She sighed. “Well, I’ve looked every part over and tested it with this device or that, but nothing in my search reveals anything unusual.”
Josh furrowed his brow. “Nothing?”
She glanced back at him. “This schematic of the Talon shows nothing. I’ve looked for some variation or combination that would make either of the two ships traceable, but I haven’t found anything. I even considered that somehow the two ships might be two halves of a whole—that together, they might somehow form a traceable thing. But nothing has proven fruitful.”
Josh stepped closer to the schematic holograph that hovered nearby and studied it before speaking. “I came out here to help you with this puzzle, Rachel. I know how focused you can be once your mind is set. You’ll forget to eat if someone doesn’t remind you.”
Rachel laid back on the platform and sighed.
“Exasperated?”
She stared, more or less, into the heavens but said nothing.
Josh knelt beside her. “Your father says we are being tracked somehow; of that there is no doubt. Maybe we’ve overlooked something simple.”
“I can’t find any way to trace anything about these two ships.” She leaned up on an elbow and looked at him sternly. “No material, no mechanism, no device, no combination of anything on either ship, nor anything combining both ships . . . but Jordon says the enemy fleet is coming straight toward us?” Race sat back up but dropped her head, disgusted with herself. “I just don’t see how these ships are being traced at all.”
Joshua messaged the older girl’s back some. “Good job, Rachel.”
Prickling, Rachel glared at him and snapped in anger. “Don’t make fun of me.”
“I wouldn’t make fun of you, my friend.” Josh smiled. “Do you remember when Edison tried to invent the incandescent light bulb?”
“Yeah. Talk about longsuffering.”
“What do you mean, longsuffering, Rachel?”
“Well, he tried over a thousand different things before he stumbled upon carbon fiber. The guy had to be maddened by so many failures.”
“Well,” Josh said, “when asked about failing a thousand times, what did he say?”
She shrugged. “He said he didn’t fail. He successfully found a thousand ways the light bulb wouldn’t work. Yeah, I remember that. So?”
“You haven’t failed to find the tracking device on these ships. You’ve . . . What?”
Rachel’s eyes lit up. “I’ve proven that it isn’t the ships they’re actually tracking.” She jumped to her feet and hurried toward the door more determined than ever. But before she entered the ship, she turned back to Josh and motioned toward the ramp. “Clean this mess up, will you?” Then she disappeared through the portal. Rachel was an engineering genius to be sure, but nevertheless, she was just seventeen-years-old. Her tact was in short supply. Josh sighed. He knew the only thing that would temper that fault in her would be time.
He looked at the cluttered mess of countless Talon parts strewn all over. “Freefall, reconstruct this mess back into a Talon, please.” Josh turned to head back into the ship then corrected himself. “Belay that, Freefall. Rachel will have need of these ships disassembled. Just organize the parts for her, please.”
“Aye, sir.” Freefall used its tractor projectors to comply with Joshua’s order. The invisible tractor beams gathered one part after the next to organize the pieces in a way that made sense.
Before he headed inside, Joshua watched Freefall’s work in progress, and marveled. Men had built robots that could perform a specific task. Some had managed to devise robotic brains to do multiple things all at once. But Jordon Kori had done what no other had even come close to doing. Contained inside a small black cube, he had created an artificial brain that could do whatever task assigned it: from the mundane to the complex. It was loyal and intuitive, and made life aboard Freefall very comfortable, and Josh felt spoiled.
After a lengthy moment he went back into the ship and found Rachel in a side room rummaging through a cabinet.
“What are you looking for?” he said.
In her quest for a certain device, Rachel hadn’t noticed Josh enter the room.
“There you are,” she whispered, pulling a metal box from a drawer. She turned, ran headlong into Josh, and jumped with a start. “Don’t sneak up on me, like that.”
“I didn’t snea—”
Rachel pushed past him mid-word.
Josh had seen her like this before.
When she was focused this keenly, it was nearly impossible to talk to her. He resigned himself to follow and observe. Watching her piece things together was fascinating. Her laser-like focus tended to make those around her feel as if they were no more than furniture or wallpaper. That may very well have been the case. To Rachel if you weren’t here to help her then you were just in the way. In the cargo bay, she went to a computer junction in one wall and inserted the box into a square-ish slot.
Josh took a chance and spoke. “What is that?”
She glanced back at him. “It’s a scanner-recorder. I made it before this last assignment.”
The computer interrupted, “Ready. I await your orders, ma’am.”
“Scan interior of Freefall cargo bay to bedroom A-4, inclusive please. Compare with this recording and list changes.”
The indicator light blinked for a brief moment before the computer spoke again. “Completed.”
“Print hard copy of list, please.” The computer spit out a card, and Rachel studied it. From the computer’s slot she pulled out the Scanner-recorder and inserted the card into it to study its small screen remotely while she retraced the Confederate inspectors’ steps.
Josh peered around the seventeen-year-old’s shoulder. “Why did you make a scanner recorder?”
“I was inspired; these things just come to me, and I have to make them. At the time I thought it was a silly device, but I used it anyway.”
Understanding a scanner could peer through walls Josh was leery. “You used it? How so?”
“I walked through the ship and recorded everything I could.”
“You scanned everything?”
She gritted her teeth and diverted her gaze. “Uh huh.”
Josh set his jaw and studied her face. “So you know what’s hidden in my room?”
“Sorry, Josh,” she whispered. “I saw.”
Josh scowled and turned away. “You know a guy has a right to privacy don’t you?”
“I know, I know. Look, it’ll be our secret, okay?”
Josh turned back to her with a scowl. “Look, you. On your birthday you’d better act surprised or no more tools for you. All you’ll get from me from then on are poodle skirts and frilly blouses.”
Rachel flinched. “Oow. My bad. I wasn’t thinking, okay?”
Josh chuckled.
Rachel looked up from the scanner to meet his friendly grin. “I must say, Josh, your gift-stash is pretty impressive. How’d you get all that loot aboard Freefall without anyone seeing?”
Josh ignored her question and tapped the device’s screen. “So what did your scan tell you?”
“Not going to say, huh?”
His grin vanished. “Your scan? What did it tell you?”
“Right.” She showed Josh the screen. “I just compared the previous with the scan Freefall just took. There is no meaningful difference inside the ship.”
“Meaning what?”
As she scratched the back of her neck, she shrugged. “How are they tracking us? That is the question.”
Josh shook his head. “No, that’s not the question.”
Rachel furrowed her brow and studied the younger boy’s face. “Then what is the question?”
Josh laid a supportive hand on her shoulder and leaned close as if to whisper a profound secret. “The question isn’t ‘how are they doing it, but how would you do it?”
Race hesitated. “Well, I wouldn’t plant a tracking device inside the ship. That would make its signal too easy to smo
ther. That’s why I thought it would be out there in or on one of those Talons.”
“Out there?” Josh emphasized. “You would make certain the tracking device was outside the ship?”
Realization raised her brows. “Yeah, that’s it. Outside the ship!” Beaming, Rachel clapped Joshua’s shoulder appreciatively.
Josh tabbed his collar-com. “Mrs. Kori?”
“Yes?”
“Mrs. Kori, Race and I are about to step outside the ship for a bit. Don’t go anywhere, okay.”
“Understood, honey. Let me know when you’re back inside.”
“Sure thing, Mrs. Kori. Josh out.”
Wide-eyed, Rachel stared at Josh.
“What?” he said, perplexed by her raised brows.
“You actually called me Race.”
“I’ve wanted too for the longest time, but you always stop me.”
“I do?”
“My name isn’t chisel. Got that?”
“Oh.” Rachel thought about it, but it took a moment for the light to come on. “Ohh! Sorry.” Interpersonal relationships weren’t her strong suit.
Josh opened the supply locker and pulled out visors, cryoid lights, and a jet belt for each of them. As he handed Rachel hers he said, “I think I understand you better. Before, I thought . . .”
“You thought what?”
“Well, you tend to treat people as objects in your way.”
Rachel paused for a moment. “I guess I’ve been pretty self-serving, huh?”
“I wouldn’t say self-serving. You’re focused, certainly. But you’ve always been self-reliant. And that has its drawbacks.”
“You’re right. Until now, I’ve never needed anyone else’s help but my own. This thing, this tracking device thing, though. Well, I liked working with you, Josh. You’re okay.”
Rachel put her blued visor on and looked around the room. “Hey, look at this.” She drew her right foot back, and with her hands on her hips, took a superhero stance. “Huh? Super hero. Right?”
“Cute. You made these visors, didn’t you?”
“Sure did. I wanted them to look like a sharp pair of sporty sunglasses, designed to be stylish as well as functional. But in this case, I think the superhero look, completely a happy accident, will be a classic.”
Josh chuckled at her clowning. He cinched the jet belt around her waist and then clipped the light onto the belt. “Freefall, we’re going to step outside for a walk. Raise the cargo bay door, please."
Race looked up as if Freefall were above them. “Buddy, don’t you move while we’re out there. Understand.”
“Affirmative,” Freefall responded.
Rachel jetted from the ship, did a flip, and then came back to Freefall’s hull. When she shined the cryoid light on the ship, the visor cloaked all but foreign substances on its surface. The tracker would glow if and when it was found.
Josh jetted casually from the cargo bay. “Freefall, close the bay door please.” As it closed, he and Race began their search.
Josh glanced at Rachel and chuckled at her appearance. “Miss Kori, all you’re missing is the cape.”
“Give me time, big guy. I’m learning to sew.”
Rachel nosed closer to the ship’s hull. “Josh, I believe they had to tag us in this area.”
“Be careful of where you place your hands. We don’t want to stop its signal prematurely.”
Chapter Eighteen
Jordon leaned back in his chair, and rubbed his chin as he looked around the table to study each captain in turn. To calm himself around these men, he pretended to be a ship’s captain. Still, their company didn’t make his pretense easy. “Do you folks have any issues with this schematic or our plans?”
Captain Muncy pointed toward the hologram’s perimeter, to a place in the asteroid ring across from where they were. “You know that hidden amongst these rocks is Rhone, don’t you?”
Rhone, a hollow asteroid, with its heavy lead and iron composition, made it possible for an entire community to hide inside it. Not only was it the rebel’s base of operations, it was their home. Despite its size, the Confederation had no idea it even existed, so well were its secrets kept.
Jordon swiveled in his chair to face Muncy. “The asteroid city? I know the hollow asteroid is your hiding place. We’ll protect it at all costs, I assure you.”
Captain Wolford tapped the table with a stiff forefinger. “With or without your assurances, Jordon Kori, inside our home, we’re virtually invisible to Confederation forces. I don’t want to lose that to them. Is there no other place we can wage this war?”
“War?” Jordon shot a confused look at his uncle.
Buck stood and stepped around the table, more or less to stretch his legs. “I know this . . .” (he glanced at Jordon) “battle . . . is a huge gamble. To lead this Confederation fleet here, to us, puts our home base at risk, but what would you have us do, Capt. Muncy? If Rhone was discovered, we would have to give it up forever—but, here, in this asteroid field, we’ll have the benefit of position. Jordon is right in saying that our greatest advantage over the Confederate ships is here. They’re large and cumbersome and difficult to maneuver in amongst these asteroids; something second nature to us. Our ships are smaller and by using the asteroids as cover, if we can get them to enter, we’ll be free to pound them at will.”
Captain Rauland leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table. “Well, I like it. More than likely, they’ll have to keep the carrier out of the asteroid field for safety’s sake. This will split the flotilla in two. Half will have to remain with it while the others hunt for us.”
Buck glanced at his old friend and half nodded. “Once the ships that have entered the asteroid field have been dealt with, we’ll need to lure the others away from the carrier, leaving it vulnerable to us. That’ll be difficult. Hell, it may not happen at all.”
Wolford hmphed. “With our numbers less than half theirs we better split their fleet. But let’s be prudent. They do have a carrier. This means they’ll have a hundred and twenty Talons in the mix. Those little snipes are an issue we’ll need to contend with.”
“As for the Talons,” Jordon said, “we’ll construct an energized box trap inside the asteroids and bate it. When they fly in, we’ll spring the trap.”
“A box trap?” Wolford said.
“I’m thinking a Zero-point energy web tying asteroids together. Once activated, the asteroids will close in on them and make them prisoners without our having to fire a single shot.”
“Does such a device exist?” Wolford asked.
“Only in a boy’s imaginings,” Jordon said glancing at Nate still perched quietly in a corner, “but it will.”
Nate smiled. Jordon did too.
Buck folded his arms and glanced at the others before focusing on Captain Wolford. “And if that trap fails us, Isaac Katusia is working on another solution. He says we’ll be ready for them, and I trust the old man means business.”
“Isaac Katusia?” Jordon asked.
Buck looked at Jordon. “Isaac Katusia. He’s a bit of an inventor himself. You’ll meet him soon enough and I think you two should work together.”
“You have me intrigued,” Jordon said.
Buck subtly glanced at the ship’s chronometer. The hours plodded along—lunch came and went—and he grew weary as the captains hammered out every pertinent detail. But in time, each captain had his say and had his concerns met.
Still, every one of these men knew that no plan was foolproof. Buck looked over the asteroid schematic one more time and hunted for flaws in their plan. He turned to his nephew. “The heat of battle quickly changes things. It would be good if we knew just how they were tracking you, Jordon.”
Jordon half nodded. “Yes, it would. I have three of my best working on it as we speak. I expect we’ll have an answer very soon. I just don’t like to cut it this close.”
“And if you can’t find the tracking device?” Wolford said.
“Then we’ll bait
the trap with Freefall itself,” Jordon said.
“Could lose your ship,” Wolford warned.
Jordon shrugged. “Small price to pay if this works.”
Captain Rauland hmphed. “To sacrifice your ship is no small price.”
Without concern, Jordon smiled. He knew the men around the table, and he knew their stories as well. Most had, at one time or another, sacrificed to make a plan work. “Didn’t you, Captain Rauland, lose your first command by ramming the launch bay of a Confederate Carrier?”
He shrugged. “Someone had to block the launch of its Blitz ships.”
“You did so under heavy fire, didn’t you? I heard you made your way alone through the Confederate fleet. Some say you resigned yourself to die to save a Followers colony at Uromoth. Did they exaggerate?”
Rauland dropped his eyes and looked away.
“That was no small feat,” Jordon continued. “And you, Capt. Goldstein; didn’t you overcome great odds against you to win the Battle of Anntibi. Capt. Zeff, in the Morning Star you captured the Confederate Battle Cruiser HMS Landis. I was also told Captains Dais, Chonri, and Mont Batton, together broke the blockade of Durmiss to rescue the believers enslaved there. Each captain here has risked his life selflessly to save others. To date, nothing I’ve done compares.”
“Just doing what we had to,” Rauland muttered under his breath.
Despite their self-effacement, these men were rough, hard-bitten, capable. And those that weren’t, weren’t allowed to sit at this table . . .
. . . except one.
Jordon eyed Captain O’Dare with suspicion.
O’Dare sat next to Captain Muncy, a man who wasn’t given to panic, or even to mild alarm. Story was, more than once, Muncy had faced certain defeat in battle, even the imminent destruction of his ship, and yet here he sat. Other than a thick scar on his cheek he had always escaped relatively unscathed. As one of his crewmen had put it, ‘Muncy carries himself with a certain assured determination, as if he has hold of some secret power beyond himself.’ This attitude, Jordon had seen in others as well. In this day and age it earmarked almost every true believer. Surrounded by such men Jordon was beginning to believe there might be something to all this religious nonsense. Maybe there was a God. Maybe there wasn’t. But he was a scientist first and foremost. Things that could not be tested or quantified held little interest for him.
Living in Freefall (Living on the Run Book 1) Page 12