ONE
Space is a brutal and harsh mistress—deadly and unforgiving.
I was looking at a visceral example as the carnage unfolded on the screen before me. I sat in the Warlock’s conference room and looked at the center monitor again. My gaze was transfixed on the images that filled the screen.
My crew sat around the table in silence.
I gave them a few moments to process what they were seeing. I could hardly believe it myself. I knew who would break the silence first; she always did. Frost had many characteristics—patience wasn’t in the top three, not even the top five.
She slammed a fist on the surface of the table and looked into my eyes, her gaze unwavering. I glanced down at the table, just to make sure we didn’t need to replace the titanium surface.
“How do you even know it’s real?” Frost asked, pointing at the holographic image in the center of the conference table. Around us, the image was repeated on several of the walls. Daisy had the capability of turning any wall within the ship into a monitor. “This could be a deepfake.”
“Daisy,” I said, “pull up the feed and run it back. Put it on a loop.”
“Of course, Captain,” our sentient AI purred. “Do you need me to get you anything else?”
“Get me the source code for the video,” I said. “Point of origin, encryption, date of creation. Route all that information to the monitor on Frost’s side of table.”
“Yes, sir,” Daisy said in her sultry voice. “Transmitting information now.”
Normally, Daisy’s responses would elicit a smile from me.
Not today.
Today, I was looking at uncontrolled death roaming space and that death had a name.
Cross.
“Dusty Brugenheld,” Frost cursed, looking at the monitor next to her as her skin became a brighter blue. “The video specs are righteous. This came directly from MCorps?”
“I still have some friends inside,” I said. “Crank, tell me what we’re looking at.”
“A goddamn nightmare, that’s what that is,” Crank, the Warlock’s engineer answered, his voice barely above a whisper as he pointed at the image. “I shouldn’t be seeing what I’m seeing.”
“Break it down for me,” I said, pointing at the center holograph. “Daisy freeze it there and go back several seconds.”
She did as instructed and the scene twisted my stomach into knots.
“Right there, Crank,” I said, still pointing. “What am I looking at?”
“The Raptor,” Crank said slowly. “Cross obliterating an enemy battlecruiser without so much as breaking a sweat.”
“There was an XD Unit in MCorps that was working on some classified weapon prototype,” I said, trying to jog my memory. “It was supposed to be for the Kali—”
“The Singularity,” Crank finished. “That’s a myth. It never passed the concept stage. They deemed it too dangerous, even for the Kali.
“Why?” I asked. “What made it so dangerous?”
“Do you know why they named it the Singularity?”
“It was unique?”
“The rumor was that once fired, it created a gravitational singularity at its target location,” Crank said. “It’s a true planet killer.”
“It fired black holes?”
“That’s an over simplification, but yes,” Crank said. “You can see why they scrapped the idea. It was too unstable.”
I fixed my gaze on the image of the Raptor in front of me.
“That fit the profile of any known weapon you’re aware of?” I asked, pointing at the Raptor as it disintegrated the battlecruiser.
“That battlecruiser didn’t stand a chance.”
“That, I can see,” I said. “How is it doing this? That’s what I want to know. One moment that cruiser was intact, the next, it was debris. What happened?”
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Crank admitted, looking at the footage of the destruction as it repeated itself on a loop. “It almost seems like the Raptor unleashed an antimatter explosive device at the cruiser.”
“That was no explosion,” Frost said. “Not even antimatter would do that. That cruiser was devoured. Obliterated and reduced to nothing. Antimatter is a sudden meeting of two forces that can’t occupy the same space. This was something else. Something devoured that cruiser.”
“Very scientific,” Crank said, without looking away from the footage, “and inaccurate. There are no ship-eating weapons out there. I would know.”
“You better check your sources again,” I said. “Because unless this is some elaborate illusion, that cruiser was devoured—by something.”
Crank nodded.
“I want you all to check your contacts,” I continued. “Cross is not exactly a fan. It’s only a matter of time before he points whatever that is, in our direction. I want to know what that is before I’m looking down the barrel of whatever ate that cruiser.”
“How reliable is your source inside MCorps?” Frost asked. “If this is authentic, why send it to you?”
“What are you getting at?”
“We aren’t MCorps any more,” she said. “What are we going to do with this information?”
“Stop Cross,” I said. “We can start there.”
“With the Warlock?” she asked. “The Raptor is a Dreadnaught Class cruiser. We’d last all of ten seconds, that’s without it blasting us with that weapon. How exactly would we stop Cross and still be alive once we were done?”
“I haven’t figured out that part of the plan—yet.”
“Cross wants us dead after that EDEN move we pulled,” Frost said. “Especially you.”
“It goes back a little further than that.”
“True, still doesn’t change the fact that he wants you extra dead. The EDEN situation just adds a touch of urgency to the feeling.”
“We can’t leave him out there with that weapon,” I said. “This just became a Priority Red. Gather everything you can on whatever that thing is. Night, listen for the chatter. See if there is anything on the dark channels about an X-weapon being made by MCorps or Conglom. Anything at all. I also need to know where the Raptor is currently.”
“I’ll see what I can find out,” Night said. “Something like that has to have leaked somewhere.”
“Agreed,” I said with a nod. “Find out where, and get us more information.”
The rest of the crew filed out of the conference room, leaving Frost and me alone, staring at the holograph of the carnage. The air was thick with a low-level shock. We were all ex-MCorps. We had seen enough horrors to last us several lifetimes.
Yet we had never seen something like this.
“If that’s a weapon—” Frost started.
“We can’t jump to any conclusions,” I said. “Like you said, it could be a hoax.”
Even though I said it, I knew it wasn’t.
“Don’t smoke me, Jack,” she said, staring at the image. She ran her hand through the hologram, rotating the image. “This is some next-level Conglom nightmare—even beyond that EDEN device we dealt with.”
“If Cross has a weapon like this—”
“No one is safe,” she said. “We can’t do Arcturi-3. Not now at least. Not with this thing out there.”
“Arcturi-3 is going to have to wait,” I said. “Are you sure there are still mages there?”
“Real ones? Maybe?” she said, looking away from the hologram. “In the outskirts, there’s bound to be one or two of the old ones—the real ones.”
“Will you be able to find them?”
“Do I look like a mage tracker?”
“What does a mage tracker look like?”
She gave me a stare and looked away.
“I’ll find them,” she said. “If there are any still alive planetside, I’ll find them. Can you keep it together until then?”
“You mean if we find Cross and survive whatever fresh hell he has managed to create?”
“Yes, we really don’t need you punching holes in the Warlock because you had a sneeze you couldn’t control.”
“Captain Jack would never punch holes in me,” Daisy said, defending me. “He takes care of me to the utmost of his ability. Unlike some, he knows how to demonstrate his appreciation.”
“The captain isn’t the one piloting your fat ass through asteroid fields, trying to keep you in one piece,” Frost snapped. “That would be me, remember that.”
“How could I forget?” Daisy said. “The last asteroid field, you took me through, I suffered extensive damage on the starboard hull. Were you trying to hit every asteroid?”
“Jack…” Frost warned. “You better get your ship wife in check, or I’m the one that will start blasting holes where it hurts.”
“Threatening my integrity would be an act of suicide, Major Frost,” Daisy said in her official voice, using Frost’s rank from DD-1. “You swore an oath, not only to the Captain, but to this crew and to this ship. Are you saying you would break your oaths?”
Frost glared up at the ceiling.
“You know very well that wouldn’t happen while I was breathing,” Frost said with a low growl. “You never, ever question my oaths.”
“Not questioning,” Daisy said lightly. “Merely reviewing the facts.”
Frost gave her a one finger salute and turned to me.
“You didn’t tell them about your new skills. Why?”
“What am I going to tell them?” I said, running a hand through my hair. “By the way I have magic now?”
“Yes,” she said. “At the very least, you can tell them you’ve changed. You should let Widow—”
“No,” I said, ending her train of thought. “She’ll want to run a battery of tests and lock me down in sickbay. I don’t have the time or the energy to face Moira on this.”
“Admit it,” Frost said with an evil grin. “You’re scared of her.”
“Only because I’m sane and value all my important bits,” I said with a sigh. “You know how she is. She’ll start with a normal diag and then I’ll end up strapped to one of her tables with all sorts of devices attached to me—Pass.”
“You better tell her before she finds out on her own,” Frost warned. “You know she will find out eventually.”
“I can’t see how,” I said. “It’s not like I’m going around firing bolts of energy.”
“You do realize the Warlock can run a shipwide crew diagnostic at the request of the Chief Medical Officer?” she asked. “You think Widow won’t run one or ten?”
“Not if no one gives her any ideas,” I said. “Daisy?”
“Yes, Captain?”
“This conversation is priority one, Noire—confirm.”
“Priority one, Noire confirmed,” Daisy said in her husky voice. “I feel that it’s important to inform you that Moira—the Chief Medical Officer’s clearance level supersedes all clearance on the Warlock when a life-threatening illness is discovered.”
“No one has a life-threatening illness,” I said with a growl. “I want this conversation private. Period.”
Frost chuckled.
“You may not have a life-threatening illness, but I can guarantee your life is going to be threatened when Widow discovers your new abilities.”
“Only one person besides me knows,” I said, giving her a look. “If she finds out, I’ll know where she got the information.”
“It won’t be from me,” Frost said, turning back to the hologram. “Where are we going with this You have any leads besides your source?”
“Manis,” I said. “That would make the most sense with this kind of tech. I can only think of one person who would have an idea what this is and how Cross got his hands on something like this.”
“Grace,” Frost said. “That’s going to be dangerous.”
“I didn’t say it would be easy,” I answered still looking at the Raptor frozen in front of me. “Grace is our best chance. She has experience and access. She’s still connected to MCorps and Conglom. I think she even has ties to the Planetary Union.”
“Manis is going to be crawling with Conglom,” Frost said. “We’re going to have to approach from the darkside.”
I nodded.
“Grace is still operating off Manis,” I said, looking at the hologram. “If anyone in that sector knows anything about a ship-eating weapon, it would be her.”
“Forget what I said about Widow,” Frost said, shaking her head. “If we’re going to see Grace, you may not survive that visit long enough for Widow to kill you.”
“Daisy, set a course for Manis, avoid all commercial routes and execute rundark,” I said, looking at the Raptor in the image. “We want to avoid any and all Conglom traffic.”
“Understood, Captain,” Daisy replied. “Would you like me to inform Grace of our imminent arrival?”
“How long until we enter Manis’ orbit from our current location?”
“Some of my drive components are undergoing routine maintenance,” Daisy answered. “That would delay us by several days.”
“Crank,” I called out to the shipwide com. “What’s the status of the Warlock’s Q-Drives?”
“Currently in several parts,” Crank said over the speaker. “I thought we were down for a few days. I’m running deep diagnostics on her drives, trying to increase the efficiency. Do I need to reassemble them?”
“Depends—we need to get to Manis,” I said. “I have a feeling we may need to leave there in a hurry. How much power do we have now?”
“Define hurry,” he said. “Is that the ‘we are being escorted out of the system with extreme animosity kind’, or ‘Grace wants to slag us to molten sculpture’, kind of hurry?”
I glanced at Frost.
“Did we deliver that package we promised?”
“Yes, dropped it off myself,” Frost said. “Grace is frigid as long as we don’t get on her bad side when we’re on Manis.”
“I didn’t realize Grace had a good side.”
“She does, it’s just that her bad side is ever present,” Frost said. “You don’t want to trigger her.”
“With Grace that’s not exactly difficult,” I said. “Crank, get the Q-Drives fully operational by the time we reach Manis. If we need a quick exit, I want to have the option. How long until we enter Manis’ space, Daisy?”
“At our current operational level—seven chrono days,” she said. “Once my drives are operational, the time will be substantially shorter.”
“Seven chrono days, Crank,” I said. “Can you do it?”
“If I can borrow Night, I can,” he said. “Is he on anything mission critical?”
“Ask him,” I said. “If he can spare the time, fold him into the Q-Drive reassembly.”
“Copy,” Crank said. “You sure you want to go to Manis?”
“We need to find out what that weapon or device is,” I said. “It’s on the Raptor which means sooner or later, we’ll be facing it or it will be used against someone we care about. I want to know what it is before that moment arrives.”
“You do realize Grace can be a bit unstable.”
“I’m on the Warlock,” I said, glancing at Frost. “Unstable is practically a requirement for this ship.”
Crank laughed and ended the conversation.
