Richard Russo - Ship of Fools

“Ten-second burn on the engines, then shut them down. Shut down everything !”

We lurched with the sudden acceleration, but almost immediately it stopped. Then all the lights went out, and the cabin was on batteries. Even the monitors were down, but now we were outside the Argonos and we could see the sphere coming.

What Maxine hoped for occurred. The sphere changed course and headed for us. Ten seconds later, it struck.

Like Masters said, there was no concussion. Silver glitter penetrated the harvester, a shower moving through us, tingling like electricity. A few moments later, it all faded away.

“Power up, Jimmy.”

Lights and life support came up first, the monitors came to life, then he refired the engines. The vibration as they came to life was incredibly comforting.

“Lock down transmissions and go!” Nikos ordered.

“Yes, Captain.”

“Lock down now!”

“Good luck, Captain.” Maxine nodded to Jimmy, and he locked down the transmission. “Kick them, Jimmy.”

The seats locked into place, the vibration became a roar, and I was crushed back in my seat as we blasted away.

WEwere massive, barely maneuverable, and we accelerated slowly, the engines roaring. Jimmy angled us away from the ship, but not much; the quickest way to put distance between us and the alien starship was running the length of the Argonos .

The shuttle was still accelerating, growing smaller on the monitor as it left the Argonos behind. From the pilot’s cabin we could see its bright tail flaring, a tiny circle of fire against the black sky, like a comet blazing away.

As he’d promised, Nikos left the command channel open, and now his voice came over it.

“Engage drive engines,” he said.

We were nearing the rear of the Argonos , the drive engines coming into view—black and red and massive, the metal surfaces pocked and streaked and scoured by the detritus of space. They began to glow and shudder.

“We’re too damn close,” Maxine said.

“Got it,” Jimmy said.

The harvester was slow to respond, slow to change direction. The engines seemed to strain, becoming unbalanced under Jimmy’s commands; the entire structure of the harvester appeared ready to give. But the Argonos began to fall away from us just as we were approaching the drive engines now building up their energies.

“Number four!” Cardenas called out. “No, no, it’s… something different this time, I don’t know…”

The alien ship was aglow, the silvery skin encasing it; everything seemed to be warping, distorting. Then suddenly a mass swelled up from the ship; it quickly differentiated into twenty or thirty spheres which burst forth like a star exploding.

“Shut it down, Jimmy! Everything, dammit!”

Jimmy’s fingers danced across the console, cutting the engines and power. We were moving fairly quickly now.

“Full acceleration,” ordered Nikos.

The spatial distortion from the Argonos drive engines reached us just before the first of the spheres. The harvester rolled and swayed, metal buckling. Nausea drove into my belly as I lost my sense of balance.

“Hang on,” said Maxine. “Just hang on.”

A sphere burst through us, followed a few seconds later by two more bursts. I felt electrified, and the sweat that broke out all over my skin seemed to burn, a frozen, charged, and invisible searing.

“Captain,” Cardenas said, “A dozen objects have just launched from the alien ship.”

“Bring up the Metzenbauer Field.”

There was a long silence. We were flying mute and almost blind, the engines still down.

“Maxine?” Jimmy asked.

“Don’t do anything,” she said. “Let them think we’re dead.”

We still had plenty of speed, though, and the two ships were receding from us; even faster now, I realized, because the Argonos was accelerating, though with the combined mass of the two ships they would be gaining velocity slowly at first. I swiveled my seat around, but we were at an odd angle, and I could only see parts of the Argonos and the alien ship.

“I’ll be damned,” Cardenas said. “The Field stopped all of them, whatever they were.”

“Jump coordinates set?” Nikos asked.

“They’re locked in, Captain. Nothing’s changed.”

“How long until we’ve got the velocity?”

“Checking now.”

A long, tense silence. “We can do it in thirty-seven minutes if we maintain full acceleration.”

“Do it, then.”

“Captain.” Someone else’s voice. One of the crew?

“Yes, Kirilen.”

“I think they’re bringing up their own drive engines. We’re picking up massive field distortions from the far side of their hull. Not the same kind we produce, but it could be their drives.”

No response from Nikos. Cardenas finally said, “Shit,” in a voice little more than a whisper.

“What is it?” Pär asked.

Jimmy shook his head. “If they get their drive engines up, and if they’re on the far side, they can counteract the acceleration of the Argonos . They might be able to prevent the Argonos from gaining enough velocity to make the jump. Or delay it long enough to attack in some other way. Something.”

“Amar,” Maxine asked, “how are the batteries?”

“Full reserve,” she said. “We’ve got hours.”

“Okay, bring the monitors back up.”

In addition to the bad angle, the two ships were getting smaller and smaller so we could hardly make anything out. The monitors came up, and Amar brought in the transmissions from the Argonos . The harvester’s cameras, even at full magnification, didn’t show much more than we could see with our own eyes, but the Argonos cameras were still transmitting clear signals.

The alien ship looked dead again, although the view was slightly obscured now by the Metzenbauer Field. But the Argonos was definitely alive, the drive engines ablaze with blue and white fire, surrounded by a corona of distortion.

“The trailing probe was launched,” Amar said quietly, as if we had to be careful even with the transmission locked out. Maybe we needed to be; what did we know?

We looked at the monitor screen dedicated to the trailing probe’s video transmissions—we had a perfect view of the two ships, filling the monitor. The probe was trailing the Argonos , but far off to the side, so the images weren’t washed out by the drive engines.

“Anything yet, Kirilen?” Nikos, again.

“No, sir. The field distortions persist, but there seems to be no acceleration, no thrust of any kind in any direction. Maybe it’s not a drive.”

I could hear Nikos sigh over the channel. “It may not be a drive,” he said, “but it’s got to be something.”

“Twenty-nine minutes,” Cardenas said.

Silence for a minute, maybe two. Maybe even longer. Time was distending, becoming impossible to gauge. There was nothing to do, nothing to say. But the Argonos engines continued to burn.

“Captain.” It was Cardenas. “Do you see that?”

No immediate response, then, “Yes. What…?”

“Look at that,” Pär whispered, pointing at the monitor.

“Amar, bring that over to monitor one.”

The video from the probe was switched over to the largest monitor, and now we could better see what was happening. There seemed to be a fracture forming in the alien ship, the gap flaring with a pale blue light. Then another fracture appeared on the other side so they were flanking the Argonos .