The Hope Island Chronicles Boxed Set

by PJ Strebor

  Nathan sensed danger ahead, but couldn’t identify it. He rolled the boat over and began braking Checking his star charts he could find nothing ahead but clear space. As the spot on his spine began to burn with increasingly harsh pain, he pushed the throttles into the red. Behind him he heard the hatch to Spotiswood’s lair open.

  The Commander hovered by his shoulder for a moment, before leaning into his ear.

  “What’s up,” he whispered.

  “I’ve got a bad feeling,” Nathan said.

  “Yeah, I’ve heard about your feelings.”

  Of course you have, asshole.

  “There’s a rogue comet which passes through this space,” the Commander said.

  Nathan shook his head. The rogue had passed this area a week ago.

  “Trudy, are you reading anything ahead?” Nathan asked.

  “Not a thing,” the T-O replied.

  Since a vessel in hyperspace couldn’t scan into normal space, Nathan suspected that the danger lay there.

  The heat on his spine screamed danger.

  “Commander, have the Senior Engineer give me more engine power. Take the reactor fifteen percent over the red line.”

  Spotiswood didn’t hesitate to ask Nathan why, he just issued the instruction.

  He knows about my Prep. How the hell could he know? I’ve been really careful to cover it up.

  The additional engine power helped but Nathan knew with an odd certainty that it wouldn’t be enough. However the danger manifested itself, Deception would strike it in twenty three seconds. Then he remembered that he wasn’t flying a monitor.

  Cutting engine power he rotated the boat and hit the emergency forward thrusters. His first maneuver threw the Commander to the deck. The jolting deceleration rolled him toward against Nathan’s chair. He regained his footing and brushed his clothes.

  “Jezzus, Nathan, a little warning next time.”

  Nathan ignored him and concentrated on the time. Ten seconds. The pressure on his chest eased as the thrusters ran dry. Nathan rolled the boat over and pushed the throttles to maximum. This time Spotiswood held onto the back of his chair. Five seconds. As the boat lurched to full stop the heat on his spine stopped burning. Whatever the danger, he’d barely managed to miss it. Still, the mystery remained.

  Nathan engaged the hyper generator, opening a perforation into normal space. At dead slow speed he crossed the barrier from hyperspace and egressed the boat.

  “Holy shit,” Trudy said. Raising her head from the tactical display she stared at him.

  Nathan shifted uncomfortably and adjusted his harness.

  “How did you know?” Trudy asked.

  “He’s got good instincts,” the Commander said. “Leave it at that, Trudy.”

  Nathan checked the space ahead. An enormous asteroid field covered their flight path. Rechecking his star charts, Nathan confirmed that he should be seeing nothing but empty space.

  “Trudy, run a full spectrum scan on the field.” Nathan glanced over to the tactical station. Trudy was already making her analysis. Slumping into his chair, he rubbed the back of his neck. Like any good T-O, she’d make her report when she had finalized her evaluation. Nearly five minutes passed before she looked at him.

  “Rocks, lots and lots of rocks,” Trudy said. “The volume of the field is almost the same as the rogue comet, and the mineralogical composition is identical. I’m detecting radiation in small doses spread across the field.” She blinked and rubbed her eyes. “My best estimation is that someone, for some unfathomable reason, destroyed the comet.”

  “Commander,” Nathan said, “how up to date is your intell.”

  “Generally there’s a time-lag of a couple of months,” he said.

  “Hmm.” Nathan rubbed at the bump on his right eyebrow. “Once this comet leaves this area it passes through major shipping lanes. So it’s logical to destroy it out here. No shipping lanes out here. Informing the population may be seen as redundant.”

  “Or they may have sent out an alert and the intell hasn’t filtered down to us yet,” the Commander said.

  Nathan nodded then examined the area of destruction. The comet had been hit hard and exploded, scattering rubble over an enormous area.

  “How long to get around it?” Spotiswood must have been thinking along the same lines as he.

  “Too long.” He looked at the spook. “You might want to strap in.”

  Nathan examined the space ahead. Masses of asteroids, some as small as a grain of sand, some as large as a destroyer. His shields could deal with the smaller ones leaving the more lethally sizeable rocks for him to avoid. The sooner he worked his way through the obstruction the better.

  Breathing deeply he focused on the task at hand, pushed the throttles to full ahead and closed his eyes. With his Prep warning him of danger he made his way through the field, pitching and turning the boat, easily avoiding any dangers. In time the field thinned out. Nathan assumed he’d arrived at the center of the disturbance, which meant that he still had a way to go. Ahead two giant boulders collided. Nathan’s back flared as the collision altered their course. Large fragments glanced off one another and fell into his path. He avoided the first one comfortably but the second one seemed to have a mind of its own. Sliding Deception under the tumbling asteroid he passed so close to her that his proximity alarm blared.

  Finally he passed through the last of the field and into clear space. Wiping sweat from his forehead and the back of his neck, he checked the elapsed time. Six minutes. Only six minutes within the field, yet the stress level had made it feel like hours. Checking his navigation plot he set course and ingressed to hyperspace. Once the boat read full ahead he set his panel to auto and stood.

  “Stella, I’m taking a break,” he said. “I’ll be back in four hours.”

  “Very well,” she said.

  CHAPTER 10

  Date: 19th July, 326 ASC.

  Position: Traversing Imperial hyperspace.

  Status: Alert condition two.

  Using his Prep to warn of danger Nathan avoided crossing paths with the shipping which clogged the shipping lanes leading from the empire to Midway. He continued to be amazed with Deception’s abilities. But even an advanced stealth boat needed to recharge her buffers. He’d been braking for only twenty-two minutes to bring her to dead stop, prior to egression. North of the major shipping lanes, empty space surrounded them. Nathan reached out with his senses. No danger awaited them on the other side.

  Opening the perforation into normal space Nathan egressed the boat through at dead-slow speed.

  “We are secured from hyper,” he reported.

  “Scans show clear space,” Trudy said.

  “Very well,” Stella said.

  For three days Nathan had navigated through Pruessen space. Deception’s remarkable stealth talents continued to impress him. Luck had been with them.

  He rubbed at his fatigued eyes. Sixteen hours without a break. He needed to put his head down, while the reactor recharged the shield buffers for the next leg of their journey.

  He stood but with the low overhead couldn’t stretched the kinks out of his back. Leaning over Stella’s workstation, he said, “I’m going to get some sleep. Please call me, when recharge is complete.”

  “No problem,” she said.

  In his quarters Nathan fell onto his rack and slept for what appeared to be only minutes. His comm beeped. “Nathan.”

  “We need you on the bridge.” Stella’s tone spoke of urgency, fed by anxiety.

  Wiping sleep from his eyes he checked the time. He had been asleep for nearly two hours. Max stepped from the helm station as Nathan approached.

  “We have a contact,” Max said. “She egressed from hyper a few minutes ago.”

  Nathan checked his readouts. A ship, in this part of empty space, moving toward them. Had they been detected? Or was this just an enormous coincidence? Perhaps their luck had finally run out?
>
  “She’ll be on top of us within four minutes,” Trudy said.

  Nathan checked his plot. If the throbbing of his back was anything to go by, the other ship had to be military. “Trudy, is she pinging?”

  “Negative.”

  At this range he couldn’t risk using thrusters.

  “The buffers are almost fully charged,” Stella said. “If you want to ingress.”

  “If we do that, they will detect us. That will end our mission.” And any chance of rescuing Moe.

  Nathan sat back and absently rubbed the bump on his right eyebrow.

  “Stella, discontinue the recharge and cut all power to the boat. Including life support. Leave me passive sensors only.”

  “I’ll have to run that past the commander.”

  He turned a hard eye on her. “Fine, do that. But cut all power first.”

  She appeared to be in two minds as to her next actions. As command pilot, in the absence of the Captain, his word was law. Where the hell is Spotiswood?

  “We’ll have that ship sitting in our laps in three minutes. Stealth boat or not, Deception will show up on the ship’s sensors at close range. Shut down all power. Do it now.”

  Stella nodded once. All power emissions ceased, the lighting went out, to be replaced by the familiar green, iridescence glow from the overheads.

  In the dim light Nathan hovered over his tactical display, as the vessel moved closer. Finally he got a good look at her.

  “She’s a Pruessen destroyer. She’s slowing. Aaaand, stopped. Her shields are down.” Nathan chuckled. “I suspect she’s here for the same reason as us. Recharging.”

  “That’s what I call a hell of a coincidence,” Max said.

  “How long do you think she’ll take?” Stella asked.

  “There’s no way of telling.”

  “Should we risk reengaging life support? We won’t last long without it.”

  “I’ll play it by ear.”

  Three hours passed, the chill of the boat no longer subtle. The air thickened, smelling of stale body odor. Nathan had ordered every non essential crewmember to their racks to conserve what little life support remained.

  One ping from the destroyer would find them. Just one of her array of torpedoes would be sufficient to end their mission and everyone aboard.

  He had run through the options without finding a solution to their potentially lethal dilemma. On a monitor he would order everyone into V suits. That would solve any life support issues. Deception carried no V suits. On a monitor, he could push them clear of the destroyer’s sensor envelope with her mag maneuvering plating. Deception had no mag plating. Apparently, Nallgotate and mag plating were incompatible. On a monitor, he stood a slight chance of fighting his way clear of the enemy warship. Deception’s three torpedoes and popgun pulsar couldn’t stop an enraged grandmother.

  Risk thrusters at this range?

  Nathan’s vision began fogging over his focus waning. His desire to sleep pressed down on him as each minute dragged by. He tucked the thermal blanket around him but it did little to stop the cold hurting down to his bones.

  What do I do?

  From the tactical station a beep. Trudy, face down on her console, didn’t respond. Nathan struggled to his feet and checked the tactical readings. The destroyer’s shields were active. Nathan tensed as she crawled forward. At any moment she could either spot Deception or collide with her. Nathan felt nauseous and began to sway. The destroyer opened a perforation into hyperspace and was gone.

  “Stella, bring…” The D-O slumped over her console. He staggered to her station, shaking her awake.

  “Wh-what?”

  “Power up all systems.”

  “She’s gone?”

  “Yeah.”

  Within seconds the bliss of clean air and heating returned.

  CHAPTER 11

  Date: 24th July, 326 ASC

  Position: Traversing Imperial hyperspace. Approaching the planet Saint Joan.

  Status: Alert condition two.

  “That’s your plan?” Commander Spotiswood didn’t appear to be impressed.

  “It needs some tweaking,” Nathan said, “but it’s a good starting point.”

  “You’re going to land on Saint Joan, wander up to the base’s front door, walk in and rescue the crew?”

  “Something like that,” Nathan said. “Like I said, I’ll tweak it as I go.”

  “Your place is at the helm of this boat, not wandering around on Saint Joan.”

  “As you know,” Nathan said, “I’m the only one who can wander around on a plague world.”

  “It’s far too risky.”

  “I need to try.” He set a cold eye on the Commander, who shrugged.

  “Get anything from the database?”

  Nathan rolled his eyes. “I had no idea …” he shook his head. “That’s an, ah, impressive array of diverse information you have there, Commander.”

  I did indeed glean much that I was not supposed to see.

  “Get everything you need?”

  “Yes.” And a lot more besides.

  “Good.” He tapped a single command into his computer. “Level one clearance revoked.”

  His comm beeped. “Nathan.”

  “We’re coming up on the barrier,” Stella said.

  “On my way.” He turned to the hatch. “Will you be joining us today, Commander?”

  “I’ve got things to do.”

  “Riiiiight.”

  Max and he had turned a corner and had gotten to know one another during their arduous journey. A good man with a tragic past. They could relate to each other’s tragedies. His hatred of Pruessen rivaled Nathan’s. Max surrendered the helm, shaking his head. “Minefields. I hate minefields.”

  Nathan had no reply for such a succinct observation.

  “We’re getting an automated signal,” Trudy said. “Do not approach Saint Joan. Contaminated by Derwent Plague. It’s on auto repeat.”

  Could have used that on Delos.

  Nathan’s back throbbed. Ahead, a patchwork of danger. Not a dense field but enough to give anyone pause. According to the commander’s intell, the mines would lock onto and pursue any vessel attempting to scan them. So sensors couldn’t be used to navigate a way through.

  “Stella, all crew prepare for evasive maneuvers.”

  After she made the announcement Nathan pushed the throttles to the red line and brought Deception hard about in a tight six-gee turn which pinned him to his chair.

  “Ah, Nathan,” Stella began, “aren’t you going the wrong way?”

  Nathan resisted the urge to shake his head. “We need to pick up speed before we go through the barrier. The quicker we make it through, the better.”

  “Oh,” Stella said quietly, “I see.”

  Once his speed climbed to full ahead he turned the boat back toward Saint Joan. By the time they arrived at the minefield the speed had reached flank.

  “Stella, drop the shields.”

  “Do you think that’s advisable?”

  “No, I’m doing it for fucking fun. Drop the shields.”

  After a short grumble she complied.

  Preferring not to divulge his carefully hidden talent, he continued to examine his passive sensor readouts. With the rest of the bridge crew engaged, he closed his eyes and reached out with his senses.

  Yes, there was a way through, but if he made the slightest miscalculation, their fragile boat would be fired upon. He skirted the first mine, only meters from her sensor envelope. Two more ahead. Slipping between them he maneuvered around three more before clearing the minefield. Using bow thrusters he slowed the boat before achieving high orbit above the planet Saint Joan. Intell gave the coordinates for the base on the far side of the planet. He parked Deception into geosynchronous orbit above it.

  Nathan’s family began on this world. Prior to the end of the last war it had been home to his clan of independent traders
and many others. Then the plague got loose on their world. Leaving family behind on the infected planet the surviving Telford family members had fled south to freedom.

  Having navigated through the mine field Nathan logged the flight path into the nav com. He then activated his own, personal program, before handing the helm to Max.

  “Be careful,” Max whispered as they passed.

  “Remember, Nathan,” Stella said, “you have only twelve hours, then we turn that base into a mushroom cloud.”

  “Well, I had better finish up my business well before then, shouldn’t I?”

  A grim smile was her only reply.

  Still no sign of the Commander.

  If I know that two faced prick, he’ll be on the bridge as soon as I leave.

  ***

  To avoid the possibility of detection, Nathan took the landing boat to the far side of the planet before commencing planetary insertion. The LB passed through the planet’s ionosphere before breaking into a sunny orange skied atmosphere. Skimming across the endless savannah only meters from the hard deck, Nathan set course for the base. He passed many towns along the way. All structures were crumbling wrecks, gradually succumbing to thirty years of neglect.

  He had little intell on this base, so to avoid the possibility of being detected by early warning sensors, he brought the boat in low under any possible sensor screen. The Commander thought he was being overly cautious but Nathan couldn’t take the chance of being discovered. Surprise was his only advantage. He set the boat down in a clearing, a hundred clicks from the base. The heat settled on him as he dragged the EVA rig from the boat. After checking out his only viable means of planetary transportation, he set the landing boat’s autopilot to return it to Deception and made sure that all hatches remained open. The hard vacuum of space would cleanse the plague from the LB.