The Broken Cage (Solstice 31 Saga Book 2) (4 page)

CHAPTER FOUR

The Tesla Array

“I have been entirely honest regarding Dr. Bowen's treatment. We were all under incredible stress. I will not apologize. I only wish I had blown that bitch out the airlock that first day.”

--
Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Lieutenant Valerie Hume, the security chief on the Memphis.

<<<>>>

It was only a few minutes before Hume returned. Ibenez was still with her.

Without a word, the two of them collected Myers' body and carried him off the bridge.

Worthington said, “We need to hold it together, people, if we’re going to survive.”

“Commander, Ibenez says he might be able to help at the engineering station. He is technical and has a PhD in patience, apparently. He has worked with Bowen for four years,” Hume said, with a bit of forced humor, as she dried her eyes and returned to the security station.

“Do it.”

He didn't take his focus from the forward screens. Chunks of the
Ventura
still crashed around them.

“Commander, it's true. Sensor logs show the
Ventura
was targeted and nuked, intentionally. No warning. Shielded orbital platforms just attacked. Missiles, plasma cannons,” Ibenez said.

Looking up, they all saw that they just passed over an antenna of some kind. A few moments later, there was another one.

“Sir, I think we are clear,” Muir said.

A window from an aft camera opened to the left. They saw more high-velocity projectiles coming in at a steep angle.

“Captain, I think I know what those antenna nodes are,” Ibenez said.

“Commander, not captain, Ibenez. But, call me Jim or Jimbo, damn it.” Worthington grew serious.

“Sorry, sir.”

“What about the nodes?” Jimbo asked.

“I think they’re nodes from a Tesla communications array.” Greg stared at his console.

Jim pounded a button, a bit too hard, and the engineering console came up in the main viewer.

“The nodes are decreasing their separation,” Ibenez said, apparently assuming Jim would know what that meant.

“Spit it out, Ibenez.” Worthington sounded angry now.

“A Tesla array is an LSCA, sorry, a Large Scale Communications Array. Ancient tech,” Ibenez said.

“So what.”

The events were sinking in. Jim replaced adrenaline with anger.

“There’s usually a base at the center of the array,” Ibenez said.

This was enough for Worthington to turn and look at Greg. He glanced at Hume. She nodded.

Another Klaxon began to sound.

“Another hatch seal has failed. In Engineering. One of the shops.” Muir turned off the alarm.

“Sir, the base Ibenez mentioned is ahead, 9° to starboard. It's beaconed. It must have power. Eleven kilometers out,” Muir stated.

“Do you think it's defended? What are we up against?” Worthington asked Muir.

Ibenez chimed in again, “Look, I don't know for sure. But, moon-based Tesla Arrays, where the gravity is low, are typically not manned after the array is completed. Initially, hundreds of people worked there, especially if it was long ago. Once completed, the base emptied.”

“Commander, Elkin is on comms,” Tyrrell called.

“Go, Elkin,” Worthington ordered.

“Commander, the reactor core is beginning to spike. I can't explain it. The systems are so compromised, I can't tell if it's about to blow or jettison. We need to stand down, soon.” Elkin yelled over the sound of the machines in the background.

“Do not let that reactor dump its core. Override safeties, if you have to,” Worthington ordered. “We’re dead without that reactor.”

“Yes, sir.” Elkin signed off.

“It's better to burn out than to fade away,” Ibenez said.

The entire bridge crew turned to look at him at the same time.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Hume asked Ibenez. “They're all dead. Thousands of them. Dead.” She was pissed.

“Hey, come on. I'm scared shitless here. I'm handling it,” Greg said. “There are a ton of alarms in engineering. Have Walt Edwards go down to help. He’s another one from Bowen's survey team. A very smart guy.”

Worthington nodded at Tyrrell and he opened a channel. “Walt Edwards, report to Elkin in engineering, stat!”

“Base, dead ahead. There’s a landing apron. Just this side of the domes,” Beary said.

“Putting it down hot. Stand ready,” Cook said.

Cook took the pinnace in fast and set it down after a simple 90° turn. They all felt it.

“Elkin,” Jimbo called. “We’re down, take the reactor off-line.”

Before he finished his sentence, the lights, the screens and the gravity plates went off-line. Emergency lights came back on.

***

They sat on the bridge, not saying a word, for over a minute, just breathing.

“Commander, the crew is checking in. Orders?” Tyrrell asked.

“Have everyone make their way to the ops briefing room, after they safely stabilize all systems. It’s directly below the bridge. We also need to search the entire ship for survivors. All compartments,” Worthington said, while getting up.

Everyone that could, assembled within three minutes.

“Sir, I saw Dr. Bowen in airlock number three,” Trish Elkin said. “My code wouldn't work. With the power off, it will get cold in there, soon.”

Worthington sighed and looked at Hume. “I'll take care of it, Elkin.”

“Ensign Weston is still trapped in the dock, as well,” Tyrrell added.

“We’ll systematically search the ship for anyone injured. As of right now, we have fourteen people unaccounted for. Mind the hatch lights. If a hatch light is not green, do not open it. Split up and search. Beary, you and Cook go see what you can do about getting Weston out. Dr. Shaw, go with Elkin down to see about getting the reactor online. Doctor, Elkin's life is the priority. She WILL live. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” Dr. Shaw acknowledged.

“We’ll meet back here in thirty minutes. Hume, you’re with me.” Worthington walked out and people fanned out.

They checked every compartment they passed, as they headed for airlock number three. It took longer than they thought because they discovered five dead in the mess hall. All were dragged into the corridor, the task made easier by the lighter gravity.

When they got to airlock number three, they found Bowen trying to pry off the control panel with a fine instrument that was completely wrong for the job.

Worthington tapped the heel of his flashlight on the airlock window and Bowen looked up.

And, she started yelling.

They could not hear her because the viewport material was four inches thick.

“Tyrrell, this is Jimbo.”

“Jimbo, go,” he replied.

“Can you patch me through to Dr. Bowen?”

“I can. Are you sure you want me to, sir?” Jimbo heard the smile in Tyrrell's voice.

Everyone in the world the man knew is dead and he is amused?

“Do it,” Worthington said.

She screamed at him; so, instead of speaking, he opened the control panel and held his hand over the outer door’s control.

She stopped.

Worthington barely whispered, knowing it was a menacing tone when sent directly to a HUD.

“Over 2,000 of my friends were just murdered.” He let that sink in. “I’m not going to stand for any shit from you. Do. You. Understand?”

She fumed. She drew in a deep breath, for what looked like another tirade.

“DO YOU?” Worthington yelled, losing patience.

Hume turned her back to the scene and moved away, a bit. The implication being, there would be no witnesses.

Bowen deflated and looked slightly fearful.

Worthington slammed the control panel closed and entered the access code to unlock the hatch. It slid open.

“Go to the forward briefing room and wait there for orders.” Worthington turned, to resume searching.

“You wait one second, you bastard! You can't just order—” She didn't finish because, in a flash, Jim had a handful of her hair and, as she cursed him, he dragged her down the corridor.

He dumped her onto the pile of broken, bloody bodies and held her face a few inches from them. “These people were my friends.” He pushed her face closer, until her nose almost touched a woman’s broken eye socket. The eye was gone. “Her name was Donna Welsh. I had breakfast with her this morning. She and Ken Nichols were talking about getting married.” He aimed her face at Ken. “She asked me to marry them.”

He pushed Bowen away, throwing her into the bulkhead because of the lighter gravity. “Go to the forward briefing room and wait there for orders.”

He turned and searched the next compartment. Hume waited for Bowen to move toward the briefing room. She didn't say a word, as she followed Worthington.

***

In thirty minutes, everyone waited in the briefing room, except for Dr. Shaw, Elkin, and Greg Ibenez. They were all in the reactor room.

Cook put on a pressure suit and went outside, around to the damaged section where Weston was trapped. He took another pressure suit with him, for Weston. He quickly cycled through the airlock and had Weston freed, and to the briefing room, on time.

“Status?” Worthington called out.

His command staff responded first.

Cook was first. “When I was outside, I saw massive hull breaches. I saw all the way into the docking bay and engineering. Life pod number four was gone, just gone. While Ensign Weston was putting on his pressure suit, I saw that the dock was really torn up. The T66 shuttle was totaled, along with its Emergency Module. The Hammerheads looked okay.”

Beary was next. “All compartments have been searched.”

Tyrrell added, “Nine more bodies were recovered. Four are still unaccounted for. All were in engineering. They were likely lost to the hull breach.”

Muir was next. “The base we’re parked in front of looks deserted. It does have some power. We can see airlock status lights on the nearest hatch that indicate internal pressure.”

Hume reported. “Security is hosed. We are so
not
secure at the moment. Any attack will finish us off. In fact, as of right now, if we don't get the power back up, we will all freeze to death once the moon shifts to its dark side.”

Cook replied, “If the reactor takes much longer, then all of us can fit inside one of the remaining life pods. They are designed to keep survivors warm. Plus, they each carry two months of survival rations for sixteen people. That, plus what we can retrieve from the shuttle and the EM, means we have almost a year’s worth of food, if rationed. Water could be trouble. The reclamation plant might be damaged.”

Dr. Shaw said, “Everyone has a lot of minor injuries—a few bruises, a few broken bones and a few dislocated joints. Everyone that was strapped in, survived. I want to seriously thank you, Jim, for being such an asshole about that.”

No one laughed.

Ensign Weston said, “The central pressure suit locker was in the back of engineering. It looks like it’s gone from the dock. We only have the two suits, so far. Both of them are really small.”

He looked at Hume. She was tiny.

“Listen to all of you!” Bowen kept silent no longer. “You’re talking like this is all a drill or something!” She stood. “What the fuck are you doing? Get on the goddamn comms, right fucking now! This was all an accident. We need to be rescued!”

“Bowen, what we will not do is panic. Now, sit down.” Worthington remained very calm. He nodded to Hume.

She replied, “For your information, DOCTOR, it was no accident. The
Ventura
was targeted. No warning. We’ve already verified that in the sensor logs. Standard procedure. And, because of that, we will maintain radio silence. Because the only ones close enough to hear us are the ones that nearly killed us.”

“You’re alive only because of standard procedures. It's the only reason the captain's pinnace was out of the
Ventura’s
dock. It's the only reason you were ordered to strap in. If we hadn’t been hit by so much wreckage, we would be cruising faster-than-light right now.”

“Look, Captain.” It was Ibenez again. “I mean Commander Jim...What do you want us to do? That's all we need to know.”

They all fell silent.

“Hume. See if you can get into the base. Go armed. Take Weston. Ibenez, go see if you can help Elkin with the reactor. Take anyone with you that might be of help. Tyrrell and Muir, stay on the bridge. Keep all the hatches closed, for now. We might suffer a breach in random compartments. Sarah and Duncan, put the med bay back together and check everyone out. Including me. I think my collarbone is broken. Any questions?” Jim asked.

“What do you want me to do?” Bowen asked.