Tethered Worlds: Star in Bankruptcy

by Gregory Faccone

“What about our intercept guns? The starfighters are so brazen.”

  “We only have half our intercept guns available in this configuration,” the robot responded, “and that was before their last pass.”

  “Configuration? What's he talking about?” Zoraida demanded.

  “The Moon Weaver has... a lot of options.”

  “You better pick a better one.”

  “Go ahead, Quext,” Wixom link-said. “Show this ship's true capability.”

  “Shut. Up.” Jordahk said through gritted teeth.

  “I won't be spoken to that way!” Zoraida said.

  “I wasn't talking to you.” Jordahk took a deep breath. “Moon Weaver, give me running visuals on Gasket, Solia, and Jhapa. Gasket, do what you must to keep us in the game.”

  The brass bot ran out of fabrication carrying conduit and other parts Jordahk didn't recognize. Two drones in his wake were equally encumbered.

  “You got it.”

  The legendarily genial grease monkey held no grudges, except perhaps toward those who might sabotage his ship. Two other VADs followed Jhapa and Solia as they headed toward the starkeel core and central reactors.

  “They're coming again,” Aurora said.

  The starfighters turned for another pass propelled by the fiery blue cones of their wendells. None of them had taken any significant damage.

  Jordahk examined the tac VAD. “Angle us away. Give me a burst of speed.”

  “I'm trying.”

  If they were having this much trouble, he could only imagine how the Aventicia escort fleet was faring against the one-two punch of starfighters and capital ship guns. With a gesture he jumped into their fleetnet.

  “Group two, group three, stagger your retreat!”

  “We're exposed!”

  A tightly packed escort squadron nearest the Trade Union flotilla was breaking out of their protective clump, attempting to avoid another fleet bombardment. Just then the three gruppes of starfighters roared down from above strafing the ship farthest out. The diluted intercept gun fire couldn't hold that many back. The top of a frigate erupted in plasma, explosions, and debris amid staccato blasts of red.

  “Resume box formation! Concentrate fire at—”

  The chatter was lost in distortion as an explosion burst from the bottom of the frigate. It rolled in sudden lifelessness broken only by sporadic boat launches. The tactical situation was fast becoming a starfighter's dream and a ship's nightmare. One Jordahk was also experiencing.

  “Try to protect the port side,” he said. The starfighters darted in using complex, interweaving approaches no doubt handled by AIs. Jordahk's mystic pride flared. “We're not some scientum frigate. Overcharge the thrust rings. I want to reorient toward the one closet to our axis the second they pass.” He checked the status of the T-beam. Fifty percent was the best they were going to get right now. “Can you split the T-beam? A wide blast?”

  “Not in this config,” Aurora said.

  “Why are we in this apparently stupid configuration?” Zoraida demanded.

  Jordahk ignored her, concentrating on the maneuver. Starfighters were often the fastest ship in battle. Not because their top speed was greater, but because the speed at which they could successfully dodge fire was greater. They could overcome inertia with their powerful thrust-to-mass ratio. But the Aurora was no slouch, even as currently configured.

  “Pitch us up, full thrust!” Jordahk commanded.

  They turned into the starfighters. Pulsed T-beams lanced out, but the maneuver kept them from concentrating on a single section. The thrust rings gushed plasma and the Aurora reoriented hard. Jordahk felt a tinge through the grav weaves and longed for the platinum group metal control stalks stored, in this configuration, below the deck.

  The starfighters broke into trios for their post-run escape maneuver. Their power caps needed time to recharge. But the Aurora's pivot was faster than they expected. She lined three up within her T-beam arc and let loose a powerful blast which streaked through their formation. The three split again, but one was grazed on its extended wendell.

  Its thrust turned from blue, to yellow, to red. Energy crackled across the wendell then onto the wing. The pilot ejected the entire engine assembly. It tumbled through space only a second before exploding. The starfighter peeled away on its two remaining wendells, making a straight line for the carrier.

  “Should I stay with him?” Aurora asked.

  “He's out of the game. Keep on toward my father. Max, anything more on these starfighters?”

  A starfighter wasn't small. They were the size of owl assault ship that could carry a platoon of troops. Starfighters also weren't cheap, as their tech and AIs were so specialized.

  “Unfortunately for us, the Screwdriver 12 is living up to its rep.” Max brought up multiple images. “Minor variations and mismatched surfacing distinguish these. I believe they were obtained from multiple starmadas.”

  “Probably wherever the 13s were adopted.” The Screwdriver line was successful and widespread, as far as starfighters went.

  “I'm sorry, Jordahk,” Aurora said. “I can't shake them.”

  “You made 'em mad,” Max said.

  Zoraida stood and put hands on hips. “What kind of lame ship is this?”

  “A corvette,” Jordahk answered.

  “Now I know why these aren't favored anymore.”

  “You could say the same for starfighters.”

  “Perhaps you should banter later, sonny,” Jhapa said from his VAD. “Starfighters learn. They'll be more careful next pass.”

  Is anybody not listening?

  “I don't see you helping. What are you doing down there?”

  “You'll need me here soon enough.”

  “Let me come up there, Jordahk,” Solia said from behind Jhapa. “I want to help.”

  “I know. Stay with Jhapa. I'll think of something.”

  “They keep angling for my engines,” Aurora said.

  Starfighters could link AIs, working in concert as a sort of hive mind, coordinating spacing, dodging, and targeting. It left the pilots free to cogitate higher level tactics in their world of lighting fast combat.

  Small inspiration struck. “Once burned, Max.” It would keep them in the running until he could think of something better.

  “I got ya.”

  Max fed the plan to Aurora. Right before the starfighters aligned for their next engine shot, she tumbled hard. The adroit fighters adjusted, and four got their shots off. The main thrusters were spared, but their plasma feeds were mauled as shields buckled. The Aurora's bow continued around and the starfighters, now eager to avoid her forward battery, bolted away. Jhapa was right.

  Plasma, Aurora's energizing blood, trailed behind them. Like sharks of old, the starfighters wouldn't be able to resist it.

  “Contain that leak!” Jordahk ordered.

  “The shield controller is busted good,” Gasket said.

  “I'm trying to adjust the neighboring controllers,” Aurora said. “My main thrusters are down twenty five percent.”

  “They're splitting up,” Max said. “A pair and trio.”

  Jordahk was frustrated. “No doubt to whittle us down from two sides. They're going to take their time now.”

  The starfighters came at them from two directions. With the main thrusters flutzing, they weren't going to be able to out-maneuver AI targeting. Aurora jerked into a roll, taking most of the hits on her main fuselage, but the damaged nacelle wasn't spared.

  Gasket's hands were full. “You've got to protect that port side.”

  “Moon Weaver, can you heat up those shields any more?”

  “Maybe, but I'll have to take the hypergun offline.”

  It was a lousy choice, but the hypergun wasn't doing them any good in this configuration.

  “Do it.”

  Zoraida scowled. “You're not very good at this ship stuff, are you?”

  “They're turning around while still in intercept gun range,” Max said. “Their
fear of us has faded. To use an old phrase, we're not going to make it giving them our back.”

  “Try a flat spin when they come at us. See if you can bring the T-beam to bear.”

  “Stop what you're doing,” Solia said. She stood in front of Jhapa, her petite hand holding back his bulk.

  Jordahk focused on the VAD.

  “Let me help him, girl,” Jhapa said.

  Solia was resolute. “Jordahk, we're at the core of everything down here, and I don't know what he's doing.”

  Aurora started her maneuver as the starfighters pounced. Jordahk could feel the sway of it in the control seat. Pulsed red beams shot past the viewport in misses, but struck amidships and on the port nacelle in hits. The T-beam never got close enough to fire.

  The port thrusters began to sputter. Gasket ran into the damaged section and was lost in steam.

  “Another hit and you can write off the port nacelle regardless of how we reconfigure,” the bot said.

  “We're running out of conventional options,” Max said.

  “I can no longer defend you hobbled like this,” Aurora said.

  It was coming at him from all sides. He wanted to tune the universe out. He focused on something comfortable.

  “Solia, you're there with him. Give me your opinion.”

  She stared the big man in the eye for a long few seconds. “He's strange... but not bad.” She removed her hand from his chest and stepped back.

  This guy was a total unknown. So much needed to remain hidden, especially from Zoraida... It was exhausting.

  “Jordahk please. I've felt his touch on my systems,” Aurora said. “You can trust him.”

  Apparently, a lot of trust needed to go around today. In the VAD Jhapa looked directly into the cam-eye picking him up. He waited behind a penetrating stare.

  Jordahk blinked. “Okay, go.”

  Jhapa pulled up a VAD of controls for the starkeel, making quick adjustments before moving close to the mixed metal beam. He stretched a hand before him and circular patterns of symbols and lines appeared in the air. They were distorted. As he made subtle hand movements, their jumble crept toward alignment.

  The mystic part of Jordahk's brain flared to life in a big way.

  What's going on down there.

  As the circles became less distorted, Jordahk discerned the patterns were Sojourner runes. In a few seconds he wrangled them all to flat disks facing him. He closed his fist and they began to counter-rotate.

  “Shields are dropping to warm,” Max said.

  “And the reactors are going hot. Real hot,” Gasket said.

  “Where's all that energy going?” Jordahk asked.

  Jhapa motioned with his free arm for Solia to come close, then grabbed her and raised his manipulating fist. The rings grew bright. He thrust his arm out with fingers pointing forward. The patterns blurred into streaks of light running along the starkeel axis.

  Space in front of the Aurora distorted. Zoraida, who was sitting up, was slammed back into the seat as if pushed. Jordahk was pressed into his.

  “Wha—?”

  Under the influence of a grav weave?

  Jhapa remained rock steady while Solia held him as if falling off a cliff.

  The Aurora lurched through space. In a second it was done and systems resumed prior status.

  “What the drak was that?” Zoraida demanded.

  Jordahk shook his head in bemusement.

  “We're far from where we were a moment ago,” Aurora said.

  “He somehow bought us a few minutes before the starfighters can catch up—if they burn hard,” Max said.

  “If you want this ship to be fully functional when they arrive,” Jhapa said, “you know what you have to do.”

  Does he know what Aurora is?

  “What kind of imprimatur are you?” Jordahk asked.

  “You heard me.” Jhapa's tone became brusque.

  But the man was right. Damaged, on their own, and in this mode, they couldn't take five starfighters.

  “Getting shot at is not one of my career goals,” Zoraida said.

  “You'll get used to it.” Jordahk was surprised how much he had. “Max, have any of the other fighter gruppes taken losses?”

  “None. Aventicia Defense is getting ripped apart.”

  Jordahk only had to glance at the VAD displaying that battle to know the truth of it. But to transform the Aurora now with Zoraida on board would be the biggest security breach in family history.

  A voice came through his link. It was Jhapa, but didn't sound like him. “The fastest way to end a war, is to lose it.” The words were heavy with experience.

  Jordahk closed his eyes and nodded to himself. “Aurora, reconfigure.”

  “Who's Aurora?” Zoraida asked?

  “You're about to find out.”

  “Unbanking reactors,” Aurora said. The bridge changed shape before their eyes, growing taller and longer. The ceiling crystal came alive with the display of space. The viewport wrapped beyond peripheral vision as even the seats held them differently. “Cross keel coming online.”

  The last time he looked to mess with the cross keel, Khai wisely steered him clear of it. Who knows where his untrained efforts may have left them?

  Control stalks comprised of seven platinum group metals rose into Jordahk's hands.

  “Just don't call me by my Sojourner name in front of Zoraida,” Jordahk sub-whispered to Aurora.

  The entire ship was transforming, streamlining into something unique, elegant, and hawkish. The nacelles stretched out, angling down and back. New thrust rings were exposed and hidden intercept guns came online.

  Thrust plasma could be routed a hundred new ways and the reactors grew hotter then those on any scientum ship.

  “We're lighting up like a star,” Zoraida said. “What did you do?”

  Jordahk looked about and felt through the stalks. This metamorphosis was different. It was influenced by someone else. Jhapa.

  “My anti-fighter configuration!” Aurora said. “It's been so long.”

  “No doubt we're setting off old alarms system wide,” Max said.

  Jordahk felt outclassed by the crotchety old imprimatur with a lot more experience. Well, perhaps he could still show him a thing or two.

  “I can outrun those starfighters now,” Aurora said.

  “We're not running.”

  Corvettes aren't supposed to be afraid of starfighters.

  The five screwdrivers closed from behind. Jordahk moved the control stalks, but more than that he thought through them and the Aurora responded. It bounded upward, likely catching pilots by surprise and sending AIs scurrying through their memories for options. The Aurora arced back over, breaking their formation. She raced down chasing after the one upon which Jordahk was concentrating.

  A corvette was half the size of a frigate. It could house a small number of starfighters in its bay, yet the Aurora moved like one of them. The starfighter could not escape as Jordahk kept on its tail. He thought of shooting seeker drones with his autobuss.

  “Hypergun online,” Aurora said. “You're changing it.”

  “Can you do it?”

  “I have similar specs, but you'll have to lead the change.”

  Jordahk didn't know exactly what he was doing, but he could feel systems through the stalks. He knew what felt right for the function he wanted and the Aurora responded. It wasn't anything as grand as what Aristahl had done with the T-beam at Beuker, but it was his first time consciously making ship modifications on the fly.

  The hypergun barrel became shorter and thicker. But greater changes occured in the loading section where pulverizers moved into position and broke the hypergun rock into six smaller projectiles.

  “Max, feed it to Aurora. Just like a seeker drone.”

  Jordahk felt like he was behind his autobuss as its reticle and lead-line appeared. The starfighter juked, but couldn't get clear. It was still set in anti-ship mode, which unfortunately for it, meant its front shields we
re getting the lion-share of shield plasma. The starfighters weren't facing a “ship” any longer, they were dueling with... something else.

  Lines of golden energy grew bright along the hypergun assembly. Classic autobuss trigger studs formed on the control stalk and Jordahk squeezed the shot off with more force than necessary. Two triangles of rocks blurred through space. The starfighter was covered by spark-emitting flashes. When they cleared only a collection of parts were tumbling together. A couple exploded, scattering the rest.

  “We've picked up two,”Max said.

  But Jordahk already knew, as he saw their surroundings though Aurora's scanners. The starfighters saw the writing on the wall and reconfigured for interceptor. Jordahk put the Aurora through tremendous maneuvers. While the screwdrivers couldn't duplicate them, they hung on just within range of their dangerous pulsed T-beams. The Aurora's intercept gun fire at that distance wasn't thick enough to deter them.

  Jordahk initiated a cartwheel and let loose the T-beam. It split space between the two starfighters, flashing them as if by lightning, but leaving them unharmed.

  “Don't get stuck thinking you're a starfighter, sonny,” Jhapa's voice said.

  The annoying imprimatur was right. Jordahk could match starfighters, but they couldn't match this corvette. He concentrated and every feed line to the maneuver and braking systems filled to over-pressure. He let it go in a harsh burst and shut the main thrusters at the same time.

  The starfighters closed the distance in a heartbeart. Their AI's managed to fire the pulsed T-beams, but the Aurora's shields were no longer the show things of her disguise configuration. At point-blank range she was a corvette again, twisting and turning to stay close to the fighters while her numerous intercept guns went to work.

  Both starfighters were raked incessantly. One suffered repeated strikes, coming apart in a shower of sparks. The pilot pod ejected, and Aurora let it go. Two engines exploded on the other before it limped away. It picked up the pilot pod and plodded toward the carrier on one flutzing wendell.

  “So we nabbed a piloted one,” Jordahk said. The last starfighter was already making a break for the other gruppes and easier prey. “That's five Aventicia Security doesn't have to deal with.”

  “But where to now?” Max asked. “We can only be in one place at a time. At least I think so. I'm not ruling anything out at this point.”