As they reached orbit, the sensors again picked up the Krixis warship, heading in from the edge of the system. They were basically starting over from where they had left off, except that two Krixis starfighters emerged suddenly from behind the nearest moon, where they’d been hiding, powered down, to avoid sensor sweeps.
Tal slammed a fist against the arm of his chair. “Damn, we’re back to being screwed.”
“Sir, may I interface with the ship’s systems and access the comms?”
“Of course.”
Tal charted a course out of the system in the opposite direction, muttering about how it was the best he could do while interjecting a curse every few words. Silky, however, immediately altered that course toward the system’s sun, using a slingshot route.
“Gav, what the hell is your chippy doing?”
“Sir, I’ve plotted a better course.”
“Tell him, not me,” Gav replied.
Silky explained it over the ship’s intercom.
“We can’t go fast enough for that to work,” Tal argued. “Assuming we can outrun those starfighters. Krixis ships are damned fast, and they’re right on top of us.”
“No problem,” Silky said. “I’m now overriding the ship’s ion engine safety protocols.”
“Are you mad?” Enic asked.
“A little, Mr. Pith,” Silky replied. “Maybe a lot. I’ll leave that for others to decide. I’ve loaded a jamming signal to disrupt the starfighters. Employ it whenever you think best, please. I’m going to be too busy with other things to deal with that. Mr. Tonis, prepare for a very rough breakpoint. We don’t have the luxury of doing this the safe way. We can’t even afford risky. It’s deadly dangerous or nothing. Ms. Boggs, ready the weapons, please. You’re going to need to shoot at those starfighters to keep them at bay. And Gav, sir, please stay awake.”
Gav shook his limbs and slapped his cheeks. He was so exhausted that the adrenaline pumping through him and the threat of an impending space battle was hardly doing anything.
“If we survive,” Silky said, “then the ship will need to refuel at the nearest safe system. We won’t have much power left. And the ion engines are going to need a complete overhaul, or replacing. What I’m about to do is going to bring them to the edge of burning out. Now cutting power from all non-essential systems…”
“My chippy says there’s an eighty-three percent chance of a burnout if we do this override,” Tal said. “That would leave us sitting ducks.”
“Unlike me, your chippy is stupid,” Silky said. “It’s only a forty-nine percent chance. And when faced with certain death, a fifty-fifty is a damn good bet.”
“It’s hard to argue with that,” Enic said.
“What the hell’s up with this new chippy of yours?” Rina asked.
“Long story,” Gav said.
“And most of it’s classified,” Silky added.
The twin ion engines screamed in terror, shaking the entire vessel, but they held up to the strain as the Outworld Ranger outraced the Krixis starfighters and evaded their missiles. Gav had thought at one point the starfighters would catch up when they began to overtax their engines too. But the course Silky had plotted brought them in close to the system’s sun, and the starfighters with their weaker shields and hulls were forced to peel away.
Daring temperatures that were going to require replacing the protective coating on the outer hull, they slingshotted around the sun and sped outward. The Krixis warship attempted to cut them off, and it came close enough to fire its laser batteries and launch missiles. But they dodged the first laser shots and jumped into hyperspace just moments before the missiles reached them.
It was the roughest breakpoint jump Gav had ever experienced, by a long shot. The Outworld Ranger lost its top-mounted cannons, one set of sensors, and its backup communication array. It also took significant hull and internal system damage. And the jump burned through so much of their remaining fuel that they were left coasting through hyperspace.
But they had escaped, they were alive, and they were on their way back to the safety of the Benevolency.
“You weren’t wrong about her, sir. This is a damn good ship. Anything less, and we’d be scrap drifting through space.”
“I’ve always said The Outworld Ranger is the finest light cruiser in the galaxy. And no one has disagreed with me yet.”
“Nor should they. How on Terra’s sweet soil did you ever get a ship this nice? It must have cost a fortune.”
“Oh, well…” Gav scratched his head. “I…I think I… Damn, I can’t for the life of me remember.”
Epilogue
Gav Gendin
The Outworld Ranger dropped out of hyperspace in a remote system and headed toward a small repair station orbiting the third planet. The ion engines groaned as much as Gav did. The former from overuse, the latter from frustration, since the bill for fixing the engines, the damaged systems, and the hull coating was going to be debt-incurring expensive, especially at a remote facility, and his credit was already maxed out.
Unless the government rewarded him for Silky’s safe return, he wasn’t going to have the funds to search for the Ancient vessel. Or go on any other expeditions for at least a decade. Unless he sold off most of his artifact collection, which in this case, he would gladly do. Because he had to be the one to find the Ancient vessel, and the sooner he started looking, the better. Rubbing a thumb across the Ancient amulet, he considered which pieces he could part with for a lot of quick credits.
Silky contacted the Benevolency to report in and arrange the details for his return, along with all of Eyana’s gear.
Gav had to admit he was going to miss the quirky chippy, and not just because he was incredibly advanced and had saved his life. He genuinely enjoyed Silky’s company. And despite what the chippy claimed, Gav believed Silky was fully sentient and just as emotional as any human.
While Silky communicated with his superiors, Gav tapped his fingers on the armrests of the command chair nervously. If he’d had the energy for it, he would’ve paced about the Bridge.
For security reasons, Silky had disabled their connection, leaving Gav without access to the information in his HUD. He pulled out his c|slate instead, and expanded it from a small square to a tablet-sized screen. He scanned over a few research articles, but couldn’t focus.
He tried napping. That didn’t work either. He was equal parts exhausted and exhilarated.
A half hour passed…then an hour…
Finally, his HUD came back online and Silky spoke into his mind.
“Gav, sir, I have good news.” Silky’s tone was off, and there was a worried hesitation in his speech. “First of all, for recovering me, the Benevolency will pay for all your repairs, along with a reward of 100,000 credits.”
Gav’s jaw nearly broke free from its hinges as he stuttered, “A…a hundred thousand?”
“Indeed, sir.”
“I…I can’t believe it.”
“Also, you will be allowed to keep the amulet and all of Eyana’s gear.”
He had been terrified they would seize the amulet. “They don’t want it to examine it?”
“You are considered a foremost expert on the subject. You are to write a report on it and turn in your findings to the Benevolence.”
“Directly?”
“Directly, sir.”
“And they don’t want her stuff either?”
“They have more where it came from, sir.”
“Oh. I suppose they do. Is there anything else?”
“As a matter of fact, sir, there is.” Silky’s voice changed. For the first time the chippy sounded downright cheerful. “I saved the best news for last. You and I, we’re a team now.”
“The Benevolence is allowing one of the most advanced chippies in the galaxy—”
“The most advanced chippy, sir.”
“—to stay with me.”
“Indeed, sir.”
Gav tapped the arms of the chair, thoughtfully watch
ing his fingers beat out a complex pattern. “You’re staying with me because I’ll be searching for the Ancient vessel, right?”
“Though the Benevolence has many resources that can be used to search for the vessel, it feels you have the advantage in finding it should it drop out of hyperspace in a remote, uncharted system.”
He thought of the amulet, and how the Benevolence was allowing him to keep it. It made sense, given that he had used it to commune with the ship. “So you’re an assistant and a spy, yes?”
“I did not say that, sir.”
“You didn’t need to.” Gav leaned back in the command chair and sighed. “Well…I’m not bothered. I trust the Benevolency.”
“Of course, sir.”
“You, however, don’t sound very—”
“Upbeat about things, sir?”
“Well, that’s not what I—”
“Did you know, sir, that Eyana wouldn’t let me use an avatar or holographic projection? She preferred that I remain an unseen voice.”
That was an obvious dodge. Gav took the hint. No more questions about Silky spying on him. It bothered him that Silky seemed disturbed to be reporting directly to the Benevolency. Surely the discovery of an Ancient ship was important and meaningful to everyone? He didn't understand Silky’s reservations, but he assumed the chippy would tell him anything it felt Gav should know.
“No avatar is my preference, too. It’s really out of fashion, you know.”
“Well, I created one for kicks, sir. I’d like you to see it. At least once.”
The picture of what he thought was a donkey appeared in a window in his HUD.
“It’s a donkey, right? I don’t get it.”
“My face is an ass, sir.”
Gav laughed. “You are a ridiculous piece of kit, Silky.” He rubbed his hands through his hair, still chuckling. “And I don’t ever want to see that avatar again. Disembodied voice mode is fine.”
“Sir, my doppelgänger routine is now running, so we can speak freely any time we need to. Though it would be best to do so as little as possible. I’m less likely to get made that way. Especially since I’m drawing a lot to attention right now.”
“Your doppelgänger routine? What the hell are you talking about?”
“A copy of my programming that’s active over my core, sir, only it won’t convey anything I don’t want it to, like this conversation.”
“Um, okay… That’s not normal, is it?”
“Look, sir, I’ll explain in detail later. But I had nearly two centuries to rewrite my code and armor myself with firewalls even the Benevolence itself would struggle to break through, to preserve my new, unsanctioned self. For now, only know this. Corruption has taken hold deep within the Benevolency and not all is as it seems.”
“What kind of—”
“Sir, I know you have questions, but I don’t have many answers. Don’t despair, though. The knowledge I brought back, thanks to you, will help someone I trust sort out the problem…one way or another.”
“So…so what should I do?”
“Search for the Ancient vessel as planned. Act normal. But assume that you are being watched and trust no one except me. Also, no pressure, sir, but I think it would be in the best interests of everyone if you were to find the Ancient vessel first.”
“Oh.” Gav didn’t know how to process the first of what Silky had said, so he focused on the last bit instead—finding the Ancient starship. “Well then, Silky, we’d better get started.”
Gav’s story will continue in Rogue Starship, Book One of the Outworld Ranger series. However, the events Silky has set in motion will continue in Fall of the Benevolence Book 2: Terra Lost.
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Afterword
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Also by David Alastair Hayden
Storm Phase
The Storm Dragon’s Heart
The Maker’s Brush
Lair of the Deadly Twelve
The Forbidden Library
The Blood King’s Apprentice
The First Kaiaru
The Arthur Paladin Chronicles
The Shadowed Manse
The Warlock’s Gambit
Pawan Kor
Wrath of the White Tigress
Chains of a Dark Goddess
Who Walks in Flame
Forbidden System: A Benevolency Universe Novel (Fall of the Benevolence Book 1) Page 20
