Chapter 23
They emerged on the planet of Halimar, high up on the side of a hill. Here amongst trees and tall grass was another metal sign. Jason assumed alien characters represented the same HAB 12 designation. Another access box was secured below the sign. The portal window itself was gone.
Ricket said, “To keep their locations secret, portals can be configured to be hidden, Captain.”
One thing was immediately apparent: they were anything but inconspicuous. The five fairly tall Alliance crewmembers, striking in their battle suits, were uncommon enough, but the three seven-foot-tall rhino warriors would, beyond any doubt, draw attention. Although Ricket was indeed Craing, he was unmistakably their long lost emperor. Jason had little doubt he’d be recognizable even behind his battle suit’s visor.
Jason looked out at the bustling city in the distance. A thick layer of smog, more like soot, filled the air. He had been unsure if the laser they were looking for would actually be visible. Ricket approached and stood at Jason’s side, and both gazed out at the distant horizon.
Ricket said, “Assuming the laser is powerful enough, the heating of atmospheric gasses changes its index of refraction. The difference in the index of refraction of the ionized air and that of the surrounding air could cause the light to scatter enough to be visible.” Jason looked down at Ricket and shook his head, somewhat irritated. He’d done it again. He knew what Jason was pondering.
“There,” Ricket said, pointing his mechanical-looking finger at the left horizon. A blue line stretched from ground level up to the heavens. The rest of the team converged together; all gazed up at the laser beam’s skyward trajectory.
“What’s the approximate distance?”
“Close to two hundred and fifty miles, maybe more,” Ricket replied.
“Let’s get out of sight. We need to signal Glenn’s contacts here on planet for a rendezvous. Hopefully he was able to work that out on his end,” Jason said, not sounding confident.
Ricket was quiet while looking out at the landscape below. “I’ve generated the signal, and provided our coordinates as Glenn instructed, Captain,” Ricket said.
“Now we wait and decide our next move,” Jason said, already heading off to the cover of a nearby cluster of trees.
* * *
Huddled together and out of sight, the group sat on the ground; several were leaning against trees. Impatient, Jason glanced at his HUD’s mission countdown timer again:
Dys: 00 Hrs: 5 Mins: 33
Discouraged, he stood and paced, then decided to take a walk. Startled, he nearly walked into three Craing males standing mere feet in front of him. All three held small energy rifles, which were pointed in Jason’s general direction. One spoke rapidly. He looked and sounded angry. Ricket moved in between them, his hands held up conciliatorily. Ricket spoke, but they seemed too astonished to listen. All three fell on their knees, heads bowed low. Ricket stopped talking and glanced back up toward Jason, exhibiting a rare expression of irritation.
“Are they the ones sent to meet us?” Jason asked.
“Yes, apparently they expected us yesterday; they’ve been waiting here,” Ricket replied.
“Tell them to get up … we don’t have time for any of this.”
The three Craing rose up on their own, still staring at Ricket in reverence. Ricket continued to speak to them as they intermittently gestured toward the horizon and the blue laser in the distance.
Jason, growing impatient, interrupted their chattering. “Are they going to take us?”
“Yes, but they are nervous. Their ship is small and old. They are concerned about the rhinos and their substantial weight. Also, Halimar is heavily policed. They, and others too, are politically aligned with the one you know as Glenn and his cause. But they are few in number and would face certain death if discovered. Just being here with us could be a death sentence.”
“Ask them to lead us to their ship, so we can see what they’re talking about. It can’t be that bad.”
Ricket relayed what Jason said, and they seemed agreeable to that. They took another tentative glance at the rhinos and headed off deeper into the trees. It was a quick walk before they reached a clearing to where a small craft waited.
There were several groans, and Billy was the first to speak up. “Come on, Cap. You can’t tell me this death trap is our only option.” Somewhat bug-like, the craft was obviously old. An assortment of varying-color rusted panels, perhaps from other ships, comprised its outer hull. One of its landing struts hadn’t completely deployed, which caused the ship to tilt awkwardly to one side.
As they approached, a hatch slid open mid-ship. The three Craings scurried in first. Jason waved the others to get in. “We won’t know if it’ll fly unless we try. Come on, nothing ventured …” Jason was making light of the situation, but he was more than a little leery.
The rhino warriors were the last to climb aboard. They had to stoop down on their hands and knees and crawl to the back of the already-cramped main compartment. Traveler was moving slow and his bandage oozed, his wounds infected.
Since there were no seats, Jason figured it was some sort of small delivery craft. Like Halimar’s version of a cargo van. A fourth Craing appeared from the cockpit area. Naked like the others, she must have stayed behind on the ship. Jason realized she was one of the few female Craing he had seen. Unlike the males, she had a full head of hair. She began barking orders at the other three Craings, obviously in command. Jason had been watching Dira. Since Morgan’s death, she had kept herself busy attending to Traveler, but she was uncharacteristically quiet, even withdrawn. He wanted to reach out to her, console her somehow.
“Captain, this is the ship’s commander, Gatti—she is a relative of Glenn’s. Actually, she is his niece,” Ricket said, pulling Jason back to matters at hand. “Attempts to sabotage the Loop are not all that uncommon. There is much civil unrest amongst the people of Halimar. But no one, to date, has ever been successful destroying a sub-station. If we are to have their help, they wish to discuss several things first. Primarily, they’ll want safe passage to the Craing settlement where her uncle will be. Gatti would also like to know our plan.”
“Perhaps it would be best if she’d loan us her vessel— ”
The Craing commander shook her head, apparently understanding enough of what was said without Ricket’s translation. She spoke in heavily-accented broken English, “We came too far. We all go or no one goes. Give us passage, and we trust you know what you’re doing.”
“Fine. You’ll have your passage to the settlement,” Jason answered. “As for our qualifications, know that this is what we do and what we have been trained for.” Jason waited for Ricket to translate.
With that understanding, the young Craing commander withdrew into the cockpit and sat at the controls. She had pulled her long black hair into a ponytail and it swung back and forth as she moved. After several false starts, the main drive caught and noisily droned in the background. The vessel shook and the drives kicked into a high-pitched whirling sound. Through a small window on the hatch, Jason could see the ship had left the ground, but it seemed to momentarily stall. Then, with a jolt, the craft lifted higher and was headed in the direction of the laser.
Having to yell over the noise and looking at the three male Craings, Jason asked Ricket, “What can they tell us about the location? What’s security like?” The three Craings talked amongst themselves and Ricket for a brief spell. While they conversed, Jason huddled close with Billy and Orion. “What are our weapons, our multi-guns, capable of now that we’re on Halimar?” Jason asked.
“Captain, our weapons have a full load of rail and missile projectile munitions,” Orion replied, “but they are finite. Once you’re out, you’re out. Energy weapon settings will operate same as before.”
Turning his attention back to Ricket and the three Craings, Jason enquired again about the layout. Ricket explained, “It’s commonly referred to as the Loop sub-station. Although the numbers can vary, there are never less than seventy-five armed guards or sentries within and around the outer perimeter. The compound itself is fortified behind sixty-foot-high concrete walls and multiple turret-mounted plasma cannons.”
“Any weaknesses?” Jason asked.
“None that they are aware of,” Ricket said. “They again asked if we are confident we will have success?”
Billy spoke up, “Just tell them not to worry. We have been trained for this type of thing,” Jason looked at the young Craing dissidents and tried to look as confident as possible. He glanced at his HUD’s mission countdown readout. Time was quickly running out. They now had less than three hours. Jason suspected the Emperor’s Guard would be making preparations or already underway to enter the worm hole. “How close are we?” he asked.
The cabin noise changed pitch. They were descending. Looking out the hatch window, the Loop sub-station was clearly in view. The laser was massive. A consistent hum and vibration filled the air. Then it stopped.
He looked again through the window. The bright blue beam of the laser was gone. “What the hell happened? Why’s it off?” Jason asked, alarm in his voice.
The three Craing males looked to one another, confused, then spoke rapidly to Ricket.
“They said this is common and not to worry. The laser is turned off for maintenance at least once a day,” Ricket replied.
“Then how will destroying it make any damn difference?”
Ricket listened to them, spoke back a few short sentences, and turned to Jason. “They are unsure what the problem is, but Glenn was well aware of it. They’re not sure why we are just learning of this shutdown now—they want to know how it will impact our mission,” Ricket said, translating their comments to Jason.
“What mission? Obviously, not all the lasers need to be operational simultaneously. And the truth is, that actually makes sense. Of course they would need to have the ability to make repairs, do maintenance work, or have a back-up at the ready in case someone does something like we’re planning to do,” Jason said.
The hatch slid open and everyone scrambled out of the tight compartment. They had set down in a rural farm area—what looked to be some kind of vegetable field. At no more than five miles away, the grey Loop sub-station compound loomed nearby. The sky was bright with three neighboring planets suspended overhead.
Jason walked several paces into the field, still looking up, “Those lasers, they’re not stationary?”
“No. Even though we are at the planet’s southern-most pole, the laser, all their lasers, are always tracking the convergence point in space. They constantly move, rotating and pivoting.”
Jason said, “What if we don’t destroy this facility?”
Ricket was now looking up as well.
“What if we use this laser to destroy the others? Use it as a weapon. Would that be possible?” Jason asked.
“No. Couldn’t destroy them all, but perhaps several,” Ricket replied. “I would need the specific coordinates of each of the seven planet sub-stations. I would also need access to their overall system control AI,” Ricket said, looking back up at Jason. Behind his helmet’s visor, his illuminated-face again revealed more expression than Jason was used to.
“You’d need to hack their network.”
“Yes, and most assuredly they will have numerous safeguards in place.”
“Can you do it?”
“I designed it.”
“What do you mean you designed it?” Jason asked. The rest of the group had migrated over to where they were standing.
“Captain, I believe I was the scientist, the one who designed this system in the first place.”
“That must have been hundreds of years ago, Ricket. How—”
“Two hundred and thirty, to be exact. My memories, for the most part, have been wiped. With that said, it was necessary to leave core-level sub-routines—required for me to maintain a minimal sense of continuity and time. Although specific events, memories, are gone, I have been able to build new logic paths and make qualified assumptions about my past. In all likelihood, it was my work as a scientist, and the eventual construction of the Loop, that subsequently lead to me becoming emperor.”
“Everyone knows this. Emperor Reechet, of course, was the Loop scientist,” Gatty interjected. “Your story is taught to our young in school at early age.”
Jason, at this point, was not surprised by news of another incredible Ricket accomplishment. He found it interesting how quickly Gatty picked up their language, and again, how Ricket’s expression was becoming more animated. “The Craing have a unique aptitude for languages, Captain … they are highly-intelligent people. Back on board Craing warships, I learned they typically speak hundreds of languages—it comes easily for them.” Ricket turned his attention back to the sub-station.
“Gatty, what do you know about the inside layout of the sub-station?” Jason asked. “I questioned Glenn if facility schematics could be provided.”
Gatty looked perplexed and crossed her arms under her breast. “No, we have nothing like that. How could we? A stupid question.”
Rizzo, off to the side of the group, chuckled—quieting when Jason glanced his way.
Speaking to the group, Jason said, “We need to get in closer before we phase-shift. We’ll go in with a small team, do some reconnaissance. Ricket, my HUD’s picking up several large crafts in the area, perhaps Craing battle cruisers?”
“Correct, Captain. My long-range sensors, which I might add operate quite effectively here, tell me there is a military base less than twenty miles from our current position. Stationed there are eight light-destroyers and three heavy battle cruisers—not to mention an array of many smaller vessels. There are fifteen thousand, two hundred three combat-capable vessels in Craing space, including three warships, and although smaller, they have similar signatures to The Lilly. They comprise, undoubtedly, the Emperor’s Guard.”
“Cap, we have little more than minutes before all hell drops down on us,” Billy said. “And it sounds like you, Ricket, will need time to interface with their network. How’s this going to work?”
Jason looked in the direction of the sub-station. Using his HUD’s zoom optics, he could make out more detail. Overall it appeared to be about the size of the U.S. Pentagon building—an immense structure. Octagonal in shape, there were four outside wall watch-tower turrets; each was covered and had some sort of pivoting energy weapon. A fifth watch tower rose from the back of the compound, nearly twice as high as all the others. It also had its own compliment of independent energy weapons. “Billy, Orion, Ricket, you’re with me. Traveler, sorry, you’re in no shape for this.”
“My legs are fine, Captain,” he replied.
Jason looked to Dira.
She shrugged. “No way, he’s got some kind of infection. He can barely walk.” Dira looked apologetically over to Traveler.
“Okay, Stands in Storm, you’re with us. Traveler—hang back with the team here. Rizzo, you’re team leader—stay on comms and let me know what’s happening if the shit hits the fan.”
“Aye, Cap.”
“I go with you,” Gatty said with her hands on her hips.
“No, too dangerous. We have battle suits and are trained for this stuff. Stay with your ship, be prepared to get out of here at a moment’s notice,” Jason said, but liking the little Craing woman’s moxie. With that said, he and his small team headed off across the open field in the direction of the sub-station. Jason received a hail.
“Go for Captain.”
“How come you never say goodbye, Jason?”
Jason was caught off-guard by how much he enjoyed the sound of her voice. “I’ll see you soon, Dira.”
The ground started to vibrate again. Ozone filled the air. In a burst, the laser shot up towards the heavens.
Jason opened a channel to his group. “Ricket, can your sensors provide some kind of facility layout?”
“Somewhat, Captain … nowhere near what The Lilly would be capable of, but I can detect walls and open areas.”
“We’ll need a drop location. Somewhere that’s not showing a lot of traffic,” Jason said. At three miles out, Jason signaled for them to hold up.
“I’ve forwarded a virtual layout,” Ricket said. “It’s an approximation of the facility. I’ve gone ahead and marked the probable location where the facility’s network communications hub most likely is. Massive amounts of data are being funneled through there.”
“I see it. I also see a hell of a lot of Craing. What’s this area you’ve outlined in blue—looks to be subterranean?” Jason asked.
“I don’t know for sure, but it gets virtually no traffic and it’s fairly close to the network hub,” Ricket replied.
“Guess there’s only one way to find out. Can you provide me coordinates specific enough that I don’t phase-shift into a wall or something else?”
“I believe so, Captain; I’ve already configured your HUD settings.”
“Got it. You hang tight here until you hear from me. If everything’s clear, the rest of you can follow.” Jason phase-shifted away.