Crystal Deception (13 page)

It was a remarkable vessel. But when limited to maintaining
a fixed orbit, it was all but impossible to flex the ship’s muscle. Cheryl
invented exercises for the crew, but she couldn’t continue this charade for
more than another day without raising suspicion by observers familiar with
shakedown procedures. Normally, the ship would be taking laps around the moon
by now.

* * *

Jack used this time to get to know
the crew members on a more personal level. His objective was to inventory the skills
and capabilities that might be available to him from the group beyond what he
could read in their Fleet file. He approached this task in a manner that was curious
behavior for a first officer. He would visit a ship’s station, take food orders
from the individual, return to the galley and prepare the meal, and then personally
deliver it. Everyone knew that the galley was automated, and there were bots
that could deliver food. But Jack understood that this activity gave him a
reason to sit and chat in a relaxed and nonthreatening setting.

He started with Cait down in the operations bay. While they ate,
he told a couple of stories and then transitioned into asking questions. He discovered
that Cait loved her job and used her free time to learn as much as she could about
the dozens of machines and devices located in the bowels of the ship. She was certain
she could start up, run, and repair just about anything on the
Alliance
.

As they chatted, Jack was thrilled to learn that Cait had proficiency
with a range of close-quarters weapons. Years ago, she had a dated a guy who
loved projected-image fighting games, and she’d learned to play them as a way of
spending time with him. The guy was long gone, but she had grown addicted to
the adrenaline rush from the fast-paced contests of skill. She’d recently begun
practicing her weapons talents at a live range and was excited when she
discovered that her simulated-world skills carried surprisingly well into real life.

Jack’s next visit was to Yang at the navigation bench. Yang was
quiet, humble, and enthralled with high-tech anything. After they ate, Jack
asked Yang for a demonstration of the nav bench capabilities.

“Can you show me how many ships are in Earth orbit at this
moment?” Jack asked.

An image popped up above the nav bench showing exactly what
he’d requested. The navigator glanced at a data summary next to it. “Forty two,”
he said.

Jack did his best to present the navigation exercises as
random thoughts. “Let’s do a scan for ships moving between the Earth and moon.
What can you tell me?”

Yang tapped the bench. “There’s ten ships headed from the
moon toward Earth. I see three cargo ships and the same number of cruise
liners. And a couple each of Union ships and private vessels.”

“What about outbound?” asked Jack.

“Pretty much the same headed toward the moon,” said the
navigator, his fingers moving quickly and eyes scanning the displays.

“Tell me what you can about the last cargo convoy to leave Earth.
Give me specifics.”

“Not much to say. Four big tankers being pulled by a tug. A
small vessel is trailing behind.”

“Tell me something about that vessel.”

The navigator brought up an image. “It looks like a Union
scout. It’s moving a little faster than the convoy, but the difference is small.
I can’t tell if they’re following along or trying to catch it.”

Jack was relieved to hear this. They were on mission silence,
and it was comforting to know his partner was in place and on plan.

“Hey,” said Yang. “The Kardish vessel registers as a ship
carrying people.” He moved his hands on the bench to explore this in more
detail.

“Whoa, back off on that,” said Jack. “Let’s not give them
any reason to pay attention to us.”

Chapter 16

Sid was in the scout’s exercise room,
kicking and punching a rolled-up mat hung from a beam. Juice was next to him, running
on a treadmill. They pushed their bodies and burned up calories, both deep in
their private worlds when Criss called.

“The Kardish vessel is accelerating,” he said with clear urgency.
“May I request that you return to the bridge?”

Grabbing towels, they both scurried forward on the scout.
Sid engaged his seat restraints and motioned Juice to do so as well.

He touched the operations bench and sat back to study the
projected image, wiping his face with the towel. Juice’s seat gave her a clear
view as well. The image showed Earth in the center, with a tiny
Alliance
floating on one side and a larger Kardish vessel located on the other.

“What’s the excitement?” asked Juice. “I could draw a
straight line from the
Alliance
, through Earth, and hit the Kardish.”

“They’re accelerating,” said Sid, pointing at the Kardish
vessel. “They haven’t made a move like this since their arrival. This isn’t
coincidence. At their present rate of effort, they’ll catch the
Alliance
in about four hours.”

“Should we fly to the rescue?” Juice asked.

Ignoring her, Sid said, “Criss, I’m cutting our engines. I
don’t want to get any farther away from Earth.” It immediately grew quiet as
the thrum of the engines ceased.

“You know we will continue trailing the convoy and moving
away from Earth,” said Criss. “Stopping our engines doesn’t make us stop
moving. It just means we’re not getting closer to the freighters.”

“Understood,” said Sid, staring at the image. “Criss, do the
Kardish have any technology where they can grab and transport the crystal with some
sort of energy beam?”

“I have no knowledge that such a technology is possible and
have seen no evidence of anything like you suggest in the millions of hours of
record I have examined. They always use a small craft to ferry crystals up to
their ship and to return raw flake back to Earth. There has been no other kind
of transportation activity recorded.”

“Given what’s going on now,” said Sid, “do you still believe
that they’ll use one of those craft to send a boarding party to the
Alliance
?”

“That remains the most likely option based on the
information I have. A boarding party enables them to verify what they are
getting. They will be the ones who remove the crystal from its housing. They
can see it and hold it. They can return to their ship assured of their
success.”

“It’s not clear to me how our being out here is helping,”
said Juice.

“I’m not sure I know either, Juice,” admitted Sid. “I work
by intuition, and I’ve learned to trust it. Let’s watch this play out and see
if and how we can help.”

The wait was torture. It was like time had slowed, and they
watched helplessly as the Kardish vessel drew closer to the
Alliance
.

“Rendezvous in thirty minutes,” said Criss. A moment later
he added, “All communications from the
Alliance
have stopped.”

Sid’s fingers flew over the surface of the operations bench,
and he too saw that they had lost all signals from the
Alliance
. “What
can you tell me?”

“My best guess is that the Kardish have extended a security
envelope around the ship that is stopping all signals from entering or exiting.”

Sid looked up at the image projected above the operations
bench. The stark imminence of the Kardish vessel as it loomed over the
Alliance
was alarming. He was again reminded of a shark and its dinner. His jaw muscles
bulged as he subconsciously ground his teeth.

“How much longer before they take to the lifeboats?” Juice asked.

The plan had been that if events evolved to a point where
the
Alliance
crew was helpless and the outlook appeared hopeless, they were
to abandon ship and return to Earth in automated capsules that would glide everyone
down to Fleet base.

“Knowing Cheryl, she’s going to play this to the end. She won’t
admit defeat, even when she’s clearly defeated.” His eyes remained glued to the
two ships, and he kept waiting for a plan to reveal itself. He couldn’t remember
another time when he didn’t have some idea, even a bad one. Helplessness was a rare
circumstance for him. He didn’t like it.

“Maybe we should call out to the Kardish,” said Juice.

“And say what?” The tension caused a sharp edge in his
voice.

“How about ‘What are you doing?’ or ‘What are your
intentions?’ or ‘Can we help you?’ It will distract them. Maybe slow them down.
They’ll have to take some time to examine us to see if we’re a threat.”

He gave the idea some thought and saw merit. “It’s not a bad
idea. But that’s the first step in handing Criss over. If we’re going down that
path so easily, then we shouldn’t have bothered with any of this.”

“They aren’t slowing down,” said Criss. “Without a change in
course, there will be a collision.”

The gap between the ships was closing fast. The Kardish
vessel was so massive, and the distance between the ships was now so small, there
didn’t seem to be any way to avoid impact.

Sid was stunned by what happened next. A long slit appeared
on the very front of the Kardish vessel. It stretched across the width of the craft,
looking like a ghastly smile. He watched in fascination and horror as the slit
grew wider. Then he understood—a massive set of hangar doors were opening on the
bow of the ship.

The shark, with its mouth wide open, pushed forward toward
its prey. And then it ate the
Alliance
, literally enveloping the smaller
craft in its “mouth” as it moved ahead. With the
Alliance
fully devoured
by the Kardish vessel, the front doors began to close.

“No!” cried Sid. His head swam as he stared at the projected
image that was now a single alien ship with Cheryl and Jack inside. He trembled
with fury and impotence.

It couldn’t get any worse, and yet it did. Discrete flashes
of light appeared beneath the Kardish vessel. After each flash, a ball of light
seemed to descend to Earth. The flashes were spaced unevenly, almost as if the
Kardish were sending off huge dots and dashes of Morse code.

“Criss,” said Sid. “What’s happening?”

“Those are energy charges,” said Criss. “Web feeds show them
hitting targets around the planet. They are vaporizing whatever they hit.”

“So they’re wiping out humanity?”

“No. The charges are landing with high precision and the
damage has been limited. They are destroying things associated with crystal research
and development. So far, they have killed more than ninety of the world’s top
scientists in crystal technology. Brady Sheldon is dead. The Crystal Fab building
is gone.”

Juice interrupted, clearly anxious, “What about Mick?”

“Mick died when the Crystal Fab building was destroyed,” Criss
said without emotion.

Juice let out a cry of anguish. She curled in a ball in her
chair and buried her face in her hands. Worried but helpless, Sid watched as
her body shook with each muffled sob.

Criss continued. “As I extrapolate the remainder of the
Kardish orbit and their pattern of destruction, they will eliminate perhaps two
hundred more technologists and their equipment and facilities. I surmise that humanity
will not be making progress in crystal production for quite some time.”

The Kardish vessel looped around Earth twice on its parade
of destruction, methodically removing all traces of crystal technology infrastructure
and intellectual capacity in its wake. And then the flashes stopped.

“They are accelerating now,” said Criss. “If this continues,
they will be leaving Earth orbit and starting on a trajectory into deep space.”

They are going home,
Sid realized. And they were
taking with them the two most important people in his life.

Sid had experienced severe physical pain in his career, but
this emotional trauma overwhelmed anything he had suffered in the past. It
pierced his chest and ripped open his soul. He looked at Juice and saw her trembling,
her eyes pleading for something, anything, to make it all better.

Her pain augmented his own by adding a layer of self-loathing.
He’d grown so confident in his ability to prevail that he had challenged a
powerful alien race with no plan other than to improvise as events unfolded.
That’s
not a plan,
he thought in disgust.
That’s arrogance.

Because of his arrogance, he was watching the only woman he
ever loved be taken from him. He was losing his partner, someone closer to him
than a brother. And the crew of the Alliance, five souls who’d risked their
lives without knowing the full details, were being carried away as well.

Impulsively, he adopted a new mission for his life. He would
catch these creatures who were wreaking havoc on both his planet and his personal
world, and he would hurt them.

“Criss, give me a course to intercept. We can’t let them
leave. We need to disable that ship.”

“I am sorry, Sid. The number of tasks and sequencing of
events required to achieve interception is beyond your ability.”

Sid was furious at Criss’s response, but he kept his anger
in check. His hands flew across the operations bench as he searched for a
solution on his own. But every plan he developed came up short. He couldn’t find
a way to move the scout far enough or fast enough to intercept the alien craft.
The abrupt thump of his fist on the surface of the bench after yet another simulation
failed to provide a solution startled Juice.

“Criss,” said Sid, looking at the housing assembly where the
crystal was located. “Please help.”

“If you do not catch the Kardish now,” said Criss, “The
Alliance
and crew will likely be lost forever.”

“So we can catch them?” asked Sid, his fingers a blur as he dug
for a solution. “Tell me how.”

“I am sorry, Sid. The number of tasks and sequencing of
events required to achieve interception is beyond your ability.”

“You said that already.” Then he processed the words. “Are
you saying
you
can do it but
I
can’t?”

“There is a reasonable chance that I can, but I will have to
submit you both to significant risk. The odds increase if circumstances break
in our favor. With every moment of this discussion, the probability of success
diminishes.”

Sid glanced over at Juice. She had her knees pulled up under
her chin and was hugging her legs. She stared ahead blankly, no longer responding
to events around her. Sid guessed she was in shock.

He continued working furiously to try and track the Kardish
and perhaps discover something that would be of help. Every idea he pursued reinforced
the hopelessness of the situation. His frustration was compounded by the fact
that he’d lost Juice at the moment he needed her. This moment was the very reason
she was on board.

Perhaps Sid let his emotions influence his decision. Perhaps
he was being impulsive. Maybe he was doing his job and improvising. In any case,
he chose to act without input from her. He leaned forward and, in a deliberate
action, lifted the cover and pushed the toggle switch up. The restrictor mesh
was off. Criss was free.

The instant the restrictor switch reached the off position,
the scout’s engines kicked on to maximum thrust, throwing Sid back into his
seat. He heard the engines pass from a reassuring thrum, through a high-pitched
whine, and into a howling scream. The intense pressure of acceleration made it
feel as if a giant hand were pushing hard on every part of his body. His
breathing became labored and the pain was undeniable. The engines struggled to
push the ship ever faster. The craft began to shake.

“What’s happening, Criss?” asked Sid through clenched teeth.

“We are accelerating. We can get a gravity assist as we pass
near the moon. It will act like a slingshot that swings us onto a trajectory fast
enough to intercept the Kardish vessel. The time window that allows us to swing
around the moon and be released on a course aimed toward the Kardish is seven
hours. If we are late, we will lose them. It will be a difficult ride. I am
sorry.”

Sid had experience with the g-forces of intense acceleration
and was able to continue functioning, though in a limited fashion. His fingers
moved across the operations bench, and an image display popped up and hovered.
It showed the speed of the scout as a simple needle on a dial. As he watched, the
needle swung steadily up and around the dial face. It entered a bright red zone
and kept on moving. An array of warning lights started flashing. The display
became colorfully hypnotic as every alert status on the menu lit up.

“Criss, the indicators say our engines are going to fail.” Sid’s
tone was calm, but his whole body was shaking from the ship’s vibrations.

“I am monitoring everything on the craft and making
adjustments as necessary. The engines will not fail.” After a pause, Criss said,
“Sid, I must continue or we will not catch the Kardish. Would you like me to
stop?”

Sid was fighting for each breath. It was as if someone had
draped a heavy lead blanket across his entire body and then stacked bricks on
top of that. Struggling, he turned his head and looked at Juice. Her mouth was
hanging open and her eyes were blank. She had lost consciousness.

As he looked at her, he realized he was having difficulty
forming thoughts. His head was spinning the way it did when he’d had a few drinks
too many. Before he could answer Criss, he too slipped into darkness.