I frown. “At the hands of the Scorpion? I think not. No matter how much you can be trusted.”
“Then listen. The Scorpion has taken the drive. I offered to have it transported to Takao while she continues the fight against the Jovians. She’s wanted to dismantle them for decades, so she is completely obsessed. She trusts me ... but once she knows you and I are on Takao, along with the drive, it won’t take her long to piece together what has happened.”
“And what has happened, exactly?” I regard him coolly.
“I have always been on your side. Your father’s side. I’ll explain later. In fact, it was your resemblance to your father that first caught me when I saw you on the Scorpion’s holo. Once I found out your name, the rest was easy. Now your hair is no longer black, I see quite plainly the little girl I once met.”
I remember to breathe.
“It took me some time to come around to the fact that you weren’t just a petty spacepirate, and that Jackson’s daughter hadn’t betrayed her father’s values. I realized you’d almost certainly have full Captain status. You were smart to hold that fact back from the Scorpion. But I admit I didn’t have full confidence in what you would do with it, so I maintained my deceit and watched.” He pauses for a moment as if to evaluate me before moving on. “After you proposed your ... bold plan, I was convinced of your intent. When chaos erupted with the Jovians, I knew I had to get to you before she did, without you mistaking my intentions. That’s where your friend here came in.”
Aktip’s head does that little shimmy. “The General came to me in secret, Madam Captain. He told me who he was, not knowing I already knew. He said he had to find you and work together. If humans have been well-trained, they can sometimes confuse Rykkans, but not for truth this deep. I told him your plan and he said you are in grave danger. I have debt, so I come with him.”
My mind is in a whirl. “Okay.” I look back to Garnek. His countenance is softer.
He nods. “I know your Papa worked on the drive. Some new physics, a breakthrough he said. The rest I’ll tell you—”
“On Takao. What other choice do I have? Flash us the hyperDrive hop coordinates. I’m sure you already know the fastest route.”
Garnek looks relieved. “Yes, Captain.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE
I’m in the medbay on Takao. My position is reversed from before: now it’s me who is lying on the bed, adorned with tubes, and with Mitch standing over me.
“How is it?” he asks.
I move both arms freely, tubes swinging with me as I do so. “I couldn’t do this a few hours ago. The docs say a few more hours and I’ll be able to move without all this.” I gesture at the tubing. “But I won’t be winning any races.”
Thankfully I’m on Takao and not Rykkamon. I wouldn’t have lasted in Rykkamon’s gravity, but Takao’s, while tough compared to zero-gee, is bearable. Not only that, their medteams seem to be able to pull off what no one else can. Though not quite up to the Rykkan self-repair biology.
I look up at Mitch. “Status?” He knows what I’m asking.
“Aktip is on the Constellation checking. Also Simpson”—he is careful to use Garnek’s Takaon identity in case of prying local ears—“is bringing the drive across. No word on the Jovian battle. I left the Chief on the cruiser monitoring chatter.”
Some figures appear at the doorway and Mitch waves them in. Danielli, Plexi and Herg. Followed by Zhang and Ortiz.
“Where’ve you been hiding out?” I ask Danielli.
“After you and the Chief left, the Scorpion had put out an alert for us. But Herg knew a bartender in Hoto. He put us up in the backroom and we waited to hear news from Ganymede. When we heard you’d been captured, Plexi tracked down Aktip. Simpson conveniently ‘granted’ us amnesty and we’ve been on the Constellation since then.”
I raise my brow. Danielli knows what I’m asking. “No, Ma’am. No one can work out if it can be refitted.”
Which is three sides of a credit, I think. On one hand, if the Constellation remains an unusable hulk, the Scorpion won’t have the firepower to take on the Sector. On the other hand, the Jovians will be free to continue their dominance over the Sector’s energy trade.
But the real issue is that the Blood Empire will wipe the floor with us.
Garnek enters, with Aktip. This is turning out to be a party. I see that Garnek and Aktip are wearing very sober expressions. They make their way to stand next to me.
“Ma’am.” Garnek nods his head. “Good to see your health is recovering.”
“But you have bad news.”
Aktip looks at me as if she is wondering if I too, can sense human thoughts.
Garnek nods his head again. He gestures to Aktip who thrusts a portable holo in front of me and taps play.
The holo springs up with a starry backdrop I do not recognize.
“Sector fringe,” the General explains, when he sees the look on my face. Danielli, Plexi, and the others crowd around, and we all watch as a swarm of insects cross into view.
Except they are not insects.
I watch as thousands upon thousands of battlefighters move past the drone’s viewcam. Sufficiently far away to remain undetected, but close enough to reveal the horror of what Oberon has planned for the Circle of Seven’s return. I turn my head to Aktip. “When?”
“It is perhaps from twenty to thirty hours ago. But they are weeks away from the Sector.”
I look at Garnek. “Admiral Simpson, how long before the Scorpion returns?”
He knows what I imply and grimaces. “Several hours. Less, if she has eyes here.” He is circumspect, but we all get the message. Sooner rather than later, the Scorpion will realize that “Simpson” has double-crossed her. Whether she knows that Simpson is Garnek, or that I am the Constellation’s Captain is unknown, but it won’t matter. She’ll lock the planet down.
“Papa ordered the evacuation of the Constellation, didn’t he?” I hold General Garnek’s gaze.
He barely reacts. “Yes.”
“Why?”
He shrugs. “No one knew, but it happened fast. As soon as we defeated Oberon, your father took the ship into deep space. Apparently there was supposed to have been some issue with the drive. From what I can gather since, he was making modifications to the drive’s functionality. He couldn’t make them mid-battle I guess.”
Why did I never know about Papa’s past? I look at Mitch, but he looks as lost as I am. Papa went to great length to show us the blackmarket trading ropes, and to insist we do our best to continue his illicit work. Then he left, and the next I knew was that Sloper had killed him. Mom had been long gone by then, so we had no one to ask. One more reason why Mitch and I are close.
I shake myself back into the present and look around at my friends. I am about to request their input for our next move when the base’s security alarm erupts.
“The Scorpion is here.” Garnek gives me a grim look and races out of the room.
I leap out of bed, ignoring the bruising pain in my side, and I rip out the tubes. Danielli tries to tell me I still need hours more healing, but I won’t have it.
I look at Plexi. “Can you get us to the Constellation?”
“Yes.” Her eyes glisten brightly.
I turn to Danielli and Aktip. “Will we get access to it?”
They both say, “Yes,” in unison.
“Good. I have an idea.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
We pick up the Chief from my lightCruiser, and we’re on our way to the Constellation in the shuttle when Garnek calls through on a private line. He is careful not to name names.
“The alarm was for you. We’re to be on the lookout for the lightCruiser. She hasn’t yet put two and two together—probably because she has her hands tied with the war she triggered—and hasn’t placed me in the picture. But knowing her, it won’t be long. In the meantime, I can divert attention here, then join you at the last minute.”
“Don’t leave it too late,” I sa
y. “I think I’m going to need you.”
“If I hear in your voice what I think I’m hearing, you’ll have trouble stopping me. Over and out.”
Danielli says with a smile, “Now that’s the General Garnek I knew.”
I am less optimistic. “We still have to get into the Constellation. Even though the lightCruiser is docked under a fake name, it won’t take long to trace it back. From there, it’s a pretty quick deduction to connect a tall red-head under Garnek’s wing to a major double-cross. We need to work quickly.”
“Well you’re the one with all the ideas,” Mitch says.
I hold his gaze and lift my chin. “It’s not the ideas I’m worried about.”
He looks at me inquisitively.
“It’s whether they’ll work.”
“In the timeframe? We can always play for delaying tactics,” Danielli says.
“No. I’m worried they’ll work at all.”
“Ah.” Danielli looks at me with narrowed eyes.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
We make it to the spaceport in outer orbit where the Constellation is moored. Even though this port is well away from Takao—for good reason—the battlecruiser makes an ominous man-made moon for the giant planet. I watch through the shuttle’s observation port as the silvery-gray alloy hull dwarfs everything else in our vision and wonder what conversations have been stimulated among the highly-opinionated Takaons.
Our approach takes us around where the ship’s drive would normally be and my heart jumps a beat when I see the massive physical drive floating in space next to the main ship. As if waiting to come home.
We dock at a makeshift gantry and airlock into the ship. We disembark and don our suits for inside the ship. An official requests our ID, and I show the fake ones Garnek holo’d to us just before we left the planet’s surface. We’re engineers, dispatched to investigate the cruiser’s life support and gravitational systems and ready them for use when power is restored. Our two Rykkans are passed off as engineering specialists, invited along as a token of the new alliance. I hold my breath, hoping that the official isn’t familiar with the rumors of the red-headed captive.
He glances at me and looks me up and down, running his eyes over my shiny flightSuit. I do my best to look suggestive and put on my “flirty face.” The one that Mitch always says makes me look as if I’m desperate to use the bathroom. Maybe that’s why I’ve never been lucky with men.
But this time it works, and the official gives me an appreciative glance as he waves us through.
One small hurdle passed.
All the big ones left.
We close our helmet’s faceplates, pressurize suits, exit the airlock and enter the ship. We requisition podPlates, and make our way through the massive battlecruiser. I glance at Plexi and nod to her podPlate’s screen. She grins and punches up the schematic. Somehow I knew she’d be ready.
Both Aktip and the Chief have trouble with their hovering podPlates. Being used to 1.9 gee might make you all-powerful on many other planets, but when it comes to the subtlety required to pilot a plate in null gravity, they are both lacking, despite the Chief’s normal prowess in zero-gee. They start and stop like a Martian taxi-cab. Their oversized suits only serve to exaggerate the incongruity. If the stakes weren’t so high, I’d laugh.
Plexi threads us through dark passageways and up and down between decks, occasionally stopping to check her schematic. I asked her to steer us away from any other working groups where possible, just in case.
We only see one other team on the far side of a massive empty hangar, working on the damaged z-wing. They ignore us when we pass through.
We eventually reach the outer helmroom unchallenged, and after we dismount our podPlates, I slap the doorpad to take us through into the circular passageway that encloses the helm.
Now it’s do or die. If this doesn’t work, my only option is to surrender to the Scorpion and acquiesce to her deal.
I place my gloved hand on the doorpad. The red lights circle, then come to a halt and turn green. I drop my hand and speak.
“Captain Jackson requesting access to the helm.”
<
I hesitate a moment.
Then I turn to my brother and indicate the panel. “Mitch. Your turn.”
He looks around him in surprise. As if there was another “Mitch” on board. He moves forward to the panel and places his hand on it. The lights circle red, then switch to green.
<
“Mitch Jackson.”
<
The helmdoors slide apart.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
My breath is taken away. Even with emergency-only power, the Constellation’s helm is beautiful. It’s the size of a circular warehouse, and staggering in scale.
A massive, round black-onyx platform table, presumably supported by a hidden central pillar, occupies the center of the dome-like space. The meeting table is populated with hover chairs and commPanels, as well as a central holo. Raised up on a circular mezzanine, and surrounding the table are banks of what are presumably navigation, comms, weapons, engineering and various systems workpods—all set up to face the table.
I struggle to make out precise details in the barely lit room, but on the opposite side to our entry point is the Captain’s, Pilot’s and Chief Officer’s raised dais, with red-cushclad high-backed chairs. Each is equipped with a purpose-built control stalk and holo.
I look up, and realize that what I thought was a domed overhead is a giant holoscreen.
I drop my gaze and look around the room. A few minimal lights blink here and there, but for the most part, it’s as if someone just turned off the lights and went home.
“This was your big idea?” Mitch’s voice comes into my helmet.
I turn so I can see him directly through his faceplate. “What do you mean?”
“That I’m the secondary authorization. Any idiot could see that.”
I snort. “Obviously, since you worked it out. But no, that’s not my big idea. However, I still need the help of an idiot or two to make it work. So if you don’t mind?” I gesture to the Captain’s chair across the room, push Mitch out of my way and kick myself around the perimeter of the helmroom. I ignore the flash of pain in my side and let adrenaline takeover.
Close up, the detail is impressive. I run my gloved fingers over the hand-finished metalloy surfaces, the rubbed-cushclad hover chairs, I admire the sleek, ergonomic layout—this ship was someone’s baby. An expensive one.
My small team streams into the room, awaiting my instructions. I see Plexi almost salivating over the controls, but Danielli and Herg remain impassive. Aktip and the Chief just look awkward and out of place, their innate bulk and strength, as well as Aktip’s lack of experience, are a disadvantage in zero-gee. Ortiz and Zhang immediately float themselves into nearby workpods, and start investigating the controls.
“Just tell me what you see,” I say to them as I make my way past, making sure they get my meaning. “I don’t want to trigger any more incidents.”
I reach the Captain’s chair and slide in, motioning Mitch into the Pilot’s seat beside me. I meet Plexi’s eyes across the room, bright inside her helmet, and flick my thumb at the Chief Officer’s seat next to me. She doesn’t wait for a second invitation, but kicks up in a graceful flight straight across the gleaming black table, touches her hands down on the far edge to somersault around, and lands feet first into the Chief Officer’s seat.
“Aktip, find a useful comms port access and a place for the Chief. Danielli, you’re on weapons. Herg—you take engineering. You’ll need trial and error to find the best terminal, but Aktip, I’m guessing you’ll be able to guide us.” I have no idea if Herg’s mechanical prowess means he can cope with engineering, but at this stage it doesn’t matter.
I
look at Plexi. “Can we remotely access the dronetugs ferrying the drive?”
She grins. “Looks like this place can access anything.”
I smile. “Here’s the plan. While you bring the drive close by, Mitch, myself and Aktip are going searching.”
“What for?” Mitch gives me an odd look.
“I don’t know, since I’ve never seen it before.” I hesitate, thinking my idea will sound even more stupid when said out loud, but it’s all I have. “Did anyone notice that this ship has no signs of damage, other than the removal of the drive?”
Danielli sounds thoughtful over the comm. “Indeed, Ma’am. As you have pointed out before. No remains, no mess, no battle scars.”
“Not just that.” I wave my hand around. “Everything still looks like new. Yet the Constellation defeated the greatest threat to the Sector ever. Why is there no sign of this anywhere? No wear and tear? Even this seat looks like it was installed yesterday.”
My words cause everyone to glance around, as if the answer were in front of us. Which, in a way, I think it is.
The Chief gives me a Rykkan shrug. “Why important now? I prefer dirty ship that works to useless shiny metal coffin.”
Plexi straightens. “I’m into the dronetugs.” Then her face falls and she looks at me. “And I’m out again. Looks like we need authority from Takao to work those mothers.”
“Can’t you hack in?” Mitch says.
Plexi shakes her head. “That’s what I did. But the security booted me out again.”
Mitch looks at me. “Indy? Captain override?”
“And give us away? There’s no guarantee my authorization will work, but it will definitely raise a giant red flag to the Scorpion.”
Herg looks up from his panel. He’d been buried in it since we took our places. “Captain Jackson, I know those dronetug designs. We had them back in the old yards. They all have a manual override on the exterior.” He reddens. “We used to sit on ’em after a few slammers. Race them around the shipyards.”
Constellation (Blood Empire Book 1) Page 22
