Star Raider

by Vaughn Heppner

  Tanner turned off the comm. He sat up, flexing his hands. It was time to begin, as this was going to be very hard to do right. Could they pull it off? Would the pirates really act at the right moment to help them? The only way to find out was to do it, so here he went.

  -27-

  Now began a long hard chase between the Coalition destroyer and the old Remus raider. It included most of the Petrus System, as the Dark Star started just outside the star system while the destroyer began in the inner system.

  The asteroid belt was stationed in its star system in a similar place as between Earth’s old orbital path and that of Mars in the Solar System, while Tanner had started at something just beyond Neptune’s old orbital path around the Sun. The chase involved long distances, billions of kilometers, and it involved hard acceleration instead of deceleration aboard the Gladius-class ship as they increased velocity.

  “We’re going to be running on fumes by the time this is over,” Greco told Tanner.

  The centurion had gone into combat mode. His talkativeness had disappeared. He spoke in a monotone now as he concentrated on the situation.

  A combat run this long, however, meant hours and hours of watching and waiting. The hours turned into half a day. The Dark Star didn’t only accelerate. They stopped, accelerated again, stopped more and coasted for long periods before accelerating further.

  The destroyer followed suit. It had longer legs, meaning it had greater powers of acceleration. The Dark Star had an advantage, however, as it had entered the Petrus System at much greater velocity than the destroyer traveled.

  The raider curved away from the destroyer. The destroyer took that heading, making a new intercept point. The Dark Star kept this up for a day. Then, it decelerated hard as the raider made a shallow turn in the other direction, heading for the lone gas giant in the system.

  “Will they figure out our plan in time?” Greco said.

  “If they try to hail us, we’ll know,” Tanner said.

  Greco drummed his fingers on a panel, playing a beat for enjoyment. “Why haven’t they launched a missile at us yet?”

  “That’s easy. They want to capture not kill us.”

  “They’re not going to capture us if we pass near each other at high velocity.”

  “I know,” Tanner said. “But it will give them point blank range to knock out our engine. Then, whatever our velocity and heading, they can match it because we’ll no longer be able to change it.”

  “Elementary space tactics,” Greco said.

  Two hours later, Tanner told everyone on the ship to lie down. They were going to decelerate at the ship’s maximum. Once everyone checked in, including Acton telling Tanner the Lithians were down, the centurion engaged the hardest thrust of the trip.

  The small raider shifted at a tighter angle, straining to reach the gas giant. Maybe the destroyer understood their plan. The Coalition people turned the destroyer one hundred and eighty degrees so its exhaust aimed in the direction it traveled. Then, the destroyer thrust as hard as it could at five gravities, braking their velocity.

  In time, the Dark Star reached the gas giant’s gravitational pull. At a tightening curve, the raider headed deeper into the gravity well, meaning the ship headed toward the giant planet. Tanner began to use the gas giant as a running man would use a pole in his path. By grabbing the pole, a man running fast could violently change his direction without tripping and falling. The raider used a similar tactic, using the planet’s heavy gravity. The small Remus ship wouldn’t circle the gas giant completely, but Tanner used the gravity to violently change their heading. They no longer headed to the left portion of the asteroid belt, left in relation to the system’s star. Now, they went toward the right side of the asteroid belt. The destroyer would have to stop its leftward velocity completely. Once it did that, then it would have to accelerate again, this time heading for the asteroid belt’s right.

  Finally, after the shaking quit, the raider moved away from the gas giant, quickly escaping its gravitational pull.

  Greco ran the new numbers. “We could do this, boss.”

  “Yep,” Tanner said.

  Five hours passed. Finally, the destroyer commander attempted to communicate with them.

  “Do we talk?” Greco asked.

  “I think we’d better.” Tanner opened channels with the Coalition destroyer. The distance had closed considerably since they’d first seen each other. It made communication possible because now there was only a short time delay between them.

  A bald woman appeared on the screen. She wore the blue Coalition uniform with the star and comet patch on her collar. She was pretty in a hard way, with thick kissable lips.

  “You must decelerate and match heading with us,” she said.

  Tanner glanced at Greco before he said, “I decline your invitation, Sub-superior. I suggest we end on a peaceful note. Why should we fight, you and I? It will only damage your ship, as we shall never surrender.”

  A few seconds later, the sub-superior smiled. “You are a braggart. Your profile already shows that, but it is good to know our intelligence people pegged you correctly. You must surrender according to the terms of the Remus peace accords.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t hold to those,” Tanner replied.

  Once more, the transmission took time as the light-speed message took the time to cross the distance between them. She nodded afterward. “So be it, Centurion. You have decided your fate. I will not allow you to reach the hideaway. Long before that, you and your rebels will cease to exist.”

  “If you launch torpedoes at me, Sub-superior, I will launch all our torpedoes at you.”

  “You lack torpedoes. Thus, your threat is meaningless.”

  Tanner squinted at her. How could the destroyer commander know that? It would indicate the Coalition plan had been formed some time ago. Could Coalition people have put the fake Calisto Grandee client on the luxury habitat? Had that been bait for a trap?

  “I will meet with you, Sub-superior,” Tanner said. “But I will do so on neutral territory, in the hideaway.”

  The sub-superior laughed. “I decline your wretched offer. We both know the pirates hate Coalition people. No, I shall destroy your craft and end this farce unless you surrender at once.”

  “I already told you my answer.”

  “So be it,” the sub-superior said. “If you change your mind, you’ll know where to reach me.”

  She cut the connection.

  Tanner sat back. “Maybe it’s just a bluff,” he told Greco. “Until they actually launch a torpedo—”

  “Boss,” Greco said. “Look.” The apeman pointed at the sensor screen.

  On it, a missile began to separate from the destroyer image. The sub-superior had launched a torpedo.

  “It’s not a bluff, boss. They’re playing for keeps.”

  “Okay,” Tanner said. “It looks like we’re going to have to do this the hard way.”

  ***

  Tanner declined Greco’s idea about going to Acton for another decoy. This time, the raider was decelerating too hard for a decoy to simulate.

  “We’ll use our particle beam,” Tanner said.

  “You think we can hit a torpedo far enough away from the raider to make a difference?”

  “Do you have a better idea?” Tanner asked.

  The apeman shook his head.

  “That’s too bad,” Tanner said. “I was hoping you did, you being a genius and all.”

  Later, the torpedo leaped into high acceleration, reaching forty-eight gravities.

  The raider had the advantage over the destroyer now, even though the destroyer still had much less distance to travel. Given its initial speed and with the pivot around the gas giant, the Dark Star had zipped like a stone from a slingshot toward the far right end of the asteroid belt. The raider moved fast in comparison to the destroyer. The smaller ship would reach its destination point near the asteroid belt far ahead of the destroyer, too far for the Coalition vessel’s parti
cle beams to reach the raider accurately.

  The farther a target was from a beam’s launch point, the easier it became to jink out of the beam’s path. Distance shots took fantastic targeting anyway, so the slightest deviations upset the precise calculations. It was one of the reasons missiles were critical in space combat and why most of the damage took place at very short ranges—short in terms of stellar distances.

  Tanner’s idea was to race around the asteroid belt far ahead of the destroyer, slow down while circling the outer edge and finally zip into the protective dust and rocks of the belt.

  The torpedo changed all that.

  Finally, after many dreary hours of watching the torpedo close the distance, it reached the raider’s outer, particle beam range.

  The Dark Star turned to face the torpedo. Greco adjusted the emitter, recalibrated and sighted the torpedo once more.

  “Has the computer figured out the torpedo’s jinking code yet?” Tanner asked.

  “No,” Greco said.

  “That’s too bad,” Tanner said. “Okay. We have a few minutes to destroy this thing. Then, it enters its detonation range.”

  Torpedoes, drones and missiles seldom struck their targets, but exploded their nuclear warheads in close proximity. The heat and X-rays did most of the damage, while EMP knocked down any electrical systems.

  The raider’s fusion engine thrummed. The accelerator sounded as it cycled the particles and Tanner tapped a control. Charged electrons shot out of the emitter near the speed of light.

  “Miss,” Greco said a moment later. “The torpedo must have shifted its position just enough.”

  The torpedo no longer accelerated, but coasted at the raider at high velocity. It had side jets and jinked at random intervals.

  “Let’s try again,” Tanner said.

  Once more, the process repeated.

  “Another miss,” Greco said as he stared at a targeting scope.

  Tanner tapped the comm. The light had been blinking. As expected, the sub-superior appeared on the screen.

  Her bald forehead was shiny with sweat. She was nervous, it would seem.

  “You have two minutes to surrender,” she said. “If you fail to surrender, the torpedo will detonate. I assure you, your ship will not survive the explosion.”

  “We possess priceless knowledge,” Tanner told her. “That knowledge will die if we die.”

  “While this may be true,” she said, “it is immaterial, as I have my orders.”

  “I can offer you triton,” Tanner said.

  The sub-superior laughed coldly. “Why do I need triton? I am a Coalition officer, bound to my command by an oath of office. Mere wealth cannot tempt me.”

  “Still,” Tanner said. “Triton can buy a load of luxuries. Have you enjoyed life to the fullest, Sub-superior? Has your bridge crew? Maybe they’d like triton. All they have to do is shoot you and take over the ship.”

  Her eyes seemed to shine. “How dare you attempt to bribe me and my loyal crew? It shows a lack of morals in you, a serious lack of character.”

  “Another miss,” Greco whispered. “The torpedo is like a slippery tom-eel.”

  “Think about this carefully, Sub-superior,” Tanner said. “I have enough triton to buy off your entire crew. If my ship is destroyed, you will lose it all.”

  Greco glanced at him. “She’s a fanatic,” the apeman whispered. “She’s not going to budge.”

  “I know,” Tanner whispered back out of the corner of his mouth. “I’m not talking to her.”

  Greco checked the comm link. “But you are, boss. Look.” The apeman pointed at the link feed.

  “I know that,” Tanner whispered to Greco.

  “Do you think her crew will try for her?” the apeman whispered.

  “I doubt it.”

  “Then who are you talking to?” Greco whispered a little louder than before.

  “It will be a pleasure watching you die,” the sub-superior said. “You think that proud socialists such as us will succumb to your base tactic of—”

  At that point, a laser beamed from one of the larger outer asteroids. The laser beam struck the torpedo, destroying it in milliseconds.

  Greco blinked in astonishment. “What just happened, boss?”

  Tanner clicked off the connection with the sub-superior. Let her beg to talk to him if she wanted to now.

  “The comm light is blinking,” Greco said.

  “I see it.”

  “Aren’t you going to answer?”

  Before Tanner could say, another laser flashed from the asteroid. It shot across the Dark Star’s exhaust port, which presently aimed in the direction of the raider’s travel. The laser missed by a mere ten kilometers.

  “Yes,” Tanner said. “I believe I will answer the comm. I think the pirates really are going to bargain with us after all. Now, we’re going to find out the true cost of doing business with them.”

  -28-

  The same unsavory individual as before appeared on the comm screen. He had tattoo swirls on his sunken cheeks and an oddly shaped cross on his forehead. The ring in his nose shined golden, while he shook his long stringy hair. This time, the dark eyes were clear instead of glassy.

  “You must stop immediately,” the space pirate said.

  “I can’t do it at the moment, sir, due to physics and inertia,” Tanner said. “I will stop, though, on my second circuit around the asteroid belt.”

  The pirate shook his head harder. “You will not do that. You are merely seeking to escape the range of my laser and thus break our bargain.”

  “I would have come in slower,” Tanner said, “but the destroyer launched a missile at me. I had to maintain a high velocity to survive this long.”

  “Oh, I get it,” Greco said quietly to Tanner. “You were talking about the triton for the pirate’s benefit. You must have known he’d tapped into our transmission. You goaded him to act out of greed.”

  Tanner didn’t acknowledge Greco, but the apeman was right. He hadn’t expected the pirate leader to be at that laser turret, though. He’d thought one of the man’s lieutenants had been listening in to the communication between the sub-superior and him. Tanner had been trying the old divide-and-conquer tactic against the pirate leader and his men.

  “You owe me triton,” the pirate said.

  “I pay my debts,” Tanner told him.

  “That’s what every crook says to those he plans to cheat.”

  “I’m not a crook, though. I’m Centurion Tanner of Remus. Maybe you’ve heard of me.”

  “”I have,” the pirate said. “You’re the lousy bastard who took out Keg. He was a friend of mine. Knowing this, why shouldn’t I smoke you now?”

  “One word, Lord,” Tanner said, “triton.”

  “You’re a cagey one, ain’t you?”

  “I like living the same as the next man.”

  “That’s not how I hear it,” the pirate said. “Honor is your game, right?”

  “Oh, Yeah. That’s right, now that you mention it. And that’s how you know you’re going to get your triton. Centurion Tanner has given his word.”

  The pirate stared at him as if judging his worth. Finally, the pirate thumped his chest. “I’m Ottokar Akko. I’m one of the notables of the hideaway. If you deal me dirty I’ll hack off your head.”

  “I deal fairly with everyone,” Tanner boasted.

  “You’re a cocky scoundrel, if you’re nothing else. Yes! I’ll let you live. As I said, I like your style, bounty hunter. You go on into the belt. Get safely into the hideaway. I’ll meet you there in a few days. Then…you’re going to pay me what’s mine.”

  Tanner decided he didn’t need to say more. He’d made his pitch and it looked as if it would work. Would Ottokar take care of the destroyer for him? It’s possible the sub-superior wouldn’t risk giving the pirate the opportunity.

  “It’s been a pleasure,” Tanner said. “I just hope they never give me a contract for your head, Ottokar. I’d hate to have to com
e after you now.”

  Ottokar Akko studied him with cold eyes. The pirate nodded before signing off.

  “Why did you have to add that?” Greco said. “You just made him mad.”

  “I know,” Tanner said. “But he expects that from me. I have to give him what he expects or he’ll start to think things through carefully.”

  “Think things through in what way?” Greco said. “As far as I’ve ever seen, you’ve always been honest with everyone.”

  “I try to be,” Tanner said. “But one, I don’t own any triton. Two, I don’t know how much we’ll need to buy the right and no doubt expensive equipment to land on Planet Zero.”

  “You’re planning to cheat Ottokar?”

  “Not yet anyway,” Tanner said. “Let’s concentrate on the battle. We’re not out of trouble yet. It’s also more than possible Ottokar has more outposts. He just acted the way he did to throw us off our guard.”

  The apeman didn’t seem to like that. “I never did enjoy the Petrus System,” Greco grumbled.

  “Me neither,” Tanner said. “But here we are.” He focused on the scanner, wondering what the Coalition sub-superior would do next.

  ***

  The Dark Star continued around the asteroid belt. So did the Coalition destroyer. The destroyer was much farther behind, nearly seven hundred thousand kilometers so.

  “It would be good to know what Ottokar is going to do next,” Greco said.

  Tanner had been thinking furiously. He furrowed his brow, trying out various ploys in his imagination. He was beginning to see only one way through this. It would be one thing reaching the hideaway and another leaving the place with the needed supplies.

  “We’re not going to do this by ourselves,” Tanner announced.

  “What’s that?” asked Greco.

  “All this,” Tanner said, sweeping a hand through the air. “We can’t make it on our own. We’re going to have to bend a few people to our will.”