Ep.#3.6 - Evolution , page 8
“Good thinking,” Nathan agreed.
“Which one of you is going to carry her to the escape pod?” Jessica asked.
Nathan looked at Vladimir.
“What?”
“I can make it an order.”
“Of course,” Vladimir droned. “Leave it to the big, strong Russian,” he mumbled as he scooped up the unconscious woman with both arms and lifted her out of the SA pod.
* * *
“Starting scans for grid one seven five,” Talisha announced over comms as the blue-white light from her jump faded.
“We should’ve found them by now,” Allet insisted.
“Assuming we interpreted their jump energy expenditure,” Nikolas added. “And that they didn’t jump again, or change course and jump again, or somehow hide their jump flash…”
“We get the point, Talisha said, cutting him off.
Josh began scans of the next sector of his search route, just like the rest of the Dragons. While the AICC nodes gave them live-comms regardless of the distance between them, it also meant more comms traffic. Sometimes, Josh missed the solitude of being out of comms-range, especially when he flew solo. It gave him time to think, and to relax in an environment that was more like home to him than any other—the cockpit of an extremely fast space fighter.
But at times like this, it was the last place he wanted to be. Blindly searching the frigid black depths of space for one of only two men who had ever had any faith in him. Even his stepfather, Marcus, didn’t have as much faith in Josh as Nathan had shown. Josh was determined to find him, no matter the cost, and would stay in his fighter until his leader was safe again.
“I’ve got a contact,” Talisha reported over subspace comms. “A pair of raiders, just like the ones that attacked the Traverna.”
“Show me Dragon Three’s tactical, Sweetie,” Josh instructed his AI. A second later, what Talisha saw on her tactical display now appeared on Josh’s. “Looks like they don’t have a target,” Josh decided.
“Agreed,” Talisha replied. “I think they’re searching, just like us.”
“Have they spotted you?”
“I don’t believe so. We went cold and dead the second they showed up on sensors.”
“Shadow them, Talisha,” Josh instructed. “But do not let them spot you, and do not engage them unless they find the Traverna and take hostile action.”
“I’d rather just blow them out of the sky and be done with them,” Talisha replied.
“Normally, I’d agree with you,” Josh told her. “But right now, we need to concentrate on finding our people.”
“What about the search grid?” Talisha questioned. “We can’t scan if we’re running cold and dead.”
“Let me worry about that,” Josh replied. “You just keep your eyes on those assholes. And if they go weapons hot, you blast the shit outta them!”
“Copy that.”
“Aurora, Dragon One. Launch Dragons Five and Six, and Nine and Ten,” Josh instructed. “Five and Six will take Three and Four’s search tasks. Nine and Ten will search along the same heading as the new raider contacts, keeping one light year ahead of them, just in case they know something we don’t.”
“Understood,” the Aurora’s AI replied.
“Talisha, Nine and Ten will take their jump cues from you. Every time those Raiders jump, they jump.”
“Got it.”
“If they’ve got a better trail than we do, we do not want them finding the Traverna before us,” Josh stated.
“I’m just about dry,” Allet reported.
“You and Doom RTB and recycle. Take a couple hours and rest,” Josh ordered. “Remo, you go with them.”
“You’re going to fly alone?” Nikolas asked.
“It won’t be the first time,” Josh assured him.
“I’ll recycle and come right back,” Nikolas promised.
“Negative,” Josh countered. “You take a couple hours down time as well. I need rested pilots if we go hot again.”
“What about you?” Nikolas questioned.
“I never get tired,” Josh replied. “Now RTB your ass.”
“Aye, sir,” Nikolas confirmed. “But I’m sleeping in my bird in the launch tube, just in case.”
Josh smiled. Nikolas had come a long way in the last two months.
* * *
“I demand to be present during questioning,” Captain Helder insisted outside of her engineer’s recovery room in the Aurora’s medical department.
“Your presence might influence his answers,” Aiden reasoned with her.
“He’s my crew. He’s my responsibility,” Tap argued, standing her ground. “Either I’m in there with you, or you don’t question him…period.”
Aiden turned to face the Traverna’s captain squarely, meeting her eyes with the most confident and assertive look he could muster. Confrontation had never been his thing, but the stakes were high. “My people are in danger because of you and your ship.”
“I had nothing to do with…”
“But you are her captain, which makes everything that happened on that ship while under your command your responsibility. And your ship has been attacked twice in less than a day, and by an entity far better equipped than your average pirate. I intend to find out why. Now, you can either wait out here willingly, or I can throw your ass in the brig.”
“Under what authority?” she challenged.
Aiden just laughed. “Seriously?” He snapped his fingers, and an armed crewmen stepped forward.
“You wouldn’t dare,” she challenged, calling his bluff.
“I don’t have time for this,” Aiden replied, nodding to the crewmen. “Lock her ass up.”
“Ma’am, if you’ll come with me,” the crewman said politely.
“I will not.”
The crewman looked at Aiden. “Shall I stun her, sir?”
Aiden looked back at Captain Helder. “Your call, lady.”
Tap stared at him for a moment, then backed down, turning to the armed crewman. “Lead the way.”
“After you,” the crewman insisted, wanting to keep her in front of him.
Aiden watched them leave, then turned back to Doctor Chen.
“I didn’t know you had that in you,” Doctor Chen commented.
“Neither did I,” Aiden admitted as he tapped his comm-set. “Sima, send another armed guard to meet up with Specialist Periman and Captain Helder on their way to the brig from medical.”
“Aye, sir.”
Aiden looked at Doctor Chen again. “Don’t want to underestimate her.”
“The patient is awake, whenever you’re ready,” Doctor Chen commented.
Aiden straightened his uniform and stepped into the patient’s room. “Mister Townsend, I’m Captain Walsh, acting commander of the Aurora. I’d like to ask you a few questions, if you feel up to it.”
Remi looked at Aiden, then at Doctor Chen, who had followed him in. “I suppose I can.”
“What do you know about the girl in the medical SA pod tucked under the Traverna’s main reactor?”
“Nothing, really.”
“But you knew of her presence?”
Remi’s eyes shifted nervously between Aiden and the doctor. “Uh, yes.”
“How did she end up on the Traverna?” Aiden questioned.
“Iros arranged it.”
“The loader?”
“Yeah. He said we could make enough money to pay off the Traverna’s mortgage and still have a tidy sum in our pockets.”
“Did he say who she was?”
“He said he didn’t know.”
“Who asked him to arrange her transport?” Aiden asked.
“Some guy at the spaceport,” Remi replied. “That’s what he told me, anyway.”
“And you just agreed to this?”
“It was a lot of credits, and Tap really needed it. They were going to repossess her ship.”
“Did you even ask why she was in a medical SA pod? Like, what was wrong with her?”
“Iros said it was the only SA pod available. He swore there was nothing wrong with her.”
“Then why bother putting her in SA at all?” Aiden challenged. “Why not just bring her in with the passengers?”
“Iros said people were hunting for her.”
“The authorities?”
“No, just some very scary people. The kind of people you didn’t want to cross.”
“Did he say who was funding this woman’s escape?”
“I don’t think he knew.”
“How well did you know Iros?”
“He had just signed on. Seemed nice enough, though. He was eager to learn, to help out.”
“And you just agreed to this deal, with a guy you just met?”
“Tap needed the credits. And if she lost the ship, I would’ve lost my home.” He looked at Aiden. “Am I in trouble?”
“With us? No,” Aiden assured him. “But I’m pretty sure whoever is hunting that woman isn’t too happy with you.”
“You gotta protect me…I mean, us,” Remi pleaded. “The captain…she didn’t know anything about this. She never would’ve agreed to take such a risk, not even to save her own ship. You gotta believe me.”
“I believe you,” Aiden assured him, hoping to ease his nerves. “Do you have any idea…any guess as to who attacked the Traverna?”
Remi’s gaze shifted back and forth again. “Maybe corporate?”
“Corporate?” Aiden wondered.
“You know, corporate security types?”
“What makes you say that?”
“The pod had no markings on it,” Remi explained. “Nothing to indicate who built it. When was the last time you saw a piece of tech that didn’t have a company name or logo emblazoned on the side? I think that pod was a prototype.”
“And you think someone stole it from its maker?”
“It makes sense,” Remi defended. “Only corporations can afford the number of credits they were offering us to smuggle her out.”
“Smuggle her, or smuggle it?” Aiden questioned.
“Maybe both?” Doctor Chen suggested.
Aiden looked at her, thinking. Then he turned back to Remi. “Thank you, Mister Townsend. We’ll talk more later.” Aiden turned and left the room, followed by Doctor Chen.
“That was easier than I thought,” Aiden admitted once they were in the corridor.
“I mixed a little Sorbatex into his Meta-boost.”
Aiden looked at her, chuckling. “And here I thought I was looking at a whole new career as an interrogator.”
* * *
Jessica joined Nathan in the Traverna’s cockpit, after helping Vladimir and Doctor Barra move the unconscious young woman from the SA pod and secure her inside the escape pod.
“Everything ready back there?” Nathan asked as he entered final instructions into the cargo ship’s auto-flight systems.
“Sleeping Beauty’s all strapped in, and Vlad is getting the good doctor mentally ready for the experience.”
Nathan looked at her. “It didn’t occur to me that she hasn’t been escape pod trained like the rest of us.”
“Well, if she can survive getting shot at by boarders and watching me slaughter the fuckers, then she can survive a ride down in an escape pod,” Jessica insisted. “What are you doing?”
“Just finishing up flight instructions,” Nathan explained.
“Why?”
“I programmed a series of distress calls to play periodically after we leave to make it look as if we never left. Then I instructed the auto-flight system to attempt a crash landing on the other planet.”
“I thought this bucket was too busted up to fly?”
“It’s grav-lift systems are still functional,” Nathan told her. “It just doesn’t have any main propulsion or maneuvering.”
“Do you actually think it will make it down in one piece?” Jessica wondered.
“God, no,” Nathan chuckled. “I just want it to look like we tried.”
“I’m impressed,” Jessica decided. “We might make a covert operator out of you, yet.”
“Never happen,” Nathan replied. “Too much lying. I wouldn’t be able to keep my stories straight.”
“It is a gift.”
Nathan finished the last entry, breathing out a sigh. “I feel bad that we can’t save the ship. After all, it is Captain Helder’s only source of income.”
“It’s mortgaged,” Jessica reminded him. “Which means it’s insured as well.”
“You don’t know anything about spacecraft insurance, do you?”
“No, I don’t, and I’m proud of it.”
“The mortgage company will probably be paid off, but Captain Helder will be left with nothing, unless she’s been paying on a supplemental policy, which I doubt.”
“Don’t really care,” Jessica replied.
“You really are heartless, aren’t you?” Nathan commented.
“It’s not that I’m heartless, it’s just that a person only has so much emotion to give. I save mine for people I care about.”
“Well, let’s get this over with,” Nathan said, rising from his seat.
* * *
Laza continued staring at the sensor displays, just as she had been for the last few hours.
“You’re going to go cross-eyed,” Aiden warned.
“Pardon?”
“Something my grandmother used to say when I spent too much time staring at my view screen in my room,” Aiden explained. “Maybe you need to take a break?”
“I cannot,” Laza replied, returning her attention to her screens.
“You’ve been staring at the same data for hours, Ensign.”
“There is a subtle variation at the very end of their jump flash,” Laza explained.
Aiden leaned down, looking more closely. “I don’t see it.”
“Here,” she said, pointing. “Jump flashes have a standard decay rate. All flashes, regardless of the luminosity of the original flash, still decay at the same rate. From the moment of the jump, all the way down to zero luminosity…the same rate. But this flash’s decay rate sort of pauses for a few milliseconds, only a fraction of a second after the initial flash. The only reason I noticed it was because I ran a comparison between the flash that we recorded, and the flash that each of our Dragons recorded. The delay only takes place from Dragon Seven’s perspective, and his AI tagged it as an instrumentation error.”
“And you think it isn’t?” Aiden questioned.
“Doctor Sorenson’s father discovered superluminal transitions because he investigated an instrumentation error from the testing of multi-layered shielding.”
“Good point,” Aiden agreed. “So, what do you think it means?”
“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “It could just be emitter compensation. You know, how our emitters can compensate for a neighboring emitter that is malfunctioning? But…”
“But what?”
“I’ve seen readings of emitter compensation before, and it didn’t make the entire jump flash just stop decaying for a few milliseconds. The effect was more localized.”
“The Traverna did take considerable damage in both attacks,” Aiden reminded her.
“I have analyzed that damage, and none of it would explain this anomaly.”
“Did you ask Doctor Sorenson about it?” Aiden suggested. “Maybe she has seen this before.”
“I was about to do so.”
“Very well. Don’t let me hold you up,” Aiden told her. “But I suggest you ask her in person.”
Laza looked at him quizzically. “It would be faster to use comm-sets.”
“Yes, but you need to get up and stretch your legs occasionally. And a few minutes away from studying that anomaly might make you think of something you hadn’t thought of before.”
“I don’t see how.”
“Humor me, Ensign,” Aiden insisted.
“As you wish, sir,” Laza agreed, rising to depart.
“You, too, Sima,” Aiden told his comms officer. “You’ve been at your console all day. Take a break. I’ll watch the conn.”
“Aye, sir.”
* * *
Nathan was the last one into the escape pod, activating the hatch controls before heading inside. The pod itself was designed to hold eight persons, so three of the seats had been loaded with supplies, pulled from the other pod, and covered with self-adjusting restraint netting. “How’s our mystery lady?” Nathan asked the doctor as he climbed into his seat.
“Still out,” Doctor Barra replied. “I wish I was.”
“Piece of cake, Doc,” Nathan promised as he buckled in and pulled down the small console from overhead, locking it into place in front of him.
Kayci watched as Nathan scanned the console as if looking for something. “You do know how to operate this thing, right?”
“I’ll figure it out,” Nathan assured her.
“Maybe there are instructions somewhere?”
“Escape pods are all pretty simple,” Nathan replied. “I just need to figure out how to initiate a cold-release.”
“What’s a cold release?”
“No explosive launch systems,” Vladimir explained.
“Why would you want an explosive launch?”
“When the ship you’re escaping from is about to blow up,” Jessica said.
“In this case, we want to fall away slowly, without any emissions that would alert anyone picking up our old light that we ejected.”
“Old light?” Kayci asked.
“When looking at emissions from far away, you see what was happening in the past,” Vladimir explained. “Just like light from a star a hundred light years away is one hundred years old. Old light.”
“How do you guys keep these things straight?”
