“What’s the Fleet doing here?” Tick wondered.
“Nothing that can be conducive to our health,” Sedge said.
Tick frowned back at him.
“They can only be here because of us.”
“Because of us?” Tick asked, pointing at himself, Thatcher, Striker, and Sedge, “or because of us?” This time he pointed at all of them and at Kalish too.
“Does it matter?” Sedge asked, resting a hand on Kalish’s shoulder. “We’re all in this together.”
Thatcher frowned at the two of them, though she didn’t know if it was because of the touch or the situation in general.
“It matters if there’s a dozen—hell, that’s two dozen that have streamed out of that hole—fighters coming after us,” Striker said, sitting up and frowning at the display. “Fighters don’t just appear on planets. That means there are Fleet ships in orbit too. At least two.” Striker pointed at the names on the sides of the craft, which represented multiple squadrons and apparently multiple mother ships as well. “What the hell? It’s too soon for them to have gotten ships out here, even if the miners sent out a distress signal that first night. And why would Fleet have cared anyway? This is a private operation that the whatever-it-is company owns, right?”
“As Captain Mandrake pointed out,” Thatcher said, “Ferago Enterprises supplies the Fleet. In fact, GalCon is its largest account.”
“Still,” Tick said. “Striker is right. And yes, it pains me to say sentences that involve the word right and Striker’s name. Enough time hasn’t passed for them to hear what’s going on and get ships out here.”
“Maybe they were on their way out this direction for something unrelated and were able to divert on short notice,” Sedge said.
Kalish dropped her chin to her fist, only partially listening to their suppositions. They were here. That was what mattered. The chances of escaping Karzelek’s orbit while towing an ancient vessel had just dropped from improbable to impossible. Even without extra cargo, she couldn’t outrun Fleet ships. Her backup plan had always been to take the engine, since she hadn’t known if the alien craft would be small enough to tow or if anything even remotely space worthy would remain after all these years. She could hope that a ship as pristinely conserved as those robots would exist, but she had never been counting on that.
Even if she took the engine and nothing more, could she slip past the Fleet ships? If there truly were two or more, they would probably have their orbits staggered so it would be hard to escape without being seen. Normally Fleet would have no reason to stop her, but if attacks had been reported on the mining facility, any vessel leaving orbit would be suspicious. And, as she recalled with a wince, this mission of hers had resulted in the murder of miners. If Fleet put the pieces together, she would be labeled a criminal. Unless she could somehow foist the crimes off on the mercenaries—after all, she hadn’t personally killed anyone—but no, that would be cowardly. They had been protecting her. Sedge had been protecting her. She couldn’t abandon him to the Fleet and try to save her ass.
“Captain got anything to say?” Striker asked.
“I haven’t been able to get in touch with him,” Thatcher said.
“Too much rock over our heads, huh?” Tick looked toward the ceiling.
“That is possible,” Thatcher said, “but the altimeter shows us as only eighty meters beneath the planet’s surface currently. We were much deeper the last time I successfully contacted him.” He gave Sedge a short nod.
“What are you saying, sir?” Sedge asked. “That the Albatross is no longer in orbit?”
Kalish shifted uneasily. If that was true, nobody would be distracting the miners any longer. There might be ships, automated and otherwise, all over that area they wanted to explore.
“I believe that is likely,” Thatcher said.
“They probably saw the Fleet thugs coming and cleared out,” Tick said. “Might be hiding in that nebula.”
All four men nodded. Nobody brought up the other possibility, which came to Kalish’s mind. The miners had reported Mandrake Company’s suspicious shuttle trouble, not to mention that strange gas that had poofed into existence along with their appearance, and Fleet had decided the mercenaries were after the ore. And taken drastic measures.
She turned away from the men, swallowing and staring at the deck. Getting innocent workers killed had been bad enough, but what if, as a result of her crazy plan, all of Mandrake Company had been annihilated?
“How long until they catch up with us?” Tick asked.
Not soon, Kalish hoped. They had been exploring the tunnels for two days. They had a head start.
“It depends on whether they can track us,” Thatcher said. “We have some time, but it’s a foregone conclusion that we won’t be able to go out the way we came in. That entrance will be guarded now.”
“The main one will be too,” Sedge said.
“Maybe Thatcher can penetrate his way through another wall and blast us a new one,” Striker said, smiling, though his innuendo wasn’t heartfelt this time. Maybe he was wondering if something had happened to his ship as well.
“That’s a possibility,” Thatcher said.
“Not yet.” Kalish turned to face them again. “We’re in trouble either way, right now.” An understatement. “I want that ship before we leave.”
“We may no longer have time to check all of the points,” Thatcher said. “Especially if Mandrake Company is in trouble, and the Albatross has engaged in evasive maneuvers.” He leveled a piercing stare at her, and she knew he’d had all the same thoughts that she had and was also thinking that the mercenaries could be in trouble because of her.
“Then we just check the one spot,” Kalish said. “If we find the ship, it could be a bargaining chip.”
“A trade for our safe passage out of here?” Thatcher said.
Kalish could not make that trade, not when she had already promised the ship in exchange for her father’s life, but she nodded anyway. Whatever it took to keep the mercenaries on her side. She hated to lead Sedge astray, but what else could she do? If they found the ancient shipyard, then their options should increase. Maybe she could keep the engine for Cometrunner and trade the vessel itself to the Fleet. Or maybe there would be two ships. She prayed that whatever gods the aliens had worshipped might remain in the system and that they would bless her endeavor.
She tried not to think about what would happen if they reached their destination and found nothing.
* * *
Kalish watched over Tia’s shoulder as the Divining Rod swooped and rose, dipping and banking to follow the gray combat shuttles. It felt good to be back on her ship, though she didn’t think Sedge felt the same way. He had not asked to come along; Commander Thatcher had ordered him to, in case she needed more help interpreting alien ruins when they reached the cavern with the pool. Thatcher had sent Striker and Tick, too, and Kalish was less certain as to why. After several days together, she no longer believed the mercenaries would betray her—at least, she did not want to believe that—but she could not be certain they had not been sent along to monitor her, to make sure she didn’t try to abandon Mandrake Company here once she had what she sought. Either way, she had been pleased to have Sedge join her, and not only because she had activities in mind that they could engage in within her private cabin here. He had proven himself useful more times than she could count, both as a protector and as a partner in this hunt.
Her mother had not seen things the same way. She had given Sedge a chilly greeting of, “What’s he doing back in here?”
Kalish had admitted that Sedge had translated the list of parts more quickly than she had and could be of assistance when they reached the next outpost. She just hoped there was an outpost and that they would not be stumbling into a zealously mined chamber without a hint to suggest the aliens had ever traveled through that part of the caverns.
Clangs came from the back of the ship now, noisier clangs than her mother’s repair
task probably required. But Kalish could not complain. She did not think her mother had slept at all during the rest period, instead ensuring their craft would be space worthy if they needed to flee the planet quickly. That could prove invaluable.
Tia frowned at something on the sensor panel.
“Problem?” Kalish asked.
“A mining ship, I think. A couple of miles ahead. It’s sailing into a side tunnel. We shouldn’t cross its path, but if there are more of them, it might be hard to avoid them.” Tia glanced back. “You know the mercenaries are heading toward the entrance of the mining compound now, right? There was a fork where we could have gone deeper into the complex, but this might eventually take us to their big entrance hole.”
“I know. I told them to go that way.”
“Oh?”
“Change of plans,” Kalish said, giving Sedge a nod.
Tick and Striker were back in the cargo hold, cleaning their weapons, but Sedge had been standing quietly next to the hatch since the three ships had taken off. Judging by the pensive expression on his face, he was not thinking of sneaking away with Kalish to her cabin. It was just as well. She should not be thinking of that either, not until they finished here. One way or another.
“Are you worried about your ship?” she asked quietly.
“Partially,” he said, “but Captain Mandrake can take care of the Albatross. I don’t think he would put himself into the position of being targeted by the Fleet. I would hope not, anyway.”
“Why so glum, then?” Kalish supposed she should feel glum, too, given their prospects of escaping the planet, but she found herself bouncing from foot to foot with excitement instead. Later, when it was time to slip out of the caverns, she would worry more, but she felt like a hound closing in on its prey now. The end seemed so close, closer than it had ever been, and she could not wait to see what they uncovered.
“When Thatcher shooed me off the shuttle, I got the feeling...” Sedge shook his head. “Never mind.”
“What?” Kalish took his hand.
“If it had just been me, I wouldn’t have thought much of it, but Striker and Tick too? I’m worried he has notions of kamikaze piloting in mind for himself and Val. To buy us time if necessary. I hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“We have a two-day head start on the Fleet fighters. They shouldn’t catch up with us, and we shouldn’t have any problems until it’s time to leave orbit. I have some ideas for that.” Perhaps she was being overly optimistic, but when she smiled at him, he nodded, seemingly reassured.
“Good.”
“More mining ships,” Tia said. “Fleet isn’t the only thing we have to worry about if we keep going this way.”
“Those should be unmanned craft, right?” Kalish asked.
“Yeah, but I thought the miners were being distracted and that we wouldn’t encounter them.”
“We believe the Mandrake Company ship may have had to flee to avoid getting entangled with Fleet politics.”
“Or Fleet torpedoes,” Sedge murmured.
Tia frowned back at them.
Kalish patted her on the shoulder. “You’re being too serious. Don’t you want to tell me what you think of the other two mercenaries, now that they’ve joined us? Do you agree with my ice cream assessments?”
Tia wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know. I didn’t get a very good look at anyone on that mining platform. It was dark and grungy.”
“Shall I ask them if they would take a spin through the bridge and model?”
“Careful,” Sedge said. “Striker has a notion that modeling should be done sans clothes. I don’t think any of you want to see that.”
Kalish arched her brows. “How did you come to know that about him?”
“The less you know the better.”
Kalish stared at him, her mind creating images whether he had intended for it to do so or not.
“Founders’ Day party,” Sedge said. “I had only been aboard the ship for a week. It was an alarming holiday welcome.”
“Divining Rod, this is Thatcher, do you read me?”
Kalish tapped the comm. “Yes, Commander. We’re here.”
“We’ve been avoiding the automated mining ships, but we’re heading into a cavern where four of them are working. Their sensors may be limited and they may not react to us, but we will follow the outside edge in an attempt to get past them without trouble.”
“Understood.”
Kalish slid into the seat beside Tia, letting her hands rest lightly on the weapons controls. She couldn’t imagine the mining ships having much in the way of attack power—unless they pinned the Divining Rod and drilled it into a wall—but she would be ready.
The ships’ lights played over walls that had already seen explosives and drills, the stone here much less attractive than the striking limestone caverns they had been passing through the day before. She wondered if all of these passages had been excavated by Ferago Enterprises or if the ancient aliens had mined these tunnels ten thousand years earlier.
“That must be it,” Tia whispered.
Up ahead, the walls grew less restrictive, opening up into a massive space that reminded Kalish of a pit mine, except that stone still covered the hollowed chamber. Here and there, support pillars more than ten meters thick rose up from floor to ceiling. She did not think those had been placed by humans and wondered if any might have runes along the sides. But the combat shuttles veered away from the pillars in the center, following the walls instead. Kalish glimpsed lights from other ships in the distance.
Her team had gone a third of the way into the chamber, when Thatcher spoke again.
“They’re changing course to come toward us.”
“Uh.” Kalish couldn’t imagine the unmanned mining ships being programmed to pick fights with intruders—or even to recognize intruders as such. “Do they have weapons?”
“Tri-dynamite launchers, lasers, and drill blades powerful enough to cut into a pillar of granite—or a starship hull.”
“So that’s a yes.”
“They shouldn’t be programmed to attack ships,” Sedge said.
Maybe not, but the three blips on the sensors were beelining toward the Divining Rod with intent.
“Unless they’ve recently been reprogrammed,” he added.
“I suggest avoiding them,” Thatcher said. “We won’t attack unless they attack first.”
Before he had finished speaking, his shuttle zipped upward, leaving the party to pass close to the lead mining ship, then circle a pillar a couple of times before drifting lazily toward the ceiling. Thatcher seemed to be taunting the automated craft, but none of them deviated from their path.
Val’s shuttle dipped downward, banking around a different pillar and disappearing into the darkness below.
Kalish tried not to feel as if her ship had been abandoned. “They’re still coming toward us. That’s interesting—and alarming. Tia, how about some fancy maneuvers like those shuttles are doing?”
“Fancy? In this barge? Haven’t you noticed how many times I’ve scraped up against rocks during this trip?”
“I just assumed you were sheering off the mantle to check for ore underneath.” Kalish gripped her sister’s shoulder. “It doesn’t have to be fancy, just quick. They don’t seem to be that speedy.”
Tia dipped after Val’s shuttle, following a similar path to the floor of the chamber and then skimming along it. The mining ships dropped as well, giving chase. They immediately picked up speed.
“All right, why are they after us specifically?” Kalish muttered. “Think they know Striker stole some of their gold?” She glanced at Sedge, but he had taken his tablet out and was engrossed in the display. She hoped he wasn’t sending what he believed would be the last message he ever wrote home to his family.
No, he didn’t look too worried. With Thatcher and Val out there, piloting fully armed combat shuttles, how much trouble could they be in?
“They shot something at us,” Tia yelled, ban
king hard.
Footsteps thudded in the corridor leading to the bridge.
An explosion lit up the darkness to the starboard side of the ship, the shockwave slamming into the hull of the Divining Rod. The craft rocked and pitched toward one of those massive pillars. The bridge lights flashed out, and for a moment, nothing except the view screen and the buttons on the control panel illuminated the space.
“What kind of mess are you creating for your mechanic now?” Mom asked, striding into the bridge.
The lights flickered back on.
“I think that was the dynamite,” Tia said, maneuvering them past the pillar without striking it. “All three of those ships are after us.”
“Well, turn around and shoot some of them,” Mom said.
Kalish nodded at Tia. “I’m ready.”
Lights blazed up from below, and Kalish gulped, afraid that a ship that had not registered on the sensors was about to strike them. She reached for the laser banks, but checked the sensors first. That was one of the mercenary shuttles.
It skimmed past under their belly, so close it could have kissed the ship’s thrusters, then zipped out the other side, blasting lasers into the lead mining ship. The craft blew up in a fiery explosion that lit all sides of the massive chamber briefly. Instead of attacking their attacker, the remaining two ships continued their inexorable chase of the Divining Rod.
“What the hell?” Kalish muttered. She was on the verge of targeting one and firing the aft lasers, but Sedge spoke first.
“Hold fire for a moment, Commander Thatcher,” he said calmly. “I believe I’ve just about... there.” He tapped a control hovering in the air above his tablet.
An instant later, the two mining ships changed course. They left the Divining Rod’s trail and headed for the canyon at the mouth of the chamber, the canyon that should eventually lead them back to their home base on the planet’s surface.
“Good work, Thomlin,” Thatcher said.
Mandrake Company- The Complete Series Page 100
