Ion 417: Raiju

by James Darcey

  As a safety measure the auto-comm system was buried behind other systems in such a way that it was only accessible from the exterior. Of course, the exterior was out of reach while in high drive. The closest we could get was some power conduits that ran through the spinal mount.

  The ship designers had even considered that possibility by routing the power through the auto-comm to reach life support. If you disconnect the power to it, you stop breathing oxygen. I only hoped that there was some little thing the ship diagrams weren't showing us. We had to find a way to stop that comm signal, and avoid arrest for piracy. If they caught us, then the very least that would happen would be incineration of the entire crew -- namely the both of us. For a few minutes I pondered whether that would be worse than getting sent back to Teyrn Elon.

  I lost count of the number of codes we tried before the lock on the spinal mount hissed and opened. Traxel had been around Teyrn long enough to get an idea of how he did his codes. The ship diagrams had shown the spinal mount cavity as being an extra cargo hold. It was filled by some massive machine instead. Squeezing through some of the parts of it I could barely reach the panel that supposedly covered the power relays.

  I was going to keep trying to retain my freedom no matter the cost to me. I would rather die than return to any cage. In that moment I really wasn't even asking Traxel's wishes. A part of my mind justified that he would want it this way too. He had already said that Teyrn would kill him for allowing my escape.

  The maze of cables I faced wasn't labeled so conveniently with things like 'auto-comm', 'de-gausing kickback diverters', or even 'oxygen scrubber'. It had labels that were simply alpha-numeric strings designating source and load usage. This would have been useful had I chosen to memorize the electrical diagrams of the ship, provided that this wasn't one of the modifications performed under Teyrn's direction. One by one, with the chrono counting down the remaining time, I called back numbers to Traxel and he would look them up in the diagrams.

  Many hours later, while still sorting through the maze of power cables, I felt the sensation of being sucked backward through a straw from behind my eyeball. I admit it; I panicked. My time was up. I let out a blast with every bit of energy I could dredge up. My hands were deep in one of the junction boxes that housed power feeds. Even weakened as I was, the flash lit the chamber with such stark clarity that there was no room for shadows before plunging me into the dark depths of unconsciousness.

  TOC

  SHI

  The first miracle manifested itself; I woke up not being dead. The second miracle was that I woke in my bed. It didn't take much thought to know that he had dragged me out of the hole, and up here by himself. It was a very hard task to stand up. I'm not sure how much was from my weakness, and how much from the ship constantly tilting. At least I think it is the ship; maybe part of the tilting was me. The grav system was fluctuating severely. It felt like the 'down' kept changing locations. Not just reversing, as that would have been too easy. First it was located near the door, and then it shifted over near around the wall image.

  I managed to make it out the door with a little effort, and over to the cockpit. I had thought that Traxel would be sitting in the pilot's seat making arrangements for our system entry -- but alas, he wasn't there. Every console was flashing with alarm indicators. The star field in the viewport was slowly spinning as the ship tumbled along. Everything felt odd, and silent. I mean really silent. The air felt thick and heavy as I went down the stairs. The air recyclers were not working.

  I worked my way aft through the common room, and even found that pole along the ceiling of the ladder to be useful for once. Traxel had closed up the mid-level hatch again, so that just left the lower decks. For some reason I didn't think that he'd be zonked out under the sleep inducer torque at a time like this. I could hear a few faint noises coming from ahead, so I plunged down the next ladder heading for engineering.

  I found the bug half buried in a unit that I recalled was the stellar drive cross feed. Only his feet were sticking out of the hole. Scattered around the opening were several small chunks of machine guts that sometimes floated, and sometimes fell back to the deck as the grav shifted. I started to reach for his leg to get answers as to what happened, but he took that moment to pull back out, dragging a somewhat larger piece with him.

  "You live! I thought you were dead for sure when that power coupling blew up."

  Not a lot of time was spent on greetings and pleasantries though. He was still telling me about pulling my corpse up the ladder under the grav shifts as one of his other hands reached for a probe from the tool pouch that was attempting to float away. A few quick pokes that lit his tool green, and he dove back into the hole shoving the gizmo ahead. His voice drifted back out of the hole as he worked while talking.

  "They would've killed me for sure. Live pilot with dead captain, and busted ship spells mutiny -- death for pilot."

  With some words in Cardovan that I'm pretty certain were not meant for normal societal conversation, he yanked yet another part from the innards of the machine. This one was badly burnt and partially melted. His hand was shaking, and I would guess that he desperately wanted to fling the part across the room. In his place I probably would have helped it into oblivion with an extra jolt.

  "When that power coupling blew up we were just coming out of high drive. The surge caused a partial meltdown. Ship is dead. We are dead. Well dead soon anyways, air runs out in few more hours."

  "But you work on stellar drive?"

  "Air takes power feed from drive system to... I don't know why, but The Teyrn did it this way."

  The air was getting thick enough to carve by the time I had followed his direction to rebuild the phase isolation control. With that part re-installed he proclaimed life support operational once more. A section of indicators on the Life Support system came to life with a lot of amber and red numbers. Even as I watched it, one of the numbers shifted from amber to green.

  The air was still dense but noticeably better a few hours later while we were busy tearing apart the plasma feed monitor. Having the life support working was good, but even so, we would eventually run out of food. Our only hope lay in getting the ship moving so that we could find some place to dock.

  Both of us were startled by the loud clang that reverberated throughout the ship. For a moment I thought that some bit of space junk had collided, but the ship had lurched to a standstill. We were no longer tumbling. Traxel screeched that it was too late. All four of his arms started wind-milling in circles.

  "We are being boarded! They will kill us for sure!"

  We raced up the stairs, in the still fluctuating gravity, to the common room where he grabbed a pair of pistols from the game cabinet. Traxel handed one of them to me, making a comment to be sure and point the correct end at them. He then started babbling at me about things that didn't seem connected to this. I'm sure he was frustrated at me because he grabbed my arm to gain my full attention.

  "Listen! It was good fortune that Teyn Elon liked to hide his connections. He had me set the registered owner as Flux Genetics. When you first kidnapped me I entered you into the computer as one of the directors for that company. I had hoped that it would buy me enough time to escape before they saw through the ruse. They would be busy with you and ignore poor pilot. I live."

  "So you are escaping and leaving me?"

  "You play part of Director, and we both have chance to escape. You fail, we both vaporized. Slowly."

  From below came the sounds of the airlock being kicked open and a rush of booted feet into the ship. The ship was dead enough that the normal sounds were missing and everything seemed loud. It was louder than if a dozen Selstlaks had come charging into my box.

  "Who's down there?" I asked Traxel.

  "We facing either pirates, or Reliance Guard patrol. Hard to know which. Sometimes not much difference. Remember you're Director Ion of Flux Genetics. Act the part or we die!"

  A shout came from below in Indigal
, followed by the same thing in two other languages, all demanding that we come down the ladder unarmed and with hands, tentacles, or other appendages raised. If Traxel wanted me to play the part of a director of Flux Genetics, I decided the best way would be to play as though I was Teyrn Elon. He would expect others to bend to his will, so I called down my own demand that they first send proof of their identity. Traxel began shaking, and whispered up to me.

  "You can't tell them what to do!"

  From below came the shout. "Hold your fire, Identity confirmation coming up."

  We both tensed with the sound of the heavy boots on the stairs. With the echoing it was difficult to determine just how many were coming up the ladder. As the steps drew close they slowed down and paused just out of sight from the common room. A breath later a young Kanari came into view wearing an armored suit. The dull yellow chest plate was spotless with the obvious newness of it. There was a single ribbon attached to it, just above the name tag that I dared not try to pronounce.

  Whoever was in charge down there had sent the junior member up the stairs on the chance that we were waiting to ambush him. I knew it was so because many of the writings that I had studied promoted just that very same line of thinking. I doubted he understood why he was standing there.

  Drawing reference from the xenobiology texts that I had spent far too many hours studying, I knew that Kanari were a canine race. Their home world was a planet called Kanis, in the system of the same name. Eons of evolution have turned them from four-footed plains hunters to bipedal tool users. They joined the intergalactic space community about five hundred years ago.

  The young one standing before us looked back and forth hesitantly at the gun barrels that were pointed at his chest. Casting a glance between the both of us, he made a snap decision and held out a hand to me. Clutched in his hand was a small crystal cube approximately a centimeter across. He was making a great effort not to shake. I had the momentary recall of me trying to face down Traxel that first day. Had I looked that frightened? Maybe I had come closer than I thought to frying the pilot, which would have put me in a terrible spot about now.

  Before I could guess as to whether to take the cube, and what to do with it if I did, Traxel stepped up to take it. He dropped it into an opening by the holo-veiwer which immediately projected an emblem followed by an image of the young Kanari standing before us. The view changed to the image of a stellar ship that mounted a few guns, which I guessed as the ship now attached to us.

  Finally the view resolved into the image of an older Kanari with a large number of ribbons decorating his chest. The image spoke informing us that we had been boarded by Captain Korcktl of the Reliance Guard Patrol, Third orbital sector. We were to disarm and prepare for inspection. This looked to be genuine.

  It was a tough decision to make. One false step and I'd be headed back to that cage on the orbital lab. I realized the thought of death wasn't what frightened me. I could have charged down those stairs taking as many of the guards with me as I could before being killed by their numbers, but that would have gotten Traxel killed as well. I wouldn't be able to live with it if I got him killed.

  Traxel still looked scared. I'd get us both killed if I didn't do it right. So, I took a deep breath, and motioned for him to lower his pistol. I set mine on the table next to the holo screen. Starting a firefight would get us all killed. I needed to work this through with talking somehow.

  "Put your weapon down. I think they really are Reliance Guards."

  I guess I spoke loud enough to be heard from below. Immediately there was the sound of more boots coming up the stairs. The older Kanari from the holo entered followed by three others carrying weapons that were a cross between pistols and rifles. These guards also wore their helmets. Their armor was not nearly as shiny and new either.

  One of them scooped up the pistols from the counter, while another went along flinging the cabin doors wide open. It brought back memories as he glanced into the cleanser units as well. As he finished the last door, he turned and gave a curt nod to the older Kanari. This, then had to be the captain. The Captain turned to us, and asked our names.

  "I'm Traxel; Pilot of this ship, and this is..."

  He was cut off with a wave of the captain's hand.

  "Let her speak for herself, Pilot."

  He would have made a good counter to Teyrn Elon. I doubt that he flinched away from much of anything. He was someone that felt secure in his position and held steady in the face of confrontation. I had to make this work. I swallowed the lump threatening to choke me, and steadied my nerves. I couldn't let him sense any fear. I reached deep for that sense that grew angry in the face of confrontation; my hunter. I let a pit of anger build up in my belly and used that to project as much strength as I could muster as I announced myself.

  "I am director Ion of Flux Genetics."

  I couldn't believe it. The Captain actually blinked at that! Something told me that I was playing a game with only a scrap of the rules sheet. I had best be careful; it looked as if this Kanari might know something I didn't. He could probably find out my lie with little effort, or was that a hint of fear?

  The guard that had searched the cabins had gone off to check through the cockpit as I talked to the Captain. Now, he was returning to bring more news back to his Captain. It was simply the report that he couldn't get course verification because the main AI was burned like over-cooked bread. I guess the Captain didn't like his bread burned though, because he got a little louder.

  "Call out the rest of your crew, if you will..., Director."

  "There is no other crew."

  I could see the anger building within him, and the lighting picked that moment to flicker and extinguish, leaving us in the dull glow of emergency lighting. It hadn't been like that since when I first took the ship. Traxel let out a deep sigh. The Captain merely glanced up and recommended that we continue this discussion aboard his ship.

  The Captain led the way as we descended the ladders to the airlock. The other Kanari took up spots both before, and trailing us as we moved along. Just as we were stepping through the hatches of the airlock we passed a couple Kanari setting up scanning machines. These were headed for our ship, where I guessed that they planned to scan the ship for the missing crew.

  Traxel glanced up at me and started in a soft voice; "If they..."

  I quickly cut him off with a glare hoping he would continue the bluff. I was about to let it go, but then I realized that there were probably several things hidden within a ship owned by Teyrn Elon. Finding such things could probably bring a fast end to my existence. I decided to push the bluff up a notch. Either it would work, or get us killed all the faster.

  "Captain, are you really planning to scan the ship of a Director?"

  Traxel fairly jumped where he was walking along beside me. I just hoped that he wasn't about to fall over with a failed heart. Cardovans had a tough carapace, but the insides are kind of squishy from what I'd read. If he died then I probably wasn't too far behind him. The Captain didn't even acknowledge that I'd spoken, but I caught the subtle downward wave of his hand at the scanning crew. They stopped working with the scanners and stood rigidly as we walked by. The Captain called over his shoulder.

  "I was merely getting a crew ready to assist with your damage assessment."

  Captain Korcktl led us down passageways that wound through a ship several times larger than our own. We passed several more of the Kanari, who seemed to be busy doing whatever Kanari Reliance Guardsmen do. Where the ones that had boarded our ship all wore the armored suits, these uniforms were a bit less heavy duty. They all stood aside just like the scanning crew when they saw the Captain approaching.

  We ended our tour in a room that had two chairs at a table, and nothing else. Even the door closed without leaving a seam. With a wave of his hand the Captain motioned for me to take the chair opposite the door. He took the other chair, leaving Traxel to pace in circles. His tension hadn't eased any, and it even went up a notch
when the tiny lurch indicated this ship had begun accelerating.

  "Now Captain, I understand that...."

  "It's Director!"

  My mind had been racing the whole walk through both ships. Our best chances meant sticking with the ruse, even though it was flimsy enough to fall apart under any kind of cross checking. A certain Fleet Admiral that was famous for a battle I'd never known, had written in his memoirs that it was best to never give up a bluff, let the opponent prove it was a bluff first. I hoped that by the time it came to proving this was a bluff, that both Traxel and I would be gone from the Captain's grasp. I pulled upon the memories of watching that hated grey Teryn Elon talk to lab workers.

  "Uh, yes.... Director. What happened to your ship?"

  Here it was. I hoped that my story could sound believable. I was going to try and impress a veteran space captain with things I had read in texts. I hadn't had a lot of preparation time either. This was going to be my one chance to lay a believable groundwork to sustain the bluff. I let the hunter instinct feed my nerves to quell any signs of fear I might exude, and kept the ruse as simple as possible.

  "As the ship was coming out of high drive there was a loud noise and we lost power. We were attempting repairs when you came along."

  "You can't expect me to believe that. For one thing, where's the rest of your crew? They jumped out of the airlock to lighten the load?"

  Now he mocked me in a move to counter my bluff. This was his initial stage -- probing the defenses. I wonder what they taught him to do in cases like this. Before I could utter my counter to his counter, Traxel's nerves reached a limit and he blurted out.

  "You insult the director! She..."

  Again I cut him off with a glare. I couldn't tell if he was scared or trying to enhance the bluff. His little outburst had been timed just right, but the question remained if that was skill or luck. The knife's edge I walked was getting sharper. The captain turned his hard gaze on Traxel. The insectoid was fairly shaking, and he didn't even have the chair to steady himself with.