by Ryk Brown
“Which is where?” Josh asked.
“The same place they probably wanted us to. At the furthest point in the asteroid course,” Nathan replied.
“Are we going to be able to take them?” Dalen wondered.
“There are at least fifty Gunyoki on this platform at the moment,” Quory reminded them. “And another few hundred who would respond from the surface of Rakuen within five minutes.”
“None of which will make a difference without jump drives,” Nathan argued.
“But we’ve got the Aurora,” Josh bragged.
“The Dusahn will undoubtedly send a battleship, perhaps even two,” General Telles insisted. “We may be able to repel the attack, but it is doubtful that we will be able to destroy the Dusahn warship. We simply cannot risk losing the Aurora at this point.”
“What about the gunships?” Josh asked.
“They are guarding the fleet,” General Telles replied.
“I have some ideas,” Nathan announced, glancing at the clock on the wall. “For now, though, we have another race to fly.”
“Nathan is right,” Vladimir agreed. “Let’s get back to work.”
Nathan exchanged glances with General Telles as everyone rose and headed out of the room. He strolled over to the general’s side, waiting for everyone to leave before he spoke. “You should have told me about the device from the start.”
“Your executive officer has already chastised me for that mistake,” General Telles assured him. “There is another matter to consider. Should we tell Master Koku about our suspicions?”
Nathan sighed. “Honestly, I’m just not sure. I’m going to have to think about that one.”
“Agreed.”
Nathan took a deep breath and let it out. “You know, there is a way to test your theory.”
“I know,” the general replied.
Nathan nodded. “We need to speak with Cameron.”
* * *
Jessica was out of the Reaper within seconds after it rolled to a stop inside bay seventy-five on the Gunyoki race platform. Despite her best efforts, she had not been able to get back prior to the start of Nathan’s third heat.
After sprinting across the empty bay, she reached the control room where Master Koku, Josh, and General Telles were monitoring Nathan’s performance. “How’s he doing?”
“He is holding a very small lead,” the general replied. “But his opponent is challenging him at every turn.”
Jessica’s eyes darted toward Master Koku.
General Telles shook his head, confirming that they had not told the old man about the device, or about the suspected plot between Yokimah and the Dusahn.
“Gate fifty-six, coming up,” Josh announced. “You’re in the homestretch now, Cap’n…”
“…Watch your line in the next turn, or Salenger will try to slip under you again,” Josh warned.
“Understood,” Nathan said, holding his breath as he bore down against the g-forces. He finished his turn, rolled level, and pushed his throttles forward again, having chosen the utilization of constant changes in speed instead of the smooth, traditional style of the true Gunyoki, of which his opponent was one of the remaining few.
“This would be far less tiring if we had better inertial dampeners,” Loki observed.
“That would not be the way of the Gunyoki,” Nathan stated, mimicking Master Koku.
“Surprisingly, your impressions are worse than your flying,” Master Koku proclaimed dryly.
Nathan smiled. “I think I’m pissing Salenger off with all these speed changes,” he commented as they accelerated toward the next gate. “He’s almost rear-ended us at least a dozen times now.”
“Locking lasers on the next set of targets,” Loki announced. “Firing.”
“Oh, yeah!” Josh exclaimed. “Ten more points for the good guys!”
Nathan glanced at the rear camera view as he rolled his ship over and dove for the next gate, backing his throttles off more than usual.
“Uh, isn’t this where you usually punch it?” Loki wondered.
“I don’t want too much speed, or I won’t make the next turn,” Nathan insisted.
“You’ve made turns like this at a faster rate before, Captain,” Loki reminded him.
“We’re further off line than I’d like,” Nathan replied.
“He’s making his move!” Josh warned. “Low to port! Translate down and left! Quickly!”
Nathan paused a split-second before moving his control stick, and failed to rotate his engine nacelles quickly enough to move his ship down and left to block his opponent’s attempt to get around him. Nathan jammed his throttles forward as his opponent’s fighter slid under him and took the lead.
“Fuck!” Josh cursed over comms.
Nathan followed his opponent through the next gate, allowing the distance between the two ships to increase slightly.
“Keep your throttles at max power!” Josh yelled. “You’ve only got three gates to catch him!”
“What about points?” Nathan demanded. “Do we have him on points?”
“If he finishes first, Salenger will have you by ten points,” General Telles chimed in. “Your only hope is to pass him before you reach the last gate.”
Nathan left his throttles at full power, switching back to the fluid, traditional piloting style that Master Koku had taught him. Although he was able to keep up with his opponent, over the next two gates, he was unable to gain on him, let alone pass him. As they breached the fifty-ninth gate and entered the final turn, all hope appeared to be lost.
Then there was a small flash in the leader’s port engine, and the fighter started drifting off course.
“He just lost his port engine!” Josh screamed. “GUN IT!”
“All power to the main engines!” Nathan barked.
“What about shields?” Loki warned as he channeled all available power into the engines. “There’s still two targets left.”
“If you cross the finish line first, you’ll still have enough points to win, even after the penalty for not taking out the targets,” General Telles assured them.
As Nathan’s fighter began to pass his opponent on his port side, several smaller explosions went off within the other ship’s malfunctioning engine. “He’s coming apart!” Nathan exclaimed. “Transfer power to port shields!”
Nika Salenger’s port engine exploded, setting off a chain reaction in his port propellant tank, then his port missile bay, working its way across through the entire ship, killing its crew in the process.
Several large pieces of debris slammed into the starboard side of Nathan’s fighter, before their shields had adequate energy, sending their ship sliding sideways.
“Shit!” Nathan exclaimed as he struggled to regain control.
“Multiple damage warnings!” Loki announced. “Starboard engine is losing hydraulics! Reactor containment is fluctuating! Missiles and lasers are offline…”
“All I need is maneuvering!” Nathan yelled. “Quickly! We’re going to hit the gate!”
Loki quickly channeled all remaining energy that their damaged reactor could produce into their maneuvering systems. “I’m restarting maneuvering!” he announced. “You should at least have docking thrusters in ten seconds!”
“You’re gonna hit the gate in twenty!” Josh warned.
Jessica and General Telles exchanged glances.
“Docking thrusters coming up!” Loki announced.
“His docking thrusters may not be enough,” Master Koku warned. “Not with so little time before impact.”
“Docking thrusters online!” Loki reported.
Nathan twisted his flight control stick, leaning it to the right to put their ship into a fast roll.
“What the hell are you doing?” Josh yelled.
Loki said nothing.
Nathan kept his eyes looking out the window, catching a glimpse of the area of the gate they were going to collide with, trying to judge their closure rate and time his roll rat
e. Tiny squirts from docking thrusters adjusted his roll rate as they drifted toward the last gate, debris from his opponent’s obliterated fighter drifting alongside them.
Nathan’s eyes widened as they entered their final roll before impact. “Hold on!” he warned as he fired and held his thrusters to slow their roll at the last second. He held his breath, looking up as the ship rolled, their canopy rolling past the gate’s edge, missing the structure by less than a meter.
“YOU’RE CLEAR!” Josh exclaimed, jumping out of his seat. “YOU WON!”
Master Koku, as usual, showed no reaction at all. “I hope your mechanics are good,” he warned. “As you will have just over an hour to repair the damage, or you will forfeit the next race.”
General Telles and Jessica again exchanged glances as Master Koku silently left the control room.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Nathan sat at the control room console next to Josh and Loki, while Master Koku, Jessica, and General Telles stood behind them. All eyes were glued to the assortment of camera views and sensor displays as they watched the final heat to determine the champion of Ichi Aza.
“Suli will take the next gate higher than expected, leaving room below for Alayna to slip under her,” Master Koku stated. “Do you know why?”
“Because she’s stupid?” Josh joked.
“To bait her pursuer,” Nathan surmised. “The next gate is high right, and the gate after is in the same direction. If Alayna goes under, she’ll be outside on both turns and she’ll fall further behind.”
“Correct,” Master Koku agreed. “It will also expose her to the defenses on gates sixty-three and sixty-four.”
“But those are on a different leg,” Josh argued. “They’re still eight gates away. Are they even active?”
“All gun emplacements become active the moment the race begins,” Loki stated.
“Mister Sheehan is correct,” Master Koku agreed. “This round is meant to simulate an attack on a heavily defended position.”
“Then why are they flying against one another?” Josh asked in a sarcastic tone.
“Because it adds to the excitement,” Master Koku replied. “Unfortunately, much of the race is designed for that purpose.”
“Yup, she’s going high right, just like you said,” Josh noticed.
“She’s not going for it,” Nathan realized as the second ship held her position directly behind the leader.
“Hell, she’s translating up,” Josh added.
“She will make her move at the next threshold,” Master Koku predicted.
Moments later, the two ships passed through the next race gate, and the second ship translated further upward and began accelerating.
“Where the hell is she getting the extra thrust?” Josh wondered.
“Her weapons officer is taking power from weapons and shields in favor of propulsion,” Master Koku explained.
Nathan looked at the sensor readout for Alayna Imai’s ship. “She’s using a zero-twenty-eighty split.” Nathan turned to look at Master Koku. “No power to weapons and only twenty percent to shields?”
“A clever tactic,” General Telles commented.
“Alayna is betting that Suli’s weapons officer will destroy the targets.”
“But twenty percent?” Nathan questioned. “A single direct hit and her shields will be gone.”
“A gamble, yes,” Master Koku agreed. “But she has taken the lead away from her opponent.”
Nathan turned back just as Alayna’s ship overtook Suli’s, and she returned her power levels to a more balanced distribution, although, still favoring propulsion. “Damn. I’m glad we don’t have to maintain a three-way balance like that.”
“That was a slick move,” Josh exclaimed. “I’d like to meet this Alayna chick. She looks hot.”
“Alayna is married, with six children, and a husband who is twice your size,” Master Koku stated calmly.
Josh’s eyebrows jumped. “Thanks for the warning, grandpa.”
“How many gates left?” Jessica asked.
“Twenty-five,” Loki replied.
“How many gates are in this race?” she wondered.
“Eighty,” Loki answered.
“That’s a long-ass race.”
“The final is twice as long,” Master Koku told her.
“And through asteroids,” Loki added.
“And the other guy is allowed to shoot at you,” Josh chimed in.
Jessica looked concerned. “You’re kidding?”
“In the final heat, one ship is the aggressor, and the other the defender,” Master Koku explained.
“What’s the difference?” Jessica wondered.
“The aggressor must deal with both the fixed defenses, and his or her opponent. The defender only has to worry about their opponent, and not the defenses.”
“How do they decide who’s the aggressor, and who’s the defender?” she wondered.
“The ship from the ichi with the greatest accumulation of points is allowed to choose. In nearly all cases, they choose to defend.”
“No surprise there,” Jessica said.
The door to the control room burst open, and Quory stepped inside. “I have news!” he blurted out with excitement.
Everyone in the room turned to look at Quory.
“Tham Kors has withdrawn from Ichi Konsai’s final heat. The damage to his ship cannot be repaired in time. They just announced it throughout the platform. Congratulations, Captain. You are now going to the final round as the Ichi Konsai Shenshomi!”
“Shen-what?” Jessica wondered.
“The warrior of Ichi Konsai,” Loki explained.
There was not as much surprise in their faces as Master Koku would have thought. “One has to wonder, however, why they did not use an alternate ship. After all, Tham Kors flies for Yokimah Racing, and two of their pilots are already out of the competition, which makes their ships available as backups.”
“They can do that?” Josh wondered. “Just use whatever ship they want?”
“Within the same team, yes,” Master Koku replied.
“They can change pilots, too,” Loki added.
“In the same team?” Josh asked.
“Not always,” Master Koku corrected. “If a pilot is too badly injured to continue, he or she may select an alternate to fly in their place. However, the alternate must be of the same ichi.”
“Alayna Imai will win this heat,” Nathan announced. “Yokimah wants his pilots to face me in the finals, and she is on his team.”
“She’ll also be the first woman in race history to make it to the final heat,” Loki added.
“Which only serves to support Yokimah’s assertion that the Gunyoki are capable of defending Rakuen,” Nathan continued. “He’s orchestrated this entire event to serve his purposes.”
“You are accusing Ito Yokimah of cheating?” Master Koku asked, surprised.
“People like Yokimah don’t consider it cheating,” Nathan insisted. “They refer to it as ‘doing what is necessary for the greater good’, which usually means for the good of the one doing it.”
“If you do not trust him, why did you accept his challenge?” Master Koku wondered.
Nathan looked at the old man. “If there’s one thing that combat has taught me, it’s that you rarely get to choose who you fight, or when you fight them.”
“Uh, Nathan’s right,” Josh interrupted. “Alayna just won.”
General Telles looked at the screens, quickly tallying up the scores. “This means you will have your choice of roles in the final heat,” he concluded. “Ichi Konsai now has five more points than Ichi Aza.”
“Congratulations, Captain,” Master Koku offered respectfully. “You have gotten further in the competition than I would ever have imagined. It seems your reputation for being lucky is not an exaggeration.”
* * *
Makani Koku entered Ito Yokimah’s office deep inside the Yokimah Racing Center on the Gunyoki race platform. The call from
his former employer was unexpected, and he feared it was related to Captain Scott’s suspicions. That fear, as well as the life-debt that Makani owed Ito, compelled him to answer the call.
“Makani,” Ito greeted as he entered the room from a side door. “I trust all is going well in bay seventy-five?”
“As well as can be expected,” Makani replied.
“They will have their ship repaired, and ready for action, in time for the finals, will they not?”
“I cannot say for sure, but I would be surprised if they did not. They are quite a determined and resourceful bunch.”
“Excellent,” Ito exclaimed. “That’s precisely what I’d hoped. A tremendous event this has turned out to be, wouldn’t you say?”
“It appears to be the usual folly that the public now calls Gunyoki.”
“Ticket sales are through the roof!” Ito exclaimed. “Paid viewership, both in viewing arenas and at home, is off the charts, as well. The Gunyoki Combat Racing Association will earn more credits from this one event, than they will from the entire season.”
“I imagine you, as the one of the founders, stand to receive a substantial percentage of those credits.”
“Indeed, I do,” Ito bragged. “And it’s all because of you, my old friend.”
“My role in all of this is marginal, at best,” Makani insisted humbly.
“Don’t sell yourself short, my friend. There are still many who remember the name Koku. Your reputation alone, probably accounts for a sizable portion of our sales. Everyone wants to see the legend, who was trained by a legend, fly against their favorite Gunyoki pilots of today. The publicity around your name, and that of Captain Scott’s, well, you simply cannot buy that type of publicity. Not for all the credits on Rakuen. And this deal is but a stepping-stone. I have plans for Rakuen that you would not believe…”
“Deal?” Makani wondered.
“Event,” Ito corrected. “This event will make Ito Yokimah a household name. ‘Ito Yokimah’, the protector of Rakuen.”
Makani looked puzzled. “How exactly are you protecting Rakuen?”
“It is a long story,” Ito said, dismissing the subject with a wave of his hand. “One you do not have time for, my old friend.”
