Chapter 7
Hal didn’t like any of the options in front of him.
He rose from the captain’s chair on the bridge and walked to look over Voa’s shoulder at her screen. His exploration officer’s console showed absolutely nothing.
Except that wasn’t what their sensors were telling them.
“It must be invisible,” she said. “Because there is clearly something there.”
“Or they’ve found a way to mess with our sensors. To make us chase our tails.” He didn’t like wondering if the Garmman had that capability, because it meant they had found some tech they hadn’t shared with the UC, and were using it against their allies.
“Or that,” Voa agreed. “What’s more likely?”
“It’s an even balance right now,” Hal said. “Ask Battle Center if they’ve encountered anything like this before.”
“I have. I’m still waiting for a response.” Voa lifted her hands. “They’re probably hunting the databases for something.”
No probably about it, Hal thought.
The sensors sounded another warning, as if they were coming in close to a large number of solid objects.
“The profile is of three or four battleships the size of our own, or a cluster of similar sized asteroids.” Chel was pacing in front of the main screen.
“If we keep going forward, we’ll hit them, according to our instruments,” Voa said.
“If we keep going forward, we’ll cross the space boundary.” And while being just over the line wasn’t usually a big deal, especially not among allies, it would make them at fault if something was there and they bashed into it.
“Back up?” Chel asked.
“Yes. We stay in our airspace.”
Chel looked like he wanted to argue.
“We’re not going to do nothing,” Hal said calmly. “Either we hit whatever’s potentially out there or we don’t, but we won’t be hitting it with the Illium.” He turned to Yiko, his engineer. “Release a maintenance pod and send it straight for one of the objects.”
Yiko tapped her screen and they all watched the tiny pod head straight out in front of them.
“Five, four, three, two, one . . .” Chel murmured, but the pod sailed on, unimpeded.
“So it’s our instruments we can’t trust, not our eyes,” Hal said.
And then the pod slammed into something, shuddering to a stop and then bounced back.
“Our instruments and our eyes.” Voa sounded shocked.
“Two officers need to go out there.” Hal desperately wanted to be one of them, but he could not leave his command just because he was curious.
Chel tapped his earpiece. “Rial and Favri, report to the bridge.”
They arrived in less than a minute.
In the meanwhile, the pod had tried to keep going, and was busy being bumped back for a third time when two of his best officers arrived.
“What’s it bumping into?” Favri asked.
“That’s for you to find out, and to let us all know,” Chel said. “Suit up.”
The two shared a grin.
“No heroics,” Hal warned them. “If it looks dangerous or anything seems off, get back.”
“You’ll be in Garmman airspace,” Voa said. “So try not to be scooped up by the Garmman while you’re there.”
“Got it.” Rial seemed even more excited than he had been. Favri tried to look neutral, but Hal knew her too well, and he could see she was thrilled as well.
The two jogged away and Yiko reversed the pod back so that it acted as a marker, no longer bashing itself up against whatever was in front of them, but instead hanging in place.
Eventually Rial and Favri came into view. Each was gripping the handles of a tiny propulsion vessel that pulled them forward.
They slowed when they reached the maintenance pod and then floated to a stop.
Protocol meant they were clipped to their propeller by a line for safety, and Favri let go of her handlebars and pushed herself over the little vessel, her safety line spooling out. She seemed to touch something in front of her.
“Report,” Hal said.
“It’s metal,” Favri said. “And now I’m right next to it, it looks like an ultra-reflective surface, but it isn’t reflecting me.”
“There’s a tiny camera here.” Rial had pushed away from his propeller as well, and he switched on his lens feed.
“It could be the surface is a massive screen and they’re projecting whatever the camera is capturing onto it.
He bent his helmeted head over the camera, and suddenly his head appeared as if floating in thin air between himself and Favri.
“Okay, that’s actually super low tech, but exceptionally effective.” Yiko stood and got closer to the big screen.
“Go around it, see how big it is, and whether we can tow it over to our side,” Hal said.
Chel looked at him, shocked. And then smiled. “I like it.”
They waited while Rial went left and Favri went right.
Voa split the screen, showing their lens feed side by side until they met up again.
“It’s roughly rectangular,” Favri said. “About the size of a large runner.”
“Whereas it’s reading like a full sized battleship on our scanners,” Chel said. “And our scanners say there’s four of them.”
“Maybe there are four runners,” Gerbardi said. “The maintenance pod just bumped into one of them.”
“Maybe.” Hal thought it was probably likely. “For now, let’s concentrate on the one in front of us. A large runner is easy to tow. We’ll send out a magnetic hitch.” He turned to Yiko and she nodded.
“I’ll need at least three people to pilot it across,” she said.
Chel murmured into his earpiece and Yiko made her way down to engineering.
“Something’s coming toward our position from the Garmman side, and they’re coming fast.” Voa pushed herself away from her console, hands on the desk in front of her as she turned to look at Hal.
“Rial. Favri. Get to the front of the vessel. We’ve got company.” Hal kept his voice calm, although his pulse sped up. “Time until contact?” he called.
“Fifteen minutes,” Voa said.
“Tell Yiko we’re moving into Garmman airspace right in front of where Rial and Favri are waiting. Hitch that runner directly into the launch bay.” Hal did not want to lose this opportunity.
“Noted.” Chel lowered his voice as he talked to Yiko, but Hal could hear the suppressed urgency in his voice.
He moved the ship over the boundary, until Rial and Favri vanished from visual sight, although the screen still showed their lens feed.
“Get back in,” Hal instructed them. “Let Yiko’s crew grab the runner.”
“Time until contact is seven minutes,” Voa said as the screen showed Favri and Rial back inside the launch bay.
Gerbardi switched across to Yiko’s team, who were securing the invisible runner with the magnetic hitch.
“Pull it in,” Chel ordered. “Fast as you can.”
“What’s the size of the vessel approaching?” Hal asked.
“Battleship size, but that doesn’t mean anything right now,” Voa answered.
That was true enough, although somehow Hal guessed it really was a battleship approaching, given they were on the wrong side of the line.
Yiko hailed his earpiece. “We’re in.”
“Reverse,” Hal ordered.
Chel wasted no time, shoving them back, and as the Garmman battleship the Ciolla flew toward them at top speed, they slid across the line.
“Stop.” Hal studied the Ciolla as it shot forward, effectively charging them. Whoever was driving was going to cross the line into Grihan air space.
“They’re changing trajectory, moving around the invisible runners,” Voa said softly.
Hal had noticed that, too.
They’d also slowed down.
Then, to prevent a breach of the space boundary, the Garmman put the Ciolla into reverse for a moment or two, and then let it hang, diagonal to the Illium, but looking almost close enough for him to reach out and touch.
“They’re hailing us,” Gerbardi said.
“I know how they made the runner look bigger.” Yiko’s voice came through his ear piece.
“How?” he asked.
“Tiny repeaters floating around the runner, creating what looks like a solid surface to our scanners. Again, very low tech but extremely effective.” Yiko sounded thrilled.
“Thanks. Get as much information off the runner as you can, and find out if there’s anyone inside. Tell me immediately if there is.”
“Will do.” Yiko cut off.
Hal looked over at Gerbardi. “Put the Garmman through.”
The captain of the Ciolla looked unhappy. “This is Captain Hunner of the Garmman fleet. You have something of ours, Captain. And you could only have gotten it by crossing into our air space.”
“My apologies, Captain Hunner. I’m Captain Vakeri of Grih Battle Center.
” Hal gave a serious nod. “We came across what seemed to our scanners to be four dead runners. Obviously we were seriously concerned about the life and health of those onboard when we had no response to our hails, and given we’re allies, we felt it was our duty to immediately move the short distance across and check what was happening.
As we couldn’t find a way in, we thought the safest way to check on the wellbeing of any crew was to bring what we could onboard our vessel.
We’d only managed to get the first one in before we picked up your approach. ”
“The wellbeing . . .” Hunner stuttered to a halt.
Hal hoped Chel had his game face on, because his First Officer was holding himself stiff with surprise at the tack Hal had taken.
“We’ll be happy to return the runner immediately. I don’t think we’ve even had time yet to ascertain if anyone’s onboard, but I can understand you’re better able to deal with Garmman in need of medical attention than we are.” Hal clasped his hands behind his back.
“Appreciated.” Hunner cleared his throat.
“I’m curious, we didn’t pick up a distress signal, simply the presence of the runners and no signal at all. Did they signal you to their position earlier?” Hal asked.
Hunner paused for a long time. “No, they floated from their original position and we were scanning for their location.”
“I see. I’ll have my chief engineer tow the runner out to you, if you like?” Hal kept his expression bland.
“We can meet them halfway and take over the tow,” Hunner said.
“That’s fine, we’ll send it out when your tow vessel is ready.” Hal smiled. “I hope everyone who may be onboard is all right.”
Hunner merely inclined his head and cut off the feed.
Chel blew out a breath. “What was that, Hal? Where did you pull that from?”
“Inspired,” Voa said, standing up and turning to look at him. “He didn’t know what to say.”
“I have an idea where they got that tech,” Hal said. “And I wanted to see if he’d respond to me saying runner instead of battleship.”
“He did,” Gerbardi said. “His eyes widened.”
“I noticed that, too.” Hal didn’t like where this was going. “Gerbardi, get a connection to the admiral as soon as possible. Mark it urgent.”
Gerbardi bent over his console. “I can connect you in five minutes, Captain.”
“I’ll take it in my office. Chel, remind Yiko we have a time limit, and I need to be alerted the moment they say their tow vessel is ready.
” Hal walked out, knowing they all wanted to ask him questions about where he thought the tech had come from.
But this was something to discuss with the admiral first.
By the time he had sat down at his desk, the admiral was on his screen. He ran down the situation for her, and ended with how he’d handled it.
“That was quick thinking,” Hoke said, and there was a tiny smile on her face.
“I know they wanted us to think they had invisible battleships, but I actually do think the runners floated closer to the boundary than the Garmman wanted them to. They obviously had to wait some distance away from their runners, or the trick would have been ruined, but something went wrong and they moved within visual and striking distance of our shared border.”
“You say your chief engineer is trying to get what she can from the one you’ve got in your hold?” Hoke was tapping at a comm set just out of Hal’s view. “I want some of the engineers at Battle Center to get a visual and to talk to her after you’ve given the runner back.”
“That’s fine.” Hal tapped his fingers on the desk. “I think they’re using Earth technology.”
“What?” Hoke sat straighter in her chair, her focus on him complete. “What makes you think that?”
“Conversations I’ve had with Fiona about the tech on her world.
We keep forgetting the Tecran visited her planet four times that we know of.
And the Garmman are the ones who found Professor Fayir’s plans for the Class 5s.
The fact that Councilor Fu-tama couldn’t persuade the senior Garmman officials he approached to fund the development of the Class 5s, so he went to the Tecran instead, tells me that some deal was made between the two.
Fu-tama’s dead now, but I don’t think anyone ever thought he acted completely alone. ”
“You’re saying this invisible battleship ploy was something the Tecran learned from studying the tech on Earth, and they gave it to the Garmman as part of the deal they made when the Garmman handed over the thinking systems and the Class 5 plans.
” Hoke rubbed her face. “That makes sense, but why start using it now, and right in our face?”
“The Tecran are no longer the power they once were. They’re under full UC control and aren’t able to so much as send out a battleship, let alone give more tech to the Garmman.
Someone in the Garmman military has decided to flex their muscles a little and see what they can do with the toys they did manage to get before the whole plot was discovered.
” Hal didn’t understand why they would want to, but it didn’t negate the fact that they had.
“I really don’t want you to give the runner back.” Hoke sounded harder, now. Pissed off. Then she sighed. “But for now, I don’t see we have a choice.”
“I don’t want to give it back, either.” He would love to just light jump away. “Yiko will go over every part of its surface up until the last second, though.”
“We should have spoken with the Earth women before now.” Hoke leaned back in her chair. “We’ve seen their people as technically backward since they first appeared. That may be true, but it doesn’t mean there’s nothing to learn from them.”
“I think the Garmman might be wondering what we have spoken to them about,” Hal told her. “Because they may well assume the fact that we saw through their trick is because of information Fiona, Rose, and the others have given us.”
“Time to make that true in reality,” Hoke said.
“Time we don’t actually have,” Hal reminded her. “But yes. Better late than never.”