor.

There was a long pause.

“Uh…”

Tanner blinked, the sound made no sense whatsoever.

“Perhaps you should send one up and we’ll just scan it,” Weston continued after a moment. “I’m afraid that the translator is missing a few important modules.”

“I see,” Rael replied, not entirely certain that he did. “Very well, I’ll authorize their departure immediately.”

“Thank you, Admiral. I’ll be in touch.”

The signal went dead, leaving Rael Tanner blinking owlishly at Milla, as she looked back, just as confused.

“How will he be in ‘touch’ from Orbit?” Tanner asked after a moment.

“I do not know, Admiral. I said that they were human, not that they were normal.”

*****

“Waters!”

“Sir?”

Eric looked over to where the Ensign was sitting, “scan those ‘Orbiters’ when they lift off. I’m hoping that they build them small enough to fit our locks.”

“Yes Sir.”

Eric nodded once, then turned and walked over to Susan Lamont’s station. “How are the preparations coming?”

Lamont looked over her shoulder at him, “They’re about as expected, Sir. The primary and secondary sensor arrays have been degaussed as you ordered and the Tachyon generator has been taken offline.”

“And the Transition drives?”

“Should be completely offline in an hour.”

“All right, good,” Weston nodded. “Thank you Ensign.”

Weston turned back, thinking about what he was doing.

The Tachyon systems were among the most delicate on the Odyssey, engineered to tolerances that were determined in nanometers. Taking them offline was a risk, particularly with the Tokamak generator that fuelled the active systems and the Transition drive.

Bringing that back online would take at least an hour, under normal circumstances. The Chief had assured him that she could actually cut that back to fifteen minutes, and he hadn’t questioned her on it, despite the shiver that ran down his spine, when she said it. He hadn’t really wanted to know what corners she was going to cut to get that done.

Most likely she’d keep the large coil capacitors on full charge the whole time, which would save a great deal of charge time, before they were prepared to run the Tokamak up the first time. Weston, however, knew that approach would only save about a half hour, which was the point where he decided to trust his people and save himself a couple nights of terror in the future.

She couldn’t cause any more damage than those alien warships could anyway.

Well, not much more.

*****

“We have two more drones inbound from the Odyssey, Lieutenant.”

Savoy nodded, flipping his HUD over from the ground penetrating radar display to the drone control screen. The two new drones were flashing red as they approached, indicating that they were loaded with the bunker buster weapons, he’d requested.

He ordered them into an orbit of the area while he waited for news concerning the civilians.

“Burke!”

“Yeah, El Tee?”

“Start calculating the impact point and program the GBU-98’s for the job.” He ordered his explosives man, “I want to launch as soon as we get this area cleared.”

“You got it, Boss,” Burke replied, automatically going to work as he talked. “We’ve got four of the ‘98’s to work with do you want to use them all?”

Savoy frowned, thinking.

The GBU (Guided Bomb Unit) 98’s weren’t exactly cheap, nor were they small, either in stature or payload. The eight thousand pound penetrators were loaded with the equivalent of five kiloton payloads, and weren’t exactly something he’d want someone setting off indiscriminately in his backyard.

However, given what they knew about these little alien monsters they were dealing with, Savoy didn’t want to take any chances either.

“Give me a plan for two and four bomb placements,” he ordered. “I’m sending the ground penetrating radar readings back up to the Odyssey’s Exo-Geology lab for analysis. If they say that you’re not going to sink the city or something, we’ll go with the full blast.”

“Yes Sir,” Burke replied, his voice edging a little with a smile.

Savoy shook his head.

Burke loved his explosions, just a little too much for the comfort of those who had to bunk anywhere near him.

*****

“Captain?”

“Yes Ensign?” Weston looked up.

“I think I’ve got the Orbiters on sensors now,” Waters said.

“What’s the verdict?”

The ensign shrugged, looking a little confused. “They’ll…, well, they’ll fit, Sir.”

“That’s good.” Weston said frowning slightly. “What is it, Waters?”

“Sir?”

“What’s wrong?” He asked.

“Nothing Sir… It’s just…,” Waters shook his head, “Here, Sir, Look for yourself.”

Weston watched as the information was relayed to the main screen. He blinked and frowned. “Are those dimensions correct, Ensign?”

“As far as I can tell, Captain.”

“How many are coming up?”

“Four, Sir.”

“How in the hell are they going to fit five hundred people on board four of those things?” Eric Weston asked, looking at the comparatively tiny craft that were approaching.

They were roughly two thirds the size of one of the Odyssey’s shuttles and looked like ugly, squat, flying bricks.

“We’re getting minimal energy readings off them, Captain. Their drive systems must be very efficient. Probably a lot smaller, than our own.”

Eric nodded, that made sense. The Drive systems on the shuttles, Archangel Fighters, and even the Odyssey itself made up over a third of the ships total mass. If they had a considerably smaller drive mass, then it was just remotely possible that they could cram five hundred people onto four of those things.

“I’d hate to try dead sticking one of those suckers in,” Eric muttered, not really realizing that he was speaking out loud.

“Excuse me, Sir?” Waters asked, half turning.

“Nothing, Ensign,” Weston shook his head. “Link me back through to Miss Chans.”

“Aye Captain.”

Eric watched the approaching ships for another second, eyeing their ugly, completely non-aerodynamic design, and repeated his comment, mentally this time. Dead sticking one of those things would be suicide, of that he was certain.

There was a reason why the Archangels and other craft were still designed to fly, more or less, in an atmosphere despite the abilities of the Cee Emm generators. No pilot wanted to fly something that would become a crater the first time there was a power glitch.

“I have Miss Chans now, Sir.”

He shook his head, turning his focus to the screen, where the Admiral was already looking out at him.

“Admiral,” Weston started.

“Captain,” the Admiral replied, “I trust that you have scanned the Orbiters.”

“Yes Sir and we won’t have any trouble with them,” Eric told him simply.

“That is good.”

“Please, inform your pilots that I will be launching a drone. They are to follow it into our flight deck. We’ll have the refugees waiting.”

“Thank you, Captain,” the Admiral half bowed, formally. “I’ll pass your message along.”

“Excellent. Weston out.”

Waters cut the signal automatically.

“Ensign Waters.”

“Yes Sir?”

“Full scans on the incoming craft, if you please,” Weston told him simply.

“Aye Captain.”

It was highly unlikely that they’d be trying anything, given that the Odyssey was the only thing standing between them and the Alien Warships that were approaching, but Weston had all but grown up in one warzone after another.

You didn’t take unnecessary chances with your life, or the lives of your people.

If he didn’t need to get those people off the Odyssey, in the worst way, he’d have taken the time to use the ship’s own shuttles, just on principal. However, at the moment they were not only using up his air, but they were also closing off an entire deck and taking up the time of his medical staff.