by Petra Landon
“What gossip?”
“During their war, there was a greeting used by Renegade ships to others in the vicinity.”
“Sort of a hello, you mean?”
Kidani shot another furtive glance at the pilot who merely stared back at her. “More like, I’m here to back you up if you need it.”
This time, the leader turned to Kali. “Is that true, RimWorlder?”
The pilot shrugged disinterestedly.
There was a short silence.
The henchman with the flasher asked the leader. “Why send out a salutation to the Renegades now?” he asked.
“Starships are not meant to operate on reserve power for long. It might mess with their systems” he said thoughtfully.
“Check the console in the Captain’s quarters” he directed. “See if anyone’s passcode was used to access any systems.”
“And if it checks out?” the man with the flasher inquired, clearly skeptical of messages being transmitted to long ago Renegade comrades.
The leader pondered for a moment. “It’s hardly an SOS. And even if it is, their Renegade friends have a long way to travel to save their hides.”
As the two moved to exit the room, from behind the panel, Novi caught Kidani’s triumphant glance up at her. If the men were planning to search the Captain’s chamber, she’d have the run of the Cruiser. She had one more task to complete for Kali.
Episode 4 : A Deadly Game
Under siege
Novi dodges flashslingers aboard the Cruiser, while the Captain and crew attempt to take back their ship …
Under the gun
When Novi crawled back to the Recreation Chamber, Kali was waiting for her.
“You have it?” he asked.
“Yes.” It had taken Novi some time to find the right chamber, but the pilot’s description and the holograph by the bed had eventually confirmed it.
Unstrapping the weapon, she leant down from her high perch to hand him the flasher, handle first. Though nondescript, the flasher’s polished zeitga handle was lovingly carved. To Novi, it looked like an heirloom. Kali had asked her to retrieve it from a nook in his chamber.
The big RimWorlder took in the competent way she handled the weapon. “You know your way around flashers” he remarked.
Novi shrugged. “On Idriko, I work in a tavern. It gets rough sometimes.”
She paused. “But the flashers on those men …” her voice trailed off.
“They’re flashslingers — professionals and dangerous.”
Novi had guessed something of the same.
Kidani came forward to join him. “They’ve been at it for over an hour, Kali. We don’t carry much cargo. Shouldn’t they have what they want by now?”
Kali agreed, his expression grim. Reaching down, he tucked the personal flasher into his boot.
When he straightened, his glance encompassed both women, the dark eyes serious. “Cap’n is going to retake the ship. And it will be ugly.”
Kidani paled, but her gaze did not waver from him. Up in the vent, Novi’s eyes went wide. She’d assumed that the Captain would wait it out until the men with flashers were gone — not lay siege to the Cruiser as Kali was suggesting.
“The slingers will attempt to use us as leverage against Cap’n. But thanks to Novia, I can hold them off” Kali continued soberly. “There are only two ways into the Cruiser — Space Bay and the Vestibule gate. If I know Soren, he’ll come through the Bay. Otherwise, he risks wasting precious time and ammunition to go through the Vestibule guards first. But the Bay door will need to be externally powered. That will warn the slingers of the assault.”
He looked up at Novi, his eyes flashing her a warning. “At the first sign of trouble, get back here. We’ll barricade ourselves in this room until Cap’n retakes Ilar’s Justice.”
Novi nodded shakily. The blackout made operating doors a cumbersome and noisy process. Kali and his flasher would get ample warning and a fighting chance to hold off any attempts to storm the Rec Chamber.
“What about this access hatch?” she asked.
“Only someone small enough can get through that access. From what I’ve seen of the slingers, I doubt they could. But I’ll keep an eye on the hatch, just in case” he reassured her.
Kidani asked the pilot. “Is there any way to help Cap’n retake the Cruiser?”
The RimWorlder lapsed into thought. “If we could power the space door …” his voice trailed off.
“Will they have a portable generator on them, Kali?”
“The generator won’t do. The Bay door needs a lot of power. They’ll have to improvise. And it’ll be slow going, giving the slingers an edge. Once they have it open, they’ll shoot their way in.”
Retaking the Cruiser was going to be bloody, Novi realized with a sinking heart. In the chamber below, Kidani blanched.
The pilot’s expression darkened. “I’ve known Ryf and Zinera a long time, Kidani. Ilar’s Justice is more than a ship to them. No feckin’ way they allow anyone to take the Cruiser or hold its crew hostage.”
The flame-haired InnerWorlder took a deep breath, her eyes meeting Kali’s gaze. “How do we power the space door for Cap’n?”
“There’s no easy way” he warned. “The door must be added to the emergency system so power is distributed to it. And the Bay door module has to be enabled — the blackout has disabled it.”
“Can I do it from the Captain’s private console?” Novi asked.
Kali shook his head. “You can add the door module to the emergency system from it, but the door itself must be enabled from the Bay console.”
“That’s too dangerous” Kidani exclaimed. “Those men are in the Bay.”
Kali seconded her mutely.
“What if I activated emergency power to the space door?” Novi suggested. “Just in case we have a chance later to access the Bay.”
Kali pondered the offer, his eyes on Novi. “Be very careful! We’ve convinced them the Hailer is behaving erratically, but all the same.”
“I will” Novi assured him. Though shaken by the vision of a bloody assault on the Cruiser, her confidence was rising with every trip through the duct. Also, despite their dire circumstances and the limited resources at his disposal, Kali was proving a formidable opponent. His decisions were made unhurriedly; his knowledge of his Renegade comrades and the Cruiser carefully exploited to give the crew a strategic edge. She was confident that with a little luck, the pilot might turn the tide in their favor.
Kali talked her through the process and Novi sped on her way, determined to give the RimWorlders an advantage. The Captain’s chamber lay abandoned and Novi was able to accomplish her task without interruption. As she clambered back into the duct to make her way to the Recreation Chamber, a sanguine Novi pondered how she might gain access to Space Bay.
The murmur of voices heralded her approach. Forewarned, Novi was careful to crouch silently behind the hatch cover.
“We’ve searched Ventini’s cargo” the leader announced, down in the chamber. “Where’s the box?”
Novi’s heart gave a lurch. Could they be searching for Zufon Ventini’s intricately carved box, she wondered. The one with the energy waves that affected her so powerfully. Back in the duct, she was subject to its pernicious effects again. A night’s rest away from it had not dimmed the potency of whatever lay hidden in the strongbox.
In the Rec Chamber, Kidani looked confused by the leader’s question. But Novi sensed the pilot come to the same realization as her.
The leader addressed Kali, his demeanor subtly menacing. “No more games” he warned. “Where’s the strongbox?”
The pilot said nothing and Kidani rushed into speech. “We don’t know anything about a strongbox. Cap’n didn’t tell us about it.”
“I’m the chef and he’s the pilot” she reiterated, pointing at the RimWorlder. “We do our jobs, but we don’t know much about Cap’n’s affairs.”
“With you, I believe it” the leader agreed s
uavely. “But I know who your Captain is — the hero of the Five Year War. That tells me this RimWorlder here was one of his Renegades. He knows more than he’s telling us.”
The leader seems to know a lot about this Cruiser and the Captain. Who is he?
Kidani opened her mouth to respond but the leader ignored her to signal the man with the flasher. The henchman stepped forward to hold the weapon flush against Kali’s head.
Kidani made a small movement before checking herself.
Novi watched anxiously from behind the panel as the leader asked Kali. “One last time, RimWorlder. Where’s Ventini’s strongbox?”
Kali said nothing, the dark eyes glowering at the leader.
The slinger with the flasher raised it to hit the pilot but the leader stopped him with a raised hand, to direct him to Kidani instead.
Novi watched with her heart in her mouth as the man strode to the flame-haired girl to point his flasher at her, while the leader unstrapped his to hold it on Kali.
“The box or she dies” he said calmly to the RimWorlder.
In the eery blue glow of the emergency lights, Novi could see the terror on Kidani’s face, though the girl stayed still and mute.
“I don’t know where the box is, but occasionally, Cap’n hides certain valuables in the duct” Kali responded, subtly raising his voice. He hoped the stowaway would get the message. The duct was no longer safe for her to hide in.
“The maintenance duct?” the leader inquired.
The pilot nodded once, sharply.
Shyte. I must get out — they’ll be in the duct soon.
The leader reached for his Hailer. “Seto, check out the maintenance duct. There should be an access from the Bay.”
An alarmed Novi scrambled hastily, making for her old hiding place in the passage by the unoccupied chamber. Not a moment too soon, for she could hear voices cursing in the access passage from the Space Bay as the thugs poured into the duct. In the passage, a tangle of bedclothes and blanket lay strewn around from when she’d used it as a stowaway. Novi opened the vent to shove the bundle into the chamber. For a wild moment, she contemplated following it to hide in the room — the duct was the most dangerous place to be in on the Cruiser now. But a moment’s reflection calmed her. The waves from the strongbox were so strong that it would take the slingers mere minutes to pinpoint its location under the walkway. Once they had it, the coast would be clear and she could make her way to the Rec Chamber, to join Kali and Kidani in making their last stand.
Novi waited fearfully, with increasing astonishment and impatience, as the men searched the walkway for the next fifteen minutes. From what she could tell, two or possibly three slingers, hunted high and low for the box. Could they not feel its magnetic pull, she wondered in bemusement? Though she knew first hand of the many nooks and crannies that provided good hiding places in the walkway, Novi was stunned by their incompetence. The waves emanating from the strongbox were too potent to ignore.
Am I the only one who feels the strange energy of the box?
The thought had her slumping against the passage, her head in her hands. This ship had always mystified her — it had drawn her to board it and inexplicably embroiled her in its affairs. And now, it struck her that there was more to the mystery. As if the nightly agonizing blackouts were not enough to deal with, there was now a box whose contents seemed to strongly affect only her. That the others on the Cruiser, both InnerWorlders and RimWorlders, seemed immune to the strongbox and exempt from the blackouts greatly alarmed her.
But as the men continued their seemingly futile search, Novi roused herself. The slingers were unlikely to give up and if she stayed here, she’d eventually be discovered. Novi shoved aside all her other concerns to focus on the immediate threat. There was the chamber to hide in, but if things went sour, she’d be trapped in there with the door controls out of commission. With Kali’s warning ringing in her ears, Novi was resolved to make her way to the Rec Chamber and stand with the others.
She crawled towards the walkway, to peer cautiously around the corner. The thugs were easy to locate, all noise amplified in the enclosed duct by the echoes bouncing off the walls. Novi stepped onto the walkway to inch forward cautiously towards the Rec Chamber, hurrying from one access passage to another, her ears peeled. Just as her racing heart was finally on the wane, the slingers’ Hailers cackled to life. After a murmured consultation with the leader, one turned around to head towards her on the walkway. Novi scrambled into the first access passage to rush down it. It was the one that led to Space Bay, wider and larger than the others. Up ahead, the hatch panel lay open — the slingers had not closed it after entering the duct. Novi rushed headlong towards it, almost falling through the opening into the Bay.
A little bruised, she picked herself up to dash towards the nearest crates, her heart thudding madly. Space Bay was dark, the emergency lights barely making a dent in the shadowy hanger. But Novi had hidden behind these crates before, on the planet with Zufon Ventini’s dig, and it helped her to get her bearings. Voices floated to her from the other end of the Bay, near the corridor into the Cruiser.
Moments after Novi’s mad scramble, a slinger emerged from the hatch to use his Hailer.
“It’s a maze in there” he said into his communicator, the powerful flashlight in his arm playing over cargo strewn by the access hatch.
Novi retreated further behind the stacked crates as footsteps echoed in the Bay. The leader and another man joined the slinger near the open hatch to the duct. Under the bluish light, the three thugs with their strapped flashers loomed sinister and large.
“Anything?” the leader asked.
“There’s too many hiding places in the duct. We could search for days and not find the box.”
The leader turned to the other henchman. “That Renegade knows more than he’s telling us. Ask him again. This time, give him some incentive. Shoot the girl.”
Novi’s hands clenched behind the crates, hoping fervently that Kali would not wait to use his flasher to defend the Rec Chamber. As the man hurried away to carry out the leader’s orders, Novi admitted reluctantly that she was cut off from the others. Whatever happened now, she could not make it to the Rec Chamber. To do that, she’d have to re-enter the duct, a dicey proposition with the slingers all over the walkway. She was on her own!
The leader’s Hailer came to life. Whatever message he received seemed to displease him. For the first time, his voice had a bite to it.
“We’re not done” he barked into it. “Hold them off.”
There was a short silence, before he snarled again. “I don’t’ know. Make some excuse. We don’t have the cargo yet.”
Novi chanced a quick peek from behind the crates.
“YanTeo save me from country bumpkins” the leader muttered to his henchman. “We’ve run out of time, Seto. The RimWorlders are kicking up holy Zeuf in the Vestibule. Get back into the duct — I’ll get you the location of the strongbox.”
The Captain’s here, asking questions at the Vestibule.
Seto scurried into the duct and the leader walked away, his footsteps echoing in the Bay as he strode into the Cruiser.
The Bay went silent again and Novi knew that this was her chance to make a move. The console lay across the width of the hangar from where she hid behind the crates. She knew where it was, up the stairs on the console platform. Her first day on the Cruiser, it had shown her the receding lights of the Star Portico as Ilar’s Justice sailed away from Idriko with a stowaway on board.
Novi ran across the width of the Bay, her heart thudding as loudly as her echoing footsteps. A short set of stairs led up to the narrow platform that provided access to the console inset into the wall. It was large, far bigger than the Captain’s private console. And while a waist high barricade enclosed the platform, this side of the Bay was bare, with no crates or cover to hide behind.
Novi scrambled up the stairs to enable the console. It took her a few moments to find the door module —
it was separate from the other Bay controls, as Kali had explained to her. Sending up a silent prayer to YanTeo, Novi tried to calm her galloping heart while she worked to enable the space door.
Just as she located the command to enable it, a rumbling noise filled the Bay. The massive space door rattled loudly and the Bay seemed to shudder in tandem. The noise echoed in the vast hangar, reverberating again and again before it died away. There was a distant shout from inside the maintenance duct.
The Captain’s trying to get in.
It took Novi’s trembling fingers three tries to enable the control. The system beeped and she made haste to disable the console and crouch behind the low barrier that enclosed the platform. A roar filled the Bay to echo in a cacophony so loud that it made her teeth chatter, even as the space door shuddered violently. A quivering Novi peered out from over the staircase. To her layman’s eyes, it looked as if the door had moved up a few scant inches.
The sound of running footsteps echoed in the Bay. Something rolled through the tiny gap under the space door to spew smoke into the air. Flasher fire blasted the door from inside the Bay, to leave scorched marks on it. Novi withdrew hastily behind the wall, hoping that Kali had succeeded in barricading the Rec Chamber.
“Seto, do you have it?” the leader’s voice rose above the din of firing flashers and the shuddering door.
More flasher fire echoed in the Bay, before the leader screamed again. “Get out of the duct now! They’re trying to retake the ship.”
The space door screamed its way up another excruciating inch and the Bay shook with the effort. Smoke continued to billow through the hangar, a few wisps floating up to where Novi crouched. Despite her terror, it was clear to Novi that the crew mounting the assault was struggling to open the space door, despite her efforts to feed it from the power reserves. The Captain didn’t know the door controls were operational, she realized. As the din and confusion continued unabated, Novi tried to rise above her fears. Suddenly, the solution hit her.
The Hailer.
