Living in Freefall (Living on the Run Book 1) (12 page)

Though Joshua’s help as a tactician would certainly help the
adults; at present, something else was of greater concern to him. After the new
arrivals had been settled he excused himself.

He found Rachel, dressed in one of Jordon’s lightweight, energy
spacesuit, sitting on the platform extending out from
Freefall
’s stern.
All around her lay parts of every size and shape from a now completely
dismantled Talon. The second interceptor floated in tow just overhead.

She sighed. “Well, I’ve looked every part over and tested it
with this device or that, but nothing in my search reveals anything unusual.”

Josh furrowed his brow. “Nothing?”

She glanced back at him. “This schematic of the Talon shows
nothing. I’ve looked for some variation or combination that would make either
of the two ships traceable, but I haven’t found anything. I even considered
that somehow the two ships might be two halves of a whole—that together, they
might somehow form a traceable thing. But nothing has proven fruitful.”

Josh stepped closer to the schematic holograph that hovered
nearby and studied it before speaking. “I came out here to help you with this
puzzle, Rachel. I know how focused you can be once your mind is set. You’ll
forget to eat if someone doesn’t remind you.”

Rachel laid back on the platform and sighed.

“Exasperated?”

She stared, more or less, into the heavens but said nothing.

Josh knelt beside her. “Your father says we
are
being
tracked somehow; of that there is no doubt. Maybe we’ve overlooked something
simple.”

“I can’t find any way to trace anything about these two
ships.” She leaned up on an elbow and looked at him sternly. “No material, no
mechanism, no device, no combination of anything on either ship, nor anything
combining both ships . . . but Jordon says the enemy fleet is coming
straight toward us?” Race sat back up but dropped her head, disgusted with
herself. “I just don’t see how these ships are being traced at all.”

Joshua messaged the older girl’s back some. “Good job,
Rachel.”

Prickling, Rachel glared at him and snapped in anger. “Don’t
make fun of me.”

“I wouldn’t make fun of you, my friend.” Josh smiled. “Do
you remember when Edison tried to invent the incandescent light bulb?”

“Yeah. Talk about longsuffering.”

“What do you mean, longsuffering, Rachel?”

“Well, he tried over a thousand different things before he
stumbled upon carbon fiber. The guy had to be maddened by so many failures.”

“Well,” Josh said, “when asked about failing a thousand
times, what did he say?”

She shrugged. “He said he didn’t fail. He successfully found
a thousand ways the light bulb wouldn’t work. Yeah, I remember that. So?”

“You haven’t failed to find the tracking device on these
ships. You’ve . . . What?”

Rachel’s eyes lit up. “I’ve proven that it isn’t the ships
they’re actually tracking.” She jumped to her feet and hurried toward the door
more determined than ever. But before she entered the ship, she turned back to
Josh and motioned toward the ramp. “Clean this mess up, will you?” Then she
disappeared through the portal. Rachel was an engineering genius to be sure,
but nevertheless, she was just seventeen-years-old. Her tact was in short
supply. Josh sighed. He knew the only thing that would temper that fault in her
would be time.

He looked at the cluttered mess of countless Talon parts
strewn all over. “
Freefall
, reconstruct this mess back into a Talon,
please.” Josh turned to head back into the ship then corrected himself. “Belay
that,
Freefall
. Rachel will have need of these ships disassembled. Just
organize the parts for her, please.”

“Aye, sir.”
Freefall
used its tractor projectors to
comply with Joshua’s order. The invisible tractor beams gathered one part after
the next to organize the pieces in a way that made sense.

Before he headed inside, Joshua watched
Freefall’s
work in progress, and marveled. Men had built robots that could perform a
specific task. Some had managed to devise robotic brains to do multiple things
all at once. But Jordon Kori had done what no other had even come close to
doing. Contained inside a small black cube, he had created an artificial brain
that could do whatever task assigned it: from the mundane to the complex. It
was loyal and intuitive, and made life aboard
Freefall
very comfortable,
and Josh felt spoiled.

After a lengthy moment he went back into the ship and found
Rachel in a side room rummaging through a cabinet.

“What are you looking for?” he said.

In her quest for a certain device, Rachel hadn’t noticed
Josh enter the room.

“There you are,” she whispered, pulling a metal box from a
drawer. She turned, ran headlong into Josh, and jumped with a start. “Don’t
sneak up on me, like that.”

“I didn’t snea—”

Rachel pushed past him mid-word.

Josh had seen her like this before.

When she was focused this keenly, it was nearly impossible
to talk to her. He resigned himself to follow and observe. Watching her piece
things together was fascinating. Her laser-like focus tended to make those
around her feel as if they were no more than furniture or wallpaper. That may
very well have been the case. To Rachel if you weren’t here to help her then
you were just in the way. In the cargo bay, she went to a computer junction in
one wall and inserted the box into a square-
ish
slot.

Josh took a chance and spoke. “What is that?”

She glanced back at him. “It’s a scanner-recorder. I made it
before this last assignment.”

The computer interrupted, “Ready. I await your orders,
ma’am.”

“Scan interior of
Freefall
cargo bay to bedroom A-4,
inclusive please. Compare with this recording and list changes.”

The indicator light blinked for a brief moment before the computer
spoke again. “Completed.”

“Print hard copy of list, please.” The computer spit out a
card, and Rachel studied it. From the computer’s slot she pulled out the
Scanner-recorder and inserted the card into it to study its small screen
remotely while she retraced the Confederate inspectors’ steps.

Josh peered around the seventeen-year-old’s shoulder. “Why
did you make a scanner recorder?”

“I was inspired; these things just come to me, and I have to
make them. At the time I thought it was a silly device, but I used it anyway.”

Understanding a scanner could peer through walls Josh was
leery. “You used it? How so?”

“I walked through the ship and recorded everything I could.”

“You scanned
everything
?”

She gritted her teeth and diverted her gaze. “Uh huh.”

Josh set his jaw and studied her face. “So you know what’s
hidden in my room?”

“Sorry, Josh,” she whispered. “I saw.”

Josh scowled and turned away. “You know a guy has a right to
privacy don’t you?”

“I know, I know. Look, it’ll be our secret, okay?”

Josh turned back to her with a scowl. “Look, you. On your
birthday you’d better act surprised or no more tools for you. All you’ll get
from me from then on are poodle skirts and frilly blouses.”

Rachel flinched. “Oow. My bad. I wasn’t thinking, okay?”

Josh chuckled.

Rachel looked up from the scanner to meet his friendly grin.
“I must say, Josh, your gift-stash is pretty impressive. How’d you get all that
loot aboard
Freefall
without anyone seeing?”

Josh ignored her question and tapped the device’s screen.
“So what did your scan tell you?”

“Not going to say, huh?”

His grin vanished. “Your scan? What did it tell you?”

“Right.” She showed Josh the screen. “I just compared the
previous with the scan
Freefall
just took. There is no meaningful
difference inside the ship.”

“Meaning what?”

As she scratched the back of her neck, she shrugged. “How
are they tracking us? That is the question.”

Josh shook his head. “No, that’s not the question.”

Rachel furrowed her brow and studied the younger boy’s face.
“Then what
is
the question?”

Josh laid a supportive hand on her shoulder and leaned close
as if to whisper a profound secret. “The question isn’t ‘how are they doing it,
but how would you do it?”

Race hesitated. “Well, I wouldn’t plant a tracking device
inside the ship. That would make its signal too easy to smother. That’s why I
thought it would be out there in or on one of those Talons.”

“Out there?” Josh emphasized. “You would make certain the
tracking device was outside the ship?”

Realization raised her brows. “Yeah, that’s it. Outside the
ship!” Beaming, Rachel clapped Joshua’s shoulder appreciatively.

Josh tabbed his collar-com. “Mrs. Kori?”

“Yes?”

“Mrs. Kori, Race and I are about to step outside the ship
for a bit. Don’t go anywhere, okay.”

“Understood, honey. Let me know when you’re back inside.”

“Sure thing, Mrs. Kori. Josh out.”

Wide-eyed, Rachel stared at Josh.

“What?” he said, perplexed by her raised brows.

“You actually called me Race.”

“I’ve wanted too for the longest time, but you always stop
me.”

“I do?”

“My name isn’t chisel. Got that?”

“Oh.” Rachel thought about it, but it took a moment for the light
to come on. “Ohh! Sorry.” Interpersonal relationships weren’t her strong suit.

Josh opened the supply locker and pulled out visors, cryoid
lights, and a jet belt for each of them. As he handed Rachel hers he said, “I
think I understand you better. Before, I thought . . .”

“You thought what?”

“Well, you tend to treat people as objects in your way.”

Rachel paused for a moment. “I guess I’ve been pretty
self-serving, huh?”

“I wouldn’t say self-serving. You’re focused, certainly. But
you’ve always been self-reliant. And that has its drawbacks.”

“You’re right. Until now, I’ve never needed anyone else’s
help but my own. This thing, this tracking device thing, though. Well, I liked
working with you, Josh. You’re okay.”

Rachel put her blued visor on and looked around the room.
“Hey, look at this.” She drew her right foot back, and with her hands on her
hips, took a superhero stance. “Huh? Super hero. Right?”

“Cute. You made these visors, didn’t you?”

“Sure did. I wanted them to look like a sharp pair of sporty
sunglasses, designed to be stylish as well as functional. But in this case, I
think the superhero look,
completely a happy accident
, will be a
classic.”

Josh chuckled at her clowning. He cinched the jet belt
around her waist and then clipped the light onto the belt. “
Freefall
,
we’re going to step outside for a walk. Raise the cargo bay door, please."

Race looked up as if
Freefall
were above them.
“Buddy, don’t you move while we’re out there. Understand.”

“Affirmative,”
Freefall
responded.

Rachel jetted from the ship, did a flip, and then came back
to
Freefall
’s hull. When she shined the cryoid light on the ship, the
visor cloaked all but foreign substances on its surface. The tracker would glow
if and when it was found.

Josh jetted casually from the cargo bay. “
Freefall
,
close the bay door please.” As it closed, he and Race began their search.

Josh glanced at Rachel and chuckled at her appearance. “Miss
Kori, all you’re missing is the cape.”

“Give me time, big guy. I’m learning to sew.”

Rachel nosed closer to the ship’s hull. “Josh, I believe
they had to tag us in this area.”

“Be careful of where you place your hands. We don’t want to
stop its signal prematurely.”

Jordon leaned back in his chair, and rubbed his chin as he looked
around the table to study each captain in turn. To calm himself around these
men, he pretended to be a ship’s captain. Still, their company didn’t make his
pretense easy. “Do you folks have any issues with this schematic or our plans?”

Captain Muncy pointed toward the hologram’s perimeter, to a
place in the asteroid ring across from where they were. “You know that hidden
amongst these rocks is Rhone, don’t you?”

Rhone, a hollow asteroid, with its heavy lead and iron
composition, made it possible for an entire community to hide inside it. Not
only was it the rebel’s base of operations, it was their home. Despite its
size, the Confederation had no idea it even existed, so well were its secrets
kept.

Jordon swiveled in his chair to face Muncy. “The asteroid
city? I know the hollow asteroid is your hiding place. We’ll protect it at all
costs, I assure you.”

Captain Wolford tapped the table with a stiff forefinger.
“With or without your assurances, Jordon Kori, inside our home, we’re virtually
invisible to Confederation forces. I don’t want to lose that to them. Is there
no other place we can wage this war?”

“War?” Jordon shot a confused look at his uncle.

Buck stood and stepped around the table, more or less to
stretch his legs. “I know this . . .” (he glanced at Jordon) “
battle
. . . is a huge gamble. To lead this Confederation fleet here, to us,
puts our home base at risk, but what would you have us do, Capt. Muncy? If
Rhone was discovered, we would have to give it up forever—but, here, in this
asteroid field, we’ll have the benefit of position. Jordon is right in saying
that our greatest advantage over the Confederate ships is here. They’re large and
cumbersome and difficult to maneuver in amongst these asteroids; something
second nature to us. Our ships are smaller and by using the asteroids as cover,
if we can get them to enter, we’ll be free to pound them at will.”

Captain Rauland leaned forward to rest his elbows on the
table. “Well, I like it. More than likely, they’ll have to keep the carrier out
of the asteroid field for safety’s sake. This will split the flotilla in two.
Half will have to remain with it while the others hunt for us.”

Buck glanced at his old friend and half nodded. “Once the
ships that have entered the asteroid field have been dealt with, we’ll need to
lure the others away from the carrier, leaving it vulnerable to us. That’ll be
difficult. Hell, it may not happen at all.”

Wolford
hmph
ed. “With our numbers less than half
theirs we better split their fleet. But let’s be prudent. They do have a
carrier. This means they’ll have a hundred and twenty Talons in the mix. Those
little snipes are an issue we’ll need to contend with.”

“As for the Talons,” Jordon said, “we’ll construct an
energized box trap inside the asteroids and bate it. When they fly in, we’ll
spring the trap.”

“A box trap?” Wolford said.

“I’m thinking a Zero-point energy web tying asteroids
together. Once activated, the asteroids will close in on them and make them
prisoners without our having to fire a single shot.”

“Does such a device exist?” Wolford asked.

“Only in a boy’s imaginings,” Jordon said glancing at Nate
still perched quietly in a corner, “but it will.”

Nate smiled. Jordon did too.

Buck folded his arms and glanced at the others before
focusing on Captain Wolford. “And if that trap fails us, Isaac Katusia is
working on another solution. He says we’ll be ready for them, and I trust the
old man means business.”

“Isaac Katusia?” Jordon asked.

Buck looked at Jordon. “Isaac Katusia. He’s a bit of an
inventor himself. You’ll meet him soon enough and I think you two should work
together.”

“You have me intrigued,” Jordon said.

Buck subtly glanced at the ship’s chronometer. The hours
plodded along—lunch came and went—and he grew weary as the captains hammered
out every pertinent detail. But in time, each captain had his say and had his
concerns met.

Still, every one of these men knew that no plan was
foolproof. Buck looked over the asteroid schematic one more time and hunted for
flaws in their plan. He turned to his nephew. “The heat of battle quickly
changes things. It would be good if we knew just how they were tracking you, Jordon.”

Jordon half nodded. “Yes, it would. I have three of my best
working on it as we speak. I expect we’ll have an answer very soon. I just
don’t like to cut it this close.”

“And if you can’t find the tracking device?” Wolford said.

“Then we’ll bait the trap with
Freefall
itself,” Jordon
said.

“Could lose your ship,” Wolford warned.

Jordon shrugged. “Small price to pay if this works.”

Captain Rauland
hmph
ed. “To sacrifice your ship is no
small price.”

Without concern, Jordon smiled. He knew the men around the
table, and he knew their stories as well. Most had, at one time or another, sacrificed
to make a plan work. “Didn’t you, Captain Rauland, lose your first command by
ramming the launch bay of a Confederate Carrier?”

He shrugged. “Someone had to block the launch of its Blitz
ships.”

“You did so under heavy fire, didn’t you? I heard you made
your way alone through the Confederate fleet. Some say you resigned yourself to
die to save a Followers colony at Uromoth. Did they exaggerate?”

Rauland dropped his eyes and looked away.

“That was no small feat,” Jordon continued. “And you, Capt.
Goldstein; didn’t you overcome great odds against you to win the Battle of
Anntibi. Capt. Zeff, in the
Morning Star
you captured the Confederate
Battle Cruiser
HMS Landis
. I was also told Captains Dais, Chonri, and
Mont Batton, together broke the blockade of Durmiss to rescue the believers
enslaved there. Each captain here has risked his life selflessly to save
others. To date, nothing
I’ve
done compares.”

“Just doing what we had to,” Rauland muttered under his breath.

Despite their self-effacement, these men were rough,
hard-bitten, capable. And those that weren’t, weren’t allowed to sit at this
table . . .

. . . except one.

Jordon eyed Captain O’Dare with suspicion.

O’Dare sat next to Captain Muncy, a man who wasn’t given to
panic, or even to mild alarm. Story was, more than once, Muncy had faced
certain defeat in battle, even the imminent destruction of his ship, and yet
here he sat. Other than a thick scar on his cheek he had always escaped
relatively unscathed. As one of his crewmen had put it, ‘Muncy carries himself
with a certain assured determination, as if he has hold of some secret power
beyond himself.’ This attitude, Jordon had seen in others as well. In this day
and age it earmarked almost every true believer. Surrounded by such men Jordon
was beginning to believe there might be something to all this religious
nonsense. Maybe there was a God. Maybe there wasn’t. But he was a scientist
first and foremost. Things that could not be tested or quantified held little
interest for him.

Muncy captained the
Star Chaser
, a heavily armed
Xebec, which had scars of its own. He leaned back in his chair. One resound
thud followed the other as he drew his boots to the tabletop. “The Heavens
always seem to wait ‘til the very last minute,” said he, “and sometimes even
beyond that. The odds are little better than two to one against us,” he added.
“I say we restrain ourselves and give those boys a sporting chance.”

Everyone laughed.

“What are you saying?” said Chonri. “If we whoop them
outright they might not again come back to play? That would break your heart,
would it?”

Unconcerned, Muncy shrugged. “Come now. You know that whoopin’
up on the Confeds is my reason for living. Once they’re all gone, then what’ll
I do? I’m not keen on fishin’.”

Captain Wolford stood and bumped Muncy’s chair, which
knocked his feet from the table.

Muncy griped, but Wolford got right in his face. “Spoil the
furniture in your own house if you want, but if ever I’m present, you had
better act like you’re in my home even when you’re aboard someone else’s.
Captain Kori deserves better from you, and you know it, Captain.”

Muncy knew better than to protest further. Wolford was as
tough as nails, and like most ship’s captain in the room,
she
had earned
his respect several times over.

She was the Captain’s wife when, one terrifying day, in the
heat of battle her husband lost his life. Without blinking, she took command of
the
Solaris
to save the ship and its crew from certain destruction.
Today, she commanded it with a firm hand. And though Muncy is twice her size,
she’d have none of his guff. Before her husband had died she would have just
sat quietly by and said nothing—the dutiful wife. But not these days. Too many
people relied on her to be tough and capable including Muncy, and she knew it.

“Good Captain Wolford,” Jordon interjected with a gentle
smile. “Thank you for your kind words, but I would rather have your company and
scuffed furniture than have pristine furniture and live alone because of it.”

Captain Wolford looked up and smiled. “My good Captain Kori.
You can have both, our company and well-treated furniture.” Then she turned
back to Muncy. “Isn’t that right, love?”

Through a grizzled face and a day’s growth of beard, Captain
Muncy beamed. “She is a firecracker for certain, but she’s also right, friend Kori.
My apologies to Mrs. Kori for my blundering conduct.”

To share the company of such people was quite a change from
what Jordon had known. Before he had come to know such people existed, the
company he kept took all, and gave nothing in return.

Jordon stood and stepped away from the table. “Gentlemen and
good Lady, we face terrible odds and a ruthless opponent. If anyone wishes to
leave our ranks he can do so freely. No one here will think poorly of you if
you do so.”

The room fell strangely silent as each person looked to the
other. Then from the back of the room Captain Norton began to laugh outright.
He was the oldest among them and, up until then, he had remained silent. His
deep, guttural voice seemed at odds with his small wiry frame, but it was kind
nonetheless.

“My good Captain Kori,” he said with a grin. His eyes held a
child-like playfulness. “You know what we have endured and sacrificed. You know
about our exploits. They are common knowledge. Each of us has earned and
deserves peace. Sure.” He looked around the room. “Terrible odds? A ruthless
opponent? True, but the fight is just beginning. Who here would cut and run at
such a time as this? Trust me when I say our hearts are in this. Theirs are
not. And that gives us every advantage. Leave now? When it’s just starting to
get fun?” His head rolled back as he laughed again. And the room erupted as it
joined him.

When the room quieted, Captain Norton turned his attention
back to Jordon. “The Confeds are the reason we are here, my boy. When Buck gave
us the call to fly and fight agin’em, we jumped at the chance and hurried here
to do so. Don’t you know that the reason we got into this messy business to
start with was to take back what was lost by the previous generations.”

Few in this room were old enough to call Jordon “boy.” But
old man Norton had earned the privilege several times over, and Jordon would
say nothing of it nor deny him the freedom to do so.

Then Captain Miller got to his feet; his smile was faint,
his face determined. There was no laughter in his voice at all. “Captain Kori,
before you and your crew came along
in
Freefall
; we were taking
names and kicking butt. Fighting this enemy isn’t new to us. Look at us. We are
a proud lot. Many of us have tackled the enemy alone and managed to live through
it. Coming together like this to stand shoulder to shoulder with brave men and
women, it’d be downright stupid to just up and walk away.”

Capt. O’Dare spoke, but neither stood nor smiled. “Why—not
just eight years ago Major Richardson came to our church to speak. He told us
about a twelve-year-old girl in a lone ship saving the day at Los Dabaron. That
ship was the
Reliant
, rest its soul. Even in the face of overwhelming
odds, the girl who commanded it told Richardson that she would rather mix it up
with the bad guys than hide in caves. Truth to tell, even as Richardson spoke,
I believed his story was just a myth, a parable of a sort. But that parable
inspired me to take a chance, several chances actually. So as for me and my
crew, we are done with hiding in the lap of momma Providence, or any other
place said to be safe and secure. We’ll fight. We may die. But we’ll give it
our all anyways.”

O’Dare was newest to the group and had yet to build a
reputation. He would be watched and rewarded if his efforts warranted. But Jordon
was hesitant to believe anything coming from the man’s mouth. He took note of
this news though, of Richardson’s blatant disregard for that which he himself
had said was classified. But Jordon said nothing though his thoughts were busy.
Had Richardson really exposed
Reliant
and her child crew to unnecessary
danger by speaking publicly about Los Dabaron? Later, that danger had
materialized to leave Ericca and Riley orphaned. Until Jordon happened upon
them two years ago, he believed they had died with their parents. But this news
about Richardson talking? Jordon could not believe it.

Captain Davenport stood. His face was soulful, his voice,
sober. “When I first heard the tale of
Reliant
, which was only recently,
I believed it was a fairytale designed only to encourage. Now I’m told
Freefall
has the same stuff in her as had that mythical ship? With or without her at our
side, I say the time for talk is done. Let’s get this thing going.”