by T. R. Harris
If these were the only three ships following me, I was in no real danger. I was faster than they were, and only another ship angling in could catch me. Of course, any stationed ahead along my path could cause me problems.
I put my sensors out to their max.
Unlike the first encounter I had with Linorean escorts, these ships wouldn’t hesitate to blow me out of space without a second thought. The Linoreans’ intended goal was to destroy the Unity Stone; that’s why they had tried to delay my arrival on Hyben, so that Miranda could do just that. But now they could achieve the same result by blasting the Enterprise out of existence. Not only would the Stone be destroyed, but it would also deal very effectively with me and Miranda, the only two witnesses to the Linorean Foundation’s complicity in initiating a galactic war.
This new reality also meant that I would have to shoot first and ask questions later. I couldn’t risk any potential threat getting too close to me on the way back to Sylox.
There came suddenly a crash from behind, and I whipped my head around to see Miranda pressed up against the back bulkhead of the salon, her head and shoulders on the floor and her feet sticking straight up the wall. She was glaring at me and her face was beat red. She yelled something through the gag. Although it was unintelligible, the message was received loud and clear.
I set all the necessary autopilot controls and warning alarms and then slipped out of the pilotseat to help her back on the sofa.
Even though I was trying to help, Miranda still resisted, jerking from side to side and kicking me once very close to the family jewels. I eventually gave up being nice and just threw her on the couch.
“Dammit, Miranda, calm down! The game’s over, so just relax. I’ll take off the gag if you promise not to start yelling.”
She relaxed visibly and nodded. Her eyes were filled with tears – not from pain or sorrow, but from anger.
I approached the couch, and just as I reached over to undo the gag, she lashed out with her foot again, impacting my shin just below the right kneecap. In excruciating pain, I hobbled back to the chair on the other side of the salon and pulled up my pant leg. She had broken the skin and the wound was already beginning to bleed.
“You bitch!” I yelled. “Look what you did. That’s going to hurt for a week, if not more. So screw you; keep the gag on. I didn’t want to hear anything you have to say anyway.”
This got her to calm down completely, as I could make out a muffled, “I’m sorry.” It still took me a full five minutes before I chanced going near her again. This time she allowed me to untie the gag.
“Thanks; I’ll behave. Now, how about the straps on my wrists?”
“Not a chance,” I replied. “You’re as mean as a honey-badger, and I’m not even going to risk untying you. Believe me, Miranda, but you don’t want to suffer my wrath right about now. I’m liable to turn all alpha-male on you if you provoke much further.”
“I know that,” Miranda said. “And you are much bigger than me and more skilled at hand-to-hand combat. I’d be stupid to try anything.”
“You were stupid to steal the Unity Stone and set the whole galaxy on fire. But you did it anyway.”
“For seven million dollars, and originally it was just a heist. It wasn’t until later that I learned the significance of the statue.”
“That doesn’t mean squat in the whole scheme of things, now does it sweetheart?” I said. “You’ve managed to get the most-powerful creatures in the galaxy all up in arms and looking for us. Some want me to succeed; others want it to be you. Honestly, I still haven’t sorted out all the players yet, but I’m sure you don’t even know a tenth of the problems you’ve caused.”
“So what happens now? You return the statue, save the universe and become the hero?”
“Something like that. But you didn’t leave me any choice. It’s either that or billions of creatures will die, including our own kind. Who does something like that and then feels no remorse? Are you really that self-centered?”
Miranda shifted her gaze to her feet and actually looked embarrassed. When she looked up at me again, the tears were flowing freely.
“I’m sorry, Jason, really I am. I didn’t ask of any of this to happen. They came to me and dangled a boatload of money in front of me. And it is a nearly thirty thousand carat diamond. What girl could say no to that? I honestly didn’t know it would cause all this trouble.”
“Then why didn’t you just turn it over to your employers and take your money?”
“Because I saw through their scheme. If you haven’t noticed, these aliens have a nasty habit of underestimating us Humans. I knew they’d throw me under the bus as soon as I did the job.” And then she smiled though her tears. “Besides … it’s a nearly thirty-thousand carat diamond! I couldn’t help myself.”
“And another miscalculation on their part,” I said, managing a weak smile in return.
“And now we’re being followed?”
“Yep, and those people out there just want the Stone destroyed, which makes this ship simply a target on their screens. We have four days to get back to Sylox, and my enemies have wormhole comms and an organization powerful enough to print its own money to back them up. I’d say our chances of getting back safe and sound are somewhere between slim and not-a-chance-in-hell.”
“They’re my enemies, too, Jason. As you said, they were going to make me a scapegoat in the theft, just like you. So you see, we’re on the same side now, and only by returning the Stone and revealing all I know can I – we – be saved.”
“Nice speech, Miranda, but I’m not buying it. Now why don’t you just sit back and enjoy the trip. Oh, and by the way, the cuffs stay on.”
**********
I had to think. I had the statue and Miranda, and now all I had to do was get it back to Sylox and prove to the Union that I wasn’t the one who stole it. Unfortunately, those who wanted the statue destroyed knew where I was and where I’m headed. I could outrun the three ships behind me, but eventually others would join in the chase. And there would also be units heading out from Sylox, forming a gauntlet for me to run.
As if on cue, I noticed two more distant contacts appear on my screen, one to each side and slowly vectoring in. I did a few quick calculations and found that at my present speed – which was already at max – it would be six hours until intercept. They had the angle on me, and six hours would still leave me far short of my goal.
I had to disappear, and in a spaceship on full gravity drive that meant only one thing.
I went back to where Miranda was now sitting on the couch, glaring at me.
“Listen, we just picked up two more tails and they have the angle on us. In six hours their weapons will be within range and at that point we’re as good as dead.” I took the fact that Miranda wasn’t screaming at me as an indication that the message was getting through.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to make us disappear, but that won’t be enough. We also have to change course after we do, otherwise they’ll just project our path and continue the pursuit.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Of course you don’t. You’re an amateur playing a very serious game of life and death. Those people – things – out there aren’t playing around. They know they have all the eggs in one basket now and all they have to do is smash the basket.”
“That doesn’t answer my question, asshole.”
She was really quite pretty when she was mad – which seemed to be all the time.
“I’m going to cut the engines and go dark.”
“Cut the engines? Won’t they be able to catch up with us if you do?”
“Very good, Miranda, you win a cookie. Yes they will, in a matter of minutes in fact. That’s why we also need to change course, and do it quickly.”
“But don’t you need the engines for that?”
“Damn, girl, you’re two for two. And that’s why I’m going to use the atmosphere from inside the ship
to move us.”
“The atmosphere … from inside the ship? Won’t we suffocate if you do that? Can’t you use your chemical maneuvering jets?”
“That fuel leaves a trail. No, it has to be the atmosphere.” I was through with school for the day. “And that’s why I need you to cooperate and get into one of the spacesuits I have onboard. I’m going to cut you loose; however I won’t tolerate any bullshit from you. Do you understand?”
“Whatever.”
“Do you understand?” I repeated.
“Yeah, sure.”
“If you try anything, it may be simpler just let you die rather than risk a galactic war and the destruction of the Earth. Measured against that, your life rates a very distant third. Now don’t cause any trouble.”
I cut the nylon strap holding her wrists together, half expecting the woman to lash out me again. Luckily – for her – she didn’t.
We rushed to the utility closet and pulled out two self-contained space suits from inside. They carried their own oxygen supply good for up to eight hours. The ship also held three thousand gallons of water, which, with enough time, could be converted to an oxygen atmosphere, yet for the first several hours of our getaway, we would have to rely on just the gas from the suits.
Next I had to find a way of venting the atmosphere from inside the ship in a powerful enough jet to alter the course of the Enterprise. Fortunately, such venting was already planned for in case of a fire, so with a little adjustment to the nozzle aperture of one of the port vents to increase the velocity of the escaping gas, it only took me a minute to make the preparations.
“Gravity’s going down, too, so strap in,” Miranda slipped into the passenger seat next to me and obeyed.
“They won’t be able to detect us?”
“Only if they’re right on top of us and using magnetics. The problem is that with our momentum, once I cut the engines it will be hard to adjust our course by more than a few degrees. Theoretically, that will still leave us comfortably within a search grid.”
“So if they can still find us why do it?”
I didn’t answer; instead I simply killed the gravity drive and the internals simultaneously.
The effect was immediate and startling, as I felt my stomach climb into my throat as if I’d just breached the summit of the highest roller coast ride on Earth. The feeling of falling was short-lived, however, and soon replaced with lightheadedness and the sensation of floating in a crystal clear ocean.
I looked over at Miranda and saw her smiling. “Whew, that was cool. Can I unbuckle now?”
“No. I need to change course first. Even though it’ll be gradual, we may still feel the effects.”
I opened the relief value, and three things happened simultaneously. First, having left basic power still active in the ship until the course correction was made, I noticed the atmosphere content level on my screen begin to drop rapidly. Also an alarm sounded, which I quickly overrode. Next I saw our course begin to deviate from the yellow line I’d set on the screen to indicated our original path. The red line signifying our new course was separating slightly to the right of the yellow line, slowly but surely.
But then another alarm sounded. I looked to my board for the source but didn’t see it. The obnoxious sound continued.
“What’s that?” Miranda asked.
“I don’t know. It should be showing on my board—”
Just then I noticed a flashing yellow light below the dashboard, near the controls to the vent aperture. I brought up the appropriate display on my screen.
“Damn, the vent wasn’t designed to handle such an outpouring of gas, at least not through this one alone. There are eight vents, but I’m only using the one.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’m going to have to reduce the airflow before it—”
The last word of my statement was punctuated by a loud bang, followed by an incredible surge of the ship to port. Miranda and I strained against our seatbelts as the vent blew and the entire contents of the ship’s atmosphere raced off into space in one gigantic fart.
The blast only lasted a moment before there was no more atmosphere to dump, and then weightlessness returned.
“What now? Do we still have a way of changing course?”
I looked at the nav screen again, but this time I couldn’t see the yellow line, just the red one with a pronounced curve to it from moments ago, but now running perfectly straight. I widened the screen view and found the yellow line again.
Well I’ll be damn; the sudden burst had changed our course all right. In fact it had jerked us about one hundred fourteen degrees to starboard, sending us almost backwards in an oblique kind of way. This was better than I could have imagined. Such a turn would place us in an area of space beyond even a full right turn. It would take a miracle now for our hunters to find us.
I unbuckled and drifted out of the seat. “Stay here,” I commanded. “We’ve managed a radical course change so we should be safe, at least for now. The problem is the hull was breached when the vent blew out. I need to repair it before we can start making atmosphere again. Just relax; this will take about an hour.”
True to Miranda’s nature, she didn’t obey. Instead, she unbuckled her safety harness, attached one of the spacesuit’s safety cords to the top of the copilot’s seat and began to float freely within a three foot radius above the seat. She closed her eyes and her slight smile told me she was feeling the joy of weightlessness. I didn’t protest. If she was like a lot of first-timers in zero-g, she’d be asleep in a matter of minutes and no longer a nuisance. What a relief that would be.
Chapter 27
By the graces of whatever gods there may be in the universe, Miranda slept for almost four hours before I saw her spacesuit begin to gyrate. I had fixed the hole in the hull and replenished the atmosphere, and was now sitting on the couch, dressed comfortably in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt while munching on an energy bar. An episode of The Big Bang Theory had just gone off on my laptop datapad, and I had just started another. After all, I had to do something to feed my addiction to Kaley Cuoco in short-shorts.
Unfortunately that was not to be, because Miranda suddenly threw off her helmet and began screaming – again.
“Damn you, King! My oxygen could have run out and I would have died. Of course, that’s what you want to happen anyway.”
I looked from Miranda to the frozen image of Penny now paused on my screen, and then back to Miranda. At the moment, she was right, but in the long run, I preferred her alive. I shut down the datapad.
“You were safe. The suits have about eight hours of oxygen; besides all sorts of alarms would have gone off beforehand.”
We were still in zero-g, drifting through space on minimal energy, so it was almost comical to watch Miranda wriggle out of her suit in midair. She was panting, with beads of sweat on her tanned brow by the time she finished, now dressed only in a sports bra and grannie panties. Still, she was an amazing figure to behold, and the whole episode reminded me of a parody of the movie Barbarella, with a young Jane Fonda stripping out of her spacesuit to the opening credits.
Miranda eventually pulled herself down to a nearby chair and strapped in. “What are you staring at, pervert?”
“Actually, a spoiled child who doesn’t appreciate the fact that someone just saved her life.”
“Bullshit, Jason, you only made things worse. If you hadn’t come along, I would have had the statue cut down by now and I’d be on my merry way, safe, sound … and fabulously wealthy.”
“See, that’s the child in you speaking. There are just too many parties out to either stop or silence you. In reality, your time left was numbered in days, if not hours. At least until I came alone. And if you had cut down the Stone, then that would have started a war that you would have been held responsible for. You may have had a sack full of diamonds by then, but with no one willing to pay you a cent for them and not a place in the galaxy for you to hide.”
I saw the anger welling up in her, even more than before. But I wasn’t finished. “Are you really that self-centered that you can’t see what’s going on here? You’ve been set up – we both have. We’re just a couple of insignificant pawns in a galactic game of chess. We’re expendable, and those ships out there are out to do just that. And that’s not all. How many others do you think are waiting for us from here to Sylox? They know our destination, and the deadline I’m working under. This little maneuver of mine was only a delaying tactic. It in no way has saved us.”
“So why not just call someone and turn the statue over to them – in exchange for our freedom?”
“Who would I call? Who do I trust?”
“What about your friend at the CIA?”
“He lost his job, thanks to me – or more correctly – thanks to you. Besides, the Humans are being blamed for the theft. For the CIA to suddenly show up with the statue would only confirm their beliefs.”
“What about Mark, Mark Wilson?”
“Again, you’re missing the point. The Humans cannot return the statue, period. We’ll be accused of having had it all along.”
“Then your goofy alien friend, Bob or Bill, or something dumb like that.”
“Bill,” I answered. Now that wasn’t such a bad idea. “I could try that, but we’d still have the problem of meeting somewhere. And as one of my closest friends, he may be under surveillance, too.”
“Okay, then,” Miranda said, her eyes growing wide and emphatic, “We could just give up and die, way out here in the middle of nowhere outer space.”
I brushed off her sarcasm, and then using the datapad on my lap, I accessed the ship’s comm system and sent a continuous wormhole link to Sylox and Bill’s private number. Even though we were still two hundred light-years from Sylox, I knew that if he answered we could talk with each other as if he was sitting at the other end of the sofa.