Legions of Orion (Star Crusades Nexus, Book 1) (9 page)

”
We don’t have a
moment to waste. Start up the main systems, and let’s get the
preliminary work on the connection to Prometheus active ASAP,” he
said happily. “We need to be ready the minute the Rift
opens.”

It had been almost
half a day since they’d arrived, and not a minute went by with him
pondering the chance that they could end up trapped in the Orion
Nebula over a thousand light years from home. The automated drone
was only a short distance from the moon now, but even that seemed
low priority to him right now. They would have days, weeks,
probably years to chase around the planets, but not if the Rift
failed to work correctly.

The activation
sequence was
already well underway, and
he watched with pride as his expert team rerouted the power from
their powerplants to capacitors in readiness to establish the link.
It would use nearly three-quarters of their reserves to activate
the Spacebridge, but once running, it would use a fraction of the
power to maintain the link. This assumed that the same was taking
place on the other side, of course.

Let’s just hope they are ready to
complete the link!

“How long do we have until the sequence
starts?” he asked.

“
Forty-three
minutes, Sir,” c
ame back a quick reply
from the engineer monitoring the computing system for the
bridge.

Captain Raikes was
looking at his screen when an odd feeling of nausea ran through his
head. A loud crunching sound hammered through the metal plating,
and he found himself drifting out of his chair as if the vessel had
just struck something. He reached out and grabbed a computer
console, but only just in time. A number of technicians flew past
him, their bodies spinning uncontrollably.

Gravity is off!

He pulled himself
close to the computer in time for the lights
to all flicker and cut out through the CIC. Only the dull
red glow of the emergency lights gave any break from the eerie
blackness of the interior as they activated. Shouting and screams
echoed inside, and he was forced to bellow at the top of his
voice.

“
Clam down, and find
out what the hell is going on!”

Captain Raikes were
already adjusting to the low-level red lighting, and he could
already identify two people that were not moving. He assumed they
were unconscious, but there was no easy way to tell from his
current position. A technician managed to get part of his
diagnostic system active, but the main systems were still
down.

“Sir, the power units are offline.
Somebody has shut them down.”

“
What?” responded
the Captain, now furious that his vessel had been
disabled.

“How is that even possible?”

The Chief Engineer
nodded in agreement at the information from his technician.
Although his own display was out of action, there wasn’t a part of
the ship he wasn’t familiar with.

“
That sounds right.
If the habitation ring suffers a catastrophic failure, the main
drives and engine units are shut down. It’s a safety mechanism to
ensure power isn’t routed to the heavy engineering, especially the
motors. I’d say we have a saboteur on board, and whoever it is,
they have a thorough knowledge of our systems.”

Captain Raikes
lowered his head into his right hand; the weight of the problems
was bearing down on him, and he was running out of ideas. He
glanced about briefly, but most of the systems were still
offline.

“
Sir, there is only
one part of the ship where the habitation controls and powerplant
conduits come close to each other. There’s a good chance the damage
was caused there.”

“
And that’s where we
might find our saboteur. In the meantime, get me comms. I need to
speak with Admiral Anderson. If we cannot get our systems active
again fast, we will have to start a general evacuation to the
Rift.”

“Already on it, give me a moment.”

Lieutenant Davies pulled himself along
until he reached the Captain. He had gone through zero-g training
like most marines and moved through the craft quickly and
efficiently. He drifted at head height and was forced to shout for
the Captain to even spot him.

“
Sir, my marine
comms system is independent of the ship’s. My entire platoon has
checked in, apart from one group near the habitation control
station. I think it might...”

The Captain lifted his hand and
nodded.

“Yes, that is where the problem is.
Lieutenant, how soon can you have a team there?”

The young marine
paused or a few seconds as he visualised the route in his head. It
wasn’t a long distance and normally required the use of the
elevators to descend to the correct level. With no gravity, he
could simply drift there.

“
About four, maybe
five minutes, Sir.”

“
Good, get on it. I
suspect you will find our saboteur. Trust nobody and stay in
contact.”

The marine saluted and turned to move
away before the Captain grabbed his arm.

“
Leave a squad here.
T
here’s a chance they might try and take
the CIC.”

Lieutenant Davies nodded and then
kicked away from the wall to push himself towards the entrance to
the CIC. Captain Raikes watched in surprise as the man made quick
progress and faded into the blackness of the ship. He looked back
to his crew.

“Where are my comms?” he demanded.

Out in the corridor,
the small unit of marines were already using the grab handles to
pull themselves at a good rate along the walls and ceiling. To any
of the crew watching them move past, it must have looked as if the
ship had been infested with creatures of some kind. In just two
minutes, they were at the service elevator shaft and opening the
access hatch. Lieutenant Davies was first inside, closely followed
by more than a dozen of his comrades who had assembled near the CIC
before the incident.

“
Follow me.
W
e need to secure the habitation control
station. Potential hostiles in the area, so keep your eyes
open.”

With those few
words, they disappeared into the blackness of the tunnel. Most
activated their suit-mounted lamps to send beams of yellow through
the dusty environment. The shaft led from the command decks down
past the many engineering levels. It seemed to take an age for the
silent and motionless group to reach the platform to the side that
was marked up as a service entrance. Lieutenant Davies helped the
rest of his team reach the same spot before checking his weapon.
Like all Alliance marines, he carried the L52 Mark II Assault
Carbine, the most advanced and numerous weapons in the arsenal. It
had replaced the previous L48 rifle in the last decade, and its
flexibility and variable fire modes made it perfect for use in
space, on land or on board ships. A simple silent operation mode
could be selected by twisting the barrel. It reduced the energy to
the coils and reduced the velocity to subsonic speeds. This also
reduced the noise, but more importantly, the depth of penetration,
a vital requirement for operations where a projectile tearing
through the hull could kill them all.

With just a nod, the
Sergeant of the platoon, a gruff old marine called Tex, activated
the door and used the bypass to open the metal mechanism. It slid
open to reveal nothing other than yet another dark room. Lieutenant
Davies tilted his head and motioned with his left hand for them to
enter. The first three moved inside and into the open lobby type
room. There would normally be a dozen people moving about, but with
the loss of power and gravity, it was deserted.

“
The crew will be at
their stations or waiting near the evacuation points in case the
order is given by the Captain,” he explained.

The young Lieutenant
made it just a few metres from the entrance when a fusillade of
thermal rounds struck their position. The weapons were archaic, and
the kind normally used by smugglers and criminal gangs.
Nonetheless, the marines were forced to pull themselves to cover as
the super-heated scatter shot embedded itself around their
position. One marine was hit in the shoulder and spun out of
control back through the doorway. More flickers of light gave away
the enemy positions, and Lieutenant Davies was forced to pull
himself behind a narrow bulkhead to avoid being hit. He tapped his
comms gear and connected directly with Captain Raikes.

“Captain, we’ve arrived at the service
entrance and come under fire.”

Another burst struck
a marine as he returned fire with his carbine. The difference in
weapons was apparent in both report and effect. Each time the
shotguns fired, they sent a low velocity burst of molten metal that
struck armour and glass and burned through. The metal projectile
fired from the carbines, on the other hand, was designed to squash
but not shatter on impact.

“Marines, push them back! We need the
control station!”

With that order, the
surviving marines pulled themselves into cover and fired back, each
taking aim at the two muzzle flashes from the enemy. It was
difficult to tell if they’d hit them, but in less than a minute,
the shotguns ceased firing. The marines were able to push ahead
nearly twenty metres to reach the station. Tex made it to the
station first and pulled open the security panel.

“Lieutenant, the system has been
deactivated.”

Lieutenant Davies
pulled himself along the right-hand wall and around the flank of
the system. The control station was large, easily the size of a
man, and consisted of three large displays and a rather antiquated
looking computer system. It was, of course, all heavily ruggedized
and intended to operate even after the effects of a major
electromagnetic attack. Advanced systems were not required for this
part of the ship, just simple and reliable electrical and
mechanical systems. The Lieutenant reached out to touch the system
to activate it, but the Sergeant grabbed his hand and stopped him
at the last moment.

“Sir, they’ve probably booby trapped
it. Let Arnauld have a look first.”

Lieutenant Davies
nodded in agreement, secretly kicking himself that he’d almost made
such a rookie mistake. It was common knowledge in most of the
military units that the non-commissioned officers were the ones
with the experience, and that the junior officers were green and
couldn’t be trusted. He’d tried hard to avoid the stereotype, but
it was small things like this that seemed to prove the rule once
more. He nodded at his Sergeant and stepped away to ensure the site
was secure. There was a red stain on the wall, presumably from one
of the two that had been shooting at them.

“
Sir, we’ve secured
the station. There are at least two assailants, and they’ve moved
back into the service areas,” he explained on his radio.

“Good work. Can you get the system back
online?”

He glanced over to
the Sergeant and spotted Corporal Arnauld pulling out one of the
boards and removing cabling. It was a surprisingly quick operation,
and in just a few more seconds, the man reached up and hit a button
that powered up the system. The operating system was based on the
solid-state chips that had been used for hundreds of years and
allowed it to activate and start managing systems in less than
three seconds. Systems like this were built to run parallel to the
main networked system in case of attack or damage.

“
Well, she’s up and
ready. Looks like whoever did this knew where to hurt us. They’ve
cut all computer control to the systems from elsewhere in the ship.
I’m directing the starting charge to the powerplants, and they
should fire up right away.”

He glanced back to his commander,
looking for the signal to continue.

“Is there any reason why we shouldn’t
do this?” he asked as a glimmer of doubt entered his mind.

“
Well, it will
restart all the main systems, including air filtration, habitation
rotation and fuel management to the engines. There is nowhere else
on the ship outside of the CIC where so much control exists. Like I
said, they knew what they were doing.”

Lieutenant Davies shook his head
slowly.

“Yeah, that’s what worries me. Don’t
you think they’d have disabled this system?”

His internal comms gear activated,
surprising him by the noise in the near silence.

“Lieutenant, we’re running out of time.
What the hell is keeping you down there?”

He swallowed before
replying. “The computer management system is ready. I was about to
start the power sequence.”

“Then do it and send your men to hunt
down!” barked the Captain.

Once again the young
Lieutenant hesitated, but another order shouted down and into his
helmet finally forced his hand. He looked to Corporal Arnauld and
nodded for him to proceed.

* * *

The first indication things were finally
returning to normal, was when the lights came back on. It was a
simple matter, but the bright white lights instantly transformed
the interior of the CIC, revealing the extent of the panic and
injuries caused by the lack of gravity and light.

Dammit,
thought Captain
Raikes.
I should have been
prepared for this kind of thing.

There wasn’t time to
worry though as Lieutenant Rob Davis, the Communications Officer,
received an urgent message.