The large double doors beside Major Cumberland opened and he ordered his scanning team, reduced to two soldiers, forward with a squad for cover using hand signals.
"Whoa, not good!" exclaimed Farrar, his lead scanning officer. She recoiled as though she had been physically struck. "This is a torpedo room, picking up five fusion torpedoes ready to go, set for focused detonation and ready to go on an electrical hair trigger."
"Confirmed! This whole room is linked to some kind of control node, if I knew more about the ship I'd be able to tell you where it goes, probably the bridge, but there's no telling."
Major Cumberland looked across the room. The transparent hull was four meters thick in some places. He could see the lights of Battlecruiser 1009, it was directly in the torpedo room's line of fire and moored in place. The well polished floor and pristinely maintained equipment in the space told him things about the crew that didn't make him feel better. Whoever worked in that section was disciplined, skilled, and most likely loyal.
He was reminded of the crew members they had managed to capture, who told them nothing, worse than nothing. They provided misinformation, like the story of the ship's vault in the centre of the vessel. According to them it was a Botanical Gallery with family apartments, a park, gardens and small businesses. It was unbelievable; the most secure section of the ship couldn't have been occupied by personal quarters and plant life. Teams had been trying to cut into it for hours and had made little progress.
The maddening fighting skill and tactical execution of their movements were counter to a people who would keep that sort of thing at the heart of their ship. Soldiers travelled on ships made for soldiers, whether they were mercenaries, corporate or operating under the rule of a government. "What are the other tubes for?"
"Sorry sir?"
"You said there are four fusion torpedoes loaded, what's in the other two?"
"They look like tactical plasma drillers," replied Farrar.
Sgt Cumberland looked through the transparent hull to the battlecruiser and got a sinking feeling. "Cumberland to Command. We have a situation here."
"This is Command, go ahead."
"I'm in a port side torpedo room; it's loaded and ready to go with four focused nukes and a couple of driller rounds. Looks like there's a pretty sensitive trip fuse linking them together, I don't want to attempt to disarm."
"Hold, Major."
"Yes sir,"
The wait felt like an eternity as everyone who was privy to the situation watched the seconds pass on their displays. Finally, the Command officer reappeared. "Major, is there any indication that the fuse could be connected to similar torpedo rooms in other parts of the ship?"
Major Cumberland looked to Farrar, who nodded emphatically. The Junior Scanning officer verified it with a slower, deeper nod of his own. "My people are sure of it, sir. Looks like these people will do anything to keep us from taking possession."
"Leave it, we'll send someone in behind you to disarm them."
"Sir, with all due respect, if there is even one more of these rooms set up the same way, and it goes off in your faces, you could lose a battlecruiser. From what I've seen of this ship it's a mirrored design, meaning that-"
"The port side matches the starboard side, I'm aware, Major. Command has evaluated the risk and is sending you new orders. Command out," finished the Communications Officer.
Major Cumberland checked his orders and nodded to himself. "Get that shield down, we're headed to the central express lifts. Looks like they finished mopping up the levels below us and we’re not going aft.”
Chapter 19
Leaving everyone behind as things were growing worse by the minute was one of the hardest things Ayan had done since waking up on Freedom Tower. There was no doubt about it, leaving everyone behind felt wrong. She couldn’t forget the parting sight of the crew and ships in the middle of that featureless landscape. The rain started to come down harder as they stepped into the customs vessel, and she could tell that hard clay was starting to turn to mud.
As Ayan, Laura and the pair of Triton soldiers behind them looked through the wide transparesteel porthole they could see Jake and Stephanie moving everyone out from under the ships as the landing struts started to sink into the softening toxic dirt. Lights were coming on within the Jolly Holler. Customs officers would be taking it back to Greydock, or wherever they brought stolen vessels and the Triton refugees would be left with even less shelter. The clouds didn't seem to be thinning either.
"Are you all right?" Laura asked in a low whisper.
"We need to turn things around. Even the people who wanted to leave can't, and now we have loyal crew working while the rest stand around complaining about how we screwed up and customs won’t let them go anywhere." She gestured at the slowly milling crowd of deserters, many of them looked like they were shouting at the security people who herded them away from the heavy, mismatched ships. It was as though they didn't realize that they would be crushed if they were beneath them if they broke through the toxic layer of soil. "I've never seen a crew so beaten."
"We'll find a way," Laura reassured. "Between everyone here we'll figure something out."
"I think I really burned a bridge with Colonel Davies. Her report isn't going to favour our cause."
"I don't think anyone could have done any better. She's a little full of herself I think."
Ayan smiled tightly and nodded. "Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed."
"I think you restrained yourself very well. The Ayan I knew would have blown everything by putting the woman in her place. You handled yourself more tactfully, with more grace than I expected."
"Thank you, I think."
"You're welcome."
"Good luck out there Ayan. We're going to try and build an extra shelter from plating we're gathering from the ships. Oh, and it looks like we got a lot more than expected from the Jolly Holler. Our people already have everything that wasn't bolted down, even the makeshift bunks," Jake said to her over her private comm.
"Good, be careful. I'll find us a place to set down and hurry back."
"You’re going to have to find us about a week’s worth of food. Lewis did a scan inventory and we don’t have the supplies or enough materializers to provide for the people we have.”
“I will. Good thing Lewis checked.”
“We'll be out of comm range and we don't have relay access, so I'll talk to you soon. Be careful." He raised a hand from where he stood beside the Samson. He was checking the port, aft side, where one of the main landing struts was already sinking into the dirt.
The customs ship began to lift off and she braced herself against the transparent hull. "I'll get us what we need."
"I know."
With a jerk the customs vessel accelerated and put the miserable scene behind them, the signal strength between Ayan and Jake shrank to nothing in a heartbeat, and Ayan turned her attention to the dark terrain rolling under them at an incredible speed.
"I wonder what the Carthans will think when the Triton arrives?" Laura asked idly.
"Do you think they'll be able to break free?"
"Honestly? If I did the math on their chances, I know they wouldn't be good, but Oz and Jason had a plan. I've seen Jason when he doesn't think something will work, or when he knows an operative under him is gone for good, and that's not the Jason I was seeing as we left. That, and most of the slaves who could fight volunteered to stay too, I've never seen so many people jump on the bandwagon at once."
"So there's hope."
"There's hope. If we see the Triton again, she'll probably need a lot of work, maybe years worth, but we'll have a home of our own again. A place we can control."