by C. Gockel
Given her life experience and what had been done to her, he considered it a gift from the universe that she did.
Over the earwires, they both heard a synth voice alert.
“Attention. Infrared signature on Insche 255C planet surface.”
A moment later, Eve’s voice came over the shipcomm. “In case you care, fems and gents, the mercs on the planet just blew another installation.”
He cupped Mairwen’s face in his hands and kissed her one final time. “I’m a very lucky man,” he whispered, then reluctantly pulled away.
He captured her hand in his and led her toward the lifts. If they ever made it back to Etonver, he was never going to let her go again. He wanted to tell her he loved her, but he was afraid it would throw her into turmoil worrying about how to respond, and he couldn’t do that to her while they were still in danger. Her CPS handlers had drummed into her that she wasn’t capable of normal human emotions.
He knew better, but he didn’t think she did.
They’d no sooner arrived in the kitchen when another alert, and then Eve, told them a new ship had launched from the planet surface to join in the hunt.
“Another corvette is coming… and damn, it looks like the adults have come to see what the commotion is.” A tone sounded, and suddenly they could all hear playback of the new ship’s commander yelling at the others about open communication and ordering immediate encryption. The signal flatlined.
“Sorry to say, but the new guest at the party is organizing a better search pattern. It’s going to be less likely we’ll stay hidden behind our iron-core asteroid. Morganthur, I need you in the nav pod for the lasers. Jerzi, Luka, get to the launch bays. Be ready to set the timers on the thermolytic packs you made.”
Luka helped Mairwen find a protein bar and fruit cube to take with her, then reluctantly left her and went to meet Jerzi at the launch bay crossover to coordinate their efforts.
Jerzi took the initiative to locate and distribute exosuits for everyone and to take their xeno sampling kit up to the engine pod, which was well protected because it doubled as one of the ship’s escape pods. Eve used the shipcomm to publicly express her irritation that Jerzi wasn’t following her orders. Jerzi used the shipcomm himself and said he’d be damned if he’d be caught in hard vacuum again. Luka found the shipcomm in his launch bay and announced his support of Jerzi’s actions. He felt like he was supervising preteens.
As he waited in the bay, he decided he disliked being in an exosuit, but would dislike being dead even more. He made a point of sealing it a couple of times to get the hang of the various controls, remembering how he’d fumbled with them on the Berjalan. At least this was a new, clean suit from the Beehive, instead of the filthy, malodorous one he’d hauled through the hybrid rainforest. He found that even while wearing an exosuit, he could still pace and think, and he took advantage of it.
He kept coming back to Korisni Genetika’s involvement. If, as Zheer suspected, they’d hired the dead telepath to interrogate him, it implied they already knew the eight-hundred-kilo secret, the existence of a viable hybrid planet. Maybe their real goal had been to hijack it out from under the company exploiting it now, whether that was Loyduk or one of their partners. Based on what Dr. Tewisham had said, it wouldn’t surprise him if Korisni Genetika found out about it because they had a spy in the research operation. Was it too Machiavellian to think that Korisni Genetika dangled a cheap merc company in Loyduk’s path, meaning they’d be easy to beat? Or maybe they’d simply suborned the merc company.
He wished he had Mairwen around so he could bounce ideas off her and get her unconventional take on things. He thought better when she was nearby. Or maybe he was just rationalizing his selfish desire to be with her.
22 * Interstellar: “Beehive” Ship Day 02 * GDAT 3237.045 *
“SHOOT,” SAID HABERVILLE. “I was hoping they’d take the idiots’ word for it that they’d searched our little corner of the system.” She seemed much calmer now that she’d showered and rested. Unfortunately, she’d used the floral shampoo and lotion, making the whole nav pod smell like a cheap perfumery.
Mairwen had already analyzed the new and improved search pattern and estimated they had at least another thirty minutes before their pursuers would come anywhere close. One of her private alerts told her there was an incoming transit. The alert was followed directly by one Haberville had set.
“Oh, hello there,” said Haberville, checking out the newly arrived ship. She looked at Mairwen. “Have they come to help or hurt, do you suppose?” Mairwen shrugged.
Haberville keyed the shipcomm. “We have another new player, just in from transit. Look sharp.”
Through Mairwen’s earwire, Luka asked her if it was possible to give him ship commander’s rights. She turned away from Haberville briefly to subvocalize a “yes,” then updated the command module under the guise of checking flux and laser status. Mairwen kicked herself for not having thought of it earlier when she’d had all the ship’s systems to herself for three hours.
The merc ship Haberville had designated as Blue Three sent a broadbeam but encrypted ping at the newcomer. The Beehive only detected it from the fringes because the beam wave passed nearby. The newcomer didn’t respond, at least via broadbeam. After several minutes, the original Blue Two corvette sent a long and wide active-scan, which strongly suggested the new ship wasn’t expected.
Haberville slapped her thigh. “Thank you, Great Spirit, for sending idiots to do me favors.” She manipulated the nav interface with rapid fingers and called up comparative signatures. “Bounceback says the new ship is an exploration-class deep spacer. Bigger than us, smaller than the corvettes. Spacer is tagged as Purple One.”
On Mairwen’s holo display, the newcomer’s purple icon appeared and started to move in-system. She rotated the perspective to make it easier to see the relationships. The transit exit point was outside the asteroid belt, and to get to Insche 255C, most ships would angle over the elliptic to avoid the cosmic debris, just as the Berjalan had done. So far, the spacer was behaving predictably for that destination. Mairwen remembered that Zheer had been planning to contract a freelance exploration spacer for an expedition to the second hybrid planet candidate. She wondered if La Plata had diverted it to Insche 255 instead.
“Shit,” said Haberville. “Ship number four just cleared from the surface. Looks like another corvette. Fuck. Tagged as Blue Four.”
Instead of joining the search pattern, Blue Four appeared to be on an intercept course for the spacer. At present velocities, Mairwen estimated fifteen minutes to firing solution, and twenty minutes to intercept. The spacer seemed oblivious.
Haberville announced to Jerzi and Luka what was happening.
Mairwen tried to put herself in the mind of the exploration spacer’s commander for various scenarios. None of them had the spacer expecting to be up against three armed merc corvettes. Unless the spacer had vastly superior weapons and heavy armor, it was in trouble.
Haberville proved to be thinking along the same lines. “That spacer will be dead meat if the mercs shoot first and ask questions later.”
“Can we get the mercs to show themselves, or warn the spacer?” asked Mairwen. Any other approach would light up the Beehive and get it slagged in short order.
“Maybe.” Haberville looked thoughtful, then smiled and snapped her fingers. “Emergency comm relay. Change the message, delay the broadcast, boost the output. It’ll fry quicker, but who cares? We’ll launch it toward an area the idiots already cleared.”
Her fingers flew in the interface. “Shipcomp says the relay is in cargo six, near the airlock. Go get it. I’ll do the message and plot the vector while you're doing that.”
Mairwen was already halfway through the doorway by the time Haberville had finished speaking. In the lift, she heard Haberville using the shipcomm to tell Luka and Jerzi.
So far, Haberville had done everything aboveboard, and Mairwen was having doubts about her suspicions, as well as dou
bts about her own ability to detect the tweaker’s adjustments.
She quickly located the relay unit in the cargo hold, but it was too heavy for her to handle. She found a grav cart and wrestled the unit onto it. She followed Haberville’s announced direction to take it to the number two launch bay. Jerzi helped prepare the payload and get it into the launch claws.
They stepped back to the safety zone for Haberville’s five-second countdown. Despite his stint in the autodoc, Jerzi’s eye and nose were still swollen, making him look like a competition fighter. She made a brief search for hearing protectors and handed the rigid cups to him before putting on a set for herself. The launcher’s noise was hard on her, despite blocking her senses, and Jerzi winced in pain.
She could have used the earwire to tell Luka he’d need them, too, but she chose to visit his launch bay in person and give him her hearing protectors, since she wouldn’t need them in the nav pod. She didn’t pretend the reason for her visit was anything but her own need. Despite knowing it was irrational, she worried about his well-being when she couldn’t see him.
“I… evaluated Jerzi. He knows about these,” he said, pointing to his earwire.
She grinned, knowing it meant he’d once again successfully used and controlled his talent. For once, she initiated the kissing senseless activity, leaving them both breathless.
“I’ll fix it so you and he can talk.” She gave him one final kiss, then returned to the nav pod.
Her body stayed heated from the encounter for quite a few minutes afterward, despite her exosuit’s environmental controls. When Haberville was momentarily distracted, Mairwen surreptitiously adjusted the comm system to connect Luka and Jerzi.
The combination of the launch energy and the comm relay’s own tiny engine propelled the relay surprisingly close to the merc transport ship before it began broadcasting. Whatever Haberville’s repeating warning message was, it definitely got the spacer to change trajectory. It also stirred up a hornet’s nest of active-scans and movement from the hunters, and demonstrated that two of the four corvette commanders knew what they were doing.
The Blue Four corvette anticipated the spacer’s actions and started serious pursuit, while Blue Three followed back along the relay’s path. Although Haberville had craftily bent the relay’s angle with the launch spin, Blue Three was looking for the origin a lot closer to the Beehive than they had been.
Blue Two’s commander demonstrated continued stupidity by destroying the relay with a missile, which also set off the thermolytic package that Mairwen and Jerzi had thoughtfully included with it. The Blue One transport responded to the detonation as if it was under attack and retreated to put Insche 255C between it and any combat.
Mairwen used the shipcomm to briefly describe the action to Luka and Jerzi. Haberville gave her an annoyed look, then announced, “Everything but critical systems going low tech.”
The air handlers went silent and the nav pod’s ambient lighting went out. The primary light came from the displays, which lit up with the passive intercepts of bouncebacks from the numerous active-scans by the mercs and the spacer.
The Purple One spacer proved to be a worthy adversary and evaded the pursuing Blue Four corvette, finally luring it into a weapons firing solution for a strike. The corvette would have been crippled if it hadn’t dodged at the last second, but it didn’t get away entirely unscathed. The Blue Four icon moved noticeably more slowly on the holo display.
The alerts were startling. Somehow they seemed louder in the dark.
“Warning. One minute to long-range firing solution from enemy Blue Three.”
“Warning. One minute to long-range firing solution from enemy Blue Two.”
Haberville swore as her fingers flew in the interface. Mairwen keyed the shipcomm and told Luka and Jerzi to seal their exosuits. The launch bays weren’t independently sealable the way the nav and engine pods were. If Haberville was unhappy about the announcement, she could complain later.
“Pray to Allah they still don’t know where we are.” Haberville used docking thrusters to nudge the Beehive’s position ever so slightly to keep them hidden from two corvettes. “Move along, you godless infidels. Nothing here but a little cluster of rocks.”
Haberville fired the thrusters again and kept nudging their ship around the asteroid.
“Warning. Long-range firing solution from enemy Blue Two achievable.”
For a moment it looked like the Blue Two corvette might be oblivious to the Beehive’s presence, but an active-scan from it said otherwise. Instead of firing, however, the Blue Two changed vector to a new course straight for them. Before Mairwen could think about that, a syncopated flurry of announcements bombarded them.
“Warning. One minute to long-range firing solution from enemy Purple One.”
“Warning. One minute to long-range firing solution from enemy Blue Four.”
“Warning. Long-range firing solution from enemy Blue Three achievable.”
“Warning. Long-range firing solution from enemy Purple One achievable.”
Mairwen nearly flatlined her hearing to block out the distraction of the synth voice announcements. She dropped into half-tracker mode to give herself more time to think.
All of the three merc corvettes were now in range to kill the Beehive, but that didn’t tell the whole story. The unknown spacer had turned aggressor and was firing on the crippled Blue Four corvette. The other two corvettes abandoned pursuit of the Beehive and went after the spacer.
Blue Two’s incompetent commander proved true to form and waded into the orbiting rocks instead of arcing over them. The path would take Blue Two within ten kilometers of the Beehive’s hiding place in two minutes, and within range of their enhanced lasers. Alternatively, they could launch a timed thermolytics package and let Blue Two overtake it. Mairwen plotted the firing solutions for both and showed them to Haberville.
When Mairwen eased into realtime, she felt light-headed. She had nearly burned herself out during combat, and her body was fighting injuries. She couldn’t afford much more time in tracker mode, even half-tracker, until she got food and rest.
“Let’s save the lasers as a surprise,” said Haberville. She keyed the shipcomm. “Luka, load all five of your packages in the tube, tied together if you can, and set the timers for...” She plotted vectors rapidly on the display. “...six minutes. I’ll control the launch.”
Her fingers moved in the display, and the lights in the nav pod brightened. “Powering normal systems,” she announced. “No point fumbling around in the dark now that they know we’re here.”
After forty-nine seconds, Luka reported that the payload was set and ready to launch.
Haberville set the firing solution in the navcomp, then announced over the still-open shipcomm, “Launch from number one bay in ten seconds from... mark.”
“Warning. One minute to long-range firing solution from enemy Blue Two.”
“Confirm launch from bay one.”
Mairwen closely watched Blue Two’s progress on the display. It was active-scanning almost continuously, but the homemade thermo package was too small to detect that way, even if they’d been looking for it.
“Warning. Long-range firing solution from enemy Blue Two achievable.”
“Warning. One minute to long-range firing solution from enemy Blue Three.”
“Yeah, yeah, we know,” growled Haberville at the navcomp, eyes never leaving the Blue Two icon. “Go open your present, pendejo.”
It was a tense few minutes as Blue Two kept its straight-on course for the wounded Blue Three corvette.
The result was worth the wait. Blue Two hit a rock just as the thermolytic package detonated. The scans and the panicked comms made it clear the corvette’s shield generator was offline. The hull was compromised catastrophically when the ship careened out of control into another larger asteroid. Blue Two broke apart, shedding debris and several life pods. It was an unexpected piece of good luck.
“One down, one and a
half to go,” announced Haberville via the shipcomm.
The Blue Three corvette commander, despite having a clear shot at the Beehive, didn’t take it, and chose to take on the spacer instead.
That was twice the mercs had opted to let the Beehive live. While Haberville was distracted with trying to find a new place to hide, Mairwen turned away and subvocalized her observations to Luka. He said it confirmed his belief that their cargo, specifically the samples, was valuable. It also meant they personally were expendable, especially after they’d cost the mercs a squad, a flitter, and two ships.
The battle between the spacer and the corvettes continued, but it was soon obvious the corvettes were outclassed by whoever was commanding and piloting the spacer. Crippled Blue Four was the first casualty, and was set adrift, broadcasting distress calls. Blue Three got in a few good shots, but within fifteen minutes, it was sent damaged and spinning out of control toward Insche 255C. Without a pilot of Haberville’s caliber, they’d be lucky to survive the descent, much less the landing.
The merc transport that had been hiding behind the planet took advantage of the melee to make its escape. It arced under the asteroid belt and successfully went transit just as Blue Three took the last hit from the spacer.
The displays went quiet. With no more active-scans blanketing the area, the Beehive would have to do scans of its own to find out what the spacer was doing.
Haberville’s fingernails drummed on the armrest. “The spacer knows we’re here and will find us quick.” She gave Mairwen a pointed look. “Question is, Queen Jack, what do we do about it?”
Mairwen gave Haberville a steady look back. “Luka is the commander.”
Haberville rolled her eyes and keyed the shipcomm and started to speak. She was forestalled by a synthvoice alert.
“Incoming communication, broadbeam, open.”
Haberville played it via the shipcomm.
“This is deep exploration ship Seraika Shamsa, on behalf of La Plata Security. Do you need assistance?” The voice was in standard, unaccented English and could have been male or female.