Gravity Flux: Kestrel Class Saga Book 3

by Toby Neighbors

  She had devoted her life to the Imperium military, and no matter what, her loyalties would never change. But war was coming. She could feel it in her bones—perhaps the greatest conflict in the history of the galaxy, and she could not miss it. If this little, seemingly inconsequential Kestrel class ship was to usher that conflict into existence, she couldn’t help but wish it luck.

  Chapter 13

  “Two thousand feet,” Nance said.

  “Almost done,” Ben said.

  He had pulled off the wave amplifier, only to discover a perfectly intact magnetic coil underneath. It was the kind of find that he loved. Harvesting one thing only to find a hidden, completely unexpected gem underneath, just waiting to be taken and used. The coil had been completely sealed, there wasn’t even any rust on the copper.

  “I count eight,” Magnum said.

  “Confirmed,” Nance said. “Eight Scalpers. You want me to fire up the engines?”

  “Not yet,” Ben said. “Have they seen you, Magnum?”

  “Negative,” he replied.

  “Show them what the Lancet AR can do,” Ben said. “I doubt they’ll want any part of it.”

  Ben kept working, but he heard the pop and sizzle of the rifle’s single shot. There was a crash as the shot ripped through a pile of debris and sent it flying.

  “They’re taking cover,” Nance said over the com-link.

  “How many hours of daylight left?” Ben asked.

  “Six until total darkness,” Jones replied, “according to the ship’s computer.”

  “How are they taking it?” Ben asked Magnum.

  “Looks like they’re talking things over,” the big man replied from the top of the ship.

  “If they attack, can we hold them?”

  “Depends on what they’re packing,” Magnum replied. “They’re beyond pistol range. I don’t see anything bigger, but I could be wrong.”

  “Should I turn on the radar?” Nance asked.

  Ben looked up at the sky. If they had to fly, it would be good to know whether there were ships in the area. The radar would cover dozens of miles in every direction, but it could be picked up by the Imperium ships too. There were no decisions that didn’t involve risk of some kind.

  “I think we’ve got time,” Ben said. “Odds are, that group will lie low until dark. By the time they move, we’ll be gone.”

  “Scanning all frequencies,” Jones said. “I detect nothing.”

  “It’s doubtful the Scalpers would be sophisticated enough to coordinate an attack,” Ben said, straining to reach the last screw holding the magnetic coil in place.

  “But still possible,” Nance said.

  “Got it,” Ben said. “I’m wrapping things up here.”

  He gathered his finds into a backpack, then double-checked to make sure he wasn’t leaving any tools behind. Working in the salvage yards made it easy to lose precious resources. He had learned at an early age to always double-check his surroundings to ensure he wasn’t leaving anything behind. Treasures could be found in the vast fields of junk, but they could also be lost. He had learned his lesson from painful experience.

  “Looks like they’re spreading out,” Magnum said.

  “Do you have a clear shot?” Ben said.

  “Not really,” Magnum said. “They’re being cautious.”

  “You wouldn’t really kill them, would you?” Jones asked from the safety of the bridge.

  “If we get the chance,” Ben said.

  “Isn’t that murder? We can’t say for certain these people mean us harm,” Jones said.

  Ben got back to the ship and slung his tools inside the large hanger door. His own Lancet assault rifle was propped against the bulkhead. He picked it up and checked the power supply. It was fully charged. The big rifle had a power adjustment setting, but was lethal. The adjustment was for range, not killing effect. The weapon was light enough that Ben felt comfortable using it with his good hand, while his broken arm only helped to steady the rifle.

  “I’m closing the hatch, Magnum,” Ben said. “I’ll open the air lock. You better tether up just to be on the safe side.”

  “Already have,” Magnum said.

  “They’re about to charge,” Nance said.

  “One more second,” Ben said, hurrying over to the air lock. “Nance, can you get us airborne if things get out of hand?”

  “I can try,” she replied. “No promises, though.”

  “Perhaps it would be better if we just left now,” Jones said. “We can find what we need at another place, perhaps.”

  “Everyone, just stay calm,” Ben said. “Magnum, I’m covering the starboard side.”

  “Copy,” the big man said.

  Ben felt a hum pulse through the ship as the engines came online. There was no roar of power, just a gentle whir that was full of potential.

  “Here they come,” Magnum said.

  Ben propped his rifle against the door to hold it steady and looked through the scope mounted on top of the barrel shroud. It was impossible to tell if the Scalper he saw was a man or woman. They wore a long overcoat that had been patched together and was stained dark from sweat. Ben caught a glimpse of dull metal in the Scalper’s hand. He knew instinctively it was a knife. Perhaps it was more of a shiv, or just a knife-shaped piece of metal that had been ground down to give it an edge, but either way it was a weapon used for killing.

  Ben pressed the side-mounted trigger and felt a slight jolt. The laser beam moved too fast to track. To Ben, it was merely a flash of red light. To the Scalper, it was death. The laser blast burned straight through the outlaw, who kept running despite being dead. Ben saw a puff of smoke, then a fist-sized hole appeared in the Scalper’s chest, before flames sprang to life on the overcoat and the dead outlaw dropped, all within a second’s time.

  Heat radiated back as Ben turned slightly, catching sight of the second outlaw in his scope. It took a second to hone in on his target. Ben heard Magnum fire.

  “Eight targets,” Nance said. “They’re just over a thousand yards out.”

  “Copy that,” Ben said before holding his breath and firing at his second target.

  His first shot had been true, his second wasn’t as lucky. In his chest, Ben’s heart had begun to pound. His legs felt weak, and his arms were trembling slightly. When he pressed the trigger, the laser fired lower than Ben meant to shoot. The beam tore across the debris field and knocked the Scalper off his feet without injuring him.

  Ben didn’t wait to see if the outlaw got back up. He had to step out of the air lock to bring the third assailant into view. It was a big man, with long hair streaming out behind him and no shirt on. Ben could see muscles flexing as he sprinted forward, a pistol in hand. The Scalper was raising his weapon toward Magnum, and Ben took no chances. He fired three times. Two of the blasts hit their target and ripped gaping holes in the outlaw’s body. The gun the man carried was lost in the junk of the salvage field.

  Ben turned his rifle back to the second man, who was on his feet but looked doubtful. Ben knew the others were going to be in range any second, with their small arms, assuming more of the Scalpers had guns. He saw no weapon in the second outlaw’s hands and decided not to fire on the man again.

  Instead, he moved around the back section of the ship, just beside the rear hatch, which was closed, and looked for another target. There was a whistling crack as a bullet of some type whizzed past his head. Ben saw a woman with a heavy-looking pistol on one knee, preparing to take another shot. He raised his rifle and fired. The shot missed, but it was so close that it burned the side of the woman’s face. Ben saw her pistol fly into the air as she threw her hands up to cover the laser burn on her face. He heard the echoing scream of her agony and felt goosebumps prickle the skin all over his body.

  His hands were shaking as he tried to target another outlaw, but the band of Scalpers were giving up. One was helping the woman with the burn on her face, two more were just running away. Four lay dead, and when Ben turned
back to his second target, the man was gone.

  “That was close,” Ben said. “Magnum, you okay?”

  “Fine,” the big man said.

  They went inside, and Ben found Professor Jones looking pale. The older man was visibly shaken.

  “You okay?” Ben asked him.

  “Fine, fine, of course,” Jones said. “I just… I never…”

  “You’ve never seen anyone killed before?” Ben finished for him.

  Jones nodded.

  “They would have killed us,” Ben said. “I was almost hit during the fight.”

  “I’m sorry,” Jones said. “But I feel…horrified. Such waste.”

  “This is a hard world. People die here every day for all kinds of reasons. Some starve, some get sick and can’t get the medicines they need. Some just get lost in the salvage fields. And others are tortured to death by people just like the Scalpers who attacked our ship.”

  “You are certain they meant us harm?” Jones asked.

  Ben could hear the accusation in the man’s voice. It made him angry. His emotions were already in turmoil and almost getting shot hadn’t helped. Ben hated hurting other people. The woman’s scream still echoed in his mind. It made him feel sick to think he had caused that pain, but he knew what the Scalpers were capable of. It was far worse than the pain he’d just caused. They were people who preyed on their own kind. People with no emotions, and certainly no morality that would condemn the harming of another human being. He knew them as cold, harsh, uncaring individuals who thrived on the misery of others. He had something they wanted, and they would cut out his heart without a second’s hesitation just to get it. In fact, he guessed the survivors were plotting a second attack at that very moment, although he didn’t plan to stick around long enough to give them another chance.

  “Yes,” Ben said. “I am certain. I have absolutely no doubt in mind that they would have killed us all just to get the ship, which they would have sold for a fraction of its worth so they could buy drugs or weapons or some other terrible thing I don’t care to think about at the moment.”

  Doubt clouded the professor’s eyes. It didn’t make Ben feel any better, though. His stomach was empty, but he knew he was going to be sick anyway.

  “Tell Nance to give me a few minutes,” Ben said. “Then I’ll take her place on the bridge.”

  “Okay, sure,” Jones said, as Ben hurried past the man.

  He ran to his cabin and fell to his knees in the bathroom as his emotions wrung him like a dishrag from the inside out.

  Chapter 14

  Kim was four miles away when the fighting broke out around the Echo. She couldn’t hear the reports of the weapons or the screams of the injured, but she didn’t need to. The attack was inevitable. Perhaps it was possible that the ship could land somewhere far enough from the roving bands of outlaws that they wouldn’t see it, but she had doubts about that. The salvage yards were full of gangs, desperate men and women who would kill a baby just to get their next meal.

  A lone individual traversing the salvage fields was much less enticing to the Scalpers. But they would attack her if she stumbled onto them, there was no doubt about that. She wasn’t a salvage hunter, but she had a functioning laser pistol, a sack full of food, and even clothes, all that in their minds were all worth fighting for. The pistol would give her a chance if she was unlucky enough to get caught out in the open, but her best bet lay in stealth.

  The savage fields weren’t easy to move through under the best of conditions. The mounds of debris were made up of trash, old ship parts, and things that simply couldn’t be identified. It forced her to move slowly and carefully just to avoid falling or twisting her ankle. And to that she added just enough caution to keep from making noise as she went.

  Kim had no trouble keeping her direction. She was an instinctive navigator, which she guessed came with being a good pilot. She knew that if she headed due west, she would reach the canyons in a few days’ time. From there, she could trade her pistol for a new ID, perhaps even a citizen’s pass on a shuttle heading off-world. If nothing else, she would trade for a kite and return to the races. It might not be much, but it would be enough to get by on. She had done that much for years.

  It took all her strength not to think about Ben, or even Nance and Magnum. Somewhere deep down inside, she felt as if she were abandoning them and that thought was unbearable. Still, she knew she had to leave. Ben was more than capable of taking care of himself; he just wasn’t capable of also meeting her needs. And whether she liked to admit it or not, she needed love and attention. She could survive without them, but only as half a person, cold and miserable. If that was going to be the case, she preferred to do it on her own terms, with no other responsibilities other than keeping herself alive.

  Staying on the Echo, which was more of a home than she’d ever known, simply wasn’t an option. She had tried, but her misery was too volatile to contain. By staying, she would make everyone else on board miserable, and probably get them killed by making a mistake. The old Kestrel class ship was a joy to fly, and she didn’t want to think that her own weakness might get the ship destroyed. Piloting under duress or running from the Imperium Fleet took total concentration. She had managed when she had hope and felt as if her life had meaning. Without that, she was sure to fail. Her friends were simply better off without her.

  As night began to fall, Kim started looking for a place to take shelter for the night. There would be no warm bed, not even a fire to ward off the cold. Her best bet was finding an old, abandoned transport where she could shelter in case of rain. She did her best not to think of her cabin on the Echo. Or of the warm meal she knew the others would share on board.

  Eventually, just before night made it impossible to see, Kim squirmed into the cargo bed of an old transport that was covered by a mound of scaffolding pipe that was so old it had rusted spots that looked like a pox of some kind. She lay on the hard metal, which was already cold, and looked up through the maze of pipes above her. She could see a few stars, but they seemed far away. From her sack, she pulled out a bit of protein that she broke from a raw brick. It was tasteless and dry, absorbing the moisture from her mouth so that it was hard to swallow. Somehow she managed to get a few bites down, and then she closed her eyes to sleep. It didn’t take long to fall asleep. She was tired after her long, arduous trek across the salvage fields. Yet her dreams were painful. Three times she woke up with tears on her face before deciding it was better to get moving than to lie in the cold, suffering from a broken heart.

  The salvage yards were a different place at night. Creatures of the dark came up from their dens deep inside the mounds of trash and debris. Kim could hear them moving, even though she couldn’t see. The sky was covered with clouds that blocked out the weak light of the stars or the harsh glow of the moon’s ring of crumbling rocks. The sounds of small, scurrying feet climbing up some metal object and the swish of stiff bristly fur as a creature slid down some smooth bit of junk made her hesitant. She didn’t want to risk falling, or worse still, stumbling across some heinous creature in the darkness. Just because she couldn’t see didn’t mean they couldn’t see her. Yet the night seemed eternal.

  Broken, cold, and afraid, Kim dropped to her knees and cried. When the sun finally rose, she felt exhausted and sick, but she started walking. It was a slow, shaky trudge through the salvage fields over mounds of debris. The swells and dips of the undulating junk piles seemed like towering mountains to her. She was so lost in her own misery that she didn’t hear the group of Scalpers until it was too late.

  Unlike Kim, they seemed full of energy—four scruffy-looking people coming up behind her. They were still a hundred feet back and spread out. Kim had to look back over one shoulder and then the other to identify them. Three men, two looked to be barely more than children. One woman. They could have been a family if the Scalpers believed in such things.

  Kim began to hurry, her legs felt numb and she slipped and fell more than once. But each
time, she scrambled back to her feet. The Scalpers didn’t seem to mind the chase. Kim silently cursed herself for being so careless. They had been following her for how long? She had no idea, but there was no time left to hide and hope they gave up on finding her. She climbed a slight rise and turned around with a rusted-out dumpster between her and the Scalpers.

  They kept approaching, but slowed as she drew her laser pistol from its holster under her left arm. The woman had a curved, thin-bladed filet knife. Kim knew it wasn’t good for fighting, but perfect for slicing throats. The man had a single-shot hand cannon. There was no way to know if it actually worked or what it had been loaded with. Kim had once seen a hand cannon loaded with small bits of sharpened metal cut a full-grown man in half. The two teenagers were doing their best to look tough as they spread out, one on either side of her.

  “That’s close enough,” Kim said. “You keep following me and I might get nervous.”

  The Scalpers were in a shallow, bowl-shaped depression, only twenty-five feet from where she stood. It felt too close, even though she knew it wouldn’t be easy for them to reach her over the loose debris and around the dumpster.

  “That pistol work?” the man asked.

  “Take another step and you’ll find out,” Kim replied.

  “Oh, she’s a feisty one,” the woman said. “You seem very confident for a well-dressed woman all alone out here.”

  “I’m not alone,” Kim said, holding up the pistol where the woman could see it. “And I’m not above killing to make my point.”

  “No need,” the man said. “Toss me the gun and you can join us. We’re always on the lookout for capable folk.”

  “I’m not looking to join your…whatever this is,” Kim said.