Paying the Price (Book 5 of The Empire of Bones Saga) (9 page)

“
Invincible
’s beams are too heavy. Try the plasma weapons on one of the pinnaces. Call me back once you’re in.”

He turned to Doctor Leonard. “What do you think happened?”

The older man shrugged. “He went over to get scanner readings of the hull on that station. There’s no way he would wander off. I suppose it’s possible that he had a suit failure, but that doesn’t explain why no one can locate him. I think your belief that he’s inside that station is an accurate one.”

“Then how did he get in and how to we get him out?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea. What’s more troubling is that he should’ve called us. Perhaps we might not be in range to hear a cry for help, but Major Talbot is. I should go over there and take readings for myself.”

Jared shook his head. “Not until we know more about what happened. One of the marines can take a reading after they breach the hull on that thing.”

“Incoming communication from Major Talbot,” Marcus said.

This time the marine had his helmet off, obviously inside the pinnace.

“Are you ready to fire?”

Talbot shrugged. “We already did. No effect that we can see. The damned thing is immune to damage from us.”

“Hold on,” Jared said. “Are you telling me that our weapons are just bouncing?”

“Literally. I hit it with flechettes, too. Not a scratch on it. You’re going to have to use the ship’s weapons.”

“Not the missiles. That’s overkill. Maybe a low-powered beam. Marcus?”

“If the Major and his people will pull back, I can move into range and focus the beam on the hull. At the lowest power settings, it still has the potential to do a lot of damage.”

Jared nodded. “Aim somewhere other than the spot Carl disappeared.”

It took about ten minutes to get everything set up. Jared monitored the shot when Marcus took it at the lowest power setting.

It had no more effect than the hand-held plasma weapons.

“Well,” Marcus said. “This is unexpected. And unwelcome. Shall I increase power, Admiral?”

“Take it up slowly. When it fails, it might go suddenly.”

Invincible
fired ever increasingly powerful shots at the station. None had any effect whatsoever. Once they reached full power, they started adding in additional beams. All to no effect. The dammed thing might as well be immune to energy weapons.

“Shall we stand off and try a missile, Admiral?” Marcus asked.

Jared rubbed his face. “Not yet. An explosion or high-speed impact might be completely different from a beam attack. I’d rather not rupture the thing completely.”

He turned to Doctor Leonard. “Suit up, Doctor. You’re going to take some readings before we try again. Tell me what that thing is and how to open it. If we can’t, we might never see Carl again.”

The odds were stacked against the young man. His suit only had air for another four hours. Assuming that was an alien environment in there—if the station was even functional—it would probably be hostile to humans.

The clock was ticking.

Chapter Seven

After half an hour of searching, Carl gave up on figuring out how the station had pulled him inside. He also conceded that he wouldn’t be repeating the feat that made it happen. No amount of scanning from the inside was having any effect, though he was getting clean readings now.

He wasn’t getting out the same way he’d gotten in.

Which was bad. The interior of the station was dark and cold. And that didn’t even begin to consider the “atmosphere” he found himself in.

It was difficult to tell with his suit lights, but the liquid surrounding him certainly had pale blue color. The scanner said it was water, though it had some odd trace elements. The oxygen content was in line with what he recalled about normal water on Avalon, but it had a higher range of heavy metals. Arsenic in particular.

In any case, he wasn’t going to be breathing water any time soon. He needed to find an exit or he was going to die in here in a few short hours.

A year ago, this might have paralyzed him with fear, but not now. He’d learned a lot from the people around him. When the pressure hit, you had to keep swinging. So, he buried his fear and got to work.

The ring was clear in the center. A tube several dozen meters across seemed to circle the station. Many compartments sat to every side, none with hatches.

He supposed that made sense. With a liquid atmosphere, it probably required better circulation to remain healthy for the occupants.

Not that he’d seen any sign of them. Not in person or through furniture. Though he did see what looked like operational machinery. He had no idea how they kept it functional over long periods submerged like this.

Or even how an aquatic race could learn to forge metal and get into space.

There were a lot of questions he’d like answered, if he survived.

Once again, discovering the purpose of the station was high on the list. Someone had come into the most hostile environment imaginable and built it. Considering that and the materials, the aliens were more advanced than the Old Empire. So, why hadn’t anyone found evidence of them or even met them?

Surely, such an advanced people must’ve left other artifacts.

Unless, somehow, they were located on an unconnected set of flip points. Everyone knew that only a fraction of stellar systems had flip points. What if that theory was flawed? What if there were two or more unconnected—or only barely connected—flip point networks?

With that, it might be possible for two advanced species to occupy the same volume of space without ever having met. The weak flip point that led here might be a fluke.

It seemed as though one of them would have discovered communications from the other. Unless, of course, the builders were long gone. Swallowed by the mists of time.

Could this station, hidden away in a place no one would come looking, be the only remnant of these people?

That was frightening, when one considered it. What could cause the end of an advanced people like this? Something similar to the Fall? Humanity had survived. Shouldn’t they have as well?

A blinking light from ahead caused him to slow down. Something was different.

He approached the small light cautiously. It sat above a hatch—one not that different from the ones used in the Empire, though constructed from what looked like salvaged materials.

What sent a chill down his spine was a message scratched under a button.

Press me
.

The implications were staggering. He wasn’t the first human to visit this place. And his predecessor had anticipated his arrival.

Carl considered his options. He didn’t have anything to lose by trying. He pressed the button.

The hatch slid slowly open, allowing the fluid to flow gently into what was obviously some kind of airlock. One large enough for his suit, thankfully.

He wedged himself inside and found the button to cycle the lock. Unsure of what or who might be on the other side, he pressed the button firmly.

* * * * *

Angela stared at the hammer. It sat on her desk without seeming all that special. Yet, after
Persephone
had explained the research to her, she’d realized that it was a stunning technological marvel. Even if some parts of it failed to live up to expectations. Or the designer was a mad genius.

She’d arranged to take it with them against his wishes. That had really pissed him off, and that was just fine with her. The boy needed to learn his limits.

Taken singly, the quantum validation unit, the partially collapsed matter, the miniature grav drive with the incorporated fusion plant, the tiny battle screen, and the enhanced-range communicator were all groundbreaking in one way or another.

Owlet wasn’t even responsible for the partially collapsed matter or the drive/fusion plant combo. The people at the Grant Research Facility figured out the former and God only knew who created the latter for the AI.

Still, Owlet had managed to create something unique and dangerous. If only the boy had common sense to go along with his genius.

The true groundbreaker might be the quantum validation system. She completely understood his impulse to limit its range. Faced with the alternative, she’d instinctively rejected it, too.

And, perhaps the range wouldn’t be infinite. There might be more to the theory than what they knew. Flip points had an upper end. Perhaps this system would, too. Only testing would tell for sure.

None of that changed her opinion on allowing the boy to hand over his toy to Kelsey without changes. Weapon or no, it needed some limitations.

Frankly, she wished she had some method to interface with the quantum setup. Just to see if it bypassed the radiation and distance to Owlet. But she didn’t have that implant. Only he did.

But what if she just had the communicator do something to the quantum unit? Could it?

It only took a moment’s search of the technical specifications to show that wasn’t possible. He’d only wired the hammer to check the spin of the photons in the quantum validation unit. There was no provision to use the validation unit to communicate directly with the hammer or wielder.

Too bad. That might have been interesting.

* * * * *

Kelsey’s lesson had gone as well as it could. Ned had the knowledge, but not the body to spar with her.

So, she spent a lot of time doing katas. Dances that drilled the moves into her muscle memory. He was also training her marine guards, so Kelsey could turn her enhancements down to human normal and practice with them.

Even with her skill level, that was more in line with the butt whooping she’d have expected before this grand adventure. She knew the word diminutive was an understatement when applied to her. Particularly when compared to marines.

So she cheated. She kept just a little speed and strength to bring her more in line with them. The goal was to learn how to win, after all. Not how to be stomped into the mat gracefully.

They were the real reason she was determined to make black belt before the fleet returned to Avalon. They had a background in combat and were racing up the ranks. She was determined to be the first one there. She knew she wouldn’t be the first sensei, but that was fine with her.

She’d banished Ned from her mind and taken a shower, satisfied with her progress. Maybe another few weeks and she’d get that damned belt.

Angela was waiting for her when she finished dressing. Kelsey kept her face schooled, but hoped the woman wasn’t there to rant about Owlet or Mjölnir. It was like an obsession.

She got an energy drink out of the refrigeration unit she kept in her office. “What can I do for you, Angela? Drink?”

“I’m good, Highness. I wanted to give you an update on my research into the hammer project.”

The marine couldn’t even bring herself to name it. Kelsey suppressed a smile and sat down. Not behind her desk, but off to one side in a comfortable cluster of chairs. The marine officer joined her.

“You can’t have done any real testing yet, so what new danger have you discovered?”

The large woman smiled wryly. “I hope I’m not always so full of negativity.”

“Only when it comes to this project and Carl Owlet. Sorry.”

“Then this will be a refreshing change of pace. I think Owlet has made the most important breakthrough in science since the creation of flip drives.”

Kelsey choked a little on her drink. “Excuse me? Are you trying to drown me?”

“Not intentionally,” Angela said. “And I’m being completely serious. This quantum validation system and tracking unit. He told us it was good out to ten kilometers. I think he’s allowed himself to doubt the true reach of his discovery.

“I’m no scientist, but it seems to me that the limit he imposed is arbitrary. Quantum theory says it should have no distance limitation at all.”

Kelsey carefully set her drink down on the handy end table. “You’re telling me that he created an intergalactic communicator? The fabled means of one system talking to another without sending a ship through a flip point?”

Angela shrugged. “I can’t speak as to the distance, but I’m willing to bet my firstborn child that it will be a hell of a lot further than ten kilometers. I think it has some relation to flip points, so like them, I bet there is an upper end to the realistic range.

“But they can send a ship hundreds of light years. How far could a simple communication go? Twice that? Five? Ten? I have no idea. And until we start testing, we won’t know.”

The marine leaned forward earnestly. “I can see some obvious advantages and drawbacks. We could send a probe through a flip point and get a view from the other side without it coming back. In real time. There isn’t supposed to be a delay in transmission, though there might be, I suppose. This is all new stuff.”

Kelsey nodded. “And the downside?”

“Fleet Command could become backseat drivers. Right now, Fleet commanders make calls for themselves. With direct communication, that opens the possibility of micromanagement.”

“That would be a negative,” Kelsey admitted. “Wow. This is big. Why didn’t he admit there was the possibility of something like this?”

“I have no idea. If I could tinker with the hammer and figure it out, I’d ask him. I can’t, though. It’s not open to use as a communicator the way the hammer is set up.”

Kelsey considered that. “I bet one of the techs could untangle that for us. We’d just have to be careful not to break something. It’s only a test device, so I’m not worried about taking it apart. Make that happen and see if you can open a channel to Carl.”

She smiled. “Won’t
that
surprise him?”

Chapter Eight

The situation had Jared stumped. If they used a missile, they might critically damage the station. Or destroy it. Yet, none of the other weapons even made a scratch on the thing’s surface. Whatever it was, it was damned good at stopping energy.

He supposed that made sense. That kind of thing was terrific for a station built near a black hole.