"I think they're on to you," Tabby said as I continued to flare out, away from the ideal deceleration vector with the wormhole. The Kasumi captain had changed their approach and was lining up more directly with the wormhole. Without heroic measures, they would not be able to zero-out with the wormhole any better than we could, not to mention they would not get a pass with their weapons.
"Doesn't matter. I got what I wanted." I activated the pre-programmed deceleration plan. "All hands, prepare for combat burn and brace for possible enemy fire."
"They're going to get a shot on us," Tabby said, watching a prediction path play out.
I was going to burn more fuel than I wanted and we'd have to take some on later in our journey, but I felt like I'd given us our best shot at avoiding combat with a more heavily-armed ship.
"Only if their engines and inertial systems are as good as Gaylon Brighton's."
I hate to admit that I mostly held my breath as we slowed to a crawl, pinned to our chairs under the heavy hand of a combat burn.
"Enemy weapons are charging," Sendrei said.
The distance that separated us was more than I'd planned for when executing the maneuver. The Kasumi ship had strong engines, but they gave up at least ten percent to Gaylon Brighton.
"We're out of weapon's range." I spoke with more hope than knowledge, unable to pull my eyes from the navigation path we were on. We had mere seconds before I could transition Gaylon Brighton through the wormhole into Tamu and I willed the ship closer.
"They're firing," Sendrei said, his voice tense but professional. "Return fire?"
"Negative," I said, knowing the Kasumi were beyond our range.
Blaster bolts fly as fast as you'd think. Gaylon Brighton shuddered as twin bolts impacted her aft quarter, five meters forward of the engine compartments. A familiar bang of rapid decompression vibrated through the ship no more than half a second before I engaged the wormhole drives.
My heart fluttered with worry for roughly a second and a half, the time it took to transition.
"Jonathan, status!" I demanded, even while the universe turned inside out. Jonathan would come out of the momentary stupor caused by transition more quickly than the rest of us.
"Engines are fully operational," Jonathan's firm voice announced as the light of Tamu's star began to register. "There are no ships in the immediate vicinity."
"Engage combat burn on primary navigation plan," I ordered.
"I think they holed us," Tabby said a few moments later when it became clear we were beyond immediate danger.
"Bray, Hunter, check in," I said, concerned they were close to where the powerful blaster bolts had impacted.
"We're both up, Captain," Bray answered after a few moments, her voice tight with exertion. "There's a breach forward of engine two's superstructure. Hunter and I are working through the tween with a patch. Any chance we could stay clear of rocks for a while?"
I smiled at her casual reference to rockets. It seemed that Naval officers, even NCOs, enjoyed understated swagger in the face of fire.
"Copy that, Bray," I answered. "Enemy is off the scope, but we're going to bust hump for the next sixty beats and clear the wormhole. Might be best if you hold position until we drop back from hard burn."
As much as I wanted to, under max combat burn there would be no way to see when the Kasumi ship exited the wormhole. I'd considered dropping engines and relying on our stealth armor, but we had a speed advantage. While I would take crap from Tabby for not standing our ground, a fight avoided was worth more than one in the win column.
For two minutes we sat pinned to our chairs as Gaylon Brighton showed the universe exactly what she was designed to do – run. "All hands, dropping burn for ten seconds to gather data and we'll resume hard burn for the Phreish wormhole."
As we sailed from one wormhole to the next, two things became abundantly clear. First, the Kasumi ship was either no longer pursuing us or they were doing a much better job of hiding. Second, there were a lot of sentients in the Aeratroas region of the Dwingeloo galaxy, most of whom seemed to be either heading to or coming from Abeline.
The damage we'd taken on Gaylon Brighton turned out to be easily fixed. Once we cut from combat burn, Hunter and Bray vented a small section of the hull, applied a temporary patch and then installed a temporary bulkhead just in case the patch failed. The latter was a step I hadn’t previously considered and would be something I'd add to future emergency fixes.
"We are eighteenth in queue," Sendrei announced as I joined him on the bridge for the start of my watch. The structure was something I hadn’t expected, but so many ships moved through the wormholes in the central core of planets that the wormholes were actively managed. At eighteen deep, the queue for the gate from Kneble to Mandhan (the system where our destination, Abeline, was located) wasn't even the longest we'd run into in the last few jumps. Although, according to local news feeds, we'd hit a particularly busy time due to a bi-annual, religious pilgrimage by a sect of peaceful, armadillo-faced aliens.
"That's not horrible," I said, looking at the lineup Sendrei showed on the holo projector. Upon inspection, I realized we were eighteenth in line with another forty behind us and he'd probably spent the better part of the last half of his shift in line.
"At least we're finally getting there," he said. "That exercise room is nice, but three ten-days aboard makes a man look forward to just about any port."
"How are we doing for fuel?" I asked, mostly to prompt my AI, which projected current levels onto my HUD.
"Down to a quarter," he said. "Good thing we're just about there. I don't know if you noticed, but our Kasumi friends have rejoined the party."
"Frak, seriously?" I asked, studying the line of ships queuing to pop through to the Abeline system. Sure enough, the Kasumi ship was fifteen ships behind us. They had stowed turrets close-in to the hull.
"I don't believe they'll be a problem," he said. "I've been reading about how the central core deals with unprovoked aggression in high traffic areas. It's not pretty. Basically, no matter the grudge, they don't want to stop the flow of commerce. Whoever shoots first or otherwise acts out can be declared a FFAT."
"FFAT?"
"Free-for-all target. You can thank me for the acronym," Sendrei said. “FFATs are like someone dropping a bucket of cinnamon rolls in a pen full of pigs."
I struggled for a moment to work through the analogy. "The rolls get dirty?"
Sendrei tipped his head back and laughed deeply. It was one of the things I really enjoyed about his personality. When he laughed, the world seemed to smile. "I'm guessing you haven't spent a lot of time around hogs."
"And you have?" I asked.
"Wasn't always a Navy man or a prisoner," he said. "I grew up on a hog confinement. My dad owned the place, but he wanted to make sure us kids understood the value of a credit. Hogs, by and large, are smart animals and they've a keen sense of smell. You'd be mauled just trying to walk a bucket of cinnamon rolls into the middle of a pen, much less get a chance to drop them onto the ground."
"You're saying they like cinnamon," I said, chuckling.
"Yup. That and everything else that's remotely edible. They also don't mind running over whatever is in their path to get it," he said. "You following me?"
"Free-for-all is bad for people. Pigs like 'em," I answered.
"Yeah, don't be the bucket of cinnamon rolls," he said, then blinked at me while furrowing his brow. "Are you intentionally trying to make this hard?"
"Farm animal analogies don’t make much sense to me," I said. "I didn’t have real meat until I was seventeen stans old. I didn't see a farm animal until we visited Freedom Station and even then, I wasn't extra impressed with how it worked out. They're messy."
"Here we go," he said as the line suddenly started moving again. The queue allowed twenty ships to pass through in one direction before reversing and allowing ships from the opposite side to traverse the passage.
"Frak, that Kasumi ship is makin
g a move," I said, watching the ship jump out of position. "Switch with me. I'm taking helm, you take fire control."
"Copy," Sendrei agreed. "Helm is yours."
"All hands, strap in. Kasumi sloop is on scope and potentially making a move. We could be jumping to combat burn." I watched Sendrei unlimber the turrets and orient them in the Kasumi's general direction.
"Abasi ship, Gaylon Brighton, you are warned, provocative actions are strictly barred in the Central Core controlled space," an alien that resembled Pogona appeared on my forward screen. "Please respond acknowledging your understanding of Code-12 violations."
"Central Core, this is Gaylon Brighton," I answered. "We acknowledge Central Core authority regarding Code-12."
"The Kasumi is closing on us," Sendrei said.
"You will lock down your turrets or risk being found in violation of Code-12," the alien said. It almost appeared that we were boring him or her, I wasn't sure which.
I made up my mind. "Lock it down, Sendrei."
"Copy that, Captain," Sendrei replied, spinning the turrets back and allowing the stubby barrels to rest in recessed cradles.
"What in Jupiter is going on?" Tabby asked, flying through the bridge hatch, jumping into a bridge station chair and wrestling with the restraints.
"Kasumi ship," I pointed at the ship on the holo that had jumped out of position and was slowly sailing over the line of queued ships.
"What is it doing?"
"I'd say getting a look at us," I said, pressing my middle finger into the armored glass above me as they sailed over the top of us. It was an immature gesture, likely lost on an alien species, but it was truly the only thing I had left.
"Yeah, nice," Tabby said. "That showed 'em."
"It's not as off-topic as you might expect," Sendrei said. "They will now need to worry about your capacity to fire arrows at them."
I looked at him, confused. "Is this another farm analogy?" I asked.
"Older," he chuckled.
Chapter 10
Abeline
We watched as the Kasumi ship sailed slowly over the top of us. It was a ballsy move that begged us to take action. Someone either didn't want us making it to Abeline or wanted to take us out of the action altogether. Unfortunately, the list of those who might want to do us harm wasn't short. That said, the expense had to be substantial to hire someone to hunt us down over such a long trip.
"You were wise in not engaging, Captain," Jonathan said. "We believed there was a thirty-eight percent chance that you would. Do you care to explain why you decided against taking action? Was it simply a matter of the Central Core authority's threat?"
"That part was hard to ignore," I answered, sluggishly moving Gaylon Brighton forward as one-by-one the ships ahead of us disappeared through the wormhole. "The fact that the Kasumi had their weapons stowed tipped me off that they were trying to get us to flinch."
"It provided valuable insight," Jonathan said.
"How's that?" Tabby asked.
"Your enemy is intent on your destruction. There was no desire for conversation," he answered. "Did you know that almost all sentient species have a desire for what you refer to as closure?"
"As in if they're going to kill you, they want to see it happen?" I asked.
"Precisely, in this case," he replied. "We believe this limits the likely perpetrators."
"You don't think Genteresk sent them, then?" I asked. Up until now, I'd believed Belvakuski, the Pogona pirate we'd defeated, was somehow behind the threatening actions. Of course, the fact she'd been recently executed made that unlikely.
"No. Pogona tribes value strength," he answered. "Sending another to eliminate competition would show weakness. For Genteresk to regain prominence, they will need to defeat Loose Nuts most publicly."
"Not sure how this helps," I said and then announced. "All hands, prepare for transition to the Mandhan system."
"It helps tremendously," Jonathan said. "Is it true you find it difficult to know what is behind the Kasumi attack on Gaylon Brighton?"
"Yes," I answered, only paying half attention as I engaged the wormhole drive.
For a moment, the universe blinked from existence before reappearing. I focused on the heavy traffic surrounding the wormhole leading back to the Kneble system. A flashing 'imminent collision' warning caught my attention, and I tossed the flight stick to the side and accelerated away from the path of a ship transiting the wormhole.
The visual confusion of near-space was almost overwhelming. Small ships flitted about, racing between massive structures which had been constructed near the wormhole. Closely packed and numerous, the ships formed wide traffic lanes between the two areas. Ship-sized advertising billboards hung next to each structure, showing vids of aliens doing all sort of different things including consuming beverages and playing sports. I blinked, trying to make sense of some of the other screens, their images completely alien. Once again, my display showed the potential of collision and I responded, peeling off to starboard, and toward the steel city. These emergencies continued every few minutes and I tried diligently to keep us from crashing into the smaller ships that were jetting everywhere.
"Jonathan, is there a traffic lane or something available for navigation assistance?"
"Affirmative, Captain," he answered.
Traffic lane overlays showed on my HUD. Somehow, I'd drifted into a lane painted red. Big, fluffy arrows chugged toward us in the wrong direction. The arrows, however, weren't the only thing coming our way. I dropped the stick, barely avoiding an ugly rectangular ship that had few lights on it and did not seem to mind the prospect of collision.
"Port," Tabby offered. "Declination twenty degrees."
I searched the lanes and saw what she had, a slow-moving lane with blue arrows moving in the direction we were headed. I rolled Gaylon Brighton port and downward catching my breath once we were safe.
"As we were saying," Jonathan continued and I struggled to remember what the conversation had even been about. "Eliminating Belvakuski leaves those sympathetic to Goboble. It is our opinion that his syndicate was not sufficiently funded to pay for a bounty hunter."
"Who said anything about a bounty hunter?" I asked.
"Piss off any Kasumi lately?" Tabby asked. "No way would a pirate chase us all the way from Santaloo system. We're just not that easy of targets. I just don't see who else would be gunning for us like this."
"You are forgetting something," Sendrei said, nodding at Jonathan.
"What?" I asked, understanding starting to permeate my consciousness. "Seriously?"
"We should be surprised it has not happened sooner," Sendrei said.
"Who? What hasn't happened?" Tabby asked, not appreciating being left to wonder.
"Kroerak," I said. "They think Kroerak hired a Kasumi bounty hunter to take us out."
"It is the most logical answer. You have been present at too many Kroerak encounters. To Kroerak, one defeat such as on Cradle could be a coincidence." He was referring to a much earlier action when we'd discovered tens of thousands of humans being bred in captivity by Kroerak as an exotic food source. With Mars Protectorate's help, we'd not only rescued the people, but also handed the Kroerak a significant defeat. "But in fact, Loose Nuts was instrumental in the Kroerak defeat at Earth, as well as the capture of a long-buried Kroerak cruiser that was the source of much intelligence and research."
"I can't imagine someone taking money from Kroerak," I said. "That's suicidal."
"Bounty hunters and assassins are not particularly well known for their strategic view of things," Sendrei said.
"It is possible the noble that Sendrei defeated was able to communicate our knowledge of the Piscivoru," Jonathan said. "The Kroerak’s irrational fear of a nearly extinct species and the ability of Loose Nuts to successfully complete otherwise low-percentage-odds missions could explain the presence of a persistent hunter."
"Neat," I said. "Set in a course for Abeline."
A path appeared on my HUD, bu
t with all the traffic around the city, it would take an hour to break free. Fortunately, it was only another thirty-hour burn from that point.
"Why do you suppose that wormhole is so busy?" Tabby asked as I accelerated to the max velocity allowed in the traffic lane.
"There are seven wormholes in the Mandhan system, all of which Gaylon Brighton could reach within twenty-four hours," Jonathan explained. "The city we find ourselves in is called Mandhan City for obvious reasons. Originally it was just a platform for short-term storage of trade-goods. The growth you see here has happened within the last four hundred stans."
"Business must be good," Tabby said, gawking through the armor glass at the bright lights and towering structures that surrounded us. Just like the first time we visited Mars, I had a strong sense of how insignificant we all were in this universe. It was hard to imagine the Kroerak thinking we were important enough to send a bounty hunter. However, if one thing was clear, it was that someone was chasing us and they weren’t playing nice.
"You know, you'd think all this alien stuff would be more … you know … alien," Tabby said. "If I didn't know better, I'd say we were on approach to Puskar Stellar, not Abeline – a completely alien world in a frakking random galaxy."
"Not so crazy to me," Todd Hunter said. We'd invited him and Larkin Bray to join us on the bridge during our approach to Abeline. Planetfall wasn't the sort of thing most people got to experience in their life and I wasn't about to deny either of them the awe-inspiring moment.
"You're the one who's crazy, Hunter," Larkin said. "Don't you wonder why humanity and all these aliens build structures, planets, hell even societies that are basically the same?"
"Do you really believe life is so different for humans and other species? Basic needs like eating and the desire for safety aren't unique to humans. Cooperation between species is its own selection mechanism. Those who cooperate are naturally more powerful than loners," Hunter argued.
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