Daros, page 9
“As it was explained to me, Vonar cloaking works by stretching the ship’s location a distance along one of the six imperceptible curled dimensions. That makes the ship appear to vanish as if it had moved in space or time, but the true motion is neither spatial nor temporal. That is how the science team described it, but their understanding seemed limited. From a practical standpoint, though, when the ship is cloaked, any heat it generates is shed in the stretched dimensional location, not in ours, so it remains undetectable. The same happens with the drive’s energy wake and nearly all of the exhaust and emissions, or any other sign of its presence. Except for occasional gravity readings, pizionic radiation from the dimensional stretching field, and residual exonium particles as I detected from the ship’s drive. To overcome it, either a significant energy release, such as a weapons strike, or contact with non-trivial amounts of mass can disrupt the cloaking field, which has its origin in our dimensional space and therefore remains vulnerable. When the ship snaps back to its proper location along the curled dimension, it reappears in regular space and time.” Frim studied Rin. Her face remained calm and expressionless. “It is remarkable technology.”
“Yes, it is. That was a very capable and informed answer, Navigator.” Rin returned Frim’s gaze, staring back at her. Frim suddenly realized this had likely been another test. At least this one she’d probably passed. She hoped. Rin continued. “So, how would you find and disable the Vonar vessel?”
“Finding is the hard part because the signals are so weak. If it has traveled to the planet’s surface, it would be very hard to find, but continuous contact with atmosphere would probably also limit the time it could remain cloaked. That was true in other settings – the Vonar disabled the cloak shortly after entering atmosphere on my previous mission. So, we could wait it out, observing carefully the whole time, and watching for signs that it has left orbit. To disable it, a weapons strike would likely work, but it would have to be a lucky shot. Or physical contact with significant mass. Perhaps generating a dense debris field around the ship would suffice. That could overload the cloaking mechanism. But you would have to have a good idea of where the ship was to begin with.”
Rin studied Frim some more. Enough to make Frim nervous all over again. Something was very much not right with this interaction.
Finally, Rin spoke. “Gratitude, Navigator Frim. This has been very useful. I have learned a great deal.” Frim guessed that she wasn’t talking about Vonar cloaking mechanisms, and that was not good. Not good at all.
24
Weird Science
“This purple alien gave you this?” Jerrin had an eyebrow raised.
“Yes. It seemed like they did something to attune it to me before they died.”
“Like, they gave you their passcode?” Enolon said, his tone a little sarcastic.
“I guess.” Brecca sighed. She didn’t want to be having this conversation. A pang of fear welled up in her. They were acting all suspicious now, and they were her only allies on the planet. She hadn’t screwed up. None of this was her fault. It’s not like they’d told her everything about themselves right away. But that didn’t change their frowns and scowls. “Look, I have had a pretty terrible couple of days. I got shot out of the sky by marauding aliens, assaulted by your company’s workers, witnessed three murders, saw my ship broken up and my dad taken away by yet another alien, hurt or maybe dead. I helped you fix your armor, set up the drone and the network, and patch up your wounds. I’ve done my best to help. I don’t know what this thing is or what it does, and I never wanted or asked for it. The purple alien talked about protecting something, like it was their job, or their mission. It was like they wanted me to carry on for them, but I have no idea what they were talking about.” Brecca felt her cheeks get hot.
Jerrin was silent for a bit, then nodded. “All right, kid. But no more secrets. You hear me?”
Brecca thought of the green bit of metal in her pack, the one maybe worth twenty thousand credits. The security officers had no right to that. She didn’t want to hide more, but she also needed to keep that object to have any chance of keeping her dad above water, or fixing the ship, or getting off this planet. And she’d only known these people for a couple of days. They seemed all right, but she’d already had people try to rob her, and this was potentially really valuable, and might be the only chip she had left to play. No, that secret was staying secret. Brecca nodded. “I hear you.”
Whines and scrapes from Deffen’s mechanized armor approached from the cave entrance. “You all need to see this.”
“See what?” said Jerrin.
“It will be easier if you just come.” Deffen turned and headed back out.
“The alarms are going off again,” said Rhee. “I silenced them, but they detect something again.”
“Detect what?” said Jerrin.
“I don’t know. The cameras don’t show anything, and the sensors are all giving conflicting readings, impossible readings, and some are frozen. I’m restarting all of them. But it might be something moderately big, maybe twenty or thirty tons, putting off a good bit of EM, when it exists. Which sometimes it doesn’t. It could be mechanical and powered, or electronic. Or a caged singularity, for all I know. Or a fallen satellite, or who knows what.” Her hand flew across her con. “None of this makes any sense.”
“Deffen said to go out. That means he thinks it’s safe.” Enolon looked worried.
“Well, I trust him.” Jerrin picked up her rifle. “Bring that thing, kid. If it’s acting up, maybe it’s related to what’s out there.” Jerrin moved to the door, and Brecca grabbed the armband. After a moment’s thought, she stuffed it back in her pack, hoisted the pack up to her back, and put her arms through the straps. She didn’t want the others looking through her stuff while she was outside. Rhee was still working on her con, and Enolon made no move to come after them. Brecca wasn’t sure if it was caution or cowardice, or maybe he just didn’t think he’d been invited.
Jerrin reached the cave mouth and pulled aside the shielding curtain. She hunched over and stepped out. Brecca followed, blinking in the bright light. There wasn’t anything unusual out here. Well, nothing more unusual than security people leaving an invisible cave opening in the middle of a planetary invasion. Deffen stood to one side and a few meters farther up, his back toward them.
“So?” said Jerrin, looking around. “What’s the big deal?”
“You need to come over here.” Deffen’s tone was firm.
Jerrin moved over to Deffen and followed his gaze. “Oh,” she said. “That’s messed up.”
Brecca, curious, joined the other two. As she approached, she saw a thin sliver of something appear in the air in front of her. As she moved closer to Jerrin, the sliver grew wider. It was like a doorway set in the air, only it was a short doorway, less than two meters tall, sitting maybe fifty centimeters off the ground. Inside, it looked like there was a small room with a low ceiling. The room was entirely coated, top to bottom, with some kind of purple fabric, kind of like carpeting, except that it consisted of long tufts, like fur or hair.
“If you look at it from the other side, you can’t see it,” said Deffen. “It’s one-way, somehow. Plus, there’s something invisible around it you can bump into if you’re not careful. You can’t see it until you touch it.”
“Did you go in?” said Jerrin.
“Are you kidding?” replied Deffen.
Brecca was trying to figure out how it worked. “Is it like a transportation gate or something? A way to travel to a different place?” She thought she’d heard about those somewhere, but maybe it was in an entertainment holo.
“A different place that’s covered with purple hair?” Jerrin smirked.
“No accounting for taste,” said Deffen. “I think it’s a vehicle, though.”
“If it’s a doorway, it is scaled to the size of the alien I saw. They’d fit through easily.”
“So, this is a gateway to the creature’s home?”
“Or maybe where they take their lovers to impress them,” said Deffen. “That’s love grotto carpeting if I ever saw any.” Jerrin gave him a disapproving look.
Brecca moved up to the doorway. She put a hand through it. The air inside was cooler than outside but not uncomfortable. She could see a short hallway extending in, then turning to the left. The whole thing was covered with the purple fur. “Careful, Brecca,” said Jerrin.
Brecca pulled her hand out, then moved it to the left, outside the doorway’s opening. It looked like there was nothing there, but she wanted to be sure. Slowly, she pushed her hand forward. It started to feel buzzy when she got near the side of the doorway, like when you keep your hand on a vibrating object for a long time and then remove it. A residual tingle. She pulled back, and the feeling subsided. Then, she pushed forward again. The buzzing feeling intensified as her hand came up even with the side of the doorway, but she pushed on through despite the discomfort.
Her hand touched a smooth surface. It was hot, but not unbearably so. As she touched it, the air in front of her flashed and flickered, and ripples spread outward from her hand, revealing something yellow as they flowed away. A small spacecraft took shape, no more than eight or ten meters long. Flashes of energy and invisibility trailed across its hull as whatever was hiding it subsided. The doorway they’d seen before was the ship’s entrance, set about halfway down the side. The top of the ship had a broad, flat, triangular profile, like two spread wings. Small lights glowed at each corner of the triangle. The ship tapered to a point to the right of the doorway. That point must be the rear of the ship, because there were large tubes there coming out of the sides of the ship, likely engines or thrusters. To the left, the craft widened to a front that Brecca couldn’t see from where she was. Atop that front surface, the two front points of the triangle wing stretched out to either side.
Brecca took a step back to study the ship. It stood on three sturdy conical prongs, two at the front, one at the rear. Most of the ship’s exterior was a bright yellow. It had a block of black markings in one section that might be lettering, but most of the side of the ship was taken up by a picture of a humanoid. There was a conical purple head and a yellow jumpsuit. One arm was raised as if in greeting. The green eyes were beaming, and the mouth was partially open, as if laughing or singing.
“Whoa,” said Jerrin.
“Yeah, that was my reaction when I ran into it, too. Who the hell is that?” said Deffen, staring at the picture of the laughing creature.
“That’s the alien,” said Brecca. “The one I was telling you about. Who showed up, shot the miners, and got killed.” The armband in her pack took to screeching again.
25
Hey, There’s a Yellow Vehicle Out There with Its Lights On
After a moment, the ship faded from view again.
“That cloaking is wild,” said Deffen. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“It’s good that it’s cloaked,” said Jerrin. “Because an off-world ship on the ground is a big fat target painted on us. Might still be anyway.”
“Yup,” said Deffen. “Do you think we should evacuate?”
“Maybe. But then we’d be exposed as we left. I don’t think we’ll find a better hiding place.”
“Suppose nobody saw it come down?”
Jerrin frowned and looked at the doorway. “Not sure I’d want to bet on that.”
“They might be too busy to pay attention with the fighting going on at Ten. Or to follow this up, if they did notice.”
Brecca had an idea. “They don’t know about the cave, right? Or they’d have been here already.”
Jerrin looked at her, skeptical, but listening. “Probably. So what?”
“The only thing they would come here for is the ship. If they saw it. If we’re cautious, and assume they did, then why don’t we just move it somewhere else? They’d have no reason to come back here, unless they’re really thorough.”
“I like it, cap,” said Deffen. “Get it out of here, let us keep hidden.”
Jerrin laughed. “There are about twenty problems with this. Let’s start with the big ones. Who says we can fly it? Who’s going to try? What happens to that poor sucker if they get caught flying away, or shot down, or if the ship’s atmosphere is toxic, or if the ship has an anti-theft rig that kills people who try to fly it? Even if we can fly it, are we going to just park it somewhere, let it get blown up? How’s the person who flies it going to get out of there, get back here, or to someplace safe?”
Jerrin had some good points. This was all well beyond what anybody knew. Too many unknowns. But Brecca also saw a chance to do something, to try to find her father. And leaving the ship parked in front of their hiding place was definitely bad. There was no telling if the cloak worked against sophisticated detection. And it had been uncloaked for a bit already. Maybe on some ship up in orbit, there was some leathery alien looking for it. Or for weird doorways in the air. Or for people standing outside a cave talking.
“I’ll fly it. I’ve got the armband thing here. The being gave the ship to me, I think. Maybe. When they gave me the armband. It’s worth a try.”
“You’re telling me you can understand whatever noises that thing is making?”
“No, of course not. But the being I met spoke some Tradespeak. Maybe their ship can too.” Brecca swallowed. “And, the ship didn’t get blown up, even though the invaders attacked everything that moves. That suggests the cloak works against whatever sensors they’ve got. It might even be safer than the cave, for all we know.” Maybe that was a stretch.
Jerrin rubbed her forehead. “I don’t know, kid. You’re so young. It doesn’t feel right.”
“I brought it here. Or it came after me, anyway. I think. If I stay with you, and it stays, I put you at further risk.” Jerrin didn’t look convinced. “Can I see what’s in there, at least? Maybe there are more of the people inside, waiting to meet us, or maybe there will be no way to fly it anyway. We have to check it out, to know anything.”
Jerrin sighed. “OK, we’ll check it out. But let me go first. You put your hand in, right? And nothing happened?” She moved over to the doorway.
As she approached the doorway, a voice came from the ship. “Kttnritss. Skrrrntitch mrrdins.” Brecca wasn’t sure if the sound was synthesized speech, a recording the ship was playing back, or if somebody inside was shouting. It was definitely speech, and it wasn’t all screechy like the sounds from the con. It was pretty loud and clear to have come from inside unless whoever was speaking was amplified.
“It didn’t say that to you, did it?” asked Jerrin. She held up a hand toward the doorway. There was a rising whine, and Jerrin got out “What the skog—” before a discharge of energy arced from the ship and threw her backwards against the cliff wall. Deffen’s weapon snapped onto the doorway, but nothing appeared different there. “Captain? You all right?”
“Unnh,” said Jerrin. “Do not go near that thing.” She rolled herself up into a sitting position, clutching her midsection.
Brecca went up to the doorway. Deffen frowned. “Kid…”
Slowly, Brecca put her hand out again into the cool air. “It thinks I’m all right.” She touched the floor. The purple hair was really soft, like Trisket, her old pet, after a bath. It was cool to the touch, but soothing and seemingly padded underneath. “I’m going to try going in.” She pulled her arms back through her pack’s straps and tossed it through the door, where it landed on the fur-covered floor. Nothing else happened. She put a hand on either side of the doorway and pulled herself up into it. The doorway was short, maybe only fifteen centimeters taller than she was, but she could fit through. The corridor inside was shorter. She could stand upright if she rolled her shoulders and hunched down a little. Somebody Deffen’s size would have had more trouble. She took a few small steps inside.
The cool air had a strong smell, a little like the desiccated Wenorian curry packs that Nex loved. A whole bunch of curry had gone down with the Envy’s Price into the Darosian wilderness, come to think of it.
“Kriirrnter,” said the voice. “Ktinsiskrricktcht.” Brecca looked around, but there was nobody talking. At least, nobody she could see. She wasn’t in far enough to see around the bend in the hallway ahead of her. She turned to look back at Jerrin and Deffen. Both of them looked concerned.
She smiled, trying to make them feel better. “See? I’m all right. No big deal.”
Without warning, a panel slid down from the top of the doorway, and Jerrin and Deffen were gone, hidden by more purple hairy fabric. The bright light from outside faded to a subtle, purple-infused glow. There was a deep thrum that vibrated every surface on the ship, and suddenly Brecca felt all squashy and heavy. She planted her feet and put a hand on the soft, comforting wall. There was a lurch, and she almost fell over as the drag on her changed axes. She recognized the feeling. This was acceleration, probably two standard gravities on top of Daros normal. The ship had taken off.
26
Summary Execution
“Navigator, give me status of the warfleet.” The captain was unhappy. “And do it better than Torian did.”
Frim inhaled deeply, trying to calm herself before speaking. This wouldn’t normally be her job, but Torian, the Ops officer, was being dragged off the bridge, leaving a trail of fluids. Torian had started with the bad news, which wasn’t a good approach. As she had discovered. “Captain. As Torian indicated, our command vessel is undamaged and in full working order. We are running low on fresh assault troops, but the hatchery is set to deliver another thirty within the hour. Supplies of weapons, stims, and food remain ample for our needs. We have approximately 800 active troops on the surface, plus intelligence officers and support staff. The three destroyer escorts are fully functional with munitions at about 60%. 806115 took minor damage in the initial attack, but it has been repaired. The carrier group reports 96 fighter craft intact and functional, eight damaged, seven destroyed. All four carriers are undamaged. The supply fleet have restocked our drop pods from reserves, and 807045 is working to retrieve those pods that are accessible and undamaged on the surface. Sixteen of twenty drop ships that landed have returned to orbit, ready to deploy again, with the others having been destroyed by ground-based fire or otherwise rendered inoperable. Supply ships 804196 and 804220 have depleted their supplies through restocking other ships and are standing by as planned.”
