“The Royal Imperium like to hoard resources,” Ben said.
“They do, indeed. Mersa Prime has a secondary world they were terraforming for decades, but the Imperium wants to keep the new world just for the royal family. It’s criminal.”
“I’ll get them home,” Ben said, extending his hand.
“I’m sure you will. Until we meet again, my friend, thank you for your help.”
“And yours,” Ben said.
The walk back to the ship didn’t take long, and after informing the others of their new passengers and cargo, Ben went up to inspect the guest quarters. Everything was in place. The rooms were simple, with a bed, convertible toilet/vanity, a small desk with an input terminal, and an old AV entertainment console. Holt had occupied one of the cabins, which still needed to be cleaned, but the other five were ready.
When Ben came back down, his passengers were waiting. He welcomed them onto the ship and took them up to the bridge to introduce them to the crew. From there, he led the way to the upper deck where they would each have a private cabin.
“This is nice,” Paula said. “You don’t see many ships like this one anymore.”
“It could use a autolift,” Gregory said. “All those stairs are hard on my old knees.”
“You can store food in the galley if you brought any,” Ben said. “There’s plenty of water. We’ll be heading out soon.”
“Thank you again,” Tolliver said. “You have no idea what it’s like to be so far from home.”
“I hope you never have to know,” Lesley said.
“The Echo is my home,” Ben said. “I don’t think I could stand to part with her.”
“Then don’t,” Gregory said. “Whatever you do, hang on to your ship, young man.”
Ben hurried back down to the bridge, and Nance looked up from her station.
“They just finished loading the cargo,” she said. “It’s all in crates and boxes.”
“Outstanding,” Ben said. “Let’s signal the station that we’re ready to leave.”
“Goodbye real food,” Kim said. “So long, beautiful ridiculous clothes.”
“I’m so glad you’re not sentimental,” Ben said.
“Kiss my—”
“We’ve been cleared to leave,” Nance interrupted.
Magnum was chuckling, and Ben noticed that everyone seemed happy. The ship was in good shape. They had more than enough Zexum gas. Everyone enjoyed being on Richmond Station, and it seemed as if their dreams were coming true. They hadn’t planned to work exclusively for the Confederacy, and Holt’s deceptive behavior had nearly spoiled it for them, but they were beginning to see the upside.
“Nance, I assume you’ve begun research on the Mersa system?”
“Yes, and the bootleg navigation program will be installed soon.”
“Kim, once they get us out of the station, plot a course through the moons but keep us in the planet’s shadow.”
“What do I look like, a moron?” she replied.
“You don’t want me to answer that,” Ben replied, sitting back in his seat.
The Modulus Echo didn’t have a captain’s chair and they weren’t a military crew, but Ben was beginning to feel at home on the ship and with his friends in a way he never had before. There was a sense of satisfaction, a fulfillment that came from being free that he hadn’t expected. And he was determined to enjoy every minute of it. Not even Kim’s razor-sharp tongue could deprive him of it.
“We’re on the move,” Nance said. “Tractor beam is propelling us out.”
“Stand by for artificial gravity,” Ben said.
“And don’t forget to fire up the engines,” Kim said. “We won’t get far on thrusters alone.”
“I’m on it, I’m—”
He didn’t get to finish his sentence. Bright bolts of sizzling laser energy flashed past the Echo and slammed into Richmond Station. More light erupted behind them, and suddenly they were in zero gravity.
“Engaging artificial gravity,” Ben said, slamming his hand onto the button on his console. “Main drive engines are coming online.”
“They better come on fast,” Kim warned.
“I have multiple ships,” Nance said.
Ben flipped on the intercom and shouted into the mic.
“Richmond Station is under attack. I repeat, Richmond Station is under attack. We are headed out of the system at speed, and I suggest you stay in your rooms and strap in.”
“Here we go!” Kim shouted, throttling forward.
“Nance,” Ben said.
“I’m already on it,” she replied. “Calculating a jump point.”
They raced forward, swerving to avoid another barrage of laser fire. Ben suddenly wished they had missiles or lasers and could fire back. He brought up the rear cameras on his station and saw explosions across the surface of the space station. More laser blasts ripped into the moon-shaped facade.
“They’re ripping her apart,” Magnum said.
“How the hell did they find that station now?” Kim demanded.
It was the question on all their minds. Had the Echo led the Fleet to the space station? Ben felt like he was suddenly going to be sick. He couldn’t say for certain, but he had a terrible feeling they had done something wrong, and hundreds of innocent lives would have to pay the price.
Chapter 39
“That’s a capital ship,” Kim said, slamming the joystick forward so that the Echo shot down below the large vessel.
“Maybe they won’t bother with us,” Ben said.
“Enemy fighters,” Nance said, as calmly as ever, “scrambling on heading four, zero, six.”
“How many?” Ben asked.
“Impossible to tell,” Nance said. “There’s a lot and they’re moving fast.”
“Oh hell no,” Kim said.
“Can we reach the jump point?” Ben asked.
“Not before they catch us,” Nance said.
“Oh ye of little faith,” Kim said. “The problem with Imperium fast-attack ships is that they can’t maneuver. They’re all about outrunning their victims in open space.”
“Isn’t that what we’re trying to do?” Ben said.
“We can’t outrun them,” Kim said. “So we have to outmaneuver them.”
“We have three moons converging on our flight path,” Nance announced.
“Exactly-my-point!” Kim said, jerking back on the joystick and pressing her heels down on both foot pedals. The ship shot up just as a blast of lasers flashed beneath her.
Ben grabbed onto his console and whispered a silent prayer. He couldn’t watch the exterior camera feeds. Kim had the ship flipping and diving, curving in wide arcs, and suddenly sliding back in the opposite direction.
Rarely in his entire life had Ben felt so helpless. There were times he had spent all day and night curled in the wreckage of an old ship in the junkyards of Torrent Four, praying that the Scalpers wouldn’t find him, hardly daring to move a muscle. Yet even in the worst of times, he had been in control. He had held back sneezes, let his body cramp from lack of movement, or slithered silently through rusty metal in order to escape detection. But there was nothing he could personally do to help Kim fly the ship. He was little more than a passenger, and the Imperium ships were determined to run them down.
“They aren’t playing around,” Kim said.
“We have six enemy vessels in pursuit,” Nance said.
“Don’t tell me about those. I know they’re out there,” Kim said. “Keep an eye out for the ones I can’t see.”
She dodged again, and this time it was an enemy ship that flashed by. Ben realized the Imperium fighters were much faster than the Echo, and it was only Kim’s lightning fast reflexes on the controls that were keeping them alive.
“Almost there,” she said called out with a sound Ben thought was exuberance in her voice.
He looked down at his console and noticed that if he brought up the fusion reactor, he could add power to certain systems. There was onl
y so much power being generated by the Zexum gas, but there was no reason why the ship needed an even distribution of it. He dialed back the power to the water plant and life-support systems, then increased the power to the engines.
“Holy shit!” Kim shouted. “I don’t know what you’re doing, Ben, but keep it up.”
The ship slipped around a moon, dipping into its gravity well until they were skimming the rocky surface only a few hundred feet above the deck. The enemy fighters were forced to pull away to keep from crashing into the moon. They circled wide to re-engage.
“We are flying now!” Kim said. “This is amazing.”
She swung around the edge of the moon, then slipped away, letting the moon’s gravity sling them forward. The Imperium ships were gaining but not as fast, and Kim sent the Echo spinning toward another moon. Ben closed his eyes and waited. Kim shouted in excitement as laser blasts shot past them and raked chunks of rock from a nearby moon. Kim saw the debris and dove toward it. One of the Imperium fighters followed, but when Kim corkscrewed around the flying rock, the other ship flew straight into it.
The exterior cameras were shut down from the bright flash of light when the Imperium fighter exploded. Ben felt the gravity of their situation more than ever. That flash of light could have been the Echo. When the exterior cameras came back online, Ben looked to the rear. There were still five ships chasing them, but they were well back, hardly in range with their laser cannons. What caught Ben’s eye was Richmond Station. The bigger ships, two of them, continued to hammer the Confederate outpost. And Ben saw a flash, not an explosion, but a concentrated blast from behind the facade.
“What just happened to the Richmond?” Ben asked.
“I don’t know,” Nance said. “They must have destroyed it. I’m only getting a fraction of the mass the station had before.”
“That’s because she ejected,” Tolliver said.
Ben turned and saw the older man. He was standing by the stairs, holding on tight to the railing. Tolliver wasn’t old, but he was older than anyone else on the ship, with gray in his hair and dark blue veins showing through the skin on the back of his hands.
“What?” Ben asked.
“The station has a safety,” Tolliver continued. “It ejects from the cover, you know, the part that looks like a moon. It’s basically a big shield.”
“Ejects?” Nance asked.
“Sort of like a pilot’s seat. It can detach and shoot away,” Tolliver said. “The station is too valuable to be left to chance. It’s basically one big ship. She’ll disappear in Bannyan Seven’s atmosphere and stay there until the Imperium ships leave. Then it’s back to work as usual.”
“Look out!” Kim shouted, but it wasn’t a warning for the Echo’s passengers. It was a declaration as two of the Imperium fighters crashed into one another trying to follow her between a pair of rotating moons. They spun out of control and then exploded one after the other.
“That’s three down,” Kim said.
“Almost to the jump point,” Kim said. “Thirty seconds.”
“Wish I could stick around and finish the job,” Kim said.
“Your pilot’s sure of herself,” Tolliver said, hurrying over to the empty console beside Ben and quickly strapping in. “I hate feeling helpless.”
“Tell me about it,” Ben said. “There isn’t much we can do. The ship is in her hands.”
“At least they’re capable hands.”
“Ten seconds,” Nance said.
Flashes of laser light shot past them. Some from below, some from above.
“They’re trying to trap me,” Kim said. “But they’ve never been kite racing in the canyons, have they?”
The Echo twirled like a dancer on her tiptoes. Then suddenly Kim hit the hyperdrive button, her engines flared, and she was gone.
Golden light poured in via the external cameras, and for a moment, Ben didn’t breathe. He wasn’t sure whether they had made their jump or they were all dead. He looked at his hands, then looked up at Kim, who had released the safety lock on her pilot’s seat and rotated around to face him.
“I have never, in my whole life, had that much fun,” she declared. “That was amazing!”
“You were amazing,” Ben said.
“You flew like an angel,” Tolliver said.
“An avenging angel,” Nancy added.
“Oh, I like that. I’m the avenging angel,” she said, and they all laughed.
Chapter 40
Because of the distance to the Mersa system, and to be safe after their close call with the Imperium Fleet, they made four jumps on their way to deliver their passengers. The entire trip took four days, and Ben spent a great amount of that time with Tolliver, who confided in him about the Confederacy.
There was a lot to learn. The rebellion was really a loose conglomeration of several small rebellions. There was no central leadership, but a sharing of resources and a general aim to bring down the Royal Imperium.
“Your best bet,” Tolliver said, “is to make as many contacts as possible. That way, you can connect when you need to, based on where you are and what is happening with your ship.”
“You sound like you know what you’re talking about,” Ben said. “Like maybe you used to be involved in this life once upon a time.”
“No, I missed my chance,” Tolliver said. “When the Imperium declared Mersa and old world system, there were a few friends who took to the skies. I decided to stay home, but I’ve always wondered what might have been. Of course, I didn’t have access to a ship like this one.”
“She’s old, but the bones are good,” Ben said.
“They don’t make ships like this anymore. It’s a miracle you found her and had the know-how to put her right again,” Tolliver said.
“Now I just have to keep her in one piece,” he said. “If the Imperium doesn’t blow us to bits, Kim is liable to fly us apart.”
“She’s a real treasure. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such intuitive flying. How did she avoid getting drafted by the Fleet?”
“She tried to get into the Imperium Academy, but on Torrent Four you have to have a sponsor and the application fee is exorbitant.”
“That’s the problem with the Royal Imperium. They’re racists. They don’t believe that good people can come from small worlds, on the outskirts of what they think are the important planets. That’s why the rebellion will succeed one day. The Imperium underestimates them.”
When Ben wasn’t with Tolliver, he was with Kim. Their flirting had turned serious. Ben had been on the cusp of loving her before, when they were young, before his obsession with rebuilding the Echo had come between them. He was starting to fall for her again. It wasn’t just her looks or the way she teased him that made his blood run hot, but also the way she faced every challenge head on with unrelenting confidence. They laughed and joked with the passengers, who were generous to the young crew. They shared their own supplies of fresh produce and taught them new ways to prepare the protein bricks.
Gregory spent hours with Magnum. Both men had a fondness for firearms, and with the new percussion caps Magnum had discovered on Richmond Station, they soon had a generous supply of ammunition laid up.
Lesley and Paul told Kim stories of grand balls where ladies wore beautiful evening gowns and danced the night away. Both had personal stories, some funny, some romantic, and they captivated the entire ship, even Nance, with their tales.
When the ship finally came out of hyperspace on the fourth day, they were just outside the heliosphere of the Mersa system. Ben and Tolliver studied the plot that Nance projected.
“They have a space station in Mersa Prime’s orbital plane,” Tolliver said. “With midsize ships that make cruises out past the first big gas giant.”
“So jumping into the system unseen isn’t likely,” Ben said.
“It’s a risk,” Tolliver said. “It would take weeks to reach our world if you started out that far.”
“You have a better idea?” Ben
asked.
“I think it’s possible that if we come in close to Mersa Prime and stay on the opposite side of the space station, we could go unnoticed.”
“As long as none of the cruisers see us,” Ben said.
“True, but I don’t think they will. See, they expect anyone coming into the system to do so from far outside. They think they’ve got us buttoned up tight. And they rely on the planet’s system of satellites to warn them of anything breaking atmosphere. Plus, the real advantage we have is that your entire ship can slip into the atmosphere where the Imperium Fleet can’t reach you.”
“There aren’t security forces on the ground?” Ben asked.
“No, our people would never allow it,” Tolliver said, sounding surprised.
“So if we can get in, where are we taking you?”
“My group has a hanger where you can set down without being seen,” Tolliver explained. “It’s privately owned. Once we’re there, we can find out what’s been happening in our absence and decide how we can help with your next mission.”
“I appreciate the help,” Ben said.
“If I were ten years younger, I would stow away and go with you,” Tolliver said. “There are so many places I would love to see. But that isn’t my destiny.”
“Do you believe in fate?”
“I believe that our choices present opportunities, and the older we get, the fewer of those options come along. I know I could fly away with you, but I’m needed on Mersa. Few people have the knowledge of our planetary security that I do.”
“So you’re obligated,” Ben said.
“In a way, yes. My morality dictates that I help when I can.”
“You could help us?”
“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,” Tolliver said with a smile. Besides, your crew is full and more members would only be a hardship. You want to keep this crew light and lean. Stay in the air as much as possible. Relish the freedom and avoid trouble as much as possible.”
“Speaking of trouble, when should we move in?” Ben asked.
“There is a shift change at 0200 ship’s time. That would be the perfect opportunity. We can use the cloud cover to avoid being seen. I’ll get on the computer and plot the course down from orbit.”
Kestrel Class Page 20
