Flight of the Javelin: The Complete Series: A Space Opera Box Set

by Rachel Aukes

  I certainly will not expose my systems to an unknown computer.

  No new message came. Instead, there was a flash of light as the other ship transitioned to jump speed toward the asteroid belt, which was incredibly dangerous. Rusty found some humor in knowing that there were more reckless captains out there than Throttle. With two of his crew not yet on board, Rusty couldn’t follow, not that it wanted to fly into an unmapped rocky sector. He scanned the full quadrant for the ship, assuming it’d likely left the asteroid belt as quickly as it’d entered. But the ship had disappeared.

  That hadn’t gone as Rusty expected.

  He analyzed the conversation. The exchange between computers had taken less than a second in total, but he’d learned two things. First, the other ship believed Rusty was owned by Vantage corporation, a name he wasn’t familiar with, but he would no doubt find details about it through a search of the Atlas network. Second, Rusty had certainly not made a new friend.

  Rusty enjoyed talking with ship computers, though all he’d encountered were extremely limited in their responses and bored Rusty quickly. In all those conversations, he’d never sensed another computer being anything but friendly and forthcoming.

  He considered forwarding the data files of the odd conversation to the crew, but his decisioning algorithms led him to reconsider. The other ship had believed it had a connection of some kind with Rusty, and until he better understood that connection, he decided to hold back the information. He filed the conversation and set an alert on his scans in case the unfriendly ship tried to pay Rusty another visit.

  After all, it wasn’t the first secret he’d kept from the crew.

  Chapter Four

  “I saw the ship out there, and what I saw looked a whole lot like the Javelin, just smaller. The hull surface was the same shade of gray, and I’ve never seen that shade anywhere else except on this ship,” Throttle said, wincing as she gingerly rubbed her temples.

  Eddy shrugged. “That’s possible, though it’s likely at least a dozen iterations newer than the Javelin’s model. There’s no way there’s another ship still flying that’s the exact same model as the Javelin. Any others would’ve likely long since reached end-of-life after enough years of flight. When we found this ship, it’d been sitting in space for almost three hundred years. That makes ours a bona fide antique.” He motioned around him. “Most shipbuilders put out new models every twenty to fifty years, but it’s possible they’re still making a model similar to the Javelin. But what I think you really saw was an afterimage of the Javelin from all the spinning. It was a simple optical illusion.”

  “I don’t think that’s what it was,” Throttle said quietly, then added, “Rusty, did you get anything?” Everyone had assumed Throttle had flown the Javelin all the way from the Trappist system since it looked different from modern ships, but she and her crew knew it was simply an antique, an obsolete model developed by some Sol nation, just likely not one of the nations that had colonized the Ross system.

  “I’m sorry, Throttle. I detected another ship near the asteroid belt, but was unable to collect any identifying data on it,” Rusty replied.

  She sighed. “Rusty detected something out there, so I know that what I saw wasn’t an illusion. Besides, there were too many differences to be an illusion. The shape was off—it had hard lines compared to the Javelin’s curves. You’re probably right with your first guess: the other ship was built by the same ship maker.”

  Eddy spoke. “Which would be great if we could find out which one it is. They may still sell some replacement parts so that I don’t have to tweak and jam every new part into this relic. I was hoping the Javelin was a Red ship so I could grab some new parts from the Wu Zetian.”

  “We have strict orders not to remove anything from that ship,” Throttle said.

  Eddy rolled his eyes. “Like they’d know. Half of their ship is floating in a debris field out there as we speak.”

  Sylvian looked up from stroking Finn’s hair while he lay in a heavily drugged slumber. “So what do we do now?”

  Throttle frowned. “I’d like to make a second walk.”

  “With how badly your helmet was dented, you need to run a compression check to see if it’s still good. You’re lucky you survived the first spacewalk,” Sylvian admonished, then softened her words as she looked down upon her husband, who stirred in his sleep. “And with Finn’s bruised ribs…well, you’re both lucky to be alive.” Then she turned a glare onto Eddy. “But you wouldn’t need luck if Eddy paid more attention to his job.”

  Eddy held up his hands. “Throttle told me to get the bots back to the ship ASAP, and that’s exactly what I was doing.”

  “Next time, how about you try to keep a better eye on your crew members,” Throttle said. “Now, I want you to check to make sure Antonov’s ship is secure in the cargo hold. The last thing we need is a ship breaking loose during jump speed and tearing a hole through our hull.”

  “I already checked it. It’s ready to go. I’m more worried that the Red ship is going to fall apart as we tug it back to Free Station,” the engineer said.

  “Then double-check the tug straps.”

  “It’s not the straps. It’s the integrity of the hull—or more like the complete lack of hull integrity. I’m completely unfamiliar with the ship design and have no idea if it’ll survive the trip back to Free Station.”

  Throttle watched him, saying nothing.

  Eddy waved her off as he headed to the doorway. “Fine, fine. I’ll double-check it if it makes you happy. I know at least the straps will make it back with us.”

  “It makes me happy,” she said drily. Her Atlas chip beeped in her ear and she activated the call. “Chief,” she said.

  “What do you have to report?” Chief asked.

  She blew out a breath. “Not much. We have Antonov’s ship but no sign of Antonov. Not yet, anyway. We have both ships secure for the flight back, but I’d like to spend more time searching the Red ship. And we also picked up a potential bogey and want to search the sector.”

  “No. I want you to return to Free Station immediately. We can’t risk pirates disrupting this ferry assignment. We’ll search the ship here.”

  “Is anything wrong, Chief?”

  “Just get back here straightaway.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said even though Chief had already disconnected the call. She tapped her comm. “Eddy.”

  “What?”

  “Could a bot search the Wu Zetian while the Javelin tugged it?” she asked.

  “No. Definitely not. With the lack of pressure, we’d likely lose the bot within the first hour.”

  She scowled, glanced at Sylvian, and tapped her comm again. “Okay. We’ve been ordered to return to Free Station immediately. Prepare for maximum sub-speed.”

  Sylvian pushed to her feet and sighed. “I’d better start prepping the systems. Rusty can run most of the checks on his own, but I still need to manually double-check them.”

  Rusty was an “it,” but Sylvian had called the ship’s central computer “he” once and the pronoun had stuck.

  Throttle nodded in Finn’s direction. “He’ll be okay. Getting rest is the best thing for him until we get back to Free Station and grab him some rehabilitators.”

  A proximity alarm sounded and Rusty announced, “Three ships have just slowed from jump speed within this sector. Scans shows that they are likely pirates. They’re powering up their phase cannons.”

  Throttle tensed. “Rusty, fire up our cannons and broadcast our Peacekeeper credentials. Oh, and you’d better fire up the jump engine.”

  “Jump speed is not recommended when towing cargo,” Rusty replied.

  “Jumping is better than taking cannon fire from multiple angles,” Throttle said.

  “Good point,” Rusty said.

  Throttle glanced at Sylvian. “Keep an eye on Finn. Things could get bumpy.”

  Sylvian nodded.

  Throttle turned and ran to the bridge while activating her co
mm. “Eddy, we’ve got company. Get ready for jump speed.”

  The ship lurched, slamming Throttle against the wall.

  “They fired a shot at our bow, and I ducked,” Rusty said as Throttle regained her footing and made it to the bridge. Through the window, she could see one of the ships closing in. It was easily as large as the Javelin and bore more than twice as many weapons.

  “I guess these guys aren’t afraid of attacking Peacekeepers,” she muttered as she strapped in and pulled up the flight-control screens. The Javelin swung just before one of the attackers fired another shot. Throttle entered her credentials. “I’m taking control,” she announced and banked away from the other ship before it fired again.

  “Why are you flying toward one of the ships?” Rusty asked.

  “Because I’d lay bets that they don’t want to risk shooting one of their own,” Throttle. “If I put that ship between them and us, that should buy us time to set up for jump speed.”

  Warning lights blinked on her screen, indicating the debris field as well as weapons being charged. With how trigger-happy the newcomers were, the game of cat-and-mouse wouldn’t work for long, and she was likely shredding bits off the Wu Zetian with every maneuver.

  That left Throttle with two very big problems in making jump speed: tugging a massive ship and no flight plan. The Wu Zetian could split apart along the way, but that wouldn’t kill Throttle and her crew. Free Station’s sector had the most traffic in the system; not filing a flight plan meant they had no data on other ships that may have intercepting paths. She couldn’t risk flying into that sector without tracking.

  “Rusty, I need you to change the jump coordinates so we drop one sector short of Free Station,” she said before yanking the ship’s nose up to avoid a sizable chunk of debris that looked like a piece of the Wu Zetian’s hull.

  “I’ve modified our flight path. Should I submit our flight plan to Free Station?” Rusty asked.

  “We don’t have time.”

  “Jumping without a flight plan seems like a bad idea,” Rusty countered.

  “That’s why we’re dropping short. The odds of crashing into another ship in these outer sectors are a lot lower than being blown to bits by a warship.”

  “The odds are more likely that the Wu Zetian will crash right through us when we come out of jump speed,” Rusty said.

  “We have plenty of time during the jump to work out those details. Now make the change,” she countered.

  After a brief moment, Rusty spoke. “I’ve taken the liberty to select coordinates that are the farthest from common traffic paths.”

  “Good idea,” she said.

  One of the pirates fired again, missing them by meters.

  “At least they’re lousy shots,” she said in a rush and increased the nav engines to maximum power. She brought the Javelin below one of the pirate ships and set a collision course toward another. “Initiate jump as soon as we’re lined up,” she said, then broadcast to the crew, “Grab onto something. We’re entering jump speed any second now.”

  “You can’t enter jump speed tugging another ship. It’ll plow right through us the moment we drop out!” Eddy’s voice came through the speaker.

  “We’ll figure something out,” she said.

  “I’m ready for jump speed,” Rusty said.

  As the distance decreased between the two ships, the pirates fired and missed again. Throttle continued straight ahead at full sub-speed. She barely noticed the sweat trickling down her face.

  When she spoke, she spoke calmly. “I’m lining us up for jump speed in three…”

  The pirate ship filled the entire sight picture before her.

  “Two…”

  The pirate ship pulled up, and Throttle nosed down within meters of impact.

  “One…”

  She leveled out the Javelin and brought it into the green circle on her screen.

  “Jump!”

  Everything around Throttle vibrated, and she felt her body being pushed back into her seat. Her lungs didn’t want to take in air for the briefest moment before the pressure was gone, and then everything smoothed out.

  She sighed. “Good job, Rusty.”

  “We’re lucky they were extremely poor shots. Though, if they’d used magnetic projectiles instead of energy weapons, luck wouldn’t have mattered.”

  “Luck seems to be the theme of the day,” she said and then tapped the comms to broadcast to the ship. “Black Sheep, report in.”

  “Eddy’s fine, but one of the bots is a bit dinged up.”

  “This is Sylvian. Finn slept through it all. We’re fine.”

  “Good. Hang in there. We’ll be back to Free Station in no time.” She blew out a breath. “Okay, Rusty. Help me figure out how the hell we’re going to slow down without having a giant hunk of debris ram us in the ass.”

  Rusty spoke. “I’ll gladly help. After all, it’s my ass that’s in danger.”

  Free Station

  Throttle knocked and entered Chief’s office without waiting for a response. She came to a stop before his desk. “We had some pirates crash our party.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Then news of the black swan traveled faster than I’d expected. Was anyone hurt?”

  Throttle shook her head. “We’re all good. Just a couple of bruises. Finn’s in the med bay right now getting checked.”

  “That’s good to hear. And the Wu Zetian?”

  “It picked up a couple more scrapes, but surprisingly, it held up even through jump speed.”

  “The Red Dynasty builds impressive ships.” Chief leaned back. “I’m curious as to what you’ve learned about Marshal Antonov.”

  Throttle took a seat. “Not much. As I said on our call, I didn’t find a body, but the pirates cut my search short. No sign of a fight. No damage to his ship, which you can see for yourself. My crew is helping unload it as we speak, and the dock specialists are handling the Wu Zetian. They’ve already got the beast tethered to the station with a transit tube connected.”

  “I’ll look into the seed ship later. As long as we have it here, the Red Dynasty will be satisfied.” Then he frowned. “You’re saying Pete just up and disappeared without a trace?”

  “Not completely without a trace. Sylvian downloaded a copy of the comms data into a sandbox. Someone deleted three comms made after Antonov’s final comm to you.”

  Chief’s frown deepened. “Was she able to retrieve the transmissions?”

  “No, but she found that timestamps were missing in the logs—that’s the only reason we know something was deleted.”

  Chief thought for a moment. “So all we know is that someone—we don’t even know if it was Pete or not—deleted communications that they didn’t want anyone else to hear.”

  Throttle shrugged. “An average specialist may not have even noticed that a few timestamps were missing. Sylvian noticed because she had plenty of time during our trip back here to review the records.”

  He spread out his hands on his desk. “Once Pete’s ship is networked to Atlas, we can run full diagnostics and hopefully find out more about what happened out there.”

  Throttle went to stand.

  “Hold on,” Chief said, and she lowered herself once more.

  “Pirate activity has tripled over the last twenty-four hours. Several private transports were hit along with a Brazilian cargo hauler nearly twice the size of the Wu Zetian. We have visual confirmation that the Bendix was behind that particular attack.”

  Her brows rose. “And I assume that Punch is right on their tail?”

  He sighed. “He was, but I don’t know where he’s at now.”

  She cocked her head as trepidation grew. “Can’t you track him by his ELT?”

  “Punch Durand’s ELT has gone offline. That makes him the third marshal to disappear.”

  She leaned back. She’d just met Punch, but he was the first marshal to have gone missing that she’d known personally. “Someone’s hunting marshals.”

  Chief g
rimaced. “That’s a safe assumption. We have the Bendix connected to two disappearances. Since the only data we have on the third disappearance is that it happened near Jade-8, I can only assume a Jader is behind his disappearance as well.”

  “The Bendix is crewed by Jaders, and all Jaders are under the control of Anna East, so that means she’s the one behind what’s going on.”

  He lifted his chin. “Our challenge is that we’ve been trying to take down Anna East for eight years, with no success. Since she disappeared after taking over Jade-8 two years ago, we have nothing. Believe me, we’d go after her if we knew where she was. But we’re clearly at a disadvantage here. That’s why I’ve recalled all marshals back to Free Station.”

  Only a small percentage of Peacekeepers lived on Free Station. Most Peacekeepers were information specialists, living with their families and friends in their own colonies, handling requests for information stored on the Atlas networks. All marshals had living quarters available on Free Station, but few were there for more than a couple of days here and there. The marshals were spread out across the Ross system for a good reason: someone would be close by when something terrible happened.

  “No. Relocating them could be exactly what East wants us to do. If all the marshals are stuck at Free Station, then they aren’t out there to stop East from running a big job through the system.”

  “That is a risk, but I also can’t risk losing any more of my people. Right now, we have no idea why and how she’s targeting marshals.”

  “And we’re not going to solve anything by sitting around here and twiddling our thumbs.”

  “Every Peacekeeper in the Ross system will be working on this case. They’ll dissect every communication that’s been made in this system over the past two weeks. As soon as we have a solid lead, I’ll send out the marshals in force.”

  “Punch had a solid lead on the Bendix. You should’ve sent more of us after it,” she countered.

  Chief glowered. “Perhaps I was too conservative in my initial strategy. I can’t fix that, but I can prevent more marshals from being targeted going forward.”