Polaris Rising

by Jessie Mihalik

  “You think we’re going to hit trouble so soon?” Rhys asked.

  “I hope not. I’m going to jump us a few hours out from XAD Six to give the FTL time to recharge before we get close enough for them to notice us. But if we run into a patrol it might get tricky. Better to be prepared.”

  I plotted our course then brought us into full stealth. The visual cloaking wouldn’t hold through the FTL jump but the lack of external communications would. Full stealth hobbled our own ability to locate foreign ships, but it prevented our ship from sending out enough signals that anyone in the sector could spot us. Once I’d surveyed our exit point, I’d lower the stealth level enough to see who else was out there.

  After waiting another minute to be sure no one needed extra time, I pressed the jump confirmation button. The lights flickered and my stomach dropped, just as it would on any conventional FTL jump. Interesting. The alcubium FTL must use a lot less of the ship’s energy in order to be so smooth.

  The ship lurched then punched back into normal space with a shudder that was in no way normal. Warnings flashed red across my screen. The FTL was critically overheated, so I put it into emergency shutdown and cooling. I dealt with the fallout from the various connected systems as fast as I could. We skated a hairsbreadth from catastrophic system failure.

  My hands shook as the warnings dwindled, then disappeared. We’d made it.

  We’d made it.

  “What was that?” Rhys asked.

  “Conventional jump with the FTL. Even though the system said it was good to go, once we jumped, the drive overheated.” I headed off his next question. “I have no idea why, but I intend to find out.”

  “Are we dead in the water?” Loch asked.

  I shook my head. “Not totally. The main engine wasn’t damaged and I shut the FTL down before it took damage. But I have no idea how long the FTL drive will need to cool before it’s ready to jump again, even if we add back the alcubium.”

  “The what?” Rhys asked.

  The jump had shaken me to the point where I wasn’t watching my words. “Alcubium seems to be the element that allows the FTL to jump faster than normal. I suspect Rockhurst is mining it on the planet we’re going to check out.”

  I watched him make the mental connections. “If they own the drives and the resource that powers them, they’ll be unstoppable,” Rhys said.

  “Yes. They’ll certainly outfit their military ships first, once they scale it up. They can jump in, attack, and jump out before our reinforcements can arrive. It’ll be the fall of House von Hasenberg and likely House Yamado. It may already be too late to stop them, but I have to try.”

  “The Consortium may be far from perfect, but I’d take it over a single House dictatorship any day,” Rhys said.

  I turned back to my console. “Let’s see who else is out there,” I said. I tweaked our stealth level so the scanners could check surrounding space. When the results started streaming in, I frowned at the screen and tweaked the settings again.

  “What’s wrong?” Rhys asked.

  “I’m picking up a whole lot of empty space,” I said. “Getting faint signals from the planet, but nothing in orbit or in a wider patrol.”

  “A trap?” Loch asked, finally joining the conversation.

  “Possibly. Or I’m completely wrong about the importance of this planet.”

  “Or Rockhurst doesn’t want to call undue attention to their little project by having a flotilla guarding it,” Rhys said.

  I rubbed my face, feeling the weight of responsibility and divided loyalties. I had a kid on board, but that kid would have a shitty future if Rockhurst steamrolled the other Houses, not to mention most of my siblings would be on the front lines if it came to war, the first to die.

  And, more selfishly, if I found enough information, I could bargain with Father for the freedom to choose my own path in life.

  “I have to get a closer look,” I said finally, “trap or not. But first the FTL must be functional. After the emergency shutdown, I’ll have to go down and manually start it up again.”

  “Loch and I can handle that,” Rhys said. Loch didn’t seem super enthused to be volunteered, but he didn’t disagree.

  “Thanks. While you do that, I’ll go through the logs and see if I can figure out what happened.”

  They left and I dove into the diagnostics. It took a bit of backtracking but I finally found the root of the problem: the drive had been much too hot at the beginning of the jump. Turning off the alcubium had also turned off some sort of accelerated cooling.

  Adding alcubium made the drive operate at a higher temperature but with better cooling. And because the engineers who built the ship had bolted the alcubium on a standard FTL, the safety coding was a mess—the fail-safes hadn’t caught the fact that the drive was too hot for a standard jump because it was within spec for an alcubium-boosted jump.

  I disabled the six-hour jump. Conventional jumps would have to wait the full two days for the drive to cool sufficiently. Until the safety coding was fixed, we’d be taking conventional jumps slowly. It was overly cautious, but we’d come close enough to disaster that I didn’t want to risk it a second time.

  After Rhys and Loch went through the manual startup for the FTL, I enabled the alcubium again to help bring the drive temperature down. Plotting a jump course showed a fifty-five-minute cooldown. With the alcubium once again in use, I had to believe it was within spec. If I started doubting every command, I’d drive myself crazy.

  We were three hours out from XAD Six and still flying stealthed. I set us on a course that would put us into orbit if I didn’t alter it, set the sensors to maximum sensitivity, then went to grab a snack.

  Veronica sat facing the door, staring into a steaming mug, when I entered the mess hall. Lin and Imma sat across from her. Lin was talking a mile a minute between bites of a grilled cheese sandwich, but Veronica’s smile was wan.

  I waved her over, and Lin turned around when she stood up. “Lady Ada!” he said.

  “Hello, Lord Lin,” I said. “Is that grilled cheese? Grilled cheese is my favorite.”

  He beamed at me. “It’s my favorite, too!”

  “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Imma said gently. “And finish your lunch.” Lin pouted but turned back to his food without complaint. It was clear Imma adored the kid and Lin returned her affection.

  I led Veronica over to the galley to give us a bit of privacy. “You okay?” I asked quietly.

  “Yeah,” she said. “Just trying to revert to Universal. Lin barely slept, so we’re all tired.” She waved her mug. “Caffeine helps.”

  So did adrenaline, but I didn’t think she’d appreciate the option. “You’re welcome on the flight deck, you know. Rhys and Loch were up there.”

  “If we’re going to be blown out of the sky, I’d rather not know in advance,” she said with another wan smile.

  “I hope it doesn’t come to that, but we are going to have to get closer. Looks empty, but it could be a trap.”

  “I knew it was dangerous when I decided to come along. Imma and I are both armed. We won’t go quietly.”

  I pulled an orange out of the fridge and peeled it slowly. The bright citrus scent lifted my mood and steadied my resolve. “None of us will go quietly. I’ll get you out,” I said, “whatever the cost.”

  She met my eyes. “Don’t forget to get yourself out, too.”

  “Of course,” I said easily. I popped the last piece of orange into my mouth before she could question me again. I waved goodbye to Lin and returned to the flight deck. Rhys and Loch were back in their seats. Rhys studied the navigation console.

  “You’re taking us into orbit?” he asked.

  “Probably not, but it was easy to plot. If the surroundings remain empty, I’m headed for the surface. If we meet a fleet of warships, I’m going to run like hell.”

  I kept us cloaked and in stealth as we approached the planet. The sensors didn’t detect any other ships, but they were picking
up various signals from the surface. Once we were in range, I scanned the surface. XAD Six was just as frozen as the von Hasenberg planet we’d left, but it teemed with radio activity.

  “There’s a lot of something going on down there,” Rhys said, looking at the sensor data.

  “Yes. Most of it seems to originate from a single point, at least on this side of the planet. Let me see if I can get a visual.” I pointed the ship’s long-range cameras at the most likely origination point for the signals. I piped the resulting images to the flight deck’s video screens.

  A large spaceport surrounded by white landscape came into view. A single squat building sat off to one side.

  “They’re underground,” Loch said.

  “Of course they are,” I muttered. Infiltrating a warehouse on the surface wasn’t terribly difficult; infiltrating an unknown underground facility was.

  “They didn’t bother to terraform the planet,” Rhys said. “If they’re mining, they’ll be underground anyway. Makes sense to just put all their buildings there.”

  “I would’ve preferred an obvious, unguarded pile of alcubium sitting out in the open,” I said.

  “Where’s the fun in that?” Loch drawled.

  Rhys grinned at him. “I have to agree.”

  I huffed out a laugh. “I’m glad you feel that way because if our path remains clear, we’ll be planetside in a little under an hour. Rhys, I don’t suppose you brought anything useful for this, did you?”

  “Why, Lady Ada, I thought you’d never ask!” he said with a melodramatic flourish. He sobered. “I didn’t pack rebreathers or space suits, though. Didn’t think we’d be visiting an unterraformed planet.”

  “The ship has plenty of suits,” Loch said. “Found them when I went looking for clothes.”

  “I need a codebreaker to get me through the door and something to keep me alive on the other side. And, ideally, a distraction to let me slip back out again.”

  “You seem to be under the mistaken impression that you’re going in alone,” Rhys said.

  “It’s not a mistake,” I said sweetly, “I am going in alone.”

  “The hell you are,” Loch said.

  “I need you two to keep the ship secure and make sure I have a way out. In the event that I’m caught, I want you to promise to take the ship to Father. My sister Bianca knows all about this trip and she will let Father know if I don’t check in. He’ll expect you,” I said. It was as much threat as warning. “I don’t care how much you bend him over a barrel in negotiations, but the House von Hasenberg scientists and engineers need this ship.”

  “All the more reason for me and Loch to enter the building while you stay with the ship,” Rhys argued.

  “I agreed to bring you along. I didn’t agree to let you risk your neck more than necessary. If I am caught, they will keep me alive and eventually I’ll escape or be traded back to the House. If they catch you, they’ll kill you.”

  “But—”

  “No buts. My ship, my rules. If you no longer wish to supply me with gear, I won’t hold it against you.”

  “Of course I’m still going to give you gear!” Rhys exploded. “Damn, woman, you’d try the patience of a saint. I don’t know how you deal with her,” he said to Loch.

  We all froze for an instant as his words sank in. “He doesn’t,” I quipped lightly, as if the knife-sharp pain in my chest didn’t exist. “I’m going to get suited up.”

  “Ada—” Rhys started, but I ignored him and fled the flight deck.

  Despite my protests that it wasn’t necessary, both Rhys and Loch donned space suits. They pointed out that if they had to fight outside the ship, they needed to be prepared. And we’d be able to communicate over the headset radio.

  I knew a losing argument when I saw one, so I capitulated as gracefully as I could.

  These space suits were top-of-the-line models, designed to be worn next to the skin. The fabric was millimeter-thin but strong enough to deflect small physical projectiles. Even the gloves didn’t dull tactile sensation.

  I could move as easily as if I wore workout clothes, but the suit lacked any pockets. Luckily, it was thin enough I could wear it as a base layer under normal clothes. I pulled on a pair of cargo pants and a long-sleeved T-shirt. The extra layer also helped to hide some of the blinding white suit fabric.

  I wondered if Richard had told the rest of his House that he’d lost this ship and everything in it. And, if so, if he’d survived the conversation. If I was him, I’d be waiting until the last possible second in hopes of recovering the ship before anyone noticed it went missing.

  XAD Six loomed large in the window. It was nearly time to make a course correction if I wanted to enter the atmosphere and land at the spaceport. I checked the sensors. They still showed vast, empty space. Results also streamed in for XAD Seven, the other Rockhurst planet in this solar system, and it wasn’t any better protected.

  The lack of ships made me twitchy. I debated aborting and returning to House von Hasenberg with Polaris. There was enough alcubium that the scientists could at least get started, especially if I used conventional jumps all the way home.

  But my reckless side, the side that had prompted me to run away from the only home I’d ever known rather than marry a practical stranger for political power, that side knew I would land on the planet. I had to know if my hunch was correct.

  So I’d prepare for a trap and hope for the best. With Loch and Rhys on the ship and the FTL ready to go, they should be able to make it out either way. And if I could confirm Rockhurst mined alcubium here, they could take that info to Father along with the ship, even if I had to be left behind.

  I turned to Rhys and Loch, both of whom had been subdued since Rhys’s verbal slip. “I need you both to swear that if things get rough, you’ll prioritize getting the ship to my father over rescuing me,” I said.

  “No,” Rhys said flatly.

  “You don’t swear, we don’t land. We don’t land, House Rockhurst goes to war unimpeded and becomes your new dictator. You okay with that?”

  “I’ll do it,” Loch said. The knife in my chest dug a little deeper, but I nodded.

  “I need you to back him up,” I told Rhys quietly. I need you to make sure he doesn’t double-cross me and steal my ship, is what I didn’t say. “Please.”

  Rhys stared hard at Loch. A wealth of nonverbal communication passed between them. Rhys sighed. “Very well,” he said. “But if we leave you behind, your father is not going to appreciate the negotiation.”

  “I hope you all become wealthy beyond compare. Father can afford it. Don’t forget to get a share for Veronica, too.”

  For a second, Rhys’s charming mask slipped and his eyes flashed with fury. “How can you discuss being left behind so casually?”

  “This is what I do.” I paused. “Well, what I did, at any rate. Did you think I just sat around wearing pretty dresses and going to balls all the time? It doesn’t work that way in a High House. I was groomed from birth to spy on my future husband, to infiltrate his deepest secrets and report back. And nothing teaches faster than experience.”

  I tamped down the memories. “I’ve been caught before. At some point, I’ll be caught again. I know exactly what I’m risking.” At best, a slap on the wrist and the humiliation of being traded back to Father like chattel. At worst . . . well, there were things worse than death.

  Rhys stared me down but I didn’t flinch. “Okay,” he said at last, “then let’s discuss the plan. Why do you want to land? You could jump from the upper atmosphere and parachute in. If we keep the ship stealthed, you might escape detection until you breached the facility.”

  I shuddered. I wasn’t afraid of heights. I’d been known to perform dangerous stunts at height just for the thrill. But I’d never enjoyed skydiving. “If I jump out of this ship, it’s only because it’s on fire. And having the ship on the ground gives me a solid retreat option if I run into more trouble than I can handle,” I said.

  “If thi
s is a trap, it also gives Rockhurst a solid target,” Loch said. “We’ll be sitting ducks.”

  “You think he’ll blow up a prototype ship when he has a chance to recover it?” I asked.

  “If he’s sure you’re not on board? Yeah, I think he’ll blow us up and not bat an eye,” he said. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was arguing just for the sake of arguing.

  “Fine,” I said, addressing both men. “You can drop me off and return to orbit. We’ll still be able to communicate and you can jump at the first sign of danger. In fact, if I find that this is the planet where they’re mining alcubium, you can go ahead and jump to the gate. I’ll find my own way back. I’ll write down my demands from Father before I go—I’d appreciate it if you included them in the negotiations.”

  If anything, Loch looked less pleased by that option. I threw up my hands. “I’m done arguing. You will drop me off and return to orbit. If it’s a trap, jump out at the first opportunity. If it’s not, you can pick me up when I’m done poking around.”

  Neither Loch nor Rhys looked happy, but both nodded begrudgingly. I changed the flight plan to land us at the spaceport. The ship estimated arrival in twenty minutes.

  “Polaris, make Rhys Sebastian and Marcus Loch temporary first officers,” I said. The ship prompted them to confirm their identities and voice imprints. As temporary first officers, they would be able to pilot the ship but not add or remove crew—notably me. So they couldn’t remove me from the captain’s position and take us into safer space.

  They also wouldn’t be able to assign anyone else as captain, so Father would still need me in order to completely secure control over the ship. I hadn’t sent my sister the ship’s override codes and they were not codes I had used before. So if I died, Father would have to spend a great deal of time and effort cracking the codes by brute force. I decided it was an acceptable risk.

  “Time to gear up,” I said. “Rhys, let’s see if that giant pile of stuff you brought is actually useful.”

  “I have the codebreaker you need,” he said, “plus a few extra items that will come in handy.”