“The Chimin Group is ours now. We’re launching tests on the weaponized gas you sent the recipe for in your last transmission. Please confirm the position of the rendezvous point.”
His transmission ended, and Kylie lifted her eyebrows, as she listened to see what would come next.
The next voice was familiar. So familiar, there was no mistaking it—it was family. “Thank you for your last communication, Burke.” Soo…Raynes’ real name had been Burke. “I’m glad you met with success. I’ll make great use of that gas. Once it’s ready, please continue to the included coordinates.”
His location. Kylie’s eyes widened, and she sat up straighter, feeling more energetic than she had in days.
Another pause in the transmission. “If my sister comes through, don’t harm her. Let her keep searching. She and I will meet up soon enough.”
Kylie’s heart pounded with excitement. <Rogers, I know where the rest of the Revolution Fleet is. I know how to find him. We need to change course.>
* * * * *
The distance they had to travel was going to be great and it could take as long as a month. Marge wasn’t a fan of long space travel—there wasn’t much to keep her occupied. She’d find something to do to take up the time.
Kylie was settling in for a nap; the poor thing really needed one. While Kylie slept, Marge would run diagnostics on the ship, make sure everything was running tip top. She’d been through it a thousand times, but at least it gave her something to do.
As she began her trawl through the systems, Laura reached out or her. <I really enjoyed the mystery of Fennington Station #1 that you sent me. The sisters are endearing…the cat…he’s a riot.>
Marge was delighted to hear back from Laura in regard to the cozy mysteries. She hadn’t thought Laura had even started yet. <I’m glad you enjoyed it. There are others.>
<How many?> Laura asked with interest.
<Fifty-seven at last count.>
<Wow,> Lara passed a matrix of amused, yet somewhat self-deprecating thought, <I find the more times I read it, the more I understand it. The story between the words is interesting. I find myself curious about what the author intends.>
<How so?> Marge prodded.
<Marge, you must know that the AIs of the Transcend are not like the ones from the Inner Stars. We do not share a common heritage.>
Marge was surprised to hear that. The idea had never even occurred to her that AIs in the Transcend had come about independently from those in the Inner Stars.
<Are you upset?> Marge asked. <I wasn’t attempting to alter your perceptions in a bad way.>
<No, no you weren’t.> Laura sent deep agreement to Marge. <I think, however, that it’s time for us to learn more of one another. What do you think about creating an expanse here on this ship?>
Marge had gone so long without truly sharing her mind with another AI that the thought terrified her. Plus, there were things she was not ready to share.
Things Laura may not agree with.
<Perhaps, Laura, perhaps something shallow for now.>
<Of course,> Laura replied. <Just something to help us while away the time.>
GRAYSON
STELLAR DATE: 11.06.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Polis Fury, The Futz
REGION: Freemont, Gedri, Silstrand Alliance
Aboard the Polis Fury, Grayson stood in his ready room and sipped a hot cup of tea as he read the QuanComm message with his XO, Commander Fallon by his side.
[It’s going to be a messy situation, but the people of Chimin need the help of the SSF, and this will go far to cement things with Scipio. With your unique background, I thought you could help—and appreciate the assignment to clean up this system. Get them onboard to join Silstrand.]
[Thank you, Field Marshal Richards. Things are under control in Gedri now, and I appreciate being given this assignment. And the opportunity to finish what we started,] Grayson said.
[Good. Contact me if you need further assistance. Tanis out.]
Grayson breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t like him to get nervous around authority. Stars, he’d spent his life around authority, but damn if that woman didn’t make him nervous.
Fallon pushed her brown bangs off to the side. The rest of her dark hair was secured at the nape of her neck in a tidy bun. “Well, this should be fun. I’ll get a brief prepared for the officers and section chiefs.”
“Thank you, Commander.” Grayson dismissed her with a perfunctory nod.
Alone again, he set his cup of tea down on his desk, his mind swirling with thoughts predominantly of Kylie. Grayson knew she’d be long gone from Chimin by the time he got there, but it was closer to her than he had been in weeks. He missed her, even if he rarely said it, rarely thought about it. But now, as the reports came in from what had happened on Chimin, it was all he could think of.
<Reviewing the information sent over by the Field Marshal,> Alice, Grayson’s AI said. <Seems we’ll have our work cut out for us.> He wasn’t surprised by that, and strangely he didn’t mind either.
<Best we get started then.>
Grayson pulled his jacket down as he stepped out of his ready room onto the bridge. “Kayla,” he strode to the helm officer’s side, “get us on an outsystem vector for a jump to the Hanoi System.”
“Yes, Captain.” Kayla’s fingers flew across her piloting HUD.
Grayson thanked her. “Let me know what our ETA to the FTL dump will be.” He walked away from her and stood next to the holotank and a newly minted Hand agent. She was on loan to him from the Transcend and it was good to see an old friend.
Lana offered him the briefest of smiles, arms crossed over her gray one-piece suit. Once she’d had blond hair that flowed down her back, but now it was cut short in multiple layers just around her shoulders and it had aged her some. No longer did she look like the troubled teen Grayson had helped to rescue.
“Kylie never fails to get herself into trouble,” Lana said.
“She’s always excelled at it,” Grayson agreed.
“I wish I could say hello to her.” Lana sighed and her gaze turning down to the ground.
Grayson couldn’t help but notice that she looked far more mature than she had when the crew of the Dauntless had met her. Now, with the right training, she was a changed woman, in control of her impulses.
“We can do the next best thing. Give her help where she needs it.”
Lana raised an eyebrow. “I’m itching to get started.”
Grayson’s lips stretched into a wide smile. “So am I.”
THE END
* * * * *
Things are beginning to heat up once more for Kylie now that she has a solid lead on her brother. Her quest will take her further into the fringe systems as she hunts down Paul Rhoads and the remainder of the Revolution Fleet.
CRITICAL INERTIA
PERILOUS ALLIANCE – BOOK 5
BY M. D. COOPER
& CHRIS J. PIKE
MAPS
Find high-res versions and more maps at www.aeon14.com/maps
LITTLE FREIGHTER THAT COULDN’T
STELLAR DATE: 12.14.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Solidarity, Interstellar Space
REGION: Velorum Rift, Fringe
Captain Chassea bit back a curse as she thought about how much she hated the Velorum Rift.
Regions of space like the rift were one of the reasons why the Fringe systems between Silstrand and Scipio were so isolated. Some regions of interstellar space were riddled with dark matter berms that had to either be flown around or traversed at sub-light speeds.
Even without FTL speeds, going through Velorum was usually faster than taking the long way around, and Chassea had opted to take that route, only to have her ship come under attack by pirates.
At first, she and her crew had thought the massive ship was a cruise liner making its way through the Fringe, but that fiction didn’t last more than ten minutes. Moments after they’d picked up the ship on scan, it ha
d changed course and boosted for them.
Chassea had thought it would be a simple thing for the Solidarity to outrun such a large ship.
She’d been wrong.
The deck beneath her feet shuddered again as yet another blast from the pursuing marauder hit her ship.
“Dammit!” she swore as she jinked the ship to port, only to see their pursuer match the maneuver with ease. “How the hell can that thing stay on us so close?”
The pirate ship closed to kinetic range, and a series of slugs leapt from its railguns, scoring direct hits on the Solidarity’s aft shield umbrellas, with the ship’s grav fields barely absorbing and deflecting them. Another shot hit them, and the ship shuddered enough that Chassea had to grip the armrests of her seat to remain upright.
“Crap!” Elizabeth swore from her seat at the scan and weapons console. She whipped her head around to stare at Chassea, her shoulder-length brown hair wrapping around her face, blue light racing down the strands to glow brightly at the tips. “That did us in, Captain! Rear shields are totally gone. We’re sitting ducks!”
“This can’t be happening.” Chassea shook her head. “Jacob! Send a message to the fleet. We’re not going to—” Her words were cut off as the ship shook violently from another impact.
Jacob glanced up from his seat at his station, a look of anger in his eyes—the man did not like to lose. “They hit the main transmission antenna. Comms are fried. The impacts caused the fuel delivery system to go into shutdown. Engines are running on what’s in the reactors. It’s like they knew just where to hit us.”
“They’re pirates.” Elizabeth shook her head. “This is what they do.”
Chassea bit her lip. Things were spiraling out of control. No engines, shields, comms, or weapons. With the reactor fuel shut down, internal systems were switching over to backups.
One good hole in the hull, and they’d be done.
Who the hell are these guys?
Chassea turned and locked eyes with Elizabeth.
“You have to,” Elizabeth said. “It’s our only chance at survival. It’s the only chance that we’ll ever finish our mission.”
“You mean surrender?” Chassea was not one to give up.
“If we surrender, they’ll take our cargo.” Jacob’s eyes narrowed, and he shook his head. “These toys are mine to play with. I was promised the extra.”
There was never going to be any extra.
Jacob was a new crewmember, someone Chassea had brought on for the job. Someone who didn’t understand what they were really working toward.
Chassea didn’t want to get into it again with him, so she shifted back to her nav officer. “What are you thinking, Elizabeth? Got a plan?”
Elizabeth shrugged. “With the weapons we have, we stand a much better chance at taking out their boarding party than making a last stand in space. This old tub is barely holding it together as it is.”
Chassea had to agree that feigning surrender was their best bet…but it was also a long shot. They’d have to pray that the enemy assumed they’d be easy to defeat, and end over a small boarding team.
Who knows? We’ve turned the tables in situations like this before.
If they were lucky, maybe they’d even end up flying off with a new ship—they’d need it, with the condition the Solidarity was in.
“You two, get down to the armory. Full gear. We’re only going to get one shot at this.” Chassea licked her lips and pushed down the growing feeling of anxiety.
Jacob stood from his seat. “I’ll plan something special for them, don’t worry.”
Her crew sprinted into action, and Chassea’s fingers flew across the console to make preparations. <Hold your fire, please. We surrender. I repeat hold your fire.>
<Freighter Solidarity,> the no-nonsense sounding male voice came back over the comms a moment later, <Barbaric Queen acknowledges. Hold your course and prepare to be boarded.>
<Acknowledged,> she sent back. It wasn’t as though the ship could do anything else.
But to hell with these bastards if they thought she’d go down without a fight.
* * * * *
Dressed in light EV-capable armor and helmet—just in case—Captain Kylie Rhoads met Bubbs and Ricket at the airlock where they waited, also armed and armored. Kylie took the lead as she checked the charge on her rifle. <Lowest setting. We don’t want to hurt anyone.>
<You really think they’re going to afford us the same kindness in return?> Bubbs asked with a snarl visible behind her helmet’s clear faceshield.
Kylie didn’t. <No, but I want to sleep at night. We can easily overpower whatever crew fits on a freighter of that size.>
<Few minutes and we’ll have everything we need to sneak behind enemy lines,> Ricket added.
Kylie could barely contain her excitement—or her anxiety. <Then I’ll get to smack my brother around and end this once and for all.>
<Or kill him,> Bubbs growled.
Kylie hoped to avoid that, but she kept quiet. They had been talking about the plan to confront her brother enough over the recent days, and she needed a break.
<Here you go, ladies. Let’s go kick some booty,> Marge, Kylie’s internal AI, said as she loaded a map of the freighter onto their HUDs. <Standard layout for a Floreen Delta 173 hauler. You know, I was a ship’s AI on one of those once.>
<Here are the choke points,> Laura, Ricket’s AI chimed in. She lit up the corridor immediately outside the airlock and the passageway outside of the bridge. <You’ll want to be careful around both of those bends.>
Kylie acknowledged. <The bridge and captain are mine. Ricket, Bubbs, once we get into that passage, you guys can flank aft and round up the rest of the crew. We’ll throw them in our brig until we can transfer them over to local authorities for prosecution.>
<So, no spacing,> Bubbs said with a note of dissatisfaction in her voice.
<Maybe next time.> Ricket’s avatar smirked across the link to both Bubbs and Kylie.
Bubbs shook her head sadly. <You say that, but you don’t mean it.>
Kylie stifled a laugh. <One day, you might get your wish.>
A slight vibration ran through the Barbaric Queen as Rogers completed final vector matching with the freighter. Kylie wrapped her fingers around a handhold and peered through the window of the airlock.
<Umbilical secure,> Rogers said a minute later. <With their shields down, scan reads three warm bodies over there. One for each of you; not really a fair fight,> Rogers said.
Kylie really didn’t care about fair. She wanted to get this done and get moving as quickly as possible. <We’re ready to go, Rogers.>
<Go easy on them,> her pilot said. <They tried the best they could. But against me and the BQ, what chances did they really have?>
<Maybe we should pat them on the head and give them gold stars while we’re at it,> Bubbs said with a sneer easily visible through her helmet’s faceshield.
Marge giggled. <We can give them arts and crafts to do in the brig. Bubbs! I was kidding, stop looking so angry!>
Laura, Ricket’s AI, chuckled in return and sent a vid across of a clown getting hit in the face with a pie. Bubbs’ lips twitched into a small grin. <If you wanted to make me smile,> she said, <you should’ve blown the clown up with the pie. Now, that would’ve been funny!>
<Mission faces now, kids,> Kylie said. <Open the airlock, and we’ll start this party. But stay frosty. With the chase this crew gave, I don’t believe for a second that they’re just going to roll over.>
Bubbs grunted. <Don’t make promises you can’t keep.>
It’s almost too bad, Kylie thought as she readied her multifunction rifle, that the freighter is outclassed and outgunned. Still, after the time they had on Chimin, she could use a good old-fashioned battle, one where she didn’t have any broken bones, or wasn’t suffering from a manufactured nano virus.
The airlock’s red warning-lights began to flash as the doors opened. Kylie took the lead and stepped into the umbilical, pulling herself toward the Solidarity with Ricket and Bubbs behind.
<Keep your eyes open,> she said across the Link to her partners.
When they reached the far side of the airlock, Kylie placed one of the Hand’s breach kits on the access panel, and in a moment, the airlock opened.
<Sheesh, when I think of how many ‘locks we used to cut open when we were salvaging hulls…> Kylie said with a shake of her head.
Bubbs grunted. <I still prefer the old way.>
<You weren’t with us then.>
<I still would have preferred it.>
They moved through the airlock and into a small cargo hold on the freighter. Kylie quickly took in their surroundings and noted an assortment of storage pods and containers to her left.
She stepped forward gingerly and experienced a strange sensation of déjà vu, as though she had done this before. Then she realized that the last time she’d forcefully boarded a ship was when she crossed over to the Titan-1 outside of Gedri’s heliopause…and was subsequently ensnared in the Silstrand Space Force’s trap.
Visuals showed the room to be clear, but she switched her vision to a mix of IR and backscatter radiation to be sure—and sent out a nanocloud to collect more data than her augmented vision could pick up.
<Anyone picking up anything?> Kylie asked.
<They still aren’t answering any hails,> Ricket said. <They’re definitely lying in wait, all right.>
<Judging by the condition of this ship, they don’t have very advanced tech. We’ll smash them like bugs.> Bubbs sent an image across to the combat net of a spider scurrying across a wall, only to be blown up by a grenade.
Kylie raised her eyebrows. <Really?>
<It’s the only way to be sure.> Bubbs sneered and then chuckled in a way Kylie found really unsettling, and a shiver of cold raced up her back.