“Interesting idea, Captain,” he said.
“Open the hangar doors now,” he said, leaving the comm open.
“Boss, they’re backing off.”
He nodded, keying the button again. “Swing up and over them. Keep them on the nose as we do it. Give them no room to run.” He paused for several seconds before he grinned and added, “Tap them with the repelling lasers. Make sure they’re looking at us.”
“At this range, why?”
“Just do it,” he snapped, glancing over his shoulder as she punched in the command.
He reopened the audio channel. “Hope you don’t mind the taste test. Planetary guns work better when we know how far to collimate the beam.”
“He’s eyeballing us hard, but giving us more distance,” Ammo whispered.
“You might have the eggs to make a good privateer,” Jetaar said. “If you ever think about changing lines of work, I might be tempted to put in a word for you.”
“Why would I want to do that?” Ethan asked, chuckling. “I make a good living and don’t lose sleep at night.”
“Neither do I, Captain,” he said. “I just think you need to understand that maybe you’re on the wrong side in things.”
“The legal side?” he asked.
“You might run legal freight, but that doesn’t make it the right side,” Jetaar said. “There’s shit going on back home that stinks like a burned out recycler.”
Four minutes and twelve seconds.
“Really, what makes you think that?”
“Good job. Just keep him talking,” Ammo tapped into his screen.
“There are secrets that the Coalition is keeping that should come to light. Things they’re holding back that might level the playing field for people like us.”
“What kind of secrets?” Ethan asked.
“Technology. Things that give those in power the ability to keep it forever. Even when they don’t deserve it,” he said.
“Like that supposed supership you’re sitting on,” he asked.
“How do you know …” Jetaar paused for several seconds. “Ah, I guess you did capture one of my people.”
“Sure thing,” Ethan said. “It only took a little coercion to get him to cooperate.”
“That’s too bad, he was a good kid, but this is a tough line of work,” he said.
“Yah, so is driving freight, some days,” Walker said, as he watched Nuko nudge their position a little forward toward the Blackwing.
“You know you really would have potential, Walker,” Jetaar said. The pirate ship shifted to port to maintain its distance. They swung their nose to keep him lined up.
“You still haven’t convinced me I’m on the wrong side,” Ethan said. “Governments all have secrets. It’s the nature of civilization.”
“What if I told you the ship isn’t the biggest secret they’re keeping?” he asked. “They’re sitting on things that would make an honest man wonder what more the world is about.”
“I thought you had the secret ship,” he said. “You’re telling me they’ve got one too?”
Nuko tapped the mute. “Another two hundred klick and we’ll have them in position above the guns.”
He nodded.
“You’re from Zone One, aren’t you? Mars Colonies. I hear it in your voice,” Jetaar said.
“Maybe I am, what of it?”
One hundred kilometers appeared on the screen below the timer.
Two minutes and forty-five seconds.
“Explains the name of your ship,” Jetaar said. “Ever hear of the Shan Takhu?”
“Who hasn’t?”
“Do you honestly think the Old Union would have released everything they got from them?”
“I don’t lose sleep worrying over that, either,” he said.
“Did you know they have an immortality machine?” he asked.
“Right,” Ethan said, snorting sarcastically.
“The Sak is breaking orbit for reentry,” Ammo said.
Two minutes.
“Trying to keep me distracted so I don’t burn your troops into little bits?”
“It worked, didn’t it, Walker?” Jetaar said. “Didn’t figure you’d be accustomed to running a fleet, so you wouldn’t notice what else was happening. Nothing personal, but I used your lack of experience against you. For what it’s worth you do need to know it gives me no pleasure to kill you.”
“They’re lining up for an attack run,” Nuko hissed. “Their weapons are hot and locked.
He cut the comm audio. “Back off and get us some maneuvering room. Bring the coils up and let’s angle to bolt. I don’t want to give him a shot and I think he’s calling our bluff.”
“Look!” Ammo yelled as she pointed out the window. The aurora was exploding over the northern pole.
Ninety seconds early?
“The field is up!” Nuko said.
“What’s the matter, your eggs puckering a little?” Jetaar taunted.
“No, I am just getting out of the way,” he said, cutting off the comm and grabbing the arms of his chair as they spun and leapt away under full power.
Several things happened simultaneously, and Ethan watched them all through an adrenaline induced slow motion as they jumped clear by almost a quarter light-second. Sensor optics tracked the battle as it happened in staccato flashes behind them.
The first vignette of reality his mind absorbed was the shuttle disintegrating in a single hit. The glowing gas of the explosion pushed into super-heated plasma by the power of the beam that shot up from the surface.
An instant later, two more beams bisected the Saknussemm. Their ferocity was enough to cleave the ship across its midsection.
Fortunately for Jetaar, the Blackwing had lunged toward where the Olympus Dawn had been in the same millisecond that the artillery opened fire. It only caught a pair of strafing blows that flayed the hull off the underside surface of the wings. The expanding balls of fire and molten hull sent the ship tumbling forward as another beam lashed out from the planet and vaporized most of the lower superstructure long the edge of the hangar bay. The explosion sent the whole deck twisting off at an odd angle.
“Holy frak,” Nuko gasped.
Another pair of flashes marked the end of both pieces of the Saknussemm.
“I thought the plan was to not obliterate them,” Ammo said.
“The Blackwing has lost primary and secondary power,” Marti reported. “They are operating on batteries.”
“Olympus Dawn to Blackwing,” Ethan said. “We’re willing to accept your surrender and render aid.”
“Well played, Walker,” Jetaar hissed.
Another beam lashed out and tore the upper superstructure off the pirate ship.
“Frak, stop shooting,” Ethan roared. “They’re ready to surrender.”
“Not today, I think,” Jetaar growled as the Blackwing vanished from view.
“They’ve gone to cruise,” Nuko said.
“On batteries?” Ammo asked. “They can’t get far.”
“Out of range is all that matters right now,” he said. “Track them.”
“They’re heading toward the dwarf,” Nuko said.
“Dr. Makhbar is on the comm,” Marti said.
“Put him on,” Ethan snarled.
“What the holy hell are you doing,” he asked as the archaeologist appeared on the screen. “You were only supposed to cripple them.”
“Captain Walker, I am well within my rights to defend myself to the fullest extent,” he said calmly.
“You stupid idiot. You’ve made Jetaar into an enemy and he won’t stop now until he’s settled the score.”
“Then you have to follow him and destroy his ship,” he said. “He must not call for help.”
“That is a valid concern,” Ammo whispered. “We don’t know for sure if he’s even the top of the food chain out here. If he gets a call out, we might be facing a fleet of ships.”
“I’m not doing it,” Ethan said, shaking h
is head. “I’m not your assassin, no matter how much you offer me, and the Dawn isn’t a warship. If they manage to make repairs, there is no way I could engage them, even if I was willing.”
“Then don’t give them a chance to make repairs,” Makhbar said.
“You are incapable of listening to anyone, aren’t you?” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, we are done.”
“We will be back in orbit in a few minutes to pick up my engineer. As per our contract, we will complete our obligations to haul freight for you but that ends our dealings.”
“You cannot leave Jetaar out there,” Makhbar said, his voice faltering.
He’s scared, the captain thought. Tough.
“Hire yourself some protection,” he said. “I’m just not it.”
“Regardless of how you feel about it, I was within my rights, Captain,” he said.
“Maybe you are within your rights, but the law is a thin blanket on a winter’s night. He’ll be back when the sky’s dark and the winds are cold.” Ethan jerked a finger across his throat to tell Ammo to cut the comm.
Turning to Nuko he said, “We will be leaving as fast as you can get the container picked up.”
“What about Taryn Tegan?” she asked.
He stood up and tapped the back of her seat nodding toward the door. “Tell her that if she’s not able to get to the shuttle with Rene before he’s gear up, then she’ll be riding back with you in the DSL,” he said. “We don’t know what the hell Jetaar might still have that he can fling at us, but I don’t want to wait around and let him work it out.”
“On batteries he can’t have made it to the Oort cloud, could he?” Ammo asked.
“How far did we track him?”
“The coils were diminishing in power as they escaped,” Marti said. “I was unable to maintain sensor lock after they exceeded two light-days.”
“That’s still a long way from the shell,” Nuko said as she stood up and logged out of her console. “Honestly, I’m surprised they made it that far, but if they dialed back the power before they melted through something, they might have enough to extend their range that far. Barely.”
“And if they did make it to the shell, what’s out there?” Ammo asked. “Do you think they’ve got a base?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m decidedly more uncomfortable the longer we hang around.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Captain Walker sat on the mid-deck staring out the forward observation windows. They weren’t out of danger yet, but at least they weren’t sitting at ground zero waiting for whatever else might be out here to come gunning for them.
It had taken almost four hours to get everything loaded and the ship secured and ready to make way. Every minute of that time, he’d spent on the ConDeck staring at the sensors. When they jumped to cruise to make the six-minute push out to the inner edge of the Oort shell, he had let himself stand down. Now that they were back to sub-light and crawling through the matter-dense stellar debris for the next fifty hours, he just needed to stay switched off and stare into the nothingness.
He knew it would take time to digest what had happened, and right now, it wasn’t sitting well at all.
Marti was driving, and Nuko was probably in her quarters trying to work through things in her own way. He knew she’d be alright in a couple days but staring into the face of death for the last week and a half was sure to keep her up for a while.
Ammo had questioned the sanity of his decision to take the same exit heading that the Blackwing had taken, and even though he had no clue why, he knew it was necessary for him to have some closure about the fate of Jetaar. Now, as they made their way into the field, he was on the verge of questioning his decision himself.
“Are you wanting to be alone?” Rene asked as he walked up and set two glasses and a bottle of rum on the table beside Ethan.
He was about to say yes, when he glanced at the bottle and decided he’d probably earned the drink. So instead, he tilted his head toward the chair.
“You did good down there,” he said as Rene poured them both a double shot.
“Actually, I frakked it up bad,” he said. “Two of the guns burned out the first time they fired them.”
“They did?”
“Yah. Slagged the power circuitry completely.” He handed Ethan his glass. “The field was way too hot to connect direct. That’s why they did so much damage.”
“So maybe you did your job too well,” he said, clinking his glass against the engineer’s and slamming it down in a gulp.
“I guess it depends on how you look at it,” Rene said. “They got the job done.”
“And so we lived,” he said. “That’s probably what should matter.”
“Ammo told me what you did twice up here while I was turning tools down in the dirt,” the engineer said. “Remember when I was worried about you wagering the ship in a game of chips? Yah, well scratch that.”
Ethan laughed. “You know I actually don’t play chips. There’s no rush in pretend risk. It makes it too tempting to call everyone’s bluff too early.”
“You’re saying if people aren’t taking a chance on dying, it’s not enough fun for you?”
“Yah… wait. No. That sounds terrible when you put it that way,” he said. “I hate gambling.”
“You ought to try it some time. You’ve got a knack for it.”
“Captain excuse the interruption,” Marti said. “I believe we have found the Blackwing.”
“Frak!” he said, jumping up. “Have they seen us?”
“I do not believe they have,” it said. “They appear to be dead in space.”
“Where are they?”
“Twelve thousand kilometers to port. Bearing 310.5 by 357.8”
“Bring us to a dead stop, relative. Rene you’re with me,” he said as he spun and trotted toward the lift. Tapping into the commlink he announced, “All hands report to stations. We’ve found the Blackwing and we’re going in to investigate.”
“Nojo?” Nuko asked. She sounded like she’d been gargling acid.
“Yah, apparently it’s dead in place and I want to take a look,” he said. “Meet us on the ConDeck.”
“Can’t we just leave it alone?” she asked.
He grabbed the railing on the lift and waited. It was down on the passenger deck. Angel was on it as it stopped to pick them up.
“I’ll sit with Kaycee,” she said as he and Rene crowded in. “Do you think it’s a trap?”
“I don’t know,” he said, “but I think we need to check it out.”
“That’s your call boss, but you seem to be developing a taste for living dangerously.” She jumped out on the crewdeck and trotted off toward the doctor’s room.
“She is right you know,” Rene said. “It’s not like we’re going to rescue any of them.” He stared at Ethan for several seconds. “Is it?”
The captain shrugged.
“They would have killed us all in a nanosecond,” the engineer said.
“Probably,” he said, not turning to face him.
“If there are survivors, we can’t bring them aboard,” he said.
“Let’s find that out first,” Ethan said as he stepped out and almost ran toward the ConDeck door.
Nuko was already in the pilot seat and Ammo was standing behind her watching a magnified image of the Blackwing on the main screen.
“She sure looks fragged to hell,” Rene said.
“Yah, the artillery ripped the shit out of her,” Ammo said.
“It’s a wonder it made it this far,” Nuko said. “On batteries.”
“Alright Marti what can we tell? Is it a trap?” the captain asked as he slipped into his seat and logged in.
“Unlikely,” it said. “The ship has absolutely no evidence of internal power. Life support is offline. Artificial gravity is offline. The internal temperature of the pressurized areas within the hull is minus ten degrees centigrade.”
“That would be a long way to go to
play dead,” Rene said, nodding.
“Is anybody even alive in there?” Nuko asked.
“There are indications of EVA suit power signatures.”
“How many?” Ethan asked.
“It is difficult to tell, but it may be more than twenty,” it said.
“Do they have comm?”
“Short-range suit to suit only.”
“Can we monitor what they’re talking about and see what they’re doing?” Nuko suggested.
“It appears they are attempting to aggregate enough suit power packs to get the comm reestablished. They are attempting to send a distress call,” it said. “Unfortunately, from what I can tell it seems that all the suits are in use.”
Ammo had stepped in beside Rene and was listening to the comm on an earpiece. She nodded. “They’re asking for volunteers to unsuit and hand over their power packs.”
“Damn it all to hell,” Ethan said, rubbing his forehead with both hands. “How many suit power packs will it take to get a distress call out?”
“Three to five maybe, for a local comm signal,” Rene said. “Probably fifteen to twenty to get the deep comm up long enough to send even a pulse message.”
“How long will a suit run on a standard pack charge?” Ammo asked.
“Eighteen hours,” he said. “But chances are nobody over there has a full charge. If they left the battle looking like that, they’re lucky if most of them aren’t halfway down already.”
“They’ll all be dead before help can get to them, anyway,” Nuko whispered.
Ethan thumped his fist on the edge of his console. “I hope I don’t regret this, but let’s close to comm range. Bring us in behind them so if it’s a trap they won’t have us in their main firing arcs.”
“I do not believe it could be a trap,” Marti said.
“Me either,” Rene said. “The external damage I’m seeing is consistent with what we can hear from inside the ship.”
“Fine, but bring us in behind them anyway,” the captain said. “Hold at one thousand klick until we know for sure what’s going on.”
The closer they got, the more obvious it was that the Blackwing was a complete write-off, but somehow in spite of that they were refusing to die easy. Ethan stared at the wrecked ship and shook his head.
Wings of Earth- Season One Page 37