“It’s the only way we get this work done. It is important work. Captain, I hope you’ll reconsider.”

  “I’m happy to work with the UN Research team,” Tyson replied. “And I have no personal animus toward Doctor Rose or any of you. But I’m getting that alien object off Pioneer so we can resume acceleration. That isn’t up for debate.” He reached up and unpinned his comm badge from his uniform, handing it to the scientist. “Give this to Victoria once she cools off. Tell her that if she wants to talk about anything other than the object, I’m open to listening.”

  Pietro took the badge. “I will.”

  “Thank you, Pietro.”

  “Goodbye, Captain.” Pietro closed the door behind them.

  “That went well,” Tyson said as soon as it was shut.

  “Sir, did you give him the comm because you want to talk or because you want me to keep an eye on her?” Joseph asked.

  “Maybe a little bit of both. Although I half expect her to smash it as soon as Pietro gives it to her. Guardian Madani, you’re dismissed. Please return to your prior duties.”

  She looked at Joseph, who nodded.

  “Aye aye, sir,” she replied, breaking away from the group and heading back down one of the passageways.

  Tyson watched her for a moment before turning to Joseph and Oslo. “Let’s talk about how to get that hellspawned alien rock off my ship.”

  39

  Cross

  Pioneer. Passageway. 11.12.2052. 1020 hours.

  Joseph walked through the corridors of the ship with Captain Grant and Chief Engineer Oslo. He didn’t know where they were going. He wasn’t sure they were going anywhere in particular. But the Captain seemed to like walking while he worked through problems, and what Grant wanted, Grant got.

  He wasn’t shaken by his experience with the trife, but he was confused. He didn’t understand why the aliens had reacted to him the way they did. What made him so special that they wanted to kill him so badly? Did the alien object really have something to do with it?

  He had joked with West about Pioneer staying out of trouble. But maybe Pioneer wasn’t the problem. It seemed trouble was following him wherever he went, whether he was inside or outside the vessel.

  “Chief Oslo, can you go over your findings with Prime Cross?” Captain Grant said.

  “Of course, sir,” Oslo replied. He shifted his position to move a little closer to Joseph. “We’ve been working on how the alien object is staying tethered to Pioneer’s hull since we got the cameras set up. We were able to modify the motion and IR filters in the space suit to filter for other data. EMF, radiation, gravitational fields, that sort of thing.”

  “All from the space suit’s camera filters?” Joseph asked, impressed.

  “Not on their own. We’re routing some of the data through the ship’s sensors and syncing camera output with redirected sensors on Pioneer’s hull. The gravitational field sensors, for example. It’s pretty incredible.”

  “Are you always so modest?” Captain Grant asked.

  “No, sir,” Oslo replied with a smile. “The point is, there’s no clear indication that any of those forces are in play. But we know something is holding it down because the explosives the Guardians set off should have dislodged it.”

  “And left me floating off into space?”

  “We were prepared to initiate a light acceleration to pin the object against the side of Pioneer,” Grant said. “You weren’t at risk of floating away before we wanted you to.”

  “Thank you, sir. Chief, how do you know there isn’t some kind of exotic alien tech holding the object down?”

  “We don’t for sure, but I’m leaning toward something else. Are you familiar with Van der Waals force?”

  “You mean like geckos?”

  “Yes, exactly. The interaction between molecules, in this case the bottom of the alien object and the hull of Pioneer.”

  “I thought Van der Waals creates a weak bond? Wouldn’t an explosion be enough to break it?”

  “In the region of the force, yes. But surface area is important. The sum of the attraction of the unaffected area is great enough to keep the object in place.”

  “If you say so. You’re the engineer, not me.”

  “I do say so,” Oslo said. “That’s what led me to my idea.”

  “Which is?”

  “The forces rely on attraction between molecules. We need to disrupt the attraction across the entire surface.”

  “More explosions?” Joseph guessed.

  Oslo laughed. “No. That would work, but it would also cause catastrophic damage to the hull. Instead, I’m proposing an electrical charge along Pioneer’s surface, just enough to damage the top layer of alloy. The damage to the metal would increase the roughness of the surface, which would act to reduce the overall force.”

  Joseph nodded.“Captain, Chief, no offense, but a lot of this is over my head. I’m not clear what you need me to do?”

  “Once we reduce the force, we need to create lift to pull the object off the hull,” Oslo explained. “Like tearing off a band-aid or a piece of tape. I’ve got my crew working on rigging a replacement thruster assembly for one of the transports so we can mount it inside the object on its ceiling, and push it up from there.”

  “You want to push it from the inside?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you need someone to go in there and stick it to the object’s ceiling.”

  “That’s right. The thruster control is wired. Someone needs to trigger it locally.”

  “And as soon as the thruster fires, the whole thing will be lifted away from the ship.”

  “Not exactly,” Grant said. “We’ll fire the vectoring thrusters on Pioneer to push her down and away, further separating us from the object.”

  “But that someone will still be inside.”

  “Yes.”

  “How is that individual supposed to get back to Pioneer?”

  “We’ll provide as long a tether to the thruster as we can,” Oslo said. “You’d need to get out before you get too far from the ship to use the space suit’s jets to reach it.”

  “And if I don’t?”

  “It’ll take another twelve hours to get everything set up for the attempt,” Grant said. “Do you think you can get anyone on your team familiar enough with a Bayonet to fly it?”

  Joseph stared at the Captain. “Are you kidding, sir?”

  “I wish I were. I really do. If you can’t get off in time it’s either recover you with a Bayonet or leave you behind.”

  “I’d prefer not to get left behind, especially on that thing. I’d really prefer not to go back in there at all. You might think it’s dead, but I’m not convinced.”

  “Oh?” Grant said, raising an eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”

  Joseph shook his head. The thought of the alien object made his skin crawl in a way that little else did. “Just a hunch.”

  “I can send someone else. Second West, maybe? But I pegged you for the kind of leader who does the hardest jobs himself.”

  “I do, sir. And I am. There’s no question it’ll be me in there.” He looked at Oslo. “Are you sure there’s no other way?”

  “Someone has to fire the thruster,” Oslo replied. “Someone has to take the risk.”

  “What do you say, Prime?” Grant asked.

  “This is why I’m here, Captain. I’m in.”

  40

  Cross

  Pioneer. Guardian Module. 11.12.2052. 1100 hours.

  Joseph left Captain Grant and Chief Oslo when they returned to the elevator, letting the Captain have the lift while he made his way to the nearby emergency stairwell. Beginning to get a feel for at least a small portion of the vessel, he took the stairs down two decks, emerging on thirty and navigating back to the elevator. Everything had been so chaotic to this point, there hadn’t been any time to take a breath and really think about where he was. Even when he was out in space floating in zero-g, every action had come from instinct, without any thought given to his environment.

  He took the opportunity now, remaining outside the Guardian module while he let the truth of his new life—his new reality—begin to sink in. He would spend most of his adulthood on this ship, watching over it and protecting the colony.

  Or, he would get trapped on the alien rock and be blown out into the cold reaches of space. And left behind to die alone.

  He didn’t like Oslo’s plan. He didn’t like the thought of going back into the alien object. He still couldn’t completely obliterate the image of the thing reenacting the death of his sister or its groaning voice in his head.

  I hunger.

  Even the trife on board seemed to hate whatever entity resided inside. The others thought it was dead. He had a hard time believing something that could move through space with no obvious form of propulsion, that could read his mind, that could control the xenosquids would succumb to a handful of explosive rounds. For all he knew, they would free it from Pioneer only to have it come zooming back.

  Not if he could help it. Captain Grant was right about one thing. They had the simulators. They had access to the Bayonets. Whether Command provided the fighters because they knew Pioneer might encounter something out here or because they wanted the Guardians to recon Avalon when they arrived, they’d had the foresight to provide the craft.

  Now the Guardians needed to learn to use them.

  Joseph didn’t waste anymore time. He hurried back to the module, swiping his wrist across the security panel for access and ducking into the CIC. Hoffman was at the command station. She stood up when he entered, ready to come to attention.

  “As you were, Hoff,” he said. “Is West back yet?”

  “No, Prime,” Hoffman replied. “Beta’s still patrolling the aft.”

  “Call them back for me. I want all hands to the CIC.”

  “Copy that, Prime.”

  Joseph went through the door to the left, through the prep room to the armory. He swiped his wrist to open the door and stepped inside, still a little taken aback by the size of the room. It was nearly twice the size of the largest armory he had even been in, and loaded to the ceiling with more guns, ammo and other equipment than twenty people could ever use in their lifetimes, nevermind the ten of them that remained.

  There were dozens of assault rifles, plasma rifles, pistols, three different types of body armor, crates and crates of ammunition, explosives, grenades and still more containers they had yet to open and look through. The guns were organized on racks and in boxes that left them easily visible and retrievable while the armor hung from the walls, organized by size. There had to be a hundred full suits easy and nearly double the number with the softer, more rubbery spidersteel base layer.

  Joseph figured the excess was provided with the same reasoning as the Bayonets. They didn’t know what they might find out here, especially when they reached Avalon. It was better to be prepared. To have more than they needed in case they needed more.

  He crossed down one of the narrow aisles between shelves, going all the way to the back of the armory. There was a stack of crates in the corner with ID tags printed on the outside, DGFLY stenciled as part of the code. Dragonfly. He reached up to take the box from the top of the stack, finding it lighter than he expected. He put it on the floor, clicked open the snaps on the front of the crate, and lifted the lid.

  The drone inside did resemble a dragonfly, though a bit larger than the real insect. Almost twenty centimeters long and six wide, it had eight gossamer wings and a camera mounted on its face. A remote rested in the crate beside it, a pair of small joysticks on either side of a flat screen. Joseph picked it up and tapped the screen, which lit up with one simple option. Launch.

  He pressed the button. A small LED activated on the dragonfly, but it didn’t move. A message appeared on the screen.

  PLEASE REMOVE ME FROM MY CASE AND TRY AGAIN.

  Joseph shook his head at his own stupidity. He picked up the dragonfly, setting it on the floor, where it rested on a pair of small feet. Then he hit the launch button again.

  The drone rose on whirring wings, making a soft humming noise. It leveled off at his face and the menu on the remote changed, offering him options for manual, auto or land. He wasn’t ready for manual yet, so he tapped on auto, which let him select from recon or follow. He tapped follow, and the drone spun around into position behind him, floating a meter over his shoulder. The screen changed to a video feed from the camera, offering a wide angle of the area ahead.

  He hit the small button in the corner that returned him to the main menu and tapped on recon.

  MAX DISTANCE 500 METERS. NETWORK DETECTED. LINK TO EXTEND RANGE.

  The text had a start and link button beneath it. He tapped on link.

  PLEASE ENTER THE NETWORK CREDENTIALS.

  A text box appeared. Joseph didn’t know the alphanumeric credentials to Pioneer’s network offhand so he backed out and set the machine back to follow. He headed back out of the armory, still carrying the remote. The Dragonfly stayed with him, perfectly perched over his shoulder. He returned to the CIC as Madani came through the door, with Tran right behind her.

  “Prime,” she said, both she and Tran straightening up.

  “At ease,” Joseph said.

  “Nice toy, Prime,” West said from the command station.

  “Is everyone here?” he asked, glancing around the room and counting heads.

  “Affirmative.”

  “All right Guardians, line up.”

  They organized near the front of the CIC, forming into two rows and coming to attention again, the maneuver crisply done.

  “At ease,” Joseph said, and they moved to a parade rest. “A couple of things we need to discuss. I just had a meeting with Captain Grant and the Chief of Engineering, Lars Oslo. I mentioned we were patrolling Pioneer, and the Chief came pretty close to laughing in my face, which I didn’t appreciate all that much. It turns out we’ve got almost sixty of these dragonfly drones in our armory, and that they have recon modes that will allow them to do all of that labor for us. We don’t have to walk the halls at all, we just need to program these things with routes and monitor their feeds from here.”

  “I was wondering how we were supposed to keep an eye on the whole ship,” Morales said. “Two at a time isn’t close to enough.”

  “I think we all were wondering about that,” Joseph replied. “By the way, how are you feeling?”

  “I’m good, Prime. No residual effects. Thanks for keeping me safe out there.”

  “You’d do the same for me.” He paused while his eyes crossed over the gathered Guardians. “We’re at a bit of a disadvantage because we weren’t trained for this job. Everyone who was trained died back on Earth. We made a mistake. Mistakes happen, especially when you don’t know any better. So Chief Oslo will come down over the coming weeks to help us get our systems fully operational. I need every one of you putting all of your effort into learning how to do this job as efficiently as possible.” He pointed to the Dragonfly. “This is step one. Understood?”

  “Yes, sir!” they snapped back.

  “Good. Next order of business. Chief Oslo has a plan to get the alien rock off Pioneer. I don’t need to tell you that plan includes the Guardians going back out onto the hull to help deal with the situation. What I do need to tell you is that the plan involves me going back inside that thing to manually fire a thruster, which will hopefully lift the object off the surface.”

  “Why you, Prime?” West said. “I can do it.”

  “I’ll do it,” Morales said. “I owe that son of a bitch.”

  “No,” Joseph replied. “I’m Prime. It’s my responsibility. That’s not up for debate.”

  “Prime,” West said. “I—”

  “What do you not understand about not up for debate?” Joseph asked sternly. West closed her mouth. “There’s a chance I could get trapped on the object when it breaks loose. If the entity controlling it is dead like the Captain thinks, I could wind up left behind with no way to catch up. If it isn’t dead, there’s a chance it’ll come back to the ship. Or worse.”

  “What do you mean, worse?” Bourne asked.

  Joseph looked over the Guardians. He hadn’t mentioned this part to Grant or Oslo because he didn’t want to give them a chance to counter him. “If that thing is still alive, it’s already proven it can accelerate faster than Pioneer. What’s to stop it from slamming into the ship? Especially if we make it mad.”

  “A mad rock?” Morales said jokingly.

  None of the Guardians laughed. They understood the severity of Joseph’s statement. Morales did too. It was just his way of dealing with the tension.

  “What are we supposed to do, Prime?” Tran asked. “We can’t blow it up without damaging the hull.”

  “No. We have to set it loose. But we aren’t defenseless against it once it’s in space.”

  “The Bayonets,” West said. “The simulators.”

  “That’s right.”

  “What simulators?” Alesso asked.

  “Command saw fit to provide us with a squadron of Bayonets and a pair of simulators. We’ve got about twelve hours to see how well we can learn to pilot them.”

  “We’re supposed to learn how to fly starfighters?” Sykes said. “Damn, this is the craziest job I’ve ever had.”

  “That’s because you were never a professional fart sniffer,” Morales said.

  “Eww, is that a real thing?” Hoffman asked.

  “It is. My cousin knew a guy who did it. Before the war, I mean. He got paid better than me.”

  “Okay, Guardians. I’m going in first to get a feel for things. West, you’re with me.”

  “Copy that, Prime,” West replied.

  “Hoffman, keep monitoring the comms in case Captain Grant needs us. Morales, take this.” He stepped forward and handed the other Guardian the Dragonfly’s remote. The drone immediately took position behind Morales’ head. “See if you can get it linked to the network. Ping engineering if you need help.”