The starship Gabriel’s bridge, non-system space
‘There’s more of ’em,’ said Andy. ‘Flying out a hole in the stern.’
Everybody on the bridge glanced up as Andy panned in on the rear of the 52. Hundreds of bugs were spewing out only to be immediately turned into vapour by the laser emplacements.
‘How is she doing that?’ Callon asked.
‘That must be from engineering,’ said Andy. ‘All GDA ships’ main engineering decks have a vent in case of a radioactive or toxic material leak.’
‘Clever girl,’ said Linda.
‘Clever girls,’ corrected Cleo, staring at Linda with a furrowed brow. ‘I did have a part to play in that too.’
Linda pulled a sour expression at Cleo and held her hands up in a placatory manner.
‘Nice one, Cleo,’ said Andy. ‘D’you know what she plans on doing next?’
‘She now has control of propulsion again. So she’s going to jump the ship to safety. If I’m going to be able to continue to help her, we obviously need to go too.’
‘Oh, shit,’ said Pol. ‘What about the nanos? They’ve only just been deployed.’
‘They won’t go anywhere,’ said Cleo. ‘It’ll give them time to fully infiltrate the moon and anyway, don’t you think our priority must be to retake the 52?’
‘I do,’ said Ed. ‘I take it she’s going to embed the jump?’
‘She is.’
‘Then we need to do the same and follow along.’
‘Already prepped. I just need her emergence co-ordinates.’
Ed looked over at Andy and smiled.
‘Ready for a bit of bug exterminating, Andrew?’ he asked.
Before he could answer, Linda’s brow creased and she pointed a finger at Ed.
‘You’re not planning on doing what I think you are, are you?’ she grouched.
Ed shrugged.
‘Well, we can’t do much to help sitting on our arses in here, can we? and there’s a lot less of ’em on that ship now.’
‘You’re mad…and what d’you expect us to do? Wait here for the news of your demise?’
‘We’ll have Cleo with us,’ said Andy, hopefully.
‘And our personal shields,’ said Ed.
‘This isn’t like on the bloody movies you know,’ she grumbled. ‘You can’t just beam out when the going gets tough.’
‘I can,’ said Cleo, putting her hand up and adopting a petulant grin.
‘Shut up, you,’ Linda snapped. ‘This is not the time for humour.’
‘No, but I do have eyes all over the ship now Grogun has gained control. I know where they are and in what numbers. It seems they’re a bit disorganised now. It might mean their connection to the collective off the ship was cut when the shields went back up. It’ll definitely be cut after the jump and from the queen too.’
Phil’s ears pricked up.
‘There’s a queen?’ he asked. ‘Where?’
‘Unknown,’ said Cleo. ‘But both the brainwashed humans have mentioned the queen won’t be very happy with the current turn of events.’
‘My heart bleeds,’ said Andy, sarcastically. ‘She can go to hell.’
‘Hopefully, that’s only a matter of time,’ said Ed.
‘I have the jump co-ordinates,’ said Cleo, suddenly standing straight and staring straight ahead. ‘Jumping in sync with the 52 in five seconds.’
After the usual slight dimming of the lights when the jump took place, everyone on the bridge watched the holomap as it reprogrammed itself with the new location.
‘We’re in a system,’ said Callon. ‘A hundred and seventy-seven light years travelled, supposedly uninhabited, B-type main sequence star, seventeen planets, no traffic detected except for the 52 a hundred and fifty kilometres distant.’
‘Awesome,’ said Phil, giving Callon a beaming smile.
Andy gave Ed a knowing glance and got raised eyebrows in response.
‘Okay, full shields and uncloak,’ said Ed. ‘Let’s move in closer now we don’t have the swarm of bug rocks to contend with.’
Grogun’s image appeared to one side of the holomap. Ed thought she looked tired but confident.
‘Hello, Gabriel,’ she said. ‘Sorry I haven’t been in touch recently, it’s just I’ve been a little distracted with a slight infestation.’
‘Understatement of the year,’ said Andy. ‘Did you really walk the length of your ship on the outside?’
‘I never want to wear another pair of mag boots ever again,’ Grogun replied, rolling her eyes. ‘My legs feel like they’re full of carboncrete.’
‘You’ll be able to crack walnuts with your thighs though!’ chuckled Andy.
Grogun looked puzzled, as everyone else on the Gabriel’s bridge turned to glower at Andy.
He glanced around at a circle of unsmiling faces, his grin slowly morphing into a grimace.
‘Err…inappropriate?’ he asked, awkwardly.
‘Yep,’ said Ed, nodding his head.
‘What’s a walnut?’ Grogun asked.
‘Don’t worry,’ said Linda. ‘Just Andrew being a dick.’
Ed and Andy made their way down to the port hangar, much to Linda and Pol’s palpable disapproval. Cleo provided them with some GDA marine-style body armour, just as a backup in case their personal shields failed.
‘This stuff’s a lot lighter than it looks,’ said Andy, strapping on the grey armour and doing a few kung fu-type moves.
‘It’s no good you practising your karate,’ said Ed. ‘If we’re reduced to hand to hand combat we’re royally screwed, they have six limbs remember. Personally, I would’ve pissed off long before it comes to that.’
‘No, you’re right,’ said Andy. ‘I wouldn’t want to get covered in that stinking grey goo either.’
They entered one of the two shuttles parked against the side wall.
‘Would’ve preferred the Cartella,’ said Ed, as he passed Andy a laser rifle. ‘At least it had some armaments.’
Andy gazed out the front screen to the opposite side of the hangar.
‘Why don’t we take one of the new ones?’ he asked, pointing at two sleek black shuttles parked against the far wall.
Ed turned and followed Andy’s gaze. The ships in question had been purchased on their last adventure. They were unique, gloss black, fast and had hidden laser cannons.
‘That’s not a bad idea,’ said Ed, grabbing a rifle for himself and a couple of come-in-handy backpacks, before turning for the airlock. ‘At least we’ll have something to defend ourselves with if the flying rocks appear.’
‘We really ought to have a name for these ships too,’ said Andy, as they walked towards the nearest one. ‘We’ve had them a while now and we can’t keep referring to them as the black ones.’
‘I’ll give it some thought,’ said Ed.
‘I already have,’ Andy replied.
‘Go on.’
‘Scorpion.’
Ed stopped, looked between the ship and Andy and smiled.
‘They’re small, black, fast with a sting in the tail, that’s perfect,’ he said. ‘Scorpion it is.’
Andy beamed as they boarded the small ship and prepped it for the short flight over to the 52.