by T. R. Harris
We began to climb faster now. I shut down the chem jets and angled the ship at a steep seventy-degree incline toward the heavens. The gravity-well intensified, drawing us toward the invisible singularity that was only a few molecules in diameter at this speed. We cleared the atmosphere thirty seconds later and I engaged a full-well at that time.
It’s illegal to initiate a faster-than-light gravity-well within a million miles of a populated planet; there was too much traffic in the area that could be affected by such a strong gravity influence. But I was careful to make sure I was clear of any local vessels. I also figured I was already in enough trouble that one more charge on my rap sheet would hardly be noticed. The Enterprise shot away from Sylox at such velocity that the rear monitor showed the planet growing noticeably smaller, even to the naked eye. Six minutes later, it was just another bright dot against the black backdrop of space.
Everyone relaxed. Safety harnesses were unlatched and Lefty and his men took the opportunity to get their first real look at my starship.
“Where are we headed, Mister King?” Klein asked a few minutes later. Eventually, I’d have to learn his first name.
“Someplace called Ackonnon.”
“Never heard of it,” Lefty said.
“Me neither. Enic said to look it up.”
Lefty nodded to Bennett and the man slipped over to a computer console, one of three that lined the outer bulkhead. Thirty seconds later he made his report.
“It’s relatively close, right at the edge of the Quad. I’m feeding the coordinates over to you, Mister King.”
I programmed in the location and then did a travel time estimate. Three days, nine hours at full gravity-well. It was going to get stuffy inside my little starship.
“Where’s the head, lieutenant? Killing aliens always makes me want to piss.” Bennett remarked.
“In the back, next to the processing station. And speaking of that, we’re going to have to be judicious with the rations. I don’t normally stock enough food for four.”
“We’ll make do,” said Lefty.
After Bennett left the pilothouse, I broached the subject of the key with Lefty. He hadn’t returned it to me after I handed it to him at the conference center. “Can I have the key back? According to Enic, it won’t do anyone but me any good.”
“What key?” Klein asked.
Lefty took the small metal cylinder from his pocket. Enic’s blood had dried on it, forming an abstract pattern on the surface. He handed it to me.
This was the first time I had a chance to really study the key, and now I was joined by the other two men in the room. The object was about three inches long by an inch in diameter. I could clearly see the thin needle point at one end—the needle that had punctured my palm. Apparently, a sample of my blood had been collected and the internal workings of the device programmed to respond only to my actions. What those actions would entail, I had no idea.
There was a thin dial at the other end of the cylinder. Notches were cut in it, which angled back and forth, like hashtags in old webpage addresses. I went to turn the dial.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Lefty cautioned. “You might screw up whatever code has to be dialed in to open the chamber.”
“How about some details, Sarge?” Klein asked.
Lefty nodded. “The object Mister King is holding is supposedly the key to entering the chamber where the Galactic Lights are stored.”
“On this planet Ackonnon?”
“Exactly.”
“How does it work?”
I hesitated telling the others that Enic had died just as he went to warn me about certain aspects of operating the key. Instead: “Enic said I would know how to work it once I reached the door. It must not be that complicated.”
Lefty suddenly moved to his right, eyes focused on the entrance hatch to the pilothouse. Bennett had returned…with his hands held above his head and his eyes shifting back and forth.
Klein and I rose from our seats, allowing me to spot I the figure standing behind Lefty’s man. It was a short person with bright blonde hair, now pulled back into an adorable ponytail.
“Easy does it,” said Angela Cole, following Bennett into the room. She had a conventional Human pistol aimed at the man’s back. She quickly scanned the room. “Where’s Rod—?”
Lefty came at her from the side, moving with purpose and skill. He slapped at her gun hand, dislodging the weapon. That’s when things got really weird.
In a flash, the short woman had executed a perfect spin kick, catching the six-foot two-inch tall former Army Ranger in his left kidney. He bunched over from the force of the kick, as well as the unexpected nature of its delivery. But Angela wasn’t through. She jumped and brought the heel of her other foot down on the back of Lefty’s head. He dropped to the deck with a thud, a grunt and a torrent of curse words I was more accustomed to hearing him speak than the aforementioned ‘fricking.’
In the meantime, Angela focused on where the weapon had fallen. She dove for it, nearly clashing heads with Klein, who had the same idea. To my surprise, the tiny woman surrendered the weapon momentarily…just long enough for her to plant a short, but powerful blow to the side of the mercenary’s face. His eyes crossed and he lost his grip on the weapon.
Angela had the gray-metal forty-five in her hand a split second later, swinging the barrel toward me and Bennett. Lefty had recovered by now and dropped hard on top of the woman. He reached for the gun.
The sound of the Smith and Wesson going off was deafening within the small confines of the pilothouse. I slapped my hands against my ears to shield them from any further damage, but it was too late. The ringing consumed my thoughts and actions for a few seconds after the discharge—at least until a strange cracking sound penetrated the ringing. I turned to the source. In my horror, I saw a spiderweb of fractures splinter the forward viewport.
“Everyone out! Hurry!”
The three mercenaries were up and out of the room a moment later. Angela still lay on the deck, the wind knocked out of her from Lefty’s heavy bulk. I grabbed an ankle and pulled her out of the room behind me. Her chin smacked the bottom hatch partition, and in the brief moment before the panel slid shut, I saw her eyes roll back in her head and the lids close. There was only a split second of escaping air from the inner compartment before the hatch sealed, locking all of us safely away from the deadly decompression in the pilothouse as the cracking viewport exploded outward.
I sat on the deck, still holding Angela’s ankle. She was unconscious and bleeding from a cut under her chin. Lefty also had a cut, this one on his forehead from when he was pummeled to the deck by the feisty criminal investigator. Klein’s right eye was nearly swollen shut. Bennett hovered over Angela, anger in his eyes.
“Who the hell is this?” he yelled down at the sleeping woman.
“Angela Cole, an investigator from the Consulate,” I replied.
“What’s she doing here?”
“Probably her job. Is everyone else okay?”
Lefty moved up beside me, looking down at Angela. “We’re fine, but let’s get something to tie up Miss Kung Fu Queen before she wakes up. And check her for more weapons. I wouldn’t be surprised to find she’s packing more than just the forty-five.”
Lefty followed my look to the now-closed pressure door to the pilothouse. “How bad is it, LT?” he asked.
I shook my head. “There’s a small airlock in the back, and I do have two spacesuits onboard. Also, like most spacecraft, this one does have a blast door for the viewport. Unfortunately it’s operated from inside the pilothouse. One of us is going to have to go outside and enter through the shattered window.”
“At light speed?” Klein asked. “Is that even possible?”
“I wouldn’t think so. So the first thing, we have to find a way to shut down the gravity drive from out here. I’m not sure how to do that. It’s never come up before.”
“LT, you and Mister Klein work on that,” Lefty orde
red, “while Bennett and I tend to our uninvited guest.”
Chapter 12
The generators and gravity drive for a Noreen II were located in the aft section of the small spacecraft. There wasn’t an actual engine room, just a series of compartments hidden behind wall panels. It took Klein and me nearly an hour to remove all the bolts and screws to access the innards of the engine, at least to the point where we could refer to manuals as to what to do next. I learned Klein’s first name; it was Dominic, and Bennett’s was Roger. That would help…I guess.
With the ship barreling through interstellar space on full gravity drive—and with no monitoring pilot—it was probably a bad idea to take a break from trying to disable the engine when Angela came to, but what she said to Lefty made me do it anyway.
“How can they think I killed Enic?” I asked, flabbergasted by the revelation.
“Eyewitnesses have you pulling a healthy Enic Jor into a side room at the Center. When you came out, he was dead. They also say you stole something of importance from him before you left.” Angela’s voice was almost a growl. With piercing blue eyes, she glared at us. Both her hands and lethal legs were bound as she sat on the ship’s only couch. She had regained consciousness a few minutes before and immediately erupted with a torrent of her own colorful language after discovering her predicament.
“I didn’t kill him—why would I? He was going to rebuild my house.”
She looked at the others. “And then you killed some Zorphin.”
“It was only one,” Lefty countered. “And that was in self-defense.”
“What are you doing aboard my ship?” I asked, cutting to the chase.
“I learned of your private starship during my investigation. When I heard everything had gone to shit at the conference center, I figured you’d try to get off planet. I got here a couple of minutes before you arrived. You took off too fast for me to do anything before we left. Now, I have to warn y’all, you’re only making things worse by not turning around and returning to Sylox immediately. By now, the entire Union has been alerted to your escape. It’s just a matter of time before you’re located.”
“Even if we wanted to, we can’t turn back now,” I said, “Not until we can get back in the pilothouse. You should know better than to use a projectile weapon aboard a spacecraft.” I shook my head in frustration. “I’m not even sure the blast doors are airtight.”
“In the meantime, we’re lighting up a straight line path right through the middle of the Union, and without any evasive maneuvers,” Lefty chimed in. “We won’t be too hard to track, that’s for sure.”
I leaned in closer to Angela. “I believe you have a pretty good idea what’s going on here, detective. I didn’t kill Enic. He was killed by the same people who have been trying to do it since he arrived on Sylox. And now they’re after us.”
“You’re probably right about that,” she conceded. “But I still have a duty to bring you in. It shouldn’t be hard to clear yourself of the charges—except for the killing of the Zorphin. Yet under the circumstances, you might even skate on that, too. But you have to return to Sylox…as soon as you can access the pilothouse.”
I straightened up. “Even after that, we can’t. Not yet.”
Angela studied my body language. “What did you take from President Jor?”
I removed the key from my pocket.
“Think about what you’re doing, Jason,” Lefty cautioned.
I looked over at my old friend. “She’s along for the ride, no matter what. And she is a Human.” I looked at the blue-eyed beauty and smiled. “And she does have skills. She could come in handy.”
“Handy for what?” Angela questioned, her jaw firmly set. Then she focused on the shiny cylinder in my hand. “What’s that? Is that what you took from Enic?”
I held the object by my thumb and middle finger. ‘It’s a key.”
“To what?”
“To the room where the Galactic Lights are kept.”
Angela leaned back on the couch and spent the next few seconds scanning the faces of the men in the room. When she detected no shock or surprise, her eyes locked on mine.
“Bullshit. The Lights are just a legend, nothing more. Scientifically, they can’t exist.”
“Then I guess ol’ Enic died for nothing.”
I went on after that to explain all that had happened over the past two days. When I was done, I placed the key back in my pocket and left the salon to get back to the job of cutting off the faster-than-light gravity drive.
“You expect me to believe all this, without any evidence?” Angela called after me.
I turned. “Without evidence? How about three attempts on Enic life—one successful—along with the destruction on my house and the loss of nearly all Left’s men? Isn’t that evidence enough for you? We didn’t start this, but now we’ve been drafted into possibly saving the Union, and Earth in the process. Now you can remain tied up for the duration, or you can help us. If the Lights do exist—and they fall into the wrong hands—a lot of bad things are going to happen. Aren’t you at least curious to see if they’re real?” I went through the motions of symbolically checking my watch. “We’ll know in a little over three days. So Ms. Cole, are you with us or against us?”
********
An hour later, Angela came back to where Dominic Klein and I were trying to disengage generator two from the primary gravity focusing ring. We’d already disconnected gen one, and our velocity had dropped in half. Even still, the ship sat just on inside the edge of the black hole’s event horizon, making it far too dangerous to go outside.
The detective had a bandage on the lower part of her chin where she’s hit the edge of the hatch. “Any broken teeth?” I asked.
“Nope, and lucky for you. I take great pride in my teeth.”
She almost smiled.
“I guess I could have left you in the pilothouse to be sucked out of the viewport.”
“You expect me to thank you for saving my life?” Her temper flared. “You and your hulking brutes put me in that situation in the first place.”
“So guess my proposal of marriage will be a negative?”
I looked at Dominic and we both started laughing.
She opened her mouth to reply.
“Relax, sweetheart, I’ve decided you’re not my type.”
Angela blinked.
I answered the unasked question. “It’s hard to be attracted to a woman who can kick my ass. Where did you learn to fight like that?”
The change of subject settled her emotions. “It started with basic self-defense and take-down training back at Quantico—in the FBI. I liked it so much that I kept going. Seemed like a more beneficial form of exercise than Pilates or yoga.”
Dominic grimaced. “So what type do you study?” He was having trouble seeing through his right eye, even after a few minutes with an ice pack on it.
“Tae Kwon Do and Krav Maga . I’m also a big fan of Mixed-Martial Arts combat techniques.”
I beamed a proud smile at my workmate. “I told you she’d come in handy.”
“Anything I can do to help with the engines?” Angela asked.
“Not unless you have training in NX-4 gravity drives. You don’t, do you?”
“Not NX-4’s. But I have tinkered with Cyrilis Eights and a few AX-3’s.”
My jaw dropped, mirroring that of Dominic Klein. “I’m not even going to ask where you got your training,” I said. We made room for Angela to examine the circuitry panel.
“The primary runs through this junction. It meets over here.” She moved to the next open section along the wall. “Safety switches can be tripped at this location. It’ll shut off all internal gravity as well, but it’s a simpler reboot process afterwards.”
Two minutes later the Enterprise was dead in the water.
Lefty drifted down the center passageway to check on us when he heard and felt the engine go silent. “Good job,” he said to me and Dominic Klein.
“You�
��re welcome,” replied Angela. She flew past the huge mercenary , heading forward.
“What was that all about?” he asked.
We just shrugged and drifted past Lefty as well. I had a spacesuit to get into.
Angela was already stuffing her voluptuous body into the second suit.
“What do are you doing?” I asked.
“You may own this flying motorhome, but it’s obvious you don’t have a clue about its operation. You’re going to need me to help repair the damage.”
I had no comeback. Besides, I wasn’t too keen on venturing outside the Enterprise on my own. Too many things could go wrong during a spacewalk. Or so I’d been told. I’d never actually been on a spacewalk before. This would be my first.
“Don’t try anything,” Lefty warned Angela.
She smirked. “Like what? We’re about two hundred light years from Sylox and in the middle of nowhere. It’s not like I’m going to run away.”
Lefty didn’t have a comeback. Instead, he grabbed Bennett by the neck and placed a flash weapon against his head. “If you do, I’ll waste Mister Bennett.”
Angela tried to look concerned. “Do what you must, Mister Rodriquez. And Roger, it was good while it lasted.” She placed the helmet over her head and twisted the locking ring.
I was glad were we all in good spirits since I still had about a million concerns about the mission, not the least of which was determining where Lefty’s true loyalties lie.
It was going to be an interesting three days aboard the starship Enterprise.
Chapter 13
Angela and I exited the ship one at a time, since the airlock could only hold single person at a time. Once outside, I gasped at the vast expanse of nothingness surrounding me. Sure, there were hundreds, if not thousands of fiery suns lighting the void—some of magnificent brilliance and color, and located only a fraction of a light-year away. Yet it was still a strange sensation knowing that distance beyond the hull of the ship was measured in time, rather than in miles or kilometers.
