The Voyage Home

by D. J. Holmes

  “And that is why you are trying to hide your feelings?” Kevin said, his smile widening. “So that I can’t sense you are telling the truth? Right? Because that’s what everyone who is telling the truth does, they try to hide it.”

  Sarah tried to come up with another explanation. Kevin didn’t let her, he held up both his arms with his palms facing towards her. “You don’t need to lie,” he said. “I want to help you.”

  “You what?” Sarah asked, taken aback.

  “I want to help you,” he repeated. “I can sense how lonely you are. I know I cannot fill that void. You have been through a lot with them. You didn’t ask to be altered with Elder DNA. You didn’t ask to be shipped from Earth to Hope V and kept as a prisoner. I know you intend to stay, to do your part when it comes time to confront the Elders. But we can’t expect you to just forget about your past life. They aren’t far, away are they? We should be able to leave and find them within a few days, shouldn’t we?”

  “If they are still there,” Sarah said. “Finding them should be the easy part. Getting off Hope V will be much harder. Are you really going to help me?”

  “I just said I would, didn’t I?” Kevin replied, mentally he gave Sarah a playful shove. “Do you not trust me now?”

  “Of course I do,” Sarah said. “It’s just… I’ve been looking for a way to get off Hope V since I got here. I don’t know how I’m going to do it.”

  “It’s a good thing I have a few ideas then isn’t it?” Kevin said with the smirk Sarah was coming to hate. “You have been looking into the corvette, haven’t you?”

  “How did you know?” Sarah asked.

  “I was confused at first,” Kevin said as he took Sarah’s hand and continued to walk with her. “After we imprinted I began to sense your mind moving around Hope V at amazing speeds. I checked the ship’s computer and it said you were always in your quarters. It took me a while to figure it out, but eventually I realized you are able to send your mind out into the asteroid’s computer systems, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” Sarah admitted. “Though don’t ask me to explain how. I’m not sure how I do it.”

  “Well, when I figured out what you were doing, I began to follow your mind as best I could. I cross checked all the data files from the different memory banks you visited. The corvette was one of the common denominators. Given that you have flown quite a few hours in the corvette simulator. I figured you were thinking of taking it. It wasn’t hard to figure out why.”

  “Ok,” Sarah said. She was still hesitant about revealing all her plans, though as she examined Kevin’s motives, she sensed a genuine desire to help her. “So, you know about the corvette. What are your ideas? I can’t just walk in there and take her you know.”

  “You can’t, but I can,” Kevin said with his smirk. “Remember, I’m a training officer now. My clearance allows me to access the corvette.”

  “You can just walk on to it, without getting any pre-clearance?” Sarah asked, excitement boiling up within her. It meant she wouldn’t have to hack the access codes.

  “I sure can,” Kevin answered. “The hard part will be getting the outer space doors to open. As soon as we disengage the docking clamps, flight control will know. They will lock the space doors and we’ll not be able to go anywhere. Thankfully, I have a plan for that too.”

  “What?” Sarah asked. She hadn’t been able to come up with anything.

  “You spend too much of your time in the digital world,” Kevin said. “I bet you have been trying to find a way to hack the corvette’s access codes, and then the space doors?”

  “Maybe,” Sarah said slowly. She sensed a rebuke coming.

  “Well, there are always other options out there, if you know where to look. Take this for example,” Kevin said as he stopped in front of an access door.

  Sarah looked at it surprised. Mentally she checked where they were on the asteroid’s schematics. “The space door’s electromagnetic pistons. What are we doing here?”

  “Think,” Kevin said with another grin. “If one of the space door’s pistons fail. What do you think Hope V’s main computer is programmed to do?”

  Sarah thought for a moment. If both the space doors failed, Hope V wouldn’t be able to sortie her destroyers. In the event of an attack, the asteroid would be almost helpless. That would be unacceptable. It was likely then that as soon as the asteroid’s main computer sensed a problem with one of the space doors, it would automatically open the other to make sure the fleet could sortie. “It will open the other,” Sarah answered.

  “Exactly,” Kevin said as he stepped forward. The access hatch automatically opened.

  Sarah found herself looking at a massive hanger. It housed three large pistons that stretched into the distance. Closer to her there were a number of capacitors which fed energy into the pistons. They also stored enough energy to open the space doors if the asteroid’s zero-point reactor failed.

  “So all we need to do is this,” Kevin said as he pulled out the blaster he had holstered on his hip. Without pausing, he fired multiple shots into the nearby capacitors. They erupted in a series of mini explosions. Before Sarah could protest, he swung his blaster around and fired a series of shots into one of the pistons. It had little impact, but as he hit the same spot a number of times, the laser beams began to burn a hole into the piston.

  “There,” Kevin said when he finished. “Hope V’s computer should detect a structural problem in that piston. Even if they redirect the energy conduits to feed the pistons, it will take a lot longer to fix that.”

  “What are you doing?” Sarah said, shock pouring from her mind. “If you do this now, we can’t do it when we want to leave.”

  “I guess we better just leave now then, don’t you think?” Kevin said as he spun Sarah around and walked out of the piston hanger.

  “Now,” Sarah balked. She was bewildered. She wasn’t ready. She had so many things she needed to put in place. She had plans she needed to activate. At the very least, she had intended to temporarily disable the destroyers docked to Hope V. She didn’t want them trying to catch her. Her concerns spilled over into words. “I’m not ready. We’re not ready. We just can’t up and leave. You should have prepared me. You can’t just spring this on me.”

  “I think I just did,” Kevin said. Mentally he gave her mind another poke. “Wake up. We’re doing this. There’s no turning back now. We all know you have a flair for the dramatic when it comes to flying, can’t I have a little fun too?”

  “A little fun,” Sarah said, choking. “This is more than a little fun.”

  “Fine,” Kevin said seriously. “Think of this as a little payback if you like. You were planning on just running away without even telling me. Think of how I would have felt.”

  “I... I guess I didn’t let my mind get that far,” Sarah said as it dawned on her what it would have been like to be parted from Kevin permanently. They would have been light years apart. The thought terrified her. “I was so focused on finding a way off Hope V, I never really thought about what it would be like to leave.”

  “I’m glad,” Kevin responded sensing Sarah’s horror. “I don’t know what I would do if I thought you were willing to just abandon me without even a goodbye.”

  “I would never,” Sarah said.

  “I know,” Kevin replied as he squeezed Sarah’s hand. “At least, now I do. Now, let’s focus on getting out of here.”

  “Right,” Sarah said. Closing her eyes, she took a moment to collect her thoughts as Kevin led her through Hope V. The day has finally come, she said to herself. I won’t get another shot at this. It needs to work. She knew that if Simmons caught her trying to escape, she would lock her up. To Simmons, she was far too important to risk.

  When she opened her eyes, she found herself standing in front of one of the docking hatches that lead onto the experimental corvette. The hatch had the corvette’s name written across it. Hawk. Sarah had looked up the meaning of its name. An Earth bird of prey, she
had thought it fitting.

  Kevin placed his hand in a DNA scanner next to the access hatch. Alongside this, Sarah knew the access hatch was asking Kevin for his command codes. Then, just like that, the access hatch opened. Sarah felt her heart flutter. This is it, she thought. Letting go of Kevin’s hand, she almost ran through the corvette towards the bridge.

  When she got there, she flopped into the pilot’s chair. Kevin he sat down at the tactical officer’s chair. “What are your orders Captain?” he asked.

  “Power up the reactors and the engines,” Sarah commanded as she accessed the ships’ sensors. Without an interface helmet, she had to use the bridge’s holo projector to see what was going on around Hawk. She would also have to fly the ship using the two pilot flight sticks. Sarah had been practicing with them. She thought she was beginning to master them, though she knew she would never be nearly as good a pilot with them as she was with the interface helmet. The helmet allowed her to do far more.

  “Look,” Kevin said, sounding excited. “One of the space doors is open.”

  “It worked,” Sarah said as she shot a smile at Kevin. On the holo projector she could see the two massive space doors that had been built into the side of the asteroid. One was slightly open, it was clearly the one Kevin had damaged. The other had completely retracted. The way was clear for them.

  “Systems are powered up, you are free to maneuver,” Kevin reported.

  “I’m taking us out,” Sarah said as she released the corvette’s docking clamps and eased Hawk away from where she had been docked.

  Almost immediately alarms went off on the bridge. A male voice suddenly spoke to them through the corvette’s COM system. “Hawk is not authorized to leave Hope V,” it said. “No test flights have been scheduled for today. Lieutenant Simmons, what are you doing?”

  Kevin shot Sarah a glance. Mentally he asked her a question. “Should I respond?”

  “And say what?” Sarah replied. “Can you talk them into letting you go?”

  “Letting a Lieutenant take a corvette by himself, I don’t think so,” Kevin said.

  “Then we keep going,” Sarah responded. She gunned Hawk’s engines and turned the corvette’s nose towards the open space door.

  “This flight is unauthorized,” the voice said. “I am taking control of Hawk.”

  Sarah felt her controls go dead. Hawk stopped accelerating. Instead, she slowed and her nose turned back towards her docking berth. “What?” Sarah said as she took her hands off the flight sticks. “That’s not supposed to be possible.”

  In all her research about Hawk and the other Hope V warships. She had never come across a kill switch. She hadn’t thought it possible to remotely take control of a warship, at least not when a human was at its commands.

  “Can you do something?” Kevin asked.

  “Maybe,” Sarah replied as she got over her shock and began to think.

  “Then do it fast,” Kevin said. He nodded to the image on the main holo projector.

  Sarah saw what he meant. They were approaching the docking berth. Once docked, it wouldn’t take long for armed security personnel to apprehend them. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. She sent her mind into Hope V’s computer systems. She sought out the flight control room. As she tried to push her mind into their control computers she encountered a security barrier. Their cover already blown, she didn’t need to worry about setting off any alarms. She thrust her mind at the barrier, using the techniques she had learnt from the Elder virus and Alexandra to tear it apart.

  It took less than a second for her to burst through it. As soon as she was in the flight control computers, she sought out the code that was controlling Hawk. With a thought, she disabled it. Then, she tore into the other flight control systems. She didn’t want the officers on duty coming up with some other way to prevent her escape.

  Once she was done, Sarah pulled her mind back to her body and she sent out one final piece of computer code she had prepared days before. It wormed its way into the control systems of the mechanical docking clamps. All around the interior of Hope V, docking clamps powered down. Without power, they couldn’t be opened and the destroyers they were keeping clamped in place wouldn’t be able to pursue them. Her hack was only designed to last for several minutes, it would be enough to let them escape though.

  Opening her eyes, Sarah grabbed the flight sticks and turned Hawk’s nose. Relief washed over her as the ship responded. “We’re back in control,” she shouted.

  “Thank goodness,” Kevin replied, equally relieved.

  Sarah’s relief turned to excitement when Hawk’s nose passed the open space door. They had made it out. Now there was no stopping them. Powering up Hawk’s engines, she boosted away from Hope V. She then turned her attention to initiating Hawk’s subspace engine and plotting a course to where Destiny should be waiting for word from her.

  “We’re getting a COM message from Hope V,” Kevin said. Sarah didn’t need her connection to his mind to tell from the tone of his voice who it was.

  “Put her on the main holo projector,” Sarah said as she prepared herself. She had already thought about what to do if Simmons tried to contact her when she was escaping. As she planned to come back, she thought the Director deserved to know what was happening.

  “What are you two up too?” Simmons demanded as soon as her face appeared.

  “We’re going to find Destiny and let Alexandra and Divar know what has happened to me,” Sarah said. “We’ll be back within a week.”

  “Unacceptable,” Simmons responded. She didn’t shout, but to Sarah it felt like she had. “Turn Hawk around right now. That is an order.”

  “I intend to return and allow you to continue your tests on me,” Sarah responded. “After that I will stay on Hope V until you are ready to move against the Elders. But you are not my Director. I am not a Hope Fiver. You have no authority over me. I’m leaving. I owe my friends that much.”

  Simmons lips compressed into a thin line as she stared intently at Sarah. Then she turned her gaze to Kevin. “I am ordering you to incapacitate her and bring Hawk back Lieutenant. If you refuse, you will be court martialed.”

  “I can’t,” Kevin said. “I owe her this.”

  Simmons face changed again, now Sarah could see the rage that she had been trying to hide.

  “You are jeopardizing everything we have spent our lives preparing for,” she spat at Kevin. “Your ancestors will be turning over in their graves at your actions. You are putting one person’s feelings above our entire race. I am ashamed of you.”

  “We’ll be back before you know it,” Sarah said. She cut the COM. She had no fear about Kevin going against her, yet she could feel his shame rising. He didn’t need to hear whatever insults his great grandmother was going to throw at him. He would have enough of his own recriminations to deal with.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Sarah said as she initiated Hawk’s subspace engine. After a brief flash, the corvette disappeared.

  Chapter 42

  Two days later Hawk jumped out of shift space four light seconds from the rendezvous site. Sarah didn’t want to startle Alexandra too badly. At the same time, she didn’t want to jump out of subspace too far away from where Destiny should be. She had been scared that Alexandra might jump into subspace and flee before she could let her know it was her.

  “Broadcast the message,” Sarah ordered.

  Kevin nodded and transmitted her message unencrypted.

  Alexandra reacted immediately. The Elder frigate powered up and brought its nose to point at Hawk. Alexandra was bringing her most powerful weapon to bear on the surprise threat. Sarah kept Hawk’s energy screen and weapons powered down. She wanted to look as friendly as possible.

  “Sarah?” a voice said in her mind.

  Sarah smiled. It had been too long. “It’s me,” she thought back.

  “At last,” Alexandra replied a few seconds later. “You are on that ship?”

  “Yes,” Sarah rep
lied. “Can we come and dock with you?”

  “Of course,” Alexandra replied. “I‘ll tell Divar and the others you have returned.”

  “Thank you,” Sarah said. Destiny was no longer trying to line up a shot at Hawk.

  “Where have you been?” Alexandra asked.

  “That’s a long story,” Sarah replied. “Can’t you access my memories and just see for yourself?”

  “I already am,” Alexandra said with a chuckle. “I just thought I would be polite.”

  “How kind of you,” Sarah said. “I’ll give you a few seconds to access it all.”

  “How’s it going?” Kevin asked her, also speaking into her mind.

  “It’s them,” she thought back. “And this is going to be weird. Having you both speaking into my mind.” As she spoke, she moved Hawk towards Destiny.