Beyond the Event Horizon (5 page)

“I’m getting
to know the ship; I’ve just been in the engine room. I thought I’d
call in on you,” said Steve to start the conversation, and glanced
at the pilot’s console. “Oh, we’ve already passed Mars’ orbit... By
the way, do you know that certain members of the ‘Dawn’ project are
continuing to receive intelligence information?”

Kimble’s face
expressed mild surprise.

“I thought the
project had been wound up.”

“To some
extent it has been. The project has been put on hold, but the
military have not forgotten about it. Therefore they are keeping
Dean Shelby informed of the current course of events and are
consulting with him, so as not to miss something if the aliens
decide to pay us another visit.”

Kimble heard
Steve out and nodded.

“If you ask
me, I’m sure the aliens will be back.”

“Really? What
makes you think so?” asked Steve.

“Well, think
about it. The first contact did not succeed. That’s no reason not
to communicate in the future.”

Steve smiled,
and pointed to the tablet Kimble had been holding when he entered
the bridge. It was obvious that the captain had been reading an
e-book. The author’s name was clearly visible at the top of the
screen – Carl von Clausewitz.

“For a von
Clausewitz fan, you take a very optimistic view of things,” he
remarked.

For the first
time, Kimble smiled broadly. Steve had hit on a theme that was
clearly close to the captain’s heart.

“Where did you
get the idea that I’m a fan of his?”

“You finished
reading it when we were flying here in the shuttle, and now you’re
only just past the beginning. People don’t usually re-read books
they don’t like.”

“Anyone who
has been in a military academy has read it.”

“A lot of
people have read it, but probably not all of them re-read it.”

“Steve, you
said that you are receiving intelligence information. Is something
in it worrying you?” said Kimble, returning to the previous
subject.

“Well, yes. I
have seen what’s going on in the asteroid belt. All the large cargo
vessels are now only flying in convoys escorted by a military ship.
We are flying somewhat to one side of it, but all the same, who
knows...”

Kimble got up
and approached the main screen in the centre of the bridge.
Bringing up a map of the Solar System, he made a gesture to magnify
one sector of it. With a few more gestures, he drew several
lines.

“The red zone
extends up to this limit. Military intelligence considers that a
ship like ours, moving there without an armed escort, has a 60 per
cent probability of being attacked by pirates. In this sector, the
yellow one, the danger is reduced to five per cent, and in the
green zone it barely exists.

“Our flight
trajectory will pass mainly through the green sector. We only touch
the yellow at a tangent and leave it again after two hours. I think
the probability of coming up against pirates is negligibly
small.”

“It says in my
report that there are believed to be two pirate ships parked in the
yellow sector. They tried to seize a ship, but, after an
unsuccessful attempt, withdrew to here. They are most likely still
there,” said Steve, outlining part of the yellow sector on the
screen.

Kimble
laughed.

“Such
information is usually only given to the ship’s captain.”

“But this is
not exactly a routine mission. And we are carrying something more
valuable than the usual ore. You could make quite a bit of money
out of it.”

Steve could
see that the captain hesitated for a second, considering whether he
should share certain information with him.

“I know where
those ships are. I’ve been keeping an eye on them for some days
now,” he said, and signalled to the ship’s computer to lock the
door to the bridge. “Here’s where those two ships are. Here’s one,
here’s the other. There’s another one with them, but I’m not sure
that one’s moving,” explained the captain, indicating certain
points on the visualisation.

As the
intelligence dossier sent to Steve a few hours previously had
warned, the two ships were just where they were expected to be. The
two points denoting them were marked in red. Lines from them ran to
their own ship, showing the best interception trajectories.

“Do you know
anything about the type of ship? Or the crew?”

Kimble said
nothing in reply, but just changed the map. Steve saw two
photographs, apparently taken through an onboard telescope from the
ship the pirates had tried to take by storm a little less than a
week ago.

The
photographs were taken from a very great distance for such small
objects. There were no details; all that could be seen were
silhouettes. Steve just shook his head.

“They don’t
mean anything to me. Can you make anything out from them?”

“They’re old
army attack ships, 2110 model.”

“Army attack
ships? Where did the pirates get them?”

“They are
written off from active service after 40 years of flights and sold
to anyone who wants them. The weapons are taken out, of course, and
so is the additional armour plating. Without them, they are no
different from ordinary civil ships. Except maybe that the engines
will be a bit more powerful,” Kimble explained.

“And how many
crewmen can they hold?”

“Up to
fifty.”

“Really!”
exclaimed Steve. “How can you speak so calmly about it?”

Kimble stared
at him briefly. This could be read as a mild rebuke for a naïve
question.

“It would be
child’s play for just five armed fighters, equipped in the right
way, to take us over. It’s not a matter of how many there are in
the crew. If they make the mistake of trying to take us by storm,
it will be their last mistake. Did you notice the tarpaulin-covered
crates when you were in the cargo compartment?”

“I thought
they were spares of some kind for the ship.”

“Some are, but
not all of them. I have something put by against attempts to seize
the ship. The high command understands the importance of our
expedition, so they’ve given us something to bite back with.”

“That’s
reassuring.”

“Put your mind
completely at rest. There’s no way they can take us. If they knew
what we’re carrying, they’d avoid us like the plague.”

Steve had only
just finished his morning shower when there was a knock at his
door. Clive was on the threshold.

“Steve, Kimble
asked me to tell you that he wants you on the bridge, pronto. He
tried to get in touch with you but he couldn’t find you.”

“Yes, I’ve
only just got out of the shower,” Steve replied.

Clive nodded
and went to his cabin.

Steve
hurriedly dried himself, quickly combed his hair, and, eating his
breakfast as he went, set off for the bridge.

“Here, take a
look at this,” said Kimble, relocking the door as soon as Steve had
entered and pointing to the main screen.

The radar
visualisation with which Steve was already familiar was showing on
the display. Now the red dots had left their parking place and had
started moving towards their ship, exactly following one of the
trajectories predicted by the ship’s computer. The dots were now
bigger and winking constantly. A warning showed in the corner of
the screen:

“Attention,
danger of ship seizure.”

“It looks as
though they’re monitoring our ship’s computer,” remarked Steve,
surprised at how exactly the pirate ships were repeating the
interception trajectory predicted by their AI.

“The flight
trajectory calculation program is the same everywhere, so there’s
nothing surprising in that.”

“What actions
will we take? Are you going to notify the crew?”

“Not all of
them; just two, so that they can unwrap our surprises. There’s no
need to bother the rest.”

“Could I take
a look at what you’re hiding in the cargo compartment?”

“Certainly.
You are one of those who will be unwrapping them. That young
colleague of yours, is he also getting the intelligence
information?”

“Clive? No. He
said he wasn’t interested and it would just be a waste of his time.
He’s not interested in anything much at all, apart from
science.”

“I understand.
OK.” Kimble signalled to the computer to put him in touch with one
of the crew. “Toshi?”

“Yes, Skip,
I’m listening.”

Apart from the
voice, the loudspeakers also carried the sounds of scraping metal
producing a ringing echo. Only the cargo compartment was big enough
to create acoustics like that.

“Are you in
position? Steve will be joining you; he also knows what’s going
on.”

“Roger. An
extra pair of hands will be very useful,” replied Toshi. He spoke
haltingly, with brief pauses to recover his breath.

After passing
through the gravity lock to the ship’s compartments without
artificial gravity, Steve, now subjected to weightlessness, was at
once conscious of the breakfast he had just eaten in his stomach.
It was not a pleasant sensation. Any sudden movement immediately
brought on severe nausea. The food wanted to come out. He found an
inhaler with a nausea remedy and took a deep breath. After a few
seconds, his stomach calmed down and the unpleasant nausea
passed.

The cargo
compartment was flooded with bright daylight. It now looked bigger
than it had seemed to Steve the first time. Something was going on
in the far corner.

The shortest
route there was in a straight line. He only had to kick off
strongly and his body would float there on its own. Unfortunately,
free flight was forbidden in such large spaces. The engines were
now switched off, but at any moment the ship’s computer might
restart them to correct the flight trajectory. You never knew which
way the ship would rock when carrying out a manoeuvre, and which
wall might suddenly become the floor and which the ceiling. If you
should fall from a height of 20 metres, even half a G of
acceleration would be enough for you to break something. So he had
to put on magnetic soles and trudge wearily to the other end of the
compartment, where Toshi was already waiting for him
impatiently.

“We have to
unload these two containers here and then those three over there,”
he said, pointing to some huge iron rectangles. The first was
around four metres high and three times as long. The others were no
higher than the height of a man.

“Where shall
we start, with the small ones?” asked Steve.

“No, better
with the big ones; they have drones in them. We can unload them
onto the starting platform right away, there will be more room.

“Look, here
are the tarpaulin locks,” said Toshi, pointing to some massive
metal mechanisms. “I’ll crawl in from the other side and tell you
when to open them, and watch out! The tarpaulin is under tension.
If all the locks are not opened together, there’ll be a tangle,
then we’ll be here all night. Got that?”

Steve nodded.
Toshi crawled into the gap between the containers and disappeared
from sight. He was agile, and could easily creep into narrow gaps,
reminiscent of a black beetle.

“Ready?” His
voice sounded as if it were coming from a pipe.

“Yes.”

“OK, we’ll
start with the one you’re standing next to. On a count of three:
One, two, three!”

Steve pulled a
small lever, and, after a few sharp clicks, the lock opened. It
turned out there was a spring inside it, which gently released the
tension in the tarpaulin strap.

“Well done.
Now the next one,” Toshi’s voice was heard again.

“Say, what
would happen if the ship switched on the engines while we were
taking a tarpaulin off?

“Nothing. The
container is held to the floor by magnetic locks. The tarpaulin is
just to conceal it from prying eyes.”

“Oh, I
see.”

As soon as the
other locks were open, Toshi reappeared from the gap between the
containers. He waved Steve away, then grabbed the free ends and
began to pull the tarpaulin off. It turned out that the tarpaulin
did not cover a full-walled container, but only a frame with the
walls and roof removed.

Inside the
skeleton container, three rocket motor tubes began to appear, then
the tail of a drone, then its body, and finally its slightly
pointed nose. On top there were two narrow windows glazed with
tinted armoured glass. The drone itself was the size of a large
army tow truck.

“Well, what do
you think of it?”

“Great! But
why the windows? Does that mean it can be piloted?”

“Yes. It has
room inside for six people, not counting the pilot. It can be used
as an emergency shuttle. You can go from orbit to a planet’s
surface in it. Great piece of kit!”

Toshi put on
the manipulator glove for the crane, raised his arm and made a
gesture as if calling someone towards him. Then he pointed to the
drone and clenched his fist. In the corner, up near the ceiling, a
telescopic jib came to life, a green light winked confirming the
task, and it began to extend in the indicated direction.

Reaching the
drone, it gently attached itself to a special lock on its roof.
Toshi pointed upwards with his index finger, and the drone
automatically released its fixings at the bottom. The crane lifted
it and froze in anticipation. He then pointed to the starting
platform in front of the external lock through which the shuttle
had disembarked the crew when they had arrived that first
night.

Once the crane
jib had placed the second drone on the platform alongside the first
one, it was time for the smaller containers.

“The rest is
easy.”

“What’s in
them?”

“Combat
robots,” said Toshi, and opened one of the containers. Inside was a
humanoid combat machine like those Steve had already come across at
the base, except that this one was rather smaller. Judging by its
design, it was a new model.