A Fury Of Aces: Crystal Venom Part 4

'So you are Marko. I am very pleased to make your acquaintance. Once I am settled in, I need to discuss a project with you. And I am informed that you have a remarkable crew and something called "real coffee", which is talked of everywhere. Lead on, Sergeant Major.'

He escorted her around the ship introducing her to everyone, and then to the galley where Veg made her a coffee. Veg had told Marko that after making a few thousand more shots he would be an adequate barista, but baking was considerably more interesting being much more like engineering. To go with the colonel's coffee, he brought out his latest biscotti. He figured that everyone had a right to be proud of their work and it was always a good move for any non-commissioned officer to impress a colonel. He was very careful to advise the colonel in the art of dunking, before she broke any of her perfect teeth.

The terrible trio, who had been stalking something or other, came hurtling in and surrounded the colonel. Nail, as the intelligence-gathering ACE of the crew, sat on the table in front of her, staring hard and pa.s.sing on the information he was gathering via the crew's comm link; Flint scrabbled up onto the table and introduced each of them to her in his very quiet, almost inaudible, way; Glint slid onto his specifically grown stool, which was movable but still attached to the living table by a vine so it could gain sustenance, reached for a biscotti and started taking bites out of it, generating small fragments which whistled through the air. He pointed the remains at her as he spoke. 'So you are Colonel Andrea White. You are a legend, I'm told. What makes you a legend? And how did they grow that ceramic fibre armour into you? It covers all your organs, even those parts that males would find interesting. Marko, I think I need some of that. Nail would like some too, but he is not big enough. No, I think that I would like a p.e.n.i.s first.'

Marko cringed and Veg burst out laughing.

The colonel just started giggling, then she reached out and started to stroke Nail, who, amazingly, allowed her to do so. Glint reached for another biscotti, hesitated, and took another two. 'Yup, she's OK. Really different from any other human I have seen but should be fine. Good biscuits, Marko. Make some more. Right, come on you lot, work to do. Let's go.'

Glint led them out at the same speed they'd come in at ... flat out. They watched them go and the colonel said: 'Veg, this coffee is completely different in taste, texture and effect from anything I have ever had before. Can I have another, please?'

The huge man shook his head. 'Nope. One per day, that's the limit. Sorry, Colonel. Stephine will join us shortly and, if you like, she makes excellent tea. Tea you can drink as much as you like. Your ship is approaching. Shall I give it docking instructions? I have moved your personal manoeuvring unit to the main hangar deck.'

She gave a quick shake of her head. 'Thanks, and no that won't be necessary. I should imagine that Crystal has already received instructions from Patrick.'

They watched as a beaming Michael Longbow strode into the mess. 'h.e.l.lo, Andy.'

'Hi, Michael. It has been too long, beautiful.'

She stood up, lifted him off the floor in a hug and kissed him full on the mouth. Everyone started to look for things to do and left the two of them to it. Marko shuddered to think what Glint would have said had he been present. He briefly saw the major much later in the galley, with a big grin on his face, making a large bowl of fresh fruit salad. He disappeared with it back to his cabin, carrying two spoons. Harry smiled and saluted his receding back with his large mug of tea.

'So that is the famous Andy White,' mused Harry. 'The boss always described her as slightly shorter than him. They were a number a long time ago. Must be still sweet on each other. Going to be an interesting trip, guys. We have half the specialist crew arriving at 0800 tomorrow, plus all their equipment, and then the remaining half of the detachment late tomorrow afternoon. The boss wants everything squared away for a 2200 departure. Grab whatever you need from Epsilon. Stephine has sorted the procurements and allowed you each a twenty per cent additional procurement financial buffer should you need it. She says that this could be a difficult mission, so get whatever you deem necessary. Would suggest we do that tonight before the specialists arrive.'

Consequently, they all worked late into the night. Jan pulled additional medical stores to cover the extra personnel and also obtained two small combat medical drones. Fritz secured additional communication systems, prepped them and placed them in combat storage. He then went through all the craft on board, plus the Ranger's ship, and tied the communications together. Harry and Veg requisitioned spare weapons for everyone, plus two additional Troop Lifters: these were basically a framework, including a hardened c.o.c.kpit, storage units, four gimballed manoeuvring engines, a good sized AG unit, twin propulsion systems and a series of attachment stations which housed individual drop sleds, and slung down each side of the machine were twin heavy calibre rail guns. They were wild machines with a heavy punch as they could drop and then support a section minus of eight, plus the pilot; military personnel everywhere liked them as they could also work in just about any environment with or without atmosphere or gravity.

Stephine methodically checked everything off, laid in additional preserved rations, and then ramped up the gardens output as well. Marko spent his time checking off the fuel systems on each of their craft, topping up every tank and then looking long and hard at the Intel reports from the colonel as to where they could pick up water fuel on the mission. There were two good-sized ice moons in the target system and also some nice icy comets not far from Lagrange points at four of their jump locations.

They even managed to grab a half decent sleep before the first of the specialists arrived on board at 0800 hours. Jan's a.s.sessment to Marko was that they were an interesting bunch. The Warrant Officer First Cla.s.s in charge knew Harry well, so that made life a lot easier.

Patrick had set aside one of the engineering hangars for them, so they were initially shown where to stow their suit containers and then a.s.signed cabins. Fritz and Harry then gave the newcomers a quick tour of the ship as Jan and Marko went through the specialist detachment's gear, laying it out, and then storing it all for prioritised optimum access.

The major and the colonel had left the ship early for a command meeting, taking Stephine as First Mate with them. When they returned at midday they were all business with the major sending the message: 'Crew, once the second part of the specialist salvage team arrives we will get under way. Briefing will take place after the first jump is complete. External comms will be locked down in one hour.'

Harry gave a briefing to part of the crew. 'Not sure if this is going to be an easy mission, Marko. Hard security for one thing. Just got the word. Epsilon is sending over two additional long-term ten-man survival pods as well. The hangar deck is going to get a little too crowded. Um, when the pods arrive, site one in the second cargo airlock underneath the barracks deck, and the other in the second airlock above the first engineering deck. Jan, Veg, can you sort those with Marko, please? Check 'em and then liven them up. OK, they are also deploying three Busters for us ... s.h.i.t, one of those will take out a Cruiser no problem, so what are they expecting?'

He touched his comms link, saying, 'Captain Stephine, ma'am, I need authorisation to unlock the primary heavy weapons store as these guys have a deal of explosives with them. Could you also lock the Busters against the hull, please?'

In another part of the ship Stephine smiled. 'The heavy weapons store will unlock for you when you approach the arms cote, Harry, just as it always has. I have a.s.sumed control of it, but not locked you out. Please continue to call me Stephine when on our secure network, and yes, I shall lock on the Busters.'

Marko watched the Busters sliding up beside them, noting that they were almost as long as Basalt and tens of metres in diameter: they were designed to be smashers of heavy ships or Orbital stations. He knew that, once deployed, they could operate independently for months on end, physically lock onto anything they were targeted at and if necessary push the target down into a gravity well before destroying it with a focused blast of gamma rays. Very good pieces of equipment for cleaning up messes, he thought. 'Thanks. Fritz, suit up, you're with me. Bring your trolley of goodies. We may have some excellent toys to wire up.'

Marko made contact with the drones bringing the survival pods to them and gave them their orders, after ensuring that Patrick was in the loop. As each arrived, he opened the external doors of the large access airlocks and then closed them again after the pods had been placed inside. They opened the pods, checked the systems and then wired them into Basalt so that Patrick had total control of them.

Veg approved of these. Basically a squat cylinder with heavy shielding, each had one door and, when a crew member pressed against it, the person was rotated and sealed into an individual survival system which would immediately start the hibernation process, if deemed necessary, and allow the next person in. Marko had once seen one accommodate and secure ten crew, then eject itself away from a disintegrating frigate in under fifteen seconds, saving the soldiers. He thought it was nice to know that the powers-that-be were taking the mission seriously. They then checked and wired the second pod in position just as the remaining half of the specialist recovery and salvage section arrived on board.

A few minutes later the major gave his orders. 'All crew, report to your stations. Specialists, please secure your equipment, as instructed per your HUDs, and then proceed to the main galley for briefing and a.s.signments. We depart in twenty minutes.'

Basalt's crew moved quickly to their stations with Veg and Harry as pilots and the major, for the first time, actually sitting in the commander's chair. Marko checked his board and with all systems at optimum shunted control across to Veg. Epsilon's tugs pushed them away from the Orbital and at one kilometre out they were a.s.signed a flight number and sent on their way.

'Marko, Fritz, Jan,' Harry said. 'We have control of your boards. Could you go help this latest lot of salvage guys sort their stuff? We have seven hours' transit to the LP and everything is to be locked down before then.'

Part Two.

Crystal Infant.

One.

The salvage section were indeed an interesting bunch as far as Marko was concerned. All individual specialists, all shapes and sizes, and all with a h.e.l.l of a lot of equipment. They had come prepared for just about anything, he thought, and were certainly heavy hitters, with six sergeants, two WO1s, a lieutenant who looked like he should have been in a trench somewhere, and an immaculately dressed major.

Marko, as the ranking SNCO, introduced himself then Jan and Fritz before saying: 'Major van Beere, sir. Major Longbow sends his compliments and requests you join him on the bridge.'

Van Beere inclined his head to Marko and replied in a highly cultured voice. 'My thanks to you, sarge' major. This is Lieutenant Blair. I shall leave you to your tasks.' His tone and demeanour marked him as a member of one of the senior Administration families.

He walked off as Marko turned to the lieutenant. 'Sir. Mr Blair, how can we a.s.sist?'

The grinning lieutenant looked around, then back at the Basalt crew members. 'Pleasure to meet with you, guys. Nice ship this. Love the exposed living wood and the flowering orchids. Your AI obviously takes pride in maintenance and a great-smelling atmosphere. This will be an interesting trip. So how did you get this mission? And no GB! Bet that is a relief. You can be yourselves for once. We have our billets, ta. Just need access to the arms cote for our weapons and also the explosives. They are all on their own drone carriers, so it is probably easy to leave them that way and stow the whole lot in one go. Will wait until after orders before we familiarise you guys with all our toys. Do you want to go through everyone's suits and headpieces, Sergeant van Vinken? Sergeant Itou, this is Sergeant van Vinken. She is our comms and computer tech. I'm sure that you will enjoy each other's company. She is a fan of yours, Sergeant van Vinken.'

Marko thought she was a cla.s.sy looker as he watched them immediately start talking heavy tech, although he noted that by the third sentence Fritz had asked her about her tastes in music. Must have been acceptable - he turned and gave Marko a thumbs up as they walked away.

'Lieutenant Blair, I shall take you down to the arms cote. Staff Wester will sort out the rest of your people for their personal kit. She'll also need your medical requirements and individual records. Could you have your people squirt their medical files across, please? This way, sir.'

As they walked across to the centre spiral stairway leading down to the arms cote deck, the four sizable, heavily laden drones powered up and followed them on their AG. As per the protocols, the lieutenant then gave Marko lists of what they were carrying so he could log it with Harry, as the officer in charge of weapons. It was an impressive list.

Once back in the hangar, they helped sort through the equipment and with aid of their own drones went about securing it all, then gave the new guys a tour of the ship, watching them experience their first coffee and exotic fruits. Veg said that Jan made an excellent brew as his apprentice barista, which was something Marko could not argue with. After a meal together, they made preparations for the initial jump, which went as smoothly as ever. In fact, it was a little smoother than before, as the refit of Basalt had given the ship the latest improvements and Patrick now knew how to make them work well.

The officers were at the front of the orders room as Major Longbow took charge. 'Patrick, you have the helm. For those who do not know her, this is Colonel White. It was she who found the site of the missing Hauler.'

They were all in the main entertainments theatre. Well, the Basalt crew had all called it 'entertainments' as before they had never actually had a full formal military orders group on board, nor used the theatre for its designed purpose of planning a military action.

They all had their AV HUD helmets on and the colonel talked them through what she had found. 'The following images are taken from some 220,000 kilometres away. You will note that the Hauler is of an Iris cla.s.s. It is the original of that cla.s.s, which grossed over 200,000 tonne, dry. It should be six hundred and fifty metres long. As the images get clearer, you will note that it is now considerably longer and wider than as originally built. You'll also note that the exterior hull, with the exception of the primary front portion, is no longer the original hull but appears more alien organic in structure, a departure of style from how the Haulers normally grow their ships. You can also see that there are what appear to be urchins...o...b..ting the craft. As already stated, this particular Hauler is a very old one. It is called Cactus 3 and, before going missing, had a long and very prestigious career. It is a much-respected member of the Haulers' Collective with many astronomical discoveries to its name.'

She paused for a few seconds, looking around the room, then continued. 'The mission it had was to dump many thousands of tonnes of weapons from the Infant conflict. The weapons, even by today's standards, were very nasty. A number of them were radioactive, including the now outlawed neutron bombs, plus standard old-fashioned thermonuclear devices. What is of real concern, however, is that the cargo also contained hundreds of tonnes of DNA-altering bacteria, together with delivery systems, which were primarily Avian-type creatures, bred specifically for the purpose as their intention was to destroy whole worlds. We need to learn what has happened to Cactus 3 and are under pressure to retrieve the core of the ship's AI. We would also very much like to know why it ended up 12.3 light years from its original destination, which was Hades. The other three Haulers that were employed delivered their cargos onto Hades with its caustic poison atmosphere and surface temperatures in excess of five hundred degrees C, and returned safely.' She paused again and tapped on her wrist screen. 'I'm copying to you all the nasties involved, and also the Avians. The cargo contained the entire contents of the various research labs which produced the biological weapons, including, in some cases, the corpses of the research staff involved. The records show that in at least one case, the entire lab was encased in molecular chain-linked gla.s.s and lifted intact.

'The mission is to separate the nose area of the Hauler, where the AI will be, and then shunt the remainder of the craft into the nearest sun. I cannot emphasise enough the enormous risk of the biological weapons becoming accessible to anyone at all, including some members of our own dear Administration. Hence, this mission now comes under my command. Major Longbow.'

The major cleared his throat and launched into his briefing. 'OK, people. From what you can see it is relatively straightforward. We will slice the nose cone away with our primary lasers, hook drones onto it and make it secure. We then place the Busters and launch the rest of the Hauler into the local sun. The Busters will be set to detonate in sequence to shred the Hauler and force it into the star's photosphere and so ensure its destruction. We will then slice up the nose until the AI Core is exposed and we'll encase that in the diamond interlocking plates the salvage guys brought with them. We destroy the debris generated. Yeah, easy. Like h.e.l.l it is! This plan is full of hooks, so I need everyone to know everyone else's job. Major van Beere.'

The major then took them through the equipment his detachment had brought along, and how he intended to recover the AI. He had a surprising amount of information on the urchins and of the advanced ways they were now being dealt with; it seemed that all Stephine's research on the creatures had paid off bigtime. He also showed, then uploaded to Patrick, all the communication languages, including definitions, that the urchins used. The belief was that they were just on the cusp of true sentience.

He then handed the briefing over to Stephine. Initially, she laid out the information on biological hazards, and how the crew would be affected if any of them became infected. They might have their central nervous system taken over and be forced to make random movements; they might develop a terrible paranoia of absolutely everything, or the weapons could turn anyone into a berserker. And once the energy levels dropped below a certain point, the weapon would then use the body as a host to produce infected material, and the individual would gradually turn to fluid, first running, then walking and, finally, crawling in any random direction spreading the material far and wide before finally succ.u.mbing.

Other weapons created reactions that would range through many human diseases, thus overwhelming medical facilities, before allowing the host to recover, and then causing the body to do it all over again until death occurred months later. Some nasties seemingly would not affect the host, but might produce violent and extremely difficult to detect DNA changes in offspring so that, in time, children could also go berserk.

The crew listening to this catalogue of horror, thought that the people who designed the weapons must have been monsters. Then again, Infant was such a terrible conflict that the Administration had taken the unprecedented step of detonating the Infant system's star as it judged the contaminations were that bad. The four Haulers - of which Cactus 3 was one - had gathered their toxic cargos from outer system orbiters or small colonies.

Stephine then laid out everyone's responsibilities, including cooking, cleaning and general housework. The outward journey would take almost ten weeks so they had plenty of time.

Veg explained the training and combat routines set for them, then finally Jan took them through fitness and advised of medical enhancements for their own bio-systems, which would inoculate them from the nasties, in spite of what Stephine had told them.

At the conclusion Stephine had a warning for them. 'From the information that the colonel returned with, the conclusion is that someone or something has gained access to the weapons. We believe that they have evolved either naturally or by design. However, due to the relatively short time period, I would say that natural evolution is unlikely, especially considering the extent of the changes to the Hauler. We need to be very, very careful. Get this into your heads: if any one of you becomes infected, and that infection is not covered by the inoculations, you will not be allowed back on Basalt. End of story.'

Life settled down over the next few weeks, even down to the level of cooking as the Basalt crew took it upon themselves to train the salvage guys, in one way or another, in the art of preparing something to eat.

Roger Ngata, one of the WO1s, took great delight in learning as much as possible from Stephine about the gardens and the trees. He had been in the military for a very long time and was loving the opportunity to enhance his life experiences with his new-found green fingers. He was often seen by Basalt's crew looking closely at the blooms that grew apparently randomly from Basalt's walls and ceilings, and giving the ship a little pat.

Marko discovered that one of the tech sergeants, Minh Pham, was a good baker. He spoke of a long-held tradition in his family that the males did the baking, but for the last twenty years or so he had not been able to get close to an oven, except on the rare occasion that he visited his family. Minh was a superb pastry chef, but had never baked heavy-grained bread loaves, so he was fun for Marko to teach and also to learn from.

Veg would gather everyone in the engineering hangar each morning before breakfast, and again in mid-afternoon, training them hard in some obscure martial art or other. Sergeant Ban asked him what style he followed and Veg replied that he studied 'all of them'.

'I note, venerated Captain Veg, that you have a most interesting style in your stick fighting. It seems to be a mixture of three primary ancient art forms. I should be most interested in going full contact if you would honour me.'

Veg allowed himself a tiny smile. 'Very well, training is complete for the day. Hit the showers, people. Sergeant Ban, select your stick.'

n.o.body moved as no one had any intention of missing the fight. Jan leant close to Marko and whispered, 'Sergeant Thao Ban has cleaned up in just about every stick-fighting tournament over the last twenty years. This is going to be interesting.'

Marko c.o.c.ked his head and smiled at her. 'Really, Jan, you always amaze me with your knowledge of martial themes. By the way, is the colonel bi? I have seen her admiring your b.u.m on more than one occasion.'

'Yes. How do you know I'm not the same?'

'Tease!'

Both men selected their bo's from the rack. Veg towered over Ban, but when stripped down to the waist, Ban was also heavily muscled.

They both addressed the mat, bowed to it, bowed to the audience, to each other and then for the next fifteen minutes gave a superb display of stick fighting. Ban was very good, but Marko had the distinct feeling that he was no match for Veg. Veg took a couple of whacks, but seemed not to strike Ban very hard when he landed hits. Ban was starting to become angry and yelled something at Veg in a language Marko had not heard before. Veg roared with laughter and in a blindingly fast series of blows spun Ban around, then levered him high into the air while giving him dozens of light taps all over his body before Ban hit the floor rolling. Ban stood up, bowed, apologised to Veg and then asked him to be his sensei. Veg just nodded and suggested that they have a discussion over a beer and pickles.

A few days later Jan went up against Ban. Veg quietly padded around the exterior of the practice floor, a gentle smile on his face, as Jan gave Ban a solid thrashing. The poor man looked surprised and then dramatically taken aback as she used the techniques and dance that Veg had taught them all - except Fritz, who could not see the point - over the long years as Basalt had made its way home after its wormhole generating propulsion systems were damaged and they had used comets as fuel to propel themselves between the stars. The final blow to his pride came when she clashed hard with him, grabbing his stick and using it to lift herself and somersault over his head, then hitting him along the full length of his spine while vertically above him. He conceded, then thanked first Jan and then Veg for insisting that he use a padded martial arts Gee.

The salvage guys wanted to learn about Jan's weapons. She and Veg did a roaring trade, building new weapons or customising the issued ones. Between jumps, as they crossed from LP to LP, Stephine, the colonel and the boss worked everyone hard with every weapon, piece of equipment and craft.

Fritz, when he was not in engineering designing and building electronics, spent some time composing electronic music, which he would play over Basalt's sound systems much to the delight of most members of the crew.

Marko learnt that his baking colleague, Minh Pham, was a master with explosives and improvised devices, so, together with Harry, he decided to milk every last bit of information from him. Some of Minh's knowledge was absolute gold, stuff they could not find a reference to in their databases, which was probably not surprising as the Administration regularly purged what it deemed as 'subversive information'.

One afternoon he showed them how to make a series of very effective explosives from what was available to them in the kitchen and in the cleaning supplies storeroom. Unfortunately, when it came to justifying to Stephine what they had made and why it was in the kitchen, it proved just too difficult. Her scolding had them all feeling considerably chastened, but they left the mess giggling like schoolboys just the same.

'All crew, stations please. Final jump into the target system of Gliese 163 in fifteen minutes. Soul Saver uploads as soon as you are able. A fast picket drone will be launched immediately prior to the jump.'

They were kitted up in combat gear, with faceplates open, sitting at their a.s.signed posts. The colonel and her selected crew were already on board her scout ship. Jan thought that calling it a scout ship was a bit of a misnomer. It was almost half the length of Basalt with huge engines and great firepower, and it was capable of supporting six individuals for many years, although it was rare for more than one Ranger to be on a mission at any one time as they seemed to like their solitude. Jan and Marko had had a few laughs about that, considering the sack time she and the major were getting. They decided they must have been making up for lost years.

The colonel's ship, Crystal, had a state of the art adaptive camouflage system which allowed it to get in close and undetected. The colonel had left Basalt three standard days earlier to build up speed before the jump so she could swing past the Hauler using inertia only, and not leave any engine signatures as they coasted.

Basalt, on the other hand, was going in relatively slowly, as the plan called for them to hang back and wait for her intelligence reports. The salvage teams were either in their own craft or manning the Skuas. One of them, Julie Mapp, had shown a real apt.i.tude for the Skua and had also requested a transfer to Basalt which the major was considering; not one of the existing crew had any objections as she could build racing aircraft and engines. She had done so for a long time and had a reputation of being good at it. Made b.l.o.o.d.y awful coffee, but great tea ... just like Marko, in fact. And she had confided to him that she didn't like coffee.

Marko's boards were perfect so he switched the engine controls to the major and Patrick. They jumped into the system where Cactus 3 was marooned and started to bring Basalt to the designated position, just out of sight of the target ice moon, which orbited the gas giant with the distant local star lighting the scene. Veg and Stephine launched immediately, switched on their exotic camouflage, then their almost undetectable propulsion systems, and moved quickly ahead of Basalt.

It was a beautiful sight. The huge gas ball was covered in amazing storms with extraordinary colours. Marko could just imagine the major's excitement and he could see that, in spite of all that was going on, Michael was shunting images and data into his private astronomy and astrophysics files.

'Target is currently on the other side of the ice moon,' the major informed them. 'We hold here. Albatross launch and hold position five kilometres out. Everyone else, deploy, and hold one hundred metres out.'

Marko dropped and gently powered the Skua away from Basalt's hull. The four small salvage craft, which were basically frames with engines, a large equipment container, a two-man c.o.c.kpit, winches with cutting gear, and covered in grapple mortars, also moved away until they all surrounded Basalt and pointed towards the Hauler.

Colonel White spoke over the comms. 'Basalt, this is Crystal. Info packet on the way.'

The comms laser from Crystal carried the latest pictures and data on the Hauler. It was still holding the same position in orbit and, as they looked at the data, it became apparent that the ship was still growing. There were also large numbers of urchins of all sizes in the mini-system of moons...o...b..ting the gas giant. The ones around the Hauler seemed to be different: they were more bulky and displayed a far greater skin colour range. They even moved more purposefully than the others. Everyone could hear the commanders of each unit and what they were saying to each other, as Stephine spoke. 'Patrick, anything comprehensible from the urchins?'

'No, Stephine, the language is a completely different structure. Looking at the others still operating around the gas giant, they have more in common with the urchins we know, but even they appear to have an unknown language. I am sorry, but this will take a great deal of time to decipher.'

She pursed her lips. 'Thanks. It was a long shot that we would understand them anyway. We can now see the Hauler in direct sight. Antimatter decoys are ready for launch.'

Major Longbow chimed in. 'Roger that, Stephine. Stand by to deploy the first one: aim it two degrees closer to the Hauler and step the speed up by ten per cent from what we decided earlier. Launch when ready.'

A moment later she replied. 'Decoy away. Second launch in ten minutes. Third and fourth, five minutes after that.'

They waited and watched over the hour that the decoys took to arrive. When the first was some tens of kilometres away, the behaviour of the urchins around the Hauler changed and they moved out to intercept it. Stephine maintained control of it and swerved it out of their intercept course, taking the decoy around towards the rear of the gas giant. From what the crews could see the urchins followed. As the second one pa.s.sed, more urchins appeared from under the Hauler to chase it. Stephine slowed the third and fourth decoys dramatically so they almost hit the Hauler, which caused a large group of small urchins to pour out from distorted hatchways on the surface of the Hauler. As soon as the urchins were out of sight pursuing the decoys, they all moved up until they could see the Hauler themselves.

Major van Beere, controlling Basalt's heavy lasers, started to cut through the Hauler's hull behind the nose section as the craft accelerated up towards the target together. It took them two hours to close on the Hauler, by which time the nose segment was almost severed. As soon as it came clear, everyone's lasers were controlled by Patrick, who targeted every piece of debris floating away from the separated pieces, destroying them. The salvage crews fired grapples onto the nose section and started to move away back towards the LP.

Major van Beere then deployed three of the Busters, which flew down against the bulk of the Hauler and attached themselves at their designated points, fired their engines and started the long journey towards the local star. They would carry on accelerating until sufficient speed had been built up to deploy their own buzzard ramjets, which would be able to scoop up any available gas or dust and continue the acceleration. The plan was for fast acceleration which, within days of launch, would make the Hauler unstoppable, and even if the entire a.s.semblage disintegrated its trajectory would take it into the local star anyway.

'Basalt, this is Crystal. The altered urchins, together with the slowing drones, will be in position in forty-five minutes. I am deploying a Compressor.'

'Acknowledged. All craft acknowledge forty-four-minute warning.' They all lasered in their receipt of message.

Marko had only ever seen a Compressor used a few times before and did not want to be anywhere close when it went off. Thinking about them, he knew it was science that Fritz probably understood, but he would be one of the very few. The device was a useful piece of equipment in that, when detonated, it would vaporise anything within a two-hundred-metre sphere of itself, and then suck the resulting material down into a tiny and rapidly deteriorating black hole. But they could only be deployed for relatively small targets; the Compressor's components were too unstable for making bigger devices, as Marko knew from his own experiences. Very early in his military career he had been part of a rescue squad that went looking for survivors from one of the Gjomvik development labs that had been tasked to make a bigger Compressor device. They found a lot of exotically coloured dust, plus one very big crater, which was all that remained of a large facility that had employed hundreds of people.

Their lasers were still firing, picking off small pieces of material, as Patrick tried to make sure that the cleanup was complete. Distant flashes of magenta showed that the Compressor had done its job, expanding in its odd-coloured fireball then collapsing in seconds. The bulk of the Hauler had long since disappeared starwards when the colonel called a halt to the cleanup, just as the first of the urchins from the gas giant started to appear on the distant sensors, coming out to investigate the faint signatures of antimatter drives.

'All ships form on Basalt,' the colonel ordered. 'Salvage, are you able to locate the AI Core?'

Major van Beere answered. 'Negative. It's either moving around, or there is something shielding our sensors, or it is aware of us and determined to make life difficult. We have fired the wormhole jumper units against the cone's outer hull. Control is handed across to you, Colonel.'

'Right. Form up on your lander and jump when ready.'

Marko watched the other units jump ahead of the cone-shaped nose piece as the colonel also located her own small LP and jumped as well. He was the last one to move up against Basalt and as soon as Patrick felt the contact he jumped them towards the system's Oort Field far out into interstellar s.p.a.ce, where millions of comets formed a halo around the system. A few seconds later the view had changed considerably and they hoped that they would be able to operate on the nose segment in peace, as the colonel came back on the comms links.

'Good work so far, people. Has anyone been able to learn anything from the Hauler core?'

Fritz replied: 'No, Colonel, there is just a stream of gibberish coming from it on all frequencies. There is a subroutine which is heavily encoded that I am trying to decipher. Do we know when the representative Hauler will arrive? It may be able to a.s.sist.'