STAR HOUNDS -- OMNIBUS

by David Bischoff

  “Dr. Mish!” Laura said, breaking out of her spell. “Just what the hell is going on down here! Open the door and let me out of this accursed place, will you!”

  “Oh yes, Laura Shemzak,” said the voice of the Starbow, turning ominous. “It really is rather too bad you’ve found this place, isn’t it?”

  A strand of static electricity snapped around the border of the monolith like a white and jagged whip.

  “Two minutes to interception point,” said Arbst Nichol through a groan. They had all suffered from the extra G-force they took in their hurry to get up here, especially Silver, who was moaning back in the grav-couch. “Any let-up in that interference yet?”

  Captain Tars Northern wiped a bit of blood off the side of his mouth and checked the comband again. Nothing. “Goddamn Feddies must be so close they’re jamming all our frequencies.”

  The globe beneath them that was the planet Kendrick’s Vision was rimmed on one edge with a brilliant and beautiful sunrise. Northern wished he had the time and the safety in which to enjoy the scenery.

  “If they’re chasing them, how are they going to stop and pick us up’?” asked Nichol, clearly troubled.

  “How much firepower have we got on this shuttle?”

  “Well, we did take one of the boys armed for piracy ventures … the usual complement of lasers, a couple of missiles strapped to the side.”

  “Warm up the lasers, my lad. I think we might need them.

  “But, sir, these are used on freighters and scouts and small cowardly class vessels, not on cruisers and destroyers and dreadnaughts!” said Nichol. “They’ll be useless. And if we provoke fire from them … well, that’ll be it.”

  “With the kind of orders Zarpfrin has no doubt given these guys, they’re going to shoot anyway, so we might as well give them what we’ve got. Right, Zenyo?”

  “That’s okay, Northern. I think I want to die anyway.”

  “Where the hell are they?” Nichol complained, searching the starfield hopefully, then checking the sensors.

  On board the bridge of the Starbow similar concerns were being expressed.

  “Give me that again, Naquist,” demanded Thur.

  “Temporary loss of power in the impellers, sir,” she said. “There was some sort of drain on the main cells!”

  “Captain!” called Dansen Jitt. “The Federation ships are right on our tail! Sensors read a preparation for a strong barrage!”

  “Divert secondary power to rear force screen!” Thur ordered, and no sooner had those screens been strengthened than the tandem cruisers unleashed a mighty stream of energy. The bridge shook and rattled tremendously, but this time all were securely strapped in, and there was only momentary confusion before the laser banks answered with a short volley of their own, which blew off a Federation nacelle.

  “Damage report!” Thur ordered.

  “Nothing structural, sir, but we did lose an impeller bank.”

  “Dammit, give me a burst of emergency thrusters then!”

  “Aye aye, sir.”

  The blast resumed the previous distance between pursued and pursuer, but the Federation cruisers continued dogging the Starbow’s tail.

  Meanwhile, the shuttle bearing Captain Northern and his fellows had established an orbit that maintained the rendezvous coordinates. Arbst Nichol’s vigilance was finally rewarded first with sensor readings, then a visual track on the approaching starships screaming soundlessly toward them through space.

  “Doesn’t look good, Captain,” said Nichol. “Hands on weapons, though. I think you’re the more skilled pilot.”

  “Yes. Just one moment please.” Captain Northern dug through a bag and took a quick swig from the premium booze he’d snagged from Freeman Jonst’s bar. “Right. Ready for rendezvous!”

  Nichol nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  On the bridge Gemma Naquist announced, “We’ve got them! They’re where they should be! Four point three minutes until we’re within rendezvous radius!”

  “Dr. Mish!” cried Thur. “Wake up, fellow!”

  Dr. Mish complied immediately. “Yes! Sorry for the absence—I’ll explain later. What seems to be the situation?” he added brightly.

  “Communications are still jammed,” said Thur. “Federation ships are still dead on our tail. I suppose that Captain Northern knows enough to start a course paralleling our path, but we’re going a lot faster than his shuttle is capable of, That super tractor-beam trick of yours will come in handy, but we sure could use a distraction for those Feddy ships to give us some breathing space.”

  “Oh, I’ve already arranged for that,” said Dr. Mish. “In fact, just about now … ”

  “Sir, we read activity on the Docking Bay Level!” said Gemma Naquist. “A vehicle exiting!”

  “Ah, excellent,” said Dr. Michael Mish with a whimsical smile. “That will be Laura and her XT, I believe. I found her, you see. And where she shouldn’t be. But I thought it best to make sure that there is a future to deal with the matter.”

  He looked down at his sensor boards.

  “Now then. That tractor beam, you say. Now just how did I do that?”

  Chapter Twenty

  She zipped into space, having jacked herself in what must have been record time inside the blip-ship.

  The first thing she saw was the pair of Federation cruisers headed straight for her like deadly bullets from a brace of guns.

  She felt the instant rush of adrenaline and other less natural drugs enter her system, and immediately she was one with the situation, seeing instantly what she must do.

  Employing the element of surprise, she streaked between the ships and with a truly pyrotechnic exercise of lethal energy, blasted away the frontmost sensor pods of both.

  She dodged the initial salvo of responding beams, spun about, and started working on the engines where the shields were at their weakest.

  Thank heavens she knew her Federation hardware!

  Reveling in the oneness she felt with the blip-ship, she dove and spun and cavorted through the crisscross of enemy fire, her own salvoes a masterwork of destructive surgery.

  Then a beam grazed her and she was knocked away, momentarily dazed. She recovered and slammed out an anti-grav wave pulse which drove her farther away, beyond accurate range of their proton beams. She took a moment to focus upon the Starbow.

  Where was it?

  Her berserker assault upon the Federation cruisers had veered them off their course. Hurrah, she thought. Just what I promised Mish I would do.

  But how much time had elapsed?

  Then her sensors picked up the already distant readings of the Starbow.

  She dodged a full spread of deadly beams, then tried to open a channel:

  “Starbow, this is XT Nine. Requesting you creeps don’t leave me out here! Copy that? Hope you got you-know-who’s ass safe aboard by now.”

  “Roger, XT Nine. This is the Starbow,” responded Tether Mayz’s voice. “Commander Thur, we’ve got an open frequency! Laura’s reporting.”

  Arkm Thur’s voice erupted over the transmission. “We’ve hauled him in but if you could give us a couple minutes grace, we certainly would appreciate it.”

  “Copy that,” said Laura, noting the cruisers separating, one pursuing the Starbow, the other hanging back to deal with her, its ordinance pods already glowing in preparation for battle with this incredibly powerful mosquito bugging it. “What you think I am, a one-woman fleet?”

  “XT Nine, your abilities surprise us constantly,” said Thur. “Jitt, you do have those astrogation figures? Right. XT Nine, hold them for just four more minutes and then jump to these coordinates. That should give us just enough time to outdistance them and then we can jump ourselves.”

  Laura looked at her heads-up display, and noted the coordinates sent along the comband.

  “Copy
that,” she said. “I’ll give it a go, but have those dock doors wide open for me. Over.”

  She sighed inwardly, waiting for her second breath. All about her, she felt the pulse of raw energy; the crackle of her force fields, the hum of her waiting lasers, the touch of the never-ending spectacle of space.

  Hell, she thought. I shouldn’t complain so much. I enjoy this.

  She banked and skipped blithely away from the Federation Cruiser looming her way and headed for the one striking after the Starbow.

  She smiled to herself. There was nothing more vulnerable to fire than the rear end of a Feddy cruiser!

  When Captain Tars Northern reached the bridge of the Starbow, the crew was too busy to greet him with anything but the odd grunt. He took the opportunity to get his breath back.

  When the ship was back up to proper acceleration, Arkm Thur breathed a sigh of relief and turned to his captain. “All yours, sir.” He noticed that Northern was alone. “The others?”

  “Arbst is taking Silver to sick bay. Bit of a wound to the arm.” He assumed the abandoned captain’s chair. “Status, Gentlepeople?”

  Dr. Mish turned his eyes to the ceiling.

  “That bad?”

  “The doctor had a little problem,” explained Naquist.

  “Everything is in equilibrium now, Tars,” said Dr. Mish. “But if I might bend your ear for a moment … ”

  “Nothing to do now but run,” said Thur.

  “Very well, Mish. What is it?”

  Dr. Mish tugged him along into a side cubicle out of earshot of the rest of the crew.

  “Our little addition to the crew has a definite penchant for going where she doesn’t belong …. We’re going to have to explain about the core.”

  After hours of cool in frightening situations, Captain Northern finally lost his composure. “What? How did she stumble in there?”

  “You remember my suspicions about those replicates of Cal Shemzak?”

  “Yes, like Trojan horses. But you were keeping them well monitored—”

  “Correct, and it turned out to be worthwhile in the long run. But there were some tricky moments. The Jaxdron took the opportunity presented by the confusion here to meld the twins and find the core. They were dealt with and they have nothing now in knowledge they didn’t have before. But they took Laura along for the ride, and she saw it. I promised to explain if she would immediately jump in her blip-ship and cover for us. But, dear boy, if we explain to her, we’ll have to explain to everyone.”

  Tars Northern nodded, feeling more sober than he had ever felt before in his life. “It’s just as well. This is a fine crew, Mish, and I’ve hated keeping these secrets about the very reasons for our existence from them. Now that we may be embarked upon the deciding adventure of our career … ” He took a breath. “Yes, they will have to know, and then they can each decide if they want to stay on.”

  “I … I don’t know if I can allow that option, Tars Northern! This is the reason for secrecy!”

  “Look, we need a crew. Dammit, it’s just going to be that way! If anyone doesn’t like the situation, we’ll just put them down somewhere they can’t hurt us with the knowledge I give them. Mish, you’re so close now. We’ll have the time!”

  “Yes,” said Mish. “Perhaps you are right. Before, when we started. I perhaps would not have hesitated to take a human life between me and my goal. But over these years, Tars Northern … with this group, your family, my family, I have changed.”

  “Captain!” said First Mate Thur. “Come out here and look at this!”

  Tars Northern looked at Dr. Mish. “Every day, my friend, I am more and more sure that I did the right thing by casting my fate to your wind.” Impulsively, he hugged the construct, and it was like hugging a brother.

  Dr. Mish returned the hug awkwardly. “You must forgive me, Tars, I am not familiar with these feelings.”

  “C’mon, my friend, let’s go see what Thur is screaming about.”

  Thur pointed up to the vu-screen. “She’s a total maniac, sir! I wouldn’t like to have that woman and her blip-ship come after me!”

  The screen presented the image of the Federation cruiser struggling with its small but potent attacker.

  “Sensors show she’s hamstrung that one,” said Naquist.

  “As you may recall, she performed similar services for us when we were escaping Shortchild, Gemma.”

  “If we could only have a couple more of those things … ” Thur said wistfully.

  “Mish is working on it. The problem is, we’d need an equal number of blip-ship pilots, and that’s part of Laura’s magic. It’s as though she anticipates each of those shots, knows just when to turn …. Her command of that little spacecraft is amazing!”

  Thur examined a chronometer. “She’s got twenty more seconds for us to get a safety margin.”

  “The way she’s going, those cruisers aren’t going to be able to follow us anyway!”

  They watched the seconds tick past as Laura Shemzak stitched one more path through a spray of rays, then streaked away.

  “She made it!” cried Thur.

  “Now she’s just got to make the short jump here. Damned tricky this close to a gravitational field!” said Naquist.

  A wink of light and the blip-ship was gone.

  Almost instantaneously it appeared alongside the Starbow. A screech erupted over Tether Mayz’s communication grid. “Starbow, this is XT Nine, here in one piece. Requesting entry!”

  “Cleared for entry, XT Nine. Docking bay door wide open and shields down,” said Tether Mayz. “Welcome home.”

  “And thanks!” Captain Northern called, hands to mouth. “Now then,” he said. “Let’s see to the business of getting away from this system with our tail still intact!”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Each of the Council of Five (minus Overfriend Zarpfrin, currently on field duty) stared blankly at Friend Chivon Lasster.

  “This is a most unusual request, Friend Lasster,” said Overfriend Visto, a pale thin man nervously puffing a cigarette. His fellows clearly agreed with him, sitting motionlessly around their conference table, computer reference fields humming quietly behind them.

  “I thought that Overfriend Zarpfrin,” said Chivon, “had mentioned to you that I might be needed to travel in my sector. This business with Tars Northern and the Starbow to say nothing of the Jaxdron … well, I have submitted my report, gentlefriends. You’ll find all the reasons in there.”

  Overfriend Mazerk, a thick matronly woman with long gray hair, turned her eyes away from the readout hanging in the air behind her, swiveling to face Chivon Lasster. “Yes, this is true. But Lasster, your request is for a personal starship. Now, we realize that you are an excellent pilot. That, after all, is how you were trained. But it is highly irregular for a Friend of your stature to travel without suitable military accompaniment.”

  “This is simply the way I will feel most comfortable traveling, gentlefriends. My request, I think, states well enough my mission. I only need your approval and cooperation. And as you can see, Overfriend Zarpfrin has already allowed for this possibility.”

  “Friend Lasster, considering that you merely seek to visit your jurisdiction, albeit for extraordinary purposes—purposes, of course, that have been given our approval,” said Overfriend Fernk, with his ever-present light pen momentarily suspended over a data pad, “you are well within your area of command. As indicated, we merely are concerned about your desired mode of travel. It is not a safe galaxy anymore, Friend Lasster. You shall need some kind of back-up assistance, I think.”

  Overfriend Banili lifted a coffee cup to his pinched features and drank. “I agree. Though in respect for Friend Lasster’s accomplishments and position, I should like to offer a compromise. A personal starship can certainly be arranged. But perhaps if another trusted member of our Navy can accompa
ny her, we can feel a little more at ease concerning her safety.”

  Damn, thought Chivon. This will make things much more complicated. Much of the plan she and Andrew had concocted depended upon her being alone in the ship. However, she could not buck any decision that the Council made. At least they agreed she should be allowed to go.

  “Yes,” said Visto. “That sounds like an excellent idea. Gentlefriends, what say you?”

  “I’m still not convinced that this trip is totally necessary,” balked Fernk. “After all, Overfriend Zarpfrin is out there right now, and we’ve received no indication that he needs any assistance in the matter with which he is dealing.”

  “I believe,” responded Chivon, “that I have the capacity to decide when my planets need a visit. Particularly in these trying times,” she added firmly.

  “Oh, come, come, Fernk, don’t be such a spoilsport. If she takes support along with her, there’s no reason she can’t go,” said Overfriend Banili.

  The rest agreed.

  “Very well, you may leave tomorrow morning at a time to be arranged,” said Overfriend Visto, lighting a new cigarette. “And in the meantime, we will select your company …. I can guarantee, Friend Lasster, a suitable enough selection.”

  Lasster nodded.

  Overfriend Fernk gazed over at a list suspended in air. “First stop on your itinerary is Walthor, I see. Pax Industries and all that. Most fascinating. I believe that you may be able to consult personally with Overfriend Zarpfrin there.”

  “Yes,” said Chivon Lasster. “I very much need to do that.”

  Chapter Twenty-two

  The tail of the Starbow remained intact, but not without effort. One of the Federation cruisers still pursued them to the bitter end, when Captain Northern decided they were far enough from the gravitation of the system’s sun to penetrate Underspace.

  Still, it was a near thing, and a rough ride into Underspace. As usual in such situations, Northern chose to make the jump long before a safety point was reached, and the turbulence and stress on the Starbow’s frame was considerable, to say nothing about the knocking about the crew received.