The Sentinel (The Sentinel Trilogy Book 1) Read online

  Oh, and a severed pressure suit. He’d only feel the pain of the severed fingers for an instant before he was extruded out the end of his open glove and into the vacuum of space.

  Barker must have been tracking his progress, because he started speaking through the com link. A bunch of unnecessary instructions. Carvalho turned the volume way down so he could keep working.

  He took a moment to tether himself to a perforated piece of the port-side armor, and tested it by releasing his boots and pushing gently against the hull. There was a terrifying moment as he floated away, and he almost thumbed on the thrusters to bring him back to the ship. Then his cord caught, and he hauled himself back in and reattached the mag boots.

  “Here I go,” he said, turning up the volume again.

  “You’re strapped down?” Barker asked. “There is going to be a hell of a recoil.”

  “Of course.”

  Carvalho unclipped the canister from his belt, opened it, and eased it against the line hauling them into the base. Being careful not to let his suit brush against that deadly, pencil-thin shadow, he reached over the top and closed the canister with what felt like a snap, though of course there was no sound. Nothing happened.

  In order to bite through the ultra-dense, yet absorbent armor, the canister had two heat-treated tyrillium blades. When the canister closed, motors in the canister forced them together at high pressure to make the cut. It had closed without difficulty, but the pencil of shadow passed right through it. The other end did not snap off under pressure as Carvalho had expected. Whatever it was kept its pull right through the canister.

  He eased it away, but still the shadow didn’t disappear. For a moment, he thought it must have passed right through the canister, and he’d come away with nothing, but there was a hole in the pencil-line: a five-foot piece was attached to the ship, then there was a gap of about eighteen inches through which he could see stars, and then the rest of the tether disappeared into the void. The two pieces were drifting away from each other, inch by inch. Shouldn’t the auxiliary power already be forcing them farther apart?

  It only lasted a moment, and then the outer line snaked out and connected with the small piece still attached to the ship. They were fully tethered once more. Carvalho looked down at the canister in frustration. Should he attach it to his belt or try again? He wanted to hurl it into space in frustration.

  “What’s going on out there?” Barker asked. “Why haven’t you cut the line?”

  “I did,” he said. “Or tried to.”

  “Well try again, why don’t you? They’re still hauling us in.”

  Carvalho explained what had happened. This brought a series of oaths over the com. The chief’s voice vanished from the line, and Captain Tolvern’s appeared in its place a few seconds later.

  “That’s it, Corporal,” she said. “Quit screwing around and get back in here.”

  “I think I have a sample,” Carvalho said. “That is something, no?”

  “They’re hauling our sorry butts in for interrogation. Or worse. I don’t think the composition of their tether is really a top priority at the moment. You tried to cut us loose, you failed. Good effort, no one’s blaming you, but it’s time to get in here.”

  “The canister cut through the tether,” he said. “It made a hole. I saw it. Then it reformed. All we need is to cut a bigger piece. If we bring someone else out to join me, or get me a longer line and two canisters, I’ll float out and make two cuts. Maybe if they’re separated—”

  “No time,” she said curtly. “We’re down to a few minutes.”

  “Hold on,” he said, thinking.

  He wasn’t sharp or witty like Capp, and he didn’t have the ability of many of the tech officers or engineers to come to rapid, highly accurate conclusions. That made him feel slow and stupid sometimes. But he was a thorough thinker. The wheels in his head may turn slowly, but they reached their conclusions all the same. At last it came to him.

  “I will cut the tether again, you will turn on the plasma engine and get us out of here before it reconnects. Captain?” he said after a long pause. “Are you there?”

  Tolvern’s voice came back on. “Jane says the engine will spit plasma on startup. You’ll most likely be cooked alive. She puts your odds at twelve percent. A high uncertainty, admittedly. Might be as high as thirty percent.”

  Carvalho swallowed hard. “Perhaps it is for the best. To save everyone, I will take this risk.”

  “Nice gesture, you old pirate,” the captain said. “But no way. I’m not taking that kind of risk with one of my crew, not when it will probably fail anyway, when we’re not even sure what these guys want. Come inside, Corporal. That’s an order.”

  Carvalho breathed a deep sigh of relief as he disconnected from the ship and turned away from the tether. He trudged over the hull with the mag boots yanking him down on each step. A sacrifice? What the devil had got into him, anyway? Throw away his life on the off chance of saving a bunch of people he didn’t care about, and never had? Okay, maybe he cared a little, but not as much as he wanted to save his own skin. He looked out for himself and always would.

  What about Capp? Did I do it for her?

  Nah, that couldn’t be it. She was a warm body in bed, as good a friend as he’d ever had, but they’d always had other lovers. Never talked about anything ridiculous like quitting the navy and setting up respectable like, with a house and a family. And forget marriage.

  He’d better not let Capp know what he’d been thinking, or she’d mock him mercilessly. Marriage? Hah. It was a ridiculous notion that would be better off tossed into the void. He glanced out to space as if it were possible to do so literally, and this brought a wave of vertigo at the vastness of it.

  He whipped his head back down to the solid ship hull, and he discovered hardened goo at his feet. It looked like a mound of freeze-dried snot, as if a star leviathan with a cold had hocked up a loogie and spit it onto the ship.

  Curious, he bent to take a closer look. After a moment of thought, he realized what it most likely was. Probably the epoxy shot into the heat shields of the number two engine. When the engine blew, it had melted the epoxy and splattered it against the deck, where it rehardened. He bent and poked at it.

  Except that didn’t make sense either. No epoxy could have survived the death of the number two. Would have disintegrated to the atomic level. Oh, and they’d vented the number two on the underside, the only place where the armor was still thick enough to absorb the blast. It wouldn’t have landed here.

  Carvalho was probably wasting time, and some idiot would start screaming in his com to hurry up, but he didn’t think he should just walk away. He took out his maligned utility knife and stuck the point into the hardened snot. It was like cutting rubber, but he got a piece of it easily enough. It was about the size of his thumb. They could always come back for a bigger sample if it turned out to be something interesting. He unfastened a pouch on his utility belt, pried out the needle nose pliers and let them fly, then shoved the snot inside where the pliers had been.

  When he glanced up, the ice field nearly covered the sky. There was a big chunk in the middle that had a strange, mirror-like quality to it. An object of some kind, he saw, as the reflected light from the planet hit it just right. The base. It was coming up fast.

  Carvalho lowered the pull on his grav boots and tramped as fast as he could for the airlock.

  Chapter Ten

  Commander Li watched through the viewscreen as the battle station hauled in the Albion warship like a giant fish on a hook. The ship had struggled, trying to break free, but now, exhausted, had no fight left. She’d even retracted her cannon, closed her torpedo tubes, and cloaked herself.

  The message was clear: We pose no threat. We will not resist.

  HMS Blackbeard. That’s what the deciphered message called the ship. She was long and sleek and deadly looking. The armor on port and starboard showed gold rampant lions on the outer shields, like something from medie
val heraldry. A skull and crossbones glowered above the deck. Wasn’t Blackbeard the name of a famous Old Earth pirate? What was the story behind the ship’s name?

  Anna stood next to him, arms crossed. “Megat is putting together a boarding party, but we’ll need several hours before we’re ready.”

  “I’m not ready to give those orders yet. I need time to think.”

  “You’ve had eleven years to think, brother. Do you think you’re going to have an original thought now, after all this time?”

  “Eleven years, but this was our first battle. That changes things.” Li smiled. “It sure feels good, doesn’t it?”

  Anna’s scowl disappeared, replaced by a fierce grin. The mood throughout the command module was jubilant. Every message coming through from the rest of the station was either boastful or congratulatory. There had been shouts when they fired their weapons, roars at the first hit, and dancing when it was all over. The youngest crew members were nearly thirty, the oldest well past retirement age, yet they were as enthusiastic as a crowd of children.

  Alone among the crew, Li had maintained his equilibrium. Mostly. The swarm of plasma globules from the ejector had been a thing of beauty, the terrified flight of the lances had brought cheers, and when the enemy ships burst like rotten fruit thrown against a stone wall, he’d joined the hugs. They’d even shouted when the Albion warship tore apart the last Apex ship, stealing a little bit of Sentinel 3’s glory.

  But one lance was missing. The birds had no doubt sent messages before dying. The veil of secrecy that had sustained them for so many years had been torn in two.

  “I want that warship,” Anna said. “There’s unknown tech on board. We can strip out weapons, disassemble armaments. Take what we need, and use the rest as a floating battery.”

  “What of the crew?”

  “What of them?”

  “There are who knows how many humans on that ship,” Li said. “You propose taking their ship, stripping it, and doing . . . what, exactly, with the crew?”

  “A few of them might be useful to plug gaps in personnel. We can’t put them in critical positions, obviously.” She scratched her head and glanced at Megat, who sat at a nearby console, sending messages to some unknown person or persons. “What do you think?” she asked her confederate. “Where is the safest place to put them, the least critical system?”

  “Everything is critical,” Megat said.

  “Yeah, but I’m thinking we put them in food, water, power. Not weapons, communications, or engineering. We’ll pull our people out and use them elsewhere. At the least, the new crew will be useful for replacing Openers where we can’t tolerate them any longer.”

  Heat rose in Li’s face. “Don’t be ridiculous. This Blackbeard has a captain, a woman named Jess Tolvern. She’s a loyal subject of her king, and commands a warship as powerful as anything in the Imperium fleet.”

  Anna made a grand gesture at the viewscreen. “Not so powerful at the moment.”

  “You’re a fool if you think they’ll meekly surrender.”

  She nodded at Megat. “Hence, the boarding party.”

  “So you’ll fight it out, killing anyone who resists and taking the rest prisoner? That’s your plan?”

  “More or less. Unless you want to demand a surrender first. I wouldn’t advise it, though. That will only give them more time to prepare.”

  “They’re already preparing, you know they are.” Li shook his head. “I don’t know what tricks they’ll have planned, but it’s something nasty, and some of our people will die.”

  Anna’s expression didn’t change. “And? We’ve got the manpower. More than enough to fight this thing and win it. We have the weapons. If the resistance is too great, we’ll retreat and blow holes in their oxygen plant until they suffocate.”

  “Monstrous. The only thing they did in the battle was destroy one of the enemy ships.”

  “After leading the whole fleet of birds right to our hiding place. That’s reason enough to kill them all.”

  Li shook his head. “No, I’m going to demand their surrender. Promise them safety if they abandon their ship and take the positions we offer them. If that fails, we’ll make a decision, maybe a harder one.”

  He realized as he said this that he’d accepted her default position. The Albion ship belonged to the battle station. The Singaporeans would force the crew from its crippled ship and take positions on it solely as a floating battery for when Apex returned in greater numbers.

  “Let me handle this,” Anna said. “You’re too cautious, you’ll make it sound like an invitation to supper. I’m going to knock them down and kick them in the ribs. When they stand back up, it will be on my terms, not theirs.”

  “You’ll have a fight on your hands.”

  “Don’t you understand? That’s exactly what I want. I’m going to thin the ranks. When it’s over, there will be no doubt who is in charge.”

  No doubt who was in charge? At the moment, Li had no idea himself. His sister and her henchman, apparently. But what was his choice if he stood against her? Defect to the Openers?

  “There might be a hundred crew on that ship,” Anna added. “If we bring them all over, they’ll be a constant threat. An entirely new faction—imagine it.” She nodded. “We’ll break its back before it happens. Force the violent ones to fight us, kill a few of the tough ones. Detain the leaders. The others will come around in a hurry, watch.”

  “Don’t do anything. That’s an order.”

  “I told you it will take several hours.”

  “Anna!” he warned.

  “You’ve been working straight through,” she said. “Get some sleep, Jon. Enjoy your rest—you deserve it. A great victory, thanks to you. I’ll worry about this Blackbeard. When you come back, we’ll be ready to go. You can take over from there, direct the operation personally if you’d like.”

  Li looked around the command module. In addition to his sister and Megat, there were half a dozen others, only one of whom was armed. That was another of Anna’s Sentry Faction goons, a big, ox-faced man named Zhong who should have been working down in septic, but had replaced a suspected Opener as fire control liaison. Most of the others were known associates of Anna’s, as well.

  Swettenham was the only Opener still in the command module. He was on the opposite side of the room, back at work getting the sensors and communications equipment online, and hadn’t appeared to have followed any of the conversation. A smart guy, loyal, but nobody to stand up to Anna or Megat.

  Then there was the first officer, Harold Ang, loyal enough, but too old to support Li with any energy in a conflict. This was not the time to make his stand.

  Li nodded. “I’ll be in my quarters getting some sleep. Wake me if anything goes wrong.” He hesitated. “Or if you’re ready to attack early.”

  “Of course.”

  He rubbed his eyes. “I’m tired, and probably overthinking this. I am grateful for your help—there’s a lot of pressure on my shoulders, is all.”

  “It will work out fine, you’ll see.” A flicker of relief on Anna’s face.

  Yes, I’ll bet you’re relieved. A commander who doesn’t protest when his underling stages a mutiny. How weak do you think I am?

  Li kept his face neutral as he left the command module. Inside, he was boiling. And planning his next move.

  As soon as the door shut behind him, he made a private call to Swettenham’s com link.

  #

  Five minutes later, Li stepped into the detention cell holding Hillary Koh. The tech officer lay on the cot, hands behind her head, staring, or rather, glaring, at the ceiling. She jumped to her feet and sprang at him as he entered. He flinched, thinking she was going to attack, but she only grabbed his shoulders and shook him, a wild look in her eyes.

  “For God’s sake, tell me what happened. I know nothing! There was a battle, wasn’t there?”

  “How did you know?”

  “I felt a shift in the artificial gravity. The light chan
ged in the room. Then there was movement in the floor, a sort of vibration—must have been weapons going off.”

  He pried her hands off his shoulders. “I don’t believe you. The detention block is on the inner hub, and you wouldn’t have felt any of that. How did you find out?”

  Koh stepped back, and uncertainty flickered on her face.

  “I see you formulating a lie,” he said. “Don’t bother. Tell me the truth.”

  “Through the com.”

  “Which we’d turned off as soon as you were detained.”

  “I know.”

  “In other words, someone hacked into the com to get you a message. Was it Swettenham?”

  “I-I’m not sure.” It was an obvious lie. “A friendly source, that’s all I know. Please, what happened? That much I don’t know, I swear.”

  “We won. Eight Apex lances appeared. We caught them by surprise—”

  “Why? How?”

  “—and destroyed seven of them. The eighth vanished.”

  “It escaped?” She drew in her breath. “Oh, that’s bad. What about the human warship?”

  “It destroyed one of the lances. Took some damage itself. We have it tethered and are hauling it in.”

  Koh’s face lit up. “Wonderful!”

  “Hmm. Not so much. Listen, Koh, we’re caught now. Apex knows where we are, and they’ll be back soon enough. We can hide for a while, but they’ll find us eventually. When that happens, we’ll be fighting for our lives.”

  The woman’s face hardened. She looked like a younger version of Li’s sister with that expression, her position unyielding, no matter what new information she learned. Once one chose a faction, one never went back, it seemed.

  “It was worth it.”

  “I should have your head,” Li said. “This discovery is your doing. My sister wants to throw you into the recycler. We’d be eating little particles of Hillary Koh by the end of the next grow cycle.”