The Outer Ring (3 page)

To his surprise, Wes Hagan
was there, as well.
Two senior staff
members?
Hagan was having a close, heated
conversation with Jimbo. There was Sarah, Bishop, Karen, Ross, and
Beth Shaw from medical, as well.

“
Well, well, well. I see I
am expected.” Barcus gestured, with the bottle, to the black tray
that held a dozen clean glasses, sitting in the middle of the
table.

“
You’re Peck’s favorite,”
Rand teased.

He sat in a chair next to Sarah,
pouring a shot into each glass, and handing them around. “It’s just
as well that this is a small bottle. Tomorrow comes all too
soon.”

Everyone took a glass,
except Jimbo, even Chief Hagan. Barcus had never seen Jimbo drink
alcohol, ever. They held their glasses up and waited. It was
a
tradition
. Jack looked around, but then
followed suit.

After a moment of silence,
Barcus said, “There is a pleasure in being mad, that none but
madmen
know
…”

They drank.

Everyone talked at once, then. “Where
do you come up with those?” Jimbo asked.

“
My God!” a few other
people said.

“
This is the best bourbon,
ever.”

“
Read a fucking book,
Jimbo,” Barcus replied.

“
This
bourbon is so good, I want to fuck it,” Jack said, causing dead
silence.

Then, everyone broke out
laughing.

They didn’t know about the malice that
monitored them over the ship’s security cameras.

***

“
We drop out of FTL in
eleven minutes, people. Stations, please,” Jimbo announced over the
ship
comms
of the
Memphis
. Most of the crew on the
command deck buckled their
five-point
harnesses. They
lifted the disk up by its belt from between their legs and snapped
the buckles in on each side. The
five-point
harness
automatically adjusted.

They all strapped in, except Myers.
Myers was an asshole. Jim planned on talking to Captain Everett
about finding him another duty station.

The
Memphis
was the captain’s pinnace. A
big one. It had a crew of thirty-six men and women, five levels, a
huge cargo bay, and advanced FTL engines powered by three dark
matter reactors. On this
run,
they also carried four scientists
and a sixteen man security team; the very same team that ran the
outer ring. Jimbo hoped to get to know them on this
mission.

One by
one,
all the
units checked in. Even Sergeant McGrath, the leader
of
the security team, checked in with a simple, “Standing by.”
Jimbo punched up the view of the aft briefing room. The whole squad
strapped into seats in two 4x4 grids on either side of the
aisle.
They required
an empty seat between the men, since their shoulders were so
wide.

“
Dropping out of FTL,
now,” Cook, the
pilot,
said.

“
Separation complete.
Moving out to monitoring distance.

Then, it happened.

***

Rand was called out of a dead sleep by
Captain Everett at 0420 hours. “I want you in command shuttle
Charlie in fifteen minutes.” She was there in nine minutes. But,
she was the only one there when it happened.

***

Based on the conversations
Barcus heard last night between Jimbo, Chen, and Wes, he decided to
get down to the STU early. That way, Chen could be first in line on
the flight deck for launch, and first back. Removing that specific
dish for an
upgrade
will only take him half the
time it said on the schedule.

Coffee in hand, he
quietly walked up behind Chen and bear-hugged her. His left arm
wrapped diagonally and down in front of her, as she worked at the
control terminal attached to the hydraulic leg that raised and
lowered the ramp.

She completely ignored him, as she
concentrated on the panel. He released her and kissed the top of
her head, handing her his coffee to share a sip. She took it and
breathed in the aroma.

“
Let’s do the quick
preflight and—” Chen and Barcus felt the deck heave, violently,
followed by an explosion, far away, on the flight deck. They felt
the hull breach in their ears. Another blast knocked them off their
feet.

“
Stu! Close and seal,” she
screamed, over the sound of the ship’s outer ring tearing itself
apart.

Barcus got to the ladder
first, and turned
in
time
to see the power cells explode in the
bay, directly behind the closing ramp. Chen was thrown into him at
the ladder. “Go!” she screamed. He hustled up the ladder in a
flash. She ascended, slower.

Just as she got onto the shuttle’s
flight deck and the hatch closed, another explosion slammed them
into the ceiling. They crashed about in a violent, random,
three-axis tumble. Blood splashed out of a tear in the belly of
Chen’s flight suit.

Barcus saw Chen bounce and
catch the harness on the pilot’s seat, as he slammed down onto the
open HMS. He grabbed hold and placed himself into the suit with
practiced muscle memory. He initiated the closure sequence. Just as
it
closed,
they were struck with a massive piece of
debris.

Barcus’s face slammed into the inside
of the suit’s faceplate.

The
blackness
overtook him along with the
sensation that he was still falling.

***

Multiple waves of
Ventura
debris tore into
the
Memphis
,
tossing it into an uncontrolled, end-over-end tumble. Half the crew
died, instantly, from hull breaches, or from not being strapped in.
The
Memphis
was
on a collision course with the planet’s single moon.

***

No one saw Jack Miller, in
HMS number forty-two, get thrown clear of the
Ventura
as the last missile hit. He
had over an hour to think about it, as he fell toward a
nameless
planet,
before he entered its
atmosphere. He considered hitting the HMS’s OPEN button, to make
his death quick.

He thought he’d stay and
watch. Maybe Chen will come and pull another ‘Jonah’. He doubted
it. So, he dosed himself with all the
painkillers
he found
in the
onboard
med kit.

He watched the debris around him burn
like a shooting star. It was beautiful. It made him sleepy. He
never felt his legs cooking.

He died, still falling.

***

It was not the end for
Barcus.

It was just the beginning…