Deep (9 page)

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109

Filed Under "Directive"

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"Deep?"

The ship remained unresponsive, even after she'd called for him twice.

Giving a snort, Lawn walked over to her closet and pulled out a jumpsuit, throwing it on the bed. She was getting to the point where she preferred not to put anything on, and walk around the ship in the nude. The sense of freedom was too intoxicating, especially if Deep took advantage of her nakedness. In fact, there were too many things about this mission she enjoyed. Too much.

In fact, when she allowed herself to think about the way her life would be once they arrived back on the planet, the pain was almost too much to bear. Even if Deep managed to construct a communications device that would keep her and the ship in permanent contact after the mission, it wouldn't be enough. It would never make up for his loving words, his gentle presence.

Or the sex.

"Shit." She wiped her eyes to get rid of the tears welling up. She'd put the suit on later. If she was lucky, Deep might think of another way to make love to her. Or in a different place. The thought was enough to spread goose bumps all 110

over her body as she remembered being trussed to the bridge chair, and last night when he clamped her onto the floor, belly down, and took her from the rear.

She glanced out the small bulkhead window again at the formation amassing in the upper left quadrant. "Deep, it looks like we've got another new star cluster forming."

She climbed the rung ladder up to the bridge. Already Deep had turned the ship to keep the twin disturbances in direct visual sight. "Are we in any danger from that thing?"

"I just finished surveying it. It appears to be the aftermath of a sun imploding in the Dionysus system."

"And forming a black hole?"

faded into view over by the console. "It looks that way," he answered. "Don't worry. It's a good sixty light years away. We're safe from any debris or aftershocks."

"How far is it from the 4T8U disturbance?"

He frowned. "They're practically neighbors. Less than a couple of light years apart."

"Could one have produced the other?"

"Very possible. Or they could both have been produced by the same anomaly we've yet to discover."

"Any chance one could produce a massive headache when they come in contact with each other? If they come in contact?"

"That remains to be seen. The universe is too unpredictable to make any sort of guess at this point." He gave her a slow perusal. "So tell me, do you want to take this incoming call in the buff?"

Lawn paused by the dispenser. "Who's it from? Brune?"

111

"Millner."

How odd. "Open the link."

An instant later the coordinator's haggard face appeared on the ship's front viewscreen. He looked like refried hell as his static-riddled voice came over the audio channel. "—is Galactic Enforcement Coordinator Millner calling Vogt Twenty Twenty-three ACE and Officer Lawn Bascomb. This is a General Directive Four Order. Repeat. This is a General Directive Four Order. Outpost Sixteen has gone dark. Its last transmission is tagged to this one. From what little we can surmise, it is presumed to have sustained either a direct attack, or a direct hit of some nature. It is unknown at this point whether or not the attack is the result of natural or unknown, possibly alien, origin. Regardless, I am issuing a General Directive Four Order. Please confirm current status immediately. Millner out."

"I've sent confirmation," Deep told her.

"Please refresh my memory. What's a General Directive Four? More importantly, how far are we from Sixteen?"

"Four orders us to go immediately into battle-ready mode,"

replied, his eyes sweeping over her body. "You need to get into your spacesuit."

"That order was issued thirty-six hours ago. A hell of a lot of shit could have come down in that amount of time...or not." She turned and began her descent back to her living quarters. Deep's voice followed her.

"Sixteen is three days away at hyperlight speed," he informed her.

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"That's assuming that whatever attacked Sixteen can move at hyperspeed."

"Or faster," he added. "One more thing. Wait a minute.

There's a tagged transmission. Ready to hear it?"

She sat on the edge of the bed. "Hit me."

As Deep raised the volume on the signal, the room around her filled with the sound of small explosions, and the hiss and sizzle of something burning. Fire in space was more dangerous than it was on Earth. There was limited oxygen on a spacecraft or in a space station such as Outpost Sixteen.

Fire could suck up the available oxygen in no time, leaving the inhabitants to suffocate before they could burn to death.

"May Day! May Day!" The voice suddenly screaming was filled with sheer terror. "This is a Code Omega! We're being overwhelmed...send help! ...use extr— with extreme caution!... May Day! This is Co—"

Silence.

Lawn glanced over at where Deep normally appeared. At her silent beckoning, he came into view.

"That's it?"

The holo nodded. "All twelve seconds of it."

"Any way to identify the caller?"

"Voice print analysis identifies the man as Commander Graham Aman."

She hurried into her jumpsuit and rushed back up to the bridge. "Give me a map, Deep. I want to see what's between Sixteen and us."

An interspacial form slowly came into view in front of her—

a 3-D representation of their corner of the universe. Lawn 113

nodded her approval when a thin white line appeared between the two positions.

"How far are we from Sixteen with regards to radio contact?"

"Thirty-eight seconds."

"Try hailing them," she ordered.

opened the relay so she could listen in.

"This is Vogt Twenty Twenty-three ACE calling Outpost Sixteen. Outpost Sixteen, this is Vogt Twenty Twenty-three ACE. Please answer."

They waited a good two minutes to give the outpost time to receive the call and return it before Deep tried again. "This is Vogt Twenty Twenty-three ACE calling Commander Graham Aman at Outpost Sixteen. Commander, this is Vogt Twenty Twenty-three ACE. We are within three hyperlight days from you. Do you need our assistance?"

When nearly five minutes passed without an answer, Lawn ran her fingers through her hair. "What do you suggest we do now?"

"I meant to show you this earlier. You need to see it."

"See what?"

Her attention was drawn back to the 3-D representation, and the white, thread-thin line tying their position with the other outpost. Lawn watched, dumbfounded, as the line extended past Sixteen until it reached another position in space, which Deep lit with a tiny blue light.

"Don't...tell...me." It was almost as if she could read his mind. "The blue light."

"Are the two neighboring anomalies," he told her.

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It was a perfectly straight line linking all three points.

If whatever happened to Sixteen had originated in the 4T8U area, Lawn, Deep, and Buoy R6Y6 were lying directly in its path.

And a few short light years past them, anchoring the other end of that same thin thread, lay Earth.

Communique 6B

To: G.E. Coordinator Millner

See attached tag. There is a direct correlation between the disturbances at 4T8U, Outpost Sixteen, buoy R6Y6, and Earth. Please advise.

Addendum: Now comes the trial by fire to see how well we fit together.

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115

Filed Under "Preparation"

"Until we get official word from the bureau, what should we be doing? Want me to batten down the hatches over on the buoy?"

was rotating the ship, placing it directly behind the buoy to take advantage of the outpost's greater defensive shields. "I want you to go over there and plug me into the buoy's main brain," he told her. "That way I can control its weapons systems, as well as its shields."

Lawn nodded and hurried into her suit. Without needing to be reminded, she double-attached herself to the bulkhead and slowly, carefully, made her way to the larger docking area.

Although the buoy was nearly three times the size of the ship, the majority of the outpost was made up of sensors, shields, mirrors, cameras, and weapons. The area where Lawn went in was able to accommodate only one suited figure, and that was a tight fit in itself.

Reaching the outer hull door, she clipped herself to the buoy and checked the white umbilical riding along with her.

The length of light cables was as thick as a finger. At the end was a plug and patch.

The buoy door opened and slid back, and Lawn floated inside.

"I'm inside. Where do you want me to put this?"

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"Go to the console," Deep said through her helmet. "There should be a set of plugs somewhere on the console. One red, one green, one yellow."

She raked her eyes over the dull gray expanse that was lit up like a Christmas tree with multicolored lights. "How big are these plugs?"

"About the same size as the one you're carrying."

"There they are. Found them. Now what?"

"Take off the cover to the red one. You should be able to pry it off."

"What's the red one for?" He was right. The seal popped right off into her hand. "Plug cover is off. Is this where I plug you in?"

"Yes. Plug in the umbilical. I'll let you know when to set and seal the patch. The red plug is for weapons, Lawn. The green is shields. The yellow is for all the other mechanical aspects of the buoy, like its camera and telescope."

It took her a few seconds to find the right way to set Deep's umbilical into the plug receptacle. "All right. You're in.

Now what?"

"Hold on. It'll take me a minute or two to confirm control,"

he said.

Lawn eyed the other two seals. He had wanted her to give him direct control over the weapons system in the buoy, not the shields.

"Are you sure you don't want me to bring another umbilical over for the shields?"

"The buoy will take care of the shields."

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She turned slightly in the bulky suit and glanced out the open hatch where she could see the Vogt poised less than a hundred feet away. This close to the buoy, if the shields were deployed, the ship would be included within their parameters.

"Do you really think we're going to need the buoy's weapons? What about your armament?"

"I don't want to take any chances, Lawn. I want all the weapons I can have at my disposal. Okay. We're set. Peel off the umbilical and replace the cover."

Lawn quickly separated the umbilical from the plug patch, leaving the patch inside. The patch would give Deep direct control over the buoy itself, allowing him to decide when and where to fire the large array of guns and cannons.

She replaced the cover, giving it an extra couple of whacks to make sure it connected while Deep reeled the umbilical back to the Vogt. "Commencing full read-out," she said.

"How's it look out there? Any word back from base?"

"If we were back on Earth, I would say there's a massive storm brewing out in the open waters, and the mainland was about to be clobbered. No word yet from the GEB."

Lawn nodded and began to run the checklist. She was nervous, and no doubt Deep was aware of it. Which was why the simple, almost monotonous task was soothing. The familiarity allowed her to get her mind off the trouble intensifying a few short light years away.

Something started blinking off to the side. She caught it with her peripheral vision and turned to stare at it. "Deep?"

"Yeah, I read it," the ship replied almost simultaneously.

118

"What is it?" She glanced at the Lucite clipboard, searching for the designation number etched above the glowing orange pulse. Orange wasn't a good color. Green was the best. Blue needed your attention, but it wasn't for anything crucial. But orange was above yellow, and just below red. Orange was important.

"Shields have been brought online."

"Did you do that?"

"Maybe. Maybe me plugging into its weapons triggered it,"

he admitted. "Let me see if I can cancel them. Continue with your checklist."

Lawn sighed loudly. "I wish this buoy had a window."

"Windows would weaken the structure. You can't reinforce a window like you can an outer hull."

"I know that. Just wishing."

The orange light went from blinking to being steady. Lawn stared at it in surprise.

"The light stopped blinking. Was that you?"

"No."

In that one word Lawn heard the edge of panic. "Deep?"

"Get back to the ship. Now."

He was controlling his panic so as not to scare her. The fact that there was something to panic the ship was enough to make her hurry and hang the checklist back onto its carabiner clip.

At the edge of the hull, she stared over at the Vogt. The initial tether hooking the ship to the buoy was intact. If she didn't know any better, all appeared normal. She hit the switch to close the buoy's hull door.

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"Hurry, Lawn," he urged.

Making sure she remained attached to the buoy, Lawn gave herself a little push with her knees to float back over to the Vogt. At the same time, Deep opened the outer hull door to let her in. She was almost halfway across the divide when she hit something and bounced back. The impact didn't hurt her, but it was enough to send her floating back toward the buoy.

"Uh! What the...Deep?"

"The buoy must have erected a secondary shield between us. Give me a moment to drop it."

Lawn looked down at the single tether keeping her stabilized. Without it, she would have started to drift off into space like she almost had a few days ago. The thought chilled her.

"Lawn, if I drop the secondary shield, it's going to affect all of them. Which means we're going to be vulnerable to whatever triggered the buoy's defense system."

"You mean the orange light really wasn't you?"

"No, Lawn. Go back to the buoy. When I tell you to, push hard to get back here. I don't know how long I can keep the shields down, so do what you have to do and make it snappy."

"Okay." She reeled herself back to the buoy and placed her feet firmly on the hull plating, double-checking that her magnetic boots were turned off so she wouldn't remain attached to the metal. "I'm ready."

"Now."

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This time she shoved harder, propelling her with greater force toward the open entryway in the Vogt. When she reached where she'd bounced off earlier, she felt herself tense in expectation, but the shield was down. It wasn't that she didn't trust Deep, but she was afraid the shields could slip past him.

Seconds before she reached the Vogt, Lawn switched her boots back on. They would grip the ship's flooring and enable her to get a firm hold once she entered the airlock. She felt her suit adhere itself to the metal.

"Docking!"

Reaching around for the tether that still attached her to the buoy, she was barely aware of a stinging sensation in her upper right arm. Stunned, Lawn stared at her suit and the minuscule, almost invisible dot of red on the suit's white surface.

"Lawn!"

In the next instant, a mechanical hand grabbed her by the oxygen pack and yanked her into the airlock. The outer door swung closed, catching the tether in the framework. There was a grinding noise, and the door literally sliced through the nylon rope before it set the seal.

"Lawn!"

The dot of red had gotten bigger. Now it was the size of a tiny bead, and it was emerging from an almost invisible hole in her suit.

She could hear the loud hiss as the chamber filled with air.

Her arm stung where she'd been hit, although she had no idea what might have struck her.

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Reaching for the panel to let herself into the main area of the Vogt, Lawn waited for the all-clear to let her know the pressure had been equalized. Instead, she felt the ship buck under her feet. Her boots kept her attached to the floor, or else she would have been thrown about the chamber. Still, she felt rattled.

"Deep! What's wrong?"

"We're under attack!"

"Wha—"

Before she could finish, she heard a
pop
, and a teensy hole appeared in the outer bulkhead. A split-second later, every red claxon went off inside the ship.

Communique 6E

To: G.E. Coordinator Millner

Emergency! Emergency! This is a Code One Alert! Repeat!

This is a Code One Alert! We are under attack by forces unknown! Send help immediately! Emergency!

Addendum: (no addendum attached)