by Nick Webb
“I don’t know how to put it together!” Not to mention, he didn’t want to die from a shot he didn’t even see coming.
Gravity shifted, as if the Aggy was swerving into a new course, and they both sprawled—him onto the floor and her over the edge of the fighter and into the cockpit. Her head popped up a moment later and she waved him over, more emphatically this time.
“Okay, but then I have to go.”
Rychenkov’s voice rang out from the speaker. “Pike. Some guy named Nhean on the radio. Wants to know if there’s a data stream yet.”
“We’re setting it up,” Pike called toward the comm unit.
“Well, hurry it up and get that chick back up here. We could use some help with this fugger ship. It’s almost matched our course—ten minutes, tops.”
She shook her head morosely, but Pike wasn’t about to tell Rychenkov that there was nothing he could do.
“Once you’ve seen all of this data, maybe you can help the captain,” he suggested. “Maybe you’ll learn something, be able to take down those bastards out there, huh?”
She looked pleased by that thought. She was hauling a truly staggering array of wires into the cockpit, each with a pad at one end and a plug on the other.
Pike peered into the cockpit, intrigued, steadying himself as the Aggy swerved again. Rychenkov was no longer on the comms, but they could hear the man swearing in Russian even from here.
He could see why no one had bothered retrieving much Telestine weaponry. The entire cockpit was as smooth and gleaming as the wall terminal he had seen on the lunar base, and they knew from the shard of technology upstairs that it was just as featureless all the way through.
To them, anyway. He rested his chin on his hands while she peered very seriously at different areas of what looked—to him—to be a completely identical white alloy, and at last she began to place pads carefully on different sections. She handed him the other ends of the wires carefully, each plug destined for a port of the same color on the back of Nhean’s terminal.
“What do all of these do, anyway?”
She considered, face screwed up for a moment, and then waved her hand. There was no way she was going to be able to explain this to him, apparently.
That was fair.
“And does the terminal need power?”
A nod. She sorted around in the cables and pulled out a heavy power cord.
Rychenkov was guiding the ships in several high-g turns, so Pike gave up on walking. He crawled across the floor to plug in the power cord, then returned to plug another few colored lines in.
There was a pause as the girl considered all of this. She nodded decisively and peered over the edge of the cockpit, gesturing at the power cord.
The whole thing blazed to life, and the beeps and whistles on Nhean’s unit seemed to correspond with the light show in the Telestine fighter.
“He says he’s getting data,” Rychenkov called.
“Good.” Pike leaned down to the girl, who seemed to be watching the data stream with great concentration. “I’m going back to the cockpit, okay? You good here?”
She didn’t even look up at him as she nodded. Her gaze was riveted on the computers, and he could only hope she was learning more about Tel’rabim’s systems.
Good. Maybe they had a chance now. Pike braced himself against the wall and made for the cockpit as quickly as he could. Rychenkov was still flying evasive maneuvers, trying to set new, random courses to throw off their pursuers.
Charlie met him in the hallway, white-faced. “We can’t outrun them.”
“We have to try for as long as we can—Walker might be able to send backup.” If they were burning this hard for Venus, that backup might even arrive soon. Or the pursuing ship might run out of fuel, or they might break off the chase. A good pilot knew that every moment alive was another moment his opponent might make a mistake.
Charlie might as well have read Pike’s mind. “Your Captain Rychenkov’s a good pilot,” he said, “but he’s trying to take on feathers. We can’t outrun them.”
“Are you sure? They haven’t caught us yet.”
“I think....” Charlie grabbed for Pike. “Slow down.”
“I have to get to the cockpit.”
“Pike, wait!” The man’s voice was weak. He tried to whisper as Pike took the last few stairs to the cockpit. “What if they’re here for her?”
He’d tried to be quiet, but everyone swung around. Even Rychenkov’s head turned.
Pike felt his heart squeeze. “You think they can sense her?”
“I don’t know!” Charlie looked away, shrugging. He looked at Pike helplessly. “But they aren’t shooting! Why aren’t they shooting?”
“The man has a point,” Rychenkov said slowly. “They aren’t shooting. They’ve matched our course and are closing in. But they’re not shooting, even though they’re in range.”
“Is there anything more you can do?”
“Not much.” Rychenkov sighed. “Not enough,” he said, more exactly. “They match my every move.”
“There’s one thing.” Charlie spoke quietly.
“Oh?” Pike looked at him curiously.
“You’re not going to like it,” Charlie warned.
“Spit it out.”
Charlie looked around himself, gauging support, and took a deep breath. “We could give her to them.”
“What?”
Charlie was shaking, Pike realized. But his chin lifted. “We could give her to them,” he repeated.
“We need her,” Pike said wildly.
“The data stream is nearly complete.” Nhean’s voice broke through the cockpit suddenly. “Captain Rychenkov, there are Rebellion ships making for you, moving to match your course, but if you have any other modes of acceleration, now would be the time to use them—we’re reading more inbound ships, larger than your pursuer.”
The line cut. Everyone stared at the comm unit.
“We can give her to them,” Charlie said. He stabbed a finger for emphasis. “She’s the big weapon, isn’t she? They want her back. And Nhean said he’ll have all the data he needs soon.”
“No.” Pike could see the crew wavering. He swept his eyes around the cockpit.
“Listen to me, she’s valuable to them.” Charlie was shaking his head. “They want her back, they don’t care about us.”
“All the more reason to keep her aboard! As soon as she’s gone, we’re just a bunch of humans who killed some Telestine fighters, have a piece of illicit tech on our ship, and are using banned weaponry. We’re toast, Charlie.”
Charlie looked at him, cornered. “They’d ... they’d be grateful we gave her back.”
“The same people who want to exterminate all of humanity? Yeah, I’m sure they would be—but I don’t think that means what you’re hoping.”
Charlie looked down at the floor. He was rocking back and forth.
“They want her,” he repeated. “We can’t stop them.”
“We just have to hold them off,” Pike said, as gently as he could. Then he remembered it wasn’t Charlie he had to convince—Charlie, who’d grown up running, who might never believe that they would have a chance against the Telestines—but Rychenkov and the crew. “You saw what she did to some of the fighters,” he said. He looked around at them. “With this data, with that fighter down there in the hold, she might be able to learn to do it to the rest. We can stop now and get shot and lose her, or we can keep flying and have a chance not to have those fuggers around anymore.”
The crew looked at one another. The nods were wordless.
“Hold on—hold on—oh, shit.” Rychenkov looked up from the scanner. They’re extending an umbilical. They’re going to board.”
Ground assault. Perfect. Pike finally grinned—this was something he knew how to do. “Ok. Let them in the bay. Howie? Charlie? With me. We’ll ambush them, toss a grenade onto their ship, then fly like a bat out of hell.”
Rychenkov hesitated, then nodded. “Fi
ne.” The three turned to leave. “But Pike?”
He turned back to glance at his captain. “Yeah?”
“You blow up my ship, and you’re on my shit list.”
Chapter Forty-Five
Venus, 49 kilometers above surface
Tang Estate, New Zurich
The data stream flickered and Nhean glanced curiously over at another screen. He hadn’t been above putting a scanner on the Aggy, embedded in the computer terminal, and he was intrigued to see the technology Rychenkov had managed to construct. Their inertial dampeners had been calibrated in a way Nhean would never have tried, but they were clearly working, compensating for the acceleration enough that the inhabitants of the ship were not only not goo, but not vomiting or even reeling from the vertigo. When the ship arrived back at Venus, he’d have to come up with some reason to keep the ship at dock for a few days while his engineers went over it.
“What’s going on?” Walker had seen him looking. She was pacing like a caged animal near the windows.
“There must have been another patrol nearby, and they’re calling in everyone they can.” Nhean shook his head. “It should be hard to get a lock on a ship at that speed. Honestly, I didn’t think it was possible unless one was watching out the window, and even then, she’d have gained on them enough that that would be hard….”
“Get to the point.”
Soldiers. He gave her a look. “My point is, I’d like to know how they’re managing to stay on our ship’s tail. The pilot’s done a few maneuvers that should have shaken them, and they’re sticking like glue.”
Walker frowned. “Do you think it’s the girl?”
Nhean raised his eyebrows. He should have thought of that immediately. But—
“No.” He frowned. “They were looking for her like crazy after the lab crashed. If they could see her on their scanners, they’d just have run one pass over the Rockies and called it done when she wasn’t there. She’s just invisible to them, I think.”
“Huh.” Walker flopped back on a couch and shrugged.
“You’re not curious.”
“I am, but I’ve gotten used to being outmatched in technology.” Surprisingly, she smiled at him. “And as usual, we just have to compensate ... with clever tactics.”
It was a surprisingly sensible perspective from her.
He looked over to where the data were streaming in, still translating in his system, and he decided to take a gamble.
He still didn’t know her end game. “When this is all over, what do you think you’ll do?”
She raised her eyebrows. “Why?”
Nhean made sure his smile didn’t so much as flicker, but his hackles went up. “You’re in the Rebellion,” he explained with a shrug, as if he didn’t much care. “I figured you’d build up the life we all should have—but I don’t sense you have something to get back to.”
“Ah.” She looked away, and then gave a shrug. “I hadn’t thought about it.”
Now she was lying. Nhean watched her. Should he press her on this? Now? He could have the doors locked without a word, it would be so easy—
“To be honest, I don’t expect to be alive much longer.” Walker met his eyes and there, at last, was the honesty. She lifted her shoulders again, helplessly. “All I’ve thought about is what I can do to give humanity a fighting chance against a hostile universe.”
How to put those pieces together? Nhean looked away.
“What about you?” Her voice was almost wistful. “Would you stay here?”
“No.” The answer was more vehement than he liked. He took a moment to compose himself before he looked back. “I’d go back to Earth.”
Something—something—flashed in her eyes, and was gone the next moment. She hesitated.
“You wouldn’t want to see the stars? Travel to distant planets?”
“No,” he said firmly. “Earth is where we belong.”
“I see.”
She was a child of the stations, he remembered. She had grown up in variable gravity and been used to the sight of stars and black. Her dreams had not been for a planet she had never seen, but for the stars that might hold an escape.
Interesting. He had never considered this about Admiral Laura Walker.
The computer was flashing at him and he swiveled back to it. His smile was immediate.
“As long as that fighter in Rychenkov’s hold stays ours, we have a window into their communications.”
“That’s good.” Walker sat up. “And?”
“Working on that. This is much more information than I’ve ever received all at once.” He sank his chin into one hand. “I’ll have to look at how she placed the wires....”
“Are you going to let her practice on it?” Walker sounded interested now. “I mean, if it’s just your communications array.” Her voice changed. “Maybe we should have had them get two fighters.”
“Too much of a risk. I never like to bring in things that might network.” Nhean spoke distractedly. These messages suggested that the fleet was massing somewhere, but ... where? “Frankly, even letting her bring that shard was a risk.”
“She’s his machinery, too, isn’t she a risk to network with it?”
“Unless she has guns embedded in her somewhere, not quite the same. Although I suppose she must send out some sort of signal....” He considered for a moment, then shook his head. First things first.
First things, like where the fleet was supposed to mass. He scrolled through the information as quickly as he could. The translation was partial and even then, sometimes he could make neither head nor tail of it. He’d never quite appreciated how much of language was metaphor until he began trying to translate the work of an entirely different species.
“Come on....” He tapped his fingers impatiently. “Come on, come....”
“You got something.” Walker pushed herself up. “Should I—”
He held up a hand to stop her. His mind was racing. Hard burn to Mercury from here on her ships would take how long? He’d seen her Exile Fleet; it was a miracle they were still floating. Death traps, the lot of them.
He hadn’t wanted to play his hand so soon, but it appeared he had no choice. He’d made his life on these compromises.
“I’m giving you a new fleet.”
“A … new fleet? Did I understand you right?” She sounded dumbfounded.
He met her eyes and tried not to wince at the thought of her maneuvers with his ships. She’d throw them all into the breach if necessary.
Then again, what were ships for?
He tried to still the racing of his mind. His eyes went to the screen again, to reread the information, to confirm….
There was no mistaking it.
“I’ll have a shuttle take you immediately. You need to go at once. The Exile Fleet will come behind you.” He pushed himself up, eyes still fixed, trying to glean any last details he could.
“A new—you have a fleet?” She couldn’t get over that one point, it seemed.
“Yes. And you have some ships at Mercury, yes?” He was counting under his breath. It might be enough.
It would have to be enough.
“Yes, but only a few—we’ve only just begun spinning up the shipyards that will—” She broke off and snapped her head toward him. “How the hell did you know about our operation at Mercury?”
“It’s what I do,” he said with a brief smile before turning back to the data stream. “We’ll have to make it work. I’ll join you there as soon as I can. I need to go for Pike and the girl. Now.” He was pushing his way past her out of the room.
“Stop.”
He stopped, much to his own surprise. He had never heard her issue a command.
She spoke slowly, carefully. “Whatever we’re doing, it’s worth nothing if we don’t communicate a plan. What’s happening?”
“They’re starting the sweep at Mercury.” Saying it aloud made it real. “Then out from there.”
“From Earth, it will take them—�
�
“No.” He cut her off. “They’re already on their way. Tel’rabim’s fleet left Earth hours ago. Five g burn. They’ll be there in less than a day.”
She went white.
“I have something that may work,” he said quietly. “I’ve called it the Seed—it’s a computer program that will infect their systems. I’ve been developing it since I was first able to get in contact with Tel’rabim.”
A shadow crossed her face. “You didn’t tell us?”
“I didn’t have a way to deploy it before.” He gave a rueful smile. “Now we have the Dawning. If I can get to her, we can put it on Tel’rabim’s flagship.”
Her eyes flashed. “And then ... it’s all over.”
He shrugged. “If it works. But yes, either way, it’s all over. For either the Telestines, or humanity.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Halfway between Earth and Venus
Freighter Agamemnon
Pike tossed an assault rifle over to Charlie from the ship’s modest armory, and James handed him a spare magazine.
“You good?” James watched their guest struggle with the magazine before clicking it in place.
“Yeah, sorry.”
James gave Pike a heavy look and tapped his cowboy hat before he reached into the armory safe and unlocked one of the compartments, pulling out two grenades. He handed one to Pike. “Sorry, Charlie. I think you’ve already got your hands full there.”
Pike was worried that he’d be affronted, but Charlie took it in stride. The other man seemed too nervous to care about the slight. He would have supposed having nothing left to live for, that Charlie would be a little more … cavalier. Trigger-happy. But instead he just kept alternating between checking his pockets and the rifle.
“Status, Pike?” Rychenkov said over the comm.
“Ready.” He gave a quick nod to the other two men. They were only wearing their regular clothes—no time to pull on anything more protective. Not that they carried anything beyond simple vacuum suits, which wouldn’t repel a bullet, so why bother?
