Nearspace Trilogy

by Sherry D. Ramsey

  We managed to burn toward the wormhole, apparently undetected, for almost an hour when Baden let out a yelp.

  “Ship just took off from Kiando and it's moving this way at a hell of a pace!”

  “What? What is it?” I punched up the sensor readings on my own screen.

  “Dio! It's the Trident, but what's she burning? That's not the same power she came in on!”

  “Unless she was hiding it,” I said through clenched teeth. “Probably has one of those new burst drives.”

  “And at the rate they're going, they'll catch us before we get to the Beta Comae wormhole,” Viss added.

  “But we'll be far enough out that the Kiando Planetary Police won't have any jurisdiction,” I said. “We can't call on the Chairman for help.”

  “If this was a trap, we played right into it,” Baden said. “And there's a message incoming from the Trident.”

  “Put it through,” I said. I composed my face. Whoever was on the bridge of the PrimeCorp ship, I wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of seeing me look worried.

  “Captain Paixon? We meet again.” Dores Amadoro's face appeared on my screen. Her blonde hair was secured in a somewhat severe knot behind her head, throwing her sharp features into even stronger relief. She'd traded her sleek PrimeCorp pantsuit for an equally well-fitted corporate shipsuit with a red-embroidered logo on the collar. It was obvious who was in command of the ship chasing us. Whatever attempts at softness she may have made for the environs of PrimeCorp headquarters, she had clearly abandoned them now.

  “Good day, Ms. Amadoro,” I said. “Small universe.”

  She smiled tightly. “Getting smaller all the time, in some ways. I believe you have something to which I'm legally entitled,” she said.

  I shook my head. “I'm sorry, but it will take more than a piece of paper—which you could very well have simply paid for—before I willingly surrender any samples to you.”

  Dores Amadoro shook her head and chuckled softly. “Nice try, Captain, but I'm not as interested in your DNA as I am in the origin of it. I'm talking about your mother. She's on your ship, but I intend to exercise my warrant and take her onto mine.”

  I leaned back in my chair, and it was my turn to smile. “That's quite a threat. You sound almost like a pirate. Sadly, you're mistaken. My mother isn't on board—as far as I know, she's still on Kiando. So you're wasting your time looking for her here.”

  She cocked her head at me. “Oh, yes, of course. And I'm likely to believe that and head back to the planet? You must take me for quite a fool, Captain.”

  “What I think of you personally hardly matters. My mother is not on board this ship.”

  “I suppose we'll do this the hard way, then, Captain,” she said, and cut the connection.

  “Well, they obviously didn't buy Chairman Buig's story,” Hirin said.

  “No. And I guess it makes sense to conclude that we'd be trying to get her off the planet.”

  “Yeah, if we were stupid,” Viss said. “If we really were trying to get her away, we never would have done it this way.”

  “Talk about it later, folks!” Rei said. “What are we doing now? I'm giving it all I've got, but unless Viss has a secret burst drive wired up, they're definitely going to catch us before we make this wormhole.”

  “I know, I know. I'm thinking.” I closed my eyes to concentrate. “Yuskeya, put the wormhole route map up on my screen, would you?”

  The route map appeared in front of me, showing all the known wormholes and the systems they connected. I could have rhymed them all off without the map, but now I needed to visualize our options.

  As soon as I looked at it, the answer was clear.

  “We have to go through the Split again.”

  “What?”

  “Are you crazy?”

  “Not again!”

  I didn't know who said what, but I knew that Rei had only drawn her breath sharply and that Hirin stayed silent. Maja's lips were pressed in a thin white line.

  “I know it sounds crazy, but I'm looking at it right here in front of me. We're not going to make it to the Beta Comae wormhole, but if we change course now, we should make it to the one for Delta Pavonis. Then we have three options. We can take the wormhole out to K/G, but the Trident will catch us first, and even if they don't, we can't hide where we're headed—they'd come through and see us. We could head towards the wormhole from that system to Beta Comae Berenices—same situation. They'll just chase us from system to system until they catch us—which they will eventually. Even if they find out at that point that Mother's not on board, I'd rather not have them catch us at all.”

  “Obviously,” said Viss.

  “But, if we skip into Delta Pav and head for the Split into GI 892, we might make the terminal point out again before they're in the Delta Pavonis system, so they won't necessarily know that's where we went, especially if Viss can mask our drive signature or scramble it a little. We can jettison the tracking device in the direction of the wormhole to Beta Comae, which is where they thought we were headed anyway, so they might take that bait. And even if they think we took the Split, they might not have a pilot who'll attempt it. They'll have to go the long way around even if they figure out where we're going. At any rate they won't know where we've headed out of GI 892.”

  “And from GI 892 there's another wormhole to K/G anyway,” Yuskeya said. “But PrimeCorp won't necessarily be expecting us to take it. They're much more likely to think we'd head to Eri from there, trying a more roundabout route to Beta Comae to avoid them.”

  “Couldn't we do it in reverse?” Maja asked. “Leave the tracker near the Split as a red herring and actually take the other wormhole like we planned?”

  “The Split's closer. We can't make it to the other one before they come through. They'd see us. And they're less likely to go through the Split anyway.”

  There was silence, then Hirin spoke.

  “Luta's right. It's the best chance.” There was no hesitation in his voice, and I loved him as much in that moment as I had in my entire life. He was the one with more to fear from the Split than any of the rest of us. If he were willing, I knew the others wouldn't balk.

  “So, change course for the Delta Pavonis wormhole?” Yuskeya asked.

  “Do it,” I said.

  “Trident is also changing course,” Baden reported after a moment. He ran his fingers over his touchscreen, gathering data. “They've gained on us some, but we'll definitely make it to the Delta Pav wormhole well ahead of them.”

  “As long as we can get to the Split before they come through,” I said.

  “It'll be close, but if we can maintain speed, we could do it,” Yuskeya said.

  Viss left his console and sprinted down the corridor toward the engineering hatchway, shouting something over his shoulder about having an idea for re-routing more power to the main drive.

  “Captain,” Baden said, “Yuskeya told me you want to track down your brother. I could send a message through the K/G wormhole to the Protectorate base on Nellera, see if they can tell us where he is. We might get a response back before we leave this system.”

  “Good thinking, Baden, do it,” I said. “With luck, he's still in Beta Comae; we can get there in two skips from GI892.”

  The overheads dimmed, the ship shuddered a bit and Rei gave a whoop. “Viss is as good as his word. That's a fifteen percent increase in power, so PrimeCorp should have a harder time catching us.”

  “Message coming from the Trident,” Baden said.

  “On my screen.”

  The cold eyes of Dores Amadoro stared out at me again. “Captain, I am prepared to disable your ship if necessary.”

  I stared back at her, considering. “You're bluffing,” I said. “If you want my mother this badly—and you truly think she's on this ship—you won't risk harming her.”

  “That's why I'm sending this message,” she said coolly. “I'm advising everyone on your ship to get into EVA suits, just in case your life s
upport systems suffer . . . collateral damage. Or you could just stop, let us catch up to you, and allow your mother to come with us peacefully. I am anxious to meet her, you know, so that I can thank her.”

  “Thank her?”

  Amadoro smiled, but it was not a nice smile. Too much wolf and not enough warmth. “When I recognized her and took that information to Chairman Sedmamin, it did wonders for my future at PrimeCorp. I can honestly say I wouldn't be where I am today without your mother.” Her face hardened. “So I'm prepared to take whatever steps are necessary to secure that meeting.”

  I muted the feed. “Folks? Could they have any kind of weapon that might be capable of reaching us from that distance?”

  Yuskeya shook her head decisively. “Not a chance. When they get closer, maybe. But not from that far away. They could fire torps, but we'd have so much time to get out of the way, it wouldn't be worth launching them.”

  “Nothing I know of, for sure,” Rei agreed.

  “Yuskeya's right,” Viss chimed in from Engineering. “Tell her to blow it out her—”

  I killed the feed from Engineering and switched back to Amadoro. She was still there, looking annoyed.

  “Thanks for the warning, Ms. Amadoro,” I said, and cut the connection before she could say anything else. “Everyone into EVA suits.”

  “They're too far away!” Rei protested.

  “I think you were right in the first place,” Hirin said. “She's bluffing.”

  I shrugged and left the chair, heading for the bank of EVA lockers near the bridge airlock. “Nevertheless, I am not taking any chances. Suit up.”

  They weren't happy, but they did it. I didn't like it, either, since the suits were bulky and got hot after a while, but I didn't trust Dores Amadoro not to have some new long-range weapon she was just itching to try out on us. PrimeCorp could easily have developed something that was still a corporate secret.

  So it wasn't the most pleasant time I've spent on the bridge of the Tane Ikai, but it passed, and we watched the Trident slowly devour the distance between us as we neared the wormhole to Delta Pavonis. They still weren't what you'd call close—but I wanted as much distance as possible between us. They hadn't fired on us by the time Rei fired up the skip drive, and I smiled to myself. As bluffs go, Amadoro's hadn't even been a very good one.

  “Torpedo away from the Trident!” Baden said suddenly. “Moving fast.”

  “Time?” I asked.

  “We can dodge it or get into the wormhole, but we have to do one or the other. Immediately.”

  “Rei?”

  “Initializing skip drive now,” she said. The low whir of the drive thrummed through the ship and reverberated in the decking under our feet.

  “Everyone take your seats,” I said, and opened a channel to Dr. Ndasa's room. He'd excused himself from the bridge and gone back to his room, with a promise to keep his EVA suit on. “We're about to make a skip, Doctor.”

  “I'm ready, Captain,” he answered.

  “Going in,” Rei said evenly as the mouth of the wormhole opened up and swallowed us. The mad swirl of colours spun us along its length, skipping and spinning as fast as the drive could propel us. Rei kept the ship rock steady, and I was sure we skipped that wormhole faster than it had ever been done before.

  No-one spoke while we were inside. The instant we exited the terminal point, Rei cut the skip drive and Yuskeya's fingers flew over the touchscreen as she laid in the coordinates for the Split. I told Baden to monitor the wormhole we'd just exited for any signs of the Trident.

  “Aye, Captain.” He touched the screen. “Message is away to Nellera regarding your brother. And I'm ready to launch that tracking device at your signal.”

  “Use your own judgment unless I say otherwise, Baden, because I might be distracted. Fire it off at the optimal vector for the Beta Comae wormhole. That's the best we can do.”

  “Will do.”

  I took off my EVA helmet and said, “Okay folks, shuck your helmets and gloves but keep them nearby.” The air on the bridge felt deliciously cool against my skin.

  I caught Hirin's eye and he smiled and winked at me as he unfastened his helmet. Then he crossed to Rei's chair and bent low beside her, telling her something in a low voice. My breath caught in my throat and I almost choked, but I managed to clamp it down. The last thing the crew needed now was a captain going to pieces on them, but this plan terrified me. What if the Split affected Hirin's heart again? He already had all the help I could give him.

  All I could do was hope he wasn't going to get his wish to die in space just yet. Hope, in fact, that none of us were.

  “Captain?” It was Yuskeya. “I was thinking—we should ask Dr. Ndasa to come back up to the bridge for this next skip.”

  I sensed a silent presence just behind me before I could answer. It was Maja, but she said nothing, simply put a warm hand on my shoulder.

  “That's a good idea.” I glanced over at Hirin, still talking to Rei, and Maja's hand twitched as she followed my gaze. She kept silent.

  I lowered my voice. “I think he'll be fine, but it would be good to have the doctor up here just in case. The bioscavengers have been working in Hirin for a while now. They might have repaired all the damage that was done the last time and whatever caused it in the first place.” I turned to look at Maja. “Are you okay with this?”

  She pressed her lips together, then nodded. “Look at him. He's not worried. He wants to do this. I haven't seen him like this for a long time.”

  I nodded my agreement. “If I changed my mind now, and he thought it was because of him, he'd never forgive me.”

  I reached up wordlessly and squeezed Maja's hand. Thank you. She squeezed back.

  “Maja, would you go and bring Dr. Ndasa up from up his quarters?” I asked.

  “Right away,” she said, with a final glance at her father, and hurried down the corridor.

  Hirin straightened up from Rei. “We're going to go in cold this time, folks. You had last time to cut your teeth, this time, no babystepping. Rei's asked me to take the secondary helm, which I'll do if the Captain approves it.” He looked to me and I nodded. “So we're going to be firing up the skip drive on the fly. I want everyone sitting down and buckled in when we do that.”

  He strode over to the secondary helm as if he owned the place—well, he did, half-ownership, anyway—and hailed Viss on the ship's comm. “Viss, about that power you've got re-routed to the main drive?”

  “Oh yeah, can you feel it?”

  Hirin grinned. “I can feel it. Do you think you could rig something to switch it directly over to the skip drive stabilizers when I give the word?”

  “Give me half an hour,” Viss said. “It won't be a smooth ride, but I think I can do it.”

  Yuskeya looked up from the nav screen. “Half an hour is on the outside edge of what you've got,” she told him. “We have to be out of sight before that PrimeCorp ship makes the wormhole. It doesn't have to be pretty. It just has to work. Right, Hirin?”

  “You've got it,” he answered.

  Diable, I could see the day coming when he'd be captain of the Tane Ikai and I'd be busted back to piloting again, if the crew got to choose. No, Rei was a better pilot than I was. Cook, maybe. Seemed like Hirin was becoming their favourite person, but it was okay with me. He was already mine.

  Half an hour passes with a speed relative to what you're trying to do in it. If you were Viss, trying to set up the power crossover, I expect it would go amazingly quickly. If you were me, sitting and watching everybody else work while I waited for the Trident to burst out of the wormhole behind us, it was agonizingly slow.

  Finally, we were there. I'd already picked out the dark mouth of the Split, and we were coming up on it fast. Maja and Dr. Ndasa had arrived and taken seats at two of the empty sensor stations near Hirin. The Vilisian caught my eye and nodded gravely. He knew why he was here.

  “Data packet back from Nellera,” Baden said.

  “I'll look at it on
the other side,” I told him.

  “Viss, you ready?” Hirin asked over the ship's comm.

  “Well, I can't say for sure that it's going to work, but I'm ready to give it a try,” he answered.

  “Okay, Rei and Viss, listen up. On my mark, Rei's going to engage the skip drive. Viss, you count about three seconds and then do the switch. Yuskeya, just do exactly what you did the last time. It was perfect. Baden, you're going to jettison the tracking device as soon as you hear me give Rei the word. Everybody okay?”

  I couldn't resist. “Anything I can do?”

  Hirin didn't turn around, but I was sure he was smiling. “Cross your fingers, Captain.”

  I didn't. He knew I wasn't superstitious. Then Hirin barked, “Rei, skip drive now!” Baden said, “Jettison tube engaged,” and Viss must have done whatever he was going to do down in Engineering because the ship bucked violently a couple of times and then we were swallowed up by the eerie half-presence of the Split.

  I'd kept my eyes locked on the screen that showed the sensor readings for other ships in the area. Just as we entered the Split, they seemed to be picking up something—maybe the Trident coming out of the wormhole from Mu Cassiopeia, I don't know. I didn't think they could have gotten to the wormhole that fast, but I couldn't be certain, with that burst drive. I hoped, if it was them, they hadn't seen us go into the Split.

  Maybe I should have crossed my fingers after all.

  At any rate, there wasn't time to worry about that now. Rei and Hirin between them were piloting us through the Split, keeping the skips so short and close together that we barely moved from side to side down the length of the tunnel. Viss's extra power to the field generators must have held, because the ride was exponentially smoother than the last time we'd made this trip.

  And Hirin—I could hardly keep my eyes off him, watching for anything untoward, but he seemed perfectly fine. He was deep in concentration, synchronizing his efforts with Rei's, but he didn't seem to be in the least distressed. I couldn't relax just yet, but I let out a breath I'd barely realized I was holding.

  The passage was so much faster this time—or at least it seemed so—that before I knew it we were slipping out the other end, into the quiet darkness of GI 892's red dwarf system, and I gave them a chance to sigh and cheer and babble in delight.