Acheron

by Max Wilson

“Or they knew we were coming,” Fabian said.

  “Have we got time to strip out the oxygen recycler before they get here,” Wolfin said as she secured the last of her prisoners.

  “No. no time.” Fabian said. “Secure the Acheron with a hard dock. We are going to have to take the entire freighter. Set course for Helta Veda.”

  “We’ll never outrun those fighters,” Wolfin said. “Not in this big old thing.”

  “We don’t have to outrun them for long,” Fabian said. “There is an asteroid storm moving in. We just need to make it there.”

  “And then what,” Burkhardt said. “We can’t hide in there. The fighters will pick us off if the asteroids don’t.”

  “I don’t intend to hide,” Fabian said. He tapped the flight controls on the captain’s chair and set the course for the asteroid storm.

  *

  The hologram in the center of the freighters bridge showed the asteroid storm up ahead and the fighters swooping in towards the freighter from behind. The freighter was operating at its highest power. The freighter was big, and the bridge was larger than the Acheron’s small command post, Fabian preferred the smaller, nimbler Acheron this ship had the grace of a potato in comparison. He had piloted and commanded ships of all sizes but the small Vazsoo raiding ships were hands down the best ships. Fabian would be happy to strip out the freighter and return to his familiar ship just as soon as he was out of danger.

  The Taddecu fighters were fast and heavily armed. Fabian had a few tricks that might slow them down. He opened a channel to his combat leaders.

  “Report, have you secured all prisoners?”

  The combat leaders’ reports came in rapidly. All mercs were sealed in the freighters hold and under guard.

  “All available personnel. Man, the Acheron’s guns and lay down a wall of fire. Get those fighters to take the long way around.”

  Sergeant Burkhardt and Wolfin were dashing about the large bridge. Finally, Wolfin shouted out in excitement.

  “I’ve got it. Defense controls. We’ve got a rear and forward cannon. I can activate it from here. Firing now.”

  Fabian watched the hologram and saw the huge blast of energy race away from the freighter’s rear cannon. It headed towards the incoming fighters causing them to scatter.

  Then the fire from the Acheron’s turrets put up a wall of fire in the face of the pursuing fighters. Again, the squadron of Taddecu fighters evaded the fire but in turn slowing them down and scattering them across a hundred thousand kilometers of open space.

  “Captain. I found something,” Burkhardt said, “This should give those fighters something to think about. The freighter is carrying space mines. I should be able to set the detonators to a timer.”

  “Do it,” Fabian said. “Give me a mine ready to go on a short fuse. Go.”

  Burkhardt nodded and then ran from the bridge. “I’ll be in the cargo hold setting the mines,” he said as he ran off the bridge.

  Fabian watched as the pursuing fighters avoided the fire from the freighter and the Acheron. They were being slowed down but they were still gaining ground on Fabian.

  “I’ve created an uplink to our computers, captain,” Wolfin said. “I’m looking through our communication logs. I’ve found an unlogged transmission sent from med bay just before the attack on the freighter. I’m decoding it now.”

  Fabian leaned towards Wolfin. She her hair was tumbling over her face and she swept it aside as she worked quickly to decode the unlogged message.

  “It’s definitely directed towards the freighter. It’s an alert that we are going to attack.”

  Fabian climbed down from his chair. He grabbed the freighter’s captain by the collar and hauled him to his feet.

  “Who sent you the message?” Fabian asked.

  Mc Cormack remained tight lipped.

  “I’ve got a received signal on the freighter’s computer. They relayed it the Taddecu defense and the fighters were dispatched. I’ve got an identification on the sender,” Wolfin said. She looked over to Fabian.

  “Who?” Fabian said.

  Wolfin looked back to the control panel. “Just double checking it now.”

  “Who Wolf? Tell me now!”

  She looked over at Fabian. Her hair had fallen back into her face. “It’s De Sousa.”

  Fabian looked at Mc Cormack. “Is that right?” McCormack refused to answer.

  Fabian pushed the Taddecu captain back to the deck. He drew his blaster and pointed it at the prone captain.

  “No,” Wolfin said. “He is not worth it Fabian, remember the code”

  Fabian grimaced and resisted the urge to shoot the Taddecu captain in the back of his head. “Don’t quote the code at me, Wolf,” he said. He holstered his blaster and then crouched next to the Taddecu captain. “How about I release you and then it will be a fair fight? Then I can kill you.” Fabian grinned madly, “What do you think Mc Cormack? Have you got what it takes to kill me? I doubt it.” Mc Cormack’s left hand started trembling, he could barely hold Fabians gaze.

  “Captain.” Wolfin called out. “Entering the asteroid storm now.”

  6

  Directly controlling the Taddecu freighter was not ideal but Fabian had no other choice. He either took control and navigated the asteroid storm or he surrendered to the pursuing Taddecu fighters.

  Fabian was not going to surrender. Not today. Not ever.

  The asteroid storm ahead was a maelstrom of rock and ice. The collisions between the asteroids resulted in a hail of red hot rock. A single collision with the freighter would end in oblivion.

  “Hold tight,” Fabian shouted. “We’re going in.”

  Fabian spotted the asteroid on the port side, the ship calculated the time to impact. He had seconds to power past. He pushed the freighter’s reactor to the limit. The sudden acceleration hit like a hammer and pressed Fabian back into the captain’s chair. The Taddecu bridge crew slid along the deck, fetching up in a heap at the rear bulkhead.

  Wolfin gripped a console and clung on for her life as Fabian threw the freighter to the port to avoid another asteroid. With his focus on the navigation Fabian could only glimpse the pursuing fighters. He called out to Wolfin.

  “Where are those fighters now?”

  “They are just entering the storm now,” she replied.

  Fabian spotted a large rock racing towards the freighter, a molten spot glowing white hot on one face where it had just impacted against a smaller asteroid. Fabian threw the freighter into a dive and narrowly avoided the massive asteroid.

  Moving at speed on its headlong dive deeper into the asteroid storm Fabian spotted the massive asteroid in front of the freighter. The asteroid appeared motionless, yet it grew in size as the freighter raced towards it. Fabian directed the thrusters to move the freighter in a curve that carried it away from its head on collision course. The freighter moved slowly and changed course marginally. The massive asteroid still directly in front of the freighter.

  “Pull up,” Fabian shouted as he pulled on the manual flight controls. “This damn freighter won’t turn.”

  “The crew safety systems are preventing you pulling a tighter turn. The G-force will be too high.” Wolfin clambered across the console to an adjacent one. “I can deactivate it, but the crew will black out.”

  “Do it,” Fabian shouted. “Do it now or will be part of that asteroid in a few seconds time.”

  Fabian felt the freighter become more responsive as the safety was deactivated. Then he felt the darkness close in as the high G-force threatened to rob him of consciousness. As his vision blurred he saw the nose of the massive freighter pull up and point away from the asteroid towards open space.

  Fabian pushed the freighters reactor engine to the maximum, to clear the asteroid. A warning alarm sounded across the bridge.

  “Can you see what that is,” Fabian shouted to Wolfin.

  A young bridge officer called back. “It’s the docking bridge. It’s going to fail. It was never designed t
o take maneuvers like that.”

  “He’s right,” Wolfin said. “If we don’t slow her down we will lose the Acheron.”

  Fabian had no intention of losing the Acheron. That was his ship.

  “Sergeant Burkhardt,” Fabian opened a channel. “How are those space mines coming along.”

  “It would be a whole lot quicker if you didn’t keep throwing me around the ship, captain.”

  “Maybe you’d prefer to be floating dead in space, sergeant,” Fabian said with a dark humor in his voice.

  “Job done, captain.” Burkhardt replied. “The mine is prepped and ready to deploy. Just say the word and I’ll drop it on our tail.”

  Fabian leveled out the freighter. He picked a line through the asteroid storm and held the ship steady. An asteroid raced across the nose of the freighter only meters ahead. Fabian held his nerve. The fighters closed in, almost within weapons range. Fabian held his line. An asteroid directly ahead grew larger and larger in the view screen.

  “It’s heading directly towards us,” Wolfin said.

  “Get ready to activate that forward cannon.” Fabian said. She hesitated “Trust me, I’ve got this.” She took up position then what seemed like an age Fabian “FIRE!”

  The cannon fired a brilliant white beam at the asteroid. It slammed into the rock. The rock glowed white and melted. The asteroid began to break apart slowly expanding into a dozen smaller, partially molten lumps of rock.

  “Sergeant,” Fabian called to Burkhardt. “Deploy that mine on my command.”

  The asteroid began to break apart and as the freighter arrived the asteroid had parted enough for the freighter to move between the massive fragments. And with the freighter fully inside the expanding pieces of molten rock Fabian gave his order.

  “Deploy, now.”

  The signal of the space mine appeared on the massive hologram. Fabian counted and watched the fighters close in. “Fighters almost in firing range,” Wolfin said. “We need to take evasive action.”

  “Wait for it,” Fabian said calmly. Then he watched the mine sitting in the spreading fragments of asteroid and the sudden detonation.

  The blast billowed out slamming into the asteroid fragments and pushed them outwards at violent speeds. The asteroid smashed to fist sized molten fragments and jettisoned away by the blast. They raced away, an expanding asteroid storm within a storm. The Taddecu fighters didn’t stand a chance.

  The first fighter attempted a space break maneuver, but the expanding wall of melted rock slammed into the craft. The speed of the collision vaporized the molten asteroid and smashed the fighter to particles.

  The rest of the squadron veered away in every direction, some diving, others climbing. They turned to evade the glowing wall of rock fragments but only served to expose themselves to the blasts violent assault. One by one the fighters were struck by molten rocks traveling at deadly speed. Every fighter destroyed.

  “Yes,” Wolfin whooped, punching the air. “By the code, that was some excellent flying, Fabian.”

  Fabian focused on the asteroid storm ahead. He threw the freighter to higher speed to avoid the expanding debris field behind him. The asteroids raced left and right, and Fabian eased the freighter to the left and right, skimming over one asteroid and narrowly avoiding another.

  “Save the congratulation for when we are out of this damn asteroid storm,” Fabian said. The hologram showed a channel of low density asteroid concentration that led to the far side of the storm. He pushed the freighter to its limits. Another alarm sounded. The young bridge officer spoke up.

  “It’s the reactor coolant. You need to balance the coolant. The high G-force had pooled it in one tank.”

  “Where are the controls,” Wolfin shouted at the young bridge officer.

  “They’ll hang you for this,” Captain McCormack shouted. ”You traitor.”

  The young Taddecu bridge officer moved quickly to a nearby console. Wolfin moved towards him but the young officer was too fast. He tapped a few keys and the alarm stopped.

  “There. Rebalanced the coolant,” he said looking over to Fabian.

  Wolfin stepped up to the young officer and pushed him back to the deck. She pulled her blaster and pointed it down at the young officer.

  “Take it easy on the boy,” Fabian said. “He just saved your skin”

  “I could have done it…” she responded, eyeing the boy down the sight of her gun with an insatiable hunger. “Not as quickly, so cut him some slack”

  Wolfin succeeded and holstered her blaster. She looked up at the hologram. “That’s the way out,” she said. “Well done, captain. Excellent work.”

  Fabian watched with satisfaction as the hologram signaled they were now in open space. There was no pursuit and nothing ahead but a free run to Helta Veda. Fabian let out a long breath he didn’t even realize he was holding.

  He turned to Wolfin, “get a team up here to move these bridge officers in with the rest of the prisoners,” Fabian said. Then he opened a channel to his sergeant. “Burkhardt, get up here.”

  7

  “I don’t believe it,” Burkhardt said.

  Fabian walked around the huge bridge of the Taddecu freighter. He folded his arms across his chest and bit his lip. “No, friend. Me neither.”

  “It’s that damn Wolfin. She planted the message. She’s setting up De Sousa. She’s the spy. We know it.”

  Fabian shook his head. “Somehow, I don’t think so. She would know it was a risk to implicate De Sousa”

  “Do you think it was De Sousa?”

  Fabian looked up to the high ceiling of the bridge. The ship was massive and powerful. It was a good prize but frankly, Fabian just wished he had never been sent on this operation. He never wanted to be saddled with Wolfin. He was doing just great only a short time ago. True that now he had a captured Taddecu freighter he and the crew would benefit, but it had cost him certainty, and it might just have cost him an old friend.

  “I don’t know what to think.” Fabian walked towards the exit. “Take control of the bridge here. I’m going back to the Acheron.”

  *

  Fabian paced back and fore in his small office, a glass of Vazsoo Amber on his desk remained untouched. How could it be that doctor De Sousa was a spy? It didn’t make any sense. The doctor had been a close confident of Fabian for years and he certainly had access to valuable information. But the doctor was a fighter and he battled Fabian over one issue or another. Surely a spy would keep quiet, keep their head down, not go toe to toe with the captain over any and every issue.

  Fabian questioned everything. Every last meeting with the doctor, every last shared drink, every word that had passed between them became a point of scrutiny.

  Fabian couldn’t accept it. Wolfin was playing a dangerous game if she was trying to turn Fabian against one of his most trusted crew. But Fabian didn’t believe for a moment that Wolfin was that stupid. She was a hot head, aggressive and a true warrior of the code of violence but she wasn’t naïve.

  There was something else going on here. Fabian couldn’t work it out just yet. Maybe he should play it safe and execute De Sousa and Wolfin and be done with the whole lot. That would certainly makes things easier, and none of the crew would say anything to contradict their captain.

  Docking at Helta Veda was a proud moment. The Taddecu freighter had already started to attract attention. Fabian ignored the first offers from traders knowing the first bids would be ludicrously small. He turned his prisoners over to the Vazsoo garrison and enjoyed a bit of shore leave.

  A small side street cafe serving real flesh burgers in a soft bun was a welcome spot for a break. Fabian drank Veda Ale and ate the biggest burger on the menu, returning to the Acheron once he’d eaten and drunk his fill.

  The Acheron was quiet with the engines powered down. Fabian slept aboard. The rest of the crew were scattered across Helta Veda. No one wanted to spend time on the old boat when they didn’t have to, no one except Fabian. This was his world. He sle
pt better here than anywhere else.

  As the morning sun rose over the dock the light poured through the view port of the command post. Fabian had fallen asleep in his chair, again. He had a bunk only a few steps away, but those burgers and ale had knocked him out and he’d slept in the first place he had rested, his own chair on the command post of the Acheron.

  An incoming video message alert sounded. Fabian taped the control on the arm of his chair. General Jarl’s face appeared in the large hologram in the middle of the command post.

  “Not disturbing you am I captain?” the general said.

  Wiping his eyes and hastily adjusting his clothing Fabian saluted the general. “No sir, not at all.”

  “Still on Helta Veda, I presume?” the general said. “Having a holiday are we? Captain.”

  Fabian sat up straight. “Not primarily, sir. Just waiting to get the right price on the Taddecu freighter I captured.”

  The general grunted and nodded. “Yes, good work. But captain, you have no more time to bargain. Take the next offer you are given and then report to Vazsoo command.”

  “Yes, sir. Of course. I’ll get underway this morning.”

  The general nodded. “Don’t forget my tribute. I want my cut of the freighter bounty as soon as you land here at Vazsoo command. Clear?”

  “Yes sir. I’ll bring it personally.”

  The hologram disappeared as the general cancelled the call. Fabian could have spent another day here on Helta Veda, but the general’s was an impatient man and would not look kindly on any further delays. Fabian sent out a message to all crew to return to the Acheron within the hour. Any crew not back at the Acheron would be left. They would lose out on their bounty and have to sign on as rookie crew with the next Vazsoo captain to land.

  Fabian didn’t need to doubt any of his crew and they all assembled in front of the boarding ramp, ready to be checked aboard, within the hour. Fabian took the next offer for the captured freighter. He was sure he could have pushed for a twenty percent increase with another trader, but time was short.

  *

  With the Acheron fully repaired and kitted out with systems liberated from the Taddecu freighter the Acheron handled like a new ship.