Yes," said Frost. "Almost certainly. I get the impression they were after information, as much as anything. They certainly seemed to pay special attention to the computer records. People were mostly killed or attacked when they got in the way or tried to interfere with the search. I think they were looking for something."
What could they have wanted here?" said Cross. "Gehenna is the farthest planet in this sector of the Empire. There's nothing beyond here but the Darkvoid."
"And they couldn't have come this far through the Empire without being noticed," said Stelmach. "So they must have come from… outside the Empire."
"Nothing lives in the Darkvoid," said Frost. "Apart from the traitors on Haden."
Then, maybe they came from the other side of the Darkvoid," said Silence slowly. "And this was the first human outpost they discovered. But why just attack? We always try to communicate first. If only to find out what we're getting into. Did the Base have something the aliens wanted? Something they knew the Base personnel wouldn't give up voluntarily?"
"I think we're reaching a bit here," said Cross.
"Of course we are," said Frost. "It's all we've got. Now, unless you've got something useful to say, shut the hell up. We're thinking. So they took tech apart, killed people in search of something. Information. What did they want to know that we wouldn't tell them?"
"Weaknesses," said Stelmach. "Defense stations, weaponry, secrets…"
"The location of homeworld!" said Silence. "Destroy Golgotha, and the whole Empire would be crippled!" A shudder ran through Silence as his thoughts raced ahead of him.
"You thought this was a trap, Investigator, but it isn't. It's a decoy intended to keep us occupied here while the aliens head for Golgotha! Heads up, everyone. We're leaving."
"Oh, come on," said Cross. "This is really reaching."
"No," said Frost. "It feels right. It's what I'd do."
"But what about the missing personnel?" said Cross. "What if they're being kept somewhere here on Gehenna? If we go chasing off after a theory, they could die here! What if we're wrong about this?"
"Then, we're wrong," said Frost. "Now, shut up and move. Homeworld must be protected, at all costs. No wonder you keep being transferred, Cross. You talk too much."
"We are leaving, people!" said Silence. "Investigator, lead the way. Cross and Stelmach, stick with me. Marines, bring up the rear. If anything moves, shoot it. We don't have any friends here anymore."
And so they made their way back out of the Base, breasting the endless sprinkler rain like swimmers in a race. It was hard to run in the heavy, clumsy hard suits, but they did it anyway. There was no telling what kind of advance the aliens had on them. The attack on the Base couldn't have happened long ago. What was left of the human bodies hadn't had time to corrupt much. That meant a few days at most. So everything depended now on what kind of stardrive the alien ship had, and whether it was the equal of the Dauntless's new drive. The Dauntless was supposed to be the fastest thing in the Empire, but Silence and Frost knew something the others didn't. The amazing new stardrive was based on a drive Silence and Frost found in the alien ship crash-landed on the planet Unseeli. Which meant there was no telling how fast the new alien ship might be. Especially, one that had apparently crossed the Darkvoid from one side to the other; something no Empire ship had ever dared attempt.
Usually, the Empire found aliens and made decisions about their future. The aliens could join the Empire, be subjugated, or die. No other choices were available. This time, something had found the Empire. And all Silence could do was hope the Dauntless got back to Golgotha in time to give a warning. Before the aliens arrived and started making decisions about humanity.
* * *
The Dauntless dropped out of hyperspace and plunged into orbit around Golgotha, all weapons systems charged and ready, and immediately began broadcasting warnings on all channels. Sensors raked the darkness for signs of the alien ship, and only then discovered that the homeworld's defenses were in a complete shambles. The Dauntless homed in on the main starport, only to find everyone was shouting at everyone else, and no one was listening. Cross ran through all the comm channels, but the chaos had spread even to the most restricted emergency channels.
"What the hell is going on down there?" said Silence. "Did the alien ship beat us here?"
"No sign of anything on the sensors," said Frost immediately. "But that's not all that's missing. There are supposed to be six starcruisers constantly on patrol, orbiting Golgotha, as the Empire's last line of defense. I can't find a trace of any of them."
Silence looked across at the comm station. "Cross, are our warnings getting through?"
"Impossible to say, Captain. The channels are such a mess that priority's a joke."
"Let me try," said Stelmach, moving in beside Cross. "I have access to security channels that most people don't know about."
"Go ahead," said Silence. "Frost, use the long-range sensors. Get me some pictures of what's going on down there."
Frost grunted something, preoccupied with her instruments, but after a moment the viewscreen suddenly flickered into life. The starport and its landing pads had been systematically destroyed. Smoke rose up from blazing buildings, and broken starships lay scattered across the broken pads like so much shattered crockery. The steelglass control tower was cracked like a jigsaw, and everywhere fires blazed out of control. Emergency services were doing what they could, but things had obviously got out of their control long ago. There were bodies everywhere, and Silence had no doubt there were many more he couldn't see.
"The alien ship got here about six hours ago," said Stelmach. "Launched an attack while the control tower was still trying to identify it. It blew up the ships on the pads and then made dozens of strafing runs, raking the port and the city with energy weapons of an unfamiliar type. Force fields and Screens were no protection. They either failed or the energy weapons blew them aside. Known casualties are in the hundreds of thousands. As yet the Empress is in no danger; she's safe in the Imperial Palace, deep below the surface. We can only hope the aliens don't know she's there."
"This is insane!" said Silence. "How could one ship have done so much damage unchallenged?"
"It appears the aliens got a lucky break," said Cross. "As far as I can make out, the rebel underground launched some kind of sabotage attack only a few hours before the alien ship arrived. They then made their escape on a Hadenman ship. The six starcruisers took off after it. Security were busy chasing their own tails trying to sort out the extent of the sabotage, and got caught napping."
"It wasn't security's fault!" Stelmach said quickly. "The rebels crashed nearly all of the computer defenses. We were helpless."
"Forget about laying the blame and get me some information I can use," said Silence. "Where's the alien ship now?"
"On the far side of the planet," said Frost. "It's on its way back here. Two, three minutes tops, depending on whether it stops to blow something else up."
"What are you going to do, Captain?" said Cross.
"Blow it to shit," said Silence.
"No," said Frost immediately. "Normally, I'd agree with you. Captain, but for now we need answers more than revenge. We have to know more about them, where they come from. If this ship really did cross the Darkvoid to find us, who knows what else might be following them? We need prisoners to interrogate and the ship as intact as possible, to study."
"Any other restrictions you want to lay on me?" said Silence.
"There's also the case of the missing Base personnel," said Cross stubbornly. "If they're being held on the alien ship…"
"Then they're expendable," said Silence. "I'll save them if I can, but I'm not making any promises. Same to you, Investigator. Stopping the attack comes first. Homeworld must be protected. And if it comes to blowing the alien ship apart rather than letting it escape, that ship is dead."
"Understood," said Frost. "You'd have made a good Investigator, Captain."
"Thanks a whole
bunch," said Silence. "Cross, where is it?"
"It's coming," said Cross. "Should be in visual range any time now."
"Red Alert," said Silence. "All shields up, everyone to their battle stations. Power up all weapons and tie in fire-control systems. Cross, download our log so far, along with any other useful information concerning the aliens and what happened at Gehenna Base, and launch the files in an emergency buoy. If anything should happen to us, the information can be retrieved later by whoever survives this mess."
"It's coming," said Cross. "I have it in my sensors. Its speed is incredible."
"Put it on the viewscreen," said Silence.
The scene on the viewscreen changed to show the great glowing curve of Golgotha, and the darkness and the stars beyond. One of the stars was moving rapidly toward them, jumping in size as Cross increased magnification. The alien ship finally sprang into view, and Silence leaned forward in his command chair. The alien craft appeared to be a huge hull of sickly white webbing, tied and tangled together. It reminded Silence of a wasp's nest or a cocoon. Insect imagery. The ball had no details of shape or structure and no identifiable technology.
"How big is it?" Silence said finally.
"About two miles in diameter," said Cross. "I'm listening on all channels, but I'm not picking up anything from the alien craft."
"Sensors indicate mainly organic material," said Frost. "Presumably protected by some kind of force shield, but the few energy readings I'm picking up make no sense at all. No identifiable drive, or weapons, or… anything, really."
"Try talking to them," said Stelmach. "Maybe we can negotiate."
"Unlikely," said Frost. "Even the best computer translators take months to produce a working language. Besides, I'd say they've already made their intentions clear."
"Damn right," said Silence. "I don't negotiate with butchers. Anything else on the sensors?"
"Getting some high-energy readings as we get closer, nothing familiar. Wait a minute. Something's happening. The energy readings are building…"
Flaring energy leapt out from the alien ship, crossing the intervening miles in a moment, and crackled across the Dauntless's force shields. It seethed and hissed all over the shields, testing, searching for weak spots. Alarms went off all over the Dauntless as slowly, inexorably, the crackling energy tore through the force shields, seeped through the outer hull, and burst into the ship's interior. Blazing light leapt out of workstations on that side of the ship, incinerating crew members where they stood. More alarms sounded every minute, and fires burned unattended in a chaos of screams and shouted orders. Emergency systems were bypassed, and the energy spread.
"Evacuate that section!" said Silence. "Get out as many as you can, and then isolate the section and seal it off. Set up a series of force shields in the corridors. See if you can slow it down at least. Frost, talk to me. What is that stuff? What is it doing to my ship?"
"Sensors indicate pure energy, Captain," said Frost calmly. "But it also has definite physical properties. Possibly some form of plasma energy in suspension, but don't quote me. It's ignoring everything we throw at it. And if these readings are to be believed, the energy has begun to infiltrate our instrumentation in that section, subverting it and taking it over."
"We just lost sectors H through K," said Cross. "They're no longer responding to central control, or auxiliary backups. Life-support systems are shutting down in those sectors."
"Is everyone out?" said Silence.
"Most of them," said Cross. "Those that didn't get out won't last long."
"Evacuate the adjoining sectors," said Silence. "Seal them off with as many interior force shields as we can generate. Any injured are to get themselves to the Infirmary. Everyone else is to stay at their posts. Investigator, any recommendations?"
"Our shields won't hold back the energy for long, Captain. Defensive measures are strictly temporary. This would seem to indicate the need to take the offensive. If the alien ship has any force shields, my sensors can't find them. It's looking more and more like our best bet is to hit them with everything we've got and see what happens."
"I was hoping we'd have something else we could try first," said Silence. "I don't like playing our main hand this early. But needs must prevail when the devil drives. Gunnery Officer, target the alien ship. Hit it till its shields go down and we start inflicting actual damage, and then break off and stand by for new orders."
The Dauntless's disrupter cannon opened fire in sequence, one after another, maintaining a constant barrage of destructive power. Strange energy fields suddenly flared into being around the alien ship, shimmering fiercely. The disrupter cannon pounded away at them, but they held firm. Within the Dauntless, the strange crackling energy spread slowly but inexorably from one section to the next, infiltrating and subverting essential systems as it went. Life support was going down sector by sector. Crew members died at their posts, or running for their lives.
A workstation on the bridge exploded suddenly, throwing its operator lifeless to the floor, his clothes and hair burning fiercely. Strange energies danced on the bridge air like heat lightning. Silence yelled for people to back away from the blazing workstation, but for everyone else to hold their posts. Fires licked along one wall, hot and blazing.
The disrupter cannon fired and fired, and suddenly the alien ship's fields went down. Chunks of the sickly white webbing were blown away into space. And as suddenly as that, the strange energies infesting the Dauntless disappeared. Workstations returned to normal, emergency systems began taking care of fires, life support was reestablished, and the attack was over. Silence ordered the disrupter cannon to break off firing, but to stand ready to resume the attack as necessary. The fires went out, the injured were helped, and the dead were dragged away. When the last alarm went off, it was eerily quiet on the bridge.
"All right," said Stelmach. "What do we do now?"
"We board the alien ship," said Frost. "We've done them some damage, but we have no way of telling how much, or how long it'll take them to make repairs. So we'd better strike now while they're still weakened."
"Agreed," said Silence. "I want that ship taken intact, so our people can take it apart and see what makes it tick. Especially, the shields and the weapons. We might have to face them again. But even so, given the state of the Dauntless, I can't authorize more than a small boarding party. You, Investigator, myself, and a dozen marines."
"Sounds good to me," said Frost.
"You can't leave the ship now, Captain," said Stelmach. "There are damage reports coming in from all over."
"Then, you deal with them. I'm needed on the boarding party. If only because I'm one of the few people here to have faced aliens and lived to tell of it. Cross, you work with the Security Officer. See he has all the support he needs."
"Yes, Captain," said Cross. "But I do feel I should point out that Regulations clearly state…"
"All right, you've pointed it out. Now, forget it. With all the trouble I'm in, a few more broken Regs are the least of my worries. You don't need me, Cross. This ship is dead in the water. Just watch over her, and don't let Stelmach get too carried away with his new responsibilities. Anyone calls, you know where to find me. Let's go, Investigator. I want a close-up look at the kind of ship that can trash an entire city and starport and almost took out an Imperial starcruiser."
"Right," said Frost. "And with a bit of luck, we'll get to kill some aliens, too."
"There's always the chance they're playing possum," said Stelmach.
"Then, they'll soon be dead possums," said Silence.
The Dauntless maneuvered carefully with the little power she had left to set herself alongside the alien craft, which made no move to acknowledge her presence. Sensors picked up no energy readings or life signs. Silence lay quietly in his hard suit inside the torpedo tube, listening to the reports over his comm implant. He didn't place too much reliance in the sensors. He had a strong feeling the alien ship was still perfectly capable of keepin
g its secrets to itself. He stirred uncomfortably, as best he could. He was lying facedown in one of his own torpedo tubes, the shoulders of his hard suit brushing against the steel walls, and he barely had room to twitch his fingers, never mind attend to the itch that was building with slow malevolent intensity between his shoulder blades. Normally, he'd only have to wear a hard suit maybe half a dozen times in a year, and this was the second time in one mission. He sighed deeply and ran through his suit's built-in diagnostics again. Anything to keep his mind occupied. As soon as the Dauntless got close enough, he was going to be fired out of the torpedo tube toward the alien ship, and he wasn't looking forward to it one bit. Even if it was his idea. There was no entry port he could fly a pinnace to, and blowing a hole in the alien craft big enough to dock a pinnace might have all kinds of unpleasant consequences. That just left climbing into a hard suit and knocking on the door the hard way.
Silence sighed again and wished he'd made time to visit the toilet first. The suit's facilities were efficient but primitive. The inside of his helmet had nothing to show him but the inside of the torpedo tube, and whatever displays he felt like calling up. It felt like he'd been stuck in the tube for hours, but the suit's timer, blinking officiously low on his left, insisted it had been barely twenty minutes. Silence wondered idly if this was what the inside of a coffin looked like, and then rather wished he hadn't.
"Captain, Dauntless is in position," said the Second in Command's voice suddenly in his ear. "Launching now."
Silence had an almost overpowering urge to say No, stop, I've changed my mind, and then pressure exploded around him, and he was shot out of the torpedo tube and into space. It was very dark, but the stars were very bright. They whirled around him in dizzy arcs, and then settled down as the hard suit orientated itself and its built-in computers locked onto the alien ship. The rocket pack on his back kicked in and nudged him toward the alien craft with a series of carefully considered bursts. The huge white ball hung silently before him, blank and ominous. This close, the tangled strands of webbing looked more like thick twisting cables. It also looked disturbingly organic. Alive. And quite possibly not nearly as damaged as it was pretending to be.