by P J Strebor
“Have a little faith, John.”
“After what we’ve been through I’m all out of faith. But you’ll always get my best.”
“I know I will. Bridge out.”
The hours ticked by. From Lucas’ point of view the hours rushed by. Time, it’s all about time. He drummed his fingers against the side of his chair. Time.
If time favored their old freighter and her crew, they would reach the hyper ingression point without hindrance and escape their miserable imprisonment. If time worked in their enemy’s favor and Kania caught onto their deception, everyone aboard Bellinda would die. Minutes were nothing, really, until your life depended on them. Easing himself from the captain’s chair he stretched and stood between the helm and navigation stations.
“Rebecca?” he asked his daughter.
“Once we reached maximum accel I put her on coast mode to allow for the continuum resistance. We’re going as fast as is possible in null space.”
“David?”
“At current speed we will reach the hyper ingression point in thirty eight minutes, skipper.”
“Very well.”
Thirty-eight minutes might as well be thirty-eight days, if Kania is on her way to kill us.
The family had bet all of their chips on this one bold and dangerous ploy to escape slavery. How ironic that they were slaves to the slow ticking clock.
“Mary, any changes?”
“Scans are clear.” She licked her dry lips. “For the time being.”
“Elapsed time?”
“Four point nine hours since we left Kania in orbit. And three point seven hours since we cleared her sensor envelope.”
“Did she continue to ping us on the way out?”
“Yes, right to their limit.”
Lucas fell into his chair. He struggled to maintain a calm visage as his pulse throbbed in his ears.
“I don’t think Kania’s captain believed us, father,” Nathan said.
The tension in Lucas’ face softened. “You think not?”
Nathan shook his head.
“Perhaps. But we’re committed now.”
In the following silence, Lucas could hear the seconds as they ticked down. He hated the long silences. Their slave masters had forced them into silence. The five hundred slaves in Bellinda’s lower holds were silent too. Twenty-two years under the absolute control of a brutal regime had crushed their spirit, turning them into something less than human beings. Lucas and what remained of his family and crew had endured violence, rape and death but at least some of them were together and their lot, though harsh, was mild compared to those poor wretches. When we get home I’ll tell of every hideous act I’ve witnessed and endured in the north. There will be public outrage. With a little luck it will lead to war with Pruessen and this time there will be no turning back until that perverted society is brought crumbling down. We’ll see how high and mighty they are after …
"Contact!" Mary’s voice shattered the silence. "Captain, I have a contact, coming in fast from astern." The blood drained from her face. "It's Kania."
A collective groan filled the bridge.
"Mary, Alert Condition One, button us up. Helm, stand by for evasive maneuvers. How long, Mary?"
"She will be in extreme weapons range in fifty seconds. She is on full tactical alert and her sensors are active."
Lucas sensed the spike in tension from the surrounding crewmembers. By now they will have read our hyper emissions. They know we can escape and they’ll destroy us before allowing that.
"Very well people, we knew this was a possibility from the outset.” He kept the uncertainty from his tone. “Stand to your stations and do your duty."
Lucas checked the external feeds on his console. His screen crystallized into a live feed of the patrol ship that came to kill them. Sleek and fast, Kania’s twin pulsar energy beams would rip Bellinda to pieces well before she made it to the hyper ingression point.
"Janine, stand by.” Lucas said. “I will keep this channel open."
"Aye, captain." Janine’s voice acknowledged from the cargo control center.
Silver orbs of deadly energy spewed from Kania’s bow. The ship trembled. "Pulse beams, high and to port," Mary said. "She's coming in at maximum acceleration and will be in optimal firing position in twelve seconds."
"Very well.”
Bellinda’s great size meant she could absorb a lot of enemy fire. But one decent shot through her belly and into the engineering section would breach the reactor chamber and finish them all.
"Remember Rebecca, guard our stern and port side."
"Aye, sir." Her fingers flew across the helm panel, pitching the ungainly vessel about in a frantic attempt to throw off the patrol ship's aim and protect her stern quarter. Rebecca was good but two hundred thousand tonnes of freighter could not outmaneuver a fast attack ship.
Bellinda shook. "Pulsar beams. Direct hits on upper hull. Topside shields reduced by twelve percent," Mary reported. “She’s in range for focused beam attack.”
The ship shuddered as sustained beams ripped along her hull.
"Direct hit, focused pulse beams. We are open to space. Lower midships. Attempting to seal off."
A great plume of frozen air trailed behind the ship, along with detritus from the tattered hull. And hundreds of bodies. The Kulak slaves. Some were broken pieces of humanity, mercifully killed outright. Some of the bodies flailed their arms and legs in their death throes.
Someone cried out while others stared mutely at the carnage. Occasionally an anguished groan.
“Merciful God almighty,” Mary whispered.
The stench of fried conduits mixed with sweat. Lucas rubbed moisture from his upper lip as the ship lurched.
"Hit to starboard upper. Sealing off."
The enemy warship maneuvered into firing position for the freighter's stern lower quarter.
"She has passed optimal and is closing," Mary said.
"Watch her," Lucas warned.
"I see her." Rebecca's hands were a blur across the helm controls. She could not outmaneuver the smaller vessel but she could outguess it.
A handful of heartbeats before Kania fired Rebecca hit the bow thrusters for two seconds. The bow rose and the stern dropped.
The focused beams missed their intended target, the engine nacelles, and ripped into the boat bay hatches. Massive decompression blew out the hatches together with the untethered landing boats.
Bellinda heaved violently to port, pinning crew to their chairs.
"She's passed us," Mary said. "Switching to forward scanners."
The screen split in two. The great rent at the back of deck one gaped open like a jagged mouth, still trailing a gossamer venting of air.
“She’s coming about for another pass.”
Kania turned with remarkable agility and streaked towards them. They wouldn’t try that, if Bellinda was still armed. She kept coming but did not fire as wildly as before. As the silent seconds ticked by they waited for the coming storm.
“Rebecca!” Lucas yelled. “They’re going for our port side.”
“Damn.” Rebecca fought the sluggish freighter around but the old girl maneuvered like a cripple by comparison with the enemy warship. Almost on top of their ship, Kania’s beams struck, raking the starboard bow. The attacker rotated through her axis and took a snap shot at an oblique upward angle.
A single focused beam pierced the shields, tore through the hull and ripped through the bridge. The ship bucked and people screamed. A chunk of shrapnel the size of a fist smashed into the base of the ops console. The blast had torn though the deck ripping a gaping hole in the overhead as it exited. The communications alcove had taken the full force of the blast. Now, only shattered consoles and the bloody remains of Jackson Telford remained. Bile stung Lucas’ throat and he forced it back. Crewmembers waded into the gory wreckage and set breach patches. Within seconds the smoky air cleared.
&
nbsp; “Kania’s coming around for another pass,” Mary cried. “She’s going for our reactor again. Coming in at flank speed.”
Lucas’ lips moved silently as Kania completed her turn. The enemy acted without caution, confident they had nothing to fear from an unarmed freighter.
"Enough of this,” Lucas said quietly. “Rebecca, initiate rollover, now!"
The ship rolled over bringing the undamaged port side to face the onrushing warship. Rebecca sat motionless, her fingers poised over the attitude controls.
"Five degrees over," Lucas ordered."Janine, blow them all, now."
The explosive charges attached to each of the eight massive cargo hatches detonated in sequence. Six hundred and forty tonnes of ejected hatches flew directly into the attacker's path.
“We probably won’t hit her, but if we can make her take pause it might be worth the effort.” Lucas was thinking aloud, again.
Kania took a snap shot as she avoided Bellinda's hatches, and the freighter trembled again. Had they given her a scare? Perhaps his tactics would tempt her young captain into acting rashly.
"Stand by, Janine. Rebecca, five degrees over. Janine, fire!"
Each cargo container sat on tracks and had been fitted with light thrusters. Each weighed fifty-two tonnes, empty. Each was loaded to the brim with mining equipment.
Three containers burst from the hold spinning like great oscillating cubes.
"Five degrees over. Fire!"
Each five-degree rotation covered a section of Kania's attack path. In quick succession, thirty spinning cubes covered forty degrees of space ahead of the patrol ship’s flight path. Again, no one expected anything more than a few seconds of confusion.
Continuously on station for three years, and with no enemy to fight, Kania’s crew had turned to fat. That remained as one of Bellinda’s few tangible weapons. She hurtled toward them at break neck speed, impairing her ability to maneuver.
Kania wound her way through the staggered formation of containers, firing hurried shots as she closed. On and on she came, an unstoppable dealer in death.
Then something happened. Kania’s helm officer must have panicked when cargo containers began filling his forward quarter. He maneuvered around all but one of them.
One of the containers struck the patrol ship on the starboard side, stern quarter. The sudden release of so much kinetic energy might not be enough to kill her but it had to hurt her.
“Hit!” Mary yelled. “We actually hit her.”
A great cheer burst from everyone on the bridge. The cheer dwindled and smiles faded as they waited. Kania veered to starboard, venting a stream of frozen vapor.
"Her shields are overloaded," Mary said. "She is venting radiation from her starboard engine, and her hull is breached along a thirty meter section of her starboard engineering section. Power is down. I suspect her reactor has scrammed." Mary sat back and wiped sweat from her lips. “I can’t believe it, but she’s dead in space.”
"In other words,” Lucas said, “she's fucked."
Mary giggled like a teenager. Nathan threw his head back and laughed without restraint, drawing the family in. Lucas sobered and held up his hand. He swallowed the last chuckle and cleared his throat.
“Mary,” Lucas asked, “how badly are we hurt?”
“We’ve been in better shape, but most of the main systems are still functioning. We need to replace the critical shield blisters and set up force fields around the breached sections. If everyone pitches in we’ll have her ready for transition in half a day.” Mary smiled. “Even if Kania got off a distress signal, this far out it will take days to mount an appropriate military response.”
“Very well,” Lucas said. “This crew’s first and only priority is to repair our damaged shields, and patch the old girl back together enough to ensure hull integrity. That completed we will ingress to hyperspace and finally be gone from this wretched place.”
“The good Lord be praised for our deliverance,” Mary intoned.
“Amen,” the family repeated.
Lucas caught Nathan rolling his eyes and fought down a smile. Yeah, like me he’s wondering where the good Lord has been for the last four years.
CHAPTER 6
That which does not kill us makes us stronger. Friedrich Nietzche.
Time: 12th April, 311 ASC.
Position: Approaching planet Delos. Athenian controlled space.
Status: Athenian Navy Monitor Impudent on combat interdiction patrol (CIP).
"Are we in visual range yet, D-O?"
"Aye, captain," Lieutenant Bettina McMurphy replied.
"Good."
Once the image had stabilized, the planet of Delos came clearly into focus. From an outside perspective it took on the appearance of an elegant green world with thick swirls of white clouds rolling serenely across its surface. Beneath its soft exterior dwelt a savage jungle environment that had resisted the Athenian Republic's best efforts to tame it for three hundred years. For one observing the world for the first time it gave no hint to its heartbreaking past.
Delos stood as a pungently clear reminder to every member of the League of Allied Worlds as to the necessity of establishing and maintaining the strict, twenty year old quarantine regulations. Despite the constant patrols by warships of the Coalition League Navy, idiots who had somehow been granted Master's certificates still chose to run the blockade.
One ‘Line Runner’ had tested their luck by venturing into the QZ and been stupid enough to get infected. To add to their monumental blunder they chose to land on Delos before the plague took them. This proved to be a tragic turn of events for the fifty seven hundred colonists who were once again trying to make a home for themselves on the ferocious planet. By the time the colonists recognized the truth, the ‘Runners’ were dying and the colonists were infected. Since that terrible time Delos had been a quarantined world and one that even the stupidest of fortune seekers avoided. Another testament to unbridled greed.
Headhunters, on the other hand, were capable of anything.
"Contact on the surface, captain."
Only McMurphy knew Bradman well enough to catch him tense inwardly.
"I have a ship on the surface, captain." The tactical officer spoke without looking up, his eyes remaining locked onto his readouts. "Minimal power emissions. The core appears to be cold. Registration and configuration comply with Athenian standards." He paused for several seconds to consider his summation. "The closest approximation I could make would be that she is a Turgo class freighter."
"Helm, take us into a geo-synchronous orbit above the site."
As the Helm Officer confirmed his orders Bradman gave his Operations Officer a curious look. McMurphy shook her head, confirming what the captain already suspected. There had been no reports of a missing or overdue Athenian registered vessel in months. Most certainly not in this area.
"Can you get a name?"
"No captain," the T/O said, "but I have a registration number. Transferring to the Operations Officer."
McMurphy examined to records. The information scrolled across her screen but it made no sense. Then it hit her.
“Damn. She's an independent, captain. Details in a moment."
Bradman stifled a curse. He knew that all Independent Traders were crewed by families. When one such vessel was lost, on most occasions it meant the annihilation of an entire bloodline.
McMurphy continue to examine her readings until she saw it. She gasped.
Bradman narrowed his eyes.
"She's the Bellinda, sir."
“The Bellinda? Hmm.”
"She was reported missing, presumed lost. Six years ago whilst en route to Iberia."
It had been in all the net news broadcasts at the time.
"The last inspection of this planet was three years ago. Correct?"
"Yes, captain."
Bradman looked at her as if they had just discovered their own Flying Dutchman.
>
"What's her condition?" he asked the T/O.
"She's heavily damaged captain. I supposed that's to be expected though. Freighters aren’t designed for planetary insertion."
So, the mystery deepened. An Athenian freighter, missing for six years, suddenly reappearing like a ghost ship on the planet’s surface.
"She's been down there a while captain," the T/O continued. "From the oxidization on the hull I would estimate somewhere between twenty two and twenty six months."
Bradman lowered his voice. "What do think, Betty?"
As the boat's Operations Officer, McMurphy was expected to have all of the answers all of the time. However this one had her stumped and it must have shown on her face.
"I suppose we could send a couple of cans down to the surface and try to recover her logs." She felt doubtful that the captain would approve such provocative action. Bradman confirmed her opinion with a tight, dark smirk.
"Captain?"
Bradman's attention swung back to the Tactical Station.
"Lieutenant?"
The T/O cleared his throat. "Captain, I am detecting a life sign on the planet’s surface."
The unique nature of the plague insinuated itself into the ecosystem of any planet it came in contact with, but had the singular characteristic of being fatal only to human beings. As such there were probably billions of life forms on the planet. It took a moment longer for Bradman to understand the full import of what his tactical officer had said.
"Human?" The incredulity in his voice surprised McMurphy.
"Aye, captain."
"You've double checked?"
"Triple checked, sir. And I've just run a diagnostic on the software. It's in perfect working order."
McMurphy did not need to look around the bridge to know that every eye had just risen from their stations.
"I detect no other vessels on the surface or in orbit captain. Therefore it would be logical to assume that the … life sign was aboard the freighter when she crashed."
Bradman paused for a moment. "Are you suggesting, lieutenant, that someone has survived on a plague planet for two years?"