by TR Cameron
He didn’t often hear surprise in her tone, but he did now. “You believe the Professor would prioritize my existence over yours?”
Absolutely. That doesn’t mean I think he’d throw away my life cavalierly. Still, if it comes down to a choice between saving a half-human, half-mechanical Special Forces captain and preserving the most advanced artificial intelligence ever to have existed, he’ll come down on the side of saving you. I would do the same thing. While Cia might have a problem with it, I think the rest of the crew would understand. Now that we’ve discussed it, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Trianna is the one he leaned on for it.
“Because she doesn’t like you?”
She likes me fine. She has a problem showing it. No, because she’s the least connected to the rest of us. It would feel the least like betrayal if she was the one. Plus, she knows how to pilot the ship. It would be easy enough for her to lock Cia out at a pivotal moment, assuming the Academy planted some sort of backdoor into the Grace’s systems.
“I find that unlikely.”
Unlikely, but far from impossible, so let’s assume that’s going to be the situation. Do the pings.
After the first signal, he requested that Athena zoom in his display to show the Grace. Her disguise as the Occam’s Cleaver really is convincing. Even knowing it was the same ship, he couldn’t make out any of the original lines on the counterfeit vessel. Thirty seconds after the double ping went out, the ship’s engines fluttered for an instant, and her wings rocked back and forth almost imperceptibly.
Jax grinned. Message received. All right. Now, let’s go back into the cargo bay and see if we can find a crate with some food in it. I’m starving, and heaven only knows how long we’ll be in transition after we jump. The one thing he knew was that once they arrived wherever they were going, his friends would be sure to follow.
Chapter Eighteen
Within an hour of entering jump, the pirates had restored wireless, and Athena had secured access to all the ship’s systems except the most well-protected ones. Being able to see the crew’s movements allowed Jax to move more freely around the vessel, and he discovered a better hiding place near an airlock. Once he’d figured out the lay of the land, he made short trips out to secure supplies, including food, drinks, and an EVA suit. It wasn’t the quality he was used to, certainly not in the Special Forces, and not even in the Academy, but it would do in a pinch. And this is definitely a pinch.
He ran his hands over it methodically and automatically. The check to make sure all the seals were tight was a long-standing habit from years in the military. Maintaining equipment was one of the ways soldiers whiled away the work hours between battles. Athena gave him a look into the ship’s life on his display glasses, and he watched the pirates eat, drink and carouse, and keep a surprisingly rigorous and businesslike bridge watch. While the crew didn’t approach the precision of the people he generally worked with, for a group whose lives were probably mostly spent aboard ship, they seemed to have discovered an effective balance between business and pleasure.
The atmosphere shifted more toward the former after about six hours in jump space, which Jax took as a sign that they neared their exit. He climbed into the vacuum suit and asked Athena to give him an external view.
When the ship reverted, he saw that the pirate captain’s expectations had been pretty much on the mark. According to the navigational data Athena had procured, their destination was another system in the middle of nowhere. In the center of the emptiness lay a huge tender, a military ship whose sole purpose was to service other ships. Arranged around it in unsteady lines were a bunch of smaller vessels. As he watched, one exited the facility to be quickly replaced by another sliding into the opposite end of the large hangar on the near side of the rectangular box that was the tender’s main structure. There would be an identical hangar on the far side if it were the ship class he thought it was. They’re going in for supplies on one end and coming out the other ready to go.
Athena confirmed his observation and added, “This ship has received its assignment. We should be inside the station in about seven hours.”
Wow. That seems like a long time.
“It may be because the ships in the sector are an unusually diverse variety of sizes and types than a tender like this would normally service. It probably takes longer to shift the proper materials into place and get them loaded.”
Any evidence that the surrounding ships are short on crew?
Athena replied, “I have no way to tell. I don’t have access to life science sensors on the ship, and since they’re hanging there, determining whether they’re mechanically or physically piloted is also impossible.”
And it could easily enough be a full crew allowing the computers to do the piloting, anyway. He shrugged. Guess we’ll have to wait for the Grace to get that information for us. Speaking of which, three pings, then three more after a minute.
“Will do.”
Do you know what the other two pods that Cia had installed are?
The AI laughed. “Yes.”
Are you going to tell me?
“No. She wouldn’t like that.”
He shook his head. Whose side are you on, anyway?
“Why, Cia’s, of course. Was that not obvious?”
You wound me. Deeply. The pain is almost unbearable. Alert me if something interesting happens. He closed his eyes and drifted into a light sleep.
When Athena prodded him back into consciousness, he checked the comm and discovered several hours had passed. Why did you wake me up?
“Occam’s Cleaver has entered the system.”
He sat up, rubbed his eyes, and slipped his glasses on again. All right, about time. Can you connect me?
“Yes, standby.”
A few seconds later, his earpiece signaled a connection. “Cia?”
The pilot’s voice was among the most welcome things he’d ever heard. “Of course. You didn’t think we’d let you steal all the glory for yourself, did you?”
He laughed. “Where are you?”
“On the outskirts. It’ll take us a couple of hours to get near you, but I wanted to make sure they didn’t notice us entering the area.”
“Good choice. This place is some sort of arming and refueling station. It’ll be our pirate friends’ turn soon, and once we’re inside, I’m going to get the hell off this boat.”
“Then what?”
“We’ll figure out the timing; then you’ll plan to get here about thirty minutes or so after we enter. That’ll give me enough time to find out what’s going on and locate a way out to you. That tender is bound to have escape pods or something I can use. I fly out, you catch me, and we’re out of here.”
He heard the frown in her voice. “How do you think we’re going to catch you?”
He shrugged. “I figure that’s your problem. I’m sure you can match speed and direction and catch me with a rope or a net or something. Ask Marshall. He’ll come up with a way to do it that makes him the hero of the day.”
Cia snorted. “You’re not wrong there.”
“I’m going to kill this channel and stay silent until I have information to share. I’ll turn it on at half-hour intervals for one minute, so if you need to reach me you’ll be able to.”
“Affirmative. Cleaver out.” The connection switched off, and he settled back against the bulkhead with a sigh. Okay, Athena, what’s our timetable?
She replied, “We should be in the facility in seventy minutes, give or take.”
Okay, send that in a burst when the next conversation window opens. That form of communication would be even harder to detect since it was a squeal of data rather than an ongoing signal. He considered what lay ahead. What do you think about getting into the armory?
“I think it’s a bad idea. You’re not likely to win a shootout when you get off the ship. If you did, there’s no way you can take on their whole vessel. You’ll have to pretend to be a mouse. A little mouse. With cute ears.”
/> He grumbled inwardly, but she was right. You don’t think there might be some stun stuff in there that would make it worth the effort?
“It’s far less likely that you would find stun gear on a pirate ship than you would on the tender. If you were determined to take the risk in one place or the other, I’d say better to delay it. Besides, our objective isn’t on this ship. It’s on the other one. You’re bored and want to do something.”
Yeah, I know. By the time the pirate ship finally entered the tender, his boredom had reached its pinnacle. He forced himself to wait and watch as the pirates redistributed themselves throughout the vessel to assist with the refueling and rearming. Finally, he slipped out the bottom airlock, fully cognizant it would probably set off an alarm somewhere in the ship but no longer able to delay taking action.
He strode away from the vessel with purpose, his hands itching for the weapons that were missing from his belt. The helmet was transparent but sufficiently dingy and scarred that he wasn’t overly worried about being recognized. He’d peeled off the fake scar and ditched the mouth prosthetic, so if one of the pirates did get a look at him, he’d be different than they remembered. Of course, that increased the risk of detection by people on the other ship, who might have images of his real self for facial comparison, but he couldn’t have everything. His display populated with information on the tender as Athena easily slid into the network. She said, “The codes are old, but they’re UCCA.”
Good, download whatever you can. While you’re at it, find me somewhere to get weapons. Then, figure out where all these ships came from and where they’re headed.
In a sarcastic growl, she replied, “You don’t demand much, do you?” She addressed the first request immediately by highlighting the map on his display with a route leading to one of the many weapons and armor storerooms on the ship. It was logical that there would be so many, although he hadn’t considered it in advance, since there would be ships in the field in need of replacements for human-sized weapons as well as the ship-sized ones.
He gathered a few strange looks at his helmet on the way, and he dealt with them by activating the suit’s external speaker and saying in an embarrassed tone, “Malfunction. Heading to get it fixed.” Suspicion turned to laughter in each case, and he reached his destination without being found out. The room held no guards, only rows of tall, locked cabinets. On his own, he would’ve had no chance of defeating their security with anything short of brute force. But with the AI integrated into the systems, the doors she thought he needed access to popped open one after the other.
The first contained a much-improved version of the EVA suit he wore, and he quickly stripped down and changed into it after setting the pristine helmet aside. It wasn’t as good as his Special Forces jump suit, but it was only a few steps down from there. The next held an energy rifle that he slapped onto the magnetic hardpoints on his back. Projectile and energy pistols went into holsters attached to the thighs. Finally, he fastened the buckle of a utility belt covered with hardpoints and pouches and filled them with first-aid kits, emergency packs, and small explosives.
Now that he was fully re-equipped, he felt much better about life. It would be easy for him to impersonate a crew member, permitting him to move freely around the ship. Athena, can you put my identity into their system so that if someone does scan me, they see something they’d expect?
She replied, “Affirmative and done. It won’t survive a deep investigation but should handle a superficial look.”
Are you saying I’m superficial?
“Of course. Haven’t I made that abundantly clear before?”
He shook his head. So mean, as usual. Can you give me comms to the Grace without discovery?
Her answer was the crackle of his system engaging and Cia’s voice saying, “Twenty-five minutes out.”
He nodded. “Good. Keep an ear on.” All right, what have you found out?
“I’ve finished identifying the ships in the area, and you’re going to find their origins very strange.”
While you tell me, show me the path to some heavier munitions. Limpet mines, if they have them, or something similar. A plan was forming in his mind. The requested route illuminated on his display, and he tucked his new helmet under his arm with military precision and strode for the door. As he walked, the AI filled him in. “Each of the ships was officially listed as ‘disappeared’ or ‘destroyed.’ They’re here under different names, of course, but the profiles and the drive signatures match the database I have. Fortunately, the Academy never deletes information, only adds to it. A modern Alliance database might have eliminated those records.”
He frowned. Why? It’s data.
“Secrecy. Efficiency. That sort of thing. Doubtless someone, somewhere along the line, thought getting rid of outdated and irrelevant ship profiles was a good idea.”
He shrugged. Yeah, that sounds like the military I know and love. Where did they get lost?
“That’s the most interesting part. All over the place. No clear pattern to it, and both the Alliance and the Confederacy sustained losses.”
He shook his head slowly. So what you’re telling me is that someone, presumably Arlox or someone else within our government, has been cobbling together a secret fleet?
“That would be my assessment, yes.”
Damn. Well, that does explain the short staffing. If it’s an off the books thing, then it wouldn’t be that easy to rotate people in, at least not reliable people. You’d want to automate whatever you could.
She agreed. “That seems likely.”
He reached the room where the explosives were stored and grinned. All the tools he was most familiar with lay right there in front of him like the treasure at the end of a map—limpet mines, the custom duffel backpack to carry them in EVA, and best of all, the heavy-duty grapnel gun that Special Forces soldiers used to deploy the explosives. It’s like Christmas and my birthday all wrapped into one.
He loaded up a bag, considered his options for a moment, then grabbed another and filled it as well. Once he had a dozen of the mines, he stowed the rifle that had been across his back in yet another bag so no one would notice it and replaced it with the grapnel gun. Connect me to the Grace. When the channel sprang to life, he said, “Gonna light some candles in place of the original plan. Be ready to pick me up.” He clicked off the mic. Athena, any timetable on the pirate boarders’ movements? She had stayed connected to the pirate ship, which foolishly hadn’t killed its wireless network.
“The ship should be out of here in fifteen minutes, and I think it’s safe to assume they’ll move soon after.”
Do you have all the information we need?
“I do.”
He nodded. Perfect. Let’s cause some trouble.
Chapter Nineteen
Jax climbed a maintenance ladder to the top of the ship and exited through a repair airlock. Athena had reviewed the schematics and decided that route offered the best combination of external positioning and detection avoidance. The pirate vessel he’d stowed away on was pulling out of the tube, a little below and to the left of his position, and angled upward as if it could read his desires and wanted to bring them to fruition. He aimed the grapnel gun at the craft and Athena placed a crosshair on his display to show him where it would hit. He informed her, “I’ll accept whatever help you want to give me here, and for the duration of this adventure.”
“Good that you asked, although I probably would’ve done it anyway.”
He laughed. “I know. That’s why I asked.” He lined up the sights, felt the slight tremor as she adjusted his aim, and pulled the trigger. The gun contained a powerful set of magnets shaped like a dart at the end that trailed a long, thin, high-density cable. In this circumstance, making the shot required adjusting for distance, the tender’s and the pirate ship’s relative motion, and even the star’s gravitational pull. He thought there was a chance he might have hit the target without Athena’s help, but not a great one.
When the projectile opened and deployed its magnetic tines, they struck exactly where he’d aimed them and locked on. The winch was part of the gun, which was attached to his belt by a heavy carabiner. He pressed the button to activate the motor and let the rifle drop on its strap. His progress toward the other vessel was a little more awkward than he was accustomed to since instead of having only a backpack filled with six mines, which generally didn’t interfere with balance, he carried another heavy bag in his hand that definitely did.
He landed on the side of the ship, activated his mag boots, made sure he had a good handhold, detached the grapnel from the hull, and reloaded it into the gun. Another advantage to Athena’s presence in his head was that she possessed schematics of most ship types, which meant she could identify their weak points. On this pirate ship, that was a welded seam where two large, separately built sections joined. It was an economical shipbuilding method, but not a particularly high quality one, and it would work to his benefit. A mine positioned along it at the top of the ship could shatter the join and render the vessel inoperable. Two would make sure of it. He climbed up, placed both, and primed them to detonate at a trigger from either Athena or the Grace. She’d already transmitted the frequency back to his team. “Okay, where next?”
After the first jump, which they’d more or less planned, he’d known they would have to improvise based on the proximity of the other vessels. If it was him out there alone, he never would’ve been confident enough to pull it off and would already be signaling for a ride out of there. But an outline drew itself around one of the ships in his display, and a targeting mark glowed on it an instant later. He lifted the rifle and aimed it, felt Athena adjust his positioning again, and pulled the trigger. The grapnel flew true and landed precisely where it was supposed to.
