Logbook entry

Chirstmas Carriers' Convoy - part 15, special gifts for Colonia

Michael Strang slaps his own face, hard. The new tic that's started around his right eye is annoying him and he thinks the slapping might help.

Second-in-command Lancing looks sideways at him in surprise. He's about to say something when Engineer Brett Beddoe comes onto the bridge, listening to his earpiece.

"Aha…okay…I see…yes, do that."

Strang raises an eyebrow in enquiry but the gesture is lost as his face twitches spontaneously. He tries to hide the involuntary movement by lifting his hand to scratch his head.

"What news?" he asks.

"The work is done," Beddoe reports, "just finishing up now. The power supply to the antimatter containment units won't fail now. We've also diverted any remaining hydrogen in the cargo bays into the fuel tanks and that should increase the interval between scoops, for a while at least."

Strang turns to Lancing. "Get the fleet under way, Commander. Full speed for the Festival Ground…what? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Lancing's face shows shock. "It's…your hair. Look at your hand."

Strang looks and is puzzled. He's holding the clump of hair that came away when he scratched his head.

"Get the fleet moving! And clear the bridge!" he shouts, turning away from them and taking his seat at the helm.

When he's alone he tentatively clutches another handful of hair and pulls. It comes away with little resistance and he drops it to the floor. What's happening to him? He supposes that the tic is caused by the stress he's under and that it will pass when the job is done. But hair falling out is something else.

A thought occurs. Could this be a side-effect of scooping antimatter in system Thequa AA-A j0? If so, what other symptoms might appear? And, what about the pilots of the other Type-9s who also scooped antihydrogen? Have they been affected?

He puts in a call to Doctor Galena on her fleet support ship.

"Doctor, I would like you to set up close monitoring of the Type-9 Commanders. I need to know that they remain fully functional. Anything out of the ordinary, let me know."

"I see," she says. "Yes, I'll raise the frequency of blood and urine sampling and set up enhanced vital signs monitoring…Michael, where's this coming from? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Strang says, dropping another handful of hair to the floor.



I realise that I haven't set up the fire group for the frame shift wake scanner that I fitted hurriedly at Caravanserai. I need to be quick; I'm outside Caravanserai and have targeted the wake from Kurt Vile's Corvette; I absolutely must know where he's gone and wake signals don't last forever.

With a fast-scan enhancement, I scan the wake before it disappears and then begins what I expect will be the long and tedious job of tracking a ship across the galaxy. I'll have to be careful not to draw attention to myself as I jump into the target systems that the scanner reveals; I'm no match for a Corvette built for combat.

I wonder how my three companions are faring after we separated. Theirs is a much riskier path than mine. On the other hand, I have the ship to myself; I can use the luxury cabin; I can wander about in my briefs if I choose, and I can belch without inhibition. It doesn't get much better than that.

Anticipating the lengthy slog, maybe four hundred jumps to the Colonia region, I've brought crates of food and drink onto the bridge and placed them within easy reach of the helm.

I get into a routine: jump; scoop; find and scan Vile's wake; jump. Fuel scooping doesn't take long because the Corvette's range is so small. After sixty jumps we've barely covered a thousand light-years, but I see that Vile is ready to take a break. His ship approaches a landable planet and drops out of supercruise.

This leaves me with a problem – maybe more than one. If Vile sleeps for several hours he will be refreshed and I won't be. If I sleep, I may miss his departure. If I stay close, he may see me.

I decide to drop out of supercruise close to Vile's low wake and come to a dead stop a hundred and fifty kilometres above the surface of the planet. I rig the ship for silent running, turning off every inessential module that either generates heat or has a radio signature. I wrap a blanket across my shoulders, hunker down with my thoughts, and wait for Vile to make his next move.



Eldrin Dood's Keelback arrives in the Elphaik CL-Y g31 system and he targets the Strang Fleet Carrier contact which is close to the primary star.

As they approach the carrier, a flurry of smaller ships come and go; they're visiting nearby systems which they're scouring for materials. Eldrin brings the Keelback to rest on pad 07 of SFC Wolfpack and they drop into the hangar.



Ten minutes later he enters the Control Centre with Ethan Strang at his side.

"Granny Strang," he says, walking forwards with arms outstretched, "it's good to see you after so long."

The stern face of Aud Strang, the fleet carrier's commander, melts for only a second as she returns the embrace, and freezes again.

"You've made good time, Eldrin – got here before the fleet," she says, nodding at the same time to her actual grandson, Ethan.

"Really, I thought they'd be here by now," Eldrin says.

"Fleet's quite spread out," she says. "Each pilot going at their own pace. Leaders are about thirty jumps away; stragglers more like fifty."

"How many ships?" Ethan Strang asks. "Is Michael okay?"

"Down to six at the last count," she says, a tinge of sadness in her voice. "That's six good pilots we've lost, men and women who gave their lives for the struggle."

"And Michael?"

"Spoke to him earlier today; said he was fine."

She moves to the centre of the room where a holographic display of the galaxy floats above a table. She makes a gesture that zooms in on the Inner Scutum-Centaurus Arm and then on the Colonia region in particular.

"Where's Kurt?" she asks Eldrin.

"On the way," Eldrin says. "I told him to find an unpopulated system close to the centre where we could meet for the exchange. He'll contact us when we're closer."

"Very well, let's reconvene and review when the fleet arrives."



"Are we there yet?" Mai asks quietly, shifting position to ease the pressure on her buttocks.

"We can't be," Jaquelyn says, equally softly. "We haven't been travelling near long enough. Besides, feel the gravity; we've landed on a planet."

"Shall I go take a peek?" Tay says.

"Risky," Jaquelyn says. "If he discovers us it'll be the end of the plan."

"It's so quiet, though," Tay says. "I need to know what's happening."

She stands up and finds the key to the cage they're in. She unlocks the door and unholsters her weapon. She steps into the Corvette's cargo hold and tiptoes to the exit. She listens.

Silence.

Climbing, now, she makes her way through the ship, checking each space before moving through it. Finally, she comes to the bridge. The door is open, the lights are dimmed. She takes the quickest of quick peeks. A figure is slumped at the controls and she worries that Kurt Vile is dead. Then he snores loudly and Tay pulls back in case he wakes.

Taking another look, Tay sees the planet's surface through the canopy. It's a vast plain in many shades of grey, with starlit boulders and long shadows.

As stealthily as she can, Tay advances into the bridge and brings up the galaxy map. She sees the short distance they've come and closes the map.

"You're right, Jaq," she says after returning to the cargo hold, "we've only come, like, a kylie, with another five to go."

"Let's not take any more risks until we have to," Jaquelyn says, "and we will have to at some point."

"Any Na Coffee anyone?" Mai asks, pouring drinks from a vacuum flask.



Eldrin Dood is woken from a broken sleep by Ethan Strang. "The fleet's arriving; thought you might like to know."

They go to the Control Centre and watch on the monitors as the ships, some more steadily than others, land on the fleet carrier. There are six Type-9s, their fighter escorts, and a host of supply ships. Last in is the flagship, which makes a bumpy, unpractised landing.

As soon as Michael Strang's ship is in the hangar, a gurney is rushed across the floor. Minutes later it returns carrying a body.

"To the medical bay!" Eldrin says, rushing from the room.


Michael Strang is barely recognisable as he lies beneath a crisp, white sheet. He's completely bald, now, and his blue eyes, once so bright, stare out of an ash-grey, wasted face. His brother, Ethan, is close to tears.

Eldrin holds Michael's hand and looks searchingly into his eyes.

"What happened, Michael?"

The man on the bed struggles to speak, his breath is wheezing and gravelly.

"Some kind…of…antimatter leakage…Doctor Galena thinks."

"What can we do for you?"

Michael Strang coughs and winces in pain.

"Nothing," he says, "I'm…done. But…one thing…you can…do…is make my…life…count."

As his brother's life ebbs steadily away, Ethan Strang takes his other hand, looks him in the eye with a frightening ferocity. "We will brother, we will."


Back in the Control Centre, Aud Strang looks grim as she stands deep in thought. Doctor Galena stands to one side.

"All six T9 pilots are showing the same symptoms as Michael, but in the earlier stages," she tells Eldrin. "Chances are, they don't have long."

Eldrin Dood doesn't show the disappointment he feels. Here, he thought, was a chance to strike a blow against the domination of big business and its links to the political system, and the Dood Corporation in particular. He's determined to make the best of the situation.

"Hitting Colonia was always a dry-run," he says, "an experiment to show the power of the antimatter cannon, and a justification for carrying it all the way back to the bubble. So, we go ahead with the plan."

"I'm not so sure," Aud Strang says, and what she says carries much weight within the clan. "It might just be too dangerous to gather the munitions for the weapon. We can't ask people to lay down their lives for it."

"I don't think you understand the power of the weapon, Granny," Eldrin says. "Six pilots could be lost in a combat zone while achieving relatively little. The antimatter we've collected could destroy whole starports and planetary bases with a single shot of the cannon."

"You think," she says. "Nothing's proven yet."

"So, let's do the experiment, using what we've got. We can call a moot back at base to decide the future."

Aud Strang walks back and forth while she thinks.

"Doctor, can you keep our pilots alive until we reach Colonia?" she asks Galena.

"I believe so," the Doctor replies. "I think Michael may have had a longer exposure than the other pilots. It was he who pioneered the scooping technique."

Aud turns to Eldrin.

"What we'll do is this," she says. "We'll supply the antimatter cannon with munitions for you to try out. The remaining T9s I plan to park at stations across the Colonia region. On a given signal we will explode them all."

"That would be suicide," Ethan interrupts. "Who, do you propose, would do that?"

Aud looks at Ethan compassionately. She knows he has a good heart.

"I'll talk to the sick pilots," she says. "If they are agreeable and are prepared to make a final sacrifice for our cause, then they will take the T9s into position."


Later that day, fleet carrier Wolfpack begins its journey from the Festival Ground to Colonia.