“They never stood a chance, being at almost dead stop,” Desjani stated, shaking her head.
“The gate is definitely collapsing,” the watch-stander monitoring it called out, his voice carrying a trace of fear now.
Geary entered a code and punched activate, calling up the program Commander Cresida had developed. Ancestors, please let this work. It wants me to slave available warships to the program. Fine. Do it. I wish I had more than three right here, but how many do I need? The last two formations have already turned in accordance with my earlier order and are heading away. “Dauntless, Daring, Diamond, this is Captain Geary. Your combat systems are being put under control of a program designed to try to control the collapse of the hypernet gate. Effective now.” He punched in the authorization, pondering the irony of doing the same thing to his ships that the Syndic commanders had done to their Force Bravo flotilla. But then he was doing this to try to stop massive destruction, not to cause it, and if his commanders wanted to, they could override the program at any time.
Almost immediately Geary could feel Dauntless pivot and begin braking at maximum thrust to slow its movement across the hypernet gate. He could see Daring and Diamond also straining to kill their velocity and assume positions near the gate.
Geary looked up at the visual display, in which the hypernet gate now loomed. He had seen only one other hypernet gate, and that only for a few moments. Admiral Bloch had been eager to show it off to Geary, but Geary had still been half-dead from his extended survival sleep and the psychic shock of awakening a century in the future and therefore hadn’t paid much attention. He vaguely remembered a shimmering in space, as if something wasn’t quite right inside the gate.
Now he stared at something different. The destruction wrought by the Syndic ships had been limited by their losses, but it had clearly been too much for the particle matrix suspended between the tethers. The shimmering was gone, replaced by a waviness that rippled across space itself like spasms on the hide of some impossibly vast creature.
“Captain Geary,” Desjani spoke as if discussing routine maneuvers, “the gate neutralization program is projecting positions for all three ships.”
“Any problems with it?” Geary asked Desjani.
She shook her head. “We’re already committed to the maneuver, sir.”
Geary watched the image of the gate slide past Dauntless, the hypernet gate’s size dwarfing even the Alliance battle cruiser. On his display, he could see Daring and Diamond also taking up positions called for by the program.
“Program reports gate collapse analysis complete,” the weapons watch reported in a slightly baffled voice. “Stabilization impossible. Initiating destructive neutralization sequence.”
Apparently that meant it was opening fire. The hell lances on all three ships hurled their charges at tethers spaced around the gate, taking them out in a pattern Geary couldn’t understand. He found his eyes fixed on the gate itself again, appalled but unable to look away from the tortured death of the particle matrix bound within the gate.
The image of space through the gate now twisted and rolled as if reality itself were being bent. Something in the back of Geary’s brain recoiled from the sight, repulsed by a vision that stripped bare the illusion of solidity which the universe normally held for human eyes. Inside the matrix of the gate, the fundamental nature of matter was being warped, and in the process literally unimaginable amounts of energy were being called into existence.
The hell lances on the Dauntless kept firing in apparently random sequences, vaporizing tethers singly and in groups. Daring had moved above and to port of Dauntless, and Diamond below and also to port, both of them firing their weapons as well under the coordination of the same program. It was impossible for Geary to tell from the visual display if the program was working or not. “What are the energy readings in that gate like?” he asked, his near whisper carrying clearly across the otherwise silent bridge.
“Rocketing all over the place, off the chart and then nothing, and then incredibly high again,” the sensors watch reported, her voice strained by disbelief. “The changes are happening instantaneously. A lot of what’s going on in that gate seems to be occurring in ways our instruments can’t measure.”
“Captain Geary, this is Diamond. What the hell is going on, sir?” The message was torn by some kind of static but still understandable.
Geary reached to push his controls without taking his eyes off the visual display. “Diamond, this is Geary. We’re trying to leash a monster before it destroys everything in this star system. Make sure your forward shields are set to maintain at maximum. Daring, that goes for you, too. Do not, repeat, do not interfere with the firing pattern of your weapons.”
A strange sort of humming seemed to be filling the air, a resonance traveling through everything near the gate. Geary felt it inside himself. He could hear someone whispering a prayer and didn’t call for silence. The vision through the gate had twisted some more, into something almost impossible to look at because of the way his brain reacted to the sight. The maw of the monster. The mythical beast that eats ships, leaving no trace of them in space. I’ve finally seen it. By the living stars, I pray I never see it again.
A very low voice sounded near him. Co-President Rione, her tone reflecting the same awe and terror that Geary and everyone else must be feeling. “Captain Geary. Thank you for trying.”
“We haven’t failed yet,” he managed to reply.
“Captain Desjani,” the weapons watch called, his voice sounding too loud and with an undertone of panic. “Hell-lance batteries two alpha, four alpha, and five beta report overheating from the constant firing.”
“Conduct emergency heat dumps,” Desjani replied, her voice steady. “We have Captain Geary aboard, ladies and gentlemen. We won’t fail him or the rest of the fleet counting on us.”
Even through his fear Geary felt a rush of gratification at her words and admiration for Desjani’s ability to project control even in the face of what was happening inside the gate.
The strange humming had grown to a moan running through and tearing at everything. Geary felt the sort of strange instability that came with being very drunk and realized his nervous system was being pummeled by whatever was happening inside the gate. He hoped that Dauntless’s electrical systems were better shielded than his own body was at the moment.
“Captain Geary, this is Diamond. Experiencing secondary system failures. Primary systems remain operational on backup circuits. We’ve lost one hell-lance battery to overheating. Holding position.”
“This is Daring. We’re suffering the same. Remaining on station and continuing to fire.”
“Captain Desjani, failures to secondary systems throughout the hull, hell-lance battery two alpha nonoperational due to overheating.”
“Very well,” Desjani replied in the same steady voice. “Hold station. Continue firing.”
Geary had been proud to command this fleet when he wasn’t feeling overwhelmed by the responsibility. But now he felt such a strong sense of honor in commanding ships and sailors like this that he had to fight back tears. “Damn, you’re all good,” he stated roughly. “May the living stars reward such courage.”
“This is Diamond. My weapons have stopped firing. All combat systems nonoperational. Request further instructions.”
Geary slammed his hand onto the control. “Withdraw, Diamond. Maximum acceleration. Keep your shields facing the gate as strong as possible.”
“Diamond, aye. Unable to comply. Inertial compensators are still working but main maneuvering controls have just failed. Looks like we’re staying at the mouth of hell with you.”
“I couldn’t ask for better company there than you, Daring and Dauntless,” Geary replied. “Captain Duellos, if Dauntless is destroyed, you are to assume command of the fleet by my order.”
It would be a while before Duellos heard that order, assuming the strange static emanating from the gate didn’t mask it completely at a distance. Geary took a deep breath. “How much longer can we hold out, Captain Desjani?”
“No telling, sir,” she stated in a soft but firm voice that left Geary marveling at Desjani’s self-control. “The ship is undergoing a unique set of stresses.”
The pace of firing from the hell-lance batteries had finally slowed, with pauses of varying length occurring before the firing program ordered new shots to blow apart more tethers at locations all around the gate. The hell mouth inside the gate was fluctuating wildly, one moment swelling as if to burst the bounds of the gate and the next dwindling to a point almost too small to see.
