Shadows in the Rift Part IV
06 Apr 2017Jellicoe
"So, the coms logs?" I asked. We were sitting once more in the Warspite's briefing room in a high orbit above the planet on which we had found the long abandoned base. There was no rational reason to have left the planet's surface, indeed further investigation of the settlement may have yielded further clues but none of us, not even Claude who prided himself on his reason and logic nor Vik, fearless warrior of the Punjab had been willing to spend the night amongst the shadows and ghosts of that strange and melancholic place. Even now I have not the words to describe how that place leeched the courage from a man. I have no doubt that those who read this will laugh and call us cowards, in your shoes I may have done the same, such is your prerogative. I make no boasts for my own pluck, but believe me when I tell you that every man and woman on that ship had seen death smiling at them many times before and each of them had always found the nerve to smile right back. "There are six entries that I've been able to isolate that interest us." Claude replied. "The rest are either too corrupted to decipher or just general chatter. I've uploaded them to your terminals so you can read through them for yourselves but the main points are these - the mission set out from Reorte in early 3270 and got out here much quicker than it should have been able to from what we know of jump drive tech back then, the mission was top secret: not only was nothing ever known back in the bubble but most of the crew didn't even know why they were out here and the mission ended in disaster with apparently no survivors. They appear to have suffered a number of cases of space madness and from what I've got here that seems to have been what doomed the mission." While Claude spoke I glanced down at my display and read the last two salvaged log entries suppressing an involuntary shiver -
07/10/3270
I'm scared, help me someone...I can't bear another jump. The lights in witchspace are coming for me, the lights...always the lights...they're calling me...a siren song...I must join them
08/10/3270
AUTOMATED TELEMETRY REPORT; CANOPY BLAST BOLTS ACTIVATED. LIFE SUPPORT MALFUNCTION. CREW VITAL SIGNS TERMINATED. SHIP SYSTEMS ENGAGING STANDBY MODE. DISTRESS BEACON ACTIVATED
"My guess would be." Claude continued. "That they hadn't taken adequate precautions for the effects of spending that long a time in space, particularly in hyperspace."
"That's crap." Harry Soames said aggressively. "Whoever was behind this mission clearly had a lot of money and very advanced tech, do you seriously believe they wouldn't have run proper psych evaluation of the men at the sharp end?"
"That may be." Claude replied clearly taken aback by the vigour of Harry's reaction. "All I can tell you is what the evidence suggests and the most likely explanation for it and from what I've got so far a mass outbreak of space madness is my best guess."
"You fucking tech heads are all the same." Harry growled. "No idea how the real world works."
"Harry." I said firmly. "Claude is doing his job, giving me his conclusions based on the facts. He may be wrong but until we know more we can't say."
Harry reddened and looked extremely abashed. "Of course. Sorry Claude, Skipper. Don't know what came over me."
"It's alright." I said cautiously. "We've all been under a lot of strain lately." And so we had, Harry more than most, he'd thrown away his career for his friends and on top of that it seemed the soldier was struggling to become the civilian. I could have kicked myself for missing it.
"How long did it take them to get out here?" Vik asked quietly but powerfully.
"Nine months." Claude replied, still visibly shocked at Harry's outburst. "One of the logs says they had a hyper-drive malfunction six months in and that they had another three to go. That's a long time by modern standards but back then it should have taken years. They must have had some radically advanced drive tech that nobody else knew about or ever found out about."
"Any idea who was behind it?"
"None, but Harry's right whoever it was must have had a huge amount of money and way beyond cutting edge technology which narrows it down a lot."
"You said they started in Reorte, the Alliance?" Mira asked.
"Maybe but not necessarily. Back then Reorte was well outside the Alliance, the Old Worlds were a backwater in the 70's, if you wanted to hide something big in plain sight Reorte would have been a very good choice."
"The Dynasty Expedition." I said thoughtfully. "Is the word 'dynasty' relevant? Which dynasty? The Duvals perhaps?"
"That would be the obvious one but there is another possibility." Claude said thoughtfully and four faces turned questioningly to him. "The Li dynasty. Sirius."
"Twenty years after the Antares disaster." Vik put in. "Maybe the tech wasn't quite as broken as Sirius told us?"
"It's all possible but this is just blind speculation." Claude said in a voice thick with irritation. "The logs we retrieved speak of beacons plaural, we've only found one so there should be more out there."
"Needle in goddam haystack." Mira snorted.
"Well it's either that or turn around and go back home." Claude bit back angrily.
"Alright everyone." I tried to sound firm and authoritative. "We always planned to be out here for several weeks, all that's changed is we now have something to keep an eye out for. We'll begin tomorrow, make a circuit of the surrounding systems and circle out from there. Now I suggest everyone get a few hours R&R and a good nights sleep. We start at 10:00 hours tomorrow."
We began our journey, spiralling out from EAFOTS EU-R C4-1, checking each system as we went. On the journey out there I had been able to take pleasure in the galaxy, in the beauty of creation laid out before me, now though I found only irritation; another lifeless, empty system with no sign of our quarry, another barren rock set in billions of square miles of nothing. Why were we even out here at all? For Salomé of course. Salomé. And who was Salomé that I should risk myself and my crew all the way out here? Some pampered Imperial brat stamping her foot for the galaxy's attention who for all I knew could be guilty of everything they said she was. Had I not already risked my life more than enough times for her, yet every time she asked for more, always more and for what? So that one day all of us could end up as dead as those poor sods in Cemiess?
I blinked hard to bring me back to myself. Delkar had clearly taken too much out of me as well as the others. I should have known this, I should have recognised the signs of stress, I should have accepted Erimus' offer and stayed behind and given myself and my crew the time off we needed to recover, instead I had brought everyone out here to die, forgotten and alone in the depths of the void at the edge of the galaxy.
"Skipper?" I was dimly aware of Vik's deep voice next to me. "Skipper!" Louder this time and accompanied by a solid shaking of my shoulders. I snapped back out of my torpor.
"Yes? What?"
"You've been staring out of the canopy for the last five minutes. We're ready to jump." Vik sounded very concerned.
"Sorry, didn't sleep well last night." I lied. "Jumping now."
Our search went on, system after empty system, our nerves and tempers frayed until, late on the second day Claude picked up another coms signal, again in close orbit of the star. I had expected the familiar surge of excitement at finally running our quarry to ground but felt only a dark foreboding as the metallic tube with its solar panel wings came slowly into view.
"As soon as you've got the transmission we get the hell out of here." I barked. Claude nodded, his face looking tired and drawn in the fierce glare of the nearby sun. Twenty minutes later with the signal recorded I had just turned away from the star to jump back into Super-Cruise when the ships computer broke the tense silence.
"Warning. Airlock 3 has been activated.