The Dead Fleet (Juggernaut #3)

Five

The three ships closed the distance on the decrepit vessel and skimmed along its surface, like insects flying around some great metal beast. Tila flew on ahead of Ellie and Malachi like she was daring them to follow.

Although determined to reach her destination, Tila still found the journey through the vast and empty sphere unnerving. She had travelled through space before. Who hadn't? But never had she seen a sight like this. Space was supposed to be empty, an infinite void glittering with stars beyond reach, yet here she was surrounded by the inner surface of a sphere of broken spaceships. It was like flying through a bubble of wreckage, a pocket of the fleet swept clean of the destruction around them, and before them the great dark pearl hiding at the centre.

The cloud around them was dense enough to block most of the starlight. Their ships provided some illumination but the greatest source of light hung in the sky in the centre of the sphere.

Details invisible to them from a distance began to resolve in sharp focus as they came closer. It was the largest ship any of them had ever seen. The Juggernaut was big, but that was a composite of hundreds of ships. This was a single gigantic ship, asleep in its bubble of space, surrounded on all sides by the broken bodies of warcraft.

The squat blocky ship floated beneath them like a scratched and dirty ingot, and was approximately the same shape. This was not a ship of grace and elegance.

Malachi was right, the ship looked more industrial than military. There was no sign of weapons, or sensors. No markings of any kind, in fact. And there was nothing streamlined or attractive about it, so it wasn't a civilian craft. But even so, no orbital hotel was this big. Even now star-faring civilisations still tended to design and build spacecraft which looked sleek and graceful, even though such things were only a benefit when travelling through a medium like a the atmosphere of a planet, rather than the frictionless vacuum of space.

The common exception to this habit remained industry, which prided efficiency and cost over all other things. Why spend money that would not produce a return?

This ship was no exception to that way of thinking. Large, flat surfaces were decorated with machinery; giant spools of cable used for towing or tethering other ships, cranes and winches, and powerful omnidirectional lamps. It was these lamps, in a variety of colours, that cast some cheer into the dark void.

"Malachi, what is this? I've never seen anything like it," Tila asked as they swooped lower for a second slow pass along the hull so they could see it from another angle."Something this big must be a factory ship, or a mining ship."

Ellie cut in with the obvious question. "But why here? What can they make or mine here?" But neither Tila or Malachi could offer her even a guess they continued their reconnaissance flight.

"Did you see the engines? They're not active," said Tila.

"But their power plant must be on. Look at the lights, and the interference it's generating. Something is going on in there, even if it's not going anywhere."

"Do you think there's anyone on board?" Ellie asked.

"Probably," said Malachi after a thoughtful pause.

"Do they know we're here?" she said.

"Umm, good question."

"They don't," said Tila.

"How do you know?" said Malachi.

"Because we've been flying around this thing for ten minutes. They've done everything they can to keep it a secret. If they knew we were here they would already be chasing us and shooting at us."

"She's got a point," Malachi said. "But then how do we get inside? We can't use the landing bays, someone might see us."

"How about an airlock?" Ellie suggested.

"How are we supposed to open an airlock from the outside, Ellie?" said Tila.

"Malachi can do it," said Ellie confidently.

"I can try, I guess," he said. 

"You just need to find me an-"

"Found one!"

"-airlock."

"Where?" said Tila. "And don't point, I can't see your hands."

"Down there, about two-thirds of the way back, on one of the upper decks. See it?"

"I see it," said Malachi."

"It looks good. We can land nearby and it's on the opposite side to a docking bay so if anyone does leave they won't see us. Ellie, you want to lead the way?"

"I'm already there!"

"She always has to be first" said Tila, smiling to herself. She slowed her craft and extended the landing gear.

Malachi grinned at her observation as he prepared his own ship for landing. "Yep, even when it's not a race."

"I heard that," said Ellie. "Now hurry up."