“I understand, madam.”
She glanced over her shoulder. Oona had passed out. Kyralla started to rise, to go check on her, but a wave of dizziness struck as soon as she moved.
“I don’t recommend getting up, madam. The thrusters haven’t stabilized the ship yet. Once you’re out of the chair, you’ll be on the ship’s default artificial gravity, and you will likely black out again.”
“We only have the use of one set of thrusters, right?”
“That’s correct, madam.”
She examined the system locator window in her HUD and noted the three red dots of the starfighters racing towards them. The big, red oval representing the World Bleeders destroyer loomed behind them.
“We have to get the ship under control, and soon. Those starfighters are closing on us.”
“I don’t think there’s anything we can do but wait for the thrusters to stabilize the ship, madam. Artemisia and I have tried everything we could think of, but nothing has helped.”
“And how long will the stabilization take?”
“You don’t want to know, madam. You really don’t want to know.”
“So we’re—”
The ion engines awoke with a thrum she could feel as well as hear. A smile spread across her face. She hadn’t realized how much and how quickly she’d grown accustomed to that hum and vibration being present all the time.
“You got the engines on without rebooting them. Good work, Rosie!”
“We didn’t do it, madam.”
Kyralla looked across the bridge to see Tekeru Jones passed out as well. “Then who did?”
“Seneca, madam. Though he didn’t tell us he was going to do it. He made his way into engineering, not without significant difficulty, I suspect, and initiated the reboot.”
“I didn’t know he could do that.”
“He shouldn’t have known how, madam. However—”
“Silky must have upgraded him as well.”
“It appears so, madam. He also performed an emergency override, reducing the reboot time from twenty-five minutes to fourteen minutes. That will cause immense strain on the engines, of course.”
“It seems like we’ve already overtaxed the engines a lot.” She sighed. “And we’ll probably have to do it again to escape this system.”
“The engines are going to need an expensive and time-consuming overhaul sooner rather than later, madam.”
“Can we balance out the ship using the ion drive?”
“It’s possible, madam. But it will require careful steering and bursts of thrust at precise intervals, all in concert with the thrusters.”
“Can you work out a routine to guide the ship in doing so?”
“Artemisia and I will get right to work on it, madam.”
As Kyralla waited for the engines to come online, Tekeru Jones woke, rubbed his temples, and then looked over at her.
“I’m living a nightmare.”
“Oh, this is nothing,” she told him. “It can get worse.”
“Worse than losing a ship and the crew I served with for over a year? Some of those people were my friends.”
“Fair enough,” she replied. “We haven’t had it that bad. Not yet anyway. But the Thousand Worlders and the Tekk Reapers are after us, so…”
His face blanched. "So I don't think I want to stay with you for long."
“You’re probably not going to have much of a choice for a while. We’re wanted by pretty much every criminal guild out there as well as the Federal government, so we can’t stop just anywhere to drop you off.”
“I understand.” He nodded toward Oona. “Word got out, huh?”
“Are you a believer?” she asked.
“I do not blindly believe in anything,” he answered. “But your sister is obviously special.”
“We’re still figuring out what she can do and what made her who she is and why,” Kyralla said. “Luckily, we’ve…” She stopped herself from mentioning the priestess. “We’ve discovered some new things about it all.”
“I won’t rat you out,” Tekeru said. “When you’ve dropped me off.”
“I don’t know you,” she replied. “So I can’t trust that you won’t.”
“You saved my life, Kyralla. I owe you.”
“Our uncle, who sheltered and provided for us for years betrayed us. So I’m not in a trusting state of mind these days.”
He frowned. “That’s terrible.”
She gave him a kind smile in return. “It doesn’t really matter. Everyone already knows about us, and we’ll be staying on the move. Not sure what you could tell anyone that would make a difference.”
He half chuckled. “I don’t even really know what kind of ship I’m on. So I really wouldn’t have a clue about what to tell them.”
He was still in shock. That much was obvious. At some point, the adrenaline would dissipate, and the loss of his friends and everything that had happened to him would crash in on him.
It was relatively calm now, so she should probably keep him distracted. If he started thinking about the last few hours, he might crack. And right now they could use all the brainpower they could get.
“What sort of scientist are you?” she asked.
“He’s a biologist,” Oona moaned. “His specialty is…” She shrugged. “Sorry, I had it…for a moment…but now it’s gone.”
He stared at her, blinking with surprise. “How…how did you know that?”
“I’m a…hyperphasic messiah,” Oona whispered hoarsely. “Though right now…I feel like…hyperphasic shit.”
“Xenobiology,” Tekeru Jones said with awe in his voice. “That’s my specialty. I study lifeforms that evolved separately from Terra or were never affected by the Benevolence. My thesis focused on diverse planets with seemingly native species that I contend share evolutionary links and were spread amongst those worlds by the Ancients.”
Kyralla and Oona exchanged a meaningful glance and smiled. This poor guy had no idea what was onboard the ship. Otherwise, he’d be shitting his pants.
“You know, you might actually like it here with us,” Oona said.
“Running for my life with every major power in the galaxy chasing me?” he asked. “You think I’d enjoy that?”
“It’s possible,” Oona said.
“I really don’t see how.”
A series of dots lit up one at a time on the piloting console. They flashed twice, and then they all stayed on. Knowing exactly what it meant since she’d studied her station, Kyralla pumped a fist.
“Now we’re in business.”
“Ion drive online,” the ship confirmed.
She grabbed the control stick and accelerator. “Rosie, do you have that routine prepared?”
“I’ve already uploaded it to the Outworld Ranger, madam. We’re ready to go.”
“Do I need to do anything? Aside from loaning brainpower to the operation?”
“It’s a complex routine with many variables, madam. I think we worked it out perfectly, but we didn’t have time to run as many simulations as we would like. So use your abilities and stand at the ready, just in case.”
"To be helpful, I'm going to need to see outside the ship," Kyralla said.
The view screen went active. The ringed planet popped up and disappeared, stars swept by, and then the planet sped across the screen again.
Tekeru threw an arm up to hide the view.
Oona turned her head. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
Kyralla’s brain and stomach swirled, but then she recovered. She could do this. All she had to do was ignore the dizzying effect of what she saw and focus on what she felt in her gravity-controlled environment.
From that point on, she worked in concert with the ship. Her hands remained on the controls, but she simply allowed them to move freely under the ship's guidance. She calmed her mind and observed. Once, she thought maybe the routine was overcompensating, but she had no way of being sure and didn't want to accidentally make things
worse.
Steadily, the ship leveled out as the ion engines fired in bursts with steering angled one way and then another. They also slowed down, since they were burning the engines to move them back toward the super-Earth and away from the starfighters.
At last, the planet appeared dead ahead, and the ship was level. She breathed a sigh of relief then kicked the accelerator forward.
“If you’re planning on stopping to rescue Bishop, then you’re overdoing it,” Artemisia said aloud.
“We don’t even know if he’s alive,” Kyralla said. “Not getting a signal of any kind from him is a bad sign.”
“We have to try,” Oona said. “And we need Octavian. Desperately.”
"I know," Kyralla replied. "I'm just worried about those starfighters, and I don't know how we're going to escape them."
“You’re friend and your cog risked themselves to save me,” Tekeru Jone said. “I’d like to return the favor if possible.”
“You know,” Oona said, “that I would rather die than—”
Kyralla held up a hand. “I know. And I agree this time. I’m just worried.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Oona said.
“So,” Tekeru said, “we need to travel a speed that will allow us to adequately slow down while maximizing getting away from those starfighters.”
“Rosie and I will help the ship with that calculation,” Artemisia. “The three of you need to get moving on those repairs. Otherwise, speed may not matter.”
“What’s our order of priority?” Tekeru asked.
Oona stood then cried out and fell to the floor. She curled up into a ball, crying. “All those people…dead. All because of us.”
Kyralla rushed over and squatted beside her. “Hey, pull it together. We need you.”
“What’s wrong?” Tekeru asked.
Kyralla placed a hand on her shoulder. “Oona…”
“All those people…all those people…”
Tekeru stepped up beside them. “I don’t understand. She was fine a few minutes ago.”
Kyralla stood. “It’s some sort of psychic backlash, I guess.” She couldn’t afford to take the time to comfort her sister. They had to get moving. “Do you know how to do repairs, Tekeru?”
“Ship repairs? No. But I do work with complicated scientific instruments, and sometimes I have to repair them in the field.”
“In that case, you’re our chief engineer for now.”
“Swell.”
“Madam, we need to know what model chippy he has.”
Kyralla asked.
“It’s a 5G-plus,” he replied. “It was the best I could afford.”
"His chippy won't have the data or programming for what we need, madam. And we don't have time for it to install new routines. It may not even have database access to this ship's schematics, and our connection to the galactic net is slow out here. So, given Oona's incapacity, I recommend we let Artemisia link to his chippy and use it as a terminal."
Kyralla frowned, knowing this was going to be a sensitive subject. People were protective and defensive about their chippies.
“Tekeru, could you give Oona’s chippy, Artemisia, permission to ghost through your chippy, so she can show you how to properly do the repairs.”
“I think mine could handle it if you sent over the data,” he answered in an offended tone.
“I’m sure it could, but we don’t have much time to waste. This will be much faster.”
“Why? What model is yours?” he replied.
“An upgraded 8G.”
“Oh. Okay, fine.”
“Three ion missiles incoming,” the ship announced. “One launched from each starfighter. ETA twenty-one minutes.”
Kyralla heart skipped. This situation was getting worse and worse. She’d been right. They never should have come here.
“So the flak cannons first, huh?” Tekeru said.
She nodded. “Let’s get to work.”
39
Siv Gendin
Siv had no clue what Silky meant when he said it was happening again, but he guessed it was something to do with Eyana Ora—or maybe his father. Regardless, they had a far more immediate problem.
“Low yield?” Mitsuki said. “What does that mean?”
“Strong enough to disable the van,” Silky replied. “There’s a fifty-three percent chance at least one of us would survive a direct hit. A Tober is what you use when you don’t have an ion missile, or if you need to take out a single enemy in a Centurion battlesuit or a fast skimmer bike.”
Siv slammed the accelerator forward. “Get me a safe route with a couple of turns in it. And keep us in the old warehouse district, away from innocents.”
“We’re not going to be able to shake it, sir. Or trick it. That missile has advanced maneuvering capabilities and a 4G chippy installed to maintain the guidance system.”
Siv slammed the right break, spinning the van around so he could head back into the district. “Watch me try.”
“What the hell?!” Wang said. “We’re supposed to be driving casual, so we don’t attract attention.”
“We’ve already attracted attention.”
“Your kind or mine?” Wang said.
“Ours,” Mitsuki answered.
Wang shook his head. “Looks like I’m doomed after all.”
“Time to impact eight seconds, sir. Your turn lost us four seconds.”
“You didn’t give me a route!”
“This is a skimmer van, not a starship, sir. You can’t shake this missile! It has advanced tracking and can turn on a rat’s whisker. We’re screwed.”
Siv made a sharp left turn between two tall buildings, buying them a few more seconds as the missile was forced to work its way around to them.
“What’s going on?!” Wang demanded.
“Someone launched a missile at us,” Siv replied.
“‘Nevolence!”
“We should ditch the van and go on foot,” Mitsuki said.
“You should, but I can’t,” Silky said.
“What are you talking about?” Siv asked.
"The target lock isn't focused on the van," Silky said. “It’s on me.”
Shit. “How’s that even possible?”
“No time to explain. Sir, you need to eject me, leave me in the van, then leap out to safety.”
“Silkster, I can’t do that.”
“Put me in the glove box. I should be safe enough there. The missile shouldn’t take out the entire van. Six seconds to impact, sir.”
Siv made a quick left turn, accelerated, then took a right. Dilapidated warehouses sped past. He hoped the missile wasn’t capable of flying through one. Twice, he wove around other skimmers. Luckily, hardly anyone was around.
“Silky, I…I can’t do that.”
“Sir, you need to ditch me and the van now.”
Siv banked another hard left. The van’s engines screamed. It couldn’t take much more of this. It wasn’t built for anything more than making local deliveries.
“Sir, please. It’s the only way.”
Siv’s breath caught, and his heart skipped a beat. He couldn’t abandon the chippy. Silky was like a father to him. He was Siv’s best friend. And without him, they would all be lost. There was no way in hell they could survive this mission without him.
Siv watched in terror as the blinking red arrow in his locator closed on their position.
“Buy me a few more seconds,” Siv said. “Do whatever you have to.”
“I can do an audio burst, sir, as soon as it's lined up on a direct course for us. It will confuse the missile for a few moments. It won’t stop it, though. Or the Infiltrator that’s still closing in fast.”
“Just do it when you can.” Siv cut another hard turn. “Wang, reach under the dashboard. There’s a tiny override switch. Flip it.”
The missile rounded the corner, drawing a bead on them. As Wang fumbled for the switch, Silky unleashed an audio blast wave from the sensor pack. The sound was a
rumble so deep that it was barely audible. Siv’s bones ached, and his insides quivered. Wang leaned forward, threw his hands over his ears, and vomited. Mitsuki swayed side-to-side and nearly passed out.
“What—is—that?!” Wang yelled.
The audio pulse ended. The missile had fallen back and taken a wrong turn, confused.
“The ploy worked, sir. Time to impact is now seventeen seconds. Whatever you’re planning, you’d best do it quickly.”
Siv breathed and nodded. “Mits, you take care of Wang. I’m taking us up, and we’ll jump out the back.”
“You got it.”
“Wang! Flip the switch!”
Wang wiped his mouth off, reached under the dashboard, and flipped the switch. A readout notified Siv that the altitude restriction for the van had been deactivated.
He spun the van into the alleyway beside Wang’s warehouse, removing the force-shield from his arm as he drove.
“Nine seconds, sir.”
Siv reached for the eject switch on the socket in his temple, his hand shaking. “Silkster, be safe.”
“Sir, whoever fired that missile…”
“They’re dangerous?”
“They know about me, sir. They know what I am, and they have incredibly advanced tech. You need to assume that they’re the most dangerous thing you have ever encountered. They are like the ones who— Eject, sir! We’re out of time.”
Silky hit the eject switch, and Silky popped out of the socket into his hand. He had never removed Silky before, not even for a single second. Silky had been with him for every moment of his life since the day his father had given him the chippy. As his HUD went dark, a tear rolled down his cheek. He felt as if he were dying as if the entire galaxy was collapsing in on him.
Lying in his hand, the chippy was so tiny. It seemed so…insignificant. How could such a small thing contain everything that Silky was, everything that he meant to Siv, everything he had meant to his dad and Eyana?
“Siv, the missile’s back on our tail,” Mitsuki said.
He took a sharp right down a long, abandoned stretch of warehouses that bordered the city’s slum district.
“Right,” he said out loud, he had to say out loud, “Mits, have B take control of the skimmer van and wait for my signal.”
Shadow Agents The Benevolency Universe Page 28