Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (90 page)

‘Maybe we will never know,’ said Beklide.  ‘What matters is that we have this technology in our possession, and I intend to use it against the enemy.  We shall proceed with the test.  All craft stand by.  Confirm that the target body and the space around it are clear of traffic up to the safe distance limits established.’

‘Confirmed,’ said the ship.

‘Commence portal activation.’

‘Portal activation commencing.’

In the photospheres of the twin suns, rings of super-dense materials began to turn, funnelling the incandescent plasma from the stars upwards into great, questing tornados of heat and light.  Stretching upwards at the speed of light, they plunged into the receiving apertures on either side of the portal, feeding it with surging torrents of energy.  The portal came alive.  Nodes around its circumference began to pulse with energy as the charge built, and then the great device activated.  A two dimensional membrane of space time appeared within the ring, a membrane which stretched and twisted, elongated until it formed a tunnel light years in length. Now the portal formed a window into a different part of Arkari space.  A new set of stars was visible within the portal and a planet too, an unremarkable, lifeless ball of rock in interstellar space that had been cast out of the system that had formed it long ago and had wandered the tracts along the Arkari Sphere’s eastern border ever since.  Now those wanderings were about to end in a violent death.

Beklide breathed a sigh of satisfaction at the portal’s successful activation.  The reverse engineering of the sabotaged Maranos device had been a particularly difficult task, one which her technicians and scientists had risen to.  She was pleased to see that their efforts had not been in vain.  It was time for the next stage.

‘The wormhole portal is operating within expected parameters,’ reported the ship.

‘Good,’ said Beklide.  ‘Commence firing of the Executioner Cannon.’

‘The Executioner Cannon is fully charged,’ said the ship.  ‘Executioner Cannon preparing to fire.  Please stand by.  Firing.’

The Executioner Cannon was a spatial distortion weapon, but it was so much more than that. Its ability to distort space time was so extreme that it tore the very fabric of reality apart, unleashing terrible natural forces from adjacent dimensions.  A beam of primordial energy, ripped from the very fabric of the universe and wrapped within a directed hyper-dimensional whirlpool of distorted reality, vomited forth from the mouth of the cannon.  As it passed through the open mouth of the portal, even the super-dense material of the ring threatened to buckle under the strain as the extreme tidal forces unleashed tugged at it, narrowing the throat of the wormhole until it was almost choked shut, the portal’s systems almost overloading to keep it open.  The beam continued and struck the planet.

Beklide had not thought it possible that a planet could shatter like that, but as she watched, the target body began to fragment.  It was as if she were watching a piece of pottery come apart in slow motion, the shards flying away from one another at what appeared to be a leisurely pace, but which in reality was a speed of thousands of kilometres an hour, the broken pieces themselves being the size of continents.  As they separated, the molten innards of the planet began to spill out, glowing chunks that spread gradually, revealing the white hot core.  There was a gasp from the assembled bridge crew as the planet broke up.

Alarms began to sound on the bridge of the
Sword of Reckoning
, data points on the cannon’s systems display were highlighted and the weapon shut down.  Through the portal, the remains of the shattered rogue planet continued to spread outwards, great lumps of glowing magma flying out into the void.

‘Test firing complete, target destroyed,’ said the ship.  ‘Reactors three through seven shut down automatically due to overload.  No damage to the device, but we will need to examine the data gathered during the test to eliminate the fault.’

Beklide was transfixed by the sight of the dying planet.  She felt a mixture of elation and horror at the power that they now held in their hands.

‘Do it,’ she said simply.  ‘We don’t have a lot of time.’

Chapter 50

              ‘Sir, I have ordered both my crews and those of the Nahabe ships seconded to my command to examine their sensors and logs.  After two days, our conclusion is still the same: we believe that the Shapers are aware of our methods of detection and have found a way to hide from us.’

              ‘And this is your final assessment, Admiral Chen?’ said Admiral Cartwright over the encrypted hypercom channel.  The sound and image quality was poor, because of the bandwidth restrictions imposed by the additional layers of encryption employed by the Navy in an attempt to prevent the Shapers from eavesdropping on their transmissions.

              ‘Yes sir.  No Commonwealth or Nahabe vessel detected any of the forces that attacked General Shale’s units on the surface, nor the vessels that launched the surprise attack on my ships before they moved against us and revealed themselves.  We believe that the Shapers have learnt that we are tracking them via their communications networks and have learnt to go quiet for periods in order to avoid detection.’

              ‘I see,’ Cartwright replied, his tone indicating that he remained sceptical.

              ‘Sir, during the fighting, my ship was boarded by a Shaper organism and we know that it attempted to access our systems.  Though my crew repelled the boarding action, it is possible that they may have learnt of our methods, or perhaps someone on the research teams has been compromised, or perhaps they simply deduced for themselves how we were able to track them.’

              ‘Perhaps.  But we have no definite proof.  Perhaps our sensors simply don’t work as well as we had hoped?  My forces in the Chittagong system have not encountered such tactics, although the battle to secure the system was hard fought.’

              ‘I understand that Colonel Igawa was killed during the fighting.’

              ‘Yes, alas.  He died a hero, fighting to secure the anti-matter facility from those creatures.  He’ll be buried with full military honours back home.  What’s left of him...  In any case, the facility is now in our hands and we have secured the stocks of anti-matter warheads as well as resuming production.  The Nemesis class vessels will be re-armed shortly at an undisclosed location in deep space.  All things considered, Admiral Chen, these combined operations have been a success.  My only regret is that we lost so many good ships in the process and, it seems, a great number of the population of the planet Valparaiso.’

              ‘They had been enslaved before we arrived, sir.’

              ‘I know, I know...’ Cartwright shook his head, sadly. ‘Despite the heavy cost, your mission was successful and I must congratulate you on that at least, Admiral Chen.  The data that we are getting from the modified array secured by Colonel Gunderson’s men is proving to be very interesting.  Admiral Hawkwood is already planning our next move.  The primary target for our efforts will probably be that dreadnought in orbit above Orinoco in the Achernar system.’

              ‘Yes sir, that was my estimation as well.  The Nemesis class vessels are about the only thing we have that are capable of taking on a vessel of that size, unless the Arkari are willing to come out of their shell and actually help us.’

              ‘No progress on that front, I fear.  But we do have useful intel. on the vessel in question.  Your man Harris managed to get a close look at the thing and sent us what he could.  Intel. have been poring over it for some time now.  We’re not sure that it’s a warship at all.  Intel. have theorised that it may be a construction vessel of some kind.  The monitoring arrays have picked up periodic energy fluctuations from the craft and other vessels seem to be tending it.  The anti-matter transports that both you and Agent Harris reported in Shaper hands have been converging on that ship.’

              ‘So what is it building? A weapon?’

              ‘Perhaps.  We simply don’t know.  In any case, it would seem logical to deal with it as soon as possible, and I believe that Hawkwood is anxious to decapitate Morgan’s regime.  We will be moving fleet assets into position for a strike.  Admiral Chen, I expect your forces to be a part of that.  There are far fewer Shaper vessels in enemy held systems than we had feared.’

              ‘Yes sir.’

              ‘It’s time we took back Achernar, ousted that puppet Morgan and put him on trial for his treachery.’

              ‘I couldn’t agree more, sir, but I believe we should be cautious.  I still think that the Shapers could be playing us on a grand scale.’

              ‘We must work with what we know, Admiral, but I will pass your theories up the chain of command.  For now, maintain station in Santiago and await further orders.  Cartwright out.’

              Chen let out a long sigh of exasperation.  Even after taking Valparaiso against such odds, it still seemed to stick in Cartwright’s craw to actually acknowledge her success.  Sometimes he reminded her of her own mother, she reflected wryly.  He rarely offered a word of praise, only insistence that she should do better next time.  Worse though, was that Cartwright didn’t seem to be taking her seriously when it came to the matter of the Shapers evading sensor detection.  She could tell from his expression that he didn’t buy the story, largely because he hadn’t experienced the phenomenon for himself, and because the modified array that she had overseen the capture of on the planet below appeared to be clearly showing Shaper vessels in the renegade systems.  Chen didn’t buy it at all.  The enemy was up to something.  She could feel it, and that giant ship had something to do with it.

              There was a polite knock, and the door of her office slid open.  McManus entered and saw her expression.

              ‘Rough call with the boss?’

              She nodded slowly.  ‘We had to keep it brief – the encryption won’t hold out against a concerted attack for more than a couple of minutes – but yes.  He’s still not convinced about what happened here.  It’s all in my report, and in Singh’s accompanying analysis... but I still think that he thinks that we screwed up somehow.’

              ‘You did what you could, ma’am.’

              ‘Yes, but if we’re all going to be heading into a trap, then Command need to know.’

              ‘You could go over his head.’

              ‘I could, though I doubt it would make me very popular.  I could lose overall command of this group for a start, and then where would we be?’

              ‘Better to be unpopular than dead, I’ve always found.  I’m very unpopular and yet I’m still breathing.  Funny that.’

              ‘I need... something!’ she threw up her hands in exasperation.  ‘Shit, how do you prove a negative?  How do get evidence when the very point is that we didn’t see them at all?’

              ‘What we need is for the Shapers to pull the same trick on Admiral Cartwright.  Then he’ll start to listen.’

              ‘Have Singh go over the data again to see if there’s anything that shows that those ships were there and not transmitting or receiving.  Something that we’ve missed that’d give us their positions, only we didn’t notice at the time.’

              ‘I’ll tell him ma’am.’  McManus gave her a look of almost fatherly concern.  ‘Admiral, if you don’t mind me asking: how much sleep have you had lately?’

              ‘Not much.  Too much to do.  Too much to worry about.  Too many people to grieve over.’

              ‘Why don’t you ask the Doc. to give you something?  You could use a decent stretch of shut-eye.  You need to rest, or you’ll burn out.’

              ‘I guess you’re right,’ said Chen, massaging her temples.

              ‘I’ve been meaning to ask, ma’am, if you don’t mind,’ said McManus.  ‘The picture of the chap on your desk, who is he?  You’ve never mentioned a husband, boyfriend, whatever.’

              Chen picked up the picture of Alvaro Ramirez and gazed at the handsome, brown face that smiled blankly back at her.

              ‘He was my XO, back on the
Mark Antony
.  I was... I was a different person then, and I think he made me a better one, all things considered,’ she said.  ‘He was a good man, better than I deserved.  He was killed in action at Maranos.’

              ‘I’m sorry to hear that.  Good XO’s are hard to come by.’

              ‘It was... more than that.  We became close.  Too close, in fact and when he died...’ She shook her head.  ‘I’m sorry, but...  now you know why I fight.’

              ‘To avenge him?’

              ‘Him, and all the other others like him.  For the lost.’

              ‘You need to get some sleep, ma’am,’ said McManus, softly.  ‘Please?’

              McManus made his way back to the bridge, pondering what he had just heard.  So, Chen had ended up in bed with one of her officers, had she?  She wasn’t the first, doubtless not the last, he mused.  It made him nostalgic for his first command, that Scandinavian lieutenant, what was her name again?  Ingrid... ah, Ingrid...

              The sights and sounds of the bridge roused him from his reverie.  The view outside the windows was a mass of floating wreckage still being probed for bodies.  The search for the living had been abandoned some hours before.  The broken remains of the crews from the destroyed or crippled vessels now packed the medical bays of the remaining warships, whilst part of the hangar deck of the
Anzio
had been turned into a makeshift field hospital to cope with the casualties that had been lifted off the planet below until hospital ships arrived to take them back to the Commonwealth.

              Chen was right, he mused, there was too much to do.  Shale’s forces were still rooting out the last pockets of enemy resistance in the city, a grim task that had turned into a costly action of house to house fighting.  The navy would have flattened the city from orbit, were it not for the pockets of civilians that Shale’s forces kept finding holed up in barricaded buildings.  Gunderson’s men, on the other hand, were re-fortifying their position around the array, clearing the forest around it with incendiaries to provide clear fields of fire and prevent another surprise assault.