by Sam Coulson
We took off in the direction he’d pointed, halfway down the lights came back on.
“They are restoring primary power,” he said. “We’re really running out of time, come on.”
We turned the corner and ran down a flight of stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, the passage opened up into a large room, crates and equipment were scattered all over. Dozens of figures were hustling about, some Celestrial, but I also spotted several shorter figures that I took to be Olsterian, and a few hooded Noonan. On the left wall there were large docking collars, most of them were extended. Workers with small hand-carts and hovers were hurriedly loading goods onto their ships.
“Act calm, try to be casual,” Loid said as he slowed to a fast walk, trying to catch his breath. “The Collegiate doesn’t own this station, they just have a lease on the upper levels. We’re on a border system, it functions as a major trading hub. Most traders don’t want trouble, they’ll be trying to get out of here with their cargo now that the station has signaled that there are no Draugari ships in the area. Commotion is bad for business.”
I wiped the sweat off my forehead and took a few deep breaths. I glanced back over my shoulder, nobody was following us, yet.
Ju-lin holstered her gun and caught up beside me. She tousled her hair.
A pair of pilots in faded red flight suits walked passed us, Ju-lin flashed a smile. They smiled back and kept walking.
“You said we were at bay eighteen?” I asked as we passed docking bay seven.
“That’s right,” Loid answered as we kept walking.
Looking ahead I saw that docking bays one through ten were for large haulers, the extendable docking collars were wide enough to drive a hover through. Between the bays were large windows where I could see the hulking shadows of cargo vessels that were attached to the magnetic clamps on the exterior of the station. The clamps then would hold them in place as the docking collar was extended and a hard-seal created so that they could load and offload their goods.
Beyond that there were a dozen much smaller loading docks, small enough, I was certain, for Tons-o-Fun.
“Wait,” Ju-lin stopped. “Won’t they know to look for Tons-o-Fun? It won’t take long for the Collegiate to check the docking logs and figure out you were here. Hell, they probably have already cross referenced the docking manifests and are there waiting for us.”
“Keep moving,” Loid answered. “What do you take more for, an amateur?”
“Let’s see, so far since we left the colony we’ve been ambushed, followed, framed for murder, betrayed, captured, and shot at,” Ju-lin replied hotly. “So yes, amateur does come to mind!”
“Look Twiggy,” Loid grabbed her arm and kept walking. “It’s not my fault that you two are walking and talking trouble magnets with more secrets that the Third Division. You’ve lied to me, kept things from me, and got one of my oldest friends to betray me. If the Collegiate had any idea that I followed you guys out here they would mark me for death, and I wouldn’t be able to come near Celestrial space again. So give it a rest for a bit, neh?”
Ju-lin started to say something, but was cut short by shouting somewhere behind us. The three of us turned around to see the group of Collegiate guards running toward us.
Loid tapped the screen on his sleeve and spoke into it. “Have her ready, we’re going to have to burn out of here hot. You’ll probably need to blow the mag-clamps.”
“Roger that,” a voice crackled on the other side.
“Who was that?” Ju-lin asked.
“Dammit move,” Loid growled as he drew his pistols and turned to run.
This time Ju-lin didn’t take more coaxing. All three of us took off at a run towards bay eighteen.
The sight of us running and the clatter of the guards behind us caught the attention of everyone on the docking level. Within seconds all of the technicians and pilots had cleared out of the middle, opening up the path. It made it easier to run, but it also gave our pursuers a clear line of fire.
I felt the heat as the first three shots sizzled just over my head. I looked over, we were at docking collar twelve. We still had six to go.
“We’re not going to make it,” I gasped.
“Keep going,” Loid said as he turned his head sharply to look at a group of six large steel vats that were about to be loaded through docking bay collar thirteen. “I have an idea.”
Ju-lin and I kept running, side by side, keeping our heads low to avoid the occasional bursts of laser fire from behind.
“Alright, then,” I heard Loid stop behind me just as we passed the steel vats.
I turned and watched as he leveled his laser pistols at one of the containers and began firing a low-level continuous beam. The metal became superheated and began to buckle.
A short woman with long braids and a purple and white uniform ran down the docking collar, screaming and waving her hands wildly at Loid. It was too late, a great glug of sticky sludge came spewing out of the vat, covering the floor. With it came the unmistakable smell, Jantar Nectar. Loid dodged to the side to avoid another stream of fire from the Celestrials, and began firing at the second vat. Within seconds, it too gave, sending a wave of nectar covering the floor of the docking bay. There would be no way for the guards to follow us.
A dozen other crewmen wearing purple and white uniforms rushed out with scrapers, trying to contain the spill. Our pursuers were stuck behind them without a clear shot.
Loid turned and started running toward us.
“Not bad,” Ju-lin commented breathlessly to me. “Come on, we’re at sixteen, almost there.”
I looked ahead and saw the docking collar eighteen ahead to our right, the door was open and unguarded. The Celestrials who were chasing us screamed angrily behind as we passed out of range.
“I think we’re clear,” Loid said. “Keep moving!”
I heard another series of shots from behind us, though it wasn’t the soft hum and sizzle of a laser bolt. It was a rapid ticking that sounded like a piece of plastic flapping in a windstorm. It fired again, and I heard an unmistakable scream of pain.
I spun around to see Loid falling to his knees and spinning sideways, there was a line of small blots of blood beginning to spread across his chest and back. I looked around frantically, the guards that had been chasing us were far behind, stuck on the other side of the expanding pool of Jantar Nectar, well out of range.
Then I saw them, two figures stepping out from docking bay fifteen. A Celestrial and a bearded man. My memory flashed back to the Hub and the human and Celestrial who had been smoking in the dark. They were the same faces I had seen following us when we were traveling the streets of Shindar II.
The bearded man saw me and shouted, the Celestrial turned and raised a large rifle up to his shoulder.
“Run you idiots!” Loid called as he collapsed onto the floor. His face was red and contorted in pain.
Ju-lin grabbed my arm and pulled, “Eli, there’s nothing we can do! Come on!”
I turned with her and ran. Her hand slipped from my arm down to my hand, and I held it tight as we ran past docking collar seventeen.
The gun fired again, I heard them whistle passed wide and track in toward me as we turned to enter the docking collar. As I followed Ju-lin into the passageway, I felt a series of sharp stings on my shoulder followed by intense burning.
As we passed into the next docking collar, Ju-lin spun and worked the controls, the door slid shut and locked.
“Get in here!” I heard a booming voice call from the far end of the docking collar.
“Come on,” Ju-lin nodded as she hurried down the long, accordion-style concourse. I followed, behind her, though after a few steps I stumbled, my head spinning.
I reached up to feel my shoulder, it was burning hot, I pulled back my hand and it was wet with blood.
“You’re hurt,” she ran back and helped me along.
“It’s not bad, I said. “Well, it’s not much at least, it burns.”
S
he looked back at my shoulder, her eyes narrowed, “micro-rail gun.”
“Not that acid stuff you told me about in the hub?” I felt my stomach go cold with the thought of acid slowly burning through my flesh and into my bones.
“That?” Ju-lin answered. “Oh, probably not, your skin would be melting by now if it was acidic. No, probably just an irritant, something to either put you asleep or cause enough pain to debilitate you.”
“That’s not very comforting,” I said as I fought to keep my focus.
There were voices and a loud banging on the sealed door behind us.
“Hurry up Loid!” the voice called again, this time I recognized it.
“Cwaylyn?” I called.
“Yeah, it’s me, get your asses onboard and strap in!”
“Who?” Ju-lin asked.
“Loid’s friend from the Par’eth, some kind of professional racer or something.”
“Cwaylyn Jones?” She asked, her eyes widened. “The Cwaylyn Jones? You said you met a friend of Loid’s at the bar, you didn’t say it was Cwaylyn Jones!”
“Yeah, maybe,” I answered, I felt a twinge of jealousy at the light excitement in her eyes.
At last we reached the end of the concourse and turned to the left where the collar had a hard-seal on Cwaylyn’s ship. There were open viewports on either side of the airlock, the ship was definitely not Tons-o-Fun. It was long and sleek, painted dark blue with a luminous line painted along the wings that matched the stripe that had been on Cwaylyn’s jacket at the Par’eth. The ship’s back wings were folded up into an “A” shape near the back, on the rear tail a jagged lightning bolt was stenciled.
“What the hell is that?” Ju-lin said in a low appraising tone as she scanned the ship from bow to stern.
“It’s a prototype some friends of mine are developing, hoping to start their own company actually. I’m their test pilot. Where’s Loid?” Cwaylyn’s large head popped out through the hatch. “Oh and you must be Ju-lin, Loid had said there was a girl, not a beautiful woman.”
“Loid got hit,” I answered, choosing to ignore his second comment.
“Micro-rail gun,” Ju-lin blushed slightly as she followed Cwaylyn through the hatch. “They got Eli’s shoulder too. They weren’t shooting to kill. Loid’s probably still alive.”
“Damn,” Cwaylyn said as he leaned over and gave a quick look at my shoulder as he sealed the hatch. “Let’s hope they want him that way, because there’s nothing more we can do for him now.”
I crouched as I moved forward through the cramped cockpit, Cwaylyn was sliding into the pilot’s chair, which was protected by a low glass canopy and an array of knobs, switches, and displays. There were three small passenger seats behind the pilot’s chair. The Carrack and Tons-o-Fun had been larger cargo ships, intended to support small crews. Cwaylyn’s prototype was much smaller, from what I could tell, it was even smaller than the Drakes that had been with Alonso’s Starchaser. Sweat dripped down my forehead and my left arm was starting to tingle.
“I have a medpack behind the seat there,” he said. “Throw some salve on that shoulder and strap in.”
Ju-lin quickly unpacked the medpack and squirted a tube of something that smelled like mint all over my shoulder. At first it stung bad enough that I nearly cried out in pain, though, after a few breaths the pain subsided, the tingling in my arm subsided and my headache started to pass.
“They locked our mag-clamp,” Cwaylyn muttered. “So much for subtlety. You two set?”
Ju-lin commented an affirmative as she clipped her safety harness while I fumbled with mine.
“Good, three, two, and pop!” Cwaylyn flipped a switch and I heard a thud somewhere above us. The ship shook violently. After a second, we started to drift as the docking bay and the mag-clamp disengaged. “Collective-designed docking lockdowns: nothing a few well-placed charges can’t solve. Hold on, they already have fighters scrambling. We ain’t near out of this yet.”
With that, he jammed the throttle to the stops. The engines fired and the little ship leapt forward, pressing me back into my seat just as I got my harness to click securely.
Chapter 25.
Kal, Jen’tak and Tren met me at the ship. I handed Tren the datacard and he slipped it into the nav computer. The starmap appeared in the holographic display.
“Eighteen jumps away,” Jen’tak commented. “Far from our Clan’s territory.”
“Are we shifting our migration?” Kal asked. “Is the chieftain looking to expand our reach?”
“Why would we?” Jan’tak answered. “Our systems are plentiful. The Human scourge has yet to spread into them. The systems they are sending us to are too near the surface-dwellers. Why would we shift our migration so far to somewhere already infested with world-dwellers?”
Kal looked at me expectantly, but I said nothing.
“There was a courier yesterday,” Tren spoke up.
Everyone turned to listen.
“A courier?” I asked.
“Yes,” Tren continued. “One of the novices overheard and told me. A courier came in late last night from the conclave. He went straight to the Chief and left again just after second watch.”
“You were given these orders at mid-third watch,” Kal said quickly. “This isn’t from the chief, it is from the conclave.”
We were all silent, staring at the holographic map.
“What could it be?” Jen’Tak’s voice was low and hungry. “Could the clans be moving to war? Are we finally going to stand together and exterminate the dweller’s spreading infestation?”
Again, we were silent. Kal smacked his gums hungrily.
“We follow our orders,” my voice was steady and resolute.
Cwaylyn calmly handled the controls, pitching and rolling the little ship between the massive cargo ships lumbering out of the docking bay. Within the first ten seconds of our flight I had been certain that we were going to crash three times; but, on every occasion, Cwaylyn maneuvered at the last possible moment, leaving mere inches between us and the other ships as we passed.
To our right one of the large cargo ships fired their thrusters, pulling away from the station. The docking collar detached and swung sharply upward toward our flight path, Cwaylyn pulled up lightly, avoiding it by inches.
“Make sure you’re strapped in,” he said conversationally. “Looks like I get to put this new engine through her paces.”
I had thought I knew what space combat was like after our fight with Alonso’s Starchaser. The first thirty seconds riding with Cwaylyn Jones taught me how wrong I was. We pitched downward and rolled sharply to the side, flying into a long, narrow gap between the station and what looked like a barge docked long-ways along the station. At the end of the passage I could see faint stars. I looked upward through the cockpit canopy; we were going so fast that the cargo barge above us was nothing but a blur. I realized I had been holding my breath. With effort I forced myself to slowly exhale.
As we burst out into open space Cwaylyn racked the controls and sent us into a tight barrel roll just in time to avoid a barrage of plasma. I spun my head around to see a small fighter in pursuit.
“Four o’clock high!” Ju-lin called, I looked over to see her face lit up with the rush of the battle as she scanned the sky. “He’s coming around.”
“Thanks sweetheart,” Cwaylyn said to Ju-lin, smiling as he flipped a switch.
My rising jealousy was replaced by fear as Cwaylyn disengaged our engines so we were riding our forward inertia. Cwaylyn fired the maneuvering thrusters to flip us around on our axis to face the other fighter. We had barely stopped spinning when Cwaylyn thumbed the controls, firing two tightly focused particle beams on the left wing of the enemy ship. Cwaylyn kept the beams perfectly on target for several seconds before the wing started to glow hot and hull plating began to fall away and the fighter began to spin out of control out into the void.
Satisfied, Cwaylyn spun us back around and re-engaged the engines.
“Fou
r more coming in,” Ju-Lin said as she craned her neck back toward the station. “We can’t fight them all.”
“Well we could,” Cwaylyn answered. “But that’s not the plan. Those little fighter jocks have nothing to do with the thugs that kidnapped y’all and I think we’ve made enough enemies already.”
“They are going to dust us,” Ju-lin snapped back. “You can’t just ignore them.”
“Like hell I can’t,” Cwaylyn chuckled as he pulled up and turned us back around toward the station. I was pressed back in my seat as he fired the thrusters, leaving the fighters in our wake.
“That forward thrust is incredible!” Ju-lin said.
“Ain't it though?” Cwaylyn responded. “I’m telling you, when my guys get their funding figured out and start going to mass production, everyone who’s anyone will be flying one of these birds.”
“So what is the plan?” I interrupted, feeling left out. “How are we getting out of here?”
“Well, the good news is that it looks like the Collegiate, or whatever they call themselves rely on local defense forces,” Cwaylyn said conversationally. “These poor local jocks aren’t well equipped. The Collegiate only send their own guys when it’s something big I guess. Either way, we’re on the edge of the Celestrial Empire, one quick flux from the Domari Collective. Lots of traders and travelers pass through here, a good place to go to stay away from prying eyes. What did they want you two for anyway?”
Ju-lin and I exchanged quick glances but didn’t answer.
A yellow light on the console started to flash, each tick was accompanied by a high pitched beep.
“Oh, they have missiles,” Cwaylyn said calmly as he steered the ship toward the oncoming fighters in the distance.
The yellow light was blinking more frequently.
“We’re going toward them?” I felt panic rise in my stomach. “I thought we weren't going to fight.”
“So, tell me, Ju-lin was it?” Cwaylyn turned in his seat to look at Ju-lin. “That’s a pretty name.”
“Yes, thank you,” she fumbled, blushing.
The yellow light was more frequent almost two blinks per second.