Apex

by Aer-ki Jyr

  Steve echoed his sentiments as Ella walked by them both, following the last train of cargo sleds. She received a comm message from Marren and began reprogramming each sled one at a time as the two Kayna began to unload the remainder.

  “No, leave those,” she told them. “I need one empty, the rest can be filled. We’re going to use them to move the cargo to the surface.”

  Steve huffed once, then began to reload the sled he’d been previously unloading. Wes took another empty sled and began loading it up as well while Ella slowly made her rounds. By the time she’d finished with them all the Kayna had the others loaded, with one left empty as per her instructions.

  The Cres stepped up onto the empty sled and held onto the forward control pillar. Interlinking all of them to hers, she elevated it up above head height and moved to the center of the bay, gradually arcing up to the ceiling exit.

  She carefully brought it to a stop underneath, then slowly lifted it out of the bay, passing through the atmospheric containment shield and up into the dugout shaft with tiny rivulets of dirt dropping down past her like mist.

  The shaft was so long and wide that she had a hard time believing that only a few of the Human diggers had accomplished all this, but when her sled reached the surface there were the twelve drones waiting nearby with Marren, who directed her east towards where the Resolute’s descender had penetrated the canopy.

  Ella maneuvered the sled around the massive tree trunks, its cargo-­bearing twins following its path in a long train for about half a kilometer before the descender came into view. The long pylons disappeared up through the jungle canopy into a bright light, with the cargo ship completely out of view.

  As Ella parked her sled just short of the rectangular plate and keyed in that location as ‘base,’ a blur dropped from the canopy and landed directly in the center of the descender, kicking up a spray of dirt amidst a large gust of wind. To her shock, the Cres realized it was Riax that had fallen down through the treetops.

  He stood up from his crouch and walked over to Ella as the other cargo sleds caught up and stopped behind her in a neat line.

  “I was told as a child that Humans could fly,” she said through her helmet’s amplifier. “I always thought that was a myth.”

  “This one can’t,” Riax said, reaching over her sled’s pylon and rekeying the location as a waypoint instead of base. “You have to reach level 5 commando to get that upgrade. I’m only a level 3.”

  Ella noticed his reprogramming but her curiosity took priority. “What did you just do then?”

  “I used an energy matrix to cushion my fall. Have the sleds elevate up through the shaft into the ship, there’s no reason to use the descender for the small pieces. Set the ‘base’ point inside the cargo bay and the workers will unload the sleds and send them back along the same path automatically.”

  Ella frowned and turned around just in time to see the walking drones arriving behind the loaded sleds. “You want me to take them up first?”

  “I’ll take them up on the descender and get them programmed. Toggle their waypoints like this one while you wait.”

  Ella nodded as she stepped off the empty sled and walked back to the second in line as the taller workers passed her by and joined Riax on the large rectangular platform, then disappeared up into the canopy.

  Where are you? she asked Marren telepathically.

  Her helmet’s comm responded after a long pause. “I’m tracking a large predator in the vicinity opposite your direction from the outpost. It’s minding its own business for the moment, but I may have to lead it away if it gets any closer.”

  “How big?”

  “Too big,” he answered, almost in a whisper. “And we can’t keep the shield up while we’re transferring cargo.”

  “Just the one?”

  “For the moment, but I can sense others farther off. Not all the same race.”

  Ella glanced up over her head as a thought occurred to her. “Be careful, and call me if you need help.”

  “I will,” Marren said, cutting off his comm.

  Ella stretched out her senses into the thick canopy above. There were many lifeforms there, small and moving about, but there were also a few larger ones, not around the descender’s corridor, but that could change quickly. She imagined that whatever these larger ones were, they could probably move from tree to tree with ease.

  She also sensed Riax coming back down a moment before the descender pushed aside several small, flexible branches and came into view, followed by a bright shaft of light.

  “You can send them up now,” he said, stepping off it and walking towards her. “Just set the ‘base’ point near the workers and they’ll do the rest.”

  “Marren’s tracking a large creature nearby, and I can sense some others in the treetops.”

  “I know, I can feel them too,” he said, breathing in the dense air deeply as he adjusted to the oxygen rich zone again. “If you need backup let me know.”

  “I can handle it,” she assured him. “I’m just worried about them knocking over one of the cargo sleds.”

  “Keep them distracted if they come close,” Riax said, leaving her to the task and heading back along the train of sleds. He ran to the artificial crater and leapt up over the edge so that he landed in the open center and dropped down into the bay, passing through the invisible atmospheric containment field and feeling his ears pop from the transition.

  He released a swelling blast of his concussive energy beneath him to slow his fall, coming down hard on his feet along with some bits of dirt that he’d dragged with him. His legs bent and he dropped to a knee, stopping just a ­couple centimeters from it touching the ground as his momentum was canceled out. Riax stood up slowly, then walked casually to the edge of the gigantic chamber where the vehicle bay connected.

  With a series of telepathic commands he tied the speeders’ navigational controls into the route being used by the cargo sleds and sent them out one by one. They moved to the first navigational point where the Kayna were waiting to load more cargo, then took a sharp left turn and headed up and out of the bay.

  Confident in their autonavigation capability, Riax boarded one of the gunships and powered it up. Its onboard power cells had been recharged earlier, as had the speeders, cargo sleds, and kelzats. All Human small vehicles and starcraft operated off rechargeable cells rather than have onboard reactors. Those were reserved for larger, less expendable units, given the rarity of L-­type fuel elements and the efficiency and storage capacity of their power cells.

  Fortunately the outpost’s reserve cells held more than enough charge for the smaller craft, but for future use Riax was going to have to fashion a portable recharger linked to a reactor. Until that time the craft would have to function off a single charge.

  With the gunship fully powered Riax floated it out of the vehicle bay and up towards the entrance shaft. He halted his progress as he saw the first of the empty cargo sleds returning. He scanned the ‘road’ ahead and moved into a gap after the first three had cleared.

  It was a tight fit, but the large gunship was able to navigate up the shaft vertically. It was far too long to rise up horizontally, but putting its nose to sky gave it a few meters clearance, which was all Riax needed to get it clear of the outpost.

  It rose up beneath the treetops, just clearing the edge of the dirt-­rimmed crater as it pivoted on its side until it was pointed south, but its narrow profile was tilted up and ‘resting’ on its port side. Riax slid the bulky craft between the massive tree trunks, zigzagging away from the outpost entrance for a few kilometers before tilting up again and very slowly pushing through the canopy.

  Limbs snapped or bent, making way for the now blue gunship’s knife-­like profile to slice up through the treetops and into the bright daylight. Riax leveled it out and easily spotted the hovering Resolute a few kilometers off. The large shi
p was holding steady with its underside almost brushing the treetops while its upper surface appeared just as green.

  That was due to the cloaking field being reset and mounted on the top of the freighter so that it matched the coloration of the vegetation in case anyone in orbit was taking a closer look at the area. The thick atmosphere kept any long range scans at bay, but with more and more mercenary ships entering the system it was only a matter of time before the moon was thoroughly scanned.

  From the side the ship appeared normal, and Riax easily picked out the open primary bay doors. Unlike the ventral ramp/descender, this entrance sat on the ship’s port side for the exclusive use of allowing access to small loading craft while in space.

  Riax easily maneuvered the gunship into the freighter and set it down at the end opposite the boarding ramp/descender and the off-­loading drones, parking it next to the kelzat that he’d previously delivered to the ship in the same manner. He powered it down quickly and jogged over to the ramp as the last of the speeders were slowly making their way up and into the bay. He tucked all of them away in a neat row along the wall and dropped back down to the planet, suffering through the rapid pressurization again.

  He returned to the outpost several more times, bringing back the other gunship, another kelzat, two aerofighters, two starfighters, and four small shuttles, one of which he used to ferry some larger pieces of equipment that the cargo sleds couldn’t carry. By the time the sleds had finished their transfer of the small cargo Riax had already closed down and sealed most of the outpost against the Vespa’s continued salvaging efforts, though as promised he’d left the life support on . . . but little else.

  Absent during the entire cargo transfer, the Vespa and her mercs reappeared just as Riax was coming up through the small personnel shaft on his way to leave.

  “I trust you’ve taken all that you require?” Lilly asked.

  “Yes, but I suggest you have the bay entrance reburied. The doors are sealed, but anyone on the ground will be hard pressed to miss the hole.”

  “We will,” she said agreeably. “I have ordered our ships insystem to cover your exit if required. I have also ordered our fleets to move into systems between here and Cres territory should you require their assistance.”

  “Generous of you,” Riax said, half thanking her.

  “Yes, it is.”

  “And risky,” he pointed out.

  “Your presence in the galaxy will trigger many changes, more of which will be beneficial to my efforts than negative, therefore you are worth protecting in your vulnerable state.”

  Riax raised an eyebrow at the word ‘vulnerable’ but didn’t voice the obvious irony evident in the pacifistic and physically weak Vespa’s statement.

  “Don’t break anything,” he said, walking off and leaving the outpost to the mercs. He headed back to the empty descender and rode it up one last time, passing out of the oxygen rich layer and briefly into the less hospitable outer canopy atmosphere before rising up into the ship and having his ears pop again as the pressure dropped suddenly.

  The descender reattached itself to the floor, again becoming a ramp. Interlocks then clanked into place as Jalia sealed it from the bridge. Riax took a relaxed breath, exhaling the denser air in his lungs and looked around at the stacks of cargo and equipment they’d recovered. With a satisfied smirk he headed up to the bridge.

  Chapter 24

  JALIA TOOK THE Resolute across the moon’s surface a kilometer above the treetops until the freighter had circled around to the far side, then angled up towards orbit with the moon’s mass hiding them from view. Kicking in the ship’s gravity drives at nominal power, she jetted the ship off at an angle, heading farther out into the periphery of the star system.

  “We’re live,” she said as the ship’s sensors began to pick up passive signals from other ships’ active radars. “Looks like they’re camping out at all the jumplines.”

  Suddenly the communications panel registered an incoming point to point signal. Jalia frowned and put it through to her headset. After a moment she turned around and looked at Riax.

  “The Concordat wants to know which jumppoint we’re using,” she told him, not sure herself. The Human hadn’t told her yet.

  “Arcad.”

  Jalia nodded, and began a brief conversation in the commerce language.

  The Arcad System had been one of the possible destinations within range of the Resolute’s jump capability from Hellis, but blocked by unreliable spacelanes. Traveling to Mewlon had essentially been a detour around the unstable region of interstellar space, making a left jog, now followed by a right back to Arcad. Not only did it add considerable distance to their journey, it was causing them to accelerate and decelerate twice as much, costing twice the fuel.

  Unfortunately, until they had access to another jumpship, these small zigzagging jumps were the best they could hope for. Given that the freighter only had an effective range of .7 wesks, they were fortunate to have sufficient stellar density to allow them transit options at all. In the sparser regions of the galactic swirl jumpship travel was the only means of transit between some star systems.

  Hellis to Mewlon had been only .2 wesks, while Mewlon to Arcad was double that at .4 wesks, meaning that Jalia either had to devote more fuel to the acceleration and deceleration phases or suffer double the time span of travel.

  “The Concordat battleship is requesting a rendezvous before we reach the Arcad jumppoint,” she said, half turning back toward Riax. “It is also requesting a dual jump.”

  “How fast are they?”

  “They said they can make 5.3.”

  Riax considered that for a moment then nodded.

  Jalia turned back to her navigation board and began looking for a suitable rendezvous point as she informed the battleship of their acceptance of the escort offer.

  “Here,” Riax suggested, pointing at a small uninhabited planet near the system’s star.

  Jalia pulled up the planet’s coordinates with a tap of the display and relayed it to the mercs. They sent their acknowledgement, along with an ETA.

  “Four hours,” she told him, cutting communications.

  “Can we make that?”

  “Easily,” she said, beginning to plot out their route in advance of the next microjump.

  THE RESOLUTE ARRIVED in orbit around the uninhabited, rocky world of Kentoria an hour ahead of the Concordat battleship. The enemy mercenary units hadn’t moved from their blockade positions along the jumplines, or to be more accurate, just off them. They didn’t want to risk a collision with any incoming ships, rare as that might be, but they needed to remain close in order to intercept the Resolute regardless of which incoming trajectory she chose.

  By now the freighter had to have shown up on every systemwide scan, but no one had moved to intercept them during transit, nor had they come for them as they camped out around Kentoria. Actually catching a gravity drive powered starship in space was a difficult thing to do, and it seemed like the mercs were intent on stacking their odds by poaching the jumplines.

  They could, of course, also see the Concordat battleship moving towards Kentoria, and perhaps that was what kept them from at least sending a cutter or fighter squadron out to harass the freighter. The battleship would, no doubt, rouse their quarry and cause them to waste additional fuel. With enough subsequent intercepts it would be forced to either flee the system along the jumplines or head back to Agas for refueling, either of which would bring them into the mercenaries’ hands.

  Jalia imagined there must have been quite a ruckus aboard the mercenary ships when the battleship not only reached the planet and didn’t scare off the freighter, but deployed into escort position beside it. The pair moved toward the Arcad jumpline via a near photosphere crossing trajectory that would bring them up the line from the bottom at high speed, making them difficult to intercept.

  T
he battleship and freighter had to interlink their navigational systems to keep from running into each other during course alterations, given their differing masses, but the pair managed to keep within a twenty kilometer distance of each other as they slid past the star and began making plasma engine adjustments to finesse themselves onto the jumpline.

  The enemy, however, had the advantage of seeing them coming and had positioned a catch fleet in close to the star, hovering on the jumpline just above the photosphere. When the targets passed their position at an angle approaching the jumpline, the fleet accelerated on a microjump attempting to match their velocity. Given that they weren’t leaving the system, they were able to accelerate and decelerate at a whim and quickly nulled out the differences between the two, then using plasma engines angled off the line to intercept the freighter before it made it to its jumppoint.

  The intercept was made fourteen minutes prior to arrival on the line, with the enemy’s starfighters making first contact as they swung around behind the battleship and freighter and accelerated to null out their momentum, then started firing on both ships’ aft quarters.

  The lachar blasts were of no threat to the five kilometer long battleship, and didn’t register much energy depletion on the Resolute’s shields either, but every bit chewed off now would make it easier for the incoming capital ships to get through and knock out her engines. Both ships opened fire with small batteries, two from the Resolute and fifteen from the battleship.

  The ‘heavy’ lachars that they’d appropriated from the merc frigate were about 15% more powerful than the ‘small’ anti-­fighter batteries on the battleship, meaning that the big ship also carried a massive amount of firepower. The incoming fighters might not be too worried about the larger batteries, but the incoming ships would not be so fortunate. The fact that they were actually going to engage the behemoth showed how serious they were about seizing the freighter.