“Trying to keep a level head,” the engineer replied. “Because everyone else on this shuttle is acting as though we’re already caught and dead. We’re not.”
“We shouldn’t be here. We should be back on the Grania Estelle and heading for Seylonique,” Jesma shot back. She put a hand on her head and let out a fast breath. “Xar, this isn’t going to work. We’re wasting our time with this.”
He made a buzzing sound, a sigh. “We’re not going over this again, Jesma. Twenty minutes, that’s all we need. Then we’re free sailing.”
She glanced at him quickly, doubt etched in every pore. Then she looked away from him, back to her controls and displays, a shaking breath drawing into her lungs as she tried to remain calm.
“Captain, those pinnaces are accelerating,” George reported. “I don’t know if they’re carrying extra fuel or not, but it’s clear they’re hell bent on getting to that fuel station. They’re vectors are more toward getting there, not intercepting us or cutting us off.” He twisted his lips. “Though it’s possible they could change vectors.”
“What the hell is Ka’Xarian doing?” the captain asked.
“He’s emptying the fuel collector, Captain,” Stella replied. “And according to sensors, he shouldn’t be too much longer. Perhaps fifteen minutes. At current course and speed, the pinnaces will reach the station about eight minutes before we do.”
“How long until we get there?” Eamonn asked, checking his own displays.
“Forty-one minutes,” the helmsman replied, confirming what the captain saw on his own screens.
Eamonn chuckled. “This is maddening.” There were stares at him from around the bridge. “This,” he said, gesturing to his displays. “This whole mess we’re in. We’ve been flying around this Cluster for years, hauling freight. We’ve met up with other ships, tangled with pirates, even needed to shoot our way out of a system or two. But this?” He chuckled again. “Never seen this before.”
No one else seemed to find it as funny. He sighed. Clearly this decision wasn’t as popular as he’d hoped. It didn’t matter that they were committed now. They would all blame him now, and he couldn’t argue. He was the Captain and ultimately all decisions were his responsibility anyway. If he couldn’t take the heat, he shouldn’t be cooking, he mentally quoted Cookie.
The Grania Estelle continued on course, lumbering along at a slightly brisk cruising speed. The big bulk freighter would never be fast, but anyone with pair of eyeballs and a decent sensor array would be able to tell when the ship was pushing forward at max thrust. As much as Eamonn wanted to go roaring over to that station and link up with Ka’Xarian and his team (and hopefully the other crew), he couldn’t risk drawing too much attention. Of course, a ship the size of the Grania Estelle wasn’t exactly subtle and they couldn't hide. But he had a perfectly good reason for going to the station, he was picking up the fuel that was rightfully his. He could only hope that the commander of the defense ships would remember that.
The pinnaces moved gracefully by the much larger ship, though in truth they were several hundred thousand kilometers away. The light emitted from their propulsion units was visible from the windows of the ship, and a few of the crew went and watched them fly by. A pass that close was an oddity in space, except in gathering points like a station or planetary orbit. But out in the blackness like this, emergency proximity alarms would be sounding of objects or other ships came by that close. The three pinnaces sped by, their own velocity and acceleration a good deal higher than that of the bulk freighter. The lights moved by and continued past, and as the pinnaces altered their vectors slightly, the bluish-white glow of their engines looked like will’o’wisps swooping about before the larger ship. It was as though it was leading them through the blackness to some destination they couldn’t see.
Only a few remembered the stories about will’o’wisps, that they were trickster spirits who would lead lost travelers through the swamp to quicksand marshes where they would sink to their doom.
Corajen’s ears flattened to her head as she remembered. Her sister looked to her, concerned. “What is it?” Saiphirelle asked.
But the lupusan only shook her head, continuing to watch the lights move further ahead, as the large ball of the gas giant loomed ever larger in the window. Saiphirelle touched Corajen on the back, a gesture of comfort, but she didn’t even notice, too wrapped up in gloomy thoughts. A moment later, the wolfwoman shook her head.
“Get down to the armory,” she said. “Make sure the gear is ready. I’m getting the feeling we’re going to need in short order.”
“What makes you think that?” Saiphirelle asked, concern over her sister’s reaction leeching over to her own mood.
“Just a hunch,” she admitted. “A lead ball in my gut that’s getting heavier. Now go.”
Saiphirelle nodded and hustled off, leaving Corajen to continue her viewing. The dancing lights were little more than pinpricks of illumination, lost amidst the gas giant’s background radiance and the flickering lights of the fueling station.
Ka’Xarian kept his eyes on the feeds, when finally he made a flat buzz, the zheen equivalent of a snort. “All right that’s close enough.” Flipping switches on the control panel, he cut power to the shuttle’s pumps. Pressing another control, the collector was cut free.
“What are you doing?” Jesma asked, looking over at him. “There’s still fuel in that thing!”
“Yes, there is,” the zheen replied, activating the shuttle’s laser cannon. “But I decided waiting another five minutes for the dregs of fuel in that thing wasn’t worth all of our lives. Besides, the fuel in there will help me make a big boom when I blow the collector.”
She smirked. “Men.”
“Watch your tone, little lady,” he growled. He lined up the shot and pressed the control. The cannon fired and the collector blew apart.
“Good shot.”
“Can we get out of here, now?” Ka’Xarian asked her, looking right at her. It was hard for her to tell with his compound eyes, but the meaning was obvious.
Jesma gripped her controls. With the one engine out and maneuvering thruster damage, flying the shuttle was going to be very tricky. But she’d managed to steady it out during the trip from the station to the collector farm, and she was confident she could get them back to the ship. She eased the throttle and controls and the shuttle responded.
“Shuttle’s on its way,” George reported, relief clear in his voice. “ETA, nine minutes present speed.”
“Good,” the captain replied. “Have the boat bay ready and have Turan standing by with a medical team. They may have injured.”
“Yes, Captain,” Serinda replied, making a call to sickbay.
“Captain!” George said, startled. “I’ve got ships coming out of hyperspace!”
Verrikoth stood on the bridge of Ganges, Commander Tyler at his side. They were looking at the sensor feeds of what was happening in the system as the flotilla dropped out of hyperspace. “Well now, Commander,” the zheen pirate said in wonder. “What do we have here?”
Chapter 27
Ganges’s sensors vacuumed up every stray iota of data that they could as the flotilla arrived. The ships were arrayed in a rough box formation, with the three cruisers in the middle, all side by side, with Ganges in the middle, with Meghna off to port and Kerala off to starboard. Above and slightly back was the corvette, Ravage, flanked by the freighters Ajax and Cierre, and in mirroring position, below and slightly behind the cruisers were the other two modified freighters Nocturne and Squire. It was an impressive sight, one whose like hadn’t truly been seen here in the Cluster since the time of the Republic. All the ships were banging away with their active sensors, trying to determine exactly what was happening here in the Ulla-tran system, uncaring as to who saw or who might object. But then, who would dare? Verrikoth was certain there was no one in this system who could stand up to the firepower of this flotilla. They would all bow and scrape at his feet, begging to be left a
lone, or to join in the fun. He might even indulge a few of them.
“Get me a fix on the ships moving around here,” Tyler ordered his bridge crew.
“Yess, pleaze,” Verrikoth said. “Ssee if there are any familiar facez.” His antennae bobbed up and down with amusement. He crossed his arms over his thorax.
“Commander?” the sensor watch specialist called out. “I’ve got something.”
Tyler turned and walked over to the sensor station. All of the bridge consoles were U-shaped, all facing inward, with the captain’s chair in the center. The young woman pointed to her display. “Here, Commander. That ship there. The bulk freighter.”
“Bulk freighter?” Tyler asked, his voice a whisper.
“Yes, sir,” she replied. “We’ve seen her before. Back at Hecate, sir. ID checks out as the Grania Estelle.”
The smile on Tyler’s lips was pure malice, but his eyes glowed like a pair of stars. “It seems the universe has decided to shower blessings on me.”
Verrikoth looked over at him. “What iz sso important about thiss particular sship?”
“They brought in a load of gadolinium for our hyperdrive a few months ago,” Tyler told him, his voice strained. “Ganges was laid up in the building slip in Hecate, waiting for that last shipment so we could get the drive on line. They refused to turn over the gadolinium and wanted to gouge us, so the locals launched some of their fighters to try and persuade them.”
“And they did not ssurrender?” Verrikoth asked, puzzled. “A bulk freighter taking on a flight of sstarfighterz?”
Tyler ground his teeth. “Yes, Captain, they did. They managed to hold them off with their own fighter support.”
Verrikoth’s antennae straightened in surprise. “They have their own sstarfighterz?”
Tyler growled. “One at least,” he admitted.
“Sso a bulk freighter with minimal weaponz and one sstarfighter managed to destroy a flight of sshipss from Hecate and defeat this cruizzer?” He buzzed with laughter.
“They didn’t fight us off,” Tyler replied angrily. “They shot down the fighters, recovered their own and then ran for the hyper limit. By the time we were able to get this ship up and running, they were almost there. We caught up to them but they ejected the cargo with a…” he ground his teeth again, “a bomb attached to it. We could either chase them down and lose the shipment, or we could get the cargo and have to let them go. I didn’t have the means to do both, so I went after the cargo. But now I want that ship, Captain. And you will let me have it.”
The pirate stared at his flagship commander for a long moment. Finally, his antennae twitched and he nodded. “Very well, Commander Tyler,” he said slowly. “You will get your payback. But do not damage that sship too much. It will be an exssellent addition to my flotilla. It can carry sso much more ssuppliess and cargo than my merchant sshipss.”
The human nodded in satisfaction. “Thank you, Captain Verrikoth. Communications: all ships.” He waited for the comm worker to give him a thumbs up. “All ships in Flotilla Alpha, accelerate to point one light speed. Course is being fed to you by Ganges. We are going after the bulk freighter.”
But Verrikoth wasn’t finished. He leaned in closer to the human, his voice pitched low. “But do not misstake pragmatizm for weakness. I let you go after thiss sship because it benefitss uss both. You do not dictate termz to me.” His words were punctuated by a subsonic thrum, causing the hairs on the back of Tyler’s neck stand up. The human took an unconscious step back. “Do you undersstand me, Commander?”
Tyler swallowed hard, nodding. “I do, Captain.”
“Good. Then, launch your attack.”
“Captain, the group of ships is changing course,” George reported, his voice calm, though it was clear his nerves were stretched as tight as a drum skin. “Vector on them indicates they’re heading in our direction.”
“How long?” he asked, suddenly so very tired.
“At present speed? They’re accelerating like crazy,” George replied. “They’ll be right on top of us in two hours.”
“Time until we meet up with the shuttle?”
“Two minutes.”
The captain nodded. “Then as soon as that shuttle is aboard, we’re out of here. Helm, stand by to drop us straight down the Z-axis, perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic. Best speed.”
Stella got a concerned look on her face. “Captain, I’m not a speed racer. I’m a freighter. My ability to make vector changes that drastic is extremely limited.”
“Then divert power to your maneuvering thrusters, try to cushion your frame as we turn,” he told her. “We stand exactly zero chance trying to fight off those ships.” He stood and swept his gaze around the bridge, looking at his bridge crew. The looks they were sending his way told him that they knew just what their chances were. The cold stares were also telling him that his grip on their trust was tenuous and failing fast. He grunted. “All right. Since you all seem hell-bent on blaming me for this latest turn of events, let’s have it out. Stella, if the instant we saw Emilia Walker get shot up and captured, if we had poured on the speed, abandoned Ka’Xarian and his team and headed straight for the hyper limit for Seylonique, could we have gotten out before that group of ships arrived?”
The holo of the AI flickered, as though she was nervous. “Yes, Captain, we could have. We’d have made it into hyperspace about five hours ago. But we would have left Xar, his team, and the Kara to their fates.”
“Stella,” the captain went on, making sure as his gaze swept over them, that he made eye contact with everyone, “If when we saw the Emilia Walker get hit and captured, if we had immediately gone to the fueling station, picked up Ka’Xarian and his team, and then followed the Kara to the hyper limit toward Seylonique could we have gotten out before that group arrived?”
She flickered again, this time her nervousness showing on her artificial face. “No, Captain. We would still have been two hours from the limit when they arrived. And based on the acceleration we’re showing from those ships now, the corvette should have just gotten into weapons’ range about six minutes before we jumped. They might have been able to get us.”
“Thank you, Stella,” he said, settling back into his chair. “And since it doesn’t matter anyway, the looking back and what-if-ing ourselves, let’s all just focus on the job in front of us. We get that team aboard and then we dive straight for the hyper limit. We jump ten light years straight out, then recalculate for Seylonique, going around this system.” The light in their eyes was starting to warm a bit. It was still cold, but no longer frigid. “Hopefully, it’ll be enough to keep the warships confused and they’ll lose us in the scramble.”
“Entering boat bay now,” Jesma reported, easing the thrusters and spinning the craft. She set the ship down heavily on the deck, but no one complained. An instant later, the outer hatch slid open and Security and medical personnel were waiting there for the crew on the shuttle. Stretchers were brought out and Captain Vosteros, Kay’grax and Sion were loaded up and carried off, the sick berth attendants running down the corridors to get them to sickbay.
Tamara walked over to the shuttle. She stepped inside through the main cargo hatch as it lowered to the deck. Ka’Xarian was inside, along with most of his team. Those that were injured were following the medicos down to sickbay, but there were still several of his engineers here to transfer the fuel to the ship’s tanks. Without a word, she walked up to the zheen and put her arms around him.
Ka’Xarian froze in alarm. “What’s this?” he asked.
“Just glad you’re all right, Xar,” Tamara said, her voice a low whisper. “Scared you wouldn’t make it back.”
“And leave you and the Chief at each other’s throats?” he asked, patting her back. “Never. Besides, I’m too handsome to die.”
She chuckled, which came out almost as a sob. Releasing him, she took a step back, but her hands were still on his shoulders. “That you are, sir. Just glad you’re back.”
“What about me?” Lorcan asked, walking over.
She wrinkled her nose at him. “What about you?”
“Don’t I get a hug? I’m the one who did most of the development on the knock-knock box and delivered it,” he pointed out.
Tamara nodded. “Yes, of course. Xar, hug this man.”
The zheen clacked his mandibles in disgust. “No thank you. I’ve had to be around him for the last few days and he hasn’t bathed in two of those.” They all three laughed.
“Well, we’ll have to fix up the shuttle later,” Tamara told Ka’Xarian. “Captain’s bugging out of here pretty quick now that you and the fuel are on board.”
“Bugging out?” Lorcan asked, chuckling. “I can’t believe you just said that, Tamara.”
“Go find something to do, Lorcan,” Xar said, as Tamara released his shoulders and took a step back. “In fact, get to work securing the hoses for the fuel transfer.” He patted the nearest tank on board the shuttle. “We need to get all this transferred as soon as we can.”
“Right,” the large man said. He took the hose from the approaching tech and plugged it into the first storage tank on the shuttle. Making sure the hose was locked down, he checked the status lights as they all turned from red to yellow to green. Nodding, Lorcan twisted a control and the system began pumping the fuel out of the shuttle, through the hose to pipes that would lead to the main fuel bunkers aboard the Grania Estelle. “Pumping initiated. I’ll keep an eye on this, but it’s going to be about forty minutes for this tank, then about the same for the others.”
The PA system gave a shrill drone for two seconds then the Captain’s voice came on. “All hands, this is the Captain. Prepare for emergency maneuvers and acceleration. Make sure all loose items are secured and that you brace for this. We may be going into combat shortly, I want everyone ready.” There was a pause. “As most of you know, a number of warships entered the system and it looks as though they’re moving to intercept us. We’re going to try and evade. Moxie, report to the bridge. That is all.”
Pursue the Past: Samair in Argos: Book 1 Page 65