by M. D. Cooper
I was about to yell at one of the techs for doing something stupid when Tammy reached out from the bridge.
I sighed.
<…then you’re going to wish you’d never left port!> The voice wasn’t Sherry’s.
I monitored the signal hitting our comm array, noting that it came from an empty location in space. I wasn’t surprised that the Paragonian ship had stealth capabilities. I was, however, surprised that they’d make a run at us while the Daedalus was so close.
I sucked in my cheek and began to gnaw on it.
We continued to go back and forth for another few minutes, and I tapped into the scan systems and began to search the space around the ship. I didn’t believe for a minute that the Firelight was anywhere close to where their messages were coming from. Any half-competent operator would drop a buoy and relay messages.
However, I could calculate time lag and map how far away the enemy ship could be.
After a few more responses, I determined that they were within ten thousand kilometers. Taking a stab in the dark, I took a guess they’d be directly below us.
I deployed two small drones, each only a few centimeters across. They moved around the ship, speeding through the thickening dust and gas, sending back scan data.
Using the three-dimensional eye that created, I looked for the stealthed ship, a vessel that would appear to be little more than an eddy in the currents around us.
Where are you, you little bastard?
I didn’t need a precise location, just a general direction.
Then my verbal adversary made a threat I couldn’t ignore.
Shit. I had the probes run an active sweep, sending a blast of RF, looking for any echo. For a moment, nothing came back. Then a return hit the Kerrigan’s sensors.
They were several hundred kilometers away from where I’d been looking.
I’ve got you now.
The probes both fired a signal at the Firelight’s location, and a moment later, the limpet mine I’d planted on their hull detonated.
Suck it, bitches.
Ship’s scan registered the blast, some nine hundred kilometers away. Immediately, the Daedalus activated its shields, and moments later, Tammy followed suit.
I wanted to deliver a snide remark, but I managed to reply with only,
Chief Aarons gave me a sidelong look, and I suspected he was in communication with the Daedalus as well. He nodded after a moment, then ordered his team to double-time it.
OK, Jax, you’re really on the clock now.
34
PUNCHLINE
Deep within the Daedalus…
Penny and I were just finishing up placing trackers on the third batch of cargo when a call blared over the Daedalus’s 1MC and general shipnet.
I glanced at Penny’s barely visible figure as she set the cover back on a crate.
I’d left a small drone in the passage and checked its feeds before opening the door. On our left, two soldiers were disappearing around a bend; things were clear on the right. The lighting had switched to add a green tint, indicating battle conditions on the ship.
We moved at just shy of a run, working our way aft to the first bay Oln and Finn had hit. There, we’d move the equipment they’d loaded onto a pair of hoverpallets to the egress point.
The corridors down below were still nearly empty; only twice more did we see ratings rush by, likely headed to weapons duty stations.
Three agonizingly long minutes later, we reached the bay where the cargo was waiting. Once inside, Penny and I quickly removed our helmets, a-grav packs, and weapons. We stashed them in a case on one pallet. Weapons went into two separate rucksacks, and then we pulled on the loose style of DSA shipsuit over our light stealth armor.
A vigilant individual might notice some bulges here and there, but considering that the ship was in Condition Green, I hoped no one would be paying too much attention to our uniforms.
I palmed the door control and gave my pallet a push to get it started. The moment I stepped out after it, a cry came from behind.
“Gangway!”
I pushed my pallet to the right side of the passage, letting a trio of soldiers rush by. A moment later, the echo of weapons fire came down the corridor, and I glanced back at Penny.
“Follow after with these.”
I grabbed my rucksack and rushed after the soldiers, certain they were going to lead me to a beleaguered Finn and Oln. The DSA troops took a left at the first intersection, then a right at another. The map on my HUD showed us getting closer to the rear bay near where Finn and Oln had entered.
I expected the soldiers to keep going straight, when they veered right and into the bay itself.
Well, this isn’t good.
I followed them in to see the two crates next to a shuttle in the middle of the bay. Finn and Oln were nowhere to be seen, though the fifteen DSA troops in the bay were performing a sweep, looking for them.
I was about to move into the bay when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I nearly jumped out of my skin to see Oln standing next to me wearing his stealth armor, the active camouflage systems offline.
He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, and I resisted a laugh.
Penny was coming around the corner behind me, and I waved her on.
She nodded and pushed one of the pallets ahead before moving behind the other one to follow after. I took control of the first pallet, wishing Finn and Oln had selected programmable ones so we wouldn’t have to shove them around.
We turned another corner to see Finn standing in the airlock with their two palettes.
The airlock was only big enough for one pallet at a time, which meant it would take at least five minutes to get each one off the ship. Once outside, we’d wrap them in stealth material, connect them, and then push off to wait for pickup.
Just five more mi
nutes.
The airlock was situated at an L-intersection. Behind us was the passage that ran toward the center of the ship, and on our left was a corridor stretching aft to engineering. Either one could sprout enemies at any moment, so Penny and I drew our rifles and tucked them amongst the crates and gear on the pallets, ready for trouble.
Oln groused from behind us.
Penny snorted.
I gave a soft snort.
Glancing back, I realized that Oln had his stealth disabled again.
I glanced at her, wondering how much she needed to know. On one hand, I didn’t want to give her anything she could use against me, but at the same time, I didn’t want to give her so little that she took desperate action for fear of us having no way out.
Penny turned to face me, mouth hanging open.
Penny turned and tossed a wink in his general direction.
I wished I were stealthed. The heat in my face told me I was flushed, and I knew I’d certainly hear about it later. Worse, I was pretty sure that Kallie would throw a cold shoulder my way for the rest of my life if I slept with Penny.
Behind us, the airlock cycled open, and Finn beckoned.
Oln took the next pallet and pushed it into the airlock. It began its cycle again. The second and third pallets moved outside the ship without any interruption, but as we were waiting for the lock to cycle open for the fourth, a lieutenant turned down the corridor and began walking toward us. He was focused on the deck before him.
Penny and I shared a glance, our weapons held behind the final pallet, both wondering when he would see us. Finally, when he was only five meters away, he frowned, stopped, and looked up at us.
“Sir!” We both snapped off salutes.
“What the hell are you two doing here? Don’t you know we have possible intruders?”
“Yes, sir,” I nodded. “This gear is for the team working on the Kerrigan. We were holding off here until the bay was clear.”
“Well, it’s cleared now, get in the—Wait. Why is the airlock cycling?”
There was a deafening shoom next to my head, and the lieutenant flipped over backward, landing on the deck with a dull thud.
“Shit, Oln.” I glanced back at the now-invisible man. “What the fuck was that?”
I could hear the man’s smile as he spoke. “He’ll live.”
“Yeah.” I clenched my jaw and glanced in Oln’s direction. “Just some warning would have been nice. Get in there with Finn, we’ll come through on the next cycle.”
Before Oln moved the pallet into the airlock, Penny and I grabbed the case containing our helmets and a-grav packs, leaning it against the wall.
I was considering walking over to the lieutenant to check him over when a pair of armored soldiers rounded the corner, weapons drawn.
“Halt!” one called out. “Don’t move.”
Behind us, the airlock door was still closing, and another shot was fired from its opening. This one a projectile.
The round struck one of the two soldiers in the faceshield, knocking them back. Penny had her rifle leveled a moment later, firing on the second, as I grabbed the case and dove behind the corner.
She was right behind me, and we stacked up at the corner, her low and me high, unleashing a barrage on the enemy. The soldiers returned fire, but their pulse rifles weren’t a match for our kinetic weaponry, and they fell back around the bend.
“Let’s move!” Penny began to creep down the passage leading further aft. “We have to get this shit off and get back in stealth.”
I gave an affirmative grunt and followed after, clumsily carrying the case and my rifle. “Find the first place we can duck into.”
“Oh, yeah, sure,” she called back angrily. “Good idea, I was thinking I’d go for the fourth.”
A dozen meters down the passage, there was an alcove big enough for us both to tuck into. We quickly pulled off our shipsuits and put our helmets on, then reattached the a-grav units and other pieces of armor. I poked a stick cam out into the passage.
I laughed as we stepped out into the hall.
35
DISTRACTIONS
Aboard the Victorious Strike…
“Commander Sinclair!” the scan officer called out. “There’s been an explosion near the Daedalus’s position.”
“Put it up,” I ordered.
The central holotank flipped to show an expanding plasma cloud some nine hundred meters off the Kerrigan’s bow. The blast expanded in a way that was consistent with occurring up against a solid object.
“Was it a shot from that smuggler’s ship?”
“Analysis says no, ma’am. Our resolution isn’t good with the clouds closing in. We’re getting the Daedalus to pass their scan.”
“Good.” I toggled my command seat’s display to show a view of the Daedalus and Kerrigan relative to the explosion.
The convoy was three light seconds from the lone ship at this point, and I waited impatiently for the response.
The delay was longer this time.
I shifted in my seat, growing increasingly impatient. After a minute, Petrov finally replied.
I was out of my seat before I knew it. “Helm! Lay in a course for the Kerrigan. Best speed.”
“Aye, ma’am,” the navigation officer announced, only to have scan speak up a moment later.
“We have contacts starboard, ma’am.”
“Contacts?” My first thought was pirates—though I couldn’t imagine any bold enough to attack Iron Lance. “How many?”
The scan officer looked up, worry clear in her eyes. “Hundreds.”
The pilot’s laugh filled my mind.
I swept my gaze across the rear engineering bay. Chief Aarons was watching Higgs and Alice set a new segment of fuel line into place, while Olley futzed with one of the intermixers.
They weren’t screwing it up too much, but it was going to take me a few hours to get things to my liking.
My message to Tammy was interrupted by Olley spinning toward me and drawing a pulse pistol. He fired without hesitation, but I’d already dropped to the deck, and the concussive shockwave rippled over my head.
“Don’t move,” Aarons said as he turned toward me. “You’re going to tell us where the cores are, or we’ll tear this ship to shreds. Order your crew to assemble in the main hold.”
I pulled myself up into a half-seated position and smirked at the DSA chief. “What crew?”
“The crew on this bucket of—”
A wave of pulse fire came from the doorway behind me, and I flipped over to my hands and knees, scrambling out into the corridor as return fire came from the four DSA techs. The moment I got into the passageway, the door slammed shut, and I clambered to my feet.
