Dark Space (28 page)

   “Can you tell us anything
about it?” she asked when the information was not forthcoming.

   “At one time, it was the
location of a major Kafaran shipbuilding facility. Approximately three months
ago, it fell to the Meltranians. There were no survivors.”   

   Melissa nodded quietly,
trying to give respect to the fallen. She neither apologized nor attempted to
sympathize with Ralath, which the Kafaran captain regarded with a look of
approval.

   “What can you tell us about
the physical makeup of the system?” she asked.

   “Thirteen planetary bodies,
none habitable by Kafaran—or human—standards. There are three … what you humans
would call ‘gas giants,’ all composed of highly toxic vapors. The system’s
value lies in its strategic position, and in the wealth of mineral deposits in
several of the smaller planetoids.”

   “What can you tell us about
the Meltranians in the system?” Shawn asked.

   “Very little,” Ralath said
with dissatisfaction. “Before the invasion of the system, several enemy
warships had been detected on long-range sensors. According to archived
communications received, the Meltranians moved with lightning efficiency. After
the system was taken, no other information was received.” Ralath turned to the
forward screen, looking out to the vista of stars that stretched out before the
vessel. “In short, Commander Kestrel, I have no idea what
we
will find
when we get there … if you are still intent on going.” 

   “What makes you think we’ve
changed our minds?”

   Ralath chuckled, which of
course his translator could not process. It gave a buzzing error before he
spoke. “In my experience, humans have a way of running from fights they know
they can’t win. We are but one ship, Commander. However, as you have no doubt
seen from the station, an invasion force is being assembled to retake
Hellnastor as we speak. However, they will not do so until called upon by us.
So you see, to travel into the Hellnastor system is to invite the possibility
of death upon us all.” He then turned and stepped to within arm’s reach of
Shawn. “Do you wish to accept such an invitation, even knowing the odds you
face?”

   “We don’t have a choice,
Captain. And, even if we did, I’d still choose to go. The information we need
to retrieve is vital, not only to the safety of the UCS, but I believe to the
Kafaran Empire as well.”

   Ralath glared down on Shawn
with unblinking, burning-amber eyes. “You would risk death for the Empire?”

   Shawn’s chin rose, and he
hoped at that moment he could be the one staring down the alien. “Your people
have done the same for me. It’s time I return the favor … if in fact Kafarans
know the meaning of the term.”

   Ralath stared at him a
moment longer, but then the corner of his mouth twitched into a half-smile.
“I’ve heard of your exploits, Commander. Colonel Tausan is a friend. In my
entire life, I’ve never heard of one of my people speak about humans with
anything but hatred and condescension. All save for Tausan. His admiration for
you, in particular, is … indisputable.”

   “Then it sounds like I’m in
good company,” Shawn said plainly.

   Ralath grunted, then leaned
his head closer to Shawn. “That has yet to be proven, Commander,” the Kafaran
said in a lowered voice that the translator at his side didn’t fail
accommodate. He then stood back to his full height to address the team. “Major
Fralok will show you to your quarters. There you will remain until called for.
I’m afraid you would not find Kafaran meals to your liking, so provisions have
been taken on during our layover. If
they
do not meet with your
approval, I have little else to say on the matter, other than our information
from Commodore Savath was … lacking. As for your droid …” the words trailed off
as the Kafaran stared at M-9. “Please keep it away from my sight. I loathe
synthetic life-forms.” 

   Thinking back to a time on board
the
Rhea
, Shawn and Melissa remembered full well the smell from the
meals provided by the Kafarans for Colonel Tausan’s journey aboard
Sylvia’s
Delight
some months ago. With any luck, their quarters were well away from
the Kafaran mess hall during mealtime.

   “How long will it take us
to arrive at the Hellnastor system, Captain?” Melisa asked.

   “Fifteen-point-six of your
hours at our maximum available speed. It would be less, but we incurred some
damage during our last encounter with the enemy, and have not had the time to effect
full repairs of our drive engines.”

   She nodded, then looked to
Shawn. With no further questions, they turned to Fralok, who ushered them out
of the compartment.

%%%

   Stepping away from the
makeshift lavatory stall that had been hastily erected in their combined
quarters, Shawn stepped over to an expansive view port on the starboard wall.
To the left of it, Melissa was sitting on thin layer of foam placed atop a smooth
metal surface—the Kafaran extrapolation of the human word for bed. Doctor
Uudon, much to his credit, was remaining silent as he adjusted something inside
the tube-shaped chest cavity of M-9.

   “What exactly is that thing
you’re doing?” Shawn asked, watching Uudon fidget with a palm-sized device he
was pointing at the droid.

   “I’m testing a new
calibration I’ve inputted into this molecular scanner, Commander,” he said
without giving Shawn a glance. “It should increase the effectiveness of the
device.”

   “To what end?”

   Uudon stopped fumbling with
the scanner long enough to let out a sigh of frustration, then went back to
twisting knobs. “Do you recall, Commander, that I said that I knew why the
Meltranians were invading our space?”

   Shawn nodded. “Yeah. You
said something about them wanting to recover space they might have once
occupied. Which, by the way, seems a little farfetched if you ask me.”

   “All current evidence to
the contrary, Commander, you’ll forgive me if I find your lack of confidence in
my assessment both emotive and unjustified. However, having said that, I
believe your initial supposition is essentially correct. They are here to
reclaim what was theirs, and, if my further hypotheses are correct, it will
come at a very high price for the current inhabitants.”

   “You mean us,” Melissa
asked from the bedside.

   “Yes, Agent Graves. All of
us.”

   “Why?” Shawn asked.

   Uudon put the scanner down
and retrieved another small device. “The Meltranian energy weapons—the ones
called isotonic cannons—have repeatedly been shown to sap all electrical energy
from anything it impacts with. This includes synthetic power from starships as
well as everything organically generated. In the short recorded history of the
weapon’s use, there has been nothing to dispute that. I believe there is a
purpose to that.”

   “It’s called wanton
destruction, Doctor,” Shawn quipped. “That not enough reason for you?”

   Uudon chuckled mockingly.
“But there’s no
purpose
to that theory, Commander. As an example, humanity
alone has more than enough combined firepower to get the same results with far
more efficiency. An isotonic cannon makes little sense as a weapon of mass
destruction. It’s too power-prohibitive to make it a viable platform for
sustained warfare.”

   “They’ve put it to pretty
good use as a platform, Doctor,” Melissa countered. “Tens of thousands have
died that we know of, perhaps millions more.”

   Uudon put the small device
down. “Yes … they have. But have you ever stopped to ask why … really asked yourself
why
they died?”

   Melissa stood up to stand
near Shawn. “You mean
how
they died?”

   Uudon gazed at Melissa. “I
can see which of you was the better student in school.”

   “Okay, then.
How
?” Shawn
asked as he folded his arms together.

   Uudon looked to Melissa
expectantly. “Agent Graves?”

   “Like you said before, the
weapon … the
device
, it draws out electrical signals. Without them, the
body ceases to function.”

   “It draws out more than
that. It draws out heat as well,” Uudon added.

   “Like a heat exchanger,”
Shawn nodded. “But that’s no different than standard refrigeration devices. Why
would the Meltranians want to freeze anybody … or anything?”

   The doctor smiled. “I don’t
think they want to.”

   Shawn looked at him
quizzically, wondering what he was getting at, but it was Melissa who took the
bait.

   “You think it’s … it’s some
sort of byproduct?”

   Uudon bowed his head. “I
do. You see, I have a theory that the Meltranians prosper off these impulses … both
electrical and radiated. Based on my research, it’s very likely how the
communication repeaters work. There’s no reason to think that any other forms
of their technology would be different.”

   “So they use the energy
generated by other life-forms to power their equipment?” Shawn asked in
disbelief.

   Uudon shrugged. “They may
well use it sustain their very existence. We have no definitive way of knowing;
not without further research.”

   “I’ve seen these things
firsthand, Doctor,” Shawn said, recalling the towering alien he and Colonel
Tausan had once battled. He shivered internally as he remembered the fang-lined
mouth, and the four powerful arms that ended in razor-sharp claws—claws that
would have torn him to pieces if not for the fact that Tausan had decapitated
their foe before it’d had a chance to strike. “If they eat energy for a living,
I didn’t get any sense for it.”

   “There are a great many
unknowns in the universe, Commander. Not all of it can be observed from a
casual encounter with a small percentage of it.”

   “You make it sound like I
wanted to have a beer with the thing. It nearly killed me—and it succeeded in
doing so to a good Marine. There’s nothing casual about that.” Before Shawn
could further argue his point, Melissa cut in. 

   “But if that’s true,” she
began, “then as long as there are planets within their reach, the Meltranians
could keep expanding their empire indefinitely.”

   “It’s possible,” Uudon
said, as if the thought had already crossed his mind. “There’s a great deal we
don’t know about their home space, let alone their culture.”

   “Like you said, the
universe
is
a pretty big place, Doc,” Shawn agreed. “So why now? I mean,
if they have the ability to do this, we should have heard about it long before
now. And why did they lose their hold on this part of the galaxy in the first
place? It seems with a weapon like that, they’d be unstoppable.”

   Uudon looked at Shawn
approvingly. “All very valid points, Commander. Why they are invading
now
…
it’s impossible to say. As for why they lost the portion of their Empire that
we now know as Beta Sector …” His words trailed off as he contemplated the
weight of the question. “If you can answer that, Commander Kestrel, you may
also discover how to win this war.”

   Before Shawn had a moment
to ponder the statement, the double door to their stateroom ground open to admit
Major Fralok.

   “We are nearing the
Hellnastor system,” the voice translator echoed. “Your presence on the bridge
has been requested.”

   Getting a nod from Melissa,
Shawn turned back to Uudon. “Is that thing turned off?” he asked as he nodded
toward M-9.

   “Yes, of course it is. I
wouldn’t be able to work on it otherwise.”

   “Good. Keep it that way. We
need to get to the bridge, and your friend is staying here.”

“Reverence does not die
with mortals, nor does it perish whether they live or die.”

-Sophocles

Ancient
Old Earth Playwright

496
BCE

   Entering the bridge, Shawn
was greeted by the vision of an enormous gas giant planet spinning just beyond
the bow of the warship. The high velocity winds of the upper atmosphere were
spinning bands of blue and orange gases at tremendous speeds, creating and
destroying vortexes large enough to swallow whole moons. Brilliant flashes of
light sparkled beneath the clouds as lightning storms a hundred miles wide
ignited in fury.

   “Tevis,” Captain Ralath
said from beside Shawn as he, too, appeared to marvel in the beauty. “Not much
in the way of raw materials or solar importance, yet it is still called the
‘Great Gem’ of this sector.”

   “I can see why.”

   “Strange, is it not,
Commander?” Ralath said while watching a particularly nasty web of lightning
spread across the equator.

   “What’s that?”

   “That the two of us, from such
vastly different cultures, can appreciate the same spectacle of beauty with
reverence.”

   Shawn nodded slowly. “It is
that.”

   “Tell me something,
Commander … one warrior to another. Do you think peace will ever truly exist
between our two people?”

   Shawn looked around the
room, trying to grasp how alien everything was, from the instruments to the
Kafaran officers manning them. However, the more he gazed, the more it
surprised him how “normal” it was all beginning to look. “I don’t know. But one
thing is for certain—war between our people shouldn’t be an option.”

   “Because the Kafarans would
win?” Ralath said while curling his lips. Shawn recognized it as the best
Kafaran approximation of a smile. He returned the gesture. 

   “It doesn’t matter
who
would win, Captain. No one is going to come out of it clean. In fact, I fear
that another war would be even more costly than the last.”

   Ralath grunted as he
nodded, then turned back to stare at Tevis. “Total annihilation?”

   Shawn shrugged. “Both our
people, at one time or another, have shown a propensity toward it. I’d put good
credits on it.”

   “Not an acceptable form of
payment in the Kafaran Empire,” he said stoically, then looked back down to
Shawn. “As you humans say, you may find that check hard to cash.”

   Shawn smiled broadly, which
Ralath mirrored. “Is my translation in error?” the Kafaran asked.

   “No,” Shawn laughed. “I got
that one loud and clear.”

   There was a moment of
silence before Shawn spoke up. “I thought you said this system was crawling
with Meltranians?”

   “I was not in error.” The
captain then nodded to the planet Tevis beyond. “In fact, there are several
Meltranian warships on the far side of the planet right now.”

   Shawn gazed at the
beautiful world with newfound reverence. “So why is it that we haven’t been
blown to bits yet?”

   “Fear not, Commander,”
Ralath said with an air of assuredness. “I have traveled these paths before. It
is because of that very reason that this ship was chosen for this mission.”

   Shawn gave him a skeptical
look. “Don’t tell me you’ve found a way to shield yourself from their sensors?”

   “Not in so many words,
Commander. The size of the ship, in conjunction with the storms of Tevis below,
block our immediate detection. For the moment, the Meltranians will only
distinguish us when we are in a direct line of sight. My navigator is currently
making sure that does not happen.”

   “And how long will this
moment
of yours last?”

   “Once our orbit takes us on
the far side of the planet we will be detected from any ship within several
hundred thousand units—depending on which vessels are scanning this area at
that moment.”

   “Time?”

   “About sixty-five of your
minutes. You have that long to formulate a plan.”

   Turning to face Melissa and
Doctor Uudon, Shawn was at a loss as to how to proceed. “Any ideas?” he asked,
inclining his head back toward the planet Tevis.

   Melissa sighed heavily.
“This is where Santorum’s signal was sent, so we need to figure out something.”

   Uudon harrumphed in
frustration. “It’s a wonder you two ever survived this long in space.”

   Shawn glared over Melissa’s
shoulder at the doctor. “Now’s not the time, Doctor.”

   But Uudon, unfazed,
continued, “If the signal was sent in this direction, then there must be either
a repeater or a processing station nearby. That should be our goal.”

   “We know that,” Shawn
snapped. “But where? And how do we get close enough to it? Has that big brain
of yours figured out
those
little problems yet?”

   Before Uudon could answer,
Melissa turned to Captain Ralath. “You said this was once a Kafaran system.”

   Ralath nodded his large
head. “It was.”

   “Did your people ever come
across anything … alien? By that I mean, did you ever come across anything you
believed was Meltranian in origin?”

   Ralath regarded her with
curiosity. “Such as?”

   “Meteorite fragments?
Crystalline structures? Anything not naturally occurring in this system?”

   Ralath chuckled. “I believe
you will find that archeology and geology are not Kafaran’s stronger sciences.”
When he saw that his words had deflated her, he attempted be more precise. “I’m
afraid I know of nothing foreign in this system, beyond the presence of those
accursed Meltranians scurrying about out there.”

   “How many of them are out
there?” Shawn asked.

   Ralath waved them over to a
holographic table at the back of the room. Pressing one of the controls, a
dimensional image of the entire system appeared and hovered over the surface. A
moment later a series of red spheres began to pulsate. “These are the locations
of the enemy vessels.”

   Just as Ralath had
indicated earlier, two were on the far side of Tevis. One was near the fifth
planet in the system, with three more near the central star.

   “Those three there?”
Melissa asked, pointing to the orbs nearest the star.

   “Collectors, I would
imagine,” Ralath nodded. “They’re too far away for an accurate scan, but I’ve
seen this kind of behavior from them before.”

   “They can survive that
close to a stellar mass?” Uudon asked in surprise. “Incredible.”

   Ralath nodded. “For short
periods of time. We believe they harness the emitted radiation directly into
the hulls of their vessels, as their isotonic cannons would be useless against
the star’s surface.”

   “Plausible,” Uudon
acknowledged.

   “What about this one here?”
Shawn asked, pointing to the one nearest the fifth planet.

   Ralath brought up an
expanded diagram of the single vessel. “A patrol vessel. Roughly equivalent in
firepower to this ship.” As Ralath was reading over the data, another blip
appeared just behind the red one, its green glow pulsing slowly. 

   “What’s that?” Shawn asked.

   His curiosity piqued,
Ralath tried to get access more data on the object. “I do not know, Commander.
It does not conform to known Meltranian designs.”

   “Can you boost the range of
your sensors?”

   “No,” Ralath said, his
fingers a blur of motion over a nearby keypad. “To do so would almost certainly
expose our presence.”

   “How are you getting
readings now?” Melissa asked.

   “As you will recall, this
system was once in the possession of the Kafarans. Even months after our
withdrawal, the Meltranians have yet to remove all our sensor platforms from
the system. It seems the Meltranians can’t detect anything that does not
emanate power readings. Currently, their output is so low it could easily be
mistaken for background radiation.”

   “You’re using them to scan
the interior of the system.” Shawn nodded in approval.

   “Yes. Normally they would
be used to detect outside threats entering the system. However, my technicians
have accessed them remotely and switched them into a passive mode. I’ve
directed our ship’s sensor beams at one of those platforms, and the platform is
targeting the unknown object. But, as I said, since we are using them at
extreme range and at their lowest settings, the readings we are getting back
are not as detailed as I would prefer.”

    “And you still can’t tell
what it is?” Shawn asked.

   Looking at the small screen
near the keypad, Ralath grunted in frustration. “There is every indication that
it’s a constructed form of some type, but its assembly differs radically from
known Meltranian designs.”

   “Can we see it?” Melissa
asked.

   Without another word,
Ralath had the image sent to the holographic table. Seconds later, the
dimensional image flickered to life, hovering just out of Shawn and Melissa’s
reach. What the captain had described as a vessel looked anything but.

   The object was angular,
with discernable structures protruding from above and below. The central mass
of the thing was made of hundreds of rectangular protrusions, many overlapping
one another, all pointing away from the core.

   “How large is that thing?”
Shawn asked.

   “Sensors indicate a
diameter of three point two units.”

   “Is there a Unified
equivalent to that?” the commander quipped.

   Ralath quickly did the
calculation in the computer. “Roughly equal to four of your Terran miles.”

  Melissa let out a slow
whistle.

   Doctor Uudon stepped
forward and examined the slowly spinning image. “It looks more like a space
station than a ship.”

   “It is currently stationary.”
Ralath nodded in agreement. “However, there are no smaller vessels in the
immediate area. If it
is
a station, then it may likely be automated.”

   “A defensive outpost?”
Shawn asked.

   “I cannot say for certain.
Our computer is unable to locate a comparable. There are no obvious weapon
emplacements, but they could easily be concealed inside the structure.”

   “I believe you found the
intended location of the signal relayed from Torval, Commander,” Uudon said as
he continued to study the structure with fascination.

   “Likely,” Shawn agreed,
“but we won’t know for certain until we get on board it.”

   “And just how do you
propose to do that, Commander Kestrel?” Ralath asked in disbelief.

   “To be honest, I’m not
entirely sure. That doesn’t mean we won’t try.”

   Ralath grunted, likely in
disapproval. “We will first need to get to it, Commander.”

   Shawn nodded. “I think I
have a plan for that.”

   Melissa looked at him with
honest surprise. “Really?”

   Shawn turned to Uudon.
“Doctor, you said these things … the Meltranians … feed off energy, right? That
their whole society may be based on it, correct?”

   “That’s my hypothesis,
yes.”

   Shawn then turned to
Ralath. “And you said that can’t detect anything that has a zero power output.”

   “It would seem so,
Commander,” Ralath agreed. “But, it may only
seem
that way. Our
scientists do not know that for certain.”

   “Well, I think it’s about
time we put all these theories to the test.”

   Everyone’s eyes turned to
Shawn, who himself was still staring at the image of the alien structure.

   “What do you have in mind?”
Melissa asked.

   Shawn turned to Ralath and
smiled. “I think it’s time we took Hellnastor back. How long until your assault
fleet arrives?”

   “If I relay the signal to
the fleet now, it will be roughly two hours. However,
we
will be
detected by the Meltranian warships on the far side of Tevis long before that.”

   “Not if we’re dead.”

   Ralath reeled back in
shock. “And how exactly do you intend on convincing the Meltranian of that?”

   “With that.” Shawn craned
his head to the visage of the gas giant beyond. “You said that those electrical
storms down on Tevis help to mask our signature.”

   “Yes, but it is only
minimal.”

   “What if we took the ship
into the upper atmosphere?”

   Fralok stood up from his
post on the far side of the bridge. “You’re mad!” the translator barked.

   “Mind your place, Major,”
Ralath shot at the first officer, then turned back to Shawn.

   “This is a warship, isn’t
it?” Shawn asked. “You must have some form of shielding.”