The Soldier: Escape Vector

by Vaughn Heppner

  “So, you really did speak to my double. In that case, I suggest we play on the level with each other. We can both profit from this.”

  “Agreed,” said Cade.

  “Do you have a working Intersplit engine?”

  “Ah-ha!” Halifax whispered. “Now we know why he doesn’t want to destroy our ship. His Intersplit must have gone on the fritz. So he wants ours.”

  “Our Intersplit works,” Cade told Tarvoke. “Perhaps that was why your double launched missiles at us.”

  “He’s insane,” Tarvoke said wearily.

  “So I gathered. What—?” Cade stopped speaking.

  “Yes?” Tarvoke asked. “Go ahead, ask your question.”

  “How long have you been stranded in the star system?”

  Tarvoke laughed sourly. “Nine years, fifty-eight days.”

  “How many times have you been to the Corvine System?”

  “I answered your question one for one. So don’t try to pump me for more. Now, look, you can’t take your Intersplit engine to Coad. That would be the worst mistake of all.”

  “Can you clarify as to why?” Cade asked.

  “Of course I can, but I realize you’re trying to cheat me, to pump me for information. If you think the Eagle-Dukes or maybe even the Rhunes will pay you a higher price for your Intersplit, you’re mad. I barely escaped from the planet with my hide. They all tried to cheat me. Well, I won’t stand for it a second time. If you don’t sell me your ship or partner with me, I will launch missiles against you. If I can’t leave this hellhole system, no one can.”

  “After nine years, I can understand why you might be desperate,” Cade said. “How can you and I come to an understanding?”

  “My word is my bond,” Tarvoke said proudly. “Ask anyone who knows me. I always keep my bargains. I’ve lost SLUs in the past because of it.”

  “What are SLUs?” Cade asked.

  “Everyone knows that,” Tarvoke said, “Standard Labor-value Units. They’re the universal monetary unit from the Chandler Reach and beyond. I’m stunned you’re not familiar with the concept.”

  “I’ve never heard of an SLU or the Chandler Reach,” Cade said.

  Tarvoke sighed heavily. “A Standard Labor-value Unit is defined as the value of unskilled labor under standard conditions for one hour. Toil is the one equal standard commodity of existence.”

  “That sounds suspiciously collectivist to me,” Halifax muttered. “A thing is worth what you can get for it: the law of supply and demand.”

  “I heard that,” Tarvoke said. “At first glance, one might think so. Upon further thought, a SLU supersedes such superficial thinking as supply and demand.”

  “And yet he’s bargaining like any free trader,” Halifax muttered.

  “Never mind about any of that,” Cade said, who couldn’t care less about economic theories. “Where is the Chandler Reach?”

  “At this point,” Tarvoke said, “it doesn’t matter to either of us. What’s key is that we can trust each other. I can tell by talking to the two of you that each of you is trustworthy. Therefore, let’s join forces. You throw in the Intersplit engine, and I’ll give you a percentage of my nine-year haul in merchandise.”

  “Supply and demand,” Halifax muttered further. “He’s a hypocrite, if not an outright liar.”

  “Let me think about it,” Cade said.

  “No, no,” Tarvoke said. “A trickster would speak like that. You don’t want me to think you’re a trickster, do you?”

  “How can you?” Cade asked. “You already told me that you trust me.”

  “Show me I’m right by your actions,” Tarvoke said.

  “First,” Cade said, “how did you reach the gray universe?”

  “Through a vortex,” Tarvoke said glumly.

  “Can you navigate through a vortex to the Chandler Reach?” Cade asked.

  It took a moment before Tarvoke said, “With ease.”

  “He’s lying,” Halifax whispered. “I can hear it in his voice.”

  Cade studied the doctor. Trust a liar to spot a liar. He believed the small man.

  “So do we have a deal?” Tarvoke asked.

  Cade didn’t answer. Instead, he went to the sensor scope and studied the two teardrop-shaped strikers and two Raptor missiles. Each striker was presently moving into position under a cyborg missile. Perhaps they would use magnets to attach the two. Presumably, the strikers would haul the captured missiles to the huge, boxlike free trader. That would indicate Tarvoke’s people had done this before.

  Cade frowned. Cyborgs would not willingly let anyone do that to their missiles or other equipment. Had Tarvoke caused the breach to the mobile base’s hull? Somehow, the soldier did not think so. There was something else going on here, something he didn’t understand.

  “Who do we trust?” Halifax asked.

  Cade sat up from the scope.

  “I certainly don’t trust Tarvoke,” Halifax said. “The first one said the Eagle-Dukes are men of honor, known to keep their word. I would tend to trust them over a free trader.”

  “We continue heading for Coad,” Cade said. “If Tarvoke says we can’t deal with the Eagle-Dukes, that probably means we can. They’re likely our best bet for getting back on course.”

  As if divining their thoughts, Tarvoke said, “Take a good long look at my ship. Notice the two missiles unloading from it.”

  Through the scope, Cade examined the free trader. Indeed, small tugs maneuvered two new smaller missiles out of the boxlike vessel. Soon, the tugs detached from the new missiles.

  “This is your final offer,” Tarvoke said. “I’m serious about not letting the Eagle-Dukes or Rhunes acquire your Intersplit engine. Either deal with me or die. You can reach your space-time continuum in a few days if you take me up on my offer.”

  The soldier drummed his fingers on a console. More than anything, he wanted to get back to his space-time continuum so he could hunt for his wife. The trouble was he didn’t think the Chandler Reach was part of it. He was beginning to think several space-time continuums could enter the gray space and therefore the pocket universe.

  “I’m not a patient man,” Tarvoke said.

  “The dilemma is that I don’t trust you,” Cade said. “You have many people, we only have a few.”

  “Then we’re at an impasse, aren’t we?”

  “Yes.”

  “Let me make this plain,” Tarvoke said. “You’re going to die in less than an hour if you don’t decelerate.”

  “If we die, you’ll never reach home again.”

  “Wrong,” Tarvoke said. “Others like you will come, so I’ll get an Intersplit in time. I prefer to have it now, but I can wait. What I will not allow is competition out here. That means I’m not giving the Eagle-Dukes or Rhunes a working Intersplit.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Cade said. “They don’t need an Intersplit to launch space vehicles from Coad. They would only need one in order to reach a large space-time continuum. That means—”

  Halifax clapped his hands. “I finally get it!” he shouted. “The Eagle-Dukes and Rhunes came from a different space-time continuum. The presence of a cyborg ship shows one of the groups might have come from our universe. Cade, we have to reach the second planet. Even if we join him, Tarvoke will never allow us to reach our universe. He’ll kill us the instant he has our Intersplit.”

  “You’re not decelerating,” Tarvoke said over the comm. “That means I’m about to launch.”

  Cade stared at the comm board. A soldier did not dither, but made a choice and ran with it. If he was wrong—

  He turned off the comm. Tarvoke must be bluffing. If he wasn’t, well…he was a soldier fighting a civilian and would knock down the missiles before the warheads destroyed the Descartes.

  Chapter Ten

  Maybe the floating missiles outside of the free trader were a bluff. The strikers appearing in the Descartes’ path did not seem like it, though.

  Cade jumped up, moving to t
he sensor scope to study the two strikers ahead of the scout. He computed their speed, direction of travel and sent that to the weapons board. At the weapons board, Cade aligned the Descartes’ .50-caliber guns and launched a dozen shells at one striker and a dozen at the other.

  “Cade,” the doctor said. “There are asteroids in the belt. Maybe we should slide behind one and use it as a shield.”

  The soldier shook his head. “Waiting behind an asteroid will just make us a stationary target, delaying our capture at best. We have one chance of winning free, and that’s using surprise, doing the unexpected like I did on Ember.”

  “Don’t you remember what Tarvoke said? He has over a hundred strikers in the system.”

  “I don’t believe him,” Cade said. “In fact, I’ve concluded he’s a compulsive liar.”

  “You don’t think he has a double near the barrier?”

  “That part could be true,” Cade admitted. “The rest—I’m not buying it.”

  The comm light blinked.

  After a moment’s thought and with a shrug, Cade went to it, accepting the message.

  “Do you see the strikers in your flight path?” Tarvoke asked.

  “I do,” Cade said.

  “The truth is you never had a chance. The system is seeded with them. I control space. The Rhunes control Coad. Surrender while you can and gain my goodwill.”

  “I’m considering it,” Cade forced himself to say.

  “Don’t consider too long,” Tarvoke warned. “I’ve already given orders to the strikers. You’ll be in their beam range soon. Once the beams hit your ship, the striker techs can take over your computer. Your ship will obey my orders.”

  “I thought it might be something like that.”

  “Listen to me, Cade. Don’t try to screw with me. I know all the tricks, and I recognize delaying tactics when I hear them. Slow down, or it will go worse for you.”

  Halifax had gone to the sensor scope. He looked up with urgency.

  “Just a moment,” Cade said, muting Tarvoke. “What is it, Doctor?”

  “I can’t see your shells.”

  Cade laughed. “I hope you can’t. That means the striker pilots can’t see them as well. Remember, the shells are tiny and lack any electronic or exhaust signature. I’ve seen this trick done before. It’s always a surprise when the other side isn’t ready for it.”

  Cade unmuted Tarvoke. “Before I agree to join you, I’d like real insurance concerning our safety.”

  “Start slowing down, Cade. This is your final chance.”

  “The strikers are almost in beam range,” Halifax said. “That’s given what we saw before with the Raptor 5000s.”

  “The shells should almost be there,” Cade said.

  “Can you have really targeted accurately?” Halifax asked.

  “We’ll know soon enough.”

  Soon enough came thirty-four seconds later. The closer striker shuddered. The lights in the vessel flickered, flickered more and then went out. Five seconds later, the same thing happened to the other striker as they both began to drift.

  “Hits,” Halifax said from the scope. “The shells didn’t explode, but smashed through the hulls, doing damage.”

  Cade nodded. The shell tactic had worked. How long would it be until Tarvoke understood what he’d done? He debated ideas and decided to wait.

  Soon, Tarvoke hailed them. “What did you do, Cade? What happened to my strikers?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Blast you, Cade. You don’t understand the forces you’re dealing with. I’m your only hope. The Rhunes aren’t even human. They’re aliens. You don’t want to fall into alien hands, do you?”

  “Don’t send any more strikers at us,” Cade said. “This is a special mission vessel. I’ve been easy on you so far. If you threaten my vessel again, I’ll take you and your confederates down, Captain Tarvoke.”

  “Who do you think you’re fooling?” Tarvoke demanded.

  “I’ve warned you as charged by the Concord Code,” Cade said. “In truth, I’m investigating the star system and the latent cyborg menace. Once my mission is over, I can offer you assistance home.”

  “You don’t expect me to believe your cat shit, do you?”

  “How do you explain the stricken strikers?”

  “I can’t yet,” Tarvoke said. “But I will.”

  “I suggest that until you do, you refrain from any aggressive action that will force me to destroy your free trader.”

  “Balls!” Tarvoke said half a minute later. “You fired shells at them. Good try, Cade. I give you high marks for quick thinking. Now, though, I’m finished offering. Are you going to decelerate?”

  Cade did not reply. He’d used all the tricks he could think of. Now, it was time to wait as the Descartes sped toward the inner edge of the Asteroid Belt.

  Two minutes later, Halifax groaned as he peered through the sensor scope. The doctor looked up, white-faced. “He did it. The two floating missiles are accelerating, coming after us. Now, what do we do?”

  Cade went to the weapons board, instructing the doctor to patch through what he saw on the scope. The scout had gained more distance during this time, but the missiles accelerated many times faster than the Descartes. Unlike the Raptor 5000s, these two missiles traveled close together.

  Cade’s fingers flew over the board. Outside on the scout’s hull, an anti-missile rocket detached as the soldier fed it data. The rocket accelerated, slowing its velocity as it gained separation from the scout. The rocket slowed as the enemy missiles caught up with it even faster. In the meantime, the scout accelerated away.

  Time ticked by as Tarvoke’s missiles shortened the distance between the rocket and the Descartes.

  Several minutes later, the rocket’s conventional warhead detonated, expelling an expanding swath of shrapnel-like fragments. Soon, the two missiles reached the fragment mass. Pieces of metal—penny-sized shards—struck each warhead. One missile exploded—a fuel explosion. Pieces from that missile reached the other, shredding it as well.

  Halifax cheered. “Way to go, Cade. That was great. It worked.”

  “Is he launching more?”

  Halifax studied the scope. “Not that I can see.”

  “We may have caught him by surprise, as he’s only a civilian.”

  The comm light blinked. Cade accepted the hail.

  “You got lucky,” Tarvoke said. “It will take me time to launch again. But we will. My sensor team has scanned your vessel. You only have one rocket left. We don’t detect any advanced equipment. Are you sure you want to continue the charade?”

  “I’ve given you fair warning,” Cade said. “I have no more to say at this time.”

  “We’ll see,” Tarvoke said.

  The scout continued through the Asteroid Belt. Twenty-five minutes passed, and no new strikers appeared anywhere in their vicinity. So much for Tarvoke’s claim to have hundreds. At the beginning of the twenty-sixth minute, Halifax spotted another missile launch from the free trader. This time, only one came after them. Five minutes later, another missile launched from the boxlike vessel.

  “What are we going to do now?” Halifax asked.

  “Launch the last rocket and use shells afterward. Tarvoke is a merchant, a profit-peddler and an amateur, a civilian. I don’t think he’s faced too many combat veterans. I doubt he has any on his side.”

  “How did you come up with all that?”

  “My point, Doctor, is that he’s making mistakes I can exploit. He said that he’s been stranded here for nine years. Unless he’s manufacturing more missiles…he has a decidedly limited supply of them. I’m not sure he’ll care to risk too many more of his precious missiles when he finds that none of them can reach us. We’re far from defeated.”

  Before the scout exited the Asteroid Belt, it destroyed one missile with its remaining rocket, and the other with fifty-four shells spread into cones of probability, aimed at where the missile would be when the shells arri
ved.

  “Tarvoke hasn’t launched any more,” the doctor said later.

  Finally, the scout exited the belt. At that point, Cade changed the direction of travel.

  “Why do that?” asked Halifax. “It only wastes fuel because we’ll have to move back into position to reach the planet.”

  “Maybe Tarvoke has radioed other cloaked strikers that have maneuvered into our projected path. If that’s so, we’ve changed our path and thus maneuvered out of danger.”

  Halifax nodded, understanding.

  “Like I said before, Doctor, Tarvoke doesn’t have any combat veterans on his side. We do. That’s the difference.”

  “I thought you hated boasting.”

  “I do,” Cade said. “I’m just stating facts.”

  “Huh. Soldiers call things by different names, I guess.”

  The comm board blinked again. This time, Cade ignored it, as he’d listened to enough threats. Tarvoke would have to act again, but now, Tarvoke knew they could still defend themselves against lone missiles. If the free trader really wanted to take them out, he’d have to use salvos of missiles. Did Tarvoke have that many extra to do that?

  An hour later, Halifax stretched from his long stint at the sensor scope. “You did it. Tarvoke is letting us go.”

  “I wouldn’t say that just yet.”

  “He isn’t launching any new missiles.”

  “I agree with that,” Cade said.

  “What else can he do?”

  That was the question Cade kept asking himself—what he kept trying to figure out. Tarvoke didn’t want them to land on Coad. Did the free trader have any tricks left? Cade suspected so.

  The rest of the journey to the second planet proved uneventful. No cloaked strikers appeared. No more missiles raced after them from the free trader.

  As the scout approached the planet, Cade took to studying it through the sensor scope.

  “Well?” Halifax asked after a time.

  Cade looked up. “From what I can see, it’s a swamp-lagoon planet, a steaming hot house with vast low oceans and several steep mountain ranges. There aren’t any continents as such, but various areas of large island chains. I wonder if the Rhunes are aquatic aliens.”