by Ryk Brown
A split second later, the master sergeant was standing over Gennar as the man took his last breaths. “If it makes you feel any better, I would have killed you either way. At least this way, you died with honor.”
* * *
Nathan removed the last nut from the service panel on the second active jump drive field generator and removed the panel to look inside. Just like the first one, he could almost feel the energy flowing through the device, and worried what would happen when they pulled the control cards without shutting it down first. “How are you doing over there?” he asked Jessica.
“Four more nuts and I’ll have my last panel removed,” she answered, as she held the trigger on the nut driver, its motor whirring softly as it unscrewed the nut from its threaded post.
Nathan rose from his work and headed over to the backup jump drive field generator with the cover already removed by Jessica. “We have to pull the cards from the two backups and hide them before we can pull the cards from the actives.”
“Why can’t we pull them all at once and get out quickly?”
“The backups are offline at the moment. So I doubt anyone will be alerted that their control cards have been pulled.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“No, I’m not,” Nathan admitted. “But it’s a pretty good bet.”
“How good a bet?” she asked, removing the last nut from her service panel.
“Fifty-fifty?” Nathan said, as he started pulling cards from one of the offline field generators.
Jessica glanced over at him. “Just like that…you start pulling them?”
“The entire system is probably locked out,” Nathan explained. “But it’s only a matter of time before whoever we’re dealing with figures out a way to get past the lockout and regain control of the jump drive.”
“I don’t understand,” Jessica said, taking the control cards out of her unit. “We already jumped. If we jumped back to the PC…”
“This ship can’t jump that far in a single jump,” Nathan reminded her. “No ship can…at least none that I know of. And we don’t even know who jumped the ship. It could have been the captain.”
“Why would he jump the ship? Isn’t he safer in the cloud where no one can find him?”
“Assuming he doesn’t want to be found. If Captain Rainey didn’t believe us, which is likely the case, then he launched a jump comm-drone with a distress callback to Takara. He’d want to jump clear of the cloud, probably along his filed course, so that company security could find him.”
“But company security isn’t coming,” Jessica said.
“He doesn’t care one way or the other,” Nathan explained. “If company security comes he’s got a chance, if the Dusahn come he’s still got a chance, just not a very good one.”
“How does he have a chance with the Dusahn?” Jessica challenged.
“He was comm-blind,” Nathan argued. “That’s a pretty good excuse.”
“Like the Dusahn would care,” Jessica insisted. “They’re more likely to just make another example out of him.”
“If they’re smart, they’d spare him to show that they are not unreasonable.”
“I think you’re giving them more credit than they deserve,” Jessica said, walking over with all the control cards from her unit in her hands. “Where are we going to hide these?” she asked.
“We’ll find someplace on the way out.”
“Where are we going?”
“Port side, to do the same thing.”
“Why? They can’t jump with only half the field generators.”
“Unless they use the cards from the port backups in these.”
“Don’t they need four working field generators to jump the ship?”
“Not if they’re set up to rechannel all the emitters to two, or even a single jump field generator,” Nathan said.
“They can do that?”
“The Seiiki can. It cuts our single jump range by about sixty percent, but it works. If we’re going to disable this ship’s ability to jump, we have to take all four field generators offline.”
Jessica sighed. “Right. If alarms go off on the bridge when we take the active ones down, there’s a good chance we won’t make it back into the ship. You know that.”
“Yeah, I know.” Nathan pulled the last of his control cards out and stood up. He set the cards down on top of the jump field generator, then walked quickly over to the tool cabinet, grabbing a toolbox and dumping the contents on the deck. “This should work,” he said, returning to the jump field generator and putting his control cards inside.
Jessica put her cards in as well.
“Shall we?” Nathan said, setting the toolbox aside and going over to one of the active jump field generators. “I’ll take this one, you take that one. We’ll pull the first cards at the same time. In pairs, as fast as we can, until all the cards are out.”
“And if the damned things explode?”
“They’re not going to explode,” Nathan insisted. “Spark, smoke, catch fire…maybe.”
“I feel so much better,” Jessica said sarcastically, moving over to the other active jump field generator.
Nathan stepped up to the open service panel, looking at the glowing row of control cards. He put his hands close to the outside edges of the row of cards, half expecting either an incredible amount of heat, or a sudden spark of electricity to jump to his hands. But neither happened.
“You ready?” he asked, not looking at her.
“No, but that never stopped me before,” Jessica answered.
Nathan glanced over at her, checking that she was in position. He took a deep breath, positioned his hands over the first two cards, and counted, “One……two……three……PULL!”
Nathan yanked the first two cards out, tossing them aside as he reached for the next two. As he pulled them out, a few sparks went off deep inside the jump field generator. He repeated the process two more times, each time more sparks firing. By the time he got to the fifth and sixth control cards, sparks were starting to shoot into his face, and smoke was beginning to pour out from the generator.
“Shouldn’t these things shutdown automatically by now!” Jessica yelled, as she fought through the sparks to continue pulling cards from her jump field generator.
Finally, as Nathan pulled the ninth and tenth control cards, the jump field generator began to shutdown. The sparks stopped, and the glow inside the device began to fade as the humming from the unit decreased. He pulled out the last two cards and stood up, triumphant. He turned and looked at Jessica, a victorious smile on his face. “Wait until I tell Vlad about that!”
* * *
Master Sergeant Anwar moved quietly down the corridor above the main engineering section of the Mystic Empress. The tactical display on the inside of his helmet visor indicated that one deck below, and inboard of him, were six of the Mystic’s crew, presumably all members of the ship’s engineering department. He also detected four armed men inside the same compartment, and four more guarding various entrances outside the compartment. With eight men securing that section, there was no way that he and his men could retake that department without sacrificing the prisoners. Although he knew that neither General Telles nor Lieutenant Nash would have a problem with losing the six innocent men, he was quite certain that Captain Scott would insist on finding a way to take the compartment without needlessly sacrificing the Mystic’s engineers. It was a sound argument, considering that they needed the ship intact and fully functional, which would be easier with the skills of the six men currently being held hostage.
The Ghatazhak master sergeant was already formulating a plan to do just that, but he would need more men; more than just the other four who had come aboard with him.
* * *
The hatch from the starboard engineering crawl spaces cracked slightly, then slowly opened a few centimeters. Ten seconds passed, then the hatch opened a bit more and stopped. Finally, after another pause, the hatch opened fully and Jessica swung through it, feet first, landing in the artificial gravity of the corridor.
Jessica moved quickly down the corridor to the nearest intersection, checking around the corner to see if anyone was nearby.
Nathan was next, coming through the hatch in similar fashion. Once his feet were back on the deck, he turned and pushed the hatch closed, securing it once again.
“We need to go up a few levels and then across to the port side,” Jessica said as she walked back toward Nathan.
“Straight across on the same deck would be quicker,” Nathan suggested.
“If they’ve taken the ship, then they’ve taken engineering by now,” Jessica surmised. “If we try to cut across on the same deck, we’re likely to run into them.”
“Maybe we can take a few of them out,” Nathan suggested. “Maybe even get our hands on some of their weapons.”
“And if the ship is crawling with Dusahn already?” she replied. “Jump drive first,” Jessica insisted. “Your idea, remember? Besides, our chances of getting the other jump drives taken offline are better while they still don’t know we’re here.”
“Lead the way,” Nathan agreed.
* * *
“Siggy!” one of his men called. “I just heard from Torel. They have found more passengers. Some in their escape pods, some still in their cabins. And we have rounded up all of the Mystic’s crew. In total, more than three hundred people.”
The man’s voice sounded justifiably nervous. That many people could easily rush a handful of armed men and succeed in overpowering them. “Assemble them all in the garden deck, in the center courtyard,” Siggy ordered. “Post guards on the walkways above, as well as on the garden deck itself. Kill anyone who resists.”
“Yes,” the man replied.
“Siggy,” a voice called over his comm-unit. “This is Ellis. I’m just forward of engineering. I found Gortie. He’s dead.”
“How?” Siggy asked over his comm-unit.
“Stab wound to the gut, and his neck has been snapped.”
“The man was ex-militia, special ops!” Siggy barked. “How the hell did some security guard on a luxury liner do that?”
“I do not believe it was a security guard,” Ellis replied. “Gortie was good. Damned good.”
“I want every square meter of this ship searched,” Siggy demanded. “Find the son-of-a-bitch, and kill him.”
“We will need to pull people from guarding the prisoners,” Ellis warned.
“I don’t care. Stop that fucker, before he takes someone else out.”
CHAPTER NINE
“Jump complete,” Loki announced, as the Seiiki’s cockpit windows cycled back from opaque to clear. “Sensors are picking up the Aurora and the Glendanon.”
“Patch me into the Aurora’s comm-channel,” Vladimir instructed.
“You’ve got it,” Loki replied after a few taps on his console.
“Aurora, Aurora. This is the Seiiki, Commander Kamenetskiy. Put me through to Captain Taylor, immediately.”
“Seiiki, Aurora. Stand by one, Commander.”
“I’ve got a clear-to-land signal from Aurora Flight Ops,” Loki reported.
“Take us in,” Vladimir replied. “Warn the crew that this will be a quick turnaround. I want to be ready to launch as quickly as possible.”
“Got it.”
“Seiiki, Aurora. Actual is ready for you, sir,” the Aurora’s comms officer announced.
“Aurora Actual, Kamenetskiy.”
“Go for Actual,” Cameron replied.
“Cameron, I need you to launch a pair of Reapers configured for pursuit recon. We’ll send you the coordinates.”
“Why? What are they looking for?” Cameron asked.
“The Mystic Empress. She jumped away after being boarded by pirates…while Nathan and Jessica were on board. You should have General Telles prepare boarding teams as well,” Vladimir added. “And Cam, we came direct. There was no time to fly the entire algorithm.”
“Understood.”
Cameron switched off her comm-channel, then pressed the button for her comms officer. “Comms, Captain. Notify the Glendanon that we need to move to the next position early. Contact General Telles and tell him we need boarding teams, and have the general meet me in the hangar bay.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Tactical, Captain,” Cameron continued, pressing another comm-button. “Put the ship on alert condition one.” Cameron did not wait for confirmation, instead switching to yet another comm-channel. “Flight, Captain. Recall all patrol birds. Fit two Reapers with recon pods and scramble them ASAP; coordinates and mission details will be ready by the time they launch. Fit two more Reapers with anti-ship missiles, and fit the last two for boarding ops with breach boxes.”
“Aye, sir.”
Cameron switched off her intercom, grabbing her comm-set from the desk as she rose to exit. She passed through the ready room hatch into the bridge as she donned her comm-set. “Call the XO to the bridge. I’ll contact her from the hangar deck as soon as I know more,” she said, turning to exit the bridge.
* * *
“Shit,” Jessica said, ducking back around the corner of the corridor, against the wall. “Back the other way,” she motioned to Nathan, moving back the way they had come.
“What is it?” Nathan asked, changing direction with her.
“Two goons just turned the corner and are coming our way. Quick, around the next corner to the left.”
“That’ll take us all the way aft,” Nathan warned. “We’ll have to double back along the port side.”
“No choice,” Jessica insisted, picking up the pace. She pulled ahead of Nathan, feeling compelled to take the lead due to her Ghatazhak training, despite the fact that she had no weapon.
As she rounded the next corner to the left, she paused just enough to translate the corridor markings, in both Takaran and Corinairan. Confident that they were now headed directly aft, she picked up her pace again, turning to the right at the next corridor, heading over to the furthest point along the ship’s starboard side.
“Where are you going?” Nathan called from a few steps behind her. “We need to go to port.”
“We need to go starboard, then up one deck, then aft, otherwise we’ll run right into engineering, which will probably be crawling with bad guys,” Jessica explained as she continued jogging down the corridor.
Realizing she was correct, Nathan continued following her, as he recalled the images of the ship’s deck plan he had studied earlier. It was odd that he remembered them so clearly. He had studied them for less than a minute, and even then, only to find the access hatch to the starboard engineering crawl spaces. He realized now that every single page he had scrolled through was retained in his memory, as if he had thoroughly scrutinized each one. His memory was always good, but never this precise.
Nathan made a mental note to ask Doctor Sato about it when they got back to the Aurora.
That’s when another thought occurred to him. He had not used the word ‘if’. Considering their current circumstances, it would have been natural. Yet the idea that they might not make it through this current situation, or any situation in the future, didn’t seem to be a question. Rather, to him, survival seemed an absolute certainty, as did victory.
As they continued down the corridor, Nathan wondered if something about the transfer into the new cloned body, one that Doctor Sato had genetically altered over the course of four clones, had anything to do with his newfound confidence. He was certain it explained his improved memory, and his surprising dexterity in the gym
the other day. He only hoped it wasn’t the start of one of the potential personality disorders the Nifelmian doctor had warned him about.
Nathan came to a stop at the ladder well, waiting a moment as Jessica began her ascent. Once she was a few meters up, he began his climb up the ladder. It was a long climb, as the engineering level was at least twice, if not three times, the height of the average deck. Much of the climb was up through closed tubes. As they climbed, the thought struck him that if anyone suddenly appeared at the top or bottom of the ladder while they were still climbing, they were pretty much done for. Yet again, he had no doubt in his mind that they would survive.
Nathan worried that this abnormal confidence would make him reckless, but there was nothing he could do about it now. His best bet was to follow Jessica’s lead. After all, she had superior training, and he had only been ‘awake’ for three days.
They continued their climb, passing by a few tiny landings provided for various crawl space hatches. After a minute, Jessica reached the next level and stopped to peek over the deck for any sign of the enemy, before ascending the last few rungs and stepping out onto the landing.
Nathan continued up the ladder to join her, but stopped when he felt her boot on his head. He looked up, confused. “What the…”
“Ssh!” she hissed, peeking around the corner of the landing cutout.
Nathan continued looking up at her, as she held out two fingers, then pointed behind her back to her right.
Jessica turned back toward Nathan, squatting to move closer to him. “There are two heavily-armed goons guarding the intersection on this side,” she whispered. “There’s probably two more on the other side as well. I’m going to lure these guys after me. I’ll cut to port further forward. Hopefully, they’ll send the other two forward to cut me off. Once these two pass by, you go aft and cut across, and then back up the port side to the access hatch.”
