“No,” Derringer said. “I suppose not.”
“The fact that they didn’t immediately jump to hyperspace is a good sign,” Pershing said. “It means they’re taking the admiral general’s threat seriously.”
“The royal family would never stand for the bombing of innocent worlds,” Derringer said, her voice barely above a whisper and filled with doubt.
Pershing understood the plain-faced captain. The official propaganda regarding the royal family was of a caring, compassionate group of people dedicated to the peace and prosperity of the galaxy. Of course, no one could be in the military long without knowing the truth. The royal family was constantly embroiled in scandalous rumors, and more often than not, the rumors were true.
The royal family, Pershing knew, were behind some of the more despicable deeds being carried out across the galaxy. They cared only for themselves, and even if the worlds on the admiral general’s list weren’t sympathetic to the rebellion, the royal family wouldn’t bat an eye at their destruction if the outcome favored the Royal Imperium in the slightest way.
“Never doubt what a desperate man is capable of, Captain,” Pershing said. “Failure is the pathway to dishonor and death, even for staff officers. The admiral general needs to show his strength, and threatening to destroy entire worlds is one way to do that.”
“What if the rebels don’t care?” Derringer asked.
“They do,” Pershing said. “It’s the easiest weakness to exploit in those who proclaim the injustice of the Royal Imperium against her citizens. They are trapped between their own rhetoric and the malevolence of the admiral general.”
“Could you do it?” Derringer asked. “Could you die for your beliefs?”
“Of course,” Pershing said.
“I don’t think I could,” she said. “I don’t believe in anything that much.”
“That is understandable,” Pershing said. “Perhaps in time your feelings will change. Death is inevitable. And what could be more fulfilling than to make the greatest sacrifice for something you believe in? I would do it, but I don’t think I could go down without a fight.”
“General, we’re getting a response from the rebels,” the communications officer said loudly.
“Put it through,” Pershing ordered.
We have considered your ultimatum and will comply. We are making preparations for the jump to hyperspace now and will proceed to the coordinates you have sent us as soon as possible.
The message ended, and Pershing wondered what the little ship was up to. She had no doubt they were trying something. Even if it was futile, it was what she would do in their place.
“Send this,” Pershing said, waiting for the communications officer to patch her through to the rebel ship. “Modulus Echo, we received your message. Please note that in fourteen minutes we will make our own jump to the Celeste system. If we reach that system before you do, the bombardment of the aforementioned planets will begin immediately. Please make your preparations and jump to hyperspace before we do. That is all.”
The bridge fell silent. There was no response from the rebel ship. Whatever they were planning, they were keeping secret. Pershing made a decision. It was one of her strongest skills. She was a strategic thinker and very decisive. Trust in her own intuition was not something she struggled with.
“Helm, recalculate our jump,” Pershing said.
“Aye, General,” the man at the helm of the spy ship said.
“We’re not going to the Celeste system?” Captain Derringer asked.
“Yes, we’ll go to the Celeste system, but I don’t want us anywhere near that rebel ship,” Pershing said. “I want us to drop from hyperspace at least a hundred miles from their position.”
“Roger that,” the helmsman said.
“You think they’re going to attack the Fleet?” Derringer said.
“I think they have something in store that we can’t even fathom,” Pershing said. “Make sure our recording capabilities are ready. Whatever happens, I want a record of it.”
“Yes, General,” Derringer said.
Pershing felt a tingle of excitement. The little rebel ship shouldn’t have been a threat, but it had turned out to be the most dangerous enemy the Royal Imperium Fleet had faced in decades. And the mystery behind her feelings regarding the future of the Imperium was about to be revealed. Whatever happened in the Celeste system, Brigadier General Alicia Pershing was determined to be ready for it.
Chapter 45
“How much time do we have?” Ben asked.
“Ten minutes according to the last message,” Nance said.
“How long will we be in hyperspace?” Kim asked.
“Thirteen hours,” Nance replied.
“That’s plenty of time to finish the rocket,” Ben said.
“Not much time to live if it fails,” Kim said.
“It will work,” Jones added. “I’d stake my reputation on it.”
“We have a full tank of Zexum,” Ben said. “We know what we’re trying to do. There’s no reason to put it off.”
“He’s right,” Magnum said. “Once the decision is made, it’s better to go right at them.”
“Tell our escort we’re ready, then,” Kim said. “Give the word and I’ll make the jump.”
“Okay,” Ben said, his hand hovering over the transmit button on his console’s microphone. “Here we go.”
He pressed the button and leaned toward the mic at his station. The thought of what they were doing, and the odds against them succeeding, made his skin tingle. His basic survival instinct told him not to do it, but to run away. That wasn’t really an option. The Royal Imperium obviously had the means to track them down, even in the middle of nowhere. All he could do was plunge ahead and hope they were making the right decision.
“RIF Deception,” Ben said. “We are ready to go. We will make the jump to hyperspace in one minute. Please acknowledge.”
One minute, Modulus Echo, roger that. The Deception is standing by.
“There is an old story I heard once,” Jones said, “about a prophet who was forced to spend the night in a den of hungry lions. Because of his faith, he walked out alive and the people who plotted against him were fed to the hungry beasts.”
“Let’s hope we can say the same,” Ben said.
“I doubt the prophet had a crack pilot like me,” Kim said. “One way or another, we’ll get away.”
“I wish I had her confidence,” Nance said. “Thirty seconds.”
“If this is our last jump,” Ben said. “I want to say how happy I’ve been doing this with all of you.”
“Here, here,” Jones said.
“Fifteen seconds,” Nance said.
“Stop all the Debbie Downer talk,” Kim said. “This isn’t the end of anything.”
“At least we have on final chance to stick it to the Royal Imperium,” Magnum said.
“Dropping the flux shield,” Ben announced.
“Five seconds,” Nance said.
“Close enough,” Kim replied.
She hit the button that engaged the hyperdrive. Time stretched and made Ben wish that he could stretch every second he had remaining with Kim for as long as possible. When things returned to normal, Ben stood up.
“I have a rocket to assemble,” he said.
“Don’t take too long,” Kim said. “I’m making supper.”
“I’ll help him,” Jones said.
“Me too,” Magnum added.
The three men went down to the engineering bay without saying a word. There were stools around the workbench where the rocket was waiting. Ben had already completed the three sections, and all that remained was to fasten them together and activate the remote-operated computer controls.
“So,” Jones said. “This is it.”
“History in the making,” Ben said with a grin.
“It doesn’t look like much,” Magnum admitted.
“It isn’t much,” Ben said. “This is the tail section. It has jus
t enough fuel to burn for a few seconds. We didn’t want it racing out of sight.”
“But don’t we need some distance?” Magnum asked. “So that we don’t get caught up in the reaction?”
“That is true,” Jones said. “But this is not a missile. It was built to travel in space, with no friction. Once it starts moving, it will keep moving until we detonate it. There was no need to rush.”
“Maybe there is now,” Magnum said.
“No,” Ben disagreed. “If this goes flying toward the Imperium forces, they’ll destroy it before we can detonate.”
“Won’t that accomplish the same thing?” Magnum asked.
“That is an excellent question,” Jones said. “You see, the rocket will detonate, but only a small yield explosion big enough to spread the high-energy elements, which the gravity event will feed on.”
Ben tapped the middle of the rocket, which he was lining up with the tail section. “Stage two goes boom.”
“Here in the nose cone is where the magic happens,” Jones said, holding up the pointed end of the rocket. “This isn’t a warhead like one would find in a missile, but rather a small gravity wave projector, not unlike what young Ben has used to modify the ship’s artificial gravity.”
“It also has a battery,” Ben said. “With enough power to boost a wave directly into the ionized plutonium.”
“Think of it as a switch,” Jones said. “The gravity is already there, it just needs to be set into motion and fed.”
“Like a spark that is set into a tinder bundle,” Ben continued. “The battery is the spark, the gravity wave generator is a gentle breath to feed oxygen to the fire, and the plutonium is the tinder.”
“Sounds very exact,” Magnum said. “How sure are you that it will actually work?”
“It is technically still hypothetical at this point,” Jones said. “But my calculations are sound. Ben’s shielding proves that.”
“And the plutonium isn’t radiating the entire ship?” Magnum asked.
“No, it’s in an insulated section of the rocket,” Ben said. “Surrounded by moldable explosive.”
Ben activated the computer diode and a tiny LED lit up. After tapping his com-link, Ben asked Nance to make sure the rocket showed up on her computer system.
“It’s online,” Nance said. “Safety is engaged.”
“Good deal,” Ben said. “We wouldn’t want to set it off on the ship.”
“That would be bad,” Magnum said.
“It is an interesting hypothetical, though,” Jones said, his eyes lighting up with excitement. What would a gravity event do while traveling faster than light? Are we done here?”
“Yes,” Ben said. “She’s ready.”
“Let’s move it to the air lock,” Magnum said.
“Excuse me, gentlemen,” Jones said. “Inspiration is a fickle mistress. I must give this idea more thought.”
Ben watched him go as Magnum carried the rocket to the air lock. Inspiration was fickle, that much was true, Ben conceded. He hurried to his storage compartment and started pulling out old components and unused parts for the ship.
“What are you doing now?” Magnum asked. “I thought we were done.”
“We are done with the rocket,” Ben said. “But my fear has been that when we release the rocket, the Imperium ships will fire on it.”
“Okay,” Magnum said.
“So what if we fill the air lock with some of this junk?” Ben said. “When we get into the Celeste system, we can open the air lock and let the hard vacuum suck the junk out. The rocket will blend right in.”
“But what if the debris gets in the way of the gravity wave?” Magnum asked.
“See, I knew you understood more than you let on,” Ben said, slapping the big man on the shoulder. “We can ignite the rocket’s thrust. It’ll take less than a second to shoot clear of the debris. Then we detonate it and hope for the best.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” Magnum said. “But everyone has a plan until they get hit in the face. Just be ready to improvise if things are the way we expect in the Celeste system.”
“That’s good advice,” Ben said. “Thanks.”
They finished loading the junk into the air lock, then sealed the inner door. Everything was ready, or as ready as Ben could make it.
Dinner that night was spicy protein with the last of their potatoes, and gluten loaves. It wasn’t a feast, but it was a good meal. Jones was too busy to join them at the table on the observation deck, but he took a plate of food that Ben delivered to his room. The conversation was stilted around the table. Everyone tried to keep up a happy, light banter, but their minds were consumed with the time that was ticking away as they rocketed through hyperspace.
Once they finished eating, Ben joined Kim in her cabin. They lay on her narrow bunk, arm in arm, neither speaking, but they couldn’t sleep either. Finally, Kim broke the silence.
“Is there anything I can do?”
“No,” Ben said with a sigh. “I’ve gone over the plan a hundred times in my head. We have everything ready.”
She leaned up on one elbow and looked at him. “No, you dope. We could be dead in a few hours. Is there anything I can do that will make this time as sweet as possible?”
Ben grinned. He didn’t answer, but pulled her closer until their lips met.
Chapter 46
Thirteen hours passed in a blur. The next thing any of them knew, they had gathered back on the bridge as the timer counted down the last few minutes of their hyperspace voyage.
“Everything is in place,” Ben said. “As soon as we drop out of hyperspace, we pick up visual scanning and fire up the radar.”
“That’s if they don’t blast us to bits the moment we appear,” Kim said.
“They won’t,” Ben insisted. “They want a show. They want the galaxy to see us humbled, begging for mercy. And they think that’s what they’re getting. Nance will calculate a microjump, and as soon as it’s locked in, we blow the air lock, initiate the flux rocket’s system, then jump a few light-seconds away.”
“One minute,” Nance said in her unwavering calm.
“And if nothing happens?” Kim asked.
“Then we surrender,” Ben said.
“Or go out fighting,” Magnum countered.
“It will work,” Jones insisted.
“It has to work,” Ben said. “There are too many lives counting on it.”
“They don’t even know it,” Kim said. “They’ll probably never know.”
“I hope so,” Ben said. “I hope they never feel threatened at all. No matter what happens to us.”
“Ten seconds,” Nance said.
“Game faces on,” Kim said.
“Good luck, everyone,” Ben said.
“Three, two,” Nance counted down, “one.”
Time stretched, and Ben’s heart seemed to stop beating. The luminous fog of hyperspace disappeared and the display screen came into focus. It felt to Ben as if he had been dropped from a hundred-foot cliff as he looked out at hundreds of ships facing them.
“Holy shit,” Kim said.
“They’re behind us too,” Magnum announced.
“We’re being hailed,” Jones said.
“Of course we are,” Ben replied, but his hands were shaking. “Put it on speaker.”
Modulus Echo, this is Admiral General Volgate of the Royal Imperium military. Do not make any sudden moves or we will fire on you.
“Nance?” Ben asked.
“Working on it,” she said calmly.
“Kim, we need the air lock door facing those ships,” Ben said. “Can you turn us without it looking like a maneuver?”
“You mean like we’re just drifting in place?” Kim asked.
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
Do not raise your shields or activate your weapons. If you do, the order will be given to bombard ten planets. The lives of the rebels and the innocent will be on your heads.
“He’s making a
speech for the news feeds,” Magnum said.
“There are more ships than the radar can keep track of,” Nance said. “I can’t calculate a jump point through this many ships.”
“How’d we get in the middle of this?” Ben asked.
“We dropped in from above,” Kim said. “But they’re already closing ranks there.”
“Then we can’t wait. Be ready, Kim,” Ben said.
“Just say the word, lover boy,” the pilot said.
Ben hit the button on his console that opened the air lock. The door slid open and the garbage was sent tumbling out. Ben had to wait until it was far enough away that the flux shields wouldn’t catch the rocket.
I repeat, do not move or you will be fired upon.
“He’s like a broken record,” Kim said.
“Just a few more seconds,” Ben said.
“I’ve got a jump point,” Nance said. “But it isn’t close.”
“I see it,” Kim said, studying her plot.
“Professor, how quickly will the gravity event grow once we fire it off?” Ben asked.
“That’s impossible to calculate,” Jones said. “Assuming that the Imperium ships will get caught in the gravity wave, it could increase the event’s power exponentially.”
“We’ll just have to risk it,” Ben said.
“That’s one big ship,” Kim said.
A newly built vessel was gliding toward them. It wasn’t a warship exclusively, although Ben could see the laser batteries on either side. It was larger than a battle cruiser, but sleeker than a normal warship. He guessed it was the admiral general’s flagship.
The Royal Imperium Fleet Vessel Infinity will use a tractor beam to bring your ship into its docking facility. There, you will be taken into custody for crimes against the Imperium.
“Almost ready,” Ben said, watching his plot, which showed the flux rocket and the projected arc of the ship’s shield bubble.
“If they hit us with a tractor beam, we’re finished,” Kim said. “There’ll be no escape against that behemoth.”
Ben hit the button to activate the flux shield. The rocket wasn’t quite clear, but he guessed it would take the artificial gravity generator a few seconds to power up the flux shield. He held his breath, watching his screen.
Gravity Flux: Kestrel Class Saga Book 3 Page 21