Once they calculated his course, they could chase him. Fortunately, it was impossible for ships to engage one another within hyperspace. Outside the protective stardrive bubble, everything was crammed into a smaller space. People and the objects they built weren’t capable of withstanding that effect and maintaining their integrity, so a projectile fired at another ship would implode.
“Silky, if that corvette can enter hyperspace at that speed…”
“Then it will reach our destination long before we will, sir.”
“We need to fall out of hyperspace somewhere along the way.”
“I’ll begin the calculations right away, sir.”
“Try not to drop us in a star system and get us killed.”
“I’ll do my best, sir. But our luck has been sour as of late.”
Gav tapped his comm. “Octavian, place Mr. Tonis in the airlock, please.”
A series of beeps and bloops responded. Silky couldn’t be bothered to interpret, so Gav made an assumption.
“Yes, it’s the right and humane thing to do.”
The cog piped a response of wary acceptance.
“Don’t space him. I’ll handle that myself.”
“Got a plan, sir?”
“When we drop, we’re going to dump him before reentering hyperspace. Just in case that echo space transponder is more powerful than it would seem possible.”
“Sir, are you going to tell me what’s going on now?”
“Why do you keep asking that?”
“Your vital signs show intense emotional stress, sir. Beyond even what I would expect given today’s experiences. On top of that, you dug some pretty deep scratches into your arm. And…well, I have a good sense of when you’re upset.”
“How long will we be in hyperspace?”
“Approximately twenty-two hours, sir, until we reach someplace we can safely drop Mr. Tonis' body. I’m still working on the exact timing.”
Gav stood. “I need something to eat and drink, then a shower…and definitely some sleep, as much as I can get.”
“Then you’ll tell me, sir?”
“No, I’m going to tell you while I eat. Because it can’t wait. I’ve learned some disturbing things, Silky. And I need you to record everything I say then lock it away under your highest security protocols.”
“Roger that, sir.”
Twenty-one hours and fifty-five minutes later, they safely dropped out of hyperspace near a sparsely populated fringe system. Gav had slept for all but three of those hours. The rest of the time he had spent eating, showering, and filling Silky in on what he had learned, reciting word-for-word the telepathic message the priestess was broadcasting. The chippy had taken in the information calmly and had made only a single, two-word comment on it all:
“Well, damn.”
It was as good a response as Gav could have come up with to that information.
“So that’s new information for you?”
“It is, sir. And it does explain some questions I had.”
“You’re still not going to tell me what you know that I don’t?”
“It’s still not wise, sir.”
“Honestly, I’m really not sure I want to know.”
“I certainly wish I didn’t, sir.”
Gav stared out into the dark of space, wondering about the priestess, the Benevolence, and the forces chasing him. His lifelong quest for knowledge of the Ancients, his pursuit of the spaceship he’d recalled, it had all seemed so innocent, so pure and noble. Now he almost wished he could forget all about it.
“We just passed inside the breakpoint.”
Gav stirred from his musings and pulled up the airlock control. Then, with mixed feelings, he jettisoned Tal into space.
Silky decided to say a few words, aired over the ship’s comm. “He was a friend, then a traitorous bastard, then somewhat helpful. And so, he will be somewhat missed.”
“Kind of you, Silky.”
“Thank you, sir. I’ve plotted our next destination, continuing outward. Shall I, as they say, punch it?”
“Punch it.”
The ship turned, headed out past the breakpoint, then entered hyperspace. While the ship cruised along, Gav avoided the capsule, not wanting to go anywhere near it. He spent hours poring over all his research on the Ancients and reading every summary he could find in the galactic database about the origins of the Benevolence. But virtually nothing was known about the Singularity. Several attempts to create true human-level artificial intelligence had been made at the turn of the twenty-second century, and all had failed. Until a project created by Dr. Lemuel Sun had unexpectedly taken off, creating not just a truly sentient machine but a superintelligence.
Except Dr. Sun wasn’t attempting to achieve the Singularity. He was working on what was considered at the time to be an oddball theory of accessing hyperphasic dimensions. The advanced AI system he used to conduct the experiment achieved self-awareness, then progressed far faster than anyone could have predicted.
No one, not even the Benevolence itself, knew how or why the Singularity had happened. Assuming the Benevolence was telling the truth, of course. That didn’t seem likely to Gav anymore.
“Sir, you should get some sleep.”
Gav flinched. “What?”
“You’ve been reading for five hours, sir. You need to rest. You’ve been through a lot. And there’s probably a good bit more to come.”
With a flick of his eyes, Gav dismissed the reading window from his HUD. He had spent the last half-hour staring at the same three paragraphs in a biography of Dr. Sun.
“Make sure you log every text I’ve read. If…if I don’t make it and you ever pass the information along.”
“Operation Breadcrumbs, sir?”
Gav sighed. “Yes.”
Eight hours later, they dropped out of hyperspace and dipped into a system long enough to be picked up by long-range scans from a local outpost. Then they sped away.
“Course set for home, sir.”
Gav leaned back in the command chair with a sigh. “Good.”
“Sir, are you sure it’s wise to go home?”
“If they haven’t already frozen my assets, they will soon. If not, they will use my account to track me. And the ship’s fusion reactor and flux battery will need recharging after three more jumps, so…”
“You want to retrieve your entire private collection and sell it on the blackmarket in exchange for untraceable credits?”
Gav nodded. He couldn’t even bear to think it aloud to Silky. He had spent years building up his sizable collection of valuable artifacts, pieces museums didn’t want or that he wasn’t willing to give up for sentimental or scholarly reasons.
“That much makes sense, sir. And I suppose it’s worth the risk. We would do a poor job running from the enemy without enough money to buy fuel. But I think it unwise to check in on Siv. You shouldn’t even contact him.”
“I can’t leave Siv behind.”
“Sir, leaving Siv behind is exactly what you must do. For his sake and yours. Remember, I spent my formative years as a special forces chippy. I’m certain someone will be watching your home.”
“I just need to sneak in, grab him, and get back out. I’ve left him without a father for too long now.”
“Sir, you’ve got a nanny-cog raising him, and Cousin Norm checks in on him twice daily. Siv will be fine.”
“He needs his dad.”
“He needs to have a long, healthy life, sir. Picking him up will just endanger him.”
Gav stood and walked to the front of the bridge. As the ship zipped through hyperspace, stars and clouds of dust flowed past them like swirling jets of brightly colored foam.
“Well, based on your days as a special forces chippy, if a commander wanted a target to turn themselves in, don’t you think they would seize someone valuable to lure them? Like a son, for instance?”
“We weren’t allowed to use such tactics, sir. And I could not have assisted in such an endea
vor even if ordered to do so.”
“Clearly in this case, those rules have been tossed out the airlock.”
“I suppose you’re right, sir.”
Gav groaned and ran his fingers through his thinning hair. “They couldn't think he knows anything, could they? I didn't tell Siv anything about the amulet or my dreams but…"
“You do normally tell him quite a lot about your work.”
“They may try and interrogate him for information he does not have.”
“I still think it would be best to leave him be, sir. I don’t think they would truly harm him, even if they threatened to. And he will absolutely be in danger if he’s with us.”
Gav closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. What Silky said was beyond reasonable, but the entire universe had stopped making sense to him. He didn’t know what to believe anymore. But he did know that he wasn’t going to leave his son behind, scared and vulnerable, while he raced out to the edges of civilization, perhaps beyond.
“I have to get to him, Silky. Before they do.”
“Understood, sir. But we’re going to need a good plan. You’ll be recognized by scanners once you’re in port.”
“I’ll land at my base in the wastes where most of my collection is and take a skimmer into the city. I doubt the Benevolence knows about my hidden hangar, since I rarely use it. And if it does… Well, there’s only so much we can do.”
Gav headed toward the galley, not for food but for a stiff drink. Two shots of rum ought to help him sleep. Four might get some of this stuff off his mind. He poured a double-shot and threw it back. He swirled the bottle and gauged how much spiced rum was left. With the way his life was going now, half a bottle just wasn’t going to cut it. He needed to stock up.
“Silky, we’ll need to falsify our registration.”
“Already working on our transponder signal, boss. Only one problem. Octavian isn’t going to like it.”
“So, he’ll throw a fit. That’s nothing new.”
“Except his programming will force him to betray us.”
“Can you alter him?”
Gav could practically feel the warm vibe of a smile radiating through his forehead.
“Oh, sir, I’ve been praying for nearly a year now that you’d let me tinker with his programming.”
“While you’re at it, I’d like to hide a second secure copy of what I learned in his memory banks.”
Six days later, the Outworld Ranger dropped out of hyperspace on the edge of the Ekaran system. Gav sat in the command chair and donned the circlet. He raised the shields and put the weapon systems on standby. The ship’s sensors were fully powered, and he was even running his personal military-grade sensor array at level five, just in case it could pick up something the ship could not.
A message in his HUD notified him the Outworld Ranger had been detected by long-range scans originating from the fourth planet’s second moon. The phony registration seemed to pass initial inspection because neither the planetary defense systems nor the port authority showed any unusual response to their arrival. Gav breathed in deeply, checked the sensor readouts again, then sighed with relief. No military type ships were detected in the system either—for now anyway.
Seven tense hours passed as they closed in on a ringed, pearlescent planet: Ekaran IV. Once the jewel of this sector, it was a world in a long decline after an ecological collapse had rendered half the planet infertile, turning the vast plains of a once prosperous continent into a barren wasteland.
Right on schedule, the security base on the second moon pinged the Outworld Ranger's transponder. Twenty minutes later, three planetary satellites and four defense orbitals did the same. Gav forced himself to relax. This was all standard approach procedure.
Then a notification popped up on his HUD requesting that he open a channel via secure beam with the planet. Gav cursed under his breath. Normally, a delayed radio response was all any planet required from the Outworld Ranger.
He opened the channel.
Chapter Seven
Gav Gendin
“This is Captain Char of the Vermouth,” Gav said. “How may I assist you?”
“Starship Vermouth, this is Ekaran Port Authority. Please pull into orbit and await further instructions. Do not attempt to land. This is the only warning you will receive.”
“Is there a problem?” Gav asked nervously.
“Just wait for further instructions, Vermouth.”
Silky eased the ship into orbit, positioning it alongside a number of other vessels queued for landing. None of the ships in the area appeared military in nature, but that was no guarantee.
“Sir, we’re being scanned. The sensors are military grade.”
“Special forces?”
“Planetary Defense, sir.”
“Well then, let’s hope your modifications work.”
“Hope, sir? I altered the transponder and falsified the cargo manifest like a boss.”
“Any idea why they’re scanning us then?”
“I suspect they’ve been told to watch for a Q34-C lightweight cruiser, sir.”
For more than an hour Gav waited, sweating and fidgeting. Finally, Port Authority responded.
“Vermouth, sorry for the delay. You have been cleared to land. Please enjoy your visit to Ekaran IV.”
Gav leaned back into his seat with relief while Silky initiated the landing sequence.
“We should stay on our toes, sir. They’re probably monitoring us.”
“Then we'd better throw them off our scent before we try to get Siv.”
Gav landed the Outworld Ranger at a private estate on Ankor, an island community two thousand kilometers from Bei, Gav’s home city and the capital of Ekaran IV. As the ship powered down, a representative for the estate, flanked by a pair of security guards, came out to meet them. Gav lowered the boarding ramp and took his time walking down.
“Only authorized vehicles are allowed here,” the representative barked. “You are going to have to leave immediately, sir.”
“I've got a scheduled delivery,” Gav lied.
“I think you’re mistaken,” the estate manager said in confusion. “We have not ordered anything.”
“Is this not the Li Estate?”
The manager shook his head. “It is not.”
“Oh, I guess someone screwed up the address,” Gav said with a shrug.
“How is that even possible?” the manager asked.
“You’d be surprised what can go wrong on a delivery. Sorry to bother you, sir.”
Gav returned to the ship and powered up the engines. “Any sign we’re being monitored?”
“All the scans, at least those we can detect, stopped after we landed, sir. However, they could be watching us by satellite or by drones.”
“There’s nothing we can do about that,” Gav replied. “Bring us up but stay low. And fly casual.”
“Sir?”
“Don’t do anything to make us noticeable.”
“Aye aye, captain sir. Flying low, chill, and nondescript. I can do that.”
Avoiding cities, the Outworld Ranger hugged the ground, dust clouds billowing around it, as it traveled three thousand kilometers over verdant farms, dense forests, and a high mountain range. Then came nine hundred kilometers of dry wastes dotted by the ruins of abandoned towns and manufacturing plants.
Finally, they arrived at the remains of Gawo, a once thriving city built around trade and manufacturing. They skirted the rusting factories, the crumbling apartments and office skyscrapers. The city’s fountains were dry, its once lush parks devoid of life.
The Outworld Ranger slowed as they pulled into the gutted remains of the spaceport. This had once been the planet's second largest spaceport. Now everything of value had been stripped away…or almost everything. While studying to be an archaeologist, Gav had spent a free summer exploring Gawo alone, thinking it would be good practice for learning how to handle harsh environments. Amongst piles and piles of decaying ju
nk, all he’d been able to uncover was a few interesting knickknacks left behind by the city’s former inhabitants. Until his last day.
At the edge of the spaceport, there were a number of private hangars that had belonged to various wealthy merchants and aristocratic families. And that's where Gav had discovered a hangar that still functioned. Built to withstand a battle, and apparently even the ravages of time, it had belonged to the city’s most prominent family.
Unlike the other fleeing aristocrats, they hadn’t bothered to remove the hangar’s flux loop capacitor battery or strip away the machinery and computer systems that ran the facility. The large battery actually still held enough juice to power the place for several centuries and recharge a ship once or twice. They hadn’t even locked the front door on their way out, despite leaving a fortune worth of equipment behind. The loop capacitor alone was immensely valuable.
Until Gav arrived, the hangar had slumbered in hibernation mode, sealed away from the outside environment. But as soon as he stepped inside, the lights had come on, and the hangar whirred back to life. He had even found perfectly preserved rations in storage, enabling him to stay an extra week.
Gav had decided then that the hangar would be his secret base—a place to house valuable artifacts and extra equipment, to keep them from being stolen or scooped by his students, and most of all because having a secret base was cool. Today, that discovery was going to pay off.
The Outworld Ranger hovered over a large, circular, diamondine iris covered by dust. A deceptively small garage squatted beside the hangar door. From the outside, the garage looked to be made of stone with just enough space to house a skimmer car and some secondary systems. But the inner walls were constructed of titanium as was the roll-up door that led directly into the hangar below.
“Sensor sweeps haven’t detected any lifeforms, cogs, or drones within the area, sir.”
Gav beamed an ultra-secure command code to the hangar. Unlike the previous owners, he kept it locked down tight.
The expansive hangar door dilated open. The Outworld Ranger sank through the opening and dropped twenty meters to land in the cavernous hangar. Lights came on as the opening swirled shut above them.
Rogue Starship: The Benevolency Universe (Outworld Ranger Book 1) Page 5