Provenance I - Flee The Bonds (26 page)

He tapped the centre console keypad, an icon flashed on the red dashboard and a woman’s voice echoed in the dark interior. ‘Weapons system activated.’

Three kilometres later, the HUD showed the road curving sharp left and crossing the canal and tramline. He yanked the steering wheel, skidded sideways onto the main road and pushed his right foot to the floor. Two minutes later, they joined the Link 4 motorway.

01:03 FRI 03:11:2119

Link 4, Intra Zone, England, Sector 2

Steve pressed a button on the steering wheel. ‘Activate voice command.’

‘Voice command activated.’

‘SECCOM connect. Call ID, sierra, foxtrot, nine, four, three, alpha, seven, three. The Aegis’s dashboard beeped at two second intervals.

‘Hello?’

‘Francois, it’s Steve. Sorry to wake you. I need clearance for me and a medevac to FH 1. I’m booked on the zero-one-fifty supply shuttle.’

‘Do you have a problem?’

He glanced down at Penny, ‘I’ve less than an hour. I don’t have time for an intercept.’

‘Where are you?’

Steve heard a sultry female voice in the background; it wasn’t Kacee’s. ‘Link 4, vehicle ID is charlie, papa, victor, zero, six.’

Steve listened to manicured fingernails striking an MCD screen, ‘Ah yes, I can see you. Who is Mr Wilkinson?’

‘I’ll explain later.’

‘I will give the information to CONSEC. Do you want to tell me what has happened?’

Steve had little choice; flight hub security would detect the nanobytes. ‘A friend of mine’s been infected by nanossasin.’

A noticeable pause preceded Francois’s response. ‘Please wait.’

Steve stared out at the expanse of tinted white tarmac, the vibration and dull whine remained constant.

Francois returned, ‘I have given CONSEC your priority clearance. Do you know who infected your friend?’

‘No. Not yet.’ Only SIS could have ordered Kacee to poison Penny. What Steve didn’t know was why?

‘MEDLAB 3 is only thirty kilometres. Why do you not take your friend there?’

Steve’s closed hand banged the steering wheel.
Is there anyone I can trust?
For sanity’s sake, he had to assume Alex had lied for a reason. ‘I think it might be a new strain.’

‘I understand. When you return from Provenance you must come here, yes?’

‘Yes okay. One more thing, can you check to see if—’

The proximity alarm’s scream died in the impact that slammed into the back of the Aegis and whipped Steve’s head against the headrest. A mass of information flickered across the Aegis’s dashboard as it fought to correct the lurching fishtail.

Steve blinked up into the blank camera viewer. ‘Who’s with me?’

‘No one, I can see only you.’

‘Someone’s here.’

‘There is no one. Do you need CONSEC?’

‘No. Yes. Ask them to clear a route to FH 1. Clear the Link.’

‘I will—’

A thunderous crash deafened Steve. The Aegis spun, blurring his vision and compressing his ribcage against the seat bolsters. ‘Active drive on!’

Deep inside the engine bay, the AD CPU pulverised the computations. During the second revolution it arrived at a solution, a stream of electron anti-neutrinos flowed into the hydrogen injectors. The Aegis lurched to one side — and then bolted.

‘Steve?’

‘Wait out.’

Steve blinked and glanced up from the blank camera viewer to the mirror. It was also empty, its reflected view distorted by a web of crazed glass.
Where is it?

He’d seen it during the second revolution, the Aegis’s heliogas lamps had flashed across the black and silver striped bonnet — of a CONSEC patrol car.

He reached out and touched the chilled plastic. ‘Hang on, Pen.’

Up ahead, the pearly glow of a staging area junction sped towards him. ‘Active drive off.’ Steve guided the Aegis into the middle lane and stamped the brake.

Illuminated beneath the gantry’s white-hot blaze, the Aegis’s glinting black bonnet nosedived.

The split-second difference was enough. The patrol car filled the driver’s door mirror, its front skirt grinding down on the tarmac in a shower of sparks.

Before the patrol car had stopped, the Aegis sprang. It crashed into the side of its adversary, sandwiching it against the central barrier. Steve stabbed the window release and raised the Cogent. He didn’t fire.

Through the patrol car’s shattered front window, the lifeless heads of two Defenders lolled against their chests. They’d died long before intercepting him. A bronze number seven on the arm of the nearest Defender shimmered. He recognised them both from Barlton. The day
Uncle
Celbrohn had reported him.

Steve lurched forward. An engine screamed, tyres squealed, burnt rubber wafted into the cockpit. Whoever had remote control of the patrol car hadn’t finished. The Aegis shuddered, metal scraped against metal in a rending of tortured panels. Steve fired.

Blue-tinged lightening arced in the confines of the patrol car, illuminating the Defenders. Its engine continued to scream, body panels peeled back. Steve coughed in the acrid smoke, pushed the Cogent’s serrated wheel all the way forward and fired again. The patrol car’s interior exploded into a rage of orange and yellow flares.

The screaming stopped.

* * * *
 

Steve followed the MEDTECHs and gurney into FH 1’s departure hall. The polished concourse floor peeked through a throng of polite jostling. Everyone carried the same blue, regulation-size catchall. Across the concourse, a line of gleaming autopaves transported the excitement up onto the mezzanine and the departure gates. More autopaves passed overhead, traversing the concourse, and emptying the accommodation blocks.

Not everyone smiled, at the top of each autopave stood a weapons-ready Defender.

Steve tapped the MEDTECH on the shoulder. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Exercise, sir, been like this since yesterday.’

Steve scrutinised the guns on the mezzanine. Jannae, Gerhard, Francois, SIS, MP 14, the white cube. He pulled in a few pieces of the puzzle and let them spin.

The gurney peeled away as the MEDTECHs headed for an autopave down to the forward decks beneath the cockpit. Cargo Vessel Zero-Four had no hospital segment. Penny would be travelling in one of the crew’s escape pods.

In all-passenger configuration, a ‘Tubby’ could carry 11,680 passengers seated across the eight hemicycle halves of its four cylindrical segments. However, as no passengers were embarking on the lower decks, Steve assumed those HemCycs held cargo.

Once through the departure gate, Steve stepped onto the inclined autopave; his seat was in the upper HemCyc of Segment 2.

At the cabin entrance, a Grey Defender stepped out. ‘Sorry, sir. I’m going to have to take your backpack.’ He motioned with his head. ‘You can collect it from the forward baggage hold when we dock.’

Steve entered the sterile white cabin and turned left into the aisle, his head just clearing the illuminated ceiling. The aisle divided forty rows of twenty-eight dark blue seats. He’d be travelling on the lower of the three decks, and as they always filled top to bottom, back to front, he’d be sitting in the front row.

Murmurs rose into the warm air circulating around his head, the hint of pine failing to mask odorous sweaty plastic. Over the heads of his fellow passengers, he could see the rectangular impressions indenting both sides of the fuselage. There were no cabin windows.

The aisle opened out and Steve turned right onto a stretch of charcoal carpet that separated the front row seats from the white forward bulkhead.

He was fastening his harness when the announcement came.

‘Good morning Continuity. My name is Commander Mitchell, on behalf of myself and the crew I would like to welcome you aboard cargo vessel zero-four.’ The Commander spoke with the gravitas of a man who could envisage a line of bodies stretching for three kilometres. ‘We will shortly be departing flight hub two. Our estimated docking time with Provenance is zero-two-four-five Earth time. Please listen carefully to the announcements. I wish you all a pleasant flight.’

CV-04 swayed, adding a few anxious titters to the murmuring. They’d begun to taxi towards the launch ramp.

To Steve’s left, a dark haired woman with dilated pupils and a nervous smile stared up at him. He wasn’t sure which concerned her more, the forthcoming flight or sitting next to someone whose appearance epitomised trouble.

Two sharp pings and a woman’s voice silenced the cabin. ‘Welcome Continuity to exercise Exodus. The Council would like to thank you for your assistance in preparing Provenance for its journey to the new world. Please ensure your catchalls are placed in the stowage bins beneath your seats and your harnesses are securely fastened.’

The mild swaying ceased. They were over the ramp. Faint clunks from below told Steve that the massive ramp pistons were driving home tree-trunk-like locking pins along the belly of CV-04.

A distant rumble grew, the lights dimmed and a tenebrous hush fell over the passengers. The rumble intensified into a jagged shake, bodies shuddered, chins bobbed. Steve felt a squeeze on his left arm. She’d closed her eyes, her lips moving in silent speech. When the frequency of shuddering pitched to a vibration, Steve rested his head back. Dampers between the segments would absorb the initial surge.

His mind’s eye envisaged CV-04 streaking down the rails at six-hundred and thirty metres a second, but that wouldn’t be fast enough. Although past V2, it needed additional momentum to break out of Earth’s atmosphere at a specific point in time and space. An electromagnetic rail ramp had pushed CV-04 to stage one. The twin SEC HF2600s would punch it to stage two. Five thousand kilometres an hour

Steve’s seat thumped him in the back, the grip on his arm tightened. CV-04’s airframe groaned as it fought to restrain 100,000,000 kilograms of hyperlonic thrust. His stomach heaved and a collective ‘Whoa!’ filled the cabin. They were airborne.

The jagged shaking returned and as the inclination increased, g-force pushed Steve deeper into his seat. Above the rattle, the engines growled, thrusting them ever higher, ever faster.

01:53 FRI 03:11:2119

CV-04, Upper atmosphere, Earth

Two minutes after launch the shaking subsided and the menacing growl muted to an ataractic throb. CV-04 had exceeded escape velocity.

A commanding voice cut through Steve’s thoughts, ‘Continuity, this is your Captain. We have left Earth’s atmosphere and will shortly be cutting the main engines in preparation for docking with Provenance. Please ensure your harnesses remain fastened and your feet are firmly in the restraining clips. Should anyone feel unwell, please use the bags attached to the seat in front of you. Welcome to space.’

The grip on Steve’s arm relaxed. The woman’s drawn face carried a pale sheen and a tired smile. ‘Thank you.’

He tilted his head. ‘It isn’t something I’d want to do every day.’

Her gaze wandered down over Steve’s shabby clothes, ‘Did you leave in a hurry as well? We were only told this morning.’ She extended her hand. ‘Gabby Firth.’

Steve shook her surprisingly cool hand, ‘Peter Wilkinson.’

Gabby relaxed back, hands clasped in her lap. She managed to maintain the silence for about ten seconds. ‘I thought we were going to live in here when we get to the new world. Why aren’t there any windows?’

Steve pointed to one of the rectangular indents. ‘Each one of those is a window. You’ll cover reconfiguration during induction.’

‘I can’t believe I’m here. I didn’t think they’d begin the exercises for another ten years, and I’d be too old then.’

Steve’s head rolled back, his mind lulled by calm blue light.
Everyone believes it’s an exercise. As SIS knew they would.

Silence wasn’t the response Gabby wanted. ‘Why do you think they decided to leave early?’

‘I don’t know. Planetary orientation?’

‘Planes of motion don’t change. Do they?’

Steve closed his eyes. Equations covered the lecture hall’s screen, Kepler, Hawking, Einstein. Jason yawning.

Gabby had an alternative theory. ‘Now, if Colossus has changed course that would make sense.’

Someone tugged on Steve’s arm.

The Defender’s polite voice contradicted his arched eyebrows. ‘Everything will be explained during orientation.’

Steve swivelled his head back to Gabby. ‘Did you hear that?’

‘Sorry. Can’t help myself.’

Steve closed his eyes again, his thoughts descending to the evac-carry connected to the ship’s life support system. He doubted he’d ever have the opportunity to ask Kacee how she knew who Penny was. His assumption being that, for whatever reason, she had not administered the full dose of nanossasin and you only disobeyed SIS once.

Cabin chatter grew to an excited gabble. For all but a few, this would be their first experience of weightlessness. Steve’s seat moved away from him, as did his stomach. Feeling the need for a diversion, he fixed his attention on the bulkhead-ceiling abutment, and his thoughts on the docking procedure.

CV-04 had completed the final burn at apogee, their orbit would be circularised. With convergence complete, it would align with one of Provenance’s two docking ports. Sitting high on opposite sides of the circular hull, each port opening stood as tall as Big Ben and four times as wide. On entry, CV-04 would pitch down and manoeuvre into one of six outer pipelines specifically designed for cargo handling.

Steve’s body gained weight. They were within the gravitational field generated by Provenance’s core. He rocked; dull clunks entered the silent cabin.

‘Continuity, this is your Captain. We have docked with Provenance. Unloading operations will commence shortly. Please listen carefully to the following announcement. Thank you and good luck.’

Steve swayed. Their segment had unlocked, extraction into the two-storey airlock had begun.

A loud ping preceded a woman’s voice. ‘Welcome to Provenance. You will disembark into the holding area prior to transfer to reception. Gravity in the holding area is seventy percent. Do not be alarmed. Upon arrival in the reception hall, proceed to your designated assembly point. If anyone is unsure of their designation, a CONSEC bureau is located to the right of the reception gates. Please ensure no luggage is left on board.’