Weapons of War (23 page)

Guy put his tablet on the table, replacing the image of the gun with one of his own.
 

"This is a star map of the system we are currently skirting the edge of," he said. "It happens to be right on the corner of a slipspace dead zone, which is where we've been trapped for the last three weeks."

He tapped his pad, and a field of red mist appeared throughout the system beyond the Magellan.
 

"These are the slipstreams we've detected within the system. There are two dozen of them crisscrossing one another, but as you can see they all reach their terminus at an eerily similar location."

"Any idea why?" Gabriel asked.

"No. We don't understand what causes slipstreams to end, or slipspace to have what seem to be holes throughout. It could be caused by dimensional tears, but to be honest, we don't have the technology to make more than a random guess. What we do know is that slipspace is a dimension that runs parallel to our own, and it is filled with ripples in spacetime. Streams. Riding these streams allow us to travel faster than light by using quantum phasing to cross the boundary between dimensions and take advantage of these distortions."

"Astrophysics one-oh-three," Reza said. Guy almost glared at him but stopped himself short. Reza's face reddened again as he prepared for Theodore to bawl him out again.

"Go on," Theodore said, glaring at Reza.

"Those are the slipstreams," Guy said, pointing at the mist. Then he pointed at the green dot some distance away from it. "That's us."

"We're still in the dead zone," Choi said. "You're suggesting that the Dread armor uses slipspace?"

"I believe it is so, yes."

"You mean it's phased?" Gabriel asked, not quite believing it. "How can something static like metal rest permanently in another dimension?"

"I didn't say it was," Guy replied.

"The Dread armor is coated in phase paint," Reza said. "Yes. It could be. It doesn't have to be phased all the time, only when it detects something is about to strike it. It enters phase, and the threat is avoided."

"No," Theodore said. "Missiles would go right through if that were the case. They don't. They hit the armor, explode, and don't leave a scratch."

"And shooting it still exerts a force on the armor," Gabriel said. "That wouldn't happen if the ions were being phased into slipspace."

"True," Reza said, pausing to think.

"What if the phase were partial?" Sarah said, speaking for the first time.
 

"What do you mean?" Guy asked.

"Well, instead of trying to stop the entire attack, only part of it is deflected. For instance, a missile strikes the armor and detonates. The force still exists, but enough of it is absorbed into phase that it doesn't cause any damage. It just kind of pushes against the armor."

"An interesting thought," Guy said. "To take it one step further, what if there is another type of phase, or use for the properties of quantum phasing that humans have yet to discover? What if slipspace can be manipulated into realspace, similarly to how we manipulate this dimension into that one."

"You mean pull slipspace in?" Reza said. "Impossible."

"Is it?" Guy asked.
 

"There's no viable theory to suggest it. No math that can prove it, or an experiment that has shown it."

"They used to say the same damn thing about slipspace," Theodore said. "They said it didn't exist, and even if it did, we could never use it to go faster than light. They said it was all just made up sci-fi bullshit. Until it wasn't."

"The Dread are an advanced race," Gabriel said. "I don't think it's safe to dismiss the potential for them to do anything just because we haven't done it yet."

"Especially because we haven't done it yet," Choi agreed. "I'm sure many geneticists would have thought the cloning and gene manipulation the Dread use was also impossible. When we limit the capabilities of the universe to what we currently understand, we undermine the potential of it."

Diallo re-appeared in the room, holding a bag full of small tools. He dropped it on the table in front of Reza.

"Thank you, Sergeant," Theodore said.

"Yes, sir."

"As I was saying, General," Guy said. "What if slipspace could be pulled into this dimension? How would it work? What effects would it have? I don't know the answer, but what we do know is that the Dread armor absorbs damage without the kinetic force of the blow being deleted. Reduced perhaps, but not removed. We also know that it is dependent on slipspace to operate. Without it, the armor is still solid, but it is not even as solid as the metal plating on the Magellan's hull. Finally, we know that whatever allows the weapon to bypass the defenses operates at a scale we weren't able to pick up with our scanning equipment."

"It may be nano-scale," Sarah said.

"Well, then, what are you waiting for, Mr. Mokri?" Theodore asked. "Open her up and let's see what we can see."

"What's the word from the science team?" Miranda asked.

Gabriel stood just inside the doorway to her quarters, stroking Wallace's head. His father had ordered him to take a break from the research that was ongoing in the meeting room since he would need to relieve Lieutenant Bale from her shift on the hot seat within the next few hours. He was supposed to hit the sack, but the whole thing had left his mind whirling and unable to calm enough to fall asleep.
 

He had decided to find Wallace instead, heading first to Daphne's quarters, and then to Miranda's, which was where he had found the dog.

"They're picking the Dread weapon apart a piece at a time, and then running everything through a microscope. It's slow going."

"What about your father?"

Gabriel smiled. "You saw him on the bridge. When I went to see him, and he popped up and told me he wanted to steal the Magellan, I thought I was seeing the old Old Gator. Now I know I wasn't. The real General St. Martin is the one we saw a few hours ago."

 
"He's changed the entire complexion of the ship. The crew is working with purpose and energy again. Of course, surviving a skirmish with the Dread didn't hurt."

"No. It felt pretty good."

"I'm glad you're not still beating yourself up about the nacelle."

Gabriel grimaced. "Oh. Thanks for reminding me."

"Come on, Captain, you know I'm always on your side."

She was. She always had been. "Don't you mean Major?"

She laughed. "I'm teasing you again. Seriously, Gabriel, I'm glad you made it back in one piece. I was worried about you."

"I don't know what would have happened if the Dread hadn't been vulnerable. Bale was real close to getting cut down, and if one of us had gone down, I think the others would have followed pretty soon after."

"But they were vulnerable, she didn't get shot down, and you're all still here. That's the important thing."

"I know. It's hard not to worry sometimes. It's hard to stop thinking in general. The Dread fortress is still behind us, and we can't get away. It's not a question of if they'll try again, it's when. My father looks great, and he sounds great, but I'm still worried about him. When I saw that clone of my mother on Earth, I could barely breathe. I could barely think. It hit me like a meteor. How is he going to react if he ever comes face to face with one?"

"Do you think he'll fall apart?"

"No. But what if they're not friendly? What if it's trying to kill him? He might just stand there and take it."

"And risk all of our lives again? I doubt that."

"Maybe you're right. I hope you're right."

"What else is bothering you?"

He shook his head. He had been feeling the doubts for a while, but it was hard to admit to them. "What if it's all for nothing?" he asked, throwing it out there. If he couldn't tell Miranda about it, he couldn't tell anyone. "What if we got the weapon back, but we can't figure out how to use it? Everyone on Earth will die. Everyone in the settlement will die. We'll die. We're responsible for the continuation of the entire human race."

"And everyone on this ship is doing the best they can. It's the only thing we can do, right?"

"That doesn't make it easier to stop thinking about it. I feel responsible for these people. As much as my father does. Maybe more, since I'm the one who got us stuck here."

"Gabe-" Miranda started to say.

"I know, I know. I did my best. Anyway, I have to go try to get some rest, or I'm going to be running on fumes if the Dread attack. Thanks for listening, Randa."

"You know I always will."

Gabriel smiled. He didn't think about it much, but she was his best friend. Always there for him. Always loyal. When he had lost Jessica, he had felt like she had lost her, too. "I can't tell you how much I appreciate that, or how much I appreciate you."

"You just did."
 

She reached out for him. He stepped forward into her embrace, holding her for a minute before letting go. They stared at one another for a long moment.
 

"Look, I don't want to be overly forward, and I don't want you to get the wrong idea," Miranda said. "Maybe you just need some company to help you relax."

"You mean Wallace? I think he's happier with you."

"I mean human company," she replied. "Why don't you hang out here? We can watch a stream, and maybe having someone else around will help you stop thinking so much."

Gabriel considered for a moment. He couldn't think of a reason why he shouldn't.
 

"It's worth a shot," he said. "If you don't mind."

"I don't mind at all. I like having you around."

"In that case, what do you want to watch?"

"The selection is pretty slim, but there has to be something in there we've seen less than a thousand times."

Gabriel stepped away from the door, giving himself permission to smile. He had no idea what the future was going to bring, but for right now he would just relax and let it go. His father was back and better than ever, Reza and the Larones were working on deciphering the mystery of the Dread technology, and Miranda was, well, he wasn't completely certain what Miranda was. A friend for sure, but there was something else there, a new sensation tugging at his emotions and whispering that maybe she could be something more.

He let that thought fade away and took his position beside her on her bunk, facing her comm station. For now, he was content enough to share her presence.
 

Besides, they had a war to win.

"There," Donovan shouted, pointing at a spot beneath the Dread transport. "That's where it's stuck."

Murphy ran back to where he was standing, coming up beside him and leaning over. "Damn it. I told Rosa to guide us further to the right. It's going to take time to get free."

Donovan surveyed the area around them. There was a line of brush ten meters deep on both sides of the road, along with a large old building set back a few hundred meters on their left. A side road led up to it, and a sign rested against a worn facade. "Parada de descanso," it read in faded white lettering on an orange background. Rest stop.

Ehri approached a moment later, running back from her position at the front of the group. She also dipped down to see what had happened.
 

"We'll need something to dig it out with," she said.

"Do you have a shovel?" Donovan asked.

"No," Murphy replied. "We were too busy collecting food, clothes, guns and ammunition. I never thought we would need a shovel."

"Ehri, how much time do we have left?" Soon said, circling from the other side of the transport.
 

"Approximately eight hours, Captain."

"We aren't going to make it to Monterrey before then."

Donovan stared down the length of the roadway at the tractor ahead of them, vibrating softly as it sat idle, its driver waiting for him to pass along his orders.

His original idea had been to try to rig the anti-gravity controller on the Dread transport such that they could get it to sit a few inches off the ground. At that point, it would offer little to no friction, and they would be able to attach a few ropes to it and pull it along, like a covered wagon from that same old western he had seen. Most of the group could be piled inside to ride in comfort while a few pulled and a few guarded, taking turns as needed throughout the day and night to make it as far as possible in relative safety before the hard-won days of peace came to an abrupt end.