Kestrel Class (Kestrel Class Saga Book 1)

by Toby Neighbors

  Ben tried to think if he could remember seeing Magnum actually kill any of the security officers attacking the hanger. He had certainly fired plenty of ammo, but was it all a show?

  “Don’t move or you’re dead,” Ben said.

  Magnum looked at him, at the laser pistol Ben held. There was a look of crushing pain in the big man’s eyes, but he didn’t speak. Instead he swung around the hydro-generator. Ben tried to force himself to shoot, but he couldn’t do it. Magnum was his friend, at least that was how Ben felt. Didn’t he owe his friend a chance to explain?

  Without gravity, moving was slow and had to be done with care. Ben took hold of a bundle of cables and made to follow Magnum. He swung himself around a large machine and saw a stranger on the far end of the engineering bay. He had one of the grates above the main drive in his hands, and one foot wedged in the opening. Ben was certain he’d never seen the man before, and his mouth went dry at the realization that Magnum was hunting the man too. Ben had nearly killed his friend for no reason, and his hands began to shake.

  With a suddenly lunge the stranger flung the grating at Magnum. Everything happened so fast, Ben hardly comprehended it all. Magnum contorted his body, flipping in midair as the stranger drew a laser pistol. The grating struck Magnum’s legs, knocking him toward the floor. The stranger fired into the main drive opening, and suddenly the engineering bay was filled with a high-pitched keening sound.

  Ben and Magnum fired simultaneously. The sizzling laser bolt from Ben’s gun hit the stranger in the chest, while Magnum’s bullet hit the man just below his left cheekbone and blew the top of the stranger’s head to bits.

  “What’s going on down there?” Kim demanded over the com-link. “We’re losing power.”

  “Saboteur,” Ben answered while flinging himself at the opening. “He’s down. I’m working on the main drive.”

  “Well, do it fast,” Kim said. “I’m already losing headway. We’ll never break free from the star’s gravitational pull without the main engines.”

  “Roger that,” Ben said, catching hold of the artificial gravity generator. “I’m at the art grav genny, hold on.”

  He turned the gravity to half of its normal power and felt a sudden pressure pulling him down. His feet had been inches off the floor, and he had no trouble staying upright. Magnum was a different story. He landed hard on his back, and the heavy metal grating that covered the main drive dropped onto his foot. The big man grunted in pain, then dragged his foot free.

  The dead body of the saboteur dropped with a sickening plop onto the deck. Ben ignored it all. The loud keening sound was getting louder every second. He bent over the opening and saw that the laser had melted the shielding over the engine cooling system. One of the pipes had been compromised and the compressed nitrogen used to cool the engine was leaking into the ship’s atmosphere.

  Fear filled Ben. The ship’s engines automatically reduced power as a safety precaution when any of the main drive’s components were compromised. With one glance Ben knew that not only were they losing power, but also the engine could overheat if he wasn’t careful. His first instinct was to begin repairs, but the danger of suffocation was too high. The liquid nitrogen converting to gas by the sudden relief of pressure would create an oxygen-deficient environment. Before Ben could do anything else, he had to take safety precautions.

  He raced to the storage room and flung the door open. His space suit hung in its normal spot. He grabbed it and pulled it on, kicking himself for not refilling his oxygen tank. With one quick motion, he settled the transparent helmet over his head and sealed the clasps. There was only ten minutes’ worth of oxygen in the suit, but Ben guessed if he couldn’t make the repairs quicker than that, they would be pulled so close to the star that they would all burn up anyway.

  “Is Magnum okay?” Nance asked.

  “I think so,” Ben replied, as he ran back out to the control center in the middle of the engineering bay.

  “Why the hell is he sabotaging the ship?” Kim asked.

  “He wasn’t,” Ben said, checking the oxygen level. He knew they could breathe atmosphere with a certain amount of nitrogen, but if left unchecked, the nitrogen would crowd out the oxygen completely, suffocating everyone onboard.

  He punched on the life support’s oxygen, diverting the O2 from the hydro-generator and pumping as much as he could into the ship.

  “There was a saboteur stowed away on the ship,” Ben said. “Magnum was trying to stop him.”

  “I knew it,” Nance said, the relief in her voice evident.

  “I hope he killed the sneaky bastard,” Kim said.

  “He did,” Ben said, checking the heat levels of the main drive. They were already at seventy percent and rising.

  “Ben, do you see the heat readings on the main drive?” Nance said.

  “Looking at them now,” Ben said. “I can fix it.”

  “Do it fast,” Kim barked. “We’ve almost lost all forward momentum.”

  He dashed back to the opening. Magnum had crawled over to the saboteur, but looked groggy.

  “Get out of here,” Ben warned him. “The main drive is venting nitrogen.”

  “My head feels funny.”

  “You’re not getting enough oxygen!” Ben said. “Go on, get out of here now.”

  “You need help,” Magnum said.

  “You won’t be any help if you’re dead,” Ben warned, looking at his big friend, who nodded.

  “Thanks for not shooting me,” he said in a weak voice, before getting to his feet and hobbling away.

  Ben looked at the melted insulation. It was ruined and there was nothing he could do about it. He pulled the foamy insulation away from the compromised pipe. If they survived, he could cut clean edges in the insulation and replace it. But first he needed to patch the melted pipe.

  In his tool kit that was wrapped around the space suit, Ben had temporary foam sealant. It was in a can and would expand as he sprayed it to seal a breach in the hull, but he couldn’t use it. The foam might fill the pipe and clog the coolant line, which would make the engine overheat and possibly melt down.

  Instead, he pulled a flat piece of copper and pressed it down over the pipe. The nitrogen was extremely cold and the copper sheet was almost instantly covered with frost. Without his space suit, Ben’s hand would have frozen, but he was able to hold the metal against the small hole and used his fingers to wrap the metal around the pipe.

  It wasn’t strong enough to seal the rupture, but it was a start. Ben needed something to heat the metal, to weld it to the pipe without opening up another hole that would vent even more of the nitrogen. There was a welding torch in the storage room, but Ben didn’t have time to go and get it.

  “We’re being pulled back,” Nance announced over the com-link.

  “I can’t break free,” Kim said.

  “Nance,” Ben said, flopping onto his back and pulling violently at the safety cover that sealed the zipper in the front of the space suit. “Start calculating a jump point.”

  “I think getting free of this star’s gravity is the bigger priority,” Kim snapped.

  “Odds are, the Imperium Fleet knows where we are,” Ben said. “We have to get out of here, and I mean fast.”

  “Okay, Ben,” Nance said.

  With his space suit open down the front, Ben wrestled one arm free. He reached inside the thick suit and drew out his laser pistol, dialing it down to half power before turning back to the opening. It felt like he was in a freezer, but he couldn’t worry about that yet. He wrapped his insulated hand around the one holding the pistol, using it as a shield to block the cold still venting from the pipe.

  Ben had no idea whether the laser would work or cause further damage. But there was no time. They were slowly being pulled back, closer to the star. Closer to death. He pulled the trigger, the pistol clicked, and the laser hit the copper on one side of the opening. To Ben’s delight, the metal wrinkled down, the heat causing the copper to fuse to the pipe. H
e quickly fired again, aiming at the other side. The metal shrank down, and the howling sound of venting air stopped.

  Ben dropped the pistol and snatched up the foaming sealant. He felt confident using it to ensure the pipe had no leaks since any openings would be tiny, perhaps even only small enough for a few atoms to pass through at a time. He sprayed the pipe down, watching the foam expand for a moment, then got to his feet. He hurried over to the controls and saw to his delight that the main drive was coming back to full power.

  “Hey, that’s it,” Kim said.

  “I’m cutting gravity and water,” Ben said. “Rerouting power to the main drive.”

  “Hot damn!” Kim said. “We’re in business.”

  “Where are we going?” Nance asked.

  “Anywhere but here,” Ben said.

  He rerouted the power, and suddenly everything around him began to float. After grabbing his laser pistol, he moved the grating back to where it blocked and snapped it in place.

  “What the hell is that?” Kim said, a note of terror in her voice.

  “Is it the Fleet?” Ben asked. “Are they here already?”

  “That’s a potato,” Magnum said. “I’ll get it.”

  “Since when do we let potatoes just fly around the ship?” Kim asked.

  “A few got loose,” Ben said, feeling relieved that they weren’t under attack. “Sorry.”

  “It nearly gave me a heart attack,” Kim said. “They better taste good, because they look a lot like tur—”

  “Contact!” Nance said, cutting Kim off. “Imperium capital vessel—the Vengeance.”

  “How close?” Ben said pulling himself away from the engineering bay and back up toward the bridge.

  “They’re staying out a long way,” Nance said. “But this is the Dorian system. None of the planets are fit for life, and no resources are being mined here. It’s empty, not even an Imperium outpost.”

  “So they’re here for us,” Magnum said, as Ben came floating up over the railing to the main deck.

  “Why not engage?” Ben asked. “Why are they staying so far out?”

  “There’s no need to engage us,” Kim said. “We’re trapped.”

  “What do you mean?” Ben asked.

  “I mean, we can’t escape the star’s gravity yet. Not to make a hyperspace jump anyway.”

  “We have to reach this area,” Nance said, bringing up a plot on the display screen. It showed the star, with a few tiny planets. The Vengeance was listed near a green line that was the minimum distance from the star that the ship could break free of gravity well and jump into hyperspace.

  “How do they know that?” Ben asked.

  “Because this is a recognizable ship,” Kim said. “The Kestrel class vessels have a well-known maximum power output. It’s a simple calculation.”

  “And they think we’re disabled,” Magnum said.

  “So if we don’t get sucked back into the star, then we get destroyed by their fighters,” Ben said. “Because we can’t jump to hyperspace?”

  “That’s right, genius,” Kim said.

  “Magnum, get rid of that saboteur’s body,” Ben ordered. “He must have some kind of tracking device on him.”

  The big man responded without saying a word, unfastening his safety harness and kicking off from his station.

  “Nance, if we could get more power, what’s the closest jump point?” Ben asked.

  “I can calculate from anywhere, but how are we going to get more power?

  “We shut everything down, even the life support,” Ben said.

  “But we wouldn’t be able to turn it back on until we’re out of hyperspace,” Nance said.

  “So calculate a short jump, but well away from this system,” Ben said.

  “We’ll have to shut down everything, even the computers except for navigation,” Nance said.

  “So do it,” Ben said.

  “Should I slow down?” Kim asked.

  “No, keep going,” Ben said. “They think they’ve got us trapped.”

  “We’ll be blind, Ben,” Nance said. “We lost the exterior cameras. Without radar, we won’t know if they launch fighters.”

  “It’s a risk we have to take,” Ben said. “Magnum?”

  “He’s in the air lock,” the big man replied over the com-link.

  “Eject that piece of filth, then strap in. We’re cutting the lights.”

  “K,” was all Magnum said.

  “Jump point is ready,” Nance said. “I’m counting down on the nav system.”

  “Rerouting power,” Ben said.

  “Holy crap, this is going to be close,” Kim said.

  “Don’t speed up,” Ben warned her. “We can’t let the Imperium know we have more power.”

  “Roger that,” Kim said.

  Ben hit the last button and everything shut down except the engines and the navigation computer.

  “Fifty-eight seconds,” Nance said.

  “Maintaining speed,” Kim said. “You know, one shot from that thing and we’re all dead.”

  “If it happens, we’ll never know it,” Ben said. “Besides, I think they want to take us alive. That’s why they got a man on our ship to disable us.”

  “They don’t know we’re worthless to them,” Kim said with a chuckle.”

  “Thirty seconds,” Nance announced.

  “If they’re scanning us with their long-range sensors, won’t they be able to tell we’re nearly shut down?” Kim asked.

  “I suppose,” Ben said. “Hopefully they think we’re trying to hide.”

  “And if they’re not idiots?” Kim said.

  “Then they’ll send ships to disable us,” Ben said. “I hope.”

  “Fifteen seconds,” Nance said.

  “Either way,” Kim said. “It’s been a hell of a ride.”

  “I’ll second that,” Ben said.

  “Ten seconds,” Nance said.

  “And I like to think we made a mark,” Ben added. “We may not have defeated the Royal Imperium, but we did our part.”

  “Who would have thought it?” Kim said. “A bunch of nobodies from a backwater planet like Torrent Four made the mighty Imperium sit up and take notice.”

  “Five seconds,” Nance said, her usual calm replaced with a slight strain.

  “Come on, come on,” Ben whispered.

  “Three,” Nance said.

  “We got this,” Kim said.

  “Two,” Nance chanted.

  “Please,” Ben prayed.

  “One, go!”

  Kim engaged the main drive and there was a terrible moment of fear when nothing seemed to happen and they were completely exposed. The moment stretched like cruel torture from time itself, and then everything settled back to normal.

  Ben breathed a sigh of relief, leaning forward onto his console. Nance was making small sounds, and in the darkness, Ben wasn’t sure if he was laughing or crying.

  “Is it just me,” Kim said, “or is it getting cold in here?”

  Epilogue

  The hyperspace jump lasted ten minutes. The residual heat was fading, although Ben was still warm in his insulated space suit. The Modulus Echo came out of hyperspace between systems, and far from any Imperium vessels.

  Ben restored power to all the ship’s systems, cranking the heat on life support, and setting the artificial gravity back to normal. Nance immediately began to calculate their next jump to another spot in the vast empty reaches of space.

  “Well, that was a trip,” Kim said. “Where are we off to now?”

  “Assuming the Imperium Fleet has no way to track us,” Ben said, “we’ll make for the Genovisi Shipyards. We need repairs, and we can trade the potatoes.”

  “After we gather them all up,” Kim said.

  “I’m going to cook one,” Nance said, getting up from her seat.

  “You are?” Ben asked.

  “Yes, the jump point is set,” she explained. “I’m running diagnostics on all systems. It doesn’t need m
e to just stare at them.”

  “Wonders will never cease,” Kim said.

  “Where’s Magnum?” Ben asked.

  “Cleaning up in the engineering bay,” Nance said. “I think he’s earned a good meal.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Ben said.

  He and Kim stood by the engineering console on the bridge and watched Nance make her way up to the galley.

  “We’re still alive,” Kim said, turning to Ben. “What kind of repairs do we need in the Genovisi Shipyards?”

  “I’ll repair the cooling system,” Ben said. “But I won’t argue if we get an opportunity to add some weapons to the ship.”

  “I thought we weren’t fighters?” Kim said.

  “We’re not. We’re survivors,” Ben replied. “But if we learned anything on these first two operations, it’s that we don’t know whom to trust.”

  “Not the Royal Imperium,” Kim said with an edge to her voice. “I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that they’re using chemical weapons on Mersa Prime.”

  “Me neither,” Ben said. “But at least we survived, and we’ll let everyone we meet know about it.”

  “You think anyone will believe us?”

  “The Confederates will,” Ben said. “And we have at least one more run to make for them. I’ll feel better knowing whatever trouble they get us into, we’ll be able to fight back.”

  “I guess we’d be cooked without Magnum,” Kim said.

  “That’s true,” Ben said.

  “I feel kind of bad that I thought he turned on us.”

  “How do you think I feel? I almost killed him.”

  “You said you don’t know whom to trust,” she stepped close to him. “Does that include me?”

  “No,” Ben said. “I trust you. And I’m so glad you’re here.”

  “Me too,” she said. “I can’t believe I was almost part of the Royal Imperium’s fleet.”

  “I was thinking of another reason” Ben said with a lopsided grin.

  “Is that right?”

  He nodded.

  “I’m pretty happy about that too,” she whispered as she leaned close and kissed him softly on the lips. The moment was sweet, and they lingered close together, their bodies pressing together, their arms wrapping around one another before Kim pulled back to speak again. “You were right about this old ship.”