ShipCore - Book 3: Chapter 152: Fire and Rescue (3)

USD: 2 Days Since Comm Failure

Location: Nu Crateris, Outer System, Hades Orbit, SR Hot Rescue

A small smile appeared on Lavigne’s face as he turned his attention to his navigation pane. There was no sensation of movement as the ship dipped into the liquid layer, although the ship’s descent rate dropped rapidly. Temperature estimates rose inversely, and the thermal battery readout showed that the ship’s systems were no longer bleeding heat to the outside, but storing it for later use.

At least until the batteries and heatsinks reached capacity and they began to fry.

If it had been a Solarian ship, he’d have expected the climate systems to begin to chug long before that became a problem, but the crisp cool air on the bridge showed just how well the heat system was insulated from the inhabited portions of the ship.

He expected that the navy would have called it wasted over-engineering. Maybe it was, considering the vulnerabilities it probably introduced… but it still felt surreal to him… in a “Hey I built this in one day” way.

The plunge went uneventfully, navigation showing their course remaining on target for the entry point to the same one that the Heaven’s Fire had used. It wasn’t until they reached the halfway point that anything changed.

Morrison looked back at him to report, but Lavigne had already been watching the screens himself.

“Captain, temperature readings are spiking, and there is some turbulence in the magma flow. Seems like it is trying to knock us off course.”

Lavigne read the numbers. The ship rotated and began to dump reaction mass to counter the current. The ‘Molten Rejection System’ field reported green, even though the temperature had already reached a point twice as hot as the worst the Heaven’s Fire experienced.

“Something active doesn’t want to let us in.” Lavigne remarked.

That left them all in an uneasy silence that left them all carefully monitoring the ship’s progress.

As they approached the end of the traversal, Lavigne checked the clock. It read almost an hour, but it felt like it had taken three times that.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief as they passed through into Hade’s interior. Floodlights lit up as rapidly cooling rock dripped off the ship’s glowing D-field. The thermal batteries indicated they were already a quarter of the way full, which would easily power the ship’s baseline systems for days.

“Well done, everyone. Logan, do you see anything?”

“Not much. No high-band signals are active, and the only low-band in range is our repeater to A31. I have the GAI running an analysis on everything else now.”

A yellow flash on Lavigne’s console lit up and Daniel explained. “Captain, we’ve detected the Heaven’s Fire. It is powered down at the Alpha-site landing. Same location as recorded in the last report from the expedition.”

That seemed to be a good sign to Lavigne. “So, it is still where they left it. Do we have visual?”

“We’ll need to descend further. There is curvature that is obstructing us.” Logan reported.

“If it is powered down, and we don’t have a visual, how are we detecting it?” Lavigne asked.

“Residual EM radiation from the ship’s power systems. Computer estimates the ship was powered down some time yesterday, or a bit earlier.” Logan said.

“Right. Helm, set the bow core-ward, and descend at 80 meters per second to the Alpha-site. Tactical, Sensors, keep an eye out.”

Helm repeated the order, and the ship flipped around, flinging off a thin layer of cooled material that had remained inside the ship’s special D-field. As the ship cleared several kilometers of descent, a distorted message played on Lavigne’s console speaker.

The voice was patchy and degraded but clearly from Abbey. “I’m… analyzing… your data… be… care…” Her voice cut out before she could finish.

As they continued, Morrison was called over to engineering, and after conferring with the crewmen, he came to speak with Lavigne.

“Captain, we have some issues with the atmospheric composition. It doesn’t match previous records. From 0.01% to 2.14%. Pressure has also increased to 380 mm HG.”

“I’m picking up free organics and volatiles as well, Captain.” Logan said, a worried expression highlighting his concern. “Still no communication from the expedition team, and we’ve lost all telemetry and contact with Abbey.”

“I can see that.” Lavigne said flatly. “Keep trying to re-raise her, although if the expedition team hasn’t managed to do it, I doubt we will.”

“Should we pause to analyze the changed atmospheric composition, Captain?” Morrison asked.

Lavigne shook his head. “We’ll continue with caution, but I would like a report on if those volatiles and the change could be a danger to our experimental hull plates.”

“I’ll get right on that, Sir.” The engineering crewman answered, before diving into his console to enlist the GAI’s help.

Lavigne’s eyes darted between the crew and his console, alert for any sign of danger or someone needing to bring something to his attention. A ping on the sensor console drew his gaze, and he did his best to give Logan time to report on what had caused the GAI to sound an alert.

One of his own console screens showed a repeat of the sensor readout, but without filling up his entire console with the sensor section, he wasn’t able to see anything other than a green fuzz on the readout. And he needed to keep an eye on everything.

That was one of the harder lessons to learn as an officer, to allow your subordinates to handle their own job while keeping your attention on the big picture. No one liked being micro-managed, and it wasn’t effective, either.

When Logan finally spoke, he had Lavigne’s full attention. “Captain, we’ve got strange energy signatures on the walls of the tunnel nearby,” he reported anxiously. “I can’t pinpoint what they are coming from, exactly. They are too weak to be a power source, but there are a lot of them. It’s causing a fuzz on the sensors.”

“Keep at it. Update us if anything changes.” Lavigne ordered. No one spoke as Logan when back to work and the ship continued on its mission. Not know what was causing an unknown sensor reading was not want anyone wanted to hear.

“Daniel, do a preliminary deployment of some of the combat and engineering drones on the ship. Just in case.”

“You think we’ll be boarded or attacked?” Daniel said.

“I don’t know. Better safe than sorry. Don’t fill the entire ship, but a couple dozen should suffice.”

A few minutes later, two combat drones entered the bridge, moving to take up positions where marines would normally stand watch. “Drones deployed and in autonomous mode.” Daniel confirmed.

Just as Lavigne began to feel as if their caution was overdone, Morrison darted over to Logan’s screen. “What was that?”

“What was what?” Logan said, confused.

“On optical, there was something there.”

“I don’t see anything but the wall?”

Morrison insisted, “Play back the feed. I saw something.”

“I didn’t see anything.” Logan repeated.

“Just do it, boy-o. There was something moving.”

“Sure, no problem.” Logan said as he reversed the video. The optical camera was zoomed in on the corridor’s far wall. Lavigne added the optical feed to a small square on his screen as well. There didn’t seem to be anything other than the occasional protrusion from the metal-clad wall.

Logan grunted, but continued to humor Morrison’s request. Guiding the GAI, he reversed the feed while applying different filters. Multiple target lines traveled over the screen, searching for anything that broke the monotone gray pattern.

In one corner of the video feed, a faint green cloud glittered in the dark. Morrison’s finger jabbed at it immediately. “There. What’s that?”

Logan narrowed his eyes at the spot and directed the GAI to examine it. The screen suddenly lit up with warnings, and thousands of red squares began to highlight the walls around the ship.

Lavigne zoomed in on his own screen. “What are those?”

Logan continued to adjust the brightness and resolution, as well as specific light filtering, until the red squares all contained visible blobs that seemed to be sliding down the walls of the tunnel.

“I’m not sure.” Logan replied. “Some type of bio-organic mass, but they are translucent and only visible under specific light frequencies. They seem to be mobile.”

“We are dropping fast, and they are keeping up?” Lavigne asked.

Logan shook his head. “Not really, but there are… lots of them below.”

“Some type of living slime? Maybe an escaped environmental cleaning organism?” Morrison theorized.

Daniel added, “They’re all giving off high magnetic frequency waves.”

That put Lavigne on alert. “Everyone, make sure your suits are at maximum EMF blockage.”

Morrison grunted. “We should be fine inside the ship. I-field and D-field should prevent any EMF intrusion.”

“Either way, for the rest of the mission or until we have more information, everyone will remain suited and at maximum isolation. Don’t forget they had a ship with intact I-fields and D-fields as well.”

Lavigne furrowed his brow, ordering a more detailed analysis of the bio-organic masses. “Logan, see what you can find out about these things.”

“On it,” Logan replied, his fingers flying over his console.

A few minutes passed, but Lavigne did not halt their descent, although he considered it. He let out a curse as the ship suddenly jerked to the side, yawing inside the tunnel. They felt no inertia on the bridge, but a resounding gong sound reverberated through the hull. A red collison alarm flashed.

“Helm?”

“Course corrected, Captain.”

“Ship integrity stable.” Morrison called out as he checked the engineering screens. “Something bumped us good.”

Daniel scrutinized the data and played back a recording from the sensor logs. “Looks like those organics are hostile.” He played back the video for everyone to see.

Multiple of the slime globs had massed together, before inflating and then spitting out a rocky mass that had punched through the ship’s protective fields.

“The projectile was calibrated for D-field penetration, but it didn’t have that much velocity. I wouldn’t want to take multiple hits on the same plate, though. They could shatter.”

A threat indicator lit up as the GAI analyzed the bio-organic motion that led to the attack and detected another possible blob formation.

Lavigne pressed a weapon release on his console. “Daniel, light that thing up!”

Daniel complied without hesitation, and the point defense laser flared energy at the targeted mass. Almost immediately, the targeted area flared up in a brief flare of flames as the beam struck it.

“Okay, we know where the volatiles are coming from.” Morrison commented.

“Not enough oxygen for a full burn.” Daniel said.

“Uhh, guys, a lot more are starting to form. I think you pissed them off!”

Lavigne’s eyes darted to the sensor feed. Dozens of targets began to highlight as the computer beeped warnings. “Free fire, light them all up with PDC-L and PDC-Ks, Daniel!”

“PDCs, free fire, confirmed.”

The GAI quickly took control of targeting, laser and gunfire erupting from rapidly swiveling turrets. Flares of flame erupted all around the ship as it continued to dive toward the Alpha site. The thrum of the kinetics vibrated through the console seats.

“PDC-K are having little effect.” Logan reported.

“AP rounds aren’t going to do much against these slime things. We need incendiary shells.” Morrison looked over at the sensor readout. Sure enough, all the slimes targeted by the kinetics were mostly unharmed and the lasers were working double time to clear targets.

Logan shook his head. “Those wouldn’t burn with such a low oxygen level in the atmosphere.”

Morrison persisted, “I’ve seen magnesium-type shells that’d set anything organic on fire.”

Logan shot back, “We don’t even know if these are carbon-based. It might not even work.”

Morrison argued, “They must have H2O, and MIAP shells would burn anything!”

Lavigne, growing increasingly irritated by the bickering, snapped, “Quiet on the bridge!”

Logan went silent, looking chastised, and even Morrison looked sheepish as he realized they had gotten carried away under the circumstances. Not a navy ship.

No projectiles threatened them again, and Lavigne realized that the lasers had worked their way down several kilometers below the ship as they scoured the tunnel in a rotating motion.

Daniel announced the results. “Lasers are effective, and the area near us is clear. But the density of those things is increasing as we approach the alpha site.”

“Slow descent. 45 m/s, reverse bow orientation towards exit. What’s the life before our exit window clears?”

“Borehole window is 15 hours left of our 16, so far. 24 hours after that until A31 opens the next pre-scheduled one.” Logan reported.

Lavigne nodded. They had plenty of time. Theoretically.

A green light lit up and a chime sounded, and Daniel opened a new tactical screen. “Recon drone has optical on Heaven’s Fire.”

The main bridge screen swapped over to a feed of the battlecruiser, revealing the damaged state of the ship. Plates looked as if they had been melted through. No lights or signs of activity were present, leaving a sinking feeling in Lavigne’s gut.

“Are there any signs of the bio-organics on the battlecruiser itself?”

Logan responded, his voice tense, “The recon drone doesn’t have tactical scanning, but I don’t see any on the close-up. However, there’s a lot of the stuff nearby on the landing pad.”

He manipulated the controls, panning the camera toward the alpha site buildings. The screen revealed a massive buildup of the strange bio-organic substance around the reactor building. It took a second before Lavigne realized the shadows were moving along with the gelatinous surface of the bio-organism thing.

He realized the danger too late.

The writhing mass contracted as soon as the SR Hot Rescue cleared into its line of sight before expanding with alarming speed. A sudden crack filled the air, and the ship lurched as a projectile slammed into the ship’s side, punching through the armor and then multiple compartments before escaping out the other side and burying itself in the tunnel’s wall.

Fire spewed out both ends of the injury as localized coolant lines spewed liquid that rapidly expanded into combustible gas. Emergency one way flow valves cut off the bleed quickly.

Lavigne and Morrison looked in unison to check the thermal battery’s integrity. The unit was undamaged and both of them let out a sigh of relief.

Lights on the bridge flickered anyway, as circuits overloaded and then switched to local backup power. The bridge’s lighting dimmed considerably under the emergency power conditions. A thin stream of smoke wafted into the bridge through a stalled air circulation unit, showing just how badly some systems had been affected.

Over the blare of the alarms, Lavigne shouted to Daniel. “Daniel! All PDC-Ls on that thing, NOW! Railgun and PDC-Ks, too!”