AGU SCI 1: The Star Brotherhood (10 page)

"That's the million-credit question," Brenda said.

"Someone's tailing us?" Byers asked.

"It appears that way," Vyx said. "I'm not going to engage the engines on the course Blaswetta gave us. Instead, I'm going to enter an alternate course so they can't learn our true destination. Once we’re in the clear, we'll enter the correct course, and I'll increase the speed to make up any lost time."

After Vyx entered the alternate course and engaged the FTL drive, he sat back in his chair to watch and see what the ship behind them would do.

"The
Scorpion
has set their course, Captain," the navigator aboard the
Namossel
said," and advanced her speed to Light-300."

"Send the course to the helm," Ereppuet said. "Helm, match her course and speed."

"Aye, Captain," the helmsman said as he made the adjustments.

"Are we just going to follow along behind her, sir?" the tac officer queried.

"For now, tac. We'll make our move soon enough. I want to make sure this is the final course to their destination."

"There's no question now," Vyx said. "They're following us."

"What are we going to do?" Kathryn asked. "We can't lead them to the transfer point."

Standing up and stretching, he said, "Right now, I want something to eat. If they're still on our tail after lunch, we'll try to lose them. Who else is hungry?"

During lunch, the team speculated about the ship that was following the
Scorpion
. Unless the bounty on Vyx was astronomical, it didn't seem reasonable that they would be after him. It was possible that it was someone seeking vengeance for one or more of the people he'd killed in Ogsnara because a thirst for revenge will often drive people to commit acts outside the bounds of reasonable behavior, but it seemed more likely that someone wanted to follow them to the rendezvous point.

They had just finished dessert when an alarm began to sound throughout the ship. Vyx jumped to his feet as Brenda yelled over the volume of the noise, "What is it?"

"It's the Anti-Collision Alert. The ACS system has shut down the FTL drive."

Vyx was in the lead, with Nelligen right behind him as the team raced to the flight bridge. As they plopped into their customary seats, Vyx shut off the alarm and studied the monitors.

"Something cut across our bow," Vyx said. "We're at a standstill." It would take two minutes to reestablish the DATFA envelope, so he engaged the sub-light engines at full power. It always took the inertial compensators a fraction of a second to balance the effect, so there was a slight lurching sensation as the engines kicked in and the ship began to move.

"There's a ship coming at us on the larboard side," Nelligen said as he scanned the DeTect monitor. "They must be the ones who cut across our bow. There's nothing else out here. The ship that was on our tail is gone."

"Not hard to guess where it went," Byers said.

"Albert, man the larboard weapons console," Vyx said. "Brenda, activate the starboard console."

"Aye, Captain," Byers said as he depressed a button on a side panel that caused it to slide up and out of the way. The larboard weapons console slid forward as his chair turned ninety degrees to the left.

Brenda did the same on the starboard side. Each gunner would normally control half the weapons but could take control of all weapons if one of the consoles or gunners was incapacitated.

The
Scorpion
had four torpedo tubes in the bow, plus one on each side and two in the stern. Small ships almost never had rear torpedo capability, so the
Scorpion's
rear tubes were disguised to fool attackers. Additionally, high-power lasers with horizontal rotating and vertical movement could extend from hidden keel and sail compartments. There were six on top of the ship and six on the keel. The placement of their gun mounts allowed them to hit almost any target within a two-hundred-seventy-degree vertical or horizontal rotation.

"Starboard weapons ready," Brenda said as all indicators associated with her weapons turned green.

"Ditto on the larboard," Byers said.

"Two torpedoes headed our way," Nelligen said. "Okay, gunners, do your stuff."

All twelve laser arrays began to track the torpedoes as the two gunners located the incoming missiles. Laser pulses began to spit at the two weapons as they grew closer and closer. One was destroyed while still fourteen kilometers distant, but the other made it to within a kilometer.

"Good shooting, but let's not let them get any closer than that last one," Nelligen said.

"Where's the attacker?" Kathryn asked. She had nothing to do except observe as she gripped the armrests on her chair with white-knuckled concern.

"He's staying out of effective laser range," Nelligen said. "Right now he's twenty-five thousand kilometers off our larboard side."

"That
unarmed
freighter appears to be armed, sir," the tac officer aboard the
Namossel
said to his captain. "She knocked down both torpedoes."

"Damn," Captain Ereppuet said. "I only fired two with minimal strength warheads because she was supposed to be harmless and I didn't want to risk damaging her cargo. Well, if her cargo gets damaged, it can't be helped. It's time to get serious. We'll give her a full spread this time. She can't knock them all down. Are the other torpedoes armed with regular warheads?"

"Yes, sir. We only changed warheads for the two fired at her envelope generator."

"Very well. Helm, take us at her stern. Tac, fire a spread of four torpedoes at her rear engines. That should incapacitate the ship. Hopefully, it won’t damage her cargo."

"Our envelope is rebuilt and I've deactivated the ACS so they can't use that trick again," Vyx said. "It's time to get out of here."

Vyx engaged the FTL drive and shut down the sub-light engines. The small ship disappeared from sight in an instant.

"Damn," Ereppuet said. "They got their envelope built. I was so upset with the destruction of our torpedoes that I stopped checking the chronometer. Helm, renew pursuit."

"Yes, sir. Building envelope. The envelope should be ready in two minutes."

"I know that," the captain said with a definite edge in his voice. "Engage as soon as it's ready."

Two minutes later the envelope was built and the
Namossel
renewed pursuit of the
Scorpion
.

"Time until we overtake her, Tac?"

"Uh— I'm unsure. She had two full minutes of travel while we rebuilt our envelope. At Light-300, she probably traveled ten-point-seven billion kilometers. DeTect range is limited to four billion kilometers, so we'll have to get her on our DeTect monitors again before we can determine the time needed to close the gap."

"Damn. Helm, maximum speed."

"Aye, sir, We're already at Light-457. That's all we've got."

"Well— don't let up."

"Aye, Captain."

"So we've lost them?" Kathryn asked.

"So far," Vyx replied. "I don't know what their top speed is, but I doubt it's higher than ours. I changed course once we were out of their DeTect range, so if they pursue along that course, we're in the clear."

"Who were they?" Brenda asked.

"I don't know yet. They cut across our bow, so maybe we got an image of their ship." Vyx punched a few commands into the bridge computer and then looked up at the large forward monitor. "There she is."

"It looks like a freighter," Nelligen said. "I was expecting a rogue warship."

As estimated information began scrolling up the screen, Vyx said, "The computer agrees with you. She's about twice our length and four times our mass. She resembles a freighter model built on Uthlarigasset, but she's definitely had some upgrades. Those freighters never had torpedo tubes, although they all had laser arrays."

"Thank God for our upgrades," Byers said. "I bet that ship's officers had to pick their jaws up off the deck when we began firing our laser arrays."

"But who
were
they?" Brenda asked again.

"There are no markings on the ship, so it's anybody's guess."

"I don't like guessing about that kind of stuff," Nelligen said. "Somebody just tried to kill us. I take that personal, and I don't want to be wrong when I start shooting."

"It's possible they were just trying to get our cargo," Kathryn said.

"It makes me wonder if they know what it is. Okay, we've had lunch and we've left the bad guys behind. Let's go down to the hold and see if we can figure out what it is we're delivering."

"Well, where are they?" Captain Ereppuet of the
Namossel
asked of the tac officer after the ship had been traveling along the original course for thirty minutes. "Shouldn't we have overtaken them by now?"

"We should have, if they maintained their original course. It appears they changed direction after they were out of our DeTect range."

"Damn. Thirty
billion
GA credits lost," Ereppuet mumbled under his breath. "The boss is going to go ballistic. It might have been better if I'd lost the cargo by blowing that ship to hell."

~ July 3
^rd
, 2288 ~

"That's it," Vyx said as he put his back against the shipping container they'd been working on and slid slowly to a sitting position on the deck. "We've tried everything I can think of with every piece of equipment we have on board for such work, and we have nothing to show for our efforts."

"How can there not be any results?" Nelligen said rhetorically. "Are these containers made of Dakinium?"

"Nope," Brenda said, "and their composition is about the only thing we
do
know. All four are made of tritanium. At least the outside surface is tritanium— which is very unusual for shipping containers. And there must be an inner layer of lead to block the x-ray attempt."

"And we can't possibly break the seals and replace them in a way that won't be noticed?" Byers said.

"Not a chance. And if we break the seals," Vyx said, "we'll never get another job in this region of space."

"It might be worth it," Kathryn said. "It must be something damn valuable for them to protect the secret like this."

"It could be anything," Brenda said. "It could be drugs, weapons, counterfeit money. It could even be people."

"People?" Nelligen echoed.

"Sure. The container might be filled with stasis beds containing people. We might be smuggling some of the most wanted people in GA space to freedom."

"But the irradiation scan…" Kathryn said.

"The containers might have been purposely built to block any penetration," Brenda said. "The x-rays and gamma radiation never appeared to penetrate more than a few millimeters. We might even be smuggling dangerous animals in stasis. Perhaps the cargo isn't against GA law, but rather only against the law of the planet it's intended for."

"I really hate not knowing what we're transporting," Vyx said. "I'm sorely tempted to break the seals and open the containers."

"We can't," Brenda argued. "You said yourself just a few minutes ago that we'd never be trusted with a cargo in this part of space again. That would make us completely ineffective as an Intelligence team. SCI would split us up for sure."

Vyx sighed. "I know, hon. I said I'm tempted, but I wouldn't really do it. The last thing I want is for us to be split up."

Brenda sat down next to him and leaned her head against his right shoulder as she slipped her left arm through his right. Vyx responded by intertwining his fingers with hers. It was a simple gesture, but it warmed her immensely. She was glad they were away from Ogsnara, glad they were away from his former lover. Perhaps in the six months before they returned she could restrengthen the bond between them so he wouldn't be tempted to further renew his old
friendship
with Lippaula.

"So what do we do now?" Byers asked after they had cleaned up and returned to the lounge.

They had spent all morning and afternoon working in the hold, and everyone was hungry. "We have dinner," Vyx said.

"I mean after that."

"We deliver the cargo."

"Without knowing what it is?" Kathryn asked.

"It appears that the only way to learn what the containers hold is to break the seals. We know we can't do that. So we deliver the containers and hope we can learn what we've delivered at the destination. If we keep our eyes and ears open, we might pick up a hint or two that will help us theorize what's in these containers."

Vyx picked up one of the lattice rifles on the table and examined it before saying, "These last two assassins were better armed than the others." Pointing to a canvas-like sack, he asked, "What's in the bag?"

"I found a dozen grenades in the car," Brenda said. "But I only kept eleven."

"I saw that. Did you recognize either of them before they became totally unrecognizable?"

"No. I'd say they were just two more lowlifes looking to make an easy credit."

"I guess bounty hunting can be a tough way to make an easy credit," Nelligen said.

The ship continued on the course established when escaping the attacking ship while not divulging their true destination for a full month, then Vyx entered a heading that would take them to the rendezvous point. He calculated the distance from their current location and reduced their speed so they'd arrive when they should have if their top speed had been just Light-300. The fewer people who knew the real capabilities of the
Scorpion
, the better.

After entering the proper course coordinates, Vyx returned to the dining area in time to see Albert place a Tarlovo roast on the table. Everyone was looking at the roast with a mixture of curiosity and skepticism. The smell was delicious but all had eaten Tarlovo meals on Bleadalto and been repulsed by the taste.

"It smells great, Albert," Vyx said.

"I hope it tastes as good as it smells. I prepared it according to the instructions you gave me. I had a devil of a time finding a whole Tarlovo. Almost every shop Kathryn and I visited had already gutted and skinned the animals. I finally got someone to tell me where I could find a live animal."

"Live?" Brenda echoed, her shock apparent.