by M. D. Cooper
“I think that Tug’s AI is senile,” Sabrina said over the ship’s speakers. “It told me that my humans and their advice are not welcome.”
“Yay for tugs,” Cheeky’s voice dripped with sarcasm.
“I suddenly feel somewhat less than safe.” Sera finished her cup of coffee and double-checked scan. “At least he corrected properly. How long till we can ditch this dude?”
“Seventeen minutes,” Sabrina replied. “And it won’t be a moment too soon.”
Sera chuckled in response.
Sabrina was an unusual AI. Usually ship’s AI were officious and only spoke when directly addressed—and then only over the Link. However, Sabrina had a habit of simply speaking her mind whenever she chose. On their first voyage, when it was just Sera and Flaherty, having Helen and the garrulous Sabrina was comforting. Especially since the AI were much better at casual banter than Flaherty.
Finally, the tug reached its departure point and released its grapple.
“Tug 19 signing off. Have a good trip.”
“You too,” Cheeky said and closed the channel. “Dork.”
“We’re not on our proper course,” Sabrina observed.
“I know,” Cheeky sighed. “I just didn’t feel like mentioning it again. I can fix us up in a minute.”
Cheeky laid in her course corrections and activated Sabrina’s gravity drive. They were accelerating toward the center of the system, the drive throwing negative gravitons in front of the ship; essentially sucking them forward.
Their flight path took them past the innermost planet, a rocky world spinning below them at over sixteen thousand kilometers per hour. Sera watched the world’s surface as the daylight termination line race across the craggy landscape, casting long, dancing shadows over the world.
“Hate to be working a mining rig on that thing,” She said with a shake of her head.
“Can you say, hourly earthquakes?” Cheeky asked.
Sabrina skimmed close to the surface of the world in a parabolic arc, Cheeky applying a hard burn of the fusion engines at the periapsis of their passage. The ship’s velocity picked up considerably during the maneuver, lining them up for a close pass-by of the local star.
“Gravity assist one completed at one-hundred percent efficiency,” Cheeky said with a grin. “Now to beard the star.”
Gravity assists were one of the wonders of physics. The faster you flew, the more kinetic energy a burn gave. When a burn was made at the closest point of an arch around a heavenly body, the more relative velocity was imparted.
Cheeky referred to it as planet slalom.
“We at the scoop deployment point yet, Cheeks?” Sera asked, feeling too lethargic to use her Link. Maybe she was still feeling the after effects of yesterday’s binge.
“Just about. When we hit 0.113c we’ll have the right v to do it smoothly.”
“You on it with Sabrina?”
Cheeky turned and looked at her captain. “I have done this before.”
Sera laughed and raised her hands. “Sorry, I apologize for my backseat piloting.”
Several minutes later, a slight vibration ran through the hull as the scoop deployed. It wasn’t large, only a kilometer wide, but its electro-static field funneled the stellar wind through a system that stripped out the heavy hydrogen and helium, storing the gasses in the fuel tanks for later consumption.
Sabrina acknowledged.
Despite the terms used, Cheeky wasn’t sitting at a board with green lights, and Sabrina most certainly was not. Piloting a ship like Sabrina involved manipulating controls in a three dimensional holo projection. At any time, the pilot had to monitor dozens of visual indicators, as well as the data feed her Link to the nav computer provided.
“Initiating fusion burn,” Cheeky said as she activated the fusion engine’s super-lasers and activated the flow of helium and heavy hydrogen into the engine.
Although she had just initiated an atomic fusion reaction only one-hundred meters aft, there was no noticeable change on the ship. Powerful inertial dampeners in the form of gravity fields protected the rest of the vessel from the engines. Without them, the thrust from the fusion burners would cause Sabrina to do a large-scale impression of a crushed can.
“All dampeners and stabilizers read normal, radiation shielding is showing green as well.”
“You know, Cheeks,” Sera said. “It’s just me up here; you don’t really need to do the whole status announcing thing.”
Cheeky cast her captain a sour look. “I don’t do it for you; I assume you’re checking everything on the Link. You know I’ve always dreamed of being a military pilot, you know, flying one of those big cruisers. Well, I saw some Silstrand military holos recently where they announce everything. I’m trying it on for size.”
“Don’t let me stop you then,” Sera smiled.
“I wasn’t going to. You may dress like a dominatrix, but you don’t frighten me.”
Sera sighed and sat back in her chair.
The course Cheeky followed took them over the star’s north pole. Sabrina was on a course to pass within a hundred thousand kilometers of the star, the passage putting them on the right outsystem vector, while picking up at least thirty percent of the total velocity they would need before hitting their jump point.
Sera carefully examined the ship’s scan readout to make sure there was no potential flare activity. System scan said the star’s northern hemisphere was quiet, but she liked to check for herself.
She was comparing the two scans when she noticed several ships enter the system through a seldom-used jump point stellar south of Trio and Coburn Station. Scan showed them traveling at over seventy percent the speed of light; far too fast for a busy system like Trio. Sera imagined they could expect a hefty fine when they docked.
Sabrina lost its Link to the system’s dataflow as the ship approached the star, radiation playing havoc with any signal. The ship’s shields showed nominal fluctuations—they were rated to hold against far worse, including having a fusion warhead detonate against them.
As the ship passed over the star, Cheeky applied full burn to the fusion engines, the effect multiplying their acceleration by a factor of five. At that rate, it took less than a minute to complete their arc around the star and they exited the gravity assist maneuver at just over a quarter the speed of light.
Sera examined the data from the passage over Trio Prime, impressed to see the precision with which Cheeky performed the maneuver. Even the switching of the grav drive from negative to positive was done at the optimal time—the gravitons it threw now pushing them off the star’s mass.
Ship’s Link reconnected to a nearby beacon and Sera turned her attention back to the ships she had spotted earlier. System scan showed the vessels remained on a direct course for the world of Trio, though they weren’t slowing down much, if at all.
At Sabrina’s current distance from Trio, scan lag was an issue. The beacon they were stripping data from was ten light minutes away from their current position; Trio was another seven light minutes past that. Considering the speed, those ships were traveling; they could already be at the station or past it.
As Sera was pondering what those ships could be up to, Sabrina alerted them to a call on the local emergency band.
“This is a system-wide alert. Three ships of unknown origin have attacked a Trio defense emplacement and are on a vector for Coburn Station. Their intentions are unknown. All ships are advised to stay within the protective range of a system station or fleet patrol until further notice.” The alert paused and then restarted the same message.
Sabrina muted the alert.
“Thanks, that’s not
terribly auspicious—Silstrand really needs to deal with these pirates, it’s getting worse all the time,” Sera said with a shake of her head.
“Uh, you realize that we smuggle for those pirates,” Cheeky said with a smirk.
“Well,” Sera smiled back. “I said they should, I didn’t say I thought they actually would.”
Cheeky chuckled and Sera reviewed their current vector. There were no planets or stations anywhere near their outsystem route. They would just have to keep pushing forward. Chances were slim those ships would even come within fifteen million kilometers of Sabrina, though Sera wasn’t about to bet her ship on it.
“Crank our burners up all the way Cheeky, I want to put more distance between us and that mess.” Sera said, before calling the crew to their stations, updating them on what was happening on the other side of the star.
Cargo stepped onto the bridge a few minutes later with coffee for himself and the two women. He made a show of only looking them in their eyes as he passed out the brew; then sat at his console, looking over the scan and their course.
“That’s a lot of velocity those buggers have on them,” he commented
“They’re going to get a speeding ticket,” Sera agreed.
“What about a blowing-up-a-defensive-emplacement ticket?” Cheeky asked. “I hear systems are sticklers about that sort of thing.”
“Alert said three ships right?” Cargo asked.
“Yeah.”
“Scan just updated from a relay south of the star. It shows five jumped in, where are the other two?”
“That’s disconcerting,” Sera said. “I don’t see them anywhere on system scan.”
“Why does that statement insert small circus animals into my stomach?” Cheeky asked.
Cargo leaned forward and looked at Cheeky’s flat stomach. “I don’t see how even a couple of dancing mice would fit in there.”
“Maybe it’s a flea circus,” Sera commented.
“Ewwww!” Cheeky shivered convulsively. “There’s a mental image I just didn’t need.”
Another relay a few million kilometers south of the star updated scan data and they got their answer on the missing ships.
The feed showed the two vessels veering off from the other three and plotting a course around the star’s south pole. They were running fast, thrusting on antimatter pion engines, from the look of the gamma rays trailing behind their ships.
“Does Trio allow AP engines in their inner system?” Cheeky asked.
“They blew up an emplacement. I don’ think they care about AP regulations.” Cargo said.
Sera sent her AI a mental shrug, but didn’t comment further.
“Cheeky, what’s chance those two bogies will get within a million klicks of us?” She asked, though it looked like Cheeky was already on it.
“Based on their current course, they’re going to get closer than your tight leather outfit, Captain. I’m guessing they plan to pay us a visit.”
As though on cue a signal came in from one of the ships and Sabrina patched it through the bridge speakers. A harsh voice called for them to cease burn and divert to a position that Sera would bet local stellar scan couldn’t monitor.
“Like hell we will,” Sera muttered. “Sabrina, are we ready to do an AP burn?”
Sera chuckled,
Sera could hear the ship’s secondary reactor spin up and she watched readings show power flowing to the gamma shields. The AP drive smashed Hydrogen and Anti-Hydrogen, annihilating them and producing pions that were focused out the AP engine’s nozzle. The pions quickly broke down into gamma rays and accelerated out the nozzle at just under the speed of light. The longer the nozzle was extruded, the more thrust Sabrina would get from the burn. Sera saw that Cheeky and Sabrina were spinning it out all the way.
“Good thing we declared our antimatter and allowed the containment inspection before we docked,” Cargo said. “Blood suckers at Trio would fine us if they caught us using undeclared antimatter, pirate attack or no.”
“You’re thinking pirate too, then?” Sera asked.
“It’s way too small a force to actually attack a Silstrand Alliance member. They’re here for something that they think a small, fast force can snag.”
Sera’s thoughts immediately went to the small crate she had taken on the night before. She couldn’t imagine anything in that crate being worth an outright attack on an Alliance member system, but it was the only thing she carried that could possibly have that kind of value.
The AP drive began to add to the ship’s velocity and the holo display showed their kph relative to Trio Prime increasing so quickly that the lower digits were a blur.
“Not concerned who we’re running from?” Cargo asked the ship’s AI.
“What are the chances that these guys are just checking all the outbound ships?” Cheeky asked.
“Then they’d split up. Both of them are on a vector to meet up with us well before we get to our jump point, I’d say we’re the ones they’re looking for.”
Cheeky looked perplexed. “What could we have that pirates would want?”
Sera and Cargo shared a long look, his eyes showing mild recrimination. Sera sighed and told Cheeky they were carrying something extra special for The Mark.
“Figures,” the pilot sulked. “I don’t know why you do runs for them. From what I can see we’re pretty profitable even without all the extra risks.”
Sera’s expression was stony. “I have my reasons.”
“Well I hope they’re worth dying for.”
“We’re not going to die here; we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves,” Sera said. In her mind, where only Helen could hear she said,
Sera checked scan and saw that the two unidentified ships had fallen from their entry velocity of 0.73c to 0.45c. Their vector around the star had not been clean and they lost velocity breaking out of its gravity well.
Cheeky was looking at the same data. “Damn, those ships must be all engine to only lose that much v during such a sloppy maneuver.”
“Don’t forget the guns,” Cargo added. “All engines and guns.”
Sera switched her display to show their outsystem course. Their destination was an FTL jump point several million kilometers beyond the last of the outer planets. The interior of Trio system was a good seven light hours across and they still had just over three hours to the jump point on full burn.
She widened her view and saw that the two ships behind were accelerating again. Both were back over half the speed of light, nearly at their previous velocity of 0.73c. Sera looked down at Sabrina’s indicators and saw that they were accelerating slower than expected and the ship was developing an odd vibration.
“Scoop!” Sera cried just as Sabrina reported that the scoop was still deployed and slowing them down. Cheeky cursed and quickly killed the electrostatic field that had been scooping hydrogen for fuel.
The pilot turned slightly red face back to Sera. “Sorry, Captain. It sorta slipped my mind.”
Sera’s brow furrowed. “Mine too,” then she nodded. “Now the ole girl’s picking up.”
k of something to make up for the forgotten anniversary.
Cargo looked over his shoulder. “Stellar medium is a bit lighter on our vector. We should be able to hit 0.60 c with all drives burning hot, but they’ll,” he jerked his head to the stern to indicate their pursuers, “get that advantage too.”
Helen had been examining their outbound vector and brought an issue to Sera’s attention. Sera cursed silently. Things were always working against her.
“Ladies,” Sera asked Cheeky and Sabrina. “If we do this burn for another forty minutes, what are the chances we can hold shields at max while we vector for the jump and keep all three drives online?”
“Planning to melt us?” Cheeky asked.
“What about the SC batteries?” Sera asked.
“They’re way low,” Cheeky replied. “Pansies at Trio get all nervous with a hundred fusion reactors humming around their station. You said they charge too much for station power, so we ran on batts while docked.”
“Huh,” Sera grunted. “Well that was short-sighted of me.”
When traveling at any appreciable speed, Sabrina always ran her forward shields. Even a speck of sand, traveling at even a tenth the speed of light, would punch right through the ship. It could destroy the reactor, and certainly any humans in its way.
However, with ships chasing them, they now had to deploy shield umbrellas over the entire vessel, and that was going to run them beyond their power generation limits.
Flying directly behind a ship running grav, fusion, and AP engines was a recipe for a bad day. If they were smart, their pursuers would fan out and flank Sabrina. From those positions, they would be able to hit nearly any part of the ship. The only advantage was that they couldn’t shoot straight up the engines.