by Eric Warren
Cas cursed. She really did know everything.
“Aww, now don’t be upset, Caspian. You didn’t really think I’d let you go without a little insurance now did you? That mercenary act by your new girlfriend was pretty pathetic.”
“She’s not his girlfriend, they’re not initiating sexual encounters!” Box yelled.
Veena grinned in the screen. “I’m glad to see my robot is still in good working order. I feared you might have tried to disassemble him after you left.”
“What do you mean your robot?” Cas asked.
“I mean he’s been the one transmitting all this wonderful information to me,” Veena said, grinning even wider. “Didn’t you know?”
Box turned to Cas. “What’s she talking about, boss?”
Cas shook his head. “No, that’s not possible,” he said. “We found your tracker; it was in the communication equipment.”
“Oh, you found the decoy. Yes. Very good. Bravo, Caspian. You’re too clever for your own good.” She mocked clapping.
“Evie, get up here!” Cas yelled. He turned to Box. “Are you compromised? Have you been spying on us this entire time?”
Box’s eyes blinked wildly. “No! Of course not, I don’t…I haven’t…”
“Oh, he doesn’t know about it, poor thing,” Veena said. “The best type of informant is one who doesn’t even realize he’s informing. My maintenance crew managed to get the drop on him while we were unloading my wares before you left. Made a few modifications, you could say.”
“Box, get away from the controls,” Cas said.
“Boss, I’m fine. She’s lying. I’m not—”
Evie made her way into the cockpit, still holding the bandage on her arm. “What’s going on?”
“There’s our mercenary now!” Veena said, making small claps with her hands. “Now that we’re all together—”
The ship shook with the force of a plasma blast and Evie was knocked to the ground. Cas grabbed on to the nearest thing he could to keep from being thrown from his chair.
“We’re caught in a tractor,” Box said. “Wait, this can’t be right. We’re back under the Achlys. We haven’t gone anywhere!”
“Thank you, Box, for delivering my cargo undamaged,” Veena said. “You’ve been more helpful than you can imagine.”
Box slammed his hands down on the controls. “I’m not your slave!” he yelled.
Cas jumped over the seat to help Evie back up. The bleeding around her arm had gotten worse. He bent down to her ear. “Can you still fly? I need you to get us out of here,” he whispered.
She nodded. “Yeah. I think so.”
Cas stood back up, turning his attention to the screen again. “All of this, it’s been nothing but a ploy to get the ship?” He motioned for Evie to move behind Box.
Veena pursed her ruby lips and tilted her head, like she was explaining basic math to an infant. “I didn’t know what I was in for when little miss merc there showed up willing to pay your debts, did I? But I figured it must have been something important if the Coalition was willing to infiltrate Sargan space just for you. I knew you were an outcast, but it gave me unending pleasure to find out exactly why. All this business with the Achlys, so serious,” she said, tsking. “But once I learned, from you no less, that the Coalition was in possession of Sil technology well…how could I refuse? The opportunities were just too wonderous.”
“She’s pulling us in,” Box said from his seat. Cas kept his eyes on Veena but motioned with one hand behind his back to Evie.
“The only problem is you’ve done nothing but find a dud,” Cas said. “The weapon doesn’t work, all it does is kill every living thing in the immediate area once it’s activated. The crew of the Achlys didn’t know its power source makes it unusable.”
“Does it now?” Veena said, tenting her fingers under her chin. “Well, that explains why the ship was empty when my men found it.” She paused, thinking.
“Still pulling,” Box said, watching the monitors. Cas risked a glance at Evie. She nodded to him.
“Regardless. It could make a wonderful present for some of my enemies. And when they try to activate it…yes, that will do quite nicely. Caspian, you are just a bundle of good information. You should have known I’d never let you go. I love you too much.”
Evie hit the hab ejection button and Cas reached down, targeting and firing the quad cannon at the hab, destroying it. The ship rocked with the explosion, sending all of them tumbling. Veena’s image disappeared from the screen, replaced by static waves.
“Get in the pilot’s seat!” Cas yelled as Box was thrown against the far wall.
Evie had landed on her side again and scrambled up. It didn’t escape Cas’s notice that she was leaving a trail of blood in her wake. But she managed to get to the seat and engage the engines. “Jumping to the nearest undercurrent now,” she said, hitting the emitter.
The tunnel opened before them and the small ship pulled away.
“We’ve only got three stabilizers working,” Evie said, jerking the controls. “This is going to be rough.”
“Signs of pursuit?” Cas crawled over to where Box lay against the bulkhead.
“I can’t tell, all the sensors are down. I’m flying blind here,” she replied.
The ship continued to shake back and forth. Without the fourth stabilizer, they wouldn’t be able to stay in the undercurrent long. The friction would tear the ship to pieces. “Box?”
“I’m sorry, boss, I didn’t know.”
“I’ll trust you on that,” Cas said. “But you can’t remain active. If she’s seeing everything you’re seeing…”
“I know,” he said, his eyes blinking. “Just promise me you’ll turn me back on. I don’t want this to be it.”
“I promise.” Cas winced. He wasn’t sure it was a promise he could keep. If they couldn’t find the bug inside Box and remove it without destroying his cortex, he might not be able to reactivate him.
Box nodded and his yellow eyes went dark, his lifeless body slumping to the side.
“Don’t worry, buddy, we’ll get through this,” Cas placed his hand on the machine for a moment. He jumped back up and returned to the co-pilot’s seat. “Status?”
“We’ve maybe got another two minutes in this undercurrent then we’ll have to go back to normal space. See if you can’t get the sensors working,” Evie said, piloting with one hand. Her other was back on her wound, blood seeping through her fingers.
“Is the comm down too? Can we call the Tempest?” Cas asked. The forward and aft sensor arrays were out; not only was she flying blind he had no idea if they were being pursued.
“Comm is still up.” Evie tapped a series of buttons. “Tempest, come in. Mayday, gamma stabilizer is out, can’t maintain heading long.”
“Excuse this is Tempest,” Greene’s voice said over the comm. “We’re coming to you, standby.”
“Any luck?” Evie asked, indicating the sensors. Cas shook his head. “Then I guess we’ll find out if anything is behind us pretty quickly.” She pulled back on the throttle and disengaged the undercurrent emitter. Normal space appeared around them. She swung the ship around to give them a visual of what might be coming behind them. Evie took deep breaths through her teeth to control the pain.
“Let me take the controls,” Cas said. “You’re in no shape to fly anymore.”
“No, if they come out of that tunnel after us you won’t be able to maneuver us to safety,” she replied. “You told me yourself you’re a terrible pilot.”
Cas was about to argue the point when a tunnel opened to their right, revealing the Tempest. “Stay where you are,” Greene said. “We’ll bring you in.” The ship came around in front of them and lined up Bay One with their position. Evie sat back in relief as Tempest enveloped them into the hangar. She pushed the controls to set the ship down.
“C’mon.” Cas helped her to her feet. “We need to get you to Xax.” He draped her arm around him and helped her to the lock, wh
ere they were met by a group of security officers and medical staff. “She’s been seriously injured,” Cas said. “She needs medical attention right now.”
“What about you?” One of the medical officers asked as Cas helped handoff Evie to the others.
“I’m fine, but I need to go get my robot. I don’t want to leave him aboard.”
The officer nodded and tended to Evie as they walked her down the ramp into the main part of the bay.
Cas jogged back over to where Box lay slumped against the ground. “I’m not leaving leave you here.” He hooked his arms under Box’s frame, dragging him back along the hallway. Box’s metal legs scraped along the floor.
“Never…realized…how much you…weigh,” Cas grunted as he pulled Box further down the hallway. When he reached his personal hab suite he yanked Box over the threshold and left him in the middle of the floor. “Sesster can help you,” he said. “And Evie knows what’s wrong. You’re going to be fine.”
He took one last look at his friend and ran from the room, sealing the door behind him. Cas bolted down the corridor back to the cockpit and began the initiation sequence for the engines. He may not be the best pilot, but he could at least get the ship out of the Bay.
The engines rumbled back to life and he retracted the landing gear as well as the main ramp, making sure all ports were sealed. Finally Cas toggled the switch that would release his own hab suite with Box inside, hearing the rumble as the suite dropped to the Bay floor.
“Okay, Veena,” he said. “You want me? You got me.”
Cas hit the engines and blasted out of the Bay back into open space.
36
It took a minute to get used to the steering as the ship wobbled back and forth but as long as he was moving away from Tempest that was a good thing. The comm button beside his chair chirped three times. Cas decided to ignore it. This was what was best for everyone. The Reasonable Excuse was already hanging on by a thread; he’d lost three hab suites and a stabilizer. There was no future for him in either the Coalition or the Sargan Commonwealth. Veena would either keep him a slave forever or Rutledge would have him locked up for the rest of his life. And he wasn’t going to go out like that. He was going out on his own terms. If the last seven years had taught him anything, it was life never turned out how you wanted. But at least he’d have control over how it ended.
The comm chirped again. Cas ignored it, plotting his course back to Veena’s ship, or at least its last-known position. It wasn’t as if he’d never flown before; it had just been a long time. His vector drifted as he tried to re-enter the coordinates back along the route he’d just come through. The ship could survive one last small jump. She’d been better to him than he deserved, holding together long after any other ship would have long fallen apart. She was like a friend who’d always been there for the ride. And she was going to help him end this once and for all.
Finally he got the coordinates inputted and made the necessary arrangements for the jump. “Emitter power is…active,” he said, feeling the rush of adrenaline as the emitter opened up the undercurrent tunnel and the ship shot forward.
Two minutes. In two minutes, he’d be right back at her ship then all of this would be over. His only hope was the previous explosion had permanently taken out that tractor beam. Because if not he might be in a world of trouble.
The comm chirped again. And again. And again. Cursing, Cas finally hit the accept button.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Greene’s voice said on the other end.
“I’m taking care of this, once and for all. Maintain your position,” Cas said. “I don’t know how large this explosion will be but you need to keep your distance. The weapon on board can affect things beyond the confines of one ship. That’s how the dry dock crew died too.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Mr. Robeaux?” Greene asked.
“Talk to Evie once she’s better. She’ll explain everything,” he replied.
“Was she in on this? Was this her idea?” Greene demanded.
Cas shook his head even though Greene couldn’t see him. “No sir, this was all me. She didn’t even know about it. This weapon must be destroyed and we don’t have time to wait for Coalition reinforcements. I’ll regret I won’t get to see the look on Rutledge’s face when you tell him his ship was lost. When you tell him I did it, but we’re out of time.”
“Caspian,” Greene said. “I know you think there is no other way out of this, but this isn’t the answer.” His voice sounded softer, more understanding than Cas had heard before.
“Sorry, sir, I think it is. This will be best for everyone. Including the Coalition,” Cas replied, cutting the comm link. It chirped again but he ignored it. Less than thirty seconds to go. The ship shook like it would fly apart at any second and warnings flashed in front of Cas letting him know the structural integrity wouldn’t hold much longer. All he needed to do was get close enough. The Achlys wouldn’t be able to sustain a direct hit from his ship, despite being much larger. Plus, Cas knew right where to hit its most vulnerable spot: the underbelly. Based on his speed he should be able to penetrate at least one of the main emitters which would be enough to destabilize the matter conversion system resulting in a complete self-destruct.
The screen in front of him flashed an urgent WARNING. He wouldn’t be able to hold it; he had to come out of undercurrent space. But he hadn’t reached his destination yet. That was fine, it would just give him more time to speed up. Maybe he could reroute some of his extra power to the emergency thrusters. Anything to get him to critical velocity.
Cas pulled back on the throttle and re-entered normal space. In the distance sat Veena’s ship. He’d come close, but not close enough. It would take another few minutes to get there using the normal engines and he’d probably burn most, if not all of his reserve fuel.
“Computer scan for additional…” he began before remembering the scanners were offline. The best he could do was stare out the main window and count how many ships he had to avoid for the next five minutes. Veena’s dreadnought was the largest, obviously, though it didn’t appear to be moving. The hab suite might have done more damage than he’d thought. Around Veena’s ship patrolled two of the smaller Sargan ships. Setsemeh had been right, they were Darkness class vessels. He hadn’t gotten a good look before when the Tempest was making its strafing runs but there they were, clear as day. All three Sargan ships were well-armed. But he just needed one shot. One well-timed shot.
The comm chirped again and Cas hit the button, swearing this was the last time. “Listen, Captain, you’re not going to convince me—”
“Oh, so it is you again,” Veena said. “I thought that little girlfriend of yours might have gotten all heroic. But look at you, back again to finish what you started.” There was a certain amount of sarcasm and pity in her voice which only enraged Cas more.
“You were the one who wanted me back so badly,” he quipped, double-checking his approach. He was dead-on target for the Achlys. This flying thing wasn’t so hard after all.
“So I did. I must have done something right in a previous life because here you are. Ready and waiting. What are you thinking? A suicide mission? Oh, Cas, how quaint.” A bolt of high-energy plasma strafed across the bow of his ship, having originated from Veena’s. He hadn’t even seen the imminent weapon indicator. With all his focus on the heading and keeping the ship straight he couldn’t afford to split his attention.
“While you are quite capable,” she teased, “There’s always been something you never mastered, hasn’t there?” Another bolt flew to the side of the ship and Cas jerked the controls, sending the ship sailing starboard. He struggled to right the Excuse again. “I thought maybe all those years with that robot might have taught you something but…alas. Still just an engineer.”
Only a few hundred thousand kilometers. I can make it that far, Cas thought, readjusting his angle back toward the Achlys. It was a clumsy attempt and he knew it, but he on
ly had to survive long enough to actually hit the damn thing. That was all that mattered.
Plasma strafed the left side of the ship lighting up ten different warning indicators. She’d burned out one of his engines; he’d have to reroute additional power to the others to compensate. And his heading was off again. She was just toying with him. There was no way he’d ever make it to his target. The destroyers would see to that much.
“Once you’re back home safe we might give you a new job,” Veena said. “Unfortunately you can’t have Rasp’s old position since you’re the reason he’s gone, but I do have space in my entourage for a new servant. Which would fit you nicely.”
Cas shuddered. Servant only meant one thing: sex slave. He’d rather go to jail.
“Come now. Doesn’t that sound nice? Catering to my every whim? My every desire? You couldn’t ask for a better assignment.”
He had half a mind to blow up the Excuse right there. But he had a job to do, and he’d see it through. There had to be some way of getting around all these obstacles.
Yeah, if you were a better pilot you could fly circles around them. There was only one thing left to do. He pulled back on the throttle and threw the ship into a barrel roll as he’d seen Box do so many times before. Indicators went off all over his panels and he completely lost his vector, but at least plasma blasts weren’t scorching his ship anymore. “This would be a lot easier if the sensor arrays were working,” he grumbled, orienting the ship back into a stable flight plan. Only when he looked up he found himself staring at the nose of a Darkness class Sargan Destroyer. They had positioned themselves directly between him and Veena’s ship.
“Fuck.” He stared at the green ship in front of him.
“Take comfort in knowing you never had a chance,” Veena said over the comm. “It was always going to turn out this way, no matter what you did.”
He had to think. There had to be another way. What if he just rammed the Destroyer? Would that create a large enough shock wave?
Just as he was about to try a bright pulse of light caught his eye, coming from the left side of his ship. Cas could barely believe it as the Tempest exited an undercurrent and fired on the Destroyer, causing it to dip down to minimize the damage.