In the four hours since arriving on the outer edges of the Darvano system, Nathan had managed to eat, study the details of the system from Tug’s star charts, and had even gotten up the nerve to visit Medical for his post away-mission checkup. As expected, he had received an earful from Doctor Chen regarding not only his tardiness, but also for the trauma inflicted on the prisoner. Despite his repeated apologies, he doubted she would be forgiving him any time soon.
Fortunately, the prisoner had not been seriously injured. His facial lacerations were already on the mend, as was his fractured nose, no doubt the result of Jessica’s well placed boot heel. He had also had a pretty decent neck injury due to the initial blow that Jalea had delivered. Jessica had later explained to Nathan that Jalea’s first blow to the prisoner’s neck had been intended to kill. Had it not been for the prisoner’s quick reactions, she probably would’ve succeeded.
That knowledge of intent troubled Nathan, as this was quite probably the second time he had witnessed the brutal, warrior side of Jalea’s personality. The woman was usually so cold and dispassionate in day-to-day conversation. Even when they had been under fire on the surface of Haven, she had still remained cold and calculating the entire time. In fact, that episode in the brig was the first time he had seen her snap emotionally. And it made him wonder exactly how much anger was still trapped inside of her.
Nathan wandered down the corridors surrounding the flight decks, looking for the squadron briefing room that Jessica had advised him to use for this pre-jump briefing. With a total of twelve people in attendance, the command briefing room would be too small, yet the main briefing room would be too large. The squadron briefing room was made to accommodate up to thirty-two pilots, and was equipped with all the audio-visual displays they would need. Nathan had been too embarrassed at the time to admit that he didn’t exactly know where this particular briefing room was located. Now, he only hoped that by the time he found it he would only appear fashionably late.
“How many times are you going to pass this corridor before you realize it’s the one you’re looking for?”
Nathan turned and saw Cameron leaning against the bulkhead a few meters down the corridor, her arms crossed and a look of disbelief adorning her face.
“Really, Nathan. You’re the captain of the ship, for Christ’s sake.”
“Ssh,” he said, putting his forefinger to his lips. “Don’t tell anyone,” he pleaded as he turned down the corridor towards her.
“Am I going to have to put study ship’s layout on your to-do list?” she teased as she turned and led him down the corridor and into the squadron briefing room.
“Captain on deck,” she announced as she led him into the room. Vladimir, Jessica, and Enrique-being the only actual crew members in the room-all jumped to attention. The rest, feeling out of place, started to stand as well.
“Don’t even,” Nathan objected, motioning for them to remain seated. He glanced over at Cameron, who appeared quite pleased with herself. “Very funny,” he muttered under his breath. Despite the joke at his expense, he was happy to see the lighter side of Cameron popping up now and then.
“Good afternoon everyone,” Nathan began. Nathan looked about the room. He had been in similar rooms during his small craft flight training back at the academy but this one was considerably nicer. It was darker than most of the spaces on the ship, lending a more serious tone to the room. The seats were all high-backed and overstuffed, and were arranged in four rows of eight, with a center aisle splitting the rows into pairs of four. Each row was slightly more elevated than the one in front of it, ensuring that everyone in attendance had a clear view of both the speaker at the podium as well as the three large display screens along the wall directly behind him. The lighting was subdued but adequate, with tiny spotlights shining down onto each seat from above. Nathan could easily imagine the room full of swaggering fighter jocks, ready to jump into their cockpits and catapult out into the blackness to face the enemy. In fact, at that point, Nathan really wished he had both those fighter pilots and their ships at his disposal, as it would make him feel a whole lot safer. Instead, he had this collection of fresh-faced academy graduates, Karuzari rebels, and a few refugees from Haven. Considering his own lack of qualifications and experience, he didn’t feel fit to command even this ragtag group. Yet here they all sat, ready to perform whatever task he set them on, and without question no less. That was the most amazing thing about command. They were all aware of his lack of experience-at least those in the Fleet were-yet they were still willing to do his bidding. They placed their faith in his ability to make decisions and to protect them from harm as best he could while still carrying out their duties.
“We are about to enter the Darvano system. It is a heavily populated and fully industrialized system, with at least three populated worlds. The bulk of the population is on Corinair, the fourth planet out. There are also a few populated moons located in orbit around the sixth planet, which is a gas giant. Our destination is in the asteroid belt which lies between Corinair and the fifth planet, also a gas giant. Asteroids within this belt are mined from the inside out, leaving a relatively empty shell that is later de-orbited so it can be captured by Corinair’s gravity to be broken up and harvested later. Apparently, this is all a very lengthy process, resulting in hundreds of hollowed out asteroids waiting for their turn to be de-orbited. Within one of these hollow rocks is a base that was constructed by the Karuzari some years ago for the purpose of servicing captured Ta’Akar warships. Unfortunately, they were never able to make such captures; hence the base has gone unused since its original construction. Our plan is to use this base as a hideout in which to conduct repairs.
Jessica and Enrique were both sitting together in the back row. Ever mindful of security, Jessica always wanted to be in a position where she could keep an eye on everyone else. “If the belt is constantly mined,” Enrique asked, “isn’t it possible we’ll be spotted?”
“The breadth of the belt, and the distance between most objects makes it highly unlikely, unless there just happens to be a ship in the vicinity when we arrive. Tug assures us that once inside the facility, we will be well hidden to even the most active penetrating scans.”
Nathan turned on the display behind him. A representation of the layout of the Darvano system showed up on the screen. “We’d prefer to jump into the system as unnoticed as possible, and close to our final destination. “Tug, do you have any recommendations?”
Tug, Jalea, and Allet were all sitting in the front row. Allet, having been working pretty much nonstop since he came aboard, looked like he could fall asleep at any moment. Tug and Jalea, although probably no more rested than anyone else, appeared more attentive.
Tug straightened up slightly before speaking “Captain, I would suggest arriving on the far side of the fifth planet. It is a massive gas-giant-almost a proto-star-that gives off a lot of radiation which will obscure the sensors of most ships. As long as we remain in a relatively low orbit, we should remain undetected.”
“Is there no traffic in the area?” Vladimir wondered. “Perhaps the nearby moons?”
Because of the radiation levels, the gas-giant’s moons are not hospitable,” Tug explained. “And the close proximity to the asteroid belt results in frequent collisions between the existing moons and rogue asteroids captured by the planet’s gravity well. For these reasons, this part of the system is not commonly navigated.”
“What about the radiation?” Vladimir asked. “Is it safe?”
“As long as we do not linger in orbit for more than a few hours, we should be safe,” Tug promised.
“Doctor?” Nathan said, looking at Abby who was sitting by herself, directly behind the three members of the Karuzari. “Will the gas-giant’s gravity well present any problems?”
“As an arrival point? No. However, you may have to compensate for its gravity rather quickly when we jump in next to it.”
“Maybe we should assume a speed equal to the orbital velocity of the altitude we expect to arrive at before we jump?” Cameron suggested.
“That would probably help mitigate the sudden change in gravitational forces,” Abby agreed. “If done properly, I suspect you will require no more than a minor orbital inclination correction burn.”
Nathan looked at his audience for signs of any other questions. Sensing none, he continued. “Okay then, that’ll be our entry point. Once we have achieved a stable orbit, we’ll launch the shuttle. Josh, you guys will be carrying a team of four into the base. Tug, Jalea, Vladimir, and Jessica, will all be going into the base to check it out and make sure it is still operational before we take the ship inside. Now, the place has been powered down for years, so you’ll all have to go in full pressure suits.”
“Captain?” Josh interrupted. “Are you saying we’re gonna be flying inside that asteroid?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Excellent. I’ve smashed rocks, captured rocks, and even dodged rocks. But I’ve never flown inside a rock.”
“The shuttle doesn’t have an airlock, sir,” Loki pointed out.
“Then I guess you’ll all be wearing pressure suits.”
Josh looked excited about that prospect as well, even if Loki did not.
“Once you get inside, Jess, check the place out and power it up. Once both Tug and you are satisfied that it’s safe, we’ll break orbit and get inside as quickly as we can to avoid detection.”
“And if there’s traffic in the area?” Jessica asked.
“If necessary, we’ll jump in close. But we’d like to avoid that if possible, as the jump itself creates quite a flash which is highly noticeable if you happen to be looking in the right direction.”
“It is highly unlikely that we will encounter any traffic,” Tug insisted. “This particular asteroid was chosen due in part to its location. Most of the asteroids in the area have already been mined to their limits, so there should be no interest in that particular region.”
“What are you planning on doing once you get inside this rock?” Marcus asked.
“Once inside and securely docked, we should be able to power down many systems and more easily conduct repairs. While we’re there, we’ll be sending Tug and Jalea to Corinair, along with a load of ore to sell. They should be there for at least a day, during which they will procure more supplies and attempt to make contact with members of the Karuzari that may be hiding on Corinair.” Nathan looked around the room again. “Any questions?”
“Yeah,” Marcus grunted. “How long we gonna hideout here?”
“As long as it takes, but no longer than necessary,” Nathan said, intending to be vague. “We make that determination on a day-by-day basis. All right, we’ve got about thirty minutes until we’re ready to jump. So you might as well get suited up and ready. Good luck.”
Nathan stepped down from the podium and quickly exited the room with Cameron on his heels. “How did I do?”
“Okay,” she answered. “Confident, relaxed. Not bad, considering you got lost on your way to the briefing.”
“Don’t be insubordinate,” he told her with a wry smile.
Nathan stood at the tactical console, reviewing the deep system scan reports that Kaylah had performed over the previous few hours. They had collected more than enough data to confirm the accuracy of the star charts translated from Tug’s fighter, and Abby felt confident that her plot into the system was a safe one.
Deliza again stood by Abby’s side. Since she had begun working with her on using one of the dead shuttle’s computer cores to make jump calculations, the two had become inseparable. Nathan suspected that, whether she was aware of it or not, the physicist had taken on the role of surrogate mother in the wake of the death of Deliza’s real mother.
“Bridge, Nash,” Jessica’s voice came across the comm-set.
“Go ahead,” Nathan said over his comm-set.
“We’re all suited up and ready to go down here.”
“Very well. Have your pilot taxi out onto the flight deck. I want you guys ready to launch the moment we arrive.”
“Copy.”
Nathan looked down at the console, noting that the shuttle was already moving out of the hangar and into the main transfer airlock. Within minutes, it would be positioned outside the ship, sitting on the flight deck exposed to space. They’re going to have quite a show, he thought.
“Helm, put us on an intercept course for the jump in. Match velocity to the orbital velocity of gas-giant.”
“Yes, sir,” Cameron responded. She had been sitting at the helm since they had returned from the pre-jump mission briefing nearly thirty minutes ago. She had received the navigational data from Abby at least ten minutes ago, and she had already verified and entered it into the Aurora’s nav-com long before Nathan gave her the order to do so. But she knew that he was just going through the motions, making sure he didn’t forget anything.
“Attention all hands,” Nathan called throughout the ship. “Stand by for jump in one minute. Repeat, we jump in one minute.”
As the shuttle rolled out of the transfer airlock and onto the open flight deck, Jessica-who was sitting in a jump seat directly behind the flight crew-couldn’t help but notice that neither of the pilots seemed to know exactly where every control was located in their cockpit. “Uh, you guys have flown one of these before, right?”
“Define flown.” Loki asked, a bit of uncharacteristic sarcasm in his voice.
“You know, launch, fly around, and then land again… safely, I might add.”
“No worries, love,” Josh chimed in with his usual arrogance. “They all fly the same way.”
“Yeah, it’s just figuring out where all the little buttons and switches are that’s the tricky part.”
Jessica looked at Loki, then Josh, then back to Loki again. “You guys are messing with me, aren’t you?” She leaned back into her seat, either confident in her revelation or just not wanting to know the truth.
Loki glanced back over his shoulder, “Of course we are,” he assured her. He shot a guilty look over to Josh, who returned the expression in kind. Loki repositioned his helmet mic and contacted the Aurora. “Aurora, this is Shuttle One. We are in position and ready for departure.”
“Copy that, Shuttle One, Stand by. Oh, and guys, don’t forget about the flash,” Nathan reminded them over the comms. “We don’t need two blind pilots.”
“Copy, Aurora,” Loki answered as he dropped his darkened visor from the compartment along the top of his helmet down to cover his eyes.
“What’s with the Shuttle One?” Josh asked as he dropped his own visor into place.
“What was I supposed to call us? Shuttle Two?”
“Well what do we need a number for? We’re the only bleedin’ shuttle around.”
“In case we get another shuttle later, I guess. What do you care?”
“At least you could’ve come up with something cool, like Recon Shuttle or something.”
“Listen, you just fly this thing, let me talk on the radio, okay?” Loki insisted.
“Standby to jump in five,” Abby’s voice counted down over the comm.
“Don’t get all testy,” Josh teased. There was nothing he liked more than pushing Loki’s buttons.
“Four.”
“I’m not getting testy.”
“Three.”
“Yes, you are. Like a little girl you are,” Josh prodded.
“Two.”
“Everyone close your eyes,” Jessica instructed the passengers.
“One.”
“Little girl, am I?” Loki said, beginning to take offense.
“Jump.”
Outside the shuttle, the bluish-white light again shot out from the emitters on the hull, quickly connecting them and covering the ship in a light that almost instantly intensified into a brilliant white. Through their polarized visors, Josh and Loki could see the hull of the Aurora outside, a momentary white halo covering and contouring to her hull lines. When the light subsided, the black star field was instantly replaced by the image of the massive, turquoise gas-giant that filled the sky in front of them, except for the blackness off to their starboard side.
The sudden arrival of the massive gas-giant gave them both a start, causing them to jump slightly in their flight couches.
“Whoa!” Loki screamed.
“Jesus! That’s the coolest thing ever!” Josh exclaimed.
“Cool? I just about pissed myself!” Loki admitted.
“Shuttle One, Aurora. You’re cleared for launch.”
“Copy, Shuttle One, taking off,” Loki replied as he lifted his visor.
Josh immediately fired the thrusters, pushing the ship up and away from the flight deck of the Aurora.
“Visor, dumbass,” Loki said to Josh, who still hadn’t raised his polarized visor.
“What’s that smell?” Josh asked, pretending to sniff the air as he raised his visor.
“I said almost,” Loki defended.
Josh looked at his displays, and then glanced out the windows of the shuttle, checking his position relative to the Aurora. “Hang on!” he called out to his passengers as he fired his thrusters again, slid the shuttle sideways, and then rolled off over the Aurora’s starboard side. He fired his mains at full burn, throwing everyone back into the seats as he drove the shuttle away from the Aurora at a steep angle.
“It’s going to take a lot of velocity to break orbit from that big bitch out there,” Loki warned.
“Stable orbit achieved,” Cameron reported.
“The shuttle’s away,” Nathan reported, after checking his console displays. “Kaylah, any contacts?”
“Negative, sir. The area is clear. But there is a lot of traffic around Corinair, as well as the asteroid belt itself. But it all seems to be avoiding this area.”
“I guess Tug was right,” Nathan said.
“Let’s hope he’s right about the hideout as well,” Cameron added. As much as she disliked the idea of piloting the ship into a giant cave in space, she preferred it to sitting out in the open in a system that was regularly visited by Ta’Akar warships.
“Abby, are you plotting an escape jump?” Nathan asked.
“Yes, sir. But we’ll have to get some distance from this planet before we can safely jump. Its gravity well is enormous.”
“Cam, plot an intercept course to meet with the shuttle halfway, in case we all have to clear out in a hurry. Abby, you can plot your escape jump from anywhere along her intercept course.”
“Yes, sir,” Abby answered.
“It looks like it will take them at least a couple of hours to get there,” Cameron informed him, “even at a full burn.”
“I guess all we can do is wait.”
The climb out of the gas-giant’s gravity well had been long and difficult. The noise of the shuttle’s main engines fighting to break free of the planet’s hold on them had been deafening. Even closing and sealing their helmets had done little to reduce the ear-splitting whine.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the shuttle finally broke free of the planet’s gravity and reached its cruising speed. The whine of the engines suddenly ceased as Josh ended the long, torturous burn. But instead of a much welcomed silence, there was the steady, grating sound of Marcus, the former harvesting crew foreman now turned shuttle crew chief, snoring away.
“For all that’s holy,” Josh chuckled. “The man is like a plasma drill,” he declared as he climbed out of his seat and moved back into the main compartment. When he reached Marcus, he carefully plugged in the life support umbilical from the ship to his suit, and gently closed and sealed his helmet. Finally, the snoring was reduced to a tolerable level.
“That’s better,” Josh decided, taking a seat next to Marcus and across the compartment from Jessica. “The man can sleep through just about anything,” he joked.
“You’ve known him for a while?” Jessica asked. Part of her was curious, and part of her was just making small talk.
“Since I was little. My mom was a worker on his team. She died. Marcus took me in, took care of me as best he could. He’s been sort of like a father to me.” Josh looked at Marcus as he continued to snore away. “A loud, obnoxious, drunken, bastard of a father,” he laughed. “Took good care of me though.”
“How did you end up flying?”
“Used to steal his credits when he wasn’t looking. Spent them down at the VR game arcades. Nothing but flight games. Didn’t care much for the other ones. Got damn good at them too. Finally, Marcus here decided it was cheaper to pay for flight school than to keep losing his money to my thieving hands. Been flying ever since.”
“But you’re only what, sixteen?”
Josh appeared shocked. “I’ll be twenty next month, I will.”
“How old were you when you went to flight school?”
“Graduated right after me sixteenth, I did.”
“Four years? That’s it? Hell, it takes us that long just to get through the Fleet Academy back on Earth.”
“I’ve racked up nearly fifteen thousand hours since then, love.”
“Whattaya live in the cockpit?”
“Ten, twelve hours a day, nearly every day.”
“You ever get bored?”
“Nope, flying is the best thing around, far as I can tell.”
“What about your pal there?” Jessica asked, pointing toward Loki who was manning the controls while Josh took a break. “How did you two end up flying together?”
Josh removed his helmet, setting it on the bench next to him. “Well, to be honest, I had a hard time keeping copilots. Seems most folk don’t care much for my stick style, if you get my meaning,” he said, scratching his scraggly mound of dirty blond hair.
“They think you’re too reckless, or something?”
“No, nothing like that. They just kept getting sick, tossin’ up all over the place. The inertial dampeners in the harvester ain’t worth a damn. Jeez, I was spending an hour after every flight just cleaning up the cockpit.”
Jessica shook her head. “You’re just a bit off, aren’t you?”
“That’s what Loki keeps telling me.”
“How long have you been flying with him?”
“Don’t rightly know, maybe six months, maybe more. What about you, then?” Josh asked, trying to change the subject. “Did they train you to be so tough in that Academy of yours?”
“Sort of. I was hoping to be a covert operative.”
“What’s a covert operative do?”
“They drop you on some alien world, where you try to blend in, gather intelligence on the enemy, maybe even conduct raids and such.”
“Sounds dangerous.”
“Apparently, no more dangerous than flying with you. At least according to Vlad.”
Josh nodded. “Ah, the chief. He seems a good bloke.”
“Yeah, he’s all right. Pretty dependable in a firefight. That’s for sure.”
“Told us a lot about Earth and all the other night. Interesting stuff.” Josh looked over at Tug and Jalea, who were sitting at the far aft end of the compartment, talking amongst themselves in their own language. “What about those two?” Josh asked, his voice a bit more subdued. “He’s not exactly what I expected, for a terrorist that is. She is, but he’s not.”
“What makes you think they’re terrorists? Aren’t the Ta’Akar worse?”
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m no fan of the Ta’Akar, not by a long shot. That Caius fella, he’s got a few loose ones upstairs, you know. But some of the stuff you hear about, the things the Karuzari have done. Well, it don’t seem much different, really. Just on a smaller scale is all.”
“So you don’t think they’re in the right?”
“Oh, they’re in the right. Gettin’ rid of the Ta’Akar would be the best thing to ever happen to this part of the galaxy. Just don’t know that they’re goin’ about it in the best way. That’s all.”
“How so?”
“It’s like they’re on the outside, trying to get in by beating at the wall with hammers and chisels and the like. They need to find an easy way in, and then clean house all at once. Get it over and done with. Everyone knows you can’t fight a guerrilla war forever. Sooner or later, you’re gonna run out of guerrillas.”
“Ten minutes out, Josh,” Loki called over his shoulder from the cockpit.
“Enough philosophizing,” Josh said with a grin. He reached for his helmet, donning it on his way forward.
“Hell, this ain’t nothing,” Josh proclaimed as he took his seat in the cockpit. “You could fly a planet between these rocks.”
“It’s an asteroid belt, Josh, not a ring system,” Loki teased.
“You find our rock yet?” Josh asked, ignoring his remark.
“If we come starboard about thirty and down a bit, she should be dead ahead. Gonna have to brake pretty hard to keep from smacking into her, though.”
“I believe that’s how we always do it,” Josh bragged.
“What, the braking hard or the smacking into her?”
“Always with the negativity, Loki.” Josh fired the maneuvering thrusters as he applied power to the main propulsion system, changing their vector as he brought the ship onto its new heading.
“Standard braking maneuver, I assume?”
“Yup,” Josh said as he prepared his ship for the next maneuver. He looked up and saw that the asteroid was fast filling the windows. “Pitching up.” He pulled the nose of the ship up and fired the main landing thrusters. Second only to the main drive in raw thrust, it was the fastest way he knew to slow a ship down in a hurry. He could’ve approached at a lower velocity, but then that would just leave him visible to any ships nearby even longer.
“You know, you didn’t have to come in this fast,” Jessica commented.
“Just trying to be covert,” he responded.
A few minutes later, the shuttle matched the asteroids velocity on its orbital path around its parent star, leaving the shuttle holding a position only a few hundred meters away. Josh pitched the nose back down to take a look.
“Aw,” he exclaimed with disappointment, “we’ve gotta be at least a hundred meters away.” He turned to look at Loki. “Did you pad the reading again?”
“Shut up. I’m trying to find the entrance.”
“It will be on the underside,” Tug explained, stepping up behind them. “You’ll see a deep crack. Go down into the crack, and you’ll see the entrance on the port side. There is an overhang that conceals it from above. You can only see it from within the crack.”
“Cool. Now we’re flying into a crack?” Josh stated as he pitched the nose down slightly and applied forward thrust.
The asteroid slid up and over them as they slowly approached.
“Aurora, Shuttle One,” Loki called. “We’re at the asteroid and moving in. We’ll be losing comms any moment now.”
“Copy that. Good luck,” the Aurora’s comm-officer called back. His voice was already sounding tinny and broken, as their signal degraded.
“Activating terrain scanners,” Loki reported. “Recording all scan data.”
“Throw some extra light on it, will ya,” Josh asked.
Loki reached up above his left shoulder to the overhead side panel. Running his finger along a row of rocker switches, he found the right one and clicked it on.
Outside the shuttle, several banks of exterior lights burst to life, washing the surface of the asteroid above them in bright, white daylight.
“Dang. Scary looking rock, ain’t it?” Josh commented.
“You’re going to have to flip over,” Tug said, “so you can hover using your thrusters. The asteroid may not be that big, but it is big enough to have some gravity.”
“Really?” Josh said using a mock-idiot voice. “It’s got gravity?” As quickly as he had turned it on, he turned his mock voice back off again. “Thanks Pops. I think we’ve got this one.”
“The gravity will change as you travel deeper into the heart of the asteroid,” Tug continued, ignoring their sarcasm.
“Yeah, we understand. Just take your seat, okay,” Loki said. He knew that if he didn’t get the old rebel leader off their backs, Josh was going to get them in trouble with another smart remark.
Tug resigned himself to the fact that his life was in the hands of these two young pilots, both of which he highly doubted had ever flown under such conditions. But he had learned many decades ago that his destiny was not always in his own hands.
“Is that going to be a problem for the Aurora?” Jessica asked Tug as he took a seat across from her. “The gravity, I mean.”
“Once we are inside and the facility is powered up, there are compensation mechanisms built into the crack and the tunnels that will maintain a zero gravity environment. The Aurora will not have to compensate as we will.”
“Well that’s something, anyway,” she muttered. She looked at Marcus, who was still sitting on the bench across from her, next to Tug, sound asleep and snoring inside his helmet. She reached out her foot and gave him a kick.
“Wake up!” she hollered.
Marcus shook slightly, opening his eyes with a start. For a moment, he wasn’t quite sure where he was. The fact that he was closed up inside a pressure suit also caught him by surprise. It was in fact the first time he had worn one, and he didn’t care much for the idea.
Scrambling to get the faceplate up, they could hear his muffled curses aimed at Josh for closing his faceplate to begin with.
“There it is,” Loki said, pointing at the crack in the asteroid over their heads.
“Lining her up now,” Josh announced as he corrected their approach course to line up with the crack above them.
Both Tug and Jessica leaned in toward the center of the shuttle, trying to see forward through the cockpit windows. But despite their best efforts, the view was not very revealing.
Josh began thrusting toward the asteroid to bring them in closer. “Just a touch, to let the asteroid’s gravity pull us down,” he said. “Rolling over.” Josh rolled the shuttle on its longitudinal axis so that its bottom was now facing the asteroid.
“Are there any other windows back here?” Jessica asked. “I’m supposed to be checking the place out and I can’t see shit from back here.”
“Lock your visors down and go to internal support,” Marcus instructed them. Marcus watched as each of them locked down their helmet visors, checked that their internal life support systems were working and then reported such to him with a thumbs up sign.
“Depress the ship,” Marcus told Loki.
“Depressurizing.”
Slowly, over a few minutes, the sounds inside the shuttle faded away as the air that carried them was sucked out of the cabin. Once they were in silence and could hear nothing other than their own respirations, Marcus moved to the back of the ship and activated the loading ramp. The big ramp, that when closed made up the aft wall of the cabin, lowered away, creating a platform off the back end of the shuttle.
“Did you order a view?” Marcus asked, gesturing toward the open back end of the shuttle.
Jessica walked out onto the platform, activating the magnetic grips in the soles of her boots to keep from falling of the end. Once at the extreme end, she turned around to face forward. The shuttle was not all the way down in the crack, which was about three hundred meters deep and more than three times that in width. It was a breathtaking view, with the massive turquoise gas-giant in the distant black sky. “This is amazing,” she exclaimed.
“The entrance is coming up on the port side,” Loki reported. “We’ll be coming to port in about ten seconds.”
Jessica could see the overhang begin jutting out on the port side for a few seconds before they turned. Moments later, they were inside the massive tunnel. The walls were ragged, but overall they were a lot smoother than she had expected. Every twenty to thirty meters, she saw strategically placed rings that went around the inside of the tunnel’s diameter. “What are those rings?”
“Lighting, gravity displacement emitters, sensors, and comm-arrays,” Tug explained as he stepped out onto the ramp next to her. “They are located all along the tunnels. It makes the tunnels very easy to navigate when the facility is operational.”
“Did you guys do all this yourselves?”
“No. We could never afford this level of construction. The facility was once a mining base. It was abandoned decades ago and has been awaiting de-orbit. We simply took advantage of its availability. We only had to provide the power plant, which we got from a few otherwise inoperable Ta’Akar ships.”
“Still, it’s pretty impressive.”
“You do not have such facilities on Earth?”
“Oh, we’re mining our asteroid belt as well, just not from the inside out.”
“It takes many generations to fully excavate some of the more massive asteroids. This one is one of the smaller ones. It is only a few kilometers across, but it was perfect for our plans. I only wish we had been given an opportunity to utilize it much earlier.”
The tunnel suddenly opened up into a much larger cavern, at least a kilometer in diameter. The walls, floors, and ceilings were craggy and irregular, and there was another tunnel that appeared to be an exit on the opposite side. All along the walls were strange boxes and domes, some joined together by surface tunnels, others seemingly standing alone and disconnected. Along one side of the cavern there was a large framework surrounding what looked like a platform of some type jutting out from the wall. There was an entrance with big double doors that led from the platform into the rock itself.
“Is that the facility?” Jessica asked.
“That’s the dock, yes. All of these buildings are the facility.”
“But they’re all at such varying angles,” Jessica commented. “Doesn’t it get disorienting?”
“Each building has its own gravity plating. It’s easier than trying to orient every structure to use the asteroid’s rather weak gravity. You get used to it after a while.”
“Take us down onto the platform to port,” Tug instructed the flight crew.
The shuttle turned to port and descended slightly. As it approached the platform, it slowly rotated until its aft end was facing the big double doors on the wall. The shuttle backed over the platform before finally extending its landing gear and setting down.
Marcus lowered the boarding ramp the last meter until it made contact with the platform, allowing Tug, Jalea, and Jessica to step off the ramp and onto the platform.
Jessica turned back to face the shuttle. “Josh, you and Loki stay with the ship. If we’re not back in thirty minutes, head back to the Aurora and get help.”
“Got it.”
“What about me?” Marcus asked, not sure that he wanted to hear the answer.
“Come on, tough guy. You’re with me.”
“Great.”
Jessica and Marcus followed Tug and Jalea across the platform to a small personnel hatch just to the right of the cargo doors. Tug spun the hatch lock and swung the hatch open. There was very little illumination from the shuttle’s exterior flood lights making its way into the next room, so Tug and Jalea both turned on their helmet lights as they entered. Following suit, Jessica and Marcus did the same. They stepped into the airlock and closed the hatch behind them, repeating the process to pass through the inner hatch. Once inside, they made their way down a long, dark corridor, the beams from the helmet lights dancing about the walls. After about ten meters, they came to a door marked Control.
The small control room consisted of four consoles on one side of the room and another four opposite them. Within moments, Tug was at the correct control panel and had activated the emergency lighting.
“I have activated the emergency backup power. The external communications array should be active in a few moments. It will have a limited range until the main reactor is online, which will take about an hour. So it can provide communications in the general vicinity of this asteroid only. Once the main reactor is online, we should be fully operational.”
“Shuttle, this is Nash.”
“Go ahead,” Loki answered.
“We’re good here. It’ll take about an hour to get everything powered up. Meanwhile, take off and get outside. Once you’re outside the asteroid, contact the Aurora and tell her she’s clear to approach. Transmit your scanner data back to them and then stand by until you hear from me.”
“Copy that. Taking off.”
“So what do we do now?” Marcus asked. “Sit around and wait?”
“I don’t know about you,” Jessica said, “but I’m gonna take a look around this place.”
“It should take about an hour to bring the facility fully online,” Loki reported over the comms. “So by the time you get here, it should be fully operational.”
“Copy that,” Nathan answered from his command chair on the bridge. “How were the tunnels?”
“Pretty straight, not too long, plenty of room. Shouldn’t be a problem. Plus there’s an exit tunnel on the opposite side. The toughest part is the initial turn into the tunnel. You have to come down into a crack and then slip under this massive overhang that hides the entrance. The first turn into the tunnel is a little sharp, but after that it’s no problem. He had to fight the asteroids gravity the whole time, but Tug says the whole thing is lined with gravity plating, so you’ll have a zero G environment when you get here.”
“And the main docking area? How’s that?”
“It’s huge,” Loki exclaimed. “You could park three of your ships in there.”
“Copy.” Nathan turned to Cameron, who had been standing next to him and listening to the conversation the entire time. “What’s our ETA there?”
“We can go quite a bit faster than the shuttle, so just under an hour.”
“Send us your scan data,” Nathan ordered. “We’ll be there in just under an hour.”
“Copy that. Sending scan data now.”
“Whenever you’re ready, Commander.”
“We’re receiving the scan data, Captain,” the comm-officer reported.
“Very well. Kaylah, use their scan data to build a 3D navigation map. I think we’d like to get a look at the route before we take the ship in there.”
“Yes, sir,” Ensign Yosef responded.
Cameron took the seat at the helm console and prepared to break orbit.
“I don’t suppose you need my help flying the ship?” Nathan offered.
“For a basic transfer orbit?” Cameron said. “Please, I can do this in my sleep.”
“Doctor, I assume it’s just as pointless to ask if you have escape jumps plotted?”
“Correct, it is,” Abby answered, her eyes never leaving her console.
“All right, then. As strange an order as it may seem, take us to the hideout, Commander,” Nathan ordered.
The asteroid now filled most of the main view screen as the Aurora closed in on the massive rock. Lit mostly from behind and to port, the irregular mass was riddled with shadows that were barely softened by the ships external floodlights. Cameron had slowed their closure rate as they approached and they were now nearly matched in their orbital velocities around the parent star.
“I think this place will work fine,” Jessica reported over the comms. “We’ve been through most of the main compartments, but it’s only a fraction of the entire facility. According to Tug, most of it is closed off and powered down since they never really needed it. But there’s a full space dock, with gantries and robotic arms and the like. There are also several machine and fabrication facilities. In fact, they have something similar to the 3D component printing technology that we use, only a lot more advanced from the looks of it.”
Cameron looked at Nathan from her seat at the helm, her face showing hope for the first time in days. From what she was hearing in Jessica’s initial report, the rebel hideout might be a blessing in disguise.
“Sounds good. We’re on approach now, so we should be docking shortly.”
“Yeah, we’ve got you on our scope here, so we’ll be tracking you all the way in. Nash out.”
“Captain, Shuttle One has just arrived in our hangar,” the comm-officer reported.
“Very well,” he answered. “Have them refuel and get the shuttle ready to launch again, just in case.” Nathan turned back to Cameron. “Are you ready for this, Commander?”
“Don’t worry, Nathan. This will be easy.”
“Easy? You’re about to pilot a spaceship through a tunnel in an asteroid. I don’t remember ever running any simulations on this.”
“Not to worry. I used the 3D nav-map that Kaylah assembled to plot a series of maneuvering waypoints that I programmed into the navigation system. The ship will practically fly itself through the tunnels. All I’ve got to do is get her in the front door and to the first waypoint. The computer will take it from there.”
“Very well. Take us in.”
“Aye, sir.” Cameron pushed the nose of the ship down slightly and applied a bit of forward thrust to move closer and slip down under the asteroid, rolling the ship over as they drew closer. The image of the asteroid on the main view screen moved up and then rotated over, until it was only showing along the bottom quarter of the screen and was slowly rising as they descended towards it.
Nathan moved over into the copilot’s seat as he watched the main view screen. Cameron noticed him assuming the navigator’s position with some dismay, as she had been pretty much flying the ship solo since they had arrived in this part of the galaxy.
“I’ve got this, Nathan,” she said under her breath.
“I’ll be good,” he promised quietly. “I’m just going to sit here in case you need me.” She shot a quick glance his way, not wanting to take her eyes off the console displays. “Besides,” he added. “I feel useless sitting back there.” Nathan glanced back at Cameron and noticed a slight smirk forming on her face. “Don’t start,” he warned.
Cameron slid the ship slightly farther to port in order to line her up with the crack into which they needed to descend. The flight display showed a line drawing of the basic shape of the crevice, as well as both the recommended and their actual flight paths. All she really had to do was keep to the recommended flight path until they hit the first waypoint. At that point, she could use the ship’s auto-flight system to run them through a series of maneuvers she had already programmed using the data collected by the shuttle. Although she felt confident that she could pilot the ship through the tunnels manually, there was no reason not to let the computers do the work. She was quite sure that, had Nathan been sitting at the helm, he would have chosen to fly through the tunnels on his own. Back at the Academy, she had noticed that most of the male pilots were reluctant to let the computer do any of the piloting. It was just one more thing about the male ego that she failed to understand.
As they came uncomfortably close to the asteroid’s surface, she could see Nathan becoming agitated. He kept glancing over at her, checking to see what she was doing. She was sure that he was curious about the fact that her hand never went for the manual control stick, choosing instead to do everything by computer commands.
“Picking up a change in gravity ahead, Commander,” Kaylah reported.
“Must be the zero G corridor they were talking about,” Nathan said.
“That’s affirmative, sir. I’m now reading zero gravity in the crevice, starting in about five hundred meters.”
Nathan looked down at his flight displays. “Wow. You’re going to hit your mark perfectly,” he admitted, realizing that Cameron had chosen to let the asteroid’s weak gravity field pull the ship closer at a rate that would leave them at the perfect altitude when they crossed the threshold into the artificially induced zero gravity in the crevice.
“There’s more to piloting a starship than just yanking on a joystick,” she quipped.
“I’ll have to remember that.”
The ship settled in a scant one hundred meters above the floor of the crevice as it crossed into the zero gravity channel. A small blast from the thrusters made sure that their descent stopped as they continued to crawl forward down the long, deep crack in the massive rock. Although it had appeared to be naturally occurring from orbit, up close it was obvious that much of the surface had been cut-away to make the crevice more easily navigable for larger ships. Nathan suspected that the Karuzari had been hoping to capture something as large as one of the Ta’Akar capital ships; although he wasn’t quite sure one of them would actually fit into this channel.
“Coming up on the entrance,” Nathan muttered before catching himself.
Cameron applied a slight thrust on the braking thrusters to slow the ship even further. The massive cliff faces on either side of them, visible through the main view screen, barely seemed to be moving at this point.
“There it is,” Nathan said, pointing to the left side of the screen.
Cameron didn’t react, didn’t even look up. Her attention was focused on her console as she prepared to initiate a slight turn to port. A few moments later, she fired the attitude thrusters, yawing the ship and bringing her nose slightly to port. But the ship continued to slide to starboard, still traveling along the same path it had been prior to the yaw maneuver. She simultaneously applied forward thrust as well as even bow and stern starboard thrust, thus changing the ship’s flight path to match the direction that its bow now pointed, which was directly into the massive tunnel veering off to the left of the crevice.
Nathan looked up as he watched the overhang of the tunnel entrance pass over them. The sight sent shivers down his spine. He remembered piloting the ship out of the assembly platform in orbit of Earth, watching the trusses pass overhead. But had he collided with them, the resulting damage to the ship would have been minimal. He was quite sure that any collision with this asteroid, even at their minimal velocity, would be far more serious.
“Coming up on primary waypoint,” Cameron announced as her fingers danced across her input keys. A few moments later, she tapped the final key, left her hands floating above the console for a moment, and checked that the auto-flight systems had taken over properly.
“We’re locked in,” she announced proudly. “The auto-flight system will take us the rest of the way into the main cavern. Once inside, all I have to do is slide us into position in order to make hard dock.”
“If their system will mate with ours,” Nathan reminded her.
“I’m sure if it doesn’t, Vladimir will figure out something,” Cameron assured him.