by Kyle, Celia
Chapter Five
Swipt
The stars seem like streaks of light as the Queen shoots along at superluminal speed. We managed to make our jump, but the Prestige had been tracking us.
They’re back there behind us, in the throes of their own superluminal jump. I do the calculations in my head, given their greater tonnage, and figure that our seconds-long head start will translate into minutes. Still not much of a lead, especially when we’ve taken damage.
Solair rises from his command chair and walks across the bridge to lean on the back of my seat. He peers at my console, lips pursed in thought.
“Where did you set our target point for the jump, Swipt?”
“Just on the fringes of the Harkana system.”
“The Harkana system?” Grantian barrels over to join us and stares at the console in wide mouthed shock. “That seems a poor choice, given that many of the women, including my own mate, have bounties on their heads. Harkana is a free-for-all.”
Solair arches an eyebrow and scratches the base of his horn.
“It does seem an odd choice, Swipt. Why not try and make for League space?”
“That last shot damaged our Superluminal drive, Cap’n. Harkana is about as far as we can make it until we effect repairs.”
“Ah, hey, sorry to interrupt.”
We turn in unison to see Ilya standing behind us, her brow furrowed in confusion.
“You keep talking about this Harkana system like it’s the Wild West, but I’ve never heard of it.”
“Wild West?” Solair frowns, and looks to Grantian for an explanation. Fortunately for them, this concept has come up during some of my conversations with Ilya.
“Sort of like the early days of the Star Frontier from our own history, Solair. Not much in the way of formal law, and a big variety of people trying to make it one way or the other. Also very violent. Very, very violent.”
Solair chuckles without much humor.
“Then it seems that the Wild West is a good analogy. We will do everything in our power to keep you and the others safe, Ilya.”
“Oh, I’m not frightened. I just like to be prepared.”
Solair turns his attention back to me, his golden-skinned face wrinkled with worry.
“Swipt, did they manage to track our jump?”
“I’m almost positive they did, Cap’n. Made the jump a few seconds after we did.”
I show him my calculations on the monitor display of the control console.
“See, we’re going to come out here at 1100 GST, while they’ll come out HERE at 1109.”
“That’s not much of a head start.”
“It might be enough.” I swivel in my seat and catch Lokyer’s attention at the navigation console. “Lo-man, isn’t there an asteroid belt near these coordinates?”
“Checking.” Lokyer’s nimble fingers dance over the keys on his console. A slight smile plays at his lips. He’s the type of being who actually likes doing math, the freaking weirdo. Still, his little peccadillo comes in useful at times like this. “You’re right, Swipt. But I don’t see how that’s going to help us. I’m measuring less than a hundred meters between the different masses, and that’s on the high end.”
“A hundred meters? I can work with that.”
Solair and Grantian exchange glances, and then Solair arches an eyebrow at me.
“Swipt, that’s an awfully tight squeeze, even for an adept pilot like you.”
“I can do it, Cap’n.”
“I trust Swipt.”
Everyone turns to regard Ilya, who shrugs under the scrutiny as if it’s no big deal.
“He talks a good game, but from what I’ve seen he can back every inch of it up.”
I stifle a flinch response when she says “every inch” because my mind immediately goes places it probably shouldn’t. I’m glad to have her vote of confidence, though.
Varia steps up beside her husband and rests her hand on his shoulder.
“Solair, I don’t think we have much choice. We’re outgunned, we can’t run, and we can’t negotiate. Our only option is to hide.”
“I know.” He sighs and then grins widely. “I just needed to hear it from somewhere besides my own head. All right, Swipt. We’re putting our fates in your hands.”
“Don’t fuck it up.” Grantian punches me in the deltoid and then goes to the all-ship comm channel. “Attention, all hands; prepare for evasive maneuvers. Secure all cargo and crash webbing.”
I turn to Solair and catch his gaze with my own.
“We need to shut down all nonessential systems, Cap’n. The asteroid field will only mask so much of our energy signature.”
“Right. I’ll see to that. You just keep the Queen in one piece.”
“I won’t even chip the paint.”
“Swipt, you should be aware that the IHC has colonized several planets in this sector when you decide your vector through the asteroid field.”
“Copy that, Lo-man.”
I check my console, and find that our jump will be ending soon.
“All right, folks, we’re about to drop out of superluminal speed, in three…two…one.”
The Ancestral Queen’s inertial dampeners power up to maximum as we drop back to subluminal speed. Stars return to their familiar twinkling and steady points of light, but I have no time to think about aesthetics. My fingers are already dancing over the keys on my console.
“Hard to starboard, folks. Even with inertial dampening fields, this is going to be rough.”
I activate all the thrusters on the port side and cut power to our main array. We’re thrown hard into our crash webbing, and a grunt of exertion escapes my throat as I fight back against the inertial forces. The Queen’s hull groans in protest at the hard maneuver, but I’ve been flying her for years, and I know she can take it.
That doesn’t mean Solair eschews giving me a sharp glance.
“Swipt…”
“Almost made the turn, captain. Don’t worry, the Queen’s a tough old gal.”
The Queen’s nose swings around to face the asteroid field. With the naked eye, it looks like a blank space without stars, but my sensors tell me about the millions of fragments moving in a never-ending ballet about the belt.
As we get closer, the asteroids begin to resolve themselves. I’m always struck at how much sharper they are in real life as opposed to the smooth, crater laden forms seen on holovid shows. During our approach, two rocks the size of small islands slam into each other, creating an ever-expanding debris field.
“Swipt…” Solair’s tone is heavy with anxiety.
“I can do it, Solair.”
He makes a disgruntled noise deep in his throat.
“I’m going to trust you, Swipt. Not that I have much choice.”
No, he doesn’t have any choice at all. Any second the Prestige will be dropping out of faster-than-light speed near our last coordinates. Our chances of winning a fight aren’t good, and this is the less dangerous path, albeit only slightly.
The Queen enters the outskirts of the field, and tiny bits of rock and dust begin to hiss as they impact our hull.
“Grantian, increase power to our shields.”
“Negative, Captain.”
Solair’s tone brims with annoyance.
“Excuse me, Swipt?”
“If you power up the shields, the Prestige will pick us up on sensors for sure.”
“But if you make the slightest error, our hull could be breached, or worse.”
“Then I guess I’ll have to not make any errors.”
I see the two asteroids that collided have shot apart from each other and now the larger of the two is about to strike another behemoth. As I point the Queen’s nose right toward the point where they’re going to impact, Solair shifts in his seat.
“Helm, are you aware we’re vectoring right for…”
“I’ve got it handled, Solair. Trust me.”
The air on the bridge grows heavy with tension. Desp
ite my bravado, sweat beads on my forehead and it’s a struggle to keep my hands steady as I input the complex commands to fire the thruster arrays in just the right sequence.
As the Queen’s nose inches closer to the impact zone, it seems like everyone is holding their breath. But I know what I’m doing, and the two asteroids crack together soundlessly in the void of space. Then they drift apart, and we sail right through the aperture when it’s just wide enough to allow our ingress.
“Damn fine bit of piloting, Swipt.”
“Thanks, Captain.”
I move the Queen in until we’re adhered to the underside of a particularly large chunk of ice and then cut power to all nonessential systems.
“The Prestige has dropped back to subluminal speed, Solair.” Lokyer’s voice is thick with worry.
“Keep an eye on them. Make sure they don’t see through our little ruse.”
Minutes pass with everyone afraid to even speak. The lights are dim since we’re using minimal power, which seems to make the situation even more ominous.
Then Lokyer’s face splits in a wide grin, and the relief in his tone is palpable.
“The Prestige has just jumped to superluminal speeds. We’re safe.”
“Great work, everyone. Especially you, Swipt.” Solair turns toward Lokyer. “Navigate a course to Harkana IV. Swipt, can you get us out of this field in one piece?”
“You know it, Cap’n.”
Lokyer sets the course, and then I ease us back into empty space and limp us at max subluminal velocity to Harkana IV. The population for this dwarf planet is less than fifty thousand, mostly humans.
As we arc in through the atmosphere and descend toward the main continent amidst the crawling blue sea, we leave a red streak behind us. No doubt everyone on the surface can see us approach.
Hopefully, there’s not an IHC presence on this planet. As if reading my mind, Solair asks Lokyer to take some scans.
“Most of the settlements are low tech, Captain.” Lokyer frowns at his readings and puts some images up on the main view screen. “Even some of their dwellings are assembled using old methods.”
“Are those—are those structures made of wood?” Grantian’s tone suggests he almost can’t fathom what he’s seeing. “What happens if they catch fire?’
“They burn?” No one laughs at my joke, not even Ilya, so I try again. “I’m surprised these hicks managed to nail anything not related to them.”
At least Ilya laughs at that one. I smile to myself as I set us down on Harkana IV’s green surface, not far from the largest settlement.
We’re safe. For now.
Chapter Six
Ilya
If I’ve learned one thing since coming aboard the Ancestral Queen with the rest of my fellow Frontier refugees, it’s that the adventures never end.
As soon as we touch down, I take my leave of the bridge and run down to the engine room many decks below. On my way I nearly trample Thrase, my frenemy who never passes up an opportunity to trade jabs.
“Perhaps you could tell that insufferable windbag at the helm to fly a bit more steadily. I bumped by head when he chose to list us to the side.”
“I’ll grant you he’s a motormouth, but I hardly find him insufferable. Didn’t you hear Grantian announce ship wide that we were going to be in for some rough sailing?”
“I did, but rough is not the same as violent lurching.”
I don’t have time to argue with her, so I just walk around and head for the engine room. Thrase looks a little disappointed. I think she enjoys our tiffs on some level. Maybe I do as well, but I’m more than a little distracted.
When Swipt took my hand and led me down to the engine room, I’d felt a bolt of electricity dance down my spine. Even though I didn’t need to be led—it’s not like I don’t know the way by now—I made no move to break the contact.
With so many of us pairing up, of course, I’ve thought about doing the same. I guess I could do a lot worse than Swipt. He makes me laugh, even if at times he’s somewhat immature. I think he’s trying to compensate for being the “smallest” of his Kilgari brethren.
But at the moment I can’t spare any brain power contemplating my possibly amorous future. It’s time to get down to business, and business has picked up. When I reach the engine room, a half-dozen Kilgari are rushing about, trying to effect repairs. Montier, the chief engineer, spots me and waves me over.
“Ilya, you’re just in time.” He slaps the onyx casing of a lubricant line, which is nearly half again as big around as I am. It snakes from the floor upward until it disappears into the ceiling. “I was hoping you could save me the trouble of having to take off fourteen separate welded joints.”
I peer up at the tube, my face twisting into a scowl. I don’t mind getting dirty, but I can’t fathom why he needs me to shimmy up the greasy line.
“I’m happy to help, so long as I have some idea of what I’m supposed to be doing.”
Montier uses a plasma cutter to slice the joints on an access panel just widely enough for me to wriggle through on my belly. He talks while he works, his eyes focused on the task before him.
“The engines got us here, but now we’re landlocked. I can’t figure out why we don’t have power, but I tracked a massive surge in this junction right after we took that last hit.”
“All right, I’ll see what I can do.” I wait while he finishes cutting the panel open, and then sprays coolant on the red-hot bushings so it’s safe for me to crawl through.
I crawl inside the dark, greasy tube, and then hold my hand out so Montier can give me my tool kit. After strapping a maintenance light to my forehead and turning it on, I peer about the tube until I find the recessed depressions intended to be used as hand and foot holds. Since it was built for a Kilgari, it’s a bit of a stretch for my shorter limbs, but I manage.
Up at the top of the junction, I find a charred-out relay box that seems to be the root of the problem. Shit. This could be really simple or really difficult, depending on the model.
“Damn it all to hell.” It’s going to be difficult. The relay box is the type that is integrated fully into the ship’s systems. It can’t be replaced without tearing out the entire line from pillar to post.
There’s still a chance we can effect repairs, however. I have to open up the casing to be sure. It takes a few seconds of rummaging in my pack until I find a bolt driver. As it whirrs away unscrewing the couplings, I hear Montier’s voice, made hollow and tinny by the metal tube.
“How’s it going up there?”
“Primary power relay box is fried. I’m opening it up to see how bad the damage is.”
I hear him cursing below.
“That’s not a part we can fabricate. We’d have to replace…”
“The whole line, I know. I’m trying to find an alternative. Bide.”
The casing comes off completely, and I peer inside guided by my head lamp. I sigh in relief. It looks like two plasma circuits need to be re-connected, but in order to do I’ll have to recalibrate the power transfer rate. To do that, I need a phase converter, one of the most expensive and specific tools in the entire galaxy.
I really hope Montier has one lying around because they’re notoriously hard to fabricate as well. If you don’t have the correct rare earth minerals, it’s downright impossible.
When I crawl down the shaft and worm my grease-covered body out of the maintenance panel, Montier takes one look at my face and realizes my perturbed state.
“What’s wrong?”
“Well, there’s good news and bad. Human custom dictates I give you the good news first.”
“I’m not one to interfere with human custom.”
“The good news is, the power relay box can be repaired rather than replaced.”
His face stretches in a wide grin.
“That is good news, indeed. But what about the bad news?”
“Bad news is…we need a phase converter to do it. Otherwise I can’t calibrate the s
ystem, and it’ll blow out again the first time we fire up the engine drive.”
“Phase converter?” Montier puts his hands on his hips and shakes his head in disgust. “That’s not good. Not good at all. The last one I had got broken by a junior grade tech, and the last few ports of call have not had a replacement available.”
“We’ll have to hope the settlers here on Harkana have one they’re willing to part with.” I rub the bridge of my nose and sigh. “It won’t come cheaply. I’m certain.”
“If you can come up with one, I can get everything prepared for your return.”
I nod to Montier and turn to leave for the bridge.
“Ah, you got a little something on your face.” Montier gestures in a wiping motion toward his own visage.
“That’s okay. Everyone knows dirt is good for your skin.”
I head back up to the bridge and debrief Solair and Varia on the situation with the power relay box and our need for a phase converter.
“Do you think they’ll even have one, Ilya?”
I nod to Solair, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Most likely. A lot of the agricultural equipment relies on similar tech to our drive, so they probably have one. Will they sell it to us is the question. If it’s all right with you, I’m going to head into the nearest settlement and ask around.”
“By yourself?” Solair shakes his head. “Not a good idea. The humans here are rough and hardy, not to mention the other sapients aren’t the friendliest, either. This is the frontier of known space and most places here are still unincorporated. Anything goes and anyone can set up shop. You have IHC colonists sitting next to Ataxian priests sitting next to Helios slavers. There’s very few laws and even less order.”
He turns and claps a hand on Swipt’s shoulder.
“Swipt, you go with her and provide security.”
“Me?” Swipt flashes his gaze over to me for a moment. I don’t think he’s displeased with the idea at all. He’s just surprised, but Solair mistakes his tone.
“Yes, you. While the ship can’t fly, I don’t need a pilot, and you’re always complaining about not getting in on the action on away teams.”
