Far From Home: The Complete Second Series (Far From Home 13-15) (37 page)

25.

The conference room was half empty with only the Captain, Commander King, and Lieutenant Commander Greene present. They waited for the two doctors from the station.

"I don’t like it," King said. "It’s like carrying nitro. We don’t know how stable it is. Certainly we know how volatile it is when fired. I mean, what if it blows?"

Captain Singh sighed. "I know Jess, but we don’t have a choice. Besides, look at the great service we’ll be doing to the entire galaxy by hiding this thing."

"I have become death, destroyer of worlds," Greene said. They both looked at him. "Sorry, it’s something a famous scientist said centuries ago on Earth. It’s always stuck in my head."

"An apt quote, Del," King said. "The Admiral referred to it as being like they’d opened Pandora’s Box. That’s pretty apt too."

Captain Singh sipped his glass of water. "We’re human. We have to push things as far as we can. We don’t know the limit's there until we can reach out and touch it. The evidence of that is sitting in our hangar bay under armed guard."

The doors to the conference room opened. Dr. Grissom and Dr. Russell walked in.

"Welcome gentlemen," Singh said. He got up and shook their hands. "Please have a seat. Can I get you anything? Some water?"

They both shook their heads as they sat.

"Thank you Captain, but no," Dr. Grissom said. "We just had the nicest coffee I’ve had in a long time. Your mess hall is excellent."

"I don’t usually get decent coffee at the station," Dr. Russell explained. "Not this far out."

"Well, I like my crew awake at their posts. Reprocessed coffee grains don’t quite hit it," Singh said. "I trust you’ve been shown your quarters, and that they’re satisfactory?"

"Certainly," Dr. Russell said.

"Good. Now, doctor Grissom, this weapon has been secured correctly in the hangar?" Singh asked.

Dr. Grissom shifted in his seat. Jessica looked him over. He was middle aged, clean shaven, slicked-back dark grey hair. Piercing sapphire eyes. Dr. Grissom was handsome, but Jessica sensed there was something else to him, in the rigidity of his movements, in the air of formality about him. He wasn’t comfortable in this type of setting, not entirely, but he knew he had to make a show of being so.

"Strapped to an anti-grav platform aboard one of your shuttles and locked in with magneto clamps, with two armed guards watching over it. This vessel could lose all gravity tractions, do a somersault, and it would still remain in place inside that shuttle craft. Rest assured, Captain, that weapon is going nowhere," Grissom said.

"You’ve worked with this technology?" King asked him.

"I was on the original team that conceived of it, though I wish I weren’t. The Sun Hammer is not a weapon, on that we’re all wrong in defining it as such. It is a mistake. An awful, regretful mistake I wish we’d never been a part of. However, I was," Grissom said. "Now we must take it to the farthest reaches of our known galaxy and hide it twenty-two miles under the ground."

"I think you’ll find we all share your sentiments, doctor," King said. "We just want to make sure it won’t blow up during transit. We pass through some heavily populated systems along the way . . ."

Dr. Russell cleared his throat. "Uh, both the doctor and myself will be checking the device every six hours and will monitor any change in temperature or radiation. If it were connected to your reactor, the Sun Hammer would be housed in a specially lined chamber."

"This thing’s radioactive?" Greene asked, appalled.

"It does emit very slight degrees of radiation when inactive, however they’re no more harmful than what you'd be exposed to on a sunny day. We will carefully monitor it to ensure the emissions do not change," Russell explained.

Greene sipped his own water now.

"Well, I believe that’s about everything. I don’t see any reason to wait around. We disembark within the half hour," Captain Singh told them all.

"Thank you Captain," Grissom said. He got up from the table. "We’ll both get out of your hair."

"Very well. Doctor Grissom, Doctor Russell, I’ll catch up with you both once we’re under way," Singh told them.

Grissom thanked them all and left.

"Friendly enough," Greene said.

Jessica nodded. She was contemplating how a man of Grissom's age could have such bright blue eyes.

*

Ten minutes later the
Defiant
cruised away from the station, carrying within its belly the Sun Hammer, the most destructive man-made force ever created.

26.

Captain Singh studied the astronomical charts over Ensign Rayne’s shoulder.

"We’re just leaving the Dunbar System behind, sir," Rayne said, showing him where they were on the chart.

"What’s this disturbance here?" Singh asked, pointing to an area ahead of their present course.

"Our charts update with the latest information regarding galactic weather systems gathered from probes in every system. That is an ion storm," she explained. "It’s not the worst I’ve ever seen, but it’ll still be a bumpy ride."

"And we can’t use the Jump Drive through that," Singh said knowingly. "Any way of getting around it?"

Rayne shook her head. "Not unless you want to cost us a couple of days travel. Although command have plotted this route for us, they couldn’t have known things like this would develop."

Singh straightened up. "I’d just as soon have this whole trip over and done with. Very well, Ensign. Keep an eye out. How long until we reach it?"

"A little under eighteen hours," Rayne said.

Captain Singh returned to the command chair. "Everyone listen up. In eighteen hours we will be dropping from Jump to cross an ion storm. I want full system checks from now until then. Anything we won’t need, shut it down. We don't need things blowing if the
Defiant
is hit by a discharge of ions."

He turned to Jessica and smirked.

"Time to batten down the hatches, Commander. Looks like the sea’s getting choppy."

*

"What about the hull plating?" Commander Greene asked the Chief.

Meryl Gunn cocked an eye at him. "What about it?"

"The Captain wants the extra power there. We can’t take any chances," Greene explained.

The Chief wiped her hands on a greasy rag. "Look, don’t you worry yourself over it, Del. Leave me to get things down here ship shape. You lot worry about your end of things."

"I’m just asking, Chief . . ." Greene said defensively.

"I know the routine. My team’s already on it. I bet you’ve not sorted out what I asked you to do, though, eh? Requisitioning those parts for the next time we’re in dock?" she asked him.

Greene took a step back. "No, not yet, but I’m on it . . ."

"There we go. Like I said, leave me to mine, and you deal with yours. Then everyone’s happy," she said and sarcastically pinched his cheek.

The Chief walked away. Green rubbed his cheek with one hand but as he left the engineering section he couldn’t help but smirk at the woman’s brass balls.

On his way back to the bridge, he passed Dr. Russell. "Hey doc."

"Good evening, uh . . ." Russell struggled to recall his name.

"Del. Just Del, doc. How’s it going?"

"Fine, fine. I’m about to get my head down for the night. Doctor Grissom will take over checking the device. Everything appears normal so far," Russell explained.

"Good. That’s a bit of a relief. I swear I have night sweats with that thing only a couple of decks under my bunk," Greene said. "Well anyway, good night doc."

"And you, uh, Del," Russell said.

*

Dr. Grissom looked in the mirror. His quarters were only half lit. He studied his face. Everything looked as it should. Beneath what was there, his natural features almost entirely came from his Mother. Apart from the eyes. They were his Father staring right back at him.

He ran a hand over his chin.

Not long now,
he thought.
Soon we’ll be hitting that storm. Just as planned.

He snapped out of it. There was someone at the door. He opened it.

It was Dr. Russell.

"Evening, Doctor Grissom. Just thought I’d let you know I’m off to bed now."

"Oh. Very well," Grissom said in a flat tone, unable to fully disguise his disinterest. "Good night."

"And you," Dr. Russell said, oblivious, and walked off. The door closed again.

Grissom went back to the mirror.

Not long now,
he told himself again.

27.

The
Defiant
barely crawled through the volatile ion storm.

Commander King unstrapped herself from the command chair as Captain Singh arrived on the bridge.

He took his seat. "Thank you, Commander. Status?"

The ship trembled around them, every inch of its outer hull subject to the cosmic turbulence of the storm.

"We’ve had to reduce speed to one fifth," King reported. "And the Chief has increased power to the hull plating."

"Understood. I’ll take it from here. Go and get yourself something to eat," Singh told her.

"Are you sure, sir?"

He nodded. On her way out he said, "Tell the cook to save me some of that pie, will you? I’ll throw him in the brig if he gives it all away like last time."

Jessica chuckled. "Aye."

*

"Dr. Grissom" was due to inspect the device, even though he was not aboard. Sonjiin of Nyular checked his timepiece. Everything had gone as expected. Once again he found himself in the mirror.

He had to restrain himself from touching the hidden activator on his neck that would change his face back to that of his own. Sonjiin was eager to leave the identity of Dr. Grissom behind. After today, he’d have no further use for it. And he'd look a good twenty years younger, too.

The Union idiots had no idea just how easy it was to infiltrate their inner circles. To convince them, with some minor tampering of their databases, that he’d been there when the thing was created. It was all a lie. However, the real Dr. Grissom had worked on the Sun Hammer during the early stages of its construction before being reassigned to another station. That foundation was more than enough for Sonjiin's people to build on.

And he’d not seen it tested. But he’d heard about it. They all had.

That was why his people – the Outland Raiders – had to have it. With the power of the Sun Hammer at their disposal, the Union would fall to its knees . . .

Sonjiin studied his face again. Beneath it was a smooth, youthful face for one who had done so much. The other members of the Raiders simply called him "Blue Eyes," and he didn’t mind the name. The media reported his various acts of terror, calling him a faceless menace. Soon, they would have a face to put to their reports of anarchy across the galaxy.

Sonjiin closed his eyes, thought back to his childhood back on Nyular. Green fields, blue skies. The migrating avian species the locals called "Cloud Chasers" that occupied the peaks of the Kreskus mountains. His Mother’s cooking in the evenings. Listening to his Father’s stories when they would fish, on those hot days when it would be a crime to do anything else . . .

All of that lost to the Draxx. Because of the Union. Because when they had called for help, the Union didn’t come. Because the peaceful settlers of Nyular, at the very frontier of the galaxy, had refused to accept Union rule, instead opting for independence.

Sonjiin glared at himself in the mirror, blue eyes sparkling with cold fire.

He hated the Union and everything it stood for. As did the Outland Raiders.

They’d done a lot to cause disruption and mayhem, but this would be their crowning achievement. It would be more than terrorism. It would be more than idealism with an edge.

Outright war . . . and a war the Terran Union would never win.

Sonjiin checked the time again. "Time to go."

*

"Sensors have deteriorated to less than ten per cent," Chang reported, dismayed.

"Easy, Lieutenant," Captain Singh told her. "That’s to be expected."

"What am I meant to do? Use visuals only?" Lieutenant Banks asked.

Singh shrugged. "Pretty much, Mr. Banks. Sometimes you just have to . . . fly by the seat of your pants."

It was one of the more powerful ion storms the Captain had ever flown through, that was for certain. Not that he'd have let that be known. From all outward appearances, he was cool as a cucumber but in reality he was keen to have it behind them.

"Aye Captain," Banks said.

*

Sonjiin checked the corridors before climbing through Relay Service Hatch 28. In the confines of the small space, he located the power line control relays to the engines. From his pocket he produced a small, black device. It would go off at a designated time and cut the power. Even though they’d locate the problem before too long and bypass it, it wasn’t a concern. He’d be long gone by then.

Sonjiin set the device for a half hour later, and climbed out of the hatch. Still nobody around, and what if there were? No-one would suspect good old Dr. Grissom of any wrongdoing.

Sonjiin headed for the hangar.

*

"Just one slice?" the cook asked her.

She held up her fingers. "Better save him two. He likes his pie."

"Yeah, he got real upset the last time," the cook said as he put the plate beneath the counter.

"I heard," Jessica told him, picturing the man thrown in the brig for crimes against pie lovers.

She took her sandwich and coffee and sat down at an empty table. The ship continued to tremor all around them, despite the efforts of the dampeners to absorb the turbulence. She didn’t fancy too much to eat. Just a snack.

Jessica also didn’t expect to sleep that well. It was like snoozing on top of a gyrating tectonic plate. Impossible.

She gazed out of a nearby viewport as she ate. The storm was one thing, at least.

Beautiful. It couldn’t be said of many of nature’s lethal dangers. Outside soundless lightning flashed around them. Jessica ate her sandwich.

*

Sonjiin climbed into the shuttle.

"Your shift now, eh doc?" one of the guards asked him through the hatch.

"Yes," Sonjiin said. He disappeared behind the Sun Hammer, as if he were examining a part of it. On the wall behind him hung a selection of basic tools. He selected a laser torch and flicked it on.

The guard had his back to the hatch as he surveyed the hangar’s interior. Sonjiin stood with the torch in hand, his thumb over the lighting switch. He crept up behind the guard and levelled the torch an inch from the back of the man's neck. He activated it, sending a thin beam of pure energy straight at the guard. With one flick of the wrist he had severed the man’s head from his body. The guard only had time to utter "Huh?"

Sonjiin shoved the man forward. The body hit the deck followed by its head, which rolled for several metres before coming to a stop.

"What the hell?" the other guard asked as he bounded over to his fallen comrade.

Sonjiin leaped out, slashed the laser torch in a downward motion. It cut the guard all the way down the front, his innards spilling to the floor.

He didn’t wait for the man to collapse. Sonjiin ran to the controls for the hangar bay doors and set them for a timed release using one of the access codes they’d been able to obtain prior to his arrival at the station.

He dropped the torch and ran for the shuttle. Sonjiin turned to where he knew there was a series of cameras overlooking the hangar. He pressed the side of his neck. The facial stealth technology deactivated, returning his face and hair to its natural state. He waved at the camera. Klaxons sounded around him.

Sonjiin closed the shuttle and settled into the pilot’s seat. Moments later, the engines fired and he brought the shuttle to a steady hover over the deck.

As he waited for the hangar bay doors to open he glanced back into the rear of the shuttle. The Sun Hammer looked harmless enough, secured to its platform.

So does a tiger,
he thought.
Till you wake it up.

*

"Sir! The hangar bay doors are about to open!" Banks said, shocked.

"What?" Singh asked, just as surprised. His mind raced. "Stop it. Lock it down."

Banks tried. "Captain, I can’t!"

"Ensign Boi, shipwide communications," Singh ordered. "Commander King to the hangar deck at once. Commander King to the hangar deck. Unauthorised launch in progress."

*

Jessica dropped her sandwich and darted for the door. She raced through the ship, stopping only to relieve a male crewman of his side arm. As she continued to the hangar she took the weapon off the safety. It hummed to life in her hand.

*

The doors opened slowly, exposing the airless hangar to the similarly airless vacuum of space. Sonjiin took the shuttle up and over the other stationary vehicles parked there. He took it through the opening in the ship’s side and out into the storm. Almost at once the shuttle was hit by the strength of the tempest.

*

Jessica watched through the blast door viewport as the shuttle took off and exited the ship. She went to the nearby comm. panel and contacted the bridge.

"Bridge this is King. It’s gone. The Sun Hammer’s gone."