Chaos Cipher (68 page)

‘
Ethan can
you hear me?’ Kelly said from the bridge, watching the man working
down in cargo from the ship’s surveillance projection.

‘
Loud and
clear,’ Ethan came back.

‘
We don’t
have a lot of time. Will you be able to fuel these
drills?’

‘
That will be
easy,’ he said, ‘Obsiduranium has a high atomic number so
positronic antimatter is drawn to it. The trouble is getting the
stuff out of the fuel storage trap and into this room without it
running into other particles.’

‘
And?’ she
asked. ‘Ideas? One false move and we’re star-dust.’

‘
It has to be
drawn manually,’ he explained. ‘There’s a Megawatt Gaus- velociter
around here somewhere. It wasn’t good as a weapon, matter of fact
it was busted. But I bet I could use what’s left of the coil to aim
positrons into the spheroid crates and give those drills an
overmass charge. We don’t want the fuel colliding with parts of the
hull but if I expose it close to the Obsiduranium, it’ll go right
for the drill edge. Only first, we’re going to have to vacuum the
air. Then we’ll need to neutron sweep the cargo hold for organic
material and activate the ship’s Casmium drives to draw out the
vacuum energy. After that we cross our fingers.’ Ethan hovered over
to the tool storage facility and beheld a huge cylindrical device.
‘I’m going to need a space suit. I can extract it from here but it
could take some time.’

‘
How much
time do you need?’

‘
Maybe ten or
fifteen minutes.’

‘
Fine.’

‘
One last
thing,’ he said, opening the thick titanium doors of the storage
unit and reaching for a space-suit.

‘
You have to
seal off this part of the ship, while I’m working. Nothing can get
in here, not a nanogram of matter.’

‘
Right.’ She
said.

‘
So, if we’re
hit,’ he went on, ‘and the hull is punctured… we’re
star-dust.’

Ethan slipped
his legs into the suit and then his arms and the material
auto-adjusted to his body, and he reached back for a helmet plate.
Ethan activated the helmet plate and the slates began constructing
the solid dodecaplex helmet around him. He gave her a thumbs-up to
the surveillance camera and they saw him on the bridge.

‘
Be careful!’
Kelly said, ‘please, take care.’ Then locked down the cargo-hold’s
air-hatches and started the decompression. Pawel updated them with
each process, starting with magnetic fields drawing out the last of
the particles, then running sweep diagnostics on maser
sterilisation, killing most organic matter. Lastly, was the neutron
sweep.

‘
Cargo bay
clear,’ Pawel said.

‘
Confirmed,’
Ethan agreed, moving in his bloated suit in awkward small
motions.

‘
Let’s hope
this works,’ said Nitro, securing himself down into an inertial
seat in the floor. It hadn’t jumped his mind that this was his ass
on the line too. Shield of Spheres or not, the Atominii would send
him to hell in a casket if he’s involved in assisting an Olympian
terrorist while illicitly merchandising Obsiduranium. And all that
assuming this engineer didn’t screw up in the cargo hold and blow
them all to hell.

Outside,
smoothly cruising into a launch point, kilometres from the
Omicron’s
orbital
space,
The Deathwind
moved into position for a hop-scorch. Two Stymphalion
fighters flanked his left and right, each piloted by Mortel and
Estella. They watched the scarlet exhaust tails blustering through
the cosmos as the two Stymphalion strike-ships raced ahead for the
intercept mission, vectoring into a vanishing beyond. Ace Ripley
opened a channel back to
The Griffin’s
Claw
.

‘
When you get
back to Earth,’ he said. ‘Look me up, alright Harbeck.’

‘
Ace,’ Nitro
called. ‘You be careful out there.’

‘
I got this,’
he promised, bracing himself.

‘
Ready for
launch,’ D.W stated. ‘Antimatter fusion engines on in
three…two…one…’

The spark
that shone through the locality from
The
Deathwind’s
main engines lit the Jovian
clouds. Effulgent streams of ion particles issued from the
aft-burners, and a powerful steady beam of light cut through space
for over thirty kilometres as the milligrams of antimatter
reacted.
The Deathwind
burst up to an immense speed as it left orbit, unzipping the
blackness of space on a long and radiant incandescent wire. The
view had been spectacular, and then Ethan neuromitted to the bridge
command.

‘
I’m loading
the first cylinder now.’

‘
Okay,’ Pawel
said nervously, ‘the fuel traps are exposed.’

‘
Station
security to
The Griffin’s
Claw
,’ said the voice from earlier. ‘We
are coming aboard. Do not attempt to move. Remain in your
positions.’

‘
Oh, no!’
Pawel said, leaning forward exasperatedly.

‘
What the
hell?’ Kelly gasped, watching the augmented projection pads display
military dressed security floating quickly along the umbilical
to
The Griffin’s Claw
’s airlock hatch armed with laser cutters.

‘
Nice and
steady, Ethan,’ Kelly said as they all watched their potential doom
live on the surveillance holofield.

Ethan
followed the magnetic walkways, his solenoid boots firmly attached,
making his way for another run to the fuel storage trap. The main
storage unit was a large hundred foot tower ringed with metallic
dishes that ran the length like gills. The exposed viscera
illuminated with amber caution lights, and within it yet another
storage trap. He reached inside, frost crystals glittering from his
gloves like sugar. His suit’s automated arm extended further into
the opening and locked gently onto the storage ring. Ethan gently
and slowly pulled it lose, praying there was nothing in the air
that could react with the sensitive material.

The ring slid
perfectly over the velociter coil and he loaded another three, each
time carefully reaching inside to retrieve a new positronic storage
ring. Once the load was full, Ethan carried the coil gun and the
threaded fuel rings back towards the cargo hold, walking slowly and
delicately down the path, solenoid boots silenced in the airless
environment, his feet carefully feeling the station’s centrifugal
forces. Ethan made his way for the cargo’s locking holds and
neurophased with one of the screens, then aimed the coil gun at the
cargo orb consignment and waited for Kelly’s signal.

‘
It’s done.’
Ethan suddenly neuromitted. ‘That’s as much antimatter as we can
spare. Get ready for overmass.’

‘
We all said
our prayers?’ Kelly asked. The silence of the bridge told her that
it was cruel to hold off with anticipation now. It was time to put
their method to the test.

Ethan
switched on the magnetic flow, firing positron particles at the
drills. He watched as micro-sparks occasionally twinkled, subtly
releasing motes of light as they collided with the black alloy. He
was glad to see it too, it was a good sign that the overmass was
working and the Obsiduranium was growing heavier. Station klaxons
began to indicate a strain on the tower’s centripetal force.
Emergency alarms bleated through the command bridge now and he
heard it through his helmet. Locking mechanisms shattered and
warped. Support prongs broke into space and strained titanium
cracked like ice releasing air pressure from the fissures. The
umbilical snapped, pulling the airlock from its hinges left
tenaciously attached to the golden ship. A graceless, confused
batch of military security came with the floats of structural
damage, swimming into the void aimlessly, laser cutters flashing
through the darkness. Pawel adjusted their orientation and arrowed
the ship towards the tower’s end. He worked assiduously to
stabilise the ship as the Cosmo tower vibrated from pressure leaks
and jets of escaping atmosphere, and silent burgeoning flames
erupted from the tower outside. Steel components and alloys
showered into space as the structure rattled them
around.

‘
Fuel traps
are sealed!’ Pawel shouted above the din of impacts echoing through
the Griffin’s hull. ‘Ethan, get out of cargo and belt up. We have
pulled away from docking. Debris is everywhere and shit has hit the
fan.’

Anxiously
they waited, shifting around in the debris while
Omicron’s
administration
figured out what the hell just happened to the Cosmo tower. Pawel
piloted the shuttle on chemical thrusters through scintillating
embers and radioactive flames, blasting clouds of gas forth and
throwing the ship into reverse. They fell away from the tower’s tip
and Pawel spun the ship’s nose a full one-eighty, facing towards a
local velox point.

‘
This
is
Omicron
to
Griffin’s Claw, you are not cleared to leave orbit.’ Said a new
voice, ‘return to the Cosmo towers immediately. Failure to comply
will be met with extreme prejudice.’

Just then,
the augmented hologram field once producing the ship’s oriented
celestial position dissipated to reform new shapes which weaved and
peeled to construct the image of Anton Regallio, an image morose
and yet withstanding some dormant ferocity seeking its way through
any chinks in his otherwise professional composure.

‘
The
personnel aboard your starnavis are terrorists,’ Anton stated
directly. ‘Our scans confirm the illicit crew. There are no
negotiations here. You are to relinquish these two criminals
immediately.’

‘
Weyl
fukkmi,’ Caspian scathed over the Griffin’s network from somewhere
down in the ship’s galley. ‘Dees ees an honour. Haf-lah Anton
Regallio, howseet?’

‘
The damage
to my station is irreparable. I don’t know how you pulled
yourselves free like that but you are in substantial trouble. We
have Rail- velociter targeting your starnavis, and all local
saltus-carousels have been deactivated. Long story short, you won’t
be able to velox out of here and your main aft engines won’t get
you far enough to escape our militarised platforms. You need to
surrender or you will die.’

‘
Yew sure
about thet?’ Caspian broadcast.

‘
Don’t test
me. You harbour intergalactic terrorists and refuse to follow the
procedure mandated as an agreement for staying here. When you cut
off
Omicron’s
safety, you are open to a lot of enemies, I can’t protect you
henceforth. You realise that this place is a hub, the last
political hub for people like you? You will be black-listed, if not
killed. We will inform all your enemies of future activities,
should we cross you again. Alternatively, we can offer you asylum
and no harm can come to you under my jurisdiction, but you know
what the price is. You have to give over those terrorists. Think
wisely Griffin’s Claw.’

‘
Fuk sayk
Keyl!’ Caspian was pulling at his dreads in frustration. ‘We don
eevin know theese peeple.’

‘
Steady as
she goes, Pawel.’ Nitro informed.

‘
You are
making a very poor choice,’ Regallio flatly disclosed on the
communication heads-up display.

‘
Get us up to
speed, Pawel,’ Kelly commanded, and
The
Griffin’s Claw
escaped
Omicron’s
Cosmo tower reach and
arrowed away from Jupiter’s orbit.

The
Omicron’s
Rail-
Velociter aligned with the shuttle as the dazzling engine stream
pushed them on, vectoring quickly out of orbit, but still well
within range of the station’s weapon systems.

‘
Madam Kelly
Banner, I employ you to surrender. I do not like being put into a
situation whereby I must kill but my hands are tied here and you
are a great threat. Believe, I will do it!’

‘
I believe
you will,’ Kelly said, nervous about her present recalcitrance and
pulling the webbing over her chest. ‘Prepare for a veloces,
Pawel.’

‘
Preparing
for velox.’

‘
There are no
saltus-carousels!’ Anton reminded. ‘I shut them all down. You
cannot connect with saltus rings. Repeat, you cannot connect with
saltus rings. You’re not jumping anywhere.’

‘
Kelly, this
is very bad idea...’ Pawel whimpered.

‘
Make the
velox!’

‘
You are in
our sights,’ Regallio said, ‘the rest is down to fate. A tragic
loss.’

‘
GO PAWEL,
VELOX, NOW!’ Kelly screamed.

The starnavis
Casmir batteries shivered under pressure as particles were drawn
through
The Griffin’s Claw’s
external gills. In an instant, a large metallic
ring snapped silently open from the midsection of the starnavis,
expanding to a diameter that doubled the ship’s width, splitting
into a clock-work of rings that began wheeling and flipping in
layers around the starnavis, oscillating with dense superfluid and
electro gravity within.