“I don’t know,” she replied. “I guess I just see it like a doorway in my mind and I step through. What I bring with me comes, but what I leave behind stays.”
“Exactly!” John exclaimed, his excitement tangible even through the transmission. “And when you come back to realspace, it is the same, right?”
“Yeah, so?”
“So, I want you to visualize that doorway back to realspace. Only I don’t want you to step through it. I want you to envision pushing the end of the docking clamp you are touching through the door.”
Voide began to lose control of her calm. She could feel frustration rising within. This stupid pale who rarely went into interstellar space was trying to coach her through a fundamental alteration of a voidspace jump. What did he know about anything?
“I don’t know how to do that!”
“Yes, you do,” John argued. “It is exactly what you have done your whole life since you started phasing. You just didn’t think about doing it. You have always done it automatically, but this time you need to do it deliberately. It’s like breathing. You do it automatically, but you can control it when you focus on it.”
Voide exhaled and then took a deep breath. She envisioned the dark sliver of a hole into realspace forming within the swirling, comforting patterns of voidspace. Although she could not see voidspace from inside the docking umbilical, she knew and could feel the familiar environment all around her. She recoiled, and opened her eyes.
“Wait! If I do this, I am going to rip a hole in this umbilical. It will expose everything inside to raw voidspace.”
“Yes,” John said with none of the stress in his voice that had just filled her own. “Which is why we have already depressurized the umbilical and everyone whose biology is not equipped to survive raw voidspace is on this side of the airlock door. Even once we tear away from Hornet’s Nest, you will be fine. You are tethered to the ship. Dub has fired up the voidspace drives into standby mode. Once we are free, he will extend the VS field around you so we can open the airlock and bring you back inside. We already talked about this on the way to the airlock, remember?”
Voide had a vague recollection of the conversation, but had been more concerned with doing the impossible and with whether or not Mel would be able to protect her from Brother Martin, than with grasping their game plan fully.
“Yeah, I suppose so.”
“Then, focus. Break the first clamp.”
Voide once again closed her eyes and envisioned a dark sliver of realspace forming in the fabric of voidspace just outside the ship. She tried to envision breaking off the piece of the ship she was touching, but it would not separate. Straining and pushing with all her muscles, her gray skin erupted with sweat, but to no avail.
“I can’t do it!” she growled through the comms, the physical strain in her limbs carrying through her voice. “It’s too big, I can’t move it.”
“Stop trying to physically rip the ship apart, Voide. You aren’t that strong. This is a mental exercise, not a physical one. Focus on sending the end of the docking clamp through to realspace.”
Suddenly, something clicked in Voide’s mind. Instead of trying to force a piece of the ship through the doorway, she began bending the doorway into realspace. She used her mind to shape the portal into a convex lens. Slowly, with as much control as she could manage, she eased the curving edge of the lens onto the end of the docking clamp engulfing it.
“I’ve got it,” she announced, keeping her eyes closed and her mind focused on the open doorway into realspace. “The end of the clamp is through. Now what?”
“Now close the door,” came John’s reply through the comms.
Voide visualized sealing the portal and bisecting the docking clamp. There was a violent buckling as the end of the docking clamp was ripped out of voidspace and sent off into realspace. Had the umbilical not already been vented of all atmosphere, she imagined the sound of rending metal would have been deafening. She opened her eyes to see before her, through the access panel, a tiny window into the swirling, colorful cloud of voidspace.
“Ha-ha! You did it!” John yelled into the comm system loudly enough to leave a ringing in Voide’s ears. “I knew you could!”
“Yeah,” Voide replied. “Let’s hold off the parades and valor medals until I get the other three loose and come out of this alive, okay? Posthumously is not my favorite way to celebrate a victory.”
“You are such a cynic,” John said.
The smile that doubtlessly rested on his smug, sallow face came beaming through his voice. Maybe this pale wasn’t so bad after all. If they lived through this, Voide would have to cut him some slack, at least as much as she cut anyone else.
Voide moved to the next clamp ninety-degrees along the circumference of the umbilical from the now-missing one. Colorful wisps of voidspace wafted through the opening she had just made, and danced like prismatic serpents exploring the interior of the umbilical.
“Okay, Voide. Three more times and we will be free. Do it just like the last time.”
“Really, Doc,” Voide responded, unable to resist taunting his simple, hermit-worldly way. “I thought I might try something different each time just to keep it interesting.”
The quip went unanswered as Mel’s voice broke through the comm channel.
“He’s here.”
“Who’s where?” John asked.
“Brother Martin. He must have detected we have some way of breaking free of the docking clamps. He is at the Hornet’s Nest’s airlock. He is trying to repressurize the umbilical.”
“Hah,” Voide whooped. “Good luck with that. Given the hole I just opened, that pocket carrier would have to have enough atmo to pressurize all of voidspace.”
“He just figured that out,” Mel added.
“How do you know that?” John asked. “Are you in his head?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Voide interrupted before Mel could answer. “He comes through that airlock door, our remote blaster turret will depressurize him.”
“Just get those other clamps loose,” John said. “Once we are away, it won’t matter.”
Voide tamped down the feeling inside her that wanted to rush to the end of the umbilical and rip into Brother Martin. Combat was hardwired into Prophane, but through the years she had learned to suppress those urges when a non-combat solution was more prudent. Right now she had to get those other docking clamps loose before the fanatical monk found a way to stop them.
Voide closed her eyes and reached out to the next docking clamp. She once again visualized a dark sliver of realspace forming and bowing into a curve. Suddenly, a scream erupted from her, slipping voicelessly into the airless void of the umbilical as an intense bolt of pain shot through her skull like a blaster bolt between her eyes.
“Voide, what’s wrong?” John asked.
She hadn’t keyed her comms channel, so he must have seen through the airlock viewing panel as she grabbed her head in both hands, her body shaking in violent convulsions.
“It’s Brother Martin,” Mel’s voice came across the comms, somehow distant and wispy to Voide’s ears.
“Well, help her,” Voide heard John’s voice say just before she slipped into unconsciousness from the pain.
“Voide! Can you hear me? Snap out of it!” was the next sound Voide heard. Her head throbbed, but the intense pain was gone. She was still floating in the umbilical but had no idea if a minute or an hour had passed.
“What happened?” she whispered weakly into the comms.
“Brother Martin attacked you,” John replied. “He knows he can’t breach the airlock safely, especially with the umbilical now venting to voidspace. He is trying to shut down your mind to keep you from completing the task.”
“And where is powder-puff?” Voide snapped, suddenly feeling it was a coin toss as to who she wanted to disembowel more, Brother Martin or Mel. “Isn’t she supposed to be running interference?”
“Mel is shielding you, but Martin’s psi
onic ability must be quite strong. She is showing the strain here, Voide, and I don’t know how much longer she can hold him off. You have to hurry. We are out of time.”
“It figures.”
Voide shook her head and let her blood rage seep in and fill her with energy and determination. She might not be able to rip Brother Martin’s throat out, but she could see to it that his attacks against her were an ultimate failure. She approached the next clamp, closed her eyes and repeated the earlier process.
The umbilical shuddered and strained against the burden of holding with half its clamps gone. The remaining two clung on doggedly, like a pair of snake fangs that refused to release its prey.
She felt Mel’s protective efforts like a cushion of peace around her mind, but the pain in her head was starting to push through. It was only a dull throbbing now rather than the sharp pain which had robbed her of consciousness minutes earlier. Still, it was growing more intense every moment as she felt Mel’s protection slipping and Martin’s attacks rallying forth.
Voide approached the third clamp and released her rage almost fully. She kept only the most tenuous grasp on her control, but let her fury rise to drown out the growing pain. It was everything Voide could do to focus on forming the doorway a third time and bending it to intersect with the clamp. She only entertained for a moment the idea of forcing the doorway toward the far end of the umbilical and sending Brother Martin and a large section of Hornet’s Nest through to realspace instead.
Her restraint won out and the third clamp was violently ripped from the ship and sent hurtling through to realspace. The one remaining clamp was unable to maintain its hold on Star Wolf, and the umbilical tore free gratingly. The two ships drifted apart.
Voide dangled like a fish on a line in the vast, kaleidoscopic expanse of voidspace. She never got over how beautiful it was. Her shipmates had only really seen it through digital recreation on viewscreens, but that paled in comparison to the glory of raw voidspace.
She was at the end of her tether, being dragged behind the bulk of Star Wolf’s hull as it rapidly withdrew from Hornet’s Nest. One final shot of pain hit like a punch between her eyes before Brother Martin ceased his assault. She felt Mel’s comforting cushion of defense collapse.
“You did it, Voide!” John’s exuberance rang in her ears. “I knew you could!”
“Yeah, yeah, Doc. How about you just reel me in. You can break your arm patting yourself on the back later.”
“Cynic,” came across the comms as Voide felt the retraction system on her tether engage, drawing her back toward the lip of the airlock.
Twenty – Advance or Retreat?
Molon Hawkins looked into the faces of the assembled senior officers around the conference table. Dub was distracted, tapping commands to his engineering team via his mobile tablet. Twitch fidgeted. Molon knew his XO would rather be on the bridge overseeing operations than sitting around talking. John beamed an unquenchable smile, elated that his plan had worked and freed them from the grasp of the Hornet’s Nest. Mel looked exhausted after her psionic battle with Brother Martin. Finally, Voide was clenching and unclenching her fists. Molon had seen this too often and knew the Prophane was fighting an inner battle with her own rage as challenging as any physical fight had ever been. The crew had been through a lot, but Molon was grateful he had such a competent and resilient group of command officers to depend on.
“Well,” Molon began. “Where do we go from here? Dub should have the VS drive fully calibrated in the next few minutes, so we need to figure out what direction to point ourselves. Thoughts?”
“As soon as the VS drive is online, we will scan and beeline for the closest exit point,” Twitch replied. “Once we know where we are, then we can figure out where we are going.”
“How far do you think Hornet’s Nest made it towing us?” Molon asked. “We could be halfway to anywhere by now.”
“Not really,” Twitch replied. “I did some preliminary navigational scans while we were waiting for everything to unfold with the separation. It looks like Hornet’s Nest was folding voidspace and gearing up for a long jump, which means we may not have moved far yet, if at all. Unless they did some quick jumps before we regained control of Star Wolf, we are likely to dump back out into the Hatacks system.”
“What long-distance jump points are there out of Hatacks?” Voide asked. “If they were gearing up for a big jump, they weren’t heading to Hececcrir or Corespoun.”
“I had Warbird run the charts,” Twitch answered. “I can’t imagine the Faithful monks were going into Empire, Dawnstar, or Imperium space, and the only long jump anywhere near Theocracy space is to the Cappadocia sector, into a system there called Osvec.”
“There’s a charted jump point to Cappadocia sector from Hatacks? Is Osvec on the Theocracy side of Cappadocia or the PI controlled side?” Molon asked.
“Theocracy side,” Twitch confirmed.
“Really? Is that a back-door into Theocracy space?” Molon inquired.
“Doubtful,” Twitch replied with a shake of her head, “given it is a known and charted jump point. According to our latest system data, it is a major military world with a Theocracy naval base. The voidspace exit is likely mined, but the monks may have a minefield map and safe passage codes. After all, they are supposed to be allied with the Theocracy, right?”
“Planned xenocide notwithstanding,” Voide muttered.
Aside from a raised eyebrow from Twitch, Voide’s comment drew no reaction. Perhaps those who didn’t know the context were too busy with their minds elsewhere. Molon noticed John fidgeting and looking as if he had just thought of something, but his twitching had started before Voide’s remark, so was likely unrelated.
“Something about Cappadocia or Osvec ring any bells, Doc?” Molon asked.
“Maybe,” John replied. “I told you the monks relocated their base away from Tede. I remember hearing through the grapevine that their new base was somewhere in the Cappadocia sector.”
“Coincidence?” Molon smiled at his officers.
“I don’t believe in coincidence,” Voide replied.
“That’s gotta be where they were taking us,” John added. “If they got back to their hidey-hole, they could take their time scouring Star Wolf and the crew for Elena’s research.”
Molon cringed, realizing Mel had not been read in on the situation with Elena’s research. The blue-skinned comms officer hadn’t looked surprised. Had she been fishing around in John’s mind? Molon knew having a psionic on board was a risk, and not knowing the extent of Mel’s abilities put Twitch ill at ease. He only hoped he was right about Mel. If she did break as Twitch predicted, then given Mel’s psionic abilities the damage could be far greater than Molon imagined.
“If we do dump back into Hatacks,” Voide said, “and assuming Revenge and her VDE-equipped Dawnstar fighter friends aren’t still drifting about, I guess we make for the jump point to Tede?”
“No!” John interjected.
“No?” Voide replied, raising an eyebrow.
“I hired Star Wolf to take me back to Ratuen.”
An uneasy tension filled the briefing room. All eyes turned to see how Voide would respond to John’s challenge.
“Are you insane?” she snapped. “Or have you been in a walking coma the past few days? Please tell me after all that has happened you don’t seriously believe there is anything waiting on Ratuen other than another PI ambush.”
John fidgeted and gazed at the floor for a brief moment, but then raised his gaze to lock eyes with the security chief.
“Look, I’m sorry for all the trouble we encountered, but Molon said this was a merc crew and that trouble came with the job—a job that is not complete yet. If there is even a hope Elena is still alive, no matter how remote, I will comb every inch of that facility of Ratuen until I know for sure.”
Molon scratched his chin fur as a heated cacophony of discussion broke out among the senior officers. He let it go on for a moment or two, but
then brought it to a jarring end with an open-handed slap of the conference table. Every officer at the table jumped, dropped into silence, and turned their full attention to their captain.
“If squabble-time is over, then I got something to say, as captain of this tub. We’ve taken a job, no doubt, but the parameters have changed. Breaking into a remote Dawnstar detention facility is one job—a completely different job to flying into the face of a PI cruiser under the command of GalSec. Not to mention we get to do all that while dodging a fanatical sect of Theocracy monks who have some kind of tricked-out pocket carrier armed with neural weapons, and who possess a rabbit-hole map of the sector we have to traverse en route.”
“Not to mention—
“Hold your peace, Twitch. I’m not done yet,” Molon said, cutting her off in mid-sentence.
Molon felt a twinge of regret as soon as he had snapped at his executive officer. Twitch, for her part, folded her hands, dropped into a respectful silence, and shot Molon a glare that told him he was in for an earful later. He let out a sigh before continuing.
“We’re also low on supplies, in need of repairs, and don’t have the credits to make payroll at the end of the month without a paying gig. The Brothers stiffed us on the Salzmann contract, and if we abandon the job John has hired us for, he is under no obligation to even reimburse us for the fuel we have used. Even if we made it back to Tede and hit the jump to Furi, there’s no guarantee of a contract there.”
“So that’s it,” John asked. “You are giving up?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Well, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying, Doctor, that given the odds we are facing, I’m inclined to cut our losses and trust to luck in finding a new gig before we go bust.”
“And what about me?” John asked.
“We could drop you off on Tede or Furi as you please.”
“I thought you weren’t giving up?”
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