The usual.
Regardless of whether or not some mercs were running around liberating systems, Kershaw would still be king of the heap in Morres, and Rajiz looked forward to paying him off. Then he could finally fix those annoying issues on the Talon and get his girl in tip-top condition.
Maybe he could finally find courier commissions that would get him out of Old Genevia, and he could leave this mess behind. Find greener pastures in Septhia, or perhaps even the ASN Coalition.
“I’m going for a walk,” he said, rising from his chair. “Let me know when you’re going to alter course.”
“You got it, Boss.” Avi nodded without turning, and Rachella didn’t even give that much of an acknowledgment.
A tour of the ship—which took him past the galley were Betty had challenged Jim and Jerry to a drinking contest, and then past the engineering bay where Gero floated immersed in a VR field, his arms flapping awkwardly—did little to quell Rajiz’s angst, and before long, he found himself back on the bridge shortly after Avi had brought the ship onto their outsystem vector.
“I did what I could, you know,” he said to Rachella, walking around her console to stand before the woman. “I fought. I fought for ten years in the war, and four afterward. I lost—” his voice cut out.
“Everyone,” Rachella said quietly. “I know…I did too. Stars, everyone lost pretty much everyone. We’re all still putting it together again after that shitshow of a war.”
“Fuuuuck.” Rajiz leant back against the bulkhead.
“You got new people, Boss,” Avi said. “We all lost, too. You know that. Now we have a new family.”
“I know,” he replied, drawing in a slow breath. “Still miss the old one—though it hurts less, having you dorks around.”
“Wow, can you feel the—shit, now what?”
Rajiz folded his arms across his chest, fingers drumming on a forearm as he waited for Avi to elaborate.
“Niets changed their minds,” she said after a minute. “They’re denying our slingshot passage around Jujell and are ordering us back onto our prior vector.”
Rachella’s eyebrows lifted as she regarded him, but the PLI woman didn’t speak, only watched intently as he pushed himself away from the bulkhead and ran a hand through his hair.
“Send them an acknowledgment, Avi. Tell them we’re plotting a burn to get us on the other vector without pissing away a ton of fuel.”
“Will do. I assume we’re just buying time?”
“Yeah, as much as we can before they send someone after us.”
“Do you think they will?” Rachella asked.
Rajiz brought up a holodisplay showing one AU of space around the ViperTalon. Chad and its smattering of space stations were near the bottom of the holo, and a few dozen freighters were dotted throughout the area. Other than a few cruisers in low orbit around Chad, the only other Nietzschean ships in the area were a pair of small patrol boats, both roughly the same size as the Talon, though more heavily armed.
One was seven light minutes away, but the other’s patrol route had brought it much closer than expected, only three light minutes distant. They were Kalier Class ships, which theoretically could catch up to the Talon, but only if they burned antimatter to do it.
“You look worried,” Rachella said. “I thought that none of the Niet ships could catch the ViperTalon.”
“That’s not exactly what I said. I didn’t think they’d be in range to do it.” He pointed at the closer of the two patrol craft. “That one could, if they really pour it on. Normally I’d wager against them bothering, they’d just have a ship in the outer system intercept us, but with the attack on Genevia, they might be feeling twitchy.”
“Great,” Avi muttered. “Twitchy Niets, my favorite.”
Rajiz flagged the jump point on the holo. “We just have to make it here. That’s twenty-eight light minutes as the photon flies.” He glanced at Avi. “The second that Nietzschean jalopy shifts vector toward us, you spin out the AP drive and go max burn. I don’t care how suspicious it’s gonna look, I don’t want them getting close.”
“So, depending on if and when they do that, we’re about eleven hours to jump,” Rachella said.
“ ‘Bout that.” Rajiz nodded. “Time for the best part of spaceflight. Waiting.”
* * * * *
“T-minus fifteen!” Avi called out. “Those bastards are closing, though.”
<Gero!> Rajiz called down to engineering. <Get that spare antimatter you keep tucked away and load it up. We need another burn from the AP drive!>
<Spare what, Boss? I—>
<If you give me any shit, I’m going to dump you in the reactor. Load it up!>
There was a momentary pause, then the engineer responded. <Right, on it.>
“Wow, those Niets are getting really mad.” Rachella was monitoring comms while Avi focused on jinking the ship to avoid incoming beamfire. “I bet there’s foam and spittle flying everywhere.”
“Niets tend to be more calm and cocksure, in my experience,” Rajiz responded absently, keeping his focus on the jump point. “You’re sure this route is good?”
“I’m on the ship, aren’t I?” Rachella asked. “If I wasn’t sure, I wouldn’t be here, praying that we make it there before that ship back there carves a hole in our engines.”
“They’re good,” Avi said. “I’ll give them that. It’s like they have our patterns.”
“Just keep changing it up.” Rajiz gave her an encouraging smile. “You’re doing great.”
“I’m not doing great,” Avi muttered. “They’ve tagged our port engine cowling twice. One more, and they’ll burn through and hit the bell."
“I’ve got a weird reading.” Rachella highlighted a burst of static that was growing in intensity on a high band. “It’s like another ship is out there. Niets don’t have stealthed ships in Burroughs, though….do they?” She turned in her seat to look at Rajiz, and he pursed his lips.
“No. No they don’t. That’s an RM.”
“Faaaaaawwwk!” Avi moaned. “We’re still ten minutes from the point.”
“The minute that missile is one light second out, you jink onto our final vector and dump to the dark layer,” Rajiz ordered his first mate.
“What?! We’ll still be at least three light seconds from dumping!”
Rajiz nodded. “Sure, but they always have some wiggle room on jump points.”
“Yeah, sure, wiggle room on official ones. These shady-ass smuggler markers aren’t on the official charts for a reason—no one wants to meet the long night in the DL!”
Rachella gestured to the marker showing the estimated position of the relativistic missile. “Yeah, well, we can either be sure about dying from that thing, or take a chance on the DL.”
“Or we stop and surrender,” Rajiz muttered, catching dark looks from the two women. “What? I had to say it.”
“You know that at this point, the Niets will probably just let the RM do its job no matter what,” Avi said.
“No,” Rachella shook her head. “If they’re willing to spend one of those on us, they’ll want intel if we surrender. So…chalk that up as the worst possible outcome.”
The ship lurched as she spoke, and Rajiz felt himself pressed back into his seat for a moment as the a-grav systems compensated for increased thrust.
<OK, Boss, you owe me. That was my private stash.>
<You don’t have a private stash, Gero,> the captain replied. <You siphoned off a bit of my official stash.>
<How is it a stash if it’s official?>
Rajiz groaned. <Shut up, Gero. Just keep it humming, we’re almost there.>
“I wonder if anyone’s ever made an RM that works in the dark layer,” Rachella mused. “That would be really useful at times like this.”
“Core, woman!” Avi grunted. “Don’t say things like that. Going to give me waking nightmares or something.”
“Too hard to control entry vector,” Rajiz said calmly. “It would overshoot it
s target, and then take forever to slow down with a-grav…as much as that works in the DL.”
“Yeah,” Avi sounded like she was grasping for serenity. “They’ll probably bring it back around for recovery, if they don’t get to….”
“Blow us to bits?” Rachella asked.
“Fuck!” Avi swore. “Seriously, woman, do you want me to have a panic attack and crash the ship?”
“Crash it into what?” Rachella gestured at the holo. “Other than the Niets and their missile, there’s nothing out here.”
Avi shot the PLI woman a dark look. “I’ll find something.”
“We’re picking up speed,” Rajiz turned the conversation to a new topic. “Looks like we’ll reach the point in seven minutes now.”
“Yeah, well, I think they figured out our intended vector,” Rachella said. “Look at the RM’s jink pattern. It’s stabilized, like they’re focusing in.”
Rajiz looked at the missile’s most recent jinks and saw that, while it appeared to be matching the ship’s vector, it was doing so from within a narrow cone, one that was centered on the jump point.
“Think they know about it?” he asked. “Or did we give it away?”
“We’ve never vectored in alignment with the marker,” Avi said. “I’m not stupid.”
“Yeah,” Rachella agreed. “But you almost drew a circle around it with your jinking. They’ve got a good NSAI in that missile to pick up on it.”
“Faaaaawk,” Avi moaned again. “I did do that, shit. I practically drew a bullseye around the jump point.”
The RM was tailing the ViperTalon by only three light seconds, and the ship was still several more from transition.
“Stay a quarter-degree off target,” he said. “No more jinking. Then, when it gets to the one-second threshold, get on vector and dump.”
“What about the patrol boat?” Avi asked.
“We pulled ahead with the AP burn. Their beams are only gonna tickle at this distance. Keep us spinning a touch, but nothing more.”
Avi nodded and brought the ship onto a vector that was very nearly aligned with the jump point.
A tense minute passed on the bridge, all eyes on the scan data that gave the RM’s position. It was as though the weapon was clawing its way through space, hungry and ready to devour its prey.
“You know,” Rajiz said as the missile closed to within one-and-a-half light seconds. “This is not the first time this has happened to me, and it still sucks. I—”
An EM flare lit up on scan, and the Talon’s aft shields weakened, hammered by radiation from the explosion.
“They blew it so far away,” Rachella muttered. “Why—”
“Avi! Get on course, dump now!”
“Aye!” the first mate called out, while Rachella turned and frowned at Rajiz.
“Why? They blew their load.”
“The patrol boat,” he stabbed a finger toward the craft. “Our shields are weak, it can punch through.”
His words were emphasized by the deck bucking beneath their feet as the ship lurched, slewing to the side.
Then scan went dark.
SALVAGE
STELLAR DATE: 06.04.8950 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: GMS Pinnacle, Babylon
REGION: Genevia System, New Genevian Alliance
<Second one is secure,> Bondo called up. <Gonna take us a bit to get it mounted in place, though.>
<I’ve analyzed the feeds from nearby stations,> Piper chimed in. <I can say with near-absolute certainty that the third stasis field generator is lost.>
Rika considered the news, chewing on her lip as she watched Chief Ona and Heather coordinate with a salvage team from Hanging Gardens Station.
<I suppose that’s the best we can hope for, then. Getting two intact is more than I’d dreamt.>
<Not enough to make a full bubble around a ship this size, though,> Bondo said. <We’re going to have to be careful.>
Piper made a hmmming sound for a few seconds. <I’m not entirely certain about that.>
<Oh? You think you’ve figured out ISF stasis tech?> Bondo’s tone contained a mixture of doubt and surprise.
<I may have offered some pointers,> Niki said in a smug voice. <Honestly, I think it’s kinda simple.>
Bondo coughed. <Negating the casimir effect at picoscale is simple?>
<Well, once you know it can be done, then you can start to dig a bit deeper into the how. The waveform the ISF system creates—along with its power requirements—rule out some theories and support others.>
<Speaking of power options,> Rika said. <What about the CriEns? Have any been salvageable?>
<I have six that look decent,> the chief engineer said. <I’m going to have to do a full diagnostic and then test them on a static load and make sure they behave. Luckily, Orion gave the Niets zero point energy tech to power this behemoth.>
<Speaking of which…> Worry had filtered into Niki’s voice. <I don’t think this ship can successfully manage a dark layer transition. Not the way the graviton emitters are set up.>
Rika ran a hand through her hair, jaw set, as she paced across the Marauders’ Lance’s bridge. <That’s pretty freakin’ annoying. How did the Niets expect to fly this thing around?>
<I think they planned to only use gates. Or maybe they were still working out how to jump a ship this big. Everyone thought six klicks was the limit until the Intrepid jumped out at Bollam’s World, but now they know that’s not true.>
<Funny that Orion never told them how,> Piper said. <I bet they know how to take larger ships through the DL.>
Bondo snorted. <I bet they were trying to keep a lid on the Niets. Garza controlled the jump gates here, and if the Niets couldn’t take DMG ships into the dark layer, then they were dependent on Orion to move their fleets.>
<Good thing we had Carson’s engineers on hand,> Bondo added. <Now we have twenty-three gates of our own, and mirrors on half our ships. The Marauders’ teeth just got a bit sharper.>
The conversation shifted to the timeline for the final collection of salvage—the oversight of which Rika planned to turn over to the pair of destroyers that would arrive in a few hours. She needed to get back to Belgium and organize the fleets that would head to Burroughs, Oran, and Morres.
Plus, she had to rescue Tremon from the snares of office. Though he was probably more capable than she at the civilian aspects of leadership, she knew that he didn’t want to have the responsibility, and foisting it on him levied a feeling of guilt on her already-burdened conscience.
<He doesn’t mind as much as he puts on,> Niki commented.
<You’re not supposed to do that.>
<I’m tired of pretending I can’t read your mind. It’s exhausting.>
Rika let out a nervous laugh, earning her a look from Heather that she waved off. <We’ve reached that stage, have we?>
<Yeah, though I have no idea if we’re going to merge or not. Tanis and Angela had help from Bob and Earnest…plus the third quantum brain they constructed in their head. We don’t have that, but our interconnectivity is creating…something.>
The statement caused a nervous flutter in Rika’s stomach. <Something? Like what?>
<I don’t really know…I think it’s transdimensional.>
<Great, just what I need right now, worry about ascending while we’re trying to put Genevia back together.>
<Well, just don’t get stuck in dire straits like Tanis and Angela did, and we should be able to control things better.>
<Right,> Rika snorted. <Because we neeeeever get stuck up shit creek without a paddle.>
<Good point. That’s sort of been our entire existence together, hasn’t it?>
<Yup.>
Neither spoke for a moment, and Rika distracted herself with listening to Heather berate one of the tug pilots from Hanging Garden for nea
rly sending a section of the Lance that they believed to contain an armory down into Babylon’s depths.
Garth was laughing as he listened to the exchange, but at a stern look from the captain, he turned back to his console, appearing to focus, though his shoulders were still lifting sporadically.
<Rika?> The word came from Piper. <What do we do with the black hole in the ship?>
<Shit. How did I forget about that thing?>
It was Niki’s turn to snort. <Seriously? It’s all I’ve been thinking about.>
<Me too,> Piper added. <Well, not ‘all’, but you get the picture. I’m not especially keen on being on a ship that’s flying around with a black hole in it.>
<Did we figure out how they made it so fast?> Rika asked.
<We did.> Piper’s tone was devoid of emotion. <They used graviton emitters to collapse a supply of uranium into neutronium, and then hammered that down into a black hole. From there, they fed it gas from the planet to get it up to the mass they needed.>
<So we could dump it and then remake one if needed,> she replied.
<Well, sort of.> A note of uncertainty had entered Piper’s voice. <There’s not really a convenient way to just ‘dump’ a black hole of this mass, but it’s also a pain to haul around.>
Rika considered a few options. <Could we kick it into the dark layer?>
<Sure, if you want to alter the orbits of every planet in this system,> Piper chided. <We either have to bleed it off, carry it around, or dump it out in interstellar space somewhere.>
<Which carries its own risks,> Niki added.
<You totally sure you don’t want to get chummy with a black hole again?> Rika asked Piper.
<I’m really not. ‘Not keen’ was a nice way of saying ‘fuck no’.>
<I guess that’s that,> Niki said. <You know that what happened at Epsilon wasn’t really your fault, right?>
<I enabled it all. I was blinded by ambition, and brought about my own death.>
It was the first time that Piper had spoken about the events at Epsilon—where he’d lost the other segments of his multinodal mind—as a death.
<You still have the data backups, right?>