They carried the food back down to the main deck. Kim glanced around but didn’t see Ben. Nance carried her food over to where Magnum was seated at his console. They still needed to get a larger chair for the big man, but he never complained.
“Has Ben come up?” Kim asked.
Magnum shook his head. He was working, of course, she should have guessed. Not that she could blame him. What else was there to do when aliens were following them? She was anxious to have the flux shield back in working order, but she also missed having him on the bridge. She always felt better when he was close. And it helped to know he could see and appreciate her flying.
She went down the staircase and found Ben in the engineering section. He was sitting at his workbench with the surveillance drone plugged into the computer terminal. He didn’t see her approach, but she cleared her throat and he turned around.
“Oh, hey,” he said. “That smells good. What is it?”
“Smoked salmon,” Kim replied. “It’s some sort of fish. There’s also wild rice and some kind of vegetable. And these are protein medallions seasoned with premium sausage flavor. And for dessert, candied nuts.”
“That’s quite a collection,” Ben said taking his plate and setting it on the workbench.
Kim felt a wave of frustration, thinking he was setting the food aside to continue working. But he surprised her by pulling her close. She slid onto his lap, wrapping her free arm around his shoulders.
“Don’t think I’m going to sit here and feed you,” she teased.
He leaned his head onto her shoulder. “God, it feels good to hold you.”
“What’s with the affection all of a sudden?” Kim asked. “It’s not like we almost died or something.”
“I don’t know,” Ben said. “Maybe it’s the stress, but I just want to sit and hold you. I want to forget about everything else.”
“Well, don’t forget about the food,” Kim said. “I’m hungry.”
She kissed him, her heart fluttering in her chest as their lips met. She could feel his hands on her hips ignite a heat deep inside of her. Pulling away was bittersweet, but she felt suddenly self-conscious as one of the commandos appeared from the recreation area.
“Is that food?” Private First Class Wriggles asked.
“It is,” Kim said, standing up. “Upper deck.”
“Sweet,” the soldier said.
He ducked back into the recreation center, then came back out followed by the rest of the squad of Special Forces operators. Kim sat on a stool beside Ben and they started eating. The food wasn’t the best they’d ever had, but it was wonderfully new and much better than anything they’d had on the Echo before.
“I could get used to this,” Ben said.
“I guess we’d have to join the Royal Imperium military to have food like this on a regular basis.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Ben said, and Kim wasn’t sure if he was being emphatic or sounded disappointed.
“How long do you think we’ll be flying the general around?” Kim asked.
“I don’t know,” Ben said. “I’m not even sure why she wants us to. There were ships in the Yelsin system.”
“Two transport tubs,” Kim said. “Not exactly battleships.”
“We’re not a battleship,” Ben said. “I mean, I know the flux shield gives us an edge their Fleet ships don’t have, but I almost hope the wave generator is broken for good. Then we won’t really be of use to her.”
“Do you really think she’d just let us leave?” Kim said.
“That was the deal we made.”
“So? Since when do we trust the Royal Imperium to keep their word?”
“I know. I just don’t like this.”
“So if we weren’t in the thick of things, we’d do what? Haul cargo? You can’t honestly think that you’d be happy just leaving the alien invasion in the stern video feed while we made ourselves scarce.”
“It’s got to be better than risking our lives at the whims of the queen,” Ben said. “We could have all been killed just because she’s desperate to stay in power.”
“Why does that surprise you?”
“It doesn’t surprise me, but there’s a difference in knowing it happens and having it happen right in front of you. I mean, I understand that she’s the queen, but she’s just a person no different than you or me.”
“Except she’s used to being important, maybe even feared. I get the vibe that she likes to get a reaction from people.”
“Yes, she came down here and made some nasty comments about the ship. I wanted to kick her out the air lock.”
“They’ll be gone soon,” Kim said. “And who knows, we might be sent to the far side of the galaxy too. That would be miserable, no matter how good the food is.”
“You really think so?” Ben asked. “You wouldn’t rather be safe somewhere than flying the general into hostile territory?”
“I don’t like being in danger. And if we were just talking about the Confederacy versus the Royal Imperium, I would feel differently. But these are aliens, for-real aliens. Do you know how long man has searched for intelligence beyond our own species? Don’t you want to see these creatures and find out what they are?”
“Okay,” Ben said, lowering his voice. “I get that. But you forget the beings in those ships are hostile. You saw what they did to those Royal Imperium ships. And we’re going to be on the front lines.”
“We’re the general’s flagship,” Kim said with a giggle. “The commanders don’t go into danger.”
“Have you met General Pershing? She’s not the type to lead from the rear.”
“But the whole point of using the Echo,” Kim said, talking with a mouth full of food, “is that we’re untouchable. Your flux shield is impenetrable, right?”
“Not exactly,” Ben said. “It works great against enemies like us, who fight from a distance, shooting lasers and missiles at our enemies. But the aliens don’t seem to do that.”
“But the shield worked against their grappling arms,” Kim said.
“That’s right, for a while.”
“And you can reset the shield when it starts to overload.”
“Yes,” Ben said. “If there’s time. But what happens when one of their ships rams into us?”
Kim started to reply that she would never let that happen, but the implication Ben was implying stole her words away.
“We’ve hit other ships,” Kim said.
“Fighters,” Ben replied. “Small ships, with less mass than us. If we hit something big, something with enough mass, it would be bad.”
He took a round washer out of his pocket and set it on the table edgewise, holding it with one finger. With his other hand, he flicked the washer and sent it twirling on the thin edge.
“That’s our shield,” he explained. “When something small, without much mass, contacts it, the spin knocks it away.”
Kim nodded, her food forgotten as she watched Ben’s washer spinning on the workbench.
“But if something larger contacts us…” he continued, sliding his plate of food toward the washer. The washer hit the plate and went flying off the workbench. Kim looked up at Ben, who had a worried expression on his face.
“If something with enough mass contacts the flux shield, we’ll be sent shooting away,” Ben said. “Maybe smash straight into the object or get caught in the gravity wave. Either way, it’s the same result.”
“You’re not joking,” Kim said.
“No,” Ben replied. “You’re the best pilot in the galaxy. I trust you completely with my life and the lives of Nance and Magnum. But if we put too much faith in the flux shield, we might get ourselves into a situation we can’t get out of.”
“So we don’t do that,” Kim replied.
“I agree,” Ben said, looking deep into her eyes. “But will General Pershing?”
Chapter 35
The Modulus Echo didn’t have holographic projectors and true scale remodeling software. The bes
t they had were flat-screen monitors that displayed a two-dimensional picture, much like the video feeds from the external cameras. General Pershing was watching the footage of the alien ship captured by the surveillance drone in the Celeste system.
The crew lounge was comfortable, but not posh. She respected the utilitarian nature of the small room beside the bridge. Had the Kestrel class ship been a military vessel, the lounge would have almost certainly been the captain’s office. She watched in rapt fascination as the alien ship chased down the human vessels one after another on the wall-mounted monitor. Any ship that didn’t jump into hyperspace was the alien ship’s prey. General Pershing was a firm believer in knowing one’s enemy. The rebellion had not posed much of a problem in that regard. They were desperate, unorganized criminal organizations without the resources to do much more than mount the occasional terrorist attack. Until the Modulus Echo got involved in the rebellion, they had never destroyed a ship in space. Most of their attacks had come on the various worlds where each faction was based.
That’s not to say the rebels weren’t dangerous. Pershing had led Special Forces teams against them early in her career. They were determined fighters on the ground and willing to die for their cause. But their tactics and strategy weren’t out of the ordinary. The aliens who had come through the wormhole presented a whole new problem. Their tactics seemed contradictory. They didn’t use weapons to disable the ships they pursued, which might have indicated their wish to keep the vessels from being harmed. Yet their grappling arms often ripped the captured ships apart. The royal transport was the perfect example. The long, tubular ship had literally been broken in two. But then both sections of the ships had been salvaged, which seemed to indicate a pirate mentality. What the aliens seemed to want was the technology itself. They were hardware thieves, ship junkies. Did that point to a small, opportunistic faction, or a deeper desperation from the entire species? Only time would tell. General Pershing simply didn’t have enough information.
After another hour of watching, she was able to reach the footage of the Echo jumping to hyperspace. Pershing felt the pang of guilt she always felt whenever she ordered her commandos into danger or was forced to leave someone behind in a deadly operation. The buoy’s video capabilities were amazing, but she couldn’t see Major Le Croix drifting in space. She did, however, see activity in the area where she knew he had been. The ships lingered there, and she could make out one ship’s waving grappling arms. The strange technology made her wonder whether the aliens were water-based life-forms.
It seemed clear that the aliens picked up Major Le Croix and whatever member of the royal family was in the emergency pod. The alien ships then began to fly toward the royal home world, Gershwin. Odds are, if they picked up the survivors, then they would have taken them to the planet, which seemed to be of great interest to them. Pershing silently cursed the fact that humanity didn’t have more of a presence on Gershwin. The royal family had used the world as their own private playground. It was the ultimate extravagance, and it left the world essentially undefended. Had the world been the home to a rebel faction, they would have fighters on the ground as well as in the skies to fend off the aliens. Pershing’s fear was the possibility that the aliens would take control of the system, bringing in more and more of their ships. If the Royal Imperium forces didn’t retake the system soon, they would be stuck fighting a long, costly war with no guarantees they could win. Humanity could be wiped out if she didn’t do something.
Pershing got to her feet and left the lounge. The bridge was quiet. Magnum glanced up as Pershing approached, but like a good soldier didn’t try to engage the general in conversation. Pershing looked at the display on her console. It showed less than half an hour until their next transition. She knew going straight to the Yelsin system was dangerous, but she couldn’t say for certain that bouncing around the galaxy would protect them. She pressed a button to activate the ship’s com-link, ignoring the slight irritation she felt with the fact that the crew of the Echo was on a separate communications system from her own.
“Ben, are you done with the surveillance buoy?” She asked.
“Yes, General,” Ben replied. “We can operate the buoys without picking them up now.”
“And the one you have, is it still operational?”
“Yes,” he said. “I’m charging its battery unit now.”
“Very good,” Pershing said. “I want it ready to deploy when we drop out of hyperspace.”
“In the middle of nowhere?” Ben asked.
“That’s right,” Pershing said. “I want intelligence on the aliens’ ability to track us through hyperspace. If they can do that, we have to find a way to hide from them.”
“Okay,” Ben replied. “I’ll have it ready.”
“Thank you,” Pershing said, irritated at having to explain herself seemingly at every turn. “And the shield?”
“It’s ready to test out,” Ben said. “I had to rebuild the microchip, so there’s no guarantee it will work.”
“And if it doesn’t?” Pershing said.
“With the right parts, I can get it working again. We could probably get a new wave generator in the Genovisi Shipyard.”
“I’m sure we can find what you need in the Royal Imperium’s resources,” Pershing said. “We’ll run a test of the shield when we drop out of hyperspace. Get it set up.”
“Yes, General.”
It was the least formal he could possibly be. Not that Pershing felt he was being disrespectful, but the crew of the little ship had no military discipline. She would have preferred to simply commandeer the ship, staff it with her own officers, and have the crew locked up for crimes against the Imperium. Unfortunately, the secrets to the Kestrel class ship were locked inside the minds of her crew, which meant she had to put up with their less-than-military discipline.
Under different circumstances, she could have ripped the ship apart to reveal its secrets, and even used aggressive interrogation to find out exactly how the gravity shield worked in order to replicate it for the Imperium Fleet. But she knew that would mean involving the Royal Imperium’s research department. Even if Ben had given them specific details or a mock-up for the shield, it would take months for the eggheads to build and test the shield before it was approved and actually put on a warship. The enemy was literally at their gates and there was no time to push new technology through the Imperium bureaucracy.
That left only one choice, working with Ben and his odd little crew. General Alicia Pershing was willing to do anything to get an edge in the fight she knew was coming. Even if that meant working with civilians. And while she had personal issues with the crew, the ship itself was growing on her. Unlike most military vessels, which were strictly utilitarian, the Modulus Echo had soul. The vessel was small and well designed. There was nothing fancy or showy in the layout. It certainly wasn’t extravagant, yet it felt comfortable and surprisingly safe.
What bothered Pershing the most was how capable the crew of the ship seemed to be. The pilot was as good as any Imperium fighter ace. Pershing wasn’t even sure how that was possible, but Kim had a natural gift for flying. It was as intuitive to her as command was to General Pershing. Nancy Josslyn was the most military-like of the four-person crew. She was calm, clear, efficient, and wholly without attitude. If she had been in the Royal Imperium Fleet, Pershing knew she would never rise above her station. Nance was too dependent on her computers for everything and didn’t have the people skills to command, much less navigate the dangerous waters of politics. Yet she garnered the general’s respect on the bridge.
In Magnum, she identified a kindred soul. Most of the Royal Imperium military had never been in combat. Of those who had, even fewer had actually looked into the eyes of their enemy and done what was necessary to stay alive. Her Special Forces operators had a shadow in their eyes, a dark reflection of the horrors of war. Magnum had the same look in his eyes. He was protective of his crewmates. And there was a quietness to him, not just v
erbally, but in the way he moved, the way he took part in conversations, and the way he worked on the bridge of the ship that revealed a lethal side to him.
But the most interesting of the four was Ben Griminski, the engineer. Most tool pushers on Imperium Fleet vessels had a working man’s intelligence, but Ben’s was far greater. He was a master engineer, who understood more than how machines functioned. His was an almost magical gift that allowed him to imagine how something could work and then build it from scratch, or at least from salvaged parts he managed to scrape together. The entire ship had his fingerprints all over it. He had taken the wreckage of an antique vessel and remade it. What was more impressive was that in doing the work, he had imbued the Kestrel class ship with his own DNA. It worked, from the systems to the old-fashioned displays, in a way that Pershing believed was better than when the ship was brand new.
Their respect for her was negligent, but as long as they were willing to listen to her and follow her orders, Pershing could make it work. At that very moment, she heard the commotion on the upper deck. The general was on her feet and moving before she had given a conscious thought to what was happening. She ran to the stairs and bounded up to the top deck, where Kim and the queen were almost nose to nose, shouting at each other.
“You’re rebels?” Queen Ultane screeched.
“We don’t bow down to crackpots like you, if that’s what you mean,” Kim snarled.
“You wretched little snake! I’ll have you flayed alive for speaking to me like that.”
“Go for it,” Kim said. “That’s how you operate, isn’t it? Torture and murder anyone who disagrees with you. There’s nothing noble or royal about you. You’re just an entitled, spoiled, arrogant bi—”
“Kim!” Pershing shouted, wishing the pilot had a rank to call her by. “Don’t say another word.”
“General, I want this girl removed from her post and locked in the brig,” the queen demanded.
Pershing hurried up between the two women. The queen was trembling with rage and probably a good dose of fear. Kim looked ready to scratch the queen’s eyes out, but she had held her anger in check. It was surprising to General Pershing, who had thought the pilot was completely without discipline of any kind.
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