Nova Igniter

by Joseph R. Lallo

  “I knew it was a mistake financing this league,” grumbled someone who looked far too young to have adopted the archetypal “curmudgeon” mindset. “A whole league of criminal misfits.”

  “To date, the league has seen no financial consequence for our choice in staff. In fact, our ‘outlaw’ branding has differentiated us from rival leagues and afforded us an edgy, outside reputation, which has been valuable from a promotional standpoint. We have done extensive consumer polling and have determined that even if Lex is not present, the race will be well-received. And his absence will provide a narrative thread for next season’s advertising copy. ‘Lex has unfinished business’ and things of that nature.”

  There was a silent rumble that Preethy recognized quite well. It was a line of people who wanted to disagree but had all of their potential arguments addressed.

  “I think that concludes our meeting for today. Thank you for your time,” Preethy said.

  The faces popped away one by one until Preethy was alone in her office. She tapped some controls and the holographic screens collapsed together into a single larger display area. Another tap brought up the face of her personal assistant, Louise.

  “Louise, how is the financial impact statement coming along?”

  “It’ll be another few minutes. The systems are a little sluggish today.”

  “Oh? Is this related to the denial of service we suffered?”

  “The IT crew insists it isn’t. They’re trying to track it down, but they say it’s probably just some rogue bit of bloatware getting away from us. I guess some company or another issued an update that didn’t go well. We’ve got off-planet contacts that are dealing with the same thing.”

  “Keep me updated. Is there anything else that requires my attention?”

  “One thing. I’ve got the detailed race telemetry from Tester you requested.”

  “I see. Has it been analyzed?”

  “I got my hands on some performance monitoring software and ran it through. It was… yellow.” She tapped at something on her end. “The documentation defines it as ‘below definitive suspicion, but above standard human performance.’ As requested, I ran Lex’s data. He scored basically the same.”

  “And this has been consistent in all races?”

  “For Lex, yes. For Tester there was a steady improvement over the course of the racing season, and a large jump between his last race in his previous league and his first race in this one. Legal says it’s consistent with standard improvement with practice. Or at least, they say that we can’t claim otherwise.”

  “Send it to me. I’m intrigued. And what are you doing for lunch?”

  “Just hitting the vending machines.”

  “Make an appointment for the two of us. I’ve become rather accustomed to having company at lunch these days.”

  “Will do, Ms. Misra.”

  Preethy ended the call and looked at the race records. “Below suspicion, but above average…” she murmured, looking over the data.

  Chapter 4

  The SOB dropped out of FTL at the edge of their destination system. Even if he’d not already been briefed on the status of this place as an effectively forgotten little speck of dust far from the more lively parts of the galaxy, Lex would have known from the first glance at his ship’s sensors.

  Despite centuries of having faster-than-light travel available, the human race had yet to chart even a quarter of the galaxy with any reasonable degree of detail, and they’d colonized only the tiniest fraction of that. Because of how humanity had conquered Earth in the dawn of history, one could be excused for picturing the journey of discovery in the cosmos to follow the same path. Explorers, driven by scientific curiosity or (far more often) by greed and zealotry, spread like a wave across the unknown, claiming it for their own. Such was not the case for space. Most of it was empty. The yawning abyss seldom had anything of value for explorers of any sort. Those places that had something interesting like a mineral-rich asteroid belt or a star with some promising planets were seldom as inviting as even the harshest of Earth climates. If humans wanted to put down roots on a planet, ready supplies of stable temperatures, breathable atmospheres, and self-sustaining nutrients were necessary. The most modern of technology would require decades to make a suitable planet worth living on, and the current batch of planets undergoing terraforming were still operating on equipment and techniques obsoleted a century ago.

  The human race lived in a few scattered clumps around the most obliging planets we’d yet discovered. These clumps were connected by thin, crowded travel corridors. The cost of keeping the transit networks running was such that a place needed to be worth going to or on the way to someplace worth going to, or it would simply be clipped out of the network and left to brave the untamed void or simply wither away.

  That was the fate of the unnamed speck resolving itself on Lex’s sensors. Though populated systems existed a few light years away in almost every direction, this lump wasn’t worth building a road to. Most people lacked the courage, intuition, and equipment to make the blind jumps that had become second nature to Lex. So most people stayed away. A single meager signal flickered on the data band where even a minor system would have thousands. There was no automated arrival or departure queue. No thriving port eager for their business. There was just a star with a few letters and a lot of numbers for a name, and a planet that tacked a Greek letter onto that mess.

  “Well, there’s no fleet waiting for us. That’s a good sign,” Lex said.

  “I’d hoped I would have found some sort of a vendor they depended on or a code phrase we could use to safely open communications with them, but there’s a reason they’ve been able to stay here unmolested for so long,” Michella said. “The information about this stronghold is very sparse. All I know is we’re likely to encounter Neo-Luddites.”

  “Which means we’re also likely to encounter janky technology with a lot of punch and very little reliability,” Lex said.

  “That sounds interesting. Do you suppose they will have any high-yield explosive devices?” Coal asked.

  “Almost certainly,” Lex said.

  “If I ask nicely, do you think I could acquire one?”

  “I think they’re probably going to send us one just as soon as they can paint a target on us.”

  “Excellent, that will save time.”

  “Why is Coal so interested in explosives?” Michella asked.

  “They’re wonderful for problem-solving,” Coal assured her. “Like a multitool, only more vigorous and permanent in their application.”

  “Let’s go on low-power, high-stealth mode. Like we discussed on the way, we’ll try to coast in without being detected.”

  “Right. If possible, we’ll try to link up with their internal communication network. A direct, physical connection if possible. I’ve found that people usually forget to raise their guard when communicating on an internal network,” Michella said. “The issue is, the community is so small, it is extremely likely they will recognize me as an outsider immediately.”

  “They’re going to figure it out faster than that,” Lex said, eyes on one of the sensor readouts.

  “Why, what’s going on?” Michella asked.

  “We’re being actively pinged,” Coal said. “At this range the stealth coating won’t return a reliable reading, but we won’t be able to approach the planetoid without eventually triggering an alert.”

  “The Neo-Luddites would be paranoid enough to constantly be checking if they were being invaded.” Michella adjusted in her seat. “Okay. It’s fine. I’m sure we can come up with a plan. All we need to do is—”

  “I’m coming in for a landing,” Lex said.

  “That should work,” Coal agreed.

  “What? Are you sure about this, Trev? You and I both know how serious these guys are.”

  “And they know every time I show up they get their butts kicked. And I’m on a deadline. Stealth mode off. L
et’s make these people think I’ve got a better plan than I really have.”

  “This is going to be fun,” Coal proclaimed happily.

  The moment Coal deactivated the thermal countermeasures, his communicator lit up. Lex tapped the screen.

  “Hello,” Lex said, as though he was greeting the deliveryman at the door of his apartment. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

  Rather than audio only, the Neo-Luddite who contacted him had a glitchy mosaic effect distorting his face. It wasn’t clear if this was an intentional way to anonymize himself or just the usual half-functional gear.

  “Who are you? What are you doing here?” he said with badly degraded digital audio.

  “Guess and guess.”

  The strange sound of urgent off-screen muttering, filtered through the same degraded signal, buzzed across the connection for a moment. “Is this Trevor Alexander?”

  “Please, after our history, I think we can go by nicknames. I’m Lex, and you are?”

  “I am currently targeting your ship with seven missile pods and a battery of energy weapons.”

  “I’d skip the missile pods,” Lex said. “I’m just going to dodge them and then you’ll have wasted the ammo. The energy weapons might make things interesting for a minute.”

  “You are violating our territory.”

  A few warning sounds bleeped from Lex’s console.

  “Missiles inbound,” Coal said.

  Lex sighed. “You still strapped in, Mitch?”

  “Nice and tight,” she said. “Don’t screw this up.”

  “I’ll be extra careful, just for you. Hold on to Squee.”

  He passed the lazily drifting funk back to Michella and dialed a few of his controls from long-distance sprint settings to short-range jukes. Coal helpfully painted twenty-one points of light, each with range and velocity information, onto the cockpit windows.

  “Six seconds to first impact,” Coal said.

  “What sort of targeting are we looking at?” Lex said, shifting the ship to a perpendicular flight path.

  The impact timers started to tick upward as he put more distance and speed into the equation.

  “Four missile types rely upon radar lock and will not be able to reliably target the ship with its transmission-absorbent coating. The remaining three appear to be high-sensitivity heat-seekers and have positive locks. Flight trajectory variation suggests two of the heat-seeking missiles have rudimentary flight AI. They are attempting to lead their targeting and spread their attack vectors. These are very fancy missiles, Lex.”

  “Yeah, these guys like their toys. I’ll leave you in charge of the tractor beams if things get too close. Shields to full and let’s get this over with.”

  “Trev, you don’t even sound nervous,” Michella said.

  “I’ve spent the last few months racing against the most cutthroat racers in the galaxy. They’re constantly trying to ram me off the track, and even the dumbest racer is a heck of a lot smarter than a missile.” He twirled the ship and flared the thrusters, jerking out of the path of the first set of missiles and dragging them into a pursuit. “It’s also not the first time I’ve had to do the missile dance.”

  “I’d never considered the consequences of an adrenaline junky building up an immunity,” Michella said.

  “I’m not too worried about it. Again, causality armor. Coal, can I get an audio indicator of range for the ones behind me?”

  “Here you go,” Coal said.

  A chorus of tones rang out, the speed of their beeping directly correlating to their distance. Lex feathered the thrusters and wove between the second set of missiles. A few of them came so close that the shields flickered.

  “Three incoming missiles on collision vectors,” Coal said.

  “Take them out,” Lex said.

  The tractor beams, still the only semblance of a weapon that Lex had, roared to life. The ship jiggled as the energy tethers alternated between attract and repel at a punishing, jackhammer frequency. The incoming missiles rattled to pieces before they could strike the ship, their debris peppering his shields with a little fireworks display that shaved a few percent off his defenses.

  “No additional missiles launched. Eighteen missiles in pursuit. Impact in seventeen seconds,” Coal said.

  “They said something about energy weapons, right?” Lex said.

  “They did.”

  “Are we seeing anything orbital?”

  “Yes. They appear to be magnetic accelerator cannons. Mass and energy readings suggest they either lack ammunition or are nonfunctional.”

  “So we’re assuming the energy weapons are on the surface. Keep an eye open for them.”

  “I am doing so. Impact in six seconds.”

  “I’m gonna do the thing. Give them a nudge when I do.”

  The audio indicators were mostly continuous tones now. He looked at the sensor readings and noted the grouping. The missiles were in a tight cone behind him. He hovered his fingers over an option on the exceedingly aftermarket additions Karter had made to the SOB. A quarter second before the nearest of the missiles would strike, he tapped an option. Again the rear of the ship snapped open, complete with all of its fins and cooling panels. But as it did, the engine belched out an electromagnetic pulse that scrambled the guidance circuitry. Suddenly three salvos of very sophisticated missiles were converted to little more than blazing engines with explosives attached. Any of them that were in the midst of a course adjustment simply swirled off harmlessly. Those that were locked on target continued their straight-line pursuit until Coal helpfully shifted them aside with the tractor beam, leaving them to continue streaking forward. They passed Lex and continued to mimic his trajectory, which was directly toward the now much closer surface of the planetoid.

  Lex let the missiles continue to accelerate past him. Judging from the general tone of the activity on the communicator screen, the Neo-Luddites had figured out their weapons were now heading in their general direction and were no longer responding to the kill switch. Suddenly the focus for the energy weapons shifted from taking Lex out to clearing away the plummeting ordnance. It took several waves of plasma shots rising up from the surface and an awful lot of sizzling lasers, but they succeeded in bursting all the rogue missiles. By the time the swirling blobs of violet plasma and needle-sharp pinpricks of coherent light turned toward the SOB, he was already in the thin atmosphere.

  The landscape was far more alien than Lex was accustomed to. As far and wide as he’d traveled, when it came to stopping at planets, he usually ended up in places with fast-food options. This place was a largely barren landscape of gray stone. It sparkled with some sort of scattered mineral, and the blue light of the star gave them a cobalt appearance. The fields that swept below him, some still being tended to by drifting drones, had muddy, mustard-colored leaves. He was tempted to comment on them, but he was relatively certain that would lead to a lengthy explanation from Coal about how they were genetically engineered for blue light, and he really wasn’t in the mood for it.

  One of the useful things about being attacked on the way in was it left very little doubt as to where the Neo-Luddites could be found. It wouldn’t have taken him more than a few sweeps from high orbit to figure it out, though, as the only thing that could be called a settlement was near the equator at the day-night terminator.

  “I think we woke these people up,” Lex said. “I’d be cranky too.”

  “You will not penetrate our defenses,” the voice on the communicator said.

  “I’m pretty sure I just did. Listen, I know we’ve got history, but I’m not here to fight. What do you say we call a truce?”

  “This organization is a shadow of its former self because of you and your allies. Do you honestly expect me to believe it is a coincidence that you’ve come here so soon after that Eric thing ripped through this place?”

  Lex grinned as he heard the scratch of Michella’s pen. “See, now that
’s precisely the sort of thing we came here to learn. How about we have a nice face-to-face, learn what we can, and be on our way?”

  “We’ve lasted this long by remaining hidden. To reveal ourselves will ruin us.”

  “Seriously. You guys couldn’t stop me from getting here. Do you really think you can keep me from leaving?”

  Michella bleeped through a few menus on her slidepad. “Is this Major Luther Green?”

  The “anonymous” individual taunting them across the communicator hesitated. The hesitation was just about as incriminating as if he’d said, “Speaking, how may I help you?”

  “Shall I start reading off the names of all the other Neo-Luddites in the facility?” Michella asked. “I assure you, the reason you have been left alone was because no one considers you to be a worthwhile target. My assistant, and through him my editor, has access to the very same document I’m reading from right now. The only reasonable action you can take is have an open and frank discussion with us in exchange for anonymity.”

  “You aren’t a lawyer or a law enforcement officer,” the man said.

  “No. I’m not. I’m a member of the fourth estate. People in law enforcement have to follow far more restrictive rules than I do. All I have to do is tell the truth. Now, right now, you get to decide which story I tell. Is it how the last lingering cell of the once fearsome Neo-Luddites was finally locked up, or is it the untold story behind the DDoS that blacked out two planets?”

  “We don’t know anything about any cyberattack.”

  “Then you’d better hope you’ve got something even meatier.”

  No amount of digital manipulation could hide the seething anger that followed. Eventually, defeated, the man hissed an answer.

  “There is a small facility to the north of the largest field. You will be under heavy guard at all times.”

  “That will be acceptable,” Michella said.

  The connection cut.

  “Do I have to wait around while you talk?” Coal said. “And if so, do you think they will object to further artistic exploration?”