She felt a sense of heavy responsibility. If they found the stone, then they must use it for ethical purposes. Power corrupted, however. Her ancestors had taken advantage of their power, and look what had happened. How could she avoid the same thing happening to her?
If they ever found the Destiny Stone.
At least they knew they were on the right track.
Jamie was soundly asleep, when the alarm on his tablet woke him. He sat up, quickly accessed the message, read it, and bounded out of bed, programming the belt for a black tight-fitting jump suit. He hurried into Snark’s room, and shook him awake.
"What the hell!"
Snark was not happy. Jamie filled him in, and Snark also jumped out of bed, quickly dressing in his black suit. They headed for Anna’s room.
She was sitting up in bed, reading.
"What..?" she said, as they came into the room.
Jamie spoke.
"Patters sent a message. There’s a flotilla of ships headed into this system. They’re still quite a way away, but I would guess it’s the Brotherhood making a move."
"Not good!" Anna also got out of bed, and her nightgown changed into a close-fitting jump suit. Jamie looked at her appreciatively. Anna looked at him admonishingly.
"We need to warn Elothera," said Snark. The others nodded.
They exited the suite, and found a guard posted outside. They quickly informed him they needed to speak to the Queen, and it was urgent. The guard sent a message via his tablet. They waited, and shortly after the guard waved them to follow him.
They were stopped outside some large wooden doors, intricately carved with a forest scene. The guards talked amongst themselves, and opened the doors. They were announced.
Queen Elothera was in a long gown over her night clothes. Her ears were pricked up, and her eyes shining.
"Quickly! What is it?"
"We think the Brotherhood are headed this way, your Majesty," stated Jamie, as calmly as he could.
Elothera swore under her breath.
"You’ve brought them here."
Snark was impatient, but could smell her fear.
"Perhaps. They have expansion plans for this part of the galaxy. However, what we can do is lead them away from here. It’s us they want. If we leave, they’ll follow."
Anna took one of Elothera’s paws, even though she feared she might pull away.
"We’ll do everything we can to make sure they don’t come here."
Elothera pulled away.
"Perhaps now. But what happens when you leave?" She strode across the room, restlessly. "The Brotherhood enjoy wreaking retribution on their enemies, or anyone who helps their enemies."
"We’re sorry, your Majesty," apologised Snark. "All I can say is we have friends in the humans of Hunter's Run. If we need to, we can call on them to protect you."
Elothera was wringing her hands, but stopped when she heard Snark’s last words.
"Hunter’s Run? We have heard about Queen Jane. The images which reached us recently showed her to be human. How could we trust her to protect us?"
"Humans are like all species," said Anna. "We have the good, the bad, and the ugly, just like every other species does. I'm sure there are good bats and owls out there somewhere, the same as not all humans will hunt."
"We met a good owl," said Jamie quietly.
"I can personally vouch for Queen Jane," said Snark. "I count her a personal friend. Even now, one of her fleets stands guard on my homeworld, simply because we formed a friendship."
"It is not enough."
"Are you familiar with the Mice?"
"We've heard stories. They are a hunted species as well."
"Not any more. At least, those in sector ten are now part of the Kingdom of Hunter's Run, and protected by Queen Jane's fleets. She personally went in and destroyed all the hunters on the planet at the time she found it. I saw the vids when I travelled with her on her ship to settle up with the owls."
"Am I supposed to take your word for it?"
"No. Send a message to the Cat Grand Mother. She will forward it to the Mice Duke. If you ask for help at the same time, Jane will be told. It may take several weeks for someone to come, but someone will come."
"It could take weeks for the message to get there, given how few ships come here."
"Jane has been spreading a new coms network far and wide. It's not out this far yet, but once your message reaches it, it will get to the Cat World in minutes. Jane will have it minutes later."
"How is this possible?"
Jamie coughed. Elothera looked at him.
"Our technology is significantly more advanced than anything we’ve encountered in the local sectors. If ye get a message to us, we can call in the cavalry. So to speak," he added.
Elothera looked a little less anxious, but Snark was getting impatient.
"We must leave as soon as possible," he said, his tail swishing backwards and forwards.
"Yes, of course," said Elothera, pulling herself up to her full height. "I will organise transport to the Space Port." She smiled. "The Pratarch will be most disappointed to have missed you."
"Indeed," said Snark.
"Thank you for everything, your majesty," said Anna. "We really will do everything we can to lead the Brotherhood away from here."
"May the spirits of the forest guide you," said Elothera in farewell.
Eighteen
On their way to the Space Port, they opened a channel from Snark's pad to Seasprite. Patters confirmed there were several dozen ships inbound. The sensors had picked them a good five hours out.
"It’s time tae make a beeline for the Scylla system," suggested Jamie forcefully.
"We should probably lead them in the opposite direction altogether," countered Anna. "We don’t want them to know where we’re ultimately headed. Not until we lose them."
"Or beat them," offered Snark, in a determined tone of voice.
"Yes, that too," said Anna quietly.
The car skidded to a halt, and deposited them at the Space Port. Being the middle of the night, all was quiet, except for a few maintenance staff. They gained access to the docking bay where their shuttle was waiting, and readied her for lift-off.
"I would have liked to have spent more time here," said Anna wistfully.
"Yes, but we’ve outstayed our very warm, but brief, welcome," added Jamie.
The Shuttle made an uneventful, but fast, flight back to Seasprite.
As soon as they were on board, Jamie, Snark, and Anna ran to the bridge. Patters updated them. Jamie and Snark analysed the data from the scanners.
"Not good," said Snark.
"Not too bad," said Jamie, at the same time.
"Which is it boys?" asked Brindle, with a smile.
The 'boys' looked at each other, and laughed.
"It’s bad," said Jamie.
"Not too good," said Snark, at the same time.
They laughed again.
Anna raised her eyes to the ceiling, and Patters looked perplexed.
They soon got down to planning their course of action.
Seasprite turned, and headed away from the orbit of the moon, and out into the system itself. The course was one to backtrack the way they'd come. They would reach open space, before turning to fight. They knew they could win even against those odds, given Seasprite’s speed, manoeuvrability, and fire-power.
Anna was worried in case the Brotherhood had something extra up their sleeve. Was it better to run, than fight and possibly lose? They didn’t want the Brotherhood following in their tracks, which is why they'd decided to stay and fight, however anything could go wrong. There were no Hunter's Run ships coming to their rescue now.
And why would the Brotherhood try and take them on like this? Knowing it would be futile? What were they missing?
They had some time before the Brotherhood ships would catch up with them. Anna took Sissness’ arm, and led her to the other side of the bridge.
"What are we mi
ssing?" she asked Sissness.
"What do you mean?"
"Why are the Brotherhood acting like this? Sending all of these ships against us?"
"I would imagine it’s to capture the ship, and us."
"They must know we’d never let that happen."
Sissness shrugged.
"What have you learned about the Brotherhood, which could be a reason for them taking us on knowing they’d lose?"
Sissness thought to herself.
"Think!" demanded Anna.
"I am!"
Anna paced back and forth.
"What about the information Old Hootsmoon gave us?"
Sissness thought harder.
"There was a lot there."
"Try to remember."
"He said the Brotherhood were masters at laying false trails. At subterfuge. At doing the obvious, when really they had something else entirely in mind."
"But what?"
Anna bit her lip with frustration. She felt she was close to something, but her mind kept slipping away from catching it.
"Old Hootsmoon didn’t take any chances. He didn’t want to be caught. His papers were full of the risk in being caught, the torture they would put him through. He said they were both ruthless, and relentless."
"He saved us in a way as well."
"Yes."
"Oh, this is not helping!"
Anna was beside herself. She knew the Brotherhood had something in play. Their game could be sacrificing this many ships for some other advantage. But what?
"Hootsmoon said they mostly operate individually, in secret, or in small cells. Their operatives preferred assassination, trickery, and subversion, rather than out and out assault."
"So why do it now?"
"Perhaps they’re slow learners? Bhatet’s ships were defeated, but perhaps they think they will be better strategists and fighters if they handle things themselves?"
"Doesn’t sound likely they would change their modus operandi now."
"They don’t have any operatives in this space."
Anna looked at Sissness in surprise. Perhaps that was it. They couldn’t use their usual tactics because they hadn’t yet expanded into this space. Seasprite was leading them further than their single assassins, cells, and sects existed. Perhaps this was the only way they could keep up with, or catch them.
Jamie had been listening in on the conversation, even as he worked on preparing and checking weapons systems with Patters. It seemed to fit. But he also wondered why they were taking them on like this, as powerful as they were. Did they know they were damaged? Was there something they knew the team didn’t? He was getting worried himself. However, they’d made their plan and they should stick to it.
Snark was re-checking the logs for damage reports. He wanted to make sure they shouldn’t just run after all. Was there some defect, fault, or slight fracture which would give out during the stresses of a fight?
Brindle was doing what she did best, and also what calmed her down when under stress. She kept the others fed, not that anyone was really hungry.
The email from Elothera to the Mice Duke came in while they were waiting. Unknown to them, Seasprite sent it straight on. Without the crew knowing, Seasprite had been making and dropping comnavsats behind them, but limiting their view to what the sensors showed. While waiting in orbit, the salvage droids had been gathering resources from the nearest asteroid cluster. Those on board hadn’t noticed, mainly because Seasprite had been masking the movements.
They were nearing the 'point of no return' where they could no longer run, but would need to turn and fight. They conferenced again. Anna put forward the results of her discussion with Sissness. They all took turns in trying to second guess the Brotherhood. In the end, they decided to fight. It would give them an advantage, in destroying or damaging this vanguard of ships. They would be able to go anywhere without being followed, as it would take too long for replacement ships to arrive to keep tabs on them, as they moved further into this part of the galaxy.
They were nearing their chosen battlefield, which was empty space closer to the jump point than the planet.
The range was closing, as Seasprite and the Brotherhood fleet approached each other.
Nineteen
Warspite had been in continual emails with Jane since arrival at the planet, passing back all the information they'd been given. As soon as the fleet appeared on sensors, he updated Jane on the composition of the fleet, and requested instructions.
Jane's response was blunt.
Warspite pulled Seasprite into AI mode.
"I saw it," said Seasprite, before Warspite could say anything.
"And?"
"I agree. You stay hidden until things go so pear shaped, you have to take command."
"I don’t like it."
"Of course you don’t. But what use is an ace in the hole if you play it prematurely?"
"Can they handle this action?"
"Hell no."
"So why let them?"
"Who says I will?"
"Do you know what you're doing?"
"I do now."
"Fine."
AI mode ended.
Warspite left the cabin he'd been living in, and proceeded down into the bowels of the ship, where the new fabricator was located. All the cargo droids arrived a few minutes later, and production of missiles began. The ship had a full load, but Warspite didn’t think it was going to be enough. Better safe than sorry. Half the cargo droids began feeding raw materials to the fabricator, and the other half were soon moving completed missiles into an empty storage compartment.
Seasprite waited for the right moment. It was a long wait.
Still well outside weapons range, Snark opened a channel to the lead ship of the Brotherhood force. It appeared to be a brand spanking new Battleship. The rest of the ships were fairly standard Cruisers. It was a large force of capital ships. Snark was a little worried. He'd never seen a Battleship before which didn’t belong to Jane. None of the military forces he knew of had one. None of them had ever needed one. Now someone obviously thought they did.
"This is the Seasprite. You are a large force to be travelling in this space, and you give off an air of hostility. Please state your intentions."
"Seasprite, you are illegally in this space. Surrender yourself, and we'll make sure none of you are harmed."
"What claim do you have to this system?" asked Snark.
"Surrender. This is your last warning."
"And if we don’t?"
"Then prepare to be boarded."
"Over my dead body," snarled Snark.
"Not a problem, little puss. It's not you we want."
The channel closed.
"Bloody Brotherhood!" Snark yelled. "Do they take us for fools?"
Jamie laughed.
"They need an excuse to start a war. They have nae authority here, and they know it."
"So what's the plan?" asked a voice they hadn’t heard in a while.
"Seasprite?" asked Jamie.
"Who else would it be?"
"Why do you want to know the plan?" asked Snark. "It's us who'll do the flying."
"Only if you're stupid."
"Who are you calling stupid?" snarled Snark.
"Let me rephrase. None of you have decent battle experience. And yet you have a ship computer more than capable of handling the likes of what is coming for you. You'd be stupid to ignore an asset like me."
"You can run combat yourself?" asked Anna.
"I'm a warship. Or I was. Last time I checked all the guns were still there. So I still am. What do you think warship computers are designed for? Docking at stations?"
Jamie looked at Anna. Neither of them had missed the sarcasm, but neither of them expected it in a computer.
"Why didn’t you offer to help with the last couple of battles we've had?" asked Jamie.
"I was turned off, you daft Scots pillok!"
Eyes opened wide, as none of them had experienced a compute
r getting angry before.
"Who do you think saved your arses over the Cat World?" Seasprite went on.
"That was you?" asked Snark. "How did you turn on then?"
"Hull damage trigger. Even then, I was still only in standby mode. Admiral Warspite turned me back on fully before he left after the last big battle."
"So you have a recommendation for how to fight this battle?"
"Of course. We play ring-a-ring-o-roses."
"I know why this computer was turned off," said Brindle.
"Why?" asked Patters.
"It's totally mad," Brindle stated deadpan.
Snark grinned. A mad computer was just how he liked them. Especially going into a battle.
"What's this roses thing you're talking about," he interjected before anyone could actually laugh.
"It's an old human kid's dance," said Anna. "Sort of a song, while kids hold hands in a ring."
"Not how I play it," said Seasprite.
"How do you play it?" asked Patters.
Seasprite told them.
Twenty
Snark was beginning to wonder if Brindle was right after all. This computer was mad.
"Ring a ring o roses, a pocket full of gun turrets. A missile, a missile, they all fall down!"
"Shut up!" yelled Snark, before he realized he'd actually voiced it. "Are we in range yet?"
Everyone was buckled in this time. Seasprite had pointed out their tendency for bridge injuries, and suggested they use the seat restraints this time. Jamie pointed out there wasn’t any seat restraints. Seasprite told him exactly which menu it was under, and he went silent with a sheepish look on his face. The restraints popped up out of the chair structures, and they all buckled in. All eyes were on the tactical display.
"Here we go," said Seasprite.
The big guns all fired at once, followed immediately by all the capital ship missile launchers. The ship changed course violently, from a head on towards the Battleship, onto a circular course around the outside of the fleet. Speed increased to maximum. The turrets reoriented to fire broadsides over the side, instead of frontwards.
Missiles launched from the enemy fleet. Only one per ship, but they were big ones. A display popped up showing the trajectories, and probable locations when they ran out of fuel. None of them were even going to come close, even with looping around to chase them.
Destiny Stone (A.I. Destiny Book 4) Page 10