The Pathfinder Project (8 page)

“And then we’ll know how bad we
got hit,” Dennis commented. “What about the fighters?”

“That project is progressing
and that’s all I want to say for now,” decided Adam. “There are earlier
versions of the software stored in our computer system. We’re trying to find an
update that was issued before the ‘backdoor virus’ first appeared. If we can’t,
we may end up having to assign Thomas and friends to review the current code
and see if they can correct it.” He shrugged. “Either way, I’d say the fighters
are out of commission for at least seven… maybe ten days.”

“That’s
not
good news,”
the Captain said grimly. “Since the
Pathfinder
itself is for the most
part unarmed, we can’t put a single fighting ship in the air until well after
the primary attack is over.”

“There
is
a bright
side,” Adam said. “Normally we have a complement of twelve fighter craft
aboard. One of them developed computer problems a month ago and was transferred
to the
Avenger
during its last orbit of our base. That means we should
be down to eleven fighters.” He paused, smiling. “But I found out from one of
our deckhands that the
Avenger
’s crew has been working on maintenance to
its landing bay… plus they were asked to haul a substantial amount of cargo
back to Tauron, So her Commander asked if we would store half a dozen of his
fighters on the
Pathfinder
until their planned return trip next week. I
guess he needed to free up some room.”

“Seventeen?” guessed Mary.

“That’s right. We have
seventeen
fighters on board,” Adam confirmed wryly. “None of which can fly yet.”

“Hold the pessimism please, my
friend,” chuckled Kaufield, holding up a cautious left hand. “I’ll take what I
can get, at this point.”

“As far as ordnance goes, we
should be okay for some time. The shuttles each have a rail cannon mounted on
their dorsal hull, and the fighters, once up and running, are fully combat
capable. Hopefully we won’t see a lot of action, but if we run out of bullets
we can always use the manufacturing facility in the Lab wing to melt down our
old silverware.”

Kaufield laughed again, and
this time everyone at the table joined in. “Okay, I guess under the
circumstances we’ll permit some pessimism, as long as it’s
subtle
.”

“All of the Marines are armed
with side arms and rifles,” Colonel Neeland pointed out. “We were able to bring
our ordnance stores aboard along with
some
of the heavier stuff prior to
the evacuation. So you’ve also got a limited ground force capability at your
disposal if we manage to approach Earth.”

“Which brings us to fuel,”
continued Adam. “I was hoping we’d be better off in this category… but our
tanks are only 65% full. That’s enough to keep the support ships up and running
for almost six months, but
not
if the
Pathfinder
continues to use
it.”          

“Again, I’m not too overly
concerned with that right now,” Kaufield replied. “Just so everyone knows,
we’ve got a small-scale refinery built into the Lab wing. We’re not capable of
competing with a planetary-based fuel, water, and chemical company in terms of
production, but if we find resources we should be able to adequately replenish
our supplies. There are lots of planets and moons in this solar system to
choose from, but that would require a prolonged landing presence.”

“Speaking of water, that’s
not
a problem,” decided Adam. “This is a Colony-Class exploratory vessel. We’ll be
able to recycle and reuse the water on board almost indefinitely.”

“The fuel isn’t as much of a
problem as you’d think, either.” Mary spoke up. “Glen told me that once he and
Thomas get the CAS Drive on-line we’ll be able to use the power from the
artificial singularity to recharge the system’s batteries prior to opening a
wormhole for transit. In other words, once we get the CAS Drive working it
should be self-sustaining… and the
Pathfinder
will only need to use the
liquid fuel for basic maneuvering.”

“Good to hear,” acknowledged
Kaufield. He turned to face Mary. “The Command Center looked pretty functional
last night when I went off-shift. I take it everything is on-line and functioning?”

“Perfectly,” Mary replied.
“Almost too perfect, if you ask me. The communications board is completely
blank. We can’t hear anything from anybody out there. It’s like the rest of our
people have
all
been
completely
wiped out.”

“Blown back to the Stone Age,
more likely,” grunted Adam.

“Very few attacks in history
have annihilated an
entire
population,” the Captain pointed out.
“However, with our limited ability to fight, I have absolutely no idea how we
can possibly help our comrades right now unless we find other surviving ships
to support us.” He took a deep breath and glanced at Colonel Neeland. “What
everyone needs to know is that yesterday Murray and I,” he gestured in the
Colonel’s direction, “met with a very human-looking male back at the airlock on
Khyber Base. The man told us that he was a member of this so-called Brotherhood
of the Dragon. We discovered, during a brief fight, that he was almost
certainly genetically enhanced.”

“A genetically enhanced human
being?” Dr. Simmons spoke up. “Doesn’t that violate treaty?”

“Yes it certainly does,” the
Captain confirmed. “He claimed he was a member of this Brotherhood, and he
backed up his claim by demonstrating super strength and speed. He almost took
down four of us before we could react. He claimed that he represented no
nation, but that this Brotherhood wants to eventually rule Earth.”

“He might be an android,” Adam
decided. “The Russians and Chinese are pretty secretive about their technology
just as we have always been, but I know they have at times researched the
possibility.”

“I don’t think he was an
android,” replied Kaufield. “He was shot multiple times and appeared to have
human organs and red blood just like ours.” He paused, thinking back to the
incident. “He also appeared to ‘die’ from the gunshot wounds. My guess is that
he was a human being… just like us. However, he was obviously someone who has
received genetic or technological enhancements of one sort or another.”

“Perhaps both,” Karen
suggested. “Did you bring his body aboard? If so I would be very interested in
examining it.” She noticed Kaufield grimace as she spoke.

“Unfortunately,” he told her
slowly, “I didn’t think of that. I could kick myself if it would help, but with
everything happening so fast it just slipped my mind.”

“You mean like making sure you
helped me get my wounded Corporal to safety,” Murray interjected. “Captain,
during a combat situation like that all kinds of things happen and even when
we’re carefully trained… sometimes your instincts
still
just take over.
It’s what keeps us alive, the adrenaline rush that overrides our normal
tendency to be curious.”

“Thanks, Colonel, but it is
still a wasted opportunity,” the Captain decided. He sat back in his chair and
took a deep breath. “Okay, where were we?”

“This Brotherhood wanted to
kill us too?” replied Adam.

“That’s right, unless we
surrendered immediately and unconditionally. So I for one am glad we’ve got a
full complement of Marines aboard,” Kaufield stated confidently. “The tampering
with our support vessel computer systems was completed quite some time ago, so
obviously our government has been infiltrated at the highest level. That means
we might even have one or more enemies within
Pathfinder
’s crew.”

“You’re
certain
you want
to release an unedited transcript of this meeting?” inquired Adam. “We could
have a large scale panic on our hands… or at the very least – paranoid
passengers.”

“That’s exactly why I want
everyone to know what’s going on,” the Captain replied. “As I said, telling
people the truth and controlling rumors is very important in a situation like
this.
Let
our security people do their jobs.” He pointed at Adam. “If
someone notices you didn’t use mouthwash this morning, I really don’t care.
However, if one of our passengers sees somebody tampering with any of our
computer systems –
that
we
will
need to know about.”

“I used mouthwash this
morning,” Adam stated hesitantly. Again, the officers at the table laughed in
response.

“Karen, what’s our Medical
status?”

“Excellent, for now,” Dr.
Simmons replied. “I have a staff of fourteen doctors and dozens of the best
nurses I could ever hope to work with. In addition, a lot of the technical
specialists working on the Roh brothers’ CAS system have experience working
with heavy duty medical hardware. So our Medical Ward is ready for action.”

They continued discussing their
situation for another half hour. The meeting had to adjourn unexpectedly when
two of the shuttles on patrol suddenly flashed into view, back from their
survey. The Captain quickly ended the meeting and dismissed everyone.

With Mary at his side, they
returned to the Command Dome. Both took their seats, and Mary activated an
exterior visual on one of the monitors. Both of the shuttles were visible,
flying side by side as they floated gracefully back toward the
Pathfinder
.

One of them was trailing debris
from its Starboard flank and seriously shook the
Pathfinder
upon landing
in the hangar bay. The Captain immediately ordered everyone back to their
stations before activating an intercom terminal on the conference table.

“What’s going on down there?”
he asked.

“
The shuttles are back on
board, sir
,” an on duty deckhand replied. “
One of the shuttles left some
serious debris behind on its initial touchdown, but everyone in the flight crew
is okay
.” He sounded almost annoyed. “
I
think
they dented the
hangar floor!
”

“I’m glad they’re all right,”
the Captain said. “Please have them report to the Command Dome as soon as
they’ve completed their post-flight protocol.”

“
Acknowledged
.”

*    
* * *     *

It didn’t take long for
Kaufield to get his wish. He was sitting quietly in his seat wondering about
the status of the other two shuttles still out on patrol when the door behind
him opened. Two men walked in, both with their faces flushed from sweat and
combat fatigue.

“Earth has been completely
devastated by the Brotherhood, sir,” one of the two pilots said, saluting the
Captain briskly. “There are dozens of fighters patrolling every major planet,
moon, and space station. I also counted at least eight capital warships
spreading out in preparation to conduct a more detailed sweep of the solar
system. They’ve got us, sir. There’s absolutely
no
fighting going on
anymore, and as soon as we turn on our motion sensors to count the ships in the
area their missiles start flying at us.”

“What’s your name, son?”

“Terry, sir. Lieutenant Terry
‘Dashboard’ Benson.”

“And you were unable to
determine if any of our people survived?”

“No sir. You should
see
how many enemy ships are patrolling the system already… with more transiting in
all the time. We spent the last part of our trip dodging missiles, and one of
the smaller fighters got the drop on us. If we hadn’t initiated an emergency
PTP transit when we did, they’d have had us.”

“Good work, you two. Go change
out of your flight suits, clean up and get some chow,” the Captain ordered. He
spun in his chair. “Mary, please call Captain Andrews up here,” he requested
briskly.

“Nori’s on one of the two
shuttles still out on patrol, sir,” Lieutenant Benson reported. “She relieved
one of the other pilots and insisted on going.”

“That sounds exactly like her,”
replied Kaufield, frowning slightly as he watched the pilots exit the Command
Center. “I guess that means we’re going to have to sit back and wait for the
other patrol to return before we can determine our next course…”

He was abruptly interrupted as
everything around him began to tremble. The entire hull of the
Pathfinder
vibrated briefly, then just as suddenly everything was still again. From her
seat, Mary turned around and looked at him with an expression that said
everything.
What now?
Their moment of surprise was brief, though,
because the intercom next to Kaufield lit up.

“
Captain Kaufield
?”

“Yes, Thomas – what is it?”

“
Please activate monitor
five. It’s the exterior camera located on the back of the forward landing skid.
We use it to observe our trial runs while inside the ship
.” The Captain
motioned to Mary, who quickly complied with Thomas’ request.

Another of the overhead screens
lit up with a live visual of the ventral underside of the hangar bay.
Everything looked normal, except for a thin metallic arm that had lowered from
the bottom of the hull. At its tip was a small white ball of light that
pulsated brilliantly. It was impossible to tell how large the energy sphere
was, but from the perspective they were viewing it from it was obviously pretty
small. There was no mistaking it, though, because the visible light signature
emanating from it was so bright.

“Now that looks pretty
interesting, Thomas. Are you getting closer?” the Captain asked, his curiosity
getting the better of him.

“
As a matter of fact, we’re
done
,” Thomas said proudly. “
Despite the fact that your pilots were
shaking the ship earlier when I left strict instructions for us to hold perfectly
still, we’ve finished
.” The Captain could hear someone in the background
asking a question. “
That’s right
,” Thomas said in reply to whoever it
was. “
Save the current computer model and all its settings. That’s exactly
the way we want everything set for our first distance test
.”