The Fire Scorpion appeared on their panels. Her jaw dropped.
Steo ran to the holobridge. His mind wheeled with too many conjectures. His heart pumped so fast he could see his pulse in his eyes.
Yuina was flummoxed. She jumped and every time their foe appeared behind them.
“This seems impossible,” Renosha said.
Steo checked the astrotelemetry to make sure they weren’t seeing a ghost. He dismissed hologram after hologram, checking theories of how their needle could be found so quickly in an infinite haystack. His hands shook as his confidence wavered. The Eye of Orion felt like a thin paper sack about to be punctured by a sword.
“What could they follow?” Renosha asked.
Steo said, “They’re lagging behind us so they’re obviously reacting to something.”
“Could it be a spy transmitting to them?” Renosha asked.
Steo looked at Cyrus. His mind whirled. He waved away the hologram of the ships and created a big one of the Eye of Orion. He jumped back from it and studied it, his head and eyes moving rapidly.
“Tully!” he shouted. “What’s the energy output of our ship?”
“Normal, not overloading,” Tully replied.
“I mean what’s this red aura in my hologram mean?”
Seconds ticked by. Steo couldn’t imagine what sort of power the Fire Scorpion was using to find them. He could only latch onto clues.
“Radiation,” Tully said. “The suns we sat between. Dust from the explosions we escaped, maybe picked up from the merchant ship. It’s leaving a trail. It’s like an arrow every time we jump, lingering in space. Faint but traceable.”
Steo went into the bridge to Glaikis’s console. He looked until he found what he needed, then pointed it out to Glaikis. Once Glaikis had the course set in, Yuina punched it. The Fire Scorpion was already there. They had calculated the Eye of Orion’s direction and distance, then flew faster.
Steo said, “The planet! Get us into the atmosphere!”
Exasperated but not giving up, Yuina didn’t delay and headed to the big planet.
Glaikis said, “This planet is forbidden Steo. It’s surrounded by warning buoys.”
“We have to get into the atmosphere Yuina. Fast!”
The Fire Scorpion closed the distance between them. The Eye of Orion got to the atmosphere first, though. Yuina dropped into the atmosphere, but had to slow down or the ship would burn up. The shields went red then white hot.
Admiral Slaught watched as the target entered the upper atmosphere of the planet Muliar.
Leech said, “They seem to have learned that they’re giving off a trail. They will be able to erase it in an atmosphere like that.”
“Obviously, they know we can’t follow,” Pesht added. “Orders, Admiral?”
“Full salvo. End them,” he ordered in his gravelly voice. Pesht knew that when Admiral Slaught meant to kill, he exposed no emotion.
“Stop shooting at my corvette!” Steo loudly exclaimed from the holobridge.
Hawking raised his voice to be heard. “They can’t hear you, sir.”
Everyone saw the dots approach. The missiles would have to slow down in the atmosphere, though. They were designed to destroy ships in space, not bombard targets on a planet’s surface. They could slow their speed and had shields to protect them, but they couldn’t make it to the lower levels of the atmosphere. The Eye of Orion had one chance, and that was to descend at the maximum speed to the safe zone.
Down in engineering, Tully pushed his systems to the limit. Every ounce of power poured into the shields. Everything in engineering felt like it was shaking apart. Tully used custom tools he’d built just to hold parts together. Several conduits burst, but he knew they weren’t critical ones.
He saw what would happen before the rest of the crew did. He would have to fully open the manifolds if they were going to descend faster than the missiles.
As he ran to them, he shouted to the bridge, “Y-fly, just drop! Don’t slow until the last moment!”
“That’s not safe!” Yuina said.
“She can handle the heat! Do as I say!”
“I don’t mean the ship I mean you, you old idiot! If one goes critical, the energy release will kill you!”
“Hull temperature passing 2500 degrees,” Hawking warned.
Yuina gritted her teeth and let the ship drop faster.
A few missile dots disappeared from the main panel. Burnt up, their fragments tumbled away.
The atmosphere got denser and the heat rose. Hawking kept a rising count of the degrees.
Glaikis and Steo tried to do what they could at different consoles to keep the ship together. Glaikis switched the majority of the shields’ power to deflect the heat beneath them. Steo launched chaff and simultaneously tried to break the missiles’ electronic defenses.
Some missiles survived reentry along with the ship. Two exploded simultaneously. One’s shrapnel didn’t touch the ship, but the other raked it with blistering hot plasma, which penetrated the shields.
In the bridge, they saw the shields tear and the hotspot that spread on the hull. Without shields, the ship would melt. The last missile plunged after them, forcing them to keep going. They were still fairly high in the atmosphere, where the air was comparatively thin.
Tully’s voice said, “Got to close that shield gap. We need more power. Opening manifolds to max!”
No energy powerful enough to change the mass of a starship or convert matter to energy was safe to be around. The engineering compartment was the center of a sudden, violent release of such energy. So was the engineer.
Usually the sounds inside the ship were representations of normally silent events in space. This time on the bridge they heard a real explosion inside the ship, from below and aft.
“TULLY!” Yuina yelled at the top of her lungs. She couldn’t leave her chair but her eyes clouded as she struggled with the remaining energy to slow the ship. The green ground rushed up at them. The corvette rattled and shook. Only pilots knew what forces engineers were exposed to.
The atmosphere got thicker as they descended. The last missile tumbled in the atmosphere, broke up and its parts fell away.
Glaikis said, “With the manifolds blown, available energy is dropping and shields are failing!”
“Twelve seconds to impact,” Hawking noted.
It was like trying to inflate a tire while it had a hole.
“No … impact,” Yuina said through clenched teeth. She stared ahead at the main panel and her hands moved almost independently on the controls. Her body shook. The adjustments she made kept the ship at the perfect angle.
The amount of force Yuina applied to slow the ship was more than the internal systems could handle. Everyone was thrown to the floor, including the robots.
A moment later Steo shook his head and stood, surprised to feel stable. Everyone else was getting back up. The alarms were off. He looked at the main panel and saw jungles passing beneath them. The ship was flying horizontally. Yuina was in the pilot’s chair with a hard look on her face.
Cyrus said, “I’ll check on Tully!” as he ran out of the bridge.
“Any more missiles?” Steo asked.
Hawking floated upright. “Negative, Master Steo.”
“The Fire Scorpion can’t enter atmosphere. How dangerous is our situation right now?” Steo said. Seeing the look on Yuina’s face, he directed this to Glaikis.
“They’re not designed for reentry or atmospheric maneuvers,” Glaikis said. “This low in the atmosphere, they would break up, just like the ones that tailed us. The Fire Scorpion would have used atmospheric missiles if they had them.”
“Thank you, Yuina. You saved all of our lives,” Steo said.
Her expression was dour and she sagged in her chair. “Not all.”
CHAPTER 31
Above & Below
The next day no one spoke much. Everyone contributed to repairs. The Eye of Orion hovered over a small lake in a vast jungle. H
awking scanned the skies for any sign of attack by the Fire Scorpion. The robots couldn’t mourn Tully’s death, but they remained quiet and respectful. The crew had been together for less than a month, but the loss still hit them hard.
Steo and Yuina weren’t speaking, after an argument. Yuina implied Tully would still be alive if Steo had armed the ship. Glaikis tried to act as intermediary, without much luck. The heavyworlder wasn’t a maternal sort, but she moderated the feelings on both sides.
Tully had opened the manifolds far beyond recommended settings, and they overloaded. He was thrown against a wall and died on impact. In the engineering section, railings were bent beyond recognition and tools were embedded in walls. However his risk held the ship together long enough so they didn’t burn up in the atmosphere or get caught by missiles. There had been no other choice.
Cyrus was the first to suggest a ceremony. Renosha asked to attend too. No one had a better idea, so they decided to bury Tully there on Muliar. According to the charts, the planet was slightly heavier gravity than normal with a rich oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere. They wrapped Tully’s body and used bubble-gliders to descend to the lake’s shore.
Once Tully’s body was buried, Steo asked if anyone wanted to speak. Renosha stepped forward. This was the role he would have performed as an advisor robot. He cleared his metallic throat.
“Though it is many colors on many worlds, there is but one sky. Sky is our origin and destination. The ancient world forgotten, you return by flight.
Tully D. Abbot, your body is buried here on Muliar, but your spirit lives on in the hearts and minds of those who knew you – your family, your friends. You sacrificed so that others might live, and there is no greater gift you could have given them. It is a symbol. Let it not go to waste. Deeds well remembered are seeds of growth. Your friends hope you’re at peace.”
Cyrus spoke next. “Tully, the man I met was one who lived with purpose. You were loved and respected. I’ve witnessed an example of honor. And if you don’t mind, it’s one I think I’d like to follow.”
“I’ll see that his wives and children are taken care of,” Steo said.
Yuina wasn’t talkative.
Their communicators lit up. Hawking called for them to get on board. They scrambled and flew up with their gliders.
“What is it now?” Glaikis asked.
“Navigator Glaikis, it isn’t the Fire Scorpion. The destroyer is still circling above in space. Sensors show something else coming, skimming across the treetops.”
Boc was in the bridge of the Fire Scorpion. Pesht didn’t like that. Humans were bizarre enough without allowing a deranged madman to wander loose. Boc had delivered an order from Admiral Slaught, though.
The kalam’s opinion was to stay over the target’s position, but Slaught had ordered them to make a trip around the planet Muliar. Slaught wanted to know why the Eye of Orion chose to fly to this planet, with its strange warning buoys.
The side they faced was mostly covered in jungles. Inexact readings might be long-ruined cities; flat spaces could be concrete or dirt. Pesht saw no signs of civilization and didn’t feel there was cause to worry, even though the buoys transmitted a general warning. He ordered the Fire Scorpion to begin the orbit.
Boc talked to a crewman who laughed. When laffers could control themselves, they often became heroes to other soldiers. Crewmen liked to hear their violent tales of war and carnage. Pesht didn’t understand that.
Another crewman pointed to something on a panel, a glow on the planet’s surface. It didn’t actually glow, the panel merely indicated energy sources. Pesht ordered the Fire Scorpion to slow over the point. They started detailed scans.
On the surface, a mammoth concrete slab slid back. From a dark tunnel rose a barrel the size of a building.
Alarms sprang to life on the Fire Scorpion, but no one had time to react. A green beam ripped through the atmosphere and fully pierced the forward hull of the Fire Scorpion, cutting through the ship like a needle through paper.
“Neutron splitter!” shouted a crewman.
Pesht stood in awe of the terrible firepower unleashed by the planetary defense system. Kalams were always impressed with dreadful weapons. He shook himself out of it and barked, “Defensive maneuvers!”
The Fire Scorpion dodged the second neutron splitter beam and pulled away from the planet. The tactical team calculated the maximum effective range, and the Fire Scorpion slowed well outside that distance.
Eight men died in the initial blast, plus several robots were destroyed. The hull was breached clean through, but damage recovery processes automatically closed sections exposed to space. Pesht let the alarms squeal. They were the kind that would bring the doctor. Time for Hack to do his job.
“That was blasted accurate!” Pesht shouted.
“Astrotelemetry reports that the buoys are also detectors,” a crewman said.
“Then kill it,” Pesht ordered. The crewman fired a missile, destroying the nearest buoy. Pesht knew it was a meaningless act, but it was good to keep the crew in the habit.
Dr. Hack Fector soon reported to the bridge. Pesht pointed to an external view of the ship. Sensors on the Scorpion’s Tail showed a hole with twisted metal and bent beams glowing in the ship’s fore. Hack nodded and left the bridge.
He recruited men as he made his way forward. Compartments were sealed because of smoke, fire, radiation and open space. Using a portable device, he prioritized them.
Light smoke filled the first compartment. When he opened it, the crew staggered out coughing. He directed them to sickbay. The next compartment indicated a leak to space. Hack opened the door carefully and felt a pop of air difference. He directed men to locate the breach and apply expanding foam to temporarily block it. The occupants were taken out of the room and laid in the corridor. Hack inspected them and ordered them taken to sickbay too. Mild decompression wasn’t fatal. The doctor always treated the injured dispassionately.
Leech appeared but stayed out of the way. Hack figured he was sent to provide a report to Slaught.
Finally Hack came to the room with the fire icon on it. Two men in protective suits led the way. Smoke poured out. They quickly suppressed the fire and brought out two men. One was already dead, his features blackened beyond recognition. Hack didn’t flinch. He’d seen worse. Then Hack came to a lanceman named Voln, one of the men Slaught had recruited early.
Voln was badly burned. Hack scanned him and checked his vitals. Voln was going into shock, shaking and wild-eyed. Hack said nothing to him, pulled out a cartridge and pressed it to Voln’s chest. It made a hissing noise and Voln slumped.
Leech hovered closer. “A termination capsule, doctor?”
“He was going to die anyway. Better to end it now.”
“It’s so nice to see pity on the Fire Scorpion.”
“It was no such thing,” Hack said, offended. He waved men over to pick up the bodies. “His internal organs weren’t burned. The chemicals in that capsule will preserve them for removal and storage. The morgue-assistant robot Igor is waiting in the sickbay.”
“Your skills as an organ harvester are confirmed,” Leech said.
Hack glared at him but knew it wasn’t the robot’s fault. It was Leech’s responsibility to check crewmember efficiency. He had a few rooms with possible radiation leaks to check.
“Before you head off Leech, come with me,” Hack said. “What do you know about our mission? I get the impression we should be doing something else.”
Leech said, “My duties are the same, to verify crew competencies. I am not an intelligence robot, sir.”
“The Admiral told me he has an army. Will you be verifying its competencies?”
“That won’t be possible, doctor. However you don’t need to ask me questions, as we should be visiting them soon.”
“Soon?”
“The awakening is on schedule and this side-mission will probably end before then. Nonetheless, I am not a tactics robot, sir.” Leech said.
> Hack continued checking compartments but part of his mind speculated. What sort of army could Leech be unable to test? What sort of army needed to be awakened?
“War robots!” Yuina said.
Two oblong vehicles with forward-mounted guns sped over the jungle canopy toward them.
“Do we know that for sure?” Steo was on edge. He felt beaten up, like the ship and crew. No one had died in his previous missions. He felt stirrings of guilt.
Yuina was all business. She just wanted off this mission. “They have simple systems, so our scans can penetrate their hulls – no life support.”
Hawking said, “The computer has also identified them as war robots, Master Steo.” He changed the bridge panels to a 360-degree view of the bright planet.
“Shields up,” Steo said.
“They’re already up,” Yuina replied. “I’m moving us out.”
She flew the corvette at hundreds of miles an hour instead of the hundreds of thousands of miles an hour it could move in space. She kept ahead of the war robots.
“Scans indicate our defenses will work against these, Master Steo. They’re old. They lack missiles and can only bring projectile and energy weapons to bear,” Hawking said.
“They’re still capable of penetrating our shields then,” Steo said.
The flying robots accelerated and moved to the left as if trying to come alongside the starship. Yuina dodged right. Then red beams appeared below them. Several raked the underside of the shields.
Glaikis said, “Surface-to-air laser defense systems. They can reach into the lower atmosphere so we can’t rise above them without risking attack by the Fire Scorpion.”
Cyrus’s voice came over the ship-wide comm. “Renosha and I are in engineering. We’ll adjust the shields to match where threats are coming from.”
“Thank you,” Yuina replied.
Steo went to the holobridge and brought up an overhead view. After several more attempts by the pursuing drones to catch up, and several more volleys of laser fire, he said, “Does it seem like we’re being herded?”
The Eye of Orion_Book 1_Gearjackers Page 21