Audacity (Warner's World Book 5) (31 page)

“More fighters” announced Phil “Six, no 8…bloody hell make that 16. ETA to their release 3 minutes. They will be coming for us. ETA for their missiles to reach us is now plus 5. Are we going to warp away or do I engage?”

“Let’s wait 1” said Tola. She knew that with their superior missile speeds they could afford that leeway. She didn’t want to waste their missiles, especially as she knew they would have to warp anyway.

“Yes!” exclaimed Phil. “Scratch those battery-launched missiles. Need a decision on the fighters.”

“Don’t fire” said Tola. “Whiskey 8,” she hailed “get a move on. We are warping in 3.” She turned to Neo. Set the warp location for the far side of Chintalis (the outer gas giant in the system). Let me know when it is ready.”

Neo was desperately trying to remember how to enter the warp details. “Sorry I need help” he blurted out. His face was an apology.

Tola was stressed already. This wasn’t helping but she knew Neo was still learning the ropes. She forced herself to take a deep breath in and exhaled forcefully. She leaned over. “Here let me” she said. She had the task done in a few seconds – too fast for Neo to really digest.

The race was on in earnest now. The first three fighters launched were now on full throttle and starting to gain on Whiskey 8. They were obviously ignoring the threat to themselves posed by the Phantoms missiles headed their way.

“Eighteen runners launched at Whiskey 8” announced Phil. Phil could see the intercept analysis on his screen and knew he had to engage these. “Missiles away 2 for 1.”

Tola flashed him a foul look. It was her first instinctive response. Her head cut in and stopped her from chastising Phil. She cut her view back to the holo. Even if she had wanted to engage those other missiles she would not have enough now. She found herself biting her lip and checked herself. Again she reminded herself to breathe. She caught sight of Alice looking at her with real anxiety and forced herself to calm down, even if only a little bit.

“On final approach” hailed Whiskey 8.

“Warping in 1” hailed Tola shipwide. “Alice let Whiskey 7 know we are warping away. Tell them to hold tight. We will come back.”

Alice nodded and got to it.

“We have hits on theirs. Shit two runners still coming” announced Phil. He knew it was too late to launch more of his own missiles and intercept. As Whiskey 8 decelerated the enemy runners closed hard. They were now effectively heading for the Phantom. “Engage Defences” he ordered. The heavy pulse cannons got off several rounds as Whiskey 8 landed in the dock and the hangar doors closed.

The resulting green light on Tola’s display was her signal to go. “Warp in 5, 4, 3…” The light 30mm pulse cannons railed against the enemy missiles. “2, warp” barked Tola.

The Phantom warped away far faster than the enemy missiles closed. Tola sank back in her chair, sweat beading its way down her forehead and neck. She looked around at her fellow staff and noted they were not too far off her state. She wiped away the sweat that had started to run into her eyes. “Bloody hell” she said. “Damage?”

“Not that’s being reported” said Neo.

“Well done Neo. You too Phil, Alice. Bloody hell!” She looked behind her to the Commodore. He was still gripping his arm rest. He gave her a weak smile.

Down in the dock Sgt Amanda Burns was leaning over, with her head in her hands on top of her screen. The interior light was glistening off the sweat running down her ebony neck. She took a breath in and raised her head, pulling off her headset. As she did her tight curly hair bounced back up to reclaim the space above her head.

She could hear a muffled sound. ‘Guillaume’ she said to herself. She turned to her right rear and leaned over and hit the release control for the turret housing. This lowered the housing along with its occupant and then opened the door.

“Oh gee” she said upon taking a whiff. Guillaume had shat himself and the stench was particularly pungent in the confined space. The self-styled ‘Moroccan Kid’ wasn’t so tough looking at the moment as he tried to stop his sobbing and wipe away the tears.

Cpl Guillaume Bentu looked up at her with a mix of embarrassment and helplessness. His eyes pleaded for understanding. Thankfully Amanda took pity on the youngster. “Oh Guillaume” she said in a soft voice. “Don’t worry. It can happen to the best of us.”

Guillaume felt a new emotion rising – gratitude. “Sorry” he muttered.

“You are going to clean this up” said Amanda. It was not a question. Guillaume nodded. Amanda turned right again to see another figure with her head in her hands.

“Maam are you all right” she asked.

Aubrey blew out some air and raised her head a little and nodded. She finally raised it completely up and looked at Amanda “You?”

“Yeah…bit close though wasn’t it” replied Amanda.

“Too close and it shouldn’t have happened. My bad.” Aubrey took a deep breath in and wished she hadn’t.  “Boy that is bad. I got to get out.”

The Service crew opened the hatch from outside and a head poked in “everyone OK?” He wrinkled his nose as he did so.

Aubrey was on her feet now, rifle in hand. “More or less.”

She jumped down onto the deck and slung her webbing over her shoulder. As she made her way back to her cabin she continued to chastise herself. ‘What a fool. Bloody idiot!’ she said to herself. ‘You should be dead.’ These last words kicked off new train of thought. She owed Tola big time. If it wasn’t for her she and the crew of that shuttle would all be dead.

She threw her webbing over the hook on the wall in her cabin and stood her rifle in the cupboard. She was about to change out of her combat fatigues when another thought claimed her focus.

She grabbed her communicator and headed for the command centre. They had been in warp only five minutes but to everyone there it felt much longer. Tola turned in her chair – she was still in the captains seat - as she heard Aubrey’s steps and was about to go into an explanation when Aubrey put her hand on her shoulder. “Thank you. I was a fool and I owe you my life. More on that later though. How many missiles do we have left?”

“Twenty six” said Tola a little self-consciously. She was pleased so far with the way things were going but was afraid this bit of news might change that. There was also part of her that was angry at Aubrey but she would not express that here in front of the others.

“Fair enough. That’s more than I expected but it does mean we can’t afford another engagement. And that is exactly what the enemy will try and bring on. I would. I reckon they will send one maybe both of their frigates from the other side of Cheklin to the far sides of the gas giants. And we’re heading for one of those, right?”

“Yep” admitted Tola.

“Well remember these are fast frigates like us.” Aubrey checked the time. They will have news on the far side of Cheklin now, which means we may only have ten minutes head start. What’s our ETA?”

“1435” advised Neo.

“Right. We need to warp away as soon as we arrive.”

“Can’t we just stay there cloaked” asked Tola.

“They’ll be using their ladar on overtime. I think we’ve taken enough risks don’t you?” Tola knew that the chance of finding them with an active laser sweep behind that big gas giant was not that great but she had to acknowledge that there was a chance they could be detected. So she nodded. “So the question is to where?” asked Aubrey.

“Back here” said Phil.

“No” said Aubrey.

“Are we abandoning them?” asked Alice most concerned.

“No” said Aubrey quite definitely. “I’m not going to make the same mistake twice. We need to come back at night time.”

“So we need to bounce around till then, right?” asked Tola. Aubrey nodded.

“Leave it with me” said Phil and then he added “Neo, come over here and I’ll show you how to do it.”

Chapter 23. Lewista 1305, 15 August

Evie put her communicator down on the table in their apartment, looking quite shocked. “Turn on the news” she instructed the rooms AI. The screen on the wall came to life but there was no mention of anything remotely like what she knew must be happening.

“What is it?” asked Felis.

“The Phantom has just warped away” said Evie. She wasn’t looking at Felis, just staring out through the window. Her mind was elsewhere.

“Why?” asked Madge, a little agitated.

“Enemy fighters…missiles…they were under attack” said Evie.

“What?” asked an incredulous Judy.

Evie turned to face Judy and brought her own presence back to the conversation. “Sorry…OK, they received a report from the Resolute that Mintoslum made the device used in Qwantum. Melnar must be involved and so we can’t trust him.”

“Sorry, I don’t get it” said Judy.

“Well apparently your commander tried to fly down and warn us but was spotted.”

“And?” asked Madge.

“I don’t know what’s happened. All they said was they were warping away.”

“Shit” said Madge.

“Oh and she said they would come back” added Evie.

“When?” asked Madge. Evie shrugged her shoulders.

“They will warp to one of the outer planets” said Felis. Everyone went silence as they tried to consider things. Felis then added “they will come back at night….mmm…” Felis tried to put himself in their position. “It will all depend on their missiles.”

“Why?” asked Evie.

“Cause if they still have enough they can hang around. Otherwise they can’t risk it. Odds are they won’t be able to. Probably come back tonight, recover Whiskey 7 and head back to Chelora.”

“That’s no good” said Evie. She then fell silent. A minute passed. “Damm it” said Evie “after all this.”

Felis had seen Evie annoyed before but not like this. “Let’s assume they have to go back. Then the question is ‘do we’?” He paused to ensure Evie was looking at him. When she looked at him he continued. “Things are turning here already with or without the Phantom. Remember the graffiti?” Evie nodded. “Well I reckon so long as Meelanda can support us we should stay and help. What do you reckon?”

Evie thought for a moment. She had spent two years away from her home worlds and her own kind. She was back now and she did not want to leave them again. She nodded her ascent.

“Well hold on a minute” said Madge “that might be fine with you but as good as this get up is it’s not going to allow us to freely move about here. Our mission was to protect you while you made these contacts and then we’d be out of here. Staying was not part of the mission.” Madge looked to Judy for support.

She got it. Judy gave her a nod and then looked to Felis “Any way we can get back to Alpha 1 tonight?”

Felis glanced at Evie and then back to Judy “We can ask Erkum when he gets back.”

Silence descended again. “Evie” hailed Meelanda.

“Yes.”

“I’m so glad I got through to you. Where are you?”

“The apartment.”

“Good. I’m coming over now. Don’t go out. Wait for me.” Meelanda hung up.

Evie looked at Felis. “Meelanda…she’s coming over. She sounds agitated.”

Felis looked at the screen. “Still no news being broadcast. Maybe she has her own sources.”

“Probably” said Evie. “There must be some shuttle crew that witnessed the missiles and fighters.”

Felis nodded. “I wonder how long it will take.”

“For what?”

“The authorities here putting two and two together and working out that the craft they tried to intercept was probably trying to make contact with someone down here. If it was me, I’d be sending out the goons and rounding up the usual suspects.”

“And you reckon Meelanda is one of those usual suspects?”

Felis gestured with his hands and a shrug as if to say ‘who knows’. “But if she is they will know about this place.” He stood up. “Get your gear everyone. I think we need to go.”

“But Meelanda said to wait.”

“For how long?”

“Didn’t say. Where would we go anyway?”

“You could come back to Whiskey 7 with us” said Madge. “I’m sure we can sort something out after that.” Madge rose and walked down to her room with Judy following.

“Come on Evie” said Felis “It’s not safe here anymore.”

Evie reluctantly stood and followed Felis down the corridor. She heard the door to the apartment and turned around as her hand went to her pocket and withdrew her pistol. She was the only one still in the corridor. She had it levelled as the door was pushed open.

“Oh it’s you Erkum” she said relieved.

“Sorry. I should have rung the bell” said Erkum as he stared down the barrel of Evie’s pistol. He was sweating profusely. “Meelanda’s not here yet?”

“No, not yet.”

Felis came out with his pack over his shoulder.

“You’ve heard?” asked Erkum.

“Heard what” questioned Felis.

“There was some incident, missiles fired. Meelanda thinks your ship has been compromised.”

At that moment Meelanda entered. She shut the door behind her and glanced at her nephew who was still breathing heavily from his exertion. She then noticed the packs. “You know something?” she asked.

“Yes” said Evie “I got a call from the Phantom…” and she filled her in on what had happened.

“This is not good” said Meelanda emphatically. “Not good at all.”

“Are you likely to be on their list?” asked Felis bluntly.

“Maybe” replied Meelanda. Her mind was in overdrive. Everyone watched her thinking. A good minute passed. “I’ve worked too hard for this all to unravel now. We need to act before they do. Erkum signal the consortium, arrange a meeting tonight at the usual place. Warn them not to be at their offices or homes. Do it now.”

Erkum nodded. He sat down at the table and began composing a message to be broadcast to the members of the consortium, the leaders that would become the resistance on Cheklin.

“Are you sure this is wise?” asked Evie.

“I’m not going to let them take me and spend the rest of my days wondering when I’ll be shot. No this is good.” She looked across at Erkum and she nodded. He hit the commit control. Meelanda turned back to Evie “The die is cast. Now let’s get to safety.”

Chapter 24. Rollinium 1330, 15 August