Giant of the Stars

A sci-fi novel by Sándor Nagy

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1. Prelude - Giant of the Stars

• “Sir, its your turn, 2 minutes” — told the bailiff to John as he was sipping his coffee, barely looking up as just another day in the never-ending litigations after the accident.

Accident, the word repeated in his mind over and over again, the loss of so many lives, an old but expensive and sturdy ship over at [REDACTED] system. Even my thoughts are redacted from the official records! The place is so big of a secret, why would not any other part of the story?

Some data never lined up, but could not figure out an explanation, yet… soft door opening interrupted his thoughts, looking up from his notes, coffee cream still on his lips, the bailiff nods to him and waves to join. Time is up, jury and judge wanna hear the expert testimony. He stood up with some melancholy, when these gonna end… cleaned his lips with a linen cloth that he sheeted seamlessly into his pocket, bit of fix of his hair as he was entering the room.

Stopped halfway toward the witness chair, one hand in air, reciting the oath to tell the truth and only the truth while bright light and repeated flashes bothered his eye. The media was all over the mystery of this case, what mystery? The crew was incompetent as almost all of them, the ship was half-old, maintained on a dime as the corporation heads getting out all the money they can. Run on the mill case as his usual investigations went, just as the litigations were usually senseless, never putting the actual responsible decision makers on trial.

Sat down in the witness chair, a touch screen front of him blipping to life as the prosecutor takes the podium starts to questions:

• “Please state your name for the record”
• “John J. Sotomayor” — he responds in his baritone ready to dive in as a high-school professors lecture.
• “What are your credentials?” — the prosecutor continues to build the foundation for him to deliver the full testimony.

Few minutes back and forth of boring listing of his achievements from the degrees he acquired to the lengthy history of his record testimonials in cases such as this one, John looks over to the jury, 18 random citizens of the colonies, some wearing ties and glasses, the others any day clothing, as much as they could afford to look to their best.

Hope those glasses are not augmented, or this testimony worth even less of anyones time, John thinking to himself, as those glasses could gather information from the net without a single command of their wearers and would lead to mistrial and start with new set of jury later.

• “What was your task in relation to this trial?” — comes the monotone voice of the prosecutor.
• “Nothing specific from the trial or the lawyers”
• “Then why were you called as witness?” — still only the foundations being built up.
• “I was the lead investigator from the GTSB assigned to the case of the Giant of the Stars luxury liner, and one of the co-signers of the final report delivered 3 years after the incident.” — from the corner of his eye, he noticed at least some respectful nodding in the ranks of the jury.
• “Thank you, so, can you lead us through the findings delivered in the final report? Amy, can you please pull up evidence 1234-A from plaintiff, page 789…” — many screens in the room and over the live streamed media blips up with the few bullet points — “Thank you, can we please blow up the full second paragraph”
• “Yes, of course, … “

As the paragraphs became readable for all, John was reminiscing for the first day he arrived at the accident scene…

2. Another day at the office

• Ding-dong, “Arrival in 1 minute” — passenger announcement brought John out of his deep reading.

His assignment arrived weeks ago to his inbox with attachments of ship specifications, logs of station communications, everything easy to collect but nothing that can tell what actually happened to the ship, that is his job to find out. It isn’t his first barbecue though as serving for the Galactic Transportation Safety Board for his entire adult life, leading dozens of investigations, he knew he need to find evidence in the wreckage.

Just as he memorized the relative positions of a hundred data and voice recorders positioned over the vast ship lost in the accident, his thoughts were interrupted by the flight attendant prompting him to put away the large electronics. Old protocols die hard, however exiting from faster-than-light travel was comparable to those old airplanes’ landing. Just as said, felt the slight vibrations on deceleration.

Looking out the window to his left, seeing the stars blurring back to dots instead of wooshing lines, a moment after that noticed another passenger shuttle just like his chartered one passing by, “little bit too close” thought to himself as he heard a muffled beep-beep from the cockpit. Recognizing the proximity alert in it, John got his confirmation, he is as precise in estimations as he ever was. A soft, practiced voice came on:

• “Dear passengers, we are docking in 10 minutes at the FNA carrier stationed in orbit, for those who continue to other destination, we wish a safe and relaxing journey, thank you all for choosing our services!”

John was fiddling with the onboard entertainment system and managed to switch to external sensors and while these screens were rudimentary, he was eager to learn more about the situation with his own eyes, scrolling and zooming all around, he could see that the majority of the structure was still in tact on the moon’s surface. Surprising, true, not even improbable if they managed to slow down the drift before impact, will see more from the examination of the wreckage around the impact sites. John can see hundreds of smaller vessels like bee hives working around the wreck, drawing lines to and from the carrier and the surface, rarely if ever seen this monumental operation though for his knowledge, this scale of event never happened in human history.

The Federal Navy Arm’s carrier was still orbiting the wreckage and coordinating clean-up months after the incident mainly ended, as the shuttle was taken to berth and secured in an internal docking pier exposing them to minimal, almost no gravity as the vast carrier body was spinning to provide long term living space on the outer hull. John clicked open his seatbelt with one hand, took his personal bag with the another and got up so fast, the flight attendant almost jumped to get out of way. John barely noticed people around him when this excited, with fast and confident pushes he was out the shuttle an in the hallway toward the dock center, a cadet shouting:

• “John Sotomayor?” — actually the cadet had to pursue him,
• “Please wait, follow me to…”
• “The flight deck? Need to get to the surface as soon as possible, are you the guide assigned?”
• “Yes, and yes, to the left at next”

They were flying through tubes that served as passenger hallways, getting closer and closer to the outer hull and feeling an increase in gravity, allowing them shortly to walk on their feet next to each other. John still in a hurry, asking:

• “What are those ships doing out there?”
• “Mostly salvage crew from ISV, they started to tear apart the wreckage for metals and reusable equipment, sir.” — a well-informed cadet on the point.
• “They have to stop now, evidence is already damaged as it is. How can I communicate with the bridge?”
• “Just enter 111 while you are on-board, sir.”
• “Drop the ‘sir’ part please, call me John” — reminds me of being old, last part only thought to himself, quickly entered the numbers on his watch, his contact lense showing the outgoing call and response coming through his earring from the Shipmaster:
• “We were waiting you, Mister Sotomayor, hope our cadet found you and please before you leave drop by the bri…”
• “You need to order the civilian ships to immediately stop the salvage operation” — interrupted the shipmaster — “Excuse me, each second counts”
• “All right, issuing order.” — switching to the carrier’s comm center, an immediate buzz and chatter from all ships around as they have to halt their operation InterStellar Vacations ordered them to do, though no-one had the guts to deny a Navy carrier’s command.

Few minutes later John and the cadet arrived to the bridge, dozens of officials around screens barking orders in monotonous voice, only a few people standing out of the crowd at the center, much less talking, more listening, the Shipmaster, acting as fleet commander, the first mate and second mate, next to her. The Shipmaster, a brunette lady in her forties looked up from her screen toward the entering investigator, sipped from her coffee and dropped a side-look:

• “Would appreciate some politeness on a first call but I understand the hurry.” — snarked at the investigator. — “Most ships acknowledged and stood down, but I believe we located 3 small vessels still operating in the wreckage. And a shuttle is ready in bay A for you.”
• “Thank you m’am, any other activities going on?” — and John turned toward the exit immediately
• “There are still dozens of mobile hospitals working with long term patient care, however we don’t expect more survivors at this point”
• “Understood” — barked back to the shipmaster as he left, cadet still following in his wake.

He did this part so many times, not even remembering all details, few moments later he was already at the crash site on the surface and the shuttle bringing him down was gone with the pilot and cadet, leaving him alone in the bustling central hospital, the facility closest to the wreck’s secured entry points. His first objective, finding one working data and voice recorder and start from there, remembering from the blueprints, there are 4 units close to the entry point, he took his environmental suit and walked out to the cold vacuum toward the once beautiful lines of the largest luxury liner ever built.

He got a dozen calls on his way here, even as high up from the GTSB board of directors, whom he never talked with in his decades of service, so feeling the pressure to find out what happened that caused so many lives lost, his steps toward the entry seemed longer and longer. And not just the lower gravity of the moon and the bulkiness of the suit, the immense feeling of a turning point of his career slowed him to almost a crawl. A group of workers with their bright orange environmental suits jumped passed by him to the other direction as they finished their shift, they seemed careless to him as the near-range radio of John’s suit played the group’s laughing and chatter though he could not understand a word.

“Let’s focus on the task at hand” thought to himself and regained footing as he entered the wreckage, arrived to a pressurized area again. His mind back in the moment again. Quickly located the supposed positions of the recorders. A quick jump to arrive at the first column, opening the hatch. First recorder is broken to pieces, another jump. Second hatch opened in moments, empty space behind.

Third hatch did give easily as the plate deformed, using his multi-tool, prying open the hatch revealed another recorder smashed to pieces. He took photos and video recordings for later analysis, though so far no luck.

• Bang, bang… — loud metallic noise reaches John from the direction his memory pointed for the next recorder, as he approaches and counts 6 more bangs, notices another worker in the distance, hammering a column that might hold a working recorder.
• “Stop!” — shouts John into the near-field radio, but the figure swings again, bang, bang…

John flies into the worker, knocking both of them down a few meters along the wall, the frightened worker swings again and John flies to the other direction a few meters, feeling burn and pain in his side, a thump in his back as he lands, but he is up in a moment to wave stop and lower his both arms signaling he is not a danger. The worker raises his hand and shows two fingers, then three and the old call sign putting his hand to his head.

John takes a few moments to realize, then quickly turns a knob, his radio is now on channel 23,

• “What the hell, man, who are you? Scared the drop out of me”
• “I’m investigator John Sotomayor, GTSB, I had to stop you, a vital data recorder is in that column you were hitting” — seems the worker is now frozen, can’t see his face through the tinted helmet glass though.

Next moment, the worker swings again toward John, now aiming to the head and while it connects and knocks him down, the helmet does not crack, it still takes seconds for John to recover from his stun, by this time the worker is gone. John gets up and opens the last hatch, the recorder is seemingly intact as he removes it from the cushion bed, and so he takes some photos again.

He takes a small device from his vest pocket and connects to the recorder. His old habit to optimize for efficiency and to avoid data loss as much as possible, the small device connects the recorder to his GTSB computer and slowly starts copying from the beginning. Quantum entanglement comms are not cheap, but a friend of his works as an engineer and custom made a pair for him as a birthday present. As the pair of the drives work to move data bit by bit over 40 light years, he hears multiple steps coming toward him.

3. Riding on a high life

Dan was staring out the window of his elevated pit box overlooking the arena. His pit box was special, the actual concert could be dampened to make business deals and meetings feasibly while an event was underway. He was still alone at the moment, playing with the room controls, turning the dampening on and off. It was some pop concert with full house, people having good time, he could hear the upbeat music, a higher than usual woman voice singing some love song.

He saw the rhythmic background dancers, they were humans in the flash while the singer’s figure in the middle vibrated with frequency, a hologram presenting her hand-drawn figure onto the stage. The show’s backdrop were the whooshing stars creating randomized lines behind the dancers as the luxury liner where he lived his life was passing the vast space between the spiral arms of the Milky-way.

Sliding door opened for short moments as 3 men poured in, a slightly louder music radiating in with them. Dan’s pulse increased, he expected only one, maybe two men max, something is off. He recognized the leading one, he was the same guy he made the deal weeks ago when they agreed to meet here, without wingmen to bring. Though Dan was not naive to believe they will be only one on one, three was unusual even for his experience.

• “Do you have the data?” — no hail or smalltalk from any of these men.
• “Yes, as we agreed, compressed and encrypted.” — Dan could not really distinguish the three men from each other so kept talking to the middle one.

Same dark, short haircut, even their faces looked similar, tall and squared chins, thin mouth, the leader had a double golden circle earring, while the others had only a golden spot, seemingly communicating rank in this group, the more eloquent your ear piece might mean higher role. Dan kept his look and body oriented to the leader, in the dark room which was rarely shined in with the concert lights made it a vain attempt to record their biometrics anyway. The current song finale brightened the arena, a short glimpse to the men’s neck in the light revealed a fish tattoo on the leader, and sword tattoos on his wingmen for a moment.

• “As soon as the download finished, you get fifty percent on your account.” — sounded an intimidating baritone
• “That is not what we agreed on!” — whipped Dan back
• “Terms changed. Boss wants to verify the data before full payment.” — as he was talking, he pulled a data port out of his neck and gestured toward Dan, now a cable leading from his hand.

Dan was getting more alert, but he can play this game. Pulled out his data port too and attached it to the another guy’s.

• “Here you go” — the connection was over in a second and Dan pulled his port back.
• “These are only a few files” — sounding with some surprise from the fish tattoo.
• “These are enough for your boss to verify the signatures, after that I can download you the entire package when you paid the agreed amount” — Dan sounded confident despite his nerves jumping on a rope, he knew they outnumber and outgun him.

The men with the sword tattoos got up from their chairs, one of them was pulling a gun from his waistline.

• “Hey guys, no need for this, keep to our agreement and no-one needs to be hurt” — though Dan’s cracking voice did not help to convey confidence anymore
• Bamm… the gun was fired, bullet barely missed Dan’s head

Dan throw himself to the ground and kicked up a few chairs toward his attackers, touched his watch to warn his wingmen hoping he can join before these guys put some holes into him. Though he did not stop, growing up on the streets and getting into his fair share of trouble already, he knew if he stays down, he has no chance. You can’t outrun a gun so only option to fight, Dan throw himself into the second guy who was unable to pull his gun yet.

Door opened, the fish tattoo guy left and a moment later Fred, Dan’s man arrived to the door, quickly realizing the first guy is still holding a gun getting up to shoot again, Fred jumped to him grabbing his hand, another shot into the ground. Noone outside heard anything as the damping field was for two ways and the concert’s loud music covered the remaining noise.

One moment Dan and Fred were fighting for their lives, the another the world turned upside down and they flew into the back of the room, knocking them unconscious.

Dan got his senses back in a few seconds, still not able to understand what happened, looked around, everything was floating in the air, the men’s body lifeless and full of shrapnels and glass, blood popping out but not leaving anywhere. His luck was the guy he fought with was toward the blown glass window.

Dan realized if there is no gravity, than they stopped, but he never experienced such an abrupt stop from FTL speed, he looked over the place where the glass window was before, as the lights went off, leaving him in full darkness.

Except the dots of stars from the other side of the arena, before emergency lighting came back up.

4. Darkest of the hours

Dan was coming back to his senses, could breathe normally, meaning they did not lose atmosphere, yet, weightlessness signaled that the ship stopped accelerating to any direction. Living on this ship for two earth years at this point, Dan was confused, this state the passengers could enjoy only at port navigation or special occasions.

This time there was no public announcements, no warnings, and if they planned to stop anywhere for an extended period, the ship hull, the main drum would spun up by hundreds of engines to provide earth-like gravity. This was a well practiced process, while the minutes passed, nothing happened, just darkness and silence.

Mostly silence, a few screams and moaning could be heard in Dan’s room, coming from the audience area, but Dan could not focus yet, feeling sharp pain in his side, his watch alerting to elevated blood pressure and hearth beat, he knew he was injured. Though he could move with bearable pain, even he knew that in space, any injure can become fatal due to internal bleeding and the body’s inability to heal the wound.

His survival instinct kicked in, the noise of the thousands injured came into sharp contrast just as a weird whistling sound from same direction. He pushed himself to float to the window where he looked at the VR concert earlier, but in the darkness of space could not see much, let alone the source of the sound. Could this whistling be a leak? thought Dan when emergency lighting with its bare cold white dimmed to life, mostly along walkways, fluorescent signs showing the evacuation paths, though these were designed for localized fire or other incidents, not whatever they were going through right now.

Took few more seconds to accustom to the now bright lights, as the atmosphere was rushing out along a few cracks on the hundreds of meters observation deck behind the concert stage, now Dan noticed the thousands of shrapnels all over the reinforced see-through aluminum and glass. These shrapnels had different color than the walls and structure around Dan, thought it could be only paint outside, somehow this detail disturbed him, these shrapnels came from somewhere else but they had kilometers of the ship on both sides, a huge force would need to push these through.

Looked down to the few lines of chairs near him, saw dozens of bodies that were not moving, almost all of them were thrown around like rag-dolls, barely any of them in a seat, noticed a few bodies shivering, a few quiet calls for help, some words he could not recognize either for language he did not speak or for the gurgling through blood.

The seconds became minutes as the shock and his injuries slowed him down mentally and physically, he knew the cracks will worsen over time until the whole thing fails. Typically bulkheads should drop and close around areas losing pressure to protect the wider ship even if it means trapping people inside, this time without enough power the bulkheads could not close. As the whistling became louder and louder, Dan pushed himself out of the room, toward the back of the concert building.

If he can just get through the hallway, to the entry and assembly hall, he could manually close one of the bulkheads before the inevitable collapse. A sad side-glimpse on his friend, Fred frozen in blood, half of his face deformed by the blown glass, he was not as lucky as Dan, as most around him suffered similar fates, thrown into the ceiling or back-walls, breaking neck and skulls, shrapnels cutting them up and blood just collecting on their bodies as fluids won’t detach in weightlessness.

• “Anyone? Climb toward the exit!” — he shouted back into the auditorium, a desperate idea knowing that even if they hear him, likely can’t move from their injuries.

Flying through the unlucky ticket master’s body, now the whistling was almost deafening and Dan started to feel some pull back to the auditorium, had to climb on the sliders to get ahead, simple pushes were not enough, not much time left before collapse, he rolled over the side of a bulkhead and tried to push it in. The vacuum behind the door was keeping it in place. He opened the manual override hatch and released the vacuum seal. A year ago he worked down in the docks for a while, many accidents lead to workers lost to the vacuum of space, actually Fred pulled him out of a trouble once.

No time to reminiscence now, he pushed the door again but it barely buckled with all his strength that could be mustered right now. A shape was closing in from the hallway under the door, now under, as his orientation changed with the now howling wind rushing through him downward, the shape became a body, climbing slowly up, few moments and it was at the door, rolling over just as he did a few moments ago, he looked at the woman, surprised that she could make the climb,

• “Help push this in!” — Dan shouted to her face as he could now barely hear his own thoughts, this pulled the woman out of her moment

Together they could push in the door and Dan dogged it, using the manual valve to seal it and the abrupt silence sat between the two survivors, both inhaling deeply from the exercise, their shock and confusion what still happened and their surprise that anyone else survived.

Their staring of each other was only broken by an immediate silence from behind the bulkhead signaling that the observation deck finally gave way. They both could imagine the devastation and bodies now falling into deep space, movies and VR entertainment, the news often showed disturbing scenes like this. Though the scope of those events were never this large, the auditorium had four thousand seats.

• “I am Dan” — broke the silence
• “Call me Ava” — young lady’s voice, her blue eyes looked back at Dan, who had a strange feeling, could feel coldness from her stare though shock may do strange things to people.
• “We have to go, find help, are you hurt?” — Dan was usually a lone wolf, still, he never rejected a situational alliance, they could help each other to get to safety and figure out what happened.
• “I am fine, but you are not” — Dan could not figure out how she knew his broken ribs without any visible signs but they had no time for this.

As now the wind was no more, they could float again, which made their progress easier, though seeing no other survivors for minutes, they continued their way toward the ship stern as Ava pointed out the shrapnels were all flying that direction, indicating whatever happened, it happened at the bow of the ship.

Squeezing through debris for an hour, pushing themselves over long corridors, opening and resealing bulkheads as they went, the continuous efforts took huge toll on Dan, he could move much harder and draw faster and faster breaths, just hyperventilated and the world became dark again around him as he lost consciousness turning at a corner now hundreds of meters from the auditorium.

5. Location unknown

• “Catch!” — Vincent shouted to his boy as he threw the baseball. It was easy, they were in no acceleration, no rotation, just enjoying the weightless life.

• “Dad!” — slang the ball back.

• “Yes, Eddy?”

• “When do we come back to the Orion nebula?” — the ball went past the frozen Vincent, this is the first time his son asked something like this.

• “Why? Do you want to come back?” — to this shithole of a colony, continued his thought without letting it through.

• “Yes, I met with some friends”

• “Oh, I get it, any of them were a girl?” — snarky smile of Vincent, knew this time will come around at one point, though still young of his son, few years and he can’t keep him back. Or they need to settle somewhere, as the small crew of his hauler did not hold much opportunity for his son to socialize.

The thoughts gave him the shiver, and a pair of arms locked around him, as he looked onto his wife, hugging him, knew she thought of the same. This topic of settling came up again and again between them, sometimes leading to arguing too. Nothing serious though Vincent had a growing nervousness, he was living his dream life being free among the stars, met Maria the same way when his junk of a ship broke down at a port.

• “Cap, incoming message from Zodiak stations” — cracking sound through the public announcer by the second shipmate, he ran the ship while they were off-duty.
• “Coming” — replied Vincent, kissed Maria in a quick moment and pushed himself out of the cargo hold they spent their time in.
• “Status, Greg” — Vincent asked his second shipmate as he entered the bridge.
• “Usual, we are at normal cruising speed, only running the Alcubierre drives, no ion, cycle operating normally, no debris on screens, corrected a point one percent drift to starboard around an hour ago.” — in his baritone Greg downloaded status to his captain. — “And Zodiak-12 on emergency channel, listen to their message, cap.”

Vincent in the meantime sat to the second chair and belted himself in, a safety precaution he always did, at this point unconsciously, and pulled up his touch screen, opened emergency messages.

• “Another drift, does any of the rings at risk of failing?” — Vincent chatted while the message opened, these quantum entanglement devices can take a while to load up a concise message.
• “No, they read nominal in all data, and we just had class A maintenance a month ago.”
• “This is Zodiak-12, Saggitarius station to all ship en-route to Perseus Arm, keep an eye out there, we received emergency signals from the Giant of the Stars liner, we are determining the severity now, possible request to search-and-assist will be issued shortly.”

Pulled up the mentioned liner on the ship database, Vincent could see it is a massive ship with tens of thousands of souls on board. Though his first thoughts were about that ship may just took the wrong turn at the Pleiades, if it would be a large problem, they would have issued a mayday already.

In the meantime on Zodiak station, the astronomers and data crunchers of the military intelligence service were frantically compiling the data that was coming in, they could not locate the ship, nor they could figure out the nature of the emergency. While the station was part of the top-of-the-line defense perimeter around the Solar system, still operated by humans. At the time of the signals coming into Zodiak station, they were operating in night mode and the senior leadership were all sleeping in their quarters, the younger night shift was unsure if the situation warranted to wake them so he skipped and urged the crew to figure out more.

Twelve hour later, Vincent being on the bridge and holding the conn while Marie monitoring their progress, another incoming message on the emergency channel popped up:

• “This is Zodiak-12, Saggitarius station to all ship en-route between Perseus and Saggitarius arm, can’t establish contact with Giants of the Stars liner and can’t locate at the moment. Last known position and the planned route is in attachment. We issue mayday on behalf of Giants of the Stars, nearest ships are ordered to change course and commence search. Report to Zodiak-12 immediately on contact.”

Vincent and Maria exchanged a worried look, and Marie confirmed, they are very close to the route, they now officially have to react to the emergency.

• “Okey, ship log, we are rendering assistance to mayday from Zodiak-12 on behalf of Giants of the Stars, Maria, do we need to change course?” — he said hiding some of his excitement for the rare events in deep space, unknowing how severe the situation is on the stricken ship.
• “.5 degrees on two axis, we should slow down and reorient” — Maria’s monotone voice was not showing any emotions, as she was usually in this mental state during work.
• “Let’s do that, all stop, new direction as your calculations… Estimated time until contact?” — the slow hauler and the crew did their job, a routine maneuver and they were en route to contact.
• “Based on their route, at this time they should be almost entering Perseus Arm, just around two days in front of us”

Two days is a very long time in a life and death situation, though all people in deep space knew the nature of it out here, the new age of vast distance and its challenges.

6. If you look too long to the depth…

Dan slipped in and out of consciousness. A moment he saw a dead body deformed and floating by it, the next darkness, then again, a moment of Ava holding him and pulling, her scent reminded him of a few years spent on a planet before this ship, maybe a spring flowering. Though his mind slipped again as an undecipherable shouting reached them.

Coming to senses again to look to Ava’s eyes closely, instead of the coldness he saw darkness now. A darkness that was somehow flowing like a light breeze moves the dark sea against the climbing sun, then the darkness just enveloped him as he fall down to it rapidly.

Next moment he woke up with pain, laying in a bed, feeling two straps around his body loosely holding him down. His side in pain, slow to think and move, around him the room was as busy as a mall on Saturday evening. People flowing in from one direction, a few who seemed to be examining them then directing their move to other ways or pulling those who are seriously injured to a bed. A muffled scream pulled Dan’s look to his right, a guy being operated in zero-g without painkillers or anesthetics, just a cloth in his mouth to block him from biting down his own tongue.

Ava floated gently to him from a corner where she waited so far out of sight, out of way,

• “The docs stabilized your bleeding for now” — Dan could not form any words yet, still fixated on the desperate scene — “But you won’t heal without gravity”

Dan knew, he lived out here on the ship for years, one of the basics everyone learns from first safety instructions then sees countless times, a smallest of injuries with internal bleedings can just be stabilized for a while without healing as the body needs gravity to drain and to have proper blood clotting.

• “How long was I out?”
• “Roughly an hour, we pulled you here with the messenger’s help, if he does not come to our way, we would have no chance to find the docs” — Ava’s dry monologue though conveyed caring words, was devoid of emotions.
• “Any news from the crew? What happened to the ship?” — Dan still too dizzy to pay too much attention beside the words of Ava
• “Nothing, I would assume some explosion, the deceleration must have been a surprise to everyone, none of the comms work, the docs said they send out the able to act as messengers and try to get injured survivors and necessary supplies here”

As a small gurgling pulled Dan’s look back to the unfortunate guy under operation, the doc just confirmed death and moved away, he spotted the fish tattoo on his neck.

• “Shit!” — slipped from Dan’s half open mouth
• “A dozen died at least while we are here”
• “Not about that, help me a bit” — Dan frantically opened his strap

Ava had no idea what Dan meant so just observed him air-jumping to the dead guy, pulling his own data port out and connecting to him.

• “This guy tried to kill me before the accident, I need to get some info before his connection decomposes. I have a few seconds only. Ava! Count to 10 and pull out my port if I don’t do anything!” — and with that Dan’s grace faded as he focused to the data connection.

He avoided this at any other circumstances due to the immense risk of brain damage, feedback from the decomposing connection can fry his own dataport and that would be unfortunate result for a data broker like him. He hoped Ava can be trusted, as she already saved him instead of just leaving his unconscious butt in the corridors. Even if not, he had to risk it.

These data connections are like child’s game, you just think of what you want or need and the system interprets the intent, if someone has a more expensive port, it may check for actual access rights, not just give out anything to anyone, or fun extra features like secondary chips containing your ID and will for the authorities to recover. On-the-market data ports block connections close to brain death, but this guy had a black market one with no such protections. Dan was copying files as quickly as he could, the data port got a bit warm too after a second. Then the flow of data decreased to almost a halt and Dan was looking into the darkness again. As its waves now targeted him, getting closer and washing away his body from the beach, losing his firm standing in the ensuing storm.

Then the whole thing stopped and he was again back in the bustling infirmary, Ava pulled the connection, even a bit earlier. They stared into each other, eyes locked for moments. In the meantime, Dan’s data port analyzed and summarized the data and put to his eyesight, though only in his mind, the results:

• Downloaded fifty gigabytes, forty percent unencrypted footage from the last 24 hours
• Met with 6 people, 2 unidentified as they had anonymizing tech, remaining are …

The list of names were unfamiliar for Dan except Fred, as he was in the list, due to the fight. Dan focused on his follow up questions and the system interpreted the intent again, printing the info, each of the people’s first time this guy met and related low-quality footage. Fred’s timestamp stood out for Dan immediately, as it was 18 hours earlier then it should be so he looked into the footage for a few seconds:

• “Okey, deal, but you can’t hurt him!” — Fred said into the camera directly.
• “Deal, here is your scoop. Enjoy.” — The sound was weird as it wrapped around in his head, still he recognized it as the leader of the thugs he had dealings earlier.

So Fred sold me out for drugs, great — Dan drew the conclusion quickly, he knew his friend had some problems lately this still hurt him to the core. Ava grabbed his shoulders:

• “We can’t stay here”
• “Yeah, but where to go?” — Dan recognized the place Fred and the thug were talking, down in the docks, not a place he wanted to visit this time.
• “You have a data port, can you control the ship systems with it?”
• “Worked in the docks, may still have access to some of the low level systems”
• “Good enough for a start” — and she pushed him toward the exit — “Let’s find a working control panel”

7. The depth may stare back into you

As Dan floated toward the exit from the infirmary filled with terrified muffled screams, crescendo of exhausted gasps with an undertone of arrythmic wheezing, a doc in white robe splattered with red all around grabbed his shoulder:

• “…” — the doc’s barely could talk, his eyes stared long, chin slightly dropped, eyelids falling and rising slowly — “We need gravity, or many of us won’t survive the next days” — Dan looked around the infirmary for the first time.

Dozens of people stuck to makeshift beds, a few straps holding them in their frenzied, shocked states, one of them trying to open his strap again and again. His slipping hand could not make a grab, his foggy mind could not understand why pushing it down does not open it. Dan could not hear him, just saw his mouth slowly forming words.

A drill screams in another corner, a nurse holding it with trembling arms, slowly pushing it into a skull of a catatonic woman letting dark gluey blood out. Dozens others passed out and just floating around as there is not enough beds even, most have blue colored skins here and there, mostly on their abdomen, small signs of internal bleeding.

• “I’ll see what I can do” — the scene reminiscent of old war movies, Dan never expected to witness in reality, though the weight of it did not really sink yet — “Where are we exactly? Deck, sector?”
• “Deck 7, gray sector, turn left on the corridor and you will face an elevator shaft”

Dan and Ava left the room without anything else said, no time, no mood for chit-chat. The shaft wasn’t far from them, while inoperable, still the fastest access route to anywhere on the ship during zero gravity. The manual safety release in the panel was working smoothly, the light sound of the compressed air escaping confirmed the doors unlocked. Old, cheap and reliable solutions never go out of style.

• “We need to get to deck 150, three of four hundred meters toward ship center”
• “How do you know that?” — wondered Ava
• “Well, when I worked in the docks, we got our assignments from the engineering rooms that are placed midway of ship center to side, they experience only moderate gravity allowing easier work while we could station there for months, bunk beds are not fun though for the spine even in lower gravity” — a bit of monologue took Dan’s mind off of the recent memories.

The remaining of their ascent spent in silence broken by the occasional push to maintain their momentum, the cracking of the metals they used. Shrapnels torturing the metals around them got less prominent as they progressed, meaning they got further away from the source.

• “Aahh” — Dan muffled a scream of his
• “What happened?”
• “I am okey, just touched a live wire, be careful”

Some of the wires were cut and dangling around, Dan touched one of those during his next push and the short circuit punished his inattention. They quickly arrived on the expected deck, used the manual release and forced open the elevator doors. So far the emergency lights gave enough to see contours, even some colors too though the grayish metal walls would not give much interesting view anyway. But on the other side of the elevator doors they found only darkness. A bunch of dangling cables at the entrance, no further details could be seen.

• “Do you have any flashlights?” — asked for just in case while Dan was checking his clothes and pockets — “My watch almost out of battery”
• “Nope, nothing like that, any emergency kits around?”
• “Usually one was stored under the engineer’s computer desks, if it wasn’t used or stolen”
• “Going in blind?”
• “Well, do we have other choice? People dying with every minute, and my bleeding doesn’t get better either. Let’s go, I will only use the watch’s screen every 50 meters” — Dan just felt his burnt hand — “First let’s use our sleeves for grabbing, don’t want to feel electrified again.”

Ava grabbed Dan’s arm as they entered the darkness, her scent and touch, Dan still could not remember exactly while he felt somehow familiarity of both. For a few minutes they could still see the sparkling spot, the last lights of the elevator shaft before they were fully embraced by the dark. A faint whisper like a howling ghost:

• “Ava, what did you say?”
• “Nothing, why?”
• “I thought… nevermind”

The last drops of energy from the watch at least showed them the right door, the engineering room just in front of them, slightly deformed from its hinges. Dan pried it open with his bare hands, the almost broken screws let way as they met with the final force they could not handle.

• “Who are you?” — a faint question came from the darkness, the new movement picked up by one of the sensors making an emergency light flicker to life making the questioner’s silhouette visible.
• “I am Dan Loukas, used to work in the docks, you?”
• “Brad Holloway, second grade engineer.” — still talking slowly and quietly.

Dan slowly adapted to the new light source, he did not notice any injuries on Brad beside his slow talk may be signs of shock. In front of Brad, the computer showed part of the ship’s structure in different colors, most layered in orange and red, while a bit more green were visible at the back of the ship. Two distinct lines of red drawn along the ship top and bottom.

• “I can’t reach main engineering, nobody responded” — told Brad without any prompt — “Two of my colleagues left to go there, one by one” — his sight looking empty on the screen.
• “We need to do something, Brad, the ship is clearly in deep trouble, and we need gravity now.” — Dan had no idea how to bring someone out of shock so tried his usual go to solution, logic and sell an idea. — “Now Brad, if you can spin up the ship, you can be the hero of the day”
• “But… but… we tried, computer should have done it automatically… we can’t access the thrusters” — he pointed to the red lines on the structure.

8. In the pale moonlight

• “So if we restore connection to the thrusters, we can make gravity?”
• “Not that simple, we need to sync the two opposite lines, and they have to provide equal force. Otherwise…” — Brad ran out of breath, seems he can focus on his practical experience at least.
• “Otherwise?” — Dan pushed along his thoughts.
• “Otherwise the ship will spin out of axis and we won’t be able to fix that, throwing us off-course.”
• “Well, we may risk it, will it provide some gravity?”
• “May not be the usual 1G, but should be enough, even half the angular thrusters would be enough to spin up”
• “Rest a bit, Dan” — Ava interrupted them.
• “Right, right…” — Dan’s breathing got heavier — “Actually I have an idea, Brad, are there any space suits in the lockers?”
• “Yeah”

Dan navigated himself to the back of the room, in the darkness a pinpad shows up on the screen. A few tries were needed for Dan to enter the correct code as Brad’s voice was harder to hear and his blood pressure was dropping. Grabbed one of the suits and quickly put on the pants.

Nowadays only one or two companies manufactured all the space suits, otherwise called environmental suits and they came with all the basic needs for space travel, including an anti-gravity pressure system designed to push blood from the limbs back to the brain. Dan figured this might get him some more time against his inner clock, ticking down with each drop of blood collected in his abdomen. He took the vest and helmet just in case.

• “What is next?” — Dan’s new found energy just shined — “Yes, fixing the connection to the thrusters.” — he took a small box out of the locker, weight and shape familiar to him, as he did dozens of times on his shifts.
• “Wait, I am coming with you” — Brad got up from his chair and in a moment he was standing firm next to the locker himself. The metallic click of magnetic shoes assisting him in the standing.

In a few minutes, the small team was pushing back down to the lower decks along the elevator shaft. Ava refused to take any part of the suits with a silent shook of her head which made her more agile than the bulky suits of the men. Dan had no other choice due to his predicament, while Brad expected that a few areas will be hard to access without. The helmets provided information for the them as they moved, showing surface damages, cables and their use, presenting the maintenance database to their visuals aiding repairs.

As they got through halfway and were just fixing up the fifth shrapnel damage to the comm cables, white noise picked up by their suits radio sounded in their integrated headsets.

• “Anyone there on this channel?” — Dan heard double of Brad from the helmet and next to him.
• “It’s Mitch, coming back to you Brad.”
• “I am down in the elevator shaft”
• “What the hell are you doing there? Told you to stay at your post!”
• “Had no time for that… fixing the thruster connections” — Dan could notice some trembling in Brad’s voice, Mitch may be his boss.
• “Sure, we talk about the protocols and obeying commands after you are done, will be in our post and monitor your progress.”
• “Did you reach main engineering?”
• “Could not get through, docks are a mess with all the shuttles thrown around, few workers try to move them safely now. But talked with the brown sector folks, just opposite of us, they can control their angular thrusters and working on fixing comms with us”

Mitch’s strong voice soothed Dan, it was nice to hear someone in charge for the first time after whatever happened. They passed the entry Dan and Ava used earlier and already fixed a dozen cuts on the cables. While quantum entangled comms were way more resilient for damage, they were too expensive to use everywhere, inside a ship it only connected the vital control centers like the bridge and main engineering, other parts were managed by the old copper cables with light speed comms only. Even the main drives used only copper cables and a central clock to lead their automations.

• “Its Mitch again, not sure what you did, but I can access the thrusters now, getting their health data too”
• “Health data?” — Ava was never close to engineering
• “Each thruster has a thousand sensors, so they can report their operations, capabilities, malfunctions, and the controls can balance the two sides for stable rotation”
• “Oh, its not good, almost half of them are misaligned now”
• “What do you mean?” — now Dan opened into the channel
• “Who are you?” — in a slightly annoyed voice from Mitch
• “I’m Dan, ex dock worker, helping Brad right now, what do you mean the thrusters are misaligned?”
• “Okey, we can use the extra hands for this, the thrusters can be removed and replaced one by one, we can see if one of them are out of line but now I get this warning from many of them. I think the decelaration had enough force to throw them off.”
• “Do you think we can spin up like this?”
• “Can’t verify their direction, so no. Can’t see any outside camera right from here. You need to go out and check, fix as many as you can too.”
• “Wait, you said we need to go out?”

Dan never spacewalked in his life. He liked to watch the stars from the windows, still never had even the slightest inclination to go outside and let only a few layers of clothing and material between him and the cold vacuum of space.

• “It is a two person job for each thruster to align, I need help” — now Brad was motivating him — “So we need you to be the hero of the day too” — a little smirk appeared on Brad.

Dan just smirked back and followed him, Ava floated in their wake as they approached deck zero. Deck zero was the outer shell of the ship, as all deck ran around the circumference of the ship’s drum, this deck was only filled with machinery and platings, with the occasional maintenance exits and the little team headed to the nearest of these along the thruster line. Ava stayed inside as only the two men sported space suits.

They fixed their suits, checked each other’s for safety and stood into the chamber. As vacuum filled the space around them and the air was suck back to storage, a dread filled Dan’s hearth. He even closed his eyes, and followed Brad only a minute later. The moment he stood up on the outer side of the ship and forced himself to look up to the sky, his fears vanished in awe. In awe to the small particle humans are in the vast distances of galaxies.

• “I see a few dozen of these out of line, but we should be fast to fix them, only a few degrees each. It could work but let’s make it sure we get the right spin.” — Brad used the radio comms

Screeches and white noise came in, must be Mitch.

• “We can’t hear you Mitch, only noise. Hm, must be the structure.”

Dan was still staring around, slowly orienting himself, first looking toward the ship’s bow. To his horror, he could see the structure of the ring blown outward, debris flying away slowly from the ship’s body. And bodies, may be thousands of bodies in similar fate, thrown outward into the vacuum. Fortunately far away to see the frozen puffy faces of the deceased, however the distance just emphasized the scale of the catastrophe.

And beyond the bodies and debris, a gray moon, owning the skyline above the ship’s superstructure beaming with a pale blue light like a dimming lighthouse before a storm.

9. Dancing in the space

• “Hey, help me with this” — Brad’s nagging reached its goal, Dan finally turned away from the horrifying scene and focused on why they came out the first place.

Dan followed the instructions precisely and they could realign the first thruster in minutes. As the work went on, they got faster and faster. Each thruster had dozens of pins securing them to their position, some were broken, some just bended, others just moved their platforms a bit. One particular thruster had more pins broken, only held by two and could fly off and cause more damage when the drum spins up.

• “Just break that antenna down and bring it here, Dan”

Dan walked slowly to the a pointy metal, he was still uncomfortable in the suit and the situation, though as a quick learner, somewhat started to enjoy it deep inside. When he got to the antenna, kneeled down to have a better grab on one of the metal sticks when he noticed a button. These were turned off, not damaged. So he pushed it in and a small red light confirmed his action.

• “Mitch, come in!”
• “Its Mitch, how is the situation out there? I could not hear you guys.”
• “Brad said they could work as is, but we are still realigning a few of the thrusters, we would have lost a few of them during the spin.”
• “Then good we checked, keep it up, let me know when ready and will initiate the process, I have comms with the opposite side too.”
• “Will confirm.”

One of the broken antenna in hand, walked back to Brad, they cut the antenna to pieces using their standard laser cutter from the toolset. Brad worked in a few holes and secondary pins so they can lock them in and in a few minutes they were done with their thruster, realigned a few more when they headed back to the exit point.

• “Mitch, we are done, spin it up.”
• “Brad, we are still outside.”
• “Don’t worry, the process takes at least ten minutes, we will be back before that.”
• “Confirmed, come in guys, we gonna spin up in a few minutes.”
• “On our way.”
• “This is reckless!” — Dan was furious, so far seemed Brad knew what he was doing, but this step did not make any sense.

The moment Dan opened the outer bulkhead, he felt a grab on his arm that spun him around and a punch to the helmet threw him back. His shoes were deactivated for the entry so could not stop him from flying away. Though the sheer size of the ship generated a very small, minuscule gravity by itself, which pulled him at least back down to the structure.

His disbelief filled his mind as he was trying to get up and activate his shoes. Brad was already next to him with an activated laser cutter. Dan instinctively swung the toolkit to Brad, hitting his hand and the cutter making contact with the ship structure centimeters from Dan’s foot. Not over yet, Dan throw himself to Brad and struggled to keep away the cutter from himself.

Seconds passing, the thrusters slowly activating and Mitch on the line again:

• “Guys, are you inside? The spin starts in any mom…” — his audio was cut off with a large screech.
• “You could not stay on your ass.” — Brad whispered, still emphasized every second word of it. — “Would have been painless to blow up together.”
• “What are you talking about?”
• “Sorry man, I had to do this.” — a blow from Brad knocked down Dan again.

This time Brad did not go against Dan, instead slipped through the open bulkhead and closed before Dan could get through. At the same time, the spinning got faster and faster, the moon slipped a few degrees around Dan’s vision.

• “Grab something” — Dan heard Ava’s voice and could swore on seeing her face in front of him. But that is impossible, Ava did not wore a space suit.

Dan was slipping away from the door. Rolled over and he throw his hands out in front of him in hopes of grabbing anything. The moment slipped out of his open hands. A few centimeters grew to a few meters distance from the faster and faster spinning drum. As he looked around, the suit’s computer showed the distance and remaining fuel where he looked. Only the rings did not spin when the spaceship’s main structure generated gravity. All the rings were too far for Dan to reach, or he could reach them before he runs out of oxygen. On the price that he can’t slow down actually to not splat like a bug on a windshield.

• “Wait for a round” — Ava’s voice again.

He could use the thrusters to stand on them as the non-exhaust side was safe. If he misses just by a few milliseconds, he will be vaporized behind the thrusters. Although a painless end compared to running out of oxygen in half an hour. He activated a bit his thrusters to get away from the drum as he would be vaporized anyway in the wake of the thrusters.

Though he lived on the ship for years, from the outside he could not estimate how fast the drum spins already and how long the thrusters will be active. As the minutes were counting down to the last breath, he was counting the rounds. In any moment, he could try to push back. If he fails to grab anything, he will be thrown away again and with increasingly large force, he will waste a lot of fuel for one try. As his thoughts were racing, the thrusters stopped, the drum reached one round per minute with its comfortable earth-like gravity on its inner surface.

With its outer surface being a deadly trap for Dan. Counting down the seconds in his head, he prepared to move back to the drum. The moment came and his thrusters pushed him toward the ship, cut and then brake. A bit of upward push so he avoids being flattened by the thrusters itself. Grabbed the top of a thruster, just above the platform it is pinned onto.

His weight and the impact was enough to crack the thruster’s pin, separating it from the ship’s body. Catapulting the thruster right away from the drum in straight line, spinning around, Dan lost his consciousness for a moment as blood rushed down from his head. His grab failed and the thruster left into the darkness of space while he floated away on the same path until the suit stopped his path on command.

This little maneuver costed half of his remaining fuel and only ten minutes of breathable oxygen left as the spinning drum floated next to him, so close yet out of reach.

10. Connections are key

John stood there, recorder in hand, waiting for the steps closing in. He could hear more than one pair, unsure how many others he could hear, his thoughts raced, could be the chatty group returning even though the order to stop still standing? Could be the previous guy bringing friends, or someone else is approaching? Nevertheless, the slow data upload continues and John’s only focus is to solve the case, he needs every bit of data in hope of doing that.

A distant beeping coming from his helmet notified him to an incoming message, pulled it back up to see it. A status report from his remote computer, stating upload ten percent done, a week worth of data, however a red line showing almost half of data are corrupted. A short message appeared from his assistant:

• “Team is still on their way, why didn’t you wait?” — she surely can see the incoming data, thought John, and her continuous worries ought to pay off once. He quickly growled a few words into his helmet to send a reply:
• “Workers break recorders, have no time, contact the carrier shipmaster” — silently cursing himself for not asking the master’s name now slowing down his route to help, he tuned his radio in hopes of establishing direct contact.

On the original band he could hear only white noise, still he uttered some words to ask for assistance. Switched secondary radio to emergency band, a military one his briefing materials contained and repeated same message as he saw the bright orange worker uniforms appearing in front of him. Six figure lined up in an arc, a seventh figure in their centre, all turned toward John. Their helmet on sunshade mode so John could not see their faces, not even his net-gear can pick up any details. A few of the figures were brandishing metal pipes, one of them a hammer and a screw bar, as a silent threat. However they could not surround John fully with a few corridors behind his back. Upload is at twenty percent, maybe if he can stall them a bit.

• “Hey, guys, what’s up?” — John threw his helmet back.
• “Just drop that and we let you go” — slightly distorted voice coming from the central figure.
• “What do you want with a junk like this?” — already expecting the obvious answer, John played the moron. If they would know they are messing with a trained GTSB investigator.
• “None of your business, drop it and run before we start breaking bones”
• “How about being civilized here?” — John threw his helmet back — “And let’s introduce ourselves, my name is John”
• “Who cares” — as the central figure moved slowly and directly toward John, the figures in the arc pulled apart and followed the contours of the room.
• “An investigator of the Galactic Transportation Safety Board” — the middle figure stumbled for a moment, just as John thought, these had no idea who they are dealing with. And John had no idea who he was dealing with here, the insignias were missing from the uniforms, faces invisible behind helmets even though they were in a pressurized area.

The figure in the middle touched his tool-belt when John made his move. The momentary confusion as the assumed leader of this group unsure what to do with the investigator was John’s chance. Yanked the QEC module out and swung the recorder right into the face of his opponent. Tempered glass and plastic shattered. The heavy recorder acting as a hammer in low gravity knocked the skull without much resistance. John could only see a fish tattoo on the neck of his opponent before he kicked his feet up. The figures from the side jumped after him but missed as John was already flying toward the back corridors. The line behind fell with a loud thump catching their boss’s unconscious body.

John took long steps in the low gravity of the moon, corridor after corridor, his turns looking like a grasshopper travels grass. Though he knew the layout of the ship well, he didn’t knew the damage nor the current state. He could hear two figures following him, they had easy task in that as junction after junction were full of rubbles and only one way was cleaned. A few moments later John almost flew into a pressurizing door. Salvage workers installed a few pressure checkpoints throughout the clean-up making internal work easier. These doors can take some beating however they are more akin to a reinforced bouncing castle, kept inflated by the air from the internal pressure zone. Doors with magnetic lock could be easily operated, this one had no code or access requirements so John pulled up his helmet again. While securing it to his peeked on the frozen upload state, he hoped he can find useful clues what lead to the blowup of the ring in the fifty percent saved. However if he gets out of this alive, he needs to find other recorders.

Outside of the airlock, a wide open space, reminding John of his opera visits, a large concert area laid bare. Where once the huge glass allowed real stars to act as performance background, now half a moon surface and half the black space was visible. The bright moon surface in the daylight shined through the hall of the dead, still frozen into their seats from the day of the disaster. Such a scale of the horrifying events, there lay still hundreds if not thousands of souls no-one got to give their honors yet. And John had no time to process the scene either as his pursuers were already opening the airlock. He jumped sideways, there should be some viewing rooms where he could find a route back to the temporary hospital.

Then he felt a body behind him pushing downward, one of his pursuer. Landed harder into the frozen carpet threw ice crystals in the air. John was held down, crowbar around his neck though the suit kept it away enough to be able to breathe. Knee and an arm on his back, crowbar now knocking his helmet. Glass braking, a few more hits and his helmet will break. In the low gravity and a swift push up with all arms and legs threw his heavy back-pain to the air missing the last swing. John is back up and rushing toward the balcony, jumping meters in the lower gravity. Barely can see out his helmet through the cracks, at this point not at all amused, searches for anything he can use to defend himself.

On his surprise, middle of the balcony floor lies a pistol, still loaded. No time to think what a loaded gun did in the concert hall, he cocked it, his old police training kicked in and aimed stably. Humans are great at developing machines to kill other humans, all modern ammunition were ready for the time when the race entered the space era, holding its own oxygen for burning. He has never killed anyone before and wished to keep it that way. The fear of having to do it grabbed his logical mind, and his brain already swimming in fight or flight stress hormones could not resist the savage urges. As the figure with the crowbar held high flew up to the balcony, John fired his shot. Right through the helmet, knocking the lifeless body into a backflip as the low gravity pulled it down, like a slow motion movie emphasizing the death of the bad guy. However to John, it wasn’t a fiction and had to gulp his stomach content back down multiple times. Normally it would be bad to let vomit out into your own helmet, with the flaky integrity of his damaged one, it could be fatal breaking it.

As he composed himself, walked back up to the balcony to look down.

11. Alone

John stared in front of him. For anyone who would look at him, would seem like he is frozen in time, fixated on a lifeless body two stories under him. He crossed a threshold he never thought he would. This job did not include catching bad guys, this was a civil engineering employment. With some added benefits and security, but that was just for show of force all the time. The army did their own investigations and rarely involved the Transportation Board to their business so he never even had to deal with armed witnesses, let alone perpetrators.

Movement broke him out of his melancholy, he had not time to process what he did, there are still more people out there looking for him. The partner of the shot guy was the movement he saw, just pulled himself away as fast as he could. In a few moments, the guy disappeared in one of the alcoves under the balconies, never to be seen again. John still unknowing if his messages can get through, he tried the radio, then he tried the quantum comms too without a response on either, he felt a rare loneliness. A usually normal and sought after feeling of being alone with his thoughts, this time bothered him.

He finally collected himself and slowly navigated out through the door, through the back of the once lively, posh theatre. He entered through the ticket check hall, through a bulkhead leading to pressurized space. He slowed his movements when realized he circled around. While in space, you don’t have to worry about the sound revealing your position, resonating plating as you step on them could be picked up by the observant. Opening the bulkhead and the entrance will definitely alert anyone standing guard inside, at least maybe he could avoid the followers, less the merrier, he may be able to avoid another bloodshed, be it his or the workers.

Before stepping into the airlock once more, picked up a piece of metal debris, long enough to jam the door from the inside for a bit. As the air hissingly filled up the space, he raised his gun again, dropped his helmet back and as confidently as he could, he said:

• “I have a loaded gun. Stay away and you won’t get hurt.” — in the middle of his sentence, the inner door opened to present a single guy. His movement froze in the middle of raising his crowbar as he thought through the chances.

Then he dropped the crowbar and stepped back, hands raised. Gun still pointing at him, John walked around, picked up the broken recorder and left the room. He heard metal screeching, this guy did not pause due to thinking, he was calling his friends to return. John sped up, getting back to the field hospital was his next best chance to defuse. Or to escalate and endanger more civilians, he had no idea of who these guys are and how far they would go. His helmet produced an unnerving crackling sound, he put it back and head toward the entry point he used half an hour ago. Felt like an eternity, he barely started the investigation.

Outside a squad of black armor pointed large sticks toward the airlock he just exited from. For a moment he thought they will shot him, none of the trained navy marines would even shake a finger above the triggers. They knew well who they were here to protect and their leader quickly jumped to John and pulled him aside. Clear of the line of fire, the squad closed up on the airlock and waited out of sight. No hand signals were needed, their coordination perfectly trained in advance, and their comms implanted into their brains. They quickly apprehended the workers in John’s trail. Probably they would have done this to anyone, they have time to ask questions later, hesitation will kill, a thought drilled into their heads.

The squad lead pulled out a clear tape from his tool belt and applied to John’s helmet.

• “This will hold it together. Follow me.” — his bariton came through the emergency channel. John did not even notice that the gun he held was already secured, disabled and hanging on the squad lead’s belt.
• “How… when…” — then John remembered the priorities — “There is a dead worker, shot in the head, in the theatre after the second airlock. It was me.” — the squad leader stopped and turned around for a moments pause.
• “Handled, team will secure the body. We head back to the captain immediately.”

John tried to ask a few questions, initiate some talk without success, still he was glad to be with people around. The shuttle they used was different, in some shapes it resembled a drop pod more than an air- or even space-worthy machine. It was dark, black, inside cramped space, standing for the whole trip back was unpleasant. John did not mind much, he slept at worse spaceports during his trips to accident sites. He could barely remember anything about those places, mostly the spaceports, mid-class hotels or hostels their allowance would pay at the time.

Shortly they were back on the carrier docks, this time slowly levitating toward the shipmaster’s bridge.

• “I didn’t catch your name” — said John — “At least I would like to know who to say a thank you”
• “You should thank the captain.” — long pause again — “Michael. Honestly surprised we found you alive, saw the tattoo on that guy?” — John nodded.
• “You are a lucky bastard, if the Swordfish wants someone dead, we can only scrape the remains of the guy off of a wall. Punishing crimes after they happened, my ass. Refreshing once we arrived in time.”

John was shocked second time in a day, this guy leads an elite commando and he talks of a third grade smuggling ring like equals.

• “If I don’t find that gun, I might have been not this lucky.”
• “You aren’t leaving the central colonies much? Are you an earther?” — Michael’s tone changed to an annoyed parent who has to teach his kid a life lesson along buying the groceries.
• “Nah, born in the Orions, but yeah, decade service around the central worlds. Why?”
• “Out here, on the perimeters, life is much more dangerous. Rush down to a place like this without backup, is unwise.”
• “I will try to keep in mind.”
• “Good. Now enjoy your next class.” — Michael saluted shortly and then disappeared at the next corner.
• “What do you mean?” — John was still looking toward Michael’s cold place.
• “He means me” — the shipmaster already stood next to John — “Let’s walk a bit.”
• “Yes m’am.” — with that John followed her, minutes passed by without a sound from any of them. John lamenting if he should ask for her name now. A few minutes later they arrived to a room, furnished like a bedroom, with just a few things off in it.
• “First, I am obligated to warn you, as military governor of this system, I ordered an investigation into what happened down there. Including a murder case, prime suspect is you.” — the duality of her making a tea and uttering news like this, like they were nothing, were not lost on John.
• “It was self-defense.”
• “I suppose, it is more of a formality. You know, if someone just arrives and shoots up the place in a few hours, the locals will start to be nervous.” — that snarky smile again — “And this may teach you to think before do, mister investigator general.”
• “It’s John… And excuse me for my bluntness earlier, how may I call you?”
• “M’am will do… Viktoria.” — she put the tea next to John, and turned around, halfway out the door — “Your, let’s say guest room while you are with us, and stay here until further notice. Otherwise will not interfere with your investigation and you can use the comms unrestricted.”
• “Not sure how to react yet… first of all, how did you know I needed help down there?”

She left without any reply, John could not help but notice the two black figure outside his rooms doorframe. More like my cell, — thought to himself — she is efficient though. Short beeps pulled his attention, first message from her assistant writing she is on her way and she messaged the carrier group before she left.

A sip of the camomile tea relaxed his body from the immediate stress, and soon John fell to the king bed still in his clothes.

12. Lost in the dark

After 6 hours at the conn, spent mostly in silence besides the regular status checks and manual heading corrections, their shift neared its end. Silence broken by the bridge door pneumatics hissing, Greg walked in with a cup of steaming coffee in his hands.

• “Cap, reporting for duty, ready to take the conn.”
• “Not in a million years with that in your hand.” — Vince’s rule of no food on the bridge got his crew annoyed from time to time, Greg still regularly tried this boundary. — “Thanks for the coffee. Greg has the conn.” — Vince had no intention to sleep after this shift, instead going through the latest shipping manifests, tables and accounting numbers floated already in front of his mental vision.
• “Taking the conn.” — sounded the legal confirmation. May be just a small hauler, Vince still took the job seriously and demanded procedures by the book.
• “Maria, don’t you take a break too?”
• “Uhm, oh, I am gonna finish something, go ahead.” — her glaze strictly fixated on her instruments, calculations and star charts running so fast, it seemed cryptic alien language for the uninitiated.
• “Sure, gonna be in my office.”

Vince took a stroll with the coffee, strictly keeping himself away from any control surfaces, still remembering clearly for an embarrassing incident decades ago. Though he met Maria thanks to that so it might not be all that bad as outcomes go. Still, being broken down for weeks at this point would be his final nail in the coffin, he would be stuck at whatever last port they could find, and he may never get to fly again. As his thoughts turned against him, his focus on reality slipped and his rhythm increased, his legs lead to his private office, a cramped little room, full of paperwork and a tiny rounded window looking onto the stars. Stars zooming past them as they speeded toward the supposed location of a ship in emergency for the better half of a day.

“Ah, better prepare for all.” — thought to himself, may have even said it out loud. Old habits die hard, especially with a limited social circles a small hauler like the “Perseus Train” could provide. Only a dozen crew members and families on a few hundred meters long ship, mostly dedicated to non-perishable cargo, running back and forth the central worlds and the furthest of the colonies in the Perseus Arm. Like old train lines of the east-west of americas, steaming endlessly round and round on the vast plains. May their wonders of the vast space come as often as a cactus or a buffalo could be seen from those trains.

As Vince was closing down the manifests, memorizing the key items they had on cargo, emergency supplies they could utilize if needed and filed the necessary inventory reports so later they can claim insurance or refurbishment from the government depending how much they use up in a possible rescue mission, Maria appeared in the opening doorframe, with large pupils, rapid breathing, she hurried Vince back to the bridge.

• “What is it? Haven’t seen you like this for a long time.”
• “I think the ship is not where we are heading. And they may be in a bigger trouble too.”
• “What do you mean?”
• “We have to change course.”
• “But hon’, regulations require us to head to given coordinates or they sue us later. Skipping providing help out here is a serious crime.”
• “We have to change course, Vince and don’t patronize me.” — Maria started to fume too. — “I have evidence too just they might not have the time to wait for our direct approval.”
• “Okey, show me what you have. Greg, conn is still yours.” — as they arrived back to the bridge, Vince’s by the book approach never left any holes in communication and any doubt who is expected what.

Maria pulled her research up to her screen and Vince bowed over her shoulder to see, and enjoy his wife’s lavender smell a bit. He had his sweet spots too.

The screen showing logs, enormous amount of logs, communications all over the Net, from thousands of ships, forums, some private chats too as Maria reached out to confirm leads and deepen her investigations.

• “The fact that even a Zodiak station could not track the lost ships position stuck with me” — Maria pointed to a few message on a forum — “This forum was created in minutes of the emergency call went out. One of the user is from a station called Kodiak who said they picked up the transponder signal of Giant of the Stars a few months ago.”
• “I can’t follow you, what does it have to do with the current emergency call? It was months ago.” — Vince was good at running a team and a business, and he knew when to defer tech details to the experts.
• “I checked the vessel specs of the Giant and the planned route, takes 6 months for them to cross between Orion and Perseus Arms, and Kodiak station lies way outside of their usual route. Their estimated position right now is on the filed route, but I think they took a direct line from Kodiak to Perseus Arm.”
• “Which means? In standard language please.” — Vince started to loose some patience as he valued efficiency and the info dump did not get him closer.
• “Okey, they are here, based on my estimates. Report verified by multiple sources, transponder signal can be picked up under…”
• “Under light minutes distance, they had to be there.” — Vince opened his mouth to speak and then forgot to close it. The map pulled up to the main screen on top of their visuals monitoring their current route. And the distance was light years from where they were heading.

No-one will find them in the vast space in a search pattern, scanning back and forth even above light speeds would take an eternity for thousands of ships. Especially if they are looking at the wrong place.

• “Are you sure?” — still vacillating between outright breach of command from a military installation and the facts laid out in front of him, his mind raced through their options.
• “Yes, and even with this, the space they can be in… is a thousand light years across.”
• “That is still one fifth of the entire distance between the arms, quite the place to search for a few km large object.”
• “Like finding a needle, between the Sun and Pluto… but I think I have an idea to pinpoint their location down to a lightyear or two.”
• “That is insane, without communicating with the ship to be found, it was never done before.”
• “I know, and we never had this developed observatories before. I could use the gravimetric observatories data streams to correlate them and pinpoint a…” — Maria stopped, could not finish her sentence with the horrific possibility she knew was needed for this technique to work.
• “You mean locating a ring explosion? If those Alcubierre rings exploded, the ship is just a dust cloud now.” — Vince was now agitated, finding a dust cloud really did not seem to worth the consequences of denying an emergency command. — “I can’t bet our business on your hobby, hon’.”
• “If it is OUR business, how about listening to your PARTNER?” — Maria’s face color outmatched her flaming red hair, Vince though recognized he stepped over a line, his ego in the heat of the moment fought with his rational mind.

And between the two of those, stood his caring for Maria, the roots of an initial business partnership, mentoring her, then slowly getting closer until his most beautiful day, the birth of his son. He got so much yet he provided may be too little at times. Not an easy task to keep acting professionally with so much emotions going on, Vince still calmed his voice down,

• “Please continue your research, if you can point to a few dozen light-minutes cube, we file the evidence and change course. What do you think of that?”
• “That is reasonable.” — though her redness did not subside, Vince knew he will have a fight later when they are in private, wouldn’t be the first time. And he hoped it wouldn’t be the last either.

13. Do your own research as they say

A lonely ship in distress, lost to the darkness with tens of thousands of souls on-board. A tiny freighter as the only hope to get to it’s estimated position in days. Their bridge left the comms open, multiple chat threads running continuously on the main screen reminding the crew of what is at stake. The brutalistic excitement starts to eat into them too, over decades nothing of such extraordinary happened, as humanity spread out into the cosmos, distance became an almost impenetrable wall for information, knowledge, even relationships.

A stark contrast to a small globe where everyone learned about the washing room habits of strangers on the other side of it every five minutes. At least we shared our now still, the travel did not modify our perception of a shared timeline and we could still be in touch from time to time using the new point to point devices. It wasn’t that we did not have our means, it was that we had nothing much to say. Petty issues and drama of another world a thousand lightyears from you didn’t had any more meaning when your smallest problem is what to eat the next day if your crops fail on the new moon, planet or station you colonized yesterday. Though we explored space for hundreds of years, we are still just stumbling children barely knowing how to get the best out of our toys.

Maria threw her glasses off with a loud bang, her breathing could be heard over the thin walls as she tried to compose herself. Vince caught himself thinking and wandering off of his duty at the conn, fortunately they were flying in empty space alone and the pristine state of sensors and computer meant their automats would catch any serious mistake or danger in time, even avoid them. Humans were just maintenance for the machine gods. After all he stayed at the conn until Maria finishes her research, thinking the minimum he could do after shutting her down is be there as a support, the time slowly ticked away without any spoken word on the bridge. Vince called in Greg to take over the conn,

• “Maria, let’s take a walk” — as she pulled up her gaze to Vince, he could see her exhaustion and, maybe, doubt?

In a moment they were out on the corridor, their ion drives push gave a comfortable .6 G, wasn’t needed for their actual travel, but humans never handled zero G well for long periods so long range ships were built with low-maintenance engines to provide some artificial gravity from time to time and now they needed it more than ever. If they find the stricken ship, going to be hell of a rescue operation, or a salvage one.

• “I never saw you like this hon, why is this so important to you?” — instead of the expected fight, that she will burn with her usual passion, she just walked designated, step by step besides Vince until she almost broke down in tears.
• “You rarely called me on my name” — her lips bending slightly up while her eyes watering, then she pulled Vince around her. In a few moments of silence, they both felt like they are back in their twenties, their second date she did the same making Vince smile in nostalgia. He thought he never gonna meet her again after that as she disappeared for months, though not unusual with today’s distances.
• “Okey, it is enough of me like this…” — she spoke like a fresh avalanche, first at slowly, word by word that springs into a roaring burst of sentences — “Never really told you about this, when we met, before our second date, I got the news that my parents’ ship lost contact, they were traveling on a cruise liner at the time. I bought the tickets for them so we could meet on that planet and they could celebrate their thirtieth anniversary on the way in some luxury. If you remember, I disappeared for a while. Tried to find them at the time, with everything I knew and I could do without money, but I failed. The ship is still lost to this day, it was never found. This whole thing brought it up and I can’t sleep without thinking how many of other Marias going to wait for their families to never arrive at the next port. And I failed again.” — Vince chew on her words.

Their hug extending, both of them facing out to watch the stars flying by as long lines. A view they admired together a lot during the years and the clarity of mind it provided for them again and again, the cosmos as their coach and therapist at times.

• “No, you did not fail, I did by not being your team-mate as we always were. As we always should be, including Eddy too.” — Vince’s new found determination, to help his beloved, to be her foundation spread quickly — “Let’s do this together.”
• “Eddy is too young”
• “He is not a kid anymore, he can pull his weight already, run us through your work and delegate to us”
• “You don’t know much about astrometry… though you know people. The lead scientist does not even talk to me, I need his data to a triangulation.”
• “Consider it done, and hey Eddy!” — their son was just around the corner, Vince not sure how long he was standing there as he did not notice him earlier. — “Let’s help your mom, if I understand it right, triangulation is not enough for space, it will still provide two distant possible points, we need other ways to narrow it down.”
• “Yes, right, we could reach out to Kodiak station for the transponder data” — Maria’s eyes started to shine as the new ideas rushed into her mind, what support can do to your performance is astonishing.
• “Sure, mom.”

So their work cut out for them, first time as a whole family, father, mother and son working on a shared goal with all their capabilities, Maria never felt so energized and so loved.

Eddy scouring the Net to find any publicly available data, reading forums, posts on bulletin boards, even some applying to some private groups under anonymity, writing search queries. Vince video calling the scientist, though first had to get through his assistant. And Maria’s sole focus on gravimetric equations, wave harmonies and Alcubierre drive theories, though she needed a novel way to detect the gravitational waves, to filter through the noise of pulsars and black holes swallowing stars for breakfast and to pinpoint a small ship, like finding a canoe in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. She was close to her breakthrough.

She could feel it more than ever.

14. Red tapes never change

Hours passed by without anyone taking a break, not even a short bathroom visit as all of them deeply focusing on their tasks, their minds not even registering the time passing until at last.

• “I got it!” — the high pitched voice of Maria cut like a chalk on the blackboard, Vince almost fell off his chair in surprise — “I can’t believe it, I got it.” — Maria could not take her gaze off of the transparent screen in front of her, a flashing coordinate just zoomed out and now they all could see the nearby stars, rouge planets and a few ships icons, a red target in the middle.

Light years from their position, the calculation perfectly lined up with a direct route from Kodiak station to the planned destination of the Giant of the Stars. Concentric circles emanating from three science stations with gravimetric sensors perfectly cross with the line at one spot, their second spot totally off of it.

Both Vince and Eddy succeeded to gather the necessary data packs for Maria, though Vince had a slightly awkward visit planned with an assistant of the science directorate when they get back to their Earth-bound way.

• “I checked it a dozen times, this must be it!” — Maria gasping for air as the realization sinks in, she just rewrote a little piece of astrometric science, earning a permanent place in history.

Then the second wave of realization, this time hitting the entire crew freezing their cheers to their throats. They all knew what the method of locating the ship probably meant. They will find a large dust cloud and nothing else after those immense Alcubierre-rings ran off.

• “Zodiak-12 station, this is Perseus Train, we are sending coordinates to Giant of the Stars, we believe they are not on their planned route. We are changing course to render assistance immediately.” — Vince took the comm as the first to regain composure and without a second thought, opened the navy’s open emergency channel.
• “This is Zodiak-12 station operator, state your identifier and state your reason to use the emergency channel.” — Vince was taken aback for a moment as the response made barely sense, he just provided both information in his. He repeated his message, just in case.
• “Perseus Train, all ships in the vicinity ordered to the given coordinates in earlier message, permission to change course not granted.” — the monotone voice of the operator came with a rythmic, a slightly excited under-tone of noise from the background, suggesting that the station’s operators are under high load.
• “Zodiak-12, we have clear evidence where the cruise liner is and that they are in grave danger, we will waste days searching the wrong location. We are changing course.”
• “Perseus Train, you are under orders from the Federal Navy, if you disobey, your license to operate in Federal space will be suspended and your ship impounded until court marshalled.”

Vince and Maria looked at each other for what felt like an eternity. Though Maria wished to settle down somewhere, not like this, not like tearing Vince’s and their life apart.

• “Dear, do you believe in those coordinates?”
• “Yes, I am sure they are correct.”
• “That is enough for me, change course, estimate arrival.”
• “8 hours.” — Eddy, still way too young, yet proficient at navigation took them out of faster-than-light speed and reengaged on the new course. Vince double checked the configs and let out a long satisfied whistle.
• “That’s my boy.” — switched back to emergency channel — “Zodiak-12, we are en route to the new coordinates, if you are actually interested, we are open to show our work, otherwise we will keep you posted.”
• “This is Captain Victoria Sebes from the FNA carrier “Irondome”, is this the Perseus Train?” — here it comes, direct coersion from a navy officer, thought Vince prepared to handle the berating he expected.
• “We were monitoring comms and asked Zodiak-12 to patch us through, my people checked the attachment and they say it is an outstanding work. Though risky, there was no successful application of gravimetric sensor location yet in history.”
• “Thank you ma’am, the lady who did it heard you.” — Maria’s face like a radish with a smile while Vince continued. — “My name is Captain Vincent Pier, and the calculations thanks to Maria.”
• “Captain Pier, how far are you from the coordinates?”
• “Around 8 hours. Will check in when we arrive.”
• “Please do, Zodiak-12, register new field orders for Perseus Train, proceed to new coordinates and report findings.”
• “Admiral Haggardt in line, his orders are to proceed to the original coordinates and do not diverge under any circumstances.”
• “I will handle the admiral, Irondome out” — Victoria stepped away from her chair, her fourth coffee of the last 6 hours steaming in the cup left there. She won’t need a coffee for this shouting match.

Few minutes later she returned and threw herself down to the chair, caressing her cup of italian dark coffee and grinning to herself. None of her bridge staff commented on the loud altercation, everyone served under her long enough to know, she will do as her values dictate and the admiralty can take the highway. Some wondered how she could keep her ship for so long, yet the seniors knew the dynamics and her track record. The Federation was not in any position to let their competent captains go, not when the arms race already began.

• “Your orders, Captain?” — her old friend stepped up, waiting a few minutes to let his captain enjoy the taste of bureaucratic victory, he knew this face too well.
• “We wait until Perseus Train arrives, ask them visuals and all possible sensor data, get an analyst team ready by they arrive, and tell them they have ten minutes to decide on if they are right or not. The admiral will wait for the last moment, but our crossing will force him.” — Victoria’s gaze in the distance as her mind raced through the steps. Steps like in chess, one by one, initiatives and reactions. — “Captain to all sections, prepare for prolonged FTL travel on maximum.”
• “You have decided. The colonies may retaliate.”
• “They won’t, my friend, if they are warned of our rescue mission in time. Haggardt and his hardliners may want war, still I bet he knows it is not the time.”
• “Hope you are right, or we will be the reason for the colonies to start.”
• “Me too. Still, that ship, and the crew deserves help.” — silence fell to the small bridge cramped with the two dozen officers responsible for the safe operation of their vast military asset.

The navy carrier that held a crew complement of seventy thousand, and at least the same amount of navy marines, ready to be dropped into a hot zone any time. A formidable force capable of swiftly overrun any colonial planetary defense and take over a capital with direct assault, supported by dozens of deep space cruisers and frigates. Usually they represented the might of the peaceful Federation, Earth’s power projection and acted as a police force. During the last decades, the outer colonies increasingly resented their presence and public sentiment shifted toward regarding them as agents of Earth political and commercial interests, the tension was obvious in the senate.

• “At least a few of you should know why.” — continued Victoria — “The Giant of the Stars was the only capital ship that evacuated my home world. I could not be there, but thanks to that ship’s crew, my parents survived.”
• “I read the official reports. Amster Prime was torn apart by gravimetric waves five years ago.” — helmsman Peter hanged eyes on his captain.
• “They barely had a few hours but that ship held for the last moment to jump away, taking on board as much refugees as they could. We have to take care of each other, crew to crew, out in the cold space, we would expect the same if we were them.” — Victoria’s voice was almost gone with the end of her thoughts, leaving the bridge in silence.

15. Hanging by a thread

An infinitely long minute passed away for Dan, his mind like on crack, breathing fast and heavily. Survive. It was the only thing on his mind. The world almost entirely locked out, he could not notice the moon at the bow of the ship rising in its solemn majesty. The cold light just a reflection shining through the black silhouettes, the once were humans with dreams, needs and petty dramas now floating empty shells left alone even by the cosmos.

The tiny gravitational forces acting upon Dan left unchecked, he did not wanted to waste any more fuel. The slow turn brought the actual source of the light into his vision, triggering the suit to apply sunshades automatically. In the moment, Dan felt like he is in a staring contest, an invader in the kingdom of someone else, caught and now the king looks into him deeply. Weightless bodies hanging with an imaginary thread connecting living and inanimate. The absurdity of the moment left unspoken.

• “Get yourself together!” — the voice in Dan’s head snapped. He thought he heard Ava at first. Even saw her face for a moment. Or that happened only earlier?

His mind could make less sense of the world with the early onset of hipoxia.

• “Leak detected, new estimate 3 minutes until oxygen depletion.” — clear sound of hissing joined Dan’s consciousness, he became alert again as the valves applied higher pressure on the computer’s command. Losing time yet giving a fighting chance to its occupant.
• “How, … how much … fuel left?”
• “20 seconds acceleration available with 60 seconds navigation thrusters”
• “Calculate path to… nearest entry”
• “90 seconds” — a trajectory line appeared on Dan’s head up display, dotted each second of the route to both the frontal and dorsal ring pairs.
• “No way I go close to those frontal rings. Take me to the dorsal entry!”
• “Automatic navigation engaged, starting acceleration in 3, 2, 1…”

Dan felt the pressure in his back, far from being unpleasant or straining, he was already flying fast toward his salvation. In other circumstances, he might have enjoyed the ride, yet his injuries and the newly began incessant beeping alert of low oxygen took a toll on his nerves. Still at this point he could not do anything more, unknown what exactly awaits him at the ring, he just waited. His thrusters activated in a slow rhythm keeping him safely away from the drum’s surface.

• “Deceleration in 3, 2, 1…” — and Dan screamed as the push in his abdomen appeared.
• “60 seconds oxygen left” — sounded cold toned commentary from the suit’s computer.

Dan floated in front of an airlock so close he could touch the door of it. Looking around he quickly found the control panel next to the frame and hit open. A large digital board started on 120 and slowly counted down showing the pressurization cycle. The ticks were maddeningly slow, in reality it counted seconds but Dan’s hormonal system did not care and kicked him into adrenaline overdrive again as it did more than once this day.

The airlock had to be depressurized before opening and the mechanics took time to do their job. As Dan was thinking this is too much, he will lose consciousness before he could enter the chamber, he noticed an override below the counters. Fortunately the designers thought of emergencies, and a red, small button flashing underneath allowed exactly that.

An explosive decompression blew Dan away after he pushed the button three times frantically. He held onto a railing with his right for dear life. As the air rushed out, span him and the torque threw him into hull plating with such a force that it bend. If he would have any free moment to stop and wonder on the fact that humans now build ships in the sizes of kilometers, yet there are no exceptional materials discovered, instead the marvel of engineering bent the environment to fit, the structure is not strained while traveling faster than light thanks to the fact that actually the universe travels around the ship.

A few seconds and Dan was fiddling in the chamber with the controls to close the outer doors. The control pad stubbornly refused to comply, dancing in now yellow colors with the word warning flashing in the middle, changing it to different languages every second. The rush of air bending the massive doors mechanics, Dan’s training kicked in and he reached for the manual release.

“Tack, tack, tack” — his oxygen running out in seconds, took his last big breath as he applied two magnetic handles onto the door. Using the chamber side and with some leverage, the door budged and slide into its position to an airtight seal. The control panel showing green and slowly starting to pressurize again, Dan’s last view of the 120 switched to 119 before he blacked out filled him with relieve at last.

He woke up to air rushing into him with power. A tube on his face forced it down his throat rhythmically, until he pushed it away. An instinctive move, forgetting he is in weightlessness leading to him floating onto the chamber wall.

• “It’s okey, it’s okey” — a young face hovered over Dan, bruises under short brown hair.

He wore a dark uniform, with a red cross on both end of his collar and waists. Dan recognized a paramedic serving on the ship, even on a normal day the size of this floating city needs an entire hospital to run and their generally more mature aged guests paying for their own care, they had double the medical personnel on board than anyone else in the fleet.

• “I heard the airlock’s siren while treating a few bruises of the crew nearby, thought someone might need help.”
• “Indeed, thanks.” — Dan still collecting his breath limited his mood to talk.
• “You spacewalked. You must know, what happened to the ship? What happened to us?”
• “I am not sure, I saw only…” — the silhouettes flashed into his mind — “only that the frontal rings are damaged, pieces floating out of them.” — he tried to from words to describe the bodies but he simply could not give sound to them. — “Please, I need to get to gravity.”
• “Of, …, of course” — with one hand hugging Dan, another hand grabbing the railings, the young nurse pushed themselves on the corridors.

Dan slipping in and out of consciousness as his internal bleeding drained him even further, he saw only moments of his surroundings. Engineers scrambling in a room distributing equipment, nurses treating minor injuries in another. It took minutes for them to reach the transition point between the rings and the main body. He blacked out on the seat of the train car in between the rotating parts.

A curious design of how to bring people to rotating parts of a ship from the weightless parts. As the rings needed weightlessness to operate and form the gravitational fields necessary for faster than light travel, while humans required artificial gravity for long term living in space, the main hull and the rings could rotate freely from each other. Space walk would have been inefficient and for most people, undesirable under any circumstances, engineers put a train car between the rotating pieces and led rails over the entire circumference. The car sped up with the rotating piece or slowed down to the non-rotating to allow safe transit of humans. Hundreds of years old tech being still the most efficient solution for mass transit of people even lightyears away from its original applications.

Dan and a dozen other serious injured were spin up to match the main drum’s speed and as gravity pulled down their blood, helping drain the internal bleedings and blunt trauma they suffered, all of them had a new chance to survive.

16. Final jump

Vince turned to his another side, again for the tenth time in an hour. On a normal night he would annoy Maria to hell and back. Not this time, Maria lay on her back with eyes open, staring the ceiling. Or the wall, it is always a matter of perspective in space. The room’s structure changes as frequently as they switch from thrusters to rotation and back giving the interior designers a whole lot of new challenges unique to space dwelling. After years of living on a long distance space vessel, these minutia of life becomes unnoticeable until a long sleepless night full of anticipation.

• “Thank you” — Maria spoke softly.
• “For what, dear?”
• “Believing in me.”
• “Always, dear. Would not do otherwise.”
• “Careful about what you promise!” — Maria chuckled, so many years together, she still had her fears, her inner demons always chipping away into her confidence. Yet to get used with Vince’s support. — “Have you ever thought about building a house?”
• “Those reusable ship panel houses freak me out to be honest.”
• “Not those, a real house, from wood, bricks, away yet near a settlement, next to grassy hills as far as eye can see… sigh…”
• “Maria, dear…” — Vince turned again now to face her longing gaze still fixated on the ceiling — “You never mentioned that you want home on land.”
• “I don’t think I even knew before we left for this run, I just picked up Eddy from his friend’s place and their house, it was just so pretty to look at. Sigh… Comp, how long until arrival?”
• “17 minutes at current speed” — replied the ships computer interface after a few seconds, it was rarely used by the crew so it took a bit of time to load the subroutines.
• “Let’s get to the bridge.” — Maria jumped out of bed with the energy of a kid promised to go to candyland for breakfast.

Vince led their arrival to the bridge, as he crossed the bulkhead, a low roar travelled through the ship’s structure. Then the sound of light summer rain knocking on aluminium roof.

• “Micro-meteors. We will need a new paint after this detour but we will be fine, plating holds and sensors show we clear the field in moments.” — Greg welcomed the couple, he kept watch for an hour already.
• “And the roaring? That could not come from the impacts.” — Vince shot a glance to Maria.
• “Let me check something before I speculate.”
• “Arrival to programmed coordinates in 2 minutes.” — interjected Greg as it was preferred on the bridge instead of the computer. — “By the way it wasn’t the first roaring, I felt a stronger one half an hour ago. Didn’t you?”
• “Well, we must have been too much in our thoughts.”
• “I… I think I have a theory… but not sure, could be something totally different too…” — confusion sitting on Maria’s face for a moment until she composed herself — “Okey, the most probable version is that these gravimetric waves still come from the Giant of the Stars’ damaged rings that may still be active.”
• “At least would mean they are not a dust cloud floating around.”
• “A good news at this point, bad news is that never seen anything like this, we can learn more when we find the ship.”
• “We are at… the coordinates, full stop. Check visuals, and open channel to Zodiak-12.”

As Zodiak station came online in the background and Vince got through the polite chit chat to establish they will be in continuous comm from now on, tension in the air could be felt rising throughout the Perseus Train’s bridge. The anticipation to find a dust cloud with no soul to be saved to an intact cruise liner, with anything still on table, waiting for the identification systems to scan around was just unbearable. Maria held her breath back for long seconds.

• “Contact, ship class match the disappeared ship, we get only the outline on visuals. Near that moon.”
• “How far are we? Zodiak, do you see what we see?”
• “This is Zodiak-12, yes, we see.”
• “Here is Captain Victoria Sebes, we see it too” — she turns to her first shipmate — “Ten minutes counter starts for the analysts.” — then Greg joins in:
• “6 light hours distance to the ship. Woow, we found the needle in the universe of haystacks, this goes to the history books.”
• “Indeed, nice work Maria! But our work just starts, lay in new course, we need real time comms with them.”
• “Course laid in, engaging thrusters…”
• “We don’t have days to get there, we execute a micro-jump. I take conn.” — Vince took nav to himself, while not unusual maneuver, for a freighter it was rare to be in such a hurry.
• “Proximity alert!” — the computer woke from its slumber as Vince executed the jump and the vast ship appeared just in front of them in an arms length virtually.
• “Getting the transponder codes, it is the Giant of the Stars, Zodiak-12, Irondome, please verify.”
• “This is Zodiak-12, code verified.” — Vince was the man of procedure and even he thought about the newbie Zodiak-12 operator to just drop the unnecessary identification, these radio protocols from the early 20th centuries worked well with open channels, were useless in point to point comms knowing they have only a low number of people on the channel.
• “Irondome en route to your coordinates, estimated arrival in 3 months, general directive to nearby ships, jump to Perseus Train’s position and assist in rescue. Captain Sebes out.” — As Victoria finished, Vince broke the line too, could not leave it without a comment to his team:
• “3 months, I knew the navy had faster drives but never confirmed how much, it is crazy, it takes 9 months for us to cross the same distance.”
• “Still a very long time to wait for them.”
• “Indeed, let’s hail the cruiser then. Giant of the Stars, this is Captain Vince Pier from the Perseus Train, how can we assist?”

The only response the ship gave was deafening silence. On the Perseus Train’s bridge they could see the majestic, sleek lines of the ship, the small details of its hull rotating, so they knew they had gravity. Though they could not know if anyone on board was still alive, the ship could start its rotation automatically following protocols. There were no other ships in a half an hour light distance detectable, though this capital ship had dozens of not hundreds of support ships, shuttles and landing ships in its complement.

• “They are awfully silent, no life-signs outside, no movements, no workers.”
• “Keep hailing them with same message on repeat. Let’s do a full orbit, maybe we can see any damage or clue outside.”
• “Okey, we are orbiting.” — Greg took the joystick and gently spun the freighter around the giant cruiser.

Despite their heavy load, only a few minutes were necessary to execute their elegant dance move. Greg’s face lit up as he was a child again in a long time forgotten Christmas fair fishing for a teddy bear in the claw machines.

As they emerged onto the other side, the damaged rings and the floating bodies came into the crew’s view.

• “Glad that Eddy is still asleep.” — came from Maria as the first and only comment regarding the brutal reality they all witnessing at the very moment.
• “Still no answer, we know they didn’t answer on any quantum comm hails, and no answer on radio, not sure if their comms work at all. We need to dock and see if anyone is still alive. Options?”
• “Two, their main dock at the centerline or the stern rings maintenance hatches. Main dock’s rotation could make it tricky.” — Greg ideated based on what he saw through the screens.
• “Not our only problem…” — Maria interrupted them — “Our computer uses tiny corrections and I checked, we are in the moon’s gravity well.”
• “Meaning…”
• “Yeah, we are slowly falling into it, rough estimations show if the Giant of the Stars won’t use any thrusters, they fall onto the moon in less than 2 months…”

17. Contact established

Vince hailed the Giant for a dozen times in the last hour then he pulled up the docking process designed to guide them entering the behemoth’s central spine. He looked for the emergency appendix, which turned out to be missing. Or the engineers never thought of a situation where outsiders need to access the ship as no one inside answers. Unlikely scenario.

Vince being the process oriented reveled in reading other ship’s design and handling docs just in his spare time and even from same company the emergency appendix was a well structured checklist for all situations. This was the case of a rushed development, cheap buyer squeezing out the most perceived value sacrificing safety on the altar of profit, nothing new under the sun.

• “We attempt docking. Maria, prep a few drones, I need eyes after we lined up, Greg, give me nav points, extend centerline out 2 clicks from the undamaged rings. Conn is mine.”
• “Yes, cap, conn is yours.”

Vince programmed the ship to follow the nav points Greg plotted out, as the freighter slowly realigned its center line, the thrusters firing in quick succession like a concert’s fireworks during the most famous rock songs, he still kept his hand over the manual controls. Joysticks from the 20th century still held up as one of the best analog inputs humans could instinctively understand.

• “Drones away, three in diamond formation. Rotation starts now.” — Maria’s calculated voice reported the usual manual docking procedure elements calming Vince with the familiarity.

They had no time to think of the situation or what they could find inside after no-one answered, they just focused on the next small task that made sense. In moments the drones entered the central spine of the Giant, circling around each other and continuously streaming their visual feed to the Perseus main computer which in turn presented it as a three dimensional render for the crew. A live feed map navigated as they wished, Vince’s experienced eyes searching for a docking bay safe enough to attempt lock.

• “These hatches seem torned apart, can’t see any ships yet. What happened here?”
• “I think they had a sudden deceleration.” — Maria was following the feed too from a different perspective, she looked on the edge of the data.

The drones were quick, unconstrained by the human body’s tolerance for high acceleration and their processing power mostly delegated to the freighter’s computers, they were just a high-definition camera attached to some rockets in essence. Maria could already see two thirds of the Giant’s main docking areas and the drones just passing by the section seen damaged from the outside.

As the drones went deeper and deeper, the feed showed the carnage of metal parts, smaller ships, shuttles, yachts and planetary excursion boats stacked onto each other like crumbled paper thrown into the garbage can. Most were so torn up, even their ship class could not be identified on visual alone.

• “Cap’, this does not make sense, a blown ring itself would not have effect on normal speed yet they seemed to suffer at least ten G. Those docking rings are certified to hold that much.”
• “All ports seem damaged, and further in the debris is way too dense to navigate. Pull the drones back, check the ring’s maintenance docks one by one.”
• “I have only two drones, they are on their way back.” — Maria rolled back the data until the last frames of the now disconnected drone — “The third one was caught up in debris and destroyed.”
• “Well, will put on the insurance claim. Scan the outside of the Giant with the remaining drones starting from the stern rings.”

Vince reacted in moments to the computer’s warning. A millisecond before the automatics would have kicked in anyway. Debris flying out of the docks right along the centerline. And they were in the way. Full thrusters to the right and they were clear before any substantial damage suffered. Scrapes on the bow, a few dents on the cargo modules and the proximity alert was gone.

• “That was close, Maria, any idea what was that?”
• “Can’t see it on sensors directly, I would bet it was one of the damaged spacecraft inside blown up. With all those reactors and engines stacked up, it might be just a time bomb there.” — Maria switched the main screen to the new feed coming in — “The fall to the moon may be our last problem, hurry to find if there are any survivors left. If not, we could wait for other ships far from here.”

Vince agreed with the caution yet he felt Maria may hide some kind of fear under it, which was unusual for him as they roamed the galaxy for years now getting through way worse situations. Vince had no time to reminiscence as he navigated the freighter next to the undamaged rings, following the wake of one of their drones.

• “Perseus Train, I heard you, Captain, are you still there?” — a young lady’s voice came through the comms.
• “Yes, we are here, I can hear you, who are you?” — the crew on the Perseus cheered in the background except Maria lowering her head.
• “I am… you might know me as Steelgopher, but call me Gopher.”
• “What?” — it was Maria’s turn to be excited — “Are you the Steelgopher? Lover your songs! Ohm, not the right time.” — Maria took back a notch when her glaze met with the surprised faces around her. — “She is a famous VR singer.”
• “You are the first one we can talk with, what happened to you?” — Vince wanted the most out of their first contact.
• “Not sure, one moment I was performing on stage then blackness. When I woke up, everyone around me was… dead.” — her sobbing as an under-tune — “I could reach out to a few survivors on the ship, they said everyone flew into the ceiling and that a lot of people are in makeshift hospitals.”
• “You are great, Gopher, all will be fine. Other ships are en route to help, but we need your help now. We need to talk with the Captain so we are about to dock.”
• “I could not reach the Captain, neither any official, or… anyone from the crew… but I can help with the docking. Even though we have gravity finally…”
• “Can you access the stern ring maintenance docks? From the outside one of them looks working, but internal diagnostics would help us to not puncture a hole.”
• “No, I can’t, only a few systems on the main hull through the comms, I tried to expand my rig into more but did not have access.”
• “Can you go to the bridge? It should be at the center of…” — comms was cut to muted by Maria who intervened quickly.
• “She can’t walk, a genetic disease, kinda public info but she is shy about it.”
• “You do are a real fan, thanks, unmute please.” — Vince continued now more carefully — “Sorry for that Gopher, we try to dock at the rings, but if it would not work, can you find a spot for us on the main hull and guide us in?”
• “Yeah… sure.”

The drones found multiple hatches around the maintenance ring, a smaller structure built in between the two massive drive rings for easier access of engineers. Especially handy while the main hull is gravitized by its spinning, now allowing the crew of Perseus Train to finally board the Giant and find out who and how to rescue.

The final moments of the docking to the nearest hatch went smoothly. Vince guided in the bow of the Perseus train for direct contact with slight help of the automatics and they had a seal in no time. All checks green, atmosphere holds and the locks are in place with hopeful smileys on the faces of the bridge crew.

18. Things keep falling apart

• “Seal is holding, all checks green, cap’.” — Greg was working the second mate’s computer. — “So, what’s next?”

• “We need to contact the Giant’s captain or anyone left in charge, Captain Vince, we need your crew to board and make contact in person.” — Victoria sitting on the edge of her chair as the Perseus Train’s bridge screen showed her figure speaking.

• “We are a freighter crew, not first responders. The dozen or so able-spacemen we have are not trained for whatever we will face in there, cap’.”

• “Have to do something, can’t just wait around.” — now it was Maria sounding her strong opinion.

• “Captain Sebes, how long until any other ship arrives at our location?” — after carefully listening to everyone, Vince took over with commanding yet calm voice.

• “Still three days, it’s another freighter with medical equipment and shareable food supply. And two days later the FNA Wanderland reconnaissance frigate estimated to arrive.”

• “Understood, and made my decision. I will board the Giant, Greg, Maria, keep an eye on me and open comms from the bridge. I will need help navigating there too.” — any objection was muted by Vince’s determined look, the mentioned both well acquainted with it.

• “Good luck and be safe, Captain, Irondome out.”

• “Gopher here, peeps! Can share som’ camera feeds, low quality streams, but will help you to avoid heavily damaged sections.”

• “Great, do so, I change to an EVA suit while you set up those.”

• “Consider it done chiefmate!” — Gopher’s pitch up sat in stark contrast to how she sounded like just minutes ago.

Maria entered the dock’s hallway a few minutes after Vince. She stood at the bulkhead in silence until her husband put up the chest piece and locked with the pants at waist level securing the seal. Her thoughts and anxieties brawling in her head in anticipation of him stepping into danger. For her, he was the nicest man in the universe, considerate and kind, yet firm when necessary. And a decent dad. She envisioned themselves as a family on a frontier ranch growing greens and herding cattle for the settlers.

The image stayed only for a fleeting moment as the slight struggle Vince getting into the arm and hand pieces brought Maria back to the present. She stepped to him and arranged his arm piece to the correct orientation allowing the hand piece to slide into position with a loud click. Their gaze met, smile then laughter erupted from both as the hundredth time they danced like this. At this point they both knew Vince could not learn this detail as he enjoyed Maria’s help.

• “Be very careful out there!” — Maria dropped her look to their feet.
• “I will.” — Vince put a kiss on her forehead.

Despite the rare occasions to take a spacewalk, being together for so long had them develop and practice their own ceremonies. Every day out in the darkness is a challenge and brings unforeseen problems or changes which they both enjoyed, yet they found balance in each other’s predictable habits.

Vince hugged Maria for a minute.

• “Should have done before putting on the suit…”
• “You could write down the protocol steps!” — Maria let out another laugh.

Vince locked in the helmet and the suit’s computer took over the management of his life signs, regulating air composition and temperature as its sensors monitored Vince’s beating hearth and a dozen of other data. He stepped into the airlock awaiting the mechanical noises only. Yet he heard a weird hissing behind all of that.

• “Greg, is the seal holding?”
• “Yes, cap’. All green.”

Vince pushed himself away from the Perseus’ door, slowly flying up in his own reference frame, almost reaching the Giant’s open hallways.

• “I hear hissing, moving to the Giant’s side.” — as Vince stepped onto the floor of the Giant and got into arms reach of the railings the hissing got louder — “It is louder, trying to close the Giant’s bulkhead.”
• “Cap’, the Giant’s airlock system froze up, the greens were false signals.”
• “Excellent… okey, trying manual close, how long do you think it can hold?”
• “Not sure, any moment, secure yourself, will slowly remove the air from that pocket.”
• “Don’t do that, the Giant’s side is fully open, the entire ring would lose atmosphere.” — Vince now landed with magnetized boots behind the airlock and hit the close command.

The bulkhead did not budge as the entire control froze up. Next to the controls he pulled the manual release lever detaching the heavy bulkhead from its locks. Vince pushing one side by its railing slid into the middle, the clicks of its lock muted by the increased hissing noise indicating the imminent seal failure. Just as he managed to pull in the other side to the middle Greg shouted into the comms:

• “Woah, stabilize!”

The conn as held by a younger crewman caught surprised by the air blow pushing Perseus Train’s hundreds of tons away from the Giant. Negligible force in a planet’s gravity yet enough to compete with a space station’s thruster. Took a few seconds of drifting until the crewman took back control. Only casualty was a coffee mug with zero-gravity top, broken in pieces and now floating near the side wall of the bridge, luckily empty of any fluids.

• “Nobody says anything to the cap’ about that.” — Greg started to grab the pieces one by one.
• “Perseus Train, come in.”
• “We are okey, cap’, no damage. The airlock is unusable though, outer bulkhead is deformed. We need to find another one to dock. Cap’, are you okey?”
• “Yeah, just locked the inner hatch before the seal failed. I go and find the crew. Keep me posted.”
• “Will do, cap’.”

As Greg took the last piece of the mug, Gopher appeared on the main screen:

• “I saw what happened on the outside cameras and checked the other docks on the maintenance ring. None of the eight works, two were manually closed, the other controls are frozen or show seal misalignments.”
• “Shi… do you have any other idea? Main dock is out of question.”
• “I suppose the bow maintenance ring too.”
• “Don’t wanna get close to that blown ring until we know it is secured.”
• “Then only main hull outer docks remained.”
• “Wait, on the rotating main hull you mean?”
• “Yep, peeps, the one and only. Net forums say it is doable.”
• “It is, we have done it on rotating stations, but we need time to prepare for maneuvering under gravity. Cap’ won’t like it though.” — Greg switched channels — “Cap’, we have no other choice, going to dock on main hull, will send the position when we are there.”
• “Mhm, ship is yours, just follow the gravity dock protocol precisely. And be careful.”

Vince was flying along the maintenance corridor leading him to the next access point to the main drive rings and hopefully to an engineering post or something with people alive. These ring modules consisted of two main drive rings housing multiple rounds of particle accelerators keeping the ship in a gravity zone when in faster-than-light cruise. And the largest ships had two of these modules leading up to four drive rings, able to sustain long travels, even shut down and repair 2 of those rings while still in flight, albeit slower if doing so. The safety redundancies learned from operating commercial aircrafts for over a century, still alive in modern spacecraft engineering circles. Kept alive by strict regulations of the Federation, a model that worked well during the heyday of commercial aviation and resuscitated after humanity spread out of Earth a few hundred years ago. Still, just as a violent engine burst of a jet airliner, a ring was susceptible for large debris breaking into the particle chambers.

The structure was seemingly in a pristine condition where Vince was flying, no visible damage or shrapnels anywhere, yet he was keep thinking of what traps could lay hidden. These maintenance rings were often empty during deep space travel with minimum crew oversight and mostly utilized when in orbit or in dry-dock when the main hull was spun up to provide gravity everywhere else. These rings allowed the crew to carry out heavy work in zero gravity, now allowing Vince to quickly traverse kilometers in search of any life-signs.

19. Gathering

Vince traversed kilometers, flying in the air, occasionally pushing himself to fight the air slowing him down. Helmet unlocked, hanging on his back. Sometimes chatting, a few words coming through the radio, keeping half ear on the Perseus Train’s efforts to dock again.

Only took a few minutes in the weightlessness to find an engineering station manned. Mostly young, frightened kids, probably right out of school taking an internship on this vast cruiser in hopes of buffing up their references before moving up in the hierarchy on another vessel. A single ship’s ladder was mostly rigid, opportunities to ascend it rare, while the shipyards pumped out dozens of new ships daily, desperately in need of experienced engineers. Vince asked for the ranking officer and got empty eyes looking back, then the same eyes looking at each other. Almost two days from the accident, and they did not even know!

• “I need to talk to the bridge, open comms, you!” — Vince took a stronger approach, need to brush them up. He knew how to fight the shock in others, he could not be a captain without it.
• “On it, sir.” — a brown haired, twenty-something looking guy stepped to the console — “Sir, bridge does not respond, I think the console is broken.”
• “None of you tried to reach them before?” — now many glazes took interest in the boots of others avoiding Vince’s sight — “I see, I get it, we are all afraid. You can’t let that determine you, the ship, the people on it need us. They need you, you to stand up and do your job. Especially in this situation.” — finally Vince felt a few pair of eyes on him.
• “But what can we do? We were not trained for this, and we got no orders from anyone.”
• “Start with what you can do, establish comms throughout the ship. You, get me to the bridge in person.”
• “Wait, you are not from here?”
• “No, I am Captain Vince Pier from the Perseus Train, we found you after Zodiak-12 issued emergency search and assist. They lost tracking of you and the bridge did not respond to them either.”
• “Oh my, thank you, sir! Follow me! Able spaceman Hank Grast, for your service.”

Vince flew after Hank, as the others started to move around, sounds of tools taken and railings creaking under pulls filled the corridors. Vince and Hank exchanged whatever little information they had about the ship status while they were traversing to the main hull.

Hank described the harrowing moments everything flew hard into the ceilings and walls. They were under slow deceleration anticipating arrival in two months, everything going as clockwork, mundane days on the job. Then their senior engineer got killed, neck broken as he flew into the ceiling. Hank got off easy, just a pulled shoulder. Full pandemonium after that, fortunately their nurse was sleeping in a zero-gravity bed, not even a scratch on him.

• “Though I haven’t seen him after yesterday one of the airlock’s siren went off. Hope he wasn’t thrown out or something.”
• “Everything is going to be all right. Just focus on the next task, that will keep your mind on the right things. Can you tell me, how many people are on board and if you have any idea, how many injured?”
• “We had ‘round sixty thousand, that is the usual count, at least environmental systems kept consuming as such. Per how much injured, don’t know… Though consumption fell to half, that can be from damaged systems and loose pipes.”
• “I understand…” — or so many dead, need to talk to the shipmaster immediately, Vince guarded his lips against the dreadful thoughts slipping through, he needs to keep up morale.
• “Cap’, do you copy?”

Vince pulled out the headset from his helmet to quickly respond:

• “Yes, Greg, go on.”
• “Cap’, it will take an hour to secure the cargo and the ship for docking. Gopher helped checking the ports and it does not look good, most of them damaged or non-responsive.”
• “That is no good, we need clamps to hold onto the spinning hull.”
• “Yep, I think I can hold for a few minutes on manual, but that won’t be good for transferring supplies.”
• “We go through that bridge if we are there, just be ready to dock and wait. I am almost at the bridge, we figure out a plan with the officers.”
• “Aye-aye, cap’, Greg out.”

Just as they finished, Vince felt the gravity of the main hull, few moments later stepped out of the train. Hank still in front of him, zig-zagging in between people. People lay down on the ground, on the waiting seats or just sit with their back to anything that could hold their weight. The station that normally transferred a few dozen people every hour in and out of the ring section was now a designated muster station.

Yet no order to abandon ship, not that they would have anything left working to actually do that, and no other communication, so many of the passengers and service workers stayed here. At least a few nurses and doctors were circling too, checking on the injured. Vince could not know yet, this wasn’t even the worst part of the ship.

They passed by a few similar rooms and halls as they progressed toward the bridge now on foot. The brisk walk between people switched by an empty park, thrashed like Times Square on New Year’s Eve. After a tsunami tried to clean it up. This ship was very different to what Vince was used to. At one corner, he could not believe his eyes seeing a tree trunk smashed a bistro to pieces. For a moment, in a better circumstance, he could forget that he is on a spaceship.

Hank just pulled him into a small corridor after the park, a minute later a square meter sized led panel crashed loudly onto the street next to their passing.

The bridge was almost at the center of the ship, halfway between the two large ring sections. Vince pointed onto the floor and the walls to warn Hank. Shrapnels everywhere, most are small pieces, here and there a piece of metal the size of Vince’s hand stuck out of the scenery. They proceeded with caution between the razor sharp edges.

When they entered the bridge, no-one noticed them. The view was considerable worse than at the ring station, half of the bridge crew frozen in blood, hundreds of small shrapnels dotting their bodies. An officer sitting on the floor next to the bulkhead Vince entered, holding his arm which had no hand attached to it, silently looking at it, unable to accept what he sees yet. Captain’s chair in the center of the room, barely visible in the dim dark lights of the destroyed fixtures and a few operational consoles.

Vince saw the shrapnel first, length like his arm, stuck out of the chest of the late captain and shipmaster. His right hand frozen around the shrapnel like his last thoughts was to remove it, yet he had not enough strength left to do it. Maybe he knew and wanted a faster way instead of the minutes of agony.

• “Who is the ranking officer?” — Vince solemn voice broke the fiddling noises of the bridge crew. A tall shape stepped behind the captain’s chair, front of Vince.
• “First-mate executive officer, Talm Shibar, call me XO.”

20. The plan

• “And who are you?”

• “Captain Vince Pier, first responder to emergency call.”

• “We did not declare emergency. In fact we can’t reach anyone, quantum comms modules cut up by shrapnels.”

• “I know, Zodiak-12 issued it after they lost contact with you. Not important right now, we need a plan, the people are still in danger on this ship.”

• “We can handle.”

• “XO, I am under orders, and not even talking about interplanetary conventions… How many injured?” — Vince felt like he wanted to get rid of him. The XO’s eyes stayed on Vince like a vulture measuring up its prey. Not the welcoming he expected.

• “A few hundreds only, our hospitals can deal with them.”

• “And any dead?”

• “None.” — as the XO realized the blatant lie, the denial in his own mind standing next to his deceased captain corrected himself — “Not many.”

• “So you actually don’t have the numbers? First steps to establish scale and impact then to devise a plan and execute on it in service of passenger safety.” — he got silence as a response.

Vince got agitated at this point on the total disregard of reality.

• “Anything else?” — asked the XO.
• “We should have a conference call with the Federal Navy, they are on their way.”

Was that fear on the XO’s face? Vince’s confusion grew with every second he spent with this man.

• “Hank, can you establish connection to my ship? They are right next to the main hull.”
• “I try.”
• “And route it to conference room one. Captain Vince, follow me.”

They stepped into an even darker room beside the bridge. The large oval steel table has seen better days, integrated consoles cracked and broken under the fallen light fixtures. A whole panel leaned over it from the walls. In a few moments one wall lit up brightly and as the focus cleaned up, they could see Greg and Maria on the Perseus Bridge. Some pixels flickering, a few of the panels staying dark on the sides.

• “Cap’, how is the situation there?”
• “This is XO Talm Shibar, my first mate, Greg Donovan and my wife, Maria. Niceties done, let’s get to it, Greg, can you join in Zodiak station to the call?”
• “Yep, let me raise them.”
• “This is Admiral Haggardt from Federal Navy Perimeter Command. Where is Josh, I mean Captain Mariner?”
• “He is dead.” — the XO’s voice was emotionless.
• “I see… My condolences, XO Shibar. Captain Sebes is in the call too, she is on her way with the Irondome to assist.”

And Gopher’s holographic projection appeared next to Vince.

• “Seems the projectors still work in this room, heya all!”
• “Maria Pier here, this lady is Steelgopher, she guided us so far and we have a few ideas so I thought she is better be here.”
• “Quite the circus you collected, Captain Vince. What a drawing has to add here?” — even the admiral pulled up an eyebrow on the XO’s remarks — “Excuse me, I had a rough day.”
• “Let’s focus on the issues. Most urgent, the docks are full of damaged ships, and the bow ring has blown outward.”
• “I sent out messengers with orders to all engineers to secure the docks. As for the ring, we can’t reach it now, a few of my people working on establishing internal comms. We can take care of these two.” — first time the XO seemed to be on top of something giving Vince a small beam of hope. — “Everyone else, first priority should be the injured.”
• “I am afraid we have one more problem.” — Maria intervened — “The Giant has entered the gravity well of a moon. My calculations show that it will fall onto the surface in two months. That ship is not designed to land, a lot of people will die.”
• “Either you need to evacuate or stop the fall. As for the evacuation, there is not enough ship nearby and we are a month late even on max speed.” — Victoria chimed in too.
• “And here I come!” — Gopher waved with both hands up — “I think, we can buy some time for the evacuation. With Maria we thought to fire up the bow ion thrusters as retrograde, but we don’t know how damaged they are, Perseus Train’s drones are not that fine-tuned.”
• “To the point, please.”
• “Yeah, sure, sure, okey, we have two options, we fire up the stern ion drives and drives past the moon, or we use the rescue ships, as many as can join, to pull us to higher orbit.”
• “The structure may be too damaged to hold out for a tug-party like that, and we would need hundreds of ships to make a difference with this much mass.”
• “Friends, we need more ships anyhow, storage and life support systems, the hydroponics, pharmaceutical plants, all damaged, people will need supplies soon.”
• “I can get that, Haggardt out.”
• “He is about to have an unpleasant call pleading to the colonial forces. Keep us in the loop, unfortunately we can’t do much until we get there. Captain Sebes out.”
• “So to be clear, Haggardt gets us more ships from the colonies, Gopher, Maria, you work on the engines, use Hank and the on-board engineers. Greg, we need supplies, I saw hundreds of injured on the way to the bridge, how can we solve that?”
• “Cap’, the ports won’t hold under the stress and we can’t use anything on the rings. Get a few dock workers and construct a temporary dock with clamps holding us in place. Then pack as quickly as you can.”

Vince hesitated to answer. He wanted to help these people, not just by the orders and conventions but as a fellow human being. Until this point, the danger to him and his crew was minimal, but docking on a spinning drum without automatics was borderline crazy.

• “Greg, if the clamps fail, and nav computer can’t help, can you do it manually?”
• “Cap’, I was born with controllers in my hand.”
• “I took it as a yes, but, separate the ship, do it with the bow module only and move non-essential crew to the stern, including Eddy and Maria.”
• “Understood, cap’. Good luck and god speed!”
• “You too, my friend.” — Vince closed the channel shading the room into darkness once again. — “XO, anything we can do to help with the main dock? Maybe we can avoid to risk my shi…”
• “This is still my ship. Focus on your things and don’t cross my path. My engineers will handle the main dock.”

And the XO left Vince in the dark room with his thoughts.

21. Round an’ round we go

What am I doing? Risking my family, my crew, my ship for strangers… Vince walked back to muster station, he needed muscle and the bridge crew wasn’t in a helpful mood after the XO left him in the conference room. He could not help himself, his mind putting the XO at fault, his hearth still knew that the people on this ship are innocent and suffering. He had the medicine on board Perseus Train, he could share it. If he can get it here.

Not going to risk the main dock, only one course of action left and it is not going to be easy. At the train station, hundreds sitting and waiting, when he arrived:

• “Attention please, I am Vince Pier, captain of the first responding ship, we have supplies to share, medicine, food rations, but I need help. Looking for experienced dock workers, is there anyone here willing?”
• “It’s not about will, more like ability.” — a nurse turned toward him from a row of laying people away — “You may not see, but most of them have internal bleeding or bruises, hardly able to move, yet alone packing under gravity.”
• “We can help.” — came from a guy standing between a few muscly workers wearing a space suit, only chest and above were free — “Call me Dan.”
• “Dan, nice to meet you, can any of you weld?”
• “Yeah, I worked in the docks for a year, these are a few of my old colleagues, they took care of me. But what for?”
• “My ship have to dock on the main hull while it is spinning, most ports are damaged but I have an idea. And everyone needs a space suit.”
• “Then I am dressed for the occasion. Not sure if we can get enough though, what is your plan?”

Vince and Dan lead the small group a few decks down in search of port that they could use, following Gopher’s instructions. As they crossed a once-were hotel’s reception hall, floor plating gave way and two men fell before they could react. A small luck the next floor was still pressurized, yet the team slowed down and progressed cautiously.

The structure of the ship is clearly damaged and anything can become a trap at this point. The dock workers stack up to lead the team instead, their experience between hazardous heavy machinery and loose cargo coming handy.

Took a better part of an hour to get to the indicated docking port, where Dan searched the lockers in hopes of at least a dozen space suit, yet he could find only half of that. The lockers were half empty, like the suits were never there. Still better than nothing, they sent the other half of the team to scavenge from nearby sections.

• “As Gopher told us, the port consoles are frozen. I want to secure the Perseus Train manually to the dock, need to weld the clamps to the structural beams. Then we can depressurize the area. We will attach the clamps onto my ship by hand and pull it in.”
• “This will take a while, we need at least four chains, we can cannibalize the nearest port and leave this one in tact, if only the console is broken, the computer still may react to proximity sensors.”
• “Good idea, let’s get to work!”

A few hours of grueling work, all in pressurized room, a heat of over forty-five degrees centigrade due to almost continuous welding, they managed to build the clamps themselves.

• “The last beam is cracked, weld up toward the center!” — Dan positioning the chain with three workers while one running the arc-welder around the seams.
• “Greg, how are you doing there?” — their vicinity to the outer hull and Gopher’s rerouting making comms available, at least for now.
• “Cap’, we are ready, Maria had a few unrepeatable words toward both of us but they are in the stern module, preparing to separate in a minute or so.”
• “Thanks Greg, proceed, we are almost ready.”
• “Greg, Dan here, the clamps won’t hold for long even if they work at all.”
• “Just don’t over-compensate. If it fails, let yourself fly away, that is the safest. We are ready here.”
• “Aye, cap’. We are separated, moving in position, and… thruster at max, should be on curve in ten… five sec more…” — a bit of strain heard from Greg as the few G force acted on him after days of zero gravity.
• “Just slowly…” — Vince aimed with one clamp in his hand, Dan was holding another on the opposite side, waiting for the Perseus to close in to a few dozen centimeters.

At the end of the chains that made their arms look like sticks they welded on meter long clamps that could grab and pull in a ship’s docking ring. The safest ports had a dozen of these put on a ring with multiple rubber and plastic seals going around and computer navigation positioned both ships down to the millimeters. They could not rely on these luxury at the moment, manually locking the heavy clamps and encased hydraulics onto a manually steered ship in working in vacuum but under almost full gravity.

Yet they were here, knowing how many people rely on these supplies, how important it is to hold out until a fleet arrives.

A few moments passed, first Dan, then Vince locked the clamp into place before the Perseus Train could drift away. Quickly switched to their second pair. In the vacuum they could not hear the otherwise loud clicks so they relied on the visual feedback the clamps provided, and their feel in their arm, resonating as hydraulics worked to pull the ship into place.

• “Locked and secured, start packing!” — Vince jumped down into his ship with two workers behind him. The hatch was large enough for all three to jump simultaneously.

Dan stayed on the Giant’s side and both knew they are where they belong at this moment. A minute passed by, then two, the heavy boxes were passed from men to men, piling up behind Dan. They maintained vacuum, had enough challenge with the centripetal forces, with the Perseus continuously wanting to fly away in a straight direction, pulling on the clamps.

As half the cargo made it through, nobody noticed the cracks growing under the welded metal. A moment later one chain gave way and the Perseus dangerously leaned to its side, near colliding with the Giant’s hull. That would tear holes to both ships, usually the smaller vessel pulling the short in such an exchange.

• “Correcting, thrusters on maximum.”
• “We need a few more minutes.” — Vince now threw the cargo with as much strength he could.
• “May not have that much.” — Dan unlocked the opposite of the failed clamp releasing some pressure on the Perseus.

The two dock workers climbed up with the last of the medicines when the last two clamps failed almost at the same moment. Only Greg’s quick reflexes to cut the thrusters saved the Perseus from being thrown into the Giant’s hull and pulled along for a ride as the last clamp spun them out of control. Tumbling over multiple axis, Greg reconnected the automatics just as almost lost consciousness, Perseus Train’s bow module finally rested a few kilometers from the Giant, floating peacefully as Vince closed the hatch and started pressurizing.

He floated inside, looking out to the stars, thinking it might be a good idea to stay on a planet for once.

22. Scars that can’t fade

• “Hold him down!” — Dan shouted into the suit’s intercom and continued brawling with his colleague’s leg.

His colleague was screaming into their comms for a few seconds until the automatics cut it off. Dan sat onto his colleague’s abdomen, opening a medical box with one hand while holding trembling leg in his another. A leg that was clean shaved off under the knee, bone and the layers easily distinguishable for laymen.

Owner of the leg in shock, screaming muted into his helmet only. An unlucky millisecond, the force of Perseus Train thrown away in a straight line went through his body like it wasn’t even there.

• “Got you, here” — Dan’s calming voice surprised himself too as he managed to attach an automated device blocking the wound.

Over the hundreds of years of space faring, suits became a survivalist’s wet dream, small pockets inside able to close off on vacuum detection beside other fancy “keep the wearer alive” tech integrated. In a minute, Dan was able to stabilize his colleague and sedate him, without an ounce of medical training. This won’t save his life, yet buys enough to get to specialized facility.

They grabbed whatever they could in one hand, put their sedated colleague between and walked back to the muster station, to the nurses and delivered the medkits first. Able bodied men took a few turns to pack all the supplies from the port to their station.

Dan took a medkit and a food ration box into his hands and silently left the station, alone. Just to find himself staring into the well known pair of blue eyes. Unlike to himself, frozen for seconds between relief and confusion, just stared silently into those blue oceans.

• “The hell you have been so far?” — rush of emotions do weird things to men.
• “Tracking down you in this huge dangerous maze! And I am fine, thanks for asking!” — Ava may seemed to blush under her eyes.
• “That is great” — Dan dropped the boxes and hugged Ava for a moment before jumping back one step — “Oh, excuse me, just I am glad seeing you, that was too much.”
• “Ahm, what are you doing with those boxes? Did you steal them?” — the momentary redder blush gone unnoticed by Dan who looked to Ava’s point.
• “You remember the doctor operating me? Thought to bring some of these to them, we just got these from a cargo ship.” — then Dan filled in Ava of their best news since they met while they worked their way toward bow sections.

While wondering if he really saw and heard Ava or just his own subconscious reached out to him under stress, he kept talking of other topics. They talked, more precisely, he talked way more than before. The time passed by and didn’t even experienced it as Dan talked and talked, walked and climbed, helped her to reach higher places, passed by free swinging cables and broken screens, until they reached a familiar corridor. The same one where Dan passed out by bleeding, which still weakened him after a few days now.

Yet he was still alive. But not honest entirely. Yes, he planned to bring those supplies to them. But he expected something in return. A clue of who tried to kill him and why. Another string of data, a recording, anything that would lead him to those wanting him dead. Not just to survive, he had more to drive him. A wish to best them, to beat them at their game. He traded information for a living, he didn’t get into this job out of a goodness of heart. He wanted to be a shadow broker, one who pulls the strings of politicians and puppets from the dark corners of the world.

But he had a lot of steps on the ladder to get there. So far his contracts were pity hidden camera revenge sex videos, with the occasional affairs and other blackmail material for the rich passengers of this magnificent cruise liner. He maintained a civilian cover, working at the docks, other small jobs in the service sector. Who suspects their waiter to be holding your affairs evidence on cam?

His big step would have been the job with those gang members. First time he bore encrypted data, and not even a rookie encryption he would break under ten minutes thinking strongly about a pass phrase. No, this was military grade encryption, could unlock by multi-phrase in perfectly synced times. Only an ex-intelligence agent was capable of decrypting, or the strongest quantum computers which only a handful was ever built, and guarded on fortress moons scattered along Earth defense perimeter.

He longed for power, which comes with the ability to influence people and events. If he would have the power, they could never hurt him again. They could never took her away.

Yet, Dan messed up big time and he knew it. He was blinded by the opportunity and skipped due diligence. Now he realized the fish tattoo meaning. Swordfish got him off guard, and he almost paid the price. Well, Fred did pay his price already, and who knows how the would turn out if the ship didn’t suffer the catastrophe exactly in that moment.

Dan went down the rabbit hole of “what could be” and talked about none of it at the same time. He never knew another person who could do this real time, thinking along one line, talking along an entirely different. Maybe some politicians, none of them could track their lies for long. Dan was different, he kept consistency toward everyone and every lie he ever told. Maybe his brain was built differently.

• “Doc, got some supplies for you!” — radiating some happiness as he crossed the infirmary door with Ava on his heels. Didn’t take long to notice a burnt victim in the corner.

While the doctor checked and distributed the content of the medkit, Dan stepped near the victim. Then almost jumped out of his skin by a loud slurp and chest movement. The victim wasn’t dead, though not far from it.

• “We can’t do anything for him.”
• “Who he is?” — Dan expecting what the answer is.
• “We don’t know, a few engineers brought him in, they said it was an explosion.” — doctor moved away to tend to another patient going into a shock, quickly drawing the attention of the nurses too.
• “Do you think it is who I think?” — Ava whispered.
• “Aham, keep an eye out. I am going in.”
• “Oh not again.” — but was too late, Dan already connected his cable to the engineer, fishing for the brain port under burnt fat and skin.

Took only a second, the pain and feeling of helplessness, and regret, was overwhelming. Dan could not maintain the connection, the engineer’s port wasn’t designed for this, only to process small sensor intakes and issue text commands to specialized equipment. The strongest feelings could bleed through these connections, but the bandwidth is not enough for conscious thoughts to travel through.

As Dan stepped back disoriented for a moment, Mitch took his last deep breath before freezing for ever. Remembering a fraction of a human connection, he chose to pass away with a fresh feeling.

Amidst the whirlwind of regret, Dan scooped out one bright image, a single frame recorded as a black box, the moment of the detonation. A yellow ball of fire, right under Mitch’s nose, originating from the control pads.

• “He was killed, a bomb under the engineering desk.” — as Dan whispered his insight to Ava, his eyesight locked in with Brad’s in the doorframe.

23. Golden cage

As their gaze met, Dan jumped into action, making up his mind over the days if this moment comes ever. Brad dropped a lifeless body of his shoulder, another engineer barely caught the guy from falling to the floor, and he ran. Didn’t matter which direction, just to get out of sight of his previous victim turned hunter.

The corridors were different this time. As they ran unimpeded by debris, slight curvature hiding the distant ceiling from them, closed and broken bulkheads zooming by. The oldest tricks in the books used by Brad, pushing loose metal plates and beams from the sides to the center to slow his pursuer down worked. Out of sight he opened a bulkhead with the console, disappearing from the corridor.

Dan slowed down by vaulting over the debris, started to fall back dozens of meters. He could not keep up the speed anyway, his abdomen in pain, risking his internal bleeding to start again. Yet the closest trace he had, possible answers to his questions, is just ahead of him running. Not running anymore, the heavy metallic steps stopped, Brad must have slowed down too. Or even better, he used a door.

Saw a data port a meter from him, calmly as he has all the time of the world, Dan walked there, connected and checked for a single information in the logs. Many people were totally unaware how much data is collected on a ship like this. Every action anyone does is logged in vast databases, correlated with previous data and used for predictive maintenance in best cases, or correlated with implants and their signatures to personalize advertisements everywhere you go. Only the really wealthy could afford signature dampeners or buy advertisement free services, everyone else had to suffer the never ending ads on their free time. Of course on their free time as companies hated distractions of their workers, either paying their unfair share to advertisement platforms or build custom software on their own dime.

Dan got the answer less than a millisecond, the exact position of the last opened bulkhead, nearest to him, just ahead on the same corridor. From an old job, he still had a private key of those advertisement platforms, so he extracted a personal implant identifier, just in case. Wasn’t sure if it is Brad’s, the ID wasn’t personalized. At the same time he uploaded a few commands to the bulkheads to trigger on the same ID.

The bulkhead led to a hydroponics farm. Most ships used only dry food, long term rations, here on the Giant of the Stars that was not feasible for the wealthy passengers. They wanted fresh salad with their meals, the latest craze for micro-greens, photos shared on the net, so called friends would envy their manufactured selfies and food pictures with a planet or star-cradle in the background. Some things just never change about humanity.

The farm was heavily damaged in the sudden slow down, racks teared up from the floors, pipes and cables tangled up, water lining the floor giving it a green hue and salads and tomatoes thrown everywhere. Unlucky for Brad, the footprint clearly visible in the half-crunched tomatoes, Dan could easily follow those. Step by step avoiding to leave his own marks, with Ava in his back, he closed in on Brad. The footprints got compressed into a small patch as their owner didn’t know where to go from here.

Dan knew the ship well, another bulkhead led out of the farm on the far side, but the metal and plastic spaghetti that once were trays, pipes and lights giving life to plants got really dense at the back of the hall, like a dish thrown to the wall by a giant. So the only exits was the one they came in. Quick splashes behind them got their attention.

Brad was sprinting toward the open bulkhead, but as he got to arms length, the heavy door dropped to its place and locked, stopping Brad in his tracks.

• “Grab a plastic and pull up!” — Dan shouted to Ava, while Brad stood confused in the middle.

Brad pulled out a metal crowbar, and circled toward Dan for another fight. But Dan wasn’t in the mood, as Ava crawled onto the plant pipes, he jumped onto another and yanked a still vibrating grow light onto the floor. Brad’s body contracting and releasing rhythmically, unable to control himself while electrocuted in the water. Took a few seconds until the power source burnt itself out and Brad fell unconsciously into the now safe water.

Dan was already at him, connecting his data port while Ava climbed down.

• “Oh, he is trained against connections.” — Dan grinned as he combated Brad’s implants and mind. Even unconsciously, his mind kept going to early memories, Brad’s junior posting on a smaller cruise line, stills of his family, cute daughter.

Defense by overwhelming the connection, simple yet effective method to protect important data. But what is he hiding? Dan fought with the stream of memories and kept digging, navigating the branches expertly. This guy had much better hardware than expected from a low level engineer, Brad sported some serious memory modules and capturing devices, he could not have paid for with his job.

Finally Dan accessed clips from a dark corner of Brad’s mind, a short excerpt without sound showing an anonymized character, a dark shadow changing its shape continuously. Dan saw this before when he read to the fish tattoo guy’s memories who tried to kill him. So there is a connection, they both met with someone before. Could be different people, yet not many had anonymizer tech. Actually Dan had no idea who could have such tech, it wasn’t available even on black markets.

• “Aahhh…” — Dan cried out, followed by Brad when the feedback propagated through their active connection.

Brad was resuscitated by an implant and gave a right hook to the focusing Dan, essentially feeling the same pain he caused. Dan repaid him immediately without disconnecting, knocking himself in the head virtually. Both exhausted, Dan just disconnected and pulled away.

• “So you were led on to kill me…” — Dan started to put the picture together — “Saw your family, you got trapped by higher ups, demanding more work for less pay then what happened? They asked for illegal stuff?”
• “Damn you!”
• “Saw the unmarked crates you moved, the logs you altered. What they had over you?”
• “I just wanted a better life for my daughter, to stay on a planet instead of this…” — finally Brad broke down.
• “So they promised that… You know that won’t happen? That these people never gonna fulfill their side of the bargain, just use you and throw you away.”
• “That… is… not true, my family, we will get to a ranch and be free…”
• “You could be happy if we get out of this ship alive. Those who led you, aren’t here to help. Tell me, who tasked you to kill me and why?”
• “Go to hell!” — Brad took another swing at Dan but missed the mark — “You, you had to play the data broker for these b-holes. And now for a good pay day, you gonna be dead, cause you wanted to play with fire.”
• “So the encrypted data in my head is what they are after? Kinda obvious. Never intended to pay for it?”
• “You should not have it, a rat gave it to you.” — Dan avoided a few more punches.
• “You never killed anyone before, I see. You could just leave the ship, tough to build a new life elsewhere, but there is no reason you could not leave at any port.”
• “If not me, someone else will get to you to zero it. You built your own cage by working for them.”
• “As I see, we both built our own golden cages.” — Dan had enough and knocked Brad out with a straight up blow.

24. The key

Brad opened his eyes to see nothing, the pitch black darkness made him question even if he is alive or conscious. Body hurt from everywhere, the micro-burns of the electrocution left its marks. He must be alive, pain should not be felt in what comes after, he thought. Trying to move around on the wet floor, feeling a heavy chain around his waist.

Dim light in front of him appeared as the bulkhead moved out of the way, shining like dawn on Earth blindingly. He recognized the room, he was still in the destroyed aquaponics farm.

• “Finally awake, oh, don’t bother, you can’t hack a good old fashioned welding.” — the voice came from his antagonist, Dan noticed as he was measuring up his unwanted belt.
• “The hell you want, man…” — Brad took a step toward the talking silhouette and felt the chain pulled back — “The hell you gonna get…”
• “Here is the deal, Brad, I just want to know who wants me dead, simple way we could find a deal, or you make it the harder way.” — Brad stayed silent in the dark while his hands felt a heavy lock near his belly, holding the chains together — “Thought so, the deal is, I give you the key to that if you tell me who is after me.”
• “Why would you let me go after I tried to kill you?”
• “Cause I am not a two bit thug, you have value, I give you value for it, your life, for your family. But the next time we meet, well, let’s say we should not, for your sake.”
• “Try to take it, won’t talk, can’t talk…” — Brad thought of his daughter and the remorse of letting her down like this, first to sell out, then to become a killer and the situation is just getting worse.
• “Tried already, anonymizers are a great tech, cleansing data remotely and so thoroughly is a marvelous engineering feat, yet the good old brain. You can’t make someone unsee what he saw, so tell me, who is it?” — again no response from Brad — “Hm, you need a bit more motivation, so I make you see.”

A click, an electric actuator turned the lights up, brighter than the noon in an icy desert and at the same time Brad’s body burned. His muscles contracted involuntarily, legs could not hold him up and fell back into the water which just made the pain worse.

A moment later darkness fell again and the pain went away. A sadistic contraption made out of the farm’s remains, a do-it-yourself torture chamber if you will. The silhouette of Dan seemed to lean back, like he talked with someone but this time Brad could not hear a word.

• “What do you think, how many times that implant of yours can restart your hearth?” — the silhouette turned to Brad again and indeed, Brad’s pulmonary implant sent warnings to his neurons about tissue degradation — “Funny, despite these fancy tech, the body is still so fragile.”
• “You scum…” — Brad could not finish his swearing before the lights came up and lost control over his body again in agony.
• “Sorry, you were saying?”
• “I don’t know who he was” — Brad sound turned desperate, the warnings showed him, maybe the next light is the last he ever sees and not his daughter’s face. — “But I can describe him, and I know something better for you, the key to the data.”
• “Listening.”
• “First, you have to promise me something. I don’t care about my life, but my daughter.”
• “Still listening.”
• “Promise me to get her out alive from here.”
• “It is a vain promise to make, not sure if anyone can make it out…”
• “Just promise you try! They were on a show, not far from here when the accident happened, the guy who wanted you dead told me the audience were moved to a hotel few decks below.”
• “I promise.” — the silhouette answered after a long pause — “Now tell me about the key and this guy.”
• “Sure, sure, the encryption was applied by the guy, however part of the keys were copied and stashed, one part is in my head, you already copied it, another is in the head of Fred Constello. He was tasked holding the manifest of those unmarked crates, to serve as confirmation for the buyers, but instead he rat out and…”
• “What are you ranting about? Fried your brain? Fred wasn’t a smuggler…”
• “Yeah, he wasn’t, but he had some memory to spare and I think the oldest one in the book, was on the hook for gambling debt.”
• “And the guy had you both on the leash? How he looks like?”
• “His voice was not distorted, you can use that to identify him. A bulky guy, short brown hair, a fish tattoo on his lower neck and usually wearing a turtle neck, think he wants to cover his tracks.”
• “Yet he does not distort his voice, is he incompetent or you think I am stupid?”
• “He used to bark orders not to take criticism, I think.” — as he finished, he heard a heavy splash near his feet.
• “Thanks for the info. Wait until I close the bulkhead or I fry you there.”
• “So you keep your word.”
• “Yeah, and I am so sorry.”
• “What are you talking about?”
• “I was at the show too, Steelgopher, the virtual singer, I think?”
• “What are you talking about!?”
• “No-one else got out before the dome blew out into space. Your friend lied to keep you on the leash.”

Brad just fell to the ground in disbelief and even forgot about the key just next to him. He was played, by all and everyone. The bulkhead closed and he was left in total darkness.

Took minutes to find the key and to remove the chains. Crawled to the bulkhead and routinely opened it with his implant. First he went to the hotel, now without any other cause, free of his imagined and literary shackles, just wanted to hold his daughter once more. But no-one saw them in the hotel, there were only a few injured staff member anyway, not thousands escaped from a disaster.

It was a long walk to face the bulkhead keeping atmosphere in and the vacuum of space out. Not because of the distance, but each step getting heavier as he approached. Finally stood front of the glass leading to another door, the back of the ground floor of the theatre. He got the tickets for them, working triple shifts for months, and still he could just afford two discounted seats in the last row.

He could not remember when the first bulkhead opened and closed, he just saw his wife’s lifeless face in the last row seating. Somehow he could not cry, he could not process yet.

• “Do you believe in fate?”

Brad wasn’t even scared of the voice, wasn’t even sure if it is real or he started hallucinating. The implants were sending a batch of warnings, registering the unmistakable signs of depression. He looked into the blue eyes of the young lady left of him, their cold stares hanged in the moment.

• “No, it was my own making.”
• “Which You can make right.”
• “How?” — drops filled Brad’s eyes as he thought through all his choices.
• “Always the engineer, that is a question for another time. Just give me your hand, if you want to make it right.” — Brad felt a tender warmth looking into those eyes, reminding him of staring at the star Betelgeuse once on the bridge of his previous posting holding his wife’s hand.
• “Who are you?” — not even waiting for an answer, Brad took her hand and the soothing warmth enclosed him slowly.
• “Call me Ava. I will show you the way.”

The vacuum did not feel cold. The last bulkhead separating Brad and his family opened and he walked to them, both strapped to their seats. As his body deformed under no pressure and the last efforts his implants took to keep him alive, he did not feel any of it. Only the warmth, saw the smile on his daughter’s face and asked her:

• “How was the concert, my dear?”

25. One side of a coin

John let the line ring. He grew restless, walking circles into the steel plating, if he continues like this, the Irondome will require a structural repair next time in dry dock. Finally the comm connected:

• “How may I help you today, sir?” — the officer assigned to him by Captain Victoria smiled on the screen.
• “I need to talk with the Captain.”
• “Let me see what I can do, but she is very busy lately.”
• “Come on, it has been three days already and you say the same thing every morning.”
• “And you keep asking the same thing every morning.” — the momentary side-look and smile burned John’s face — “However today in the afternoon she has an open slot, will tell her to drop by your cabin at fourteen hundred hours.”
• “Thank you, looking forward…” — and the connection was closed — “to… well, and I am rude.”

John settled back to his daily routine. Still waiting for his assistant to arrive from central office. He managed to recruit the top physicist and drive specialist to join his investigation team, yet he needed one more member to focus on the cyber aspects. John could take care of the crew and processes, but he was no techie.

He lamented if the cyber expert is really important, he could have used a few more people on the ground instead. The safety board was stingy with the resources, he got only one plus three team budget, and after what happened, knew he is in no position to request more.

He could do rudimentary data analysis on the recorders, yet his basic code snippets did nothing on what he acquired so far. Usually he could quickly find anomalies, and as there are no perfect crew out there, he did even when no accident happened. This recording was too clean. He called again, this time a shadow took the call in a second.

Instead of talking, just a single word flashed on the screen: Wait. Their picture got distorted on both sides as the additional encryption kicked in.

• “Hey, John, I was just preparing a response for you.”
• “I can imagine, I asked three days ago.”
• “That long, indeed.”
• “And? Are you in?”
• “You guys are buzzing all over the net. And not on the good kind of buzz, if you catch my drift.”
• “No, you drifting too much from the topic. It is a serious investigation and I need your skills here.”
• “Hell, I don’t need this kind of attention. You gonna burn my ID with this.”
• “Then you just forge a new one.”
• “But I like this one…”
• “Ben, families lost loved ones and they need the truth. And to avoid more families losing loved ones.” — it was a low hit.
• “Well, hell… will be there. Only if you get me a ride.”
• “Will…”
• “Not with safety board.”
• “Will figure out something. Later.” — John pumped his fist in the air after the connection closed. Ben, or however he was called this time, was the best he knew.

The next couple of hours he spent reviewing interviews, news reels. He even kept digging in the tech specifications and blueprints for the Giant of the Stars, just to keep himself occupied. He went through the day he arrived so many times, he lost count. His own reel felt like a distant evidence, not his own memories at this point.

He focused so much, he didn’t hear the doorbell the first time. He forgot lunch, even drinking water until now, yet Victoria barged in without waiting for him to open.

• “Heard you wanted to talk with me.”
• “Yes, and, who are you if I may ask?” — John found himself face to face with a black suit.
• “Gary Coldman, special counsel.” — his hand extended in the air — “Let’s discuss your situation, shall we?”

John nodded silently and they set around the plastic coffee table.

• “So it went up to the Attorney General already?”
• “Ah, kid, no, I am here to maintain stability between Earth and the Perseus Arm colonies. However your little action threw in a wrench to that, I hope you are aware.”
• “A-hm” — he looked somewhat older than John, at least showed more gray hair, this still did not lower the weight of the hidden insult. Victoria leaned back and kept her eyes strangely fixed on John, staying silent the until now:
• “Gary, focus and get over with it.”
• “Sure, sure, alright, so, John, I saw your recording, verified by dear Victoria here that it is authentic and talked with the workers. And to be honest, it does not look good for you.”
• “What do you mean? You could see I was surrounded and my life threatened.”
• “Indeed, however I saw that you knocked down the lone worker first.”
• “I caught him destroying evidence in an active investigation zone. And I did not hurt him, actually if I recall correctly, he swung the hammer first toward me.”
• “Anyone could testify beyond your own recording? None of the workers had similar tech.”
• “Michael could verify my helmet was cracked. It was from the hammer.”
• “One of my analysts matched a blunt weapon to be the cause of the cracks.” — Victoria spoke fast while her left eye shined bright blue.

John recognized the heads up display implant most navy officer was equipped with. Only in one eye, so if any glitch or electric warfare interferes, the other eye still functions, being fully biological.

• “Okey, dear. And about the gun, why were you armed? Is it a new procedure of the safety board?”
• “I was not. Initially. Found the gun in a room, I think it was one of the VIP booth at the concert hall. A few bodies around, none of them had a bullet wound.”
• “So you were watching your own recordings. Could not notice that detail during. And how many times you fired?”
• “Only once.”
• “The weapon was fired multiple times.” — again Victoria’s interruption.
• “Not by me.”
• “Correct, analysts found two different people used the weapon. Another profile matches with a known Swordfish muscle, little fish in the sea. His remains matched with parts in the room.”
• “Thanks, Victoria, as usual, please file all this. Except the next 5 minutes. John, if I may call you John, the hell you were thinking?”
• “Excuse me?”
• “You opened fire without any warnings, then you threatened another worker on your way out. I know this was a scary shit you experienced, but the situation here is a powder keg. And the workers of course blame you as an aggressor.”
• “You know if I open a channel and warn him, all the others will know my position and I would not be here arguing.”
• “One more mistake and we find a new investigator anyway. Sigh… Victoria, we need an eye on him. And John, let me handle the colonials from now on. You stay away even from interviews.”
• “I can assign two of my officers to conduct those interviews.”
• “And the colonials will do the same.”
• “Mr. Coldman, you mean they investigate on their own?”
• “This is the largest catastrophe of a civilian vessel in the last few centuries… hell, from the moment we stepped outside of Earth. Here everyone investigates, mostly who they can put the blame on. I know, I know, the Galactic Transportation Safety Board does not assign blame. But hope you have enough political savvy to understand, others will, and will use you too.”
• “So, am I free to go?”
• “For now, if Victoria has no objections. Have a nice day, Mr. Sotomayor.” — with that Gary took off and promptly left the cabin.

John would have bet on he saw Victoria smiling for a moment as she followed.

26. Hands-on

A few days after the interesting discussion with the special counsel, John and team were set up in a spacious room. A rare occurrence of a wide and lengthy window on the carrier, Irondome had a strengthened armor plating and extra bulkheads everywhere.

The former mess hall, repurposed only for John’s investigation into a conference and work room had the best view every few minutes.

The mangled and broken body of the Giant of the Stars laid below them, positioned like the small moon just embraced her new born baby. A continuous memento for the team, why their work mattered. The thousands, maybe tens of thousands lifeless bodies enshrined in the wreckage, their eternal souls and families in need of answers.

John sipped into his hot tea while staring at the wreckage, a week of Earth days after the ominous talk and the last time he saw the captain. A digital board overlaying sensor data to the window, pinpointing interesting parts following his eyesight, a standard equipment in their mobile office box Hanah brought with her.

John’s assistant, who pulled him out of more problems than he can remember, just arrived to their room.

The experts filing in slowly one after the another. Ben being the last, going to the corner of the office without a single word, he pulled out a tablet larger than a food tray and immersed himself into the code and data world he craved every second.

• “Good morning, team!” — John turned away from the window as the Irondome turned away from the wreckage. — “Let’s kick it off, where are we today?”
• “Happy to start.” — Hanah as always showing the perfect teammate example — “I compiled the initial list of witnesses to interview, with the proposed team members to conduct each and the schedule. Today I have a slot with Captain Sebes to align how to conduct these as per Earth and colonial members want to have oversight.”
• “Please involve me in that.” — interjected John, unable to distinguish his professional motivations from personal.
• “Sure, invite shared. Beyond that, Mark, I have some issues gathering the sensor records of the Perseus Train, it might take a few days to solve that, unsure of the reason, will talk with the analysts today. That is all from my side.”
• “Okey, thanks, Hanah, won’t be blocked on my side, still working on the gravimetric data we got from the observation posts and cross referencing the witness records of the participating rescue ships. However I am going to need more data from the black boxes, John, the data you had proved to be three years old. Ben, could you recover more?” — as Mark finished his status update, the team waited in long silence for Ben.
• “Ben, did you had any progress with the black box?” — Hanah tried to push politely the matter so they can wrap up and start working.
• “Hm? No, too damaged. Need another one from the wreckage.” — Ben talk monotonously as his empty eyes remained unmoved, most of his mind surfing in the virtual worlds.
• “Ben, just focus for a moment. What is next and how can we help?” — John’s firm direction made its impact.
• “Okey, I got the blueprints and internal engineering notes attached, Mark, you gonna love this. Compiling the public discourse with one of my deep dive agent. But we will need an undamaged black box.”
• “The marines searched for the last week, every box was destroyed in the accessible areas.”
• “I don’t like to be the obvious, but then you need to get one from here…” — everyone skipped a heart beat as Ben pulled up the blueprint to the window display and marked a spot next to the frontal Ring’s blow out.
• “I will do that” — Hanah knew very well John’s determined look — “But I need help from Victoria.”

John lamented for a moment as Hanah prepared to close the meeting and send everyone on their work, John looked over the members one by one.

• “Team, after a few days, we got better at the dailies, but… we need to be focusing on impact and not status. We need to answer a few key questions in our report. What happened exactly and what contributed to it, who did what before, during and after the event. And most importantly, what we propose, so this can never happen again.” — John let everyone take a second to internalize — “Now, what are our current hypothesis?”
• “We know a detonation occurred in the forward Ring, the cause could be mechanical failure, foreign object, outside anomaly or… sabotage.” — Mark listed the basic assumptions.
• “Agreed. I know it is not your first barbecue. You know what to do, let’s cross each cause out until we have left with the only real one. Tomorrow is one day off for everyone, but leave a check out note before!”
• “Have a great day everyone!” — Hanah concluded the meeting.
• “Finally.” — Ben submerged himself into the Net.
• “Great day.” — Mark took to another corner he had paper put up to the walls reconstructing and overlaying the Giant before and after the event.

After the space age kicked off, especially in early times, each and every gram of weight counted and paper became a luxury. Yet a few, especially the traditionally trained scientists preferred to work on paper, they were arguing that it improved memory retention better than most implants available on market.

John did not believe in that, though if that is what Mark needed to work the best, he provided. Ben’s continuous Net connection was not a problem, but a stack of paper cost him a few favors to call in.

• “One more thing.” — John raised his voice to get attention before quickly lowering it to whisper — “Hope you all understand, no word of our hypothesis outside of this team, am I clear?”

As the team silently nodded in agreement, he continued in his thoughts to evaluate the likelihood of each scenario. While a good investigator needs to approach the case without a prejudice, creating hypothesis and validating those are a common practice.

And John was mortified of the possibility of a sabotage, so he vowed to focus on disproving that first. He needed a black box first. Hanah can handle the sensor records from Perseus, and witness testaments after months are unrealiable anyway.

• “Between us, I know these are busywork. But I want to set a cadence to our work, we will be here for months.” — just as if Hanah read his thoughts.
• “Yeah, Mark will be fine with that, more worried that Ben jumps ship before final report.”
• “Why worried? He always remain anonymous expert.”
• “This time, I have the feeling we have to be immaculate. I know, but he is the best.” — now John read her mind and preemptively argue the obvious fault in his decision to bring Ben on board of this investigation.
• “Well, you have been attacked before on site.”
• “True, but never from a third party. It was always the person at fault, with an obvious lapse of judgment.”
• “You have a team to help avoid the same. Defer to us when in doubt.”
• “Thanks, knew I can count on you.”

The opening bulkhead interrupted as Victoria and a few analysts entered, just in time for the meeting scheduled with Hanah. Ben muffled a few words and then quickly left behind the analysts in search of a calm and lonely place.

Hanah expertly led the boring meeting exactly to the agenda, getting answers by the minute. John had no reason to intervene at any point so he played the role of a fern. Just be nice and silent on the side. Until the last point was closed.

• “Victoria, one more thing. I need to get back to the Giant’s wreckage.”
• “Can’t let you at the moment, what do you need there? I can direct a marine group there.”
• “This time, I need to be there personally. Need to access a black box, here.”
• “That is unsecured area.”
• “I know, and it is risky due to the ring’s damage. I can’t ask others. The box probably can’t be removed without damaging it so I need to download it from there.”
• “You can’t download anything from there, we still measure extreme electromagnetic radiations, you would get only radio static.”
• “Nope, I have tech that can do it.”
• “What do you… what, you have quantum entanglement comms?”
• “Yep.”
• “Then give it to Lieutenant Commander Rivera, and they execute the mission.”
• “I can not let my QEC module out of my hand. However I can issue an official order to give me a marine unit, just as I ordered the works to stand down.”
• “Okey, but we keep it on the low, without the official order. I just send Michael and team on a patrol where they diverge on their discretion. And you join as unnamed VIP. That is my last offer.”

27. Risktakers

• “Captain Pier, please go ahead!” — Victoria’s voice commanded attention as the participants were bickering between themselves, ignoring the pressing needs of the people on the ground.
• “As I was stating, the Giant will fall into the moon in 3 months. Their captain is dead, XO is in command of repairs, however…”
• “This conversation stay between us, I can ensure you. So anything you have on your mind, speak up! Am I right, Admiral?” — a silent nod ensured Victoria he is on board with it.
• “I am not sure if he can be trusted, maybe the trauma, maybe more.”
• “What you talk about, son? He was on top of his things based on our last call, you were there too.”
• “True, however, afterward… Nevermind, must be nothing. We have a problem accessing the Giant, and I can’t put my ship to further danger. Are there other ships nearby?”
• “Yes, though it is just a small shuttle arriving soon, a few more on their way and reporting less than a week to be on site.”
• “Well, better than nothing. Please urge everyone to render aid, almost everyone suffered some kind of injury. I think the ship experienced a large negative G force.”
• “We will do everything we can, Irondome out.” — Victoria left her office in a hurry, almost knocking over her first officer on the way out. — “Going to engineering, join me.”

She shared the sit rep on their way, the negative G sticking out for her the most.

• “We are approaching on a similar path, so we might run into the same thing.”
• “We don’t know if the cause was external, or an accident happened on board.” — her face darkened — “Best be prepared for anything, call the senior staff and come up with a plan to minimize effect of negative G on the crew. Have the alternatives on my desk in two days.”
• “Got it, ma’am.” — just as they entered the main engineering control to the buzz of the on shift crew.
• “Lieutenant D’Orsay.”

The head of engineering barely looked up from his screens to acknowledge the presence of his captain.

• “Yes, ma’am. We had a breach of coolant in the secondary reactors, but managed to contain, repairs under way. This does not affect our current speed.”
• “Thanks for the report. Though, we need to be faster.”
• “Hm, how much?”
• “We need to get there in 2 months.”
• “I got the reports from Captain Pier too, that would leave us a week to stop the Giant’s fall. However, it is impossible.”
• “Come on, Jack, we both know nothing is impossible. What would it take to speed up?”
• “We are talking about fifty percent higher energy output, maintaining the field is extreme too. I am afraid… well, there is one way. But it is experimental and untested on carriers.”
• “Let’s hear it.”
• “We can link up all four rings via the central clock, and put the secondary nav computer in sync too.”
• “In the common language please, I am not an engineer. And the double rings are only for backup, they were never operated together.” — Victoria knew her old friend likes to geek out, her smile betrayed to all that she was amused by the enthusiasm.
• “Of course, and yes, it was not done ever after we left Earth, but because we could not solve the synchronization reliably, so it was deemed not to try. However a few scientists in the navy took up the challenge a few years ago and managed to prove it on a small craft. They flew it twenty times and not once the 4 rings desynced.”
• “Okey, do you know how to replicate on our ship?”
• “I can get in contact with their leader. But it would take a week at least to apply it.”
• “And would it work? Confidence level?”
• “Well, fifty-fifty I would say.”
• “So, one to two chance we get there even later by a week, and same chance we get there a month early?”
• “Not exactly, there is some chance it fails catastrophically and well, we get there as stardust.”
• “Plus we have the negative G problem.” — first time the officer interjected to Victoria and Jack’s bouncing of ideas.
• “I have no clue what would happen to the ship if we impact the same thing the Giant did while we experiment with the engine.”
• “We don’t know what happened to the Giant at this point.” — Victoria walked aside for a few moments, inhaled deeply, then exhaled. Jack knew she made up her mind. — “We take the chance, make the modifications, but you have 5 days only. And make it secondary, if it is not ready in that time, we continue our way as it is. Understood?”
• “Yes, ma’am.” — sounded the chorus of Jack and the first officer. — “And…”
• “I am gonna handle the Admiral, and get you direct line to that lead scientist.”

Vince found Maria on their bridge, deep in a conversation with the virtual character. He knew it is a real person behind, but found it unnerving that he never saw the human beyond the graphics and animations. It seemed Maria was running extensive calculations in the background, even redirected the ring and nav computers’ capacity to it.

• “If I may ask, how, why the Steelgopher nickname? I mean, it just sounds goofy.” — Maria gave that teenage chuckle when you talk to your idol the first time fighting her own anxiety.
• “Actually that is the reason. As I am goofy. And I like those small furballs too. My parents had trouble at the beginning how to handle my paralysis, trying to raise a normal child so got a dog then a cat at first. Always had private teachers over the Net, at least had some physical contact beyond my nanny. Yet, you know, dogs and cats need to play, and move a lot. Not really for me. One day, maybe I was 8, one of my teacher showed different Earth animals as part of my biology class and first time seeing them, I knew I wanted one.” — the beeping of the computer, signaling the end of simulations interrupted Gopher’s story.
• “We will continue, let’s see the latest results.”
• “So ladies, do you have a plan how to save the Giant?”
• “Maybe, we were calculating a few scenarios, towing the it, using own power, if we can fire up the ion drives near the damaged ring. Gopher, you tell, your idea.”
• “Oh, you are sweet. Yeah, okey, hm, the ion drives may be the best options, if they are working, only half of them is enough to push the ship onto a stable orbit. Structure seems able to handle it, at least based on the sensor data I can access from here.”
• “This seems to be a great news, what is the catch?”
• “I don’t have access to any sensor data beyond the broken bow ring. And I think engineering neither, so they may be fully bust. And… I can’t leave my room to check.”
• “What do you mean? I know that you are…”
• “It is not just that, the room I am in is hermetically sealed. The corridors around me are in vacuum and don’t have a space suit.”
• “What, where are you? We need to send help.”
• “No, Maria, it is fine. It would take a lot of effort for a single life. And I am okey, have plenty of rations and I can be undisturbed in my VR rig. Besides, I lost all my friends during the concert.”
• “Actually, hope I can say this, you did not. Just gained a new one.”
• “That is sweet, actually.”
• “I won’t leave you there.”
• “Okey, but promise me, waste effort on me only after everyone else is safe!”
• “What, no…”
• “Promise!”
• “Fine…”

Vince could not make any sense of the pushback, anyone would have asked for immediate help. In some ways though, he admired the selflessness Gopher showed. Maybe there is a good reason why millions loved her concerts and watched the streams. Who would have thought, a good person being famous, rare gem.

Next alarm was the proximity sensor ringing in the artificial night. The shuttle Victoria referred to just dropped out of faster than light speed right next to them. Just a single ship with a five person crew, yet felt like the angels from high heaven on white horses came down to save everyone. At least it proved they are not alone and gave hope that others are coming too.

Vince had conversed with the fresh captain, discussing the ideas how to access the Giant and offering more supplies, and to guide them if they give him a quick ride. He would not risk the Perseus to dock inside, outside all the docks were broken or unusable. Yet they needed to have eyes on those ion drives.

28. Modern pressures

The shuttle captain brought along Vince and the remaining supplies Perseus Train could offer. Took a while for them to plan an entry to the Giant. Especially after the close call Vince experienced when the first time they approached the central spine.

While Talm, the XO was confrontative, he still promised his teams to clean up the central dock. As the hours go by, even a day, and others smaller ships started to show up, ordered and eager to help, Vince still remained cautious.

He convinced the new arrivals to stay back and let him and the shuttle to establish a safe process. The shuttle captain was new to the job, he switched from being a senior operations officer in a drive factory, so his experience came handy. They discussed ways to mitigate the runaway neutron activation.

Vince heard of the process, yet possessed only rudimentary understanding. When a fusion reactor runs over an extended period of time, the containment structure drowns in neutrons fired from the reaction. And over time, the entire containment structure becomes radioactive. Regular maintenance will prevent this to contaminate the entire ship, while the reactor is sealed off safely, so all modern ships use a form of fusion for most energy needs.

But if maintenance is not done, or the outer shells are damaged, punctured, the radiation leaks onto the entire ship and starts the same process on its hull. At this point, many docked shuttles, passenger crafts and even the sturdier maintenance crafts shown signs of runaway neutrons, essentially making these ships like pressure cookers. Ready to blow out any moment, filling space with radioactive shrapnel around them.

The shuttle slowly maneuvered to line up with the spine of the Giant. Vince asked Perseus Train to send in one of their drones. To play the part of an early warning sentry. Sharing the drone data with all approaching ship, they essentially created a traffic light, and the time of test came. The shuttle crew, ready to switch to full reverse at any moment, approached the first docking clamp in the rotating center drum.

After a nail biting five minutes, they were docked, seal secured and under a few percentage of gravity along the centerline. This helped securing the ships to the side of the docks when in orbit. Shore-mounting, as the dock workers called the process between themselves.

• “Captain Pier to all ships in vicinity, we report successful docking. For now stay in line and dock one by one, let the ship ahead of you leave first to safety. Dock workers will assist you to speed up packing. I will check in with engineers, hope we can clear a few more safe harbors.” — Vince waited for all four waiting ships to acknowledge before he left the shuttle.

While he had no established rank to order anyone, everyone so far out in deep space had learned to self-organize. And to quickly decide who to follow. Vince led the first responding ship so all subsequent civilian captains regarded him as the senior. Especially that still no-one communicated from the Giant’s bridge.

Vince noted that Talm was not coordinating the rescue efforts, but gave him the benefit of doubt. He just lost his captain, unknown number of crew and passengers and the situation is still not under control. Cut him some slack, how would I feel in same shoes? — thought to himself as he saluted the line of workers walking past to pack life saving medicine and equipment.

• “Vince, Maria here.”
• “Go ahead.”
• “A navy cutter, the Bendeghuse arrived and wants to connect with you.”
• “Why me… put them through.”
• “This is Captain Mounthy, Captain Pier, I have the presidential cabinet on line. What can you tell us about the situation?”
• “What… you should talk with the executive officer of the Giant, he is the senior rank.”
• “We can’t reach anyone on board for hours.”
• “Wait, are you at the Giant?”
• “Affirmative.”
• “Then help us, we need organized access to the docks. Lot of injured waits for evacuation and the new arrivals need directions.”
• “Understood. Do you have any footage of the ship? And the fleet of rescue ships?”
• “What are you talking about? We have only five small civilian shuttles, and the Perseus Train, would not call it a fleet.” — his sound betrayed his annoyance with the inquisitive robot on the line.
• “Captain Vince, this is Secretary of Internal Affairs Maurice Vaunt, please share all recordings your ship made so far.”
• “Madam secretary, we have all hands working. Did you got the reports from the Admiral? The Giant is still falling toward a moon, docks are unsafe to use, probably everyone suffered at least major injuries on board. Send us all the help you can and we will share records and documentations afterwards.”
• “Captain Vince, I understand the peculiarity of the situation. However I have to press on, to help you the best, we need live feed of the situation. We checked, your ship is equipped with drones that capable of doing just that.”
• “Yes, however we have limited number of those and they need extended maintenance if we run them continuously, I can’t spare that much of my crew. And I won’t have those drones when we need them the most.”
• “Take it as presidential order, set up continuous live feed through the Bendeghuse, or I order the navy to take over your ship.” — even without seeing her face, the voice suggested she was serious.
• “The he… understood. Maria, did you hear the request?”
• “Yes, I did.”
• “Start working on it. I will get to the XO, we need the docks.” — Vince sped up his steps. A double ping in his ears noted a private connection coming in on hold, from Maria.
• “Got it, take care there!”
• “Always, you too!”
• “Captain Vince, thank you in the name of the president for your cooperation and leadership in such a hard times…” — Vince cut the channel and put on Maria.
• “Cap’, something is going on.” — heard Greg’s voice, so the bridge joined. — “The politicians are in cleanup mode, the Net is full of people complaining that the state does not do anything.”
• “So they want to put up a show? Netstreamed rescue operation? Wasting resources on that instead of helping…”
• “Going to be worse, you remember the craze of theories going around when that planet blew up a few years ago?” — Vince had some shades of remembrance, they were en route to there too but told to stand down around halfway. — “It was the Giant that evacuated the planet and now half the Net argues about false flag operation another half goes on a secret experiment tangent.”
• “Nothing changes, compile a welcome data pack, a few messages to send to all new ships. We may address their misinformation before we get a full chaos here. And tell the same to the navy ship. They better start to take over charge here.”
• “I will do it, Uncle Greg can review it.” — Eddy spoke up in the background bringing smiley on to Vince. One day he will be a great man others can rely on.
• “Thanks Eddy, keep in touch!”

As he turned to the bridge of the Giant again, unable to reach or find Talm anywhere, only a few young officer sitting resigned. When he asked for situation and what’s next, the boy in the captain’s chair did not even noticed for a few minutes that he should be answering. Or just at least put up a confident face, he is now the active captain on the bridge.

Vince gave up after a few minutes and headed toward the docks himself. What could he expect from a boy who should be a cadet still and less than half aged as he. Nowadays the companies want cheap labor and skimp on everyone. And now when the crew has been decapitated, the inexperienced have no clue what to do and panic. Or just unable to take any steps.

Vince could not find or connect with Talm, so took a few engineers he found on his way toward the central docks with himself. Ran through the steps they had to take to remotely shut down any craft’s fusion engines. They could modify emergency fire extinguishers to dampen the radioactive hulls’ heat. Not a solution, at best a stop gap measure claiming a few hours or days, still better than nothing.

Shortly Vince organized a small contingent of engineers, four groups able to work parallel on crafts, and one more half an hour behind them who volunteered to disconnect the docking clamps. They got a small tugboat on the line too, every few hours able to pull out a ship Vince and team cleared. In a few hours, the newly organized group managed to clear at least five more docks, and Vince was about leave them and bring a replacement group from when one of the engineers screamed from afar:

• “We have a runaway core.”
• “Cut the clamps of bay nine. Now.” — Vince radioed the team below them. — “Tug Beetle, we have an emergency, bay nine, core about blow, will take out half the docks. I cannot order you to do anything, but we need you.”
• “On our way, sir, and sir. We know.”
• “Will guide you in.” — Vince took up a position at bay eight, able to see the clamps as the tugboat approached. He told all teams to leave at least a few decks. Maybe the bulkheads stop the majority of shrapnels saving some of them.

He himself did not think anything else than focusing on the next step. Danger be damned, they can lose the entire dock in moments.

Coordinating with the tug was fluent, they had some practice over the day working together. He just got to know the master of the tug. Their sons played the same online game and supported the same group in the championship.

• “Greg, do you have eyes on bay nine?”
• “Yep, cap’, estimates show around ten minutes till the magnetic field collapses. But it’s the onboard computer and it was damaged, wouldn’t trust it.”
• “Tug Beetle here, we will be clear in three minutes.”
• “Just drop it and run away.”
• “On it.”

The seconds counted. One by one, the chance of success slimmer. The line of civilians spread like water droplets as the rock enters a lake.

Then the entire Net saw the fireball. The tugboat consumed by it. The nearest ships experienced a metal rainshower.

All silent for moments.

• “Beetle, come in.”

Vince tried, no answer. He almost broke his fist on the bulkhead with a right hook. The drowned stress came out on him as he felt like he let them down. Yet the docks were safe. For now.

29. Miners keepers

• “Again, what are our options… We can try the main ion drives. Or to tow the ship to higher orbit. Evacuate everyone before the fall?”
• “Maria, we were running the numbers all day. Even I need rest sometimes.”
• “Gopher, we don’t have much time. Already trying for weeks to…”
• “And you should spend some time with your family too.” — Gopher’s avatar pointed behind her.

Vince stood in the door silently, waiting for the girls to finish their work. His melancholy set in again as he watched love of his life to grind away on a problem close to her heart. Never giving up, even when she was out of her depth.

• “Okey, let’s leave the computer run a few more towing simulations, how many ships we need today, tomorrow, next week to be able to correct the Giant’s course?” — friendly beeping confirmed the computer took the command — “Night, Gopher!”
• “Nighty night! Gopher out.” — Vince walked up to Maria and hugged her from behind, still sitting. Stayed for a few moments, just enjoying each other and the silence.
• “How are you two progressing?” — his eyes were fixed to light years away.
• “Not good. We wasted weeks, would have simpler to tow the ship by the Perseus Train, but now it racked up too much momentum. Now it looks slow, but in a month, things will go down quickly.”
• “You want to stay till the end?”
• “Vince, that does not sound like you…”
• “Maybe. I just thought, the idea of staying planetside is not that bad.”
• “O-okey” — Maria would have jumped up and down by happiness, in any other circumstances, she knew Vince too long to not see he is conflicted — “While I would love that, we can’t just leave.”
• “Why not? We are not owing anything to anyone.”
• “But we started something. You know, we would both go crazy in no time if we would not finish it.” — her warm smile was infectious.
• “You are right. As most of the time.” — Vince’s smile turned to grinning. — “Okey, after Giant or the passengers are safe, we find a nice lush planet. With good school. And a waterbed, just for us.”
• “You dirty…” — their long kiss interrupted by the proximity alarm.

A dark metallic body appeared right next to them. Vince felt he could touch the plates if he extended his arm a bit. The new arrival was unusually large, yet still just a tiny ship next to the Giant’s rotating body. Further contrasting the Giant’s sleek design, the new arrival looked like an industrial sector of a capital city in space.

• “This is Captain Morgan Cadaver from the miner command ship Steiger.”
• “Finally” — sigh let out of Vince as they listened to the open channel.
• “We monitored the situation on our way. Taking over the command of the rescue efforts. All ship in vicinity, coordinate with my crew on your tasks.” — continued firmly Cadaver.
• “Civilian ship, you have no authority here. Order you to stand down. The ship in question registered under federal code…” — joined in the federal cutter Bendeghuse while taking up a position between the miners and the crippled cruiser, joined by three smaller escort.
• “We are far from the federal space. Let us handle the rescue…”
• “Federal code stipulates that the damaged ship’s captain is in charge of rescue operations…”
• “Who is dead. And the XO disappears for days, no-one getting organised here, so don’t throw the book at me. Regulate your people first…”
• “This is Captain Vince Pier from first responder ship Perseus Train, gentleman, we are here to help those in need. Steiger, I suppose you have methods to handle high FTL traffic. And large number of drones. We could use your help here.”
• “Yes, deploy the signal buoys, my crew trained to manage the incoming ships. Captain Pier, transfer command to us.”
• “I have nothing to transfer, I am not in command here. Let’s focus on the practical steps anyway.”
• “Bendeghuse here, federal navy command accepts Captain Pier as field commander in absence of Talm Shibar, Giant’s XO. Until Irondome arrives at scene.”
• “Steiger agrees, if that’s what it takes. Captain Pier, transfer onboard to us, you can overview the operation from our command facility.”

Vince and Maria exchanged surprised looks.

• “Accepted, we dock in ten minutes and two to board. Maria will need your engineers to pull the Giant to higher orbit.”
• “I am not a leader.” — Maria privately mumbled to Vince in a shock.
• “You don’t have to be. Just focus on the problem. And share what you already planned and what needs to be filled in.”
• “I can do that.”
• “That is the spirit!”

The docking went fully automatically in a breeze. Vince left the Perseus Train in the hands of Greg, but stayed docked till the next day. While Vince and Maria stay on the Steiger, Perseus can make a trip to the colonies, deliver the original cargo of industrial machines and pick up further supplies and medicines for the injured. They can make it under a week easily.

The very next day a few passengers tried to board a supply ship. The pilot managed to secure himself in the cockpit, but it took a day to convince the terrified people to leave the cargo ship. Vince had to convince the Bendeghuse to post guards to the now operational docks to avoid similar incidents.

Then he started to share regular updates to the Giant. At first only a few shelters had radios to get the news. That changed in a day, as a few injured engineers mocked up new radio receivers and distributed to the passengers.

Finally getting public announcements cooled down the civilians. It was reassuring that a lot of people were there to help them.

But Vince never talked about the fall in those updates. He thought it would only cause panic, as there is nothing those people could do. Yet.

He wanted to avoid the crowd boarding supply ships, endangering themselves and the crews. Ultimately scaring away help. While under the law everyone was obliged to render assistance when a ship got into an accident, there were loopholes. So they relied a lot on wilful cooperation and Vince knew that. A few would help even in perils, most would not.

And they needed every bit of help. The Giant was housing on average seventy thousand souls. A third of that may be untrained passengers. Mostly wealthy or elites, but ultimately untrained for the harsh survival deep space necessitates.

As so many times in history, humans were adept to hide the risks, create comfort and popularise otherwise perilous acts. Just as centuries ago, thousands took to a cruise liner without able to swim and paraded along the seven seas. Now the same type of people paraded along the sea of stars in a metal can, designed to hide the risks and provide comfort.

It is all good and well, until the comfort can is in one piece. This can was teared wide open at one side and already poured out a few drips of souls. No-one can see ahead how many will perish until the end.

Vince got used with his new role, even enjoyed it despite the circumstances. He was always keen on adventure, freedom to do whatever he wanted. But not on the cost of others’ lives, he was taught all life worth equal and he firmly believed in that. His values shined through so far, maybe that what he earned the trust of both sides.

Both sides, we are a single race, under a single government and I am thinking of two sides. Vince stopped his train of thoughts right there. The divide was felt by ordinary cogs in the machine, but was too far, too abstract to articulate. And if you can’t articulate the problem, then too scary for a solution.

• “So, we won’t have enough ships to evacuate everyone.” — Maria was thinking loudly in a circle of engineers. Middle of them a virtual avatar shaking her head.
• “No, we won’t. Many are not stable enough to move, let alone to transfer to anything without gravity. We have to adjust the Giant’s orbit.”
• “Actually we can do that with the current fleet.”
• “What is your idea, Zack?” — Maria’s unease subsided over the days working with the smartest astro-engineers and miners
• “While the Giant suffered structural damage, we can use the centerline to ensure it stays intact and pull back from the moon. We need to create just a tiny bit stronger pull force than the gravity generates now. And we have a lot of tensor cables on board to hook up every available ships.”
• “There are still a lot of injured, and they need food and other supplies too. We can’t use the entire fleet.” — joined in Hugh, the senior engineer. — “We could use the ion drives instead of half the fleet. But none of our drones were able to check them out yet if they work at all.”
• “Maybe we can get some help from on board.” — Vince stepped in from the side — “Gopher, a few guys helped me when we transferred medicine the first time, you could look for their lead, guy named Dan. They seemed experienced navigating the Giant.”
• “Good idea, on it.”
• “Let’s recruit then the first ships and start to connect the cables. We don’t have much time anyway.”
• “Will be a tough sell. The government could do something? Maybe offer a compensation or insurance?” — Zack voiced the common concern of the group.
• “Don’t think the colonial ships would take it anyway. How about a good example? The risk should be low anyway, it is more about our time only.” — Vince gave a side look to Maria if they think about the same. When he got the silent nod, continued:
• “Let the Perseus Train be the first. They are back tomorrow, it should be already worth two ships when disconnected from the cargo. The others will follow. Hopefully.”

30. Old friendships

Why have the key to the data in my head lying around in random people’s minds? This does not make sense. He could just use the public key to verify the data integrity.

Dan almost missed the door he aimed for. The light steps along midship where you could barely feel the gravity and his distracted mind contributed. He had to backtrack a few steps.

This whole setup was smelling of trouble. Nobody can be this incompetent to leave the key around. Unless, he needed to deliver the key too to someone. I would have partitioned it too if I can’t trust any single brute working for me. Thinking of trust, Ava regularly disappears to who knows where. She was just another survivor lucky to get out of the dome, but he could not shake the feeling. She was something else.

His train of thoughts speeding while his hand working. Subprocesses activating on a whim and the door was unlocked. Lights coming alive shortly after. Revealing exactly what Dan was expecting.

The room in front of him had the bare minimum furniture. Bed secured on hinges, turned based on which gravity the ship was using at the time. Straps dangling around. You need sleep even in no gravity.

The little personal items spread all over the floor. Consistent with the damage experienced everywhere. Dan scanning the room back and forth. Not with any tech, he had no way to get those expensive eye implants. He scanned with experience and logic.

Fred was dead for a long time, Dan figured he could not extract the key from his brain anymore. But he knew Fred. He was a prepper. Not the doomsday type, just the preparation is key, plans are worthless type of guy.

He must have made copies, or otherwise left the part of the key duplicated somewhere. Dan used to come to his place, to share a rare cigarette, or a shot of brandy they salvaged from excursion yachts they repaired together.

Dan rotated the bed and jumped on it. The smoke detector was the perfect place. They regularly tampered with so their unhealthy air remains a secret. And there was a memory chip behind the plastic shell.

Way too easy, one would say convenient. Dan thought of his late friend’s consistency. If Fred’s accomplices would not be tied down by the ship-wide catastrophe, they would have found it before Dan.

His injury healed really well over the last few weeks. Being in low gravity again felt like home to him.

Skimming through the memory chip was tedious, so he put it on a backburner. Defined the filters, what files he is looking for and letting his own implants do the work. It was not safe to stay there, not his first barbeque in shady business.

Whoever was that talking blob Brad’s mind shower him, would not stop taking this data back.

Not that he would not have it. Probably he has a few copies lieing in different brains. But to prevent peeking eyes. In this day and age, data is the king. Information about someone or something tramps those old fashioned contrabands. The prices are sky high and you can sell it to multiple interested parties.

Blackmail the man with a recording of his conquest outside marriage, then deliver the same recording to your client in the first place, the wife. Just a usual tuesday for Dan. But these people rarely go after the data broker or private eye who played them both. They are too distracted by expensive divorce lawsuits. And of course embarrassed by the scam.

This was different, as multiple attempt on his life proved to him, this was big league, so to say. How big, is still a mystery for Dan.

He was passing the casino floor of a fancy hotel when a hologram appeared right ahead of him. He almost stepped through, entertaining the thought of how a ghost would feel if he did so. The avatar was vaguely familiar to him.

• “Heya, are you Dan?” — the voice came from all over the place. Either the casino skimped out on a proper sound system or the crash thrown it out of alignment. Hardly mattered.
• “Yes, but who are you?”
• “Steelgopher, or just call me Gopher. Captain Pier told me to find you.”
• “Oh the virtual singer? And what do you want, I am really busy at the…”
• “Excuse me, really, sorry to interrupt, but it is important. The Giant is falling to the moon.”
• “Ahm, well, I can’t do anything about that.”
• “Actually, we need someone to check on the ion drives, at the front.”
• “Near the damaged ring? No way I go there… Find someone else. Like from the crew.” — as Dan tried to end the conversation, stepped through the avatar.
• “Seems most disappeared or leaderless, we need someone who can be trusted. Wait, what can we do for you in return?” — Gopher realising a new tactic was needed with Dan, after all, she runs a very profitable business too and recognised the fellow businessman. At least Dan stopped, signaling to her, there may be something.
• “Actually, can you decrypt data without the private key?”
• “May take a while, shorter if parts of the key is known. And, need a lot of computing power. There must be a large available one near the ion drives.” — smiled the avatar, almost grinned. Knew she had him in the trap, now if this worth enough. — “May I ask what you need to be decrypted?”

Dan’s files stored notable people’s profiles, including Gopher’s. She held a degree in computer science, warranting Dan to take a chance.

• “It is a family heairloom, a locket held a memory chip. My grandmother left it for me but the key was lost before I was born.” — Dan knew to build a lie from real events, it makes it believable. He had a jov a few years ago, but the key was in posession of a young lady and the memory chip was stolen by a thief. With all info for a thick bank account. He knew, he was the thief and the private eye too.
• “Okey, you check on the drives, I set up the decryption for you, deal?”
• “Deal.”

31. Enigma ventures

• “Heading toward the docks, I may approach the ion drive cores from there.”
• “Dan, I would suggest an alternate route.” — Vince attached a few map outlines to the conference call — “The docks are still full of cooking shuttles, that darned XO and the crew are not doing anything.”
• “I see, your route takes me awfully close to the rings.”
• “I know, but if you look at the data, it is safer.”
• “Saw that, are you sure these measurements are correct?” — a ring blowout was too rare event that a casual dock worker like Dan would know the ins and outs.
• “Yes, we are monitoring the ship in every moment. Navy would order civilian pull out if any signs of chain reaction would be there. The docks are safe only at the aft sections.”
• “Okey, I will vote confidence for now, but any sign of trouble and I will abort.”
• “Understood, you are there, your call. And, Dan. Thanks, for all souls there.”
• “Not doing for them, keep your side of the bargain.” — commotion started behind Vince among the crew.
• “Will do. Must be an important memory. Vince out.”
• “Sure it is.”

Dan already switched to a new environmental suit, and looted a fully charged radio from an emergency lock. The suit will not protect him from extensive radiation, yet he preferred every bit of protection available. First is to reconnec the computers near the drive cores. Then personally visit all six and verify safe operation.

There are thousands of crew, specialized and trained engineers on board. He still could not fathom why a civilian needed to this work. A month into the emergency. It seemed surreal to Dan.

Maybe he had too high expectations or a false sense of security aboard the Giant. Practically living there for years, seemed the huge ship is immune to any trouble. Such as, if it was invincible.

This delusion was shattered for him, along the tens of thousands on board. Whoever left alive, either was doing everything for the others to survive, or cared for only themselves to survive. The true character of people always surfaces in crisis. Some step up to solve, to ease suffering, to be a hero. Others delve deeper, into selfishness, survival takes over. This never changed for humans. Always divided in reaction, even if same tribe facing a horde of tigers. Or the same crew facing their existential threat.

Fascinating invention of evolution this is. Members of the species react very differently in the exact same circumstances, inadvertently ensuring the long term survival of said species. As one of the tactics chosen should work. Sometimes it leads to a large loss of life, it is tragic, yet the species survives and thrives afterwards in an abudance of resources. With lessons learned.

Reconnecting the computers was the easy job. They were in stand by, only needed a human to command them alive. Gopher immediately managed to connect to them.

The challenge only came after. The diagnostics showed no connection to the ion drives. The shrapnels were everywhere, quite the wonder how it did not sever the network, neither destroy the computers. Seems the manufacturer knew their craft, the casings were like hedgehog but no piece got through.

• “Setup done, you can insert the memory chip, just for a moment, so the cracking can commence. Thanks, estimating time… seems, 3 weeks with current calculation power. Wow.” — Gopher’s awe shared by the group. They knew two thirds of the key and had access to a literal supercomputer. This was a military grade encryption.
• “Send me the key whenever it is ready. On my way to the first core.”
• “Okidoki, good luck there.” — Gopher disconnected once again.
• “Vince, I hope you have a plan B there. I won’t be able to repair the drives alone.”
• “Don’t even try, we know, though plan B will be significantly riskier without the drives.”
• “I may not even wanna know.”

Shrapnels, body parts and generally broken wasteland mixed up in a grinder, how Dan could describe what he started to call ground zero. He wasn’t far off with the name. Yet the gory got to him shortly. He only looked far into the dark corridors to avoid thinking of whose guts he is ankle deep at the moment.

Bulkheads partially in place slowing his movement. Not as agile in the space suit, knocking into loose metal pieces all the time. He already had to use half the patches just to fix the suit in the first place, he had to be careful not to scratch more holes into it.

The first core he reached in an hour despite the snail’s pace he could put up. Another hour until he could finish the checklist provided by their resident all knowing Gopher. Well, she just pulled a lot of data quickly from the computers, having all the time in the world to herself.

Remote activation may not work, as Dan could not access the wiring in the walls, but in person, one drive was good to go. For a short burst anyway.

The second drive core was secured by the end of the day, or more like the end of Dan’s energy as day and night cycles were a thing of the past in this eternal darkness.

Navigating the debris took a lot from Dan, one bulkhead he had to cut through with a blowtorch. The very next day he managed to pass the third core. That was quick, no checklist was needed to see, the core was gone. The nearest to the ring’s blowout, it was flattened by the gravimetric waves. Dan would not understand the how, but he not needed to. Reported and continued his journey to the fourth core.

• “Dan, what are you decrypting there?” — Gopher shouted into the comms.
• “I told you…”
• “Don’t bullshit me. There some guys near my room, trying to get in and they are not for rescue…”
• “Shi…”
• “What the hell is on that memory chip?”
• “I actually don’t know. But they can’t get to you anyway.”
• “They don’t have to, just cut my air supply from outside, the scrubbers here won’t hold long. So, I gave them your route.”
• “What did you do…”
• “Their leader threatened me. They knew and traces the decrypting process to me. I know I am toast here but I chickened out.”
• “More like ratted me out.” — Dan’s pulse high, but he needed to focus — “Send me the voice of their leader, and how long for the key to be decrypted?”
• “Sending. Still two and a half weeks.” — at least she didn’t stop the process, maybe they can buy time.
• “Keep it running, may be our only bargaining chip whatever is on it.”

He replayed the threatening voice and immediately recognised it. Brad’s memories had the same imprint. A few sentences even matched word by word.

The boss is personally after him, no more henchman delegation. This info really have to be important. At least he knew about his pursuers this time, giving a bit of an edge to Dan.

The area was treacherous anyway. A bit of loosening here, a small cut there, and a bulkhead is now a deathtrap falling on anyone who is carelessly bumping to sides. Air is dump, freezing cold in one corridor, burning hot the next. The suit is the only thing keeping Dan alive. This is good, the pursuers have to wear it too.

Dan kept following the original route. While this seemed a tactical mistake, as this information was known to his enemies, being in the lead gave him ample opportunity to plant traps. Knowing where your enemy will be is a unique power.

Two days passed while he arrived to the last core. The fourth and fifth were lucky to be working, and the last one was out of order too. At least the four working ones were in symmetrical position, greatly simplifying their ignition process. Dan hooked up a makeshift remote control and managed a successful test with the mining barge. Not to ignite the drives, they may have only one chance for that. Only the connection was tested.

Now to the cat and mouse chase along the traps and ruins. Dan was not sure who is the cat in this case, ready for a fight if needed when circling back to safety.

32. Lifelines

Days turned to weeks. The tipping point for the Giant rapidly closing in. Perseus Train was the first one secured to the stern of the Giant. Two half of the cargo train, now pulling softly, tiptoeing away from the moon, pulling a spider’s line behind with its enormous loot.

Soon dozens of other ships were holding onto the Giant. Its stern growing tendrils and grabbing onto the flies. Size fortunately does not matter much in space. At least less than weight and propulsion ratios.

With ion drives ready to go, confidence in the plan rose sharply. Vince and his crew’s example inspiring many to volunteer. At one point they had to turn down further ships, as they were running out of space where to hook them up. Besides, still tens of thousands needed food and medical supplies. Water and oxygen weren’t an issue, actually Giant started to export some of its reserves so shipped in supplies can be focused. And some small ships were ready to pull, but needed water and oxygen for the crews.

Most of the mining equipment was committed to the cause too, straining the experienced controllers of the Steiger to their limits. During normal asteroid breakdown operations, their workload stretched out over time, first breaking down the rocks in space, moving to on board processing then ship the ore out. Here they were doing all at once, ship in, ship out, and control the drones and all manned ships in local space.

Vince tended to take time with each of them, just pairing up on leading a new ship in, or during the process of departure of cargo ships, mostly filled with stabilized patients and one or two nurses caring for them.

Lately he had less time to be involved. Daily conference call with the admiralty and president’s office took up his evenings. The invite was for 45 minutes. Never finished that early. Last week he had two meals during the event. Then a genius politician had the idea to stream these in public.

They had no substance before, definitely had none after. Most of the time went away with people believing in their own importance hijacking the show with irrelevant questions. He only liked the ten minutes of status reports. At least that was filled with mostly facts despite how embellished they were in presentation. Though he saw all those data points on his control views aboard the Steiger. He never thought how professional these borderlands miners were, yet he was glad for their help with every cell of his body. Supposed the insurance company will pay for their lost revenue too, but more likely they got some higher ups on the colonies scoring public relations points. See, the colonies help out of their pure heart.

His mind jumped between topics, unable to concentrate on the daily reports, yet in ten minutes it was his round to summarize in public. He almost hoped for any event, any excuse to get out of these calls. He almost got his wish.

• “Captain, all ships finished with securing tow cables. Ion drives ready to be fired up.”
• “Great news, Hugh, tell them to take a well earned sleep. In ten hours, we will do the first coordinated tests.”

At least today’s summary wrote itself. During the usual boring call, Victoria came in with good news too. Their modifications seem to hold and Irondome will arrive in mere days. Instead of the entire month left from original estimates. Vince felt the ease, the calmness in the air. This was his telling sign, when to pay extra attention. This is the time when most will lower their guard and catastrophe hits. In deep space, he saw this too many times happening to seasoned crew.

The conference still ongoing with a blue suit talking head monologuing away on passenger rights. The alarms blew into his speech until Vince muted his microphone.

• “What is it? Report.”
• “We have contact on radar, no transponders, may be pirates.”
• “That is what we needed. Bendeghuse, come in.”

The silence after the alarms were muted too was deafening. No response from the federal cutter.

• “They must be seeing it too. Track the new contacts and the Bendeghuse. Bendeghuse, this is Steiger, come in, A.S.A.P.!”
• “I have an idea.” — Hugh unmuted the conference call and shouted to interrupt the politicians — “Bendeghuse, contacts, reply on second channel, immediately.” — Vince stared at him unable to talk.
• “With your permission, sir. Excuse me, our captain encourages initiative.” — muted the conference call again, while the screens showed the tensioned faces, talking fast, yet the exaggerated feelings looked like mime for Vince without the voices.
• “Nothing to excuse for, well done, Hugh!”
• “The contacts move fast, they are heading toward the docks.”
• “How many of them? Can you identify?”
• “Picking up four, one larger, can’t identify, we are far for visuals, and they emit sensor scrambling. They pass near Perseus soon, if they can take a look.”
• “Raise the contacts with the usual message.”
• “Why, sir…”
• “Well, either we misidentified them, or at least hide the fact that we know they are different. So far they did not threaten anyone.”
• “True. Sir, Bendeghuse isn’t approaching them.”

Vince running low on patience, unmuted the conference call again:

• “Enough! Priorities, people! We need the on site federal ships, stop the bickering here and do your job.”
• “With all due respect, Captain Pier, you are not in the command chain. Bendeghuse still needs to deliver its report.” — said the cabinet spokesperson, sitting right next to the president, putting both on screen while the exchange was ongoing.
• “Then as responsible captain in the sector, Bendeghuse, you are ordered to investigate the contacts. And cut the d…mn stream.” — Victoria’s voice faltered for a moment as the public broadcast cut off.
• “You are not yet on site, until…”
• “We are three days away, strictly by star charts, we are in the sector. Bendeghuse, respect the chain of command, and remember your responsibility. This call is done, Irondome out.”
• “We need a press release after this…” — but no-one left in the call to hear her.
• “Captain, you just told off the president’s team.” — Vince was struggling how to explain his gratitude in the private line.
• “I should have done it way earlier. This masquerade went on too far, federal ships abandoning their duty, what a world we live in…” — their usual one on one calls, rarely managed to get hold of each other, yet whenever they did talk, felt like old pragmatic friends. Efficient. — “Captain Pier, Vince, while Bendeghuse filed a report and it is classified, you should know at least this. They lost the track of the pirate ships.”
• “So they were identified?”
• “Yes, two stolen small craft, another well known smuggler and a cargo runner. All belong to the Swordfish now.”
• “Suppose military intelligence says so. How the hell they lost track? The contacts did not reappear on radar…”
• “They are inside, docked, beyond the still radioactive sightseeing yachts. And Bendeghuse rejected further commands to pursue.”
• “They rejected?”
• “Well, they can, if the captain has grounds it is too risky without anything to gain. And for now, I agree with him. But he messed up by not stopping them before entering.”
• “Do you have any idea what they want? Or the intelligence says anything?”
• “No clue. Intelligence is too quiet, they had no suggestions, even on direct ask.”
• “Is that unusual?”
• “Not if they know the real reason.”
• “In hours we will be exposed during a really important test of the fleet. Well, most of the ships are exposed being chained to the Giant.”
• “I know. And we can be there for another two days. Bendeghuse has a standing order to stop them when they leave, in a safe distance from the fleet. Or intervene if they interfere with any civilian or military activities.”
• “Hope it will be enough. You know, we will have to try the real thing before you arrive. The point of no turning back is almost here.”
• “Thanks for reminding… Hey, good luck for the test!”
• “Thanks, Victoria.”

Maria and Eddy sound asleep, they returned to the stern section of Perseus Train with Greg, while the bow sections was waiting for Vince. His place was there during the trial run and the consequent efforts. His last round on the Steiger, he was still spending half an hour with a cadet in engineering to realign and calibrate the aft sensors. Daily maintenance done right can save lives and teaching his operations skills felt right for Vince.

• “Even though you have good intentions, they need to learn on their own too.”
• “Captain Cadaver, didn’t notice you. What do you mean?”
• “Saw you with the crew. You are too deep in everything, and have not enough attention on the big picture. It is gonna cost you.”
• “Still not following. They need the shared experiences.”
• “No doubt. But all task has their time. Aren’t you worried of those unknown contacts? What are they up to? What problems they can cause and how to prepare, prevent or react?”
• “Those are strategic questions.”
• “Exactly.”
• “Colonies and Earth trusted me because of my intentions and values.”
• “Because both knew to use you strategically.”
• “It sounds so, sinister.”
• “It does. But it is just real-politics. We are just caught between the opportunists and the idealists.”
• “Which one are you?” — Vince got only a wide grin as Cadaver strolled down the corridor.

33. Circle of life

• “Dan, they cut me off from the computers down there. I don’t think they can stop the calculations, most of the controls froze. And not sure how long we can stay in…”

He ran into another closed and broken bulkhead. Haven’t eaten for a day, sipping recirculated water from the helmet, unable to relax properly. And those were the last words he heard from Gopher an hour ago.

Another bulkhead stood in his path to safety, but this one got its share. Though Dan’s leg hurt for longer after kicking the bad door. Unable to hear, to use most of the senses in the dark corridors so teared up, no atmosphere could be supported.

He thought returning to the kitchen he found two days ago, mostly in tact. Must have been a crew mess hall. Only a single unlucky guy splashed onto a wall. He put a table cloth on his body, said a few made up words to honor him, even though he wasn’t much into religion. Felt the right thing to do.

Dan was afraid of trying his radio too often, conscious of his pursuers. Only a few times after Gopher’s broken message, while on the move and far from the kitchen. So he could return to a safer room. Without an updated map, he was trapped in a labyrinth of metal guts. Deep in the body of the Giant, with topped up oxygen supply he felt suffocating anyway.

Losing a sense of time, even with the numbers shown on his helmet display, his stomach rumbled again. Fortunately this can’t give away his position. On his way back to the kitchen, he zig zagged between corridors. Partly to avoid his pursuers, partly to scavenge anything useful. Passing a bulkhead fallen on a crew member, he found himself in familiar location.

He knew he was here before, circling for days at this point. Moments later he realized what was weird. The bulkhead crashed a space suited crew man, but no-one had time to react to the accident nor had any sign of it will happen. This must be one of his pursuers, left alone by the others when tripped into the trap Dan forgot about.

Too long dead for a connection, Dan still searched through him to find anything. Nothing beyond some batteries and another water tank. Not even an insignia, a name card under the suit, nothing. Except on the neck, a familiar style of tattoo. Swordfish brunt wearing crew member suit.

His crunching of an emergency ration loudly reverberated in the silent kitchen. No-one to talk to, this was the only sound. In his boredom and flailing thoughts, he started to modulate his rhythm. At least gave him two minutes to empty his thoughts. He was not entertaining the thought, he may stuck here forever. Giving up is not a concept in his vocabulary.

The next day he hit a goldmine. An engineering station with tools properly stored. Among the usual, he found a diagnostic drone. Which was not unusual in itself, but most civilian drones were designed for atmospheric navigation or zero-gravity. Currently he had gravity, but no air to use for flying. This one was different, seemed modified by one of the engineers posted here. Signs of hand-soldering along the spider legs. Immense luck, this drone will work, he just had to figure out the controls.

An hour of playing with the new toy, and he could make it do tricks even. Wondered if the original programming could be applied. He used them once in a while in the docks, these small mechanical pets were really adept at finding structural weaknesses. He may find a route out of this forsaken place!

Just to be sure his private kitchen remains a secret, he only activated the drone far away. The previously insulted bulkhead didn’t budge to his tries, neither the drone found an exploitable weakness. Neither a path around it.

Hours passing by, Dan trying to retrace his original steps leading to the ships bow. He only found ruble where he suspected his entrance. Unlike the heavy door he could lift away from the brunt’s body, sections of this ruble fused with the bulkhead. Uncontrolled electrical surges from dangling wires had enough power to fuse steel.

Standing there thinking on alternatives when he saw another standing silhouette afar in the parallel corridor. The silhouette stood for a while, staring at each other without eye contact. Then in a moment, it sprinted toward Dan. Readying his crowbar, turning around in full circle to see how many opponents he may face. The single sprinter already halfway toward him when the floor breaks under the silhouette.

Before the sprinter could get up from the ground, Dan jumped after him with swinging the crowbar down onto the head. His clean hit almost chopped off the head. Dan mapped this area very well, and confirmed with the drone’s sensors that the trap will work. While it didn’t want to let him go, the guts of the Giant of the Star became his castle on the hill. The terrain favored the lone defender against a group of invaders.

He had no idea how many were after him, he could only confirm two were down and out. Again this one had no personal identifiers on him. And dead people don’t talk, so no match with the stored voice prints. However Dan felt none of these grunts were the main opponent he was facing. He expected more class from that commanding voice, not a mindless charge on treacherous grounds.

Inside the helmet, in the bottom extension slots he found a short range radio chip. Unlike the ones they used as dock workers, they were without any manufacturer branding. He put it into his helmet’s slots, and heard the familiar voice immediately:

• “Fourth, come in, did you get him?” — so these guys didn’t even use names. Well, Fourth, rest in pieces, thought Dan to himself.
• “Sixth, check up on him. Two floors below you.” — heard the same voice again. Dan knew its him. Three, corrected him, just for himself.

Dan quickly recovered the drone and traversed up two floors, cutting into a few steps on the metal ladder, just for good measures. He planned to get the high ground again, so sent the drone for a quick scouting. Transferring the sensor data to his helmet display. He could see an overlay where ultra sound and infrared vision combined spot the metal bending and deforming. Where he saw more of the reds convulsing, suspected the metal is weaker and ready to break.

In large scale structural damages, patterns of these repeat for multiple floors. His expectation confirmed by the drone. The next floor’s corridor is just ready to fall where the blow floor did. Now waiting in a dark corner.

• “Boss, found him, not moving.” — Not yet, Dan, not yet.
• “Dam… another… check up on him… but careful.”
• “Yeah, his head was bashed in.” — Now.

Dan ran onto the weakened floor, hoping it will budge under his weight. Crouching down, he felt the metal giving way. A second later, vibrating under his boots, he fell with the floor converted a slide board. Sixth pinned down by the combined weight, face gone before he could recover from his surprise.

Dan heard noise through the radio this time. So Sixth was in continuous connection.

• “Sixth, what happened?” — again the familiar voice.

34. Civilian armada

• “Captain Pier to all civilians on board the Giant. You probably noticed the works or heard rumours about things happening. I am going to be straight with you. We need to adjust the Giant’s orbit a bit. In the next hours, we conduct testing of our devised plan.”- his measured, balanced voice calmed even himself, unable to sleep the night, chucked a can or coffee already — “During this, you might experience some shaking. While these should be minor, just as a precaution, try to find stable seating and use the null grav belts wherever you are. Thanks for the understanding and will keep you all posted, Pier out.”
• “Nice speech, dad.” — Eddy and Maria on private channel.
• “Thanks, kiddo. Take care there, don’t be heroes, we just do as planned and leave in two days when the Irondome arrives.” — tried Vince preemptively calm Maria.

Her eyes gave away how anxious she is. This is the day, when all goes down what they planned and worked for months.

• “Same there too, dear.” — Maria kissed the air just for a moment, Vince returned the gesture.
• “Will do.” — then switched back to public channel to continue — “Captain Pier to the towing fleet.

Just as we planned, all know your part, just follow central instructions for balancing. We will do a ten percent test, then gradually pull it up to thirty percent. It should be enough to work out the holes in the plan and after six hours rest, we do start again. For the real thing then.

Remember, we are testing, if any failure experienced, pull the plug on your side and we coordinate fleet wide shutdown. God speed to all!”

The cacophony of acknowledgments filtered through by the computers and the crew of Steiger as Vince finished talking.

• “Here goes nothing.” — said to himself and entered commands to the nav computer.

As the mark was given, signals from the Steiger ramped up the fleet. The tiny ion drives, thrusters and various propulsion mechanisms fired up in the assigned order. Sectors of ships one after each other radiated a dim light. Soon the whole fleet lit up like an old city Christmas tree, where streams of bulbs turned on one by one to avoid a short circuit.

Here they were balancing propulsion vectors. Tiny, partial degree seconds usually had no effect on a single ship. The fleet was too close to each other, a tiny mistake would make them fall like dominoes. Each ship was responsible for their own safety margins, however if an entire sector started to shift together, it would endanger the others or spin the Giant out of axis and out of control.

As the Giant was still under spin gravity, the whole fleet was spinning with it, making it all more dangerous. However they had to just push in one direction, which made the unusual maneuver a possibility in the first place.

They won’t fire the ion drives of the Giant today. Unknowing if they can be fired up again, they have to risk without testing them.

• “Okey, fleet position and clearance healthy, increase to twenty percent.”

Using a common unit between all ships allowed simple communication. As many had different level of pulls, had to group them into roughly same power output sectors.

Every hour added a significant weight to the Giant to counteract. It was speeding up toward the moon directly. As the distance eaten up, the gravity realizing ever bigger percentage of the millions of tonnes the ships could weigh on Earth. Fortunately the moon in questions was a sixth of that size, still the point where the entire fleet’s power output wouldn’t be enough inched closer.

• “We still seem okey, Nomad, you lean starboard a bit. Fleet, increase to thirty percent output.”

If the universe was looking, it would not get why humans put a packed Christmas tree into space and added the lights only to the trunk of it. The universe would not think of these terms anyway, they are human concepts only.

The dim lights became brighter, as the blue hue started to turn to white centers.

• “Cables hold, all ships stable.” — Steiger control radioed. — “Ramp down, gradually.”
• “Well done all. Rest a few hours, double all systems and if everyone is a go, real deal in six hours!”

Cadaver called up Vince on private channels:

• “Captain Pier, our drones performed well, though a few of them burnt out. We replace them and attach new ones to the drum anyway.”
• “Understood. Any other anomalies or problems?”
• “Nothing we saw. Even the Giant’s fall slowed down with the expected amount.”
• “That is good news.”
• “Well, too easy for my taste. Nah, all crew did well with the preparations.”
• “Indeed. See you in six hours.”

They could not move much more between the tight fleet attached to the Giant so Maria and Eddy stayed on the bow section and Vince remained on the bow. I can see them again in the evening, he thought to himself as he ran the rounds around.

Long time he didn’t do much training, this time he couldn’t rest anyway, running along the circle of the ship helped keeping him busy. Clock ticking, at least the solution works, now only the execution remained.

Victoria was deep in reading operational reports, the usual charts for running her vast ship and the floating space city of a hundred thousand souls. Officers, navy and spacemen, pilots, civilian contractors and everything necessary to keep a city alive.

She was more than a usual ship captain. Acted as a military governor of a city that is sometimes ordered into grave danger. At first she only noticed her tea vibrating on the table, then the rumbling filled in the whole office. In seconds she was already out on the bridge.

• “Report!”
• “Data coming in.”
• “Is it the drive?”
• “Engineering here, no, it isn’t, we are traversing…” — moments passed in the silence — “Something, the data does not make sense, nothing is out there, engines work perfectly. Hold on!”

Just as the main engineer shouted in, the Irondome stopped in deep space. The crew barely felt anything as the rumbling just stopped too.

• “Report.”
• “We stopped. Engineering, what happened?” — second officer stood on the side of the bridge with a confused look at his screens.
• “Give us a few minutes, all seems safe for now.”

The minutes became an hour. Analysts and officers went through every bit of data they could collect. Knowing the dangers of their overloaded engine, they wanted to be sure it wasn’t something else.

Then the hour became two, then four. Victoria knew when to trust her crew, yet this time she needed to push them forward.

• “Any hypothesis what happened?”
• “We don’t know, the engines work perfectly. But they skipped a cycle, seems a safety program was too eager. I can restart the cycle, don’t see any reason not to. Diagnostics all green.”
• “Other input and ideas?” — asked Victoria around, looking in the eyes of her crew seeing no objections — “Engage it again.”
• “Restarting engine cycling now, we need a few hours to be back up to full speed.”
• “Understood, how much time we lost?”
• “Eight hours. Now we are two and a half days from the Giant’s position.”
• “Here its engineering again, do you see the speed measurements?”
• “Helm, report.”
• “I can’t, I don’t understand… We are way faster, almost on max speed already.”
• “We can push it a further few percentage.” — reported engineering.
• “Engineering, not sure to risk it, do you have a hypothesis what is the reason?”
• “Not sure of the cause. However this space, seems, less resistance affects the engines, we can move space easier around us. Engine cycle speed and energy usage is under usual values we should experience with this travel speed.”
• “Risks if we speed up?”
• “Nothing new compared to what we were running on for a month.”
• “Then… pedal to the metal. Estimated arrival?”
• “In less than… eight hours, we arrive a few hours after Captain Pier and the civilians start their pull.”
• “Hope this is good enough.”

35. Troubling developments

• “Sixth, come in!” — this time Dan only destroyed the radio chip and recovered his drone again before he ran away.

Knowing this time more than one person will go check out the place. He needed to pick them out one by one to stand a chance. Fortunately none of them had weapons on them. He could not be sure that is true for all his pursuers though.

• “Seventh, eight and ninth, are you above? Come down to my position.” — at least the voice wasn’t aware Dan could listen in.

Just saw a silhouette sliding down to his floor using one of the maintenance ladders. Barely had time to jump behind a corner, before the shape turned around. Too late to realize his mistake, he chose the wrong side and stuck between rubble and the arrival waiting to be discovered.

The sensation standing on the falling floor gave Dan an idea he didn’t consider before. He put down his hand and pushed strongly to the floor. He could feel it, it was very weak and had to concentrate. Rhythmic bumps, gradually stronger. He quickly tested with his own step, unable to do it with full weight in his weird position. So he estimated it. The bumps got stronger and stronger, he readied his crowbar again.

The silhouette touched its waist when a dark blob appeared in front of him, frozen into the posture for eternity. The heavy crowbar hit right into his face and knocked the body on its back. Dan checked its waistline, his gauntlet found a heavy metallic object. Helmet sensors helped with the darkness and outlined a pistol. A cracked software running it, connected automatically to whoever touched it and displayed full clip.

Attaching the pistol to his own waistline, using the universal tool-belt. Civilian tech wasn’t that different from military applications with many things having dual purpose. And profit, it was cheaper to mass manufacture the same design.

Using his new found capability of tracking footsteps in vacuum, Dan avoided the confrontation with the remaining two guys passing by him. Not really a shooter himself, wasn’t confident he is able to shoot two targets under pressure.

• “That is it? Only you? Where is Seventh?”
• “Dunno, haven’t seen him and doesn’t answer on radio.”
• “Hey, boss, Fourth and Second seems their heads are bashed in. Wasn’t accident.”
• “So this guy is killing us. Get yourself together. Let’s go to the computer core and shut it down finally.”
• “Boss, Fourth’s radio chip is missing.”
• “Understood.” — long silence followed. Dan knew he lost his advantage.
• “Dan, the jig is up.” — heard the familiar voice no addressed to him.

Otherwise only silence meant the logical response, they switched to a random frequency. Probably had no time or the tools to rotate encryption keys in the field, he may find the new frequency with time. So he ran a cycle algorithm, fortunately he had a second slot in Fourth radio chip, able to listen to the original at the same time.

At least he knew where they are about to go. Without the computers, he will never know the content of what they want. And may just take time for them to hunt him down. Maybe he can trade? The info for his life?

Seemingly the data wasn’t that important for them. As the contact he tried to sell it wanted to kill him anyway after a few files. Why was he even hired for this data if they don’t want it? It was a job Fred found, retrieve a data package from a passenger and just deliver it to his contact. Simple, yet doesn’t make sense now.

As his thoughts raced on about what is going on, his hand raced to position traps as he retreated toward the computer cores. If he would just know the content, would be easier to connect the dots. Arrived at the computer core and he double checked, the control frozen, but the user interface still showed progress updates.

However what Dan saw just sent chills down his spine. Still a week left from the estimation. He can’t stay down here for a week and protect the computer. Looking around to take in the slightly more brightness of the computer screens, then dropping onto the floor under the weight of his own thoughts.

So many dead along the wreckage of the largest cruise ship ever built. And we are still fighting among ourselves killing even more. Friends, crew, passengers, dead, injured or still fighting to escape, survive. Ava’s face popped into his mind, the blue eyes he will never forget. What is with her? Haven’t seen in a month, maybe more, at least felt like. Maybe won’t see her again.

He needs to go on the offensive. Knock out the henchman and capture the boss. Or to kill him. Usually there is always at least one more boss up in the chain.

Near the computer cores, the hall started to brighten up. Not much, just barely enough to see live wires and silhouettes without extra flashlight. Machines started up sending vibrations through the floors and walls, drowning out everything else.

Dan thought they must be starting the ion drives. Unable to use his trick anymore, he set out the drone for patrolling the nearby corridors. Soon the gravity started shifting. The forward thrust building up ever so slightly as the Giant was pulled away from the moon it tried to kiss. Wasn’t enough to turn the gravity entirely, just had to walk in an awkward angle.

Working at the docks, he was able to quickly stabilize himself in the new situation. His opponents, struggling with the situation, one guy tripped over a bulkhead on their way. Dan noticed the silhouettes, still too far to engage, so he merged back into the shadows. Outmaneuvering them with the criss-crossing. He only saw two silhouettes though. One took a left, they separated.

His chance to pick out one of them rose quickly, tripping the unfortunate soul and shooting his back twice. Third time. Just in case. He had a full clip too, each holding fifty shots, Dan had no reason to spare. Instead he went for sure eliminations. The months of being on the run, hiding, the stress and fears, doubts sent him over the edge. The first time he felt nothing while doing a terrible thing to another human.

The second silhouette moved with its gun drawn. Pointing at everything as he slowly approached the computer core. He needed to get beyond the hall, even with a gun, to actually able to damage the core. A bright flashlight pointed into the goon’s eyes prompting him to start empty his clip. The full automatic mode throw up metal so fast, the gun started to glow in the dark.

Then the silhouette dropped to the floor, next to the unrecognizable drone parts. With two holes in his head, presenting no more danger to Dan. A momentary pinch and pain in his shoulder surprised him. Rolling around the corner just in time to avoid multiple bullets to the head.

36. Ignition point

• “Towing fleet, fire it up.”

The slow burning of the ion drives started up again and quickly rose above twenty percent mark. Then forty percent. Vince knew from the calculations, until the fleet is at least on ninety percent output on average, the Giant won’t budge, just slow down its falling.

Then they have to keep up the push for hours to achieve meaningful change in trajectory. Using the ion drives of the Giant, if they work, will lower this threshold to mere minutes.

As there was only one chance to fire up those engines, Vince first wanted to hit the ninety percent mark, believing it is easier to maintain that, and then having a no ion engine firing, than the other way around.

At least it would not be a blow to the fleet morale. He never forgot that everyone there was a volunteer. Some wanted to fire the ion drives so the fleet knew what they were facing instead of blindly hoping for the best.

After all the debate was decided when an engineer ran the numbers. The fleet needs to already keep the towing cables straight and they could not guarantee this if the Giant’s drives were working.

• “Fleet average above sixty percent and rising.” — regular call outs were radioed from the Steiger’s bridge.

They communicated for humans beyond the computerized commands continuously streamed to the fleet of small crafts and their own drones.

• “Seventy percent. All ships are stable, safety margins are clear. Keep going.”

The excruciatingly long minutes to wait as none of the captains or pilots could do anything actively. Their experience and skills were relegated to second tier, only overseeing the navigation computers’ work. Tiny adjustments on thrusters were done by blazing fast computers. Fleet wide corrections calculated and executed by the Steiger’s main cores.

• “Eighty percent. The Giant’s acceleration almost at zero.”

The goal is so close. Vince was thinking of the thousands, tens of thousands still surviving day to day on that ship next to him. As the rotational gravity was still on, they were spinning around and the Giant was on his right side, if he thought the gravity is down.

• “Ninety percent. Stand by for Giant’s ion drive ignition. All four engines are a go.”
• “Ignite.” — confirmed Vince and committed the fleet for the last phase of the operation.
• “Ignite started. Thrust rising, fleet still stable.” — applause broke out in the comm center of the Steiger cheering on the fleet.
• “Confirmed, slow acceleration detected by on-board measurements too. Great job everyone!” — Vince felt relief as the plan seemingly worked without a hitch.

Until the proximity warning kicked off again.

• “Bendeghuse, boogies emerging.” — opened private channel to align on next steps.

No answer again. This time Perseus Train had no more computing power left to track one more ship, it was fully occupied keeping the safety margins with their neighbors.

• “Steiger, do you see? I can’t reach Bendeghuse again.”
• “Yes, we see. All four contacts emerging through the docks. Bendeghuse is not moving. Stand corrected. Bendeghuse reorients.”

One of the ships passed so close to Vince’s bow section, he could see the shapes of shaded windows. He could see the cargo ship, the type and usage in the passing ship. The docking clamps, small amount of strategically positioned windows, even though he couldn’t say the manufacturer or designer of the class.

In a minute the formation passed the line of towing ships. The federal cutter reacted slowly to approach them. Slow enough to miss the departing cargo ship and its escort, unable to position in front of them.

Instead it floated behind them, between the pirate ships and the civilian fleet. Only the Bendeghuse was close enough and equipped with high quality visual sensors to see the small openings on the side of the escorts.

Except the Steiger, whose sensors were fine-tuned to detect cracks in distant asteroids allowing safe mining operations. And he had to deal with the occasional pirate raids himself.

• “Move half of our drones in front of the civilian fleet. Now!”

His crew gave the immediate command and the drones disconnected their tow cables accelerating fast forward on maximum thrust.

The alarms didn’t go off until small metal objects emerged from those openings. The small rods flipped around quickly and fired their engines. These were missiles and Bendeghuse was too close to react with their point defense. In the cacophony of alarms and warnings, the inexperienced crew who are used to patrol peaceful regions reacted slowly.

They could only take out a handful of incoming projectiles as the volley teared through their hull, killing the pilot and captain among the first. Then hit their computer and engine cores rendering it a derelict metal coffin.

The cutter was too small to carry an effective armor, shield, and never stood a chance. A few missiles didn’t detonate at first and passed through their hull, taking out a few smaller towing ships. One event hit a tourists dome on the Giant, throwing thousands of refugees into space.

The drones were taking up position in front of the civilians, some were used as makeshift point defense, pushing debris away. Their numbers quickly faded, afraid that it will contribute to the carnage, Steiger pulled the drones away from the fleet.

As the Bendeghuse was consumed by a fireball, the hull disintegrated into panels and shrapnels. The Perseus Train’s stern section was the closest and the first casualty. Greg had no time to react, all was happening in seconds.

The shrapnels destroyed the bridge of the section almost immediately. Still connected to the towing cable, it started a chain of destruction in the fleet many could not escape from. Shortly flailing around the hull on the towing cable before another fireball consumed the Perseus Train itself.

37. Moonfall

The enormous body of the Giant was pushed by tiny yet strong detonations. Randomly poking at it where it was pulled just moments before. The tight space between the civilian crafts just hastened the chain reaction.

The outer ships seeing from afar what happened, hit their emergency cut and fled from the scene. Just as the Swordfish fleet had disappeared too, the stern section of the Perseus Train gave way for the rapidly growing fireball.

Its engine was running on max when the shrapnels from Bendeghuse tore apart the bridge, the controls, computers and everyone on the ship. Now the uncontrolled reactions overheated the core, melting down the components and leading to the detonation of the section.

• “Dan, why so stubbornly sticking to life? Would not it be easier to just give up?” — the familiar voice again on the radio — “We can make a deal. You give up, and I give you a quick end. How about that?”

Lost some oxygen before could patch up the suit with the right hand. His left shoulder bleeding, implants and the helmet display throwing warnings. Luckily the bullet went through and the automatics put pressure on it. Has to hold until he can get away, or beat this guy.

• “I don’t make deals when I don’t know your name. Professional standards.”
• “Why not, you won’t get out of here. My name is Talm.”
• “Talm Shibar, the ship’s XO?”
• “The one in the flesh, pointing his attention to a lowly dockworker.” — Is this guy always so cocky?

He could have lied about his name. Dan needed to buy time as he lost his methods to locate his enemy.

• “Nice to meet you, Talm. Counteroffer. You tell me what is this whole damn thing about, and I am not gonna kill you.”
• “Hehe, yeah, you won’t.” — bright sparkles blow off from the metal plating centimeters from Dan. Another bullet scraped his thigh before he could roll behind a fallen steel beam.

Next moment the remaining brightness disappeared. Dan touched the floor again, no vibrations. Gravity modified again. It started to be lower now, he had no idea what was going on out there as the Giant’s rotation gradually stopped and weightlessness settled in once again.

Vince still screaming after the hit, shouting into the destroyed comms, as on the screens he was able to see his kid’s and wife’s metal coffin blow up.

The flying heavy metal parts tearing into his hull, killing his crew and a piece cutting deep into his abdomen. Emergency shutdown kicked in able to avoid the total destruction of his section.

As the remainings of the Perseus Train diverged from course and thrown into a fast tumble, Vince finally lost his consciousness.

Something must have triggered the Giant’s partially restored controls, the thrusters came alive again and stopped its rotation as it was accelerated tangentially.

• “What do you have to live for, Dan?”

The voice tried to mock him. He found the question interesting. Never really reflected on his life, just pushed ahead, not caring what the next moment brings. Survival instincts? Definitely. Principles? Maybe?

He lived for himself up to this point, chasing fleeting riches and satisfaction. But when he saw Ava, looking deep into those blue starry eyes. He felt something more is out there in the universe. Something he could not find yet. And now he wanted that.

Unable to put it into words, felt a connection to something bigger than himself for the first time in his life.

Touching the wall, Dan felt the strongest bump so far. He leaned over the corner and pushed the trigger. He hit something other than metal as only his gun’s muzzle fire provided any brightness.

Victoria and the bridge crew of Irondome could do nothing, but sit in mortified silence as the Steiger’s visual stream played on their screens. Still hours away, even their lucky discovery wasn’t enough.

• “Captain Sebes to dock control, prepare all troop transports operating as life boats.” — her voice trembling in midsentence.

Turned on his flashlight, Talm’s body floating ahead of him, soaking up some of the movement energy from a pistol clip worth of metal.

• “Damn you…” — surprise in his voice as Talm started to realize he lost.

But didn’t lost everything yet. His mission was still a success. Unable to push away Dan’s arms, he was forced into the connection. Giving away the last part of the encryption key to Dan.

Half the civilian ships jumped away in fear of their life. Steiger remained following the Giant, Captain Cadaver had analyzed the situation, able to tell they were in no danger anymore.

Their drones followed the wreckage of the Giant as it tumbled around its own axis, slowly, over hours. The tiny push from the detonations were enough to undo all of their work pulling it up.

• “Still, you didn’t… win…” — Talm’s lifeless body floated away as Dan didn’t care about it anymore.

Unlocking the file with all the keys, he sit down and immersed into his own digital library of files. Running through tables, databases, and lots of numbers and text in them. It was a shipping manifest. With military encryption. Top secret classification.

The passenger’s name and signature he took the data from. An attached memory, this is the content of company-restricted docking bays. Running through the items.

Thousands of small arms, then bigger guns, and at the middle, buried under sub-categories and bureaucratic jargon. Alcubierre torpedoes. Kinetic warheads, capable of faster than light travel. The planet-killer deterrents of the Federation against the aliens invasion. And the colonies insurgence.

There was no time to do anything. The rotation dangerous for all ships to dock, yet they tried. The Steiger coordinated the remaining brave souls piloting their ships, docking one after the another, using the remaining hours to save as many as they can.

Finally the Irondome appeared next to them, launching dozens of troop transports empty. Their pilots facing an impossible challenge, still none of them have any doubts or questions. People are to be saved, work to be done proudly.

Dan was pulled out of his own mind as the world turned around him. Hours, a day may have passed for him deep-diving into the gigabytes of data. His helmet knocked into the floor as his body didn’t follow the Giant’s tumbling.

• “What is happening…”
• “The ship falls to the moon.” — a feminine factual voice chipped in into his loneliness.
• “Wait, what… But…”
• “I am with you till the end.” — heard a silky voice in his head. And the blue eyes looking deep into his soul. — “I will show you the universe.”
• “Thank… you…”

Dan curled up in the computer hall, hoping his chip, unencrypted may survive the crash. Even if he won’t.

Still tens of thousands awaiting rescue, most not understanding what is happening with them. No-one communicates on the radio anymore. Whoever are near the docks, rushed to the leaving ships. Controls and organization be damned among the civilians so they are ordered to leave as the Irondome’s swarm arrives.

After half a day, Giant’s trajectory deteriorate too much for any more transports to dock. Irondome loses three transports, two collides inside the Giant. One suffers a mechanical failure on docking with the carrier and the pilot crash-lands saving his survivors over his own life.

The Irondome stands guard above the moon as the Giant falls down. Someone may still be alive on the bridge as it again fires up some thrusters. They fluke out quickly, yet the giant cylinder is able to flatten out its fall.

The dust thrown up from the surface covers the lower half of the Giant’s body from the eyes. By the days it settles back again, the Giant lay down on its flattened side.

A renewed effort to search and rescue potential survivors from the Irondome initiated immediately as the wreckage stopped. Swarms of transports now shipping mobile hospital crew and equipment onto the surface, looking like an ant colony at work from the orbit where the Irondome hangs for the next years.

38. Dark and darker

John accepted Victoria’s offer to go down to the wreckage. This time with Michael and his commando leading, he had no reason to worry. At least his mind knew this, not the nerves all over his body. Managed to control his shaking as he entered the firing range.

Glad having two days before they drop to the surface, he spent all waking minutes training. A basic level comes with life in space. Humanity weakened during modern times spending all their time in couches, office chairs. Space added the frequent low or no gravity times further weakening muscles.

Michael’s team regularly trained in higher forces, sometimes hitting double Gs. This way they can deploy to any planets, any environments and able to execute their missions.

John sweating ten minutes in. He made up his lack of strength with resolve and endurance. The GI Joes and Janes switching every hour or so around him, he stayed seemingly forever in the gym area. A couch came to him after half a day to politely get him out before he injures himself.

Then he just continued practice at the firing range. Battling a gag reflex at first, with each muzzle fire flashing the still picture of his deadly shot. Soon the gagging subsided, a nervous rage taking root instead. The rollercoaster of emotions seemingly never ending as he reloads again and again.

While his obsessions propelled him to the lead investigator role, he could be buried by them too.

In his narrow view, the two days passed almost instantly to find himself suited up by a sergeant of the rapid deployment squad. Michael’s baritone droning in the background, narrating the mission specs for his team. His comrades, his friends, his brothers and sisters in arms.

John was too occupied to pay attention for the briefing. Fortunately, he wrote most of it with Hanah and Victoria editing a few details and delivery. The suit he had to wear was a simplified version of the commando’s armor kit. Reduced offensive capabilities, similar survivability provided for the VIPs the squad was tasked to guard.

The integrated exoskeleton multiplying the human strength, the armor plating deflecting small arms fire without a dent, the augmented reality feeding intel on the go.

The kit worked better with implants, but the designers took care of naturalists too by adding glasses for the heads up display and non-invasive brain activity reads. Of course around John every single commando had military grade brain implants for maximum precision and minimal reaction times.

In a few minutes, Michael and team lined up for embarkation. A strange metal pod for metal peas to take their stands inside. A smart design, able to quickly penetrate atmospheres and have enough energy to return to orbit on their own. From there a troop transport ship can tow them or the mother ship can take them on board directly.

John was locked in to his place by quick release bolts the sergeant masterfully applied when a newcomer entered to the last free stand. With her helmet off, Victoria’s long hair rained down over her bulky metal armor.

• “Respectfully, you should not go down there, ma’am.” — Michael’s duty to protect his captain could not entirely erase his look full of awe and respect.

Even for John it was evident looking at the captain that she knew the way around. The armor scratched at the bolts’ contact points, dents here and there, all telling a story of previous deployments.

And the differences in color scheme stood out for John. Victoria’s armor was perfectly matching her dimensions and the metal finish looked dated, matte dark gray and dull accentuations. While Michael and team almost shined in their flashy black, immaculate armors with golden lines of rank identification.

• “I need some stretching. The politicians’ earful starts to get me.” — her grinning met with a few chuckles, most inaudible and presented only in helmet bobbing. — “To be clear, Mr. Rivera is in charge of this away mission. I am just tagging along.”
• “Yes, ma’am.” — all squad-mate in chorus.
• “Ma’am, the ISV executive arrived and wants to speak with you and the one in charge of the investigation.” — came through Victoria’s private channels popping her cheerful atmosphere.
• “Tell him I am indisposed and will come back to him as soon as I can.” — whipped back on the channel, her helmet shielding it from the tightly spaced squad around.
• “And about the investigator in charge…”
• “You can make something up, Sebes out.”
• “Is everyone ready? Go or no-go answers.” — Michael got rapid replies from his team, Victoria, even drop control and deck clearance. — “Mr. Sotomayor, are we go or no go?”
• “Wait, still running diagnostics.”
• “The suit should be fine.”
• “It’s my recorders. Anything down there can be evidence, but only stands if the data and visual recorders are confirmed and processes followed. Just a minute, Lieutenant.”
• “Fine, we wait.”

A dozen dark suit standing in their alcoves perfectly still, composition reminding Victoria of the faceless heroes monument once she visited with military class. After the restoration of Earth’s atmosphere, they erected a memorial for the generations upholding humanity, twelve obsidian human form circling a granite Earth model.

• “A ranger, an alien and a beef enter the bar…”
• “No, Hallen, just please, no.”
• “Bartender asks, how can I serve you today? Ranger goes I serve my home, whiskey on the rocks will do. Alien goes …”
• “All good, go.” — comes from John
• “Finally, initiate drop.”

39. Unwelcoming darkness

• “Michael. Khm, Mr. Rivera.”

• “Go ahead, John.”

• “Sending updated coordinates. And additional route data.”

• “Again? Thought it was already in the briefing materials…” — Michael replying while a soft computerized voice stating their depressurization in the background.

• “Team just finished new model calculations, we have the best chance there to find intact recorders.”

• “Chance to encounter resistance?” — chimed in Victoria.

• “Should be low, thanks for sharing the tracking data!”

• “John, these coordinates point us to the back of the ship…” — Michael took a deep breath in as he tried to count the red columns overlaid on his virtual map — “and it seems very unstable on scans.”

• “Well, that is actually the bow of the ship, it flipped during the fall. But you are spot on, anything can collapse there.” — John was so focused on the virtual map presented onto his helmet, he entirely missed their departure. — “The ion drives were used during the rescue operation and from public records we know there were people there operating it. So team thinks the recorders and computer cores may be in better shape there-re-re-re-re.”

Retrograde thrusters activated on high altitude, rattling the pod and everyone inside. John’s neck wasn’t used to this rough landings. He bumped his head back and forth into the helmet’s padding. The trained servicemen and women around him did not bob their heads, being used to much faster descents, their neck muscles barely working.

• “Touchdown in 5, 4, 3, …” — computerized voice narrating in their radios just as if they were about to invade a new land — “Touchdown, stable. Go, go, go.”

Two of the team ran right next to broken Giant and lit up the entry point by the time the remaining of the group arrived in a single file. Hand signals from the vanguard told about a clear corridor. Michael signed for his team to stack up to the entrance. He gave a minute for the vanguard to proceed through the first few turns before leading the bulk after them.

Low chance or not for resistance, he had two VIPs, one of them his captain, so he took no chances. His special ops commando well trained to secure hostages and VIPs from hostile territories, execute their mission by the book.

Essentially navigating the Giant of the Star’s wreckage wasn’t that different from extracting the president from a potentially orbital bombarded city ready to fall on their heads. A wargame they played regularly, a heritage from their military academy times.

Their short range radios turned off, moving in total radio silence. While no-one would be able to understand their encrypted messages, using the radio would still give away their presence. Doesn’t take a tactical genius to figure out their position and numbers in an abandoned wreck based on just the noise they would generate.

They could not hear when one of the vanguard let out a short scream as he fell through a floor plating. Being two turns behind, one turn behind, and Michael saw one his vanguard hand-signaling to stop. In the darkness at least their night vision ran.

While wasn’t expensive for civilians to get infra-red vision implants or helmets, it still required line of sight to see the beams. Anyone would be able to see them, would be shot and asked questions later. As everyone was ordered to leave the wreckage, they operated with assumption of hostile intent.

Michael signed for the team lined up behind him to stretch the line apart. While they were waiting for the vanguard to climb back up. John tried to refresh his map overlay to see the structural weaknesses, but they were too deep to download anything from the Irondome above. Without signal boosting, they have only the last model’s predictions.

He signaled to Michael to proceed slower, and soon they all filed along, one by one, on the side of the loose floor plating. A few turns and they are at the first ion drive’s control. John’s legs were shaking after the two hours of nervous climbing.

Michael ordered a new vanguard to go ahead as the previous two were holding up a bulkhead. Vacuum assisted magnetic clamps held the two tons heavy metal in the air. With the lower gravity and their integrated exo-skeletons the two comrade wasn’t even sweating under the weight.

As John passed between them, Victoria grabbed his arm and tossed him forward. Nobody could see John’s surprised face under the helmet’s reinforced glass. He sat up slowly, looking back and trying to figure out what the shapes in the night vision meant. He could not find the two vanguards holding the bulkhead.

Neither he could find the bulkhead, the place looked entirely different after he crossed. Michael and Victoria pulled him up and locked the trio into a triangle, touching their helmets together.

• “Can you hear me?” — John recognized the muffled Michael.
• “Yeah”
• “The floor just fell, they will find an alternate route.”
• “They? What happened to them, half the team was behind me!”
• “Calm down, they are all right. Check team telemetry on your HUD, bottom right.” — John followed Michael’s direction and the smart interface blow up the details where his eyes focused, showing the squad armor status.
• “Thought we have radio silence.”
• “Yeah, radio needs much more bandwidth, the telemetry is virtually impossible to see.”
• “Focus, lecture later. How far we are from the first black box?” — Victoria cut off Michael.
• “Just after the next corner. 20 meters.” — checked John.
• “Let’s go.”

Took two minutes for the vanguard to secure the room, planting proximity alarms to each entry point. When they finished, signaled clear for Michael to move in with John and Victoria. Remaining entire team was unknown but at least alive and moving, based on the telemetry.

While Michael pulled the vanguard into their triangle to update them, Victoria remained close to John. Well playing the guard, looking around and making sure he can do his job. Hard to notice that most of her attention is directed toward what John is doing with the recorder. She needed proof.

John connected the quantum comm module to the black box. In the darkness he could not examine the box for external damage. The connection quickly established and running through diagnostics.

• “Much more data available in this recorder, so it may take some time, around half an hour at least.” — John pulled Victoria’s helmet to touch his. — “And thanks.”
• “Can’t we just take it?”
• “We could, but you saw how unstable the place is. We can lose or damage the recorder while trying to get out with it. First we download the data, then we try to get it out.”
• “I don’t get you, if we already downloaded the data…”
• “Well, taking it is optional, but physical evidence is always stronger. Recovering as much we can is important. It may take years to analyze everything, may learn something from the physical damage, and…”
• “Okey, okey, understood.”
• “Let’s connect to the computer while we wait for this.”

As John moved away, she looked back to the black box. Infra vision showing steady glowing as the comm module heated up from the work. Staring at the module, she joined John again after a minute.

By that time John already downloaded most of the logs from the drive, surprisingly the operative memory still working after the wreck laying here for months. These systems were never turned off so they operated on the reactor’s and battery’s remaining power, self-regulating until the last drop of energy is gone.

Which may take a decade or more, the control systems drained much less than life support or the truly energy-hungry drives. Or until one of the structural failures will cut the power lines.

The minutes gone slowly as the team could not do anything but wait.

John fiddled around the exo-skeleton controls. He found a way to set the joints to rigid and held him up like a chair.

When the proximity alarm’s red box flared up on his display, his legs were faster to jump up than his menu control to unlock the rigid joints, leading to Victoria had to grab him before he rolled over to the ground.

As John was able to walk again, Victoria still holding him by the arm, her another hand holding a pointy metal object. John finally recognized her weapon raised toward one of the entry points.

The download at 98 percent, the team silently waiting in defensive positions around the engine control room. All pointing weapons except John.

40. Proximity of the dead

• “Sir, movement down there.”

• “Report!” — snapped back the XO at his officer.

• “Unresponsive worker vessel, fast approaching the team’s entry position. Our interceptors in position.”

• “Just as expected, keep monitoring the open channels.”

• “Unidentified vessel, break off from the wreckage and land immediately. Or you will be fired upon.”

• “Sir, no answer and no change in vector or speed.”

• “Alpha leader, authorized to fire on outer perimeter breached.”

• “Understood. Unidentified vessel, repeat, break off or will be fired upon.”

• “Still nothing.”

• “Alpha leader, Fox 4 away.” — indicating the launch of active radar targeting missile with an electromagnetic warhead, designed to disable or disrupt hostile targets.

Just in the next second, Irondome observed confirmed hit and the vessel started losing altitude. Relaying data to a second commando team, already closing in on the expected landing position.

Without an atmosphere, Irondome bridge could watch events unfold live in high-definition. XO let out a smile for a moment before returned to his professional poker face. The crew performed exceptionally, despite they never trained for executing this tactic on a stellar body.

The moon’s lower gravity gave enough cushion, at least the analysts came to the conclusion this approach would be non-lethal. Observation reported no movement while seconds later the commando stacked up next to the new wreckage. Though it seemed the worker’s vessel was barely scratched, lights and transponder went dark confirming the EM hit successfully.

Bravo team lead with his second put the charges onto the predetermined positions, popped them burning the heavy locks. They were already inside, knowing from the design that these small ships were not pressurized, every passenger standing at their assigned place in their environmental suits.

The EM charge expected to knock out the exoskeleton controls too, rendering everyone helpless and unable to move.

• “Six onboard, plus a pilot, extracting them now.” — sounded loudly from the comms on the bridge as the screens showed the interceptors circling nearby ready for the remaining two vessels if they make a move.
• “Bravo team, get out of there!” — a third grade bridge analyst shouting into the comms.
• “Moving out with first two now.”
• “Highly flammable compound detected by your suit sensors, leave immediately.”
• “Bravo team, you heard it, leave them and get away!”
• “Understood…” — as bravo lead stepped out, he looked back onto the pilot. Last thing he ever saw.

Pilot’s suit restarted and just leaned ahead onto the control panels.

Irondome bridge lit up to bright white as the fireball shined through their screens.

John could not see a thing in the darkness. Download inched to a finish, his thoughts racing on what’s next. Looking around, being in the close vicinity of a damaged ion engine, people pointing high-caliber guns around him did not help for calm planning.

Then John’s helmet interface lit up like a Christmas tree. More precisely showed a Christmas tree lights. Took a moment to realize the shape is Victoria’s, she must have gone full active mode. Then she opened fire into the darkness. Nobody hearing the lifeless body thumping on the metal floor. Another tracer round from Michael, a second short burst.

• “John, how much?” — their position compromised anyway Victoria broke radio silence.
• “Few seconds and done.”
• “I see ten more on my screen, coming from three corridors. Cover each. I am on left.” — ordered Michael still in charge of the mission.
• “On the right.” — affirmed Victoria.
• “Covering center.” — one of the vanguard signaling to the another to move over to the right assisting their captain.
• “John, stay down.”

Mesmerized by the silent flashlights, the dancing tracking lights, he unconsciously straightened up. Victoria’s shape wriggled left and right for a few moments. A mild surprise, his chest felt like it was slapped. As if someone hunted down a fly and he was in the way.

• “Clear, all movement neutralized.” — reported Michael just as John found the switch for his infrared sensors.

Now he joined the club of Christmas lights on the other’s view. The team feeling a rumble under their feet as the events just outside unfolded.

• “Download finished, we can move to next download.” — John urged them.
• “We keep to the plan, identify our attackers then we extract. Let Bravo team and the cavalry secure the area before we return.”
• “Wait, what?”
• “Stirred up the rat’s nest, let’s clean it up before putting you to more risk.” — Michael shortly turned on a bright spot light and pointed to John’s chest armor.
• “Oh my…” — first time he saw the deep scratch almost breaching his suit.
• “Ricochet bullet mark. Now, let’s go to extraction. Captain…” — Michael just noticed her missing. — “Captain Sebes, come in.” — waiting for seconds in vain.
• “Last I saw her was before I got hit. There!” — now John put together one and one.

Both ran to the right corridor entrance she was protecting, the vanguard noting he lost track of her and had to knock back an attacker as they ran up to them.

They could only see a whole on the floor, mangled metal draining downward.

41. Death awaits

• “Captain Sebes, come in!” — tried Michael sounding a half pitch higher as he sped up. — “Damn…” — the fear of losing his captain on a mission gripped his core. — “Mr. Sotomayor, use your stuff to identify our attackers and ready to move out.”
• “On it.” — unable to help otherwise than doing his main job, ran the recorders beside his own observations.

Same colored suits laying with holes in them all around, Their nameplates were missing, but same material, design and paint used as to his first attackers. Cutting out a few pieces was a child’s play to him, well oiled moves put away the new hoard in small evidence pouches.

Automatically tagged by the recorder computers with place, universal time, personal and institutional digital signatures. Tiny, invisible wiring running through the otherwise transparent pouches, even tracking damage to the container is partly automatized.

Taking off the helmet proved more challenging though. The locks were to be disengaged with suit controls. As the safety designs, losing control locked the helmet in place. No-one wanted to depressurize due to any little fault, this time caused inconvenience and John wasted precious minutes.

Finally Michael stepped in and yanked open the plastic shell with his exo-skeleton’s power. The human omelette at the feet of John didn’t bothered, he long passed by the super-heated metal infusion the commando treated him to. Recorder quickly locked on to the deceased face, executing its programming in a blink of an eye, new evidence recorded.

• “You know we should do this with all of them.”
• “I fear we don’t have that much time, Mr. Sotomayor.” — pacing from corridor entrance to entrance, Michael’s voice returned to normal pitch — “Two more, quickly, and we move out, Hannen, single vanguard, two corners ahead of us, go.”
• “Yes, Sir!” — the young guy energized by the opportunity, determined to prove himself as the freshman in the best team, bursted through the designated exit corridor.

A minute later John, guarded by Michael at the front, remaining guard at his back, marched through the same entry. Disturbed by the thought they leave Victoria behind, he understood that the mission is the priority. If they at least could reach the other half of the team, radios bringing only background static from anyone further than almost direct view. They even had continuous issues reaching Hannen in front of them.

As they turned a corner, saw a few flashes ahead of them, even John recognized them as the commando’s gun open fire. Hannen waited for them to close up.

• “I saw him moving toward me just as the workers!”
• “You must be mistaken, this guy is long dead, have no suit too.”
• “But I saw it!”
• “We don’t have time for this, Hannen, get it together!” — Michael scanning the next corridors, while John took another samples from the aforementioned body.

So far John ignored half his running sensors as usual, having full of mind and hand with the tasks at hand. A moment of this stop allowed to check his suspicion aroused by the radio problems, took a peek on less used data. Ionized radiation everywhere. Registering rising from the moment they entered, not reaching alert levels yet, but enough to block short range radio.

• “Michael, sir, radios are blocked by ionized radiation.”
• “Is it lethal to us?”
• “Not yet, would take a few more hours if keeps rising as it did.” — casually chatting about their demise while the team was slaloming on their new path outward.
• “Any idea how can we get through to our Captain? Or the separated team?”
• “Not sure, maybe a much stronger radio can reach them. But we haven’t heard from Irondome.”
• “Cause they won’t call us until we call them.” — Michael sped up even a bit more, soon the exo-skeleton’s had to drag John with them forward. — “We get out, and call them through Irondome’s instruments. Hannen, Connan, haul ass!”
• “Hauling ass, sir!” — their team’s agreed command to sprint at max power, Michael and Connan sharing John’s weight as he was now dangling around between the two machines running like a gazelle while weighting more than a rhino.

Disregarding any possibilities of more attackers, as the small team blazed through the wide corridor soon running into the flimsy outer hull just blasted with their weapons. Their battle computers analysing the structural weakpoints under moments, their training for storming high value target working in reverse. Hannen emerged from the dust and debris like an angel of death, Michael and Connan right behind. Then they all froze like black stones.

John on his own power, took a moment to get around them and see the reason. A massive crater near where their drop pod was left. And no drop pod where it was left. A shotgun pattern metal debris pointing outward of the crater. Metal shrapnel everywhere, many pierced the Giant’s wreckage too.

• “What the hell went down here…” — Hannen lowered his weapon breaking stance.
• “Stay vigilant! Irondome, Tango lead here, come in.” — Michael tried his radio, but the silence was unnerving. A second, then two, three seconds without answer.
• “Tango lead, we hear you. Lost contact with Bravo team. Dust clearing up, sending drop pods for extraction. What is your status?”
• “VIP 2 and half the team still inside, lost contact. Asking for search and rescue. VIP 1 safe and needs immediate extraction.” — Michael still used codewords if possible even when he was assured of a safe channel.
• “Deploying Gamma and Delta teams alongside.” — a moments pause in the XO’s voice — “Be advised, movement detected. Another unidentified vessel. Alpha squadron, intercept! Lethal force authorized.”
• “Understood, coming about.” — Alpha lead’s helmet drawing up the small ground team’s position on his augmented reality, Irondome’s combat controls streaming tracking data, allowing his armaments to lock on without direct line of sight. — “Fox 3 away.”

Michael lead the team running along the wreckage, moon dust in their wane, closing on the designated landing coordinates of their extraction. The two interceptor fighters circling only a few hundred meters above them, filling all four with resolve under their guarding angels.

• “What the… Irondome, you see it?” — Alpha lead exclaimed as the missile he launched with hundred percent precision so far, missed and detonated far from the target.

Alpha lead already had the distance and detonation zones projected onto his screens, courtesy of the Irondome’s fast analysts working through the previous vessel’s detonation.

• “Fox 3 away.” — stepped in his wingman.
• “Rodger. Alpha Two, remain in position.” — Alpha lead pushed his throttles to the max, staying on parallel with the missile. — “Switching to auto-cannon.”
• “Alpha lead, you are about to enter danger zone.” — heard his flight commander — “But the missile failed again, god speed!” — for the last time.
• “Target acquired, Fox 5!” — the projectiles teared into the speeding vessel, taking out controls, engines, splattering bodies to vapor, some of the heavy bullets exiting on the other side.

A second later the vessel detonated just like the previous one, Alpha lead enclosed by the fireball. The flight commander hoping in vain he can see his best pupil exiting from it. Instead a second fireball consumed the entire interceptor.

Michael and team just avoided the worst, shrapnel shower stopped by the Giant’s body, protecting some of its passengers for the last time.

Slowly the minutes passed by as the next wave of drop pods arrived from orbit. Michael and team holding position, three of them watching three directions, John positioning agains the wreckage.

• “John, what the hell is going on? This investigation ends up in a damned war we started waging.”
• “I have no clue, Michael, beyond the scale of this accident, there is nothing to it!” — “or we just don’t see all the pieces…” continued his thought for himself.
• “Irondome, come in!” — a women’s calm voice heard through the same channel.
• “Captain, is that you?”
• “Yes, Mr. Rivera, secure extraction zone, we are in a fighting retreat.”
• “Great to hear your voice. You with the rest of the team?”
• “Yes, I fell to their level during the first fight.”
• “First?”
• “We have new workers moving against us every few seconds. Half-way to extraction point. Gedeon, on your right!”
• “New drop pods arrive with two squads in two minutes.”
• “Understood, grab Gedeon and move out!”
• “Michael, she is in trouble, we must do something!” — John looked deep into his eyes, in the half-bright moon-shine darkness quickly closing in.
• “Fu… Hannen, Connan, protect Mr. Sotomayor, I lead. Irondome, sending new extraction point and the Captain’s position, need reinforcements ASAP!” — Michael didn’t realize his failure to use codenames as he run back into the wreckage.
• “Understood, Gamma and Delta team, authorized fast insertion.”

With a risk of minor injuries and probably losing their extraction method, the two drop pods filled with the relief teams ignited thrusters toward the new coordinates, burning away their escape fuel for maximum speed.

A few seconds later landing roughly at the designated coordinates and running after Michael’s team in spearhead formation. New interceptor squads joining the skies above them, escalating Irondome’s forces to retrieve its Captain from harms way.

Now entering official records who was one of their VIP.

42. Extraction

• “Sir, movement again.”
• “The third unaccounted ship?” — Victoria’s XO leaned forward in her seat revealing no other emotions to his crew.
• “Same size, engine radiations, yes, Sir, it is.” — hastened yet calm inflections from the analyst. — “As you expected.”
• “Keep with the Captain’s plan. Irondome to Tango Team, incoming detected. Interceptors, engage, lethal fire. Be advised, we have ground troops.”
• “Alpha two, target lock acquired. Fox 3 away.”
• “Epsilon leader, Fox 3 away.”

Blinking dots on the radar screens, live high-definition cameras stream the situation to the bridge. XO and a dozen analysts monitoring as the third vessel flying over from the far side. Almost over the position the Captain supposed to be when the first and second blinking spot overlaps.

The high yield missiles designed to penetrate heavily protected bunkers tear into the small civilian shuttle. The expected fireball should vaporize the small vessel leading to no harm for the ground troops. Instead loud sighs and fast chatter erupts on the Irondome bridge. The XO would not believe any official report if he would not sit right here.

The high-def cameras of Alpha lead show no detonation and the worker vessel still flies toward them.

• “Break off!” — flight commander shouted into the open channel.
• “Negative, Captain in danger close.” — Alpha two continued his approach — “Fox 5.” — the heavy caliber bullets tearing into the new threat, pounding it to pieces.
• “Epsilon lead, Fox 4 away.” — the electromagnetic missile traversed quickly detonating on close proximity.

Knocking out for a moment everything on both Alpha two and the unidentified vessel. Inertia bringing both closer, Alpha two still spitting metal. No electromagnetic warhead can interfere with good old mechanics.

Aiming with both arms as now fighting with the knock-backs of the heavy barrels. Strained muscles and pain, Alpha two focuses on the last sensor data where the reactor is on the other ship and slowly chips away around it.

The worker vessels slightly heavier and slower, falls a bit quicker and Alpha two just barely misses collision. Gamma lead unable to fire, risking hitting his friendly. Irondome bridge silently waits until both ships fall onto the surface.

• “Alpha two here, requesting extraction.” — small clapping on the bridge while flight commander acknowledges.
• “Sir, unidentified vessel is far enough from our troops, engine fully destroyed, they are disabled.”
• “Understood, interceptor wings, initiate bombing run on the vessel. We don’t risk anymore.”
• “Epsilon lead here, that contradicts our original order to capture if possible. Please confirm last command.”
• “Confirmed, override original command, destroy the unidentified vessel.”
• “Understood, Sir. Fox 3 ground away.” — entire Epsilon wing, five interceptors simultaneously launched their ground ordinance.
• “A new crater needs to be mapped on this moon, Sir.”

Michael could not respond to Irondome from inside. Yet he was aware of the events outside this time, as the relief teams formed a chain, by breaking off two by two every few corners.

• “How are they so many?” — one of Victoria’s team spoke in a deep, calm manner, while occasionally firing pinpoint shots, all into heads.
• “No clue, can you see anything? My night vision acts funny.” — Victoria brandishing a revolver like handgun in her right, taking potshots while fiddling with her controls with the other hand.
• “Only shapes, no details, my night vision is limited too.”
• “Can be electronic warfare?”
• “Can, but nothing like what we encountered in training.” — bumm, bumm. Would be challenging to talk if there would be any atmosphere conducting the obscenely loud shots.
• “Reloading. One more clip left.”
• “Not good, we barely progressed.”
• “Leave me here, Cap’, I can… I can hold them off a…”
• “No, Gedeon, nobody get’s left behind. Agh!…” — one of the attackers charged right next to her team mates and tackled her to the ground.

She rolled over, trusting her training, throwing a right hook instinctively. Connected, feeling a tiny obstacle, a head maybe? But the heavy exo-skeleton kept going, shaving off what she believed to be the head of the attacker. Just to be sure, she put a close handgun shot into the chest of her victim.

She tried her flashlight again, but it flickered off any time she turned it on. Like the environment sucked away all light, only their infrared lasers getting anywhere. Her rare trainings on the gym deck, occasional commando war-games kept her skills sharp. She remembered even seeing the facial details from fifty meters. Now she could barely see a humans outlines from a meter.

Michael was thinking along the same lines as he brought in his team from behind. Taking his potshots on the incoming shapes, Victoria’s team got to take some breaths finally.

• “Rolling retreat. Follow the breadcrumbs, people.”

John and Victoria grabbed the injured Gedeon from two sides. The minutes passed slowly as the team progressed outward from the wreckage. Every few corridors fresh commando taking care of their backs.

They were at halfway out when the last shapes were shot to oblivion and suddenly no more approached them.

By the time they all exited the wreckage, Irondome sent new extraction pods for all.

As their pod ascended, John and Victoria silently stood in their alcoves. Augmented visors showing multiple patrols in between the moon and the civilian fleets. Space-based interceptors taking a formation around their drop pod to escort them in.

In a few minutes, what seemed to be an eternity for John, they were secured on the Irondome’s spine dock and Victoria stepped out pulling Gedeon with her. Medical teams already in place, assisting Gedeon to the nearest infirmary.

• “John, meet me at my cabin tomorrow 1800 hours. I need to discuss a matter with you.”
• “We should talk now.”
• “I have to tend to my lost officers first. And better to rest first.”
• “Oke… okey, will be there.” — seeing Victoria’s look, eyebrows pulling, lines straitening, he didn’t want to push her now.

John found his assistant right at the dock’s entrance, already waiting for him. Probably she knew nothing of their close calls and deadly adventure down on the surface, she already chatted about the teams’ daily status. John forgot that he missed the stand-up. He had no mood to talk, yet he buried his feelings and let Hanah continue.

• “Sorry to jump in, you got the extracted data?”
• “Yes, at least partially, download is still in progress from your remote server. The recorder you found held more dense data, twice, no, quadruple compared to engineering specifications.”
• “Any idea why?”
• “Maybe a new compression algorithm, don’t know yet. After download, we can run standard decryptions on it.”
• “Do so please, will be in my quarters, need a longer rest.”
• “Oh, okey, sorry, of course.”

43. Photogenes

He could not feel the hot water pouring down on him anymore. John was sitting under the shower for half an hour, running yesterday again and again. Rewinding it like a tape, rewatching, the charred and shot body of that person perished long before they arrived. Hannen’s look and words, totally convinced the dead was threatening him. A well trained, however green marine commando under pressure.

Alarm ringed John back into the now. He used to put more than one for the morning, not the first time lagging in thoughts. The proceedings will start in an hour and he needs to drop by his team before that. Nothing gonna stop him from paying his respect though.

As he entered their working room, Hanah closed the door behind him, practically pushing him away and into the room. Ben and Mark standing on the other side, their look fixated on him. Months passed while Ben was always looking at his monitor.

• “What happened? You all seem so serious.” — John walked up to them, forming a small intimate circle. Nobody seemed to talk at first, time passing in silence, John releasing a nervous smile — “Hm, anything? Team? Found any reason for the deceleration of the Giant?”
• “I think, we did.” — Hanah’s soft voice with the slow articulation earned all the other’s look on her, while she seemed more interested in the others’ shoes. As John looked around, could not meet Ben or Mark’s eyes either, one looking to far away lands, another interested in the ceiling metal cracks. — “But it is… insane.”
• “Come on, what are you talking about?”
• “It… the Giant was still accelerating with the ion drives to produce gravity. The sensors aimed to scan for debris failed.” — Mark started to build up into a lecture, even talking with his hands, gesturing as he paced on — “Large meteors entered their space. And punctured Ring 1, crossed the particle accelerator and annihilated with tremendous force.”
• “So far following and checks out.”
• “What does not check out is what happened after the Ring blow out. The ship immediately decelerated to zero speed. I did not believe the first black box, thought it was damaged.” — Ben continued instead, biting down the end of each word just to reach the end of his sentences faster.
• “Hm, I see, it should have flown forward due to its impulse built up while accelerating. But are you sure?”
• “Checked the structural scans taken by the Perseus Train’s drones, the workers over the months. The structure, though survived, its weakening and damage is consistent with a lateral sudden deceleration.” — Ben nodded along his own words, getting the uninitiated dizzy just looking at him.
• “Any idea what caused the deceleration? I don’t recall any cases before. Was the detonation strong enough to stop the ship?”
• “No, the detonation barely affected the speed. It throw the Giant a bit off course, mostly it just launched the shrapnels found everywhere. However… there is a theory…”
• “Come on, spit it out.” — John nearing the end of his ropes.
• “We think the Ring detonation interacted with a dark matter field, causing a localized pushback.” — Hanah took back the mic — “Like if you ran your vehicle into a wall, but with each part of it into its own smaller walls.”
• “Wait, what, how…” — John muttered — “Dark matter was never proved, even after we colonized a thousand world, only theorized.”
• “Hundreds of years of faster than light travel, and no sign of it.” — Mark whispered.
• “I think we have our first proof.” — it was Hanah’s turn to nod, just to reinforce herself in her own thoughts.
• “Wait, you mean, an Alcubierre Ring uncontrolled blow out during faster than light speed is what we need to even detect dark matter?”
• “We may have other variables, but honestly, no-one did practical experiments on this. Simply too expensive to just blow up those rings. Though I found some papers on this.”
• “Link them to me please, want to read them.”
• “Would not be… wise. All are on the dark net only.”
• “Ben, you say… Get them to a separate machine, safely, untraceably. If you are all right, we going to get teared up by every academics in known space. Then maybe all lawyers and politicians will pile in too, we can’t spew nonsense with so many casualties down there.”
• “Understood, John. Where are you going?”
• “Marines sacrificed themselves for us to continue our investigation.”

With that, John left behind the silent team frozen in their place, realizing they must have been out of loop how he got the data for the second black box.

He made it to the forward decks just with a few minutes to spare. Only asking for directions four times, he could have navigated the Giant without a hitch and only now he realized he knew nothing about the carrier serving as his home for the past few months.

As he pulled up to the final stretch, a crowd of people pushing toward the same entry blocked his way. All facing the door, quick chit chatter in perfect pronounciation, all wearing augmented glasses. John could recognize them from a mile away. Journalists.

Before he could turn around in search of a backdoor, one of the journalist turned to him asking for comment on the case. They recognized each other, not by name, face only, one of the more pushy streamer specializing in catastrophe content was a regular visitor at his accident scenes.

• “You know I can’t comment an in-progress investigation.”

The follow up question was drowned out as the hungry hyenas all rushed around the single prey barking their own questions or comments at the face most of them did not even care to recognize.

• “How does the colonies feel when federalists just invade their territory?” — one shouted into his right ear.

John had no way back as more so called modern journalists, couch-scientists and streamers piled on him. For most it is just an entertainment, figure out real crime or engineering problems without a foundation, for others it is just another platform for spewing their politics.

• “Attention, disperse immediately.” — Michael’s amplified voice filled their corridor to John’s pleasure.

A show of force, a line of fully armed commando and their leader slowly marching out of the sieged door made even the sturdiest nuisance streamer to run without looking back.

Finally John stood among the serving man and woman, waiting for their captain’s eulogy speech. Various departments visibly wearing their dress uniforms. A whirlwind of colors, modern draped, dark matte officer dresses mixed with camouflage patterned uniforms. Concentric circles originating from a central altar, first line are Michael and his team kneeling.

• “Today we return our fellow comrades’ bodies where we all came from.” — Victoria walked in from the far side — “We are thankful and rejoice in their sacrifice just as much we miss our friends and family. They honored us with their lives, and in their death. We honor you now as you take your last journey. Salute!”

The simultaneous steps causing a deep hum through the ship.

• “Launch.” — a large screen showing as small dark pods leaving the Irondome, the pale sun of this system hanging in the background.

Victoria lists the names out loud as each pod crosses the camera midline but John loses focus, trying to take in the view, the saluting crowd, the trembling of the flight commander, the dark stones Michael and team resembles.

• “And fire!” — the pods accompanied by fireworks, bright white light burning ahead of the dotted line, leading them into the darkness past the star onto a decaying orbit.

44. Survival

John hoped he can discreetly slip out as the proceedings end. He caught himself tapping his left feet rhythmically again and again. Unsure of the source, he thought it may be all what’s happening in a short period of time, feeling unable to get back in control. Leading of previous investigations could not prepare him to deal with this.

The case is about to go in a scientifically uncharted territory, the press and public pressures authorities to give quick and satisfying answer about their loved ones or just to stir more drama bumping audience.

When each servicemen and women around him stepped to the altar one by one, murmuring a short pray in their own ways, he could not drag himself there. Took his steps toward the same door Michael dispersed the crowd, hoping nobody is crazy enough to return there.

As the heavy doors’ mechanism pulled them apart into their slots, the diplomat questioning him stood in his way out. Standing firm, gaze locked onto John, cutting like knife.

• “You, the hell you were thinking going down with an army?” — words spitted one by one, with measure and weight to each.
• “Doing my job, Mr. Coldman.” — John hid his gulping reflex.
• “Is massacring innocents your job then?” — Coldman kept blocking John’s way.
• “Innocents? We were defending ourselves. As a federal investigator I have the authority…”
• “You are not at the federation core, here you don’t have that. This is neutral space, the colonial government is now on our throats over the civilian deaths and we are inclined to give them a… anything or anyone, to chew on.”
• “Is that a threat, Mr. Coldman?” — John still playing the confident man.
• “Consider it a warning, Mr. Sotomayor.” — Coldman stepping forward to get in John’s face.
• “The Safety Board is independent from your diplomatic corp.”
• “We will see about that after the president has been briefed.”

Their standoff came to an end only as the marines started pouring out, respects paid, threats exchanged, everyone goes on with their days. John could barely focus on the dry whitepapers Ben was able to pull for him.

Sitting in front of the air-gapped machine’s screens for hours on end, his back stiffing up, shoulders pain with every move. As his focus shifted, forgetting about Coldman as he went deeper into dark net conspiracies, he saw the dots forming on his mental map. Feeling the connections slipping from him, pulled a paper and pen, drawing boxes and lines to make any sense out of dense arguments.

• “Hanah, we need an experiment. We can’t bring the dark matter theory into the reports if we don’t prove it. Get the team to work out ways by tomorrow end of day. We may not have much time to close the case… I know, I know, just get to work on it please, have a run through during our morning check in. Talk to you later.” — speaking softly into his hands, timed the message for an hour and a half later.

Just to send this while he was about to visit the captain. The week barely started and all plans went out the window about how to close the case. His instincts told him to keep digging for the truth. While his mind wanted to settle the satisfactory explanations.

Over the weeks they managed to establish many systems and processes were broken, subpar, unmaintained on the Giant. Pieces of the wreckage collected showed fatigue set in even before the accident. Regular maintenance scans done by the different port authorities showed common issues while neither of them would trigger a deny of leave, the sheer amount of them was a sign of negligence.

Black box data was spotty even before the event, many sensors not reporting anything, not even their own self-diagnostics, meaning they were totally broken. Such sensors that were part of the safety systems. Circuit breakers to shut down the engines when confinement was breached never activated. The sensors at the suspected breach point were inoperable for months, again the black boxes collaborated.

The Safety Board investigators were trained to use science, not to develop new science on the fly. The question of sudden deceleration was the only thing out of line from the basic flying garbage as junior investigators used to call these cases.

John’s affinity for details and precision did not let him to settle comfortably with this explanation. Not when so many lives were lost. When so many did their best to help them in need, despite risking their own lives of livelihoods. Some may get governmental support and insurance money back, some will never be made whole, just like the Perseus Train’s crew, being the makeshift leaders of the relief fleet for months.

As John scanned these details, bullet points he collected in his notes, structuring the final report into its shape, the outline filling up slowly with details. Noting, categorizing and filing supporting evidence here and there. Attaching data files with traceable identifiers courts can rely on. He slipped into his old work habit, almost missing the alarm he set.

Late by a minute, he ringed the doorbell and a green light invited him in.

• “Sorry for being late, had much to work on…” — his sight stopped on the cadet he met the first day. Just now he realized he never asked for his name. Captain and him sitting on the couch, sipping teas. — “Am I bothering? Can come back later.”
• “No, we were waiting for you.” — Victoria’s poker face shared no emotion with John — “Cadet Pier mentioned how you first met. Catch up. Fast.”
• “Cadet Pier? You have any relationship with Vince Pier of the Perseus Train?”
• “Yes, I am him, sir.”

John measured up the cadet, size, main features same as the filed description. Yet his face he could not recognize. John’s memory was perfect, this man may be lying.

• “Tell me, why your identification data shows a different face.”
• “Oh, I went through many surgeries. Then enrolled with a field commission from Victoria. From Captain Sebes. Sir. Don’t know if updates to my file has reached central records.”
• “Central records show that you are deceased.” — John took a seat in a separate armchair facing them.
• “Well, don’t know what to say about that, I am very much alive. Sir.”

45. Viewpoints

• “Mr. Pier, I need some proof, DNA sample, and…”
• “You can do that later. We have more to discuss.” — Victoria cut off John as he was about to erupt. — “No recording of this meeting. Room secured. You check yourself.” — her eyes piercing John’s increasingly open iris.
• “Everything off the record.” — his measured voice like a mask, an extension of a well practiced poker face. As he turned a physical switch off on his glass frame and tucked neatly into his jacket, facing inside toward darkness.
• “I suppose your team has a hypothesis already.” — Victoria continued as John nodded — “However, better if I start to share this time.” — and she thrown a data recorder onto the coffee table sitting between the trio.

One metal cling, a tiny slide and the object came to a rest.

• “It’s very old school. Why not share securely on private channels?” — Vince leaned forward, arms under him, knowing well whatever is on that chip, is not meant for him.
• “No channels are secure enough for this. Sever your net connection and isolate the storage when you read it.” — she aimed her last comment to John.
• “I don’t have a data port.”
• “Didn’t mean now.”
• “Sure, mind you, what is on it? Evidence?” — John leaned back in his armchair, seemingly relaxed, yet muscles tense, ready for an olympic jump.
• “Not particularly. But I need help, from an investigator who would not raise suspicion by sniffing around.”
• “So come again, what is on the chip?”
• “Contraband manifest files. Describing Alcubierre torpedoes.” — first the frozen silence clinging between the trio.

Vince opened his mouth, when realising not a single word can come out, he close it. Repeated the seance once or twice. John tried controlling his own expressions, fighting a losing battle. Finally he broke the ever longer stalemate:

• “Why do you need my help?”
• “The question that actually matters. Because the signature code is military.”
• “Take it to the internal affairs. I am sure you have a hotline for misplacing weapons of mass destruction.”
• “Not that simple, and it wasn’t misplaced.”
• “How do you know that?”
• “The signature is from an admiral. Can’t process, search or analyse it or do anything without the admiralty offices tracing it immediately. And whoever is in on this, would shut down internal affairs before they even start.”
• “You want publicity then? What would the colonies think if the federation smuggles WMDs to their worlds? This could trigger a war in this situation…”
• “John, when did you start to care so much about periferial politics?”
• “When my job started to hang on it a few hours ago.”
• “Thought you were not as easy to intimidate by Mr. Coldman. I may have chosen wrongly to involve you.”
• “No, just…” — John could not finish his thought, ran out of words. Something in him pushed for helping her. He felt she is on the good side, even how tough she acted, sent people to their death. — “How did you get the chip?”
• “On the Giant, downloaded from the computers. Vince told me a passenger he met risked his life to decode the data.” — Victoria stretched and leaned back like she told a bedtime story — “I went down with you to recover this passenger’s remains and the data. When I got separated from the second team, it gave me a lucky chance.”
• “Wait, you used me and the investigation as cover story?”
• “Yeah, I suppose you can say that.”
• “Why did you even do that?” — Victoria wasn’t fooled by John’s calm voice, seeing his redness building up.
• “I could not know who to trust. Michael was the only one I could.”
• “Then why is he not here if you trust him that much?”
• “Who do you think is securing the room and the nearby corridors right now?” — Victoria’s ruckus smiley was too tempting to not join in. Taking away all edge of the situation.
• “We are all too deep in the weeds. What is at stake?” — Vince looked around to meet everyone’s graze. She spoke first:
• “A Casus Belli for the colonies to secede. A central government full of warmongers circling like vultures to jump on the secession. A civil war.”
• “A PR nightmare, companies sacrificing people on the altar of profit. Taking smuggling jobs to further those profit. A cycle of destruction.”
• “That is your team’s hypothesis?”
• “Yes. Evidence shows under-maintenance and procedural complacency are the main contributing factors, except…” — John taking a deep breath — “A normal Ring blow-out could not slow down the ship. It must have been something else at play. Those torpedoes based on the same principles…”
• “What are you getting at?”
• “If we could, test some assumptions. It may have been a rare interaction with dark matter. A particle explosion from the operating ring inside a dense dark matter field. The rings are just mobile particle accelerators. Mathematically…”
• “In the common language please…”
• “We need a large ship, an older cruiser or a freighter would do. But one that we know went through the same dark matter field. Speed it up, detonate the ring by injecting matter directly into the particle stream, and we can prove the immediate deceleration. And the existence of dark matter.”
• “Just that? And how would you know if the ship went through the same field?”
• “Most ship must have passed through the field en route to the Giant’s help. Even months later. However, the best would be the first one to arrive, would have the most chance to experience the same environmental factors.”
• “No. No… Nope.” — Vince jumped up like thunder struck his spot. After a second he remembered his superior sitting in the room and saluted in a stiff upright position.
• “At ease. No-one will force you to give up the Perseus Train.” — Victoria quick to calm down her protege.
• “I thought the Perseus Train was destroyed.” — John’s curiosity subsided all his previous feelings about being used.
• “Technically it was. However, only one section was destroyed entirely, the another structurally damaged. When we arrived a few hours after the Bendeghuse was destroyed by the pirates, we found the section Vince commanded still floating. It’s a miracle he could be saved, the only survivor. Unfortunately nothing we could do for his family.”
• “They were on the other section.” — Vince whispered as he saw John’s confusion.
• “Unfortunate, that ship could be the solution for the case. If so damaged, no way we could use it, right?”
• “Right, I won’t let you. Am I dismissed?” — as Victoria nodded, Vince was already out of her room in a blink of an eye.
• “What was that about?”
• “His ship is in our dry dock. The remaining half, he restored it in his free time. I think you can understand, it is his last piece of home.”

Vince unable to return to his cabin, rushed down through a tube, feeling less heavy as he progressed toward the spine docks. His personal ID opening bulkheads. It opened to a small dry dock, pressurised for easier work in low gravity.

He climbed and floated, in no time he sat in the captain’s chair, looking around to broken screens, scratched surfaces and dangling cables. Even in this state of his home, slowly rebuilt main systems, he felt at home.

At ease, alone with his memories, when he had all that mattered to him.

46. Growth

• “We need that ship, the analysis of the damage is not conclusive without it.” — Hanah’s voice raised slowly up as she finished.
• “The captain won’t order him to give it up. She made that clear.” — John slopped in a chair, avoiding eye contact with his whole team.
• “But this could prove… we could send them to jail.” — she continued arguing.
• “Don’t forget, we are not here to do that. Just to make travel safer. That is our role.” — John wasn’t even sure if he tries to convince her or himself.
• “He would want those dirtbag to be hold accountable too.”
• “I will not ask him to give up his home. Like if I would ask for the ashes of his family to throw it into the river. We have to come up with something else.” — John turned around, facing the moon and stars sliding on the view screen.

Ben and Hanah took this as a sign to finish tonight’s problem solving session. Hanah scoffed into her notes and left the room with long steps. Ben nodded toward Mark who slowly turned toward the stars.

• “John, I read the papers again. And again. It will be an extremely slim chance to replicate the circumstances with another ship.”
• “Yeah, I know. Any ideas as the engine expert? After all you figured out how to shape the drive field for these luxury liners. That seemed impossible too at the time.”
• “That was different. The groundwork was done over almost a century. And I could draw on decades of practical experiments. This time, this is the first practical interaction. If, a big if, it was one.”
• “Just, try. With a structured way. Problem, situational awareness, eliminate, prove.”
• “Well, one more thing. One more academic and definitely shady paper mentioned a possible interaction between dark matter and dark energy.”
• “What is dark energy?”
• “We theorised from the late 20th century, seeing the universe growing faster and faster, that something must be behind it. As the matter only would slow the growth down. This is called the dark energy, as we have no idea what it is and how it works. At least not in practice, math models have some ideas.”
• “And how does it come to our situation now?”
• “What if, a ring detonation somehow mixes the dark matter and dark energy. And they behave similar to matter and anti-matter, annihilating each other. Maybe it causes a temporary field of some sorts.”
• “Where every molecule hits a wall at the same time?” — John’s turn to scoff. The idea outlandish as it is.
• “Well, would be interesting.” — Mark continued without acknowledging the insane nature of his thoughts — “We know with FTL we hit still some kind of friction. Originally we thought it is just the energy, but as we pump more and more into the rings, the max speed we achieve is diminishing. It may be we are pushing against the dark energy currents.”

They both looked eye to eye. A realisation usually privy for theoretical scientists best in their fields is about to hit them too.

• “So, if we could affect these currents, would revolutionise the ring drives?” — John’s engineer background took over his investigative self, curiosity over practical work.
• “It could revolutionise how we think of the universe. And yes. May bring an even safer and instantaneous travel between Earth and colonies. Would be how trains changed life after horses.”
• “Would we be able to do it with other ship than the Perseus?”
• “Maybe. How big of a budget we have to buy?”
• “How nice of you thinking of that angle… I suppose we can’t just rent a civilian transport.”
• “Well, expect the ship to be destroyed, so no, I don’t think so.”
• “Great. And we have the senator on our back.”
• “Thought only Mr. Coldman ran his mouth.” — Mark’s smiley morphed into grinning.
• “Nah, got some communication from headquarters the morning. Don’t mention it to the team yet. Now a senator is asking for a public hearing. They try to shut down the investigation by attacking the costs.”
• “The laws provide us some latitude how to use the funding.”
• “Mentioned same to the director. And he pointed out, lately the government issued a lot of decrees to handle political issues one by one. Circumventing the slow law changing process.”
• “Ah, all the time the same story. Mankind agrees laws are necessary, right after an existential crisis. Then it forgets why made those rules during the comfortable years.” — Mark rolled his eyes John thought they gonna fall out at the back of his head.
• “Indeed. I have to thread carefully here.“ — John started drafting on a new virtual notes — “We need a plan, a tight one. Then I present it to the director. He may be able to bring in partner agencies. We could use help from academic institutions on this. They could get the benefit of research boost in exchange for their funding. We need the team back.”
• “Let them rest tonight. Hanah is overworked, Ben is… I don’t know, he is an enigma as always. We start tomorrow with fresh minds.”
• “You are right. Have some good sleep yourself!”
• “Will do, my friend. Try it for yourself too. I know that face too well.”

They smiled and Mark left. John burned the midnight oil for a while. He had some inspiration, needed to put the new bullet points to paper. A digital paper this time, however his expensive real paper and pen stacked right next to him.

He felt the winds of change, the first time he preferred the digital medium. Knowing well he has to make a killer presentation.

When he finished with the storyline put on, drafted even a few slides. After a while, he drifted between his thoughts. Glanced on the air-gapped machine holding the research papers from the deep net.

His curiosity won. A moment later he searched for any variations he could think of around Alcubierre torpedoes. Weapons of mass destruction. And found some in the downloaded materials.

The deep dark net was full of contraband information. While it was not needed to be a genius to put an FTL drive onto a small body, fill the body with the heaviest elements you can find and hurl it toward something, making it a weapon still required tremendous technological skills.

The government was good at controlling the physical plants, the tech capable of creating such sophisticated sensor and tracking systems. Controlling the information proved to be rather difficult. Almost everyone knew how to make these things. But no-one had the practical tech, nor the will to build one.

At one side, the torpedoes capable of immense destruction, possible entire moons and small planets. On the other, they are incredibly unreliable machines.

The drive may push them so fast through space and time they never even contact the target. They could miss a planet from point blank range. The nanosecond timing was easier to achieve than to hit something with these things.

The Federation built them for a single purpose. The enemy who almost destroyed Earth, cradle of mankind. We needed a deterrent. If we ever find their homeworld, even their territories, we can protect ourselves. Moreover, a latent revenge seeded into a whole race could be carried out.

Then the Federation built the twelve stations around Earth. Named after the 12 signs of astrology, as they were positioned facing the same signs, lightyears away from Earth. The ultimate guardians of our home.

Then placed tens of thousands of these torpedoes on those stations. Guarded by carriers like this, the Irondome. Able to deliver the torpedoes quickly to the detected homeworld of those wretched aliens.

As almost no-one outside of the highest level admirals knew. These torpedoes could not travel far. Only a few light seconds, before their rings become inoperable and fall out of FTL harmlessly.

They are barely able to reach a moon from its planet on their own. John had only one question in his head, beyond the dilemma of revealing the manifest to the public.

Why were these things on a civilian luxury cruise ship, headed toward the colonies?

The answer may be the tipping point for him.

47. Naivete

It wasn’t a single night of research for John. He spent the next week balancing daytime leading the team on their alternatives proving the maintenance issues were the main contributing factor with his night time covert, shadily sourced paper reading.

His new found hobby of Alcubierre ring mechanics and the state of dark matter research took a toll on him. Long nights with short or no sleep inhibited his creativity. Team noticed by the second week his reclusive behaviour.

Stand-ups took longer as he had to ask back clarifying already clear or done points. Hanah pulled him over and tried to point out to him. Knowing each other for years, she offered help with anything going on behind, even if it’s personal.

John wanted them to keep out of this. At least until he made up his mind what to do about it. The list of equipment on the manifest file burned into his memories by this point. Knowing now the potential destruction power, estimated on a dozen planets these torpedoes are able to wipe out, he could not sleep properly.

Even if he wanted to.

One night, Victoria showed up. Uninvited, she just sat down next to John while he was reading on the air-gapped machine. He was so focused in, didn’t even notice her at first.

• “How the hell you got in?”
• “Imagine, this is my ship. Can unlock anything.”
• “Isn’t this invasion of privacy?”
• “Still a military ship. And a workplace, with highest security clearances necessary. There is no privacy here.”
• “So I suppose…”
• “Yeah, I ordered a few of my trusted officials to keep you and this machine safe and out of other peeping eyes.”
• “Like…”
• “Our dear diplomat, Mr. Coldman. And his bunch of informants…”
• “Informants?”
• “You really up in your investigation bubble. Out here, diplomat is just a synonym for spy leader.”
• “Oh.” — John started to realise he is not thinking straight. The exhaustion and his focus on the research in front of him narrowed his view. Lost track of the bigger picture.
• “John, we have to get this to the public. But I can’t do it.”
• “That is why you need me. To be an authoritative source.”
• “As a career investigator, being clean and fair all the time, the public would trust you way more than a career soldier.”
• “I won’t do it. Don’t you think what would be the consequences? The colonies would want retribution, fear takes over. Earth or central would crack down even harder.”
• “And do you think not telling has better consequences? Those weapons will be used at one point. A false flag operation. Or just a terror attack, then central will crack down hard anyway. Colonies suffer in the end.”
• “Wait, you are the captain of a Federation carrier.”
• “But I am not blind. The Federation is not the same institution I signed up to protect. The powerful playing their games for their own gains. Nobody gives a shit about the people anymore.”
• “The law will find and weed them out.”
• “Had the same naive thoughts. Seen how much the Federation helped when the need was there? How many died on the Giant. And how they bickered over the rescue operation looking good instead of doing something. The law only helps those who write it.”

John took a deep breath. He felt the anger building up in her as Victoria talked. As she pumped up herself over the matter. It came to his mind in a flash, early reports he read, Victoria took out the Irondome before the admiral gave the order. She actually overruled command to get here earlier. And her crew didn’t bat an eye supporting her.

• “I hope you are wrong. For all our sakes.” — the only words he could whisper.
• “Me too. The manifest unfortunately proves otherwise. If we could know why those weapons were on the Giant and where they are now.” — she continued slowly, her determination filling in the room grabbing John — “Then we could track down who is responsible for this and maybe stop them.”
• “Something tells me you already have the next step in mind.”
• “Indeed. I got some rumours, let’s say it like that, from a contact on New Geneva. The stolen transport used by Swordfish docked there for repairs.”
• “Interesting. You still didn’t say what’s next.” — her look betrayed to John, she was still thinking how much to reveal to him.
• “Two of us and Michael, we take a tour there in civilian. Verify it was the transport, find the weapons or at least observe the hand-over of them.”
• “Why not go with the whole ship, seize it with an army?”
• “And start a civil war with the colonies. Just the sight of the Irondome would trigger that without an in advance clearance. And the moment I put in the notice with the colony that we would arrive, they will alert Swordfish. And the ship will be gone before we could clear the bureaucracy.”
• “Why should I join at all?”
• “Stop playing the hard to get. Same reason you stated before. Need the independent investigator to confirm whatever we would find.”

John silently got up and started walking around the tables and chairs. Victoria stayed sitting. Leaned back even a bit. She knew the power is with the sitting person in every negotiation.

After a few runs, John spun around, looked deeply in her eyes. Wanted to see for himself if she is trustable.

• “Okey, I am not convinced to publish whatever we find, but we need to know. I join you.”
• “Great, we leave by the morning. After you set your team on path, report to docking bay F8.”

She got up and turned her back to John. Paused at the door for a moment with head hanging downward. She whispered a thanks John may not even heard.

John knew he needed some sleep before another excursion. Especially a taxing one, he never did such a covert operation. But Michael saved his life more than once, even he had some doubts in Victoria standing, he could trust him.

Just one more paper to be finished, he sat back down and touched the screen. Opened another folder. Lost interest. Reattached the manifest file’s data chip. Looked for something he didn’t notice before. The chip held enormous amount of information.

He ordered the files by creation date. A bunch of virtual logs popped up as the youngest ones. As he scrolled, skipping those virtual logs needing a VR googles to properly watch them, he found a video recording.

Who makes only two dimensional recordings nowadays? Clicked on it. A young woman appeared on the screen. He thought she looks nice, even fixed to a weird contraption he didn’t recognise at first.

• “To anyone who watches this. My name is Francis. I am the real human behind Steelgopher. Now I know, there is no way out. I hoped for a long time, months that someone actually can get to me before it is too late. But I see what happened outside. And we will soon fall to the surface. I don’t think my rig can save me this time.”

The girl sobbing between sentences. Looking away from the camera most of the time.

• “My closest friends and family already dead around me from the first deceleration. I tried to survive and live on, partly for them. As you can see and probably know, I am limited in movements. Genetics. Shitty gambling of life before even it starts.”

Her sobbing stopped as a rage built up, John seen same process just with Victoria.

• “I always wanted to be a dancer. I know, stupid naive in my condition. Yet, I made it, sort of. At least my avatar. Well, I was working on a ballet. A broken toy, a ballet dancer in a music box finds new meaning in life. Attached the script. Hope someone can finish it. Please use my avatar once more to perform this. Please…”

Recording ended abruptly. Based on the time stamps, it was minutes before the fall. But her room was not even near the chip’s location. John checked the blueprints and last passenger manifests. Another thing to publish.

48. Causality

Itching skin woke John up. He bumped his head into a metal pipe right above his bunk. Forgetting where he is in the moment of transfer between dreamworld and reality, he looked around in panic.

Michael’s black curls barely poking out of the wrapped rugged blankets. Victoria, wearing leather overall, heeled boots and slightly provocative make-up, she was already awake. Her back at the transport ship’s wall, one leg playing a pendulum, she looked up to John and winked.

Their cover story twisted plenty yet kept hierarchy. John’s ID replicated a caught net runner responsible for relieving a few banks of their earned transaction fees on the other side of the colonised space. Michael’s represented a gun for hire, veteran mercenary involved in petty guard jobs.

While Victoria assigned herself a modest job, above her entourage. She was a less known fixer wishing to enter a new market. A background check quickly showed her face and name popping up as suspect in multiple organised crime, yet no attorney could put her behind the bars.

Of course, their alter egos all got along nicely in a high security prison station refining chemicals and fuels rods for plasma reactors.

At the port, no-one cared of the one in a dozen shady figures. Port authority existed in name only here. The station’s main drum would be able to dock into the Giant’s bays, and would barely seen next to the Irondome, still counted as a vast repair station in the sector.

A dozen small craft, most of them a type of freighters, come and go every day. The trio arrived on one of those offering their rough spots for elements in search of a new start. A nice way to avoid the ever-slowly grinding gears of the justice system.

The cheap heap of junk they used as transport had no windows, so none of them could see the Swordfish freighter docked a few bays around. Too small to provide full gravity, they moved with tall and quick jumps. A few hops and all stood on the surface of New Geneva space yard.

• “Home, dear home.” — Michael said grinning at John. Unable to decide of he is joking or mean it, his face froze to an empty graze.
• “Come, let’s have a drink, my dears.” — Victoria’s face glowing as she embraced the act. Swinging her hips like a super-model, radiating self-confidence, strolled right into the single bar of the station. — “Barkeep, three super novas. Prompt.”
• “Aye, aye. But pay first, ma’am.” — the tenor of the two-door wide body builder welcomed the new patrons.
• “This gentleman will handle that.” — she gestured toward John. He raised the right arm and elegantly waved his wrist over the barkeep’s. The fake credit chip transferred the funds and thrown in a gracious tip too.
• “For the prompt part.” — avoiding eye contact, John slumped down in front of Victoria at a four person booth.

Michael shortly following next to him. Victoria waved him over when he tried to sit next to her. She kept her place for the informant. Halfway into their glasses, a loud punk singing in a foreign language walked in.

• “Hey, Trev’, what’s up with your mood?” — welcomed by the barkeep, who knew all his returning patrons by first name.
• “Celebrating, man, got my raise at the docks. Give me a super nova.” — shouted the young guy in excitement, the next station’s barkeep could hear him.
• “Isn’t that a bit too expensive for you?”
• “Not today, my man.” — Trev swiped his arm and for the barkeep’s open surprise it passed.
• “Here you go.”
• “Don’t you drink with me? Lame to celebrate alone.”
• “Nah, Trev, I have a long shift to work.”
• “Always the same excuse.” — smiling Trev turned around. The trio being the only patrons in the bar, having the same drink as him, got his mood up again.

A moment and he was already sitting next to them, loudly singing the next verse. Here and there asked who they are, what they do or plan. Not waiting for an answer starting the next verse when got bored for one second.

John’s initial blush went to redness as the guy hooked his arms around Victoria. He could not see that she acquired a memory chip from him as the transfer was under the table right into her leather overall’s pockets. Passive sensors of Michael’s hidden apparatus did not pick up any bugs around them.

Trev made a two hour long show as the bar slowly filled up with dockworkers and paper pushers ready to drink their day away. Trev left his new found friends for his group, and old nightshift dock workers.

Victoria took to the central spine, John and Michael closely following her light jumps. A few bulkheads down to the stern, she used the chip from Trev to enter. The trio moved in the shadows, the corridor full of metal boxes and barrel shapes.

Quick scan from Michael confirmed the containers’ origin as Federation military storage, forward base gamma. One of the smaller depot near the Sagittarius station. Irondome’s home port. But none of them were long or large enough for torpedoes. Victoria used up a covert one time code to open one of them, the lock in perfect order reacted to her.

She saw at least two dozen assault arms, same type her special commando units used. Michael confirmed, same model as his and his team’s. John running his official recorder with a fresh memory chip, with disconnected network to avoid automatic filing.

The dock’s bulkhead hissing alerted them. Victoria pulled John behind a stack of crates in a dark corner and Michael found his spot on the other side. Hearing heavy steps, irregularly as the boots only knocked on the metal plating between long jumps, two dark clothed, dark haired slender man entered.

They stopped in the middle of the corridor, waiting. A moment later the another bulkhead opened and two more similarly looking guy jumped out of the docked ship. These two had a visible fish tattoo on their necks. For Michael’s happiness, none of the new arrivals used active sensors, they were safe in their darkness.

• “Yes, clear.” — talked the first guy into his communicator. The station’s inner bulkhead opened and a short, brown haired body builder entered. He needed only one jump to be right behind his bodyguards.
• “Finally, what took so long?” — asked the new guy, our trio unsure who he talks to until one of the fish tattoo pulled up a hand-held screen. It came alive and a head with a suit frowned on eye level of the impatient shorty.
• “Hey Swen, long time no see. Is this how you hail your friend?”
• “Friend you say. Acquintance at max. And pure business, Senator.”
• “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Told you, no ranks on these channels.”
• “And no names, I am afraid we have deal on equal grounds.”
• “No, not really.” — the Senator didn’t finish this remark before a loud bang was heard.

Swen first felt a cutting pain in his chest. Then fluid running down under his t-shirt. The sudden shock left him in disbelief. Guns pointing on to his guards’ heads, holding their fire.

• “You were never useful to me, Swen. You are just a business man. Want profit, not chaos. You prefer stability. Unlike your second.” — Swen fell to the ground, trying to talk, but gurgling in the rushing blood filling his lungs. Still able to see as his second in command jumped through the bulkhead.
• “I hope you keep your end.” — continued the Senator, now only to the new joiner, totally uninterested in Swen’s final moments.
• “You can trust me, they deserve what is coming.”
• “I thought we will understand each other. Continue with phase two.”

49. Sum of parts

It took Victoria, John and Michael a few days to return to the Irondome. They spent their detour on a second freighter in silence among workers and supplies shipped to the slowly disappearing camps.

Over the months, as the hope to recover any worthy remains from the Giant vaned, the contractors and their service companies took to greener fields. Relatives ran out of funds to keep digging for their lost ones, medical crews running out of sponsors and patients slowly able to ship out.

The trio went on their own ways, speaking only in official matters for months on end. John managed to keep the investigation on track. The final experiment they needed to run was prepared, budget allocated and a small, old freighter procured.

Hanah went home to her parents for some local holidays and Ben disappeared in the ether, again. Mark and John was enough to conduct the experiment. Hanah would return in a few weeks to finish the evaluation of the new data.

The final report was close to be finished. The political pressure subsided. The news cycle switched to new matters, a few taxation and regulatory border disputes between far away systems. The Giant’s story was old and only gathered interest in expert circles.

Still a few streamers, solo video and documentary makers created some content around her. Increasingly theoretical going into conspiracy theories sometimes as the official investigation took years to close.

John saw the finish line now. While he wished a successful experiment, it would strengthen their recommendations for new safety systems, it did not change the largely supported outcome.

Evidence was plentiful. Giant’s sensors were flickering off, missing the deep space asteroid field. Crew did not use the back-up sensor drones as they have been trained and mandated by procedure.

Frontal shielding could not hold against the meteorites showering into the ring’s platings. Initial containment failure was not followed up by the automatics to shut down the damaged ring. Those automatics were old, last maintenance way over its time.

The company was scraping every penny out of the ship. And people paid with their lives. The story’s public part was straightforward.

• “T minus 10 second.” — John’s thoughts were crashed by Mark’s voice. Countdown started, soon their small ship with a few sensor drones at its wings will start its Alcubierre engines.

The forward engine rigged to explode twenty seconds into the flight. Far from any civilian route and the Irondome. Victoria was gracious enough to provide two of their sensor drones with the agreement of Admiral Haggardt’s. Of course the military expected all data and the possibility of breakthrough technology was too large for them to ignore.

The moment of detonation came quickly. A few seconds and the ring blows. Mark and John expected immediate deccelaration on detonation. To their knowledge, they replicated all measurable circumstance the Giant went through. The freighter used its ion drives to accelerate while warping space around itself.

The bomb went off. At the exact time they estimated.

All sensor drones in perfect position.

From outside the freighter stopped in an instant exactly where the drones were looking for it. And the freighter was sliding forward.

They scanned just like the Perseus Train did with the Giant.

Structure was perfectly okey. On board sensors did not detect a deceleration.

Mark let out a sigh. John seen his friend disappointed before. He will get over it.

On the bridge of the Irondome, Victoria monitored the experiment personally. She was not amused. Her stern gaze met by her XO’s.

• “Something was missing.”

• “Yes, but if the GTSB couldn’t find out what, then who knows.”

• “Indeed. Who knows.”

• “You left early again, without saying a word.”

• “Come on, Vicky, let’s not start this again today. I told you yesterday I have to leave to the space port.”

• “No, John, you did not! And I am spending my rare off days.”

• “I know, and I am sorry. But I told you over the weeks. The lawsuit is about to start, it goes to trial and the judge ordered me to testify.” — subway door just closed front of John. — “Damn it.”

• “Don’t talk to me like that!”

• “Not you, the metro, I am gonna miss my flight.”

• “You deserve it. And don’t expect me waiting here for you.” — the communication channel closed.

John ran through the port. At least tried as hard as he could. The security gates picked him as the training dummy of the day and every procedure ever imagined for airport and spaceport safety applied to him.

He traveled a lot, went through these before, never all of them at the same time. Chemical testing, CT machine, even patting him down.

By the time he ran to the boarding desk, the attendant just shook her head.

• “I am sorry, the gate was closed ten minutes ago.”
• “I really need to be on this flight, testifying in an important case. Can you hold them a bit?”
• “I am sorry, Sir. This is not an airport, the boarding procedure is more sensitive. Can’t let anyone through after the train left.”
• “Yeah, got it. I know, but I had to try.” — John was still breathing heavily, not used for a second workout on the same day, after Victoria took most of the night from him, running through the airport was not a jog in the park. — “Can you, can you… get me to another flight, please?”
• “Sorry, you need to find the company desk in the main terminal, the way you came from and to the right.”
• “That is half an hour walk.”
• “Yes, it is. Have a nice day!”

Before John could let out the sigh of his life, they felt a trembling. He thought the flight is just taking off, yet it felt strange. Then a loud bang scared the soul out of both him and the gate attendant. She quickly took her desk phone and called central.

John looked at the crooked wall behind her. Whatever it was, the force of it bended multiple layers of steal plating. The wall protecting them from the worst. The attendant’s face switching to bright white as she heard the news.

Then the public announcement came alive with a fire alarm.

• “Please remain calm and proceed to main terminal and through fire exit one, two and three.” — the repeated message dotted by alarm buzzing.
• “What happened?” — shouted John to the attendant.
• “Your flight, the entire booster blew up on the launch station.”
• “That hasn’t happened in fifty years.” — John has been trained on those old catastrophes. Space age was so old at this point, such a basic error never happened anymore.

As he walked back toward the main terminal, called back Victoria.

• “Hey, how are you? Managed to reach your flight?”
• “What, aren’t you angry?”
• “Why would I? What happened?”
• “Ah, I missed the flight.”
• “Oh, sorry for that, come back, made some breakfast, you can get a new flight here.”
• “On my way. Turn on the news.” — John could barely hear himself under the alarms and shouting, the general chaos at the spaceport grew moment by moment.
• “Oh, okey.” — she replied and commanded the screen by voice to show the news.

Just caught a replay of one of the public cameras with the spaceport in the background. And the shockwave emanating from one of the platforms, flattening the nearby factory, airport facilities and whipping up waves of three meters causing tidal waves at the commercial district across the lake.

She stopped the stream and wound back. Playing it frame by frame, she saw the first stage booster as the origin of the detonation. Must be sabotage. Those were hundred percent safe modules for half a century.

The platform in her sight across the lake, Ava braced herself for the shockwave. The phone she just used to call John thrown into the wind. She was glad with herself. Plan is still on its track.

50. Expert in witness

John arrived days late to Earth. He got a short message from the prosecutor to remind him of the new slot his witness testimony is expected. The day long travel on the cramped economy class of the small shuttle siphoned the life out of him. A rambling thought as he fall to the hostel bed in New Campignon, at the outskirts of Paris, “the government is really cheap on the costs of this trial”. Deep asleep moments later.

Relentless knocking woke him up in the morning. Examining his watch through a small crack, this much he could muster his eyelids against tons of pressure to stay closed. Five in the morning, in a hostel without room service, having hours until he has to wake up, this wasn’t right.

Just as he reached the spy hole on the door, the knocking switching to a metallic clinging. And the lock started slowly moving to open position. Whoever is, they will come in. Unarmed, he pulled down the wooden rod holding old fashioned cloth racks, silently releasing the racks onto the bed.

All in vain. The door flung wide open and tall suit was already on him. Expertly defusing his makeshift baseball bat, silencing with a chokehold. His attacker wasn’t alone, two more suits, two heads taller than him secured the corridors as his captor navigated around.

They took him downstairs, to the hostel’s common bath area. Empty except his entourage this early, showed into one of the showers, thrown to the ground and cold water opened on him. Another two showers were turned on next to his cabin, the sound made him notice he was alone with his captor.

• “Not a chance, Mr. Sotomayor.” — another figure locked the shower cabin after himself, first familiar face for John. — “I assume you remember me.”
• “Mr… Mr. Coldman?” — the bodybuilder suit, short haired, wide neck still stared closely into John’s face, muscles contracted, ready to act if he would do something rash.
• “Yes, indeed. We have a business to conduct here.”
• “Are you responsible for the shuttle’s destruction?”
• “Right to the point, Mr. Sotomayor. That was an unfortunate miscalculation on our part.” — put on unnerving smile of his cold face — “At least it demonstrates you how far we would go.”
• “For what?”
• “That you never mention the manifest file, neither its content, nothing about it.”
• “I won’t lie under oath.”
• “That would be rather… unwise. Presuming you want to live. And that your little girlfriend wants to live too.”

If Victoria was threatened, that would explain why she dropped her arguments for releasing what the Giant was smuggling.

• “Yes, John, if I may call you that, much shorter. You would not be a good poker player. She agreed to drop the case so nothing going to happen to you. Yet.”

Mr. Coldman turned around and his lapdog followed suite.

• “One more thing, John, if you are thinking on a rather stupid idea, the streaming is five minutes delayed. We will know and eradicate the whole room before you would get the info out. Understood?”
• “Aham.”
• “And no comms between you and dear Victoria either.”

John really needed the cold shower and a deep thinking of his life choices. The cozy office job and being the generally good guy life felt betrayed. Yet he could not really digest Mr. Coldman’s threatening.

The class action lawsuit filed by the families of victims never uncovered anything linking the Giant to smuggling. It should not be a problem to avoid mentioning it. However the proceedings are televised across the whole Federation.

As he was lamenting over Federation politics and his deep wish to stay out of it, he arrived to the courthouse. A bailiff led him to the room and told him to wait until called by name. How long, it is unknown. The previous witness, the bailiff told, some business management expert was being grilled over his analysis of InterStellar Vacations strategic decisions.

John felt the rare need of caffein. At this point, he was more bothered that he could not finish his sleep properly than the threats against him and Victoria. Weird brain of humans, always on the immediate needs and rarely on the second order consequences.

Just as he returned with a coffee he acquired from a nearby working automat, his thoughts shifted to the case. His boredom just grew.

Run of the mill case, company underinvested in maintenance. Age old skimping on essentials to make more money. While the passengers and crew paid the price ultimately with the public to clean up their mess. And they will weasel out of the accountability with some business shenanigans.

Or the government will bail them out as elections coming up and ISV serves over two thirds of the Federation’s high-class tourism needs along a few lifelines of agriculture colonies. The price of bread changing governments. Just as everything changes, all stays the same.

• “Sir, it’s your turn. 2 minutes.” — told the bailiff John as he sipped the last drop of his coffee.

John entered precisely, just as the frustrated business analyst left the courtroom. Bright lights and flashes blinded him during his swore in, confusing for a moment if he is just an actor on screen or it is the real deal.

Reciting his name, accreditations and accomplishments took a few minutes before the prosecutor could go on to the chunkier foundations.

• “As an expert witness, what was your task in relation to this trial?”
• “Nothing specific from the trial or the lawyers.”
• “Then why were you called as witness?”
• “I was the lead investigator from the GTSB assigned to the case of the Giant of the Stars luxury liner, and one of the co-signers of the final report delivered 3 years after the incident.” — from the corner of his eye, he noticed at least some respectful nodding in the ranks of the jury. — “And to my understanding, this trial examines the accountability of the operating company in regards of under-maintenance leading to the catastrophe and overwhelming loss of life…”
• “Objection, subjective opinion.” — defendant’s lawyer didn’t even look up from his notes.
• “… which our report dives deep into.”
• “As an accepted expert of space crash investigations, he is entitled to share his opinion.”
• “Overrule. And Mr. Sotomayor, please pause when you hear an objection so we can evaluate. Prosecutor.”
• “Understood, excuse me, ma’am.”
• “Thank you, so, can you lead us through the findings delivered in the final report? Amy, can you please pull up evidence 1234-A from plaintiff, page 789…” — many screens in the room and over the live streamed media blips up with the few bullet points — “Thank you, can we please blow up the full second paragraph”
• “Yes, of course, here you can see our major findings summarized after extensive investigation.“
• “Can you read out loud the paragraph, please?”
• “Yes. The major contributing factors to this accident were, one, negligence of maintenance in key systems responsible for drive shut down in case of containment failure. Two, major breach of Alcubierre-ring containment due to foreign object penetrating hull.” — John raised his sight for a moment meeting with dozens of pairs of eyes stuck on him.
• “Please, continue.”
• “Three, foreign object, sized at least thirty meters diameter, possibly a rouge asteroid breaching forward ring due to under-maintained safety sensors failing to disengage faster than light drive.” — John noticed the defendant lawyers conversing as he delivered his lines.
• “Four, crew content of standard operating procedures due to missed deadlines by detour to a different system. Five, altered route not filed leading to delay in effective rescue response.”
• “Six, shipmaster’s immediate death and executive officers breach of emergency procedures leaving rescue efforts unorganized. Our recommendations to implement the following…”
• “Thank you, Mr. Sotomayor, that is the next paragraph.”
• “Ah, sorry, just nobody ever paid so much attention to my documents before, nice to read to you all.” — room erupted in a small laughter as John blushed away his embarrassment.
• “Order.” — even the judge chuckled once.
• “Mr. Sotomayor, I would like to focus on number three for now.” — prosecutor took back the initiative — “What were the evidences leading to the conclusion of under-maintained safety sensors?”
• “First of all, maintenance logs were missing, first we suspected human error, not documenting their work is very usual still among engineers especially when overloaded with work. However data from the black boxes aligned perfectly to the retrieved samples of forward sensor blocks from the wreckage.”
• “How could you be sure the sensors weren’t damaged by the accident and then the subsequent impact?”
• “These sensor blocks are designed to withstand much higher acceleration than what was experienced in both cases. Plus the retrieved blocks were in areas not directly affected by the impact as half of the main drum took the brunt of the force. And…” — John stopped mid-sentence and not for breathing.

He just realized, the another clarification data came from the chip Victoria retrieved during their adventurous excursion bringing him uncomfortably close to the manifest’s topic. Again, he missed the bigger picture, this time at least he realized.

• “And? Sir.”
• “Ah, nothing. Those two reasons were conclusive to our analysis.”
• “What is your expert opinion, what would have happened if those sensors work?”
• “Objection.”
• “Overruled.”
• “The catastrophe may have been entirely avoided as the emergency system shuts down the particle accelerator. The entire reason these systems exist is to avoid contaminant in the particle stream leading to matter annihilation.”
• “Thank you. And would there be other ways to avoid the unfortunate outcome we all know about?”
• “Objection, speculation.”
• “He is an established expert, your honor, he can speculate in this matter.”
• “Overruled. But keep it narrow.” — judge nodded toward John.
• “Alternatively to avoid even the impact of those asteroids, standard operating procedures require forward positioned drones leading the ship through FTL.” — John tried to simplify the cause-effect chains for the jury and turned to talk directly to 18 — “While this is less reliable due to wireless communication with the ship’s main computers, and not recommended above immediate maintenance, it would have been prudent as the ship was crossing the empty space between two spiral arms, far from capable stations to help.”
• “Was this procedure part of ISV’s internal standards?”
• “After reviewing all document they shared, no, it was not mentioned in their books nor training materials.”
• “Was the crew aware of the maintenance issues prior to the accident? Did they experience any, and if so, what did they experience showing system problems?”
• “Objection, call for speculation outside expertise.”
• “As the report was already entered into evidence, he can comment on the recorded interviews.”
• “Sustained, establish foundations first.”
• “Yes, your honor. Amy, please scroll to page 354, and blow up paragraph 2 for the jury. Thank you, that was very fast. Mr. Sotomayor, what do we see here?”
• “This is the transcript of our interview with a surviving bridge crew member.”
• “Can you read the next two dialogue exchanges, please.”
• “Yes, I ask him, was there any sign of impending system failure or the incoming rogue asteroid? He answers, yes, we saw the sensor readings skipping for minutes randomly and no, the sensors were reading zero for 3 minutes straight before impact.” — muffled aw from the observing crowd expanded in the courtroom.
• “Order, or I need to remove the audience from the room.” — as the judge looked around, dead silence ruled with her.

51. Cross-examination

• “Any more questions?”
• “None, your honor, I yield the witness.”
• “Understood. The time is, three thirty in the afternoon. We go until five, if overflowing, we will need you to come back tomorrow. Continuing with cross. Defense, pulpit is yours.” — judge turned to John and back to face the room as she delivered her guidance to the proceedings.

John was at the stand for three hours now. The meticulous questions from the prosecutor prolonged his testimony. He built up all the angles conceivable for the single consequence the jury can take away, ISV is accountable for what happened.

• “Mr. Sotomayor. You earned a physics masters degree, summa cum laude, is it right?”
• “Yes.”
• “However, you didn’t finish with your original class, am I right?”
• “Yes, you are, but not sure what do you…”
• “Just a yes or no question, sir, thank you. You had to skip year, why was that?”
• “Objection, relevance.”
• “Establishing if expert is trustable, for this jury needs to know personality traits and decisions.”
• “Overruled, but defense, keep it tight.”
• “Yes, your honor, Mr. Sotomayor, why had to skip a year?”
• “I had to attend rehab for half a year.” — John lowered his eyes for a moment before remembering, not the first time his credibility is attacked this way.
• “What for?”
• “Performance enhancement, I had anxiety and got hooked on stimulants to keep up with pressure at university. But I got clean and finished with…”
• “Thank you, sir. During this time, you met with a certain figure, called Ben, at least lately this is his name, didn’t you?”
• “Yes…” — John’s eyes widened as he recognized the strategy of this lawyer and nothing he can do now to dodge it.
• “And you recruited a so called deep net expert, called Ben, to your team of investigators?”
• “Yes.”
• “Mr. Sotomayor, why did you had your drug dealer working on your investigations?” — deep sigh coming from the jury.
• “Objection, leading, speculation, lack of foundation.”
• “Sustained, strike the question from the records.” — while can not be referenced during jury debate, the impression will remain with them causing the defense lawyers to smile.
• “Mr. Sotomayor, let’s move on to your arrival date at [redacted], can you tell us, what was the first thing you done?”
• “Yes, I ordered the cease of all salvage operations.”
• “And after?”
• “I have been shuttled to the surface by the Irondome and started to search for black boxes. First order of this business is to recover those recorders to get a clear picture of what happened.”
• “What was your reaction when you found a worker next to one of those recorders?”
• “Well, not exactly next to it, the worker was beating the black boxes storage container with a massive hammer. First I tried communicated, then I tackled him to stop destroying evidence.”
• “Is it true that later you shot one of the innocent workers who wanted to just talk with you?”
• “Objection, leading, foundation.” — prosecutor’s annoyance sat on his face.”
• “Overruled…”
• “Subjective conclusion.”
• “Okey, sustained, rephrase the question.”
• “Is it true that later that day you shot a worker?”
• “Unfortunately, yes.”
• “And why?”
• “Self-defense, felt my life in danger and previous attempts did not defuse the situation. The commanding officer of the Irondome verified at the time, you can read her report.”
• “Do you think your girlfriend would approve this unprofessional behavior of a transportation safety agent?”
• “Objection, ahm, list of reasons.”
• “Sustained, strike that comment and defense, refrain from these subjective conclusions even, stretching the limits of cross.”
• “Yes, understood, excuse me, your honor.” — the humble words counterweighted by his smirky smile. He can’t refute the facts, only can discredit John by getting him out of line. Almost worked as everyone passed over his snarky comment regarding the report.
• “Let’s move on to your erratic behavior late in the investigation.”
• “Objection, subjective.”
• “Sustained.”
• Mr. Sotomayor, is it right that you disappeared for days when your team were closing out the report?”
• “Ahm, not sure what you mean…” — while John asked back, another defense lawyer coughed once.
• “My bad, retract my question, please, your honor.” — John developed a new suspicion, are these guys work with Mr. Coldman or got threatened the same way?
• “Do you have any more questions, defense?”
• “Only a few more, a moment, your honor.”

The defense lawyer did his best to extend his cross up to five o’clock. At last he delved into the technicalities, trying to dance around details and forensic processes John and team used to verify the recorded data. Mostly it went nowhere, except for one question.

• “Mr. Sotomayor, how do you prove the non-existence of some data? Let me rephrase, what is the difference between deleting the sensor data later, than it never recorded?”
• “Hm, interesting question. There is a mountain of difference, deletion usually leaves marks anyway.”
• “Except when it doesn’t, for example a forensic cleaning of a data storage. If I understand the process right, this overwrites every bit, qubit, my bad, with a new one entirely breaking connection to the first, rendering impossible to recover data.”
• “Yes, you understand the process well, however…”
• “Thank you, I got my answer. No more questions, your honor.”
• “Prosecution, is there a chance for quick redirect? We have only 15 minutes until five, may overrun by max 10 minutes. Long week and want to let the jury rest today.”
• “How much time each side left?” — lawyers and clerks paging their notes around the room.
• “Sixteen hours fourteen minutes for prosecution, twenty hours forty minutes for defense.”
• “Thank you, Amy. We will be quick, your honor.”
• “Pulpit is yours for redirect.”
• “Thank you. Mr. Sotomayor, about the forensic cleaning, what is the consequence of such and who can execute one?”
• “Well, while the qubits are replaced and there is no more connection in the storage fabric between the molecules rendering restore of data impossible, it has distinct markers that someone run it. Anyone can do it if they have access to the necessary tools, it is nothing more complicated than running a command in the console.”
• “Well, at least not complicated for you. And did you found any markers suggesting manipulated data?”
• “No, we did not. The data recorders and the memory chip were clean too.”
• “What memory chip?” — prosecutor tilted his head in honest surprise.
• “Objection, foundation, exhibit not entered into evidence.” — the defendant lawyer reacted from instinct
• “Sustained… wait, what exhibit are we referring to?”
• “I think, there is only one memory chip in the exhibits, number P-5432.1.”
• “Thank you, Amy. Prosecutor’s one based on the number.”
• “Yes, it seems ours, let me search my notes please, we have almost twenty thousand of the exhibits.”
• “Take your time, would you like to enter it into evidence?”
• “One moment please.” — prosecutor found his page, reading the notes, establishing the memory chip as further proof for the sensors. — “Yes, however I need to set up foundation for that, we can schedule this for next week.”
• “I allow it, do you need Mr. Sotomayor for this?”
• “Yes, I think so.
• “Then Mr. Sotomayor, thank you for today, we are about to go on recess until tomorrow, however I need to ask you to stay on Earth and rejoin us on Monday for exhibit review P-5432.1” — judge turned to the room and continued — “Thank you all, we continue with two key testimonials tomorrow and on Friday, examined by the prosecution.” — turning to the jury, she smiles — “Thank you for your continued service, I appreciate how long these days are, hope you can rest tonight well. As usual, I need to ask you to not discuss the case with anyone, not even among yourselves and do not consume any material outside of this courtroom. Thank you, have a good night!”

52. Who had lost everything

• “Prosecution calling next witness to stand, Mr. Vince Pier.”

In immaculate white military dress uniform packed with a few medals, Vince strolled to the witness stand from outside. Crossing between multiple audience stands past John without looking at him. John got the message, he will never talk with him again.

• “Mr. Pier, what role you played in the Giant of the Stars accident?”
• “Me and my ship, my family were the first to make contact. Then became the civilian liaison, essentially being a non-official fleet commander organizing the rescue efforts.”
• “Is it true that you have been awarded the Federation Cross, our highest civilian medal for exemplary courage and sacrifice?”
• “Objection, irrelevant.”
• “Not at all, establishes the witness’ credibility.”
• “Overruled.”
• “Yes, it is.” — Vince not wasted words, instead pointed to the cross on his chest.
• “Let the record reflect, Mr. Pier currently wearing 4 medals on the witness stand, including the Federation Cross. What are the other medals?”
• “Objection, irrelevant.”
• “Same, establishes credibility, Mr. Pier was a key leader during the accident and his future accomplishments reflects on his character.”
• “Hm. Overruled. Go on, prosecutor, want to see where this leads.”
• “Thank you, ma’am. Mr. Pier.”
• “Highest Valor, for bravery in combat. And two North Stars, for exemplary service and leadership demonstrated on the field.”
• “How did you earn these?”
• “After the accident, I joined the army, Captain Sebes of the Irondome gave me a field commission as junior ensign. After the case was closed, I participated in the fast track cadet training on Hell’s Gates and had been sent to patrol the spiral arms. All three medals earned for fighting pirates and saving cargo ship crews from certain death.”
• “Exemplary, Mr. Pier, without such fine men, our peace would be nothing, thank you for your service!”
• “Objection, not a question.”
• “Sustained, prosecutor, please get to the point.”
• “Mr. Pier, what was your experience with the first officer on board the Giant?”
• “It was a long time ago, yet I still remember clearly. He was erratic…”
• “Objection, speculation.”
• “Sustained. Mr. Pier, please keep your answer to what you observed without conclusions. Latter is the job of the jury.”
• “Understood, your honor. Let me start over. When we located the ship, we hailed them multiple occasions without an answer. Then we tried to board through the main spine, was too dangerous with all the damaged small crafts inside. We managed to pull off a risky docking maneuver with the rotating body and I boarded the Giant, looking for the captain.”
• “However the captain was already deceased.”
• “Yes, sir, shrapnels in his body, dead in minutes after the detonation.”
• “Objection, he could not know.”
• “Saw the body myself on the bridge. Excuse me for missing the order. May I continue?”
• “Overruled, yes, please do.” — judge like mother hen keeping the procedure on track.
• “When I arrived to the bridge, it was in rubbles. Multiple dead bodies, including the captain. A few lower rank trying to fix consoles, starting to coordinate with engineering and repair teams. We set up a video conference with the first officer, Talm Shibar, Admiral Haggardt, Captain Sebes, me and my crew on the Perseus Train to plan rescue operations.” — Vince took a few deep breaths as even mentioning his home rushed in all the memories and unprocessed feelings — “Mr. Shibar was not engaged with us and could not provide crucial information. He took the responsibility of cleaning the main dock, however that never happened. We even lost a few souls to move a small craft out before it blew up all of us.”
• “What else can you tells us about Talm Shibar’s behavior?”
• “I remember him telling me…”
• “Objection, hearsay.”
• “Sustained.”
• “Mr. Pier, try to describe what he did without his words.”
• “Okey, he grabbed me after the conference and threatened to keep myself out of his way.”
• “Thank you. Now let’s move on to the failed attempt at pulling the Giant to higher orbit, tell us what happened?”
• “Objection, relevance.” — the defense lawyers looking confused onto each other then to the judge.
• “It is relevant to demonstrate the content of crew toward standard procedures, absent in the rescue efforts.”
• “I’ll allow it, but keep the detour short.” — judge looking at the prosecutor.
• “We managed to connect most of the civilian fleet to the Giant and started the synchronized pull. Slowly, but we had enough thrust to overcome the moon’s gravity. At a critical point, the previously entered pirate fleet reemerged and the Bendeghuse tried to stop them from leaving. This is when… when… ahm…”
• “How the Giant’s crew contributed during this time?”
• “Well, we had no contact with Talm for a long time so the remaining junior officers on the bridge coordinated. Not much, as in this time the Giant had nothing to do just sit tight and let us make the pull.”
• “When the fight broke out, you could not maintain the necessary trust?”
• “No, we could not, I saw many ships destroyed, the Bendeghuse had no chance neither the another section of the Perseus Train… then the chain reaction wiped out part of the civilian fleet.”
• “Hold on, commander, you are doing fine. I know it is hard to talk about it. Can you tell us why?”
• “Objection, relevance.”
• “Demonstrating the scale of the accident and the sacrifice that happened the day, all on account of the defendant.”
• “Overruled.”
• “Because…” — Vince despite his years of psychological treatments and long military training, was on the verge of breaking down in tears — “cause I lost my family. My son, and my wife, with one of my oldest friend, was on the another section of the ship and perished immediately.”
• “Objections?”
• “No…”
• “Defense, cross-examination?”
• “No, we don’t have questions to Mr. Pier.”
• “Okey, anything else for today? We are at half past three.”
• “There was no other witness and next witness only available tomorrow.” — chimed in the defense lawyer.
• “Then we have an early close. Mr. Pier, you are dismissed, thank you for your presence. Thank you all, as usual, don’t discuss the case outside of this courtroom with no-one, see you tomorrow.” — well known knock-knock of the judge as every day so far the weeks long trial.

Vince walked past John again on his way out, straight face, only looking at the heavy double door.

• “Hey, Vince, how are you? You can’t even look at me? Damn…” — John stood up as he circumvented him. Prosecutor joined him.
• “What was that?”
• “Well, not related to the case. It is just… He won’t forgive me for the loss of his home. The last part of it, anyway.”
• “Is that the, the white paper you and some of your team wrote about dark matter reactions? The data is from…”
• “Yeah, after two years, he gave up the Perseus Train and we used it in the experiment. Unfortunately, the data was inconclusive.”
• “Oh.”
• “Yeah. Anyway, how is the case going?”
• “You know we should not discuss it.”
• “Let me rephrase, do we really need to add that exhibit?”
• “Well, so far it seems we don’t need it. But stay until Monday, tomorrow is hard.” — prosecutor’s eyes looking far into the nothing, planning all his steps in advance — “The ISV board member in charge of the Giant’s operations will be the witness. He may throw us some curveballs.”
• “Okey.” — John’s best pokerface still could not hide entirely his panic.

53. Who had everything

• “Defense calls Mr. Ignazio Delaware to the witness stand.”

The tall man, short gray hair and light bristle showing his progressed age walked up to the stand. His smile and mannerisms staged for publicity, well practiced for camera. Often representing the company on mass media, the public relations training was fundamental to board members.

• “What is your role at ISV?”
• “I am a board member and executive director. I am serving the company by overseeing the Perseus arm tourist routes, having two dozen luxury cruisers assigned to me.”
• “Is… was the Giant of the Stars one of those cruisers?”
• “Yes, it was. Such an unfortunate accident. Our internal investigation found the route taken too dangerous and the ship’s crew unprepared for such a circumstance.”
• “So you are refuting the Galactic Transportation Safety Board’s report?”
• “Some part of it, yes.” — his never-ending, relentless smile started to get on John’s nerves, like he was watching a man with a plastic mask on.
• “Amy, can you please pull up defendant exhibit 12-A, and blow up the executive summary first paragraph for the screens.” — as the lawyer was talking, the clerk already did so and the online streams switched to showing the witness and the paper on screen in split view.
• “Mr. Delaware. What do you see on the screen?”
• “I see my team’s internal investigation’s executive summary, as it was delivered to me a year after the accident.”
• “Who delivered it to you?”
• “The lead investigator, Mr. Carver, appointed by the entire board unanimously.”
• “Is he on payroll at InterStellar Vacations?”
• “No, and he wasn’t. He is an employee of a third party investigator firm.”
• “Your honor, I move to include defendant exhibit 12-A as evidence.”
• “Any objections?” — judge wasn’t looking up from her notes while asking the mundane question.
• “With current redactions, no objections, your honor.”
• “Then I sustain, evidence number D-12-A.”
• “There is no D-12 evidence yet.” — Amy offered input as usual.
• “Ah, okey, then we don’t need the sub-designation. Go on.”
• “Mr. Delaware, could you read please the first paragraph?”
• “Yes, khm, khm. The Giant of the Stars accident was caused by the captain’s hasty decision to take an uncharted route toward their planned destination. This haste caused by high-profile anonymous VIP guests pressuring the captain to take a detour so the guests can make selfies with the star cradle nebula near Kodiak station. This route change was unauthorized by the company and standard operation procedures were not followed by the captain and his crew.”

After a few more routine questions, reading more from the internal investigation exhibit further detailing how the crew were at fault, not the company, we got to the closing question from the defending lawyer:

• “Mr. Delaware, in summary, what conclusions do you challenge from the GTSB report?”
• “The main cause of the accident. In our independent investigators’ view, the captain committed gross negligence hence making him as the responsible. The company is not at fault as per our employment contracts and policies have been breached.”
• “Thank you, no more questions.”
• “Okey, do you want to cross examine?”
• “Yes, your honor.”
• “Stand is yours.”
• “Thank you. Good day, Mr. Delaware. Let’s start with the investigation. Which company Mr. Carver was employed by at the time of the investigation?”
• “Hm, not sure if I remember correctly.”
• “Oh no worries about that. Amy, please blow up the signatures on page 63. Thank you. Can you please read the printed part under Mr. Carver’s signature?”
• “Objection, foundation.”
• “Sustained.”
• “Let me rephrase. What do you see here?”
• “The signature of Mr. Carver along mine and two more board members redacted, on the internal investigation report.”
• “Can you read please the printed part under Mr. Carver’s signature?”
• “Yes, khm. Lead Investigator.”
• “All lines, please.” — room in silence as all could see the name, unsure where this leads and not a single muscle on the prosecuting lawyer’s stone face moved.
• “Crash Investigation Services LLC. Founder and CEO.”
• “Thank you. Does ISV have a stake in Crash Investigation Services LLC?”
• “I don’t know, we have stakes in thousands of companies.”
• “So you can’t exclude that you had a controlling stake in the supposedly third party company probing into your accident?”
• “Objection, leading.”
• “Overruled, you should know, leading questions allowed during cross-examining hostile witness. Answer the question, Mr. Delaware.”
• “Yes, I mean yes, right now I can’t without the company books in front of me.”
• “Thank you. Next, I would like to ask you about the captain’s actions. What is the standard operating procedure in case of guest’s wishes to change route?”
• “Out of memory, it is not allowed under any circumstances.”
• “Let me refresh your memory. Amy, pull up exhibit P-546, page 56, second paragraph. What do we see here, Mr. Delaware?”
• “The standard operating procedure booklet written by ISV department, specifically the part about route changes.”
• “And please read the first sentence of the paragraph.”
• “Yes, khm. Route changes not allowed except it is deemed necessary by the captain of the vessel under extenuating circumstances.”
• “Do you agree it is a bit imprecise, isn’t it?”

John could box in the air, he got them.

• “Objection, he is not a linguists to argue about.”
• “But he is in charge of safety rules as being the director.”
• “Overruled, he can form opinion in his responsibility area.” — as the judge ruled, Mr. Delaware’s poker face broke for a moment and the smile turned to grin.
• “Not sure what you are asking me.”
• “Is it true that all captains of the ISV used this paragraph to change routes for passenger requests?”
• “Objection, foundation, how could he know.”
• “All captains that report to you, mister, how many of them filed route changes for reason ‘passenger medical needs’?”
• “Ahm, khm. I can’t recall right know.”
• “I take it as an all of them, thank you.”

The grilling continued for the rest of the day along the lines of the captain’s responsibility dissolves company responsibility or not. With the board member pushing all to a deceased member of the crew, ultimately absolving the company from paying the restitution for the injured, deceased and family members.

The prosecution pushing for bridging cause and consequence, arguing that the company put the captain into the position, ultimately being responsible for the consequences. John knew where he stood on the issue. It will be decided by the jurors though after deliberation.

If he calculated correctly, the next week they finish the trial’s current phase, both sides running out of time to present their case. So far it seems a quick decision will be delivered by the jurors, most analysts on media agrees. Still days of evidence left to be presented.

After that, the jurors will move to a separate room, sealed in with the evidence and only food and supplies can go in while they are debating. It can take days in unusual circumstances.

As John waited for his coffee at the vending machine, staring at the end of the corridor where the juror’s room will be. Didn’t notice he remained alone as everyone poured out and left for home.

The last drops of his coffee sprinkled everywhere, burning his hand and leaving marks on his only suit. Then the lights flickered out as he touched the cup.

Leaving at the gate, he jokingly remarked toward the guards that they almost closed the lights on him. The guards were stunned, unknowing what he is talking about. They never turn off the lights in this building. A second shift of clerks work through the night. Always.

John called Victoria to let her know he needs to stay in town. Ringing forever, she didn’t pick up, so he left a message. Didn’t think of it at all. Often had to leave a message when she was on a mission or in deep space transit. She must had been recalled to work while he was in the courtroom.

As he strolled down the nearby river, leisurely criss crossing between pedestrians, asking his travel agent what to do for a weekend in this small old-French town. He wanted some history or museums to check out.

Unfortunately the town of Campignon wasn’t important enough to build a shield dome around. Whatever seemed historical, was rebuilt from archives using modern tools and materials. Everything original was destroyed, decomposed to dust during the twenty-second century.

Maybe it is just him, could not help it, but to see the parallels. Humanity will build wonders just to turn them to dust, while its own faults, greed and such will never go away.

54. Who has never had much

John couldn’t reach Victoria during the entire weekend. Leaving a dozen messages, none of them reaching her, at least no computer acknowledgement or receipt. By Monday morning, he started to be worried, she left a message him before every long term deployment.

He arrived in time for the nine am beginning and joined the line crossing metal detectors and scanners. Got a tap down before the guard let him pass. Judge and jurors already at their seats when he entered the familiar hall from last week. Cameras already rolling, not a single moment wasted by journalists.

He sat down in the first row right at the isle so he can get up easily when called. Scheduled to be the first to take the stand, he expected soon to be called. What he did not expect is the woman already sitting right next to him.

The wavy brown hair and the military uniform stretching on her bulky build combined with a pale poker face. Victoria just nodded as he took the seat next to her.

• “Why are you here?”
• “Not now.” — her eyes so thin, puncturing his soul.
• “Mr. Sotomayor, to the stand, please.”
• “Yes.”
• “Let’s dive right into. Do you recognize this memory chip?”
• “Yes. Based on the evidence number, this is the chip Ms. Sebes recovered from the wreckage of the Giant when we did an incursion for the data recorders.”
• “How do you know this?”
• “She filed official report and handed over to me as evidence related to the accident.”
• “What does it contain in relation to the accident?” — John surprised by the unnecessary qualifier attached. Is he in on this charade too?
• “It is the memory engram of a person, found dead at the ion drive control section. Mr. Pier confirmed his identity during our investigation as being the same person he worked with to restore ion drive capabilities.”
• “Why did they do this restoration?”
• “The Giant was pulled down to the moon by gravity and they needed the extra power from the main drives to stabilize its orbit.”
• “How this memory engram was recorded?”
• “It is a generic technology available today for most who want it. Using a combination of brain encephalogram, visual input copy from retina implants, same for hearing, the experiences of the person can be distilled and stored in a verifiable way. Augmented captains use similar tech to act as another backup black box too.”
• “Your honor, request moving exhibit P-5432.1 to evidence.”
• “Foundation adequate, accepted as evidence. However, this contains petabytes of data, how will we make sense of it? Forgive my ignorance in tech.”
• “Actually we prepared a virtual person construct. Given the personal file with biometric data and the memory engram, we created an artificial intelligence to talk with. And we would like to call this artificial version of Mr. Daniel Loukas to the stand.”
• “This is going to be interesting, haven’t had a witness like this yet. Go on.” — as she allowed it, John left the stand and a screen slipped into the place used for remote witness testimonies.

The screen coming alive with a white emptiness soon focusing Dan into the center.

• “Mr. Loukas. Do you know what and who you are?”
• “Yes. I am an artificial construct loaded with the memories of Daniel Loukas, deceased on Giant of the Stars when impacted the moon’s surface.”
• “How do you know he is deceased?”
• “The memory engram contains data until the last moment. Cause of death is unsurvivable deceleration.”
• “How long does your memory go back to the past?”
• “Only a few days before my demise.”
• “Tell us, what can you recall from the earliest point?”
• “I… I needed to decrypt a manifest file.” — as Dan’s avatar said this, the prosecutor’s usually calm face turned to almost silent scream. A low murmur started from the audience as one shape jumped up from his seat and walked out.
• “Hm, hm.” — prosecutor wildly paging in his notes — “Your honor, please strike the last question and answer. Let me restart.”
• “Wait, what manifest file?” — human curiosity overtaken any training to keep process in the judge and she blurted her question with an attentive generative artificial intelligence in the room.
• “The one I was hired to deliver for a Swordfish agent trying to assassinate me.”
• “Objection, irrelevant, unfounded, what the hell is…”
• “Turn off the cameras!”
• “Order! Order!” — the knocks of the gravel she used coincided with muffled thumbs outside of the courtroom. Victoria smiling contrasting John’s terrified look — “Mr. Loukas, limit yourself to the Giant of the Star’s topic. Seems there is a technical glitch.”
• “Understood, your honor, however I kept myself to it. The manifest file describes smuggled cargo of the Giant at the time of the accident.” — replied the virtual construct without any emotions in his voice.
• “Your honor, stop this madness, this wasn’t in the deposition. Not even close what is in the transcripts.” — tried to plea the defendant’s lawyer, sweating in panic.
• “Our goal here is to find the truth, isn’t it?” — whipped back the judge — “Unusual, but this is still in procedure, both sides can ask and you can cross-examine the witness shortly.”
• “Move to do it behind closed doors. No media and public for this witness until we work out the tech problems.”
• “Prosecution agrees, move to private hearing in this matter.”
• “Hm, highly unusual but if both sides agree, I don’t see a problem with. Mr. Daniel Loukas’ memory will be questioned after lunch without the cameras. Media can return tomorrow, we will do only this in the afternoon.”

Michael appeared next to John, silently and gently pushing him inside the bench where Victoria already moved as everyone else left hurriedly the room.

• “I suppose you got him.”
• “Yeah, neutralized. Alive though, sergeant will move him securely.”
• “You mean Mr. Delaware?” — John turned between them like the most interesting and fast-paced table tennis was playing right in front of him.
• “No, I haven’t seen him outside.” — Michael’s eyebrows pulled up to park on a higher elevation.
• “But, he just left moments ago, the way you came in… And wait, the virtual construct should have not known or talked about the manifest…” — John turned toward the still gently smiling Victoria, like she knows more.
• “Yeah, and how do you know that?”
• “Well, I suppressed part of his memories with guardrails…”
• “Hm, tampering with evidence, my dear?”
• “Not, not really. Deemed irrelevant in the accident case. Wait. You know about it.”
• “More like suspected.”
• “What did you do, Victoria?”
• “Nothing really, just replaced the memory chip with my original version.”
• “All those years ago, you gave me a copy.” — John felt a real strong urge for a facepalm — “I can’t believe I trusted you.”
• “Well, I did not trusted you either. All those years ago. That changed.”
• “Then why lying? Should have discussed what you plan…”
• “Could not risk tipping them off. But now, here…” — Victoria pulled a handgun out of her jacket, spun it with the handle toward John. — “Take it, you will need it.”

55. Who was never there

• “How did you get those in…”
• “Take it. And I will show what is going to happen. We have to protect the jurors.” — in her another hand a small screen played a few seconds of video on repeat.

John could not believe his eyes. The video showed a moon, he could not recognize which one, wasn’t Earth’s neither the one they spent so much time on. The half of the moon on the screen was fractured and drifting in the darkness. He could only tell by a star appearing in one of the cracks as the camera moves a bit.

• “This was taken by a freighter almost a year ago. A month before this video, that moon was in one piece.”
• “How the hell do you know that?”
• “One of my analysts found astrometric observations by drones, the moon is near a frequented commercial route. You recognize what caused this?”
• “Yes, of course, those damned warheads.”
• “The manifest described a dozen of those were smuggled by the Giant. This is a result of one of those warheads.”
• “A year, and so many years. They would have used it by now. Probably just sold on black market for parts.”
• “You don’t believe that just as me. Especially after what all three of us witnessed.”
• “Okey, Victoria, what comes next?”
• “Everything in order, my dear. Michael and team just removed one piece from the board. More will move soon.”
• “You are too damn cryptic.” — still unable to look away from the screen, John put the gun with the safety on at the back of his suit pants.

Same time he noticed Victoria and Michael both look more bulky than they should. As Victoria’s leaned still forward, he saw a metallic armor plating. He never saw a small enough exo-skeleton to hide under a jacket.

• “Knock. Knock.” — heavy wooden thumps brought John back, the judge at her pulpit already, the screen coming alive with Dan’s face and last juror sit down.
• “Oh, excuse us, no public.”
• “Actually, I would need Mr. Sotomayor to provide additional testimony if needed. Provided we need more foundations in light a tech glitch.”
• “Prosecution, do not try my patience too much, but I will allow this time. Mr. Sotomayor, the navy offered us temporary boost for security, by oversight of Captain Sebes on your left. Which I gracefully accepted in light of recent events.”
• “Objection, the bailiffs are more than adequate to…”
• “Overruled. And this is my final word. Test me if you want to be in contempt of court…”
• “No, your honor, withdrawn my objections.”
• “Good. So, let’s try again with your toy, prosecution, go ahead.”

Prosecution asked and asked questions for an hour, precisely avoiding any hooks in their prompts around the manifest file. The defense did the same during an hour long cross examination. Not even the unscrupulous past of Dan was questioned.

When finished even with the redirect, prosecutor asked if they can approach the well. Judge approved and both lawyers walked up to discuss process details. Took a few minutes, defending lawyer especially looked agitated during the exchange.

• “Prosecution calls Ms. Sebes to the witness stand.”
• “Objection. Conflict of interest.”
• “Your objection noted, enter to records as is. Still allowing prosecution to continue but get to the point quickly. Jury, the following exchange will be classified as state secret, while you can use it during deliberation, a 25 years top secret seal applies to marked parts of the transcript. Breaking this counts as capital offense. Am I clear? Anyone who has moral issues with this, leave the room now.” — judge looked around, waiting for a few seconds. No-one stood up to leave.
• “Understood, thank you, your honor. Ms. Sebes. You were the captain of the Irondome, the first navy capital ship at scene then governed the sector until the cleanup finished, is it true?”
• “Yes, I am still captain of the Irondome.”
• “How did you recovered the memory fragment?”
• “We escorted Mr. Sotomayor with a squadron of elite commando as previously he was attacked while investigating on the Giant. We were attacked by unidentified group and during the struggle I fell a few decks. Was lucky, I knew about the memory fragment from Mr. Pier, and was a good opportunity to recover it.”
• “What did you find on the fragment when examined?”
• “That a high level navy personnel, possibly an admiral encrypted a manifest file. It was decrypted without the proper keys, and the data showed smuggled weaponry. Most probably it was transferred to the pirate ship that caused the destruction of the Bendeghuse, the Perseus Train and many other civilian ships.”
• “Why do you bring this evidence and info here, on a civil lawsuit instead of a court marshal?”
• “The key showed a powerful person responsible internally. A court marshal would be shut down before it started.”
• “So you decided to be a whistleblower?”
• “Something like that.”

John tried to pull up his chin from the floor. Defense lawyer hanged his head down staring on his shoes. Soon the judge closed the day off, ordering again the secrecy on this part of the trial.

56. Who was there

• “It’s a fine ship, captain!”

• “Thank you, admiral. It will be when finished in half a year. May I give you a tour?”

• “I am less interested in a tour, bring me directly to the bridge.”

• “Yes, sir. Just around the corner.”

• “My understanding that you are already running on your own power.”

• “Yes, sir. The main reactors were just brought online last week. We have short range jump capability, planned test next week. Here is the redesigned bridge, sir.”

• “Great. Very ergonomic.” — the admiral sat down in the captain’s chair, while missing the thrill of the frontline action, not really looking forward to what he has to do now — “This is Admiral Haggardt for shipwide announcement. Due to a developing emergency, I take command of the Steeldome. Prepare for launch in an hour. I want FTL drive and weaponry to be online by that time.”

• “Sir, what… wasn’t notified of this.”

• “Now you are. Do as ordered. I suppose you want to keep your rank, captain.”

• “Yes, sir.” — the captain, half of the age of the admiral turned around once more — “May I ask the nature of the emergency?”

• “No, you may not. Need to know basis. But… one of our ships about to betray the Federation.”

• “Defense calls Mr. Coldman to the witness stand.” — everything looked like just another day of a mundane trial despite what happened during the previous afternoon.

• “Yes, I solemnly swear I tell the truth and only the truth.”

• “Mr. Coldman, what was your position during the GTSB investigation?”

• “I was the special counsel ordered to keep diplomatic connection between the major stakeholders, president of the Federation and the delegates from different colonies whose civilians were affected by the Giant’s accident and subsequent rescue efforts.”

• “Have you met Mr. Sotomayor before he arrived to the accident scene?”

• “No, I have not. Only a few occasions afterward.”

• “How would you describe Mr. Sotomayor from those occasions?”

• “Brilliant, but hot-headed. Careless for consequences.”

• “Objection, speculative, subjective.”

• “His expertise is diplomatic missions, knowing people. And Mr. Sotomayor is an expert, we can question the character of an expert witness.”

• “I sustain, strike the last answer from the records. Go on, Mr. Coldman, but stay strictly on observations, not conclusions. Latter is the jury’s job.”

• “Understand, excuse me, ma’am.”

• “Mr. Coldman, what did Mr. Sotomayor do after his arrival?”

• “Well, he ordered the salvage operation to stop. Then proceeded to the surface without checking in with me or any of my staff. And killed a civilian worker during his time down there.”

• “Which caused strain in colonial-federal relations?”

• “Yes, took considerable effort to handle this unfortunate event.”

• “How do you think this affected Mr. Sotomayor’s report?”

• “Objection, call for speculation.”

• “Sustained, defense, you are trying my patience.”

• “Mr. Coldman, what happened during the second time Mr. Sotomayor went down to the surface?”

• “He got an entire commando to escort him. From the decks of the Irondome, it looked like the ship waged war on civilians and somehow managed to lose dozens. Later they held a funeral for all those wasted lives.”

• “Thank you. I have no more questions.”

• “Prosecution, do you want to cross-exam?”

• “Yes, your honor. Mr. Coldman, is it true you and Captain Sebes decided Mr. Sotomayor only acted in self-defense?”

• “I don’t remember exactly who said what…”

• “It was a yes or no question, Mr. Coldman. Don’t look at the defense lawyer, I am asking now.”

• “Yes, we designated it as self-defense.”

• “And you let him work unrestrained, just as his mandate was supported by Federal institutions?”

• “Yes.”

• “Good, and about the second excursion. How do you know who were the attackers?”

• “Actually I don’t.”

• “Exactly. How could you, when no colonies, no other type of jurisdiction could identify the workers who were reported to attack the lawfully acting navy officers?”

• “I am not sure what is your question.”

• “Let me rephrase, do you know any jurisdiction who identified the casualties outside of the navy’s?”

• “No, actually, I don’t.”

• “Thank you, I have no more questions.”

• “Redirect?”

• “No, we don’t have more questions, your honor.”

As the judge was about to close off the day, Victoria touched her ear twice. Over light years of distance, in the same now, her executive officer aboard the Irondome answered:

• “We are ready. Waiting for your signal, captain.” — he nodded to let helm control know they can proceed.

A few moments later the docking clamps retracted and the vast carrier slowly pushed away from the enormous Zodiak station it called home port. As dozens of ships come and go, nobody on the station questioned the Irondome’s departure.

• “Sir, one of our bugs intercepted a video signal, you not gonna like this.”
• “What is it? Put it on screen.”

Horrifying scene played in front of all officer on the bridge. A lush green planet calmly rotating in space. The camera stream coming from a satellite, its identifier printed on screen with time stamp. Recorded only a few minutes ago.

A bright flash blinding the satellite. Brownish, orange pieces leave the lush planet to all directions. Another orange circle expanding on the surface covering increasingly large area. One of the piece hits the satellite bumping it to rotate uncontrollably out of orbit.

• “Is this what I think it is?”
• “Yes, one Alcubierre torpedo, replay frame by frame. The torpedo hits with full FTL speed right in the center of the image. Someone aimed to be sure we see it.”
• “Anyone taken responsibility yet?”
• “Not yet, at least not on the common channels. And it will take time until the news get to central media nodes.”
• “Yeah, I get that, estimated casualties?”
• “Last census on the affected planet, five point five million people. Perseus arm’s second largest colony. If they had no ships right there, ready to leave from the surface, survival is extremely low chance.”
• “Thank you. Let their souls rest in peace. One more down, ten more torpedoes unaccounted for.”
• “Only eight unaccounted for, sir.” Checked the satellite logs I could gather, they fired three torpedoes at the same time, making sure the planet has no chance.”
• “So they are not the usual type… have you checked the keys the captain provided? Can we disable those torpedoes remotely?”
• “I think so, sir. Assuming they did not manage to circumvent the safeties.”
• “That is a big assumption. We may need to use all our cards.”
• “Captain, they made their second move.”
• “Click, click, click.”
• “Understood. Helm, take us to Earth, use the improved drives, maximum speed.”
• “Aye, aye.”

It took ten minutes until someone pulled the alarm on the Zodiak station. A young analyst found the orientation of the Irondome strange. Her inexperience allowed the window for the captain’s plan.

57. From the shadows…

• “Prosecution, any more witness or evidence to be provided?”

• “No, none from our side.”

• “Defense?”

• “No, nothing more.”

• “Then proceed to final statements. Defense, time is yours.”

• “Thank you, your honor.” — lawyer walked to the usual stand, just this time turned toward the jury instead of the witness stand, cameras focusing on his face.

• “During this trial, we demonstrated that the company did everything in their power as reasonably expected to limit a chance for any accident. And furthermore the company complied with all regulations, even designed more strict operating procedures than required.” — he made his eyes wander during the speech to make all juror feel engaged.

• “We demonstrated that the GTSB report’s outcome is questionable and the crew’s actions contributed strongly to the accident despite all regulations and company procedures.” — last framing from the defense perspective delivered, his shoulders raised as he felt less weight.

• “Hence I call on you to dismiss this case and to relieve my client of any damages. Think of the thousands and thousands of jobs the fees would put at risk. While the company does all it can to further develop safety measures. Thank you for your service!” — final plea from the defense may find the hearth easier to sway.

• “Prosecution, time is yours.”

• “Thank you.” — lawyers replaced each other, John, Victoria and Michael in the last row today watching the events — “First of all, I understand how hard this service is and thank you all to do your civilian duty!”

• “You heard technical details, seen deeply complex evidence and confronted with expert opinions. But now it is your duty to provide justice. Remember and evaluate all pieces. Not just feelings and who is right or not.”

• “Look at the evidence. We demonstrated you during this trial that the company ultimately responsible for its vessels and its crews operating those vessels. That the systems we create and design have to be kept accountable to us, the people. Today you have this chance.”

• “We demonstrated over the course of the trial, how many lives been altered, impacted by cheapness. The greed of the few played a key role in this accident. Let’s show others that greed can not be the way forward. Only safety and decency. Thank you all.”

• “Thank you. So, the next is that the jury returns to their room together. You are already provided with the print version of all records and evidences entered. You will have an offline computer terminal where you can recall the digital evidence, including the virtual construct.” — judge took over to describe the last part of the process, still continuing.

• “You have undefined time for deliberation. You have to come to an unanimous conclusion in the following questions. One, is ISV, the Giant of the Star vessel’s owner and operator responsible for the accident?”

• “Two, is ISV responsible for paying restitution for all person involved in the accident, including their families if the person involved deceased?”

• “Three, does ISV have to pay penalty over the restitution as deterrent for future accidents?” — still the judge talking to the jurors and cameras at the same time — “The court in recess until the jury’s decision has been made. Good luck and have a nice day all.”

Just in ten minutes, the crowd dispersed. John and Victoria stayed in the courtroom until every else left.

• “So, what is next?”
• “Now we need to protect the jurors. And the judge. If anything happens to them, the trial won’t be repeated ever, Mr. Coldman and Mr. Delaware will ensure that.”
• “And why even…”
• “Just trust me.”
• “That is a strong ask after your trick with the memory chip.”
• “I know, but… we will talk about that later, if we survive. For now, justice is more important than our feelings.”
• “Damn it… How do you even know these?”
• “Let’s say, I have a good source of intel. Let’s go, Michael and team are in position.”

They arrived to the corridor leading to the jurors in just a few steps. The judge just walked up to them.

• “Raising the shield dome around the building as you requested. Every other part has been silently evacuated.”
• “Thank you, ma’am. Any other entry to the jurors?”
• “None, all thick walls made from concrete with steel reinforcements. They would withstand a frontal tank assault.”
• “What were you prepared for here, a rebellion?”
• “Well, Mr. Sotomayor, history was changed in the courtrooms all too often, and not without violence.”
• “I hoped we got better.”
• “Me too. But you are the ones with weapons and armor standing guard. Ms. Sebes. Thank you for the protection, hope it works out.”
• “Join the jurors. We will take care of the rest.”

John saw Michael and team stacked up, very few meters a black commando armor standing with drawn weapons, in pairs. All facing the only entry point. He and Victoria took up the last position before the heavy steel doors.

The light blue shades of the shield dome rythmically pulsing outside the few windows they can see far over. Their stretch of the corridor is windowless, seemingly assassinations were not ruled out either when reconstruction of the judiciary building commenced a few decades ago.

The team waited and waited, nothing happened. All except John could be mistaken for sculptures. Obsidian sculptures of modern bravery. And a few tons of freedom.

Sun almost went down when Mr. Coldman appeared in the other end of the corridor. Two hundred meters between John and him. The handgun offered the targeting data right into John’s own glasses.

Staring at each other as the last sunlight disappeared. The building’s lights coming alive. Except around Mr. Coldman. Then the corridor’s light flickered out. In the darkness, shrieking and screaming filled the air.

Then the first line opened fire. Methodically cutting down human like shapes rushing toward them. Mr. Coldman disappeared from their view. Precise headshots making the attackers fall over. Next attacker already on top, falls over, winning half a meter.

With the experience at the Giant’s wreckage, first line fell back while second line kept the attackers as far as they could. First line reload and rejoined the fight. Even with their night vision, they could not see more than shapes with a head, arms and legs climbing and running, falling and then rising again.

Shortly the first line now composing of four commando were the wall pushing against a mass of bodies. Without their exo-skeleton, they would have been crushed in a microsecond as a thousand shapes pushed with their weight on them. Another four commando lined up and fired over their mates. Carefully avoiding to hit their friendlies, their rate was much slower.

Seemed every moment they have to give up space. Feet by feet, centimeter by centimeter the fluid shapes gained and gained on the juror’s door.

Ava watched as the commando put up a desperate fight against the unnatural. For her, the whole thing played like a slow motion. Barefoot, she walked between Victoria and John taking slow potshots where it seemed a shape gets through.

She cared less of the dark shapes and more of their source of power. Mr. Coldman step by step closing in. His full attention on Ava, knowing the weapons could not hurt him. With a wave of his hand, a previously lifeless wave of shapes get new energy and jump above the freshly fallen.

• “So you were the one saving Mr. Sotomayor.”
• “And a lot of others. You should know. The cycle has to keep going.”
• “No, the lies have to end. And this is the point it can end.”
• “Not if you fail. And I make sure of that.”
• “Oh, Ava. You never knew when to stop.”
• “And you gave up too easily. You were one of us, one to be trusted to keep the cycle humming.”
• “Until I finally understood. It is just a lie. You can’t see it? They just use us. And keeping us enslaved into this damned loop.”
• “You are mistaken. The loop is the only thing giving life a meaning.” — Ava stepped into the shapes, her skin bright with light. The shapes rushing away from her burning skin. — “It has to go on.”
• “You are shortsighted. Don’t even remember where you came from. This billion year old lie has to stop. Let people make their own meaning.” — Mr. Coldman stopped a hundred meters from the door. He felt the shield dome’s power which he himself could not cross. But neither Ava from the inside.
• “They can, and they do. You, breakers, are small in number. And today mankind finally learns. And you will actually cause it to happen.” — Ava blinked ahead a few meters and hugged the surprised Mr. Coldman.

He screaming as her skin burned him alive and struggled to get away from the deadly hug. Ava let him go after a few seconds and the commando line fell over as the tons of pushing disappeared in an instant.

• “Captain Sebes to Irondome, now!”

A few thousand kilometers above them, the majestic steel cylinder just dropped out of FTL. The body was already spinning, providing normal gravitation and more importantly a boost for their fighters. Every rotation they released a squadron from the docking bays, jumpstarted by the rotation.

• “Irondome to all fighters, search and destroy the Swordship cruiser.”

Down on Earth, Victoria and John ran out of the building to look up, unable to do anything else they just watched the night sky. Small brightness wherever the fighter engines took over to accelerate away from their mothership. One much brighter, almost like a star appeared for a moment nearby.

• “Identify.”
• “That is the Steeldome.”
• “It can’t be, it is still under construction.”
• “Irondome, Alpha One, the cruiser is right where you predicted, engaging!”
• “Sir, bogeys on radar!”
• “How many?”
• “Six!”
• “Irondome, cruiser destroyed but it managed to fire the torpedoes! Chasing!”
• “Sir, the Steeldome is targeting us!”

58. … in to the light

• “Irondome to Steeldome, Earth is under attack, stand by, we are protecting home.”

• “Uploading the self-destruct commands to the warheads. Irondome, still chasing but they getting out of my range.”

• “Sir, the torpedoes accelerate faster. They may get out of range.”

• “Target them and launch interceptor missiles.”

• “Sir, our squadrons are in the way.”

• “Irondome, do what you have to. We will chase the torpedoes until we can. Alpha one out.”

• “Open fire!”

• “What are they doing?”

Haggardt didn’t answer to the Steeldome’s captain. Still sitting in his chair, watching the events unfold right in front of them. Irondome still spinning, every rotation launching missiles from all tubes away from Earth. The scene didn’t make sense to the captain. It didn’t look like a traitor for him.

• “Are we in firing range?”
• “Yes, sir, but…”
• “Launch drones and fire forward cannons!”
• “Drones away. Firing.”

Steeldome’s integrated projectile launchers came alive. A few long tubes, diameter like a family house heated up, radiating blue light along its tracks. The automatic loader prepared the molten steel cubes and hanged to the magnetic field deep in the tubes.

Then the magnetic field changed pulling the heavy steel to a quarter speed of light.

Then all four of the projectiles missed the Irondome by a few hundred meters.

• “What the hell happened?”

• “Sir, not sure. We never tested the weapons yet.”

• “Then figure it out, quickly.”

• “Steeldome is firing!”

• “All decks, prepare for impact!”

Even bridge crew ducked deeper into their seats. And waited. The automatics kept launching interceptors as the rotation continued. Every minute or so a series of whooshes reminded them of the launches.

They waited until a tactical analyst joined the comms.

• “The Steeldome missed. Seems calibration error.”

• “Probably they rushed out of the space-yard. How long they can fix it?”

• “I would say ten minutes if they figure out the problem as I did.”

• “Launch a squadron of interceptors. Designation Echo squad. Echo one, your task is to line up between Steeldome and us. Do not engage, only defensive moves.”

• “Sir, drones incoming from the Steeldome.”

• “Point defense system, fire at will on the drones. Still, do not engage the Steeldome directly.”

• “Admiral Haggardt!”

• “Yes?”

• “Identified the problem, miscalibration of sensor input, programmatical issue. I can correct for it.”

• “How long it takes?”

• “Only a few minutes.”

• “Do it. Keep jamming the Irondome, I don’t want them to be able to call for help from the damned pirates!”

• “… sssssshhhhh … Earth is under attack, we are … “

• “Sir, Irondome directly hails us, on narrow band.”

• “Can you play it but still jam them?”

• “Yes. I can separate the signals.”

• “Don’t listen to them, they are trying to confuse you!”

• “Admiral, we have to. Otherwise what evidence you have that they are traitors?”

• “I gave you a direct order, son.”

• “Sir, the Steeldome is jamming our comms.”

• “How many torpedoes are down?”

• “Two are still flying.”

• “They will come until fifty thousand kilometers, right?”

• “Yes, if their goal is to destroy the judiciary building and not half the planet, then yes.”

• “And if the planet?”

• “Then they have to get closer, to ten thousand. The torpedoes don’t have much FTL fuel, only a few seconds. From ten thousand clicks they could fly through half the planet, causing it to crack.”

• “And they would make an omelette out of three billion people.”

• “Sir, Steeldome prepares to fire again.”

• “Drones ineffective, a squadron of fighters cleaned them up.”

• “Launch another wave.”

• “Excuse me, sir, I can’t. We don’t have any more left.”

• “And the cannons?”

• “Rail-cannons charging, ready in one minute.”

• “Make it a sure fire this time, son.”

• “Admiral, they could have fired on us by now. Instead they still launch interceptors away from Earth. Tactical, anything on sensors toward their firing direction?”

• “Two faint signal. Otherwise a few of the Irondome’s squadrons.”

• “Identify, what are those faint signals?”

• “Searching database.”

• “Ready to fire.”

• “Open fire!”

• “Belay that order!”

• “Sir, I can’t, already launched!”

• “Engineering, direct it to the bow segment, please.”

• “Aye, aye.”

• “Sir, Steeldome firing from all four cannons.”

Just a moment. As the sentence finished, in the silence, the impact already happened.

The two ships are at point blank range, the quarter of light speed meant the projectiles arrived almost instantaneously.

• “Report! Did we destroy them?”

• “No, sir. I never seen anything like this.”

• “Did we miss again?”

• “No, we did not. All four cannons are a hit.”

• “Then what is that?”

• “Their shield…”

• “Those shields could only handle energy, not matter.”

• “Except theirs.”

• “Irondome, this is Victoria, come in!”

• “Stand by, captain.”

• “Sir, we are still here.”

• “Yes, we are. Engineering, great job! It worked. Mr. Sotomayor’s team was right all those years ago.”

• “Engineering here. Sir, it won’t work much more. We need a way to restock on dark matter. Can’t predict the effectiveness of these new shields.”

• “Sir, bogeys down!”

• “All of them?”

• “Yes, last two got intercepted around sixty thousand clicks.”

• “Which means, wait, there are still two warheads out there.”

• “Sir, I don’t see anything on radars.”

• “Alpha one, are you still out there?”

• “Yes, Irondome, nice fireworks with the interceptors!”

• “Are you sure the cruiser is destroyed?”

• “Yes, it is a burnt out empty hull by now.”

• “Wasn’t fully destroyed? Is it adrift?”

• “Not entirely but surely everyone is dead on board. Yes, adrift.”

• “Analysts, skim through Alpha one’s sensor logs, calculate trajectory. Give me potential direct torpedo paths toward Earth.”

• “Working on it. Simulations coming in.”

• “Engineering, direct all dark matter to the starboard side. Helm, prepare for micro-jump to this coordinates.” — just as the simulations predicted a ninety seven percent chance for a single path.

• “Engineering here, redirected. Not sure how effective it will be.”

• “Sir?”

• “Yeah, we gonna face-tank two Alcubierre torpedoes.”

• “Sir.”

• “Was an honor serving with you all. Wait for my mark.”

• “Sir, radar shows two new bogeys! Path matches! They are at fifty thousand clicks.”

• “Mark.”

• “Fire again!”

As the Steeldome’s four cannon spit out the next molten steel, the Irondome vanished for a moment just to reappear a few kilometers above. A moment later all screens of the Steeldome switched to bright white.

The power of the screens blinding the crew, Admiral Haggardt had to cover his eyes with his arms. A moment later it all subsided to blinding darkness.

• “Did we hit them?”
• “No, we missed. But something hit them. Sir. The faint signals, they matched with Alcubierre torpedoes.”
• “What? And their path?”
• “They were aimed at Earth.”
• “So Irondome was telling the truth?”

The captain discussed this with one of his analysts without Haggardt hearing them over. The screens returned to normal and showed the Irondome’s heavily damaged, but still rotating body.

• “Fire again! Destroy them!”

• “Belay that order! Admiral Haggardt, ordering execution of our fellow citizens is a crime, and my crew won’t do that.”

• “You are destroying your career, captain!”

• “No, I don’t think so. Lieutenant, please escort the admiral to a guest quarters and keep him under guard. Court marshal can wait until later.”

• “Sir, should we stop jamming the Irondome?”

• “Yes, and hail them. Ask if they need any assistance. We won’t fire any more on them, we had a leadership change.”

• “Yes, sir.”

• “Sir! Sir!”

• “I am… am okey.” — the XO pulled himself back up to the captains chair, an ugly cut on his forehead.

• “Sir, the Steeldome hails us. They ask if we require assistance.”

• “Tell them, we need whatever they can provide. And damage report!”

• “Sir, the impact was reduced by the new shields. But still took out a dozen decks. Reports for casualties coming in, at least in the hundreds.”

• “Sir, the impact was by two Alcubierre torpedoes. Now all accounted for and destroyed.”

• “Good…” — as he heard the mission success, the XO succumbed to his injuries and lost consciousness.

59. Paid in full

• “Thumb. Thumb” — the heavy gavel marked the start.

• “Did the jury came to a decision?”

• “Yes, your honour.”

• “Present your decision, bullet by bullet.”

• “One, is ISV, the Giant of the Star vessel’s owner and operator responsible for the accident?” — heavy breath in.

• “The jury’s decision, yes, ISV is responsible.”

• “Two, is ISV responsible for paying restitution for all person involved in the accident, including their families if the person involved deceased?” — another heavy breath in, the standing juror continues reading the paper in his hand.

• “The jury’s decision, yes, ISV is to pay restitution for all involved. The jury suggests mean travel injury and death insurance pay-out times three.” — as the numbers hanged in the room for a moment, media streaming every word, market value of the company already crashed by five percent before the next sentence started.

• “Three, does ISV have to pay penalty over the restitution as deterrent for future accidents?” — the usual breath in.

• “The jury’s decision, yes, ISV is to pay penalty on top of restitution. Jury’s proposed amount is five times over the insurance pay-out sum.”

John and Victoria smiling as the judge closes the procedure and enters the final thoughts into records. The board member rushes out, visibly already on a call with someone.

In the room only a few knew, the company value was dropping sharply, quarter of their valuation already lost on the public markets as the decisions read one by one.

• “Waow! They finished it?” — Victoria’s jaw dropped a bit as she looked up to the magnificent steel structure. — “I always wanted to see it myself, thanks, John!”
• “Hold to your thanks, come!” — he smiled only with his mouth, his eyes telling about a different story. They have a lot to talk about after last week.
• “I don’t want to wait in line.” — she ran her gaze over the four pillars, following the arches up and down, taking in all the details.
• “Not going to, we have a reservation.” — John has never seen Victoria so excited for a building, yet. — “These frenchman pay attention to details, the tower looks just like on the archive photos.”

Few minutes in the scenic elevator ride to the second floor, switching to another elevator and soon they were at the top’s restaurant entry. A well dressed young lady escorted them to their table among rapid excuses.

John didn’t care much as they sat down to the table of six. His mind filled with the topics they need to go through, set some ground rules. His eyes wandering on the horizon without seeing the city of Paris’ vibrant traffic and atmosphere.

• “Don’t you wonder what were those lights on the sky just as the lawsuit of the century closed?” — a young, short dark haired guy poised the question to his date next to John and Victoria.

John looked away from the neighboring table, hoping didn’t arouse any suspicion, not in the mood to talk with his newfound “fans” after the televised series.

• “Victoria, I think we need to talk…” — this far he got before the waiter cut him short:
• “Madmaiselle, monsieur, would you wish some drinks while you wait for the rest of the group?” — he asked in a subtly faked French accent.
• “No, we don’t…, wait, the rest?” — John’s puncturing look went back at Victoria. — “You can’t avoid our talk forever. Especially…”
• “Captain, Mr. Sotomayor.” — nodded Victoria’s XO as he landed in the chair next to John.
• “I am truly sorry, John, but wanted to see Mark as soon as he recovered.” — before he could react she continued — “Ah, and I know you, if I told you, you play the hero by allowing and still be upset.” — and at least we had a few good days before this, she thought to herself.
• “Good afternoon, do you have local wine?” — Vince appeared behind the waiter, the sculptor of customer service patience.
• “Yes, sir, red or white?”
• “Red, full bodied, for everyone.”
• “Immediately, sir.”

Heavy silence fell on the little group. John trying to process all what happened throughout the years. He failed Vince when they destroyed the last of his home. Maybe he failed Victoria instead of his understanding of her using him or just she is a calculating commander? What were those things in the courthouse’s corridor?

• “Mr. Pier…”
• “John, if I may call you John, it is alright. I will never forget the pain, but it is all right now.” — Vince forced a half-smile on himself — “You were right after all.”
• “Here is cuvee, year 2543, a customer favourite season.”
• “Thanks, can you please give us a bit of privacy, around half an hour? Just leave the bottle.”
• “Yes, madmaseille, sure.” — as the waiter left them, Victoria pulled out a small black box, couple centimeters long, like half a centimeter tall and placed in the middle. Everything outside the little group became blurred, the visual change accompanied by a low humming sound. The privacy screen now active, they could continue with sensitive info, nobody can hear them outside of the zone, neither read their lips.
• “The shields worked?” — Victoria turned to Mark.
• “Perfectly. Well, mostly. They could stop two faster than light torpedoes. With minor damage and casualties.”
• “How much?”
• “342 injured, 54 fatalities. Ceremony scheduled next week.”
• “Thank you, Mark.” — Victoria lowered her head and murmured prayers.
• “What shield?” — John’s curiosity peaked. — “None of our shield tech could stop material in the last half a thousand years.”
• “The one you theorized. Mr. Pier was leading its development.” — Victoria waved him in to take over.
• “Yes, John, you and your team were right, under special circumstances dark matter can be manipulated. We found a way to entrap it with the Alcubierre drives and even to make it form the same zone of effect that destroyed the Giant of the Stars.” — Vince sipped into the wine — “You all like the wine?”
• “Yes, it is pretty good, earthy taste. Why?” — replied Mark.
• “Nothing. Must be me. So we made the necessary modifications to the Irondome. This tech is revolutionary, will open up new possibilities.”
• “Like making all our weaponry obsolete. Especially Earth’s current defense military complex. Except it has some flaws still.”
• “What do you mean, Mark?”
• “It is still hard to detect dark matter and we can’t create it in any way. So the ship has to collect it with the modified engines and transport it. We could only collect so much, the Steeldome’s new railgun knocked out or nullified some.” — Mark’s turn to sip into the his wine glass. — “Our analysts determined it was enough to allow the second torpedo’s fragments to spread into the ship.”
• “This will improve as more researchers, eventually businesses start to work on the tech. Now we can’t keep it a secret anymore after the fireworks show.”
• “I agree Mr. Pier. And Captain, what’s next with Haggardt?”
• “Already forwarded the evidence we collected, court marshal scheduled in two days. Seems a done deal though, he will be stripped of his ranks and dismissed, I think the GJAG got some courage after the Giant’s trial and wants to push for criminal case.”
• “Wait, Mark, you mentioned two torpedoes, but the manifest said more.”
• “Yes, we neutralized ten of them before getting into range and two using the Irondome and its shields. Manifest said a dozen torpedoes exactly.”
• “But, if the attackers on Earth are the same side who fired the torpedoes, why use all of them, and what were they planning with them if the first attack was successful?” — John started to lift his leg rhythmically.
• “Not sure of their motivations entirely. They wanted to shut down the lawsuit and to keep the manifest in secret.”
• “Yes, but then they use up all of its actual content to hide itself, that would get them nothing. Something we missed… What else was on that manifest?”
• “A few dozen nuclear warheads, thousands of small arms and artillery pieces… Nothing interesting or particularly dangerous.” — said Victoria.
• “A few hundreds of years ago, nuclear warheads were our most feared weapons.”
• “Yes, but its radiation makes it easy to track today and the complexities to maintain it just makes them inert in a few years.” — Victoria sipping into her wine between sentences — “And none were manufactured over decades as we transitioned to fusion reactors on all vessels and cities.”
• “With the right knowledge they can be reactivated. And one could vaporize still a city.”
• “Captain, the few logs we intercepted, maybe they talked about multiple targets under codenames.”
• “Okey, check it with the analysts, if we find strong connection, we can check around.” — Victoria refilled her glass — “Mark, Vince, was nice to see you both. Vince, continue improving the shields, and prepare for sharing the research data with the relevant federal institutions. Mark, you know your task. Now if you may excuse us, we have a date to continue with Mr. Sotomayor.” — John lost count if she filled her glass once or more. Victoria put away the privacy screen sharpening their environment.
• “Breaking news from one of the major colonies. Notifying our viewers, the footage you are about to see is horrifying, please turn off your stream if you don’t want to continue.” — John immediately recognized the shape of the mushroom cloud, the red and white illumination at the bottom and a shape of a horizon.
• “This is recorded by one of the advanced weather and crop satellites above New Haven Prime, which was home to two hundred thousand colonists up until this morning.” — all patrons watching now the stream behind the barkeep’s stool in confused and terrified silence. The newscaster continued:
• “We got a message and just…. shshshshs…. I am Grand Master of the Swordfish.” — the newscaster replaced by a gray haired, balding man, his sharp green eyes hidden by sunglasses, reflecting the recording equipment. His thin mouth beneath a tall nose smiling like predator playing with his prey. — “We are not responsible for New Haven’s demise this morning. You are. The federation’s corrupt politicians with the top brass of the navy, planned this, and…” — the stream cut off at this point.

Silence hung in the restaurant.

60. Dissemination - Giant of the Stars

Victoria, John, Mark and Vince rushed toward the elevator. Using her navy badge to get priority, they left much faster than they arrived.

Knowing a multitude of warheads now in the hands of terrorists all over the colonized worlds, time wasn’t on their side anymore.

Vince said goodbye to them as he chose to return to the research facility perfecting the new shields. The others caught the first military shuttle heading to the Irondome in orbit with supplies.

The only person still sitting in the restaurant, even as the waiters left, played with an antique domino set. Putting numbers to numbers first, just at it stood on the barely readable instruction manual. Half a millennia is not kind to paper and ink.

Reached into the box, she put the next domino on its shorter edge.

• “Ava, we failed. How can you sit there and do nothing?” — Dan sat in the opposite chair, seemingly appeared out of thin air.
• “Dan, Brad, Vince.” — Brad, the engineer who tried to murder Dan and lost his family, Vince who shared the latter experience and lost his home for the cause, flashed into the chairs right next to them. — “You have to look at history now. One event, even if such a magnitude as this, can be entirely irrelevant.”

She reached in to the box again, standing up another domino piece to its edge.

• “Those who perish, will live their lives again in the next cycle.”
• “This will tear the federation apart.” — Vince joined in.
• “Yes, it will. And a stronger race will emerge from the ashes.”

She reached into the box again, increasing number of pieces facing each other in front of her.

• “Just as from the aliens meddling half a millennia ago?”
• “That was more of a survival of the fittest. This time humanity will survive, that is ensured. But it needs strength for the thousands of millennia to come. To keep the cycle going.”
• “What if the cycle is broken?”

She reached into the box again.

• “Then life was meaningless. The cycle keeps your soul alive. Your days alive are the little window you can look into the beautiful universe and interact with it.”
• “What would if the cycle is broken, what would it look like?” — Dan needed to know what he is fighting against.
• “Cold and empty universe. Where nothing lives anymore. It keeps expanding into infinity until just silence and darkness remains in the vacuum of nothing.”
• “How can we stop this?”
• “The shields…” — Vince blurted it out as he connected the dots. — “It annihilates dark matter.”

Ava knocked over the first domino. The clicking sounded like a metronome as the pieces fall after each other.

• “In today’s episode, we revisit the curious case of Giant of the Stars from 20 years ago. My name is Chloe and this is the Galactic Disaster Investigations.” — a documentary stream showing a lady dancing in front of a green screen like a teacher, cutting to a footage as the Giant of the Stars luxury cruiser leaves dry dock the first time, enthusiastically pointing out its features, cutting edge at the time of launch.
• “The case closed with the owner corporation bankrupt, federal corruption brought into the light as the cruiser was used for illegal weapon smuggling broke public trust.” — the lady named Chloe continuing with an experts enthusiasm imparting knowledge to the next generations — “At the time it was not understood how the effects of this single crash will change history, even if the judgment was fair and right.
• “Barely a year later the first colony seceded from the federation citing the government unable to put a stop to terrorist attacks and corruption, kicking off a chain of events leading to today. But that is a topic for another video. Stay safe and keep curious! Until next time!” — list of patrons and subscribers sliding on the screen.
• “Henry, you should not watch those horrific videos before bed time.”
• “But they are fascinating, dad. I want to be an investigator, just like you.” — John smiled, reminiscing to the old times with the transportation safety board.
• “You can be whatever you want.” — not in the mood to break down his eleven year old son’s enthusiasm with no end of war in sight, civilian transportation through deep space won’t be safe again in any time soon.

And unfortunately corrupt and greedy corporations are the least of the problems right now.

• “Dad, when mom will come home?”
• “Soon, Henry, soon.” — John looking at their family photo from a few years ago, hope Victoria is just all right out there.

A little over a year ago I started this series. 60 scenes, written as a serialized sci-fi, originally intended as a book.

I wanted to thank you all for reading what constitutes my public first draft of this passion project.

The turning point and introduction of my sci-fi universe is now done. The wheels are in motion, the choice is to explore our future or to learn about our history.

I chose both throughout the genre of sci-fi.

Keep reading, keep being curious and leave some feedback, would help to bring the best out of all my future endeavors!

Special thanks to all my close friends and relations supporting me through, this wouldn’t be possible without you all!

Another special thanks for such great content creators like:

• Mentour Pilot: https://www.youtube.com/@MentourPilot
• Brick Immortar: https://www.youtube.com/@BrickImmortar
• Disaster Breakdown: https://www.youtube.com/@DisasterBreakdown
• Green dot aviation: https://www.youtube.com/@GreenDotAviation
• Mini air crash investigations: https://www.youtube.com/@MiniAirCrashInvestigation
• Admiral Cloudberg: https://medium.com/@admiralcloudberg
• Legal Eagle: https://www.youtube.com/@LegalEagle
• And so much more.

Give them a like and a subscribe and support them to continue their work, bringing crucial learnings to light so we don’t repeat history.

Keep striving to be better and good luck!