Fortunes of War (Stellar Main Book 1)

by Richard Tongue

  “Sure, but you know the terrain a hell of a lot better than I do, and it’ll be a chance to recover that stash of yours. I’ll even take point.” He tossed Carter a spare power pack, and said, “Just in case.”

  Nodding, Carter clipped the pack into position, drawing her laser pistol again, and walked back into the heart of the ship, making her way towards the bridge. She couldn’t believe how cramped everything was, even compared to Pandora, the individual quarters no more than bunks embedded in the wall, over the power distribution networks on either side of the corridor, with only a flimsy curtain for privacy.

  Her confined cabin was the height of luxury by comparison. She crawled into the bridge, two seats back to back, the displays still activated. The pilot’s controls were bathed in red lights, warning that the ship was unable to take off, the damage to the hull too severe to withstand any acceleration at all. The course was still programmed into the computer, and she cleared the alarms with a quick tap of the override, looking at the display with a growing smile.

  This had been a quick detour, and by the looks of it, unplanned. The course had been programmed into the ship less than an hour before Pandora had left Colchis, and the ship had departed only ninety minutes later. It wasn’t hard to reconstruct what had happened. The pirates had been given a lead, intelligence about the destination of Pandora and the reason for their trip and had tried to beat them to the punch. If it hadn’t been for her rushed departure, the firefight in the city, their plan would have worked, and either they’d have walked into a trap, or the cache they had planned to salvage would have been long gone.

  Where they had been was less important than where they were going. She called up the displays, thanking the gods for the poor security routine of the pilot, and quickly found their intended target. Abydos. One of the worlds with the alien artefacts, and a manageable distance from this world. Pandora could make the trip in three jumps, maybe as many days.

  She pulled out her datapad, connecting it to the navigation computer to harvest the data. Someone had already done the work of plotting a course through otherspace for her, and she didn’t intend to let that go to waste. While the upload continued, she looked at the course again, following the path through uninhabited space.

  A rogue planet, Malek. Named for the discoverer, long ago. Something about that name seemed familiar. She called up the files she’d brought with her from Colchis, the data she had analyzed a thousand times, and finally found what she was looking for. Valkyrie Tech was scheduled to do a run through Malek, on its way to Columbia Station. With Little Joe in command.

  If she knew about it, so did the pirates.

  “Find anything?” Garcia asked, scrambling into the cramped control room.

  “Too much,” she replied. “Cassie, you there?”

  “I’m here,” she said.

  “You and Kruger are going back into the jungle. We had to leave the plasma cannons behind, and I need them retrieved right away.”

  “Just a damned minute,” Kruger protested. “It’s getting dark outside, and it gets ten times as dangerous out there when it does. We’ve got to wait until morning.”

  “We don’t have time,” she said, tapping the controls. “Cassie, can you fit those cannons in vacuum, doing an EVA?”

  “It would actually be easier in zero gravity,” the engineer replied. “You trained for that, Rusty?”

  “I’m a Marine,” he said, shaking his head. “I can wear a spacesuit like I wear my own skin.”

  “Yeah, but are you any good with tools?”

  “What is all of this about?” Schmitt asked. “Have you found a lead?”

  “Abydos,” Carter replied. “They’re going to Abydos.”

  “Makes sense,” Kruger said. “I’d expected as much. Look, Captain, those ruins have been there for centuries, and a few days here and there aren’t going to make any real difference. I’m not really inclined to risk my life for a pile of old decorated ceramics, even if they are worth a few thousand credits.” Turning to Garcia, he said, “Talk sense into her.”

  “We’re not going out there to rescue the artefacts, and we might not even have to go as far as Abydos,” she replied. “This ship was transiting via a burned-out ball of rock called Malek, about eighteen light-years from here.”

  “So?” Schmitt asked.

  “So is Odin,” Garcia said, eyes widening. “One of our technicians was shipping out today. They’ll be transiting the system in about thirty-one hours from now.” Turning to Carter, he said, “Even assuming that the pirates know about it…”

  “Their intelligence has been pretty damned good up till now,” she replied. “We’ve got to work on the theory that they know everything that we do.”

  “Granted, but I don’t know if we could get there in thirty-one hours, even if we lifted immediately. And it’ll take at least an hour to retrieve the plasma cannons.”

  “We’ll never know unless we try, and I’m damned well going to make the attempt. I can’t just sit down here and wait knowing that another ship is in danger, not when there is something we can do to prevent it. Cassie, get moving. Kruger knows where to go, and we’ve cut a pretty wide path to the depot. The rest of us will strip this ship for anything useful and prepare for immediate launch.” Looking at her watch, she added, “I want to be off this planet in one hour at the latest. Move, people. We’re on the clock. And if we fall short, a couple of dozen people are going to pay the price for our tardiness.”

  Chapter 17

  “It can’t be rushed,” Schmitt said, settling into the sensor station, watching as Carter looked out into space. “Rusty and Wu know what they’re doing. If they say fitting the plasma cannons is going to take three hours, you can believe it, and you know that they’re working just as fast as they possibly can.” He looked at the view, and said, “Just another cold, dead star. What’s this one called?”

  “TGSS 33-2202,” she replied. “One recorded visit by a survey vessel about a century ago, and I guess they’d run out of names by that point.” Turning back to Schmitt, she added, “Probably been visited before, but most freighter crews don’t keep records that good. Not much point. If you’ve got any names in mind, feel free to log them.” She paused, then asked, “Why did you decide to come along?”

  “I didn’t,” he said, his face dropping into a frown. “I…”

  Shaking her head, she replied, “I don’t believe it, not for a second, and I doubt Rusty does either. Cassie doesn’t really care, and Kruger’s locked in his cabin going over his samples. You and I are on our own here.” Turning to face him, she said, “So go ahead and talk. Did Petrov send you along for the ride?”

  Schmitt sighed, and replied, “When did you guess?”

  “The data you gave me was gibberish. Not only did it not lead anywhere worth going, it actually made interpreting the rest of the information harder. As soon as I deleted your files from the system, I had a much easier time working out what the pirates were planning.”

  “That was my idea, not Petrov’s,” Schmitt admitted.

  “Your idea?”

  “Captain Petrov wanted me to sabotage you. He knew you were going somewhere, presumably to buy arms, and I think he’d hoped that you’d lead him to some sort of illicit weapons factory. My job was to work out where it was you were going, contact the Patrol if possible, and do everything I could to slow you down. Up to and including scrambling the computers.” With a thin smile, he said, “I’m a pretty decent hacker. When I was a kid, I’d planned on going into programming.”

  “What happened?”

  “Juvenile court. The judge suggested very strongly that I consider another line of work. My parents were both doctors. I was going into the family business, basically.”

  “If you’d made any attempt…”

  “Of course not,” he replied. “I’m not stupid. I fed you that data to send you on a wild goose chase.” Taking a deep breath, he said, “Look, this ship isn’t powerful enough to go up against the p
irates. I figured that if you had a few months wandering the galaxy, you might change your mind about your revenge. And have Petrov off your back.”

  “Next question. Did you volunteer for this mission?”

  “Not as such.”

  “Explain.” She reached under her controls, and added, “Make it good.”

  “Captain Petrov knew about my background. I think the judge was an old friend of his. It’s not on my record, not any more, but I’ve still got the skills. Ajax is staying in dock for a while. He can spare the doctor.” He paused, then said, “Look, he said that if I went, he’d find a way to get Rusty back into the service if he wanted. And more than that. There are some crazy types on that ship. More than usual. If he’d sent one of those, anything could have happened. I decided to come along on this ride because I knew that I wouldn’t do you any real harm, but I couldn’t know that about anyone else.”

  “Then you did this for us,” Carter said, raising an eyebrow. “Give me a reason to believe you?”

  “I could have lied. I could have held back. I didn’t.” He paused, and added, “Look, Rusty’s got a point, and I’ve got to admit it. The Patrol are doing a lousy job out here, and someone needs to give them a kick up the backside to get them moving. A nice little stunt and the press will be all over this mess, and that just might force the brass to move some of their reserves into the sector.”

  “You really thought all this through, didn’t you?”

  Nodding, he replied, “I had plenty of time to do it.” Looking at the starfield, he added, “I’ll be honest, I never thought you’d get close to the pirates, and never thought that you’d be able to go up against them.” Looking back at the sensors, he added, “Not that we’ve got a choice. We can’t let a civilian ship be attacked, and there’s no time to warn the Patrol.”

  “Tell me about Petrov,” Carter said. “Why?”

  “You?” Schmitt asked. “He doesn’t like vigilantes. Hell, I don’t like vigilantes, but sometimes there just isn’t any other choice. That, and you’re an embarrassment. Most of the destroyed ships passed without leaving any trace. A survivor running around to talk to the press might just show up the inability of the Patrol to defend Commonwealth territory, and that’s a potentially damned dangerous thing. I know that Rusty is thinking of his sister, but so am I. If it becomes obvious that the Patrol can’t defend the frontier, we’ll have the Seven Stars War, all over again. And this time, we might not be able to stop it.”

  “Then letting my crew, my family die, is…”

  Raising his hands, he said, “Hey, I didn’t say this was my idea. You wanted me to talk to you about Petrov, remember? He’s old-school Patrol, hard core. Fourth-generation. I swear he takes the rule-book to bed with him. And there’s another factor, as well, I think, though I’m relying on my psych classes for this one.”

  “Go on.”

  “Control. It’s all about control. He’s big on law and order, and if there’s something he can’t handle, something he doesn’t have the resources to tackle, then he’s going to focus his attention and efforts on anything he can. You’re a target he can deal with. He can catch you, bring you to justice. Prevent you committing a crime. Maybe it makes him sleep a little better at night.”

  “Knowing that dangerous criminals like me can’t make the universe a safer place?”

  “Something like that.”

  Shaking her head, she replied, “I don’t buy it, somehow. It’s just a little too neat.”

  “I don’t know how he thinks,” the doctor said. “Not really. That’s just my best guess.” He grimaced, and said, “Too be fair, I damn near failed that course.” He looked at her, and asked, “What happens now?”

  “What do you think? I’m not going to throw you out of an airlock, if that’s what you are thinking. Your secret mission was a bust right from the start, to the point that I doubt that was Petrov’s idea at all. Think about it. You were close to Rusty. I’m guessing you’d spoken on his behalf.”

  “True,” Schmitt said. “Wait a minute, are you suggesting that I was set up?”

  “I think it’s all too likely. Either it means that I’m on charges for kidnapping a Patrol officer, or if things go another way, he gets rid of two troublemakers.”

  Shaking his head, Schmitt replied, “No, no, I don’t believe it. The Patrol just doesn’t work that way, damn it. There are rules and regulations, and if I wrote one letter to the Inspector-General, he’d have his command pulled out from under him before you could say court-martial.” He paused, then added, “Which is another point. If he wanted to bring charges against me, they’d have to be in a formal court, and he’d never get them passed. Not with evidence that I was ordered to go on this mission.”

  “These orders were in writing?”

  “No, but I recorded them,” he said. He shrugged, and added, “I do that a lot. You never know when someone might change their mind at the last minute. I usually keep a pinhead recorder going all the time. And to answer your next question, yes, I have it running right now.”

  “Keep it on,” she replied. “It might come in handy.” She shook her head, and said, “I just think that there is more going on here than we know. For a start, those pirates had to have accessed Patrol records to find us…”

  “I don’t see that. They’d already visited the planet once, why not again?”

  “But why go again? They didn’t leave anything behind, and if they were at all concerned about Kruger, they’d have shot him, rather than letting him play Robinson Crusoe in Space.”

  The aft door opened, and Kruger stepped inside, saying, “Have you two finished your secret meeting?” At their expressions, he added, “I didn’t believe either of you when I first came on board. I’ll admit, Captain, that I was quite surprised when your story actually checked out.”

  “What did you think I was out here for?”

  “Either for the publicity to launch your new shipping company or because you thought the pirates had found something valuable.” He paused, then added, “I tend towards the latter, myself.”

  “You’ve looked at the samples?”

  “Without access to a proper database and sufficient room to work. There’s not much here. At least, not that I could see, but it’s from the Gravidic Expansion period. That’s very interesting.” At their blank expressions, he added, “Like all empires, they rose, and they fell. During their first starfaring centuries, they reached out across the stars for hundreds of light-years. They never expanded any further, and indeed, their territory contracted considerably following the loss of their homeworld.”

  “What happened to their homeworld?” Schmitt asked.

  “A nova, we think, though we’re not certain. Some suggest that they did it themselves, as hard as that is to imagine. We’ve never found it, and we’re not likely to.” He paused, then said, “We’ve been picking through their remains for years, but most of the sites we’ve found had already been exploited by later civilizations. The good stuff is gone.”

  “So, you’re looking for untapped sites,” Carter said.

  “Precisely. If we could even find an uncharted outpost, somewhere out there, it would be worth a not-so-small fortune. Millions, tens of millions of credits. Maybe more, if it was rich enough.” Looking at the dying star on the screen, he added, “Space is just too damned big. Too big to explore. Too big for us to look at every system. The Gravidic were a lot less picky than we were. They tried to colonize that hell-hole back there, and damn near succeeded. We gave up after forty lives.”

  “Why are the pirates after them?” Schmitt asked. “It seems strange.”

  “One source of cash is much like another,” Kruger replied. “Both are easy ways to get rich, especially when nobody attempts to stop them.” He peered out of the viewport, and asked, “How long before our armament is fitted?”

  “Not long,” Carter said. “Are you in a bloodthirsty mood?”

  “I’m resigned that we’re going to be in battle soon. I’
d far rather go into the fight with some sort of armament than without. Though I would be much happier if we could avoid it altogether.”

  “That isn’t an option.”

  Nodding, Kruger asked, “How do you kill someone?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You rather expertly killed that pirate. And I understand you killed another, back on Colchis.”

  “I don’t know,” she replied. “I was under fire, being attacked. My dad made sure I knew how to use a firearm, and he always told me that I should never shoot unless I meant to kill. I guess that’s far as it goes.” She looked at her bare holster, and said, “Not that I ever imagined I’d need those skills, but we’re talking about the people who murdered my crew, my family. Destroyed my ship. Almost killed me.”

  “Careful with that, Captain,” Schmitt warned. “You’re taking the early steps on a pretty damned dark road, and I doubt you’ll like the destination.”

  “When all of this is over, Doctor, I’ll gladly hang up my guns for good. I assure you of that.”

  “Wu to Carter,” the intercom crackled. “All finished out here. We just need a couple of test shots, and we’re good to go.”

  “Great,” Carter replied. “Half an hour ahead of schedule. I just hope we haven’t left it too late.”

  Chapter 18

  “Emergence in three minutes,” Carter said, her hands on the controls. “Let’s go around the room. Navigation, Gunnery, check?”

  “All systems go,” Garcia replied. “Auto-navigation is locked in, and I’ll head into the turret as soon as we return to normal space. Plasma cannons are charged and ready.”

  “Engineering, Power Distribution, check?”

  “I’m fine,” Wu said. “Can we get on with this?”

  Suppressing a chuckle, Carter replied, “Sensors?”

  “I have positive track, passive sensors charged, active ready on your order,” Kruger replied. “I do know what I’m doing, Captain. You don’t need to worry about me.”

  “First time I’ve ever led a ship into battle,” she said. “I want to get it right on the first try.”