Matt & Michelle 1: The Fugitive Heir (8 page)

We shut down all extraneous systems, including all active sensors. Then we exited the wormhole. The mining vessels appeared around us, silent as the tombs they were. Michelle and I stared around us dumbly. She was the first to find her voice.

“I don’t understand, Matt. Shouldn’t there be a star somewhere nearby?”

The wormhole had dropped us in deep space, light years from the nearest star.

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Messenger Drone

We floated along with the dead ships, staring out into a darkness whose perfection was broken only by bright pinpricks impossibly distant from us. The lack of planets or a nearby sun worked on our nerves.

As if afraid to speak out loud, Michelle whispered, “The wormhole we came through will open up from this end, won’t it?”

“I’ve never heard of one that didn’t open at both ends.” Even to me, I sounded unsure. I tried again. “What I mean is of course it will.”

“But have you ever heard of a wormhole ending in open space?” Michelle still whispered while staring out the viewport with wide eyes.

I pulled her into a hug. “I’ve never heard of a wormhole like this one, but remember that someone created that debris field to hide the wormhole. The only reason to do that is if they used it for some reason.”

An unpleasant realization struck me. “And, when we don’t return from the debris field, whoever knows about that wormhole is bound to come looking for us. We’ve got to hide.”

“Hide where?” Michelle’s voice was incredulous. “It’s open space, Matt. There’s nowhere
to
hide.”

“Yeah, but we can setup a cover story for us, get clear of this funeral procession, and run dark.”

Michelle shivered once and I kicked myself for the funeral bit. But she rallied.

“What’s your plan?”

“Blast a couple of the mining sleds into little pieces. If we’re lucky, whoever comes looking will think the pieces are all that’s left of the
M&M
. Meanwhile, we’ll be floating somewhere a long way from here with all but our essential systems shutdown.”

“And you’re sure the systems will all start working again?” Michelle stopped whispering, but she still spoke in a small voice. “The ship took a hell of a beating before entering the wormhole.”

“My father and I rebuilt every system in this ship. It’ll take more than a few rocks to knock her systems out. But even if something is damaged, I can fix it.”

Michelle nodded and, just like that, was herself again. “Okay, Cap’n, give me some targets and I’ll blast ‘em into a million pieces.”

Moments later, she reduced a couple of sleds to fragments and then reduced the fragments to bits. By the time she was done, the
M&M’s
sensors could no longer identify the source of the pieces.

“Wow that felt good. I never knew destroying stuff could be so therapeutic.” She cocked her head in thought. “Is this why you guys hit walls and stuff when you’re angry?”

“It is for me, anyway.” I smiled at a memory. “My uncle insisted I repair the holes I punched in the walls at home. He said I had to learn that all actions had consequences.”

“Did that make you stop punching the walls?”

“No. It turns out fixing the walls is kind of therapeutic, too. I ended up punching more walls just so I could fix them.”

“That makes no sense, Matt.”

“Really? Your father understood.”

“Guys are weird.”

“And yet you love us anyway.”

Coming up behind the pilot chair, Michelle wrapped her arms around me and rubbed her cheek against mine. “Well, I love certain guys. But you’re still weird.”

“Oh, like you women are even remotely scrutable. Any guy who claims he understands women is either lying or certifiably insane.”

Michelle’s breath tickled my ear as she whispered, “Good. Our master plan is working.”

I laughed and began maneuvering the
M&M
away from the mining ships. Michelle started to pull her arms back, but I caught them.

“I can pilot with your arms around me. Once we’re clear of these ships, it’s not like there’s anything out here I can run into.”

I punched a button and a dull
thunk
sounded from the bow of the ship.

“Did you just hit something, Matt? You said I wouldn’t distract you.”

“I just launched a directional relay. It can pick up comm broadcasts and beam them to us by laser. If more than one ship comes through, we should be able to pick up their conversations.”

“Won’t their sensors pick up the relay?”

“Probably not. All of these ships have power and their signatures should wash out the relay’s power supply.”

“Why would you have something like that onboard?”

“It’s actually part of the required emergency supplies for a ship like this. It’s supposed to be programmed to aim the laser at the nearest patrol station, but I reprogrammed this one to aim at the
M&M
.”

That earned me a kiss on the cheek. “Aren’t you a clever boy.”

Michelle stayed there for a while longer before pulling back. “Are you hungry? I’m starving.”

It had been hours since the sandwich, which had been hours after the burger and fries. My stomach rumbled.

Michelle headed toward the galley. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

We ate while the ship pulled farther and farther from the dead flotilla. When we were about ten light minutes away, I brought the ship to a stop and began shutting down systems.

“Will we be able to see the wormhole open from here?” Michelle asked as she helped me power down the ship.

“If you’re looking at exactly the right spot, it will look like one of those stars, flaring to life for a few seconds before fading away. The passive sensors will pick it up, though, along with whatever comes through. And the relay will pass along any comm traffic.”

With the systems shut down, we settled in to wait. Two and a half hours later, sensors reported two ships exiting the wormhole and the comm burst to life. The relay worked perfectly.

“Where in the Nine Hells are we?”

I glanced at Michelle. “It sounds like Chief Tucker.”

A new voice spoke from the comm. “How should I know? I found out about the wormhole at the same time you did.”

In unison, Michelle and I said, “Paco’s father.”

“It was smack dab in the middle of your grandfather’s claim, Hector. You expect me to believe he somehow managed to mine that patch of asteroids into little bits of rubble and never once figured out there was a wormhole in there?”

“I said
I
didn’t know about the wormhole, Chief. I got no idea if my granddaddy knew about it or not.” Hector sounded awfully defensive for someone who didn’t know anything. “Less’n you got a way to talk to the dead, we ain’t never gonna know, neither.”

“Calm down, Hector. I was just speculating out loud, nothing more. Back to the reason we’re here, I’ve got sensor readings for your mining ships not too far ahead.”

“Yeah, I been trying to raise ‘em on the company comm channel. Nobody’s answering.”

“What did you expect, Hector?” The Chief’s voice was surprisingly gentle. “Your men got sucked through a wormhole without inertial dampeners.”

“I had to try, Chief. You getting any readin’ on the ship they was chasin’? That boy’s debt just got a whole lot deeper.”

“Why, Hector? Are you trying to say that boy led your ships into the wormhole on purpose? He had never been to Rockville Station before. If you and I didn’t know about the wormhole, how could he?”

“Didn’t say he did, Chief, but he ran from my boys and my boys all ended up dead because of it.”

“What the hell did you expect him to do, Hector? He heard you order your boys to blast him out of space. You’d have run, too, if you’d been in his position.”

Michelle turned to me. “Why haven’t they mentioned the debris from the two sleds I blasted?”

“They need to be closer to pick up stuff that small. They’ll be in range soon.”

Not a minute later, Hector gave a yell of triumph. “Ha! Looks like my boys got ‘im before they got sucked into that wormhole. My sensors are pickin’ up ship debris.”

“Well hooray for you, Hector. Now you‘ve got two more deaths to answer for.”

“They killed my boy ’n I killed them. It’s the way things are out here, Chief.”

Our passive sensors showed the Chief’s ship heading back toward the wormhole.

“And what if it turns out to be self-defense, like that girl claimed? When the telepath gets here on his circuit, do you really think he’s going to read Paco’s gang and find anything else?”

“I don’t care what some ponce psi boy finds out. I did what I had to do, Chief.”

“And I’ll be doing the same thing when I arrest you for the murder of that boy and girl.”

Hector laughed. “You can try, Chief, but we both know I got fifty times as many people workin’ for me than you got workin’ fer you.”

“It ought to make for mighty interesting times, Hector.” The Chief sighed. “There’s nothing else for me to do out here. I’m heading back. You coming?”

“Soon. I’m just gonna blast these ships, make ‘em funeral pyres for my boys.”

The wormhole opened and the Chief’s ship jumped away.

Michelle sighed. “Not that I doubted you, Matt, but I am glad to see that wormhole open up again.”

“Me too, babe.”

We watched Hector blast his mining ships and then he surprised me by reciting a prayer for the dead.

“Why did he broadcast the prayer over the comm?” Michelle asked.

“It’s an old spacer tradition. Sound doesn’t carry in a vacuum, so they use radio to make sure God hears their prayer.”

“I like that.” Michelle was silent for a bit. “After Hector leaves, we should say a prayer for them, too.”

“Even though they were trying to kill us?”

“Especially because they were trying to kill us. Our words of forgiveness might help their souls to rest easier. And it might help our minds to rest easier.” Michelle saw me looking at her, surprise written on my face. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to carry those men around with me for the rest of my life. Forgive them. Let them go. Get on with life.”

On the sensor screen, we watched Hector’s ship turn away from the wreckage. He looked to be in no hurry to jump back to his home system. Then, just before his ship entered the wormhole, something detached itself from his ship and sped away into deep space. A minute later, Hector’s ship vanished, leaving just us and the mysterious signal.

“What is that, Matt?”

“Let’s bring up the full sensor system and find out.” I punched a few keys and got a much more detailed reading within a minute. “Now that
is
interesting. It’s a messenger drone.” A quick glance at Michelle showed she had no idea what I was talking about. “Messenger drones are small, unmanned spaceships used to carry messages between star systems. They’re a lot cheaper than a courier ship for sending reports and mail back and forth. The military and the Scout Corps have really sophisticated drones that can make multiple wormhole jumps but this is a basic, single jump drone.”

I finished bringing the engines online and began maneuvering toward the same course the drone was taking.

“Let me guess, you’re going to follow the drone?”

“Got it in one, Michelle. There’s got to be another wormhole on that course. The minute a properly equipped survey ship gets here, they’ll discover that wormhole. Whatever is at the other end, Hector wanted to keep it secret as long as possible and send a warning through to them. I want to see what he’s protecting.”

“But won’t Hector’s buddies be suspicious when the wormhole opens?” Simply asking the question gave Michelle the answer. “No, because they’ll pick up the messenger drone’s signal. And we can just slip away and run dark when they come to get the drone.”

As the
M&M
arced into the drone’s wake, Michelle broadcast her prayer for the dead. She surprised me by including Paco in the prayer. We were quiet as I lined us up behind the unmanned ship. Ten minutes later, a new wormhole opened before us.

For the second time this day, we jumped into the unknown.

CHAPTER NINE

Lost and Found

Our first jump into the unknown lasted close to three hours. The second jump was over almost as soon as it began. Thirteen minutes after jumping, the wormhole exit alarm sounded. A minute after that, we popped back into normal space.

A bright, yellow star filled our view screen, blocking out everything else around us. The screen automatically darkened and the ship’s cooling system kicked on. The proximity warning light strobed, meaning we were within fifty million kilometers of the star.

“Um, aren’t we a little close to the star, Matt?” Michelle feigned nonchalance but I heard the tension in her voice. The last eleven days traveling with me had subjected her to lots of new and not always pleasant experiences. Here was one more.

“A bit, but it’s nothing to worry about. The
M&M
can take the heat for a while.”

“
A while?”

That was the wrong choice of words. “Sorry, I should have been more specific. The ship can handle these temperatures for ten hours before heat becomes an issue for her systems. We’ll be far from the star by then.”

To reassure Michelle, I angled the ship away from the star and increased power to the engines. To distract her, I said, “Can you track that drone? I don’t want to lose it while we’re getting clear of the flaming ball off the port bow.”

Michelle dragged her eyes away from the view screen and concentrated on the scanners. “That’s odd. The drone is holding its same course. Won’t it get dragged into the star after a while?”

“Oh, that
is
clever.”

“Are you going to expand on that, Matt, or do I have to guess what you mean?”

“There’s no need to guess, my dear, it’s just logic. I bet you can figure it out if you try.”