Infinitys end books 4 6, p.20
Infinity's End: Books 4-6, page 20
Once this crisis was over.
Jann brought the shuttle down into one of the spots on the bay, opening the hatches to the yells of the bay crews on the other side. As soon as they were down Jann and Caspian were out of their seats and through the exit, into the chaos of the bay itself. Zenfor followed close behind, making sure to grab the primitive diagnostic device that had taken a copy of the map from the alien ship.
“Here! Over here!” Zenfor glanced over to see Chief Rafnkell waving for them. All three broke out in a trot to her, she was helping a human whose arm had been crushed by a falling container crate. “Get this thing off him!”
Zenfor and the three humans all got under the crate and with her additional strength, lifted it from him, only to find a bloody mess of an arm underneath. It had been completely crushed.
“By Kor,” Jann said as they set the box down on the other side of him.
“What happened?” Cas demanded.
“I don’t know, I just got back myself,” Rafnkell said. “As soon as I jumped out of my wing I saw this guy, everyone running around him. I can’t reach anyone, and the flight control deck is empty.” With her head she motioned to the glass windows above the bays. She took off her flight jacket and wrapped it in a makeshift tourniquet around the man’s bloody stump of an arm. “I think the comms are down.”
“Did you see the explosions?” Cas asked.
“I was on the other side of the system. I only came back when Ryant gave me the rundown.”
Zenfor glanced behind them. More shuttles were arriving in the bays, it seemed the map was working, and they were avoiding many of the mines.
“C’mon,” Cas said, tapping Zenfor. “We need to get to the bridge.” He turned to Jann. “Good flying. Get him to sickbay. And make sure those force barriers don’t come down!” He pointed to the end of the bays where two more shuttles came in with their escorts and landed.
“What else are we going to do, leave him here to bleed to death?” Rafnkell said, snark in her voice as she grabbed the man under his shoulders.
Caspian took off for the main exit, running at what she assumed was his full speed. Though it didn’t take much for her to keep up. With the internal comms down they had no way of knowing what was happening anywhere else on the ship, which also meant they didn’t know which sections were potentially damaged or open to space. Had this been a Sil ship she would have known any and all damage immediately, as the ship would have transmitted the information neurologically to every member of the crew through their suits. This was very inefficient.
“C’mon,” Caspian said. “We need to get to the bridge. See if we can regain control of the ship.”
“And make sure everyone’s not dead,” Zenfor said.
“They’re not.”
“How can you be so sure? Why else would the ship be adrift?” She was wrong, he hadn’t been running at his full pace before because he managed to speed up. She kept up with him until they reached part of the corridor that had been blocked by debris from two floors above.
“Up and over,” he said, climbing. A few crew members were attempting to move the debris and they yelled at Cas as he made his way over, making their job more difficult.
“Wait,” Zenfor said and Cas climbed back down. She grasped one end of one of the main beams blocking their way and yanked it until it came loose, the crew looking on in wonder. This was why she was consul. She was the strongest and most agile of her crew, as well as the smartest. These people seemed willing to select anyone to lead them. She was grateful her own people weren’t like that. “There,” she said, tossing the piece of metal aside. It had made a dent in the debris, enough so part of it had collapsed, making traversing over it much easier.
“Thanks,” Cas waved back at her. “Come on!”
She could hear the crew murmuring, no doubt impressed with her strength. She was glad she could show them what a real captain was supposed to look like. Though she couldn’t help but think it was a title she wouldn’t have much longer. Not after Mil’less learned of her deeds.
Caspian reached the hypervator first, but once he was inside it wouldn’t respond to his commands. “Damn, I think the route to the bridge must be blocked. Hang on.” He studied the panel’s interface, then began programming a complex set of variables into the control device. A little light beside it turned green. “Bridge,” he said. The doors closed, sealing them in.
“What did you do?” Zenfor asked.
“I had to route along another hypervator path. They’re all connected, so we just had to take the long way around. Otherwise we would have had to take the access tubes and sorry, but I don’t think you’ll fit through those. They’re uncomfortable enough for someone of my size.”
“You no longer seem so anxiety-ridden,” she said. “Ever since the alien ship.”
“That’s true,” he replied. “I had that thought as well. I guess when there’s a crisis I don’t have time to think about it.” The hypervator shuddered, which was the first instance Zenfor had ever experienced of that happening. “Don’t worry, that’s just the car switching its tracks.”
A moment later the doors opened on the bridge, which was in terrible shape. Smoke filled the room, but not so much she couldn’t see. Zaal, Uuma, and Volf all remained at their stations, though Volf and Uuma were covered in human perspiration and Uuma’s lip was bleeding. Zaal, while he remained at his station, he’d lost his hard-light projection and the exoskeleton under his robe was clearly visible as it operated his controls. In the front, Lieutenant Ronde was slumped over his station though Zenfor couldn’t tell if he was dead or not. Ensign River seemed to have taken over his job, as she was working hard at navigation. But there in the middle of the room was Greene, his hand on his side which was leaking a lot of blood and his eyes in a sort of haze. Blood dripped from his head to the deck plating below. Zenfor didn’t think he would make it much longer.
“Status!” Caspian ordered as he motioned Zenfor over to Greene. What was she supposed to do? She was no healer.
“We’ve lost primary and secondary engine control. All comms are offline and we have four hull breaches. Decks, four, seven, eleven and sixteen,” Uuma said.
“The captain?”
“I’m…” Greene said through gritted teeth.
“—he was beside the specialist station when it exploded,” Zaal said, though the voice seemed to come from deep within him somewhere. “He’s badly injured.”
“Zenfor, grab him and get him back to sickbay,” Cas said. “He needs treatment.”
“What? I can’t—”
Cas ran over. “Yes, you can. It’s up to you to save his life. You’re faster and stronger than anyone else. Get him there, get them to stop the bleeding.” Zenfor glanced down at the man. He had a strong will; he was still trying to sit up even in his condition. She didn’t want to be the reason he expired. She reached and put her arms under him, to which he grunted and winced in pain, but he kept from screaming.
“Listen to…Caspian…” Greene said, his breath hitched. “He knows—”
“Go!” Caspian yelled and Zenfor returned to the hypervator, careful not to hit the captain on any of the door edges. She couldn’t believe she was here, saving the human captain of a ship. What would her colleagues and family say if they could see her?
The doors opened on level fourteen; it had been a smoother ride than it had up from the bay level. Zenfor sprinted as fast as she could through the corridor, the doors and alcoves she passed becoming a blur. She hadn’t run at full speed since before leaving Sil space and it felt good to stretch out her muscles. She’d forgotten without the constant stimulation of the suits she needed to continue to physically exercise. Another drawback.
As soon as she was inside sickbay it was easy to tell something was wrong. Neither the ship’s doctor nor the robot were in the room, though four other nurses were attempting to see to the patients who’d been brought in so far. All the beds were full.
“Captain!” a nurse said, running up to them. His identifier said “Menkel”. “Bring him over here,” he said, directing Zenfor through the partition into the surgery wing of sickbay. Two of its beds were unoccupied.
“Where is the doctor?” she asked.
“I think she’s in Engineering,” Menkel said. “She was headed down there with a small team before—” he gestured at the chaos around him as he began to examine the captain. “I need a full med unit in here! We’re going into surgery!”
Zenfor backed off, allowing the medical personnel to do their work. Even she could tell the captain was in very bad shape, and she had little knowledge of human anatomy, other than what she’d read with Mil’less. For some reason the doctor hadn’t returned, did that mean she was dead? Or had she been trapped in Engineering? Perhaps that was where Zenfor could be of the most help; getting the engines back online. It was only four decks above her, that was where she’d need to go next.
She took one last look at the captain then left the human healers to their jobs as she returned to the chaos of the corridors. Crew she’d never met ran past her in both directions, everyone trying to put out their own personal fires. Zenfor took off down the corridor behind a group of crewmen, each with tools and some with fire suppressing equipment. They loaded into the nearest hypervator and she got in behind them. “Level eleven,” the lead one said.
“Level ten,” Zenfor added.
“Are you going to Engineering?” One of the group asked her. Zenfor recognized her as Ensign Tileah, from the weapons bay down on fifteen. She nodded. “Engineering is locked down, we got hit on eleven and it might have compromised the structural integrity of ten. We’ve got emergency force barriers in place holding everything together, but we won’t know how bad it is until we see it.”
“Is it something you need assistance with?” Zenfor asked.
Tileah glanced at some of the other members of her group. The lead one nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “That’d be great. Thanks.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
“Zaal, how bad are the internal comms?” Cas asked.
The robotic skeleton didn’t move, except for his hands. Cas realized the exoskeleton had eyes where human eyes should be, which made sense. But they were more like Box’s sensors than actual eyes. Though instead of yellow they glowed a faint red, which was not reassuring at all.
“We’ve lost our long-range antenna which we would normally use for a backup,” Zaal said, his voice unchanged from when he had the hard-light projection. “And the internal comm hub was destroyed by one of the blasts. It will have to be manually re-connected with a new one.”
“Fine,” Cas said. “Communications is on six? I’ll print one and get started on it.”
“Sir,” Zaal interrupted causing Cas to stop short. “The captain technically put you in charge. You should stay here and coordinate efforts. I can make the repairs.”
Cas furrowed his brow. No. He was done with the Coalition. He’d tried the whole rank thing again and it hadn’t worked. In fact, it had done the opposite of worked: it had almost gotten everyone killed. He couldn’t take command of the ship. “Zaal, I really think it’s better you or Uuma—”
“I’m with the lieutenant,” Uuma said from tactical. “You have more experience than any of us and right now we need you.” Cas glanced over to Ensign River who had turned in her seat and was nodding along.
“This is crazy,” Volf said from behind him at the Engineering station to no one in particular. “This ship is fucking crazy.”
“Caspian has proven himself quite valuable in the past,” Zaal said. “It is within his capability to do this task.”
Volf huffed. “Fine, whatever. Orders, captain?”
Damn. Zaal was right. He didn’t have time to weigh the pros and cons. Without Greene or Evie—wherever the hell she was—the ship needed someone coordinating efforts to get it back on track. Especially before more of those fucking spheres decided to impact the hull. “Zaal, go work on the comms. Lieutenant Uuma, what’s our tactical status?”
“We’ve got force barriers covering each impact location and they’re holding. I can’t be sure, but I think added reinforcements have been provided to main Engineering,” Uuma said as Zaal left his station for the second hypervator on the bridge.
“The impact on eleven?” Cas asked. She nodded. Which meant people in Engineering must know something they didn’t. He was content to leave them to solve their problem until communications could be rectified. Sesster knew what he was doing. “What about our current weapons?”
“Blades and darts are at twenty-five percent. I can give you a few hits if necessary. Armor is significantly weakened on the port side of the ship but holding. All other sections are at eighty percent.”
“Ensign River, show me a shot off the starboard side of the ship,” Cas said.
An image appeared of open space, with the system’s three stars in the background. The red and blue giants were immediately visible, and in the distance sat the third, yellow star. And a bunch of bubbles of time no one can see, Cas thought. But at least he didn’t see any of those spheres on that side of the ship. Assuming they were still out there and hadn’t disappeared back to wherever Zenfor said they’d come from.
“Lieutenant,” he said, indicating Uuma. “Can you still connect with logs from the shuttles? There’s a map in the Calypso’s databanks that tells us where all these mines are. I need you to find and download it.”
“Working on it, sir,” she replied.
Cas ran up to Ronde, who was still splayed out over the helm station. He pulled the young man back, though he couldn’t see any indication of injury. “What happened to him?” he asked River.
“I—I’m not sure. He might have hit his head. It happened when the third blast hit us.”
Cas put his fingers to the man’s neck, he had a pulse. With some effort Cas lifted the man out of the seat and laid him down in front of the stations, flat on his back. As soon as they got the comms back up he’d call for medical. Until then without knowing his injuries there wasn’t a lot they could do for him. “Can you handle the helm?” he asked River.
“Yes—I believe I can,” she replied. “I’m still trying—I mean we’re listing and until the engines come back—”
“Use whatever you’ve got. Emergency thrusters, decompress a storage bay if you have to. But we need to stop the ship from moving if we can. I don’t want to attract any more of those things.” He turned back to Uuma. “How’s it coming?”
“I think I’ve made a connection with the shuttle, but it’s not solid. It could go at any second.”
Cas returned to the command chairs. “Do the best you can.” He glanced over at Volf. “What’s the story on the engines?”
“As best I can tell, that blast on eleven knocked out the primary power conduits. Which means Engineering will need to reroute them before we can reignite the Exodynes, to say nothing of using the undercurrent again.” Volf stared at her screens intently. “I don’t want to override what they might be doing down there.”
“No, that’s a good call. Let them handle the problems. We’ll have to wait.” Cas returned his attention to River. “How’s it going?”
“I’ve managed to slow us, sir. Some of the emergency thrusters are still working.”
Only some? How bad is this? Not only were they in a potentially hostile system, but they had no backup and the closest help would be two seasons away. The aliens had taken full advantage of Tempest being on her own and had lured them in. There was no other explanation for it. So, what were they waiting for?
“I think I have the information from the Calypso,” Uuma said. “I’m inputting the parameters now.” On the main screen, a bright overlay in yellow showed the entire system, with faint outlines where the mines should be. But something was wrong. “According to the map there should be two just in front of us, but—”
“They’re not there anymore,” Cas replied.
“I don’t understand.” Uuma’s face was distorted in confusion and Cas couldn’t blame her. He had difficulty grasping it himself.
“When we were in the shuttle, we found one of their ships, but it’s sitting in a bubble of time, seconds behind us. There’s a bunch of them out there we can’t see. I’m betting these mines have the ability to phase in and out of that timestream at will. Which is probably why we haven’t had any more hits. But as soon as we move they’ll reactivate and come back into our own timestream.”
“A different timestream?” Volf asked. “What does that even mean?”
Cas shook his head. “It was Zenfor’s theory, but I don’t have any reason to doubt her. She knows technology like this better than we do. But I think it’s how they hide from our sensors.” Though something wasn’t right. Ryant had told them they’d only been gone for a few seconds when Cas knew it had been over twenty minutes if for no other proof than the self-destruct timer on the Calypso had made it down to eight minutes by the time they got back. Did the shift explain time-dilation? He couldn’t be sure; it was far outside his realm of expertise.
“So what do we do?” Volf asked.
“We wait for Engineering.”
Zenfor stared at the open space beyond the sealed bulkhead. There was a small window that allowed them to see into the affected section which had completely decompressed.
“We’re going to have to go back for the enviro-suits,” the lead crewman said to the group. “Obviously we can’t get anything done from here.”
