Renegades: Origins

by Kal Spriggs

  Yet the last sight Eric had of his papa’s face had showed fear. Fear for his family, fear for himself, and most of all, fear of that black bag, of the knowledge that once it went over his head, his life would end.

  * * *

  ”Thirty seconds until normal space emergence,” Ariadne said. “Wow, this is exciting.”

  Eric rolled his eyes, yet he felt his heart begin to race. His eyes flicked over the Ghornath weapons console. He wished he had more time to familiarize himself with the systems. For that matter, he wished that Crowe’s translation program had worked.

  “Weapons hot,” Eric said as he tapped the buttons to activate the turrets. “What we’ve got of them anyway.” The five turrets provided the Ghornath corvette with a complete range of fire. The problem was that Pixel had found that damage had cut the links from the main console to the weapons on the port side. Which meant without someone at the actual weapon positions to fire them manually, they could not fire. With a full crew, they would have personnel for that. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a full crew, much less a trained crew. So for now, a couple of the spacers that Ariadne and Mike had certified had taken position at those weapons consoles.

  None of which changed the fact that the turrets mounted light pulse lasers, the equivalent of the point defense guns that most human ships mounted. They put out a mass of interceptor fire, designed to destroy missiles and fighters. They might damage another corvette or even a destroyer. They would have no effect at all on anything larger.

  Of course, the main weapon would have served much better for that task. But it too had taken damage and Eric had further damaged it when he powered it up without knowledge of that damage. Lets face it, I screwed up, he thought grimly, I tend to get sloppy when I rush, slow is smooth, smooth is fast, I must remember my training.

  He let out a breath as they emerged from shadow space. The gray emptiness which seemed haunted by barely seen motion vanished, replaced by the stars of normal space. A red giant hung sullenly off their port bow on the main screen. Eric’s gaze went immediately to where Simon worked at the sensors. Rastar stood over his shoulder and pointed at various controls.

  Eric gritted his teeth. He hated the wait. A ship lay at its most vulnerable on emergence from shadow space. They needed sensors up to get a picture of what lay around them, yet they would appear as a beacon to anyone who waited. And if some hostile lurked with their ship dark and their passive sensors ready, it would take a minor miracle to see them upon initial entry.

  Eric tried not to think of all the possible threats, to include a pirate vessel with a stealth hull, or a Centauri commerce raider with a stealth field. Either of those would mean the destruction of their ship, particularly with a sensors technician unfamiliar with the Ghornath systems.

  He knew the odds lay against any of that. Space, even in a star system, held a massive volume, the odds that they had emerged within range of a hostile vessel remained miniscule. Yet Eric did not let his guard down. He had seen too many good troops die when they or their commanders relaxed or trusted in the odds. Worse, he had too many ghosts who reminded him of the times he had not prepared for the remote contingencies.

  Simon finally looked up, “Immediate area looks clear.” He brought up a schematic of the system, “Some minor debris in the inner system, nothing you could call a planet. Two gas giants with some debris rings, nothing else of any real note.” He didn’t need to say that they would not see something smaller than a planet outside their sensor range. The tiny ship had excellent sensors for it size, but they did not have the resolution that a larger ship would have.

  “I’ve got something,” Crowe said from the communications console. “It’s pretty weak, but its open signal…” he trailed off. “Wow, you will want to hear this.”

  Before Mike could tell him what to do, Crowe had already brought it up on the bridge intercom. Eric repressed a grimace, but he caught Mike’s eyes and saw the other man give a shrug. A good military commo tech would have sent it to the captain to review first. Still, Mike would probably talk to the man later, and as much as Eric wanted to chew Crowe’s ass, he also wanted to hear the broadcast.

  The speakers brought in the signal, though the voice sounded tinny, “…mayday mayday. This is the freighter Sao Martino out of Saragossa. Our power plant has taken damage and we have lost power. We are on a mission of mercy for Saragossa. We request assistance. Mayday, mayday, mayday…” Crowe cut the signal.

  “It just repeats after that, some kind of automated message. Very weak, I don’t think a normal radio jockey would pick this up, we barely did with a military transceiver,” Crowe said.

  Ariadne frowned, “Those poor people, we need to go help them.”

  “That’s not a crew decision, that’s one for the captain,” Eric snapped. She had to learn her job as the executive officer lay in enforcement of the Captain’s orders. Even so, he felt a little bad for yelling at her. He privately agreed that they should investigate. If nothing else, it might be a pirate trap and he would get a chance to kill someone.

  “Any time stamp on the recording?” Mike asked. “I don’t want to check out whatever it is and find the crew’s been rescued and the ship salvaged for a decade.”

  “Nope,” Crowe shrugged, “Just the base message, from the weak signal, I’d bet its operating on battery power only.”

  “It must be a trap,” Anubus growled.

  “It could be,” Mike nodded. “But if so, I’m a bit confused. The signal’s pretty weak, Crowe says a normal freighter couldn’t pick it up.”

  “Well, they could if I was at the console,” Crowe said. “But anyone else wouldn’t stand a chance.”

  “Skilled and modest too,” Simon drawled from the sensors console. “Captain, I’ve located the ship. The Chxor database has no match, but it looks like a freighter hull. And it seems to have no power. The hull looks cold too, which means either most of the ship is in vacuum or the ship hasn’t had power for weeks at least.”

  “Good work,” Mike nodded. “I’m inclined to investigate. If nothing else, I think we might find a better star-map aboard the other ship, which will get us to civilized space.” He glanced at Ariadne, “Any psychic tingling?”

  She smiled, “Not really. I’m sure things will work out though, and I’d like to rescue those people.” She looked happy. Eric had no doubt that she wanted to do good by some poor bastards stranded in space.

  Eric rolled his eyes. He doubted they would find any people to rescue. The way the universe worked, the people who sent that message either died or they sent it because they hoped to lure someone in to kill. Not that he would mind saving some innocent civilians. He just found that if he went into a situation ready for the worst, then, when things went wrong, it would not catch him off guard. People died when he failed to plan for the worst… and not the right people.

  “Alright, plot us a course,” Mike said. “Simon, I want you to scan the immediate area. If this is pirate bait, the pirates will wait until after we power down the engines and send personnel aboard. They won’t be far though, probably within two or three hundred thousand kilometers, close enough that they can pounce before we have time to do anything and perfect range for a cheap shot.”

  Eric nodded, though he thought that some raiders might pick a spot even further out than that. Then again, with Simon at the sensors and with the various abilities available to a raider, it would take more than a little luck to spot anything outside that range with passive sensors. And Eric knew they did not want to go with active sensors, not yet anyway. Those would make them light up like a star to anyone with the sensors to see them.

  “Course plotted,” Ariadne said. “I brought us in slow, to give us more time to check it out. But I hope they can hold on until we get there.”

  “Right, good job, I’m bringing up the drives now,” Mike said.

  Eric tapped his jaw impatiently. Their corvette had the acceleration that they could have covered the distance at a sprint. Yet the cou
rse made sense, even if he wanted to get on with it. He ran the three turrets under his control through a full readiness check. He briefly considered a request for a test fire, but with how Pixel had complained about the power requirements, he figured Mike would deny that.

  Besides, that would show their presence even more than an active sensors sweep.

  Mike brought the drive up, and the distance began to close. Eric glanced at the scans from Simon, even as he waited for something to happen. Anything to happen, he privately admitted.

  “Captain, can we get a better resolution of the ship?” Eric asked. “We might be able to notice damage and if weapons fire or something else caused it.”

  “Good point,” Mike said. He glanced over at Simon, “Can you do it?”

  “Sure,” Simon nodded. “I think I’ve got the sensors on a rotational scan of the area. I can use one of the telescopic video lenses for a closeup of the ship.” He tapped at his console for a moment. “Yeah, the Ghornath build some pretty good ships. I’m getting some decent video, a little grainy at this distance.”

  “The shipyard that built this ship no longer exists,” Rastar said softly. “The Nova Romans looted the Hovranta Yard during their raid, and the Chxor destroyed it when they conquered the system.” Eric saw his friend had gone a dark blue that seemed to represent his melancholy over what had happened to his race.

  Eric wanted to reassure his friend, “That sucks, but don’t let the bastards get you down.” Eric cursed his word choice a moment later. He hoped that Rastar understood what he meant. I’ve got to work on this whole teamwork thing, he thought, I’ve been a loner for too long now. But that came from what had happened to him at the Blackthorn labs. He had nowhere to turn and no one to trust after that.

  “Wow,” Simon said, “You’ll want to see this for sure, Captain.” He tapped a command on his console, and Eric saw Mike lean over the pilot’s console to stare at the imagery.

  “Can you get better resolution?” Mike asked

  “Yeah, but it’s about to rotate to the other side. The whole ship, well, you can see, it’s got a bit of spin on it,” Simon said. “Probably from whatever caused that.”

  “Yeah,” Mike tapped a control and the image appeared on the main screen.

  The squat, ugly ship appeared on the screen. It had a boxy, flattened appearance, Eric thought, but it looked familiar. He couldn’t remember if he’d seen that model of freighter before or not, but it did look familiar. What did not look familiar was the gaping hole that rose on the back end of the vessel’s top.

  “Looks like something blew that section out,” Crowe said. “Granted, I’m no expert on weapons or bombs, but the edges flare outwards.”

  “Yeah,” Eric nodded, “And you can see from the way the girders peel back…” he trailed off as the ship rotated the damaged section out of sight, “Well, you could see. I think that damage occurred from the inside.”

  “Well, we can see the ass end now,” Mike said. “And its got a fusion drive, which means a fusion reactor. So what interests me is how it blew out like that.” He paused, then flipped a button, “Pixel, I forgot to bring you in the loop on this. We’ve got a ship-”

  “No worries, I’ve tied in the engineering console into the bridge network. As soon as you turned on the main screen I saw it. I also have the intercom set to my panel so I can listen in, just in case you need me,” Pixel said.

  “Oh,” Mike said. He seemed surprised that Pixel had paid attention, much less that he had set up what Eric considered a potential security breach to monitor the activity on the bridge.

  “But to answer your question, I can think of several ways that you could have problems with the fusion reactor and not lose the entire ship. Some of them are pretty complex, but most of them shouldn’t happen, so I would guess either really bad luck or sabotage.”

  “Really?” Mike frowned, “Well, that doesn’t rule out pirates, then. They might have taken the ship and then either the crew or the pirates damaged it. Alright, we’ll continue in. Any contacts yet, Simon?”

  Eric looked up eagerly as Simon didn’t respond for a moment.

  “Nothing, Captain,” Simon said. “I just ran through the scans, if there’s anything nearby, they’re either cold as space or they’ve got some good systems.”

  “Right,” Mike took a deep breath. “We are about to make our final course change, before we do, I want you to go full active with sensors, give me a complete scan of everything nearby, and then hit the immediate area around that ship with a complete sweep.”

  Simon nodded, “Affirmative.”

  Eric tapped on his chin even as he wanted to run another readiness test on the turrets.

  The active sensor scan went without incident. Eric waited, his fingers ready to feed the weapons target data and open fire, yet nothing appeared. The more lengthy sweep of the immediate area around the damaged freighter seemed to take an eternity, yet at the end of it, nothing beyond a couple minor pieces of debris appeared on the screen.

  “Alright, I’m going to bring us in,” Mike said. He tapped the commands in and the Ghornath ship flipped over and began to decelerate. Eric frowned down at his weapons console. Perhaps Ariadne was right, he privately admitted. Perhaps they would come alongside the ship and be welcomed by a grateful crew.

  Probably not, he thought, but if that happens, she’ll be insufferable.

  They drew closer to the other ship, and the hole swung back into view. “Got a potential docking port,” Simon said, and a flashing carat appeared on the display of the ship. Eric saw it then, a standard docking port. “There’s also cargo bays along the sides, but we don’t have a dock that would work. It looks like one of them might be open, but it’s hard to tell with the shadows.”

  “Yeah, the number three bay, there,” Eric highlighted the cargo door. The knife edge shadows made it difficult to judge if the cargo door lay open or not. “Maybe someone tried to get a shuttle or something off before they lost power?”

  “Small ships like that don’t normally run with an on-board shuttle,” Mike said. “And you can see from the pitting along the edges of the thing that it has seen a good bit of atmospheric work. I’ve flown more ungainly craft on smuggling runs before.”

  “Oh?” Ariadne asked. “I’d hate to try to plot an orbit for something like that, much less land it on thrusters.” Eric nodded. The fusion drive would be useless for atmospheric work. He figured it would take one hell of a pilot, and one suicidal captain, to land that boxy craft, much less do it more than once.

  “Thrusters?” Simon asked, “Why not use the main drive?”

  “The backwash from a fusion drive in atmosphere…” Mike trailed off. “Well, just the heat transfer through the atmosphere would probably melt your guide rods, then you’d have plasma splash back. You’d vaporize parts of the hull.”

  “That doesn’t even consider the atmospheric effects,” Ariadne said. “You would generate a massive movement of heat in the atmosphere, huge currents generated from the thrust. You’d level a city from takeoff.”

  Pixel spoke from the intercom, “And the charged particles would probably fry all electronics in a good distance. You might not effect your own ship, but anything below you will get hit by a huge electrical potential. Lightning storm effects… it would be a great way to really screw a section of planet over.”

  “Oh,” Simon said. “Well… let’s avoid that.”

  “We don’t have a fusion drive, silly,” Ariadne said. “We’ve got a nifty Ghornath reaction-less drive. I’ll let Pixel explain how it works, I just navigate.”

  Eric looked up as Mike gave a chuckle, “And I don’t do either of those tasks, I just pilot. But I can match speeds and vectors well enough. I’ve got us in position. Anyone got any reason I shouldn’t bring us into dock?”

  “This is an obvious trap,” Anubus growled.

  “You’ve said that twice, but I have yet to hear why you think it’s a trap,” Crowe said. “Not that I’m arguing, I’m jus
t interested to hear your reasoning.”

  “We have come up on them, close enough that any survivors would see us from the bridge,” Anubus growled. “We’ve yet to see any sign of survivors. If I were to set this trap, I would wait until we docked, trigger some method to disable the ship and then take us over at leisure. I would not need to wait nearby, but well out of our sensor range.” Anubus paused, “A well resourced pirate might have several such ships as bait in various nearby star systems, which he would then check his traps over time for whatever prey gets caught.”

  “You seem pretty well versed on pirate tactics,” Eric said. He gazed at Anubus with a thoughtful expression. Most Wrethe in human space had two possible methods of employment, mercenary work and pirating. Anubus had not yet spoken about his past, but Eric wondered if the Wrethe would care for one over the other given the preference. He did not seem like the type to take orders, even for money.

  “I am well versed on a number of tactics,” Anubus growled. “But this is an ambush, it is what I know. The most dangerous way to fight is to never let your enemies know you’re there before they die.”

  Mike looked back at the Wrethe. Their Captain seemed conflicted, and Eric had to agree with the sentiment. Anubus had presented a very good case, yet they had no evidence, besides a total lack of response from the freighter. And that means they’re probably all dead on there, pirate trap or not, Eric thought.

  “Those people need help,” Ariadne said. “And we need the star-map they’ll have in their navigation computer, or we might as well wait here until someone else comes through.”

  Eric grimaced. She had hit the main point there. They had no further coordinates from this system onward. They had to get a more complete set of navigation charts or at least something besides the basic Chxor one that they found aboard when they hijacked the ship from Chxor custody.

  “Right,” Mike nodded. He looked at Anubus, “Any thoughts on how they might disable the ship? There’s a lot of ways I can think of, but most of them would cause a lot of damage to our ship.”