“Engage—” I started, but glanced out the viewscreen to be sure. “Damne,” I swore. The wormhole hadn’t reverted to normal.
“How many of them are there going to be?” Yuskeya asked. She and Viss had moved to empty stations and settled in chairs. Neither of them had a job to do on this bridge at the moment, so they’d calmly gotten out of the way. Viss, however, was doing something at his screen. I left him to it.
“We can’t wait around to see,” I said. “Can’t leave Mauronet without any support. Follow the other ships,” I told Linna Drake. And if it’s another Chron ship, maybe we don’t want to wait here in full view.
The Cheswick leapt under Linna’s control, arcing to follow the others. Bright flashes burst against the dark velvet of space as energy weapons spurted and shields responded. We weren’t close enough to tell if any of the ships had suffered damage yet.
“Third ship through the wormhole,” Nav reported. Linna Drake had her hands full piloting, so Lieutenant-Commander Payette stepped in to monitor the wormhole. “Readings show it’s closing now. But Admiral,” Payette said, looking up to catch my eye, “that third ship? It’s got a PrimeCorp drive sig.”
It wasn’t a shock, but it was a surprise. They were getting cocky, following Chron ships so closely out of the Split. Obviously, they hadn’t expected anyone to be sitting right outside the wormhole, but this showed little concern about being caught.
That worried me almost more than anything else.
Ahead, both Chron ships had managed to get behind the Dorland, and the Protectorate ship’s shields flared under the heavy fire. “Weapons,” I ordered, “let’s try to get them off Mauronet’s tail. Distract them, take them out if you can. Fire at will.”
“Aye, Admiral.” My Lobor weapons officer, Lieutenant-Commander Huba Jelenka, concentrated on the targeting screen, her ears pinned back. Her hands, dark-furred across their backs, were sure and precise as they locked in on one of the Chron ships.
“PrimeCorp ship is in pursuit,” Lieutenant Hablar reported. “It’s a corvette, possible weapons up to full torps.”
“Armed?” I asked. Surely, they wouldn’t engage. No-one in PrimeCorp could be stupid enough to take on two Protectorate Pegasus ships right here in Nearspace.
Could they?
“Scans show a particle beam coming online.”
I made a quick decision. “Concentrate on the Chron,” I said. “Don’t engage the corvette unless we have to. I want to talk to someone on that ship, and we can’t do that if we blow it up. Commander Drake, full shields and evasive maneuvers. Jelenka, take every opportunity you get at those Chron ships.”
I glanced over at Viss and Yuskeya. They both looked ready to jump out of their chairs and take over the stations they’d normally hold. But this wasn’t their ship, and I had good people in all my positions. I couldn’t help them out. They’d just have to sit and watch.
“Open a channel to the Dorland,” I told my comms officer. “Tell them not to target the PrimeCorp ship. I want it seized once the Chron ships are dealt with.”
Comms sent the message, waited a moment, then said, “The Dorland doesn’t reply, sir, although they must have received.”
“Don’t worry about it. They are a little busy at the moment,” I said, biting back on my annoyance. I felt sure Mauronet was ignoring the message deliberately.
Even though I half expected it, I still felt a jolt of shock when the PrimeCorp ship took aim at us with the particle beam. I wasn’t worried; the shields were rated to take a much rougher barrage than the beam would deliver. If they became damaged by something else, it might be a different story. But for now, we had little to worry about from the PrimeCorp ship. Their temerity in targeting us made me blink.
Wheeling past each other in a mad dance, the Chron ships and the Dorland engaged in a bright, silent exchange of energy weapons and torpedoes. The Dorland’s shields flashed under the impact, but didn’t seem to waver. Mauronet’s gunner was so far too slow in targeting the Chron ships, and the missiles they fired went wide.
We joined the general melee with the PrimeCorp ship blasting away at our rear shields. We ignored them, a bull pricked by a mosquito. I told my comms officer to let me know immediately if any of the ships tried to make contact, but the channels remained quiet and still. Not even a word from Mauronet on the Dorland, and I would have expected him to coordinate with us. I supposed he was either distrustful or angry with me, or maybe just too stubborn to do anything but battle it out on his own. It was a stupid attitude to take when we were outnumbered.
The shields flared around us, and Linna Drake said, “Direct hit from a Chron missile. Shields weakened but holding.”
“Bring the rear weapons array online as well,” I ordered. The five ships engaged in this battle formed a tight, whirling mass now, increasing the risk that one of us would hit an ally. The Chron ships were sleeker and more agile than our heavier Pegasus cruisers, which gave them a distinct advantage. If the third enemy ship had been another of those and not the PrimeCorp corvette, we might have been in trouble.
A torpedo flew from the forward array and caught one of the Chron ships in mid-turn, as it spun to take another long run at the Dorland. It was a beautiful shot, and I knew in the heartbeat before the blossoming explosion that it had gone true. My crew was too well-trained to cheer, but I caught a quick flash of satisfaction cross Linna Drake’s face as she nudged the ship upward and back for another run.
That’s when the PrimeCorp ship surprised me, and it was completely my fault. I knew damn well it was possible for a corvette to be outfitted with full torpedoes, but when they powered up that particle beam, I assumed that was their top-level weapon.
It wasn’t. The corvette swung in close, and their torpedo punched through the aft shield and the hull like they weren’t even there. The force of the impact shuddered the ship and I clutched at the arms of my chair. Viss swore loudly and Yuskeya lurched in her seat. Linna Drake barked an order about the shields.
“Damage report!”
It took a moment, but reports came in. Shields were back online, and the hull damage had been minimal. “Looks like the skip drive is out of commission, though, Admiral,” Lieutenant Hablar told me from engineering. “No wormholes until we can get a closer inspection.”
“Konfirmi,” I told him. There were no wormholes in my immediate plans, anyway. “Bring us around, Commander Drake. We might have to take the corvette out after all, but I want her disabled if possible, not destroyed unless we have to.”
But as we turned, the Dorland sent a spray of wasp missiles directly at the PrimeCorp corvette. I watched as the first three flared against the shields. Then the shields themselves flashed bright, white-hot light which died instantly, and I knew they’d overloaded. The next two missiles punched through the hull like bullets, and the ship exploded in a mass of brilliant light and arcing debris.
“Damne,” I swore again. Mauronet must have known the corvette couldn’t withstand an intense attack. He hadn’t acknowledged my message to leave the PrimeCorp ship alone, so he’d deny ever having received it. But he must have done this on purpose, just to defy me.
I was going to have to punch him again, the next time I saw him.
I was distracted from this pleasant thought, however, as the remaining Chron ship suddenly spun and shot back in the direction of the wormhole. Mauronet’s ship jumped in pursuit, firing a volley of missiles at the retreating ship, but they skimmed above the darting form.
“Go after them,” I told Linna. “We’ll catch the Dorland at the Split even if the Chron ship makes it through, and then he and I are going to have some words.”
But I hadn’t realized just how obsessed Mauronet had become. The Chron ship led the Dorland on a breakneck race to the wormhole, evading everything Mauronet threw at it. From a distance behind them, I saw the wormhole begin to shimmer as the Chron ship activated its equivalent of our Ford-Roman drive, opening the wormhole to allow access.
�
�They’re going to get away.”
And the Chron ship slipped inside the wormhole and disappeared from our view.
But the Dorland didn’t stop at the entrance to the wormhole, as I’d thought it would. Viss realized it at the same moment I did.
“Wormhole’s not closing,” he said, standing up from the skimchair where he’d managed to stay seated through the encounter. “That idiot’s going to follow the Chron ship through.”
“Has Mauronet ever flown the Split before?” Yuskeya stood too, her smooth brow creased in a frown as she watched the cruiser careen toward the wormhole.
I shook my head. “His pilot, maybe. I don’t know. And look at the speed!”
“Without an experienced pilot he won’t make it,” Viss said.
“Open a channel,” I barked at comms, and when he nodded to me I said, “Admiral Mauronet! Do not enter that wormhole! You won’t make it!”
He answered me, audio only. “I’m taking the fight where it belongs, Mahane,” he said. “Tell Fleet Commander Holles I expect her to do the same.”
And then the Dorland was swallowed up by the shimmering blackness of the Split.
Chapter 16 – Luta
Revelations and Betrayals
UNDER THE CLEAR blue sky of Earth, I spent the walk back to the Tane Ikai waiting for a clutch of PrimeCorp thugs to appear out of nowhere and take us down, or at least try to steal Pita. Jahelia didn’t look nervous, but her alertness was almost palpable. Occasionally one of us would stop to look in a store window, point out something to the other. A casual charade of two friends out on a window-shopping stroll. But in reality, neither of us would relax until we were back aboard the ship.
We did talk about one thing in low tones—I told Jahelia that I was not going to mention our conversation with Taso to Alin Sedmamin. “And I don’t want you to say anything about it, either,” I said.
She pursed her lips. “Oh, why not? I wanted to see his face when we told him that all his worst fears were real, and PrimeCorp really is gunning for him.”
I shook my head. “That’s just it. I don’t want him rattled when he’s trying to review these files for the Protectorate. Or when he’s trying to erase things that make him look bad. I don’t want him accidentally deleting something important.”
“Come on, don’t you want him to suffer just a little bit? You know he’s sitting up there on the ship, disgustingly smug over the way this is all working out for him,” Jahelia said persuasively.
I paused to buy us ice-cream sandwiches from a street vendor. When we walked on, I said, “It doesn’t bother me to see Alin Sedmamin uncomfortable. But I don’t want him making any mistakes.”
She sighed and nibbled at her own ice cream. “I suppose you’re right. But if you’re not planning to turn him over to Taso, what are you going to do with him?”
I walked in silence for a moment, savouring the treat. “Give him to the Protectorate and wash my hands of the whole thing, if that’s what they want. Or just take him to Nellera like I said I would. Now that he’s no threat to me, I find I don’t care so much about revenge. I’d really just like to be through with him for good, and that’ll be enough of a perk for me.”
Jahelia stopped in her tracks. “Seriously?”
I shrugged. “Seriously. Now, let’s get him working on these files so we can be rid of his charming company.” I quickened my pace toward the Tane Ikai, and we made it the rest of the way without incident.
We found Sedmamin in the galley, reading on his datapad and polishing off a plate of pasta in cream sauce. He looked up and frowned at Jahelia.
“That was rude.”
She shrugged. “You were being annoying.”
“Well, you’re back intact. I suppose that’s the main thing.”
Jahelia Sord pulled out one of the chairs, swung it around backwards, and sat down, the chair back forming a small wall between her and Sedmamin. She pulled Pita out of her bag and slid the datapad across the table toward Sedmamin. “This is a loan,” she said, “conditional on your taking very good care of her, and returning her to me when you’re finished. If you don’t think you can handle that, say so now.”
Sedmamin gave Jahelia a sardonic grin. “If I recall correctly, I gave you this AI,” he said.
Jahelia put a hand on the datapad. “The operative word there is gave. You told me she was mine to keep, regardless.”
He rolled his eyes. “I did. Your AI is safe with me,” he said. Then he turned to me. “Captain, if we could just retrieve the things from my apartment now, we’ll be able to leave this system entirely and head back for FarView. I know you’ll be anxious to speak with your brother.”
“Sure. Give Rei the directions and we’ll see what we can do. Will there be guards or lookouts on your apartment?”
He drew a deep breath and blew it out. “Quite possibly on the building. But if I stay hidden in the ship and one or more of your crew go to collect the things, I think it will be all right. They’ll be watching from outside, but they won’t be looking for you or your crew, and once you’re inside it should be easy.”
I hesitated. Depending on how much Taso had shared about where Sedmamin was and who he was travelling with, there could well be someone on the lookout for us. But I still didn’t want to tell Sedmamin about that, or that I’d promised to turn him over to Taso. “All right, then,” I said finally. “Tell Rei where to go, and Baden and Hirin what to get. They’ll just have to try to be inconspicuous.”
Sedmamin got up and fastidiously disposed of his dishes and utensils. Then he took Pita from the table. “And I’ll start working with Pita to decode and collate the files,” he said. “Congratulations, Captain. Everything’s running smoothly so far.”
I thought of that moment of sheer disbelief when Sedmamin’s office door and opened and Taso appeared. “Let’s hope it continues that way,” was all I said.
MUCH AS I didn’t want to do it, I figured I had to tell Maja about Taso. Although he’d told me she hadn’t helped him or told him anything, I felt as if I had to hear it from her. And she deserved to know what had happened with her ex-husband at PrimeCorp.
I found her in Stores, running down a list of supplies and checking it against what was in a stack of storage crates. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was twisted up in a knot and secured with a silver clip Baden had given her. She turned when she heard me enter the cargo pod and smiled.
“Need a break from our favourite ex-Chairman?” she asked. Sedmamin had tricked her into almost betraying me once before, and she’d assiduously avoided him as much as possible since he’d been on board.
“I need a break from more than Sedmamin, but I’m not going to get it anytime soon,” I said. I took a seat on a low, sturdy-looking crate and sighed. “We need to talk about Taso.”
Maja frowned. “Taso? Why?”
“What did he really want from you, when he got in touch at FarView?” I asked her.
A pink flush rose slowly on her cheeks. “I told you, he wanted my help with something, but I told him no.”
“He was trying to find Alin Sedmamin.”
She looked startled. “That’s right. He had some scam he wanted to run on him, now that Sedmamin’s been discredited, and he thought I might have a way to get in touch with him still. Since that other time when I—” She broke off and pressed her lips tightly together. She sighed and sat on a crate near mine, balancing the datapad on her knees and looking down at it instead of at me.
I knew she didn’t like thinking about how our relationship had almost been irreparably damaged by her actions, and held up a hand. “It’s all right. We don’t have to talk about that. The thing is, Taso was lying to you.”
She shrugged. “Not that big a surprise, considering. What about?”
“He wanted to find Sedmamin, all right, but not to run a scam on him. Taso is working for PrimeCorp, looking for Sedmamin so he can turn him over to them. For a big payoff, apparently.”
“PrimeCorp?” she whisper
ed, going pale. “He didn’t tell me that. But I didn’t tell him anything. Nothing about Sedmamin, or where he was, or what we were doing—”
I nodded. “That’s what Taso said. But why didn’t you come and tell me what he was after?”
The flush rose again. Maja picked up the datapad and hugged it to her chest. She looked at me, a little defiantly. “At first, I thought I would help him. Scam Sedmamin out of something, hurt him? When he’s done so much to hurt us? That sounded good to me. I thought maybe someday I’d tell you about it and we’d have a laugh.” She sighed. “I didn’t tell you because I guess I didn’t want to be reminded that I’d helped Sedmamin once. But if I did help hurt him, I could go to you and show you that we’d gotten a bit of revenge. Make up a bit for what I’d done.”
“You don’t have to—”
“I know. But I wanted to do it, and to handle Taso, on my own. It didn’t seem like there was any danger in it.” Maja shook her head. “Then you came to us and said you’d agreed to actually help Sedmamin. For the good of Nearspace, I know, but there it was. So, I told Taso I wasn’t interested. I figured whatever he was planning would fall through now, anyway. If Sedmamin was going to disappear so that even PrimeCorp couldn’t find him, I didn’t think Taso would have any chance of tracking him down.”
“Well, Taso got along without your help, anyway.” I leaned back against the cool metal wall of the pod. “Somehow he tracked Sedmamin to us and then followed us to PrimeCorp Main. He confronted us in Sedmamin’s office and made me agree to turn Sedmamin over to him when we’re through with him. In exchange, he’d let us walk out of PrimeCorp Main.”
Maja’s eyes went wide. “You agreed to that? I thought you promised Sedmamin to deliver him to somewhere safe. I thought that was part of the deal.”
“It is. And I didn’t agree to do it.” I grinned. “Taso only thinks I did.”
She blew out a long breath. “Sounds like there’s more to this story.”
“I also left out the part where Jahelia threatened to kill him with a box of mints,” I said, getting up from the crate. “I’ll tell you all that later. For now, though, if Taso gets in touch again, tell me about it, okay? There’s too much happening for us to keep any secrets from each other.”
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