Xavier glanced out the bulkhead. “No more shooting. Come on, lead the way.”
William felt a pit in his heart. He should’ve seen it coming. Bastards, he thought. No, no. I’m the bastard. I’m the stupid son of a bitch. He knew that if he’d gone by the books none of this would have happened, at the worst he’d have lost his boarding crew, but now they could lose everything. He walked stiffly and glanced behind him.
“Non,” Xavier said as he raised the barrel and slowed his pace.
The men walked through the portal into the warmer air. The taste of grit and steel returned. William stopped when ordered and felt his anger seething—anger mixed with helplessness. He scanned and saw nothing, no one, only the flickering lights of the airlock in the distance and empty containers.
“Manuel?” Xavier called out into the silence. His voice echoed and all was still.
William debated keying up his comms, but couldn’t speak, so didn’t see much point.
Xavier sidestepped behind an ore container and crouched slightly. His eyes were wide and white as they took in the darkness around him. “Manuel? Paul? Consuela?”
William turned and faced Xavier. He could taste the fear in his mouth along the itching on his augmetic hand. A sense of tension filled him. If he was going to get shot, he’d face Xavier, make the bastard look him in the eyes.
Xavier opened his mouth to call once more when a single gunshot rang out. It was the loud crack of a nanite propelled round. His head snapped back, a ragged hole in his cheek. The blocky knockoff rifle clattered to the floor and landed with Xavier.
William turned slowly, his heart booming in his ears. Corporal Vale rose two dozen meters away. “Well done, Corporal. Who did we lose?”
He’d dreaded asking the question ever since he heard the gunshots. They needed every single crewmember, and any thoughts of pressing the miners into service went away when the gunfire started.
Vale peeled her faceshield up. “Igor took a round. They tried to hit us once you’d walked away. Kyong saw it first and blasted a group of ‘em.”
“Igor?”
“He’ll live,” Vale said. She scanned the room with her weapon.
“I’m sorry,” William said to her. “He was once a friend.”
Vale scanned her eyes past William without really seeing him. “I’m taking Kyong and we’re going to secure the rest, sir.”
“Carry on,” William said, and returned to the airlock alone. But not totally alone—the feeling of guilt walked with him as an unwelcome companion.
*
The repairs moved from basic triage to that of a rough refit. The station held an additive cell specialized in refitting mining drones and orbital facilities. Huron worked incessantly interfacing the systems and laying out the repair plan. In a matter of a few short hours, the scent of a foundry permeated the air. The Garlic was being reborn.
William watched the chaos of the firefight and saw what a lucky affair it had been. Had Kyong not been as jumpy, the miners would have taken them. An overriding sense of guilt spread in him. Guilt that he’d almost cost them the ship, and this spilled into guilt about the mission. He’d asked so much, to go beyond direct orders and right into the realm of prison time. By rights, Shay should have taken his command and confined him to his quarters.
Even if they hit the troopship and finished off the Gallipoli, the planet was still occupied. He couldn’t save anyone. Worst of all, he could hardly save himself. He shook his head and stared at the dried blood mixed with the grit on the floor.
He passed through the airlock and made his way back to the Garlic. He glanced out the viewport and saw the first of the repair drones settling into position and laminating a new layer onto the rocky hull. He stopped and hovered in the zero gravity and watched, then spread his focus to the rest of the ship. His ship. No, the United Colonies’ ship.
They’d sacrificed so much to get here, to throw it all away now would be spitting in the face of those who trusted him. He knew it, and pushed the guilt away. His mind opened up and felt disappointed in himself that he’d let the moment get away from him. They had a job to do and he was going to see to it. At the very least he’d deprive the Hun troops on the ground of a ride home. And he had a score to settle with the Gallipoli.
“Huron,” William called. “How long?”
“Uh, Captain, we’re just getting rolling,” Huron replied. The sounds of machinery rattled behind him.
“Estimate? And can you get me another Haydn?”
“What? What in the Sam Hill do you need another Haydn for?”
William smiled and pushed back towards the station. He had a ship to refit. It was time to level the playing field.
*
The sun burned through the void of space with no regard of the time. It was a harsh light, an alkaline light, tinted with a hue of yellow. But it was light.
William shielded his eyes from the glare as he watched the multijointed arm sway out from the alloy pier and apply layer after layer of nanite aggregate. It was like a peanut butter mixture that was an intense bond of simple nanites and asteroid. He knew it wasn’t as strong as the original material. But he didn’t have much choice.
While the arm swayed back and forth he looked down to his tablet and saw another plot finished. He tapped it and watched the results play out. Icons danced in and around the planet. He swiped it away and let it continue without watching. The outcome was plain enough: two on one, and he wasn’t the winner.
Huron’s footsteps echoed through the hall. The pace was slow, with a slight tap of the toe. William glanced over and nodded to the Engineer.
“They always said that robots would take our jobs,” he said, stifling a yawn. “I could use a robot with a big kettle head and rubber jointed arms.”
William smiled and nodded. The tickle and itch of the nanite patch reminded him that he too hadn’t slept nearly enough. “Is it done?”
Huron looked to William. “Think they’ll chase it?”
“I think so.”
Huron rubbed his chin, the rasp of the stubble loud under his fingers. “If they don’t?”
William shrugged. “Then we go after both.”
A breath of air brushed against his face as the ventilation system kicked on. He tasted the grit of nanite powder in his mouth.
Huron smacked his lips. “That taste...”
William looked out at the ship. The arm was retracting. “Railgun?”
Huron shook his head. “The equipment here is too rough to make something that large and keep it in spec. Gotta keep the rail within three lightbands of flatness.”
William nodded. He’d been told as much earlier but asked again just in case his Engineer worked up a new solution. He didn’t feel good about any of the options.
“And it’ll blink?” William asked Huron.
Huron nodded and stared out into space. “Yup.”
“You don’t really know do you?” William asked.
“Nope.”
The pair broke into a smile and watched as the arm spread out another layer onto the ship.
“Kyong should be done,” Huron said, nodding towards the mining tender.
They walked in silence and entered the launch bay of the station. The mining tender was crouched in the same place with a gantry additive cell perched over the top. The gusseted arms shook and hummed as the head whirred from side to side. A steady hiss pulsed out with a whistle and crunching sound. Farther below, cables snaked out and were piped into a console that sat squarely on Kyong’s lap. She didn’t look up when the pair walked in.
Her fingers flew over the keys. She glanced up quickly and back to the screen and shook her head slowly. Her mouth moved but no sounds came out. It was like she was whispering a prayer.
“Almost,” she said. Her fingers paused and hovered, quivering.
“Two hours?” William asked.
Kyong turned her head slowly and looked at William with bloodshot eyes.
“Captain!” Bryce�
��s voice rang in his ear.
“One moment, please,” William said. “Go ahead, Bryce.”
Huron squatted down and looked over Kyong’s shoulder. She tucked the screen to the side and gave Huron an offended look.
“They’re moving,” Bryce said. “Troopship just pulled away from the dock with the Gallipoli a few kilometers away.”
“Course?” William asked.
“Back from where they came.”
William felt the grin growing on his face. “Kyong, you’ve got thirty minutes.” He slapped Huron’s arm. “Finish it up and get everyone aboard. We’ve got a target.”
*
William switched the screen back and watched as the mining tender pulled away. The thought that he’d been betrayed was behind him. The man who betrayed him, the man he’d thought closer than a brother, was dead and gone. That moment was gone, now just the flux for what lay ahead. The bead of the weld was rolling down, cementing the actions before him.
“Kyong says one more burst,” Shay said quietly.
“After that, it’s secure,” William replied and called up the nav plot. He watched the planned arcs as they spread through the system. With a tender tap he brought up the backup plot just in case the mining tender didn’t blink.
“Acceleration rising,” Bryce said. “It’ll blink in thirty minutes.”
Grgur stood at the edge of the room with both hands firmly planted in a set of white mitts. His eyes spoke of violence and his face was set in a grin.
“Don’t get too excited,” William said. “We don’t know if they’ll take the bait.”
Grgur straightened himself up.
William watched as the systems—once destroyed—came online. He looked up from the screen and scanned the walls of the bridge. The once shimmering nanite layer had solidified. He felt better, but only a little. The ship was more fragile than before and he knew it. “Kyong?”
Shay spoke quietly and nodded to William. “She’s ready.”
The system view showed the slender mining tender slowly gaining velocity. The projected arc changed to a course that sent it out of the system.
The icons for the two hostiles glowed a halo of question marks. The last known data came from reflected light. They wouldn’t really know anything until they blinked.
William watched the two ships and replayed the course on his console. His eyes darted across the screen. It could work.
“Shay, sound it.”
The tone of the Garlic changed as the crew shifted into combat stances. The lights dimmed while bulkheads were sealed. The reactor danced up to a higher level and the Haydn began to sing. The ship, baptized in fire, was being born again.
The bridge crew watched the icons move in silence. The mining tender, bracketed in green, continued to pull away at a steep angle from the Garlic. The course would send it towards Earth: a location that, even if it wasn’t destroyed, it would never reach.
Grgur turned and squinted up at the screen.
“If they take the bait,” William said, “then the Gallipoli won’t be able to turn around and hit us. If we try to take ‘em both on, then we’ll get stomped.”
Bryce nodded without taking his eyes off his display.
“Ain’t that right, Bryce?” Shay said, nudging him with an elbow.
“Blink coming up,” Bryce said, ignoring the jibe.
“Here we go, people. Kyong, is it ready?” William asked.
“It’s ready,” Kyong’s voice replied.
Then the icon was gone. The visual display showed nothing in the space where the mining tender was.
“Projected blink should register with the hostiles in eighteen minutes,” Bryce said.
The ripple of the Haydn drive flowed through real space like a pebble in a pond. As a beacon, it was the one thing that identified a ship and its position. No one could hide a blink.
Everyone watched the screen for the initial signature. William felt the itching rise in the palm of his left hand. His eyes drifted down and he felt his augmetic fingers scratch it. But it wasn’t the same, he could never quite sooth it.
“Got it!” Bryce yelled. Above the Midshipman, the screen showed the signature of the blink flaring. Now just to wait and watch to see what the Gallipoli would do.
William thought of Mustafa and wondered what sort of Captain he was. Would he pursue? It would be a hard thing to watch a target slip away a second time. He knew if it was him, he’d strike out and fight. That was what made him nervous. If Mustafa and the Gallipoli didn’t strike out after him, he’d have an out, a way to make it back to Earth.
Part of him wanted to get away, to return to duty, to pay his dues. But he really wanted to stay, to pick a fight, to do the right thing. There was the Covenant, that simple agreement that he’d sworn to upheld. A Bill of Rights for all in the stars—or, at least, those who chose to obey it. With the distances so wide between colonies, control became an issue. Rules would vary widely. Not everyone would be like Earth.
The homogenization that had taken place on Earth was reversing in the stars. Fractures rose, differences, cultures, but the Covenant was what kept everyone together. An agreement to treat humans decently and fairly. It was the one and only thing that bound them all.
He looked over at his bridge crew. Shay sat with her shoulders tight and her head askew. Bryce was rigid, tight, with the bruising and missing teeth totally changing his look. The once handsome beach bum from Haven had changed to look like an actual veteran. Though William still didn’t know if he trusted Bryce under fire. He wanted to, but not yet.
A new Haydn signature flashed on the screen. The mass resolved slowly as the ripples were measured and compared. A moment later the indicator flipped from a gray unknown to that of the Gallipoli.
“Course is showing they will intercept the mining tender in two more blinks,” Shay said, studying her console.
The projected path for the decoy merged with the Gallipoli. William glanced down at his console and smiled to himself. The Gallipoli was traversing across the gravity well, the blinks would be inefficient. The Garlic was crossing it at a right angle. What would take Mustafa three blinks would only take the Garlic two.
“Very well, Shay,” William said, pleased. “Continue with the nav profile as is—once they get on the same plane as the decoy, we blink. Ms. Kyong, well done.”
Shay nodded and kicked back in her chair. “You got it, Captain.”
They moved along the edge of the shallow gravity well and prepared to blink. The gap was set, the blink would take them across the majority of the system where they’d arc around a barren ball of dirt. The same ball that they’d torn apart the Hun cruiser at.
Farther out came the most extreme orbits. The fields of ice and planets warped out of round. It was a zone of extremes, of resources too far stretched apart to be worth chasing. The very farthest edges where the interstellar currents lapped against the farthest bits of the gravity well. It was also on the edge of what had been officially charted.
William flipped the nav screen aside and pulled up the survey report. He had time to kill and couldn’t watch icons crawl around on the screen any longer. The closest stars were all bits of rock and ice that were visited decades before, just enough to find nothing of interest. He slid the screen and peered at those places where the details were blank. A fresh start, something totally new, a truly unexplored thing. His heart stirred in his chest and he felt a desire to leave it all and explore. He sighed and pushed it away.
“Next blink coming up, Captain,” Bryce said.
William nodded and stretched back in his chair. He took one more glance at the system displays and double checked the weapon status. The grav fields were mostly offline, they’d used the last of the heavy metals to fashion the decoy Haydn. But he felt better with three mass drivers, the sustained fire each slammed out would be more than enough to perforate the troopship. “Mr. Huron, updates on the launcher?”
“One barrage. After that, the loader will probably
jam,” Huron replied. The sound of servos and hissing nanites sounded behind him.
William changed his weapon program to work with a single barrage. “Thank you, Mr. Huron.”
He watched and felt the excitement grow. It was a dance, a dance where he needed his partner to step perfectly. Though he knew it was too late now for the troopship. Was anyone on it? He wondered. Then he decided he didn’t care one way or the other. He wanted to say it was about clearing the space of hostiles and gaining another layer of superiority, but he really wanted to get revenge.
“And there it goes,” Bryce said. He turned and looked at William with a smile crossing his bruised face.
“All right, sound the general alert, Bryce. Shay, time to blink.”
The starscape shifted before the words were even off the bridge. New ripples propagated through the system towards both the troopship and the Gallipoli. William wondered what the bridges of either ship were like once that new, unexpected blink registered. A giddy feeling ran through him as he pictured it.
*
The Garlic pushed through space to the next blink. Before it lay a gap where the Haydn couldn’t transit. On the other side of that gravity peak was a long blink. A blink that took it into the shadow of the barren planet and almost on top of the troopship.
“Shay, active scan after this blink,” William said. “Shut it down once we’re clear.”
Shay nodded and leaned over her console.
The bridge tensed as the anticipation was finally coming to a head. William notified the crew of the status and told them to get ready. It was coming, it was happening, and fast. The starfield shifted once more and the dull sensor overlay lit up with colors and spectrums across every band. The Garlic was active and hunting.
Data gushed in as the sensor packages processed the new data. The initial burst of energy went out in every direction, but once the nearest contacts were pinged it focused and drilled it down to the necessities.
“Here we go!” William leaned over his console and felt the warmth on his arms. The taste of metal was in his mouth and there was a tightness in his stomach. A touch of hunger reminded him that he would eat when this was done.
Edge of Redemption (A Star Too Far Book 3) Page 17
