The Silver Liner: Takes Flight!

by Daniel Sullivan

  “Captain, what should we …” Mun began to ask, but was cut off as Selena’s voice sounded over the loudspeaker.

  “Captain, I’m picking up a ship transponder heading our way. It matches the Enigma.”

  “Transmit the departure codes and detach from the boarding tube, Selena!” Kendrick barked as he ran to the bridge. “We need to take off immediately! Everyone to your posts, or join me on the bridge and buckle up. We’re taking off now!” As he said ‘now,’ he mentally brought the engines online.

  “Hold your horses,” warned Kendrick over the intercom as he urged the ship forward, hitting Mach 1 almost instantaneously, bringing the Selene to the port’s safety zone in seconds. “Heather,” he called over the intercom, “maximum acceleration in three... two... one.” At “one,” the ship surged forward, jumping to Mach 30.

  Mister Levin was amazed at their luck. After two months of setbacks in the hunt for Joyce Keane, it seemed that they had finally caught a break. He double-checked the signal just to be sure and it was validated.

  “Sir, you aren’t going to believe this,” Levin said excitedly.

  “What?” replied Lorgen testily.

  “I’m picking up the Selene’s transponder!”

  “Now that is good news!” Lorgen could hardly believe it; they had actually arrived before Kendrick Royce had left. “Charge up the masers. Cripple that ship before she can take off!”

  “Sir, she’s moving,” replied Levin.

  “Then, you’d better hurry,” said Lorgen, looking at his gunner. “Activate stealth systems! Myers, full speed ahead!”

  “Oh my God,” exclaimed Levin. “Royce is passing us!”

  “Stiles, shoot them, damn it!” Lorgen shouted.

  “Can’t lock on, Sir,” the gunner protested.

  Lorgen and his men watched out the window helplessly as a silvery blur shot past them faster than his gunner could lock on.

  “Damn!” Lorgen hated being shown up by this aging rocker. Lorgen fumed at his helplessness. “Land the ship,” ordered a frustrated Lorgen with a sigh.

  “Sir?” Myers was surprised, clearly expecting to be giving chase.

  “I said land the ship,” reiterated Lorgen. “We don’t have the fuel to chase them.”

  The Selene passed the Enigma at Mach 30. While Kendrick could not easily track the ship, he suspected that she was not in a position to give chase. Kendrick had just refueled after getting to Mars and Enigma had just double-timed it to get here based on the location of their last encounter. Kendrick mentally transferred the helm to Selena. It was time to pay Fiona a visit.

  His leg had largely healed and the limp was nearly gone, but he did want to get it looked at to make sure everything was mending properly. In addition, he wanted to talk to Fiona about what had happened on Atlas, as Selena had suggested. Fiona turned to face him as he entered, her face brightening when she saw him.

  “Captain,” she called. “I’m glad you came by. I’ve been meaning to have you come down for a follow up.”

  “I’m here, Fi,” Kendrick replied, taking a seat on one of the tables.

  “You’re going to have to bare your legs for me,” she announced.

  “You know, I do wear clothes under my cyber suit.” Kendrick removed the black leather cyber suit, unplugging it from his data port first. He had a tee-shirt and gym shorts on underneath, though this was the first time since Fiona’s getting drunk that he had worn so little in her presence. Kendrick stretched out his leg on the table after taking a seat and Fiona began examining the mostly healed wound. He still had a long scar on his right leg from the injury he sustained during Lorgen’s first attack on them. He imagined that it would never fully go away. Thankfully, functionality had fully returned.

  “Looks good and you look like you’re walking normally again,” the doctor noted. “Your muscle tone is a little weak still, but I think you’re recovering nicely.”

  “Thanks, Fi. You know, this isn’t the only reason I came down here.”

  “Oh?” Fiona raised an eyebrow, but did not go into her usual panic mode.

  “No,” he explained. “I’d hoped to spend more time with you between Atlas and now, but after Selena was shot rescuing you, I was very angry with you, blaming you for her injuries.”

  “I am to blame, Ken.” Fiona deflated and leaned on the edge of the table. “Worse still, I really have no idea what to do for her. Her injuries are well beyond my capability to address and the whole thing is my fault anyway.”

  “Yeah, it is,” Kendrick agreed, refusing to treat her with kid gloves on that count. “But there’s no need to keep beating yourself up over it. Like my mama used to say, yesterday is gone, the future is but an unfulfilled promise. Only today is guaranteed.”

  Fiona furrowed her brow. “So—we’re just supposed to live for today?”

  Kendrick chuckled. “Not at all. Mama’s a Christian, an’ she taught me to lay up treasure in Heaven, as the Apostle Paul said. The point is, don’t live for today; live in today. Don’t dwell in the past; it’s gone. And don’t live in the future; it ain’t here yet.”

  The doctor softened at his explanation. “I suppose when you put it that way ....”

  Kendrick laughed. “Fiona, you really need to get out of this habit of constant self-deprecation.” He leaned in and gently kissed her lips. “You’ve done a lot for me, for the crew. So no matter what, don’t start wallowing in self-pity. You’re either living to make things better or your just feeling sorry for yourself; and I think you’re the kind of girl who wants to make things better.”

  “Are you still angry with me?”

  “No, Fi,” he replied, gently touching her cheek. “I can’t keep beating you up over this if I expect you to not beat yourself up over it. I care about you, Fi … more than you know. I wanted you to know that.”

  Kendrick kissed her forehead and left, pleased with his follow up visit and hoping that Fiona would take his words to heart. There was nothing more self-destructive than sustained self-loathing.

  Amanda could hardly believe it. After all the careful planning she and her team had put into predicting Captain Royce’s movements, it seemed that the wily captain had outwitted her once again.

  “Already left?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” replied her contact, a woman named Spice Randal. “Gone like the wind. And it looks like Tanaka got made, ’cause Royce contacted the bookies and dumped his sorry ass off with them just as soon as he got here. Tanaka’s in the hospital with broken … well pretty much everything, and Royce bugged outta here less than twenty minutes after refueling.”

  “Is Tanaka awake?” Keyes had to know. If yes, then she was talking to him. He might have an idea of where they were going.

  “Don’t know, ma’am. I only know that he’s alive. Oh, I almost forgot. Captain Lorgen was here. Landed right after Royce bugged out.”

  “Damn!” Keyes was frustrated. It seemed that her whole operation was falling apart. Xing would not be happy, though Xing’s superiors might not be happy with him either.

  “Oh, it gets better,” said Spice with a devious smile. “I got one of Lorgen’s crew all to myself. I tagged him with a tracer. We did some checking up on that ship of his, now that we’ve actually seen it. She took some serious damage. They’ve patched her up, but she needs some serious time in dry dock. She’s a U.S. cutter, but her hull’s all blacked out. Looks like she’s built for stealth. We made sure the tracer emits a frequency that should cut through the ship’s stealth systems, though given that the ship isn’t even supposed to exist, I can’t guarantee anything.”

  Keyes reached over and grabbed Spice’s shoulders and pulled her close and kissed her on the mouth. “Thank you! You saved my life!”

  “Nice pucker,” said Spice. “Didn’t know you swung that way, but I’m game next time you’re on shore leave.”

  Captain Lorgen stepped onto the bridge. It seemed that the repairs had been made and the ship, while still needing time in dry dock, was
ready to resume the hunt for Royce. He was about to ask for a status report when Myers turned and addressed him.

  “She makes for Venus, Sir. She’s fast, but our long-range scanners are tracking her.”

  “Good,” said Lorgen. “Now there’s no place for that man to hide!”

  “Sir, he’ll be there and probably be gone by the time we arrive,” Myers protested.

  “No way! Venus is a one-way trip for him. Engineering, are we topped off?”

  “Affirmative, Sir,” replied the engineer over the intercom.

  “Then, let’s go hunting.”

  19

  It had been four months since the Selene had left Mars, passing the Enigma, heading in the opposite direction. Travel had been largely uneventful and they were within a few days of Venus. Selena continued getting worse and could no longer speak coherently due to frequent spasms. Kendrick sat with the stricken gynoid in her cabin, doing his best to comfort her. His reading to Selena was the one thing she could fully enjoy.

  Fiona had determined that the discharge from the bullets had not only caused a lot of damage, but the bullets also had a coating that had dissolved on impact and which contained some kind of Nano-virus that was playing havoc with Selene’s internal circuitry. The doctor had been able to repair most of the physical damage, including the damaged vertebrae, which had helped Selene’s condition only briefly. From what Kendrick could tell, her ‘brain’ had been infected. Kendrick and Fiona agreed that the prognosis was not at all good, but he was hopeful in spite of it all.

  “We’re almost there, baby,” Kendrick said to Selena. He spoke aloud, even though connected to her mentally.

  Selena was awake now, though she was unable to speak vocally, and responded mentally. *Kendrick, you have spoken many times about how you go with your feelings.*

  “Yeah, baby, I do.”

  *I think I understand what you mean by that now. I have begun to get feelings about things too.*

  “Wow; that’s … that’s incredible! You mean like a gut feeling, right?”

  *Yes, Captain. My feelings tell me not to go to Venus.*

  “But Selena, we’re practically there. Don’t you think that if there’s even a chance …?”

  *Kendrick, listen to me. You … I do not believe that I am salvageable, but more importantly, I have a … bad feeling about this. I know you will go; you promised to get me fixed and you always keep your word, but I had to let you know what my own feelings are telling me. Please, father, do not go to Venus.*

  “What happens if we don’t go?” he asked hesitantly.

  “I get worse and eventually die.”

  “Then we’re getting the same result either way. At least if we go, we have a chance to fix you, Selena.”

  *Fixing me is not what my feeling concerns. I fear for your safety.”

  The Alliance Interceptor Orion was making good time. Spice’s tracker was working perfectly and with the damage to the Enigma, Lorgen was not moving at top speed. Pretty much everyone was playing catch-up with the Selene, but Lorgen was now wanted by the Alliance. Agent Keyes was anticipating the moment as she stood with Captain Santiago.

  “Keyes,” he said, “The Enigma is in our sights. Get your people ready.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Well, this for starters …” Turning to his gunner, Santiago ordered, “Target their engines with masers. Then hit them with an ion pulse.”

  “Aye, Sir,” replied the gunner.

  The interceptor’s weapons powered up and her masers cut through the Enigma’s port engine, essentially shearing it off. A second shot caused the starboard engine to explode. Then the ion pulse fired and Enigma’s systems went dark. Keyes felt a twinge of sadness. The moment was comparatively anticlimactic. She left the bridge and joined the boarding party in the air lock.

  The Enigma’s engines were gone and all systems were failing. The ship was now easy prey for the impressive new Alliance interceptor. Sensors and communications were down, and life support was failing.

  “Sir, we’re fucking dead in the water!” Myers was hopeless, but Lorgen shook his head.

  “We’re not going out like this! Everyone to the shuttles. Their shielding should still be intact, so they should still work. Blow the hangar bay and get out. I’ll start the self-destruct sequence.”

  Lorgen finished his preparations to scuttle the ship, then joined the rest of the crew in the shuttle bay. Thankfully, the crew was small, particularly after his two entanglements with Royce. This was an embarrassing failure, but he would not, under any circumstances, let this ship fall into UPA hands.

  “We ready to go?” Lorgen asked.

  “Aye, Sir,” replied his XO.

  “Then, blow the doors and hit maximum burn in Selene’s direction. We’ll head to Venus and coordinate with home base for a pick up.”

  The Orion pulled in close and fired tow-hooks into the Enigma’s hull to secure it. They then extended the docking tube from the airlock. As soon as it sealed with the Enigma, Keyes lead the boarding party over.

  “Keyes,” came Captain Santiago’s voice in her earpiece, “They just blew the bay doors and are heading out in shuttles.”

  “Damn!” She could not believe the failure. This should have been in the bag. “Well, at least we can take the ship.”

  Once inside, they located the bridge. There was a trilling sound—some alert that filled the bridge, making conversation difficult.

  “Keyes, that’s the self-destruct!” shouted one of the soldiers. “It’s at its final …”

  The Enigma exploded, taking the Orion with it. There was no time for Orion’s crew to get to the escape pods with so little notice.

  Lorgen and his men watched from their shuttles as the two ships exploded. The shockwave hit the shuttles, propelling them forward, but not damaging them. He hated to lose the Enigma, but he was not going to lose to the Alliance.

  Royce was another matter. The civilian captain had escaped three times now and once Lorgen caught up with the Selene, he intended to make Royce suffer before killing him and Keane. Even without the Enigma, Lorgen vowed to find a way. He would also get back at Tracht for not having the backbone just to kill Royce and Keane. Whatever pet project the colonel had, it was not worth the lives of Lorgen’s men.

  “These things have decent ion engines for shuttles,” Lorgen said, both, to the men in his shuttle and on the com to the men in the other shuttles. “Make for Venus. We’ll find transport from there. And then we’ll make Royce, Keane, Tracht and anyone else who gets in our way pay for the indignities we’ve suffered!”

  Lorgen’s men all shouted, “Hoorah!” All except Myers and a few others. Lorgen noticed, though he made sure not to let on. If they aren’t with me, they’re against me, he thought, as his mind worked on ways to deal with them when the need arose.

  Looming large in the windows, Venus awaited the Selene. Kendrick had never seen the planet, sometimes called the Evening Star or the Morning Star, this closely. Venus’ orange atmosphere obscured the planet surface and looked foreboding.

  “Venus off the port bow,” said Kendrick to nobody in particular. “And one floating city to land on.”

  “You think they’ll let us land?” asked Mun.

  “We’re about to find out,” replied Kendrick ominously as the com came to life.

  “Attention unidentified vessel,” said a woman, “You are not on our flight plans. Identify yourself.”

  “This is Captain Kendrick Royce of the liner, S.S. Selene, requesting emergency landing due to a medical emergency. We’re looking for a Doctor Raymond Vignare. Transmitting landing codes now, over.”

  “Landing codes received,” replied the woman. “Codes confirmed. You may land.”

  Kendrick looked at Ronan and said, “Am I the only one who has a bad feeling about this?”

  “You are not,” Replied Father Ronan.

  “Why?” asked Mun. “They let us land.”

  “Way too easily,” replie
d Kendrick. “Remember, this place is not known to the public at large, and I don’t represent any sovereign government.”

  “Good instincts, Captain,” observed the priest. “Do you have anything to bargain with?”

  “No. The one thing they’d probably want is the one thing we’re tryin’ to fix, an’ I ain’t givin’ her up.”

  The facility below was a massive island of steel and glass floating atop Venus’ toxic atmosphere. Kendrick landed the Selene and the docking process went smoothly. Perfectly. Almost no questions asked, which raised Kendrick’s hackles even more. The docking tube sealed to the airlock and they disembarked. Doctor Kinsale, the captain and Mun wheeled out Selena on a gurney, a breather on Selena and an I.V. hookup to mask her true nature. Heather and Father Ronan remained aboard.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea, Sir?” Mun was visibly terrified.

  Kendrick did not blame him; every fiber of his being told him to turn around and take off as fast as the Selene could take them. Selena agreed, but he refused to give in. Kendrick would not give up on his Selena, not when he was so close to saving her.

  “Of course I’m not sure,” he replied somewhat testily. “But we don’t have a choice.”

  Selena spasmed sharply, underscoring the desperation of Kendrick’s words. Kendrick held her hand tightly. “It’ll be okay.” He picked up the pace, wanting to get it over with, one way or the other.

  Kendrick, Fiona, Mun and the stricken Selena were escorted to Doctor Vignare’s lab with haste. Kendrick hoped against hope that this was a good sign and not the giant red flag his instincts were telling him it was. One of the guards buzzed the intercom, a man’s voice responding over the speaker.

  “Send them in; it’s open.”

  The guard then motioned for them to go in, holding the door as they wheeled Selena in. Kendrick took note of the guard; there was only one and he wore only a uniform with a hat, no body armor and only a small plasma pistol. The captain could not decide if this was a good omen, or if the security personnel were trying to lull Kendrick into a false sense of security.