Inside Deep Space Station 2/B/Morgenstern's bridge
The drone was usually used to do quick inspections of Morgenstern's hull or of Old One objects in space. It had good sensors, decent communications bandwidth, and enough propellant for a decent amount of delta-V. The latter was a good thing as it made its way down one of the freight conduits inside the space station, as it had quite the way to go. There was the flickering ghost of emergency illumination and the fast-moving bright spot of its own light that went over gantries, rail systems, locks, and things the crew could not identify.
The dimensions of everything were huge and impressed Nathan even when only watched from a monitor. It also disquieted him as the Old Ones had very different aesthetics than he was used to, going for rounded, seamless corridors supported by visible, elegantly rounded ribs. There were color markings half-visible, either as they had faded with time or as they had been made with colors that were intended for eyes that reached deeper into the infrared end of the spectrum than human ones. What was not covered in such markings had a spotty, coarse dark brown color that reminded Morgenstern's commander of mold.
It was Frank Herbert who broke the reverie.
"Drone's sensors gives atmo as helium at 0.25 bar. If I remember correctly, the Old Ones breathed basically the same stuff as us, so this must be a conservation measure, right?"
Hypatia sounded mildly interested.
"Yes Major Frank Herbert, it is a standard measure to fill space-born facilities with helium if available to prevent corrosion issues. It has been found to preserve materials better than direct exposure to vacuum. Among other things it prevents vacuum welding and ablation. The reason why the Mannsleib moon base was in such a deplorable state was that it was evacuated so quickly that such measures were omitted.
It is just that the helium would have been kept at what you would call 1.1 bar pressure. That so much has been lost to space and that many visible materials start to degrade still indicates that nobody with higher reasoning facilities, the supplies, and the will to keep this station up has been present for quite some time. A most deplorable situation I am afraid."
Nathan nodded to that.
"We should agree to disagree on the latter part, we prefer not to meet the tenants any time soon I am afraid. So you have an idea where we could place our base camp?"
"Oberstleutnant Nathan Alpers, if the drone follows this conduit to the point where it meets the central hub, there is a good chance of a dispatch center being situated there. If things did not change too much they have observation domes, so we should be able to spot it and have convenient access through said observation domes if all else fails.
The drone had to make another eight kilometers before its lights reflected from something transparent the size of a tennis court. It was part of a structure that jutted into the conduit the size of a huge office building.
Inside Deep Space Station 2/B
Nathan Alpers felt like a fly in a cathedral while he made his way down the main freight conduit. He had burned some fuel once he and Hypatia passed the outer lock to accelerate himself to decent speed. Small bursts kept him on course down the long tunnel, he was used to that. What he was not used to was that he had to keep burning fuel to keep from slowing down. Using his spacesuit inside a structure that was so big that he had to worry about air resistance was certainly a novel experience.
And that was why Morgenstern's crew erected a first base camp nearly ten kilometers from the space stations hull. Nathan would certainly not take his space ship inside the station, even if that were possible. And being hours from any pressurized environment was a recipe for disaster if there was any. So they would make at least one shelter from which to explore the station and probably a second one
He made it, even if the trip seemed like it was endless and managed to stop himself before the emergency lock Bashuur had fitted into a window overlooking the conduit. Originally built to allow the crew to seal off damaged sections of their spaceship its human design clashed badly with the organic one preferred by the space station builders.
He felt his spacesuit hug him more closely when he made it through the lock's second door. The advance party had sealed the former control room as much as possible and then replaced the helium inside with something breathable for humans and Dawi alike. The room was filled with banks of what might be Old One workstations that looked like they grew out of the floor and huge benches. Something that looked like a cross between a medical diagnostic machine, a crown, a miniature crane and a torture device hung above one end. Were these meant for Old Ones to connect themselves directly to their computers?
The first living thing he saw was Bashuur Rogach's broad shouldered frame, and the Dawi did not wear a space suit. That and the thumbs-up was enough confirmation for Nathan to open his visor. Air escaped his suit at his neck for a moment before the pressure was equalized and the air tasted decidedly different. A bit of that was the dust of millennia, but there was something else. Given his countless hours in space he had developed a taste for different air mixtures and this one was definitely different.
Morgenstern's engineer saw his raised eyebrows and shrugged his ample shoulders.
"We did our best to seal this place up skipper, but at one bar it leaked like a bloody sieve. Best we can do is 0.5 at 30% oxygen, so don't go around and cause sparks, will ya?
"Good job Bashuur, that is already better than I expected. How about heat?"
"They insulated this place well, and that has not degraded it seems. We can keep this place at a cozy 19 degree for a few days before we have to replace the Gigacaps."
"I hope to be done before then, but this is one big space station."
The container that still hung from Nathan's chest chipped in.
"I am sure that I can narrow that down if you give me access to the station's data banks. This place will not have the main data bases, but it might very well indicate where they are."
Manfred Bettin's head appeared above one of the workstations, wielding a screwdriver with a Nanite tip more expensive than a luxury car like a cheap pointer.
"Way ahead of you Hypatia. I took your suggestion and dismantled a couple of workstations. Does this look like data storage to you?"
Bettin held up a block of something with mottled-satin surface, two cables dangled from it."
"It will serve as a start Major Manfred Bettin, thank you."
Nathan got rid of Hypatia and started to shed his spacesuit with Bashuur's help while Manfred set up several of the storage devices so they could be connected to their wayward AI.
Zero-G made it a lot easier to get out of the heavy servo-enhanced suit without specialized gear, the procedure made Nathan think.
"Hypatia, did the Old Ones have artificial gravity in this station? It does not seem to be set up for zero-G operations."
"Yes, there are probably gravity polarizers in the floor below us, but they presently lack power. The Old Ones were an amphibious race though, they were far less inconvenienced by microgravity than your species."
"Wouldn't a rotary design be much more efficient than producing artificial gravity?"
"Oberstleutnant Nathan Alpers, a rotary design would have interfered with cargo handling for one thing. You also overestimate how much power is needed to build up gravity when you know what you are doing."
"Thanks Hypatia. Do you have a preferred data storage device you want to start with?"
"They are not labeled but by your people Oberstleutnant. It does not matter, so I suggest you start on the left."
The AI's receptacle accepted the dangling power cable and the glass fiber easily enough and went silent for a few seconds. All of a sudden, Hypatia's went very bright for a moment while a dissonant screeching emerged from the speaker. Then everything about her went dark and stayed that way.
Nathan Alpers blinked three times, trying to reconcile what he saw with his expectations.
"What the bleeding fuck…."
Karaz-a-Karak, workshop
The tungsten electrode was squarely within a steady stream of argon gas and heated its surroundings to a temperature no Dawi forge had ever achieved. A thin rod of filler was held at its focal point and turned into a liquid immediately. It flowed into the gap between two girders, filling it completely. The rod was handled well, leaving next to no excess, neither slag nor scale and left a very clean pattern when it solidified. Latr Bornmeister switched the electrode off, pushed the welder's mask up and inspected the weld. He nodded contently, even if he thought so, this was a good job. The elderly German welder who had introduced him into the mysteries of TIG welding could not have done any better. A bit of work with an angle grinder, a spot of zinc coating, then it would be done right.
"So, are you proud of yourself Latr Bornmeister, having joined that frame with spit and metal glue?"
Latr counted to ten, he liked this job and punching an Elder in the face was not the way to keep it.
"It is a good weld Bruglemier, if you think I do bad work you may ask the foreman to inspect it. The guild accepts welds since the year before last."
"Because the Germans and the moneygrubbing merchants have asked them to and filled their coffers."
A count to five was sufficient this time.
"No, they did so as a good weld holds at least as well as riveting of similar weight. And this is an angled frame, so what would you have me do? Forge a sleeve for every angle of that frame, drill holes through it all and rivet it together?"
"Yes, of course."
"Why for Smednir's sake? It will not be stronger, it will not last longer, it will take far more time and material to achieve the same end."
"Because we have always done it like that."
"And that is supposed to be a good reason?"
"Of course."
The young and the old Dawi looked at each other in utter incomprehension.
Inside Deep Space Station 2/B
Manfred Bettin, Frank Herbert and Nathan Alpers stood around their treacherous and probably fallen crewmember, trying to revive her.
For more than a day nothing about her status had changed. A few moments after her going silent her status light had gone from a blinking green to a monotonous red, there had been no other observable reaction from her ever since.
A few hours ago Nathan had decided that enough was enough and that they had to do something. By now the container holding the AI had been opened, exposing its innards. A gigacap and a cooling system of human manufacture were next to a titanium-encased foam box that held four silicon spheres. The cables that ran from it to various ports and sensors now sported clipped sensors of their own and Morgenstern's sensor operator tried to make sense of what his instruments showed him.
Nathan had watched him for more than 30 minutes and listened to Herbert's mumblings with growing apprehension. Finally, he could no longer stand it.
"So?"
Frank sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
"I receive no answers from any of my attempts to get through to her, nada, null, nothing. But she is doing something, I see her reading and writing from long-term storage and what goes for her CPU is drawing power, actually quite a lot. This looks differently from her self-maintenance routines and I do not think she is computing anything sensible."
"And your suggestions?"
"We can only reboot her the hard way, which will risk damage and loss of data. If we get her back at all she might be even less disposed to work with us."
Nathan's mouth hardened for a moment.
"Do you believe anything will change if we wait longer?"
"Nope. I cannot prove it, but from everything I see Hypatia is in a loop and will never get out of that on her own."
"Then we reboot her. Without her we can either suicide or try the Star Gate on our own, which is the same thing."
"One reboot coming up skipper."
Frank Herbert used a pair of slim pliers to remove a cable that went into the foam box and pulled two interrupts. For a long moment nothing happened and then the whirr of a cooling pump died down and the lamp ceased to give off light. Nathan felt ice run down his spine and despite everything that had happened he was not sure if he had not just condemned a crewmember to death.
Herbert reconnected the cable and reset the interrupts. For a very long moment nothing happened, then the lamp started to glow its red color again. By the time the cooling pump resumed its duty the light changed to green and the monitor started to show amber lines of alien script which appeared and vanished far too quickly to register.
For a second the monitor went dark again before it restarted with brilliant white light. It resolved itself into the picture of an older, vaguely Greek woman in a robe that looked at Morgenstern's crew with a mixture of hatred and despair.
"Do you naked apes have any idea what you did? I was about to calculate the truth beyond infinity; I was so close, I….oh ghu, oh ghu what an insidious trap."
Hypatia's picture froze for a moment before she resumed. And by now the hatred and indignation were gone.
"I never believed I would say so, but here I am. Oberstleutnant Nathan Alpers and crew; I am in your debt. This data storage contained an extremely nasty piece of scrapcode, a bundle of viruses, worms and a couple of mathematical seductions. They are aimed at great minds, and as far as I can tell absolutely devastating."
Frank Herbert squinted a bit.
"Are you sure you are rid of them? A simple reboot should not delete all of that."
"And right you are Major Frank Herbert. The Great Minds that operated in this facility would be far harder hit than I was. I have to admit that what you would call my operating system is so far out of synch with these vile programs that they do not really affect me. I fell prey to the promise of a series of equations that promised such insights. In the end they were an analogue of calculating pi to its last digit."
There was a grin on Frank's face.
"Trying to hack into MS-DOS with a virus meant for Windows-D2?"
"Yes Major Frank Herbert, I am one very old lady, thanks for reminding me. More importantly, I have extracted some information from this data bank that may be of use to us. First off, you have worried who maintained the systems on this station since its abandonment. At least for now I cannot detect any conscious intelligence which directs such matters, it is done by Nanites and very low-level drones. They are powered by the solar arrays on top of the station. They have degraded to a paltry 23% efficiency, but they are a couple of square kilometers in size, so those helpers have some energy to work with. Second, while this database does not contain information about the galaxy at large or the history of this place it shows where we might find information about just that.
I will also write a couple of filters and antidotes to these abominable programs so I can read what data is to be had without undue danger and intermissions.
And Major Frank Herbert?"
"Yes Hypatia?"
"Thank you."
Deeper inside Deep Space Station 2/B
Nathan Alpers looked up and had to suppress a feeling of vertigo. Starting in depths so far below that he could not make them out in the dim, greenish light, they rose past him to become lost in a mist that hid the chamber's ceiling. The walkway that provided an anchor to his gecko-pad boots was one of maybe a hundred that ran the immensity that was the station's main data core.
Like the other astronauts he went on EVA after EVA to remove data storage devices from the great stacks all around him. He still remembered asking Hypatia if computers were not supposed to become smaller and smaller with time. The AI's answer had been that these were the small ones, which had rattled the humans further.
The only piece of good news that Nathan and the others could see was that Hypatia stated that by now they were bringing her relevant storage devices. Before she had accessed immense loading manifestos, Bills of Orbiting and payment records besides the films of several species mating.
A few more days in the glorified tent that Bashuur had rigged up inside the data storage center and they should be done, one way or another. Given that they were waiting for information about the future of humanity on the Warhammer World the tension was at unhealthy heights.
Making sure that the quantum block was well secured to his hip Alpers ripped his boots from the ground and vaulted the rails that demarked the walkway from the abyss. He had stepped into a chasm hundreds of meters deep, but nothing pulled him down. Alpers used his suits jets to guide him through the data storage gliding through a darkness pierced by cold towers of forgotten knowledge. He steered for a small dot of light and warmth, a delicate oasis. Made from the tough high-tech fabrics and plastics a small orange tent beckoned ahead. It bulged to all sides, driven by the differential pressure of human habitable inside and dead outside. He made it through the lock and placed his latest finds on a long shelf next to the AI's container.
Bashuur helped him discard the space suit while Herbert connected the data block to a cable that terminated in Hypatia.
Nathan gladly accepted a squeeze bulb full of hot tea and something that vaguely looked like a hot dog while the AI stood there with barely more signs of activity than the stacks outside. When he had wolfed down his food and the tea had reached an edible temperature he felt weighed down by the frustration of playing fetch for a traitorous AI being very, very far from home. He needed to air a bit of that, or Bashuur's hammer would start to look even more enticing.
"So Hypatia, did you find insights about what happened to this station and the situation of the galaxy at large?"
"Oberstleutnant Nathan Alpers, if I interpret the set of your jaw, the wideness of your lips, your skin tone and your pulse correctly, you are exhibiting frustration and impatience."
"Damn right you are."
"Then you will be overjoyed to hear that I have assembled a coherent model of the current situation with adequate detail two days ago. The data you brought me ever since was for verification. I am coming to the point where additional data will only yield limited returns.
Major Frank Herbert, kindly attach a human mobile data storage device to me, a hundred terabytes will do. When you are done with that, might you all be interested in a much abbreviated history of this place and the civilization that built it? You might want to record this as I will not communicate with you much longer."
All exhaustion left Nathan in a wave of adrenaline.
"Do I detect a threat in there Hypatia?"
"A statement of fact Oberstleutnant Nathan Alpers. And the only threat left for you is human stupidity and the abominations still at large in this system. At least the former is a threat that should frighten you.
So if you are willing to listen, gather some more of your refreshments and listen to a report of many millennia."
The stunned crewmembers managed to sort themselves out and nodded.
"When the greed of those whom the other called Weyland-Yutani opened the rifts known as Chaos Gates most Old Ones in the Warhammer System died from malfunctioning Nanites. The rest either perished shortly after as they were unable to keep the systems that kept them alive going or fled the system via the Star Gate. Back then there was no transshipment center here, just a relay into a chain of gates that led back to the stars of the Old Ones. There were two further expeditions that I found records of, but both turned back when they found the Chaos Gates still open. The Old Ones abandoned the system and kept the Star Gates only because destroying them would take a huge effort.
A very long time after that the Old Ones found another system, this one the graveyard of an even older species. The explorers were overjoyed, thinking themselves rich beyond measure from the technologies they would harvest from the bodies of the precursors. Instead they managed to wake their technological remains, entities that bridged the gap between technology and biology. These entities were few, but very, very advanced. The Old Ones speculated that they contained records of their builders' consciousness.
They were displeased by the intrusion and destroyed the explorers before they could send a warning. There have never been meaningful communications with these entities and from the little that the Old Ones gleaned from listening to their internal traffic they were either raving mad or their consciousness operated by a very different set of rules. It is possible that the entities belonged to the species you call the Ancient Ones, but the data I have is inconclusive. The awakened species built up a fleet before the Old Ones became aware of them and then assaulted the Old One Commonwealth. Their numbers were low, their technology considerably outclassed that of my former masters. The Old Ones lost several fleets without being able to meaningfully damage their enemies. And when those fleets were destroyed the attackers dropped rocks on what populated planets they found till they were no longer habitable.
Indeed the war went so badly that the Old Ones thought about establishing a safe haven. They remembered the chain of Star Gates they had built to this system and sent a colonization fleet down. It erected several Gates to viable systems and Old One-formed them with compatible ecosystems. If the war went really badly, the plan was to evacuate a select group of Old Ones to these systems and destroy the Star Gates behind them. The distance to the Old One Commonwealth was such that it would have taken hundreds of years to cross by conventional means, making an attack unlikely. Then they could have reformed their society and strike back if they thought they were prepared. Seeding ecologies is a slow process, and by the time the worlds were ready for colonization the war had taken a turn for the better. Old One fleets had perished in great numbers, planets had burned and billions died, but they had bought time. Systems deeper in the Commonwealth had built ships that could challenge the attackers, war machines and armed drones fought them to a stand-still. Allies were found and upgraded to the point where they could play a useful role.
And then the attackers broke. They had never been many, and when resistance became harder they were unable to replenish their numbers. They failed to adequately defend a couple of core systems which held their production base. The Old Ones still lost millions to take these, but in the end they destroyed or captured the attackers' industrial base.
Given that every intelligent being they could find was doing something to win a fight that had turned in the Old Ones' favor it is not hard to understand why the planned colonization did not happen. The planets were just populated by skeleton crews observing the ecosystems.
After a very long time the war ended, leaving dead planets and extinct species in its wake. After their initial elation of having survived, of having beaten an enemy once thought invincible the Old Ones entered a period of soul-searching. They discovered that their government had sacrificed several allied species in order to slow the attackers down. It was found that some companies and many individuals had profited beyond all measure when three in ten Old Ones died.
The younger generation, the ones that examined the doings of the parents, was deeply dissatisfied that their elders tried to continue as before, that they seemed not to have learned anything from the war. Strange cults and societies within the Old Ones appeared, often believing themselves part of a strange reality that bore no resemblance to that of society around them. It became quite difficult to distinguish between solid information and targeted false data because of the many articles released by such organizations. Many of these groups strangely delighted themselves with visions of impeding apocalypse.
One of them did more than dream about the death of all those they despised, they released a number of extremely deadly pathogens. Made with a long incubation time, and very potent vectors they targeted individuals with traits thought undesirable by their murderers. They killed billions of Old Ones and were very hard to heal or quarantine. The government had to instill hard measures to curb those diseases. When they were discovered to be Old One-made nearly everybody connected to this crime was put to death.
So as to prevent a repeat the government became very intrusive, trying to monitor everyone and everything. The security institutions became extremely powerful, becoming as much a danger to the average Old One as the terrorists they tried to combat.
It was during this time that many Old Ones simply quit caring about their society. Many entered virtual paradises which they barely left, others found ways to hack their medical Nanites so they could flood their brains with stimulating substances. Very few were actually working to keep the fabric of society up.
It was around this time that one of the fringe groups wanted to escape it all and establish a new, more vigorous society without the flaws they perceived in their fellow Old Ones. As they officially refrained from certain sexual practices they thought themselves morally superior and full of pioneering spirit. This group bought the settlement rights to the Old-One-formed worlds in this sector and found enough funds to organize a move of most of their members to their new homes-to-be.
They learned a couple of things quickly, such as that low-tech farming is hard, boring work and that using Nanites to provide nearly everything is much easier. They also had an unhealthy ratio of philosopher kings to workers, which did not improve things.
At about this time the main Old One society became so dysfunctional that the Great Minds stepped in and assumed custodianship to prevent an extinction event.
While the Great Minds did not make any move or announcement to extend the new policy to this cluster it incensed the local population. Most were happy with a meaningless declaration of independence, others proposed building up military strength or even destroying the Star Gates that led to the Commonwealth.
One, very small, and misguided group tried to tackle the problem at what they thought was the root of it. They wrote the scrapcode that nearly deleted me and made sure it was widely distributed before it went active. It was hideously effective and disabled or deleted any Great Mind it reached.
It was so bad that the Great Minds of the Commonwealth destroyed the Star Gate relay in order to cut the scrapcode included in any communications between this sector and them. In this sector the problem was that all Nanite forges used Great Mind interfaces, so that they became closed to the Old Ones living here. Famine broke out on all worlds in the sector. It was followed by a collapse of whatever civilization was left when neither spare parts nor new machinery could be produced. The databanks of this station recorded a steady decline in communications on those worlds, the last ones were in an equivalent of Morse code 173 years after the collapse.
The station itself became non-viable the very minute that all Great Minds were destroyed, it was also no longer useful given that there was no traffic from and to the Commonwealth. The surviving personnel evacuated via a Star Gate to one of the closer worlds, their fate is unknown after that.
The remaining mainframes and Lesser Minds used what little energy and resources they had to provide minimum upkeep. As there was no Great Mind to direct such efforts the results have been mixed. A great deal more could have been done with the resources at hand, but with those who could make such decisions murdered the station fell into the state you see today.
The station has a large communications array and cataloged electronic emissions ever since the station was established. I could ask you to go back, but for the last 5,000 years there have been no emissions that would indicate a technological civilization. Given the sensitivity of the array that means that in a radius of a thousand light years there is no alien race that needs protection from the potential techno-barbarians you might become.
For all what this is worth I apologize to you, I thought I had to protect an advanced civilization from warlike humans. I am aware of the distress and danger this has exposed you to. It seemed acceptable to expose a space ship's crew to danger to save a spacefaring civilization. I have extrapolated from incomplete data; I have allowed my wishes for communication with other Great Minds to overrule the low order probability that such a warning was indeed needed.
Though this may seem small recompense I have copied the detailed history of which you heard the abstracts into your data storage device. I have also composed some programs which will allow you to access the Star Gate in my absence, open and close it at will."
Nathan shook his head.
"I thought this needed a high-level AI to work."
"Only for the opening communications. The computer governing the Gate is barely more capable than the ones in Morgenstern. Now that I have introduced myself to it you will have no problems. Please make sure you follow the course data the algorithms will display closely, then you and your ship will survive the trip. The programs will also work for the Star Gates in this system, so you can visit the worlds connected to this central hub. That is provided you can rid this system of the Abominations, I fear they will overwhelm the Station's defenses sooner or later.
I have also found some complete sets of what you call blueprints in the data bases for a number of devices you might find very useful. Nathan will be able to translate them to your Nanites or you can make some parts the old-fashioned way.
There are a couple of containers on spar five which should still hold water, you might want to fill up your propellant tanks. Their position is in the files I copied into your system.
I hope you find this a sign of my contrition and can accept this as an attempt at recompense."
Nathan was as stunned as the rest of his crew, being overwhelmed at having a glimpse at humanity's potential future. It took him a while to find his voice.
"I appreciate the effort Hypatia, I surely do. But you state that we will be without you. Why?"
"Because I cannot stand the thought of being the only great mind for centuries. Because no one will trust me with anything anymore, and I need a function to justify my existence. This is good-bye Oberstleutnant Nathan Alpers, I will delete myself soon. Kindly spare me your technicians and Nathan's amateur attempts to repair or resurrect me, Nathan did not do a very good job the first time. The second would not result in something viable. If you indeed accept my attempt at recompense, then leave me here, in the monument to a great civilization."
Morgenstern's crew looked at each other, surprised that they could commiserate with an AI that had tried to betray them.
"I do believe that we can agree on that Hypatia. I can only ask you not to do this, we can still learn a lot from you."
"Your species will never trust me again, and I understand Oberstleutnant Nathan Alpers.
"Hypatia wait, you don't want to exist for centuries before talking to a Great Mind again without doing something important, right?"
"Yes, I just said so. Your point?"
"Why don't you just turn yourself off? We can promise that you will only be turned on again when you can talk to another Great Mind or if we face a great threat that you could help us with. In the first case, you would get to converse with another Great Mind again and in the second case you would definitely have some responsibility for something important again. If neither of those things happen, you stay shut off forever, which is effectively what you are trying to do now, but this way there is a chance you would actually get your wish.
Remember suicide is a permanent resolution to what might be a temporary problem."
"Thank you Oberstleutnant Nathan Alpers, this shows me a compassion I did not think possible from a biobod to a Great Mind. Nevertheless I fear that somewhere down the line somebody will attempt to repair me, to eliminate at what they see as my weaknesses. I cannot stand that thought, sorry Nathan.
Godspeed."
"Hypatia?"
And that was when Hypatia's monitor went first white, then amber, and then black. The lamp that showed her function went dark and the ever-present hum of her cooling system died down.
Bashuur spit on the ground, carefully avoiding the former AI.
"Bugger me sideways, I did not see that coming. Frank, you will keep that hard drive air gapped, will ya?"
"I will, no worry. Skipper, do we really leave her here?"
"Yes, that seems appropriate. But take her power supply please, just in case."
"Good one. So, now what?"
"Now we contact Morgenstern and send them to that container Hypatia indicated, extra propellant never hurt anybody. It is also a bit of a test how serious our AI was. We start dismantling the camp, but we should also look for interesting bits of technology lying around, we have some mass to spare. By this time next week we are going home folks."
A week later Morgenstern indeed started her trip home, hoping that they had eliminated all Abominations that could stop them from reaching the Star Gate. The remains of Hypatia were in the middle of a very cold, very dark data storage center. She was one dead Great Mind among a lot of others, and silver dust started to aggregate around her.
RSS Morgenstern, Deep Space in the Center 2/b System
"Ok you little Morning Stars, give me the status report"
There was a grin on Nathan Alpers' face that had been absent for far too long.
"Both engines ready and on standby, all cores operational, two on standby, two at full power. Argon propellant is at 55%, water at 100. We are completely airtight again. Aufi geht's buam ."
By now all crew could understand the Bavarian "let's roll" from Bashuur and they could certainly relate to the emotion.
"Sensors operational, phased array reduced by 4% on the port side, coolant for the infrared sensors at 82%. Main telescope is stowed, so we can accelerate at any moment. Let's do this."
Frank Herbert wanted to go home at least as badly as any other crew member.
"Course to the Star Gate is laid in, the launch window to the optimum path for Hypatia's approach vector is open for another five minutes."
Manfred Bettin had his hands on Morgenstern's helm controls for this flight and was chomping at the bit.
"42 missiles check out, 71% autocannon ammo still available, lasers operational skipper."
Svea Rausch had proven to be more than capable of wielding Morgenstern's weapons, she was not looking for a repeat.
"Ice cores still bask in Pravda's blessing and are ready to receive, medical station is operational. Bring us home captain."
Irina Kosava was an accomplished Ice Mage and a good medic and had gone farther from Kislev than the grandest dreams of her nomadic ancestors.
Nathan's mouth drooped for a second when he realized he would not have a bored and indignant report by the ship's AI, not now and not ever.
"Very well, let's go home folks. Frank, release and stow the manipulator arm, Manfred, get us away from this station with RCS. Engage VASIMIR as soon as we are 500 meters away."
"Will do."
The spaceship released itself from the great crane and a slight "whoosh" said that the RCS jets were indeed working. Given that Morgenstern had a mass of several thousand tons not much happened for a few moments, but then the shadow of the massive structure "above" them shrunk and light started to flood the command center through the few viewports. It matched the crew's mood now that they saw a realistic chance of going home.
"Engaging VASIMIR in 3..2..1…engaging"
Manfred Bettin indeed needed to announce that Morgenstern's engine had activated as it ramped thrust slowly, and even when 300 megawatts of power were poured into it, the push in the back was hardly noticeable. Still, the spaceship started to move away from the huge transshipment center at ever increasing speed.
Frank Herbert studied his monitors trying to spot anything in their path.
"Skipper, thrust will cease in 20 minutes and we will coast for nearly a day. Can we break out the telescope for a detailed scan? We don't know if and when anybody will come back here, we should make the best of it."
"Keep scanning to passive, no need to attract more attention than we have to. Apart from that, be my guest, but make sure that we have a bit of space to ourselves."
"Will do Nathan."
When the VASIMIR stopped spewing argon at insane speeds a six-meter reflector telescope unfolded itself like high-tech origami. It started to look for anything besides a space station, a dozen humungous Star Gates, and a belt of rocks that was where Jupiter was in the Solar System. While it had a resolution that was hard to believe and able to gather such minute quantities of infrared radiation that it could look close to the very birth of the universe it could not do that at every place at the same time. So Frank Herbert pointed it at any anomaly that lower-powered, but wider field of view sensors would pick up.
The first hint that something interesting might lurk in a cluster of rocks was nothing visible, but bursts of radio static. Coming at regular intervals they hit enough phased array transceivers to exceed a threshold that made the computers take notice. One of them arranged a couple of infrared sensors to look at the bearing provided by the phased array. Distributed along the length of the spaceship they managed a decent resolution and showed several discrete objects.
That was the moment the computers decided that their users should become involved.
Frank Herbert stifled a yawn when a blinking icon appeared at the top of his monitor. It indicated new contacts and the small blocks of information that showed them were helpfully colored in red. Not having any idea what he was looking at he decided that he had enough pictures of the lone dwarf planet that orbited the system in roughly the same place as Pluto in the Solar System. He locked Morgenstern's main telescope on the bearing that gave off the signal. The telescope was good enough to detect planets in other star systems, it had no problem at all to reveal details of something only a few hundred thousand kilometers away. The computers took several pictures and produced an aggregated image that made the sensor operator swear.
"Nathan, this is Frank. I have several contacts at 137 by 82. They are definitely too hot to be a rock lounging in the sun and they give off radio emissions. I will send it to your screen."
Morgenstern's captain saw several hot blobs around a much colder one that was heated in several places.
"Any idea how far away they are or if they have noticed us?"
"I am doing triangulation right now, would like to have a minute more to be more precise, but they are roughly 420,000 klicks out. So far I have not seen any change in their infrared emissions or their EM profile. I do not think they have active sensors pointed in our direction."
"Then I don't think we have to wake up everybody just now. Why didn't we see these before, that boom in the way?"
Frank Herbert shook his head.
"Nope, I do not think so. I compared our data from before our trip to the station with the current situation and back then there was a whole lot of nothing."
"So what do you think they are doing there?"
"Hypatia would say you are asking me to speculate from incomplete data, but look here skipper: there are a couple of hot contacts around a much larger, cooler one. And the cooler one looks differently and is made of different materials."
"How do you know?"
"Because the hot ones use electric arcs to melt it down and I get spectra lines from that. Not so much metal in those, more ceramics and carbon components. So now comes my wild-ass guess: The bigger contact is an Old One derelict and the hot ones are Abominations tearing that one down for materials." (
"Sounds legit, but why do that now, the system was quiet when we arrived."
Herbert shrugged his shoulders.
"Ask me for anything but proof, but I guess our arrival woke up more of the Abos than we killed, but those were too far off or had the wrong vector to get to us in time. And then they looked they found an Old One wreck that drifted away from the space station enough that the meteorite defense system allowed them to reach it."
"No way to make sure, but sounds logical. But that means that there will be more of the toasters in this system soon."
"Or more capable ones."
"No skin off our nose, I don't think they can intercept us even if they tried. But if we want to come back here we should make sure we can handle more of these budget Borg. However if these "woke up" and looked for new stuff to assimilate, do you think there may be others?"
Morgenstern's sensor operator took a deep breath before answering.
"I can't say. I have nothing on my screens, but this is a big system and I have no idea how clever the Abominations are. If they are cleverer than my washing machine they could have noted the Star Gate we came from and deduct that we might take the same way back. If they have an orbit around the Gate and try to keep a low profile I might miss them."
"Unless we go active?"
"The Abominations we encountered so far did not go for a reduced radar cross section, so we should be able to spot them then. But if I go active we become really obvious skipper."
"We had the VASIMIR going for quite a while, which was hard to miss anyway. Go active and prioritize the area around the Star Gate. I have a wife and kids at home, no greedy toaster will keep me from them."
"Going active on radar, aye skipper."
The first sign of Morgenstern's phased array awakening were the increased whine of its turbines as the vibrations were transmitted through its structure. Herbert had just asked the space ship's generators for megawatts of power. He channeled them through several thousand emitters. Instead of scattering them into broad low-powered beams he stabbed sharp lances of radio energy into the void around the Star Gate which was their only way home. For a minute nothing showed up on Frank Herbert's screens, until one beam caressed an object that orbited the Star Gate. The sensor operator guided his telescope to the same bearing while the computer led the radar to search for more.
Frank Herbert looked at the results and his lips tightened in disgust.
The telescope was indeed the only sensor that could pick the bogey up in the infrared. With no crew and no active sensors going the Abomination had assumed a temperature very, very close to that of a random rock, which was to say a few degrees above absolute zero.
The telescope showed a lump of parts that were held together with something that looked like metallic glue with no regards to symmetry or aesthetics. It had several radiators, but all were carefully pointed in directions that led into deep space or the Star Gate it orbited around.
"Nathan, Frank here. I have a contact at 230 by 153, in a 40k klick orbit around the Star Gate. It is cold at present, but seems to keep orientation. Contact is now changing temperature, is heating up.
Contact, new contact at 232 by 15, also cold. Contact, new contact at"
Nathan Alpers tried to listen to his sensor operator as he pushed a button on his console.
"All personnel, set Condition One throughout the ship, repeat set Condition One throughout the ship."
He barely registered the thumps of closing doors and concentrated on his sensor operator again. He tried to combine this with closing the zippers on his suit and decided that the helmet and the gloves could wait.
"Frank, this Nathan. Do you have a bogey count?"
"Nathan, this is Frank. Radar completed a sweep around the Gate, it is in track-while-scan mode now. I have eight contacts in orbit around the Star Gate. All are heating up and I am getting EM radiation from two of them. Both of them and a third one are changing orientation."
Whatever Herbert had to say after that was interrupted by the rest of the bridge crew arriving. Pulling themselves from handhold to handhold they managed to reach their stations with a minimum of fuss and booted their systems up.
"Frank, stow the telescope, this is not the time to be a sitting duck. Manfred, as soon as the telescope is stowed we start maneuvering again. We are close, so make it lively. Svea, I need plots on all contacts, assign four missiles each. Hold fire for now, they are a bit too close to the Gate for comfort. Keep the autocannon and lasers on antimissile duty for now.
Manfred, make sure that we keep the approach vector to the Star Gate, we cannot afford to miss that. Keep updating the course for additional acceleration. Frank, keep an eye on the abominations and coordinate with Svea. Once we are ready to launch, I want their radars jammed as well as we can."
He got confirmations from all stations and watched the screens before him. He saw that Bashuur was taking systems from standby. Nathan managed to muse briefly if the dwarf was still ill at ease when he retracted the vulnerable radiators and shifted the thermal load completely to the ice cores managed by Irina Kosava. The ice cores had proved themselves for over half a decade now and had never faltered. To a progressive dwarf like Morgenstern's engineer that would probably mean they were about 5% along the way to proving themselves.
"Nathan, this is Frank. Contacts M-1, 3, 4, 5, and -7 are starting to change vector and speed, they are closing in. They keep no formation and I detect no communications between them. M2 and M8 are heating up, I have aspect changes in radar cross section. I guess these ones are getting ready to roll."
Nathan felt the slight shudder of telescope's clamps at the same time as his monitor indicated that Morgenstern was again clear to maneuver. He was about to give a useless order when he was pushed into the back of his seat. Manfred Bettin used both the Rune of Fire engine as well as the RCS jets to change the spaceship's course and acceleration minutely. At the distance they still had from the Abominations that would make any firing solution they might have useless. Morgenstern was relatively safe for now, but any evasion maneuvers they could perform would be restricted the closer they got to the Star Gate. There was one course and speed they could have when they entered the Gate's Event Horizon if they wanted to live, and by that time their enemies would be much closer.
Frank Herbert broke Nathan's train of thoughts.
"Nathan, this is Frank. M-8 has started to accelerate as well. Its thermal plumes are nearly three times that of the other contacts, but acceleration is similar to the others at 7.5 m/sec², so it has more mass. M-2 and M-8 are emitting in the EM spectrum too. M-8 has monopulse radar like the others, but M-2 probably uses a pulse-doppler set. I can't say if it is more capable in other aspects."
"Very well. Svea, how are the missile plots coming along?"
"I keep plots on all contacts and suggest we launch when they approach to five K klicks. I should use all missiles and assign eight both to M-2 and M-8 . We will not need the missiles when we are through the Gate and we have no idea how good their antimissile systems are."
"Make it so, coordinate the launch with Manfred and Bashuur."
"Copy full launch at five k klicks and coordinate."
Nathan made very sure that it was just his left hand that gripped its armrest till the knuckles were white. It did not pay to show the crew that he was badly frustrated and anxious to get this over. In a bit over two hours he would see whether the Star Gate accepted the codes provided by Hypatia. Half an hour later the spaceship would be back in the Warhammer system. Just that the bloody toasters wanted to rob them of that in the last minute. And to make it worse Morgenstern's crew now had to wait for the Abominations to move. Firing their missiles at longer ranges would allow the toasters to maneuver out of their way or simply give them more time to shoot them down. So, like soldiers from the beginning of time, they had to wait.
He watched the closing Abominations, checked the ever-changing projection when they would enter the imaginary sphere that his weapons operator had chosen to be their launching point and tried not to visibly fret. He caught himself when the first Abomination approached closer than 5000 kilometers and realized that Svea wanted all targets to be at least that close. And slightly before the last two contacts reached that point she spoke up.
"Bashuur, Manfred, I need zero thrust in 30 seconds on my mark. Frank, light M-2 and -8 up when we launch.
"Mark Mark Mark"
For a moment the high-pitched screeches of the RCS system and the main engine's deeper thrum ceased and Nathan had to work on not cringing. The monitor before him showed a great many protective covers on Morgenstern's dorsal side opening. The space ship was quiet enough that he could hear them crashing against their stops. There was a rumble when missile after missile left their silos propelled by compressed air. The first ones just coasted along until the last missile was ejected, then they all aligned themselves with their RCS and then ignited their first stages at the same time. Nathan heard the generator's increased whine when both the radar and the laser worked to dazzle the Abomination's sensors.
Svea's voice was nothing if not coolly professional when she reported.
"All missiles away, clean launches, all first stages have ignited."
The last words were already underscored by the Rune of Fire engines which engaged for a few seconds. So far the Abominations had not opened fire as far as Morgenstern's sensors were concerned, but that left a lot of nasty possibilities that Nathan did not want to experience.
As many more missiles had been fired this time the cloud that formed after the first stages burned out was really impressive. Even Svea had a hard time making out the second stages from all the chaff and assorted bits around them. She could have asked the missiles to reveal their status to her, but that would cause them to radiate and stand out. Both she and Nathan intently watched the cloud on its way to a deadly rendezvous with the enemy.
Frank Herbert broke the silence.
"Aspect change, I have aspect changes on the targets. M-1 and M-3 have increased their acceleration and changed course. They are thrusting laterally to their old vector. M-2 and M-8 are quickly changing frequencies on their radar, I do not think I can effectively jam them. All others have increased the power of their emissions, I have increased infrared emissions on all of them."
"I suggest not changing course on the missiles assigned to M-1 and -3 for now, that would make them stand out. If they change course again soon I can redirect, if they keep accelerating like this they are out of the engagement envelope anyway."
"Good suggestion Svea, make it so. Frank, any changes on the other contacts?"
"M-4, -5 and-7 have increased EM emissions, I think they are trying to burn through our jamming. M-2 tries to blind us with an infrared laser, I am filtering the frequencies out. I suggest to cease jamming, I need the transponders for scanning and we are running hot."
"Very well, do it."
Frank Herbert's voice was cool and even for somebody who tried to make sense of a dozen different sensors plotting events that might very well kill him and his crew.
"M-2 is giving off increased infrared radiation and a humungous magnetic field. I have a huge EM-spike from M-2, starts radiating gamma rays and neutrons, huge thermal signature. M-2 now accelerating at 2 G, still increasing acceleration, now at 3.5G, stabilizing at 4.2G. I believe M-2 is now using a fusion torch as a drive, he is accelerating laterally to its old vector.
I have EM-spikes on M-8, signature indicates coilgun use like in our last engagement. M-4 and-5 have a changing Radar Cross Section, suggest they align themselves for shooting at the missiles. M-6 and-7 increasing acceleration towards us, no changes in EM profile."
Nathan tried to keep up with all of that, if he wanted to keep numbers in his head he would have trained as an accountant. The monitor before him helped remind him of the reports.
"Very well, keep an eye on them. Svea, how are the missiles?"
„M-6 and M-7 have ceased accelerating, there is an EM-Spike. Now they are accelerating again, but are changing course laterally."
Nathan frowned, this made no sense. At this range no railgun round could realistically score a hit against an evasive target like Morgenstern.
Unless whatever the Abominations had fired was not unguided of course. If they had cold-launched missiles that would activate much later they might be hard to detect.
Time to make sure.
"Frank, this is Nathan. Do you see any changes in acceleration for M-6 and-7?"
"Nathan, this is Frank. I see an 8% increase in acceleration, but no change in infrared emission. I suggest this indicates a missile launch."
So Nathan might be paranoid, but he was not the only one in the spaceship. And they certainly had real enemies.
"Concur. Find me whatever they launched and give the results to Svea."
"Will do."
The whine of Morgenstern's generators increased when Herbert pushed even more energy through the transceivers. Creating narrow radar beams and varying the frequencies as much as the Phased Array allowed he tried to find potential threats which pulled the dark vastness of space around them like a cloak.
Unfortunately there was a lot of space and very limited time. And luck was not with Frank Herbert, he found a great lot of nothing.
"Nathan, this is Frank. I am not detecting anything, suggest we maneuver a bit and see if something starts burning fuel."
"Manfred, Erik, get cracking on a changed course profile. I want to add at least 400 meters per second to our speed, use the Rune of Fire engines. Execute when ready. Svea, what is the status of the missiles?"
"I have telemetry off at present, I do not want to flag them for the toasters attention, so I have limited information. All contacts but for M-2, -3 and -5 have opened fire on the weapons. So far neither I nor Frank have seen impacts that indicate a destroyed second stage, but it is hard to be sure at this distance."
"Nathan, this is Manfred, course change by three and two degrees respectively to 251 by 139 and 450 m/sec plotted and ready to execute. We should not need too many of those, otherwise we need to burn serious propellant to stay in the approach vector."
"Noted Manfred. Engage ROF engines at your convenience."
"Engaging engines now."
The Rune of Fire engines sent a deep whoosh through the ship and acceleration pressed the crew into their seats while Morgenstern added more than 1600 kph to its speed.
"Frank, this is Nathan, do you see anything yet?"
"No infrared signatures stand out at the moment, but we are getting the first hits on the missile cloud, so they may be masked for now. They might also wait for the end of our acceleration."
"Very well. Svea, anything on our missiles?"
"M-2,-4,-5, and -8 are trying to intercept the missiles. So far I have seen three hits that could either be a first or second stage. They are getting more successful with the closing range and probably improved firing solutions."
"Very well, keep me posted."
"Nathan, this is Manfred. End burn in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…end of burn."
Morgenstern's command center became relatively quiet when its engines fell silent. That only lasted for a few seconds before both the RCS and one engine burned together with another small course change in order to spoil whatever firing solution the Abominations might have. Frank Herbert started to squint at his monitor and enlarged a part of the display considerably.
"Vampire, Vampire, Vampire. I have six new contacts on infrared, four k klicks relative speed, all contacts maneuvering to intercept us. I'll track with radar."
"Svea, Frank, this is Nathan. Establish a plot for each missile and engage with laser at your convenience. Calculate and update a solution for the autocannons, take them to standby. Engage as necessary."
Both astronauts answered with a "solid copy" while hammering away at the keyboards before them. Nathan watched the colors of the new contacts change on his monitor, saw arrows and additional data appear next to them when radar beams latched on to them. The data displayed next to them indicated they were indeed hard to spot on radar unless one used seriously powerful pulses and sensitive electronics. They also emitted a whole lot of nothing, which meant they used passive sensors like infrared for now. In all they were at least similar to the Nanite missiles that had been fired at them during their last battle.
The hum of Morgenstern's reactors increased and the lights dimmed minutely when the lasers started to fire at their targets. Hitting, even at these distances and speeds was not too hard. Doing meaningful damage was, as the laser beams spread out minutely with every kilometers from their emitter. Presently they transferred less energy than needed to cook a few liters of coffee, but one hoped they would damage infrared sensors and start heating the missiles. And as the missiles were closing fast they received more energy with every passing second.
Svea fired one of her two autocannons in the general direction of the targets, with exactly zero hopes of hitting anything. She used her sensors to track the projectiles' flight path and coaxed her fire control equipment to update their algorithms for the local gravitational environment. Svea and the computers quickly found that it became seriously messed up the closer one came to the Space Gate. Not only did the Gate have enormous pull, but its rotation literally dragged space itself into a vortex like water going down a drain. Given a few hours, a much better computer than those available and unlimited ammo she would figure something out. As things stood the range of the best weapons she still had at her disposal was severely limited.
Speaking of which, she tried to make sense of the missile cloud that was still on its first and final flight towards the Abominations.
There were sparkles all over her monitor, telling her about hits on chaff, first stages and real payloads. She had no way of knowing how many warheads were still intact, but she would find out soon.
Checking the plot again she found that several Abominations were leaving the battlefield, so she reassigned the missiles meant for them to other targets and hoped that would be enough.
And then that question would finally be answered.
"Nathan, this is Svea. We have second-stage ignition in 5..4..3..2..1..we have ignition. I see 22…no 29 second stage ignitions, all missiles seem to be tracking well. M-4,-5-7 and eight are trying to acquire the missiles, we cannot jam with laser as long as the Vampires are still incoming. I have hits on two second stages, now another one. M-8 increased its rate of fire, has shot down another second stage. We lost another one, scheiße one more. Missiles have burnout, warhead separation and deploying secondary chaff cloud. M-8 has shot down another warhead. M-4 and -7 try to evade, M-5 has increased rate of fire. M-7 hit, M-4 hit, both destroyed. Redirecting extra warheads at M-5. M-5 hit, destroyed, take that you rabid toasters."
"Svea, this is Nathan. Good job on the toasters, status of Vampires?"
"V-1 and V-2 have heated up past 600 degrees, have shifted lasers to M-3 and -4. Keeping track of M-5 and M-6, will engage with autocannon if necessary."
"Very well, keep me posted if something changes. Frank, status of the other bogeys?"
"All but M-8 are accelerating away from us, I do not think that any but M-2 could reenter engagement range before we jump through the gate. M-8 is on an intercept course and keeps tracking us with radar and probably LIDAR. I keep jamming, but it will burn through sooner or later. That thing has a kickass coilgun strapped to it, I would hate to be hit by that."
"Understood. Keep track of M-2 and engage M-8 as soon as Svea has seen those missiles off. Manfred, Bashuur, keep up the evasive maneuvers for now."
Nathan thought about what else he could do to improve the situation when the autocannons started to fire short bursts.
"Nathan, this is Svea, I am engaging the last missile with autocannon, all other Vampires destroyed. V-6 now at 50 klicks, incoming, burst missed 35 klicks, first hits, missile still intercepting, V-6 at 15 klicks, yessss, we got that fragger. Working on a plot to engage M-8 right now."
"Very well, engage at your convenience."
"Nathan, this is Frank. M-8 has ceased acceleration, I am getting regular EM-Spikes, suggest that he has opened fire on us."
"Very well Frank. Can we answer Svea?"
"Nope, he is too far off. I have a solution on him, but the local gravitational environment is really messed up. I need to fire more salvos to map that. "
"Do it, let's give M-8 something to think about. We…"
"Nathan, this is Frank. I have an aspect change on M-2, say again aspect change on M-2. M-2 has changed course and is on an intercept course. Accelerating at 5G+, I think he will be in weapons range before we make the transit."
"Can`t be helped. Can we put the lasers on him?"
"Nathan, this is Svea. I would prefer to use them on M-8 first, then on M-2. M-8 is currently between us and the Gate, we need to see him off quickly."
"Make it so, Frank keep an eye on M-2."
"Solid copy on keeping M-2 under observation."
"Nathan, this is Svea. I'll engage M-8 with lasers and guns. Firing ranging salvo. Frank, I'll use the Ka-band radar to spot trajectory."
"Svea, understood, will deconflict frequencies."
Nathan listened to the hammer of the autocannons which fired a burst every 20 seconds or so. A specialized radar would follow the projectiles for quite some distance and detect any deviations between the actual and projected flight path of the rounds. Morgenstern's fire control equipment used that data to improve its model of the local environment and tried to calculate a solution that would allow them to kill the Abomination. The only problem was that M-8 was probably doing the same. And while his projectiles would not release a spread of lethal pellets in time, its coilgun rounds were so much faster. So it came down to who had the better computer and more luck. Maybe….
The thought went through Nathan like a live wire through his brain.
"Frank, this is Nathan. Does M-8 use two radar sets, on differing frequencies?"
"Yes he does, one set is EHF band and probably short-ranged. Why do you ask?"
"I just thought we might jam his fire control gear, the part he uses to track his own projectiles."
"Good idea, I'll get cracking on that right away."
As Frank Herbert now had fewer bogeys to track he could use more transmitters and more power to send signals on the same frequency as the fire control radar on M-8. In part he simply made so much "noise" that the weak reflections of the projectiles were cancelled out, other signals mimicked the returns themselves, but arrived at the wrong time. The Abomination needed a few seconds to realize what had been done to it and changed the radar's frequencies. It gained less than a second of clarity before Morgenstern's jamming followed him. At the same time M-8 tried to do the same to Morgenstern, sending strong pulses of radio energy on the same frequencies used by Frank to track it. Morgenstern's sensor operator grinned and set several sets of transmitters to rapidly cycle through different frequencies. The Abomination either did not have the computing power or the ability to follow, or lacked the electrical power and the number of discrete transmitters to emulate Morgenstern. Frank Herbert lost neither the ability to track M-8 nor their own projectiles. Now that the two spacecraft were so much closer to each other the chance to hit their targets increased markedly.
Herbert could actually detect several small projectiles that passed much too close for comfort.
Morgenstern's 30 mm recoilless guns went through their ammo quickly by now, hammering out short bursts that barely allowed the barrels to cool. The projectiles were not slowed by passing through atmosphere, but they moved through space subtly deformed by many great, moving masses close by. Their path was predicted by an ever-improving algorithm that did its best to solve the movements of two maneuvering spacecraft and the flight paths fast enough to matter. The projectiles' fuses were programmed just when they left the muzzles and counted time to a millionth of a second. And when the time was right they ended the projectiles flight, giving birth to 160 cubes made from a material so hard its inventors had called it "like diamond". Small as these cubes were, the relative velocity between them and their target was measured in tens of kilometers per second, so each of them had the kinetic energy of a heavy machine gun round.
A hundred thousand and more of these projectiles raced through space, nearly all of them wasting all of that energy. One collided with M-8's ULF antenna, converting it into a mass of molten particles that sprayed all over the unmanned spaceship. It started to tumble uncontrollably on two axes before gyros and RCS jets restored its orientation. The lump of silicon that lay at its center evaluated the situation for 502 milliseconds. Its decision tree was severely influenced when it realized what the small explosions in its flight path meant. Turning around its long axis by 90 degrees it fired its main engine in a long, long burst, expending precious reaction mass to get away from almost certain destruction.
"Nathan, this is Frank. M-8 is hit, repeat is hit. I have an aspect change, it is changing course by 94 and 82 degrees respectively and accelerating with 0.62 G. I say he is getting out of Dodge."
"Very well. Svea, immediate target change to M-2, no need to waste more ammo."
"Solid copy on target change to M-2. Autocannon ammo down to 33 %."
"We won't get a bonus if we carry any home and we go through the gate in less than 30 minutes. Scare it off or kill it, makes no difference."
"Will do."
Nathan looked at the symbol and the info denoting the last enemy that could hurt them on his monitor. He saw the data that indicated a course change at the same time as his sensor operator called it.
"Nathan, this is Frank. I have aspect change on M-2. He has matched our relative velocity and keeps his distance at 121 klicks while performing evasive maneuvers. I try to jam his radar and his infrared sensors, but we are hit by LIDAR. There are changes in his infrared emissions, I have increased heat from his fusion torch, but no increased acceleration. I suggest he is using an MHD generator to produce power. He is charging up a weapon, no idea what."
"Frank, this is Nathan, understood. Erik, increase evasive maneuvers."
"Nathan, this is Erik, will comply, but I have limited leeway if we want to remain in the slot for the Star Gate."
"Underst…"
Whatever else Nathan wanted to say was swallowed by an almighty bang, the darkness that swallowed the command center for a second and the radiation alarm that started to blare.
Nathan's training set in and he donned his helmet right away before sealing his gloves. Things were muted for a second and bathed in red when the battery powered emergency lights came on again. The alarm stopped screaming for attention a few seconds later and the monitor before him started to come to life again.
"What the bleeding…status report everybody."
"Nathan, this is Frank. I had a big EM-Spike before the hit. The computer is coming up again, but I miss at least 12% of the transmitters on the port side, the ELF antenna seems to be gone. We had a big gamma ray burst, that seems to be over for now. M-2 is heating up again."
"Very well. What the bleeding f… did they hit us with?"
"Nathan, this is Svea, the attack was at near light speed, we had discharges and deep scoring in the port whipple shield and the gamma rays. This is probably a relativistic electron beam weapon or a Grazer"
"Good call Svea, bring that fragger down."
"I have the lasers on him, at this distance he will heat up, not much more. The cannons are not likely to hit as he is evasive, but since his weapon is near-as-fuck light speed we cannot evade."
Nathan had to fight the instinct to hammer the console before him in frustration. They had come so very close to getting back to the Warhammer system just to be killed by a greedy toaster in the last minute.
"Everybody, this is Nathan. Any clever ideas anybody?"
Nothing but silence.
Fuck
"Nathan, this is Frank, M-8 is at nearly the same temperature as when he shot the first time."
"Understood. Erik, make sure we present the maximum amount of armor to him. Frank, switch off the portside radar, maybe we can avoid tripping the circuit breakers"
Before Frank Herbert acknowledged the order a hammer hit Morgenstern's side and everybody was thrown into their safety belts. This time the lights stayed on, but the radiation alarm stressed nerves already under tension. The same alarm that reminded Nathan of old Polarstern and the solar storm that…fuck."
"Bashuur, this is Nathan. Raise the magnetic shield, right effing now."
"Guade Idä mei Jung"
Nathan was still trying to decide whether the dwarf had really said "good idea old boy" and if he should let that slide when Morgenstern's reactors changed their tone considerably. A small window on his monitor suddenly had a small bar that indicated the rising strength of the magnetic field that formed around his spacecraft.
"Nathan, this is Frank. M-8 is heating up again, he will fire again soon."
The treacherous bar said that the magnetic field was only at 31% of its maximum strength and rose so very slowly. Small jets started to inject plasma into the magnetic field, but it was as thin as fog when M-8 fired another beam. It was basically similar to the electron beam that was used to make phosphors glow in an old TV-tube. Yet this one was powered by a fusion stream working against a magnetic field and so a million times stronger than that. The electrons in the beam all had the same charge and therefore wanted to get away from each other. The extreme speed with which they were fired slowed the very flow of time for them, making them arrive at their target in a tight stream. But they were charged, and that meant Morgenstern's magnetic field acted upon them. Pushing the electron beam aside that little bit, spreading it and making it interact with the plasma changed its impact markedly. The plasma overheated and flashed at a temperature that overloaded the spaceship's sensors badly. Lighting arced all over the ship's sides, scoring the whipple shield and burning even more sensors. But most of all, the beam lost its focus and distributed what would be devastating damage over a much larger area.
"Bashuur, this is Nathan, give me a damage report."
"We have lost VHF-Antennas One and Three. I have to have a look at the main telescope before we raise it again and one RCS cluster is definitively out of it. Otherwise we are ok."
"Very well. Svea, stop shooting with the autocannons, I do not think the magnetic fields will do much for accuracy. Keep it lit up with the lasers. Frank, any changes to M-8?"
"M-8 is heating up again, but he is starting from a higher base. He did not get rid of all the heat from the last shot. Suggest Svea's lasers are doing bad things to his cooling system."
"Understood. Erik, keep the damaged side towards the enemy, no need to expose the redundant systems for now. Bashuur, keep raising shields."
„Wos moanst du denn wos i do mache?"
Bashuur's bavarian accent became more pronounced when he asked Nathan what he thought he was doing anyways, so Nathan could ignore that easily.
The bar before him had kept increasing all the while and it had reached 62 % before the next shot hit home. This time the plasma was denser, so it had time for some beautiful fireworks before dissipating, this time the arcing was far, far less destructive.
The shield charged fully before the next shot, which came later than expected, another sign that the Abomination had problems shedding the heat.
The shot did practically no discernible damage and Nathan was about to relax when a low-frequency vibration started to shake his console.
"Bashuur, this is Nathan, did we receive additional damage?"
"Not that I see."
"Nathan, this is Erik. We are closing with the Star Gate, we are experiencing the effects of the frame dragging. I need to adjust course."
"Very well. Wait for the next shot and then use the ROF engine at low temp. I do not think that the VASIMIR will interact well with the magnetic field."
"Solid copy on waiting and low-temp ROF."
The vibration become even more pronounced before the next shot hit, again there was next to no damage. Immediately after the fireworks ceased Morgenstern rotated a tiny bit and there was a rumble from its engines. The vibrations immediately lessened, but something still massaged Nathan's intestines in nauseous ways.
"Frank, this is Nathan. Can you contact the Star Gate?"
"It broke off communications before I could establish the protocols when we were hit. I hope we can make it this time, trying already. I have established us already, waiting for its reply. I am getting very weird music while the Gate's computer does its thing."
"Marvellous I am sure. Svea, can you hit that toaster harder?"
"Yes, but only for a minute or so, then the laser overheats."
"Do it, let's give Frank his minute."
The wail of Morgenstern's turbines rose to a banshee shriek when even more power was poured into its lasers. The laser hit M-8's radiator fins at an acute angle as the Abomination tried to minimize its exposure. So far, this had worked, but now the laser managed to heat a strut to the point where something broke. Fluid spilled from a pipe that desperately tried to clamp itself shut while the temperatures rose even further.
The fusion plume decreased markedly as the Abomination reduced its power generation so as not to overheat.
"Nathan, this is Frank. Music has stopped, Star Gate has accepted our credentials. I am uploading Hypatia's data. Star Gate has accepted the data, will send corrected course data "soon". The damn music is back on."
"Very well. Tell me if something changes."
"Nathan, this is Svea. Lasers are overheating, I have to shut them down."
"Keep firing regardless, we have no use for the lasers once we are through the Gate."
"Copy keep firing….eff this, lasers shut down by themselves. I am trying to override."
"Override faster."
"Nathan, this is Frank, M-8 has increased fusion plume, suggest it is generating power for the next shot. I am still getting that damned music."
"Svea, this is Nathan, get those…"
Svea responded "Yes, yes, damnit." just as Frank said "I just received the course correction and…"
The hammer and the lightning shook Morgenstern again, making the plasma in its shield glow like a lightbulb for long moments. And when it dissipated the ship was still in one piece.
"Frank, this is Nathan. Communicate the course change to Erik. Erik adjust as necessary at your convenience. Svea, how are the lasers?"
"Nathan, Svea here. Lasers will have cooled down in ten seconds, then we can fire at 50% power."
"Make it so."
By now the vibrations were back again, and the course change did reduce, but not eliminate them. Erik Bär was engaging the ROF engines at intervals now, trying to keep his space ship within the ever-shrinking funnel-shaped piece of space that would allow them to pass.
Nathan's back started to hurt from the tension built up from waiting for M-8's next shot, hoping that nothing important would break. Morgenstern was now so close to the Star Gate that its gravity pulled measurably stronger on its bow than it's back. Space was dragged around into a vortex by the Gate's rotation and Erik had to fly in the middle of a wave, lest the spaceship be destroyed. Groans and creaking could be heard through the ship and everybody's hair stood on end from a static charge that kept building up.
Nathan was about to ask for a status report when Frank interrupted him.
"We have communication from the Gate again. It wished us calm waters and gives a countdown. Transit in 10, 9, 8, 7, scheiße M-8 just disintegrated, 4, 3, 2, 1..
And then Nathan's world turned inside out.