“What if we go somewhere else? What if I program the navigation system to take us back to Brimex?”
“The lieutenant is smart enough to check the nav computer. And doing anything other than what they ask will only get your hurt, my sweet. Don’t risk it. They may believe they can do without you. So don’t give them a reason to try.”
“You want me to just go along with it?”
“Exactly,” Magnum said. “Our best chance of getting through this alive is to help them get home. Once there, they can take their new weapons and continue their fight against the Royal Imperium. Hopefully, they’ll just let us go.”
“Hopefully? That’s the best you’ve got? Hopefully?”
He nodded and stepped closer to her. She threw her arms around him and held on tight. He could feel her trembling like a child, but he knew his sweet Nancy. She was stronger than she gave herself credit for. It might take her a little while, but she would pull herself together and do the right thing.
His com-link beeped. “Magnum, are you ready to tackle moving the power supply?”
“Yes,” he replied.
Nance stepped back and looked him in the eye, her resolve hardening.
“Should I tell Kim?”
Magnum shook his head.
“I’ll meet you in Engineering,” Ben said over the com-link.
“She’ll fight,” Magnum said. “So would Ben. They’ll just get hurt and we need them. Besides, her outrage when they take the bridge at gunpoint will convince them we had no idea. Stay calm, don’t resist, and do whatever they ask.”
“I can’t. What if they tell me to leave you out there?”
“Then do it,” Magnum said. “There is no use in both of us dying.”
“I can’t live without you,” she said while fat tears rolled from her eyes.
“Yes, you can,” he said. “You are strong. But I don’t think they will do that. They have enough soldiers, and enough guns to keep us all under guard.”
“And you aren’t planning something?”
“I’m planning to survive.”
He bent low, kissed her softly, stroked her cheek, then left the cabin. Kim looked over at him, then rolled her eyes. Magnum liked Kim. She held nothing back, and while he could relate to that feeling, his experience had proven that playing things close to the vest was wiser.
It took time to get their space suits back on and gear up. They only took the tools that were necessary to complete the job, since Magnum would have to carry the power supply, their life support hoses, and extra wiring.
They made it out the air lock and out to the port wing engine. The old power supply was gone, so there was room for the new one. They spent three hours just securing it in place and running a few of the wires. When Ben finally admitted he was too beat to keep working, Magnum gathered their gear. Ben was already working his way toward the air lock, but the bigger man stopped him.
“What are you doing?” Ben asked.
Magnum reached up and turned off Ben’s com-link. Then he pressed his helmet right up to Ben’s and shouted.
“Can you hear me?”
Ben nodded.
“Good. Just listen. The rebels are taking over the ship.”
Ben pushed back, then winced in pain from his arm. Magnum pulled him close again, until their helmets were held together.
“Don’t fight it,” he said. “Just go along.”
“What?”
“You can’t send us to the Briggs system. They know it. They don’t want our ship. They don’t want to hurt us. But they can’t let us refuse.”
Ben looked as if Magnum had ripped off his good arm and beaten him in the head with it. There were tears in his eyes, and he thought about what Magnum had told him. The big man worried that perhaps the rebels might wait to act, but it seemed improbable. They were anxious to get back, and waiting wasn’t going to help their cause.
“You okay?” Magnum asked.
“How long have you known?”
“I don’t know,” Magnum said. “But it’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“They don’t know I wasn’t going to take them back,” Ben said.
“They know,” Magnum insisted. “It’s the smart thing to do and they know it. They can’t take the chance.”
“So they’re taking over the ship?”
“Just to force us to fly them home,” Magnum said. “I’m pretty sure if we go along and don’t resist or do anything stupid, they’ll let us go.”
“If we survive,” Ben said angrily.
Magnum nodded.
“I should have done something,” Ben said. “I should have seen it coming.”
“There was nothing you could do,” Magnum said. “Sooner or later it was always going to come down to this.”
“I never should have let them on the ship,” Ben said.
“That’s debris in the salvage yard now,” Magnum said. “You can’t change it, and you can’t stop them. So don’t do anything stupid.”
Ben nodded. They worked their way back to the air lock, and Magnum was relieved to find they weren’t locked out. The chamber cycled, and when the door swished open, Ben stepped inside the cargo hold.
“Don’t move,” Corporal Beck said. Magnum knew her name was short for Rebecca and that she was fierce. Unlike some of the others, she wasn’t friendly with the crew and wouldn’t hesitate to hurt Ben.
He raised his hands as Magnum stepped up beside him. There was another rebel on his side of the air lock, pointing a laser pistol at him. Magnum hoped the weapon was on stun and not set to kill. From the balcony in the atrium that overlooked the bridge and the cargo bay, Lieutenant Liachov had a rifle propped on the railing.
“Don’t do anything foolish,” she warned them. “And this will all go a lot smoother.”
“For you, maybe,” Ben said. “I trusted you!”
“Like I told you in the galley, we do what we have to do,” Liachov said. “I didn’t want this, but you were about to go back on your word.”
“No, I wasn’t,” Ben said.
Liachov smiled. “You’re not much of a liar, Ben. That’s okay. I think that’s noble, but I have to get home. As long as your crew takes us there, everything will be fine. Nancy already has the course set. We’re jumping to light speed in just a minute, but I wanted the two of you safely back inside first.”
“What happened to all that talk about honor?” Ben asked as he and Magnum walked toward the staircase flanked by the two soldiers.
“Honor is one of my core values, but so is duty,” Liachov said. “And in this instance, duty outweighs honor. Come on up, I’m locking you and Magnum in the sick bay. You need the rest anyway.”
At the top of the stairs, Magnum faced his biggest temptation. At that moment he could grab Liachov and fling her down the stairs to crash into the two soldiers behind him. There might just be enough time to dive into Ike and wrestle his gun away, but even if he took out all four, the last two would kill him. They might kill Nance and Kim too, and he couldn’t take that chance, even though every fiber of his being was calling out for him to do just that.
“What I need,” Ben replied to the lieutenant, “is to stop trusting anyone from the Confederacy. You’re all a bunch of liars.”
“And you’re no better,” Rena said. “You were never going to take us home, even though we risked our necks to save you and your precious ship.”
“Only because you needed it, apparently.”
She stepped close to him. “There’s an old saying on my world. Live by the sword, and you die by the sword. I can live with that fate. But you’re a bottom-feeder, Ben. Clean cut, maybe even a little handsome, but you’re a bottom-feeder just the same. You’ll do anything for money. So odds are, you’ll die a criminal’s death and be forgotten.”
“And you’ll be remembered?” Ben asked.
“No, not me. Not my squad. But the movement will be. The fact that we stood for something noble and fought against tyranny.”
&n
bsp; Ben just shook his head and turned away. Magnum took a deep breath, but Ike leveled a pistol at him, and the opportunity to act was gone. Magnum swallowed his pride and followed his friend into the sick bay.
Chapter 21
Ben was furious, but mostly at himself. He didn’t understand what he was doing wrong to get himself into such horrible circumstances. It seemed they were in danger at every turn no matter what he did.
“Beck will keep an eye on you,” she said. “Her pistol is set to kill. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is. Stay here, stay quiet, and don’t make trouble. When we get to the Briggs system, you can finish repairing the port wing engine.”
“I should be on the bridge,” Ben said.
“No, you should be resting. We’re just jumping to hyperspace and then it’s nineteen hours of waiting. Even when we get home, we’re drifting in with systems shut down. I really don’t need anyone for that. And if you cause trouble, I’ll make your pilot suffer.”
“You need her,” Ben said. “Someone has to pilot the ship.”
“Landing won’t be that difficult,” Liachov said. “It doesn’t matter to us if your ship is wrecked in the process. Don’t push me, or I’ll slag her right in front of you.”
“I thought you were better than this,” Ben said.
The lieutenant just stepped out of the room and the door slid shut. He looked around, and it was obvious they had searched the sick bay for anything that might be used as a weapon.
“Let’s get you out of that suit,” Ben said. “You can sleep on one of these gurneys.”
“I can’t sleep,” Ben insisted, thinking his friend had gone nuts.
“Remember what I told you,” Magnum whispered.
“No talking,” Beck growled.
“Fine,” Ben said.
They got the space suit off and found a couple of blankets had been left in the room for them.
“Just two,” Ben said. “Where will they keep the girls?”
Beck raised her pistol and pointed it at Ben. He raised his good hand.
“Sorry? I’m sorry.”
He got on the gurney, which wasn’t very comfortable, but still it felt good to get off his feet. For the last three hours, he’d been floating helpless, but once they were back on the ship, the artificial gravity seemed to be stronger than ever. He lay down, wishing they could turn off the light but knowing that would never happen.
Magnum stretched out on the deck, with the blanket beneath him. He closed his eyes and appeared to go right to sleep. Despite his fatigue, rest wasn’t quick to come to Ben. He wanted to hurt Liachov, and he wanted to make sure Kim was alright. He’d gotten a glimpse of the side of her head. She was on the bridge, in the pilot’s seat, but a guard was holding a gun on her and refused to let her turn and look at him.
When sleep finally did come, it was filled with horrid dreams. Ben couldn’t stay comfortable for long on the gurney, but it was the only thing in the sick bay with any padding. The exam table was cold stainless steel. And the pain in his arm seemed to be getting worse. Any movement at all sent stabbing, fiery pain through his arm and up his shoulder. When he was awake, he avoided moving it at all costs, but asleep, he lacked that type of self-control.
More than once, he woke with a start after dreaming that the Echo was crashing, or that one of his friends had been terribly hurt. After eight disappointing hours, Ben shook off the blanket and got to his feet.
“Stay on that side of the room,” his guard ordered. Beck had been relieved halfway through the night.
“I just need to move around a little,” Ben said. “You try sleeping on that thing.”
The guard just smiled. He was young and kept his pistol holstered. Ben guessed the kid saw himself as a gunslinger. There were plenty of stories of people who were fast on the draw with their laser pistols. Ben thought it a strange phenomenon. Could someone actually draw their weapon and fire with enough accuracy to hit a target before the other person got off a similar shot? He had no idea, but unless a person had incredibly fast reflexes, the odds were not good of living a long, happy life.
Ben noticed that the room they were in was not really big enough for even a fast shot to be difficult, and decided not to challenge the kid.
“Do we get to eat?” Ben asked.
“Food will come at some point,” the kid said. “Might as well settle in. Y’all ain’t going nowhere.”
Ben sat on a chair and did his best not to look at his chrono. He hated being idle and envied Magnum’s ability to sleep soundly on the hard floor. When the food finally came, Ben was too upset to eat much. Magnum ate everything given to him without a word, then stretched back out on the floor. The hours passed insufferably slowly, and eventually Ben managed to sleep for a few hours. Then, at long last, Liachov returned.
“We’re ten minutes out,” she said. “I don’t think it’s necessary, but Ike wants you on the bridge.”
“Is Kim okay?”
“She’s right as rain,” Rena replied. “Now come on. You too, Magnum. To your stations.”
Ben looked at Kim, who had a worried expression, but he nodded, trying to communicate that he was okay. He settled into his seat at the engineer’s console and looked at the systems. Everything was online and in the green.
“Listen up,” Liachov said, walking down into the pilot’s section of the bridge so everyone could see her. “We’ll be coming out of hyperspace directly between the sun and Brigton. There will be Imperium ships there, but they shouldn’t notice us. As soon as we make regular space, we’ll turn toward the planet, taking note of her orbital speed, and make one short burn with the main engine to get us moving. Then we go silent. No running lights, no radar, and no coms. Ben, you kill the power to the engines immediately. If the Fleet sees anything, hopefully they’ll assume it was a sunspot or a solar flare. Any questions?”
“What if they do spot us,” Kim asked. “Or send a ship to investigate? Am I allowed to get us the hell out of there?”
“You may use whatever evasive measures are necessary to ensure that we survive,” Liachov said.
“Which means I should calculate a jump point immediately,” Nance said.
“Sure, just don’t log onto the Navigation Network.”
Nance nodded.
“If all goes well, we’ll have at least a couple of days of flight. You can repair your engine, Ben. As long as you can do it without using light that might be detected.”
Ben nodded, trying not to let his rage show.
“If we are attacked,” Liachov said, “I will be in charge. You will all do as you are ordered, or my men will fire on you. Is that understood?”
They all nodded.
“Good, we’re in this together. All we want is to get home. All you want is to get your ship back. Get us what we want, and you get what you want.”
The lieutenant moved back behind the row of consoles.
“Time to exit hyperspace?” she asked.
“Two minutes,” Nance replied.
“Okay, game face, people. No mistakes. We’re going home come hell or high water.”
Chapter 22
They dropped out of hyperspace, and Ben felt his heart pounding in his broken arm. But the pain seemed secondary as he stared at the display from the exterior cameras. The Briggs system star was behind them, illuminating everything between their position and the besieged planet Brigton.
“Holy crap,” Kim said.
“Kill the systems!” Lieutenant Liachov demanded.
Ben only had to press a button and had already shut down everything but the main drive.
“Get us moving,” Liachov said. “Make it quick.”
Ben tore his eyes away from the big display screens at the front of the bridge and looked down at the monitors built into his engineering console. The artificial gravity was still down to just ten percent. Life support and its subsystems could continue to operate, but the ship’s running lights, radar, and communication systems were shut off.
&nb
sp; Kim used the thrusters to turn the ship in line with their prearranged trajectory and pressed the throttle all the way to the stops. For five seconds, the ship’s main drive blasted them through space like an old-fashioned rocket. As soon as Kim pulled the throttle back Ben shut down the ship’s main drive.
“We’re a ghost,” Ben said.
“Unless they come looking for us,” Kim said.
For a long moment, everyone watched the main display screens. They could see a planet in the distance. It looked tiny, just green dot against a black background. Ben thought it looked peaceful and inviting. An oasis in the vast emptiness of the galaxy: warm, verdant, inviting.
But the planet wasn’t all they could see. Ships of the line, the biggest battle cruisers the Imperium has built, with space for over two thousand souls to live and fight. Ben counted six of the giant spacecraft, and around each was constant movement. Supply ships, maintenance craft, fighters, bombers, transports, and drop ships. Brigton was a world at war, and the Royal Imperium didn’t play around when it came to rebellion.
“They’re too far away,” Lieutenant Rena Liachov said calmly. “They didn’t see this one tiny ship.”
“Maybe,” Nance said. “If all goes well, we should reach orbit in fifty-nine hours.”
“You calculate a jump point for us yet?” Kim asked.
“The nav system is working on it,” Nance said.
“The fleet isn’t worried about ships coming in,” Sergeant Ike said. “Their focus is on keeping ships from leaving.”
“So how’d you get off the planet?” Kim asked.
“We were one of eight teams,” Liachov said. “All on different parts of the planet. A perfectly coordinated effort. As far as I know, we’re the only crew that survived.”
“So why not take the ship that brought you out off-world back to Brigton?” Ben said. “Why wait for us?”
“We left on a rocket,” Liachov explained. “The rebellion fired dozens at the same time. Most were aimed at the capital ships in orbit. Ours carried a tiny capsule that managed to escape the blockade and delivered us to Brimex Station.”
Jump Point: Kestrel Class Saga Book 2 Page 14
