Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (33 page)

              ‘Please,’ said Chen, indicating with a gesture for the Lord Protector to continue.

              ‘This information has only just reached me.  Admirals Hawkwood and Cartwright were also informed by my superiors.  As you are no doubt aware, the Nahabe people have finally woken up from our long, pacific sleep and have gone to war once again against our old enemy, now your enemy, the Shapers.  As such, we have been conducting a number of deep strike hit and run missions far beyond the edge of Commonwealth and Nahabe space against Shaper rallying positions in order to disrupt the enemy’s supply of ships and personnel.  They have now been forced to divide their attention between us and yourselves.  However, during one such raid our ships came across something rather unusual.  Here, let me show you:’

              A holographic projector activated within the suit of the Lord Protector.  A moving image, taken from a spacecraft manoeuvring in combat now hovered above the dark wood of the conference table, which reflected its ghostly light.  At the centre of the image was what looked like a Shaper vessel, though it was of a configuration that was unfamiliar to all those sitting around the table.  Five segmented, complex armatures extended forwards from a long, tapering hull studded with bulbous, crystalline growths arranged in rings about its midsection.

              ‘The vessel you are looking at is over five hundred kilometres in length,’ said the Lord Protector.  There were gasps of disbelief from Trent and Hardaker.  ‘It was sighted three hundred light years south of the Hadar system in the depths of interstellar space.  We were able to track the vessel for a while before our ships were driven off by a large number of escort craft, however it appears to be heading for Commonwealth space.’

              Chen suppressed a shudder.  The vessel was a true behemoth, far larger than any vessel that even the Arkari were able to field.

              ‘My god,’ she breathed.  ‘We can’t possibly take on a warship of that size...’

              ‘We don’t think it
is
a warship,’ said the Lord Protector.  ‘It’s something else.  I have been sent a full copy of the sensor data.  Those arms jutting from the bow of the ship don’t appear to be weapons, in fact it appears to only possess defensive weaponry, hence the large number of escorts, but there
are
complex energy conduits running along those arms.  Whatever it is though, it’s headed this way.  We should be on the lookout for it, or any others like it.’

              ‘And what do we do then?’ said Chen with a scornful edge to her voice.  ‘With all due respect, I don’t think we have anything that can destroy a ship of that size.’

              ‘I don’t know,’ said the Lord Protector.  ‘But this is something that we haven’t seen before.  Any further information we could gather about it would be useful.’

              Chen stared at the image.  The Shaper craft resembled a vast, bizarre sea monster.  Something horrible that had crept out of the depths to ensnare them.  She saw the darting motes about it and realised that they were in fact Shaper destroyer class vessels, dwarfed by the enormous craft.

              The door to the ward room slid open.  McManus stood, framed in the doorway, an animated look on his broad, bearded features.

              ‘Admiral Chen, Captain Hardaker, Captain Trent, Lord Protector.  It’s time.  Our orders have come through from Admiral Cartwright.  We have our target.’

Chapter 21

The
Profit Margin
emerged from its jump high above the swirling cloud tops of Irkut, sixth planet of the Arragut system in a region of space just beyond the reaches of the knot of systems claimed by the Vreeth.  Arragut was as yet unclaimed by any of the local interstellar powers and contained no indigenous races, however there were a number of settlements throughout the system and whilst the Vreeth were the most numerous, humans and other races could be found there, operating beyond the reaches of the major powers.

              The Vreeth were an airborne species whose bulbous bodies were largely given over to gas filled flotation bladders.  Although they had evolved on a small rock planet not too dissimilar to Earth, space travel had led the Vreeth to discover that they were quite at home in the upper reaches of many gas giant planets. This provided them with access to vast amounts of real estate that most other species were less interested in colonising and many gas giants within Vreeth space were now home to large numbers of floating habitats riding high above the storm clouds, some of them being the size of cities.  Irkut, though beyond the official borders of the Vreeth, was home to several smaller examples of such settlements, independently constructed by corporations, rich individuals and even, it was rumoured, by crime syndicates eager for a secluded place to do business.  It was towards one of these, Gagat’s Colony, that the
Profit Margin
now descended.  The disc shaped habitat, its upper surface a mass of blister-like domes and needle shaped spires, floated high in the upper atmosphere of the planet, the vast storm systems of the planet below swirling like oil on water.

              Isaacs and Anna felt the ship buck and shake around them as they descended, the violent cross-winds wrenching the
Profit Margin
first one way and then the other as the vessel’s manoeuvring thrusters fought valiantly to keep her on course and within her allotted approach vector.

              Despite the fact that the ship was being piloted by the autopilot, slaved to the traffic control guidance signals being broadcast by Gagat’s Colony, Isaacs kept his hands resting on the controls, purely for peace of mind more than anything else.  If anything untoward did happen, he knew that he could switch to manual control in a matter of seconds and pull the ship away back into space.  As the ship shook and bounced, his eyes had become fixated on the cockpit head up display and the read outs on the various screens and holos.  He risked a glance over at Anna and noticed that she looked a little pale.

              ‘Well, this is fun, isn’t it?’ he said grimly over the noise of the protesting engines.

              ‘No, not really,’ she replied, as the Colony appeared to dance outside the cockpit windows.  ‘We just have to hope that the autopilot knows what it’s doing. Being crushed to death by five hundred atmospheres of pressure wasn’t on my ‘to do’ list today, y’know?’

              ‘Relax, has she ever let us down before?  We’ll be down in no time,’ Isaacs replied, though in truth, the bucking and shimmying of the ship was making him a little nervous.

‘That’s just as well, because I think if this lasts much longer I shall throw up.’

              ‘Please,’ he replied with a pained expression. ‘Not in the cockpit.’

              The
Profit Margin
had spent the past ten days describing a zigzag path across the Commonwealth, gradually heading eastwards.  Isaacs had made judicious use of the stealth module as well as jumps into and from interstellar space to disguise their point of origin.  The ship was also running with false ID, dutifully supplied by the Commonwealth Navy and backed up with suitably faked records within the central ship registry database.  Chen had given them little to go on except the name of the settlement, planet and system where they were to meet their contact.  Nothing else had been provided.  Her, or she, would find them in due course.

              As the ship spiralled downwards, the comm. crackled into life.  The synthetic voice of the translation programme overlaid the clicking tones of the Vreeth controller.

              ‘Vessel
Doctor Gonzo
, vessel
Doctor Gonzo
this is Gagat’s Colony Traffic Control.  Please reduce your speed by one third.  You are approaching much too quickly!’

              ‘I thought
you
were the ones piloting!’ Isaacs shot back angrily, at the same time over-riding the automatic control of the main engines and throttling back, then popping the air brakes to lessen the speed of the ship’s rapid dive.

              ‘Copy that
Doctor Gonzo
.  It is possible that our systems are not fully compatible with your own and that commands sent to your ship have been corrupted.’

              ‘Oh, wonderful,’ he replied.

              ‘
Doctor Gonzo
your descent speed has now reduced to an acceptable rate.  We will continue to monitor your descent and advise if necessary.  Gagat’s Colony Traffic Control out.’

              ‘Well that’s certainly boosted my faith in technology,’ said Anna, wryly. ‘What sort of antiquated systems are they using out here?’

              ‘God knows,’ replied Isaacs.  ‘From what I understand, none of these settlements have been constructed by any government.  Some are corporate.  This one?  Nobody seems to know who built it.  The intel. they gave us suggested that one of the corporations started construction and then abandoned it before others moved in and took over.’

              ‘So it’s been cobbled together by local crime-lords and smugglers, is that what you’re trying to say?  I don’t find that terribly reassuring,’ said Anna and gripped the arms of her couch more tightly as the ship lurched in a particularly violent manner.

              ‘Me neither,’ said Isaacs.  ‘Personally I’m surprised that the damn thing hasn’t fallen out of the sky yet.’

              ‘What a place to arrange to meet someone.  Still, it
is
out of the way.  I suppose the risk of plunging to your death on approach keeps away unwanted visitors.’

              Gagat’s Colony loomed large now, the structure on its upper surface clearly visible and dotted with multitudes of tiny lights from windows and navigational hazard beacons.  Wisps of cloud whipped between the structures.  The flight path fed to the
Profit Margin’s
navicomp by traffic control was directing them to a docking bay, one of a series set into the rim of the disc that formed the main superstructure of the colony.  As they drew closer, they caught glimpses of blimp-like shapes moving around the Colony in the gas giant’s atmosphere.  The Vreeth, it seemed, were perfectly at home in this hostile environment.

              Lightning strobed in the clouds below, illuminating the underside of the colony and the stalactite-like structures that hung from it, before the docking bay swallowed the ship and they were plunged into darkness.

              The
Profit Margin
came to rest in the dimly lit docking bay amid a collection of battered looking freighters and tugs.  As Isaacs stepped out onto the deck, Anna by his side, he became acutely aware of how much his sleek looking vessel stood out amidst the other vessels – some of which looked to be on the verge of falling apart.  He closed the access ramp and walked away, a pensive look on his face.

              ‘What?’ said Anna, seeing his expression.  ‘What’s the matter with you?’

              ‘I’m not that comfortable leaving her here, that’s all.  What do you think the chances are of the ship being here when we come back?  Look at this place!’  he replied, waving his arm around to take in the entire bay and its resident fleet of junkers.

              ‘Ah come on.  Surely we’ve seen worse than this armpit of a habitat.  Besides, aren’t those ships supposed to be more difficult to steal?  She’s mag-locked to the deck Cal, and you have the access codes to release her in your head.’

              ‘Yeah, so?  What if someone tries to beat them out of me?  You ever think of that?’

              As they walked, they could feel the deck shifting in a barely perceptible manner.  It was like being onboard a sea ship in a gentle swell.

              ‘You feel that?’ said Anna.

              ‘Yep.  Must be the storm that’s doing it.  Of course maybe this place is built to flex slightly to cope with the storm force winds here or....’

              ‘...or it’s on the verge of falling to bits.’

              ‘Quite.  Doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence, does it?’

              As they exited the bay they found their way blocked by a bulky Hyrdian wearing a patchwork of mismatched armour who flashed some sort of badge at them with one heavy blue fist and demanded to see some ID.  Dutifully, they displayed their – faked - pilot’s licenses to the creature who grunted wordlessly and scanned them into a battered looking hand held console, before peering at the results on its dimly lit screen.

              ‘Captain Conrad, Captain de Silva,’ said the Hyrdian in coarsely accented English.  ‘Operating the ship
Doctor Gonzo
out of Wolf 359.’

              ‘That’s us,’ said Isaacs and tried a friendly smile.

              ‘You never been here before.  Why you come now?’ said the Hyrdian.  It appeared to be studying them.

              ‘Uh well, with all the action going on in the Commonwealth, we figured it was getting a little too dangerous for us independent traders.  War’s bad for business, y’know?  So we decided to try somewhere new for a change.  Somewhere nice and quiet and out of the way.’

              The Hyrdian made a sort of wheezing sound that Isaacs assumed passed for laughter among its kind.  It started to shake with mirth.

              ‘Listen Captain.  Gagat’s Colony... it’s not for you regular traders.  It’s not quiet, I can tell you that much.  My advice?  Find someplace else.  Find another system to do business in.  Much safer.  Much quieter, yes?’

              ‘No, I think I like the sound of this place.  I hear there’s plenty of action to be had around here.  Plenty of the sort of quality items that my discerning customers might want.  You catch my drift?’

              ‘Hmm, nothing in your records...’ said the Hyrdian.

              ‘Yeah, exactly.  ‘Cause I don’t get fucking caught, that’s why.  Listen I used to operate out of the Labyrinth for a while, smuggling Nahabe shit all over the place.  Things got a little hot, so I ditched my old ship and got myself this little beauty.  I’ve been hanging round the core systems for a while, but I need to get back in the action.’