Chapter 34
Unable to move, the pain flowed freely through Jason's body and mind. He knew instinctively that he was still alive, but something, everything, was wrong. There was no light to see, and no sound to hear. Everything was gone, as if he were trapped inside a sealed tomb.
Where was he? What happened? Why couldn't he hear Angel? The questions forced their way past the pain, into the center of his thoughts. Slowly, Jason was able to answer the questions. He was still on Redemption, and they had just been through a horrific battle. However, he should still be able to contact Angel, unless she was off line.
The thought of Angel being out of commission sent a wave of terrifying realizations through his mind. With Angel down, they were defenseless. Without her, life support could not function, and with Kamira gone as well, they had no way of repairing the ship. With everything tied in to the A.I., the sensors were gone, and they had no idea what was going on around them. In that moment, Jason knew that without Angel, they were all going to die.
Jason forced himself to think. He couldn't see, hear, or move. Why? Why couldn't he do any of those things? There had to be a reason. He chased his memories of the battle in an effort to find his answer.
The memories were still fresh in his mind. Fighting the Ta'Reeth warships, and winning, and then there was their secret weapon. The sheer power the Ta'Reeth had managed to harness and deploy against Redemption defied logic. How had they done it? What was the nature of such a thing? It had every characteristic of a black hole, a collapsed star, and yet the Ta'Reeth had been able to turn it into a weapon that they could control.
Jason remembered having witnessed the brutal death of his bridge crew. One moment they were there, and the next they were dead, crushed by two Ta'Reeth fighters as they sacrificed themselves in a kamikaze attack. The attack had worked. Those two fighters killed his bridge crew, and forced Jason to use his personal link with Angel to destroy that terrible weapon. He had accessed every computer system that he needed with his mind. His thoughts had become the actions that killed that monster of a ship.
The computer, Angel, was down and his mind still directly connected, via his helmet, to her. That was why he was unable to move, why he could not hear, or see. Jason's mind raced in the void, desperately trying to cope with his situation, trying to find a solution that would grant him access to his own body. In the void, there were no reference points, nothing in which he could orient himself so that he could find his way. In the silent blackness, Jason began to panic. His heart started to race, to beat wildly and uninhibited.
The pounding of his own heart reached into the void, a single desperate lifeline that Jason could take hold of. It was a tenuous thread, one that threatened to break the moment that he allowed his mind to wander even the slightest bit. Still, he kept his focus on the beating of his heart.
The moments stretched into long, arduous minutes as Jason reconnected his mind and body. The thudding of his heart slowly evened, and eventually slowed as his concentration became absolute. Soon, he was able to lift his arms, and remove the helmet that had kept him locked away in the void that exists between life and death.
The sight that greeted Jason nearly overwhelmed him. The pale blue flickering of the forcefield washed the bridge in an ethereal light that tried and failed to hide the grotesque carnage. Redemption's bridge was now a tomb. Before the battle Redemption had been a working, disciplined fighting machine, and now it was a frozen crater filled with the desecrated remains of the enemy and friends alike.
Jason closed his eyes for a moment, allowing himself a precious few seconds to say goodbye to the men and women that had lost their lives under his command. The ship and her crew had done their jobs, they had fought well and they deserved more gratitude and recognition than they were likely to receive.
When he opened his eyes again, Jason was ready. Through sheer force of will, he leveraged his battered frame out of the captain's chair, and stumbled to a locker located at the rear of the bridge. With the power being out, he was forced to pry the door open. Hanging inside the locker was a series of emergency environmental suits. They were bulky and durable, designed for use in extremely inhospitable situations.
Jason pulled down the nearest suit, and climbed into it. It was self-adjusting, having been designed to fit the widest range of sizes possible. The suit clicked and whirred as it adjusted to fit the Captain's two-meter tall, muscular frame, until it finally sealed and he was ready to do what he needed.
Bringing the suit's computer online, Jason checked the status of the suit, and how much time he had on the rebreather. His seals looked to be good, and the air supply was at acceptable levels, but that still didn't leave him much time. He had only sixty minutes to make his way back to engineering, diagnose the problem with the computer, and get it restarted before he was out of air.
Taking a deep breath, Jason turned back to the forcefield that had kept him safe from the Ta'Reeth attack. With the computer down, the turbo lifts were out of the question. The turbo lifts were the only way to and from the bridge, and with the main computer not functioning, the bridge was now an island that no one could get to. His only chance to reach engineering in time was to go out on the hull, find an airlock, and manually open it.
The forcefield shimmered blue against the star pricked backdrop of space. There were no weaknesses in the barrier, having its own computer processing and power supply, just in case the main computer actually failed at a critical moment. Jason was grateful for the foresight of Redemption's designers, but now the redundant systems were more of a hindrance than a benefit. He needed to find a way through, or around the forcefield, and he had to do it quickly.
Minutes ticked inexorably by as Jason searched for a way to circumvent the forcefield. Every time he managed to break through a weakened section hull, the forcefield snapped into place before he could get through. Ten minutes had passed, and he still had nothing to show for his efforts. Frustrated, Jason kicked at a bulkhead, and was surprised when the bulkhead fell away, revealing the forcefield generator.
At around a meter square, the generator was surprisingly small. There were no wires or connections of any kind running into or out of the gray and black composite box, only a bright blue light that steadily flashed on its side gave any indication that anything was happening.
Taking a shard of metal from the wreckage, Jason wedged it into the seam of the box. He worked at it for a moment before he was rewarded with the side of the generator coming off. Inside the generator, a series of processors, lenses, and power supplies ran in sequence to generate the forcefield. Taking careful aim, Jason thrust his shard of metal into one of the lenses, and missed. The shard rebounded off the hardened lens, and directly into one of the processors. The metal connected the positive and negative terminals, shorting out the entire system in a magnificent display of smoke and sparks. The sparks were still flying when the forcefield gave out.
The fire from the forcefield generator died, and debris ripped at his environmental suit as it flew by. Jason grabbed frantically at the bulkhead as the atmosphere exploded out of the ruined bridge, in a desperate attempt to not be sucked out into space. His initial attempt failed, but he caught hold of one of the Ta'Reeth fighters as he slipped by.
The air lasted for only a moment before it was gone, and Jason was able to reorient himself to continue with his mission. He activated the magnets in his boots, and let his feet settle to the deck. Once he was standing free of any supports, it was only a matter of moments before the Captain was walking on the hull of his crippled ship.
The damage to the bridge was nothing. Redemption had managed to shield her crew from the worst of the battle. Her once pristine hull now bore a patchwork of scars and damage that only a ship of her caliber could have withstood. Great rends in her hull reached from the lowest point of her keel, up and across the mighty ship, making her hull resemble a broken egg.
Jason closed his eyes against the overwhelming nausea that threatened to
cripple him and his mission. He stood alone on the hull of his ship, seeing with his own eyes the full extent of the damage. Her hull was crushed, broken against the very asteroid that had stopped the ship from careening through endless space. The flicker of forcefields dotted the hull, while other wounds were left open to the cold reality of space. Thick sections of Redemptions ablative armor curled away from the hull like the monstrous peaks of a charred mountain range.
Jason reminded himself that he was the Captain of this ship. The responsibility to keep the crew and ship safe rested with him and him alone. He had never asked to be Captain, but he was the Captain and that was what mattered right then. He had to keep going.
Time was slipping quickly away as Jason picked his way through the razor sharp forest of shattered hull. He avoided as much of the damage as he could, but quickly found that there was no way to go but through it. The route that he chose eventually brought him to the edge of a precipice, a chasm covered with the flickering blue sheen of a forcefield.
He looked left, then right, trying to find the limit of the chasm. There was no end to in sight. Without the metal in the hull, the magnets in Jason’s boots could not find purchase, and he would float away, never to be of help to anyone again. The chasm was too wide for him to cross, and he did not have enough time to go back and find another way.
Jason looked down at the forcefield, refusing to give up. On the other side of the barrier, in the pale blue light, he could see things. There were a handful of bodies, burned and broken beyond his recognition. Parts of machinery floated amongst the dead crewmembers, bumping into them, and both flying away in different directions. This gave him an idea.
There was no gravity in this section of the ship. Jason waited patiently for a moment, until a large piece of bulkhead floated near the forcefield. He waited until it was close enough, and then placed his left foot against the barrier. As he had hoped, the magnets in his boot attracted the piece of metal, and stayed in place on the other side of the forcefield. The grip was tenuous, but still, it held.
Taking a deep breath, Jason stood on the bulkhead fragment, and pushed off from the hull. The ride started out smooth, with the forcefield providing little resistance, while giving Jason the bit of help that he needed. A rhythm slowly developed; a gentle give and take of the forcefield and the magnets as he slid across the invisible barrier. As he went, the rhythm grew more pronounced, more violent the closer that came to the other side.
Jason crouched down as far as he could manage, trying keep his balance. He was just past the half waypoint when all forward progress stopped. Something was wrong. Jason managed to kneel down on the forcefield, without losing his balance. He touched the shimmering barrier with his hand, and found it to be softer than he had expected.
Gently, Jason placed both hands against the forcefield, and pushed. He started to row with his hands, before the forcefield began to pulse. It grew bright and strong, then dimmed to the point that it was barely there, before growing strong again. The flat surface of the forcefield started to twist and deform as Jason came close to the other side of the chasm.
Jason could see, almost touch the hull at the far side. He was going to make it, if only the forcefield would hold for another moment. He reached out in anticipation, in the eagerness of feeling the sold metal hull beneath his feet. In that instant, the forcefield failed. It twisted and bucked, throwing Jason away from the stars, and down into the chasm.
Jason careened past the ruined bodies of his crewmembers, and the debris from his broken ship. He fell deeper into the darkness, barely able to see the remnants of Olcai through the failing forcefield. He continued to fall deeper into the ship, until finally he struck the bottom.
The force of the impact drove the air from Jason's lungs. Millions of brilliant stars danced across his vision as Jason fought to stay conscious. He had to keep going. Nothing could stop him, too much depended on him getting the computer running again.
Jason's feet caught on something as he drifted up. He turned on the small lamps located on his helmet, and looked at his feet.
Lodged between a bulkhead and a piece of equipment, was the body of an unfortunate crewmember. Jason's feet had caught in the Bakeeron's arms. It occurred to him then, that it didn't matter what race someone was, or where they were from. In death, everyone was the same.
Reaching down, Jason gently freed himself from the corpse's grasp, and placed his feet against the bulkhead. Once his feet were firmly in place, he looked around. Whatever had happened here had happened fast. Death had come quickly to the men and women that had worked here.
Halfway up the wall was a door. Jason picked his way along the bulkhead, carefully avoiding the sharp edges of the broken decks and shattered equipment. The going was difficult, but he finally arrived at the door.
With no power to open the door, Jason opened a small access panel located on the wall next to it. Inside the panel was a small wheel with a knob on it. Jason took the wheel, and turned. He kept turning the wheel until the door had opened wide enough for him to step through.
There was gravity, but little else on the other side. Jason stepped into the deserted corridor and deactivated his boots. He could not be sure if there was still breathable air, so he kept his suit intact as he ran down the corridor to the sealed door at the far end.
He knew where he was now. The door at the end of the corridor opened into engineering, not too far from his destination. He knew now that the damage to his ship had been far more extensive than he had imagined. It may not be possible to repair Redemption. Without Angel, it wouldn't be possible at all.
Jason checked his timer as he ran. Heavier breathing, no matter the reason for the exertion, used oxygen at a faster rate. The numbers flashed on his counter, and it wasn't good. He had ten minutes left before he was out of air. After that, he was probably going to die from asphyxiation.
So be it. If it cost Jason his life to save the lives of his crew, then that was what he was going to do.
The door at the end of the corridor proved no more troublesome than the one before. It opened smoothly with the use of the emergency access panel. Jason paused for just a moment, trying to slow his racing heart, before he stepped through the door, and into engineering.
Engineering was dark as well, with no way for light to seep in from outside. Jason's lights played across the expansive chamber, slowly taking in the details. There were crewmembers in here, but from the way they were laying, they were either dead, or unconscious. In the center of the chamber, rising four full decks above, and silent, was Angel.
Jason checked the computer core for any obvious signs of damage. There were no signs of debris, no burn marks, no damage of any kind. Still, Angel showed no signs of life at all.
Finally, Jason turned his attention away from the core. Lining the far wall, reaching the height and width of the entire chamber, was a bank of redundant circuit breakers and line conditioners. Halfway up, he found the problem. There, in the center, a dozen breakers were tripped.
Jason found a moveable ladder, with the top of it attached to runners along the wall, and moved it into place. He climbed quickly and threw all of the breakers that he could reach. He was forced to climb down, reposition the ladder and climb up again. The climb became harder as he went. His air supply grew thin, and then gave out as he reached the top. Reaching out, Jason managed to throw the final breaker before he collapsed.
The computer core came to life as Jason fell. Brilliant blue lines of power coursed through transparent veins that covered Angel like fine lace.