Assault on Ambrose Station: A Seth Donovan Novel (16 page)

“Not entirely. As you are aware, I am more than capable of providing my own mobility now.”

I regarded Tac and his new body. I knew he’d commandeered one of the synthetics we’d trashed that tried to board us not long ago. Normally, your standard assault synthetic was cheap and mass produced. They were designed to be thrown at an enemy to keep them occupied or to keep the pressure on them while more heavily armed and versatile troops were deployed. Of course, there were sturdier, deadlier variants available, such as the Ogre. Even Artemis, enhanced with a powered exo-rig, found an Ogre tough to kill. The last one we faced I was only able to take down using nano-proliferation. These specialised mechs were expensive, though, and always had similar weaknesses to regular synthetics – tactical inflexibility. An AI that could fit into a synthetic tended to be marginally less intelligent than your average human. Real live soldiers were always more effective in a fight, more adaptable and able to assess a situation quicker and more accurately.

Tac’s main body consisted of the usual assault mech configuration, with several modifications. Where one arm usually ended with an energy weapon of some kind, now a second grasping appendage had been fitted. The central torso had been expanded to accommodate Tac’s brain sphere and then reinforced with…was that deck plating? Where the head unit normally rested, incorporating the circuitry for the synthetic’s own AI, now housed a sensor unit and secondary battery.

The synthetic was one of the humanoid-legged types, one of the more versatile forms of mobility in the galaxy, and Tac had attached several tools and devices to the upper thighs. I could see several cables of various types entwined within Tac’s right arm, and a small slot near the index finger which would allow a cable to be pulled forth and plugged into whatever device required physical connection.

“You’ve been busy.” I said, impressed.

“My initial prototype proved too clumsy and conspicuous.” he reported, “This form is much more useful.”

“What do you think, Max?”

“If you think Tac will be useful to you, I can’t stop him from joining you.”

“But?”

“How will you fit three people into a cockpit designed for one? It’s already going to be cramped in the Eclipse with only you and Artemis.”

“Captain, I am not required to travel in the cockpit.” said Tac.

“Cuts can find a space for him on the hull.”

“Fair enough. So, let me see if I have this right – we follow the debris fields until we hit this empty spot, Crege does his thing, we get through to this Vigilance of Night and hope the Ghantri haven’t already stripped it of all its loot and modify the missiles we hope we’ll find. Once we’ve done that, on final approach to the station we launch the missiles and in the carnage we get you in close and launch the Eclipse…”

“So far, that’s correct.” I nodded.

“How are you getting onto the station?”

“I crash the fighter.”

“What?” several of them said at once. Artemis chuckled.

“That was pretty much my response when he told me, too.”

“I know the Ghantri don’t give two shits about what the captives do on the habitat ring. There’s no way off it, so they just let them do whatever they want. Every so often they land transports and round up prisoners for hard labour elsewhere. They also drop supplies periodically to keep them alive. If the prisoners revolt, they stop the drops until they comply again. The perfect prison.”

“You don’t think they’ll investigate the crash?”

“Probably, but if I let them and they see the fighter is destroyed they’ll have no reason to come find me, they’ll just assume I won’t be able to leave the station and they’ll think they’ve just gained another slave. If they
do
come looking for me, Art and I can handle a few Ghantri. Eventually they’ll just give up as it’s not worth the effort. They’ll know I’m effectively contained.”

“That’s a big if.”

“It’s an acceptable risk.”

Max sighed. I knew she hated it when I took all the danger on myself, but I really didn’t see a better way. I
had
to get down to the station, how else was I going to rescue all those people?

“So you get down there. Then what?”

“We find Osiris Blackburn. Set up the portable Jump Gate and get him off.”

“And then I follow him into the gate.” said Artemis.

“Leaving me and Tac behind. We get up into the docking sphere and jump. When we’re clear of the station, Tac signals the Dreaming and you come get us.”

“What are we supposed to do in the meantime?” asked Crege.

“Sit and wait.”

Crege made a chuffing noise. It irked him that he had to sit this one out; it bothered me too. He was an excellent active and a fine partner to have at your side in a gunfight. His natural tendencies to jump into action ill-suited him to waiting patiently, and I knew this was going to be hard on him. There was only a slim chance he’d be healed enough to be combat ready by the time we got to Ambrose Station.

“Don’t worry, I’m counting on you to get the ship close to the station to pick me up. That’s not going to be easy.”

“Bah, hatchling’s play.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” I said, chuckling.

“I will too.” said Max, “Artemis, you’d better give Seth the codes to deactivate whatever bombs you’ve left on my ship, and detailed instructions to remove them, before you scoot your flabby arse through that portal.”

“You have my word, ancient one.”

“Careful, I’m only being civil to you because I’m in a good mood, and you helped get Donny out of the brig. I owe you for that.”

“We all do.” agreed Fel.

“I need loverboy as much as the rest of you. That portable gate will take too long to open without his nano-proliferation.”

“How does that work, anyway?” I asked. “There are at least two things I don’t understand about this device. One – won’t anyone using the gate take a lethal dose of Fiddich radiation? And two – I thought gates couldn’t be opened in a gravity well?”

“I’ve been assured that this gate operates differently than your everyday Jump Gate. Same principle, but on a much smaller scale. Less exposure to heat, as the gap in our realities is smaller. As for the gravity issue, think about where we’ll be.”

“There has to be
some
gravity on the station.” said Fel, “I mean, I know the rotational acceleration keeps us
thinking
there’s gravity, but the station has mass. Ergo, it will have gravity.”

“Once again, the size of the event horizon is the key. The device has a counter to nullify any effects of local gravity, so it’s essentially ignored.”

“So why the need for nano-proliferation?”

“Previously, the plan was to hook it up to station power and slowly charge the portal. From our intel on you guys, we knew about Seth’s augmentations and Maxine’s purchase of the NP Implant. We either thought you had already installed it, or were likely to install it during this trip. Benedict Jenner gave me the Spatial Translation Paradigm in case you did. You’ve noticed the similarities in how you translate and how the Jump Gates work?”

I nodded, but I wasn’t real happy with her casually reminding us that Benedict had done his homework on us and was able to predict our actions. My actions in particular. My choice to take the implant was a difficult one, a personal choice. No one likes hearing that your enemies were able to know you better than yourself.

“We’ll go through the instructions on activating the gate when the time is right, but for now just know that using your NP will speed up the portal’s forming by an order of magnitudes.”

I sat back in my chair and stared at the hologram above the table. There were lots of holes in my plan, lots of things that could go wrong. I trusted the crew, however. We’d been through a lot to get here, and I knew we’d face more danger before the end. My biggest fear was the Ghantri, though. They were infamous for doing the unexpected.

Even the best battle plans don’t usually survive contact with the enemy, and the Ghantri were certainly masters of messing up people’s plans.

24.

The Gossamer System was fairly small, as most star systems go. There were only three planetary bodies, plus one moon. The main population centre of the system, the Ghantri homeworld, was called Ghan and was also the closest planet to the Gossamer star, resting at just over one point one AU from it. Placing Jump Gates at the far edges of a system, where space is relatively flat, and using built-in inertial stabilisation fields reduced gravity even further. When a star system contains a gas giant of significant size, however, they can be placed closer to the star, using the gravity of the massive planets as a counter to the star’s gravity. At roughly thirteen AU from Gossamer was the gas giant Laz’oh Dar, named for one of the more prominent figures in Ghantri mythology. Gossamer had one other planet, Nsarri, along with a moon orbiting Laz’oh Dar called Sho’da Nar.

The Protectorate Jump Gate, and defending station, was positioned just over two AU in-system from the gas giant, between Laz’oh Dar and Nsarri. Beyond Nsarri was Ambrose Station, and then point two of an AU past that was Ghan. Thirteen AU from star to farthest features was tiny. By comparison, the birthplace of humanity, ancient Sol, was over thirty AU from Sol to Neptune.

Another strange feature of Gossamer was its lack of an asteroid belt, or anything similar. Most star systems had left over planetary mass from their forming, but Gossamer was a relatively spotless, empty zone. At least, as far as left over planetary mass is concerned. Instead, there are hundreds of small, dense asteroid fields, nothing like the Kersios Ring in Argessi, or Li-Tseng Cloud in Harakiwa. Even Eridani had a light outer shell of scattered mass and ice. What asteroids there were, appeared in dense fields as if placed there by some celestial being.

This discovery, when the Ghantri were informed of their uniqueness, fuelled the native inhabitants into a religious furor. They believed the system was created by their gods and this only proved their theories, according to them. The revelations were the subject of much debate and academic discussion, right up until the Ghantri slaughtered or imprisoned just about everyone stuck in the system. The tabloids had many other things to talk about then.

As we had to thread our way between debris fields and the strangely placed asteroids, our journey through the system would take us much longer than normal. We had almost eight astronomical units to traverse, a path that would take us nearly four months at least, given our speeds and the amount of times we’d need to change direction. I didn’t mind, it gave me plenty of time to train in the Eclipse – time I sorely needed.

I also needed time to broach the topic of my relationship’s future.

For the first time in years, I’d found something good in my life. The prospect of losing it, or having to choose between two loves, was something I just couldn’t bring myself to bring about. The coward in me, or perhaps the fool, kept finding ways to avoid the topic. I guess I just couldn’t bring myself to spoil the feeling.

I made the most of our time, though. I always found ways to be around her, and she loved it. I showed off my new moves with her arm-mounted laser in the forward cargo hold. We spent time on watch together while she worked on finishing her bridge certification. I took her through the engineering spaces and damage control procedures. She asked questions and questions, like she used to, only now I didn’t mind them. We ate our meals together, we slept together, we spent all our free time together. Most cherished of all, we talked.

Just not about our future.

Mostly we talked about our past. At first it was mostly
my
past, in her role as therapist to my deluded brain, but later we shared everything. I learned about her childhood, growing up without a father. We had that in common, at least. She and her mother had lived in Pado City, Kanto Prime, until she was twelve. Higher education begins early for gifted children on Kanto Prime, and she was certainly gifted. She spoke at length of the isolation from other children her age, a problem many young intelligent kids faced.

The closest she ever got to someone was another boy, a few years older than her. He’d been selected for advanced education due to his development of mental acuity, an avenue of study often thought to be the precursor to actual psychic abilities. Since the discovery of the first latent telepaths nearly three-hundred years ago, every developed planetary government and educational facility sought the one in a billion people who had the capacity for such aptitudes. Sounded like a lot of wishy washy to me. When I told her this, she thumped me. Apparently, I was wrong.

I just couldn’t fathom any real world application of rudimentary mental abilities, when the best the strongest telepaths could manage was sensing only powerful emotional or pain-centred feelings, and then only after a massive exertion of will. Give it a few thousand years, I said, then see if it becomes something worthwhile pursuing as a species. Until then, I put it in the same category of talents like juggling and other party tricks.

She told me that Fel’s philosophical school,
The Way,
were the foremost experts on mental development, and that she and Fel often discussed such topics when they spoke. Fel’negr will talk to anyone about his
Way
teachings but, for someone so centred in the Orlii culture, Fel sure liked to quote human axioms and poets.

Anyway, this boy had been her first lover, but they had separated long before they were serious. Turns out the lad was only a smart and perceptive kid, not a sorcerer after all. He had washed out of the University of Kanto Prime and she never saw him again. There had been others, but none that had captured her heart, as I had done. Her words, not mine, I swear.

We were a week into our second month in the system by the time we finally managed to talk about our future. We were on watch, late one evening, going through navigational lessons with her. We decided to take a half hour break, and she’d just gotten back to the command module with coffees. As she sat down, she started.

“What’s the plan for when we finish this job?”

I took a sip, savouring the bitter goodness before answering. “We find another job. One that pays, preferably.”

“I meant, personally.”

My heart started to race, and suddenly my hands were sweaty. “What do you mean?”

“We’ve been together for months, you and I.” I nodded, stupidly, “We’ve spent almost all that time glued to each other’s side. When we’re free of all this, are you the kind of guy who needs his space?”

“I’m not sure I…”

“What I mean to say…” she appeared flustered, and started to flap her hands about in frustration. “Am I too clingy? Do I bug you with all my questions and the endless talking? I know that I’m young and haven’t seen much of the galaxy, not like you and Max, and I sometimes feel that you’re distracted only listening to me because there’s nowhere else for you to go or there’s something on your mind…”

“Wait a minute, hold on.” She closed her mouth, a worried look on her face. I reached out and took her hands in mine. “There’s no one else I’d rather spend time with cooped up in a tin can drifting about the galaxy.”

She blew air out of her cheeks.

“And I have been distracted for the past few weeks. That’s my fault. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something. About us.”

I could see that set her on edge, concern flooded her lovely face, and it killed me to see it.
Pull the wound patch off quick,
I thought,
get it over with fast.

“When we get back, you’re supposed to go back to Kanto Prime University and finish your studies. With the Dreaming looking for work all over, and the nature of this business, it may be months or even years between us meeting up again. We need to talk about these realities, our intentions, our future together. If there’s a way that we can be together, I want that. But I don’t won’t to be the one who stops you from realising your potential. I also don’t want Maxine getting sued by your University for taking away one of its star pupils.”

I took a deep breath and blew it out. She was looking at me, not saying a thing. I could see emotions and thoughts playing out on her face. At last, she managed a single word.

“Oh.”

I leaned back in my seat, letting go of her hands in the process. She sat still, her eyes downcast. She often sat like this when deep in thought. I knew that to interrupt her like this would only annoy her, but I had to know.

“I want to know what you’re thinking.”

She looked up at me and she was a little pale. I could see that she hadn’t considered any of this either. Oh, boy.

“I’m not…I don’t…” she stopped herself and took another breath and began again. “I haven’t given it much thought. I’m a little embarrassed, actually.”

“Embarrassed?”

“I thought you were getting sick of me.”

“Sick of you? I’m in
love
with you! And all I can see is a future where you grow old, stuck on a planet, while I foolishly trundle about the galaxy seeking adventure and profit.”

“Well, I also want us to be together. I
also
don’t want to be the woman who takes you away from your birthright, from the Dreaming. You belong here.”

“Therein lies the quandary.”

“Therein lies the quandary.” she agreed.

We sat silently for a long while, she staring out the pilot’s monitors at space, me fiddling with my console doing absolutely nothing.

“That’s odd.” she said, breaking the silence.

“What’s that?” I said, suddenly alert.

“That debris field was supposed to be nowhere near our path a few hours ago.”

“That’s not debris.” I reached over to Maxine’s console and grabbed the PA mic, “All hands! Close up on stations!”

“What? What is it?”

“Drones. Ghantri drones.”