“Duke Simeon of Westingham,” General Pershing said. “The queen’s oldest nephew.”
“Is he right about becoming king?” Ben asked.
“If we can hold the Imperium together under this new threat, then yes. Once things have settled, and if the crown prince truly is dead, he would be next in line for the throne.”
“Even with the queen still alive?” Kim asked.
“The queen is not a direct descendant. She married King Olmond, so if the king really is dead, their son would be heir.”
“And if he’s dead?” Ben asked.
“Then Duke Simeon would be next in line for the crown,” Pershing said.
“Well, that’s a bit of a pickle,” Kim said with a smirk. “What about the rest of the survivors your men picked up?”
“They’re all members of the royal household,” Pershing said. “Mostly extended members, second cousins, I think.”
When they reached the bridge, Nance looked over. Ben saw the questioning look in her eyes.
“We’re dropping out of hyperspace early,” he explained.
“Why?” Nance asked. There was no judgment in her question, just simple curiosity. Magnum looked more guarded.
“The queen has ordered us back to the Celeste system,” Ben said.
“We didn’t make a deal with the queen,” Magnum said in a quiet voice.
“No,” Pershing said. “You made a deal with me. A deal that included following orders. And I take my orders from the royal family. So, we’re stopping and going back. How long will that take?”
“Once we drop out of light speed, I’ll need to confirm our location and then plot a course back to the Celeste system,” Nance said. “A systems check is standard procedure after every hyperspace jump. I’d say an hour.”
“We don’t have that kind of time,” Pershing said.
“Plot the jump as quickly as possible,” Ben said. “Not to the exact spot we jumped from, but close to it. The queen believes the last pod retrieved from the alien ship has her husband or son in it. And whoever it is will be out of oxygen soon.”
“I’m ready,” Kim said.
“Me too,” Nance replied.
“Bring us out of hyperspace,” Pershing ordered.
Chapter 24
Ben felt time stretch. Everything felt slow and awkward for a moment, then reverted to normal. The swirling, luminous fog of hyperspace became stars scattered across the black void of space. He immediately checked his systems. Everything looked okay on his end. The flux shield had picked up some debris, and he wanted to shut it down to reset everything before they went back into enemy territory.
“Calculating our position now,” Nance said. “It’s so nice to be able to use the Nav Network.”
“It pays to obey the law,” Pershing replied.
“If we had, we’d still be on Torrent Four,” Kim said. “Avoiding Salvage Scalpers and trying not to starve.”
“And the Fleet would be intact,” Pershing replied, but she didn’t sound superior. In fact, Ben thought she sounded as if the idea of having the entire fleet and no wormhole to a hostile alien galaxy made her sad.
“I’m going down to check the shielding,” Ben said.
“Is there a problem?” General Pershing asked.
“No,” Ben said. “But we picked up some mass in hyperspace.”
“Interesting,” Professor Jones said. “Be sure that I have that data.”
“It’s in the system,” Nance said. “The shipboard computers record everything.”
“Is the mass going to be a problem?” Pershing asked.
“No,” Ben said. “But since we’re headed back into enemy territory, I’d prefer to reset it.”
“Fine, but we can’t wait for it,” Pershing explained. “Once the jump point is calculated, we go.”
“Roger that,” Ben said.
“Have fun playing in your basement,” Kim teased.
Ben looked over and saw Kim smiling at him from the pilot’s seat. He couldn’t help but notice just how beautiful she was. Not in the traditionally accepted way, Kim was too practical for that. She kept her hair cut short and didn’t bother with makeup or jewelry, but she had a dazzling smile that made him feel weak in the knees.
“I will,” he replied.
“Need any help?” Magnum asked.
“I wouldn’t say no to some company,” Ben said.
The big man followed Ben, and they met most of the commandos coming down from the upper level. Ben stopped and looked up.
“Problem?” Ben asked.
“No,” Corporal Dial said. “We just thought we might find a place to hide for a while. Things aren’t so friendly upstairs.”
“We have a recreation area with workout equipment,” Magnum said. “Downstairs.”
“Sounds perfect,” Corporal Dial said. “Thanks.”
Ben led the way down to the engineering bay, while Magnum took the soldiers through to the recreation area. At his workstation, Ben powered down the flux shield, then watched as the wave generator slowly stopped spinning around and around the artificial gravity generator. It didn’t take long for the small component to go flying away. It hit the deck and slid into the bulkhead.
Magnum stepped out of the rec area and bent down to pick up the wave generator before Ben could reach it.
“Is this supposed to be here?”
“No,” Ben replied. “It’s supposed to stay on the connector I rigged, but it broke loose again. I’m not sure why.”
“Maybe it’s because the housing is cracked,” Magnum said, handing Ben the small electronic component.
Ben looked at the finger length wave generator. The housing was cracked, and Ben guessed one more shot away from the art grav gennie would break it open completely.
“I’ll have to repair it,” Ben said. “I’ve got some liquid plastic somewhere around here.”
Just then his com-link beeped and Nance’s voice was heard, “Ninety seconds and we’ll have a new jump point, Ben.”
“Okay,” he replied after tapping the small button on his collar that was both mic and speaker for the com-link system they used. “We’re hurrying.”
“Can you raise the flux shield in hyperspace?” Pershing asked.
“I don’t know,” Ben said. “We’ve never tried.”
“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Professor Jones said. “At that rate of speed, it’s possible that our gravity waves could damage the ship.”
“Is this what you’re looking for?” Magnum asked, holding up a small vial. He had been rummaging in one of the tool chests bolted to the wall of the engineering bay.
“Looks like it,” Ben said. “I want to test the circuitry first. We may need to take it apart and that won’t be possible once the new plastic is used to seal up the housing.”
“Do we have time for that?” Magnum asked.
“No,” Ben said. “But better to have the shield repaired correctly than to have the system fail when we really need it. We should be able to activate it as soon as we’re in the Celeste system.”
“Jump point is set,” Nance announced.
“Should I wait for you, Ben?” Kim asked.
“No,” Ben replied. “I’ve got to make a minor repair down here. We’ll activate the shield once we’re in system.”
“Roger tha—what the hell?”
“We have a ship that just dropped out of hyperspace,” Nance announced. “Looks like an alien vessel.”
“Evasive action,” Pershing said. “Ben, get that shield up ASAP.”
“Okay! I’m working on it,” Ben said.
“I’m going back up,” Magnum said.
Ben didn’t bother trying to reply. He hooked the wave generator onto the housing he had built at the base of the artificial gravity generator’s central orb. It was a shining ball of metal on a small rod at the top of the art grav gennie that actually projected a bubble of gravity through the ship. He was in such a hurry that he didn’t notice the finger-sized wave g
enerator hadn’t settled into position completely.
After rushing back to his station, he hit a button to activate the flux shield. He glanced over at the small wave generator that was beginning to spin around the artificial gravity generator as he tapped his com-link.
“She’s spinning up,” he said.
“Good,” Kim barked in reply. “That ship is coming on fast and we won’t be able to stay ahead of it for long.”
“Get up here,” Pershing ordered. “I want everyone at their station.”
Ben didn’t wait long to reply. He immediately started sprinting for the staircase that led up to the main deck. There was no way to know that the ship was racing at breakneck speed, or twisting and turning in evasive maneuvers, with the artificial gravity holding everyone in place. They didn’t feel the movement of the ship at all. All Ben could think about was how the aliens had found them. It seemed impossible, yet somehow it was happening.
“Can we jump to hyperspace?” Ben asked as he dashed up the stairs.
“We’ll have to come back around,” Kim said. “I already shot past it.”
Ben noticed the queen and Duke Simeon coming down the stairs, just as he reached the landing on the main deck. What he didn’t see, or even think about, was the wave generator that was thrown from the artificial gravity generator. It smashed into the fusion reactor and broke in half.
Chapter 25
“What’s the status on that shield?” Pershing demanded as Ben dropped into his seat.
“They’re extending grappling arms,” Nance announced calmly.
Ben glanced at the readout on the engineering console, expecting to see the shield in place. Instead, the status bar showed zero progress completed on the shield.
“Something’s wrong,” Ben said.
“Tell us something we don’t know,” Kim said, turning the Modulus Echo in a tight curve that would have squashed the crew all to jelly if not for the artificial gravity of the ship.
“What is going on?” Queen Ultane demanded.
“We’ve been followed,” General Pershing said.
“That isn’t possible,” Duke Simeon said.
“We don’t have that technology,” Pershing said through clenched teeth. “Obviously they do.”
“So jump to hyperspace,” the queen ordered.
“We missed our jump point,” Kim said.
“Jumping blind is extremely dangerous,” Nance added.
“And would do no good,” Pershing said. “The aliens would just follow us again. We need to disable their ship.”
“I don’t understand,” Ben said jumping up from his station. “Something’s wrong with the shield.”
He didn’t wait for permission but sprinted back down to the engineering bay.
“Hurry Ben, I can’t keep this up for long,” Kim said over the com-link. “This stupid alien ship has twenty of those grappling arms.”
Ben slid to a stop just inside the engineering bay. He saw the missing wave generator and his heart nearly missed a beat. What had happened wasn’t a mystery, but Ben felt a wave of icy fear crash over him. He scanned the floor. It only took a moment to find the wave generator’s broken pieces.
“Damn!” Ben snarled as he snatched them up. Then tapped his com-link. “We’ve got a problem. The wave generator is broken. I can’t get the flux shield working.”
“Beautiful,” Kim said.
“Should we try the lasers?” Magnum asked.
Ben looked at the screen built into his workbench. It showed all the ship’s systems, which were currently in the green. He touched the icon for the auxiliary batteries. They were fully charged.
“This ship has weapons?” Pershing asked.
“Laser cannons,” Magnum said. “One on each rotating wing engine.”
“You’ve got full batteries, Magnum,” Ben said.
“That still only gives us a handful of shots from each cannon,” Nance said.
“Target their engines,” General Pershing said. “You’ll have to avoid the grappling arms.”
“Get those guns ready for me,” Kim said. “We may only get one shot at this.”
“System is initializing,” Magnum said.
Ben realized there was nothing he could do to fix the shields at that moment. Instead he raced back up to the main deck. The queen and her nephew, Duke Simeon, were standing behind General Pershing. Everyone was watching the main displays at the front of the bridge. The alien ship looked like a sea monster with long tentacles trying to snatch the Echo out of space. Kim flew the ship like a woman possessed.
At his console, Ben could see that the exterior video feed being watched on the main display was from the ship’s rear cameras. Kim pulled back on her joystick and angled both foot pedals down with her toes. The Modulus Echo was much smaller than the alien ship, which allowed them to reverse directions much faster. The Echo arched up and curved back over the top of the alien ship, before spinning on her central axis so that both ships were oriented the same way but moving in opposite directions.
“Watch out for those grappling arms,” Pershing warned.
Kim had to swing the ship back and forth as the grappling arms whipped up and around the alien vessel. Ben could see the aiming reticles on Kim’s display screen. She was lining up the laser cannons on the rear section of the alien ship, just above the blue-white glow of their main drive exhaust.
“Firing,” Kim said, in an uncharacteristically serious voice.
The lasers flashed out in four red alternating beams. Then Kim was pulling up again. She spun the ship around and continued a looping turn that should have brought them back to face the rear of the alien ship.
Ben saw flashes of light as the lasers struck the housing near the rear of the ship, but it was impossible to tell how much damage was done. He knew the lasers were meant for warding off small fighter craft, not attacking capital ships. The alien ship was as big as an Imperium battlecruiser, but the shots had taken some sort of toll.
He glanced at the battery readout on his console. The auxiliary banks had been depleted by almost fifty percent.
“We’ve got enough power for one more barrage,” Ben said. “That’s it.”
The alien ship couldn’t maneuver like the Echo but it was faster than any Royal Imperium ship of the line. Ben saw gas of some kind venting from four spots near the rear exhaust, which was flickering. But the ship hadn’t slowed. It was spinning around and altering trajectory.
“Is she running?” Pershing asked.
“I don’t think so,” Nance said.
“But she doesn’t want us firing at her backside again,” Kim said.
“You can’t possibly hope to defeat a ship like that in this little cargo dump,” Queen Ultane said.
“You might be surprised what we can do in this little ship,” Kim said.
“Scanning their output,” Nance said. “I think that’s nitrogen venting from their hull.”
“Can you get a read on her power?” Pershing asked.
“Negative,” Nance replied. “We just don’t know enough about their vessels.”
Kim wasn’t finished. She flew wide of the grappling arms that waved like angry serpents as she angled for another shot. But the alien ship was moving too fast for the Echo to get behind it again.
“What now?” Ben asked.
“I’ve got a clear shot to the jump point,” Kim said.
“But you’re not in position,” Nance said. “You’ll be going the wrong way.”
“Calculate a new jump point,” Pershing said. “Can we fire those lasers to the rear?”
“Yes,” Kim said.
“Good,” Pershing said. “Let’s make our escape. Wait until the ship commits to the pursuit, then fire everything we’ve got.”
Ben watched as Kim turned them away from the alien ship, which responded almost immediately. The Echo was turning wide, preparing to run for it, and the alien was altering course to pursue.
“They’re coming after us,” Nance a
nnounced.
“Of course they are,” Kim said.
“Can’t you outrun them?” Queen Ultane demanded.
“That is what we’re attempting to do,” Pershing replied. “Stand by on those cannons.”
“We’re at the least effective range,” Magnum said. “Wait until they’re closer.”
“They’re extending grappling arms again,” Ben said. “We wait much longer and they’ll have us.”
“Close in on the new jump point,” Nance said. “It’s on your board, Kim.”
“I see it,” the pilot snapped.
She flew up, then dove. The alien ship didn’t alter course, but followed her with its grappling arms. Kim dropped low enough that the tentacle-like grappling arms were forced to reach around the forward section of the alien ship.
“Alright, I’ve got this thing lined out,” Kim said. “Stand by.”
“Don’t overshoot the jump point,” Nance warned. “You’ll be on it in fifteen seconds.”
“I’ve got it,” Kim said, pulling back up.
The grappling arms pulled back again, reaching around for the Echo, and in the process exposing the bow of the big alien ship. Kim fired four more shots with the laser cannons, draining the auxiliary batteries completely. There was an explosion as the red beams of light impacted the bow of the alien vessel. The tentacle arms seemed to wave frantically, no longer reaching for them. Fire rolled back over the big, insectile vessel, and atmosphere began to vent from large rents caused by the laser blasts. Then time stretched, the alien ship disappeared in a luminous cloud, as the Echo jumped into hyperspace.
Chapter 26
The grappling arm pulled the emergency pod with Major Le Croix in tow into the alien ship. The outer hull closed around them and left Le Croix in total darkness. His helmet’s night vision came on, and he could tell he was in an empty hanger or workshop of some kind. There was gravity, and Le Croix stayed low beside the emergency pod. The readout showed there was less than fifteen minutes of oxygen in the compartment.
Le Croix’s space suit wasn’t designed for all environments, but it did have an atmospheric scanner. He ran the program and found that the empty hanger was being pumped full of air. It was a mix of nitrogen and oxygen. The suit’s safety measures indicated that the atmosphere in the hanger was safe to breathe, but only barely. It was borderline and not optimal for physical exertion. Le Croix kept his helmet on but hit the button to open the emergency pod.
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