Jason King: Agent to the Stars 1: The Enclaves of Sylox (30 page)

Adam Cain is an alien with an attitude.

Here’s the reason why…

Chapter 1

W
hoever designed this ship should be shot!

After all, with focusing rings so crucial to the operation of the gravity drive, Kaylor never understood why the designers had set them in the most difficult areas of the ship to reach—
and this ring was for the main generator.

Annoyed, Kaylor felt another bead of sweat flow down his forehead and into his left eye. Cursing under his breath, he tried to regain focus in the eye, while adjusting the gripper unit for yet another stab at the focusing ring. Normally, fitting the ring back into its cradle wouldn’t have been such a chore, but the tool he was using was old and the gears kept slipping, allowing the ring to wobble. It was like this for just about everything aboard his ship these days, and like the gripper unit, changes and updates were long overdue.

In reality, Kaylor couldn’t complain too much about the condition of his ship, not considering the price he’d paid for her. The
FS-475
was an old cargo hauler, and he had come upon her drifting out beyond the Silean Sector of The Void after having been attacked and stripped by the Fringe Pirates. He never learned the fate of the crew, content in the knowledge that the vastness of space was a very convenient place to hide the bodies….

After the salvage had been awarded, it had taken him over three years to piece together enough spare parts to make her space-worthy again. Then with an operational ship he could call his own, Kaylor had confidently entered the office of his current hauler boss, carrying with him a well-rehearsed plan for a substantial increase in his commission rate.

Unfortunately, the meeting didn’t go exactly as planned.

He’d entered the meeting as a senior pilot for a very large and well-connected shipping operation. He left as a
freelance
mule-driver with no contracts to speak of and all his savings tied up in the repair of the
FS-475
. But that had been fourteen standard years ago, and even though most of the intervening years consisted of barely subsistence wages, Kaylor had survived, if not living out his dream of fame and fortune among the stars, then at least managing to make ends meet.

Now if I could just get this finicky gripper onto the ring….

With his body contorted in the narrow access tube like some Castorian string dancer, all he had to do now was get the gripper unit up and over a protruding electrical conduit and around a blind ninety-degree bend in the access tube—and do it all by feel. So he reached forward once again, both arms outstretched to their max, carefully, until he felt the unit contact the ring. Then with a push of the control button on the gripper’s handle, he heard the click of victory as the unit finally gained control of the focusing ring. Then with another press of the button, he heard the welcoming whirl as the ring was tightened back into place.

Exhausted, Kaylor collapsed on the hard metal surface and closed his eyes, his breathing labored and amplified by the walls of the tube.

What an ordeal.

A recalibration hadn’t really been necessary, not with the ring out of focus by less than half a degree. But he’d decided to do it anyway, as a foolish attempt to escape the excruciating and mind-numbing boredom that came with transiting The Void. That was three hours ago. Now exhausted and soaked in sweat, he lay in the dim, confined space of the third-level access tube thinking about what an incredible waste of time this had been, and lamenting on all the other bad decisions he’d made throughout his life.

His quiet reverie was interrupted when a phantom voice echoed around him. “Kaylor, you better get down here.”

“What is it, Jym?”

“I have a contact.”

His heart skipped a beat as he was hit with the ramifications of those four innocent words. Without hesitation, Kaylor scooped up his tool kit and began shimmying down the access tube. “I’m on my way.”

It was only a short distance down the generator corridor to the second level access ladder, yet it was time enough for Kaylor to conjure up any number of dire scenarios for the news he’d just received. To be in the vicinity of another ship this far into The Void was almost unheard of; the odds went way beyond coincidence. And without the possibility of assistance from any planetary authority, it also meant that the two of them were on their own against whatever threat this contact might pose.

Sliding quickly down the ladder, Kaylor half-sprinted the remaining distance to the open doorway of the pilothouse. Entering, he slipped in past Jym seated at the nav console, engrossed in his calculations, and fell into the driver’s seat. On the screen before him was a bright blip of light in the upper right corner, moving slowly at a diagonal toward the center of the screen. The blip was extremely bright, indicating that the ship was either very large or at max-drive. Either way, the contact was a threat.

“Any indication he sees us?” Kaylor asked.

“None. We’ve been dark since you’ve been working on the generators.”

Fortunate for us
, Kaylor thought. Maybe something good did come out of his ordeal with the focusing ring. The only energy signatures they would be giving off would be from the ship’s internal gravity wells, which were too weak to be detected this far out. Kaylor began to relax a little, as he watched the distance between the contact and his ship increase steadily from the momentum they still carried, even without the generators fired up.
This just might be okay—

Just then the large blip separated into two smaller ones and began to expand into a shallow “V” formation. Simultaneously, Kaylor and Jym leaned in closer to their screens, looking for any indication of hostile intent. With none coming, they shared a collective sigh of relief.

“How long until we’re out of range?” Kaylor asked, not taking his eyes from the screen.

Jym tapped some keys on the nav console. “In about half an hour.” He then slipped out of his seat and headed for the doorway. “How about some Hildorian tea while we wait?”

“Sounds good, I’ll keep watch.” At least Jym seemed relaxed enough to accept the situation. Yet knowing the emotional tendencies of his copilot, Kaylor suspected Jym had the intention of dropping a little blue pill into his tea. Maybe Kaylor should follow suit….

********

Nearly half an hour later, Kaylor and Jym sat with their feet up on their consoles, sipping tea and enjoying the light narcotic effects of the intoxicants. The two contacts were now very close to the right edge of the view screen and in a few minutes would be out of range. Kaylor would then fire up the generators and bolt out of the area. It was only then that he would fully let down his guard.

Suddenly, the two blips flared brightly—
and disappeared from the screen!

In unison, Kaylor and Jym dove for their consoles, Kaylor spilling the tea down the front of his tunic in the process. Ignoring the hot liquid, he began to prep the generators for power.

“Do you have them?” he barked out.

“I’m working on it.” Jym was feverishly tapping the keys of his console as two flashing red circles appeared on the screen where the contacts had last been recorded. “From the strength of the back-wells, it looks like they’ve come to a stop,” Jym said incredulously.

“They didn’t change course with the back-well?”

“It doesn’t look like it. They’ve gone dark … and are just sitting out there.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Kaylor continued his preparations, yet resisted activating the generators, a move which would clearly announce their presence. Taking a chance that they could still slip out of range undetected, he waited.
Just a few more minutes. Still, why would—

Kaylor stopped in mid-thought as another blip appeared on the screen, this one carrying a massive gravity signature and entering out of the upper left corner of the screen. Kaylor glanced over at Jym, who stared back at him, his mouth half-opened. He simply shrugged, answering the silent question.

Then it all began to make sense, as yet another, smaller contact appeared on the screen, following closely behind the massive blip and in obvious pursuit. Kaylor didn’t need to comment. Both of them knew what was happening:
Pirates!

“But there are three of them,” Jym announced to the room. “I’ve never heard of that many pirates working together before.”

“This is true, yet look at the signature of that ship. It’s incredible!” A few taps of his board and Kaylor had his answer. “They’re at 98% efficiency.” His ship operated at 75%, max. “Those generators would be worth a fortune.”

“If the pirates can catch it,” Jym countered, and by the ever-increasing gap between the large ship and its pursuer, it was obvious that wasn’t going to happen.

“They don’t have to catch it,” Kaylor said. “They’ve already laid a pretty good trap.” He was right. The pursuing ship was herding the large target straight for the two dark contacts. The outcome was inevitable, and in a few minutes the carnage would begin.

Fortunately for Kaylor and Jym they would not be around to see it, as their momentum was just about to carry them out of range—and to safety.

Still Kaylor felt a pang of disappointment. The gravity generators on that ship would have been something to see. He had never heard of 98% efficiency being achieved before, and besides the generators, what other treasures did a ship that advanced carry in her? Of course, Kaylor’s question was rhetorical, since the outcome of the attack was a foregone conclusion. Three pirates, operating in concert, would be able to bring down a ship that size with relative ease. And then they would have all the time they needed to pick it clean….

Suddenly Kaylor sat straight up in his seat, his eyes wide and focused on the screen before him. Jym noticed the movement. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“I just got an idea.”

“No, no you didn’t.” Jym didn’t like the look on Kaylor’s face.

“Yes, I did, and this will work!” He leaned forward and began programming the piloting computer. “Pull up the ship’s inventory. I need to know if we still have those satellite drones on board.”

“You’re not thinking about doing what I’m thinking you’re thinking about doing, are you?” The sentence was awkward, but accurate.

Kaylor swiveled his chair until he was facing Jym. “This is a-once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!” His voice was animated, his face alight with excitement.

Jym had seen this look before, and it made him nervous. “We can’t take on three pirates. We’re a muleship, with no weapons to speak of except for that pea-gun you installed last year. How do you propose we do this?”

“Remember a few years back, when we used a drone as a decoy to slip out of New Regian with those Regulators after us? We’ll do that.” He scanned the inventory list Jym had just posted on his screen. “We have six drones on board. We hook grapples on them, fan them out on either side of the ship and then set their front-and back-wells at maximum. To the pirates we’ll look like a whole fleet of Rigorian warships, six of them, plus us in the middle. There’s no way they’ll want to take on seven warships.”