Chapter 12
Tim activated the shuttle’s cloaking as they cleared the Quendala’s cloak. He’d talked to Rinna and Captain Kellen about the pros and cons of using the phased cloak to just pass through the entity, but neither of them was sure that the cloak would react well with that entity or within it.
It was a complete unknown so far. They’d even been reluctant to insert probes for fear of giving their presence away.
As their shuttle passed by it, they scaned it as much as they dared, but their main mission, their main goal, and still their primary mission, was to make contact with Dr. Walker and Harold and extract them from the planet’s surface.
Their secondary mission was to assess the Vorthari problem. It had been a long shot when they set out and now it seemed to be an even longer one.
They would, Tim thought, as he set a course that would keep them clear of the entity, be fortunate if they could make contact with Dr. Walker.
Despite the problems they faced, Tim felt at peace. Riina sat in the copilot’s seat next to him. It was both familiar and comforting—as long as he didn’t look at his human components.
He had enough cybernetics to allow him to connect with the shuttle in a manner that enhanced his human responses, assisted by Veirn. His connection was still somewhat slower than previously, but again, could be ignored. What was it, this bit of Veirn, he wondered. What should he call it?
Trac sat at navigation and was fully connected to the shuttle systems. Lt. Dish sat behind Riina, not connected to anything. Her controls weren’t live, just in case she forgot and touched something.
Tim was aware that Trac was feeding data to her screen, however. Perhaps he didn’t want her to feel left out. Did humans need data as much as he and his crewmates did? He had not been human long enough to know if he’d brought this need with him to his body, or if it was also a human quality.
“Will we try to make radio contact with Dr. Walker?” Lt. Dish finally asked, breaking what had been a long silence.
Riina glanced back at her. “As near as we can tell, the planet was hit with an electro-magnetic pulse. This would have taken down all comms.”
“Oh, right.”
Another silence formed. Tim didn’t remember being bothered by silence before, but could he call what he’d experienced “silence,” when his flow of data had never been interrupted?
“So, what’s the plan?” Again it was Lt Dish who spoke.
“We will proceed to our original rendezvous point,” Tim said. “It is possible Dr. Walker will still be there, since the pulse would have also disabled his flyer.”
“If he has changed location, perhaps attempted to hike out,” Rinna spoke this time, to Tim’s satisfaction, “then his next logical action would be to return to the habitation where he and Harold were staying.”
“Hike out?” Lt. Dish sounded puzzled.
“We, of necessity, had them chose a remote location, so as to avoid locals,” Riina explained.
Tim liked the sound of her voice, and it was a bonus that she sounded less constrained than she’d been since his reintegration.
“But he made contact,” Lt. Dish said.
“With two locals, yes, but hopefully that is all his interaction has been,” Riina said. “First contact is tricky and dangerous. We can, fortunately, speak the language, so that shouldn’t be a problem, but we’d like to avoid a wider interaction until we have more data on the Vorthari problem.”
“It seems like that would build some goodwill with the locals,” Lt. Dish said. “It sounds like they headed off a bad situation.”
“It’s not that simple,” Riina said. “From their perspective, it might look like Dr. Walker blew something up. We do have the video of his interactions, but will they believe it? A lot depends on their sophistication and their level of video abilities.”
“They could think we faked it,” Lt. Dish said, her tone thoughtful. “I hadn’t thought of that. But we do have deep fakes back on Earth.”
The shuttle alerted Tim to his next course correction. They were traveling around the furthest edge of the entity now. He watched both scanning and the actual view from the shuttle’s forward windows.
The entity looked even more unsettling than it had appeared from what was the top or overhead.
No light penetrated into it or from out of it, but he sensed shape and form. It was particularly eerie hanging as it did over the dark planet, lit only by the furtive light of its two moons.
“We do have life signs from the planet.”
Riina sounded relieved. Whatever it was the entity had done, it hadn’t killed the inhabitants of Arroxan Prime.
Yet.
And if they were here to kill everyone? They might be able to get to Dr. Walker, but how did they stand by and watch a world’s worth of people die?
“Preparing to leave orbit,” Tim said.
Riina checked the systems, feeling an unfamiliar worry. They wouldn’t just be leaving orbit. They’d be entering atmosphere and having their first look underneath the entity.
She felt the shuttle shift as Tim adjusted their trajectory. Then the slight resistance as they slid into upper atmosphere.
“I’m going to fly parallel at first, so we can take some readings.”
Outside the ship, fire flared as the atmosphere resisted their entry.
It felt like it took too long for it to taper off.
“A heavy atmosphere?” she asked.
“It shouldn’t be this heavy,” Tim said.
And suddenly they were in the clear.
Or not.
Ahead, it was bright and light, but off to their left, the entity region was dark and foreboding—but also lit with bright flashes of light.
Riina triggered the main sensors and directed them toward the darkness.
It took time for the readings to begin to register, but when they did, she frowned.
“It’s firing on the surface,” Rinna said. “Those are surface impacts.” She brought up some other readings. “Yes, impacts in addition to the seismic activity. Or are they? It almost appears as if something is being extracted from the surface.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Riina noted Tim’s frown.
“Is there a pattern? It’s going to be difficult to fly in there,” he said.
“Should we try?” she asked the question because she must. They had to get in there.
Now Tim looked surprised. “Of course.”
Riina bit back a smile. His response didn’t surprise her. Tim, like all his crewmates, didn’t see roadblocks, just obstacles to get over, around, or through.
It was, she realized somewhat ruefully, one of the things she liked about him. Liked? Yes, liked, she told herself firmly. And tried not to look at the strong arms so sure and commanding on the controls.
Unfortunately, not looking at his arms somehow brought her gaze to his profile. Firm jaw. Stern gaze. And his lips…
She yanked her attention back to her screen.
“The impacts are increasing, but I think I see a pattern.” She pulled up another data set.
“I think they are focused on areas where the seismic activity is the strongest.” She went through the data more slowly.
“Yes, I think there is a pattern. If I’m right, there is a flight path.
A possible flight path. It’s still a risk. ”
“Why is it a risk?” Lt. Dish asked.
But it was Trac who answered her. “If a new area of seismic goes active while we’re over it…”
“Oh.”
Riina sensed she shifted in her seat.
“Shall I keep focused on the seismic then?”
Riina couldn’t help her look of surprise in Tim’s direction. He shrugged.
“All right.”
“I will monitor the entities’ firing patterns,” Trac said. “They seem to be able to fire from multiple locations, but sensors aren’t able to discern weapons arrays yet.”
“Or any discernibly discrete ships,” Riina muttered. It remained, to the sensors, a miasma with a widely dispersed energy signature.
As she studied the data, she initiated a database search for anything comparable. She not only had access to the Garradian data, both past and present, but also the Najer’s databanks. At least what they’d shared.
Had they shared all they knew? There was no real way to know, but she wanted to believe they had. And not just because she considered Tim a…friend.
Their comm crackled and then she heard Nevv’s voice.
“An update, please, Riina,” he said.
“We’re still collecting data before we penetrate under the entity,” she said. “We’re getting some interesting—and frankly confusing—data points. I’ll shoot you what we’ve got in case we lose comms.”
“Then you are going underneath it?” Nevv sounded worried.
“It’s the only way to locate Dr. Walker,” she pointed out, even though she knew Nevv already knew this. She glanced at Tim. “We’re going in as soon as we have a solid flight path.”
“I’m pulling up your transmit now,” Nevv said. There was a long pause and then, “That doesn’t look promising, Riina.”
“Tim can handle it,” she said. There was a touch of bravado in the words, but she also felt the truth of them. Tim could handle it and a lot more.
Tim did a mental countdown. He wasn’t sure why. He activated thrusters and adjusted course. In atmosphere, the course adjustment happened faster.
The shuttle began to angle toward the darkness with its flaring lights.
He had a mental map, in addition to the screen tracking their course. The mental map had the impact pattern overlaying the map of the terrain they’d taken from the data Dr. Walker had sent.
He wondered how much it had changed since the arrival of the entity. Trac was also sending him data he’d parsed, separate from what the ship was delivering. It did look as if the entity was extracting something, even as it also fired down on the planet. Or after firing? That was also possible.
The shuttle’s lights came on as they left natural light behind. He’d considered going in dark, but it seemed like a bad idea. Of course, so did going in lit.
“There’s new seismic beginning to show up. I’ve sent the heading to your screen,” Lt. Dish said.
Tim watched a weapon’s track suddenly head toward the new location. Was the entity attacking the seismic locations?