Fugitives, p.17
Fugitives, page 17
part #9 of Steven Gordon Series
‘Yes sire.’
‘You will return immediately with my daughter. Let nothing delay you.’
‘Sire.’ He hesitated, ‘I don’t think we are too far behind the Humans. We may still be able to catch them.’
The Emperor took a moment to answer. ‘Colonel, you have done more than proved your usefulness. You gave us the best chance, but it is passed. I will tell you why later. At this moment you have in your hands the most precious thing to both me and the Empire. Return my daughter to me. That is your mission now.’
He bowed to the figure. ‘I understand sire. We will leave immediately.’
‘Good. Do not tarry, make sure she is safe and comfortable.’
‘I will sire.’
She made them stand outside while she packed her clothes. Before she left, she peeled the ID bracelet from her wrist and pulled a small cord. It began to smoke, and she tossed it out of the window. From a purse she replaced it with her own. Florina took a last look around the small room. It was probably the last time she would ever stay in a place on her own. She looked out of the window and up into the rain. ‘Get home safe Charlie.’
Chapter 38
They travelled at full speed to the rim. Once there, they threaded themselves through a thin patch of asteroids, only to find a ship patrolling the area. After a brief discussion, the Killara emerged first from the field. Charlie basically blasted the area with every device he had but was totally ignored by the destroyer.
‘They have read our identification,’ Cathy informed him.
‘Alright let’s go to light speed, short jumps, we don’t want to hit anything. Get us a safe distance from the field. Gail tell the others to follow. Don’t make an arse of it Cathy and crash on your jumps.’
‘Don’t worry Charlie. Getting a clear reading here. No obstacles for five thousand miles. Becca, change your heading by 0.5 of a degree to port.’
‘All done.’
‘Jump.’
‘Wow! That was close.’ Becca shouted.
‘It’s a hundred miles away, it’s just bloody huge.’ Cathy laughed.
It was a heart stopping moment for Charlie as well. ‘Go around it. Any signs of ships?’
Cathy shook her head, ‘Nothing, but there is something out there emitting a strange signal.’
‘Oh hell! Head towards it.’
‘Becca, I will feed you the coordinates.’
‘Got them.’
‘Full screen, magnify.’
Gail turned it up, but the object was little more than a speck. Charlie got up and moved to the edge of the window. ‘Return it to normal.’ He used his eyes, cycling through the different spectrums. He finally managed to see something.
‘That thing is giving off waves. See if any of you can narrow it down.’
Cathy and Gail changed positions. Gail discovered it first. ‘It is a detection screen of some kind. I think it will see ships as they pass through.’
‘Feed the details to Steven and Komoru.’
‘Done. What do we do now?’
‘I’m no sure. It might be wise to do a little fishing. Get us right up close to it, tell that pair to get into the asteroid field out of sight.’
Gail typed away. The reply wasn’t long in coming. ‘Steven says it is like a web of some kind and they believe they may well be detected. He wants to know what you intend.’
‘Fishing for more information.’
‘He says to go for it but be careful.’
‘Scan for any valuable minerals or metals in the area.’
They went back to their instruments. Cathy came out with results first.
‘That big asteroid contains about ten ounces of something called Trillium.’
‘It’s like platinum, worth about five grand a gram.’
‘Nice score. It is concentrated in one area of the asteroid, pretty close to one surface.’
Gail spun round in her seat, ‘That emitter thingy has a fair bit of valuable metal on it.’
‘That is exactly what I wanted to hear. Get us right up to it Becca and swing round it.’
‘Break the field!’
‘If you don’t cast out a line you can’t get a fish. Get the guys to get down and ready that machine. We will hot foot it back to the asteroid as soon as we have taken a picture of the maker’s plate on the thing.’ He stood, ‘I’m going to get suited up.’
Charlie got suited up and helped them get the machine ready. Howe and Beaver stayed with him. Charlie got on the radio.
‘Have we broken their beam yet?’
‘Doing it now. There’s a big sign saying the property of the military.’
‘That’s what we need, take a picture of it and get us back to that asteroid. Take us to the exact spot and expect visitors.’
‘Roger that.’
Charlie had been dying to get onto the thing. It was a very small version of the one he had worked with on the Ortea home-world. It didn’t take them long to reach the asteroid. The ramp folded down and Charlie swung the machine out. Light began to omit from it and he pushed forward. A display showed him where the Trillium was. He worked off the outer layer and was soon into it. He had almost finished extracting it when Cathy came back on the radio.
‘We have a big ass destroyer pointing weapons at us. Want to speak to the Captain.’
‘Tell them he’s busy, if they want to speak to him to come aboard.’
‘They are on their way anyway.’
‘Open the front door and tell them to come in that way, it is dangerous this side.’
‘Roger.’
It took a good fifteen minutes for the troops to arrive at Charlie. One appeared in his peripheral and pointed a weapon at him. Unperturbed, Charlie held up two fingers at him and went back to his task. Within two minutes he switched the machine off and pulled it back inside the craft. Molten rock was spilling off the back into the hole they had made. When it stopped Charlie punched his fist into the air a couple of times.
The soldier moved towards the side of the ramp and hit the closed button. They had to wait until the hold pressurised. The captain took off his helmet and Charlie followed suit. Gail came down with their little red book and handed him it.
‘I am Captain Vorm, Imperial Space Marines What are you doing out here?’
‘Mining.’
‘Find anything?’
‘Well there was a few ounces on that thing out there, but it said property of the Empire, so we left it well alone. We found some Trillium here and have just extracted that.’
‘I’ve spent most of my life out here, never seen a machine like that.’
‘I come from a long line of miners and do a lot of engineering. We came up with this system ourselves. It melts the rock which then goes through a separation process. The heavier metals fall to the bottom of the liquid and we put it into moulds and let it cool. The rest we dump back into the hole when we are finished.’
‘Did you get it?’
‘I hope so. Still to look. What’s the military doing all the way out here?’
‘Hunting for fugitives.’
‘With that thing out there?’
‘It is a detection system.’
‘What the hell is it doing way out there? There’s nothing out there.’
‘We were just told to deploy the system and monitor it. That’s all.’
‘Chase any bugger that got close to it?’
He laughed, ‘That’s about it.’
‘Big is it?’
‘Confidential information, Captain.’
Charlie already had his answer and shrugged, ‘Don’t care anyway. All I’m interested in is the Trillium.’
‘I’d be interested in seeing it as well.’
‘Let’s go look then. You from a mining background?’
‘Sure am. I made a career of the military but it’s still in the blood.’
Tapper appeared with his apparatus and scanned a couple of moulds.
‘We got it.’
Charlie picked up a blank mould and split it. ‘What we are hoping for is the metal to settle into these small grooves in the bottom of the mould, it should form a ridge.’
‘I see it.’
Tapper was separating the moulds. Now most of the troopers were gathered round.
‘That’s it. Will I cool them now?’
‘Please.’
The hot moulds were placed into a box, then the box sat into a compartment that was exposed to space. It took less than thirty seconds. The box came back in and Tapper tapped open the moulds. Beaver helped him. Tapper inspected the results and handed a few bars of rock up to Charlie.
Charlie inspected the underside and laughed. ‘There you go. Pure Trillium.’ All of the ridges gleamed bright on one bar and spotted in the next, but there was easily an ounce in the bar.
‘You made that look so easy.’
‘One of those things. We deal these days as well. You know what it’s like, you travel to one place and see something that looks cool, then move on somewhere else and think, I could use that. Eventually you put it all together and come up with something new.’
‘Nice, very nice. You could sell that.’
‘Parts of it have already been registered with two different companies. We couldn’t claim it as our own and if we try and manufacture it we will fall foul of the law.’
‘I get it. You know that’s more Trillium than I have ever seen in my life.’
He held up a hand and stepped back for a moment, clearly listening to someone in his earpiece.
‘Yeah go ahead. You’re kidding … ah well, looks like it didn’t work. We are on our way.’
He turned back to Charlie. ‘I am sorry to detain you Captain. It would seem our fugitives have slipped past us. You are free to go on your way.’
Charlie looked at the bars in his hand. ‘You got any kids Captain?’
‘Sure, two.’
Charlie tossed him one of the bars. ‘Put this towards their college fees.’
‘I can’t do that Captain.’
‘I don’t have any kids Captain; we have all had a good month. You aren’t detaining us or trying to, it isn’t a bribe. It is a gift, from one old soldier to another, one old miners’ son to another. Get your kids away from this damn rim, or at least give them a choice.’
‘You sure? Last chance.’
‘Take it.’
He handed back the red book. ‘Thanks Captain, I will remember you.’
‘I am sure we will bump into one another again someday. Is it alright to keep hunting around here for a while?’
‘Well I was going to tell you to move on, but we have to go collect that device and a few others then get back to base. So please yourself.’
‘Let’s get you home then.’
Charlie walked with them to the other ramp, putting his helmet on as he went. He decompressed the hold and lowered the ramp. The Captain moved close and raised an arm. Charlie mirrored his actions and they bumped them together. He watched them as they jetted back towards their own ship. He was joined by the others, who all watched as the soldiers disappeared into the airlock and the destroyer slid slowly out of view. The ramp went up.
‘What was that all about?’ Howe asked when they took off their helmets.
‘That signal we sent to Earth months ago, it got through. It has been broadcast from Federation space that we are safe and on our way home.’
‘I thought that was a long shot.’
‘So did I.’
‘You suggested it.’
‘There has to be a reason it got through so quickly, which means that our guys at home haven’t been sitting on their arses. There is only one question left to answer. Do we want to take the Killara home?’
‘Fucking A.’
‘I’m going to tell Steven that it’s going to take them a couple of days to take down that network. We can fit those tanks now.’
‘Will it?’
‘I don’t know and I don’t care. That’s what I’m telling him anyway.’
It took two days to fit the tanks and fill them. Komoru went ahead to scan for any signs of the net. She found nothing. With the Killara alongside Babes they dashed to meet up with Ico. They set their ships to cruise and set a course for home.
That night Charlie had just stepped out of the shower when a knock came at his door. He knew who it was before he opened it. Himari was there in a revealing nightie.
‘I don’t think I can wait any longer Charlie.’
‘What kept you?’
She threw herself into his arms.
Chapter 39
Steven stepped into the briefing room. The walls were covered in screens with pictures of vessels on it. Charlie and Lewis were deep into it. Charlie looked around and his eyes seemed to slowly swim into focus.
‘We found it.’
Charlie shook his head, ‘Found what?’
‘The reason our signals got through. It is a communications satellite.’
‘On our route of travel?’
‘Not quite, but close enough. We are going to stop for a day and send messages, so if you want to send a message to anyone, get it recorded and we will stick it in the queue.’
‘Aye okay.’
Lewis gave him a wave. Steven noticed Charlie’s eyes had swung back out of focus before he had actually left the room. It was obvious that the thought simply did not excite either man.
When he reached the bridge, there was a hum of excitement. He took his seat and ordered a high-speed jump to the satellite. Within twenty minutes they were slowing down. Howe ordered a complete sweep of the area on all systems. If the Empire was going to ambush them, then this was the place to do it. It would seem the satellite had come to a complete halt once it received the signal from their probe. Right alongside it sat the probe.
‘Did we expect the probe to stop sir?’
‘Yes, it was programmed to. Have you scanned it to make sure it isn’t booby trapped?’
‘Results are coming in now. It looks clean.’
‘Then let’s make a physical connection to the satellite. Communications, as soon as you have made the connection, start sending test packages, map out this new network.’
Sid finished what he was doing before answering. ‘Will get that done for you sir. What about the other ships?’
‘Let them keep their distance for now.’
‘The Killara wants to take the opportunity to dump an empty tank.’
‘Why does Buzz want to dump a tank?’
‘To make room for a basketball court.’
Steven laughed so hard he almost fell out of his chair. ‘Let’s not leave junk in space. Tell him once he and Komoru have finished checking the perimeter that he can meet up with her. Ico will absorb the tank, we will absorb the probe.’
‘Will do.’
It didn’t take too long to set up the link. Steven was still on the bridge when a signal came through.
‘From Earth, sir.’ Sid confirmed.
‘Put it on screen.’
The look on his mother’s face said it all. The tears began to cascade. All of them felt uncomfortable. A handkerchief came in from the side. Steven recognised the hand.
‘Hi Dad, Mum.’
Brian’s smiling face dropped into sight. ‘Glad to see you’re fighting fit. We were all a bit worried. Did we get the trajectory of those satellites correct?’
‘About half a light year out, but more than close enough. How did you get them here?’
‘The same engines you use to send large asteroids to Federation space.’
‘Thought you might have. I suppose that’s why the engine isn’t here now.’
‘They are on their way back. It is what they are designed to do. I see you sent a probe. We thought it was you to start with. If we had realised that, we would have sent the satellites deeper.’
‘No need. Not at the moment anyway.’
‘We might need to sooner rather than later.’
‘Why?’
The Empire has reopened communications with the Federation. There is one very upset Emperor. Make that two, if you include the Modloch Emperor.’
‘Then I have a very good idea what that is about. Can we talk about it later?’
‘We need to talk about it soon.’
‘Have you tried making the point that they already killed one of our ambassadors and had the same thing lined up for me and this ship?’
‘We have made that point many times; the problem is the media are simply loving the scandal. You know what they are like.’
‘I don’t care what they are like.’
‘The Behema Emperor apologised. He insists that these decisions were taken behind his back and he had nothing to do with them.’
‘He is a liar.’
‘Obviously, but there are lots of people here who wish to trade with the Empire. Without your side of the story, we don’t have much to fight it with.’
‘Oh stop for now.’ Mary pushed Brian gently away and dried her eyes. ‘How is everyone Steven?’
‘Everyone is fine. We have no casualties but being hunted down like a wild dog for months has taken its toll. The crew is preparing messages to their loved ones right now. We made a manual connection to the satellite. We weren’t sure if it was safe.’
‘As far as we are aware, no one has come near it. I have to presume by the length of time it has taken you to reach it that you sent that probe well in advance.’
‘It was a long shot that paid off. We wanted to send a distraction. Make them think that we had got free. There was a huge net out there trying to catch us, large rewards for any information.’
‘We thought your biggest problem was going to be resupply. Did you have to steal a lot?’
‘We did not steal anything. It is a very long story mum. This isn’t the time for it. Much of the story can’t be told either; not to the general public anyway.’
‘That doesn’t sound good Steven.’
‘It isn’t the general public we don’t trust mother; it is the media. All will become clear soon enough. Right now, my priorities are getting the crew reconnected with their loved ones.’
‘Can we talk in private?’
‘No, I need to be on the bridge. The other two ships are out there keeping an eye open for any Imperial vessels.’
‘You will return immediately with my daughter. Let nothing delay you.’
‘Sire.’ He hesitated, ‘I don’t think we are too far behind the Humans. We may still be able to catch them.’
The Emperor took a moment to answer. ‘Colonel, you have done more than proved your usefulness. You gave us the best chance, but it is passed. I will tell you why later. At this moment you have in your hands the most precious thing to both me and the Empire. Return my daughter to me. That is your mission now.’
He bowed to the figure. ‘I understand sire. We will leave immediately.’
‘Good. Do not tarry, make sure she is safe and comfortable.’
‘I will sire.’
She made them stand outside while she packed her clothes. Before she left, she peeled the ID bracelet from her wrist and pulled a small cord. It began to smoke, and she tossed it out of the window. From a purse she replaced it with her own. Florina took a last look around the small room. It was probably the last time she would ever stay in a place on her own. She looked out of the window and up into the rain. ‘Get home safe Charlie.’
Chapter 38
They travelled at full speed to the rim. Once there, they threaded themselves through a thin patch of asteroids, only to find a ship patrolling the area. After a brief discussion, the Killara emerged first from the field. Charlie basically blasted the area with every device he had but was totally ignored by the destroyer.
‘They have read our identification,’ Cathy informed him.
‘Alright let’s go to light speed, short jumps, we don’t want to hit anything. Get us a safe distance from the field. Gail tell the others to follow. Don’t make an arse of it Cathy and crash on your jumps.’
‘Don’t worry Charlie. Getting a clear reading here. No obstacles for five thousand miles. Becca, change your heading by 0.5 of a degree to port.’
‘All done.’
‘Jump.’
‘Wow! That was close.’ Becca shouted.
‘It’s a hundred miles away, it’s just bloody huge.’ Cathy laughed.
It was a heart stopping moment for Charlie as well. ‘Go around it. Any signs of ships?’
Cathy shook her head, ‘Nothing, but there is something out there emitting a strange signal.’
‘Oh hell! Head towards it.’
‘Becca, I will feed you the coordinates.’
‘Got them.’
‘Full screen, magnify.’
Gail turned it up, but the object was little more than a speck. Charlie got up and moved to the edge of the window. ‘Return it to normal.’ He used his eyes, cycling through the different spectrums. He finally managed to see something.
‘That thing is giving off waves. See if any of you can narrow it down.’
Cathy and Gail changed positions. Gail discovered it first. ‘It is a detection screen of some kind. I think it will see ships as they pass through.’
‘Feed the details to Steven and Komoru.’
‘Done. What do we do now?’
‘I’m no sure. It might be wise to do a little fishing. Get us right up close to it, tell that pair to get into the asteroid field out of sight.’
Gail typed away. The reply wasn’t long in coming. ‘Steven says it is like a web of some kind and they believe they may well be detected. He wants to know what you intend.’
‘Fishing for more information.’
‘He says to go for it but be careful.’
‘Scan for any valuable minerals or metals in the area.’
They went back to their instruments. Cathy came out with results first.
‘That big asteroid contains about ten ounces of something called Trillium.’
‘It’s like platinum, worth about five grand a gram.’
‘Nice score. It is concentrated in one area of the asteroid, pretty close to one surface.’
Gail spun round in her seat, ‘That emitter thingy has a fair bit of valuable metal on it.’
‘That is exactly what I wanted to hear. Get us right up to it Becca and swing round it.’
‘Break the field!’
‘If you don’t cast out a line you can’t get a fish. Get the guys to get down and ready that machine. We will hot foot it back to the asteroid as soon as we have taken a picture of the maker’s plate on the thing.’ He stood, ‘I’m going to get suited up.’
Charlie got suited up and helped them get the machine ready. Howe and Beaver stayed with him. Charlie got on the radio.
‘Have we broken their beam yet?’
‘Doing it now. There’s a big sign saying the property of the military.’
‘That’s what we need, take a picture of it and get us back to that asteroid. Take us to the exact spot and expect visitors.’
‘Roger that.’
Charlie had been dying to get onto the thing. It was a very small version of the one he had worked with on the Ortea home-world. It didn’t take them long to reach the asteroid. The ramp folded down and Charlie swung the machine out. Light began to omit from it and he pushed forward. A display showed him where the Trillium was. He worked off the outer layer and was soon into it. He had almost finished extracting it when Cathy came back on the radio.
‘We have a big ass destroyer pointing weapons at us. Want to speak to the Captain.’
‘Tell them he’s busy, if they want to speak to him to come aboard.’
‘They are on their way anyway.’
‘Open the front door and tell them to come in that way, it is dangerous this side.’
‘Roger.’
It took a good fifteen minutes for the troops to arrive at Charlie. One appeared in his peripheral and pointed a weapon at him. Unperturbed, Charlie held up two fingers at him and went back to his task. Within two minutes he switched the machine off and pulled it back inside the craft. Molten rock was spilling off the back into the hole they had made. When it stopped Charlie punched his fist into the air a couple of times.
The soldier moved towards the side of the ramp and hit the closed button. They had to wait until the hold pressurised. The captain took off his helmet and Charlie followed suit. Gail came down with their little red book and handed him it.
‘I am Captain Vorm, Imperial Space Marines What are you doing out here?’
‘Mining.’
‘Find anything?’
‘Well there was a few ounces on that thing out there, but it said property of the Empire, so we left it well alone. We found some Trillium here and have just extracted that.’
‘I’ve spent most of my life out here, never seen a machine like that.’
‘I come from a long line of miners and do a lot of engineering. We came up with this system ourselves. It melts the rock which then goes through a separation process. The heavier metals fall to the bottom of the liquid and we put it into moulds and let it cool. The rest we dump back into the hole when we are finished.’
‘Did you get it?’
‘I hope so. Still to look. What’s the military doing all the way out here?’
‘Hunting for fugitives.’
‘With that thing out there?’
‘It is a detection system.’
‘What the hell is it doing way out there? There’s nothing out there.’
‘We were just told to deploy the system and monitor it. That’s all.’
‘Chase any bugger that got close to it?’
He laughed, ‘That’s about it.’
‘Big is it?’
‘Confidential information, Captain.’
Charlie already had his answer and shrugged, ‘Don’t care anyway. All I’m interested in is the Trillium.’
‘I’d be interested in seeing it as well.’
‘Let’s go look then. You from a mining background?’
‘Sure am. I made a career of the military but it’s still in the blood.’
Tapper appeared with his apparatus and scanned a couple of moulds.
‘We got it.’
Charlie picked up a blank mould and split it. ‘What we are hoping for is the metal to settle into these small grooves in the bottom of the mould, it should form a ridge.’
‘I see it.’
Tapper was separating the moulds. Now most of the troopers were gathered round.
‘That’s it. Will I cool them now?’
‘Please.’
The hot moulds were placed into a box, then the box sat into a compartment that was exposed to space. It took less than thirty seconds. The box came back in and Tapper tapped open the moulds. Beaver helped him. Tapper inspected the results and handed a few bars of rock up to Charlie.
Charlie inspected the underside and laughed. ‘There you go. Pure Trillium.’ All of the ridges gleamed bright on one bar and spotted in the next, but there was easily an ounce in the bar.
‘You made that look so easy.’
‘One of those things. We deal these days as well. You know what it’s like, you travel to one place and see something that looks cool, then move on somewhere else and think, I could use that. Eventually you put it all together and come up with something new.’
‘Nice, very nice. You could sell that.’
‘Parts of it have already been registered with two different companies. We couldn’t claim it as our own and if we try and manufacture it we will fall foul of the law.’
‘I get it. You know that’s more Trillium than I have ever seen in my life.’
He held up a hand and stepped back for a moment, clearly listening to someone in his earpiece.
‘Yeah go ahead. You’re kidding … ah well, looks like it didn’t work. We are on our way.’
He turned back to Charlie. ‘I am sorry to detain you Captain. It would seem our fugitives have slipped past us. You are free to go on your way.’
Charlie looked at the bars in his hand. ‘You got any kids Captain?’
‘Sure, two.’
Charlie tossed him one of the bars. ‘Put this towards their college fees.’
‘I can’t do that Captain.’
‘I don’t have any kids Captain; we have all had a good month. You aren’t detaining us or trying to, it isn’t a bribe. It is a gift, from one old soldier to another, one old miners’ son to another. Get your kids away from this damn rim, or at least give them a choice.’
‘You sure? Last chance.’
‘Take it.’
He handed back the red book. ‘Thanks Captain, I will remember you.’
‘I am sure we will bump into one another again someday. Is it alright to keep hunting around here for a while?’
‘Well I was going to tell you to move on, but we have to go collect that device and a few others then get back to base. So please yourself.’
‘Let’s get you home then.’
Charlie walked with them to the other ramp, putting his helmet on as he went. He decompressed the hold and lowered the ramp. The Captain moved close and raised an arm. Charlie mirrored his actions and they bumped them together. He watched them as they jetted back towards their own ship. He was joined by the others, who all watched as the soldiers disappeared into the airlock and the destroyer slid slowly out of view. The ramp went up.
‘What was that all about?’ Howe asked when they took off their helmets.
‘That signal we sent to Earth months ago, it got through. It has been broadcast from Federation space that we are safe and on our way home.’
‘I thought that was a long shot.’
‘So did I.’
‘You suggested it.’
‘There has to be a reason it got through so quickly, which means that our guys at home haven’t been sitting on their arses. There is only one question left to answer. Do we want to take the Killara home?’
‘Fucking A.’
‘I’m going to tell Steven that it’s going to take them a couple of days to take down that network. We can fit those tanks now.’
‘Will it?’
‘I don’t know and I don’t care. That’s what I’m telling him anyway.’
It took two days to fit the tanks and fill them. Komoru went ahead to scan for any signs of the net. She found nothing. With the Killara alongside Babes they dashed to meet up with Ico. They set their ships to cruise and set a course for home.
That night Charlie had just stepped out of the shower when a knock came at his door. He knew who it was before he opened it. Himari was there in a revealing nightie.
‘I don’t think I can wait any longer Charlie.’
‘What kept you?’
She threw herself into his arms.
Chapter 39
Steven stepped into the briefing room. The walls were covered in screens with pictures of vessels on it. Charlie and Lewis were deep into it. Charlie looked around and his eyes seemed to slowly swim into focus.
‘We found it.’
Charlie shook his head, ‘Found what?’
‘The reason our signals got through. It is a communications satellite.’
‘On our route of travel?’
‘Not quite, but close enough. We are going to stop for a day and send messages, so if you want to send a message to anyone, get it recorded and we will stick it in the queue.’
‘Aye okay.’
Lewis gave him a wave. Steven noticed Charlie’s eyes had swung back out of focus before he had actually left the room. It was obvious that the thought simply did not excite either man.
When he reached the bridge, there was a hum of excitement. He took his seat and ordered a high-speed jump to the satellite. Within twenty minutes they were slowing down. Howe ordered a complete sweep of the area on all systems. If the Empire was going to ambush them, then this was the place to do it. It would seem the satellite had come to a complete halt once it received the signal from their probe. Right alongside it sat the probe.
‘Did we expect the probe to stop sir?’
‘Yes, it was programmed to. Have you scanned it to make sure it isn’t booby trapped?’
‘Results are coming in now. It looks clean.’
‘Then let’s make a physical connection to the satellite. Communications, as soon as you have made the connection, start sending test packages, map out this new network.’
Sid finished what he was doing before answering. ‘Will get that done for you sir. What about the other ships?’
‘Let them keep their distance for now.’
‘The Killara wants to take the opportunity to dump an empty tank.’
‘Why does Buzz want to dump a tank?’
‘To make room for a basketball court.’
Steven laughed so hard he almost fell out of his chair. ‘Let’s not leave junk in space. Tell him once he and Komoru have finished checking the perimeter that he can meet up with her. Ico will absorb the tank, we will absorb the probe.’
‘Will do.’
It didn’t take too long to set up the link. Steven was still on the bridge when a signal came through.
‘From Earth, sir.’ Sid confirmed.
‘Put it on screen.’
The look on his mother’s face said it all. The tears began to cascade. All of them felt uncomfortable. A handkerchief came in from the side. Steven recognised the hand.
‘Hi Dad, Mum.’
Brian’s smiling face dropped into sight. ‘Glad to see you’re fighting fit. We were all a bit worried. Did we get the trajectory of those satellites correct?’
‘About half a light year out, but more than close enough. How did you get them here?’
‘The same engines you use to send large asteroids to Federation space.’
‘Thought you might have. I suppose that’s why the engine isn’t here now.’
‘They are on their way back. It is what they are designed to do. I see you sent a probe. We thought it was you to start with. If we had realised that, we would have sent the satellites deeper.’
‘No need. Not at the moment anyway.’
‘We might need to sooner rather than later.’
‘Why?’
The Empire has reopened communications with the Federation. There is one very upset Emperor. Make that two, if you include the Modloch Emperor.’
‘Then I have a very good idea what that is about. Can we talk about it later?’
‘We need to talk about it soon.’
‘Have you tried making the point that they already killed one of our ambassadors and had the same thing lined up for me and this ship?’
‘We have made that point many times; the problem is the media are simply loving the scandal. You know what they are like.’
‘I don’t care what they are like.’
‘The Behema Emperor apologised. He insists that these decisions were taken behind his back and he had nothing to do with them.’
‘He is a liar.’
‘Obviously, but there are lots of people here who wish to trade with the Empire. Without your side of the story, we don’t have much to fight it with.’
‘Oh stop for now.’ Mary pushed Brian gently away and dried her eyes. ‘How is everyone Steven?’
‘Everyone is fine. We have no casualties but being hunted down like a wild dog for months has taken its toll. The crew is preparing messages to their loved ones right now. We made a manual connection to the satellite. We weren’t sure if it was safe.’
‘As far as we are aware, no one has come near it. I have to presume by the length of time it has taken you to reach it that you sent that probe well in advance.’
‘It was a long shot that paid off. We wanted to send a distraction. Make them think that we had got free. There was a huge net out there trying to catch us, large rewards for any information.’
‘We thought your biggest problem was going to be resupply. Did you have to steal a lot?’
‘We did not steal anything. It is a very long story mum. This isn’t the time for it. Much of the story can’t be told either; not to the general public anyway.’
‘That doesn’t sound good Steven.’
‘It isn’t the general public we don’t trust mother; it is the media. All will become clear soon enough. Right now, my priorities are getting the crew reconnected with their loved ones.’
‘Can we talk in private?’
‘No, I need to be on the bridge. The other two ships are out there keeping an eye open for any Imperial vessels.’
