CHAPTER 16
The ship began to lurch back and forth, and I gripped a support beam tightly. The lights began to flicker, until they finally shut off. I held still, wondering what would come next. Would the hull breach? I doubted the Edra engineer had an EVA suit in his bag of tricks. Thankfully, the lights came back on after a moment, followed by a klaxon out in the passageway behind us as we moved away from the lift shaft.
Esaal consulted a small device on his wrist. "The reactor overload will reach critical levels in just under five minutes. The fires will ignite in the forward sections several minutes after that."
"How do you know all that?" David asked from the rear.
"This is exactly how it occurred before, Sergeant Forres," Amra explained.
"Hold on," I said, turning to the Edra techie. "I thought that killing the yeoman stopped all of that. You said that stopping the core initiation on the bridge changed the course of events."
Amra nodded. "There are several theories regarding temporal manipulation. One of them suggested that our interference, including Captain Mallory's killing of the human interface, was simply part of the original event. I would suggest that this is what we are seeing."
"Do you now understand why we banned this technology, Captain Mallory?" Esaal asked. "Even people such as Engineer Amra, who worked with the core technology on our world, do not fully comprehend the physics involved. When this is over, I believe your firsthand account of the events here will help to dissuade your government from ever trying this again."
I nodded, but internally my heart began to beat even faster than the stim was pushing it. If the events of the accident were occurring in spite of my actions, that meant that I was going to die. I kept my mouth shut, but David caught my eye. He knew what I was thinking.
"We must deal with Captain Paetkau, before she can do further damage," Esaal explained.
"David, open it," I ordered.
David pushed past us, and keyed open the door into the chamber. Hot air rushed in on us, along with a deep pulsing sound that rattled us. We all took an involuntary step backward.
"The core is still operating at full power," Amra yelled over the deep pulse, his English unsure and halting. "I must shut it down immediately."
Esaal and I stepped out onto the catwalk. The chamber was filled with engineers, all of them scrambling around the massive spherical core. Everyone was shouting, as they tried to figure out what was wrong with the core. On the upper catwalk, where we were, there were at least eight engineers that I could see. There were probably more on the other side of the massive spherical core, out of sight. At least as many were on the decks below us.
As soon as we stepped into view, someone spotted us. A young crewman was the first to see us, and his eyes went wide. He screamed as he ran in the other direction.
"Edra!" he yelled, pointing toward us.
Almost instantly, plasma blasts tore through the deck at my feet. I dove forward, out of the way. Esaal followed. David and Amra pulled back, taking cover in the decon chamber. The blasts whipped past me, striking the bulkheads. Oddly, they didn't do any damage. The bulkheads seemed to absorb the plasma bursts.
The engineers working on the core scattered, one of them trampling over us in sheer panic. The deck just behind me erupted.
"Move, move!" I barked, pushing myself off the deck.
Esaal was right beside me, pushing through the engineers as they ran in all directions. He wasn't firing, even though his weapon could shred these people in an instant. He used his thin form and long arms to push them aside, while I screamed at them.
"Get out of the way!" I yelled, as crewmen tried to flee the fire and us. "Clear the chamber!"
The ladder down was swarming with crew trying to clear the catwalk. The circular catwalk was a shooting gallery for the shooter below, and the crew was desperate to get out of the way. They hurried around the core, as far from us as possible. The deep thump of the plasma pistol firing kept at us, chasing us around the catwalk as we searched for cover. Below, I could see Captain Paetkau circling the core, pistol in hand, looking for us.
"I have a clean shot," David said from the door to the decon room.
"No!" Esaal called out. "Do not fire. Every shot risks destabilizing the core. The bulkheads are designed to dampen energy surges, but the core is not."
"Tell her that," I muttered as I dodged another blast from below.
The chamber was quickly clearing out, as the crew did their best to avoid the one-sided firefight blazing around them. Captain Paetkau was firing wildly. She caught a crewman in the shoulder, but didn't seem to notice that she was hitting her own crew. As the wounded man was dragged out of the chamber, Paetkau continued to fire indiscriminately, narrowly missing several others.
Esaal kept his rifle trained on Paetkau, but didn't fire. I assumed he had his weapon set to fire anti-personnel rounds, since an anti-tank round would be worse than the hot plasma Paetkau was firing. He leaned to one side as a plasma bolt flew past his head, but didn't move. It was obvious that the Captain was firing randomly.
"Captain!" I yelled. "Captain Paetkau, cease fire!"
She answered with several more shots. One of them very narrowly missing David and Amra as they peeked out of the decon chamber door. They retreated inside; Amra covering the right side of his face from what I assume was a plasma burn. David hurried to help him, while Esaal and I circled around the core, trying to stay out of sight.
"Captain Paetkau, please, you're going to hit the core. You're going to destroy the ship."
"You can't stop it!" the Captain yelled. "I have my orders. The experiment has gone ahead as planned. You can't stop it!"
"Stand down," I yelled. "Stop shooting, before you blow us all up!."
"You're trying to stop the experiment. I won't let you do that. I have my orders," she called back. She sounded calm, resolute. She was utterly sure of herself. Psychotics usually were.
"Does she not realize the consequences of her actions?" Esaal asked.
"She's suffering from temporal psychosis," I replied. "The security officer we fought on deck 2 was worse, but anyone exposed to the core malfunction is affected."
"This mental condition is not something I am familiar with," he said, cocking his head. "I was not aware that human brains were so delicate. How do we relieve her symptoms?"
"A bullet," I said as another shot struck the catwalk nearby. "She's gone. You can't cure psychosis with a flip of a switch or a pill."
"Then we must kill her, Captain Mallory," Esaal concluded. He looked at me closely. "Are you prepared to kill a superior officer? An Edra could never do so."
"If that's what it takes, yeah," I said, unhappy to say it.
"If I were operating on my own, as I was before we took the bridge, I would be permitted to kill your Captain," Esaal explained. "However, since we are operating together, even temporarily, I am bound to respect your command hierarchy, putting you on equal footing with my own rank. I can only kill the Captain with your express permission."
"You're kidding, right?" I asked. "Are you serious?"
He seemed confused. "Yes, Captain Mallory, I am," he replied. "Do I have your permission to kill her?"
"Yeah!" I yelled, more fed up than surprised. It was an absurd question, considering what was going on around us.
Captain Paetkau caught sight of us, and we had to make a run for it as she started firing in our direction. We raced around the core and dove into the decon chamber, out of sight. David was at the far end with Amra, putting a dressing over his face. The Edra engineer's skin was very black, but the edges were going white.
"Are you still functional?" Esaal asked his engineer.
"I have lost the use of an eye, but I am still capable of carrying out my task," he replied as David finished tying the bandage onto his head.
"Very well," Esaal said with a nod. He turned to me, raising his voice over the sound of plasma blasts smashing into the bulkhead at the chamber door. "We must end this, Captain Mallory."
"No shit," I said. "I need a flash grenade."
"I'm out," David said. "I used them all on the command deck."
"Great," I grumbled. "I have two, but they're in my butt pack. I don't think the Captain is going to toss them up to me if I ask."
Esaal reached into a pocket and pulled out a small slug. He loaded it into his rifle.
"This will have a similar effect to you flash grenades," he explained. "Please plug your ears, and close your eyes tightly. This is designed specifically to hurt humans. It uses frequencies of sound and light that Edra do not experience."
I moved to the rear of the chamber, alongside David. I forced my fingers into my ears, while David simply closed his helmet and activated the flash guard. His faceplate went dark, and he looked away just to be safe.
I nodded to the Edra commando. "Do it!" I yelled, before closing my eyes tightly and turning away from him.
For a moment, all I could hear was the same low rumble I always heard when I plugged my ears; the blood coursing through my veins. I didn't even hear Esaal fire, but after a second the explosion rocked me. The light was so bright that for a moment, I could actually see through my shut eye lids. The sound of it was like getting hit in the ear with a sledgehammer. I pulled my fingers from my ears, screaming in pain. The image of David hunkered down beside me hung in my vision, even after the light from the explosion dimmed.
I fell over, but felt David drag me to my feet. I opened my eyes. Esaal was already hurrying out of the chamber, rifle firing downward at Captain Paetkau as he moved. I hurried after him, my footsteps quiet, distant echoes. The ringing in my ears overwhelmed everything else. My feet ached from the deck grating, which poked at my feet and their thin sole covering. The CEVA under-suit was never intended to be worn on its own. I ignored the ache and dashed toward the ladder.
Esaal was rounding the core counterclockwise, laying down covering fire. He moved quickly, not stopping for cover. I could see his face, still neutral, as he calmly fired his weapon. He disappeared around the other side of the core.
Below, I could see Captain Paetkau firing from behind cover. Her shots were wild, blindly fired as she reached out from behind cover. She had thrown her helmet on, but it was too late. She was probably half blind and deaf. She moved from console to console, never letting up her fire. At the rate she was firing, she would drain the pistol quickly, but not quickly enough.
I reached the ladder, and began to climb down. Once my head was clear of the catwalk, I dropped down to the next deck. Captain Paetkau fired at me from behind a console, and I jumped away just as a bolt narrowly missed me. A burst from Esaal's rifle sent her back behind cover.
I hurried around the core, hoping for a better shot. Before I could reach a good firing position, Esaal dropped to the deck right in front of me. His long, thin body absorbed the impact of the fall, where a human that thin would have broken both his legs. The Edra commando fired a couple of rounds, and dodged the Captain's fire.
"Go back around," he whispered to me.
I hurried back toward the ladder, helping to close the pincer movement Esaal was calling for. I wasn't pleased taking orders from this invader, but he was the one who had to take the shot. My pulse rifle was too dangerous to fire in here. I reached my position, and peeked around the core.
Captain Paetkau was waiting for me, weapon aimed at eye level. She stared down the sights, her eyes suddenly wild, that same short burst of anger that seemed to creep out from behind her stone cold face, just like it had on the bridge. I watched as she started to pull the trigger. I began to move out of the way but I knew it was too late.
Suddenly, there was a shriek from Esaal's position, and the Captain's pistol was torn out of her hands. She screamed, more out of surprise than pain, and fell against the console behind her.
I ran toward her, stopping beside Esaal. We both had our weapons ready. Captain Paetkau seemed slightly stunned, but still aware of us.
"Captain, it's over," I said. "Don't move."
"No," she said, her eyes wild, her breath short and spastic, echoing slightly over the external speakers on the helmet. "I have my orders. The experiment must be allowed to finish."
I moved in, but just as I was about to kick away her pistol, the entire ship lurched. The sound of a far off explosion rumbled through the bulkheads, and both Esaal and I were thrown to the deck. Every alert light and klaxon kicked in. I knew without asking what was happening. The first of the reactors in engineering had just blown open from the power feedback. Things really were playing out, just as they had before.
The decks shook violently, as though we were in an earthquake. I struggled to my feet, grabbing hold of a railing. A sudden lurch from the ship sent me flying, and I lost my grip on my rifle as I struck the deck hard. I looked over toward the Captain. She had her pistol again, and was standing upright, as if the shuddering of the ship didn't bother her at all.
She pointed the pistol at me, and I knew she had me. Through the faceplate, her eyes were wide, wild. The rest of her face, though, was bizarrely calm, as her mind swung between extremes. Just as she fired, I rolled away from her aim. At the same time, I heard a long shriek from Esaal's weapon. I looked back in time to see Captain Paetkau fall to the deck, leaning against a console.
"Captain Mallory, are you injured?" Esaal asked, helping me up.
"Not really," I replied.
I looked to the Captain of the Saturnus. The helmet's faceplate was shattered, and there was red, spattered gore along its edges. She was still. The pistol lay beside her.
Esaal spoke into the palm of his left hand, what I assumed was a comm device. A moment later, Amra appeared up top, with David helping him move the equipment cases. They made their way down to us. Without waiting for orders, Amra began unpacking his equipment. David joined me in front of Captain Paetkau's body.
"There it is," he said conclusively. "It was never you, Jack. It was her. She'll be here for over a hundred years, and we'll find her just like this."
I shook my head at the absurdity of it all. I was worried I would die in here. I looked back at the dead Captain Paetkau. I was so turned around, so exhausted, so messed up by the stim shot, by everything, that I hadn't connected the dots. I felt a chuckle escape my lips. Then another, and another.
"Jack?" David asked, putting his hand on my shoulder. "Jack, are you alright?"
I tried to wave him off, but instead I burst out laughing. I felt everything boil over. I looked around. David was talking to me, but I couldn't hear him. Esaal watched me. He seemed so confused. Amra was already starting to work on the core chamber hatch, calling to David for help. Ghosts of the engineering crew moved about, checking the status of the core.
Off to one side, Captain Paetkau and Lieutenant Aisin were talking. Aisin seemed upset. He pointed aft, angrily. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but he was obviously upset at having just spent an hour hunting for intruders in engineering. The Captain held up a hand to silence him, and turned to one of the engineers. She walked past me, not even noticing me, and stood over the console against which her own body lay. She activated the controls.
"Jack?" David's voice echoed in the distance. "Jack!"
Captain Paetkau, ghostly and white, initiated the second stage of the experiment. There was a flash of light.
Everything went black.