Escape (17 page)

“Yeah. Looks like,” Kieran said, still watching the leviathan. There didn't appear to be any battle damage. The corvette was just half a milé-astrom away, and at that distance, the leviathan was a truly imposing token of the Union's military might. He could make out the ship's endless lines of glowing viewports, set against the black and red of the hull plates like an entire city at night.
Now that's a ship
.
 
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.
 
.
I wonder how many of these corvettes it could carry?

“Ummm
 
.
 
.
 
.
” The boy slicer interrupted Kieran's thoughts.

“Oh Deus, no,” Dimmi said, her voice a whisper. “I don't believe it! Look!”

Kieran turned to look in the opposite direction from where the leviathan was slowly disappearing into the tunnel
—

His mouth dropped open. “What?
Another
one?” The three of them stared out the forward viewports in stunned silence as a second
arbiter
-class leviathan emerged from the swirling wormhole.

When it was revealed in all its deadly glory, Kieran spoke: “I don't like the looks of this.”

“Well, at least we know why that captain was so eager to disable the lockdown. He'd be court-martialed for sure if he delayed a pair of leviathans coming back from the frontier, because he
forgot
the code,” Dimmi said.

Kieran shook his head, but it was Mister X. who pointed out the flaw in that logic: “Dimmi, everything we've seen so far points to a different conclusion. The captain never knew the code. No one on that base did, and whatever elements make up this asteroid cause so much comm interference, that no one could call for the codes.”

“So why didn't they just take this corvette to the surface and call from there for the codes?” Dimmi asked.

“I suspect they didn't want to have to explain what triggered the lockdown
 
.
 
.
 
.
because some of those officers were definitely not from UBER.”

“Then who were they? And why would they want to assist the Sentinels?”

“I don't know,” the boy admitted.

Kieran nodded, watching the second leviathan proceed into the tunnel. “Fine, that all makes sense, but what were they planning to do, then? They couldn't have anticipated that I would stumble upon a secret UBER facility just in time to help them disable the lockdown.”

“I think that's why all of stations in the control tower were occupied when we arrived. They were forcing the original station crew to do everything they could to disable the lockdown.”

“Okay. Then here comes the real mystery: why would terrorists, anarchists, or whoever they are, want to disable the lockdown? So that they can help a pair of Union leviathans to get back from wherever they went?”

“He's right. That doesn't make any sense, Ferrel.”

Kieran turned to look over his flight chair at the slicer. “Ferrel?”

“Great. Thanks, Dimmi!”

“No problem, you little shakra,” Dimmi said it affectionately, in a way that left no room for insult.

“Well, it will be nice to have an actual name for you,” Kieran said, grinning back at the boy.

“Okay, enough chitchat. Are we going to get out of here, or what?” Dimmi asked.

“Yeah, let's
 
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” Kieran broke off, staring disbelievingly into the whirling pool of color to his right. The distinctive, fat, rounded, black cone of another leviathan was emerging.

“How many of them
are
there?” Dimmi would later regret asking that question. Half an hour later, five minutes after the 16th
arbiter
-class leviathan had disappeared into the tunnel to the surface of the asteroid, Kieran began quietly, slowly maneuvering the shadow-class corvette into line behind the last of the leviathans, following it in its slow, meandering course to the surface.

After the fourth of those impossibly large warships had appeared, Kieran had dialed the corvette’s cloaking and sensor jamming systems to 110% power, and set all of their other systems (except engines) to 0%
—
between the holo-projectors on the corvette’s hull (which were cheerfully displaying an illusion of empty space where the corvette would be) and the sophisticated sensor jamming and deflection technology, they should have been rendered entirely invisible, even at close range and to military-grade sensors such as would be found on the leviathans. If by some chance they weren't invisible, however, they would be a very tempting target, with no shields engaged, and thrusters at a pathetic 20% of max. Then again, even with shields at maximum, they would only survive a few dozen shots from one of the leviathans. Hiding seemed the wiser choice.

“Is anyone else wondering what an entire fleet of leviathans was doing out here?” Dimmi asked.

“I think everyone is wondering that,” Kieran said.

“I'm reading a pair of contacts coming up behind us,” Ferrel (a.k.a. Mister X.) interrupted. “A seraphim-class yacht and a TL-15 flitter.”

“Looks like they evacuated the station,” Kieran said.

“I guess they don't want to be around when the patrollers arrive,” Dimmi put in.

“I guess so
.
 
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.
 
.
” Kieran was frowning heavily, his attention fixed on the bright red glow from the thrusters of the leviathan ahead of him
—
half a dozen enormous exhaust cylinders, recessed into the back of the ship. Nothing was making sense. He was both pleasantly surprised and disturbed by the fact that the insurgents aboard the station had kept up their side of the bargain by giving him the shadow-class corvette as payment for disabling the lockdown.

After a few minutes, the yacht and Cardian's flitter overtook Kieran, flying dangerously close to the engine wash from the leviathan.

Half an hour later, Kieran emerged from the tunnel. In the distance ahead of him, Kieran could see over a dozen red thruster trails from the leviathans, a few of them reduced to little more than red pinpricks from the distance. The leviathans were all speeding toward the pair of TLS gates on the IF-57 lane. Kieran risked boosting engines to 40% and jetted past the leviathan that he’d been following out of the asteroid.

Kieran quickly overtook the seraphim-class yacht which presumably contained the station crew. A few seconds after that, he overtook Cardian's flitter, passing close enough to peer into the tiny ship's cockpit. He couldn't be sure, but he thought he recognized Cardian sitting in the pilot's chair. If Cardian had been looking, he would have seen nothing but the starry blackness of space, conveyed by the holo-projectors on the corvette’s hull.

“Ferrel, watch that yacht, and the flitter while you're at it. If and when either of them go to TLS, I want to know what trajectory they were on.”

“Sure
 
.
 
.
 
.
” the boy replied.

“What do you want to know that for?” Dimmi asked.

Kieran hesitated. “It might give us some clue as to who those people on the station were.”

“I hope you're not planning to follow them, because we have a rendezvous to keep.”

“We've got plenty of time before we have to be there. I just want to see a few things first.”

“Let it go, chief. We got away clean, we got our ship. Let's not concern ourselves with finding every little missing puzzle piece. It's none of our business.”

Kieran turned to her. “Don't you want to know what was going on back there?”

Dimmi met his gaze calmly. “No. I just want to get my share out of this ship before someone decides to repossess it.”

“She's right, man,” Ferrel said. “As curious as I am, we're flying stolen property here. No doubt about that. We need to flip it ASAP.”

“Which is exactly what we're going to do,” Kieran replied, his attention back on flying. “As soon as we figure out where that yacht is going.”

Kieran saw a blur of movement in his peripheral vision, heard a quiet click, and felt the cold press of duranium against his right temple.

“To the rendezvous, chief.”

“And if I refuse?”

Dimmi smiled. “I shoot you and fly there myself. Come to think of it, that's not such a bad deal. A ship like this must be worth, what
—
5 million on the black market? I kill you, and my 100,000 token share turns to more than a million.”

“Sounds pretty intelligent on your part.”

“Get up. Nice and easy.”

“You're forgetting something. Ferrel, would you explain to Dimmi, please?”

“I locked the flight controls to Kieran's biometrics while you were showing the captain out.”

Another blur of motion, and suddenly Dimmi was standing, her second plasma pistol pointed at the boy. “Unlock them.” Her eyes were still on Kieran, watching him carefully for any sudden moves.

“I can't. He has the codes.”

“Don't give me that shakra, Ferrel. You're a slicer. You just hacked UBER security in under 10 minutes. This should be child's play for you
—
oh, wait, I guess that’s what it always is for you.”

“Dimmi, I set up protocols specifically to prevent myself from being able to slice through them in a hurry.”

“Fine. Get started. I'll send a comm transmission through the gate, telling Brathus that we'll be a little late.”

“Dimmi?” Kieran said.

“What?” Her wide mahogany eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“I told you to strap in.”

Her eyes widened in sudden comprehension. She had unbuckled from her seat in order to better cover both Kieran and Ferrel.

Kieran jammed the throttles into full reverse from 40% forward power to 110% reverse. Dimmi flew immediately forward and slammed into the transpiranium cockpit canopy. Her head connected with a solid
crack!
and Ferrel’s backback which had been similarly unsecured slammed into the backs of her legs. Both she and the backpack were plastered to the viewport while the ship accelerated in full reverse, steadily reducing its forward velocity.

While she’d been distracted talking to Ferrel, Kieran had dialed the inertial dampers in the cockpit from 90% to 50%. Even considering the safety protocols which prevented blackouts and redouts, Kieran’s arms felt like someone was standing in front of him, trying to pull them out of their sockets. His knuckles were white from gripping the flight yoke, and his flight restraints were digging into his chest. His eyeballs were bulging from their sockets, and the muscles in his neck were standing out like cords as he tried to prevent his head from being forcibly bowed by the g-force. Unable to breathe in from the pressure on his chest, Kieran’s lungs were burning for air. With the last of his air, he spoke in a whisper, grimacing to force the words though fat, uncooperative lips: “All inertial dampeners to 100%!”

His words came out in a soft, distorted lisp, but the ship understood him anyway. Dimmi fell limply to the copilot’s dashboard with a soft
thud
—
her pistols clattered down beside her, and Ferrel's backpack thumped and rolled to the floor. Suddenly the enormous force pulling Kieran forward disappeared, and he fell back against his flight chair. He breathed in a deep breath and let it out in a shuddering rush.

“Thanks for the warning, man
 
.
 
.
 
.
” Ferrel gasped. “It felt like someone was trying to pluck my eyeballs out!”

Kieran chuckled nervously, his eyes on Dimmi's still form. “Well, it worked, didn't it?”

“I guess so. What now?”

“Well
 
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” Kieran slid the throttles forward, and set his course to follow the yacht which had now overtaken them. “We're going to take a short detour.”

Ferrel sighed. “Just keep it short, man.”

“Don't worry, I will. I just want to see where they go.”

Ferrel reached for his flight restraints, then thought better of it. “Safe to unbuckle?”

“Go ahead.” Kieran heard a double-click behind him that was the sound of Ferrel releasing his flight restraints. “What are you going to do?”

“Stick her in the brig,” Ferrel replied.

“Here, let me help you,” Kieran said, not wanting to let the kid get his hands on one or both of Dimmi's pistols. He hurriedly snapped on the corvette's autopilot, and set it to follow the yacht. Undoing his own flight restraints, Kieran stood up from the pilot's chair. He stepped into the aisle just in time to stop Ferrel from reaching Dimmi first. “Easy there, kid. I don't want another mutineer on this ship.”