AGU SCI 1: The Star Brotherhood (13 page)

"So where do we go?" Brenda asked.

"Anywhere off this route is preferable to here. Let's get moving, and then we can pick a destination where we can work in reasonable safety."

Fifteen minutes later, the
Scorpion
was moving on a ninety-degree course away from its previous track while the team studied the star charts for that part of Region Three.

"Here's a possibility," Kathryn said as she put the image up on the bridge's front monitor so everyone could see it. "It's a small system that's just over a light-year away from here. It's called the Kwamlass System. There're no habitable planets and no record of mining operations or settlements."

"Well, it's a possibility," Vyx said. "Perhaps one of the moons would offer us a place to work in safety while we replace the drive unit, but it's a bit far without FTL. Let's see, at an average speed of Sub-Light-100, it would take us about one thousand, one hundred days to get there. I was sort of hoping we might find something just a
bit
closer. Anyone see anything else?"

"I see nothing else within four light-years except empty space," Brenda said.

"Ditto," Byers said.

"Since it'll take us forever to reach a safe harbor where we can work, we'll have to perform the work in open space. I believe our only real alternative right now is to get as far away from our previous course as possible in a reasonable amount of time, then stop and mount the replacement FTL drive." Vyx punched coordinates into the nav computer that would turn the ship forty-five degrees from its present course, then touched the button that would engage the
Scorpion's
sub-light engines. They felt a minute lurch as the ship headed away on the new course.

"Okay," Vyx said as he sat back in his chair. "Nothing more to do up here until we're either far enough away to perform the work or the attackers find us. Let's go to the lounge."

When everyone had settled comfortably in the lounge, Vyx said, "Since we first set foot on Bleadalto, we've been in one scrap after another. The first one was simply a case of a bully biting off more than he could chew, but the others have been intentional assaults. I thought that when we got away from the planet, we could relax a bit, but then we were attacked by someone who must have followed us. When those five guys from the freighter tried to come aboard with weapons, I got very bad vibes. They were expecting us, so we surprised no one. And we were merely the delivery vessel, so it would have been foolish for them to expect we posed any kind of threat. Then— someone managed to plant explosive devices on our hull, wrecked our FTL drive, and very nearly destroyed our maneuvering engines. We need to determine if all, or any, of these events are related. And if they are, we need to identify the architect of this attack."

"They can't all be connected," Brenda said.

"Why not?"

"If the intention was to get our ship, what was the reason for the attack just after we left Bleadalto? They could have taken us easier after we arrived at the freighter."

"True. Except, perhaps the goal was to have the cargo disappear before it ever arrived at the freighter. Then the shipper could claim we made off with it. He would have been able to get the transport fee back from Blaswetta, and all those witnesses aboard the freighter could honestly report we never arrived."

"But then the crew aboard that attacking single-hull freighter would have known the truth," Nelligen said.

"True," Vyx said. Walking to the holographic projector, he activated it and told it to produce a fifteen-centimeter by twenty-five-centimeter sign that appeared as a sheet of paper for each of the titles he was going to name. He then identified each of the incidents they had endured, the name of each person involved, when known, and the name of each major crime group. When he was finished, there were over twenty 'signs' floating near one wall in the lounge. "Did I forget anything or anyone?" Vyx asked the team.

"I can't think of anything," Brenda said.

"Ditto," Nelligen said.

Byers and Kathryn just shook their heads.

"Okay," Vyx said as he organized the signs by 'dragging' each to a location along one wall and grouping them by incident or name. Lippaula, Makkod, Gillanno, Hoffil, Turesst, and Csitte were put with the Brotherhood sign. Cillota was put with the Syndicate sign, as was a sign that merely said 'Syndicate enforcers killed in tavern fight.' The assassins from the taxi in the city and the attack at the spaceport weren't associated with any group at this time, and Blaswetta was considered an independent operator. "Somewhere in this pile is a common thread that links at least most of them together. We're just not seeing it."

Each of the team members then began tossing out ideas, but all were discarded after discussion. When the ideas dried up, Vyx continued to stare at the floating images as if still expecting an epiphany, but nothing came. The other team members did likewise, with the same result.

"I guess we're still missing that one vital piece of information that will tie everything together," Vyx commented finally. Turning to look at the others, he said, "I'm starving. What's for dinner, Albert?"

~ Oct. 23
^rd
, 2288 ~

Vyx, as the primary pilot of the
Scorpion
, always performed the landings and takeoffs. Nelligen was his backup and always in the right seat for all planetary flight operations. However, all the team members were trained pilots and could handle the ship in space, even if their flight training days at the Academy were in the distant past.

During the first two weeks following the ship's deviation from the course to Bleadalto, someone was always awake and available to take immediate control from the automatic pilot should the DeTect alarms sound. The individual on watch didn't have to sit on the bridge but must be close enough to reach the bridge within seconds. The lounge was the ideal place. A four billion kilometer DeTect system buffer gave enough time to assess the situation and respond when the alarms sounded.

After those first two weeks, everyone breathed a little easier. Being almost a hundred twenty-one trillion kilometers from their original course put the odds of being found by whoever had planted the explosives quite small, and the odds increased each day as they added another eight-point-six-four trillion kilometers to their distance. At FTL, that distance was almost insignificant, but it became more and more doubtful that they would be discovered. Still, to be safe, Vyx decided they should continue adding distance for another six weeks before halting to make repairs.

Hardly a day passed when Vyx didn't spend time in the lounge staring at the holographic signs he had created. He hated mysteries, especially when it concerned his survival, and this was as large a mystery as he had ever encountered. He'd been an agent long enough to know that some criminal plans were simple and relied solely on force, while others evinced a complexity worthy of Niccolò Machiavelli. The indications were that this was a simple plan, but if that were the case, he should have been able to solve it and identify the main person or group behind the attacks.

* * *

As their eight weeks of sub-light travel neared its end, Vyx and Nelligen dug the FTL drive unit out of the maintenance equipment storage hold and unpacked it. After opening the packing case, they checked the unit over visually, and then began to complete final assembly requirements so it would be ready to go when the ship was halted for installation.

It took three days to prepare the drive unit for mounting. They still didn't know the condition of the mounting mast but were hoping it hadn't been bent or twisted by the explosion.

All test functions that could be performed before the unit was actually mounted indicated that the drive unit was in perfect condition.

Immediately after breakfast on the day intended for the work of mounting the drive, the ship was halted and the two men suited up for their EVA activity. The atmosphere and gravity in the maintenance bay was evacuated and the hatch opened so the large drive unit could be floated out of the ship. Using their suit jets, they maneuvered the large piece of equipment up to the sail area and temporarily anchored it near the FTL drive repository. Byers and Brenda were in the pilot and copilot chairs on the bridge, and one of them opened the repository cover when it was requested. As the cover rolled back, Vyx and Nelligen checked the condition of the repository to make sure that extending the unit wouldn't cause any new problems. Specifically, they were checking for tangled cables and wreckage that might do more damage when the mast was extended.

After removing some broken pieces of the old unit, Vyx gave the instruction to extend the mast slowly. As both men watched closely, the shaft inched it's way upward. They called for a halt twice to clean some more wreckage from around the base of the mast. It probably wouldn't have caused a problem, but having the FTL drive working properly was so important that they didn't want to take any chances. Finally, what little that remained of the old unit halted at the proper height. An inspection showed that the shaft was in excellent condition and both men breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently, the explosive charge that destroyed the FTL drive unit was of very low power and only destroyed the top of the drive unit to make it inoperable. The attackers probably just wanted to prevent the ship from building an envelope, leaving them to replace the unit easily after their takeover. The charges on the maneuvering engines had been much more powerful, probably because those engines were more rugged than the FTL generator.

The two men began removing what was left of the old unit, but the task was onerous owing to bent and twisted bolts that had to be cut off. They took their time with the power saws and torches because they couldn't afford any mistakes, and they were at the task for almost six hours before the post was ready to accept the new unit.

After preparing the mast support platform and positioning the unit carefully, they began bolting it to the shaft. All bolts were started at least three turns before the men returned to the first ones and began tightening them, and the bolts were only tightened down to within the final several turns before any were locked down with the proper torque.

As the last bolt was tightened, the two men breathed a sigh of relief. There was only one more connection to be made and then they would begin testing the unit.

"Vyx," Byers yelled suddenly, "we have a contact on the DeTect unit."

"How far?"

"Maximum distance, but coming on fast."

"What course?"

"Directly at us."

"Damn," Vyx muttered and began working furiously with Nelligen on the final connection. "Close the maintenance bay hatch, Albert, and get the ship out of here."

"How will you get back in?"

"There isn't time for us to get back in. There, the final connection in made. Build the envelope."

"Roger, building the envelope."

"It won't complete while the repository hatch is open," Vyx said, "Close the hatch cover and get out of here at maximum speed as soon as the envelope is built."

"No!" Brenda screamed. "We're not leaving you out there!"

When no answer came, Brenda yelled, "Vyx?"

When still no response came, Byers said, "Nels?"

No one responded to repeated calls. The approaching ship was just twelve seconds away when the FTL envelope was built. Byers engaged the drive and the
Scorpion
disappeared in a heartbeat. The other ship had to change direction to follow and that took seconds off their pursuit. As the
Scorpion
left the area at Light-487, the other ship fell away quickly. Within minutes, the DeTect screen was clear. Byers changed direction slightly. The pursuing ship would more than likely continue on the other course and put trillions of kilometers between them before giving up. If they were the ones responsible for the explosives placed on the
Scorpion
, they would now have to accept that their quarry had probably eluded them forever.

"We have to go back and get them," Brenda said anxiously.

"How much air do they have left?" Kathryn asked.

"I estimate that they can survive for another six hours."

"We'll return to that area before then," Byers said. "I'll fly the ship in a big circle and we'll pick them up when we're reasonably sure that other ship is gone."

"Why didn't they respond when we called to them?" Kathryn asked.

"They probably didn't want to make it more difficult for us to leave them behind," Brenda said.

Five hours later, the
Scorpion
was back where it started, at least as close as the bridge crew could determine. They had spent those hours perched nervously on the bridge, watching the DeTect screen for any indication that the other ship was within four billion kilometers, but the monitor had remained clear since they first engaged the FTL drive.

Byers didn't drop the envelope, in case the other ship showed up again, but they kept calling for either Vyx or Nelligen to respond to their hails.

When no one answered, Brenda asked, "Could that ship have picked them up?"

"Why would they?" Byers asked.

"To pump them for information about where we might have gone. Or perhaps to have something we'd come after."

"So what do we…" Byers stopped and turned back towards the flight console as an alarm rattle echoed off the walls of the bridge. "The envelope has been cancelled."

"What? How? The ACS is deactivated."

"The FTL drive is offline."

"Hey, guys. Anybody there?"

Brenda pushed the talk button on the com unit. "Vyx? Is that you, honey?"

"None other."

Brenda felt tears well up in her eyes. "We thought we lost you. Where are you?"

"In the FTL generator repository."

"Is Nels there also?"

"Yeah, and his right foot is jabbed into my shoulder. Open the cover so we can get out of here."

As Byers reached for the control, the DeTect alarm sounded. "Damn, Vyx. We have company again."

"That ship again?"

"It must be. It's headed directly for us."