Ep.#12 - A Price Too High (The Frontiers Saga - Part 2: Rogue Castes)

by Ryk Brown

  “Where are your parents?” Jessica wondered.

  “Probably sheltering at work, like good little Tekans.”

  “And your father doesn’t mind if you borrow his…whatever you call this?” Nathan asked.

  “It’s a DX-Four, Corbin Speedster, circa thirty-four twenty-five…limited edition, only twenty of them still in existence,” Dylan bragged, “and no—no way in hell he’d let me borrow it. That’s why you’re going to steal it.”

  Jessica laughed. “I’d rather steal another security cruiser. It would be far less conspicuous than this hot rod.”

  “You stole a security cruiser?” Dylan laughed. “You two are insane! No wonder they’re looking for you!”

  “That was after they tried to arrest us for no reason,” Nathan defended.

  “This is wild!”

  “How fast can this thing go?” Nathan wondered, circling around to the pilot’s side.

  “At least six hundred kilometers per hour, at full throttle, but that kind of speed will attract attention. So, if you’re going to take it, you need to do it now, while they’re still busy with the attack.”

  “Let’s do it,” Nathan decided, opening the door with a grin on his face.

  “Just one condition,” Dylan said. “I’m driving.”

  Nathan looked at the kid. “How old are you?”

  “Seventeen…in two months.”

  “You ever flown supersonic?” Nathan asked.

  “No.”

  “How about superluminal?”

  “Uh, definitely no.”

  “Well, I have, so I’m the one doing the flying.”

  “But…”

  “That’s non-negotiable,” Nathan said, cutting him off.

  Dylan thought for a moment. “I get to come along though, right?”

  Nathan studied Dylan for a moment and then looked over at Jessica.

  “Bad idea, Nathan.”

  “Your name’s Nathan?”

  “We might need him, Jess,” Nathan said.

  “You’ll definitely need me,” Dylan insisted. “Who’s going to help you hack into the ship’s AI to take control?”

  “You looking to become a criminal?” Jessica asked Dylan.

  “Technically, I already am,” Dylan replied. “I just haven’t been caught yet.”

  “Well, the day is still young,” Nathan said, climbing into the pilot’s seat. He looked over the interior of the vehicle and its console, both of which were just as impressive as the vehicle’s exterior. “Well, are you guys coming, or what?”

  Jessica stepped up to the front, right door and opened it.

  “Uh, I have to sit in front,” Dylan told her.

  “I don’t think so,” Jessica sneered.

  “I can’t hack the AI, and start it, from the back.”

  “Get in the back, Lieutenant Commander,” Nathan instructed.

  Jessica rolled her eyes, stepping aside to let Dylan sit in front.

  “You outrank her?” Dylan asked, taking his seat.

  “Yeah, I have to keep reminding her of that,” Nathan commented.

  “I heard that,” Jessica snapped as she took her seat in the back.

  Dylan leaned over and began punching commands into the dashboard keyboard. After a few moments, the rest of the dashboard lit up, and the overhead doors began to part.

  “Are all residential garages underground?” Nathan wondered.

  “Where else would they be,” Dylan responded.

  “I guess we didn’t have to steal that cop car, after all,” Jessica stated from the back seat.

  “You can fly SilTek transport vehicles, right?” Dylan checked.

  “I can fly pretty much anything,” Nathan replied. “Buckle up,” he warned, “this might be more than you’re used to.”

  “Uh, if everyone is supposed to be in their shelters, aren’t we going to be the only civilians flying around?” Jessica wondered.

  “There’s always people flying around during an attack,” Dylan replied. “Like I said, they happen often enough that people don’t really take them seriously, anymore.”

  “They don’t take buildings blowing up seriously?” Jessica wondered as the speedster started to rise.

  Dylan turned around to look at her. “You saw buildings blowing up?”

  “Uh, yeah.”

  “That means the defense grid is down,” he uttered, a look of horror on his face.

  “I take it that’s never happened before,” Jessica surmised.

  “I changed my mind,” Dylan insisted. “I want to stay here.”

  “Too late,” Nathan replied as the speedster cleared ground level. He twisted the lift throttle and pushed the vertical speed throttle all the way to the stops, causing the shiny, red speedster to leap into the air and accelerate forward at a frightening rate.

  “OH, MY GOD!” Dylan exclaimed as he was pushed back into his seat.

  “These things need inertial dampeners if they’re able to accelerate this fast,” Nathan chuckled. He glanced over at Dylan’s face as he backed off on the lift throttles, settling the speedster into the valley ahead.

  Dylan’s eyes were as big as plates, and his mouth was hanging open in abject fear. “What the hell are you doing? Climb!”

  “If we stay under the ridgelines, we can evade their sensors,” Nathan explained.

  “But flying this low is illegal,” Dylan insisted, “not to mention dangerous!”

  “So is stealing a security cruiser,” Jessica laughed.

  “Uh-oh,” Nathan said as the valley came to a dead end. “Hold onto your breakfast!” Nathan pulled back on the attitude control stick as he twisted the lift throttle, increasing the grav-lift to help gain altitude more quickly.

  “That’s not the way you’re supposed to do it!” Dylan warned. “You climb with the grav-lift, not pitch and power!”

  “It climbs faster if you use both,” Nathan explained calmly. “Relax, kid, I’ve got this.”

  “Oh, my God,” Dylan exclaimed again as they popped up over the ridgeline. He glanced to his right and spotted the rain of red-orange plasma bolts tearing apart the downtown district. “Oh, my God,” he repeated as the speedster dropped back down the other side of the ridge and settled into the next valley. “It’s true, they took it down. Subvert was right.”

  “Who the fuck is Subvert?” Jessica wondered.

  “Does this thing have any kind of terrain mapping?” Nathan wondered. “Something that would show me a low-level route to that maintenance yard?”

  “It’s not designed to do that,” Dylan replied, his voice stressed. “Minimum flight altitude is one thousand meters, not treetop level!”

  “Surely it at least displays terrain altitudes and curvatures,” Nathan insisted. “What happens if your grav-lift fails and you can’t reach minimum altitude?”

  “Then you fucking land!” Dylan insisted. “At least that’s what sane people do!”

  “Seriously?” Jessica said. “High-tech SilTek and no terrain maps?”

  “Well, yeah, you can call up terrain maps,” Dylan admitted, “but at this speed…”

  “Then call them up and find a route that will get us to the maintenance field without having to climb up over the ridgelines!” Jessica insisted.

  “I don’t know,” Dylan replied, looking like he was going to throw up.

  “Hey, you wanted to sit in the big-boy seat,” Jessica chided.

  Dylan leaned over again and began entering commands into the console keyboard. “Okay, I think this might be what you’re looking for,” he said, the ship jinking back and forth as Nathan weaved his way through the canyon. “I might be able to force the AI to plot a route at low altitude, if I override the legal flight restrictions, but I can’t promise it will work.”

  “I�
��m only asking you to try,” Nathan told him.

  “Uh…this canyon’s going to run out, in two kilometers, as soon as you round the next turn,” Dylan warned.

  “See, now you’re helping,” Nathan congratulated. “Just tell me where to go after we pop up over the next ridgeline, preferably something that will get us all the way there at low level.”

  “I’m working on it,” Dylan promised, “but it would help if you held it more steady!”

  “Don’t blame me, blame the canyon!” Nathan defended as he rounded the next turn. “Oh, shit!” he exclaimed, again pulling his nose up and adding grav-lift power.

  Something smacked the underside of their speedster, making a terrible sound.

  Dylan looked over at Nathan. “What was that?”

  “Which canyon,” Nathan barked, “left or right?”

  Dylan looked back at the display. “Uh…left!”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes…NO, right!”

  “What?”

  “Go to the right!”

  Nathan eased their nose back down and to the right, backing off on both power and lift as he guided the speedster down into the canyon. Once they dropped below the ridge, he backed off on the grav-lift and pushed the throttles back to full power, leveling off again.

  “I’ve got it!” Dylan exclaimed as a jagged magenta line appeared on the wide map view. “Well, almost.”

  “What do you mean, almost?” Nathan wondered as he guided the speedster through the next canyon.

  “The maintenance field is on a plateau; no hills for at least ten kilometers in all directions.”

  “It will have to do,” Nathan decided.

  “Nice work, kid,” Jessica congratulated.

  Dylan leaned back against his seat, trying not to be terrified by the speed at which the outside world was streaking past them. “You fly this way often?”

  “I’m not gonna lie, it’s been a while,” Nathan admitted.

  “Sorry I asked.”

  * * *

  The shiny, red speedster popped up from the last canyon, staying less than one hundred meters above the open plains to the south of the city.

  “Everyone working at the maintenance field will be down in the shelter until the all clear is given,” Dylan explained as they sped along, “but the moment we descend into the facility, their AI will sense us and notify security.”

  “How long, after that, until they arrive?” Jessica asked.

  “I’m guessing a few minutes, at the most,” Dylan replied, “assuming they haven’t already detected us and have cruisers on the way.”

  “Even if the attack is still in progress?”

  Dylan turned around, noticing that the red-orange rain was still falling on the city behind them. “It’s never lasted this long before.”

  “Any chance all those people you mentioned joined forces against SilTek?” Nathan wondered.

  “The Benicasi and the Yachi, maybe, but the Ristani hate the Benicasi and the Yachi, and the Sinato hate everyone. Even if the Benicasi and the Yachi did join forces, they still shouldn’t be able to bring down our defense grid. They only have a handful of warships between them.” Dylan watched the approaching maintenance field, becoming concerned. “Uh, you might want to start slowing down. Corbins are not known for their high rate of deceleration.”

  “Good to know,” Nathan replied, easing back on the main throttle. “I really like this vehicle,” he added. “Any chance you can give us the design specs?”

  “What the hell are you going to do with it?” Jessica wondered.

  “I don’t know,” Nathan replied, grinning, “fit it with a jump drive and use it as my personal jump speedster.”

  “Oh, that would be sweet!” Dylan exclaimed.

  “Here we go,” Nathan warned as he eased the vertical thrust throttle back and slid the speedster over the fence line.

  “That one looks good,” Dylan said, pointing to the second ship in the line.

  “Are you kidding?” Jessica exclaimed. “None of them look good.”

  “Okay, not as bad?” Dylan offered.

  “If these ships are here for maintenance, how do we know they’ll even fly?” Nathan asked as he maneuvered the speedster and began descending in front of the second cargo ship.

  “This is a light maintenance facility,” Dylan explained. “They don’t do jump drive or main drive work here. Only internal systems like sensors, navigation, environmental, that kind of stuff.”

  “Oh, is that all?” Jessica said.

  “Well, at least they’ll fly and jump,” Dylan defended. “Isn’t that enough?”

  “I’d like to be able to breathe, as well,” Jessica replied as the speedster set down.

  “If environment is down, you can always put on pressure suits,” Dylan suggested as he opened his door and climbed out.

  “Great, a two-day trip in pressure suits.”

  Nathan climbed out, pausing for a moment to look at the old light cargo vessel in front of him. “Pretty sure it’s going to take more than a couple days to get home in that thing.”

  “If you want to get this thing started and off the ground before bobo gets here, we have to hurry,” Dylan warned, heading straight for the cargo ship’s boarding ramp.

  “Why the hell are you helping us?” Jessica wondered as she followed Dylan up the ramp.

  “Are you kidding?” Dylan replied. “This is better than any VR game! It’s like Guns and Glory and Night Runner, all rolled into one!” he exclaimed as he overrode the hatch lock, opened the boarding hatch, and headed inside.

  Jessica glanced back at Nathan. “There’s something not right about this kid.”

  “I kinda like him,” Nathan said as he passed.

  “You can’t keep him,” Jessica warned, following them inside.

  “The cockpit is up two levels and all the way forward!” Dylan yelled from further down the corridor.

  “Where are you going?” Nathan wondered.

  “To the main power plant! It’s the only place you can start up the ship’s reactor!”

  “How the hell does this kid know all of this?” Jessica wondered.

  “I’m guessing he doesn’t get out much,” Nathan said as he started up the ladder.

  Jessica followed Nathan up the ladder, climbing past the main level to the upper deck before stepping off.

  Nathan headed forward, passing several compartments before reaching the ship’s flight deck. Once inside, he found a standard cockpit, similar to that of the Seiiki, only much roomier. “This is nice,” he commented as the consoles began to light up. “I guess he got the reactor up,” he added as he headed for the pilot’s seat. “That’s encouraging.”

  “That’s not,” Jessica said, pointing out the port window.

  In the distance, four black transports, with flashing red and blue lights, were quickly approaching.

  “See if you can slow them down,” Nathan ordered.

  “With what? Stunners?” Jessica replied. “Damn, I wish we would’ve kept those rifles!”

  “You’ll find heavy blasters in the locker on the boarding deck,” Dylan told her as he came scurrying out onto the flight deck.

  Jessica reached out and put her hand on his chest, stopping him in his tracks. “How the hell do you know so much about this ship?” she asked in an accusatory tone.

  “Are you kidding? It’s a retro-fitted, XK series, interstellar, light cargo hauler; the exact same ship as in Night Runner! I know everything about it! It’s like my all-time favorite VR game!”

  “Go!” Nathan ordered her.

  “I’m gone!” Jessica replied, heading out.

  “You remind me a lot of a friend of mine back on my ship,” Nathan told Dylan as the kid slid into the copilot’s seat.

  “You have a sh
ip?” Dylan said. “How big is it?”

  “A lot bigger than this bucket,” Nathan replied. “Now, let’s get this thing started.”

  “Got it,” Dylan responded, pulling a small device from his pocket and attaching it to the console.

  “That’s the second time you’ve used that thing,” Nathan realized. “What is it?”

  “A digital code-pick,” Dylan replied. “My mom is always locking up my stuff to punish me. She thinks it works.”

  “Not anymore,” Nathan told him.

  “Yeah, I guess I’m kind of screwed, now.”

  “Please state your authorization code,” the ship’s AI requested.

  “Uh-oh,” Dylan said.

  “What, uh-oh?”

  “My code-pick must’ve activated the ship’s AI.”

  “We need the ship’s AI, don’t we?” Nathan wondered.

  “Yeah, but I don’t have the code yet. That’s what this thing is for.”

  “You just informed the AI that we’re trying to obtain an authorization code illegally,” Nathan pointed out.

  “The cockpit mic is muted,” Dylan assured him. “I’m all the way to level twenty-eight in Night Runner. You don’t get that far being stupid.”

  “Please state authorization code,” the AI repeated.

  “What do we do?” Nathan wondered. “She’s going to get suspicious if we don’t respond.”

  “She’ll get more than suspicious,” Dylan warned. “She’ll permanently lock us out if we don’t give her the full code in under a minute.”

  “Great.”

  The first number appeared on Dylan’s device, then the second, and then the third. “It’s working.”

  “Please state authorization code,” the AI asked for the third time. “Failure to provide proper code will result in security lock out in thirty seconds.”

  “Give her the code,” Dylan instructed, pushing the un-mute button.

  “Authorization code One…Five…Seven Uh… Two…Seven…Five…Seven.” When the AI did not respond, Nathan pressed the mute button. “Are you sure that was the right number?”

  “Please state the final number,” the AI instructed.

  Nathan looked at Dylan, who shrugged.