Fran shook her head. “I still don’t get how they can do this. Every ship leaving the station right now is peaceful. The only vessel making any sort of aggressive action is the Benevolent Hand.”
“Are we broadcasting this?” Andy asked.
“We are,” she said. “Are they jamming the Link out of Cruithne? That’s the question.”
“You mean you don’t have a plan for that?”
“If Starl were here, maybe he could tell you. I got this ship running and gave the word to leave. My part’s done for now.”
“We’re still going to need those cannons at some point,” Andy said. “How close are they to being operational?”
“They’re seated in the housing. None of the connections were finished. It’s a two-person job.”
“There are two of us.”
“You need to pilot this thing. If we had a capable AI, I’d say yes.”
Andy shook his head, thinking of the AI that was supposedly embedded in the back of his brain. He was starting to doubt Jickson had done anything but cut a hole in his skull.
“Can you get started and I come help you when you need it? I won’t know how much time we have until the drones start making strafing runs. I hate that anybody ahead of us is going to be a sacrifice to save our asses, but it’s the only way I can come up with a counter flight path. They might be trying to intimidate everyone into staying.”
“Yeah,” Fran said, watching the spreading field of drone flight teams. The flow of red dots out of Cruithne had only grown thicker, glittering in three rivers of light leaving the asteroid in opposite directions.
“I have a drone,” Andy said. “What kind of help do you need with the cannon?”
“I met your drone. It should be put out of its misery. It might be older than the ship.”
“The kids call it Alice.”
“You shouldn’t ever name a drone. You might have to scrap it.”
Andy smiled but didn’t take his gaze off the display. “That’s exactly what I said.”
His attention was drawn back to the holodisplay as the first freighter passed under the shadow of the drone cloud. Andy held his breath as the flashing red point grew indistinct under the swarming drones. The freighter continued—taking no fire from the drones—now followed by four more.
“I hope you’re right,” he said.
“About the drone?”
“About it all being a feint.”
He liked to think they still lived in a universe of laws. That was the world where he wanted to raise his kids. Times like these made him believe the old human ways would never die. The ramifications of isolation and violence were only amplified the further you went from civilization.
The first freighter crossed beyond the outer edge of the swarm. Andy watched it move closer to the display boundary.
“They’re winding up for a burn,” Fran said.
Andy nodded and wasn’t surprised when the dot stretched on the holodisplay and disappeared, the space where it had been now occupied by the next ship in the lane. He released his pent-up breath and relaxed in the seat.
“It’s a show,” he breathed. “It’s all a show.”
More ships flowed past the swarming drones in each of the three lanes. Their dots smeared on the edge of the display as they powered up their engines and boosted away from Cruithne.
Andy pulled up the route controls and verified they had an entry window into the nearest exit lane. They were behind twenty other ships, with even more forming up behind them. Still More joined the queue as he watched.
“These are all Lowspin ships?”
Fran shook her head. “It went beyond Lowspin before you got to the shuttle. Zanda really pissed a lot of people off. You don’t turn on your own. I guess it didn’t help that Heartbridge was attacking everybody. A whole lot of housing areas are rubble now. That’s people’s families.”
“How many stations have Heartbridge clinics, you think?” Andy asked.
“You think I know? Ask the Link.”
“I’m not talking about an actual number. I’m wondering how big the company truly is.” He motioned at the hologram of the Benevolent Hand. “Look at that thing. It’s a monster. That’s not cheap.”
“It’s like any other company, part of another company. Who knows how far it all goes back?”
“Apparently Starl knows,” Andy said.
Fran laughed. “Starl doesn’t know shit. He was hired to do a job and he’s doing it.”
“So, who paid him?”
“Maybe Heartbridge did? You never know with this kind of shit. Jickson shows up saying he has a job. Starl bites like a hungry dog and here we are, about to get killed.”
“We’re not getting killed,” Andy said.
Fran crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not a liar; I’ll tell you what I think. If we get out of this alive—” She stopped herself as the door to the command deck slid open and Cara appeared with a box in her hands. She walked over to them and pulled two grilled cheese sandwiches out of the box.
“I figured I should just bring these up,” she said.
Fran took a sandwich and smelled it, then took a huge bite. Chewing with her mouth open, she said, “You’re all right, kid.”
“I thought I told you to strap in,” Andy said.
Cara tilted her head and held the sandwich out.
“Don’t give me those eyes,” Andy said, taking the sandwich. It had cooled but even rubbery cheese on stiff bread tasted like heaven. He ate the sandwich in four bites.
Beside him, Cara’s gaze was fixed on the holodisplay.
“Is this what’s happening right now?” she asked.
“Those are all the ship leaving Cruithne right now,” Andy said.
“Where are we?”
Andy tapped a command on the display and the yellow dot marking Sunny Skies blinked near the ring. “That’s us.”
“We’re so far back. How long is it going to take us to get past the other ships?”
“I don’t know yet,” Andy said. “There are too many of us trying to get out right now.”
“What keeps them from running into each other?”
“Idiot self-preservation,” Andy said. “And good computers.”
“So, we’re trying to get past the big ship and all those little ones? Those are drones, aren’t they? Military drones?”
“How old are you, kid?” Fran asked.
Cara looked at her. “Twelve. How old are you?”
Fran barked a laugh. “I like that. I’m thirty-four. Old enough to know better and young enough to enjoy it.”
“My dad is forty-three.”
Fran nodded. “He looks all right for somebody so old.”
Cara gave her a quizzical look. “That’s not old. He was younger than you when he left the TSF.” She pointed at the swarming drones. “He knows how to kills those drones. Don’t you, Dad?”
Andy gave her an uncomfortable smile. “Not without the right kind of ship, kiddo. Those drones are like piranha fish and we’re piloting a hippo.”
“Hippos are actually very dangerous. They used to kill people all the time. They only look cute,” Cara said.
Fran stared at Cara, then burst out laughing. “I like her, Captain Sykes. I want her up here on the command deck whenever you’re getting stressed out.”
Andy wanted to say that it didn’t help him at all to have the kids on the command deck but he didn’t want to hurt Cara’s feelings. Not that he could keep them away most of the time. If Fran hadn’t been sitting in Brit’s seat, Cara would have been there. It had been safer when most of the console’s functions were inoperative. He was going to have to be more careful now when he let her pilot alongside him.
“Dad,” Cara said, pointing at the holo. “What are those flashes?”
“What?” Andy turned to stare into the display and watched a cascade of lightning flow through the swarming drones to the river of red lights in lane two. A cluster of Lowspin ships flared and disap
peared. As he watched, the cloud of drones closest to the lane moved along its outer edge, sending forks of lightning into the queuing ships. The lightning was a collection of electron beam and x-ray beams. More ships disappeared as he watched.
Red dots started to break away from the flight lane. The distinct lines of the flight path were soon a mess of red and writhing gray drones, like a cancer shooting through healthy cells.
Andy’s mouth went dry. They were at the back of a queue just like the one he was watching disintegrate in the display. He turned to Fran and she was staring into the distance, accessing her Link.
When he was about to shake her to get her to come back, she looked at him blinking. “They’re all dying,” she said. “Other ships are rerouting. Some are saying they’re turning back for the ring.”
“Is anybody pushing through?”
“There are some with offensive capability. They’re still going. We could fall in with them but it doesn’t matter. We’re defenseless except for the shields.”
“We’ve got to get those cannons operational, Fran. How much time would you need?”
She bit her lip, calculating. “An hour. Faster if you can help me. The autopilot is good. You can set the flight plan and we can both get the control servos operational.”
“Are cannons enough against all those drones?” Cara said.
“Maybe,” Andy said. “It’s the best we’ve got.”
“Why are we going to follow everyone else?” Cara said. She pointed at the empty spaces in Cruithne’s orbital space. “Why can’t we just go through those holes and run away that way?”
“We could,” Andy said. “But that would make it clear to the people running the drones that we’re different than all the others.” He didn’t want to say that the Benevolent Hand was trying to find them specifically. “They’d leave everyone else and come after us.”
“You think they would,” Cara said.
“It’s what I would do.”
“But all those others are breaking away and it looks like some are getting through.”
“Most of them are getting killed,” Andy said.
“We can finish the work on the cannons,” Fran said, sounding more resolute now. Something she’d heard over the battle net had either calmed her nerves or convinced her there was no other choice.
Andy nodded. “Cara,” he said. “I want you to stay up here on the command deck. You don’t sit in the pilot’s chair unless I tell you, you understand me? There are a lot of new controls that I don’t have time to explain to you now. Fran and I are going to have to go outside to work on the cannons. We’ve got plenty of time to get it done, so there’s no rush. Can you do that?”
Cara didn’t answer immediately. Her gaze was on the display again. “Why are those drones different?” she asked, pointing at a line of green dots sweeping across the roiling gray cloud of drones.
Andy blinked, not quite believing his eyes. He recognized the formation immediately. “It’s the TSF, the station’s defense fighter squadron,” he said. “They’re counterattacking.” Then he pointed at another line forming on the far side of the Benevolent Hand. “Those aren’t TSF. I don’t know who they are.”
A wry smile had formed on Fran’s lips. “It’s Lowspin,” she said. “Our pirates are back.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
STELLAR DATE: 08.27.2981 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Sunny Skies
REGION: Cruithne Station, Terran Hegemony
Waiting for Airlock One to cycle open, Andy experienced near-disappointment when the door didn’t complain like he was used to. Instead of sounding like it was going to shake itself apart, the two sides of the portal slid open silently, showing him a dull black expanse. In another second, his faceplate display lit up all the visible objects intertwining around Cruithne as the TSF and assorted pirates took the fight to the Benevolent Hand.
Activating his magboots, he stepped out of the airlock.
he said.
Follwing him over the airlock’s threshold, Fran moved up beside him.
Fran moved around him, boots making dull clicks on Sunny Skies’ alloy skin.
He followed her toward the bow, stepping over control boxes and snaking, surface-mounted conduit. As the habitat wheel grew smaller behind them, they came over the curving hull to see the line of the mounted cannons, looking like a row of droop-shouldered drones in the distance.
Andy nearly tripped several times, spending more time staring into the space above them and the battle playing out across his faceplate than the obstacles under his boots.
Andy knew what she was doing, trying to get his mind off everything happening around them and focus on the task at hand. He played along.
Andy laughed, remembering how dumbfounded they’d been.
“Dad,” Cara said. “You didn’t check in. I see the airlock closed. Are you doing all right?”
Andy cursed himself. “Yes. We’re out Airlock One and moving toward the bow. We have the cannon arrays in sight.”
“You’re supposed to check in,” Cara said.
“I know. I will from now on. Where’s your brother?”
“I know where he is. He’s reading his book.”
Andy figured she meant it to be a joke but obviously didn’t understand Cara’s point of view.
Fran blew a low whistle.
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Andy wondered if Fran was actually trying to flirt with him. Being outside the ship seemed to completely change her mood, despite the battle raging just beyond the ring.
Fran set a fast pace, nearly jumping across the obstacle-covered surface. Andy liked to keep one boot hooked until the other found its surface. He was sweating but the new suit did a good job of controlling internal temperature. His faceplate remained clear, unlike the last time he’d been outside Sunny Skies.
“Are you there yet?” Cara asked. The anxiety in her voice was palpable. He wished he had some way to calm her.
“Almost. We’re nearly to the bow now. I can see the main antenna array past the mounted cannons.” He looked back toward the habitat wheel and imagined Cara staring into the holographic display, maintaining her best adult face.
“We’re almost in the lane with all the other ships,” his daughter said. “Can you see any of the ships out there?”
“Unless they reflect light, I won’t have visual on them, Cara. But my suit can see them.”
“What about Cruithne? Can you see Cruithne?”
He glanced straight up into the mottled curve of Cruithne’s ring, like a moldy eel encircling the asteroid. “I can see it, kiddo.”
“Cruithne’s a big dumb rock,” Fran said. “Hard to miss even if we wanted to.”
“Why can’t we just put Cruithne between us and the bad guys and leave that way?” Cara asked.
Lyssa's Dream - A Hard Science Fiction AI Adventure (The Sentience Wars - Origins Book 1) Page 19