Solbidyum Wars Saga 6: Defeat of the Tottalax (30 page)

“Possibly both, I didn’t see any signs of debris from construction at the bottom of the pit that would indicate they carved it out.  I would have expected to see that had it been man made.”

“How do you think they found it?”  Truath asked.

“I have no idea.  Maybe by accident; who knows?”

“Admiral, based upon the reading I’m receiving, that’s a Gaimseian style corvette in there.  You know who uses those.”  Marranalis said.

“Yeah, the Brotherhood.  That must be one very large cavern if a corvette fits into it,” I answered.

“That’s not all, Admiral. I'm detecting several other smaller ships in there as well.”

“Any indication they know we are here?”  I asked.

“None so far,” Marranalis replied.

By now, we were level with the opening, and while we were about 100 meters away from the opening, we could clearly see it with the light refracting inside.  We could detect that there was a large air pocket, and the ships were able to rise up enough so they would be only partly submerged.

I was about to think we had made it undetected, and we were going to get away unobserved, when one of the men at the monitoring station shouted, “Sir, we’re being fired upon!  Some sort of projectile is moving rapidly toward us!”

“It can’t be an explosive weapon,” I said.  “At this depth and pressure things implode, not explode.”

“Evasive maneuvers,” the Captain shouted, “Admiral, if you’ll forgive me, a projectile weapon down here is more dangerous than an explosive.  All it needs to do is penetrate the hull and this sub will collapse like a stomped-on hodar egg.”  He was right, of course; something I hadn’t thought about.

“Sir, the projectile is going to miss us,” the man at the monitoring station said just as we got a view of a long spear-like object moving rapidly through the water and passing behind the ship.  “Sir, they are firing more projectiles in a spread.”

“Admiral, your call.  This is out of my league,” the Captain said.

“Power dive, full power,” I ordered.  Almost instantly I felt the sub lurch as we began a powered descent.

“Excuse me, Admiral, but why are we diving? We’ll be trapped.”

“Because that spread of projectiles are aimed up and around this area, but very few are aimed down,” I responded as we could see the spear-like projectiles radiating out from the cavern.  “We stand a better chance of avoiding a hit by diving.”

“Yes, I see that now, but it looks like we still may be hit,” the Captain said, as he pointed to a monitoring screen, and one spear could be seen heading directly for the sub.

“Seal all internal hatches immediately,” I ordered, and all around the ship I could hear hatches slamming shut.  Then there was a thud and an odd sound of metal being twisted and the sub began dropping more rapidly at an odd angle.

“Admiral,” the Captain said, “we’ve been hit.  The upper hull has collapsed, and we’ve lost control of the sub.”

“How about the lower hull and those down there?”  I asked.

“They're fine at the moment.  Your order to seal the hatches saved us.”

“What about men in the upper level?”  I asked.  The captain's head dropped, “they’re gone, I fear.”

“How many were there?” I asked.

“Two sir,” he replied.  “Admiral, we’re dead; there is no way for us to get to the surface from this depth.  We’ll fall to the bottom of this pit, and they can come and finish us off as they wish.”

“Admiral,” Marranalis interrupted, “we’re prepared for this situation.  We’ve brought a collapsed Cantolla Gate along with us, all we need to do is set it up.  The other end is already live so once we activate this end, we can go right through.”

“Well what are you waiting for, get it set up,” I ordered, and then added, “Nice thinking, Marranalis.”

“Sir, I am detecting smaller crafts leaving the tunnel above and heading down our way,” the trooper at the monitoring station said.

“All the more reason for us to get out of here quickly,” I replied.

As some of the troopers busied themselves opening the containers I had seen them loading earlier, and retracting pieces of the Cantolla Gate, Marranalis added, “Sir, this gate is going to be small, and we will need to crawl through it.  We didn’t know how much space we might have aboard if we needed to use it, so we brought the smallest one we would be able to get through one at a time.”

“Marranalis I don’t care if we need to wiggle through on our bellies, as long as it gets us out of here, that’s all we need.”

“Yes sir,” he replied.

“How fast are those pursuing ships coming?”  I asked the trooper reading the sensors.

“They don’t seem to be in any rush and are descending at about the same rate that we are.  However, I’m detecting a larger ship has moved out of the cavern and also is descending.”

“So they plan on destroying this ship,” I heard Truath said.

“More likely they plan to capture it,” I replied, “the larger ship is probably intended to be used to lift this one back to their cave, so they can interrogate us and find out who we are, and what we know.”

“But we can get out of here with this Cantolla Gate thing?”  She asked.

“Yes, haven’t you heard about Cantolla Gates?”  I asked.

“Well, yes and no.  I hear people talk about them but no one seems to know much, and they sound pretty fictional to me.”

“Sir we'd better brace for impact. We're going to hit the bottom soon,” one of the troopers said.

“I think I can reduce our impact a little,” the Captain stated as he adjusted a few controls, and the sub leveled a little.  A few seconds later, there was a thud, and we were almost brought to our knees at the impact, and then all was motionless.  “Right,” the captain said, “we’re on the bottom.”

“Marranalis, how is it coming?” I asked.

“Almost done, Admiral, just calibrating the sympathetic particles for proper alignment… and… there,” he said as some lights on the upper corner of the Cantolla Gate began to flicker.  Seconds later, I found myself looking into another room through the gate where all I saw was a few people from their knees down.

“Admiral I suggest you get through first,” Marranalis said.

“Sorry, Marranalis, but it’s my rule, ladies first; get the female crew of this sub through there.”

Marranalis gave me a stern look and then nodded.  “All right ladies, you heard what the man said, get through here quickly, we may not have much time.

Moments later, with all the women through, Marranalis said, “Now you, Admiral!”

“I think the civil…,” I began when Marranalis cut me short with a shout, “YOU! Admiral, don’t make me knock you out and have you dragged through.  One look at his face showed me he was serious, and I knew much as I hated it that he was right, as a senior officer in command of the fleets, my survival was vital, even if I didn’t think so.  I nodded and dropped to my knees and crawled quickly through the gate.  I wasn’t sure just where this gate was set up to exit, but as soon as I stood up, I was greeted by Captain Wanoll, “Welcome back aboard the
DUSTEN,
Admiral.”

“Wanoll!  Man, am I glad to see you!  Can you get me some of the smallest and more powerful explosive devices you have aboard?  Something small enough to fit through that gate?”

“Yes sir, I think we can.  Lieutenant,” he said turning to a trooper by his side, “get two warheads for HG-4 missiles up here immediately.”

“Oh,” I interrupted, “make sure they have some sort of timing triggering device on them also,” I added.

While I was talking to Captain Wanoll more of the crew from the sub had come aboard, and now the last of my trooper guards was coming through.  After Marranalis was aboard, I said, “I’m having two HG-4 missile warheads brought up here, I want them put aboard the sub, and I want a camera installed on the lower observation level if it's not flooded and still possible.  I’m hoping the Brotherhood will pick this ship up and transport it to their subsea base.  We can monitor it through this gate, and once they have the sub at their base, I want the timer on the warheads set for one minute, and the gates closed.  That should put an end to that base and also make sure the Brotherhood doesn’t get their hands on any of our gate technology.”

Marranalis grinned, “Great idea, Admiral.  I just wish we were somewhere nearby to see it happen.”

By now, most of the crew of the sub had been taken away to another area.  The sub Captain and Truath remained.  When things had calmed down a bit, and I wasn’t so busy the captain approached me.

“Admiral, what about my sub?  What’s going to happen to it?”  I could see a real concern on his face, and I realized that this sub was his source of income, and if destroyed, it could ruin him financially.

“I’m afraid it’s going to be blown up,” I said, “but don’t worry, I’ll see to it you are completely reimbursed for its cost, and that you will be compensated for the loss of business until you can get a new one to replace it.  The same holds true for your crew.  They will all be compensated for their loss of employment.”

“Thank you, Admiral, that’s a huge relief.  I hate losing this one though, but it was a real adventure.”

“Captain, what about the men who died on the upper level?  Do they have families?  If they do I want to see that their families are properly cared for.”

“As far as I know, only one of the men has a family.  I’ll get the information to you once I get back to Irribis.  Just where are we, anyway?  He asked.

I laughed and said, “I only know we are aboard the starship
DUSTEN
, precisely where, I do not know.  Captain Wanoll, where are we in space at the moment?”

“We’re about two days out from Auburn,” he replied.

“Auburn!”  Truath said with a gasp, “that’s all the way across the galaxy from Irribis.  We traveled that far just by crawling through that gate?”

“You did indeed,” Captain Wanoll replied.

Moments later, several troopers arrived with two gravity sleds carrying some short cylinders of about 500mm in diameter.  “The HG-4 warheads you requested, sir,” one of the troopers said.

“Marranalis, what’s the status on the other side?”  I asked.

“We’ve just tied into one of the cameras in the lower hull of the ship, and as you suspected, the Brotherhood seems to be trying to attach lines to the sub to take it back to their cavern.  I think they believe we are all hiding in the second-level control room.”

“Good, get these two warheads aboard quickly and the timer detonator attached and ready, but don’t activate the timers until I give the word.”

“Tibby, by the stars what’s going on?”  I heard Admiral Regeny’s voice as he entered the compartment we were in.

“Admiral, good to see you.  We’re just about to provide the Brotherhood with a pyrotechnic display on Irribis.  Would you care to stay and watch?”  I replied.

Regeny got a crooked grin on his face and said, “Definitely, I want to stay and watch, but don’t you think you should fill me in on some details first?”

“Well, if the Brotherhood allows us enough time I will be happy to fill you in.  However, please don’t get upset if we need to set off the fireworks before I get the story completed for you.”

“Excuse me, Admirals,” Marranalis interjected, “the Brotherhood ship seems to be trying to load the sub in their cargo bay.”

“Even better,” I said, “That means they will most likely evacuate the water from the bay once it’s aboard, and if they go straight back to their base, it means the explosive power of the HG-4 warheads will be greater than if underwater.”

“Two HG-4 warheads?”  Regeny said, “What are you trying to do, take out half the planet?”

“I hope not, just the Brotherhood bases on Irribis.  This base is several hundred meters down and the pressure there is great enough that it will reduce the explosive effect.  I just hope it’s enough to wreck their base.” I said as I started to relate the details of all that had transpired up to this point.  After I was finished, Regeny said, “It’s a good plan; I just hope it doesn’t backfire on us in some way.  You remember the disaster on Megelleon when we blew up the rebels’ subsea base?”

“I’d forgotten about that,” I said.  “Marranalis, contact A’Lappe and find out what the results will be if we detonate two HG-4 warheads at the depth of the enemy base, and that is confined in that pit as it is.  Tell him I need the results as quickly as possible, like NOW.”

By now, we could tell from the images being shown on the vid screen that the sub had been raised into the Brotherhood ship, and we assumed it was being taken back to the underwater base.  Both the HG-4 warheads and timers had been transferred to the sub and all we needed to do was activate the timer and close the gate.  Time ticked slowly by as we waited for a reply from A’Lappe and to see signs that the ship with the sub was back inside the Brotherhood underwater base.

“Admiral Tibby,” one of the monitoring troopers announced, “it looks like they are starting to evacuate water from the hold they have the sub in.  It won’t be long before they try to enter the sub.  Do you want the timer set now sir?”

“Negative, not just now,” I replied, “Marranalis, tell A’Lappe I need that answer now!”

I could hear Marranalis talking to A’Lappe over a com link.  A minute went by, and trooper at the monitor said, “Admiral, there are indications they are trying to board the sub.”