‘Sorry, Edward,’ said Kwin, as they disembarked the Cartella into the Gabriel’s starboard hangar.
‘Actually, I think we all owe you an apology,’ said Rialte, before Ed could reply. ‘Yet again we owe you our lives and it was rude of us to have doubted you and your crew.’
‘You don’t need to apologise,’ said Ed. ‘If they hadn’t found us when they did, we’d all be dead under that rock.’
All four Callametans hugged Ed and Andy in turn, followed by Rayl and Linda who sprinted into the hangar seconds later, grinning like Cheshire cats, with Andy and Rayl making their excuses and quickly disappearing off to their cabin.
Once all the greetings and introductions were over, Ed immediately recorded a message and sent a cloaked drone on its way back to the GDA, warning them of the intended attack by at least one of the escaped attack ships from Andromeda which had somehow made it to the Cygnus arm.
The Callametans all went to get some sleep, except for Pol who wanted to learn more about the ship and followed them up, parking herself on a swiftly-designed seat at the side of the bridge.
‘Has there been any sign of any other Andromedan ships?’ asked Ed, tucking into a bacon sandwich.
‘No,’ said Linda. ‘But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. That attack ship may well have passed on the cloaking information files to others.’
‘I agree,’ said Ed. ‘We need to be wary. But if Triyl really was on his own here with that ship, he may have wanted to keep the technology to himself and that’s what I’m hoping.’
‘The same with the Genok weapons too,’ said Phil. ‘A psycho race like this with their hands on those things doesn’t bear thinking about.’
Ed studied the holomap and pointed at the Hope with an almost constant stream of ships coming and going from the surface of Garag.
‘Are they still unloading the colonists?’ Ed asked, watching where the descending shuttles were going.
‘We believe so,’ said Linda.
‘That’s an island,’ said Ed. ‘I wonder why they’re taking them there?’
‘Keeps them segregated, I suppose,’ said Phil. ‘That island has a lot of security fences around its perimeter.’
‘A prison maybe?’ said Linda.
Ed nodded and adopted a rueful expression.
‘Have you had any contact with Hope since you got here?’ he asked.
‘Not yet,’ said Linda. ‘Give us a chance.’
‘We’ve been a little preoccupied with saving your arse,’ said Phil, giving Ed a pointed stare.
‘Yeah, okay – sorry,’ he said. ‘Cleo can we talk to Hope from here?’
‘Not yet,’ said Cleo. ‘But I have a plan.’
‘A plan?’
‘Well, when I say a plan – it’s more like a theory.’
‘That doesn’t fill me with enthusiasm, Cleo,’ said Ed. ‘Would you care to elaborate?’
‘Okay, well, that damping field the Blend ship used is utilising a strange form of infrasonics. The emitter changes the frequency randomly thousands of times a second and is impossible to counter. It disrupts all kinds of wave forms and pretty much everything we normally use.’
‘Normally?’ Ed questioned, raising his eyebrows.
‘I’m going to attempt to create a sort of sound wave palto around the ship, that we could extend out to encapsulate another ship or part thereof.’
Ed thought about that for a moment.
‘So, you’d be able to include the front section of the Hope where the bridge is and we could chat with the computer?’
‘That’s the theory bit.’
‘What about using the mini-me fighters to jump inside the Blend ships’ shields and mangle their emitter?’
‘They’re keeping their shielding very close to the hull, jumping into a space that small would be exceedingly difficult.’
‘What about including just a little corner of their ship into this new palto, allowing myself and Andy to infiltrate their systems with our DOVIs and turn it off?’
‘Again, dangerous because our ordinary shields would be down and it would make the Gabriel visible to them and their weapon systems.’
Ed stared at the floor for a moment.
‘But, what if we were hiding below the Hope?’
Cleo went quiet for a second.
‘So long as they don’t have any other warships nearby, that might work,’ said Cleo. ‘Aren’t you the ideas man today?’
‘For a slow organic brain, I still have my uses,’ said Ed, nodding and noticing Linda had pulled a strange face.
‘I didn’t say a word,’ she said in response to Ed’s raised eyebrow.
‘There’s a lot of traffic coming and going underneath the Hope at the moment so we need to let them complete the colonist transfer first,’ said Ed. ‘Annoying as that may seem, it’s probably safer for them in the long run, just in case the Blends start throwing heavy weapons around.’
‘These local Moguls or Blends are very different to the Andromedan crowd, aren’t they?’ said Phil. ‘There’s an awful lot more of them and they seem to do more of the work themselves.’
‘They have their own females too,’ said Linda.
‘How do the Andromedan ones breed then?’ asked Pol, sounding surprised.
‘Stealing and raping young girls from around their region,’ said Phil. ‘Then cherry-picking the male offspring.’
‘What happens to the female offspring?’
‘Killed at birth, along with the mother.’
‘That’s barbaric,’ Pol cried. ‘And we thought ours were bad.’
‘They still are,’ said Ed. ‘We hope to free you of their scourge, one way or another. Once the GDA get involved it’ll be the beginning of the end for them I’m sure.’
‘That’s been a dream of my race for thousands of years,’ said Pol. ‘I can’t believe it may happen in my lifetime.’
‘Well, let’s just hope it does,’ said Linda. ‘For the sake of everyone in this galaxy.’
The following morning the whole team, including the four Callametans, gathered on the bridge. The ship traffic coming and going from the Hope had reduced significantly and if they were going to test Cleo’s theory, now was the time.
‘They’ll be heading off to the belt before long,’ said Linda. ‘So now’s our chance. But just before we do this, I have something everyone should see. Cleo, can you replay the feed I earmarked from before the attack ship was destroyed?’
The holonav image changed to the attack ship sitting in orbit around Garag.
‘Now, watch the small hangar up near the bow and bridge,’ she said, pointing to the small aperture.
The first explosion took place back in the engineering section, followed by the first in the main hangar.
‘We’ve seen all this,’ said Phil.
‘Keep watching,’ said Linda.
After a few moments a small sleek craft zipped out of the tiny hangar, turned away from the ship and planet and travelled about fifty thousand kilometres before suddenly slowing and disappearing.
‘It jumped,’ said Andy.
‘No,’ said Cleo. ‘There was no jump residue at all. It entered another cloaked vessel, that’s why it slowed before vanishing.’
‘Oh crap,’ said Rayl. ‘Was that Triyl?’
‘Most likely,’ said Ed. ‘I told you he’s a complete coward.’
‘First sign of trouble and he’s out the fucking door,’ said Andy. ‘Typical Mogul, they’re only brave when the odds are stacked in their favour.’
‘So, there’s another cloaked Blend ship in the system,’ said Tocc, from the side of the bridge.
‘Or maybe more,’ said Ed. ‘And I’d put money on it being another Mogul ship from Andromeda. It could be a trap – waiting for us to do what we’re about to do.’
The bridge went silent for a moment as everyone thought that through.
‘Ed,’ said Andy. ‘You remember the gateway control room on Pyli?’
‘Of course.’
‘Didn’t the Ancients have a way of seeing through our cloak?’
‘Oh crap – I’d forgotten about that.’
‘You pocketed the activation node if I remember.’
Ed stood suddenly and vanished below on the tube lift.
‘What just happened?’ asked Pol, looking at Andy.
‘You’ll see.’
Ed returned a few minutes later and placed a small, dusty, stained rectangular box on the floor.
‘Cleo, can you scan that and see if you can operate it through our array?’
She appeared, picked up the box, stared at it for a moment and gave it back to Ed.
‘Well?’ he said.
‘Clever,’ she replied, nodding and promptly disappeared again.
‘Erm – excuse me?’ said Tocc, putting her hand up and then pointing at the space where Cleo had been. ‘Who was that?’
‘Our ship’s computer,’ said Rayl. ‘She’s awesome.’
‘But she looked different and real this time,’ Kwin said, her face a picture of confusion.
‘That’s because with the emitters here, I am and can be anyone I like,’ said Cleo, appearing in front of them this time as a Callametan and waving her four arms around, before giving the three shocked engineers a hug. She glanced over at Pol, winked and vanished again.
‘How is that even possible?’ said Rialte, recoiling slightly. ‘She’s not a hologram, she had structure.’
‘And was warm,’ Tocc added.
‘Clever, isn’t she?’ said Andy. ‘We did mention that technology had moved on a bit while you lot were snoozing in your pods.’
‘We’re not going to be very useful engineers anymore, are we?’ said Tocc, glancing at his colleagues and exhibiting the now famous Callametan four-arm shrug.
The lighting on the bridge dimmed slightly and the holomap image changed to show a grey shadowed form parked close to the Hope and in a similar orbit around Garag.
‘Well, well,’ said Ed. ‘I’m glad we found you before we did anything rash.’
‘Are there any more around, Cleo?’ asked Linda.
‘Not in the near vicinity,’ Cleo replied. ‘But the range isn’t that peachy yet. Let me work on it and see if I can encapsulate the whole fruit basket.’
Ed smiled at the euphemism and nodded before turning to face the others.
‘Right, everyone – thinking caps on,’ he said. ‘We need a plan to get rid of this sneaky bastard.’