It gave her a feeling of helplessness she hated beyond any other feeling.
And now she was feeling that same thing in The Emptiness. There was nothing out here.
They had been in contact with both of their organizations for the first number of days out, but as they went farther and farther, and without signal relay stations, after a time all they could do was send out updates. Conversations were not possible.
If they needed to call for help, they would not even have a way of knowing if the call got to anyone who could help.
At the point where the instruments on the big passenger liner might have detected a ship following them, Red had cloaked the ship and slowed down slightly.
Mattie knew that now there would be no chance of The General knowing they were approaching.
But they still hadn’t figured out a way to get on board that liner, even though almost every evening it was part of their dinner conversations.
Finally, after five weeks, they caught the passenger liner.
Red put them into a position to one side and slightly behind the big ship and set a speed to pace the ship.
Mattie again felt excitement and utter frustration. General Jarvis was so close, yet for the life of her she couldn’t figure out a way into that big ship. All of the crew on board were loyalists to the General and wouldn’t help them. And the moment Red made his ship visible and they tried to dock, the big ship would open fire.
And both she and Red had the same fear. They didn’t want the big liner to be destroyed until they could prove, without a doubt, that General Jarvis was on board.
So they decided to wait.
And that made both of them irritable and impatient, not a good thing to be considering they were both deadly killers and both feeling trapped in the middle of nowhere on a small ship.
Patience came hard.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
RED COULDN’T TAKE MUCH MORE of the waiting. So that morning he had promised her a good dinner that night and a solution to their problem. She might not like it, but it would be a solution.
They had spent the rest of the day apart, including skipping their normal Groff training in the afternoon. Since both of them were so frustrated, it had gotten pretty rough at times.
At dinner, she had arrived, kissed him lightly on the cheek and sat down at the table.
“Smells wonderful,” she said, smiling.
He knew she was just doing her best to lift both their moods. But now, after almost seven weeks, two weeks trailing the big liner without a sign at all that General Jarvis was on board, both of them were fed up, both with this mission and slowly with each other.
For two loners, being forced into something like this was more than both of them had bargained for.
He had cooked them a sizzling beef dish and a salad with a light wine dressing. He had to admit, it did smell wonderful.
He sat the plate in front of her with a glass of good red wine, then joined her.
She took a bite and her eyes lit up slightly, the first time in days. “Wow, this is good. You got to teach me how to cook this.”
He smiled at her and her sudden excitement at his meal. “Glad to, on the way back.”
She shook her head. “Won’t that feel good to be doing that?”
“As much as I love spending these weeks with you,” he said, smiling. “I have to agree.”
She looked up at him, clearly worried. “It’s not you. You know that, don’t you?”
“That’s what they all told me,” he said, trying to keep a straight face. Then he laughed. “I’m having the same problem, you know that, and it certainly isn’t anything to do with you either. It’s this emptiness and the frustration of not being able to get in that ship and do our jobs.”
“Exactly,” she said, nodding.
“So let’s get this show on the road, kill a monster, and head back to bright lights of the sector.”
“Suggestions?” she asked. “We’ve gone over and over this.”
“I know,” he said. “But now we have another weapon we didn’t have two weeks ago.”
She looked puzzled and almost angry. “What might that be?”
Red smiled at the woman he had fallen for and her angry stare. “They are about to find out that their reserve food is worthless and that we are their only hope.”
“How are we their only hope?” she asked.
“We aren’t, of course,” Red said, laughing. “But they won’t know that until we put a hole in their foreheads.”
Then, as they finished their sizzling beef meal and sipped their wine, he outlined the plan he had worked on for the last week.
And when he was finished and they had agreed, she was again laughing.
“You know,” she said, smiling at him and standing. “For being the one to come up with such a great plan, I think you should be rewarded.”
She reached for his hand and pulled him to his feet.
Then, leaving the dirty dishes until later, she pulled him down the hallway to the bedroom, slowly undressed him, and managed to not miss one inch of his body with her kisses.
If he had known that coming up with a plan would be this much fun, he would have done it weeks earlier.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
MATTIE LOVED THE IDEA that Red came up with. And he had been right, they didn’t dare try it two weeks ago because there was a chance that some of the liner’s extra food could have been saved if those on board the passenger liner realized the problem. They were betting none of them had checked those supplies since they left.
But by waiting the extra two weeks, from the information they had gathered from the hostages who sabotaged the food, all of the reserve food would be spoiled and most of the food available in the kitchen area would have been used.
By Red’s count, even on rations, General Jarvis and his loyalists were soon to discover they only had a few weeks to live.
The next morning, after breakfast, she and Red worked intensely at creating a cover story. He was going to be Red Canworth, in charge of the Three-Planets Alliance mission to bring General Jarvis back to trial.
There were eight ships in their mission, all smaller cloaked ships converted to hold prisoners. They would tell the general that their entire fleet had enough food and water among them to get the entire crew back to the Second Sector.
After she and Red finished with their cover story, they worked out the plan that would allow them to get on board.
Mattie had no doubt that they were going to have to fight their way on board because once the crew realized the food situation, they would not take a chance on destroying any of the ships. But they would try to capture the ship. And that would mean a fight.
And wow was Mattie ready for a fight.
“So you ready for step one?” Red asked, smiling at her.
She leaned over her control board. “I’ve had a little practice at this. Let me know when we are in position.”
He nodded and began to ease the ship around behind the large passenger liner. They were going to disable the engines, put the big liner adrift in the middle of The Emptiness. Granted, the liner’s forward momentum would eventually take the ship past some star on the other side of The Emptiness, but that might be hundreds of years.
In other words, not only was General Jarvis about to realize his attempt to escape had failed, but that he was going to starve to death. And everything about Mattie loved that idea, even more than she wanted to put a bullet in his head.
But she had to know, for a fact, that General Jarvis was on this ship.
“Ready,” Red said.
She fired the laser into the engines of the big ship, giving it just a fraction of a second longer than she needed before saying, “Clear.” She had to be very careful with the laser shot because the last thing she wanted to do was cause the ship to explode.
Red quickly dropped their ship back and to one side to get out of any danger zone.
Mattie watched her scans as the engines
of the big liner froze up and shut down.
“The engines are nothing more than slag,” she said, laughing. “No one in a thousand years will be fixing those machines.”
Red rose and kissed her, then dropped back into his chair.
“Great shooting.”
“Shall we tell them about their food today or tomorrow?” Mattie asked, again actually enjoying all this.
“I think now might be the best time,” Red said, laughing.
“Well then, get dressed,” she said and went back to work over her board, making sure that the signal they were about to send could not be traced back to an exact location, but instead look like it came out of a dozen different places around the big liner.
“Ready when you are,” she said.
She glanced around. Red was wearing what looked to be an official, yet casual military jacket with his long hair pulled back and tucked into the back collar of the jacket. It made him look very military and formal.
“Nice,” she said, smiling at him.
Red nodded, tucked the small script they had written for him on the front of his control panel, then took a deep breath. “Ready.”
She started the transmission to the passenger liner with an image of the Three-Planets Alliance insignia on the screen. Using that, she checked to make sure her signal could not be traced to them.
Then after about fifteen seconds she dissolved the insignia to Red.
“Attention General Jarvis. My name is Red Canworth of the Three-Planets Alliance Defense League. Your ship has been disabled and your food will be running out within the week. There are eight cloaked ships surrounding your liner ready to destroy it. We would rather accept your surrender and transport you and your crew for trial in the Three Planets Alliance. General Jarvis, we will be awaiting your response.”
Mattie cut off the signal and made sure it had not been traced in any fashion while Red took them back and out of firing range of the big liner just in case someone on board went crazy and started firing without reason or aim.
“Perfect,” she said, laughing. “I would love to be a fly on the wall on that ship as they discover they are without engines and without food.”
“As would I,” Red said, laughing.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
MATTIE EXPECTED no response quickly, if at all. But the general was not fool enough to start a fight with them. He knew he at least had a chance back in the Three-Planets Alliance. Out here in The Emptiness, without power or food, he stood no chance of survival at all.
But she also had no doubt that he would try to capture their ship. And Red knew that as well, so they worked out a fool-proof method that in case the two of them were killed, this ship would explode and the general and his men would starve to death.
Mattie’s target was going to die one way or another very soon. And considering what a monster he was, that just made her smile.
Six hours later the signal came in that General Jarvis was trying to contact them. They had been in the galley having a light dinner and both of them just smiled at each other.
The conversation over dinner was on the topic of letting the general and his men just starve to death instead of killing them outright.
Both of them liked the idea more than they wanted to admit, but first they needed to know that the general really was on board.
When they got back to the control room, Red again put on his Three-Planets Alliance look.
She made sure that the signal could not be traced in any fashion and that it appeared to come from more than a dozen sources. Then she put up the Alliance symbol again for a long five seconds before signaling Red that he was visible.
A secondary commander’s face appeared. “We have considered your terms and—“
Red cut him off. “We will not discuss any terms or conditions with anyone but General Jarvis.”
Mattie cut the transmission.
Red quickly moved their ship slightly farther away and into an almost blind area for the big, drifting liner.
She was disappointed, but not surprised the general had not appeared.
Suddenly there was a page back to them.
“Wow, that was quick,” Mattie said, quickly checking again that the signal could not be traced.
Again she put up the Alliance seal for a few seconds before letting Red go live.
The other man was still at the screen. “I am afraid the general is not available. I am now in charge.”
Red looked at him, his stare intense, his voice cold and mean. “Then send us a vid of the general’s dead body and we will talk. Otherwise we will leave and you and all your men will be left to starve. Your choice. Trial in the Alliance courts or a long slow death out here.”
Again Mattie cut the transmission.
“Wow, you are good,” she said. “You don’t think the general is actually not in command any more?”
“Not a chance,” Red said, moving the ship even farther back and away from the liner and out of any kind of fire range just in case they were spotted. Then he turned to her. “Now, let’s go finish that dinner.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
MATTIE STAYED IN HER ROUTINE as they waited for the general to contact them. Clearly he had to be planning something, but she had no idea what it might be. His options were limited to say the least.
They had gotten a decent night’s sleep, Red had cooked them both a good, solid breakfast, then she had done her exercise and taken a long shower.
After that she had spelled Red in the control room while he took a long shower and got cleaned up as well.
The ship was completely out of firing range of the defenses in the passenger liner and from what Mattie could tell from her scans of the big ship, a lot of people had gathered around the food storage areas for a time yesterday. And even more had gathered in the engine rooms.
It seems that they were proving to themselves just how bad a situation they were in.
Also, during the last twelve hours, the big liner had tried dozens of scans, changing wavelengths, trying to get even a glimpse of the fleet that seemed to surround them, but could not be seen.
Finally, the big liner sent them yet another page.
Mattie made sure their response could not be traced in any fashion and that the incoming message was not dangerous in any fashion.
“What are we going to do if this isn’t General Jarvis?”
“We tell them we are leaving and wish them luck,” Red said, smiling. “Then stand back and watch the panic for a time.”
Mattie loved that, but at the same time she just wanted to see Jarvis’s ugly face on that screen, just to make sure he really was there.
They waited a good ten minutes before Mattie put up the Alliance shield again. And then let Red go on screen.
Facing them was the same man again.
Mattie felt intense disappointment.
“The general will not allow us to record him or put him on screen in any fashion,” the man said, clearly not happy. “I am afraid the general said that you must negotiate with me.”
“Not acceptable,” Red said. “We will be returning to Alliance territory in twelve hours if I have not spoken directly to General Jarvis in that time.”
Mattie cut the link.
Then she said, “The general has gone completely crazy and his men know it.”
“Seems that way,” Red said as he again moved the ship to a different location. Then he turned around to Mattie with a smile. “Your turn to cook lunch.”
She loved that smile, but she had to ask a question she had not asked before. “At full speed, how long would it take us to get back into civilized space from here?”
“Bothering you, is it?” he asked. “Or is it my company?”
She took a deep breath and said, “Just answer the question.”
“At this ship’s top speed, if we pushed it, nine days. Normal fast speeds, just over two weeks.”
“Nine days?”
He nodded. “Once we hit that spee
d, even if we lost the engines, we would still be in civilized space in that same amount of time.”
She could feel herself relax. It often took that long to get from one area of one sector to another. She understood nine days.
“Thanks, that made me feel better. And how long would it take if we stayed and watched the general starve to death?”
“Two more weeks headed out into The Emptiness at this pace?” Red asked, then quickly checked his board. “Eleven days to get back at top speed.”
“Wow does that make me feel better,” she said.
He laughed. “I’ve been checking that same number now for a week.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me?” she asked.
He shrugged. “I thought about it, but you never asked until now.”
“That’s it,” she said, standing and heading out of the control room. “You cook lunch.”
Behind her all she heard was a light chuckle and then “Ahh, the punishment, the punishment.”
She laughed all the way to the galley and by the time he joined her, she had lunch mostly ready.
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
RED WAS NOT SURPRISED that it took almost the entire twelve hours before they got another contact from the passenger liner. In fact, if it had come earlier, he and Mattie would have both been surprised. But the general waited until just one minute before the deadline.
They had talked a lot during the afternoon about the value of even going on board that ship. They both agreed the risk might be too much, considering that everyone on board would be dead in a short time anyway.
But they also both agreed that they somehow needed confirmation that General Jarvis was on board.
If they general didn’t come on screen, then they would go to Plan B and stage an assault on one airlock. Red hated that idea. There was just too much of a risk that one or both of them would be injured or killed. But if they had no choice, they would do that.
Red glanced over at Mattie as she worked to make sure their response could not be tracked or traced in any fashion.
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