The starship Gabriel’s bridge, non-system space
‘Did we just jump?’ said Ed, his eyes darting from the holomap to Phil and back.
‘We did,’ said Cleo. ‘Sorry to overrule, but the sheer weight of rock heading at us would’ve overwhelmed our shields in seconds.’
‘What about the K2?’ asked Andy. ‘They had no power, they would’ve got mullered.’
‘What is mullered?’ asked Phil, giving Andy a questioning glance.
‘English slang for smashed,’ said Ed, trying to think what to do. ‘How far away are we?’
‘The jump was ten light years,’ said Cleo.
‘Can we jump back outside the danger zone and see what’s happened?’ Ed asked. ‘Just make sure we’re cloaked this time and well away from all those bloody rocks.’
Phil plotted and executed a jump close and behind a distant planet in the nearest system, cloaked the ship and powered out towards their previous rendezvous point.
‘Cleo, you’d better wake the others. I don’t know what we’re going to be able to do when we arrive, but we’d better be fully manned up here.’
The three of them gazed up with various degrees of trepidation at the holomap as the array updated the feed. It wasn’t pleasant viewing. Even at this distance, they could see the K52 was still dead and unmoving. It was completely surrounded by an immense swarm of rocks, some of them buried deep into the hull. The closer they got and as the definition improved, it became more and more evident the huge GDA cruiser was in significant dire straits.
‘Oh, shit,’ mumbled Ed.
Phil went white and said nothing.
Andy just sat with his mouth open.
‘How the fuck were they able to do that?’ he said, eventually.
‘Override codes,’ said Cleo. ‘It’s the only way. Those ships have a bundle of backup and redundancy systems to make just this scenario impossible.’
‘Do you think the traitor was the stowaway we had?’ Phil asked.
‘It’s not out of the realms of possibility,’ said Ed.
‘Bloody hell, I hope not,’ said Andy. ‘Bache’ll never forgive us.’
‘Forgive what?’ Linda asked, stepping off the tube lift with Pol.
No one answered, so she stopped and gazed up at what the other three were staring at.
‘No way,’ she gasped. ‘Is that who we were supposed to meet?’
The others nodded.
‘How did they find them so fast and most importantly, how the hell did they penetrate the shields of one of those bloody things?’ Linda asked.
Phil gave Ed a worried look, which didn’t go unnoticed.
‘What are you not telling us?’ said Pol, giving Phil an accusatory glare.
‘We might have had a stowaway,’ said Cleo, appearing in person and looking contrite. ‘Who may have jumped onto the Katadromiko and been in possession of the override codes. Don’t blame the boys, it was all my responsibility. I should’ve detected it.’
‘Hiding where?’ Linda asked, a tone of alarm in her voice.
‘One of the hangars most likely,’ said Cleo. ‘It’s really difficult to pinpoint.’
‘Which one is it?’ Pol asked, sliding into her seat and nodding at the holomap.
‘The K52,’ said Andy.
‘Fifty-two?’ exclaimed Linda. ‘I didn’t know they’d got that many.’
‘It was new,’ said Ed. ‘First operation, it had only just completed its trials.’
‘Oh, crap, a rookie crew too, I should imagine. We need to help them.’
‘I’d love to,’ said Ed. ‘But if these bugs can just jump through our shields almost undetected, we can’t risk getting even remotely close. Which reminds me, Phil, can you hold up here? We don’t know if they can see us through our cloak. So bearing in mind they seem to be a lot smarter than we first presumed, I don’t want to get too near.’
The pitch of the sub-light engines changed as Phil slowed their momentum, eventually holding station at around eight hundred and sixty million kilometres from the K52.
Callon joined them. Her initial chipper demeanour soured somewhat as she was filled in on the situation and sitting down she stared up at the holomap, her shoulders sagging.
‘Okay,’ said Ed. ‘Now everyone’s here, I’m open to suggestions.’
‘Couldn’t Cleo synthesise some sort of bug spray to wipe them out?’ Andy asked.
Ed arched an eyebrow and puffed out his cheeks.
‘Firstly, that would be committing genocide of a sentient species and I’m not sure the GDA’s strict regulations would look favourably on that. Secondly, Cleo, as you know, has no kill programming. She wouldn’t be permitted to design a weapon to wipe out an entire species, no matter how cruel or dangerous they are.’
‘Why don’t you wake Pyriaeus and ask him?’ said Pol. ‘After all, he’s got more experience of the bugs than anyone else.’
‘He was defeated though,’ said Phil. ‘And they seem to be more technically advanced than in his time anyway.’
‘All true,’ said Ed, turning to nod at Cleo. ‘But I don’t think it could do any harm to have his input.’
Cleo waved a hand. Pyriaeus appeared in his familiar gold-trimmed garments, his expression brightening as he gazed around at everyone.
‘Greetings,’ he said, speaking in Ellinika, the principal language of the GDA. ‘I take it, as I’m here, there have been developments?’ He turned and gazed up at the holomap. ‘What in the universe is that thing?’
‘A dead starship,’ carped Andy. ‘The one sent here to supposedly sort out our bug problem.’
‘How big is that thing?’
‘Fourteen kilometres,’ Pol answered.
He turned his head slowly and stared straight at Ed.
‘You let the bugs overrun it?’ he blurted. ‘Don’t you have some kind of shielding on something that big?’
‘Of course,’ Ed replied, dejectedly. ‘They must’ve somehow got hold of the master codes and shut its systems down before boarding it.’
‘Would the codes have been on that computer you said was stolen?’
‘No,’ said Phil. ‘Definitely not. However they did that, it didn’t come from there. It must’ve been the stowaway.’
Pyriaeus turned suddenly and stared at Phil.
‘Stowaway?’
Ed explained what they knew. Pyriaeus’s face dropped as the information sank in.
‘They must’ve succeeded with the mind transfer technology,’ he said flatly. ‘They’ve had plenty of time to do it, I suppose.’
‘So, you think the stowaway could’ve been in human form?’ Linda asked.
‘It would’ve been easier for it to move around on that ship and set up the shutdown from within,’ he said, pointing at the K52.
‘Is there any way we can help to power it up again?’ asked Pol. ‘The crew will be at a huge disadvantage with no gravity.’
‘Not without boarding the thing,’ said Ed.
‘That isn’t going to happen under any circumstances,’ grumbled Linda. ‘You were plain lucky last time. It’d be a suicide mission.’
‘She’s right,’ said Pol. ‘There’s forty-seven thousand crew over there. If they can’t sort it out, what chance have we got?’
‘I could,’ said Cleo, with a wry smile. ‘I could play them at their own game.’