Stars of Charon (Legacy of the Thar'esh Book 1) (14 page)

By the
time we reached the second flux point, Ju-lin’s the initial distaste and
distrust in her tone began to subside as her respect for Loid grew. Void soul
or not, she had always wanted a life in the stars. There was a lot she could
learn from Loid, and Ju-lin wasn’t too proud to admit it.

We fluxed again, this time, when we came through we were
facing a star that burned deep blue.

“A blue
giant,” Ju-lin said with more than a little awe in her voice. “I’ve never seen
one that bright before.”

The blue
giant was certainly bright. Even through
Tons-o-Fun’s
dimmed viewport I
had to squint to look at it. But yet, somehow, it didn’t seem to cast off as
much light as the yellow sun had. The distant worlds floating in orbit were
sheathed in shadow, nearly indistinguishable from the black.

“Get used
to it, we’re going to be here awhile,” Loid answered from the pilot’s seat. “My
best guess is that the Celestrials came from through the Furies, which means we
need to pass through Magaera, a contested system that borders Protectorate and
Celestrial territories. Unfortunately, to reach the Magaera flux point we’ve
got to cross half the system.”

I saw
Ju-lin stiffen at the mention of traveling into Celestrial territory.

“Not to
mention—oh hello there,” Loid broke off. “A hydrogen gas giant, close too. Just
a few hours away. Looks like we’ll have a detour.”

“We need
fuel?” I asked. Ju-lin had explained earlier that most long-range ships like
the
Tons-o-Fun
use hydrogen based fuel, and that refilling the hydrogen
compression tanks was a matter of swinging into the upper atmosphere and
activating the ship’s fuel scoops.

“Loid’s
rule seven of long distance space travel: you always need fuel,” he replied.
“Which is followed closely by rule eight: never pay for what you can get for
free. There are no known settlements in this system and no ships on the scopes.
The only thing I see anywhere near the gas giant are two lifeless moons.”

“So it’s
safe?” Ju-lin asked.

“It
looks
safe,” Loid answered. “All that means is that, well, it looks safe. We’ll see.
Either way, we only have enough fuel for a few fluxes, and we don’t want to pay
to fill up in Celestrial space if we can help it. That would eat up all my
profits. Eli, read those coordinates.”

I
repeated the series of numbers off my console, and Loid set our course toward
the looming gas giant.

“Alright
Twiggy,” Loid tossed a glance over his shoulder at Ju-lin. “You say you can fly
anything?”

“I have
hundreds of hours flying interplanetary shuttles and used to spend six hours a
day in flight simulations before we moved out to the colony,” Ju-lin answered.
“Dad used to let me fly in his Raven between escort runs, and I flew that
Carrack.”

“I don’t
know if I’d call what you did in that Carrack flying as much as falling,” Loid
didn’t look back, but I saw his lips curl into a smile.

“If you
didn’t notice, I brought that ship from a flat spin in low orbit and-”

“Relax,”
Loid spin in his chair and cut her off. “I’m just ribbing at you, you really
need to lighten up a bit. You ever flown an upper atmo fuel scoop?”

“I’ve
done it a few dozen times in the simulator.”

“So,
that’s a no,” Loid answered. “Well there is a first time for everything. Hop up
here in the big chair kid, let’s go over it.”

I sat and
watched for the next two hours as we made our approach to the gas giant,
listening as Loid talked Ju-lin through the procedures for operating the
hydrogen scoops. Though she already knew the basics, such as the angle of entry
and the critical velocity, Loid pointed out that she didn’t have a feel for
flying outside of the simulator. There would always be factors that you don’t
account for, such as shifts in planetary winds and swift changes in atmospheric
density.

“The
simulators tend to be forgiving,” Loid added. “They’re designed to teach you
how to think and operate in open space. But when you’re sliding along the top
of a gas supergiant, the science of navigation becomes secondary to the art of
flying. If you make a mistake you could ignite the compression tanks, burn up
your maneuvering thrusters, or, in the worst case, get caught in a the gravity
well of a giant whirling planet that’s atmosphere is nothing but a toxic
cocktail of explosive gas. Not ideal.”

Ju-lin
listened impatiently but intently. By the time he finished going through it
all, the planet was looming so close that it filled nearly our entire field of
vision. Loid patted Ju-lin on the shoulder and strapped himself into the jump
seat next to me.

“She’s
all yours Twiggy,” Loid said as he adjusted his secondary command console.
“Ease her in, and do exactly as I say.”

Ju-lin
took the controls and eased the stick up,
Tons
jerked upward swiftly.
Further than Ju-lin had meant to, she pushed back and overcorrected the other
way. After fifteen seconds of tug of war with momentum she had the Scotsman
evened out and on course.

“She’s
sensitive,” Loid said. “You’ve gotta use a steady hand with her. Nice and easy.
Some ships are brutes that you have to dominate, like the Carrack. Flying them
is a battle of wills. But
Tons-o-Fun
, she’s a more elegant lady. A soft
word and a caress goes a lot further than a stern word and a cuff.”

“I’m
beginning to think you spend too much time out here alone.” Ju-lin said,
rolling her eyes. As she became more confident at the controls, Ju-lin’s attitude
was starting to come back.

“Probably
true,” I saw Loid smile as he gently patted his armrest. “Probably true.”

We
flattened out, flying above the horizon of the atmosphere of the gas giant. As
we drew closer I saw that the atmosphere was churning with activity. Clouds of
gases twisted and collided chaotically.  I could see the risks of dipping down
too far.

“Now ease
her up, we need to slide into the upper atmo and then hold her there. You
should get just low enough so that the stars are faint through the clouds
above. If you lose sight of the stars, you’re in trouble.”

“Right,”
she said. “So I just ignore the altimeter?”

“No, you
don’t ignore anything,” he answered. “But remember that there are a million
natural and unnatural things that can throw off your sensors. Don’t trust them.
Your eyes are always your best instrument.”

We
continued to ease down, gliding on the top of and endless sea of clouds with
the stars bright above us. A dark grey moon was rising on our port side. It was
beautiful and surreal.

“Steady
her out now and drop speed,” Loid said. “You’re doing great, nice and steady.”

We
continued to descend into the blue-green haze. The brightness of the stars
began to fade, and then we leveled out.

“Are we
ready for the scoops?”

“You tell
me,” Loid answered. “You’re flying this bus. Rule two: the decisions rest with
the pilot. If you think you have us at the right place at the right speed, and
can hold us here for 20-30 seconds to activate the scoops, call it.”

A bead of
sweat trickled down Ju-lin’s forehead.

“Trust
your gut Twiggy,” Loid said.

“Engage
scoops,” she said.

I turned
to see Loid was sitting back with his hands folded behind his head.

“That’s
you Eli,” he nodded at my control console. “I’m just along for the ride.”

Rattled,
I turned and looked at the console. Loid had showed us through the computer
system earlier, but I hadn’t expected this to be a test. I flipped through the
menu looking for the hydrogen scoop deployment system controls.

“Almost
found it,” I said, now sweat was trickling down my brow.

“I can’t
hold us here forever,” Ju-lin’s voice was tense.

“Got it,
engaging,” I initiated the cycle.

There
were a series of clicks and the sounds of a whirling motor behind us as the
hydrogen intakes opened and began the process of capturing and compressing
hydrogen from the gas giant’s atmosphere into the ship’s compression tanks.

“Twenty
seconds,” I called as the computer counted down.

“Fifteen
seconds,” I said. “Tank reading at 75 percent capacity.”

“Roger,”
Ju-lin said, holding steady as she peered up through the canopy at the dimly
lit stars above.

“Five,” I
continued to count. “Four—three—two—one—full. Completing cycle, vents closing.
And—clear.”

“Pulling
up,” Ju-lin eased the stick up and
Tons-o-Fun
began to regain altitude.

“You
know,” Loid was casual, he kicked his feet up onto his consol. “You two aren’t
too bad at this. I mean, I wouldn’t take all on a smuggling run out in Odin
just yet, but still—”

Tons-o-Fun’s
proximity alarms started to go off just
as two blasts struck our port side.

“What in
the hell was that?” Loid flipped his feet onto the ground and pulled his
console into his hand. “Two marks coming in fast. What the hell, the scopes
were clean when we went down there. Twiggy, bank starboard and get us up out of
this soup, now.”

Ju-lin
pulled the controls sharply and we spiraled upward away from the planet, the
exhaust from two small fighters flew past us on either side in a flash.

“Watch
out, I have a third mark, bearing—ah hell,” Loid called. “They must have been
hiding behind the moon.”

“I see
it,” Ju-lin called back. “What is it?”

I looked
up. Directly in front of us between us and the planet’s moon was a hulking dark
shadow. Two smaller shapes had broken away from it, fighters. They had three
symmetrical wings and were coming in fast.

“Big, well-armed.
Corvette class, a Starchaser by the look of it. The signal beacon says it's
designated the
Allegro IV
.
Allegro
, that may not be a good thing.
Those two fighters, Drakes by the look, are hers,” Loid’s voice was flat and
serious. “Pirates. They sit on the blind side of that moon and wait for poor
saps to fly in to refuel.”

 The ship
rocked as the fighters made their second pass, peppering
Tons-o-Fun’s
underbelly.

"
Allegro
?"
I asked. "Do you know the ship?"

“That’s
the
Allegro IV
. I knew a guy who piloted a ship called the
Allegro
III
.”

“Should
we ask what happened to the
Allegro III
?”

“Last
time I saw it, it was on fire in the wake with a very bad antimatter leak.
Though it was just a transport, not a damned Starchaser. If it's who I think it
is, we're in trouble,” Loid sighed. “Looks like lesson three comes early: how
to survive when you’re outmaneuvered and outgunned.”

Chapter 16.

After the long wait, sitting and sweating in the dark, the
rush of battle came quickly.  The signal was sent, and we unleashed fire. Our
first barrage was devastating. Two of the enemy fighters dissolved into dust.
But the others reacted quickly. I tracked them with my turret, but their
movements were unpredictable.

I tracked the lead fighter, small, silver, and feeble in the
sky. I squeezed the trigger and my turret sent a volley of explosive rounds,
but the rounds hit nothing. The fighter had shifted abruptly, closing on one of
our Slires.

I tracked him again, he pitched, I followed, I pulled the
trigger again, but my own ship banked abruptly to the right. My shots went
wide. I watched helplessly as fire streaked from the little silver fighter, one
of our Slires erupted in flames. I felt excuses erupt within me. The targeting
computer had been misaligned, my pilot should not have banked, but I forcefully
silenced the voices in my head. A brave and worthy warrior, dead because of my
ineptitude.

I swiveled my turret, tracking the fighter again, this time I
would not miss.

“Do you
want this back?” Ju-lin’s knuckles were white on the stick as she sent us into
another diving roll.

“Nope,”
Loid said as he continued to rapidly work his console. “Looks like you’re doing
just fine to me.”

“The guns
are offline. I can keep these Drakes off of us for a while, but the more I
maneuver the closer that Starchaser gets. If I had some guns it may be useful.”

“Guns?
Naw,” Loid answered. “Their plan is to send in the gnats to keep us busy, then sweep
in with the mother ship to fire a few well-placed bursts and disable your power
systems. Then it’s a simple matter of boarding and looting. Pretty standard
really.”

“I
suppose there is a reason why you don’t sound concerned?” she asked. “Do you
have a plan?”

“Well,
this might work,” he said, still focused on his console.

“What?” I
asked. “Did you get the guns online?”

“Guns?”
he asked. “Oh no. No point in that. The gun bays are still flooded with
hydrogen, firing them up is not the best idea. Even if we did, those Drakes are
well armored, that’s why pirates love them. We may be able to disable one of
them before the Starchaser gets us, but there’s no beating them toe-to-toe.
Better to put all of that power to engines and shields to buy us time.”

“Buy us
time for what?” Ju-lin asked.

Tons-o-Fun
shook as another shot struck home.

“For
this,” he said as he pushed his console back. “Eli, route all power to engines
and shields to give Twiggy everything we got. Turn off non-essential systems,
including
artificial gravity. Turn it off, and route all power to engine systems.”

“Artificial
gravity only uses about an eighth of a percent of the power output,” Ju-lin
retorted. “What good will that do?”

“Oh, you
never know,” Loid turned to me and winked. “Eli, turn off gravity, and follow
me. But mind your gravity. Twiggy, grab your headset and stay on coms, you too
Eli.”

He
grabbed a wireless headset, unhooked his harness and disappeared through the
hatch toward the back of the ship.

“Where
are you going?!” Ju-lin howled as she pulled up hard.

“Oh,
right,” Loid popped his head back in the cabin. “They’ll hail you in about
twenty seconds and demand you surrender. When they ask what your cargo is,
claim you’re empty. They won’t believe it. The secondary cargo hold is
shielded, so unless they are complete dusters they will figure we have
something valuable onboard and lay off the big guns, hoping for our surrender.
Tell them you are the captain and bought the ship on scrap or something if they
ask, and whatever you do, do
not
mention my name.”

“What do
I tell them when they ask for our surrender?” Ju-lin asked.

“Just be
your charming self and do what comes naturally,” he nodded at me. “Get the
gravity off and get your ass back here.”

I put on
my headset, disabled the artificial gravity, routed all power to engines, and
unhooked myself from my seat.

“Incoming
wave from the Starchaser,” Ju-lin said as she slipped her headset on and
punched a few buttons on her console.

As soon
as I unfastened my harness I began to rise up out of my seat. My stomach
churned. Though I had thought turning off the gravity would be a simple matter,
the biological fact of it was incredibly disorienting. I grabbed my chair to
steady myself and started pulling myself back toward the hatch.

“Yes,
this is the pilot of the Scotsman
Tons-o-Fun
,” she answered into her
headset. “Yes, it’s my ship. No, I won’t power down, why the hell would I do
that?”

With a
push I floated back and drifted between the jump seats and into the hatch.

“Look,
really boys, I’m just passing through here,” I heard Ju-lin taunt back. “Your
pilots? Look, buddy, I don’t know where you picked up these putzes, but you’re
lucky they have those Drake’s flying forwards. I’m more concerned about one
accidently running into me than I am their rail guns.”

I couldn’t
help but laugh, Ju-lin was being herself alright. I hoped Loid knew what he was
doing.

Loid was
in the secondary cargo deck unpacking one of the Draugari warheads when I got
there. Even without standard gravity I was still standing upright in the passage.
Loid had abandoned the conventional notions of up and down and was standing on
the wall.

“Can we
launch that?” I asked.

“Nope,”
he answered as he unlatched the casing. “They require a sizable rocket, which
we don’t have. This is just a payload.”

The ship
shook from another hit. The sudden jolt sent the ship shifting around me as I
floated, my head slammed against the doorway. As I shook it off I saw why Loid
had chosen to stand on the wall: his feet were tucked into the hand railings,
offering him some stability.

“Volatile
too,” he said as he pulled the warhead from its casing, it was a mess of wiring
with black-coated steel making a ball a little bigger than my fist.

“How
powerful?” I asked.

“Powerful
enough that if we make a wrong move we will have the pleasure of knowing that
at least one of those Drakes that are blasting at us will probably be vaporized
along with us.”

“Right,”
I said, feeling more than a little unsettled.

“Toss me
the spanner, there in the case mounted by the door,” he nodded, never taking
his eyes off of the warhead that was now floating gently in front of him.

I
recovered the spanner and tossed it gently toward him. Loid caught it easily
and started to unscrew a control panel.

“What
else can I do?”

“Do you know how an electromagnet works?”

“No, not really,” I answered.

“Oh,” the ship’s lights flickered as we took another hit.
“Well, the lesson can wait. See those boots on the wall? The white ones, those
are electromagnetic clamps for when you have to get suited up and do mid-space
repairs. Not fun stuff, I don’t like to do it.”

“You’re not going out there?” I asked, stunned.

He
grinned and raised his eyebrow.

I felt
the blood leave my face, “You don’t expect
me
to go out there?”

At this
he let loose a hearty laugh.

“Hell no,
but I need the electromags, toss me the boot and some of that tape,” he said.
“Good, now we need some cable from that bag there, cut me two lengths about, oh
a meter each.”

“They
hung up on me,” Ju-lin’s voice broke in over the coms. “The Drakes scored a few
good hits, the power output from the engines dropped to 70 percent, shields are
holding at 40 percent. The Starchaser is going full speed towards us, though
the Drakes are hanging back. I can still outrun the Starchaser I think.”

“Negative,”
Loid replied. “If you kick in full power and start outrunning the Starchaser
they will just send the Drakes back in to slow us down and bang up my ship. Act
like you’re running, but go slow enough that the Starchaser will catch us.”

“Slow
enough that they will
catch us?
” She repeated.

“That’s
what I said,” Loid answered. “No sense in letting them beat up the
Tons
any more than they already have. Two minutes from now, I need the Starchaser to
be between 200 and 250 meters
directly
behind us.”

“Their
main guns will be able to disable the engines at 200 meters,” Ju-lin responded.
“I don’t see how that helps.”

“You’re
the pilot, you make the call of when the ship is ready. I’m the Commander, so
your job as the pilot is to get the ship where I want it. And I want the
Starchaser to be 200 to 250 meters
directly
behind us in two minutes. Do
you copy?” Loid responded as he spliced together a wire from the boot into the
circuits on the warhead.

“Affirmative,”
she answered. “Crazy bastard.”

We were
thrown sideways as the shipped abruptly banked to port. I was ready that time
and managed to grab a hand rail before being thrown against the crate
containing the rest of the warheads. I looked up to see that Loid had barely
managed to grip the end of a wire to keep the warhead from flying across the
room and impacting against the bulkhead.

“Dammit
to hell,” Loid said into his coms. “Keep her steady.”

Ju-lin
snapped something back about not taking a collision course with a moon, but
Loid ignored it.

As soon
as we stabilized again, I used my knife to cut the lengths of cable.

“Alright,
cable, good.” Loid said as he spun the warhead in the air in front of him,
pointing to two small latches. “Here, tie them here and here, and be careful
not to touch the blue or black wires.”

I pushed
off to propel myself across the room to where Loid was standing. Following his
lead, I stood on the wall and slid the toe of my boot beneath the handrail for
stability.

My hands
were shaking as he handed me the warhead and I began to tie the knots. I was
surprised to find how easily the knot tying came to me. In the moment I wasn’t
sure if it was a skill that I had had before the terraforming, or if it was
knowledge inherited from the Draugari I had killed. Either way, I was thankful
that my hands seemed to know what they were doing.

By the
time I had finished, I looked up to see that Loid had retrieved a vat labeled
Jantar
Nectar
from one of the forward storage compartments.

“Go to
the back of the main cargo hold,” Loid nodded forward. “Carry the warhead by
the cables, there yeah like that. Make sure it doesn’t hit the sides.”

I took
the cables, one in each hand, and held the warhead suspended in front of me.
Then I began pushing toward the rear hatch with my legs, using my elbows and
alternating my grip on the cables to free my hands and steady myself.

I passed
through the hatch into the main cargo hold. The lights were flickering, casting
shadows around the secured stacks of crated ale.

 “Move to
the back, there is the waste airlock,” Loid gestured toward the back of the
cargo hold as he came through the hatch behind me. “I had it installed in case
I needed to dump less-than-legal goods.”

“Okay, so
what is Jantar Nectar?” I asked as I moved slowly through the compartment.

“Depends
on who you ask,” Loid answered. “It’s from a native plant on one of the
Collective worlds. Stickiest stuff in the ‘verse, smells horrible. The Domari
use it as an industrial sealant. I’ve seen them use it to shore up hull
breaches. The Celestrials, on the other hand, consider it a delicacy. They
really like the chewy stuff I guess, who knows.”

“They are
gaining,” Ju-lin’s voice came back over the wireless. “The Starchaser is at 260
meters and closing, and those Drakes are coming in close again. I don’t like
just sitting here waiting for them to pop us.”

“We’re
working on it. Get them talking or something, we are almost set,” Loid
answered.

“Work
faster!” Ju-lin responded.

“Now
what?” I asked as we caught ourselves on the far wall next to the waste
airlock.

“Now the
sticky part,” Loid chuckled to himself as he slipped his arm through a wall
strap, and flipped around, holding the vat of Jantar nectar between his legs.
“I’m going to pop this open, and you are going to set a timer on the boot’s
maglock, dip the warhead in nectar, and then we are going to take it and
position it so that it is floating in the middle of the airlock without
touching the sides.”

I looked
at the device, Loid had hastily taped the electromagnetic boot, sole out, to
the side of the warhead. The two cables I had attached floated limply on either
side of the bomb like errant pigtails. The entire apparatus looked ridiculous.

“There,
the command pad on the boot, set a timer delay to, let’s say fifty seconds,”
Loid said. “Once you do that, take the bomb by the cables, and dip it into the
nectar. Be damned sure not to get any on you, or anything else. If that thing
comes in contact with
anything
then we’re humped.”