Mission: Eradicate (Obsidiar Fleet Book 6), page 2
“The Crater it is, Corporal. We’re waiting on one more.”
“Come onboard while you wait, sir. Make yourself comfortable.”
Duggan chuckled. “There’s no such thing as comfort on one of these transports, Corporal. Which spaceship have you come off? The Hammer Blow?”
“That’s the one, sir. The Hammer isn’t due to lift off until tomorrow. Will we be joining them?”
“I don’t intend keeping you long.”
The interior of the shuttle was as familiar to Duggan as the contents of his sock drawer. There were metal chairs and bare walls, a viewing screen for passengers and the faint smell of rubber and sweat which he knew from experience was impossible to expunge.
Voices from outside informed him that Charissa Paz was on her way. He heard footsteps on the boarding ramp and the figure of Lieutenant Paz arrived, dressed in pale red and with her hair tied up.
“Have a seat,” said Duggan. “Corporal Gardner, let’s get going.”
“Yes, sir,” said Gardner. “You want to sit up front?”
“Not for this one.”
Gardner disappeared through the cockpit door and by the time Duggan switched his attention to Lieutenant Paz, she was holding two cups of coffee which she’d obtained from the replicator in double-quick time.
“Want one?” She thrust the metal cup in Duggan’s direction.
“You make it sound like an order,” he said, taking the gift. “Don’t tell Dr Templeton.”
“Flossie? My lips are sealed, sir.”
Paz sat next to Duggan and the two of them waited for the soldiers to come into the passenger bay. The group sat a respectful distance away, so as not to eavesdrop on the conversation.
The shuttle’s door closed and the note of the gravity engines changed. Gardner was nothing if not efficient and the transport lifted off within a few seconds. Duggan’s stomach was aware of the high acceleration for a brief moment, before the life support modules kicked in.
“Where are we going, sir?” asked Paz.
“Star Reach. I’ve had some mixed news on the Obsidiar-T and I’d like to see what effect it will have on the Lightspeed Catapult.”
“Is the mission still on?”
“I won’t leave anyone behind.”
“Does Captain Blake know?”
“Only what I told him – that there might be a way and he must be patient.”
“How did he take it?”
“He’s learning.”
“Does this news on the Obsidiar-T mean he’s going to be disappointed?”
“I hope not, Lieutenant. I really hope not.”
“Why didn’t you use the comms to speak to Captain Decker?”
“There are things you’ve got to see for yourself.” Duggan gave a half-smile. “And I was getting bored looking out of my window at all that concrete.”
The Hammer Blow’s shuttle was designed for rapid deployment duties, so it came as no shock when Corporal Gardner came over the internal comms to announce their expected arrival time was only fifteen minutes.
Duggan’s empty coffee cup was still warm when the shuttle landed at Star Reach.
Chapter Two
The Star Reach testing and research facility was situated on a large island, far out in the middle of Prime’s biggest ocean. This island – called Jansval – was fifty kilometres across and, in its original form, nothing more interesting than an uneven rock protruding from deep water with little in the way of flora. Before the Space Corps had chosen it as the perfect site for propulsion research, Jansval had been remarkable only for its thick layer of bird shit and the smell of fish. Now, it was clean, flat and home to several thousand assorted personnel and vast quantities of expensive military hardware.
However, Space Corps technology had failed to completely cleanse the island of its past.
“It stinks of fish,” said Paz, wrinkling her nose when the shuttle door opened.
“Always has and always will, ma’am,” said one of the soldiers, evidently familiar with the place.
Duggan stopped for a moment at the top of the ramp. They’d landed in the centre of Star Reach, on one of eight dedicated landing pads. The sky was a uniform light grey and it was neither warm nor cold. To the right, a lifter shuttle was taking off, with a three-hundred-metre container fixed to its gravity chains. There were two more shuttles on the other pads, and directly ahead, the buildings of the facility spread before them.
“Quite impressive,” Paz conceded.
There were four huge warehouses visible from the landing pad – they were flat-sided, unadorned by windows and they rose from amongst the hundreds of smaller buildings like giants amongst children. To look at, they would have been depressingly uninteresting except for the sheer size.
“The largest is six hundred metres high and two thousand metres long,” said Duggan. “They’re designed to hold the largest engine modules from a Hadron battleship. They bring them in through the roofs.”
“What’re the latest figures when it comes to efficiency improvements?”
“Our current Gallenium engines produce eighty percent more power than the equivalent model of fifty years ago. That’s an outstanding achievement when you consider the raw material hasn’t changed one bit.”
“Now our focus is elsewhere.”
Paz was on Duggan’s staff and she had a good idea of most things that were happening when it came to the Space Corps’ war effort. She shielded her eyes to look at the Imposition class cruiser taking up a third of the facility’s main landing strip. It was parked up less than five hundred metres from the shuttle and dwarfed every other vessel in sight.
“I was expecting more from the Obsidiar-Teronium,” said Duggan, following her gaze. “The ES Cataclysm has already been heavily-modified to take advantage of the anticipated improvements.”
“From the tone of your voice earlier, I thought the research had failed, sir?”
“Not failed, simply not what I wanted. In a few minutes we should learn exactly how far short we’ve come.”
A standard-model gravity car emerged from between two of the smaller buildings and sped past one of the landing pads towards them. It didn’t slow until the last minute, when the driver swung it sideways and brought it to a halt.
“That’s our ride,” said Duggan.
With Paz following, he walked down the sloped side of the landing pad. A figure climbed from the gravity car – it was a woman in her late thirties with high cheekbones and dark hair pulled back from her face.
“Captain Misty Decker,” said Paz under her breath.
“One and the same,” Duggan replied. He raised his voice. “Good day, Captain Decker. This is Lieutenant Paz – she’s on my personal team.”
“This is a surprise,” said Decker. “The great Fleet Admiral Duggan, come to my facility. To what do I owe the pleasure, sir?”
“I would like to speak with you about the Lightspeed Catapult.”
Decker smiled, revealing the kind of naturally perfect teeth which would have cost most people two years’ salary to obtain, were dental treatment not free for citizens of the Confederation.
“Climb in, sir.”
Duggan took the front seat, leaving Paz to the back. Captain Decker overrode the gravity car’s safety protocols and rammed the control joystick forward. The car took off like its engine had been tinkered with to produce three times the power. Duggan was pushed into the padding of his seat.
“I’ll take you to the eastern warehouse,” said Decker, offering no more explanation.
“Is it far?” asked Paz through gritted teeth.
“Just up ahead, Lieutenant.”
The streets on the Star Reach facility were wide and not especially busy. It allowed Decker free rein to treat the place like her personal race track and she threw the gravity car around without apparent regard for the personal safety of herself or the other passengers. The benefit of this was efficiency and it took less than five minutes to reach their destination.
“Here we are,” said Decker. She opened the door and stepped onto the pavement.
Duggan and Paz climbed from the car. They were in one of the parking lots which served the eastern warehouse. The building betrayed no new beauty from up close and the smooth wall cast a long shadow over the entire parking area. Captain Decker gestured vaguely towards a set of glass-panelled sliding doors and they headed towards them.
“The prototype is hiding deep inside,” she confided.
They passed through the doors and into the lobby area, which was occupied by surly-faced armed guards, surly-faced receptionists and a few surly-faced research personnel. Not one of them dared challenge Captain Decker and she strode through, beaming at everyone.
“I tell myself that if I keep on smiling, a little bit of happiness will rub off,” she said.
“Looks like they need it,” said Paz.
“We’re heading to Testing Area 19,” Decker continued, as if she hadn’t heard.
The walk took a few minutes and Duggan hardly noticed any of it. Captain Decker chatted amiably about nothing much, until she stopped in front of two metal doors upon which were the words No Admittance for Unauthorised Personnel.
“Here we are.”
The Star Reach mainframe scanned the visitors, decided they had sufficient clearance to enter and opened the doors. The three of them stepped through into a large, cold room, lit in Space Corps blue-white. The walls were lined with screens of varying sizes and there were many consoles dotted about the floor. There were even several desks in one corner and Duggan noted people sitting at them, writing with pencils on sheets of paper. It was busy and he was impressed by the degree of purpose in the room.
“First things first,” said Decker. “Let us have a look at the prototype.”
There was a viewing window, which took up the whole of the opposite wall. Decker led them to it, firing questions at the researchers as she went. At the window, Duggan put his hands on the sill and stared through.
On the other side, there was a huge room which took up much of the warehouse. It was brightly lit, allowing Duggan to see the construction robots and mid-sized lifter shuttles hovering in the air. On the far side there were grey engine modules, some of them fitted with armour plates. The object he’d come to see lay directly in front of the viewing window. It was an anonymous cylinder, suspended a metre above the floor by a series of overhead gravity chains. He knew it was exactly 350 metres in length and with a 120-metre diameter. It’s near-black surface glistened with a layer of ice.
The Lightspeed Catapult wasn’t much to look at, but Duggan knew it held the potential to be the biggest technological leap since the first deep fission engine was created several hundred years ago. The costs were enormous both financially and in the use of the Confederation’s finite Obsidiar resources. Everyone on the Star Reach facility was aware of the significance.
“There it is,” said Decker.
“Some things you just have to see with your own eyes,” said Duggan.
“What brings you here, sir?” asked Decker, finally getting down to business.
“I have plans for that engine. What are its projected capabilities?”
It was all in the progress reports, but Duggan liked to hear it directly.
Decker furrowed her brow. “It’s undergone early testing. We’ve spooled it up to test the efficiency and to obtain some data on the likely output. There’s a long way to go yet.”
“What could it achieve in its current form? Will it go to lightspeed?”
Decker was sharp. “These plans you have – they are immediate plans.”
“Yes. There is an urgent need to send a ship to Estral Space.”
Captain Decker’s eyes became distant and she reeled off some statistics. “A newer Galactic class could manage the journey to the known outskirts of Estral Space in thirty-six years. A Hadron in thirty. The ES Blackbird could manage it in twenty-two years, or fifteen if it were fitted with a second Obsidiar drive.”
“There’s no room in its hull for a second drive,” said Duggan. “And I don’t have fifteen years. How long would it take the ES Cataclysm to complete the journey if we fitted the Lightspeed Catapult?”
“If everything worked as intended, the catapult should generate sufficient output to complete the journey in three years.”
It was disappointing. “I thought greater improvements were expected, Captain?”
“They are expected to be greater, sir. Much greater. This prototype contains plain old Obsidiar – it produces a far greater lightspeed multiple than a standard derived-Gallenium deep fission drive. Unfortunately, we here on Star Reach were awaiting a refined product, which is what our calculations are based upon. Standard Obsidiar is an evolution – a big evolution. The Obsidiar-Teronium is different. It has the capability to open a temporary wormhole and fling a spaceship clean through to the other side. This is something far beyond the capabilities of any of our existing power generation technology.”
“Have you looked through the report on the Obsidiar refinement process?” asked Duggan.
“I had an advance copy and it’s been my reading material of choice, sir.”
“Does the Obsidiar-T fulfil the requirements of the Lightspeed Catapult?”
“Yes, sir. It does.”
“What if I ordered the production of enough Obsidiar-T to complete the prototype? Could it take the Cataclysm to Estral Space?”
“Yes, sir. I’ve already run the figures and the journey would require somewhat less than a thousandth of a second.”
“What are the risks?”
“Practically everything.”
“Tell me.”
“Engine failure, programming failure resulting in the Cataclysm arriving somewhere outside of our star charts, engine destruction, spaceship destruction, crew death. Those are just the ones off the top of my head.”
“We’ve lost the Ulterior-2 out there, Captain Decker. Not only that, we saw the Vraxar home world.”
“It’ll take them a long time to get here, sir.”
Duggan shook his head. “The recordings from the ES Devastator suggest the enemy planetship was moving. We don’t know how or where they’re going, nor do we have much idea of how long it’ll take them. I want to know, Captain Decker. This is the last known major Vraxar asset and there’s no way in hell I’m going to sit on my hands and see what they decide to do with it.”
Decker was no fool. “Is the decision made?”
“Yes, Captain, it is.”
“We’ll require 220,000 tonnes of Obsidiar-T.”
Duggan grimaced – such an amount would make a significant dent in the Confederation’s remaining stocks. On the other hand, the potential gains – gathering data on the Aranol as well as locating the missing Ulterior-2 – were enough to take the gamble.
“You’ll have what you need. How long after receipt can you have the ES Cataclysm ready for flight?”
This time, the answer was a pleasant surprise. “Seven days. Perhaps six.”
“I’m going to send our best people on this one, Captain Decker.” He didn’t spell out exactly what he meant, though Decker caught on easily enough.
“There’s a chance it’ll work and a chance it’ll fail, sir.” She smiled sadly. “If I put it like that, I can almost convince myself that it’s a fifty-fifty.”
“Isn’t it?” asked Paz.
“Not even close, Lieutenant.”
“Get the Lightspeed Catapult ready, Captain Decker. We’ll speak again soon.”
“Yes, sir.”
Duggan had seen enough. Some amongst his staff might have thought his visit to Star Reach a waste of his valuable time. For Duggan, he needed this proximity in order to make his choice. After all, he was soon going to order a number of men and women into the unknown. They deserved his absolute attention.
“We’re leaving,” he said.
“Do you know the way, sir? I’ve got a lot to do.” said Decker, not even slightly abashed.
“I’m sure we can find our own way out,” said Duggan.
He left the room, bringing Paz with him. He hadn’t been paying attention to the route on the way in, yet his feet knew the way out. The surly-faced guards and receptionists were still in the lobby and the souped-up gravity car was still parked in the lot. Duggan had no qualms about taking the vehicle and drove it towards the waiting shuttle at a speed only slightly reduced from that demonstrated by Captain Decker. Paz kept her mouth closed.
He took them directly past the ES Cataclysm, simply on the basis that he wanted a closer look at the warship. It had a few additional modifications that were designed to run off a refined Obsidiar power source. Testing was so far limited and there wouldn’t be anything like enough time to finish the trials.
Duggan turned away from the cruiser and steered the gravity car to the landing pad.
“There’s the shuttle,” he said, stopping the car at the bottom of the ramp.
Five minutes later, they were onboard once again and the transport took off from the Star Reach facility. During the short flight, Duggan occupied his mind with the logistics of what he planned. In theory, the Aranol could be anywhere by now, yet he felt the urgency of the situation. The enemy were still out there and it was imperative the Confederation discover their intentions. Not only that, he owed the crew of the Ulterior-2, he owed Captain Blake and he owed Lieutenant McKinney. Duggan always paid his debts.
The shuttle landed and he returned to his office.
Chapter Three
For Captain Charlie Blake, the weeks since the destruction of Ix-Gastiol had not been filled with delight. He was finding it difficult to get over the loss of his crew and, though Fleet Admiral Duggan had offered him extended leave, Blake preferred to make himself available for the numerous analytical, strategic planning and research teams who were very interested in learning his opinions on both Ix-Gastiol and the Aranol. As a consequence, he found himself in meeting after meeting, which ultimately failed to provide the necessary distraction.
There was one promise he was able to keep, that being a night of drinking with some of the soldiers from his last mission. Alcohol was forbidden on the Raksol base, though there were plenty of places in the vicinity which would gladly serve a man or woman with enough spirits to get paralytic.
