(… continuing)

Twenty hours later, the rig was exiting the second traverse since departing Mayfield.

The g-juice was just wearing off. Dukk had just regained consciousness. He started counting to ten as per normal to fight back the traverse sickness. But there was a noise. An alarm. He rushed the count and forced his eyes open as quickly as he could. They opened. Reflex told him to scan the instruments for the source of the alarm. But that wasn't necessary. The cause of the alarm was right in front of them. In full view.
"SHIT!” Dukk said as he peered out.
Directly ahead of them was a chaotic scene of twisted metal and plastics.
"Ah!" exclaimed Marr.

“Initiating debris field protocol. Not a drill. Stations everyone,” Dukk said calmly as he silenced the alarm. “Marr, as we practiced, I need a projection of the scatter pattern ASAP.”
“On it”, Marr replied in a shaky tone.
“Bazzer, you and Luna head for the engine room. And we are going to need to keep an eye on those electromagnetic wave shields. We need them doing their job.”
“DMD?” Luna asked.
“Nope, we leave that offline for now. Just in case. Let’s go. Time to put good use to that hatch flip you’ve been practicing,” Bazzer replied as he flipped up out of his seat and made for the hatch that was already opening.
“Annee will you take over the med control. Mentor, can you get down below and take the console station in the crew mess.”
“Roger,” Annee replied.
“On my way,” Mentor replied.

“Hello everyone, welcome to Layton 16,” Dukk announced on the crew and passenger broadcast channel. “Please stay strapped in for now. We are about to experience some turbulence. We should be clear in about twenty minutes.”

“Got the pattern,” Marr shared on the comms. “Spherical. Dispersing evenly from a void in the centre. Forty percent slowing. Sixty percent accelerating. Three minutes until we reach the debris wave.”
“So we can’t go around or get above it. Through the middle it is then,” Dukk shared into the crew comms. He interacted with the controls. The thrusters fired briefly and the rig changed course marginally. “Loading the pattern analysis and enabling the ‘Evasive Manoeuvres’ setting in the autopilot. Strap in and engage emergency air supply. It will be a miracle if we don’t take a scratch or two. Hustle team. The clock is ticking.”

Marr reached over to a panel near her seat. She pulled out a small pack and attached it to the front of her suit. Dukk and Annee did it also. The others would do the same once strapped in at their assigned stations in the decks below. In the event of a breach and loss of cabin pressure, the air pack would enabled them to move freely.

The alarm started up again. This time it was much louder.
“Status?” Dukk asked into the crew comms.
“Locked in,” Bazzer replied immediately. “Systems are all green. Electromagnetic wave shields are optimised for a frontal hit.”
“Ready,” added Mentor when Bazzer stopped talking.
“Securing the rig,” Dukk said as he activated the lock down which would seal all doors and ensure a breach could be contained. When done he said “Brace” into the comms.

The rig vibrated as the smaller fragments hit the shields.
A larger section drifted into view. The autopilot reacted. It initiated a quick burst of the thrusters. The rig tilted to the left. For several minutes the rig lurched to-and-fro. Smaller pieces of debris were taken head on. Larger pieces were avoided.
Then it all stopped. They were in the void. The other side of the debris field was a little ways ahead of them.

“What to you think happened here?” Marr asked as she peered out.
“I would suggest an explosion of some sort. Perhaps within the rig. Reactor maybe. The scatter pattern would suggest the DMD was active at the time when the explosion happened. The AI would have tried to slip into the dark matter. The attempt would have smashed the rig apart, taking part of the rig and, perhaps, the crew with it. Speaking of survivors. Ann?”
“Nothing on the scopes yet,” Annee replied. “The relay here isn’t broadcasting a destress signal. Whatever happened, it must have happened fast without warning.”
“Are there any other craft about?”
“A handful. Our scanners suggest mostly G5 rigs like us. Nothing suspicious. it doesn’t look like pirates. Wait, that’s odd?”
“What is?”
“The scanners suggest a vessel just traversed. The signal suggests it was not far away, on a similar trajectory, just a slightly higher orbit.”
“How is that odd?”
“There is no transponder signal. And, I swear until just now, there wasn’t any vessel near us. A vessel can’t just appear and immediately traverse.”
“A vessel using stealth tech can,” a voice interrupted them on the crew comms. It was Mentor. “The vessel would have to come out of stealth mode to lock down ahead of the traverse. Check the traverse signature. Does it match that of an interceptor?”
There was silence. Dukk looked around at Annee. She was furiously interacting with her console.
“Yes, Mentor. The signature has the same characteristics as an interceptor.”
Mentor uttered something that sounded like the start of “shit”. He cut himself short before finishing the word.
Marr was in shock. Mentor’s behaviour took her by surprise. It was uncustomary behaviour for him. Dukk sensed it too.

Dukk was the first to reset his focus. “Thanks, Ann. For now we have other things to worry about.”
Marr caught her focus too. “If the debris is moving away from the centre, aren’t we through the worst of it?”
“Maybe,” Dukk answered. “It will depend. Larger fragments might collide and change speed and direction. That could put them back in our path.”

The alarm started up again.
“Fingers crossed,” Dukk said. “Brace!”
Hitting the other side of the debris wave was different. It wasn’t as violent as the front of the wave. The rig’s shields simply swept the debris out of the way as the rig caught up to it.
The autopilot continued to lurch the rig about to avoid larger fragments.

They were nearly through when a new alarm sounded.
Dukk knew the sound. He twisted his body and sat forward, so he could look up, out the windshield. Sure enough a large fragment was hurtling towards them.
Dukk flicked off the autopilot and jammed the joysticks backwards in order to engage full power to the forward thrusters. The crew and passengers were pushed forward into their seat belts.
The large fragment shot past the rig’s nose. Narrowly missing it. Had Dukk not reacted as fast as he did, the fragment would have slammed into the top of the rig.
“Dammit” Dukk shouted.
Obscured behind the large fragment was a RSJ. A steel beam. It shot towards them.
Dukk yanked at the joysticks to twist the rig, but it wasn’t enough. The beam hit the shields and flipped up. It spun around and looped up over the cockpit. There was a crashing and a ripping sound.

(to be continued...)

[Rule of Twelve, Double Take, Chapter 21 - Turbulence (Passage 3 of 5)]

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