City of Phants (Argonauts Book 6)

by Isaac Hooke

  Taenia continued to stream outside, and more dragons arrived. The air filled with the dying squeals of the Taenia. It was literally a feeding frenzy. A buffet of buffets, at least for the dragons.

  “Those bitches are going to eat like kings for the next few months, thanks to us,” Bender said.

  “They are indeed,” Rade said. He scanned the tops of the nearby cones. It looked like the commotion had drawn down all the nesting dragons. The way was clear. “Argonauts, time to make our graceful exit.”

  Rade and the others carefully made their way around to the far side of the cone, and then headed out into the desert. They gave the crystal cluster a wide berth on the way back to the Acceptor cave. They used the PASS device Tahoe had left behind, along with the coordinates on the overhead map, to guide them.

  The team encountered none of the large salamander aliens on the return trip, thankfully. Rade occasionally paused to fire the stun rifle at Surus, who remained strapped to Tahoe’s back. She gazed at him with accusing eyes, but Rade hardened himself to those looks.

  By doing this I save my crew. Shaw. The twins.

  They reached the cave with about ten minutes to spare. Tahoe retrieved his PASS device, and then the Argonauts headed inside, took the path down to the Acceptor, and loaded onto the disk.

  Rade sighed, knowing that Surus would soon learn the full extent of his betrayal.

  He told himself he had done the right thing.

  He wasn’t sure he believed it.

  The cave disappeared.

  seventeen

  When Rade and the others arrived, Falon promptly took their prisoner from them. Bourbonjack and the mercenaries placed a large crate on top of the Acceptor to block it, rendering the device inactive and preventing Noctua or any of the aliens from pursuing. Falon would probably remove the blockage after extracting the linkage codes from Surus or Ms. Bounty, because at that point he would have full control of the device.

  The mercenaries escorted Rade and his team back to the Argonaut, and Rade watched from sickbay with Shaw as the Corsair departed the station. Bourbonjack didn’t bother to issue a farewell. Probably wise of him, considering he would have only gotten angry words from Rade.

  “So it’s done,” Rade said, dismissing the feed from the station’s external camera, which TJ had managed to dredge up. “We’ve betrayed our client. And perhaps humanity itself. Lui tells me that ship is headed for the local star. It seems obvious they intend to hurl Surus inside.”

  Shaw merely gazed off into space. Obviously she was still viewing the station’s external feed.

  Rade walked through the noise canceled region on the far side of the compartment, and sat down beside Cora next to the cribs. The twins were asleep. He stared down at little Sil.

  “We’ve given up so much for you,” Rade said softly. “Crossed good people. I hope one day you appreciate what we’ve done.”

  “They will appreciate it,” Cora said. “If I have any say in the way they are raised.”

  Rade nodded slowly.

  He felt a hand on his shoulder. Shaw. She tugged gently.

  Rade left the noise canceler region. “What’s on your mind?”

  She wrapped her arms around him, and snuggled her head against his chest.

  Rade caressed her hair.

  “We can’t let it end like this,” Shaw said.

  “Sometimes, the story doesn’t end the way you like it,” Rade said.

  “But this is wrong,” Shaw said. “Surus entrusted us with her safety. We’ve never sold out a client like this. Never. If we don’t set this right, we won’t be able to live with ourselves. Whenever we look at Alex and Sil, we’ll be reminded of this evil thing we did to save them.”

  “All right,” Rade said. “So tell me what you’d like to do?”

  “Rescue her, of course,” Shaw said. “We’ll find a way. We have to.”

  Rade pushed her from him to gaze into her eyes. “Will we? How? We’re confined to the ship, prevented from setting foot on the station by overzealous security forces. We can’t communicate with any nearby vessels, whether docked or in the vicinity, because the station is selectively jamming us, so we can’t seek passage. And we’re stuck in dry dock for the next week.”

  Shaw gave him a mischievous look. “That’s where you’re wrong. At least for the latter part about dry dock. It doesn’t have to be a week.”

  “How so?” Rade said.

  “In another two days four of our five engines will be repaired,” Shaw said. “That’s enough to match the speed of the Corsair. Our Vipers will still be melted, of course. But we do have a full complement of Hellfire missiles.”

  Rade considered what she was saying. “If we tell station security we plan to be on our way, with the intention of making the rest of our repairs underway, or at another station, they’ll probably let us go.”

  Shaw nodded. “They’ll be happy to get us out of their hair.”

  “Two days...” Rade pulled up the tactical display, and calculated the position of the Corsair in two days time. The vessel would be well on the way to the sun by then. Rade guessed that after the Corsair shot Surus into the core, it would continue on a course around the star, using the gravity well to slingshot around to the other side and head toward a Gate that existed on the far side of the system.

  The other three incoming ships that Tahoe had detected earlier had changed course shortly after the Corsair departed, and were headed toward that same Gate. So the Argonaut wouldn’t have to worry about an attack from that vector. More Greens probably resided aboard those ships, at the very least the one named Ghal that Noctua and Bourbonjack had spoken of: the Green that had led the attack on Surus’ original base.

  The only potential problems came from the station itself, but if the Argonaut flew around to the far side of the planet before setting a course for the star, they should be able to get away scot-free.

  “All right,” Rade said. “We’ll try. I still doubt we’ll reach Surus in time, but damn it, we’ll try.”

  “That’s the Rade I know,” Shaw said.

  He nodded slowly. “But if any of those ships attempt to intercept us, I can’t promise to stand and fight. The lives of my crew... of my son and daughter, are paramount, going forward.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Shaw said.

  RADE DISCUSSED HIS plans with the Argonauts, and to a man, they agreed to come. It was always heartening for him to know he commanded such loyalty. He considered leaving the twins and Shaw behind, but decided they were safest aboard, at least given the station’s current compromised status.

  When the fourth engine was repaired two days later, Rade informed the dock AI of his plans to leave the system early, and asked it to cease further operations. The dock AI was more than happy to comply when Rade agreed to forgo the remaining amount Falon had already prepaid for the repairs; it likely planned to earn double the money by renting out the stall to another paying customer when the Argonaut vacated.

  Before the ship departed the station, Rade purchased a bunch of raw materials from the AI under the guise of using them for further repairs; it cost him the last of his savings to procure them. He was essentially tying the fate of his company to this rescue: if he failed to retrieve Surus, his little mercenary enterprise would fold.

  After accepting delivery, Rade gave the order for the Argonaut to withdraw.

  “Bax,” Rade said when the vessel was clear of the station. “Take us to the far side of the planet.”

  “As you wish,” the Argonaut’s AI replied.

  “The station is inquiring why we aren’t heading toward the nearby exit Gate, as indicated by our prelaunch flight plan,” Fret said.

  “The station is charging onboard Vipers and defense systems,” Lui announced.

  “Tell them we need to recharge our power cells for a few days on the day side,” Rade said.

  Fret did so. A moment later he replied: “They bought it.”

  “The Vipers are powering down,�
�� Lui said.

  Rade unknotted his fingers in relief.

  The bridge hatch opened and closed. Shaw stepped inside. “Permission to return to duty?”

  “Permission granted,” Rade said. He wondered how Cora would take the news that its stint in sickbay had just gone full-time.

  Shaw took her place at the astrogator station.

  “Shaw, baby girl, it’s good to have you back at my side,” Bender said.

  “Thank you,” Shaw said. “Did you miss me in the long time we were parted?”

  “Every day,” Bender said. “If you see my hand darting under my station while we’re talking, know only that I’m readjusting my suddenly tight pants.”

  “That’s sweet,” Shaw said sarcastically.

  “If you see his hand darting under the table, he’s doing more than simply readjusting his pants,” Manic said.

  “Shut it, bitch,” Bender said. “I’m trying to have a decent conversation with Shaw here.”

  “So that’s what you call it,” Manic said.

  After the Argonaut had rounded the planet, Rade said: “Shaw, take us on a direct course toward Falon’s Corsair. Best possible speed.”

  “Setting course vector and engaging engines, best possible speed,” Shaw said.

  “Maybe we shouldn’t make it completely obvious we intend to follow them,” Tahoe said. “Perhaps aiming for one of the inner planets first, if possible. That way we don’t tip our hand too soon.”

  “I think it will be fairly obvious we’re pursuing them either way,” Rade said. “But I’m pretty sure they won’t bother to turn back. They’ll proceed to the star, and launch Surus. By the time they realize what we’re doing, it’ll be too late: they’ll be trapped in their slingshot orbit around the star, unable to turn around and stop us.”

  “Might be too late for us to save her by then, too...” Fret said.

  Rade had Harlequin supervise the planned modifications to the shuttle. Harlequin estimated that it would take two days to 3D-print the requisite pieces of thermal and radiation armor, and another two days to outfit the Dragonfly with them.

  Rade had the repair robots use the rest of the materials on the Argonaut’s engines. Their work required a few external spacewalks, something readily achievable with the magnetic mounts in the suits.

  On the second day out from the planet, Fret reported: “I’m getting a message from Falon. He wants to know what we’re doing.”

  “Tell him we’re simply going on a pleasure cruise of the system,” Rade replied.

  A few minutes later Fret had an answer: “Falon says we’re wasting our time. We won’t save her. We’re too far behind. She’ll be enveloped by the corona by the time we arrive.”

  “Tell him we have no intention of saving her,” Rade instructed Fret. “And that, as I said, we’re on a pleasure cruise.”

  Falon gave no response to that.

  eighteen

  On the third day the repair robots reported in that the fifth engine was functional. With that extra engine, the Argonaut was able to close to within a day from the Corsair over the next week. But by then, the vessel was making its slingshot maneuver around the sun.

  “I’ve detected a missile launch,” Lui said. “It’s headed toward the corona.”

  “Surus,” Shaw said.

  Rade nodded slowly. “How much time do we have?”

  “The missile will reach the corona in two hours,” Lui said.

  “We’ll never make it,” Fret said. “Falon was right.”

  Rade sat back. “So this is how it ends. Surus unceremoniously cast away into the core of a star, enduring the same terrible fate she inflicted on the enemies of humanity. There’s nothing we can do for her now.”

  And my company is no more.

  Rade supposed it was for the best. It was probably high time that he settled down, and raised his children properly. Hopefully Shaw’s parents would let them stay at the vineyard. They’d probably be angry about all the money Shaw had lost investing in his ship, but hopefully when they saw the twins that would make everything all right again.

  “Wait,” Lui said. “The missile is slowing down. Rapidly.”

  “They must have contained Surus improperly,” Tahoe said. “She got out, took control of the missile’s AI. Fired reverse thrust.”

  “It seems that way,” Lui said. “But at the missile’s current distance from the sun, there isn’t much she can do to escape the gravitational pull. In fact, it looks like she just used up the last of her propellant. But I’ll give her credit: she has slowed her descent considerably. At this rate, she’ll reach the point of no return in a little over a day. And by point of no return, I mean the distance wherein we can safely rescue her.”

  “So we can still make it,” Rade said.

  “We can,” Lui said.

  A few minutes later Lui reported: “Hm, the missile just split into two pieces.”

  “Breaking up?” Rade asked.

  “No,” Lui said. “It seems that it contained a decoy. Each piece is heading in a different direction.”

  “Damn it,” Rade said. “Falon wants us to guess between them, does he?”

  “He planned his deceit well,” Tahoe agreed.

  “Tell me that the Argonaut’s heat shields will hold up when we arrive...” Rade said.

  “Well,” Bax replied. “Let me just say, it’s good that you finished external repairs to the engine areas.”

  “What do you mean?” Rade said.

  “As hull temperatures rise,” Bax said, “damaged areas are the first to fail under conditions of high temperature and stress. All it would take is the formation of a hairline fracture to bring us down. The competing forces of gravity, acceleration, and momentum could cause that fracture to spread across the ship and, exacerbated by the heat, the tiny crack could eventually break the Argonaut apart.”

  “So we’ll hold up, or we won’t?” Rade asked.

  “For the time being, the prognosis is positive,” Bax said.

  “Okay good,” Rade said. “Keep me posted if you spot any hull problems going forward.”

  “I intend to,” Bax replied.

  Rade studied the tactical display for a moment. “Two missile pieces now. Two... all right everyone, I’m going to need all hands in the hangar bay. We have a second shuttle to fortify.”

  Rade and the others hurried down to the hangar bay to begin hurried preparations on the second shuttle. As the tense hours passed, the team attached leftover materials 3D-printed from the first shuttle, and also set the printers to creating new parts. They didn’t have time to create all the needed materials, so the second shuttle would be lacking the radiation armor of the first, and would have to be manned by AIs.

  With only half an hour to the targets, the team managed to get the thermal armor of the second shuttle just up to par, though according to Bax there was a twenty-percent chance that the craft would fail soon after recovering the missile.

  “We’ll just have to take that risk,” Rade said. “Centurions, I need volunteers to fly the second shuttle.”

  Algorithm stepped forward immediately. “I’ll do it.”

  “Thank you,” Rade said. “Bax, how are we doing on the external temperature?”

  “We’re at six hundred degrees Kelvin,” Bax replied. “Starboard side. Heat armor is holding.”

  “Radiation levels?” Rade asked.

  “The armor is filtering most of it,” Bax said. “And any humans sent aboard the first shuttle should survive.”

  “All right.” Rade turned toward Harlequin. “I can’t order you to do this, but I would like it if—”

  “I’ll fly the first shuttle,” Harlequin said.

  Rade smiled. “I was going to say, I would like it if you came with me.”

  “Of course I’ll go,” Harlequin said.

  “Wait, what?” Shaw said. “What do you mean, if he came with you.”

  “I’m taking the first shuttle in, of course,” Rade said. “Why do you
think we spent all that time adding radiation armor?”

  “I thought you were going to send someone else?” Shaw said. “Bender. Or Manic.”

  “Sure, volunteer the crew members you like the least,” Manic said.

  “Hey, she chose me because she loves me the best,” Bender said. “And knows I’m the bravest, capable of getting the job done competently.” He glanced at Rade. “I’ll certainly do it, boss. Better me, than you.”

  “You know, so what if we installed radiation armor?” Tahoe said. “Let’s just send the AIs in by themselves. Why risk human lives at all?”

  “We could certainly do that,” Rade said. “And in the past, I would have agreed with you. But I’ve come to believe that AIs aren’t simply disposable. They’re brothers, like the rest of us. I’m sure Harlequin, Bax, and the rest of the Centurions would agree with me on this.”

  “Of course they would, bitches are AIs!” Bender said.

  “And none of you humans feel the same as me?” Rade asked.

  “I do,” Lui said.

  “As do I,” TJ replied.

  Rade nodded. He glanced at Shaw. “I can’t send Bender or Manic. Or any of the others. Not this time. Because you see, I was the one who squeezed the trigger on that stun rifle. I was the one who captured Surus. To protect my kids. So it should be me who rescues her. This is my redemption.”

  “But what about the twins?” Shaw’s lips quivered, and she turned away.

  Rade wanted to comfort her, but he knew there was nothing he could say right now. It was best if he left her alone to deal with her feelings on her own at the moment.

  “She’s right,” Tahoe said. “We can’t let you do this. You’re a father now.”

  “So are many of you,” Rade said. “I’m sorry Tahoe, this is my job to do. This is the price I have to pay for what I did. I chose to save my family—and my crew—at all costs, and this is my restitution. If I don’t return from this, it’s up to the rest of you to help Shaw raise my kids. You all owe me that much. But enough of this doom talk. I plan to return.” He didn’t say that last bit with much conviction. Hopefully the Argonauts didn’t notice.