Richard Russo - Ship of Fools

A booming sound came over the command channel, but no voices. Then Kirilen’s voice, panicky. “Something’s coming out… !”

Then we could see it, a dark, curling extension emerging from the alien ship. It appeared to be a massive cable of some kind, extending, lengthening; then it whipped around like the tentacle of a monstrous ocean beast. There was a brilliant flash as it penetrated the Metzenbauer Field and wrapped itself across the hull of the Argonos , another boom sounding, this one louder and more violent.

Alarms blared over the command channel.

“The Field’s down!” Kirilen shouted. “And we’ve got hull breaches!”

There was another boom like the first; then a second cable or tentacle emerged from the other crack in the alien ship, whipping through space before it struck the Argonos and wrapped itself across the hull, overlapping the first.

Leviathan , I thought, wondering if the bishop was watching this, if he knew what was happening. If he did, I’m sure he was convinced that damnation was coming for him.

“More hull breaches, Captain.”

“Shut off the alarms, damn it! And how are the engines?”

The alarms ceased abruptly. Then another came on for a moment before it, too, was shut down.

“Engines are fine,” Cardenas reported. “The Field is down and won’t come back up, but the engines are completely undisturbed. We’re still accelerating.”

Two more booms sounded, and two more of the cables emerged from the alien ship, slamming across the Argonos hull. No alarms sounded this time, but Kirilen announced there were more hull breaches.

“Time?” Nikos asked.

“Fifteen minutes,” Cardenas replied.

The Argonos now looked like prey in the clutches of its predator. There were no more booming sounds, no more cables. There was no change at all for longer than I could stand.

“Captain?” It was the bishop.

“Get off this channel, Bernard. We don’t have time for this.”

“We have all the time in the universe, Captain. Don’t you understand what’s happening to us? Don’t you understand…?”

He was cut off in midsentence. “Thank God he’s not here in the bridge,” Nikos said.

“We’ve got movement,” Kirilen broke in.

“What the hell do you mean, movement?”

“Inside the ship. I’m trying to pick up something on video. It’s in several areas, near the hull breaches.”

“You sure it’s not our own people?”

“No, I’m not sure, but there shouldn’t be anyone near those areas.”

A tense quiet followed. More seconds, then minutes stretching out. It was agonizing being unable to do anything, unable to help.

“Damn, most of the security cameras are dead around there, probably damaged during the breaches.”

“That’s all right,” Nikos said. “Just keep trying.”

“I am… wait. Here. Here’s something. The light’s not good, though…” His voice trailed away, and there was more quiet.

“My God,” Kirilen whispered. “Look at that thing…”

I looked from one monitor to another, just as the others were doing, but we had no interior shots. Whatever video Kirilen had picked up wasn’t being transmitted.

“What do you think happened?” Nikos asked. His voice remained calm.

“Boarded through the cable,” Cardenas answered.

“How close is the nearest hull breach to us?”

“Let me see…” Kirilen said, his voice still shaky. “Seven levels and eight sectors. I can’t get any video at that breach, but sensors are picking up some kind of movement there.”

“Engines?” Nikos asked again.

“No change, Captain. Acceleration steady.”

“Time?”

“Nine minutes.”

“Good, then it doesn’t matter, whatever they are. There’s no way they can reach us in time to stop the jump.”

“But, Captain. Look at it!”

I squirmed in my chair, both wishing I could see what Kirilen was talking about, and glad I couldn’t. Glad we couldn’t really know what they would soon be facing.

“It doesn’t matter,” Nikos repeated. “Besides, we’ve prepared, haven’t we?”

There was a slight pause, before Kirilen spoke again. “Sorry, Captain.” The panic was gone, and he sounded composed.

On monitor one, nothing had changed. The two ships were locked together, and the drive engines continued to burn fiercely. But other than that, there was no movement on either ship.

We watched and waited in silence. Those on the Argonos were silent as well, except for Cardenas calling out the time every two minutes. Finally, it was time.

“One minute,” she said.

“Coordinates locked in?”

“Locked in.”

“Start jump sequence.”

“Jump sequence started.”

“Good luck, everyone,” Nikos said. “Lock down transmissions.”

“Locking down.”

The command channel went dead. So did all the video transmissions we’d been receiving except for the one from the probe, which remained on monitor one. We all stared at it, waiting. Waiting.

I had never seen a jump from outside the ship, of course. None of us had. None of us knew what to expect.

The universe opened up and turned itself inside out.

A ring of distortion formed around the Argonos . Space seemed to twist; even the shape of the two ships appeared to bend and flow, as if becoming unstable. Starlight curved around the ring so that the stars became like liquid mercury, elongated arcs that slowly spiraled. The starlight stretched out, took on an almost reddish hue in places, blue in others.

As the ring grew, it separated from the two ships, like a hole opening. In the gap between the ring and the ships was… nothing.

Black. A deep black that was darker than night. No stars.

An abyss. A true void. Discontinuity.

The curved starlight began to spin faster now, a whirlpool of colors bending and stretching with a ghostly sheen.

The harvester shuddered slightly, and I felt a queasiness rolling through my belly again.

“What is that?”

“I think we’ve been caught by the space distortions,” Maxine said.

“We’re decelerating,” Jimmy announced.

The ring continued to grow, the vortex of starlight swirling still faster now.

“I’m not sure,” Jimmy said, “but I think it might be pulling us in.”

“We’re too far,” Maxine said. “It’ll be over long before we reach them.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m not sure.”

“Then let’s start up the engines!”

“Let it go, Jimmy.”

I looked away from the monitor and out of the cabin. Maxine was right, I decided. Everything looked close on the monitor, but now I could barely make out the growing, swirling ring far behind us. I turned back to the monitor to watch.

A cocoon of glistening white energy had begun to form around the Argonos . As the shimmering strands of light spun around the ship, they flowed forward and began to enclose the alien ship as well.

Suddenly the black cables were released from the Argonos and began to writhe, whipping and slamming against the Argonos , both ships shuddering with the violence.

“They’re going to tear the Argonos apart!” Amar cried out.

“They’re trying to break free,” Pär said.