by Tim Pratt
“So we defend ourselves then!”
“They’ll pump the ship full of gas to knock us out before they board,” Felix said. “Or poke a hole to let our air out, and come in for us after hypoxia makes us lose consciousness.”
“We’ll put on our environment suits–”
“Those have limited air, and after they’ve caught us, they’re in no hurry any more. They’ll just wait us out. This is field manual stuff, Thales. We are soldiers. There are times you fight, even when the manual tells you the fight is hopeless, because where there’s life, there’s hope, but in this case… not much hope. So.” Felix cracked his neck. He was captain, and he was going down with his ship, even though this wasn’t even really his ship. He was going to miss the Temerarious. Or, well, he wouldn’t – the dead had no regrets – but he missed his ship preemptively. Sagasa would sell her back to the Coalition for a reasonable price, at least. “We’ll swing around, open fire on them with our piddly little guns, and give them no choice but to shoot back and try to disable our engines. Which, at this distance, there’s a good chance they can’t do safely – they might hit the core and kill us, which I’m assured is the quickest of all possible deaths. If by some chance they do manage a disabling shot, and leave us dead in the lack of water–”
“We scuttle?” Calred said.
“That’s the idea.”
“I’ll prepare to overcharge the reactor,” Calred said. “If they swallow us up, they’ll get indigestion.”
“Wait, are you saying you’re going to blow up our ship?” Thales cried.
“And I don’t see a reason to say it a second time,” Felix said.
“Wait. Wait. I can’t die here, on the cusp of my greatest triumph!”
“I bet no one in history has ever said that before,” Tib muttered.
“You said ‘piddly guns,’” Thales said. “Why are the guns piddly?”
Felix sighed. “Because this isn’t a warship, Thales. If we were in the Temerarious, we’d have a fighting chance. But the Endless Dark is an exploration vessel. It has weapons, because every adventurer fantasizes about fending off space pirates, or being a space pirate, or making first contact with a new species and blowing them up, but they’re just small energy weapons. They aren’t powerful enough to hurt something like the Garbage Scow, at least, not in the time we have – if their ship sat still and let us shoot them for an hour or two, sure, we could put enough holes in them to make a difference, but I doubt they’ll be that cooperative.”
Thales went hmm. “Energy weapons… so the limiting factor is the power supply. Our cannons are powered off the ship’s reactor?”
“Big warships have separate power sources for their weapons,” Calred said. “This one doesn’t. So, yes, I know what you’re thinking. We can divert all the ship’s power to the weapons battery, to make the cannons stronger. It won’t help much, though. This ship’s reactor is built for long-distance efficiency, not bursts of output. Even if we juiced the weapons up, we’d get double their usual power for a few short bursts, but it wouldn’t make any real difference–”
“We do have a separate power source for our weapons, you idiots,” Thales said. “You just stole one.”
Felix looked at Tib, who looked back at him. “Wait. That power cell thing. That’s powerful enough to run the guns?”
“It’s powerful enough to rip holes in the fabric of space-time, you dolts,” Thales said. “Yes, it can power your lasers.”
Felix’s heart sped up. Hope was a powerful thing. “Calred, can you configure the guns to run off an external power source?”
“The lasers are aftermarket additions wired into the reactor here anyway, so yeah, it should be easy, but do you think this will really work?”
“No, but since our other plan is a pointless last stand, it can’t hurt to try.”
•••
“They’ll have us in ten minutes, Cal,” Felix said from the cockpit.
“I’m the one who told you how long we had, captain, I know – there! It’s connected! Power is flowing, board is green, available energy is… I don’t know, because my diagnostic tool only reads up to nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine petawatts. So, more than that.”
“That’s… wait… that’s…”
“More powerful than a gamma ray burst,” Thales said. “More energy output than a star. Yes. That’s the whole point. This power cell draws on the energy that drives galaxies out into the greater dark.”
Felix whistled. “You said it was powerful, but I didn’t realize.”
“The question, of course, is how much power these cannons of yours can actually use,” Thales said. “Without melting in the process.”
“Cal?” Felix said.
“I’m looking up the tolerances!” Calred said. “Huh. OK. These things are ridiculously overengineered. Whoever equipped the Endless Night bought very expensive cannons, way more than they needed. Some salesperson got a good commission that day.”
“Probably somebody like Heuvelt, spendthrifting the family fortune,” Felix said. “You’re saying we can put up a fight now?”
“We can start and finish a fight, captain. Especially since the Garbage Scow will not expect us to punch this hard.”
“All right then. Let’s take out their weapons and their engines.”
“Why not life support?” Thales said. “That seems simpler.”
“Engines and weapons are on the outside of the ship,” Tib said. “That’s so they can propel the ship through space, and blow up things they encounter in space. Life support systems are buried deep inside the ship, where the alive things are.”
“Fine,” Thales grumbled. “I assumed the order was due to a combination of weakness and sentimentality. Carry on.”
“I wasn’t waiting for your permission, Thales,” Calred said. “Ready to flip and shoot on your mark, captain.”
“Mark.” Felix braced himself as the ship stopped short and spun around to face the Garbage Scow. Thales squawked over the comms, and Felix muted him. His crew had known to brace for the maneuver, of course. Thales hadn’t. Oops.
The enemy ship was hurtling toward them – an immense bulbous vessel, with the black dots of cannons pointing their way.
“Weapons hot,” Calred said. “Extremely hot. Felix. Can I push the button?”
Felix’s fingers twitched, but he put them in his lap. Sometimes being captain and taking care of your crew required sacrifices, and though he desperately wanted to do the shooting himself, it was Calred’s job. “Please. Do the honors.”
The viewscreen darkened to near opacity, but even so, the flash of the firing cannons was blinding. For just a moment, their ship was almost certainly the brightest thing in the universe. The cannons pulsed twice more, in quick succession. “That’s all three of their fore weapon arrays,” Calred said. “If they get anything like the same combat training we did, they’ll wheel around to aim their aft guns – there they go.”
The Garbage Scow was invisible through the darkened screen, but their ship’s sensors showed its actions on Felix’s tactical board. The Barony ship did its own hard spin, and when is engines were in sight, the Endless Night fired again, several times in succession, and the glow of the enemy engines went dark.
“That’s it!” Cal shouted. “Engines and cannons gone. Good thing, too. Our cannons weren’t well maintained and, ah, it turns out, maybe I shouldn’t have pushed them to the absolute maximum of their specifications.”
“We don’t have guns any more?” Thales said.
“We don’t have anyone to shoot at any more, either,” Felix said. The Garbage Scow could still maneuver with its reaction wheels, but those were meant for minute adjustments – it wouldn’t be going very far without extensive repairs. “Did you take out their comms, too?” Felix said. “I’d expect Severyne to start yelling at us right about now, vowing revenge
and promising doom and all that.”
“Maybe she’s too embarrassed,” Tib said. “She seems like the kind of person who gets embarrassed easily.”
“The Letnev aren’t very good at failure,” Thales said. “Perhaps they just need more practice.” He paused. “Well? Don’t you people have anything to say to me?”
“Shut up?” Calred said.
“Shut up, you murderer?” Tib said.
“They pretty much covered it,” Felix agreed.
Thales huffed. “I’d expect a little gratitude. I just saved your useless lives.”
“You did,” Felix said. “But only as a side effect of saving yourself. If throwing us into the ship’s reactor would have saved you instead, you’d have done that just as readily.”
“You’re becoming quite curmudgeonly, Duval. You remind me of myself at your age.”
“Gross,” Tib said. “What’s next, captain?”
Before Felix could answer, Thales did. “Next, you take me back to my lab on the Temerarious. I’ll connect the power source to my prototype. We’ll travel to one of the test sites I’ve identified. I’ll switch on my activation engine and change the course of galactic civilization. I’ll be rich and famous, and you’ll receive largely undeserved promotions and accolades.”
“Works for me.” Felix switched to a crew-only channel, cutting Thales out. “What do you think?” he said. “Could the end really be in sight?”
“Thales doesn’t want us to assassinate anyone else, apparently,” Tib said.
Calred said, “Severyne and Azad are floating in a disabled ship, and getting farther behind us all the time. Thales hasn’t decided where we’re going next, so it’s hard to imagine they’ll beat us there.”
“Maybe this awful mission could actually succeed,” Felix said.
“As long as the Creuss don’t show up and reduce us to our individual atoms for meddling in their business,” Tib said.
“Thank you for that, Tib.”
“My pleasure, Felix. A captain with nothing to worry about is barely a captain at all.”
•••
They returned to the Disciplinarian’s scrapyard, and Felix hailed him on their comms, surprised when the Hacan answered personally. “We brought back the Endless Night, undamaged,” Felix said. “Well, we broke the guns. But they weren’t very good guns anyway.”
“I’ll bill you for them,” Sagasa said. “Did you run into your friends out there?”
“We did.”
“Are they dead? Did you destroy the cruiser I sold them?”
“The ship is disabled and adrift, but they’re probably alive.”
Sagasa sighed. “I wish you’d blown them up. They might still bring my cruiser back, and I won’t get to keep the far superior ship they left behind as collateral.”
“Were you rooting for us to lose, too, so you could keep my ship?” Felix said.
“I never pray for the death of a customer, Captain Duval. I thrive on repeat business. But taking ownership of the Temerarious would have eased my grief. Dock at port AZ-5. I’ll send someone to do a walkthrough of the Endless Dark.”
“A walkthrough? Seriously?”
“I’m always serious about business. I need to make sure the vessel is as undamaged as you claim.”
“I need to get to work, captain,” Thales groused. “I don’t want to sit here while some fool examines the paint on this bucket.”
“None of us want to spend an extra moment with you, Thales,” Felix said. “Cal, take him back to the Temerarious. Keep an eye on him while he gets to work. We’ll join you after Sagasa finishes looking for dings and scratches to overcharge us for.”
“Excellent,” Thales said. “Just fetch the power supply–”
“I’m going to hold on to that part,” Felix said. “I’m sure you have other things to do first. You can plug it in later, when we’re on the way to your test site.”
“Why?” Thales demanded.
“Because I don’t trust you,” Felix said. “There are three crucial components to your success: your brain, Shelma’s prototype, and this power supply. I’m not going to let all three of them be in one place at one time unless I’m there too.”
“Outrageous. What are you afraid I’ll do with it?”
“Shoot Calred in the back of the head and steal my ship,” Felix said.
“Like I’d turn my back on him,” Cal said.
“Or you might contact Sagasa and offer him the deal of a lifetime,” Felix said. “Partnering with an independently wealthy businessman would be better for you than working with the Coalition, since Sagasa is motivated purely by profit, just like you.”
“You’re paranoid, Duval,” Thales said. “More and more you remind me of myself–”
“Just go,” Felix said.
•••
Amazingly, the walkthrough was just slow, not slow and expensive. Sagasa’s Winnaran secretary noted the damaged cannons, but after a thorough inspection of the ship inside and out, declared there was no other damage that would require repayment. “I’m surprised you didn’t charge us for wear-and-tear on the engine,” Felix said.
“Oh, that’s included in the original price,” he explained, entirely straight-faced. He presented a hand terminal for Felix’s approval, and he authorized the charges. Jhuri was the one paying, anyway. “Thank you for visiting Sagasa Scrap and Salvage,” the secretary said. “We–”
“We know,” Felix said. “Point me to my ship, please?”
Felix and Tib set off through the station, toward the airlock where the Temerarious waited. “A couple more days, Tib, and we’re free. This whole mess will be over.”
“It has been an ordeal,” Tib said. “Do you wish we’d stayed on patrol duty?”
Felix considered. “I don’t, really. This is the kind of work I’ve always wanted to do. We organized a jailbreak, pulled off a heist, prevailed in ship-to-ship combat – it hasn’t been boring, and the crew really pulled together.”
“I’ve always trusted you, and I had a good feeling about Cal,” Tib said. “But that feeling wasn’t ever tested before. Now I know. If it wasn’t for Thales, and the murders – especially the murders – I’d be happy with this mission. Even with all that, I don’t want to go back to flying around in circles any more, using my skills for hide-and-seek.”
“We will get promotions after this, if Thales gets his engine working,” Felix said. “We’ll have our choice of postings. Jhuri will take care of us.”
“Maybe we can start thinking about where we want to land after this is all over.”
“Shouldn’t we focus on the immediate future, Tib?”
“Why would we want to do that?” Tib grimaced. “The immediate future has Thales in it.”
“That is an excellent point. I’ve been on this officer track, working my way up to a command bigger than my best friend and an endearingly insubordinate Hacan, but maybe the covert ops life is more appealing. What do you think?”
“I had to work hard to keep out of covert ops, Felix. They always want Yssaril to work as spies. As if that’s the only thing we’re good for – sneaking around and listening through doors. But what we’ve been doing out here isn’t exactly espionage. We haven’t been gathering much in the way of intelligence.”
“If anything,” Felix said, “we’ve been rushing around with a regrettable lack of intelligence.”
“We’re essentially the personal get-shit-done-squad for undersecretary Jhuri, at the moment,” Tib said. “That gives us connections, support – of a sort, anyway – and a lot of novelty. We could do worse than to continue in this capacity, if Jhuri wants us.”
“I don’t know if Calred would want that kind of gig,” Felix said. “His dream is to run the weapons board on a dreadnought.”
“I’m sure Jhuri would ask us to steal a dreadn
ought at some point, if this mission is any sort of indication.”
“Don’t say that. This mission isn’t over yet, and I don’t need any more challenges today.”
His comms opened, and Calred’s voice shouted, “Felix! We have a problem!”
“Don’t we always?” Felix said.
“Not like this!” There was something strange about Cal’s voice, and it took Felix a moment to recognize the tone, because he hadn’t heard it from Cal before.
The Hacan security officer was afraid.
Chapter 23
Severyne was nervous about how nervous she wasn’t. She should have been more worried. She was, after all, in the midst of violating all Barony best practices, on a deniable mission that could very well end up with her execution, and she was currently trusting her fate to the criminal skills of the most annoying human in the galaxy – a human who also inexplicably made Severyne’s palms sweat and her heart beat faster when she stood too close, which she did all the time.
Instead of cold fear, though, Severyne felt exhilaration. Why? She’d sent her entire complement of guards – without any supervising officer! – off to the Jol-Nar system in a cruiser she’d purchased from a Hacan crime lord. Her guards were in pursuit of the fugitive she was meant to be pursuing. By all rules and regulations, Severyne should have been there too, running the operation. But after they reached the Grim Countenance, Azad had said, “Let’s be real. We’re not going to catch Duval’s Devils out there.”
“Why do you say that?” Severyne demanded.
“We don’t know what kind of ship they’re in. We don’t know how they’re planning to steal the power source – strongarm robbery, some sort of confidence game, bribing a technician to smuggle it out to them, or something I haven’t even thought of yet. I’m not a fan of the Coalition, but when it comes to parting people from their property, the Mentak have skills. Without knowing their plan, we don’t know their timeline, where they’ll strike, or when they’ll leave. Jol-Nar is one of the hubs of galactic civilization, so it’s not like Duval and company will stand out against the usual traffic. We’ll be looking for one specific grain of sand on the beach.”