by B. V. Larson
“About time you came to check on me,” she said. “I thought you’d forgotten about your highest-ranking guest.”
My eyes darted around the spare chamber. There were very few hiding places. I moved into the chamber and ordered my security men to search the bunks.
Lael stood up and looked annoyed as they tore up her bedding.
That’s when I noticed the wand in her hand. She was idly tapping at her fingernails with it.
Snatching it out of her hands, I examined it closely. She made an angry noise and tried to retrieve it.
“I’m confiscating this,” I told her. “If you continue to resist, I’ll have you put in restraints.”
She crossed her arms and glared at me.
The security men finished their search and the Chief put up his hands in defeat.
“Captain,” he said, “I don’t see how…”
I poked him in the chest with the wand. He recoiled in surprise.
“How did the prisoner come into possession of this device?” I demanded.
“Well sir,” the Chief said. “It’s a personal item from her effects. We ran a test on it, and it came back as inert as a hairbrush. She asked for it, so…”
Captain Lael was looking down, smiling slightly. This pissed me off.
“Chief, you’re demoted,” I said. “You’re now a spacer, first class.”
“A what, sir?”
“In the Rebel Fleet, that’s equivalent to a private in the Air Force. You—”
I turned to the other security man. These two were the only people I had aboard who were security.
“—you’re the chief now. Effective immediately. Take this wand and return it to the locker where it came from.”
The two men looked stunned, but they had the good sense not to argue.
“Now, get out. I’m going to have a little talk with our guest.”
They left, and I slammed the cell door behind them.
“Tap when you want out, Captain!” called my new security chief.
I turned back to Lael, but I found she’d sat back on her bunk again. She looked at me expectantly.
“You know why I’m here,” I said. “Start talking.”
“Talking? I thought you were going to abuse me.”
As she said this, she uncrossed her legs in a move that was quite provocative. I ignored the action, but I had to wonder if she’d used such tactics effectively on my former security chief.
“What?” I demanded. “No, we’re not like Imperials. Earthmen don’t torment prisoners—at least those of us from my country don’t.”
“Well then, what are we going to talk about?” she said, crossing her legs again.
“You sent out a signal. An encoded signal, with your wand. I want to know what that was all about.”
“Can you really be that dense, Captain Blake?” she asked.
All pretense of seduction and friendliness had vanished. She laughed.
“We’re in an Imperial star system, aren’t we?” she asked me.
I stared at her for a moment. “How did you know that?”
“My wand,” she said, “it must have sensed a deep space probe. A signal out here that looks like background radiation to your instruments, perhaps. It activated, and I knew.”
“I see. So you used it to transmit a distress call?”
“Of course,” she said, looking smug again. “And now, I’m going to have to ask you for your surrender.”
“My what?”
“If you place yourself in my custody right now, Blake,” she said. “I’ll give you my word that only you will be tortured to death. The rest of your crew will be treated leniently for their crimes. They will have to die, of course, but it will be quick. Gas, probably. What do you say?”
My mouth opened, but no sound came from it. I didn’t know what to say.
=66=
“You’re crazy,” I told Captain Lael. “Why should I surrender my ship to you? I should push you out of an airlock instead.”
“The skull is large, but the brain is small…” she replied. “Try to think, ape-man. I know that head of yours isn’t bone all the way through. You’re in an impossible position. Your ship is badly damaged—I felt all the bumps and heard all the alarms—and I’ve summoned local Imperial forces.”
“Even if what you say is true,” I said, “we can always open a new rift and run away again.”
She laughed at me. “You sad, ignorant man. Don’t your Rebel leaders tell you anything? Such as, why they never venture to attack our forces, they only huddle around their own planets waiting for destruction?”
Despite my desire to grab and shake her, all I did was wait for her to continue.
“Let me tell you why—it’s out of fear,” she continued. “A full knowledge of how hopelessly outmatched you’d be. You see, every Imperial star system is protected by a warp dissipater.”
“A what?”
“A device that ensures the integrity of local space for nearly a lightyear radius around the central star. These devices prevent any vessel from forming a working rift. Once any group of ships enter one of our star systems they’re trapped here indefinitely.”
This was crushing news. I tried not to let my dismay show on my face—but I must not have managed to completely suppress my state of mind.
“Ah, poor Blake. Such a promising slave. I shall sniffle when our enforcers finally put down your ravaged corpse.”
“If what you say is true, I’m going to use you as a hostage,” I said.
“That’s irrational,” she said. “You can’t win. Not even if you brought a thousand ships with you on this fools journey. You’re trapped here, and the Imperial Fleet knows it. All you’re doing is causing more anguish for your innocent crewmen.”
“You’ll die with us, Lael,” I said, tapping on the cell door.
“Fool!” she called after me. “I’m giving you a chance. A chance to ease great suffering and fear. You’re arrogant and selfish. Bestow mercy upon your crew, Blake!”
The door opened, and my new chief looked in at us. I stepped out of the cell and slammed it in Lael’s face.
“Don’t talk to her,” I said to the security men. “You’ve already screwed up, don’t make it any worse.”
Neither man said anything. They studied the deck until I left the compartment.
My next stop was Abrams’ lab.
“Doc,” I said, “we could be in trouble.”
Abrams snorted with laughter. “Do you think?” he said. “And who led us here?”
“Is there such a thing as a warp dissipater?” I asked him.
“A warp dissipater…? You mean some method of preventing the formation of a rift?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“Well…” he said thoughtfully. “It stands to reason such a technology might exist. FTL travel requires the creation of a very delicate region of interphased space. Disrupting that process shouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish, in theory. Why do you ask? Is Ursahn having trouble forming a new escape hatch out of this star system?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to go talk to her next.”
He asked to accompany me, but I denied that request. He sputtered and complained about being left in the dark as I walked out and headed for the docking tubes. I summoned Miller to accompany me, just in case.
Boarding Killer and exiting the docking chamber, we warily watched the ground crews swarming over fighters on the hangar deck. This time, none of them seemed interested in attacking us, so we proceeded to the lifts and Killer’s command deck.
There, things took on a different mood. We’d seen busy fighter crews, but the bridge crew was almost frantic. I stood respectfully to one side and tried to flag down a lieutenant. When that finally worked, I got him to request an audience with Ursahn.
“Why don’t you just contact her with your sym?” Miller asked me.
“I’ve been trying. She’s in local command mode, not taking off-ship calls right now.”
�
�But we have critical information!”
“That’s why we’re here,” I told him.
We waited, and after a few minutes Ursahn came over to greet me.
“I’m sorry Blake,” she said. “I have no time for pleasantries. We’re dealing with a systems failure.”
“Let me guess,” I said. “You can’t get the warp core to generate a stable rift.”
She stared at me then walked away. She beckoned for me to follow.
I did, and she led me into her office. When Miller tried to follow, one of her huge hands stopped him. He was left out in the hallway.
“Have you visited Imperial space before, Blake?” she asked me suspiciously.
“No, of course not. I’ve never flown a ship with FTL capability.”
“Untrue. You were briefly in control of an Imperial cruiser during our last conflict.”
“Uh… right. But that was only for a few jumps. I never reached Imperial space—I was trying to get back home.”
She gave me a hard stare. “Very well. What do you want, and what do you know about our current predicament?”
“Captain Lael told me we’re within the Imperial sphere of influence. She could tell with a personal device she had on her person. She told me that we wouldn’t be able to escape, and that Imperial ships would be coming here soon to destroy us.”
Ursahn looked upset—at least, that’s how I interpreted her curling lips and exposed teeth.
“I forgot about that spy you took aboard your ship. We should have spaced her immediately—but in any case, she is correct on both accounts.”
“Both? You mean there’s an Imperial force coming here?”
“Yes. Killer has much better long-range scanners that your homegrown phase-ship. Tap into our sensor array and see for yourself.”
I did as she’d invited me to do. I could perceive the hull, then the exterior, then deep, open space. Far from there I could see beyond the dust cloud. A livable sun hung nearby. There were planets—and a flotilla of ships. They were gathering into a large formation.
It was difficult to make out the size and configuration of each, but they seemed to be mostly cruisers. There were perhaps six hundred of them, all told.
“Hmm…” I said. “It will take them weeks to get here, fortunately.”
She laughed. It was a rumbling affair, but with a hint of bitterness buried in it.
“I’m afraid you are in error. They will make a short-range jump, opening a rift that leads from their world to here.”
“They can do that? Even with the warp dissipater?”
“It wouldn’t be terribly useful if it couldn’t be switched off for a fraction of a second—just long enough to let them create a rift to wherever they want to go.”
“Right… I guess not. They wouldn’t be able to fly between their own worlds without that.”
Suddenly, Captain Lael’s words about surrendering were striking home. She’d been confident, so damnably smug. Perhaps her behavior hadn’t been an elaborate bluff after all.
If six hundred ships could hop from there to here—well, we had no chance at all.
“It seems that Rebel Command has always known about warp dissipaters,” I said. “What I don’t understand is why I haven’t heard of them before.”
She shrugged her heavy shoulders. “To admit we knew about them would be to admit we’d visited their space. Rebel Command never wanted that known. It would only give the Imperials an excuse for a final purge—if they needed one.”
“I see… plausible deniability.”
“What?”
“It’s an Earth term. It describes a skilled liar who can make a good pretense that his lie is true.”
Ursahn shook her head. “I will never understand your people, Blake… But there is another mystery. How did the Imperials find us so quickly?”
I thought about Lael’s wand, but I didn’t see any reason to bring that up. “I guess we’ll never know. Perhaps it was a deep probe that happened to be drifting out here.”
“Must be something like that. Of all the bad breaks... Well, we can ready ourselves for battle. In your case, you should probably return to your ship and phase out. They’ll find you anyway, but you should be able to appear before my ship is destroyed and fire one hard salvo into their hulls. With luck, you might take an enemy vessel with you.”
I didn’t find her words encouraging at all.
“What about surrender?” I asked.
“You would opt for torment and ignominy? I thought you were a warrior, Blake. Would you not prefer to die on your own feet?”
“Of course... I’ll return to my ship now.”
When we stepped out of the office, there was even more excitement among the bridge crew.
“What’s going on?” I asked Miller.
He pointed to an ensign who rushed up to Ursahn.
“Captain—the Hunter has reappeared! It came out of the dust cloud nearby. It must have been lost in there.”
Ursahn and I looked at each other, eyes wide.
“I’ve got to get back to my ship,” I said, grabbing Miller by the arm and tugging. He ran after me.
“We can’t destroy the Hunter, Blake!” Ursahn shouted after us.
“No,” I shouted back, “but neither can the Imperials!”
=67=
When I was back aboard my ship and in my command chair, we decoupled from Killer and fell back behind her.
Only a few hours had passed since we’d first docked with her, but we’d managed to make some critical repairs. Most of the spare equipment had come from Ursahn’s ship, and for that, I was grateful.
“Status reports, Samson,” I said.
“We’ve patched all the hull breaches. Compartments one and six still won’t hold pressure, but at least they aren’t completely exposed.”
“What about our shields?”
“We moved one of the aft shield-generators forward. Essentially, we’ve got a half-strength shield all around the ship now.”
I thought about that and nodded. “A reasonable move. Good job, Gwen.”
She nodded and smiled faintly. As my exec, she’d been left in charge of such decisions.
“Our engines and armament is in acceptable condition,” Samson concluded. “We can fight, but we can’t take a hard strike.”
“We never could,” I said. “All right, we’ve got to phase out. Ensign Miller?”
“Ready, Captain.”
“Power down the shields. Phase out and give all the rest of the power we have to the main drives. Dalton, take us after Killer the second we’re running dark.”
The ship phased out, slewed around and followed the retreating form of Ursahn’s vessel.
Gwen and Miller exchanged confused glances after these maneuvers were completed.
“Captain?” Gwen asked me. “Why phase out now? We could get a little more speed out of our engines if—”
“I know that, Gwen,” I said. “But a phase-ship in plain sight is far less useful than one that’s hidden.”
We were underway for several minutes before I called out for all engines to stop. Alarmed, the crew obeyed, but they clearly had misgivings.
“What are we doing, Captain?” Dalton asked, voicing what everyone was thinking.
“We’re lying in wait. The Imperials should come out about here. The second you see a rift opening, head directly for it, Dalton.”
He suddenly looked excited. “That’s how we’re going to escape? By passing back through their own rifts?”
I shook my head. “No, that would be elaborate suicide. Jumping from here back into the middle of their home planets wouldn’t be safe. There would be no way out again.”
“What is the plan, Captain?” Gwen asked.
“It’s situational,” I admitted. “I’m playing a hunch. The Imperials will probably come out here where we were initially pinpointed.”
“I’m with you so far.”
“If Killer sat here, they would destroy her. She has
to run. But, if we damage an Imperial ship the moment they arrive, then phase out again before they can destroy us—well, what would you do if you were an enemy commander?”
Gwen thought about it. “First, I’d throw some kind of fit,” she said. “Then I’d search every micron of space in this region until I found that damned phase-ship.”
“Exactly,” I said, “and in the meantime, our friend the Hunter will be steaming to this exact spot from the dust cloud.”
“It seems overly tricky, Captain,” Miller said. “With all due respect.”
“Objections noted. Chang, is that a rift I see forming off the starboard bow?”
“It is indeed, Captain.”
“Dalton, get us there in a hurry.”
The helmsman swung the ship around and we slid silently toward the breach point. Everyone was tense. Our ship was damaged, and we were about to take offensive action. We didn’t even know what kind of vessel we’d be facing.
When the enemy appeared, our fears weren’t allayed.
“It’s—that’s a battleship, Captain Blake!” Chang said. For once, he had a hint of real emotion in his voice. He sounded amazed.
“Perfect. We’re in range. Miller, phase us in. Mia, take the shot as soon as you’re able.”
She gave me a strange look, but she didn’t argue. Thirty seconds later, our big gun appeared in normal space and fired a gout of radiation.
The blazing strike landed amidships. The enemy shields weren’t fully aligned after having just exited the rift. We were treated to the sight of the enemy’s half-strength shield flickering out, and a gouge appearing in her flank armor. It was far from fatal, but they’d probably sustained casualties and some minor systems damage.
“Phase out again, Ensign Miller!” I ordered.
“I’m still recharging the system…”
I glanced over at him. “How long?”
“The phasing unit is recharging slowly,” he said. “There might have been unexpected damage to the power couplings, or the capacitance coils.”
I looked at Samson, who winced. Damage control was his department. He’d given me such a solid report I’d believed in him. But I had to remind myself that Hammerhead was an experimental ship. No one was an expert yet in repairing her.
