The Deep Dark Well (26 page)

“Would I be able to
operate one?”

“You would not be able
to use the ship to its complete abilities,” said the computer.  “Not without
pilot training.”

“So how do I train to
become a pilot?”

“An hour in the
simulator aboard the ship, as well as implanted memories, would qualify you as
a pilot.”

“But I would be able to
use a ship without pilot training?”

“All of the commercial
vessels are able to operate to voice command,” said the computer.  “The
military ships within some of the other docking facilities will not operate
without the proper access code.”

“And you can’t give me
that code.”

“Correct.  Only
override by sentient authority can allow access to military codes.”

The room continued on,
with ships of various sizes scattered here and there.  The largest was easily
thirty kilometers in length, the smallest about the size of the private
launches used in her time to traverse the inner planets.

“What happened to all
the people?” she asked suddenly, almost afraid to hear the answer.  Silence was
the answer.

“Are you not allowed to
give me that information as well?”

“Access to that
information is restricted.”

It must have been
something bizarre, she thought.  All of the billions of people inhabiting this
station, the center of the civilized Galaxy, gone.  The whole of the civilized
Galaxy fallen into barbarism.  Only now beginning to climb back out and up. 
While the station was still in perfect condition, as if the people had just
left yesterday.  Of course the robots could have kept the station in order,
especially under the stewardship of Watcher.  Had there indeed been massive
damage during whatever event had taken the people?  Damage that had been
repaired by the machines.  Had there been bodies, which the robots had taken
away for disposal.  Were they buried decently?  Or were they incinerated?  Or
tossed through wormhole gates to disappear from the Universe as they knew it.

Or had they simply
left?  Had there been a threat to the station that caused every sentient
creature to leave the center of the civilized Galaxy?  Every sentient creature
but Watcher and Vengeance.  Where did they figure in this mystery?  Watcher
might tell her, if she ever found him again.

She would find him
again, if she had to search the whole station.  She now felt confident in her
ability to survive.  And is she didn’t, she would go down fighting.

Chapter 14

Task Force 48 will
enter the Supersystem at all speed, heading Galactic coordinates Zero, Zero,
Zero.  The artifact known as the
Donut
is to be boarded and any
available technology is to be returned to the home stars of the
Nations of
Humanity
.  Any and all risks are acceptable in order to accomplish the
mission.

Nation of Humanity
Special Order 238.7

“Release the
specials
,”
ordered Admiral Miklas Gerasi.  The weapons officer checked one last time to be
sure the programs were in place and functioning perfectly.

“Release the
specials
,”
said the com officer on the circuit to the rest of the squadron.

On each ship two three
hundred meter long cylinders detached from the lower hull.  Inertialess drives
moved them slowly into position, until all twenty two cylinders hung motionless
in space a dozen kilometers in front of the lead ship of the squadron.

The bars on the
magnetic field indicators on the ships rose, as each of the
specials
encased itself in a powerful shield of field lines.  Moments later the nozzles
on the sides of each
special
began to spew a shimmering liquid mass into
space.  The mass flowed along the magnetic field lines, kept away from the
cylinders while totally encasing them.  Soon the negative matter shells were
complete, as the space destroying drives of each
special
powered up.

“Five, four, three,
two, one,” counted the chief tactical officer.

The
specials
disappeared from view, as their drives destroyed narrow swathes of space,
recreating it behind them, moving them at a pseudo speed a hundred times faster
than light.  Homing in as well as they could on their targets.

“I wish we could see
what’s happening,” complained the admiral.  But though the weapons were heading
toward their targets faster than light, the ships would not be able to assess
their effects until the crawl of light speed information came back to their
sensors.

*    *    *

The dozen graviton
generators were the targets of the
specials
, two to each of ten
generators, one each to the remaining two.  Of course they would not all reach
their targets.  The accuracy of the guidance systems controlling the space
destroying drives were not that finely tuned.  There was no need for them to
be, when the drive covered distances so quickly that even the fastest computer
couldn’t control resumption of normal space within more than a couple of
million kilometers.  Still some reached their targets, while others came near
enough to threaten.

*    *    *

“Warning,” stated the
computer.  Vengeance jumped up from the chair he had been sitting in.  His
daydreams had tended toward what he would do to the human female when she was
caught.  Sadistic dreams of sexual satisfaction.  For him at least.  She would
fulfill the masochistic part of the equation. 

If she was caught.  So
far she had proven that one willing to destroy had the advantage over those who
could only capture.

“Warning,” stated the
computer again, as the holo sprung to life.  Vengeance peered closely at the
cylinders in front of the ships.  Oversized torpedoes.  With shimmering shells
of negative matter moving into place.  FTL torpedoes.

“Lock graviton beams on
those objects,” he ordered, already sure he was too late.  If the beams could
lock onto the torpedoes, they might be able to hold them in place while they
activated their drives.  Which would cause them to destroy themselves, unable
to withstand the forces pulling at them in two different directions.

With a flare of light
they were gone.  Vengeance cursed to himself.  They would take out part of his
defensive screen.  Part, but he was sure not all.

“Open wormhole viewers
at all graviton generators,” he ordered.  “Track any object moving near the
generators not in the catalog and fire at will.”

A dozen small holos
opened around the room, each showing a quick pan of space around each
generator.  The main holo panned out from the station, covering the
Donut
. 
Vengeance was worried about what damage they might do to his abode, any which
missed their primary target.

*    *    *

Three of the torpedoes
intersected their targets, the space destroying drives warping the structure of
the huge generators.  Superhard alloys flowed like water for kilometers around
the warpage.  Hard radiation flared out, destroying machinery and circuitry the
length of the long cylinders.  The torpedoes flared as they disrupted under the
intersection of space destroying drive and converted to energy, small particles
of matter blasting into space at near light speed.  Neutrons, protons, and
electrons flared up and down through the cylinders of the graviton generators. 
They mixed with the anti-protons and positrons of the antimatter warheads and
drive fuel, adding more neutrons and gamma radiation to the mix. 

Molten matter and
energy blew out large areas of the sides of the generators, leaving gutted
cylinders falling out of their stable orbits.

One of the torpedoes
continued too far and intersected the hole.  The torpedo blew back into normal
space near the event horizon, a mass of energy and particles.  The hole didn’t
even notice such a minute display of power, sucking all particles into its
great mass, to disappear from the Universe.

A great freighter broke
up from a torpedo going through its space.  The space destroying drive smashed
it to pieces, though its mass was too small to affect the course of the
torpedo.  Another torpedo was not so fortunate, nor was the enormous space
station that it tried to share space with.  Station, docked ships and torpedo
went up in a tremendous explosion that filled space with an ever-expanding
cloud of debris.

Seventeen of the
torpedoes entered normal space without mishap.  Each got its bearing using the
gravitation beacon of the hole, their computers working swiftly to find its
location and plot the course to the nearest target.  Two entered space within
several million kilometers of their targets, inertialess drives kicking in and
propelling them forward at thousands of gees, repositioning their negative
matter shields in a conglomeration before the bows of the weapons.

The on board sensors of
the two graviton beams in question picked up the nearby torpedoes.  The
ponderous structures started to turn slowly in space.  Too slowly. 

A torpedo plowed into
the center of one of the graviton beam projectors.  The ball of negative matter
preceded it, striking the outer surface of the projector.  Matter and negative
matter canceled each other out.  A hole appeared in the outer surface through
which the torpedo drove.  Immediately inside it impacted machinery.  The
antimatter warhead detonated, turning one hundred kilograms of antimatter and a
hundred kilograms of matter into fast moving neutrons and gamma radiation.  The
remaining twenty kilograms of antimatter in the space destroying drive went off
milliseconds later.  Within seconds the explosive force had spread for kilometers
up and down the cylinder. 

The great graviton
projector shuddered under the violence of the explosion.  But it remained
intact, capable of self-repairing, given time.

The second torpedo was
not so fortunate as its brothers.  Accidents happen, and the rupture of the
engine containment field, while it was still thousands of kilometers from its
target, was a statistical probability for devices such as it.  Antimatter and
matter combined into energy as the torpedo blasted apart, setting off the
warhead.  Particles of matter and energy flew out in all directions.  Because
of the momentum of the torpedo, more matter flew toward the target.  Negative
matter and matter canceled out along the way as they touched.  Still the side
of the graviton projector was pelted by a thin sleet of fast moving particles. 
Gamma radiation penetrated, causing minor damage to the internal machinery.

The other fifteen
torpedoes came into normal space far from their targets.  Fast as they could
move, sensory systems picked them up faster.  Graviton beams, lasers and
particle beams reached out and snuffed them from existence one by one, until
the threat was eliminated. 

*    *    *

“Dammit to hell,” swore
Vengeance, as he watched the destruction of the three graviton projectors, followed
by the crippling of the two others.  He still had seven in service, enough to
cover his perimeter.  Maybe he should reach out and pull some of the ships
within range of the Neutronium Ball function of the projectors.

“Ships are beginning to
turn,” said the computer.  Sure enough, he could see them in the holo,
rotating, changing orientation until the ships were all pointed bow outwards,
away from the
Donut
. 

“Lock all available
beams on the closest of the vessels,” ordered Vengeance.  “I want to give them
an abject lesson.”

“Preparing graviton
generators for operation,” said the computer.  “But they will not be in that
location much longer.”

Vengeance could see
what the computer was talking about, as the negative matter streams came out of
the ships’ pylons and were pulled into the shells needed to protect material
objects from the gravitational fluxes of the matter destroying drive.

“Lock established,”
said the computer.  One of the ships jerked back, accelerating toward the
Donut
. 
Then it was gone in a flash of light.  The other ships followed suit, until
there was nothing within range.

“The ship broke free of
the lock,” said the computer.

“Do you have their
location?”

“Impossible to
determine location at this time,” said the machine.  “Nature of drive makes it
difficult to predict final resting space of vessel using space destroying drive
to move.”

“Isn’t there anything
you can do to find them?”
“Standard scans will reveal their location in time,” said the computer. 
“Opening and closing wormhole viewers at statistically significant random
locations may lead to an earlier view.”

“Then do so, dammit,”
yelled Vengeance.  “I want them found before they launch another such attack.”

Damn
, he thought again. 
What
if they try to get their ships close to the Donut using the same tactic
? 
According to what he had just seen some might be destroyed, and some might end
up far enough away from the station to be disposed of safely.  But some would
reach the proximity of the station.  Close enough to board?  Close enough to
threaten his existence?  Thoughts of Pandora Latham and the pleasure he had
planned retreated to the back of his mind, as paranoia reigned in the mind of
the immortal creature.