Behemoth: Rise Of Mankind Book 1 (9 page)

              To call them bombers was a slight misnomer. The reality involved heavy ordinance, much like bombs of old, but basically guided missiles. These devices, roughly a quarter of the size of a Wasp fighter, moved slowly but caused massive damage. When they fired them at the enemy vessels, sixteen total shots in all, they hoped for the best.

              Each weapon came online, showing on the scans as if they were vessels unto themselves. They lumbered toward the enemy vessels, which engaged their engines, pulling away from the battleground. Rudy’s ships rushed back toward the Behemoth, clearing a path for the cruiser’s weapons to have an open shot.

              “Bombs are away,” Everly said, “Our fighters are heading for the hangars. It’ll be tricky to dock while moving.”

              “They’ve trained for it,” Gray said, “Open fire, Redding.”

              Their weapons discharged, joining the bombs as they cut through the dark of space and flared the enemy shields. A few desperate volleys came back their way but the Behemoth’s shields held strong. A moment later, the bombs began to detonate, massive balls of white light pummeling the enemy’s shields.

              “Direct hits all over them!” Paul cried. “Wait…I…I misread that. They’ve…”

              “What?” Everly prompted. “Spit it out!”

              “It seems they were able to target the bombs and knock them out before contact. Not with weapons though…some kind of signal caused them to blow early. There was some damage to the shields but nothing like we hoped.”

              “They’re still pulling away,” Tim said. “Navigation shows we’re gaining distance.”

              “Regrouping,” Clea corrected. “They won’t let us get away.”

              “The fighters have docked,” Everly said. “And the bombers are almost all accounted for.”

              “Give the Silver Star some distance,” Gray ordered. “And keep us between them and our guests. When they decide it’s time for round two, I want to give them some serious hell.”

              “They won’t fall for those last tactics again, Captain,” Clea replied. “They won’t charge again.”

              “Good. That means they’ll have to face us toe to toe or not at all. Either way, we’ve bought the Silver Star some time to get repaired and find us that Protocol Seven.”

              “As you say, sir.” Clea turned to her own tablet. “I’ll compile data on the attack and see if I can analyze it for weaknesses, anything to give us an advantage.”

              “I think we just proved we have it,” Everly replied. “This ship’s more than they can handle.”

              “Don’t get cocky, Adam.” Gray went to Paul’s station and peered over his shoulder. “We might be ready for them but that doesn’t mean they don’t have some serious tricks of their own. This won’t be an easy won fight. Let’s just keep the distance advantage and get a fresh set of pilots ready. We’re going to need them.”

              “They’re really giving each other hell out there,” Lisa shouted from her position near one of the globes, staring at her tablet. A group of marines gathered around her, watching the screen as well. They mumbled quietly together but their excitement filled the room, despite their quiet. “The Behemoth really dished out some firepower.”

              “What’re you doing?” Olly asked from his console. He monitored the engines to ensure they’d stay on, working with Sid to regulate continuous power to propulsion. Maria crouched beside him, running a diagnostic to gather the extent of damage on the ship.

              “Watching the battle, sir,” Lisa replied. “The Behemoth is following us and the enemy has given them some distance. I think the first engagement’s over.”

              “You’re supposed to be gathering data on those globes,” Olly said. “Focus, Lieutenant or the next battle you’re watching could be our last.”

              “Can you patch our helm cams in?” One of the marines asked, followed by a litany of nodding. Olly sighed.

              “Just make it quick. We have to hurry.”

              Maria sighed and rubbed her eyes. “Sir, this ship’s got serious problems. My diagnostics show we need to reroute power through several conduits.”

              “We can’t replace it?” Olly said.

              “It would take a
lot
more time. I’m currently mapping out anything that hasn’t completely succumbed to corrosion but if we have to start stringing cables around…”

              “We don’t have to put them through the walls, do we? Not just to get things working.”

              “No, if it comes to that, we can string them down the halls…if we have enough length.” Maria shrugged. “The corridors here twist and turn. They don’t make a lot of sense. More distance will need to be covered by whatever we replace.”

              “Fair point.” Olly frowned at Maria’s screen. “You’re not kidding.”

              “I know, right? We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

              “Let’s get Sid access to this section here,” Olly pointed. “That’s the centralized computer system. Once it’s in, we should be able to gain access to data points pertaining to the Protocol Seven stuff. Plus, I figure it’s close by so shouldn’t be too bad to fix up.”

              “I’m on it sir.”

              Olly’s com flashed and he engaged. “Darnell here.”

              “This is Gregory, sir. I’ve finished gathering readings from these devices in the hangar. They’re essentially automated repair stations. You put in spare parts and it fixes stuff up as you go. Pretty incredible tech, too. My readings suggest they could get one of those drones back to operational status in a quarter of the time a human mechanic would require.”

              “Amazing. Are they online?”

              “Power’s cut right now but I see the problem. Do you want me to bring them back online?”

              “Get the power routed but don’t crank them on,” Olly said. “You never know when they might come in handy.”

              “On it, sir.”

              “I’m picking up readings in the belly of the ship,” Cathleen announced. “Did you guys do anything?”

              “Kind of…” Olly replied. “I’ve been working with Sid on service restoration while Maria maps the conduits.” He addressed the console. “What’s going on?”

              “Power has been routed to the fabrication chamber,” Sid replied cheerfully. “I have begun reconstructing the recently lost drones.”

              Maria looked sharply up. “Is that a good idea? We didn’t have control of them before.”

              “Lieutenant Darnell has restored my services to the security bay. I have ensured the programming recognizes your crew as guests and not invaders. No hostilities toward the Behemoth or her people will be initiated. You are all safe.”

              “That’s a relief,” one of the marines muttered.

              “What’s going on up there?” Captain Hoffner’s voice piped through the speakers. “We’re hearing a lot of activity somewhere in the ship.”

              “One second, sir,” Olly said. He turned to Sid. “Will it even matter? How long does it take to generate a drone?”

              “The fabrication center is quite large and takes up the majority of the center of this craft. I can turn out a functional drone every twenty minutes. It takes another ten to transport them to the various hangars. If we double production, which is quite possible, we can get two point five out every half hour. This puts a strain on the manufacturing facility but can be quite important during combat.”

              “Will it have any side effects on what we’re trying to fix up here?” Maria asked. “We can’t afford to lose time on our current work.”

              “No, ma’am. Now that I’m patched back in, I’ve set the generators down there to stand alone. They will operate without any impact on other ship systems.”

              “It’s a wonder you guys lost to the enemy,” Olly said. He patched through to Captain Hoffner. “Sir, Sid has cranked on a manufacturing plant to build more drones which we should be able to deploy against the enemy and it’s doing it pretty fast too. I expect they’ll be able to actually provide some assistance, albeit minor, soon.”

              “Is that safe, Darnell?”

              “Yes, sir. I believe so.”

              “We’re going to check it out,” Hoffner replied. “I think we’ll map out the rest of the ship and see if we can find anything you need. That includes securing the supply bay where the spare parts will be found.”

              “Fantastic,” Olly said. “Please let us know if there’s anything we can do to help.”

              “Likewise, keep us informed of anything else you do. Hoffner out.”

              “He sounded unhappy,” Maria said.

              “Don’t worry about it,” a passing marine said. “He never sounds happy.”

              “I’ll keep that in mind.” Maria and Olly exchanged glances. “I’m going to start rerouting now. I’ve found some decent paths to bypass many of the damaged systems. I’m guessing…fifteen to twenty minutes to pull it off.”

              “Sounds good…but if you can hurry…”

              “Yeah, yeah, I’ll do what I can, sir.”

              “Lieutenant?” Lisa called. “These globes, I’ve finally got some readings on them.”

              “Report.” Olly couldn’t believe he got to use the word. It’d been directed at him so often, he figured he’d never have the chance to toss it at someone else. Now that he did, he couldn’t help but smirk.

              “These are essentially portable generators to keep the chambers going in the event of power failure. They’re remarkable because they recharge fast when not in use and would afford each tube a good eight to thirty hours of power in the event of energy interruption.”

              Olly raised a brow. “Eight to thirty is a huge difference. Why the discrepancy?”

              “The things are playing havoc with my tablet. That’s the best I can do before I finish my evaluation.”

              “Keep it up and let me know. Maybe we can use these to power the whole chamber and wake somebody up.”

              “Okay, I’ll keep working on it.”

              “Sir, I might have access to a few tables on the database,” Cathleen said. “I’ve just found a backdoor into one of the file servers.”

              “Really? How?”

              “I saw an open connection through this console over here and tried it. Shockingly, it let me in and I’m rebooting this particular segment. I might gain full access.”

              “Great work!” Olly truly was impressed. “Did you discover anything right away?”

              “Just some fringe bits of data. A couple of lines I’m having Sid translate. The first thing to come through states that the people who entered those chambers had no idea what to expect. This part of the technology was brand new to them.”

              “Wow, they risked a lot,” Lisa said. “Crawling into those things without
knowing
they’d wake up again? Scary.”

              “Seriously.” Cathleen shook her head. “I’ll let you know when it finishes.”

              “Sounds good, Olly said. “In the meantime, help Maria get this working. I’m going to keep trying to bring systems online. This ship’s a gold mine of power pockets and auxiliary systems. I’m guessing we’re standing in a prototype…an untested one.”

              “That information is currently locked. I cannot access it at this time.”

              Olly repeated Sid, “I cannot access it at this time, yeah, I know.” He tapped away and continued to work.
But that won’t be the way it is for long, buddy. Don’t worry, I’ll get your access back. Sooner or later, you’ll remember everything this ship planned to tell the friendly culture that found it and then we’ll drive the enemy back.

              Just hold together for me and we’ve got this.

***

             
Hoffner lead a small contingency of marines away from the hangar and in the opposite direction the technical crew went. He brought five men, each trailing behind to watch their six as they progressed deeper into the vessel. The long, smooth hallway seemingly went on forever, twisting and turning in seemingly random directions.

              He assumed they passed by invisible doors, access points to rooms or other hallways but there was no way to know for sure. The way the blue light lit up in the ceiling proved that at least the surface of the metal must be transparent. Those who planned to live aboard must’ve had a method to know where to stop but he detected no marks anywhere as they traveled.

              “AI,” Hoffner called out. “Direct us to the supply room.”

              “Affirmative, Captain,” Sid replied. “Please follow the green line to your destination.”

              The light appeared overhead and directed them to continue along. It ended in a wall but as they approached, the surface melted away, granting access to another hallway. Without Sid, getting lost would be too easy. Hoffner checked his tablet and ensured he mapped a way back to the hangar. If something happened, he didn’t want to be stuck for too long.

             
This place is a real maze
. Why had the people built it in such a way? Perhaps the design presented a defensive capability. Like old castles with their uneven stairs, only the inhabitants knew them precisely. It tripped up invaders. Such a convoluted layout provided the same type of confusion. Security by design.

             
Damn inconvenient but I get it
. Hoffner glanced back at his men. They seemed uneasy. Any alien contact might’ve brought the same reaction but this place felt particularly foreign. The allegation they might have encountered a bug race certainly didn’t help. Media villainized insects for a long time. Even if the creatures proved benevolent, the human mind was predisposed toward revulsion.

              “Captain,” Olly’s voice piped over his communicator. “How’re you doing? Have you located the supplies?”

              Hoffner looked ahead and sighed. “I think we’re getting close. This place is pretty confusing.”

              “I’m going to send you a ping so you can get back to us if you have to,” Olly replied. A moment later, Hoffner’s tablet made a sound and he saw a blip some distance off. “Did you get it?”

              “I did. Thanks, Darnell.” Hoffner glanced up. They were still following the green line. “We still seem to be moving away from you guys.”

              “Not a surprise. I think you’ll find the supplies near an access point to the engineering section.”

              “I don’t want to get too close to the fabrication thing you talked about,” Hoffner said. “Do you know how far off we are from it?”

              “It’s several decks below us. It would take a lot to stumble on it.”

              Hoffner nodded. “Glad to hear it. We’ll let you know when we find what we’re after.”

              Another several hundred meters later, they came upon another door that melted away, granting them access to a large chamber full of metal crates. They fell in and cleared the room, checking every corner before considering it entirely safe. Sourceless lights beamed overhead, shining down on the glimmering floor and surfaces.

             
It’s unnerving that everything looks like liquid metal
. Hoffner frowned.
But this must be the place.

              “AI, can you open these crates?”

              “Press the sides and they will open of their own accord. Please note, the contents have been held in a perfect vacuum to protect them from decay. It should be anything you need for further repairs on the ship.”

              Hoffner knelt beside one and did as he was instructed, pressing near the top of the first crate he came to. The top seemed to melt backwards and vanish into the back, revealing a neatly stacked set of cables and other odd parts he couldn’t identify. He checked another before connecting with Olly again.