by Sam Coulson
At this he let loose a hearty laugh.
“Hell no, but I need the electromags, toss me the boot and some of that tape,” he said. “Good, now we need some cable from that bag there, cut me two lengths about, oh a meter each.”
“They hung up on me,” Ju-lin’s voice broke in over the coms. “The Drakes scored a few good hits, the power output from the engines dropped to 70 percent, shields are holding at 40 percent. The Starchaser is going full speed towards us, though the Drakes are hanging back. I can still outrun the Starchaser I think.”
“Negative,” Loid replied. “If you kick in full power and start outrunning the Starchaser they will just send the Drakes back in to slow us down and bang up my ship. Act like you’re running, but go slow enough that the Starchaser will catch us.”
“Slow enough that they will catch us?” She repeated.
“That’s what I said,” Loid answered. “No sense in letting them beat up the Tons any more than they already have. Two minutes from now, I need the Starchaser to be between 200 and 250 meters directly behind us.”
“Their main guns will be able to disable the engines at 200 meters,” Ju-lin responded. “I don’t see how that helps.”
“You’re the pilot, you make the call of when the ship is ready. I’m the Commander, so your job as the pilot is to get the ship where I want it. And I want the Starchaser to be 200 to 250 meters directly behind us in two minutes. Do you copy?” Loid responded as he spliced together a wire from the boot into the circuits on the warhead.
“Affirmative,” she answered. “Crazy bastard.”
We were thrown sideways as the shipped abruptly banked to port. I was ready that time and managed to grab a hand rail before being thrown against the crate containing the rest of the warheads. I looked up to see that Loid had barely managed to grip the end of a wire to keep the warhead from flying across the room and impacting against the bulkhead.
“Dammit to hell,” Loid said into his coms. “Keep her steady.”
Ju-lin snapped something back about not taking a collision course with a moon, but Loid ignored it.
As soon as we stabilized again, I used my knife to cut the lengths of cable.
“Alright, cable, good.” Loid said as he spun the warhead in the air in front of him, pointing to two small latches. “Here, tie them here and here, and be careful not to touch the blue or black wires.”
I pushed off to propel myself across the room to where Loid was standing. Following his lead, I stood on the wall and slid the toe of my boot beneath the handrail for stability.
My hands were shaking as he handed me the warhead and I began to tie the knots. I was surprised to find how easily the knot tying came to me. In the moment I wasn’t sure if it was a skill that I had had before the terraforming, or if it was knowledge inherited from the Draugari I had killed. Either way, I was thankful that my hands seemed to know what they were doing.
By the time I had finished, I looked up to see that Loid had retrieved a vat labeled Jantar Nectar from one of the forward storage compartments.
“Go to the back of the main cargo hold,” Loid nodded forward. “Carry the warhead by the cables, there yeah like that. Make sure it doesn’t hit the sides.”
I took the cables, one in each hand, and held the warhead suspended in front of me. Then I began pushing toward the rear hatch with my legs, using my elbows and alternating my grip on the cables to free my hands and steady myself.
I passed through the hatch into the main cargo hold. The lights were flickering, casting shadows around the secured stacks of crated ale.
“Move to the back, there is the waste airlock,” Loid gestured toward the back of the cargo hold as he came through the hatch behind me. “I had it installed in case I needed to dump less-than-legal goods.”
“Okay, so what is Jantar Nectar?” I asked as I moved slowly through the compartment.
“Depends on who you ask,” Loid answered. “It’s from a native plant on one of the Collective worlds. Stickiest stuff in the ‘verse, smells horrible. The Domari use it as an industrial sealant. I’ve seen them use it to shore up hull breaches. The Celestrials, on the other hand, consider it a delicacy. They really like the chewy stuff I guess, who knows.”
“They are gaining,” Ju-lin’s voice came back over the wireless. “The Starchaser is at 260 meters and closing, and those Drakes are coming in close again. I don’t like just sitting here waiting for them to pop us.”
“We’re working on it. Get them talking or something, we are almost set,” Loid answered.
“Work faster!” Ju-lin responded.
“Now what?” I asked as we caught ourselves on the far wall next to the waste airlock.
“Now the sticky part,” Loid chuckled to himself as he slipped his arm through a wall strap, and flipped around, holding the vat of Jantar nectar between his legs. “I’m going to pop this open, and you are going to set a timer on the boot’s maglock, dip the warhead in nectar, and then we are going to take it and position it so that it is floating in the middle of the airlock without touching the sides.”
I looked at the device, Loid had hastily taped the electromagnetic boot, sole out, to the side of the warhead. The two cables I had attached floated limply on either side of the bomb like errant pigtails. The entire apparatus looked ridiculous.
“There, the command pad on the boot, set a timer delay to, let’s say fifty seconds,” Loid said. “Once you do that, take the bomb by the cables, and dip it into the nectar. Be damned sure not to get any on you, or anything else. If that thing comes in contact with anything then we’re humped.”
“Fifty seconds?” I asked.
“Yup, do it.”
I set the timer to fifty, and clicked begin.
As quickly and carefully as I could I grabbed the two cables and pulled the warhead downward into the vat of nectar that Loid had opened. The smell surprised me. It wasn’t the sickening stench of death that I had experienced in the hold of the Draugari Carrack, it was much more floral. At first smell, it was actually pleasant, but after the second or third breath, the sheer power of the scent made me gag.
“Yeah,” Loid said. “It’s bad. There are worse things than a simple stink. Quickly now, dip it and spin, we have forty seconds.”
I turned the warhead in the goop as best I could. After five seconds, most of it was covered.
“I think that’s good enough,” I answered.
“It will have to be,” Loid said as he secured the lid onto the vat and let it float off into the cargo hold. “Now, nice and easy, give me the other side of the cable.”
With Loid holding the cable on the left, and me on the right, we slowly moved the warhead into the meter-square waste disposal chute. Now I knew why he had told me to disable the gravity. If the warhead touched any part of the disposal compartment it would be stuck on the ship.
“Twenty five seconds,” I said.
“Hang on,” he said, as he worked to position the warhead directly in the middle of the compartment. “Almost got it.”
He nodded to me and we both let go, the warhead hung suspended in zero gravity. He tapped the control console and the interior door to the compartment slid shut. I peered through the small viewport, the warhead was still floating perfectly in the middle of the compartment.
“Ju-lin,” Loid clicked his wireless on. “Distance to the Starchaser?”
“Two hundred and twenty meters and closing,” she answered.
“On my mark, punch engines to full.” He reached out to the controls.
“Fifteen seconds,” I said, reading off the display timer through the viewport.
“Mark!” Loid tapped a code into the console, opening the exterior doors to the waste chute. The sudden exposure to space created an instant vacuum that sent the warhead flying out the back of the ship like a cannon ball.
The Tons-o-Fun lurched forward as Ju-lin activated the thrusters. Without artificial gravity, the push of the thrusters slammed, and held us against the wall.
“Is it away?” Loid grunted into his coms.
I watched out the rear viewport, following the warhead as it sped away.
“It looks like it’s going wide,” I said.
“Come on,” Loid muttered.
“Wait,” the warhead suddenly shifted directions as the timer hit zero and the boot’s magclamp activated, pulling it directly toward the Starchaser. Seconds later the warhead slapped against the Starchaser’s forward bulkhead and stuck. “It’s on.”
“Ha!” Loid reached for a nearby control panel. “Let’s get some gravity back on, there we go.”
He and I both fell to the deck as the artificial gravity re-initialized.
“What the hell did you guys do?” Ju-lin called over the wireless. “I have a pressure release warning.”
“See if you can get them on video coms, we’re on our way,” Loid and I got to our feet and ran back through the cargo areas into the flight deck. “And get out of my chair!”
“The Starchaser is hailing us,” Ju-lin was sliding back into her jumpseat as Loid and I entered the cabin.
“Nice job Twiggy,” he said as he slid back into the pilot’s seat and clicked on the video coms.
A face appeared floating on in the holographic heads-up display in front of him. He was an older human with silver-black hair and a scar on his chin.
“Alonso,” Loid said casually. “Sorry I missed you earlier there, I was napping.”
“Burns,” the face squinted. “A pity, your girlfriend there said you were locked up on weapons smuggling charges in Tau Ceti.”
“Yes,” Loid responded. “You know how it is, I can’t take every call or I’d be spending all day chatting away and never get anything done.”
“Enough of the shit, Burns.” Alonso sneered. “You’re damaged, and my boys have you locked down. Power down the engines and prepare to be boarded and I may let you live.”
“Eh,” Loid glanced back over at Ju-lin. “I think I’ll pass.”
“It’s that or get ghosted,” Alonso retorted. “We may have made some money together back when we were running stims for the syndicate, but that was a long time ago, and I won’t forget how you cut me out. I really should just turn that flying cigar of yours into dust here and now, but seeing as I’m feeling charitable, I’ll settle for your cargo.”
“Cut you out? Now that’s not quite how I remember it.” Loid answered. “I remember you installing a trace on my ship and trying to hand me over to the authorities. “
“Who knows who did what to whom,” Alonso answered. “What I do know, is that you left me for dead with my credits in your pocket. You owe me cargo.”
“Sorry mate I’m empty.”
“Don’t even try,” Alonso answered. “I picked up energy signature fluxes a few minutes ago. You have something on board. And if nothing else, we may just take your girlfriend, she seemed like—”
“I seem like what, you greasy bastard?” Ju-lin leapt from her seat and pulled in over Loid’s shoulder into the video chat’s field of view. “What do I seem like?”
“Now, now,” Loid put his hand on her shoulder and gently pushed Ju-lin back.
“His girlfriend my ass,” she muttered as she slipped back.
“She seemed like a spirited young thing,” Alonso said with a smile. “She’s right, though, she’s not your type Burns.”
“Yes, and she managed to keep your Drakes dancing around for the last four minutes,” Loid added.
“She can fly that hunk of junk better than you can,” Alonso replied to Loid. “I’ll give her that, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re now in range and that I have my fighters primed on your wings.”
“No,” Loid continued with a placid calm. “But, there is something missing. You said you picked up an energy signature flux? What happened to it?”
Alonso glanced over, making a gesture to someone out of view.
“It dissipated,” Alonso said after a pause. “Power signature looked Draugari, some kind of trick? Whatever you tried to do, it didn’t work.”
“All those sensors on that great big ship and that’s all you got?” Loid countered. “Sometime you will have to tell me how you managed to get it, or who you’re flying for. But for now, you have more important concerns.”
“Like sifting through the debris of your ship?” Alonso answered. “I’m getting tired of this shit, cut engines or I’ll open fire.”
“No, actually, why don’t you try a more localized scan. For grins, focus it on your port bulkhead just before your main thrusters. See if anything unusual comes up.”
Alonso looked down at his console, after a few seconds, his brow furrowed.
“That, my friend,” Loid broke in with a smile. “Is a primed class four Draugari dissipation warhead stuck to my magclamp boots and coated with Jantar Nectar. By now the nectar has probably solidified, it will take a few hours with a laser chisel to scrape it off your hull. You’ll have to be careful though, I wired up the trigger in a hurry so it may be temperamental.”
“You sonuvabitch,” Alonso sneered.
“Ah, but I can save you the trouble,” Loid lifted up a small device. “This is a remote detonator that I have wired into the explosive.”
Alonso’s face was white.
“See, now we can negotiate,” Loid’s voice turned serious. “Have your Drakes disengage. Now. And power down all weapons.”
Alonso made a few gestures off screen. A few seconds later the Drakes pulled off to a safe distance from us. I noticed they were keeping their distance from the Starchaser as well.
“There now,” Loid continued. “I think this qualifies as your surrender doesn’t it? How nice. It’s time to talk demands.”
“Demands?” Alonso sneered. “I swear if you so much as touch this ship I will track you down cut you limb from limb.”
“Whoa,” Loid held up his hand. “Easy there. I’m not a pirate, well, not today at least. Today I’m a man in need of information. Did you guys pick up any Celestrial ships flying through this system in the last few days?”
“Skins?” Alonso retorted. “Yeah, there were a few fighters passing through a few days ago, nothing special. Well-armed, not worth our time.”
“Where did they come from?”
“They came in through the Megaera gav point,” Alonso answered. “Why are you hunting Skins? I thought you were all sweet on their kind.”
“Who knows, maybe they’re family friends. Let’s just say that’s our business,” Loid answered.
“What about communications drones?” I asked.
Loid glanced sidelong at me. I couldn’t tell if he was more annoyed that I interrupted him or that we hadn’t told him about the communications drone.
“You have two crew?” Alonso’s eyebrow raised. “What, Loid, you flying with a girlfriend and boyfriend? So much for the old lone wolf, looks like you’re turning into an old dog! Or maybe den mother?”
“Answer the question,” Loid said coldly as he shifted the detonator in his hand. “Intercepted any communications drones?”
“Communications drones?” Alonso shrugged. “Could be, we intercept pretty much everything that flies through this system.”
“It would have been about a week back, corporate markings from MineWorks,” Ju-lin pressed.
“MineWorks?” Alonso scratched his head. “Yeah, we plucked up one about eight days ago. We couldn’t break the encryption, so we sold it to some dealer on Shindar II who was willing to take a chance that it may have some maps or mineral scans they could steal and sell. Made some easy money, which you can’t have.”
Loid muted the call.
“So are you two going to tell me what the hell this is about?”
Ju-lin and I exchanged glances.
“One of the other colonies found something, and then sent a message off-world,” Ju-lin answered. “We figured the Celestrials intercepted and decoded it, and that’s why they attacked.”
“’Found something?’” Loi
d repeated. “When were you going to tell me about that?”
“When you needed to know,” Ju-lin countered.
“Fine, we’ll talk about this later,” Loid turned and flipped the mute back off. “I need a name. Who did your man sell the drone to?”
“How should I know? These types don’t use business cards,” Alonso shrugged. “My man was on Shindar II, there is a market off the main docking yard. My man says he traded with a Noonan.”
“A Noonan at the market on Shindar II,” Loid sighed. “Thin. That’s all you got?”
“That’s all I got,” Alonso replied. “You know what I know, so disable your firing mechanism and bugger off.”
Loid flipped the firing device over in his hand, staring at Alonso’s face on the display, considering.
“I will disable it once we’re clear,” he answered after a pause. “The Starchaser, and the Drakes stay powered down, or I blow it.”
“Yeah, yeah, just get gone,” Alonso leaned forward. “But I won’t forget this.”
“Forget what?” Ju-lin broke in. “That you and your mini-fleet of halfwits had to turn tail?”
Loid glanced over at Ju-lin and smiled, “I think she has a point. Stay dark until I’m nothing but a speck, or I detonate.”
Loid disconnected the video.
“Buckle up, let’s get out of here,” Loid engaged the engines to full burn. “Looks like we’re going to Shindar II.”
“Nice work with the bomb,” Ju-lin said. “Honestly, I’m impressed.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “What about the detonator though? When did you rig that up?”
“I didn’t,” he said, tossing the small box over his shoulder. “It’s a broken medical scanner.”
Chapter 17.
A secondary explosion shook the ship and the power flickered off. Once again, I waited. But this time it didn’t come back on. My gunnery display was black. The ship’s coms were silent.
I watched out my viewport as the last of our Slires fought against their remaining fighters. Two had regrouped and were coming toward the last Slire. Without power, I could do nothing to help him. He knew his life was lost, I was certain. But he fought on. I cursed my gunnery station. Out there, in the cockpit of that Slire was where glory and honor lie. Not here floating in the belly of a dead ship.