Beyond the Shroud of the Universe (10 page)

“Mother—” Canuck swore as he pulled the shuttle back into a tight corkscrew turn. The ship shuddered as it flew through the ionized air. “That was close. Can you do something over there about that?”

“Uh, no,” Jamming replied; “I can decoy a missile, but I can’t trick a laser beam. Just a little further, and they won’t be able to shoot at us without risking hitting their guys on the ground.” He paused. “And...we’re in the clear. If they miss us, they’ll hit their base, so I doubt they’ll shoot anymore.”

“That’s great and all,” Canuck said, “but how are we going to get back to the
Spark
again?”

“I asked that after the brief and was told, ‘don’t worry about it.’ They’ve got something planned, but they didn’t want to say what it was for operational security purposes.”

“Opsec, huh?” He snorted. “Sure would be nice for the operators to know, now that there’s an enemy destroyer breathing down our necks,” Canuck said as he touched down in front of the gates of the enemy complex. “Hey, weren’t they supposed to destroy that building?”

“Ramp’s coming down for recovery,” Jamming said as he pushed a button on the console. He looked up and out the window. “Yeah, they must have some other plan for it. They sure did a number on the gates, though.”

“Our mission is to go to the anti-Earth system, take out any enemy ships there and bring our people home,” Captain Lorena Griffin, commanding officer of the
Terra
, said
.
“We know the Efreeti ships have been difficult to hit with missiles, so we’re going to have to get in close and take them out with energy weapons. We also know they can fire a torpedo that we
do not
want to hit us. If they launch one at us, we jump back to our universe pronto, and hope it doesn’t jump with us. Any questions?”

Heads shook across the bridge. Although there was a significant feeling of trepidation among the crew, based on the capabilities the Efreeti ships had shown in the past, every member of the crew knew his or her job, and they were much better prepared to meet them in battle…this time. The last time, a single Efreeti destroyer had almost destroyed the much-bigger
Vella Gulf
, and it was only through blind luck the
Gulf
had escaped.

“Terra,” Captain Griffin said to the ship’s artificial intelligence, “if it looks like one of their torpedoes is going to hit us, I want you to jump us back to this universe three seconds prior to impact, and then return us three seconds after the weapon would be clear of us. Can I count on you to do that?”

“Yes, Captain Griffin,” Terra replied, “I can easily do that.”

“Thanks,” Captain Griffin said. “We don’t know the turning radius of one of their torpedoes; I’d like to jump back in time to find out its capabilities. If you are in doubt, keep us in our own universe. I don’t want to take even a single hit from one of those torpedoes.”

“Understood, Captain Griffin,” Terra said; “my priority will be to keep us from being hit.”

“Outstanding,” Captain Griffin agreed. “Standby to jump. On my mark…
Now!
”

With a flash, the
Terra
disappeared from the Solar System.

“
The bombs are set and we’re on our way back to the boat,
” Master Chief commed.

“
Negative, the boat just had an engine failure,
” Night replied. “
It’s down hard. Meet us at the shuttle. It just landed in front of the gate.
”

Master Chief arrived at the shuttle with First Squad to find Night waiting for them.

“Everyone else is onboard,” Night said. He turned to Lieutenant Bradford. “Blow the building.”

Bradford pulled a small transmitter out of a cargo pocket, removed a wire cage and pressed the button underneath. Two small ‘thumps’ were heard, but the building seemed unaffected by the bombs.

“That’s it?” Master Chief asked. “I thought you had some new super-special bomb.”

“Wait for it,” Lieutenant Bradford said, his eyes never leaving the building. After a couple of seconds, he pointed to the right side of the building. “There! See that bright spot? That’s it. Just watch.”

Bright spots appeared all over the building’s roof and walls as the silver thermite ate though the metal. Once the silver reached the exterior of the building, gravity pulled it toward the planet’s surface, and the silver cut through the sides of the building like hundreds of welders’ torches.

“That’s burning at about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit,” Lieutenant Bradford said. “About three times as hot as lava.”

Within 15 seconds the silver had cut the building from top to bottom in hundreds of places. The warehouse shuddered in the light breeze, and then collapsed like a house of cards. As the metal of the building came in contact with the silver thermite on the ground, it liquefied, and the wreckage continued to crumple in upon itself.

The larger mass of silver, where the second bomb had gone off next to the transport machine, ate through the transporter in seconds, and continued to dissolve the walls and roof as they collapsed down into the silver puddle.

Within a minute, all that was left of the massive building was a few metal plates that had fallen outside the thermite’s area of destruction.

“There’s no ‘bang,’” Lieutenant Bradford said, “but it still took care of the facility pretty well.”

“No shit,” Master Chief said. “I think it’s safe to say they won’t be using that building again.” He nodded with his head at the LCAC sitting in the compound’s courtyard. “Got another one of those things for that piece of shit?”

“Here’s where we stand,” Night said. “I suspect Lieutenant Commander Hobbs was taken away on the silver ship, again. It doesn’t appear we are going to get him back today. I would say the transporter is pretty much wrecked, so we at least accomplished that. The other mission was to find the transport rods, which we haven’t done. As much as I would like to have them, I’ll be just as happy if they are destroyed, and we don’t have to fight whatever reinforcements I’m sure are on their way here. Master Chief, set one of the tridents to overload, and let’s get the hell out of this universe.”

“Overload one of the tridents?” Lieutenant Bradford asked.

“Yeah,” Master Chief replied. “They’ve each got a gram of antimatter inside, or they did when we started. One gram of antimatter contacting one gram of matter has the same explosive power as twice that of the nuke we dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. That bomb had the equivalent of about 20 kilotons of TNT; a trident will detonate with the equivalent of 42 kilotons. Even though we used a little in our attack, there’s still going to be way more than enough to wipe out this facility.”

“What about the town nearby? Will that be affected?”

Night turned to look at Lieutenant Bradford, and his gaze narrowed. “I can sum up my feelings for the town in one word.” He turned and began walking toward the shuttle. “
Let’s go, people!
” he commed. “
The shuttle leaves in one minute. Be on it or get left behind.
”

Lieutenant Bradford ran up behind Night. “Wait, what was the word?” he asked.

Night looked back over his shoulder. “Tashkent.”

“System entry into the anti-Earth system,” the ensign at the science station said. “Launching probes; looking for any Efreeti ships.”

“Got one,” the defensive systems officer (DSO) called. “Just coming over the crest of the planet. It looks like a single ship, destroyer-sized.”

“I’ve got him,” the offensive systems officer (OSO) replied.

“Missiles free; kill the bastard,” Captain Griffin ordered.

The OSO looked up from her station.

“I know the
Vella Gulf
couldn’t hit the Efreet with its missiles,” Captain Griffin said, “but maybe we’ll get lucky.”

“Anti-ship missiles launching,” the OSO said. “32 missiles launched; hang fire on tubes three and 18.”

“Ma’am, the Efreeti ship is turning toward us,” the DSO advised. “It’s accelerating toward us to engage.”

“Let him,” Captain Griffin said. “We’ve got him outgunned, unless he has a bunch of those torpedoes. The closer he gets, the better it is…for us.”

“Ma’am, he doesn’t have any shields,” the OSO said. “Missile impact in three…two…one…
holy shit!
Ma’am, we got at least 30 hits on the destroyer, almost all of them on the forward half of the ship. Those missiles were meant for taking out battleships and dreadnoughts…there isn’t much left.”

“Sir, I don’t get it,” Master Chief said. “This just doesn’t add up.”

“What doesn’t add up?” Night asked.

“All of this. On one hand, you have an Efreeti ship that is nearly untouchable. If we hadn’t gotten lucky, we would all have died aboard the
Vella Gulf
the first time we fought them.”

“That’s true,” Night agreed.

“And yet, we have the base we just hit. It was barely defended, almost as if they expected the walls alone to hold out whoever they thought was going to attack. I don’t know who they were defending against, but it sure as shit wasn’t us.”

“Yeah. Keep going,” Night urged.

“Okay, so the Efreet are the most uncoordinated race we’ve ever seen. They have a couple of great weapons, but generally, most of their stuff is crap. Flechette guns and flamethrowers are cool and all, but our weapons can kill them well before they ever get in range of us.”

“Unless we’re on a ship or in a tunnel.”

“Okay, granted, their weapons are great for enclosed spaces, but certainly not for defending a fort against modern forces.”

“True.”

“And then you have Captain Nightsong, who appears to be a respected member of Aesir society, but I’ll bet my next three paychecks he’s the one who has the CO. What the hell is up with that?”

“Are you saying the Aesir can’t be trusted, or just Nightsong?”

“I don’t know. I mean, we really don’t know the Aesir. Maybe their whole race is a bunch of liars. Steropes vouched for them, though, so I’m guessing it’s just Nightsong. Besides, it’s easier to believe there’s one bad apple than an entire race of liars.”

“I’d agree with that. The Mrowry seem to trust the Aesir, too, and the Mrowry have been nothing but honorable since we met them.”

“So what does Nightsong get out of taking the CO?”

“I don’t know, but I agree with you…it doesn’t make sense.” Night thought for a minute. “Here’s something else that’s odd. When we came down from the
Terra,
the CO brought his Progenitor’s Rod down with him. I’m sure of that; I remember seeing it. But then, a couple of days later, it was gone, and he had no idea where it went. Before this mission, I went and looked at the Bachelor Officers’ Quarters’ security tapes, and you know what I found?”

“It walked off on its own?”

“Close,” Night replied. “Shortly after we arrived, Calvin went into his room, took the rod and left with it. Why would he have done that? Even better, why wouldn’t he remember doing it?”

“He did get hit on the head a month or two ago, so it’s possible there’s some brain damage. But to not remember taking it out of his room? I doubt it. You’re sure it was him?”

“Positive.”

“Okay, so how is it possible for him to do something, and yet not have done it? The only answer is that he didn’t. But if
he
didn’t,
who did?
”

“I don’t know,” Night replied. “My mind keeps returning to the Aesir Eco Warrior teams. It’s almost like we had a Life Warrior here…you know, someone who could change their shape to match the CO’s.”

“But the only Aesir here is Nightsong, and he is fire-based.”

“Is there any reason he couldn’t be both?”

“I don’t have any fucking idea how that works, sir. I guess it’s possible…but if he
is
life-based, then he could be anyone he wanted to. He could appear like anyone or anything he wanted to, and we would never know it.”

“No, we wouldn’t.”

“Sir…work with me on this. What if…what if Nightsong really wasn’t Captain Nightsong? Remember all those times he talked about Wayland? I mean, he knew
everything
about the man. It was almost like he
was
Wayland. What if Nightsong didn’t kill Wayland…what if Wayland killed Nightsong and took his place? Instant credibility. No longer is he a man on the run; he is now a senior member of their space navy, and he’s in charge of a ship that can take him anywhere he wants. Once there, he can change his shape and become anyone he needs to be.”

“Like Calvin, when he walked into his room and removed the Progenitor’s Rod.”

“Exactly. The other thing he always talked about, besides the things Wayland did, was the fact that Wayland was able to outsmart the Psiclopes. What if that isn’t true, either? What if the Psiclopes caught him and turned him to their own purposes?”

“What could that be? Steropes was with us the whole last mission to help the Aesir. What was he getting out of it?”

“Nothing. But what if it wasn’t him, sir? What if the one who caught him was Arges, and he never said anything to anyone else? Or at least not to Steropes? He could run Nightsong however he wanted. He could probably get him to do almost anything in order to avoid being exposed.”

“Son of a bitch,” Night said. “It would explain a lot if they were working together. Arges runs all the news and information services…what if he used them as information collecting devices?”

“That might go a long way to explaining our information leak. He would have access to all our ships’ movements, too, and would know where they were at all times.”

“But why? Why would he work with the Iranians and the Efreet? What could he hope to gain from that?”

“I don’t know,” Master Chief replied, “but I do know how to find out.”

“Call him up?”

“No sir, I don’t want to risk alerting him to the fact that we know about him. I think we ought to go to his house and surprise him. Besides, that way, I can be the one to wring his scrawny neck.”

“I think that’s a damn good idea, Master Chief,” Night replied. He switched to his comm and called the pilot. “
Hey, Canuck, once we get back to our universe, we’re going to need to make a little stopover on our way back home…
”