by B. C. James
“A couple more minutes, Cap.”
Pierce would be on them by then. He had to think of some way to slow the Endurance down and buy them some time. His aging freighter was unarmed. Civilian ships were banned from installing weapon systems by Orion Confederation law. He longed for the plasma cannons of his old fleet cruiser. One blast from them and this whole chase would be over in a fraction of a second.
As Sharp looked at the view screen, the long slender shape of the Endurance reminded him of a missile. Some of the less-than-well-equipped pirates roaming the Periphery used primitive missile systems. He thought back to an incident where a desperate pirate ship had fired upon the Cayenne. He’d almost broke out into laughter at the feeble attempt as his cruiser’s anti-missile flares detonated the device long before it had even come near the hull.
The memory gave him an idea. “Morales, I’m going to jettison some of the cargo modules. Engage the grav-drive as soon as it comes back online.”
“Sir?” she questioned, half turning in her seat to look back at him.
“I’m going to use the modules like anti-missile ordnance,” He explained. “Hopefully Pierce will hit one, and if not, it should at least slow him down a little.”
“Whatever you say, Cap,” she teased. “Just make sure you don’t hit the warp ring.”
“If you’ve got a better idea, then by all means let me know,” he joked back as he moved to the side control station. He programed the tiny thrusters embedded on the cargo modules to shoot out past the warp ring then decelerate, effectively dropping them like stones in the Endurance’s path. “Well, here goes nothing,” he said as he released the first module.
The module came into view on the main screen as it sailed toward the Endurance. “Come on,” he chanted to himself as he clenched his fists and waited.
The Endurance twisted to starboard, banking away from the module and barely avoiding a collision. “Damn,” Sharp exclaimed as he turned to release another. The Endurance came back up, leveling out as a second module sped toward them. The smaller ship dove below the container at the last moment, practically grazing the ejected cargo bay.
“Third time’s the charm,” Sharp said as he released another module. He cringed at the thought of jettisoning his cargo into the void of space. Hopefully, they’d have a chance to swing around and pick it up, that is if they survived that long. The Endurance was adapting to his strategy and easily dodged the third module, but each time it changed course to avoid a container, it bled off some forward momentum, slowing the approach of the ship.
Sharp felt less hopeful about his plan. He’d lost the element of surprise and Pierce was anticipating the modules. As he was about to release a fourth cargo bay, Morales gave him some much-needed good news. “Sir, the grav-emitter has dropped below red line. I can give you ten percent power,” she reported as she engaged the drive.
“I’ll take it, Ensign,” he said, almost cheering. The ship rocked as the gravity drive took over from the ion thrusters. Sharp smiled as their speed increased. They may be flying backward, but at least they were flying at all.
“Sir, the Endurance is pursuing,” Morales said as pulses of light flashed behind the other ship on the main viewer. “With the grav-emitter only at ten percent, they’ll be able to keep up with us.”
“Can you increase the drive output?”
“No, Sir. We’re tickling the auto temp cutoff as is. If we up the juice, we’ll hit the limit. We’d have to shut down the drive to dissipate the heat.”
The Endurance flipped around on the screen “Sir, they’re preparing to fire again,” Morales yelled.
A charge blasted out of the ship’s pulse cannon and sailed toward them. “Evasive action,” Sharp ordered as he moved back to the command chair. Remembering Morales’ advice, he pulled the harness over his shoulders and clicked it firmly into its latch. He knew the ride would get rough now that she had the use of the maneuvering thrusters, and this time he wanted to be prepared.
***
“Fire!” Pierce yelled, slamming his fist down on the armrest.
The magnetic cannon twanged as it sent a charge hurtling toward the Rojo’s rear gravity well. The metallic ball sped toward the escaping ship. As the charge detonated, the Rojo slid to the side, deftly avoiding the blast.
“Again,” Pierce screamed.
“Sir,” Daniels said, “they have their maneuvering thrusters back online. We’ll never be able to take out the emitter.”
“Do it now,” he spit out through his teeth as he glared at Daniels.
Daniels sighed and fired another charge. The Rojo banked to port, and the nuke exploded in open space.
“Fire a spread,” Pierce ordered.
“Sir, each shot is robbing us of speed. We’re barely keeping up as is. We’ll lose them if we keep firing.”
“Fire god damn you,” he roared, smashing his fist into the control console.
Daniels held his tongue and launched four more charges toward the Rojo. The force of the shots noticeably decreased the ship’s speed. The Rojo twisted and rolled, effortlessly avoiding the blasts. Between the two ships, the gap widened. The Rojo was pulling away.
Pierce groaned in frustration. “Fire everything dammit. We have to stop that ship!”
“Sir, we can’t risk hitting the Rojo. We still have crew members aboard,” Daniels argued.
“Fire, I order you to fire!” Pierce shrieked, his face flushed red with rage.
“No. It’s too great a risk,” Daniels refused, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest obstinately.
Pierce leapt from his seat and spun Daniels’ chair around. As he seized him by the shirt collar, Daniels’ face turned from steadfast to shock. Grabbing two fistfuls of fabric, Pierce flung him out of the seat and sent him careening across the bridge. Daniels slammed into the rear bulkhead as Pierce slipped into his now vacant seat. He viciously prodded at the controls, unleashing a fusillade of charges at the Pescado Rojo.
The cannon twanged in quick succession as the volley launched from the tube, spreading out like a shotgun blast racing toward the Rojo.
***
Sharp braced himself against his harness and gripped the command chair’s armrests tightly as Morales flung the ship sideways, dodging the nuke zipping toward them. Unsecured info pads and tools flew around him, shattering as they hit the walls. The small metal ball streaked across the screen, shooting wide of the Rojo and detonating with a flash of yellow light.
“Nice work, Ensign. I’m gonna have to promote you when this is all over.” Sharp said over the roar of the ion thrusters.
“It ain’t over yet, here comes another one,” she replied, not breaking her concentration on the controls.
The ship banked again, the bulkheads groaning under the strain as she dove around the second charge. The nuke exploded harmlessly, sending a shock wave lightly rumbling through the hull as Morales straightened the ship out. Now that she had the use of the maneuvering thrusters, she made evading the blasts look effortless.
The main view screen flashed red in warning. “Oh shit!” she swore under her breath. “We got four more incoming. Hold on.”
The ship dipped and spun into a tight barrel roll as Morales leaned hard on her flight stick. Four successive booms sounded below them as they reached the top of the roll.
Morales leveled out. “They’re falling behind, Cap.”
Sharp looked up at the main viewer. The Endurance had lost some of its velocity and was slowly shrinking away. The explosions had halted, and he sat back, allowing himself to relax slightly with the reprieve.
“How long till we’re out of ran—” he cut off mid-sentence as a stream of charges spewed forth from the Endurance’s magnetic cannon, their polished surfaces glinting in the starlight as they sped toward the Rojo.
“Oh hell. This guy just doesn’t quit,” Morales exclaimed from the pilot’s seat.
The view screen displayed the predicted trajectories of the charges. The dotted
lines crisscrossed the length of the Rojo. It was clear Pierce was no longer aiming for the gravity well, he was trying to blow them to pieces in a last-ditch effort to stop their escape.
“Can you shake ‘em?” Sharp asked wide eyed.
Morales shook her head slowly as she stared up at the viewer. “I uh… I’ll try,” she stammered, her voice lacking its usual confidence.
Sharp clicked open the comm as Morales began her erratic maneuvers. “Briggs, I need the warp engine now, or we’re all dead!” he yelled.
The first of the charges detonated near the hull, shaking the ship violently as Briggs responded. “It’s not up to full capacity yet, Sir. I can give you about a ten-second low-power jump but that’s it,” he shouted over the blast.
“That’s all we need, Briggs,” Sharp replied as another blast sent a concussive wave through the hull. “Morales, cut the gravity drive and engage the warp engine.”
Explosions sounded all around them now, blending together into a solid wall of noise assailing their eardrums.
“Any particular place you’d like to go, Sir?” she asked as she cut power to the gravity emitter while spooling up the singularity generator.
“I’ll let you pick, Ensign. Just take us anyplace but here,” he replied through clenched teeth.
She continued her evasive maneuvering, one hand on the flight stick while the other powered up the warp field rings. “Sir, the Endurance is too close. If we engage now, they’ll be caught up in our warp wake and ripped apart,” she informed him.
“We can’t wait, Ensign, it’s either us or them. Engage the warp field.”
She nodded and poked at her console. The din of explosions faded away, overpowered by the oscillations of the warp field generator. The vibrations wavered as if struggling to reach full capacity. “Cap, the nuclear blasts are interfering with the warp field. I can’t get it to maintain cohesion.”
“Hold on, I’ve got it,” he shouted as he unstrapped himself from the command chair. Struggling to maintain his balance as Morales parried more charges, he moved to the side control console and jettisoned the last four cargo modules all at once. They blasted off from the hull and shattered into fragments as they passed through the warp field, sending a shower of debris toward the Endurance.
The cacophony of explosions stopped as the Endurance ceased firing and concentrated on avoiding the wall of shrapnel. “Now, Ensign!” Sharp yelled.
The warp engine thrummed to life with renewed energy as the warp field coalesced into a complete envelope around the Rojo. On the viewer, the Endurance shrank from sight as the warp effect stretched the fabric of space behind them. The vibrations peaked and subsided, replaced by the low hum of warp travel.
Sharp moved back to his chair and collapsed into it, exhausted. They’d made it to warp. There was no way Pierce could keep up with them now. His tension eased but didn’t fully cease. He had to be sure Pierce was really gone before he could breathe easy.
After a few seconds, the hum of the warp engine sputtered out and the stretched stars on the main viewer returned to normal. There was no trace of the Endurance on the screen. “Where are we, Ensign?” he asked.
“We jumped about two hundred million kilometers, Sir,” she replied.
“Any sign of the Endurance on proximity sensors?”
“No, we’re all alone out here.”
“How about long-range scans?”
“The sensors are limited, but I’m picking up some metallic debris near our last position. I can’t make out what it’s from at this distance. Could be the cargo modules or the Endurance or both.”
“Are you reading anything large enough to be the Endurance?”
She clicked at some buttons on her console. “It’s impossible to tell at this distance, Sir.” She said, shaking her head.
Sharp rocked his head back against the headrest and let out a sigh of relief. It seemed like a lifetime ago Cormac had woken him up for the proximity alarm, and for the first time since then, he allowed himself to relax. “Alright, Ensign, don’t worry about it for now. Once Briggs gets the warp engine sorted, we’ll head back to check it out and pick up any cargo we can salvage. By the way, good flying back there. You really saved our asses.”
She grinned. “I do what I can, Sir. Besides, it was Briggs who got the warp engine back online.”
“Yeah, but there wouldn’t have been a ship to go to warp if you hadn’t dodged all those nukes.”
She cocked her head to the side, considering. “I suppose you have a point. Let’s just say it was a team effort.”
He laughed and changed the subject. “Are long-range communications still out?”
“Yes, Cap. Still down. You want me to try and fix it?”
“No, I’ll take care of it.”
Sharp clicked on the comm. “Briggs, what’s the status of the warp drive?”
“That last jump overloaded the primary circuits, Sir. I’m gonna need at least a couple days to get it operational again.”
“Alright, Briggs, and good work. You pulled off a miracle back there. Why don’t you and Arnold stabilize things down in engineering, then get some rest. You deserve it.”
“Roger that, Cap,” he replied.
Sharp closed the channel and turned to Morales. “You too, Ensign. Go get some rest. I’ll keep an eye on things here. Go inform our… uh… passengers of our status then hit the hay. Oh, and will you grab me a cup of coffee while you’re at it?”
Morales set the ship to autopilot and hugged him before she left the bridge. Sharp sat in his command chair, staring out into the starlit void. They’d done it. They were finally safe from Pierce. Against all odds, they’d escaped the clutches of death. He only wished Franklin was there to share in the victory.
Morales returned with his coffee and some painkillers for his battered face. He thanked her and washed the pills down with a sip of coffee as she left. It was lukewarm. A smile brushed his lips, he’d have to get Briggs to take a look at those damn heating coils.
Epilogue
Captain Pierce’s eyes fluttered open as he floated on the darkened bridge of the Endurance. His head ached, and a large knot was forming where it had slammed against something. His memory slowly came back to him as he clutched his head and looked out the viewport. The stars in the window twirled past as the ship tumbled end over end, making him nauseous.
He pushed himself to the command chair, passing by an unconscious Lieutenant Baker, and strapped in. Daniels was harnessed in the other seat, his head slunk forward, bobbing limply in zero gravity.
Pierce reached over and shook his arm, hoping he wasn’t dead. Daniels roused and looked around confused. “What happened?” he asked when he gained his bearings.
“The last thing I remember was the Rojo activating her warp engine,” Pierce replied. “We must have been blown clear when they jumped.”
He punched at the controls, trying to assess the damage to his ship. The nav computer was offline, but thrusters were operational, so he used the manual controls to bring the ship out of its tumble. Out the viewport, a cloud of fractured debris hung between them and the distant stars. The cloud of rubble shimmered like glitter in the pale starlight, looking almost beautiful. He looked down at his console and scrolled through the view angles of the external cameras. Finding no sign of the Rojo, his heart sunk.
Baker stirred behind him. “They’re gone, Sir,” he spoke up from behind, informing him of what he already knew. “Now what do we do?”
Pierce sighed. The Rojo could be anywhere by now. Sharp had slipped through his fingers, taking most of their crewmates along with him. “If the pulse drive is still operational,” he said finally, “we will have to make for the nearest inhabited outpost.”
“That could take years, assuming we even knew which direction to go,” Baker complained. “We’re in unknown space, and our star charts are five hundred years out of date. It could take us decades to get anywhere.”
Pierce ignored him and turned to Dan
iels. “Did you collect the information I requested from the Rojo’s computer?”
Daniels nodded as he pulled a small sleek tablet from his chest pocket and switched it on. A holographic projection sprung from the screen and slowly rotated. A thousand points of light marked by tiny labels hung in the air, intersected by lines and dashes.
“Good. Can you download the star chart data into our navigation systems?” Pierce asked.
“I think so, Sir,” Daniels replied as he switched off the stolen data pad. “If I can’t get the Rojo’s tech to interface with our own, I can input the data manually.”
“Get started. I want to be underway as soon as possible.”
“Yes, Sir,” Daniels said as he got to work.
Pierce rose from his seat and moved to the exit. “Baker, you are on damage control. I want a full report on our system status in thirty minutes,” he ordered before leaving the bridge.
***
The frigid air of the cargo level licked at Pierce’s skin, reminding him of the bitter cold of the cryotubes. He floated through the darkness toward the pale-blue glow of the embryo containment unit. His mind relaxed as he caressed its smooth edges. The metallic surface chilled his fingertips, sending shivers up his arm. The unit had ridden out the battle undamaged and remained fully operational. The thousands of future colonists inside had been spared from Sharp’s cruel hand.
Daniels’ voice crackled over the comm panel on the nearby wall, startling Pierce from his daydream. “Sir, I’ve located what appears to be a small research station about point-zero-five light-years from our current position.”
Pierce floated over and hit the reply button. “How long will it take us to get there?” he asked.
“Still waiting on Baker’s damage report, but if the pulse drive is in working order, we can be there in a little over six months.”
Pierce frowned at the number. Half a year he thought, longing for the Pescado Rojo’s warp engine. At warp, they could reach the research station in a matter of hours instead of months. But Sharp had denied him that. Pierce’s frown turned into a scowl. He would have his revenge on Sharp. He would make him pay for all he’d done.
