Blood of the Scarecrow: Book 3: Solstice 31 Saga Page 15

  The salon on the Sedna was decadent in a way the Memphis crew had never really seen before. The entire ship was paneled with real wood. The teak was of such fine grain that it felt artificial. The ship had a pub with a well-stocked bar. It had a library. A real library that was full of physical books. It had a dining area that sat twenty, around a long, roughhewn table. And it had real windows that curved around the salon on the front of the ship.

  It had a huge master suite and then seven other staterooms. Each had a private bath. And, it had grav-plate throughout. Each room had independent controls for gravity and climate.

  Despite its beauty, by modern standards, it was quaint—a throwback to the past. The main fault was the lack of AI systems. No AI-assisted navigation, command, and control. No direct interfaces with HUDs. It was all manual. It had manual navigation, manual piloting, manual takeoff and landing. And the console always needed to be manned. Elkin liked it that way.

  Muir looked up as Cine and Jude joined Wex in the observation lounge, directly below the command chairs. All three came to sit on the edge of the deep sofa and, with spines straight, raised flutes to their lips and paused, then Wex began to softly play.

  The lift opened directly behind the command chairs, and Kuss stepped out with Sarah Wood, the med tech. Sarah entered the salon, found a comfy seat, and listened. Kuss went to the last command chair and set about reconfiguring the station to monitor the reactors. None of them recognized the beautiful music, but they all listened. Kuss turned her head to look at Elkin.

  “She play to forget. My batya was much same. His violin soaked up much bad memories for him. Not so much as those flutes, I think.”

  Just then, her HUD comms activated, and she heard Worthington’s voice.

  “Checking in, the Memphis is green.”

  “The Sedna is green, Captain. Purring like a kitten, sir,” Elkin replied.

  “All is well,” Po answered in turn. “Barcus is sleeping. Stu is keeping me out of trouble. He's teaching me to play chess. Have you ever played? I just won my first game.”

  Tyrrell looked at Kuss, who shook her head, and then at Elkin, eyes wide. Worthington was the first to answer, nonplussed.

  “Hume is the big chess player. Rand is the only one that has a chance of beating her. There will be lots of time to play on the way home. Jimbo out.”

  “Thanks, out,” Po said, cheerfully.

  “Sedna out,” Elkin replied.

  Tyrrell shook his head.

  “Did you know she can fly this ship?” Tyrrell murmured.

  Elkin didn't reply. She noticed Wex, watching them as her flute wept a sorrowful tune.

  ***

  Weston brought the Limo slowly inside the hangar at Salterkirk. In just a few short weeks, Ulric could not believe the changes. Most notable was that all the overhead lights were on. The solar collection and batteries had all been serviced and repaired. The air was fresh and even warmed, to some extent. Even the floors were clean.

  There were already seven shuttles parked in there. Three of them were gleaming like they were new. The rest were in various states of disassembly. The maintenance spiders swarmed over one specific shuttle, at the moment.

  Weston continued explaining to Ulric what had been going on.

  “After they were done with the initial repairs to the base, they started working on any shuttle that landed here.” He pointed to the gleaming PT-99 that was closest to the open shop doors.

  Ronan stepped out of the side hatch as the Limo settled nearby. Ulric was going to trade shuttles with him because he was the High Keeper now. It was only fitting. Ulric was excited because the PT-99 had far more utility. Both cargo and passenger spaces. Now that all the seals were replaced, repaired, and tested, it was even spaceworthy. Weston said the engines were, once again, spinning like tops and humming quietly.

  The gull wings on the Limo opened, and it seemed to have a magical effect on the cat-sized maintenance spiders that were all over the hangar, working like fabled cobbler elves. They all stopped and turned.

  Ronan didn't seem to notice them as he smiled brightly, crossing the hangar deck toward him.

  They all moved as one. It was like Ulric was a powerful magnet. An alarm cycled all around them, an urgent sound none of them had ever heard before.

  “Get back in the shuttle. NOW!” came the voice in Ulric’s head he knew too well. “Run!”

  Ulric froze, with fear, allowing the first dozen to reach his legs and bring him down before his fear released him.

  ***

  “Barcus, they have him,” Wex said, over the comms, from one of the command seats.

  “Acknowledged,” was his only reply. Then, he added, “Barcus out.”

  Stu spoke up. “Sir, I am trying to remain your servant, in the best way possible.”

  “I know that, Stu. Always,” Barcus replied.

  “I am getting panic transmissions from Baytirus that the maintenance units, en masse, have attacked Keeper Ulric.” Stu paused, “Any advice?”

  “They will not hurt him. It had to happen like this,” Barcus replied. “You may be happy to know that one of your future status reports detailed to me the entire series of events and how they played out. You see, this put proof to the lie that we are building. All while ripping the evil thing out of his dreams. Ulric will even thank me one day.”

  “Oh, really?” Stu replied.

  As he replaced the dome view in the shuttle with a BUG’s view of the hangar, a swarm of spiders took Ulric down to the floor and buried him until his screams were muffled. Spiders stopped Weston, Wood, and Ronan from rushing to his side.

  “Barcus, will he be alright?” Po was obviously shown the same video in her HUD.

  “Yes. He will. As soon as he is no longer...entangled,” Barcus said.

  ***

  Ulric’s screams of horror echoed off the inside of the hangar, drawing scores of people’s attention. He was rapidly buried by the things. He couldn't see and couldn't breathe. All he saw was her. She wore a black habit this time, but the hood was down. Her arms were clutched across her chest.

  “I should have known these things would come here, drifting, rudderless, doing what they were last commanded to do with their master gone. Before we die, know this.” Fire ignited behind her eyes, inside her throat, shining as she spoke. “He will lay waste to Earth and all eighty-eight colonies. Only Baytirus will remain to begin again, in his image.”

  Before Ulric could reply, with a curse, she disappeared in a bright flash of pain.

  “Go fuck yourself, you bitch. You were always too stupid, too cruel, to actually be Chen.”

  The lights returned, as well as his eyesight. The spiders retreated, going back to their various tasks. All but one.

  It shined a utility light into his pupil. Ulric saw reflections of burst blood vessels.

  The spider spoke, out loud, “Iosin, the rider is destroyed. It was a hardware-based quantum entanglement device. Persistent. Now disabled.”

  “What the hell!”

  Duncan Shea knelt there with a med kit on one side. Weston and Ronan were on the other side.

  “They drilled into his skull!”

  He gave Ulric a shot of generalized nanites in the neck, and then examined his head more closely. This section of his head was shaved bald. He found the two drill holes, easily. One was tiny, the other was almost a centimeter.

  “Hold this, Weston.”

  Shea handed him a spray canister of disinfectant, after spraying each site.

  “Stop moving, you old fool. You've just had brain surgery.”

  “Not how I saw this day playing out,” Ulric understated.

  ***

  “Baytirus is now truly free,” Wex said to Jude and Cine. “The last touch of this larger evil has been swept away from there, while echoes of lies whisper on its lips.”

  The three of them sat on the floor, between bunks, in the empty dorm.

  “It is how you said it would be.” Jude looked at Cine,
speaking quietly. “In two days, we will begin a new life. We will learn many things, as fast as we can.”

  “You will skip many days in this journey. It will seem like five days and really be nineteen months,” Wex told them.

  They did not understand. Yet.

  “Once we arrive, do whatever Barcus says. Trust him, like you trust me.”

  ***

  Elkin listened privately, to their conversation, in her HUD. She didn't have the same respect for privacy that Worthington had. Not when her life was at stake. She didn't know, or fully trust, Wex. That woman knew much more than she let on.

  “Kuss, what do you think of Wex?” Elkin asked.

  “Don't think she human.” She turned back to the console.

  “You see bullet holes in dress when she meet us? Half dozen. Got when she with Barcus. But Barcus trusts her. Enough for me.”

  She turned back to look at Elkin.

  “But would also toss out airlock, if Worthington say it.”

  “What are you doing there?” Elkin looked over Kuss's shoulder as the status board went all white again.

  “Is that a good idea, while we are at this speed? If one of the automated systems kicks in...”

  “I know. Drives me crazy. Couldn't get working before launch, dammit.” Kuss mashed the reset, in frustration, and the board went green again. The log loop playback resumed.

  “Even bug bots not to fix.” Her accent got thicker as she got upset.

  “Barcus said we will have time to sort it out in some kind of dry-dock. Besides, we have the secondary one, here,” Elkin said.

  “Ship is too sweet to be stupid thing.” Kuss threw her hands up again. “Just worry lag be trouble, if shit spills.”

  “Shit spills?” Tyrrell laughed.

  “Go wrong in fan. Fuck you, silly man.”

  “Hey, that rhymed!”

  Trish Elkin laughed at the idiom.

  ***

  “Iosin, this is Barcus. Please respond,” Barcus said from the command chair.

  “Hello, Barcus,” she said, coolly. “Please approach on this vector. Enter here.”

  “Stu, you got that?” Barcus asked.

  “Yes, sir,” AI~Stu replied. “These open airlocks are a bit unnerving.”

  They were moving toward another flight deck, a different one from the last time. This one was smaller, with a single deck and was empty. The smallest one on the Iosin.

  It was four times bigger than the hangar on the moon base.

  “This will be fine,” Barcus said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: The ECHO Plan

  “Admiral John Krieger was behind the Black Badger drop ship. He was a former Black Badger himself. I wish we had the team that went with the Warmarks. We might have been able to stop it, sooner.”

  --Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Captain James Worthington, senior surviving member of the Ventura's command crew.

  <<<>>>

  AI~Echo's avatar was a woman that had long, black hair and a light Pakistani accent. Worthington understood the importance of avatar differentiation and identification. When things started to go pear-shaped, the importance of knowing, in one syllable, who is speaking was undeniable.

  But did they have to be so attractive to the point of being distracting?

  She explained the capabilities of the drop ship.

  “It is designed to be the most stealth DS ever made. All the grav-foils are actually between the inner and outer hulls. Both hulls are armored and absorb both light and active sensors.”

  The screen showed a cross section of the DS Sariska,

  “It could make a night landing in a metropolitan park without a sound, and no one would know. The biggest problem is that the whole thing only has grav-plate propulsion. Very slow on evac.”

  “Slow but quiet,” Rand said, “Is DS Sariska the official designation?”

  Echo smiled wide, for some reason, at the question.

  “Yes. Wes Hagan picked it.”

  Hume raised an eyebrow at Rand.

  “Guns?” Jimbo asked, frowning.

  “It has top and bottom pop-up turrets with over-under quad directional, plasma and projectile weapons with 360° coverage. Forward and aft fixed laser cannons. Rate of fire as you can see is limited but impressive. The Laser cannons can easily overheat because the power plant is so big.”

  “Sir, we are on approach to the Iosin,” Cook said, from the bridge of the Memphis. “ETA is nine minutes, but you gotta see the size of this damn thing.”

  “We will pick this up later,” Worthington said, as he rose and moved to the door.

  ***

  Worthington was followed by Rand and Hume onto the bridge. Cook was in the center pilot’s seat. Beary was at navigation, and Muir at comms. As Jimbo settled into the captain’s chair, it slid forward to his consoles. Hume took the security station, Rand took tactical, and Brian Perry was in the engineer’s seat.

  “Is this right?” Jimbo said, as he looked up from his console. “Huge is an understatement.”

  “Jimbo, I have coordinates that I am sending over for Ben,” Barcus said.

  “Received,” AI~Ben simply said.

  “Just follow me in,” Barcus continued.

  “This ship is FTL capable? It's like ten times bigger than Freedom Station.”

  Cook was astounded.

  “I hate to break it to you, man,” Beary said. “This thing has a diameter as big as Luna.”

  “How the fuck do you know that? My sensors don't see anything,” Muir said.

  “Old-school optical,” she said, as she overlaid a dimension calculation on the main viewer.

  Hume chimed in.

  “It looks like the same basic design as a Harvester prison ship. I bet that center orb is a gravity well.”

  Rand added, “If you're right, down will always be toward the center. All the way around that ring. Like the Harvester’s.”

  “Shit. It's almost 11,000 kilometers in circumference,” Karen Beary said, with awe. There was a long silence.

  “And Barcus says he knows how to fly it,” Jimbo said.

  ***

  The STU was the first ship to enter the open threshold between vacuum and the hangar deck. It drifted in slowly and moved to the center, in the back of the deck, rotated 180°, and softly settled down. The ramp was opening before the skids touched down.

  Cook brought the Memphis in next. While it was centered in the space, it made an easy 180° turn as well, before it slowly set down on the left side of the hangar.

  Elkin did the same with the Sedna, on the right side.

  Worthington watched Po and Barcus descend the ramp of the STU, meeting the avatar of Echo at the bottom. They stood there, talking.

  “Cook, how fast could we fire the systems up and evacuate, if we needed to?” Jimbo asked.

  “With the current state of the ship, if we stand down cold, at least thirty minutes. If we leave the reactors up, we could reduce that to as little as two minutes. But we would only be walking away. The STU is a far better bet for fast evac. He just needs the ramp or hatches closed.”

  Jimbo sighed. “OK. Shut them down.”

  Beary asked, “What about the Sedna, Jimbo?”

  “Faster than the Memphis, slower than the STU.” He stood up.

  “Let's hope we don't find out. Let's go see what we've gotten ourselves into. Cook and Muir, you stay here, for now, and Ben will set up the watch schedule and check-ins.”

  The crews from the three ships all converged in the center of the well-lit hangar.

  “Well, Barcus. You did not exaggerate. But, I didn't expect it to be so clean,” Jimbo said.

  “With your permission, sir. I'd like to go home,” Barcus said, formally.

  “Do it,” Worthington said.

  An instant later, the gas giant called Afreet swung into view of the massive hangar opening. It completely filled the view, for a moment, as the Iosin rotated. A moment after that, the ship was moving.
<
br />   “That's it? No need to go to the bridge? No calculations to be made?” Jimbo looked at everyone. “What fun is that?”

  Wex spoke then.

  “You all take this so easily,” she stated, as fact. “We will be at near light speed for over a year to charge the FTL systems. The whole trip will seem like five days, and take only nineteen months, Earth time.”

  “It's better than thirty-something Earth years in the Sedna,” Elkin said.

  “We are all tired,” Barcus said, turning away. “Let's rest. On my mark, local ship time is 2355 hours. I will be back here at 0700 hours for breakfast.”

  Po fell in beside him, and they passed through a door that closed behind them. They all just stood and stared after him.

  “What the fuck was that?” Kuss blurted out what everyone was thinking.

  “Sir, I may be able to answer that.” It was Stu. His avatar stood to the side with Echo and Ben. “He lies to all of you. He is still horribly sick. Wounded. He just threw up a massive amount of blood just two hours ago.”

  “He's right. Barcus should still be in a sick bay,” Dr. Shaw added.

  “I think that's where he's going,” Wex added. “I can take you to quarters, if you like.”

  “Does the Iosin AI interact?” Jimbo asked.

  “I don't even think it knows we are here. Well, it might know. It just doesn't care,” Wex said.

  Jimbo scrubbed his face, and said, “A good night’s sleep sounds like an excellent plan.”

  ***

  Everyone slept in bunks, on the Memphis or the Sedna, with all the hatches secured. A watch was set on the bridge. The dome there made it seem like they were on a platform above it all. They were all so tired they slept like the dead.

  Rand and Hume came down the Memphis ramp together in the morning, to find Worthington standing right next to the opening of the hangar to space. The short wall in front of him was just over a meter tall. When they had flown in, it looked like a low curb, the scale of the place was so big.