The Eye of Orion_Book 1_Gearjackers

by Mitch Michaelson

  Everyone laughed in amazement.

  Cyrus elaborated. “If they can’t identify a target, the defenses attack. Since we aren’t registered as lafiousian, they attacked. Now they know I’m not a saru though, and they’ve linked me with this signal.”

  Hawking said, “Brilliant. You entered the Eye of Orion into their registration database as non-saru. Commendable action, Master Cyrus.”

  Yuina hopped into her chair. “Whoo! No robots, no lasers, no green beams of death. I’m feeling better already!”

  Renosha said to Steo, “Symbols are powerful, aren’t they?”

  “The target is moving, Admiral,” Pesht said.

  “Are systems ready for battle?”

  “Fully operational. The hull repairs are complete. We can fly and fight.”

  The Admiral observed the front panel. “I don’t think they took this long and gave us time to repair to make it a fair fight.”

  The Eye of Orion had enough energy to make a long jump. This time they truly couldn’t be followed.

  Steo was bleary-eyed when he gave the destination to Glaikis.

  “Why?” she asked straight away.

  “You mean why fly into an uncharted system?” he said.

  “Yes. It’s one thing to appear in an area of blank space like Yuina did. There are maybe one or two atoms out there. Appearing inside a planet or star is disastrous, though,” Glaikis said.

  “There’s an instant before we rematerialize to adjust. Otherwise space travel wouldn’t work,” he said in defense.

  “The adjustments are small – thousands of miles. A star can be millions of miles wide. We have to come out of the tachyon state at some point, and that’s when materializing within another object is deadly.”

  Steo said, “Glaikis, I trust your navigational skills. We need somewhere no one will follow, so why not go where no one’s been?”

  She looked vexed.

  He said, “This is the last one. We know there’s a solar system there. It’ll be safe, I promise.”

  Yuina weaved over the ground laser batteries just to make sure they didn’t fire.

  Glaikis got everything plotted and they began to rise through the atmosphere. They couldn’t enter faster-than-light travel until at least the edge of the upper atmosphere. There was a rising tone from the internal sounds as they climbed.

  “What are we going to do about the Fire Scorpion’s missiles, Master Steo?” Hawking asked.

  “Cyrus gave me an idea,” he replied.

  Cyrus looked surprised and proud of himself.

  Steo said, “When we arrived it took a while for the planet’s defenses to awaken. Now if they identify anything as an enemy, they’ll shoot at them. The Fire Scorpion will have to stay far back from us.”

  “Even so, we will be within missile range sir,” the robot said.

  “Leaving us a tiny band of space to stop in and get ready for the jump.”

  Steo gave Yuina the information on where to stop. When they did, missiles already arced toward them from the Fire Scorpion. The ship’s sounds changed to an alarm. Below them, the planetary defense systems sat silent.

  “Okay, hold on people,” Steo said as he readied decoys.

  “As a reminder Master Steo, their missiles can ignore our decoy drones.”

  “I can’t reprogram their missiles, but I can reprogram mine,” he replied without taking his eyes off his console.

  “Maintaining distance out of range of the neutron splitter beams. Target rising now,” a bridge crewman said.

  Leech interrupted operations. “Admiral, I hope this incident resolves itself quickly. The event approaches rapidly.”

  “This is important to the mission, Leech,” Slaught said.

  Leech bowed and said, “Accounting for FTL travel time to the ship graveyard, we have less than a day’s time.”

  “This is important to me,” Slaught said in his roughest tone.

  “Indeed Admiral, but if we are late with this experiment, it would be worse than arriving on time without it.”

  Pesht would never question the Admiral like this. His session with the discipline robots was still fresh in his mind. He had a Torment Bundle too, and didn’t want to provide a reason to use it.

  A bridge crewman announced, “Missiles on their way. Planetary defense systems not locking onto enemy target.”

  Pesht said, “I can understand not being fired on the first time. We weren’t either. The defenses had to activate. Now they’ve found a way not to be shot at, though? They’re damnably frustrating.”

  “A skilled enemy,” Slaught said.

  “Missiles approaching, still at long range,” Hawking said.

  Steo fired the decoy drones, one at each incoming missile. The decoys were silent until they got near their targets.

  Suddenly the air around the Eye of Orion erupted in a bright green blaze. The neutron splitter cannons fired on the decoy drones.

  “All missiles destroyed!” shouted a crewmember.

  “What?” Pesht shouted. His mouth-stalk sprayed spittle everywhere.

  “They used decoy drones to draw the fire of the cannons! The beams are shooting down our missiles. And they’re getting better at it!”

  “But decoy drones emit the signal of the launching ship!” Pesht complained.

  “They’re using a different signal, sir.”

  “What signal?” he asked.

  “Ours,” Slaught said. With many decades as a starship commander under his belt, the Admiral was rarely surprised, but he was always moments behind this enemy. It was an experience he had forgotten.

  “Their decoy drones are emitting our signal. Confirmed,” the crewman said apologetically. “They’re launching decoy drones with the Fire Scorpion’s signature sir.”

  Another said, “The target is approaching the edge of the atmosphere. They will be able to jump in moments.”

  “Admiral, time is of the essence,” Leech repeated.

  “I don’t want to surrender this prize,” Slaught said.

  “More missiles?” a gunner asked.

  “I am programmed to judge crew competency as it relates to the mission. Admiral Slaught, are you changing the parameters of the mission?”

  Slaught watched as the Eye of Orion disappeared from the panels. They were gone. With only one stop and a jump, they would be uncatchable.

  “No,” he said resolutely. “Pest, take us to the ship graveyard. Take us to the AndroVault.”

  Quietly Leech said, “Your skills as Admiral are confirmed.”

  CHAPTER 33

  Course Charting

  There was no tracing them and they knew it. A few jumps, checks of the sensor readings, and they could breathe. They appeared in the black system and had no problem returning to normal matter. Four planets orbited a red dwarf star.

  Steo watched the front panel while everyone settled into regular duties. Some engineering responsibilities like collecting energy with the graviton drives were transferred to the bridge. Yuina, Glaikis and Hawking started the process. Cyrus went looking for Governor. He was most comfortable around the jeeves robot, and Governor tried to educate him about the modern galaxy.

  Steo watched Hawking, for any sign of alarm. Hawking caught his eye and said over the ship-wide comm, “No sign of the Fire Scorpion. No sign of any vessels in this solar system.”

  “That’s it then, we’re free,” Steo said with a sigh of relief.

  Glaikis looked up from her console. “Finally free. Good thinking back there. I’ve never seen decoy drones used that way.” She was convinced that Steo would have made a brilliant knight-mercenary. He only lacked a killer instinct.

  Renosha said, “Imaginative tactics, Steo. Everyone owes you a debt of gratitude.”

  “Thanks.”

  Yuina left her pilot’s chair and stretched.

  “How about you, Yuina? Feeling better?” Steo asked. They hadn’t spoken much in the last few days. His conscience weighed on him and her sharp tongue had made it
worse. He certainly didn’t feel like laughing off Tully’s death, but his normal state was amicable.

  She walked over to him and poked him in the chest. “When we get back, you owe me money.”

  “There’s nothing preventing us from getting back to the Tarium arm now. Everybody will get paid,” Steo said.

  “What about that bounty?” she asked.

  “Before I went on the Vadyanika, Hawking added the Quark 7 virus to their engine computer. Their engines will release tiny amounts of gravitons in a pattern indicating the distance and direction of the ship’s movement. We could track them. I think we know we’re outgunned, though. Don’t worry. I have enough credits to pay everyone.”

  “Where did you get these credits anyway?” she asked, continuing to stretch.

  “Previous jobs. Some paying ones. Plus I have friends and sponsors.”

  “With no strings attached?”

  “We have similar values, so they’re more like patrons.”

  Cyrus came into the bridge, followed by Governor. Cyrus wore a loose-fitting shirt and a long dark coat over it. His brown pants had two belts, one that hung low on his hip. His black boots weren’t fully laced.

  “Hold it!” Yuina shouted.

  “Don’t move,” Glaikis said.

  “What?” Cyrus said.

  “No, don’t say anything. We’ll assess the damage,” Glaikis said.

  The women surrounded him. Yuina inspected Cyrus. She tapped her chin with her finger. Then she waved her finger in a circle. Cyrus followed directions. He held out his arms and turned around.

  “Not bad, Governor,” Glaikis said.

  Governor bowed.

  “He looks like a grown-up. I’m not so sure about the untied boots, but I’ve seen that on a few planets,” Glaikis said.

  “Two belts?” Yuina asked.

  Cyrus pulled back the coat and revealed an empty holster.

  “Well, I’m an excellent judge of fashion and this isn’t bad. I doubt Cyrus could have put anything together since he has no sense of style. He would have chosen a frilly white shirt. Still, for a human male, this is acceptable,” Yuina said.

  “I’m glad I pass inspection. Though it’s a little tight in the crotch. If you know what I mean.”

  The women rolled their eyes.

  Yuina said, “Speaking of clothes, I’m going down to my quarters to change. I’ve been in these for days.”

  As she left the bridge, Renosha said, “Yuina, may I accompany you?”

  “Follow along if you want, old man.” He seemed harmless to her, a robot that acted old, walked on legs and had goofy eyes.

  They strolled down the halls. Renosha said, “Everyone contributed to our escape.”

  “I see that,” she said.

  “Including Steo.”

  “I know.”

  “Do you also see that Steo is young and idealistic? He doesn’t want to become a mercenary or a pirate.”

  They entered Yuina’s quarters. She undressed while talking. The hair on her shoulders and back had grown long, a white and blue mane now. “I can see how he thought this was going to be a sneak-job. Fly in, jack the gear, fly out. It’s a fast ship.”

  “You also deserve credit, for superior flying, even though you sometimes wish you weren’t good at it.”

  She pulled a shirt on. “Tirrian pilots are respected as the best in the galaxy. Why would I want to be anything else.”

  “I can see it in your face, Yuina.”

  She drew on her pants and buckled them. “What do you know.”

  “I know that no tirrian would put you in a position of authority. Tirrians are born without visible pupils, correct?”

  She looked up at him. The humans never noticed. They rarely dealt with tirrians so they didn’t know her eyes were highly abnormal for her species. To humans, her eyes looked a little exotic, no more. A tirrian with pupils was like a human with a tail.

  “How did you escape?” he asked.

  “I’m soulless,” she reluctantly admitted. “That’s my class. People saw my pupils and treated me like a monster. Being called ugly isn’t as bad as being told you’re soulless. Anyway, I was called both.”

  Tirrian society was stratified into classes. Males never left Tirria, so no one knew what they looked like. Women who left their watery home world worked, they didn’t socialize with other species. When they retired, they simply left wherever they were and returned home. Tirrian women had white eyes and no pupils. Deviations from the norm were disgraceful at the least.

  “Once it was clear my eyes were going to stay this way, I was down-classed – basically made into a skilled slave. My parents sent me to piloting school. I was supposed to move freighters back and forth over the same routes in our home system for the rest of my life.”

  “That didn’t work for you,” Renosha said.

  “The boredom and servitude don’t kill you, not on the outside, but they do on the inside. Down-classing weeds out inferior traits. You die without children.”

  “Your culture is ruled by eugenicists, correct?”

  “How do you know that? Tirrian leaders go a long way to hide that sort of information.”

  “I watch and learn,” Renosha said, his eyes lidded.

  “But yeah, my days were numbered. I was graded as ‘disruptive.’ I read my file. It said I was going to be down-classed again. I never found out what the job would be, but it could have been bad. Like asteroid mining bad.”

  “So you escaped?”

  “No,” she said with her face down. She pulled on a clean crew shirt and sat heavily on her bunk.

  Renosha let her talk in her own time, but observed her closely.

  “My family, the same people who abandoned me, pulled some strings. I never saw them again. I was smuggled to Trade Station M1 with nothing. No money, no contacts, just the clothes on my back. I can take care of myself, though. I found ways, smart ways. I made my way to Nibs.”

  “Why do you think they did that? That’s not the way things normally work there is it?”

  “They cut me loose rather than deal with the dishonor.”

  “Did it occur to you that they helped you escape rather than allow you to die?”

  “No.” She wiped her nose.

  “Maybe you misjudged them. Maybe you misjudge others. Can I give you my opinion, Yuina?”

  She nodded.

  “You’re not soulless. In fact, you have great gifts. There’s nothing wrong with you. Maybe you could find some areas of improvement though.”

  “Maybe,” she said.

  “Rest on it,” Renosha advised and left her quarters.

  Elsewhere on the Eye of Orion, Steo was in his quarters likewise changing. He swapped out the circuit-patterned shirt for another long-sleeved black shirt, this one with a mathematical algorithm on the front.

  “He’s certainly more upbeat sir,” Governor said to Steo.

  “Good for him. Cyrus is getting his space legs,” Steo said.

  Steo left his quarters and happened to catch up to Cyrus.

  “So Steo, we’ll be off soon?” Cyrus asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Where to?”

  “That depends. We got part of what we came for, but we were hoping to capture Dr. Spierk. I think that’s unrealistic now. I’ll talk to the others. It’s probably back to the Tarium arm. That’s further in toward the center of the galaxy, though we’ve drifted a bit from where I expected to exit the Percaic arm. It takes a week or more to gain the energy and make the FTL jump.”

  “Which system are you going to?” Cyrus asked.

  “One of the safe, quiet ones with a shipyard and good communications. I have some ideas, but we don’t need to do much charting to get back there.”

  They walked toward the bridge. Cyrus said, “What about the crew? Is everyone staying on?”

  “Probably. Hawking and Governor of course. I don’t know about Renosha. Glaikis will stick with me and I think Yuina may too, after a couple weeks in por
t. Why?”

  “So I’m not crew?” Cyrus asked him.

  “Oh. I didn’t think about that, sorry. You can stay on board if you want.” Steo had no idea what Cyrus could do for them, but he couldn’t just cast him adrift. Besides, any human made decisions better than a robot. Steo decided to wait. Once back in civilized sectors, they could buy training apps; maybe Cyrus could pick an occupation he liked.

  “Thanks Steo,” Cyrus said, though Steo didn’t know how he meant it.

  “Human’s lack of neck hair is creepy,” Yuina said from behind them.

  They looked over their shoulders and saw Yuina. For the first time in a while, they shared a little laughter.

  CHAPTER 34

  Life in the Black System

  Everyone met in the holobridge. They spent a few minutes going over ship updates: supplies, maintenance, repairs, charts and energy collection.

  As they finished, Renosha said, “Cyrus, you were telling me of things you were remembering, more and more lately. Would you mind sharing that with the others?”

  “Oh yeah,” Cyrus said. “I’m not sure what’s fact and what’s myth. It’s still a little hazy, but the experiment was to build a leader for someone. I dreamt of row after row of small compartments filled with sleeping people. They were sad and lost, and needed my help and guidance. I was supposed to find my home world and rid it of an enemy.”

  Renosha said, “Steo, do you know what this could mean? You looked at their computers before you left.”

  “Hawking, what was in the data from the science vessel?” Steo asked.

  “Experimental data on Cyrus. It was mostly physical, nothing about mental conditioning, though clearly some occurred, Master Steo.”

  “What I don’t get,” Yuina said, “is why the Vadyanika didn’t pursue. There were no other ships in the area but the Fire Scorpion was on us fast enough.”

  Hawking said, “There was time for the Fire Scorpion to arrive at the Vadyanika and then pursue us.”

  “That means they couldn’t have been hired after the fact,” Steo said. “Maybe the Fire Scorpion was an escort for the Vadyanika. The science vessel was weak. Their scanners weren’t powerful enough to know we weren’t armed. No science vessel would pursue a corvette like this.”