‘If we destroy them now, there’ll be three fewer ships to face when we go back for Cally and Avon,’ Jenna told him, watching the screen as they closed on the asteroid. ‘Stand by on the neutron blasters,’ she warned.
Again, the ship rose to skim over the top of the obstacle. This time, though, Jenna didn’t resume her course but instead threw the ship into a dive that hugged the far side of the asteroid. Its bulk temporarily hid them from the following ships. As before, one pursuit ship rose over the top of the asteroid and the other two flew underneath. They were below and in front of the Liberator as they came out from beneath the slowly spinning rock and began to angle upwards.
Vila was ready for their appearance, and fired as they came into sight. His shot hit full on and the pursuit ship exploded in a brief, glorious shower of sparks and fire.
‘Yes!’ Vila sounded surprised at his own success. In the excitement of the moment, the pursuit ship seemed little more than a target in a game, albeit a potentially deadly one. It was as if he was too busy reacting to consider that the image on his screen was actually a ship with living people inside.
Jenna accelerated and flew through the space where the enemy ship had been. Debris rattled against the hull as the survivor let off a quick shot. It missed, then the two ships passed one another, the Liberator heading down through the belt of asteroids. Jenna turned the ship on her central axis to dodge a smaller asteroid, and pulled around in a loop back towards the pursuit ships.
‘Good work,’ said Blake warmly. ‘Let’s try to finish them before they make a run for it.’
‘Already on it,’ Jenna answered, smiling as the big ship responded to her controls.
*
‘I discussed it with Blake, but he thinks the Liberator is too important an asset to be tied to any one place,’ Cally told Allston.
They were sitting together in the second of the hidden rooms. This one was designed more as living space for people in hiding, and was furnished with comfortable chairs, a dining table, two narrow beds and had a corner closed off as a tiny bathroom.
Allston thought for a moment, frowning, then his expression suddenly opened into a smile. The effect was pleasing, like the sun coming out from behind clouds.
‘I guess he may be right, especially at this stage. Hit and run attacks will make it difficult for the Federation to track you, especially after the damage you caused at Saurian Major. We knew that long-distance communications had been disrupted, but if the Federation have told Greerson why, he hasn’t told the rest of us.’
Cally nodded. ‘We can use the Liberator‘s power, and especially her teleport system, to help planets like yours, as well as disrupting the Federation’s ability to control. If we can pry planets free from their grasp, and weaken their grip while strengthening the opposition, then eventually we can overthrow them.’
‘A galaxy of justice and democracy,’ said Allston. ‘That’s all we want.’
He leaned back in his chair and stretched. Cally, watching him, was surprised when he gave a sudden yawn.
‘We should go and see what your comrade is doing,’ Allston suggested. ‘Now he’s had a chance to develop his ideas, he might be a bit more forthcoming about how he intends to bring Greerson down without fighting.’
Cally rose. ‘Avon resents the Federation for catching him, but he isn’t a real fighter,’ she said. She followed Allston to the door between the rooms.
Allston looked at her thoughtfully. ‘Does he do what he promises to do?’
Cally paused for a moment. ‘I haven’t known him long,’ she admitted. ‘He’s kept his word so far.’
‘Then we can assume he’s going to bring down Greerson, whatever his motivation.’
In the office room, Avon was still working at a computer terminal. He looked up as they entered, and sat back in his chair, waiting as they approached. Although he’d only been in the rebels’ base for a few hours, he looked very much at home and in command of the situation.
‘How are you?’ Allston asked. ‘Can I get you a drink?’
Avon’s expression softened. ‘Well now. That’s kind of you but no, thank you.’
Allston sat down in the next chair; Cally sat on Avon’s other side,
‘How have you been getting on with your program?’ Allston asked.
Avon turned back towards his terminal, though he continued to look at Allston.
‘My program works now,’ he answered. ‘I am refining the details.’
‘How is it going to bring President Greerson down?’
‘It’s taken time to track down the necessary information,’ Avon began, talking rather as though giving a lecture to students. ‘Greerson has been quite clever at disguising his interests. When you start digging, you find a lot of companies are owned by other companies, that are part of corporate groups, and so on. Either directly, or by such indirect means, Greerson has shares in more companies than he has officially declared. And a lot of the final companies, the ones that do actual work, are the companies that get government contracts, such as Belspin.’
Allston looked happy. ‘You’ve done good work. We suspected this sort of thing was going on, but we could never dig far enough to get real proof that Greerson was corrupt.’
‘I have the proof,’ Avon agreed. ‘But my plan is to turn Greerson’s greed against him. I suspect that he has a great deal of influence over the media, and the legal system on Belzanko?’
Allston nodded his agreement.
‘So if you tried bringing his underhand practices to public attention, you would find it hard to get heard, and it’s unlikely that a case would be brought at all, let alone with any chance of success against the President,’ Avon surmised. He began to smile. ‘My plan is to get to him through those share dealings. To wipe out his fortune and leave him vulnerable.’
‘I don’t see how that’s going to work,’ Cally objected. ‘We came here to attack Greerson, not to mess around with the stock markets.’
Avon’s smile became patronising. ‘Attempting to attack President Greerson directly would be foolish. He must be very well guarded, or else I imagine Allston and his people would have removed him already. Even with the Liberator‘s resources, we do not have the capability to launch an attack large enough and damaging enough to unseat Greerson. We can certainly hurt his position, but it would take a sustained series of attacks to remove him, and he would call in help from his allies in the Federation before we could finish him. And the Federation would fall over themselves to help if they suspected Blake was involved.’
‘But you agreed to come here and help,’ Cally pointed out hotly. ‘Though all we planned to do was to weaken Greerson by attacking his pursuit ship production.’
‘Blake was determined to come here, and I am travelling on the same ship, for the time being, therefore I came too,’ Avon said calmly. ‘And since I was coming, I thought I may as well help out, since you needed my skills. If you try to attack him with just guns and bombs, you’ll be doing so without me.’
‘You boast a lot about your skills, but you still got caught,’ Cally said tartly. She was pleased to see the smile disappear from Avon’s face. ‘How can we be sure your program will work?’
‘I was caught because I trusted other people,’ Avon retorted. ‘I shall take care of this myself.’
How is your program going to work?’ Allston asked, leaning forward.
Avon turned again to face him directly. ‘I need to plant this program directly into the computers of the main planetary stock exchange. The buying and selling of shares is heavily computerised and a lot of business happens automatically. Once active, my program will submit orders to start selling shares from the companies that Greerson has a heavy stake in. Other computers that monitor the markets will notice the run of sales, and be triggered into selling their own shares in those companies. Once share sales reach a certain point, their value will crash and those companies will become worthless. That’s a simple explanation, of course,’ he added, his
expression implying that they wouldn’t understand a complicated one.
‘Stock markets have to be more complicated than that,’ Cally protested, nettled. ‘There are humans buying and selling on the stock exchange, aren’t there?’ she asked Allston.
‘There are, but how it works is a mystery to me,’ Allston said.
Avon smiled again. ‘Finance is my specialist field, remember? There are traders who buy and sell at the request of investors, or in the hope of spotting a market for themselves, but a lot of the system is automated, and computers are very good at doing what they are told, without asking questions.’
‘It’s a weakness you can exploit,’ said Allston, cracking his knuckles absently.
‘That’s correct.’
‘So what happens when Greerson loses the money invested in his shares?’ Cally asked. ‘He’s still in power as President.’
‘But severely weakened.’ Allston answered her, his face bright with excitement. ‘He won’t be able to hide such a big hit to his finances, and with Avon’s information, we’ll be able to make it clear just how many companies he’s been dealing with, the government contracts he’s been giving his own companies. With millions of credits wiped off his value, he won’t have the same power to control the media, or the courts.’
‘I can tell you which companies are suddenly going to lose value for no good reason,’ Avon told him. ‘There’s no reason why you and your supporters shouldn’t buy into those companies while prices are at a low.’
Allston smiled. ‘We could buy enough to get controlling interests in one or two important companies like Belspin. We would get a say in how the companies are run, and who they sell to.’
‘Pick good companies, and you’ll be making money on cheap shares,’ Avon advised. ‘The profits would fund your activities.’
As Greerson is doing at the moment, but for different purposes.’ Allston smiled at Cally. ‘Don’t you think there’s poetry in that irony?’
It didn’t seem as simple and certain to Cally as a military attack, but she could see the attraction of fewer people getting hurt. ‘If the program works, and the markets react in the way you predict, it could bring change and save lives,’ she answered.
‘The program will work,’ Avon repeated. ‘It’s up to Allston and his followers to take advantage of it.’
‘Oh, we will,’ Allston promised, cracking his knuckles. ‘We will.’
FIVE
Liberator rose steadily through the belt of asteroids. The pursuit ship they had passed had already disappeared from their scanners, hidden by one or more of the slowly spinning rocks. Jenna took the ship round on a loop past another asteroid, that glimmered with streaks of metallic ore.
Gan concentrated hard on his station. ‘I can’t pick up the pursuit ships,’ he said.
‘Keep trying,’ Blake said encouragingly. He had turned off the force wall to conserve energy.
‘They’ll be after us for sure,’ said Vila, his fingers waiting restlessly by the controls of the neutron blasters.
Jenna deliberately swung the Liberator close around the asteroid as she headed back in the direction of the pursuit ships. As they came around the bulk of the rock, she saw a smaller asteroid in the path of the ship, orbiting the larger one.
‘COLLISION IMMINENT,’ Zen warned.
‘I can see that!’ Jenna hissed, jerking the ship sideways.
Everyone lurched and grabbed for consoles as the ship scraped past the small rock.
‘Ow!’ The exclamation came from Vila. ‘I’ve bitten my tongue!’
‘I’ll bite something worse if you don’t shut up,’ Jenna threatened, her concentration on the screen.
As they cleared the asteroid, the two remaining pursuit ships came into view. They had joined up and were waiting ahead, pointed at where they guessed the Liberator was going to be. Plasma bolts filled the screen. Jenna swore. Blake hastily flicked the deflector shield on. Fortunately, Jenna’s hasty dodge around the small asteroid had put them slightly off the optimal course. One bolt missed altogether, the other made a glancing blow against the shield. The big ship lurched again as brilliant light flashed through the bridge.
‘LOWER HULL DAMAGED. SHIP INTEGRITY REDUCED TO NINETY-THREE PERCENT.’
In response, Jenna thrust the controls forward, accelerating the Liberator towards the enemy ships. Vila squeaked in alarm, but kept his eyes on his screen.
The pursuit ships drove forward to meet them, rapidly getting large on the viewscreen and scanners. As they fired, so did the Liberator. Plasma bolt met neutron blast in space. Viewscreen and bridge lit up and the ship bucked beneath them like a startled animal. The other plasma bolt struck a glancing blow on the small asteroid.
‘Force wall holding,’ called Blake.
After the head to head run, they passed above the pursuit ships.
‘Stand by to turn,’ Jenna warned, taking a firm grip on the controls. ‘Vila, be ready to shoot.’
‘Ready.’ Vila’s voice betrayed his nerves, but his hand remained steady.
As before, Jenna reversed the engines and pulled the controls back, spinning the Liberator almost in place. As soon as they’d turned, she hit maximum forward thrust to counter their backwards momentum. The starscape whirled about their forward scanner, as her stomach churned in sympathy. Vila gulped audibly, but managed to send a shot after the pursuit ships as they vanished beyond the large asteroid. The shot caught the trailing ship and it vanished in a silent explosion.
‘Well done!’ said Blake. ‘Just one more to go.’ He leaned forward at his console, his expression as intent as a hunter in sight of his prey.
‘It’s behind that asteroid. Scanners can’t pick it up,’ reported Gan.
‘If they’ve got any sense, they’re running for home,’ Jenna said, pushing the Liberator forward.
She turned the big ship so they passed to the other side of the big metallic asteroid.
‘We may get a glimpse of the pursuit ship as we clear the asteroid,’ Jenna warned Vila.
‘Right.’
As they rounded the rock, there was a brief flash ahead from the engines of the pursuit ship as it disappeared behind an ovoid asteroid. Vila fired reflexively, but the shot did no more than to cause debris to spout from the surface of the rock.
‘Sorry,’ Vila said breathlessly.
By way of reply, Jenna sent the Liberator on by the most direct route, aiming to pass underneath the ovoid rock.
The asteroid headed to the top of the viewscreen and vanished as they started to pass underneath. As they reached the lowest point of their dive, a plasma bolt appeared from the far side of the asteroid, almost in front of them. Vila squeaked.
Jenna swore. She threw the ship into a spin in the hope that the plasma bolt would miss. It hit a glancing blow to one of the hulls, making the whole ship shudder. Brilliant light seem to erupt around them, and once again the crew found themselves clinging to their consoles.
‘Where did that come from?’ yelled Gan.
‘The last pursuit ship curved around the asteroid and came back at us,’ snapped Jenna, wrestling for control of the ship.
‘HULL DAMAGED. SHIP INTEGRITY REDUCED TO EIGHTY-ONE PERCENT,’ intoned Zen, adding to the noise. ‘POWER BANK FOUR AT FIVE PERCENT. SWITCHING TO POWER BANK FIVE.’
Jenna pulled the spinning ship away from another asteroid that seemed to loom up very fast.
The pursuit ship hadn’t kept fleeing, as they’d expected, but had hugged the curve of the ovoid asteroid until it faced back towards their path. The smaller ship had been able to see the Liberator around the asteroid before they had been able to see it. As Jenna kept accelerating forward, the pursuit ship came into sight. It launched another plasma bolt, as Vila took another shot with the neutron blasters.
This time Blake flicked the force wall on in time. Jenna spun and dodged, and the plasma bolt passed by the main hull, lighting up the scanners as it passed. Vila’s shot also missed, as the pursuit ship accelerated t
owards them. The two ships passed one another harmlessly. Jenna didn’t try to flip the ship again, but put her into a tight turn around the asteroid below them.
‘The pursuit ship is looping around an asteroid,’ Gan reported, watching the sensors. ‘I think they’re coming around for another head to head pass.’
‘Thank you,’ Jenna answered, turning the Liberator as she made her own downward loop.
‘They must be low on power,’ Blake said, frowning at his console. ‘That’s why they’re not running.’
‘I hope so,’ said Vila, his nervousness making him talk. ‘The low on power thing, I mean. I wouldn’t mind if they ran away. That would be better in fact. Better for them, and much better for us.’
‘Vila!’ Jenna silenced his chatter.
Instead of curving close to the asteroid’s surface, Jenna made a wider turn, then closed in to come back at a steeper angle.
‘Ready, Vila,’ she called.
A moment later, the pursuit ship was in sight. Small and fast, it stayed close to the surface of the asteroid it had looped around. Its weapons were pointed where the Liberator would have been if Jenna had followed a similar, tight course around the reddish asteroid. Vila fired a quick shot, even as the pursuit ship adjusted its angle, tilting towards the Liberator‘s position. The shot just missed the pursuit ship and impacted against the surface of the asteroid. Rocky debris blasted from its surface, engulfing the pursuit ship.
As the pursuit ship emerged from the cloud of rocks and dust, an explosion tore through the rear fuselage. Vila fired again.
‘They were low on power!’ Gan exclaimed. ‘Their defence shield was down.’
Vila’s second shot hit the crippled ship. The pursuit ship tore apart in a series of explosions. Jenna pulled the Liberator into a tighter climb, so they rose with the expanding explosion cloud in front of them. Debris hit the force wall and rattled the big ship, but the crew could tell it was nothing serious even before Zen’s report.
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