I followed Garrett as he raced for the Jess. Once aboard he powered up his sensors and began to scan. Three minutes later a single pulse was captured.
Garrett pecked away at his holo-display in an attempt to refine the signal search. "We need at least two more of those to get a fix. We are definitely marked. Now we have to find it."
I turned and walked into the cabin, emerging a few seconds later carrying the Green's helmet. "Is it this?"
Garrett looked at the helmet. "No, we smashed the emitter on that. Remember that whack to your head?"
I turned the helmet around. "This is the Green's helmet."
Garrett looked down at the still intact ID emitter. "I thought you threw that out?"
I shook my head. We were in a hurry. I set it to the side and then carried it into your cabin when we lifted off. I didn't think to throw it down the ramp."
Garrett grabbed the helmet, placing it face down on the floor with his boot inside to hold it still, then smashed the butt of a blaster rifle hard into the emitter. Shattered bits of circuit told of its destruction.
Garrett slapped the blaster back into its mount on the back of the pilot's chair and sat down. "Jack. I think we found it. Adjust course again and tell me if they are still following. I'll keep scanning for signals here until we know we're clear."
"This is just not turning out to be my day," I said.
Garrett chuckled. "It was an easy mistake. I should have followed up with my signal sweeps. I think we both got caught up in our success and got sloppy."
I nodded. "Your attempt at spreading the blame is appreciated, but not necessary. The blame lies with me and no one else. I accept it. Let's move forward."
Jack came over the comm. "Looks like they adjusted course to follow us just before your last message. I set our course off by another three degrees. We should know in about fifteen minutes if they adjust again."
Garrett replied, "Thanks, Jack. Let us know when you know. I'll continue watching from here."
I sat in the copilot's chair. "Bring up the Garmon's sensors. Tell me if they are closing distance or not."
Garrett brought up the sensor display. "It looks like they have a very slight speed advantage over this ship. Too bad we're not in the Jess. It has enough juice to pull away by about an equal amount."
I replied, "We are in the Jess."
Garrett shook his head. "I know we are sitting in the Jess, but the Jess is sitting in the Garmon. We can't go any faster than the Garmon, no matter how much we want to."
"Bring up the sensor screen that shows that helmet signal," I said.
The display showed in front of us. "You captured that signal. Can you replicate it?"
Garrett nodded. "I can send it. But what good does that do us? They'll just keep following us."
I smacked Garrett on his back. "Exactly! Get the signal set up to broadcast at the same frequency it was before and start it going."
Garrett gave me a confused look. "Why do we want them to follow us?"
I smiled. "Because we are taking the Jess out. The Garmon will be free to circle back to the other ship. If we are faster than those Grotus ships, we can lead them away. When we've reached a safe distance, we turn that signal off and double back. Now, just get me set up and I'll do the dirty work."
Garrett laughed. "Yeah, like I'm gonna let you steal all the glory. Look, if you really have to go, then we both go. I know how to fly this ship and I know how to hide this ship. Make yourself comfortable in that chair because I'm driving."
I sat back. "Jack, we're going to be taking the Jess out to lead them away. Double back to the other ships and take up a waiting position on the opposite side of the portal opening from where you were. That should put sufficient space between you and them if they double back."
Jack replied, "OK, so that cuts us down to two people getting captured or killed. If we lost them already, why don't we just keep on the current heading?"
Garrett followed. "If we lose them right now, they are going to start fishing around where they last got a signal. That will put them in the vicinity of the portal opening. We can't let that happen. Knog and I are going to lead them away in the Jess. We'll match their speed for a week or two and then we'll turn off the signal and quietly slip away. It would take them six months of searching to even get remotely close to this area. We've got the time, and we've got the speed."
Jack smiled. "Got it. They are all yours. I'll set the gravity wall for your exit. And don't take any chances. That portal should be opening not too long after you get back, if they stick to their previous schedules."
Garrett gave the nod. The Jess lifted off the deck and slid out through the gravity wall into free space. The Grotus ID signal was activated and our direction changed. The Garmon moved quickly away from us.
Joni came over the comm. "Don't be taking any chances out there. We need you both back here when that gate opens. If we take this information through to my uncle, this might be the last time a portal opens into this galaxy. So bring yourselves back here as soon as you can."
Go entered the conversation. "I did a once over of the Jess before you launched. She's in good shape. I have to say I wish I could go as well."
I replied, "We'll be back in a few weeks, Go. Then it's on to home."
I continued, "That's our plan, Joni. However, we need to lead those ships as far away from the portal area as we can. Just one of those behemoths going through could wreck a hundred colonies before we could come up with something to defeat it. We can't allow them to go near the portal."
Garrett jumped into the conversation. "Hey, you don't have to worry about us, Joni. The Jess is faster than those ships. We'll take them away from here and then dump them. They will spend months looking where we're not. Now, we need to cut the comms or we risk them knowing there is more than one ship. Keep yourselves safe and we'll be back in a few weeks or so."
Joni nodded and smiled as the comm closed. Fifteen minutes later, a small course correction by the Grotus ship confirmed they were following. We matched their speed and sat back for the long ride.
After a packaged meal, Garrett leaned back in his chair, picking at his teeth. "You know, I always wondered what it would be like to travel to Andromeda or any of the other galaxies. All the different species and subcultures. I would have loved to have been an anthropologist."
I replied, "While I'm grateful for the opportunities I've had, I believe I would have been content being a farmer."
Garrett laughed. "You? A farmer? I don't think so. You are one of those people who has to get involved in things that are much bigger than farming. I think you are right where you should be, in the middle of a big adventure, trying to save the Alliance and everyone in it."
I frowned. "I can assure you that for all of my adult life, up until Joni Salton came along, I was about as far from adventurous as one could be. I like order. I take care of the business at hand. I require a stable unchanging world to be content."
Garrett again laughed. "Well, that may have been the public you, but all this we are doing out here, this is right up your alley. You go where it's not wise and you do it for the right reasons. Just look at what happened to the Omega sector after you swept through there. Millions of lives have been changed for the better. You have a wife and children, and yet you sacrificed possibly never seeing them again in order to come through to rescue Joni. No, you are not the stoic, common citizen that you make yourself out to be. You are the hero of worlds, the rescuer of damsels in distress, the Emperor of the Talisan!"
I half smiled. "Are you trying to give me a big head?"
Garrett smirked. "If you haven't noticed, you already have a big head—you Gruntas have about the biggest heads I've seen. No, all I'm trying to do is say that the things I have seen you accomplish have been fantastic, over and above what could be expected of anyone. You have to face the facts, Knog Beutcher, you are one unique individual out of trillions of copies."
I sighed. "None of this would have been p
ossible without your assistance. Without you, I would still be a slave on Telfor, if even still alive. It is you who have saved my life repeatedly. You are the hero in this great game."
Garrett shook his head. "And humble to boot. No, at best I might be the hero's haphazard sidekick. I'm not the grand planner, I'm the follower."
A week into our run, I glanced at the nav screen. "Garrett, is that ship closer to us than it was yesterday?"
Garrett looked. "Hmm. They've somehow closed the distance between us by 20 percent. Why didn't my monitor alarm go off? Crap. I never initiated it."
I checked the distance. "They remain at a safe distance, but I would think we want to push them back out to the max our sensors can handle, just as they were before. We need that distance if we want room to slip away when we shut down that signal."
Garrett nodded. "OK, I'm pushing the throttle to full. We should have our distance back in a day."
After an hour at our new speed, Garrett checked the nav display. "I think we have a problem."
Garrett began frantically pushing holo-buttons and swiping at screens. "Speed indicator shows we are running at max, and sensor data confirms that."
Garrett leaned back in his chair. "I hate to say this, but I think their ships are faster than ours. They are still gaining on us!"
"How long before they catch us?"
Garrett swiped at several screens while running a set of calculations. "Two days. Two and a half, tops. We need a plan."
I looked over the nav display. "Head for this star system. This ship is good at hiding. Perhaps we can find a rock to hide behind."
Garrett nodded. "We can be there in about four hours. I hope there are lots of planets in that system. We already underestimated the speed of that ship, there's no reason they wouldn't have better sensors than us as well. I shut off the ID signal before I made that turn. In about ten minutes we'll know if they are tracking us on their normal sensors."
Tension hung in the air as we waited for confirmation of our fears. When the data arrived on the display, it was confirmed. The Grotus ship was still following.
Garrett continued to work over his screens. "There is no way they have us on visual sensors. We must be putting off something else they can detect. I'll keep looking, but at the moment I don't have a clue as to what that would be."
I replied, "We aren't leaking anything are we? Any ion emissions or carbon from the environmental system?"
Garrett shook his head. "No. I'm not picking up anything unusual. The sensors on this ship are set up to detect just about everything and they aren't showing anything."
I looked towards the back of the ship. "What about the engine? Could we be leaking anything from there?"
Garrett looked back and took a deep breath. "No. It's a gravity drive. There are no emissions. The gravity waves that come out of that thing are almost imperceptible at only a kilometer away. At their distance, the sensors would have to be insanely sensitive. Any signature or pattern left behind would be so buried in the noise of the cosmos that it would never be seen."
Garrett continued to scan and evaluate the data the Jess's sensors returned. He was baffled. He could not comprehend how it was the Grotus ship was still following us. The planets of the star system we had targeted were soon within visual range.
I said, "Three planets. One looks to actually be in the life zone. I say we drop in there."
Garrett nodded. "That first planet is hot and flat. The third is a gas giant, so I think we are stuck with the second anyway. It has volcanoes, mountains and oceans. All of which should offer opportunities for us to hide."
I leaned back and crossed my arms. "What's our plan B? If they find us, what options do we have?"
Garrett half smiled. "Given the firepower of that thing, I think running is our only option. At least down in the atmosphere of that planet we should have an advantage. The size of that ship will make it difficult for them to maneuver like we can. We'll have to run and hug terrain until an opportunity to do something else comes up."
The planet was a blue marble as we approached. Scans revealed that more than 85 percent of the surface was covered with water. The average temperature was moderate and the atmosphere sufficiently oxygenated. While ideal for colonization, it offered fewer places to hide than was desired. We selected the largest of the four small continents as our potential refuge.
Garrett scanned the visual display. "How about this peak and the ridge running away from it? We might find a good ledge or two to tuck ourselves under down there. It also offers us several directions to run that are somewhat protected by terrain."
I nodded. "Find us a spot. And make it quick in case we need to move. That ship has continued to increase its speed. It looks like we have less than a day before they get here."
Garrett pulled back from his monitor. "Whoa! The sensors are pulling in all kinds of signals from that planet. There is life down there, and it looks to at least be advanced to the point of having satellites in orbit. I hope we aren't bringing death to what was a peaceful place."
I replied, "We don't have much of a choice. Put us down along that ridge. If the inhabitants don't see us, hopefully the Grotus will ignore them."
We raced down through the atmosphere of the beautiful blue-green planet.
As we approached our destination, I said, "Garrett, we have to pick another location. That ridge is populated all down through where we are heading. If we could hide in among the people that might offer extra cover, but it would be more likely that they would give us away as they came out to see who we are. Head for the continent to the left. It looks volcanic, which might make it less populated."
Garrett shook his head. "If these people haven't had visitors from elsewhere, they are about to get a big shock."
My conscience soon began to get the best of me as I reached and grabbed Garrett by the shoulder. Take us out of here. Head for the gas giant. We can't put these people in danger just because we need to hide."
Garrett winced. "OK, but we aren't going to be hard to find if they come looking for us there. We can't go much into that atmosphere before the pressure crushes us. As a solid object, we are going to stand out on any deep scans."
I half smiled. "Well, either way we will have accomplished our mission of leading the Grotus away from the others. Put us on the other side of the gas giant. We'll make do with what we have."
The Grotus ship followed our initial flight path, stopping in orbit to scan the surface of the populated planet for our whereabouts. Whatever tracking mechanism they had used was not valid within the confines of a planet's atmosphere.
Garrett zoomed in on the visual view. "Looks like they're just sitting there. Hold on. Whoa. They just launched about a hundred of those teardrop fighter craft."
Small explosions could be seen. "The people on that planet just attacked, or defended themselves, whatever you want to call it. I'm counting tens, no hundreds of atmospheric craft coming up from the surface. Missiles are flying everywhere! It looks like a slaughter ... wait! Two of those teardrops just exploded! It looks like they have some kind of kinetic weapons, which those teardrops should be able to outmaneuver. There goes another! That battlecruiser is moving lower!"
I was on the edge of my chair. "Is it enough of a distraction that we could make a run for it?"
Garrett shook his head as he watched in fascination. "At this range they would easily detect our movement. And running wouldn't do these people any good now anyway. They have engaged and the Grotus will be back here just as soon as they catch up to us, which won't take them long."
Garrett clapped his hands together. "Yes! Three more teardrops gone! Those little fighters are putting up a stiff defense considering their primitive level of technology. I have more than nine hundred fighters in the air and I see two groups converging from those other continents. Looks like different fighters from each.
Garrett pointed at his display. "This one has four hundred eighty and this one has over six hundred. That battle
cruiser should be entering the fray any second now. Yes! Three more teardrops down! But they are butchering those little fighters. Man, I wish we could be in there helping. I feel like a coward just sitting here and watching them fighting our battle for us."
I replied, "The Grotus would have come this way eventually. Or the Moddle, or even the Alliance. There are no safe havens anymore. Space travel brings both the good and the bad."
Garrett winced. "Battlecruiser is firing with all batteries. That is not looking good for the locals. The sky around that ship will be empty in about five minutes. Those other fighters won't reach that area for hours."
I placed my hand on the arm of my chair and squeezed. "Take us in there. Maybe we can draw them off long enough to raise a decent defense. I can't just sit here and watch any longer."
Garrett smiled and nodded. "That's the Knog I have come to know and respect. They are in atmosphere, so it should give us a chance to run for a couple hours. I say we see how close we can take them to that sun."
I nodded. "Make it happen, Mr. Rourke. It's our time to sacrifice."
Seconds after leaving the gas giant, Garrett pushed the throttle to full. "I'll take us screaming by there like our ass is on fire! They won't be able to refuse a chase!"
I continued to observe the battle as the battlecruiser molested the contingent of small fighter craft. It was hardly a fair fight.
Garrett rocked back in his chair to a bright flash. "Whoa! What the ... that was a fission explosion! From the looks of it, that battlecruiser just took a wallop!"
A second and then a third bright flash filled our visual sensor display.
Garrett clapped his hands and yelled. "No way! They just took out that ship! It's heading for the surface in flames! That did not just happen!"
I pointed at the nav display. "We aren't out of danger yet. Five of those teardrop ships are heading right for us!"
Garrett banked the Jess into a hard left turn.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
Garrett replied, "I'm going to take them into the atmosphere of the gas planet. If they follow, we'll get to see who has the better built ship. We will make it a little less than halfway ourselves. Hopefully, that will be enough."
OMEGA Allegiance Page 23
