Section 31_ Rogue - Andy Mangels [7]
“Speed?”
“One-tenth light-speed in all directions. Speed is constant.”
“Transfer the coordinates to the helm,” Blaylock said.
“Coordinates received,” acknowledged Glebuk.
“That’s our heading, helmsman. Engage at warp factor two. Take us half an AU from the wave-front, then full stop. Close, but not too close. On my mark, get the hell away at maximum warp.”
“Aye,” Glebuk said, altering the ship’s speed and direction. Blaylock could feel the slight telltale vibration in the deckplates.
“Ensign Burdick, record everything you can about those subspace distortions,” Blaylock barked, then whirled toward the tall, dark-tressed woman who was working the aft communications station. “Lieutenant Harding, try to raise the Archimedes.”
Precisely sixteen seconds later, the Slayton had come to a full stop at a safe distance from the slowly-expanding subspace effect. On the forward viewer, the starfield rippled slightly, as though attached to a curtain being blown by a strong wind.
“No contact with the Archimedes, Captain,” Harding said. “They must have already entered Chiaros IV’s atmosphere.”
“Captain!” Burdick suddenly cried out from the science station, getting Blaylock’s full attention. “The wave-front’s speed has just increased almost a hundredfold!”
How can that be? Blaylock thought in the space of a heartbeat. Unless the phenomenon has begun dropping in and out of normal space, gaining velocity from subspace…
She wasted no time. “Raise shields!” she shouted. “Glebuk, get us out of-“
The wave-front struck at that moment, instantly overwhelming the Slayton’s inertial dampers. The bridge went dark and the deck lurched sideways, throwing Blaylock from her feet. Her body slammed hard into a railing, which she grabbed with both arms. She felt at least one of her ribs give way under the impact. A portside panel exploded in a bright shower of sparks, leaving tracers of light behind her eyelids. She heard a sharp scream cut through the alarm klaxons, then cease.
The emergency lighting kicked in, casting an eerie, blood-colored pall across the bridge. The deck leveled itself. Smoke billowed from a burning panel. Bodies lay sprawled everywhere, some moving, some not. The bridge viewer was dead. Blaylock noticed that Glebuk had been hurled forward over the helm console and onto the deck. The Antedean lay still, water seeping from a tear in her hydration suit, her neck bent into an impossible question-mark shape. Fighting down a surge of horror, Blaylock sat behind the helm console.
The controls resolutely refused to respond. What the hell was she dealing with here?
Blaylock spun her chair toward Burdick, whom Harding was helping back into his seat. Blood surged into the ensign’s eyes from a gash on his forehead.
“Status report!” Blaylock snapped.
Harding, the more experienced officer, began consulting a nearby undamaged instrument panel. “The shields are down. We’ve got hull breaches all over the place and we’re down to battery power.”
“I need to see what’s out there. Can you get that screen working, Lieutenant?”
“I’m on it.” Harding tapped a console at a furious pace.
The bridge lights dimmed. “Try not to lose the mood lighting, Zaena,” Blaylock said. Harding smiled weakly in response.
The viewer came to life in a brief burst of static. Stars shone whitely, no longer distorted by the subspace phenomenon. And something else was there as well. A shape…
“Can you increase the magnification?” Blaylock said.
Harding nodded. The lights dimmed further and the half-seen shape resolved itself into lines of hard metal. It was a large, toroid-shaped ship-or perhaps it was a space station-circled by dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of much smaller objects. Buoys? Service modules of some sort?
“Why didn’t we notice all of this when we entered the system?” Blaylock said, turning toward Burdick and Harding.
Blaylock saw that Burdick’s eyes were glued to the screen.